Pathfinder Online

[Fanndis_Goldbraid]

Hi folks! Dropping in here to see how many of you have been following Pathfinder Online. USMG is one of the companies listed in the "Land Rush", a current scheme (for lack of a better word) the developers created to get some interest amongst gamers in Pathfinder Online (PFO for short). It is sort of an online version of the Pathfinder tabletop game. they have had to change some of the tabletop features to get things to work in an MMO environment, but the alpha is underway and so far it looks pretty good. (The graphics are still pretty rough, but a lot of what is in is placeholder graphics.) USMG is getting forum posts because the larger land rush groups are vying for settlement locations on the beginning map. If you do not start off with a settlement you will have to bunk with another settlement for about 2 years until a period called "Open Enrollment" when the game goes retail. Lots of groups are available (I represent the Dwarven settlement of Forgeholm for good and neutral Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings and outcasts). There are evil settlements, a Pathfinder Society settlement, some that are dedicated to trading and bartering, one that is a mystical research group, and several more militaristic groups. We Dwarves will likely have to fight early and often to hold our location in the mountains, so help would be appreciated. We do have a few retired military folk in the group, including me (still a DA civilian at Fort Knox, KY). Hop over to https://www.goblinworks.com/landrush/ to check it out. USMG is currently on the land rush board but only has one member. You will need about 25 for any hope of obtaining your own settlement in the early game. Best of luck! Fanndis Goldbraid (<--female Dwarf, really a male 50+ retired Army SFC, but don't tell my wife!)

[Shadowdawn]

Well this was a much more informative post.

[Fanndis_Goldbraid]

There are many groups that would love to have a contingent of military members for obvious reasons (different times zones, discipline, military coordination, large blocks of free time, ridiculously high pay...ok, not that). There is a large and pretty powerful group that makes up an evil empire, complaining about how little evil there is, as usual. The Dwarves will fight on the side of good, so if you want to fight for good we could use you! If you want to be evil, well, I guess we'll see you on the battlefield. There is planned a very cool feature in the later game that includes formation combat, as a formation of coordinated players can withstand and inflict many times the damage of the same number of individuals. they are coding it now but should play out much like the Total War series. Very innovative stuff, and should be lots of fun.

[Fanndis_Goldbraid]

(sorry, can't get the editor to make a new paragraph) There are over two years of blogs by the developer and hundreds of forum threads discussing the game, its development and game mechanics. You don't want to reread all that stuff. But there are some cool maps being changed on a weekly basis as we fight for control of individual hexes in the playable game area. This is the kind of stuff military members usually love to analyze. If you are even remotely interested check out these links. The early game area while the beta is in effect is at ( https://www.goblinworks.com/landrush/ ), the full playable area, which is about 12 times the size of the land rush map can be found at (https://www.goblinworks.com/blog/a-more-detailed-map/) and a more detailed player generated map with the updated status of the land rush can be found here ( https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7h2s0ihodY9TDBKSXlwR1d5MFU/edit?pli=1 ). The players have a huge amount of time invested in their companies (the smallest player run entity) and settlements (the first level of land ownership and control). The CEO of Goblinworks is Ryan Dancey who worked for years on EVE Online, so some of the mechanical features closely resemble EVEs system, training queues, territorial control mechanics, power increases in groups and formations. Hope to see some of you guys in the game!

[Fanndis_Goldbraid]

Only eight more days left of what is called the "Land Rush"...if anyone is wanting to join up with your lone Pathfinder Online sponsor now is the time! (And after that most of these people invading your boards will go away and get ready for beta.) Cheers!