Episode 9 – The One that Almost Didn’t Happen + New Pantheon Letter

00:00 / 1:24:37

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 9
In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Boom
Extraterrestrial Abductions Day is today. Keep one eye on the sky. And, be ready to duck, dodge, and to hide. UFO’s may be everywhere, looking to abduct humans. If you are not careful, perhaps they will find you! Of course, there are more than a few people out there who are looking to be abducted by aliens, so they can travel to another planet.
Celebrate today by reading and watching science fiction stories about UFOs and Extraterrestrials. And, make sure to keep out of sight of extraterrestrials.

Music By: Chan Walrus and David O’Neil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3bopymyX3g

Intro
Contact Us (Tess)
Website: stopstandinginfire.com
Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com
Twitter: Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess
@DebuffThis
Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Phone Call, Texts, and Tweets

Segment 1: News
NEWSLETTER, BITCHES!!

Underwraps:
New event in production: “During our event there is a weather-type occurrence. This is broken down into a set of effects that we can block in, like slowing the player down or pushing him or her back.”
This is exciting because it’s a nice mental image to how weather events (long speculated on) might work. Cold slowing the player, or wind pushing them back.
It’s interesting that they used the term “event”. Does that mean something like in GW2 where it’s just an open-world event that pops up, or is this a triggered open-world boss, or is this a dungeon setting?
New Visual Effects Artist for Pantheon by the name of Fernando Flores.
See, haters?? How many times have we had to tell you that these are pre-alpha visuals?
Basic Crafting System blocked and designed, but not yet implemented.
Gimme my crafting!!!! So excited to see what types of things we can make and work towards.
Climbing System implemented.
Love this. You can see some of the climbing footage spliced in to Baz’s latest video and it’s awesome. It never made any sense to me that you could only jump, not grab and climb up in a lot of MMOs.
Behind the Design: The Disposition System
A key in what Joppa labels as “strategic depth: designing gameplay around a longer-term curve that asks players to make decisions not based purely on reaction time, but by increasing players long-term reward or lowering their long-term risk based on a growing knowledge of the game.”
Joppa goes on to detail that this is going to be used to curtail the “auto-pilot” that comes after learning the game and individual fights. He emphasises what we’ve always said: that the most fun part of a new game is not knowing how to do everything. The Disposition System is one way they will keep players guessing each time they enter a fight, old and new.
The Disposition system will give NPCs and monsters a chance to spawn with one of many possible Dispositions, granting them unique strengths, weaknesses, and behavioral qualities. These Dispositions will typically be portrayed by an adjective at the beginning of the NPC’s name, though there will be Dispositions only identifiable through the Perception system and rare, vision-altering Artifacts.
Wow. This is great, and also smacks a bit of D&D. When you go into a fight, you don’t know if the monster has resistance to a certain type of damage or status effect. You have to figure it out either by noticing that the monster isn’t responding as you would expect from such attacks, or by using skills or spells to tell you that information.
Reader Questions: TOO MANY TO LIST HERE!
The questions cover topics such as questing, soloing, dungeon/raid size, traveling, level-scaling, pets, race/class synergy, God-lore, Control classes, environmental systems and acclimation, character creation, NPCs, and a lot on the perception system. Here are two question themes I zeroed in on:
The Perception System
There will be basic quests that anyone can find, and “storyline” quests that are obtainable only through the perception system.
You will have a special quest log, called the Tome of Keeping, which will help you keep track of clues and progress through storylines.
Not all storylines will be the same length. Some may be very short, almost instantaneous rewards while others span a long questline.
Solo/Group Scaling
The game is not designed for solo playing in mind, though it will be possible to do so with some classes being better at soloing than others.
There will be a mentoring system to scale higher-level players down to play with lower-level players.
Caravan system?? “Maximizing group play time for people with limited schedules is an important part of our design philosophy. We have several ideas in mind for how we want to approach this, including the Caravan system, but we are not ready to share details at this time.”
Current raids at 12/24, but may be increased to 24/30.

Segment 2: Moments of Zen – How did we spend our time gaming this week?
Tess -.I played some GW2–boy I love the crafting in that game. I’m still kinda stuck on progression for lack of group, though. I also got to the Destroyer level in D3. Paragon level 500+ and soloing 70+ grifts! I’ve never gotten this far in a season before.

Militus – I played everquest 2 progression server. Rolled a Fury-Druid. Having a lot of fun.

Boom – Played Everquest 2 rolled a fairy tank. It was fun with a friend. Absolutely no fun at all without one. Like not even playable to the point of making me angry. Then I realized that they also make DC Universe online and I started playing that and I had a really good time with it. Back into Forza.
Segment 3: Forums and Reddit
Scenario – You get stuck in an exploit… by xKilsinxr

Scenario – You get stuck in an exploit (not your fault) that allows your character to see and move through walls and terrain, do you report it or use it and do you tell anyone or keep it to yourself? Please give reasons for your decision #MMORPG #communitymatters

Militus – I report it immediately. My luck… something really cool randomly happens to my toon and then a rollback occurs because I exploited. No bueno.

Boom – Keep your mouth shut and play the game. Let it be somebody else’s problem. Reporting it usually punishes the reporter so you don’t go out of your way to exploit the game but it is the game designers faults for making it that way and they need to fix it. I pay good money for this crap.
Getting Soft with the Community
Nathan Napalm: Brad McQuaid’s Best Yet

Bazgrim: Pantheon’s Development So Far
–I want to add a new hashtag to #PantheonPassionate and #PantheonPositivity: #PantheonPatient in honor of Baz and BAT’s videos!!

BattleAxe Theatre: Pantheon: The Waiting Game

PantheonPlus: Minus and Heyah discuss the Rogue class

PantheonPlus: Interview with SurferDave

Support us by giving us a follow and sub on Twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/standinginfirepodcast
Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess @DebuffThis

Shout Outs

End of show Credits
Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 8 – Eggplants and RV’s

00:00 / 1:29:55

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 8
In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Boom
Fun time with boom.

