Finally something to look forward to again!

Locithon · July 2014

fyi: Brad's new "team" mainly consists of a fat crazy-religious family who cobbled together a bible MMO that nobody's heard of.

MrMelGibson · July 2014

Originally posted by Locithon
fyi: Brad's new "team" mainly consists of a fat crazy-religious family who cobbled together a bible MMO that nobody's heard of.

The thing is, adult fairy tales would probably make for a decent mmo. After all, make believe makes great gaming ideas.

Akulas · July 2014

Same as EQ1 even looks like EQ1 too.

Azoth · July 2014

Originally posted by BeckAltarr
I wonder which it really is Brad.

You claim all the information about financials is half-truths and lies. Yet you admit that people who know the financials released that information so it must be true. You can't have it both ways. Either the facts are you or did not take $45k for yourself as an advance which was posted on your official site and posted officially on the Pantheon FB page, advance means for future work not yet done, or you paid yourself a industry salary for a crowd funded game with no guarantee of funding. If it is not true, then why did you ask Frenzic to do it and admit to someone else you asked them to do it? Are you usually into sabotaging your own work?

Either you did pay all the original team everything you were contracted to do or you didn't. You claim you paid them but then why do you need to go buy all these Unity licenses? Some of your old team would have had to buy them. Didn't you pay them back for that? If so, then wouldn't you have those licenses or is it like they have said and you never paid them so they kept the licenses? The only one I see spouting half truths is you. You can't even keep your own story straight.

What about going back to your original development team after they told you they would not work for you anymore and you asked for money back that you paid them for work done? Is that a rumor too?

You claim you have spent months looking for investors. I counted about 45 days or so not including Weekends or even Fridays for the period in which you claimed to be hard at it looking for investors. At a minimum of 2 meetings a day for someone like yourself who you claim is highly motivated to find investment that's at least 90 people/groups. You couldn't get 1 of them... oh, sorry, you did get 1 of them to give you $25k with a promise of $200K+ more before their Trust fund people said no, the investment wasn't a good one. By now you have likely talked with EVERY potential investor in your area and beyond who you thought you had the best chances with. If those people don't have faith in your ability to make Pantheon Profitable why then should I or others keep giving you our few dollars a month?

You claimed in April when you had your interview with us that you had "an impressive demo" that you were sure would satisfy any investor as to the validity of your project. Now we see you back at square 1 with nothing actually created. You take unity assets, place them like Lego and claim it is an original work in progress and you plan on just changing the skins. No matter how you dress a pig, it's still a pig.

Not to take anything away from your team of volunteer amateurs, but that is what they are, by your own admission.

What about your Financial Advisor Friend Chris, who you gave $20k to? Was that to pay off your bills to him or to invest and grow for your future? He has a portfolio worth about a Billion dollars. You know when you own financial investor friend wont risk money investing in you, you have nothing and everyone else who is a legitimate investor I think knows this too.

How much is your web hosting costing you? We know who your web host is and how you got your web hosting. We also have very very strong suspicions that you are getting your web hosting for free (Source Rerolled) yet you had a good month where you claimed all income was going to maintain the web site while development was halted.

You already had a world map, even a zone map and a ton of lore. Why are you redacting all of that work already done and "paid for"? Yes, you paid the original team something, but it wasn't everything and on that they all have agreed. Why did you contract out your friends in the first place? Why didn't you make them all equal partners in the project? As a crowd funded game why don't open your books like RSI has to the community and let us be the judges of the truth?

It's smoke and mirrors. I have asked you a lot of questions and you have answered very few of them. I have given you an open forum on K-TAM to talk with people and you haven't. You wait until all the previous dev's have moved on to now pull your head out of the sand looking for the all clear. K-TAM still represents a portion of the gaming community following this project who have questions about your ability to do anything positive for this project going forward. Your name has no value. What about brad McQuaid other than your name brings any value to this project? The Concept of Pantheon was not even yours to begin with. It was Tony Vhalen Garcia's. You just co-opted it like you do everything it seems. Your vision is not even your own.

I am glad I got my money back.

Is the company bankrupt ? If the contracts were not fulfilled wouldn't those people have a legal claim to the money ?

satora54 · July 2014

Originally posted by BeckAltarr
I wonder which it really is Brad.

You claim all the information about financials is half-truths and lies. Yet you admit that people who know the financials released that information so it must be true. You can't have it both ways. Either the facts are you or did not take $45k for yourself as an advance which was posted on your official site and posted officially on the Pantheon FB page, advance means for future work not yet done, or you paid yourself a industry salary for a crowd funded game with no guarantee of funding. If it is not true, then why did you ask Frenzic to do it and admit to someone else you asked them to do it? Are you usually into sabotaging your own work?

Either you did pay all the original team everything you were contracted to do or you didn't. You claim you paid them but then why do you need to go buy all these Unity licenses? Some of your old team would have had to buy them. Didn't you pay them back for that? If so, then wouldn't you have those licenses or is it like they have said and you never paid them so they kept the licenses? The only one I see spouting half truths is you. You can't even keep your own story straight.

What about going back to your original development team after they told you they would not work for you anymore and you asked for money back that you paid them for work done? Is that a rumor too?

You claim you have spent months looking for investors. I counted about 45 days or so not including Weekends or even Fridays for the period in which you claimed to be hard at it looking for investors. At a minimum of 2 meetings a day for someone like yourself who you claim is highly motivated to find investment that's at least 90 people/groups. You couldn't get 1 of them... oh, sorry, you did get 1 of them to give you $25k with a promise of $200K+ more before their Trust fund people said no, the investment wasn't a good one. By now you have likely talked with EVERY potential investor in your area and beyond who you thought you had the best chances with. If those people don't have faith in your ability to make Pantheon Profitable why then should I or others keep giving you our few dollars a month?

You claimed in April when you had your interview with us that you had "an impressive demo" that you were sure would satisfy any investor as to the validity of your project. Now we see you back at square 1 with nothing actually created. You take unity assets, place them like Lego and claim it is an original work in progress and you plan on just changing the skins. No matter how you dress a pig, it's still a pig.

