MX13
Novice Member
Joined: 12/01/05
Posts: 2487
What in HELL is an Aluminum Falcon?!?!?!
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Originally posted by dink
1. What are the death penalties?
Vanguard: Saga Of Heroes will employ a variation on the traditional corpse retrieval death penalty – you die, you return to your bind point but leave a corpse behind and that corpse contains the items and coin you had in your possession. You're encouraged to return to your corpse with another set of gear stored at the nearest outpost if you desire to retrive your other possessions. Items can be stored in horses, in ships, and in player owned buildings. Horses are soul bound, such that when you die, they and any items on your horse, stay with you. Additionally, during Phase 3 we will be experimenting with different severity levels relative to the threat level of the NPC or encounter. One thing is certain -- while the death penalty is likely harsher than many of the more modern MMOGs, it is not nearly has harsh as it was in, say, EverQuest. We have made every effort to make death sting to the point that you are challenged for taking risks, but not so punished that you are discouraged from taking those risks.
So corpse runs will be standard - thus you can lose your gear in a dungeon and have to spend hours retreiving it.
Wrong. This is not how the system works. Check the Official Forums for details.
2. Can I play solo? Is it rewarding to play solo?
You will be able to solo. Most casual content will be outdoors or in mini-dungeons. Group content will be in dungeons or in overland adventure areas, Raid content the same, but likely mostly in the dpeths of our larger dungeons.
Some of you may enjoy soloing in Vanguard, and some of you may find it too tedious or slow or not rewarding enough... Are we designing Vanguard as a solo-oriented game? No. The focus is on grouping. Does that mean we hate soloing and want to make it impossible? No, certainly not.
You will always be more efficient and encouraged to group, even in casual areas, although you won't need a large group. The casual areas are geared towards small groups and also designed such that one can achieve advancement in shorter contiguous chunks of gameplay, so these areas should be attractive not only to the more casual gamer, but even the hard core raid gamer who just has an hour or so to log on and wants to be able to move his character forward in some way.
In summary, soloing will be easier than it was in EverQuest, even with our focus on grouping.
Likewise, there will be content geared towards raiding and more hard core play. Even though Vanguard's content is mostly group oriented, both casual and raid gameplay are very important to us and supported.
What this means is that while you CAN solo, you will not gain as fast xp or as good loot doing so as those who group as the game is clearly focused on group content. There is an exeption to the items in the endgame, see my discussion below #4.
This is a player choice. It's a MMO... if you choose the play solo all of the time in a Multiplayer game, why play it? It is also fairly easy to Solo, check the approved player reviews. One player said they soloed to 10 in 3 days.
3. If I decide to start off solo, will I be so underpowered that I cannot group or raid?
Iif you were a dedicated casual gamer who never got any group loot and suddenly decided to loot you would indeed be at a disadvantage. But you certainly could befriend a solid group and they could escort you in and keep you alive and eventually get you some new lewtz. You are not a total sitting duck, but relatively ineffectual.
I realize some may panic at that, but, really, if you have a change of heart like that, which is great, I trust you will find some people who will take you in.
Going from casual to raid? I'm thinking no. Baby steps
So while you can solo, you cannot easily move from solo play to group play. They will reward grouping so heavily that unless they decide to reward solo play better, it will be a difficult playstyle to integrate.
Thats not even what they are saying. Casual gaming is different from Solo Play. And what they are refering to is the interaction in Raid Groups, not exclusion, and how is it wrong to warn players that raiding is different from regular play?
4. So I know that I can't get the best loot being solo, but can I just do group content and not have to join an uber guild for raiding?
Vanguard is targeting the 'core' gamer. It will have three types of content: casual, group, and raid. Casual and raid will be the minority, with most content group oriented.
I know some people accuse EQ of being too raid oriented. I would say Vanguard will be less so. But we also think raiding is very important and fun. Our goal from the beginning was to create a world that would support core gamers, as well as more casual or people with less time, as well as those crazy raiders you refer to
Aside from that, well, Vanguard is a new game with a lot of new features and a whole new world to explore. I don't think we'll have any problem enticing hard core raiders to migrate over.
The plan is to have the majority of content be for groups, with the minority for solo/casuals and raids. Lots of game mechanics in or planned to make sure this works and to let us make group dungeons, even at higher levels, appealing and rewarding. Easier said than done, but we gotta do it.
This FAQ actually isn't the best source of information here, what has been said by Ardune (a Sigil dev) is that for the absolute best items you will need to engage in all of the playstyles to a limited degree in the endgaem. So maybe the best breastplate will come from raiding, the best weapon and greaves from grouping, and the best gloves from solo, the best shoulder pads from crafting, and the best jewelry from diplomacy (just an example). Thus they are planning on rewarding all playstyles in the endgame.
The Dev's have also stated that there will be enough Endgame content to assure that even if you don't Raid, you'd still be able to equip yourself several times over.
5. Will it take long to travel? Can I play with my Friends?
The journey to your destination should be challenging and fun. There will be content along the way. Horses and other means of faster transportation will also become available as characters become higher level and need to travel further. We sincerely believe there shuold be fun in "getting there".
So yes, travel times will be long, but they will be assisted to some degree by boats and mounts. If your friend are on a different continent and you are on oppossite sides of it then there are no systems for instant travel as you have seen in newer MMOs, and you may have to spend 15 minutes to an hour getting to one another (exact time estimates are based off of released dev information) depending on your mounts and distance from one another and the "getting there" challenges.
However, if you use the Fellowship system then you can stay together with close friends in level as well as in-game distance. I'll quote the FAQ on the Fellowship system here:
The general idea is that there are some people who have close friends they want to group with but also have different amounts of time they can commit to playing an MMOG. The Fellowship system is for these people to whom staying together is so important that they will sacrifice some of their own experience to give to these close friends so they *can* stay relatively together in terms of level. Bottom line for me is that as long as someone is earning the exp, I don't mind it shared in a controlled manner (e.g. mindful of potential exploits) and such that there's no 'free lunch'.
That said, I realize it's a controversial subject. We'll mess with it in beta and if it's something that just doesn't pan out, we'll pull it (though I have high hopes for it).
A group of friends would form a persistent social construct called a Fellowship. Then, say there were 3 in the Fellowship, but only 2 were logged on, a percentage of the exp earned by the 2 would go to the third such that his level was kept at or near his 2 friends. There's no free lunch, because the people online earning exp end up having to earn the exp for themselves and the offline person.
We plan on experimenting with this system.
Make your own decisions based on the game mechanics and not the rhetoric folks. This may be middle-ground enough for mainstream gamers to overlook some of the hardcore game mechanics, but they are certainly there and you shouldn't have to pay $50 to learn about them before quitting if the game isn't for you.
The game isn't out yet, so no one has spent $50 to learn these things. And by the time it is ready for sale, all here would have had the opprotunity to try the Open Beta.
I'll start my own SWG... with Black Jack... and Hookers!!! In fact, forget the SWG!!!! 
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