Sarrene
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1#
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Rank:none
Score:3241
Posts:3241
Registered:01/13/2003
Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:03/06/2007 2:17 PM)
The Spheres:
I must say that adveturing is a bit above par. It is no Oblivion or Morrowind, but then again, vanugard is a Multi player game, not a single player. Of course there will a difference. I love exploring and Vanguard gives this and more. When they say its a game you can go where you see, they are right! You can travel to almost any place you want to to go with the exception (though scheduale to change eventualy) swimming yourself across the ocean to another continent. IfI want to go to place, all I have to do is run or ride there and hope I do not meet up with some real baddies. There are places that are impossible for me to travel to because of the level of monsters in that area. Though at times it has not stopped me from trying.
One thing I realy like that does tgive it a little more feel of real time play is the lack of a cache for you to use your skills when in combat. Now I have seen some people complain of this, yet how the skills are set up, and the ability to posess both reactionary, rescue and defencisve skills depending on what happens in said battle, I think it is a lot better. If you were to be able to click a button three times and wait for those three turns to go by, you could pass up on one of many reactionary skills you have. It causes you to pay more attention to the actual battle, and for me, it draws me more into the games battles. Some of them have seemed epic and been close calls, but none the less, they have all been fun. One of the things I like is how they combined the standard level system with skill levels and experties. One can not only level in the traditional way, but also level up your skills and earn stat points. Points you earn can be placed in your adventuring atrabutes such as Strength, Dextarity and so on. The more you level something like weapon type, spell identification and more, you become more effeciant in your abilities. The more abilities you level the more atribute points you get to put in your character stats. There is a limit however to how many per level you are able to place in one stat. This is nice since it does prevent people from having never ending power, or hit points. Also a great way to help ballence out the classes.
Crafting is something I have done a lot over the years since it was introduced way back when. To be able to level and make things on my own has always been fun. In vanguard, the developers have created a crafting system that is not as boring as most games out there. Myself, I think its one of the best there is. First thing is the lessening of repeated clicks that tend to go like this: "click, wait.... click, wait... click, wait..." and repeate a thousand time over and over. Most games I have been in, I have been able to read a book, watch a movie, or even write a book while I craft. And, most importantly, not fall behind. In Vanguard you have to pay attention to what you are doing. With them adding in the complications and being able to choose what you want to do to remidy the complication is a plus. As you level in your craft you get more options for both process and complications, drawing you into the crafting sphere. Even if you do not want it to. At times it is difficult to make something and can be quite frustraiting. However they have something for that also. You can step back and make something easer for a bit untill you have the experience in that item and your skills level up. Yes, each craft has a series of skills you can level such as Leather working and Cloth working. There is even Tool use and Problem Solving you can work on leveling along with your actualy crafting level. In addition, just like in adventuring, you can also earn points to put into your stats for crafting after you reach level 10.
Harvesting is just as fun. The nice thing is you are not forced into one form or anther of harvesting skills. You have two you can choose from, Primary and Secondary. So even if you are an Outfitter Tailor, you can choose to harvest metals and gems if you so wish it. Yet the customization does not end there. If for some reasion you are wish to change your harvesting skills you can. Just go back to the Harvesting NPC you first did the intro quests for and select that you wish to change them. And the process will begin again. So if said Outfitter decided that she/he needs more leather and cloth then what they are able to get, they can change from Quaring and Mining to Skinning and Reaping.
Diplomacy is something I have not had much experience at all since the game went live. A lot has changed since early days of beta, but from what I have experienced and heard from others, it can be very rewarding and fun. Diplomacy now is more like a card game. Its stragity more then dialog. Though the dialog can be fun to read at times. A lot of the time if you are on a quest the dialog reflects what you are trying to accomplish. However if you are just doing the random Parlay (Diplomancy Dialog) you can end up with some funny remarks. I was once told in the middle of a Parlay about the guards that my "Fresh bread smells good". Main thing though if you wish to win and do not care about the actual dialog, is to pay attention to what that npc specailises in, what is avalible and what the numbers are. Watching the bar that is on the right hand side, where the numbers are at and in whos favor can be real handy when choosing your next move.
