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Topic: Vanguard: Round 1 - FIGHT! (Read 182135 times)
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Ixxit
Terracotta Army
Posts: 238
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(I admit I'm a flayer fan). Heh, me too. I remember DMing 'Vault of the Drow' back in the day, and loved watching the players scramble when they encountered one.
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I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
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Lt.Dan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 758
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So, to celebrate their first month the wise folks at Sigil threw in a double XP weekend. Unfortunately, I missed it and logging in last night I see my regular guild group now 3-4 levels ahead of me and running their level appropriate dungeon. No worries says I, I'll just grab a few folks in the area and knock over these group quests. Oh, one other person in my level range (level 13 psionicist too). Hmm that's tricky on 4 dot mobs. Lets grind a level he says. No thanks says I, I've done my grinding apprenticeship in DAoC and it'll be a cold day in hell before I camp spawns for xp.
When I read someone's comment in a Vanguard thread on these very board saying "I don't want to be that guy", I thought "that's a spot-on comment - I don't want to be that guy". And now I am.
I'll give it another go tonight but really the writing is on the wall. The good news is that I was able to cancel the recurring sub before it ticked over into month #2.
PS I think I'm posting a goobye post since there was some elements to the game that I enjoyed. The first ten levels were interesting, diplomacy was interesting, I enjoyed their take on a couple of standard classes, some of the starting areas were well done, and to some degree (YMMV) I enjoyed the gameplay (needing good pulling, relearning aggro management, etc).
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Calantus
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2389
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So, to celebrate their first month the wise folks at Sigil threw in a double XP weekend. Unfortunately, I missed it and logging in last night I see my regular guild group now 3-4 levels ahead of me and running their level appropriate dungeon.
That is so very amusing in a "what a fucking trainwreck" kind of way. It's just so funny how they didn't realise the implications this could have and just saw it as a nice little bonus for everyone.
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11844
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So, to celebrate their first month the wise folks at Sigil threw in a double XP weekend. Unfortunately, I missed it and logging in last night I see my regular guild group now 3-4 levels ahead of me and running their level appropriate dungeon.
That is so very amusing in a "what a fucking trainwreck" kind of way. It's just so funny how they didn't realise the implications this could have and just saw it as a nice little bonus for everyone. What happened to sidekicking? Every mmog from here out was supposed to have sidekicking. Or is this on the pile of 'lessons that have to be relearnt from scratch every damn time'?
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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So, to celebrate their first month the wise folks at Sigil threw in a double XP weekend. Unfortunately, I missed it and logging in last night I see my regular guild group now 3-4 levels ahead of me and running their level appropriate dungeon.
That is so very amusing in a "what a fucking trainwreck" kind of way. It's just so funny how they didn't realise the implications this could have and just saw it as a nice little bonus for everyone. What happened to sidekicking? Every mmog from here out was supposed to have sidekicking. Or is this on the pile of 'lessons that have to be relearnt from scratch every damn time'? Their solution to this problem was that "shared experience" thingy which they got rid of before release cause it was broken.
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11844
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Their solution to this problem was that "shared experience" thingy which they got rid of before release cause it was broken.
Shame they didn't think to apply that logic to the rest of the game.  Sorry.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Engels
Terracotta Army
Posts: 9029
inflicts shingles.
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Its a serious problem for the game. My sweetie and I are having trouble keeping within the level range of my guild's core players. Don't get me wrong, these players do all sorts of other things to slow down their own leveling for our sake, from playing alts, to crafting, to diplomacy, whathave you. But in the end, they are starting to feel they are not playing the game for our sake, and when we get on, we feel obliged to run off to some grindy area just to catch up.
This in in the toon's teen levels. Even EQ wasn't this nuts in the teens, was it?
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I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something. -Signe
I LIKE being bounced around by Tonkors. - Lantyssa
Babies shooting themselves in the head is the state bird of West Virginia. - schild
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shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
the plural of mangina
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This in in the toon's teen levels. Even EQ wasn't this nuts in the teens, was it?
Actually, it was. When I started a new character with a new guild in EQ1 in 2001, I was part of that nightly guild group and we quickly had half the guild who played less or at different hours falling behind well before level 20. A year later, I was the guy who was falling behind as my gaming time was impacted. In VG, because I missed the last week and the bonus exp weekend (I was on vacation), I have dropped from the bottom half of my guild level-wise to the bottom quintile. I will never catch-up now and will probably abandon the game as a result. I tried VG because I wanted a good group-centric option but the most efficient way for me to level now is solo. Population can solve this problem, but Vanguard is seriously lacking there. Plus, the death penalty is fucking brutal if you cannot get back to your corpse, making pick-up groups dangerous.
