Game News Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter Update #54: Releasing on September 25th, Preorder Available

[Strange Fellow]

It helps that everyone who likes playing or watching football, at least younger people, generally also like FIFA, so it's really easy to find someone to play against, or set up little tournaments with a group of friends. In secondary me and my friends used to alternate between going down to the actual football field, and going to the house of whoever owned the most controllers to play FIFA. Good times...

It's been ages since I played, though. I don't know what FIFA even looks like these days.

 

[Doktor Best]

How to gym and still be able to play games:

-buy a home gym
-use a high intensity barebones 2split
-train 3 times a week, give everything at every exercise
-progress while spending less than 5 hours/week

 

[laclongquan]

I guess that is the difference between casual gamers and those that have that as main hobby.
I usually play few hours per day and I prefer to replay games I really enjoyed instead of those I might not like.

I don’t have time to do anything for a few hours a day after work, family obligations, gym, personal obligations like investments and home upkeep, etc. let alone gaming. I suspect most people who grew up with ultima or wizardry or fallout or the IE games are in same situation. I can sometimes get a couple days to binge a game every once in a blue moon, otherwise 0-4 hours per week. Up through college sure there was time but afterwards there’s no way.

Well in that case gym and home upkeep seem to be your main hobby and not gaming

That’s like saying personal hygiene is a hobby lol

Not even close. That does not take hours per day from gaming.

Sez you~ The daily showers of mine take one hour, at least.
personal hygiene iz sirius bizniz.

 

[ArchAngel]

I guess that is the difference between casual gamers and those that have that as main hobby.
I usually play few hours per day and I prefer to replay games I really enjoyed instead of those I might not like.

I don’t have time to do anything for a few hours a day after work, family obligations, gym, personal obligations like investments and home upkeep, etc. let alone gaming. I suspect most people who grew up with ultima or wizardry or fallout or the IE games are in same situation. I can sometimes get a couple days to binge a game every once in a blue moon, otherwise 0-4 hours per week. Up through college sure there was time but afterwards there’s no way.

Well in that case gym and home upkeep seem to be your main hobby and not gaming

That’s like saying personal hygiene is a hobby lol

Not even close. That does not take hours per day from gaming.

Sez you~ The daily showers of mine take one hour, at least.
personal hygiene iz sirius bizniz.

You should find a more efficient way to jerk off then.

 

[laclongquan]

If it's THAT kind of time it would take two hours each. I like me some quality time and showers are good quality time.

 

[Infinitron]

What the Kickstarter update doesn't mention is that the game is being sold in a variety of editions. Notably, the $85 Imperial Edition includes a season pass granting access to three future DLCs (yes, just like Pillars of Eternity II). According to Owlcat's community manager in the comments, this edition doesn't correspond to any Kickstarter tier. Meaning that no matter how much money you backed the game with, you'll have to buy the season pass separately.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker/posts/2246024

One more thing: we are giving the first season pass to every backer, who pledged $95 or more for our beta tiers on Kickstarter or $110 on our crowdfunding-preorders for free as a thank you for helping us beta-test our early builds! So if you're one of our beta supporters, there's no need for you to buy the season pass - you'll be getting it from us, free of charge!

 

[Raghar]

You buy the game at launch if you want more games of this genre to be made. Obviously it makes more sense to wait but I want isometric RPGs to continue. POE2 flopping is already a huge problem for the genre

Everyone expected that. Releasing similar game quickly one after another is STRONGLY damaging to number of played copies. Troika thought they would release Arcanum II quickly after first, because they had tools and everything prepared, but they checked things, and reconsidered. Rather released new type of game, and then again new type.

I prefer to do new things every time, so I don't understand why would any developer wanna create sequel, and remake... and do it as only thing his company is doing.

Problem with isometric RPGs was Torment toN. It was quite underwhelming, and considering ToE screwed itself completely voluntarily, by thinking users wanna all these horrible stuff and badly designed RPG system, that hurt future expectations.

 

[MrMarbles]

While the art style leaves something to be desired, I have great confidence that this is going to be what we've been waiting for. I certainly don't expect the writing to be its high point, but I doubt it anything less than serviceable. This is a game I will likely play immediately, rather than wait the year.

Agree that art style looks like the biggest hurdle. The only cartoonish game that came close to winning me over with solid mechanics was DOS1 (and maybe ToME, if it qualifies), so fingers crossed.

Hmm...


How badly has the game been tainted with regressive far-left politics resp. the far-left agenda?

Man keep your jaded politics in GD where they belong

 

[Fenix]

Who is that who move posts? I want to say him a few tender words, so we could know our hero.

 

[The Avatar]

You guys may be underestimating the brand appeal. Pathfinder isn't as big a name as D&D, but at one point during the dark days of 4e, their books were selling more than D&D. I think they're banking on a good chunk of the tabletop crowd to be buying copies. They probably won't make a ton of money, but they don't need to- their webpage only lists 5 people working on the game. And it's not like they have to pay CEO-level salaries here.

