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The March Newsletter is here!

    • VR Staff
    • 167 posts
    March 20, 2019 8:31 AM PDT

    You Might Have Lost an Hour of Sleep, But You Gained an Awesome Newsletter


    We spring into action to deliver our next timeless newsletter. Both Under Wraps and Behind the Design are back this month with Under Wraps diving deeper into the methodology behind Project Faerthale, while Behind the Design focuses on our Disposition system. Next, our producers and directors answer some of our community’s questions that we pulled in from our various social media accounts. We finish off our March Newsletter in style as we sit down with Vigilantee13 in our newest Community Member Spotlight.

    https://pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/2019_march_intro/


    This post was edited by Roenick at March 20, 2019 8:37 AM PDT
    • 42 posts
    March 20, 2019 8:47 AM PDT

    I love that pic!  The colors, lighting, shadows, and details look great, and this is still pre Alpha!

    • 1479 posts
    March 20, 2019 9:16 AM PDT

    Thanks guys. Just a note :

     

    On this adress : https://www.pantheonmmo.com/news/latest_news/#march2019

     

    The hotlink still redirects to feb's newsletter.

    • VR Staff
    • 167 posts
    March 20, 2019 9:21 AM PDT

    MauvaisOeil said:

    Thanks guys. Just a note :

     

    On this adress : https://www.pantheonmmo.com/news/latest_news/#march2019

     

    The hotlink still redirects to feb's newsletter.

    Thanks, Mauv. We'll get it handled. 

    • 134 posts
    March 20, 2019 9:37 AM PDT

    Yeah I thought I was reading an old update I was like "uuhhmmm did I just imagine this or have I seen this before?"

    • 2419 posts
    March 20, 2019 10:08 AM PDT

    Immersive Impact

    As a final note, combat will not be the only place you will see unique and surprising behaviors in our NPCs. Seeing townsfolk go inside and close their doors at night.

    THANK YOU.  It is about time NPC, especially villagers, act with a little sense and go home at night.

    Obelisk asks: Will nighttime be dark and will it make the world a different place?

    Chris Perkins: Nighttime will certainly be dark, and nighttime in certain places throughout Terminus could be darker than normal depending on the environment and/or other mystical forces at work. On the whole, we want nighttime (and darkness by extension) to be considered dangerous. Not only will your vision be more limited and light sources more important, but there will be several unique events, quests, and NPCs that only come out at night

    Its about &#*@#% time!  Night needs to be different and more dangerous that daytime.  I'm not saying Kithicor Forest at night dangerous, but still..there should be more danger at night.

    @Fuel_ssbm asks: How exactly will the different races impact the class? For example will a Halfling Ranger be faster or an Elf Ranger have faster mana regen?

    CP: In addition to variations in starting attribute and resistance scores, each of the nine Races will have their own innate passive and active abilities that will further differentiate them. With this in mind, there will be many different synergies between a Race’s unique stats and abilities and the Classes they become.

    This does bring up a question though.  Would there be differences to the racial bonuses/abilities based upon the class?  A Dark Myr Wizard wouldn't necessarily need (or want) the same bonus/abilities that a Dark Myr DireLord needs/wants.  I'm hoping that you get a racial passive that applies regardless of class and an active that is tailored to a class.

    • 15 posts
    March 20, 2019 10:47 AM PDT

    Always happy to read about what's going on in development.

    I know the NPC actions and night cycles have been mentioned before, but reading about them again is exciting. It also makes me wonder how long day/night cycles will actually be, like what will be considered reasonable for people with limited playtime, but also not too fast that the danger of nighttime will already be upon you. I'm pretty sure there was a discussion somewhere on this already, but still a thought.

    Gonna be fun seeing what NPCs are up to behind closed doors. Will they sit down for dinner, go straight to bed, stay up all night knitting in their rocking chair by the fire?? I think it was Fable where you could go inside (break into) NPC's homes and they were always like "WTF you doing here? GTFO!"

    • 627 posts
    March 20, 2019 11:32 AM PDT
    The disposition system sounds awesome, can't wait to learn more about It
    • 287 posts
    March 20, 2019 11:33 AM PDT

    Love the write up on dispositions. Can't wait to see how that system gets fully flushed out. Definitely will add a fun wrinkle to game play.

    • 294 posts
    March 20, 2019 11:36 AM PDT

    You did it again.

    I always enjoy reading the monthly newsletter, but I am often surprised by the "Holy Toledo Ohio Batman" effect I get when finished.

    Thanks for the great info!!!

    • 1281 posts
    March 20, 2019 11:51 AM PDT

    Using the name prefix to describe the behavior of the mob is a cool idea. Those types of names have always been attached to mobs but have never really meant anything.

    Regarding merchant behavior, it would be cool if certain merchants have nighttime vendors that work for them and may be a bit shady and sell items the vendor normally wouldn't stock.


    This post was edited by bigdogchris at March 20, 2019 11:53 AM PDT
    • 1921 posts
    March 20, 2019 12:05 PM PDT

    Glad to see this Perception decision was changed/updated/adjusted: " ... there will be Dispositions only identifiable through the Perception system ... " https://pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/2019_march_behind_the_design/ ; A few months ago, they said Perception would never have a combat role, so that's a great change, imo.

    While it's nice to see the respective crafting stations, I was hoping for something a bit more.. unique per craft.  But I suppose it's fine, as a start.

