another typical 'is this game right for me' thread

zite4321

Well lets start it off by saying my favorite game of all time was Ultima Online, the original release, not the expansions. I'm not a pvp person but I did LOVE the fear of being able to be killed at any moment. I know Vanguard doesn't have pvp but I just read about higher level mobs being in lower level areas which might give that thrill of the 'unknown'.

I loved the crafting in UO as well, being able to go out and chop a tree, go into a mine and actually use a pickaxe to mine ore. I love crafting, love it to death and if I can find another game that could keep me chopping at trees for hours upon hours just to make arrows/bolts to sell I'd be extremely happy. How is the crafting in Vanguard, is it as indepth as I 'm looking for? Can I randomly go out and chop a tree or find a mountain and mine ore to my hearts content?

I was also a huge fan of DAoC. I loved the group play in the early days. Non stop grinding, got boring after a while but was a lot of fun when you found that group that everything just clicked with. Crafting was... well not that great but I did love the idea of being able to raise your skill buy making items for NPC's and getting a small profit from it. Is Vanguard soloable or mostly just group play? 

I currently play, forgive me, WoW. I 've quit so many times but my wife continues to play after all these years and I see her playing and miss it, play for a few weeks and get bored again. It's a great game, Blizzard is a great company that have proven themselves many times. Are there quests in the game such as WoW has? And if so are the quests the main way to progress through levels? I like the idea, but sometimes I miss going out and just grinding for a bit which just doesn't seem to be much fun in WoW like it was in the earlier true hardcore mmo's.

I know that this has become a wall of text and I apologize for that, just looking for that one game to pull me in and drag me down like UO and DAoC did back in the good old days. I hope this could be it. And yes I am trying the 14 day free trail but usually those are so limited you can't get a general grasp of what all is out there. Please fill me in, crafting, I wanna hear everything. Please fullfill my dreams.

Zorvan

In light of your typical question of "is this game right for me", I will give the typical answer of "there's a trial, use it".

Edit: Ah, I see you are using the trial. Well, believe it or not, the game will not be any better or worse than what you find in those 14 days.

Bodeus

Originally posted by Zorvan


In light of your typical question of "is this game right for me", I will give the typical answer of "there's a trial, use it".
Edit: Ah, I see you are using the trial. Well, believe it or not, the game will not be any better or worse than what you find in those 14 days.

 

It will be alot less closely populated. So dont expect to see as many people in one place(chunk) off the isle of dawn as you do on it.

zite4321

The game seems interestly, but looks very dated, reminds me of an graphically updated EQ. I didn't think the game was but a few years old or am I mistaken? I have everything at full. Don't get me wrong, graphics are everything, just seems like I thought this game was rather newish..

DarbiiRue

The game is 2-3 years old. I don't think the graphics look bad at all. They were going for a more "realistic" look, which is what EQ & EQ2 does.

shakermaker0

I have just written a review on Vanguard, check it out on http://thatmmoguy.blogspot.com/ Hope it helps you.

Sovrath

Originally posted by shakermaker0


I have just written a review on Vanguard, check it out on http://thatmmoguy.blogspot.com/ Hope it helps you.

 

That isn't a bad review. I have to say that I disagree/agree with your assessment about the rift travel. I personally use it to get from one large area to another but then use horse to get to where I want to go.

Of course, one doesn't have to use the rifts and can just use foot/mount travel if they wanted to. I can see where it would sort of mittigate the huge world effect but it also makes the game manageble for those who don't want to spend a good part of their game time "just" traveling.

As far as whether or not Vanguard is for the OP.

OP:

You are a solo player who loves a challenge and who doesn't mind leveling up so you can do some content that is meant for groups but can be done by a slightly higer lvl character solo.

or

You are a very social person who will immediately seek out a good guild.

and

You have patience so that small bugs or vanishing textures doesn't send you off the edge.

and

You want a large world where exploration is a key component to your gameplay.

 

that should answer your question.

shakermaker0

To OP if you have read my review I hope I have not come off too harsh on the game, It really is worth playing and one of the better games on the market

Trenchgun

Visually this game is still better than most of the stuff coming out. When it came out it was already two years ahead of it's time.

It also has some absolutely incredible art direction with the environment, buildings, etc.

Trenchgun

Originally posted by zite4321


Well lets start it off by saying my favorite game of all time was Ultima Online, the original release, not the expansions. I'm not a pvp person but I did LOVE the fear of being able to be killed at any moment. I know Vanguard doesn't have pvp but I just read about higher level mobs being in lower level areas which might give that thrill of the 'unknown'.
I loved the crafting in UO as well, being able to go out and chop a tree, go into a mine and actually use a pickaxe to mine ore. I love crafting, love it to death and if I can find another game that could keep me chopping at trees for hours upon hours just to make arrows/bolts to sell I'd be extremely happy. How is the crafting in Vanguard, is it as indepth as I 'm looking for? Can I randomly go out and chop a tree or find a mountain and mine ore to my hearts content?
I was also a huge fan of DAoC. I loved the group play in the early days. Non stop grinding, got boring after a while but was a lot of fun when you found that group that everything just clicked with. Crafting was... well not that great but I did love the idea of being able to raise your skill buy making items for NPC's and getting a small profit from it. Is Vanguard soloable or mostly just group play? 
I currently play, forgive me, WoW. I 've quit so many times but my wife continues to play after all these years and I see her playing and miss it, play for a few weeks and get bored again. It's a great game, Blizzard is a great company that have proven themselves many times. Are there quests in the game such as WoW has? And if so are the quests the main way to progress through levels? I like the idea, but sometimes I miss going out and just grinding for a bit which just doesn't seem to be much fun in WoW like it was in the earlier true hardcore mmo's.
I know that this has become a wall of text and I apologize for that, just looking for that one game to pull me in and drag me down like UO and DAoC did back in the good old days. I hope this could be it. And yes I am trying the 14 day free trail but usually those are so limited you can't get a general grasp of what all is out there. Please fill me in, crafting, I wanna hear everything. Please fullfill my dreams.

