Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is introducing its new seasonal model, where all backers can get at least some time in the test build, on February 17th. The Visionary Realms team held a community Q&A recently to dive into Seasons and what to expect at launch and beyond in this next phase.
Creative Director Chris “Joppa” Perkins sat down with Ben Dean, communications director, to answer community questions and give more details. When the first season, “Into the Pass” opens, everyone who does have access will start fresh because there will be a server wipe, and Terminus will expand with overland regions of Avendyr’s Pass becoming accessible. On the first day, a big portion of the Overland will be playable for VIP backers. The team is calling this the orange zone.
The first Season will run from February 17th through March 29th for VIP access backers. Champion access backers will get access from March 16th through March 29th. Supporter access backers get to jump in from March 23rd through March 29th. The visual NDA will be in place for a while, but it is expected to drop by the time Champion backers get access.
Visionary Realms plans to continue adding new content and improvements around every 6 weeks. This will mean new biomes, new content, and with this six-week release cadence, they're also planning to add more playable areas. These new content areas that are introduced during each of these seasons will later become permanent parts of the game. Visionary Realms has formed two teams to work on these content updates, to make that six-week cadence and minimize delays. They did not say to "eliminate" delays, so there's always potential for something to come up but they are clearly working on keeping things active.
As for future wipes, those are on the table, but they’ll decide on those based on how a season goes.
Deciding to go to this seasonal model and increase the number of playtest opportunities is a huge change. Some feedback about all backers getting a chance versus previously, only higher tier backers had these opportunities raised questions, but the team does offer those tiered options that retain some exclusivity and the continued updates as they move firmly into Seasons. Of course, upgrading is also an option.
The team will offer more opportunities for the community to ask questions about all things seasons. Listen to the full video for all things discussed and head over to Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen for more info.
Edit: The original version of this referred to the Visionary Realms team as Vicarious Visions, which is now known as Blizzard Albany. This has been corrected - we apologize for the error! - Bradford