Boom’s RV Trivia

Boom will be touring most of America in a 34’ monster RV that he picked up cheep from some guy in an alley in Wyoming. This is Boom’s RV Trivia:

How many States will Boom be visiting this summer?
5
15
12
10
When Boom stops to plug into a campsite he will be using what amperage?
20
30
50
110
What year was the first motorhome RV built?
1894
1910*
1943
1964
What is Boondocking (soon to be called Boomdocking)?
Keeping your RV at a seasonal site permanently
Camping in a duck boat.
Camping off the grid.*
Camping on the bank of a river.
What is the difference between a class C and a class B motorhome?
Class B is diesel, class C is Gas
Class C has an overhead bunk and class B is built on a van chassis*
Class C has a detachable Cab
Class B is larger than Class C
US Route 20 is the longest road in America and it how many miles long?
6,832
3,365*
2,389
4,268
According to research how many teens would be happy to unplug for a camping trip?
12%
71%
38%
54%*

Phone Call, Texts, and Tweets

Segment 1: News
Visionary Realms announces, “With a huge thanks to our VIP’s, the Dev Roundtables (exclusive VIP content) will now be shared with the public a week or so after they are recorded live for our VIP members – Here is February’s! “- Kilsin
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/10239/developer-roundtable-february

Interesting tidbits:
The Q&A focused on customer support:

“there will be some kind of in-game reporting? I’m not sure if we’re right-click or target slash or whatever, but there will be something that you can click to report easily and so, I just like the bug reporting system, something similar to that I would expect.” – Kilsin

“reputation means something, so being able to change your name to get away from a bad reputation is not something that we want to facilitate.” – Mike
Pantheon Plus Poll closes:

Segment 2: Moments of Zen – How did we spend our time gaming this week?
Tess -.I got to play this week! Still not as much as I’m used to, but I got to play some Diablo and even some GW2 with Minus and Hayah.

Militus – I played Everquest and Everquest II! Had a lot of fun and thinking about giving the progression servers a shot.

Boom – Just Cause 4 – How did this game not get more love. He is like a Latin American Spiderman, simply amazing. Huge world. Tons to do. Not everything handed to you, so it is a little like I expect Pantheon to be. You have to go out and search for stuff and look around in the beautiful world that they built. Farming Simulator 17

Segment 3: Forums and Reddit
From Reddit Posted byu/urgatorb8 – Racial Abilities

I believe VR has said that their current plan is for each race to have a unique passive and active racial ability. I’ve been excited thinking about what these will end up being. It’s not too hard to take a stab at some of the passive ones like having the Dark Myr being able to breathe underwater or having Dwarves have an innate bonus to cold resistance (or cold climates).
I remember Van Guard having some pretty cool and powerful active racial abilities. Of course some were better than others but most had some good situational usage.
What ideas for racial abilities would you all like to see (without having them be too OP)?

Getting Soft with the Community
Nathan Napalm
MMO gamers too spoiled to enjoy Pantheon:

BattleAxe Theatre
Player Housing in Panheon

Chris Kane What Will You Be?

Hijaxx747 Game Tenets of Pantheon

PantheonPlus- Minus and Heyah discuss the Ranger class

PantheonPlus- Interview with Tess from SiFPodcst. 🙂

Support us by giving us a follow and sub on Twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/standinginfirepodcast
Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess @DebuffThis

Shout Outs
HUGE SHOUT-OUT to Voices of Terminus on their 3 year anniversary of doing shows! Incredible!

End of show Credits
Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 7 – Archy and the Sham-WoW!

00:00 / 1:33:42

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 7
In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Boom
Fun time with boom.

Phone Call, Texts, and Tweets
Def’s phone call (Voicemail):

Segment 1: Shaman Class Discussion
We break down the races: Archai, Elf, Human, Ogre, Skar

It is rumored that Shamans live in every age at once. It is a second sight, allowing them to sense the threads of energy woven through Terminus’ past. It is this unique gift that allow Shamans to discern the ancestry of friend or foe, wielding this knowledge in the form of powerful Boons – or frightful Banes.

Shamans gain Vision as a percentage of the effective healing they perform on themselves and their allies. The more Vision a Shaman accumulates, the faster their spell-casting speed becomes, up to a total of X%. This is represented in the UI by a closed eye in the character portrait. As a Shaman’s Vision increases, the eye will progressively open until full.

Group Role: Healer, Support, Utility
Combat Resource: Mana, Vision

Official site: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/classes/shaman/
Watch gameplay: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/344284210
Militus’ spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yyv4tk2PwxcFsTQ4qQa1IxHcsw5BLGRht_YIXkYV7GE/edit#gid=538553132

Segment 2: Moments of Zen – How did we spend our time gaming this week?
Tess -.I’ve been messing around with an ARG that is aimed to hype the announcement of a new VtM game from Paradox later this month at GDC. It is wonderfully creepy and makes me hope that this new VtM game will incorporate some of the “research” stuff I loved from Secret World. I can’t wait. If this thing drops before Pantheon, that is where I will be spending my time because I LOVE White Wolf WoD/VtM stuff.

Militus – I played more Neverwinter casually. I am level 58 at this point. Some sad news this week that Cryptic is killing the Foundry system in the game. 🙁 I had fun playing my Cleric and rolled a Warlock.

Boom – Healed in Tera (tired of me talking about it) Played Farcry 5. ($15 for Farcry, $19 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) Not an MMO exactly but elements of these shooters are getting more and more that way all the time. Are we moving back to wanting MMORPG’s? Will the next generation of them come from roots different than in the past?

