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is Vanguard the best MMO out there?
malefacus
Member Posts: 135
HI everyone, it's my first post here on MMORPG.
To be honest, I've been waiting for AoC for months. But now that they delay the release until october I need an MMO. I knew Vanguard was coming out and it looked promising. So for the pas couples days I've been looking around reading review(beta) watching vids, collecting as much info as I can about Vanguard. But some important queations still needs to be awnsers.
First, all cool are these lesser-giants? I only found one screenshot.
Second, vegetation. Does it look real? I hate to be playing in empty lands.
Third, grouping. Sometime I just don't feel like grouping. Will I be able to enjoy the game solo?
And final but the most important. I hate grinding. I want immersive quest with storyline. Quests in others MMO are grinding. no storyline. So are the quest in Vanguard immersive? Do you have choices to make? I heard about the flag system but didn't realy understand it. Does it help RPG( not talking about in or out of character kind of rpg I' talking about Nerverwinter night king of rpg)? What is the tide between grinding and storyline?
Well tanks to all who help!
To be honest, I've been waiting for AoC for months. But now that they delay the release until october I need an MMO. I knew Vanguard was coming out and it looked promising. So for the pas couples days I've been looking around reading review(beta) watching vids, collecting as much info as I can about Vanguard. But some important queations still needs to be awnsers.
First, all cool are these lesser-giants? I only found one screenshot.
Second, vegetation. Does it look real? I hate to be playing in empty lands.
Third, grouping. Sometime I just don't feel like grouping. Will I be able to enjoy the game solo?
And final but the most important. I hate grinding. I want immersive quest with storyline. Quests in others MMO are grinding. no storyline. So are the quest in Vanguard immersive? Do you have choices to make? I heard about the flag system but didn't realy understand it. Does it help RPG( not talking about in or out of character kind of rpg I' talking about Nerverwinter night king of rpg)? What is the tide between grinding and storyline?
Well tanks to all who help!
Comments
Ooooo... Considering all three of your points, I doubt this game is for you
Wait and see if a free trial comes along and then give it a shot.
Spiritglow
There's no real story in it. You have to make you're one kinda way ;-) So not for everyone.
The game looks great and plays good, but to be the best MMO.... Nope don't think so.
If i were you i would try EQ2 out, it's a very nice game and with a bit more story.
1. Lesser giants are ugly in my opinion. They look like goofy cave-men. But that's just me. They have good stats for a warrior though.
2. The vegetation really varies from location to location. The elven starting area and that section of the continent looks very nice and well made. The grass looks good, and it is filled with trees and plantlife. Now, the Varanjar starting area on the other hand, is rather barren and plain looking. I KNOW, it's supposed to be a "desert-like" area, but it's just plain boring. Who wants to play in an area that is lacking in detail?
3. This game is NOT solo-friendly after about level 10. If you want to solo, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a way to do it. The difficulty of the MOBs and quests increases drasticly as you level up, and the time it takes to level also has a steep incline. So, while you might be able to spend SOME time soloing, you're going to need to spend most of your time in a group. Sigil says that about 20% of their content is soloable, and I think that entire 20% is the first 10 levels.
4. Immersion... Ah, the million-dollar question... Personally, I think the storyline quests are "ok". There seem to be plenty of quests to far to keep you busy and break up the feeling of the "grind", but the stories aren't really very inventive. They're typical, "I hate the bad wolves, go kill 10 of them for me."... RP, on the other hand, that is going to vary a lot. I would recommend that if you decide to playt he game, you start on the roleplay server. There are no enforced rules, but most people are willing and able to RP their characters. Although, this is hard at times with no real lore behind the game at this point.
So, is it the best game out right now? That's a hard call... WoW has more soloability, and is a simpler game to pick up. EQ2 seems a viable option as well... But if you want something new, and don't mind the challenge of tougher leveling, corpse runs, and spawn camping (oh, and aggro trains too!), then go give VG a shot. I'm still up int he air on my final impressions, but if you have nothing better to do and don't mind the $50 risk involved,... go for it!
