Vanguard Holiday Update

[Bateluer]

Linky

Looks like they added a lot to the game, might check it out next year to see how its changed.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Man Sony is treating the players of Vanguard well. They even offer support for all of their "legacy" MMORPGs (have they shutdown any?)...

Personally, I would have shut the game down and offered similar equipped / leveled EverQuest 2 characters to the subscriber base a longtime ago (well, I would never have bought Sigil in the first place).

 

[Drift3r]

The game just looks to manufactured and lifeless graphic wise for me IMHO.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Drift3r
The game just looks to manufactured and lifeless graphic wise for me IMHO.

VG has the best graphics of almost any MMO available to date.

 

[KMFJD]

Yes if you have the hardware to run it at those levels....

 

[Drift3r]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: Drift3r
The game just looks to manufactured and lifeless graphic wise for me IMHO.

VG has the best graphics of almost any MMO available to date.

Best? No not the best. I played VG up to level 40 and my system could more then handle it at high settings but graphically it was not the best game ever IMHO. The world looked as if it were pre-manufactured by a world generator and had other parts stapled together in many areas. Many zones were just endless spaces of the same repeated texture work with nice looking grass for as far as you could see with the occasional lifeless mobs wandering back and forth.

The character models were so-so especially the humans races which are limited in overall looks but with a few slider bars in the CC menu. This is certainly nothing compared to what you can achieve in EVE or EQ2. Also the animal races were just animal heads pasted onto human bodies etc. Not to mention the PC combat animations which are just stiff and horrendously awkward looking IMHO.

Basically if you get to know the game and spend some time with it you'll understand that a lot of areas are missing some details that would bring them to life. It's clear a lot of areas were just rushed out the door thus all the work SOE is doing to bring life to the game. Having played other games like Saga of Ryzom in which that game had NPC mobs that reacted to you and their fellow NPC mobs, VG is a pretty lifeless world IMHO. Also visually LOTRO has better looking environments then VG IMHO, especially with the DX10 upgrades in LOTRO.

 

[skace]

Vanguard has 'technically' impressive graphics but an awful art direction. Which is the exact opposite of WoW. And frankly the latter is better than the former in the MMO genre because good artwork is timeless where as high end graphics are always changing. What is high end and ugly now, will just be ugly in a year or 2.

Neither here nor there, just figured I'd comment on the current discussion.

In other news, I activated one of my station accounts so I could test out the Station Launcher, my new computer, eq1 and eq2. I also got access to Vanguard but they want me to buy an actual key to play it . Not sure I'd consider that a good move on their part, although I understand the reason. If I were them, I'd want as few boundaries as possible to people playing that game so hopefully they could get a larger base.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: skace
Vanguard has 'technically' impressive graphics but an awful art direction. Which is the exact opposite of WoW. And frankly the latter is better than the former in the MMO genre because good artwork is timeless where as high end graphics are always changing. What is high end and ugly now, will just be ugly in a year or 2.

Neither here nor there, just figured I'd comment on the current discussion.

In other news, I activated one of my station accounts so I could test out the Station Launcher, my new computer, eq1 and eq2. I also got access to Vanguard but they want me to buy an actual key to play it . Not sure I'd consider that a good move on their part, although I understand the reason. If I were them, I'd want as few boundaries as possible to people playing that game so hopefully they could get a larger base.

I played up to level ~28 Warrior and Weaponsmith before I quit due to rampant gold duping ruining the economy. If they'd give me a free 14 days or something, I'd be happy to try it again.

 

[Mem]

I just went back into Vanguard(trying out their free 2 week trial for ex-players) since 6 months ago,its like a ghost town since I only saw one player,is Vanguard that empty now?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Mem
I just went back into Vanguard(trying out their free 2 week trial for ex-players) since 6 months ago,its like a ghost town since I only saw one player,is Vanguard that empty now?

Just out of curiousity, what server?

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: Mem
I just went back into Vanguard(trying out their free 2 week trial for ex-players) since 6 months ago,its like a ghost town since I only saw one player,is Vanguard that empty now?

Just out of curiousity, what server?

Halgar server(Europe),going back in soon to see if there are more players.

 

[Bateluer]

Seradon might have more people, its partially composed of the old RP Forendyl server.

 

[Dangerer]

interesting news. I played VG for the month it was released, and although the game was breathtakingly beautiful, I ended up going back to wow. By the way I just logged onto my old station account and it seems I have a subscription for this game until 01/2008 heh

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: Drift3r
The game just looks to manufactured and lifeless graphic wise for me IMHO.

VG has the best graphics of almost any MMO available to date.

if you like everything to have a that shiny plastic look to it.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: Drift3r
The game just looks to manufactured and lifeless graphic wise for me IMHO.

VG has the best graphics of almost any MMO available to date.

if you like everything to have a that shiny plastic look to it.

If you don't have the system to run it properly, please don't talk smack.

 

[effee]

The game really sucks. Seriously, I have never seen a more half finished, trashy game in my life!

 

[SunnyD]

I'll come back once they remove the monthly fee all together.

 

[oogabooga]

Serious Question : How large did Vanguard's userbase get and how much of it did it retain? I don't think any MMO player really viewed this game as a WoW killer, but saw it as a better MMO, especially for the hardcore MMO players. Did it manage to attract the high end MMO players and keep them?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: oogabooga
Serious Question : How large did Vanguard's userbase get and how much of it did it retain? I don't think any MMO player really viewed this game as a WoW killer, but saw it as a better MMO, especially for the hardcore MMO players. Did it manage to attract the high end MMO players and keep them?

I'm not sure how large it got, but it dropped off very fast because of the early bugs and problems. Probably less than 1/4 of its peak are still currently playing.

 

[ayabe]

Originally posted by: oogabooga
Serious Question : How large did Vanguard's userbase get and how much of it did it retain? I don't think any MMO player really viewed this game as a WoW killer, but saw it as a better MMO, especially for the hardcore MMO players. Did it manage to attract the high end MMO players and keep them?

I have several friends who are extreme hardcore MMO junkies who are still playing and are the richest people on their server(not sure which).

I dropped it after 30 days. The only thing I really enjoyed was diplomacy and that got old pretty fast.

 

[KMFJD]

Worst MMORPG Engine ever, epic fail...... i got to lvl 47 then got bored, also maxed out my harvesting as well.....when it was populated it was ok, loved the fact you could cast on the move, some nice ideas, but that engine is horrible....

 

[Howry]

The game seems to have a great population on it IMO. I play on Seradon and there are lots of people there from low level to high level. I think you guys are smoking something.

My wife plays quite well on a AMD 3800x2, 7800gt Vid card, 2 gigs memory. If your playing on a 3 year old system then yes your going to have problems. UPGRADE