All Posts by Adamantine

Uh, the main developer of Vanguard might have been possibly drug addicted - there is only one very obscure source who ever claimed that - but even if that was the case, that doesnt mean his project was a scam.

Other than that, I really dont understand people who complain about AoC. Wasnt all that already known a long time before release ? Why do you complain about it now ? Dont you inform yourself about a game before you play it ?

And I dont think AoC will be the end of MMOs.

Its OK if there are consequences if you gank a lowbie.

But it absolutely not OK the way the OP describes it. It is not the task of the game developer to educate the player, and it is not to be put into the hands of the victim to judge the playerkiller either.

For example, with the system described, you make lowbies want to trick higherlevel characters into killing them. Lowbies will attack highlevels, and will have a win-win situation: either they manage to kill the highlevel, or they can rob the highlevel afterwards.

If you do not want playerkillers, disallow PvP. If you allow PvP, you should have a reasonable reaction to it, not trying to make an example of a player who, god forbit, simply did what you have allowed him to do in the first place.

My Gnome was always ugly.

Only now they are ugly beyond belief.

Oh my god !

You have found something in a game that looks like something in another game !

And imagine, its some kind of symbol, no less !

Thats really somehow interesting !

Originally posted by Mithios
[...]

Here's the kicker. The little 5th level player I killed gets to decide my fate. [...]

Uh, that is indeed a "kicker", i.e. thats an extremely bad idea. Never make the victim the judge. Its not done in the courtyard, and it shouldnt be done in a game either.

Originally posted by Mithios

Lets say I get mad because that little gnome made me be executed. I find him and kill him again. Now he gets to decide 2 punishments. Then three, etc... Why not let the person "unlawfully" killed get justice. 

Thats educating people. Thats even worse. As a rule, your task as a game designer is NEVER to educate people. Trying to educate adults will only result in them trying to educate YOU.

In this case, by simply leaving the game, or not even starting playing it.

Originally posted by Teala

How about this instead.   Don't play on a PvP server.   Fixed.

Agreed.

Vanguard is a PvE game, because:

- There is only a single, very empty PvP server.

- PvP is no game element, like the arena fights in Guild Wars or the castle sieges in Lineage 2. All you can do in Vanguard is fighting for the purse of the opponent.

- PvP balance between classes is reportedly suboptimal. Right now, for example, the Psio can kill everyone else, since their Mezz doesnt break on damage, so all they have to do is DoT, then Mezz, then wait watching you dying.

Nope this is a PvE game.

Yep.

Thats why I dont bother with racial mounts.

After all, its just that - a MOUNT. Its already enough work to actually get one. Having to accept being KoS for a MOUNT is not acceptable to me.

Plus of course, once you started, you cant win. There is no way to be ever non-KoS again.

Originally posted by Arclan

To the poster above ^, I think that sounds like a very cool game. Awesome concept. But you should leave out the trailing "will beat WoW" sentence because it's silly and wrong. That is like saying some company will design a superior OS and suddently "beat Microsoft." Hah, impossible.

Microsoft did not won because of quality, it won because of their practices.

WoW isnt like that, people really play it because they like playing it. And therefore, someday people will stop playing it, just like they stopped playing Tomb Raider, Comand and Conquer, Baldurs Gate, and all the other big hits of past times, before.

I was looking for a game that I could play for the years to come, and the best match to my wishlist was Vanguard.

I agree that Vanguard isnt a sandbox game. I certainly miss PvP as a real game element in it. And there is nothing you can conquer or build in the world itself, except a single house per account.

The OP has very big expectations about a MMO, it seems. Not that there isnt a lot I would have wanted to have too. But currently, all we get is a flood of WoW clones. Even Vanguard is a kind of WoW clone, in many respects, especially with the changes they introduced after SOE took over.

Maybe one day there will be a great sandbox game out there, but at the moment, not so much.

Originally posted by thamighty213

Trialed L2 a couple of months ago and then i got into AOC closed beta have decided AOC isnt the game for me so i am waiting on WAR, Aion, SGW.

Is L2 worth buying to kill time or will 6 months or so just not be enough time to ever realy experience what the game has to offer.

Im quite a casual player with a 7 month old daughter who dictates my play time.

You could try some of the free MMOs, like Rappelz (never tried it myself, so dunno how good/bad it is), or of course WoW, LotRO, or Vanguard (has become pretty solid recently, should be a nice experience for a casual).

