Last week, we opened a Discord channel for our Community to ask us questions directly. There were a lot of questions, and the team wanted to make sure we get to as many as we can, so today we offer you Part One of the answers. We will post more next week.
Some questions were similar so we have grouped those questions together in the Q&A below.
In today’s installment we have answers from CEO Chris Rowan, Project Manager Robert Crane, Designer Mark Maraglino, HR Director Jeanna Ruschell and Director of Customer Support Michael Butler.
Roadmap and Launch Scope
Question
Draq: What’s the new plan/roadmap?
Kurgan: New roadmap, when?
Kurgan: Can we expect to see anything from the spring/summer roadmap get released in 2026? If so, what?
RC: The new plan is to concentrate on stability and balance first and get the build back to a good place with gameplay. The roadmap is being worked on and will be released when we feel it can accurately convey our plans. We expect that to be in the coming weeks.
Question
Todd: What objective milestones should players use over the next six months to determine whether this latest production restructuring has actually worked? Can you give us measurable deliverables rather than commitments to improved communication or improved development speed? I feel like AMAs are corpo’s tools to say “hey, things aren’t great, but they’ll get better,” without actually telling people how.
RC: The up-and-coming roadmap will address some of this. We won’t be speculating on dates right now. Our current plan is to have a build fully QA’d first and ready to go before we start mentioning dates. The first build on the roadmap will focus on a balanced 1 – 50 experience including combat, progression, NPCs and itemization.
Question
Arkhaz: Can you give a realistic time frame of a possible launch? Understandable that there are hiccups and road bumps in the process, however it’s been in the making for many years now?
Treechopper: What is the range of time you realistically think you need to get the game to 1.0? decades? years? months?
Ichoris: Based on the current number of employees, amount of the game completed, and finances how long will it take to get Pantheon feature complete and launch V1.0?
RC: Not at this time. Our short-term focus is on a build that is balanced and fun to play again. Once we have launched that and the community agrees we are on the correct path, we will be able to project closer timelines to launch. The foundation has to be fixed before you keep adding more floors.
Development Priorities and Production Process
Question
Tharandras: What are the key changes in project management that will be driving the plan to 1.0 relative to the recent ways of working?
Bardulin: What does going back to a ‘normal’ development process look like after periods of what seems to be split focus and rushed/missed deadlines? What specific steps have been identified and need to be made to move back toward ‘normal’ development?
SirProtector (Mritwiz): My outside looking in view over the last several years has been a lack of or adherence to process. What will be different going forward?
TL;DR My main question is really, what processes do you have in place, or will you have in place to ensure success going forward? Is there any expertise on the team with ITIL and/or DevOps? These ITIL guiding principles seem core to any successful organization: Focus on Value: Ensure that everything the organization does directly or indirectly maps to value for its stakeholders. Start Where You Are: Examine what already exists and leverage current strengths before building something completely new from scratch. Progress Iteratively with Feedback: Organize large tasks into smaller, manageable sections and continuously learn and adapt using feedback loops. Collaborate and Promote Visibility: Break down internal silos, build trust, and share information openly across team boundaries. Think and Work Holistically: Recognize that no service or component stands alone, and actively align people, processes, and technology. Keep It Simple and Practical: Eliminate unnecessary steps, complex processes, or metrics that fail to produce useful outcomes.
Optimize and Automate: Streamline work as much as possible before applying technology to handle repetitive tasks with minimal human intervention.
MM: For me, the biggest change is on the internal communication side regarding timelines. Rob is great at talking with the people responsible for the work and getting accurate timelines for what needs to be done. Our seasons approach was when our team worked the most effectively. Having someone who has relationships, experience, and knowledge of the project and team members at the helm is invaluable. We know some areas we can improve on that season’s approach and now we have an opportunity to do so.
Question
Vanguard/Manafest: This game has truly been a blast from the “seasons” days all the way up UNTIL the launch of the PTR and the failure to wipe when promised. I see all the promise and feel we are always on the cusp but just cant get over the hump…what are you going to do to make we dont end up having this same conversation again a year from now?
Uldrix: This is not the first time that VR has found itself in the position of over promising, and under delivering all the while failing to properly communicate with both externally and what appears to be internally as well, so, since we find ourselves back here, what are steps you plan on taking to finally insure this stops happening, how does this effect your goals for what features you’ll be satisfied with arriving to 1.0 with(out), and most importantly, why should the long standing members of this community who have been through this situation with VR before have a reason to think the change this time will be meaningful?
RC: Some things on a foundation level in the company had to shift. It has happened now. I always plan things cautiously and never promise something that I know we would struggle to deliver. Nobody can guarantee anything. I helped run a successful Seasons campaign. I want to take us back to that. I’m not going to promise something we don’t already have ready.
Question
Tharandras: What processes or principles are in place to minimize / eliminate reinvention and control iteration?
Valkier: Every game goes through a normal amount of iteration during development, but it feels like this team has spent years stuck in a loop of ripping out and rebuilding core systems far more than others. How do you plan to break that cycle, stop wasting time and resources going backward, and actually lock down a definitive path forward?
