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VANGUARD: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY....
Nikoz78
Member UncommonPosts: 910
Vanguard: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly....
The Good:
*Huge zone-free world (stunningly beautiful if your rig can handle it)
*Sea travel. Huge open oceans to travel upon with your player-made boats of all sizes.
*Player placed houses (you can only build on pre-determined plots in order to protect the look of the environment)
*Literally countless thousands (60,000+?) items in the world and every single item can be dropped in your house like in SWG.
*The "you can go anywhere" mentality. If you see it you can go there. You can see for miles.
*Harvesting resources. When you chop down a tree for wood the tree actually falls to the ground where you can then harvest it.
*You can tame wild beasts and mount them. Dozens of mounts. Numerous flying mounts that can be flown anywhere.
*Custom designed clothes, armor, weapons.
*Create and name your own songs (Bard).
*Item decay (good for the economy)
*Mob trains (hehe)
*Adult-themed text. If you take the time to read all the dialog you may be pleasantly surprised. Goblin NPC: "I don't care what she says, I'm not your daddy!" The signs leading into Martok (Orc/Goblin village) say things like "Outsiders will be beaten (then eaten)!" Lots of dark themes like that.
*Player run shops and taverns.
*Lots of small details that make the world very unique.
*NPC predators attack each other.
*Most quests are immersive and fun. Often much more than just kill X amount of X. NPC's explain why things make sense in the game world. The writers took their time and it shows.
The Bad:
*No player-placed campfires (like in UO and SWG). Missing a big RP element here.
*Evil races say 'please,' etc. when they automatically speak to NPC's in chat windows. Why not make them... unpleasant?
*You 'pop' on your mount. You can't dismount it and walk away from it. Again, missing an RP element here.
*Empty taverns. Why not make it so you have to heal something akin to battle-fatigue in taverns. Sure it's forced socialization, but it adds a very immersion element to the world.
*Can't ride double mounted and no multi-passenger vehicles like wagons, etc.
*No mounted combat as of yet.
*Items you see for sale don't look like the tiny picture shown. They should take a lesson from SWG and let you examine an item in full 3D.
*All combat-centric professions. There would be no need to have to 'balance' such a profession so why not add in a few Entertainment professions... like Belly Dancer. And a Musician that can equip instruments and play an actual song.
*Forced to wear clothes. What if I'm role playing and want to go for a swim? Why not make me naked except for a loin cloth or whatever.
*Can't 'slap' my friends. When I highlight my bro and type /slap I always slap my own face.
*No marine life added yet, salt or fresh water.
*No chat bubbles when PC's talk.
*Saddle bags don't show up on mounts, small cosmetic things like that.
*I understand why they decided to feature combat levels (there are still skill-trees), but I personally cannot stand level 50 deer and frogs, et al. Just make them all like level 2 or something. It's idiotic.
The Ugly:
*Bugs. None game breaking (that I have seen), but very annoying none the less.
*Character creation. While there are indeed dozens of sliders to customize you avatars face and body, the devs failed to deliver on the promise that gone were the days of everyone looking the same. The hair options are a joke. Everyone looks the same.
*The character models could certainly use some serious polish and upgrades. I mean, the game takes a hot-rod-PC to run so why not make the avatars really detailed. They seem out of place with the beautiful world.
*Animations have improved a lot but still not acceptable.
END:
I'm sure I left out some stuff from all three sections. Oh well. These are my (hopefully balanced) personal opinions of Vanguard. You can probably tell that I'm a role player and as such my praise and concerns reflect that.
This game really does have massive potential. I love playing it and it's easily the most ambitious MMORPG I've ever seen (in the spirit of SWG in a lot of ways).
But perfect? Nope.
The Good:
*Huge zone-free world (stunningly beautiful if your rig can handle it)
*Sea travel. Huge open oceans to travel upon with your player-made boats of all sizes.
*Player placed houses (you can only build on pre-determined plots in order to protect the look of the environment)
*Literally countless thousands (60,000+?) items in the world and every single item can be dropped in your house like in SWG.
*The "you can go anywhere" mentality. If you see it you can go there. You can see for miles.
*Harvesting resources. When you chop down a tree for wood the tree actually falls to the ground where you can then harvest it.
*You can tame wild beasts and mount them. Dozens of mounts. Numerous flying mounts that can be flown anywhere.
*Custom designed clothes, armor, weapons.
*Create and name your own songs (Bard).
*Item decay (good for the economy)
*Mob trains (hehe)
*Adult-themed text. If you take the time to read all the dialog you may be pleasantly surprised. Goblin NPC: "I don't care what she says, I'm not your daddy!" The signs leading into Martok (Orc/Goblin village) say things like "Outsiders will be beaten (then eaten)!" Lots of dark themes like that.
*Player run shops and taverns.
*Lots of small details that make the world very unique.
*NPC predators attack each other.
