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After playing VG again (have station anyway), I felt, despite the flaws, it still is a game worth to be saved. If we are honest here, the game is on the verge of being closed. The merge is kinda the last change, and if this fails, what then? I still feel the classes, the combat and many other things are good enough to justify saving it. However, IMVPO Vanguard REALLY needs to leave behind some semi-religious "do's and dont's", and quickly. There are some things people in modern MMOs are used to. We have to accept that. As we see, and as is OFFICIALLY admitted, VG is not even a niche now, its a niche of a niche, based on the number of ppl playing it now. So, I think "extreme" measures are more than justified. This is a list of things I felt VG needs. Again, yes. Call it my last approach to give some input to save VG.
I do NOT include bug cleaning or lag. Why? First, it has been said many time, and second, there are many bug-ridden and laggy MMOs who still thrived for a long time. SWG in the first year was terribly bug ridden and is STILL quite laggy, and despite all this many people played and enjoyed it a long time. I just dont think its the real issue many people never even tried VG.
A) SHORT TERM GOALS
1. Raise loot drop and quest rewards. I am serious about this. I never have seen a game with so many misers as quest NPCs and such poor loot drop. Especially in the first 10-15 levels people need to feel good, they need cool, nice things to be given. What we have now, is one of the most shabby loot/reward I have seen! The first 2 dozen quests in Khal for instance give all boots, belts and gloves, all the smalles parts on the body with silly look, all look the same and NOTHING to really enjoy. New boots looking 1 wee bit brighter than the one before. yay. It was a lesson EQ2 had already gone through. People DONT want to loot rat teeth, zombie brains and vulture livers!
2. Spit out more coin, especially in the first 15 or so levels. The starter game experience must be good, poople must get some money to buy things. As it is now, you can buy nothing with the meager coin you make in the beginning. Not that noobs should get rich, but thats really, really poor atm.
3. Radar and real map. People want to know where they are. Period. I dont discuss this. Look which games prosper and which dont. Make it so you can deactivate this, but give it to those MANY MANY who are used to it.
4. Take out Corpse Run. The vast majority of players is not used to it and APPARENTLY doesnt want it. Its called "voting by feet" - they go! If you really want some death penality, make it like WOW or old EQ2 where you are a ghost. The CR just makes the chance too big you can loose more money and XP in an evening than you gain, and NO ONE want to log out with a bad feeling. I feel this is a BIG fun killer for many potantial gamers today. Almost 100% of EQ1 vets I know in my quite big EQ2 guild, who played EQ1 a long time, told me they didnt try out VG because they dont want a CR anymore today.
5. Stop fighting gold sellers. For now. Whatever your "moral" is about, a game without gold sellers is a dead game. If some people want to buy gold, well so be it. At this time we need EVERYONE. EVERY bit to ease the game must be accepted. We can tighten rules later again. Without players the entire moral debate about gold selling is superficial anyway.
6. Allow ppl to take more than 20 quests.
7. Creatures should not follow you all over the world. Give players a chance to escape, even without burst run.
MID/LONG TERM GOALS
1. Make a story for the world and connect the quests with it. Overall make the quests less Everquestish, where all quests are totally exchangable. Quests should have meaning and further a story. Its not so difficult to rewrite some of the quests texts as start.
2. Add voiceover. People expect this 2007. Its just so old fashioned to have to read everything. Maybe EQ2 spoilt me, but thats how I feel. Oh and lip synch of course.
3. Add some instances. FEW. None you can enter often. Use them only to tell stories with small scripted events, as LOTRO does. I dont want ppl "vanish" in the instances as DAoC, where suddenly the world was empty. But if you use instances sparsly, you can do some great storytelling.
4. Rework the entire starter quests. A new player needs to be lead and introduced to the world and his class, as EQ2, WOW or LOTRO do. You get lore about your race, your region and info about you. As it is now, you are plunged into a world and "good luck see for yourself". Guide new players to understand their class, race and region.
