Sunday, May 31, 2009

Vanguard offers free time

And tells no one about it.

I just read that Shamutanti at letsnothaveabreakdown has been playing his "free" time. I decide to login to my account mgmt. and see "Oh my...free time".

Well, have a party and invite no one I guess.

How did HE know though?

Guess it is for the best as this game has constantly been junk when I have played. Probably should just forget about it and play on in my game.

Yep...for the best.

(Lets call this "Vanguards last Hurrah"...who does not see THIS as foreshadowing?)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

E-mails went out to old subscribers so they are the ones who know. It's not free to new players - as far as I know except for the trial of course.

As for Vanguard being junk? I guess that depends. If you have a decent rig and play through level 25 or so, you might have a different opinion. Compared to AOC, you have no zoning, equal environmental graphics, reasons to group, ability to solo, epic dungeons to explore, no Chuck Norris jokes, Epic Raid Zones, Player Housing, Player Made Boats, Crafting, Diplomacy, Flying Mounts, about 15 more races and classes, etc...

Not your style of game? Sure. Junk? That's stretching it. Vanguard is like a fine wine, you can't really appreciate it if you are used to drinking milwaukee's best.

Anonymous said...

Nah, not foreshadowing. SOE hands out free time to lapsed players all the time. And the fact that SOE thought enough of it to hang RMT on the game means it will be around for a while. RMT is the new SOE mantra after all. Games that did not get any RMT options pasted on to them on the other hand....

Elementalistly said...

Quality? I am confused. Are we speaking of the same game?
I can run Age of Conan at 60FPS in DX10 beautifully, yet Vanguard still chokes and chunks along at random times...for no reason.
The multitude of Kill 10x quests in the starter zone alone outnumbers the total number of quests in all of Tortage up to level 20.
Population wise, the numbers speak for themselves. Conan may be small, but the overall population is still within parameters in specific zones that walking for hours without a single soul thanks to a "zoneless" world, is not a thing to worry about.
And the animations of characters and the slow mo combat, well, I would prefer not to think about it.
I really must think we are talking about two games here, and with SOE saying Goodbye to MxO, the next on it's list of "struggling" games is Vanguard.
I think I would prefer to play a game that at least will be around for a while.

Unknown said...

I played Conan up to the mid 50s and it wasn't my cup of tea. How high did you get in Vanguard? What server did you play on? When was the last time you played? The answer to those questions makes a big difference.

Conan is a beautiful game and it's the only game Funcom has that's even remotely a going concern so sure they have a larger developer team on the project. If it fails, they go out of business. The game play is more suited to the instant gratification crowd and they have boobies and blood so I'd agree they probably have more subs than Vanguard. They did lose hundreds of thousands of players since release just like Vanguard. Neither game has a stellar reputation.

On the other hand, you can get great performance in Vanguard if you have a nice machine. You don't get carpal tunnel spamming combo keys trying to kill things and you don't zone into an area only to zone into the house only to zone into the cellar etc... I would bet all of the Conan zoning has something to do with it's improved performance vs. Vanguard - if that even is the case.

Planetside will go before Vanguard. Vanguard will die before Conan. I just play what's fun and immersive and personally - zoning every 5 minutes is a deal breaker for me. Good luck on your quest to 80! I'll be watching to get your thoughts on Conan's end game.

Anonymous said...

No Chuck Norris jokes? Every MMO needs Chuck Norris jokes. Except the Chuck Norris MMO. That would just be... weird.

Elementalistly said...

@David
What server did you play on? When was the last time you played? The answer to those questions makes a big difference.Actually they do not when so many other game issues (glaring issues) make it that you cannot even go any further.

I made it to level 20 (grudingly), I was on Seradon (a noted server by many as a good server), and the last time I played was after they introduced the new starter isle, that I thought would invigorate the game, but showed how much ALL MMO's tried to follow in the EQ/WoW footsteps, and inundated the player with boring kill 10x quests OVER and OVER.

Neither game has a stellar reputation.This I agree with. AoC has Funcom as Vanguard had Sigil. These companies ruined their games. But, Funcom picked up the pieces and tried to make it work. SOE saved Vanguard from death, and it still sits at deaths door is the difference.
Go look at Xfire and playtimes, and see how Vanguard is affected...talk about a bummer when you see the playtimes.

On the other hand, you can get great performance in Vanguard if you have a nice machineI 100% disagree. I can run Conan at up to 60FPS pretty consistently in DX10, and it uses the full power of my machine (Dual Core and SLI)
Vanguard is coded horribly, and does NOT use these features.
You will always hit a wall.

Planetside will go before Vanguard. Vanguard will die before Conan. I just play what's fun and immersive and personally - zoning every 5 minutes is a deal breaker for meI agree with the deaths. I do not agree with the 5 minute zoning, as I do not have to zone every 5 minutes. I am unsure of what game you played. Plus if zoning was a loading issue for you, there is better hardware to handle these issues in todays gaming PC. Should look for those options. I have no issues in loading from zone to zone...quite quick actually.

Anyways, it just goes to show, we all have our own opinions. I found nothing redeeming in Vanguard (well, some landscapes...not all) and it just does not keep my interest.
I am glad you find it entertaining. But, I would not get comfortable.

Cheers