We are holding a comprehensive State of the Game address this week, on July 20 at 5PM PDT (-7GMT). This address is accessible to VIP and Scion of the Black Rose pledges, the pledge levels with current access to Pre-alpha. This event will be held on Discord and members should note that if you do not have PA Discord access, you cannot participate in the State of the Game.
VIPs may request access here:
https://seforums.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/3535/vip-discord-server-information
Scion of the Black Rose pledges may request access here:
You say state of the game not state of pre-alpha. Many others will have an interest in that.
If the address in general is subjected to the non-disclosure agreement, and it may or may not be, please pick out any significant information that you do not feel needs to be kept private for pre-alpha testers only and share that with the rest of us - perhaps by a forum post after the address. I have no problem with people that paid more getting to hear it all first.
How soon will this information be made available to the greater majority of us who have collectively pledged greater amounts of money. I understand that we are not the 'greater community' or 'VIP' as you tend to classify the upper eschelon of fans, but it would be nice to see reveals on the state of the game at the same time as everyone else. Those who are not VIP's would appreciate the state of the game more than those that are actively participating in it.
Garthorn said:How soon will this information be made available to the greater majority of us who have collectively pledged greater amounts of money. I understand that we are not the 'greater community' or 'VIP' as you tend to classify the upper eschelon of fans, but it would be nice to see reveals on the state of the game at the same time as everyone else. Those who are not VIP's would appreciate the state of the game more than those that are actively participating in it.
Of course! We want to share with everyone as soon as it is feasible. For this round, we are focusing on those who are actively in the PA tests as the changes impact them directly. It is our intention to release info to the public in a couple of months when we are at a more proven state. Basically, testers gotta test so devs can dev. Once everything is nailed down, we will be shouting updates from the rooftops.
chenzeme - you may be right. The history of development for Pantheon is that large and dramatic changes have had a promised result of a splendidly improved game and the actual result of "back to the drawing board" delays and no game at all.
Savanja - before you get too defensive over this comment - I am talking about longer term history not the last year or two where progress has been reasonably steady and reliable.
The impactful changes referred to may be different. They may not be.
Best case scenario. Due to changes in funding or the underlying game engine things are much better now and testers will need to adjust to better graphics, faster gameplay and innumerable other improvements.
Worst case scenario - a change in the basic engine or major pieces of it with enormous improvements promised but great delays certain.
Things rarely match either the best possible result or the worst so it almost surely will be in the middle. It is human nature to immediately publicize and tout good things and hold off on releasing information about bad things. To use Savanja's terms - people often find it "feasible" and the state sufficiently "proven" when the trend is upward not downward. Ooh we just got $100 million and a publisher would tend to be mentioned (legal constraints permitting) a whole lot faster than "The developers of our game engine just notified us that they are ceasing development and filing for bankruptcy protection".
My best bet is that the changes in the state of the game will not be that dramatic at all.
Savanja said:Garthorn said:How soon will this information be made available to the greater majority of us who have collectively pledged greater amounts of money. I understand that we are not the 'greater community' or 'VIP' as you tend to classify the upper eschelon of fans, but it would be nice to see reveals on the state of the game at the same time as everyone else. Those who are not VIP's would appreciate the state of the game more than those that are actively participating in it.
Of course! We want to share with everyone as soon as it is feasible. For this round, we are focusing on those who are actively in the PA tests as the changes impact them directly. It is our intention to release info to the public in a couple of months when we are at a more proven state. Basically, testers gotta test so devs can dev. Once everything is nailed down, we will be shouting updates from the rooftops.
Shouting updates from the rooftops.. Sounds really exciting to me..Cant wait to see what happens come Sept....
Glad to hear the progress being made. Wish you all the best.
Not wanting to share usually means they've made some major change that they what to push pass a smaller selection of players that is most likely adverse or determental to what the larger community would agree too.
This games already had multiple delays due to changing the graphics engine, people leaving and new people starting with different visions. Seems like the project is being overly micro managed now so I'm hoping we're closer to 24hrs testing and alpha but have been disappointed over the years of backing this that it wouldnt surprise me if the announcement was "We're not happy with unity" we've moving to unreal now and redoing the enite games and have to redraw all the assets."
Hoping I'm wrong.
Fizen said: This games already had multiple delays due to changing the graphics engine...
Pantheon has had its share of delays and then some, but VR has never changed the graphics engine.
Sonsofsever said: I look forward to meeting all of you in game someday... Message me in game someday and I will assist you on a Corpse Run :)
The same for me. Plus, if you don't have a guild crafter available, I'll make ya some cool gear :)
"it wouldnt surprise me if the announcement was "We're not happy with unity" we've moving to unreal now and redoing the enite games and have to redraw all the assets.""
Precisely my worst case scenario. Well, worst case other than an outright shut-down.
