Im totally a minority here but when i look at what this game has to offer, i like it better than any other mmo out right now. Huge world, housing (non instance) guild halls, flying mounts, casting while moving (what took so long?) dynamic weather you can see approach, totally unique classes, diplo and crafting as a whole nother tree to lvl, miles worth of view distance, player made boats, and though this is subjective the best gfx in any mmo.... for me anyhow. What sucks for me, minor bugs and hitching in new areas and well i dont like BoP items So i would say yes try this game, i will only improve i think.
Im totally a minority here but when i look at what this game has to offer, i like it better than any other mmo out right now. Huge world, housing (non instance) guild halls, flying mounts, casting while moving (what took so long?) dynamic weather you can see approach, totally unique classes, diplo and crafting as a whole nother tree to lvl, miles worth of view distance, player made boats, and though this is subjective the best gfx in any mmo.... for me anyhow. What sucks for me, minor bugs and hitching in new areas and well i dont like BoP items So i would say yes try this game, i will only improve i think.
I totally agree!
There are very few things wrong with Vanguard, and it's become a pretty cool game!
On top of that there are no 10-year olds ruining the game, the players are mature and ready to help eachother, it's a great community!
These threads on this forum are pointless. You will get nothing but haters and lovers and the truth is inbetween. The game has improved since release. Go to vgplayers.com and read the patch notes going back awhile. It has some good things and some bad. A large beautivful world that is seamless where you can go anywhere. A greot combat system that gives you a lot more options and is more then just random button pushing. A diverse set of activities for players, adventuring, crafting, diplomacy, harvesting Some bad things it still hitches and while it has improved it still does bugs, there will be graphic errors, settings that cause graphic flicking, quests that don't work right and events or dungeon agro issues. starting areas while diverse and some of them damn interesting are spread thin so you won't see a lot of people. it will make you think there isn't much population and early on very hard to get a good group. One rumor I'll blast out right now The player pops on saradon are great. I did a comparison of all the top games, eq2, wow, and VG and if you are a new player VG is by far the best game to start if you want to group. I checked the low end pops on all the servers and VG is at least 2-3x any other game. And this holds up into the mid ranges. EQ2 and Wow are very top heavy and don't leave room for much else. So read some think about it try it if you like or just wait for a free trial that will probably start in 2-3 months. Or just wait for some other game but don't expect to get any good info on this forum..
VG has has 4 servers. WoW has hundreds(exaggeration) Eq2 has 22 servers. So your comparison and claim really aren't accurate. Of course VG would appear to have a healthy population because its all concentrated into 4 servers with Saradon having the highest concentration. Nice try though ethion.
Its not an exaggeration.. WoW has over 200 servers in the EU and over 250 servers in the US.. god knows how many in asia.
The game is actually pretty good. I had fun with it, and just recently jumped to LOTRO. My problem wasn't with the gameplay at all. I had a lot of fun playing it. My problem was with the dev team or rather, the lack of it. Their team is very small (too small in my opinion) and it shows badly. Their patches usually break as much as they fix, and then they end up having to patch their patches -- sometimes repeatedly. Most things on the player's wish lists will never see the light of day (my opinion) because their team just doesn't have the resources to make it happen. Read the official dev posts in response to many player questions. You'll start to see a trend of "we don't have the ability or time" type responses. Also Silius, the lead dev, isn't a very good communicator (again, my opinion). He allows himself to be dragged into arguments and he sometimes even flames back on the open forums.
In the end, it was becoming pretty clear that SOE has no plans to grow this game. There's no current plans for a paid expansion, free expansions come out kind of slowly, and there's so much still broken in the game that the dev team just can't possibly fix the game and release new reliable content at the same time.
Anywho, that's how I see it. I'll keep my eye on the game for a while, but unless the team is beefed up A LOT, I doubt I'll return anytime soon.
The game is actually pretty good. I had fun with it, and just recently jumped to LOTRO. My problem wasn't with the gameplay at all. I had a lot of fun playing it. My problem was with the dev team or rather, the lack of it. Their team is very small (too small in my opinion) and it shows badly. Their patches usually break as much as they fix, and then they end up having to patch their patches -- sometimes repeatedly. Most things on the player's wish lists will never see the light of day (my opinion) because their team just doesn't have the resources to make it happen. Read the official dev posts in response to many player questions. You'll start to see a trend of "we don't have the ability or time" type responses. Also Silius, the lead dev, isn't a very good communicator (again, my opinion). He allows himself to be dragged into arguments and he sometimes even flames back on the open forums. In the end, it was becoming pretty clear that SOE has no plans to grow this game. There's no current plans for a paid expansion, free expansions come out kind of slowly, and there's so much still broken in the game that the dev team just can't possibly fix the game and release new reliable content at the same time. Anywho, that's how I see it. I'll keep my eye on the game for a while, but unless the team is beefed up A LOT, I doubt I'll return anytime soon.
Haha, I also left VG back when LotRO first came out running from a highly unpolished game to one that was way too over-polished. Which game am I playing today? Vanguard. LotRO was too linear for me, too theme-parkish. As many problems as VG has, I would MUCH rather play in a huge open world than a series of zones ala LotRO. Boring.
Whether or not SOE does anything to this game in the future is a moot point for me. However, I do think there is some hope for SOE. If subs keep rising, I'm sure they'll put more development into the game. There is a newbie island in development for trials. An expansion just might come out for this game but it'll most likely be another year away.
SOE is in a tight position here with this game. They can do many things to make the game much better, but, if they wait too long, this game will go the route of the likes of Matrix Online and simply be forgotten about by the players as more and more new/fantasy based MMOs come out.
I'm basically playing VG until a true sandbox fantasy MMO comes out. AoC and WAR won't be the ones so I'll most likely be playing Vanguard until the likes of Darkfall or Mortal Online ever see the light of day.