    Happy to see I made the right call and abandoned the rogue and stealth in general, given the random chance for "Cunning" Can see through Stealth mobs.   Not going to make the rogues happy, though, especially with the two punch combo of Cannot be attacked from behind.  Invis casters will also be subjected to random Truesight mobs, too, which is going to make Invis ~pointless as well.  Glad I picked a class that doesn't have invis. heheh.  
    It does lead to the question of why have class defining abilities like Invis and Stealth and then have random mob generation that completely negates the advantage, uniqueness, design, implementation or definition of that class?  A tremendous amount of balancing weight is applied to non-combat utility like this, and it affects the in-combat kit designers implement.  I don't think this is going to go well, but we'll see.  It seems like one of these mechanics and designs hasn't caught up with the other, for the moment.

    Looks like snare is going to once again be the ~only useful anti-flee mechanism, given stun and mez immunity on common mobs.  Won't make enchanters, bards, and Paladins happy, but that's life in Pantheon.  Unfortunate that the mana recovery philosophy isn't going to be extended to all in-combat resource recovery.  That'll be an ongoing source of class envy forever, as is.

    No details on progeny, open world competition issues, caravans, aa's, mentoring.  That's a pity, given 4 years of development/planning/design documents.

    • 23 posts
    March 20, 2019 12:19 PM PDT

    Dispositions sounds great, just an idea to throw out there. Give a minion "Double Tap" disposition, ignores feign death. Region dependent items cost more so water in desert areas costs more from vendors since it more valuable.

    • 217 posts
    March 20, 2019 6:59 PM PDT

    Great newsletter folks, really glad youre directly addressing questions of the community and feedding us useful information on the games standing presently and its developement arc.

    Thanks folks!

    • 74 posts
    March 20, 2019 8:54 PM PDT

    vjek said:

    No details on progeny, open world competition issues, caravans, aa's, mentoring.  That's a pity, given 4 years of development/planning/design documents.

     

    A Q&A section with many answers of "soon" is not appropriate and only adds filler. Why even bother including them? Of course they're always being worked on.

    As well written as the newsletters are, they have become rehashes of information that is usually widely available but hidden in the forum pages of time. They really serve as months old, but now public summaries. This is not a bad thing for visibility and codification, but they are a let down from about every other perspective.

    I think that newsletters/streams should follow a predictable cadence: 2 superficial updates (like 2019 so far), 1 meaty update (work that was done that quarter), stream minimum every 4-6 months 

    • Superficial - generic screenshots, lore/creatures, generic system overview
    • Meaty - milestones hit/missed/planned, before/after screenshots/gifs, major reveal
    • Stream - previous quarters newsletters in video game form

    I think that putting together this type of plan is reasonable and leaves plenty of space for dev interpretation without rushing info out the door.

    • 801 posts
    March 20, 2019 9:12 PM PDT

    How many more pre alpha stages do we have to go until Alpha?

    • 41 posts
    March 20, 2019 11:00 PM PDT

    The disposition system sounds promising but if it works the way I understand it I think it could be much more.  If I understand correctly mobs will have a chance to spawn with a certain disposition and the disposition will be part of the mob name.  To me this doesn't sound to be much more than some rare spawns that may be a bit higher level.  We already see this in games but I think maybe not as frequent as what is planned here.

    I think all mobs should have a disposition table of what what dispositions are possible for that mob.  For example a gnoll shaman can be cunning, mastermind or deranged while a gnoll warrior can be deranged, bloodthirsty or avenging. Again, all mobs should spawn with a random disposition from their disposition table but it should not be part of the mob name, that should be left to the element of surprise or maybe some visual clues as to what their disposition might be.

     

     

    • 178 posts
    March 21, 2019 1:56 AM PDT

    I forsee a huge problem with the "disposition system"...

     

    it is going to be called the "despacito system" by the players, and such move can ruing a game....


    This post was edited by MyNegation at March 21, 2019 6:02 AM PDT
    • 6 posts
    March 21, 2019 5:50 AM PDT

    Crazzie said:

    How many more pre alpha stages do we have to go until Alpha?

     

    i want to know too and when ?

    • 200 posts
    March 21, 2019 6:16 AM PDT

    Hi, i like the Disposition-system. Mobs with different strengths and weaknesses. :) And the screenshot looks like The elder scrolls online. They have a similar art design.

     

    Greetings

    • 206 posts
    March 21, 2019 6:34 AM PDT

    barod1989 said:

    Crazzie said:

    How many more pre alpha stages do we have to go until Alpha?

     

    i want to know too and when ?

    By the sounds of it, they need probably 3 more months (AT THE LEAST) just to complete Project Faerthale. Which after that i dont know if they are going to go into the next Pre-Alpha or use PF as the first of the Alpha content. 

    • 1247 posts
    March 21, 2019 6:37 AM PDT

    Looking good. Keep it up Aradune, Joppa, and VR.

    #communitymatters #makenightmatteragain #riskvsreward 


    This post was edited by Syrif at March 21, 2019 7:13 AM PDT
    • 3852 posts
    March 21, 2019 7:55 AM PDT

    Excellent newsletter. A lot of information given.

    Thinking back over the sometimes excessively active debates on the forums over the last few months a *lot* of the topics were covered and sometimes resolved by the questions and answers.

    • 17 posts
    March 21, 2019 8:00 AM PDT

    I am going to choose to believe that this newsletter's lack of content is due to the team being hard at work on actually developing the game.  I'd love to see a few more examples of progress screenshots and design content in the the upcoming newsletters.


    This post was edited by wehted at March 21, 2019 8:01 AM PDT
    • 2138 posts
    March 21, 2019 1:39 PM PDT

    Wha-at?! so soon I thought..... oh, I've been busy. Dang, march flew by.