If you would like to listen in on the full January Q&A with Creative Director, Chris "Joppa" Perkins, Director of Communitions, Ben Dean, and Community Manager, Jamie "Savanja" Henry, you may find it on the official Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen YouTube channel.
Below you will find a snippet of each question that was asked and answered. These have been condensed from their original responses.
Is the persist system the last bit of legacy code in Pantheon?
Yes, this is the last of the old stuff that we needed to gut. We are now running launch tech.
Bindstones in Pantheon. Will we have them, how will they work and will they be a release feature?
They are a feature in Pantheon. They will serve as alternative bind mechanic for personal use. This is in addition to the mechanic for classes able to bind, who can utilize bind in additional locations. There will be 2-3 bind stones, placed in convenient locations in each zone, such as near a large village. Clicking on the stone will bind you to that location and that will become your character’s respawn point when you die or gate. This is intended to be a release feature for the game.
The death penalty has been a pretty big topic since the alpha pledges sessions. Are there any plans to tweak this system? Is the current death penalty and res system in game what we can expect to see in the launched game?
Yes, we will likely see tweaks to the amount of experience that you lose, we are keeping an eye on the near death state, we want it to provide the appropriate amount of risk and opportunity so one could actually bring a downed character back into the action, but it is risky enough that it isn’t a guarantee. The system that we have in place now is what we intend to launch with, outside of those tweaks.
Are there any plans for healers to be able to rez themselves?
Yes, the Shaman will have an ability that will allow them to self-rez. It will be unique to the shaman and a part of their kit. We aren’t opposed to other classes having this ability, but it would be a prestige/epic level ability for them.
Will we get a command in-game to give other players consent to retrieve a corpse?
Yes. Players will be able to /drag a corpse. This function is in game, but currently not working as it should be.
How do you see non-primary stats impacting character classes? Will a Warrior be able to utilize intelligence in any meaningful way?
Non-primary stats (also called soft specc’ing) will have a role in classes. Just about every ability you have has stat modifiers on it, eventually, there will be facets of your abilities that will be impacted directly by specific stats. For example, a warrior may have an ability that has an effect that is amplified by intelligence or wisdom. This will allow players to lean into maximizing these secondary stats through itemization for various gameplay situations.
What is the plan for the Perception system in Pantheon? What do you see the feature looking like at launch?
Perception is a core part of Pantheon and important to its identity as a game. We are looking at doing what we can do implement it as fully as possible in time for launch.
The perception system is made up of three main parts:
The discovery aspect. This includes lore pings, interactable objects, things you can discover in the environment, and the flagging system that stays with your character and influences your character’s experiences. This is the lowest-hanging fruit and we expect to keep up with this.
Next is the narrative aspect. This is the storyline content and deeper NPC interactions that include branching dialog and alternate decisions that can be made. This is a huge part of deepening the immersive aspect of the world, giving NPCs and locations a lot of character and nuance. This one is the most resource-intensive. It is up in the air right now, how far we will be able to take this prior to launch.
Last, is the progression aspect. This is where you can actually progress as a Keeper, making you capable of delving deeper into the first two parts. This is likely viable to keep up with along with the first part.
It is too early at this stage to say that all three aspects will be in by launch, but it is a vital system to the game and we are exploring options on how we can ramp up development of this system and will keep you posted.
Will players be seeing more story, lore, and quests anytime soon?
Yes. As early as the next patch, you are going to see a lot of that folded back into the game experience, particularly NPC interaction and dialog.
We will probably see more publicly released lore once we get into some new areas.
Will Avendyr’s Pass have content that will take a player to level 30 or will it function as an alternative play area to Thronefast, which currently will take a player to level 20?
AVP will feel like a natural progression from Thronefast. We are trying to stay away from concentric circles of content where in one area you will have level 5-10 stuff and in another area you will have level 10-15 stuff which is next to the area with level 15-20 stuff. You should expect a much broader and gradual increase in level range.
The current level range of Thronefast will be reduced, so you won’t really be able to reach level 20 there. You will be moving into AVP much sooner. Itemization will factor into the decision of where to play, so while Thronefast may be a lower range, there may be items that you will want down in the goblin caves which incentivizes you to return to that area.
