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I fail to see how this game is superior to Vanguard
Dear fellow EQ 1 players:
Please help me understand why you would choose to play EQ over Vanguard SOH, which I feel is the spirtual successor to EQ (much better successor than EQ2) ?
I am getting the fall time itch to play a fantasy mmo and I have no problem subbing to the older games (even considering UO), because I understand what I want in a game. However, I feel that Vanguard and Eq are conceptually simlar ..... the difference being that Vanguard is seamless and has flying mounts 
/discuss.
Comments
Well I think you're 10 years too late lol. You can't compare the two any more. EQ has 20x more content, extremely good and tight community (though it is now small) and it was the best back in the day.
EQ is not easy to get back into. I tried to do so a few years ago and found it hard without a group of friends or a good guild. The game is very endgame based now.
VG is NOW a good game. I played it at start but the game had zero end game content....well 1 or 2 dungeons. I beat the hell out of it in 3 months, then quit. It was very buggy back then too. It is not refined and is a decent game.
You can't compare the two really. VG never was the successor of EQ, it was meant to be, but never achieved that level. In my honest opinion, give VG a shot. You will find EQ very hard to get into, though I believe EQ is the better game.
By the way, the flying mounts in VG are not very well implemented like they are in WoW. The game doesn't revolve around the flying mounts, they are just for looksies and slightly quicker travel.
Vanguard is a better successor to EQ1 than EQ2 is, that I fully agree. I was once a full on VG fanboy for 1 full year from open beta. But unfortunately VG fell short the minute Sigil released the game unfinished, and the whole SOE takeover started. So VG right now, imo, is not a true successor to EQ1. It's an "almost a successor" but not quite.
Now we all know Brad modeled Vanguard after EQ1, so in a way VG has many of the designs similar to EQ1 and it does have an EQ1 feel. But where Vanguard fell short are:
1. Lore - No matter how you cut it, Vanguard isn't "Everquest". So even if VG tried to do things such as putting in a jboots quest, it still doesn't make it an EQ. Vanguard's lore died when they axed the team, let go of their lore guy, and the lore ingame would be best described as something pieced together by 5 different teams with no coherent understanding of each other. I think most everybody would agree the lore in VG is really confusing and lost in the mix.
Steve "Aruspex" was going to attempt to blend lore from Diplomacy into adventuring sphere, but unfortunately he was also let go. That imo was one of the biggest mistakes they made.
2. Content - There's no comparison, and yes of course EQ1 is older and has had 15 expansions. But content release cycles in VG is very slow, and the amount of things you can do to advance your characters is very limited. PoTA in itself gave a very mixed reaction from VG's playerbase. Many raiders have given up because it has been 2 years since the last raid content release. Many casuals have given up because of the amount of grind involved in the new 5 levels. There's still no AA's, no well thoughout progression, with many re-used content and not a whole lot of "new" exciting things currently. Content is a big issue with Vanguard today, but it does have to do with the size of the dev team also.
3. Tradeskills - Vanguard's tradeskills is the only one that my g/f and I couldn't stomach. Grinding consignments got old really fast. While initially it seemed like a good idea, but in reality when you look around the crafting tables, you only see a bunch of bots. Crafting was another thing that took them quite awhile to develop, fix, and update. Again, this has to do with releasing the game unfinished and having a small dev team currently. The best part about VG crafting was chopping the trees down... never got old for me, it was simply cool.
4. Classes - EQ1's classes are better balanced, both in terms of class vs class, as well as class vs content.
5. Performance - Vanguard today still has small glitches and lag that can eventually grow old on you, really fast. Engine/coding issues plagued the game from launch 'til now. It's amazing the game still doesn't have Anti-Aliasing built-in, the jagged edges make the game look worse than it needs to be.
6. History/Nostalgia - A game with a long history, in EQ1's sense, 10 years long, is hard to beat. You can easily get immersed into the game, and get very attached to a character that you've "grown". So while you may quit for awhile, you get that pull and itch to want to go back to the character you had, and play what new content is in new expansions. This played a big role and is a big reason why EQ1 has seen a steady flow of players come & go. Character building is a big part of EQ1.
