It looks alright but the problem is these mmorpgs that are being kickstarted are taking forever to come out and be worked on leaving people jaded. There are a bunch of other mmorpgs that will release around the same time as pantheon such as crowfall, chronicals of eysia and camelot unchained.
I don't think it will be an ultra sucess, but if it comes out first I more than likely will try it out because there litterally no good mmorpgs out there. Just f2p ones(SW:TOR, DCUO) I already played when they launched, Korean P2w mmos(Archeage, BDO) and old stale mmorpgs (WoW and lotro).
MMORPGs have problem retaining 250k people because mostly they are a pile of steaming shit, let's be honest.
They stay around that number because that's been the norm for the genre since it's inception. Saying they're 'shit" is nothing but forum show, it's not universal honesty or truth. People need to learn to look at the overall genre, not just WOW, in terms of success. Mass success has always been around 500k and only a few games ever achieve it, fewer have sustained it long term outside of WOW. WOW is not the genre, much like Civ sales do not represent the broader strategy market.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The cultural shift is more then supposition, there are far more entertainment options today then in 2000, all carving away the same 24 hour day.
It's not a cultural shift....you just got older. Older people who still play games are the exception, not the norm. Younger people have plenty of time, they frikking live on internet 24/7.
Er...I was "older" back in 2000, and now with my children grown up and gone I actually have more free time now.
Doesn't change the fact there's so much more competing for my free time now.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
My friend and I agree, that, there's not much innovation in this title to help push the genre. That being said, it's more like it's targeting a niche market now. Old-school gamers of nostalgia seem to be the primary target. That's not a bad thing by any stretch, but, unfortunately it's not going to bring in tons of subs. I'd be surprised if the game hits above 250k at its peak. There are some things I'd like to see this game do, but it seems a bit early to know, or likely won't happen anyways.
With all the procedural tech coming around, it's possible to create a whole planet for a game world and have decent procedural content. The devs can then just focus on certain areas they want to customize the content for players. Loading screens really shouldn't be there anymore.. I'm really hating this about Pantheon.
It doesn't sound like you or your friend have read much about Pantheon then. There is a lot of new stuff being introduced beyond those retro or oldschool elements, which are mostly the more group-dependent and social aspects of the game.
I watched one of their streams recently and pulled out about 30 factual points confirmed about the game. Looks ok sure. Yet that information and the website haven't really sold me on much of any innovative elements of the game.
It's on my radar, but the blip is small. Personally, loading screens is a BIG thing for me. I'm all about believing on being in the game world I'm playing in. Getting jerked out due to loading screens is simply, now-a-days, a very unnecessary design model.
I may forgive that type of stuff if there are lots of other things I like. Yet.... We'll see..
I watched one of their streams recently and pulled out about 30 factual points confirmed about the game. Looks ok sure. Yet that information and the website haven't really sold me on much of any innovative elements of the game.
It's on my radar, but the blip is small. Personally, loading screens is a BIG thing for me. I'm all about believing on being in the game world I'm playing in. Getting jerked out due to loading screens is simply, now-a-days, a very unnecessary design model.
I may forgive that type of stuff if there are lots of other things I like. Yet.... We'll see..
I agree. Think it would be great if they could find a way to eliminate zoning. In the meantime, they could offer options to remove loading bars and loading screens. Could also maybe morph the image you see on one side of the zone, into the other.
Mark my words: People will move on from Pantheon after 2-6 weeks regardless of how good it is - if it's the best game in history of gaming - your average player will STILL move on after 2-6 weeks.
Why? Because people simply don't play games like they did 15 years ago.
This argument of yours always make me smile. I don't think you are actually thinking when you say that. It seems you elevated yourself as the benchmark for every other MMORPG player.
15 years ago you were a teenager with lots of time in your hand, now you are a family man with less time. Am I correct?
But guess what....teenagers are still around and have more spare time today than ever. In Asia they have to put an artificial cut off time in their games to avoid people playing for days on end, and you are telling me that today people have no time? You have no time, don't speak for everyone else.
