It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Telon server very active and lots of players running aorund and chat is very active too. I was actually quite surprised when i saw players even in the most far away parts of the map. I have been playing for over a week now and just hit lvl 10 in adventure as well as diplomacy and crafting.
Game is huge and diplomacy especially levers system is quite complex. Crafting though is the most addictive part of the game. Considering that i spend 60 bucks on GW2 and last for three weeks in that game, i subbed for 3 months for VG. Best value for the money i got in any game so far.
I went in with zero expectations and i think that new F2P changes has infused new life into this game. If you want to play an active Vanguard with loads of people. Now will be the best time.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
Comments
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
6 years ago I bought the collector's edition of Vanguard.....still on my main account..... Im in! see you after the
download.
Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past or how lofty your aims and hopes may be.
-Napoleon Hill-
I bought 3 months myself about 2 weeks ago and having fun. Playing on the EU server so population is quite low although i have nothiced the last week or so more and more people seem to be playing. When I started I would see someone every couple of hours or so and yesterday was in a group of 4 people with other wandering around.
It is certainly rough around the edges, graphics are a bit outdated but the game is fun and is huge. I love that you have 3 ways to level up a character and it doesn't have to just be a combat game. It will cetainly keep me occupied for a while.
699 people online right now during primetime saturday on the US server Telon
307 of them were between level 1 - 20
180 of them were between 21 - 50
212 between 51 - 55
Still hell of a lot better than before it went F2P but I wouldn't exactly put it in the "a lot" category
Some might say well 699 is a lot because that's 699 people I can group with har! Problem is the vast majority is in the lower level bracket (this is where the population seems to be booming giving a false indication it's like that all over the place). Once you hit 30 onward to 40 it's slim pickings. 77 people between 21 - 30, 64 people from 31 to 40 and the numbers just dwindle until you hit that magic 55 where the population picks up again. That's not just how it is today it's been like this for years. Then you have to discount those that only play for diplomacy and crafting, which granted are a relative figure, but a lot of people really have little interest in adventuring, precisely because diplomacy and crafting are major plusses compared to other MMOs. As you can see the pool of people you can draw from to enhance your experience really is quite small. Best way to enjoy VG is to bring a friend or three
To me Vanguard has always and will always have its population as its achilles heel. That will unfortunally never change
True. 7 or 8 PM is when it's at its highest but the numbers doesn't double up during those hours unfortunally. Would be great if it did
Did Vanguard kill your cat or something ? Your assumptions are just wrong... Most people who play vanguard have many alts and there is a ton to do in the game.. When you look for a group at a specific level range, people switch over to alts all the time... its really not that hard to get groups anymore... its easy. Compared to this time last year when Skyrim was in full swing, population is a ton better...
I have played vanguard on and off since launch and I have not seen this much activity since 08-09. I am not sure what the active numbers per server were back then, but the activity level is rivaling that timeframe...
I did a lot of /who all counts prior to 'retiring' over 2 years ago. At that time, the game was in full decline and at prime-time there were less that 200 people online... never more.
So seeing all the people online now is very encouraging.
Headcounts don't lie unfortunally. Something you are more than free to do yourself if you doubt what's written. you can't really assume something that can be counted.
Oh and the token
This is pretty accuracte and in line with my own checks. During double xp weekends you could at most see 400 people. There's no doubt F2P has upped the number by 300 - 400 people. All anyone have to do is check and see.
I played the game at launch and even back then it was difficult if not impossible to find people to group with in the special loot grinding areas. You know the places where you have to grind until you get rare drops in order to put together your special armor sets?
The friends I made in-game at the time were too keen to just grind to endgame rather than spend time in those areas. It was faster exp to grind solo quests rather than camp the group areas. At its core, Vanguard was accidentally designed to discourage grouping (until max level) and as a result the game community suffered.
It's been years and I don't know if they rebalanced it so that soloing is a slower grind as it should be. Anyone notice what the current trend is for leveling up in Vanguard these days? I would imagine it stayed the same due to the population issues.
Sadly they sped up XP curve and made it even faster.. although you can Turn XP off. All the big areas have multiple grps running per night.
This is the best I have seen VG pop-wise since 08
So what was the intended active connections per server at launch ? What was the game designed for...? Posting numbers is a complete waste of time if you are not playing and do not get how people play the game...
Your posts are filled with opinion around your numbers and the opinions you are stating ( for example: how many people there are to grp with ) which are flat out wrong and do not map to the behavior if you actually play vanguard.. which you obviously don't.
I don't doubt your numbers and thankful people are looking at that.. but it is clear:
Counts are up nearly 2x of last year
Counts do not explain how hard / easy it is to get a grp for a specific area, just because folks are online it does not "count" folks that logoff and grab an alt to do a dungeon ( everyone in vanguard has multiple characters )
The population has definitely improved. I've even had to compete with other players for some mobs! Never seen that before!
Some of the things I like about it:
- doing diplomacy in the major cities can give buffs to players who go to those cities. It's fun to bump up the diplomacy in the cities, to help other players get buffs
- player housing, that is NOT in an instance. Your house is in the same wide open, virtual world as everything else
- crafting is useful. I buy lots of player-made stuff off the auction house for my alts.
- the crafting, diplomacy, and fishing mini-games make these activities interesting. Not crafting like hit a button, more like playing a card game, with required counter-actions needed for situations that come up during crafting. Same for diplomacy. Fishing is more twitch based. Although not really a sandbox, I guess, these activities let me decide what I want to do when I play.
------------
2024: 47 years on the Net.
The headcount doesn't lie. It shows more people online than have been in years and years. Which means it would be easier to group than in years and years. Is it as easy to group as with a random dungeon finder mechanic? No. Are you going to always get a group for the exact quest you want? No. Will you be more likely to get a group at your level range? Yes. Have people been exibiting behavior such as switching to alts or mentoring? Yes.
Is it easy to group in Vangaurd? Depends on what you define as 'easy'.
It's easier than finding mid-lvl groups in EQ. It's a lot harder than getting a group in WoW.
Is it easier to group in vanguard than it has been in years? Yes, no question.
well said sir.
I havent seen any numbers from SOE, but I'd imagine f2p has alot to do with that......
Yup he is probably the only one of the two of you that actually made sense and has a point, which is why I'm not going to comment on it
But we are in dire need of more comments from people that don't play vanguard ... No really !!