Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
After a few days playing; not so bad! (update: not so good either)
markyturnip
Member UncommonPosts: 837
Hit level cap in WOW again; got tired... was looking for a new experience.
After a lot of humming and hahing I bought Vanguard last week. Now, It seems this weekend was a double xp weekend, so this may be an unrepresentative experience.. but I think this game has received an unfair rap.
On the bad side:
a) It is true this game is tough on the old PC; but my AMD 3.2, 1.5g ram ran acceptably on the high performance settings. (It ranges from Highest Quality, High Quality, Balanced, High Performance, Highest Performance). I found the highest performance setting offered such awful graphics that I would not be willing to play on that at all; but High performance still gave a decently pretty environment IMO.
b) The models somehow do not fit in with the world. I cannot put my finger on it, but they seems superimposed... not quite at home in the world. You start to get used to this after a while though, and it grates less as time goes on. NPCs/mobs also seem to stand around a fair amount... the game could benefit from having them do more, interact with other and so on, appear to be engaged in meaningful activity/
c) I am on a FFA server... ganking was not too bad, maybe I was lucky there... and pvp seems like it could be fun. Will be largely player generated; but you can pvp in town, no guard swarms, so I have hopes for this. Because of performance issues, models seem to leap around a certain amount (I hope that will improve); casters have a fairly tough time as they have to be facing in the direction of an opponent to hit. But I think that FFA offers some great possibilities.
d) The game remains buggy, although not in a game-breaking way.
e) Community not very welcoming to new players... some helped, but there were a lot of smartass comments from the vast experience of their month in-game.. yeesh); sespecially eeing as there are limited guides and no thottbot. This was irritating. Then again, I imagine that with time guilds will become more established, and more of a community will emerge.
f) Corpse running irritating (to collect your tombstone), but I guess there should be some penatly for dying. I dunno... I would just send the player back to a bind point and end of story... That said, there is an option to soul bind eveything, so you probably could do that if you wanted.
On the good side:
a) it may be my imagination, but performance for me has improved over the few days I have owned this game. Maybe patching is having an effect?
b) diplomacy is fun. for me, at least... the card game may not be many people's cup of tea, but I found it an interesting way to learn about the lore, and like having an alternative activity to questing and crafting... I wonder where it will all lead, but it has a fun storyline.
c) Crafting/Harvesting seems very in-depth. I just dabbled with it, but saw immediately it would be much more interesting than in WOW. Far greater economic opportunities in this game. And felling trees as a lumberjack is fun.
d) Questing a little generic, but I found the quests did offer some sense of lore and story - not great, but OK. It was better when married with diplomacy. I hear that my starting zone was one of the better ones.
e) Lots of powers quite quickly. I am level 10 now, and there is already a wide range of actions available to my druid.
f) Combat seems more interesting than Wow at first blush - weaknesses, finishing moves, counterspells, phenomena etc
g) sense of scale is larger; the environment makes more sense - ie - it does not seems to have an ice zone, then a desert zone, then a fire zone, then a mushroom zone, as it were. There is more of an illusion of a real world here.
h) The slower levelling pace seems to create less of sense of panic that you have to charge through the levels to cap. For me, the best part of these games is discovery - rather than a rush to end game then endless instances. So this appealed to me.
i) Not every inch of ground is mob infested... that meant there were areas you could run through without worrying at every steps. Then, suddenly, you would step on a snake that would damn near or actually kill you. This was a little more realistic. Now I just wish the mobs would act more as "packs" or "tribes" or whatever, rather than - here is a clump of a certain type of mob. Still, it may improve in more advanced zones...
Basically, despite obvious flaws, I think there is a lot to recommend this game to someone who wants a new MMO experience.
I may post again in a few more days to give my further impressions.
Comments
I agree the game has some issues but I haven’t run into anything that has made the game unplayable. I’ve seen some video issues that have been fixed by a /flush. The other day I was able to walk through rock, not a big issue. Sometimes the game lags a bit, this could be my fault with another computer, a Nintendo DS and a Nintendo Wii all on the same wireless network.
