Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Thinking of giving it a try
Bane82
Member UncommonPosts: 1,242
Ok folks, I've been following Vanguard a bit, and I'll admit, I'm SOMEWHAT interested in giving this a try, especially after seeing a "fan-made" you tube trailer that described some of the aspects of vanguard.
First of all, I am a WoW player and I enjoy the game, a lot, so if you expect me to come here and bash WoW or make comparisons, or talk about how I'm so utterly bored and need something bla bla blah, then you can go and ****** it, because you won't get the satisfaction from me. I don't take too kindly to people that make utterly inane comments about a game just because their precious game didn't become as popular as WoW. Those arguments are best left for children.
So I'm sure you're asking yourself, if I enjoy WoW, then what am I doing here? As I said, I am SOMEWHAT intrigued with the mechanics of Vanguard, and I'm interested in giving it a try, but I am not about to toss money into a game for a month just to quit afterwards, I did that before with a lot of MMO's and I'm not about to do it again, sorry, but if I have to choose between a game and having enough gas to go to work next week, I choose gas. So, before I decide whether I want to spend money, I wanted to ask if Vanguard has any sort of free trials going on in which I can download the game so that I can give it a go.
Added Note: I do have my concerns about VG simply for the fact that SOE is behind it and considering what they've doen to SWG and EQ2, I have my reservations and hence why I may sound a little rude right now. Fact is, I'm trying to make sure I don't get suckered the way I got suckered with EQ2 and SWG.
Another Added Note: If you're a fanboi, please don't reply, I'm not looking for hyped up opinions, I'm looking for HONEST and OBJECTIVE opinions. Sorry again for sounding rude, but again, I'm just trying to make sure I don't get burned.
Comments
There is no 'free trial' as such, like there is with WoW, EVE, EQ2 etc,
but there is a 10-day buddy key system, and there will be plenty of those floating around I would have thought.
When you buy the game (which should only be about $10 at your local store) you get 30 free days anyway.
----------------
Hello!
if it's only for $10 for the box, I might give it a shot, but if it's over $20, for the box, I'll skip it. Thanks
I recommend shopping around.
places like amazon don't do good deals, but if you have a local shop then you may be in look . I got it for £8, which is about $12.
----------------
Hello!
You probably just want to wait a couple months till GU6 is out.
Hard to say if you would like this if you are pretty happy with wow. This game is not very wow like in my opinion. Definitely not as polished or bug free. Can be irritating running into quests that don't work properly or other types of somewhat minor issues. Most of the huge issues seem to be gone but there are still little ones in abundance. It is easy to pick VG apart if you want to focus on bugs. Most however are frustrating from time to time and can be worked around. That said VG has become fun and enjoyable.
That aside VG seems to have two advancement paths. There is a strong solo game where you can do solo quests and progress quite well. This works sell and is fun. There is also a much stronger group element then wow where you can explore some really amazing dungeons but not like the ones in wow that tend to be rather scripted and linear. These tend to be larger and deeper with a variety of quests but far less directed feeling. On the negative side it is far easier to be lost in vanguard dungeons and not sure what to do. You kinda gotta enjoy just working through them and generally exploring. They feel quite different then wow. Some people might like it some might not.
And as you have read VG Crafting and Diplomacy are pretty much separate games and there isn't an analog in wow.
VG really doesn't have much in the way of PvP. There is a PvP server but really it is nothing like wow with reguard to pvp. VG is really a PvE game.
Raid content in VG is far less then in wow and while the current raid dungeon is really huge with lots of raid mobs it is the ONLY raid dungeon. Course more are coming and while I haven't tried the raid in VG I have heard that it is VERY good.
Oh one more thing on dungeons. IN VG early on there are easier dungeons. These have 2 dot and 3 dot mobs. These dungeons work well for solo or small groups. Later in VG you start running into dungeons with 4 and 5 dot mobs. These are your real group dungeons that will take a group of 5-6 level apprpriate players.
---
Ethion
What can you tell me about some of the other features mentioned in here? Mounts, flying mounts, ships, building ships, building/owning homes/guilds, caravans etc. and be honest and objective. As I stated at the beginning of my post, I'm really not looking for over-hyped opinions and you seem to have a good head on your shoulder. I'm considering getting it, and basically trading in some of my old PS2 games in to EB games so that, that way I can get store credit and basically get a copy for free. That way at least I won't be too upset if I'm not happy with the game.
