I enjoyed the Cohh stream. He is a streamer so he had to juggle between the stream and his audience. No easy task when folks are looking for you to do so many things. The Pantheon Community wanting to see him play a certain way so we could see more of the game, dealing with his community going back and forth between liking/not liking the game and the over abundance of questions, and him pushing through not feeling well and still having to put on the public hat of being a streamer. I think he did a good job and will get better.
In addtion, I would also like a stream with the content creators like was done before. Pantheon Plus, Nathan Napalm and Bazgrim. I enjoyed their stream more becasue they didn't have to interact with their audience and could just play the game with each other. It could start offf like the Cohh stream where we will get to see them start off at level 1 and get to level 5. That could be an hour or 2 hour stream. Not everyone may like but I very much enjoyed seeing their individual perspectives when they entered Deviare. Another (Official Pantheon) stream where they group up at level 5 and enter a dungeon or camp and just explore more around Thronefast. That could be 2 hours or 4 hours and they could bread it up into 2 streams if 4 hours. It all could take place in one of the PA sessions planned for next year.
I would very much love to see that take place or something similar. Folks VR can trust to represent their game and that we are familar with and have been loyal to Pantheon. Those folks are the reason I'm here and learned about the game. So, I'm happy to push for them to be able to get a stream next year.
So much to look forward to next year. I look for it to be a special year for all of us whoa re fans of Pantheon.
I enjoyed the Cohh stream as well, especially his honesty and his effort to keep thing more mature by calling out a toxic comment. Streaming a brand new character with no guidance served to be a good intro and surrogate new player experience. But it also lacked any real demonstration of how the game will feel when exploring and tackling challenging group content.
I hope his next stream has him starting at at least level 5 - 10 and doing some deeper exploration along with some non-trivial group content. If he keeps starting over at level 1, he won't ever get past the newbie game tutorial experience.
I'd really like to see a session where Cohh picked five of his fans and they were all given level 10+ characters. Give them a couple hours to play before Cohh jumps on (so they can learn the basics), then have them adventure together. Cohh could have several level-appropiate characters pre-made, so he could try different roles as he sticks with the same group. Having the rest of the partybe his fans allows him to run a promotion to pick them and it will feel more authentic than a hand-picked group.
Mostly echoing others. I feel Cohh did a good job with all he had to juggle. With my background of what Pantheon is I could fill in a lot of blanks missing from his stream. I also get that this is his first stream and things could change.
As long as he has the audience to pay attention too, I would worry he will never do true justice to what it might be like to play Pantheon. How do you engage challenging content with a group while at the same time reading and responding to an endless stream of questions?
My respect for Cohh hit a all time high when I saw him call out even a slight toxic comment with such a calm yet clear demeanor. He has a lot of positive aspects and I can see why he would be high on your list to partner with.
I read a lot of pretty demeaning comments regarding this stream, basically saying things like:
- graphics are crap. Let us admit that it not yet that impressive compared to what can be done, especially with modern graphic engines such as Unity or Unreal. Now, to people that say that they could do the same in 2hours on Unity... like you could program a software that could handle hundreds of people interacting over the net in real-time and keep it smooth ? Come on... get down to earth or get hired by those big companies. They are looking for godlike figures like you.
- It was pretty limited as to what could be seen. Yes it was. Now, I think it showed that the interactions, the combat, the running, walking, climbing was there. The spell casting was in. The grouping and interacting between players was in. The death system was partially there. I liked the fact that near death you could still crawl somehow a bit. I did not like that masters that were basically static and the NPCs, not moving, were just waiting for people to come by, like they are not really living. Not sure how this can be easily changed though but I'd love to see masters having hours where they train students, hours where they go to sleep (and do not want to be distrubed by some newbee apprentice) and times where they are the inn to eat and drink and may be be a little more open to discuss and share anecdotes about their past prowess (which could give hints on some lore).
So overall, not impressed by what I saw but, as a computer scientist that works in graphics (although academic and not in games), I was able to read between the lines. And what I read was promessing... I pledged since then, so I must think that it has some future.
