Hey so I realize VR may not be able to answer all or even any of these, but had there been a dedicated Q&A session along with last night's art reveal, here are the quesions I would have liked to ask:
Thanks for your time,
-Heebs
Also I guess this is as good a time as any to point out that this website has the following rule in style-forum-last.css on line 988:
Heebs said:Hey so I realize VR may not be able to answer all or even any of these, but had there been a dedicated Q&A session along with last night's art reveal, here are the quesions I would have liked to ask:
- When was the decision made to switch to the new art style?
- Can you give a rough estimate of what percent of the old art has been converted to the new style?
- How about the new player models for races other than human? Can you share any information about them?
- Will some sort of alpha progress tracker be making a return? When?
- Is there any timeline for when these changes will show up in a prealpha gameplay stream?
Thanks for your time,
-Heebs
1. Early May.
2. Most of Thronefast is done.
3. We are currently focusing on human and human customizations.
4. We won't be using an alpha tracker immediately but we will be adding a dev progress tracker. This will allow the public to see what the team is currently working on and when it gets completed.
5. I would expect to see some content roll out in October.
Lafael said: Some comments/questions: 4) This doesn't bode well to be honest. It seems like Pantheon is being put on hiatus and all focus is now on 247. 5) This content would be from the perspective of 247, not Pantheon, correct?
I'm pretty sure it was stated somewhere that Pantheon is being "mostly" put on hold. I believe it was stated in Discord, which I am not very active on because you can change the information anytime you want with no easy way to track it.
My basic understanding of what is currently going on is VR is switching focus from creating a MMORPG which gets a lot of inspiration from classic EverQuest to creating 247, which is a battle royale style game. Why are they doing this? Because funding has slowed down for Pantheon. Apparently this 247 game was made for testing Pantheon, but it seems that no one knows what the testing was. Apparently internal people (who are they? No one seems to know) think 247 is fun. And by fun, so fun, in fact, that they are putting all hands on 247 to see if they can monetize it. Something to me feels very dishonest…. Yeah I said it.
NegativeNRG said:Lafael said: Some comments/questions: 4) This doesn't bode well to be honest. It seems like Pantheon is being put on hiatus and all focus is now on 247. 5) This content would be from the perspective of 247, not Pantheon, correct?I'm pretty sure it was stated somewhere that Pantheon is being "mostly" put on hold. I believe it was stated in Discord, which I am not very active on because you can change the information anytime you want with no easy way to track it.
My basic understanding of what is currently going on is VR is switching focus from creating a MMORPG which gets a lot of inspiration from classic EverQuest to creating 247, which is a battle royale style game. Why are they doing this? Because funding has slowed down for Pantheon. Apparently this 247 game was made for testing Pantheon, but it seems that no one knows what the testing was. Apparently internal people (who are they? No one seems to know) think 247 is fun. And by fun, so fun, in fact, that they are putting all hands on 247 to see if they can monetize it. Something to me feels very dishonest…. Yeah I said it.
The game mode is not a battle royale. While the promotion of Pantheon may slow, the building of it does not. The game is still being built out in this form.
"The game is still being built out in this form."
You know how sketchy that sounds? How about building it out in the form of an MMO. I don't care what you call the game mode, build an MMORPG which is what you were asked to build from the beginning. What kind of bubble do the people at VR live in? Your company is at a MAJOR crossroads.
Be honest and open. You said you switched to this mode and method because you could finish the game with normal funding and it would take years. BE HONEST, tell your backers how long that method would take? 3 years? 5 years? You switched suddenly to a COMPLETELY new art style, one that went AGAINST the Project Faerthale and DiViare videos. We could take the new art style if it meant releasing the MMORPG next year. You and your company should sit down with the members of the community and ask them what THEY think is the best decision. It was a kickstarted game with the community, if you are making a big decision maybe you should check with the community too. Give them options.
1. Stick with original art and finish the game 3-4 years from now.
2. New art with updates to make it more painted looking but we can finish the game 1-2 years from now.
3. Go to this new game, take a risky gamble on 247 working out with other competition in the market and oops if it fails oh well time wasted and oops if it succeeds, well we will get around to the MMORPG at a later date. NEITHER good options. Oh take our word, trust us, we will build the MMORPG later on. No you LOST that trust.
4. Wildcard, build out a smaller MMORPG and find a way to monetize it, HECK even build a SINGLE PLAYER RPG and monetize it that way, if not to give people a taste and they can try out the systems and provide feedback.
Xerion said:
What kind of bubble do the people at VR live in?