Yes there are lesser giants, and 18 other races, with alot classes to choose between.
About the vegetation, it's all between a thick forest to empty lands.. but most of the empty lands is places were you can build houses etc. and all looks really nice. Very good graphics.
When i played the beta I was only playing solo, and there is no problem.
About the story line i don't know very much, but there is alot of choices.. the only limits are your own you know;)
This community is very receptive, I will definitively spend more time here!
Oh, and this is not the end of the thread, keep posting your comments!
I have mixed feelings about the game so far.
First off, a lot of folks take issue with the performance. I have 3.6ghz p4, 2gb ram, x850xt pcie and fps is 30 to 40 away from other folks and about 20 to 7 when there are several people on the screen. I am playing at min rez on balanced. I am waiting for my new graphics card, x1950 pro 256mb pcie so I am curious to see what this will do with performance. Graphically speaking though, the game is beautiful, even at min rez ; at higher rez though the game is even more beautiful
I played almost every race and class in beta, but none past level 10. There is plenty of lore, which I discovered when i tried the diplomacy aspect of the game.
As far as soloability, as I said I did not level past 10. Up to ten its very doable though. Beyond that, folks say it's pretty hard.
One other thing of note, which I don't care for is the racial stats. Halflings for instance have the best racial stats for a warrior. Also, halfings possess racial abilities that really favor tank play.
Well, I tend to always play a warrior, but I don't care for being short. Also, aesthetically speaking, I find several of the other races and their starting areas more attractive. So despite having many racial and class options, I really feel my options are limited unless I want to go through the trouble of leveling a character all the way to 50 and end up with a gimped toon.
In the end though I've decided to pick the race I want and play as long as it's fun. When it ceases to be fun, hopefully there will be more mmo options on the market.
Spiritglow
First, remember that 99% of the negative things said about Vanguard here are by people who a) don't play the game, and b) just hate it because of SOE (the company that destroyed SWG, in case you don't know). Onward....
* The lesser giants are from the European-theme lands and, in my opinion, smell really bad.
* The landscape is breath-taking. I encourage you to try the game out because no amount of explaining could ever do it justice. It is so incredibly beautiful it constantly blows my mind. Also, the world is so big (and I mean HUGE) that you could never hope to see it all. Again, I'd encourage you to just see it for yourself.
* The devs have stated time and again that there will be solo content through out the levels. You will not be able to take on a dragon by your self or solo 100 orcs at once but you can certainly solo. Of course, when you are in a party with some comrades you will be much safer and level a lot faster. Don't listen to all the lies that the game is PURE raid/party only. Officially it is: 20% solo (throughout the levels), 20% raid and 60% party oriented.
* Anyone who tells you there is no 'story' is just flat out lying or too lazy to read. Go here: www.vanguardsoh.com/lore.php
The quests range from average to very immersive. Funny how people admit they have never been past level 10 (or even 20 or 30) and yet feel qualified to comment about such things. Most people just click through the quest text and therefore feel no immersion. That's their problem.
Sure there is 'grinding' if you choose to. If you fight a lot you will certainly become skilled more quickly. I mostly just level doing quests myself. This game is all about choice.
On the objective side, there is still some polish to be done and content to add. But unless you have absolutely no life you will never get through even half of it before the first expansion. Not to mention they have a lot yet to come in the next few months.
As far as role playing, this game takes the cake bar none! It's funny to me when people actually compare this MMORPG to games like EverQuest II (or even more amusing, WoW).
I've been playing RPG's for well over 20 years and can very honestly say this one takes the cake. And it makes no sense to compare it to AoC because that up-coming game is insanely full of zones and instances. Even the player cities will be instanced in AoC. It's just a different breed.
This game is all about community and role playing for most people. As much as I hate SOE, I have to admit there has never been an MMO that attempted (and succeeded) to be this vast in it's scope. It's awesome.
