Tarka, everything in your post about not bothering to come back to VG because there isn't any significant new content since you left the game made perfect sense. But then you had to say this? You expect FC to deliver any new content anytime soon? Yeah, I have my fingers crossed too.
Neonwire if you did not like the game I understand, thats why restaurants have menus, everyone has there own tastes but regarding your statement that read:
"The slider based character customisation is awful and I just cant see what there is to like about it. It basicly allows you to change trivial things like the length of your nose, the position of your ears, the depth of your eyes and other silly little things that really make very little visual difference at all"
Hmm, well I disagree, in fact i believe you can make a Night and Day difference.
And by the way regarding the " trivial things like the length of your nose, the position of your ears, the depth of your eyes and other silly little things that really make very little visual difference at all" I just counted a Whopping 57 sliders across four windowed pages of face and body customizations, not sure how many you require to call significant, but thats about as good as your gonna get this side of "Oblivion" which is not and mmo
Why are you using long hair on all the "after" pictures to hide the fact that the heads and bodies aren't correctly proportioned against each other. That is one thing that ALOT of people have been complaining about.
Yea, you can sorta hide it with the long hair, but that sort of puts restraints on character customization for those who don't their toon to look like Pumpkinhead.
The human before picture looks better than the after picture, IMO.
If players' characters have heads out of proportion then it's because the players set the sizes wrong at character creation. You can adjust the size and width of the head, as well as the size/length and position of the ears, the eyes, the eye-brows, as well as the width, size of the torso, the thickness and length of the neck, how wide and full the shoulders are...
You can make the character look perfectly proportioned, or you can make it look completely wrong. Point is, it comes down to the players' decisions during character customization.
If people are seriously blaming the devs because *they* set their characters proportions all wacky and they look "wrong", then that's truly ridiculous.
That's like blaming the maker of a paintbrush because you don't know how to paint a still life properly.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Nice thread Teradyne. I completely agree with the points you raise that make VG great. I spent hundreds of great hours exploring Telon and highly reccomend it to anyone looking for an A grade PvE experience. Imho it is the best PvE game out there atm. The only thing that keeps me from playing it today is the lack of love from SOE. I have experienced near on everything the game currently has, and the rate of content addition is too slow for my $15 per month. If Smed took off his blindfold and realized how great the game is and doubled the Dev team and announced some expansion plans I would go back to my 50 Bard/50 Weaponsmith and 50 Cleric/50 Carpenter in a heartbeat.
So basically nothing has changed since about December last year when I quit. The high end is still awaiting content, whilst the low end gets a trial island (rolls eyes) and a few tweaks here and there.
Oh and a permanent flying mount.
I think I'll stick with AOC.
Why rolling eyes about the starter island? Because they're not putting 100% attention into end-game where *you* want it?
The starter island is possibly the best thing they could have done for this game (beyond performance improvements and such, of course)
Reasons?
For one, it gives players a good introduction to the game and, more importantly, it keeps players in the same areas where they can *see* each other, they can talk, group up for quests and so forth. When I played some time back, before IoD, I hardly ever saw another player, even though I knew they were out there somewhere.
Now with the starter island, I see players everywhere all the time. I ran into Sun Village earlier and saw at least 12 other players in one small area. Went into a building and there were several people clustered around crafting stations.. .People were parleying with NPCs via diplomacy... Chat channels were filled with people talking, lfg, giving advice, asking advice... Absolutely the most activity I've seen in this game in a *looong* time.
What this does for the game is it shows someone just starting out that others are playing... they're not alone in some vast wilderness. It allows them to group up and experience what that's like.. In short it allows them to really experience the game as it should be.
If it keeps up and people maintain their interest in the game, that will lead to growing populations.. which means more money coming in which means SOE just might take it more seriously and increase work on developing it more, like they do with EQ2.
In the end, that benefits *all* players, new players and end-game players alike. In fact, I've read in a few places that they intend to add more end-game content in the near future... the next few weeks or something like that.
So don't be so short-sighted and roll-eyes because what they're doing doesn't benefit you right now.
In order to justify putting more energy into developing VG, they need more money. To get more money they need more players. To get more players, they need to get new blood into the game, as well as previous players who've come back to check it out.
