Originally posted by Sharkypal

I smell a less than adequate PC here!

 

You most definately do.  Testing includes minimums. I have several machines of varying power however and the modeling and animation are still clunky IMHO and I wish to know if the engine is responsible because I have seen similarities.

Thanks,

I did use the configuration file from the outset because there was no settings button before the load screen.  These few extras will probably help a great deal as well.

Originally posted by severius

7. Hard?  Whats hard about it?  The added timesinks of corpse runs?  The fact that they added a ton of hitpoints and energy into mobs that are as dumb as they were 20 years ago?  That the classes are still broken and not working properly?  There is nothing so far in vanguard that requires actual thought or skill from the player base so your assetions that the game is hard are categorically wrong.  But then again, maybe it is hard for you. As difficulty is a personal experience.

The fact that it takes time, effort, and skill to progress in this game (WoW takes a month for 60 +epics).  If you didnt find anything hard in it then I suppose WoW must be a real snooze for you?

You attest it takes no skill but I can most assuredly say you havent touched over 50% of the content because no one has.  Thats one of the cool things about Vanguard is that you, me, and no one else knows how hard it will get.  I do know that I can decimate dozens of mobs in a row rather handily with a rogue+warrior or shaman+cleric because of the synergy between the classes.  This deviation from standard holy trinity play does require skill - even if it isnt very challanging once you learn it, complexity is complexity.

And as far as 20 year old mobs, well, everything in WoW is over 20 years old ... see the glory of 8-bit Warcraft 1 for yourself  today!

Originally posted by MX13

7) THIS GAME IS MEANT TO BE HARD. It's not WoW, it doesn't hold your hand. Death in this game is meant to punish. If you don't like it, then don't play it. Say it with your wallet.

Amen.

Bah SOE.  Sometimes I like the blizzard way of doing things where they constantly push back release dates until the game works according to their standards.  It so happens I dont like their current MMO product but the animation in it is very good.

What makes many games so cool is that they use simpler models with good skins/texture maps to keep the performance good instead of really intricate models that require a lot of hardware to continuously rerender.  This is why games reproduce the same model over and over with different skins ... its not to cut down on the time it takes to develop the models, its that these models are already optimally performing.  Put in some good animators and viola, you have a game that looks awesome even with many things resembling many others.

With each character in Van:SoH having over 20 features that can be customized, no wonder the performance suffers despite the bad animation.  Each character is a different model and has to be rendered individually.

... not good art direction here.

On that subject, I have been wondering whether its an engine specific problem due to the modeling ... but I digress.

The animation in Vanguard is worse than in EQ2, WoW, CoH, SilkRoad, Lineage ... uh the list is pretty long really.  While I know that some of these products have some of the greatest animators on their teams, doesn't vanguard?  Wheres the art direction?

What makes most of these games so cool is that they use simpler models with good skins/testure maps to keep the performance good instead of really intricate models that require a lot of hardware to continuously rerender.  This is why games reproduce the same model over and over with different skins ... its not to cut down on the time it takes to develop the models, its that these models are already optimally performing.

With each character having over 20 features that can be customized, no wonder the performance suffers despite the bad animation.

Even after release, its never too late to totally change everything about game ... if its good people will still buy and play it ... hell even when its not good but just new and what their friends play.

And honestly, I was asking for opinions.

Ok, so this is the third MMO that I have looked at that uses the Unreal Game Engine.  This makes for great collision, physics, landscapes, and junk on the ground that either gets in your way or doesnt depending upon how important it is - very nice.

However, the models for characters and NPCs of all types are simply horrible.  They are gangly, animate poorly, and rely on the model to handle the textures instead of the skins handling the textures.  All in all, this leads to bad perfomance and gaphically hideous game.

Could we just have games with modeling and graphics created by the studios?

Ok, so this is the third MMO that I have looked at that uses the Unreal Game Engine.  This makes for great collision, physics, landscapes, and junk on the ground that either gets in your way or doesnt depending upon how important it is - very nice.

However, the models for characters and NPCs of all types are simply horrible.  They are gangly, animate poorly, and rely on the model to handle the textures instead of the skins handling the textures.  All in all, this leads to bad perfomance and gaphically hideous game.

Could we just have games with modeling and graphics created by the studios?

This is simply the worst thing about WoW ... any jerk can make 60, attend raids, and be uber in less than a month.  Its almost like there is no reason to play the game because it is so easy ... except for all the cool easter eggs and storylines you find along the way.

But those run out  quickly as well.

On the plus side, the game play is very dynamic and easy, the artistry (graphics, models, skins, animation) is amazing, and blizzard finally made the tank class interesting.  For all of these I thank them but cant pay $19 for more of the same.

See also guild wars.

Started the Beta last night  and so ...

1) It is a game of skill, not grind.  I died 6 times as a shaman doing a level 1 quest because I didnt know wth I was doing.  After some experimentation, I got it and quickly leveled to 3.  This is a nice change from the "just attack stuff until you get to level XX" style game.  Frankly, this is what appealed to me about everquest - getting a level does mean you have some skill.

2) What is up with the hardware load on this thing, it actually affected my ability to enjoy the game.  Lag! I forced graphics quality down and down and down some more just to get a framerate that was even close to playable.  Now i cant see anything besides a hazy outline for my toon and the names bobbing around in the murk.  The only reason I can think of for this is the sheer range of the world ... I mean, you exist in a rendered chunk which is huge.  I will try it with an above minimum machine shortly.  The models are somewhat glitchy because there is far more model than skin to them.  This will pay off in the long run when you have really interesting monster animations but fro the time being it just makes it hard.

3) The beta is not very buggy at all.  It was fun to play and the UI was sleak.  Sure you have restarts as the devs add fix after fix but that is normal.  I was able to run in a direction for almost an hour discovering paths, new npc groups, even gradual changes in terrain and climate.   I had no idea where I was going because of my clip plane but it was fun. 

My only problem with the game is that i cannot play it and the console provides no information as to why.

Every server I select (even the new one) simply does not show up in the "Server" box when I select it.  So after several days of trying I will just stop.  Too bad, it looked like a good game.