Pantheon: One Year Later Part 3
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been over a year (or only a year, depending on your perspective) since the last time we shared Pantheon with our pre-alpha testers. Through streams, roundtables, and VIP discussions we’ve shared much and more about the many changes that Pantheon has undergone in that time. There’s nothing like a good old consolidated infodump however, so to celebrate our progress to date we present to you, our community, Pantheon: One Year Later.
Due to the sheer volume of information, we’ve decided to break this segment into three parts:
• First is a high-level overview of Upgrades and New Features.
• Next, we take a deep dive into our Combat System Enhancements.
• Last, but certainly not least, we take a look at a consolidated year’s worth of Patch Notes.
Click any of the links above to navigate or on the link at the bottom of the page to go to the next page.
Patch Notes
Below are the consolidated patch notes representing the fruits of our development efforts since our last pre-alpha test. While not representative of the full scope of bug-fixing, iteration, or behind-the-scenes work such as concept art, we have distilled the past year of efforts into the most current updates and additions to the game client.
Animation
• The in-combat idle and auto-attack animations for 1-handed slashing weapons have been updated.
• These animations should still be considered a work-in-progress.
• Some weapon types (e.g. 1-handed clubs and hammers) are sharing this same animation suite, and will be updated to their own animations at a later date.
• Added in-combat idle and auto-attack animations for Bo Staff.
• Added Strike, Sweep, and Downward Thrust Staff Technique animations.
• Adjusted Jogging animation.
• Added Sprinting animation.
• Added Near-Death animation suite.
• Created Dark Myr Swimming animation (not yet implemented).
• Created Ogre idle animation (not yet implemented).
• Created Dwarf idle animation (not yet implemented).
• Created Gnome idle animation (not yet implemented).
• Rigged new Human Male and Female models and Armor Set, including face rigging to support character customization.
• Remapped 42 animations from old to new rigs.
• The below apply to the new rig only, and will not be available in-game until the player character is converted to the new model:
• Added new Climbing animations.
• Added three new Spellcasting animations & spellcasting combat idle.
• Added animation to biological elements of certain mining node models.
Audio
• A temporary controller has been added for zone and combat music.
• Combat music has been re-enabled.
• When transitioning from In- to Out-of-Combat, zone music should resume from where it left off prior to entering combat.
Classes
A full list of Class Abilities available in Pre-Alpha is available on our Pre-Alpha forums.
• Cleric
• Cleric has been reintroduced as a Barrier-focused Healer with an emphasis on Melee support.
• Dire Lord
• All Dire Lord abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
• Enchanter
• All Enchanter abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
• Monk
• All Monk abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
• Added Bo Staff weapons.
• Unique to Monks, the Bo Staff is a two-hander that will double-attack with each auto-attack.
• Rogue
• All Rogue abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
• Shaman
• All Shaman abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
• New Shaman characters will now begin with a Spear weapon.
• Wizard
• All Wizard abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
Combat
• Adjusted the contribution of attributes. Characters will now begin the game with increased attributes overall, see regular attribute growth as they level, and see more impact from attribute-based buffs and debuffs.
• Different race/class combinations will see differences in their attribute gains per-level.
• Adjusted the rate at which Health and Mana are recovered, and introduced the Resting mechanic by which this recovery rate can be accelerated.
• Introduced skill-up system and class-based skill caps.
• Consolidated Weapon and Spellcasting skills.
• Disabled the contributions from Offense and Defense skills due to redundancy in combat formula adjustments.
• These skills will still improve for the time being to award the Second Chance Strike and Advantageous Assault techniques.
• Adjusted all base formulas that determine the contributions of stats, attributes, skills, and resists to combat outcomes.
• Consolidated the number of equippable item slots.
• Removed an innate bonus to threat generation that was granted to tank classes.
• Added Weapon Techniques and Readiness pool.
• Adjusted the formulas by which physical attacks derive their damage from equipped Weapons.
• Adjusted the contribution of off-hand weapon damage.
• Added attribute bonuses to various Techniques, Spells, and Abilities.
• Added skill bonuses and scaling effects to various Spells and Abilities.
• Adjusted the damage multiplier for Critical Hits.
• Increased the Global Cooldown to 2.5 seconds.
• Added support for attributes, stats, skills and resists to be driven to negative values.
• Removed Critical Hits from spells.
• Removed Global Cooldown from most spells.
• Added spell resist tiers to Direct Damage and Debuff outcomes.
• Added Concentration mechanic wherein spellcasting may be disrupted by incoming melee damage.
• Adjusted experience gains to be consistent between levels and driven by relative enemy level compared to the player.
• Adjusted the amount of experience required per level.
• Added group experience split. Experience rewards are now based on the highest level player to have taken action on the target.