5. Guided questlines. I feel they work great to give you something to understand the world gradually. You can still roam free, as LOTRO does. But you CAN follow a guided storyline which covers the entire world. I never felt connected to most parts of Telon, because there was only a vast selection of quests and most told me zero about the regional and global "story" going on. Put some more soul into those icy-cold & sterile quests.
6. Rework Journal and Guild window, to see the info better. The EQ2 journal and guild window are a good example. People, who have quests, should find which quest they can/want to do when they log in easily. That includes giving a better way to sort them by type, region, reward, difficulty asf. The current journal is utterly primitive.
7. Focus on making local teleporters, instead of a rift system or anything the like. The idea is, there are teleporters, some in cities/villages, some in the wild, and you have to unlock them, by reaching them once on your own. Basically, like the WOW griffins. Make one porter in each area, and several in each dungeon, so once you reached a certain new dungeon area you can get there again.
8. Rework some of the textures. I found especially those on flat areas, like elements of buildings, bridges asf look especially bland. Working with light, shadow, colour would do the game great in order to make the landscape and architecture feel more with atmosphere and soul. There are too many textures looking like plastic.
I am sure some may not agree, but I feel we are in a situation where we have little choice but to dare a real change of paradima. To save the game we HAVE to sacrifice much of the "vision". Now.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
Normally I'm a smart ass but I have to agree with all your points.
Some more to add for PVP FFA.
Make it so you cannot kill your guild mates/affiliated guild mates or anyone that is in your friends list unless you hit an additional key. This would take care of alot of accidental killings.
Give us more choices where to spawn besides your bind point or the closest alter. AKA SWG. This would keep alter camping low.
Get rid of the xp loss on death. Sux when you lose xp cause you CDT
If you fall through the world you don't die!
Make flyable mounts last longer and make them so players can own them at lvl 50
Unchain alot of the NPC's in the wild. It's stupid the way they mob the NPC's together and makes solo play unfun and a bitch. Making everyone group is one of the many reasons the game died. People just want to come home and have fun. Not look for groups all damn night.
Make matching armor sets easier to get at lower lvls. Sux to have to look like you got your armor from a garage sale all the time.
Make the crafting system so you get xp for making stuff for people.
Make it easier to get mats.
Allow more than 10 items to be placed for sale by one toon. Would drive the cost down on alot of items. Also be nice to be able to post on the exchange what items you have for sale in your house.
Make it so we can have cannons on ships. Why not? it would be fun. hmm fun wow now that is a concept.
Fix whatever the problems are with the 8800 cards!!! That in itself would bring alot of peeps back
Several of the OP's suggestions are spot on. My biggest problem with VG was simply that I wasn't having fun ( along with the low population problem... ).
Correcting some of the problems mentioned would increase the fun factor by a healthy amount.
The clock's ticking for this game, let's see if SOE can pull a save out of their hat......
Really good goals i would really like to see them achieve some if not all of these most of these things are the reason i quit
I find myself in agreement with a few suggestions. I think there should be two, and primarily two, priorities. I totally disagree with the idea of allowing gold sellers, though. It has really inflated the economy badly, esp. on PvP servers.
Merge the servers - they are doing this very soon.
Revamp end-game content. They could with a degree of simplicity provide very deep, fun, lore enriched solo heroic epic quests, similar to that based on Everquest 1. The market for this is huge. An AA-point system for desperately needed character customization and to keep people playing the game at max level. GM events. Something fun. Go nuts. Make sure all get rewards, somehow.
Boycott EA Games. RIP Sim City.
This game has IMPROVED ALOT in terms of FPS. Here's the setup of my rig:
BFG Nvidia 680i SLi (not in SLi mode.)
ATi 2900 XT 512 MB from Visiontek.
2 GB Nvidia SLi Cert memory
75 GB Raptor HDD
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platium.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Yep, this game skyrocketed up against the roof big time in terms of FPS. I cranked the graphic to max and it ran great. I would say like 45 FPS to 50 FPS. Its all good.
All they need to do is add more content to this game, tweak the animation a bit more, and then that should do.
MY 2 CENTS.
I absolutely agree with the drop rates, and not just for lower levels. My experience with ridiculously low drops came mostly while I was trying to get my armor set from Wardship of the Sleeping Moon. Seriously, by the time I would have gotten all the pieces and everything I needed to make my armor, it would have been outdated! That's just not fun and the feeling that I was wasting my time completely is one of the reasons why I stopped playing.
Edit: Oh, and yes I do think the game is worth saving. When PotBS comes out, I plan on hitting up Station Pass for at least one month to check and see if things have improved.
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Sorry I have to disagree with the OP. It sounds like he wishes to turn this into WoW. As I have stated many times this game is not WoW and those that play WoW will not enjoy this game. I was in beta on this game and the people in beta and the devs worked hard to make this game the challenge it is. There are some things that are still in the works to be released since the game was forced out early but those items will not change the overall play/feel of the game.
All items the OP wishes to change will make this game in to a WoW clone. NO THANK YOU.
If you like WoW this much please go play it.
A MMO is like life. It is something to cherish and enjoy upon in it journey. So why race to the end of it. In life at the end you die.
Second, I REALLY thought we were BEYOND this "if you like WOW-ideas go play WOW". Apparently 95% of former VG players DID, so now what?
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
the only thing the game really needs is more players.. being in a world so big by yourself kinda sucks...
sadly i dont think this will happen anytime soon.. maybe with the server merge.
This game is already fun loads of quests to do.. but no one to do them with..
Second, I REALLY thought we were BEYOND this "if you like WOW-ideas go play WOW". Apparently 95% of former VG players DID, so now what?
and 95% of the people still playing VG are glad they did. I hear this daily from people not only in my guild but in general chat, so as long as I am not the only person saying it then no we are not beyond this. The people left in VG do not want to be "babysitters" and yes one of my guildmates actually said this and are glad this game is too much of a challenge for children to play like WoW is easy for them to play.
A MMO is like life. It is something to cherish and enjoy upon in it journey. So why race to the end of it. In life at the end you die.
i dont agree with the upping of loot. and i can't believe you think that gold sellers are a good thing.
the reason i say this is after player eq for 7 years wow for 18 months and now eq2 and VG, i can see what long term effects it has on economy. i left wow as i felt no need to kill for cash anymore! the game got boring as i had nothing to head for. you only needed a small amount of cash to buy the best items on sale. the reason was there was so much cash in the game that people had to sell items for virtually nothing. the same happened in eq. gold sellers ruin one of the most important aspects of mmorg's progression, be it levels or saving money for that next upgrade. if you have the economy soaked in gold then every player has the top items in no time and the game goes stale.
i am not knocking your opinions friend! i think a lot of the other idea's you have are great. just i think a lot of people dont realise just why we hate gold sellers and bots so much.
cutting off your nose to spite your face?
I would rather hear everyone say they want it like WoW (and the Dev's not do it) keeping them here. than to tell them to all bugga off and be left with just me on the server...
Tyi
_____________________
Played:
Aion, All Points Bulletin, ArchLord, Champions Online, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, EverQuest II, Fallen Earth, Fantasy Earth Zero, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Lineage 2, Lord of the Rings Online, Metin 2, MU Online, RF Online, Ryzom, Silkroad Online, Star Trek Online, Star Wars Galaxies, The Chronicles of Spellborn and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
Awaiting: FFXIV and SW:TOR
theres only one thing and one thing alone that will save vanguard .... remove the monthly fee ( at least in the short term ) . at the moment the game has a terrible reputation . maybe they have improved it somewhat but i doubt like me many people will be bothered enough to give it another try unless theres a real sweatener on offer like it being free to play . i ve followed this game from the begining and i ve seen all sort of trash written by the van boys either saying my rig was too slow to run it ( ok i ve not got the fastest pc in the world but its not bad by any means and will play nearly all other recent releases without too many problems ) i ve even heard them say that they are willing to fund the games development via the monthly fee . which in my view was absolute stupidity . .... removing the monthly fee would bring players back . when the game is running more adequatly has a better population and is less bugged maybe then they could charge for it again ...... the problem was this game was released at beta testing stage . i doubt this will happen and vanguard will be closed within 6 months
Second, I REALLY thought we were BEYOND this "if you like WOW-ideas go play WOW". Apparently 95% of former VG players DID, so now what?
and 95% of the people still playing VG are glad they did. I hear this daily from people not only in my guild but in general chat, so as long as I am not the only person saying it then no we are not beyond this. The people left in VG do not want to be "babysitters" and yes one of my guildmates actually said this and are glad this game is too much of a challenge for children to play like WoW is easy for them to play.
Yeah, you and the other two ppl in VG now. LOL. Hard not become sarcastic in the face of this.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I agree with most of suggestions (if not all) raised by Elikal (better maps, journals, loot, etc).
Even with goldsellers (:)) however in this case would be nice to civilized them a little or rather to make them introduce legally to the game (put some ads on city walls or something like that) which dont disturb normal communication channels among players. Let them sponsor some of game maintainance. Fighting with them is like fight with windmills. Senseless.
I would add to suggestions better transportation system - I really hate losing my game time for running fo xx minutes for place to place. If this game is designated for mature players it means that it is for people who dont have 10 hours a day to play it. I understand that I never have one click to start having fun in adventure or craft but short this period to acceptable level.
And finally introduce this brotherhood system. It could be nice not to lose contact with your hardcore playing friends because you dont have so much time to spend time in virtual world.
Second, I REALLY thought we were BEYOND this "if you like WOW-ideas go play WOW". Apparently 95% of former VG players DID, so now what?
and 95% of the people still playing VG are glad they did. I hear this daily from people not only in my guild but in general chat, so as long as I am not the only person saying it then no we are not beyond this. The people left in VG do not want to be "babysitters" and yes one of my guildmates actually said this and are glad this game is too much of a challenge for children to play like WoW is easy for them to play.
Yeah, you and the other two ppl in VG now. LOL. Hard not become sarcastic in the face of this.
So become sarcastic. I am just relating what I hear on my server, and I do share this view. You are welcome to not be one of the 95% that are playing the game and say they love it that there is a high maturity level in the players that are still there. You have said you don't like WoW yet you want to turn this game per your orginal post into a WoW clone. I played WoW for 2 years not including beta which I was in on that as well.For example, ask yourself why do you not like WoW. Is it due to the way people playing the game act? Is it how that you level to quickly and get bored? What it is that makes you dislike WoW?
Once you can answer these questions and you don't want that in another game you wish to play then look at the other game be it VG or anything else before you say you want to turn another game into a WoW clone.
I answered these questions and more and that is why I play VG and do not wish to have your ideas become something they will do because that will bring in the lower maturity level and that will be what makes me leave the game. All other issues this game may have are nothing because I can talk and type to others that are on the same level as myself and we can relax forget real life and just have some fun. That is what a game is for to have fun isn't? I have and am raising 4 children I have to deal with one being with me in the room as I play the game why would I want to have to deal with more in the game in which I wish to relax from the one I am dealing with at home?
A MMO is like life. It is something to cherish and enjoy upon in it journey. So why race to the end of it. In life at the end you die.
I knew that if this thread went on long enough the real reason that VG has dropped to 35k subs would appear - the VG community it's self.
The nasty, elitist attitudes of *many* of the VG players that I *personally* encountered in-game shine through in some of the later postings in this thread. Ya'll don't want players that point out that some things work better in WoW than VG? Great....there goes half your possible subs.
You elitist types will reply "Good, they can stay in WoW, we like our game the way it is". However, will a gaming company sink more money into a game that doesn't turn a decent profit? Likely no, so kiss improvement and added content good bye. See how this works?
Ya'll don't get it, and that will be the reason that this game stays with such a low population.
An elitist is someone that want to have raid content and become "gods" of the game.
A mature player only wants to have fun and be able to relax and not have to hear the whiners, criers and verbal fighters within a game.
Before you call someone an "elitist" don't sound like and "elitist" yourself when you post. Unless you like being the pot calling the frying pan black that is which you did an excellent job at doing.
A MMO is like life. It is something to cherish and enjoy upon in it journey. So why race to the end of it. In life at the end you die.
An elitist is someone that want to have raid content and become "gods" of the game.
A mature player only wants to have fun and be able to relax and not have to hear the whiners, criers and verbal fighters within a game.
Before you call someone an "elitist" don't sound like and "elitist" yourself when you post. Unless you like being the pot calling the frying pan black that is which you did an excellent job at doing.
My...defensive, aren't we?
And since you have *no* idea of what I encountered while playing VG ( but here's a hint, it certainly wasn't "maturity" ) , your post is whinny and nothing else.
But thanks for helping to make my point!
stop the elitist 40 somethings from spouting crap on forums and youre moving in the right direction,e.g giving up this ridiculous notion that you must be a 85 year old rocket scientist in order to actually be able to play.
I actually enjoy vanguard,though admittedly im a new playerand only level 12,but the games actually not that bad.Ive not had any glaring performance issues other than a few graphical glitches and 1 CTD. The gameplay is pretty standard stuff,soloing seems ok.
surprised tbh.
You mind telling me what's so mature about being hyper sensitive to criticism and responding with "go away, go back to WoW, you're all whiners"? Sounds pretty fucking childish to me.
Although admittedly I see it in every game, not just Vanguard.
I am glad you are enjoying the game and I hope you continue to do so.
As for the "40 somethings" yes I am in my 40s but no I do not consider myself to be an elitist. You folks may do so I can not nor would I try to control your views.
You also have to understand as hopefully those marketing these games that people like myself are the one that helped make this industry what it is today by paying to play these various games. I have been in MUDDs, and MMOs since the mid '90s and our numbers have not decreased but increase just as those in the 30s and below have increased.
Are you saying that all games must be WoW clones just to suit the younger players while they lose money from the palyers that wish to play these games and $14 to $25 dollors a month to people like myself is nothing and we don't mind spending it. While many of the younger players struggle to pay this amount?
Why can't they make a game that is more suited to a player that just wished to relax and have fun? I have no desire to become a "god" of a game as the true meaning of an "elitist" implies. Why isn't there room in this industry for the older players? Those that wish to make games only suited for the young are the true elitist and are cutting out those that have the funds to pay for these games and not worry if they can pay the rent. Also these are the very people that helped pay for this industry that you are now asking them to remove from the the client base just becuase you wish to have a game only suited to pleasing the young and not all the players. If VG goes to where it is for the older player only then more power to VG. If other games like AoC or Warhammer or WoW wish to have the money of the younger players again more power to them.
I have more to say but lunch is over and it is time to go back to work. So go ahead and make your replies laughing at me, you are not phasing me in the least. I am just trying to voice my views and I welcome yours be they to laugh at me or try to make me angry which you have not done you have just given me more to think about to continue the debate. have a good day.
A MMO is like life. It is something to cherish and enjoy upon in it journey. So why race to the end of it. In life at the end you die.
Allowing goldsellers to run free is a receipe for disaster, Letting them in the game and ignoring them gives them control of the economy and they destroy the game. Look at lineage2 a great game that was very popular at one point, now all you get when you ask about it is information about how goldfarmers control all the best farming areas and ruin the game for everyone else.
Many people do like vanguard the way it is, and I feel it should keep the core elements. Loot drops could be a bit better earlier on in the game. On my characters I can cope at the moment, but im not doing great. Later on increased/better drops would remove the need for crafters which is something I like a lot about vanguard. WoW crafting is almost pointless the majority of the time until 70 where a few of the rpoffesions can equip some undergeared people.
I think some sort of compromise needs to be made between keeping the core style and ideas of the game, and making changes to attract a bigger audience. AutoAssault is closing after they did very little to try and attract a larger audience and hoped free trials and updates would be enough, it was a great game for people that liked it (myself included) but without a playerbase, there is no game, and I would much rather be playing a slightly "dumbed down" version of a game than no game at all, so I hope vanguard doesnt head the same way.