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Is the game good if you ignore......?
RonnyRulz
Member Posts: 479
If you ignore the bugs. If you ignore the graphics (textures, animations, spell effects, etc.). If you have no problem with the latency, disconnects, and crashes. If you have a rig that runs the game at a good 30-60fps and thus ignore the performance issues.
Is the game good? Is it worth it?
If there were no bugs, the graphics didn't matter at all, and your comp and latency connection were more than enough to have no problem with performance or latency issues, IS THE GAME GOOD?
(Also, please compare it (ignoring all those things listed) to current MMO's. That way we get out of the "It's not perfect" MMO mindset, and realistically compare it in relation to other imperfect MMO's.)
Ignoring the "beta" aspect of it, and in relation to other MMO's on the market, would your opinion differ?
Comments
The game itself is good. Too bad that very few people can actually play it due to performance issues. I have a nice rig and I still have some performance issues( I get between 50-60 fps in the wild and still lag for no apparent reason most of the time).
Honestly, no. It is not fun once you reach mid to late 20s and are required to LFG and LFM in this huge (but empty) world to complete any meaningful and fun quests and access content.
I respectfully and honestly suggest it is not worth it.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
IMO, if you ignore all those issues, then YES the game is excellent.
If you like a sandbox style MMO in a high fantasy setting, then I think you'll get something out of VG.
The problem is that the issues you mentioned cannot be ignored. I run a :
E6600/8800GTX/2gb@800
and still lag in cities and CTD when i change continents, although my FPS does stay quite high when Im grouping through a dungeon.
Even if you were running VG from Nasa's super computer and experienced none of these problems, the fact that everyone else does means that the world is not as populated as would be prefferable, which hampers gameplay also (can take time to LFG).
I would modify your statement in the OP - instead of "if you ignore all the bugs etc..." I would say "If you are able to put up with all the bugs etc is VG a good game?". My answer to that question is YES.
This game is 70% complete and is a virtual beta environment. It's going to be a rough ride for anyone who plays right now. This is a slightly worse mirror match of the Everquest 2 launch. At least Everquest 2 didn't have the worlds worst performance in a MMO I've ever witnessed, though. Everquest 2 did manage to do a complete 180 and turn itself into a good game. I only hope Vanguard does the same. It truly looked like a winner for the 3 years I followed it.
The problem is you can't ignore these problems. You can't ignore freezing in mid fight or when on your mount. You can't ignore your screen going blank, or black or returning to your desktop without any warning or any of the countless other bugs. You can't ignore constant lag or crashes.
It's like telling yourself you're having fun when deep down you know you're not. You can't ignore it, you can't fake it. It's all too real in VG, everything is laid out in black and white for all to see.
QFT
Arioc Murkwood
Environment Artist
Sad but true.
I honestly have no problem finding groups whatsoever...i know ALL servers are lacking in population but sriously finding a group aint bad...i usually get picked up about 20-30 mins from playing...even if you are spread out theres a REGION chat where you can talk to people in that part of the world...
from level 20-30 USE REGION CHAT IN CENTRAL THESTRA and more than likely someone would start up or pick you up for a group in trengal keep because thats basically the most popular area for those levels theres a 6 part quest there and the rewards are awesome...
solo? level 15-20 go to renton keep and kill ants do the quests there (i started at renton keep around lvl 12 and made 4 levels in 4 hours)
20-25 shrine of the flame pick up armor quests there and solo the bugbears there....
25-30 head to southwatch and pick up missive quests killing animals and do the granny sparrowsong's quest lines...theres plenty of people 28-34 doing south watch missives but they all can be soloable if you choose to di it...