MM: One area we’ve done poorly in was looking to an individual to manage large systems in the game (combat, classes, crafting, harvesting, etc.). MMO’s are too large to be wrangled by any one individual and needs multiple perspectives to be supported properly and in a unified fashion. A lot of the changes we’ve made haven’t been for the sake of reinvention or deviation, but the consequence of not having other planned systems supported or developed properly beforehand. Sometimes it was a seemingly unrelated system that dictated how we were going to handle something that existed already. Sometimes it was due to poor foresight, planning, and experience. The good news is a lot more of our game is accounted for now, and we have multiple people engaging with each component of the game as we move forward.
Question
Grizzle
༺✿𝒩𝒾𝒾𝒶𝓃𝒾𝒶✿༻: Simple question…why does the game feel worse and less complete now than it did 2 years ago? Multiple times now in the last 2-3 years the game has gotten to a point where it felt good, promising a good end place…and every time we get to that point, suddenly there is an issue. And to fix said issue, the game once again needs to be stripped and rebuilt. And there is always a reason for requiring the massive rebuild around whatever the issue was. Explain to the player base why this has happened over and over again and why each time the game feels less complete, less fleshed out and with more issue than what there was previously. For the last two years its just seemed like there is lack of direction or commitment to the decisions made. Its one of the main things preventing me from fully returning to the game, and its the same for many others I know. And let me be clear, I am still hopeful, my heart still lies with Pantheon! I want nothing more than for this game to succeed and for all of us to be able to return to the game full time and enjoy it the way it was intended.
Crazy Horse: Early access was nearly two years ago. The game felt like its core was nearly complete and it just needed more class depth added along with more of the world,races and remaining classes to be finished. Why tear everything down the way you did instead of building on what you had?? Going forward will you be streamlining your efforts to wrap up loose ends (bard,necro, missing races) before adding more things that arent as urgent?
RC: MMORPGs are large beasts and easy to make mistakes for the first time around. Tech also changes over time, and it is more of a matter of keeping above the water line rather than reinventing the wheel. But yes, we have made our share of incorrect turns over the last 10+ years. We still feel like we will finish a great game.
MM: Our goal for EA was to try our best to deliver a clear picture of what to expect from the future of Pantheon. We spent a couple months prepping everything to make sure as many elements felt as good as possible despite knowing we were working on incomplete systems.
CR: And we succeeded in that goal for EA.
MM: Working on the project week to week, the focus is on making as much progress as possible and working towards the 1.0 goal. If we spend too much time focused on the live game experience, we can lose productivity, but if we don’t stop to realign periodically it all begins to look like it’s falling apart. This is an area we can improve in as it strongly impacts player perception of progress in the game.
Question
Gaku: Why was the Mastery system put in( which essentially splits classes into two) before the last remaining class the Bard? It seems all that time and energy could of been put to better use there.
MM: Mastery was always considered a core feature of the game. Bard and Necromancer were both listed as stretch goals because of the technical requirements to develop them. When the Summoner was brought into the game, a lot of that work ended up carrying over for the Necromancer, allowing us to release it much sooner than originally expected.
Staffing and Accountability
Question
Kurgan: What is the current teamsize?
Draq: What is the team size? How many fulltime/part time?
Treechopper: How many full time and how many part time employees does VR have?
First: Re:size and ft/pt, I think the metric that is most useful is one CR has used previously and stated before to players, which is their FTE # (full-time-equivilent). So I’d re-state that myself into a question – How many FTE are working on Pantheon right now?
First: How much of that FTE # are in production roles – programmers, enviro/character/texture artists, content/designers, etc?
Todd: Following the recent restructuring, how many full-time developers are actually working on Pantheon today, broken down by engineering, design, worldbuilding/content, art/animation, QA and production? How does that compare with the team immediately before the restructuring?
Lavarus: How many full time staff are there currently? How many are in management vs. development? I am concerned that too much funding goes into development instead of management. In any successful profitable company, there must be managers: financial, project, public relationship, human resources, marketing, technology, and software development managers. Without that business foundation VR will continue to fail. There must be guardrails, controls, and fiscal responsibly. Best practices in COBIT, Agile, and traditional Project Management should be considered.
JR: There are 30 team members, 25 in development, 5 in management. Full time equivalent is around 26.
Question
Baekin: What exactly is your talent acquisition process ?
JR: Positions needing filling are posted on recruitment websites. Resumes are reviewed with top candidates being interviewed by the applicable manager and department team members.
Question
First: As has been hinted at – what exactly has been outsourced since EA besides PVL?
CR: Some art.
Question
Annapurna: What changes to staff, if any, are needed to meet the feature complete target for release given the funding runway constraints?
CR: None, but more designers, programmers and artists allow us to progress more quickly.
Question
Spof: Does VR allow for people to work for the company and be paid who have no direct skills to help create the game? Would VR consider a restructuring, so more talent could be hired? With PR at what I would consider its lowest point, would VR consider replacing the outside consulting service with a paid worker who could code or do art or animate?
Gaku: Why are you wasting very limited finances on Director roles which are entirely unnecessary while only paying most of your actual developers part time(10-30 hours) doesnt that seem irresponsible?
Artaeros: Have you ever considered promoting all the skilled employees at VR who are needed to complete the game but are only getting part time pay, to full time employees to get this game finished and demoting the people responsible for this dumpster fire to part time employees or unemployed even…most professional careers hold their employees accountable for mistakes especially a decade worth of mistakes…
CR: There are no ‘unneeded’ roles on staff. Everyone contributes according to their contract, and every contract is established from needs. That can include development, human resources, marketing, administration, finance, among other roles needed to operate a studio. As per above, although Management is about 16% of headcount, management compensation is less than 10% of total compensation. The CEO takes no compensation to allow more development roles to be filled.
