Question about Treasure Chests

[Alklein35]

What are these for? They cost 500 gold, but I can't figure out what their purpose is. It seems like there is a pure build-your-deck mode somewhere that I'm not seeing. If so, I really have to speak out against that. I feel that something like that, buying booster packs of PACG cards, goes completely against the spirit of this game as a whole. I really hope I don't come off as insulting, but I'm actually pretty surprised Lone Shark was OK with that.

[Waruko]

Hey Obsidian! Like the OP I am curious about chests too having just stopped in the middle of your 2nd Twitch video to log into this account for the first time since making it, (back when I was a Pillars of Eternity backer). First to give a little information on who I am as a consumer. I live overseas ten out of twelve months a year. When I'm stateside I'm roughly two hours away from the nearest card shop and have very little time to myself. So the idea of a digital version of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Card Game was a godsend. Most of all once multiplayer functionality is online. So to say I was willing to pay whatever price tag you saw fit on the season pass is not an understatement. However...

 

 

I have ZERO interest in buying "card packs" for Pathfinder Adventures and thereby the game itself if it is the only means of acquiring said cards. This is regardless if the chests can be bought with real money, in game currency, given as rewards, or any combination therein. I don't care for the idea of purchasing a LCG/CCG hybrid. 

 

I love LCG's like Dominion and Star Wars: The Card Game because I know I have the "complete" set the moment of purchase. I do not get into these games for "blind buy" purchase models, "rarities", "foils" or any other market  tricks are used to increase purchases in CCGs.  

Now if I am mistaken...if ALL cards can be gained via package/bundle deals and this is just an alternative way for free-to-play people to progress then you can expect my purchase on day one PC release. 

Regardless of your answer, thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on the matter and I wish you good luck on Pathfinder Adventures and any further partnerships with Paizo. ^_^

[Jaunt]

I was wondering this too, and figured that I was just being dumb. I don't understand what an uncommon is, when every set of cards is fixed. More to the point, I'm not sure what buying the chest even does. Does it give a party the immediate opportunity to add cards to their deck? Does it add additional cards to the vault? If the former, do I have to add them to my deck(s) then and there or lose them? Is it just a handful of copies of Poog of Zarongel? Are they all boons, or do they include banes too?

 

I doubt I'll buy any chests, but I imagine that for a number of players who would that not knowing what they do is a major obstacle the way it stands. 

[PinkRose]

I bought one last night just for testing purposes.

I got 3 allies and a magic sword.

Can't find any way to add them to the decks.

Don't see a need to buy any more.

[nimoyfish]

On the stream, they were talking about how the cards from chests function in terms of deck building:

 

Getting cards from chests is akin to putting them into the relevant pile of possible cards (AP #) when drawing them to build locations. This means that even if you open a bunch of chests, you still need to go find a specific card by playing through scenarios and hope you get lucky to encounter it AND be able to acquire it while beating the scenario. This makes buying chests a fairly dubious proposition unless they use chests as a gating mechanism for certain cards, which would be incredibly distasteful...

 

They also mentioned that you can salvage cards for gold, which could mean the ability to thin out the possible cards you can get to only the ones you want, which is another kind of game breaking or an (un)intended and complex way to manipulate game strategy. I'm looking forward to more clarification on what's available without chest purchases as well as an explanation on how the card vault behaves. As a purist, I would like it to be true that I can play the digital game and expect the card distributions to be very close to the physical counterpart.

[StormbringerGT]

On the stream, they were talking about how the cards from chests function in terms of deck building:

 

Getting cards from chests is akin to putting them into the relevant pile of possible cards (AP #) when drawing them to build locations. This means that even if you open a bunch of chests, you still need to go find a specific card by playing through scenarios and hope you get lucky to encounter it AND be able to acquire it while beating the scenario. This makes buying chests a fairly dubious proposition unless they use chests as a gating mechanism for certain cards, which would be incredibly distasteful...

