This seems very interesting to me.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/vanguard/preview_6123602.html


abilities will be governed by particular combat "stances," which characters of all classes will be able to take. By taking an offensive stance, warriors can dish out more damage and have access to offensive skills; similarly, by taking a stance that focuses on a specific school of magic, sorcerers will have access to those particular spells. Higher-level characters may be able to keep more than one stance active, which should add even more tactical depth to combat.



While the dungeon we explored seemed huge (and appropriately infested with giant scorpions, kobolds, mummies, and other walking dead), it, like other content in Vanguard, will not be "instanced." That is, unlike many recent massively multiplayer games, Vanguard will not have closed-off areas that are generated only for specific characters (instanced content has been used as a way to prevent overcrowding by creating duplicate zones for players to explore). So, to prevent overcrowding and competition for existing monsters and loot, Vanguard will have an "advanced encounter" system keyed off of monster loot. Essentially, while all dungeons will have wandering monsters that will let casual hunters get in a few fights, some monsters will drop encounter-specific items, such as a bracer, which, when equipped, will spawn all-new monsters along an "encounter route." These monsters may be targeted only by the party that possesses the item, so these adventuring parties will have no shortage of enemies to fight and won't have to worry about other players stealing them away. Once an adventuring party has such an item, it will be lead along an encounter route by a series of onscreen clues that will continuously bring the group into contact with more encounter-generated enemies that only they may fight, leading up to the climactic end of the dungeon's quest.

Sounds interesting, and I for one welcome the death of instanced encounters...

Fandros

Only thing I'm not fond of are their character models. They look....too realistic or something. It's a fantasy game make the elves look like elves and not like humans with pointy ears.....they remind me of spock.

I do like the flora and fauna details they blow me away but go the characters yelch.

I like Realism and am having high hopes for this game to.. though is there a story behind vanguard? I guess I dontknow anything about it.. like was it a old single player game or something?

I don't know Shamzy =\
Does it have to have a "history" in order for you to play it? lol

I dunno if I'm looking forward to this or not. WoW was great but I didn't have time for both EQ and WoW and...well EQ won out.

It looks interesting though. I like their spin on the instance thing.

I just haven't been able to get excited about Vanguard yet, Brad Mc Quaid and all; I think it has to do with 1) my extreme loathing of Microsoft and refusal to give them a dime of my money; and 2) that I haven't heard anything, lore wise or otherwise, to peak my interest in a new game. WoW I got into because it was a well-developed, thematically contiguous world with some cute and tongue-in-cheek, lore behind it, and really captivating from the moment you logged in; everything I've seen/read about Vanguard has felt very dry and abstract so far. Time will tell if they can come up with a decent thematic hook for this new world, game mechanics alone won't be enough to hold my interest...

Regards,
Nydia

no its called Curiuosity.

WOW was created from the popularity of its WOW single player games so was just curiuos if Vanguard has some kind of a fan base or if its a totally new idea.

Personally I found the lore in WoW rather lacking. The imersion factor of EQ2 far trumps WoW. But honestly I'm more a hack-n-slash, quests are ok sometimes but I find more fun in grouping with friends and killing big-mean-nasty mobs all while chittering away in TeamSpeak. WoW felt too solo to me, not to mention to0 easy. Of course opinions are like assholes we all have one.

Vanguard appeals to me b/c it has some of the EQ1 devs, the combat system sounds interesting and like Fandros I am looking forward to non-instanced zones again. One of my gripes about EQ2 is that there is no PoK or PoT where people just mingle and all of the zones are instanced except the cities, but b/c there are so many villages people are too spread out. Perhaps.....in the expansion when PvP comes people will mill about the arenas who knows.

I heard the developers for Vanguard are some of the orginal developers of EQ1?
Is that true?

I am with you Fandros, I do not mind seeing a death to instanced encounters either. :)

Only thing I'm not fond of are their character models. They look....too realistic or something. It's a fantasy game make the elves look like elves and not like humans with pointy ears.....they remind me of spock.

