June Producer's Letter (2021)

The producer’s letter this month opened with mention of the “Road to Alpha” feature list which was released in March and provided some much desired updates towards building that road.

We learned of some additional hires into the studio which fills out some much needed talent to bring the world to life.

.. we bolstered our team with the design talents and production experience of Adam “Tehom” Mostel. His design chops are being invested into the Perception system, Dispositions/Traits and encounter design, as well as being a keen sounding board on many additional aspects of gameplay. In addition, Adam’s strong background in project management has provided us not only a stellar game designer, but a Production Assistant as well..

A new Environment Artist and public facing marketing positions are also being filled.

The game is coming along nicely with a particularly cool game mechanic, NPC Combat Awareness which will add some very cool depth to NPC encounters (and checks off an Alpha Roadmap item)!

..what I want to emphasize is this: this is not scripted NPC combat. Scripts can be very complex and interesting, but they are put together in specific ways to create a specific experience and sequence of events – every time. Our Combat Awareness system is not scripted. Instead, NPCs are given options based on layers of criteria which they may act on or may not.

Class development is progressing with a focus on the Monk, Ranger and Summoner. The monk will be getting the first dose of coverage in upcoming dev streams and web content. (The monk will be a playable class for the next Pre-Alpha session! Something I personally am quite interested in). Some very juicy upcoming roadmap items and game development was mentioned as well!

And as a reminder, once we finish with the Ranger, Summoner and the pet system (which also opens the door for Charm – Enchanters rejoice!), our next step in the Alpha Roadmap is to integrate our new networking stack and bring our terrain streaming system online. Once networking and terrain streaming are in place, you will begin to see us transition the Kingsreach zones out of greyboxing, which will be glorious indeed.

Class highlights list various improvements to the existing pre-alpha classes (as well as adding the monk). Programing highlights list out a couple of NPC updated as well as environmental tools and network improvements. Animation highlights include new monk combat animations and the Art department has been busy at work with new NPC models including: Skeletons, Lycandrels, Spiders and Wraiths. as well as a new world building focus on a zone called Wild’s End.

Lastly the pre-alpha testing will be focusing on the new NPC Combat Awareness system and the newly playable class, the Monk. I anticipate that monks will be flooding the hills, valleys and depths of the dungeons in the next Pre-alpha and I can’t wait to see how it goes!

Definitely head over to the official site to get all of the details from the most recent Producer’s letter! It’s well worth a read to get all of the tantalizing details of this highly anticipated game!

February Newsletter (2019)

It’s Groundhog Day… again.. and that must mean it will soon be time for February’s News Letter! Visionary Realms has bestowed a belated Valentine’s day gift upon us all to enjoy!

In the Under Wraps section, Ben Dean (Producer, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen) unwraps some of the efforts underway with animation, art, and programming.

.. Project Faerthale is busy, visually speaking. So even though we’ve roughly blocked out the zone for pre-alpha builds, we have a lot of refinement happening. You can see in some of the concepts here how Faerthale is really taking on a life of its own..

Next Joppa takes us for another tour Behind The Design of Pantheon. This month we get to lean a little bit more about Atmospheres which players will experience in the game. We’ve already seen one of these Atmospheres called Gloom in some of the streams and it’s one which Joppa discusses in the newsletter.

Gloom

The Gloom atmosphere can be found permeating most Undead ruins, crypts, graveyards… places with a high concentration of Undead. This particular Atmosphere impacts players negatively and Undead non-player characters (NPCs) positively while in its area of effect.

Negative Effects on Players

    • Drains Mana over time

    • Reduces healing effectiveness

    • Increases damage inflicted by Undead enemies

Positive Effects on Undead

    • Bonus to all stats

    • Increases Aggro and Assist radius

We also learn about something cool called The Artifacts..

By seeking and acquiring Artifacts. Artifacts are legendary rare items players can discover that offer unique utility. They are necessary to explore and overcome areas of the game where Atmospheres exist.

