Pan'Theon: Rise' of th'e Fal'Len - #1 Thread in MMO

Noble Savage

Noble Savage

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Hopefully them using unity helps with development speed. Them not having to worry about the core graphical engine or keeping it optimized seems like a huge workload being offloaded. Sometimes a smaller agile team works better then just throwing bodies at it. Helps to keep the quality tightly controlled as well.
 
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Khane

Khane

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Totes. I mean it was only a mere 4 years ago that the KS failed (which had a proposed launch date of January 2017). But their small team of dedicated sycophants will surely deliver at record pace!

 
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etchazz

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Hey, they're further along and it looks exponentially better than I ever thought it would, so kudos to them.
 
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Noble Savage

Noble Savage

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Khane said:
Totes. I mean it was only a mere 4 years ago that the KS failed (which had a proposed launch date of January 2017). But their small team of dedicated sycophants will surely deliver at record pace!

Click to expand...

Just meant to say that its not an impossible task, not easy by any stretch of the imagination.
 
mkopec

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They just need to keep the creep to a minimum. Im sure old and new mmo players that never experienced EQ would be fine with a modern refined EQ clone, cool world and dungeons to explore, rare named spawns, placeholders, and cool handmade loot, thats not spreadsheet designed +2 bullshit. Hey it would be something new and fresh among the last decade of wow quest hub mmos.
 
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Dullahan

Dullahan

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I'm pretty sure I remember them saying, on multiple occasions, that they want at least a year of beta.

Based on what we've seen, beta is still a long way off. They have 7 of 12 classes, and those are only partially complete (skills up to maybe the 30s). They're still working on the first racial capital of nine. Then those 8 other starting areas with their early dungeons. Lots of art, lore quests. Then class and game systems like perception, weather, traps, and tracking.

Still impressed with the progress, but not under the illusion that this is coming soon to a PC near you.
 
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Rezz

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Cool, a year of beta in a game based on rare spawns and mild content denial, in the modern era. That won't completely ruin everything by the time it hits actual release or anything!

Instead of monopolizing the good shit after discovering it as an uberguild like the good old days... you'll have two possible outcomes.

1) Everything is spoiled and on the internet and you have PantheonHead complete with an addon (or parser program) to guide you to everything you might need on literal day one of release.
2) The guys who paid 1k or whatever the going Alpha/Beta fee is monopolize all the good shit due to inside information and you end up with a few people ruining the experience for everyone who wasn't in the alpha/beta. Like either flooding the game with endgame gear (depending on how droppables are handled) or cockblocking people from completing key quests and gear upgrades that would put them in contention for the endgame while the grognards who bought that most early of accesses hold it on lock like they earned it ala a real uberguild.

Not sure I see an upside to such a long beta, as the exploits won't get reported (because of the competitive nature of the game) and you'll see patch after patch (lots of downtime) after release as shit comes to light that would normally be caught in a much less competitive type of game design.

Hope they prove me wrong, but that sounds like a really, really dumb decision from an outside perspective.
 
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Dullahan

Dullahan

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There's nothing to say that they have to reveal everything to test 99% of the mechanics and systems. Besides, what is far worse than a game with information that is largely known is a game the is largely broken. The idea that in a year most of the worst bugs won't be revealed, is far-fetched. Most of the worst bugs will become known to developers whether reported or not.
 
Siliconemelons

Siliconemelons

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they have more of a non-vaporware game now than I honestly thought they would.

Honestly I thought it would be years of milking small investments and cash infusions. Some janky models here and there, more design documents and some cool landscape shots.

But here we are, slow and sure with 2-3 areas and a handful of classes at about level 30s, out of what. 60 or 50?

As stated previously, this is EQish....not wow-ish. You know the joke that everQUEST had like no quests.

But! You remember the quests you did, they all were epic. Wow, you just burned through rattbutt quests to get exp.

There are not going to be 1000 quests in capital city 1 like WOW, it will have, like 20. The world is to be the quest, etc.

I also agree with the statements that, now that they have an actual playable and sellable project they are most likely moving to get some cash and get some more people.
 
zzeris

zzeris

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Rezz said:
Cool, a year of beta in a game based on rare spawns and mild content denial, in the modern era. That won't completely ruin everything by the time it hits actual release or anything!

Instead of monopolizing the good shit after discovering it as an uberguild like the good old days... you'll have two possible outcomes.

