I played Vangaurd awhile back and enjoyed it but I couldn't get into the game because there was no pvp. I've been playing MMOs for years and have always stuck to pvp MMOs. 

My question is does Vangaurd offer any reason to want to explore the world? I understand the world is huge and nice to look at but is there a reason to want to explore new areas other then sight seeing or finding new mobs? Are there valuable things to find while out roaming the coutryside? I think I could get into the game but the only thing other then pvp that will keep me interested is open world exploration. 

Originally posted by Ethian

I played Vangaurd awhile back and enjoyed it but I couldn't get into the game because there was no pvp. I've been playing MMOs for years and have always stuck to pvp MMOs. 

 

My question is does Vangaurd offer any reason to want to explore the world? I understand the world is huge and nice to look at but is there a reason to want to explore new areas other then sight seeing or finding new mobs? Are there valuable things to find while out roaming the coutryside? I think I could get into the game but the only thing other then pvp that will keep me interested is open world exploration. 

Well if pvp is very important to you, this might not be the right game.

Im one of those who love to explore as well. And nothing is more exciting than finding a cave or a deep dungeon in the middle of nowhere. You always wonder whats around the next corner.

The graphics and music by itself will make the journey around Telon a trip worth taking :-)

What I mean is, are there things to find along while exploring. In any MMO you can explore and find mobs to fight. In Vangaurd is there an incentive to want to explore other then to find new mobs to kill?

Vanguard is a hardcore mmo, I kid you not !

Exploration could be hard as mobs hit hard. Unless your well equiped and know your abalities well, you have to stay within your level range to fight if playing solo. Vanguard uses an above the head dot system.  So if your a level 29, you could have a hard time fighting a 29 3dot.....So becarefull exploring.

Qalia map

http://vanguardvault.ign.com/fms/Image.php?id=960

Thestra map

http://vanguardvault.ign.com/fms/Image.php?id=961

Kojan map

http://vanguardvault.ign.com/fms/Image.php?id=959

Graphics are nice in Vanguard, but unlike WoW you don't really have like 40 diffrient zones. Each of the three zones in Vanguard looks somewhat the same.  However every town, keep, cave and dungeon are unique.  Most have to be explored by groups because most areas such as this have 4 dots ( very hard to kill ).  So exploring could be discuraging at times.

So you will have to make friends.

But making friends can be very easy in this game AS LONG AS YOU USE THE SOCIAL PANEL and talk nice to people. I've made countless post here on mmorpg on how to do this. If you have a small group or at least one friend you would find that Vanguard is the best mmo ever made for exploring.

Social panel > find > advanced find.....Type the level range you are looking for.......Ask nice, chat a little.....Ask if you can come to help with there quest, and go to them.....Play as a duo, and add them to your friends list.

Before you know it you have 10 friends to play with at any given time.........Then you will find Vanguard the best game ever !

Originally posted by Ethian

What I mean is, are there things to find along while exploring. In any MMO you can explore and find mobs to fight. In Vangaurd is there an incentive to want to explore other then to find new mobs to kill?

the answer is yes :) I remember stumbling across a castle (around level 40 I think) and they had their own armor and coins you had to earn to get that armor. You could have just stayed at the castle, done all the quests and got the coins, and got a full set of nice armor. All on the side with no signs to point you to this place. I didn't even find it from doing a side quest, just was running around and found it.

What I would love is a list of landmarks that would be fun to explore with some lore attached to them, but dont give the location.  Would be fun to explore knowing there was such things to come across - anyone got a list?

I more I read about the game the more I think I may enjoy it. I've always played pvp MMOs but a game with a big immersive world and unique features like Vanguard may be enough to keep me interested. I own about 5-6 different mainstream themepark MMOs and their all the same BS...I may as well trash them all because I'll likely never re-install any of them lol

My only concern with Vanguard is I may end up spending alot of time looking for groups due to low population. Another option to this is to go back to tougher areas at a higher level to check them out...My girlfriend and I did exactly this in WoW and ran just about every dungeon in the old world just the two of us.

I downloaded and installed the trial last night to give it a shot. If my first impressions are good I'll likely take this game seriously and play it on a regular basis. Of every MMO on the market I'd say Vanguard probly has the most positive comments from players next to maybe AOC and DAOC, both too out-dated for my taste though.

The fact is until players come to play Vanguard Sony won't do anything with it. The game needs the support from the players to possibly get new updates in the future. Unfortionately most gamers like to hold grudges so Vanguard will likely never stand a chance. A bad launch and Sonys involvment is a horrible combination...lol

A lot of the enjoyment you can get out of VG, for me at least, has all been about mind set and how you approach the game. It's not a pop on for an hour and do stuf type game, you need to give yourself a decent playtime and just go adventure, not expecting to ding every 10 minutes. The more I take my time and the more fun I have.

