Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen News

• Added Camera FOV and Camera Follows Head (moves up and down as you stand/sit if checked/true) settings to the Graphics tab of the Settings window. With this build, the FOV is now set at the Unity default of 60 (it was 68 in the previous build). If you want to return Pantheon to its original FOV (what it was set to prior to the previous build), adjust the Camera FOV slider down to 50.
  

• Fixed an issue that was preventing acclimation glyphs from being looted off corpses.
  
• Fix for multiple deaths that could happen in certain situations.
  
• Fixed an issue where corpses could be resurrected multiple times if a zero percent resurrect was used. Corpses can now only be resurrected once, regardless of how much xp would be returned.
  
• Fixed an issue where some NPCs were seeing through feign death when they shouldn't have been.
  
• Fixed an issue where some NPCs wouldn't attack a monk even though their feign death had failed.
  
• Fixed an issue with ranger scouts where they were able to pass through doors and allow players to see through walls/doors.
  
• Ranger level 5 and 10 traits should now increase the appropriate attributes.
  
• The effect on the Chillstrike Longbow now behaves as advertised in its description.
  
• The quest “Bones That Should Not Stir” now correctly replaces an item instead of leaving it behind in player inventory.
  
• Schematics granted by crafting work orders should now be properly consumed when used to craft their items.
  
• Fixed the camera height when controlling ranger scouts.
  

• Reduced NPC Hit Rating bonus to account for lower player avoidance
  
• Corrected Bloodsworn orc coin drop amount.
  
• Cinderfolk are now properly counted as Undead for the purposes of spells and abilities that target such creatures.
  
• Elawin Emberwillow has shed her magical disguise and stage name and revealed her true identity. Surprisingly, other residents of Availia and the Arcanery had already guessed at the truth. When asked about the change, Instructor Gnossa was reported to have snorted derisively and said, “It's about time. That illusion of hers was really quite annoying! No one actually has two left feet.”
  

• The missing paladin trainers assigned to the village of Kingswatch have finally managed to find their way into town. They told a tale of struggles with great beasts and bandits along their journey, but most of the townsfolk just assume that they got lost somewhere near the Port of Ru'lun.
  
• Some treasure chests in Wild's End have been adjusted to a more appropriate level for the NPCs found nearby.
  
• Most treasure chests in Wild's End will no longer despawn at dusk each game day.
  
• The chance for some rare NPCs to appear in the Smoldering Trenches and Ashbreather's Enclave has been increased.
  
• Mining, Woodcutting, Fiber, Food, and Alchemy gathering nodes have been activated for the Lakeshore region of Avendyr's Pass.
  

• Removed No Trade flag from Pauldrons of Pyre and Ruin, increased armor slightly,
  
• Removed unintended click effect from the Band of Battle
  
• Fernfury armor should now look a little bit better when worn by dwarves.
  
• Percival Dunbridge in Kingswatch has remembered where he left his inventory of enchanter spells and now offers them for sale.
  
• Removed Warrior from the Gown of the Hearth and added Wizard to the class list
  
• Changed Pupil's Martial Brace type to Cloth from Heavy Plate (stats unchanged)
  
• Increased the damage of Glowing Wrought Iron Arrows and added fire damage on hit to them.
  
• The per-tier amount for crafted resist accessories has been reduced to +2 points from +3.
  
• Increased damage values on most active rare+ weapon drops from Hanggore, Knightwolf Knoll, Mad Run, the higher level ones from HC, and Gadai Fort. Ashbreather weapons were also increased accordingly.
  
• Updated most active rare+ armor items from Hanggore, Knightwolf Knoll, Mad Run, the higher level ones from HC, and Gadai Fort. (this does not include waist and back slot)
  
• Warchief Gallfang and Moon Witch Lysara have had one new Monk item added to their loot tables each. Shoulders on Lysara, legs on Gallfang.
  
• Cured Boarskin Boots have been improved and returned to Uzhead's loot table for now.
  
• Crystalline Plate Helm has been improved slightly and returned to the White Wyvern's loot table for now.
  