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I have never played WoW.
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11844
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This in in the toon's teen levels. Even EQ wasn't this nuts in the teens, was it?
I think EQ was worse, it just mitigated things a little because the death penalty was still workable at that level, and population density was higher. The same problem was there in Daoc and other non-sidekick games too.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Nija
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2136
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They should give everyone 10 hours worth of double exp per week, and a switch to activate it. Make it rollover, like cell phone minutes. Make it account based instead of character based, so you can spend your 10 hours worth of double exp catching up to your guild group, and they can either save their 10 hours or make alts.
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Nebu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 17613
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I'm sure this is a painful rehash, but when I see "Double xp" I read "not enough fun and engaging content".
Vanguard is a pretty fun game to level 15. After that, access to content was limited and the content that was available didn't seem all that different from content I had already experienced. CoH suffers a similar fate at about level 35 for me. The content doesn't really change much and the ability upgrades aren't incentive enough to press on. Both games are more "fun" if you simply remake toons and play them until the content similarities get to you. As much as I'm not a huge fan of WoW, they do a good job of varying content and quests to keep the progression moderately fresh.
Edit: I am so stupid... I just realized that I've described my subconscious acid test for every mmo I've played. Namely, the level at which I become VERY aware of the existence of my xp bar. The later I gain awareness, the better the early content.
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« Last Edit: March 06, 2007, 04:12:06 PM by Nebu »
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"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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HUGE patch. Not only they introduced new mobs, arts and areas as stated HERE. They went further, patched in lots of bug fixes, ui improvement, class balancing and, surprisingly, a TON of particle/spell effects for all classes that were sharing or missing them. Pretty curious to see if this will be noticeable or fluff. If you look jst for that it's in the last part of the notes ("Art Notes" section). Game Update #1 March / 07 / 2007
Game Update #1 is now live!
This update is larger than most patches and is a great opportunity to read the patch notes as we’ve added quite a few things!
Please Read: With Game Update #1 Customer Support now has an upgraded petition system to better assist players. As a result of the changes made to the petition system all open petitions have been closed. If you still have an issue that you need assistance with please re-petition the issue when you log into the game.
For more information about Game Update #1 please visit the Game Updates Page and read the patch notes below!
GAMEPLAY NOTES
- Experience is now lost (or debt is applied) when you release or are resurrected, instead of at the moment of death. - You can now gain skill both on success and on failure, instead of only on success. This should make gaining skill with weapons you haven't used before at higher levels significantly easier. - Dark Elves now start at -8100 faction with Celestine Ward like all other “misunderstood” races instead of -8200 - Abilities which cause damage over time that are not in the same spell line should now stack. - Melee and Ranged direct attacks have had a bug fixed that was causing them to do around double damage. Direct attacks are one type of melee attack that do not use weapon damage and strength damage directly, the are most often used with abilities that do not have damage as their focus. - An attribute bonus soft cap bug was recently introduced related to healing and damage bonuses. When a player hit their soft cap their total magnitude was dropping significantly. This issue has been resolved and the damage bonus soft cap is functioning as intended again. - While levitating far above terrain or water and not attempting to move down, you will now descend twice as fast as you did before. Attempting to move down continues to allow you to get down even faster. - Some skill buffs that were counting against the available points in a skill pool no longer do so. - The Halfling racial ability, Shroud of the Vale, will now also make the caster invisible for a fixed duration of 30 seconds. - The orc racial ability, Fury of Ghalnn has had its duration changed from the next 5 attacks, to a fixed 7 seconds. - Refresh timers for NPC snare, stun, and damage over time spells have been increased - Food items no longer display two icons. The effect has not changed. - Fix for faction wars. Some NPC abilities were causing NPCs to generate a small amount of hate with nearby allied NPCs, which resulted in those NPCs fighting each other once their primary target was dead or had escaped. This hate is no longer generated, preventing these wars from breaking out. - PVP - PVP deaths will no longer leave you still dead after you release until you log out. - Enabled the option to release spirit and spawn at altar or bind point on PVP death. Releasing to altar drops a corpse, releasing to bind does not. All other aspects of the rulesets remain the same. - Player Housing -The construction site now shows the proper display name of the building being constructed. - You can now inspect other players construction sites getting basic info about their plot and what they are building. - Other players can now contribute to a construction site. However, owners still only have the ability to "complete" construction. - Closing the Create Permission window via the X button will no longer leave the window in a state where it can not be opened again. - The Travel Journal now will contain an entry for the location of your house. - Buildings in the construction window now show additional stats such as max fixtures and max chests. - An indication has to how many upkeep payments you have missed has been added. - Upkeep Bank coin values will now also show as red text when negative in additional to the negative value. - When an upkeep payment is missed, you will not receive an additional notification via in game mail. - Fixed an issue where building construction sites were only visible if you were within 50meters of them.
