Pantheon - First Gameplay stream starting Now

[Tankdan]

https://www.twitch.tv/visionaryrealms

7pm EST, 5 minutes from now.

[snead]

^^^ this LIVE NOW

[applesauce25r624]

good find thank you

[Swish]

damn that looks good

http://i.imgur.com/Y4cWIIJ.gif

[Tankdan]

Im actually impressed <3

[iruinedyourday]

This game looks like if EQ2 had hate sex with LUCLIN graphics and made a baby.

[AzzarTheGod]

this game is the real mc coy.

all graphics are placeholder all animations are placeholder.

pre pre pre alpha testing of gameplay.

the block is hot boi

[iruinedyourday]

all graphics and animations are

http://i.imgur.com/QdbDnEb.gif

placeholder.

[Ivory]

Humm, I would have doubled down on the design more. There is a lot of room to take the core design of EQ and really enhance it....but it seems they are taking eq and just recreating a lot of it.

For example, the recovery period is a big opportunity and class interdependence. Instead of AFK medding.

Heck, even stuff like how to approach progression (something you don't see MMOs try to tackle outside of the traditional "levels" and compartmentalizing the world).

[Swish]

Which way to the cash shop? I want to win at Pantheon.

[Sage Truthbearer]

I've been pretty impressed with how the development is coming along. Will continue to be cautiously optimistic about this game.

[Man0warr]

Very promising. More shown than EQ: Next that's for sure.

[Swish]

EQ Next is officially canned... rip people's jobs.

[Tupakk]

It looked ok, just wondering what they are going to do to make it different. Because so far it played like EQ just with better graphics.

[Thulack]

EQ Next is officially canned... rip people's jobs.

Nope they are all working on H1Z1 now. Was watching stream of Salim Grant(Dev on EQ:Next) do h1z1 streams and previews and stuff. They moved most of the Dev Team over awhile ago. watching the stram about Pantheon now. Looks like EQ with updated graphics.

[Man0warr]

It looked ok, just wondering what they are going to do to make it different. Because so far it played like EQ just with better graphics.

That's kind of what it's billed as.

[jcr4990]

It looked ok, just wondering what they are going to do to make it different. Because so far it played like EQ just with better graphics.That is exactly what me and many others have been begging somebody to make for 10 years

[Morningbreath]

Wizard hits for 41 pts non-melee damage
Rogue backstabs for 951 damage

OK...

[Nuggie]

That is exactly what me and many others have been begging somebody to make for 10 years

This. Very much this.

[BrusteMuschi]

Spoiler Alert: This ends up shit and with the entire team except mcquaid being fired in the parking lot when they come into work. Mcquaid of course gets a golden parachute

[Vilkata]

That is exactly what me and many others have been begging somebody to make for 10 years

http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/
Good read on it. The dynamic content sounds fun.

[Swish]

Spoiler Alert: This ends up shit and with the entire team except mcquaid being fired in the parking lot when they come into work. Mcquaid of course gets a golden parachute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQFEopJU1nw

[Thiefboy777]

It looked ok, just wondering what they are going to do to make it different. Because so far it played like EQ just with better graphics.

If that's the case I'm already sold sight unseen.

[BrusteMuschi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQFEopJU1nw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard:_Saga_of_Heroes

[Turp]

nice
thanks for the post
that chat box looks like p99 EQ lol.
Hopefully they do not cater to the casual like all new MMORPG do.
They need to make a game with penalty's and what i call that scare factor. It would be great and probably very successful

where else can you get blinded you computer screen go black and get raped by a burynai lol.
or running threw VP or other high end zones and actually being "scared" .

Damn this sounds just like Everquest , hope its not a damn trickery. What do you guys think?

#endTHEcarebear

[Swish]

People in the Twitch chat were whining about the graphics but they were put in their place with the devs saying there's no point having a world that looks phenomenal if the game isn't enjoyable.

I think it's going to be great, I'm sold on it even at this stage. The best hope for something modern with a classic EQ feel.

[AzzarTheGod]

People in the Twitch chat were whining about the graphics but they were put in their place with the devs saying there's no point having a world that looks phenomenal if the game isn't enjoyable.

I think it's going to be great, I'm sold on it even at this stage. The best hope for something modern with a classic EQ feel.

Those aren't even textured avatars. Its just placeholder textures.

Its an indy game. Everyone can relax. They are doing an amazing job of producing something with fundamental design.

