Vanguard stuff

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » May 5, 2004, 2:08 pm

Brad's Latest

I originally posted this on Vanguardlive.com

It's probably already been referenced here, but it's detailed enough that I wanted to make sure the community that resides here saw it as well, as it's a pretty detailed summary relative to what we can say now about the game (or at least I think it is ), and it is something that's important in that many MMOG players are both worried about games being too easy, but also just as worried that challenging means tedious.

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The game is going to be challenging.

The game is going to focus on character advancement, item acquisition, and interdependence to build community and teamwork.

If I had to compare it to another game, take original EQ, Kunark, and Velious -- that sort of challenge.

But, yeah, here comes the disclaimer of sorts.

One of our big goals is bring back the challenge we feel is being abandoned in MMOGs as of late, but without a lot of the tedium. We want travel to be fun, and there to not be a lot of teleporting around. We want exploration to be key and for you feel compelled and then rewarded for exploring and traveling.

We really don't want camping, where you sit in one spot waiting for a spawn. We have plans to have our encounter system strongly encouraging moving around, 'doing' a dungeon. We want to have cool vehicles, whether they be horses that you can equip and also use for storage that help you move across land; we want you to own ships and sail the oceans, but not empty oceans -- oceans filled with content as well -- sea monsters, pirates, and lots of little islands en route to your destination.

Additionally we will have areas that are more geared for one of the categories: casual, group, and raid. The casual areas require less of a contiguous time commitment and you don't need a full group. The grouping areas, well, require you to group. Think classic, old school grouping. Then the raid areas, well that's pretty obvious.

Both risk and reward will be present, however, so one shouldn't expect to see as much of a reward in a casual area vs. a group area. It's something to do when you have less time, and it should be fun, but you're not going to get the fiery scimitar of ultimate doom in a casual region.

Also, our crafting system is there and arguably just as important as the adventuring side of things. So if your buddies aren't on one evening yet you still want to play, you could go and hone your crafting skills, and then return to adventuring the next evening when the guild logs on and off you go.

The interface and character class selection is also somewhat newbie oriented if you want it to be. We don't want to beat the noob over the head with all the depth and detail of the game right off the bat. It's intimidating. So if you choose the noob path to character creation, expected to be gently led into the UI, the gameplay, etc.

Basically, we want to remove as much tedium as possible, as well as barriers to entry. But, and this is key, we strongly feel this is NOT mutually exclusive with making a darn hard and challenging game. Battles will be tough. NPC AI will be smart. Lots of group tactics will be used, with even more collaboration then you've probably seen before, and an even more visceral feel.

Dungeon crawls will be back, and those who risk the depths of these nasty areas and return alive will most likely have some pretty awesome loot.

Death will have a sting, and it's mostly classic corpse retrieval with a few variations like we'll make it easier to find your corpse, yet you'll still have to fight to it. Also, corpses will never truly deteriorate as long as a certain amount of loot is on the corpse. And, the way the game is designed, you are expected and will need by a certain level to start putting together multiple sets of armor (gets into situational stuff that I can't talk a lot about now). In any case, the old 'gotta head back into the dungeon naked to my corpse' should pretty much go away, as you will have spare/alternate set(s) of equipment relatively nearby.

Anyway, tough, yes. Rewarding, yes. Challenging, yes. Tedious, hopefully no. Camping, minimized the best we can. Travel, fun and dangerous in and of itself. Needing to group and work with others to really advance optimally and get the phat lewtz, yes.

YES he said they are gonna have freakin PIRATES! YARRRRRRRRR!

Janx · Post by **Janx** » May 5, 2004, 2:38 pm

Even better would be if you could pick pirate as a class

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » May 5, 2004, 2:58 pm

so basically this is going to be eq 1.5?

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » May 5, 2004, 3:59 pm

I think he's just building an EQ server emulator and running EQ/Kunark/Velious

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 5, 2004, 4:08 pm

...it should be fun, but you're not going to get the fiery scimitar of ultimate doom in a casual region.

As long as you wear a condom, that is.

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » May 13, 2004, 3:53 am

http://vanguard.ogaming.com/

Hrmmm WOWZERS

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » May 13, 2004, 5:33 am

Graphic style looks a lot like EQ2.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » May 13, 2004, 10:38 am

The thought of another EQ type game really doesn't sound very appealing. I will withhold judgement though until it gets a little closer to release.

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » May 13, 2004, 11:26 am

Keverian FireCry wrote:Graphic style looks a lot like EQ2.

Personally I find the graphics to look much less like toy story 1 then EQ2 does (I think the boss in the 2nd expansion for EQ2 is gonna be Sid). They do remind me of lineage without the panty shots, toss in actual content with that and we may have a game

masteen · Post by **masteen** » May 13, 2004, 2:46 pm

Mmmm... panty shots and jiggle-jiggle. Adding those into a game that's more than just a mindless grind would be AWESOME!