why

Okay, now I'm starting to worry we'll actually see some of of this silly assed stuff in Pillars 2. Please don't put in swords that look like one half of a sandwich board sign, armor that looks like it would castrate the wearing during the process of putting it on his body, or other such highly stylized stuff. Sure, something like a witch doctor armor set if and only if it fits somewhere in the setting. I only think that would work because, while the whole thing might look unbalanced, at least most of the material is light weight items like feathers and whatnot. Even then, it should provide minimal protection.

My first run was a pale elf wizard. My second run is a moonlike priest. I'm still dithering about my next run. I can say right now it will be an elf, human, or godlike. I'm leaning towards chanter for some old school barding badassery. Call me Virgil and listen to me cut some syllables to order. Either that or I'll go pally, I think. I'm not much of a cipher fan, although I've used the hell out of Grieving Mother and can definitely respect what she brings to the table. Still, I don't like the smell of what the cipher has cookin'. decisions decsions decsions

Actually, that's a good idea for a variety of reasons. It gins up some excitement. It promotes the property altogether. For me, it helps me see the game mechanics which should be virtually the same in both physical and electronic format. I mean, while I don't mind being an agitator, I can cut you guys some slack for not wanting to keep doing the weekly vids if no-one shows, but if you could at least test the waters, I'll definitely watch just so I can get a feel for how the game plays. I did watch a little video on youtube, but I actually find twitchtv pretty entertaining. It's certainly put me in touch with a variety of profanity I hadn't heard since my days serving in the navy in Biloxi and some I hadn't even heard at all. If you could do it and let us know, I'd be at least one person who'd appreciate it and hopefully other denizens would also.

As I understand it, they plan to move on after the White March 2 comes out. Hopefully that means Pillars 2, but it should mean a lot less effort into Pillars 1. Will they still patch and whatnot? Maybe, but I would think the changes would start to diminish. I guess most folks have said that, but I'm posting along different lines. Part of the charm of this process, for me at least, is see how these decisions get rolled and play out in development. I genuinely think you're denying yourself some of the fun that you don't tend to get with most other games, which is seeing multiple variations of gameplay mechanics. These haven't been small changes. There have been whoppers out there provide a certain fascination. IF, having heard my pitch, you're still not convinced, so harm no foul. Different strokes and all. I would imagine, as others have said, it will be done soon. For my part, I played the game literally the first day of release and finished it quickly and I started a second run a while back and have almost completed it. That's taken me longer because of real life. I've had fun during both even though some things work quite differently.

Hey, any possibility to see some Obsidian Plays lovin' of Pathfinder goodness?

I can make one observation, but I'm not sure how compelling it is in the overall scheme of things. If I get pushback, so be it. I can take the heat without getting angry about it. So, to set this up, I'm almost done with my second run. I've experimented a lot, but I only had one complete run on normal and I'm doing a run on hard right now before I go to PotD. After that, I'll consider vanity runs for badges and whatnot. Anyhow, in my current run, I've run into a quest that asks me to murder either a child or an extremely old elf. My character refuses to do either one. I believe I didn't finish it in the earlier run either. I actually kind of like the fact that I'm not scrimping on experience and levels so much that I feel compelled to finish this quest in one manner or another. My character refuses to murder anyone in cold blood, and I'm not significantly punished for that decision. Now, to be fair, I would make the decision anyhow, but this is a role playing game. It's not all about stats and levels. Sure, doing what I want regardless of the price is a reward in and of itself, but it's nice to know that I don't have to be a slave to the prospect of more experience points in order to enjoy the experience. Now, it's late where I live and so I might be a tad diminished, but sometimes I think rewards and scaling and experience points and the like have become distilled into a sort of elixir that intoxicates us as players so much that we lose sight of the thing that RPGs offer more than other genres, namely the opportunity to be part of the story without being enslaved or imprisoned by it. ...Or not. Whatever. I'll probably read this in the morning and wonder what the hell I was thinking.

I see a cool down bar when I'm casting or taking another action. However, on top of the previous action's cooldown, some abilities are clearly faster than others. There are spells that seem to be essentially instantaneous and others that apparently take a while.

I might complain about Mr Sawyer's balance lovin' tendencies, but I don't mean anything by it. I've been lurking here for a while, but I'm still a new member and I don't want to be run out of town or anything. As far as quest urgency, that's another issue because even if the main quest isn't especially urgent, there are normally at least some quests that have the trappings of uegency if not the explicit expectation of it. On one end, folks hate to be rushed through side content. On the other hand, there is the discrepancy of urgency opposing freedom. On the mutant third hand, trying zto xontrive ways to diminish the urgency of every quest in order to accommodate the freedom idea startz to get silly in and of itself.