ADVENTURING NOTES
- Bard - Bards can no longer throw ranged spears/javelins - Bard songs should now correctly apply themselves to the bard and his group members, at a minimum, when entering crowded locations such as the Ruins of Vol Tuniel, or the Brownie Storehouse in Tursh. - Tynen’s snaring components will no longer stack with one another and are now resistable. - Blood Mage - Sanguine Focus now grants regeneration, no longer reduces heal effectiveness on the blood mage, and increases mitigation correctly. - Bloodmage hit point factor has been increased bringing them much closer to the hit point levels of other healer classes. Previously, their hit points were more like those of a pure caster. - Blood Tribute should now be triggered by all damage spells. - Blood Tribute now has no refresh time. - Your forms will no longer refresh every time you gain a blood union point. - Cleric - Auto-attack damage and melee special attack damage has been significantly increased. - The rune portion of Spiritual Guardian now lasts 5 seconds or 1 hit, whichever comes first. - Disciple - Auto-attack damage and melee special attack damage has been significantly increased. - Dread Knight - Dread Knights can now throw spears/javelins - Druid - Druid chains have changed. All finishing moves should now become available after any spell (except phenomena) crits. - Significantly reduced the refresh time on all finishers. - Monk - Aum of the Harmonious Body should now grant upgrades to Deadly Adder Hand at appropriate levels. - Aum of the Harmonious Body should no longer give incorrect error messages. - Monk base damage has been slightly increased.
- Necromancer - Removed some abilities from trainers that were not supposed to be so easy to access. - Reduced the conversion rate for Life Draught I and II. - Necromancer chains have changed. All finishing moves should now become available after any spell crits. - Added a new ability line to Necromancers: “Bone Chill”. Check your trainers! - Significantly reduced the refresh time on all finishers. - Paladin - Aura of Shielding now actually gives you 40% increases hate instead of a fraction of that. - Strike of Gloriann now costs 10 endurance - Vothdar’s Mighty Stoke now costs 10 endurance. - Stroke of Conviction now costs 10 endurance - The effects of Vothdar’s Mighty Strike now lasts for 5 minutes, up from 40 seconds. - The effects of Strike of Gloriann now lasts for 5 minutes, up from 40 seconds. - Guardian’s Assault now deals direct damage instead of a percentage of weapon damage. Lowered the endurance cost. - Fixed an issue with Guardian’s assault not applying all of the hate it was supposed to. - Guardian’s assault now progresses differently to provide a more smooth damage and hate progression. New levels are: 14, 22, 30, 38 and 46. Visit your trainer to learn the latest version. - Holy Strike now progresses differently to provide a more smooth damage progression. New levels are: 1, 8, 16, 24, 32, 40 and 48. Visit your trainer to learn the latest version. - Vanquish now deals much more damage and is usable on opponents who are below 15% life. - Vanquish now costs 10 endurance. - Psionicist - Psionicist chains have changed. All finishing moves should now become available after any spell crits. - Added a new ability line to Psionicists: “Temporal Fracture”. Check your trainers! - Significantly reduced the refresh time on all finishers. - Telekinetic Blast now deals less damage to the caster. - Concentrations no longer incur global recovery when activated. - Concentrations now have a 2 second shared refresh timer. - Ranger - Entangling Web now states that it is a conjuration spell and not an alteration spell - Rogue - Reduced the movement penalty caused by stalking significantly - The various stalking forms will now display their progressing buff effects - Added an increased chance to crit to the final stage of stalking. - Added Shroud of Shadows to trainers at level 50 - Added Elusive Foe as an innate ability earned at level 50 - Added Imperil to trainers at level 50 - Rogue base damage has been slightly decreased. - Rogues have had a mitigation adjustment moving their mitigation effectiveness closer to other light fighters. - Shaman - Shamans can now throw spears/javelins - All versions of Spirit Strike are now 2 second casts - Hayatet Totemic abilities that previously cost mana no longer do. - Changed the endurance cost of Firestorm to 40 - Changed the endurance cost of Phoenix Fury to 10 - Changed the endurance cost of Breath of Immolation to 25 - Changed the endurance cost of Ignite to 17 - Acuity is now trainable at level 18. Levels of other version of Acuity have changed so you may need to commune with Hayatet to gain the latest one. - Acuity now buffs intelligence. - A small amount of the regeneration portion of Acuity now stacks with other energy regen buffs. - Burning Mantle has been