To say I'm hyped is an understatement. I wasn't expecting much the last couple of months. With the work being done on the HDRP and Network stack I figured that would be how the year ended and I would just look forward to Jan 2022 and beyond. This past Devstream has given me a jolt of Panthamine(Pantheon dopamine). I have watched the Dec. 9th Devstream about 4 times now...the latest being today. Like Joppa said, seeing the game in HDRP is an understatement. While I very much enjoyed seeing the weapons, I was even more excited to see how the world looked. Seeing Thronefast in the background and the rest of the world and imagining myself roaming around in that was nice...very nice. Then seeing Wild's End and The Gate was just more icing on top of icing and I have a huge sweet tooth(insert smiling emoji)
Anyhoo, among a hundred other things, I started thinking about next year and what I'm most looking forward to in 2022.
Besides Alpha being released and you getting to play, what are the Top 5 Devstreams that you are most looking forward to in 2022 before Alpha is released?
For me:
5. Crafting and Harvesting. I'm not a big endgame person. Exploring the world crafting, harvesting and other stuff will keep me busy for months and I'm ready to see what VR has in store for that.
4. HDRP Part 2. Seeing a completed zone in the HDRP and all the goodness that VR reveals will be exceptionally cool.
3. Cleric Preview. Same as 2
2. Paladin Preview. I go back and forth over which one of the two are my favorites. Being able to see them in action like the Monk will be huge deal for me.
1. Community Streamers group in Terminus 2: By far my favorite stream of last year I was excited for Minus, Therek, Bazgrim and the one and only Nathan Napalm to get a chance to group and explore Fortress DeViare. Seeing them get together again with their, hopefully, favorite classes with be an even bigger treat in the new HDRP Terminus.
So, Who you got?
None. When alpha is released we will have a fairly good idea of where we are and where we are going. Until then we have talk, and tightly controlled sessions that may have little or nothing to do with how the game will actually look at alpha, much less beta or release. Streams are useful for appealing to potential investors and giving backers of the game something to do while waiting but I am far from certain that they mean much as a predictor of how the game will actually look and play.
I'm hoping for some more long-form play streams. Dorotea is probably correct that they don't represent how the game will play once it goes alpha, but I do find them entertaining. Far more entertaining than the info-dump streams.
I want to see groups playing together like the cohh streams.
Any anything noteworthy pertaining to the road to alpha being complete.
The last few months have been great with the updates and upcoming notifications. The one hour interview and discussions are fine. Let's not add anything to the plate of the hard working development team.
Would like a cohh stream with the other community members, napalm and bazz etc, with Kilsin as shepard.
what are the Top 5 Devstreams that you are most looking forward to in 2022 before Alpha is released?
Some streams I'd like to see:
1-Publisher announcement/funding acquisition stream
2-Racial Actives Stream
3-Progeny Stream
4-Infamy Stream
5-Atlas stream (show us an overview of whitethaw)
HDRP and networking are the two I am most excited to see a completed tag next to. In my eyes that is effectively alpha at that point.
I am excited to see factions implemented which is on their roadmap. Factions are what put the RP in RPG. Actually having factions matter is rare these days in MMOs, its usually a quick one way easy grind. I am sure VR will at least go beyond blue good, red bad, but nuanced choices are important. Build in community rifts for players tanking and protecting various factions. Will you forgo loot to not piss off a faction? Well to decide that you need to know what it means to piss off the faction. Will vendors charge you more, cut you off, or call the guards to try and kill you? If you slaughter all animals of the forest will it piss off the local druids? Will local druids be tied to other druidic circles down the road so all druids may eventually hate you? Most players won't care if they tank the "evil gang faction" but are there businesses in the city tied to that faction? Perhaps a general vendor business is a member and will start charging you more and more money.
What they implement for the factions will be very informative for how important they will make factions overall.
I'm looking forward to:
1. Creature Feature, showing off the character models of different fauna/enemies/allies in Terminus
2. HDRP stream showing off lighting
3. Racial Passives and Actives
4. a gameplay stream with all the race/class combinations available
5. Lore stream explaining a few of the different factions in Terminus