Jon - i'd be interested to hear what sort of machine the game was running on when you played it.
Initial reports suggest that you need one hell of a machine (2 gig of DDR2, nvidia 7950 - sli preferred, high end dual core CPU) to run it properly. anything but a full high end specced machine, will not currently be able to run the game in anything but medium to low settings with lots of additional stuff turned off.
So if you say it looks graphically good, then i'd be curious to find out what machine you were playing on.
If the game requires that much hardware to run, i seriously doubt Sigil/SOE could make any money of the sale of it since they would alienate all but the highly elite players. Since they don't seem to be whole heartedly targeting that group and most gamers grumble over being forced to upgrade hardware just for one game, i highly doubt that the requirements will be that high, however since graphics settings are a personal choice issue and i personally won't sacrifice performance for eye candy, my ideal vanguard system may be much lower end than the next guys.
Originally posted by hbosman My first MMO was WoW. I enjoyed it alot untill I really got bored about the static world. I tried the trial of EQ2 but when I saw the NPC's standing around I quickly quit the game. Something I really hope that quests will make a difference and change the world a little and NPC do their thing rather than stand/sit at one place. Lets see if Vanguard is really the next-gen MMO.
I think people would get tired of that really quick. They wouldn't want to search around for an NPC wondering when he's going to wander back to an area. I understand you're looking for more immersiveness in the world, but roaming NPC's would just turn into a burdensome hunt after a while.
Originally posted by Stradden This article isn't and wasn't meant to be an in-depth analysis of the game, but rather just a quick article with my initial responses to playing it. It's a First Look Preview. I haven't had enough time to really sit down with the game and do a full-on preview full of details. Once I've put enough hours into the game, we'll run a full preview. I'm still learning a lot of the systems in the game, just like any new player would have to. I tried to give a breif overview of what I've done and experienced so far. I'm sorry if that's not enough. Cheers Jon Wood
Thanks for clearing that up Jon. At first I was pretty disappointed with the article, then I saw this post by you. I guess I was expecting something closer to the one done by Ten-Ton-Hammer, but I think that reviewer has been playing longer.
How utterly gross. The animal heads on chars is enough to kill anything else they might do well but then those flat textures and ugly little icons. It's sad how only 2-3 devopers in the world make worthy games and only one has made a decent mmo. Somebody give me amnesia so I can go back and enjoy WoW again.
Originally posted by greymann How utterly gross. The animal heads on chars is enough to kill anything else they might do well but then those flat textures and ugly little icons. It's sad how only 2-3 devopers in the world make worthy games and only one has made a decent mmo. Somebody give me amnesia so I can go back and enjoy WoW again.
I just had to quote that post because it made me laugh. But back to someone else's comment about upgrading your computer for ONE game. If you really think that next year, Vanguard is going to be the only game you're going to need to upgrade your computer for, you live in a box. Have you tried the new Neverwinter Nights yet? or perhaps GRAW? even Dark Messaiah or Oblivion? Have you seen what UT2k7 is going to require? I'm sorry, but to think that way would be like saying that no one is going to buy a game each following year because the computer requires are going up up up. They go up every generation of games and this is not any different.
Originally posted by dorobu I just had to quote that post because it made me laugh. But back to someone else's comment about upgrading your computer for ONE game. If you really think that next year, Vanguard is going to be the only game you're going to need to upgrade your computer for, you live in a box. Have you tried the new Neverwinter Nights yet? or perhaps GRAW? even Dark Messaiah or Oblivion? Have you seen what UT2k7 is going to require? I'm sorry, but to think that way would be like saying that no one is going to buy a game each following year because the computer requires are going up up up. They go up every generation of games and this is not any different.
I am currently playing Dark Messiah on my machine in the highest graphic settings no problem. With the same setting i would not be able to play Vanguard in medium settings.
Yes games will need upgrades and Vanguard is not the only one that will require it, but at the moment you are looking at a 2.000 to 3.000 USD worth of computer in order to play Vanguard in semi decent graphcis and maintain a framerate. and thats a bit rich.
I am currently playing Dark Messiah on my machine in the highest graphic settings no problem. With the same setting i would not be able to play Vanguard in medium settings.