• Added group experience bonuses. Group experience bonuses are reduced when fighting enemies of levels lower than the highest level group member to have taken action on the target.
• Adjusted the classes assigned to various NPC types, and established variance in attributes and skill levels according to assigned class.
• Added innate resist strengths and weaknesses for individual NPC types.
• Re-enabled the ability for NPCs to critically hit. Critical hits are still disabled for NPC Techniques at or below level 3.
• Added weapon-based Techniques to weapon-wielding NPCs.
• Adjusted the method by which NPCs receive a contribution to their combat stats from equipped weapons.
• All NPC abilities have had their effects, costs, and durations adjusted.
• Added level and skill requirements for relevant abilities to prevent use when leveled down.
• Standardized the duration of long-duration buffs to 36 minutes.
• The Disoriented status no longer functions as a crowd control effect.
• The Disoriented status will no longer be removed on damage taken.
• Added support for Guards to assist friendly players.
• Added Near-Death mechanic and Death penalties.
• Adjusted the parameters of the ‘Rabid’ disposition.
• Adjusted the parameters of the ‘Bloodthirsty’ disposition.
• The ‘Near Fire Source’ buff has been hidden to reduce floating combat text spam and make it easier to identify actual buffs/debuffs applied to the player and NPCs.
• Added an ‘Exhausted’ state to disable Sprinting and Climbing temporarily when players reach 0 Endurance.
Crafting
Gathering
• Mining has been enabled. To gain their first pickaxe and start their mining journey, characters should speak with Foreman Hynes in Availia.
• In order to see results from mining, a character must have the Mining skill at rank 1 or higher. Foreman Hynes will grant the skill as part of his dialogue.
• The Mining skill now tracks properly in the character sheet.
• The Mining skill will now persist on characters across logins.
Art & Graphics
• Converted Pantheon game client to HDRP.
• Added global Water volume.
• Added global Sky system.
• Added new Weather profiles.
• Added additional rock types.
• Adjusted the coloration of Thronefast city architecture.
• Added support to point lights for atmospheric light scattering.
• Increased the contribution of ambient light from the moon.
• Increased the distance at which NPCs will begin to render.
• Added new mining node variants.
• Added new Human Male and Human Female models.
• Added new Armor mesh fitted for new Human models including material variants.
• Added additional weapon models.
• Added new bespoke scene objects for Wellpond and Mad Moor POIs.
Quests
• Performed an initial tuning pass of rewards for functioning quests.
• Removed Monk starting task reward Frayed Hand Clothwraps
• Kal Whittick now sends adventurers to a more level-appropriate location. However, he also requires them to bring back something found there as proof of their visit.
• When assisting Zora LaBelle, adventurers will need to interact with her lost pet in order to complete the task.
• Wilbur Arkwright now requires proof of the demise of the creatures that plague him.
• Farmer Thaddy Rae now requires proof of the destruction of the wolves menacing his chickens.
• Tula Whisperblade now requires proof that young rogues are truly practicing the techniques she has taught them.
• Explorers have reported that necrolescent crystals may once again be found among the ruins near Availia.
• Due to changes in Gadai movements, various members of the Thronefast military are re-evaluating the tasks they need adventurers to perform. It is likely they will have work for interested individuals at a later date.
• After lengthy debate, Instructor Gnossa has been persuaded to provide more precise instructions on how to obtain the sample he needs.
• Woosas the Owl has returned from his travels. He has found a new place with a great view where he contemplates important matters.
• After a recent meeting at an undisclosed location, Master Anzel denies any knowledge of cursed blades, and refuses to speak any further on the matter at this time.
• Realizing that they were being taken advantage of by adventurers, Finn Kalvoy and Ravis Anekoth will now only reward adventurers with a single item. They no longer offer additional rewards for bringing them the same materials again.
Systems & Tools
• Added new biome generation tools.
• Added new cliff-building spline tool.
• Added new road generation spline tool.
• Added new crafting recipe editor tool.
• Added tool to export ability and buff data to CSV files.
• Added Crafting Station world item category.
• Added support to differentiate NPCs by Kind (Humanoid, Undead, etc.), including references in ability graphs and conditions.
• Added support to define skill levels on NPC templates.
• Added 34 new stat types to support itemization and background formulas.
• Added back-end support for Bo Staff attack animations.
• Added Bo Staff double-attack mechanic.
• Added RNG-compensation formulas to adjust for Hit and Crit events.
• Added support for automatic granting of abilities upon reaching skill thresholds.
• Added support for ability groups with shared cooldowns.
• Adjusted ability graph nodes to support revised combat formulas.
• Added graph nodes to support long-term storage of VFX, Damage Type, and Entity data.
• Added graph node with expanded weighted randomization functionality.
