Vanguard

[Ket]

Any former Vanguard folks out there? I'd list a server ...but, well, if you played Vanguard you know how silly that would be.

Tralyan here. Warrior. Sad to see it go away. :(

Yup
-Ket

[Swish]

Funny how things get shut down, but SOE in the same breath won't let anyone bring a Vanguard emu up.

I never played it, took a judgement call from the forums shortly after SOE took it over and there wasn't a positive comment to be found :/

[Brynnag]

i got one of those sk type guys (dread knight?) to like level 20 and it got boring.

[Ket]

Man, it's like any other niche MMO out there. You got the die hard fans that will sit and squash the faces of anyone cheeky enough to insult their game, and those who played it for a bit, couldn't look past the plethora of bugs (understandably), and believe it to be the biggest mistake since cats on the moon. So I'm assuming your foray into the forums was full of the die hards lamenting the bugs.

I'm a face squasher. Incredible amount of potential, wasn't given the love it deserved, so it wasted away. But yeah, something about the engine it's on prevents them from letting us run an emu. Or something. I dunno. Hard to read the forums through the tears.

Wah.

Yup
-Ket

[fastboy21]

Funny how things get shut down, but SOE in the same breath won't let anyone bring a Vanguard emu up.

I never played it, took a judgement call from the forums shortly after SOE took it over and there wasn't a positive comment to be found :/

i'm not sure they said they wouldn't "allow" it. They said they wouldn't share any code...which is the exact same thing they say for EQ.

if players did it entirely on their own I would think SOE would respond the same way it does to EQ emus.

[Atmas]

I played it for a bit. It had potential but lacked the resources to see it through. I heard later on it was a decent game but by then the population had dried up.

[Ket]

I played it for a bit. It had potential but lacked the resources to see it through. I heard later on it was a decent game but by then the population had dried up.

Right. That seems to be the consensus. I'm convinced that if it had the population required for even a semi-healthy MMO, we would have seen a dynamic not before seen since the olden days of EQ. That, of course, would have only been possible if it was given the resources it needed to succeed after it's horrible launch.

Damn shame.

-Ket

[Dalven]

I'm a face squasher. Incredible amount of potential, wasn't given the love it deserved, so it wasted away. But yeah, something about the engine it's on prevents them from letting us run an emu. Or something. I dunno.

I know very little about Vanguard but I do know some dudes are certainly trying to make an emu

http://vgoemulator.net/ sourced from here (http://www.rerolled.org/showthread.php?122-Vanguard-Free-Brown-Bitches-love-free-brown-shit/page46)

[Glenzig]

Played for most of the 7 years it was around. Had a mountain of potential, but SOE ended using it as a developer probation tool. Never had the same team for more than 6 months at a time. It actually started out pretty much on par with vanilla WoW as far as difficulty leveling. Of course SOE tried appealing to the masses that weren't ever going to be there in the first place, and by the last 2 years of the game you could get max level in under a week if you really tried. Had the best crafting in any game by far. Had Diplomacy, which was basically a card game against NPC's, which was one of the most innovative game designs I think I have ever seen myself. All and all, it could have been a great game, but SOE did what they do. Now its gone. Oh well.

[Visual]

I made my close friends buy advanced copies of vanguard. Years later, they still won't return my calls

[Rhambuk]

my highest char was bard, loved how they did song composition . that game did so many things right

[Byrjun]

Pretty sure I played on Targonor. Game was amazing and had the potential to be the best MMO ever. But I quit after a couple months due the issues. Like, the game was pretty great at first. It had a lot of technical issues, of course. But it got really bad when they tried changing things. Clerics were balanced around most of their abilities being broken, then they fixed all those abilities and didn't adjust them accordingly and they became the best tanks, healers, and dps in the game. It was the best bad MMO ever.

The quests and general design blew me away. Even the level 5 introductory quests made you feel like a hero.

[Pringles]

Had a lot going for it, but they failed their launch so it never took. Had no idea they were shutting it down, sad to see but oh well.

[Mblake81]

Any former Vanguard folks out there? I'd list a server ...but, well, if you played Vanguard you know how silly that would be.

Tralyan here. Warrior. Sad to see it go away. :(

Yup
-Ket

Played for about one month.