Yes games will need upgrades and Vanguard is not the only one that will require it, but at the moment you are looking at a 2.000 to 3.000 USD worth of computer in order to play Vanguard in semi decent graphcis and maintain a framerate. and thats a bit rich.
QFT. If Vanguard indeed goes the same route as EQ2 and requires a top end machine then I think they'll be seriously surprised when no one but the power gamers buy it.
I'll be looking into this game and seeing what it offers if there is a free trial. Free trial=good thing. If they do it better than EQ2 did their "Trial of the Isle" then I might be interested enough to stay. However if the game does'nt play well on my computer (2.4 Gig CPU, 1 gig memory, Raytheon 9600, DSL connection)....well, that's what free trials are for right?
Never be afraid of choices. More choices are always good things.
Originally posted by ZeGerman1942 Yes games will need upgrades and Vanguard is not the only one that will require it, but at the moment you are looking at a 2.000 to 3.000 USD worth of computer in order to play Vanguard in semi decent graphcis and maintain a framerate. and thats a bit rich.
I am currently playing Dark Messiah on my machine in the highest graphic settings no problem. With the same setting i would not be able to play Vanguard in medium settings.
Oh. So then you know what the game is going to take? You've played it? Or perhaps you're just speculating and giving a scarey worst case scenario because that's what's most fun to do about a game you dont like. Give me a break.
Originally posted by ZeGerman1942 Balisidar with your system specs you will probably play in low settings, have to tweak various settings and ini files and you'll get around 20fps
Most probably, yeah. But 20 fps, for me, in an MMO, is ok. As long as it doesn't drops below that during gameplay.
BTW (in reference to another post you did up here), you don't need to turn the graphics all the way up for the game to look good. I've seen screenies taken in native low-rez and let me tell you that while a lot of the effects were off and viewing distance not as far as in other screenies, the game still looked great.
I wish I could find the link to those now I think they were on FOH's board.
That being said, you will still be able to enjoy the game on a lower-end machine and not hurt your eyes doing so. Here are the tentative minimum specs that Brad posted a few weeks ago:
That's pretty close to the minimum, although I am *not* annoucing official specs at this point.
Unofficially, a 2.8, 1 gig, and an x800 or x850 (or nvidia equvalent) would be good.
Unofficially, a 3.0, 2 gigs, and an x1800 or higher (or nvidia equivalent) plus pci-express and a fast FSB would be the high mark.
Again, UNOFFICIAL. We have a lot of optimizing left to do and prices will continue to drop and new cards and machine configs will become available between now and release.
Source: Aradune Mithara 08/12/06
Also seen somewhere else that one of the prime requirement for your vid card is to do Shader 2.0, has it has been known to run on older vid cards than the x800 series.
Originally posted by Anofalye Yeah, pretty hard for any game with visible equipement to compete with a game such as CoH for the character creation, if not outright impossible. Unless you leave the option to the player as to what is visible and what isn't, so if the breastplate is choosen as not visible then the player could have more options, regardless of what is equipped...which then open a new problem about consistancy, if someone is wearing a robe can he be displayed as wearing a plate mail? There is no easy way out of this for any game with equipement.
Ummm... SWG? Ryzom? Matrix? Conan? Lord of the Rings?
I understand what you are getting at, but i think your slightly misinformed.
Layered clothing and armor is entirely possible.
I can't talk for LotR or Conan, but SWG, SoR and Matrix don't compete with CoH, they are LEAGUES behind as far as character customisation goes. In CoH, your toon can be under 4' or over 8', can be anorexic, athletic or muscular, you can have limbs that aren't naturals, tails, and so on, I am merely starting...and the cloak is nice, unlike in these games which either lack cloaks or are plain and not affected by the wind.
I have to see 1 MMO that is even remotedly close to CoH as far as customisation goes. However, I understand that in an item centric game, it is hard.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Check out refubished systems....Dell usually has some pretty nice refurbished systems that are decently priced. I'm sure other companys also sell refurbished systems.