What can you tell me about some of the other features mentioned in here? Mounts, flying mounts, ships, building ships, building/owning homes/guilds, caravans etc. and be honest and objective. As I stated at the beginning of my post, I'm really not looking for over-hyped opinions and you seem to have a good head on your shoulder. I'm considering getting it, and basically trading in some of my old PS2 games in to EB games so that, that way I can get store credit and basically get a copy for free. That way at least I won't be too upset if I'm not happy with the game.
I think I'm pretty objective maybe even sometimes harsh...
Mounts are great. You get a horse at lvl 10 and what is really cool is you can buy stuff to upgrade your horse. So early on you become well integrated with mounts which offer substantial speed. A basic lvl 10 horse with store bought tack, horseshoes, and saddlebags gives you a 149 run speed. Normal run speed is 100.
As you lvl up each tier you can upgrade your mount and gear. So lvl 20 you get a better mount. Better mounts have higher speed and better stability. Stability is how likely you are to be dismounted being hit.
At lvl 30 or so you can do quests for unique mounts, and now their are city faction mounts you can earn.
Flying mounts are mostly usable via the flying mount rentals. Near riftstones which teleport you around the map there are flying mount rentals. This gets you a flying mount that lasts 5 minutes. 5 minutes might not see like much but you fly at something over 200 and can fly very high and obviously straight where you want to go. There are occasionally flying mobs that you need to avoid, not a big deal but if you fly into one and get attacked it will dismount you and you can't fight on your mount. As a saftey measure you have a safefall buf so if dismounted or if the mount timer ends you just fall to the ground. Flying mounts are great!! At lvl 40 or so you can do a quest to get a perminent flying mount. There are some flying mounts that you can get as loot but they are norent so when you log they are gone.
Boats are pretty amazing looking and kinda cool to sail around on but don't really serve much purpose. They are pretty fast and they are the best way other then flying to cross the water.
Housing is not really necessary and not something you do till you are pretty high lvl. Housing as the best system for decorating in that you have complete control over placement. Other then looking cool a house gives you a port ability so you can port once per hour home. It can also be flagged to be your guild headquarters that gives everyone in the guild a port to it. Finally it can house chests which can be used as a guild bank or just extra storage area. All in all houses are a luxtury. Most housing areas are not far from a rift and have a crafting area and vendors and are in little town like arrangements. You can only build a house on a plot.
Caravans are pretty useless or only good in very limited circumstances. At least they were a year ago after there were a number of limitations.
Brotherhoods are nice if you have a group you play with frequently like a group of friends. Not as good as mentoring but still a nice feature.
Crafters make boats and they make parts for houses. So for a boat you usually contact a crafter for them. Learning to make a boat is a long involved process that includes a fair quest. You also can't make a boat alone you need the help of other crafters. Like an artificer makes the hull but an outfitter makes the sails.
For houses depending on the type and tier of the hours you want to build it will list a number of things like bricks, shingles, window frames etc. You need to buy from crafters all the stuff and put it in your house. After you have added all the stuff into your house it is built. Then you can buy furnishings and set it up. Again other then the ports and storage houses are mostly for looks. There are no instances so your house is like a real house. Since they are built on plots it can be a challenge sometimes to find a plot that is cheap in an area you like. Houses are a bit expensive and require upkeep. If you don't maintian your house it will eventually disappear.
Crafting is a very involved process. Some people like it some people hate it. It requires a lot of work to become a master crafter. Unlike wow there is no single click to make items. You have to work at a station and you do a process which involves numberous steps as you progress through the stages of creating the item. This involves using tools and resources and dealing with complications. As you level up the process becomes more complicated. Also you don't level up your crafting by making items you want to sell you make it by doing work orders for city task masters. Think of these as very simple quests. Make me 3 horse shoes. You make 3 horseshoes and you get xp and a reward depending on the quality of the horseshoes. The rewards are money, crafter tools, clothing, resources, supplies or even recipes. Crafters also have quests although their could be a lot more but you can learn some unique recipes. Also there are regional recipes that take faction and questing to learn. Anyway I could go on but there is a lot too it. As I said some people think it is great others think it is a tedious bore. The biggest difference is it takes about the same time to lvl crafting as adventuring and like adventuring work order pay for themselves and make money. So you can truely play the game as a pure crafter and have a good time if you like the crafting system. Crafting can also make a lot of things. I heard that there were over 500k items that can be crafted.
---
Ethion