Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

[Lost Watcher]

I myself cannot wait for this game.

http://www.vanguardsoh.com

And now, a CRAPTON of videos!
http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70905



Enjoy! :D

[Silver_Derstin]

With the amount of fantasy MMO out there, this game looks like it will be flooded over and forgotten.

And I'm not sure if it's not for the best, from what I've seen on their site. Nothing in this game seems worthy to write home about in a post-WOW and GW -world.

[Lost Watcher]

Umm, its being done by the group that did EQ1.
It also has a crapload of marketing push too...

www.joinvanguard.com has stuff you can read too.

[Dagrak]

I've had a look and I can't really see what has people so intrigued. The only races that encourage me are the wolf/fox humanoids and those don't have access to any of the classes that interest me! It also suffers from having the same looking engine as Everquest 2 which whilst more realistic...just wasn't very interesting...I'm all for being corrupted into liking something, it just doesn't have anything that interests me at present. I'm far more interested in Warhammer Online for the nostalgia factor and Age of Conan because it lets me play a Lich.

[Lost Watcher]

Vangaurd is using a heavly modded Unreal Engine 2.5.
EQ2 was using a custom inhouse engine...

Here's an excellent article that covers charaters races, classes, adverturing, crafting, and diplomacy.
http://www.gamesradar.com/us/pc/game/features/index.jsp?releaseId=2005138888000000020809&sectionId=1003
Plus a good number of other things.

Also, the necro class has 2 forums once you hit around level 10.
The 1st is a Lich and the 2nd is a Wraith.

More Screenshots here:
http://www.veguild.org/forums/showthread.php?t=190

Just one more note, Sigil is the Developer... and SOE doesn't have any say in Sigil's direction on how to take Vanguard.
SOE just sets up the account systems and distros the game.

[Dagrak]

I dunno, every screenshot and preview just makes it look and sound like Everquest 3. I liked Everquest but it really wasn't anything special, this just seems to be the same thing. It might appeal to the hardcore MMO player but I really hated the crafting system in EQ2 and it sounds like its going to be roughly the same.

Besides, the one killer for me is that there are only 2 races that appeal and neither can be any of the classes I want!

[Silver_Derstin]

Like I said earlier, this is a game that will most likely disappear in a void of electron if it doesn't have something REALLY special to make it better then WoW or Guild War, which pretty much split the Online Gaming world at the moment. With the upcoming Warhammer MMO, which will draw a lot of people from WoW to it, this game doesn't stand a chance, I believe.

[Lost Watcher]

Hunh?
From what I've read the developers don't intend to steal market share, this has been said to be more of a nitche market mmo.

Plus with Mythic being bought out by EA that really hurt my view on the outcome of Warhammer Online. :/

[Dagrak]

I'd agree with you, but I've been watching the progress on Warhammer Online and it doesn't look like they're being pressured into producing a half arsed project, they seem genuinely to be enjoying it and trying to make it fun. So far its pushing my buttons, offering intriguing pvp and fun character classes. It does still seem to be holding onto the WoW/EQ formula that all the western MMO's have stuck with which is a slight shame. Though I do like the idea that your character model changes as you progress.

To be honest it would be nice to see something fresh in the MMO market, like Exanimus seems to be aiming for, but I think it'll be a few years before we see something differ from the WoW/EQ/Lineage style of game.

I'm not "dissing" Vanguard, I'm sure some people are really looking forward to it...it just doesn't seem to have anything which would persuade me to part with my precious cash.

[Picho]

Well its out now, doesn anyone know if there is a demo for it?

I feel it is also just going to be everquest 3... but it does have one plus. Its an oblivion like world (No loading screens or instances) So i wanted to test it out and see how it runs.

[seductivpancakes]

Ive had the pleasure of trying warhammer online over the weekend at nycomiccon. They had a pvp stage setup for all to try. It was pretty fun and easy to pvp. Since I was playing with randome people of all ages it was pretty much running around and hitting each other. It looked pretty good. It had some glitches, but its still in the alpha stage.

