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JK-Kanosi
Member Posts: 1,357
I've noticed a lot of marketing on these forums for people to come back to Vanguard, because it is great, fixed, is growing and etc. A lot of AoC players are buying into this and are resubbing/buying the game.
I just want to make a few things clear, because it is only fair to do so. I might catch some flack for this, but the community deserves to know the truth.
I seen all of the recent hype of these forums and decided to resub to Vanguard, because I wasn't happy with AoC. I was told the game was fixed, the community was healthy and growing, and that all was well. Okay great!, I said, because I loved Vanguard as a game and my major problems with it was the annoying bugs and low population levels.
Well, first of all, there are still bugs in the game. I haven't found any ground breaking yet or that really effected my enjoyment of the game, but there are still some bugs. For instance, I cannot see the rain or snow in the game, which only happens to Vista users that use a resolution of 1600 x and greater.
Second of all, the community still is pretty small and the loyal Vanguardians admit it in-game and take pride in it and even go as far as to say that they have quality over quantity. Fair enough, but at least don't act like the game has a booming population. Also, the community thinks they are the best and most mature community in any MMORPG rigt now. From what I can see, the majority is helpful and mature, however, there are some immature players that can completely piss you off and make you want to cancel your sub and uninstall. Since I've only been back a couple days, I cannot say if this is a fluke or common.
Overall, the game does still has some faults, but the game is really nice. The game has a lot of features and they work, plus the game is large, wide open and seamless. The size of the community can be a problem and the fact that they are stuck in their ways can also be a problem. For example, some people were talking about how they have only 10 people in their guilds and I suggested the community, since they are smallish and they said the Seradon community is mature and friendly, "Why not combine the guilds that have similar objectives," and I was looked at like I had horns growing out of my head. It makes perfect sense, because you all get along anyways and are competing for the same type of guild members. A larger guild attracts newcomers easier, because it gives the illusion that you have enough people to run more groups and do the harder content.
At any rate, the purpose of this thread is to inform those looking to play this game of the truth, because it seems that the Vanguardian's are laying it on a bit thick on these boards.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Comments
I don't think anyone would disagree that it still has some major issues. I run into all sorts of minor annoying bugs but you know what? I run into bugs in every MMO or PC game for that matter. Nothing is perfect.
Play it if you enjoy it.
I think what is unsettling for some is to see a forum with lots of positive things in it.
What you say is fair in all regards. I dabbled again and i enjoy it. It has come a long way and i feel the population seems considerably larger from when i last played.(6 months ago) That said it s not perfect at all and has some work still, but it has that open world feel i truly love. I love exploring and hate being restricted, this game offers quite a bit of that.
As for the open world feel and lack of restrictions, I completely agree and that is one of the things I love about this game. The only complaint I really have right now is the inability to sprint using your endurance as a guiding factor on how long you can sprint and the lack of class customization. The comment was made that there are a lot of classes, which a normal player can just find a class that fits exactly to their playstyle. However, many games have as many classes and still offer good class customization, such as DAoC and EQ2.
At any rate, if a person is looking for an old school feel in a new MMORPG, Vanguard is a good game to consider. It is polished enough to be called release quality and I wouldn't consider it beta quality anymore. The only major lacking feature in the game at the moment would be the size of the community. This could be solved with the release of the trial island, combined with good marketing. I will continue to play through my 30 days of subscription and see how things turn out.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Fair assessment. The game isn't perfect by any means... but it seems to finally be over the hump with regards to getting performance were it should be and clearning up game-breaking buffs. With that out of the way, most can settle in for a very fun experience if they enjoy the traditional MMO.
I've played straight through from Day 1. The population now seems to be the best it's been since the server merges 6-months ago or thereabouts.
I recently purchased the game and have to go on low settings to get the FPS above 30. And I cannot play a game anymore without seening the grass/plants swaying in the wind(thanks to LOTRO).
My pc has dual 3.00 cpu, 2gb ram and nvidia 8500gt 512mb graphics card.....
Any suggestions?
MMO Played-EQ, EQ2, WOW, DDO, GW, COH, Vanguard, WAR
MMOs Playing-LOTRO
It does sound odd that you are getting such bad performance on your computer.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Personally, I get around 50FPS@1680x1050 on Medium High about everywhere with the following setup
AMD Athlon 64x2 4800+ (2.4Ghz)
4GB of DDR800 (G.SKill)
BFG 8800GTS 512 (G92)
250GB SATA300
Considering I have Windows XP (32 bit) I only have effectively 1GB of RAM more than you. And with the slower processor... just goes to show you your video card is your bottle neck.