• Infernis Glyphs now drop rarely from NPCs in the Smoldering Trenches and the Ashbreather Enclave.
  

• Fixed an issue with some tank techniques causing their final damage calculation to be cut in half, abilities impacted listed below
  

[h3]Cleric[/h3]

• Channeling Ward buff now applies to entire line of undead DD
  
• Healing spark line scales with Wisdom, increased healing and scaling
  
• Divine Healing line scales with Wisdom, increased healing
  
• Greater and Superior Divine Healing mana costs fixed
  

[h3]Dire Lord[/h3]

• Call of the Dire fixed, duration reduced to 6 seconds
  
• Ready Blade, Haunted Slash and Runecarver damage and threat increased
  
• Arcane Tear line damage increased
  
• Lifetap line base damage increased
  
• Devour line threat increased significantly (ex. Rank 4 threat doubled – was missing additional scaling throughout ranks)
  
• Corrupt Blood line damage and threat increased
  
• Corrupt Blood V added to vendor at 41
  

[h3]Druid[/h3]

• Verdanfire Seed mana cost reduced and tooltip fixed (was 5 mana + 20% of base mana, 5 base removed)
  
• Verdanfire Bolt stat scaling fixed
  
• Swarm stat scaling fixed
  
• Hirode's Flame line base healing increased (rank 1 mana cost increased by 2)
  
• Leafskin line duration increased to 60 minutes
  
• Regeneration line duration increased to 60 minutes
  
• Wolf Form increased to 60 minutes
  
• Thorns duration increased to 15 minutes
  
• Bug fix for Gale ignoring interrupt or silence immunity and working on melee abilities
  

[h3]Enchanter[/h3]

• Recondite Mind is now available from Enchanter trainers.
  
• The spell scroll for Enrapture now teaches the correct spell when used.
  
• The spell scroll for Hypnotize now teaches the correct spell when used.
  
• All Animation spells now have a 25m range on cast
  
• Slime Illusion size decreased (no more giga slime)
  

[h3]Monk[/h3]

• Resonating Strike now heals for 15% of your health, plus damage dealt
  
• Chi Spear base damage and scaling increased. Added new ranks of Chi Spear starting at level 12.
  
• Removed Chi cost of Chi Spear.
  
• Flurry damage and scaling reverted temporarily until the 20-40 skills are added. (*Flurry is intended to be similar total damage to the other techniques, shining when on hit procs are present)
  
• Wheel Kick and Elbow Strike proc damage increased
  

[h3]Paladin[/h3]

• Faithful Strike damage and scaling increased. Fixed the 50% bug and changed the way the ability works a bit. Now takes damage dealt (DEX mod) and adds healing (WIS mod) for the total healing amount.
  
• Condemning Blow damage and threat increased
  
• Disciplined Swing, Devout Strike, Flanking Blow and Righteous Chop damage increased
  
• Oathflame line base healing increased
  
• Wrathful Aegis base damage and threat increased
  
• Valiant Cross line base damage increased
  
• Shock line damage increased
  

[h3]Ranger[/h3]

• Swiftshot line stat scaling reduced slightly
  

[h3]Warrior[/h3]

• Kick damage increased
  
• Cleave line damage increased, scaling switched to STR
  
• Strike of Breaking line damage increased
  
• Mighty Yaulp and Furious Howl BP cost removed
  
• Forward Swing, Mocking Blow, Cross Strike and Disarming Strike damage increased

• Added more hairstyles for the human male.
  
• Added more one-handed blunt animations.
  
• You can no longer sell items that you currently have equipped.
  
• Updated and fixed several human and dwarf NPC models and added some more variety.
  
• Trade and friend requests are no longer allowed from players that are being ignored.
  
• Rogue poisons applied to weapons are no longer shown as buffs on the player.
  
• Environment screen effects now transition in/out more quickly.
  
• The Control key must now be held when right clicking to equip/unequip an item, and right clicking on an equipped item will now use/activate it, if the item supports that. Worn clickies ftw!
  
• Items that are untradeable or are quest items now show a sell confirmation dialog when the player tries to sell them.
  
