All Posts by eugam

Originally posted by Annekynn

Everyone says the world in Vanguard is huge. My question is, is the world populated with lots of interesting locations and points of interest worthy of exploring that wouldnt be found during normal travels or is it completely questified like in WoW?

I really like exploring large locations and finding things that I wouldnt be normally be lead to. WoW for example has a large world but every nook and cranny has a quest leading you to it, and every mob has a quest associated with it. I really enjoyed the days of Asherons Call where I would explore the large world and at random find things that either werent on the map or part of the mainstream quest areas.

Its a mix of both. Ofc there are quests leading you into different places. But the places are huge and even if you quest there for 3 days you might not see all of it. There is always some exploration. I quested for about 3 days in river valley until i found the camp of the mad tribe. Those guys even offered quests and so far no other quest was leading me there.

The games (quests) dont take you by the hand. You often have to search for something. If the quests tells you to hunt x on the ridges of the area you probably have to search through a lot of ridges until you got what you needed. Often you cant move straight across an area and you have to find a path.  I d say there is a lot of exploration.

Originally posted by Murugan

All they are doing is making the totems more than token secondary roles, it is kind of like adding a new class to each archetype but that doesn't mean the rest of the classes will necessarily suffer because of it.

I dont fear they mess up other classes. To be a successful shaman raid tank you need to spec AND itemize for it. They even have to add items to the game, because there are not enough shaman tank items in-game. Same for caster or melee DPS.

I do fear they mess up the current shaman setups. There have been quite some stealth nerfs to the shaman. Mid30ies the bear is no tank pet anymore. He cant hold aggro. Not even against the shamans solo power. Not even in medicore gear with  balanced melee, healer, caster specs. Currently  the wolf probably holds aggro better with his dps then the bear with  his taunt. To many stealth nerves...

I do fear us shamans will loose versatility, not gain. And this change is unnecessary. Shamans are fine, no bugs and ok balanced. Why again fix stuff that aint broken ? Many people just asked one question on the froums: Why ? Talisker and Cas keep blabbering about deeper gameplay and dps and blablabla. But they dont answer the why. Aint that suspicious ?

Originally posted by Umbral

Originally posted by todeswulf

 

You forgot to add about six more "Verys' there guy....when I saw it I honestly thought Ed Wood came back to life and was making Movies again.  The movie was orginally going to be Conan 3, but Arnold read the script  started laughing and walked out of the studio offices. I just pray to god that Dino and Raphella never get near any other Howard property again.

Indeed, but I think that even with 6 more "verys" it would not be enough and even Ed Wood would be capable to do a better movie.

I never understood why they got Kull as I though Kull was never famous in US as Conan was, but what you said about Conan 3 was maybe the reason...

I didint know these details about kull/Conan 3 and Arnold, good to know it now and as you, I hope for the same.

...

Kull  (Conan3) or Conan, Sorbas or Schwarzenegger. Doesnt make much of a difference. All three movies arent that great tbh :) I like the combat more in Kull... just some of the actors aren that great in Kull. 

I d rather like to see a Conan movie styled like one of those old movies. Lets say like "The Mummy" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023245/). Some dark and evil story about a warrior and a deep story about acheronian evil ;)

Originally posted by Sevenwind

I don't mind huge quest lines as long as it doesn't involve massive camping and a raid guild to finish them. Also, the storyline in the quest has to be good.

But these quest lines should consists of three areas, one for the casual solo player, one for the person who likes to do things in a small group, and one for the person who likes to raid.

My days of camping for an item for a quest are over. If I can't get the feeling of doing something big with a small group then forget it. Which is why I like the small raids in DDO which is just two groups.

I agree with you eugam.

 

Camping is silly and has nothing to do with playing a game.

The best example i can think of is the "Mark of Awakening" in EQ2. It has solo content, group content and one raid. But the raid is balanced in a way so a casual family guild can beat the dragon. After all its a game and not sport.

I dont mind hardcore raids, but quest raids should be balanced for casuals. Unfortunately i have seen different family guilds dieing because of the raid endgame. Those raids are balanced for the hardcores with a optimized setup of classes and CS style voicecom communication. That doesnt work for family guilds. I have seen guilds who tried to force it. The result is very sad.

Another failure of gaming companies. My guild was one of the largest on the server and we had 20-40% female players and quite some kids of guildies. I dont think we have been a minority. Still the devs like to care 100% for 25yo male uberguilds and neglect a huge part of their playerbase.

Originally posted by Bafucin

By looking how Funcom handle AoC, I started to think back on SWG and how SOE f***ed that great game.