moved to level 26. The first version has been changed to Smoldering Mantle and is no longer available on vendors and has remained a level 18 spell. If you have this spell you will keep it. If you have yet to earn Burning Mantle you will need to wait until level 26 to gain it. - Fire Claw is now available at level 15. - Changed the endurance cost of Fire Claw to 20. - All Offensive flavored Totemic Gifts should now cost less mana. - Shaman chains have changed. All finishing moves should now become available after any spell crits. - Significantly reduced the refresh time on all finishers. - Sorcerer - Sorcerer chains have changed. With the exception of Mimic, all finishing moves should now become available after any spell crits. - Significantly reduced the refresh time on all finishers. - Cast time on Invisibility is now 3 seconds, down from 6 and its range has been increased from 5m to 25m. - Elemental Mantle’s energy cost has been reduced. It has been changed to affect only your defensive target. - Decreased the energy cost of Arcane Mantle significantly. - Warrior - The Defensive Stance tool tip erroneously stated that it increased block chance by 15%. It was actually 5% and not working correctly. Changed the tooltip and fixed the ability.
CRAFTING NOTES
- Ammo enhancements should now display their damage type enhancement in the description. - Crafted ammo and thrown items should now display their damage type properly. - Half Elves should now have their racial crafting/harvesting bonus. - Updated crafting gear that has an effect added should now show the effects correctly - Horseshoes - Crafted horseshoes are now all no drop. - Horseshoe recipes will now produce horseshoe packs that cannot be equipped but when right clicked will add the proper horseshoe to the inventory of the clicker. The stats of the horseshoe that will be created should display on the horseshoe pack as well. - Fixed cloth armor recipes that were allowing invalid types of leather lining to be used. - The Rindol Field Medal is now more powerful. - Some crafting items have had helpful information added to the tooltip of the beneficial spell effect icon. - Varryn Dunes now gives you Kojani faction for work orders completed there. - A new quest for higher level artificers has been added to the Varryn Dunes outpost. - Decreased orb and sphere requirements for Artificer bow recipes. - Adjusted skill requirements for quantity actions. - Many advanced work order items have had their descriptions and icons updated. - The Tanvu outfitter tutorial now has you turn in the assembled needle as intended instead of doing the work order over again. - You can no longer deconstruct Infinium items - Increased drop rate of pure magic orbs by 20% on deconstruction. - The quest “Dear Sister” has had its experience reward increased. - The members of the Imperial Trade Organization are now more talkative about their jobs and the I.T.O. in general. - Item requirements for the “preview quest” of each crafting organization have been adjusted. - Crafted items that are made with only an attuning enhancer have had their attributes adjusted. Attribute values should now be consistent regardless of whether a resonating enhancer was used or not. - Items crafted with only an attuning enhancer that adds STR, CON or DEX now have a health bonus. - Items crafted with only an attuning enhancer that adds INT, VIT or WIS now have an energy bonus. - Some additional modifications to stat allocations are underway to compensate for expensive bonuses not showing up on low level items. - Sage’s Agony and its upgrades should not equip correctly on items - Dust, powder, and shards of devastation have all been removed from deconstruction tables as they were not used before tier 5. The current items have been changed to cash loot - The quest “The Herbalist’s Equipment” has had its rewards changed. - Ultra rare tier 2 resources have been removed from tables as they were not supposed to drop in the first place. - All tier 2 ultra rare resources can be converted into tier 2 rare resources by right clicking them - If you take the style-learning quest, and don’t yet have the first basic refining recipe, you should be given it so you are able to finish the quest. - The quest “Tursh Supplies” for outfitters has had the type of jute cloth requested changed. - A few of Argus’s work orders were asking for incorrect tools. This has been fixed. - Novice and Amateur Qalian Martial Staffs have been added to trainers. - Qalian artificer trainers now offer the amateur shaft recipe. - Thestran artificer trainers now offer the amateur club recipe. - High level secondary components for outfitters have been added to some Kojan trainers. - Eralis should now offer the quest to locate the Qalian amateur artificer trainer. - “Learning Qalian Style” quest recipe for outfitters now displays the proper amount of required