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Round Table Discussion Questions

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    • 999 posts
    February 7, 2015 3:19 PM PST

    Question 9:  Dungeon Design - Camps vs Crawls

     

    I know there has been discussion on little to no use of instances in Pantheon, so my question is related to dungeon design.  In EQ, there were all mainly static dungeons with camps.  Also, in EQ there were very few zone out points or multiple exits outside of the original zone line in Dungeons.  Further, there were no boss mob ports a la WoW - where you ran through the dungeon, killed the boss mob, and you had a portal appear to warp you back to the start of the dungeon (or wherever your que point was). By my definition, WoW dungeons = Crawls. 

     

    I know there has been mention by Brad of Camp and Crawl type dungeons.  But, my question is to have those two points defined and fleshed out for what they mean in Pantheon.  As it stands, in my mind Crawl type = WoW Dungeons; Camp type = EQ dungeons.  I'd be curious to hear developer thoughts.

     

    One ending thought - I believed EQ mechanics added to the scope of the dungeons and it made them "feel larger" even if they were not huge in size.


    This post was edited by Raidan at February 28, 2015 3:57 AM PST
    • 107 posts
    February 7, 2015 5:43 PM PST

    Tell us about plans for raiding.

    • 9115 posts
    February 7, 2015 8:51 PM PST
    Filzin said:

    Tell us about plans for raiding.

    You will need to be a little bit more specific please mate.

    Raiding isn't even at a stage of being implemented, so we will need to have a couple of specific questions so the team can try and give as much information as possible but they won't be able to sit there and just talk shop about raiding without knowing what you are specifically asking about, it's a very broad and open topic. ;)

    • 154 posts
    February 7, 2015 9:50 PM PST
    Raidan said: 

    3.  There hasn't been much discussion relating to class/races since the Kickstarter and shortly after.  I'm curious to where the class design stands and what is intended moving forward?  Will the classes be more EQ/VG like in that they have just one designed path, or, will the initial design from the Kickstarter be in place where there will be two paths for each class?

    7.  Crowdfunding - Is Pantheon's team still seeking it, or is obtaining an investor the only goal now (or both methods?).  I understand the need for quality, but crowdfunding needs transparency and crumbs.  Without it, you will lose interest and the community will move on.  If both are still being sought after, I would release small quality crumbs in between the larger meaningful updates (doesn't always have to be a screenshot).

     

    I think I would like to add that I am very interested in Raidan's 3 and 7 questions from above. I am just interested in the race/class stuff and I think the distinction of funding plan/source will help determine what the communities roles are. In extension to that I would like to know:

     

    What do the Dev's view the community as? Are we a focus group? A funding source? A crowd sourcing support resource? What do they want us to be so we can focus on that and be better at it.

     

    *edit errr grammar :)


    This post was edited by cram9030 at February 8, 2015 5:31 AM PST
    • 753 posts
    February 8, 2015 5:35 AM PST

    Question 1:  Lighting and music as mood setters

     

    How dark will dark be?  In today's MMO's night time means you can see just as well as you can during the daytime, and "Dark" means not much more than subduing overly bright colors.  And so, even if you have a "dark" area in a modern MMO with "scary/eerie" music playing... well, the mood effect isn't there. 

     

    How much attention will you guys pay to setting / altering the mood and expectations of the player with things like lighting and music?  Will we walk into an area so dark that we can't see anything at all beyond a couple paces?  Will there be sounds and music in those areas tat will scare the bejesus out of us?

     

    Similarly - have you considered going the exact opposite direction?  Having a zone or whatever that feels light, bright, and airy, only to have it end up being an incredibly deadly and dangerous area?  (i.e. you walk in and think... "oh, hello kitty!" and then, after you are too deep to turn back around, find yourself thinking "What the hell is Godzilla doing in hello kitty world?")

     

    =====

     

    Question 2:  Making players contend with "The little things" in their MMO lives.

     

    How much "mundane" stuff will you make players contend with in general - and will you put in means to overcome the mundane that will ultimately "add to the uber" of the player?

     

    I'm talking about things like: 

     

    - Weight mattering (even coins)... but having weight reduction bags available within the game to try and attain

    - Dark being really dark... but having portable light sources available within the game to try and attain

    - Having long training curves on things like swimming... where once you have invested the time you can swim way faster, hold your breath way longer.... etc...