My advise would be to ignore the SOE haters that lurk around here and just try it for your self. Form your own opinion.
In closing, I would recommend you check out Brad McQuaid's website and read his blogs about MMORPG's. He is Sigil's COE and the creator of the original EverQuest who also helped put SWG together back in the day, as well as a good friend of MMO visionary Raph Koster - the man behind classic SWG. Both these guys are considered rebels in the industry. They love UO and built original SWG and now (McQuaid) Vanguard based heavily upon it. www.bradmcquaid.com/
/peace
EDIT: I have to add that it's true this game requires a pretty good system to run. That should be considered before you spend any money buying it.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
Qalia is pretty deserted. Lots of empty land theres. Kojan and threstra are buys place tho. Lots of stuff to see.
I have no idea what its like to solo to 50. At the moment there shouldn't be a problem soloing to 20. Theres loads of quests and fun stuff to do on your own. In beta i had a go with a lvl 35 character. I was a druid and i could solo group mobs fine. If you want to solo. Make sure you pick the right class.
Vanguard has a fair share of problems, but like any complicated software, it's bound to have them. But I believe Sigil will fix them, they've shown how commited they are to this game throughout beta, and I believe it will carry over to official release and beyond. There is a good reason why Eve Online does so well, it's the fact their playerbase like it's developer, CCP. Sigil also reminds me of CCP, they're honest to their playerbase. I just hope Sigil will keep up communication between itself and it's players, it's an exciting time for Vanguard.
I feel Vanguard is a great game in it's current state, and I can't wait to see what's added and fixed during the next few months. It may not show when you first play, but give it a few days, stick with it, and you begin to see it's charm, and how fun the game actually is once your character gains a few levels.
The world is vast, EPIC in a way no other release has ever attempted, it's 50times bigger than some games after years of expansions, and the different areas all have their own strong flavous and art design... generally they are all based on a more realistic and less cartoony/stylized vein of art direction if that's what you are asking.
People who tell you you cannot avoid grouping, simply expect levels and quests handed to them on a plate, following a linear breadcrumb trail without ever having to maybe explore or make some choices about where they want to go. Crafting & Diplomacy & Harvesting are very suitable to solo and much more fun than I expected them to be (usually I don't like those sorts of things, here I definately doing both) Adventuring you will get more accomplished in a group when you have a decent chunk of time, but you can perfectly easily solo if you want to fight things and plan on being intermittantly afk for e.g.
Finally I love the quests for the most part and actually read the dialogues in VG, which I almost never did in WoW or in a number of upcoming offerings. They're simply much better written. Can you alter the world in the way a single player game can accomodate, well not really - just because you slayed X and destroyed his camp of followers, doesn't mean they can't be available to the next person who comes along of course.
OMG ignore this post from the retarded one.... Vanguard has THE most in depth storyline of any MMO to date as-well as the best graphics out there. It's a huge game. I love it so far
well you know everyone has different opinions on every mmo, and so you will ALWAYS have two sides when your posting if this game is good or not...
1)people will tell you its a great game
2) people will tell you that this game is not worth it
so its just what YOU think of it, you can post here and listen to people argue about this game as usual or you can try it for yourself and judge this game on what you experience from it....
but if you want my opinion i think this game is good it has potential, BUT i dont play it because its so laggy that i dont want to spend minutes to hours going from not so laggy to very laggy...my computer is better than my brother's computer yet he has little to no lag whatsoever...and im more focused on playing the games i like which is UO and EQ...
Wow is like said before a good mmorpg for starters, but eventually you might end up feeling this game is limited (no housing, a very limited crafting system) on the other hand it's a very polished game, not many bugs and animations & graphics are all very nicely done.
