Montreseur said:
Raidan said:
Brad, Joppa, and Team
I appreciate the update and the hard work during the 4th quarter of 2014, but I'm one in the first category of a person not so concerned with the visuals and more concerned with the actual plan/gameplay; although, those visuals do look great.
As far as a question goes, I'm guessing a bulleted list for milestones/goals for 2015 is out of the question. So, instead of asking for a specific timeline/roadmap in which goals then would required to be met on a deadline - it would be nice to at least see weekly/bi-weekly (monthly) developer discussion on we're working on such as "combat mechanics" and either discussing what those mean or showing a 15-30 second clips, and then asking for community feedback, etc.
I don't mind a few less updates as I believed this current team has garnered some trust and has earned some slack, but I strongly suggest to not swing that pendulum too far - most of the reason for the increased momentum and rebuilding of trust within the community is from the increased transparency (which basically equates to the updates and increased forum activity by developers).
I do understand the business side though and the need to polish Pantheon to obtain investors, so I wish you all luck in 2015 with that delicate balance.
I have some plans for more active ways that I want to engage all of you guys. I plan on dong a few developer journal updates that will give you guys an idea on what those things are.
Sounds good Monty...I'm all ears. hehe
(1) We want to show off the cohesion of our Lore & World Building direction. Therefore, the areas we are working on internally are being preceded and informed by Lore. In light of this, our goal is to publish a wealth of Lore and insight alongside the new areas and zones we showcase in our future MCU's.
This made me so happy I could cry, I have always said the screenshots and videos were nice but to me they were like a sandwich with no meat...I want to know the story of Amberfaet, Haldnir Pass and other areas....I want to know about the Archai culture, their music, religion, naming conventions, relationships with other races....Give me an Archai week where we all celebrate and get to know all we can about this new race....then do the same for the Dorfs, I dont care if the video and screen shot updates are every other month as long as we get the lore for the world going....I am hungry for it as I know lots of others are too (Im looking at you CanadinaXegony lol)
Appreciate the clarification Joppa - it definitely eases my mind and others that are following the project that Pantheon's communication won't descend back into the darkness.
And... I believe a congratulations are also in order - I see Kilsin's name now as a Greenie. Congrats bud, and I'm glad to see even more capable hands assisting with the project - it can only help Pantheon's 2015 trajectory.
Joppa said:
I'll use this as an opportunity to make a really important clarification in light of yesterday's update. Here's Brad's statement I want to clarify: "The bottom line is updates will be less frequent, but when they do come, we hope they’ll be a lot more impressive."
2015 is going to be a year in which we make an important distinction between Updates and Communication.
UPDATES
Let's start with updates. From now on, think of our updates as Major Content Updates - this is where we are going to be focusing on polish and AAA presentation. Throughout the latter half of 2014, these were our big video releases. For what they were, they were great, showing off new game systems, some in-progress areas of the game world, new music and some other goodies here and there. But they were also somewhat disjointed because we were simply showing off what we had at the time, especially when it came to the game world and Lore. Now in 2015, we are going to be taking more time between the MCU's to make them much more potent releases of content, with an emphasis on polish and direction. What that means specifically is:
(1) We want to show off the cohesion of our Lore & World Building direction. Therefore, the areas we are working on internally are being preceded and informed by Lore. In light of this, our goal is to publish a wealth of Lore and insight alongside the new areas and zones we showcase in our future MCU's.
(2) We want to take the time we need between MCU's to make sure the areas of the game world we are showing are AAA quality, or as close as possible. Monty will be releasing some insight into our new internal world building process soon which will detail the new pipeline and tech we are using to raise the visual quality and uniqueness of our game world significantly (with negligible impact to the game's performance. Seriously, I've experienced it and it's almost hard to believe!)
(3) We want there to be intentionality and design behind all of our upcoming MCU's, possibly releasing some of them thematically. This is another area of polish and cohesion we all value as a team internally, and we want to start showing that in the updates we publish. An example would be to release a Dwarven themed MCU, where we showcase: (1) Dwarven zones, climates and topologies (2) Major Dwarven Lore and history (3) Concept art of the Dwarven Race (4) Dwarven-themed music (5) All while showcasing new and evolving game systems and mechanics, like the upcoming non-linear/hub Quest system. Approaching our MCU's like this would take people on a wide journey around the world of Terminus while helping them connect much more deeply to the game world slowly taking shape before them.
COMMUNICATION
So, while these Major Content Updates will be less frequent in order to achieve all of the above, what we don't want anyone to infer from yesterday's update is that you will be hearing from us less or that we will be forfeiting transparency - it will be entirely the opposite.
My mentality will always be to under-promise and over-deliver, but I feel confident that with all of the Dev Journals, Interviews, Podcasts, Developer Video Roundtables, Q&A's, Screenshots and Lore Releases we are pursuing and have planned (at least one of those just about every week), I think you will all feel more apprised and connected to Pantheon's development in 2015 than ever before.