Haha, I also left VG back when LotRO first came out running from a highly unpolished game to one that was way too over-polished. Which game am I playing today? Vanguard. LotRO was too linear for me, too theme-parkish. As many problems as VG has, I would MUCH rather play in a huge open world than a series of zones ala LotRO. Boring.
Whether or not SOE does anything to this game in the future is a moot point for me. However, I do think there is some hope for SOE. If subs keep rising, I'm sure they'll put more development into the game. There is a newbie island in development for trials. An expansion just might come out for this game but it'll most likely be another year away. SOE is in a tight position here with this game. They can do many things to make the game much better, but, if they wait too long, this game will go the route of the likes of Matrix Online and simply be forgotten about by the players as more and more new/fantasy based MMOs come out. I'm basically playing VG until a true sandbox fantasy MMO comes out. AoC and WAR won't be the ones so I'll most likely be playing Vanguard until the likes of Darkfall or Mortal Online ever see the light of day.
Holly crap. The VG devs are now wasting their time on a trial island? I mean, WTF ?
The game has been out for 1 year now and that over bloated engine still doesn't have BASIC features like anti-aliasing and object shadows.
Yes, the game still doesn't have proper shadows The game looks so wrong; the sun is high but there are no shadows (just the characters and the trees, but everything else buildings, rocks, objects, etc... has no shadows). We are in 2008, GEEZZZ
And I don't even want to start on the dead world with the soulless empty cites, etc... (the game needs life, scripted npcs living in the cites/world, particle effects, water reflections,.... POLISH).
WTF are they wasting their time on a trial island ? Why can't they just give a 7 or 14 days trial like many other games do?
I've heard about the bugs, the low population, etc. I used to play when it came out and I am considering a return. So, is it worth playing at all? Is the population that low? If it's worth playing explain why..and if it's not, explain why it's not..
The overall subscriber numbers don't matter as much as the server populatoins. There are only a few servers and Seradon for one is considered over-populated. High-end content is contested and low to middle questing content can be contested as well. For example, I'm leveling up another toon and he's in Cragwind now... that place is absolutely packed with people working on the 40-50 or so available quests. It's almost a necessity to work with another group to work on quests because some of the areas are simply picked clean.
Bugs are much less prevelant and performance has been greatly improved.
I've heard about the bugs, the low population, etc. I used to play when it came out and I am considering a return. So, is it worth playing at all? Is the population that low? If it's worth playing explain why..and if it's not, explain why it's not..
It depends on what you like in MMO's and why you left the game to begin with.
Explain.
You gave us nothing to work with so your post went spinning out of control into a battle of the trolls.
I came back to VG 4 days ago, rolled up a new warrior and every quest I've ran from lvl 1-16 I've had camp competition (like 2-8 other ppl camping for same quests) every step of the way. Either the player base is increasing or alot of the bored 50's are running new alts (and not twinking them at all and I I highly doubt they've all decided to start fresh without twinkage)
That just *killed* any, and I mean ANY chance of me playing this game. FFS its 2008, not 1999! Get it together SOE!
I came back to VG 4 days ago, rolled up a new warrior and every quest I've ran from lvl 1-16 I've had camp competition (like 2-8 other ppl camping for same quests) every step of the way. Either the player base is increasing or alot of the bored 50's are running new alts (and not twinking them at all and I I highly doubt they've all decided to start fresh without twinkage)
That just *killed* any, and I mean ANY chance of me playing this game. FFS its 2008, not 1999! Get it together SOE!
Been playing VG for about a month now, and so far I have not had any problems with camping taking place. I'm on the server Seradon, so perhaps it depends on what server you are on?
The game is so huge, I find it hard to believe camping exists like blackthornn states. WHen I made my way from 1-16 I typically was able to find people who were willing to quest with me, and no one was competing for spawns.
Twice this month, my group and I have shown up to a dungeon to find the boss already killed, or some event already going on...
Know what? There was so much to do, we worked on other quests till it reset and then we did it.
Haha, I also left VG back when LotRO first came out running from a highly unpolished game to one that was way too over-polished. Which game am I playing today? Vanguard. LotRO was too linear for me, too theme-parkish. As many problems as VG has, I would MUCH rather play in a huge open world than a series of zones ala LotRO. Boring.
Whether or not SOE does anything to this game in the future is a moot point for me. However, I do think there is some hope for SOE. If subs keep rising, I'm sure they'll put more development into the game. There is a newbie island in development for trials. An expansion just might come out for this game but it'll most likely be another year away. SOE is in a tight position here with this game. They can do many things to make the game much better, but, if they wait too long, this game will go the route of the likes of Matrix Online and simply be forgotten about by the players as more and more new/fantasy based MMOs come out. I'm basically playing VG until a true sandbox fantasy MMO comes out. AoC and WAR won't be the ones so I'll most likely be playing Vanguard until the likes of Darkfall or Mortal Online ever see the light of day.
Just to be clear, VG is very linear too. You have more starting locations, but each one takes you on a progression from one area to the next as the mission levels increase. No different. And as far as zones are concerned, VG has those too -- you can call them chunks or whatever, but they're there. The only difference is in LOTRO, my computer doesn't freeze up every time I cross over one. Finally, too much polish? I don't think there is such a thing.
After playing both games, it's easy to see which is better for me. LOTRO is a wonderfully polished complete game with a bright future. VG is a broken (but better than release) game that needs a lot of polish and has a shakey future that depends largely on the sony station pass. LOTRO updates are frequent, large and well done. VG updates are infrequent and not very good.
For the longest time, I saw VG as what it could potentially be, and not what it is. It could be one of the best games out there, but it's not. It's okay, but it needs a lot of work. After taking my rose colored glasses off, I'm getting a much clearer picture. I really hope VG is fixed in the near future, but based on how SOE has treated the game so far, I'm not holding my breath.
Anywho, good luck with VG! I'll check back in six months or so and see what's changed. Hopefully, Silius will prove me wrong!
