Question for Devs: Health of the Game?

[Greenvise]

With the recent delays and only (I think) 50k downloads from the Play Store to date, I wanted to ask the devs: is the game in good shape?

 

I think that Pathfinder Adventures is the best possible version of the PACG that will ever exist, and I want it to succeed. Is Obsidian meeting its goals and expectations? Enough to justify forward progress?

I want RotRL to wrap up, so we can get Skull & Shackles and everything else. More than anything, I want a multiplayer / Steam launch to happen. This game would instantly and immediately become the go-to activity for my girlfriend and I if multiplayer were more convenient than the current pass-and-play format.

 

So, devs: is Pathfinder Adventures on track as a justifiable, profitable venture? Do you fully expect a for-sure Steam release down the road? Do you see a realistic post-RotRL life for the game?

[Greenvise]

Any chance this will get answered (by a member of the dev team)?

[RedPred]

Just today an other big work of upgrading and fixes. I think this is the right base for the coming AD4 mate

[Saint Ajora]

Just today an other big work of upgrading and fixes.

And bugs. A lot of new ones, as usual.

[kent1146]

And bugs. A lot of new ones, as usual.

99 little bugs in the code

99 little bugs...

Take one down, patch it around

128 little bugs in the code

[RedPred]

Your post made me smile to start my day mate. A little creepy but very funny

 

This problem is the typical effect of important upgrade like last patch. Great objectives, delay and fast programming. Limited testing for a huge pool of devices just incremented that can't be all tested in a lab..

 

Potentially, when they will fix the new UI issues, the game will be quite more stable with all the work on the core functions they listed in the notes and also a bigger compatibility. But for the moment we have to wait they fix it.. 

 

Hannibal once said that until AD6 comes out, the game will be still in a kind of beta release. I think exactly the same.

Just now I m quite sure the final release will be a way better of actual one, cause they are planing and realizing a lot of improvements for real. In meantime, we could have this kind of problems here and there..

 

The best we can do when we find an issue, as I already said you before, is collect info for developers. More info we collect, faster and easier for them debugging.

So if you get stuck somewhere or encounter an issue: screenshot, description at best of our possibilities, then zip the game data directory and attach it to an email to devs (support@obsidian.net).

 

The way to solve everything requires some time, but I have seen a really change in progression in this last month with 2 major patches and 2 minor fixes 5 weeks. That's good, now we need once again patience guys.

[kent1146]

 

Hannibal once said that until AD6 comes out, the game will be still in a kind of beta release. I think exactly the same.

Just now I m quite sure the final release will be a way better of actual one, cause they are planing and realizing a lot of improvements for real. In meantime, we could have this kind of problems here and there..

 

I'd advise you to quit this game, and forget it ever existed.

 

Believe me, I **LOVED** this game before the latest patch.  But it's clear that the game developers simply do not prioritize fixing bugs, or delivering promised content.  Instead, they release garbage like a new UI that nobody asked for, and cosmetic garbage like dice skins.

 

I've accepted that this isn't a story of a rag-tag team of indie developers just trying to find their stride before they really start delivering content & bugfixes.  I've accepted that shoddy bug-laden releases and M.I.A. content are what we can expect in the future, because that's exactly what they've given us in the past.

[Slide87]

ahahahaha sry kent,but the same message copied and pasted for me is very funny everyone has own opinion,sure,but in this way u're a bit pressing xD

[Archangelrey]

 

 

Hannibal once said that until AD6 comes out, the game will be still in a kind of beta release. I think exactly the same.

Just now I m quite sure the final release will be a way better of actual one, cause they are planing and realizing a lot of improvements for real. In meantime, we could have this kind of problems here and there..

 

I'd advise you to quit this game, and forget it ever existed.

 

Believe me, I **LOVED** this game before the latest patch.  But it's clear that the game developers simply do not prioritize fixing bugs, or delivering promised content.  Instead, they release garbage like a new UI that nobody asked for, and cosmetic garbage like dice skins.

 

I've accepted that this isn't a story of a rag-tag team of indie developers just trying to find their stride before they really start delivering content & bugfixes.  I've accepted that shoddy bug-laden releases and M.I.A. content are what we can expect in the future, because that's exactly what they've given us in the past.

 

 

Dude, chill out. We understand you are angry but it your opinion not the letter of the law. Stop posting the same time over and over again.

[Ethics Gradient]

Any chance this will get answered (by a member of the dev team)?

