Like many others, I eagerly read the monthly newsletter, hoping to continue to stoke the flames of anticipation for Pantheon. Given then long time spent in development, however, I think it's time to reassess the Roadmap To Alpha. Looking at it as is, I'm happy to see that things are progressing, and especially happy that nothing is in the "design complete" phase anymore... but then when I look at the 11 categories listed as "To Do", my spirits dampen because there's obviously a LONG way to go.
In my opinion, this roadmap should be shortened and split. I understand the desire to have things polished and pretty before moving to the next stage, but we've waited a long time for Alpha, and surely not EVERYTHING on this roadmap is a "must have" in order to trigger the start of Alpha. It's been what... 7 years or so? People are losing faith... and this is people who have kept the faith far beyond what many consider reasonable. I'd like to focus on the many items that are listed as "To Do", since it's presently set that every one of them needs to be complete before we even get to start the Alpha phase.
Pets - I agree that this one is truly a core function. Without it, several classes won't operate at all how they're intended, and thus can't really be played as is. What good is a summoning class with nothing to summon. VERDICT: Leave this one as a must have prior to Alpha
Ability Loadouts - This is something that you could create and refine based on player feedback AFTER Alpha has started. Custom UI's, what kind of situation-specific loadouts players want on their hotbars, all things of that nature, can be worked on later. VERDICT: Not needed for Alpha. Make this a requirement to be done during Alpha, before Beta.
Perception System - I think you've said it yourself in this category - the basics are in, and you need more UI functionality for longer term use. Great - get some feedback during Alpha. VERDICT: Not needed for Alpha. Make this a requirement for Beta.
Faction - This one is tough, because there is little information on what and how you intend Faction to work, especially hand-in-hand with Perception, since they surely must be linked. VERDICT: If correct that it is tied to Perception, then do the same for this as for Perception - requirement for Beta.
Climbing Improvements - If climbing works, then leave the refinements for during Alpha. See what happens with a few thousand people use it in different situations, refine it based on that. VERDICT: Leave it for a pre-Beta requirement.
Swimming - For purposes of Alpha, I'm sure most players could care less if a character in water looks like they're swimming or not. If it's intended to make players move slowly through water until they skill up, then simply make it known that refinements are coming during Alpha, and let players "walk slowly" through water all at the same rate until you get to it. VERDICT: Leave it for pre-Beta.
Acclimation - This is in the same boat as Swimming/Climbing in my opinion. It's immersion, it's graphics, it's not something we have to have in order to work in Alpha. VERDICT: pre-Beta requirement.
LFG Tool - The playerbase will use in-game chat channels or Discord or other means to make and find groups. Create and implement this during Alpha based on player feedback. VERDICT: pre-Beta requirement.
Basic Guild System - Guilds are important, they are the heart of the community, and community is important in Pantheon. Many groups will be formed within Guilds, which helps solve the LFG tool issue for Alpha. Players in Alpha are going to meet people they want to play with long term, beyond Alpha and Beta and into the main release of the game. The ability to create and use guilds is critical, and should be a priority. VERDICT: Leave as a must have prior to Alpha.
Banks - This is a critical part of the game, especially when the game is new and no one knows what item we've found will be useful tomorrow, next week, or next year as we progress. It is a core function of the game to be able to store your items. VERDICT: Leave as a must have prior to Alpha.
Player Models (Art) - This is immersion related, and not critical to gameplay. Give the unfinished races a generic model to get them in-game, and leave the rest to be done later. VERDICT: Leave as a pre-Beta requirement.
Conclusion: You'd have 3 things on the To Do list, instead of 11. In addition to the 10 or so "In Progress" items (some of which I think should be shifted to a during-Alpha priority as well, but it's perhaps easier to just finish them since they're already in progress) you'd have a much shorter list to complete prior to triggering Alpha. Alpha is going to push forward new things that need to be prioritized, BUT - consider the tradeoff... right now you have a very small group of "Pre-Alpha Access" players who are beating the drums and keeping people excited. Make Alpha happen soon, and you'll have a much larger group of players who are on the bandwagon and promoting the game, expressing excitement for a game that is truly coming to life, which will lead to more pledges... and perhaps silence all those "Pantheon is just vaporware" naysayers once and for all. I'd like to think I can speak for a large marjority of those of us waiting for Alpha - we're excited and passionate about this game... get us in there, let us help you make Pantheon a reality!