I like the idea very much of a 'free' session from PA testers like the one Bazgrim etc did some time ago. Let's face us there are 'expert' testers out there that know the game very well already and, with even a small amount of 'talking skills', could well present both the noteworthy features and mechanics, and the highlight the community and group aspects, even in this early test state.
In the last few sessions I have more and more appreciated more and more of the Pantheon difference beyond just testing individual aspects. It's been great. I look forward to being able to make my own YT presentations! ;^)
I would suggest this not be 'live' however, so that VR can then at least see the footage before it goes out, and probably make some edits. I imagine the big barrier to this sort of thing is VR not wanting anything 'uncontrolled' to go out and that, of course, is perfectly understandable. Cohh was and is a very well calculated 'risk' in that regard.
As for the impressiveness, or not, of the current state of the game, I think those listening to and understanding what is said about what the pre-alpha stage is, and knowing VR is a small indie non-trad team, will understand that what they are seeing truly are test sessions, not marketing-focused presentations, and will be fine with that and take from the vids what useful info and feelz they can.
I think that Cohh's stream show-cased the game well to those that dont know what old school rpg mmos were like and what to expect from the first couple of hours getting to grips with things.
I also agree that Cohh's attention was not 100% on the game so it wasn't a smooth Pantheon experience (jumping back and forth between his audience and game play). It would be nice if Cohh could do a session without having his normal audience interaction so we could experience the game in a less jarring manner, if at all possible.
I would also like to see a little more regarding the unique features of Pantheon (NPC awareness examples, faction, perception, following leads and day to day functions like the bank and stuff).
Grobobos- ...basically saying things like: graphics are crap. Let us admit that it not yet that impressive compared to what can be done, especially with modern graphic engines such as Unity or Unreal. Now, to people that say that they could do the same in 2hours on Unity... like you could program a software that could handle hundreds of people interacting over the net in real-time and keep it smooth ? Come on... get down to earth or get hired by those big companies. They are looking for godlike figures like you.
To those worrying about graphics; dont forget this is pre-alpha, graphic tweaks will come further down the line. This is testing, it is for playability, finding bugs, balancing, introducing new game mechanics, load testing, reset testing, etc. etc. The stream is not showing a post production demo of the game. And this is the danger that VR face when being so open with where we are with the development. Unless you have been following the game, people's expectations are much higher than they should be for where we are.
To those that say they could do better in 2 hours on Unity; well Pantheon is using Unity along with its own Networking tech. So, go beat yourselves up, create one and lets get playing! And if we dont get to see your new mmo within 5 to 10 years then you will learn why you cannot do better in two hours. Mmos are not as easy to create as people think they are. You need to build the tools to allow you to build the game. The game engine is just that, an engine. You need to create the parts to hold the engine and feed the engine. You need tools to monitor the engine, tweak it, attach it to something you can use. Yes, you can build something in two hours that could be possibly be classed as an rpg (maybe), but creating a stable, re-imagining of a classic game where thousands of people play in the same world space without zones is a tad more complicated my friends. If it wasnt, then we would be getting new MMOs every day of the week.
Cohh pretty much single handedly convinced me to up my pledge from Pathfinder to Scion of Black Rose. I've been following the game forever, but have had zero involvement on forums. Does anyone know what I should expect as far as being able to potentially access PA in the future? Will VR email me a link or how would i access the client download? I'm itching to get in but I'm also a bit overwhelmed as to where to start and what my expectations for access should be. Reading more would probably help =P
rrmccall82 said:Cohh pretty much single handedly convinced me to up my pledge from Pathfinder to Scion of Black Rose. I've been following the game forever, but have had zero involvement on forums. Does anyone know what I should expect as far as being able to potentially access PA in the future? Will VR email me a link or how would i access the client download? I'm itching to get in but I'm also a bit overwhelmed as to where to start and what my expectations for access should be. Reading more would probably help =P
Hello! Yes, you will get an email before a testing, letting you know when and how to prepare for the test. It also helps to keep an eye on the forums and Discord for announcements, just in case you miss the email.