Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
My thoughts on vanguard
Karmatron
Member Posts: 34
Here's my personal opinion of vanguard.
I've been playing vanguard for almost a week now and haven't liked it very much. Just to start of, Here are what I believe to be some of the good points about it.
-Combat, A bit slow to start of with, but abilities and chain attacks brighten it up.
-Variety of races and classes
-HUGE world
-Nice(ish) community (Compared to WoWs).
-Doesn't look too bad.
And here are the bad points about vanguard:
-Almost dead servers.
-Beautiful, but extremely dull environments.
-BUGS!(Logs me out whenever I try to recall to guild hedquarters, Crashes several times a day, Jump in some water and swim through the ground, Other little annoying things)(I would have hated to see the games state before the "fix-up").
-Animal races have no tail, and have almost no custimisation options.
-Only some classes can solo effectively, and most of them are painfully dull.
-(This doesn't count for most people) SOE also charges me $23 aud(Australian dollars) a month when the american's pay $15usd(I think) a month, Which is aprox $16 aud. Thanks SOE 
.
This game just doesn't seem right for me, I'm not saying you shouldn't play it - Many people would and do enjoy it (I still find it has a few enjoyable points). I'm going to fiddle with it a bit more and see if I can get into it a bit more.
C&C welcome 
Comments
I do not think the servers are dead, but that can be because I play on the most populated server, Seradon. The Vanguard server forums are pretty populated if that says anything for server population. Only reason I can think of as to why you would say the server is dead can be that you were on the PVP server.
Seradon always has people blabbering away on general chat and this is on Kojan, the supposedly lowest pop. continent.
I played mostly on seradon. By dead I mean whenever I'm on there are only several people talking on general chat and I see about 5 or 6 other people adventuring, and in a "major" city I'd be lucky to see that many.
Compared to mid populated WoW server you meet adventuring ppls more often, its most like high populated WoW server. In mid WoW server you can not meet player outside the town for days while in VG in most camps you can see main ppls all the time . The only difference is in main cities where VG is absolutely empty. Again if compare it with WoW its at least 5 times more easy to find party than in mid populated WoW server. So the only impression for empty server can be from empty cities, and sometimes silent chat, but thats not because of few ppls but because there are no mini games in VG so no slacking ppls waiting for next game.
Where themepark games try to hide that they are copying WOW, games like Mortal Online and Darkfall make no attempt to hide their inspiration
______\m/_____
LordOfDarkDesire
hmm i play on seradon and i just started and im running into people all the time.
i played wow for a month (unfortunately due to friends who didnt know better) and honestly. adventuring i found less people in wow than in vg.
the only times i dont really see many people is in the main city. mostly because i know people have moved on.
i find the combat surprisingly fun. not as intense as everquest2 (i LOVE eq2 combat
) but very fun.
crafting is amazing, the story and quests are really well thought out and good.
and the world feels ALIVE and DEEP. not like a static world really. its so massive. i really feel like a small person in a big big world. and i havent had that feeling since star wars galaxies or asherons call. i definitely recommend this to anyone who used to play Asherson's call for the crafting and feeling like in a big living world or star wars galaxies for the same reason.
the game really is amazing and really is gorgeous.
and saying it's a bland world is not true at all. theres so much detail. wondering around and seeing fallen statues and broken artificats in the middle of the world from ages long past. really a sense of depth not often found in mmos. i remember reading back when it was still in development that the entire world was hand made by devs and not pre-generated. meaning terrain was hand painted heightmaps hand developed. real amazing.
The problem with Vanguard is it lack a decent centralized population center, the world is freaking epic and threre are just too many cities and towns. I know many people wil object to this but they need to slim Vanguard down to just three major cities to make the server feel more alive.
I want to add that originally there was a 4th continent planned and Kojan was never finished. Its kinda crazy, I know.
*Agree*
And to the poster just below the quoted poster, the solution's not taking away cities, but combining servers. I believe the PvP server's problems would be solved in doing this too. Having 1 or 2 PvE servers, and a single PvP server would encourage more people to try it. Instead, we've 4 PvE server (I believe) and a single PvP server.
My thoughts on VG, is that it's definitely the first game I've truly felt LOST in. Lost as in, part of a huge world that's so far out of my comprehension. I'm starting to get a grasp on things after a month, but I've only explored pitifully small sections of Qalia and even less of the other two continents.
If anything, Vanguard needs to give the player a general goal instead of just throwing them into one of the continents and saying "Have at it". I'm all for freedom, but this may sound stupid; Vanguard is too free at times.
