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The Community Blog (An Invitation)

BAdler

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Blog Comments posted by BAdler

    Aarik D

    Posted

    Hey, everyone. Brandon here. I'm a designer on Pathfinder Adventures. I just wanted to answer a few questions and give some clarification on points we have discussed over the past few days. I will likely post this in response to a few different threads so feel free to post this anywhere you think people might have these questions/comments. Thanks, everyone.

     

    • "I've already spent a significant amount of money on your mobile version. Why do I have to repurchase the game on PC?"

    This is a good question and if I were in your shoes I'd ask the same thing.

     

    The PC version of the game is not using a free-to-play model for revenue generation. There are both business and technical reasons for this. This means folks that purchased content on the mobile version of the game will need to repurchase the content on Steam or GOG.

    That said, we are working on a way to hook up players who have purchased a lot of content for the mobile game. Things like free upgrades and coupons to lower the price. I don't have any specifics right now, but that info should be coming out soon.

     

    • "If I merge my PC/Android/iOS accounts, does that mean I will see all of my unlocked/purchased content on all of these platforms?"

    Yup. For example, if you had some special promo cards on your iOS account and you merged it with the PC, they would show up on the PC build of your game - even if we don't have that content for purchase on the PC. It works in reverse too. If you purchased the Obsidian Edition on Steam and linked your accounts you would unlock the treasure cards on your mobile versions.

     

    • "Why didn't you just make more content? All I wanted was more content."

    Two things: content is by far the most time consuming thing that the team works on AND the Pathfinder team is only a handful of people.

     

    We felt it was really important to put out a PC version of the game. It is probably the best way for us to expand our user base. We have had most of the team focused on creating this build for the past few months. Because the team is small, we can really only be focused on one thing at a time. This meant that content creation was getting pushed off a bit.

     

    While pushing off content creation isn't ideal, we felt it was the best for the long term health of the product. More people playing equals more money equals more content for the game. It sounds like a cold calculation, but it is the reality of the situation. Same goes for the Asmodee deal. Working with Asmodee expands the game's reach and gives us a better chance to create more content for the game.

     

    At this point, we have started making more content again. You guys know about the Goblin campaign we are working on, but we also have some other things we hope people will like. We'll be able to talk about it in the next few weeks, I think.

     

    • "Why did you create Feature X? Nobody's asking for it and I don't think it adds anything to the game."

    Most of these new features were requests or designs from me. All of these features came out of a want to make the game more accessible to current and new users. In particular, I was focused on making the game easier to get into and more intuitive for people.

     

    I realize that some people think the game is way too easy, but the vast majority of new folks that play the game don't understand how it works right off the bat. You can only tutorialize so much before people stop paying attention so there is a fine line to walk. This is an important thing for the team to resolve. 

     

    The board game version of the game has the benefit of knowing that the users will read through the entire instructions before they ever start their first game. This means that the first scenario can immediately start with very little ramp up. By necessity the digital game needs to be more user friendly.

     

    So, in that vein, we attempted to make UI and current features more intuitive - even if it diverged from the board game a bit. While I feel there are still things we can add to the game to help, I feel like we were successful.

     

    In other updates we will be adding in other features that the community has identified, so be on the lookout for that in the future.

     

    • "Why did you add in consumables (Runes/Charms)?"

    There are a few reasons for this.

     

    First, they can really help new players get past a scenario or situation that they are having a difficult time with. I don't expect that players will be using these items for all instances, but it does allow them to get out of bad situations. This also applies to folks trying out harder difficulties.

     

    Second, this gives us something to allow PC users to purchase with gold. Originally, we were going to remove gold from the PC version, but these consumable items allow players to spend their earned gold on bonuses in the game.

     

    Lastly, this will also help out the mobile monetization. If people enjoy using these items they can purchase (or grind) additional gold to get more.

     

    It's important to note that players don't need to use any of these consumables. They are there for folks that need a little boost to complete some content or get out of a jam, but they are never required to complete the content. If you would prefer an experience closer to the card game, you can safely ignore those UI buttons and you should have the same experience that you are able to get right now.

     

    • "Have you considered a difficulty increase for the current (or new) content?"

    It's unlikely that we would increase the difficult of current content, but we are exploring how to make the game more difficult in future content. I have some ideas and once we announce new content I can get into the specifics.

     

    • "Why did you remove quest mode?"