So are Funcom doing a SOE?

Populations seems to fall and the last Patch is not the best.

P.s - I'm not trying to Troll, I'm just asking. And no I will not go back to WoW. So don't tell me that. And no, you will not have my stuff.

Depends on how you look at it.

For some AoC needs a NGE badly, for others not.

Seen the movie yesterday on national TV.

Admitedly this ia a b-movie. Still it reminded me what i missed in AOC. Worldwide quests with a epic feeling. Looking at Kull its fleeing the city through the temple and underground dungeon, doing the ice island instance and then go back to raid the castle and destroy the flame of acheron. You dont need a high payed holywood writer for such content. Actually there are so many comics allready done who could be turned into questlines.

Not want to criticise AoC. I was just wondering if i am part of a minority ? Anyone else missing questlines with solo, group and sane guild raid content that lasts weeks or months per quest ? Old EQ2 had a lot of them. Gameplay was almost based on them. But since EoF expansion even SOE is getting a bit lazy. They still add a few longer quests, but not as much as in the past. The Conan IP was predestinated to be full of epic(ish) questlines but AoC is basically based on simple quest hubs.

Do players not want such content anymore, or is it worth to tell the devs that we want storylines.

Originally posted by Enigma

Im not talking about what Elikal posted...Im talking about how you freaked out about WoW, throwing the word "shit" everywhere and anywhere about 14 times in a short post.

Huh ? You must confuse me with someone else. On which forum ? Here or AoC ? I cant post on AoC since 22nd june. I am really confused now.

Originally posted by Reklaw

Originally posted by airborne519

Originally posted by Reklaw

Definitly interesting artical, but it's a shame that i feel not everyone will understand it. I already just saw the first reply.

 

I probably should have posted it in 'general" not to single out AoC , but all mmo's in general.  It's kinda a rhetorical question also, that we pay for something that is not complete.. but that's the nature of the beast when it involves comuter programs.

 

Nah.....this is a good topic and intresting, he does cover mostly AoC so it's pefectly alright to see it in this section. Just wish/hope that people would actualy read AND understand what is been said in that articel.

I have read it and do understand it. But why should i trust in a blogger on the net ?

This is all nice talking but one of the biggest time and money sink are bad/outdated developing methods.

Look at stack sizes. Why does almost any game has to patch stack sizes after release ? Any database designer knows that a stack of 10.000 is the same as a stack of 5. Its one record, but two stacks of 5 are two records. The database interface and backend of an mmo is nowadays one of the critcal bottlenecks. Loot lag anyone ? Still devs release games with placeholder stacks of 5. It doesnt cost money or time to just release with a freaking stack size of 99 per default. Does it ?

The same with icons. Yeah i know, two different dev teams. Still, cant they come up with a system that makes sure that at least 98% of all items have the right icons from start and not placeholders ? I bet i could.

Ofc a game needs some artistic freedom and room for changes. But its such a waste to fix things by going through endless iterations. Things that could have been done right the first time. That would save iteration cycles for the real problems.

Originally posted by Salvatoris

Thanks, I guess I am just overlooking the button.  I haven't played since a few days after launch, but I read that customization was currently limited.  It seemed a little extreme to turn it all the way off. :)

Doesnt matter. Unlike other games in vanguard you can visit the customization as often as you want. Once they reactivate the options and patched the new models you can go back and redesign your char.

Originally posted by Orphes

Originally posted by eugam

Originally posted by IAmMMO

Originally posted by Elikal

The character doesnt reveal much, but the place looks interesting enough. Thanks for sharing. ^^

 

It reveals that the character models will be a lot more like EQ2's.

 

Pfff... the revamp is mainly about reduction of skeleton vectors (read: perfomance and easier development in the future) The males will have a bit more muscles. Everything else remains the same.

 

Pfff... no not exactly.

 

"Yes all the body sliders remain the same except for breast gravity
All the facial options except for: Mood, brow furrow, ear bend.
For now, we have not implemented new customization options, we have our hands pretty full with converting every PC item in game."

"By "For now, we have not implemented new customization options" - I mean besides what was there at launch no new ones has been added to the face, but we have brought back all the ones removed besides besides those listed above....
I am not aware that we have communicated that we are creating a bunch of new customization options anywhere ("There are no new customization features brought to the game with the new models despite what we've been told that SOE has been working on"). All we have said (to my knowledge) is that we are bringing back most customizations that were taken away when we released APW, to get increased performance .

"I am pretty excited that we found away to make the face customization work with a smaller bone count and retain the helms that was put in. That was a pretty big technical challenge......"