The reality is that students, teenagers and young professionals have still plenty of time to dedicate to gaming, and this category account for 70% of the gaming population. Are you going to argue with that?
You are trying to argue with the guy who firmly stated people don't have the same 24 hours per day because he is busy and can't afford time to play games anymore. So, for some unseen logic, the Earth spins differently because of his single life and obligations and everyone should adjust in accord.
+1 to Nyctelios statement,
You can't argue with someone who is convinced their own life situation is everyone else's.
The same person that just a year ago stated that ArcheAge was the absolute best mmo ever and hyped it to no end. Contradicting everyone rage. A Korean game that could be the standard for a "money cash shop grab".
MMO's are not dead, the players are still 100% waiting........ Just nothing to play.
I feel that compared to 1999 when I played Everquest so much I almost got divorced (not proud of it) nowadays I have more time as my kids have grown up and my husband will be retiring soon well hopefully they do not increase the retirement age again, at this rate he will be well into his 70's before they allow it.
I have more time for sure but I'm not sure knowing everything I do about this genre in the ensuing 17 years I have actually become more aware of what a game like Everquest actually is in terms of time,energy,emotional and physical commitment. I am also aware of the type of guild politics, race for content and items and how an open world with no dungeon instances work. What I'm saying is that I am not that innocent stay at home mother who just got a computer and playing her first MMORPG with no experience what this type of game can do to my life.
I am not advocating for instances so hold the pitchforks and torches. I think I enjoy the ideas that the participation in dungeons is not guaranteed as long as you can get a group up.
What I'm saying is that while you may argue that people have just as much time now as they did in 1999 that is not the only criteria and also not the only barrier to playing this type of game. For me the end game and its loot is not that big of a deal and even if I might want to participate in it I'm not going to leave if I find I cannot.
It's perfectly fine to limit the dungeons and end game content but not everyone joining a game is going to be happy with what they see. Given their experiences with how current games work they will not have the patience to handle the restrictions.
While I wish Brad and his team all the success I am sorry to point out that his previous game Vanguard Saga Of Heroes was very buggy and really lost a lot of people as a result. Vanguard was a beautiful game crippled by the terrible bugs it had that lead me to despair and in spite of staying and playing I finally left when I could no longer deny the falling population was a sign of its failing. I am hoping he does better but I am not confident he will and that this game will be quite buggy too in my opinion. Problem is people have even less patience with buggy games than they did when Vanguard came out. I am really sorry to bring this sore point up but there it is and even though it is cruel to throw this up it is another reason I cannot countenance the OP's sentiments.
I am not arguing against the success of Pantheon but merely what the OP is expecting. His expectations are wildly unrealistic and his ideas on how people will react grossly exaggerated. I think Pantheon can and will do well but nothing very grand for sure and I am confident that my predictions are not wrong.
I watched one of their streams recently and pulled out about 30 factual points confirmed about the game. Looks ok sure. Yet that information and the website haven't really sold me on much of any innovative elements of the game.
It's on my radar, but the blip is small. Personally, loading screens is a BIG thing for me. I'm all about believing on being in the game world I'm playing in. Getting jerked out due to loading screens is simply, now-a-days, a very unnecessary design model.
I may forgive that type of stuff if there are lots of other things I like. Yet.... We'll see..
I agree. Think it would be great if they could find a way to eliminate zoning. In the meantime, they could offer options to remove loading bars and loading screens. Could also maybe morph the image you see on one side of the zone, into the other.
Hahaha! I'd love that!
Just imagine as you start to see what is on the other side of the zoneline as it becomes more clear, that there is a huge train to zone. I can imagine the panic of the person behind the screen while it get closer to be done loading...
Just imagine as you start to see what is on the other side of the zoneline as it becomes more clear, that there is a huge train to zone. I can imagine the panic of the person behind the screen while it get closer to be done loading...
Great idea!
That would be epic! La, de dah de dah... WTF is that! Abort! Abort!
I watched one of their streams recently and pulled out about 30 factual points confirmed about the game. Looks ok sure. Yet that information and the website haven't really sold me on much of any innovative elements of the game.
