The February Producer’s Letter from the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen development team has provided an overview of recent progress and outlined what players can expect in the near future. The game’s first season, “Into the Pass,” was launched on February 17th for VIP pledges, and the team has since addressed initial feedback with several hotfix patches.

The update details plans to extend access to the game: Champion pledges will be able to join on March 16th, and all pledge levels will gain access on March 23rd. This phased approach aims to gradually introduce more players to Avendyr’s Pass.

The development of a new area, Mad Run, is nearing completion, with NPCs and level adjustments being finalized for the upcoming release of Chapter 1, Season 2: The Mouth of Madness on March 30th. Further information about this update is expected to be shared in the coming weeks.

The team is also focusing on improving the game’s lighting to a more natural scheme, expected to be completed soon. New plate armor sets are in development, with implementation pending final adjustments to character proportions and textures.

An audio update for Avendyr’s Pass aims to enhance the game’s immersion through subtle sound cues. Meanwhile, the programming team has prioritized stability, with a shift towards adding new features and systems planned for the future.

The pet system is advancing to its second phase, with the introduction of the summoner class anticipated soon. The Pulse engine, responsible for player and NPC interactions, is being optimized, promising enriched lore and interactions.

Combat is being refined, with a focus on the resist system, melee, and weapon techniques. Visual effects for wizard combat are complete, and enhancements for other classes are underway. Improvements to player combat animations are also expected to enhance the gameplay experience.

The team is preparing for biome development and NPC population in Hanggore, with a new section for patch notes being added to the Pantheon launcher, facilitating access to the latest game updates.

The “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen” development team has announced an innovative approach to game testing, introducing a Seasonal Access system that invites backers to experience the game as it evolves. This initiative allows players to explore new content updates every six weeks, participating in the growth of the game’s world, Terminus.

Under this new model, every backer is given the opportunity to play the game during its development phase, with the duration of access varying by pledge level. Supporter tier backers will have access for one week per season, Champion tier for two weeks, and VIP tier backers will enjoy full access throughout the entire season. This approach aims to engage the community in the game’s ongoing development, offering a firsthand look at new features and expansions.

Season 1: Into the Pass Overview

The first season, “Into the Pass,” opens access to VIP backers starting February 17, 2024, with Champion and Supporter access following in March. This season invites players to the new zones of Avendyr’s Pass, expanding the game’s universe beyond Thronefast. Players will encounter fresh challenges, craft new items, and explore the capabilities of the Shaman class, which introduces a new pet system.

Key highlights for this season include the exploration of Avendyr’s Pass, seamless transitions between new and existing areas, and the introduction of new NPC variations, enriching the player’s experience and interaction within the game.

Future Seasons and Access Changes

Following “Into the Pass,” the next season, “The Mouth of Madness,” is scheduled to launch on March 30, 2024. The development team has outlined a structured roadmap, with multiple chapters and seasons planned, signaling a commitment to ongoing content development and community engagement.

Adjustments to pledge levels have been implemented, transitioning from traditional beta access tiers to more straightforward Supporter, Champion, and VIP categories. This restructuring is designed to simplify access levels and ensure clarity for backers. Additionally, the FAQ section addresses important topics such as character persistence between seasons, updates during a season, and the ability for friends across different pledge levels to play together.

With this seasonal model, backers’ pledges grant them specific playtime each season, without requiring additional payments. This system not only facilitates direct community involvement in the game’s development but also fosters a collaborative environment where feedback and experiences can shape the game’s progression.

As “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen” continues to develop through these seasonal updates, the team emphasizes its commitment to a transparent and inclusive development process, encouraging community feedback and participation every step of the way.

The team behind Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has scheduled a new Pre-Alpha testing phase. Set to begin on January 27th at 10 am PST and lasting for 24 hours, this session invites all backers with Alpha Testing access to participate. The event marks an opportunity for players to explore the world of Terminus, although it requires starting with a new character due to a character wipe. Participants will have the ability to choose their server, allowing for potential community interactions within the game.

Updates on Avendyr’s Pass Development

Progress in the development of Avendyr’s Pass, a significant zone in the game, has been outlined. The zone is divided into three areas: Mad Run, Hanggore, and a predominantly orange zone. The focus is currently on finalizing the ‘orange zone’, with most terrain and biome elements in place. The team is actively populating NPCs and developing caves within this zone.

Technical and Content Developments

The development team has resolved a notable issue with character saves, enhancing game stability. Progress on the pet system is ongoing, currently at approximately 50% completion for its initial phase. Further additions are planned following the establishment of this foundational element.

The Ogre race is under active development, with current efforts focused on armor fitting after the completion of initial modeling. Concurrently, the concept art for Orcs has been finalized, leading to updates on existing Orc models to align with the new designs.

Visual enhancements in combat effects have reached a significant milestone. Alongside this, continuous work on animations and emotes is being undertaken, with an emphasis on player feedback for emote preferences.

A notable update is the tweaking of creature designs to enable color variations, adding diversity to the game’s fauna. Upcoming programming tasks include combat system refinements, such as balancing the resist system, reducing melee weapon delays for improved fluidity, and updating weapon techniques.

