Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Originally posted by Arclan

Thanks OP, if I install VG, I'll definately revisit this post.

Hey why are we dis'n the zone-lines? Running from one end of the world to the other requires the rare/occasional two-second pause. Hell, that could be lag for all you know! It isn't noticeable at all. Rediculous to even bring it up.

Want to talk about lack of immersion? Let's talk POBS. I run up to a building and "click" on a door. Some loading screen comes up, and poof I'm magically in the building. Didn't have to open the door or walk through the portal.

If AoC is as instance-heavy as everyone claims, I imagine it has a lot of this type of poofing.

I don't consider instancing a bad thing, if done moderately. For example, WoW only uses instances for the portion of the dungeon that posesses the big boss. I can agree with this use, because fighting over spawns and spawn camping can be annoying.

AoC not only has instancing, they also have zones. They instance things that aren't typically instanced by MMORPGs, such as adventuring areas. They also have NPC's to talk to, who port you over to the next zone in some areas. I think this is a bit overboard for a MMORPG. To each their own though. It really all depends on your tolerance level of instances.

I'll welcome any feedback you want to give once you spend some time in Vanguard again, whether it be positive or negative. Potential players deserve to hear the bad with the good, regardless if current players like myself actually enjoy the game overall.

Originally posted by sepher

Originally posted by Saggra

Originally posted by sepher

 

Originally posted by Saggra

 

Originally posted by sepher

The chunking always came off to zoning without load screens to me. I couldn't ignore that fact, so the world never felt seamless; just the record holder for most plentiful and frequent zoning I've seen in an MMO.

Maybe if you sit there and run back and forth accross the same chunk line on purpose , but in the normal course of playing the game crossing chunk lines is almost a non issue . If your questing you might not cross one for hours , even if you ride your horse from one end of thestra to the other ,the amount of time you spend chunking is minimal . Takes my computer about 2 seconds to cross a chunk line , dosen't take me out of the game or even interfere with what am seeing on my screen just a little pause . Big deal

 

I think your grasping at straw's and your desperation in trying to find fualts with vanguard is showing through in this post

Nope, just never felt the immersion knowing I was essentially inside a box walled and cornered with the hugest zone lines I've ever seen.

The map shows you the seams, approach 'em with a torch on and you can see the seams. So how'm I grasping at straws to say the game never seemed seamless to me?

 

 

Cornered by a zone line that pause's you for about 2 seconds and dosent take you out of the game or even change what your seeing on your screen lol

Sorry sepher i forgot how fragile most people are i can understand how that must really have traumatized you i mean when your used to moutains and scenery been  used as  the zone lines . with a linear path from one end to the other. well lets just say i can see why vanguard would scrare a vetern mmo player such as yourself

Lil touchy ain't you? The thread's subject is Vanguard's "underrated feature". I haven't argued that chunking or zoning as a whole is a terrible thing, as I recognize it as necessary in every MMO. The only thing I'm arguing is that seamless immersion as a feature doesn't exist, because there are giant, frequent seams all over. The only thing opinionated is whether or not a person believes they're frequent, but their existence is a fact.

It's you who's deriving negative connotations from the facts, and for two posts now decided to defend load times when I haven't complained about load times once. I don't care if an MMO includes zoning, so no complaints. I'm just pointing out that Vanguard has zones in the context of new areas needing loading and initializing, and there's evident spots pointed out to you by the ciient in both map and on-screen graphics where this zoning will occur. Simply calling 'em "chunks" isn't enough to be rid of that fact.

Like i said big deal i pause for about 2 seconds than i seamlessly crossover to the next chunk . Now if i had to stop on the other side of the chunkline and let the game load and do a slow 360 to load everything than i would agree with you that it would feel like zoning without a loading screen
 

Now when i use a riftway and i appear where am going instantly , but if i try and move as soon as i appear  am going to lag and hitch. No i have to sit there for 30 seconds and do a slow 360 and let things load, than i can do what i want without lagging and hitching to me thats zoning without a loading screen.

Crossing the normal chunklines in vanguard is no where near zoning without a loading screen.

I agree.  VSoH has a great seamless world in the sense that it is beautiful and huge.  However the game has taken so many negative critisims that even with the great world it is still a turn off to play.  VSoH is starting to get better in terms of the Internet community and should highly consider releasing a 14 day trial or something to boost subs. 

