I know the game has evolved quite a bit since it was released, I sub off and on to check it out and find the PvE very enjoyable.  I also know they tweaked graphics a bit just lately

anyhow, I never hear any talks about an expansion for the game. The game is pretty vast as it is, not sure if Id even have any suggestions to expand on anything, but it just seems odd the games been out for as long as it has and not even a mention of an expansion (or has there?)

The development team concentrated on fixing the bugs and performance for most of 2008. 

Now they are more focused on new content .  In the upcoming months the level cap will be raised from 50 to 55.  A new Alternate Advancement system will be introduced.  A new dungeon is also scheduled to be released - Pantheon of the Ancients.  I believe this dungeon will be at least as big as the Ancient Port Warehouse.  This will be for both 6 man groups and raids.

So.. there is a lot of new content coming out, yet they are not calling it an expansion.  I am not sure of the marketing scheme.  They infer that the scope of the changes are similiar in size to an expansion but they will not be charging for it or officially calling it an expansion.

thank you

I guess I'll look at it as a good thing.  It appears theyre expanding on the game and not charging anyone for it.  I mean, VG is huge.  There arent too many games that come close to the amount of classes or quests this game has.  Not much to expand on really.

It is a good thing, I remember clear back in the day when the monthly fee would cover more then just a patch or two. In an age of downloadable content and expansions every year, this is a nice little throwback.

An expansion for this game? You have got to be kidding. The game is barely alive and you're asking about an expansion?

Evolved? From what? From very bad to very worse.

Originally posted by erikk3189

An expansion for this game? You have got to be kidding. The game is barely alive and you're asking about an expansion?

Evolved? From what? From very bad to very worse.

 

You're right that the population isn't large enough to be able to justify a $20-$40 expansion, however saying the game has only gotten worse in the 2 years it's been out is somewhat ignorant There have been many well documented tweaks, bug fixes and content added.

The VG dev team is providing updates for free that expand the game.  Not sure I think that is the best business practice.  I think they could have put together the update coming soon and some that they did in the past and easily made and expansion out of it.  But free isn't a bad thing.

ya I think one of the benefits from doing a payed expansion would be the marketing to sell the expansion.  It would convince some people who cancelled their accounts to come back.  Vanguard has undergone a crapload of changes since release and its very fleshed out.  I would expect that if the community spiked, a lot of people would end up staying.

The next Game update is big enough to be an expansion.  It's being referred to as a Free Expansion.

Nah, there will never be an expansion. I'm still waiting on 'em to fulfill the animation revamps. It's taking them years to even do that, and took them over a year to get Isle of Dawn out; imagine them ever having to add new races/classes/continent-sized landmasses (not that the current ones are fleshed out).

They don't have the resources, and never will.

Originally posted by sepher

Nah, there will never be an expansion. I'm still waiting on 'em to fulfill the animation revamps. It's taking them years to even do that, and took them over a year to get Isle of Dawn out; imagine them ever having to add new races/classes/continent-sized landmasses (not that the current ones are fleshed out).

They don't have the resources, and never will.

They have more resources now than they have had in a long time.  The addition of Pantheon of the Ancients, a level cap increase and the introduction of AAs is HUGE!

And recently, they put out Shores of Darkness and Bridge of Destiny which are very large content updates.  Hell, Shores of Darkness alone is probably bigger than some MMORPG paid content expansions :)

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by sepher

Nah, there will never be an expansion. I'm still waiting on 'em to fulfill the animation revamps. It's taking them years to even do that, and took them over a year to get Isle of Dawn out; imagine them ever having to add new races/classes/continent-sized landmasses (not that the current ones are fleshed out).

They don't have the resources, and never will.

 

They have more resources now than they have had in a long time.  The addition of Pantheon of the Ancients, a level cap increase and the introduction of AAs is HUGE!

And recently, they put out Shores of Darkness and Bridge of Destiny which are very large content updates.  Hell, Shores of Darkness alone is probably bigger than some MMORPG paid content expansions :)

"HUGE" and "BIGGER" for Vanguard, probably. But content is more than mile distances of generated terrain, and re-used models, textures and animations.

The team do what they can, but the catch-22 for Vanguard remains; not enough players to justify a team capable of producing expansions of entirely "new" content, and not enough developers to produce the kind of content that'll actually grow the player base (in terms of server count; which is a magnitude that matters much more than how many people folks think they see on the same four servers).

Originally posted by sepher

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by sepher

Nah, there will never be an expansion. I'm still waiting on 'em to fulfill the animation revamps. It's taking them years to even do that, and took them over a year to get Isle of Dawn out; imagine them ever having to add new races/classes/continent-sized landmasses (not that the current ones are fleshed out).

They don't have the resources, and never will.

 

They have more resources now than they have had in a long time.  The addition of Pantheon of the Ancients, a level cap increase and the introduction of AAs is HUGE!

And recently, they put out Shores of Darkness and Bridge of Destiny which are very large content updates.  Hell, Shores of Darkness alone is probably bigger than some MMORPG paid content expansions :)

 

"HUGE" and "BIGGER" for Vanguard, probably. But content is more than mile distances of generated terrain, and re-used models, textures and animations.

