Im thinking about trying this game but i would want to know if there is still ppl playing it.

Also, what would be the best server to enter to get a decent player base.

And finally, do you guys think that the game has potencial to keep going, or it is destined to go down eventually on the short term?

Thank you

There is still quite a few people playing actually. The fan base is strong and loyal and new players have subbed after trying the island at a steady rate.

The two most poplulated servers are Xeth and Seradon both have a large active player base.

I think if Sony was going to pull the plug on Vanguard they would have done so already. It is one of the few mmo's that is out that really is pretty old school in its game mechanics. Huge Huge world and great freedoms to be had.(ie: mounts at lvl 10, flying mounts you can fly anywhere and ships to sail around the world in) If you liked eq1 then there is a good chance you will like Vanguard.

The trial island is a good gauge of the play mechanics but you really need to be off the island to really apprectiate what Vanguard offers. It really has an open virtual world feel to it not matched by many others on the market. Personally I love the game and I play all the time. This is a game that definately has turned a 180 from where it was at its terrible launch. I suggest everyone try it out and give it another chance.  

My advice would be to wait a few weeks before trying. Live Gamer RMT  service Live Gamer FAQ will be going live soon and it would be best  to see what the fallout will be.  Some people think there will be a mass exodus and others think it will not make much of a difference to the community or the game.  It would be best  to wait and see before spending any cash, but try the trial Vanguard Trial Isle of Dawn it's fun and lets you try all aspects of the game.

If all goes well I would take the advice of the poster above me.

Registered for trial and started on Halgar european server, since i live in europe.

The population seemed healthy to me, lots of ppl running around and chatting. Ofc this was in trial isle.

The game has the depth i was looking for, that much i can already tell, but ill keep playing the trial and after that ill decide to subscribe or not. Thanks for the help guys.

Originally posted by tryklon

Registered for trial and started on Halgar european server, since i live in europe.

The population seemed healthy to me, lots of ppl running around and chatting. Ofc this was in trial isle.

The game has the depth i was looking for, that much i can already tell, but ill keep playing the trial and after that ill decide to subscribe or not. Thanks for the help guys.

Just to forewarn you if you do subscribe, the population will seem pretty low compared to the trial island due to them being spread out throughout the game world. My advice for the first time through would be to stay in the Veskal's exchange area and complete the quests there and when able do the URT (United Races of Threstra) quests.  Great quests rewards and it takes you around loads of different areas to explore. Once you finish the URT quests you will be ready for the hunters league quests and the CIS quests in Qalia.  You will have more chance of finding groups, interacting with others due to the popularity of the content.

The good thing with VG if you start an alt you will have loads to do, loads of different dungeons and areas to explore so you don't have to go over the same content twice (I would do Hunters League.  The rewards are too nice to miss out on).

True. Vanguard is the first mmo since EQ1 (for me) that has so much to do that you can create and ALT and not do any of the things you did with your main. really large game. I think some new players are put off by the game abit when they get to the main game land and they are just kinda standing there like...."well.....what now?" Vanguard is a huge huge mmo and people dont just stand around doing nothing like WOW in Stormwind. The poplualtion is really spread out. Which I think alot of new players take as the game world is deserted. Far from it. Everyone is always off doing things. When you find a dungeon you want to explore finding a group doesnt seem that hard. Some of the dungeons in Vanguard are crazy cool. Wish everyone who heard the bad things about this game would come give it a chance now. Great game.

I resub a few months ago, altough the game has much improved and is very enjoyable now, the lack of peoples playing it is what drove me away.  During my time there, 3 weeks or so, i went from 1 to mid 30's and saw less than 20 peoples when leveling up....

I guess there is more peoples playing, but it seems to be no one actually leveling up.

Originally posted by blueturtle13

True. Vanguard is the first mmo since EQ1 (for me) that has so much to do that you can create and ALT and not do any of the things you did with your main. really large game. I think some new players are put off by the game abit when they get to the main game land and they are just kinda standing there like...."well.....what now?" Vanguard is a huge huge mmo and people dont just stand around doing nothing like WOW in Stormwind. The poplualtion is really spread out. Which I think alot of new players take as the game world is deserted. Far from it. Everyone is always off doing things. When you find a dungeon you want to explore finding a group doesnt seem that hard. Some of the dungeons in Vanguard are crazy cool. Wish everyone who heard the bad things about this game would come give it a chance now. Great game.

