[Vanguard] I'M BACK SO THIS GAME IS GOOD AGAIN

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes




HOLY FUCK WE HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE PLAYING NOW, ALSO WE HAVE A GUILD, THE PENNY ARCADIANS, SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ROSTER, ALSO PLEASE NOTE HOW GAY MY PALADIN'S SHIELD IS:


Frequently Non-Asked Questions You're Probably Thinking Anyhow

1. wait, what
what

2. no really, what the fuck, vanguard is shit
I know! It was shit! But it isn't now! I can hardly believe it myself!

3. how is it not shit now
For one thing... it functions. It works. It doesn't crash every ten minutes, you don't have to /flush the textures every five minutes, the framerate has dramatically improved, and there is no more hitching (at least to me). There have been optimizations to the lighting and graphics that make the game gorgeous to behold, on top of running like a champ. In essence, this is how it should have been at launch.

4. so wait, people actually still play this
Yes. It's not the most populated game in the world since, you know, the game was a festering pile of shit ass before, but it has quite a few core players that stuck it out throughout the bad times, and has been experiencing one hell of a population rush since (surprisingly) Age of Conan came out. The ironic thing is that, since there are less players than, say, WoW, the community is very close, to the point where finding a group is easier for me than it ever was in ANY MMO. On top of that, it is, hands down, the best community I've ever immersed myself with outside of the early UO/EQ days.

5. ok so is there a free trial or what
Not yet. SOE plans to "re-launch" the game once every remaining bug is ironed out, on top of adding some kind of trial island thing so that people that want to try out the game don't have to download about 18 gigs of data. However, if you've never owned the game, you can find the collector's edition online these days for about $10, which includes quite a few guest passes for people to check the game out. And no, I don't have any, but if I ever do, I will hook you all up.

Information and general shit

Races:

Classes:

HUGE... TRACTS OF LAND

A few quick screenshots

Will post more later, if this thread even gets anywhere off the ground because, lol, Vanguard.[/spoiler]


Who's Playing

WE ARE ON THE SAREDON SERVER, PM ME YOUR CHARACTER NAME AND CLASS. List goes by forum name/character name/class.

1. The Sneak! - Dyneir, Paladin and Eldian, Cleric
2. Ciani - Ciani, Druid and Celestialsky, Bard
3. Fooms - Fooms, Bard
4. Draeven - Forgot his name, Dread Knight
5. AresProphet - Lyna, Sorcerer
6. chrpnk - Quelin, Cleric
7. Axen - Snog, Blood Mage
8. Toxic Pickle - Xianxu Xoh, Bard
9. Yathrin - Ayamaro, Monk and Kochin, Disciple
10. Arkainn - Nakaz, Dread Knight
11. Yukira - Yukira, Dread Knight
12. Dachish - Dachish, Psionist
13. Sidhaethe - Hasufet, Sorcerer
14. Vae - Tristerian, Druid
15. MiSTieOtaku - Katalmach, Dread Knight
16. Skayel - Skayel, Warrior
17. Corran - Mirrax, Non-denominational, not gonna let the man bring him down and decide his role
18. captaink - Nute, Sorcerer
19. lostcawz - Ridger, Ranger
20. stympy - Carom, Rogue
21 FightTest - Gnerg, Unknown
22. eelektrik - Jarenden, Blood Mage
23. killerkabuto - Tymbel, Dread Knight
24. Fandyien - Sinedan, Shaman
25. Tekko - Ketto, Dread Knight
26. exoplasm - Halbar, Bard
27. GigaWang - Drazool, Bard
28. DiscoZombie - Jendra, Weak Sissy Necromancer
29. flammiebc - Rukana, Disciple
30. Xzean - Xzean, Necromancer and Maluth, Dread Knight
31. Karrmer - Karmerr, the Shadiest of Rogues
32. Sapien Prime - The Legendary Vaeldron Morningsword of Leth Nurae, Paladin
33. Dyvion - Kaidrin, Blood Mage
34. AfroJ - Vasu, Disciple


To get an invite to the guild, you can send a /tell to the following people:
Fooms
Eldian
Foomiest
Skayel
Rukana
Rukane
Xzean
Leyara
Fychan
Roweland
Sindarin



So let me take this opportunity, before I pass out, to show those that are unfamiliar with Vanguard's bard system why it is made of puppy dogs and rainbows and bees that shit out ice cream flavored titties:


SO BASICALLY

Yes, I'm aware the OP sucks. I don't care. Hell, I haven't even made a game on thread in eons, but I was so absolutely fucking impressed with how this game is turning out that I wanted to make a thread about it.

I bought a new system because my old one was getting up there in age, and I could barely run Age of Conan even on the lowest of settings. So ever since I got this thing, most of my time spent on it is installing old games I used to play, just to see how well they run on the new rig at maximum settings. One of those games was Vanguard, a game that not only ran like shit on my system, but ran like shit on everyone's system, and was so full of bugs and broken content that I hated the game. Despite that, I couldn't help the curiosity from taking over, and begrudingly reinstalled the game and reactivated my account, after unsuccessfully trying to score a buddy pass.

And holy shit. Not only did the game look gorgeous at max settings, but it was PLAYABLE. No hitching, no ridiculous texture flushing every fucking minute, nothing. And what really once began as something to play while age of Conan was down, became something I cannot tear myself away from to play Age of Conan. It's that good. Characters still run like they have a peg up their ass, but otherwise, absolutely gorgeous game.

What I was amazed with more is the community. There was no idiot inane babbling in the OOC chatroom, just nothing but friendly conversations, and a lot of people seemed to know one another. The community is small because of the trainwreck that was their launch, but as a result, it has created one of the best online communities in a game since the days of yore, if not better than even that. And the hilarious thing is that I have a much easier time finding a group in this game as a direct result of that than any other MMO I've ever played, and when I'm grouped with people, they're friendly, they talk, and it just makes the experience so much more worthwhile.

Another favorite of mine about this game is that nothing is instanced. I don't know who the shit decided that instances were the way to go in MASSIVELY ONLINE GAMES, but he should be shot. Nothing here is instanced.

Speaking of MASSIVE, my cock is erect.

Oh, and the lands are gigantic. It was a huge pain in the ass to travel from Point A to Point B before in Vanguard as a result, but in one of the game updates, Rift Stones were added, that can portal you from one place to the other, including on other continents. And it works. Traveling is still a huge part of the game, but it is roughly 300x easier to meet other players to group with now, and to hit up all those hot dungeons. There are also standard mounts, which you get starting at Level 10, up to flying mounts later on, and in the meantime, you can rent a flying mount for 5 minutes for a measly handful of copper.

I cannot gush about the game enough right now, I'm that impressed with how it has turned out. The majority of people that play Vanguard say that this is the way EverQuest II should have been, and I'm inclined to agree with them. If you played the abysmal beta, or the even more horrid launch, you owe it to yourself to give this game another fair shot, whether now, with a guest pass, or by waiting for the free trial to come out. If you want an MMO with a surprising amount of depth, a solid community, a challenge, a penalty for death (but not too strict; you can't level down), you're more than likely going to love being back here.

Oh, and here's some dude's random review about how the game is now, it's pretty much spot on: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/147/view/forums/thread/182705