-------------------------------
It's honestly like everyone logs onto WoW, and games like WoW, just to masturbate. Everyone plays by themselves, and when they don't, they get what they want and get off.
-------------------------------
Originally posted by atziluth...
Ah yes when the unreasonable are faced with reason they must resort to personal attacks...When you are ready to move up from the kids table you can talk with the grown ups.
Yeah, I played for awhile then friends made me play WoW. We had our fun and now I got them to play this a few days ago. So I am trying to gauge their happiness and it seems real low. They keep saying things like "wows graphics look better", "where do I go I don't have quest helper!", and "I'm not interested in crafting and diplomacy." And they say they will play but only to pass time until WoW expansion.
They also hate they can't just get a boat right now, they hate that it lacks the polish WoW does, they hate how the characters look and lack of customization. Makes me depressed! There is so much to offer and to do but they won't give it the time of day because WoW.
But they do appreciate the character classes and how interesting the dungeons are. But I always thought this game was great but I am now certain VG will never have big numbers because of the millions and millions of people that say the same thing as my friends are.
In any case, we play on Seradon and the first two dungeons had TOO many people in them. I could of gotten in 3 parties for a level 10-15 dungeon instantly but a couple were too full for me and my friends. Yes the towns are empty but that's because people have houses, they are out crafting and diplomacy and doing quests in the huge world, and you don't have to check auction house every 5mins because of the 48hour limits like in WoW. Its FAR FAR from empty, it just looks that way because people are PLAYING.
One thing is that you are from australia. You are potentially playing during a time when less people are on. Maybe there just aren't enough people during your time
If you are judging by seeing people you might be misleading yourself. VG is not designed like wow where everyone is concentrated in the cities. In VG everyone is spread out throughout the world and many outposts. Try to start a group or go to a dungeon and hang out by the entrance. I usually find that making groups of joining groups in VG is much easier then any other game I play. Like last night I was working on the hunter league quest. I was doing the cyclops which are small group and a couple minutes after I started it someone else showed up. We teamed. Then we had to go into a dungeon to kill undead for flesh and we struggled as a team but had another person join and for the 3 of us we were ok as long as we were careful. A bit later another person was lfg but it was late and we were shutting down. Point here is that all of this was only a 90 minute play session. I'm pretty casual on my play times during the week only playing an hour or two.
---
Ethion
Diplomacy is the reason that put me off VG with it pitch black guards is one pitiful eyesore is another thing.
Take it out and I shall give VG another try.
I disagree. I know a lot of people have been trained by wow and expect any mmorpg to be like wow. But I love the largeness and the spread out feel of VG. It really feels a lot more like a real world. It doesn't have hords of people gathered around a single set of auction house brokers. If VG dropped all the brokers and had just a few in each city I'm sure there would be a lot more people in the cities but I think it is far more convenient to spread things out so I don't always have to go to the main city. In almost any mid to upper lvl area in the game you always see half a dozen people or in any crafting area there are a few crafters at work. People are there just spread out.
Even the pops are not too far from wow. On a single wow server according to the cencus site there are typically something like 1000 horde and 1000 alliance. More of less but that is typical. I've checked VG a few times during peak and it has 1000-1400 players on seradon so there are people there. What is interesting too is that wow all the players are lvl 70. In VG there is a much better distribution of people accross all levels. So if you looked at the pop on wow from 1-69 vs the pop on VG from 1-49 there would be no comparison. VG would have way more people then wow on a single server. This means that if you want to group or play with other people and you are not max level VG is going to give you a much better player population to play with.
---
Ethion
Seradon is fine in population... you forget to realize from your PRO's that the world of telon is fricken huge. And spreads players alot amongst the world.
I agree with some areas looking dull.. their supposed to be fixing that, but the dungeons are epic (best in any mmorpg).
I rarely have bug's... my game might crash if i alt tab, and return back to the game. GET MOAR POWER!!!!
OMGZ NO!!!!!!!!!!! ANIMAL RACES DONT HAVE TAILS!!!!!!!
Alot of jobs in this game can solo well.
Well we can't help it if SOE want's to rip off aussies.
Sigh..... just don't play Diplomacy. I swear you VG troll's are getting dumber by the minute.
That is one of the main reasons why WOW is having a negative impact on games and one of the main flaws of gamers nowadays, they want all NOW and with the less possible effort in it. They rush trough everything and then stay shouting they are bored. Well, Vanguard is not for rushers.
