Isn't Seradon live already? Can you check? I was thinking of resubscribing if the pops are high.

 OH NOES! healz4u left vanguard? Vanguard must be doomed!!!! OH NOES!!!!!!!! Brad should end his life cause healz4u quit!
I don't understand why everyone keeps quoting the name "healz4u" as if he is someone famous, whose opinion everyone should regard highly. No offense, but with a name like healz4u, I am not thwarted away from Vanguard solely because this guy left the game.

Of course, gathering an opinion about an MMO from mmorpg.com's forum is worth about as much as a stray dog crapping behind a lonely bush in the middle of a forest that no one cares about. Especially when their biggest offense to the game is saying how a guy that no one has ever heard of has left the game.

Why doesn't anyone just log into VG, do a /who, and post how many ppl are online?

I only played on the Classic servers, but I assume with the /level 20 command on the rest, Thidranki is still one of the most populated Battlegrounds.

Of course, I could be completely wrong, I haven't played since December.

Originally posted by mmcguire2

That’s the thing.  This game has so much to offer but it got off to a bad start.  I played at the end of Beta and a few months after, I quit because of the bugs with the game.  I’ve been back for a week and the game is running much better, it could also be the new computer I bought.  The game still needs some polish, I’m hoping the merge will bring more grouping and the opportunity to build up a stronger community.  This game could be great, please note I said could.

I would also like to add the only reason I am playing this game is because I bought it at launch, at this point I wouldn’t recommend buying it.  I hope this OP will change.   

I don't understand how you can recommend to NOT buy it when you have 202 total hours in VG and 10 hours this week.

Your actions speak "Buy it" while your words say the opposite.

Originally posted by ImArchimedes

On high? Really? I just remember that thing being such a beast. Did things improve with a patch? Or maybe I underestimated the difference between my old 2.5 single core proc versus the new dual core. Is it really that much of a leap though? I mean, I had a X800 vid card and a gig of ram. How much of a change am I going to see in Van? From what you say, it sounds like I might see a pretty large leap in all gaming. Or am I just getting my hopes up?

Performance is constantly improving with patches. While I was playing months ago (It was March or April I think) there was one patch which gave me a 10+++ fps boost. I was heavily impressed.

The difference in quality isn't going to be your CPU, but your video card.
Going from a 2.5GHz single core to a AMD 64 x2 is going to be a big improvement, but nothing compared to going from a x800 to a 8800 GTS.

The 8800GTS series is the second best graphics card out there, next to the GTX group. The 320MB compared to 640MB only has a difference in SOME GAMES, and only with the Nvidia's Control Panel's Anisotrophic and Antialiasing filtering turned on. A higher resolution won't be affected by having a 640MB version instead of 320MB, that's a myth. As I said, the ONLY difference between the two is AA and Ani in SOME games, which isn't a big difference at all, especially since most games don't have AA or Ani, and those that do rarely go above x4. AA and Ani is mostly controlled via the Nvidia Control Panel.

I disapprove of AntiAliasing (AA) because it gives practically no graphics improvement at higher resolutions, but is a BIG drain on FPS and performance. In some games, it makes absolutely NO difference, except for draining your FPS performance. EQ2 is one example of this. But I do love Anisotrophic filtering, it makes everything look more detailed and better. With that said, I'd buy a 320MB because it's not worth the $100, but I would prefer a 640MB version if the difference was more.

Since the 320MB and 640Mb are practically the same, you have the SECOND BEST graphics card on the market right now. Only thing better is the incredibly expensive GTX.

Originally posted by ImArchimedes

I bought Vanguard when it first started and didn't have the system for it. Only way to describe it was a slide show. My fiance and I both love the game and her system can run it and now I'm getting the following system. Can I run it now with mid to high settings?

 

Mobo: EVGA nForce 590 SLI Socket AM2

Proc: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 6000+ Socket AM2

Mem: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel

Vid: eVGA GF8800 GTS 320MB PCIe (only one )

 

Waiting on the proc and mobo to arrive come Friday. I was going to preinstall if you all thought I'd be okay for playing. Whats the verdict?

My friend ran with his laptop, which is a 2.0GHz Turion 64 (not multithreaded or dual core, just one core at 2.0GHz), 128MB mobile graphics card ATI x700, 1GB ram. He ran on low-medium settings, with tweaks.

