KickStarter Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Lacrymas]

I think they are afraid people will drop the game due to low level combat, so they overcompensate.

 

[Aim1ess]

I think they are afraid people will drop the game due to low level combat, so they overcompensate.

Fuck it, just start at level 6 and have suggested skills for people you think you'll scare away with the extra starting stats.

Also I wonder if RPGs should have a survey at the beginning to ask you how you're gonna play and adjust xp and level scaling and such accordingly, with an option for people to skip that and do their own settings, of course. Think like the doc skills test starting NV or along those lines, but for game settings.

 

[Strange Fellow]

What, even an options menu is too much for people nowadays?

 

[Aim1ess]

What, even an options menu is too much for people nowadays?

I've played Diablo III with people that call turning on the "advanced stats"(actual numbers) "Rob gameplay" because I'm the only one that cares to look at the numbers. There are a lot of people that simply do not handle numbers and choices in menus well. Granted, maybe not many of them are playing turned based or RTwP RPGs, but companies generally try to skew more casual.

 

[YanBG]

Also I wonder if RPGs should have a survey at the beginning to ask you how you're gonna play and adjust xp and level scaling and such accordingly, with an option for people to skip that and do their own settings, of course.

Sounds like a feature creep. I don't like too many choices before the game starts even, if you want to see the other xp system are you going to replay the game? With Diablo(2 only, didn't play 3) i had several playthroughs, but most other RPGs especailly party based are barely fun even the first time. With a lot of backtracking and returning for quests, i usually don't figure what i have to do/say and if you add a lot of similar looking NPCs(Diablo has only 5 per town lol) it gets even worse.

Edit: i prefer standardization for the starting settings because you'd want to compete with others and balance is king. Playing your own way, you might think you are actually good at the game but it won't be the case(i like strategies too, so that might have something to do with it).

 

[garren]

Been watching a few vids and the companion design seems pretty cucked unfortunately. The barbarian woman seems to be your basic stronk woman who needs no man who escaped from the patriarchy or something, then there's some sorta interracial friends with benefits relationship with the orc and the half-elf woman, and prolly a lot more i haven't seen yet.

 

[Shadenuat]

Take elf girl, she likes to make fun of Amiri's virginity

My future party based on youtube: Amiri (better than woman knight who looks like a boy), Dwarf cleric of Decline Domain (+there are some encounters who seem to be dwarven oriented), Even More Stoic Emo Valygar (at least he's a man, and has an extra tank in a form of a wolf pet), Foxy elf chick making fun of virgins & Linzi the actual cute waifu, but she's not romance-able and has a height of a barchair (but massive amount of skill points).

 

[deuxhero]

If the XP rate is fucked, it's all on the game conversion likely from dropping a bunch of XP on the player for stuff that wasn't in the module. The original module had a fairly well calculated level flow.

 

[Tacgnol]

If the XP rate is fucked, it's all on the game conversion likely from dropping a bunch of XP on the player for stuff that wasn't in the module. The original module had a fairly well calculated level flow.

Yeah the APs are generally carefully balanced so you hit the right levels at the right points. You have to be careful if you add extra XP from extra stuff.

Hopefully XP rates can be modded.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Does Pathfinder not use ECL? This basically solves the worst of the experience calculation problems.

 

[Manzepio]

At least the art looks better than anything that hack Wayne Reynolds ever put out.

Other than that, characters look the same for the most part. Say whatever you want about AD&D being "generic" in terms of art but at least
the characters looked quite distinct from one another.

You could tell at a glance who was a Fighter and who was a Paladin. In Pathfinder everyone either looks like the Warrior archetype or a discount family-value Magic User from what I could only call "western shonen".

EDIT: Oh, I'll probably play it because I enjoy Pathfinder's system nonetheless.

 

[Tigranes]

Arrows of slaying was a wonderful concept in Knights of the Chalice.

And BG1.

 

[Neanderthal]

Arrows of slaying was a wonderful concept in Knights of the Chalice.

And BG1.

And the Hobbit.

 

[Ranarama]

I think they are afraid people will drop the game due to low level combat, so they overcompensate.

So they remove the best part of any RPG?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

The only game I ever found crafting enjoyable in was Arcanum. It was simple, efficient, and productive. Materials were also fairly easy to come by. It's only fault is that I was digging through every trashcan I passed on the street for granules of charcoal. I would have liked to see a reputation consequence for that. I remember having a bit of fun crafting in TOEE since it had a level cap. The sale value of the crafted items were FAR in excess of the craft requirements. After that, every shred of XP on my wizard above Level 10 was spent churning out artifacts (+3 radiant polearms anyone?).

