I think there should be death penalties but they shouldn't be as significant as an 18-year-old game.
Nicely put.
Especially in terms of realistic placement of Pantheon is
niche!
It's a niche game so it may want to get that small population...but I think Brad wants a bigger audience, more money, and more recognition. Limiting a game for a very, very small audience isn't what he has planned. I could be wrong, of course.
Nailed IMO. Has the War Wizard learned his lessons of Sigil well? They (VR) had better not be cocky, but focus on core quality rather than complexity or volume of content.
My preferences design wise lean on the side of greater downtime and penalties
provided they can evolve updated EQ like mechanics creatively to compensate for the punishing penalty aspects that 18 years later, simply will not fly otherwise. That will IMO require a tight money pinching FOCUS on:
- producers to guide team to focus on Challenge and Journey aspects of gameplay (NOT endgame, leave that to wow this time around)
- decent but SIMPLE game mechanics (no complex sh*t like in Crowfall crafting IMO)
- decent interface & polish (simple core)
- suite of SMART tools & analysis in the background for balancing: Class, Custom Itemization & group content
- a solid code base & quality control framework ESPECIALLY since have a lot of NEW talent that prob needs guidance.
- experienced enough coders to make it all float!
- Unity graphics are fine, dont sweat the graphics too much for niche, they wont beat Black Desert, WoW did not give a sh*t either!
Without the above they will not be able to handle the predictably difficult but necessary balance tweaking and refactoring sh*t through beta and post release. Decent internal dev tools to make maintenance feasible for a small crew. MORE tweaking will be required for a game with deeper EQ type class mechanics. Doubt they have the time and $$ to incubate in Alpha/Beta as long as Blizzard or a big studio.
Is the BMQ War Wizard up to this task??? If not thats ok, but he had better have some help and advice from decent engineers to help with feasability evaluations and advice scaling down!
Which leads me to a set of serious questions for the the War Wizard's team. MMORPG graveyard is littered with try hards! Does the team have:
- not just experience, design chops, talent, all clicking together.....
- also B*LLS to implement the riskier EQ like challenge required to fill the niche?
- and B*LLS enough to speak up if shit doesnt work as it should & insist it be fixed? Novices are often too shy to speak up!
Regardless of how many niche fanboys and fangirls they have now, the software sure as fook be easier to maintain and expand than Everquest was in 1999 because the years long honeymoon period that EQ had for years after release will not last more than a few weeks. Even less time than with Vanguard. None will play long enough to be addicted. EQ was just lucky people stuck around long enough to get addicted because other stuff sucked worse in those first few years.
Expect no freebies this time for Pantheon. The niche oldschoolers are desperate but JADED!
And with Convo gone.... the fans grow restless! We need FUEL for our fires!
Anyhow, /cheers for
@Convo ! Take heart Convo, and worry not too much about risk of imminent failure, for career wise early failure is often a necesary blessing in disguise to learn from. And it is those early failures that plant the seeds of learning from which grow the foundations for greater success later! And seriously, do not be afraid to speak up and share your honest and FoHs jaded thoughts!
Best of luck and Pantheon on!!!!!