Originally posted by Ethian

I more I read about the game the more I think I may enjoy it. I've always played pvp MMOs but a game with a big immersive world and unique features like Vanguard may be enough to keep me interested. I own about 5-6 different mainstream themepark MMOs and their all the same BS...I may as well trash them all because I'll likely never re-install any of them lol

 

My only concern with Vanguard is I may end up spending alot of time looking for groups due to low population. Another option to this is to go back to tougher areas at a higher level to check them out...My girlfriend and I did exactly this in WoW and ran just about every dungeon in the old world just the two of us.

 

I downloaded and installed the trial last night to give it a shot. If my first impressions are good I'll likely take this game seriously and play it on a regular basis. Of every MMO on the market I'd say Vanguard probly has the most positive comments from players next to maybe AOC and DAOC, both too out-dated for my taste though.

 

The fact is until players come to play Vanguard Sony won't do anything with it. The game needs the support from the players to possibly get new updates in the future. Unfortionately most gamers like to hold grudges so Vanguard will likely never stand a chance. A bad launch and Sonys involvment is a horrible combination...lol

 Vanguard is made for a duo. You say that your girlfriend played with you in the pas.  Not sure if she is gonna play with you now, but as a duo you can really go far in this game. I've played both solo and found my own friends and played with a friend as a duo.

I'm sure there are many good combo's as we played Shamen / Monk and it worked out well (Shamen healer / monk tank,dps) It really is nice to have a healer, and whats nice abot Vanguard is that healers are expected to fight also, not just stand in the backround and buff heal. Read the healer classes close because some are also casters, dps or even tanks :)

Is there loot to find around the world other then mob kills? I've found some chests around with tools I think. Exploring and running into a chest full of loot would be sweet :-)

Like others said, best way to get into the juicy part of the game is bring a group of buddies so you aren't limited to just the soloing aspect. The one killer for alot of newer players has been they spend more time trying to get groups than actually playing the game. Yes the social tab is how you find players, however from my experience either having a guild or closer gamer buddies are a bit more dependable so prepare yourself!

Going into the game with a group will greatly increase your chances of staying and enjoying the game.

Originally posted by Ethian

I more I read about the game the more I think I may enjoy it. I've always played pvp MMOs but a game with a big immersive world and unique features like Vanguard may be enough to keep me interested. I own about 5-6 different mainstream themepark MMOs and their all the same BS...I may as well trash them all because I'll likely never re-install any of them lol

 

My only concern with Vanguard is I may end up spending alot of time looking for groups due to low population. Another option to this is to go back to tougher areas at a higher level to check them out...My girlfriend and I did exactly this in WoW and ran just about every dungeon in the old world just the two of us.

 

I downloaded and installed the trial last night to give it a shot. If my first impressions are good I'll likely take this game seriously and play it on a regular basis. Of every MMO on the market I'd say Vanguard probly has the most positive comments from players next to maybe AOC and DAOC, both too out-dated for my taste though.

 

The fact is until players come to play Vanguard Sony won't do anything with it. The game needs the support from the players to possibly get new updates in the future. Unfortionately most gamers like to hold grudges so Vanguard will likely never stand a chance. A bad launch and Sonys involvment is a horrible combination...lol

I would recommend joining a good guild. which will solve the polulation issue ..'The twighlyte Song' is the biggest guild in game with all new and medium level players going to it....

Does Vanguard have anything similar to RIFTs artifact system?  I mean are there things around the world to find to make you want to explore all the ends of the world? Finding new mobs to fight is great but what other reasons are there in Vanguard to want to explore the world? 

Originally posted by Ethian

Does Vanguard have anything similar to RIFTs artifact system?  I mean are there things around the world to find to make you want to explore all the ends of the world? Finding new mobs to fight is great but what other reasons are there in Vanguard to want to explore the world? 

I'm still pretty low level in VG but I know that sometimes there are some random housing areas that you can find to build your house.  But VG does not have the shiny artificacts that Rift or EQ2 has.

Originally posted by Ethian

Does Vanguard have anything similar to RIFTs artifact system?  I mean are there things around the world to find to make you want to explore all the ends of the world? Finding new mobs to fight is great but what other reasons are there in Vanguard to want to explore the world? 

No, not to my knowledge.

However, it's not really about "finding new mobs to kill" but more about discovering a world. Now, you might not be able to fight in every area you discover but there are definitely places that inspire further exploration.

I have to say, for me, the winning moments were:

being in a desert area and finding what appeared to be a mine only to explore and discover that the miners had broken through to a forgotten area that borders a beautiful oasis of foliage as well as some sort of "forgotten" bathhouse/temple area.