Aside from the fact that we're in the middle of Patchageddon (or is it Patchpocalypse?), I doubt you'll hear much until they finish out AD6.

 

They've committed to releasing the full RoTR, and have dropped hints that they'd maybe want to do more.  Both Obsidian and Paizo are reasonably-sized corporate entities, and it would be very unlikely you'll hear anything about finances or success on the mobile market until they hit some sort of decision point like working on Pathfinder Adventures 2.0 (or not).

 

An indie dev might be willing to post some numbers, but any company big enough to have a legal staff probably won't off-handedly drop stuff like that on a forum.

[NumberSix]

 

And bugs. A lot of new ones, as usual.

99 little bugs in the code

99 little bugs...

Take one down, patch it around

128 little bugs in the code

Fairly funny. Except new bugs were not little. They were big game breaking game crashing bugs. And bad UI bugs. Took one of the very best tablet games and made it temporarily a very poor one. Given that they asked for people to pre pay for content they should probably have delivered on that content before embarking on many other additional changes.

[hfm]

 

 

Hannibal once said that until AD6 comes out, the game will be still in a kind of beta release. I think exactly the same.

Just now I m quite sure the final release will be a way better of actual one, cause they are planing and realizing a lot of improvements for real. In meantime, we could have this kind of problems here and there..

 

I'd advise you to quit this game, and forget it ever existed.

 

Believe me, I **LOVED** this game before the latest patch.  But it's clear that the game developers simply do not prioritize fixing bugs, or delivering promised content.  Instead, they release garbage like a new UI that nobody asked for, and cosmetic garbage like dice skins.

 

I've accepted that this isn't a story of a rag-tag team of indie developers just trying to find their stride before they really start delivering content & bugfixes.  I've accepted that shoddy bug-laden releases and M.I.A. content are what we can expect in the future, because that's exactly what they've given us in the past.

 

 

I'm perfectly happy to wait for a quality AD4 release. This game isn't the most important thing in my life, I don't need to go an immature, irrational tirade about the state of the game. I'll patently watch for the app update announcing AD4 and continue playing. I'll probably just start a new party and redo from B forward just to experience the new stuff that's been patched in.

[RedPred]

 

 

I'm perfectly happy to wait for a quality AD4 release. This game isn't the most important thing in my life, I don't need to go an immature, irrational tirade about the state of the game. I'll patently watch for the app update announcing AD4 and continue playing. I'll probably just start a new party and redo from B forward just to experience the new stuff that's been patched in.

 

 

You can patently watch for the app update announcing, but players who have already paid to complete the game in August 2016, don't want to complete the game in March 2017 after a year... reasonably. They paid full price with false scheduling, not half price. Give them possibility to half refund and I ll accept your thesis.

[Borissimo]

At this point, I would be legitimately shocked if Obsidian didn't release this game on Steam in Q3 or Q4 of 2017.

 

Yes, yes, the game is a bugged mess and AD's 4-6 are grotesquely delayed. But you're not seeing the big picture. At right around this time in 2013, a huge chunk of the Blizzard fan-base was furious with how the Hearthstone closed beta was being handled. The whole process was truly a giant, festering ****-up. Fast forward 3 years later, and who cares about how badly the Hearthstone beta went down? Absolutely 0 people.

 

And so, I think, it will be with Pathfinder Adventures. Right now, the game is in a truly egregious state (and I say this as a long-time fanboy). But 3 years from now, when you can download the $50 Pathfinder Adventures Steam bundle with Rise of the Runelords, Skull and Shackles, and Wrath of the Righteous, all gorgeous, all working flawlessly, and all fully complete, who's going to care that Obsidian's development of the initial mobile app was a flaming clusterbomb of ineptitude? Absolutely nobody. There's like 10 people really fed up with it right now, but give it a few years and a finished product and I doubt even we'll care what things were like back in 2016. Heck, we'll probably stop caring before a single calendar year goes by.

 

To succeed on Steam, the reviews need to be good. Open a game page and see that pleasant blue "overwhelmingly positive" or even "very positive" or "mostly positive," and you might buy the game. See that nasty red "mixed?" Practically a death sentence. In its current form, Pathfinder Adventures is a "mixed." So it was smart of Obsidian to get their "mixed" product out of the way on a mobile app that pretty much nobody cares about. Yeah, it's taking them forever to get things working right, but when they do, they'll be able to release a nearly flawless version on Steam, attain that pretty blue "mostly positive" status, and rake in a billion dollars.