I ran it on almost-max settings (Some settings turn down or off, but most on maximum and highest, with a very high 1920x1080 resolution, which is slightly above 1600x1200) and I have a....

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 512MB 7950 GT, and 2GB of DDR2 800mhz ram (running under 800MHz of course)

Your processor might not be a Core 2 Duo, but your performance cap isn't going to be your processor. Both of our processors are a lot faster than our video cards, so they're plenty. Your ram is good, 2GB is what I had, and is enough.

Your graphics card is double the power of my graphics card. Enough said.

You'll not only be able to run the game, but you'll be able to run the game on VERY high settings, if not highest (with some tweaks of course). Depends on your desired FPS and resolution. But I had very very high settings at 20-40 fps with only half the power graphics card.

For those of you are who are in the Florendyl cluster (Seradon), today was the first day of the server merge.

As a former Vanguard player, I found the world to feel too empty, even dead. With FOUR servers now into one, I must know what the population is. I was interested in resubscribing based on the server merge.

BEFORE:

1) Grouping was rare for me. I'd try for hours to get a group, only to have them leave. Most people would solo, and those who did group were not only in a minority, but barely talked and left quickly.

2) When I first created my Goblin, there was only ONE player with me in the newbie zones. I solo'd from levels 1-10 on my goblin.

3) Out of three characters at level 10-16, I grouped with a total of 10 different people, most of which I only grouped ONCE with. That's how nearly impossible it was to group, and how crappy the groups were.

4) OOC chat never consisted of more than 2-3 other people.

During the beta, the population was higher though, and OOC chat was filled, players were everywhere in the starting area, and grouping was easy.

I am interested in the number of players 1-5, 5-10, 10-20, and if possible serverwide (I forgot if it tells you when you do a /who).
I played on Florendyl, which is now Seradon.

Originally posted by elvenangel

 

Originally posted by Devour

 

Originally posted by Sovrath
I"m sorry but where's the issue?

 

Don't purchase the extra packs for EQ II until you know you want them. If you are looking for a free trial there is the "Trial of the Isle" which you can download and play for free until you want to quit or pay for the game.

Most companies ask for a credit card so just be responsible and cancel it and "don't forget'.

As far as your issue with Sony, it doesn't seem that it is "money grubbing" but that you are pissed at what your percieve as them being greedy and THEN you have trouble installing so you blow a gasket.

There is customer support. Why is it that mmo players are incapable of calling customer support? Or use the link that another poster gave.

There really is no real issue here.

 

http://everquest2.station.sony.com/

Free 7 Day Trial.

Then you have to go out and buy the game. That's why they're money grabbing. They lack true admins on their messageboards. They lack a technical support messageboard. That's why they're money grabbing.

Their free trial doesn't let you onto the mainland, it doesn't let you see what gameplay is really like. That's why they're money grabbing.

See?

 

They dont let you onto the mainland, join guilds, send private messages etc etc because gold farmers & spammers abuse the free trials and harrass PAYING customers.  Its annoying to cheapasses that want try before the buy / play but it keeps their current happy customers happy.    And I believe Blizzard makes you go out and buy the game as well after you use their Free Trial (with a credit card, because I know people who've done it).   Its standard practice at this point with any AAA title to do those things.   Even DAoC makes you use a credit card to do their free trial AND you have to buy the game in the end as well.   

Alot of that comes from the whole pirated software issue as well.  You pay for the account key really and not the software in some cases.

If people hadn't of abused the things they were given we wouldn't have things this way or would we?  Considering they make money of satisified trial accounts that go full I think its more likely the abuse that encourages them to make things such a pain in the ass.

While you can bad mouth sony and EA all you want they're still laughing all the way to the bank since most people really don't care and are quite happy.

 

BTW that sucks they fubar you on the free month (another poster).   Hell DDO is like here's free 10 days, then if you buy the game (for 10 bucks of amazon) you get and additional 30 lol.  My friend she got 40 days for 10 bucks now that was a complete steal of a deal and rare.

I always use a Visa giftcard debit card I get from the Mall, with only $1 left on it, to use for MMO trials.

This way I do not have to cancel the subscription or worry about MMO's cheating me by charging me anyways after I unsubscribe.