Someone asked aboutt pvp earlier and all that I can say i know is that seperate servers wil have pvp rulesets, but sometime after the game is out.There will be some sort of consentual thing on the pve servers, but i am not going to get into it as i am not sure how it will end up by time release gets here, suffice to say it WILL NOT give those looking for hardcore Pvp what they are looking for as there is no ganking or interaction with the pve world in any way, that what the special ruleset servers will be for and from what little i have heard of them, they will be very nicely set up.
On a AMD Semptron 3100+ (1.81ghz) with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 7300 GS on high setting the game runs at an average of 25 fps in town and around 30 fps out of town. Settings tweaked of course. So anyone worried about not being able to run the game. If you have a pixel shader 2.0 card and atleast 1gig of ram you should be good to go. Though 2gig is highly recommened for improved preformance.
Also a good start to a review there. I'm glad to see you didnt try and cover features you didnt have time to play through first or learn about.
Great preview. This is one I'm watching with a very hopeful eye. Thank you for sharing your impressions. It's nice to hear that you were able to see some unique value in this MMO - that's the only thing that can get me to try out a new one these days. Thanks!
From what Brad McQuaid has said over the last few days, it looks like they are adding to the character customization tools even more. It sounds like this is one of those final "polish" type of thing that they are going to be doing right up until launch.
1) Sci Fi has too much tech which becomes complicated and dificult to program from teleporters to jet packs to flying machines to space combat to tanks to hovercraft to replicators to laser blasters high tech security systems etc etc etc.
2) Sci Fi games don't have near the following that fantasy genre games do. Eve Online already pretty much is dominating right now...no one else has come close to putting at a decent Sci Fi MMORPG.
3) Sci Fi has laser blasters...so essentialy the game becomes another Halo where you just blast things and strategy and role play goes out the window. Kind of like the difference between Warhammer and Warhammer 40K
4) Western MMO would have too limited a following...and pretty much be Sci Fi...except with far less buttons and whistles.
5) What other genre is there? Whatever it is...would be a limited niche..therefore limited market. With a limited market and having to go up already established MMO giants like WOW it becomes hard to have a profitable product....in the end it boils down to the financiers saying "Will we make gobs of money off of this?"
Sadly but true...a World of Starcraft would probably be the most profitable and successful Sci Fi MMO but blizzard has already said they will not do that.
Ofcourse...all of this is completely unfounded personal opinion....who can truly say...
Comments
No raid server? No corpse runs? Find a different game to troll because I seriously doubt VG is going to appeal to you at all.
-doro
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Originally posted by ZeGerman1942:
Jon - i'd be interested to hear what sort of machine the game was running on when you played it.
Initial reports suggest that you need one hell of a machine (2 gig of DDR2, nvidia 7950 - sli preferred, high end dual core CPU) to run it properly. anything but a full high end specced machine, will not currently be able to run the game in anything but medium to low settings with lots of additional stuff turned off.
So if you say it looks graphically good, then i'd be curious to find out what machine you were playing on.
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If the game requires that much hardware to run, i seriously doubt Sigil/SOE could make any money of the sale of it since they would alienate all but the highly elite players. Since they don't seem to be whole heartedly targeting that group and most gamers grumble over being forced to upgrade hardware just for one game, i highly doubt that the requirements will be that high, however since graphics settings are a personal choice issue and i personally won't sacrifice performance for eye candy, my ideal vanguard system may be much lower end than the next guys.
otherwise, interesting preview, i think i will definetly try the game.
Looking forward to your follow-up full preview.
-doro
I am currently playing Dark Messiah on my machine in the highest graphic settings no problem. With the same setting i would not be able to play Vanguard in medium settings.
Yes games will need upgrades and Vanguard is not the only one that will require it, but at the moment you are looking at a 2.000 to 3.000 USD worth of computer in order to play Vanguard in semi decent graphcis and maintain a framerate. and thats a bit rich.
QFT. If Vanguard indeed goes the same route as EQ2 and requires a top end machine then I think they'll be seriously surprised when no one but the power gamers buy it.
I'll be looking into this game and seeing what it offers if there is a free trial. Free trial=good thing. If they do it better than EQ2 did their "Trial of the Isle" then I might be interested enough to stay. However if the game does'nt play well on my computer (2.4 Gig CPU, 1 gig memory, Raytheon 9600, DSL connection)....well, that's what free trials are for right?