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The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. -Ayn Rand
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Sarrene
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2#
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Rank:none
Score:3241
Posts:3241
Registered:01/13/2003
Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:03/06/2007 2:18 PM)
Bugs and buggers:
To start on this topic, I realy miss the old hair and face styles we recieved a snippet of. I was realy hoping once the game went live we would have all those pretty eye candy models once the game went live. We did not. That is realy my only gripe I have with the graphics. We got to see a lot, and my Dark Elf realy wants her braids back. Braids, long hair, short hair... The amount of graphics we had seen durring the beta process was amazing. Some were better then others, but it offered more of a choice per race if we could see them all back in at once. Or perhaps new ones, different ones added in. Anything to give us players more of a unique feel for our little exptensions of ourselves in this virtual world.
From an artists point of view, I do see that there are images that were not done using MIP map in their dds files. This can cause the appearance of static items "popping" into view. I am not 100% sure if this is true, though in game play it does seem to be. The reasion for using a MIP map in images is for the reasion of being able to view the item from a distance and still feel as if you are getting "closer" to it. This format of the skins can be used on everything from rocks, buildings or even the characters. I think they have most in, yet some images may not be complete. This could be from a veriety of reasions. Perhaps different teams, new beginers, or they were done, just not scripted to show the MIP image from a "distance".
Below is an image of a book using the U3 engin. I just saved it in jpg so that I could give an example of what a MIP map looks like.
Quest bugs or broken quests seems to be a theme that a lot of people have had to face. I have not yet experienced one that was broken yet. There was one that was so vague it seemed as if it were broken, though I do know that that is not the case in all of these reported broken quests. Only one possibility. Quests are the same thing as animations. There are scripts for them, and at times these scripts can conflict, expecialy as new ones are added into the equation. They may have worked on the test servers, but untill they are releaced into the general public, it is never a 100% promis they will work for everyone. Yes, even your own race can cause a working quest to be broken. Accounting for not only the normal scripts of previous requirements, level requirements, and more, we also have the new factor of faction in this equation. This has made it difficult for the developers as well as the players. I am glad however that they have put in the option to abandon a quest for those that find the "broken" ones. This is also a very good time to remind people to /bug any quests broken with all the information they can give. Account name, in game location (type /loc and give them the exact numbers and cell/chunk that is listed), NPC/Quest Giver, Quest and step of the quest you are on.
Issues of Latency seem to be wide spread. Just as wide spread as the type of systems that people have and their set ups. I do know however that this is a game that sends and recieves a LOT more information then most out there. Since most of the information we recieve is server side, that will increase the potential for latency. The tarm Lag means just that: Latency. A slowdown or stoppage of information from either the server or your computer to your monitor. It effects all of at from time to time, and in Vanguard it seems that this is even more of an issue then other games out there right now.
There are three different forms of latency that causes lag. Server side, Connection and system.
System:The actual images produced in the game are all rendered on your system. This is affected by your video card, ram and to a lesser extent your cpu. The data sent and received is actually just a bunch of numbers. These numbers will tell your video card what object are where and the video card does the rendering. This is why you can still play with a modem on 56k if your system is good. You will experience some "Lag" in heavely populated areas, but usualy tend to be okay over all.
There are also the issues of what is running on your system at the same time. If you have things such as virus scaners running or many of the default OS services running, you can experience lag that way. The more you have running on your system the more memory and processer resorces it will take, leaving less for your system to process the game images and other information that come from your files or in packets. To note, most serives do not show up in the task manager. Even when they are running. This will however show you the number of processes that are running on your system. Just not what ones. The best way to see what is going on is by going into your controle pannel\Administrative Tools\Services. You can then check to see what is running, or "Started" and what is not. You are also able to turn them on or off as you see fit, and change these services to run Automaticly, Manualy or Disabled. Befor you change any of these however, do make sure you check a reliable os Service guide to see what is safe to turn off and what is not. Some processes/services are neede to run to connect to the internet, to print from a printer or even start your systems OS and keep it running. A good site for this is One Computer Guy Here. He used to work for Cnet befor starting his own company.