Not to take anything away from your team of volunteer amateurs, but that is what they are, by your own admission.

What about your Financial Advisor Friend Chris, who you gave $20k to? Was that to pay off your bills to him or to invest and grow for your future? He has a portfolio worth about a Billion dollars. You know when you own financial investor friend wont risk money investing in you, you have nothing and everyone else who is a legitimate investor I think knows this too.

How much is your web hosting costing you? We know who your web host is and how you got your web hosting. We also have very very strong suspicions that you are getting your web hosting for free (Source Rerolled) yet you had a good month where you claimed all income was going to maintain the web site while development was halted.

You already had a world map, even a zone map and a ton of lore. Why are you redacting all of that work already done and "paid for"? Yes, you paid the original team something, but it wasn't everything and on that they all have agreed. Why did you contract out your friends in the first place? Why didn't you make them all equal partners in the project? As a crowd funded game why don't open your books like RSI has to the community and let us be the judges of the truth?

It's smoke and mirrors. I have asked you a lot of questions and you have answered very few of them. I have given you an open forum on K-TAM to talk with people and you haven't. You wait until all the previous dev's have moved on to now pull your head out of the sand looking for the all clear. K-TAM still represents a portion of the gaming community following this project who have questions about your ability to do anything positive for this project going forward. Your name has no value. What about brad McQuaid other than your name brings any value to this project? The Concept of Pantheon was not even yours to begin with. It was Tony Vhalen Garcia's. You just co-opted it like you do everything it seems. Your vision is not even your own.

I am glad I got my money back

Implying anyone cares about or reads K-TAM.

He explained it, you don't want to hear it.

We get it, move on.

Dihoru · July 2014

We have allot of unknowns claiming things with no proof of identity...I am neutral here but something smells rotten when I see people not state identity and back it up with sources but then attack someone who is known and verified.

winter · July 2014

Originally posted by BeckAltarr
I wonder which it really is Brad.

You claim all the information about financials is half-truths and lies. Yet you admit that people who know the financials released that information so it must be true. You can't have it both ways. Either the facts are you or did not take $45k for yourself as an advance which was posted on your official site and posted officially on the Pantheon FB page, advance means for future work not yet done, or you paid yourself a industry salary for a crowd funded game with no guarantee of funding. If it is not true, then why did you ask Frenzic to do it and admit to someone else you asked them to do it? Are you usually into sabotaging your own work?

Either you did pay all the original team everything you were contracted to do or you didn't. You claim you paid them but then why do you need to go buy all these Unity licenses? Some of your old team would have had to buy them. Didn't you pay them back for that? If so, then wouldn't you have those licenses or is it like they have said and you never paid them so they kept the licenses? The only one I see spouting half truths is you. You can't even keep your own story straight.

What about going back to your original development team after they told you they would not work for you anymore and you asked for money back that you paid them for work done? Is that a rumor too?

You claim you have spent months looking for investors. I counted about 45 days or so not including Weekends or even Fridays for the period in which you claimed to be hard at it looking for investors. At a minimum of 2 meetings a day for someone like yourself who you claim is highly motivated to find investment that's at least 90 people/groups. You couldn't get 1 of them... oh, sorry, you did get 1 of them to give you $25k with a promise of $200K+ more before their Trust fund people said no, the investment wasn't a good one. By now you have likely talked with EVERY potential investor in your area and beyond who you thought you had the best chances with. If those people don't have faith in your ability to make Pantheon Profitable why then should I or others keep giving you our few dollars a month?

You claimed in April when you had your interview with us that you had "an impressive demo" that you were sure would satisfy any investor as to the validity of your project. Now we see you back at square 1 with nothing actually created. You take unity assets, place them like Lego and claim it is an original work in progress and you plan on just changing the skins. No matter how you dress a pig, it's still a pig.

Not to take anything away from your team of volunteer amateurs, but that is what they are, by your own admission.

What about your Financial Advisor Friend Chris, who you gave $20k to? Was that to pay off your bills to him or to invest and grow for your future? He has a portfolio worth about a Billion dollars. You know when you own financial investor friend wont risk money investing in you, you have nothing and everyone else who is a legitimate investor I think knows this too.

How much is your web hosting costing you? We know who your web host is and how you got your web hosting. We also have very very strong suspicions that you are getting your web hosting for free (Source Rerolled) yet you had a good month where you claimed all income was going to maintain the web site while development was halted.

You already had a world map, even a zone map and a ton of lore. Why are you redacting all of that work already done and "paid for"? Yes, you paid the original team something, but it wasn't everything and on that they all have agreed. Why did you contract out your friends in the first place? Why didn't you make them all equal partners in the project? As a crowd funded game why don't open your books like RSI has to the community and let us be the judges of the truth?

It's smoke and mirrors. I have asked you a lot of questions and you have answered very few of them. I have given you an open forum on K-TAM to talk with people and you haven't. You wait until all the previous dev's have moved on to now pull your head out of the sand looking for the all clear. K-TAM still represents a portion of the gaming community following this project who have questions about your ability to do anything positive for this project going forward. Your name has no value. What about brad McQuaid other than your name brings any value to this project? The Concept of Pantheon was not even yours to begin with. It was Tony Vhalen Garcia's. You just co-opted it like you do everything it seems. Your vision is not even your own.

I am glad I got my money back.

Wow just wow!

Put on the flame suite the diehard fanbois are gonna be after you!

Comaf · July 2014

Originally posted by sirphobos
A game with no budget that is being developed by Brad McQuaid and a handful of amateur, volunteer developers. What could possibly go wrong?

Let's hope things work out. There's so LITTLE on the horizon in regards to any attempt at anything other than the fluff we've been fed in the last decade of so called big titles.