Segment 3: Forums and Reddit
From Reddit Posted byu/Desrauth
Pantheon: More Vanguard than EQ?
First, let me start by saying, this is my first post on reddit that isn’t a response. I’m an old MMO guy and my first experience into MMOs was Everquest. A friend of mine who was in beta told me all about the game and from the first time I played it, I was hooked! I have so many memories from this game that I could write a book about the people who have I have met, who have touched my life and things that have made me smile and laugh. The community of EQ has been one of the best of any game I have played, to this date.
Second, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you to everyone at VR, I cannot thank you all for bringing a game back to the roots of what I grew up loving and playing for so many years. I would also like to thank all of the content developers, podcasts and redditers. You have sparked excitement in me that has been gone for some time now. For a long time, I feel like I have been going through the motions of MMOs but now my hypeness grows even more every time I see a new video, a new post, or even a new screenshot.
After listening to the podcast Standing in Fire, Militus had stated that they had played Vanguard Emulator and noticed lots of undertones in Pantheon from Vanguard. I installed it and started playing. It brought back many memories for me and I had a blast playing with friends this weekend. However, it seems that the server is very unstable and there were only a few people playing. I believe the most we got up to last night was 15 people. I really wish there were more people playing it but it seems like there is not much interest in the game. Heck, I even saw some people from Voices of terminus guild online J
Here is my main point of my post and would love to hear everyone’s opinions. I have seen many posts/videos regarding Pantheon and its relation to EQ. The comparisons are always towards EQ, however when I look at gameplay videos, it reminds me a lot of Vanguard. Vanguard brought the same classes and fundamentals into the game but was very different from EQ.
So my question to you all is have you played Vanguard? If so, what was your take on the game? Are you afraid of what happened with Vanguard will happen again? Will you have an issue if Pantheon is more Vanguard gameplay rather than EQ?
I personally feel we are in a spot with MMOs where we need a reset. I believe the fundamentals of what made both EQ and Vanguard great games are at the core of Pantheon and VR’s mission/vision. We are at a point, in my opinion, where MMOs have gotten far away from community, class interdependency, crowd control, a sense of adventure and VR is trying to right the wrongs that so many developers and companies have gotten away from, and I applaud you VR.

Subscription Support of Pantheon from now until launch Posted by militus
Greetings future adventurers of Terminus,
Disclosure: This probably has been discussed previously, but I could not locate a thread. 🙂
I have pledged at the Champion level as of Jan. 2019 because I believe in the passion, ideas, and team that Visionary Realms has established. I also have recently decided to let my WoW subscription lapse. So, that is 16 bucks a month that was just billing to my credit card and I really won’t even notice to be honest. That got me thinking… what if I could just set up a reoccurring, monthly pledge to VR (sort of like a sub) for that $16 dollars I was sending to Blizzard? Hmmmmm.? I would not miss it and while $16 is a small amount of cash, it could aide planning/budgeting for the development of Pantheon. As it accrued over time, perhaps the dollars could accumulate and bump my Champions pledge to a higher tier? To my knowledge, this is not currently possible. Or is it? Is this a good idea? Why or why not?

Getting Soft with the Community
Nathan Napalm
PvP in Pantheon https://youtu.be/gKMEGRjb1p8
Upgrade your Rig… just for BOOM. LMFAO https://youtu.be/J77WwfeIp4c

BattleAxe Theatre
Talks Necromancer – Def talks Necro and solo play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HOaF87zElE&t=14s

Bazgrim- What is project Faerthale (did he makes this just for Militus?) 🙂
https://youtu.be/bJdZm8N8XpU

PantheonPlus- Minus and Heyah discuss the Summoner class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrTw5xXyRyM&t=906s

Support us by giving us a follow and sub on Twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/standinginfirepodcast
Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess @DebuffThis

Shout Outs
Shout out to my man Zulderp for sharing his adventures in Conan Exiles!
Boom & Militus: Shout out for Voices of Terminus show?

End of show Credits
Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 6 – Shiny New MMO Ideas

00:00 / 1:48:23

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 6
In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss …

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!
Intro
Contact Us (Tess)
Website: stopstandinginfire.com
Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com
Twitter: Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess
@DebuffThis
Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Tess – One Shot Boss
Phone Call, Texts, and Tweets
Nathan’s phone call: (Militus will play)

Tim’s phone call: (Boom will play)

Jon‏ @maeryk85
Is Pantheon looking like it’s going to have any kind of ‘talent tree’ system or ‘spec swapping’? I hope not.
PVP. Does EVERY MMO need PvP? Cause I’d be just fine if Pantheon teams spent those resources elsewhere. #PantheonPassionate
urgatorb8‏ @urgatorb8
Many spells are going to be upgradeable to epic skills via the perception system and perhaps other ways. Since this game is balanced around group play, do you think all such spell upgrades will be able to be acquired via group play or will they require raids in some cases?
Dewguard‏ @Dewguard
So I may have missed this but I would like to know about how loot will be handled… Will trash mons drop random magic items or only named mobs?

Segment 2: Moments of Zen – How did we spend our time gaming this week?
Tess – just skip me

Militus – Playing some Cleric in Neverwinter. Once you get beyond all the F2P garbage, it is a fun game. My Cleric is 52 and needs a few willing adventures to tackle some dungeons! Any takers?
My son also makes a proclamation about our show (as he we watching on his iPad last week when he should have been sleeping).

Boom – I played lots of Crackdown 3 which is just an amazing game. It is less serious GTA. The bad reviews are just haters, it is really a great polished play. As well as Tera that has been growing on me so much. I am almost max level in Tera. I am planning on rolling a healer next. I was told not to play Black Desert, so I am holding off, although it looks interesting to me.
Segment 3 News:
What Features Would You Like from an MMO?
We had a commenter on youtube ask us to talk about what features we might like to see in an MMO, possibly Pantheon. I thought this would be a cool “what if” sort of idea that I think we can talk about. I have been playing many MMO’s and I know that some of the features I like the most, as well as some clever stuff that I would like to see added.

Tess – You guys go first, i will add in.

Militus – Engrossing exploration and adventuring. No exclamation marks, no maps. I want an in-game map-drawing feature where I make my own treasure maps, and I want to be able to duplicate my maps and give them to my friends. 🙂

Dynamic spawns on the map and possibly group events like in GuildWars 2. This could be mediating content for those that did not have a full group of 6, but had 2-3 players.

Gear that is modified by base stats and that you keep… A LONG TIME. Maybe forever. For legendary gear, it should have a very long, difficulty path (ie… GW2), but the power level is horizontal, you would only get an appearance/effects of the weapon

Really nerdy, but “The Hall of Scientists.” A beautiful, large building in a neutral territory where those fascinated by the flora and fauna of Terminus come to share what they have learned and develop scientific tools. All races would be welcome there, no matter the faction problems. Example: So while adventuring, you find a new plant. The plant once discovered is NAMED in YOUR HONOR. Militus skunk weed. 🙂 You then research the plant at the Hall of Scientist and develop a new potion. Once you ‘level’ in Science, you get better field tools to discover even more about the plants and animals of Terminus. It was be awesome!