 

They also mentioned that you can salvage cards for gold, which could mean the ability to thin out the possible cards you can get to only the ones you want, which is another kind of game breaking or an (un)intended and complex way to manipulate game strategy. I'm looking forward to more clarification on what's available without chest purchases as well as an explanation on how the card vault behaves. As a purist, I would like it to be true that I can play the digital game and expect the card distributions to be very close to the physical counterpart.

Story mode is almost exactly how the physical game functions with some concessions made to make it work on a digital format. Each Adventure deck when bought or unlocked come with the correct cards.

 

The chests contain cards NOT found in the Rise of The Runelords. I'll have to check to see what more I can say about them.

 

But if you want to buy the season pass (or unlock the decks with gold) your experience will be very similar to your experience with the physical game minus some shuffling.

[PinkRose]

That makes more sense, Stormbringer. Sort of.  

[StormbringerGT]

That makes more sense, Stormbringer. Sort of.  

You made my day because I am told I rarely make sense!

 

You can play the game almost exactly how you play it in the physical version. If you buy the season pass or just buy everything individually, it'll function how you expect it to.

 

Once you get to Adventure Deck 1 the cards from Adventure Deck 1 get added into you vault. Once you get to Adventure Deck 2 the cards from Adventure Deck 2 get added to your vault (box in the physical version).

 

The cards from the chests add in some variety and let you play with new cards not found in the RotR. I have a feeling they will come in especially handy on Harder Difficulties and during Quest mode. They are however completely optional. You can play through the RotR normal campaign and not need to buy any chests.

 

We'll have more info for you guys on chests in the near future! I hope this helped clear some things up though.

[Eldicor]

I just wanted to say that I really like this idea for adding options in to the game -- it gives a chance to get the real life equivalent of promo cards/class deck cards into the game very easily, and I could easily see future adventure paths ea h having their own 'vault' (or 'hold' in s&s or 'trove' in WotR, etc.)

[Dunesparrow]

Hey there

 

Well, if Chests contain additional boons from other sets, that get added into your Vault, that you can then encounter at locations I think that is a great feature.

 

I am thrilled to hear that you we will not be limited to just playing with cards from the Runelords set.

 

Thank you Obsidian

[LLaney]

I made an attempt to explain it with ART

 

[Hannibal_PJV]

 

 

That makes more sense, Stormbringer. Sort of.

You made my day because I am told I rarely make sense!

 

You can play the game almost exactly how you play it in the physical version. If you buy the season pass or just buy everything individually, it'll function how you expect it to.

 

Once you get to Adventure Deck 1 the cards from Adventure Deck 1 get added into you vault. Once you get to Adventure Deck 2 the cards from Adventure Deck 2 get added to your vault (box in the physical version).

 

The cards from the chests add in some variety and let you play with new cards not found in the RotR. I have a feeling they will come in especially handy on Harder Difficulties and during Quest mode. They are however completely optional. You can play through the RotR normal campaign and not need to buy any chests.

 

We'll have more info for you guys on chests in the near future! I hope this helped clear some things up though.

Can you turn those extra cards on and off, if you like?

Lets say that you buy them, and then decide that you want to play without them.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Hannibal_PJV

[PinkRose]

What?

You couldn't make a gif of this, Llaney?

[LLaney]

Sadly no, I am merely a gif conduit.

[PinkRose]

So seriously, that helps, Llaney.

However, where does one find the actual cards that have come from the Treasure Chestsin the Vault?

I can't find my flaming scimitar or my Allies anywhere.

[Nathan Davis]

There should be an update coming next week that will have revisions to the Vault and Gallery that make these more clear. Currently: If you access the Gallery from the main menu, they should appear in whatever deck number they belong to. 

 

It's probable that none of them are Deck B or Deck 1 cards, thus they will not appear in the Vault.

