Ethics Gradient

[meh, i'm going to delete this post for now. let's just wait a day to see how things shake out after the PC release. no need to escalate the user speculation debate when the empirical answer is no more than 24 hours off.]

The mobile game remains as free as it was previously. The big question people are wondering is if future content will allow purchases with gold, or if mobile is going cash-and-carry for the coming expansions.

Looks like reward fixes were going out overnight. Everything looks good on my end!

I would really love to know that too. All we can do is speculate intentions, but I can't help but think that from here on out, it would be best for the app if all new content (mobile or PC) will, and should, require real money transactions. I'm not saying that just to stick it to the F2P players, but now that the app is aiming for a wider marketplace, the previous ability to buy content with gold appears to be a legacy system that is first going to be contained (few ways to buy the PC version and use gold to acquire additional content via the mobile app) then possibly eliminated altogether (gold is only to purchase consumables and other select items). Ideally apps on all platforms could be free, and then tied to a single profile that maintains your DLC and collectables. But differing app store rules and the fact that you could play the mobile game for free simply by playing it a bunch, got us to this confusing point.

I think that is factored into the pricing strategy for PC. When you chip in your $25 you get nearly all the content that is presently purchasable on mobile. When you chip in $40, you get all the content you can acquire on mobile. Once you are already paid into the PC platform, there are relatively few opportunities where you can "game" the system buy trying to buy additional content on the cheap via in-game gold on the mobile app. Currently, the only avenue to exploit the divide is to buy the base PC edition and save up the 70k gold to buy the character alts on mobile. Whichever PC tier you buy (Base or Obsidian), it is a fair bet it will come along with more DLC/Cards/Characters than you might already have on your mobile account.

You aren't alone. Looks like they're investigating as we speak. ---- Hey, ekulnesro. I'll pass this off to our support team so they can look into it.

Yup! There may be possible issues with the Quest Mode rewards... so keep that in mind if you run into an issue after the update.

Your PlayFab ID is the 16-digit code found in the settings menu of the app (PFID). It actually stands for" PlayFab ID" (the game's cloud back-end), not "Pathfinder ID" as a lot of people have just assumed over the course of the last year.

So much good stuff in there! The future has arrived, and it is indeed GLORIOUS. Really though; great job! It is exciting to see how far Pathfinder has come in the last year. Good luck with the PC launch, and know the regulars will be here to help out however we can when a new user wanders into the forums with some questions. #PathfinderAmbassadorStuff

Thanks again for all the hard work on the app! It's been a blast to play, and I can barely believe that the game has been out for a whole year. In some ways I don't mind the various issues we've encountered over the course of the app's development. After all, it helped foster this wonderful (and often ridiculous) community of Pathfinder players! You guys really are the best!

I'm not against the introduction of class decks to add more content to the game, but I'm not sure what problems they would solve regarding a multiplayer mode. As the poster above noted, the way that decks are built from the vault there are a "nearly limitless" quantity of campaign cards, and a "technically unlimited" quantity of Blessings of the Gods. Class decks tried to help support organized play and pick-up games by segregating cards you own from the hosting base set. There is no analogous concern in the digital app, the vault simply rebuilds itself before the next game. Treasure cards are a concern, but they could either be turned off in multiplayer, or a system could be created to allow you to "keep" treasure cards you don't own. The latter option seems like it could be abused, but looking forward with the PC version of the app, it honestly seems that the devs are less concerned about Treasure Chests being core to the revenue stream. What is problematic for async multiplayer (synchronous too), is that there are still a few communication and gameplay issues to smooth over. Multiplayer might be simpler if each player just did their thing independently of the other, but Pathfinder doesn't fit the "Words With Friends" gameplay model. Figuring out how Player A can beat a check requesting a blessing assist from Player B and maybe having Player C volunteer to play a spell they were holding onto for emergencies it going to be rough. Having a turn stalled-out because the person controlling Player B is in the shower (and you really need that blessing) won't be a lot of fun either. If I recall correctly, the recent Pathfinder dev stream briefly glossed over that issue, stating that should multiplayer be implemented someday, maybe some rules would need to be modified or simplified to fit an async model. The Quest Mode/Story Mode crossover bugs weren't all that terrible in reality. However, they were catastrophic in that users couldn't do anything to resolve them and helpful cloud syncing only made things worse. As one of the devs mentioned over here, when their small team had to chose between troubleshooting/developing quest mode or ensuring the core experience (story mode) was as seamless as possible, they chose to cut quest loose.

