The work on the MMORPG pre-alpha testing of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen continues to roll forward, with updates to the build applied last weekend are turning attention to itemization and crafting matters as Visionary Realms prepares to bring more areas of the world online.
In terms of itemization updates, the studio notes that item upgrades on new characters will be less frequent, stat-boosting gear will become more difficult to obtain or craft at lower levels, and more specialized equipment will arrive later as a character levels up. This is all in order to “improve the pacing of item upgrades and help make acquiring new equipment a more meaningful and memorable part of Pantheon.”
As a result of these stated plans, the pre-alpha has added new (and expensive) weapons and armors at vendors in Availia, added more drops from mobs in the Forelyn, and applied a wide assortment of crafting updates like changes to what items professions can craft, adjusted armor values of certain crafted items, and tweaks to material requirements, among other adjustments.
Meanwhile, the promised pre-alpha recap post is now online, which once again reiterates the shift to MMORPG testing and spends most of its length spinning a tale about 40 players who organized a fight against a level 20 world boss – an event that arguably would not be something that would have been possible in an extraction mode.