Maybe the big announcement was the 24-hour a day testing, though, which is clearly a step forward not backward. Perhaps unlikely since we didn't have to wait months to hear this but maybe the timing changed.
Zorkon said:Sonsofsever said:Message me in game someday and I will assist you on a Corpse Run :)
VR has made it pretty clear there won't be a need for assistance on a corpse run, actually with the exception of rare occasion its unlikely a corpse run will even be necessary.
I must have missed that update...
Fizen said:Not wanting to share usually means they've made some major change that they what to push pass a smaller selection of players that is most likely adverse or determental to what the larger community would agree too.
This games already had multiple delays due to changing the graphics engine, people leaving and new people starting with different visions. Seems like the project is being overly micro managed now so I'm hoping we're closer to 24hrs testing and alpha but have been disappointed over the years of backing this that it wouldnt surprise me if the announcement was "We're not happy with unity" we've moving to unreal now and redoing the enite games and have to redraw all the assets."
Hoping I'm wrong.
You are. We are happy with Unity. Non-testers can expect to see some in-depth updates in the next couple of months.
Sonsofsever said: Changing the graphics engine likely would have taken place prior to all of the effort put into VINL and HDRP conversion. Both are specific to Unity I believe. Speculation on these major and disastrous changes is pointless. This team is the most dedicated team of developers on any project I have followed. Pantheon Rise of the Fallen is a gigantic game nearly as large as the title of the game itself :P. But seriously it takes time to build. They are building the game for launch and for the foreseeable future getting the most solid foundation for the best possible result. I truly believe NOTHING will stop this game from being made. The team would probably finish it unpaid at this point. Let’s all be excited for each new development they dangle in front of us. Stay positive and uplifting as a community. I look forward to meeting all of you in game someday. Whenever that may be and when the team decides the game is ready. Thanks for reading this lengthy rant if you made it this far. Message me in game someday and I will assist you on a Corpse Run :)
I Love your optimisum for the Game. I to am excited about the upcomeing 24 hour server testing.
I have been curious about the use of and shift to Unity. From what I understood, unreal Engine is better for large-scale 3D exploration games due to how it handles HD texture downscaling, multiple characters on screen, networking, LoD, and high-scene polygon counts. All the while, Unity is better known for being more proficiant in the creation of 2D and D2/3D hybrid side-scrollers with scene layering and backdrop textures.
With this in mind, why did VR decide to use Unity over Unreal Engine?
Brutenga said:Zorkon said:Sonsofsever said:Message me in game someday and I will assist you on a Corpse Run :)
VR has made it pretty clear there won't be a need for assistance on a corpse run, actually with the exception of rare occasion its unlikely a corpse run will even be necessary.
I must have missed that update...
As it's presently planned, on death players respawn with all equipped gear. So all that's on the corpse is bags and possibly coin. Anyone with half a brain is going to make a bank run before going into any hazardous situation, especially with a pug, and drop off anything of value and carry 3-4 generic throwaway bags, some food and water (if that's even nessasary) so essentially nothing on the corpse worth recovering.
Now a rare occasion will happen when on a dungeon run a player may get a rare item, this will be the rare occasion where a corpse run would be needed.
Any other time it would just be novelty "Ooo I got/get to do a corpse run for my 10gold, 4 cloth bags and partial stacks of food and water."
One of the more contentious issues over the years has been corpse runs and death penalties. How much of a penalty death should entail to give that "old school" flavor without driving away new players in droves and making even dedicated fans reluctant to do any content that isn't considered reasonably safe.
I consider corpse runs more of an EQ nostalgia issue rather than *necessary* to make death non-trivial. There are many ways to make death sting while still encouraging players to take risks and join PUGs.
I hope VR will have, at a dead minimum, a significant penalty. Even at maximum level. Loss of experience not simply damage to gear requiring some cost to repair. By the time the game is 6 months old any repair cost will doubtlessly be trivial though done well repair cost is good to have in addition to loss of experience. With level-capped characters either losing levels or otherwise hit with a significant penalty.
I strongly suspect I will be disappointed on this issue.
You're not wrong Dorotea,
my issue with it is VR seems unwilling or flat out scared to commit to anything that is actually going to sting.
token corpse runs (I explained earlier)
token experience loss(no real loss like potential loss of level)
token gear damage(a few plat that we won't even notice to repair it)
I think VR needs to decide if there going to cater to the masses and make just another please everybody hold your hand game or a world as Brad intended. actually I've resolved that they have made their choice.
All the best MMORPGs with the greatest degree of staying power have corpse runs and gear damage. Experience loss could go either way but today's successful MMOs don't have it.
In an age where death in Minecraft is a 100% drop of everything and every other title is a roguelike or souls clone, it's clear that people want a challenge.