I'm thinking more spiked bikini mail over a pierced nipple leather bodice and momma's own bullwhip on the side.

hahahaha You probably don't recognize the show in the gif, but that is a perfect response. hehe To be fair, I would imagine that an artiste type person probably does think in terms of jpgs and gifs. However, I'm hoping, in all seriousness, to get a little more jpg and gif lovin' from the actual game. Not that I don't get a kick out of the clever responses, but, ya know, I'm jonesin' for my fix.

I would say that level scaling is perfectly fine (which is to say, I wouldn't consider it hard core) as long as it is: Not obtrusive. If it's handled with finesse, you may never even notice it. Doesn't completely coddle the player in side content. Let the player learn to be careful or come back later. Let other players try a harder area and feel like they've accomplished something. Easy areas should be easy. If there's a side quest in the first village to save a cat from dogs who chased it up a tree, I shouldn't return later to clean up side quests and find oit the cat is clinging halfway up a 300 foot cliff sunfounded by fire breathing he'll hounds. I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't start hating level scaling until the bad examples pointed themselves out to me and created my understanding of the concept. If that's made me a bit like a cat on a hot tine roof, then a little gentle guidance will set me back on the narrow path. For example I forgot that BG2 had level scaling, but now that PJ points it out, it makes some similar arrangement seem not so off putting. Then again, I wouldn't call that example hard core. The problem that some people have is that we see things as slippery slopes, which is of course silly in a nuanced world. Of ciurse, it doesn't help that other people sometimes exemplify why we worry about slippery slopes.

Fair enough Ob's name. I contend that balance is fine and if Mr. Sawyer is looking to keep the king's balance on one end without putting in hard core scaling on the other, I'll gladly retract my statement. If not, then I'll have to remain the voice of this week's insult and let it stand. Without rancor, if course.

God forbid that they go to full level scaling. I read the post above earlier and that's the first thing I thought. Kill, burn, and bury the thought! Now, the end game should be harder than the middle and all, sure, but this might be more of an issue because of the way the xpacs were developed as part of the kickstarter. I sure as hell hope they don't give in to the lead designer's inclination of balancing to push hard core level scaling.

When I first started lurking here, long before I created my account in order to participate, I was following this project. I was a little dismayed to find out it was a card game set to release for tablets. When I heard about it, I'd assumed it was the D20 Pathfinder RPG, not a card game. I've enjoyed tons of card games played with actual cards and friends, but I've not liked the transition to electronic media. Mostly because in my experience the computer is a horrible opponent on one hand and I prefer to be able to see and talk to my opponent if it's a real person on the other. Still, I figured I could afford to shell out a little cash for the game if nothing else but to support a buddy who was excited about it. Plus, Obsidian was the developer and (forget Pillars as good as it is) New Vegas is one of my favorite all time games. So I kept coming around to check things out here and play the forum game of complaining about news and making fun of cat and mouse process. As things have unfolded, I've become increasingly excited. What's great is, even if the game doesn't live up to expectations, which I have every reason to expect it will, but as I say even if it doesn't, I think it's opened my eyes to opportunities beyond the electronic game. A couple of friends, including my wife (huzzah!), have agreed to try out the actual physical game with me. If the electronic game is kick-ass, then we can also play that way too. I might like it and I might not, but even the prospect of a game that the wife will enjoy with me is splendid.

"Pathfinder Adventures will initially launch as a single-player or pass-and-play experience with online multiplayer support being added in the coming months. The game will be available to download for free on March 29 and includes a tutorial as well as the adventure, Perils of the Lost Coast. Additional adventure decks will be available for purchase at launch, and regular intervals thereafter.[emphasis added]" https://pathfinder.obsidian.net/news/pathfinder-adventures-will-be-released-march-29th

This is a great idea. Pink. They should sticky this or something like it for you to update now that info is forthcoming. Or at least do regular updates here like Pillars.

The advantage of the display is that it will appeal to at least some folks without being as difficult to implement.

Great idea to display them. I never get rid of anything unique, either classified as such or clearly so by description. I can think of even better things that would interest me but probably wouldn't be worth their effort. A museum, for example, or maybe some sort of influence peddling with power brokers in the region in the form of lend/lease. I think having to deal with clever thieves, as Obs'name suggests, would be cool, or even a determined effort by a mercenary group to take them by assault or force. Having someone try to swindle me would be cool. On the other hand, the only thing that doesn't come off as some sort of weird mini-game is the display idea, which is still cool.

What is it about maps that call so strongly to us gamer geeks? We see a map and suddenly things get much more interesting.

