Vanguard is NOT a Clone

I see this to much so its time to try and put a crunch on it. For those who have not read up on Vanguard and immediately assume from the one or two things you did manage to read or here I am here to try and deliver some needed information. Below are listed some of the many mechanics and things with supported links with information that will be in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Hopefully this will eliminate any clone assumptions.

Diplomacy: A sphere like adventuring and crafting. It will have its own experience bar and its own set of classes. It will be used to help run regular cities as well as player made cities. Diplomats will be the politicians of the MMO world. Being needed for regulating business as well as gaining permission to build player made cities on a given plot.

Here is a good write up by Havelock of Vanguard Silky Venom.

Perception is another new thing being added. It is a skill that players use to detect the actions of their opponent. It is a very important skill in combat as combat will involve you personally making decisions on what to do that will influence the outcome. Do you intercept the creature attacking your cleric or do you complete that powerful combination attack?

Perception is also used to learn some skills from creatures. Maybe you need to learn a special attack that only a certain creature knows. By watching that creature and perceiving what he is doing you could possibly learn that attack. Based on class of course. Its also a vital skill in traveling.

Here is an interview at Gamespot with Sigil CEO Brad McQuaid where he talks a bit about Perception.

The Adventuring sphere will show to have more tactical combat. You will have to think about what you are doing and play smart. Many things can happen during the course of combat. Your decision will influence the outcome and determine success or failure. Hitting auto attack and grabbing a coke is gonna get you killed.

For a great detailed write up in summery of all three as well as a few other things. I send you to Vanguard Silky Venom again and to Havelock's Fanguard Report 1-5.

Advanced Encounter System is what instancing got the axe for. ((Thank god)) The A.E.S. is a system that is activated by a group by either acquiring a rare drop item and using it or by killing a certain mob. There may be other ways it is all still in development. The A.E.S. is an encounter route specific to that group. At the end is the Golden Mob. These are one of the few mobs in the game that will be attackable by that group only. They must complete the encounter route first and then they have a shot at the Golden Mob. This gives the benefit of instancing without that annoying separation of the community into an empty pocket of Cyber space.

An editorial on the A.E.S. can be found at Vanguard Ten Ton Hammer.

One last bit of information I am providing is one from Vanguard Silky Venom. Oloh is one of the Beta players in Vanguard and Brad McQuaid gave him some exemption from the NDA. His post have been compiled with a list of his threads containing information about Vanguard from Beta 0 and Beta 1. You can find it here in the Book of Oloh.

The most common argument I see about the clone word is the fact that Vanguard will have encouraged grouping. Will it? Yes it will.  Will it be the only way to advance? No it won't. There are three types of areas in the world of Telon and they are labeled as Casual, Group, and Raid. I will explain the three.

Casual is content that people can go to solo, duo, or do small group things. Casual content in other words. Usually the above ground stuff if I gather correctly.

Group is obviously content for groups which at the moment is unknown how many will be in a full group. Current information has it between 6-8. Group content is the main focus of the game. So there will likely be more group content than say Raid or casual.

Raid is the big stuff. Unless something has changed the largest number I recall hearing for a raid force at the moment was 40. I could very well be wrong, but raid content is obviously the hardest targets that require a large force to bring down. It should be interesting with the new combat system.

I hope this will help in the clarification that Vanguard:Saga of Heroes is not a clone for those that may be a bit .   Enjoy.