Vanguard Game Update 4/25

[Elsebet]

Here is a nice little map of the riftway networks:

The Riftway Networks Map - Fire & Brimstone Forums

Now that the patch is in, any thoughts?

Last night we killed some level 42/43 3-dot mobs for a quest in Plains of Anguish. For a few of them it was just the two of us, myself the Cleric and my man the Warrior. I don't have any statistical data, but it just felt like we killed them a lot slower than other 3-dot mobs. Not that our combo is high dps anyway, but it just felt even more sluggish. I figured it could have been my man having to get used to the new Warrior changes, or the mobs we were fighting were just abnormally resistant/tough. I seemed to be doing similar damage although I felt my Holy Fire proc was hitting for less than I've seen before (around 40-90 compared to low 100's). Can't confirm that though, and it could be level based.

Then we picked up a level 41 Sorcerer. He says he was solo'ing the same mobs we were fighting yesterday but couldn't solo them today. It seems even with him, the mobs were dying fairly slowly.

Kudos to the warrior changes though. We had a gigantic pull at one point, and he was able to hold all the mobs for awhile without me getting healing aggro like I would before. We died though simply due to not being able to dps them down down quick enough (killed 1 of about 7 3-dot mobs).

Also the riftstones are great. For the "lol I poopsock 24/7 and want everyone to walk lol" crowd, just don't use them. Last night we walked from NT to Plains of Anguish and got the stone update. The guild was forming groups for a dungeon in Qalia. We didn't have time to go, but the one thing that was different last night is that we didn't feel that dread if we would have had to hearth back and join them. We knew that we could hearth if we needed to, join the group, then come back rather painlessly when we had time. That is a nice feeling compared to how we felt when being stuck at Dargun's. So good job on the riftstones.

[Morderick]

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Big World : No Ports ! (I'm wonder if brad actually played EQ1)

There are Ports now. There is even a nice color map of the netword in the FaB guild site.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Dungeons : Trengal->CiS->Graystone->Raz (thats all folks, move along).

EH? This is totally innacurate. There's a ton of other dungeons worth doing in Vanguard, at many levels. If you prefer the route you've taken, good for you, but in no way is "that all". Far from it.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Groups : Grouping Bug (lost connection to group)

Haven't this happen in a while now. They've been improving this on a regular basis. The grouping has been stable for me for a while, even across chunks.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Crafting : Self Sufficient & BoE (fuck greedy rich crafters)

There is a LOT of adventuring gear that is MUCH better than crafting stuff from multiple sources ranging from solo quests, boss mobs, dungeon crawling, group quests, etc.

It's not like everyone is a master crafter like in other games.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Weakness : Useless (Unlike FFXI)

Why is this useless? In our group we see a big difference when one class causes a weakness and another class exploits it. We synch ourselves and the damage done is meaningfully increased / effects amplified.

It's also easy to see what weaknesses are currently affecting the mob. Don't see what you mean.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Seamless : Yeah Right

Takes me less than a second to chunk, I see across chunks, I can go anywhere. It is seamless. If it takes 10 seconds to load assets as you move on your PC, you get what you pay for.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Good Looking : If you have a 1500$ PC bought in 2007

The game looks VERY nice on balanced and better than anything of this type on highest.

Plays on balanced on a P4 with a x800 fine. Really, once again, if you play on a 3 years+ old computer...

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Group Oriented : Most servers are a wasteland

I regularly find groups on my server and it's now even easier with the rift porters. There is also a ton of solo content and small group content while you add more.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Itemisation : Clerics dont have healing plate, Caster Ear/Helm/Belt dont exist

Crafting healing plate has existed from the start.

Adventuring healing plate has been included in last patch as well as better jewelry.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Mats : Making Robe or Boots uses the same number of mats

Uh ok..

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Post 40 : The game is reduced to pure & simple faction grind.

A lot of content has been added. Why not enjoy it instead of "grinding". Your faction will adjust itself. Build groups, defeat boss mobs.