30-40 kill sparrowsong monsters inside that dungeon and pick up more quests from granny sparrowsong...(can be soloable but would need a group once u go in deeper)
40-50 ??? havent gotten that far yet
chances are you all dont know where you're going or you DONT KNOW how to use the regionchat and shout for LFG because doing /lfg aint going to get you anywhere...
this game is fun if you get into it....ALL and i mean ALL my characters i can reach lvl 20 in about 2 days about 4-7 hours per day) and i solo...the only time i EVER group is with my brother and thats only on the weekends....
and another thing...you guys all think adventure leveling is easy? maybe u should try crafting...now thats a grind...adventure leveling is so easy...if you're a real mmo veteran leveling in any game should be a piece of cake once u get to know your surroundings....
but if you want to make money crafting is the way to go...i make so much money crafting swords the first month of release, but now my buisness died out because there are any new players to buy my weapons anymore...so i jsut stopped playing the game period...
level 28 dreadknight Ruthless
level 20 ranger Runefuz
level 14 necro Doomfuz
im on thunderaxe server btw
Best game I have played since it started playing MMOS (Anarchy Online)
and THAT was a buggy game, but it had (has?) a killer comunity and a nice gameplay. I have found that the community on my server (Infineum EU) is very much alike the old AO community. Lots of mature players that go out of their way to help and assist, with the usual asshat brigade thrown in for good meassure ("go back to WOW N00B " --ohh the irony!
)
In general tho the community is outstanding prolly also because grouping is so important players behave nicely and I have still not been without a team when I needed one ( even pickup teams beats the hell outta a lot of guildteams in other MMOs)
Preformance wize I do not have a lot of issues. FPS can get down to 10 in hvy populated dungeons which is not satesfatory when I have a 8800 and dual Core 2 CPU but it does not take away from the fact that group dynamics are nothing short of excellent and great fun. I have yet to CTD on my Vista system and altho I get stutters from crossing "zone-borders" , this the game runs ok (not super-smooth-wow-great, but nothing gamebreaking)
I like the game beeing highly group-based and I love the community. The game space is vast and some places quite empthy some are populated. I like this. It gives varriation
I am lvl 22 and I really do not feel the game is grindy at all. it takes time to lvl but in a good team, time flys. There are allways little steps forward, new equipment to be bought and made. Weapons to be upgraded. It is a wellrounded experience imho.
The style and quality of the art is way better than EQII. The animations loose hands down to EQII and SWG (which has the best in the industry) but the overall art is more classical fantasy and with all bells and whistles on. there is nothing like shiny bump-mapped chainmail in the sunset :P and the scale of the landscapes makes it epic were EQ seems claustrophobic.
The game has MASSIVE potential, and I mean that in a good way. The game is lacking in preformance and content but I still feel the gameplay and community varrents the monthly fee. It is what I spend my time playing anyways.
So, err, yeah it's the best game on the market if you ignore all the bad things about it......
I am taking a stab in the dark here, but I think the OP is counting away the flaws away that the vanguard team have said that they want to change/correct in the comming months.
Lag, Animations,spell effect, preformance issues, grafical "anomalies" and so on
This game is good if you have patience, more time than the average 4-8 h per week gamer, strong hardware and an active guild or somebody with whom you can group.
I would personally not play if I wasn't into the graphics. Cause even if it has more different things to do, I still feel it plays like WoW, just less smooth and with less dull combat. Now I may still have played WoW if it had Vanguards housing and all that and Vanguard wasn't out but I would switch instantly when it came, simply cause I didn't like WoW's grapichs.
So if you don't like it, I expect you'll want to switch games as soon something else comes around.
I don't know if you've played WoW (or any of the 100 EQ branchoffs), but if you're looking for something totally different I'd stay away as well.
Else I recommend you try it if.. like you wrote:
Can ignore the bugs (which are getting less and less)
Don't mind being laggy
And to add to that:
If you want to see a world evolving (hopefully. I see this as the best chance of the current and coming games to not just sit on it's ass)
After all that I must say it isn't a wet dream. I'm looking forward to new games already, to either play on the side or if they're good enough full time. Do like Vanguard though, and this post made me die in game so you owe me 1 % exp. Pay up!
If you ignore the bugs. If you ignore the graphics (textures, animations, spell effects, etc.). If you have no problem with the latency, disconnects, and crashes. If you have a rig that runs the game at a good 30-60fps and thus ignore the performance issues.
Is the game good? Is it worth it?
If there were no bugs, the graphics didn't matter at all, and your comp and latency connection were more than enough to have no problem with performance or latency issues, IS THE GAME GOOD?
(Also, please compare it (ignoring all those things listed) to current MMO's. That way we get out of the "It's not perfect" MMO mindset, and realistically compare it in relation to other imperfect MMO's.)
Ignoring the "beta" aspect of it, and in relation to other MMO's on the market, would your opinion differ?