I've heard about the bugs, the low population, etc. I used to play when it came out and I am considering a return. So, is it worth playing at all? Is the population that low? If it's worth playing explain why..and if it's not, explain why it's not..
The overall subscriber numbers don't matter as much as the server populatoins. There are only a few servers and Seradon for one is considered over-populated. High-end content is contested and low to middle questing content can be contested as well. For example, I'm leveling up another toon and he's in Cragwind now... that place is absolutely packed with people working on the 40-50 or so available quests. It's almost a necessity to work with another group to work on quests because some of the areas are simply picked clean.
Bugs are much less prevelant and performance has been greatly improved.
All in all, I am really enjoying this game.
In Vanguard's case, the subscriber numbers do matter considering the dwindling development team, and consequently slow, troubled updates along with the lack of things such as free expansions and paid expansions.
And Seradon is far from overpopulated, I don't think I've ever even seen it beyond "Low" lately. Narrow, linear content is more often the reason of contested content. It isn't coincidence the only place one player found to level and do quests, a handful of others found the same.
The populations are very low. A catch 22 considering more players are needed to fund a larger development team, but a larger development team is needed to attract and retain more players.
10 to 25k is a ridiculously off number. Population has been on a steady increase since its low point of around the 40k 'guess'. So much so that I'd 'guess' the population is closer to 75k. There is absolutely no freakin way that it is lower than it was in the GU1 and GU2 days.
Well, GU1-2 was pre-merge. Of course the population seemed lower when 30k players were spread across 12 servers as opposed to 4. If the population were anywhere near 75k, you would have seen more servers come back online.
10 to 25k is a ridiculously off number. Population has been on a steady increase since its low point of around the 40k 'guess'. So much so that I'd 'guess' the population is closer to 75k. There is absolutely no freakin way that it is lower than it was in the GU1 and GU2 days.
Well, GU1-2 was pre-merge. Of course the population seemed lower when 30k players were spread across 12 servers as opposed to 4. If the population were anywhere near 75k, you would have seen more servers come back online.
Yep. As opposed to everyone being herded off three of the remaining four servers all onto one. 75k is impossible.
WTF are they wasting their time on a trial island ? Why can't they just give a 7 or 14 days trial like many other games do?
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
Yea.... what I see is just incompetence or bland idiocy. Crap, I am really mad at those guys now. The house is on fire, but those guys are cheerfully playing in the garden.
Geez, I paid 50 bucks for this. Played in beta and then listened the sigil lead dev (Gebron) the week before release who said that he was working on anti-aliasing, that it was already working on several cards and that within a couple more hours work (yes he said that) it would work on all the cards and would definitely be in the next week at release and that polish was coming; I subscribed. Yes I paid 50 bucks... and canceled after the first 30 days seeing how all the promises were just lies.
Now I have been waiting for more than 1 year. And the BASIC engine features are still not there. To bring this game on par with current (and even years older) technology they really need to wake up.
Where is:
- anti-aliasing
- fully working shadows (houses, objects, etc.. have no shadows)
- water reflections
Once these 3 things are in this game will at least be on par with the free to play games (yes even free games like Perfect world have all of these basic engine features, and more).
Then they can add life to the world with scripted npcs, particle effects etc.... Meanwhile, they can just give the people a 7 or 14 days trial. But what are the guys doing ? They are wasting their time developing a useless trial island
Geezz the world is so huge already, but they waste their time on another new area.
Look at the official forums, these points have been raised countless times. And strangely, there never was an official answer to all those threads since SOE took over. Geez, as someone said above, VG could be the best game out there. If only it had some decent management. I see SOE is no better than Sigil.
I have paid with my wallet and been waiting for more than 1 year. Thankfully many other games have (and will) come out, I don't need to wait for the Messia anymore.
After playing both games, it's easy to see which is better for me. LOTRO is a wonderfully polished complete game with a bright future. VG is a broken (but better than release) game that needs a lot of polish and has a shakey future that depends largely on the sony station pass. LOTRO updates are frequent, large and well done. VG updates are infrequent and not very good. For the longest time, I saw VG as what it could potentially be, and not what it is. It could be one of the best games out there, but it's not. It's okay, but it needs a lot of work. After taking my rose colored glasses off, I'm getting a much clearer picture. I really hope VG is fixed in the near future, but based on how SOE has treated the game so far, I'm not holding my breath. Anywho, good luck with VG! I'll check back in six months or so and see what's changed. Hopefully, Silius will prove me wrong!
Absolutely. VG could be at the very top of the best games out there. What a waste.
I think the 30-40k estimate is being very, very generous. My best guess(and thats all anyone can do) is closer to 10-25k. Performance still isnt where it should be, but its getting better. Id syggest waiting until after the "hitching fix" goes in and the newbie experience is redone.
Even after the "hitching fix" this game isn't going anywhere anymore (because of the 10-25k population). I am currently playing Vanguard, and am loving it to this day. But the only thing I hate most is not being able to find groups starting from being a noob all the way to the high levels. I have 5 level 50 characters, and 90% of the time I soloed to reach those level. The only time you will find a group is make one yourself or spam constantly, It could range from 5 mins to countless hours. I've join plenty of high end raiding guilds and am dissappointed in every single one. The reason I join those guilds is to have better ease of getting groups, but only to find out that its the same as finding a pick up group. And guilds with ventrilo is even worse because they are in their own little worlds, always grouping with the same people and rarely helping everyone else, also majority of the guilds I joined that has ventrilo are friends in RL.
So if you're really still interested in coming back, this will be the best advice you will ever recieve. "Depend on yourself and no other." Everything I needed, I was able to aquire through crafting, because they are equivalent to high end group boss drops or quests, only raiding gear comes on top. I do everything myself. Don't get me wrong I love this game, that's why I'm still playing it. So if you're a type that plays a lone most of the time then yea come back, but if you dont have patience then no its not worth your time. You wanted an honest opinion, and that's what you recieved.