Still got it right with eq 1.

[Byrjun]

That's one of the things that was amazing about the game, I did a lot in the couple months that I played and still probably only saw less than 10% of the world. Towards the end when my room mates started getting sick of Vanguard's shit I would just explore randomly and I came across all kinds of crazy shit hidden away. Imagine if the Feerrott was a thick jungle about 15 times larger than EQ's version and CT was hidden away in the corner without zonelines, some people would travel through the area and still never know it was there. And that would just be like 1% of the world.

[DarkwingDuck]

Any former Vanguard folks out there? I'd list a server ...but, well, if you played Vanguard you know how silly that would be.

Tralyan here. Warrior. Sad to see it go away. :(

Yup
-Ket

Hi I played for years.. Second best MMO of all time next to EQ.

Coadex 55paladin
Notezart 55 bard
Sorcinum 55 sorcerer
And about 12 more chars :)

U playin on the 31st?

[DarkwingDuck]

Agree with all above posts..
Was literally the true successor to EQ.
Awesome races and tons of choices, nicely balanced and awesome fun classes.
Great graphics and open world. Huge raid mobs

[yorumi]

Vanguard really was the game that had all the potential. I played it for about 7 months at launch. Loved the crafting system and the extremely creative class designs. You know what Ace and other said it best, can't really add to that.

[Naprox]

I played Vanguard from launch until about 2 months after they removed Fire Pummel from my wizard (Masterpain). I was the guy who would kite 50 ettins solo for the fun of it. Sometimes I would PL people, but most people who tried to watch me while I was kiting had too much pc lag (or would just crash all together) due to so many mobs in one area.

When they took the spell out of the game for over a month I lost interest and simply stopped playing. Was still an amazing game, but I saw the writing on the wall early when their resources (including staff) were starting to shrink and lost faith in the longevity potential of the game.

As others have pointed out already, Vanguard was the closest thing to EQ with improved areas of functionality and it is a shame that it was mishandled from the start.

[DarkwingDuck]

Can still kite all that on sorc.. W/o pummel

[Ket]

Hi I played for years.. Second best MMO of all time next to EQ.

Coadex 55paladin
Notezart 55 bard
Sorcinum 55 sorcerer
And about 12 more chars :)

U playin on the 31st?

Sorcinum Dizzy? (sp?) Saw you on forums quite often, if so.

Sadly, I won't be able to play on the 31st. Just moved, haven't got my internet set up. Stealing company time at work to post on these forums.

Say what you will about white collar jobs, but sitting on my ass for 8 hours and posting on EQ forums is OK by me.

-Ket

[Ket]

Not 100% on that. Seems like a lot of old timers of the game aren't even aware that it's going kaput. On the other hand, I'm sure there will be a decent crowd. Probably more than there has been in the last 4 years. Heh.

[Ket]

I know very little about Vanguard but I do know some dudes are certainly trying to make an emu

http://vgoemulator.net/ sourced from here (http://www.rerolled.org/showthread.php?122-Vanguard-Free-Brown-Bitches-love-free-brown-shit/page46)

I was aware of this project - even signed up to help with the data collecting, though I've been too busy looking up cat pictures to actually be of any use.

Each time I've entered those forums it doesn't look too busy - nothing like I see here at P99. Makes me wonder if it'll ever get off the ground, and that makes me sad.

:(

-Ket

[Klapton]

I was in a very early beta of Vanguard, and played at launch. People have cited bugs for its failure, but I don't think that was the main reason. They launched with too many servers. The world was HUGE (a good thing) and travel was not instant (a good thing) but because the population of the servers was so sparse, you would often have to travel for a half hour just to get with a group.

The crafting system was one of the best I ever played, but it was too slow. IMO, proper balance of a crafting system is such that a new player can do at least ONE craft, and be able to equip their character with that gear without spending MORE time crafting than adventuring. I always hated how some games were designed as if crafting was an afterthought, or only useful for twinking your alts after rushing to max level.

The offensive and defensive target thing was innovative and cool. It made tanking more interesting than many games (including EQ).

