New Vanguard screen shots!

[Camerous]

I have to say what I am seeing of Vanguard and reading is making it sound better and better. I don't think it will be the second coming but my interest is certainly being scratched.

Hopefully soon Brad will give us some dates so we can all start watching our inboxes. :-)

The perception thing sounds cool as does the "heroic oppurtunity" abilities. I hope they do better than EQ2 did with it though.

[Teclisen]

Originally posted by Elgonn
Anyone else find it disheartening that the same exact suit of armor is in more than half of the screenshots?

Pick a new character please. How about a Qalian Gnome in cloth? Or maybe not. All gnomes should burn. Something different though.

From a recent Gamespy article,

"Armor and weapon sets will look distinctive based on where they come from (e.g. plenty of scimitars, not many short swords)"

Keep in mind that not only is that armor regionally specific, it's also only one set among many with strict regional ties.

But if you knew how all the races looked in all the different types of armor before the game is even in beta, well, where's the fun in that? :/


Ps. Mr Murr, channeling the insanely awesome power of fire takes the focus of your entire body, just FYI

[Elgonn]

Originally posted by Teclisen
Keep in mind that not only is that armor regionally specific, it's also only one set among many with strict regional ties.

I'm aware of that. But seriously the two toned plate that we've seen over and over again can't possibly be the only armor ever produced in the area. Even if all the armor is arabian in theme it doesn't mean they're all identical. I like the new shot with the DE in the nice and dull black outfit. More of that would be welcome. Hell even a different color of the basic two toned plate above.

[Camerous]

I have to agree on that..maybe some leather? Cloth?

But we have to also think it's not even in beta yet...we should be happy we are getting ANY SSs.

But..keep them coming! hehe

[Teclisen]

Originally posted by Elgonn
I'm aware of that. But seriously the two toned plate that we've seen over and over again can't possibly be the only armor ever produced in the area. Even if all the armor is arabian in theme it doesn't mean they're all identical. I like the new shot with the DE in the nice and dull black outfit.

Right. I'm just saying there's a reason you are't noticing a lot of variation from that specific piece, (other than color) and it isn't because there just happens to be eerily similar styles among all armor in that region.

Oh, and that first pic is a leather set. You can also sort of make-out some cloth stuff in that group picture as well.

[Elgonn]

I'm all for variety. But literally in one of the screenshots above there are 5 people on screen. 3 of them are wearing the same exact outfit.

[Jait]

The whole desert scheme, and seeing Psionicists all reminds me of the good ol' Dark-Sun days. All they need to do now is steal Jhek back from SOE and you can turn the world into Athas for me.

Originally posted by Teclisen
Right. I'm just saying there's a reason you are't noticing a lot of variation from that specific piece, (other than color) and it isn't because there just happens to be eerily similar styles among all armor in that region.

Oh, and that first pic is a leather set. You can also sort of make-out some cloth stuff in that group picture as well.

But make sure cloth doesn't take a back seat now


Us Pet-slingers need our heavily runed robes, regardless of the heat!

[Murr]

Still waiting on gnome ss

[Cadrid]

In terms of high-res graphics, the game looks great. However, it's far too clean right now. Even in the crypt it looks far too clean. The skins seem to be perfectly flawless, without any sort of scratches, crumbling portions, dirt, or grime. Everything, from the armor, to the bugs, to the buildings, have a glossy-shine like clay pots fresh out of the kiln. The art guys need to swallow their pride and toss some realistic filth and imperfection on their sculptures.

The ideas for combat moves being complimentary between different classes is an awesome idea. Problems could arise, however, if every class isn't compatible with eachother in terms of combining techniques. Furthermore, it's going to be a hell of a challenge balancing all those skills without having a "best" group make up, ala EQ1's tank, cleric, enchanter, wizard, monk.

All-in-all, I hope Vanguard is successful. From what I've heard and seen things are going in the right direction. It should be a fair amount of time, however, before a beta is held. They have quite a ways to go, assuming they want to get it right.

[Angry Amadeus]

What really intrigues me about the game so far is the inclusion of attacking different portions of a mob; like in that first shot where he attacked the head, and the arm (or something). I remember doing a DnD session about ten years ago, where we used the Middle Earth body-part damage system in combination with a basic 2 ruleset. Every body part had a certain amount of damage and every piece of armor added greater or lesser amounts of protection.

So let's say you rolled a hit, and successfully attacked an Orc's right leg. If your total damage was 5, and the damage "absorbtion mod" on the leg armor was 7, there would be no damage done to the Orc, but the armor now had only 2 absorb left, and could easily be dispatched by another player. Once armor was destroyed, it was gone for good.

