I think V:SoH is falling prey to the fact that it's one of the FIRST MMORPGs to require the system specs it does. A year from now, when a host of new games require similar specs for decent gameplay, that's when most gamers will probably sink the cash into upgrades.
It does seem a bit silly to upgrade your system for one game if your comp is adequate for every other function you use it for. I've only been in BETA for the last week. My comp exceeds all minimum system requirements (though I only have 1G RAM) and play is just too laggy in populated areas. I feel your pain and I'm anxious to see how play improves as we get deeper into BETA 5.
I think Sigil could've taken a lot of heat off themselves if the game were actually playable with the minimum system requirements, which it very well may be upon release. I'm sure a lot of folks who met the minimum system requirements, preordered, and are now experiencing the lack of playability in BETA 5 are just thinking that they may have thrown $50 bucks out the window unless they wanna sink a few hundred dollars into their comps. I think we should let 'em fume without jumping down their throats.
Don't expect any gameplay improvements, which is what will kill Vanguard, but do expect performance increases almost immediately. Read up on the forums and the debugging mode. It is using far more resources than delivery mode (more character saves, less assembly code for faster trial coding) and as parts of code hit final more and more things are running at full speed.
Even though there are ways to speed up your client ever since beta 3 when a large number of new testers were added people complain about performance issues in the defualt performance settings. Those are not being adjusted and manually setting your client up is the only way to get the game running properly. Honestly if you can't figure out the .ini file edits you should not be in a beta as you do not have the require computer experience/
Content wise Vanguard is weak. Very weak. I constantly hit imaginary walls that say "this area is locked or unavailable" and those areas have never been available. Just from spreading out and getting away from over populated areas at release will eat up the current contant very quickly. The "massive" Vanguard world is a small world after all.
Gameplay in Vanguard offers nothing new. A card game that reminds me of FF8 only less fun. Time sinks in harvesting that have no reason to exist. Crafting has similarities to lots of games, but lacks any polish. Combat was more exciting in FFXI while building TP. Forced interface buttons, such as cunter attacks, make layouts bulky and hard to organize spells/skills.
This is Brad telling us we should have liked EQ more and that he knows what is best. This is me saying Brad has an adversarial relationship with fun.
I stick with my originakl statment about the game: Beautiful but bjorked. Although the graphics really are not anythign that amazing in the end either, just better than what is out now.
Don't expect any gameplay improvements, which is what will kill Vanguard, but do expect performance increases almost immediately. Read up on the forums and the debugging mode. It is using far more resources than delivery mode (more character saves, less assembly code for faster trial coding) and as parts of code hit final more and more things are running at full speed. Even though there are ways to speed up your client ever since beta 3 when a large number of new testers were added people complain about performance issues in the defualt performance settings. Those are not being adjusted and manually setting your client up is the only way to get the game running properly. Honestly if you can't figure out the .ini file edits you should not be in a beta as you do not have the require computer experience/ Content wise Vanguard is weak. Very weak. I constantly hit imaginary walls that say "this area is locked or unavailable" and those areas have never been available. Just from spreading out and getting away from over populated areas at release will eat up the current contant very quickly. The "massive" Vanguard world is a small world after all. Gameplay in Vanguard offers nothing new. A card game that reminds me of FF8 only less fun. Time sinks in harvesting that have no reason to exist. Crafting has similarities to lots of games, but lacks any polish. Combat was more exciting in FFXI while building TP. Forced interface buttons, such as cunter attacks, make layouts bulky and hard to organize spells/skills. This is Brad telling us we should have liked EQ more and that he knows what is best. This is me saying Brad has an adversarial relationship with fun. I stick with my originakl statment about the game: Beautiful but bjorked. Although the graphics really are not anythign that amazing in the end either, just better than what is out now.
1. Brad McQuaid has been quoted saying that the game will only realistically improve 10% in performance by the time the game launches.
2. It's the promotional point in the beta. None of these users should be expected to have any more computer knowledge than someone buying the game off the shelf.
3. Sucks that the content runs out so fast and that the world is so unfinished. I don't know how much they'll be able to get done in a month, but it really doesn't matter if there are buckets of content or nothing at all if the game performs like ass and only 10% of PC owners are even able to run it at decent settings.