I didnt read much on vanguard but it looks pretty good, but looks like EQ2 alot. Ive heard it requires more grinding then any other mmorpg to gain a level. I am impressed about the create a character.

[Picho]

As long as the grinding doesnt seem like grinding, its cool. Like in Oblivion, i kinda just wandered around killing a few things here and there.

[Picho]

Okay i've begun the game and so far it seems okay. Within less then an hour i managed to get a necromancer up to level 5. Took me a few hours for the next two however, mostly due to problems reading the map and figuring out where we were suppose to go.

One glitch that keeps getting to me is one that freezes my computer and i cant do anything. Skype still is working, and my freind doesnt seem to be having the same problem.

Combat seems to be the same as any other MMO. You find monster, you send tank (my pet) to fight monster. You heal tank and use nukes to kill target. Only problem so far is the lighting fast respawns some monsters have. We hardly even loot the first corpse before the next monster is fighting us. After plotting some, we figured out ways to pull the monsters away from thier respawn points to as not to be defeated by 'spawn killers'.

Playing on a PvP server has its quirks. As i notice i cant party with people unless i use the social functions. same with anything that normally you would right click a person to do. And as of yet, we havent needed to defend ourselves.

Almost every npc is attackable. I ran through a village slaughtering chickens, sheep and goats, as the people in that villager where either too strong or not attackable. Though when i got my first wand, i had the plesure of getting defeated by two level 25 npcs. Quite abit diffrent from EQ2's getting thrown out of the city effect.

Like WoW and EQ2 you have a 'good' and an 'evil' side. Mind you, these terms are used very loosely, as the Vulpin (half wolf race) is one of the few races that is deeply in touch with nature and preserving the balance, but is considered 'evil'.

Crafting isnt the same ordeal as it is in EQ2. Work orders come with 'supply' items, rather then you having to hunt for them. You just need to use the work items (solvents, cleaners ect) to compleat them. It also doesnt take five minutes for each and every part, unless you want it to.
Crafting is done in 4-5 stages per part. Stage one is select the material to use. Once you do, that stage is done. The second stage is the opening work, you can either try to pour everything into getting it done quickly, getting it done well, or somewhere in between. Then there is the third stage which is the closing work. Same as the second stage. And lastly is the finishing work, which is done in one to two clicks.

Diplomacy is also a nice touch and break from combat/crafting/harvesting. Almost every npc (after you go through the tuts) can be parlayed, though you need to compleat diplomacy quests to get equipment or status to do so.

Graphicaly, the game is alright. Not great, just alright. The character customization options that are suppose to be so good are a rather joke. You can resize your character easily, but thats about it. You have eye color that you can set, and 4 diffrent face types. Color is something that is rather hard to set, as there is no RBG settings, just a single bar that controls all the diffrent eye colors. (Not easy to find the color you would want)

Alot of areas have thier falts and the like, they are very flat and barren looking or they are almost razor sharp. Very few things are round or gradual. Textures are lacking as well, nearly everything seems to be nearly rough detailed. Dead-eye effect, like in EQ2 is still there. Cant say anything about Wow though, as i havent played.



Pros -
No loading screens, except for the very first one to get into game.
Huge - [i spent 30 minutes in eq2 and saw pretty much all the main maps. {exagrated}]
Intresting spell combos... [I can cast spells in a chain if i time the right(Like all three spells go off at the same time rather than back to back. This allows one to get to drop on some enemies and have lower 'aggro')]

Negs
Lag - (might be my router)
Semi-bland enviroments
AI lacking (like almost all MMORPS, it is sad that a FPS can almost always make the AI seems more alive, and that most people think they are dumb men games)
NPC's ignore boundries (walk through walls, straight up/down cliffs)
Lack of Mounted combat (When is a MMO going to stop using mounts as things to travel slightly faster and use real combat for them)