Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Vanguard has an "under-rated" feature
JK-Kanosi
Member Posts: 1,357
A seamless world. Not only does it have a seamless world, it has a large seamless world. Running across a field actually feels like I am crossing a field. That island over there; I can go to it. That summit up there, if I cannot scale the mountain, I can fly up there on a flying mount. If I can see it basically, I can go there. This does not include the numerous dungeons that take you underground. After playing AoC, where 8-10 people were many in an instance, I have a new appreciation for open seamless worlds.
I stated in another thread where I was criticizing Vanguard and getting flack for it from some of the Vanguard fans, Vanguard is no longer in a beta state. It would be considered a releasable product as far as quality is concerned. It is safe for vets and newcomers alike to come play Vanguard.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Comments
You are correct, that is a good, but under rated feature of VG. Of course, you still only see 8-10 people anywhere, just like in AOC, but for different reasons.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Not having played Vanguard, I have a question. I have often heard people make comparisons between the AoC graphics and that of Vanguard (Naming both of them among the "Top games graphically" and was curious how "True" these statements are. How do those of you who have played both rate these games, graphically, compared to other games? Any of this have any meat to it, or it just more fanbois spouting off?
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
You are correct, that is a good, but under rated feature of VG. Of course, you still only see 8-10 people anywhere, just like in AOC, but for different reasons.
Yeah, depending where you are. However, at least it isn't because of a technical feature. So it is easy to change it by increasing the population, which I think would only take a trial and a marketing push.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I had played Vanguard in Beta for a bit and a couple of 10 day passes and ended up buying the game and played for a good 3 wks. I didnt quit because I didnt like it, I just wasnt ready to move on from the mmo I was playing atm.
As for your questions about the graphics. The enviroment in Vanguard was awesome. Very comparable to AoC. I often found myself in awe of many things I saw in game.
I enjoyed the open world and sure it took time to get from one place to another but thats what having an open enviroment is all about. I think my first mmo experience with EQ really made me think Vanguard would be tailored to my liking. As you moved around from place to place you got to see a lot of great terrain.
I often think If I hadnt alrdy been tied to a game ( had been playing wow for a good 2yrs, in a good guild of people ) Id be playing Vanguard at this time. I enjoyed the game, looked great but I cant really say much more as I only had about 5/6 weeks of experience with the game in general.
Yes, chunks aside VG is a big open world. I played it for a year total time. But it's a dead and boring world....compared to say..AOC. BTW your statement concerning the number of people in an instance is dead wrong. There are people everywhere you go in the AOC instances. Not to mention most of the instances are huge. VG is a good game and had great potential. However AOC has so much more...the places seem alive and the combat is more interactive, it also shipped with more features than VG has even after being out as long as it has. I played VG for some time so obviously I liked the game...I would just say that AOC is better.
Yes, chunks aside VG is a big open world. I played it for a year total time. But it's a dead and boring world....compared to say..AOC. BTW your statement concerning the number of people in an instance is dead wrong. There are people everywhere you go in the AOC instances. Not to mention most of the instances are huge. VG is a good game and had great potential. However AOC has so much more...the places seem alive and the combat is more interactive, it also shipped with more features than VG has even after being out as long as it has. I played VG for some time so obviously I liked the game...I would just say that AOC is better.
Okay, I only played AoC till in the lvl 20's. This is because I created like 6 different classes and leveled them up. At any rate, the newb area should be jam packed with people. Every other release I've ever been apart of has been this way. New players fighting over spawns and etc. Well, in Tortage for example, I don't recall every seeing more than 4-8 people at a time in the same area as me. Area being defined as Acheron Ruins, White Sands, Underhall, the open zone where you get your chains broken and etc. You see more than that in a newb area in WoW and they only have 2.5 million USA subscribers and they are spread out over 100+ servers. It also has been out a lot longer.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
The chunking always came off to zoning without load screens to me. I couldn't ignore that fact, so the world never felt seamless; just the record holder for most plentiful and frequent zoning I've seen in an MMO.
When you get ingame guys do this
/setfog 200000, 400000, 120, 120, 240
If you like it, make a macro as it resets each time you log.
It completely changes how the game looks with no real performance hit (even on my older P4, 8500 gfx card PC)
What it is doing is starting the fog at 2km and making it full fog at 4km (which you currently have it under 1km unless you change it each time you log in) then adjusting the colors a bit. You can play with it if you don't like those distances. Don't do that /setfog 999999 because all that does is wipe out all the fog and it looks to unrealistic then.
Looks great as it eliminates that hazy washed out look. Also set your clipping plane to about 4 or 5km (500000) depending on what you run the game, it sets it really low by default sometimes. (about 1km or so)
Now compare it to LotR or AoC.