As far as performance yeah I'd agree the problem is with your Video card but that's just guess work really. I run with a 7950GT 512Mb and get 70FPS outside of towns and 35+ in towns, on Balanced settings. Since I've been back I haven't even played with the .ini tweaks and I've had no reason to at this point.
So vanguard has higher requirements then LOTRO, which I have no problem running in high settings?
MMO Played-EQ, EQ2, WOW, DDO, GW, COH, Vanguard, WAR
MMOs Playing-LOTRO
Honestly get a 8800gt, you can get as low as 150. this week at the store with the big yellow tag sign, they are many times as fast as a 8500.
I am playing AoC and really enjoying it, but I'm also a hoping Vanguard would give a free trial, I'm not going to plop down $50 or so to find out I don't like it after it flounders so bad when it went gold. I was honestly disapointed when that happened after following it's devolopment from the beginning.
Play take a look and have fun. If you like it , play it . If you don't like it, stop it.
You pay you choose.
Most of VG players I know play also AOC.
Why ?
1° they are "pure players" so they try all games
2° they have big PC so they can play both.
There's no fight between aoc and vg players because, if you can forget fanboys, they are the same people.
As for the open world feel and lack of restrictions, I completely agree and that is one of the things I love about this game. The only complaint I really have right now is the inability to sprint using your endurance as a guiding factor on how long you can sprint and the lack of class customization. The comment was made that there are a lot of classes, which a normal player can just find a class that fits exactly to their playstyle. However, many games have as many classes and still offer good class customization, such as DAoC and EQ2.
At any rate, if a person is looking for an old school feel in a new MMORPG, Vanguard is a good game to consider. It is polished enough to be called release quality and I wouldn't consider it beta quality anymore. The only major lacking feature in the game at the moment would be the size of the community. This could be solved with the release of the trial island, combined with good marketing. I will continue to play through my 30 days of subscription and see how things turn out.
Honest post.We need now a trial.
(they're working on it for sure)
SOE A trial PLEASE lol
But I agree they need a trial asap. Or at least give free buddy keys on the website.
nethervoid - Est. '97
[UO|EQ|SB|SWG|PS|HZ|EVE|NWN|WoW|VG|DF|AQW|DN|SWTOR|Dofus|SotA|BDO|AO|NW|LA] - Currently Playing EQ1
20k+ subs YouTube Gaming channel
I later upgraded to an 8800 GTS, and LOTRO now runs pretty well on highest settings. Vanguard, however, runs better than LOTRO, on max setting, on my computer.
dual core 2.4
4 gig
8800 GTS
Actually I was running a AMD Athlon 64 2.2ghz, 2gb PC6400 DDR 400mhz ram, 8500 GT 512MB and I was running LotRO on high settings too with perfect gameplay and then I got into AoC and could barely play it on low settings @ 10 fps average. So I upgraded, but that card does really suck balls but I was still able to play LotRO on high. I don't know why yours ran like crap.
for me vanguard runs better than lotro
Remember Old School Ultima Online
After only 2 days of playing and only having a lvl 7 Kojan Sorceror, I cannot accurately tell the size of the community and can only go off of what the in-game community says, so I won't disagree or agree with you on the community size. However, I last played in January when they offered the free month, and it doesn't seem that the community has grown much according to comments made in /regionsay. It seems that population is level and region specific and mileage may vary. If you want to group, you must go where the majority is. If you want to explore what you want to explore, you most likely will have to do it solo, unless it is in-line with what the majority wants to see. I see this as a problem, because I was told to go to Thestra if I want to get a lot of groups. I am accustomed to playing MMORPGs that has grouping for all areas of the game, so that you can explore all areas with a group if you want.As for the open world feel and lack of restrictions, I completely agree and that is one of the things I love about this game. The only complaint I really have right now is the inability to sprint using your endurance as a guiding factor on how long you can sprint and the lack of class customization. The comment was made that there are a lot of classes, which a normal player can just find a class that fits exactly to their playstyle. However, many games have as many classes and still offer good class customization, such as DAoC and EQ2.
At any rate, if a person is looking for an old school feel in a new MMORPG, Vanguard is a good game to consider. It is polished enough to be called release quality and I wouldn't consider it beta quality anymore. The only major lacking feature in the game at the moment would be the size of the community. This could be solved with the release of the trial island, combined with good marketing. I will continue to play through my 30 days of subscription and see how things turn out.