AVP will allow players to level up further than Thronefast will. The highest level AVP content tops out at level 14, but this is to make room for the other zones that will be soon coming online. Hanggore and Mad Run will be starting at around the level 20 point.
You (Joppa) have mentioned that Pantheon may launch without accessible capital cities. How likely is it that we will not see these areas at launch, and how will Pantheon create iconic racial starting areas without them?
It is still too early to say if we will or won’t be able to realize capital cities. Capital cities are resource intensive, especially in comparison to how much content you can get out of them. These cities tend to take a lot of effort but then end up being relatively underutilized. Where we put resources matters so much. Even if we do have to wait for the massive cities to be built post-launch, we can still capture the smaller cities for those starting areas, which will still lend to racial identities. It is possible that we can reach some sort of compromise where some part of Thronefast is available, depending on resources. We don’t think that it will compromise racial identity, which is really what this is about anyway.
Availia does a good job of being a starting area for humans. Are there any plans to make this city feel more lived in?
Yeah, but the same could be said about the world in general. We are approaching these things in phases. We are currently working to bring more of the world online, with more places to go and more things to do. Then we will have a second pass, and hopefully, even a second dev team that can focus on that polish pass to make these places feel lived in and interesting.
How are we feeling about the new art style? Is what we are seeing in game now a reasonable demonstration of where the art will be at launch?
We are absolutely happy with the style shift. It isn’t “there” yet. It will continue to evolve and improve. One example of this is lighting. Very soon we are going to be doing another pass on lighting because the current plan is to land between the current stylization and realism. We want to achieve a solid hybrid between stylistic and realistic. That is the ultimate goal. That is the next major step will we make in terms of the overall aesthetic.
Nighttime is dark. Very, very dark sometimes. Are we happy with where the lighting is at or can we expect adjustments here?
It will not stay as dark as it is currently and this will be addressed in the upcoming lighting pass. It’s too dark right now. A lot of the moodiness that we want to achieve during the night time, we can do and still let people see. We will make it super, super dark in specific locations where we want to and where it makes sense.
How has the new art helped performance?
Overall poly counts have been reduced. Less rendering load. It has helped streamline the asset creation process because we have been able to get behind a unified style guide. It has also improved the speed of development of various art pieces.
Stream week was a lot of fun, for the fans and for the content creators. Will we be holding these in the future and will we be setting any sort of cadence for them?
Yes, definitely, and as soon as we have some dates, we will share those.
What can fans hope to see in the way of future alpha pledge sessions?
Yes, we want to do more of these and that is currently the plan. As soon as we have dates for that, we will share that as well.
Do we consider this last alpha pledge session a success? Why or why not?
It was a good success. We saw a lot of activity. A Lot of people talking and coming back to Pantheon and getting interested in Pantheon again. We are excited to get them back in!
In the last Producer’s letter, Chris Rowan talked about VR working on better communication. Can we share how we intend to hit this goal?
- Frequent updates, even if it is to say we are still working and listening.
- Production tracker added to the website to keep the greater community in the loop.
- Additions to the Sacred Servanthood (former mod program) to help gather questions and spread official messaging.
- Dean’s Beans channel on Discord to track when devs share info to make that info easier to find.
- Direct line between the Project Manager and comms to keep info freely moving between departments.
When can we start allocating the stat increases ourselves?
When that is officially decided as something we are going to do. Fine details such as this will likely come in after we have gotten all the classes in the game.
Currently, rez only works before 'Releasing'. Is there a plan to be able to rez post-release?
Yes. We will have more info on that soon. We will be revisiting resurrection in general, and how it interacts in a pre-release corpse state versus and post-release corpse state. How near death works. How battle rezzes differ from non-battle rez. All these will be cleaned up and our intentions should be more clear at that stage.
When will we see a playable Ogre on PA test?
It is coming along nicely. It still needs to go through the rigging process and these are some custom animations that we are doing for it because we want it to look ogre-y. We are also currently finalizing the armor mesh modification process that will allow us to use the armor on the largest and smallest character models. No exact ETA on when that is coming, but the good news is once this process is finished for the ogre and the gnome, the other races will be a significantly faster process. I’m confident that we will be able to see most of the player races coming in this year.
Do we have an ETA for player emotes?
We are working on the first batch of these and they should be in relatively soon. This first round should include bow, formal bow, cheer, wave, clap, cry, point, thumbs up, nod yes, shake no.
