All Posts by Zippy

Originally posted by rennji088

ok just a few simple questions

1. I havent really seen ppl talk about the monk class all too much i was wondering what can ya tell me about the class (List its features). ive played class like the palidin warrior rogue mage and shaman class out WoW. Also if monk is hard to play as a new player what would u recommend.

2. when can i get a flying mount and is it easy to get.

3. how does the housing system work and as well the diplomacy system.

 

1.  Here is the link to the monk fansite.  They can answer your questions better than I.  I have a lowbie monk and he is pretty fun.  AT high levels monks are pullers and skilled monk can distinguishhimself from a poor player quite easily.

2. The quest for the griffon starts at 45 but realistcially you have to be 50.  Only the most skilled groups will get a  griffon.  Although they have made the quest much easier now since I did it.  Wyverns is a raid quest which involves killing both dragons.  As there are only 3 guilds left in game that have killed Kotasoth you are better off doing the griffon as pugs have gotten thru that,  A Pegasus slower mount is going in GU6.

3.  You buy a plot and have crafters make the parts for your house.  Diplomacy see here.

I know a few people that have leveled solo only doing quests  with no grinding and it took them each only 5-7 days played to reach 50. 

Yes there is a ton of solo content.  There is also much group content but sadly the group content (outside of the griffon quest which sadly has been made a lot easier) lacks any challenge.  Some of the group content particularily in the 20's has great rewards that will last you into your 40's but leveling is so easy you really do not need great gear.  Mobs are greatly underpowered compared to players.  A group can wear gear 20 levels below themselves while leveling up and still breeze through mobs with little to no thought.  The problem with much of the group content is its just not worth the time to grind to get the rewards as leveling is so easy and fast.  Leveling normally takes 5-15 days plated to hit 50.  I have had a couple of alts reach 50 in less than 7 days played.  My guess is a much better and more skilled player than myself could do it in 2-3 days played.  So yes the game in its current state is very soloable and casual friendly.

Originally posted by linedawg

The games release date is 9/23/08 according to EB game, Gamestop and Amazon.

The realease date is fall which if by the amaizng chance they actually release in fall goes to 12/20.  Game reatiler release dates almost always have nothing to do with reality and are only set to generate the most amount of sales possible.  IMHO the earliest we can expect to see Warhammer is December.

Assuming it is not delayed and it releases around Xmas one would guess open beta would start at the end of November or early December.  But no official word has been given.  The game just started beta 3 so its quite a long ways away.

Glad your liking your game but to clarify your post bthe URT quests were in the game long before SOE took over. 

I can list for you the new content SOE has added in the last 14 months since they took over.

1.  Lvl 12-15 questline ion Ksvari Gulch

2.  APW + outside raid mobs.  Very well done for a first raid dungeon.  It is to bad Cylus and Avarem left.  the only dev left who worked on APW is Tiralsee.

3.  Griffon questline   Very well done although they have made it much easier now.

4.  Racial Mounts

5.  New Mest quests.

That is it.  All the content they have added in 14 months.  Unfortunately this is what happens  when a company does not fund a game, pay its devs higehr than starting salarties, or replace the devs that leave for better paying jobs.

I am not dissing Vanguard as it is the best game on the market but rather lamentinga s to what it could have been if it SOE funded and supported the game.

Originally posted by ethion

Has anyone actually leveled to 50 100% of the way on solo content like in wow?

I know a few people that have leveled solo on quests only with no grinding and it took them each only 5-7 days played to reach 50. 

But to answer the orignal OPs question yes there is a ton of solo content.  There is also much group content but sadly the group content (outside of the griffon quest) lacks any challenge.  Some of the group content particularily in the 20's had great rewards that will last you into your 40's but leveling is so easy you really do not need great gear.  Mobs are greatly underpowered compared to players.  A group can wear gear 20 levels below themselves while leveling up and still breeze through mobs with little to no thought.  The problem with much of the group content is its just not worth the time to grind to get the rewards as leveling is so easy and fast.  Leveling normally takes 5-15 days plated to hit 50.  I have had a couple of lats reach 50 inless than 7 days played.  My guess is a much betetr and more skilled player could do it in 2-3 days played.  So yes the game in its current state is very casual friendly.

