Do we know if we'll be able to stay on a continent for levels 1-50? This would be amazing for replayability. Of course, I'm sure there will be several quests asking you to visit other continents.
I'm also wondering if there will be low level neutral towns for those who want to visit other continents at the start of their journey. I'm guessing capital cities will be pretty open to the foreign races.
Should questing and gaining rep for other races/factions in different continents be fairly accessible through neutral cities/towns? Will some races have a harder time gaining reputation than others? Ex. Skar are neutral rep with ogres, but halflings are -1 level of rep with ogre factions.
We don't even know at what levels VR will start encouraging (through quests) the exploration of other continents. This means someone might get to level 10 or 15 or even higher before they even see another player with a particular race. I find this dynamic super exciting. It will also be more impactful when lower levels decide to travel to other places before the game starts naturally mingling more of the players.
I hope that each continent would have content covering the entire spread of levels. It make zero sense that one content should have everything while the others are limited. That would be a huge midd-finger to the players who start on those continents. It should be possible, if a player wanted, to never leave their own continent and still 1) reach the level cap; 2) have equal quality of gear and items and; 3) have access to all spells/abilities of the classes that start on that continent.
That said, I would be very supportive of requiring all races to leave their home continent and go to the othe continents to accomplish the points 2 and 3 above. I really hated that, in EQ1, Faydwer and Odus were 'second class citizens' in terms of upper level content. Everyone was forced to go to Antonica. I do not want to see that happening in Pantheon but I fully expect it to happen. I don't believe that VR will have the same breadth, depth, quality and quantity of content spread equally across all continents. Kingsreach will be the Antonica of Pantheon.
Since having areas that provide for leveling from 1-50 has already been mentioned as part of Alpha on Kingsreach, it seems pretty likely to also be the plan for the other 2 continents. Of course that requires sufficient funding to allow all three continents to be completely finished in a timely manner. Assuming this is the case, I'm looking forward as an alt-aholic to being able to level up at least 3 different characters in completely new circumstances with entirely different quests & Perception lore.
Separately, we've been told that crafted gear will come in various 'continental styles'. Since I plan on having a few crafters of gear, I expect they may well travel more widely than some of my other characters.
I'd thumbs up all of this if I could. Totally agree. Being able to change up the setting for different characters (or return to a familiar preferred setting) while leveling is ideal. I remember bringing an ogre to level at blackburrow. I don't know why that's a memory but I must have enjoyed it.
The history of MMOs suggests that even if all three continents are open for business at release (Vanguard had only two of its three intended continents with more than nominal content) there will be fewer and fewer options as levels get higher. Low levels tend to have a variety of choices but developers tend to funnel everyone into the same one or two zones by the middle levels and even more so by maximum level. The reasons are obvious - a great reduction in the time required to create a game playable all the way to maximum level.
This applies in the same way that factions tend to be funneled together in faction-based games. At release the factions are distinct and antagonistic - by the time a few expansions roll past they all have the same content and are allies against some previously unknown or unimportant common enenmy.
My fuzzy memories from way back was each continent would have a path for leveling up if you wanted to stay local, but we would likely all be traveling around more. No need to grind the same mobs too long, the world will have nice white con mobs somewhere for you nomatter your level. There will not be some easy quest system to follow around from quest hub to quest hub to fill you with mindless tasks perfectly in your continent or across multiple. People will spread out a good deal.
I personally hope VR does more of an hour glass when it comes to zones per level. A large base for the 9 races, helps with launch then funnels players together for simpler grouping. Then a large swath of options again for the lvl 45-50s. I know they say this isn't an mmo for max level, but they still need to have a huge amount of content 45-50 compared to leveling from 20-40.
I am even in favor of them completely repurposing old zones to help narrow funnel as time goes on. If an expansion pops up and higher levels invade the old zone its a cool idea to run with (just keep copies of the old zone for progression servers) It reuses an old map allowing quicker development. It instantly makes the enemy feel like an enemy who has invaded YOUR land. It also funnels leveling players more and brings life back to some of the less used cities. The normal MMO plan is to do the opposite. You launch with 3 mid level places to level up, now you have 10 due to all the expansions and 50-60 has 20 more. Good luck ever seeing any of the other 20 players your level range and playtime.
I certainly hope each continent has enough content to do a full 1-50 leveling. I always appreciate being able to experience different parts of the world with different characters and feeling like they have very different leveling experiences. I also loved that in EQ I could level from ~5-50 just in one dungeon (Guk) if I wanted to.
I hope travel isn't so simple that (unknowing) level 1s can easily find one another and I hope faction isn't so simple that all races would have a good time being near one another. Skar should be kill on sight to all player race factions for example (and other races to them), while Ogre or Dark Myr might be KoS to a handful of races or factions within a race. I'd rather not see "neutral" towns etc beyond perhaps some rare vendors in the wild.
I'm hoping you can level to max on the continent you start on. Maybe VR is learning ChatGPT or something similar so that it can help create content and they can work it into Pantheon and cut down on development time.(whether I/We like AI or not, we can all agree that it will take a LOT of time and effort to fill all three continents with meaningful content)
I'm sure they have plans though. I'm just hoping they get some more investmet so they can hire more folks to make this a reality.
I hope news will pass from one continent to another via higher level chars that are coming back and forth for some reason or another. I think that is what will make it dynamic. Sure, (I spent 3 months in Halas- was fantastic! no malachite, though I had to learn to deal) there is a groove you can get into with regulars and learning an area, but to hear news of "where all the people are going" even if its all the strange people you have never met, can be enticing. Also, some high levels may be so encouraged escort you part of the way if its not too troublesome. Because once you're there, you're there for a bit.
So from a gaming perspective yes, I think one continent should have some...continutity (lol) and the trick will be having that same continent have dynamic content for people from other continents to want to go there for exp or whatnot . if you get to max level on kingsreach, there needs to be a reason to go somewhere else.