Do we plan on evolving or changing the racial passives given the development changes through the years?
To a degree. Not the categories of passives that are planned for each race, but you can expect some tweaks in how they are applied.
Can you tell us what is in store for Pantheon in 2024?
I want to see as many player races as we can in game and playable. I would also love to see the base roster of our classes coming online and playable, with relatively complete kits. I would also like to see work start on the necromancer and bard.
We want more zones online. Thronefast, AVP, Halnir Cave, Silent Plains, Eastern Plains, Blackrose Keep, and get those connected to Wilds End. We will be able to speak more about what our projection looks like as we get a little further into the year. Expect us to start moving in the direction that we had previously talked about. Instead of waiting for an entire zone to be complete, we are going to focus on bringing portions of zones online.
This will be a big year for content.
Can you tell us what is coming in the next PA game update?
Persist will be in with improvements. AVP may be ready. All of the previous class and crafting updates that we had planned for in December will be going in. It will be a meaty update.
https://seforums.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/14963/january-q-amp-a-summary
"In the last Producer’s letter, Chris Rowan talked about VR working on better communication. Can we share how we intend to hit this goal?"
Better communication also means better transparency.
You had several questions regarding actual timelines and dates in the forum post about taking questions.
2) Is this false hope on my part? or Is there room for optimism about seeing Alpha in '24?
BituminousBlack
5) Given the length of time the game has been in development and the general angst around that topic, can you chime in a bit on that. Understanding your reluctance to commit to any specific time lines, etc. can you at least comment on the approximate level of completion? 50%, 80%? I think the question in everyone's mind is, where are we at? How close are we to seeing this game. Is there any format in which you can answer that without being too specific?
Mornroc
I am not sure if your company realizes this, the game has been in development going on a decade now. Telling people about Ogre updates is fine 2 years into development. Not 10 years into development.
There is a reason you tried to go 247 and there is a reason you were worried about funding. The ELEPHANT in the room, is that at the current team and current rate, the game releases in 2028? 2029?
Communication includes better transparency on what exactly is going on over there in terms of timeline. I don't think people want to sit around for another 4-5 years waiting on a game or at least TELL THEM it is going to take 4-5 years and be honest and transparent with them.
Xerion said:
Better communication also means better transparency.You had several questions regarding actual timelines and dates in the forum post about taking questions.
All of these questions start with the first question of "What is alpha?" We don't know yet, so that isn't a timeline we can speculate on.
What Joppa did share was his goal of getting classes, races, and a handful of zones onto the test server this year. If we can hit those goals, we will have a much better idea of what the timeline will look like for launch.
For alpha pledge access, we will have a plan for that soon as it is being discussed amongst the team currently.
"All of these questions start with the first question of "What is alpha?" We don't know yet, so that isn't a timeline we can speculate on."
So the answer is that you can't define alpha, so you can't give a timeline for it. Can you define what a game is? If you aren't sure what a game is, can you give a timeline for release of it? That is a legitimately worrisome answer. That a company can't define goals or timelines.
Then it might be a good idea to have a definition for a launch product because that is going to help with a timeline. Others have shared ideas about ways to figure that out, what does a finished product look like, what features does it have or not have. But it might be a good idea to have that definition of what the finish product is going to be too. Having a definition of a finished product 10 years in development would be a good starting point.
Xerion said:Is it possible that that was a type of "when is alpha"? If you read it that way it tracks better."All of these questions start with the first question of "What is alpha?" We don't know yet, so that isn't a timeline we can speculate on."
So the answer is that you can't define alpha, so you can't give a timeline for it. Can you define what a game is? If you aren't sure what a game is, can you give a timeline for release of it? That is a legitimately worrisome answer. That a company can't define goals or timelines.
Then it might be a good idea to have a definition for a launch product because that is going to help with a timeline. Others have shared ideas about ways to figure that out, what does a finished product look like, what features does it have or not have. But it might be a good idea to have that definition of what the finish product is going to be too. Having a definition of a finished product 10 years in development would be a good starting point.
"Is it possible that that was a type of "when is alpha"? If you read it that way it tracks better."
My advice to anyone that would like to play the game this decade is to NOT read it that way. My advice would be to read their words as written and my advice would be for the community to advocate for the answer to the question. Get a definition and you can get a timeline as well. Get a timeline and definition for Alpha and you can get a timeline and definition for the finished product.
