Mini-Video #2 up

[Lost Ranger]

Back to Vanguard...

Hey Brad, do you have any information about Blood mages? I havnt found much and was wondering if perhaps you can give us a little taste of what they offer? Or perhaps a vid!!! (Im reaching on that I know)

[Itzena]

Vanguard?
Sorry, this thread is about Verant launched EQ with 'missing content' (as per your definition) now.

[JulesDrools]

Lets see a first person gameplay video. Is first person even supported, with actual animations, not the "3rd person view with the toon removed" abomination so many use...

[Aradune Mithara]

Originally Posted by Utnayan

One thing I heard that I never knew if it was true or not, that the engine behind EQ was designed originally to be an online tank simulator. After it was retuned, it was used for EQ. Because of that, there were unavoidable instances where pathing would be impossible or bugged. Such as places like Unrest and Plane of Hate with Z Axis problems. Which later plagued EQ for a while even though designers did a pretty good job of overcoming some of them.

More precisely, SISA (the company at the time which became 989, and then we spun off into our own company Verant, and then were later bought by SOE) licensed the Pyrotechnics engine for various games. We used it, the Tanarus (the old tank game) network code, and an old level editor that was made for Spawn PC, to start work on EQ. The code based then evolved and by launch had little Pyrotechnics code in it, and by now I'm sure has none.

Similar to Vanguard, where we used Unreal to get us a head start.

The z axis problems has more to do with our pathing AI, which if I recall correctly, was coded in-house and not part of the licensed engine.

[Aradune Mithara]

Originally Posted by Caocao

BTW, brad if you read this one question. Will there be an "AA" system like EQ had at end game or maybe later in an expansion? Not sure if you can comment on something like that, but please answer the best you can .

Not sure yet. Doubt it. AA was put in because we hadn't planned for levels higher than 50 and was something I and some guys came up with. With Vanguard, we've planned to beyond level 100, so we wouldn't need it for the same purpose. If we did do something like AA, it would be to offer more ways to advance your character later on and to make him more unique and defined (like a cleric -- maybe you want to be more of a battle cleric, so you focus on specializing in that area whereas another person loves healing, so he specializes in that). Anyway, nothing planned like that for release at this time.

[Aradune Mithara]

Originally Posted by Wizerud

You know, you're really setting yourself up there. Oh wait, I think Ut missed it

Were there any other zones that never made it into the game or had to be completely redone into existing zones that we now know? For instance, there are still some areas on the original EQ map that are even now not in the game. Were there plans to include all of those areas originally? I'm assuming that at least some work would have been done on all of them or else they wouldn't have been on the map...

Yes and no. The map was put there so the game would be like a fantasy novel, which often shows you part of the world and cities and such that you don't necessarily travel to in that book, or maybe never. But it makes you feel like you are part of a real world. So, no, every area in the EQ map was not planned to be made.

There were other zones that were started and abandoned because they were not going to work out because they required too much processing power, or we didn't feel they had a good layout for population, etc. The Tower of Rot down south in the Rathe mountains comes to mind.

Miragul's Menagerie was in the plans, but wasn't made by the time I left.

Some other zones that were never made that were planned by, say, Bill Trost, made it into EQ 2 before he left the project.

Vanguard, on the other hand, does have a massive world map, and it was created such that most/all of it would eventually be made, but we knew most of it would be for expansions. Our world map is huge and has areas it will take us 4+ years to finish after launch. We also have many pages of documentation for those areas -- Vanguard was planned from the beginning to last a long time so that we wouldn't find ourselves in the same situation as EQ.

[Faelor]

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

Not sure yet. Doubt it. AA was put in because we hadn't planned for levels higher than 50 and was something I and some guys came up with. With Vanguard, we've planned to beyond level 100, so we wouldn't need it for the same purpose. If we did do something like AA, it would be to offer more ways to advance your character later on and to make him more unique and defined (like a cleric -- maybe you want to be more of a battle cleric, so you focus on specializing in that area whereas another person loves healing, so he specializes in that). Anyway, nothing planned like that for release at this time.

Hrm, no one has posted for four hours. Everyone must be in shock from the fact there will be no AA system

So currently there are a few ways of specializing your character, please correct me if I am wrong Aradune. First off is gear and items obviously, putting "skill points" into different weapon types (as revealed through a video with Jeff Butler and a few other videos, say you can increase your Longsword and Shield skills but you won't be as skilled with a Greatsword after spending so many "points" into those other skills), and of course distributing your attribute points into certain stats (which at this time we have no idea of how that system works).

[Kolle]

No mindless grind system (aa)? sounds good to me

[biteablegravy]

I've been reading and keeping up, but I still have no idea what 'AA' and 'AAA' stands for. Can someone let me in on the lingo?

[Hardcore Cracka]

Am I the only one that just wants more inside info about EQ stuff? lol /nerd

[Soygen]

Originally Posted by biteablegravy

I've been reading and keeping up, but I still have no idea what 'AA' and 'AAA' stands for. Can someone let me in on the lingo?

Alternate Advancement Abilities

[Lost Ranger]

Originally Posted by Hardcore Cracka

Am I the only one that just wants more inside info about EQ stuff? lol /nerd

heh nope! This is rather interesting and entertaining.


Itzena: You STILL have yet to show me anything that proves Verant did the same thing Blizzard is doing. The "ship to velious" isnt content that wasnt finished, if you have read the thread you know brad said they scrapped the whole idea and just put more content on the original 3. Maybe my memory is just getting bad but I dont recall EQ shipping with places as unfinished as Silithus was. Yet when Silithus was "done" they made a big deal out of it and everyone screamed "yay free content!!!" and praised blizzard for caring so much about their fan base.

If you can show me something similar from original EQ release then I stand corrected and I apologize. If you cant then shut your fucking mouth and let it go. Lets try hard not to continue to derail even more Vanguard threads eh?

[Rayne]

Originally Posted by Faelor

Hrm, no one has posted for four hours. Everyone must be in shock from the fact there will be no AA system

So currently there are a few ways of specializing your character, please correct me if I am wrong Aradune. First off is gear and items obviously, putting "skill points" into different weapon types (as revealed through a video with Jeff Butler and a few other videos, say you can increase your Longsword and Shield skills but you won't be as skilled with a Greatsword after spending so many "points" into those other skills), and of course distributing your attribute points into certain stats (which at this time we have no idea of how that system works).

From what i've read and heard, its very similar to AO's skill point allocation system. Whereas you acquire skill points relative to your level, and skill cost. Not enough to overpower you, but enough to make the difference noticable. Which is very intriguing, because you can spec your character more in line with your style of play.

Hopefully they'll mirror AO's system closely, and allow skill points to be somewhat "reusable". AO allows for a fixed number of "skill point resets" throughout the life of your character, so if you happen to inadvertantly gimp your toon, you at least have some opportunity of fixing things.

[Caocao]

This sounds pretty cool, I had no idea about this system. I remember him saying you can specialize into things, but not through points. I just figured they meant like use it and you will get better alla EQ/WoW. I wonder how that will work towards casters, maybe a Psionist can specialize in damage or more of the CC abilities into that skill. Would be pretty cool to get a good example from Brad though .

[Faelor]

Yeah Jeff Butler used the example of having 200/200 in 1HSword and Shield or something. The video can also be found at The Safehouse (E3 2005 videos). I gotta jet but check the videos out, there are more details there