[VG] The Current State of Vanguard

[Bobleclair]

I loved the GU4 update, even if i am raiding and got seriously affected by the buffs bug and lag for 4 or 5 days.

The griffon quest is a blast, honestly perhaps the most challenging quest i did in any mmorpg that is designed for 1 group, it shows the devs are starting to master the tools they made for raiding encounters in apw and are able to pull some really fun encounters now even for just 6players, the only issue being the seriously reduced dev team so content is not going to be live as fast as it should.
If only they made these tools during beta the game will be awesome, because many more nameds will be using them.

Core is not impossible, but yeah likely the hardest fight in game atm, so lame they had to cockblock, it means next raid dungeon is not going to be live for a long time, btw they also changed the dragon and i think only 2 guilds got him down since in the 10 or so that were farming it.

[Bobleclair]

Lyrical, i know they are working on animations and reducing bones on the unibody to reduce what is left of lag, not sure exactly if this one is being worked on. Supposedly planned to go live with next update.

But animations only looks weird on tall races, small races like dwarf hafling... look just fine.

[ismaris]

What was said earlier about Core processor is absolutely true. My guild was lucky enough to log a kill on it before GU4, but now....yeah.

Raiding got absolutely destroyed with GU4. We pretty much had to put things on hold for two weeks while they fixed the numerous bugs that came with the patch (buffs would all get instantly stripped, the summon spell was broken, certain mobs were unkillable, horrible lag, the list goes on). The decision sony made to make group four unable to get loot is horrible. It resulted in taking away motivation to have 24 people along at all, and as some encounters require a very specific class composition, this is problematic. A psionicist, for example, is only needed for a couple of fights, so there's little reason to have one in the main raid. It was a stupid move on the part of Silius (lead dev), and they have gotten a ton of flak for it.

I mean, be warned, if you play Vanguard, you will encounter some bugs, mostly in the raid content, but also sometimes you'll run across a bugged quest, or even an entire questline/area will not work (pantheon of the ancients, arguably the coolest dungeon in the game, is still bugged).

That said, I still think Vanguard is the best MMO out for me at the moment. I love how open the pvp is. There is no hiding, and guild vs guild fights can really be pretty fun. I've quit the game and come back to it a couple times since release, but it's held me for awhile now...

As for the landscapes, some people love VG's landscapes, and some hate it. Personally, I think the game looks great. They've done quite a bit for performance optimization, and my 7600GT runs things just fine for the most part.

[Arrr]

Originally Posted by ismaris

As for the landscapes, some people love VG's landscapes, and some hate it. Personally, I think the game looks great. They've done quite a bit for performance optimization, and my 7600GT runs things just fine for the most part.

yeah, I don't understand any criticisms about the way the game looks. It looks fantastic at max settings, for the most part. Animations need work, but seems like most games these days are in a similar boat. PCs could look better, but they're already working on that.

[Vilgan]

Do they still not have a public trial for this game? A poster here gave me a 10 day trial key thingy when the first game released and there were some fun parts and some really blah parts of the game. Wouldn't mind giving it another shot, but not really keen on dropping $30 on a game that there is a good chance I won't enjoy.

[Danth]

Vanguard still suffers from the same problems which originally caused me to cancel--too much button mashing (apparently even more now as a Paladin, due to Virtue changes), and no group content to do that I haven't already done. I may give it a try again at some point, but unless the combat system sees major changes (not bloody likely) I can't imagine myself ever sustaining a subscription to it again.

I liked Vanguard's graphic style. Stuff looked plausible for the most part, which suits my tastes.

Danth

[Ashes Emberblade]

I love VG's graphics (when they run well,) the class design (healers are a blast, tanks are very twitch which I like,) and the game's emphasis on grouping.

Unfortunately the game needs more support from Sony. Content updates are too few and far between and, at this point, that's what the game really lacks. With the limited staff they have I just don't see any expansions in the vein of Kunark or Velious being possible, and I doubt Sony sees any ventures like that as profitable.

It's a Catch-22 for Sony. Do you add more developers to add more content and possibly get more players, with a significant risk of getting no extra return? Or do you keep the game on life support and hope you retain enough players to eek some more cash flow for a couple of years?

It seems they've gone with the second.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Danth

Vanguard still suffers from the same problems which originally caused me to cancel--too much button mashing (apparently even more now as a Paladin, due to Virtue changes), and no group content to do that I haven't already done. I may give it a try again at some point, but unless the combat system sees major changes (not bloody likely) I can't imagine myself ever sustaining a subscription to it again.

