Articles https://www.disparateworlds.org Ashes of Creation and Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen - Talk Show, Reviews, Articles and Guides Mon, 01 Mar 2021 02:29:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 https://i0.wp.com/www.disparateworlds.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cropped-icon.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Articles https://www.disparateworlds.org 32 32 186673141 Tenets of Pantheon – Combat is Immersive with Engaging Group Mechanics https://www.disparateworlds.org/tenets-of-pantheon-combat-is-immersive-with-engaging-group-mechanics/ https://www.disparateworlds.org/tenets-of-pantheon-combat-is-immersive-with-engaging-group-mechanics/#respond Mon, 01 Mar 2021 02:29:51 +0000 https://www.disparateworlds.org/?p=578 [...]]]> Hello again. I apologize for my absence from this series. The holidays and life got a hold of me, but I am back and excited to continue my analysis of the Tenets of Pantheon.

This is a relatively straight forward topic as I am sure most games strive to be immersive. I don’t think that’s the key point here. Having fighting encounters isn’t the same as having immersive group mechanics. By focusing on the multiplayer aspect of encounters, the developers are ensuring that groups will be needed for the vast majority of game play.

Group mechanics involve buffing allies, debuffing enemies, cures, stuns, interrupts, feign death pulls, and a multitude of other things. These need to engage the entire group. They should utilize all of the abilities of a group at various times. It’s not required that every pull utilize these tools, but they should be frequent enough to make us choose a variety of abilities with our limited skills. Pantheon’s average group encounter should require players to pay attention to audio clues, visual spell effects, and the actions of the mob or mobs they are fighting.

By putting this tenet forth, it seems that the developers are heading in the direction of making use of a full range of player utility choices and it is yet another step in the right direction for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

]]> https://www.disparateworlds.org/tenets-of-pantheon-combat-is-immersive-with-engaging-group-mechanics/feed/ 0 578 Tenets of Pantheon – The Cost of the Game Economy https://www.disparateworlds.org/the-cost-of-the-game-economy/ https://www.disparateworlds.org/the-cost-of-the-game-economy/#respond Sun, 22 Nov 2020 20:59:17 +0000 https://www.disparateworlds.org/?p=397 [...]]]> Economies are fragile entities in MMOs and should be considered early on in the development process. Visionary Realms has made economy one of the Tenets of Pantheon: Game economies should delay and minimize item value deflation. We’ll take a look at what deflation is and why it’s important to stave off this enemy of the realm.

Deflation, in an economic sense, is a reduction of the general level of prices in an economy. I do not think that this is what Visionary Realms is targeting. An item’s value isn’t just the price for which you can sell it. Some of the value is dictated by the difficulty in obtaining it. So even if you cannot sell an item, its value can be deflated by more of this rare item being out there than is proper.

Generally in an MMO, the bigger, long-term issue is inflation. Inflation is a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. MMOs are closed systems. Within this system, wealth is created by looting mobs or selling items to in-game non player characters. These virtual mints have no limit to how much they can generate. The mobs respawn and thus the wealth they generate is limitless. Games therefore need ways to remove funds from games to limit individual player wealth. These are referred to as “money sinks”. Even with the sinks, wealth in MMOs only grows. Eventually things that used to cost 5 gold now cost 10, then 20 and up. This trend is nearly unavoidable. Money sinks can delay it, but eventually inflation will occur. This is the way.

I think the deflation that the developers are discussing here refers to items losing value due to unforeseen events. These can include -but aren’t limited to- exploits such as duplicated items flooding the market, temporary rare item hype where things that were rare become common for some reason, an increased drop rate in ultra rare items, an item being “nerfed” (having its effectiveness reduced in some way), or a poorly-implemented change to the game by the developers. Each of these things can severely impact the economy by driving the value or price of specific items way down. There is no way to prevent these things from happening 100% of the time, but the developers need to be monitoring the economy to make sure there isn’t an unplanned change that will impact the player experience. These are complex games, and sometimes there are unforeseen links between a change and its effect on the economy.

If one of the aforementioned events should happen, quick, decisive action is needed to minimize the impact. A live hotfix, if possible, is the best solution as it will not bring the servers down, but sometimes bringing the game down to get it right is the best choice. We are better off being without Pantheon for a short time to protect the integrity of the economy.

Keeping an eye on all aspects of the game’s economy is important so it’s easy to understand why the developers made it a part of Pantheon’s foundation.

Special thanks to @ABrown35 and @kidleeasf for their input and help understanding a bit more about game economies.

Tenets of Pantheon

]]> https://www.disparateworlds.org/the-cost-of-the-game-economy/feed/ 0 397 Tenets of Pantheon – How the Tenets Apply to Classes https://www.disparateworlds.org/how-the-tenets-of-pantheon-apply-to-classes/ https://www.disparateworlds.org/how-the-tenets-of-pantheon-apply-to-classes/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2020 00:28:27 +0000 https://www.disparateworlds.org/?p=348 [...]]]>

We are continuing our review of the Tenets of Pantheon and looking at class distinction and uniqueness of roles. We’ll delve into the reasons why I believe these two items go hand-in-hand and should be included in any multiplayer game.