I agree.

I actually subbed and will maintain a subscription as this is the only game that I've been able to find where exploration is interesting.

And by that I mean that I can find a place and be overwhelmed with mobs or find new and interesting things. I can go anywhere.

In Lord of the Rings, for example, there are places where one can't go because you aren't on the appropriate quest. I can't stand that. It's an extremely beautiful world but if you see a cave you may or may not be able to go inside.

In Vanguard I can go anywhere and get my butt kicked anywhere.

I really enjoy it. It brings back a few of my morrowind memories. Oh sure this game relies upon more mmo conventions than a game like morrowind, but if I see something in the distance that looks interesting I can check it out, maybe even do a few quests there.

But the game world is so large that you might not see people for a while. That works for me but I can see where others would have a problem with that.

 Make sure you have a very good computer if you want to play and have fun,  dont get freaked when you see lag during combat or hitching in cities this is all part of the "Vanguard experienc" Defrag you computer like crazy dont have anything running in the back ground. Performance is not as good as Lotro or aoc or wow or eq2 or many other games but if you can live with that it is a fun game especially if you are into the sand box style of play.  Try diplomacy it is unique and i found it fun

Originally posted by eddieg50

 Make sure you have a very good computer if you want to play and have fun,  dont get freaked when you see lag during combat or hitching in cities this is all part of the "Vanguard experienc" Defrag you computer like crazy dont have anything running in the back ground. Performance is not as good as Lotro or aoc or wow or eq2 or many other games but if you can live with that it is a fun game especially if you are into the sand box style of play.  Try diplomacy it is unique and i found it fun

Depends... hardware 2-years older or less will run this game very well.  VG very much likes dual-core processors, at least 4-gigs of ram, and a fast hard-drive.  Many, many video cards built in the past two years do just fine, but it's not coded for SLI or Crossfire.

Vanguard does not like single-core processors, video cards older than 2 years and less than 2 gigs of ram.

It also looks like Vanguard is going to run EXTREMELY well in Windows 7 and certain solid-state drives will all but eliminate hitching.  I'm waiting to see more results, but I'll most likely upgrade to Windows 7 and pop in a SSD to install Vanguard on.  I think Vanguard is about a 25 gig game with a phenomenal amount of detail and textures to load.. so yes, entering a major city right now will definitely cause some hitching as it loads up the textures.

Compared to EQ2, Vanguard runs better on my system at much higher settings.  EQ2 had always brought my PC to its knees for some reason.

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by eddieg50

 Make sure you have a very good computer if you want to play and have fun,  dont get freaked when you see lag during combat or hitching in cities this is all part of the "Vanguard experienc" Defrag you computer like crazy dont have anything running in the back ground. Performance is not as good as Lotro or aoc or wow or eq2 or many other games but if you can live with that it is a fun game especially if you are into the sand box style of play.  Try diplomacy it is unique and i found it fun

 

Depends... hardware 2-years older or less will run this game very well.  VG very much likes dual-core processors, at least 4-gigs of ram, and a fast hard-drive.  Many, many video cards built in the past two years do just fine, but it's not coded for SLI or Crossfire.

Vanguard does not like single-core processors, video cards older than 2 years and less than 2 gigs of ram.

It also looks like Vanguard is going to run EXTREMELY well in Windows 7 and certain solid-state drives will all but eliminate hitching.  I'm waiting to see more results, but I'll most likely upgrade to Windows 7 and pop in a SSD to install Vanguard on.  I think Vanguard is about a 25 gig game with a phenomenal amount of detail and textures to load.. so yes, entering a major city right now will definitely cause some hitching as it loads up the textures.

Compared to EQ2, Vanguard runs better on my system at much higher settings.  EQ2 had always brought my PC to its knees for some reason.