10 to 25k is a ridiculously off number. Population has been on a steady increase since its low point of around the 40k 'guess'. So much so that I'd 'guess' the population is closer to 75k. There is absolutely no freakin way that it is lower than it was in the GU1 and GU2 days.
Every guess on the population of VG is a guess AND opinion, If you wanna go back to those day and age from GU 1 and 2, I'll even take it back further. From release the populations is is by far more then it is currently. It was so much easier to pick up a group than how it is now. EVERY chunk of the land had people there. I can clearly say that it has much lower population than GU 1 and 2, but like I said it is a matter of guesses and opinion. But that wasn't even the point I was trying to get out. I was just telling the OP my opinion from what I went through while playing VG. But if you're telling me you had a harder time picking up groups during the GU 1 and 2 phases then you must haven't been playing as much as I have to experience what it was like.
WTF are they wasting their time on a trial island ? Why can't they just give a 7 or 14 days trial like many other games do?
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
Yea.... what I see is just incompetence or bland idiocy. Crap, I am really mad at those guys now. The house is on fire, but those guys are cheerfully playing in the garden.
Geez, I paid 50 bucks for this. Played in beta and then listened the sigil lead dev (Gebron) the week before release who said that he was working on anti-aliasing, that it was already working on several cards and that within a couple more hours work (yes he said that) it would work on all the cards and would definitely be in the next week at release and that polish was coming; I subscribed. Yes I paid 50 bucks... and canceled after the first 30 days seeing how all the promises were just lies.
Now I have been waiting for more than 1 year. And the BASIC engine features are still not there. To bring this game on par with current (and even years older) technology they really need to wake up.
Where is:
- anti-aliasing
- fully working shadows (houses, objects, etc.. have no shadows)
- water reflections
Once these 3 things are in this game will at least be on par with the free to play games (yes even free games like Perfect world have all of these basic engine features, and more).
Then they can add life to the world with scripted npcs, particle effects etc.... Meanwhile, they can just give the people a 7 or 14 days trial. But what are the guys doing ? They are wasting their time developing a useless trial island
Geezz the world is so huge already, but they waste their time on another new area.
Look at the official forums, these points have been raised countless times. And strangely, there never was an official answer to all those threads since SOE took over. Geez, as someone said above, VG could be the best game out there. If only it had some decent management. I see SOE is no better than Sigil.
I have paid with my wallet and been waiting for more than 1 year. Thankfully many other games have (and will) come out, I don't need to wait for the Messia anymore.
SOE operates from opposite land.
Whatever the players ask for or expect in any game, they do the opposite. Had everyone begged for a trial island, they would have just opened up a free trial.
Someday you guys will learn
The more people screem NOT to do things, the more it just encourages them.
WTF are they wasting their time on a trial island ? Why can't they just give a 7 or 14 days trial like many other games do?
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
Yea.... what I see is just incompetence or bland idiocy. Crap, I am really mad at those guys now. The house is on fire, but those guys are cheerfully playing in the garden.
Geez, I paid 50 bucks for this. Played in beta and then listened the sigil lead dev (Gebron) the week before release who said that he was working on anti-aliasing, that it was already working on several cards and that within a couple more hours work (yes he said that) it would work on all the cards and would definitely be in the next week at release and that polish was coming; I subscribed. Yes I paid 50 bucks... and canceled after the first 30 days seeing how all the promises were just lies.
Now I have been waiting for more than 1 year. And the BASIC engine features are still not there. To bring this game on par with current (and even years older) technology they really need to wake up.
Where is:
- anti-aliasing
- fully working shadows (houses, objects, etc.. have no shadows)
- water reflections
Once these 3 things are in this game will at least be on par with the free to play games (yes even free games like Perfect world have all of these basic engine features, and more).
Then they can add life to the world with scripted npcs, particle effects etc.... Meanwhile, they can just give the people a 7 or 14 days trial. But what are the guys doing ? They are wasting their time developing a useless trial island
Geezz the world is so huge already, but they waste their time on another new area.
Look at the official forums, these points have been raised countless times. And strangely, there never was an official answer to all those threads since SOE took over. Geez, as someone said above, VG could be the best game out there. If only it had some decent management. I see SOE is no better than Sigil.
I have paid with my wallet and been waiting for more than 1 year. Thankfully many other games have (and will) come out, I don't need to wait for the Messia anymore.
So it seems you didn't know all reason behind the trial island.
But, hey, do as everyone else blindly and blatently flame something.
Well, after a full read immersion of this thread I need to tell my opinion, in between people that say "NO NO NO Absolutely NO" and people that say "Full of bugs every 2 minutes".....
First of all, I'm not a fanboy. I jumped in Vanguard just one month ago, after 4 years of my preferred mmo (that's not WoW!) and after a very long research. It is not exactly the kind of MMO i prefer, but it's the closest one. At least I can play Vanguard in a sandbox style, even if it is quest based, as usual in these days. I love single instanced games, if you like too, then you have no other choices in the fantasy genre.
I don't say Vanguard is the best MMO around or is lag free or bug free as almost all MMO around have bugs and lag, but I just found it worth to play.
In one month, i got only one bug. Got some freeze, but mainly because the game requires a graphic card very well cooled. Never crashed (*fingers crossed*).
The population is low, but absolutely not so low that you cannot meet people and team with. I receive invites even playing in the lowest populated server. Of course, with a HUGE world, it's possible to end up in an empty region, it's normal.
Best thing to do is try it, if you have fun, play it, otherwise move over.
Don't care of games haters, most of them (most, not all) simply never played after the beta stage, never consider the beta stage as a 'fix bugs moment', but just a way to play early trying to get 'advantages' (and describe themselves as beta testers in signs).
As I said, I just started one month ago, after many trials, quite sceptical. I was wrong. Vanguard is a good MMO. I preferred it to lotro. lotro graphic is sure polished, but it's so banal and 'cold'. Vanguard graphic is awesome, if u tweak correctly the configuration file and use a good pc.
That's just my opinion.