I have a new dell pc with a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM and GeForce 7300 256MB graphics card. I am WAY above the minimum specs and above the recommenede specs. I still have alot of lag, so much I feel like my screen is just moving frame by frame at times. I know there will be a performance boost when it finally goes live, but also the server populations are going to raise exponentially, so is there actually going to be a noticable boost. Was wondering could some of my lag be due to my internet connection. I am running through cable modem at 4MB/Sec. I know population on a cable modem at any given time will cause slowdown in the transfer if data to my pc.
I have a new dell pc with a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM and GeForce 7300 256MB graphics card. I am WAY above the minimum specs and above the recommenede specs. I still have alot of lag, so much I feel like my screen is just moving frame by frame at times. I know there will be a performance boost when it finally goes live, but also the server populations are going to raise exponentially, so is there actually going to be a noticable boost. Was wondering could some of my lag be due to my internet connection. I am running through cable modem at 4MB/Sec. I know population on a cable modem at any given time will cause slowdown in the transfer if data to my pc.
Very cool of you to sign up just to tell people about this. I think people need to know that the game's performance is so awful that people that only pass the minimum requirements really can't play as even on the lowest settings it is impossible to function in groups.
Comments
I think V:SoH is falling prey to the fact that it's one of the FIRST MMORPGs to require the system specs it does. A year from now, when a host of new games require similar specs for decent gameplay, that's when most gamers will probably sink the cash into upgrades.
It does seem a bit silly to upgrade your system for one game if your comp is adequate for every other function you use it for. I've only been in BETA for the last week. My comp exceeds all minimum system requirements (though I only have 1G RAM) and play is just too laggy in populated areas. I feel your pain and I'm anxious to see how play improves as we get deeper into BETA 5.
I think Sigil could've taken a lot of heat off themselves if the game were actually playable with the minimum system requirements, which it very well may be upon release. I'm sure a lot of folks who met the minimum system requirements, preordered, and are now experiencing the lack of playability in BETA 5 are just thinking that they may have thrown $50 bucks out the window unless they wanna sink a few hundred dollars into their comps. I think we should let 'em fume without jumping down their throats.
Don't expect any gameplay improvements, which is what will kill Vanguard, but do expect performance increases almost immediately. Read up on the forums and the debugging mode. It is using far more resources than delivery mode (more character saves, less assembly code for faster trial coding) and as parts of code hit final more and more things are running at full speed.
Even though there are ways to speed up your client ever since beta 3 when a large number of new testers were added people complain about performance issues in the defualt performance settings. Those are not being adjusted and manually setting your client up is the only way to get the game running properly. Honestly if you can't figure out the .ini file edits you should not be in a beta as you do not have the require computer experience/
Content wise Vanguard is weak. Very weak. I constantly hit imaginary walls that say "this area is locked or unavailable" and those areas have never been available. Just from spreading out and getting away from over populated areas at release will eat up the current contant very quickly. The "massive" Vanguard world is a small world after all.
Gameplay in Vanguard offers nothing new. A card game that reminds me of FF8 only less fun. Time sinks in harvesting that have no reason to exist. Crafting has similarities to lots of games, but lacks any polish. Combat was more exciting in FFXI while building TP. Forced interface buttons, such as cunter attacks, make layouts bulky and hard to organize spells/skills.
This is Brad telling us we should have liked EQ more and that he knows what is best. This is me saying Brad has an adversarial relationship with fun.
I stick with my originakl statment about the game: Beautiful but bjorked. Although the graphics really are not anythign that amazing in the end either, just better than what is out now.
1. Brad McQuaid has been quoted saying that the game will only realistically improve 10% in performance by the time the game launches.
2. It's the promotional point in the beta. None of these users should be expected to have any more computer knowledge than someone buying the game off the shelf.
3. Sucks that the content runs out so fast and that the world is so unfinished. I don't know how much they'll be able to get done in a month, but it really doesn't matter if there are buckets of content or nothing at all if the game performs like ass and only 10% of PC owners are even able to run it at decent settings.