[Glenzig]

I was in a very early beta of Vanguard, and played at launch. People have cited bugs for its failure, but I don't think that was the main reason. They launched with too many servers. The world was HUGE (a good thing) and travel was not instant (a good thing) but because the population of the servers was so sparse, you would often have to travel for a half hour just to get with a group.

The crafting system was one of the best I ever played, but it was too slow. IMO, proper balance of a crafting system is such that a new player can do at least ONE craft, and be able to equip their character with that gear without spending MORE time crafting than adventuring. I always hated how some games were designed as if crafting was an afterthought, or only useful for twinking your alts after rushing to max level.

The offensive and defensive target thing was innovative and cool. It made tanking more interesting than many games (including EQ).

Crafting in VG was a beast. But I feel they did it right with the leveling pace. It made it a truly separate sphere of the game, not just something you did if you wanted to kill time. Where they went wrong with crafting was not making sure that crafted gear was the best gear for the level range, outside of raiding gear of course. Cause who wants to spend all that time leveling just to have the ability to make sub par gear?

[Swish]

...though I've been too busy looking up cat pictures to actually be of any use.

:rolleyes:

[Rhambuk]

Sad to think I will never play vanguard again :(

[Glenzig]

Sad to think I will never play vanguard again :(

Yup. SOE ruined my life.

[DarkwingDuck]

Sorcinum Dizzy? (sp?) Saw you on forums quite often, if so.

Sadly, I won't be able to play on the 31st. Just moved, haven't got my internet set up. Stealing company time at work to post on these forums.

Say what you will about white collar jobs, but sitting on my ass for 8 hours and posting on EQ forums is OK by me.

-Ket

Correct Sorcinum dizzy.

No I didn't make it out, ended up being busy and working.. Lots. Lol
Oh well.. Bye VG , some of best gaming moments ever lol

Playing a noob wizard here now
Greacenthe lvl 8 wizard

[Cyph]

Tried it multiple times, couldn't get into it. Partly because of the graphics and UI, mostly because of the low pop. You can tell it has potential but yeah, poorly executed.

[DarkwingDuck]

Tried it multiple times, couldn't get into it. Partly because of the graphics and UI, mostly because of the low pop. You can tell it has potential but yeah, poorly executed.

Meh depends.. Yes and no.
My comp.. Never bad issues like most players. I may have crashed 4 times in 5 years .
Many large guilds , and about 10 raid guilds .. Was fun as hell.
About twice as popular as p99.. If u can picture it that was it was awesome.
Back on release there was a lot of people, but ya it drove a lot of people away, that would be like me not playin 99, cause only 500-1200 people play :)
It's a shame
Cause vanguard is the only thing they had right since EQ(pre pop)

[Rhambuk]

when vanguard first came out I had bought my copy and was pumped it had a 30 day free trial so I wouldn't have to pay a months sub on top of the cost of game just to try it.

It took me over 29 days to patch, back in the days of dialup. and when I could finally get on it ran so horribly couldn't interact with npcs or barely open my inventory.

came back a year later and loved it, just no pop

[Glenzig]

Meh depends.. Yes and no.
My comp.. Never bad issues like most players. I may have crashed 4 times in 5 years .
Many large guilds , and about 10 raid guilds .. Was fun as hell.
About twice as popular as p99.. If u can picture it that was it was awesome.
Back on release there was a lot of people, but ya it drove a lot of people away, that would be like me not playin 99, cause only 500-1200 people play :)
It's a shame
Cause vanguard is the only thing they had right since EQ(pre pop)

I do have to say though that there is a world of difference between 1,000 online in VG and 1,000 online in p99. Multiboxing was so prevalent on VG that it was basically the norm to see a group of keycloned characters running around knocking out dungeons rather than it being the exception. 1,000 accounts logged into VG was probably more like 3-400 different people max. Which isn't much considering the vastness of the game.

[yorumi]

Crafting in VG was a beast. But I feel they did it right with the leveling pace. It made it a truly separate sphere of the game, not just something you did if you wanted to kill time. Where they went wrong with crafting was not making sure that crafted gear was the best gear for the level range, outside of raiding gear of course. Cause who wants to spend all that time leveling just to have the ability to make sub par gear?