I do like the flora and fauna details they blow me away but go the characters yelch.

This comment coming from an EQ2 junkie. Talk about crap character models. Jeez.

I don't know. I kind of get some excitement when I hear the game is made by Brad McQuaid. Despite some moronic game play decisions he's made, he's made me a happier customer when he was in control of EverQuest. I thought I was really immersed into the game. Remember when you had to find teleports? Okay, sure that sucked, but it sucks even more finding it harder and harder to get teleports in EQ now, where you just talk to yourself and don't really socialize.

EQ had a social factor when McQuaid made the game. I don't mean to say he's perfect, but I think he's the right man for the job. It's like hearing Spielberg is directing the next big movie hit. I haven't seen one weak Spielberg movie (A.I. was the closest to being the weakest, but it would have been strong without the alien ending). McQuaid is a master when it comes to story design. The epic quests were invented by his dev. crew.

So I have full confidence he will make an entertaining game. With Microsoft's funding, he will have more resources than he will ever want. I'm sure he can write another story. The lore is plentiful. And besides, don't all RPGs get their roots from Tolkien's verbose works?

This comment coming from an EQ2 junkie. Talk about crap character models. Jeez.

I for one like the EQ2 models.

who has more power/technology in there grasp? Microsoft or Sony.. Micro's technology is for the most part created by other companies first right?

Of course Microsoft has [bought more technology/made more hostile takeovers/assimilated/forcefully competed/monopolized] more than Sony! They own teh intarweb!

I expect them to make a good game.

like you said they have BOUGHt more technology.. for the most part sony is one of the leading innovators when it comes to technology.. So I personally think that gives them a little edge when it comes to who has the better ability ot make a game.

The proof will be in the pudding.

The fact is, the distributor is irrelevant. Sony and Microsoft are publishers, so they do not directly develop the game. Sony Online Entertainment is not exactly Sony Computer Entertainment either.

Sigil is only receiving capital from Microsoft. They might have access to the Windows and DirectX source code and access to the Unreal game engine, but other than that, Sigil is not directly supported by Microsoft other than financial needs.

Microsoft Components.. Sony Components... ALL MADE A TAIWAN!

Mmm... China mostly now.

Microsoft Components.. Sony Components... ALL MADE A TAIWAN!

Let me guess, this is the point when you start hammering the components to save us all and to become a true Russian hero right?

Personally, I look back, and I don't remember being so immersed in a game since early Everquest. You could totally tell when McQuaid dropped off of the Everquest scene (Hi2u SoL). For me, nothing has compared to the excitement and fun that Kunark and Velious once were. I gladly welcome someone trying to recreate that.

I think being funded my microsoft is kinda humorous and ironic, but I'm hoping this results in server stability to top that of every game in the past if nothing else. That would make me very happy.

Coming from a horde perspective on WoW, I appreciate what Blizzard tried to do. It all looked good on paper, but when it comes down to it, its nearly impossible to balance factions, as you can see on just about every PvE server. While PvP servers remain fairly balanced, PvE servers almost exclusively if not totally all tip in the direction of alliance, by quite a margin in most of them. While for the sake of PvP it certainly sucks, its a PvE server and that shouldn't be the focus. However, when one side has a much smaller population, it really puts a damper on guild recruitment, and finding the good people you really want to spend time with.

Personally, I can't wait for Vanguard due to removing this feature, along with instancing. EQ was the most fun for me when there were races for Tormax and being able to LFG in a zone you wanted to kill in. I am putting a lot of faith in Sigil, but I think if anyone can pull it off, its someone who's been there/done that before.

I've been following this games progress for sometime. as Rybit has said there is a lot of good lore behind the game, that and they are trying to intergrate the game around lore as much as possible.