Comaf · July 2014

Originally posted by Aradune
Originally posted by MrMelGibson
Originally posted by Aradune
Originally posted by MrMelGibson
Originally posted by azzamasin
I sincerely hope this project gets off the ground not because I want to play I or I think it will be successful but because I think it will show the world and more importantly show the old school EQ playerbase that it was in fact their rose tinted glasses that clouded their judgment. But some may stick around but for the rest of us I'm hopeful that some elements of old school MMO design should be left in past.

The only problem is that I doubt these people would actually admit to the fact afterwards. But, I do agree with you. I don't really have a big opinion on the guy. From what i've read though. I have to say he is a shady guy.

Put aside Vanguard and everything else for a second. The fact that he had the balls to pay himself a 3 month advance. Yet, not pay his employees anything is pretty strange and almost criminal. Whoever supports this guy and his projects in the future. I hope you think about what his done to people in the past.

I haven't posted much on this, but this more recent rumor that I paid my team 'nothing' needs to be addressed:

1. The original team were absolutely compensated. They were contract workers, and each month they would be assigned tasks and the amount they would receive in compensation was right there, in their contract, as an exhibit. They knew how much money they were going to make for that month.

2. The vast majority of the money we raised via crowdfunding went to the team. I am not going to post dollar amounts in regards to what I or anyone on the team received.

3. We worked on this game from September 2013 until the disagreement re: funds occurred in April, 2014. So the amount in total they received and I received was for 7-8 months of work. There was no '3 month advance'. I compensated myself for that 7-8 months of work and I compensated the team for that 7-8 months of work. They were paid for getting done what was in their contract exhibit and for the work done prior to having any money (pre-crowdfunding).

4. Additionally, the founding members (the majority of the original team) received between 4% and 10% equity each in the company via stock.

I regret that there was a disagreement over who got how much money and that this caused an exodus of much of the original team. That said, the team I've re-built since April is getting even more work done, more quickly. That's not to say the original team didn't work hard -- most of them did -- but most of them also were doing contract work on the side, or even worked a full time position and then worked on Pantheon in the evenings. The majority of the team I've more recently assembled don't need nearly as much money to live off of and therefore most of them put most of the day into Pantheon and not other projects.

Lastly, I'd like to address team composition. The original team were all MMO industry vets. The team I have now, not so much. I have had great success in the past building teams that are a mixture of wise industry vets and hungry newbies. Right now I mostly have newbies, and that is in some ways a disadvantage (and in other ways, an advantage). But the goal right now is to continue development and to fill some additional positions (for example, a CEO would be great). Then, in a few months, re-start the quest for angel investors. Once we have funding, I have a long list of industry vets who have contacted me and let me know they are ready to join VR as soon as I'm able to bring them on as employees. So while we do lack the industry vets right now, that will no longer be the case once we bring in the first round of funding that we need.

In the meantime, please check out the details, screenshots, and movies we post on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pantheonrotf?focus_composer=true&ref_type=bookmark every 1-2 weeks and witness the measurable forward progress we are making with the team I have now.

thanks,

-Brad McQuaid

I'm glad to hear you respond. I'm also glad your game is still in development. What I would like to ask you Mr. McQuaid is what is your response to what your ex-employees have said on facebook and I suppose other sites. Are these mere rumors? Or is there some truth to what has been expressed?

~Thanks

I honestly don't have the time or energy to keep track of who said what and when, so you'd have to be more specific. There are certainly rumors, half-truths and hyperbole out there and most of what I do come across isn't directly from ex-team members but rather from others who have taken it upon themselves to continue this crusade against Pantheon. There are also dollar amounts being mentioned that really should not be due to privacy and signed contracts and NDAs. This puts me at a disadvantage because I should not be talking about specific dollar amounts or who was paid and how much.

The dispute was directly related to how much money I received vs the rest of the team. In the vast majority of cases a corporation does not reveal salaries or contract payment amounts to their employees or contractors, especially not executive compensation. But when I was asked for details as to where every dollar went by a team member, after being accused of taking far more than I did, I decided to provide that information to the contractor, who then released those details to the other contractors. Some of the contractors were unhappy as to my compensation and put pressure on the entire team to walk away from the project with the intent that the project then die.

Quite often when a start-up company is put together, the management team will take a small salary or no salary until the company gets going, finds funding, etc. This is what I did when I founded Sigil back in 2002. I took no salary and, rather, put $75k of my own money into Sigil to keep it going while we were evaluating publishers/investors. This was something I could do because I'd recently made quite a bit of cash in the sale of Verant to SOE in 2001.

This second time around, with Visionary Realms, I was not n the same situation financially. I'd not received a paycheck for 8 months and was not sitting on a nice financial cushion like I was back in 2002. In April of this year we were very close to closing a funding deal. My debt was higher than ever and bills were piling up. So I decided to pay myself for my involvement with Pantheon just as I had been paying the contractors. I do not feel the amount was unusual given my position in the company, what my name cache brought to the game, and given that I'd not received any money for eight months. That said, in 20/20 hindsight, I should have waited for the funding to hit the bank, no matter how confident I was that it would. Then, if it fell through, and it did, I could have compensated myself for less money.

I regret what happened, but even had I taken less or none, we still could not have lasted much longer without a first round of funding. I was also disappointed to see some of the team pressure everyone to walk away from the project, to leave their work behind, their stock behind, and their passion for the project behind. I and a couple of team members decided to do whatever it took to keep the project and its vision alive. We just couldn't let that be the end. We felt and still do feel that there is a very real demand and interest in a game like Pantheon, a game with the courage to be niche and to have a defined target audience of MMO players who want a group focused and challenging game. A game that wouldn't cost 10s of millions to make because it was trying to be all things to all people.

When this was announced, that Pantheon was not dead and would somehow continue forward, this really upset some people. I don't know if it was some former team members or just their friends or some combination of the two. Ultimately I will likely never know and it probably doesn't matter. It was truly objectionable when financial and other private corporate information was leaked, again in violation of contract and NDA. But at the same time it didn't make sense to pursue things legally. I hoped the situation was over and we could start re-building the team and project, looking ahead and not behind.