In the Gloom example above, players would need to acquire and equip the Bone-Woven Veil to mitigate Gloom’s negative effects.

The combination of Atmospheres and Artifacts really adds some great depth to this already rich and extremely well thought out game. It’s definitely not going to be a simple decision to go to a zone and fight what’s there. Knowledge of the potential Atmospheres encountered and how to mitigate them becomes a big factor requiring much exploration to gain the upper hand. But wait, there’s more! In a future Behind the Design, Joppa plans to discuss additional challenges adventurers will face.. The Climate! We’ve already seen some of this in previous streams involving a very windy, snow-covered bridge which required additional items to help deal with the extreme cold.

Lastly, we are treated with a Q&A session with the big man himself, Brad (Aradune) McQuaid! The very first question contained something which is always reassuring. Aradune is in this for the long haul and has a lot of great plans and ideas to roll out for Pantheon.

There are so many mechanics, systems, and ideas to try out but don’t necessarily make sense to until post-launch. In the past I’ve not been able to stay on these projects as long as I would have liked, but I’m all-in on Pantheon; here for the long haul and having a blast!

Aradune01.png

In addition to learning about the origins of the name Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen and Terminus (quite interesting), Aradune covers a lot of ground around his role in overseeing the games development. He is certainly busy and dedicated to ensuring that “The Vision” is followed but he has also been very busy promoting the game and supporting the Pantheon community.

..but what comes to mind right now is just how important the community is. And more specifically, how incredibly impactful community support and faith in us has been. I know the team receives this all the time on forums, in direct messages, etc. I kept my Facebook account open and dedicated to the game and community, and the number of private messages I get that are full of support, kind words, and encouragement is amazing. We love working on Pantheon, but at times it gets tough. Making an MMO is not the easiest genre to tackle — in fact, it may arguably be the toughest. It’s so nice to see a new Youtube video pop up supporting the game and promoting the game when you’re feeling some of that pressure. Getting a PM on FB or Discord or Twitter has an incredibly positive effect on our morale, and we are very, very grateful.

We are treated to quite a bit of game mechanics philosophy from XP bonuses for grouping, PvP, to power leveling (it’s ain’t gonna happen in Pantheon!) and it’s all something everyone should check out!

I like to say that Pantheon is putting the E back into PvE. Traditionally, PvE simply means fighting NPCs. Pantheon is going beyond that in a big way. Our Perception System is crucial to all of this. You’ll be able to start quests and obtain critical information while exploring. In fact, you’ll need to explore and adventure in order to take part in many aspects of the game. Some MMOs are all about power leveling to the endgame. Why? There is either a perception or a reality that the real fun is at the higher levels. What do many players do in response to all of this? They sit in one or a few spots and power level, often with a higher level friend accelerating the process. This just isn’t going to work in Pantheon. Adventure and exploration are both rewarded and essential.

I could go on and on about the fascinating stuff which Aradune discussed. It’s incredibly exciting and I can’t wait to get my hands on this game! I’ve already warned my wife to expect the following response to anything she asks me which requires that I stop playing.. “Okay, I’ll be there in 5 minutes..” Sigh, famous last words..

November Newsletter

Time to give thanks for another eagerly awaited Pantheon Newsletter! This month they are serving up heaping portions of information starting with news about Pre-Alpha 4 and a new team member. Pre-Alpha 4 starts on November 25th and ends December 20th. That’s some great early Christmas presents for the Pre-Alpha testers! Ahh, Pre-Alpha, where you get to do more than watch a stream of someone playing Pantheon (you ACTUALLY GET TO PLAY!! .. I mean help test). Do you feel that you’ve missed out on the opportunity to help out with Pantheon? Fret not because for a limited time, pledges are open which will allow you to participate in Pre-Alpha.

Linda “The Brasse” Carlson has also started consulting Visionary Realms on Community Relations so we will see her around. Hi Linda!! Also, more team members will be joining up in the coming months. You can help accelerate the new additions by heading on over to pledge some money during the November 2018 Pledge Drive.