The first tenet we are looking at is Classes have distinct identities. In an MMO, each of the archetypes (tanks, healers, crowd controllers, and damage dealers) will be filled by classes which, despite accomplishing the same role, will play differently. Healing on a cleric should feel different to healing on a druid or a paladin. The methods each use should be tied to the lore of a class. A cleric should be casting holy spells that channel the power of the deity they worship, healing their party. A druid, on the other hand, should be drawing their power from nature to regenerate their group. This allows for diversity in the game and allows players to play the style with which they are most comfortable.

The second tenet is No single player should be able do everything on their own. Much like in chess where there are 6 different pieces and each piece has a role to fulfill, an MMO has many classes, each with a distinct set of abilities and limitations. If every piece could do the same thing, what would the point be of playing a rook versus a knight? If this is what you want, then why not play a single player game? This obviously doesn’t mean that hybrid classes shouldn’t exist. Rather, if they do exist, they should be able to fulfill multiple roles almost as well as a specialized class.

Having unique roles also plays into how groups get filled. In Pantheon, groups are currently set at five players. This will allow for a tank, healer, DPS, and crowd control, with the fifth spot open to any other that the group wants to have. Groups can choose an off-tank, more dps, extra heals, or crowd control.

By creating unique roles for its players, Pantheon allows gamers to specialize and contribute meaningfully to the game.

Tenets of Pantheon

]]> https://www.disparateworlds.org/how-the-tenets-of-pantheon-apply-to-classes/feed/ 2 348 Tenets of Pantheon – Foundation of the Tenets: Content is King https://www.disparateworlds.org/foundation-of-the-tenets-content-is-king/ https://www.disparateworlds.org/foundation-of-the-tenets-content-is-king/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2020 14:16:03 +0000 https://www.disparateworlds.org/?p=298 [...]]]>

I am starting this series with what I consider to be the foundation of Pantheon, content is king. Content is the heart of any game but especially for an MMO. Content needs to be engaging, durable, and refreshed from time to time. By making this their first rule, the Pantheon team has shown that they want to have a long term plan for the players’ characters to grow in the world. It also, I believe, shows a commitment to future expansions.

Without content, no one will want to play, but the substance needs to be such that we, the players, will want to keep coming back to it. I remember my early days of Everquest. The internet was still growing up, but I dialed in and played every day. The zones, lore, quests, and raids all were engaging enough to make me want to be in Norrath.

The content needs to be durable: By that I mean it needs to resist binge playing organically. In playing World of Warcraft and Star Wars the Old Republic, I have had two different experiences with the types and the flow of content. WoW has a steady flow of new things, but some of it comes at a cost. SWTOR’s new content has been somewhat bland. Pantheon can learn from both games and improve upon it.

Let’s address the positives each game brought to durability. Both games have released many expansions for their vanilla game. For the purposes of this article, an expansion includes new content containing most of the following: level increase, new small and large group content, new races, new classes, and new lands to explore. Both games have maintained a rough average of two years between updates, which, on the surface, seem to be on par with each other.

There is, however, a gap in what was actually provided by each game. SWTOR’s lack of new classes and failure to replicate the depth of the initial class stories has, in my opinion, been its downfall. It is not enough just to provide content. The content needs to be truly fresh and dynamic.

One problematic area for World of Warcraft is the artificial advancement constraints a.k.a. grinds. WoW is infamous for faction or other types of time sinks that artificially prevent their players from pushing through the content. Every game builds in some artificial constraints but to keep them from becoming a literal grind, players should be offered a variety of activities toward progression.

Ideally, Visionary Realms needs to stay within this two year cycle of expansions as this is what MMO players have come to expect. Introducing new races and classes will give long-time players new things to try as well as expand the options for new players. Their gameplay needs new features added regularly to engage the players in more challenging ways. As a player, I like to be kept in the loop on emerging content as much as possible. Transparency helps players to know that new things are around the corner.

By putting “content is king” as the keystone tenet, the Pantheon team is acknowledging that they understand the need to keep content fresh and durable. Next week I’ll discuss the next two tenets covering class identity and soloing.

Tenets of Pantheon

]]> https://www.disparateworlds.org/foundation-of-the-tenets-content-is-king/feed/ 3 298 Tenets of Pantheon – A Series https://www.disparateworlds.org/tenets-of-pantheon-a-series/ https://www.disparateworlds.org/tenets-of-pantheon-a-series/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2020 03:00:20 +0000 https://www.disparateworlds.org/?p=272 [...]]]>

Hey all! Mox here. I want to build a foundation for my reasoning as to why Pantheon is going to be my game. Fortunately, Visionary Realms has me covered because they have published their tenets as part of their FAQ.

Having these principles documented serves two purposes: First, by publishing they are making themselves accountable to adhere to the tenets. Secondly, by making their philosophies public, it will hopefully ward off some of the heretics who want a World of Warcraft clone.

My intention for this series is to break down the beliefs and discuss why they are important. I plan to make this a weekly series covering one or two points per post. I am sure these points will also be featured in my debates with Sechari. Stay tuned for the first real post on the foundation of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

Tenets of Pantheon

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