Greetings everyone,
I'm one of presumably many pledges / backers that has come here seeking a spiritual succesor to EQ. Based on the youtube videos and what I have read from the offical site I decided to dive in with one of the more basic pledges for the time being. So far I really like and resonate with the game tenets and what other information the VR team has posted concerning their design philosophy.
Nothing worse than a new person who asks questions without reading the FAQ, I did a search of the google doc stickied in general looking for some answers but I was unable to find anything. Possibly they simply havent talked about it yet, the info is somewhere else, or equally likely, I suck at the Cntl+F button. In any case below are a couple questions I was hoping you all might be able to answer and thank you in advance.
1. One of the things I was most impressed with, and I have never seen in any of the other MMO's was the raw number of different items and equipment that were available to players in EQ. Has VR made any statements regarding how many (generally speaking, I dont mean exact numbers) items they plan on having available in Pantheon? This is probably unusual but walking into a room, inspecting 3 different people and finding 80-90% item commonality between people of the same class is a pretty big turn-off for me. Obviously just personal taste though.
2. Mounts: Do they plan on having them, if so in what capacity? I don't particularly care if they do or don't. This was mostly a curiousity.
3. Expansiveness of the game: Again using EQ as an example (though there any others) the game world, even before many of the expansions, was absolutely massive. That feeling of incredible vastness was something that really resonated with me, and provided a sort of wonder, as well as reward, for exploring. Even years into playing the game. Has VR said how large they plan on the game being? Again I dont necessarily mean specific size in distance, but perhaps an example of how long it might take a player to see every part of the game.
4. PvP: I was able to find some information on PvP, but im not sure how old or accurate it is. It looks like they will be doing good vs evil races, somewhat like EQ2. Are they planning on having PvP servers as EQ did? I REALLY enjoyed playing on Rallos Zek back on EQ. Was wondering, where I could find information about the PvP. Also the loot system. If you die will you be able to take in item? Will there be "No drop" or "bound items" how about money?
Thats all for now. I tried to keep it simple. Enjoy your weekends.
*For anyone who played EQ on RZ between 99-2002ish I was an Iksar SK named Drakkuss, if you knew me feel free to PM =)
Welcome to the community! I'll try to help you out with your questions. Please be sure to check out the following thread as it contains plenty of related information: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/8530/frequently-asked-questions/view/page/1
Drakkuss said:1. One of the things I was most impressed with, and I have never seen in any of the other MMO's was the raw number of different items and equipment that were available to players in EQ. Has VR made any statements regarding how many (generally speaking, I dont mean exact numbers) items they plan on having available in Pantheon? This is probably unusual but walking into a room, inspecting 3 different people and finding 80-90% item commonality between people of the same class is a pretty big turn-off for me. Obviously just personal taste though.
One of the major differentiators for Pantheon is their emphasis on situational gear. There will likely be a wide range of items available in Pantheon. VR discussed armor in a special "Armor 101" section in the 03/2018 Newsletter. Here is a link to that: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/2018_march_armor_101/
Drakkuss said:2. Mounts: Do they plan on having them, if so in what capacity? I don't particularly care if they do or don't. This was mostly a curiousity.
From the official FAQ:
Yes, there will be a variety of mounts, as well as spells and abilities that can be obtained which increase travel speed. Players will also be able to acquire items for their characters that allow them to climb vertical surfaces.
While there will certainly be flying NPCs, whether or not players will have the ability to fly is undecided at this point. What we can say is that if we do offer flying mounts, either before or after launch, the goal will be to make travel more fun; not to allow players to avoid, bypass, or skip over large chunks of content.
I would also suggest that you check out question #36 on the FAQ thread I linked at the beginning of this post as it contains a lot more information on mounts/vehicles.