I liked Vanguard's graphic style. Stuff looked plausible for the most part, which suits my tastes.

Danth

Button mashing? One thing IMO VG did right was the speed of combat. Never once did I feel like I was button mashing especially due to being on the lookout for chain attacks. Button mashing meant missed dps or healing.

[Danth]

Each to their own.

A bit of clarification: I define 'button mashing' as rapidly pushing buttons whether it's mindless or not. Think of it in terms of 'pushes per second'. A better way of putting it, perhaps, would be to say that Vanguard has a definate pace, but that pace is faster than I can physically tolerate. The amount of button pushing required by Vanguard was so high that I would have physically injured myself had I kept playing it (by the time I cancelled I was showing obvious symptoms of RSI). Although I generally liked Vanguard, no game is worth that sort of injury. C'est la vie.

I like WoW's approach to this issue--some tank classes spam buttons rapidly, some don't. Lucky for me, the class I play is the one that doesn't. I couldn't play a WoW Warrior long-term for the exact same reason I couldn't play Vanguard long-term. Unfortunately Vanguard doesn't have that option; if you want to tank, you push buttons very quickly. I'm not able to do that for a sustained length of time. Obviously that's not going to be a problem for everyone--but I speak only for myself, and it's a huge problem for me. While I may be a minority, I'm not completely alone as my wife had a similar complaint.

Danth

[Aamina]

Both the Bard class and the Blood Mage class are two of the most interesting things to come to MMOs in a long time. The Bards (my main when I played VG) are just awesome. But too much of what made them cool, the customizable buffs, was completely broken. And Blood Mages need to come to some other game...gah they are awesome.

[Hateyou]

Originally Posted by Aamina

Both the Bard class and the Blood Mage class are two of the most interesting things to come to MMOs in a long time. The Bards (my main when I played VG) are just awesome. But too much of what made them cool, the customizable buffs, was completely broken. And Blood Mages need to come to some other game...gah they are awesome.

I played a bard to 50 and I thought it was a pretty boring class once you got to around 40ish. You just made 5 or 6 songs, and only played those. Every bard (who wasn't a retard) had the exact same song because the way it was made there was a 'best' song to play. Grouped with casters? play this song, grouped with melee? play this song. Then you did nothing but let the song play by itself and spam your 3 special attacks. Most song components were so worthless you never touched them.

Now when I left they were finally starting to add more special attacks and changed some of the song components to nukes instead. If they kept doing that and fine tuned it (which it looked like they were doing) I could see the bard being a pretty cool class. Everyone begged for a bard in their groups, which was awesome, I always ended up picking a worthless class no one wanted in other MMOs.

Anyways, when I quit my bard was boring as fuck. The whole level 50 game was boring as fuck however=p So has the bard changed much since last summer?

[kcxiv]

What are said about Core Processor may be true, but to be fair, we havent even tried it since the patch. I am in the same guild as he is. I do k now that before the "fix", that event was by far one of the hardest events i have seen in a video game. It is just brutal.

I read a post by Silius said they will be hiring more developers for the game very soon. I guess thats a plus. He also said they will start working on making 1 group encounters more challenging and not just a walk in the park.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Aamina

Both the Bard class and the Blood Mage class are two of the most interesting things to come to MMOs in a long time. The Bards (my main when I played VG) are just awesome. But too much of what made them cool, the customizable buffs, was completely broken. And Blood Mages need to come to some other game...gah they are awesome.

As much as I dislike Vanguard now. Blood Mage is still my favorite class I have ever played in any MMO hands down. I just loved how they jacked Rogue Mechanics from WoW and used them for an Arcane Healing class.

[Bobleclair]

Danth, you can macro nearly all your skills into big macros so they chain by themself, and should never be clicking it more than one time every 2 seconds, because it is useless.

Else you can still play a caster, they click even slower.

I don't really see the issue with clicky spam, as most new games are using it, unless you come directly from EQ1 where you turned on autoattack and went half afk till your raid boss was dead as a paladin(and even back then you had to spam some stuff, like bash...).

[Hateyou]

Personally I didn't feel like I clicked too much, I just wanted more options to click. My main was a bard so I really only had 3 abilities though. My alts were much better in that sense. I though VG had a pretty good balance of how often you had to use an ability.