My advise is that if you are enjoying Vanguard then stay and don't pay atention to their complains, since they will return to WoW anyway.
That is one of the main reasons why WOW is having a negative impact on games and one of the main flaws of gamers nowadays, they want all NOW and with the less possible effort in it. They rush trough everything and then stay shouting they are bored. Well, Vanguard is not for rushers.
My advise is that if you are enjoying Vanguard then stay and don't pay atention to their complains, since they will return to WoW anyway.
Amen!!
Sigh..... just don't play Diplomacy. I swear you VG troll's are getting dumber by the minute.
I'll agree that Diplomacy is dull, but the reason behind my reasoning, is that I DON'T READ THE CONVERSATION! I don't pull anything from Diplomacy other than OOooh, I R level 12! "teabag" if you want to have fun with Diplomacy, try to pull yourself from the "WoW mindset" I sure am trying.
Overall, just a big LOL at his post though. Diplomacy in my mind is like WoW's professions a nice addition to the game, but not anything necessary. Saying you're quiting because you find Diplomacy boring's like quiting WoW because you dislike the Barrens being connected to Ashenvale (those dirty elves!). Just find something else to do, god knows there's PLENTY to do in Vanguard.
And to my thoughts on the last above two posts...I agree. WoW has definitely changed the minds of the average MMO player. I disagree on your point that people thinking leveling to get to max-level is the only negative impact though. I think the most important note is that the average MMO player has changed from "I like playing because I like to have fun with friends" to "I like playing because I kick ass". If you look at it from this angle, you'll notice that a person's drive to get to max-level isn't the cause, it's that games have become VERY self-centered.
Which moves me to point out something a previous poster mentioned about his friends from WoW being utterly bored with Vanguard. It's not because they can't have their ship now, so much as they can't flaunt their internet-penis's size. If you want them to play Vanguard for an extended period of time (which I don't believe could ever happen), you've to show them that they need to learn to play games for fun, more than for show.
And...I'm spent!
-------------------------------
It's honestly like everyone logs onto WoW, and games like WoW, just to masturbate. Everyone plays by themselves, and when they don't, they get what they want and get off.
-------------------------------
Originally posted by atziluth...
Ah yes when the unreasonable are faced with reason they must resort to personal attacks...When you are ready to move up from the kids table you can talk with the grown ups.
So all the problems it had at launch that still haven't been sorted.
They need to make their tree's look less plastic because atm that's what is ruining the world for me, that and the fact it has nothing in it apart from a nice light house I saw in beta.
Oh yeh and the game needs new animations and character models cause the current ones are nasty.
----------------------------------------
Talking about SWG much?
From what I learned, comparing the game as it is now to what it was at launch is night and day.
I can't get more in-depth on the subject other than saying it runs smoothly for me, and the world doesn't resemble plastic at all, it actually looks pretty nice.
-------------------------------
It's honestly like everyone logs onto WoW, and games like WoW, just to masturbate. Everyone plays by themselves, and when they don't, they get what they want and get off.
-------------------------------
Originally posted by atziluth...
Ah yes when the unreasonable are faced with reason they must resort to personal attacks...When you are ready to move up from the kids table you can talk with the grown ups.
If you didn't like the graphics, art, animations at launch you won't like them now. They have not really changed that much since launch.
If you were concerned about bugs, crashing, performance they you will see a massive improvement now over launch.
If you are concerned about quests, gameplay mechanics, etc you will see some improvements adding new quests and abilitys etc. General polish.
If you were concerned about missing features, ie flying mounts, boats, houses, brotherships, lfg UI and UI elements then these have all been added and are far more polished now.
If you are concerned about high end content, there are several high end dungeons a number of new high end quests, several raid mobs and a huge raid dungeon.
This is something that the devs are putting more work into so we are seeing more content coming. A revamped partheon is next which will be a high end dungeon, and will introduce a bunch of god lore and be a kickoff for a new raid dungeon.
---
Ethion
I started VG only a week ago and so far really love the game. I play on Xeth as a Euro and I feel that I made the wrong choice of server. Since I haven't gotten that far in the game, I might move. I've been having some problems getting groups for the group quests. A few of the bugs are annoying, but nothing game-breaking. I am surprised how well VG runs for me on my ancient computer. The 'zoning' does make my game stutter a bit, but I have been playing the game without any major glitches, crashes, or whatever. I realise that I shouldn't even be able to run the game so I'm happy that it is as smooth as it is. The most annoying bugs I've come across are due to poor Necro pet AI. I also had to relog when I couldn't get a crafting station to recognize that I had some work order related recipes.
