Vanguard: Various E3 reports/reviews

[Aradune Mithara]

click here

(utterly SHAMELESS for me, of all people, to come here and plug my game like this, I know... but I'll get over it and you guys can flame me too! )

[Brash]

Aye, lots of secret sauce spillage lately. Very grand ideas. We are all hoping your guys pull it off. I liked the safehouse articles best.

[Element]

You should do this all the time .

[Kolle]

Yeah it's cool. I wish other game devs would post often.


Some things are interesting and other things make me skeptical. I'm jaded from other online games by this point so I'm hoping to get a chance to either beta or demo before I'll spend money on any MMO coming up.

[Elgonn]

Alright. It is shameless to post exactly what is already on your news page. We aren't that lazy (I hope).

[Kolle]

I've had gripes with Vanguard for sure, but one thing that always annoys me is how Bliz devs are shielded from us with ignorant mouthpiece Community Managers.

So if folks actually working on Vanguard want to post, I'm all too happy to see it. Even if they aren't telling us what we want to hear, at least we're worth the time for them to at least read the board and post a little.

[kcxiv]

dude, your like a god around here to some people. I dont think they would flame ya. lol

[Braen]

Originally posted by kcxiv
dude, your like a god around here to some people. I dont think they would flame ya. lol

Heh I think some got a good name around here from flaming him and his company.

[Leviathan]

You know, if posting stuff about your own game is shameless, you should be shameless alot more often.

[Braen]

Some interesting sekrit sauce from the articles:

Regarding the perception system and Rogues: " Rogue does not simply position himself behind a creature and backstab until he pulls too much aggro. Instead his awareness makes constant checks to find opportunities for attack. Knowing the right chinks in the armor, knowing just where to stick a certain monster, all lead to positioning for the strike and delivering. And if that fighter is tackling the creature while the Rogue takes his strike, it may open up new offensive options for the entire party. "

On having a dual targeting system: "There is also an interesting dual-target system where a character may have an offensive and defensive target. For example a fighter may have his offensive target set to the main monster, with his defensive target set to a vulnerable spell caster. Depending on how ‘aware’ the fighter is of the battle, he may have special opportunities not just to inflict damage, but to also protect vulnerable party members from taking damage. Should the creature turn, for example, on an overzealous spell caster, then there’s a varying chance that the fighter will leap in at the last second and take the damage, or regain the creatures attention, or even find a new opportunity to lay a devastating blow. Similarly a healer may pick a primary defense target, and special defensive, protective, or healing spells may appear at a crucial moment. "

Counter-spelling: "Spell casting also has some unique implementations with counter-spells. Counter-spells are broken into three areas, dispersion, reflection, and divergence. Opportunities to cast these counter-spells is again based on your awareness of what an enemy spell-caster is doing. In other words, the more often you see a spell, the more likely your character will be to know how to counter it. Take a classic fireball spell for example. As you gain awareness of how enemies use a fireball against you or your party you develop greater opportunities to cast these counter-spells against it. With dispersion you may simply eliminate the fireball before it reaches the party. With reflection you may send the fireball back on the caster. And, most interestingly, with divergence spells you may be able to alter the fireball into a positive effect. For example a divergent fireball may actually heal whomever it hits instead of damaging them."

Learning Spells and skills form mobs: "Additionally, this awareness system can actually teach your character new skills. If you go into a dungeon and find a spell-caster that casts an unfamiliar spell in your caster’s line of spells then you may, over time, actually learn how to cast that spell by watching and defending against him. Similarly, if you encounter a melee creature that uses an unfamiliar special attack, your fighter may eventually learn the same maneuver himself"

More as I continue reading...

[Jadaki]

The awareness stuff sounds interesting, hopefully it comes off as dynamically in gameplay as it sounds.

[Cybsled]

That stuff sounds pretty owny so far.

Lets hope it makes it into the game ;P

[forge]

Sounds somewhat like a new more advanced FFXI type of system working with your group to do more damage, heals, whatever. All in all sounds awsome. I just wonder how this system will play out on raid bosses.

[Kolle]

Yeah that awareness stuff is pretty damn interesting. I wondering if that's too complicated to balance? Must be a huge task. I'd love to see it in action.

[Furism]

Sounds close to the different "stances" you could assume in Kotor. Ie: +dmg -armor vs selected target and +armor vs other opponents, etc...

I liked those.