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February's Newsletter is Here!

    • 97 posts
    February 23, 2019 7:28 PM PST

    Fantastic newsletter! I loved hearing from Chris and Brad because I think those two are the rock this game is built upon. I'm highly anticipating playing this game, whenever it decides to be ready. 


    • 1247 posts
    February 24, 2019 6:34 AM PST

    @Avaen Totally agree :)

    • 2886 posts
    February 24, 2019 8:26 AM PST

    Avaen said:

    Fantastic newsletter! I loved hearing from Chris and Brad because I think those two are the rock this game is built upon. I'm highly anticipating playing this game, whenever it decides to be ready. 

    Agreed. It's obviously a team effort but Chris and Brad make such a great pair. In order to be successful in anything, both your long term vision and short term execution need to be in sync - and with Brad steering the long term plan, and Chris calling the shots to get there, it's beautiful to watch. I am always impressed with Chris' imagination and his ability to articulate it. Especially since this is his first major endeavor in game design. If all goes according to plan, I predict that Chris will be heralded as "one of the next game gods," much like Brad was after his success with EverQuest, when he was in Chris' position.

    • 53 posts
    February 24, 2019 9:02 AM PST

    A few tidbits from Q&A with Brad that excited me-

    "It’s important, however, to stress that this doesn’t mean unnecessary downtime. You won’t be waiting around in real time being bored; rather, you’ll be playing the game, exploring, and gathering the items and materials you need to access these more exotic regions."

    "Adventure and exploration are both rewarded and essential. Noticing various “Perception Pings” will be critical. Learning skills only available from a sage hidden in the depths of a dungeon may be the only way to learn them. You are proactively rewarded for actually playing the game."

    "...of course you should be rewarded for adventuring and exploring. Of course everything shouldn’t just be handed to you with minimal effort on your part."

    Yes- Just.... Yes.

    "While not set in stone, we are considering letting people sit and meditate during combat, but doing so anywhere near an NPC would draw major aggro"

    *Caster Sits Down To Meditate Mid Combat*

    Mob: "A bold move Cotton- Let's see how it plays out for him!"

    • 5 posts
    February 25, 2019 12:42 PM PST

    Aradune said:

    Kaeldorn said:

    As the game grows in popularity, we want to offer a variety of these Alternate Ruleset Serves and that would include different types of PvP servers. Race wars, the ability to take and hold territory, and many other ideas are all in the Grand Vision — we just need to reach that point.

    Coolest part of the Q&A. Racial struggles to conquer parts of Terminus sounds very appealing. My only worry is that if the better special rules servers are introduced late, players will be forced to make a choice between sticking with a community they've become a part of on an existing basic ruleset server, or playing on a server with the ruleset that appeals to them more. Considering each character in this game is going to have quite the journey ahead of them, it will be hard to divide one's time between multiple servers.

    Also glad to see confirrmation that the Perception system will be used in the game's quest design.

    I hear your concern.  Launching with every variation of server is just unlikely -- how many? I can't be sure yet, but the closer we get to launch the clearer it should become.  



    Dear developers & Brad McQuaid!
    Please take into account my message.
    Im an old EQ PvP player asking you to not to make free-for-all rules in no case.
    PvP in Pantheon is a balance between PvE and PvP rules, where players can also focus on exploring the world, but have a greater share of risk than on PvE server.
    To keep this balance you need to make a faction war, ideally 2-3 major factions that would also fit into the lore. If a person wants to fight with all at once, give him the opportunity and come up with a separate faction, such as "outcasts", where people will also be able to unite, but at the same time to fight with all at once and with each other too. But don't make this transition easy, just like the transition from one faction to another. This should be a small event that will also involve a person in the lore.
    Thus, you do not have to make thousands of PvP servers, and on one server you will satisfy the requests of each and every one at once. 
    If a player wanted the rules free-for-all I think he would have gone to play other games and genres that specialize in this. But the Pantheon is an MMO game where the main component is its world. Please do not make the PvP server chaos, which is doomed to close in a few months due to low population.

    • 17 posts
    March 3, 2019 11:18 AM PST

    Stopping in once again to leave my bit.