They have to start somewhere. Just because it's not where you might personally want them to doesn't mean it's a waste of time or energy to roll your eyes at.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I've had a very similar experience to you, WoW, EQII etc, neither of them really did it for me, was about to give up on the whole MMO thing after the failures of AOC and WAR while it has potential didn't quite pull me in either.
I played VG about a year ago and whilst it had some great things going for it I just couldn't get into it because of the bugs and all the other problems well documented, I heard about trial island and though yeah why not.
Decided I would roll a Cleric and when I loaded in, I almost fell off my chair because I was wearing some kick ass looking armor instead of the usual level 1 rags you get.
I play the game with most of the settings maxed out, so for me the game is graphically and visually stunning ok some characters could do with some improvements but I have no complaints on my Cleric, I made her just the way I wanted.
Trial Island was a breath of fresh air, I was quickly upgrading my armor to look even better and I was enjoying Diplomacy and having fun Crafting, I really don't see how you can call it "crafting" in WoW you just click a button and watch your progress bar fill up?? (Should be called "clicking") EQII had the right idea with crafting as you actually had to do active stuff on it, but VG's system is really well thought out and actually fun. I got a real sense of achievement after making my first A grade item. My only complaint with it, is that you can't actually see the crafted item stats before you make it.
But yeah I did every single quest on the Isle, and maxed out all my 3 sphere's no bugs, no crashes just a really well worked game. It was very easy for me to re-subscribe and leave the isle and now I'm a level 23 Cleric just about to start on the Trenton Keep area. I've found a great Guild who are really helpfull but not only that the whole community in the game is really relaxed and friendly, there are no WoW kids here and no idiots so far to spoil it (yet).
There are still some issues in the game, the odd bugged quest here, but honestly I can live with it, when I did have a bug I submitted a petition and then I had a GM contact me in under an hour who fixed it instantly. I guess there are some benefits to not having a massive client base like WoW
Obviously we all have different tastes and prefrences, and any game will always be subjective, but something has certainly improved with this game and I would like to think it can only get better, I'm noticing now that whenever I log in the the servers are always "Medium" as opposed to "Low" so I don't think we are the only ones who are coming back to it.
As the orignal poster says, if you haven't tried it you really should, you might hate it in which case you don't play it or if like me you might like it, either way you won't lose anything by giving it a shot.
Great post and welcome back. I too have tried every game you mentioned as well, the latest being AoC then WAR, which are very disappointing to say the least. PvE, this game blows all other mmos out of the water.
As for SOE not showing love to VG you could not be more wrong they had to fix the game before they start adding to it, The game was in bad shape when SOE took over and yes it did take alittle while to fix it but damn that was a big fix they put in.
The reason for Noob Island is to try and get ppl to come back and pick up new ppl, I am sure if they see more intrest in the game then the Exp. will follow soon after. I have read somewhere but can't find it now that there was a Exp. in the works but they stoped work on it to fix the game 1st so who knows it might not be to far off.
I will admit that the models dont look as good as say EQ2 but as for Mobs there are a few out there that look really good and maybe that will be the next fix we will just have to wait.
OP I agree if you have not tryed VG or have not played in along time give it a shot please the more the marrier.
Assassin's like to do it in the dark and from behind.
Well fair play I think to SOE, they took it over and could easily have just left it, I'm no expert but it does appear as if they are committed to putting things right.
Ok so it still needs a lot of work, it's probably going to be a journey rather than a destination for them but compared to what it was when I tried it a year ago it has evolved into a different game, dare I say one that is quite playable and something I am happy to pay money for each month.
Yeah there are still annoying bugs, like losing chat channels when you port and armor not showing on your character then there's the really annoying bug when fighting multiple mobs when even though you kill a mob it still stays up and red but you still are targeted on it. and don't even get me started on the games font!!
All these things need to be fixed but it's not going to happen overnight, trial island for me is certainly a way forward and a big tick in the box for SOE, without it I wouldn't have come back and would have missed out.
I think SOE are going about it the right way, you have to walk before you can run, and clearly the game still needs plenty of bugs fixing and some final polish adding, so whilst I can imagine there are lots of bored frustrated loyal veteran VG players out there who crave new content, I think the best step forward is to get a fully working VG platform that turns it's player base back onto it, once that is all fixed, the player base will slowly begin to increase, as that injects more new revenue into the game, then surely it is a no brainer to SOE to look at more end game content and who know's perhaps one day there might well be an expansion, but that I would imagine is quite some way off.