To add to this post further. Don't forget with Vanguard you're free to explore. Unlike AOC with it's zones having one of two paths it feels a chore to have to keep running up and down them. With Vanguard your free to take those short cuts. The freedom for me at least takes off the feeling of a travel grind you get in the 20+ levels of AOC. Then having to face a couple load screen too. People are throwing themselves off cliffs to die just so they don't have to face the liner run back a long zone.
In VG you see something : mean a castle a house a moutain etc etc etc etc you can go and explore. I explore everything in VG and it's really nice. Each house each thing and sometimes, you'll discover a quest hidden in a lost castle, ruin or old house.
See and Explore.
3 beautiful MMOS ?
- Vanguard
- Lotro
- AOC
So, in LOTRO I had no problems at max settings being in high density and high populaced areas. Are the graphics in AoC "Better enough" to justify all of the instancing and loss of immersion and interaction?
It"'s not only a pb of graphics. VG isn't a screen saver...
rofl.
- 3 worlds (Kojan Thestra Qualia)
- a lot of classes etc
- very cool classes, (best ones)
- a lot of dungeons (hard)
- a lot of monsters/ennemies
- + a game in the game = diplomacy (really interesting )
- + another game in the game = crafting. You can create houses, guild houses (you can call them Castles
) Boats 
- you can discover all areas all houses all castles, there's a lot of cities (impressive !!!) villages etc etc, take your boat, a griffon a wyvern and discover telon by the air, by the see, with a horse, or swim...
After the concept of
WYSIWIG =What you see is what you get
VG created the concept of
WYSIWYE=What You See Is What you Explore
No.
Lotro and VG are the best ones FTM.
Maybe if you sit there and run back and forth accross the same chunk line on purpose , but in the normal course of playing the game crossing chunk lines is almost a non issue . If your questing you might not cross one for hours , even if you ride your horse from one end of thestra to the other ,the amount of time you spend chunking is minimal . Takes my computer about 2 seconds to cross a chunk line , dosen't take me out of the game or even interfere with what am seeing on my screen just a little pause . Big deal
I think your grasping at straw's and your desperation in trying to find fualts with vanguard is showing through in this post
You are correct, that is a good, but under rated feature of VG. Of course, you still only see 8-10 people anywhere, just like in AOC, but for different reasons.
Yeah, depending where you are. However, at least it isn't because of a technical feature. So it is easy to change it by increasing the population, which I think would only take a trial and a marketing push.
Agreed. But in all fairness, from what I hear AOC has either a 48 person limit per instance or 200 depending on what you read, and I assure you, I see players everywhere when I'm out there trying to hunt down mobs spawns or avoid ganking.
Sure, maybe having the capacity to hold 1000 is important, but not to me, I see more than enough players where I'm at (20-30 lands btw) so I'm not really concerned.
But it would be nice for VG to get some more players, appears its finally becoming the game it was originally meant to be.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Totally agree with this. Basically getting rid of the fog makes it too unrealistic. Thanks for exploring the command fully. It will be nice to just push it back a bit, layer by layer like that.
nethervoid - Est. '97
[UO|EQ|SB|SWG|PS|HZ|EVE|NWN|WoW|VG|DF|AQW|DN|SWTOR|Dofus|SotA|BDO|AO|NW|LA] - Currently Playing EQ1
20k+ subs YouTube Gaming channel
It's funny, cause this seems like an "over-rated" feature to me... once you're in a large instance in AoC, the game is great to explore and the game just feels a lot more alive than Vanguard... which seems very stale.
Maybe if you sit there and run back and forth accross the same chunk line on purpose , but in the normal course of playing the game crossing chunk lines is almost a non issue . If your questing you might not cross one for hours , even if you ride your horse from one end of thestra to the other ,the amount of time you spend chunking is minimal . Takes my computer about 2 seconds to cross a chunk line , dosen't take me out of the game or even interfere with what am seeing on my screen just a little pause . Big deal
I think your grasping at straw's and your desperation in trying to find fualts with vanguard is showing through in this post
Nope, just never felt the immersion knowing I was essentially inside a box walled and cornered with the hugest zone lines I've ever seen.The map shows you the seams, approach 'em with a torch on and you can see the seams. So how'm I grasping at straws to say the game never seemed seamless to me?
Vanguard needs an expansion of the calibre EverQuest has been getting lately. It would definately bring players back. The problem with the game isn't really the game (other than needing more high lvl content), but getting the players back they've lost at launch. I think that if everyone went back and checked it out now, I think they'd be very (and pleasently) surprised. It's not perfect, but no MMO really is.
