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Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Latest News Update
GFulls
Member Posts: 478
Just a few weeks after launch Vanguard gives its latest news update.
Item Loss Bugs
As of 5am PST Thursday morning, the item loss bugs revolving around bags should be resolved. While the fixes should prevent any new cases from arising, many instances where an item was already lost may be unresolved. We are still looking into a fix for this and will post updates as we have them.
Disciple Balance
Disciples were given some balance updates with the last patch to get them more in line with where they should be. Prior to yesterday's patch, disciples could sometimes score critical hits upwards of 60% of the time. Obviously, that was not intended and it has been brought to a more appropriate percentage. We apologize that this did not make it into the patch notes.
State of the Game
From Ryan Elam, Director of Technology:
"I'm going to answer some questions here, in typical FAQ style. It's going to be very informal, and you MAY find yourself laughing at some point... don't worry, this is normal..."
Read more here.
Comments
State of the Game
From Ryan Elam
1. Why do you have to patch so much after launch? Shouldn’t you be done?
I often say, “We will continue to make mistakes because we’re made almost entirely out of humans.” Yes, I’m just crazy enough to admit it.
Let’s say you live in an absolutely huge house. We’re talking 50 rooms, built-in theatre, the works. You want to invite over a bunch of people to enjoy your house, but first you need to get it ready. You clean, and you scrub, and you fix every little thing you possibly can before your guests arrive. You think to yourself, “Okay, there are a few more pieces of furniture that need to be polished, and yes even some dirt shoved under the rugs, and maybe that 80’s picture of Flock of Seagulls is a little out of place, but heck other than that, I don’t think anyone is going to have a problem!”
Then come oh… lets say… a few hundred thousand of your closest friends. You will be shocked and amazed at the little blemishes they find!
That is why. No matter how hard we try, we just won’t catch everything, nor will we catch everything in time.
Another thing to remember about Vanguard and games like Vanguard is a very old adage in development, and that is that complexity is an N-squared problem. The more complex a system is, the disproportionably greater the likelihood it catches the attention of old man Murphy and his Law. Vanguard is a very, very complex system, made up of dozens of complex systems, each of which is made up of hundreds of complex systems, each of which is written by a bleary-eyed human being doing his or her best to make an entertaining experience for you and your friends.
When was the last time you invited someone over to your house that wasn't completed and charged them $50 to get in and $15 a month to keep coming by and help you fix it up?
I'm not going to quote the whole article but everything he follows this with says they are working hard to get the game functioning the way they want it too which really says (even though they will never admit it) that the game isn't ready for prime time and they should not have released it.
To tell the truth they all ready had a few thousand poeple over telling them what was wrong and out of place so it's not that they didn't know they just didn't care.
And to all the people that said Sony wouldn't change anything about this game because Sigil wouldn't let them I give a Big Huge FU
Don't pee and me and tell me its raining man I don't like it
Hey Ryan, welcome to the mediocrity that is Sony station network I hope you have fun down there.excuse, excuses, ecuses...
I'm just glad they posted confirmation of some of the issues the vanbois try to say don't exist. I think the analogy of getting your house ready for company then having the company find "blemishes" is pretty much BS though... since these issues were all common knowledge in beta. n They didn't just turn up after launch when a ton of people started playing.... there may have even been more people playing during beta.
The rest is just the same excuses they have been spewing out to beta testers for the last year... promises of future optimizations, and suggestions that we all upgrade. I have a fairly new $150 video card and the game still runs like total crap. They should also mention the $200 ram upgrade a lot us need for this game to run right. Unless you already have a single one gig stick at the speed you want, you pretty much have to replace it all to get to the 2 gigs the game needs to run as good as every other game out there. I think biggest lie in there is that vanguard runs so bad because the graphics are so much better than everything else. Turned down so it looks like crap, it still runs pretty bad. That is the real issue.
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
Haven't played it, so I don't know.
But, I have yet to see a new game come out that does not teething issues.
Where will it be in a month, that is what counts.
I miss DAoC
Excellent point.
Players are willing to give MMORPGs a certain leeway esp. when it's obvious that the company is trying to fix the problems.
