[VG] The Current State of Vanguard

[ismaris]

Playing a cleric in APW is really a blast. The combat is so involved, between healing, group damage buffs, and my own DPS it keeps things really interesting..

Definitely a change from my EQ1 cleric =X

[kedwyn]

You guys are really tempting me to go back...


I had a 43 Bard and I was working on a 20 something Disciple. The class design in Vanguard was outstanding and I do hope other developers bring it to new games. That was certainly one of the better things about Vanguard.

I got fed up with the grindish content in the 40's (this is shortly after release) and all the duping bugs in game that made the economy essentially worthless. With all the server shut downs it was so easy to exploit the dupe bugs and I'm sure they got that fixed but it took them a long time.


Any comments on the game economy and the duping that went on and how badly that fucked things up if at all long term?


I'm thinking of digging around for my disks and reinstalling this weekend to check it out again. Especially with the glowing remarks.



Also special thanks to the MODs that are keeping this thread from getting fagged up this forum particularly has gone down hill rather badly and its nice to see a thread remain in tact and not filled with general douche baggery and total nonsense.

[Ashes Emberblade]

As far as the duping goes I found that, in the early levels, money made from mobs / quests was pretty much worthless on the player market due to inflation. But once I started selling harvested materials I quickly caught up.

[Danth]

"He also said they will start working on making 1 group encounters more challenging and not just a walk in the park."

That's a much needed change. I didn't mention it as one of the reasons why I canceled (because it wasn't directly one of them), but group content in Vanguard was among some of the easiest content I've seen in any of the online role-playing games I've subscribed to.

Bobleclair--You're right, most newer games fall prey to the button-mashing combat design. It's a fad nowadays. Not coincidentally, I dislike most newer games.

Danth

[Shinrai]

Bloodmage was a good design (disciple too), though the essence of the design already existed in the EQ necro. It was greatly assisted by the idea of an offensive / defensive target which was pretty much the only original game mechanic in Vanguard. Playing a cleric was incredibly dull though, Big heal, little heal and HoT.... yawn.

As a game Vanguard is sickly. The game is light on content and most of the content it has is very dull / easy. Being able to 3-man 6 person dungeons, with virtually all the mobs being static basic melee mobs, single pulls (since everyone has lull) and part of some of the most insanely grindy quests I've seen in a MMORPG. Meanwhile the much reduced dev team is pretty clearly overloaded and burnt out. Nor are they likely to get much more support from SOE given the very low and almost certainly dropping populations.

[Scorp]

I'd reup if Faldo would update Chromosome. I can't stand wasting time running across ugly looking terrain. The game itself is pretty fun.

[ismaris]

Originally Posted by Shinrai

Bloodmage was a good design (disciple too), though the essence of the design already existed in the EQ necro. It was greatly assisted by the idea of an offensive / defensive target which was pretty much the only original game mechanic in Vanguard. Playing a cleric was incredibly dull though, Big heal, little heal and HoT.... yawn.

As a game Vanguard is sickly. The game is light on content and most of the content it has is very dull / easy. Being able to 3-man 6 person dungeons, with virtually all the mobs being static basic melee mobs, single pulls (since everyone has lull) and part of some of the most insanely grindy quests I've seen in a MMORPG. Meanwhile the much reduced dev team is pretty clearly overloaded and burnt out. Nor are they likely to get much more support from SOE given the very low and almost certainly dropping populations.

If you were only using three abilities on your cleric, you weren't doing your job. Were you keeping up gift of ardor? maul of divinity? strength of the gods? Doing all this while healing, and trying to put as much DPS on the mob as you can makes for a pretty engaging class imo...

[Bobleclair]

Originally Posted by Scorp

I'd reup if Faldo would update Chromosome. I can't stand wasting time running across ugly looking terrain. The game itself is pretty fun.

Was it fun because you spent your time exploiting? Because if only travel times annoyed you they added riftshards nearly everywhere.

[tad10]

I recently took a three week break due to work but am back raiding atm. I still think VG has the best class/race mix of any of the Diku type MMOs. I am enjoying the raiding (we're not on core processor so that may be why) and looking forward to the griff quest.

However I do think VG still needs to address the following issues to bring in more people.

Adventuring:
Almost all the dungeons look good to great but there are too many blah encounters for the bosses and final bosses. Just as importantly there is still far too much generic loot at the sub-50 level.

SOE should be doing some passes on each of the major sub-50 dungeons to address the encounter/itemization issue or at a minimum a pass on the final boss/final boss itemization. However with the majority of the pop at 50 this is a low priority item. I am sure the majority would rather have a new raid dungeon than redone encounters on lower level dungeons.

Lore. They need one guy to just sit and build the lore.

Crafting/Harvesting:
Got me. I'm not a big crafter but those that are seem happy.

Diplomacy:
Needs better low-level ties between dip and adventuring. All major sub-50 dungeons should have had dip levers that tie into the lore of the world and the area.

There still isn't anything else I'd play (well barring a new EQ progression server that didn't have the problems of the old EQ progression server).

I think everyone should check it out (even if just so they can bitch about it more intelligently) but SOE still doesn't have a free trial. Not sure why they don't right now. Performance is fine except in the highest traffic areas and hitching/chunking is probably as good as it can get without a rewrite of the engine. I suppose they are waiting for trial island to be finished -- not sure when that's due GU5?

[etchazz]

one of my problems with the game was most of the loot was just...bleh. have they fixed this? any graphic improvements with some loot? i know most of the loot when i was playing the game not only had dull stats, it looked dull when you equipped it.

also, have they added the beserker class yet? or the other class that was supposed to be in when the game went live? (sorry, can't remember the name of the other class off hand)

if they added more high end content (mostly good raid content and some solid 6 man stuff) i would probably come back and play. i just don't see a point in playing this game right now in its current state and the fact that it's taking them a year or more to add one new dungeon. this game needs a kunark like expansion in the worst way.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by etchazz

also, have they added the beserker class yet? or the other class that was supposed to be in when the game went live? (sorry, can't remember the name of the other class off hand)

They said those were a long way off, if ever, at this point.

[Blackulaa]

Your on Seradon? I have been mostly soloing, and looking for a guild to hang with. I'll check yours out.

[Gordish]

I've just hit 50 on my rogue now on Seradon and my thoughts are still the same since I came back. The game is fun and it gives me the EQ1 feeling but it still needs work. I think more importantly it needs a bigger dev team working on it like others have mentioned here.

The thing I like the most about it is that it's really the first mmo since EQ where I have the feeling of attachment to my character. The others it seems that it was very easy for me to decide on logging in or doing something else when it came down to it.

If you try it out and have any questions etc. just toss me a PM here and I'll try and help.

[Aria]

I just re-upped today. I guess since I hadn't played in so long all my characters were merged to some server and they all had numbers in their names now. Trying to make a few guys now to test it out, on Seadon.

One major question, what classes flat out suck? I'm thinking about tanking or healing, and don't want to pick one of them that is absolutely not up to par with the rest.

One class I really enjoyed before was Psionicist, how are they now compared to others? Also how is Necro in terms of balance with the rest? And just for kicks how about Ranger?

[Vatoreus]

For healer, got Bloodmage, as everyone has said, it really is the most fun. Tanking, my friend enjoyed his Death Knight, so that could be worth a shot. The others, I have no idea since I haven't played in forever.