                                                               I do have windows xp which can only read 3gb of ram and i have a 7200 hard drive so that may be why i am getting hitching,  but i also have a e8500 dual core and a ati 4870 graphics card so you think---?  Actually when windows 7 comes out i will prob switch also and then my 4gb of ram will actually read 4gb of ram

Yep, I'd say wait on Windows 7, take advantage of its ability to utilize more RAM and at the same time swap out that hard-drive for a Raid 0 configuration or a SSD.  There's a couple of great theads in the technical forum on those topics.  Your processor and video card should be fine.

Agreed Boo - I run Vanguard on a 6000+ (3.1. version) 4 gigs ram and a HD4850 and I run the game maxed out and it is beautiful and it flyes. My system cost me $415 (had parts from my old pc) point is it doesnt cost alot to build a decent computer to run a game like Vanguard. Hardware is cheap nowadays.

Every MMO is worth a try in my opinon. However, if you have standards and refined tastes such as myself, you will find it a terrible mish-mash of what is out there.  Clunky gameplay is the biggest turnoff including crappy textures/animations.  They did a texture overhaul but it did not help much.

Originally posted by boojiboy

Yep, I'd say wait on Windows 7, take advantage of its ability to utilize more RAM and at the same time swap out that hard-drive for a Raid 0 configuration or a SSD.  There's a couple of great theads in the technical forum on those topics.  Your processor and video card should be fine.

Running two sata or sata2 drives in Raid configuration is slower than the new solid state hard drives. Just an FYI.

But you do need to realize that like almost all games and all mmo's , people who like their mmo overlook the bad points because the good points appeal to them. Vanguard is no different. You say it is cluncky, alot of people strongly disagree and even if they do agree ( I dont for the record) they still love the game because of what it does offer. If it doesnt appeal to you thats fine but criticizing something about the game that is a matter of opinion doesnt settle anything either.

Originally posted by PinkCat

Every MMO is worth a try in my opinon. However, if you have standards and refined tastes such as myself, you will find it a terrible mish-mash of what is out there.  Clunky gameplay is the biggest turnoff including crappy textures/animations.  They did a texture overhaul but it did not help much.

IF you have standards and refined tastes? everyone has their own standards and refined is subjective isnt it? 

Do you mean streamlined like WOW? Not sure what you mean

Originally posted by blueturtle13

Originally posted by PinkCat

Every MMO is worth a try in my opinon. However, if you have standards and refined tastes such as myself, you will find it a terrible mish-mash of what is out there.  Clunky gameplay is the biggest turnoff including crappy textures/animations.  They did a texture overhaul but it did not help much.

 

IF you have standards and refined tastes? everyone has their own standards and refined is subjective isnt it? 

Do you mean streamlined like WOW? Not sure what you mean

                                     Well Vanguard does not run anywhere neer as smooth as WOW,  I feel it is a better game than wow but Blizzard knows how to optimize their games.  I thought eq2 did a great job of optim because their game was near unplayable at first.  vanguard just needss to continue to work on performance .  I personally stayed away from Vista because of all the problems I read about , are you saying that Vanguard runs better on vista then xp?    Would vanguard really build a game that you needed at least 4gb of ram and a very expensive solid state drive to run so its fun?  If that is the truth then it is sad and they will always have a tiny population and that is death for a mmo

Originally posted by eddieg50

Originally posted by blueturtle13

Originally posted by PinkCat

Every MMO is worth a try in my opinon. However, if you have standards and refined tastes such as myself, you will find it a terrible mish-mash of what is out there.  Clunky gameplay is the biggest turnoff including crappy textures/animations.  They did a texture overhaul but it did not help much.

 

IF you have standards and refined tastes? everyone has their own standards and refined is subjective isnt it? 

Do you mean streamlined like WOW? Not sure what you mean

 

                                     Well Vanguard does not run anywhere neer as smooth as WOW,  I feel it is a better game than wow but Blizzard knows how to optimize their games.  I thought eq2 did a great job of optim because their game was near unplayable at first.  vanguard just needss to continue to work on performance .  I personally stayed away from Vista because of all the problems I read about , are you saying that Vanguard runs better on vista then xp?    Would vanguard really build a game that you needed at least 4gb of ram and a very expensive solid state drive to run so its fun?  If that is the truth then it is sad and they will always have a tiny population and that is death for a mmo

It's true games like Lotro and WoW do run smoother.  My PC could run them with maxed settings and not stress my system at all because they don't require much in terms of gaming power.  Vanguard requires a lot more, more textures, details and everywhere you can see is a real place where you can go... that's a lot to render and probably the biggest difference when comparing games.

