Just some thougths on current situation in vangaurd ( i am playing and active in Twylite Song guild.

1. Tombstones ( bodies ) are staying, they are not SOE taking them out. You will still ahve to get them. When you get them you lose like 1 kill XP for death lol. If you dont, its like 5-10% ish.

2. Population is humming right now - This past weekend we had groups all over the place in our guild. I recruited 8 people on Friday of last week alone.

3. There are community raids hitting all the raid targets multiple times per week hosted by various guilds.

4. Most people I have met in this latest surge are coming from a dissapointing time in SWTOR.

5. Also, as far as the themepark vanguard changes go, they are there however there is a ton of content in the game and you can:

1. Do the common themeparky stuff ( Hunters league etc ) - I would tell you to skip this because it is the sure way to say EH this isnt that fun, cuase its just not... it is not what makes vanguard blow your mind.

2. Simply crawl dungeons the whole way - *THIS IS WHAT MAKES VANGUARD SPECIAL*

3. solo quest 

etc etc..

There is enough content to support your playstyle. For example my current grouping friends and I are running dungeons ONLY. No quest hubs. Just epic dungeon questilnes or simply dungoen crawls thats it and we hare having ( as many said in grp ) the best time in an MMO in over a year.

If you have not played, or have not been back and really explored enough there is tons of stuff to see, more dungeons that you can belive and they are EPIC and HUGE and better than anything I have seen since eq2.

Vanguard owns dungeon design there is no question in my mind ( in say 04+ MMO timeframes )

Other recommendations are make alts lots of alts. Of course the population isnt going to support yoru group at your time all the time... What do most of us do ? Make alts I have alts in every level range and it makes you always available for what is going on.

Something also to note the community is in a really amazing place, that old  feel of kindness and helpfulness  is in VG right now. It comes down to we are in game cause we love being in game, its not about achievement its about being there..

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Recent travels

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This past weekend some folks in guild and I did:

1. Tsangs weapon line ( Tomb of Lord Tsang ) 16-22 ish

2.. Riftseekers torrent ( level 7-12 huge dungeon crawl couple quests nice loots )

3. Arcanium - yet another ( lost dungeon of vangaurd right in Leth Nure the high elf city ) 7 - 12 

4. caverns of noztgha - just did tonight and it was awesome, great chest piece reward  for my DK at the end levels 11-17

5. Hunters League - Yes lame themeparky grind crap, however you just have to have the chest/legs/weapon for most classes

6. Arks of harmony - those flying islands over jalen's crossing ( raki starting area ) - very fun questline and great XP and very nice Yellow shoulder reward.  ( 10-12 ish )

7. Khegors end - Khegors is one of my all time favorite dungeons in any MMO, it is qutie a site to see. We cleared it all, did all quests and Killed the king ( 13- 17 ) likely 4 hours in total was a blast.

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On the near term  hitlist: 

Corterie Infenium Sanctuary 22-30 ish

Trengal keep 22-30 ish

Hilsbury manor 22-26 ish

Imanjel ( forget last part of name lol ) 18 - 25 ish

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Of course SOE communty ppl keep saying some Big News is coming... we shall see.

I support everything said above

Be aware however that during prime time on a weekday the server numbers swing between 200 - 250 and the majority of those (over 100 players) is between 51 - 55

On weekends the numbers go between 400 - 450

Also be aware you have to work hard to find people to do things with even in a guild. It isn't impossible but don't expect to log on and get a group within an hour even if you are proactive yourself

My personal opinion: There will not be a rise in numbers to anything noticable for people between 1 - 50. Not even content updates. This game needs to go F2P before there will be a shift in numbers

If none of the above scares you away then welcome to Telon. I recommend joining Twiglyte as you stand the biggest chance of playing with others on the rare occation people can tear themselves away from crafting tables

Have they improve/expanded Diplomacy?  I really enjoyed that aspect of Vanguard, but it seems to be abandoned after the teen levels.

Originally posted by Dredphyre

Have they improve/expanded Diplomacy?  I really enjoyed that aspect of Vanguard, but it seems to be abandoned after the teen levels.

Diplomacy has some really awesome quest lines all the way to max. If you love that aspect I can whole heartedly recommend it. It gives a completely new feel to VG. You also learn a lot of lore and what a lot of those NPCs just standing around, are all about

Just a note to piggy back both previous posts.

I made those groups... EVERY one, if you expect to log on and see LFG all over the place you will be dissapointed..You have to put in the effort to get something out of vangaurd... and it is certainly worth it. I see folks in /ooc putting up a XX level <class Y> lfg in ooc, sure that can work sometimes but how about this ?

I check what character i feel like playing, check the level range of that character... and the open the map ( suggest downloading infomap advanced as you can see many dungeons and their level ranges ) you will be overhwelmed by choices.

Then ? Ask in guild, I always get a response most of them are like this:

Hey yea, can i come on my level XX <insert class here> and peeps jump in, we stay together and have a blast... its good stuff but its not going to find you all the time, you ahve to do it yourself.