I do not play on the PvP serevr but most people say it is doing very poorly.  Not many people play on Sartok and the population is supposed to be very low compared to Seradon or Xeth.  Early on the pvp server was plagued by exploits and money dupes.  Unfortunately because of SOEs refusal to fund the game and VGs bare bones size dev team they simply do not have the resources to develop the pvp side of the game. 

In reagrds to soloing it is very easy to solo just on quests alone from 1-50.  Leveling in Vanguard is very fast.  If you just use gear from quests you should be able to reach 50 in 5-15 days played.

 The crazy thing is that kind of customer support is normal.  the GMs are great.  By the far the best of any game I have seen.  BTW each GM has his own treat which he often gives out to players.  An examples is GM Ceythos's Lizard on a stick which turns you into  a Lizard. Just ask the GM them and they will give you a present.  But more importantly the VG GMs are nice, know the game and they  treat their players with respect.  Unlike other games they can actually solve player problems.  For example on a broken quest they will check to see if you actually killed the mob then give you the quest item rather than tell you to kill the mob again.

The only bad thing about Vanguatrd's GMsIi can say is that since SOE took over they no longer are tough on exploiters nor do they call out in shouts the names of people they banned anymore for exploiting.  For example I know a high end raid guild that recently left the game that exploited many mobs. Most of the high end raid guilds knew this and the GMs and Devs knew this.  But nothing was ever done done except to remove some of  the mobs temporarily from the game they had been exploiting.

I have to strongly disagree.  AoC has lots of flash but little substance.  The core mechanics of the game combat, classes and crafting are terrible.

Most MMO combat requires one to hit a hotkey to execute an attack.  AoC requires one to hit a hotkey followed by 3-5 directional arrows.  Essentially what that means is using a normal attack requires one to hit 4-6 buttons rather than one and wait 5-10 seconds extra before moving on to using another ability.  While the combat system works well at lvl 10 it does not scale well to level 80.  It just becomes tedious and it takes away thought and skill from combat.  These mechanics show themselves in group play.  AoC combat and classes do not seem to be designed for group play.  The system works much better solo. I can only imagine how bad the combat system is in raid play.  It looks like a nightmare.  To make matters worse besides feats there are few to no new skills past lvl 15.  Classes are very simple compared to most MMOs with very abilities, attacks and spells.

There simply is not much to do in combat and there is little room for skilled players to distinguish themselves form average or poor players.  This is not to say everything about the combat system is bad.  The importance of positioning is very well done as is the use line of sight.  The animations are also very well done and seem to add weight to your weapon making combat feel more immersive. 

Adding in the lack of skills per class to the tedious limited combat mechanics and AoC combat becomes likely the most simple and unskilled combat of any MMO ever released. Which makes sense as AoC is being targeted at new MMO players, console players, Kiddies with excess hormones and casual players.

Now what I said above may seem like an attack on AoC it should not be viewed as such. We all look for different things in games.  One may want more complexity one may want simple.  SImple is not bad especially if its well done.   AoC is simply a fluff game for casual players and people looking for a part time game.  At some point they will add and polish content and the game from 1-80 will likely be as good as  the 1-20 Tortage experience. There is a certain atmosphere  and barbaric edge in the lower levels that is very well done.  Most people will admit even if they do not like the game it is high on the fun factor in the lower levels and there is no reason they cannot do the same for higher levels even if the combat system does become repetitve. while it can be argued that  AoC is essentially a Diablo sort of hack and slash game that requires little thought or skill.  Is that a bad thing?  Not if its a well made game.  AoC improved dramatically the last 2 months of beta until release and it appears to have sold more than enough boxes for Funcom to continue developing the game.  But regardless of whether one likes the game design in AoC it is hard to argue that the core of the game is good as the combat system is repetitive, inflexible and requires little thought or attention.

There are things they can do to fix the combat system like getting rid of the directional arrows in melee combat and adding many many abilities for each class.  But that is something that is not realistic and would require redesigning a large part of the game.

Originally posted by dethgar

I am thinking of giving this game a third try, I do have some questions that would influence my decision.