• Reduced the height at which you start taking falling damage and increased fall damage a bit so that it's not as trivial as it was previously. You've been warned.
  
• Some improvements to first person camera mode, including the camera position moving when the player sits.
  
• The feet and legs of male and female humans should now visually adjust to the terrain they are walking/standing on. Other races will come later.
  

• The Smoldering Trenches and Ashbreather Enclave are now open for all players. These areas are designed for high-level adventuring beginning around level 35, and feature new NPCs, new items, and new quests to explore.
  

We are labeling this release “Part 1” because we intend to release “Part 2” in the coming weeks. Part 2 will include additional quest and Lore content, and a way to open the Imposing Stone Doors, for players keen enough to figure it out!

• A few crash fixes.
  
• Fixed rendering issues on some of the newer human male beards.
  
• Fixed an issue where quests that awarded stackable items were giving a full stack of the item instead of the correct amount.
  
• Unique schematics that are provided upon acceptance of a crafting work order should now show up properly at crafting stations and be usable to craft their intended items.
  
• The work order “Metal Brackets” now properly gives the schematic when it is accepted, instead of the finished item.
  
• The work order token purchase for the Kagaekin Jerkin is now correctly named when offered.
  
• The Soryn War Shield will now properly accept a novice shield brace in its construction.
  
• Fixed a potential client disconnect after deleting a character.
  
• Fixed an issue where poisoned weapons that weren't equipped still had a chance to do poison damage during combat.
  
• Numerous ability and buff fixes
  
• Summoned/temporary items can no longer be salvaged.
  
• Fix for NPCs getting stuck evading when in a place where they can't navigate.
  
• Fixed some places in Avendyr's Pass where NPCs were stuck in the evading state.
  
• Fixed a spot in the goblin caves where an NPC was stuck evading.
  
• Fixed an issue with equipping shields on the level 12+ necro pets.
  

• The craftspeople of Kingswatch have opened their shops and facilities to passing adventurers. Crafting stations and trainer NPCs may now be found throughout the village.
  
• Additional merchants have arrived in the village of Kingswatch and now offer their wares to those in need.
  
• Adventurers seeking to acquire new skills or traits may now find trainers for their class within the village of Kingswatch.
  
• Fiber harvesting nodes have been activated in the Ironroot Slopes region of Wild's End.
  
• Food harvesting nodes have been activated in the Ironroot Slopes region of Wild's End.
  
• Alchemy harvesting nodes have been activated in the Ironroot Slopes region of Wild's End.
  
• Treasure chests in the open world now require keys to be used to open them. These keys are rarely dropped by many humanoid or undead NPCs in the same level range as the chests they open. Tougher NPCs have a higher chance to drop keys, and rare or named NPCs have a very high chance to drop a key when defeated. Keys are consumed when used and are level restricted.
  
• Treasure chests in Halnir Cave, Mad Run, and Hanggore now require keys to be used to open them. These keys are dropped by NPCs and creatures within their respective areas. Rare or named NPCs have a higher chance to drop a key. These keys are specific to the dungeon where the chest is located, are consumed when used, and are level restricted.
  

• A hidden thread of adventure winds through the Ashbreather Enclave for those perceptive enough to find it.
  
• The Goblin Relic questline is now able to be completed. Adventurers who finish the quest will be rewarded with an Empowered version of the Ghaldlasii necklace.
  

• Vendor sell prices for many dropped weapons, accessories, and armor pieces have been adjusted and normalized based on the item's level and rarity.
  
• Vendor sell prices for crafted storage boxes have been adjusted.
  
• Bonewoven cloth armor may now only be equipped by monks.
  
• Several dropped armor pieces that were incorrectly using monk visual appearances have been switched to regular cloth armor visuals.
  
• Ghaldassi Ward Necklaces have had their stats adjusted based on the newer itemization goals. The boon will remain on the lesser version until next patch. After that, you'll need to finish the quest to restore the boon.
  

[h3]NPCs[/h3]

• Armored and Resistant trait mitigation bonuses reduced
  
• NPC Siphon Life abilities now trigger their cooldown timers when interrupted
  

[h3]General[/h3]

• Fixed numerous issues regarding attributes and their impact on combat.
  