Ability loadouts, banks, a simple LFG tool, and guilds are all pretty quick implementations once they start working on them. They are all simply low priority. I would personally vote for VR to knock out one a month or every other month when they have big reveals like the hdrp 2 video. This would give people clear progress while the long running critical work happens in the background.
Completing small goals has a great impact on individuals and I think watching something new get checked off each month, even if it is somewhat minor, would be good for the community.
Ya, the punch list is daunting to look at. Bazgrim tossed out the possibility that moving from HDRP work and onto the implementation of ViNL could be around two months. After that, the team should be able to transition the to-dos into in progress. I also think that the plan is for alpha to be closer to a functional beta. So, if all goes to plan, by the summer solstice all the loose ends should be getting the attention they need, and it is all downhill from there...go team!
As Counterfleche states, narrowing the objectives for Alpha doesn't finish the game any sooner. If anything, it allows the philosophy to start setting in that you can just ship it, then fix it. We've seen how well that's worked on countless titles. It can be the death sentance for big success. You get a ton more people into the game as testers who percieve it as a pre-release, note all the things that are broken or missing, and then run off to social media to trumpet what a trainwreck the product is. Regardless of the logic or the validity of their statements a pretty notable percentage of the potential customer base gets that impression implanted in their heads and never give the game an honest shot when release finally happens.
VR, stick to your guns. Follow your plan. Show the industry what a proper development cycle looks like. You'll be rewarded. You may even have a small hand in pushing the industry toward some normalcy again.
I think it is best to leave the decision of which milestones need to be reached to the devs. At this point, they know their game better than any of us, and they know their internal timeline and goals. They also have more insight into what will make or break the alpha experience based on gameplay. At a surface-level glance, some of these milestones may look like they can wait, but from an internal view of gameplay, it may be a different outlook.
Looking at acclimation for example. This is their goal: "Implement improvements to the Acclimation user experience by improving the audiovisual components, improving the UI and Glyph acquisition/equipment systems, and implementing additional climates.". The audiovisual components might be something that could wait until during alpha, but making sure the gear/glyph systems are functioning is definitely something that has to be done before alpha. Implementing the climates they want is also important before alpha testing happens.
Looking back at swimming, swimming may be something that could wait until late alpha or beta for most games. However, Pantheon has a pressure climate and this has been mentioned in relation to underwater environments. Swimming is needed so testers can have access to this climate and test it under intended player conditions.
I think that VR's goal for Alpha testing is to really stress test their systems and make sure every core component of their game is functional before the game transitions into beta. I think their intended goal for beta is to catch any bugs that may have slipped through testing in alpha and look at server populations. I don't think they want to be implementing any systems right before beta or during beta.
Since I'm pretty sure Kilsin will lock this thread, I'll just say I don't see rushing alpha as to having any benefits.
One example from your first ever post.
People are losing faith...
What people? Names? Are they already Pledgers? Did you take a poll? How much faith have they lost? Do you have some inside info on when Alpha might happen? Either under the original plan or your revised plan?
I am going to close this as it has been discussed to death on numerous platforms but the fact remains, making a game is very difficult, costly and time consuming with many moving cogs, for example (and thanks /u/Sparxx_Interface from Reddit)
"A few other games that had long development times:
Elder Scrolls Online (7 years)
Darkfall Online (8 years)
Spore (8 years)
The Last Guardian (9 years)
Too Human (9 years)
Team Fortress 2 (9 years)
Final Fantasy XV (10 years)
Prey (11 years)
Diablo III (11 years)
Duke Nukem Forever (15 years)
Slow game development isn't new, and it certainly isn't unique to VR."
Also worth mentioning, most of those games have much bigger teams and budgets than us, so while following the development of a crowdfunded game can seem long and frustrating it's not that different from most other development except for the fact that you can peer through the window and see the progress, which can make patience a bit harder to manage.