The first (hopefully of many) Community Program Streams will start rolling on Wednesday August 22 at 11 PM EDT. This will involve streams from 6 members of the Pantheon community each of which will play a different class! The following are the players as well as the links to their streams. Gratz on this great opportunity all!
The Gamespace Game Show has scored a 2 hour interview with Aradune and Joppa this Friday (August 17). MMORPG is taking questions to ask them.
Do you want to know more about a class that’s recently been revealed like the Wizard, Summoner or Enchanter? Are zones a personal interest you have that you yearn for information on? Let’s get hyped with your in-depth questions that we will pose to our distinguished guests this Friday evening on The GameSpace Game Show!
Here's your chance to put a bug in their ear to add something to Pantheon or to try to get some information not yet revealed to the public from them! Head on over and drop your suggestion at MMORPG.com
Joppa hopped into the Wizard forum to add to a discussion around the Wizard reveal recently made in the August newsletter. His post is definitely worth a read because it shows us how much thought is going into the game and how each class (such as the wizard) is not a mundane activity for players. There's so much more depth and more ways to play than the days of old..
The idea here is to answer the age-old problem of Wizards unloading a spell or two, then sitting down for the rest of the fight to keep Mana up. Now, Wizard's can stay meaningfully involved in combat through their Arcane school (damage, roots, stuns, etc.) and actually generateMana while doing so, building back up to another "burn" phase.
Even cooler though, is the type of progression players can anticipate for their class as revealed through Joppa's next comment. I'm including the whole quote here because it's an awesome read. Definitely great to see this level of detail being put forth by the team on the Pantheon Forums!
Let me put it in the context of a "player story":
As a Wizard, I learn Smolder at level 1, let's say. Then let's say at level 14 I'm fighting the Wraiths in Halnir Cave and the Wraith boss Tyrassura drops Scroll Fragment: Char! I win the roll against another Wizard, loot the fragment and then open my Living Codex. I notice I can't scribe Scroll Fragment: Char in a normal slot like other spells, so I read the description on the Fragment:
"Woven from Smolder to inflict increased Fire damage to your target with an X% bonus to critically land."
I remember that this Fragment is connected to smolder, so I flip to the Smolder icon in my codex. I notice that it's different from the other icons (this is not currently implemented, but will be soon). Instead of being a complete icon like the others, it appears to be torn in half. In the space where the missing half of the icon should be, there are two small, empty squares. I click one of those small squares with the Fragment on my cursor and it begins scribing. When the scribing is complete, I get a message saying, "You have learned how to weave Smolder into Char."
Now how does this work? My group pulls the next Wraith and we begin combat. I stand and cast Smolder which casts and fires as it normally does. But now, as soon as Smolder fires, the Smolder icon on my bar flashes and there is a new icon instantly in its place: Char! I activate Char which immediately fires on my enemy (instant cast, mana free) doing significantly more damage than Smolder. Once Char fires, the icon returns to the Smolder icon and begins Smolder's cooldown.
It's also worth noting that Animation, Audio and Visual effects will play a big role in "selling" this mechanic and making it feel like actual spell weaving. But trust me, it will be an awesome, visceral feeling when it's all said and done :)
The wizard finally got his mana up enough to teleport the August Newsletter to the Pantheon MMO forums! This month's news letter includes three more class reveals, focusing on the pure casters of Terminus! The Summoner, The Wizard and The Enchanter! In fact, ALL launch classes are up and available for reading and drooling over! Definitely excited for these details and reading about them, it certainly makes choosing one too start with a difficult decision because they all have such cool abilities and spells.
This month's rogue's gallery covers a very cool looking NPC, the Banshee!
OF HOWL AND CHAIN. The banshee enters our world in a window of time that mirrors their own heart: the dead of night. In the past banshee portended coming misfortune or death, often in areas close to their own passing and with a mournful keening or wail. But as they’ve grown in power and attained a loose organizational structure, their role shifted from harbinger to assailant. Today banshee use their abilities to sow ruin by their own hand, rather than serving as a sympathetic horn.
Next, we are treated with a glimpse into the behind the scenes stuff in the 'Under Wraps' section. This focuses on the Pre-Alpha testing which has been going on with Pre-Alpha 3 sessions currently underway.
As mentioned, it’s the first time that testers are experiencing the world in an “as-intended” manner by connecting the zones together. It seems like such a small thing, but it’s surprising how much a simple thing like a zone line can heighten your immersion. The first time I zoned from Thronefast to Avendyr’s Pass by following the road I told Joppa that it was that instant that Pantheon first felt like a world to me. That’s a pretty big moment.
Pre-Alpha 3 is discussed, covering what the focus was and then the announcement of what Pre-Alpha 4 will entail is revealed. It looks like things are shaping up nicely and it will include harvesting.
PA4 will have all 12 classes implemented up to level 40 and a lot of attention is being given to the combat experience. Abilities, spells and skills are being fleshed out and, in some cases, replaced. Every action and interaction are being audited and polished. PA3 testers are already seeing some of this work being reflected in the latest builds. By PA4 testers should see a combat system that is more involved, more intricate, more acutely balanced, more shiny and plainly just more fun.
Finally, PA4 will include our first pass at harvesting.
Finally it's QA time with Senior Programmer Robert Crane. There is plenty of interesting bits of information to read up on, giving us a glimpse into the team members and the role they play working on Pantheon.
What’s been the most interesting part of working on Pantheon so far?
I will always have a fond place in my heart for fishing, and while it’s something that is only in its early stages right now, we have big plans to make it even better as the project evolves. I would have to say though that the real innovation is our perception system, which I helped write. We are still discovering different paths to take perception in, to immerse the player even further.
There's a great discussion on the Pantheon forums concerning the stats on gear which will be obtained within Pantheon. VR staff have weighed in several times with their take.
Kilsin mentioned in his initial response..
I think stats are important, it allows diversity between classes and creates a feeling of freedom when choosing what gear you want your character to wear, what I really do not like after learning a valuable lesson in VG is Equipped Effects (EEs) they are game breakers and pretty much swallow the Devs into a never ending gear sink, this is bad for everyone involved and harms the game in my opinion.
Joppa weighed in to explain what kind of gear viewers saw on Cohh during the stream and went on to discuss the current thoughts around stat caps..
Regarding the actual stat amount, I can say this: the current plan is for a soft cap of 50/hard cap of 60, including worn items and buffs, in a given stat at level 50. And this will not be easy to attain. You will have to make the decision and a concious effort to focus any of the attributes to raise them that high
Make sure you check out the thread in its entirety as it gives us all a good look at what to expect in game!
It's all over! The battles have been fought, mez's have been broken and loot scooped. Did you miss the stream or want to relive the glory of last night's battles? You can watch it from The Hive Leader's perspective via the embedded video!
During the stream yesterday, it was mentioned that August's newsletter would be released on Wednesday 8th. We will post a link and summary when it goes live. Apparently it was also mentioned that the newsletter will have some Pre-Alpha-4 information. Good to see that testing is making progress!
Kilsin once again has people talking with another question posted to the official Pantheon Forums. He is looking for thoughts around what class a group would get to pull in the absence of a dedicated pulling class. (I'm biased as I like playing my monk and the challenges of pulling and splitting mobs is why).
Community Debate - Who should pull mobs for the group if there is no dedicated pulling class - Crowd Control, DPS with aggro drop ability (Smoke bomb, FD etc.), the main tank or another option? #PRF #MMORPG #MMO #communitymatters
Head on over to the forums and weigh in!
