Vanguard Revisited

saguy

saguy

saguy

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Joined
8 Jul 2005
Posts
1,407
I know Vanguard is a dirty word around here due to its disastrous launch. I was one of many that left the game even before the first included month was over.

About a month ago out of boredom and morbid fascination I re-subscribed to see how things were and I was pleasantly surprised to see the technical and performance progress. The game deserves to do far better than it doing now based on its current state and even though new players are not exactly flooding in, there is definitely a resurgence. Vanguard with all its woes still manages to have a very friendly mature and helpful community.

The thing that surprises me most is that I have chosen VG over AoC to continue playing. It may have something to do with the fact that I wish to play in a larger seamless world with a more complex game structure. I would like to add that VG is geared for PvE so it is a definite no no for PvP'ers.
 
I played Vanguard for a year on both the Team PVP and then into the merged server. I have played many MMORPG's but Vanguard will always be my favourite.

For me what killed Vanguard was not the PVP balance as it was fine with large group PVP anyway but the exploiters and hackers from the merged US servers!, the tragic death of my guild leader in a car accident and then the now extremelely low population destroying the large scale PVP I once played for.

I am now in Age of Conan but do hope Vanguard lives as I would hate to see all MMORPG's follow AoC 100% instanced MMO! (Yes I love to hunt people :p)
 
I whole heartedly agree with Hayley, the persistent world created a community which I very much felt a part of BUT unfortuently it will ALWAYS be the game that could have been.

You killed SWG! You failed Vanguard! SOE for the lose! :mad:
 
Really wanted Vanguard to be good. Initially enjoyed it but the lack of player base was detrimental in the end :(

Might try it again if Conan does not fulfill my needs.
 
i'm still recovering from vanguard..

and uhmm AOC is instanced? so like GW then? ie meeting areas are public but quests are instanced (so you dont meet other players not in your group out there?)
 
deadkomodo said:
You killed SWG! You failed Vanguard! SOE for the lose! :mad:
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Now that's just a dumb uninformed anti SOE statement (well, the bit about Vanguard anyway) :mad:

Vanguard was a complete mess when SOE took it over. Now it's actually a complete and optimised game, and has a much more open and complete world than many mmo's out there at the moment. The character classes have been reworked, often with completely new spell lists, the graphics engine has been optmised beyond belief, and there are quests for all levels and a decent start at end game content, which was completely missing at launch.

There's nothing in any mmo at the moment to compare with renting a controllable flying mount and just taking to the skies to enjoy the scenery in Vanguard, and the complexity of many of the classes puts a lot of games to shame.
 
is there a trial for it going on atm? (did buy the full game when it launched got sick of the bugs + crashes so quit)
 
Dano said:
So much fail in one tiny sentence...
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I am clueless? Will you Sony fanboys please do some research.

I take it you were all not aware when sony took over they sacked nearly ALL the devs for Vanguard and did not replace them!

They also merged the two more populated team PVP servers into the smaller population FFA server. Losing their chosen ruleset most team PVP players left and there is currently about 70 players online now during prime time from of total of 3 servers!
 
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Also learn to read please, I said Sony failed Vanguard which they have.

To even dispute this is stupidity and I can only assume you are just trolling.

I advise you to go over to the Vanguard forums and ask them if they like all the game mechanic changes implimented by Sony. Please do link the thread responses ;)
 
Sleepery said:
Now that's just a dumb uninformed anti SOE statement (well, the bit about Vanguard anyway) :mad:

Vanguard was a complete mess when SOE took it over. Now it's actually a complete and optimised game, and has a much more open and complete world than many mmo's out there at the moment. The character classes have been reworked, often with completely new spell lists, the graphics engine has been optmised beyond belief, and there are quests for all levels and a decent start at end game content, which was completely missing at launch.

There's nothing in any mmo at the moment to compare with renting a controllable flying mount and just taking to the skies to enjoy the scenery in Vanguard, and the complexity of many of the classes puts a lot of games to shame.
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Agreed, there are some people that blame SOE for everything. There were allot of people out there at the time that were surprised that SOE would even want to take the game on considering the dire mess it was in.

They have actually done a fairly good job considering the size of the team working on VG. I have to admit that I do have a vested interest in promoting the game in that the more people that play, the more resources VG will hopefully receive from SOE. I am still low level so high end content is not an issue yet. I would like VG to survive and add fresh content as there are currently no new or games in development that are of this type.
 
deadkomodo said:
I advise you to go over to the Vanguard forums and ask them if they like all the game mechanic changes implimented by Sony. Please do link the thread responses ;)
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No thanks, but the point remains that if SoE hadn't taken on VG you wouldn't even have a game to play, thus SoE did not fail VG.

As for the laying off of devs, if the game wasn't profitable enough to keep them then it's simple economincs.

SWG changes were forced upon SoE by Lucasarts so they again did not fail there.

You can keep harping on about how bad SoE all you like but the truth of the matter is that SoE have saved several failing MMO's from the zapper and while you may not like the direction the games have gone in since SoE took over you do still have the game to play if you so choose.
 
deadkomodo said:
I am clueless? Will you Sony fanboys please do some research.

I take it you were all not aware when sony took over they sacked nearly ALL the devs for Vanguard and did not replace them!

They also merged the two more populated team PVP servers into the smaller population FFA server. Losing their chosen ruleset most team PVP players left and there is currently about 70 players online now during prime time from of total of 3 servers!
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As far as I know it was Sigil or whatever they were called that done the sacking. These people were not employed by SOE. Of course Sony was not going to employ everyone as the game was a disaster and it was haemorrhaging losses. No business throws good money after bad.

I am not sure if you mean 70 players for all the servers prime time because that does not fit in with my experience so far.
 
deadkomodo said:
Also learn to read please, I said Sony failed Vanguard which they have.

To even dispute this is stupidity and I can only assume you are just trolling.

I advise you to go over to the Vanguard forums and ask them if they like all the game mechanic changes implimented by Sony. Please do link the thread responses ;)
Click to expand...

If you're going to accuse me of illiteracy and stupidity the least you can do is actually state how you think SoE have failed Vanguard, it wouldn't even be live today if they hadn't taken it over.

I have stated the things that SoE have done to improve the game. All you have done is point me at the Vanguard forums, which is just lazy. Learn to think, not troll.
 
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deadkomodo said:
I advise you to go over to the Vanguard forums and ask them if they like all the game mechanic changes implimented by Sony. Please do link the thread responses ;)
Click to expand...
Not everyone is going to be happy when a game is forced to change direction - I think that they had to change direction to survive. There was allot of negativity on the forums a while back as many players could not accept this, but the mood is very different now as those players have left and those remaining have made peace with it.

The forums now are mostly an upbeat place as the players feel that the worse has passed and as New Labour said Things will only get better. The most popular new threads these days seem to be 'Unbelievable that this game is not popular' and if you don't believe me go and look for yourself.
 
Vanguard was a brilliant game and still is imo, no other MMO can compare for sheer immersion but increasinly since SoE took over the changes implemented have changed the game away from its original concept.

The game mechanics have been increasinly simplified, i guess making it more acessible to new players but at the same time also less mature players.

I originally rolled on a PVP server only for it to be merged with a FFA server in a compleatly different time zone to me. Sayguy playing on a PVE server you will find it is more lively as most of my european friends then transferred to PVE.

In the end I stopped playing because of the rule set changes and that the end game content is very limited to the ancient port warehouse raid and some quests for heroic gear. Once I got my gear that was me done.

I am thinking of maybe re-rolling in the future but am going to see how I get on with AoC first, not a fan of its instancing TBH
 
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