1) Everything is spoiled and on the internet and you have PantheonHead complete with an addon (or parser program) to guide you to everything you might need on literal day one of release.
2) The guys who paid 1k or whatever the going Alpha/Beta fee is monopolize all the good shit due to inside information and you end up with a few people ruining the experience for everyone who wasn't in the alpha/beta. Like either flooding the game with endgame gear (depending on how droppables are handled) or cockblocking people from completing key quests and gear upgrades that would put them in contention for the endgame while the grognards who bought that most early of accesses hold it on lock like they earned it ala a real uberguild.

Not sure I see an upside to such a long beta, as the exploits won't get reported (because of the competitive nature of the game) and you'll see patch after patch (lots of downtime) after release as shit comes to light that would normally be caught in a much less competitive type of game design.

Hope they prove me wrong, but that sounds like a really, really dumb decision from an outside perspective.
Click to expand...

I understand your point but the other option would be the really dumb one. You have experience with a great idea turning into a shit game because of multiple issues. One of the primary ones is poor testing of massive bugs. You have two options:

1. You say fuck it. People won't want to play my game even in the age of spoilers. It's that fucking bad. We'll just test at the bare minimum even tho we have a skeleton crew making the game. Cockblocking is definitely our primary concern and it ain't HAPPENING!

2. We learn from previous mistakes and hope people actually like playing the game instead of focusing on 10-15 uber gears. We've tested and tested and most of the issues that would have been an extinction event like Vanguard....don't happen. We work to improve our game...as people actually stick around to play it. "They did say they wanted an old school EQ type game right? Begging for it for almost two decades while I had to listen to the most retarded regurgitation ever? Please tell me it wasn't just another gear grab??!"-Aradune's inner ego.
 
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Elidroth

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Actually, there is only 1 question to ask: Is it fun to play?

If the answer is ultimately yes, then the gaming community wins. If not, then the game withers away and dies.
 
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Dracula's Crew

Dracula's Crew

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Reddit user claims to be a fired DBG employee and spills some beans about the studio. I understand this is most likely fake news but I just love the gossip.

Relly_Zecat 3 points 5 hours ago
"Everquest will have one last expansion. The 20th anniversary will introduce a series of nostalgic raids that tie into complex quests. These quests can be done in order to grant alternate characters powerful scaling weapons.
Everquest 2 will also have one last expansion and eventually a similar series of send-off weapon quests and raids.
Everquest 3 has been back in development for a year and is being rebuilt from the ground up. It aims to compete with Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and to be the first fantasy MMORPG to put an emphasis on team battle royal PvP."
 
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Korrupt

Korrupt

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Rezz said:
Cool, a year of beta in a game based on rare spawns and mild content denial, in the modern era. That won't completely ruin everything by the time it hits actual release or anything!

Instead of monopolizing the good shit after discovering it as an uberguild like the good old days... you'll have two possible outcomes.

1) Everything is spoiled and on the internet and you have PantheonHead complete with an addon (or parser program) to guide you to everything you might need on literal day one of release.
2) The guys who paid 1k or whatever the going Alpha/Beta fee is monopolize all the good shit due to inside information and you end up with a few people ruining the experience for everyone who wasn't in the alpha/beta. Like either flooding the game with endgame gear (depending on how droppables are handled) or cockblocking people from completing key quests and gear upgrades that would put them in contention for the endgame while the grognards who bought that most early of accesses hold it on lock like they earned it ala a real uberguild.

Not sure I see an upside to such a long beta, as the exploits won't get reported (because of the competitive nature of the game) and you'll see patch after patch (lots of downtime) after release as shit comes to light that would normally be caught in a much less competitive type of game design.

Hope they prove me wrong, but that sounds like a really, really dumb decision from an outside perspective.
Click to expand...

There is already test guilds from VG, Rift, and WoW on the Pantheon forums and the game is years away from raids. They will come to play the game a month and consume it as fast as humanly possible, it’s the norm nowadays.
 
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Dullahan

Dullahan

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The challenge of EQ was not about knowing how to do something, but in the doing. The information has always been available for the 99.9% who aren't on the top of the curve.
 
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Dullahan

Dullahan

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Dracula's Crew said:
Reddit user claims to be a fired DBG employee and spills some beans about the studio. I understand this is most likely fake news but I just love the gossip.