*Most quests are immersive and fun. Often much more than just kill X amount of X. NPC's explain why things make sense in the game world. The writers took their time and it shows.
The Bad:
*No player-placed campfires (like in UO and SWG). Missing a big RP element here.
*Evil races say 'please,' etc. when they automatically speak to NPC's in chat windows. Why not make them... unpleasant?
*You 'pop' on your mount. You can't dismount it and walk away from it. Again, missing an RP element here.
*Empty taverns. Why not make it so you have to heal something akin to battle-fatigue in taverns. Sure it's forced socialization, but it adds a very immersion element to the world.
*Can't ride double mounted and no multi-passenger vehicles like wagons, etc.
*No mounted combat as of yet.
*Items you see for sale don't look like the tiny picture shown. They should take a lesson from SWG and let you examine an item in full 3D.
*All combat-centric professions. There would be no need to have to 'balance' such a profession so why not add in a few Entertainment professions... like Belly Dancer. And a Musician that can equip instruments and play an actual song.
*Forced to wear clothes. What if I'm role playing and want to go for a swim? Why not make me naked except for a loin cloth or whatever.
*Can't 'slap' my friends. When I highlight my bro and type /slap I always slap my own face.
*No marine life added yet, salt or fresh water.
*No chat bubbles when PC's talk.
*Saddle bags don't show up on mounts, small cosmetic things like that.
*I understand why they decided to feature combat levels (there are still skill-trees), but I personally cannot stand level 50 deer and frogs, et al. Just make them all like level 2 or something. It's idiotic.
The Ugly:
*Bugs. None game breaking (that I have seen), but very annoying none the less.
*Character creation. While there are indeed dozens of sliders to customize you avatars face and body, the devs failed to deliver on the promise that gone were the days of everyone looking the same. The hair options are a joke. Everyone looks the same.
*The character models could certainly use some serious polish and upgrades. I mean, the game takes a hot-rod-PC to run so why not make the avatars really detailed. They seem out of place with the beautiful world.
*Animations have improved a lot but still not acceptable.
END:
I'm sure I left out some stuff from all three sections. Oh well. These are my (hopefully balanced) personal opinions of Vanguard. You can probably tell that I'm a role player and as such my praise and concerns reflect that.
This game really does have massive potential. I love playing it and it's easily the most ambitious MMORPG I've ever seen (in the spirit of SWG in a lot of ways).
But perfect? Nope.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
Comments
1) you can dismount your ride just right click on the horse icon if you have it on a skill bar.
2) you can slap your friend try /slap (there name). You can even spit at some one or kick them an you actualy kick or spit its great.
3) the need a balance in classes for a reason, if one class can solo really fast an well you would have way to many ppl playing that class.
but i like your post you point out many good points an im sure they will work on alot of those points in due time..
I agree with pretty much all of that...
I also agree that its got potential out the Wazoo... Im playing more for what is to come than what is currently in place.
But what would I know..... Im just a Nazi
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
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"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
I think maybe the reason they haven't added any marine life is that half of the players (those with Nvidia cards) can't see anything under water because the screen goes black when immersed.
/flush is my friend.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
[/URL]
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
Ive got 2 7900GTs
I dont even run SLI in this game because it actually seems to perform worse. In dungeons I get a LOT of clipping errors although underwater I dont seem to be having a problem.
Its still pretty raw thats for sure.
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
-+-+-+-+-+-+
"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
but then,
i hit lvl 9-10 and everything sorta fell apart - the quests began to get very samey samey, with such a massive world i still found myself levelling in the same areas all the time and the community seems to be pretty dire. It reminds me of another MMO where instead of being Massively Multiplayer its actually Masses & Masses, what i mean is its like 10k people are just invading your game camping mob spawns etc etc and not doing anything else, apart from chatting on the, effectively, IRC chat server.
now i honestly dont know what i do, should i continue to plough through or not? cos tbh the past 2 days i have found logging on more of a chure then a joy.
1) What I mean is you can not dismount your horse and leave it standing outside when you go inside a store, etc. I have my mount icon on a hot bar so will try right-clicking it, but I think you may have read my comment wrong.
2) Great! I'll have to slap my friends silly tonight then. Thanks!
3) What I meant to say is if they were to add in some Entertainment professions (which would not have combat skills) there would be no need to have to balance them that I can see. In other words, they could add this profession in very easily because they don't have to balance them against combat professions.
Razorback:
/peace
EDIT: Forgot to add one to Bad...
They need to polish the Looking For Group features. It was pretty easy to find a group (or form one) in games like EverQuest II. The LFG features/options need serious improvement.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
+-+-+-+-+-+
"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
-+-+-+-+-+-+
"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
Ive got 2 7900GTs
I dont even run SLI in this game because it actually seems to perform worse. In dungeons I get a LOT of clipping errors although underwater I dont seem to be having a problem.
Its still pretty raw thats for sure.