    - Speaking of that, areas that have no air and require some means to make it so you do not need to breathe (hadden's earring, etc...)

     

    =====

     

    Question 3: Controlling overblown spell effects.

     

    I recall back in the pre-release days of EQ2, a dev post that talked about them wanting to make it so that you could just watch your screen and not the chat box to see what was cast. They wanted you to be able to recognize everything just by seeing it.  That works great when you are by yourself casting a spell... but get into a group, or worse, a raid - and the color explosion looks like every rainbow that ever existed is puking all over your screen.  Pretty much every UI skin you can get for EQ2 comes with a "turn off spell effects / turn spell effects back on" button. 

     

    WoW actually did this much better - you could have 40 people in a raid in the early days, and know what was being cast and by who.  It looked pretty cool, but nothing was overblown.

     

    What will you do in this regard?

     

    =====

     

    Question 4:  How will spells look when you get better at them?

     

    This topic has been discussed to some extent, but I wanted to put a different spin on it (I did back on the thread that discussed this too, but I'm raising it here because it didn't really get resolved there)

     

    I believe it has been said that, like EQ, as you gain in levels / skill / etc... spells will look progressively more impressive.  Traditionally, this also means "bigger"

     

    What do you think of having some spells get bigger / more grand as you get skill, while some others actually get tighter and more refined?

     

    What I'm envisioning is this: 

     

    You get "Starfire" at level 1.   When you cast it, it consists of a ton of yellowish, sorta whitish sparks that splinter all over the place.  It's big.  It's messy.  It's still cool.

     

    BUT - when you gain enough skill that you have mastered "Starfire" it is a single, solitary, almost blindingly white beam of light with that yellowish stuff from the early on sparks being a kind of nimbus at the edges of the beam....

     

    Big, messy spell early on becomes impressively cool (but tighter and cleaner) spell when mastered.

     

     


    This post was edited by Wandidar at February 26, 2015 9:06 PM PST
    • 132 posts
    February 11, 2015 11:15 PM PST

    My question is about vendors. In EQ, when I sold something to an NPC vendor another player could buy that item from the vendor. I like this system and think its super cool, will pantheon have this as well?

    • 671 posts
    February 22, 2015 12:25 PM PST

    A second thread should've been opened up, to field the second rounds of questioning...

     

    I would like to know how many character slots are planned, for the Character's Paper-doll..? Are socks one of them..?

     

    • 9115 posts
    February 22, 2015 5:50 PM PST
    Hieromonk said:

    A second thread should've been opened up, to field the second rounds of questioning...

     

    I would like to know how many character slots are planned, for the Character's Paper-doll..? Are socks one of them..?

     

    We did post and had asked everyone to continue asking questions in this thread for a few reasons but mainly because we wanted to answer any questions left over from the last round table that we were not able to get to last time and to see how many more questions would be asked, as this time there is a lot less.

    • 671 posts
    February 23, 2015 12:00 AM PST

     

    Will there be cloaks in the game...  

    I like the fact a guilds & people can identify themselves by insignia, etc. (Insignia = Easy revenues for VRi...)

     

     

    • 9115 posts
    February 25, 2015 3:28 AM PST

    Another great batch of questions!

    We will be hosting another Dev Round Table within the next week or two, so please get your questions in, we have a ton of questions so far but a lot are multiple questions from community members, so if we do not get many more we will be going through and answering as many as we can (time permitting of course) so make sure if you really want to ask a question, you post it here for me to collect within the next week or so.

    • 12 posts
    February 26, 2015 12:10 PM PST
    Raidan said:

    Questions 3, 4, & 5:  Class/Race Descriptions; Concept Art; Death Penalty Mechanics

     

    3.  There hasn't been much discussion relating to class/races since the Kickstarter and shortly after.  I'm curious to where the class design stands and what is intended moving forward?  Will the classes be more EQ/VG like in that they have just one designed path, or, will the initial design from the Kickstarter be in place where there will be two paths for each class?