It's on my radar, but the blip is small. Personally, loading screens is a BIG thing for me. I'm all about believing on being in the game world I'm playing in. Getting jerked out due to loading screens is simply, now-a-days, a very unnecessary design model.
I may forgive that type of stuff if there are lots of other things I like. Yet.... We'll see..
I agree. Think it would be great if they could find a way to eliminate zoning. In the meantime, they could offer options to remove loading bars and loading screens. Could also maybe morph the image you see on one side of the zone, into the other.
Yes, I totally agree on the morphing transition screen. It was an idea I brought up many times on the forums back in the Everquest, Everquest 2 days.. Issue is, I don't think they could rightly tell accurately enough when a player's PC would actually be ready to zone in to a new zone. So the animation transition would have to have a start, a middle, and and end transition animation. The end transition animation would be kicked off when the client/server confirmed both were ready for the final transition in.
However, my point was for fast travel(which I don't really like), in the sense of druid/wizard portals. Not non-magical zoning between land areas.
Going from one zone to another in a game world map doesn't really work for me with the zone morphing idea.
I feel that compared to 1999 when I played Everquest so much I almost got divorced (not proud of it) nowadays I have more time as my kids have grown up and my husband will be retiring soon well hopefully they do not increase the retirement age again, at this rate he will be well into his 70's before they allow it.
I have more time for sure but I'm not sure knowing everything I do about this genre in the ensuing 17 years I have actually become more aware of what a game like Everquest actually is in terms of time,energy,emotional and physical commitment. I am also aware of the type of guild politics, race for content and items and how an open world with no dungeon instances work. What I'm saying is that I am not that innocent stay at home mother who just got a computer and playing her first MMORPG with no experience what this type of game can do to my life.
I am not advocating for instances so hold the pitchforks and torches. I think I enjoy the ideas that the participation in dungeons is not guaranteed as long as you can get a group up.
What I'm saying is that while you may argue that people have just as much time now as they did in 1999 that is not the only criteria and also not the only barrier to playing this type of game. For me the end game and its loot is not that big of a deal and even if I might want to participate in it I'm not going to leave if I find I cannot.
It's perfectly fine to limit the dungeons and end game content but not everyone joining a game is going to be happy with what they see. Given their experiences with how current games work they will not have the patience to handle the restrictions.
While I wish Brad and his team all the success I am sorry to point out that his previous game Vanguard Saga Of Heroes was very buggy and really lost a lot of people as a result. Vanguard was a beautiful game crippled by the terrible bugs it had that lead me to despair and in spite of staying and playing I finally left when I could no longer deny the falling population was a sign of its failing. I am hoping he does better but I am not confident he will and that this game will be quite buggy too in my opinion. Problem is people have even less patience with buggy games than they did when Vanguard came out. I am really sorry to bring this sore point up but there it is and even though it is cruel to throw this up it is another reason I cannot countenance the OP's sentiments.
I am not arguing against the success of Pantheon but merely what the OP is expecting. His expectations are wildly unrealistic and his ideas on how people will react grossly exaggerated. I think Pantheon can and will do well but nothing very grand for sure and I am confident that my predictions are not wrong.
Vanguard: Saga of Heros was a painful experience for me. It lost most of its potential player-base between release and when SOE took over. Many people dropped the game, simply because of all the CTDs they were getting, just couldn't play the game. Some things promised to be in at release never made it in til later. The seamless zoning I loved, but honestly, it was a noticeable impact on most people's PCs. Called 'Chunking'. Going over chunk lines. Today's PCs and further optimization of that game's code make it basically a non-issue of today. Basically ArcheAge is a game that does it VERY well.
To your point however, I basically share it. Being an EQvet since 2000, going through Vanguard, and then seeing more of the innovations in MMOs over the past 10 years. Well, to me, I think Pantheon needs more than the old-school diehards to make it a success. It's one reason why loading screens is a big checkbox in the NO column.