A Dwarf tavern that has player Brewmasters! The effects of drinking the ale would be 2 fold. A. You would get a bit dizzy and maybe your view alters, but you also get a buff to Constitution or health for example.

Boom – Favorite MMO Features: Tab Targeting, Lots of Options, Talent Trees, Strategic Ideas
Cool Ideas I would like to see in Pantheon: Tera has these gems that you equip in your gear, but the gems wear out. This creates the need to find and craft more of them. I love the concept of wearing out. I think it creates a purpose to crafting, a healthy economy and a reason to play.
Enchanting for Glowy coolness – Always liked this in WoW. I think that it would be cool if the enchants were super bright and then as time went on the enchants faded and you have to redo them.
Multi-Colored Mana/Resources – THis is right out of Magic the Gathering and ties into the idea that zones have different needs. So if you walk into a snow zone, your water mana would not work in the same way (freezing) so you might need to switch to something that involves warm (red mana, fire).
Limited resources – I think it would be cool if some of the wearoutable stuff was 100% crafted and that you sell them to vendors that resell them to the general populations. Vendors supplied by the player. But if the vendor runs out you are out of luck. There just isn’t enough of that resource. Maybe some minerals and plants only spawn in seasons. You can get winterbloom in winter, but not in the spring. Make the world alive. Seasonal Foods

My whole point with all of these is that your base stats would allow you to be able to participate in most content. All additional stuff would make you feel powerful and therefore would be what you would seek. But you might not get that stuff all the time. So one time you might all have a cold weather buff because of the season, but in the summer nobody would have that buff because it is out of supply and expired. So you either have to find another option, have the dungeon be more difficult or wait to run that in the winter when you are buffed up.

I love what GW2 did with the idea of a drop in raid, they just tried to sell it as regular content. If they would have called it drop in raiding people would have flocked to that.

Segment 3: Forums and Reddit
From Reddit, posted by PantheonPlus – Minus
Attack on Positivity and Content Creators
TLDR: We’re protecting trolls and downvote brigades while attacking content creators for being excited about Pantheon, in a Pantheon Subreddit. We’re allowing trolls to dictate topics, and labeling content creators unfairly due to fake accusations, claims of monetization, and basically people thinking they can do better. Does #communitymatter? Do we want to discourage people who want to talk positively about this game, and learn more about it?

Getting Soft with the Community
Nathan Napalm
Brad M.C. Quaid raps:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPX2erTWDYA&t=183s
In-combat meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EinyNm3W3so

BattleAxe Theatre
Talks Warrior – Def showcases his sword skills and kick abilities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pguLBVTasXw&t=76s

Chris Kane- Giants of Terminus – The Giganna. He talks girth. 🙂 2:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDVcLklH1GE

PantheonPlus- Minus and Heyah discuss the Wizard class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2LXmEbT6Gc

Support us by giving us a follow and sub on Twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/standinginfirepodcast
Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess @DebuffThis

Shout Outs
Shout out to Def of BattleAxe for my cameo!
VoT, Boom and I will be there this Friday.
End of show Credits
Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 5 – Pantheon Passionate brought to you by Dell OptiPlex

00:00 / 1:48:04

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 5
In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss Pantheon Feb. Newsletter, and community posts with special guest FRAGILE!!

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Top Ten List
Top Ten Pantheon Gnome Names for you to consider when getting started with the game.
Intro
Contact Us (Tess)
Website: stopstandinginfire.com
Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com
Twitter: Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess
@DebuffThis
Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Phone Call and Texts
Voice Mail from Beth Graham – (Bazgrim lmao hahahahhahahahahah) Militus: I will have audio for this later today. Nathan is at work, but will record something for me around 5pm.

Text from the 352 What do you guys think of only 12 abilities on hotbar inforcing a skill cap.

We have an email: Tim OConnell
Hey there Standing in Fire,
I love the show and the last episode really struck a nerve with me when you mentioned legacy board games. First off, modern board games are phenomenal!!! The art, presentations, components, cool mechanisms, etc. They have changed my life, and have converted this 100% lifelong video gamer into a 50% board gamer and 50% video gamer. My wife and I play board games 3 or 4 times a week at night after our kids go to bed. Check out boardgamegeek.com sometime. Anyway, if you are thinking about dipping into legacy style board games you might as well start with the king. I’m talking about Gloomhaven!!! My wife and I have been playing for months on end. It’s a 25 pound box of amazingly awesome dungeon crawling where you do events, level up, go shopping, fight a huge variety of monsters and eventually retire and open up a box containing a new character class. It’s got a branching story with almost 100 scenarios, half of which you probably won’t even see depending on the decisions you make. There is no dice, every turn is about selecting two cards from your hand and executing the moves on those cards. So it is both strategic and tactical depending on what both you, your teammates, and the monster AI cards show at the beginning of each round. Unfortunately, it is pricey, around $100-$110, but you get hundreds of hours of content in the box so you get your moneys worth. Keep up the awesome show and yes, every day brings us one day closer to the launch of Pantheon.
Segment 1: Fragile interview
Questions:
Why do you love the Monk class so much?
What inspired you to start making Youtube videos about Pantheon?
What is one moment in MMORPG gaming that was your MOST memorable/epic/emotional?
Where can people find your content/interact with you?
Segment 2: Moments of Zen – How did we spend our time gaming this week?
Tess – I played Gloomhaven! Hahaha, the email was too perfect. It made me really excited for the Legacy system. Unfortunately, Gloomhaven, itself, isn’t the legacy game for me. You have to really love the play of the game and Gloomhaven played a little slow for me, personally. The outside-of-crawl stuff, though (the stuff that makes it a Legacy game) was really, really fun. I want to try Seafall next, if I can find some people (and some time) to play it this next week.

Fragile –

Militus – Standing in Fire while healing in Vanguard. 🙂 Poor Fragile and I could not type setlevel GM command fast enough. LMAO

Boom – Level 60 in Tera. I am crushing it! This is the first game I have played in a while where I fully plan on rolling additional classes. I want to heal, I want to DPS, I want to do it all. Amazing fun. I had to get past the early stages of the game, but now it is fantastic. Highly recommend.
Segment 3: Letter from Developers
Intro

Under Wraps – Ben Dean
Not much in this section at all. There are some nice screenshots of architecture from Faerthale.