Drakkuss said:3. Expansiveness of the game: Again using EQ as an example (though there any others) the game world, even before many of the expansions, was absolutely massive. That feeling of incredible vastness was something that really resonated with me, and provided a sort of wonder, as well as reward, for exploring. Even years into playing the game. Has VR said how large they plan on the game being? Again I dont necessarily mean specific size in distance, but perhaps an example of how long it might take a player to see every part of the game.
Pantheon will launch with 3 continents. Here is a link to the atlas which shows 2 of them: https://pantheonmmo.com/lore/atlas_of_terminus/
Here is an additional excerpt from page 2 of the FAQ thread where a question very similar to yours was asked:
Q. What is your betting guess on how long it will take players to discover every dungeon or zone in the initial release? 
With a stated focus on exploration do you think the team is focused on rewarding that with many hidden or keyed dungeons/even zones or are we really just trying to get some base content out.
Tim: We’re always wanting to reward exploration, the game won't feel right without it. Especially with the precepton system being a big part of our game. Exploring may not always lead to some undiscovered dungeon but there has to be areas where players feel off the grid so to speak and have a potential payoff. For me, personally, it’s a big focus when being in design meetings for a zone. I know Joppa feels it as well. Current example, we’re working on a large wilderness area in one of our zones and we want it to feel wild and untamed, we also want people to get excited about the possibility of a reward due to their exploration. We can leverage so much to accomplish that feeling. It doesn’t always have to be uber loot, it can be more subtle, from a camp of bandits that drop good coin, to a few rare animals that have valuable pelts or even a secluded fishing hole. It’s really one of my favorite things to think about as we build our world.
Drakkuss said:4. PvP: I was able to find some information on PvP, but im not sure how old or accurate it is. It looks like they will be doing good vs evil races, somewhat like EQ2. Are they planning on having PvP servers as EQ did? I REALLY enjoyed playing on Rallos Zek back on EQ. Was wondering, where I could find information about the PvP. Also the loot system. If you die will you be able to take in item? Will there be "No drop" or "bound items" how about money?
Here is the PVP excerpt from the FAQ thread:
Will I be able to PVP in Pantheon?
FAQ Excerpt ( 16.0 Will there be PvP? )
"Pantheon is primarily a PvE (player vs. environment) game. In fact, when we say ‘environment’, we don’t just mean NPCs, but also contending with climates and atmospheres, the very world itself. That said, we understand that a portion of our target audience also enjoys player vs. player. Our experience is that separate PvE and PvP shards is the answer, however it is too early to predict how many PvP shards we would launch with. That being said, we will definitely launch with at least one player vs. player shard. It is also worth mentioning that when we do eventually focus on PvP we will do so such that tweaks and changes to classes and races in order to make PvP more fun will not affect the balance of Pantheon’s PvE experience. As the game grows there could be additional variations of PvP shards and more attention paid to the unique gameplay mechanics associated with PvP."
FAQ Excerpt ( 16.1 Many games struggle to create unique classes because of the balancing issues that PvP creates. How do you prevent PvP from affecting PvE? )
"The issue with balance and PvP vs PvE is not one that is that difficult to solve but it does require planning: you just use different formulas and data - you don't cross your streams. That way, if we need to make Paladins in PvE more powerful, we can do that without disrupting PvP balance. And vice versa."
Aradune Blog Excerpt that touches on PVP (07/17/2017) https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/blogs/151/180/want-went-wrong-wo-w-wo-w-killers-or-a-general-lack-of-guts
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/6005/pvp-players-ideas-for-meaningful-pvp ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/7781/duel-another-player-on-pve ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/7150/pv-p-in-pantheon ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/6656/pantheon-pvp-forum ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4791/pv-p-open-or-faction-locked ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4395/the-ultimate-decision-pv-e-or-pv-p ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/3970/pvp-and-guild-war-questions ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4381/arena-style-pv-p-spectator-mechanics ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4190/anyone-interested-in-pvp ;; (Open)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/5371/pvp ;; (Closed)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/5030/pv-p ;; (Closed)
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4345/why-this-idea-of-different-servers-for-pvp-or-pve ;; (Closed)