Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

[Gunther]

Ok, Rhonnin, tell me again why I should buy/play this game: blah
SOE just announced that you can pre-order this as of today blah. Is anyone going to play this game?

I didn't care for DDO...is it like that? or maybe like EQ, since it is SOE?

[Tackalt]

It seems the original hype for the game really has fallen. There's some features that much of the player-base didn't agree with too much. I forget which ones they were; maybe Rhonnin knows what killed the hype.

I was looking forward to it originally, then it kind of subsided.

[Gunther]

I've been reading a bit about this game since I made this thread. It has some very attractive features. SOE is calling this a 3rd generation game. 1st Gen was UO, EQ1, AC1, DAoC and so on. 2nd Gen was EQ2, WoW, PS, SWG and more. They are touting that they have learned from the 1st and 2nd gen games and are making improvements for Vanguard.

"Players will be able to build and own residential, commercial, industrial structures as well as store items in those structures.This will include residential areas for storing goods, commercial areas in which you can have a vendor sell your wares for you, as well as 'industrial' areas that will help crafters refine and assemble goods. We will have craftable vehicles and buildings in regards to player cities, though at this time, we don’t have exact details on how this will work. There will be differing styles, and there will be some recipes that you can only execute on a particular continent, town or dungeon."

[rhonnin]

It will definitely have something in it for every play style. first off advancement is divided between 3 spheres of play, crafting, adventuring and diplomacy, all 3 will have some interdependency though so far it hasn't been in a crippling way. For instance, through the use of diplomacy you can generate a city wide "buff" that can aid crafters. Perhaps you need to gain entrance to the castle of the dread knight Floobie but the demon hamsters guarding the gate are too tough to kill, if someone in the group has high enough diplomacy skill they may be able to get the guards to let you through. Diplomacy is like a mini game itself and is actually pretty fun and a lot of back story gets revealed through it.
I know you find the leveling aspect fun Gunther and there is plenty of that too with a difficulty level somewhere between EQ1 and WoW, sometimes still a bit too easy for my taste but not enough to make me not want to play like EQ2 and WoW.
I'll answer questions about the game but would prefer them to be in the private forums since I'm still under NDA.
I'm on the community team here, there is some more info and we have a couple of Devs that post regularly, also some contests with beta keys as a prize.

[BigBossMonkey]

The game sounds interesting, that's for sure. I'll probably give it a go

[roadrunner]

Seems interesting. I may take a look when it comes out. Hopefully they learned that not everyone loves raiding for end game content or the reliance on gear that brings out greed in many players.

[rhonnin]

For the most part crafted gear seems to be far superior to the dropped stuff and the one quest I did that was supposed to be a raid level encounter we did with 4 people (that was a lvl 8 quest though)

[Tackalt]

Wait, I heard this game was supposed to be a flop a while ago. Did they go back and take notes from some of the current games in the market right now and rework some things? I'm totally lost.

If I get a go in it before it hits the shelves, I'll definately consider playing it if we get a good Enforcer count. I've gotten to the point where I'm not delving into anymore MMORPG's unless a good majority of us go. I've had enough of the drama llama for a good while.

[rhonnin]

People will always say this game or that will be a flop.
The ones from WoW and EQ2 will say that because they like an easy game with as little challenge as possible.

[Gunther]

Wait, I heard this game was supposed to be a flop a while ago. Did they go back and take notes from some of the current games in the market right now and rework some things? I'm totally lost.

That is what I have been reading Tack. they have learned the lessons (Good and Bad) from EQ1, DAoC, AC, EQ2, PS, AC2 & WoW and are building this game to be better. They are touting this to be the first 3rd Generation game of its kind. Apparently the visual effects are such that you can see for about a mile instead of just blurred terrain like you do in ohters where things don't come into view until you get closer.