One thing that is clear if you look at the "Games in Development" list on the left, there really aren't many left, AOC failed, WAR is still in it's honeymoon period, WOTLK lands in Novemeber so those looking for somethng new really only have Aion, Spellborn and Darkfall to pin their hopes on.
There is a big gap in the market for a game to step up and actually challenge WoW, I know so many players who play WoW because there is nothing else they can get into, (I until I refound VG was one of them) maybe it's WAR that will challenge WoW or maybe it's one of the games still being developed, I just hope Vangard can be made into the game it should have been at launch, if only for the reason that it actually owes itself to be a half decent game.
Graphics are horrible because everything looks sooo plastic and fake and sooo generic and just UGLY with horrible character models.
I've seen a few people state that VG looks plastic. Perhaps it's the settings you're playing with? I play at max settings and the game certainly doesn't look plastic to me. I think it's a beautiful game. I don't get it.
The texture on that model right there is extreme plasticky. Just kinda proved his point by posting that right there
Well, it is in the eye of the beholder. It does look plasticky if one isn't playing at the maxed out settings. I for one cannot play on maxed settings but then again I didn't start playing for the graphics but for the game features.
That being said, maxed out VG graphics look really good.
First of all, I havent played VG since January, so my opinions are based on screenshots, and I have looked at a LOT of them. IMHO, characters look even worse now than before. It's hard to point out what the problem with them is but they just look.. weird, unnatural and definitely not good. And the plastic crash dummy look is still there. I think the major problem with VG graphics has always been skins and animations, not models. I like VG, I think it's a good game, but I have to agree that a lot of its graphics look utterly horrible. Most of the landscapes look amazing though, especially on Kojan. It just shows what a ramshackle crew of devs Sigil had... some apparently very talented but others totally hopeless. It's like that garage band you had in high school where you couldn't get rid of the totally hopeless singer cause he was your childhood friend...
Neonwire if you did not like the game I understand, thats why restaurants have menus, everyone has there own tastes but regarding your statement that read: "The slider based character customisation is awful and I just cant see what there is to like about it. It basicly allows you to change trivial things like the length of your nose, the position of your ears, the depth of your eyes and other silly little things that really make very little visual difference at all" Hmm, well I disagree, in fact i believe you can make a Night and Day difference. Default Thestran Human before customization http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/marcelmichael/ScreenShot_00008JPG.jpg Thestran Human after customization: http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/marcelmichael/ScreenShot_00013JPG.jpg Default Woodelf female beforecustomization: http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/marcelmichael/ScreenShot_00010JPG.jpg Woodelf female after customization: http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/marcelmichael/ScreenShot_00015JPG.jpg I'll let you guys be the judge. And by the way regarding the " trivial things like the length of your nose, the position of your ears, the depth of your eyes and other silly little things that really make very little visual difference at all" I just counted a Whopping 57 sliders across four windowed pages of face and body customizations, not sure how many you require to call significant, but thats about as good as your gonna get this side of "Oblivion" which is not and mmo
No you're missing the point. The game could have 57,000 sliders and each one could slightly alter the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue length, nostril hair or whatever by a a few millimeters and it still wouldnt make it any better. The point I was making is not that it doesnt have enough controls to change things but that those controls have such a tiny effect on the character model that its not even worth using them.
In your examples you show one customised character for the thestran human and the woodelf. That doesnt show variety at all. It just shows that one model from each race looks virtually same as all models from that race. The fact remains that all thestran humans will look like all the other thestran humans and the same goes for the wood elves. The only good thing Vanguard has going for it in this area is the fact that it has a large number of races to choose from so it reduces the chances of you meeting another clone of yourself if you see someone from the same race. Also the armour you wear helps to disguise it as well. This is all a bit of a cop out though as the models themselves still look virtually identical no matter how many of those 57 sliders you tweak. The character models look more varied in WoW which is kind of amusing really. The only reason you dont notice this so much is because it has less races available. The sliders are just an illusion and I'm really surprised people actually think they do anything.
Here is a challenge for you. Create 5 thestran humans that belong to the same character class and show us how different they all look. Remember though that you cannot simply just rely on changing the hairstyle because you did say that WoW customization options were poor because the only way characters look different was because of their hair styles. So show us the variety in faces and bodies that you can achieve with these magical 57 sliders.
and that "The sliders are just an illusion and I'm really surprised people actually think they do anything."