• Added graph node to detect player distance from crafting stations.
• Added graph node to modify an entity’s assigned faction at runtime.
• Added graph node to modify an entity’s name at runtime.
• Added graph node to parse Wizard focus pool data.
• Added graph node to read ability costs.
• Added graph node to read applied buff category.
• Added graph node to stop a cast outside of interrupt functions.
• Added graph node to detect position of entity relative to other entities.
• Added graph node to detect whether an entity is facing another entity.
• Added NPC AI supporting the addition of Techniques and Readiness.
• Added support for abilities learned on first acquiring an item.
• Added support for abilities learned while equipping an item.
• Initial functionality for corpse-summoning
• Added support to define item buy/sell values independent from each other.
• Added Deathbound and Lifebound item flags.
• Added support for Magic item flag.
• Added support for Temp item flag.
• Added condition to check caster class level.
• Added condition to check caster skill level.
• Added condition to check caster has weapon type equipped.
• Added Durability values to items in advance of future integration.
• Refined Designer tools for defining faction relationships.
• Refined Designer tools for defining NPC loot tables.
• Refined Designer tools for defining NPC dialogues and event behaviors.
• Added support for NPCs to equip a weapon based on their potential loot pool.
User Interface
• Added over 4,000 new ability and item icons.
• Added a window to the character sheet displaying skills and their present vs. maximum values.
• Removed deprecated item slots from the character sheet.
• Floating Combat Text (FCT) has been updated with additional information and improved colors for visibility and comprehension of combat events.
•FCT will now display for both outgoing and incoming damage/healing and buff/debuff events.
•Only events relative to the local player will be displayed.
•For non-auto-attacks, FCT will now display the ability name associated with a damage/healing event.
•The ability to filter and/or disable Floating Combat Text will be added at a later date.
• Messaging has been added to floating combat text for Resist events on direct damage spells.
• The Character Creation scene has been updated.
•There is a known issue in which character models are not displayed in the character selection or creation scenes.
• The position of nameplates and chat bubbles have been adjusted to allow for additional cast bar data.
• A UI element has been added to player health bars to reflect when an absorption shield, such as those applied by Clerics, is active.
•This element should display as the total value of the shield relative to the player’s maximum health, e.g. if a player has 100 max health and a shield of 20 is applied, the UI element will appear as 20% of the player’s total health bar.
• Ability scrolls have been updated with descriptions of the abilities/spells/techniques they impart.
• Abilities in the codex now display their minimum level requirement.
• Abilities which cannot be used due to an incorrect weapon equipped, insufficient character level, or insufficient skill level will now be greyed out in the ability codex.
• Enemies will no longer display their levels to players. Relative enemy difficulty may be determined by targeting an entity and using the /consider function (default hotkey C).
• Adjusted the criteria and messaging for Consider messages.
• Numerical experience gains are no longer displayed to players.
• Item values have been restricted to only be displayed in item tooltips while interacting with a vendor.
• The Enter and Backslash keys no longer open the chat window input while a player is editing a macro.
• An initial Crafting UI has been implemented.
• An initial Banking UI has been implemented.
• The Endurance resource has been removed from the character resource window and a new dedicated UI element has been created to display it when being consumed or regenerating.
Zone Design & Population
Initial NPC Pathfinding corrections have been implemented, allowing NPCs to navigate across tiles within a zone.
• Thronefast
• Collision volumes have been added to the water surface volume and the borders of Thronefast, to prevent players from traveling underwater or into other zones, respectively.
• These volumes will be removed as swimming and additional zones are made available.
• Adjusted the placement, volume, spawn rate, and types of all enemy and NPC spawns.
• Certain quests have been temporarily deprecated as a result of their targets no longer existing.
• Adjusted the placement and footprint of major camps and POIs.
• Adjusted the layout of Availia and the placement of POIs therein.
• Adjusted the available level bands of roaming, camp, and mini-dungeon content.
• Expanded the zone footprint including additional explorable mountains, plateaus, and caves.
• Avendyr’s Pass
• Adjusted the placement, volume, spawn rate, and types of all enemy and NPC spawns.
• Certain quests have been temporarily deprecated as a result of their targets no longer existing.
• Adjusted the placement and footprint of major camps and POIs.
• Adjusted the available level bands of roaming, camp, and mini-dungeon content.
• Expanded the zone footprint including additional explorable mountains, plateaus, and caves.
• Halnir Cave
• Updated Halnir Cave lighting and materials for HDRP integration.
• Wild’s End
• Created new art assets and established scene composition for Ghaldassii Ruin, Daedrym Talon, The Gate, Sorhiryth, Mad Moor, and Wellpond POIs.
| Producer’s Letter | Monthly Recap | Pantheon: One Year Later – Part 3 | Guilds of Pantheon |
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