Some Questions From Prospecting Gamer

s_nova4

Hello.  I am considering trying out Vanguard.  If you could, please answer some questions I have:

1) Is it casual gamer friendly?  If you only have an hour to play at a time, will it be worthwhile?

2) If a group cannot be found, is it soloable?

3) How is the crafting system?

4) I've heard the graphics are nice; true?

5) I've heard the combat system is typical MMO, but is it fun?

I have played a number of MMOs casually, including: EQ2, WoW, AoC, AC2, Guild Wars, Diablo 2, SWG, DAoC, etc.  A couple listed aren't really MMOs, but I did play them only online.  My most recent was AoC, but I found the quests after Tortage pointless and there were a lot of uncompleted elements of the game, but most people know about those...

Thanks for any advice!

-Casey

ethion

1) Is it casual gamer friendly?  If you only have an hour to play at a time, will it be worthwhile?

Yes the game is casual gamer friendly.  You can play an hour and do some solo quests, do some crafting, or dabble in diplomacy or just harvest.  There is a ton of variety.
2) If a group cannot be found, is it soloable?
Yes, I spent plenty of time soloing.  You can solo to max level.
3) How is the crafting system?
The crafting system is unlike other games.  It is a full game.  You can level to 50 in crafting without ever fighting.  You can make money doing crafting tasks, and you get loot from doing work orders.  Crafters like adventurers have a full set of gear, stats, and abilities.  Crafting is not some simple add on to adventuring so expect to have to actually work at it and learn it.  The crafting system has 10s of thousands of items you can make.
4) I've heard the graphics are nice; true?
The graphics are realistic and very detailed.  Some areas are great some are artistically not that great. A lot of it is personal opinion.  Technically the graphics are pretty high end in terms of capabilities.
5) I've heard the combat system is typical MMO, but is it fun?
The combat system is kinda like wow but evelolutionary better.  So it has chains, defensive, counterattacks.  It has the ability to counterspell a spell you detect.  It has a weakness system that lets you exploit weaknesses other player create in mobs.  All in all it is one of hte best combat systems and I think it is fun.

 

s_nova4

Thanks for the fast reply.  If you'd indulge me, I have a couple more questions:

1) Is there a good sense of advancement? 

Because I've really enjoyed the games with a good sense of advancement, in that you don't have to wait 10-20 lvls to advance in a certain area.  An example of bad sense would be in AoC and the armor lvls.  You use more or less the same exact armor for like 15-20 lvls, which is really lame, especially at lower lvls.  Another example of this is in Lineage 2.  Another bad example was crafting in Guild Wars, at least in the original version.  It took ages to farm the materials and there were very few armor choices.

A good example, IMHO, was AC2, because there was a good crafting system and the drops were decent enough.  You could change your equipment pretty regularly.  Also, the skill trees were pretty dynamic.  Or, another example would be a game like Diablo 2, which doesn't have the crafting, but does have loot.

2) How long does it take to get to a "respectable" level?

I say "respectable" because different games have different lvl ranges were you get more high lvl content, not just end game stuff.

Thanks for your time.

-Casey

Josters

uh i think every level is respectable, from level 1 to lvl 40 you will have TOO much content to try it all, thats why this game is KING ALTS...you're gonna make alts just to try it all, jeez you even get a Gain no EXP ability so you can try it all.

About good sense of advancement, its there. There are alot of quests with armors, weapons, mounts(better mount at 20, 30,etc), flying mounts, housing, boats, etc. So yep you feel like moving forward. Also you feel REALLY powerfull in this game :P

Like in this dungeon I was with a group....and then came ADDS and ADDS...I though we were dead I mean this situation in another game we would be DEAD.....but we all worked our butt and MADE IT....it was CRAZY but we made it and that feeling alone was AMAZING, there was challenge...there was fun.....there....can't explain but if you have  good group that know what to do then you will have fun

Best of all we were all newbies lol

 

 

ethion

Hard to say what you mean by a good sense of advancement....