Then you have determined to yourself : Im gonna believe what i want to believe, regardless of what i see.
And at this point I have no ill feelings toward you, I wish you all the luck in whatever game suites you.
With the mild hostility i recieved on this thread i feel i promped to repeat my original disclaimer:
The aforementioned commentary of each game is just my opinion and I by no means am trying to change the minds of anyone concerning there beloved games. Just speaking my experience with each game and many a player are sure to differ, I acknowledge my views and opinions are no more valid than anyone elses, to each there own, peace=)
The texture on that model right there is extreme plasticky. Just kinda proved his point by posting that right there
Well, it is in the eye of the beholder as was said. It doesn't look plasticky to me. There are variations in skin tone on the model. She is very fair with an faint olive tint. The eyes have a lot of detail including highlights and lashes. The inside of her ears have a pinkish shading that simulates light shining through. You can see the underlying structures on the neck. And all that is done without excessive shading on the skin which seems like a shortcut some games use.
Can you post a screenshot close up of a model from an mmo that is not plastiky so I can see the difference?
Ok I come from a four year background of EQ2 and some on and off WOW. WOW, as much as I tried time and time again the game just did not do it for me with a meager 8 races, 9 classes and NO slider based character creation everone just looks like everyone else but with different wigs on, simple but very limited scope. I did however love the free roaming, almost totally non-zoning world that really added to the exploration factor, but toontown graphics kept me from entering the emersion factor. EQ2 took me by storm with its astounding 19 races(currently) and 26 classes, first mmo with slider based character gen, add to that a graphically gorgeous world that was second to none at the time and you had the perfect game until....you start to spend some serious time in the game and all the faults start to peer there ugly heads: : Zone, Zone, Zone, everytime you need to go somewhere other than where you currently are, you need to Zone to where your going, whether it be a different region or just a cave within that same region, or whether it be a city or just a different community within that same city. It really degrades the overall emersion factor of the game. The feeling that you really are in a massive world all your own to freely explore and discover in absent in EQ2 : An unnessesary 4 different grades of spells, a single top tier Adept III and Fabled costing many hundreds of gold, and think....you must do this every lvl to be on top of the game, and if your not going to be on top of your game then what really is the point? : And my biggest gripe.....The whole Rare Component crafting, equipment/gear based system that the entire game hinges on, Harvesting in any game is no fun, but a nessesary part of a living, breathing economic game world with real professions. But EQ2 makes it a far more loathing, time consuming (Read TIME WASTING) experience requiring all players who want to have the Good not Epicgear to spend mindless hours and sometimes countless days harvesting these rare components just to get there MasterCraft armor, weapons and jewelry for every lvl tier. These three reasons are in my imho the very reasons why WOW took off like a bat otta hell and EQ2 first waned, consolodated servers, and now loathes. So anyhow i returned to vanguard last week after quiting long ago for the same reasons as everone else and would return every so often to check on its progress as it always held a place in my heart, and lo and behold its just about all fixed !!. They returned all the character gen sliders (all save 3) and added a new EQ2 like training/trial island and everything as far as i can tell works with no crashes. Now this is a very significant addition to the MMO gaming world as far as Im concerned because Vanguard always did have it all: : The game truly is on a GRAND scale all its own, enormous continental land masses (3 of them, not one) that would take literal RL days to traverse through if not using alternate means of travel, theres nothing like it ! : Total non-zoning free-roam world, no invisible walls to hit, if you can see it, you can get to it. : Unparalleled character creation with slider based Face and Body customization and 19 diverse races and 15 classes to choose from. The variety of options of EQ2 to create a truly unique character and class with the free roam,go anywhere adventurous mood of Warcraft is what ive gotten from it. If you haven't tried Vanguard in some time, you owe it to yourself to give it another look, and if you've never tried it, you simply owe it to yourself as a gamer, there truly is nothing like it ! There is a free 14 day island trial download. The aforementioned commentary of each game is just my opinion and I by no means am trying to change the minds of anyone concerning there beloved games. Just speaking my experience with each game and many a player are sure to differ, I acknowledge my views and opinions are no more valid than anyone elses, to each there own, peace=)
Well said ,I agree 100 % .It's really great you took the time to give a view of Vanguard .I find much subjective negativity from people ...who haven't played for a year ...it's actually ridiculous .The funniest response in this thread is the guy saying " I'm going back to AOC "....trying to compare the PVE experience in Vanguard to AOC is a joke
I really don't feel the need to constantly defend Vanguard anymore ...everything you said about it is true.The Isle of Dawn is popular and more and more people are playing it and staying
People don't have to play it ..thats there choice .There are more than enough people on the server I play on ,.Halgar ,to ensure I can group and adventure with .And Halgar is the least most populated PVE server
They are adding more high level content to Vanguard with Pantheon of Ancients as right now only APW offers challenging raiding.I love the quest systems and,the massive immersive world .Vanguard for me is like playing Oblivion but in an MMO sense
Have they added alternative character customization for classes yet?