Behind the Design – Joppa
Atmospheres (obstacles) you could encounter as you explore Terminus:
   • Silencing Mists
   • Fog of Confusion
   • Gloom
   • Frenetic Floor
   • Curse of Intangibility
   • Heavy Air
   • Shifting Walls
Let’s take a closer look at one of these (details subject to change, of course):
Gloom
The Gloom atmosphere can be found permeating most Undead ruins, crypts, graveyards… places with a high concentration of Undead. This particular Atmosphere impacts players negatively and Undead non-player characters (NPCs) positively while in its area of effect.
Negative Effects on Players
   • Drains Mana over time
   • Reduces healing effectiveness
   • Increases damage inflicted by Undead enemies
Positive Effects on Undead
   • Bonus to all stats
   • Increases Aggro and Assist radius

By seeking and acquiring Artifacts. Artifacts are legendary rare items players can discover that offer unique utility. They are necessary to explore and overcome areas of the game where Atmospheres exist.

Q & A with Brad McQuaid
Q: Have you ever reached out to or considered working with a game publisher? If the right opportunity arose, would you take it?
A: We talk with publishers, investors, etc. all the time. Along with the crowdfunding we’ve received, we will also need further investment and/or support from publishers and investors which would allow us to accelerate. That said, we are a fiercely independent company, lean and mean, and this has been part of our culture since the project’s inception. What we are looking for, more accurately, are “partners”. What those partners are isn’t as important to us as who they are. Do they share our vision? Will they allow us to control the company and the game from a strategic and creative standpoint? Does Visionary Realms’ culture mesh well with these other entities? That’s what’s most important to us and what we think will ultimately allow us to release an amazing game. Compromise is the enemy of excellence.

Community Spotlight
Dorotea appears to be like a lot of us… altoholoics. LOL She seems to be another fantastic community member!
Biggest takeaways from the Feb. Newsletter?
No PRE-ALPHA dates announced. What has changed since August of last year?

Getting Soft with the Community
Fragile talks leveling in Pantheon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj63DJkDCB4

Nathan Napalm
Why we have to wait for Alpha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYQzlZfeX0
Terminus, creative freedom of VR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo6kANGs1fY

Bazgrim
Talks with Devs about Alpha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWoEXiM4laA

VoT talked with Joe Leonard & Beardsage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdKYAVK9eEw

PantheonPlus vs. BattleAxeTheatre battle over tanks! Def, where was the blood? 🙂 jk. – Mila
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bzPlimvJ7I&t=70s

Chris Kane- The First Wanderers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN709ld4F64&t=49s

Minus
Did some vids(I have not watched them yet)

Mention all this stuff can be found on Pantheon.plus

Support us by giving us a follow and sub on Twitch!

https://www.twitch.tv/standinginfirepodcast
Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess @DebuffThis

Shout Outs
End of show Credits
Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 4 – Flippity Flappies

00:00 / 1:36:09

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 4

In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss Pantheon hopes, gaming Moments of Zen, and community posts with special guest NATHAN NAPALM!!

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Intro

Website: stopstandinginfire.com

Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com

Twitter: Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess

@DebuffThis

Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Phone Call and Texts

We have one phone call. Should be a good one.

QUICK NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT:

BazgrimTV‏ @BazgrimTV

Just a friendly reminder that the @PantheonMMOnewsletter will not be released today as it is now being released on the 3rd Wednesday of each month instead of the 2nd. So the next one will be a week from today, the 20th #MMORPG#TrustInPantheon

So, next week we will be talking the newsletter! 🙂

Segment 1: Nathan Napalm interview

Questions:

What is the story behind your epic intro to each video?
Is that you and your wife singing at the end of each video? I love it! – Miltus

Of ALL your videos, which ONE would you point someone considering Pantheon to and why?

What race are you leaning toward in Pantheon? What Class? Why?

Where can people find your content or interact with your show?

Segment 2: Moments of Zen – How did we spend our time gaming this week?

Tess – Played like 5 Minutes in Vangurad. I played D&D as usual and tried out “legacy” board games. The one I wanted to try was Betrayal Legacy, but instead I tried Gloomhaven. The “legacy” style board game game is interesting and fun, but would you guys shell out $60 for a “single use” board game?

Nathan –

Militus – Vanguard to the MAX! Bahaha. I raided in Wow on Tuesday, and honestly, it felt like someone had punched me in the nuts the entire time after hearing about the layoffs. I think I am just going to take my 15 bucks and give it to Visionary Realms instead of subbing to WoW. I no longer believe in huge, corporate publishers. I think I will be backing niche, indie games from here on out.

Boom – Tess doesn’t talk to us anymore except on Wednesdays. Vanguard play was the highlight of my week playing with 8-9 people was a hoot on Sunday. And then I made level 40 in Tera. You can only pick girls as gunnar class and so I made mine look exactly like my wife only some of the physical attributes are enhanced, as they are in that game. But now when my wife watches me play Tera she can’t tease me because it is her.

Segment 3: REDDIT / Forums

$5 forum access? Posted by ak74907

Why would they charge $5 for forum access? Wouldn’t they want people on the forums fostering community?

Pantheon Forums
Any updates on if next phase? By Deathwish
is going to be another pre Alpha being rolled out or it will be Alpha next? Any word on an estimated date when either may be planned?

Jonesing for a new gameplay stream after November, this silence is killing me.

https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/10074/any-updates-on-if-next-phase/view/post_id/193174

Several posts discussed the concept of ‘Take your time and get it right…”

But also…

“reminds me of something i heard when i was in the military: take your time. you only get one shot, but if you take too long you’ll miss the only shot you’ll get.” – stellarmind

“Don’t go full Blizzard, nobody goes full Blizzard” – Boomtap

Others stated they expect 2019 to be entirely pre-alpha and up to PA8-10ish. Yikes. 🙁
What are our thoughts about these competing positions regarding alpha release?

Boom – Get the game moving in 2019. With the big guy down for the count the time to move is now before companies regroup and come in like a MMO hurricane.