Since the pre-order launch I think the game has improved leaps and bounds. We have already had an XP weekend and I hear other player events will be coming. What other bgs are people running into?
Not sure what you are talking about. Can you be more specific?
eqnext.wikia.com
The few bugs are a very minor problem to me (but I understand it can be frustrating for people who can experience performance problems with slower computers, and some people have some trouble with some of the nvidia 8800 cards).
If, however, you are using a slower computer, something like LOTR might be better for you.
VG is beautiful. What is missing for me right now is more soul / life in the world (small details like birds in the sky, small animals, animation in the cities and in various places, etc...) + anti-aliasing. But from the devs posts I understand this will be coming with the patches. The game definitely is not finished yet, but even as it is today there is already so much beauty, depth and things to do, and it is improving every week with the patches.
Yes VG is a great game and with the forthcoming improvements it will definitely be one of the best mmorpgs in 2008.
yup
I shall attempt to explain what you said you don't understand. Every system tends to have some bugs (actually, bug symptoms) that reappear again and again. This is because bugs tend to appear in the weak areas of the system design, which every system has, and there are more distinct bugs possible than there are symptoms that can be discerned.
For example, let's take leaks, such as memory leaks and resource leaks. There are a vast number of specific leaks possible. Every one of them will manifest in one (or more) of several ways: crashing, hanging, transient delays (stuttering), or general slowdowns. Some of these symptoms are also shared with other kinds of problems. Leaks occur when objects are being disposed of (deallocated), but show up when other objects are being created. Object disposal and creation tend to occur in batches, so it is possible to have many leaks resulting from a particular event. However, usually only the worst one (or few) triggered from a particular event is detectable at a time. Leaks are also a very likely consequence of the state or our programming technology, so adding new stuff is quite likely to generate new leaks.
So... after a few more days (and I am not playing this particularly intensely - just an hour or two here and there) I can add a few more thoughts -
1) I love the fact you can get a cheap horse at level 10... a nice early landmark, a nice sense of achievement. I hate the fact that the second a mob aggros me the horse disappears. What's with that? Also, my horse's jump is competely stilted... it sort of jerks up in a 'jump position' and I rise. There is no fluidity.
2) Early grouping has left me thinking... gak - I have been here before! There is a quest called "tainted" something which seems to be the instance-style group quest of choice for level 10-15 characters, in Kojo (or whatever my zone is called). You are teleported to an area with 4 sub-areas (you are teleported to each of those also)... in each area, which is like a box surrounded by walls, you just have to clear all the mobs, twice (huh? I cleared, and now I have to clear again?), then kill a boss. This is in NO WAY epic. Seriously, what a bore.
The fact that I effectively have to do this - to comply with the grouping philosphy , and subsequent rewards, of this game - rather than go off exploring on my lonesome or in a pair - to discover this great world in interesting ways - is very uninspiring. Look, I love groups, but just clearing four confined areas twice each is in no way an interesting activity.
Even more boring, the tank died, at one point, and could not come back in. Ya wha? Something about a locked instance, What garbage. We had to start again for him to continue. All over again.
I was one of two druids, which are designed as dps spellcasters but have a couple of heals. Well, for whatever reason in this fight both of us were dpsing away, we had no other healer, we forget to toss in a heal at the right moment and the tank dies. Meh, well, so we should have been more alert but not the end of the world right? Dust off and continue? No way! We have to abandon the quest and start again... and recriminations fly.
Now, I am certainly not going to judge a game on one encounter, but what struck me is that because this is essentially - in adventuring at least - the SAME GAME as EVERY OTHER MMO - people immediately forgot they were exploring something new, and started behaving like bored min/max level cap players in their old game. How depressing. Yet, I confess feeling similar.. this being such a similar game in terms of play mechanics (so far, and it is early days, but it seems clear enough anyway), well.. I guess I also (while not saying anything, as it is not really a big deal) feel a little irritated by people messing up in obvious ways. I have been here before, in other words, many many times. It is boring.
