Vanguard Free to Play is Up!!

Vanguard is up a week early!!

http://www.vanguardthegame.com/

I'll have to give that a shot when I clear up some hard drive space. I remember the classes being interesting and the crafting being cool. Always wanted a boat and house and whatnot.

Thanks for the heads up. I was logging on to see about the buzz for The Secret World but may check this out first instead.

I've never heard about this till now...well anything thats free is at least worth a shot. Let the download commence!

Ha! This was the first MMO I ever played, and really it was the start of my move from playing mostly Civ-type games to RPGs. I played from launch for about a year or 2 after that. Spent a lot of time in the game, but never got any of my characters up above level 35ish.

Man, I have so many memories from this game. As much as it got panned (and deservedly so), I still had a good time playing. In the end, though, it just got lonely as the population on the server I played (the only FFA PvP one, I think...Sartok) dropped into the double digits during my play times. The game totally spoiled me on classes (Disciple, Blood Mage, Psionisit) and the crafting. The MMOs I've played since have never had anything as good as those things for me.

Downloading now. I wonder if my characters are still around.

I did enjoy the psionist.

I could be wrong, but I think the early launch of free to play is only for people with already-existing accounts.

Greetings Telonians!

In case you haven't seen the news, we've announced the official date for the Vanguard Saga of Heroes free-to-play launch: Tuesday, August 14, 2012!

We didn't want to keep you - our most loyal and dedicated Vanguard citizens - waiting any longer, so we've released all of the free-to-play features for you to experience FIRST!

I downloaded it overnight so I'll be checking it out this evening I guess.

I remember having a ton of fun with a Bard (I believe that was the class name). You could "compose songs" that would give your team different buffing effects. I thought that was neat. Almost every class had an interesting mechanic going for it.

I may give this a try again, since I'm just pretty much waiting for GW2 to come out anyways.

I prefer the DDO type FTP model where a one time fee unlocks areas / perks etc. This one seems to have just the "Gold Member" option for a monthly rate.
I rolled a human monk which shouldn't have any level cap restrictions but I'll also to try some capped race and class combos. I see that some items require the membership to use as well.
Call me crazy but I kind of dig the old EQ style of skill advancement where they increase through use.

Tough to find unused first names.
Look up Macswell Silverhammer if anyone needs a lowbie to pal around with.

I tried it around 2009 (after dumping it after 5 min in beta) and was very conflicted about it. I loved that it was a huge, open world with gorgeous vistas and crazy little pockets of interesting things going on. It was very empty, though, and it felt rather depressing. It felt like it would have been a lot more fun with more people running around.

Also I hated the diplomacy mini-game thing. The crafting was an admirable attempt at something better, but I felt it fell short of EQ2's revamped crafting system even while it was somewhat similar.

I'll probably check it out as a filler until GW2 launch.

Dr_Awkward wrote:

Tough to find unused first names.

Odd, I got the first one I tried. A rogue named Lamora, after Locke Lamora. The game runs kinda poopy on my laptop, so I may not be playing much after all. Will try and tweak it a bit later.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Dr_Awkward wrote:

Tough to find unused first names.

Odd, I got the first one I tried. A rogue named Lamora, after Locke Lamora. The game runs kinda poopy on my laptop, so I may not be playing much after all. Will try and tweak it a bit later.

I just finished this book. Loved it!

Khoram wrote:

I tried it around 2009 (after dumping it after 5 min in beta) and was very conflicted about it. I loved that it was a huge, open world with gorgeous vistas and crazy little pockets of interesting things going on. It was very empty, though, and it felt rather depressing.

Whats worse is even with it empty and with a highend machine back then the game would perform like crap in certain areas.

ranalin wrote:

Whats worse is even with it empty and with a highend machine back then the game would perform like crap in certain areas.

This was the problem for me.

I see that most people in this thread are mostly oldtimers, but for the benefit of anyone new-ish, Vanguard was the subject of a particularly scathing (non)review back in the day.

Elysium wrote:

So, what's wrong with Vanguard? How long you got?
...
To the guys who made Vanguard and for whatever reason maybe put themselves through reading this, I'm sorry to kick your baby down the stairs, but too many game writers these days are so busy tap dancing around offending someone in the industry that they've lost sight of telling consumers not to buy mediocre games. And, finally, to the reader who is wondering if Vanguard is worth playing, had I to do it all over again I sure wouldn't, and my copy was free.

You it is funny as I am reminded of that Dazed and Confused line: "Highschool chicks, I keep getting older but they still stay the same." (or something to that effect)

The reason I mention that is that Vanguard's performance keeps getting better and better with new, powerful computer hardware. (that is not completely fair since the devs have made several performance tweaks over the years) So despite a few troublesome locations, the game is very playable.

I am still confused by a design decision where an invisible zone wall in the middle of the desert is better than instancing. *shrugs*

But it did/does have some of the best classes in mmo to date. I say did/does because I played the trial again a few weeks back and despite forward thinking features, like an offensive and defensive target, the game is dated in a lot of the combat animation vs. target reaction disconnects. Also some of the uniqueness of the classes have been evolved in other games from RIFT, SWTOR to even GW2. The Bard is still a standout for sure with its song making mechanic. But the ranger, blood mage, cleric, shaman, paladin, psionicist, monk, druid, and even the storied disciple have been done better in games that are a few years old now.

Come to think of it, RIFT pretty much killed any draw to Vanguard's unique classes. If RIFT's individual souls didn't surpass Vanguard's classes by themselves, then the flexibility of mixed soul system certainly landed a haymaker to each and every one.

side note: it is free, however!

fangblackbone wrote:

I am still confused by a design decision where an invisible zone wall in the middle of the desert is better than instancing. *shrugs*

Oh! So that's what an invisible barrier looks like.

One thing they are doing that I like is that the locked races and classes can be played up to level 20 for free. I think that goes a long way to giving players an idea of whether they want to purchase a class or race. They will probably get more race/class sales this way.

I actually enjoyed getting a psionicist to lvl 10 in all three disciplines (diplomacy, crafting, adventuring) on the Isle of Dawn (newb island). Then I used a rift stone and rode my horsie over to the Dark Elf home city.

Let's just say that gameplay becomes a lot less...focused after the starter island. Was especially sad to ride for 45 minutes or so and not see a single harvesting node. I suspect that Vanguard will not be a game I continue playing with GW II out and a lifetime sub to TSW. Still, the starter experience was enjoyable.

Vanguard's a game that should still get some positive press and players who like the old-school feel.

downloading now, is there more than one server?

2 servers - 1 euro and 1 US

ok, nevermind, the graphics are awful and dated and that is with everything turned up as high as it would go.

They probably could have made some decent money off it a year or two ago...