I am actually dead serious on this one, impatient though I may get for us to speed through testing and get to release. There had been some thought that pre-alpha might start in "the first half of 2017" and with July 1 upon us that officially hasn't happened.
Why is this good news? It demonstrates more surely to me than hiring announcements and mention of Class A funding that there is a lot of progress being made, some of which we see and some we do not. When things are fairly static testing is valuable. The content we test is likely to be very similar to the content 2 months later or why bother testing in the first place. When improvement is rapid testing is more of a public relations gesture.
Also, when things are NOT going well there is more likely to be a feeling of need to *demonstrate* movement even if there really isn't any, for the benefit of potential investors/pledgers. If things are going reasonably well there is less of a need to do things earlier than you want to as a "hail Mary". VR obviously feels that they can afford to keep us in suspense a bit longer because there are things happening and when we finally hit pre-Alpha the game they show will be more fully fleshed out. I don't doubt for a second that VR wants to move through the phases of testing far more urgently than we want them to and them being very deliberate about things *has* to have a very good reason. The two obvious possibilities are there isn't enough there to test, or things are moving ahead too fast to be tested now. Combining the hiring and funding announcements and knowing the history of some of the VR team the latter seems the obvious answer.
But the perfect is the enemy of the good and opening the game up to even pre-alpha testing is a valuable sign to both the people here and the wider community. So please don't let the progress and hiring keep pre-alpha from happening for *too* long. ((Note that I never said or implied or even thought that there has been any *delay* in pre-alpha the first half of 2017 was an unofficial hope not any prediction from VR which has as one of the most important core principles don't hype until really ready))
This is unecceptable. You are spot on with your evaluation of what is going on. But i will still want to see more "movement" on the forums. More classes revealed and maybe another twitch in the near future. My hopes are to have a clean release for the game. Maybe if pre-alpha is put off until more classes and zones are complete will make testing a lot easier. The more bugs we find the more fixing will be needed. Although I think I read that they may start testing before all classes and zones are complete I would expect more than what has been released so far.
But in all I think they are doing a fantastic job on what I have seen from the twitches. A little more glimpses at some new zones through screenshots would be awesome.
P.S.
VR take your time sharpening my Druid. She will be more awesome than you expect.
Oh my, that click bait...lol
I can say everything is on track and moving forward, we are working very hard but not rushing anything, we have lots planned that is separate and has no impact on testing that will be released from various departments but I can't give anything away just yet as it is still being worked on, plus I don't want to ruin the surprise (in general, as in hearing or seeing something for the first time, not a big reveal).
Hiring accelerates progress, it doesn't delay it, so seeing us hire new people is a good healthy sign that things are moving forward, that and the announcement of Series A funding, so while I know it is tough to wait for something you really want, in this case, the longer it takes us the better it will be, so leave it with us, we are on track and progressing nicely and will let you all know when we get close. :)
There's no doubt the progress going on with Pantheon since the very first stream video from 2016 is outstanding in terms of game development standards.
What makes me feel safe about the release of Pantheon is the fact that the core combat mechanics are there; there IS a playable game. Worst case scenario we'd get an unpolished buggy game. So, the scenario of EverQuest: Next, Project Copernicus and Project Titan will not happen there because 1) The game is fun we know it's fun because the developers are not trying crazy dreamy ideas like SOE did with EQ Next and 2) VR is focusing on the fundemantals like the actual game, combat mechanics, classes, dungeons, world they are actually working on it instead of wasting time as with Studio 38.
As long as they stick to their philosophies and tenets, Pantheon greatness is inevitable. It's just a matter of time, my friends, and we all are going to fight about "This class is OP!!" rather than "Release the game already!".
Saying this, however, I still would appreciate even more news and progress map from VR.
Internal testing always goes on behind the scenes. Pretty much every dev internal tests ahead of pre alpha people.
We will have our chances to help move this game to beta in no time, until then i check in daily or when i can, bug the **** out of Kilsin and say hi to everyone else.
I also dont want this game rushed, but be warned as long as funding goes according to plan, we should not see any rush by this team. Otherwise i hope to keep donating to the cause.
Great post and topic so far Dorotea. I agree with your points and let me see if I can put it a different way..
In McQuaid I trust... OR maybe it should be in experience I trust. With all things, experience is far more important than theory or philosophy. Brad and a few others have had experience making games like this, they have learned over the years what works really well, what works ok, what doesn't work. They have learned what is bad for the game/genre but they have learned what is important and great for games/genre. They have heard from the consumer adnauseum about what they like and dislike, what they wish would be done and what is flat out hated. While I do want to get into Pre-alpha, Alpha, and Beta I must admit I want the game to be ready for those stages. All the hiring of team members and the improvements we have seen are signs that things are moving along an established timeline. The timeline might not be visible to outside eyes/ears but it is established because there have been enough prying outside eyes to make comments on internal timelines to the public. This is a good thing IMO. No matter how much begging and pleading, demanding, cowtowing, or whatever the community does I beleive the VR Team has a better idea of what is best for them and the game they are making for our consumption.
With all this in mind, VR please take as long as you need to get any and all phases of Testing ready to be done :) The community might be disgruntled but the community will be estatic with a game that they desire at teh same time.