EDIT: all the f2p i tried have the worse graphic I've ever seen. AA, reflections, means nothing without a 'style'. VG is far better without AA than all the f2p anti-aliased around.
10 to 25k is a ridiculously off number. Population has been on a steady increase since its low point of around the 40k 'guess'. So much so that I'd 'guess' the population is closer to 75k. There is absolutely no freakin way that it is lower than it was in the GU1 and GU2 days.
Well, GU1-2 was pre-merge. Of course the population seemed lower when 30k players were spread across 12 servers as opposed to 4. If the population were anywhere near 75k, you would have seen more servers come back online.
Yep. As opposed to everyone being herded off three of the remaining four servers all onto one. 75k is impossible.
Point taken, DailyBuzz. I should have been more attentive in the details. But to Sepher and 75k being 'impossible', I say this:
Just after the server merge, it was widely regarded that the number was 40k. There is no evidence that the numbers have dropped since then. In fact, all the 'evidence' (admittedly heresay, conjecture and educated guessing, anecdotal) points to the population being on the rise.
Ergo...it is likely greater than 40k. When the estimated population was 40k, after the server merges, it was still very difficult to find a group and even the 'popular' areas had no issues with overcamping. Looking at those same areas today, you find a huge line for Hegnarian, overcamped in RI, competition for Tet crypt/medal runs.
I will give you that many of the 40k who weren't lvl 50, now are, making the upper level camps more crowded.
But to counter that, the newbie to mid level areas on Qalia and Thestra now seem to be thriving as they never did before. Therefore I made the assumption that you have an almost equal population trying to reach 50.
It certainly may not be 75k. But there is definately a logic to my reasoning, and not a tinfoil hat fanboi assumption.
So what was the logic you used to arrive at 75k being 'impossible'?
And secondarily, if my numbers are so off - why didn't you jump the 10 to 25k guy for being almost as off in the other direction? With absolutely no logic presented at all to arrive at his assumption, I might add.
If you think I have an ulterior motive to my reasoning, it is only logical to assume you have the same bias in the other direction as a longtime, outspoken rejector of VG.
I can with relative certainty say that 10 to 25k is impossible. It simply isn't possible that since the server mergers almost every area at every level have a greater population then they previously had. That only can indicate growth.
So what is your logic to say 75k is impossible? When was the last time you logged on and how seriously were you playing? Was it more than 1 or 2 months ago? Was it for like 3 days and 3 sessions where you couldn't find a group for Tsang's?
I play every day with characters ranging from 15 to 50. I think I have better grounds for making my assumptions than those who admittedly aren't playing and haven't for awhile.
These threads on this forum are pointless. You will get nothing but haters and lovers and the truth is inbetween. The game has improved since release. Go to vgplayers.com and read the patch notes going back awhile. It has some good things and some bad. A large beautivful world that is seamless where you can go anywhere. A greot combat system that gives you a lot more options and is more then just random button pushing. A diverse set of activities for players, adventuring, crafting, diplomacy, harvesting Some bad things it still hitches and while it has improved it still does bugs, there will be graphic errors, settings that cause graphic flicking, quests that don't work right and events or dungeon agro issues. starting areas while diverse and some of them damn interesting are spread thin so you won't see a lot of people. it will make you think there isn't much population and early on very hard to get a good group. One rumor I'll blast out right now The player pops on saradon are great. I did a comparison of all the top games, eq2, wow, and VG and if you are a new player VG is by far the best game to start if you want to group. I checked the low end pops on all the servers and VG is at least 2-3x any other game. And this holds up into the mid ranges. EQ2 and Wow are very top heavy and don't leave room for much else. So read some think about it try it if you like or just wait for a free trial that will probably start in 2-3 months. Or just wait for some other game but don't expect to get any good info on this forum..
VG has has 4 servers. WoW has hundreds(exaggeration) Eq2 has 22 servers. So your comparison and claim really aren't accurate. Of course VG would appear to have a healthy population because its all concentrated into 4 servers with Saradon having the highest concentration. Nice try though ethion.
Its not an exaggeration.. WoW has over 200 servers in the EU and over 250 servers in the US.. god knows how many in asia.
This is such flawed logic.
You guys seem to be implying that because WoW has millions of subscribers and VG only has 10s of 1000s, that somehow your gameplay will be effected by VG's low population.
In reality, your gameplay won't be effected at all, in anyway shape or form if the population PER SERVER is comperable.
for Example:
A typical VG server has, oh lets say 2000 people playing (using an easily digested, non-researched number for the sake of the argument).
A typical WoW server has the same, 2000 people playing it. It matters not to the individual player that WoW has 200 other servers with the same population. You will only be playing with the one server's population. So you can choose the 2000 from VG to play with, or the 2000 from WoW to play with. WoW's millions don't mean anything at all when you are put in a room with the same capacity, and that capacity is pretty much the same in either game.
But, if you want to think that the people playing on the 185 servers on WoW you never have logged onto somehow have helped you find a group on your main's server, go ahead and run with that logic.
i'm sure someone out there has spent too much time researching the exact capacity of VG's servers and WoW's, they may miss the point of this and retort by cutting down the trees because they can't see the forest.
Comments
Population is very low on Halgar. About 600 toons online ? Dunno how its on other servers though.
QFT
playing: darkfall
waiting: earthrise
There are very few things wrong with Vanguard, and it's become a pretty cool game!
On top of that there are no 10-year olds ruining the game, the players are mature and ready to help eachother, it's a great community!
_________________
SWQ - Retired
DDO - Retired
VG - Retired
WAR - Retired
AoC - Retired
WoW - Retired
Aion - Retired
Waiting on... Who knows?
VG has has 4 servers. WoW has hundreds(exaggeration) Eq2 has 22 servers. So your comparison and claim really aren't accurate. Of course VG would appear to have a healthy population because its all concentrated into 4 servers with Saradon having the highest concentration. Nice try though ethion.