Or discovering the "haunted mansion' which I desperately tried to go through though I eventually fell in the first room as it is more of a group area or high level player area.

It's about discovering the world and the stories implied behind that world.

In some ways, even though it's a theme park game it plays more like a sandbox game.

So take that for what it's worth.

edit: to one of your questions:

well, I did discover an ancient tower at the top of a remote island that had a gooey livng blob inside it. upoin clicking on the blob I discovered it was "cheese" and usable by the player.

Still looked like an oozey moving blob though! ; )

deleted post as I can put it above.

Originally posted by Ethian

Is there loot to find around the world other then mob kills? I've found some chests around with tools I think. Exploring and running into a chest full of loot would be sweet :-)

 Every level has it's own dungeons. Some areas have high concentrations of NPC's with a boss mob . The bosses drop loot. Usually at a the level you're at a group of four or five players generally has a challenge killing the boss mobs. It's not a game for quick gratitude or solo play.

Here's two sites to look through. : http://vanguard.gamepressure.com/     ,     http://vanguardvault.ign.com/wiki/index.php/Vanguard's_Basic_Survival_Guide    Loot tables will usually give you locations of the mob and level. There are always better sites. Just remmbered Curse had a great player compliation data base , If it's still there.

What a shame man. Although RIFT is just another themepark MMO they really got the world exploration right. I love hunting for hidden artifacts around the world, some of them are actually real hard to find. On top of that I'm on an open pvp server which makes exploration even more exciting. In a world the size of Vanguards its too bad they didnt add some sort of incentive for people to explore. Even an achievment system would have been better then nothing imo. Not too mention no pvp kind of ruins things for me.

I have to admit I'm abit biased because I enjoy pvp, so for me to enjoy Vanguard I'd need something other then questing and exploring to find yet more mobs to kill. Unfortionately running around in a world and sight seeing with no meaning other then to see new things doesn't do it for me. I've heard the crafting and diplomacy is fun though. I may eventually end up giving Vanguard a serious go, who knows :-D

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Ethian

Does Vanguard have anything similar to RIFTs artifact system?  I mean are there things around the world to find to make you want to explore all the ends of the world? Finding new mobs to fight is great but what other reasons are there in Vanguard to want to explore the world? 

No, not to my knowledge.

However, it's not really about "finding new mobs to kill" but more about discovering a world. Now, you might not be able to fight in every area you discover but there are definitely places that inspire further exploration.

I have to say, for me, the winning moments were:

being in a desert area and finding what appeared to be a mine only to explore and discover that the miners had broken through to a forgotten area that borders a beautiful oasis of foliage as well as some sort of "forgotten" bathhouse/temple area.

Or discovering the "haunted mansion' which I desperately tried to go through though I eventually fell in the first room as it is more of a group area or high level player area.

It's about discovering the world and the stories implied behind that world.

In some ways, even though it's a theme park game it plays more like a sandbox game.

So take that for what it's worth.

edit: to one of your questions:

well, I did discover an ancient tower at the top of a remote island that had a gooey livng blob inside it. upoin clicking on the blob I discovered it was "cheese" and usable by the player.

Still looked like an oozey moving blob though! ; )

How much cooler would those trips have been if theres always a chance to find items around the world?  Even hidden items such as chests or random loot. I hope we see more games expand on their world exploration concepts to allow the players to interact with objects and find things rather then riding around all night until its time for bed lol

Originally posted by Ethian

What a shame man. Although RIFT is just another themepark MMO they really got the world exploration right. I love hunting for hidden artifacts around the world, some of them are actually real hard to find. On top of that I'm on an open pvp server which makes exploration even more exciting. In a world the size of Vanguards its too bad they didnt add some sort of incentive for people to explore. Even an achievment system would have been better then nothing imo. Not too mention no pvp kind of ruins things for me.

I have to admit I'm abit biased because I enjoy pvp, so for me to enjoy Vanguard I'd need something other then questing and exploring to find yet more mobs to kill. Unfortionately running around in a world and sight seeing with no meaning other then to see new things doesn't do it for me. I've heard the crafting and diplomacy is fun though. I may eventually end up giving Vanguard a serious go, who knows :-D

 Now , I haven't played in a long time , so if there's a current player playing he can correct this. There is PvP , it's consentual between players , and there were to be zones that upon entry. I believe there were/are arenas or marked areas for PvP. That was the plan once the PvP server was shut down. Incidently it was shut because they could get a handle on a teleportation hack, and the requisit ganking that occurred, unbalanced skills.  Frankly the Devs were never interested in the PvP servers to begin with too many issues and problems , too little resources.