Crafting should be handled like Baldur's Gate 2, in that you didn't craft. You quest for legendary artifacts (or stumble upon them), and then take them to an NPC. To hell with harvesting every bush and toadstool along the way to brew up whatever potion that I'm going to hoard anyway. If I wanted to pretend to be some pleb townie, I'd play The Sims. Let's spend those development resources on something better, no?

I totally agree with this. Crafting is one of the biggest declines of the modern gaming age IMO, but its so easy to justify as a developer since it adds endless grinding and DLC content forever, Nothing is worse though than walking around my epic RPG carrying three pages worth of ear wax from dead deep gnomes and pieces of string and dried beetle dung. Its tedious as fuck.

 

[Sykar]

What, even an options menu is too much for people nowadays?

I've played Diablo III with people that call turning on the "advanced stats"(actual numbers) "Rob gameplay" because I'm the only one that cares to look at the numbers. There are a lot of people that simply do not handle numbers and choices in menus well. Granted, maybe not many of them are playing turned based or RTwP RPGs, but companies generally try to skew more casual.

Popping up numbers during gameplay are distracting. I turn them off whenever I can because they add nothing in terms of gameplay. I only turn them on when I am testing stuff out.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I think they are afraid people will drop the game due to low level combat, so they overcompensate.

So they remove the best part of any RPG?

agree, low level is nearly always the most fun of any RPG game. 90% move on to be tedious and repetitious games of watching numbers increase in size. Those that don't are special. Most games could remove 95% of the games total available gold and be better for it....just make the game only have a certain amount of total gold the game world or its merchants can buy. No selling them 8900 cracked copper short swords. Then again, what would most games do for content in such a scenario? Selling endless junk to vendors with bottomless stashes of gold is easy to generate 'content'. Also being able to craft and or buy top tier weapons completely destroys the incentive and fun of adventuring, which is another big complaint I have about crafting.

I think games should make regular equipment much more valuable so that by the time you can find and afford a true masterwork steel breastplate it feels both special and important (e.g. has a noticeable positive affect, for example being able to handle encounters in a previously impossible area thus unlocking its content and new more powerful foes)...

Furthermore have this occur at least halfway through the game, so that it feels like a genuine accomplishment. Making non-magical but high quality equipment effective and harder to achieve will make finding magic items even more special, furthermore make the magical items pretty rare.

In many fantasy stories and books a single magic item is something most people may have never seen, but have only heard about in stories. Perhaps many people (not being adventurers) are quite skeptical about their existence at all. I think this type of approach makes the world more mysterious and interesting.

As far as crafting, make being able to craft a few magical weapons/items something notable and hard to achieve, but not doable by the PC alone but by finding and gaining the service of powerful NPC's and keep the total items available in this manner very low. Most games lose their "magic" because +6 warswords of lightning bolts become trash loot on thousands of bugbears. It ruins the games world and makes a joke of the story usually too..

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Also I wonder if RPGs should have a survey at the beginning to ask you how you're gonna play and adjust xp and level scaling and such accordingly, with an option for people to skip that and do their own settings, of course.

Sounds like a feature creep. I don't like too many choices before the game starts even, if you want to see the other xp system are you going to replay the game? With Diablo(2 only, didn't play 3) i had several playthroughs, but most other RPGs especailly party based are barely fun even the first time. With a lot of backtracking and returning for quests, i usually don't figure what i have to do/say and if you add a lot of similar looking NPCs(Diablo has only 5 per town lol) it gets even worse.

Edit: i prefer standardization for the starting settings because you'd want to compete with others and balance is king. Playing your own way, you might think you are actually good at the game but it won't be the case(i like strategies too, so that might have something to do with it).

I love games that have tons of options at the start of the game. One wargame I own has over 100 LOL

 

[Cael]

Take elf girl, she likes to make fun of Amiri's virginity

My future party based on youtube: Amiri (better than woman knight who looks like a boy), Dwarf cleric of Decline Domain (+there are some encounters who seem to be dwarven oriented), Even More Stoic Emo Valygar (at least he's a man, and has an extra tank in a form of a wolf pet), Foxy elf chick making fun of virgins & Linzi the actual cute waifu, but she's not romance-able and has a height of a barchair (but massive amount of skill points).

Hulking man and tiny girl is a fetish that many have. Just look at all the white men with Asian girls (and the reason why waifus are such a big fetish amongst Westerners).

 

[Infinitron]

Oh hey:

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - The Monster Week! Part 1
13 AUGUST - THEZEISONSHA

In Pathfinder: Kingmaker you are confronted with over 100 monsters. This week we will take a look at some of the medium sized entities you will come across. Let’s start with a real beauty – the GIANT SPIDER. Oh, have we triggered a bit of arachnophobia here?