Question
Elh / Seez / Teo: Considering the track record of historical mismanagement associated with this game why should we believe that it’s going to be different/better moving forward?
RC: I believe Seasons was working well and will be returning to that project management style. Mistakes have been made over the last couple of years. I promise to do my best to correct the course.
Question
Gaku: Are you going to publicly disclose the fact that the person you removed from the PM role on Pantheon was placed as PM on your side project which seeds Pantheon? If so, doesnt it seem odd to put a person you say was “responsible” for the Mastery fiasco in that role? Doesnt it speak to the contrary?
CR: Our underestimation of Mastery implementation was, as I stated in the CEO letter, a miscalculation of the technology we would need. I have taken ownership of this and have never attributed responsibility of it to anyone else.
Question
Spof: Most places I have worked, when people get snippy with each other who are suppose to be on the same team, this immediately results in work slowdown and/or people competing with each other and causing poor workmanship in the end product. If year after year after year, nothing has happened as far as removing people, then why should we expect the future with VR to be any different? Will there be a management shakeup? How is management going to deal with people who don’t want to communicate with each other? Will they be warned once going forward then removed, no matter what title they hold?
CR: We don’t discuss internal disciplinary policies with the public out of respect for the privacy of the individuals on the team.
Question
Kurgan: If we can believe the letter and info from Sav, are you ready to put your egos aside and put Pantheon in the first room from now on?
CR: I have firm belief in our team. We started as a project born of passion for the game and genre, and that remains true today. Creative passion can cause tension, and brilliance. It cuts both ways, we are aware of that, and that’s one of the things we aim to better manage.
Question
Sir Mole: Can you address the claims that management doesn’t even talk to certain staff members and that the money said to be for pantheon through an investor wasn’t actually for pantheon?
CR: We don’t address false allegations.
Question
Nimrith: Would you be willing to put the team roster back on the website, but with their handle (e.g., Joppa) instead of real name, and their current role?
MB: For privacy reasons, several of our team members have requested to not have their name and title published. However, many of our team members are active in our official discord server under their GM name and do also reveal their role on the team. At this time, we will not be including a list of all team members on our site.
Question
Savanja: Who will be leading up community and taking on the role of advocating for the players and communicating plans?
JR: The Community Engagement Team will continue as is with Artois leading this effort for the foreseeable future.
Funding & Monetization
Question
Tip / Twomper: How much money do you have in the bank? What’s your burn rate?
Draq: +1 for some kind of how the finances look
Annapurna: How many months of funding runway remain at your current burn rate?
Todd: How much runway does Visionary Realms currently have at its present burn rate, and is completing Pantheon 1.0 dependent upon obtaining additional investment or substantially increasing Early Access revenue?
Todd: Kinda follow up/related question: if Early Access revenue remained exactly where it is today and Visionary Realms received no additional outside investment, can you financially complete Pantheon 1.0? Yes or no?
growlron: Given the vast ambitions of this project and having obtained the bare minimum funding for a project of this scope, do you actually have enough money to finish this game?
Treechopper: How are the financials? I.E. at the current burn rate how much longer can you develop the game before you need more or another round of investors? How much more do you think will be required to realisticly bring the game to the target state for launch? Will you need to add a subscription cost to get it there or other money from the player base?
Bardulin: What is the current state of resources/$ with respect to needs in order to get the game to 1.0?
Pygmalion: What is your current finance and will you able to finish the product ?
CR: As a privately owned and operated company, we do not share financial specifics like burn rate. However, I can share that current funding is sufficient to bring Pantheon to 1.0 launch. Additional funding would allow us to move faster.
Question
Ichoris: There are rumors that VR is doing a side project for the people that gave the last round of funding. If true: What percentage of Pantheon resources were used for this? Is this the cause of getting very little done in the past year? How will this change in the future? Shouldn’t all Pantheon resources go towards this game and not side projects?
Treechopper: Are these full time employees spending their time exclusively on Pantheon (i.e. please respond to the rumor that their focus was divided working on something for a big investor)
Redman323: Is a full/part time employee for VR working only on Pantheon or is that time further divided with the investor project?
Klokk: Can you confirm rumors that VR staff are working on projects unrelated to pantheon? If so, clarify how this helps pantheons development, how much resource is being pulled from pantheon (FTE) and how your accounting ensures my money isnt funding side projects you personally are profiting from?
CR: One of the ways we receive funding is by providing services to a project unrelated to the gaming industry. Funding received in this manner covers the commissioned project and adds net resources to Pantheon. Very few staff work on both, but in those rare cases, more resources have been added to accommodate any gap.
Question
Treechopper: How much influence do investors have on the end goal of the game and the process to get there? Was there any game requirements tied to any big investment and if so what?
CR: We have always only partnered with people and entities that share the same vision, principles and goals. There are several opportunities we have turned down in the past to ensure Pantheon remains Pantheon.
Question
Princess Donut: If you guys can’t get this game out, why not sell it to a company like Blizzard or Daybreak that would be able to. This is an amazing game and it’s a shame it may never see a full release.