Regionsay could only work so far, Kojan is considerably smaller than the other two continents, and when you reach around level 20-25 there really is nothing left for you to do in Kojan (although there are still tons of quests in the area for its limited levels) But IMO as an experienced VG player the only thing that's really great about Kojan is going into Lord Tshang's Tomb and acquiring the 5 mystical weapons. Each has their own storyline and each was used by the generals from Lord Tshang's army.
But once you outpast Kojan, Qalia and Thestra has considerably more things you can do, I can honestly say about 2x more quests and land size. Once you get into these two continents, you'll see more people chatting in the region channel. Sometimes so much and annoying that you would want to get out of it.
on Seradon i see a lot of people around level 10-20. i was really surprised to see so many people considering how big the continents actually are.
But not sure how you can judge the size of the community at level 7 or by region say.
The game is huge (in the true sense of the term) and there are a high number of starter towns. Even in highly populated games like EverQuest II most people don't group until around level 20.
As for region say... very few people actually talk in it non-stop. Most use it for a question. They are either in guild chat or group chat or they are solo and not chatting.
I agree the game needs a lot of work, and that is why I choose not to play it exclusively yet. But this game is going to get major attention once it's genuinely polished.
I don't think you should be too surprised to see people stating that they think game is great - when it is.
The population size is easily acceptable. In a game world this size (enormous) consider that you are not going to see people running every where all the time (like in a zoned/instanced game). Head to the social hubs like Kahl and you will see plenty of people (unless you play at odd hours).
I'm not saying the population is very large, but it sure isn't "smallish." Haven't really heard anyone complain about this issue since the server merges awhile back.
The best advice I could give in a game this size would be to join a guild early on. It makes all the difference in the world. And with the nice guild features it's easy for you to find one that fits your personality and play style.
/peace
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
Dear Op,
First of all, sorry about my english...
Well, when u started your topic saying 'the truth' i was thinking u were about to say that the game is all bugged, its boring and that we are all here lying...
U said nothing that hasn't been said here before: yes, the game still has some bugs...but..even WOW has some bugs! What ppl said is that nowadays, the game is much more reliable and now u can really play it. Second, population isn't huge..no one said that! What ppl are saying is that they have noticed a 'slowly growing' pop over the last weeks...
So i really didnt get the point...prob if u had payed attention to all the topics here u wouldnt be wrtiting this one. I really didnt like this topic u wrote, cause its like if u were trying to tell the truth when we all were lying for new ppl to join the game.
I sugest this topic should be closed cause it brings nothing new to the table and it suggest Vanguard community are a bunch of liars...
What I find dishearting is that SOE is clearly promoting EQ2 and neglecting Vanguard beyond the bare basics. There is no other way to describe the two months free time given to the veterans of EQ2, as opposed to the silence regarding Vanguard.
The game has indeed come a long way in the year it launched, but unfortunately it still doesn't receive the attention it deserves from SOE. It's as if SOE would have liked it dead instead of growing.
Dint you play yer Vanguard free time, i had dang near 3 months of vanguard freetime at the welcom,e back christmas event this year, and at that time a ton of people came back, and a lot left again, why i really dont know, i stayed for awhile, then went back to eq2.
playing eq2 and two worlds
As far as grouping myself i have absolutly no problem finding groups for anything i want. Ive played sence day 1, so i do know where do go and stuff and that helps alot But honestly just watch chat the amount of groups out there is unreal. Dont be shy form one yourself. You would be surprized how many times you can get a group just by asking in OOC channel. I think someone made a new channel for low players to find groups its /join lowbies. I think thats it just ask in game someone will tell you
I'll let you decide which are lies, which are true, and which are only half true. I played the game and have talked to people who have played since launch, so I will go with the people who gave me unbiased opinions and factoids of the game over people that seemed to have an agenda. Notice, I said seemed. Maybe those posting some of the lies honestly believed them or naturally exaggerate things. The point is that there is some false information out there and it may persuade some to come back under false pretences. I know I was persuaded this way. Luckily, I've played this already and didn't expect much.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
now thats some truth to that suggestion minus one other thing. Suckers for paying for beta for 10months.
I was able to have a decent experience with grass and all on a 7600GT card (laptop). One thing that helped a lot was turning off volumetric clouds. There are a few other tricks that you can find on the forums.
What I found is that the performance bottlenecks are often not in the card but in the RAM. Especially in cities, a lot of stuttering happens because the comp is loading those beautiful textures from your HD. I recently upgraded to 8800GT 512MB and I would still get poor performance in Khal on max settings. Upping my RAM to 4GB solved it. I am running under Vista, and memory being cheap, it was a good idea anyway.
AoC sill is running smoother though, so there is still work to be done.