That and the fact that the dev's are involved and interacting with the community on a daily basis is something i find quite refreshing. Brad posts and answers questions on an almost daily basis.
one thing that i've liked hearing is how proud they are of what they accomplished with EQ and the fact that they admit it was'nt perfect by any means. giving that experiance is a good basis to design a game from the ground up. knowing what worked well and what did'nt.
Even if VSoH can only deliver on 60% of what their proposing this will still be the best game released since EQ came down the pike.
E3 is coming and there's been a ton of new info released already, i'm betting E3 is where the hype machine goes full swing.

Also Sigil has made it plain that they do not support or condone IGE/****** type operations in any way and have promised to fight them tooth and nail.
That alone has earned them the 50-60$ bucks i'll have to plunk down on release.

I dunno if I'm looking forward to this or not. WoW was great but I didn't have time for both EQ and WoW and...well EQ won out.

It looks interesting though. I like their spin on the instance thing.


WoW is a blast, as a diversion from EQ. But, I don't feel it has anything close to the depth of EQ, and so it will remain a diversion, albeit a very fun one at times. It is nice to be able to go and accomplish something in an hour rather than sit looking for a group in EQ for that same hour sometimes.

I must admit the screens give a nice impression of the potential of the game, and I also like the approach to instanced/open zones.

I am totaly shocked you understood what that was from Sumam :)

I think most people confuse the quality of McQuaid era EQ with the fact that they were experiencing the genre for the first time. I predict he'll have a very hard time repeating that level of success now that we're all e-jaded, there's huge competition, and everyone's multiboxing a race to the level cap on release day.

Personally I found the lore in WoW rather lacking.

Are you kidding? Other than the 10 Novels out regarding the Warcraft universe, there were also 5 games each with 2-4 different storylines to follow. Not to mention that EVERY quest in WoW is "go and do this because ..." instead of "go kill 10 X" which is the main basis behind most EQ2 quests and events.

Keep in mind this is coming from someone who wrote a good deal of the Everquest lore between the release of the Plane of Hate up until Luclin.

*edit -- forgot to actually discuss Vanguard :)*

I'm excited just because its something new on the horizon. The concepts coming out of there, especially the way to deal with instancing and a lot of the elements regarding the conflict between players (fights for spawns) haven't been watered down the way all the other games have been dealing with them. More competition, especially good competition and not Matrix Online or anything stupid like that, strengthens the industry as a whole.

I am totaly shocked you understood what that was from Sumam :)

Eh, maybe one day I will use my brain to store useful information instead of remembering every single quote from movies I saw just once.:(


Now to contribute something to the topic as well:

I don't really know how to feel about their non-instanced but non-competitive system...it feels like if it was a mutation of EQ2's locked encounter with a spin.

Most people (at least the sane ones) hate instancing because both EQ and WoW implementation (basically the same) is just troublesome. There are arbitrary limits, like the group size, instance duration etc etc, adding people can be problematic...stuff like that.

I don't think folks who enjoy the pve style pvp (racing for spawns JUST to beat the rival guild/group) will be satisfied by Vanguard's system either. How will they show off their e-penis when there is nothing to race for because the system spawns mobs for each group which are not attackable by others?

This whole idea is just to make the game to seem like more realistic, there are adventurers fighting alongside you, there are distant shouts of battle and cries for help.
Thus you can interact with the rest of the community while you are in Vanguard's "instance", just like you can chat with friends in the gym while working out instead of just working out at home and showing off your new muscles once in a while like a real life magelo sig.


EDIT, oh almost forgot, I hated the "golden era" of EQ with passion and do believe that EQ became better at the later half of Velious / early Luclin.

Brad can stick his "vision" high up where the sun doesn't shine. It was really stupid not to be able to land a single spell on raid mobs during Kunark/Velious as a necro.

You can argue that SOE killed EQ with PoP/GoD or whatever but for me the golden era of EQ was not during Verant.
Maybe if I played holy trinity back then then I would feel different. Unfortunately I only came to my senses during PoP and switched to cleric from necro.