"Not sure what you mean by lack of face options but you are getting pretty much all facial options you had before back which is an extensive amount of options."

Isnt that what i am said ?

Originally posted by pimpdizzle

First of all, if u dont like the game plz dont bother to post under this thread.

What can we do to help improve the servers population? Posting on these forums can only do so much to inform people of this game. I imagine that the devs are planning something but we should also try to.

So far the only thing I see hurting this game is the lack of people playing it. I'm on the pvp server and for me to switch to a pve server would be nearly impossible.

Besides word of mouth, what can we do?

Outside of the game ? Not much i guess. In-game the community is quite good, because only fans are playing.

PvP wise i think it probably should change to what once was the team-PvP server. But thats something only SOE can do...

Originally posted by IAmMMO

Originally posted by Elikal

The character doesnt reveal much, but the place looks interesting enough. Thanks for sharing. ^^

 

It reveals that the character models will be a lot more like EQ2's.

Pfff... the revamp is mainly about reduction of skeleton vectors (read: perfomance and easier development in the future) The males will have a bit more muscles. Everything else remains the same.

Originally posted by Murugan

Originally posted by StinkyPest

Removing something that potentially allows double damage in understandable, but there needs to be something to replace it to keep the classes useable. I have yet to understand how they plan to keep these classes wanted in any situation.

 

 

No, I don't think you understand they will still be useable.  They will still top dps charts, I don't think any of you understand just how enormous of a bug it is and how incredibly overpowered it makes monks and rogues right now.

I think most didnt understand the changes. It doesnt change anything for soloers and groupers. I doent change the class itself. It just removes the insane stacking when raiding.

Originally posted by Elikal

I found this letter very good, and appreciate the will to tell where the train is headed. A good move, but in all honesty before those changes are in the game I will wait for the trial. I like this "more guided" experience especially, since I always felt a little aimless running around seeking for quests I could do kinda took the comprehensive feeling out of the game.

Its not that bad since the new riftways are in game. The riftmasters recognize your level and offer you quests now. The quests are worth nothing but direct you to the main quest hubs.

Originally posted by Enigma

Eugam

1. Watch your language. There are children who view mmorpg.com. You can get your point across without sounding like Eddie Murphy in his 1984 stand up comedy routine.

2.  Half of your post made no sense and it was just trolling pure and simple.  If you played any part of WoW or even looked into it you would know there exploration system is one of the better ones than  most MMOS.  Also, Im not a big fan of WoW but their lore is better than any other MMORPG lore I have ever read (competing neck to neck with LoTR lore).  I can tell you never played the game just from your comments.

 

Is this post an ironic post ?

This is not my picture. This is what Elikal posted on the german AoC forums :) Check its URL. (right click the picture, select "copy image location, paste it into notepad)

Here:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h49/Elikal/AgeofWarcraft.jpg

The mod there was just very forgiving and warned him for one english sentence instead banning him for the pic. Quite a different reality, isnt it ? Hehe, i dont really care on what boards Elikal likes to troll. The WoW pic on AOC forums and the warning pic here just gave me  a good laugh.  Some people  are really funny...

Otherwise i played Lotro up to 35ish minstrell and hunter. Check my post history. I usually dont bash and hate. Maybe a bit venting once in a while ;) I like almost any game. I have a 38 WoW hunter, 4x80 EQ2 chars, a 53 AoC ranger/24 PoM, a 33 vanguard bear shaman/28 disciple and a few others in games i cant remember anymore. I LIKE all of those games. Some fit my personal playstyle more, others less. Since i have a limited amount of time to play i usually have only 1, maybe 2 subs running.  Currently WoW and Vanguard.

Originally posted by BigMango

1.5 years ago I was a VG fanboi listening to Sigil's lies; I was seeing a huge world with potential. Sadly, to me the game almost hasn't improved after 1.5 years.  (performance has always been good for me, even in beta and during the first month after release, before I quit the game).

The game still lacks atmosphere due to its very poor/minimal engine and it looks like 50% of its designers are only amateurs. Some things are really good, but so many are poorly done. This is very sad as it could be one of the very best mmos out there. As it is now I don't even want to play it for free (got the free month but can't make myself login even though I tried 10 or 20 times during 3 days, the game's execution is one of the worst I have seen... I can't make myself login into this unpolished world).

VG has some very poor lightning. It doesn't even have proper shadows. Nothing apart from characters and trees has a shadow in this game - world objects, houses etc.. have no shadow. The game looks great at night, but during the day it looks fake/bland due to the lack of shadows. We are in 2008, this is a 2007 game, hellooo?