I want a game where even the raid gear is crafted. All the best gear at any level range is all crafted. Basically content drops materials that are used by crafters to make gear. You could put a commission system in the game so you can make the materials no drop. That way raid gear isn't sold on the open market and crafters are always needed in games.

[Glenzig]

I want a game where even the raid gear is crafted. All the best gear at any level range is all crafted. Basically content drops materials that are used by crafters to make gear. You could put a commission system in the game so you can make the materials no drop. That way raid gear isn't sold on the open market and crafters are always needed in games.

Actually in VG, in order to have the top tier gear, you did have to have crafted components made for you. It was pretty cool. You also HAD to max out your diplomacy to even have access to the gear.

[yorumi]

Actually in VG, in order to have the top tier gear, you did have to have crafted components made for you. It was pretty cool. You also HAD to max out your diplomacy to even have access to the gear.

Neat, didn't know that cause I didn't make it to raiding. I was close cause I remember being in my 40's. It just didn't take sony long to ruin it and I didn't want ot bash my head against the wall to just see the raid content, which I imagine was as buggy as the rest of the game.

[Glenzig]

Neat, didn't know that cause I didn't make it to raiding. I was close cause I remember being in my 40's. It just didn't take sony long to ruin it and I didn't want ot bash my head against the wall to just see the raid content, which I imagine was as buggy as the rest of the game.

It actually wasn't for a long time. Not the targets I was able to raid anyway. But about the last 3-6 months before they made the sun setting announcement, it mysteriously got really bad. They called it "server optimization".

[Cyph]

I do have to say though that there is a world of difference between 1,000 online in VG and 1,000 online in p99. Multiboxing was so prevalent on VG that it was basically the norm to see a group of keycloned characters running around knocking out dungeons rather than it being the exception. 1,000 accounts logged into VG was probably more like 3-400 different people max. Which isn't much considering the vastness of the game.

That was my experience about a year ago. Hence, why I love the no boxing rule here.

[DarkwingDuck]

I do have to say though that there is a world of difference between 1,000 online in VG and 1,000 online in p99. Multiboxing was so prevalent on VG that it was basically the norm to see a group of keycloned characters running around knocking out dungeons rather than it being the exception. 1,000 accounts logged into VG was probably more like 3-400 different people max. Which isn't much considering the vastness of the game.

Ya true.. But that wasn't till like year 4+.. When so many ppl left.. You sometimes had to box to do a dungeon..
Or if I could only find 1 or 2 ppl to group, I'd play tank and healer hehe etc.

The raiding was fine and non buggy.. SoE actually for years made the game better and better, with 2 full raid dungeons with multiple bosses.. And like 20 overland raid mobs such as (giants.. Dragons.. And other creatures) . Trust me it was fun as fuck... I was missing my epic and a couple other BiS pieces for my pally.. But all in all, I took down most content.. .. Faction/exp/gear and epics were a MAD grind

[fastboy21]

The day they opened pantheon and 55 level expansion is the closest I have been to getting the feel I had when velious opened up on eq live.

Killing kotosoth was as good as it gets in classic old school style mmos...cheering as it goes down...trembling as loot gets called. So good.

I love VG as much as EQ. So sad...

[DarkwingDuck]

The day they opened pantheon and 55 level expansion is the closest I have been to getting the feel I had when velious opened up on eq live.

Killing kotosoth was as good as it gets in classic old school style mmos...cheering as it goes down...trembling as loot gets called. So good.

I love VG as much as EQ. So sad...

Agreed man.. Sadly I never killed Kota.. I was in group 4 standing. Watching the fight (I had quit around Apw and didn't return for about 7 months ) but killed most everything (cept the new stuff like city of brass )... Anyways ya man good times..
Sad about my pal lies missing gear : Epic weap (1hander, 2 handed and shield.. The only class with 3 epics to work on I believe ) ring of fire... And 2 more BiS I forget.. Oh ya the ulvari stone range item.. Forget the last piece.. Ahh the old days.. Anyways peace

[Buellen]

Heya

Vanguard EMU continues. They are in the process of working through all the data collection done a lot of by players.

Their is a server but it very very early infancy. all you can do is move around a bit.

For those of you are fans check VGOEmulator.net.