Its not an exaggeration.. WoW has over 200 servers in the EU and over 250 servers in the US.. god knows how many in asia.
Wow as 223 US servers, and 240 EU servers.
www.wowrealmstatus.net/
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Ethion
The game is actually pretty good. I had fun with it, and just recently jumped to LOTRO. My problem wasn't with the gameplay at all. I had a lot of fun playing it. My problem was with the dev team or rather, the lack of it. Their team is very small (too small in my opinion) and it shows badly. Their patches usually break as much as they fix, and then they end up having to patch their patches -- sometimes repeatedly. Most things on the player's wish lists will never see the light of day (my opinion) because their team just doesn't have the resources to make it happen. Read the official dev posts in response to many player questions. You'll start to see a trend of "we don't have the ability or time" type responses. Also Silius, the lead dev, isn't a very good communicator (again, my opinion). He allows himself to be dragged into arguments and he sometimes even flames back on the open forums.
In the end, it was becoming pretty clear that SOE has no plans to grow this game. There's no current plans for a paid expansion, free expansions come out kind of slowly, and there's so much still broken in the game that the dev team just can't possibly fix the game and release new reliable content at the same time.
Anywho, that's how I see it. I'll keep my eye on the game for a while, but unless the team is beefed up A LOT, I doubt I'll return anytime soon.
Whether or not SOE does anything to this game in the future is a moot point for me. However, I do think there is some hope for SOE. If subs keep rising, I'm sure they'll put more development into the game. There is a newbie island in development for trials. An expansion just might come out for this game but it'll most likely be another year away.
SOE is in a tight position here with this game. They can do many things to make the game much better, but, if they wait too long, this game will go the route of the likes of Matrix Online and simply be forgotten about by the players as more and more new/fantasy based MMOs come out.
I'm basically playing VG until a true sandbox fantasy MMO comes out. AoC and WAR won't be the ones so I'll most likely be playing Vanguard until the likes of Darkfall or Mortal Online ever see the light of day.
Currently playing: No MMOs. They all suck.
Holly crap. The VG devs are now wasting their time on a trial island? I mean, WTF ?
The game has been out for 1 year now and that over bloated engine still doesn't have BASIC features like anti-aliasing and object shadows.
Yes, the game still doesn't have proper shadows
The game looks so wrong; the sun is high but there are no shadows (just the characters and the trees, but everything else buildings, rocks, objects, etc... has no shadows). We are in 2008, GEEZZZ 
And I don't even want to start on the dead world with the soulless empty cites, etc... (the game needs life, scripted npcs living in the cites/world, particle effects, water reflections,.... POLISH).
WTF are they wasting their time on a trial island ? Why can't they just give a 7 or 14 days trial like many other games do?
Bugs are much less prevelant and performance has been greatly improved.
All in all, I am really enjoying this game.
Explain.
You gave us nothing to work with so your post went spinning out of control into a battle of the trolls.
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
That just *killed* any, and I mean ANY chance of me playing this game. FFS its 2008, not 1999! Get it together SOE!
That just *killed* any, and I mean ANY chance of me playing this game. FFS its 2008, not 1999! Get it together SOE!
Been playing VG for about a month now, and so far I have not had any problems with camping taking place. I'm on the server Seradon, so perhaps it depends on what server you are on?
The game is so huge, I find it hard to believe camping exists like blackthornn states. WHen I made my way from 1-16 I typically was able to find people who were willing to quest with me, and no one was competing for spawns.
Twice this month, my group and I have shown up to a dungeon to find the boss already killed, or some event already going on...
Know what? There was so much to do, we worked on other quests till it reset and then we did it.
The sheer amount of content helps that.
After playing both games, it's easy to see which is better for me. LOTRO is a wonderfully polished complete game with a bright future. VG is a broken (but better than release) game that needs a lot of polish and has a shakey future that depends largely on the sony station pass. LOTRO updates are frequent, large and well done. VG updates are infrequent and not very good.
For the longest time, I saw VG as what it could potentially be, and not what it is. It could be one of the best games out there, but it's not. It's okay, but it needs a lot of work. After taking my rose colored glasses off, I'm getting a much clearer picture. I really hope VG is fixed in the near future, but based on how SOE has treated the game so far, I'm not holding my breath.
Anywho, good luck with VG! I'll check back in six months or so and see what's changed. Hopefully, Silius will prove me wrong!
Bugs are much less prevelant and performance has been greatly improved.
All in all, I am really enjoying this game.
In Vanguard's case, the subscriber numbers do matter considering the dwindling development team, and consequently slow, troubled updates along with the lack of things such as free expansions and paid expansions.
And Seradon is far from overpopulated, I don't think I've ever even seen it beyond "Low" lately. Narrow, linear content is more often the reason of contested content. It isn't coincidence the only place one player found to level and do quests, a handful of others found the same.
The populations are very low. A catch 22 considering more players are needed to fund a larger development team, but a larger development team is needed to attract and retain more players.
Well, GU1-2 was pre-merge. Of course the population seemed lower when 30k players were spread across 12 servers as opposed to 4. If the population were anywhere near 75k, you would have seen more servers come back online.
Well, GU1-2 was pre-merge. Of course the population seemed lower when 30k players were spread across 12 servers as opposed to 4. If the population were anywhere near 75k, you would have seen more servers come back online.
Yep. As opposed to everyone being herded off three of the remaining four servers all onto one. 75k is impossible.
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
Yea.... what I see is just incompetence or bland idiocy. Crap, I am really mad at those guys now. The house is on fire, but those guys are cheerfully playing in the garden.
Geez, I paid 50 bucks for this. Played in beta and then listened the sigil lead dev (Gebron) the week before release who said that he was working on anti-aliasing, that it was already working on several cards and that within a couple more hours work (yes he said that) it would work on all the cards and would definitely be in the next week at release and that polish was coming; I subscribed. Yes I paid 50 bucks... and canceled after the first 30 days seeing how all the promises were just lies.