Xerion, would it be too much to ask you about your CV? You sound like someone that has never slept on a cot or the test room floor during crunch. Or someone that has never tried eating the same pizza companie's pizza for 3 or 4 weeks straight. Ever hope your data plan was up to date so that you could call the wife and kids who are at home and you haven't seen them in a month, despite the fact that they are located 4 blocks away? Ever wear four hats at once? C'mon my guy. These guys are working very hard. What they need is proactive criticism, not a bunch of bitching and whining. Be a part of the solution - not a part of the problem.
"Xerion, would it be too much to ask you about your CV? You sound like someone that has never slept on a cot or the test room floor during crunch. Or someone that has never tried eating the same pizza companie's pizza for 3 or 4 weeks straight. Ever hope your data plan was up to date so that you could call the wife and kids who are at home and you haven't seen them in a month, despite the fact that they are located 4 blocks away? Ever wear four hats at once? C'mon my guy. These guys are working very hard. What they need is proactive criticism, not a bunch of bitching and whining. Be a part of the solution - not a part of the problem."
I have no doubt they are working very hard and I did provide proactive criticism. I think it would be proactively good for the game and company to have a definition of what Alpha is and a definition for the Finished Product. I think it would be a good idea for a game 10 years in development to have timelines and definitions for those things. Otherwise the game is going to be in development forever. I don't think people want to wait around for another 4-5 years with updates on bee rigging, ogre models without having an idea that the game is going to release on a timeline. I think people want dates for Alpha, Beta and Game Release. I think being told that there is no definition for Alpha 10 years into development doesn't help build confidence among the community. And like I said, if you want to play the game this decade, it would be a good idea for you to want the same thing.
I have no doubt they are working very hard and I did provide proactive criticism. I think it would be proactively good for the game and company to have a definition of what Alpha is and a definition for the Finished Product. I think it would be a good idea for a game 10 years in development to have timelines and definitions for those things. Otherwise the game is going to be in development forever. I don't think people want to wait around for another 4-5 years with updates on bee rigging, ogre models without having an idea that the game is going to release on a timeline. I think people want dates for Alpha, Beta and Game Release. I think being told that there is no definition for Alpha 10 years into development doesn't help build confidence among the community. And like I said, if you want to play the game this decade, it would be a good idea for you to want the same thing.
None of this was proactive in any way. Your entire response amounts to little more than "I'm tired of waiting and I want to play now". I understand your feelings. Perhaps more than you. I pledged a long time ago thinking this would be my last game. I am older. I almost died to covid last year. I have a slew of medical issues and an actuarist would put my longevity at 62 years of age. I am almost 57. I want to play too. But this doesn't help anyone with the development in any way. If you were going to be proactive, YOU would supply them with YOUR definition of Alpha. See how that flies with the community.
There is a very common misconception with VR. You wish to apply the same system of standards to them as you would for any of the myriad group of professionally developed gaming companies and/or studios. You seem to have forgotten that VR is an indie. They don't have that same system. On the one hand this is excellent because it allows the freedom to develop new systems the gaming community has never seen before. But mark my words, once the game is published, those other guys will develop the same system or systems very similar to it. Developing new systems takes time and money. Often times you create something so new that it will actually affect the rest of the game to such a degree that you have to "take a step back, in order to move forward". This is the penalty of being an indie game developer. The big publishers do not allow that freedom. They have staff specifically there to ensure that you are reaching your milestones to hit a specific publishing date and will fire staff out of sheer pettiness if it sends a message - publish or die. This attitude gives you hard date targets and makes the publisher a lot of money. It also squashes development. You very seldom find a publisher willing to front money to truly freely develop a new title. And the indie companies that do allow this, are usually cash strapped and in dire need of monetary infusions so much so that shortly after launch some publishing entity shows them a LOT of money to sell and then the indie co is no longer so and is now a part of a PoD corporation. I do not know if VR has any of the three-letter officers (CEO, CFO, CTO, etc.). What I suspect is that if they do have any of these, then what is actually happening is that one to all of them are actually trying to wear several hats at the same time. This can be very overwhelming and almost impossible. I hate that the business end of the company is interfering with the Development end. BUT - and this is important - it HAS to happen. In short, you must remember that there is a LOT more here than pretty lights and ogres. This is an indie team. They deserve a little more slack. I should probably out myself here. I didn't pledge all those years ago just so I could play a game. I pledged because I enjoy a different game. The one of business. I am still pulling for these guys and they are underdogs and have had some huge set-backs. I am still pulling for them.