    Unfortunately, with the size of our team, it was too difficult to keep quest mode running while also creating new content. The decision was to focus our team on creating new content instead of new quest mode content. We are also sad to see it go, but it is the right decision at this time. Removing quest mode should also resolve other bugs and issues that were being caused by it. These weren't insignificant and should make for a better experience.

    • Like 3
    BAdler

    Posted

    Hey, everyone. Looks like there was a little bit of miscommunication on our part which caused confusion in the update notes.

     

    The note that mentioned "Draining Item Mod should only drain 15% attack speed now" was incorrect, but it requires a longer explanation.

     

    In The White March a new Item Mod was created that was intended to drain a small amount of attack speed from an opponent and grant it to the weapon's user. Erroneously, this mod was initially named "Draining." Because we already had an Item Mod named Draining in the base game it was causing the old Item Mod to get removed from older weapons when it shouldn't have. To fix this issue the new Item Mod was renamed to Ambushing. This meant that weapons that use the attack speed draining effect used the Item Mod named Ambushing and the older weapons that used the Endurance draining effect used the Item Mod named Draining.

     

    The update notes incorrectly referenced the older name (Draining) when mentioning that a bug with the Item Mod had been fixed. This is the cause of the confusion.

     

    Unfortunately, Ambushing doesn't properly describe the Item Mod effect, so it is being changed to the name "Time Siphon."

     

    In conclusion, Draining is remaining the same (Endurance draining) and Ambushing is now named Time Siphon (and has had its attack speed siphoning reduced to 15%). The name change for Time Siphon will take place in the 2.03 update.

     

    I apologize for the confusion that this caused.

    • Like 1
    BAdler

    Posted

    @BAdler, will we have to purchase part 2 of the expansion separately or both parts will be included in the purchase?

     

    It depends. If you backed the expansion during the Kickstarter you will get both pieces of the expansion for the one price. Otherwise you will have to purchase both pieces separately. We are making a bundle, though, so it is cheaper for people that want to buy both at once.

    BAdler

    Posted

    Cheers for the info BAdler.

     

    Two quick questions.

     

    Can we get a little spoiler on how many Soulbound weapons will be in the expansion?

     

    Also is it true that there are new portraits in the expansion? If so, how many male portraits and how many female portraits are there?

     

    The soulbound weapons are very powerful and they are more difficult to get than a normal magic weapon. As such, there aren't a large number of them in the world.

     

    Also, there will be more portraits included in the expansion. I don't know the exact amount, but it is a good number of extra ones.

    • Like 1
    BAdler

    Posted

    Hey BAdler quick question. Now that we have a release date (25th August) when will we see the expansion on sale on steam?

     

    Probably not until much closer to the release. The business reason behind this has to do with trying to get as many sales at the same time as possible. The more people that purchase the expansion at the same time, the more exposure we are able to generate (which is a loop that starts to feed itself).

    • Like 1
    BAdler

    Posted

    Two of those fixes are incorporated into the patch notes. Specifically the Ability Bar and Stamina bugs. The other bugs were not added because I think they were introduced by the patch so they didn't need to be listed.

     

    As for the other bugs, they should be fixed, but I need to have QA check their status before I add them to the official patch notes.

    • Like 1
    BAdler

    Posted

    Actually, we may have solved the problem. It is running through QA right now. If they give the thumbs up, I will release the build in an hour or so.

     

    Here is what this update should fix:

    • Fixed a problem where it was impossible to sell items in a store if you were full on camping supplies.
    • Spells that target friendly NPCs now only affect targets which the caster is non-hostile towards and the target is non-hostile towards the caster.
    • Fixed issue where the Ability Bar sub menu could get locked into not disappearing if a hot key bar was ever shown.
    • Retroactive fix for characters whose Stamina multiplier was broken in save games.
    • Like 2
    BAdler

    Posted

    "Since the release of the game with have fixed around 1000 bugs with the help of the community."

     

    Why were 1000 of bugs in a game that was released as a finished product?

     

    "There are many of you, with many different playstyles. It isn't something that we can easily replicate on our side so we will gladly take any help that the community is willing to give us."

     

    So why not early access?

     

    This is my last response on this issue in these comments. If anyone would like to discuss this in detail please start a separate thread. I want the comments on this blog to be specifically about bug reports

     

    It is not uncommon for large games to ship with many bugs that need to be fixed. There is no magical bug number that the game should be at when you release a product. You release the product when you feel that the game should be released - because the quality is at the right level, because you run out of money, because you feel it is the best for the game/studio/franchise... a combination of many factors.

