Interview with Brad McQuaid

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes interview with Brad McQuaid (Page 2 of 2)

Most raids will likely involve 20-30 people, but there really is no set number overall – it will vary by encounter and who the target audience for that encounter is. An encounter might be designed for a standard group size of 6 or 8, it may be a raid encounter for 20+, or it may be a very special event involving even more players. Defeating these encounters can trigger all sorts of things using our ‘flag’ system – it could change your faction standing, it could trigger events elsewhere, it could effect how other NPCs react to you later, either permanently or for a finite amount of time.

A combination of the above, really. There will be an Expansion Team post-launch that will be tasked with working on major new content that will likely be sold separately in stores as has been done traditionally with other MMOGs. We also like the idea of smaller ‘adventure packs’, although the details have yet to be worked out. Lastly, the Live Team will be responsible for adding and revising content in the existing world, with these updates coming for free and part of the regular patching process.

Ultimately, Vanguard is both an evolutionary and revolutionary game – a game built on a solid foundation of what we know makes MMOGs tick, what makes them compelling. We have seen that MMO players have enjoyed quick and easy games in recent years. However, we also know that a great number of players feel nostalgic about their experiences in classic games like EverQuest. We feel that in the attempt to make MMOGs quick and easy, recent games have inadvertently omitted two key elements: 1) opportunities for players to socialize and form lasting bonds with their group and 2) a deep and exciting sense of challenge.

With this in mind, our highly experienced team has learned that challenge and complexity need not go hand in hand with tedium. People who feel nostalgic about games like EverQuest will feel at home in Vanguard. However, we are also incorporating many new ideas, such as diplomacy and new group-specific combat features, all which we’re just not ready to reveal yet. Vanguard is really a hybrid MMOG with a classic foundation and brand-new, innovative gameplay.

Vanguard is also bound to be different from other MMOGs because our development team is arguably the most experienced MMOG team out there. Our group includes team members that designed and/or worked on the original EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, The Matrix Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, and more. With all of that expertise to draw from, we’re bound to set ourselves apart from the pack.

The Sigil team has worked on a variety of MMOGs, some of which built upon exiting technology (engines, tools, etc.), and some of which began by building everything from scratch. Our decision to use an existing engine and set of tools was based on these experiences. Frankly, these games are so huge and complex, we need all the time we can get making the game itself, not the tools and technology that sit underneath all of the neat features and functionality.

With the decision to build on existing tech made early on, we had a small list of engines to look at and consider. Unreal made the most sense for a variety of reasons: it’s very fast, it’s very modifiable, and its tools are very robust. Not only that, but our Director of Technology Ryan Elam already knew Tim Sweeny and having a pre-existing relationship there has really helped.

All of that said, we also knew going in that even licensing an engine and toolset would require a lot of additional work ourselves. We’ve had to build additional tools, for example our terrain tool, to help us make a vast seamless world. Also, we’ve heavily modified the Unreal engine in two major ways: First, we had to bring it up to the specific tech level needed for an MMOG, given how long it takes to develop these games and how long after launch they need to keep looking great. And second, to modify the different parts of the engine that needed to be MMOG specific, as opposed to first person shooter specific. So, we’ve got visual goodies like bump mapping, per pixel lighting, specular lighting, and HDR. But we also have an entirely new portal and level-of-detail technology allowing you to see for miles and miles on the ground as well as fly into the air to view entire cities without the framerate dropping to zero.

We’ve not set a release date other than to say it will be sometime this year, in 2006. We began beta testing in late 2005 and are currently in the first phase of Beta 2. The game is very playable right now with several thousand participants in the beta test. Adventuring is the most fleshed out, and our current focus is to balance and tweak that ‘sphere’ as well as bring the other gameplay spheres up to the same level of polish. Thestra, our more traditional European High Fantasy continent is completely online and accessible to players with content up to level 40+ (we plan on launching with a level 50 cap). Qalia and the archipelago of Kojan are next, still being polished up from an art and design standpoint and will be made accessible to testers in Beta 3. Overall, I am very pleased with our progress, but there’s still a lot of work left to do as well.

Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview. I would encourage those interesting in Vanguard to check out our website www.vanguardsoh.com, as well as our various affiliate/fan sites, where you can find detailed FAQs, lore and stories pertaining to the game, screenshots, concept art, very active forums, etc.

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