So we were all sitting around Discord chat talking about the wait for the newsletter, when someone (Don't worry Convo, I won't throw you under the bus by telling anyone it was your idea) had the idea that we should make our own newsletter.
Done, and done.
April Newsletter (A little late for April 1st, but whatever.)
Pantheon, Rise of the Fans
Not So Hostile Takeover
(See, we even have a title for our April Newsletter!)
Okay folks, we've got a ton of information to get through here (not really, we only really came up with like, 2 and a half talking points, which seems kind of sad in retrospect), so let's get started!
The first item, the big one we know has been on everyone's mind, "When will pre-alpha start?" We've got your answer. We've decided to start pre-alpha immediately! In fact, we've decided to start it prior to now. We're retroactively starting pre-alpha January 11th, 2017. Unfortunately we're limiting pre-alpha to two months. It ended a month ago, so unless you've got a time machine, you missed it. Don't worry folks, we've got a slew of other events, and Alpha, and all of it coming Soon™.
The second huge thing we're excited to talk about in this newsletter is the announcement of the next stream! We were planning on revealing two new classes in the next stream, as well as a new area, but decided instead to replace the stream with a binge marathon of classic 80s Voltron. You're welcome. We'll get back to you with exact dates after we're done negotiating with Netflix (Soon™).
Due to much excitement and demand we've decided to announce that Bards and Necromancers will be available at release. Release is being pushed back 4 months to accommodate this decision, so we're going from "Release Date Unknown" to "Release Date Really Unknown." Trust us, "Really" accounts for about four months. We'll have more information about when exactly unknown is Soon™.
Raids. Raids never change. Unless you introduce a whole new raid type. So far we haven't given the new raid an actual name, but we're referring to it (in house) as the IBM 5150. Minimum number of people for the raid? 64, but, optionally, you can expand that out to 256. That's right, a 256 man raid. Be prepared (and buy a new graphics card, soon™).
There's been more than a bit of chatter on the forums over the past few months about subspecs, talent trees, subclasses, and various ways to make your character unique, original, and multi talented. We've kicked around the idea of using skill points, or talent trees, or any of the other ideas that have been brought up on the forums, and then someone tripped over an old AD&D manual and fate made the decision for us. We're going old school, and allowing true multiclassing, with all the benefits of xp penalties, cross class skills, and discovering that your amazing build isn't really useful, but really kind of cool just the same.
The last big piece of news is the announcement of our first expansion! Pantheon: Raise the Fallen Risen. This first expansion will include a new hybrid class, and a new race. The new class will be the Dark Disciple, a monk/necro hybrid, which you can learn more about in this thread: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/5790/satire-dark-disciple ;. For the new race, who knows, it'll probably be some new flavor of human or elf. Maybe some kind of half-elf. Or maybe half-orc, because why not?
Finally, we'd like to say look forward to more satirical news letters, but we're really not sure what we'd write about. If you'd like to see a May Satire Newsletter, feel free to send ideas via PM. Make them short, and if I can make them even slightly humorous they might make it into the next Rise of the Fans newsletter.
(And, to all the folks at VR hard at work on our game, and on newsletters, and on all the stuff we love to see, this is all meant to be taken lightly and in the spirit of good laughs, hope you guys got a chuckle out of it)
--Reaf
Will the May newsletter have some info about the F2P server Whalehunt where every critter will be an epic boss with 1 million HP, but you'll be able to earn a skill (tentatively named Aywinn) that lets you type in your credit card info for a kill in exchange for a reasonable* sum?
* Not actually reasonable. The Aywinn skill is a DoT (Debit over Time) skill that will charge this amount periodically (actual interval to be determined) until the card is rejected or cancelled. VR may (and you know this means will) also sell your personal data for marketing purposes to whomever is willing to pay, and your CC details to darknet groups.