The team do what they can, but the catch-22 for Vanguard remains; not enough players to justify a team capable of producing expansions of entirely "new" content, and not enough developers to produce the kind of content that'll actually grow the player base (in terms of server count; which is a magnitude that matters much more than how many people folks think they see on the same four servers).

You are kidding fight?  "Mile distances of generated terrain...etc."  Everything about Pantheon of the Ancients  defies what you just said.  And level cap increases and AAs take a lot of work and resources as they have a very large impact on nearly every aspect of the game.

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by sepher

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by sepher

Nah, there will never be an expansion. I'm still waiting on 'em to fulfill the animation revamps. It's taking them years to even do that, and took them over a year to get Isle of Dawn out; imagine them ever having to add new races/classes/continent-sized landmasses (not that the current ones are fleshed out).

They don't have the resources, and never will.

 

They have more resources now than they have had in a long time.  The addition of Pantheon of the Ancients, a level cap increase and the introduction of AAs is HUGE!

And recently, they put out Shores of Darkness and Bridge of Destiny which are very large content updates.  Hell, Shores of Darkness alone is probably bigger than some MMORPG paid content expansions :)

 

"HUGE" and "BIGGER" for Vanguard, probably. But content is more than mile distances of generated terrain, and re-used models, textures and animations.

The team do what they can, but the catch-22 for Vanguard remains; not enough players to justify a team capable of producing expansions of entirely "new" content, and not enough developers to produce the kind of content that'll actually grow the player base (in terms of server count; which is a magnitude that matters much more than how many people folks think they see on the same four servers).

 

You are kidding fight?  "Mile distances of generated terrain...etc."  Everything about Pantheon of the Ancients  defies what you just said.  And level cap increases and AAs take a lot of work and resources as they have a very large impact on nearly every aspect of the game.

The level cap increase is just a number change; only useful if there's a proportionate amount of NEW content (again, not reused textures, reused models, reused sounds and reused animations), often in the form of entire new landmasses, which often come with new races and classes. That's an expansion.

I'm just saying, and you prove my point, Pantheon of the Ancients is probably HUGE and BIGGER in terms of the Vanguard team and what they're capable of doing. Reusing the same area for a higher level version might even be satisfactory as well if you can forgive it, but it's hardly an "expansion" in the sense of all-new content.

Originally posted by sepher

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by sepher

Originally posted by boojiboy

Originally posted by sepher

Nah, there will never be an expansion. I'm still waiting on 'em to fulfill the animation revamps. It's taking them years to even do that, and took them over a year to get Isle of Dawn out; imagine them ever having to add new races/classes/continent-sized landmasses (not that the current ones are fleshed out).

They don't have the resources, and never will.

 

They have more resources now than they have had in a long time.  The addition of Pantheon of the Ancients, a level cap increase and the introduction of AAs is HUGE!

And recently, they put out Shores of Darkness and Bridge of Destiny which are very large content updates.  Hell, Shores of Darkness alone is probably bigger than some MMORPG paid content expansions :)

 

"HUGE" and "BIGGER" for Vanguard, probably. But content is more than mile distances of generated terrain, and re-used models, textures and animations.

The team do what they can, but the catch-22 for Vanguard remains; not enough players to justify a team capable of producing expansions of entirely "new" content, and not enough developers to produce the kind of content that'll actually grow the player base (in terms of server count; which is a magnitude that matters much more than how many people folks think they see on the same four servers).

 

You are kidding fight?  "Mile distances of generated terrain...etc."  Everything about Pantheon of the Ancients  defies what you just said.  And level cap increases and AAs take a lot of work and resources as they have a very large impact on nearly every aspect of the game.

 

The level cap increase is just a number change; only useful if there's a proportionate amount of NEW content (again, not reused textures, reused models, reused sounds and reused animations), often in the form of entire new landmasses, which often come with new races and classes. That's an expansion.

I'm just saying, and you prove my point, Pantheon of the Ancients is probably HUGE and BIGGER in terms of the Vanguard team and what they're capable of doing. Reusing the same area for a higher level version might even be satisfactory as well if you can forgive it, but it's hardly an "expansion" in the sense of all-new content.

Firstly... I can tell you are a disgruntled ex-sub(don't worry I was, too). I know the feelings of leveling up and getting the max level and there is absolutley nothing to do. Vanguard has evolved from then, sincerely. I'd even reccomend you to give it a try, but I'm not sure anything will fufill your expectations that we all had for this game back in 07.

Also, Pantheon of the Ancients is on the test server and you can give it a go to test the new level cap/abilities. From what I've played, so far has been clean with brand new animations and amazing new landscape with a greek/roman esque feel to it(though all of what I haven't tested may be completely unfinished, reused crap).

The reason it is being called an expansion is because its further advancing our characters and the landscape in every aspect. Adventuring levels, crafting, diplomacy, levels, brand new content, new hairstyles, raid content, group content, and advanced abilities. There is some very neat stuff coming up as well with the raids. I've heard of a raid boss that requires a crafter to craft an item in the middle of the raid and if you know anything about Vanguard crafting than you can imagine what the raid boss might do if you get a terrible complication.

I'm very excited for this game, and if you aren't, the only one missing out is you.

Cheers

Edited for spelling