If you like PvP, Guild Wars might be considerable, even if for 6 months of casual play, the 170 or so Dollars you have to spend for it is a bit expensive.

Or you could get something non-classic-fantasy, but of that I have no clue.

So where is the trial island ?

I thought they would introduce it with GU5.

Hmm, I consider my current MMO, Vanguard, as mature as possible really.

One cant control the behavior of players, though. Thats beyond what a company can do.

Though the current community is very mature as well. OTOH, in the beginning, the community of Vanguard was one of the most immature communities I've ever experienced. I never played WoW or some such, though.

No, it has nothing to do with the Illuminati. The Illuminati dont even exist in the first place !

Its the Ninjas. Every time they attack the Pirates, the Pirates have to shut down their two games and fight the Ninjas. And I can tell you fighting Ninjas is not an easy thing, even for a Pirate ! Especially since, you know, Pirates still enjoy life, while Ninjas dont even have an idea you can possibly enjoy life.

I heard it takes a lot of loading data from the internet to install the game now (something like 6 hours, but I dont know how fast the connection was for the guy who needed that long).

I cannot possibly answer if the game is fun for YOU, if you dont specify what you want. It is certainly fun for me, though, since I play since release and endured all those bugs, and still stayed. For me, its very close to the ideal game I want to play, even if I miss a real PvP element in it.

Main feature of Vanguard is IMHO the complex and interesting classes to play. When I took my last break from VG, for playing The Witcher, the extremely trivialistic fight system of TW really bored me a lot (though that game has some strengths in other areas, such as graphics and storytelling).

Group PvE is very balanced now. Solo PvE is not as balanced at all, some classes, if played right, can really kick ass, while others only manage to kill the standard mobs. But one can definitely say solo play is supported as well. I quite often solo my Warrior, who is one of the classes which are worst solo, and it was always fun, even if I had to step more carefully than on my Cleric (Healers really rule in soloplay as well as PvP, in Vanguard). PvP is reported to suck, but I dont know how reliable that information is. Personally I guess that rating is from whiners, you know that kind, "Paper says, nerf scissors, rock is fine". I've played Lineage 2 before, and, as a Shillien Elder, I was cannon fodder to really any other class, in PvP, there. Compared to that, Vanguard seems to be a lot more balanced in PvP. Of course its still nowhere near where games like Guild Wars are.

The gameworld is huge and seamless in design, though theres a waiting time if switching between subareas (called chunks), which breaks the illusion a bit. Still, the sheer size is a major factor of the fun to me. Sadly it also gives newbies the impression the game is empty, especially if they choose one of the more unusual races, such as Raki.

There is only one PvP Server, and its reported to be very empty. The EU PvE server is not as populated as the two US PvE servers. Right now, last week the population has had a big temporary hit because of the release of AoC, though it seems that people already started coming back from it.

Seriously, what is the OP talking about ?

He's taking Lesser Giants and making them the only race of the game ? Seriously ? In a game that has no less than 19 races, more than any other fantasy MMO I know of ?!?!?

He clearly doesnt play neither EQ nor VG, does he ?

Anyway, I would be glad if they would bring character customization back. My Gnome currently looks extremely disgusting, and I cant do anything about it.

Well, the roleplayer in MMOs is an actor, but thats not all of it. One could say its an improvisating actor, which is really rather seldom for the acting we see in movies, or in the theatre.

Plus, the MMO roleplayer is indeed not allowed to exploit bugs, and will of course be held accountable for all his actions, just like every other player of the game.

Originally posted by Barrikor

Also it is easier to re-balance a skill based system than having to go nerf crazy on a level/class based system.

Uh, and why would that be ?

Quite on the opposite, I see classes without the option for subclassing or customization as being the easiest to fix. If you know a class is too powerful, you get all options you could ever ask for to fix that. A spell is too strong ? No problem, you can either lower the spell power, increase the mana cost, increate the casting time, add a special condition to cast it (like, only once every minute etc).

In a skill based system, you arent that free to fix things. For example, the healing spells of the guy playing "Cleric" is the same as the spells of the guy playing "Paladin". There is nothing you can do about it.

Originally posted by Jirel

Why are we seeing all the Age of Conan threads here.  If all you're going to talk about is AoC, why don't you go to that forum?  I don't come here to talk about LoTRO.

I absolutely agree. This is the general forum, not the forum for discussing the FOTM MMO.

Looks like raytracing stuff to me.

Like from povray.

I strongly doubt current hardware is able to produce such quality in realtime anytime soon.