Me; I want a game that can keep me coming back every day for years. I'm fucking sick of all the crap games made for short attention span, can't be bothered to put any effort into anything, mother fuckers that hop around from one game to another like the energizer rabbit on meth.
Vanguard - I don't give a fuck if it's dead, It's still brown as fuck (Download link in 1st post)
- Thread starter TheYanger
- Start date
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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I haven't been shy sharing my love for this game, but Too Much Brown was one of the most fun guilds I've ever been apart of in my MMO career.
Playing with a static group every day and a couple rotating members in our parties, it was awesome. We had no real plans on where we went, just went and killed shit (along with armor quests). We'd hear some rumor that there was a tomb in a certain area and off we went. That's how these games should be made. Not this crap with 30,000,000 quests and doing it all solo and shit.
Playing with a static group every day and a couple rotating members in our parties, it was awesome. We had no real plans on where we went, just went and killed shit (along with armor quests). We'd hear some rumor that there was a tomb in a certain area and off we went. That's how these games should be made. Not this crap with 30,000,000 quests and doing it all solo and shit.
I think people forget there are a lot more costs to keep a game running than just the servers or the people actively working on it. Even when something is in maintenance mode, there are groups outside of the game team doing work. As an example, if our back end systems change, then someone needs to go in and make changes to the game code to remain compatible with the back end systems. If that game doesn't have anyone working on it, then someone needs to stop what they're currently working on, and get back up to speed on how the other game's systems work, then make changes, then those all need to be tested, run through QA, etc, etc, etc. It becomes a cascading effect on costs vs return.
Xinux
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 91
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Completely understandable it's just a shame that it got to this point.
Yup we will never see the source unless someone leaks it and yea i think they probably would have still sunset the game. Now what they could do if they wanted to is release the contents of the Database which i was really wanted to see it wouldn't even have to be anything pretty and if they wanted to throw the opcode table in i would appreciate it.
Now on to what has been going on lately Xen is almost done figuring out all unreal classes and has successfully spawned a ship.
Foof is almost done implementing the lua system for scripting.
Volt our newest developer for a get familiar task has implemented the /who system in-game
John and myself are busy going through the massive amount of collected data we have trying to see if we have missed anything game breaking. We know we are going to be missing allot of information not much we can do about that unless sony want's to help out (Hey i can dream LOL).
We are more then happy to listen to any idea that the community would like to see changed/altered. For instance it was brought up by multiple people that they wanted a world wide chat channel so we implemented one for them since it was quick and easy to do. We have also implemented the original starting locations as a option for players. We are really big into have rules setup so that it's easy to change aspects of the game without having to make sweeping code changes. John really wants npc to turn and look at you when you talk to them so that is on our list as a new feature to add to the game.
I have a few videos that i have done if you wanted to take a look and i'll do another one some time after sunset with everything we have implemented so far in-game.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7q...zbebOl23C6VQow
I'll try and keep everyone updated on our progress.
Fair enough, so I guess during that time VG was in maintanence mode, SOE did not do any back end changes? Also the only backend system I could see where this would cause problems is how the SOE accounts interface with the various games to collect a sub or whatever. Basically what you are saying is, even if SOE were to just leave VG with no real updates, they would still have to expend the resources to keep it compatible with SOE's account system.
OR SOE would have had to isolate it from everything else and develop a whole new account system and POS system for it which also would have probably cost more that SOE was willing to spend. Not to mention existing customers would not want to lose their characters so someone would have had to transfer those charaters from your existing SOE account to the newly developed VG stand alone account... over all just not worth it.
All that is understandable, but I still say had the maintanence mode not occurred originally, the player base may still be high enough to make VG profitable, unless it never really was, then thats a whole other story but if that were true than I imagine SOE would have sunset VG long ago.
Daidraco
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Vanguard had some great concepts, but just about the whole game was a mess. If they ever made money on it, it wasnt much. Especially after adding in the original dev costs for the game etc. Its always sad to see an MMO go, because it usually means you wont ever be able to play it, or play it again - unlike a single player game.
Ive always believed that if an MMO does so poorly that it has to be shut down, then there should be no issue making the code, and assets for said game, open source. With of course, a clause stating that any of it cannot be used for profit. Its a shame that people have to dedicate massive amounts of time just to keep a game alive for a few thousand people, tops. When the project being open source would do wonders for the companies press, especially in Sony's case.