As you level every two levels you get new abilities and spells.  Every 20% of a level past 10 you get attribute points you can spend to add str, agi, int etc to your character.  You also gain access to new equipment, ability to handle new challenges and quests.  So yeah you feel a sense of advancement.  You gain new armor pretty frequently and at key levels you get access to new armor slots like you can get a cloak at 20.  At 10 you can get a horse.  There is always something more to get so you feel like you are constantly advancing.  That was one of the things I most disliked about AoC all the armor looked the same so there was no sense of getting cooler as you level.  And while I got new abilities I didn't like the fact that the combos kept gettting longer and harder to do.

I'd say the advancement rate is similar to wow, maybe a bit slower but definitely in that  ballpark.  Respectable is too vague... 

s_nova4

Originally posted by ethion


Hard to say what you mean by a good sense of advancement....
As you level every two levels you get new abilities and spells.  Every 20% of a level past 10 you get attribute points you can spend to add str, agi, int etc to your character.  You also gain access to new equipment, ability to handle new challenges and quests.  So yeah you feel a sense of advancement.  You gain new armor pretty frequently and at key levels you get access to new armor slots like you can get a cloak at 20.  At 10 you can get a horse.  There is always something more to get so you feel like you are constantly advancing.  That was one of the things I most disliked about AoC all the armor looked the same so there was no sense of getting cooler as you level.  And while I got new abilities I didn't like the fact that the combos kept gettting longer and harder to do.
I'd say the advancement rate is similar to wow, maybe a bit slower but definitely in that  ballpark.  Respectable is too vague... 

 

Yeah, I was vague.    Anyways, what you wrote is what I was looking for.  My latest MMO was AoC, so I am using that as one example of "bad" advancement.  Armor is a great example.  Very few choices.  And, the combos were cool for a while, but that became just as "mundane" as the typical MMO combat.  On top of that, when you lvled up, you mostly got the same combos AGAIN, just with a different number after the name...

By "respectable" I was just meaning when you get some cool content; terrible word choice, I know.  Some games, like WoW or Lineage 2, don't have a whole lot of good content, like quests or equipment, at lower lvls.  In WoW, I only played to lvl 14...hehe...and there wasn't much variety...but I guess I didn't give it a chance. 

Another question:

Any recommendations for classes/races for starting out, or things to stay away from?  Games usually have a couple useless classes or races with terrible starting locations.  Any info would be great.

Thanks!

-Casey

oTinyo

Another question:

Any recommendations for classes/races for starting out, or things to stay away from?  Games usually have a couple useless classes or races with terrible starting locations.  Any info would be great.

 

Healers are generally the best soloers.

Starting locations - are all good fun, and yes, I have tried them all. I can't think of any that I would say to avoid.

Trial Island - a new starting zone/trial area - is on the test server at the moment and will be out mid-late August afaik.

The hardest class to solo IMO is the rogue as they generally rely on somone else keeping aggro so they can stay in stealth. But otherwise I'm yet to find a class that can't hold its own solo or in groups.

Some classes have steeper learning curves because they are essentially new to MMOs - like the Disciple or Blood Mage. But are more rewarding once you develop a good playstyle with them.

Go have fun! Try out a few classes/starting areas and see which ones you like.

You'll soon see that you don't just 'get another character to max level' like some MMOs. Your character develops over months and months with things like learning abilities from mobs, new spells dropping as loot, three playing spheres etc. So make sure YOU enjoy the class you're playing.