     

    My question goes along the lines of (3) above regarding "paths" or more specifically the differentiation between characters of one class.  EQ allowed you to gain different abilities through the AA system, but at the point when you had maxed all AAs, you were no longer any different from another member of your class.  WoW initially had a system where you allocated talent points and could do so in ways that were unique, providing you with a different set of abilities than other members of your class.  I do realize that there were "cookie-cutter" builds and that can't be avoided, but you could still create unique builds if you chose to.

     

    With the discussion in round table #1 of mana color and possible differentiation by learning to switch between/merge mana colors when casting some spells:

     

    What other ways are being considered for any given character to be unique or to have unique skill sets, and are there similar systems being designed that apply to classes that aren't necessarily mana dependent such as warriors, monks, and rogues?

     


    This post was edited by Samatman at February 26, 2015 12:11 PM PST
    • 610 posts
    February 26, 2015 12:27 PM PST
    Raidan said:

    Question 9:  Dungeon Design - Camps vs Crawls

     

    I know there has been discussion on little to no use of instances in Pantheon, so my question is related to dungeon design.  In EQ, there were all mainly static dungeons with camps.  Also, in EQ there were very few zone out points or multiple exits outside of the original zone line in Dungeons.  Further, there were no boss mob ports a la WoW - where you ran through the dungeon, killed the boss mob, and you had a portal appear to warp you back to the start of the dungeon (or wherever your que point was). By my definition, WoW dungeons = Crawls. 

     

    I know there has been mention by Brad of Camp and Crawl type dungeons.  But, my question is to have those two points defined and fleshed out for what they mean in Pantheon.  As it stands, in my mind Crawl type = WoW Dungeons; Camp type = EQ dungeons.  I'd be curious to hear developer thoughts.

     

    One ending thought - I believed EQ mechanics added to the scope of the dungeons and it made them "feel larger" even if they were not huge in size.

    I would actually like to hear thoughts on this question

     

    • 12 posts
    February 26, 2015 3:15 PM PST
    sajbear said:

    My question is about vendors. In EQ, when I sold something to an NPC vendor another player could buy that item from the vendor. I like this system and think its super cool, will pantheon have this as well?

     

    I would definitely like to see this feature in game.  In EQ this was one of the "mini-games" I played inside the game world.  To me this is similar to going to a garage sale down the street, with the same thrill of finding something really valuable for 25 cents.  One of the things that kept me logging in to Everquest was just this feature.  I would scour the merchants in Plane of Knowledge and find these vendor deals and keep them, use them, or resell them.  My last score was a Locket of Escape, an item that hasn't dropped in the game for 14 years.

     

    Well EQ just removed the majority of merchants in PoK this week.  The ones left have no room in their inventories to hold items sold by players.  My hobby is pretty much gone.  If one of you who play P99 could send me a PM, I'd love to get started.  


    This post was edited by Samatman at February 28, 2015 12:13 AM PST
    • 38 posts
    February 26, 2015 4:56 PM PST

    I trust the team is doing alright, and really the major questions I had were asked by Raidan. These are just small inquiries:

     

    1. Customization settings, which may be far away down the line from the current stage of development. Will the users have the ability to customize UI? What about draw distance, or how "spaced out" music loops play (e.g. setting 5 minutes of silence before another loop of music plays)? Will Unity support this, you think?

     

    2. This may not be pertinent, but I am wondering if the devs could shed light on how class and race design is developed as a process. Is it designed like all classes have skills developed up to the first 10 levels, then balance, then the next 10 levels? Is one class focused on at a time? Are there rough drafts/plans of skills/abilities/spells from 1-50 then balancing it out later?

     

    3. I heard a rumor somewhere on these forums that melee types will have something other than auto attack, an ability to kick, and bash. Something more like real-time fights, like Dark Souls where stanima management was needed. Is this a concept for Pantheon?


    This post was edited by Vortikai at February 26, 2015 5:01 PM PST
    • 318 posts
    February 26, 2015 5:58 PM PST

    1) Do you plan to release the game with raid content (dungeons, open-world bosses, ect)? Or will it be like Vanguard, where the first raid dungeon was added post-launch.

     


    This post was edited by Wellspring at February 27, 2015 10:33 AM PST
    • 238 posts
    February 26, 2015 7:35 PM PST

    Quick and to the point.

     

    Q: Will gear have a color code?