Raid content is to be added, I give this.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Healers : Non Phoenix Shaman = useless

There are other classes and they are very well done. And I've grouped with such shamans and they are far from useless... wth.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- Bugs : I CTD even more often lately

Once again, hard to say on what system you are running it. There are CTD, but since a few weeks, rarely had them. Improving, not game breaking at this point.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

- CoH : Not working half the time

Always worked for me.. you have the be in the same region for it to work.... not that hard to grasp.

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

its not even enjoyable

Having a great time in this game. Best thing since EQ1 (grats you like wow, i can't like cartoons, each his own).

Originally Posted by EmiliaEQ

And there AINT no fucking Guk/Sebilis !

Sorry but VG dungeons rock. You might wanna actually explore some.

[Kaxmax]

Pretty goddamn funny accusing EmiliaEQ of liking WoW. He's one of the most anti-WoW people on this board, and was a pretty big VG fan. May want to do some research on who you're addressing before spouting off.

[Morderick]

Originally Posted by Kaxmax

Pretty goddamn funny accusing EmiliaEQ of liking WoW. He's one of the most anti-WoW people on this board, and was a pretty big VG fan. May want to do some research on who you're addressing before spouting off.

Well by the BS he listed, he may have turned to the Dark Side. It can happen. And my reply was meant to be read by all, not just towards that person. The FoH boards are a well known WoW bastion by now.

[Kaxmax]

More like a well known bastion of people who don't like shitty games. WoW gets plenty of flames here with some of the retarded decisions they made in TBC, which is why you're seeing a lot more interest in LoTRO & Eve (and even EQ2).

[Kreugen]

Heh three days of checking now and can't find anyone to kill the big snakes for the shadowhound. Guess I'll outlevel it and solo them later like everyone else.

[Aphextwin]

Originally Posted by Morderick

Haven't this happen in a while now. They've been improving this on a regular basis. The grouping has been stable for me for a while, even across chunks.

I don't know what game you are playing my friend but grouping is still, in my mind, the top bug in this game. Just last night I had two group disconnects and then couldn't take anymore invites until I re logged, two other people in our group suffered the same fate as we all made our way to the group meeting point and I was only one chunk over from the group leader, grouping is bugged to hell and annoying as fuck.

Originally Posted by Morderick

Takes me less than a second to chunk, I see across chunks, I can go anywhere. It is seamless. If it takes 10 seconds to load assets as you move on your PC, you get what you pay for.

I have found it varies greatly from one chunk to another, some chunks it only takes me a second or two to cross, other chunks can take many more seconds and occasionally cause my character to about face and rechunk, or I get the black screen bug (a lot more common these days) or CTD (not as common as it was, for me at least), far from seamless mate.

Originally Posted by Morderick

I regularly find groups on my server and it's now even easier with the rift porters. There is also a ton of solo content and small group content while you add more.

What character level are you talking about? Lower levels for sure, levels 40+ not much more than faction grinds.

Originally Posted by Morderick

A lot of content has been added. Why not enjoy it instead of "grinding". Your faction will adjust itself. Build groups, defeat boss mobs.

What would you recommend for an adventuring level 45?

Originally Posted by Morderick

Once again, hard to say on what system you are running it. There are CTD, but since a few weeks, rarely had them. Improving, not game breaking at this point.

With this latest patch I am CTD a lot more and more often, prior to this I would usually only CTD after playing 5+hrs straight or on the rare occasion when chunking.

Originally Posted by Morderick

Having a great time in this game. Best thing since EQ1 (grats you like wow, i can't like cartoons, each his own).