ethion

Well in the case of cool content, I'd say you get it really early in VG.  One of the dungeons I did at lvl 8-12 was something called the riftseekers.  It is a very nice dungeon with good content for people all the way upto maybe 14-15.  It is setup for small groups so you can grab a couple people and head in and be quite effective.  It has some cool story and nice lore and a series of quests.    I'd say that vanguard has some of the best dungeons at all levels.  And unlike other games there is no powerleveling through them where a high lvl kills everything and you get quest updates and loot.  I'm only lvl 19 but I've run through riftseekers several times, I then did a couple dungeons over by veskels.  One with spiders and again a very nice story.  One cool mob that lays eggs in you so that even after you kill the mob maybe 30 seconds later one hatchs out of you and attacks.  Another one I did in that area I didn't finish but had interesting mobs and was tougher.  Then I did a dungeon everyone calls KE.  This was my first real full group required dungeon.  It was a good dungeon too with a number of quests and was a lot of fun.  Back when the game was released I did another set of quests, one in qalia again the name escapes me but the acronym was CIS.  And this is a long series of very involved quests that are extremely cool.  Some of hte highlights are one zone area you have to fight in kills you cause of the radiation from the ore that is mined there, you do a quest to become immune to it's effects.  In another part you have to gain a robe to make you look like a cult member so they don't attack you.  And it goes on leading upto some great rewards.  Then there was Trengal Keep another great dungeon and great environment.  Then the wardship series of quests and again some great rewards.  This involves two large dungeons and there is even a very cool third dungeon people miss sometimes.  Anyway I could go on about the very cool dungeons in VG and I'd say dungeons are one of VG's strong points.

I think that in VG they have a lot or armor sets and they look really great even from the start.

For starting out VG has a huge number of areas.  This probably hurts it some as people start the game and there is nobody around.  But when you consider the first 10 lvls are pretty fast and there are at least half a dozen starting area's it isn't any mystery why you don't see a lot of people.

As to recomendations, I've started in all the area's and I thought they are all pretty darn fun.  I recommend doing them all and picking your favorite.  For classes all are pretty well designed and can solo.  Some can solo better and those are the pet/kiting classes.  Necros, druids, shadowknights, bear shaman, psyonist are some of the better ones.  Rogues are probably the toughest.  Again VG has some neat classes like blood mages, bards, disciples, to name a few.  VG is a great game for making alts

Cereo

It's the most underrated MMO at this point. It tried to be everything, it failed, but it picked itself back up and offers a lot of new and interesting features not in other games. Other features I think are great is the Brotherhood system, great for playing with friends on a regular basis.

Remember if you do play it, its not WoW. Too many people just wanted it to be perfectly polished, rush to the end, and raid raid raid. It tried to do new things so polish was hard on it (obviously other reasons why it wasn't polished but it didn't help), theres no reason to rush to the end, and you can raid but its not the focus of the game. Take your time, dab in crafting and diplomacy, and have fun.

ghostofspuds

Thanks so much this has been a super halpful thread with your response in particular... You pretty much just put the final touches on my desire to buy this game

s_nova4

Originally posted by Cereo


Remember if you do play it, its not WoW. Too many people just wanted it to be perfectly polished, rush to the end, and raid raid raid. It tried to do new things so polish was hard on it (obviously other reasons why it wasn't polished but it didn't help), theres no reason to rush to the end, and you can raid but its not the focus of the game. Take your time, dab in crafting and diplomacy, and have fun.

 

Good, I'm not looking for WoW...   I really like crafting systems, my favorite so far being the one from AC2. 

What's up with the diplomacy in the game?  I've read that it's included, but I don't know what it's about.

Also, I've heard people saying this game is cheap on Ebay, but would you say it's worth the $20 price tag at Gamestop?

Thanks.

-Casey

gbooster

Originally posted by s_nova4

Originally posted by Cereo


Remember if you do play it, its not WoW. Too many people just wanted it to be perfectly polished, rush to the end, and raid raid raid. It tried to do new things so polish was hard on it (obviously other reasons why it wasn't polished but it didn't help), theres no reason to rush to the end, and you can raid but its not the focus of the game. Take your time, dab in crafting and diplomacy, and have fun.

 

Good, I'm not looking for WoW...   I really like crafting systems, my favorite so far being the one from AC2. 

What's up with the diplomacy in the game?  I've read that it's included, but I don't know what it's about.

Also, I've heard people saying this game is cheap on Ebay, but would you say it's worth the $20 price tag at Gamestop?

Thanks.

-Casey

 

Look the game up on Amazon, you can get a new copy for 10$ or so.

Diplomacy is awesome... if you like to read quest dialogue like I do.  There is endless different quest dialogue, as much lore as you can handle.

Make your first character a Goblin, they have the best starting area IMO, the Kojani Human is kinda cool too.