But those problems had better get fixed or player's patience (and their attention) will rapidly dry up.
The telling sign will be if Vanguard is still in this state in March (much less the summer as some posters imply)
This is just too funny. I'll explain:
When this team of developers started making this game they had this vision of what they wanted to create. They were steadfast in their beliefs of what could and should have been changed from the original EQ mold. I can remember early on when they took this big stand against "the gold farming companies" regarding their game and information about its development. I kept checking the progress and was very hopeful that they would get it done right, I was excited throughout the development process and was really pulling for them to be successful.
Then came the day when I read a particularly interesting comment. There was a point in time when they were looking at having this game available for the XBox 360. PC and 360 players would be together on the same servers, not just playing some watered down ported version of Vanguard for the console. That scenario started with Brad McQuaid's comments about the great scalability of the 360 and the powerful graphics available. It ended with the comment that "there isn't a [PC] system out there that can run Vanguard at its highest settings". So much for the XBox. Okay, what kind of revolutionary MMORPG can you make if nobody can play it as it is designed to be played? How can you post on your website and blogs that you have the greatest game ever in development knowing that there isn't a way for the average person to run it? I had scary flashbacks to EQII, when I built a new rig to run that game and still had terrible framerates. My system definitely does not stand up to Vanguard, I had terrible framerates in Beta in early January. Understand this, my system is well within the required specifications, but even with all the bells and whistles turned down to minimum it doesn't run the game well at all and it's not an enjoyable awe-inspiring experience.
So it needed more development time, more time to optimize the game for the masses. No big deal I thought, they have a few months to work things out. Then came the announcement that it would be released at the end of January. I knew this was going to be bad, along with everybody else following this game. The powers that be decided it was time to launch and the dreamers, the folks with the "vision", had to roll with it. It's a disaster for sure. Sure, any game is going to have launch problems but it is exponentially compounded when the game is just not ready. I don't really have that big of a problem with that part of it, my issue is with the spin they put on it. Sure, we're ready to launch. We have a few things to polish but that can be done with "updates" to the client (patch is an ugly word these days). Then I see this propaganda about a house and having friends over. That's funny. A better reference might be a house built on a Hollywood studio set. Looks great on the outside and every week we see how wonderful life is on the inside when we watch whatever show is set there. However, you can walk up to that house and maybe open the door but you come to find that it's all for show. The Vanguard box looks great, the screenshots are awesome, there are all kinds of things to immerse myself in - but when I get it home and load it up the facade is revealed. Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme but I think I made my point. It's like seeing how good a Big Mac looks on the TV commercial but when you buy one and dig it out of the wrapper it doesn't look quite the same does it?
Here's my favorite statement from the update they released (above):
The more complex a system is, the disproportionably greater the likelihood it catches the attention of old man Murphy and his Law.
When somebody has to resort to making up words that don't even exist it usually means they're scrambling. More spin, more smokescreen. I understand there are issues with the game, the launch, the corporate meddling, and the abundance of different technology involved but it would be nice if they would just be straight with the consumer.
Maybe in a year or so the rig needed to run this game in all its glory will be affordable to the masses and more of us can share in the vision. That's about all I have to say about that.
Can't some of you just get over the dissappointment or get a better system, Yes i wished that the game would run alott beter on some of your systems its really ashame it doesn't, but for me personaly i run the game smooth, yes there are some bugs but seems to me that most of you people not have been at any release date game else you would have been mature enough to know that this release isn't all that bad compared to every other mmorpg's that has been released in the past. Are you people also spamming the NVDIA or ATI forums complaining that they should not produce better graphic cards because you just bought a new card 1 month ago. People need to realize that time isn't standing still and if you want to compete you need to do something that not has been done before, and trust me alott of things in VSoH have never been done, atleast i do not know a game where you can play without one single load screen, i don't know one mmorpg that has such a rich and detailed distanted view, i have not played a mmorpg where i could have a flying mount and fly all over the play world (makes the flying mounts in WOW look very sad-Outland restrictions ......pleaseeeee
) I have not played a mmorpg where the world seemed like it was a breathing world (ever noticed that even tho in WOW the forrest and such are very nice to look at but they are dead none moviing and that makes it look kinda silly) Trees move by the wind and not in a linear kind of way but in a amazing realistic kind of way. Special effect(lights, flashes and such) fit the game, its not like you have wierd strange neon lights flashing all over you when in combat. I know not having the right system to play a game does make a game look bad, lucky for me i havethe right system shame some of you don't and complain that the game is bad just because of that. Like i said before if some had witnessed more games at their release date they could never complain at VSoH like some do now 
.