Originally posted by Stellos

I agree.  VSoH has a great seamless world in the sense that it is beautiful and huge.  However the game has taken so many negative critisims that even with the great world it is still a turn off to play.  VSoH is starting to get better in terms of the Internet community and should highly consider releasing a 14 day trial or something to boost subs. 

I agree, I am not going to play anymore of these MMO's unless I get a 10-14 day trial.

I've had it with these software companies.  If cable/stat companies give out set top boxes and one month free subs just to hook you, about time MMO's seen the writing on  the wall. Everyone is competing for your entertainment time and dollar. Mine is precious.  I don't know about anybody else.

Originally posted by laresloci

Originally posted by Stellos

I agree.  VSoH has a great seamless world in the sense that it is beautiful and huge.  However the game has taken so many negative critisims that even with the great world it is still a turn off to play.  VSoH is starting to get better in terms of the Internet community and should highly consider releasing a 14 day trial or something to boost subs. 

 

I agree, I am not going to play anymore of these MMO's unless I get a 10-14 day trial.

I've had it with these software companies.  If cable/stat companies give out set top boxes and one month free subs just to hook you, about time MMO's seen the writing on  the wall. Everyone is competing for your entertainment time and dollar. Mine is precious.  I don't know about anybody else.

I remember reading that they are going to do a trial in the near future.  I think that they are just working on all the bells and whistles so that Vanguard will really impress those that try it.  I would say that they are doing a great job so far.  Hats off to SOE for improving Vanguard.

Originally posted by JK-Kanosi

I don't consider instancing a bad thing, if done moderately. For example, WoW only uses instances for the portion of the dungeon that posesses the big boss. I can agree with this use, because fighting over spawns and spawn camping can be annoying.

I used to think instancing a dungeon was a horrible thing, but then I came for EQ1 where there were zones, but everyone was in the same one, not their own personal instance. After playing many of the newer MMO's I have kinda changed my opinion and think instancing is ok, if done on a limited basis.

I love the feel of Vanguard's open world, and open dungeons. It makes me think back to how I wish EQ1 was, the zoning was something I didn't care for. I think they could use a small amount of instanced encounters, but not completely instanced dungeons.

Now to the person I quoted, I think you are slightly mistaken, WoW does not just instance the portion of the dungeon that posessed the "big boss", they instance the "whole" dungeon for the group. But I like your way of thinking, if they could devise a way to let people have the openess of Vanguards dungeons and the instanced encounters for the "big boss" at the end, I think it'd be a perfect match. As always it's just my opinion, so feel free to disagree.

Originally posted by Ugarit

It"'s not only a pb of graphics. VG isn't a screen saver... rofl.

-  3 worlds (Kojan Thestra Qualia)

- a lot of classes etc

- very cool classes,  (best ones)

- a lot of dungeons (hard)

- a lot of monsters/ennemies

- + a game in the game = diplomacy (really interesting )

- + another game in the game = crafting. You can create houses, guild houses (you can call them Castles ) Boats

- you can discover all areas all houses all castles, there's a lot of cities (impressive !!!) villages etc etc, take your boat, a griffon a wyvern and discover telon by the air, by the see, with a horse, or swim...

After the concept of

WYSIWIG =What you see is what you get

VG created the concept of

WYSIWYE=What You See Is What you Explore

i find this post interesting as this is usually stuff people mention when they are huffing for VG

what i'm learning from VG after playing for a couple weeks

nonintanced housing - ok, please tell me what your house is good for other than a money sink?  a good storage area?  a place to sell stuff like in EQ2?

boats - you don't actually need them to get anywhere so what is the point?

diplomacy seems to be a waste of a good concept - completely useless from what i can tell and learned from others

crafting - the biggest sore point - seems to be pointless but haven't gotten very far with it yet but from what i understand drops are better

graphics pretty much suck unless you have a high level AOC quality computer system (my card has been able to handle everything thrown at  very well until VG - ATI 1900XT but the CPU is a bit on the slow side compared to new ones) - haven't tried all the tricks yet but will be attempting to the next time i play

and the chunking is horrible!

and probably the worse thing is the understandably tiny team of devs working on the game - took almost 2 weeks to fix a game breaking bug introduced by the last update (well, just one of the bugs introduced but the one i cared about)

Vanguard is a MMO RPG.

Not a stupid hack n slash, not a diablo like. that's why we need boats, houses, guild houses etc.