Perfect MMORPG for old AC player?

neil_black

Hi all.

I'm an old Asherons Call player, played Leafcull and Darktide from 99 to 2003. And I loved it! But alas nothing lasts forever and, for me anyway, the game is a shadow of its former self. I tried to get back into it, but the game worlds simply dead, towns deserted.

 

Been looking for ages trying to find a replacement, but I find a lot of the new games so restrictive.

 

So my question is, is Vanguard the game for me?

 

I like PVP, but not at the expense of PVE. I want a game where I can simply head out into the map, go hunting and discover ancient ruins, strange monsters and, well, cool stuff!... and no instances.

 

I’d also like active game world with busy (or not deserted) towns. I see from a few other posts people says the game is far from dead.

 

I also want to be able to solo if I want to.

 

I see there is a 14 day free trial I’ll be downloading as soon as I get home, and under £5 for the game with 30 days free… a steal!

 

But what’s really sold the game for me so far is the following quote from Wikipedia…

 

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Vanguard is set in a high fantasy world called "Telon", unusual among MMO worlds in that it is almost entirely persistent, with no instancing or load screens. Telon does not have "zones" in the manner of most fantasy MMOs, but there are discrete areas, sometimes called "chunks" which delineate content to some extent and serve to provide general geographical reference points. The world contains 19 playable races, many of which are drawn from or inspired by traditional high fantasy sources such as the work of J. R. R. Tolkien and the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.

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Thanks in advance.

Ionselon

Just so you don't get frustrated right away, the population is not evenly distributed throughout Telon.  If you start in the new started area "Isle of Dawn", you should find plenty of people.  If you elect to start in one of the original starter areas, you will find them, for the most part, to be somewhat deserted.  In Tanvu, the only people I see are the ones using the crafting area.

If you ever played EQ and liked it, you'll love VG.  To me, it is much more the successor to EQ than EQ2 is.

I'm only lvl 13, so I don't know how the rest of Talon is as far as seeing people out and about.  Also, the two most populated servers are Seradon for US players and Halgar for EU players.

Hope this helps.

 

boojiboy

Good news and bad news  

If you join a PvE server, the populations will be fine, very good in fact on Seradon and Xeth.  But there is very little PvP unless you duel, or go to the arena to duke it out with a few folks.  The only server that is struggling with population is the PvP server.. forget its name.

You can find deserted towns even on Seradon and Xeth, but that's because there are so many cities, towns, villages and outposts.  The main cities are populated and many outposts have turned into very busy hubs of activities.  But if you were to travel west on the main continent of Thestra and rolled into the home town of the Vulmane, you may find only a couple of folks or maybe no one at all.  But a port city like Khal is always bustling with 40 or more players almost any time of day.

Solo or group, the choice will be yours.  If you like to solo, some classes are more capable of that than others.

Enjoy the free trial, Isle of Dawn is the place to start if you've never played VG before.

chryses

I have always said Vanguard is one of the best value for money games out there.  You can pick up a copy for nothing and get 30 days of gametime and it will cost you less than a fiver.  Plenty of time to check it out. I played the game for 6 months and a lot since I was recovering from a knee operation.

Good stuff

* crafting - still daydream about this system because it is the only realy crafting system I have come across.  You actually need skill and I even created about 7 unique items on the server. 

- Diplomacy - nevery got into it so much but is unique and its a great idea for a side game and the buffs it gives. 

Leveling - you actually have 3 areas of expertise, combat, crafting and diplomacy.  I enjoyed this a lot

- Open world - its staggering how you can enter a small cave and it turns out into a 3 hour dungeon run that goes into deepest largest dungeon.  I loved exploring and you can seriously get into the wilderness.  Population is not so great in some areas but that is realistic.

- Housing - I have not played any other game that has housing in the open so its part of the world itself.  Plus crafting has huge influence for furniture etc.  I absolutely loved finding recipes from other worlds and having the monopoly for making a certain bed etc.

- mounts - flying, running and different types with epic chains to get some rare ones. 

- Graphics are still up-to-date

 

After 6 months bashing this game out I left it for another game...cant remember what.  I think about it all the time but I think I just cant go back now.  However I wish some other games took up some of the features of this game.  I am really missing parts of it

neil_black

 

Thanks all!

 

 

You've sold me! PVP isn't as important as good PVE adventuring for me.

 

The only problem is I'm working in the US for a few weeks and can't get home to play it

 

Can you recommend any good resources or beginners guides to keep my occupied until I can play?

 

 

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neil_black

Fantastic... I'm not sure how this game sliped under my radar.... sounds perfect.

chryses

I feel a bit sorry for Vanguard.  It had a shocking launch then SOE bought it and even though they did a lot of great things for it the people hanging on at the start couldnt trust them enough.  I think the population is steady now and they have a base that is slowly climbing.  However its a big title that really should be up in the mix of WAR, AoC, LotRO but I think its a case of a good / great game that probably needs more hype and advertising.  Surprised they haven't tried to relaunch and promote it again.  Either way if you haven't played it and like the old school RPG with massive dungeons and total freedom then its probably the best game on the market for that.  E.g. I remember crafting entire weekends and it was exciting.  What other game would allow you to do that? 

BTW for soloing the cleric and Dread Knight from memory are awesome.  I played a magic user and they are the usual blow things up in 3 seconds or die in 4.