But that wasn't to be. Rumors and half-truths were spread in a determined fashion. Interviews were done. Reddit discussions were seeded. Bottom-line, a small but determined group put a lot of effort into spreading half-truths about me, the company, and the game. Reputations were and are tarnished. Under no circumstances did this group want Pantheon to go forward. I truly wish that the passion that fueled this effort had instead been good cause to stay on the project, despite being upset with me. Anger and resentment seems to have overpowered the extreme passion and dedication it takes to make an MMO.

My reaction has been to keep Pantheon alive no matter what and to ride the storm out. Instead of joining the debate and argument, especially when it got ugly, I focused on building a new team. It so happened that I had a friend who had been working on a religious niche MMO for years using a volunteer only team. I tapped into her knowledge of volunteer and remote team building and much to my amazement was able to start reassembling a team far more rapidly than I thought possible. She knew people who knew people and we now have a larger team than before, full of people with energy and a strong desire to be part of an MMO team and to do so with little to no compensation and to do so remotely. I was skeptical at first, being accustomed to funded projects and a job site where we all met every morning and worked together and in person.

My friend and now co-lead and Pantheon Producer, Laurene, has done the amazing and we have a very solid team of lore writers, world builders, artists, programmers, IT people, etc, who have joined the new team. I purposely avoided the debate and arguing and focused instead on team building and starting a real development process again. Some of the dust has settled and some has not. I've now made this post and the one before it to address some flat out misinformation (that I never paid the team) and I do so at the risk this re-ignites the negativity and bad feelings and the character assassinations. But my gut told me to go for it. To test the waters, so to speak.

Regardless, though, I am not returning to be the Pantheon evangelist at this time (which is the wrong time). I am far too busy and involved both managing and working on the Pantheon project. Here's what's really important that you may not know if you haven't been following the game, maybe because you thought it was dead or something:

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is indeed fully back in development mode. We are focussing on the MMO foundation that needs to be in place upon which you build the world, implement game logic, create content, etc. The game is now truly client-server. When you run the game you log in or create an account, select a character, and then enter the world in a zone called Halnir's Pass. Your game client is connected to a world server and a zone server on a server box we control. You can move around, see other players, and chat. Your movement and status are controlled by the server; in other words, the server us authoritative. You can then exit Halnir's Pass and zone into a labyrinths of caves deep underground. This is actual zoning and you leave the control of one zone server's process and are transferred to another. Your persistent data is being kept track of by the world server, your actual data being saved to an MS SQL database.

We have been revising and extending the lore and story behind the game. We should have a world map in the next couple of weeks. We've settled on the races and classes we want to have at launch. We've decided that there will be nine playable races to start out with and three starting cities on three separate continents. We want players to be able to find their friends quickly in Pantheon because this MMO is all about grouping and working together and playing your role effectively as a team player. You'll be able to teleport between the three starting cities with ease, again to facilitate grouping, guilds, and the player community in general. That said, the game is also about exploration and adventure, so don't assume there will be teleports out in the rest if the world. Keeping your group together and replacing one group member with another when the first has to leave will be very doable. Teleporting around the open world so you can avoid danger, not so much.

Recently we've been growing our world building team and we currently have four on that team. We will need more, but so far so good. They are using World Machine along with other tools that work well with our engine, which is Unity 3D. Using this tech and tools has rapidly accelerated development in many ways. Ultimately what it allows us to do is to build the game in the sequence and order that makes sense from an MMO development standpoint. In 1996 when we started work on EverQuest, this was not possible. In 2002 when we began work on Vanguard, this was not possible. In the past much of the team was gated much of the time. MMO projects would begin with lots of discussion and documentation, usually far more than what was truly beneficial, because the designers and artists we're waiting for and gated by programming. You had to wait for a display, even a simple one. You had to wait for the engine to exist to the point where you could actually build a zone and run through it. You had to wait on even a simple UI because it really wasn't that simple. You had to wait for real character models to at least be initially designed before you could enter a zone and run around.

Bottom line, the tech of the day forced you to implement your game NOT in the order that made sense. What is really the stuff you want working first? It should be the aspects of the game that are game defining and what sets your game apart, what's unique or key to the vision behind the game. With Pantheon, that's adventure and combat, followed by item acquisition, with important features like character customization and presentation coming just about last. Note I said it was important. Just because it doesn't make sense to implement something until much later by no means makes that feature or tech or mechanic less important.

But you do need to identify the features and mechanics of the game that are fundamental to the games success. With Pantheon, much like EQ1, Vanguard, etc,, as mentioned, it's all about adventure and combat. If exploring the world is boring and if fighting a group of mobs mundane, then the game has failed regardless of how good it looks or how realistically your avatar is rendered. The problem in the past was that you couldn't really log in, explore, and do battle until, say, 3 or more years into a 5 year development cycle. Sure, you could write up detailed low level design documents. Sure, you could create an intricate and detailed world in Campaign Cartograoher. But you couldn't play it In-game. You had to wait and wait on tech and tools before you had the opportunity to really play the game and make changes and tweaks.

Today, in 2014, that's all changed. With Unity and all of the plug-ins and tools and tech you can rapidly get to the point where you are really working on the true game itself. That's why, if you have been watching announcements and screen shots and movies since April, you are seeing a pre-alpha game that seems to be missing things you might have expected to be there. Again, with Pantheon, the core of the game is adventure and combat. So the plan to get from point A (starting real development) to point B (adventure and combat) is to implement only what we MUST to get there. The game must be client-server. The game's servers must be authoritative (so hacking is difficult). You must be able to log into the server and then choose a character and enter the game. You need to be able to travel from one zone to another (adventure and exploration). You need to be able to see other players, communicate with them, and then group with them. You've got to be able to create mobs, assign them characteristics, put them into an encounter, place that encounter in the world, and then have the zone server keep track of them, tell your client to display them, etc. And then you need to be able to fight them. You need to be able to create abilities and spells, and assign them to player characters and NPCs. And, finally, you need tuning knobs, allowing you to adjust abilities, levels, defense and offensive values, preferably in real time.

