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State of the Game, May 2016
Zarriya
Member UncommonPosts: 446
State of the Game, May 2016
Posted date / 5.10.15
Hello all,
Well, it’s that time for another ‘State of the Game Update’!
First I’d like to welcome all of the new Pantheon team members who have come on board recently! You can read all about them here.
With the reinforcements to the World Building team we are currently engaging the continent of King’s Reach on all fronts. Avendyr’s Pass which we showcased in the Twitch demo is being finalized and will include an overland dungeon called Black Dagger Keep. Wild’s End, Faerthale, and Thronefast are well underway and the Steppes of Ru’Lun and the Roans (where the Silent Sanctum is located) have been started. The next region we plan on showcasing will be Black Dagger Keep. You will see more of this next month.
As for programming, design, and game mechanics we are wrapping up combat 2.0 which is our first major revision and tweaking of the combat system, taking into account what we learned during our first major milestone as well as more recent testing. We are quite pleased with the results thus far and are setting up our tools so that the designers can more easily tweak and test core values like ‘how long should an average level 3 fight last’, ‘how often should a level 7 miss when fighting a level 10’, and so forth.
Mana Climates and the Atmosphere system are further along and becoming more robust than what we showed during the Twitch demo and at GDC. The remaining classes, levels and abilities are being spec’d out. Our scripting language that will allow us to create NPC Dispositions and Behaviors is now ready for us to start testing. Lastly, the Perception and Quest systems which we showed at GDC and the tools necessary to efficiently create them are really coming together.
It’s an extremely busy time but also a lot of fun! As the tools and content creation pipelines are maturing we are able to get things done even more quickly than in the past. Add to that the positive impact of the recent team growth and the result is that not only is more work being accomplished but more tasks can be worked on in parallel.
All that said, we are still actively pursuing additional resources so that we can continue to grow the team, especially the World Building team. As I’ve mentioned in the past we need to make sure that not only the game is ready before we start any external testing but also that there’s enough content. While we don’t need to have the entire world of Terminus built, we’d like to have King’s Reach playable, preferably with both overland and dungeon content for levels 1 thru around 40.
What is the timing on getting our pledgers in game? It’s still too early to set anything in stone. It really depends on when we get the resources we need – there are a lot of variables, but you can be sure we are working hard and that the project is moving forward nicely. We’d love to start testing at the end of the year or the beginning of the next but again the game has to be ready and the content created and so we continue to ask for your patience and understanding. As excited as we are and you are to experience Pantheon we also all know that it serves no purpose to bring in people too early. But we will certainly keep you updated.
Well, that pretty much sums it up. We’re looking forward to the next reveal, the next showcasing of the world, and we’ll definitely be doing another Twitch demo once we have a couple of these new regions ready to play in internally and also a few more of the Pantheon Differentiators demonstrable.
Thanks all,
-Brad “Aradune Mithara” McQuaid
Comments
Likewise
Though i do have to once more note my concerns. Less than a year than their expected launch and critical, central issues are still up in the air. Experience says this can only result in a rushing them in and us hoping a proper Alpha will suffice. In normal circumstances that could suffice, but it would still be a bad sign. Stuff like classes specialisations, how they will function and so on, economy and how systems central to it will work among others should be set in stone (even if only on an idealistic level) from the get go. Says something when they're not, conceptually speaking you'd expect these things to be thought of in advance.
Even worse, as you may have noticed, i said "in normal circumstances". Hardly those applying for Pantheon, not when you got such a strict time window. A year before officially launching and so much up in the air is not a healthy sign.
For me mind. I understand how others may choose to view this differently, ignoring two decades of rushed in and/or shallow minded projects. And they do, and good for them. This is me stating my own opinion
Either way, again, looking forward to it. Make or break for many of us, gamers and developers alike, lol
Pride, honour and purity
While it may come as a disappointment for alpha or launch to be pushed back, that would be the wise choice rather than attempting to release the game before its ready.
Its also totally possible that what you think they are aiming to launch with and what they are actually planning on doing may not be the same thing.
No disappointment, on the contrary, am sure most of us would appreciate that happening; a delay would entail extra funding and that is something to the benefit of us all. I wholeheartedly wish for that to happen
As to what they intend to launch with or without, you are of course correct. It is impossible for me to be aware of such an internal piece of information.
Being an intelligent individual however (and i know you are) you do owe it to yourself to admit the difference between what you stated and what i did ^^
Being incapable of 'putting it all in' within a year is not only understandable, but commendable if/when it gets to be applied.
