Brad McQuaid interview re. Pantheon

[Tarskin]

It will be broken, full of bugs and hated by all main stream media, yet I will still enjoy it, much like vanguard...

[Sodors Finest Poster]

For all the character model whining - these were EQ alpha characters.

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

... Still better than Luclin models.

[EQBallzz]

Originally Posted by Sodors Finest Poster [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For all the character model whining - these were EQ alpha characters.

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

... Still better than Luclin models.

Wow. That is amazing. I have never seen those EQ alpha pics before.

I don't get the one poster whining about Pantheon. Every complaint made could be applied to EQ/P99 so wtf is he even here to begin with? Pantheon looks amazing compared to most of the shite MMOs on the market. Still a long way to go from what potential it may have to what it will actually be but no other MMO on the horizon has the potential that Pantheon has so I'll stay cautiously optimistic.

Chronicles of Elyria looks sort of interesting but not sure how that death system will actually work out in practice.

[Llandris]

I will be giving Pantheon a shot once it finally releases. If you listen to the stream linked, those char models are PHs.

[Metalopolis]

Vanguard was the only MMO I really enjoyed other than EQ and early WOW. Shame it was forced to release a solid 8-12 months too early. Many of the level 40-50 zones were completely barren and unitemized.

That said the class design, world design, and quest design was top-notch. CLEARLY it was the "true successor" to EverQuest. You even had dungeons you could crawl starting as early as level 15 or so; similar to something like Upper Guk, Befallen etc.

The level progression was more WoW-inspired, in that it was focused mainly around questing. However, unlike WoW, the mobs you killed while questing actually gave significant amounts of experience. So much so that you could also play the game EQ-style and just setup camp in a dungeon and grind mobs for a few hours to level up at a similar pace.

Hopefully Pantheon follows these leads. It always bothered me that some MMOs shoehorn you into grinding mobs for xp, while others force you into grinding QUESTS for xp. There's no reason not to allow players to choose their own means of progression.

If Pantheon is given the dev. time to actually be a COMPLETE GAME on release (including "end game content" / raids) I think it has a solid chance

[yorumi]

Originally Posted by Metalopolis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Vanguard was the only MMO I really enjoyed other than EQ and early WOW. Shame it was forced to release a solid 8-12 months too early. Many of the level 40-50 zones were completely barren and unitemized.

When vanguard was given to SOE I died a little inside and they pretty much did with it what I expected. I loved that game and it was the successor to EQ. The class design was creative, the world was great, and the races were really cool too. It's just too bad it wasn't given the time to finish.

Hopefully pantheon can fill that hole. I would add on top of being able to finish it, I hope they have the courage to realize it will be a niche game. That doesn't mean it won't make money it just means you're going to get the mainstream complaining that the game isn't casual and bashing it to all hell for that. I've seen people actually say they hope a non-casual mmo is never made again, that's how much they hate the idea of other people getting to play mmos. Every major force out there is going to be pressuring Brad to abandon his principles and he needs to stick to it. Otherwise we'll be playing p99 for the next 40 years(don't get me wrong I love this server but there's only so much we can be stuck in a static world).

[Rygar]

Originally Posted by Achromatic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

fixed.



Anyway,

check out this map of the game world. It's the NEXT EQ.

https://www.pantheonmmo.com/images/atlas-hd.jpg

Love that map! Nice Kelethin call out in the lower right. Seems a bit Middle Earth / Game of Thrones feel to it. And some interesting names, like the Seventh Door... what does it lead to? Where are the others? I'm intrigued, want to learn more about the lore of this world.

[EQBallzz]

Originally Posted by yorumi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

When vanguard was given to SOE I died a little inside and they pretty much did with it what I expected. I loved that game and it was the successor to EQ. The class design was creative, the world was great, and the races were really cool too. It's just too bad it wasn't given the time to finish.

Hopefully pantheon can fill that hole. I would add on top of being able to finish it, I hope they have the courage to realize it will be a niche game. That doesn't mean it won't make money it just means you're going to get the mainstream complaining that the game isn't casual and bashing it to all hell for that. I've seen people actually say they hope a non-casual mmo is never made again, that's how much they hate the idea of other people getting to play mmos. Every major force out there is going to be pressuring Brad to abandon his principles and he needs to stick to it. Otherwise we'll be playing p99 for the next 40 years(don't get me wrong I love this server but there's only so much we can be stuck in a static world).

I dunno...in 40 years it might be pretty sweet. Instead of people handing out free Master Wu's Trance sticks in FoB to lvl 9 Monks they will be handing out free Fungi and T-staffs. If anyone wants to get into the spirit of P99 2050 edition and give me that Fungi and T-staff now however.. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Metalopolis]

Originally Posted by yorumi [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I would add on top of being able to finish it, I hope they have the courage to realize it will be a niche game. That doesn't mean it won't make money it just means you're going to get the mainstream complaining that the game isn't casual and bashing it to all hell for that.

Read an interview a few months back, and I've red several forum posts by Sir Bradley himself, where he states exactly this; that they're designing an itentionally-niche game targeting an MMO audience that's been alienated from modern MMOs.

Now that's all talk, of course, however Pantheon is in a bit of a unique position....

For those who don't know: the game's kickstarter actually FAILED. It seemed like Pantheon was destined to become vaporware until it was saved by an angel investor, who understood exactly what type of MMO they were designing. And the audience they were designing it for.

[Metalopolis]

Here's one quote I was able to find fairly easily.....

“Our philosophy is different,” McQuaid said. “Some of the recent MMOs have huge budgets and make a game that is perfect for everyone. Our belief is the future of MMOs is smaller, more targeted games. Over 10 million people play massively multiplayer games. That’s a huge group. There are people with all sorts of tastes and styles of gameplay. We target an audience and make a fantastic game just for them. We don’t need ridiculous budgets.”

He added, “The social, cooperative players have been orphaned. Some people love cooperative play against the A.I.”