TRAIN! Get off my Tracks!

Kilsin posted a fun question to the Pantheon forums which I am sure will generate some interesting responses. Head on over to the official Pantheon MMO forums and give us your two coppers worth of wisdom.

Scenario: You accidentally aggro a room full of mobs in an outdoor area, your first reaction is to run but there is a small group of players waiting patiently for a member to catch up to them in the pathway of the only exit - What do you do?

My first thoughts of trains leap to Unrest. The trains were a fun (and often frightening) thing to behold. Blackburrow had some sweet trains too.

Crafting in Pantheon

Kilsin's weekly community question was about crafting in MMORPG's and specifically, what you want to see in Pantheon.

Crafting - How much do you like crafting in MMORPGs, is crafting something you expect to be in-game and how important do you think it is for the game even if you don't craft?

As always, these questions generate some well thought out posts by the Pantheon players. Head on over and weigh in on what your expectations and hopes are around crafting in Pantheon. Some people love crafting while others hate it but everyone expects it to be in game. Speaking of Crafting, if it's something you feel passionate about, in addition to weighing in on the official discussion thread, make sure you hit up the Pantheon Crafter's forums.

More Pre-Alpha Testing Underway!

Pre-Alpha testing is currently underway for those who are lucky to be able to participate. The servers will be up for character creation and some initial adventuring. While you can no longer pledge to participate in the Pre-Alpha, you can still (and should) pledge to help the game's development out and get some in-game items as well.

Our team is deep into the final stages of preparation for the next round of Pre-Alpha testing as I write this, and will be opening the servers for initial character creation on the day this newsletter is published, so this a truly exciting time for all of us here. We know our internal excitement is easily matched by that of the community, because your feedback, support and words of encouragement are the fuel that keeps us running every day.

July Newsletter

Summer is in full swing and we get to spend some time reading the latest newsletter! July's newsletter gives us some time with one of Pantheon's programmers, Jason Weimann while he takes time to answer some questions about what he has been up to

There are a few key parts of Pantheon I’ve been working on since joining the team in November. The first is tooling; I’ve spent a lot of my time working on building tools for the game-design team to create the content you see in-game - in fact, for the last few days, I’ve been working on a new dialog editor so our quest designers can create interesting dialogues and conversations easily.

In another installment of the Rogues Gallery, we get to learn details about the Giants of Terminus! I recall back in my Everquest days, how much I feared the Hill Giants who liked to stomp about the lands and the horror I felt while meditating in West Karana (when the screen was fully obscured by your spell book) and I suddenly heard the crashing sounds of an approaching giant (often resulting in my squishy demise). It's a great read, full of the backstory of these massive beings who no doubt will ruin many an adventurer's day!

Lastly, Chris 'Joppa' Perkins gives us some behind the scenes in the latest installment of 'Underwraps'. He discusses some of his experiences around the design of healer classes (Cleric, Druid and Shaman). Also of interest is mention of the next three class reveals (Wizard, Enchanter and Summoner which will be discussed in August!) and hints about future details around the Necromancer and Bard. (Personally, I am very excited about Enchanters as it was my main class on EQ for years.. along with my monk).

We also get to see a little bit of what goes into the world building process using what he calls draw-overs.

The process is rather simple: we meet internally to discuss the overall vision for a zone - what NPCs will you encounter here? What are the points of interest? How should this zone feel to the player - what kind of mood? What do we want the player’s experience to be like as they explore this zone? We work through all of these design and philosophical paradigms together.

Before and After showing the draw-over planning..

There's also an early look at some Orc-themed architecture which Jerry Kuklis recently finished. I can't wait to do battle here! I can already imagine the pulls and and hear the sounds of battle as we lay siege to the Orc outpost.

Lastly, a quick summary of how the player character models are coming along. They are looking pretty great and I can't wait to see them running around the lands of Terminus!

We have finished the modeling and texturing process for 6 of the 9 playable Races Pantheon will launch with, including the male and female variations of each. Here is the current list of finished models: the Humans, the Halflings, the Elves (both Ember and Ashen variations), the Dwarves, the Gnomes and the Ogres - exciting indeed!

June Newsletter

More class reveals are here! In this month's Newsletter we get to learn about three more of the beloved classes which make MMORPG's such fun. Details are shared about the Dire Lord, Paladin (which was the class of my first character created in Everquest) and the Warrior!

The newest member of the design team, Jimmy Lane, provides us with a glimpse into the world design via a Q&A session.

We have several initiation rituals here at Visionary Realms for our new team members, and while we can’t divulge most of them publicly, one of our favorites is sending our Producer of Promotional Content: David Schlow out for a quick interview. This month, David sits down with the newest member of our team, Jimmy Lane who joins us as one of our World Builders.

Lastly a new section of the newsletter "Under wraps" makes its debut. It covers numerous points of interest which many will enjoy reading. Class design, a new zone: Faerhale, Pre-Alpha 3 and a visit with our favorite rodent, The Ratkin round out this section. Definitely head over and give it a read!

May Newsletter

The May Newsletter was posted on the 16th and it packs some great details about three classes including one of my favorites, the Monk! The other two classes covered are the Rogue and Ranger, both classes which I know are dear to many old fellow Everquest players out there.

Also covered are one of the other inhabitants of Terminus, The North Tusk Orcs.

Orcs tribes cover multiple continents throughout Terminus, each with relatively independent agenda, tendencies and of varying size. Yet binding these tribes together is an ancient accord known as the Bloodsworn Covenant, which was founded before any of the Sacred Six came to Terminus.

Lastly, the PAX East highlights wraps up the news which also includes a video.

PAX East was AMAZING! 
It was an experience filled with connecting face-to-face with “old” friends and fans, as well as meeting tons of new friends too. That alone was worth the trip, but being able to watch people in-person play the game we’ve all been working so hard on was sort of a surreal experience. And, to see that they enjoyed it! Well, it has stoked our fires more than ever.

Developers from the Visionary Realms team share their favorite part of showcasing Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen at PAX East 2018. Follow me for more Pantheon coverage!

Great Start to the Weekend!

The Black Rose Keep is once again in the sights of some early adventurers. We will be treated to two consecutive nights of streams as players explore the depths of The Black Rose Keep! Tune in Thursday, April 26 at 8 PM EDT and join Koopatroopa787's Twitch Stream and watch the action from a Shaman's perspective. Then on Friday, April 27, at 7 PM EDT make sure you hop on to The HiveLeader's Twitch Stream for some more dungeon crawling goodness as he plays a Cleric!

Update April 27 2018: If you missed Thursday's stream, here it is.
Update April 29 2018: If you missed Friday's stream, here it is.

Stream of Black Rose Keep!

Mark it in your calendar! There will be a stream of gameplay in the zone Black Rose Keep on Thursday, April 19 at 8 PM EDT. Hop on to watch it at either twitch.tv/lassiz or twitch.tv/visionaryrealms. Once links to the stream are available for viewing afterwards, we will post them here..

EDIT: April 22 2018 - You can view a recording of the stream HERE