Another factor that can cause latency is your connection between your ISP's servers and your computer. The more common issues are people running firewalls, usualy Microsofts default. This will limit the amount and size of packets being recieved to your computer to process at once. I am not saying to turn them off if you do not want to. Most Firewalls are able to be set to accept any size/amount of packets from certon sites or through specific programs. Check to make sure you have Vanguard/Sony set as such. For myself, I always turn off Microsofts firewall, as it does not realy prevent much from getting in. At leat anything from anyone that knows about backdoors in OS's, expecialy Microsoft. They are riddled with backdoors, expecialy if you do not have it updated on a regular basis. Firewalls also will not prevent you from getting viruses, that is what a virus protection program (Perferable are Trend Micro or AVG- Do not run or use two different virus scans, this can cause additional errors and needless updates to each. Virus scans scan for certon algorithms and scripts, both of which are in each Virus scan programs as a list of what to look for. This can also cause needless CPU and Mem usage, causing latency/lag to happen more often and more sevier.)
Server side latency and memory leaks we cannot do anything about. Server side latency is when the server itself chokes up, if you will. A prime example is when there are serveral people in one area, the server struggles to process that information and sends it to your computer. This will appear as a halt then rush of information at once, and can even increase on your side depending on your system and isp. Memory leaks, we have all heard about this, is where the code for the client and platform / engine of the game is not optimised yet or correctly. To give the benifit of the doubt here, at times it can be cause by one of those dreaded script conflicts. Memory leaks though happens when the information is not sent out with the code (or processable code) to clear your memory of previous information. In stead it stores that information in addition to anything else you main aquire. So lets say you are in a region where there is this error happening. Your memory will save this information in "storage" using up resorces, even when you leave that area. So you end up with the old information you do not need now, along with the new information of where your character is at now. Let us say you were in Veskals Excange in Thestra. You leave that area and head on to the next region to the east. Now intead of that information being flushed from your active game process, it is still holding onto that as well as this new area you are in.
This can be a bugger for sure! Expecialy if you have low memory. This however is being worked on, though like most things, it has to be done one area at a time. One bit at a time and tested to make sure there are no more conflicts in script, that it is optimised to dump the old information and tested. Once that is "approved" then they an go on to another area of where the memory leaks are occuring. I have seen changes in areas where at one time there were these leaks, and now they are none. I hope in time for everyone that enjoys Vanguard they will be able to tackle each and every place this is happening to.
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The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. -Ayn Rand
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Sarrene
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3#
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Rank:none
Score:3241
Posts:3241
Registered:01/13/2003
Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:03/06/2007 2:19 PM)
Sigil and Staff:
Over all the games and game companies out there, I was surprised at the communication, support and dedication that the Sigil Team has. I know others that work for gaming companies and I must say that I am still impressed. Despite the bugs and the delays and even the too early releace, the team has continued to improve and fix what is needed. At times, it does take a bit, yet that is the cost of prioritising the issues. There is no way to get around this. Unless they were able to afford a many man team for each and every sectin of game development, there needs to be priorities set.