CR: We’re confident we can ship the game and we focus on that.
Communication Transparency and Community Trust
Question
Draq: How are we (the community) supposed to rebound from all this … it’s pretty dark out here in Pantheon fan land?
Bardulin: How, specifically, do you plan to work to regain trust among those who have invested time, resources, etc. into the development process? On the player/customer side, the investor/funder side, and within the team(s).
RC: Fix what is broken with the game first and foremost. Go back to the foundation of when the game was at its best and incrementally improve it without breaking it again.
Question
Boofy: Okay, all cynicism aside, you’ve alienated a fair amount of population with the prior model. What do you intend to do to win that population back?
CR: The only thing we can do to win that population back: build a good game. Deliver on the original promise.
Question
Todd: At what point internally did leadership know that the Spring Combat & Progression target was no longer achievable, and how much time passed between that realization and communicating it to players?
CR: We announced that we wouldn’t be meeting the projected deadline once we were completely sure of it. We had discussed options like minimum viable product, and the team worked really hard, so we exhausted every option before we broke the news.
Question
Draq: Will Joppa be commenting on everything that has happened? Do you plan to comment on Sav’s numerous comments/accusations?
Spellweaver: Are you going to address the community and respond to Savanja’s comments [on Reddit]?
CR: We are addressing any valid concerns in this Q&A series, but we do not comment on false or leading accusations. As with all things Internet, we encourage the community to objectively consider the source of the information they read.
Question
rikardL: Why can’t you show us your internal roadmap that you over and over said that you have? Keep it transparent, and as your internal roadmap changes, update it publicly. Why are you sharing tidbits of information when you are siting on the broader truth? We need more transparency.
Lavarus: The long time investors in this game deserve public monthly updates; can you promise to provide a road map that is updated monthly? Any properly trained project manager should be capable of regular updates to stakeholders.
Brohmur | Skar when?: Once you’ve finalized a plan to move forward do you plan to use Trello or any other tool to help you organize and track progress professionally?
Any professional tool that can be shared with the community because let’s face it we can no longer trust you to openly give us timely updates. Anyone who has been here for years of development (since 2017 myself) knows your track record of communication quite well! Can we expect to see plans for core missing development of this game being added to this list?
CR/RC: We use Azure DevOps task management software to manage all tasks. It contains thousands of entries across the entire project and would not be appropriate for public consumption. We are hoping to get back to what we did when running Seasons: a distilled version of the tasks we’re working on, presented on the website in a Trello like format and updated in real time.
Question
Tholgan: Would you consider releasing visual updates on WIP from behind the scenes? A simple screenshot of new hair styles, a glimpse into new zones with mostly unfinished placeholders, a short clip of an animation change, etc. (I understand that you want to present finished and polished content, in order to not provoke the trolls among us, but considering that a lot of people will complain about everything anyway, keeping the rest of us updated, might be worth it despite the complainers.)
RC: Yes, we absolutely will be sharing more progress going forward, including visual updates.
Question
Ezrael: It feels like every time you start something you never see it through and you just change direction and hop on something else and forget about the thing you said you were going to do. Videos of all the class spell state combos, this only happened with Shaman and then the system seems to have fizzled away. Class refresh videos for all classes, these only came for Shaman, Monk, Dire Lord then fizzled away. Mastery overview posts for all classes, these have also fizzled away. Your Instagram account has fizzled away. General news updates have fizzled away and don’t show any consistent visuals of development or details about what’s going on and what’s next. Why?
Lavarus: Why has there not been a YouTube video in more than a year? Is there any public notices of company progress, game progress, staff changes, investors, etc. to some platform other than Discord?
Ezrael: MnM has more devs active on discord & Twitch, more news updates sharing clearer information about what they did each month, their class updates are much clearer, they share more screenshots, you can see details of their team and how many people are doing what – and for most of that time they have been unpaid volunteers. Pantheon has paid developers but communicates less, shares less, is less organised and making less progress? Why?
MM: A lot of the initiatives mentioned here were championed by individual team members. Typically, one of two things happened: Either the person involved with the approach evaluated the effort for the payout and decided it wasn’t worth it, or there were opportunities or needs within the team that called their attention elsewhere.
Question
Flourishing: On this note – moving forward, is the plan to make this AMA transform into a more consistent communicative process that might involve periodic video updates that perform similar functions (as in other specific sections being covered, but more in depth, or giving the community a better idea of what is happening when internally and why)? This has been a pain point for… ever? Really. I even tried to help set up interviews, and later pitched ideas to @Blue 💙 | HR Director – can we not make things like that happen strictly due to the nature of the studio not having a physical workplace? Or is this a time management issue? Are we finally going to hold people accountable moving forward to the extent that is reasonable and will provide results?
CR: Creating any content takes time and resources. That’s not to say we aren’t going to continue posting updates and other content, but we have to manage dev time carefully or we can quickly start eating up hours of their week for content updates.
Question
Sugzug: Why an AMA instead of just laying out a reasonable plan to move forward? Is the AMA to help generate ideas of where to go with the game?
Igorr1988 🍔 (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻: i am curious to know why you decided on ffa ama instead of just answering the 3 big basic questions: why did u do what u did in regards to ptr etc, how are you goin to fix it? / and the broken trust? and lastly when should we expect these things to be in order?