Biome diversity is also a focus, with enhancements planned for undergrowth variations. Lastly, the introduction of a new client patcher aims to reduce download times, improving player experience.

The development team extends gratitude for ongoing support and encourages the community to stay tuned for further updates as more aspects of Terminus are brought to life.

In a recent Q&A session for the highly anticipated MMORPG Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, Creative Director Chris “Joppa” Perkins, alongside Ben Dean, delved into a series of updates and insights addressing fan queries. The session was an informative blend of technical details and future plans for the game.

Persistence Layer Overhaul and Stability Improvements

A significant focus was the completion of the new persistence layer, replacing legacy code and enhancing game stability. This pivotal upgrade marks a milestone in Pantheon’s development, ensuring a seamless gaming experience.

Bind Stones and Death Mechanics

The introduction of Bind Stones was highlighted, providing players with alternative binding mechanics for respawn points. Additionally, the team is tweaking the death penalty system, balancing risk and opportunity, particularly in near-death states.

Healer Classes and Self-Resurrection

An interesting revelation was the Shaman class’s unique ability to self-resurrect, distinguishing it from other healers. This feature adds depth to gameplay, offering strategic advantages in various situations.

Player Consent for Corpse Retrieval

Responding to community feedback, Pantheon will implement a command allowing players to consent to corpse retrieval by others, enhancing cooperative gameplay elements.

Non-Primary Stats Influence

The game will feature a “soft speccing” system, where non-primary stats influence certain abilities, providing layers of character customization and strategic itemization.

The Perception System and Lore Integration

The Perception System, a core differentiator for Pantheon, is progressing with its Discovery, Narrative, and Progression aspects. This system aims to deepen immersion and player engagement through interactive storytelling and environmental cues.

Zone Design and Level Progression

The team is reshaping zone designs to encourage exploration beyond linear progression. Players can expect a more organic flow between zones like Thronefast, with level ranges and itemization playing key roles in guiding player movement.

Capital Cities and Racial Starting Areas

While the feasibility of fully realized capital cities by launch remains uncertain due to resource constraints, the team is committed to preserving racial identity through starting areas and smaller cities.

Art Style Evolution and Performance Gains

Pantheon’s art style is evolving towards a hybrid of stylized and realistic aesthetics, significantly improving performance through reduced poly counts and texture sizes.

Content Expansion Plans

2024 is set to be a big year for Pantheon, with plans to introduce more player races, the remaining base roster classes (Summoner, Druid, Ranger), and potentially start work on Necromancer and Bard. The team is also aiming to add more zones, implement core game systems like traits, dispositions, climates, and events, and refine existing mechanics.

As the year winds down, the team at Visionary Realms reflects on a rollercoaster year for “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen”. The small, yet exceptionally talented and driven team, has experienced both highs and lows, making 2023 the most eventful year in the game’s development.

Alpha Launch: A New Beginning

The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the launch of the Alpha phase. For the first time, players got their hands on Pantheon, and the feedback has been significantly positive. Chris Rowan, CEO of Visionary Realms, shared his firsthand experience of delving into the Korecera Realm, describing the immersive night environment, the dangers lurking in the dark, and the excitement of live gameplay.

The Evolution of Pantheon

2023 saw major advancements for Pantheon. The introduction of the gamebuilding toolset, ViRGE, marked a significant leap in development efficiency. However, the journey was not without challenges. The game’s art style, initially a point of contention for its blandness, underwent a transformation. The new stylized, yet realistic, approach with an added ‘grit’ factor aims to bring a more compelling visual identity to the game.

Community and Development

The community’s reaction to the new art style was mixed, but playing the game seems to change many minds. Rowan emphasizes the importance of experiential feedback, indicating that in-game experience often outweighs impressions from stills and videos. In response to the community’s feedback, a controversial 247 Test Mode was introduced and quickly retracted, reaffirming the team’s commitment to the MMO aspect of Pantheon.

Looking Ahead to 2024

As the sun rises in the game world, signaling the start of a new day, Rowan outlines the goals for 2024. These include improved communication, more efficient goal accomplishment, faster content creation, increased resources, and expanding the player base. A sense of excitement is palpable as he mentions the upcoming challenges and adventures, including a raid with a group of LVL 5’s in the Gloom Fracture.

Conclusion

Chris Rowan ends his year in review with an invitation to join him in the game, showcasing a genuine passion and commitment to the Pantheon community. The year 2023 was a definitive one for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, setting the stage for a promising and ambitious 2024.

Fans of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen have been given an exciting glimpse into the future with the latest Producer’s Letter. As the game continues to develop in the second half of 2023, a number of changes to content delivery and ongoing development were revealed.

The creators of the popular MMORPG have decided to reassess and redefine the methods of presenting Pantheon’s progression. For July and August, some regular content features will be scaled back to create new assets and refine existing goals.

One major shift in communication is a pivot towards prioritizing Twitch live streaming for gameplay events or larger community-focused events. The move comes as the producers acknowledged that the extended length of previous live streams was difficult for a significant portion of the community to follow. To combat this, video updates will now be delivered via YouTube Premieres. This new approach aims to make content more concise, accessible, and community-oriented.

