Pathfinder Online MMO in development

After Paizo (noted PnP RPG developer) replacing their site with a huge "Something's Coming!" splash yesterday, they spilled the beans that they're working on developing an MMO based on the license.

Announcement here.

My thoughts below.

Anybody got thoughts on this? My initial reaction is not good, sadly. I feel like the MMO space is ripe for a shaking-up after WoW has throughly mined the vein of what that terms has meant for the past 10 years. I can't see something like this being successful if it follows the WoW/EQ/Rift/Old Republic mold. I think we've seen the high point of that style of game.

On the other hand, I'd *love* to see Paizo succeed. I think they're a cool company who adds a lot to the PnP RPG market, and I'd love to see them realize some benefit from this. I hope they're able to approach it in a smart way, though. It's one thing to compete in a market with Wizard of the Coast (who seem to shoot themselves in the foot regularly), and another to be in with the likes of Blizzard, EA, Zynga, and whoever else.

I already played this. It's called DDO.

100% less warforged, though!

Paizo Announcement wrote:

...There will be an overarching storyline, and dungeons aplenty to explore, but where Pathfinder Online is going to thrive is in the ability of each of you to leave your mark on the world. Do you want to build a castle that you own and control? Go for it. Want to start a town and rally folks to your banner? Do that. Do you want to ally with the neighboring villages to form a new nation—or perhaps wage war on them instead? The choice is yours. Want to become the most feared bandit in the River Kingdoms? The path is available. Want to become the greatest armorer that Golarion has ever seen? All it takes is hard work. If you can imagine doing something in the world of Golarion, we want you to be able to do that in Pathfinder Online.

If they can pull of any of this (especially the crafting one), I'll give them piles of money.

And I wish them all the best, hopefully you can actually explore the world, rather than DDO which seems too limited with where you can and cannot go.

They are doing a Pathfinder Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...), and I kicked $250 towards it.

I really like the pathfinder world, so hopefully it pans out.

I've been waiting patiently for an MMO where you could actually own a piece of the server and "leave your mark on the world." I get why they need interchangeable servers, but I am so tired of feeling like I'm just being led through the world in a series of quests like in SWTOR. I want my presence on the server to have an impact, whether it be through land/mine ownership, shops, or my crafted wares. I really liked Mortal Online for that, and some other smaller games, but without the money behind them, they are just too buggy to be truly enjoyable.

Anyway, it sounds promising, but I keep getting disappointed.

If they could get Wayne Reynolds to do all the character designs, I'll be in for the maximum donation.... his artwork is by far my favorite part of the Pathfinder books.

Tigerbill wrote:
Paizo Announcement wrote:

...There will be an overarching storyline, and dungeons aplenty to explore, but where Pathfinder Online is going to thrive is in the ability of each of you to leave your mark on the world. Do you want to build a castle that you own and control? Go for it. Want to start a town and rally folks to your banner? Do that. Do you want to ally with the neighboring villages to form a new nation—or perhaps wage war on them instead? The choice is yours. Want to become the most feared bandit in the River Kingdoms? The path is available. Want to become the greatest armorer that Golarion has ever seen? All it takes is hard work. If you can imagine doing something in the world of Golarion, we want you to be able to do that in Pathfinder Online.

If they can pull of any of this (especially the crafting one), I'll give them piles of money.

The last time I heard promises in such bold scope was ... Warhammer Online. That did not turn out well.

chaosmos wrote:

If they could get Wayne Reynolds to do all the character designs, I'll be in for the maximum donation.... his artwork is by far my favorite part of the Pathfinder books.

Considering Reynolds's art is the signature look of PF, I'd be shocked if it didn't significantly bear his imprint, buster swords and all.

definitely going to have to keep an eye on this.

chaosmos wrote:

If they could get Wayne Reynolds to do all the character designs, I'll be in for the maximum donation.... his artwork is by far my favorite part of the Pathfinder books.

I'm pretty sure he'll have to be the art director to keep it in line with the Pathfinder IP.

I'm so nuts about this game that I'm seriously considering being an angel investor for it and ponying up some serious dough.....

peacensunshine wrote:

I really like the pathfinder world, so hopefully it pans out.

I've been waiting patiently for an MMO where you could actually own a piece of the server and "leave your mark on the world." I get why they need interchangeable servers, but I am so tired of feeling like I'm just being led through the world in a series of quests like in SWTOR. I want my presence on the server to have an impact, whether it be through land/mine ownership, shops, or my crafted wares. I really liked Mortal Online for that, and some other smaller games, but without the money behind them, they are just too buggy to be truly enjoyable.