Thank you for the additional info and the clarification of posted information.
Truly, ONWARD!
Raidan said:
Appreciate the clarification Joppa - it definitely eases my mind and others that are following the project that Pantheon's communication won't descend back into the darkness.
And... I believe a congratulations are also in order - I see Kilsin's name now as a Greenie. Congrats bud, and I'm glad to see even more capable hands assisting with the project - it can only help Pantheon's 2015 trajectory.
Thank you bud, I appreciate it a lot and I can honestly say that communication will not stop, this is something that both Joppa and I are passionate about and you would have seen my posts since the start of this project and know that I am here for the community and the game, it is one of the main reasons why I accepted this position as I wanted to not only help keep the lines of communication open, at a time when the game is progressing so well, but also expand those lines of communication and really start to build on what we have here and to do that I want to be a point of contact for you and the entire community as I understand what you are thinking and feeling because I am one of you! (without sounding creepy of course lol)
If anyone has any idea's, concerns, issues, kind words or anything you want to relay to myself or the team, please don't hesitate to send me or Joppa a PM, we are always happy to talk. :)
I will just quickly add something, since I believe it to be an important element of moving into the future. Has anyone else noticed the influx of new registered members recently? I keep an eye on the "Newest Members" window on the main page, mainly out of interest. Over the last several days there has been a decided increase in the number people joining the community!
To everyone that has just joined, Welcome! And to everyone that was already here, Happy New Year! - and let's keep pushing to make this the best damned community the world has ever seen!
I am an early donater and long-time forum lurker. I played VG for many years and was a huge fan. From the sound, sight, and tone of recent updates, things seem to be heading in a good direction and there is positive momentum building.
These latest screenshots look great, and I understand the logic behind improving the visuals to garner fan and financial support. But what about mechanics? I know these are being designed and worked on, but I haven't heard much about mechanics design and ideas. Is this because of the competitive nature of the business, and concern over IP leakage?
I think a game can have mediocre graphics and excellent mechanics and be successful.
Keep up the good work!
Nice team glad to hear the new direction. It does need to be polished and making the game look better and do better can only help with future investors. Investors means more money and maybe making our team full time employes that can work on this game all day!! And possibly get more to do even more, I'm excited and happy to hear all this and hope it comes to fruition.
Quick question now that we are calling this alpha 1, do we get access to play in the world soon? I'm new to alpha been in Beta so just checking. I can understand now that there is 2 Alpha's if first is us helping with content or just getting us a little more involved and 2 we get access. I understand there is still a lot of building and development is still needed so just trying to get less ignorant of the process or what the plan is.
Congrats are in order for Kilsin on becoming a greenie though I might have missed it on another post haven't been on in couple of days internet went out. So congradulations on the promo. Till I find the post on your promotion lol.
I trust the team to keep us informed and I trust Brad and the rest to make this a game we all want to play. I don't think the wow crowd will take this game over especially when it is spelled out what type of game this will be, just think there needs to be a disclaimer when you give them money that Brad is making his game and it will be his vision not yours that is made though your input will still be taken.
Glad we will be reaching out to other gaming sites to get us more on the radar to bring in more fans, money, publicity can only help cause I don't think we will lose anymore just gain.
If you all need help You will have to train me from nothing, but I do have some time and an excitement for this game.
I'm fine with less frequint updates but communication can't be lost, I would always rather have you working on the game then wasting time in here, well not wasting but you catch my meaning. I'm not suprised anymore about your guys' ability to do what you are doing just amazed and inspired by all of your dedication to a game we all want to play. You all will make history with what you will accomplish with this and glad I could help in what little way I could.
Nydan said:
For those that donated for "tester", "prealpha" access, when is that happening?
There is no set time yet Nydan but as Brad explained, a rough estimate would be 6-9 months if everything goes to plan.
Joppa said:
From Pantheon's Facebook Page:
The plan for 2015 is about gently nudging the Pendulum the other way, more so towards quality and the visuals. We need to attract game news sites and get more coverage and get more people excited about the game. We also need to attract investors. Quite simply, we need to raise the bar.
Thanks!
-Brad McQuaid
Thanks for the 2015 direction update, I think its the right move, and while the world graphics aren't to bad, I think character modeling and particularly movement animation is a huge aspect of believability and immersion. These need (at least in the finished product) to be in keeping with the detail of graphics, world wise and environmentally wise. This is one area of Vanguard (and many other games) that just felt off, the jump and float did my head in but at the time nobody did it that much better.
Lets be honest, most people are "attracted" to shiny new games with awesome graphics with splashy animations, thinking of some of the Korean titles making they way west. Black Desert for example "Looks" Great for character modelling and animation movement, possibly one of the best and in keeping with world / enviro graphics, however the combat animations albeit Korean styled, would be more in line with Cartoony graphics style to be more believable. I think in the end we are mostly let down by the actual combat style and level of content as was the case with Archeage. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but there's no denying that a good "looking" game is going get attention.