For me it is definitely worth it. If you ignore all the problems I guess the real issue is style of game. I have played many games which I have enjoyed including WoW, but my favorites have been SWG and Anarchy Online. WoW to me was a fantastic game to play, whilst SWG was once a fantastic World to live and create in.
Vanguard definitely feels more like a world than a game and as such you have to find your own way a little more, but that give you the freedom of where to go and what to do. I suppose that is one of the aspects of this MMORPG which attracts me to it. There is also player housing, harvesting and crafting. Rather than be dependent on raiding and boss camping to get items, players can craft good, usable items. There is good interaction between characters and a healthy interdependence.
All the players I have met so far have been very friendly and helpful. The chat is social and pleasant. The quests are challenging and encourage grouping and co-operation. At the same time, there are many solo and duo quests which are fun to do.
The Vanguard world is huge and there is so much yet to be discovered. It makes me feel like an explorer and I always want to find out what is beyond the next hill. I do enjoy traveling the various lands and meeting the range of peoples that populate it. As yet, Vanguard is not quite pre NGE SWG but it feels very much like it. That is perhaps the best comparison I can make. I also think that because of the newness of Vanguard, I feel part of a great evolution in which I can have some control and that becomes an adventure in itself. As the World develops and new elements are introduced makes me a part of a growing universe.
I would suggest researching servers as from reading other posts they seem to vary in population,also a joining a good guild can be very helpful.
I'll start my own SWG... with Black Jack... and Hookers!!!
In fact, forget the SWG!!!!
For the average player it might be worth it a year from now.....
That said I have a group of friends I play with, there's 8 of us and we are close to each other level wise. So its easy for us to do the more fun quests / dungeons.... I think once they implement some sort of grouping system it will help those who do not have a lot of friends on the game.
I know a lot of the hardcore gamers will hate this idea, but say if your on Qaila and a group in Thestra wants you to join them for a dungeon quest, you should be able to group with them and they should have the ability to teleport you directly to them. Right now they have this ability but its limited to you having to be within (I think) 800m or so from the dungeon and it has a lot of restrictions tied to it...
Now before anyone gets upset about this idea, the main group still has to ride out to the dungeon, all my idea does is help get the group togeather faster so you can spend more time having fun instead of having to wait around for people to show up...
I guess you could tie this ability into a guild only feature, meaning only a guild member could call you instantly....
If you ignore the bugs, yeah the game is rather fun at the beginning. The crafting system is deeper then most mmos out there, but I didn't find it very fun personally, especially since you can't customize what you make. You can make it as compex as you want but in the end (for me) its how you can customize the item you're making. Diplomacy, which is a card game, is something you'll love or hate, you just have to try it. Personally, I didn't find it engaging and lacks the fun-factor of better card games. Adventuring is probably the biggest disappointment even if you ignore the performance issues. It's the most boring out of any MMO, there is no real storyline to follow and is both bland and unimaginative, it's just jumping from one outpost to the next with different scenery doing copious amounts of kill x number of creature and fed-ex quests, that's essentially what made me quit on top of this pressure to group all the time to really get anywhere. I got bored quickly and glad I quit before my free month ended, because this game simply doesn't deliver.
If you ignore the bugs, performance issues, crashing, xp loss, nerfs with each patch, etc. and look at vanguard on a pure 'game mechanics' level -
I don't know if I'd call it 'good'. Its alright. It does some new things and has a lot of new features (many of which don't work or aren't implemented, but we're ignoring that). The combat is more interesting than tab click, you have reactionary styles that follow a crit or an evade and whatnot. The crafting is more involving than the standard "gather materials, click the craft button" that many games employ.
But in all honesty, the Vanguard you are asking about ...doesn't exist.
You can't ignore the bugs because they affect every aspect of gameplay.
So you want to imagine a hypothetical, nonexistent Vanguard world where everything works, it runs smoothly, the game has enough people to support the content, the world is full and bustling, and you want to know if that mythical, nonexistent game is good? I think it would be, to be completely honest. But its a pipe-dream.
I think the vision of vanguard is good, but as someone said when it first came out, the game really should be called "Vanguard, Saga of Potential."
Gaming? That's not gaming!
That's just people sat 'round in costumes drinking...