 

1. Are there no instances at all? Meaning groups have to fight for mobs in dungeons etc?
2. Is there any pvp on the pve servers? Battlegrounds or pvp zones at all? Guild wars of any kind?
3. How much grinding(ie Kill mob for xp or loot) is there?
4. Is the client still a performance nightmare?
5. Whats the most popular server?
6. How long does it take before you max out your combat level?

 

1.  The only instance is the raid dungeon APW which is broken identical shards that anyone can enter.  As far as groups fighting for mobs it is pretty rare and most people are nice, respectful and cpurteous towards other groups.

2.  PvP was an afterthought and never really developed.  There is a PvP server but Vanguard does not have the devs to support and develop it.

3.  In Vanguard one can solo quest to 50 without grinding at all or one has the option to grind mobs.  Both styles of play are supported.

4.  Performance seems to get worse each patch.  For me the game performed better at release than it does now.  For many people on low end machines performance greatly improved in GU2 and GU3 last fall and December.  I don't really believe performance has improved much but rather peoples machines have caught up with Vanguard.

5.  Seradon then Xeth.

6.  5-15 days played should max out your character using just quest gear. But it is easy to get distracted and take longer if one chooses. 

Originally posted by Anlar

 

Originally posted by Zippy

Originally posted by Dominazn

yeah i also get this now when you start the client....what is 8 gmt to est?

 

It is 4 pm EDT or 5pm EST.  But I really doubt you are on EST time at this time of year.

 

In the US, when we say EST, it includes any DST changes. So it is 4 PM EST, even thought we're in dst. 1 PM PST.

EST does not account for any daylight savings time.  EST means Eastern standard time.  It simply means no day light savings time changes.  Just as EDT means eastern daylight savings time accounting for time changes.  To be correct in the US we refer to either EDT or EST depending upon the time of year and  time recognized by your particular area. But if one wants to ignore the time changes one can simply use ET, CT or PT rather than specify whether or not they are on standard or daylight savings time by using the D or S.

Using EST pr PST during daylight savings time is simply wrong and can cause confusion as its one hour off o the correct time of  EDT or PDT.  * months of the tear EDT and PDT is the coorect terminolgy to use/  Although using ET or PT might be easier for you.

To be correct then it is 4 pm EDT which is 5 pm EST.  Which is 1 pm PDT or 2 pm PST.

Originally posted by Dominazn

yeah i also get this now when you start the client....what is 8 gmt to est?

 

It is 4 pm EDT or 5pm EST.  But I really doubt you are on EST time at this time of year.

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

Originally posted by Zippy

 

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

 

Originally posted by Zippy

Complete lies.  Many people will be lvl 80 before the three day period ends.  AoC does not have 10 days of content.

ha! there's NO WAY anyone will hit 80 in 3 days.

 

Nice try, but you obviously know squat about the game.

Don't believe me ask some closed beta friends to violate the NDA and tell you how fast people have leveled to 80.  I think they will back me up.  While your there ask those beta testers if there is any content in the game past level 13.  Ask them if there is any itemization past level 10 outside a few quests.  Ask them if level 80's are runnning around wearing level 10 gear.  Ask them if its true there is only one destiny quest in the next 30 levels after level 20.  Ask them if Funcom is afraid to take down the NDA because there is no content after level 13.

 

BTW do you get paid for you these silly fanboy posts.  Is there a reason you only want people to see only the hype of this game rather than the god and bad of AoC.  Why do you take everything so personal?  There is good and bad about AoC.  Some people will like it some people will not.  The game has a certain fun factor to it but its horribly and shockingly unfininshed and almost completely  untested. People have a right to give both sides of the story about AoC.  Even if they disagrees with your all mighty opinion. From reading your insults , troll posts and juvenile tantrums its obvious only people that agree with your one sided point of view have the right to post.   Or maybe its just that you enjoy insulting people for no reason

hate to break it to you, tool, but I AM a closed beta tester. Pretty sure I know a bit more about the state of the game than you, so quit flapping your man pleaser.

I am a closed beta tester as well and I have just as much right to post as you.  If you are a closed beta tester I think you can then verify everything I said as accurate.  You might just want to stop with the foolish and childish lies then.

Originally posted by Wharg0ul

 

Originally posted by Zippy

Complete lies.  Many people will be lvl 80 before the three day period ends.  AoC does not have 10 days of content.

ha! there's NO WAY anyone will hit 80 in 3 days.