Anyway, it sounds promising, but I keep getting disappointed.

If they do the crafting and village building like the original Star Wars Galaxies, and add Pathfinder combat mechanics, I will curl up in this game and never leave.

Bloo Driver wrote:

If they do the crafting and village building like the original Star Wars Galaxies, and add Pathfinder combat mechanics, I will curl up in this game and never leave.

If they pull it off we can have a Pathfinder Online spoon-fest.

Is the world created really the main draw for a Pathfinder game? Pathfinder is the only PnP system I've played (at least anytime recently), but my group actually played using all their collection 3.5 content (maps, modules, etc). they wanted to move on from 3.5, but didn't like 4. Because of that, I don't know anything about the PFRPG universe, besides the character archtype artwork. I was under the impression the fact that it is largely backwards compatible was one of the main draws.

Bloo Driver wrote:

If they do the crafting and village building like the original Star Wars Galaxies, and add Pathfinder combat mechanics, I will curl up in this game and never leave.

How would that even work? Pathfinder is a turn based system, and I can't see that working in an MMO, without some serious changes, and personally, I don't see the point if they change that much. Although, I'm also the guy who after learning PFRPG combat mechanics was disappointed with the Baldur's Gate combat because it hid so many of the mechanics from the player.

Garden Ninja wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:

If they do the crafting and village building like the original Star Wars Galaxies, and add Pathfinder combat mechanics, I will curl up in this game and never leave.

How would that even work? Pathfinder is a turn based system, and I can't see that working in an MMO, without some serious changes, and personally, I don't see the point if they change that much. Although, I'm also the guy who after learning PFRPG combat mechanics was disappointed with the Baldur's Gate combat because it hid so many of the mechanics from the player.

There's been a great deal of success moving turn-based mechanics to real time. Really, the only modifier is that the player will have to be on the ball with hitting attacks as they come available. I mean, as an example, if the devs decide that a "turn" is 3 seconds, then most full-round actions will be a 3 second window, free actions will be off the (presumed) global cooldown, players will have their in-combat speed reduced to whatever the game says you should move in that window, and so on. It's up to the player to actually execute moves and attacks, but they would be on a timed execution schedule based on how long a turn takes.

I am actually getting ready to start an online Pathfinder game using Fantasy Grounds software with some GWJ folks. Thread here. Any suggestions for resources, modules, or general interest is welcome. Given what I have rad about Pathfinder Online it has all the makings of my new MMO home.

double posting from the kickstarter thread:

Got an email from the Goblinworks folks yesterday:

This is an exciting time at Goblinworks, and we wanted you to be the first to know about our latest development! As our biggest fans and early supporters, it is important to us that you are in the loop early. The support we received for our Technology Demo Kickstarter back in May gave us the money we needed to produce our Tech Demo. In turn, that Demo allowed us to get the funding we needed to put Pathfinder Online into production. Right now, a small team of very cool professionals are working very hard on building Pathfinder Online, and we have you to thank for that!

But right now our team is limited in size. There are nine people working on Pathfinder Online--enough to get us to launch in a few years, but not enough to do it with the speed and scope we really want. So we are launching a new Kickstarter for the Pathfinder Online Fantasy Sandbox MMO at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/... The purpose of this second Kickstarter is to get the money we need to make Pathfinder Online bigger, faster and better than we can with our current level of funding. It will let us hire more people and dedicate more resources to Pathfinder Online, potentially cutting the time to launch in half, and massively expanding the content and features available on release.

FYI their tech demo leaves much to be desired.

Just looked back at my comments from earlier in the thread, and sadly I still feel the same way. I wish them all the luck, and will be all over this at release if it looks good, but I'm just not sure this is a space where *anyone* can succeed any more.

necroyeti wrote:

Just looked back at my comments from earlier in the thread, and sadly I still feel the same way. I wish them all the luck, and will be all over this at release if it looks good, but I'm just not sure this is a space where *anyone* can succeed any more.

Yep i've seen them and completely disagree with the bolded part

Their kickstarter was successful.

To celebrate they did an online QA session.

Alpha and early enrollees can play today! Check out the video. Now I just need to figure out how to get my computer to play this....

Is there a summary of why I should play this? What will it bring to the table that I don't get from GW2 or any other MMO?