If we are not full, then its off to global chat for whatever continent i am on and we fill up, meet new people and do the grouping thing... 

Why does VG feel so speical right now ? If you like the old school style and a world to immerse yourself in VG is all about that... something that most recent releases sorely lack in my opinion...

It is funny, I wrote VG off more than once in my time and surely with quite a bit of frustration and this not so polished and clunky at times game has now become a diamond in the rough for me and many others..

Now hopefully SOE doesn't do somehting silly with the news they keep talking about and blow it all to hell. lol

I havent '/who all count' all weekend, but I did it yesterday very early (before prime time) and was surprised to get almost 200 people. So yeah, population is pre-SWTOR now again. I dont know how it happened to fast - just a week before it was a lot less action - but of course its much more fun this way.

Well, I am also a member of Twighlyte Song like Allegria (OP), and I agree with most of what he said. Especially when it comes to grouping.. You need to actively search for / Create groups instead of just sitting around waiting for the LFG's to come to you. Obviously that changes a bit once you get to know people in VG and become an active part of the community. If you know how to play your class and try to help others when you can, you will get more grouping offers. It's that simple really.

I see way too many people people do a couple of LFG's in the continental chat and then complaining about the lack of players, or lack of high levels willing to run them through and that's just silly. Do your LFG, and if there's no interest at that time, do something else for a while and try again. In a low population game where a lot of people have maxed out characters and with thousands of quests, you can't really expect to find a group for your quest within 15 mins. Just keep trying the continental chat while you're working on some other quests, and you'll find a group eventually. I've never had any problem getting my alts through HL (Yes, it is boring, but the reward is so worth it.), CIS, TK etc. I think people are just use to seeing LFG messages constantly in the games with higher populations. In VG you need to do some of the work yourself.

I disagree with Starpower's comment about F2P though. I am not sure if he's playing the game and which guild he's in, but we see people returning all the time and have been doing a lot of recruiting in TS lately. I'm not going to BS people saying the population is great or anything like that, but I just don't think the price is what's keeping people away. Playing a MMO is actually quite cheap if you compare it to most other forms of entertainment out there. VG is simply a niche game these days, as it's more similar to some of the old mmos than to the new mainstream games like WoW, Rift etc. You actually have to read the quest info sometimes, getting killed sucks, there's no simple linear "The is the way to level up" game design etc. It's actually challenging at times which is why a lot of old players keep returning to the game.

Clearly the population is quite low compared to a lot of other mmos out there, but it's not so low that you can't level, do your quests etc. You just need to know what you should expect in VG. Expect to spend time looking for groups if there's something you really want to do. Expect a (Generally) friendly community willing to help and answer questions (But don't expect high levels to drop whatever they're doing to help you through HL. They've probably done that grind hundreds of times already.) Expect having to join a guild if you like regular grouping (Yes, there are PUGs for HL, CIS etc. but you can't really depend on them..) Expect to be confused at times. :)

I can't really say this enough: Join a guild! It makes things so much easier for you!

And while some of the raiding guilds are friendly and their fully raid geared lvl 55's look really cool, I would not recommend a new (or returning) player to join one of them from the start. You will be very isolated and alone if you're the only level 20 in a guild full of 55's. Sure, some of them have alts and will play with you sometimes, but they'll most likely log on their main (or higher alt) as soon as they see any talks of a raid leaving you alone in "leveling land" again.

You will not be hitting 55 in a week as a new player, so don't think the leveling part of the game is completely irrelevant as it is in a lot of other mmos these days. 

There are several guilds with members in the leveling phases of the game, and I highly recommend new players to join one of them and try to become an active member of the guild asap. Some of the dungeon groups Allegria (OP) spoke of would probably never have happened if he was in a "Raid guild" or was guild-less.

Waiting for the F2P re-launch, thanks :)

Originally posted by Grand_LC

 I disagree with Starpower's comment about F2P though. I am not sure if he's playing the game and which guild he's in, but we see people returning all the time and have been doing a lot of recruiting in TS lately.

You can disagree all you like.. the /who count all command is available to everybody. Hell I'll even post screenies like i did in a previous post the month out to show there's no increase in numbers. A claim that has been made on and off over the past two years and has been debunked time and time again.

If twighlyte song is doing good members wise that's great and I'll advice all new players join it just because of that. It doesn't magically make the population in VG rise however.

Let me know if you want something tangible other than words. I'll post screenshot trends dating as far back as semtember last year and even link aditional headcounts made 2 years ago. You can compare numbers. They all show 200 -250 on weekdays and as high as 450 ~ on weekends. Other than the alltime low when SWTOR was released that haven't changed. Since I have had a running subscription for over a year now I'm more than willing to continue posting screenies of headcounts just to show the visitors on MMORPG.com this is all propaganda

We all know the population is low. I'm not trying to tell people things they do not already know. I'm telling people exactly how many we are talking about.. some identifiable numbers.

