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

Yea somehow the bitrate was really low, I know because my pathetic 1.5mbit connection could keep up with it. Ordinarily I can't watch anything on twitch except for partnered streams that transcode down to low bitrate if you need it.

As for Unity, I'm working on a Unity gig right now, and it is quite powerful. At first glance, and when I first started on it, it does have some alarm bells. Like the non pro version uses software skinning... yes here in 2016, software skinning.

However you can easily get around it via compute shaders. Assuming you could combine player materials into an atlas, you could animate a ton of characters all at once like that. You do lose all the built in lighting and shadowing, but easy enough to do your own.

Just how much more can they improve the art/spell effects/graphics? I am totally unfamiliar with Unity, and programming.

Vinyard_sl said:

Just how much more can they improve the art/spell effects/graphics? I am totally unfamiliar with Unity, and programming.

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Should be able to improve a fair bit since a lot of stuff is place holder graphics.

I'm wondering if they can upgrade the visuals when Unity updates to a new version again.

You can actually do the animations in Unity. I played with it a bit, and actually had some decent results, but I seriously doubt they'd use it. Unity is all about its power and compatibility to bring everything together in one engine... hence the name unity.

Art comes down to the artist really

Vinyard_sl said:

Just how much more can they improve the art/spell effects/graphics? I am totally unfamiliar with Unity, and programming.

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As best they can with their ability to hire artists to make and animate effects. And how many artists they can get. Art is expensive.

Kharza-kzad_sl said:

Yea somehow the bitrate was really low, I know because my pathetic 1.5mbit connection could keep up with it. Ordinarily I can't watch anything on twitch except for partnered streams that transcode down to low bitrate if you need it.

As for Unity, I'm working on a Unity gig right now, and it is quite powerful. At first glance, and when I first started on it, it does have some alarm bells. Like the non pro version uses software skinning... yes here in 2016, software skinning.

However you can easily get around it via compute shaders. Assuming you could combine player materials into an atlas, you could animate a ton of characters all at once like that. You do lose all the built in lighting and shadowing, but easy enough to do your own.

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Megumin for Best Girl!

I think with this stream now demonstrating they're making "progress", I believe they really need to be more out there in terms of updates. They should stream once a month minimum and begin drumming up a little hype over the next 6-8 months. This could easily be a flash in the pan if he isn't careful.

once a month would be cool. Keep in mind they are a small team tho. The ultimate goal is to make the game so it's a fine balance. They certainly need to have updates but I'm sure that can be a lot of work.

I think they shouldn't do too much of these. Once a month at most and only in new areas. If they just do another run in the same area, it'll get old fast. I do have a feeling they're going to have to get more funding eventually. The team is small and too limited if they're going to produce something they can sell. Perhaps what they're going to demo at the show is an attempt to find funding to finish this.

I wonder if raid content will consist of dodging aes via corners on a 12 second timer for a few minutes.

I also wonder if there will be mob push.

Barraco Bisi_sl said:

Donate to my Bisitreon

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Thanks for the new profile pic lol

zzeris_sl said:

I dont think they have much more than they have shown. I dont think they can show new stuff every month unless they get a lot more funding. When you look at what was shown in twitch...there really wasn't a lot shown TBH. Sure, it produced the feels and they've done a lot more than I expected. That doesn't mean they really have a lot at this time.

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There are screen of other areas. So there's more. I just think if you stream too much it loses the affect a bit it has on people.

Barraco Bisi_sl said:

Donate to my Bisitreon

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Soys for the Mozzthrone!

Convo_sl said:

There are screen of other areas. So there's more. I just think if you stream too much it loses the affect a bit it has on people.

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I think you can stream certain aspects though. You don't have to throw out 2 hours overtime but 30 minutes or so showing off UI, tradeskilling, a quest, maybe a zone or dungeon, etc. Just to demonstrate what one aspect of the game looks like and that it exists. The reason I think at least once a month is important to showcase a small piece of the game is to keep the faith. I don't want them to overdo it or to wear it out too fast but they have to show that it's possible so an investor can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I agree, that wasn't a lot. If you focus on a specific demonstration, you can pull that together and hide a lot of discrepancies. If nothing else, they could have monthly interviews with the dev, with short videos, images, etc. Nothing big but just to keep the ball rolling and confidence that we might get somewhere.

I'm sure a lot of that will come in time. Curious to see what comes from GDC next week since they are showing to the press.

I noticed in the stream that the "active target" window was sometimes not updating with mob HP showing 50% ish even after they'd died.

Also lol @ no auto stacking inventory. I'm positive that will be active by launch though.

Zaide_sl said:

I noticed in the stream that the "active target" window was sometimes not updating with mob HP showing 50% ish even after they'd died.

Also lol @ no auto stacking inventory. I'm positive that will be active by launch though.

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Making an mmo is such a pain in the ass. There are a million little things like that that need to be shored up and fixed, even after you get the big stuff down. That's where having a big team helps. You can delegate all those little tasks out.

Pantheon's small team size is going to slow things down. Which is unfortunate, because in a lot of ways they are racing against the clock.

Late to the game, but skimmed through the video and watched a lot of it. Congrats to them on actually having something to that level of playable. Definitely an old school feel. And to think, Convo told us even this much wouldn't happen.

Long way to go before it's a full game we can all play, but getting better. I don't know if it's something I could find the time for or not, but I'd love a forced grouping game as long as I can find a group, heh.