3) So.. off I toddle after this joyous experience to some location where I have been sent - an asylum - where I wonder if I can play a little solo. Well, it turns out the mobs are too high for me, so no... no huge deal, except looking at the asylum - here are essentially a bunch of mobs just standing still waiting for me to pull them one by one, in order to collect the 7 whatchuma flips that the quest giver wants.
This is 3rd gen? I am afraid not. It simply is not.
This is 1st gen, with nicer graphics and a few more knobs and twiddles.
To me 2nd gen was WOW - scripted encounters, where interesting things happen, people crack jokes at you, things appear to transform, and mobs are wandering around doing interesting things.
In 3rd Gen I am looking for a substantial increase in immersion and gameplay... a significantly enhanced experience. Sad to say, the 'VISION' seems to have translated - from my experience so far - into a step backwards.
3) This has been said before, but everything is a little too... um.. clean. Where is the grit and detritus of a lived in active world. The big bridge in my starting zone is completely antisceptic. Not even a bird has ever pooped here. Clearly, when I am not looking, a gang of slaves is constantly scrubbing everthing to a spotless sheen. Wish I could see em .. that would be interesting. As of now, trouble is, I do not believe in this bridge. It has no history; it has no life. This world has almost no life.
4) I am chopping down trees, but for what? I don't really know.. no-one needs my wood; least, I have not met anyone who does. There should be a lumber yard where I can hand it in or something. Full of sneering lumberjacks drinking ale on their time off.
ALL THIS SAID>>>>
I will continue playing some more, because I DO like the prospect of exploring this generally pretty environment. I am hoping that things will become more interesting in terms of my toon's life plot.
But the fact that players 10 levels in are already acting out the same kind of frustrations as they did presumably on the 13th run through LBRS in WoW is a really, really worrying development . It speaks to me that this sense of 'wonder', the sense of 'hey - this is cool' is simply not there. I have not met anyone yet who said 'hey, this is cool. Or.. phew... that was fun!' So far, it seems, even combat in City of Heroes/Villains was much more dynamic intense and fun... At least the mobs there shouted insults at you. And did strange things that made them seem alive.
Bleh... so sad given how much money and effort they must have spent on this. I really wish them luck, and will play a little more for sure. But if nothing changes substantially, I will not be one of the golden converts to regular subscription. Argh! Now I have to wait for Age of Conan or Warhammer! Do I have to slake my MMO thirst in the meantime with LOTRO? ugh... no pvp.. choices choices
What game are you playing , I think you are in the wrong forum bro. In VG I solo often and have for all of my 32 levels, and duo is great EXP. Not sure what the instance comment was about, or the box/walls thing. Seriously, you are not describing VG I play.
He's a Druid. I was a Druid. Druids do not solo well.... esp once you get to the late teen's/early 20's and the mobs basically switch to 3 dots and higher.... its group (or at least duo) or die.....
On the plus side...I think you'll see Sigil keep balancing the classes until none of them solo (3 dots) very well....
Edit...and solo questing bascially vanishes after level 20...its all small group or larger quests ...... so if grinding isn't your forte (and most people who enjoyed WOW prefer questing) than VG isn't for you.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
You are using a low level tier 1 horse. Do you expect it to be superman already ?
You can add equipment to it to improve stability. The more stability improves, the less you fall from your horse when you are hit.
There are 3 spheres (3 games) in this game : adventuring / crafting / diplomacy.
Wood is for crafting. You build your house (you buy a plot of land and build on it); you can build boats, you can craft arrows, etc...
We are also going to experience player built and player run cities, guild manors/castles, etc...Dude, you have not even started playing this game. It is different from other games that take you by the hand right from the beginning, but unfortunately most of the time get boring fast. This one is different, it starts slowly but grows on you for the long run.
