June's Producer's letter and content recap for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is up and ready for your reading enjoyment. Catch up with community happenings, find out what the team has been working on, and get updates on incoming changes to the letter and future content.
Its all well and nice drip feeding us, but some of us like the indepth stuff too. Yes I understand it takes your time, but you want to make sure that you keep us that dont have the means to get into pre-alpha, on board too. I must say, I am unimpressed with the current road map to alpha; this is now a "Where we have been" and it doesnt have a map at all for where we are going.
Even I am finding my resolve waivering; seems to me that alpha is still months and months and months away.
Meh.
@Savanja I am not so much concerned about the changes to the content you guys are putting out, as I am looking forward to it and think it might be good.
Rather I'm concerned with the fact that today's newsletter was just an announcement about a change that will happen in a few months and until then you're just doing no content. You are not saying: "Guess what... this next month we are going to do something different." but rather you are saying "Guess what... this next month we are doing nothing... and the next month we are doing nothing... but on the 3rd month you will see something new and different."
If you are going to make a change, great make the change. But if you aren't ready to make the change for 2 months, then don't bother telling us yet and at least continue with the status quo so people at least get something. Don't just tease us with "Hey we are going to start communicating better... in 2 months... until then we are going to go dark and leave you hanging."
Now I know this sounds like just a complaint, which I don't usually like to do. I know you've asked for us to "please bear with us as we prepare" and I will continue to be patient as I know you guys are working hard. Yet I question the wisdom in just halting all communication while you figure out the improvements to your communication.
*edit* - I sometimes feel that because the Discord has been opened up to pretty much everyone now, and some of you VR staff contribute to conversations in Discord periodically, that this somehow makes you (VR Devs) feel like you are 'communicating with the community'. With the Discord Server being so large and chatter in there is somewhat consistant throughout the day, it's very unlikely that very many people actually get to read what VR Dev's may say in there unless it's Pinned or gets quoted elsewhere. So while it's great that you guys do talk to us in Discord sometimes, and we do appreciate it... I just hope you don't think that this is really getting out to the community at large in any meaningful way. Especially when so much of your communication in Discord is more idle banter than actual responses to Pantheon related info or questions.
What caught my eye most was something entirely different. The mention of "backend changes" that will support a faster, better development process.
We have seen VR make significant changes and, essentially start over, a few times now. These backend changes are hopefully far less extreme but I have to confess I do not get a really good feeling reading that they are coming. It didn't end all that well the last few times.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:@Savanja I am not so much concerned about the changes to the content you guys are putting out, as I am looking forward to it and think it might be good.
Rather I'm concerned with the fact that today's newsletter was just an announcement about a change that will happen in a few months and until then you're just doing no content. You are not saying: "Guess what... this next month we are going to do something different." but rather you are saying "Guess what... this next month we are doing nothing... and the next month we are doing nothing... but on the 3rd month you will see something new and different."
This has been the trap that we have found ourselves in, time and time again. People prefer different types of communication and we understand that. At this time, we've decided that for us, being upfront about what is happening behind the scenes is the better approach.
1. We need to make changes to how we communicate.
2. Content needs to be altered to fit this change.
3. It takes a moment to coordinate all of this for our small team.
4. The end result will be more streamlined communication.
We just wanted to lay it out there. This is what is happening, and this is why.
I'm not a fan of the short form, quick clip, sound bite, hyper-edited style of communication.
I have enjoyed the long form conversation and the unique behind the scenes look it has given us. It has made it easier for me to stomach the near 10 year development journey.
I know there are people who don't like wading through a 2 hour play through or an hour long podcast to get their game news. But it seems like those people always get catered to. Everything gets rounded down, sanded smooth and simplified. Or cut up and sewn back together slim.
I will miss the more organic approach. For me, that content, however vast, was an access portal to a world I long to be a part of. I love every minute of it.
I hope as your communication style moves to please a part of the community that prefers easy to digest content that it will be possible to reach a compromise and still produce some long form communication for those of us who like to chew on our food.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:*edit* - I sometimes feel that because the Discord has been opened up to pretty much everyone now, and some of you VR staff contribute to conversations in Discord periodically, that this somehow makes you (VR Devs) feel like you are 'communicating with the community'. With the Discord Server being so large and chatter in there is somewhat consistant throughout the day, it's very unlikely that very many people actually get to read what VR Dev's may say in there unless it's Pinned or gets quoted elsewhere. So while it's great that you guys do talk to us in Discord sometimes, and we do appreciate it... I just hope you don't think that this is really getting out to the community at large in any meaningful way. Especially when so much of your communication in Discord is more idle banter than actual responses to Pantheon related info or questions.
I can attest to this - since the Discord server opened up (along with the adjustment to this forum), these forums have slowed significantly. I am in the Discord community, but I never see what Devs say because the chatter there is overwhelming for me and I end up simply ignoring it 90% of the time. I've literally never seen any dev post on Discord - I didn't even know there were any outside of the "pantheon-news" which hasn't had a post in years.
Gottbeard said:I'm not a fan of the short form, quick clip, sound bite, hyper-edited style of communication.
To that end i say Joppa's deep elaboration on any topic in videos should be encourged!
I chuckle when Minus asks Joppa to give us the short version. Can we give Joppa the option "Plato speaking in the streets of Athens" version? ;)
It strikes me that there are two types of consumer; those that flit from task to task and those that explore the current task. Each has merit. Bullet point (sorry concise) topic are fine for some people and platforms, but it never gets into the grit of a topic. Why was a choice made? What were the implications? What is the intended results?
For instance, the major lighting work? Sound interesting, what are you hoping to achieve? What what will the limitations be? The infrastructure changes is almost a throw away statement; what are the implications to on going work? Will this hit pre Alpha testing? The "concise" version given just lack detail and raises way more questions than it answers.
If you are taking the time to create the content that is then edited and published, you may as well publish both. Short form on the platforms that it more readily suits and long form on others. Some like the open free flow, less polished presentations.
Unintentional tidbits and beans are fun for us and generates interest and discussion. Polished presentations with every I dotted and t crossed, less so.
Regarding this item from the June newsletter:
We have performed update to Awareness and Concealment stats. Awareness determines how effective a player’s stealth detection is, and Concealment determines how effective a player’s stealth is.
What classes or races get Concealment, and if it's more than Rogues, what are the current design goals regarding the level caps for that skill by race/class ?
Put another way, who else, other than Rogues, would be able to improve concealment, and how ?
As much as I don't want to say it and admit it, I've accepted the very real posibility that this game will never be released and that my $300 pledge was spent on a hope. I know I'm not the only one who has gotten to this point but I hope we are wrong....We are coming up on a decade and still no visible or "educated guess" of a finish line.
Savanja said:GoofyWarriorGuy said:@Savanja I am not so much concerned about the changes to the content you guys are putting out, as I am looking forward to it and think it might be good.
Rather I'm concerned with the fact that today's newsletter was just an announcement about a change that will happen in a few months and until then you're just doing no content. You are not saying: "Guess what... this next month we are going to do something different." but rather you are saying "Guess what... this next month we are doing nothing... and the next month we are doing nothing... but on the 3rd month you will see something new and different."
This has been the trap that we have found ourselves in, time and time again. People prefer different types of communication and we understand that. At this time, we've decided that for us, being upfront about what is happening behind the scenes is the better approach.
1. We need to make changes to how we communicate.
2. Content needs to be altered to fit this change.
3. It takes a moment to coordinate all of this for our small team.
4. The end result will be more streamlined communication.
We just wanted to lay it out there. This is what is happening, and this is why.