Nope not a fanboy here, but just a 30+y old gamer that likes the fact that their are still company's that have the guts to make a mature kind of game. I'm just happy times evolves and doesn't stand still, would be a shame for all of us gamers that do buy new high end systems if games did not technicaly evolved.
I too am a mature gamer..and frankly I was in on Vanguard's launch, pretty smooth I would say. Don't worry Reklaw..those that love to whine and complain will do that for any game. Thats just how they are.
Its true though, if you aren't willing to at least upgrade your memory and or vid card, yeah you won't experience the beauty of this game. I have a level 19 almost 20 half-elf disciple. We have spent several days in the Tomb of Lord Tsang, having a blast and getting the phat lewts!! hehe
The Vanguard world is visually stunning..artistically speaking...and the Sigil team has never gone back on their word about fixing things. They fix stuff in order of priority...the bugs I have reported over the months..and the quests that were broken that I also reported on HAVE BEEN FIXED. Each patch of course brings new bugs....I have played MANY online games..NONE of which were perfect...even *gasp* your holy grail Wow. Wow STILL has bugs...to this day...yes I have played it..yes I closed my account.
I prefer steak and potatoes over baby pap...thank you very much. Don't get me wrong ..Wow is a fine game for .its intended audience...just not for me.
I don't like my hand held..and Vanguard definitely does not do that. Looking forward to the higher levels..level 20 and upwards, as when I tested I stayed in the mid-teens to help with fleshing out the newbie areas..with my feedback etc.
This game has so much potential...thats all I can say. Bugs will come and go...so will the people.
Thats life....as for SOE ...they STILL do not have any influence inside Vanguard or on the gameplay. They are server side and technical support...despite what the tinfoil hat wearers in this thread would have you believe.
Cend
I am also a mature gamer and I wanted this game to be good and the fact is if it was I would be here singing its praises to the gods unfortunately not only is it not good but they keep trying to put a spin on it to make it something it's not (Which really irritates me BTW).
Every game has issues at launch but not every game will launch when they have thousands of people telling them its not ready.
Thats not guts that stupidity or arrogance or greed.
When Ryan talks about 'that is where we see people in a years time' perhaps thats when I'll take a look.
Actually my concern is if it will actually be fun once it is tweaked and tuned to be hardcore enough for the producers. I want to see if they have, as claimed, found a way to make a game that is hardcore and fun and that does not require endless mindless repetition. The obvious way to me is through player conflicts (roll on WAR & Conan). Personally raiding the same dungeons and/or fighting the same 'epics' does not do it for me. Thats mindless repetition after the NN th time in my book.
I submit to anyone else playing an MMO that they are currently putting up with bugs in their game of choice that are as bad as the ones I have seen in VSOH so far.
MOBS disappearing? Check out EQ2 for being attacked through the floor or walls by MOBS you can't see.
Character issues? How many times do I zone in (don't get me started on zoning) and find my character not there for a minute or two.
Pathing issues? DAoC and Avalon City. Now there were some MOBS that liked to take the round about way to get to you.
Lag? Every single game I have played so far lags at one point or another. Be that client side or server side.
I'm not saying it's prefect, but damn, walking to the edge of a cliff and just looking out over the view is amazing in this game. It's hard too. MOBS will help each other and spawn at a fast rate making you have to move on and camping areas difficult. I'm only level 9 so far, but I have been having a blast doing quests and messing with diplomacy. Next is crafting and maybe some more adventuring. I'm having fun! isn't that the point?
EDIT: System specs for those that care: P4 3.4 ghz, 1GB ram and an ATI 9800 Pro. It runs nice on balanced.