That said, it is not finished yet. It is improving weekly with the patches. As I posted previously, I am also missing the life/soul. But this is coming. Compared to other games that start with a small world and grow, VG starts with a huge world and grows; so its a little empty for now. With the last patches I have seen more life appearing like more snakes, birds, mobs running around on some delivery job, etc... Of course it's not in all the areas yet, but its coming.
But even with the shortcomings we see now (hey the game is just 1 month old) I'm already having a lot of fun.
Check some sites like the Silky Venom dev tracker. The devs are communicating with the community daily.
The whole "3rd generation" thing was marketing hype, nothing more. Anyone who played UO for the first couple years can see that. Talk about chopping wood; In UO people used to make a living chopping wood, making it into bows or furniture, and selling it to players who would set it up in their housing. It was a game that, for the most part, did "sandbox design" very well.
IMHO there is too much focus these days on graphics technology. I don't even think there needs to be a debate in this regards; the prettiest looking game is nothing without content and solid design, yet Sigil hyped their graphics engine nonstop. Brad actually said they pushed to have "next generation" graphics so the game wouldn't age as quickly. I can't believe a game developer would talk as if the graphics of their game are the deciding factor of how viable it is.
Sorry to bust your chops Kyleran, but I find it really amusing to still hear people saying that phrase after Brad spilled his guts on the FOH forums, lamenting how VG got bad press and negative word of mouth from the Vanbois and how he wants to make people understand that "Vanguard appeals to core, casuals and hardcore alike!"
I did quit because the game is boring as hell. The few innovations they attempted to make are either things I don't care about or, in the case of Diplomacy, brief dalliances whose novelty fades very quickly.
If you are impressed by Vanguard's graphics (i.e., if you have questionable taste), save yourself a few bucks and just enjoy other people's screenshots.
Talk about chopping wood; In UO people used to make a living chopping wood, making it into bows or furniture, and selling it to players who would set it up in their housing.
Yep, and in Vanguard we can also craft bows, arrows, and so much more, ... , but we can also buy land plots and carpenters can build houses on them (this will grow to become player run cities), we can craft boats, they sell for some nice couple golds. Most of the furniture is not in game yet but coming soon.
And yes, crafters are making a living with their skills. Hell, crafting is even one of the 3 spheres so it can live on its own.
You're welcome.
Talk about chopping wood; In UO people used to make a living chopping wood, making it into bows or furniture, and selling it to players who would set it up in their housing.
Yep, and in Vanguard we can also craft bows, arrows, and so much more, ... , but we can also buy land plots and carpenters can build houses on them (this will grow to become player run cities), we can craft boats. Most of the furniture is not in game yet but coming soon.
And yes, crafters are making a living with their skills. Hell, crafting is even one of the 3 spheres so it can live on its own.
Uh huh. And how much of that is in the game and working properly? Ships? Housebuilding? Oh thats right... even if you could build a house, furniture isn't in the game.
So lets see; Brad stated that the first priority is fixing bugs and getting the game to where is *should* have been when it was first released. Once that happens (lol), the next issue is that there is NO raid content in the game yet. You can't have your entire playerbase sitting around at L50 with nothing to do, so that will be put in next... and then the bug testing has to happen yet again...
Where do you think crafting will fit in all that?
Talk about chopping wood; In UO people used to make a living chopping wood, making it into bows or furniture, and selling it to players who would set it up in their housing.
Yep, and in Vanguard we can also craft bows, arrows, and so much more, ... , but we can also buy land plots and carpenters can build houses on them (this will grow to become player run cities), we can craft boats. Most of the furniture is not in game yet but coming soon.
And yes, crafters are making a living with their skills. Hell, crafting is even one of the 3 spheres so it can live on its own.
Uh huh. And how much of that is in the game and working properly? Ships? Housebuilding? Oh thats right... even if you could build a house, furniture isn't in the game.