"None of this was proactive in any way. Your entire response amounts to little more than "I'm tired of waiting and I want to play now"."
The game has been in development for 10 years and they don't have a definition for Alpha or a timeline for it? I think my response amounts to "It has been 10 years since this game has been in development, they almost stopped working on the game to produce something different called 247 and we're considering using it for funding. The fact they don't have a definition for Alpha would seem to indicate they don't have a definition for the game itself. I think it would be a good idea to have those definitions so you could produce a timeline for when the Alpha and Beta and Final Game would be released". I think that is what my response amounts to. Would you like to argue any of those points? I would love to engage in a discussion on those points.
Whether you are an Indie team or a big studio team, you have definitions and timelines. I have worked on 4 person group projects that have definitions and timelines. This doesn't require anything special strategy wise or funding wise. You can have definitions and timelines for many kinds of projects and products. You asked me earlier about work. I think all companies have definitions and timelines for their projects.
I am being proactive by asking the company MAKING THE GAME to provide THEIR definition of Alpha and a finished product. But how about this if the company itself can't produce it, the company could ask the community writ large the definition of Alpha and a finished product. I am trying to understand your logic. If the company doesn't have a timeline or definition, does it mean the game is in production for another 10 years? Asking someone for a timeline doesn't help development in any way? I am quite sure it does help development.
Watching this all unfold is significantly more fun than the "pre-alpha" (whatever that means anymore) play session from a few weeks ago, lol.
Since letting alpha-level pledges in, activity on these forums and the subreddit has basically halted. Any reasonable person has seen the writing on the wall. Still, fun to see the smoldering corpse of Pantheon weekend-at-Bernie around with official sounding "Q&As" and "Developer Updates". Fantastic theater! Two thumbs, way up!
Sometimes you just have to learn to read between the lines... Given the hostility from the lengthy development and previous misses on dates they have given I'd be highly surprised if they gave you what you wanted and articulated anything even close to a date or a promise. At least they are giving us a progress tracker (albeit not a very good or detailed one).
But having said that, if you read between the lines they did provide some answers. Look the questions above in this Q&A.... Joppa basically said he 'hopes' that they finish all the races and classes this year and maybe even get to a stretch goal. That says to me that release will not be in 2024 and probably not beta either (I doubt you would have a beta if you didn't have everything in the game yet). It also suggests that if they do hit his goal then we might see a beta and a release in 2025. My personal guess would be a mid to late 2025 beta and an early 2026 release. Assuming funding and other factors remain constant.
I would also further guess that Alpha's will not be getting back in right away. There is a reason they still insist that it's pre-alpha. There is clearly a lot NOT in the game yet. Based on the bumps they had with the pre-alpha 'alpha' test, I'd guess at a minimum they would want to get persistence installed and fully tested before they let us back in. Aside from that I would think they would want more for us to test... My personal guess is March maybe before we see another pre-alpha test for alphas and probably another six to nine months before we see an actual alpha test where they let us in full time.
I hope very much I am wrong. I'd really love to get it in and play, but I think when they turn the flood gates loose they want us to stay and not get bored in a week. They want us to become addicted so we can sing the praises of Pantheon and bring back more pledging. They won't achieve that if they let us all back in tomorrow.... I think most of the testers would wander off bored because there is too much still lacking to keep them engaged.
Anyway... just the guesswork of an old man. Take it for what it's worth. But I don't think they gave us 'nothing' for answers.
"he 'hopes' that they finish all the races and classes this year" / "That says to me that release" / "then we might see a beta and a release in 2025." / "My personal guess" / "I would also further guess" / "I'd guess at a"/ "probably another six to nine months before we see an actual alpha test where they let us in full time." / "I hope very much I am wrong" / " just the guesswork of an old man."
I understand completely the desire to give them hope, credit, benefit of the doubt etc. But I would NOT recommend doing so. I would recommend advocating for timelines and definitions. Otherwise you might "hope" "guess" "might" "probably" etc. for another 10 years. I would recommend NOT "read between the lines... ", this isn't a perception system in real life. I would recommend advocating for actual dates, definitions, timelines etc. etc. But your life, your choice. Just my suggestion if you want to play the game this decade.