Actually, I'm getting even more excited the more I see. Frankly, having been caught up in other geek crazes, such as Magic the Gathering, Warhammer (Including Mordheim), and of course Dungeons and Dragons, I can't see how I missed out on this. Hell, we even used to play Gamma World and a lot of Paranoia when I was overseas. I have another question: I didn't set up my tablet on the network. I can easily set up my phone as a wireless hotspot for my tablet, but I would much rather just be able to pay for the game, download it, and then play it without being hooked to the network. So, once I download the game, will I need to be connected to the 'net to be able to play it? Now, I ask that, and I might keep pestering, but I'm actually pretty pleased as is and so I won't rattle your cage too much about it. Like I said, I have a work around. Just kind of rattling around my brainbox. As it stands, I am purposefully tempering my hopes so I don't set unreasonable standards for Obsidian. I'll commit to making the first xpac purchase just because I've been bugging the hell out of folks, but I hope I get caught up enough to cath'em all!

To be fair, though, Boeroer, this is a beta. They can still fine tune things based on input from the beta testers. Assuming they read folks like you (and other erudite folks), then it's not out of the question that the nerfblade might be blunted a bit to preserve some cipher lovin'. Although, to add, I clearly don't have access to the beta as a non-backer, so I can't beta test. That, and I don't have the skill or smarts to offer anything useful if I did. :D

I'm hoping that I don't have to worry about actual multiplayer in order to progress. I don't play Dungeons and Dragons any more because of the nightmare of scheduling a big enough group (although I have hopes of starting a new small group soon). I want to be able to progress in the game solo. I suppose I could check to see about a pass and play game with the buddy I know from this board but other than telling me about the game, he never even posts in this sub-forum! Aw hell, I'm not going to fret over it. I'll play the initial game in whatever way I can and hope to enjoy the hell out of it. If I do, I'll but the xpacs and hope for the best. Hell, it's not like I don't have many (and I mean many) thousands of MtG, LotR, Battletech, and other physical cards. At least digital xpacs won't gather dust when I don't have time to play.

Along these lines, if you like a certain style because it's got that cool factor you really want, then I just can't see that there's any shame in playing on a lower difficulty. Frankly, I haven't found that problem yet on Pillars, but I'm only at the end of my hard run, so I haven't tried PotD yet. I can say this, I made a lot of mistakes in my builds for my PC and the NPCs, but I still don't have any problems with any of the battles. The only one that required multiple attempts even was the adra dragon. ...Bitch!

Yeah, I don't mind eating a tad on the front end as long as I have the whole xpac on the flip side.

I have a newcomer's (and probably rather foolish) perspective on this issue. I will openly admit that I bought my tablet because of this game. Sure, I was kind of toying with the idea for a while, but I'll flirt with the idea of buying stuff for years before I do so, if ever. Also, while the few hundred bucks to buy the tablet isn't going to break the bank, I don't have enough money that I just toss out hundreds of dollars without having at least some justifiable reason. I have a great smartphone, but I thought a tablet would come in handy for other uses and so the Pathfinder game sounded like a good excuse to make the purchase. I'll also admit something even worse. I've never played the card game. I have a friend who belongs to this forum who really loves the game and I trust and respect the guy enough that his word qualifies as a justifiable reason in and of itself, so I've been jonesin' for this game for a while now literally sight unseen. Here's where this relates to the topic at hand. I don't mind paying up front costs, but I've never paid for extra tokens or other crap. Frankly, I've never even played a game on my smartphone and never been tempted to do so. I've tried one game on my tablet, which is some sort of slot machine/poker/blackjack game. It's good enough, but it's not a serious game. I'm looking forward to the Pathfinder game in a big way, but I'll be sad if there's some sort of weird pricing apparatus I have to use to make a purchase. If I can go one place, make one purchase, and have the game (or even pay for each episode/installment) when it comes out, I'll do so. If it's something weird, I won't. I don't need a new game. The tablet has come in handy enough for practical purposes that I don't need to buy the game to feel justified. (I would be even more foolish and irrational if I bought the tablet for the sole purpose of playing the game anyway.) This isn't my angry customer impersonation. I assume Obsidian and the IP holder will do what they believe is the best way to make a profit on their product. I'm not threatening to boycott purchases or anything silly like that. I'm simply saying that, as a practical matter, I'll lose interest in making the purchase and won't do it if I don't feel like I'm getting the game or if there's some weird pay for tokens regularly in order to play plan. It's not a matter of being angry and refusing to do so. It's simply a matter of shrugging and figuring it's not for me. With all that said, maybe I'll get the game and play it and like it so much I would figure dealing with weird token things or the like is worth it. If not, then I'll do what I do with that Cleopatra slot game. Get the free version and play it for five to ten minutes at a time before putting it aside.