Sorry if this has been discussed but I can't search from my phone
I know that there will be at a minimum a windows client at launch. So is there any chance of it being available on the ps4 or xbox1? I think this could open the game up to many more players, and since those consoles have a good bit of power I don't think much program and development wise would have to change to make that possible.
Megaera said: Was just wondering because I have about 50 old gamer friends I still talk to and said they would love to play this...if and only if they could sit on their couches instead of computer chair, and play with a,controller
I do this right now when playing Fifa 17, Forza Horizon 3, Rocket League or Destiny with some good friends of mine, people don't understand how versatile the PC is, they are just stuck in this narrow mindset that you need to sit at a desk and play with a keyboard and mouse, which just isn't true anymore.
Tell them to move their couch over to their PC, plug it into their big screen TV if they want and plug in their favourite controller whether it be Xbox, PS or something else entirely, they all work with great support for most of the modern games.
That being said, we cannot promise to support controllers or cross platform as it is a pretty big job to do so and our initial objective is to successfully release the game on Windows, then we can go from there and talk about options with other platforms and possible controller support but I don't want anyone to get their hopes up at this stage as it isn't our main priority or focus at this stage of development.
Not sure why people want cross platform play - I understand some people do not have a computer that can run Pantheon. With that being said, you can buy a computer / laptop for the price of a Ps4 or xbox1 that will be able to run this game. Of course the graphics will not be on ultra, but the experience you will have on min graphics will still be amazing!
Kilsin said:Megaera said: Was just wondering because I have about 50 old gamer friends I still talk to and said they would love to play this...if and only if they could sit on their couches instead of computer chair, and play with a,controllerI do this right now when playing Fifa 17, Forza Horizon 3, Rocket League or Destiny with some good friends of mine, people don't understand how versatile the PC is, they are just stuck in this narrow mindset that you need to sit at a desk and play with a keyboard and mouse, which just isn't true anymore.
Tell them to move their couch over to their PC, plug it into their big screen TV if they want and plug in their favourite controller whether it be Xbox, PS or something else entirely, they all work with great support for most of the modern games.That being said, we cannot promise to support controllers or cross platform as it is a pretty big job to do so and our initial objective is to successfully release the game on Windows, then we can go from there and talk about options with other platforms and possible controller support but I don't want anyone to get their hopes up at this stage as it isn't our main priority or focus at this stage of development.
I did this with DRagonage. I put a folding table in front of my TV with keyboard and mouse and had a blast.
As for Pantheon this is a MMO, not a console game. ESO had this issue and was just terrible. The UI was just bad.
Clear disadvantage for console controllers and I would just /group drop /gate if the cleric in the group had a controller.
UNless there is voice commands with a controller to quick select a player, example :say raid grp 1, player 2. then controller can click a spell.
Difficult challenge for sure.
I don't mind consoles as long as you don't put in stupid limitations on the gameplay to "help" the console users.I've seen so many clunky UIs due to adaptation to be able to interact with consoles and a controller.
You must keep the freedom of keybindings and such and no silly wheel UIs that you bring up to choose an action or item or some such that is so typical for how console UIs work due to the lack of mouse and keyboard.
As long as you keep the PC interface meant to be used with mouse and keyboard in mind primarily I'm happy, you can adapt another interface for the consoles as long as I don't end up with a compromise UI that too many games try to force on the users in order to reach both systems.
Limiting mouselook speeds and such is another good example of silly features that are not uncommon in games with both PC and Console players playing together.
There are several Console MMOs today. One that made the cross platform leap and works quite well is FFXIV. The controls from a keyboard are standard MMO style everyone is used to. The console layout uses R1/2 and L1/2 as toggles for the D-pad and the right hand controller buttons to activate the hotbar shortcuts. It actually works really well and alows for the controller to have the same hotbars mapped to key presses as the default keyboard. The controls are not the issue at all really. The issue is rebuilding all the code to work on other platforms, and then linking all of those platform's networking protocols together. Microsoft has historically been completely against allowing cross platform play on the Xbox consoles. Sony has been much more open.
The only thing stopping this is VR's willingness to make it happen. Hopefully they will see that spreading out to these other platforms will help them gain a larger player base. The consoles provide a great way of connecting with people as voice chat is built in, you already have a friends list, and it would expose a whole other player base to their game that may not ever have picked it up. The PS4 specifically has built their console around the central idea of social interaction by adding streaming capability and links to social media. This fits quite well with VR's vision of a social MMO that is about community. I am all for this move. FFXIV shows that you do not have to dumb down a game on PC so that it fits on the consoles. If they can do it, VR can do it.
kellindil said:The only thing stopping this is VR's willingness to make it happen. Hopefully they will see that spreading out to these other platforms will help them gain a larger player base.
Hm, sorry but no. I'd say it's much more a matter of time and resources than willingness per se. This would be quite a big undertaking for such a small team. I'd bet that more than 95% of the people on these forums would rather have the game be released earlier with a smaller playerbase on PC, rather than having to wait for them to implement the necessary systems for consoles before launch. And that's because the vast majority of people that are excited about this game came from EQ1 and other PC games, and therefore probably don't really care about console compatibility. And fortunately, that is VR's target audience. VR has specifically said their primary mission is to make a quality game for old school gamers that want to be challenged... NOT necessarily a game that has a large playerbase. I highly doubt there are that many gamers that are looking for a challenging game like Pantheon that would also much rather play it on a console. It's simply not worth it and therefore would be a bad business move. Bearing all that in mind, consoles are wayyyyyy down on the priority list.