If they can appease their Pathfinder fanbase(and general 3.x D&D fans) by making at least a somewhat decent game that's faithful to the rules and setting, it will sell a modest number of copies and be considered a successful first title by the new studio.

 

[Shilandra]

What the Kickstarter update doesn't mention is that the game is being sold in a variety of editions. Notably, the $85 Imperial Edition includes a season pass granting access to three future DLCs (yes, just like Pillars of Eternity II). According to Owlcat's community manager in the comments, this edition doesn't correspond to any Kickstarter tier. Meaning that no matter how much money you backed the game with, you'll have to buy the season pass separately.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker/posts/2246024

One more thing: we are giving the first season pass to every backer, who pledged $95 or more for our beta tiers on Kickstarter or $110 on our crowdfunding-preorders for free as a thank you for helping us beta-test our early builds! So if you're one of our beta supporters, there's no need for you to buy the season pass - you'll be getting it from us, free of charge!

Is there any info on the dlcs themselves? Will we be getting an epic level campaign expansion?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

How to gym and still be able to play games:

-buy a home gym
-use a high intensity barebones 2split
-train 3 times a week, give everything at every exercise
-progress while spending less than 5 hours/week

I agree, I got in the best shape of my life when I had the weights at my house. Saved so much time. I played basketball a couple times a week at the park, but did all the weight stuff at home and it cut the total time devoted in half while not sacrificing any exercise time. Also it made me way more likely to not skip a day.

The only annoying thing about it was (and this is why I don't have the weights anymore at my house) when I had to move. So instead I sold the weights for almost nothing to somebody willing to move them all. Yeah its sort of lame and funny that I would spend hours a week lifting weights but then when it came time to lift weights in the process of moving I found it too be too much trouble...all I can say is its different...but yeah, its sort of lame I admit..

 

[cherry blossom]

You guys may be underestimating the brand appeal. Pathfinder isn't as big a name as D&D, but at one point during the dark days of 4e, their books were selling more than D&D. I think they're banking on a good chunk of the tabletop crowd to be buying copies. They probably won't make a ton of money, but they don't need to- their webpage only lists 5 people working on the game. And it's not like they have to pay CEO-level salaries here.

If they can appease their Pathfinder fanbase(and general 3.x D&D fans) by making at least a somewhat decent game that's faithful to the rules and setting, it will sell a modest number of copies and be considered a successful first title by the new studio.

If they were counting on the PnP crowds, they totally fucked it up by making it RTwP. One can't just have the best of both crowds.

 

[ArchAngel]

You guys may be underestimating the brand appeal. Pathfinder isn't as big a name as D&D, but at one point during the dark days of 4e, their books were selling more than D&D. I think they're banking on a good chunk of the tabletop crowd to be buying copies. They probably won't make a ton of money, but they don't need to- their webpage only lists 5 people working on the game. And it's not like they have to pay CEO-level salaries here.

If they can appease their Pathfinder fanbase(and general 3.x D&D fans) by making at least a somewhat decent game that's faithful to the rules and setting, it will sell a modest number of copies and be considered a successful first title by the new studio.

If they were counting on the PnP crowds, they totally fucked it up by making it RTwP. One can't just have the best of both crowds.

As a long time D&D player and DM, playing IE games didn't feel that much different than PnP (well except for the whole do whatever you want part of PnP) or playing turn based D&D games.
I think people bash RTwP way too much because of their bias. And D&D is not only about combat. Character progression, fun quests and characters to interact with, fairly interesting main story and good feel of a fun fantasy world to explore are all just as important.

 

[cherry blossom]

Yeah, we've heard this "bias against RTwP" thing, along with "bias against first person" or what have you, probably more than a couple thousand times through the years.

RTwP can be fun. There were a few examples where it managed to be so without becoming a bore and I will take mediocre RTwP (most RTwP games) over poor TB most of the days, so that at least I don't have to sit through prolonged shitfests. Between the better examples of both, though, there is not even a question. If a game has RTwP combat to begin with, it is usually only because it is full of grind. It goes good -and fast- with grindy combat gameplay.

That said, if you, as a long time D&D player and a DM as you say, haven't really felt that much different than PnP with IE games, I pity the PnP players whose lives you have darkened with poor PnP play.

 

[imweasel]

If they were counting on the PnP crowds, they totally fucked it up by making it RTwP. One can't just have the best of both crowds.

I can play the bias game too: PnP RPG players don't like CRPGs, because they are virtual.

PnP RPGs and board games in general are simply turn-based because of obvious limitations that don't exist in the virtual world. Just because a RtWP or realtime PnP RPG wouldn't be feasible, because nobody would be able to keep track of the action (people have attempted this and failed), doesn't mean that TB CRPGs are better than RtWP CRPGs or that PnP fans despise RTwP combat (they don't).

