Moving On...

The top guy funding it had a huge hard on for ArcheAge so that to be considered. I think he got mad when they started undercutting people who like to ridiculously dominate PvP game space when the studio started selling those things for cash.

When I first heard this game and it got my attention and I was on their forums for a while. It was interesting how hard it was to get better details on PvP. The plans on PvP are more known now but they were really trying the ol' 'bait and switch' on PvE type players for cash. As soon as I realized that 'non-flagged' players who don't want to PvP can still be killed AND suffer a higher death penalty than those flagged, I was out. Any idea Ashes isn't a full on PvP game is delusional. Open PvP supersedes anything when it comes down to play experience. Add all the other content you want, if you can get Pk'd while doing it, it's PvP content.

Everything I have seen of Pantheon just reminds me of a slightly more polished Vanguard. Nothing like looking to the failed past for inspiration.

 

I'm totally down for "Vanguard, but done well." I enjoyed the hell out of the world and classes in that game, but it definitely had a lot of issues and holy **** that generic font was offputting.

 

The combat in that video alone put me off. That's not due to pre-alpha or time constraints, that a design decision. You don't need 2 years of development to make the delays between actions a smaller number. Zero innovation, art style is tragic even if its supposed to get 'better.'

Maybe its because I am enjoying FF14 currently but I just have zero reason to go near any other hotbar, high fantasy game because of it. Give me action combat or at least a different setting, no "not p2w but technically it is" cash shop and miss me with that bait n' switch "PvE until cap then forced open PvP" and I'll perk up.

 

True, I doubt I'll commit to it for similar reasons -- I'm over tab-targeting hot bar combat. But if the world is cool and the class design is there I'll definitely play it for a little bit. Indulging my nostalgia can carry me through boring combat for a little while at least.

 

Ugh. I tried FF14. Sorry, but if 25 of the first 30 minutes are cutscenes, you've lost me entirely already.

 

It's a heavily story-based game so it sounds like it wouldn't be your cup of tea anyway. (The first part really is a slog, though.)

 

First tutorial part is kind of forced to watch random 'real time' stuff. but 99% of cut scenes are skippable. People seem to overlook this and i've forgotten a few times myself "Why am I watching this?" Although I still remember that little 'heretic' girl having her own mom executed for trying to kill her as some cold ****, and that was just a dark knight class quest.

 

The 'Esc' key is your friend. Once I've sat through it once for the lore, I skip the cut scenes.

 

I honestly can deal with grind. What I can't deal with is required grouping to progress. I know that's the old way and it's a great way to meet people, etc., but these days my play time is limited and comes in small clumps of time sometimes 2 weeks apart. I prefer a game I can solo or duo my way through (with husband) at my pace and on my own time without having to worry about needing to leave a group and leave the group in a bad situation.

 

The real question to me is still, "Did people love walking uphill both ways through the snow or did they just love walking uphill both ways through the snow in EQ1 (or whatever their particular flavor of poison was back in the day)?"

 

Bottom line, to me, is all these games are 'time wasters', after work to decompress or whatever. Time wasting <> grind, but the devs can't tell the difference. It's also far more expensive to make 100 zones to run through to get somewhere, than 10 zones done 10 times each. Like right now, I am loving Destiny 2 campaign, waste some time, get some loot, improve power a point or two. I can do a 'zone' with 2 random other people, takes a little more less depending on the others, get loot at end. In EQ2, you can be FUBAR if you have the wrong AA setup, just because you don't see the 5 trailers you are backing up going in the right direction. Too much spreadsheet work now, or maybe always was but there were enough of us piddling around doing stuff we could get stuff done without all that micro mgmt. I'm moving to console games, and just have a week or so left on my sub, been helping a few peeps along their epic 2 or whatnot while I wean myself off EQ2.

 

it's "think we loved walking uphill both ways barefoot in the snow because we didn't have any other options and memory is subjective af", imo.

there's no way pantheon launches supporting that player base, those 3 players just aren't enough.

 

I'm not quite in the same place in life I was when I went to EQ2. Others likely are in similar places going back to EQ1 days. Things change, people look for different things. And EQ2 has gone in the absolute wrong direction for those changes.

 

It was one of the few options at the time and people see through rose colored glasses. This is a phenomenon not even remotely rare or in dispute when it comes to thinking about the 'good ol' days.'

I loved playing EQ1. All the little adventures of just trying to travel through a zone alive, getting people together for corpse runs, dealing with trains and people trying to snag named mobs from under you. These relatively small problems feeling like great achievements. Being able to talk to strangers at length waiting for repops or someone to pull something from a great distance. Staying a little extra longer in that grind group after getting your level so there is less of a chance of de-leveling when you die.

And I'd never do it again.

 

I looked into Pantheon when it first started getting funding, but I decided against it for the same reason (among others). I'm at that stage in my life where my game time is somewhat sporadic, but always fun and pretty stress-free -- which means I will walk away in a heartbeat if I notice the absence of fun and mental/emotional relaxation. Doesn't mean I won't push the limits with mobs or explore where I "oughtn't", resulting in a gruesome end - but hey, that can be fun!

 

Forced grouping is another one of those "rose tinted glasses" things.

Ideal world: People have to come together to conquer challenging content, and they do so in a friendly manner.

Actual world: People have so much other **** they could be doing in life that the idea of waiting minutes to hours to form a group, and then engaging in content for a long time on top of that (not to mention the various interruptions that can occur in real life now, which are more numerous in our modern era plus a lot of us have grown up and have other responsibilities) is borderline insane. And the rewards have to be worth it, too, because people aren't going to do content for the sake of content itself past the first few times.

 

This is so true for me. I loved it back then because it was new and also I was in my 20s with plenty of time to grind for hours with a close knit guild of friends. Now there are so many options and my disposable time to sit for hours on end is spent elsewhere and less plentiful. I have developed other interests that eat into that time and I'm happy with that.

 

I think the micro in microniche is exactly what it will be unless the model changes after launch.

 

I bet they dread releasing a public or even donater accessible version of the game. Its all stuff people blue sky dream about but it when it comes time to make some cash it goes downhill quick. Its like when people talk about 'perma death' in an online game but in practice its a feature that goes extremely underused.