As long as the card has at least $1 on it, you can use it. And in some cases, it doesn't even have to anything on it. In even rarer cases, you can use 11111111111111 as the credit card trial number, LOL.

Originally posted by Hazz-Fq

ronnyrulz i have a Dell Dimension 3000 so the graphics card is intergrated...so im not sure out of the list you gave if any of them will work :(

Ah, hmm...

Most of the free MMO's do not have especially high graphics, so you should be able to play most of them.

I am currently installing Regnum Online (A lot like DAoC, so there's RvR/PvP) and Rubies of Eventide, to test them out.

Originally posted by Devour

 

Originally posted by Sophist

Sry But OP Go back to "WoW" where everything is handed to you so you get sick of the game in a week instead of yrs. You do realize its supposed to be an MMO standing for Massive Multiplayer Onliine game right in other word massive to the point that you dont get held by the hand unless you ask for help from other Hmmm.. Kind of works like that in RL don't it? Think about it your parents could put the training wheels on and put all kinds of padding on you. But if you dont want to ride the bike you will still not learn. Noone can implant the knowledge of actually riding into your head.

In Wow its soo great that i can run right outside the main gate door and gain a lvl and more ability's  just by auto attacking a mob. And ohh wow I lvled I can use more skills. Why dont you just ask for a game that when you log in your auto Max lvl and have everything in game. Then you can just sit around and look pretty.

The Learning used to be the time sink in those day's thats what you seem to grasp. As for training skills the vets that still play proilly havent trained skills in 5+ yrs not to mention when they did even when the skills where hard gain system you could still lvl your skills fast you just had to know how. Expl.. A new player gets in game and a vet next to him the vet will know if he casts low lvl spells over and over he will gain. the new player dose not know this. So for someone who has never played UO they will still gain slow and hard unless they communicate to others and get the required info on how to gain fast.

 

I just returned to UO after 3 yrs and Im loving it again. And I played the plethora of crap out today and find that the day I logged into UO i got the old feel back right away one I havent felt in yrs in any other mmo. L2,WOW,EvE,GW,planetside,and a bunch of freebee's.

I have a feeling a lot of vets will be returning soon especially when the next round of clones come out. Unfortunately I have hopes for WAR but alas I see a Spawn point res system in the works (and no i didnt research this)but I got a feeling. Not to mention classes IMO ruined MMO's. Anytime you implement classes it restricts the pvp IMO. The guy that donsent like healing can still toss off a GH to someone if they need it in UO. Not many people play pure healers in the class systems and that is the downfall of pvp. When a team isent relying on themselves to stay alive and just let members die to be respawned that is crazy. I just think you want everything handed to you OP and if thats the case you'll be plenty please with the upcomming clones. If you want a world to adventure in and get lost in playing well only UO delivers IMO.

 

I tried to read that, but failed.

You must have a bad brain then or some kind of disease. Oh yea, maybe it's the sarcastic troll disease? Troll elsewhere.

I can read all of it just fine.

Originally posted by moostown

How would you feel if you had a business that made no money? So obviously they want your money like everyother business out there.

That's like defending shady businessmen and robbers/thieves.

How would you feel if you were a thief that made no money? So obviously they want your money like every other thief out there.

SoE has a lot of shady practices. If you make an account with the 7 day trial, and then buy the game, apply the code to your account, you DO NOT get the free 1 month, because they consider it "Not a new account."
This is the only MMO i've ever known to cheat you out of the free month because you wanted to try out the trial.
Horrible.

I bought my friend the game using my own money, and SoE cheated him (Or should I say me?) out of the free month, and so he refused to pay the $15 monthly fee to play with me, despite the fact it was MY money I used to buy the $50 game. I wasn't as much upset at SoE thogh as I was at him for doing that to me. When a friend buys you a $50 game so you can play together, and you like it, you don't just throw it right back in his face because a company cheated you out of 21 days. He would have had to pay $15 instead of $50, but his pride (or apathy, or whatever the crap it was) got in the way. He even said, while we were playing the 7 day trial, that he WOULD pay the $15, regardless if SoE didn't give him his free month or not. What a liar.

Needless to say, I wasted $50 on a friend who threw the money back in my face. I'm never buying him any games ever again.

This is SoE's fault though. Their deceitful practice has small tiny text of lawyer-like words just so they can cheat you out of your free month.