Ive always believed that if an MMO does so poorly that it has to be shut down, then there should be no issue making the code, and assets for said game, open source. With of course, a clause stating that any of it cannot be used for profit. Its a shame that people have to dedicate massive amounts of time just to keep a game alive for a few thousand people, tops. When the project being open source would do wonders for the companies press, especially in Sony's case.
popsicledeath
Potato del Grande
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The problem is SOE bought Vanguard hoping to cash in on a financial crisis based on the word of a friend, site unseen, etc. They took the risk that it was in rough shape, but wouldn't take much for them to make it work. Basically, the MMO equivalent of flipping a house. The problem is despite all the promises and the house looking fine at a distance, the foundation was cracked. Sure, we all wished they'd have done a complete renovation, but adding risk upon a risk that already didn't pan out isn't something even SOE is dumb enough to do.
Had Vanguard not been so fucked up on a foundational level, they probably would have been willing to put the money into it. Instead, they tried to stick to the budget for an ideal scenario, and when that obviously didn't work out, repeatedly, they finally gave up (repeatedly).
If Brad had even gotten the game CLOSE to complete or fixable, I bet we'd have still ended up with a solid, respected Vanguard. Instead, the game was so functionally broken it was never going anywhere and the only way SOE ever bought it was because they too were tricked.
At least that's what I gathered from years of playing and putting all the stories and rumors together.
Had Vanguard not been so fucked up on a foundational level, they probably would have been willing to put the money into it. Instead, they tried to stick to the budget for an ideal scenario, and when that obviously didn't work out, repeatedly, they finally gave up (repeatedly).
If Brad had even gotten the game CLOSE to complete or fixable, I bet we'd have still ended up with a solid, respected Vanguard. Instead, the game was so functionally broken it was never going anywhere and the only way SOE ever bought it was because they too were tricked.
At least that's what I gathered from years of playing and putting all the stories and rumors together.
popsicledeath
Potato del Grande
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Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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It wasn't. Unless you just looked at screenshots or something. The world was massive with so many nooks and crannies.
popsicledeath
Potato del Grande
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Quaid
Trump's Staff
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Oh come on. Compare the major cities to Darnassus and Stormwind. Compare the Tauren to the Raki. The game was DOA when you compare it to other products available. It just wasnt sexy at all.
I mean ya, SOME of the dungeons were top notch, and the world's scale is unmatched. The classes are some of the best in the industry to this day. But fuck me the world was lame. Ya, the nooks and crannies were cool. I remember stumbling on that sunken ship/siren dungeon with the dancing skeletons, and that was one of my favorite MMORPG experiences ever. But do you remember the first time you climbed the ramp to Ironforge, and then stepped through the threshold? How about your first Griffin ride? Do you remember the first time you entered the immensity of Blackrock Mountain? Hell, compare your first 5 hours of gameplay in WoW to your first 5 in Vanguard. How many players even got through that chunk of gameplay in Vanguard to discover the 'nooks and crannies' that were the real joy of that game? That was where the game failed in comparison its competition.
I played vanguard for about a year, and felt the same way the whole time. It's a real shame, because the developers at Sigil really knew how to create a deep MMORPG experience... they just had really really bad taste.
Why were the elevator always broken in this game? Thats something I'd like to know. (You'd see other character models freak out)
It sounds like Vanguard was canned because SoE went to the all subs = Station Pass route. A number of major changes happened all at once which makes me think there were some kind of strategic review on existing games. For me at least they couldn't have made poorer choices :
i) can VG
ii) make EQ1 content up to the last three expansions redundant (neuter numerous classes soloing and swarming ability while we're in with a new broom)
iii) increase the sub price but make them all Station Pass
My guess would be around about now is when it will start seriously biting them in the ass and EQ1s demise will accelerate.
i) can VG
ii) make EQ1 content up to the last three expansions redundant (neuter numerous classes soloing and swarming ability while we're in with a new broom)
iii) increase the sub price but make them all Station Pass
My guess would be around about now is when it will start seriously biting them in the ass and EQ1s demise will accelerate.
Sub price wasn't increased. We just made every game included if you subscribed to one game.
Rafterman
Molten Core Raider
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I don't think the game not being sexy enough or lame had anything to do with it's problems. The world was one of the best in any MMO ever IMO, it was just destroyed by technical issues and the sheer amount of shit that people had to deal with on a daily basis while playing. I had more "oh wow" moments playing and exploring the world in Vanguard than I ever did playing WoW, and if it had a tenth of the polish that WoW, or any modern MMO really, it wouldn't be shutting down and many of us would still be playing.
Vanguard would have been canned either way. At any point when you log in there's like 12 people in any area. I'm shocked when I see anything over 20.
Quaid
Trump's Staff
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We'll just have to agree to disagree, since it's a question of personal taste.
I think Telon is about as bland as Grandma's meatloaf.