Also of note.....

The Vanguard has just recently hired a few more artists and a few more apprentice devs and an associate dev. The VG team is growing and that means more content and more fixes at a higher rate. If even more people(besides the recent flood of new players) decide to try this game then that would mean adding even more devs to the team.

Originally posted by minocin

After AoC I'm skeptical about buying before trying mmorpgs now

They need to add a 7day trial or something

So, you played AoC?

Well, the free Trial Island which is due out next month will blow Tortage out of the water. It is amazing.

First, you can download Trial Island and play forever there without ever paying for the actual game OR a monthly fee. However, you can only get to level 10.

Since the Trial Island is a smaller download and it costs nother to play, there really is no reason that people should NOT give this game a try. You have nothing to lose and you just may find the MMO that you have always been looking for.

The best things about AoC are the graphics and the music.

Most everything else about the game is pretty crappy. If Funcom were to take another 8 months with hardcore patching then it may be a decent console game. I played AoC for about 8 months in closed beta and another month when it went Live. I REALLY wanted to like this game but it didnt have enough polish at release.

The Vanguard classes all have a variety of Stances which allow you to focus on a specific duty.

For example, if you are a cleric and you chose Warcleric as your sub-speciality then you would have 3 different stances to chose from.

I think that clerics have maybe 5 or 6 sub-specialties and then you have 3 Stances for each sun-specialty.

Monks on the other hand have different fighting styles(sub-specialties):Drunken Style, Dragon Style, Harmonious Style. And each different style also has a variety of Stances.

All of these sub-specialties must be obtained from from their class trainer through a small quest. You can only have 1 sub-specialty at a time. If you wish to change to a different style then you need to revisit your class trainer and have them remove the style that you currently have and then the trainer will give you another small quest to let you obtain a new sub-specialty.

To me, it looks like the skill trees are incorporated into these sub-specialties and stances.

There is only 2 things that this pic can be. Either it is from Isle of Dawn(Trial Island) or it's from the revamped Pantheon of Ancients.

Since the OP stated that it is coming in with the GU6 then these 2 options are the only choices that we have.

Also, since he stated that the pic is from an Island it is my guess that he just got the name of the island incorrect.

Here is what the latest Producer's letter states that will be included in the GU6(not including Trial Island and character model revamps)......

Game Update Six
As if the Isle of Dawn and character model revamps weren't enough, we've also got a full sized update coming out on top of that. As it gets closer to getting on test, we'll be posting a more detailed write-up like we normally do, but a few things players can look forward to include:

• A revamped and high level Pantheon of the Ancients featuring both group and raid content
• A new overland raid (Varking)
• The long awaited combat balance revamp
• More class updates
• More performance optimizations
• Lots of bug fixing

So, most likely, this is a pic of an orc utilizing the new character models and the background is that of Trial Island(Isle of Dawn)

I think he means Isle of Dawn. Isle of Dawn is the official name for the trial island.

The trial island will be coming out towards the end of August and will be a free download that will allow anyone to play that starting area of Vanguard for free and for as long as they wish. Also coming out with the trial island is the new character model customization revamp as well as the Game Update 6 content.

I agree that Vanguard has a few problems. Are these game-breakers? Well that depends on what you think is important enough to make you quit a game.

A shaking screen when you walk up stairs? Fonts? User Interface?

Are these all of the problems of Vanguard? Nope. I have seen other problems like unable to hear the sound of your horses footsteps when you are riding it. No rain drops when using a particular OS mixed with a particular GPU. There are others too, im sure.

Personally, will I stop playing a game because I cant hear my horses footsteps? No. If the game play is fun and has deep content then I will continue to play the game.

I generally dont take advice about a game from people who play for a few hours and then go to some forums to try to talk like they are an expert on the topic of the overall gameplay of that game.