No. Sadly, the game does not include the flavor text seen on the scenario and location cards. The scenario intro in the digital game, does cover most of the Rise of the Runelords plot, but there is still something missing in that the game does not have viewable copies of the original location/scenario/adventure/AP cards.

Streamer friend, community player, and all-around mr. nice guy, Umbersona got a chance to explore the new PC release of Pathfinder Adventures and will be streaming it live on twitch later today! With the full release coming next Friday, and some dev streams reportedly in the works, don't miss a chance to check out what's coming from the gamer's perspective. 2200-0100 UTC 5PM-8PM Eastern (US) 2PM-5PM Pacific https://www.twitch.tv/umbersona Looks like Umbersona is just one of many streamers today! Expect another member of the community, obsidianwarpjs to go live later in the evening around 9PM!

Not quite money for nothing. There is some value to the bundles if you aren't just interested in the desktop platform. I know that the pricing for the Goblins DLC hasn't come out yet, but willing to bet that it will require "Real Money" (not game gold) and I'm assuming it may be as much as $15 US. So whether I buy the PC platform not, that's $15 I'm extremely likely to sink into the game in the coming months. Knowing that the Obsidian Edition is $40, I'm left thinking: "Is there $25 of enough other stuff to justify the purchase?" Such other stuff currently includes: - One Each Uncommon Card (base edition) - One Each Rare Card (base edition) - One Each Epic Card (Obs. edition) - One Each Legendary Card (Obs. edition) - All Iconic Character Alts (Obs. edition) - Some Legendary Dice (Obs. edition) - Pillars of Eternity Promo Cards (Obs. edition) #HYPE! - Assorted other Legendary Cards (Obs. edition) - A pile of the new consumables to play around with (Obs. edition) I'm able to make the case to myself that all those extra bits are worth it to me. It would take far more than $40 in treasure chests (or $40 in my time/effort grinding gold) to acquire it all. If anyone is trying to stick with the free-to-play route, opinions may understandably vary.

It was mentioned very briefly. The key points were: - It was/is hard to find a way to do multiplayer that would fit the game well. They may need to simplify some of the rules and features to find a way to make asynchronous gameplay manageable. - If Pathfinder Adventures sells a million copies on steam, they totally promise they'll add multiplayer!

I think that is the likeliest summary of how things will work. Personally, I'm not against paying for a PC version of Pathfinder, but I can see how it is a little irksome to early adopters that they can't go cross-platform for free while the reverse is true for purchasers on GOG/Steam. However, my additional thoughts are: 1. The mobile version was stupendously generous in that it was truly a free-to-play app that didn't require any money or even forced ads reach the end. To unlock the game, you just had to play it a lot. 2. Going non-free will help the financial viability of the app. Updates, content, and potential new Adventure Paths aren't going to be funded by Pathfinder in-game Gold. I don't know how the game can be profitable if it continues being free on all platforms. 3. Lots of people played for free over the last year, and many have probably moved on to other games. It might sting a little to be an OG Adventurer, but I can't help but feel that those of us looking to platform-up may be in the minority. The decision seems good for the overall health of digital Pathfinder Adventures even if it isn't that great for players that bought the bundle on mobile.

Owlcat may be a new name on the scene, but they're really just a subset of the mail.ru/my.com media empire. I can't see how they would lack the resources to eventually deliver an okay game. I agree with you on the rest though. It is a little off-putting to see Kickstarter occasionally used as a reverse-advertising platform where the company in question gets paid to spread some hype. I like what I see too, but it would be nice to get a better feel for why I should kickstart a game that is being released whether or not the community supports it. Also holding MacOS/Linux as potential stretch goals (or post-release development) makes me a little less likely to gamble on a game that may or may not be supported on my system of choice.