I was enjoying this game immensely for the first few weeks but recently I am becoming less and less interested in logging in and playing. Still too many bugs, way too much faction grinding at higher levels, dwindling population.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Kreugen

Reading the raving hardcore lunatic posts on Silky Venom isn't even entertaining anymore. Its just frighteningly sad. Apparently, adding a few teleport spots on each continent (and sadly, it does appear to only be a few)

I'm fine with the amount -- but yeah I don't see the issue with the porters. I had a slight preference to EQ style class ports over static teleports -- but the important thing was to get something in

The entire concept of a huge ass spread out world with level-appropriate content spread all over the fucking place FAILED. And failed badly. Even with this sparsely placed instant travel system you still have to deal with trying to find group members who are spread out all over the ass ends of the earth due to there being no real meeting hub.

Agree that the initial idea was a little problematic -- it was okay to put say the level 40 content 4-5 chunks away from Khal or NT -- with the assumption that level 40s would have flying mounts. But it wasn't okay to put something like DT (level 30) content that far away -- without making them much more accessible. A chunk or two is okay -- 3-4 starts getting very, very painful. And of course once it became clear that flying mounts weren't going to be in anytime soon -- the level 40 content that is 4-5 chunks away becomes problematic too.

The population is spread so thin that many areas are complete wastelands, with loads of uncompletable quests due to lack of even a duo group. FUCK I'm even stuck on the widely done and new shadowhound quest because nobody is ever on the north coast of bumfuck to duo the 4 dot snakes. I haven't seen another soul up there in two days. BUT if you go and merge servers, then you run the risk of turning the high end / raiding scene into an overcrowded eq1 style clusterfuck due to the inane insistance that instancing is the root of all evil. So VG's Vision fucks you both ways. It's either spread way too thin while you level, or way too crowded at the top. There's no possible way to balance it without sharable content.

Well they have to do server mergers. What they've done with some of the higher end places is put in summonable bosses (e.g. Rahz and Xenn). I'm okay with instanced content (and think its the only way to do some stuff such as BGs or LOTRO style opening quest progression) -- but I don't see it going in anytime soon. I guess I don't mind the clusterfuck at the top -- as long as its not like 10 guilds going for 1 raiding zone. If they can put in 2-3 full on raiding areas with some summonable bosses plus a couple of 18 hour spawn world bosses. I'd be happy.

Look for an expansion continent that funnels people through in a logical manner and is far more playable than the current game. And the EQ2 style bandwagon "it doesn't suck now, come back!" threads. Then maybe they can surprise us all and come up with the mythical system that allows for lots of players to have access to raid content without fighting over spawns. The one they said VG would have five years ago.

I don't mind fighting over spawns as long as its not too many fighting over too few. And yes they need better funneling -- I've suggested putting it on the LFG tool.

Edit: Just want to add that I agree with Aph's faction grind comment above. It's just too grindy 40+ right now -- which is why I'm only doing non-grindy areas like Xenn or the odd quest (e.g. Ruin Falls) these days. And if you're 45 go do the main Xenn quests or do Anguish/Ruin Falls if you haven't. I also hear good things about Nusibe Necropolis but haven't made it down there just yet.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by Kiroy

The large world problem would have been so easy to fix if they modified what EQ2 does. Just have 1 (maybe 2) servers, have zones, and when a zone gets crowded just create a zone 2, zone 3, zone 4 ect... this would have instantly made that huge world workable.

They'd also need to create a few hub zones in central locations, with minimal 'fluff', so that it could hold double or triple the population of normal zones.

Instancing isn't immersive, or something like that.

[eVasiege]

Merge...severs...

They don't need to have zones, just limit the servers to like half of what they have now.
Also, if they implemented portals the way AC did, it would be amazing.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Itzena

Instancing isn't immersive, or something like that.

LOTRO instancing = good. WoW instancing (except for BGs) = bad -- well WoW as of last year -- haven't played it in ages.

[Kreugen]

Find me map POInotes for the TP locations and me love you long time.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by Kreugen

Find me map POInotes for the TP locations and me love you long time.

The Riftway Networks Map - Fire & Brimstone Forums

Like this?

[Laerazi]

Are the three networks based on some kind of lore? I don't understand how the locations correspond to one another.

[r.gun]

Level brackets :P