Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Published 16 May, 2007

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Comments (8) Latest comment 6 years ago

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  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #1 6 years ago

    Lots of interest about this MMORPG in the works over at Sigil Games Online.

    Ripped from their FAQ as to how this game will be different from the other MMORPGs out on the market at the moment.

    We can go over a few, and more and more as time goes on. We do need to keep some of our truly third generation ideas under wraps for a while, both because we want to make sure they work the way we envision, and also because other MMOGs are coming out first.

    1. Bring back the challenge without all of the tedium.

    2. Create a truly seamless world where you can see for miles, and just about anything you can see, you can travel to.

    3. Integrate a 'multi-sphere' system where your character is both an adventurer and crafter at the same time, with unique experience pools, skills, and items. You could, in theory, be a level 10 Ranger and a level 15 crafter. Likewise, you could ignore one sphere, and focus only on the other.

    The following was posted elsewhere in answer to how we would make the game more challenging but also not tedious, but I think it elaborates a bit and also describes even in more general what makes this game different than the rest:

    ----

    The game is going to be challenging.

    The game is going to focus on character advancement, item acquisition, and interdependence to build community and teamwork.

    If I had to compare it to another game, take original EQ, Kunark, and Velious -- that sort of challenge.

    One of our big goals is bring back the challenge we feel is being abandoned in MMOGs as of late, but without a lot of the tedium. We want travel to be fun, and there to not be a lot of teleporting around. We want exploration to be key and for you feel compelled and then rewarded for exploring and traveling.

    We really don't want camping, where you sit in one spot waiting for a spawn. We have plans to have our encounter system strongly encouraging moving around, 'doing' a dungeon. We want to have cool vehicles, whether they be horses that you can equip and also use for storage that help you move across land; we want you to own ships and sail the oceans, but not empty oceans -- oceans filled with content as well -- sea monsters, pirates, and lots of little islands en route to your destination.

    Additionally we will have areas that are more geared for one of the categories: casual, group, and raid. The casual areas require less of a contiguous time commitment and you don't need a full group. The grouping areas, well, require you to group. Think classic, old school grouping. Then the raid areas, well that's pretty obvious.

    Both risk and reward will be present, however, so one shouldn't expect to see as much of a reward in a casual area vs a group area. It's something to do when you have less time, and it should be fun, but you're not going to get the fiery scimitar of ultimate doom in a casual region.

    Also, our crafting system is there and arguably just as important as the adventuring side of things. So if your buddies aren't on one evening yet you still want to play, you could go and hone your crafting skills, and then return to adventuring the next evening when the guild logs on and off you go.

    The interface and character class selection is also somewhat newbie oriented if you want it to be. We don't want to beat the noob over the head with all the depth and detail of the game right off the bat. It's intimidating. So if you choose the noob path to character creation, expected to be gently led into the UI, the gameplay, etc.

    Basically, we want to remove as much tedium as possible, as well as barriers to entry. But, and this is key, we strongly feel this is NOT mutually exclusive with making a darn hard and challenging game. Battles will be tough. NPC AI will be smart. Lots of group tactics will be used, with even more collaboration then you've probably seen before, and an even more visceral feel.

    Dungeon crawls will be back, and those who risk the depths of these nasty areas and return alive will most likely have some pretty awesome loot.

    Death will have a sting, and it's mostly classic corpse retrieval with a few variations like we'll make it easier to find your corpse, yet you'll still have to fight to it. Also, corpses will never truly deteriorate as long as a certain amount of loot is on the corpse. And, the way the game is designed, you are expected and will need by a certain level to start putting together multiple sets of armor (gets into situational stuff that I can't talk a lot about now). In any case, the old 'gotta head back into the dungeon naked to my corpse' should pretty much go away, as you will have spare/alternate set(s) of equipment relatively nearby.

    Anyway, tough, yes. Rewarding, yes. Challenging, yes. Tedious, hopefully no. Camping, minimized the best we can. Travel, fun and dangerous in and of itself. Needing to group and work with others to really advance optimally and get the phat lewtz, yes.

  • mamasaidknockyouout #2 6 years ago

    just how blatantly can they rip off a hobbit's interior decoration before getting in trouble?

  • Sko #3 6 years ago

    When people throw around the phrase 'old school' too much, I start to worry. Still, it'll be interesting to see what they have planned to combat the dreaded 'tedium'.

  • jellyhead #4 6 years ago

    Good to see a dev try to break the tedium of levelling up, it's what has kept me away from mmorpg's so far, the tedium of levelling and the lack of any form of persistance or feeling that you've made a difference and that the world is a better place for it.

  • Sko #5 6 years ago

    You're probably onto a loser if you're looking for real persistance from MMORPGs. Any once-only content you have will be burnt through faster than you can say "Obsessive Hardcore Gamer Playing All The Hours God Sends In A Desperate Bid To Become 'Leet' Before Anyone Else".

  • Ceatlan #6 6 years ago

    You see as soon as he mentioned death penalties, I was instantly turned off. I don't have any interest, or time for that matter, in games that penalise me heavily for making mistakes or taking risks. Its one of the main reasons why I have never got past playing the early levels of most characters in any MMORPG. I'm OK to begin with where progress is at a reasonable rate and death penalties and the like only set you back less than an hours game time, but at later levels where progess slows and death can mean hours of game time down the drain I lose interest completely.

    Its also alright saying you want character progression to be at the core of your concept, but its then no good if you slow down that aspect of the game at later levels because if you do whats left for the interest the player in the short term.

    I think a much better attitude is to have a system where early on when a character is weak, then yes character progression should be at the core of the experience, however as the character developes there should be a swing to story being the core experience since the character is able to have more of an effect on the world in which they live. Kind of like how when you're a new army recruit, training and progression up the career path are at the core of your being, but once you reach brigadier general its become more about the effect you have on the army/wars as a whole that has become more important.

    Ceatlan
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/05 @ 15:49

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #7 6 years ago

    Vanguard: SoH is another eagerly awaited 2006 mmorpg, it's in Beta phase 2 at the moment, with 2 more phases to go before it goes live. The two more phases are the real big ones, but it means the game is largely complete, to some degree.

    2.2.1 What stage of Beta are you in right now? How many people are already in Beta?

    Vanguard is in Beta 2 (as of January 2006). Beta dates have not been announced; neither has Sigil revealed the process of selecting participants. Sigil has also not released any information regarding system requirements, the selection process or any other details regarding Beta.

    Currently, as of January 2006, there are over 4,000 people involved beta testing Vanguard.

  • Yama #8 6 years ago

    Everquest 2 called, they want their art direction back.