Why all the nerd rage against Vanguard?

[Aradune Mithara]

Originally Posted by Lyenae

750w powersupply to power an old intel and 1 ATI gpu?
$300 dollar case?
$400 for 2gig Ram paired with a 2.8ghz dual core?

what the hell?

Yeah, you probably don't need such a powerful power supply -- I just tend to get powerful ones so I don't ever run into power problems. And yes you can probably get the ram cheaper elsewhere and no you don't need such a pimp case

[Locithon]

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

It was somewhat the same. Planning for the future to make sure the game would look good years from now, architecting it so we could easily integrate new graphics tech, the fact that we like games that use the latest tech personally, and we made a large world so we could have plenty of room to expand it with the live team and not just have to make new areas with expansions, and we also wanted plenty of room for player housing.

Was that the right call? Time will tell. There are certainly drawbacks and negatives too it. And we'd hoped that machines that would run the game well would be cheaper and hoped we'd release a little later too. But what's done is done.

We made the same gamble with EQ 1 being a hardware only (voodoo 1) game and it paid off, but these are different times.

I think we will catch up and tech will catch up too, but it is hurting us in the short term.

I'm just wondering Brad how you really expect us to raid? I've been seeing that GM's are turning everyone in the raid into a skele so they get more than 3-5 fps. And thats' w/no other guilds there camping for the mob. Since raid mobs apparently will be fought over, can you seriously expect people to tackle a raid mob while getting 1-2 fps? Are there solutions coming down the pipe for this sort of thing?

Because when you say you can get 30 fps in most situations, that's assuming there's a single group. Performance comes to a halt though with 24 people, even on highest performance.

Not to be all negative though, our guild just finished the entire Pantheon of the Ancients trials and I have to say it's the best dungeon i've seen in VG yet. Hopefully the endgame single man dungeons are going to be this good.

[kcxiv]

I play on a piece of shit computer with 1 gig of ram, and i do fine. If i had another gig, i am sure this game would be alot faster.

I remember when my friends got me into Everquest, my current computer would NOT play it. I had to buy a WHOLE new computer. Back then i knew nothing about computers and i spent about 1500 bucks. I will be building another computer in a few months, i bet i spend less then 800 bucks.

[Miele]

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

...
I will apolgize for all of the above and the buck stops here. I won't, however, apologize for the team: they worked their asses off and continue to and truly believe in the game (as do I). That said, while I apologize for the mistakes, some of which we made and some of which were out of our hands, we also got the opportunity to make a very ambitious game, the game of our dreams, and were a start-up company that got a 30M+ budget, which is basically unheard of. So while VG does indeed have some issues, I know a lot of people are having fun with it, and a lot more will have fun with it in the future and call it a home. I am also proud to have been part of such an awesome team and to have been able to launch a second MMOG (not something a lot of people can say they have done). So, again, I do apologize for the shortcomings, but am also proud of the game and its potential, and am confident that while it is a successful game now (certainly not a WoW, but not a D&D online either) it will gain momentum as tech catches up, people tire of BC, etc. And also as we through both expansions and the live team add more really cool features to the game over the next year.

Also things like teleporters, experience rates, better LFG tools, etc. are all being looked at and you will see changes soon. I don't have the details yet, but we are listening and the game will get better and the areas where we messed up (large world, but too hard to find a group, etc.) will be addressed.

I picked this part just to tell you that the fact your team is working hard is recognized by my friends who are playing VG and is mainly for that reason that they are sticking with it (yeah, they told me they are having fun too, don't worry), so in the future they'll be able to mock me by saying stuff like "you lost the days when it was so hardcore... etc".

I don't play VG now due to a ton of reasons and not all of them belong to this boards, I'm fast at catching up levels and gear anyway should I choose to pick it up one day, so I wish you the best luck for your game .

[Darus Grey]

Brad, I have a serious question.

Is there anyone on your team who is the equivalent of an economist?
If the answer is no, you really should consider it. If its yes, I don't think they're doing a good job(and I hate being mean saying that, but I consider myself an expert in this field, and theres some simply mind boggling issues.)

Theres been some changes that really make me question your guys issues with crafting vs world drop quality.
It often seems to me whoever is making these changes from a "balance" standpoint is ignoring or at least not factoring highly the economic impacts of these changes.

The way the economy on most servers is heading, world drops keep lowering in price, but the value of rare crafting materials keeps *rising* as more competition levels up competing for the same scarce resource pools.