RC: The community has been vocally telling us we don’t communicate and answer their questions. This is a step towards rectifying that.
Question
First: Here’s a question I feel is pretty important about this AMA also (thanks @Moxxy – I wanted to run with your thought a bit) – Is this AMA an initiative coming from CR himself via his pledge of increased openness & communication? The last AMA apparently suffered from not everyone at VR participating for example, and VR in past AMA’s & Q&A’s can be somewhat general/vague with specifics whenever they have responded to similar questions. Will CR be participating and ensuring his public pledge is being met?
CR: Although I can’t take credit for the idea, I do back it up and think it’s a great format for two-way communication.
Question
Gaku: Will this AMA be live? Are you going to cherry pick easy questions? If so what exactly is the point of this AMA?
Blackfox: Can you answer some of these harder questions?
CR: It won’t be live, and we are answering all the questions we can answer, even the harder ones, but the volume of questions was large enough that it will need to be broken into parts.
Question
Vandraad | Forever Skar Shaman: In every previous AMA, VR has shown an unwillingness to prepare ahead of time. Does VR not feel that we are not deserving of well worded answers that are clear and concise?
CR: From my understanding, AMAs are intended to be candid. This one is a bit different, as a Q&A, so we can have more people participating and verify any answers that need fact-checking.
Player Population and Community Support
Question
growlron: No live service game in industry history has recovered from this level of abandonment. How do you expect to revive the game from single digit player numbers?
CR: That’s factually untrue. The in-game Steam numbers tell one story, but it’s not the full story. Having our community participate in events such as this Q&A is a good indicator that players are still genuinely interested in Pantheon. The critical equation is now: we need to finish building that game the players want.
Question
Ichoris: The player population and trust in VR is very low. In an effort to get new players/customers would you consider doing Free Play Weekends or do a Free Open Early Access for limited length of time?
CR: Yes! We are discussing those very things. Nothing concrete yet, but it is past the “just an idea” phase and into the “can we do this, and how?” phase.
Question
Witchcraft: Does the delay affect your launch window with regard to predicting adoption? After experiencing numerous setbacks and delays the original projections from a decade ago could never take into account the current market and audience. What is VR’s strategy to earn customers’ confidence and hopefully lead to market penetration, adoption, player retention, and financial sustainability in the forecast launch window (current competition)? Also, what (if any) products does pantheon consider competition for the same or similar niche market or audience?
growlron: Given the continuous development troubles this project has had, even since the refactor, combine with the release of EQL, MnM Early Access, and WoW: Forever. And games like AoA and Guild Wars 3 coming down the pipeline. How do you expect to survive in an increasingly crowded genre?
CR: The MMO landscape, like most genres, changes, so you are right that projections from a decade ago are very different than projections today, but the core strategy can be simplified to that of any product: make something people want to play and make it well. Player confidence comes from building a reputation of consistently delivering quality. That’s where we need to focus.
I also believe that the audience isn’t as finite as it may seem. Especially nowadays, a lot of success is based on the right product for the right people at the right time. There is a whole generation of gamers out there who haven’t discovered the joy of MMO gaming yet.
Question
Sneekyfeets: How can we as a player base help pull Pantheon through this “dark era” to the other side so we can get back to playing a game we love?
RC: It’s a big ask but wait for us to release a version that has combat, progression and balancing fixed (in our eyes) and then try it again. That is all we can ask of you right now.
World Building, Zones, and Perception
Question
Josgar: When Faerthale is built out, you will have a general starting city done. Would you be able to / do you plan to reuse assets / mob templates / quests between starting zones to speed up development? Do you plan to reuse textures / models between areas to speed up zone build out? A level 5 desert snake is the same as a level 5 grass snake after all.
RC: Each zone goes through a planning phase where we decide what can be reused and what is net new. After that, I do a scheduling pass to see what can fit and what has to be cut. So yes, there is a phase of development where we figure out a lot of that.
Question
Josgar: Would you consider building out zones on other continents, even if the oceans aren’t available? Could there be a boat that hits a loading screen or portal?
MM: Definitely an option we’re considering when we bring some of the first zones on the other continents to the game.
Question
Valheru: Will Faerthale be releasing soon, and if so will it release in time for the wipe and patch on the EA Server?
RC: Soon is TBD. Faerthale is a very large area. It is likely to be broken into a multiple releases so that we can give it the attention it needs, but initial release will be in time for wipe.
Question
Igorr1988 🍔 (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻: do you have plans to revisit current zones while still in EA and do a population pass, theres much content to be had in existing areas that are just empty currently, or scarlessly populated
Mofakkah / Nekromant: It seems A LOT of the updates we get are fleshing out these new zones, A LOT. Once those are done, are you planning on finally putting some muscle and skin on the zones that are in the game? LARGE expanses that are invisi-walled off with large towns and castles that could be used to spread out the playerbase are ready to be made whole, are your plans going to include getting these going sooner or later?
RC: Yes, but it will come down to priority of time. Our plan is to identify all gaps in content like these and try and fill those gaps but it will be on a priority basis based on gameplay. They should all get fixed over time though.
Question
Josgar: What do y’all plan to do with the existing starter areas to breathe new life into them? Are there any iterative changes you can make so that they don’t become rework?