Oh, and check out these awesome new in-game models!!

This month’s newsletter also includes a lengthly segment called “Behind the Design” where the Perception System is discussed in nice detail. You will have heard of and seen some aspects of the Perception System during streams and other discussions online. In short, it’s a unique and intriguing method of handling quests without following the usual linear fashion of MMQ quest engines.

And to be truly immersive and expansive, the system would need to work with simple, mundane things as much as it did with grand points of interest. To make the game world feel like more than a line connecting two points, players need to always know that just over that little hill or around that tree could be a discovery that makes it worth looking.

Lastly, there’s a taste of the lore of Pantheon written by Justin Gerhart titled “Tales from the Fire”. Give it a read! It’s a great appetizer for the coming main course!

October Newsletter

You just knew it was going to be a fun newsletter in October! Spooky news awaits those brave enough to enter! Pre-Alpha 4 is on the horizon which is great news to those in the Pre-Alpha testing group but also for all of us who can’t wait for Pantheon to be released (and hey, there WILL be streams of the new Pre-Alpha content)! The devs are busy putting the finishing touches on the next build which will introduce us all to Faerthale!

Other great news is that Visionary Realms is hiring. Make sure you check out the Newsletter to see if you or anyone you know meets the requirements. Now, on with the rest of the Newsletter already!

Harvesting Update! Yes, harvesting is discussed in some great detail this month! We learn about the concepts behind how harvesting will be done and why. It looks like there will be plenty to do for players in the world with these various harvesting methods..

Right now we’re looking at Fishing, Gathering, Mining, Salvaging, Scavenging, Skinning, and Woodcutting. If we find a need or a niche that can’t be filled for material acquisition using those skills we may consider additional ones

Part of harvesting are the new concepts of Salvaging and Scavenging. These are explained in some additional detail in the newsletter..

Simply put, scavenging is finding things, and salvaging is breaking things. That’s overly simplistic though, so let’s touch on a few points for each.

What Halloween, er I mean October newsletter would be complete without some spooky content?! Pantheon delivers with a Rogues Gallery article on none other than Lycanthropes (aka Werewolves!).. Here we learn of the deep roots of how these wretched beings came to be and how they are hated by the people of Terminus. Who knew that werewolves were just a subset of Lycanthropes?

Today, Lycandrell, Nightwolves (and the subsequent, less intelligent werewolf) all have similarly poor reputation amongst most people groups. They are hated and hunted, most often due to the vile deeds of the Nightwolves and animalistic morality of werewolves. Yet the hardness of Lycandrell hearts toward common mortals has not given fearful outsiders a reason to treat each lineage of Lycanthrope as distinct from one another. A wolf is a wolf. This has created a survivalist mindset in all Lycanthrope, which suits their reclusive preferences and has kept Lycandrell encounters to a minimum.

Lastly, we are treated to some Under Wraps content! (save the juicy stuff for last of course!). We get a summary of the previously stated efforts around class development up to level 40 but we also got an interesting tidbit regarding the Summoner class and pets..

summoner-lg.jpg

The past month of September the team has continued work on Faerthale, class implementation up to level 40 and several development tools. Earlier this week we finished up another review of the Summoner and its connected pet system. We had identified a potential implementation challenge with the design and born from the search of a resolution was a new idea that is both relatively easy to implement and makes the Summoner’s relationship with their pets even cooler.

This expanded into general design philosophy and efforts which happen daily around each class and the associated spells and abilities specific to that class. I always knew that it was a difficult balancing act and it’s present big-time in Pantheon’s development.

This sort of thing has happened routinely throughout production but it has seemed to be particularly present during this past month while we’re implementing all 12 classes with a more complete spell and ability arsenal. These tweaks and adjustments are exciting but are still very much subject to close scrutiny. How will this affect other classes? How can this ability be abused? Is this spell needed? Will the player be more or less desired in a group? Will they be able to solo effectively when they desire? Every attempt is made to be thorough when we are plotting out the classes but inevitably we won’t fully understand its implication until we get it in front of QA and even more so once the pre-alpha testers give it a go..

