I have to say, I'm surprised by the number of people playing the trial with me right now.  I played the game at launch and it had SO many issues but the framerates have stabilized and I can finally enjoy how effing pretty this game world is.  Might be a good time for others to join up and try it out.

Trial was GREAT !

10-20 was GREAT !

20-30 it all just stops..........population goes down to nothing, BUT........ Thats not the worst part of it.  All the fun quest are group quest.  Solo quest are the go kill ten rats quest.  You will find real cool keeps,castles, dungeons, caves, and holes in the ground and not be able to play them because that's for the group quest.  Every noob was complaining about this in game, yet you can't get groups together for anything !

I love Vanguard.  So much that I come here every few days to see if anything changed, but nothing. 

 SOE needs to advertise, I mean really advertise, not by giving a free month and using word of mouth on mmorpg.com where everyone already knows the state of the game, but Real advertisement, not the free marketing crap they had been offering.

They also need to fix the group quest. What were they thinking !!..... That every zone will have 100 of people in each 24/7.  WoW does not even have the populations to do what Vanguard was trying to achieve per zone.

Champions Online failed, Darkfall failed, AoC failed, Warhammer failed, now Aion is failing. .......come on SOE, fix Vanguard and really advertise.... Nows your chance Do It !!

Re: Level 20-30 quests.

If you are on the Halgar (EU) server, check out the Lux Arcana Guild. We are doing a number of low end' quests and are always looking for new (and new to the game) players to join the guild.

Even if you don't want to join the guild, it's worth asking a member about joining in on upcoming organised low level group quests.

Hell, my highest toon is only level 24!

Most of the group quests I've done have involved a combination of guild/non guild members.

If you are on Halgar, just ask... ;)

Page, fyg, AoC did not fail...............

Sony has a gem of a game here, if only they invested in it, sigh.

I agree Vultureskull,

SOE does have a good game, but SOE has to do something with it. I consider all the advertisement they had done is the past was next to none.

A free month that very few know about is not advertisement.

A little banner on mmorpg is not advertisement, as 2% of the mmo population knows about mmorpg.com.  As many subs as mmorpg has its still nothing compared to the people that play mmo's.  Not only that but everyone here has already done their round with Vanguard or under the impression that Vanguard is still broke.

In its current state, the only way to play Vanguard is to lock 5 people in a room with hot pockets, water ( or Beer ), and a toilet for a few months.  Then and only then could they reap the benefits of this Gem.  The fun quest are set for groups only.  I can prove it just look at the mid level population !

Originally posted by page

The fun quest are set for groups only.

It's an MMO.

It's supposed to be played in groups. If they change the design of the game so you just solo all the way to end game, they might as well release it as a single player RPG.

Vanguard is massive. It truly is a huge open world, with multiple points to start from. You can slowly quest from level 1 to 55 and not see anywhere near all the world. That gives it repeat playability. Something lacking in many other MMO's.

I personally, like games that are designed to get people to quest together. Isn't that the point of an MMO?!?

You're right though. SOE needs to advertise this game. It's a good game and it deserves more players.

In my opinion Sony should really go to work on VG.

They should assign a full dev team to it, not the 4 people they have now, but the entire EQ2 team for example, i am sure that EQ2 can do without them for a few months.

This team can then flesh out the game, classes, quests and few remaining bugs(if any) . Add a ton of end game content (raids)etc. This should not take them too long. A few months at most.

Then re-box the game and make a proper launch.

Vanguard has everything a modern MMO has and more, the feature list is endless - seamless world, unquie classes, instance-less dungeons, massive massive world, flying mounts, a different take on combat(reactions), player owned ships, not sure about housing (if not i am sure the EQ2 devs i mention above can easily add them), with so much land space they could have guild cities even!

It would be become the definitive fantasy MMO, attacting hardcore and as well as casual gamers alike.

I simply fail to understand why Sony cannot see this or are reluctant to do it, anyone know why?

They were number one before WoW burst on the scene and they have a product they could use to fight back, but seems they have just given up!

Guild ships? Vanguard has 9 different ships. All can be crafted, it has nothing to do with guilds. You can build a ship on your own. Housing is there, and is noninstanced. Cca 30% of the game contains housing plots, that you can buy and build your own house there (again in many different styles). That house will become part of the persistent world - everyone else will see it, there's no instances.

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I simply fail to understand why Sony cannot see this or are reluctant to do it, anyone know why?

They were number one before WoW burst on the scene and they have a product they could use to fight back, but seems they have just given up!

It's because SoE did not buy Vanguard to improve it really, they bought it to avoid another company buying VG and become a direct competitor to EQ2. They pretty much realize, that if they actually pay for some AD and polish VG a bit more, the only players they will steal are those playing EQ1 and 2. This way, they have it all under one roof, with very low costs and nothing can threaten their precious crappy instanced EQ2.