Kurgan: ..And is there a plan in a “near” future to go back and go over and finish the starting areas with everything included? So new players (and old) get the best experience when entering Terminus, and see the true vision planned for the rest of the game. ..And please, just decide and execute.
RC: It will be scheduled in our high-level planning meetings. The “low hanging fruit” tasks will be taken care of while there are gaps for people in scheduling waiting for larger tasks to be completed.
Question
Sotosan: Now that the chevron system is gone and some new zones have been added, does VR feel that the level 1-20 experience is where it needs to be?
MM: Not even remotely close on PTR, but hopefully much closer with the next update.
Mastery and Class Identity
Question
Cat: Why hasn’t there been a word on Necro or Monk in months? Where have they gone? Why have they never been added to ptr? Will they ever be back?
Lewtz💚: When Necro
Gunz: When is Necromancer getting love?
MM: Necromancer and Monk are currently enabled on our internal servers and undergoing evaluation and testing. You will be able to get your hands on them with the next content update.
Question
Krit
First: Where is the bard class at in terms of priority vs other things/systems – ex – player-piloted boats?
Sir Mole: How was bard 2 weeks after druid according to joppas stream and then just poof? If it was 2 weeks from being in the game what happened to it?
MM: Bards are listed as a stretch goal for 1.0, they are still in the design phase and not in the development stage yet. Bards are a class that are near and dear to our hearts and we want to make sure they have a unique identity and playstyle.
Question
Barrow: How soon do you anticipate on being able to showcase a class with a fully developed class kit? And what level are you planning to have a class kit fully “online” so to speak? For me personally, that is what matters more than anything else. If the classes are actually fun to play I can overlook a lot of other things.
MM: When we started the process the actual estimated timeframe as of when Rob was announced as project manager was around 1,500 hours of man hours to get the class kits to a complete state. We have been working through the class kits, doing playtest sessions, evaluating class role viability, and finishing documents on the classes. The actual completion of the classes in the database is waiting for the new tooling to be completed and switched over by programming. Once the switchover takes place we’ll be able to give a more accurate estimate, but a lot of work is primed and ready to go.
Question
Forlorn (Peter): Berserker when?
MM: No plans for a berserker class currently, the closest class thematically would be the Dire Lord.
Question
Player#67: Retribution paladin when?
MM: I think I saw WoW Forever ad on social media =P No plans for a retribution Paladin in Pantheon. Hopefully our Paladin class kit has enough depth to get you excited about though.
Races, Character Creation and Visuals
Question
Brohmur | Skar when?: Why after six years since the 2020 “shakeout test”, which was supposed to mark a new era in the development of Pantheon, are there STILL three missing core character races? At the very least don’t you think we should have basic character models that we can log into by now? How about get the ‘core’ components of the game in place. Worry about fine tuning them later. At least show some type of progress with the core game.
Zudiye: Can you provide any information on the other races being added – are there specific roadblocks preventing them from being included, or internal milestones that need to be reached before they’re implemented? Does each race provide their own unique challenges?
Brohmur | Skar when?: How long will it take the team to knock out the three remaining races with your reduced roster of employees? Will you be outsourcing some of this work now that you have downsized the staff due to poor management?
RC: We intend to release new player races when their starting area is playable. They might make a cameo appearance in other zones before then though.
Question
Tholgan: Are racials still part of the plan and will they be introduced any time soon?
MM: Still planned, not planned for the immediate future. We need to get baselines on everything before adding too many variables.
Question
Igorr1988 🍔 (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻: You have before spoken of a new armor pipeline, and has been mentioned in the Friday blogs, what sets the “new” apart from the old? Also how goes progress on astethic items like cloak/cape , pointy wiz hats, tabards and quivers?
RC: Can’t speak to the aesthetic items but the main reason was for improvement in style, performance, and rigging needs. There is a newsletter coming out soon breaking down the details.
Combat, NPCs and Progression
Question
Blackfox: Are you going to bring back more challenging npc abilities and create a challenging game with mechanics that make people actually use some skill?
Kurgan: Is there a plan to make the mobs more challenging than it currently is on the PTR? ..Groupcontent seem to easy.
Counterfleche: What will be done to ensure that high skill players will have a home? I want a challenge, but the challenge should come from my risk of death, not from my inability use my core abilities.
MM: For sure, baseline was a bit too punishing, but now we are lacking in challenging content realm. Hopefully you find some more challenge with the next update, we’ve made adjustments to NPC stats, NPC ability kits, and have started work on NPC density and layouts.
Yes, players need the right tools to deal with challenging NPC’s (like complete class kits for starters) before we can begin to dial in challenge properly again. You should be able to find challenge in Pantheon again soon.
Question
Kurgan: Unified mobs – Still a thing? ..I hope it is.
MM: Still a thing, it was always the plan to return to unified NPCs. Chevrons were meant to be temporary from the start while we fixed all of our formulas and combat issues. There was a lot of confusion about chevrons (even internally), poor communication. It was simply too much for a small team to try and create a solo gameplay loop with challenging group content while in heavy development and functioning as a live service with bugs in our combat formulas.
Question
First: What is the status of npc traits/dispositions? For example – have any more traits been added in the last few years? There’s been little info on the addition of new traits since ~2023 or so by which time something like only 6 out of 32 traits were mentioned in patch notes as being implemented. Have more traits been added since then? Which ones? What is the status of traits & dispositions in terms of being implemented in NPC population in the game?