Maybe if you sit there and run back and forth accross the same chunk line on purpose , but in the normal course of playing the game crossing chunk lines is almost a non issue . If your questing you might not cross one for hours , even if you ride your horse from one end of thestra to the other ,the amount of time you spend chunking is minimal . Takes my computer about 2 seconds to cross a chunk line , dosen't take me out of the game or even interfere with what am seeing on my screen just a little pause . Big deal
I think your grasping at straw's and your desperation in trying to find fualts with vanguard is showing through in this post
Nope, just never felt the immersion knowing I was essentially inside a box walled and cornered with the hugest zone lines I've ever seen.The map shows you the seams, approach 'em with a torch on and you can see the seams. So how'm I grasping at straws to say the game never seemed seamless to me?
Cornered by a zone line that pause's you for about 2 seconds and dosent take you out of the game or even change what your seeing on your screen lol
Sorry sepher i forgot how fragile most people are i can understand how that must really have traumatized you i mean when your used to moutains and scenery been used as the zone lines . with a linear path from one end to the other. well lets just say i can see why vanguard would scrare a vetern mmo player such as yourself
Maybe if you sit there and run back and forth accross the same chunk line on purpose , but in the normal course of playing the game crossing chunk lines is almost a non issue . If your questing you might not cross one for hours , even if you ride your horse from one end of thestra to the other ,the amount of time you spend chunking is minimal . Takes my computer about 2 seconds to cross a chunk line , dosen't take me out of the game or even interfere with what am seeing on my screen just a little pause . Big deal
I think your grasping at straw's and your desperation in trying to find fualts with vanguard is showing through in this post
Nope, just never felt the immersion knowing I was essentially inside a box walled and cornered with the hugest zone lines I've ever seen.The map shows you the seams, approach 'em with a torch on and you can see the seams. So how'm I grasping at straws to say the game never seemed seamless to me?
Cornered by a zone line that pause's you for about 2 seconds and dosent take you out of the game or even change what your seeing on your screen lol
Sorry sepher i forgot how fragile most people are i can understand how that must really have traumatized you i mean when your used to moutains and scenery been used as the zone lines . with a linear path from one end to the other. well lets just say i can see why vanguard would scrare a vetern mmo player such as yourself
Lil touchy ain't you? The thread's subject is Vanguard's "underrated feature". I haven't argued that chunking or zoning as a whole is a terrible thing, as I recognize it as necessary in every MMO. The only thing I'm arguing is that seamless immersion as a feature doesn't exist, because there are giant, frequent seams all over. The only thing opinionated is whether or not a person believes they're frequent, but their existence is a fact.
It's you who's deriving negative connotations from the facts, and for two posts now decided to defend load times when I haven't complained about load times once. I don't care if an MMO includes zoning, so no complaints. I'm just pointing out that Vanguard has zones in the context of new areas needing loading and initializing, and there's evident spots pointed out to you by the ciient in both map and on-screen graphics where this zoning will occur. Simply calling 'em "chunks" isn't enough to be rid of that fact.
Man you just about nailed this post... I play AoC, and I constantly compare it to Vanguard. Funcom really dropped the ball where Sigil very well had possession---a seamless world. There are times where I think about going back to VG just because of that seamless world, but I keep sticking to AoC. I'm sure WAR won't disappoint us....hopefully not....
Thanks OP, if I install VG, I'll definately revisit this post.
Hey why are we dis'n the zone-lines? Running from one end of the world to the other requires the rare/occasional two-second pause. Hell, that could be lag for all you know! It isn't noticeable at all. Rediculous to even bring it up.
Want to talk about lack of immersion? Let's talk POBS. I run up to a building and "click" on a door. Some loading screen comes up, and poof I'm magically in the building. Didn't have to open the door or walk through the portal.
If AoC is as instance-heavy as everyone claims, I imagine it has a lot of this type of poofing.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
I don't consider instancing a bad thing, if done moderately. For example, WoW only uses instances for the portion of the dungeon that posesses the big boss. I can agree with this use, because fighting over spawns and spawn camping can be annoying.
AoC not only has instancing, they also have zones. They instance things that aren't typically instanced by MMORPGs, such as adventuring areas. They also have NPC's to talk to, who port you over to the next zone in some areas. I think this is a bit overboard for a MMORPG. To each their own though. It really all depends on your tolerance level of instances.
I'll welcome any feedback you want to give once you spend some time in Vanguard again, whether it be positive or negative. Potential players deserve to hear the bad with the good, regardless if current players like myself actually enjoy the game overall.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.