Xerion said: I would recommend advocating for actual dates, definitions, timelines etc. etc. But your life, your choice. Just my suggestion if you want to play the game this decade.
I have 2 questions about your position.
People on these forums (and all of VR's other social media) have been asking for timelines/dates for Alpha, Beta, Release for many years now. They have been asking regularly, every month, every week, sometimes every day. They ask for everything from exact dates to rough approximations, mileposts, percentages of completion and every possible approach to gauging the progress of the game short of sending up smoke signals :)
During that time, VR has made it clear on more occasions than I could count up that they do not wish to give out anything more than they already do, and given their reasons why - which I don't need to address here. So my first question is:
By what method do you recommend we "advocate" for what you seek, that will be any more successful than what has been ongoing for way longer than you've been on the forums?
And second, how will getting any sort of response more than we already have actually get Pantheon finished sooner?
At this point I think Xerion has it right. It's more important than ever to set a proper plan in place with milestones and push hard to complete them on time. The only way I would have said to just keep continuing as is would be if 247 never happened, that entire debacle made it crystal clear (at least to me!) that the devs are desperate to get some revenue going and have some kind of playable product. If VR was telling us that they have secured publisher X or that they had secured another $10 million in funding I'd sit back and say yeah take as long as you please. But that is not the case. To the people saying, "quit yer bellyachin!" I posit this: are you willing to wait another 10 years for this game?
Xerion said:"he 'hopes' that they finish all the races and classes this year" / "That says to me that release" / "then we might see a beta and a release in 2025." / "My personal guess" / "I would also further guess" / "I'd guess at a"/ "probably another six to nine months before we see an actual alpha test where they let us in full time." / "I hope very much I am wrong" / " just the guesswork of an old man."
I understand completely the desire to give them hope, credit, benefit of the doubt etc. But I would NOT recommend doing so. I would recommend advocating for timelines and definitions. Otherwise you might "hope" "guess" "might" "probably" etc. for another 10 years. I would recommend NOT "read between the lines... ", this isn't a perception system in real life. I would recommend advocating for actual dates, definitions, timelines etc. etc. But your life, your choice. Just my suggestion if you want to play the game this decade.
I don't disagree with any of that. And I certainly wouldn't give them any more pledge money until I started seeing more solid delivery on their end. I'm just saying it would be foolish of them to try and give us dates at this point and no one would trust them if they did. I also 1000% agree that we need a better 'progress tracker' than the one we have now. It tells you nothing.
"By what method do you recommend we "advocate" for what you seek, that will be any more successful than what has been ongoing for way longer than you've been on the forums?"
By voicing your opinions. How do you think you got "pre-alpha access" at the end of 2023? You voiced your opinions loud and clear on the official forums, reddit forums, social media, videos, word of mouth etc. etc. If you say nothing, then nothing will change. But if you speak up and say something, and echo those sentiments, things change, and you can see that from last year.
1 voice is a whisper, 10,000 is thunder.
"And second, how will getting any sort of response more than we already have actually get Pantheon finished sooner?"
By holding the company accountable. I mean if you want to keep "hoping" and "guessing" then you can wait another 10 years that is your choice. Or speak up, voice your opinions, share that opinion, hold the company accountable and you might actually get timelines and completion.
"I'm just saying it would be foolish of them to try and give us dates at this point and no one would trust them if they did."
Transparency is 100% key to fixing all of this. First define Alpha, which should be defined at this point. Second, figure out what needs to be done to get there. Be transparent about that. Show us the good, the bad and the ugly. And then you can figure out a timeline based on your current resources and money. Transparency is 100% the solution to building back trust. Talking about bee rigging and ogre models is not building back trust as you point out.
Thank you everyone at VR for all your hard work!
Savanja said: “All of these questions start with the first question of "What is alpha?" We don't know yet, so that isn't a timeline we can speculate on.”
I understand that VR is reluctant to commit to timelines and dates due to several public trips and falls that have happened. I also think VR is being strategic about not having dates and timelines so they can have the best opportunity for additional funding. I get that.