Segment 4: Getting Soft with the Community

Nathan Napalm talks server rules (server pop, rule sets, server tech, balancing, ect.) MOAR REALMS! 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=71&v=b0zXBNjMjiQ

Nathan Naplam helps train us to become DPS GODS… as Dr. Dre! Nice rap, man! The unicorn mount..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvWCmaMmm8w

Battle Axe Theatre – Community Love!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5SCSZYcPL8&t=213s

Chris Kane – (The Seed and the Wyrm) (Mila has a great idea about Chris’s work)

Pantheon.Plus (Minus and some scrub talk Warrior)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQRQ82mcirQ&t=169s

Joe Leonard breaks down Druid and compares to classic EQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU4rXFss4O0

Voices of Terminus had Minus on their podcast last week and Leksur was in a great mood! 🙂

Shout Outs

To all the people shit canned from Blizzard. Sorry to all of you, that sucks so much.

Tess: Shout out to all my Pantheon Gaming Ladies! I love seeing all you lending your voice to the growth of this community!

Support us by giving us a follow and sub on Twitch!
– https://www.twitch.tv/standinginfirepodcast
Reach out to us as a show @sifpodcast, Boom at @boomtaplive, Militus @OldMilitus, or Tess @DebuffThis

End of show Credits

Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 3 – Evil Murder Death Hobos

00:00 / 1:36:09

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 3 – Evil Murder Death Hobos

In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss the psychology of gaming identiy, community spotlights and … SPECIAL GUEST PANTHEON PLUS! Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Intro

Website: stopstandinginfire.com

Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com

Twitter: @sifpodcast

Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Message by (206) 817-9931: Hey guys love the podcast. Was listening to episode one and was like where have I heard Militus before. WILDSTAR!! So fun. Draq – Skar Rogue, Thursday, January 31 2019, 5:24 PM

more_vert

Introducing Minus from Pantheon.Plus

Segment 1: The Psychology of class identify in Pantheon & our community

Whether in the forums reddit, Youtube, or other sources of information, it is often observed that those in the Pantheon community appear to demonstrate self concept clarity. That is, the extent to which people are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, the nature of their personalities, and where they stand on important attitudes and values. Internal consistency and stability are key aspects of this construct.

A study by the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace investigated young adults in Croatia (509 young adult (M = 23.14, SD = 4.66)) and revealed that Problematic online gaming was positively correlated with social, competition, coping, fantasy and escape motives for playing online video games, and negatively with self-concept clarity.

https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/9534/9083

Problematic behavior is related to proposed criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder in the DSM-V.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201407/internet-gaming-disorder-in-dsm-5

http://www.academia.edu/10389338/Why_do_you_play_The_development_of_the_motives_for_online_gaming_questionnaire_MOGQ_ (27 item questionnaire)

Bottom line is when you identify with a class, accept your strengths & weaknesses, your personality aligns with your class, and your class/race attitude/values align, you demonstrate self-concept clarity and you less likely to demonstrate problematic online gaming.

So, when you think about which Race/Class combo you will play in Patheon, are the strengths/weaknesses, attitudes, and values congruent between the class/race you pick and the way you think about yourself (self-concept)? Do you feel as though you demonstrate self-concept clarity?

Segment 2: Meet Ben “Kilsin” Walters (interview from 2016… dated, but good)

From the moment I found this game, the first gamer-tag I found was Kilsin. Ben was kind and welcoming when I first contacted him in the forums. He reminds me quite a great deal of Troy Hewitt, former community manager with Wildstar. He made a few statements in previou interviews I thought were meaningful and we should discuss:

Communities make or break games! – Goddamn right, Ben! Love this!
https://youtu.be/9DP4FhcELNM?t=57

Class interdepence is key! Feeling of being ‘needed’ and ‘wanted’ in groups. It is amazing that VR can do this with SO MANY classes 12, soon to be 14.
https://youtu.be/2ivNk1gLdng?t=362

Listen to how he describes the VR dev team working relationship:
https://youtu.be/gQUKBhHXuQQ?t=435

Segment 3: Getting Soft with the Community

We love the Pantheon community! What content caught our eye this past week?

Monk video from Fragile! It is cool, I learned a lot. Especially about FD split pulling. I hope all classes have a singular, identifying ability like FD. – Mila
https://youtu.be/qdfrvmkcQfo Sweet animation in the intro!

Fragile also released a Raid & Loot video!

PantheonPlus break down the Paladin tank class. “Former clerics… you are damn right. We don’t have no time for tanks in our healing order” – Militus, the devout Cleric
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3TLZzwZRqs

BattleAxe talks problems with modern MMOs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=698&v=85LDM01Hl40

Bazgrim’s 5 minute Lore Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJSOt6nOBG4

Shout Outs

End of show Credits

Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 2 – Koltrane vs. Boom Supreme VO Showdown of Excellence and Danger

00:00 / 1:34:11

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: Episode 2

In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss ….

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Week 1 Community Question results (Which race?): 1. Halfling, 2. Archai, 3. Elf.

Week 2 Community Question: If you had to play a HEALING class, which would you find most intriguing in Pantheon:Rise of the Fallen? http://www.strawpoll.me/17335930

National Inane Answering Message Day

Intro

Website: stopstandinginfire.com

Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com

Twitter: @sifpodcast

Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Segment 1: Factions in Pantehon

1. Factions/Alignment from the Wiki: https://pantheonriseofthefallen.gamepedia.com/Faction

Factions are a measure of how others in the game world will view your character. These will run the spectrum between an NPC considering you as an ally to NPCs who will Kill you on sight (KOS). They will be important in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Races will have specific factions at creation and evil races such as the Ogre, Skar, and Dark Myr will have a hard time getting close to good race cities. This is not set in stone, however, as you can adjust your faction and alignment through your actions in the game world; you could betray your home or default factions.

Tess–I love this. Talk about open-ended gameplay. 4 talking points:

Alignment is different from faction, though. Alignment is like going dark or light side in SWtOR. Faction is going Horde or Alliance. So imagine playing a super evil human warlock who decides to toss the finger at the Alliance and joining Sylvanas’ army, or playing a highly-moral Tauren druid who defects to Ironforge after the burning of Darnassus.
What would REALLY make this game fun is the ability to change faction after a big upheaval event LIKE the burning of Darnassus. You play one faction for years and then they do something that you really don’t agree with and BAM, you can defect.
Also a note on alignment: in D&D, Fable, and SWtOR, alignment CAN dictate what gear you can use or even what spells/abilities can do to you.
I think this is great fun, because you may not be able to tell if an NPC or PC is evil or good. Some classes will probably have tools to tell, but not all. How cool would it be to pick up a quest not knowing you’re being duped into doing something terrible by the NPC??