That's pretty much it, although I'm sure I forgot a detail here and there. Are there other aspects of the game that are also important, and maybe even essential? Of course. How about items and looting? How about different modes of travell? How about how exactly you level and progress? GUI? Inventory? Character creation? Character appearance and customization? All of those are super important and they need to be worked on and made impressive and polished. But we don't need them now. Our goal is to make adventure, exploration, and combat working pre-alpha. That gives us pre-alpha, alpha, and beta to make what's fundamental to Pantheon is polished, balanced, configurable, tweak able, and, wait for it: FUN.

And that is why I'm so crazy excited about this game and this development process. We're going to be grouping up, exploring, and killing mobs in a matter if months, not years. Let me segue back to what we've accomplished and do a quick recap. We have real client-server, so I can log in, choose a character, and enter the world. I can interact with other players, albeit primitively. I can see them and chat, but not group up. I can travel from a zone to another. The tools, plug-ins, and tech needed to create an outdoor or indoor zone have been chosen and implemented (thanks Monty!). So what's next? Well, we have to get two separate paths in production and not gated by someone or some thing. First, if adventure and exploration are fundamental, then we need a detailed world map with cities, dungeons, points of interest, climates, etc laid out using a vector based app (campaign Cartograoher) so we can zoom in, add more detail, and then zoom some more. Then we need to break that world up into zones and decide what zone connects to what other zone and where. Then we need small design docs describing the zone with text and pictures if possible. Finally the world builder has his map and design doc and he or she can start actually creating the zone using the documented procedures and plug-ins and tools and tech. And if you want a huge world, then you want an army of world builders working in parallel, hopefully not gating each other. What about the art assets that go into the zone? Well, here's where we have a huge advantage again that didn't exist in 1996 or 2002: We have the unity store where we can purchase already made art assets. Are we going to ship the game full of purchased assets? Of course not. But, and this is key, the world builder is not gated by the art team, waiting on assets to be created in Maya so he or she can then plug them into their zone. In fact, even though the funding is not there to hire those artists yet, the world builders can proceed and make measurable forward progress. Again, where are we at? We have identified the plug-ins, tools, and tech that work with Unity and built one outdoor zone and one indoor dungeon zone. This process has been documented as well. And we have 4-5 world builders who have begun their first zone. And the map and zone write-ups have begun, but they're not where they should be. Hey, just keeping it real.

Back to the game. We've logged in and we are exploring and zoning. Next we need to be able to create mobs, define zones, and then create encounters. Encounters are defined by one or more mobs and have various attributes. Once you've made the mobs, zone definition, and encounter, you need to place those encounters into the actual zone. Then when the zone is run, it has the data it needs to show those mobs in-game. Where are we at? The windows app that talks with the database was started by yours truly about 2 weeks ago. You can create mobs, zone definitions, and encounters. Next we need to be able to place the encounters and then the zone server needs to get all of that data from the database when the zone is loaded up. Then we will start seeing mobs when we enter the game and start exploring. How close are we to this point? A couple weeks max, hopefully sooner.

So that's where we are at. And we've made it to this point building on what was there in April plus stuff that we had to re-write or add. Add in the time it took to build this team and I think we've achieved something extraordinary in a little over two months. I want to pause here and let you know one reason I've written all if this up to this point. Because we are a crowd funded game at least up until we find that first round of funding (likely an accredited angel investor) I feel we owe it to everyone whose donated to us their hard earned money examples and proof of measurable forward progress. This is why we recently committed to the community that we would show examples of this measurable forward progress at least every 1-2 weeks. And I hope it also convinces many if you who may still be sitting on the fence to pledge money to us sooner as opposed to later. We need money to buy tools and plug-ins and servers and Unity licenses. And then, even though the team is technically volunteers at this point, I do like to paypal them some $$ when I can. Every little bit helps, trust me.

Ok, then what? Well, we continue to look for more world builders. We need an army and we need world builders now, as volunteers, and then we will need more once funding comes in at which point 1. Our volunteers can become employees and 2. We can hire world builders that need a salary before they can climb in board. Ok, back to coding. In a couple of weeks, as mentioned, we should have NPCs spawning in zones. Now comes the fun part: turn combat back on. If you looked at the movies I put together back in April to show you all what the original team had accomplished, you'll remember that primitive combat was working. In fact it was set up so you could choose different classes (ability sets) dynamically. This was classic combat prototyping which enabled us to get a good feel for how our action/reaction combat system would function. We've talked about this in interviews and on the games web site, but I'll do a quick recap here: it's sort of like real-time Magic: the Gathering. You have a set if spells and abilities you've learned and earned. When you are prepping for the next fight, you memorize a subset of your spells and abilities. Some are use once until you mem them again, while others might have re-use timers where you can keep casting the spell or triggering the ability until you run out of the appropriate mana type. And, like in M:TG, you don't just mem spells and abilities you want to use against the mobs, but you also mem Answers. You mem counter spells, deflections , etc. In fact, if you don't bother yourself with answers and focus only on the cool things you want to do, you're a noob and you're probably going to die hard.

Ok. So a lot of this was in the game pre-April and it was great being able to mess with how combat was going to look and feel. Now, in our new client-server set up, using MMO centric networking tech, we need to integrate that old code into that future current build. That's going to take some time and we want to do it right. We also need to revise and extend the functionality. Essentially you need to be able to in-game set your level, race, and class in real time. Same with the mob(s). Their initial values will be loaded in from the database, but then we want to be able to tune them in-game in real time. Then it's time to implement grouping . And then it's time to start playing this game, at its core, initially a bit primitive, but it will be for real. It won't be a demo or even a prototype. Yes, all of this so we can make adventure, exploration, combat, and grouping actually in-game and real within the first year of development.