     

    The reason that PoE was not released as an Early Access game is because it wasn't an Early Access game. If you take us patching the game as proof that the game is Early Access then we have fundamentally different ideas of what Early Access means. Let me be clear, PoE is a finished product that Obsidian is dedicated to supporting.

     

    The product was deemed a finished product because Obsidian considered it a finished product. It is really as simple as that. If this is not something that you agree with you are free to hold that opinion, but I would argue against it.

     

    Like I mentioned previously, if you would like to discuss this further, please create a thread in the general Eternity forum.

    • Like 7
    BAdler

    Posted

     

    How come NONE of these in this thread have been addressed?

     

    http://forums.obsidi...list-patch-105/

     

    These were supposed to be fixed in this patch at least:

     

    cRichards

     

     
    • Developers
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    • 241 posts

    This is the status of some of the issues mentioned as far as I am aware:

     

    #2 Companion dialogue skipping - Probably an issue with the computer running a parallel server or virtual OS, addressed here

    #4 Permanent status effects - Fixed and retroactive

    #5 Paladins in Noonfrost disabling passives - Fixed and retroactive

    #6 Dual-wielding with unarmed and 1 weapon not working properly- Fixed

    #7 Retaliation on friendly spells - Fixed

    #12 Losing items when dismissing companions - Fixed, cannot be retroactive

     

     

     

    Seriously, what is going on with this game and its treasure trove of game-play bugs? And the sound bug was established by users as NOT being related to anything on the post linked.

     

    And how on earth can this not be fixed yet?

     

    http://forums.obsidi...half-endurance/

     

    http://forums.obsidi...s/?hl=endurance

     

     

    Good job customer beta testers, you are doing a nice unpaid job for obsidian. Me too with all my bug report compilations. If I was business savvy I would be asking for some kind of compensation for all this. :D

     

    Even the devs admit we ate doing their work:

     

    cRichards

     

    "Two-handed weapons are intended to cost twice the amount of ingredients to enchant, but very nice job discovering that the x2 ingredient requirement does not properly get reset when viewing the crafting menu. This issue has been reported to the team. Keep up the great work!"

     

    https://forums.obsid...ug-ingredients/

     

    So, keep it up guys, your great unpaid work for the devs!

     

     

     

    These should be fixed, but they didn't get into the patch notes. Reason being is that patch notes are typically generated based on check-ins into our source control between specific dates and those fixes were technically checked in while the build was on lockdown. It was mainly just an oversight on my part.

     

    That said, I want to remind everyone that we are a small team working on many things (including the expansion and new features). Since the release of the game with have fixed around 1000 bugs with the help of the community. There are still bugs in the game, obviously, but just because you don't see specific fixes going into the game doesn't mean we are ignoring you.

     

    There are reasons why we may or may not being able to fix a specific bug that was reported. For example, two of the fixes we did for 1.06 required that we make an incremental update to the Unity engine. While the overall danger isn't huge, upgrades to the engine require that we spend more in programming and testing resources to make sure there aren't new bugs introduced in the base game. Obviously if we divert resources from reported bug fixes/testing we won't be able to do as many in the timeframe we have for each patch.

     

    Also, one developer may be more efficient than another developer regarding specific bug fixes. For example, Brian Macintosh is a beast when it comes to fixing UI issues. It is what he did for a majority of the project. We could divert him to fixing ability/spell bugs, but he may only be able to fix one or two of those in the same amount of time that he could fix 10 or 15 UI bugs. It isn't always cut and dry when figuring out where to place your resources. Sometimes it may be best to do those couple of ability fixes instead of the ten or fifteen UI fixes... sometimes not.

     

    One last thing, we do appreciate the help that our fans and backers give us with finding and reporting bugs. You may view the fact that we are soliciting bug reports as exploiting our player base, but it is just the most efficient way for us to fix bugs. There are many of you, with many different playstyles. It isn't something that we can easily replicate on our side so we will gladly take any help that the community is willing to give us.

     

    TLDR; Thanks for the help. Some issues are fixed but not in patch notes. We are still hard at work on bug fixes. Sometimes, bug fixing efficiency beats out reported bugs. You guys are many, we are few. We love you guys!

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