 

I mean, I'm not the president of Obsidian so I obviously don't know anything for sure, but if they don't release the game on Steam after their fixing up this hunk-a-junk jalopy we've got running on our iPads, then they're lighting money on fire as far as I'm concerned.

[RedPred]

An other possibility is to debug the heavy bugged code and complete the content, to have:

- additional 5 stars review everywhere and everyday (with the digital version of one of the most wonderful tabletop rpg ever come to light)

- a perfect and complete source code to compile with what-ever-system-you-want for the next 10 years

 

Actually that requires resources (additional programmers, additional testers, additional control quality specialist) that they seem to lack.. but I'm not so confident that entering in new multiple 'environments' in the actual condition will help to relaunch the project and to acquire missing resources mate.. It's a very very risky way.. The integrated customer review systems are very effective pushing up good products and pushing down defective ones (bugged, with half content and empty multiplayer)... Quite easy to bury ourselves with our own hands we could say..

[King_Momo]

At this point, I would be legitimately shocked if Obsidian didn't release this game on Steam in Q3 or Q4 of 2017.

 

Yes, yes, the game is a bugged mess and AD's 4-6 are grotesquely delayed. But you're not seeing the big picture. At right around this time in 2013, a huge chunk of the Blizzard fan-base was furious with how the Hearthstone closed beta was being handled. The whole process was truly a giant, festering ****-up. Fast forward 3 years later, and who cares about how badly the Hearthstone beta went down? Absolutely 0 people.

 

And so, I think, it will be with Pathfinder Adventures. Right now, the game is in a truly egregious state (and I say this as a long-time fanboy). But 3 years from now, when you can download the $50 Pathfinder Adventures Steam bundle with Rise of the Runelords, Skull and Shackles, and Wrath of the Righteous, all gorgeous, all working flawlessly, and all fully complete, who's going to care that Obsidian's development of the initial mobile app was a flaming clusterbomb of ineptitude? Absolutely nobody. There's like 10 people really fed up with it right now, but give it a few years and a finished product and I doubt even we'll care what things were like back in 2016. Heck, we'll probably stop caring before a single calendar year goes by.

 

To succeed on Steam, the reviews need to be good. Open a game page and see that pleasant blue "overwhelmingly positive" or even "very positive" or "mostly positive," and you might buy the game. See that nasty red "mixed?" Practically a death sentence. In its current form, Pathfinder Adventures is a "mixed." So it was smart of Obsidian to get their "mixed" product out of the way on a mobile app that pretty much nobody cares about. Yeah, it's taking them forever to get things working right, but when they do, they'll be able to release a nearly flawless version on Steam, attain that pretty blue "mostly positive" status, and rake in a billion dollars.

 

I mean, I'm not the president of Obsidian so I obviously don't know anything for sure, but if they don't release the game on Steam after their fixing up this hunk-a-junk jalopy we've got running on our iPads, then they're lighting money on fire as far as I'm concerned.

 

So pretty much what you're saying is we're Obsidian's beta-testers/QA and I agree. I've been feeling we, the tablet-users, are the guinea pigs and ultimately, not very important in the big picture.

 

However, there's a big difference between Obsidian and Blizzard. Blizzard is arguably the current leader in PC entertainment - they have a best-selling game in almost every game genre on the market with Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo, Starcraft and of course World of Warcraft. Obsidian, on the other hand, though not a small-time company, doesn't have even a tenth of Blizzard's resources. Plus it's not like Pathfinder Adventure is built for PVP or competitive play. Obsidian tried to make micro-transactions appealing to players but the thought of buying a chest so that you can unlock cards so that you can later find in game isn't exactly appealing to most people. It just doesn't suck people in like buying boosters in Hearthstone. Plus half the cards you unlock in chests cannot even be used yet cos half the game's still missing.

[chainsawash]

Have to agree with the sentiment the game is still in beta. I was thrilled when this first released, and bought the bundle immediately. Sadly, at this point it definitely feels like I bought an 'early access' game, something I never do. Saying I feel misled probably isn't fair since I honestly don't think that was the intention 4 months ago, so I'll just say it's been disappointing. I was just excited to play a digital version of the game as it exists physically. Instead they've been consistently tinkering with gold mechanics, how chests work, quest mode issues, and numerous bugs. I'll keep waiting, but It's left me feeling disenchanted.