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ICYMI - Our very own Ben "Kilsin" Walters in a Q&A

    • 9115 posts
    May 14, 2018 4:10 AM PDT

    ICYMI - Our very own Ben "Kilsin" Walters dropped in to chat with the Condemned folks for a giveaway and a Q&A, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EyoahxPeT8&feature=youtu.be&t=2593

    #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters

    • 19 posts
    May 14, 2018 8:28 AM PDT

    Hey thanks for posting this, I was unable to watch it live!

    The questions asked were prefect, and I am really glad to see that you are “one-of-us”.

    I had a few follow up questions that maybe someone (anyone) can ask should they ever get the chance:

    1. Guild Size: Because of our guild size; often my guild (Old Timers Guild) ends up being split across several sub guilds, with slightly varying names. Do you know yet the guild size limit?
    2. Faction: in the public discord for Pantheon some of us had been discussing the faction rules of past games. Lots of love and concerns alike. Most people seemed to like the idea of different cultural factions that help to isolate the good guys from the bad guys, etc. The main point of concern being endless tedious faction grinding. For example I am currently working on my Mage Epic 2 in EQ2, and it's...not awesome. I have grit, but there is a breaking point. What is the general philosophy on faction and faction grinding in Pantheon? Will faction be used to bring a unique identity to the various cultures in the game? 
    3. Flagging: You talked some about PvP. In days of yore they had a concept of PvP flags, and RP Flags, etc. Will there be personal flagging in Pantheon?
    4. Guild UI: Your discussion on guild UI was interesting. There was note of the ability to track accomplishments in that UI (potentially). It is a great idea, id add that it would be also great if we could look at another guilds achievement UI, allowing for full transparency.
    5. Dev Team Success: I’m interested in seeing some of this in action, any chance of a “making of” video, or some videos that feature some of the devs who worked on past games (EQ, Vanguard, Acherons Call, etc). Maybe have them talk about some of their favorite systems to create?
    6. Fast Travel: I personally LOVE the idea of a single main portal per continent. These would quickly become EC style player hubs. A few questions on this topic: 1) Will there be boat rides (I loved the boats in EQ1) and 2) Wizard Evac; Evac was great when it was a needed game play mechanism. Evac really made you feel needed when the crud hit the fan. Any chance of Evac being in Pantheon?
    7. Cyber Bullying: Cyber Bullying is more common and sophisticated than ever before. Most games have not evolved with the trend. Any thoughts to putting in more sophisticated Customer Service tools to inhibit this behavior and to support those bullied?
    8. Keeping Old Zones Alive: two ways I have seen this work well 1) high level quests that send you back to lower level zones for rare camps etc. 2) Mentoring. EQ2 had a great mentoring solution, it really allowed you to help your newly joined friends out, and gave you a reason to go back to old zones. In short, you would temporarily delevel, and your stats and equipment would scale down in kind. Any chance of this being in Pantheon?

    Thanks for being human!

    Finbar


    This post was edited by Finbar at May 14, 2018 8:44 AM PDT
    • 2886 posts
    May 14, 2018 12:04 PM PDT

    Good show!

    Finbar said:

    I had a few follow up questions that maybe someone (anyone) can ask should they ever get the chance:

    I'm not a dev, but some of these can already be answered, so I'll do my best...

    Finbar said:

    Guild Size: Because of our guild size; often my guild (Old Timers Guild) ends up being split across several sub guilds, with slightly varying names. Do you know yet the guild size limit?

    From the FAQ:

    12.0 Will there be a restriction on guild sizes?

    We don’t have hard limits in mind. It might affect gameplay, if a mob is zerged it might flee or call in reinforcements. In terms of an arbitrary hard limit for a guild, we don’t see a reason to do that. We will also have a robust guild management system.

    Also check out this clip: 02:41:15 Community size limitations and guild management

    Finbar said:

    Faction: in the public discord for Pantheon some of us had been discussing the faction rules of past games. Lots of love and concerns alike. Most people seemed to like the idea of different cultural factions that help to isolate the good guys from the bad guys, etc. The main point of concern being endless tedious faction grinding. For example I am currently working on my Mage Epic 2 in EQ2, and it's...not awesome. I have grit, but there is a breaking point. What is the general philosophy on faction and faction grinding in Pantheon? Will faction be used to bring a unique identity to the various cultures in the game? 

    From the FAQ:

    4.2 Will language and faction be important in Pantheon and will a player be able to betray their home faction?

    We like all of that in general -- the question comes up though: to what degree should these factions matter and does this sort of thing slip into PvP territory? If it does, you'd only see it in PvP servers. But changing your factions so NPCs will react differently to you -- this is all key to the game -- our faction system will be quite robust. Yes, you could betray your home or default factions.

    Brad has said in the past though that it is important that improving faction should not be tedious - for example, just killing the same type of mob over and over again. While it may be possible to do it that way, it would probably be more efficient to do quests for a particular faction, which would also be more interesting.

    Finbar said:

    Fast Travel: I personally LOVE the idea of a single main portal per continent. These would quickly become EC style player hubs. A few questions on this topic: 1) Will there be boat rides (I loved the boats in EQ1) and 2) Wizard Evac; Evac was great when it was a needed game play mechanism. Evac really made you feel needed when the crud hit the fan. Any chance of Evac being in Pantheon?

    From the FAQ:

    19.3 Will there be any form of sea travel to get across large bodies of water? Will swimming be an option?

    We've not finalized how sea travel will work at launch, but eventually you'll be able to sail ships around the world (definitely post-launch). Before all of that is implemented, however, and by launch, some limited class abilities like those that teleport you over land would likely teleport you over water as well.

    As for Swimming, it is not only an option but a very important skill with one of our player races being aquatic. Spells and items that give your character underwater breathing can also be obtained.

    I can't think of an official answer about Evac, probably because when asking about an individual specific ability, the answer is usually "maybe." It being Pre-Alpha, abilities still change frequently. But considering the quote above mentions teleport abilities, I'd say it's quite possible.

    Finbar said:

    Keeping Old Zones Alive: two ways I have seen this work well 1) high level quests that send you back to lower level zones for rare camps etc. 2) Mentoring. EQ2 had a great mentoring solution, it really allowed you to help your newly joined friends out, and gave you a reason to go back to old zones. In short, you would temporarily delevel, and your stats and equipment would scale down in kind. Any chance of this being in Pantheon?

    There will be a mentoring system, but there will also be a Progeny system to keep the player population from getting too top-heavy. Check out this clip: 02:38:10 Mentoring and progeny

    Additionally, zones will have a wide level range, which will give higher level characters more of a reason to come back to them. In short, VR has several ideas to keep zones relevant because it's definitely important. :)

    Hope this helps!


    This post was edited by Bazgrim at May 15, 2018 7:38 AM PDT
    • 19 posts
    May 14, 2018 8:17 PM PDT

    Hey Bazgrim! 

    Thanks for the info!

    Finbar. 

    • 217 posts
    May 16, 2018 3:04 AM PDT
    Gr8 QnA Sessh Kilsin.
    Nice to put a face and
    personality to the name!

    Hope to see more of this
    in the future when possible!