Something SOE and Daybreak could never understand. EQ Next is finished as is the EQ franchise. Time to move on.

[Tann]

That is exactly what me and a few have been begging somebody to make for 10 years

FTFY, "many" people like playing MMOs whereas "a few" people like playing old school style MMOs. In the grand scheme of things that is.

Assuming this game will be f2p with a massive cash shop, it would tank badly being sub based.

[Swish]

FTFY, "many" people like playing MMOs whereas "a few" people like playing old school style MMOs. In the grand scheme of things that is.

Assuming this game will be f2p with a massive cash shop, it would tank badly being sub based.

I think the people attracted to it would walk away again with big cash shop incentives. Sub only for $9.89 or $15 a month and I'm all over it.

[Agecroft]

I think the people attracted to it would walk away again with big cash shop incentives. Sub only for $9.89 or $15 a month and I'm all over it.

This is the way they're going. Sounds great to me too.

[HallyVee]

Pledged a while back based solely on the Game Tenets and Features. Even if I won't really have the time to sit down and party up for a few hours every week, I'll still bite off the edges at the solo content, like I do with P99, like they explicitly say they'll include.

Any increase in graphics or advancements in gameplay will merely be bonuses over P99.

One thing about the video that troubled me; those enemies really went down way too fast. I LOVE that they included downtime to regen mana, which allows strategy and socialization. But I think one key would be including that same delay in the combat itself. That's when the socialization and strategy gets more heated. *even when backstab is adjusted

[HallyVee]

Side note;

Next video they need to get a different guy to do the filming. The Mont guy was a horrible pick. He half-assed every job they gave him (show UI, spells, village, and map, talk about X, use the environment gem thing), and he clearly had no situational awareness, slow reflexes, utterly inadequate understanding of the game, etc (not hating, just saying he wasn't a good pick for camera man).

[Swish]

I liked him. This is meant to be a new game for everyone. If he was all min/max, super efficient and heaven forbid...nobody died during the broadcast, all kinds of other criticisms would have come out ("it's too easy", "it's designed for hardcore EQ gamers", etc).

[QFuzzle]

I.... am looking forward to this.

[drktmplr12]

This is the way they're going. Sounds great to me too.

I recall them talking about sub rates of 30 per month on the forums due to the niche nature. This was months ago...

edit. answered my own question.

[elwing]

I recall them talking about sub rates of 30 per month on the forums due to the niche nature. This was months ago...

edit. answered my own question.

That would mean less boxers at least...

[fadetree]

Sounds good to me. I'd pay 30 a month, although that's a little more than I would have liked, but I get that it's going to be pricey probably due to the lack of serious gamers in this space.
If its a expanded EQ ruleset with bettter graphics, I think that's just the bee's knees.

[Agecroft]

I'd definitely pay higher than the curve to play the game they're advertising.

[Swish]

Will people want to box?...

[fadetree]

wait...accessing OraclE of All Knowledge....answer incoming!

Yes.

[Jigawatts]

Looking forward to this. I think it can (potentially) be exactly what most of us are looking for.

I'm pretty sure $15 a month is still the MMO standard, so $20 a month for this game seems fair. The no cash shop policy is one of the things I'm most excited about.

[Fifield]

I would pay montly 50, 100, 150, i dont care, any ammount of money for a new MMO not to suck balls.

Looking forward to seeing what this game and Camelot Unchained has to offer!

[DarkwingDuck]

Ya 1$ a day to play an awesome game is not to much to ask if you're hardcore and playing everyday--- to those people spending x10 that on coffee. Hehe
Although I hope it's the normal 15/20$
I've been following forever , can't wait to buy

[Tarskin]

I never knew of Pantheon before EQN got canned but I have to say that it does seem exactly what I would like (yay for being a nice audience).

[fadetree]

Now look, people, you know its at least going to suck somehow. The chances of them releasing something on day 1 that works well and is finished I rate at approximately 0%. We're gonna have to hang with it for a bit, I'm sure. People always drive up the expectations so far that when the release is well, a release and parts or lots of it are broken/suck or the servers crash repeatedly then we all act like we've gotten knifed in the back and start hating on it all over the internet. I mean, cmon, let's be real here. The best we can hope for is a reasonable platform with potential, a not completely broken ruleset, and at least some amount of content. After that, it's up to us. An indie shop like this will work with us closely, but we gotta stick and not just leave when it's not as shiny as we'd hoped.