 

-No real PvP in Vanguard. You would need to play darkfall for the UO experience.

-The crafting and harvest is the best available IMO. You really have to go out and explore to find resources, cutting down actual trees, etc. The crafting itself is also a kind of puzzle like mini-game where you can use strategy to dictate the final quality of the product. The market is there for crafted goods and there is interdependance between the crafting and harvesting professions. No one person can do it all, but they can buy some components they need off the market and still turn a big profit by doing the rest themselves.

-Vanguard has work orders for crafting which is pretty cool. You can make items for NPCs and if you turn in a high quality item you've got a chance to get rewarded with gear or components related to crafting. You get to choose what difficulty of work order you want. You can use the components you are given to craft the work order, or you can use your own harvested components in order to net a higher quality item and thus greater reward.

-Also, Diplomacy plays a significant role in crafting because diplomats will convince the town to activate all the buffs related to crafting instead of diplomacy or adventuring. This makes some towns, like the dwarfen mountain castle city, particularly good places to go for crafting because they have the best buffs maintained.

-It's fun in vanguard to just wander around exploring, looking for stuff to kill. The only downside is that you can't kill most worthwhile stuff solo, you need a group unless you're a handful of classes that can solo well. So wandering around in pairs or triples is the best bet. There are also a lot of quests like WoW, and they can be pretty interesting, but they tend to be more epic in scope than most other MMOs: meaning that you could spend a week working through the various stages of a quest arc that is 20 missions long and gets progressively harder as you go. This gives a great sense of accomplishment afterwards but can also feel very grindy and it can be logistically difficult finding teams to do the whole thing, or just parts of it at a time.

patrikd23

How about just trying it and find out?! And then AFTER post and tell us what you think.

solarine

The games you say you are a fan of have a pretty heavy PVP aspect to them. Vanguard, in contrast, is another take on the EQ model, so its strength is not PVP at all. You might even call it a strictly PVE game, ignoring the ever unpopular PVP server.

Mind, I think Vanguard *is* a good take on the EQ model and if you're really into MMO gameplay which is especially not limited to combat, you may find quite a few things to like here. The crafting is not bad at all, and then there's the diplomacy sphere, which I do enjoy whenever I reactivate my account... Also, the dungeons are well-designed. However, there's always the problem of the game world being thinly populated and that bit does not lend itself well to the game's strengths at all...

Even even if the gameworld was better populated.... As you seem to get your real thrills from an active PVP environment, I'd advise looking at something like EVE or maybe even WAR - which are, interestingly, as different as two PVP-oriented games can be. I'd go with the first one but the *space ships instead of avatars* thing is not everyone's cup of tea The latter I found to be troubled in its open world RVR design and general PVP mechanics, but it provides some quick action.

 

olepi

If you really like harvesting and crafting, then Ryzom is the game you want. It has the best harvesting/crafting of any game. Ryzom is classless, skill-based, and the harvesting/crafting is also skill based.

Beermangler

After reading this (and many other) thread(s), I have decided to give Vanguard a go.

Mainly because I reaaaally want to try out the Necromancer. Downloading the trial right now.

I am not at all taken back by the small number of players, I`m a soloist PVE monger and will group up only when I really have to (or when I am helping someone lower than me to finish up a hard quest).

Wanting to ditch WoW, Vanguard and the upcoming Mortal Online are the only two feasable alternatives for me now (don't even mention Aion, I hate animes).

Elsabolts

Come back and let us know how well you did or did not like it. Try a Gnome Necro.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Beermangler


After reading this (and many other) thread(s), I have decided to give Vanguard a go.
Mainly because I reaaaally want to try out the Necromancer. Downloading the trial right now.
I am not at all taken back by the small number of players, I`m a soloist PVE monger and will group up only when I really have to (or when I am helping someone lower than me to finish up a hard quest).
Wanting to ditch WoW, Vanguard and the upcoming Mortal Online are the only two feasable alternatives for me now (don't even mention Aion, I hate animes).

 

seriously, if that is the case, and you have some patience, Vanguard IS right for you.

Beermangler

 I have just tried to play the game. It crashed on me twice - first time right after character creation (BBSoD) and second time after taking a few steps in this new world (hard reset). 

I think there are some issues with my videocard though... there were some render problems - objects with no texture on them. Better check out forums

Sovrath

Originally posted by Beermangler


 I have just tried to play the game. It crashed on me twice - first time right after character creation (BBSoD) and second time after taking a few steps in this new world (hard reset). 
I think there are some issues with my videocard though... there were some render problems - objects with no texture on them. Better check out forums

 

That's a shame. Vanguard does seem to be picky with systems, so if you have an old video card or one that is a bit obscure then I could see that being an issue.

If you have an Nvidea card make you you go into your control panel, add vanguard, change prerendered frames to something like "6", turn on threaded optimization, turn off multi screen capability (unless you have to have two screens) and you should see some performance boosts.

Yesterday I was marveling at how smooth vanguard was running for me. Of course, then I go to Khal and I smile knowingly.