Pantheon: February Newsletter

Gaming news from various gaming sites
Post Reply
User avatar
dylan_landry
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2018 1:13 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:53 pm

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is an in development massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) which aims to reestablish and improve on some old school MMORPG aspects like player interaction, player companionship, and meaningful challenge and consequence.

The following is a summary the Pantheon developer's February newsletter.

*Quotes may be edited for brevity and clarity.

Fighting Winter's Cold Chill with February's Hot Newsletter
Posted date / 02.20.19
"As the polar vortex batters North America, we fight back by turning up the heat in February. Under Wraps continues its hot streak of peeling back the layers of Pantheon, Chris Perkins returns with a scorching new Behind the Design. Wielder of the blazing fiery swords himself, Brad McQuaid, sits down for an all new Q&A. And we finish with a warm-hearted Community Spotlight, showcasing community member Dorotea."
Newsletter Content
  1. The "Underwraps" page shares the Creative department's design documents for a long in progress new elven area called Faerthale.
  2. The "Behind the Design" page with creative director Chris Perkins describes the importance of a meaningful environments with the new Atmospheres and Artifacts system.
    Image

    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
    So how will players “answer” these strange and often dangerous environmental challenges?"

    Continuing article on the Atmosphere and Artifact system...
  3. The Q/A with Executive Producer Brad McQuaid page is about his personal motivations in game design and the vision and direction of Pantheon.
    Image

    "Question: Some Pantheon fans see the game as a chance to relive elements of your past games, while others see it as a chance to improve on them. How do you determine which elements of gameplay to retain and which to refine? What can you do to please both voices?

    Answer: It’s a bit tricky but I think we’re doing an admirable job. The key is to break down and refine the core elements that make an MMO like Pantheon work. This foundation has to be solid and it has to be fun. And I’m happy to say we’ve achieved both, validated by our pre-alpha sessions. Players find themselves in a familiar and fun game. And to be completely transparent, if the foundation wasn’t solid and fun, we’d go back and make sure it was — it’s that important.

    But we are also determined to move the genre forward, so to speak. We have a long list of features, mechanics, and ideas that give Pantheon its own identity. As happy as we are with the foundation and that the game is already a blast to play, we simply wouldn’t be content to release a generic MMO — we need to break new ground. So one of our major challenges and goals since late last year has been to shift focus to implementing the new features we think will establish Pantheon’s unique identity.

    This is the road to Alpha and I’m really happy with where we are. This is the fun part of MMO development. Lastly, because we are now building on a solid, proven foundation, if a new idea needs to be tweaked or even completely removed, we can do so fairly easily. It’s not like a house of cards, which is one of the big reasons we are building Pantheon the way we are."

    Complete Q/A with Executive Producer Brad McQuaid...
  4. The "Community Spotlight" page with player Dorotea presents their own personal perspective on Pantheon and what they are excited for.
    Image

    "Question: What interests you the most about Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen?

    Answer: A difficult question — I wouldn't have pledged and been active on the forums if only one thing interested me. For starters, the hope of a large and interesting world. We call these roleplaying games for a reason, and even if we do not roleplay our characters, a detailed and interesting high fantasy setting is an enormous plus to any game.

    Secondly, slow progress. 0 to 100 in six seconds may be good for a sports car, but 0 to level 50 in a year or two is better for an MMO that I will be able to stick with and enjoy for years to come.

    Thirdly, a challenging environment with consequences. - it is hard to enjoy a fight in a game where defeat and death means you respawn 10 feet away with no penalty. That’s why I often play "hardcore" style: die and the character gets deleted. I won't need to do that in Pantheon to have a reason to care whether the character lives or dies. Oh so many other things but this answer is long enough already."

    Complete Community Member Spotlight with Dorotea...
That's it for the February newsletter. If you would like to chat with Pantheon fans, join the unofficial Pantheon discord.

Or.. If you would like to chat with other Cohhilition members interested in Pantheon, send me a message!

I am attempting to put together a Cohhilition group of Pantheon hopefuls so we can get to know each other and hopefully build some friendships prior to launch. It's possible that the group could develop to be the official Cohhilition Pantheon group as long as the reins are appropriately passed on when the time comes.

Though, according to the token system, invitation to the official Cohhilition Pantheon group may cost ~5000 tokens for Twitch subscribers and ~15000 for those not subscribed on Twitch.Either way, this is an opportunity to make some Cohhilition Pantheons friends! Let me know if you are interested!

Goodshow everyone! :cohhGG:
Post Reply