Then, there is almost no lightning. I.ex lights, fires, etc... have no light hallos. Things like fireplaces light hallos in the distance at night make for some great atmosphere. VG has nothing like this.

Then, there are almost no world particle effects. Things like birds in the skies, butterflies (I am not talking about mobs, this is about "atmosphere") etc... are almost inexistant in this game. Again, this is about world life and atmosphere, where is it?

And where are the things like water reflections, etc... , the today mmorpg game engine basic features?

Then, there is no life in this world. I see dead cities in a soulless world. NPCs don't live there. The game lacks the basic scripting that gives life to mmo worlds.

Also, characters look like plastic barbie dolls and the armor doesn't look fun. I don't want to go out there and work for hours to level and get or craft the stuff. I can't "connect" with my character. This is one of the most important mmorpg basic features - character improvement - that is lacking here.

Finally, VG has some of the poorest animations I have seen. The character running looks so bad, it seems the characters don't fit in the world, they seem out of sync. The fighting animations are so slow... And for Chists sake, WHAT is this ridiculously gay jumping animation?
 
So, the bottom line for me is that after more than 1.5 years the VG game world polish is still only 25% there at most. I see dead cities in a soulless world with no atmosphere. Compared to this some other games like Lotro or Aoc feel so much more immersive and alive.

When I play an mmorpg I am of course looking for some gameplay, but the other 50% I am looking for is a world to immerse myself into. Atmosphere. VG doesn't have this, yet.
 

And whats the point of this ? Everyone knows this. Remember ? Vanguard is the game that crash landed 2007 and is kept alive by SOE and a small team of devs. What did you expect ?

Vanguards strengh is that is has 3.5 spheres. Its my favorite slacker game. I am not forced to anything, and anytime i log in i have something to do. I didnt find that in the games with shadows.

n00b tr001 :p  You are a meany Elikal.

Your fault was to post an english comic on the german forum

Originally posted by altairzq

Originally posted by Clyptso

Originally posted by bluealien1

Originally posted by Khrymson

Its already been named quite well, my favorite I've seen Anarchy Online Continued!

Hey, and WAR is WoW Again Reborn.

 

And you are "Can't tell the difference between 2 totally different types of gameplay moron." Guess gameplay differences don't matter to some people.

 

WAR = BIG WOW BG

joking

Joking ? hehe, this will be their neckbreaker. Warhammer is a strategy and campaign based game. SImilar to starcraft. I cant wait to read the flames from tabletop fans once WAR released And i dont get why they make a mmo out of it. A multiplayer copy of the tabletops would be a winner. Especially if there was the possibility to "craft" your 3D models. At least let players paint the textures  ;)

Originally posted by julez79

Originally posted by Servase

You mean, WoW copied the shit out of Everquest, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer lore and Lord of the rings lore and now there making a game based on the epic over 25years in existance warhammer lore opposed to the piece of shit 10yrs of warcraft lore that was totally based off of previous because blizzard can't think of their own shit but copy other games and then implement the good into their crappy piece of shit game and then dumb down everything so that even a 2yr old can play it removing any skill required in game and now Warhammer is coming out to prove that good games can exist and will exist and warhammer will totally pwn WoW because it has ORIGINAL and INNOVATIVE ideas that other companies like piece of shit blizzard could never think of and for that reason Warhammer will be much better than WoW and should be thought of as WAR : the first company to make a game that is not derived on other peoples ideas and rather based on their own ideas as well as innovation and creative ideas thought by the developers themselves... type of game.

LOL! Loved this post. It's amazing how many people perceive any originality whatsoever in WoW. While I think it is a cute game and a good introduction to MMORPGs, I have to agree that it is incredibly dumbed down and totally unoriginal. I suppose the lore established in the original Warcraft games counts for something, but lets remember something folks:

The story in the Warcraft games wasn't anything to write home about. It was a very basic scaffolding on which the games hung loosely - these were RTS games and didn't even really need a story!

I definitely disagree on one point with you: Warhammer is not necessarily going to pwn. It could end up being just as sloppy as AoC! We just won't know until it happens, but we can all hope!

 

???

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans  released 1994

Sure, this was 12 years (1982) after warhammer tabletops and and 20 years after D&D (1974). There is no doubt that all fanatsy games have the same roots. Yeah, to some degree all games are based on D&D and Warhammer 40k (Si-Fi elements). Nothing wrong with it. We could say that D&D stole from Tolkien, fairy tales and folklore as well.

But Warcraft couldnt copy from EQ, because EQ was released 5 years (1999) after Warcraft.