 

We intend to better communicate the difference between Vault and Gallery soon, but the short version is that the Gallery features all cards you own in any set. The Vault shows you cards that are relevant to your play session. So, when you play Perils of the Lost Coast, no Deck 1 cards will show up.

[PinkRose]

AAAAAAAAAH. 

Makes sense. 

You should tell the developers to make that more clear. 

[Waruko]

Story mode is almost exactly how the physical game functions with some concessions made to make it work on a digital format. Each Adventure deck when bought or unlocked come with the correct cards.

The chests contain cards NOT found in the Rise of The Runelords. I'll have to check to see what more I can say about them.

 

But if you want to buy the season pass (or unlock the decks with gold) your experience will be very similar to your experience with the physical game minus some shuffling.

 

 

Thank you for commenting. But regardless of where the cards come from, the fact they are optional does nothing dissuade that. Character decks, add on decks, play mats, card sleeves, all optional things but not one was ever a blind buy purchase for the physical game. 

 

When you can answer this I would very much like to know. 

 

​Are the card in the chests forever exclusive to the chests? 

[nimoyfish]

Thanks for the clarifications!

 

I assume this means you can only salvage cards from treasure chests (which would be a pretty bad return on the gold spent).

Chests are just a way for people who have the season pass to use their gold, which seems reasonable.

[Borissimo]

Waruko, I understand where you're coming from, but (speaking as a person in no way connected with Obsidian) I hope you don't pass on this game just because there's going to be an extra thing that other people will buy. The devs have made it clear in this thread that anyone who buys the season pass or purchases adventure decks with gold will receive all of the cards she would have gotten had she bought the physical game, and as far as designer integrity is concerned, that's the only thing that matters.

 

Think of it this way: imagine there are two universes, one in which the treasure chests exist and one in which they don't. If you're a player who does not buy the treasure chests, then your experience with the game will be exactly identical in both universes -- yet you're saying that you'll play the game in one universe but not in the other. Respectfully, that is simply irrational!

 

Assuming the chests make other players happy, do you really begrudge the happiness of other people -- people you haven't met, never heard of, never will meet -- so much that you'd be willing to forfeit your own happiness in silent protest? A protest that, might I add, no one will ever know about, hear about, or care about, and that won't have any effect on anything, especially not the happiness of the people whose happiness you were protesting in the first place? This is a poor return on the sacrifice of your happiness, my friend!

 

When a game developer adds something that not all players can or want to afford, it only harms the game in an objective sense if the game is competitive. Pathfinder Adventures is strictly single-player / cooperative, so Obsidian can add all they want, no matter how little of it I am able or inclined to afford, without violating any moral principles or my enjoyment of the game. The treasure chests could cost 100 dollars each and be filled with literally nothing but Nathan's topless selfies and it still wouldn't matter as long as none of the components of the physical game were held behind a paywall.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Borissimo

[StormbringerGT]

 

 ...be filled with literally nothing but Nathan's topless selfies...

Be careful what you wish for! Lindsey is an AMAZING artist.

[Borissimo]

Oh Stormbringer, I knew exactly what I was wishing for. 

[LadyKaieta]

 

 

 ...be filled with literally nothing but Nathan's topless selfies...

Be careful what you wish for! Lindsey is an AMAZING artist.

 

 

Oh god why...

[oneplus999]

The "treasure packs" are the digital equivalent of promo cards. Fire sneeze was kind of an amazing card if you could get it, but you had to do something outside of the game to physically acquire it, and even then it just went in your box, not your character deck.

 

If you're playing digital single-player, it sounds reasonable to ignore the treasure packs.  As long as the season pass is equivalent to the physical box, it's fine.

 

I do wonder what will happen in multiplayer.  If your friend has a treasure pack, can the card end up in your hand? If so, what happens?  Hopefully there will be some way of establishing your own social contract on this issue.  Some groups might want it free-for-all, others might want to restrict the game to season-pass cards.

[Nathan Davis]

This got strange real fast.

[PinkRose]

Where do I send my $100?