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Pantheon Dev Blog Details PvP Plans, Instancing And More - MMORPG.com
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Pantheon Dev Blog Details PvP Plans, Instancing And More - MMORPG.com
Recently, Pantheon's Brad McQuaid has posted a few items to the game's blog on a variety of subjects, specifically touching on PvP and Instancing in Pantheon.
Comments
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
EQ2 had the best imaginable solution. Instances AND open world dungeons. Also, short instances deep within open world dungeons.
Brad wants to have an open world that feels like a world, where players interact with one another and not one where people all go play in instances.
So he is searching for a solution to a solution. And that's starting to look like "phasing" from WoW. Which I hated.
Why not have instances that only become available when someone else has engaged the open world version of that content? Or, more restrictively, instances that only become available when the open world version of that content has been continuously engaged for 48 hours?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Phasing and Sharding areas has become very common in MMOs and some do it better than others. WoW was really bad and so is ESO as it become a wall where you could not team with just anyone. I dont mind what they do as long as we dont get that wall I was talking about.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
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Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
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Dont expect a deep PvP experience like ESO or DAoC. EQ1 rules sets were fun but still no depth. There was a hardcore small group of PvPers that loved their PvP servers but myself I played EQ1 and DAoC at the same time as that was the best PvP experience at that time. This will be slightly more then checking a box as any PvPer who has been PvP MMOing for any length of time. A game needs to be built from the ground up with PvP in mind to add any depth. That being said, if they do the char copy command in Pantheon. I will be playing on a PvP server as well when Pantheon launches as I have a life now and dont have time to play 2 MMOs lol.
The core of what they are bring back from EQ1 area is a interdependence of classes and people. Exploring without hand holding. Also iconic loot that will tell a story of where you have been and what you have killed. They have said over and over this will be a modern MMO with the tools that newer gamers will be looking for.
He said if you are on a quest...mobs will spawn that only you (your group) can affect. So basically a goblin (or whatever) spawns which nobody else can attack and presumably it won't agro on anyone else. So you can go and do your thing for your quest without other people messing it up for you. That's what it sounded like to me.
Questions:
1. Does this only happen for quests?
2. How quest driven is this game going to be? I've been assuming it would be more like EQ which was mostly about grinding mobs rather than running around doing quests constantly.
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Ok, realistically there were problems with the way things worked in EQ and people are nuts if they think that should be ignored. Any high value mobs will be monopolized by no-life types if they have the opportunity to monopolize them. If Brad and Co. can find a way to prevent that without destroying the "open world" feel of the game then good for them.
Can they pull it off? Who knows, but it's worth a shot in my book.
"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™
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Spawn camping? See ya later!
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
It is not like those who want a PvP server will disappear if a server is not there at launch for them. I don't think this game has overreached so far but when you start getting bogged down with PvP issues it will have an impact.
Not saying Brad's keen on teleporting, I recall reading about a possible caravan for players to join so their characters can be transported by friends to a new location while they are afk.
"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
People said similar about WoW Classic though and it has made a lot of people happy.
At the same time, I have very very tempered expectations for it, and it's due to the kind of "trying to have it both ways" I sense.
On one hand, they've said numerous times that they set out to make this game knowing it would only cater to a very specific, and smaller demographic, instead of trying to "appeal to everyone"; that they wanted to really serve that community as well as they could with the kind of experience they're seeking. That community being those who were weened on EQ1, FFXI, and other early 00's titles.
Using those specific titles as examples of who they're trying to draw in carries some very particular weight, as they were each known for being very slow-paced, challenging titles where reliance on other players existed in place of "convenience features".
For example, in FFXI, traveling to unlock an outpost so you could teleport there later was a meaningful goal. Yes it could take a while to get there, and yes you had to wait for your Nation to control its region, but once you had it, it saved you a *ton* of time later on.
And I'm sure everyone here who played those titles could give a list of such other examples.
All those things together is what made EQ1, FFXI and others the memorable experiences they were. Yes there was tedium, yes it could take a lot of time to complete a goal, yes dying could suck.
But then, by and large, players back then also approached the genre with different definitions of "meaningful progress", and were generally more patient about achieving things. They didn't *expect* that they'd clear a dungeon and gain 1 or more levels in a single session. They didn't consider the game "too much of a grind" if they didn't.
This idea that "people these days are busy with careers and families, etc, and don't have the time they had back then" is BS rationalizing. It's grounded in this myth that people who played MMOs back then were all kids living with their parents, and had all the time in the world. It just isn't true. People had lives and careers and families and were just as busy back in the early 2000's as they are now.
People's circumstances weren't so different. Their mentalities were, however. They understood their personal life circumstances were their own concern, and scheduled their playtime, and tempered their expectations accordingly. Conversely, these days, people believe their personal life circumstances are the developer's problem, and demand a MMO be designed around them. That's an important distinction that I don't see enough people acknowledge, sadly. Every time I see the "people don't have the time anymore that they had back then..." argument come up, I wince, because it's such shallow logic that falls apart once you think beyond the surface.
So, when Brad and Co. say that's what they're trying to create, for the players who miss that kind of experience", and then say "but we're going to add in some more modern conveniences for people with busy lives"... they're already giving me the impression of a company who's trying to please a crowd beyond the "smaller core group" they have always claimed to be focusing on. It can seem like they're trying to have their cake and eat it,too.. and that cake can come back to bite them.
So I really hope they're choosing their "modern features" very carefully, and are implementing them even moreso. Anything that "adds convenience" to a MMO tends to do so at the cost of some part of the bigger experience, be it community building, travel, exploration, etc.
I just hope they're remembering the "core demographic" Brad described and seemed to understand so well when he's described the vision for this title. I hope they're sincere in that stated goal, and aren't just blowing smoke to draw in those they claim to be catering to, only to pull a bait-and-switch later.
That's my thought. Let's see if they can finish it and take it for what it actually is instead of what people would want "in their head." Which seems business as usual for some reason.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I don't see the harm in people discussing their own thoughts or concerns about the game.
I'm sure even you have an imagined "ideal" of the game in your head, what you imagine it could be, Sovrath. And frankly, "let's just wait and see what happens" just seems like a non-opinion wrapped in some aloof self-image.. as though coming from someone who deems themself "more enlightened than the rabble". A bit pretentious, in other words.
allowing every zone in the expansion to provide adventures for all
groups between levels 20 and 65. Each time you embark on a new
adventure, you're sent to one of 48 distinct dungeon zones, each
customized with challenging monsters and traps tailored to the level of
your group. This means, as long as you're over level 20, you'll have 48
challenging new dungeons to explore and conquer! "
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo