Vanguard Open Beta

[Xiuhcoatl]

As some of you might already know, the Vanguard Saga of Heroes MMO is in its final beta stage. Fileplanet is or was giving away beta keys to US residents but you can also "buy" a key by preordering the game. I received a key from a friend and started playing a few days ago. The game is scheduled for release at the end of this month and it is, imo, not ready yet.

For those who are not familiar with VG it will be a pay to play MMO with three major spheres to sink your time into: adventuring, crafting and diplomacy. I've mostly focused on the adventuring sphere so I don't have any opinions on the other two. Crafting and diplomacy are like card games and require some degree of thought for success. A character can also try to master 2 harvesting skills aside from adventuring.

My first impressions of the game is that some areas need a lot of work. There were some bugged quests that were the first step in a chain of quests that made it impossible to continue on. I played a new character whenever I encountered such a problem and the problem was usually fixed the next time I logged on with that character (bug reports and comments can be readily submitted). Each race has their own start area and of the three races that I have experienced (orc, Mordebi and Kurasha) the Mordebi area was the best developed and most fun. A person could solo in this game but after L10 I think group play is highly favored, even if it is just a small group of 2-3 people. Mobs are rated by "dots" and you can see their difficulty rating on their icon in blue. Three dot mobs are very difficult to solo, but that would probably vary by class and gear. After L10 attribute points can be distributed by the player to optimize a certain build. I like that aspect although the caps on attributes are too low for my preference. Mounts can be purchased for 12 silver 50 copper at L10 or so.

There is a useful chart of all the races and classes here.

That site is also a good source of information for the numerous classes which are split into one of the following categories: defensive fighter (tanks), offensive fighter (DPS), offensive caster (DPS) and healers.

I think this game has a lot of potential but I will reserve judgement on whether it is worth upgrading my machine to play after I've spent more time in the beta. If anyone wants to hook up with me, my characters are on the first beta server (there are 3 normal servers and 1 pvp server).

Here is a link to the official site: Vanguard

[Selby]

I would personally wait. The game is not ready for release, despite having been in production for almost 5 years.

[DeeBye]

I've heard really, REALLY bad things about this game.

[Selby]

I've heard really, REALLY bad things about this game.

And they are all true ;-)

[SwissMercenary]

Reading the FAQ collection of developer quotes, it seems that:

1. They've been hyping it way out of proportion.
2. They're really out of touch with what people like me want.

[ima_nerd]

They got hosed by Microsoft pushing them to release the game before it was ready so they left. I think Microsoft wanted a release with Vista (I could be wrong).

They then decided to go with Sony, expecting it to be different. No surprise there.

Now, here comes Vanguard, a game with so much promise and talent behind it, coming out at least 4-5 months before it should.

I've been looking forward to this game for about 2 years. Now, instead of playing it, I'll be playing Burning Crusade instead. Makes me sad.

[Xiuhcoatl]

Now, here comes Vanguard, a game with so much promise and talent behind it, coming out at least 4-5 months before it should.

I've been looking forward to this game for about 2 years. Now, instead of playing it, I'll be playing Burning Crusade instead. Makes me sad.

I still haven't formed an opinion about VG but so far I am not impressed with the game or the people playing it. I do know, however, that the Burning Crusade does not appeal to me. I was watching my friend play it and kept hearing him say that after years of raiding to get decent gear common green drops in BC are as good as or better than what he has. Trivializing the efforts of dedicated players in the original game is, imo, rude and demeaning (people who raided because there was nothing else to do got a big slap in the face; those who quit paying and playing got a good laugh :whistling:).

From what I've seen of the expansion it looks like more of the SOS. Old instances have been nerfed so much that they are a walk in the park. New instances are not challenging...they are just a means to an all too quick end. There are already people capped out at L70 and on a PVP server that could create some severe imbalance issues.

I am hoping VG will live up to their promise after they get the funding they need by releasing early. If not, then it will just be another game I won't play.

[ima_nerd]

I still haven't formed an opinion about VG but so far I am not impressed with the game or the people playing it. I do know, however, that the Burning Crusade does not appeal to me. I was watching my friend play it and kept hearing him say that after years of raiding to get decent gear common green drops in BC are as good as or better than what he has. Trivializing the efforts of dedicated players in the original game is, imo, rude and demeaning (people who raided because there was nothing else to do got a big slap in the face; those who quit paying and playing got a good laugh :whistling:).

From what I've seen of the expansion it looks like more of the SOS. Old instances have been nerfed so much that they are a walk in the park. New instances are not challenging...they are just a means to an all too quick end. There are already people capped out at L70 and on a PVP server that could create some severe imbalance issues.

I am hoping VG will live up to their promise after they get the funding they need by releasing early. If not, then it will just be another game I won't play.

I think I'll buy VG eventually. Maybe at the end of this semester or something. They need a lot of time to polish the game.

[Ashock]

I still haven't formed an opinion about VG but so far I am not impressed with the game or the people playing it. I do know, however, that the Burning Crusade does not appeal to me. I was watching my friend play it and kept hearing him say that after years of raiding to get decent gear common green drops in BC are as good as or better than what he has. Trivializing the efforts of dedicated players in the original game is, imo, rude and demeaning (people who raided because there was nothing else to do got a big slap in the face; those who quit paying and playing got a good laugh :whistling:).

From what I've seen of the expansion it looks like more of the SOS. Old instances have been nerfed so much that they are a walk in the park. New instances are not challenging...they are just a means to an all too quick end. There are already people capped out at L70 and on a PVP server that could create some severe imbalance issues.

I am hoping VG will live up to their promise after they get the funding they need by releasing early. If not, then it will just be another game I won't play.

Xi, there is little difference between this and what happened when the X-pack to D2 came out. All the gear that ppl collected in the pre-X-pack D2 became absolete immediately upon it's release. Same here. The only difference is that the X-pack came out 1 year after the release of D2, and the BC came out 2 years after.

Blizzard sees no reason to support players who do not buy their expansions. It's good business.

-A

ps. Sorry VG did not work out. I know you were looking forward to it.

[Xiuhcoatl]

Xi, there is little difference between this and what happened when the X-pack to D2 came out. All the gear that ppl collected in the pre-X-pack D2 became obsolete immediately upon it's release. Same here. The only difference is that the X-pack came out 1 year after the release of D2, and the BC came out 2 years after.

Blizzard sees no reason to support players who do not buy their expansions. It's good business.

-A

ps. Sorry VG did not work out. I know you were looking forward to it.

There is actually a huge difference between D2+Expansion and WoW+Expansion. Both games are PVP enabled (for those, like me, who made the mistake of playing on a WoW PVP server) but the non-segregated BC players will have a gank/grief fest more than before with their easy to upgrade gear. The race to 70 to avoid being caught in the gank-fest ruins the fun for would be immersion oriented players on PVP servers. Anyway, I don't really care to discuss BC since I never entertained the idea of buying it. ;)

As far as VG is concerned, I still have not formed an opinion (I didn't play much over the weekend). There are still a lot of bugs in the game and some classes are better to solo with for those who don't always have the time to group with friends. I don't know how it is at higher levels, but so far grouping does not require huge chunks of time. The quests can take as long as the player wants since replacing group members is not an issue with the lack of instancing. You might be surprised to hear this from me, but I am having just as much fun with my tank (orc dread knight) as I am with my sorceress (mordebi).