If you take a look at the list of Devs for Vanguard it reads like a veritable "Dream Team". Not only do you have Brad, but you have people like Kendrick (who debatably made 5/10 best quests in EQ pre SoL) and T.King is doing the UI art, and Keith Parkinson for artwork, and many many more names that were people who did some great work.

Edit:
Poor Necro's they were only the best soloers by 1000% for the first year of the game. How many other classes could solo the Alliswiasaur at level 48?

Assault on dead horse with a thousand billy clubs commencing in 5...4...3...2...

Poor Necro's they were only the best soloers by 1000% for the first year of the game. How many other classes could solo the Alliswiasaur at level 48?

Omigosh, soloing the dino....yea right, like that has anything to do with the fact that for 30-something Dain raids I had to sit back and watch because not a single spell of mine landed on anything in that icehole.
Same thing with almost every other boss mob Verant ever made, especially in Kunark.

I almost got an orgasm when Luclin bought melee immune mobs, man that was fun. I would have cheered on slow mitigation too but unfortunately by that time I was a full time cleric thus it just meant more mana wasted and that canceled the effect of seeing the once-all-powerful-solo-and-raid class, the shaman nerfed to hell.

Oh well, looks like this discussion is heading to the old "shuttup you can solo so it's balanced!" direction, which is quite frankly a little old after 4.5 years of EQ and seeing both sides of the coin.

So just forget that I ever posted.

Assault on dead horse begun!

http://www.cox-internet.com/dogood/images/horse.gif


Fil

Lol Thormir I swear to god I didn't see your post before mine, sneaky! :D

Bwa ha! =)

Personally, I really like the non-instanced encounter idea myself. I kind of wish they would take out the part where you cant compete for mobs, or KS or what ever.


I had a love/hate situation going on in the old eq days with the jerks that would KS a mob.. I hated it, but the drama it caused fired me up more in the game than anything else. Since I dont like regular PvP, I find the competition and e-penis contests to be quite entertaining. Racing RIP to the AoW was a RUSH! (a rush that always ended in defeat for me it seemed!) I loved to hate those guys. I loved coming to this board and getting to read actual Nags about how evil guild-X was to guild-Y, and how guild-EW looked down thier nose at both of the other guilds performance.

As frustrating as it was in the old days to have to compete for Mobs,,, it was nowhere near as frustrating to me as it is now never to see any drama deeper than guildhopping.

Instanced encounters were always done in FFXI long before this was announced.

I think the real enjoyment I got out of EQ and such left with the advent of instancing. Toned down the game to such a point that supposedly everyone could enjoy the content. However it's interesting to note that it's still a small amount of folks that actually see end game content during the expansions halflife eh?

Was great when we would race the likes of DW to a dragon, or when IVM tried ogre blockade to keep us from the emp. Or the game strategies of CB or IVM to try and run end arounds on us to get to a mob ( ie IVM skipping VT in hopes of making up lost ground, or Cb's Gandien flat out lying to a GM to screw us out of a mob) That type of passion and competition made the game great imho.

If EQ was to dump instancing immediately, it would likely stay around longer. As it is most folks find it hard to fire up for it...

Fandros

I think back during Kunark and Velious, when there weren't that many people at the high end, the competition made things more fun. Luclin kind of threw a wrench in all of that, though, I think. You're more likely to think highly of the competitive element when you're at the top of the food chain. I think what annoyed me most was how IvM didn't have much of a shot at anything until EW was getting done with it, and then shortly after that LS would start farming the shit out of it and we'd never see it again. I felt even worse for CB.

However, I definitely won't deny that it made things more interesting. =p The IvM vs. EW and CB vs. LS drama was pretty entertaining.

/agree Rol


Fandros

Roliel... ya gotta admit that Luclin was really good to LS....