I do have some hope for Pantheon, but I'm simply not sold yet. It's going to take a lot to sell me on this title. MMOs are a time-killer. You need to invest a lot of time to play. I typically only play one MMO at a time.
Let's see how this goes when it finally is released (maybe late 2018).
If a developer gets 99% of the game right,i couldn't care less about a loading screen.Every single game out there has lost immersion in almost every aspect of it's design,so point the finger at a loading screen is only 1% of the problem. To be honest,we can't even properly discuss these games because every topic needs 6/7/8 paragraphs to properly explain the entire design for each area and how it should be done. I will say this,i have 99% confidence that Brad know's what would make a great ,amazing game but i also feel he is restricted from doing so.Budget,team size,team skill,timelines all a factor.If he had Star citizen's cosntant cash flow then i would be sitting on the edge of my seat,but that is not happening.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
I was an early patron of the game, but some recent reveals have turned me off. I had hoped that it would be more like Vanguard than EQ, but that doesn't appear to be happening and I refuse to go back to the days of sitting on my butt to meditate and being forced to always camp thanks to the need to meditate. I'm not addicted to MMO's to the extent that I will play them despite the downsides and or bugs. There are aspects of game play that I will not overlook and will happily move on to the next game or stop playing them altogether until something else comes along.
I no longer care if the game succeeds or fails, I'm already looking at Dark and Light and if it fails to please, then I'm ready for the long wait for something else.
I was an early patron of the game, but some recent reveals have turned me off. I had hoped that it would be more like Vanguard than EQ, but that doesn't appear to be happening and I refuse to go back to the days of sitting on my butt to meditate and being forced to always camp thanks to the need to meditate. I'm not addicted to MMO's to the extent that I will play them despite the downsides and or bugs. There are aspects of game play that I will not overlook and will happily move on to the next game or stop playing them altogether until something else comes along.
I no longer care if the game succeeds or fails, I'm already looking at Dark and Light and if it fails to please, then I'm ready for the long wait for something else.
i asked you once before.....why not play a class that doesn't require medding?
I was an early patron of the game, but some recent reveals have turned me off. I had hoped that it would be more like Vanguard than EQ, but that doesn't appear to be happening and I refuse to go back to the days of sitting on my butt to meditate and being forced to always camp thanks to the need to meditate. I'm not addicted to MMO's to the extent that I will play them despite the downsides and or bugs. There are aspects of game play that I will not overlook and will happily move on to the next game or stop playing them altogether until something else comes along.
I no longer care if the game succeeds or fails, I'm already looking at Dark and Light and if it fails to please, then I'm ready for the long wait for something else.
Having to stop and rest will not prevent a group from crawling. It will only prevent a group from crawling non-stop. Without rest taking time, resource management, strategy, and the danger of exploration take a huge hit.
i asked you once before.....why not play a class that doesn't require medding?
Pretty sure every class will have some sort of resource expenditure. Allowing melees to go nonstop while casters had to meditate was the main source of imbalance in EQ, and why raids constantly wanted more monks and rogues rather than wizards.
If it were up to me, I'd make even auto attack drain energy.
There are elements of EQ and Vanguard that I want to see return. However, they need to be adjusted in a smart way. I'm waiting to see more of Pantheon play examples to get better grasps on how things will work. Wait and see..
Just look what's going on in the General Discussion Forums. Then look at any individual game forums, and then look at the Pantheon Forum, and last watch how people react when mentioning Pantheon.
I only started following Pantheon for this very reason... and some banners on signatures.
IMO a game with forced grouping requires more than a niche playerbase... player times * character levels * character classes * completed dungeon progression = a real problem getting in a group fast if the population is <100K.
I'm skeptical, but am trying to learn more about the game.
Forced grouping can work easily even with a nitche playerbase if you think even the largest games have server caps.
So even if pantheon had 50k subs max, which I would say will be low. It could still have 10k per server. So the population per server would not be any lower then if the game had 10-50million players really.
Since pantheon has no cross world dungeon finders to my knowledge the size of the population outside your server will have 0 impact on your ability to get things done.