Being at a state where central concepts are and i quote "up to discussion" even now, as we speak, is a different thing altogether. Again, because we have naysayers: This is not inherently bad, negative, etc. It is however a worrying sign. I have said it before i know, but ideas are free. They come sans cost or funds.
(you see typically, you have a design philosophy, you have a conceptualising already done and you move on to testing/implementing. When you've reached the implementing stage and are still uncertain of what and how central pieces to the puzzle will or do fit? With less than a year to go? See what i mean? Classes [in terms of gameplay i mean, not numbers], economy.. they can't be cut out and postponed for post-launch content, they're in from the get go)
Pride, honour and purity
I agree with Dullahan,
Launching Pantheon to early would be suicide, however this is the team of developers that REALLY UNDERSTANDS HOW TO MAKE AN MMO.
Best of all they learned to not allow financial backers to rush it out. This is key to making an mmo !
Good stuff, very good stuff !!!!
The things being discussed that aren't set in stone are the systems that would be placed on top of that foundation. Some of those discussions are on ways to implement things from Vanguard, other games, or brand new ideas. Its not to say that finding ways to integrate those ideas will be easy, but I don't think they warrant your worrying.
@delete5230 you're out of topic. Read again
@Dullahan i don't want us to have a second argument and i am being honest. So i will simply state what i meant in yet a different way, as i think you've misunderstood, and leave it at that, since your reasoning i understand and accept. No one's to say i am wrong or right in this and your view of things is just as valid as mine, since we both lack the magic crystal ball. So this is just my making sure you got me (maybe you already did). It could at the least help form a clearer picture about me/my posts elsewhere
You (appear mind) to dance around the issue again. In your first post, you went to the extreme general and now to the micro level of fine tuning and iteration. I was not addressing either. Hence my choosing the nouns i chose.
When someone who's had a good ten years of sitting back and thinking comes and tells me "i'm really not sure how specialisations will work, or what exactly we are aiming for with each class" and/or "the systems pertaining to the economy are still being under consideration" a mere year prior to launching, i, personally, worry. You appear to have some faith in their stating an overly general "we imagine this and that" and "it will be based on EQ". I do not. I support because well you know why, made a whole post about it here; i do not support because i have faith, not in what you do. I could not. For me to have faith, they'd need to say more than we "imagine this". Faith i can have in someone saying "because we imagine this, x and y and z so as for i) and ii) and iii)". Or more to the point: "Because we have Pantheon's tenets, we will be doing this, that and the other"
That's what would give me faith. Stil just.. ideas, conceptualisations; still up in the air. Still on a "we imagine" level. But with evidence of a design philosophy full, complete, thought out and most, most of all, solid. That's the idea level. You tweak, tune and reiterate so as for said solid concept(s) to be fleshed out in their fullest. That however entails your a priori having them and they don't, not as of yet. You do not go at this in the inverse manner; you do not "re-visualise" them simultaneously with implementing. Not unless.. you did not know (and they don't), you did not sit down long enough so as to at least be capable of specifying the norms that define them and as such the elements needed so as to emphasise them. MMOs that went about it this way, the inverse, did not fair too well.
Anyway, hopefuly what my first post did not make clear, this third will. Again, i get what you're telling me and it may well be you're right. I sure as hell wish you are! ^^
Pride, honour and purity
Keep up the good work and god speed........
@SavageHorizon no one's arguing. I see two grown ups having a polite, detailed conversation and that is a good, healthy sign. Both for Pantheon and for its community
Now was there something specific you wanted to contribute with or will you be content only if the flow of each and every conversation goes along your personal needs and desires?
Pride, honour and purity
Start testing in late 2016 - early 2017 ......
So a possible launch in late 2017 or sometime in 2018 ???
Sounds decent to me. Just take you time and get everything working before the game launches. We don't want another Vanguard, an excellent game that never gathered sufficient players due to a bad initial release.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
You are basically saying you're not convinced dinner is going to be good tonight, because the chef isn't sure which placemats to put out.
I always hoped that MMORPGs would "grow up," in this way versus the changes brought about by the WoW bubble. CoE looks good too (will certainly play both) but Pantheon is firmly PvE centered isn't it?
So while the developers might not explicitly say "This class is the solo class", having a certain combinations of speed buffs/debuffs, DoTs, fears, AOE damage, etc. will make soloing more viable for some classes over others.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests