Vanguard Feedback Thread

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: pontifex
anyone play a druid? how does it compare to WoW's druid?

I haven't played a Druid in VG yet, but its listed as an offensive caster, so its got to have some firepower.

 

[pontifex]

just got one to 5, not bad so far.

but the game isn't fun. at least in WoW, it was fun up to a point (lvl 60). Even though VG has the same type of quests, WoW made it fun somehow.

i don't think i'm gonna play VG anymore

 

[AVP]

Yeah the fun in VG is lost in the great vast world that they created. It seems dead at times because they simply could not fill it up properly. WoW had so many different areas of interest that made sense in their purpose and geography. In VG it feels like you are running around in random fields and such. Obviously this gets better as you increase in level and find more dungeons and such. Also, without a high end graphics card, the hitching and lag ruin the immersion horribly.

 

[imported_dfifo]

I started a Woodelf just to compare against my experience with a gnome and amazingly their starting area is ALOT more polished. The sound didn't seem to be working correctly but the framerate was tons better. I was running 1920x1080 with "balanced" graphic setting and was seeing almost no hitching except for when I panned the camera quickly. In the Gnome area I was forced to run 1024x768 with minimal settings selected.

So I guess that's why we're seeing varied reports of good framerate and bad. It's going to depend on the starting area.

I should also mention that the Woodelf area was using only 520meg as opposed to 850meg in the Gnome area.

 

[Mem]

New patch.

Game Update February / 06 / 2007
Vanguard Build 1737 Patch Notes 2/6/2007


GAMEPLAY NOTES
- You can now use rescues on allies behind or in front of you as long as there are not objects in the way (360 degree line of sight).
- Levitate physics have been modified. In open air, you now drop faster by default, and if you are looking down, you can drop even faster. You also no longer stop instantly (though you do stop much faster than our earlier beta implementation) and it should be easier to climb steps and slopes than it was before.
- AoE spells will no longer hit town NPCs.
- AoE spells will now acquire targets when the spell goes off (not only when the spell casting starts).
- NPCs that you have fought should now have their name color properly reset when you die.
- Added feedback messages to indicate someone is out of the PVP soft level range for awarding coin or infamy.
- Players now only have access to learned abilities belonging to their class.
- Enemies tagged by another player or group can no longer be charmed.
- When charming an NPC, debuffs and DoTs from players are now stripped.
- Varanthari Mount can now be used at level 7.
- Invisibility effects will now have the proper chance to wear off prematurely.

ADVENTURING
- Cleric ? Fixed the particle effects on Renewal, you should no longer recast the spell every tick.
- Druid - Phenomena upgrades are now learned via use.
- Druid ? Removed level 50 Phenomena from trainers.
- Druid - All phenomena of the same type should now be on the same refresh timer.
- Necromancer ? Increased damage for claw grafts
- Necromancer ? Removed broken grafts from loot tables.
- Necromancer ? Added improved and new claw grafts to loot tables.
- Necromancer - Fixed the guardian?s taunt ability.
- Necromancer - Fixed the guardian?s auto attack
- Necromancer - Fixed the slayer?s auto attack.
- Psionicist ? Timestop is now instant cast.
- Rogue - Completed the first pass on new rogue animations, particles, and sounds for abilities.
- Sorcerer - Amplify Destruction now increases damage by 50% instead of a flat 150.
- Sorcerer - Chromatic Barrier will now display 6 icons ? one for each resistance type.
- Warrior - Taunting Strike II, III, and VI can now be trained.

CRAFTING NOTES
- Crafting Advisors have more information on specialization, tiers, and learning continental styles. More to come!
- Added additional Novice and Amateur armor recipes to Blacksmith and Outfitter instructors.
- Novice armor secondary component recipes are now given sooner to compensate for added armor recipes.
- Crafted robes should now have their continental effects properly attached.
- The cost of Exotic Goods has been increased.
- Fixed bug with Pocketed Artisan?s Cloak that was causing it to give more stats then what was displayed.
- Fixed issue with crafted bows that prevented them from working properly with some abilities.
- Halgarad blacksmiths now have to turn in the improved hammer for the last part of their novice quest.
- Striking dust is more powerful.
- Added a bunch of recipe scrolls to the work order rare tables for all trades and specializations.
- Fixed item level issue with crafted rods (were showing as 10 levels higher then they should).
- Spears of Hexes were corrected from spell focus to heal focus.
- The Kojan elemental jewelry quest is now non-repeatable as intended.
- Reduced the importance of station skill in reducing complication frequency.
- Corrected the description text on orbs.
- End actions have been adjusted and no longer show unnecessary item requirements.
- Arming the Shaletooth Tower quest should now ask for the proper items to be completed.
- The upgrade to bellows damage has had its name changed to remove any doubt as to who it is.
- Fixed armor recipe descriptions not displaying proper ingredient quantity requirements.

DIPLOMACY NOTES
- Envoy Wyria has rejoined the living, is no longer missing her thoracic and abdominal cavities, and will be dressed properly.
- Horselord Tarqar is now interested in parleying about Civic Diplomacy.
- Failure in Civic Diplomacy now takes faction in a scaling manner based on the skill level of the NPC? low skill opponents (skill 50-100) take very little faction, while high skill opponents take a large amount of faction on a loss.
- Speaker?s Mantle rarity increased to match other Collector?s Edition cloaks.
- Most Civic Diplomacy NPCs now have more reasonable decks between skill 50 and 100. Between skill 100 and 200 the difficulty ramps up, and above 201 the difficulty goes up dramatically.
- One Fell Swoop adjusted to match other Statements of its class.
- The quest ?Unholy Dealings? in the Qaliathari newbie line should one again be working properly.
- The halfling quest, ?The Face of Death,? will now properly force abandon when the 10-minute timer fails to alleviate confusion about incompletion.
- The Civic Diplomacy Trainers will now take two of any Hearsay to complete the quest, as opposed to only Blackmail Hearsay.
- Nalzen Hunt?lar will now give out the proper cards on the second Diplomacy Tutorial.
- Orcs and Goblins now have their very own set of horse quests upon which no one tries to kill them. See Governor Jalixfin to begin them.
- Corruption At the Embassy now has a corrected reward set.
- ?Legend of the Blue Boar? and other quests now available in Three Rivers.
- Horse quests all have had their parley difficulties reduced to 50 across the board.
- Depressing Black Onyxes, Amber Rings, and Hilthorn?s Signet Ring are all sellable to a vendor now.
- Matters of the Hearth is now available to all players over 40 skill.
- Most horse quests are at a lower difficulty now.
- More quests have been added to the beacons in Temple of Dailuk
- Known issue: Some Informants are not behaving correctly.
- Known issue: Until next art update, some Diplomacy Held items will not appear on your character.
- Dark Elves - You can now learn the ability ?Elocution? from Nalzen Hun?tlar in Hathor Zhi, previously he didn?t think you were worth the effort, but now he?s changed his tune.
- High Elves - Tanalion Atilmo, the Palace Seneschal, has decided to grace you with his wisdom of the Absolution statement. Go with the queen?s blessing.
- Gnomes - Praise the Underking! Upside Affairs has recently developed a new statement to use in their dealings with the upsiders. Commissioner Adnomid Epgar of I-4 will now teach you the Absolution ability
- Kurashasans - Ragan Fulgar is eager to teach you a new method of manipulating the people of Telon to the will of the Council. Ragan will now teach Kurashasan diplomats the statement Disillusion.
- Goblins - Governor Jalixfin has had enough of the Orcs bossing him and his allies around, he is willing to teach any goblin diplomat the statement Absolution in an effort to gain some semblance of control over his city.
- Orcs - Warchief Zowb is warchief because he is both strong and wise. He is willing to teach Orc diplomats the statement Resolution, to put an end to the bickering in the war council.

WORLD POPULATION NOTES
- Coast of Ahgramun - Creatures in the Coast of Ahgramun should no longer show as being stuck.
- Coastal Graveyard - More named have been added to Siren?s Rock in Coastal Graveyard.
- Gardens of Xia?Liu - The levels on the creatures guarding the path leading to the Gardens of Xia?Liu has been brought more in line with the beginning part of the dungeon.
- Hilsbury - Many population tweaks in Hilsbury to reduce agro/assist radiuses and tweak mob placement, especially inside the mansion.
- Hilsbury - Reworked quest rewards and added choice rewards to all 3 of the library book quests. The books themselves are also now tradable.
- Hilsbury - Tweaked drop rates and spawns rates of named mobs, specifically inside the library.
- Hilsbury - Temporary disabled the vampire curse quest while it is reworked. The creatures will no longer curse you, but if you already have the curse the effect will remain and do nothing for the time being. Stay tuned for future additions.
- Items - Meteor Shroud now gives stat bonuses.
- Lakeview - There?s a new soloable quest in Lakeview, ?Halfling Bandits.?
- Landsview - NPCs within Landsview are now slightly higher in level and have appropriate appearances.
- Lord Tsang?s Tomb ? The Legendary Weapon Quest from Lord Tsang?s Tomb has been adjusted to allow players to select which weapon they want to upgrade
- Lord Tsang?s Tomb ? The Legendary Weapon Quest from Lord Tsang?s Tomb has been adjusted to allow players to upgrade all the weapons, one at a time.
- Lord Tsang?s Tomb - The Legendary Weapon Quest from Lord Tsang?s Tomb has been adjusted to not take Lord Tsang?s Key if you fail to kill the five generals.
- Lord Tsang?s Tomb - The Lord Tsang weapon quest has been fixed so the Inscribed Pillars will now no longer turn and face the player when initiating contact. They will also properly DoT the player.
- Lord Tsang?s Tomb - Tsang?s five generals in the final battle of the Legendary Weapon quest line should no longer unexpectedly despawn while players are doing the event. If they remain un-aggroed for 30 seconds, however, they will despawn and the encounter will end.
- Renton Keep - Renton Keep trainers now share the faction with the rest of the citizens.
- Renton Keep - - Aniike Willems should no longer have a fairy floating above her head.
- Temple of Dailuk - Quest: Find Apenlippe: The journal is now available on Apenlippe?s corpse.
- Temple of Dailuk - Quest: Bird Hunt will not update properly
- Temple of Dailuk - Quest: Savory Meats: The meat will stop dropping for players who finished the quest, and start dropping again for players who have not.
- Tharridon?s Quarry ? Leashing issues have been addressed in Tharridon?s Quarry.
- Tharridon?s Quarry - Aggro and assist has been adjusted in Tharridon?s Quarry.
- Tharridon?s Quarry - The hobgoblin leaders within Tharridon?s Quarry now take a break from time to time (everyone needs to relax sometimes).
- Tursh - There?s a new soloable quest in Tursh, ?Saving the Baron?s Deer.?
- Quests - The quests Rare Opportunity, The Final Assault, and Word of Scale have been updated with the proper Travel Journal Entries.
- Quests - There are many quests in game that will now appear as ?Small Group.? Previously, they were less accurately marked as ?Solo? or ?Group.?
- Quests - Several repeatable quests have had their rewards reduced.
- Silverlake - The quest ?Zarian Netherbeasts? in Silverlake now requires only one Zarian Netherbeast to be slain.
- Vault of Heroes - Cave of the Urugog in Vault of Heroes has had its difficulty increased.
- Veskal?s Exchange ? Many Kaon around Kaon?s Ridge in Veskal?s Exchange have become small group content.
- Veskal?s Exchange - The graveyard in Veskal?s Exchange should be more in line with the level range of the rest of the chunk.

GUI NOTES
- All sections of your recipe book will remain correctly populated after crafting.
- Bug fix: New group members will now see the correct current group loot mode of the group they are joining in their UI.
- The Name and Level Min/Max fields in the Find window will now work as intended.
- Long ability names will now show up correctly in the ability book.

CODING
- Eliminated some extraneous whitespace that was appearing in the chat buffer.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I don't know enough about the game to understand most of these fixes... Mem, perhaps you or others can give me some pointers...

One problem is this game as a warrior is the same exact problem I had in DAOC. I can NEVER afford to keep myself in *decent* gear. Doesn't matter what I do, but I can never acquire gear until it becomes mediocre at best and at worst below average "crap" quality drop off of any mob. Is there any tips for out there for what is decent money?

In DAOC I had to roll a caster (wizard) and had him fund my Armsman (warrior). This was totally uncool and has always been a complaint of mine in MMO's... Why casters get off scott free doesn't make sense to me. Their spells should cost much more money than a melee skills just to compensate for lack of needing cutting edge gear... Just a small rant that every MMO finds itself into :-/

In DAOC, you couldn't even afford to outfit yourself in GREEN gear much of the time. I don't know how they expect people to afford the Blue/Yellow stuff. Basically, only when you have gobs of money can you throw it at a warior and enjoy the leveling the process more.

With that said, I do enjoy my warrior, but with little money they are very hard to keep equipped properly.

 

[Mem]

ArchAngel777:I'm still learning the game but sometimes you get decent gear from quests,also check out the NPC vendors in cities,since they sell decent gear,don't forget you can also get it repaired,loot wise I just sell what I don't need for coins,every bit helps.


Btw maybe try range attacks as a warrior,that'll help protect your armour from damage.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Bummer, I had the whole evening dedicated to playing last night and about 30 minutes into it the servers crashed. The login servers remained in tact, however. I checked 30 minutes later and the same thing... So I just watched some DS9 instead. Bummer :-(

That patch really screwed things up for me. The time I was playing there were so many graphical glitches. My character sheet would blow up and take the entire screen up and be all pixely (like it was 320 X 240 or something) and sometimes I would see multicolored scrambled garbage textures.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Wow, maybe these devs are complete tools. The servers didn't crash last night afterall, guess what? They brought them down. They decided to post a warning on their website 20 minutes before bringing them down. Yet, there was no in-game warning that they were going to be shutdown. That is completely retarded. Many people lost a lot of hard earned work as a result of this. Who the hell is going to check their webpage while playing the game? That is so retarded. Even DAOC when it first came out gave warnings when the servers were coming down IN THE GAME! They warning you at 15, then 10, then 5 and then each minute after that.

Sigil gets a major thumbs down for this major "eff up". :thumbsdown:

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
My character sheet would blow up and take the entire screen up and be all pixely (like it was 320 X 240 or something) and sometimes I would see multicolored scrambled garbage textures.

Beta did that all the time, especially way back in Beta 2. I don't know if they still have the command, but do a /flush... It always fixed that issue way back in beta.

 

[Bateluer]

Game Updates February 07,2007

GAMEPLAY NOTES
- You can now type /portrait to upload your characters portrait to www.vgplayers.com
- Player Housing ? Plot upkeep costs have been increased to their intended values. Please make sure you have sufficient funds in your escrow account.
- Out of combat energy regeneration rates have been decreased to encourage the use of food. It is still faster than in combat energy regeneration.
- The critical hit weapon bonus on fast weapons has been reduced to 5%. The same rules apply for dual wielding giving you 2.5% critical hit bonus from the off-hand.
- Axes have had their damage range decreased. They now have the second largest range with the largest being lances, spears and polearms.
- Swords have had their damage range slightly increased.
- Short swords have been given the critical hit weapon bonus as they do light weapon DPS. They still retain their sword damage range.
- Challenge level 3 NPCs lower level than a player now give moderately more experience. Challenge level 4+ NPCs lower level than a player now give significantly more experience.
- Faction requirements have been lowered again based upon player feedback and our play experiences.
- Fixed a problem that was applying incorrect armor types to NPCs. NPC armor should now work as expected, with warrior type NPCs mitigating the most damage, and caster type NPCs mitigating the least.
- Horseshoes now properly display and enforce their level requirement
- Mounts now properly display and enforce their level requirements
- Food now properly displays and enforces level requirements
- Expendables now properly display and enforce level requirements
- Barding now properly displays and enforces its item level requirements
- Fixed an issue with focus items that were causing them to have 0 delay
- The max range reduction has been removed from all store bought ammo
- Fixed several unattackable NPCs that may have somehow been giving faction hits
- Charmed NPCs now hit a damage soft cap in the damage range between challenge level 3 and 4.
- Charm duration on challenge level 4 and above NPCs has been reduced.
- Charm break chance on challenge level 4 and above NPCs has been increased.
- When an NPC is charmed offensive targets are now automatically cleared for all players targeting the NPC. The same is true for defensive target when the charm breaks.
- Charmed NPCs now have their name color changed and their targeting color changed for everyone in the area of the charm. The same is true when the charm breaks.
- Charmed NPCs now have normal pet out of combat regeneration when not in combat.
- When charming an NPC the caster will now also generate a very small amount of aggro on other NPCs in the area.
- When charm is about to wear off there is now a system alert to the master of the charm.

ADVENTURING
- Monks and Disciples - Monk unarmed critical hit bonus now matches that of light weapons. The disciple critical hit bonus when unarmed was only slightly decreased.
- Bard ? Increased the cost of Swirl of the Tempest to the appropriate amount.
- Bard ? Calming Lullaby no longer causes global recovery, is now instant cast and has had its energy cost increased.
- Blood Mage ? Cleansing Symbiote no longer spams particles every 10 seconds
- Disciple ? Lowered the heal portion of Blessed Wind.
- Disciple ? Lowered healing on Endowment of Life.
- Dread Knight ? Vengeance is no longer on next attack, it is instant.
- Dread Knight ? Removed refresh timer from Abyssal Chains.
- Necromancer - Zealots should now deal the proper amount of damage.
- Necromancer - Zealots should now attack quicker.
- Necromancer - Acolytes now increase in power as you level.
- Necromancer - Bloodfeast and Transmogrify now have a brief delay before the hit point to energy conversion begins.
- Necromancer ? The strength portion granted by Legs of the Colossus has been reduced.
- Necromancer ? Added Fists back to Graft tables. These should now work correctly.
- Necromancer ? Adjusted the pet direct heal down. It now scales with current abomination hit points.
- Necromancer ? Renamed Ribcage of Reinforcement to Sarcous Ribcage
- Necromancer ? Sarcous Ribcage now grants AC only.
- Necromancer ? Backbone of Strength is now Thewy Ribcage.
- Necromancer ? Renamed Ribcage of Heartiness to Fleshy Ribcage.
- Necromancer ? Fleshy Ribcage now grants CON only.
- Necromancer ? Added Torso grafts to Necropsy tables. These should now function properly.
- Psionicist - Reduced the range on lure.
- Psionicist - All illusions should now turn you into the proper race.
- Psionicist - Mass Expansive Mind is now a group buff.
- Psionicist - Mind Wipe and Memory Shift should now display precise numbers for hate granted/subtracted.
- Psionicist - Simulacrum is intended to be an illusion for the entity it is cast on. It was a bug that other NPCs in the area gained aggro on the simulacrum. When the spell is initially cast other NPCs in area will gain a very small amount of hate on the caster. However, enemies that wander into range of the illusionary battle will continue past it thinking their ally is practicing its skills.
- Ranger ? Grasp of Earth now actually uses the Alteration skill, instead of just claiming to.
- Ranger ? You no longer hit yourself with Windsong for 0. This means it will no longer trigger Winter?s Cloak on yourself.
- Rogue - Updated all legacy rogue poison components to be cash items
- Shaman ? Ritual of Sacrifice no longer incurs global recovery.
- Shaman - Tuurgin?s Vigor should now properly reduce endurance costs.
- Shaman - Tuurgin?s Vigor should now display correctly.
- Shaman - Throat Rip I and II should now deal damage over time as intended.
- Sorcerer ? Energy Rift endurance cost has been fixed. It is now significantly more expensive. The previous energy cost was not the intended amount.
- Sorcerer ? Chaos Volley now costs more energy to cast.

CRAFTING NOTES
- Crafting gear that gives a crafting tool mod will now correctly affect both artificer tool skills.
- Fixed issue that was causing crafters to get rewards an entire grade higher then what they were supposed to from work orders
- You are now required to have the appropriate novice training to take the quest to find the amateur trainer.
- Removed some duplicate recipes from trainers.
- The Thestran continental style quests should now function properly for blacksmiths and artificers.
- The crafting advisor now provides additional information on the following subjects all gleaned from user feedback: catalysts/enhancers, horse renting, toolbelts, crafting setup, harvesting in relation to crafting, trade recipes, attributes, skills, action types, and the importance of refining and finishing.
- Faction has been greatly increased for outpost work orders.
- Fixed issue with thrown items displaying wrong damage stats
- Fixed incorrect display name on enchanted iron horseshoes
- The Tursh Supplies quest now provides more trade-appropriate tools.
- Crafting stations have been added to Veskal?s Exchange.
- Crafting taskmasters have been added to Veskal?s Exchange.
- Tawar Galan now has crafting stations.
- Tawar Galan now has taskmasters.
- Dune Eagle Trading Company Apron now is able to be equipped by all trades as intended.
- Refining recipes have been reduced in level.
- The Khal refining taskmaster now pauses longer in his route.
- Khal now has the amateur grip recipe.
- Existing references to Youngtree in certain quests were fixed.
- Oranku Silverwolf should no longer have an error in dialogue.
- Utility pouches now properly display and enforce their level requirements
- Crafted barding has had its sell price lowered
- Crafted expendables will no longer burn a charge when you do not meet the level requirement
- Mount speeds have been fixed
- Crafting level is now considered in min levels for mounts
- Kanada Stormpeak should no longer disappear when moving around the shop in Tanvu.
- Tin maces are now available on Thestra both in cities and outposts.
- Artificer elemental training quests have had their overall experience reduced.
- Outfitters can now change specialization at most outfitter trainers!
- Artificers can now change specialization at most artificer trainers!
- Blacksmiths can now change specialization at most blacksmith trainers!
- More trainers now offer to help you switch trades.
- Fixed issue with thrown items that was affecting their damage. (For real this time)
- Upgraded damage of crafted thrown items across the board
- Moren will now discuss work outside of Ca?ial Brael
- Upped rate of orbs from deconstruction a small amount
- Halgarad artificers-in-training must now actually assembly the saw to complete the Novice Quest.
- The staves that are made for the style quests are now properly referred to as staves in the recipe name and description.
- Drogan and Davrin should be fixed for Luca?s Quest.
- Style quest NPCs should now train you properly and give you the quest updates.
- Skill requirements for Practice Iron Bindings have been reduced
- The names on Pristine Harvesting Helms have been corrected.
- Fixed item level issue with tier 1 and 2 crafted shirts
- Rarity will now give crafted items an innate level boost along with standard increase in power
- Fixed item level issue for all crafted breastplates
- Gwartak Clan Armor Recipe should now work properly.
- More Gwartak recipe options will be available earlier on.
- Baguette Healing Necklace of Defense has been fixed to use Specialized Defense instead of Summoning.
- Superior Oval Healing Necklace of Defense has been fixed to use Physical Absorption instead of Mental Absorption.
- Leather Strapping recipes have had their names updated.
- Fixed Practice Sail recipes.
- Fixed Copper Martial Sword recipes.
- Copper Martial Sword recipes should now be available in Khal.
- Barbed Wood Weapon Upgrade recipe now accepts Virus Shortbow of Pain.

DIPLOMACY NOTES
- The Info Brokers in Naemsog Bunker have forgotten their old allegiances and have appropriate faction loyalty.
- The quest, ?A Case of Children Lost,? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- New quest available for diplomats in Tawar Galan, ?A New Crossbow for Jane.?
- New quest available for diplomats in Tawar Galan, ?Find Fisher Juni.?
- Acid Tongue, Lascivious Intimation, Dogmatic Parlance, and Esoteric Reference have had their refresh timers increased.
- All Informants should give the correct items and remove the correct amounts of information from your inventory.
- The quest ?A Trader for the Cause? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- The quest ?Missing Crewmember? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- The quest ?Redeye?s Reavers? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- The quest ?Retrieving Rabble? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- The quest ?Drinks For Free? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- The quest ?A Tricky Situation? is now available in Tawar Galan.
- The quest ?The Prodigal Apprentice? is available in Dark Horse Downs.
- The quest ?A Case of the Jitters? is available in Dark Horse Downs.
- The quest ?Taming the Beast? is now available in Dark Horse Downs.
- The quest ?What a Groundskeeper Knows? is now available in Dark Horse Downs.
- The quest ?Mint Condition? is now available from Horselord Mineon Frenouran at Frenouran?s Villa.
- The quest ?The Race? is available from Horselord Mineon Frenouran for players who have completed ?Mint Condition.?
- ?Clear the Evidence? in the Mordebi newbie line is once again working properly.
- The Arcane Informant in Three Rivers has been moved to the guard tower for her own safety.
- Derogar?s Post is now linked to Halgarad?s Civic Diplomacy levers. This means both areas share these levers, and both areas enjoy the same benefits.
- A number of new lore-based dialogues have been introduced to Civic Diplomacy. Look for lore about the gods for the next few content updates (this one features Kaerellun, Gloriann, and Sartholas).
- Each horse quest line now has an interim quest available for those who have completed the horse delivery but are not yet level 10 and can take the quest on which you actually acquire your horse. If you have done the delivery, and are still grinding your crafting or adventuring to 10, return to where your horse delivery quest dumped you off (Naemsog Bunker, Dark Horse Downs, Tawar Galan, the Martok docks, Three Rivers, or Veskal?s Exchange) to check out this quest.

WORLD POPULATION NOTES
- Coastal Graveyard - Added additional quests to Coastal Graveyard in Thestra
- Dargun?s Tomb - Tweaks have been made to the quests around Dargun?s Tomb
- Falgarholm - Adjusted the difficulty on a number of NPCs in Falgarholm.
- Falgarholm ? Added the repair option to the merchants at the Northern Border near Falgarholm.
- Falgarholm ? Adjusted the wolf tamers in Falgarholm so that their wolves now assist properly.
- Falgarholm - Removed the flee scripts on multiple NPCs inside Falgarholm.
- Items - Trumpet of Trengal Keep item has been fixed, bards enjoy ? everyone else, sell it!
- Khal - The guards in Khal will now tell you where you can find the ship to Kojan.
- Nakai Dojo - Trainers have been added to the Nakai Dojo.
- Pantheon of the Ancients ? The following quests in Pantheon of the Ancients have been disabled for the time being:
- By the Shieldmaiden
- Drape of the Silver-Tongued
- Escort the Chancellor
- Found and Hidden Again
- Great Sacrifice
- Hood of the Peacebringer
- Kreshnikara, the Weaver of Storms
- Maintain an Impartial Mind
- Recession of Beauty
- Righteous Flame
- Summonling of Vol Tuniel
- Symphony of the Butcher
- The Hunt
- The Maw of Tyranny
- The Rescue
- Trial of the Strategist
- Qa Riverbank - The Qa Riverbank Missive Board is now in operation. It can be found at the Neamsog Bunker.
- Quests - The quest, ?Goods of Raia,? is no longer sharable.
- Skawlra Rock - Skawlra of the Rock now grant Mekalia, Khal, and Upside Alliance faction.
- Temple of Dailuk - Stone ail Scorpions have had their difficulty reduced.
- Temple of Dailuk - Quest: Betrayel ? All group members on the quest should now receive the update after killing Palpenzar.
- Vendors - Mailboxes and General Vendors have been added to the outposts in the Tomb of Lord Tsang and Magi Hold.
- Veskal?s Exchange - There is now a missive board in Veskal?s Exchange.
- Zar Island - Killing Zar Acolytes now correctly gives Unicorns of Silverlake faction.

GUI NOTES
- Added an end harvesting button to the harvesting window.
- Harvesting tool delay is now viewable in item examine.
- All NPC abilities have had their icons updated and should now display correctly.
- The Market window has been almost entirely overhauled to look and function better.
- Market searches are now far more intuitive and easy to do. They will also return more accurate results!
- Choosing things in the Market search dropdowns will now appropriately narrow the options for other dropdowns.
- You may now click on the column headers in the Market window to sort by that column.

CODING
- Right clicking on altars will no longer bring up an inspect window.
- Fix for groups being disbanded when a member runs across a chunk boundary.
- Group members should no longer timeout from their group because the leader of the group moved to different chunk.
- You can no longer put bags into themselves. The space-time continuum is safe once again.

~The Vanguard Team

 

[gizbug]

Seems like users are finding this game boring, and not as "rich" or "fun" as WOW. Might hold off buying it. As for running around in barren areas with nothing around, I've never seen this in WOW, but I guess it exists in vanguard.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: gizbug
Seems like users are finding this game boring, and not as "rich" or "fun" as WOW. Might hold off buying it. As for running around in barren areas with nothing around, I've never seen this in WOW, but I guess it exists in vanguard.

Yep... I have been crafting and havn't logged into the game for two days now. I don't think I am gonna keep playing it. The game is far to buggy. If they fix the bugs, the graphics and enabled anti-aliasing (you cannot force it in the drivers, either) then I might reenable my account.

The game showed a lot of promise, but in many ways the game feels like it is running on dated technology. EQ2 looked just as nice, if not better in my opinion in a lot of ways. If AA was enabled and the game didn't run liks complete ass in some areas, I might give it better review.

Again, I so wanted this game to workout, but it feels barren to me. Maybe they made teh game too big, a shame, because I play a game to see people, not to sit in an entire zone to myself.

 

[Bateluer]

Posted Last Thursday. I would have posted this sooner, but I had other concerns.

State of the Game
From Ryan Elam, Director of Technology:



I?m going to answer some questions here, in typical FAQ style. It?s going to be very informal, and you MAY find yourself laughing at some point? don?t worry, this is normal.



1. Why do you have to patch so much after launch? Shouldn?t you be done?

I often say, ?We will continue to make mistakes because we?re made almost entirely out of humans.? Yes, I?m just crazy enough to admit it.

Let?s say you live in an absolutely huge house. We?re talking 50 rooms, built-in theatre, the works. You want to invite over a bunch of people to enjoy your house, but first you need to get it ready. You clean, and you scrub, and you fix every little thing you possibly can before your guests arrive. You think to yourself, ?Okay, there are a few more pieces of furniture that need to be polished, and yes even some dirt shoved under the rugs, and maybe that 80?s picture of Flock of Seagulls is a little out of place, but heck other than that, I don?t think anyone is going to have a problem!?

Then come oh? lets say? a few hundred thousand of your closest friends. You will be shocked and amazed at the little blemishes they find!

That is why. No matter how hard we try, we just won?t catch everything, nor will we catch everything in time.

Another thing to remember about Vanguard and games like Vanguard is a very old adage in development, and that is that complexity is an N-squared problem. The more complex a system is, the disproportionably greater the likelihood it catches the attention of old man Murphy and his Law. Vanguard is a very, very complex system, made up of dozens of complex systems, each of which is made up of hundreds of complex systems, each of which is written by a bleary-eyed human being doing his or her best to make an entertaining experience for you and your friends.



2. Why did you fix Bug03 but you still haven?t fixed Bug01?!

The most humbly simple reason is that we are a company of a hundred people, each of which has certain talents, and not all of which share those talents. Trust me, if I have spare time in the next six months, you don?t want me fixing the look of your dark elf?s hair! Nor would you want Jeff Butler jumping into the code to increase the speed of your rogue attack. There IS a prioritized list of tasks to be done, and those tasks are handed out to people to fix, and those people fix them as fast as possible, because if they don?t they have to sleep in the Llama pen.



3. Why is my client performance so bad?

Honest answer is because we made a game with a ton of graphics. Check your hard drive; it?s got a lot of Vanguard on it! Almost any given area of the game has potentially several gigabytes of geometry and textures to render, and we use every trick in the book to manage that memory and get it to your video card as fast as we possibly can. We also did our best to make sure that when the game came out, you could spend $150 on a video card that would run the game, and I think we did pretty good. We certainly don?t run at the same frame rates as some MMOGs that have 1/16th the graphics to render that we do, but with a few more weeks we should be able to run on most machines fairly well.

I can promise you, we will continue to optimize the client. You will see frame rates improve over time, and at the same time you?ll be exposed to less and less expensive hardware to run the game. If you are seeing Vanguard in low performance, do yourself a favor and look at the game on a system that runs it in Highest Quality. THAT is where we think people will be in another year, and we want the graphics environment of Vanguard to be your home for many years to come.



Item Loss Bugs

As of 5am PST Thursday morning, the item loss bugs revolving around bags should be resolved. While the fixes should prevent any new cases from arising, many instances where an item was already lost may be unresolved. We are still looking into a fix for this and will post updates as we have them.



Disciple Balance

Disciples were given some balance updates with the last patch to get them more in line with where they should be. Prior to yesterday?s patch, disciples could sometimes score critical hits upwards of 60% of the time. Obviously, that was not intended and it has been brought to a more appropriate percentage. We apologize that this did not make it into the patch note

 

[Bateluer]

New Patch

Game Updates February 15,2007

GAMEPLAY NOTES

- Removed the minimum range from all bought ammo.

- Updated camel mount speeds to be equal to horses of the same rank

- The passive High Elf racial inheritance, Elven Wisdom, will now last indefinately and work as intended.

- The chance to take a durability hit on items has been reduced by 20%

- Weapon, Armor and Ranged vendors should now all be able to repair items.

- When dual wielding, you get 66% of your mainhand weapon's speed, and 33% of your offhand weapon. The ratio of these is the same ratio as the damage you get from each weapon. Previously, you got 50% of each weapon's speed/delay.

- Attribute bonus to spell damage from intelligence, to healing from vitality and to melee damage from strength were only 70% as effective as intended. This bug has been corrected players will now receive their intended attribute bonuses.

- Spell resistance rates have been decreased.

- Gave all purchased horses/camels a bump up in stability, the higher the rank the better

- Housing - Added UI confirmation popups for purchasing a plot, abandoning a plot, and tearing down a house.

- Housing ? Fixed an issue where the fixture count for a building would not update if you picked the item up via the UI item list.

- Housing ? Fixed an issue where the upkeep balance value was being cut off in the plot information window.

- Shield base block bonus has been decreased.

- Wolves now run at normal speed

- Spider NPC abilities have been adjusted and expanded upon across the board.

- Effects that modify the amount of healing done should now work correctly, rather than reducing all healing to zero.

- You can no longer earn progress towards learning abilities that are higher than your level via ability learning. Your level must now be greater than or equal to the ability's level.

- The strength bonus to melee damage has been changed. Your strength now grants you bonus damage based on both your strength to level ratio and the speed of your weapon. This radically increases the effectiveness of strength in melee combat.

- The dexterity bonus to ranged damage has been changed. Your dexterity now grants you bonus damage based on both your dexterity to level ratio and the speed of your ranged weapon. This radically increases the effectiveness of dexterity in ranged combat.

- Intelligence damage bonus has been increased.

- Vitality healing bonus has been increased.

- Added some possible protection against PVP mez type spells never breaking some effects.

- Parry dagger and martial sword base parry bonus has been decreased.

- Melee evasion has been refined and refocused on block, dodge and parry effectiveness. There is no longer a base evasion that the player gets from dexterity as this type of evasion was decreased opportunities to counter attack. Dexterity will now increase your innate ability to parry and dodge. Strength increases your innate ability to block. You still receive a portion of your block, dodge and parry for free assuming you have your skill value up. Like other attribute based bonuses the required attribute to earn your full block, dodge and parry reward increases with level.

- Block, dodge and parry skills now determine your maximum possible chance to block, dodge and parry. Increasing you skill will increase your both actual chance and potential for increase with more attribute investment.

- You always have a chance to block, dodge and parry an incoming attack (assuming you have the skills) this was previously only true when hit.

- The new melee evasion system has allowed us to radically increase the amount of block, dodge or parry that a class has making counter attacks a more common part of gameplay (if you choose to invest in evasion). These are the new innate values that can be reached at any level by class:

Bard ? 16% parry and 6% dodge

Blood Mage ? 8% dodge

Cleric ? 8% block and 4% parry

Disciple ? 8% dodge and 4% parry

Dread Knight ? 14% block and 6% parry

Druid ? 8% dodge

Monk ? 12% dodge and 12% parry

Necromancer ? 8% dodge

Paladin ? 14% block and 6% parry

Psionicist ? 8% dodge

Ranger ? 16% parry and 6% dodge

Rogue ? 16% dodge and 6% parry

Shaman ? 8% block and 4% dodge

Sorcerer ? 8% dodge

Warrior ? 14% block and 6% parry



ADVENTURING

- All Classes ? Combat skill pools have been tweaked. Defense skills have been added and removed, depending on your class.

- Casters - Crowd Control spells are now less likely to be resisted.

- Healers ? The cost of healing spells has been slightly increased

- Melee ? Standard attacks (Attacks that normal damage + a number such as Brutal Strike and Sever the Tie) have been reduced in cost.

- Bard ? Charm can now be resisted like a normal spell.

- Bard ? Water Dance no longer increases evasion by 18% at max level. It has been lowered to 10%.

- Bard ? Reduced the amount of bonus block and parry by 1% for all levels of Water Dance.

- Bard ? Water Dance has been changed to a straight parry bonus to enable more counter attacks. Evasion and dodge and parry equate to the same thing, the exception being that when you evade or dodge you cannot counter attack ? and where is the fun in that?

- Bard ? Hymn of the Lithe now increases only parry and dodge

- Bard ? Removed the + block bonus from chorus of shielding.

- Bard ? The problem preventing Striking the Mountain from doing the correct amount of damage has been fixed. It will now produce the high hits it was intended to.

- Bard ? Lowered the cost of Thread the Needle to 18

- Bard ? Adjusted the levels at which you get Swirl of the Tempest. The new levels are: 14, 22, 30, 38, 46. You may be entitled to learn a new version.

- Bard - Adjusted the levels at which you get Sever the Tie past level 8. The new levels are: 1, 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48. This is to give a more gradual damage bonus.

- Bard - Suann's Entrancing Trill now lasts for 18 seconds and is limited to one active. Hallelujah!!

- Bard ? Reduced the energy cost of Suann's Entrancing Trill slightly.

- Blood Mage ? Recovering Burst now costs health and its energy cost was lowered.

- Cleric ? Revive has been changed to Resurrection and is still available only out of combat.

- Cleric ? Resurrection has been changed to revive. It has been added to cleric trainers at lvl 22.

- Cleric ? The buff on Maul of the Gods now affects ranged and auto attacks.

- Cleric ? The buff on Maul of the Gods no longer stacks with Rage of Tuurgin.

- Disciple ? Blessed Wind now actually heals your defensive target

- Disciple ? Lowered endurance cost of Blessed Wind to 30

- Disciple ? Lowered endurance cost of Blooming Ridge Hand to 30

- Dread Knight ? Scythe of Doom now has a 10 second refresh

- Dread Knight ? Scythe of Doom now only heals you for 25% of the damage done

- Dread Knight ? Scythe of Doom now has a slightly lower endurance cost.

- Dread Knight ? Archery has been added to your skill list

- Dread Knight ? You now have the Great Spear specialization

- Dread Knight ? Ominous Fate now has finite range.

- Dread Knight ? Vile Strike should now animate correctly.

- Dread Knight ? Phantasmal Blade should now animate correctly.

- Dread Knight ? Ravaging Darkness now plays its animation at the right time. (this fix should also fix the 4 second delay before the ability functions ? the endurance drain has an intended 2 second delay)

- Dread Knight ? Lowered the cost of Ravaging Darkness down to what it should be.

- Dread Knight ? Incantation of Hate should now animate correctly.

- Dread Knight ? Scourge now deals instant damage instead of damage over time.

- Dread Knight ? Abyssal Chains now states that it is Conjuration, instead of Alteration. (it was a display bug)

- Druid ? Forage is now instant cast.

- Monk - Secret of Ice I should now be available from monk trainers.

- Monk - Diamond Body II is now properly named.

- Monk ? Crane form now adds 8% to both block and parry at all levels. As you gain forms, the damage reduction is reduced. Once Immortal Crane is earned there is no damage penalty for adopting this form.

- Monk ? Aum Ti now increases parry by 5% and lowers endurance costs by 20%.

- Monk ? Drunken Sway has had its dodge bonus brought down to 10, 12 and 15%. The accuracy debuff on this form steadily decreases. Once Immortal Drunken Sway is earned the accuracy penalty is reduced to zero.

- Monk ? Cloud Dragon?s Ruse I, II, and III should now always open finishing attacks as intended.

- Monk ? Lurching Feint I, II, III should now always open finishing attacks as intended.

- Monk ? Trapping Mantis Claw I, II, and III should now always open finishing attacks as intended.

- Monk ? Gouging Claw and Sundering Claw should now display correctly.

- Monk ? Divine Tsunami should now display correctly.

- Monk ? Lurching Feint should now display correctly.

- Monk ? Drunken Arms of the Cyclone should now display correctly.

- Monk ? Impossible Drunken Palm should now display correctly.

- Monk ? Legendary Fists should now display as a punch instead of a kick.

- Monk ? Fists of Transcendence should now display as a punch instead of a kick.

- Monk ? Thundering Fists should now display as a punch instead of a kick.

- Monk ? Thousand Fists should now display as a punch instead of a kick

- Necromancer ? Renamed Legs of the Colossus to Legs of the Brute.

- Necromancer ? Skin of Mystics has been changed to Spiked Skin. This graft now grants your abomination a damage shield.

- Necromancer ? Added Skin grafts and Leg grafts to Necropsy (including fixing old ones ?or removing them)

- Necromancer - Necromancer direct damage and area effct spell cost slighty increased.

- Necromancer ? The necromancer form quests have been revised. If you are on the necro quests ?The Ritual? please abandon it and the new quests will be available to you.

- Paladin ? You know have the Great Spear specialization

- Psionicist - Added a Psionicist trainer to Lomshir.

- Psionicist - Time Stop now has an eight-second refresh time.

- Psionicist ? Increased the amount of regeneration given by Acumen.

- Psionicist - Spell line ?Time Stop? now has diminishing returns as intended.

- Ranger ? Decreased the effectiveness of Regrowth, increased its mana cost.

- Ranger ? The cost of Cripple has returned to normal.

- Ranger ? Evasive Form has been changed to a straight parry bonus, enabling you to counter attack more often. The evasion bonus often prevented you from performing counter attacks and had a compounding (and too powerful) effect on overall avoidance.

- Ranger ? Talisman of the Panther now increases evasion by 5%.

- Ranger ? Forage is now instant cast.

- Ranger ? When you fletch arrows, they will now come in stacks of 10.

- Ranger ? Whisper of the Wind no longer has diminishing returns.

- Rogue ? Blinding Flash no longer expends Flash Powder, but it is required to be in your inventory.

- Rogue ? Smoke Bomb now only consumes one Flash Powder when activated.

- Rogue ? Positional Requirement removed from Drub

- Rogue ? Refresh on Shank has been reduced to 30 seconds

- Rogue ? Refresh on Ruin lowered to 30 seconds

- Rogue ? Blinding Flash no longer breaks stealth

- Rogue ? Arc of Daggers and Rogue?s Kiss should now work correctly. Upgrades have been added at various levels. You may need to check your trainer to get the latest version.

- Shaman ? The damage buff on Rage of Tuurgin no longer stacks with Maul of the Gods.

- Shaman ? Skin of Tuurgin will now increase damage by a percentage as is stated in the description.

- Shaman ? Reduced the amount of percentage increase in damage on Skin of Tuurgin II and III to 22 and 25% respectively.

- Shaman ? Spirit of Rakurr now lasts 1 hour.

- Shaman ? Ritual of Sacrifice now has the intended refresh time of 2 seconds.

- Shaman - Shamans can now use Great Mauls when barshing things.

- Sorcerer ? The endurance cost on Energy rift has been lowered to 30.

- Sorcerer ? Endurance regeneration rate has been increase.

- Sorcerer ? Reduced the energy cost of Energy Rift

- Sorcerer - Sorcerer direct damage and area effect spell cost increased.

- Warrior - ?Strike Now? now lasts three seconds instead of for one attack.

- Warrior - The ?Decimate? chain should now properly continue to ?Obliterate? and ?Destroy?

- Warrior - Enrage I and II now add directly to damage rather than enhancing strength.

- Warrior - Added Shield Wall to trainers.

- Warrior ? The mitigation penalty for offensive stance now modifies your base mitigation instead of subtracting a flat amount.

- Warrior ? Roar of Fury no longer breaks mez, no longer deals damage and has had its taunt increased.





CRAFTING NOTES

- There is now an option to restart the tutorial on crafting advisors once the tutorial has begun. If you find you are unable to progress crafting at level 1 or 2 due to rollbacks, please use this option to reset the character.

- Attuning Powder and Attuning Crystals descriptions have been updated to reflect multiple attribute bonuses.

- Fixed issue that was causing crafted thrown items to do 0 damage.

- Fixed issue that was causing crafters to get rewards an entire grade higher then what they were supposed to from work orders.

- Increased bought stack size and max stack size of thrown items to be the same as bought ammo. Prices have been adjusted in consideration of this change.

- Barbed Stafff, Tin Greatsword, and Axe recipes are now available on most Thestran trainers.

- Konarthi Point faction rewards for work orders have been adjusted.

- You can now skip the Novice Quest.

- Updated crafted blacksmith ammo so it can now be used properly.

- Argus in Bordinar?s Cleft has more work orders.

- Engran in Shaletooh Tower has some work orders available.

- Artificer Stone Hatchet recipes are now Stone Hammer recipes

- You should no longer receive erroneous bonus Dahknarg Artisans faction for work orders.

- Blacksmiths should see more stoking with the stokers and less hammering.

- Upped base reward amount for resource deconstruction

- Hatchets have been updated and changed to be stone hammers

- Made complications more complicated

- Fixed BP levels for tier 2 crafted BPS

- Update looks of robes, cloth armor and BPS to be more consistent

- Increased crafted shield levels

- Updated dust tables in work orders to give rewards that are more appropriate for the level of challenge

- Updated description of brilliant work to display proper duration

- Fixed issue with good complication ?Ideal Opportunity? crashing you to desktop

- Fixed issue with crafted rings not equipping correctly

- All maker?s touch items should be on drop tables now

- Recipes require you to complete the appropriate tier quest to learn. In addition, you still need the appropriate amount of faction.

- High level ribbing recipes have been added to Kojani trainers.

- The quest ?Arming Hathor Zhi? now requires the intended crafted items to be completed.

- Added a smelter to the racetracks near Lomshir.

- You should now get the appropriate amount of faction when completing work orders in Fisher?s Pen.

- An additional educational refresher quest has been added to all crafting advisors.

- The item enhancement educational quest is now offered earlier in level.

- Added Shield recipes to Blacksmith instructors.

- Blacksmiths can now make metal sheets with vitality.

- Added Novice Blacksmith Grip recipe to instructors.

- Crafted Shields have been added to Blacksmith Armor Upgrade recipes.

- Quantity actions for refining recipes and secondary component recipes have been adjusted.

- Many remedy descriptions have been updated.

- The Practice Charm artificer recipe now specifies jewel cut.

- Crafting advisors properly discuss complications now. Everyone?s favorite subject!

- Tanvu blacksmiths no longer need to do the work order portion of the Novice Quest twice.

- Tanvu blacksmiths on the Novice Quest must now actually assemble the hammer with the tool parts to complete the training.

- Crafting stations have been added and moved in Konarthi Point.

- Crafting stations have been moved and removed from Leth Nurae.

- Fixed issue with crafting actions that was causing them to not consider item mods correctly.

- Did a pass on tool names

- Did a pass on procs added to items via crafting they should show up now when equipped but they still will not show up in tooltip.

- Did a pass on weapon procs added via crafting

- The quantity of iron sheets displayed in the recipe for Practice Mast Mounts has been corrected.

- Corrected the faction requirements for the Kojani Sloop Rudder quest.

- Corrected the quest requirements for the Qalian Studying Cornerstone quest.

- Fixed the sell prices of crafted harvesting tools and equipment

- Fixed issue that was allowign some crafted items to be deconstructable

- Better directions are given to find Karenda Bluewine.

- The quest ?Building Materials? now requires less boards.

- Many amateur tier quests now require fewer items to complete them.

- The apprentice tier quests now require you to make less items to complete the quest.

- The blacksmith initiate tier quest object in Konarthi Point will now work properly.

- Duplicate work order removed from Makell Tashar.

- Ca?ial Brael Crafting Adivsor now gives workshop location marker for new crafters.

- You can no longer have multiple ?Seeking the Trainer? quests.

- The quest for Qalian Sloop Mast Mounts can now be started.

- The crafting advisor now mentions being able to switch your specialization.

- Fixed issue with some crafted claws not showing stats

- Rods of the evoker that were not showing their spell damage mod should be showing them now

- Hexes should now add healing focus to hammers instead of spell damage as it was intended

- Artificer Stone Supports can now stack.

- Tawar Galan now gives more Kojani Artisans faction.

- More advanced work orders have been added in Dahknarg, Halgarad, Khal, and Hathor Zhi.

- Harvesting ? Rare gems will be found more frequently when quarrying stone.

- Harvesting ? Shambling Mounds are now harvestable for textiles.

- Fixed an issue that was causing the modification of come crafted weapons levels to be set to high when created. This affects the following and is retroactive:

Great Axes

Hatchets

Claws

Martial Swords

Truncheons

Martial Staffs

Bows

Crossbows

Bracers

Please report any instances of crafted items where the level seems to be to high for the level of the recipe from which it was created.



DIPLOMACY NOTES

- The card ?Think Fast? now displays the proper stats.

- The Tradewind set of tier 2 diplomacy clothes now gives domestic presence instead of merchant.

- The time given to complete the quest ?Side-Stepping? has been increased.

- Trends and Plots Informants should behave properly now, and no longer require you to have 10 of an info type to proceed.

- All Informants now have looping conversation trees.

- Hearsay stack size has been increased to 28.

- Rumor stack size has been increased to 25.

- Secrets of Telon should now no longer tell you that you have been injured over and over again.

- All Blackmail Informants are now working properly.

- All Arcana Informants are now working properly.

- Many minor deck modifications have occurred.

- Bordinar?s Cleft - Alurad remembered that diplomats are the agents of Kaerllun and no longer cares to be quite so generous in his bestowing of Divine Radiance upon newbie dwarves.

- Dark Horse Downs - The quest ?Revenge is a Scorpion? is now in Dark Horse Downs as follow up to the quest ?Tame the Beast.?

- Hathor Zhi - Hathor Zhi Soldiers will no longer give you Bordinar?s Cleft Prestige when you Entertain them.

- Konarthi Point - Konarthi Point dialogues have been adjusted.

- Neamsog Bunker - The quests "Malcontents?", "Stirrings in the Sand", and "Extracting Traitors" are now available at Naemsog Bunker.

- Neamsog Bunker ? The trading outpost located at Neamsog Bunkers has begun bustling with opportunity for journeyman diplomats to put their skills to the test.

- Neamsog Bunker - The mini-quest line ?Morale Obligation? is now offered by Low Constable Tiprey Octunoc at the Neamsog Bunker.

- Neamsog Bunker - The quest ?Retrieving the Reins? is available in Neamsog Bunker for those who have completed the three quests in the ?Stirrings in the Sands? series.

- Neamsog Bunker - The quest ?Gnomish Endearment? is available in Neamsog Bunker.

- New Targonor - The quest ?Breaking Into The Business? is now available in the Wharf Rat Downs, the slums of New Targonor.

- New Targonor - Ari the Cat says, ?Meow?? in New Targonor.

- New Targonor - New Targonor?s Temple of the Fathers has received more worshippers and courtiers of the King.

- New Targonor - The Docks of New Targonor now have content for diplomats with at least 201 skill. Look for quests ?Grog for Gurt?, ?Convince Our Benefactors?, and ?Mad, Mad Montebon?.

- New Targonor - His Elegance, Raoul would like to inform you that Raoul now offers an opportunity to serve New Targonor through the quest ?Tithed in a Knot.?

- Tawar Galan - The quest ?A Premium on Reading Materials? is now available in Tawar Galan.

- Three Rivers - Bordinar?s Cleft Faction reward has been added to the quest ?The Legend of Blue Boar? in Three Rivers.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The quest ?The Paranoid Psionicist? is now available in Veskal?s Exchange.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The quest ?Who is this Band? is now available in Veskal?s Exchange.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The quest ?Foreign Interests? is now available in Veskal?s Exchange.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The quest ?A Gift for a Djash? is available for those who have completed ?Foreign Affairs? in Veskal?s Exchange.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The Quest ?Nature?s Allies? is now available in Veskal?s Exchange at the Tree of Life.



WORLD POPULATION NOTES

- Arlinora?s Retreat - Instructors for all classes have moved into Arlinora?s Retreat

- The Blasted Lands - Several NPCs in The Blasted Lands have had their difficulty adjusted from 4 dots to 3 dots.

- Dahknarg - For the quest ?The Time Has Come? the Grurok and his companions will now stay longer, allowing players to more easily complete the quest.

- Faction - Skrilien Lizardmen should no longer give a blank faction.

- Falgarholm - Jarl Byom, Jarl Derragor and Jarl Schjerverud in Falgarholm should no longer appear as floating heads.

- Falgarholm - A small group of ice drakes has appeared in the hills near Falgarholm.

- Falgarholm - Trolls in the hills near Falgarholm will now appear correctly.

- Frostshard Lake - Mimgrar?s quest line has been extended.

- Frostshard Lake - There are now more drakes near Frostshard Lake. Look up on the rocks.

- Kalendra?s Coven - The Ravenous Ghoul will once again attack the Failing Pupil for the Art of Death quest line in Kalendra?s Coven.

- Kaon?s Rush - The spawn rate of named NPCs in Kaon?s Rush has been adjusted in the direction that it was originally intended to be.

- Khal - The quest ?Quelling the Riot? is now completed as intended at Captain Waqid.

- Khal - The guards in Khal will now actually send you to the mailbox when asked for directions to same.

- Mailboxes - A mailbox has been added to the Shidreth Trading Camp outpost.

- Marsh of Peril - Adjusted the rarity of a number of items found in Marsh of Peril

- Martok ? Grenik?s Glowing Talisman no longer enables the user to capture the soul of anything he or she wishes other than the intended target.

- Martok ? Players will be able to release the Worthy Spirit without abandoning the quest ?Talisman of the Worth? (Part 3) if they fail to defeat the entity.

- Martok ? The Worthy Spirit released from Grenik?s Glowing Talisman is now a Golden Encounter.

- Neamsog Bunkers - The Quest ?The Khal To Service? is now available from Low Constable Tiprey Octunoc in the Neamsog Bunkers.

- Northern Border - Players at the Northern Border will find that more trolls have moved in, and the quest, ?Tall Tales,? has been adjusted to suit.

- Northern Border - At the Northern Border, Carmella Osteria now offers players an involved quest line.

- Northern Border ? New quests added to Northern Highlands for small groups. These begin in the Northern Border near Falgarholm.

- Northern Border - Additional Trolls have been added to the Northern Highlands of Thestra

- Pantheon of the Ancients - All trials have been re-enabled within the Pantheon of the Ancients - - Pantheon of the Ancients - Marks from the Avatars of the deities no longer have any functional purpose. Existing marks have been converted to cash loot and may be sold to a vendor.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Anytime a player abandons a trial-associated quest, is actively on the trial, and is in a group ? the entire group will automatically fail that particular trial. Group members are notified of this action if it were to occur.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Most of the trials will setup new group members to the same progression status upon joining of the group. Players not currently on the quest itself will be prompted with the quest acceptance window.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Allowing the quest time to expire on all trials will now appropriately reset the current trial for the chunk, notify the player of the time expiration, and auto-delete the associated quest from the journal.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Players will now only be able to complete the trials of the Avatars once until full completion and sacrificing the Cloak of the Pantheon to the Avatar of Alurad.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Players who destroy (or otherwise lose) their Cloak of the Pantheon may speak with the Avatar of Kaerellun or the Shade of Moraj to obtain another (unless it was a chosen sacrifice).

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The treasure chests spawned upon defeating the trial of The Sisters will now despawn after a period of time.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Found and Hidden Again? will now auto-populate all group members of the player who recovers Joh?drol, Sword of the Jester with a copy of the sword. Feedback is given when this occurs.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?The Hunt? has had the unique loot table removed from the trial-associated NPC: Hoarn.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Recession of Beauty? will now randomly choose a player in the party to be the deliverer to the Avatar of Gloriann. Feedback is given to the party when this occurs.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?The Maw of Tyranny? no longer spawns endless amounts of waves until the party slays the appropriate number of Haelifur?s minions.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?The Maw of Tyranny? now gives ample amounts of feedback to the party when the next stage of the event is about to occur.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?The Maw of Tyranny? has had the unique loot table removed from the trial-associated NPC: Behemoth of Haelifur

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Innocents now aggros players whom are present when engaged on the trial ?Symphony of the Butcher?.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Symphony of the Butcher? now delivers ?Severed Heads? to all party members currently engaged on the trial.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?By the Shieldmaiden? has been modified to work in waves of encounters that engage the Victims of Ghalnn.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Victims of Ghalnn have been set to avoid area-of-effect spells.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The Aor?Ahn Elder associated with the trial ?The Rescue? will now properly despawn once escorted back to the Avatar of Vothdar.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Maintain an Impartial Mind? will now fail upon the death of the NPC: The Accused. Parties failing in this manner will have the associated quest auto-delete from the journal.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Righteous Flame? has had the damage component of the Righteous Flame increased per tick.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Righteous Flame? has had the visual effect changed.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Summonling of Vol Tuniel? has had the portion of ?Escort the Chancellor? folded into the mix into a single quest.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Summonling of Vol Tuniel? has been modified where players need to protect Tashini while she heads to the alcove of the Shade of Vol Tuniel.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - If Tashini is slain while on her path, all party members currently on the trial will fail and the associated quest will auto-delete from the journal.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Tashini?s teleportation spell will now affect all players currently engaged on the trial.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The Righteous has received a substantial boost in power.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Gift of the Prince has received a substantial boost in power.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Solrahn, Twin of Joh?Drol has received a substantial boost in power.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Staff of the Old World has received a substantial boost in power.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Insirion, Edge of Flame has received a substantial boost in power.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The quest associated with trial ?Maintain an Impartial Mind? will now expire after one hour.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Kreshnikara, the Weaver of Storms? has had the unique loot table removed from the trial-associated NPC: Kreshnikara, the Weaver of Storms

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The trial ?Maintain an Impartial Mind? will now reset automatically in all instances of inactivity.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - Both instances of ?Ini-herat the Attendant? have been set to be unattackable.

- Pantheon of the Ancients - The quest ?Great Sacrifice? may now only be completed once per player per victory against the Avatar of Mara and the Avatar of Caia

- Pantheon of the Ancients - All versions of the Cloak of the Pantheon have increased in power.

- Qa Riverbank - Qa Riverbank missives now give a small amount of Khal faction upon completion.

- Qa Riverbank - The Fiendflies Qa Riverbank missive now requires one additional kill to complete.

- Quests ? Test of Blood - Fixed the dialogue options on the NPC?s you challenge.

- Quests - The quest Phase Stones will now give travel journal entries to the phase stones

- Quests - Agent Under Cover: Azara?s Ring may now only be used near the Temple of Dailuk ruins and had it's casting time increased to 10 seconds. The shadowhound illusion has been reduced in scale and it?s increase in movement speed stripped.

- Quests - The quest waypoint for ?Weapons of Leth Verael? now sits directly over the Veraelian Sword.

- Quests - The rewards for the quest, ?Ssre'vessk,? are now all blue.

- Quests - The Ashwara?s Desire quest line in the Jharru area now has appropriate preconditions.

- Quests - Scouring the Earth is now marked appropriately as a Small Group quest.

- Quests - The Ice Drakes quest line is now available. Start with the quest, ?Kindred Drakes? that Gilreth Inesir gives you at the Wardship of the Sleeping Moon, or begin with the quest ?See For Yourself? that Hendar gives you at the Northern Border.

- Quests - Additional solo quests have been added to the Northern Highlands of Thestra

- River Palace - Pathing in the canals of the River Palace should be much improved.

- River Valley - Borzu Sabiri In the River Valley has opened up a General Goods shop

- Silverlake - Burrows Gang Bandits had their superhuman pie taken away and are no longer so difficult.

- Tar Janashir ? a new full group quest has been added to Tar Janashir

- Tawar Galan - Tawar Galan guards will now offer directions to the various ferries.

- Thelaseen - Chests in Thelaseen now despawn when looted.

- Three Rivers - The Pelan family now only exists in Three Rivers.

- Three Rivers - Slavering Wolves in Three Rivers now have the proper leashes attached to them.

- Trengal Keep - Draxxen in Trengal Keep should be less of a pushover, she?s still pretty squishy though.

- Trengal Keep - Item rewards from the Nishek encounter in Trengal Keep have been increased in power.

- Trengal Keep - Added additional solo quests to the Trengal Keep Area

- Tursh - The Tursh quest ?The Stolen Locket? can no longer be shared.

- Tursh - A general goods vendor has arrived at the Shimmerleaf Guardpost, near Tursh.

- Tyndale?s Sorrow - Mounts will no longer be afraid of riding near Tyndale?s Sorrow

- Veenax Garrison - Hill Stalkers, Large Hill Stalkers, and Hill Prowlers have returned to an appropriate level for adventurers around Veenax Garrison on Martok.

- Veskal?s Exchange - Three quests are now available in Veskal?s Exchange stemming from one Ragnir Ironbreath offers.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The quest, The Achatlan Invader's Plans, in Veskal?s Exchange should now properly complete.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The heads of Verdant Lurker leaders should now be unique, and Sentinel Uadu should now take the heads when the quests are turned in.

- Veskal?s Exchange - The Verdant Lurker head collecting quests will now direct you to Sentinel Uadu.

- Veskal?s Exchange - Quests to the Verdant Lurker Outposts will now have travel journal entries for all three outposts.

- Vol Tuniel - In the Vol Tuniel quest, ?Weapons of Leth Verael,? Ainsley Heath now knows for sure what type of weapon to send you to look for.

- Vol Tuniel - The Dark Memory of Oncea and the Essence of Xoth Uluus should no longer appear as often as they were.

- Vol Tuniel - Ancient tomes in the Vol Tuniel and Thelaseen region now despawn when looted.

- Vol Tuniel - Ancient tomes in the Vol Tuniel and Thelaseen region have had their mouse-over descriptions updated to match their contents.

- Vol Tuniel - The early portions of the dungeons Thelaseen and Vol Tuniel both have had their quest armor drop rates slightly reduced. The back of these dungeons have retained the same drop rate as before.

- Wardship of the Sleeping Moon - You can now turn in armor quest runes to Thorian Glowban at the Wardship of the Sleeping Moon in exchange for faction.

- Wardship of the Sleeping Moon - At the Wardship of the Sleeping Moon, Lennea Arrianth should now offer all players level 28 and up a version of her Foes of the Sleeping Moon quest. As players increase in Celestine Ward faction, the rewards offered by the repeatable quest diminish.



Items

- Extremely powerful magical weapons that had a bonus removing 0.5 or more from their delay no longer have their damage mistakenly reduced.

- The Verdant Pauldrons now display as pauldrons rather than a cloak.

- Tektite-studded Cloak has received a rather large upgrade, enjoy!

- Meteor Stone Pendant now has increased attributes and slightly lower resists

- Ring of Trengal has received a bonus to hit points

- The Western Watch Great staff and Western Watch Great maul should now have the correct descriptions.

- The item Instrument of Corruption now has a wind instrument modifier, its other statistics have been modified to allow this

- The item Watch Drum has had its icon corrected

- Blessed Infineum Armor now has the appearance of plate.

- Many, many, many, items from overland camps in Marsh of Peril have had their statistics increased

- The size of the Weapons of Leth Verael have been doubled. All 17 of them should be much easier to find.

- Ensorcelled Staff of Ahgram is now correctly flagged as a Staff weapon.

- The Ensorcelled Staff of Aghram has updated and is now useable only by Staff classes, not Greatmaul classes. If you chose the staff as a class that could use Greatmauls, return to Nekamhat Moullai and he will offer a quest to trade the staff in for one of the other quest rewards of The Final Assault.

- The Infineum and Mercurial Infineum Rods have had their statistics adjusted.

- All Rods will now display as wieldable only in the Primary hand.

- The ability, Infineum Strike, on the Infineum Staff and Infineum Rod now works correctly when activated.

- The proc effect?s duration from The Righteous Gavel has been reduced to 30 seconds.

- If you have completed the Ageless One quest in CiS and chose Nusin over Gazra, you may now temporarily speak with Of?Barbar to trade Nusin for Gazra; unequip Nusin before speaking to him if you are having issues getting the quest dialogue to open.

- Some tweaking of the Marsh of Peril armor quest rewards has occurred; more to come.



GUI NOTES

- Fixed a bug causing item drag-drop to display erratically.

- When in layout mode, windows will now display an overlay with the name of the window.

- The strength tool tip now shows how much of a melee damage bonus you currently get from your strength attribute.

- Character sheet tool tip information is now updated when you level. This was causing some of them to get out of sync.

- The tool tip for the block, dodge and parry skill now display the current maximum you have from the skill. Previously this value would change when you did things like equip a shield.

- Your fully modified block, dodge and parry values are now found as part of the defense tool tip. This includes your innate chance from skill and attribute plus other effects like a shield, combat form or buff. Since not every class can do each only the appropriate values are displayed. No display value means there is no contribution. For example a Sorcerer would see no block portion.

- The strength attribute tool tip now displays your actual innate block chance (if you have the skill.)

- The dexterity attribute tool tip now displays your actual innate dodge and parry chance (for the skills you have).

- The intelligence tool tip now displays spell damage effectiveness for a spell of even caster. When spells are first trained they are several caster levels above the caster. Only those classes with damaging spells now see this portion of the tool tip.

- The vitality tool tip now displays spell healing effectiveness for a spell of even caster. When spells are first trained they are several caster levels above the caster. Only those classes with healing spells now see this portion of the tool tip.

- Added confirmation boxes to all Market operations (buying, placing an item on the market, and canceling a sale).

- The dexterity bonus to ranged damage can now be found in the dexterity tool tip on the character sheet.

- The wisdom tool tip now displays the true energy bonus from wisdom.



CODING

- Fixed a bug with item hotkeys sometimes getting corrupted by a trade.

- Modified the /portrait command so that you no longer need to specify the "MOUNT" option to take a portrait of your mount. Now, if you are on your mount, it will take a mount portrait.

- Item tooltips for mailed items will now display the correct stats.

- Fixed a bug in trade causing received items to sometimes overlap old items.



~The Vanguard Team

 

[KMFJD]

Once the gfx/fps was balanced out for my system, this is starting to look like a decent game.

 

[Bateluer]

New patch

Game Updates February 22,2007

Vanguard Build 1758 Patch Notes 2/22/2007


GAMEPLAY NOTES
- Player chance to sneak past even level NPCs without detection has been significantly increased.
- Infineum Affliction is no longer quite so debilitating.
- NPCs - NPC?s with ?Timemage? abilities are now immune to charm.
- NPCs - Overland and Dungeon bosses are now more resistant to various status afflicting spells such as charm, fear, clone, stun and mesmerize.
- NPCs - NPC Heal-over-time spells have had their duration significantly reduced.
- NPCs - Additional NPCs now see invis throughout the world, beware
- Quests - Experience rewards from quests have been increased by a fairly large amount
- Players should no longer get stuck at 251 skill in Spell Identification or Tactic Recognition.
- Fix for charm "wars". You should no longer be able to start wars between npcs by charming them allowing charm to break, and then leashing them.
- The bug causing mobs to disappear during combat has been fixed.


ADVENTURING NOTES
- Protective Fighters ? Rescues are now usable out of combat.
- Bard - Tynen's Chant of Chains is now a verse.
- Bard - Illestine's Epic Substitution should now increase Cold Resistance in addition to Fire.
- Bard ? Mellarian?s Melody of War now correctly stacks with the Paladin?s Aura of Divine Power.
- Bard ? Greatly reducing the energy cost of Calming Lullaby.
- Bard - Suann's Entrancing Trill now has a 2 second cast time.
- Bard - Suann's Call of Slumber now has a 2 second refresh time.
- Bard ? Fence now has a 10 second refresh timer, down from 20.
- Bard ? Hinder now has the proper amount of upgrades.
- Bard ? The lyric, Hazoc's Magical Aria is now available at level 25. It was inadvertently left off trainers.
- Bard ? Striking the Mountain now exploits armor beloved patriot.
- Bard - Cleave the Mountain I, II, III, and IV have been added to the trainer lists, and are available (at levels 22, 30, 38, and 46).
- Bard - Humming Blade - Would turn off after 72 minutes, this is fixed.
- Blood Mage ? Quickening Symbiote now requires 1 Vial of Blood, 1 Still Beating Heart and 1 Quivering Brain to create. On the brighter side, these symbiotes can actually be created now.
- Blood Mage ? Organs for creating symbiotes now stack
- Blood Mage ? The assembly for Controlling Symbiote now correctly states you are making a controlling symbiote and not an animation symbiote
- Blood Mage ? Vitalizing Symbiote now requires 3 Vials of Blood and no other components. These symbiotes can be created once again.
- Dread Knight - Armor of Darkness should now increase mitigation as intended.
- Dread Knight ? Scourge will no longer get resisted as often.
- Disciple - Gift Of Vitae now adds endurance instead of subtracting.
- Disciple - Gift Of Vitae should no longer spam the caster.
- Monk - North Wind Breaks the Trunk should now cause the target to hurt itself upon attacking rather than healing itself.
- Monk - Form of the Spirit Dragon has been renamed Aspect of the Spirit Dragon.
- Monk - Aspect of the Spirit Dragon now grants invisibility.
- Monk - Soaring Leap should now actually cause you to leap.
- Necromancer ? Fixed a bug with Ravaging Claw II, putting it inline with the rest of the claws.
- Necromancer - The wraith version of the plague bringer will now cast ?Soul Vex? instead of ?Soul Blight?. This should be considerably less confusing.
- Psionicist ? NPCs now consider Time Stop to be a mez and not a stun.
- Ranger - Windsong now costs 10 endurance.
- Ranger ? Your Talismans should no longer wear off after 4320 seconds of continuous playing.
- Ranger ? Your Tiger Talisman now correctly gives a bonus to your auto attacks as well as your special attacks.
- Rogue ? Relentless Thrust is now attainable at level 10 and has no refresh.
- Rogue ? Drub has been increased in effectiveness
- Rogue ? Drub now costs 10 endurance, down from 17
- Rogue ? The Drub line of abilities has had some level changes. This gives it a more gradual hate reduction progression. New levels are 12, 20, 28, 36, 44
- Rogue ? Clout now lasts for 6 seconds or 5 hits, up from 3 hits.
- Rogue ? The Backstab line of attacks has had some level adjustments. New levels are 4, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44
- Rogue ? The Shank line of finishing attacks has had some level adjustments. New levels are 12, 22, 32, 42.
- Rogue ? The advanced version of shank are now actually upgrades.
- Rogue ? The Wicked Strike line of attacks has had some level adjustments. New levels are 1, 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48.
- Rogue ? The Last Ditch Strike line of attacks now deals increased damage, costs no endurance and does not incur global recovery.
- Rogue ? Lacerate once again exploits Armor beloved patriot.
- Rogue ? Slightly increased the damage of the Lacerate line of attacks.
- Rogue ? Note: There is a bug that is causing the damage display of lacerate and hemorrhage to show as much smaller than the actual damage done. The debuff tooltip (the one beneath the target?s display) is correct. This will be addressed soon.
- Rogue ? The damage of Death Whirl has been increased.
- Rogue ? Death Whirl now exploits staggered.
- Rogue ? Slightly increased the damage of Ravage.
- Rogue ? Ravage will now stun for 3 seconds on a critical hit.
- Rogue ? Relentless Thrust have been renamed to Vicious Strike.
- Rogue ? Vicious Strike (the attack formerly know as Relentless Strike) now deals additional damage on a critical hit.
- Rogue ? Deadly Strike has been added to trainers starting at level 26.
- Rogue ? Impale has been added to trainers starting at level 18.
- Rogue ? Shiv has been added to trainers starting at level 22.
- Rogue ? Knee Break has been added to trainers starting at level 4.
- Rogue ? Revenge has been added to trainers starting at level 6.
- Rogue ? Dazzling Flechette II and Advanced Dazzling Flechette II no longer function.
- Rogue ? Dazzling Flechette I and Advanced Dazzling Flechette I now have a different function and have been moved to level 15.
- Warrior - Devastating Blow now correctly displays that it roots the target for 3 seconds.
- Warrior ? Roar of Fury now states the correct amount of hate it adds instead of stating it increases hate by 0.


CRAFTING NOTES
- The Learning Apprentice Shingles quest can now be completed.
- Higher level blacksmith recipes have been added to most blacksmith instructors in Kojan.
- More advanced work orders are available in Leth Nurae, Lomshir, Martok, Mekalia, Tanvu, and Tursh.
- Quests added: ?Best Artisan Ever?, ?Grodek?s New Hammer?.
- Experience rewards for amateur tier quests have been increased.
- Experience rewards for apprentice tier quests have been increased.
- Experience rewards for initiate tier quests have been increased.
- Experience rewards for journeyman tier quests have been increased.
- The warring crafting factions of New Targonor now have more work orders available.
- Thestran Blacksmith lower level great axe recipes are now available.
- The quest ?Gregan?s Demand? now asks for a grip instead of a shaft.
- Fixed a lot of work orders that were giving out wrong recipes and items.
- Crafted shields should now be recognized as shields by abilities.
- Deconstruction tables have been updated and fixed. Please report any instances of empty deconstructed parts.
- You can no longer deconstruct legendary or ultra rare items.
- Fixed issues with armor-smith work orders being mislabeled.
- Updated robes with continental effects. Tooltip still does not display attached effect.
- Shield proc effects should work properly now.
- Work orders for the crafting organizations in New Targonor should give faction for the appropriate group and remove it from the opposing factions.
- Ballista parts work order in Shaletooth Tower has had its rewards changed.
- The quest ?The Swordsmiths Apprentice: Craftsmanship? should now ask for the proper resources to complete the recipe.
- Additional higher level secondary recipe have been added to certain Kojan trainers.
- Fixed an issue with the ?The Swordsmith?s Apprentice: Craftsmanship? quest that may cause you to get the wrong recipe or get no recipe at all when accepting the quest.
- Upped drop rate of upgrade recipes a smidgen
- Fixed bug that was showing two tooltypes on some etching knives
- Added slot amount to description of all saddlebags
- Fixed issue causing tier 4 barding to have same stats as tier 3
- Fixed issue causing some rare armors to give the improper reward when deconstructed
- Increased chance to get orb from deconstruction across the board
- Fixed description of loose clamp to display effectiveness penalty.
- Some work orders were repeatable when they were not intended to be. This has been fixed.
- Fixed display name of attuning powder of energy
- Gwartak Clan recipes now provide more weapon/armor options sooner.
- Adjusted duration of rune of force to what the description said
- Fixed rarity of all crafted expendables
- Adjusted required level of crafted expendables to look at adventuring level
- Reduced required level of martial sword recipes
- Increased level of crafted martial swords (this change is retroactive)
- The crafting advisor now talks about titles. If you are missing crafting titles, talk to any crafting advisor about titles in the dialogue tree and he or she should fill in any titles you are missing.
- An artificer refining table has been added to the barn in the Renton Keep area.
- Fixed a lot of recipe descriptions that listed unusable refined items as acceptable.
- Harvesting ? Amateur tier rare harvesting tools have been increased in power.
- Harvesting - Greenback Spiders are no longer harvestable.
- Harvesting - Harvestable Treants in the Marsh of Peril will now despawn properly.


DIPLOMACY NOTES
- Glendryl Owlskeen is now a Soldier in Ca?ail Brael.
- Negotiating the Point now correctly gives only one copy of the card ?Poetic Truths.?
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Monk for Hire? is available now at the New Targonor docks for diplomats of at least 201 skill to build faction with New Targonor
- New Targonor - The repeatable quests ?See to Our Guests? and ?Unruly Adventurers? are available in the Remniol District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 301 skill to build faction with House Remniol.
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Out of Towners? is available in the Heartsworn District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 301 skill to build faction with House Heartsworn.
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Improving Standards of Dress? is available in the Hilthorn District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 301 skill to build faction with House Hilthorn.
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Deliveries for Caberton? is available in the Heartsworn District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 301 skill to build faction with House Heartsworn.
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Ghost-ese? is available in the Hilthorn District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 301 skill to build faction with House Hilthorn.
- New Targonor - The quest ?Cleaning Out The House? has been added in Wharf Rat Downs in New Targonor. Seek out Dockhand Nash for more information.
- Tanvu - Tanvu?s Clergy and Academic levers are now operational.
- Tawar Galan - The quest ?Smuggler?s Delight? is now available from Raisoor the Navigator on the sky bridge between Ca?ail Brael and Tawar Galan. It requires 50 Diplomacy skill and very low Presence.
- Tawar Galan - The follow-up quest ?Secret is in the Sauce? is also available from Raisoor the Navigator for those who have completed ?Smuggler?s Delight.? It features two alternate endings (?Stop the Smugglers? and ?Secret is in the Sauce?) and will affect various factions accordingly. The reward for this quest series includes a belt that stores stacks of Information.
- Tawar Galan - Contraband-sniffing tigers added to Tawar Galan.
- Tursh - Merchant Civic Diplomacy Levers have been removed from Tursh.
- Veskal?s Exchange - Maret Djash is now willing to give out ?Foreign Affairs? in Veskal?s Exchange.


WORLD POPULATION NOTES
- Ceros Isle - Added a mailbox and a shaman trainer to Hauyen?s Outpost on Ceros Isle (a level 40-44 area north of Tanvu)
- Craigwind Ridge - All overland camps in Cragwind Ridge have undergone an itemization pass
- Dahknarg ? The quest ?Specialized Training? is now not available until level 2. (when you can actually train)
- Dahknarg ? various grammar/spelling errors have been fixed in many Dahknarg quests
- Karrus Hakrel - Hrukstraz is now more difficult and will respawn less often.
- Loot - World cash drops have been added/tweaked; all valid races should now drop cash loot if they weren?t before
- Marsh of Peril - Quest rewards in the Marsh of Peril have been tuned
- Martok - Fleet Commander MagUthor will now drop his head for players on the quest: Crippling the Fleet
- Northern Highlands - A group of Treants now inhabits a secluded valley in the Northern Highlands of Thestra
- Pantheon of the Ancients ? Victims of Ghalnn will no longer fight back, but rather cower in fear during the trial ?By the Shieldmaiden?.
- Tar Janashir - There is a new delivery quest in Tar Janashir.
- Tar Janashir - There is a new quest line available in Tar Janashir for players around level 36. Speak to Farra Djengh by the water in Tar Janashir and take the quest ?Swiftfoot Shanty? to get started.
- Temple of Dailuk - Not all of the overland creatures are bloodthirsty anymore, only certain ones want to see you dead.
- Qalia - Much of the blue Qalian world loot has been tuned, more to come.
- Quests - Directions have been corrected for the quest, ?Spoilcrawlers of Zoth Uluus.?
- Quests - The number of troll kills required for the quest, ?Tolls for Trolls? has been increased.
- Quests - Agent Under Cover: You are no longer required to have the shadowhound illusion activated upon you in order to get the waypoint updates.
- Quests - Agent Under Cover: Azara Shahab will now give you another ring if you lost the first one she gave you.
- Quests - Crush The Defenses: Fixed bug where Xarkrafil Flarehounds were not giving quest bits.
- Quests - In the quest ?Invoking Ghalnn?s Will?, the Enraged Ghostfang Okami should once again attack the Tanvu Prisoners.
- Quests - Fix to A Light So Bright - this should solve the issue of players not being able to click on the offering stone.
- Quests - The quest ?The End of Innocence? has been marked more appropriately as ?Small Group.?
- Quests - The Captain event in the Infineum quest line should be more playable
- Quests - The Bounty Hunter quests in the River Palace and Seawatch Coast areas will now properly reward quest completion with badges that can be redeemed for rewards. Additionally, any players who already completed these quests should seek out Marius Steelwind in Strandan. He will reimburse badges that should have been awarded by bounty hunt quests already completed.
- Quests - Invoking Ghalnn?s Will ? Quest should now be able to be completed, and there should no longer be a barn full of panicked Tanvu Settlers being chased around by an angry wolf (comical as is was to see). This quest is still, however, limited to one player at a time.
- Riftseeker?s Torrent - Altered the location at which characters teleport into the ?Utaalk? portal of The Temporal Fortress of the Riftseekers (Riftseeker?s Torrent). This should fix the problem where players were sometimes being teleported out of the dungeon.
- Riftseeker?s Torrent - Replaced the Monk/Disciple specific drops from Riftseeker?s Torrent with more Thestran friendly attire. If you have already obtained the old Monk/Disciple specific items, fear not as they have not been removed from game.
- Silverlake - Zar should now only spawn as a male, never as a female.
- Skawla Rock - Fixed the statistics on the heavy item rewards for the Skawlra Rock quest lines.
- Tanvu - A Cleric trainer has taken up residence in Tanvu.
- Trengal Keep - Interior population of a section of the Ruins of Trengal Keep has been modified
- Thelaseen Dungeon - True Blood Caretakers will no longer flee when low on health.
- Thelaseen Dungeon - Yalsyl Vonalys is no longer immune to auto-attack and will no longer flee when low on health.
- Veskal?s Exchange - Spinthra should be a bit less common
- Vol Tuniel - Players above the adventuring level of 34 can now teleport into the Lair of the Vi?Rak (Vol Tuniel) via the vortex found inside the Vi?Rak poisoned pit in Marsh of Peril.
- Vol Tuniel - Lesser named in the Thelaseen and Vol Tuniel dungeons now have a chance to drop a higher quality armor rune.
- Vol Tuniel - Ancient tome overland spawns are now correctly spread across both the Thelaseen and Vol Tuniel regions.
- Vol Tuniel - The ancient tome spawn rates and total spawns have also been very slightly increased.
- Vol Tuniel - Increased the power of a sub boss to a boss in the ruins of Vol Tuniel, his loot has also been adjusted upwards
- Vol Tuniel - If a named in the Thelaseen or Vol Tuniel regions can drop an armor quest rune, it will now drop a rune 100% of the time.
- Vol Tuniel - Adjusted the location at which players teleport to when using the Vortex to the Lair of Vi?Rak in order to prevent players from falling through the terrain.
- Zaraj Arena - High end rewards for the Zaraj Arena have been tuned


Items
- Living Rune Of Flame is now soulbound
- The effect on Yanvil, Shock of Ages, has been tuned
- The effect on the Infineum Rod and Staff has been tuned
- Infineum crafting items now require an immunity to Infineum in order to be equipped


GUI NOTES
- The work order window will no longer always say "You currently have no work orders."
- Negative coin values will now appear correctly in the UI. This mainly affected the Building Infomation window and Upkeep values.


CODING NOTES
- Fixed a memory leak in the rendering of markup strings.
- Players will no longer die again if they chunk while dead. This commonly happened on boats but could also happen when dieing right at a chunk border.
- Players will no longer die again if the region they are in goes down while they have they release dialog up.
- If you chunk while dead, your time remaining to release will reset to 10 minutes.
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause unequipped items to go into limbo until you relogged.
- Titles will now display properly after changing regions.
- Players that are missing harvesting titles should get them automatically the next harvesting skill up they get.
- In some cases, players doing diplomacy would have to log out and back in to see their new titles. This should no longer be the case.

 

[novasatori]

wow those are some huge patch notes, I take it as a good sign personally it means stuff that's broken is being fixed

I don't know much nor have I played the game, but just reading the stuff here and the patch notes really makes me wish I could play, it seems like it should be an excellent game with time.

too bad I can't afford it and my computer is a POS ...
Oh well, tis the downfall of being poor

 

[Bateluer]

Marvel at the moon.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Well, I finally decided to cancel my account (along with WoW). I was accepted to the LOTR Online beta and have been messing around with that a bit. I tell you the truth, if LOTR online was released *today* then it would already be a far better game than Vanguard. Perhaps once the bugs are worked out, the graphics tweaked, THEN and only THEN will this game draw a crowd. Until then, this title is one to stay away from.

Also, the scenery on LOTR Online may be a tad cartoonish, but it actually looks far more beautiful..

Carry on and good luck with those of you who wish to stay in, I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Bateluer]

Since I was on vacation recovering from my LASIK surgery, I had ample time to play Vanguard. My main character thus far is a wood elf shaman. He's decent to play, doesn't have too much trouble getting in a group, and can dish out decent damage as well as heal very well. A minor issue I've seen with caster classes though, you quickly fill up a LOT of you hot key bars. Most people's fill up two full hot key bars, with many dipping into the third and fourth bars. And this all before level 20. This leads to a little paralysis sometimes, especially after a major train where you moved your icons around to make you, where you have difficulty remembering where you placed that new ability.

I must say that I enjoy playing my Varanthari warrior more though, something about the Varanthari lore is more interesting. I exhausted two full days of gameplay doing nothing but diplomacy quests. Seems like there's more cities with quest options than my Wood Elf's native Caial Brail as well. The Varanthari lands also have a darker feel to them, with most of the Varanthari being mercenary by nature and fiercely independent, you never truly feel like a good person. Everything feels like a shade of gray. The starter diplomacy quests, for example, have you work for a mysterious traveler, whom you soon learn is a time traveler. At different points in the quest chain, you work for his past, present, and future selves, with often have contradictory goals. It can be confusing if you don't read the diplomacy dialogue. They need to add a method of recalling that diplomacy dialogue for later use, it doesn't get written down in the journal.



News update:

Double Adventuring Kill Experience Weekend
It is hard to believe it has already been one month since Vanguard was released! We know it is not always easy to be the first to explore new lands, so as a big thank you to all those adventurers out there who did just that ? this weekend will be a server-wide double adventuring kill experience event.

Event start and end times will correspond with the daily server restarts.
STARTS: Saturday, March 3rd, 5:00am PST (Friday, March 2nd, 8:00pm PST for Europeans)
ENDS: Monday, March 5th, 5:00am PST (Sunday, March 4th, 8:00pm PST for Europeans)

Happy hunting!

Adventuring Kill Experience Increase
As we continue to gain more and more valuable data about player progression, we will also continue to tweak the experience curve as needed. In the next patch, we will be increasing the overall rate at which adventuring kill experience is gained by a small but noticeable amount to more properly align with our originally planned leveling times. This is separate from the double adventuring kill experience weekend.

Diplomacy Experience Increase
With the next patch, we will be increasing the rate at which diplomats gain experience by a small but noticeable margin. Please be sure to give any feedback on the affiliate fan sites.

Rollback Fix
A bug that may have been causing a very small amount of players to experience ?rollbacks?, causing them to lose some experience has been fixed. Please report any instances of this still happening on the support or affiliate forums. Thank you!

COMING SOON
Adventuring Quest Experience
While we feel the overall rate at which adventuring quests give experience is now very close to where we want it to be, some additional minor (nothing drastic) tweaks may be required. We will be sure to keep everyone updated.

Expanded Deconstruction System
In the near future, we will begin to expand the deconstruction system to provide not only components for other craftable items, but for a great many other very worthwhile things as well. More on this later!

Four Dot Mobs
Players will soon find that fighting four dot mobs will yield much better experience rewards. Right now, they are not granting the experience that they should be. That issue will be fixed.

Flying Mount Quests Coming
Several quests that will enable players to ?test drive? flying mounts that they will one day acquire will be implemented on each continent soon. They will be in the mid teen level range.

 

[Bateluer]

A small content patch on build 1758 posted today.

Vanguard Build 1758 Patch Notes 2/27/2007


GAMEPLAY NOTES
- When you recover your tombstone after a death, instead of the returned experience bringing you to a total no higher than where you died at, you will now receive the full amount of experience stored on the tombstone, even if you've already done some adventuring since you died.
- Adventuring kill experience rates have been moderately increased across the board. Experience rates for challenge level 4+ NPCs have had an additional increase on top of the global increase.
- The temporary teleporters will now teleport you to anywhere the public ships will go. You no longer have to teleport through Ca?ial Brael first.
- Maps ? The following locations have been added to the in game map:
Recondite Threshold in Southeastern Thestra
Strandan Port in Northeastern Thestra
Highlands Landing in Western Qalia
- NPCS - Ranged attack using NPCs will now display their animations correctly. Additionally, NPC ranged attacks will now be considered melee attacks instead of spells.
- Player Housing ? Adjusted player home and guild hall purchase prices and upkeep costs. If you have already purchased a plot that is affected by this change, your upkeep cost will be adjusted in an upcoming patch.
- Racial Abilities - Raki racial ability: Planar Shift has been adjusted. It now does as the description says, mitigating 50% of *only* spell damage for the duration of the effect.
- Spells - Recasting invisibility after it has begun to fade should now be successful.
- A new boat master has been placed in Khal that will send players to the following destinations in Qalia:
Ahgram (Minimum Level 15)
Upside Defense Garrison (Minimum Level 15)
Strandan Port (Minimum Level 30)
- Additionally, a boat master has been added to each of the above locations that will send players back to Khal as well.

ADVENTURING NOTES
- General Combat ? Removed unintended sympathetic combinations from the game.
- Bard - Asilam?s Disenchanting Cry II and III have been added to trainers.
- Bard - Added the following abilities to bard trainers: Energizing Embellishment, Cirel's Counterpoint of Clarity, Illestine's Epic Substitution, and Asilam's Dirge of the Mariner. These abilities were unintentionally left off.
- Blood Mage ? Ritual of Awakening now lasts for 5 minutes, instead of 2 minutes.
- Blood Mage ? Strip Enchantment II, III, and IV have been added to trainers.
- Blood Mage ? Strip Enchantment has increased in effectiveness.
- Blood Mage ? Quickening Symbiote now requires a quickening symbiote to cast instead of a renewing one.
- Blood Mage ? Conducive Symbiote is now removed when another symbiote is cast over it.
- Blood Mage ? Quickening Jolt no longer requires a symbiote to cast.
- Blood Mage ? You now have to stay in your forms for at least 2 seconds before you can switch out of it.
- Blood Mage - Removed incorrect text on Focus of Gelenia and Sanguine Focus. Both were claiming to produce effects over time which were not actually occurring.
- Blood Mage - Despoil should now display its animation properly.
- Blood Mage ? Severing Ritual has gotten a face lift. It now has a damage over time component and costs only 3 blood union.
- Blood Mage ? New ability line Translucence has been added to the blood mage at level 10.
- Blood Mage ? The Severing Ritual ability line has had its particle effects adjusted.
- Blood Mage ? Blood Feast is now group and lasts 15 minutes.
- Cleric - Aegis of Blades IV will now buff the cleric as intended. Further, it will display damage correctly.
- Dread Knight - Despoil has increased in effectiveness.
- Dread Knight - Despoil II and III have been added to trainers.
- Druid ? Okeli?s Shield should no longer be on trainers twice.
- Druid - Sageberries have significantly increased in potency.
- Druid - Added Sageberries II, III, and IV to trainers.
- Druid - Hibernate will now only work on Creatures and Fey as intended.
- Monk - North Wind Breaks the Trunk II is now level 50.
- Necromancer ? Sundering Fist grafts now attach the proper ability to your abomination ? this increased the damage of these fists
- Paladin - Stalwart Soul is now obtained at level 10.
- Psionicist - Time Trick is now arcane rather than mental.
- Psionicist - Temporal Shift now slows the target?s melee attack rate.
- Psionicist - Psionicists should now be able to max all of their perception skills as intended.
- Rogue ? Added Fade to trainers at level 26
- Rogue ? Added Deter to trainers at level 12
- Rogue ? Added Trick Attack to trainers at level 22
- Rogue ? Added Fatal Stroke to trainers at level 30
- Rogue ? Added Eviscerate to trainers at level 44
- Rogue ? Added Smoke Trick to trainers at level 18
- Rogue ? Keen Eye now increases critical hit chance by 8%, up from 2%
- Rogue ? Increased the energy cost of Keen Eye
- Rogue ? All versions of Knee Break now show an icon when applied to your target.
- Rogue ? All version of Knee Break require the kick skill. This will mean that all rogues with low kick skill (*cough* all of them *cough*) may not be able to hit with this skill until their skill values are raised.
- Rogue ? Added Vital Strikes to trainers starting at level 34
- Rogue ? Reduced the refresh timer of Elusive Mark to 5 minutes, down from 10
- Rogue ? Opponents who are confused by your Feint ability are much more susceptible to attacks like backstab. Experiment to see what we mean.
- Shaman - Purge I through IV have all increased in effectiveness.
- Shaman - Purge V has been replaced by Wardship of Krigus.
- Sorcerer - Disenchant has increased in effectiveness.
- Sorcerer - Disenchant II, III, and IV have been added to trainers.
- Warrior - Leap Attack is no longer a valid ability.
- Warrior - Killing Blow III is now obtainable at level 50 as intended.

CRAFTING NOTES
- Focus items have been adjusted statwise. Any focus item that had only focus added to it has had its allocation spread to include an attribute mod as well. This change was made to resolve a problem resulting in crafted focus items giving more focus bonus then intended.
- Crafted quiver recipes are now a part of the work order reward tables starting at level 11. Like other recipes these have a chance of giving a better reward when maxing out at grade A.
- Switching trades now requires more confirmations.
- Changing specializations now requires more confirmations.
- Initiate and Journeyman level cornerstones now require fewer resources.
- Fixed bug that caused some higher rarity tools to not be recognized (blame deconstruction)
- Rune of blocking and rune of mitigation have been rebalanced
- Stiff Leather Armor Upgrade recipe now gives proper rewards.
- You no longer receive utility coin for finishing the tutorial.
- You now receive a small amount of coin for completing the ?Learning Recipes? quest.
- An issue with the artificer ?Business Partner? quest recipe has been fixed.
- The crafting outpost near the Kerash Wall has been removed.
- Weskan Tahl has moved to help Southwatch.
- Fixed isse that was causing max A decon tables to return no dusts for artificer
- Gregan is no longer interested in pewter statues. He wants something else instead.
- Many crafted tools and pieces of equipment have had appearance/icon updates.
- Some incorrectly priced crafting equipment has been fixed.
- Dien Hatelt now actually teaches outfitter recipes.
- Social clothing belts should now show up properly.
- Starting crafting equipment has been updated.
- Finally found and fixed issue causing some bags to say you do not have enough inventory space
- Etching Knives have been renamed to Engraver
- Crafted cloaks should now have a graphic when equipped
- Gift of Might should now proc on hit instead of spell case when put on heavy armor
- Fixed bug causing items below level ten to be deconstructable. This was resulting in empty parts.
- The blacksmith journeyman tier quest refining recipe now produces ingots.
- Martok blacksmiths now actually have to turn in their assembled hammer to Gratosha before getting one back.
- A few typographical errors and incorrect name references in a some of the crafting novice quests have been corrected.
- The Pankor Zhi initiate quest items are all now located just outside of Pankor Zhi itself.
- The initiate quest now always requires 3 items, no matter what continent you are on.
- Some assembly stations at outposts were not functioning properly. These have been fixed.
- Complications and Quality recipe of the tutorial has had its total action points reduced.
- Fixed an issue that was causing some bows and crossbows to fail during upgrading.
- Fanatic?s Spear of Combustion and similar items now show the proper stats.
- Skipping the crafting tutorial no longer gives you any items.
- You can now deconstruct diplomacy clothing, jewelry, and held items
- The quest ?The Swordsmith?s Apprentice? now only requires one nickel ore.
- Social clothing has had some name/color corrections.
- Added more compelling crafting complication complexity
- Crafted arrows max stack size has been doubled
- Ammo recipes rewards per grade have been doubled
Grade D: 40
Grade C: 60
Grade B: 80
Grade A: 100
Grade A+: 200
- Harvesting ? The chance of receiving rare rewards while harvesting has been increased.


DIPLOMACY NOTES
- Diplomacy skill progression altered to be a bit easier to gain skill points above skill 39 and below skill 470. For instance, at skill 50 it takes approximately 5 completed parleys against a skill 50 opponent to gain a skill point ? it will now take approximately 4.5 completed parleys. You may experience a gain in skill points as a result of this change.
- Sa?id Modabi will now parley in the ?Clear Evidence? quest.
- Some NPC decks have been adjusted slightly. Should be slightly easier for lower levels, possibly more difficult for mid skill levels.
- A number of quests are now available that only require 12 presence in their parleys.
- The Ethanol Potion Vendor ?Mixmaster Macken? now offers a small selection of beverages. He would like to draw your attention to the research potion ?Macken?s Wisdom? which may provide a permanent Diplomatic benefit, or a disastrous result.
- Craeyn Summerglow, the wood elf Civic Diplomacy trainer, no longer thinks she is a citizen of Tursh and will no longer flip out like a ninja to those who are friendly with the wood elves.
- Jade Soulfire Teardrop now has no special requirements to equip.
- All tier 1 Diplomacy earrings have increased Presence ? example, a 1 Presence Earring is now worth 6 Presence.
- All tier 2 Diplomacy earrings have increased Presence ? example, a 5 Presence Earring is now worth 16 Presence.
- All tier 1 Diplomacy footwear has increased Presence ? example, a 5 Presence Boot is now worth 9 Presence.
- All tier 2 Diplomacy footwear has increased Presence ? example, a 15 Presence Boot is now worth 20 Presence.
- Bug with equipping Diplomacy info belt corrected.
- Bug with equipping some Diplomacy chest items corrected.
- Grammar fixes to Informants. Learn me a book!
- The Diplomacy information belt item has been moved to the Diplomacy Shoulder slot. It now has a different graphical representation in the game. This is a temporary measure until the information belt item is moved to a new slot entirely.
- Civil Diplomacy - Fixes to Leth, Tursh, Tanvu, and Ca?ail Brael Civic Diplomacy levers. More fixes coming.
- Civil Diplomacy - Power of Faith Civic Benefit now has a more clear mouseover text.
- Hathor Zhi - Fix to ?Checkmate? in Dark Elf diplomacy line. You should now have to watch the fight in the Lecturn before completing the quest at Nalzen.
- Hathor Zhi - New 12 presence quest, ?A Dying Man's Request?, available at Hathor Zhi Outpost.
- Hathor Zhi - New 12 presence quest, ?The Centurion's Edict?, available at Hathor Zhi Outpost.
- Jalen?s Crossing - The 12 presence quest ?Bring Him Home? is available in Jalen?s Crossing.
- Jalen?s Crossing - The 12 presence quest ?Compiling Our History? is available in Jalen?s Crossing.
- Khal - The Khal to Service: The spawn distances of the Ksaravi have been changed so players do not automatically lose the parley for being out of range. Factions have also been changed so they are not immediately aggro to players who have not completed the parley.
- Martok - New 12 presence quest, ?A Regular Stake Out?, available at Martok Docks.
- Martok - New 12 presence quest, ?Increasing Fares?, available at Martok Docks.
- Mekalia - Low Constable Tiprey at Neamsog Bunker is now on Upside Alliance Faction.
- Mekalia - Gnome newbie line quest "Call The Constables" can be reacquired if you abandon it and return to the location of Niro Gavea. This fixes players who are stuck on the line and cannot continue despite abandoning and attempting to reacquire the quest.
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Common Thieves? is available in the Heartsworn District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 250 faction with House Heartsowrn to continue building faction.
- New Targonor - The repeatable quest ?Intercepting Contraband? is available in the Remniol District of New Targonor for diplomats of at least 301 skill to continue building faction.
- Raia Village - The 12 presence quest ?Mislead the Envoy? is available in Raia Village.
- Raia Village - New 12 presence quest, ?Dropping in on Razi Kordiyeh?, available at Raia Village.
- Tahean?s Vengeance - New 12 presence quest, ?Vault of ?Heroes??, available at Tahean's Vengeance.
- Themnwar?s Shield ? The 12 presence quest ?Foul Gypsies? is available at Themnwar?s Shield.
- Three Rivers - Envoy Renna, the Voice of Kaerellun in Three Rivers, has been temporarily removed for the time being.
- Three Rivers - The 12 presence quest ?The Dam? is available in Three Rivers.
- Three Rivers - Legend of Blue Boar Quest: Players must now complete the parley with Falur Veaton before they may talk to Gadin Edson or Ceemi Edson. The quest summary has also been updated to be a little more clear about quest flow completion.
- Three Rivers - Legend of Blue Boar Quest: The Barrel of Blue Boar Ale is now given to the player when they complete the parley with Falur Veaton.
- Tursh - Envoy Krista, the Voice of Kaerellun in Tursh, has been moved to the crossroads between Tursh and Three Rivers.


WORLD POPULATION NOTES

New Areas: Southwatch and Spire?s Keep

Before the erection of New Targonor there existed another castle of massive proportions from which the kings of Targonor ruled. When the undead armies swept through the Thestran lands, engulfing everything in their path, the castle of Old Targonor fell to the army of bone. Since those times, the undead army continues to amass its forces in the lands surrounding the once great castle. The only thing keeping the undead at bay are the dwarves of Bordinar?s Cleft, humans of Tursh, halflings of Rindol Field, and the high elves of Leth Nurae joining forces to create massive bulwarks between the tainted lands and Southwatch, a once peaceful community ruled by Lord Hugo Heartsworn. Citizens from all parts of Thestra have congregated in Heartsworn?s land to assist in the war effort, but their resources are dwindling, soldiers are perishing, and vagabonds have realized the opportunity to profit in the chaos. Lord Hugo Heartsworn, residents of Southwatch, and all of those living on the continent of Thestra need the assistance of adventurers to ensure that the undead army will never break through the bulwarks and wash over the continent. Southwatch is intended for solo adventurers and small groups level 30 through 35.


- Cragwind Ridge - Spawn timers have been adjusted on all overland named mobs in Cragwind Ridge for the better.
- Cragwind Ridge - Overland population density has been lightened up a bit.
- Cragwind Ridge - The named in the Shrine events in Cragwind Ridge have been itemized.
- Cragwind Ridge - Cragwind Ridge Shrine event named have been itemized
- Cragwind Ridge - Lord Bamf Kya now only walks the night and will despawn at dawn as originally intended.
- Coldbay Cottage - Added adventuring drops to Madman Prin in Coldbay Cottage.
- Dazar - Dazar, the Cavern of Reflection, has received significant tuning and polish.
- Fallen Grove - Fallen Cove has been itemized and populated
- Marsh of Peril - Rumors of Thorian Glowban?s recent discovery regarding legendary artifacts have been circulating the Celestine Ward, it would appear that the Marsh of Peril has not yet offered up all of its secrets.
- Mekalia - Felgar Dovasig at the Upside Defense Garrison now offers item repairs.
- Quests - Fix to ?By Night?. This should solve the issue with the Large Stalking Wolf not spawning as intended, and allow players to continue the quest.
- Quests - Morfare Council Quest: Page 5 of the Book of Morfare will now actually drop when the correct NPC is killed.
- Quests - Resource Denial: You can now obtain the proper amount of food to complete the quest.
- Quests - The experience reward has been reduced for the quest ?Task For Renton Keep: A Watchful Eye?
- Quests - The quest ?Terranynth Residue? in the Jharru area now gives the locations of several terranynth camps. The terranyths will also yield residue slightly more often.
- Quests ? Strange Things are Afoot - Directions augmented, Warder Pondar should be easier to find.
- Quests ? Strange Things are Afoot ? The quest should complete in the normal way now, without requiring you to say ?Hail? to the NPC.
- Quests ? Strange Things are Afoot - Travel journal entry added for Runaway Xacharia
- Quests ? Help the Runaway - Captain Fubared?s guards have been reduced from 4 dots to 3 dots.
- Quests ? Collecting Ore for Donovan - The pickaxe has been changed from No Trade to Quest
- Quests - Infineum Immunity ? Respawn time on the book has been reduced from 10 minutes to 2 minutes.
- Quests - Infineum Immunity - Travel Journal Entry added for the location of the book.
- Quests - Infineum Immunity - The quest objective can now be attained by reading the book, as opposed to answering the book?s questions.
- Quests - The Ordo Jakala event has been made much easier.
- Quests - The Captain event for the Infineum quest line has been tweaked yet again
- River Palace - The safe point/evac location in the River Palace has been moved slightly. Players should no longer get stuck inside the altar.
- Skawlra Rock - Leddo Savobar of Camp Skawlra on Skawlra Rock now functions as an item repair merchant and general goods vendor.
- Skawlra Rock - Many of the quest rewards from Skawlra Rock have been fixed to grant the proper amount of statistics.
- Tar Janashir - The starspark trade has begun! Players in and around Tar Janashir can now begin acquiring and learning about starspark salt. Start by finding and speaking with Ava Diba in Starspark Hall.
- Tar Janashir - The starspark trade continues with Kaaras Sejeh at Starspark Hall in Tar Janashir. She now has a quest line available that?s appropriate for level 36 to 40 players.
- Tawar Galan - The place you teleport in to Tawar Galan as been moved off the dock. This should resolve the problem some people have with falling into the water.
- Thelaseen Dungeon - The rare mementos in Thelaseen have had their maximum duration significantly reduced.
- Thelaseen Dungeon ? True Blood Caretakers have had their level lowered to match the other NPCs in their section of the dungeon.
- Thelaseen Dungeon ? Lower rarity mementoes will now have a slightly lowered drop rate from chests.
- Thelaseen Dungeon ? Several of the named within Thelaseen have been adjusted and now have more powerful abilities.
- Thelaseen Dungeon ? The Terulean Broodlord is now immune to many things it was previously not immune to and will no longer flee.
- Thelaseen Dungeon ? The brood prince and terulean broodlord now run much faster.
- Trengal Keep - New quest added in Trengal Keep: ?Karujin?s Rewakening.? Players who currently have the Binding Ring of Karujin, or who complete the Crux series from now on, will qualify for this repeatable quest. It yields another Binding Ring of Karujin, so you can summon Karujin repeatedly without having to leave Trengal Keep... though not without some effort.
- Tursh - The guards in Tursh will now give correct directions to the general goods vendor.
- Tursh - Moved some NPCs around Central Tursh to improve framerate.
- Tursh - Moved Thestran Market Broker in Tursh to the front porch of the Barley Harvest Inn.
- Veskal?s Exchange - Adventuring trainers for all classes have been added to Veskal?s Exchange
- Wardship of the Sleeping Moon - Players with maximum Celestine Ward faction can now take a quest for an ultra-rare item from Thorian Glowban at the Wardship of the Sleeping Moon.
- Zaraj Arena - Arena enforcers in the Zaraj arena are no longer attackable.
- Zaraj Arena - The platinum event in Zaraj Arena now yields 60 coins instead of 90.
- Zaraj Arena - Arena Enforcers can no longer be attacked.

Items:
- Infineum Plates Greaves will now show up as an assembly recipe for those of sufficient skill.
- The wording on the Binding Ring of Karujin has been clarified.
- High-end weapons are in the process of being retuned with raiding in mind and may have skewed statistics until the next patch. For the very few that have these, please remain calm and patient.
- Sets of Kojani Superior Protector?s, Oracle?s, Brute?s and Wayfarer?s heavy armor should now have a visible appearance
- Armor specifically tailored to heavy users has had +dodge removed and reallocated on it
- Players can no longer repeatedly loot Krenkel?s tooth.
- Heroic loot off of Nishek is now soulbound and has had it?s stats tweaked
- Zaraj Potions now have a 60 second refresh timer.
- The enchanted amulet that allows access to the depths of Dargun?s Tomb is now soulbound.
- The following quest rewards are now properly marked as Soulbound:
Carmella's Longbow, Carmella's Heavy Crossbow, Carmella's Deflection, Carmella's Wall, Celestine Helm, Celestine Crown, Celestine Cap, Celestine Skullcap, Delthia's Earring of Divinity, Delthia's Earring of Force, Delthia's Earring of Regeneration, Delthia's Earring of the Keen Eye, Ice Drake Scale Ring of Accuracy, Ice Drake Scale Ring of Divinity, Ice Drake Scale Ring of Health, Ice Drake Scale Ring of Power, Thestran Watch Shield, Watch Drum, Thestran Watch Pendant


~The Vanguard Team

 

[Bateluer]

On Tuesday, 6 March 2007, the Vanguard Update #1 will be going live. Since this is such a large patch, with many screen shot examples, I'll simply post the link to the details. Looks yummy!

Text

 

[Schadenfroh]

Any word on subscriber numbers and sales data? I hope Sigil keeps their heads above water.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Any word on subscriber numbers and sales data? I hope Sigil keeps their heads above water.

MMO developers are notoriously tight lipped over actual sales figures and subscriber numbers. None release their actual numbers.

From the number of people I've seen on Florendyl, I'd say the community is healthy right now, but the game is still very young.