That's officially one of the weirder bugs that has been reported. I personally can't think of anything in the game itself that would directly cause that error. it is certainly the first report I know of on this forum. Best I can guess is that there is something system-side prompting a disconnect with Google Play. I remember some anecdotal fixes during the the Android 6->7 transition that involved going into the Date and Time settings and enabling (or disabling) the automatic time zone detection and rebooting the device. Something about a change in system time settings during the upgrade caused errors maintaining the connection to Google Play, which in turn would make apps requiring that link to go boink for unexplained reasons.

Wow. So updated. I can't even. The future is here!

The app is actually a pretty close approximation to the tabletop rules.... except that instead of retrieving the box (The Vault) from under your bed, it starts every game by unwrapping each of the dozens of packs of cards and sorting them into all the various decks, and rebuilding each of your characters. The treasure card system is awkward by design (I guess?) to keep the base game from being completely drowned out by Treasure cards. Even if you have 3000 treasure cards in your vault, no more than maybe 120 or so random cards will be mixed into the base game before a scenario.

Actually... its even a couple layers even more complex! Something like: Treasure Chest > Treasure Pool > Scenario Treasure Selections > Scenario Vault > Scenario Heroic/Elite Card Removal > Party Card Removal > Scenario Locations > Hero I have a few posts kicking around the forum describing vault-building mechanics (like this one from earlier today). The app appears to go through a whole bunch of steps to prep the cards for play for each scenario.

The problem is that all things aren't equal in the way you expect. First of all, treasure cards essentially don't "exist" in your vault. Before each game, a small number from each Adventure Deck is randomly selected and shuffled into the rest of the Rise of the Runelords campaign cards. I don't know how many AD5 treasure cards you have in total, but it is entirely likely when the game decides which ~20 Treasure cards from all of AD5 to put in the vault, few or zero Spellward Shields even make the first cut. And even if a treasure card does get selected... then it has to survive the cull. At AD5, about 40% of all Elite cards get randomly pulled from the box to simulate the tabletop mechanic that allows you to remove Basic/Elites from the game. Spellward Shield does have the Elite trait, so even if a copy is lucky enough to get picked, it has a 40% chance of being tossed back out before the game even starts. AD6 culls even more cards. The probability of encountering a specific Basic or Elite card in AD6 is preposterously low. Finally the game randomly deals out location decks for the scenario. The double-RNG sandwich (with a cull in the middle) is partly why the treasure system can feel a little unrewarding. @BAdler mentioned as much in this post. You can find some awesome cards in Treasure Chests... and then almost never see them again in play. If you're looking to max your chances to specifically find the Spellward Shield, play a large party on an AD5 scenario with a bunch of armor cards in the location decks. The stats might be against you, but the underlying math has been pretty consistent. It'll come up eventually.

It depends on more than the number of AD 5 Armors you possess. Treasure statistics are spread across the entire adventure deck level, not just by card type. For instance, when you start an AD5 scenario, all normal AD5 cards are added to the vault. However only about ~15-25 of all AD5 treasure cards are randomly included in the scenario vault. From there, the game then deals out the location decks. No matter how many treasure cards you have, they never comprise more than about a third of the active scenario vault. If you have a lot of treasure cards, it is quite likely that the majority of them never make it into a specific game. If you have 20 Spellward Shields, it seems quite probable that you have a metric boatload of Pure Holy Waters and other AD5 uncommons. When all the AD5 cards compete to be included in the vault, it is possible that one specific card can be drowned out by other cards you have a ton of. You may need to salvage a bunch of AD5 cards, or wait for the next patch and see if anything changes in how treasures cards are handled.

Speaking of easter eggs... at the end of the trailer, the computer they show is an image-flipped Apple II. I wonder if that is supposed to mean something....? Answer: No, it probably does not..

Not sure what to make of the news either, but it is entirely possible that an Asmodee login might provide that cross-platform bridge to tie together your PC and Mobile accounts. It has been a long time since anyone mentioned anything about potentially using a Facebook login for that purpose. I guess we'll find out more soon. And on that note, Asmodee's game, Onirim, is free on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store for the next couple days. Feel free to check it to fill your "nerd solitaire" needs while we wait for the coming Pathfinder update!