So that's the road map for at least the next 4-8 months. What about everything else? Like I mentioned earlier, there's still a lot if important features, assets, and mechanics that need to be implemented before beta, which ideally will last a year or so, and also ideally the game is at least close to feature complete. A lot of the timing also depends on when our first round of funding comes in. But here's a perfect place to address an 'issue' that comes up sometimes when we post a movie or screenshots. Under this plan and with this tech I have hopefully explained why using Unity and the Unity Store is so key to our development plan and the sequence and order within that plan. To be clear, you are going to see a lot if store bought assets in the movies and screenshots probably up until the last year or so if development. This allows the world builders to lay out intricate and challenging dungeons without having to create art assets themselves or wait for a 3d modeler to create them in Maya. Character creation and customization? Can't ship without it, but we can also have that be one of the Last big technical hurdles as opposed to it being one of the first like it was in EQ or Vanguard. We can choose our character tech towards the end if the development cycle. This means, amongst other things, that we don't choose one now, put a lot of time and resources into it, but then much better tech appears during the last year of development and we either keep the old stuff or we painfully transition to the new tech (and this happened several times both during EQs and Vanguards dev cycles). So, in summary re: character models, you're going to see store bought models likely for quite some time. And yes, there's a method to all of this madness.

Items, climates, vehicles, customizable user interfaces, etc, etc. All of that happens in a sequence and order I can talk about another time. The main points here were to talk about the team, what we've accomplished, why you see store bought assets, the road to combat and adventure, etc. I will likely clean up this long missive fairly soon and post it elsewhere, but the questions and even accusations popping up on this thread here gave me a perfect opportunity not just to respond, but then segue into what the new team has accomplished, why are we doing things in the order we are, etc. if you made it this far, congrats!

'Nuff said!

-Brad

ps. If you haven't seen the recent movies and screenshots or the April movie and screenshots I posted back then, the best place to view them all is on the official Pantheon Facebook site. Please do check them out and see where all of the money and effort went. I think what's posted is a valid and compelling argument that we've always been making good measurable forward progress on this project.

,

Well said. Now, enough of the negative! Let's focus on the positive.

Will this title for once, be a title that promises to have enough imagination to where my fantasy character does not have to fight the same race class version of me?

In other words, will there be enough variability between classes and races where akin to epic tales that we all have come to love, orcs will not be in groups with paladins, evil types and good types will be on separate real/factions, and so forth?

I miss the old fantasy concept where we get to fight enemies that are different than us. I am so fatigued of the us vs us feel in every title where only a red heading over a character makes them an enemy. This is part of what made Varking server (VGSoH) so amazing. What a crying shame they never gave that back to us.

For those who did experience Vanguard Saga of Heroes - we need a return to the uniquely beautiful feel of being truly immersed in an mmorpg. Mr. McQuaid, listen to the music of Leth Nurae once more...tell me that doesn't move you toward creativity.

Generol · July 2014

I don't understand why this is and has always been hard for you, Brad. The questions being asked of you are simple and one would think any "CCO" would have a standard spreadsheet (at the very least) of what monies went where and to who. You take simple questions and you turn your responses into long winded, drawn out, and excuse laden double talk fests that, typically, give half answers.

The real bottom line is simple (as far as I see it) and that is this is you saying these things over, and over, and over again when nobody else comes forward to verify or corroborate your stories. This type of behavior by you is not new and was also taking place during Vanguard. Before Vanguard was released I had faith you would deliver a solid title but now, after everything you have been connected to and all your constant excuses/issues, I trust nothing you say. This is not a hate response and this is not done out of any animosity toward you as I could care less about you or your life but, rather, your actions have directly impacted the lives of others in the past (in a negative and conniving way) and that seems to be taking place again.

Why you don't just step up, like an actual man, and clear the air is beyond me. The only thing I see coming from this "project" is broken promises, false hopes, misappropriated funds and people falling into the trap that hurts their life in some manner.

Comaf · July 2014

Originally posted by Generol
I don't understand why this is and has always been hard for you, Brad. The questions being asked of you are simple and one would think any "CCO" would have a standard spreadsheet (at the very least) of what monies went where and to who. You take simple questions and you turn your responses into long winded, drawn out, and excuse laden double talk fests that, typically, give half answers.

The real bottom line is simple (as far as I see it) and that is this is you saying these things over, and over, and over again when nobody else comes forward to verify or corroborate your stories. This type of behavior by you is not new and was also taking place during Vanguard. Before Vanguard was released I had faith you would deliver a solid title but now, after everything you have been connected to and all your constant excuses/issues, I trust nothing you say. This is not a hate response and this is not done out of any animosity toward you as I could care less about you or your life but, rather, your actions have directly impacted the lives of others in the past (in a negative and conniving way) and that seems to be taking place again.

Why you don't just step up, like an actual man, and clear the air is beyond me. The only thing I see coming from this "project" is broken promises, false hopes, misappropriated funds and people falling into the trap that hurts their life in some manner.

THE Generol, as in Varking server VGSoH?

Generol · July 2014

Originally posted by Comaf
THE Generol, as in Varking server VGSoH?

Yes.

Azoth · July 2014

Originally posted by Generol
I don't understand why this is and has always been hard for you, Brad. The questions being asked of you are simple and one would think any "CCO" would have a standard spreadsheet (at the very least) of what monies went where and to who. You take simple questions and you turn your responses into long winded, drawn out, and excuse laden double talk fests that, typically, give half answers.

The real bottom line is simple (as far as I see it) and that is this is you saying these things over, and over, and over again when nobody else comes forward to verify or corroborate your stories. This type of behavior by you is not new and was also taking place during Vanguard. Before Vanguard was released I had faith you would deliver a solid title but now, after everything you have been connected to and all your constant excuses/issues, I trust nothing you say. This is not a hate response and this is not done out of any animosity toward you as I could care less about you or your life but, rather, your actions have directly impacted the lives of others in the past (in a negative and conniving way) and that seems to be taking place again.

Why you don't just step up, like an actual man, and clear the air is beyond me. The only thing I see coming from this "project" is broken promises, false hopes, misappropriated funds and people falling into the trap that hurts their life in some manner.