Is the UI in Vanguard similar to WoW? Yes it is because most of the modern MMOs currently available all use the same basic UI model which was developed from EQ1. A HUGE number of people will use UI Mods for the game that they play so if you dont like the default UI then there are always a fair amount of custom UI's out there that folks can chose from.

Jaguar seems pissed at Vanguard for some reason. It is obvious from his numerous posts in this thread that he doesnt want to like the game. He download the client and after 15 minutes of gameplay he dislikes it.

Seems he doesnt like the graphics. Thats cool. Not everyone does. Vanguard is not the game for every MMO player out there.

IMO the Vanguard graphics are on par with AoC but the gameplay of Vanguard far exceeds that of AoC.

The graphics in LOTRO are a bit easier on the eyes but that is pretty much the only thing going for LOTRO. The actual gameplay/content of that game is pretty limited and no where near that of Vanguard.

If Jaguar is trying to steer folks away from trying Vanguard then I think he is having the opposite effect. People see him as being jaded to the game and in order for them to find out themselves they will try the free trial which will be coming out in just over a months time.

In other words, Jaguar is perhaps the best advertising that Vanguard can have. He keeps bumping this thread up and getting the Vanguard name out there and more and more people will see it and decide to try the game and from the past posts that I have seen, the majority of them will stay with it.

What do you say Jaguar, you wanna bump this thread yet again to let other gamers know about Vanguard and let them try it out and increase the games population even more?

I have read that Vanguard is letting players play for free for the month of July.

I also heard that Vanguard has a free Trial Island that is coming out soon, that will also add newcharacter graphics.

My question is, is the new trial island already launched and that is why they are letting people play for free or is this something different?

I have played pretty much every MMO that hits North America. The customer service in Vanguard beats all of the past MMOs, hands down.

Not only are the GMs very professional, but are pretty quick in answering a petition. Also, if they have a few minutes to spare, they will start turning players into chickens, frogs and camels.

Its funny to watch a 2 humped camel tank a raid mob while a bunch of chickens attack it from behind.

Vanguard had a very bad launch 18 months ago. Since that time, the developers have added much more content and have also fined tuned the game to the point where it should have been at it Launch.

If you liked EQ1 then you will most deffinately love Vanguard now. Dont take anyones word for it though, try the game and make up your own mind.

A couple of ways to try it out. You can usually find a copy of the game on Ebay for about $12 and you get to play free for 30 days before they start the monthly billing process.

Or

Try to find a buddy pass.

or

Wait until around the first of August for the free trial area to be opened to the public.

Personally, I would go with Vanguard.

I have played all 3 of the games that you have mentioned.

I was in AoC beta for a year and then I played for the first month before I quit. The game was pushed out to market WAY too early. It will take them a year just to get that game to the point that it is a top-end game.

EQ2 is nice and I enjoyed my time in that game(about 2 years) but I eventually got bored.

Vanguard is where I am at now. It had a horrible launch similar to that of AoC but after 18 months of dedicated work by the developers, Vanguard has finally become the game that everyone hoped it would be.

Be warned though. My wife(who had similar views to your GF) saw me playing this game and when she saw the Raki race(little race of fox people that you can play) she fell in love with them. She started playing Vanguard and stole my computer to do it  :(

Guess it is time for me to buy a new computer.

I've seen the Collector's Edition on Amazon.com recently for about $8 with another $6 shipping. This will give you a guild hall trophy, a cloak and a few non-ingame items. Will also give you 10 Buddy Passes to hand out to your friends if you decide this game is fun and you want to share the fun with friends. It also comes with 30 free days of play. Basically, you buy the game for the same cost of the monthly fee and play free for a month.

In response to your first question.....

The Character Models of Vanguard were recently toned down a bit but not due to the Helmet issue. SOE is currently revamping the Character Models to be more in line with AOC type Character Models. While they are working on that SOE decided to tone down the Character Models to increase gaming performance.

Vanguard is now running very smoothly and there are still a few tweaks yet to do to make it run even better.