As before this consisted of 5 or so sliders for things like int, str, sta, etc.
Which essentially meant that for some classes there were no differences btw characters created by differenet people, my Rogue was exactly identical to a rogue ceated by someelse beside look and armor.
In every other MMO there are ways to customise your class(short example is WoW's talents) has this been added yet?
What about Star Wars Galaxies? Still the most extensive character creation options of any MMO, before or since. But I agree with your opinions. Good post.
I remember in beta, Vanguard had a lot more options in it's character creation. Like the ability to make your character extreemly fat.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
Just give up trying to save VG already! I played for nearly a year in closed beta then for months in release. the game was only a means to fuel Brad McQuaid's drug habit and nothing more.
Let this game die or go to the hard core fans. Stop defending a failed game.
Just give up trying to save VG already! I played for nearly a year in closed beta then for months in release. the game was only a means to fuel Brad McQuaid's drug habit and nothing more. Let this game die or go to the hard core fans. Stop defending a failed game.
I guess this message was intended for Sony since they are the ones not letting it die.
I will continue paying money for what I choose no matter what your opinion is of the product....12 months later?
Just give up trying to save VG already! I played for nearly a year in closed beta then for months in release. the game was only a means to fuel Brad McQuaid's drug habit and nothing more. Let this game die or go to the hard core fans. Stop defending a failed game.
Yeah and I would never hire anyone to a position in my company who has been 12 years old earlier in their life, because geez who would want a 12 year old working for them? Not me.
Nice post Teradyne. I came from the same background: EQ > EQ2 > WoW. I've tried other games either by preorder or trials but nothing stuck.
Aside from the graphical qualilty and the amount of things you can do is the true RPG aspect of it. You can fly out to a remote island, build a house, set up a forge and make weapons and armor from around the world.
It's not as fast paced as WoW but is more complex and if you can enjoy the imersion it's a great game.
I like Vanguard and agree with many Vanguard related things you said in this post but I do not like how you have reviewed Vanguard by first telling us all the things you dont like about other games.
Comments
Tarka, everything in your post about not bothering to come back to VG because there isn't any significant new content since you left the game made perfect sense. But then you had to say this? You expect FC to deliver any new content anytime soon? Yeah, I have my fingers crossed too.
Yea, you can sorta hide it with the long hair, but that sort of puts restraints on character customization for those who don't their toon to look like Pumpkinhead.
The human before picture looks better than the after picture, IMO.
If players' characters have heads out of proportion then it's because the players set the sizes wrong at character creation. You can adjust the size and width of the head, as well as the size/length and position of the ears, the eyes, the eye-brows, as well as the width, size of the torso, the thickness and length of the neck, how wide and full the shoulders are...
You can make the character look perfectly proportioned, or you can make it look completely wrong. Point is, it comes down to the players' decisions during character customization.
If people are seriously blaming the devs because *they* set their characters proportions all wacky and they look "wrong", then that's truly ridiculous.
That's like blaming the maker of a paintbrush because you don't know how to paint a still life properly.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
So basically nothing has changed since about December last year when I quit. The high end is still awaiting content, whilst the low end gets a trial island (rolls eyes) and a few tweaks here and there.
Oh and a permanent flying mount.
I think I'll stick with AOC.
Why rolling eyes about the starter island? Because they're not putting 100% attention into end-game where *you* want it?
The starter island is possibly the best thing they could have done for this game (beyond performance improvements and such, of course)
Reasons?
For one, it gives players a good introduction to the game and, more importantly, it keeps players in the same areas where they can *see* each other, they can talk, group up for quests and so forth. When I played some time back, before IoD, I hardly ever saw another player, even though I knew they were out there somewhere.