[skipdog]

I have to admit, I did not have much confidence in Pantheon but this little video has sure changed my mind. Really hope this actually makes it to release.

[Arclyte]

$30 a month for a game made on the unity engine

L O L

fuck off mcquaid

[khysanth]

Almost nobody will play this if it costs $20-30/month. Good luck McQuaid!

[Luminious]

They have stated on their boards (a few weeks ago) the plan is to have the sub to be $15/month. This still remains to be seen.

Halfway down the page -
https://pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2564/subscription-model/view/page/2

[Swish]

I'm buying.

[fadetree]

$30 a month for a game made on the unity engine

L O L

fuck off mcquaid

Ah, so you'll be writing your own, then. Cool!

[Agecroft]

$30 a month for a game made on the unity engine

L O L

fuck off mcquaid

What does the engine have to do w it?

[thufir]

I'll pay $20 a month for this easily. Moving away from subscription models is what killed the niche MMOs (like this one) that I want to play. They can't survive without it. Freemium games can only make money if the game is broadly popular, and this won't be.

I always said the $10 a month I paid for EQ was the best $10 a month I could ever pay because it basically made it so I barely had to spend any more cash on entertainment. I don't think I'd get sucked quite this much into Pantheon but $20 a month these days is pretty much a drop in the bucket anyway. If you were old enough to pay your own sub back on Live you should be making enough money now to shrug off this sub fee imo.

[mgellan]

I'll pay $20 a month for this easily.

^^^^^^

[Valse]

I hope it lives up to the hype we've created for ourselves. *fingers crossed*

[Badwar]

What does the engine have to do w it?


Lol. U srs?

[Agecroft]

Lol. U srs?

Y R U?

[fadetree]

Lol. U srs?

MAN, I really love this game, but, it's written in unreal...SOB...it's JUST NOT COOL ENOUGH FOR MEEEEEEE

[maskedmelon]

Now look, people, you know its at least going to suck somehow. The chances of them releasing something on day 1 that works well and is finished I rate at approximately 0%. We're gonna have to hang with it for a bit, I'm sure. People always drive up the expectations so far that when the release is well, a release and parts or lots of it are broken/suck or the servers crash repeatedly then we all act like we've gotten knifed in the back and start hating on it all over the internet. I mean, cmon, let's be real here. The best we can hope for is a reasonable platform with potential, a not completely broken ruleset, and at least some amount of content. After that, it's up to us. An indie shop like this will work with us closely, but we gotta stick and not just leave when it's not as shiny as we'd hoped.

A+ post. I honestly never understood the rage at bugs/hitching/instability. Yeah it can be annoying, but eventually it always gets fixed ^^

[Philipangoo]

those buffs sounds gave me dem good feels

[HallyVee]

Lol. U srs?

He's right. Objecting to the engine shows either lack of understanding of what a game engine is and does, or an obsession with either brand names or minor flaws inherent to the engine.

Either way it's not a legitimate complaint, for most gamers.

[Tankdan]

What does the engine have to do w it?

Let me strongly emphasize that I'm not a game developer and know basically nothing, at all.

But MY understanding is that Unity engine makes creating a basic game world insanely easy, to the level that you don't even need to design assets, you purchase them. Need a cool looking monster? Just buy it from Unity. So basically, making something like they had in the Demo was a lot easier than we think it was, and doesn't necessarily mean the game is even 1% built. Maybe someone with experience can chime in.

[Erati]

This looks great- if we found ourselves here we most certainly will find ourselves in Pantheon as well

I guarantee it.jpg

[Agecroft]

Let me strongly emphasize that I'm not a game developer and know basically nothing, at all.

But MY understanding is that Unity engine makes creating a basic game world insanely easy, to the level that you don't even need to design assets, you purchase them. Need a cool looking monster? Just buy it from Unity. So basically, making something like they had in the Demo was a lot easier than we think it was, and doesn't necessarily mean the game is even 1% built. Maybe someone with experience can chime in.

There's a lot more to it than what you infer. First off, the unity engine they're using is not stock. They have made a lot of rendering changes to it. Second, in order for multiple clients (think of this as the role the unity engine is filling) to be able to play together you need a central server for them to log into. That server (in actuality multiple servers working together) isn't just magically created it requires a lot of programming. Now add to that how smooth the timing was when they were playing that doesn't just just happen either it takes programming and a lot of time and effort.