    I am very pleased with the Feburary news letter, specifically the focus on the team play aspect and the negative response to generic party finders.  MMORPG's have been pushing the "go it alone and be okay no matter how or what you play" and stepping away from the teamwork aspect significantly.  One of the past games I played, LOTRO, I felt was a very good example of a much more synergistic gameplay experience, more to the fact of it being the last of its kind released.  While I am not a huge fan of the LOTR story and characters, the team play aspect was meaningful, specifically my favorite encounter, Draigoch's Lair.  Fighting Draigoch required uncovering clues to discover which Fellowship Manuever's to use and the order that were required for defeating Dragoch.  While once it was figured out, the information became readily available on various online sources. The journey and effort to get there is something that sounds like how the Perception system will work, which pleases me greatly.

    I am very glad I have invested what I have been able to into the project with my pledge and appreciate the hard work and dedication of the entire Pantheon team.  After many 'burns' in the past from development in prospective games being killed by heavy handed publishers or buy-outs, I was very skeptical about supporting another game, to that extent I am very glad I have and will keep my check-ins spaced as to better enjoy the release and take it all in equally.


    This post was edited by EndGamerZ at March 3, 2019 11:21 AM PST
    • 3852 posts
    March 5, 2019 7:59 AM PST

    More than one of us has agreed with Gitin that faction pvp has a lot more to offer than free-for-all.

    VR might have compelling reasons to go the other way, but just in case they do not I suggest that before a lot of work is done on how pvp will work perhaps polling the community could give useful input. Which quite possibly will support free-for-all but, then again maybe not.

    Raising this as a Kilsin question is quick and easy but highly unlikely to provide a large or representative sample of either pledgers or gamers that might consider Pantheon.

    Sending an email to all pledgers asking their opinion on issues where VR has no commitment in any particular direction but is more interested in doing what most of us want is a possibility. This may be such an issue.

    Raising the point in a forum such as Massively Overpowered is a way of both going beyond this community and generating some publicity in the larger community. At whatever time (probably not now) VR may feel that would help their efforts.

    • 5 posts
    March 5, 2019 10:36 AM PST

    dorotea said:

    More than one of us has agreed with Gitin that faction pvp has a lot more to offer than free-for-all.

    VR might have compelling reasons to go the other way, but just in case they do not I suggest that before a lot of work is done on how pvp will work perhaps polling the community could give useful input. Which quite possibly will support free-for-all but, then again maybe not.

    Raising this as a Kilsin question is quick and easy but highly unlikely to provide a large or representative sample of either pledgers or gamers that might consider Pantheon.

    Sending an email to all pledgers asking their opinion on issues where VR has no commitment in any particular direction but is more interested in doing what most of us want is a possibility. This may be such an issue.

    Raising the point in a forum such as Massively Overpowered is a way of both going beyond this community and generating some publicity in the larger community. At whatever time (probably not now) VR may feel that would help their efforts.



    Thank you very much for hearing my parting words!
    Once again I want to note that factional pvp with the addition of a separate faction that will be able to fight with everyone will satisfy requests of any pvp player.
    It remains to wait and hope that the decision will be correct.
    And again thank you very much!

    • 1 posts
    March 8, 2019 1:58 AM PST

    Q: Have you ever reached out to or considered working with a game publisher? If the right opportunity arose, would you take it?

    A: We talk with publishers, investors, etc. all the time. Along with the crowdfunding we’ve received, we will also need further investment and/or support from publishers and investors which would allow us to accelerate. That said, we are a fiercely independent company, lean and mean, and this has been part of our culture since the project’s inception. What we are looking for, more accurately, are “partners”. What those partners are isn’t as important to us as who they are. Do they share our vision? Will they allow us to control the company and the game from a strategic and creative standpoint? Does Visionary Realms’ culture mesh well with these other entities? That’s what’s most important to us and what we think will ultimately allow us to release an amazing game. Compromise is the enemy of excellence.

     

    This has been my biggest concern for this game. While i understand the necessary evil of large publishing companies, I sincerely hope if it comes to that, the choice is truly a good match to your current passionate vision. Here's to hoping Amazon, Daybreak and EA are not being conisdered... I'd rather wait another 4 years and keep it soley crowdfunded if that's the case....