This game is really good and with some more attention to removing bugs and the promise of additional content it would be absolutely amazing. Though I like EQ2, I find that it handholds way too much. I feel a bit like I am on the leveling treadmill in that game, which is nice if I don't want to think too much about what I am doing. VG is more complex. I really miss the collections and random books and the like you can find in EQ2. I wish VG had something similar, and perhaps a bit more fluff.
I hope that SoE continues to develope VG, because it has the possibility of being one of the best games out there.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
I've been playing it some more and am really starting to enjoy it. The crashing still irritates me a lot but I'm getting attached to it.
Sigh..... just don't play Diplomacy. I swear you VG troll's are getting dumber by the minute.
QFT
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/28371832@N02/2648951313/[/url]
Well then you are either imagining people or have a different belief in what "populated" means because last month Seradon was as dead as it gets. Fanbois say the same thing about SWG "the servers aren't dead"... Yada yada yada... However when you log on and see a total of 25 people the entire time you play it's painfully obvious they are lying about it.
Vangaurd isn't THAT bad of a game, but nobody plays it. It still needs a lot of work.
Tecmo Bowl.
I disagree with you Thunderous about the population. I rolled a new character on the Euro-designated server, and even at 23h00 there were plenty of people on. So at least after peak hours in Europe, plenty of people play that server (forgot its name already). I even got to group up for some low level group quests.
The things I think are absolutely uber about VG:
-Great graphics and amazing game world. I haven't seen the uniform part of the world the others mentioned, but the places I've been so far look spectacular and like a virtual *world* should be. VG is more like the older MMOs in that sense and I really enjoy that. It's great to feel like a small adventurer in a massive world one can explore. The dungeons I've been in are really cool and look less generic than in other games.
-Fun combat. I like VG's combat because I have to think about what I am doing. I don't just button mash like I do in a lot of MMOs. I love having to think tactically and VG has that in spades. The characters also feel more responsive to what is happening in combat with having to watch power and endurance bars, yet benefitting from a decent regeneration rate even in the middle of combat.
-Great classes. I find the classes to be incredibly interesting, some of the best I've ever come across in an MMO. Each one I've tried seems absolutely unique in its own way.
-I like the harvesting in this game. Crafting is pretty good. I like though how crafting means something in VG. It was one of my pet peeves that crafted items in general in WoW were so poor. TBC tried to correct that a bit with the epic craftables, but the vast majority of crafted gear was pretty useless through the levels.
-Overall decent UI. I like the LFG tool. However, the UI is a bit buggy. Some things disappear and require a relog to bring them back.
Things that I find annoying in VG:
-Lack of customisation. It's not super important but it is mildly annoying that everyone pretty much looks like everyone else. To me what is more annoying is that there isn't a lot of customisation you can do with your characters other than attribute point allotment. One battle cleric will pretty much be like another battle cleric. That's a let down and in comparison, the talent system in WoW and the AA system in EQ2 are much better. I also like how in EQ2, you can customise your character based on your race. I wish there was something similar in VG.
-Annoying, piddly bugs. I am sorry to hear that there are still people who crash a lot in VG. I am lucky and haven't had a single crash. However, as I posted in my earlier post, I really do find some of the lack of polish and the little bugs annoying. I admittedly did get frustrated one night with my necromancer: I had a bad run of little bugs and logged out to play some EQ2.
-Travelling around such a massive world. I've seen lots of groups going for my level range but couldn't join them because they were on another continent. It's a huge issue if you are on an unpopulated continent. Some kind of portal system accessible to even level 1's should be put in. I would also love to see a horse route system a bit like DAoC's and LotRO's for low level characters who can't get a horse yet.
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
I disagree with both of these points.
Customization is soon to be fixed... I.E. a month or so from now.
And with traveling, use the riftways to go between continents. Go to the Hubs of the opposing continents, then walk, or hire a flying mount from there. In my eyes there are TOO many ways to get around, but I still use them anyways. In all honesty, distance is a VERY small problem in Vanguard.
-------------------------------
It's honestly like everyone logs onto WoW, and games like WoW, just to masturbate. Everyone plays by themselves, and when they don't, they get what they want and get off.
-------------------------------
Originally posted by atziluth...
Ah yes when the unreasonable are faced with reason they must resort to personal attacks...When you are ready to move up from the kids table you can talk with the grown ups.