So there you have it folks! October’s newsletter is out and we have a month of discussion about what was revealed to look forward to! This halloween season, enjoy your pumpkin spice drinks and be careful on October 31. The night roads will be packed with little future Pantheon players!

avendyrspass-lg.jpg

September Newsletter

Things have been quite around here, too quiet! My cave creeper sense has been tingling in anticipation of a newsletter release.. and here it is!

Pre-Alpha 3 was wrapped up last month and the team is hard at work to have all classes are ready up to level 40 for Pre-Alpha 4 later this fall. We are treated to a Q and A around a redesign of one of the playable races, The Skar.

We were never satisfied with the initial rendering of the Skar, from an artistic or mechanical perspective. Those two areas of consideration are actually what prompted us to go back to the drawing board.

The first attempt was a “shot in the dusk”, not total darkness.

I love this quote from Jared Pullen..

From the get go we knew that the Skar were by far our most chaotic player race, given over to pursuits of violence and carnage the likes of which most other Terminus races wouldn’t even dream of. The catch cry of the Skar is not “Prepare to die!”... it’s more “I like your face, I want to wear it as a helmet...” 

There is also discussion around Skargol, the starting city of the Skar. This (like so much of Pantheon) is an area I am very eager to check out! It sounds like an amazingly cool and creepy place to start out a new character or to visit as a tourist. ;-)

.. the Dead Sheer; a towering spear head of splintered rock on the scale of a mountain peak, erupting upwards like the withering digit of a fell and angry devil. A grizzly monument to torment and despair it stands, adorned with the shrivelled remnants of past victims whose blackened bones cry out from the very rocks. All this amidst an acrid wasteland pocked by fetid acid pools and barren rock stained by chemically unstable mineral compounds that leach upwards from the very bowls of Terminus. It is a vile place, a hazardous place. One does not simply walk into Skargol…

Lastly we get the opportunity to see more of what’s under wraps with Pantheon’s development. This month’s focus is on one of the new, not yet seen city zones, Faerthale. The city is coming along and will be available during Pre-Alpha 4 testing. I really love the thought being put into developing this zone..

There are several unique experiences you’ll discover in the zone and each of them are expansive enough that it doesn’t make your adventures feel like micro-adventures. They’re also not so large that they feel empty. On top of it we need to ensure that all of the experiences in the zone fit into the overall zone thematically and practically.

Speaking of Pre-Alpha 4, the team is hard at work finishing off all of the playable classes to level 40. This is a large order to fill when you consider what needs to be done around spells and abilities. It’s an iterative process and needs balancing against everything else in the game.

An even larger portion of the design comes down to the spell and ability matrix. This is the heart of every Class as it defines what those Classes can do. A lot of time is spent going through these spells and abilities one by one and bouncing them off of each other. They need to work as a conceptional design but they also need to be realistic in terms of programming and they need to stay true to the overall style of the game. A lot of check and balance discussions happen over the spell and ability matrices.

It’s an iterative process and needs balancing against everything else in the game. This is where testers come in and eventually post-launch players. It’s a process which never really ends!

We’ll then test the classes with all of their new abilities internally in different scenarios and fix bugs and tweak balancing issues. We catch and fix a lot in this stage but it’s nothing like having hundreds of live testers trying thousands of things we could not account for. For that we are forever grateful to our PA testers. This balancing is a lifelong process as new players and new scenarios arise. So Classes are far from a fire-and-forget approach. Their growth and evolution will continue through Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta and well past launch.

Miss The Streams from Wednesday?

The battles have been fought, train tracks laid and the Ph4t L3wtz have been ninja'd. If you didn't catch the stream or want to relive it through one of the other perspectives, have a look at the following links. If you have comments for the streams, head on over to the Pantheon forums and drop them a comment in this thread.