Hmmm, what version of Forceware are you using? I've tried this on a 7600 and a 7800, in both XP and Vista with a few version of the drivers, and I always get a black screen when I go underwater. I've talked to a bunch of other people on our server with the same issue with Nvidia cards from 6600 on up.Edit: Also, what do you have your water settings on? I'm not trying to be a pain, just looking for a work around.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
[/URL]
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
Let me warn you, I like the game a lot, so my items here may be biased a bit.
Negatives:
Player operated taverns --> Haven't seen any yet
Bugs --> Not all the quests are fun, you sometimes cannot complete quests becouse of bugs. At the moment 99% of them are working though
Graphics: AMD 3600 single core, 2GB Ram, 7600GT and 15 ppl and mobs on screen, I get 10 fps at 1680x1050 at high performance (1 below normal)
Diplomacy not well detailed for now. It comes to a grind after some time, but definitely lots of to do there.
Plastic look on models: Although characters are very well detailed, some of the NPC's look like made from plastic under light
After level10-11, you don't have tons of quests, you have to travel and find your quests, you have to look around
Still unfinished details: Yesterday i used a teleportation NPC to travel to a different island, since the boat is not in the game yet.
Positive:
There i sea life at lots of location, did not try to go and swim to the deep areas though. sea shores and water inside is full of sea creatures
I own an NVidia card, and played the game on Vista64 and XP32, and can see inside the sea, can swim under the sea and play without getting the screen black. Disable tone mapping/HDR. when you enable both, you get black screen
You can slap people, vomit on them etc. Most of the emotes have decent animations
Animations are great? I am really suprised to hear that you did not like the animations, becouse they are fluid, and very well detailed. Depending on the attack type, you have cool animations varying by your profession.
Lots of different opportunities: One thing is sure, you cannot grind everything at the same time, it is simply impossible, which will lead to specialized characters.
I am finding it extremely easy to get into a group, and occasionaly hitting decent groups knowing how to play
Lots of different ways to fight, I find myself doing different moves depending on the situation, and still finding new optimum attacks which is suprising me
My Opinion:
I loved the game, cannot stop myself playing, but probably there will be considerable amount of people finding leveling slow etc.
Lvl 15 ranger
Lvl63 diplomat
Lvl5 blacksmith
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
Personally, I'm glad what little hand-holding is present between levels 1-10 is gone after level 10. In an adventure game it makes sense to actually have to adventure to find quests, etc. Just my two cents.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
/flush rocks
/flush rocks
I can gripe though that it seems unnaturally bright underwater when they have light colored substrate. I remember using the Unreal Editor and getting that effect with real light colored textures - they not only seemed to reflect the light but amplified or whitened it. It's better than it being all black to be sure - but certainly less than immersive.
/flush rocks
I can gripe though that it seems unnaturally bright underwater when they have light colored substrate. I remember using the Unreal Editor and getting that effect with real light colored textures - they not only seemed to reflect the light but amplified or whitened it. It's better than it being all black to be sure - but certainly less than immersive.
Hmmm, I'm going to have to check my settings. Someone else was saying that HDR and/or tone mapping may be the cuplrit. I do not remember turning on tone mapping, but HDR is probably on.
I now have a macro for flush. I set the icon to the muscle-guy flex.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
[/URL]
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
Great post, Nikoz. I especially like your RP ideas. Please submit them somehow to Sigil, would really add immersion. I agree wholeheartedly that it is easily the most ambitious MMORPG I have taken part in. Can't wait to get home and play, I have a night off.
We did need to tighten up our memory timings (p5nsli was defaultinig it to silly timings) and get the latest chipset drivers for an initial bump. leaving onboard sound behind for the (otherwise lacking) Audigy SE's helped also (both also made 2142a lot more responsive)
Which shores were you diving off of with the murky water - I'd like to see that and compare it with what the white Kojan sands do to the brightness.
I have not seen any rivers yet - do they have a current to them?
Hook a brother up with some flowing water, mang!
Thanks for the great post Mr OP.
Regarding quests post lvl 10, there are a lot of them in my area...but you won't know that until you get faction higher. Once I started killing spiders near Veskal's exchange, my faction went up and eventually shields started poping above the head of more NPCs. There are quite a lot of quests to do. Frankly, too many
In fact, I thought I completed all the quests near Tehean's Vengeance (an outpost) and moved on to Veskal's Exchange. Days later, I was returning to my home city and noticed perhaps a dozen new quests at Teheans' vengeance. I'm not sure if VG added them or if they appeared since my faction was now higher. At any rate, I was almost annoyed because I wanted to be done with all the quests in that area
I don't like to backtrack. However, quests are still the primary source of xp in this game.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
anarchyart: Thanks dude. There are some great ideas being put forth at the affiliated RP sites by a lot of folks. Let's hope Sigil takes notice!
Vanguard Role Players:
http://www.vanguardroleplayers.com/forums/
Vanguard RPG:
http://www.vanguardrpg.org/vanguard/index.html
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.