• Strength now adds extra damage to melee auto attacks.
  
• Dexterity now adds extra damage to ranged weapon auto attacks.
  
• Dodge, block, and parry are now capped at 1, and are just used to indicate whether you have the skill or not.
  
• The dodge and parry skill levels no longer increase dodge and parry percent.
  
• The attacker's hit percent now works to reduce the defender's chance to block, dodge, or parry an attack.
  
• Fixed a bug with CC immunity granted by stuns and knockdowns
  
• Silence and interrupts now provide an immunity buff similar to hard CC
  
• Most melee classes have gone through the attribute scaling adjustment process. Some caster classes are waiting on an upcoming mana and mana regen pass to begin a similar process along with additions to completing their ability kits through level 40. Expect some balance disparity until that process is complete.
  
• Agility, instead of constitution, is now factored into AC. Dexterity now factors into parry rating, and hit rating is now using constitution instead of dexterity.
  

[h3]Cleric[/h3]

• Expel, Dismiss, Revile, Banish, and Abolish Undead spells added to vendor
  
• Ward and Halt Undeath increased to 30m range
  
• Castigate line cast time reduced from 3s to 2.5s
  
• Ward Undeath line cast time reduced from 2.5s to 2s
  
• Writ line Readiness generation increased
  

[h3]Dire Lord[/h3]

• Technique damage now scales with Dexterity
  
• Haunted Slash base threat increased
  
• Lifetap base damage and INT scaling increased
  
• Lifetap line normalized to 200 Essence cost, INT scaling at highest ranks reduced slightly
  
• Lifetap healing from damage ratio increased to .8 > .85 > .9 > .95 per rank (up from 0.75, > 0.75, > .80, > .85)
  
• Corrupt Blood line changed from DD stat scaling to DoT scaling (reduction)
  
• Splatter now scales with DEX
  
• Doubled the amount of essence gain from taking hits and capped it to only happen at most once per second.
  

[h3]Druid[/h3]

• Verdanfire direct damage line now scales with INT
  
• Bee Hive line damage increased significantly and scales with STA. Debuff unresistable. Mana cost increased.
  
• Call Lightning now scales with INT, modifier rule damage increased slightly.
  
• Hirode's Flame line now scales with WIS
  

[h3]Enchanter[/h3]

• Reworked the damage of Flux and added additional upgrades to this line starting with Scintillating Flux at level 10.
  
• Added several race and creature illusion spells starting with Illusion: Human at level 8
  
• Added new spell line starting at level 10. "Lyrith's Animation - Animate magically resonant daggers to attack your enemy and keep its attention for 30 sec or until the animation is destroyed."
• Note, this spell will eventually require a reagent.
  
• Added upgrades to the Ghaven's Wild Display spell line starting at level 12
  
• Added upgrades to Erudite Mind starting at level 25
  
• Added upgrades to Stab and Rend the Mind starting at level 26
  
• Added upgrades to Mind Vice starting at level 28
  
• Added additional rank of the Whisper line at level 30
  
• Added additional rank of mez at level 36
  
• Added Grand Shielding at level 40
  
• Made adjustments to the duration of mesmerize spells across the various ranks.
  
• Adjusted Illusion Graft haste line to increase both melee and spell-casting speed. These abilities are no longer limited to a single target. Added upgrades to this line starting at level 24.
  
• Adjusted Illusion Graft slow line to decrease both melee and spell-casting speed. These abilities are no longer limited to a single target. Added upgrades to this line starting at level 28.
  
• Reduced the amount of Mana drained via "Mez Tax"
  
• Whisper of Enshire tooltip updated to reflect 3 mana per tick
  

[h3]Monk[/h3]

• Iron Palm, Concussive Strike, Flurry, Scorpion Kick, Sweep, Downward Thrust, Gusting Wind Pole, and Precision Hand Strike now scale with DEX
  
• State altering techniques had their attribute scaling increased
  
• Martial Slap, Wheel Kick, Elbow Attack, and Wandering Fist now scale with CON
  
• Chi Impact damage increased and now scales with WIS
  
• Resonating Strike, Soul Shuriken, and Chi Spear now scale with WIS
  
• Form Quickening line now scales with DEX, damage increased
  

[h3]Necromancer[/h3]

• Sicken, Heat blood, and Life Leech lines initial debuffs cannot be resisted (each tick can still be resisted). Curse (snare) line can still be resisted on initial cast.
  