With a game like Vanguard, even though it's 2 years old, when people quit that game they probably aren't as attached to their characters. So you have small chances of people going back to check it out later. Even when people do go back, with slow content releases, sometimes you go back to a game you know with little changes.
But hey, I'm not a VG hater. I'm simply disappointed that VG missed the chance to become a real EQ1 successor. Good things about Vanguard are:
1. Graphics - Obviously, it's got today's graphics, the game looks simply beautiful.
2. Flying mounts - You mentioned it, flying mounts are cool no matter what game you play. I mean who wouldn't want to fly?
3. Ships/housing - Two great features in VG, but under utilized, never fully developed. Houses on the outside look the same, boats overshadowed by riftways and flying mounts.
4. Ability to cast while moving, always a favorite part of the gameplay that I liked.
==
All in all, it really comes down to content and depth. Both games offer similar gameplay in terms of dungeon crawls and abilities to grind for exp instead of quest-on-a-rail. But where VG fails to deliver is content and longevity, and that it isn't "Everquest" so it never fully attracted that audience Brad was shooting for.
Now what would be cool...is to put the face of VG on top of an EQ1 content/lore/gameplay. That would be an amazing game.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
I still really like EQ. I like the familiarity of the old places and the excitement of new expansions as they are released. I like the people who are still playing EQ, also. I like the low sys specs that make it possible to play on any computer in our house, even the old laptop.I zone pretty quickly, anyway, so that doesn't bother me.
When I play a game that feels similar enough to EQ, it just gives me the urge to go play EQ. (EQ2 isn't one of those games, FWIW. EQ1 is from Mars and EQ2 is from Venus.
)
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
Everquest is grossly superior to Vanguard, it has at least six times the players. Both games require grouping for the good content and Everquest has groups, Vanguard has no one playing and never will.
Everquest has a dev team and still gets paid expansions. That pretty much ends the need to compare the two games any further.
If you can't see how EQ os superior to Vanguard you aren't trying. Vanguard is on its way to cancellation EQ may get a Classic server and put a bullet between the turds eye....Vanguard.
Betamax was superior compared to VHS ... but look who won. I really don't know why people are continuing to shovel money into EQ and this is coming from someone that devoted countless hours into EQ.
The only reasonable explaination that I can come up with is you can't enjoy VG without a powerful computer. but to say EQ in its current state is superior to any other MMO is insanely flawed. The one thing EQ had going for it was it's lore and highly immersive world however the game lost that expansions and years ago.
I have played both EQ1 and Vanguard since beta, EQ2 also, I have stopped playing everything, tried everything that comes out, and always seem to go back to EQ1 for a bit. Vanguard I never really liked, went back last year when SOE gave me a free month, tried it still coulndt get into it. Same with EQ2. I have real friends that still play Vanguard and EQ2. Trying to talk em into EQ1 again. But if not I might just have to finally break down and actually play with others, something I just dont do. Sigh, anyone on the Drinal server? lol
As somone else said. The current game is no where near as good as more recent ones. The interface is outdated, and the combat system is boring. Also, barely anyone plays anymore.
Ok, we all know EQ1 is years ahead of VG from a content standpoint.
So lets compare EQ 1 (its first 2 years) with VG as it is now. In EQ's first 2 years since released, I felt more drawn into it compared to VG. The content alone already surpassed VG in its current state. EQ has had more impact on me with its first 2 years because back then even raiding wasn't such a big deal ( Plane of Fear/Hate/Sky ftw!) But if you did raid the process took endless amounts of time because it took forever getting a complete armor set with all your guildies going after it, and to make it worse, raid zones werent instanced back in those days so different guilds had to share or compete for loot drops. But you could still have fun enjoying every aspect of the game whether its selling your twinked loot in east commons or in greater faymart, to crafting ( I hated it, but it played a major role since it was almost equivalent to raid gear back then and still is today), to just finding groups to grind your levels (I remembered the "wait" list back in High Hold Keep waiting in line just to get into those goblin rooms for the best exp, or head out to South Karana out in the open waiting for the gnoll spires or KFC tree, or the Hillgiants in Rathe Mountains for platinum farming, and asking for buffs from every class possible before I set out on my journey) to questing. You actually have to interact with NPC's for information and to get the story to develop. There was no such thing as a quest log, so you had to remember or write down all the quests you've taken up. With Kunark's release and the "epic" weapons in play, it was just awesome. No help from GM's, every class had to come together with any information about how to get the story started. It made me feel like there was a purpose of me being in the game. The faction system played a major role in EQ. You had to be careful who you allied yourself with, and the penalty was severe (killing the two guards in west commonlands at the pay toll was fun
), it kept me on my toes with NPC's from opposing factions and racial enemy cities/outposts. (Way better than how its like now...You just grind faction to get new quests for loot and progression, although I sound hypocritical due to the epic weapons you needed high faction to start it and was/is considered progression) It just gotten worse though. Another thing that was truely UNIQUE about this game was the GM made events. They actually came in the game and brought everyone together, jsut for fun. Santa Clog (that one ogre guy dressing up as santa, cant really remember the correct spelling) He came out in the deserts of Ro running around and just started dropping mad loot everywhere or the time when the GM played Iksars running around East Commonlands ( I think 
) Terrorizing noobs until guilds from the server gathered their might to face them (the zone maxxed out at 200 people, it was lag hell. people got kicked out of the server. it was fun) Or the time when GM's played a darkelf lady and came into Kithicor Woods and turned everything into undeads during the night time. Or the time when my guildie became a "chosen one" in Rathe Mountains bearing the nickname dragon slayer. He was given a special sword from the GM's and became the protagonist having to strike down dragons that flew from the sky. It was just the gameplay, everything was still "PERFECT." Ahh the fun memories 
. Gimme my classic server!
During my time playing VG, I've had lots and lots of fun no doubt. IMO it was more fun when it first released compared to now. Although buggy (from what people said, I never really had any problems other than falling under the world but didnt happen a lot), every area I explored had people. It was full of life, the world was big, faster travel time with mounts at low levels, crafting is superbly done right with a downside (that being...every guild has crafters, so for the soloist people crafting it was hard to make a living from crafting, also the OLD crafting system was just so much better, for example turning in work orders gives you a chance to recieve ANY crafting recipes and being able to trade or sell them for the ones you need compared to doing rediculous amounts of work orders and have a .001% (don't actually know the % rate, but it was extremely low) chance of getting sigils I personally went from level 28 weaponsmith to level 42 and not even getting any sigils, but with the old system from level 21 to 27 I recieved 2 different crafting recipes) I also hate the fact that they let anyone deconstruct items for crafting materials, but in the old system only crafters could. The quest lines and story are great, but I felt like being a mercenary, just accepting or declining quests for rewards or money or both. The game doesnt MAKE-FORCE you to interact. And by that I mean actually having to type sentences or getting more information from NPC's (which all current games are like now) All the details are in the quest box, it was made to be TOO easy. It kills the fun factor for me. Diplomacy was something totally different, I got confused with the card game. But once I found out how it works...It was a nice change, and they made it to be very enjoyable. The only thing I honestly hate about diplomacy was when they made you level it up in order to get your guild hall plot. I remembered at the housing areas you can purchase the plot right then and there for 10-30 platinum? (honestly forgot the price) I was able to save up enough money all by myself to purchase the guildhall plot, but a week later they put the patch up and took out the guildhall plots completely to revamp it and make it have a connection with diplomacy.
I've enjoyed both games and played it in every way possible from crafting to questing to raiding I done em all. And when it comes down to it, EQ1 (2 years in, not how its like now) still captures me in so many different ways compared to VG. The experiences may be kinda the same (VG being its "true" sequel) There's just something I can't get in VG that I could from EQ1. I would choose EQ1 over VG any day no question about it. I just wish they offer free veteran months like how VG do. But now EQ1 is so different and they've really made it into an MMORPG thats not EQ anymore (having to feed only the raiding hardcores), its just so sad.
Edit: The graphics doesnt play a huge role for me, I don't choose games to play just because it has superior graphics. Its the gameplay that makes the difference. Hell I'd still choose UO's 2D graphics over most new games out there today!