Vanguard

[Nox]

Anyone planning on playing?

Nox

[Dooms]

Very disapointed with the beta, it might aswell be everquest 2

[Nox]

erm, mate - its beta lol, when did you get in? since the pre-order? the amount its been updated and fixed in the past month is ridiculous, and yes, its made by the people who did eq1, so it is eq2, spiritually

I like it.

really would not pass judgement until its released, beta = bug fix & rounding/tweaking

Nox

[Dooms]

Got in couple weeks ago, just not my cup of tea

My comment about it might aswell be eq2 is mainly becuase eq2 is still in full swing with a fan base and the same company (SOE) are releasing another similar game to compete with.... their own game.

They would of been better venturing into something else imo.

[Steven W]

I've been playing on it for a couple of weeks. It needs loads of stuff sorting out on it, but I like diplomacy and the quests are entertaining (when they work).

It has plenty of promise and I've seen it improve almost daily.

Never played Everquest, so can't compare it to that.

P.S Lord of the Rings Online beta sign ups now!
See you in Middle Earth.

[BubbySoup]

Am in both Vanguard and LOTR betas. I prefer Vanguard but that's probably because it is as close to the original EQ as you are going to get since WOW re-wrote the mmorpg rule book to the detriment of some of us older EQ players.

Will be playing V when it arrives.

[Nox]

They would of been better venturing into something else imo.

Vanguard was done by the people who did the original Everquest, they left Sony as they were being held back and formed their own company. Microsoft then got involved somehow, and it all ended up back in Sonys lap, they didn't go out to compete with themselves at day 1!

That said, there are a lot of old school EQ1 players who either aren't playing or have been waiting for Vanguard since EQ1 in another game - I think Sony were probably wise as I can see a lot of EQ2 players going for this instead - my old EQ2 guild will probably take a 30-40% hit in numbers, and thats just the people who are admitting they are going!!

It should probably be considered the true EQ2.

Nox

[fisnik]

It'll be interesting to see if it has any impact on WOW but I pretty much doubt it.

[Nox]

Atleast 1 person will stop playing wow for vanguard, maybe 2

Nox

[acrobat]

I just saw this thread and thought I'd say hello

I have been in Vanguard for about 12 months but haven't been able to tell anyone

I just bought it today Its a brilliant game.. I actually went through lots of different opinions while playing it. I really disliked my first week or so. Level 1 to 10 its pretty pathetic really. Not a whole lot different to other MMORPGs to be fair... but still.... it was just not very impressive. I found myself basically finding a creature (mob), and casting the same spell just two or three times, and it was half dead before it reached me, and then only managed to get a few hits in before I killed it.

At about level 12, I ran out of quests in my home town area, and I got worried that the game lacked quests... It was only when someone basically said, "Travel.. you lazy git!" that I started travelling around, and I found literally hundreds of other quests. At level 12, my journal soon ended up full, and all the way through the teens, I had an endless supply of quests. Some of them where really good too. By about level 16, the combat had started getting really good... Instead of just a few spells, I now had a few whole banks of hotkeys, filled with spells. By about level 20, I had three nukes, half a dozen DoT (damage over time) spells, a couple of pets, and a bunch of interesting utility spells.

The combat just really started getting more interesting and challenging, and I found myself getting really hooked - a lot like early EverQuest.

My other concern that turned around, was fighting in a group. In my first month or so, I seemed to keep joining groups who only fought mobs with 1 or 2 dots. Occasionally we would fight a 3 dot mob. I didn't really understand how the dots worked back then, so I just felt peaved that combat was so fast, there was no challenge, and it was basically pretty mindless.

But then.... I found out about the dots. 1 + 2 dot mobs are for soloing 3 dot mobs are for small groups.... So when I was in a full group of 6 people and fighting 1-3 dot mobs, we where totally fighting the wrong stuff basically. 4 and 5 dot mobs are for full groups, and 6 dot mobs are for big raids.

So after a while I started joining better groups where we went to places with 4 and 5 dot mobs. It got MUCH better then. I had to concentrate hard, and it just got a lot more exciting and challenging, and everyone was using their characters to their full potential. Psionisists where charming stuff to make it fight others, I was putting stuff to sleep and everyone was fighting well basically, and it was a lot more fun.

I also made a couple of friends in the beta and the 3 of us did quests together. I found that to be a lot of fun, and was a really nice break from being in big groups.

Anyway Im rambling...

All I really wanted to say, was that the game is strange in a 3 ways. And if people dont realise this.. I dont think the game will do very well.

1) First off, it takes some time and effort to actually SEE the game itself. If I just mess about for a while, I still ended up level 10 or less, and its not really fun then. It only really got fun for me, once I got further into the teens. So they better hope that people have enough time and patience to play it for a while, or they might just give up in their first week.

2) The game changed SO much during beta. In the early days, it was so lacking in so many ways... But they just kept adding more things and more tweaking. It ended up really good, and then in this last month, they did a TON of work on it. A bunch of graphics have changed now. Spell effects are 10 times better than they where a month ago, and they are improving all the time. That rubbish red particle effect they used everywhere... is gone now Also, there is a whole new sky in the game now. It gives it a much better look. A bunch of quests where added and a bunch where fixed. There was tons of balancing. And the frame rates really improved in the last few weeks.

3) Some things aren't explained... At around level 12, there was a LOT of people saying, "Why are there no more quests?! ". But if you go to a new area, and then keep travelling and exploring, you find hundreds of new quests. But if people dont realise that, they may think the game lacks quests. Its a shame they didn't just add a few quests in the starter areas, which send people further away, to introduce them to the next area. I went from Tursh to Veskal's Exchange at about 12, and went from having no quests in my journal... to having a completely full journal And then there are tons of other areas to get even more quests too.


Overall I love it

My only other tip for other people though... is that if you dont have a really good computer... it totally ruins the experience. On my old computer... it looked like a really rubbish old game. Like a cheap copy of EverQuest or something.... On a really good computer, it just looks totally amazing. Its the best looking game I've played so far I think. I'm sure Crysis and Alan Wake etc.. will look better, but so far, its pretty much the king. Although ES4: Oblivion is better in some ways. But overall, I love the way Vanguard looked. It just requires a small fortune to be able to play it at good quality

[Steven W]

I just saw this thread and thought I'd say hello

I have been in Vanguard for about 12 months but haven't been able to tell anyone

I just bought it today Its a brilliant game.. I actually went through lots of different opinions while playing it. I really disliked my first week or so. Level 1 to 10 its pretty pathetic really. Not a whole lot different to other MMORPGs to be fair... but still.... it was just not very impressive. I found myself basically finding a creature (mob), and casting the same spell just two or three times, and it was half dead before it reached me, and then only managed to get a few hits in before I killed it.

At about level 12, I ran out of quests in my home town area, and I got worried that the game lacked quests... It was only when someone basically said, "Travel.. you lazy git!" that I started travelling around, and I found literally hundreds of other quests. At level 12, my journal soon ended up full, and all the way through the teens, I had an endless supply of quests. Some of them where really good too. By about level 16, the combat had started getting really good... Instead of just a few spells, I now had a few whole banks of hotkeys, filled with spells. By about level 20, I had three nukes, half a dozen DoT (damage over time) spells, a couple of pets, and a bunch of interesting utility spells.

The combat just really started getting more interesting and challenging, and I found myself getting really hooked - a lot like early EverQuest.

My other concern that turned around, was fighting in a group. In my first month or so, I seemed to keep joining groups who only fought mobs with 1 or 2 dots. Occasionally we would fight a 3 dot mob. I didn't really understand how the dots worked back then, so I just felt peaved that combat was so fast, there was no challenge, and it was basically pretty mindless.

But then.... I found out about the dots. 1 + 2 dot mobs are for soloing 3 dot mobs are for small groups.... So when I was in a full group of 6 people and fighting 1-3 dot mobs, we where totally fighting the wrong stuff basically. 4 and 5 dot mobs are for full groups, and 6 dot mobs are for big raids.

So after a while I started joining better groups where we went to places with 4 and 5 dot mobs. It got MUCH better then. I had to concentrate hard, and it just got a lot more exciting and challenging, and everyone was using their characters to their full potential. Psionisists where charming stuff to make it fight others, I was putting stuff to sleep and everyone was fighting well basically, and it was a lot more fun.

I also made a couple of friends in the beta and the 3 of us did quests together. I found that to be a lot of fun, and was a really nice break from being in big groups.

Anyway Im rambling...

All I really wanted to say, was that the game is strange in a 3 ways. And if people dont realise this.. I dont think the game will do very well.

1) First off, it takes some time and effort to actually SEE the game itself. If I just mess about for a while, I still ended up level 10 or less, and its not really fun then. It only really got fun for me, once I got further into the teens. So they better hope that people have enough time and patience to play it for a while, or they might just give up in their first week.

2) The game changed SO much during beta. In the early days, it was so lacking in so many ways... But they just kept adding more things and more tweaking. It ended up really good, and then in this last month, they did a TON of work on it. A bunch of graphics have changed now. Spell effects are 10 times better than they where a month ago, and they are improving all the time. That rubbish red particle effect they used everywhere... is gone now Also, there is a whole new sky in the game now. It gives it a much better look. A bunch of quests where added and a bunch where fixed. There was tons of balancing. And the frame rates really improved in the last few weeks.

3) Some things aren't explained... At around level 12, there was a LOT of people saying, "Why are there no more quests?! ". But if you go to a new area, and then keep travelling and exploring, you find hundreds of new quests. But if people dont realise that, they may think the game lacks quests. Its a shame they didn't just add a few quests in the starter areas, which send people further away, to introduce them to the next area. I went from Tursh to Veskal's Exchange at about 12, and went from having no quests in my journal... to having a completely full journal And then there are tons of other areas to get even more quests too.


Overall I love it

My only other tip for other people though... is that if you dont have a really good computer... it totally ruins the experience. On my old computer... it looked like a really rubbish old game. Like a cheap copy of EverQuest or something.... On a really good computer, it just looks totally amazing. Its the best looking game I've played so far I think. I'm sure Crysis and Alan Wake etc.. will look better, but so far, its pretty much the king. Although ES4: Oblivion is better in some ways. But overall, I love the way Vanguard looked. It just requires a small fortune to be able to play it at good quality

I'm loving it as well. Crafting is far more difficult to get into than many MMOs and I don't really like the map system. I love diplomacy and the community is great.

[[GSV]Myocardial]

Think you've just convinced me to upgrade my machine acrobat

I have played the Beta on and off for the last month, seen a few bits and pieces from a mate who has been in Beta since it's launch and have been impressed. But have felt that when I've played on my own machine that it's just letting me down and needs replacing.

Still makes me nervous thinking about giving money to Sony tho after their complete balls up with SWG (totally ruined the game for me) and I hope Vigil don't get too led by SOE's policies.

[Steven W]

Still makes me nervous thinking about giving money to Sony tho after their complete balls up with SWG (totally ruined the game for me) and I hope Vigil don't get too led by SOE's policies.

90 day free subscription with the special edition!

[acrobat]

Yeah the map is a bit rubbish. It just doesn't have any detail really. But after a while, I knew my way around pretty well anyway so it was ok. Although if I went to another continent, I'd have to learn that from scratch too.

As for the upgraded system, it makes a big difference. Although I played it on my mates PC over the weekend and it actually looked really nice, even though he was on "Balanced" settings. I think he has a gig of ram, a P4 3gig, and an ATI 9800. He had some stuttering and stuff but it was playable at that setting and looked quite pretty. I think he is gunna add another RAM because 2 gig is meant to smooth out quite a few games nowdays.

[[GSV]Myocardial]

90 day free subscription with the special edition!

Which version is the special addition ? I can find the normal, "Vanguard: Collectors Guild Edition" and "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Limited Edition "

Having read on the station site I'd reacon I'd need to go for the Limited Edition ?

[Steven W]

Which version is the special addition ? I can find the normal, "Vanguard: Collectors Guild Edition" and "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Limited Edition "

Having read on the station site I'd reacon I'd need to go for the Limited Edition ?

Yep, it's the Limited Edition.