I don't see that being implemented, but it is an understatement to say that this latest development in regards to the combat system hasn't tickled my loins repeatedly in dogged anticipation of what is still to come! Oh joyous rapture!

Ta,

[Braen]

Some interesting thigns from the preview:

Perception: Perception will be a multifaceted group of skills that characters of different professions may use. For instance, scout characters may be able to use their perception skills to detect traps or hidden enemies waiting in ambush. Sorcerers may be able to use their perception skills to identify enemy magics and attempt to counter them based on the level of their skills. As we saw, if sorcerers make a somewhat successful identification check, they may be able to counter the spell; a moderately successful identification check may let them transmute the incoming spell into a beneficial effect; and a critical success may let sorcerers turn an incoming spell right back onto its user.

Stances: These abilities will be governed by particular combat "stances," which characters of all classes will be able to take. By taking an offensive stance, warriors can dish out more damage and have access to offensive skills; similarly, by taking a stance that focuses on a specific school of magic, sorcerers will have access to those particular spells. Higher-level characters may be able to keep more than one stance active, which should add even more tactical depth to combat.

"Sypathetic" system (I think they meant Symbiotic): Where items group members have and abilities their classes have augment the abilities of the groups mates. Certain character classes may also have sympathetic abilities, such as spells from healers and sorcerers that may be used in sequence to trigger an entirely different effect. If such a trigger is set up by one character, any other character in the party with a complementary ability will be given a pop-up notification onscreen that a sympathetic follow-up is available. Sort of like Heroic Oppertunities in EQ2. For instance, warriors will have a knockdown ability that will let them shove an enemy to the ground; as soon as this is made active, any rogues in the party with the "chest stab" attack will receive a quick notification and will have a limited time to follow up against the prone opponent.

"Advanced Encounter system": This is keyed of mob loot. Essentially, while all dungeons will have wandering monsters that will let casual hunters get in a few fights, some monsters will drop encounter-specific items, such as a bracer, which, when equipped, will spawn all-new monsters along an "encounter route." These monsters may be targeted only by the party that possesses the item, so these adventuring parties will have no shortage of enemies to fight and won't have to worry about other players stealing them away. Once an adventuring party has such an item, it will be lead along an encounter route by a series of onscreen clues that will continuously bring the group into contact with more encounter-generated enemies that only they may fight, leading up to the climactic end of the dungeon's quest. In this particular dungeon, we watched as a giant skeleton rose from a crypt to attack us. Defeating it set the stage for the final encounter, a huge insectlike creature who, before attacking, demanded to know what puny adventurers had disturbed its slumber. Sort fo a limited form of Locked Encounter in EQ2, except EQ2 went totally overboard and made every encounter locked.

Player housing and towns: We also had a chance to visit a player-crafted town. This huge area included several multistory houses which, in the final game, will apparently have their own dynamic variations on ambient music when entered. Player housing is currently planned to ship with the game when it first launches, and Sigil currently plans to let powerful guilds build actual towns, which will be appropriately expensive (complete with maintenance fees) but can act as a revenue stream, especially if wealthy adventurers use them to set up computer-controlled merchants to sell off their old weapons, armor, and items.

Nice little preview. More stuff coming in the next few weeks before E3 and of course tons coming out fo E3.

[Angerz]

I think the reason everyone is wearing the same armor is a lot of the items arent done yet.

I remember it being brought up in one of the other vanguard posts where someone bitched about how everyone had the same stupid sword.

Basicly the response was, everything that looks bad is a placeholder and they had been doing eviroment and character modeling first.

[Zehn - Vhex]

However, it's far too clean right now. Even in the crypt it looks far too clean. The skins seem to be perfectly flawless, without any sort of scratches, crumbling portions, dirt, or grime. Everything, from the armor, to the bugs, to the buildings, have a glossy-shine like clay pots fresh out of the kiln. The art guys need to swallow their pride and toss some realistic filth and imperfection on their sculptures.

That's one of the things I like most about WoW. A crumbling dungeon doesn't mean a fallen pillar two and a picnic table.

In WoW, -everything- is in a state of decay. Rope bridges falling apart, every ledge has broken segments, cracks everywhere, holes in the floors, steps missing/broken, staircases shattered, gates smashed apart, gaping holes in fortifications, etc...etc...etc...extensive detail went into making places look like they were 15,000 year old dungeons like they should be.

[Gryzx]

It's kinda weird that the bug hit for 0 twice in a row, unless that's just a completely staged screenshot which is believable I suppose.

[Fammaden]

Originally posted by Gryzx
It's kinda weird that the bug hit for 0 twice in a row, unless that's just a completely staged screenshot which is believable I suppose.

The level 7 guy who was taking shots said that he had GM invuln turned on if those are the shots you are talking about.