Originally posted by ZeyaVisuddha

I talked to an NPC and he's like "go over to this other guy". They were giving me the runaround with not much to do, so I decided to run off and find a mob and check out the battle system. Well there weren't any obvious mobs nearby, so I just kept going in a straight line, and started swimming. I swam to the bottom of the lake, and then kept swimming: I swam right through the ground! Great a nice bug in the first 5 minutes of gameplay. I got myself back on land somehow, finally saw some sort of spider/lizard mob or something, ran up and he two-shotted me and I died. Being a noob and not knowing the hud well enough yet, I had attacked a level 45 mob because I assumed it was a level 2 or something, being the starter area. They really shouldn't put such high level guys right where people start the game. I really didn't go that far from where the game started. I admit I was running off instead of doing the starter quest chain though.

 

So next I went to do this introductory Diplomacy quest. The card game started and it was my turn to make a move. The dialog said to choose a card from... trying to remember the wording... the little tray or whatever of cards. First of all the tray thing wasn't open. The dialog didn't say how to bring it up, and finally I poked around in menus and found a listing of cards, with a button I pressed that popped up the shadowy tray thing. (Sorry I can't remember the terminology.) I tried dragging cards, which I assumed to be skills, into the tray, but that wouldn't work. I tried clicking the tray...tried hitting the action button on the game window... nothing's working and no explanation. They need to hold your hand just a little more on this first dialog tutorial. I got frustrated and gave up on that.
 

If you can't figure out starting quests and tutorials on the Isle, you should stick to console games.  I don't think ANY mmo is for you.

Very good intro area and very similar in design to the EQ2 starting island.  There are three linear type quest lines that allow you to explore the three spheres of the game (adventuring, crafting, and diplomacy).  There is a final dungeon that encourages grouping, but not so difficult that it can't be solo'd by most classes if you are grinding through it just to make an alt.  The trial experience is the most complete and polished area of the game, but the drop off once you leave isn't to bad.  The problem becomes when you hit your 20's and feel like grouping up for stuff.  It seems fairly difficult, even guilded to find groups to explore grouped content.  The most interesting areas in the game seem to be group only areas leaving you to pretty much wander the contryside killing spiders or whatnot till you find a group that is doing something interesting.

Biggest downfall is no PvP.  The lone PvP server left is very close to deserted (between 30-150 people on the entire server at any one time).  This game is EQ2-plus or minus depending on who you talk to.  If you have a few friends that you are with trying it out, or you find a group that happen to have your playtimes then it could be fun for all the PVE lovers out there.  If you have any intrest in PvP, well I suppose wait till MO comes out and hope that doesn't suck.

Yes, the crafting, adventuring, and diplomacy tutorials couldn't be any more clearly and cleanly laid out.  But they are pretty in depth.  That's the beauty of a free demo, you can decide if this type of MMO is going to be enjoyable for you or not.  I wouldn't say go back to console games, but there is a bucket-load of MMOs that are much simplier and more linear than Vanguard.

All three spheres have pretty steep learning curves and I very much enjoyed the learning component.  Diplomacy is probably the most difficult to learn and get good at. 

I had a similar thing with diplomacy the first time.  Try dragging cards, nope, try clicking cards, nope.  Just couldn't get the things into the tray, so then I started thinking I had to do something else first instead, which was a wild goose chase.  I forget what happened where I finally got them in there, but doing the obvious things of clicking or dragging were not getting it done.

I wouldn't be suprised if he didn't double click on the icon again.

Originally posted by TheFranchise

I had a similar thing with diplomacy the first time.  Try dragging cards, nope, try clicking cards, nope.  Just couldn't get the things into the tray, so then I started thinking I had to do something else first instead, which was a wild goose chase.  I forget what happened where I finally got them in there, but doing the obvious things of clicking or dragging were not getting it done.

Clicking and dragging works for me....

I had the same issues with Diplomacy.  I finally just gave up on it.  There are plenty of Adventures out there to take up my time.

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Originally posted by TheFranchise
I had a similar thing with diplomacy the first time.  Try dragging cards, nope, try clicking cards, nope.  Just couldn't get the things into the tray, so then I started thinking I had to do something else first instead, which was a wild goose chase.  I forget what happened where I finally got them in there, but doing the obvious things of clicking or dragging were not getting it done.

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I believe he, and perhaps you, tried to drag the cards to the slots during an engagement, or conversation, or whatever you want to call it. You cannot do that. You need to build your deck before you talk to someone. You can drag and drop then.

Otherwise, I agree with other people that you need to take it slow to understand this game. It isn't completely my cup of tea, but it isn't bad. It is complex, which is very good, and I want more games to try and reach this level of complexity and difficulty. You will probably be bored with this game though, if you were already bored talking to the first guy when he didn't want you to kill anything. They try to pull you in slowly, and dole out information slowly, so that you are not overwhelmed.

I would try a brand new character and give it another go. If you actually do the quests and read what you are told, you won't make the mistake of attacking something that greatly outmatches you.

Originally posted by Leodious

 

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I believe he, and perhaps you, tried to drag the cards to the slots during an engagement, or conversation, or whatever you want to call it. You cannot do that. You need to build your deck before you talk to someone. You can drag and drop then.

That sounds about right.  It was a very simple thing which led to much frustration.