Ranarius: Are traits and dispositions still in the scope for the combat and progression update?
MM: You should have quite a few new traits and dispositions in the next update.
Traits and dispositions are being expanded and currently in the works. There are still a few special dispositions on the waiting list for programming support. We may get them all in for the update, but most likely will be missing a couple disposition behaviors that have yet to be seen.
Question
Igorr1988 🍔 (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
What was the thought processes behind the custom con ranges at 1-11 and 11+ ? and was there more planned for closer to 50, how did those play out based on feedback? and how do you plan on going forward if you are keeping Unified mobs? Also is there any truth to the limited amount of con range color? give back LB 🥹😅
MM: Following in the footsteps of EverQuest. We really loved how the cons and level ranges worked in EQ so we are working with a similar structure. We will evaluate the approach again once the unified NPC changes are complete.
Question
Counterfleche: The change to mez (limiting it to one target at a time) is emblematic of a fundamental design change from an open sandbox experience to a very limiting experience. Artificial limits on abilities feels terrible and it vastly diminishes how fun a class can be and how much of a difference player skill can be.
Will Pantheon return to an open design where limits are balanced by consequences (like dying if you try to mez too many), or will artificial player constraints continue to be used?
MM: Mez is an incredibly strong spell, we’ve tried a few ways to add risk or create tension with it and haven’t been satisfied. We have some ideas for keeping the Enchanter identity as the king of CC but not having a single button with the power to lock down an endless number of opponents indefinitely. We would like to leverage the LAS for this identity and task to make it more engaging than a single button press as well. If a Wizard wants to go down the path of flame they load up their action bar with lots of fire spells. In kind, if an Enchanter wants to control the masses, they should also load up their action bar with lots of CC spells. The target limit is to get you to use other fun spells, part of the issue is not having other fun spells to use. The durations of mez and fixate on PTR are an insult to the class, we’ll make some adjustments and get feedback once those are in a better spot.
Question
Ranarius: What are the current design thoughts on spell pushback?
MM: Spell pushback is helping to accomplish a desired tension and incentive for spell casting in combat when you have the attention of an enemy. We’ll continue to adjustments to help dial it in and are aware of certain classes being overly punished by it. We’ve discussed changing the expression, but currently like having a slightly unique take on it.
Question
Ranarius: How close is the state of NPC leashing to your vision?
MM: 23%. I originally wrote 27, but went down to 23. Our pulling / threat system is still missing some critical elements.
Question
Ranarius: What are the current design thoughts on the Experience curve?
MM: We’re not thrilled about it currently but think a large part of that is due to the unified NPC’s not being complete and class kits not being tuned. Once we get the NPC’s and Players to the right spot, we’ll have a much better view of the experience situation.
Question
Ranarius: Has rested experience settled in close to what you had in mind or is there more adjusting to do there?
MM: As with the experience in general, it needs more dialing for sure.
Question
Ranarius: Is skill progression still intended to be an intentional choice from players (something to work toward) or just a byproduct of playing?
MM: Skill progression is still intended to be something players work toward. Not currently achieved, but something that is important to the vision.
Question
Sotosan: How does VR feel about the current itemization and has the team landed on how they want stats handled?
MM: Still a lot of missing puzzle pieces, waiting on upgraded tools to be completed and then the data entry to hit the game to give us a full picture.
Question
Jothany: Will mobs ever have a damage-scaling vulnerability to some types of weapon damage and resistance to other types of weapon damage, as was suggested in the early years? (Example: rock based mobs vulnerable to crushing damage but resistant to piercing damage) If that general system is not ever planned, will there ever just be specific weapons – either quested or crafted – that have an innate bonus damage to specific CLASSES of mobs?
MM: Magic / resist tables absolutely. Right now all of our NPC’s are using a default resistance loadout, we’ll be adding in values appropriate to the entity/kind/class of NPC’s as we continue work on their kits. We don’t want to lean too heavily into weapon damage types (slashing, piercing, blunt), but we will have some interactions. We are working on adding Bane damage to our weapons which would give a bonus against certain entities throughout the world.
Question
Ranarius: How is Bane damage coming along?
MM: Not great haha. It was introduced as a percentage multiplier instead of additive flat damage. We’re working with programming to find a solution that doesn’t bloat our stat modifier list but accomplishes the designers’ desire for functionality. We have had success in getting out elemental, magic, etc. modifiers working as intended though!
Question
Kurgan: What year can we expect crafting to come back in its new form? 2026? 2027?..
Ranarius: Is crafting still in the scope for the combat and progression update?
MM: 2027. No, crafting will not be in scope for the combat and progression update.
Technology
Question
CurtsMcGurts: What is the status of the tooling that was being worked on to make this easier/faster for designers, what exactly would those tools allow them to do?
MM: We are very excited for the work being done on our replacement tool for all of our database integration (currently Odin). The new tool is in the testing phase (currently an external tool that allows us to view and manipulate a snapshot of our database) before we finally make the switchover and can begin using it to make actual changes. The new tool will allow us to make database changes in real time (without a cache update / push / pull), checks for conflicting changes, runs bug diagnostics on graphs before we submit changes, and is much more designer friendly. No more silly decimal issues, Huzzah!