Now I have been waiting for more than 1 year. And the BASIC engine features are still not there. To bring this game on par with current (and even years older) technology they really need to wake up.
Where is:
- anti-aliasing
- fully working shadows (houses, objects, etc.. have no shadows)
- water reflections
Once these 3 things are in this game will at least be on par with the free to play games (yes even free games like Perfect world have all of these basic engine features, and more).
Then they can add life to the world with scripted npcs, particle effects etc.... Meanwhile, they can just give the people a 7 or 14 days trial. But what are the guys doing ? They are wasting their time developing a useless trial island
Geezz the world is so huge already, but they waste their time on another new area.
Look at the official forums, these points have been raised countless times. And strangely, there never was an official answer to all those threads since SOE took over. Geez, as someone said above, VG could be the best game out there. If only it had some decent management. I see SOE is no better than Sigil.
I have paid with my wallet and been waiting for more than 1 year. Thankfully many other games have (and will) come out, I don't need to wait for the Messia anymore.
Absolutely. VG could be at the very top of the best games out there. What a waste.
Even after the "hitching fix" this game isn't going anywhere anymore (because of the 10-25k population). I am currently playing Vanguard, and am loving it to this day. But the only thing I hate most is not being able to find groups starting from being a noob all the way to the high levels. I have 5 level 50 characters, and 90% of the time I soloed to reach those level. The only time you will find a group is make one yourself or spam constantly, It could range from 5 mins to countless hours. I've join plenty of high end raiding guilds and am dissappointed in every single one. The reason I join those guilds is to have better ease of getting groups, but only to find out that its the same as finding a pick up group. And guilds with ventrilo is even worse because they are in their own little worlds, always grouping with the same people and rarely helping everyone else, also majority of the guilds I joined that has ventrilo are friends in RL.
So if you're really still interested in coming back, this will be the best advice you will ever recieve. "Depend on yourself and no other." Everything I needed, I was able to aquire through crafting, because they are equivalent to high end group boss drops or quests, only raiding gear comes on top. I do everything myself. Don't get me wrong I love this game, that's why I'm still playing it. So if you're a type that plays a lone most of the time then yea come back, but if you dont have patience then no its not worth your time. You wanted an honest opinion, and that's what you recieved.
10 to 25k is a ridiculously off number. Population has been on a steady increase since its low point of around the 40k 'guess'. So much so that I'd 'guess' the population is closer to 75k. There is absolutely no freakin way that it is lower than it was in the GU1 and GU2 days.
Every guess on the population of VG is a guess AND opinion, If you wanna go back to those day and age from GU 1 and 2, I'll even take it back further. From release the populations is is by far more then it is currently. It was so much easier to pick up a group than how it is now. EVERY chunk of the land had people there. I can clearly say that it has much lower population than GU 1 and 2, but like I said it is a matter of guesses and opinion. But that wasn't even the point I was trying to get out. I was just telling the OP my opinion from what I went through while playing VG. But if you're telling me you had a harder time picking up groups during the GU 1 and 2 phases then you must haven't been playing as much as I have to experience what it was like.
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
Yea.... what I see is just incompetence or bland idiocy. Crap, I am really mad at those guys now. The house is on fire, but those guys are cheerfully playing in the garden.
Geez, I paid 50 bucks for this. Played in beta and then listened the sigil lead dev (Gebron) the week before release who said that he was working on anti-aliasing, that it was already working on several cards and that within a couple more hours work (yes he said that) it would work on all the cards and would definitely be in the next week at release and that polish was coming; I subscribed. Yes I paid 50 bucks... and canceled after the first 30 days seeing how all the promises were just lies.
Now I have been waiting for more than 1 year. And the BASIC engine features are still not there. To bring this game on par with current (and even years older) technology they really need to wake up.
Where is:
- anti-aliasing
- fully working shadows (houses, objects, etc.. have no shadows)
- water reflections
Once these 3 things are in this game will at least be on par with the free to play games (yes even free games like Perfect world have all of these basic engine features, and more).
Then they can add life to the world with scripted npcs, particle effects etc.... Meanwhile, they can just give the people a 7 or 14 days trial. But what are the guys doing ? They are wasting their time developing a useless trial island
Geezz the world is so huge already, but they waste their time on another new area.
Look at the official forums, these points have been raised countless times. And strangely, there never was an official answer to all those threads since SOE took over. Geez, as someone said above, VG could be the best game out there. If only it had some decent management. I see SOE is no better than Sigil.
I have paid with my wallet and been waiting for more than 1 year. Thankfully many other games have (and will) come out, I don't need to wait for the Messia anymore.
SOE operates from opposite land.
Whatever the players ask for or expect in any game, they do the opposite. Had everyone begged for a trial island, they would have just opened up a free trial.
Someday you guys will learn
The more people screem NOT to do things, the more it just encourages them.
The reason behind the trial island is clearly explained and as you seem to know so much about the game you should also know it.
Yea.... what I see is just incompetence or bland idiocy. Crap, I am really mad at those guys now. The house is on fire, but those guys are cheerfully playing in the garden.
Geez, I paid 50 bucks for this. Played in beta and then listened the sigil lead dev (Gebron) the week before release who said that he was working on anti-aliasing, that it was already working on several cards and that within a couple more hours work (yes he said that) it would work on all the cards and would definitely be in the next week at release and that polish was coming; I subscribed. Yes I paid 50 bucks... and canceled after the first 30 days seeing how all the promises were just lies.
Now I have been waiting for more than 1 year. And the BASIC engine features are still not there. To bring this game on par with current (and even years older) technology they really need to wake up.
Where is:
- anti-aliasing
- fully working shadows (houses, objects, etc.. have no shadows)
- water reflections
Once these 3 things are in this game will at least be on par with the free to play games (yes even free games like Perfect world have all of these basic engine features, and more).
Then they can add life to the world with scripted npcs, particle effects etc.... Meanwhile, they can just give the people a 7 or 14 days trial. But what are the guys doing ? They are wasting their time developing a useless trial island
Geezz the world is so huge already, but they waste their time on another new area.