Never be afraid of choices. More choices are always good things.
I am currently playing Dark Messiah on my machine in the highest graphic settings no problem. With the same setting i would not be able to play Vanguard in medium settings.
Oh. So then you know what the game is going to take? You've played it? Or perhaps you're just speculating and giving a scarey worst case scenario because that's what's most fun to do about a game you dont like. Give me a break.
-doro
BTW (in reference to another post you did up here), you don't need to turn the graphics all the way up for the game to look good. I've seen screenies taken in native low-rez and let me tell you that while a lot of the effects were off and viewing distance not as far as in other screenies, the game still looked great.
I wish I could find the link to those now
That being said, you will still be able to enjoy the game on a lower-end machine and not hurt your eyes doing so. Here are the tentative minimum specs that Brad posted a few weeks ago:
That's pretty close to the minimum, although I am *not* annoucing official specs at this point.
Unofficially, a 2.8, 1 gig, and an x800 or x850 (or nvidia equvalent) would be good.
Unofficially, a 3.0, 2 gigs, and an x1800 or higher (or nvidia equivalent) plus pci-express and a fast FSB would be the high mark.
Again, UNOFFICIAL. We have a lot of optimizing left to do and prices will continue to drop and new cards and machine configs will become available between now and release.
Also seen somewhere else that one of the prime requirement for your vid card is to do Shader 2.0, has it has been known to run on older vid cards than the x800 series.
and i think your definition of what makes a game look good and does not is different (but thats fair enough and not meant as an insult).
Ummm... SWG? Ryzom? Matrix? Conan? Lord of the Rings?
I understand what you are getting at, but i think your slightly misinformed.
Layered clothing and armor is entirely possible.
I can't talk for LotR or Conan, but SWG, SoR and Matrix don't compete with CoH, they are LEAGUES behind as far as character customisation goes. In CoH, your toon can be under 4' or over 8', can be anorexic, athletic or muscular, you can have limbs that aren't naturals, tails, and so on, I am merely starting...and the cloak is nice, unlike in these games which either lack cloaks or are plain and not affected by the wind.
I have to see 1 MMO that is even remotedly close to CoH as far as customisation goes. However, I understand that in an item centric game, it is hard.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Concerned about having to get a new computer....
Check out refubished systems....Dell usually has some pretty nice refurbished systems that are decently priced. I'm sure other companys also sell refurbished systems.
On a AMD Semptron 3100+ (1.81ghz) with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 7300 GS on high setting the game runs at an average of 25 fps in town and around 30 fps out of town. Settings tweaked of course. So anyone worried about not being able to run the game. If you have a pixel shader 2.0 card and atleast 1gig of ram you should be good to go. Though 2gig is highly recommened for improved preformance.
Also a good start to a review there. I'm glad to see you didnt try and cover features you didnt have time to play through first or learn about.
Respect to the devs of Vanguard for introducing many new ideas to the mmo arena. Diplomacy is a nice USP!
However as previously mentioned in this thread why another fantasy class based game?
Don't we have enough already??? just fell asleep at my pc thinking about it...yawn!
Why another fantasy based game?
1) Sci Fi has too much tech which becomes complicated and dificult to program from teleporters to jet packs to flying machines to space combat to tanks to hovercraft to replicators to laser blasters high tech security systems etc etc etc.
2) Sci Fi games don't have near the following that fantasy genre games do. Eve Online already pretty much is dominating right now...no one else has come close to putting at a decent Sci Fi MMORPG.
3) Sci Fi has laser blasters...so essentialy the game becomes another Halo where you just blast things and strategy and role play goes out the window. Kind of like the difference between Warhammer and Warhammer 40K
4) Western MMO would have too limited a following...and pretty much be Sci Fi...except with far less buttons and whistles.
5) What other genre is there? Whatever it is...would be a limited niche..therefore limited market. With a limited market and having to go up already established MMO giants like WOW it becomes hard to have a profitable product....in the end it boils down to the financiers saying "Will we make gobs of money off of this?"
Sadly but true...a World of Starcraft would probably be the most profitable and successful Sci Fi MMO but blizzard has already said they will not do that.
Ofcourse...all of this is completely unfounded personal opinion....who can truly say...