April Pantheon Newsletter – Looking Toward the Land of Blood and Snow
Greetings, adventurers of Terminus!
Chapter 1 Season 2 is well under way and the community response has been fantastic. The initial release of Mad Run has been a hit with the VIPs, with some players reporting it has been the most fun they’ve had in the game to date, which is incredibly encouraging to us. We are looking forward to having the rest of our pledges join us over the next couple of weeks.
Champions will be joining Season 2 for two weeks starting this Saturday, April 27th, and Supporters will join for the final week of the season starting May 4th. To celebrate the welcoming of the Champions and Supporters to Season 2, we have created a special pledge for Champion access at a reduced cost with the new Rider’s Pledge. This pledge is a no-frills two-week-per-season access pledge. The Rider’s Pledge will only be available until Sunday, April 28. Those of you interested in other Champion tier pledges, a monthly payment option is now available for the Pathfinder’s Pledge. The monthly payment option for the Pathfinder’s Pledge will continue to be available even after The Rider’s Pledge is removed on April 28th. Both pledges are available on the Pledge Page.
Chapter 1 Season 2 ends May 10th and Season 3 starts the next day, on May 11th. Season 3: Land of Blood and Snow promises to bring many new adventures and challenges for our players. There’s a new climate, the Frigid Climate, which is wildly different from what we’ve seen in Seasons 1 and 2. Along with it comes the Acclimation system, which will help you deal with such a cold environment. Also in Season 3, players will encounter the North Tusk Orcs as a new major NPC in the game, getting a taste of the Orc culture, sights, sounds and how they handle themselves in combat.
So what have we been doing in preparation for Season 3: Land of Blood and Snow?
Personally, I have been working with Tim Wathen, one of our Designers, to finalize the NPC population and placement in Hanggore. Our goal is to strategically place each NPC to provide a challenging and engaging experience for you.
In addition, I’ve been focusing on the various North Tusk Orc NPCs, working to finish their unique ability arsenals and the loot tables for the named NPCs. This is a crucial step in ensuring that our NPCs provide a unique and rewarding experience for our players.
Furthermore, I’ve been working with Mark Maraglino, another one of our Designers, on updating various abilities and techniques for our current classes, and making small balancing adjustments. We’re always striving to improve and balance our classes to provide a fair and enjoyable experience for all players.
The rest of the team has been keeping busy by fixing bugs, developing Hanggore, and finishing off the Ogre armor sets. We have also been working on getting the environment system back online and we have been testing the Acclimation system for Season 3. It has been a productive month.
So, with all that, what is coming next?
The next big thing on the radar is re-incorporating our Pulse engine so we can get the Perception system re-implemented and continue its development. With it comes Perception Pings, Storylines, more dynamic NPC interactions and dialogue options, NPC to NPC interactions, and more.
We are also looking to improve the base functionality of class abilities, and reduce the dependency on Mastery upgrades to fulfill class roles effectively. To this end, we will be disabling the Mastery System for a time and adjusting the base values of those Mastery-enabled abilities. This is part of our ongoing commitment to balance and improve the gameplay experience.
And further down the pipe, beyond Season 3, we have even more to look forward to: the Summoner and Ranger classes, and Halnir Cave. We’ve already started getting everything ready for work to begin on Halnir Cave. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Bronsun, our Art Lead, and the concept artists to make sure we have all of our concept art in place for the various NPCs so our 3D artists can hit the ground running once work for Season 3 wraps up.
As always, we’re committed to providing you with the best gaming experience possible. We’re eager to hear your feedback on these upcoming changes and we’re looking forward to seeing you in the Land of Blood and Snow.
To close things off, we’d like to share with you a few links to some content creators playing Pantheon that we’ve enjoyed watching this month.
- Route ER – https://www.twitch.tv/route_er
- The Game Mechanic – https://www.twitch.tv/thegamemechanic
- DiemondGames – https://www.twitch.tv/diemondgames
- tullius2020 – https://www.twitch.tv/tullius2020
- GuloGulo_Gaming – https://www.twitch.tv/gulogulo_gaming
- Enoch87 – https://www.twitch.tv/enoch87
- Thaddeus The Tank – https://www.twitch.tv/thaddeus_the_tank
- Hot Kittenz – https://www.twitch.tv/hot_kittenz
And thank you to the many others who have also been sharing your Pantheon experiences!
Chris “Joppa” Perkins
Creative Director
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