Segment 2:

Age of Seclusion Simplified:

Very simple because I didn’t do it.

Segment 3: MILITUS REDDIT / Forums

Do people want a Pure Archer class in an MMO? Or am I on my own here? By SkeletonJack on Reddit

For years now I’ve wanted an archer class in an MMO. But I never see one. Rangers in EQ are like that now, but they were originally a melee class, that eventually got moments of being an archer, and then eventually now in Live are actually an archer class. But it missed the mark for me years ago because it was a melee class then.

I didn’t want to play a Hunter in WoW because it was a pet class. So when GW2 rolled around I went to Ranger, but was ultimately disenfranchised with it being a pet class and swapped to a Warrior so I could go primary Rifle, which was still sub-optimal for most of GW2. In DAoC even though I was a Ranger, I always had to swap over to melee when mobs closed on me…

I’m sure there’s some MMO out there that had an Archer class and I missed it. I’m just always confused as to why games never want to go down with a physical ranged DPS class while offering multiple spell casting options. I’m not against the idea of other things being tacked on like an Arcane Archer (D&D) or a Demon Hunter (Diablo 3), the theme/fantasy is largely unimportant to me. I just want to be shooting some people from range with a bow without a pet or being forced into melee combat. Hell, I’d even use a rifle if I must since that’s become a popular cross fantasy trope now.

So does anyone have any thoughts as to why ranged physical classes don’t make it into MMO’s without having an added/forced niche added on to them?Hunters in WoW have pets. Rangers in Pantheon are melee/ranged hybrids. Rangers in DAoC were ranged, but forced melee in close range. Rangers in GW2 are pet classes. And so on…

Poll:Do you want a Pure Archer class in MMO’s?

Tess–ESO (nightblade), SWtoR (smuggler/imperial agents), and GW2 theif>elite spec of deadeye (i don’t think it’s fair to include gw2 in this as elite specs COMPLETELY change playstyle and ranger is not the ranged dps-non-pet) have all done this. I’m sure there is a way, to,, but as an original wow hunter…. Why again? Wow hunter morphed away from beast so you could do the whole sniper thing, but leveling non-BM is hard. I’d like the option to level or solo with a pet and then go snipe in a group

Pantheon Form Post by Nephele
Crafter’s Roundtable: Limits on Selling Items

We don’t know how buying and selling will work in Pantheon yet, but the team has said that they are leaning towards the concept of regional markets, as well as allowing players a method to sell while offline. Today’s question is around what limits should be in place in the eventual system. Limits are potentially important to help insure that people with extreme amounts of time to spend in game aren’t able to monopolize the market and drive out other players who might want to participate. Should sellers be limited in the number of items they can put up for sale at one time, or should the price of those items be capped in some way? Should sellers be able to travel and post items for sale in different regions, or should they be restricted to just one? What limits make sense and what would feel too restrictive?
http://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/9944/crafter-s-roundtable-limits-on-selling-items/view/post_id/191917

Segment 4: Community Matters

Visionary Realms Tweet: Pantheon‏ @PantheonMMO Jan 24

What has been your characters biggest downfall or fail in any MMORPG you have played? #MMORPG #communitymatters

Militus: My biggest downfall has been letting my friends down by lacking leadership from my character in guild decisions that led to splits of the guild and/or complete losses of friendships that should have endured BEYOND any one MMO.
Boom:

Tess:

We love the Pantheon community! What content caught our eye this past week?

Nathan Napalm discusses raid mechanics based on Dev comments from Twitchcon 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TWfV2Yd8U
Mobs will react to try and zerging bosses (open world). Boss might call adds, boss might just peace out and leave.
Atmosphere system (rain could augment abilities like lightning abilities)
Mechanics to lock groups into content, like doors closing, but NO INSTANCES.

Monk video from Fragile! It is cool, I learned a lot.

Koltrane/Boom Voice over Throw Down – Battle of the Archai

Shout Outs

End of show Credits

Jeremy W www.oak-production.com

Episode 1 Pantheon Rise of the Fallen Welcome to the Community!

00:00 / 1:30:12

Standing In Fire – Pantheon Edition: E1 – Welcome to the community!

In which Tess, Militus, and Boom discuss Pantheon lore and news!

Join us and call in at 702-625-1337 or tweet us @sifpodcast!

Week 1 Community Question: http://www.strawpoll.me/17291971

Intro

Website: stopstandinginfire.com

Email: stopstandinginfire@gmail.com

Twitter: @sifpodcast

Phone: (Tess Jingle)

Segment 1: Who we are and Why we are making this show!

Why the title, “Standing in Fire” – Well, we believe in having fun in MMOs. Community and relationships are key principles to us as gamers. That being said, if you were to run a dungeon with us, there is a distinct chance after the first few cocktails, that you would observe us laughing & having a good time and that one of us would indeed be standing in the fire. Bahaha.

Our show is about having fun, building the Pantheon community, sharing news, and spreading the word about the amazing game!

Introduction to Pantheon

Quick Overview of Game Tennants : https://www.pantheonmmo.com/game/game_tenets/

Quick Minute of Background about the World:

Terminus used to be called Nhystyrrok and at some point Aevozul. (Rok’Nhilthamos made an agreement with an unknown power to create the Dragon Accord and rename Aevozul to Terminus.)

The Reignborn are dragons that controlled Terminus until a beast (maybe not a dragon) killed off most of the dragons of air and sea.

Terminus has a secret that nobody knows, but everybody seems to be searching for.

The Sacred Six were ripped from their native realms and brought to Terminus by an unknown force. The six races are not the only races on Terminus, but are the ones that were brought to the planet this way.

Some of the Terminus natives are the Tholen and the Elvonnen Giants. The Tholen created the calendar IH.

There is a cult of dragon seekers “The Sect of Perth” that are searching for the dragons that left when the Reignborn chilled out a while back. Most of those dragons are thought to be in a deep sleep that can last centuries.