Originally posted by Thillian

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I simply fail to understand why Sony cannot see this or are reluctant to do it, anyone know why?

They were number one before WoW burst on the scene and they have a product they could use to fight back, but seems they have just given up!

 

It's because SoE did not buy Vanguard to improve it really, they bought it to avoid another company buying VG and become a direct competitor to EQ2. They pretty much realize, that if they actually pay for some AD and polish VG a bit more, the only players they will steal are those playing EQ1 and 2. This way, they have it all under one roof, with very low costs and nothing can threaten their precious crappy instanced EQ2.

Well that is a shame, since they are stiffling development of a superior product for an older, not so good one.

And quite short sighted, cos if they polish VG then it will take players from EQ2, they will not lose anything there(station pass or direct swap of a monthly sub), but then it will pull in  a hell of a lot  more players and hence they will have a net increase.

Another reason why SOE is not a well liked company perhaps.

PS:MMO companies need to be pro-active in this fickle world, to stay one step ahead of the competiton, surely they should now change there approach and develop VG, as i am sure neither EQ2 or VG are attracting new players.........

Originally posted by VultureSkull

Originally posted by Thillian

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I simply fail to understand why Sony cannot see this or are reluctant to do it, anyone know why?

They were number one before WoW burst on the scene and they have a product they could use to fight back, but seems they have just given up!

 

It's because SoE did not buy Vanguard to improve it really, they bought it to avoid another company buying VG and become a direct competitor to EQ2. They pretty much realize, that if they actually pay for some AD and polish VG a bit more, the only players they will steal are those playing EQ1 and 2. This way, they have it all under one roof, with very low costs and nothing can threaten their precious crappy instanced EQ2.

 

Well that is a shame, since they are stiffling development of a superior product for an older, not so good one.

And quite short sighted, cos if they polish VG then it will take players from EQ2, so they will not lose anything there, but then it will pull in  a hell of a lot  more players and hence they will have a net increase.

Another reason why SOE is not a well liked company perhaps.

PS:MMO companies need to be pro-active in this fickle world, to stay one step ahead of the competiton, surely they should now change there approach and develop VG, as i am sure netierh EQ2 or VG are attracting new players.........

 

Well yes I agree that it could be successful -> but there's a lot of risk involved.

Currently there are 4 developers adding content for VG (excluding any graphic programmer). There's probably 0 cost for AD (I never saw any for at least a year). so the costs are basically just for a small room within the SoE department for those 4 people, + maintainance for servers + website.

Everquest is a franchise -> it doesn't have a bad reputation because of its launch (altho EQ2 launch was a disaster as well). Vanguard on the other hand, rather resonates a hardcore lagfest for most of the people. Yes, Vanguard is hundred times a better game than EQ2 in all areas (crafting, combat, non-instanced world, graphics, sounds, classes, housing, + diplomacy, ships, flying mounts) but it doesn't really have a bright future. Which is sad -- very sad. In this age of all these craptastic mmo's, there's this gem noone really cares about.

IMHO the risk involved cannot be greater than the development of a brand new MMO, simply reason is because it works already, unlike a lot of games we have seen recently, WAR, Tabula to mention a few.

I agree the reputation proceeds it due to its launch.

Maybe something radically can be attempted, change the name, change the character models and release it as a brand new game altogether for example lol. But then that introduces risk again. Well i guess it will just go donw as the greatest MMO that never was :-(

Unfortunately, we only have ourselves to blame. We (the MMO users) are just too damn fickle. We happily hop from one title to the next, without giving it the chance to work out the kinks and truly shine.

I guess it's also fair to say that games companies shouldn't put out games that are only 80% finished, but that is the nature of the market, a market we (the users) have created.

Having said that, SOE are truly stupid (do you hear me SOE? YOU ARE STUPID!!!) for not putting more dev time into Vanguard. This is a world that could really take off if they just ironed out all the kinks and concentrated on releasing expansions. The graphics on this game are still top notch even two years after its well publicised release. It has all the ingredients necessary for a smash MMORPG, it just needs motivated developers, producers and good financial backing behind it.

... meh

Originally posted by page

Trial was GREAT !

10-20 was GREAT !

20-30 it all just stops..........population goes down to nothing, BUT........ Thats not the worst part of it.  All the fun quest are group quest.  Solo quest are the go kill ten rats quest.  You will find real cool keeps,castles, dungeons, caves, and holes in the ground and not be able to play them because that's for the group quest.  Every noob was complaining about this in game, yet you can't get groups together for anything !

I love Vanguard.  So much that I come here every few days to see if anything changed, but nothing. 

 SOE needs to advertise, I mean really advertise, not by giving a free month and using word of mouth on mmorpg.com where everyone already knows the state of the game, but Real advertisement, not the free marketing crap they had been offering.