EQ2 has housing and imho a crafting system that really makes crafting fun, making your own furniture for your house etc. Probably because this game is much more complex than wow its less "polished" so sometimes animations are a bit clumsy for instance. (like the animations for jumping in shapeshifted form for fury's)
Just pointing out these games because they are the games I enjoyed most, and I think they are perfect for starters.
short answer
no one of the worst right now
buggy
highsystem specs
new new gameplay, come on diplomacy? This is just calling something you do in every other game something different and making it skills based. Just another way for people who play 10 hours a day to feel elite.
Still gotta grind
no balanced pvp
no balanced pve
horrible animations
and dull boring quests...if you thought kill xnumber of things in wow was bad stay awy from this you will be burdained by odd quests to do odd things thta make no sesne. It feels like i'm playing barbie house.
I restate my point about this site having the biggest population of 'idgits' from my previous post, courtesy of another great quote of roadwarriors:
"Wow is just once of those games that's so good to so many different types of people that it's going to be in the history books. More people play wow than basketball, soccer, and baseball."
I don't think you can rate a MMO generically. Vanguard was not meant to be made for the masses. It is a niche player at best. At best it will have the number of players as Eve Online, at worst it is just another Matrix Online.
If you are one of the guys who put in 50-70/hours week playing MMOs then you will probably like it simply because it will take you longer to get to max level. It is not even the best in this category. I would say that the original EQ1 is a much better game. The only problem with EQ1 is that not many people are still playing it. On the other hand, give Vanguard 6-12 months and EQ1 and Vanguard will be neck and neck as far a subscriptions are concerned.
When i played beta i started off as a thestra half-giant warrior, i clicked thru the text as i went thinking going into beta " well this game can't be too great" and the UI/ combat mechanics are pretty stantardized, did some quests, talk to A, return to B, kill this many C, then pick up D and bring it to me stuff, pretty standard again, i soon got bored, so i thought i start again, and went kojani monk, but this time around i started reading the quest text and i relized that there was a massive overlaying arc of story which was telling you about the lore of your people and what was happening at the time in your land while introducing you to the different aspects of the game, which in turn gave the quests meaning and gave the player a source to the lore.
that was the 1st 10-15 lvls then you go off into the wide world and do what you want.
plenty of lore there, most people ignore it, why? cos we live in a world of instant gratification.
I only looked at Lesser Giants from the character select area. They seem to be the Ogre option: big, ugly looking human
The vegitation looks great imo but just how great will depend on your system (I have a pretty low end comp). Keep in mind different ares of dfferent continents (there are 3) will dictate just what and how much Vegitation there is. There are quite a few options in the settings that change how detailed the plant life is and in turn sacrifice look for performance. An example is that there's a slider for how much grass is on the ground which can make the world look more real.
If you only want to solo It will be a grind. One fosters the other and I think it's set up 20% solo content, 20% raid and 60% group. I think it's a very emersive game though. One quest will tell you to get a scroll once you get it the next quest will refer to the scroll you picked up. Keep in mind Crafting and Diplomacy are solo aspects of the game. You can advance those areas when you dont want to group.
From a role play aspect Vanguard offers a lot. The quests and escpecially Diplomacy tell you what's going on around you. Plus, it's nice to be in an open world that is tied to gether by quest lines.
Just not worth my time anymore.
They claimed there had been a great 'Shattering' and the world was reshaped 500 years since the days of EQ. Talk about lame. They basically made up this stupid story to explain away why everything was different. In reality it's just because EQII was designed to be this multiple zoned, instanced game with only two cities (originally). It's like the lore is just a bastardized afterthought of real EQ lore.
That is definitely disrespecting Brad McQuaid's lore from the original (real) EverQuest. Yeah, some epic story telling. You call that immersion?
It's the most contrived, anti-immersion crap I've ever played (I had a max level wizzy). I quit that game when I played the EoF and saw their crappy Faydark zone and it's wanna-be Disney/WoW cartoon design. I kept waiting for Willie Wonka to pop out and offer to take me for a ride through his chocolate factory. LOL, weak!
Strange how you defend a butchered version of Brad's epic story from EverQuest, yet run down his latest masterpiece of lore.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.