WoW is aged and looks bad, it's easy to see why it can be run by any PC.  Lotro is new and looks great, but even in Lotro the backgrounds, the mountains, inside buildings... none of it is real and you can't go there.... as such, it requires a lot less rendering.  The worst place for hitching in VG is New Targonor... it's a huge city, it has a lot of players in it now (used to be empty), it has a ton of NPCs doing stuff and almost every single building in the city has a door you can open and go into for diplomacy, crafting, quests, banking, brokers etc.  That is still a brutal hit on a PC, even a good one.

The big problem when released was the game was almost completely broken and nothing could run it well.  Now, after a couple years of continous work the game is MUCH more optimized and basically anything newer than 2-years old will run the game fine.  And as has been noted by many people starting the game anew or returning, $400 worth of hardware will give you great performance at very high quality settings.

That said, Windows 7, more that 4 gigs of Ram and a SSD are not required at all, folks have just pointing out that they could be the final pieces to completely eliminate hitching even in the most harsh areas of the game.  For now, I would say Vista 32 runs VG better than Windows XP and Vista 64 runs VG better than Vista 32. 

Great points Boo - my pc was cheap to build and Vanguard flies. I dont have an uber build and I dont have a SSD. Vanguard runs fine for me on Vista 32 it runs as better if not better than EQ2 and there are no zones at all. Not sure what people are trying to play this game on that wont run it? eh =/

Just about any PC can play Vanguard crash-free with decent fps now.  But it's a whole other experience when you can run Vanguard on highest quality settings.  The game is absolutely stunning on the highest quality settings and you'll have see posts where people have upgraded turned their settings up and they feel like they are playing a whole new game.

Originally posted by PinkCat

Originally posted by boojiboy

Yep, I'd say wait on Windows 7, take advantage of its ability to utilize more RAM and at the same time swap out that hard-drive for a Raid 0 configuration or a SSD.  There's a couple of great theads in the technical forum on those topics.  Your processor and video card should be fine.

 

Running two sata or sata2 drives in Raid configuration is slower than the new solid state hard drives. Just an FYI.

i think thats what he was saying but i could be wrong

Originally posted by Goldknyght

Originally posted by PinkCat

Originally posted by boojiboy

Yep, I'd say wait on Windows 7, take advantage of its ability to utilize more RAM and at the same time swap out that hard-drive for a Raid 0 configuration or a SSD.  There's a couple of great theads in the technical forum on those topics.  Your processor and video card should be fine.

 

Running two sata or sata2 drives in Raid configuration is slower than the new solid state hard drives. Just an FYI.

 

i think thats what he was saying but i could be wrong

That's what I have been hearing as well, that SSD will be the fastest.  However, I've also heard that some SSDs are much better than others.  I have more homework to do, but I'm heavily leaning towards picking up a SSD to install Vanguard on.

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by eddieg50

 Make sure you have a very good computer if you want to play and have fun,  dont get freaked when you see lag during combat or hitching in cities this is all part of the "Vanguard experienc" Defrag you computer like crazy dont have anything running in the back ground. Performance is not as good as Lotro or aoc or wow or eq2 or many other games but if you can live with that it is a fun game especially if you are into the sand box style of play.  Try diplomacy it is unique and i found it fun

 

Depends... hardware 2-years older or less will run this game very well.  VG very much likes dual-core processors, at least 4-gigs of ram, and a fast hard-drive.  Many, many video cards built in the past two years do just fine, but it's not coded for SLI or Crossfire.

Vanguard does not like single-core processors, video cards older than 2 years and less than 2 gigs of ram.