There was no ghosting, no loot lag, no inventory lag, no ability lag...all of that requires back and forth communication between the client and the server. Exactly what this communication entails depends on how the client/server are written but generally that involves the client needing to send a request, wait for the server to authenticate and then receive a reply before it can do anything but sit idle and render/take input from the user. The client does preliminary authorization but everything is ultimately dependent on the server and that communication. If there is any lag in that transaction you're going to see it manifested in ghosting characters and lag or timeouts.

Everytime your character moves the client is most likely making a preliminary check to authenticate that (is where the character wants to move to legal?) moving the character and then if the server does not agree you'd see the character moving back. Nothing like that happened. All of this communication looked flawless the entire time.

Think about all the other PCs (in this case there were 2 groups so maybe 10) moving around and sending requests to the server (and the server sending messages back) all the strain that could put on the server if there was any lag in that - you'd see it reflected in your client, or in this case the client that Monty was running. Now all the NPCs that the server is also processing (most are idle but there are some that are roamers and others maybe buffing other npcs depending on AI). As soon as they were aggro'd they reacted on the client we were viewing.

There is a lot done behind the scenes to make that stream look smooth.

Now it is pre-alpha so time will tell. No doubt whatever functions and communication they have now will need a lot of changes when more clients are added in and communicating with the server but that is what alpha/beta/stress testing is for.

As far as it not being "worth $30" because it's on unity well that just does not hold water. Any rendering engine can be written in a relatively short amount of time and just as easily as Unity could - that could also easily use stock assets. Unity gets a bad rap because it is popular and freely available but it's not really a fair assessment.

They wont release a game on any engine that uses stock assets. I've watched streams of them creating that zone (and others) we saw piece by piece using assets they've created. That is very different from using easily replaceable low quality npc/pc models for a pre-alpha video.

They freely admit they only have a few zones and a small number of assets created but that is to be expected at this point. The major breakthrough for that video is that the backbone is there. The server/client communication and the foundation of the gameplay.

[fadetree]

Ah. Yes you can buy them, but only from a very small set of pre-built things, which many people would immediately recognize. There's another way to look at it, anyway:

1. You can have a small indie company that resolutely decides to write and design everything themselves, including basic assets like dirt and trees. This company takes 5 years to get a playable demo rolling, and they run out of money and nobody gets a game.
OR
2. You can have a small indie company that utilizes a known graphics library that is well-proven and powerful enough for what they ultimately need, and they use some common assets such as basic background dirt and rocks, and maybe for an alpha demo some creature models. They get a working demo up fast enough to get some more funding, and then build out everything else as they go. The end result is game that people actually get to play, and has very little if any non-custom environmental objects.

What approach would you rather they take?

I'm not even saying that Pantheon did 2, I believe there's a LOT more custom stuff in there than you think, but you see what I'm saying. It would be like a guy who wants to write a book, but decides he has to write his own word processor first, ignoring the fact that there are many already perfectly good word processing 'toolsets' available.

[jarshale]

People still hate on Unity? It's extremely versatile and easy to use, but still requires work. You can't just right click > create MMO and get something that looks like Pantheon does.

[dude]

Seriously looks like crap, some kind of cross between WOW and EQ next. They/We will never find a replacement for EQ classic no way no how says the Dude.

[Valse]

Seriously looks like crap, some kind of cross between WOW and EQ next. They/We will never find a replacement for EQ classic no way no how says the Dude.

Why would you want a "replacement EQ"? Its buggy at best and tedious at worst. Pantheon looks like a good mix between the spirit of EQ and "hard(er)" mmos and the convenience of the modern iterations of the genre. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[jcr4990]

Hating on a game cause of Unity is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Stop being dumb.

[Tankdan]

Seriously looks like crap, some kind of cross between WOW and EQ next. They/We will never find a replacement for EQ classic no way no how says the Dude.

What exactly did you expect it to look like after 17 years of technological advancement?

[dude]

Yes after 17 years this game still hits it out of the park. Just saying.

[Agecroft]

Yes after 17 years this game still hits it out of the park. Just saying.

Dude...I'm so confused.

[fadetree]

His point is....here we are playing it.

[Agecroft]

True enough. Love EQ spent 7 years playing it at release and a bit since but there is a bit of been there, done that; feeling.

Personally I'd like something new to discover but with the same core gameplay and thats where Pantheon *might* come in.

[fadetree]

Yeah, it might. probably won't, but it might. Or something close to it, which is all I ask.

[Neyella]

Cant wait!!!!