Or maybe it's just as he said and he cannot talk about it for legal reason.. I am pretty sure he knows where the money went, but I don't think he have to give that info to anyone.

Was there anyone that actually said they weren't paid for the work they have done ? Or is it simply people that are pissed that the boss pocketed a bigger piece of the pie ?

I won't even back the project, I don't trust Brad, but I am not going to start a war over it. Still if he gets the game done, I will be the first to buy it.

Convo · July 2014

Originally posted by Azoth
Originally posted by Generol
I don't understand why this is and has always been hard for you, Brad. The questions being asked of you are simple and one would think any "CCO" would have a standard spreadsheet (at the very least) of what monies went where and to who. You take simple questions and you turn your responses into long winded, drawn out, and excuse laden double talk fests that, typically, give half answers.

The real bottom line is simple (as far as I see it) and that is this is you saying these things over, and over, and over again when nobody else comes forward to verify or corroborate your stories. This type of behavior by you is not new and was also taking place during Vanguard. Before Vanguard was released I had faith you would deliver a solid title but now, after everything you have been connected to and all your constant excuses/issues, I trust nothing you say. This is not a hate response and this is not done out of any animosity toward you as I could care less about you or your life but, rather, your actions have directly impacted the lives of others in the past (in a negative and conniving way) and that seems to be taking place again.

Why you don't just step up, like an actual man, and clear the air is beyond me. The only thing I see coming from this "project" is broken promises, false hopes, misappropriated funds and people falling into the trap that hurts their life in some manner.

Or maybe it's just as he said and he cannot talk about it for legal reason.. I am pretty sure he knows where the money went, but I don't think he have to give that info to anyone.

Was there anyone that actually said they weren't paid for the work they have done ? Or is it simply people that are pissed that the boss pocketed a bigger piece of the pie ?

I won't even back the project, I don't trust Brad, but I am not going to start a war over it. Still if he gets the game done, I will be the first to buy it.

Yea.. A few Devs were(are?) owed money. I believe one is owed an entire paycheck..

Generol · July 2014

Originally posted by Azoth
Or maybe it's just as he said and he cannot talk about it for legal reason.. I am pretty sure he knows where the money went, but I don't think he have to give that info to anyone.

Was there anyone that actually said they weren't paid for the work they have done ? Or is it simply people that are pissed that the boss pocketed a bigger piece of the pie ?

I won't even back the project, I don't trust Brad, but I am not going to start a war over it. Still if he gets the game done, I will be the first to buy it.

As someone who knows the law I can assure you that he is not correct on this and is just attempting to hide behind false legal premises while believing nobody either knows or nobody will verify it. However, don't take my word on it, look into it yourself as there are many avenues to do so.

In terms of people not being paid, yes, there have been several statements in that regard that you can read in this monster of a thread: http://www.rerolled.org/showthread.php?5912-Rerolled-Pantheon-Singlehandedly-destroying-Kickstarters-since-2014

I, of course, respect your position to buy it if it releases (truly) but my concern is based on years of similar issues, considerable statements against him from people I trust (that are public), and, most of all, the manner in which he handled Vanguard when he had a massive budget, was backed by a world class company, an "all star team" at his disposal as he called it, and everything else that went along with those issues. To me, I believe Brad is known as a pariah in that industry and someone who thinks his "name cache" is worth the opposite of what its true worth is considered. That being said, I made my post for two reasons:

1) He can finally man up, act like an adult, and publicly recognize those he harmed.

2) To present what is being stated in many circles (that I trust - and are all public) so people don't fall into a trap where they either lose money or are conned in some manner.

Synadil · July 2014

If there's anything that exemplifies "There's a sucker born every minute" it's this thread. Poor deluded saps.

Bruhza · July 2014

I try to judge games by only the final product.

Hype is pointless and can even destroy a game on release due to the high expectations, then having nothing close to that released.

Someone said it best a while back, though I cannot recall who actually said this - "When pieces of major content/information are missing from a game we tend to fill those empty spaces with what only we want to see in perfect execution. This causes different views on a game before any information is even announced, which causes arguments and major disagreements when that information is finally released."

And only the devs have to pay for our wild imagination and over expectations, what we once thought was amazing, is now considered trash.

Azoth · July 2014

Originally posted by Generol
Originally posted by Azoth
Or maybe it's just as he said and he cannot talk about it for legal reason.. I am pretty sure he knows where the money went, but I don't think he have to give that info to anyone.

Was there anyone that actually said they weren't paid for the work they have done ? Or is it simply people that are pissed that the boss pocketed a bigger piece of the pie ?

I won't even back the project, I don't trust Brad, but I am not going to start a war over it. Still if he gets the game done, I will be the first to buy it.

As someone who knows the law I can assure you he is not correct on this. However, don't take my word on it, look into it yourself as there are many avenues to do so.

In terms of people not being paid, yes, there have been several statements in that regard that you can read in this monster of a thread: http://www.rerolled.org/showthread.php?5912-Rerolled-Pantheon-Singlehandedly-destroying-Kickstarters-since-2014

I, of course, respect your position to buy it if it releases (truly) but my concern is based on years of similar issues, considerable statements against him from people I trust (that are public), and, most of all, the manner in which he handled Vanguard when he had a massive budget, was backed by a world class company, an "all star team" at his disposal as he called it, and everything else that went along with those issues. To me, I believe Brad is known as a pariah in that industry and someone who thinks his "name cache" is worth the opposite of what its true worth is considered. That being said, I made my post for two reasons:

1) He can finally man up, act like an adult, and publicly recognize those he harmed.

2) To present what is being stated in many circles (that I trust - and are all public) so people don't fall into a trap where they either lose money or are conned in some manner.

Well I don't know the law that well, but I have worked under contract before and in some cases I couldn't discuss ''anything'' on the work I was doing or even what kind of compensation I was getting.

So did you somehow managed to see those contracts ? If so you already should know every detail and probably don't need an explanation from the man.

Again if those people have not been paid, can't they prosecute ?