Potential Release, predicted release, Pre-Alpha/Alpha/Beta information

How you can support the game: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/join/

Check out this from Saerain on Reddit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QIcSmo4GhcWMOBjfNdb8Lcyea6KJHve-zqZbgt2v_rU/edit

Document outlines all the happenings in the lore very concise. It will be posted in the show notes.

Segment 2: News/Topic

Story 1. Pantheon January Newsletter is up! https://pantheonmmo.com/newsletter/2019_january_intro/
- Q&A with Ross Armstrong (new lead animator). Ross drops the statement that, “our intention is to have race specific animations,” but also states in the interview that “Pantheon has an aggressive production schedule and there’s a ton of animation assets to create” when asked about the biggest challenge? Thoughts”
  - Militus – on one hand, I am excited about the diversity, but I am honestly surprised. I guess with Pantheon being crowdfunded, this would be on the back burner.
  - Tess – I have a feeling that there will be some things like race/ability animations they may not have ready for official launch, and that’s ok by me.
  - Boom – First of all Ross worked on Marvel Heroes as Lead Animator which is an amazing game. So I feel that Pantheon is in good hands. Animation is a lot of work. And for them to have race specific is great, but I prefer that the classes operate in an engaging way over having the races having slight changes. A good game can be text based.
    - Ross used the word “Feel Right” a couple of times and I think that is the most important aspect. I remember playing Wildstar early on and the animations felt disconnected from the environment (still think they are a little that way). I care less about how they move and more about how it feels.
Story 2. Visionary Realms is hiring a Visual Effects Artist, Web Developer, Designer Development Operations Engineer https://twitter.com/PantheonMMO/status/1085957872440262658
- Tess–Love to see they are hiring and expanding when other companies are downsizing
Story 3. Chris Kane releases AMAZING voice over discussing the halflings race in Pantheon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U5RZHCe4nY&t=

Segment 3: MILITUS REDDIT / Forums

REDDIT: Playing a social MMO without voice chat?. Posted by mitaya

Everything about this game sounds awesome to me and I’m ready to pledge. There’s just one thing that I want to ask the community before I do. I do have APD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_processing_disorder ) and listening to any voice chat is very stressful to me. So I try to play games that can be played without it most of the time (the occasional raid with voice chat is fine). PUG groups with voice chat or guilds mostly talking there would not be fun to me. Disabling it ingame is not a solution because I really like the social part of MMO’s and love to talk in guild chats and even PUGs. It’s the big thing about MMO’s for me. Do you people think I would mostly feel left out in this game? Especially regarding PUGs. (I think I may be able to find a guild with people committed to text chat because I read all the posts in the forums about the voice/text chat topic and saw there’s quite a bunch of people who don’t like voice chat at all. So I could try to join a guild with them). So yeh… PUG play is what this question is mostly about. I don’t wanna feel left out there 😮

Opinions?

2. Pantheon Forums: Should Bards do damage? By Barin999

Singing songs and playing instruments is something that happens in an area of effect or within a certain range. So for me, bards would hardly have any single target abilities within the lyrical or instrumental range. Songs and other music is hardly damaging, unless it’s played extremely loud. So, I’ll grant them that one type. To me, it can boost ‘moral’ and abilities of others or debuff foes in similar fashion. With this type of damage, possibly being mental damage, should Pantheon open up this damage type or not at all? Buffs influencing the group, is something again affecting all within range. Should bards be able to buff a single target? How would you explain that? Debuffs have the same issue. One sing or play a demoralizing tune, but it would impact all mobs within range (even beyond the linked mobs in that group). I could see how a charm or lullaby could impact a single foe, but still. If single damage is hardly possible using this style of abilities. Perhaps bards would have other tools/means to damage foes. Such as a ranged weapon or melee weapons. https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/9945/should-bards-do-damage

Tess–Ok, guys, hold my beer. First, understand that when we talk some of these classes, I will be examining them through the lens of D&D. Based on some of the alignment/perception systems they allude to, I think that looking at some D&D influence isn’t crazy, but Wizards is not (as far as I’m aware) involved with Pantheon, so there will assuredly be changes to the system to avoid copyright infringement.

Bards are magic users, like a wizard or a cleric. The difference is instead of a wand or a prayer book, their arcane focus is an instrument. So once you put aside the “realism” of some guy playing a flute and making someone’s head explode, life gets much easier. It’s not real, it’s not physics, it’s magic. And magic cheats. Bard Extraordinaire didn’t just play a flute and the sound made some guy’s head explode, Bard Extraordinaire cast a spell through the flute. But if you want to think more realism we can try. If you look at the four damage-dealing spells for a 1st level D&D bard, two are AOE (like you play a metal power chord on your lyre and cause an earthquake), and two are single-target psychic damage spells (like a frontman wagging his eyebrows at some groupie in the front row and she faints). The buffs and defuffs work similarly, as does D&D bards’ class specialty, cutting words and bardic inspiration. Cutting Words is like an interrupt in video games: Mr. Baddie swings at someone, Bard Extrordinaire distracts him with a perfectly timed arpeggio or wailed money note, and Mr. Baddie might miss. Bardic Inspiration works like a one-use buff for something crazy important: Ms. Party Member is about to do something very hard, Bard Extrordinaire gives her a thumbs up and shouts, “You can do it!”, and Ms. Party Member thinks, “Wow, if someone as cool as Bard Extraordinaire thinks I can do it, I bet I can!” and has a higher chance of succeeding. So the answer for this is “Yes, Bards should be able to do all kinds of damage, and also single target because, in the end, bards are the coolest. Oh, and magic.”

Speaking of Bards, they are listed as a “stretch goal” addition, but I couldn’t find anything that spoke of the likelihood of that stretch. Is it a time thing? A money thing? Any ideas?

Segment 4: Community Matters

We love the Pantheon community! What content caught our eye this past week?

PantheonPlus guys breakdown the enchanter! https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1142&v=4APMVnZAz8A
Bazgrim introduces a new format: BazFlash! https://twitter.com/BazgrimTV/status/1085701995200241664
Joe Leonard Claps Back at Asmongold trashing Pantheon on stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQXwExHYPGQ&t=1050s

Shout Outs

Militus – Shout out to Joe Leonard in his video for using the term and concept of cognitive dissonance! You rock man! Also, to Mojorizen ty for the friend request on the forums.

End of show Credits

Jeremy W www.oak-production.com