I would rather have a player returning based on being informed of precisely how many people are playing rather than vague comments like "our guild is seeing a rise in numbers" no matter how true that may be. Such a player has a better chance of sticking around more than somebody joining based on overly positive posts on a forum that does not match reality ingame. I can't tell you how many disappointed players I have run into after leaving IoD. A lot of those joined based on posts like yours and the OP. I get you both would like to see more players returning for some VG love but lets not do it by painting a prettier picture than what's actually there. Those players will leave the instant they find out things aren't as rosey as the forum posts suggests

Originally posted by tom_gore

Waiting for the F2P re-launch, thanks :)

 

I'm kinda waiting for this too. Not that I'm one of those who will never kick in some cash. But I tend to like to pay for only the content that I'll use.  For example, if Diplomacy was something unlocked by purchasing an add on, I'd pay for it, or the smaller dungeons.  Whereas I'd refrain from buying the larger Raid-type dungeons.

How would one fair leveling as a duo? Any stellar combinations that could do amazing stuff? Tank & Healer, Mage & Mage, Necro & Druid?

Whats the Raid content like? Sure everyone at cap has done it to death, but are there still folks doing it for new players and such?

Is there player housing by chance?

Thinking hard about resubbing, would want to join a fairly large community that is there to have a good time.

Originally posted by Poachinator

How would one fair leveling as a duo? Any stellar combinations that could do amazing stuff? Tank & Healer, Mage & Mage, Necro & Druid?

 

Whats the Raid content like? Sure everyone at cap has done it to death, but are there still folks doing it for new players and such?

 

Is there player housing by chance?

 

Thinking hard about resubbing, would want to join a fairly large community that is there to have a good time.

Not only is there playing housing, but its player built.  And there are boats.  Some of which are quite large.

well i was playing vanguard recently and i didn't notice a humming community..it was as dead as always. What i do notice every now and again is someone making a thread telling us all to come back to vanguard because the population is growing.

Originally posted by allegria

 

2. Population is humming right now - This past weekend we had groups all over the place in our guild. I recruited 8 people on Friday of last week alone. 

Stopped reading right there, because it's simply not true.  Unless you have an entirely different definition of "humming" than others do.

Poachinator-

If you decide to sub look into the guild Twighlyte Song.

Very active guild with 10+ on 24/7 and has raids/joint raids going multiple nights a week, willing crafters and players with different level alts that always are jumping between them to help out with content.  Oh, there is a weekly sloop(boat) giveaway contest also.

Originally posted by Poachinator

How would one fair leveling as a duo? Any stellar combinations that could do amazing stuff? Tank & Healer, Mage & Mage, Necro & Druid?

 

Whats the Raid content like? Sure everyone at cap has done it to death, but are there still folks doing it for new players and such?

 

Is there player housing by chance?

 

Thinking hard about resubbing, would want to join a fairly large community that is there to have a good time.

Paladin and Disciple can do all group content all the way to 45

The "zealots" come out of the woodwork every so often to taught their dying games.  Exclaiming the newness, revamped, "oh ya gotta come back", it's so awesome now" of their game of choice. 

When in truth, it's not really that much better than it was before.

Don't get me wrong, I've always liked V:SoH and what it could of been, but honestly, it's really not that great as it stands now.

It's still a desolate wasteland with many bugs that have not even been corrected since release, along with many other issues to boot.

Like the game for what it could of been...  

...but don't believe the hype the stragglers are putting out.

"It's dead Jim"...

Be sure to give us an update when you hit your 30s.

Originally posted by SterlingG

The "zealots" come out of the woodwork every so often to taught their dying games.  Exclaiming the newness, revamped, "oh ya gotta come back", it's so awesome now" of their game of choice. 

When in truth, it's not really that much better than it was before.

Don't get me wrong, I've always liked V:SoH and what it could of been, but honestly, it's really not that great as it stands now.

It's still a desolate wasteland with many bugs that have not even been corrected since release, along with many other issues to boot.

Like the game for what it could of been...  

...but don't believe the hype the stragglers are putting out.

"It's dead Jim"...

What bugs are you referring to?  

Along with many folks I too have played numerous MMOs over the years and while it was bug ridden for a long time, in its current state I do not see many bugs with VG anymore comparatively.

The 1 issue is the coding that persists, that I agree on.  With nice rigs it is lag free actually.

As for "greatness", well that is in the eye of the beholder as many things are considered great for reasons we may not agree with.

A core group feel VG is great, and many folks that played at launch and havent since do not.  Personally, I think VG has some great features, and some areas that definitely could use some attention.  Overall, having played on/off since beta I have to say the game has had a very tumultuous run.  

It is a unique game in the current state of the genre as it boasts an open, noninstanced world and strives for a realistic look versus the cartoonish look of most current MMOS, it also offers many classes that differ from the norm and player housing that is the best I have seen since SWG.  Diplomacy is also a unique side game that can be quite enjoyable once you figure it out.  The crafting "minigame" and complexity is also a nice variation from what has become the norm.