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Pathfinder Online: Alpha is Underway, War of Towers Announced
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Pathfinder Online site has been updated with a meaty post to announced to backers and fans that the alpha is officially underway. In addition, and with the beginning of the Early Enrollment test slated to begin soon, the team has announced a change to the land rush that players were expecting. Wanting to hand players a robust and fun way to feel that their land acquisition was meaningful, the team has created something called The War of Towers.
For those who skip the video, here's a quick summary of the mechanics involved:
Towers have a PvP window. When the window is open, the Hex the Tower is in does not inflict Reputation penalties for PvP. While the window is open there is a capture area near the tower, probably outlined by a wall or similar structure. Standing in that area gives your company points towards controlling the tower; the first company to cross a certain threshold gains control of the tower. If you are defending a tower you control, you lower everyone elses points for each person in the control area.
All the Towers indirectly controlled by a Settlement share the same PvP window. Each Tower hex must be attacked and defended individually but they all open and close their PvP windows at the same time.
Settlements will chose when their PvP windows open. The more Towers a Settlement indirectly controls the longer the PvP window will be.
Uncontrolled Towers are effectively always open to PvP.
There is no geographical relationship between Towers and Settlements. Companies aligned with a Settlement could control Towers halfway across the map. Companies aligned with some other Settlement might control the towers in Hexes adjacent to a given Settlement. The only thing that matters is number of Towers indirectly controlled, not their location.
Read more on the Pathfinder Online site and check out the War of Towers video below!
Video Blog 6: War of Towers from Ryan Dancey on Vimeo.
Comments
The video makes the game look very old. Looks like something from the early 2000's.
Combat looks like you just stand there and wak each other? As if any sane person would drop $100 plus on this lol.
People throw down $100 because they believe in their vision and want an complex sandbox MMO that is a fantasy version of EVE. This is alpha and on a much lower budget than any other MMO. Their goal is to start with a small dedicated population and grow much like EVE.
But yeah $100 is asking a lot when all they have is vision and promises. I hope they deliver a playable MMO that can stand on its own and grow. But so far this MMO is just a wait n see for me.
Some of the best game I played in my life didn't even have graphics...
Help support an artist and gamer who has lost his tools to create and play: http://www.gofundme.com/u63nzcgk
Every game release since then only been going backward in everything but graphics as far as I am concerned, so right now I would take good and ugly rather than pretty and bad.
Actually, unless I am reading the homepage wrong, getting into Alpha is $1000.
Go figure...
Absolutely idiotic! 1000 dollars to get Alpha Access! They are completely nuts!
This whole crowdfunding has taking a heavy turn for the worst.
It has become nothing but a quick cash grab these days.
So don't pay for it?! Jump off of your high horse, it's getting tired. You don't need alpha access so you don't need to spend any money. If there are massive hardcore fans of the project, let them pay whatever they want (I am not one of them, just saying). It doesn't affect you one tiny bit. Jesus.
The Whole crowdfunding started with small numbers.
I paid 5 bucks + 40 bucks for a startership with Star Citizen Kick Starter and get the full game and full Alpha Access from day one.
Those were the normal kick start prizes, with more expensive packages that just got you extra ships and "physical" benefits, like tour through studio, badges, T-shirts, etc.
Then came the likes of Richard Garriott & Co. that started to drive up prices. Smelling the Money from Star Citizen's massive success.
And since then prices have gone higher and higher. 150 dollars for ArchAge Alpha and now whopping 1000 dollars for Pathfinder Online.
It's a very disturbing trend!
They are preying on the goodwill and desperation of the gamers to empty their wallets.
This has nothing to do with Crowdfunding anymore nor with how hardcore of a fan you are!
As I am pretty sure there are a hell lot of very hardcore Pathfinder fans out there that were eagerly anticipating the Alpha and don't have that kind of Money lying around!
It's a huge slap in their faces! Something like Alpha Access should not be gated behind such a ridiculous sum of Money!
It's nothing but a cash grab, preying on desperate gamers!
Just my 2 cents.
Not a backer, but the world graphics seem fine to me, the animations are a little jumpy, but that is to be expected at this stage, and hopefully they make it a little smoother. I thought about backing this when it first came out, but the time line was so far off, I just didn't.
I will keep my eye on it though, hopefully it doesn't suffer from bad code and people hack/dupe and screw up everything.
Ohh yeah, but EE is scheduled in a few months but yeah 1k is ridiculous and really have no ideal who would even pay that. EE is bout $100 and even that is ridicuously too high since you really getty a barely playable version of the game. Monetizing the game has been horrendous imo. you either pay a reasonable price of $35 which gets you crap for access as you're allowed access when its open to the public, which supposedly they are limiting it, or pay that $100 for EE later this month and in the 2nd month of it too. Not to mention you are paying a monthly sub for a beta of a game. Granted you do get some months of access with the packages.
I went from very enthused to incredeably weary of the game with how the packages turned out.
I'm more of a PVE player than PVP player but the game looks exciting to me, especially since you can't go around killing any PC you want without paying a heavy price for it, such as no access to any village and no training access until the penalty time expires. If you don't want to play in Alpha, buy an Early Enrollment spot. Much cheaper. The folks building the game are very responsive to their future players. Late September/Early October is when Early Enrollment is planned to be launched.
But in the meantime, those that put money into the Kickstarter phase of the game, are now finishing up the Land Rush. After that, the War of the Towers. Then EE.
Exciting things happening.