Only thing overall population usually dictates is how long a game last. Larger and stable population means longer life for the game.
/snip I am not arguing against the success of Pantheon but merely what the OP is expecting. His expectations are wildly unrealistic and his ideas on how people will react grossly exaggerated. I think Pantheon can and will do well but nothing very grand for sure and I am confident that my predictions are not wrong.
Vanguard: Saga of Heros was a painful experience for me. It lost most of its potential player-base between release and when SOE took over. Many people dropped the game, simply because of all the CTDs they were getting, just couldn't play the game. Some things promised to be in at release never made it in til later.
/snip
Most of that is what I can not forget about McQuaid's last game.
He could not even produce Vanguard to completion with $30+ mil and dozens of full time, paid, employees. It was released, months later after SOE bought it, and barely worked for most, did not work at all for some.
And yet, with Pantheon, some magical masterpiece is supposed to come into being, if you believe people like the OP, with a semi-amateur team and a very small sliver of the money.
In the MMO business, cash is not king, it is God.
All the ideas and plans and designs and hopes, dreams and everything else will not amount to jack if there is not the cash to pay for the effort to force it into existence, in anything other than Mortal Online form.
Have hope about this title if you want, but having reasonable expectations will serve a lot better.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
"Accused" is the word that pops out to me. What was the end verdict? Did they prove it and settle or take him to court? I honestly don't know but I assume you do.
Comments
I don't think it will be an ultra sucess, but if it comes out first I more than likely will try it out because there litterally no good mmorpgs out there. Just f2p ones(SW:TOR, DCUO) I already played when they launched, Korean P2w mmos(Archeage, BDO) and old stale mmorpgs (WoW and lotro).
MurderHerd
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Doesn't change the fact there's so much more competing for my free time now.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
It's on my radar, but the blip is small. Personally, loading screens is a BIG thing for me. I'm all about believing on being in the game world I'm playing in. Getting jerked out due to loading screens is simply, now-a-days, a very unnecessary design model.
I may forgive that type of stuff if there are lots of other things I like. Yet.... We'll see..
+1 to Nyctelios statement,
You can't argue with someone who is convinced their own life situation is everyone else's.
The same person that just a year ago stated that ArcheAge was the absolute best mmo ever and hyped it to no end. Contradicting everyone rage. A Korean game that could be the standard for a "money cash shop grab".
MMO's are not dead, the players are still 100% waiting........ Just nothing to play.
I have more time for sure but I'm not sure knowing everything I do about this genre in the ensuing 17 years I have actually become more aware of what a game like Everquest actually is in terms of time,energy,emotional and physical commitment. I am also aware of the type of guild politics, race for content and items and how an open world with no dungeon instances work. What I'm saying is that I am not that innocent stay at home mother who just got a computer and playing her first MMORPG with no experience what this type of game can do to my life.
I am not advocating for instances so hold the pitchforks and torches. I think I enjoy the ideas that the participation in dungeons is not guaranteed as long as you can get a group up.
What I'm saying is that while you may argue that people have just as much time now as they did in 1999 that is not the only criteria and also not the only barrier to playing this type of game. For me the end game and its loot is not that big of a deal and even if I might want to participate in it I'm not going to leave if I find I cannot.
It's perfectly fine to limit the dungeons and end game content but not everyone joining a game is going to be happy with what they see. Given their experiences with how current games work they will not have the patience to handle the restrictions.
While I wish Brad and his team all the success I am sorry to point out that his previous game Vanguard Saga Of Heroes was very buggy and really lost a lot of people as a result. Vanguard was a beautiful game crippled by the terrible bugs it had that lead me to despair and in spite of staying and playing I finally left when I could no longer deny the falling population was a sign of its failing. I am hoping he does better but I am not confident he will and that this game will be quite buggy too in my opinion. Problem is people have even less patience with buggy games than they did when Vanguard came out. I am really sorry to bring this sore point up but there it is and even though it is cruel to throw this up it is another reason I cannot countenance the OP's sentiments.