This was already creating a large disparity in the perceived value of crafted goods.
As a weaponsmith, sure I could until 2 patches ago make "the best" weapons ingame. Often at 10-20x the price to *make* it compared to a world drop/quest its with maybe 5% less overall damage.
Thats one of those things that seems balanced on paper(comparing a heroic crafted weapon to a heroic world one), but in reality the scarcity of resources to make them is driving prices through the roof and significantly lowering thier overall value.

The recent change monday in the T4/T5 upgrade recipes made it even worse, leatherworkers and mineralolgists got particulary , for lack of a better word- screwed.
Adding the requirement of *another* rare secondary component, basically doubled the cost to make many items.

In the case of LW and MIN it raised the minimum costs to make the items by so much that they now have no value on the market, they're simply to expensive for what you get.

Its also having a spiraling effect on those resources, the rare secondaries are now climbing higher in price, and will continue to do so for forseeable future.

This again is continuing to widen the already large gap in the power < - > cost disparity between crafted and world drops, as crafted goods will continue to become even more expensive to make/buy, well world drops can only get cheaper over time as more drop.

I would seriously urge your team to consider the economic impact of many of these changes, from my perspective it seems more like a "throw it in, see what happens" approach, vs anyone putting in thought on the longterm economic effects of some of these changes.

[Aradune Mithara]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Or I could just keep my current machine which runs every other title on the market *very* well for free.

I think you are honestly being way too flippant about people just going out and upgrading. That may have worked when things came along every 6 months that made the computing world rethink the future - especially when compatibility wasn't always the highest priority, but these days things are different.

Definitely not trying to be flippant at all -- apologies if I came across that way. I was just trying to make a point that you don't need a $3k or $4k machine to run Vanguard at high setting and high resolution.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Locithon

Not to be all negative though, our guild just finished the entire Pantheon of the Ancients trials and I have to say it's the best dungeon i've seen in VG yet. Hopefully the endgame single man dungeons are going to be this good.

Thats one of my Fav dungeons. That one is nicely done. I loved it. Is the sisters event fixed?

[Locithon]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

Thats one of my Fav dungeons. That one is nicely done. I loved it. Is the sisters event fixed?

Yea they fixed it finally in the patch yesterday. Once you kill them you get a choice whether or not to sacrifice your cloak of the pantheon for some random loot. Our whole group did it and we got a total of 3 Legendary weapons. I myself got a snazzy 45dps dagger. You can even go back after you've done that and complete the trials again for a second cloak. Which we did today.

[cadiz]

Originally Posted by Sithro

Then again, I kind of like the idea of being around from the beginning.

[Twobit Whore]

You win the best first post ever award. 3 years in the making too, bonus points.

[Locithon]

Yea you just never know who comes out of the woodworks on these boards.

[Rayne]

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

Also things like teleporters, experience rates, better LFG tools, etc. are all being looked at and you will see changes soon. I don't have the details yet, but we are listening and the game will get better and the areas where we messed up (large world, but too hard to find a group, etc.) will be addressed.

I can hear the rumble of 100k+ "hardcore" vanbois growling in the distance.

Seriously though, i'm sure you'll get those who will accuse you of "WoWifying" Vanguard. But if it gets more people playing, it'll be worth the tradeoff. Falling 30-50% below the expected turnout is pretty serious. Perhaps next year i'll be in a better position to give it another go.

[tjac]

Originally Posted by Aradune Mithara

I believe I said . . .blah blah blah

For paying to float an incomplete game, we should all be shareholders instead of subscribers.

My guess is that VG's incompletion and steep system requirements are going to condemn it to a low player population and prevent it from reaching any of the beautiful potential it has.

I know you come and and say your spin, but I play the game. I see my friends list lighting up less and less, I see a very empty game from 35+, and I see changes that introduce as much broken and rushed adjustments as anything positive.

After a really good first month, I'm disappointed and losing interest. My subscription is cancelled. It's unlikely that I'll renew. I feel like too much of a sucker.

[cadiz]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

You win the best first post ever award. 3 years in the making too, bonus points.

seemed appropriate

[xregg]

I am all for making it easier to find your buddys and get to them. I loved WoW's travel system it was as close to perfect as it gets.

I would like to see a different map system also. When I started I couldnt even tell where the hell I was. Long travel times and unclear maps has to confuse and discourage new players. Hell it makes me sigh and ive been around a bit.