Though a larger playerbase will ultimately help the game in the long run. So I dont consider it a launch need. That being said, I dont consider it not worth doing. Key thing here is that console gaming has a large market and it could help VR, but again this should be a post launch agenda. And I cant speak for everyone, I wouldnt have a problem playing it on console assuming they put in the proper work and made it work properly without dumbing it down (FFXIV is a good example of how to do this). But if I am honest Id rather play on PC, but have gamepad support. My prefered peripherals are KB, Mouse, AND gamepad. But its definitely not a deal breaker eaither way.
Amsai said:Though a larger playerbase will ultimately help the game in the long run. So I dont consider it a launch need. That being said, I dont consider it not worth doing. Key thing here is that console gaming has a large market and it could help VR, but again this should be a post launch agenda. And I cant speak for everyone, I wouldnt have a problem playing it on console assuming they put in the proper work and made it work properly without dumbing it down (FFXIV is a good example of how to do this). But if I am honest Id rather play on PC, but have gamepad support. My prefered peripherals are KB, Mouse, AND gamepad. But its definitely not a deal breaker eaither way.
Agreed, if it's possible to implement this post-launch without any effect on the PC client, then yeah might as well - as long as the game is in a good place and they have the spare time and resources to invest in it. But that's probably gonna be at least a few years from now though. Would just have to be careful that, for those that will spend time doing PvP, that it isn't possible to claim that either PC or console has an advantage when it comes to response times. I think VR already understands all this though.
Bazgrim said:kellindil said:The only thing stopping this is VR's willingness to make it happen. Hopefully they will see that spreading out to these other platforms will help them gain a larger player base.
Hm, sorry but no. I'd say it's much more a matter of time and resources than willingness per se. This would be quite a big undertaking for such a small team. I'd bet that more than 95% of the people on these forums would rather have the game be released earlier with a smaller playerbase on PC, rather than having to wait for them to implement the necessary systems for consoles before launch. And that's because the vast majority of people that are excited about this game came from EQ1 and other PC games, and therefore probably don't really care about console compatibility. And fortunately, that is VR's target audience. VR has specifically said their primary mission is to make a quality game for old school gamers that want to be challenged... NOT necessarily a game that has a large playerbase. I highly doubt there are that many gamers that are looking for a challenging game like Pantheon that would also much rather play it on a console. It's simply not worth it and therefore would be a bad business move. Bearing all that in mind, consoles are wayyyyyy down on the priority list.
When did I say anything about bringing it to consoles at initial release? Of course they would want to bring the game to market as soon as they can to the majority of their playerbase, which is on PC. I say again, the only thing stopping a console client from happening, be that now or later, is VRs willingness to take on the challenge.
Everything else you said here is your opinion. If this was released on console and PC at the same time, and it was cross platform on the server side so console and PC could play together, then I would grab it on the console. I would love to relax on the couch and play. Also, what systems would be needed to bring it to consoles? All that would be needed is to redevelop the code for the platform and add a secondary control schema for controllers. Hell this control schema could even be useable on the PC rather than keyboard.
And VR as far as I have seen have said that their misison is to create an MMO built around community where classes are interdependant and the game is challenging. How does this equate to "old school gamers"? It may be an old school MMO concept, but its not old schoor gamer per se. I know many people of a later generation who are also fed up with the vending machine type MMOs we have now where its basically a single player game with chat. All of the above sounds like nothing more than your opinion and completely ignored the point I was making, which is that cross platform can be done in such a way that both PC and Console platforms work equally well.
Fact of the matter, if VR wants to be successful they need as large a playerbase as they can get. PERIOD. Of course this will need to be tempered by RoI, development time tables, and many other factors. They already stated they will not build clients for anything except Windows to begin with, and that everything else is still up in the air. Obviously they are still entertaining the idea of other platforms, just not for initial launch. Building clients for other platforms *WILL* net them a larger playerbase. How much larger remains to be seen. It may indeed not be worth the time and money involved, but then It might. Since consoles seem to be changing how they do hardware development now and want to go the "PC" route of upgrading existing hardware without changing the OS and technology core of their systems it makes more sence now than ever to release MMOs on consoles. For the first time the MMO client can carry on between "generations" on the console without neededing to be completely rewritten, which would be insanely expensive for a long running MMO.
Cross platform clients can be done so as to not scrafice anything on either side. This has been done with non-action type MMOs already and it works insanely well.
Bringing the client to as many platforms as possible will increase the potential playerbase.
The only thing stopping clients for non-windows systems is VR's willingness to bring those clients to bare.
They have the talent, they have the know how, they have everything they need to do it. Maybe not right off, but they can do it. There are no road blocks that would completely prevent it from ever happening if they are willing to do the work. If they do not believe it is worth it, then they are not willing to make it happen. Plain and simple. If thats the case, then I can respect that. They will do what they think is best for their company so that they can remain profitable. Which is the only real deciding factor. Whether this will increase profits enough to offset the cost is the VERY FIRST QUESTION THEY WILL ASK THEMSELVES. If the answer is yes, they will continue, if no they will not. If you think VR is anything less than a company trying to make money you are wrong. They may be making the game they want that fits their vision, regardless of whether or not it will be a huge hit, but bottom line is, they are doing this to make money just like any company. This isn't a bad thing either. I don;t mean to paint VR in any kind of bad light. Every single company out there is doing it for the money ultimately. Every single decision they make is going to be tempered by whether or not it will increase profits, at least at some level. Cross platform *will* increase the palyerbase, which *will* increase profits. By how much and is that worth the effort is the question.