Question
CurtsMcGurts: Which areas of the codebase have the accumulated the most technical debt and is there currently any plans to address it?
MM: I’m not sure if it can be defined as the single-most technical debt, but our ability tool Odin has not aged well. Odin became a roadblock for the mastery system and ultimately caused us to hit pause. The amount of logic that the game had to run through each buff and ability to reach a result was causing performance issues. The tool is also very antiquated in terms of responsiveness, especially when making large batch changes to the database.
Question
Brohmur | Skar when?: On multiple occasions between 2020 and now we were told that systems and tools were being added to help speed up development. (NOTE: 09/05/2020 was the first “shakeout test” of Pantheon’s new and improved era of game development.) Year after year we heard about multiple “new” tools being worked on to help speed up production. Why is development still moving at a snail’s pace when you supposedly added multiple tools meant to streamline the process?
Waymok
RC: some tools just end up not working out for one reason or another. That’s the nature of game development. We have always tried to replace them with better tools but that takes time.
CR: The ability tool could not handle the creation and management of the sheer amount of complex logic to process the effect of multiple masteries on multiple abilities. This does not affect other areas of the game. However, in the process of upgrading the ability creation tool, other designer tools received radical upgrades and additional functionality (some of which MM touched on above) that will empower the designers while reducing the grind. I am hoping we can show the tool off to you in a stream, but only when doing a stream like that doesn’t take away precious development time.
Question
CurtsMcGurts: Roughly how big of a lift is it every time re itemization has to be done?
We are constantly making adjustments to various items throughout the world and that part can be done relatively quickly. The worst part is using Odin to set new loot tables or loot buckets on all the various NPC’s.
Concerning the items themselves, the weight of the lift is hard to pin down because it’s usually partial, or done in waves. For example, most of the uncommon items were left out of updates until recently, due to the sheer number of them – but now that we have better tooling to manage that amount of data, we can easily include them in adjustments in the future. Prior to that, we mostly focused on updating rare and higher quality items, as there was a smaller and more manageable number of them, as well as the fact that they are largely what is sought after. Those partial updates to itemization have been a fairly light lift – which is why they have happened several times, while the more comprehensive/bigger updates have been waiting for better tooling since doing them manually was too time intensive. One of the more time consuming aspects of updating items has been in the Odin system, as it involves a lot of fields, dropdowns and pop-ups to manipulate for each time. This has been a frustration point on the project for years and thankfully the new tool has support to do batch changes. If we could do it all over again from the start, this is an area we should have invested more in tooling for sooner.
Question
CurtsMcGurts: What about re-doing spells/abilities, assuming it’s similar effects but different levels within a spell line, including changing of numbers and tooltips?
MM: Most ability changes are quick data entry adjustments. Numbers and tooltips usually require more time in the spreadsheet stage or conceptually than actual work in tooling. Some can take as little as a minute or two; others require new ability graph logic which requires more of a “rework” in how the ability functions. Some abilities were originally designed to function completely differently than how they were released, but required programming time, new ability logic, or systems that weren’t supported previously. Those get put in a backlog based on priority and sometimes stay broken or lacking in original design expression for long periods of time.
Question
Oukbok: Why does the Unity asset store have amazing assets that look a million times better than your current graphics for a fraction of what yours probably cost (paying Bronsun & co) over the last months/years?
Max123: I would like to know why you cannot: use unity assets and push out new zones at speed.
RC: We do use asset store assets where it fits. But too many of them from too many different artists looks inconsistent. But we will continue to use store bought assets if it makes sense to do so.
Question
Pyrite: Has VR considered open sourcing Pantheon’s version control repository if the game is deemed non-viable to continue development on?
CR: We focus on shipping a great game.
Testing, Bug Reports and Feedback
Question
Arkhaz: How do you handle internal testing, quality assurances, and bug fixing cycles ?
RC: As of now, we have a small internal testing group that tests new features committed to the project. We also collect all bug reports in Discord, check them, and add them to our internal task management to be handled by the appropriate department. On top of that, QA holds advanced testing groups to cover group-related content that needs to be tested. QA also runs multi-step checklists to verify the quality of the build. If it passes internal QA, it gets pushed in the queue as an available candidate for PTR. After spending some time on PTR and if there are no game breaking issues, the build will get queued for release to production.
Question
Kurgan: Can we expect to see an ingame bugreport anytime soon? I really hope so, it would make things so much easier for us testers.
Redman323: Will you ever add an ingame bug report utility?
RC: When the build is back to a stable place, we might bring it back if it makes sense.
Question
Sugzug: At this point in development, have you thought of taking the Jagex approach and just asking the player base for input on direction and actually adhere to it?
Gorikon: Have you considered just going for the OSRS route of asking your community what the game needs and actually building off of what would work instead of losing players by pushing things no-one wants in the current state of the game, maybe sometime down the line?
RC: What happens when everyone in the player base has a different opinion? We try and encapsulate feedback into the game as much as possible without breaking what we believe we wanted for the game.
Other Questions
Question
Ranarius: What are your favorite kind of socks and can you still afford them?
MM: Costco socks, because I can afford them there.
CR: I don’t wear socks or shoes if I can avoid it. I am barefoot 90% of the time. When I run, I wear cheap thin 10 pack athletic socks. Sometimes I run barefoot.