• Sicken line now scales with Stamina. Damage and mana costs adjusted
  
• Heat Blood line now scales with Dexterity. Damage and mana costs adjusted
  
• Curse line now scales with Charisma. Damage and mana costs adjusted
  
• Lifetap line now scales with Intellect. Damage and mana costs adjusted
  
• Wrack Bones line now scales with Charisma. Damage and mana costs adjusted
  
• Grave Pyre added to vendors
  
• Life Leech now scales with Intellect. Damage and mana cost increased, duration reduced to 60 seconds
  
• Life Leech II added to vendors
  
• Veil of Undeath line has a 60 minute duration, tick rate reduced to 3 seconds, mana regen increased
  
• Pet health and mitigation increased
  

[h3]Paladin[/h3]

• Technique damage now scales with Dexterity
  
• Condemning Blow base threat increased
  
• Wrathful Aegis scaling was changed from DD scaling formula to DoT formula (reduction) and now scales with Dexterity.
  
• Valiant Cross line damage reduced, threat increased
  
• Oathflame Wrath cost reduced to 300
  
• Oathflame line base healing increased, WIS scaling reduced slightly
  
• Burst of Light line healing reduced
  
• Smite line now scales all damage with CHA. Base damage reduced, base threat increased.
  
• Bright lance line now scales with STR, cooldown increased to 30 seconds.
  
• Doubled the amount of wrath gain from taking hits and capped it to only happen at most once per second.
  

[h3]Ranger[/h3]

• Added additional ranks of Swift Shot starting at level 10
  
• Changed the name of the Ranger healing line to Faerie Glow starting at level 6. Added additional rank of Faerie line at level 36
  
• Added additional upgrade to Aim to Kill line at level 36
  
• Most bow attacks now scale with DEX
  
• Most melee attacks now scale with STR
  
• Most mobility and beckon skills now scale with AGI
  
• Fractal Arrow line DD and DoT damage scales with AGI and properly use ranged weapon damage
  
• Stat scaling on most techniques increased
  

[h3]Rogue[/h3]

• Technique damage scaling changed to AGI.
  
• Stat scaling on all techniques increased, except for Hidden Swing.
  
• Corrosive Brew IV tooltip updated to 40%
  
• Explosive Trap damage increased and now scales with INT.
  
• Explosive Decoy, Toxic Elixir, Shadow Planning and Elixir of Opportunity reduced to 4 second cast times
  
• Shadowfall damage now scales with DEX.
  

[h3]Shaman[/h3]

• Fang line now scales with INT (old modifier was 0.1 of stats, switched to scaling up to 2.0x at highest rank). Mana cost increased, base damage increased.
  
• Strike of the Snake minimum damage increased, damage now scales with CON
  
• Sting of the Hornet minimum damage increased, mana cost increased, damage now scales with CON
  
• Sting of the Great Scorpion minimum damage increased, mana cost increased, damage now scales with CON
  
• Crown of Ashes minimum damage increased, damage now scales with CON
  
• Crown of Flames minimum damage increased, mana cost increased, damage now scales with CON
  
• Crown of Lava minimum damage increased, mana cost increased, damage now scales with CON
  
• Parched Throat maximum damage increased, damage now scales with STA
  
• Choking Thirst minimum and maximum damage increased, mana cost increased, damage now scales with STA
  
• Mark of the Fireclaw resist and Fire bonus reduced at each rank
  

[h3]Summoner[/h3]

• Pet health and mitigation increased
  

[h3]Warrior[/h3]

• Battle points are no longer gained when expending readiness.
  