So lets see; Brad stated that the first priority is fixing bugs and getting the game to where is *should* have been when it was first released. Once that happens (lol), the next issue is that there is NO raid content in the game yet. You can't have your entire playerbase sitting around at L50 with nothing to do, so that will be put in next... and then the bug testing has to happen yet again...
Where do you think crafting will fit in all that?
Players have posted screenshots of their ships and houses all over.
Some examples:
http://www.silkyvenom.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15546
http://img457.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vgclient200703140142001zf1.jpg
http://img457.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vgclient200703140140502ly9.jpg
Many players are also playing the games as only crafters. They don't adventure. They are the richest players in the game and according to their posts they are not looking forward to any adventuring needs.
I have to agree with the OP as far as the "Been there done that" feel of the game...
As far as soloing goes, it all depends on which class you pick... Im a 36 Monk and im having problems with that also. Although this last patch seem to help some, I can now take on dot 2 mobs that are below my level, before it was hit and miss. There's no way I can take on a 3 dot mob even if its 5-6 levels below me.
I'm still thinking about canceling my account... Just to many frustrating things about the game play that make you want to quit...
For example, Monks have 1 heal skill, it heals for about 30% of your health but has a 5 min. timer on it.. Ok i can live with this, but everytime I kill a 2 dot mob I have to sit down and wait for my health to regen which takes about 5 mins, even if I eat food (thats for level 30+ toons) it still takes a good 3 mins. So everytime I kill something I have to sit down and wait 3 mins before attacking again. This is just stupid, what purpose does this serve? Its not like I can eat during combat to make myself heal faster, so why can't the healing effects of food be faster since I have to be out of combat in order to use it anyways? It's stuff like this that makes me want to cancel.
Another example, lack of Transporters, why make someone travel 30 mins across land to get to there group? Im not saying there should be transporters inland, but put more harbors around the outside of the islands so we can atleast get from one side of the map to the other without havnig to spend 40% of our gameplay time trying to get there...
Static NPC's, makes the game world feel dead. I know on some of the dungeons for higher level players they actually have a few npc guards that patrol around which is step in the right diretion, but this is more of the exception then the rule.
Lack of Banks, Brokers and mailbox's not to mention the the lack of some trainers: I can find Cleric trainers everywhere but for some reason the Dev's like to the hide the Monk trainers. Every sizeable camp, city and castle should have these items in them, Im tried of having to ride 20 mins to find a mailbox to see what mail i got. Or spend over an 1hr looking through cities just to find out they don't have the trainer I need, true you can talk to guards to get directins, but a lot of the guards are bugged and wont tell you anything. Bottom line if you have a area with trainers, the area should contain all of them and not just a few select ones..
Because certain classes can solo 3 and 4 dot mobs, it makes it extreamly hard for classes that can't solo to find groups. Either fix it so nobody can solo or make all the classes soloable.
Another problem I see in the future is with the crafting classes, sure there goods are wanted now but once everyone gets epic armor and weapons crafting is going to be useless wtihout decay. I could see a system where once your items hit 0 condition you could repair it up to 5 times before it breaks permenatly and you need more gear, without this there really is no point to crafting.
The more I play this game the more it seems like a pointless time sink. Case in point, you get quest to kill 20 mobs, well the problem is these mobs only spawn in one area and they only spawn couple at a time, so it takes you 4 hrs to complete the quest, with most of the time sitting and waiting for them to spawn....
The bad thing is I really want to like this game, but the more I push forward the more I find myself asking why am I playing this..... I think Vanguards biggest problem is that the fantasy setting has been played out to much and people are becoming bored with it... Dungeons & Dragons online, WoW, EQ1, EQ2, AC, LOTRO, etc...etc.... I think people would of been more willing to work thru the problems if it had a different setting at least it would be something different, such as sci-fi or maybe even a Post Apocalyptic setting..