Most of it was good, but I think they should leave anything that makes the game a challenge alone (exp gain, death penalty, etc). I got the game at launch after following it's progress for a couple of years due to the challenging aspects of the game. I only quit due to the bugs, crashes and lag etc, not because the game was hard or peeved about travel times, death penalty etc.

If SoE try and turn VG into another WoW, EQ 2, yes they will increase there subs in the short term but lose most when Warhammer and Age of Conan are released.  The MMO market does not need another WoW clone.

To ensure Vanguard survives they need to cater to a different market, to the person who wants a challenge, has to work for his/her rewards, for people who like to explore the games content without the nagging thoughts of should I be racing to end game.  Getting to end game should be an adventure not a means to an end. Other MMO's have tried the WoW formula and people get bored with them quick, just check out recent MMO's forums.  People are ready for challenging game play after the WoW years.

All Vanguard needs is all the bugs, performance issues sorted out, content added where needed and lots of polish, there's a great game in there, it justs needs a helping hand to gain some confidence back.

Originally posted by Valance

ah ok, thanks. i noticed some of those required 3 or 4 different types of materials, and i just have jute so far, so most of those are out.

You are going to need some mangled hide as well m8 which you can harvest through skinning or try and buy some of other players.  I'm not 100% sure but I don't think NPC merchants sell it. You need it for the secondary components, I take it you are making cloth armor from collecting Jute.

I can't wait for my Bard to get these cool skills, he's going to rock and roll the place.

I found the test Vid for the Goblin animation re-vamp. youtube.com/watch

Originally posted by Orthedos

To the OP:

Interesting information.  VG attracted me for a while from beta to launch.  The bugs and incompleteness of game drove me out before the end of the first free month.

Just a minor point to note.  I would like to hear that VG is now stable and less prone to crashing.  Nice of you to point that, as that would attract ppl to reconsider VG.  But trashing LoTRO to try to prove that VG is stable?  That is kinda far fetched, as its well known that LoTRO is one of the smoothest.  That actually severely undermine the credibilty of your statement.

I wasn't trashing LOTRO, I think it's a good game, I've played it since open beta and signed on to a life time sub and I agree it's one of the smoothest games out there, but the game does tend to lock up when entering buildings or instances, only happens a couple of times out of a long playing session, I've got no problems with it, it's not game breaking to me and I known for a lot of people they don't experience it. You have to remember I play on the Euro servers which is run by Codemasters and there is a few issues with the game i.e sometimes the chat channels don't work or the AH don't work and we suffer from rubber banding in certain areas, but most of these only effect me once in a blue moon.

I would never intentionally trash any game and LOTRO is my main MMO at the moment. I like to be honest and if you think I'm trashing games on purpose check out the forums over at codemasters. If you play on the Turbine servers and don't get any of these bugs good for you.

Edit: I've enclosed a link to the Codemasters forum community.codemasters.com/forum/forumdisplay.php

I've only just came back to Vanguard since quitting shortly after launch.  All I can say is, I'm having a blast.

I think I have been lucky, I've only experienced a couple of crashes in the week I've been playing, but I do get booted back to desktop when I log to the char select screen ( I get a timeout message).  I used to get more lock ups on the LOTRO loading screen in one play session compared to the whole time with VG over the last week' (disclaimer : I'm not trying to place any hate on LOTRO, I've got a lifetime subs with the game).

I don't suffer lag that much, mostly when it does occur is going over certain chunk lines or somewhere like Khal, but I think this is due to Khal being a bit of a player hub, always see loads of people about in Khal.

Population seems to be ok, always see people running about, not as many compared to launch and certain newbie areas seem more popular than others, but most of the time OOC chat appears quite lively.

I haven't experienced that many bugs, and nothing game breaking, mostly harvest node bugs, It wouldn't let me harvest  Most of the bugs I experienced was on my Necro, VG still has some pet issues it needs to sort out, but nothing game breaking (well at least for me ).

Mostly the visuals are stunning, but do look a bit plastic in some areas, specially your character when you go in doors.  I would advise you to take a look at the Wood elf starter area, its simply stunning IMHO.  I left EQ 2 shortly before EoF so I don't know what Kelethin (I hope I spelt it right)  is like in that game, but VG does kelethin justice, the only thing missing is a nice big train of Orcs appearing at one of the ramps.

Quests are the same as any other modern MMO, kill that, collect that type of stuff.  Most are solo in the early levels.

Combat is fun, the game gives you plenty of spells/skills to play around with, and so far I haven't found it to be a grind and a one button basher and thats in the early levels.  One thing I like about combat if you pull to many mobs and run for the hills and once the mobs give up the chase you can engage them straight away, you don't have to wait for them to get back to there original positions, not like most recent MMO's who like there mobs to be on a rubber band.

Diplomacy is a nice feature, I spent the day just doing the DE quest chain, it was a blast the story was well told full of political intrigue and assassinations.

These are just the ramblings of my experience with Vanguard over the last week, some bad but mostly good. Anyone thinking about giving Vanguard another go or you are someone after a new MMO I would recommend Vanguard. It's not the greatest MMO, but there's a great game trying to get out.  Don't listen to the haters or the Vanboi's, the only person who can tell you if you will like it, is yourself.  If you can get a buddy key or a cheap copy or don't mind re-subbing give the game ago, it's a different beast compared to launch.

Vanguard deserves a second chance, I gave it one and now I'm having a blast. 

Lets hope SoE continue to do this, I heard SoE fired alot of the VG dev team.  It would be a shame if SoE placed VG on the back burner with all the effort they have put in since taking over from Sigil to get the game in it's playable state as of now. There's a great game trying to get out, lets hope SoE will give it the opportunity it deserves.

My only gripe I have with the graphics is when your character is in doors and it looks like a barbie doll all nice and shiny.

Originally posted by corun

I am giving Vanguard a second chance right now. I've been in beta but never got a character above level 10 back then.

I like how the classes are set up and the variety in spells / abilities. My highest character is a 11 psionicist now, a really fun class. Dungeons seem to be interesting in Vanguard. You can solo quite a few things and grouping is fine as well. Crafting is good from what I've seen and I've only met nice people on the Halgar server up to now.

What I just can't seem to get used to is the rather boring "outside" world of Telon. Most of it seems to be just a pile of clay with a bit of vegetation on the flatter terrrain. Did I just not see the interesting parts yet, or are only dungeons interesting looking / exciting?  I run everything on max settings with a Nvidia 7950 GX2 (1 GB RAM on that SLI card) so that shouldn't be the problem. I've been on all continents and it could just be a matter of taste, but still .....

The only area I really liked up to now (and I have started a few characters at different locations) was the Gnome underground city as well as the dungeons nearby (and the accelleration tunnel of course )

I would say the performance is definitely better then it was in beta.
Still, it does happen to me quite often that character animations get stuck (models look frozen while moving or fighting). Either mine or NPC animations are affected.
If I do nothing it fixes itself after a bit, or I hit my /flush macro button. Still it's quite annoying.
Does anyone know a permanent fix?

Like you I decided to give Vanguard a second chance and I have to say i'm impressed how the game has changed from launch and I am enjoying every minute

If you want some nice eye candy I would suggest you tryout a Wood Elf character.  The landscape is amazing, the attention to detail is something to behold, I found myself just staring at the beautiful visuals. I will not go into detail, I will leave it to you to check it out.  I will admit if the rest of the game turns out to be poor, to me it was worth the 1 month re-sub.  This area gave back to me the feelings I got when I first starting playing EQ