I pledged in April of 2017. I followed Pantheon before I pledged, but since I’ve pledged, I’ve oscillated between checking in daily with the community to checking in a few times a month. After almost seven years, to hear a community manager state that VR is not able to define Alpha is frustrating, to say the least. This is not on Savanja, I’m pretty sure she is given a scope of what she can and can’t say.
It is terrifying that VR would not know what Alpha is. I believe VR does have an outline of what Alpha, Beta, and Release is, but if they told us, it would be disappointing. So, after 10 years we are looking at two evils: VR does not know what Alpha, Beta, and Release is or they do, but they are reluctant to disappoint and/or lose potential funding, so they say they don’t know.
It is borderline offensive to hear Savanja (which = VR. Just saying so Savanja is clear that I am not attacking her) say: "What is alpha? We don't know yet." Just change the statement to: VR has an internal timeline for Alpha, Beta, and Release, but we are not making these dates public until X (insert whatever works for VR here). VR looks much better, and it would make me feel better. I imagine it would make others feel better too.
Xerion said: By voicing your opinions. How do you think you got "pre-alpha access" at the end of 2023? You voiced your opinions loud and clear on the official forums, reddit forums, social media, videos, word of mouth etc. etc. If you say nothing, then nothing will change. But if you speak up and say something, and echo those sentiments, things change, and you can see that from last year.
I guess no one has told you this, but VR had already told all of the PA testers that they were going to be giving Alpha Pledgers daylong sessions on the PA test server when they first told us about 247. Which was well before you "voiced your opinions loud and clear".
"how will getting any sort of response more than we already have actually get Pantheon finished sooner?"
speak up, voice your opinions, share that opinion, hold the company accountable and you might actually get timelines and completion.
Contrary to some public opinions, VR staff don't sit around drinking coffee and playing Candy Crush all day. They already work more hours than any of them get paid for. The only thing that will get Pantheon finished significantly sooner is more funding. Their funding comes from pledges and the periodic new investor. Not being able to look into a crystal ball and see how much money they will have in the coming months - let alone over the coming years - is the main reason they don't make commitments to specific milestones on specific dates.
Not that pledgers or forum members have any real authority to "Hold them accountable" with, but even if we did there's nothing we can do to force the game to completion any faster.
"I guess no one has told you this, but VR had already told all of the PA testers that they were going to be giving Alpha Pledgers daylong sessions on the PA test server when they first told us about 247."
Oh ok, I guess no one told you this, but just an update VR was going to go "dark" and focus on 247 some kind of extraction mode game for months into early next year while Alpha testing was delayed further until then. Then after voicing your opinions they decided against it. Did anyone tell you about that? Just an update for you.
"Contrary to some public opinions, VR staff don't sit around drinking coffee and playing Candy Crush all day. They already work more hours than any of them get paid for. "
And where did I say it had anything to do with people playing Candy Crush and not working? Would you like to make any more strawman arguments?
"The only thing that will get Pantheon finished significantly sooner is more funding. Their funding comes from pledges and the periodic new investor. Not being able to look into a crystal ball and see how much money they will have in the coming months - let alone over the coming years - is the main reason they don't make commitments to specific milestones on specific dates. "
I don't know if anyone told you this, Joppa already said the game was funded to completion. So does the game require another 10 years to complete? I don't know if anyone told you this, Joppa said the game would take "years" to complete based on current funding, so Joppa can't then provide a timeline based on that?
"Not that pledgers or forum members have any real authority to "Hold them accountable" with, but even if we did there's nothing we can do to force the game to completion any faster."
I don't know if anyone told you this but forum members have authority by voicing opinions which prevented the game from turning into an extraction mode. I don't know if anyone told you this people voiced their opinions on all platforms and got change. Not sure if anyone told you this but even the company CEO had to issue a newsletter talking about that. Did anyone tell you about those things?
I recall reading about the VR team making a framework to ease the process of making quests. I am a fan of kill quests. Even if the reward is just faction and/or coin and/or XP. The reason I like them, is that it is a focus for players to meet up and do stuff in the same area, and adds some flavor. In Availia, there are a lot of empty houses. Even just copying the same quest and just tag a different quest ID to kill rats, bats, and such would be an easy way to fill those houses out. I absolutely love the scavenger, outfitter, huntress, and similar quests. Seems like you've got that framework working well.