It also looks like Vanguard is going to run EXTREMELY well in Windows 7 and certain solid-state drives will all but eliminate hitching.  I'm waiting to see more results, but I'll most likely upgrade to Windows 7 and pop in a SSD to install Vanguard on.  I think Vanguard is about a 25 gig game with a phenomenal amount of detail and textures to load.. so yes, entering a major city right now will definitely cause some hitching as it loads up the textures.

Compared to EQ2, Vanguard runs better on my system at much higher settings.  EQ2 had always brought my PC to its knees for some reason.

Erm.. i run 2 accounts of Vanguard at the same time on ONE pc meaning i duo box with everything maxed and i mean everything. I am running SLI and i am 60FPS running two VG clients at the same time on one PC.

I get very slight hitching in city but that last for 5 secs then it's perfect.

Running.. Dell 730 H2C Extreme Ltd Edition.

Windows Vista ultimate 32bit
H2C liquid cooling system
Dell 1000W PSU
- EPS12V, SLI, ATX2.0, SSI
- 92mm thermally controlled fan
- MTBF: 400,000 hours
Motherboard chipset NForce 790i SLI
CPU 3.8GHz GHz ( Factory overclocked) Intel Quad Core 2 Extreme QX9770
4GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 ( Factory overclocked 1600MHz )
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer audio card
2 x728mb 8800gtx Sli config
2x 160GB 10,000 rpm hard drive, 1TB 7,200 rpm hard drive
AGEIA PhysX physics card accelerator
Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive
DELL ULTRASHARP 2408WFP24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor.

Originally posted by warpp

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by eddieg50

 Make sure you have a very good computer if you want to play and have fun,  dont get freaked when you see lag during combat or hitching in cities this is all part of the "Vanguard experienc" Defrag you computer like crazy dont have anything running in the back ground. Performance is not as good as Lotro or aoc or wow or eq2 or many other games but if you can live with that it is a fun game especially if you are into the sand box style of play.  Try diplomacy it is unique and i found it fun

 

Depends... hardware 2-years older or less will run this game very well.  VG very much likes dual-core processors, at least 4-gigs of ram, and a fast hard-drive.  Many, many video cards built in the past two years do just fine, but it's not coded for SLI or Crossfire.

Vanguard does not like single-core processors, video cards older than 2 years and less than 2 gigs of ram.

It also looks like Vanguard is going to run EXTREMELY well in Windows 7 and certain solid-state drives will all but eliminate hitching.  I'm waiting to see more results, but I'll most likely upgrade to Windows 7 and pop in a SSD to install Vanguard on.  I think Vanguard is about a 25 gig game with a phenomenal amount of detail and textures to load.. so yes, entering a major city right now will definitely cause some hitching as it loads up the textures.

Compared to EQ2, Vanguard runs better on my system at much higher settings.  EQ2 had always brought my PC to its knees for some reason.

Erm.. i run 2 accounts of Vanguard at the same time on ONE pc meaning i duo box with everything maxed and i mean everything. I am running SLI and i am 60FPS running two VG clients at the same time on one PC.

 

I get very slight hitching in city but that last for 5 secs then it's perfect.

Running.. Dell 730 H2C Extreme Ltd Edition.

Windows Vista ultimate 32bit
H2C liquid cooling system
Dell 1000W PSU
- EPS12V, SLI, ATX2.0, SSI
- 92mm thermally controlled fan
- MTBF: 400,000 hours
Motherboard chipset NForce 790i SLI
CPU 3.8GHz GHz ( Factory overclocked) Intel Quad Core 2 Extreme QX9770
4GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 ( Factory overclocked 1600MHz )
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer audio card
2 x728mb 8800gtx Sli config
2x 160GB 10,000 rpm hard drive, 1TB 7,200 rpm hard drive
AGEIA PhysX physics card accelerator
Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive
DELL ULTRASHARP 2408WFP24-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor.

 

i don't buy it.  Vista 32 leaves you at best 2gb and vg uses a bit over 1gb.  When you run two of them I can't imagine you are not swaping like made which will kill performance.  Maybe you can start two and run for short periods of time but long term and with good performance.  Sorry I don't believe it.  Maybe with vista 64 I would buy it.