Relly_Zecat 3 points 5 hours ago
"Everquest will have one last expansion. The 20th anniversary will introduce a series of nostalgic raids that tie into complex quests. These quests can be done in order to grant alternate characters powerful scaling weapons.
Everquest 2 will also have one last expansion and eventually a similar series of send-off weapon quests and raids.
Everquest 3 has been back in development for a year and is being rebuilt from the ground up. It aims to compete with Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and to be the first fantasy MMORPG to put an emphasis on team battle royal PvP."
Click to expand...
If Smedley was still there, I'd believe the battle royale thing because he was always trying to capitalize on the latest trend, even to the detriment of the game. Don't believe they have money to continue development on EQ3, nor do I believe any other sane person would attempt to convert EQ into a pvp mmo.
 
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Korrupt

Korrupt

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One major thing Vanguard had that would be awesome to see again is defensive / offensive targeting. I would imagine the design was based around the bloodmage having to nuke to heal so you had to have 2 targets. Whatever the reason was it was fun to not be tied to your offensive target. It let healers have a much more active role with combat coupled along with their healing.
 
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Dullahan

Dullahan

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Korrupt said:
One major thing Vanguard had that would be awesome to see again is defensive / offensive targeting. I would imagine the design was based around the bloodmage having to nuke to heal so you had to have 2 targets. Whatever the reason was it was fun to not be tied to your offensive target. It let healers have a much more active role with combat coupled along with their healing.
Click to expand...
Pantheon has offensive and defensive targeting.
 
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Z

zinc_turtle

Trakanon Raider
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Dullahan said:
I'm pretty sure I remember them saying, on multiple occasions, that they want at least a year of beta.

Based on what we've seen, beta is still a long way off. They have 7 of 12 classes, and those are only partially complete (skills up to maybe the 30s). They're still working on the first racial capital of nine. Then those 8 other starting areas with their early dungeons. Lots of art, lore quests. Then class and game systems like perception, weather, traps, and tracking.

Still impressed with the progress, but not under the illusion that this is coming soon to a PC near you.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Regarding the world building, from Roenick Last Friday in Discord, saw this while lurking:

Question from the channel:
Q: @Roenick as far as you know, the target for the start of Alpha is to have one (Kingsreach) continent done, ya?
A: [9:52 AM] Roenick: We have internal goals concerning alpha, and some of what you heard may or may not be accurate or outdated. I don't mean to be evasive, but we aren't in the business of over promising. I will say by the time Alpha comes along we will have PLENTY of content to Test.
A: [9:53 AM] Roenick: Sorry. I know that answer stinks to hear and it's not THAT helpful.

Q: It just seemed ambitious, because it means Reignfall would have to be done during alpha, and then the other continent during beta.
A: [9:55 AM] Roenick: Well it also could mean that's all were allowing the public to play
A: [9:57 AM] Roenick: I think it's safe to assume while PA and Alpha players are playing in more "finished" zones others are being worked on simultaneously
Click to expand...

As always, interpret as you wish, but the current track seems to be Kingsreach completed during Pre-Alpha, Reignfall completed during Alpha, and the other continent (Whitethaw or Greater Sathe) completed during Beta, so all three continents would be in place for launch.
So far, it's looking like Kingsreach (east) will be the starting place for "good" races (elves, humans, halflings), while Reignfall (west) will be the starting place for "evil" races (Dark-myr, Skar, Ogre), and the other continent, whichever it is, will be the starting place for "neutral" races (Archai, Dwarves, Gnomes) . 3 Races per continent, seems to line up.

Unfortunately, given the current public goals of starting Alpha before "the end of 2018" and "at least a year" for Beta, the wait will be long. Especially, as mentioned here, the sheer amount of starting cities and open world / dungeon content required. Even if it was 1 month per zone, it's still... a lot of months. :| They could end up releasing some starting cities post-launch, if/when they're at the end of 2020 and still haven't launched. By the time 2020 rolls around, the official site/forums will be 6-7 years old.
 
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Elidroth

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Korrupt said:
One major thing Vanguard had that would be awesome to see again is defensive / offensive targeting. I would imagine the design was based around the bloodmage having to nuke to heal so you had to have 2 targets. Whatever the reason was it was fun to not be tied to your offensive target. It let healers have a much more active role with combat coupled along with their healing.
Click to expand...

Defensive/Offensive targeting was in the game before anyone had ever thought of the Bloodmage. It was in there when I joined the team in early 2005. I thought it was one aspect of Vanguard that newer games might take as I felt it was a great idea.
 
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