What 10 years of being coddled does to a company. I guarantee if this goes under there will be an article on kotaku blaming the toxicity of the fanbase for not being patient enough with them while they saw their vision through.
Xerion said:Be honest and open. You said you switched to this mode and method because you could finish the game with normal funding and it would take years. BE HONEST, tell your backers how long that method would take? 3 years? 5 years? You switched suddenly to a COMPLETELY new art style, one that went AGAINST the Project Faerthale and DiViare videos. We could take the new art style if it meant releasing the MMORPG next year. You and your company should sit down with the members of the community and ask them what THEY think is the best decision. It was a kickstarted game with the community, if you are making a big decision maybe you should check with the community too. Give them options.
This is exactly what testing is for and this is exactly what is happening, we are currently gathering feedback from our members. We completely understand the concerns of our members and we want to get this game built too! The goal is Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen as an MMORPG. That continues to be the goal.
Savanja said:The game mode is not a battle royale. While the promotion of Pantheon may slow, the building of it does not. The game is still being built out in this form.
I had to do my own research to understand what the game mode is. I've seen it called Extraction Mode or Extraction Game. I have no idea what that means since I primarily play MMORPGs with occasional game nights with friends playing Fortnite or PubG.
For anyone not sure what an Extraction Game is, I did the research for us.
The core of Extraction Games are:
1. Being loaded into a map.
2. You want to find loot that is randomly placed throughout the map.
3. You want to kill PvE enemies as they have better loot.
4. You want to kill other players (PvP) on the map to get their loot. Note: PvP is the core of almost all extraction games.
It is an open looting system. When you die you can lose all your loot that you are wearing and that you collected that session. Some mods of the game have insurance systems, so you don’t lose everything or where you don’t lose your equipped items.
The focus of extraction games is just about beating/killing other players and that is not my cup of tea. I can play these style games with friends for short bursts. This is not something I could play for hours to test it.
Edit Note1: The following line was edited thanks to Heebs -- Note: PvP is the core of almost all extraction games.
Edit Note2: Edit Notes thanks to chenzeme.
NegativeNRG - thanks. I did no research because all I care about is what not-Pantheon will be and VR will tell us well before we get to decide whether to play. Conceivably not-Pantheon will have some extraction elements but not all of them.
If it has pvp as you describe I will not try it - never - under no circumstances. Not even for free. Not even to explore the beauty of the new graphics.
NegativeNRG said:
Note: PvP is the core of all extraction games.
This is untrue. PvP is common in extraction games but there are pve extraction games out there. It's been publicly disclosed in the Pantheon discord that players can choose either PvP or PvE in the 247 game. You don't have to PvP if you don't want to.
NegativeNRG: 4. You want to kill other players (PvP) on the map to get their loot. Note: PvP is the core of almost all extraction games.
I think you should make it clear what you have just edited there Neg, your change now suggests that Heebs is saying something untrue. It might seem like nit-picking, but adding a word after it has been quoted by someone else to amend its meaning is not right. Certainly not without clarification. Now it looks like Heebs is mis-quoting you to further their point of view, when actually, this is not the case.
NegativeNRG said:Savanja said:The game mode is not a battle royale. While the promotion of Pantheon may slow, the building of it does not. The game is still being built out in this form.
I had to do my own research to understand what the game mode is. I've seen it called Extraction Mode or Extraction Game. I have no idea what that means since I primarily play MMORPGs with occasional game nights with friends playing Fortnite or PubG.
For anyone not sure what an Extraction Game is, I did the research for us.
The core of Extraction Games are:
1. Being loaded into a map.
2. You want to find loot that is randomly placed throughout the map.
3. You want to kill PvE enemies as they have better loot.
4. You want to kill other players (PvP) on the map to get their loot. Note: PvP is the core of almost all extraction games.
It is an open looting system. When you die you can lose all your loot that you are wearing and that you collected that session. Some mods of the game have insurance systems, so you don’t lose everything or where you don’t lose your equipped items.
The focus of extraction games is just about beating/killing other players and that is not my cup of tea. I can play these style games with friends for short bursts. This is not something I could play for hours to test it.
Minus has a video coming with the Producer's Letter that walks everyone through the play mode. PvP is not core here. It is an added element of danger for those who choose it. I rarely play in PvP and mostly just go about my business running tasks, killing mobs, and exploring until it is time to extract.
chenzeme said:NegativeNRG: 4. You want to kill other players (PvP) on the map to get their loot. Note: PvP is the core of almost all extraction games.
I think you should make it clear what you have just edited there Neg, your change now suggests that Heebs is saying something untrue.
Fixed it. And I will add Edit Notes in the future, Thanks.