• Technique damage now scales with Agility
  
• Mocking Blow base threat increased
  
• Kick, Cleave, Smash, Storm, and Close the Gap now scale with AGI
  
• Hammering Blow, Shield Throw, and Shield Slam now scale with CON
  
• Punish and Retaliate now scale with STR
  

• Additional gatherable plants have received updated visual effects, in preparation for eventually disabling the default visibility of nameplates on all gathering nodes to help reduce screen clutter. Please note that what you see may vary depending on your monitor and settings.
  

[h3]General[/h3]

• Work order tokens are now stackable in inventory.
  

[h3]Leatherworking[/h3]

• The Jungle Naturalist's Bracers now require a Celestium Dust of Insight in their construction, instead of a Celestium Dust of Might, and provide the appropriate stat benefit.
  

[h3]Salvaging[/h3]

• It is now possible to salvage most low-level dropped metal armor.
  

PAL

• Updated color palette for all vfx
  
• New vfx for group heal and Unleash abilities
  

WIZ

• New vfx for Ember Arrow
  
• Unified the color palette for shock-based spells
  
• Improvements to the elemental stances to address lag spikes with the shader
  
• Minor improvements to familiar vfx
  
• Shielding line split into visual progression tiers (this also applies to all classes that use this spell line)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Adventurers Again[/h3]
by Chris ‘Joppa’ Perkins

I’ve always been intrigued by story-telling in video games, especially in MMOs. The MMO genre, with its perpetual nature, has amazing potential to create unique and open-ended narrative experiences. But with all the evolutions and improvements the MMORPG genre has enjoyed over the last few decades, when we sit down to play, do we feel more like adventurers, or less?

How do we get back to those roots? Is it possible to design a world, quests and characters that create the opportunity for players to make genuine discoveries? Where those discoveries have social impact, and you find yourself returning to this world because you long to explore? I truly believe this is possible, and we hope to achieve it through the Perception system.

The common trend in MMOs is to deliver story and quest content to players in a highly linear and directive way. This familiar format generally goes something like: travel to a new area, find the NPC hub where quests are dispensed and gather them all, follow your minimap to various quest objectives and do as many as possible in one run before returning back for the grand turn-in. Continue until you are directed to the next hub, rinse and repeat. This rhythm is often the best way to progress and gear up on your way to max level.

But this approach has changed us. Over the years, the grand worlds we inhabit as players have become less things to be explored and more of a curated conveyor belt of content. The world, narrative, and characters serve only as a quiet backdrop while our minimap hurries us along the progression line. And if the points of progression are already determined and revealed to us, what are we actually discovering? This is exactly what we’re endeavoring to change.

[h3]Go Forth and Explore[/h3]
In Pantheon, your actions, conversations and curiosity matter. We won’t be handholding you. In fact, we are quite comfortable with players missing out on something because they didn’t bother to look hard enough. Didn’t consider talking to the cook’s assistant humbly working away near a stove in Demith? Maybe that’s one of the decisions that led to your friend being offered a quest to hunt the traitorous wind nomad in Silent Plains! Every chest you open, enemy you slay, conversation you have, dialogue you choose and location you visit may play a role in shaping your unique adventure through Terminus.

The upcoming Smoldering Trenches and Ashbreather Enclave will be an opportunity to experience the powerful Perception system at work.

So now, go forth and explore, Adventurers!

[h3]Implementing Perception in Pantheon[/h3]
by Nephele

Have you ever had a moment in a game where you discovered something that you weren’t expecting? Maybe it was a secret area, or a tidbit of lore, or potentially even a hidden encounter, but if you’re like me, it probably caused you to spend hours and hours looking for more of those things, just to try and find what you might have been missing up until that point.

Over the years we have talked a lot about the Perception system in our game – and for good reason. There is a lot to it. Under the hood, Perception is a system of character flags, checks, and triggers that let us make things happen in response to what you’ve done or discovered in the game, or even what you have not done or discovered. However, what it lets us do is much more interesting.

• With perception, we can give you discoveries to find in the world – some easy, some hard. Hidden treasure, obscure quests, even secret encounters with powerful foes.
  
• With perception, we can allow things to happen in response to your presence and your actions. Perhaps you’re investigating a theft for the local merchant’s guild, and someone ambushes you to try and stop your efforts. Or maybe you’ve found an item in the world, and NPCs interact with you differently because you’ve found that item.
  