They also need to fix the group quest. What were they thinking !!..... That every zone will have 100 of people in each 24/7.  WoW does not even have the populations to do what Vanguard was trying to achieve per zone.

Champions Online failed, Darkfall failed, AoC failed, Warhammer failed, now Aion is failing. .......come on SOE, fix Vanguard and really advertise.... Nows your chance Do It !!

Why not group if that is the quests you want to do? You can't say there aren't people willing to do so. You yourself stated that all the noobs are complaining about this, yet you can't get a group. Maybe if the noobs wouldn't complain in chat about having to group to do quests, and simply instead of the complaints say "Looking for Group" then there wouldn't be a problem.

The true problem is that people are spoiled by soloing. If they want to solo a cave that is not possible at level 20, then they need to solo grind to 30+ then go back and run the cave. Me and wife have a qroup quest that we can't complete. Did we complain, a little, then we moved on, completed a couple other quests and returned to old quest after some levels. No worries.

I'm a noob myself, not even to 20-30 range yet, but I intend to group at some point. Also intend to join a guild. Just testing the waters with my wife to find which classes we want to make our mains.

Advice: Form a group or join a guild. Have fun. Don't even pay attention to the XP bar. Live!

Originally posted by Vyrolakos

Unfortunately, we only have ourselves to blame. We (the MMO users) are just too damn fickle. We happily hop from one title to the next, without giving it the chance to work out the kinks and truly shine.

I guess it's also fair to say that games companies shouldn't put out games that are only 80% finished, but that is the nature of the market, a market we (the users) have created.

Having said that, SOE are truly stupid (do you hear me SOE? YOU ARE STUPID!!!) for not putting more dev time into Vanguard. This is a world that could really take off if they just ironed out all the kinks and concentrated on releasing expansions. The graphics on this game are still top notch even two years after its well publicised release. It has all the ingredients necessary for a smash MMORPG, it just needs motivated developers, producers and good financial backing behind it.

... meh

I have a feeling EQ3 will be VSoH+EQ world/lore. That is my guess as to why they don't focus on this game.

You may be right.

I'm pretty certain there is a huge untapped market for a sandbox game with a massive world background.

Unfortunately, Vanguard dropped the ball due to a poor launch and so far SOE has failed to remedy that initial perception amongst the greater MMO community. Darkfall and the upcoming Mortal Online look like PvP ganking fragfests.

So, if you want a fully immersive, well developed, fantasy sandbox world that doesn't play like a demented 10 year olds version of Counterstrike or Half Life, where do you go?

Wow, this is all totally depressing.  Like...it totally killed my desire to level up.

Originally posted by dpf1978

Wow, this is all totally depressing.  Like...it totally killed my desire to level up.

Well Im playing VG since the release. There were some bad depressing times for the VG. I always say myself to enjoy it as much as possible while it lasts. Good things never lasts too long. I stopped having dreams that VG will once day become as successful as it deserves.

Originally posted by Thillian

Originally posted by VultureSkull

I simply fail to understand why Sony cannot see this or are reluctant to do it, anyone know why?

They were number one before WoW burst on the scene and they have a product they could use to fight back, but seems they have just given up!

 

It's because SoE did not buy Vanguard to improve it really, they bought it to avoid another company buying VG and become a direct competitor to EQ2. They pretty much realize, that if they actually pay for some AD and polish VG a bit more, the only players they will steal are those playing EQ1 and 2. This way, they have it all under one roof, with very low costs and nothing can threaten their precious crappy instanced EQ2.

I think this is the sad truth about the acquisition of vanguard.

Vanguard however is a much better foundation for an mmo than any other game soe has on the station pass.  If soe had actually put effort into the game it would have grown.  Sure it would have killed off EQ/EQ2 to some degree, but I think it would have attracted more than that.  That is a risk that soe wasn't willing to take.

To whoever said gamers do not give mmos and chance to work themselves out, just how long does a game need?  Vanguard is close to turning 3 years old. 

Originally posted by Daffid011

To whoever said gamers do not give mmos and chance to work themselves out, just how long does a game need?  Vanguard is close to turning 3 years old. 

Might have been me. ;)

Vanguard is a fully functional fantasy MMORPG right now. Has been for quite a while.

Is it perfect?

Depends what your definition of perfect is I suppose, it still has flaws and it's not everything to everybody, but what game is? Nonetheless, it's still the best PvE open sandbox fantasy MMO world out there.

Many MMO players seem to have this peculiar personality disorder. The game must be absolutely teaming with other players for it to be considered a success, but the content must be completely soloable. They must just like the comfort of seeing others wander by...

The only thing Vanguard lacks today is a large player base and SOE releasing expansions. The two of which are intricately linked.

SOE can bring in new players to Vanguard with a good expansion.

It's one of the most underrated fantasy MMORPG's out there.