Guild Wars doesn't charge a monthly fee either, but you do have to buy the game (ONCE).

After you buy it, it's free. But I don't know if the PvE is any good, as I was only ever interested in its good PvP (PvP by choice)

Originally posted by AmusingDead

maybe an eq2 rp server, although that can get taxing on the video card. or Dark ages of camelot on an RP server.  other then that i got nothing, because i love pvp so most the games i play are based on that. GL ~Amusing Dead

Dark Age of Camelot is a PvP-only game now, and there's only ONE server still populated for new players, and it is NOT an RP server.

My bad, I didn't see the free part, doh.

It would help if you supplied what MMO's you have played in the past, what graphics card you have, and what type of MMO you like.

Here is a list of FREE MMO's from fileplanet.com

http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/mmoclub/

Originally posted by Twohededboy

Originally posted by Hohbein

Firstly, being completely lost and utterly confused was part of the beauty of the old-school MMO. It literally FORCED you to interact with other members of the community to survive.. Something which is massively lacking in the modern day MMORPG.

Starting UO from scratch was like starting life from scratch. I mean, is there a tutorial island in real life? Is there a handy guide to tell you exactly what to do, where to go or who to talk to in real life? No. This is part of what made old school UO the most involving MMORPG, nay, GAME of all time.

Comparing modern day MMORPGs to old school UO is like comparing the music of 50 Cent to that of Beethoven. It's something which in its day was taken entirely for granted, yet can only truly be appreciated now when we look back upon it and compare it to the monstrosities of the modern day genre.

Basically, UO was and always will be the best game ever made by man. This isn't an opinion, it's a simple fact.

I disagree that UO is the best, sure it is good game for me and maybe the best for you but such a broad statement to often parts from the fingers of people on this board. Not everyone is going to get into the UO style of play. I enjoy the stumbling around and challenge of UO but must admit that the frustration factor can become overwhelming at times. There should be more of a balance between the open sandbox, learn as you die style and the here is the track and tips for every action style that alot of modern MMOs have. This combination would make for a game that should be easy to get into but challenging.

Such blasphemy!

UO is the best, and it's a fact. That's two of us who agree it's a fact, so that make it a factual fact for factoids. Fact Fact Fact.

Now that I've said Fact enough, you cannot deny it's not a fact. Fact.

I'm not being sarcastic either, cause UO is the best MMO ever made. It is just not newbie-friendly, which is a shame. Fact.

2D graphics forever for me! Fact.

Fact.

Originally posted by RespyShunt

Because no one wants a modern day 2d type game.  Times have changed, since 3d is being perfected, people dont wanna be held back by dated graphics.  I mean i like games like maple story, but its free and people dont wanna pay for a game that isnt giving all that it could be.

So why do you automatically assume a sequel MMO to UO is going to be in 2d?

To be honest, that's a pretty wild assumption. It's like you wanted to shoot down his idea, but didn't want to use your brain to think of any real reasons (there are no good reasons) so you throw in one from the wild jungles of the forest of assinine assumptions.

Luckily for him, I'm a lumberjack of reason with a +2 troll slaying axe, come to chop down this wild jungle-forest.

CHOP!

---

but I'm getting sick and tired of idiotic, weak minded programmers who take the easy way out in design, making consumers pay for the same algorithm with only a variation on it in variable names and APIs. And especially, to which, have no brains or imagination, so they copy others, then pretend they didn't violate a software patent or copyright by sweetening the bitter taste of plagurism with money under the table.

---

I didn't understand how hard UO is to learn until I brought some friends into it, and was annoyed at how retarded they were.

I am a 4-5 year UO vet, so I know the game in-and-out. I guess I naturally assumed my friends would pick it up faster, especially since I explained everything. Sadly, I don't live in reality.

Originally posted by lath456

Dear Devs,

Please make a MMORPG focused around "fun".  Currently, too many games are focused on delaying the players progression through the game to make their subscription last forever (evidence: see every major MMO released).  World of Warcraft was the first game to get rid of most the tedium present in most games (crafting, levelling, even gathering materials for crafting is relatively simple), since WoW, nobody has realized why so many people play it - it's fun - it's not extremely difficult or tedious. 