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - The Monster Week! Part 2
14 AUGUST - THEZEISONSHA

Remember that pop song about who was letting the dogs out? Well, this HELL HOUND in Pathfinder: Kingmaker makes you think twice about such nonsense!

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - The Monster Week! Part 3
15 AUGUST - THEZEISONSHA

NEREIDS symbolized everything that is beautiful and kind about the sea in Greek mythology. Well, we will find out what’s their role in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, won’t we?

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - The Monster Week! Part 4
16 AUGUST - THEZEISONSHA

A SMILODON is an extinct genus of machairodont felid…a “WHUAT?” you may ask…but trust us – when you meet a living one in Pathfinder: Kingmaker you WILL stop asking questions.

 

[M. AQVILA]

The only game I ever found crafting enjoyable in was Arcanum. It was simple, efficient, and productive. Materials were also fairly easy to come by. It's only fault is that I was digging through every trashcan I passed on the street for granules of charcoal. I would have liked to see a reputation consequence for that. I remember having a bit of fun crafting in TOEE since it had a level cap. The sale value of the crafted items were FAR in excess of the craft requirements. After that, every shred of XP on my wizard above Level 10 was spent churning out artifacts (+3 radiant polearms anyone?).

Crafting should be handled like Baldur's Gate 2, in that you didn't craft. You quest for legendary artifacts (or stumble upon them), and then take them to an NPC. To hell with harvesting every bush and toadstool along the way to brew up whatever potion that I'm going to hoard anyway. If I wanted to pretend to be some pleb townie, I'd play The Sims. Let's spend those development resources on something better, no?

I totally agree with this. Crafting is one of the biggest declines of the modern gaming age IMO, but its so easy to justify as a developer since it adds endless grinding and DLC content forever, Nothing is worse though than walking around my epic RPG carrying three pages worth of ear wax from dead deep gnomes and pieces of string and dried beetle dung. Its tedious as fuck.

It depends on the system, I quite like DnD crafting. Alchemy and Enchanting in the Elder Scrolls series is also pretty good.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

The only game I ever found crafting enjoyable in was Arcanum. It was simple, efficient, and productive. Materials were also fairly easy to come by. It's only fault is that I was digging through every trashcan I passed on the street for granules of charcoal. I would have liked to see a reputation consequence for that. I remember having a bit of fun crafting in TOEE since it had a level cap. The sale value of the crafted items were FAR in excess of the craft requirements. After that, every shred of XP on my wizard above Level 10 was spent churning out artifacts (+3 radiant polearms anyone?).

Crafting should be handled like Baldur's Gate 2, in that you didn't craft. You quest for legendary artifacts (or stumble upon them), and then take them to an NPC. To hell with harvesting every bush and toadstool along the way to brew up whatever potion that I'm going to hoard anyway. If I wanted to pretend to be some pleb townie, I'd play The Sims. Let's spend those development resources on something better, no?

I totally agree with this. Crafting is one of the biggest declines of the modern gaming age IMO, but its so easy to justify as a developer since it adds endless grinding and DLC content forever, Nothing is worse though than walking around my epic RPG carrying three pages worth of ear wax from dead deep gnomes and pieces of string and dried beetle dung. Its tedious as fuck.

It depends on the system, I quite like DnD crafting. Alchemy and Enchanting in the Elder Scrolls series is also pretty good.

well I have found entertaining crafting mechanics as well, I just mean in general I find it is most often a source of tedium and that in most cases I wish it would be scaled back or eliminated instead of included because they think it must be..

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Oh hey:

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - The Monster Week! Part 2
14 AUGUST - THEZEISONSHA

Remember that pop song about who was letting the dogs out? Well, this HELL HOUND in Pathfinder: Kingmaker makes you think twice about such nonsense!

sweet, like the hellhound in particular.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

The Nereid is so wrong in proportions i mean the feet are twice long than her head also what is that tumor she has on the leg on the front like a meat bubble near the toes gosh can't they hire competent artist?

 

[M. AQVILA]

It depends on the system, I quite like DnD crafting. Alchemy and Enchanting in the Elder Scrolls series is also pretty good.

well I have found entertaining crafting mechanics as well, I just mean in general I find it is most often a source of tedium and that in most cases I wish it would be scaled back or eliminated instead of included because they think it must be..

Yeah but let's say I want to role-play an alchemist? It depends on the system. If the developers do it for the sake of doing it then there's certainly no point to it. Most likely than not it will be shit. Blame the developers not the concept.