    This post was edited by Xonth at February 26, 2015 7:39 PM PST
    • 12 posts
    February 26, 2015 8:41 PM PST

    Ok, I'm gonna pull a Jason here but I do have a second question:  Will there be any War Wizard combat mechanics either involving specific targeting or reactionary defense?

    • 671 posts
    February 26, 2015 11:45 PM PST
    Samatman said:
    Raidan said:

    Questions 3, 4, & 5:  Class/Race Descriptions; Concept Art; Death Penalty Mechanics

     

    3.  There hasn't been much discussion relating to class/races since the Kickstarter and shortly after.  I'm curious to where the class design stands and what is intended moving forward?  Will the classes be more EQ/VG like in that they have just one designed path, or, will the initial design from the Kickstarter be in place where there will be two paths for each class?

     

    My question goes along the lines of (3) above regarding "paths" or more specifically the differentiation between characters of one class.  EQ allowed you to gain different abilities through the AA system, but at the point when you had maxed all AAs, you were no longer any different from another member of your class.  WoW initially had a system where you allocated talent points and could do so in ways that were unique, providing you with a different set of abilities than other members of your class.  I do realize that there were "cookie-cutter" builds and that can't be avoided, but you could still create unique builds if you chose to.

     

    With the discussion in round table #1 of mana color and possible differentiation by learning to switch between/merge mana colors when casting some spells:

     

    What other ways are being considered for any given character to be unique or to have unique skill sets, and are there similar systems being designed that apply to classes that aren't necessarily mana dependent such as warriors, monks, and rogues?

     

     

    I think the simple answer is: Choice...

     

    How often will two warriors, choose to wielded identical swords, in each hand, same armor, and then have the same quick-abilities loaded...  along with having the same factions... and going threw the same Rights of Passage...

     

    That the CHOICES you make, partially define your character... and that no "cookie-cutter" exists when you are dealing with so many differential equations.

     

    • 126 posts
    February 27, 2015 1:22 AM PST

    My question is related to combat. What kind of combat can we expect? Is it a combat style which requires swift reflexes because we have to constantly dodge/roll/run around? Or is it more like in EQ2 for example, where people only have to move for special attacks (and time to do so)?

    I am asking because I don't get any younger and I think I won't adjust any more to this "be always on the move/react the split second to this and that attack" MMOs these days (Wildstar comes to mind). I don't mind heavily scripted and choreographed bosses, but like the challenge to be not only movement related (like Titan in FF XIV is, for example).


    This post was edited by Duffy at February 27, 2015 1:23 AM PST
    • 118 posts
    February 27, 2015 7:25 AM PST

    To what population could the server grow before it becomes necessary to add a second?

    • 201 posts
    February 27, 2015 8:55 AM PST

    How do we think weapon and armor rarity will be laid out?  I was always a fan of hard work and team work to get someone a very unique item or title.  IE: epic weapons in EQ or Jedi title in SWG.  Do you plan on having a item system similar to maybe EQ where most people would have a not so flashy item on them?  or more attuned to newer MMO's where everyone looks like the superhero?

    • 132 posts
    February 28, 2015 12:14 AM PST

    Question: In the kickstarter Brad said that the game would be zone based and that you would have to go to another zone and that zone would load.

    Now that you guys will upgrade to unity 5 will that still stand or will we have a seemless loading of zones like Wow where the zones load on the fly?

    • 39 posts
    March 1, 2015 10:09 AM PST

    Will mercenaries be included in Pantheon at some point in production?  If so how will they be implemented so that they do not detract from the team experience.  In my opinion, even the best done mercenaries do not serve enough of a point to offset their negative impact on grouping.

    • 107 posts
    March 1, 2015 10:33 AM PST
    Please lord baby Jesus with a mullet and a tuxedo t-shirt, no mercenaries.

    Wait, in the form of a question, how many players do you think will you lose if you implement mercs?
    This post was edited by Filzin at March 1, 2015 10:51 AM PST
    • 610 posts
    March 1, 2015 10:40 AM PST
    Filzin said:
    Please lord baby Jesus with a mullet and a tuxedo t-shirt, no mercenaries. Wait, in the form of a question, how many players do you think will you lose if you implement mercs?

    Me, but I dont think this will be a problem...at least not for many years