There is a certain group of players out there laughing at me now.  These people confuse "fun" with "work".  They insist, for some demented reason, that to be good at a game you have to "work" while you're "playing" it.  Sorry, this just doesn't make sense to me - and besides there are a hundred games out there already that are made for them... hmm why aren't they playing those?  I already work 8-10 hours a day, I'd like to come home and play a game.

Make a game focused on allowing people to have fun playing - as in - not making it work and allowing people to progress through the game...  and you will succeed.

Things that are fun are usually dependant on the individual, but you guys do have a good template to start from: WoW.  There are a number of areas which WoW can be improved on... greatly.  All it takes is a bit of imagination.

I hate MMO's that force you to WORK just to play the game.

One of the biggest things about MMO's is the first 5-10 levels. These levels are always basic, introductory levels that are completely and utterly BORING except for the first time you play an MMO.

I am so tired of the basic first few levels, especially when you don't even have your class, that I cannot even play the beta of these new MMO's. I've had the betas sitting there on my desktop gathering dust because I cannot bare to level from 1-5, because it's SO boring.

Or games that are so old, it's all about end-game now (DAoC). So to play the game, you have to be level 50, but it takes a week to get to level 50, and it's not fun the second time around. Why should I be FORCED to WORK just so I can play the game? I want to PLAY a GAME, not work a job just to play a game after a week or two.

The solution is to make the game fun for ALL levels, ALL progressions, etc. You don't have to instant level to 50 if the first 10 levels are always fun, and the gameplay is the same from 5 to 50. Making your game end-game heavy (DAoC) forces players to WORK because they only get fun out of lvl 50 RvR, not boring and tedious task dungeons.

Originally posted by Illius

I like the stealth/sneak idea you got.  As long as you somehow allow for a visual cue that would not alienate people with hearing disability then I'm ok with it.  They like to play games too ya know .  Though I am not one of them I still want fair play.

Having things like different races having their attributes play a factor in the game would be interesting.  Having different senses such as hearing would bring a new dimension to the game.  I'll take your twig snapping example a bit further.  If you know you'll be walking through a noisy area toward your intended victim you could time it with the ambient noises, or with your enemy's movement so that their actions drown out your own. 

Since MMOs are derived from the old pen and paper days where they had listen checks, and spot checks and all that stuff you had to roll off for, it would be interesting to somehow implement that.  Many games now give you a stealth class that can hide but they never supply any of the other classes with abilities that can reveal them unless they have point blank area spells.  I would only think it natural that one of the abilities you would have (in a magical setting at least) to choose from could be acute hearing, or some sort of tracking where you can see footprints or something.

Keep this thread rollin along, I want to see some more good ideas and see if I can find something to add to them

That would prove to be some interesting gameplay to synch your noise with the ambient noises or enemy movements! Walk only when they walk! hahahaha! Then they could do the Scooby Doo thing where they stop suddenly without stepping, but the badguy continues to step, so Scooby and Shaggy run away screaming.

lol, sorry, that just reminded me of the classic cartoons where the characters would do that to trick the badguy into being heard, lol.

Originally posted by vajuras

interesting timing you posted this. I've been giving this some thought as well. That a thief should have banks to rob (not the safe player banks but some NPC banks or perhaps minor player run banks). but also the MMO would have to be bold enough to allow a thief to pickpocket things in a player's backpack. personally i dont think I would go full blown stealth but rather go realistic stealth like the Tenchu series for playstation/xbox has done. Stealth is so easy to use by vets. would be more fun rather dodging getting detected

One of the coolest things about City of Villains was that you, as a villain, get to rob a bank.

That really makes you feel like a villain when you overturn police cars, murder the police force sent to stop you, bust open the massive bank vault, take the money, defeat any heroes trying to stop you, and then preceding to wreck havok on the city as you escape, killing more cops. If you're a mastermind, you have thugs/mercenaries/zombies/robots/ninjas to kill the cops too! :P GET EM BOYS!

That was perhaps the COOLEST MMO theme I have ever played. Nothing is cooler than killing cops, murdering good guys, killing cops, blowing up cop cars, killing cops, stealing money, killing cops, all while doing it LOOKING GOOD.

My character was a "demented" insane clown called "Iscream Man" Like Ice Cream man (looked similar to a clown that would serve icecream) but I scream instead of Icecream. GET IT? LOL!!!!!!! Okay okay :P

Our flavors? We have Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate, and People.
What was that last one?
Chocolate.