I am not arguing against the success of Pantheon but merely what the OP is expecting. His expectations are wildly unrealistic and his ideas on how people will react grossly exaggerated. I think Pantheon can and will do well but nothing very grand for sure and I am confident that my predictions are not wrong.
Just imagine as you start to see what is on the other side of the zoneline as it becomes more clear, that there is a huge train to zone. I can imagine the panic of the person behind the screen while it get closer to be done loading...
Great idea!
However, my point was for fast travel(which I don't really like), in the sense of druid/wizard portals. Not non-magical zoning between land areas.
Going from one zone to another in a game world map doesn't really work for me with the zone morphing idea.
Some things promised to be in at release never made it in til later.
The seamless zoning I loved, but honestly, it was a noticeable impact on most people's PCs. Called 'Chunking'. Going over chunk lines. Today's PCs and further optimization of that game's code make it basically a non-issue of today. Basically ArcheAge is a game that does it VERY well.
To your point however, I basically share it. Being an EQvet since 2000, going through Vanguard, and then seeing more of the innovations in MMOs over the past 10 years. Well, to me, I think Pantheon needs more than the old-school diehards to make it a success. It's one reason why loading screens is a big checkbox in the NO column.
I do have some hope for Pantheon, but I'm simply not sold yet. It's going to take a lot to sell me on this title. MMOs are a time-killer. You need to invest a lot of time to play. I typically only play one MMO at a time.
Let's see how this goes when it finally is released (maybe late 2018).
To be honest,we can't even properly discuss these games because every topic needs 6/7/8 paragraphs to properly explain the entire design for each area and how it should be done.
I will say this,i have 99% confidence that Brad know's what would make a great ,amazing game but i also feel he is restricted from doing so.Budget,team size,team skill,timelines all a factor.If he had Star citizen's cosntant cash flow then i would be sitting on the edge of my seat,but that is not happening.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I was an early patron of the game, but some recent reveals have turned me off. I had hoped that it would be more like Vanguard than EQ, but that doesn't appear to be happening and I refuse to go back to the days of sitting on my butt to meditate and being forced to always camp thanks to the need to meditate. I'm not addicted to MMO's to the extent that I will play them despite the downsides and or bugs. There are aspects of game play that I will not overlook and will happily move on to the next game or stop playing them altogether until something else comes along.
I no longer care if the game succeeds or fails, I'm already looking at Dark and Light and if it fails to please, then I'm ready for the long wait for something else.
Pretty sure every class will have some sort of resource expenditure. Allowing melees to go nonstop while casters had to meditate was the main source of imbalance in EQ, and why raids constantly wanted more monks and rogues rather than wizards.
If it were up to me, I'd make even auto attack drain energy.
IMO a game with forced grouping requires more than a niche playerbase... player times * character levels * character classes * completed dungeon progression = a real problem getting in a group fast if the population is <100K.
I'm skeptical, but am trying to learn more about the game.
So even if pantheon had 50k subs max, which I would say will be low. It could still have 10k per server. So the population per server would not be any lower then if the game had 10-50million players really.
Since pantheon has no cross world dungeon finders to my knowledge the size of the population outside your server will have 0 impact on your ability to get things done.
Only thing overall population usually dictates is how long a game last. Larger and stable population means longer life for the game.
He could not even produce Vanguard to completion with $30+ mil and dozens of full time, paid, employees. It was released, months later after SOE bought it, and barely worked for most, did not work at all for some.
And yet, with Pantheon, some magical masterpiece is supposed to come into being, if you believe people like the OP, with a semi-amateur team and a very small sliver of the money.
In the MMO business, cash is not king, it is God.
All the ideas and plans and designs and hopes, dreams and everything else will not amount to jack if there is not the cash to pay for the effort to force it into existence, in anything other than Mortal Online form.
Have hope about this title if you want, but having reasonable expectations will serve a lot better.
http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/05/38081-pantheon-rise-fallen-lead-developer-accused-taking-35k-crowdfunding-campaign/
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
"Accused" is the word that pops out to me. What was the end verdict? Did they prove it and settle or take him to court? I honestly don't know but I assume you do.