Additionally, Parting the Veil, an important source of key information about Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, is being reformatted into several short, pre-produced videos focused on a single topic released over the course of a month. The change aims to make important details easier to absorb while still inviting community interaction.

While recognizing these changes are significant, the team believes the quality and uniformity of content delivery will greatly improve, giving developers more time to focus on game development. After two months of preparation and adaptation, they aim to hit the ground running in September with improved assets and tools, enhancing their efficiency in content creation and overall content quality.

Despite these changes, the regular release of the Producer’s letter and community-driven articles will remain unaffected.

The Producer’s Letter also addressed the roadmap to Alpha, stating that it too would be reformatted. A new roadmap design will be unveiled in September, promising greater readability and additional information.

Further updates revealed in the Producer’s letter included an array of development highlights such as nearing completion of a meta design map tool, IT infrastructure changes for improved servers, forums, security and reliability, a significant overhaul of lighting and atmospherics, including the return of the in-house day/night system, and various character and model updates.

The changes outlined in this latest Producer’s Letter promise a future of continued development and improvement for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Fans can look forward to more streamlined, accessible, and community-focused updates moving forward.

Visionary Realms’ latest video, “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen – Parting the Veil – Pantheon’s Tanks,” delves into the game’s tank classes. Hosted by Minus, with insights from Creative Director Chris “Joppa” Perkins, the video covers various tank classes: Dire Lord, Warrior, and Paladin.

Each class receives a detailed examination, shedding light on their unique abilities, role dynamics, and potential synergies. Other topics like threat difference, variety within the same tank class, and the unexpected prospect of Monk tanking are also explored.

In addition, the team touches on off-tanks, tanking pets, repair costs, tank populations, and tank synergies. Out-of-combat roles and specific tank-focused content are also hinted at, suggesting unique challenges tailored for each class.

The development team at Visionary Realms has provided a tantalizing sneak peek at the Rogue class in their upcoming MMO, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. In their latest video, titled “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen – Class Refresh: The Rogue,” they tackle a list of “10 Burning Questions” from the player community and take viewers on a deep dive into the revamped Rogue class, showcasing gameplay from levels 1 through 10.

In a move designed to foster a tighter-knit gaming community, Visionary Realms has announced that the official Discord server for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is now open to the public. The announcement comes as part of the studio’s ongoing commitment to create a community-driven game that blurs the line between the virtual and real worlds.

The newly public Discord server will serve as a hub for all players of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. It will provide a space for fans to engage with each other, share gameplay strategies, coordinate in-game activities, and discuss the lore and mechanics of the game.

More importantly, it’s also a place where players can directly interact with the game’s development team. As Visionary Realms is known for its active engagement with the Pantheon community, this move provides an unprecedented opportunity for players to provide feedback and get behind-the-scenes insights into the game’s development process.

Visionary Realms, Inc. recently released a new video showcasing the Shaman class in their much-anticipated MMORPG, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. The video provides fans with an in-depth look into the early gameplay, including the Shaman’s spell range and the class’s overall role within the game.

The YouTube video titled “Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen – The Shaman” focuses on the level 1-10 experience, offering viewers a detailed look into the Shaman’s abilities, characteristics, and gameplay dynamics. It’s an exciting window into what’s to come for players choosing this particular class.

In the latest producer’s letter to the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen community, the team shared some insightful updates on the current progress of the highly anticipated MMO.

Throughout May, the developers held multiple testing sessions, including an extensive 24-hour pre-alpha test on May 20-21, alongside two ad-hoc tests on May 10 and 12. These tests proved instrumental in identifying and resolving game issues, thus ensuring a smoother pre-alpha run on the 20th.

Going forward, June’s Pre-Alpha test is slated to run from 10 a.m. PDT Saturday, June 10 to 10 a.m. PDT Sunday, June 11. Testers are reminded to monitor the Tester Discord for announcements of spontaneous ad-hoc tests.

The most recent pre-alpha session brought forward two new streamers to the Pantheon community: Retired8404, who kick-started the Saturday session with a 3-hour stream, and Zaide, who followed suit with another 3 hours of gameplay footage. For players interested in creating content and contributing to the game’s online presence, the team encourages signing up through the Streamer and Content Creator Program page. Streamers are invited to every scheduled pre-alpha session, which takes place on a monthly basis. For those who are not content creators, the opportunity to join Pre-Alpha is still accessible either through pledging or participating in the monthly giveaway on Twitter.

On the production side, ViNL optimization continues to make headway, with substantial progress achieved during this month. Crafting has also seen significant advances, with players now able to craft items and even sell them via the game’s channels, hinting at the sprouting of an in-game economy.

Visionary Realms, the developers of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, dive into healer classes in the latest episode of their video series ‘Parting the Veil.’ In the video, official Content Creator Minus and Creative Director Chris “Joppa” Perkins discuss the unique mechanics of the Shaman, Cleric, and Druid healing classes.

They explore the Shaman’s time-based lore, distinctive healing mechanisms of Cleric and Druid, and the functionality of enemy healers. The video also delves into the crucial synergy between healers and tanks and sheds light on other classes with healing abilities.