• Perception also allows us to bring the lore and secrets of the world to life so that you can explore them organically. What starts off as simply fighting the local bandits might cause you to stumble into clues about an ancient mystery or an insidious plot.
  

The best thing about the perception system is that it gives us room to help make each character’s journey through the game more unique to them. One of the problems that has plagued MMOs since their inception is the challenge of how you scale your content to thousands of players who are experiencing the world side-by-side. As gamers, we talk a lot about “firsts”, because once something is known, it often ends up fully described in a video walkthrough somewhere or on a website somewhere, and that sense of discovery can rapidly be lost as a result. Perception helps us swing that pendulum back to a place where one character’s journey might be significantly different from another’s, and that sense of discovery still exists for players who come into the game later.

[h3]Implementing Perception[/h3]
As mentioned above, Perception in our game is ultimately powered by a system of character flags and triggers that allow us to set up decision flows within the game. Did you find that quest and did you finish it, or is it still running? Did you kill that NPC? Do you have that item? Did you loot the treasure box in the ruins, or did you miss it? Have you visited that area of the world? The system allows us to make decisions based on any of these parameters, either alone or in combination. It’s very powerful, but it also makes using it quite a bit more involved than setting up a simple quest.



For our upcoming Ashbreathers content release, much of the work we have been doing with Perception is expanding that system of flags and triggers to cover the different scenarios that we need to support. For example, we’ve added functionality that allows us to check the status of individual quest objectives, rather than just the overall quest itself. We’ve also added functionality that lets us detect whether specific NPCs are spawned in an area or not. These are just two examples – there are many more. Most of our Perception development time has gone into these types of things, so that we can use the system to start making the game more dynamic and responsive to our players.

[h3]Perception in our Upcoming Content[/h3]
What might be more interesting is how we’re using it.

The Ashbreathers Enclave and the Smoldering Trenches have some significant lore and backstory associated with them. These areas were directly impacted by the events of the past and are connected to things happening elsewhere in Terminus as well. Lore like this is much more fun when you discover it though, rather than having it told to you. To achieve that, many of our quests in the area, as well as some other things, use the Perception system.

Before anyone panics, I am not going to spoil these quests in this blog post. But suffice to say that as you adventure through the area, you may stumble across various discoveries that lead to something greater. Answers that lead to more questions, and places that you visited before that now have greater meaning, or that you may want to revisit.



For the process of creating these quests and events, most of the credit must go to Roenick and Istuulamae, who created the NPC dialogue and outlined the lore, secrets, and plots that are in motion in the area. With help from several others on the team, I then worked to place these into the game in a way that allows you to experience them, rather than simply follow them. That is not only reflected in quests that you might discover and unlock, but also in the names of things and places, in the visual models that they use, in the flavor text you see on items, and of course in the events that may occur as you adventure through the area.

When the area first arrives on June 11, you will be able to experience this content for yourself. I personally can’t wait to see you all talking about the discoveries you make in the area. While there will be a fair amount of content available for you on the 11th, more is coming, and we plan to do an update in a few weeks that brings you the final, epic conclusion of one of the main storylines, as well as additional quests and events in the area.

Ultimately, we want this place to feel like a very rich experience where it might take you many trips to fully uncover all its mysteries. And as we move forward into other areas of content big or small, we’ll be taking these new tools and leveraging them there as well.

Once mere whispers from Kingsreach's shadowed mountains, the Ashbreathers were spoken of as pale devotees of a dead dragon. After a terrible conflict shattered their mountain tomb, they were unleashed like ravenous beasts, consuming the ashes left by war... an act that awoke a terrible, primal power. Over centuries, these ashen terrors have evolved from a feral horde into an unnervingly ordered host, their society stratified by the ash they inhale.

Please visit the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen website to view preview screenshots of this new high-level content.

On June 11th, head to Silent Plains and discover the Smoldering Trenches and the nearby Ashbreather Enclave to learn about this civilization, its history, inhabitants, and its dark secrets.