You are piss at the way he manage a staff, I can understand that. He is pretty bad at it, no one is arguing about that. But vanguard was still a pretty damn good idea of a game. There was gameplay features in there that I thought were really good. The downfall of the game was the buggy state of it at release. Is the fault solely on Brad ? I doubt it.

He did publicly admit to harming people, I saw a video couple weeks ago.. Don't remember with whom.

I understand your desire to inform people, but I see only conjecture and second hand information from you right now. If someone on this site doesn't know about Brad at this time, they are not really likely to be interested in Pantheon to begin with as they prolly never played the games he made.

Generol · July 2014

Originally posted by Azoth
Well I don't know the law that well, but I have worked under contract before and in some cases I couldn't discuss ''anything'' on the work I was doing or even what kind of compensation I was getting.

So did you somehow managed to see those contracts ? If so you already should know every detail and probably don't need an explanation from the man.

Again if those people have not been paid, can't they prosecute ?

You are piss at the way he manage a staff, I can understand that. He is pretty bad at it, no one is arguing about that. But vanguard was still a pretty damn good idea of a game. There was gameplay features in there that I thought were really good. The downfall of the game was the buggy state of it at release. Is the fault solely on Brad ? I doubt it.

He did publicly admit to harming people, I saw a video couple weeks ago.. Don't remember with whom.

I understand your desire to inform people, but I see only conjecture and second hand information from you right now. If someone on this site doesn't know about Brad at this time, they are not really likely to be interested in Pantheon to begin with as they prolly never played the games he made.

They most certainly could look to find remedy but in the end it becomes an issue of current finances versus financial remedy. In other words, it isn't worth their time to look to recoup and they will, likely, lose more or simply break even via the legal fees.

In terms of the buggy state of Vanguard and the fault lying with Brad. Who else should the blame fall to? He was in charge of the project, he made claims, he made promises, he set standards, and it was reported he was absent and non existent for a good portion of the crunch time period. Are we to blame those who were working long hours to clean up a mess while attempting to cover his false agenda to produce something? I am not pissed at all by it, I just don't trust him as he had everything given to him with VG and failed and now he has very little (at best) and is hoping for funds. I am simply stating the information known about these issues so someone isn't wrongfully duped.

I can bring out and link dozens of posts which will coincide with my statements if you would like but all you have to do is Google these issues as they are all very well known and public (not hard to find at all).

There is no anger or anything of the sort by me toward this guy. My personal opinion is he is a conman who is using this project to line his wallet and, as time goes on, he will continue to run into "issues" which will cause him to look for funds.

F2Pelerin118 · July 2014

I'm not fussed with all the drama surrounding the game, I'm excited for Pantheon. I hope they can continue developing it and wish them all the best.

I'm just excited to see what it will be like, coming from the Vanguard guy - which was and is still my favourite MMORPG.

Convo · July 2014

Originally posted by F2Pelerin118
I'm not fussed with all the drama surrounding the game, I'm excited for Pantheon. I hope they can continue developing it and wish them all the best.

I'm just excited to see what it will be like, coming from the Vanguard guy - which was and is still my favourite MMORPG.

Hell yea!! Head on over and donate. The project needs your money.

TankYou88 · July 2014

I wonder how many of the people excited for this have donated. It seems like they should be close to the 800k like they wanted by all the positive attitudes of these people, only way to vote is with your wallet so let these haters know they are wrong and cast your vote.

itchmon · July 2014

the best thing about the game is its innovative payment plan; it will accept USD, Euro, Paypal, or Oxycodone

edit: that was probably mean and harsh of me. i'm sure a lot of people have serious pain-med issues.... my animus was directed at the guy who stole from gamers to finance his habit, not at anyone else.

Convo · July 2014

Originally posted by TankYou88
I wonder how many of the people excited for this have donated. It seems like they should be close to the 800k like they wanted by all the positive attitudes of these people, only way to vote is with your wallet so let these haters know they are wrong and cast your vote.

https://www.pantheonrotf.com/store

DashiDMV · July 2014

Originally posted by Aradune
Originally posted by winter
Originally posted by zonon
Hi fellow MMORPG-gamers!

Finally a game to look forward to again, its a nice feeling to have.

With all the mainstream games out there i really love developers who stick to what "they believe" in and make games from that standpoint. Most MMO-games that have come out the past years are so boring and bland with the idea to “Make everyone happy” and they often do this by “Giving everyone the ability to do everything" then no one can complain…

Well, as i was saying, i have big hopes for this game.

Take care everyone.

/Z

HEHE wow don't read much or bother to check the history on things your interested in do you? that's ok someones gotta pay McQuads medical bills and living expenses. Might as well buy him some beer and pizza while your throwing away your money.

As they say there's a sucker born every minute..............

of course we used the money, both me and the other team members, to pay ourselves so that we could pay the bills. Those of us who did not do other contract work on the side or accept a full time job while working on Pantheon part time were in a bad way financially. We'd not received any income since August / September of 2013 and the bills were piling up. What did you expect us to do with the money that was raised?

I wonder if you have came on here because your "commitment" to see Pantheon built or the fact that the site donations have been at 150k for quite a while now. Might have to look somewhere else for that pill money.

Also if everyone was part of the same deal and knew what it was going into this, why did EVERY LAST dev member leave? People who were your supposed "friends" and co-workers for many years? Why did they speak out against you and their wives lamented how they were not being paid?

Sorry Brad I think a lot of people are stocked up on snake oil.

Also if you are going to be back on trying to drum up interest and get money, could you at least take off that Sigil Games CEO tag. It's insulting and disrespectful to the people who actually did work while you popped pills and dirt biked and then curled up in the fetal position when they got their parking lot send off.

It's sad because I thought Vanguard was a good MMO despite its flaws and it kind of sucks that it is going away but I don't see Pantheon as the answer, especially not now. I just hope you don't burn these people who are putting your trust in you as bad as you did the past 2 instances. I guess the best part about free help is its free.

I would very much like to be proven wrong on this but sadly I think it would take a better man than you Brad.

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