 

Nice try, but you obviously know squat about the game.

Don't believe me ask some closed beta friends to violate the NDA and tell you how fast people have leveled to 80.  I think they will back me up.  While your there ask those beta testers if there is any content in the game past level 13.  Ask them if there is any itemization past level 10 outside a few quests.  Ask them if level 80's are runnning around wearing level 10 gear.  Ask them if its true there is only one destiny quest in the next 30 levels after level 20.  Ask them if Funcom is afraid to take down the NDA because there is no content after level 13.

BTW do you get paid for you these silly fanboy posts.  Is there a reason you only want people to see only the hype of this game rather than the god and bad of AoC.  Why do you take everything so personal?  There is good and bad about AoC.  Some people will like it some people will not.  The game has a certain fun factor to it but its horribly and shockingly unfininshed and almost completely  untested. People have a right to give both sides of the story about AoC.  Even if they disagrees with your all mighty opinion. From reading your insults , troll posts and juvenile tantrums its obvious only people that agree with your one sided point of view have the right to post.   Or maybe its just that you enjoy insulting people for no reason.

Complete lies.  Many people will be lvl 80 before the three day period ends.  AoC does not have 10 days of content.

I am in the AoC closed beta and there is no way I would leave VG for AoC.  VG at release was so much better than AoC is now.  But more importantly VG has so much more substance in gameplay.

Funcom has not dropped the NDA  yet so I cannot tell you how bad AoC is past lvl 13,  I cannot tell you if the game is not itemized past level 10, I cannot tell you level 80's are running around wearing level 10 gear as there is nothing better, nor can I tell you that the game is completely lacking in content or how completely unfinished and untested the game is.  These type questions and more you will just have to guess and wonder what they are hiding by refusing to release the NDA.

But I can tell you that AoC despite its flaws is a fun game but lacking in depth.  It's more a fluff game like D2 or GW targetted towards new MMO players, casual players and players who want easier gameplay .  I just do not think its a game with enough content now to justify a subscription fee.  But given a healthy subscriber base and a year of time it could develop into a very good game.

If they ever drop the NDA you all might learn some very suprising information about itemization or the complete lack of itemization in AoC.

There will be lots of players at lvl 80 before the 3 day pre game access ends.

It has been awhile since i played EQ2 but EQ2 and Vanguard are the opposite in games.

EQ2 has lots of flluff, lots of content but terrible substanace.  The core systems of EQ2 its combat mechanics and crafting mechanics are awful.  It's classes are all the same and not well developed.   Combat in EQ2 plays more like a free Asian game.  There is no depth or thought.  Pure button mashing.

Vanguard has little no to no fluff but plenty of substance.   It's combat is the best on the market.  It's crafting mechanics are  fabulous.  The  classes are well developed and deversified.  But the game has no fluff had lots of bugs and is still greatly flawed.  Even worse is that SOE has basically abandoned development of Vanguard.  They only have 12 developers left working on the game with only 1 content dev left.  In the year since SOE took over the game they have added 3 pieces of content;  1 raid dungeon;  1 lvl 12-15 quest line; and the griffon questline.  Thats all the content they have added in a full year.  They recently added some overland raid mobs but they were so bugged that they had to be pulled from the game.

Vanguard despite its flaws is a much better game.  But the problem is SOE is funding EQ2 but not funding Vanguard.

Both games share the same problems of super fast leveling and lack of challenging play.  EQ2 has much more endgame content with lots of raiding.  EQ2 also has regular expansions while its doubtful that Vanguard will ever get an expansion.  Vanguard is a better game but EQ2 has a better future.

Originally posted by noxxle

According to this post: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/152355/page/1 it takes 35 days worth of playtime to hit max level in Vanguard. However, I read that since the game's release XP has been given a significant boost. How many days/hours of play does it take to hit max level?

It should take you between 5 and 15 days played depending on how fast you want to level.  You can reach 50 in 5 days using just quest gear without much trouble.  But leveling speed can differ rather drastically in vanguard depending on player skill, patience, knowledge, planning and desire to focus on leveling.  It;s quite easy to get sidetracked doing quests and dungeons that re not very efficient for gaining experience.