vanguard goes to pre order....again.....Follow

Old machine. AMD 3400+ 64 bit, 1gb ram, ancient 128mb Ge force that I'd rather not think about too much. Ran EQ2 like a dream (and that's why I bought it)2 years ago.

My hardware is right around the minimum specs for the game. I run on minimum settings and I can't do much. As for it being worse than the SoL engine, I suspect it is a similar engine. The character models are very much like well polished Luclin models (from what I can see on my low settings). Still, if I upgrade my system I wouldn't hesitate to buy this game. Like I said above, it feels like WoW (to which I am completely addicted) mixed with EQ (to which I was completely addicted). In short, it looks like the kind of thing I could get addicted to.

IIRC the people behind this are the same people who were bind some of the worst code for graphics engines in a game ever from EQ...
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in all fairness, when eq came out no one had ever experienced the type of sheer volume problems they faced. everything they did was ground breaking. they WERE the trial part of trial and error that the following games learned from.

yes, the graphics were quirky. yes the quests blew chunks for the most part with a few exceptions. yes they invented the words "rare spawn" and "rare drop", and even "rare drop from a rare spawn". the word "grind", all theirs. camping. theirs again. their most famous words were "nerf" and "nerf bat" however.

but they also did some things right. the vast world with intersecting and opposed factions. races all with their own flavor and starting area. they took "dungons" to a whole new level. a level that even today has never been matched, even with EQ2. classes that were all interesting.

and personally, i feel they took the game in the wrong direction by focusing on the powergamer crowed, something Blizzard clearly demonstraited to the world, but they had to pick a direction, and at the time, there was nothing to look at to help them make a decision as to which way to go. and no one can deny, without a doubt, the direction they took, they mastered. they created the best powergamer game on the market matched by none even today.

yes, they made some goofs. but they also opened the door that has brought mmorpgs to where it is today.

they have clearly demonstraited they can create. unfortunatly, vanguard is more about polishing existing mechanics and graphics than creating something new, but again, they have exponentially better tools to work with now because of EQ, and now they have a good idea as to what works and what doesnt. something they didnt have with EQ.

they can, and have, made a good, solid game. its just not targeted for my type of game play. its not targeted for the type of game play 5 million people in WoW enjoy. but it hits the mark for their target.

vanguard will not be a here today, gone tomarrow game like ShadowBane, Earth and Beyond, Sims online, Asherons Call 1 and 2, Horizons, and others. in its current form, hypothetically, it is already better than any of those. it is not ground breaking either, just better polished same ole same ole. it will not knock WoW off its throne mainly because it is not geared for that type of playstyle, but it will be here for awhile.

it WILL give us another choice. for that alone, i applaud them. choices are good.

you guys seem to be overly worried about system requirments. anything from a 3000 processor and up with cable or DSL will work fine as long as you have alot of memory on your graphics card and mother board. like i stated before, they deliver the graphics in layers. so the more memory you have, the more layers you can display at once. just buy last years latest and greatest video card for under 200 bucks, just make sure you get the 512 mb version.

its slated for launch at the end of janurary......so, what about putting together a guild for launch? there are no server names out yet, but we could start a web page and get it organized to the point all we have to do is pick a name when they are listed. i would be interested in an evil guild, and will nominate varus for guild leader.


Edited, Dec 13th 2006 2:57pm by shadowrelm

and like i said,

at the time, they didnt have alot to choose from. and once the game was made, they were stuck with it short of recalling and redistributing the entire game with a better engine.

so, they have been patching it and repatching it for the last 6 years. its why you have emergancy patches to fix their patches. EQ is stuck with it short of a total recall and redistribution. SOL graphics was a softwear patch that sat on top of their outdated patched to hell and back inferrior code they started with. it is all they can do short of a recall and redistribution.

when they made the game, they had no clue as to what type of problems would come up. they picked one and went with it.

Blizzard designed their game from the ground up for mass volume. its why the graphics look cartoonish as opposed to even EQ1 in its current state. they did it intentionally to get better frame rate with less band width. they gambeled people would be more interested in playability than picture perfect. they won. but how many of us playing WoW feel the game would be much better with a graphics upgrade?

with bandwidth, you cant have your cake and eat it too. EQ2 is a perfect example. picture perfect and laggy as hell depending on your settings. but what they did was layer the graphics so people who could afford a top end machine and cable could reap the rewards from their purchase and people who couldnt could still play.

vanguard did the same. they layered the graphics. its an imperfect solution for dealing with the current state of bandwidth. as technology expands and we can deliver more information with less congestion, EQ2 and Vanguard will reap the benifits, while WoW will still look cartoonish. but then, WoW is reaping the profits.......NOW......while EQ2 and Vanguard were investing in the future.

what would you do? if it is going to take 4 years to create a good game, the graphics engine you start with may very well be the latest and greatest state of the art system, but still be horribly outdated by the time you finnish the game. and how do you write a game and yet wait till its ready to launch to pick a graphics engine?

i dont begrudge them their choice.

EQ1,s graphics engine is archaic and patched to hell and back with layers and layers of outdated code. nothing they can do. they had to pick a point to start and they are stuck trying to squeeze lemonaid from a lemon.

Edited, Dec 13th 2006 3:27pm by shadowrelm

Good googly moogly! Reading shadowrelm's and then Singdall's posts one after another was like reading the extended text messages of two mildly retarded high school kids.

Mildly?

All I can say about Vanguard is that our programming resources are strained right now with BC coming out and we had to choose between doing a Vanguard site or a LOTRO site. It wasn't really a contest. We will have a LOTRO site and not a Vanguard site.

Too bad. Silkyvenom, TTH and a couple other fansites are pretty much completly dedicated to Vg already though, so there will be places.



Edited, Dec 26th 2006 2:51pm by Elinda

But where everyone will be playing will change back in another couple of months. It's the circle of gamer life.

I agree with Elinda on almost all points.

I would not get involved with this upon release, chances are, they still have a really long way to go to make this an enjoyable game worth paying for.

At least, that is the concensus of at least 2 beta testers that I know.


Edited, Dec 16th 2006 4:19am by BriallasMoney

Edited, Dec 16th 2006 4:23am by BriallasMoney

You forgot to insent your Vanguard Currency advertisement.

Fine, spelunking is the only thing EQ ever had on FF. Thank --- for pledging allegience to some other god of sense than me. Just don't drop the soap.

And yeah, there were a couple too few of us who thought of 401ks. 'Tis the season.