Now with the starter island, I see players everywhere all the time. I ran into Sun Village earlier and saw at least 12 other players in one small area. Went into a building and there were several people clustered around crafting stations.. .People were parleying with NPCs via diplomacy... Chat channels were filled with people talking, lfg, giving advice, asking advice... Absolutely the most activity I've seen in this game in a *looong* time.
What this does for the game is it shows someone just starting out that others are playing... they're not alone in some vast wilderness. It allows them to group up and experience what that's like.. In short it allows them to really experience the game as it should be.
If it keeps up and people maintain their interest in the game, that will lead to growing populations.. which means more money coming in which means SOE just might take it more seriously and increase work on developing it more, like they do with EQ2.
In the end, that benefits *all* players, new players and end-game players alike. In fact, I've read in a few places that they intend to add more end-game content in the near future... the next few weeks or something like that.
So don't be so short-sighted and roll-eyes because what they're doing doesn't benefit you right now.
In order to justify putting more energy into developing VG, they need more money. To get more money they need more players. To get more players, they need to get new blood into the game, as well as previous players who've come back to check it out.
They have to start somewhere. Just because it's not where you might personally want them to doesn't mean it's a waste of time or energy to roll your eyes at.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Yeah good post this.
I've had a very similar experience to you, WoW, EQII etc, neither of them really did it for me, was about to give up on the whole MMO thing after the failures of AOC and WAR while it has potential didn't quite pull me in either.
I played VG about a year ago and whilst it had some great things going for it I just couldn't get into it because of the bugs and all the other problems well documented, I heard about trial island and though yeah why not.
Decided I would roll a Cleric and when I loaded in, I almost fell off my chair because I was wearing some kick ass looking armor instead of the usual level 1 rags you get.
I play the game with most of the settings maxed out, so for me the game is graphically and visually stunning ok some characters could do with some improvements but I have no complaints on my Cleric, I made her just the way I wanted.
Trial Island was a breath of fresh air, I was quickly upgrading my armor to look even better and I was enjoying Diplomacy and having fun Crafting, I really don't see how you can call it "crafting" in WoW you just click a button and watch your progress bar fill up?? (Should be called "clicking") EQII had the right idea with crafting as you actually had to do active stuff on it, but VG's system is really well thought out and actually fun. I got a real sense of achievement after making my first A grade item. My only complaint with it, is that you can't actually see the crafted item stats before you make it.
But yeah I did every single quest on the Isle, and maxed out all my 3 sphere's no bugs, no crashes just a really well worked game. It was very easy for me to re-subscribe and leave the isle and now I'm a level 23 Cleric just about to start on the Trenton Keep area. I've found a great Guild who are really helpfull but not only that the whole community in the game is really relaxed and friendly, there are no WoW kids here and no idiots so far to spoil it (yet).
There are still some issues in the game, the odd bugged quest here, but honestly I can live with it, when I did have a bug I submitted a petition and then I had a GM contact me in under an hour who fixed it instantly. I guess there are some benefits to not having a massive client base like WoW
Obviously we all have different tastes and prefrences, and any game will always be subjective, but something has certainly improved with this game and I would like to think it can only get better, I'm noticing now that whenever I log in the the servers are always "Medium" as opposed to "Low" so I don't think we are the only ones who are coming back to it.
As the orignal poster says, if you haven't tried it you really should, you might hate it in which case you don't play it or if like me you might like it, either way you won't lose anything by giving it a shot.
Great post and welcome back. I too have tried every game you mentioned as well, the latest being AoC then WAR, which are very disappointing to say the least. PvE, this game blows all other mmos out of the water.
As for SOE not showing love to VG you could not be more wrong they had to fix the game before they start adding to it, The game was in bad shape when SOE took over and yes it did take alittle while to fix it but damn that was a big fix they put in.
The reason for Noob Island is to try and get ppl to come back and pick up new ppl, I am sure if they see more intrest in the game then the Exp. will follow soon after. I have read somewhere but can't find it now that there was a Exp. in the works but they stoped work on it to fix the game 1st so who knows it might not be to far off.
I will admit that the models dont look as good as say EQ2 but as for Mobs there are a few out there that look really good and maybe that will be the next fix we will just have to wait.
OP I agree if you have not tryed VG or have not played in along time give it a shot please the more the marrier.
Assassin's like to do it in the dark and from behind.
Star Wars had the "dynamic character creater slider" before EQ2 was thinking of coming out.
Sorry man,, get your facts straight.
And if you want to push Vanguard.. don't pump up another game : /
Well fair play I think to SOE, they took it over and could easily have just left it, I'm no expert but it does appear as if they are committed to putting things right.
Ok so it still needs a lot of work, it's probably going to be a journey rather than a destination for them but compared to what it was when I tried it a year ago it has evolved into a different game, dare I say one that is quite playable and something I am happy to pay money for each month.
Yeah there are still annoying bugs, like losing chat channels when you port and armor not showing on your character then there's the really annoying bug when fighting multiple mobs when even though you kill a mob it still stays up and red but you still are targeted on it. and don't even get me started on the games font!!
All these things need to be fixed but it's not going to happen overnight, trial island for me is certainly a way forward and a big tick in the box for SOE, without it I wouldn't have come back and would have missed out.
I think SOE are going about it the right way, you have to walk before you can run, and clearly the game still needs plenty of bugs fixing and some final polish adding, so whilst I can imagine there are lots of bored frustrated loyal veteran VG players out there who crave new content, I think the best step forward is to get a fully working VG platform that turns it's player base back onto it, once that is all fixed, the player base will slowly begin to increase, as that injects more new revenue into the game, then surely it is a no brainer to SOE to look at more end game content and who know's perhaps one day there might well be an expansion, but that I would imagine is quite some way off.
One thing that is clear if you look at the "Games in Development" list on the left, there really aren't many left, AOC failed, WAR is still in it's honeymoon period, WOTLK lands in Novemeber so those looking for somethng new really only have Aion, Spellborn and Darkfall to pin their hopes on.
There is a big gap in the market for a game to step up and actually challenge WoW, I know so many players who play WoW because there is nothing else they can get into, (I until I refound VG was one of them) maybe it's WAR that will challenge WoW or maybe it's one of the games still being developed, I just hope Vangard can be made into the game it should have been at launch, if only for the reason that it actually owes itself to be a half decent game.
I've seen a few people state that VG looks plastic. Perhaps it's the settings you're playing with? I play at max settings and the game certainly doesn't look plastic to me. I think it's a beautiful game. I don't get it.
Those are very nice pics. Kojan human females are hot!
The texture on that model right there is extreme plasticky. Just kinda proved his point by posting that right there
Well, it is in the eye of the beholder. It does look plasticky if one isn't playing at the maxed out settings. I for one cannot play on maxed settings but then again I didn't start playing for the graphics but for the game features.
That being said, maxed out VG graphics look really good.
First of all, I havent played VG since January, so my opinions are based on screenshots, and I have looked at a LOT of them. IMHO, characters look even worse now than before. It's hard to point out what the problem with them is but they just look.. weird, unnatural and definitely not good. And the plastic crash dummy look is still there. I think the major problem with VG graphics has always been skins and animations, not models. I like VG, I think it's a good game, but I have to agree that a lot of its graphics look utterly horrible. Most of the landscapes look amazing though, especially on Kojan. It just shows what a ramshackle crew of devs Sigil had... some apparently very talented but others totally hopeless. It's like that garage band you had in high school where you couldn't get rid of the totally hopeless singer cause he was your childhood friend...
I humbly stand corrected yet again regarding the sliders, OP has been corrected" next time i will be sure to get my facts straight " LOL =D
and regarding pumping up another game ????????? not sure what other game i was pumping.
and thank you for everyone else's welcomes
No you're missing the point. The game could have 57,000 sliders and each one could slightly alter the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue length, nostril hair or whatever by a a few millimeters and it still wouldnt make it any better. The point I was making is not that it doesnt have enough controls to change things but that those controls have such a tiny effect on the character model that its not even worth using them.
In your examples you show one customised character for the thestran human and the woodelf. That doesnt show variety at all. It just shows that one model from each race looks virtually same as all models from that race. The fact remains that all thestran humans will look like all the other thestran humans and the same goes for the wood elves. The only good thing Vanguard has going for it in this area is the fact that it has a large number of races to choose from so it reduces the chances of you meeting another clone of yourself if you see someone from the same race. Also the armour you wear helps to disguise it as well. This is all a bit of a cop out though as the models themselves still look virtually identical no matter how many of those 57 sliders you tweak. The character models look more varied in WoW which is kind of amusing really. The only reason you dont notice this so much is because it has less races available. The sliders are just an illusion and I'm really surprised people actually think they do anything.
Here is a challenge for you. Create 5 thestran humans that belong to the same character class and show us how different they all look. Remember though that you cannot simply just rely on changing the hairstyle because you did say that WoW customization options were poor because the only way characters look different was because of their hair styles. So show us the variety in faces and bodies that you can achieve with these magical 57 sliders.
No Neonwire I think Your missing the point. You ask for 5 examples, well i could give you 5,000 examples but if you insist that this : http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/marcelmichael/ScreenShot_00008JPG.jpg
"looks virtually same" as this : http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/marcelmichael/ScreenShot_00036.jpg
and that "The sliders are just an illusion and I'm really surprised people actually think they do anything."
Then you have determined to yourself : Im gonna believe what i want to believe, regardless of what i see.
And at this point I have no ill feelings toward you, I wish you all the luck in whatever game suites you.
With the mild hostility i recieved on this thread i feel i promped to repeat my original disclaimer:
The aforementioned commentary of each game is just my opinion and I by no means am trying to change the minds of anyone concerning there beloved games. Just speaking my experience with each game and many a player are sure to differ, I acknowledge my views and opinions are no more valid than anyone elses, to each there own, peace=)
Well, it is in the eye of the beholder as was said. It doesn't look plasticky to me. There are variations in skin tone on the model. She is very fair with an faint olive tint. The eyes have a lot of detail including highlights and lashes. The inside of her ears have a pinkish shading that simulates light shining through. You can see the underlying structures on the neck. And all that is done without excessive shading on the skin which seems like a shortcut some games use.
Can you post a screenshot close up of a model from an mmo that is not plastiky so I can see the difference?
Well said ,I agree 100 % .It's really great you took the time to give a view of Vanguard .I find much subjective negativity from people ...who haven't played for a year ...it's actually ridiculous .The funniest response in this thread is the guy saying " I'm going back to AOC "....trying to compare the PVE experience in Vanguard to AOC is a joke
I really don't feel the need to constantly defend Vanguard anymore ...everything you said about it is true.The Isle of Dawn is popular and more and more people are playing it and staying
People don't have to play it ..thats there choice .There are more than enough people on the server I play on ,.Halgar ,to ensure I can group and adventure with .And Halgar is the least most populated PVE server
They are adding more high level content to Vanguard with Pantheon of Ancients as right now only APW offers challenging raiding.I love the quest systems and,the massive immersive world .Vanguard for me is like playing Oblivion but in an MMO sense
I also encourage all to try it
See you in Telon
"after the time of dice came the day of mice "
Have they added alternative character customization for classes yet?
As before this consisted of 5 or so sliders for things like int, str, sta, etc.
Which essentially meant that for some classes there were no differences btw characters created by differenet people, my Rogue was exactly identical to a rogue ceated by someelse beside look and armor.
In every other MMO there are ways to customise your class(short example is WoW's talents) has this been added yet?
What about Star Wars Galaxies? Still the most extensive character creation options of any MMO, before or since. But I agree with your opinions. Good post.
I remember in beta, Vanguard had a lot more options in it's character creation. Like the ability to make your character extreemly fat.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
Just give up trying to save VG already! I played for nearly a year in closed beta then for months in release. the game was only a means to fuel Brad McQuaid's drug habit and nothing more.
Let this game die or go to the hard core fans. Stop defending a failed game.
I guess this message was intended for Sony since they are the ones not letting it die.
I will continue paying money for what I choose no matter what your opinion is of the product....12 months later?
Just not worth my time anymore.
Yeah and I would never hire anyone to a position in my company who has been 12 years old earlier in their life, because geez who would want a 12 year old working for them? Not me.
Nice post Teradyne. I came from the same background: EQ > EQ2 > WoW. I've tried other games either by preorder or trials but nothing stuck.
Aside from the graphical qualilty and the amount of things you can do is the true RPG aspect of it. You can fly out to a remote island, build a house, set up a forge and make weapons and armor from around the world.
It's not as fast paced as WoW but is more complex and if you can enjoy the imersion it's a great game.
Just not worth my time anymore.
I like Vanguard and agree with many Vanguard related things you said in this post but I do not like how you have reviewed Vanguard by first telling us all the things you dont like about other games.