 

[The Avatar]

The most popular D&D games have been RTwP(Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights), so it makes sense that they are continuing in that tradition.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah, we've heard this "bias against RTwP" thing, along with "bias against first person" or what have you, probably more than a couple thousand times through the years.

RTwP can be fun. There were a few examples where it managed to be so without becoming a bore and I will take mediocre RTwP (most RTwP games) over poor TB most of the days, so that at least I don't have to sit through prolonged shitfests. Between the better examples of both, though, there is not even a question. If a game has RTwP combat to begin with, it is usually only because it is full of grind. It goes good -and fast- with grindy combat gameplay.

That said, if you, as a long time D&D player and a DM as you say, haven't really felt that much different than PnP with IE games, I pity the PnP players whose lives you have darkened with poor PnP play.

Well IE games is like when you decide to follow DM story without trying to improvise all the time and go your own way. Basically like following an adventure path without forcing DM to add on his own stuff because you (the player) don't feel like playing what is already prepared for that day.

 

[cherry blossom]

PnP RPGs and board games in general are simply turn-based because of obvious limitations that don't exist in the virtual world.

That same old "limitations" fallacy again. This is a prime example of people not getting tabletop/board games and the fun associated with turn-based (or phase-based) mechanics AT ALL.

 

[cherry blossom]

Yeah, we've heard this "bias against RTwP" thing, along with "bias against first person" or what have you, probably more than a couple thousand times through the years.

RTwP can be fun. There were a few examples where it managed to be so without becoming a bore and I will take mediocre RTwP (most RTwP games) over poor TB most of the days, so that at least I don't have to sit through prolonged shitfests. Between the better examples of both, though, there is not even a question. If a game has RTwP combat to begin with, it is usually only because it is full of grind. It goes good -and fast- with grindy combat gameplay.

That said, if you, as a long time D&D player and a DM as you say, haven't really felt that much different than PnP with IE games, I pity the PnP players whose lives you have darkened with poor PnP play.

Well IE games is like when you decide to follow DM story without trying to improvise all the time and go your own way. Basically like following an adventure path without forcing DM to add on his own stuff because you (the player) don't feel like playing what is already prepared for that day.

I was addressing combat in particular. Combat in my PnP experiences have been nothing like the degenerate RTwP combat, not even the best of them. Then again, a DM who just follows the book to the letter isn't a very good one in my experience.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah, we've heard this "bias against RTwP" thing, along with "bias against first person" or what have you, probably more than a couple thousand times through the years.

RTwP can be fun. There were a few examples where it managed to be so without becoming a bore and I will take mediocre RTwP (most RTwP games) over poor TB most of the days, so that at least I don't have to sit through prolonged shitfests. Between the better examples of both, though, there is not even a question. If a game has RTwP combat to begin with, it is usually only because it is full of grind. It goes good -and fast- with grindy combat gameplay.

That said, if you, as a long time D&D player and a DM as you say, haven't really felt that much different than PnP with IE games, I pity the PnP players whose lives you have darkened with poor PnP play.

Well IE games is like when you decide to follow DM story without trying to improvise all the time and go your own way. Basically like following an adventure path without forcing DM to add on his own stuff because you (the player) don't feel like playing what is already prepared for that day.

I was addressing combat in particular. Combat in my PnP experiences have been nothing like the degenerate RTwP combat, not even the best of them. Then again, a DM who just follows the book to the letter isn't a very good one in my experience.

Combat can be fun in PnP but it is fairly rare to get both a good GM and competent players at same table. And high levels become too much fucking around with numbers and lose all fun.

 

[Life of the Party]

most popular sports games seem like bad action games

Funny, since player skills vs character skills is the closest thing Codex has to an actual definition of an RPG and attributes actually play a huge role in games like PES, FIFA, NBA 2K. Even the best PES player in the world will have a hard time dribbling with characters whose dribbling skills (Dribble Accuracy, Dribble Speed, Top Speed, Acceleration, Agility, Strength on the Ball, Physical Contact, all combined with things like height, weight, Stamina, Form) are in 50s or 60s.

Also, yeah, FIFA in particular has nothing to do with football

PES is a football game, FIFA is a soccer game.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Funny, since player skills vs character skills is the closest thing Codex has to an actual definition of an RPG and attributes actually play a huge role in games like PES, FIFA, NBA 2K.

True, but lack of character skill can be overridden by player skill. It's more like Dark Souls than CRPGs.

PES is a football game, FIFA is a soccer game.

Ah, the days of arguing over which franchise was better as if it were a matter of life and death...

 

[Tom Baker's Arse]

A primary reason I pre-ordered a copy is because I am a part of a weekly Pathfinder tabletop PnP group that has been going for several years now. I'm curious to see what Owlcat does with the Pathfinder source material and with their first title in general. This definitely is not their first rodeo, and the developers involved all have worked on other titles in the past, so its not like this is going to be tbe work of rookie devs.

 

[luj1]

This will bury PoE DLC sales just because it has a non-retarded ruleset.