Developing a game is no easy matter. It takes a lot of work in many areas to get something up that even resembles a game. Graphics and 3D rendering, the scripts for those graphics and animations. The tags for the scripts and what will work with what. The modification of the engin and platform and making sure (again) that those scripts listed above work and do not conflict with others. Each graphic you see in a game needs to have its own script. When you change armor, it does not go "over" your body (in most cases still), it replaces the old one you put on. So there needs to be the scripts for each of those as well as tags. Dialogs are also a funny thing. You have to make sure you have each dialog for each person tag'ed correctly and that there are no conflicts with current dialog or scripts in the rest of the game. One Little Boo-Boo can cause almost anything to happen. And it is all unforseen. Most of the time, it may look good or even perfect on "paper" however only way to tell for sure is to put it into use. Testing on an internal server is one thing. That can help with finding the more apparent bugs and conflicts. Yet the only true way to see if that new item/script/animation/skin works is by testing it out on the masses. So many things can and will go wrong. We have all seen this. However, despite the set backs, Sigil Developing team has done a great job. I am amazed at what I see now just a few weeks past Launch in conparison to what I had seen the week befor releace.
All in all, a true mmo game, expecaily a role play game, is never realy done being developed. If it were then the game would become stagnant and no longer fun to play. I hope that the Sigil Team keeps up the attentivness to their game and continues to work on the bugs and patches as they have in the last month.
Recap and compairison:
To recap, the game has bugs in it, yes. However the game is also a perfect game for me and many that are like me. I do not think its about performance on a whole, though I know that depending on how you have your system set up and what you have it in can make a huge difference, it is more about preference. I think with a game such as Vanguard you will either like it or not based on the style of game play. I do not think it is too easy nor too hard.
I have played games that were on both ends of the spectrums from launch. DAoC was very difficult in some ways, even with out any real death penelty or corps runs. When TOA came out, I remember Master Level 3 taking over 10 hours to complete. Of course that was way back when. To level from 1 to 50 took close to 9 months. Some people did not even get their first 50 untill after a year. Now there is a rush to get there in a day or two, and that is not that difficult.
World of Warcraft was one that did not hold my intrest. Some of the reasions were personal and I shall not get into those. The main reasion however is that it was not my style of game. Blizzard North and Vivendi Universal Games did an excellent job at making an average sized game world, coupled with the ease and fast pased fun that many people enjoy. Their marketing was just amazing coupled with the already widely known name of Blizzard associated with Diablo2, Starcraft and Warcraft. And with Vivendi Universal Games, their parent company, they also had the money for the marketing.
Game play was fast paced, and made it easy to make max level solo or with friends depending on your own play style or even time. Vanguard has the ability to have that fast pace as well, in some areas of the game. It also seems as if some classes in Vanguard are more easily able to do the solo aspect of the game, while others are more group orientated over all. Mind you this is over all game play, not set as a whole. Any class can solo, though for some it can be more of a struggle and challenge then others.
EverQuest 1 and 2 is where i see a lot of simularites in character models. I wonder why? Of course, the influence that the creators and the original Sigil team had on these two games is very apprent. What else is apprent is how Brad and Crew are able to show their independance in Vanguard where as they were not able to in the Everquest series. I am glad that they were able to stay an independant company, and only partner up with Sony to handle the publishing and servers.
I can go on with other games that I have or still do play such as Eve, 9Dragons (befor they scrapped that one) NeverWinter Nights, Ultima Online, Horizons and more. I see things in Vanguard from all these game, and I see unique aspects as well from gameplay to grahics. For myself it is a very nice game, a good game that has potential to become even beter. Yes, I think its a good game now. Of course, that is just my own personal opinion, and each of us has our own while neither being right or wrong. Its all about interpetation.
Over all, I think this is a great game already, despite the bugs and buggers in it. The reasions are the fun it posesses now, the support from Sigil staff and the constant updates we are getting since it has gone live. I love the look and feel of the game, and has a little of everything in it for most of us addicted gamers. Now about that 12 step program:
Grant us the serenity to accept the bugs we cannot change,
the courage to finish the quests we can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
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The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. -Ayn Rand
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Wildhighlander
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4#
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Rank:none
Score:613
Posts:613
Registered:01/13/2003
Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:03/06/2007 3:23 PM)
long but funny, a good review for vanguard
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What does it matter it"s in the past...(Rafiki from the lion king)
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