Look at the official forums, these points have been raised countless times. And strangely, there never was an official answer to all those threads since SOE took over. Geez, as someone said above, VG could be the best game out there. If only it had some decent management. I see SOE is no better than Sigil.
I have paid with my wallet and been waiting for more than 1 year. Thankfully many other games have (and will) come out, I don't need to wait for the Messia anymore.
So it seems you didn't know all reason behind the trial island.
But, hey, do as everyone else blindly and blatently flame something.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
Well, after a full read immersion of this thread I need to tell my opinion, in between people that say "NO NO NO Absolutely NO" and people that say "Full of bugs every 2 minutes".....
First of all, I'm not a fanboy. I jumped in Vanguard just one month ago, after 4 years of my preferred mmo (that's not WoW!) and after a very long research. It is not exactly the kind of MMO i prefer, but it's the closest one. At least I can play Vanguard in a sandbox style, even if it is quest based, as usual in these days. I love single instanced games, if you like too, then you have no other choices in the fantasy genre.
I don't say Vanguard is the best MMO around or is lag free or bug free as almost all MMO around have bugs and lag, but I just found it worth to play.
In one month, i got only one bug. Got some freeze, but mainly because the game requires a graphic card very well cooled. Never crashed (*fingers crossed*).
The population is low, but absolutely not so low that you cannot meet people and team with. I receive invites even playing in the lowest populated server. Of course, with a HUGE world, it's possible to end up in an empty region, it's normal.
Best thing to do is try it, if you have fun, play it, otherwise move over.
Don't care of games haters, most of them (most, not all) simply never played after the beta stage, never consider the beta stage as a 'fix bugs moment', but just a way to play early trying to get 'advantages' (and describe themselves as beta testers in signs).
As I said, I just started one month ago, after many trials, quite sceptical. I was wrong. Vanguard is a good MMO. I preferred it to lotro. lotro graphic is sure polished, but it's so banal and 'cold'. Vanguard graphic is awesome, if u tweak correctly the configuration file and use a good pc.
That's just my opinion.
EDIT: all the f2p i tried have the worse graphic I've ever seen. AA, reflections, means nothing without a 'style'. VG is far better without AA than all the f2p anti-aliased around.
Nickname registered on www.mynickname.org
Well, GU1-2 was pre-merge. Of course the population seemed lower when 30k players were spread across 12 servers as opposed to 4. If the population were anywhere near 75k, you would have seen more servers come back online.
Yep. As opposed to everyone being herded off three of the remaining four servers all onto one. 75k is impossible.
Point taken, DailyBuzz. I should have been more attentive in the details. But to Sepher and 75k being 'impossible', I say this:
Just after the server merge, it was widely regarded that the number was 40k. There is no evidence that the numbers have dropped since then. In fact, all the 'evidence' (admittedly heresay, conjecture and educated guessing, anecdotal) points to the population being on the rise.
Ergo...it is likely greater than 40k. When the estimated population was 40k, after the server merges, it was still very difficult to find a group and even the 'popular' areas had no issues with overcamping. Looking at those same areas today, you find a huge line for Hegnarian, overcamped in RI, competition for Tet crypt/medal runs.
I will give you that many of the 40k who weren't lvl 50, now are, making the upper level camps more crowded.
But to counter that, the newbie to mid level areas on Qalia and Thestra now seem to be thriving as they never did before. Therefore I made the assumption that you have an almost equal population trying to reach 50.
It certainly may not be 75k. But there is definately a logic to my reasoning, and not a tinfoil hat fanboi assumption.
So what was the logic you used to arrive at 75k being 'impossible'?
And secondarily, if my numbers are so off - why didn't you jump the 10 to 25k guy for being almost as off in the other direction? With absolutely no logic presented at all to arrive at his assumption, I might add.
If you think I have an ulterior motive to my reasoning, it is only logical to assume you have the same bias in the other direction as a longtime, outspoken rejector of VG.
I can with relative certainty say that 10 to 25k is impossible. It simply isn't possible that since the server mergers almost every area at every level have a greater population then they previously had. That only can indicate growth.
So what is your logic to say 75k is impossible? When was the last time you logged on and how seriously were you playing? Was it more than 1 or 2 months ago? Was it for like 3 days and 3 sessions where you couldn't find a group for Tsang's?
I play every day with characters ranging from 15 to 50. I think I have better grounds for making my assumptions than those who admittedly aren't playing and haven't for awhile.
VG has has 4 servers. WoW has hundreds(exaggeration) Eq2 has 22 servers. So your comparison and claim really aren't accurate. Of course VG would appear to have a healthy population because its all concentrated into 4 servers with Saradon having the highest concentration. Nice try though ethion.
Its not an exaggeration.. WoW has over 200 servers in the EU and over 250 servers in the US.. god knows how many in asia.
This is such flawed logic.
You guys seem to be implying that because WoW has millions of subscribers and VG only has 10s of 1000s, that somehow your gameplay will be effected by VG's low population.
In reality, your gameplay won't be effected at all, in anyway shape or form if the population PER SERVER is comperable.
for Example:
A typical VG server has, oh lets say 2000 people playing (using an easily digested, non-researched number for the sake of the argument).
A typical WoW server has the same, 2000 people playing it. It matters not to the individual player that WoW has 200 other servers with the same population. You will only be playing with the one server's population. So you can choose the 2000 from VG to play with, or the 2000 from WoW to play with. WoW's millions don't mean anything at all when you are put in a room with the same capacity, and that capacity is pretty much the same in either game.
But, if you want to think that the people playing on the 185 servers on WoW you never have logged onto somehow have helped you find a group on your main's server, go ahead and run with that logic.
i'm sure someone out there has spent too much time researching the exact capacity of VG's servers and WoW's, they may miss the point of this and retort by cutting down the trees because they can't see the forest.