jute. - “Fresh Cloth” quest is now acceptable at a lower level. - Focusing items have had their allocation fixed, the previous change set the allocation heavy on the attribute side instead of setting it heavy on the focus side - Amateur tier quest crafted item totals have been lowered slightly. - The item the special recipe Seer’s Amulet produces has been updated. - Gwartak Clan crafted items now require more resources. - Gwartak Clan short sword now actually short. - The power of Gwartak Clan items has been adjusted. - The quest “Legendary Fiend Hunter's Weapon” has been added. - Saddlebag and rare saddlebag recipes have now been consolidated and made to work like normal bag recipes work. (Existing rare saddlebag recipes will be removed from game next patch.) - Continental Effects should be attached to all items properly now. While the effect should display in the tooltip some tooltips may not have a description of the effect within. This is a known bug and will be resolved when item effect details are properly viewable in tooltips - Fixed complications that were using wrong skills - Hopefully resolved brilliant work CTD issue - Renamed build complications for injury and bubbling. - The crafting factions in New Targonor and Ahgram now begin offering membership at an earlier level. - The rewards for the crafting faction quests have been adjusted. - Some quest recipes were giving experience for a process completion when they shouldn’t have been. This has been fixed. - The preview quest for each crafting faction has been changed. Please check your logs if you are on this quest. - The advanced work order recipes for the Black Diamond Mercenaries have more action points now. - An issue with the quest “Experimental Equipment” not advancing has been fixed. - Fixed an error preventing quest progression with the quests “Resource Research” and “Skullduggery.” - The Custom Experimental Apron was incorrectly set to only blacksmiths. It is now usable by everyone as intended. - The quests “New Inventions”, “Royal Order”, and “Fresh Victims” now have coin rewards in addition to the item reward for completion. - The Qalian and Thestran caravel recipes can now be successfully completed.
DIPLOMACY NOTES
- Problems with the quest “Increasing Fares” have been resolved. - Diplomacy clothing has been standardized. Weights should now be more consistent and logical across the board. Bad display models and attachment points have been fixed and icons have been standardized. - Tahean’s Vengeance - New 12 presence quest, “Deposing Sage Marin,” available at Tahean's Vengeance. - The Statements Snippet of Wisdom, Line of Reasoning, Extol Virtues, and Fan the Flames should now display the appropriate symbol overhead when played. - Quests - Blood And Seals: The Presence requirements on this quest have been upped to 12, but the skil levels have been lowered to 50. - Further text has been added to the quest summary to clear up confusion about the location of the Spectral Scholars in “A History of the Raki.” - Measures have been taken to ensure that Mesmerized Takuni no longer follows you when you are finished with “Bring Him Home.” - Diplomacy quests now work similarly to adventuring quests in that there will be red shields above the heads of NPC’s with quests you do not quite qualify for. Quest levels will also now be displayed on the quests. - Writs have been deactivated in Bordinar’s Cleft while we work on newer, better Writs. - Stack size for all Information is now 500. - Hido Kani Dawnstar is now no longer on Lomshir faction, and should no longer flip out like a Rai’jin whenever he sees, er, gnomes. - Many Diplomacy items have had increased Presence rewards placed on them, especially Chest items.
HARVESTING NOTES
- The Harvester Pyrite Axe now requires harvesting skill to use. - Harvestable mobs should now produce resources consistent with the level of the mob.
QUEST NOTES
- Ghostly Burning Essence for the quest “Flames of the Past” now has the correct icon in the inventory - Mapping the Mine - Fixed a big in the quest line where location 2 would not update - By Night – Despawn timer on the Large Stalking Wolf has been lowered, so players should be less likely to run into a mob they cannot hit. - Southwatch - Missives in Southwatch are no longer shareable. - “Task for Southwatch: Red Sparrow Bandit Camps” has had its requirement to complete increased. - “Task for Southwatch: Wild Griffons” has had its requirement to complete increased. - “Task for Southwatch: Creatures in the Hills” has had its requirement to complete increased. - “Task for Southwatch: Harry the Undead” has had its requirement to complete increased. - “Task for Southwatch: Eradicate the Plague Vermin” has had its requirement to complete increased. - “Task for Southwatch: Timber of the Dead” has had its requirement to complete increased. - Marsh of Peril - The weapon upgrades in Marsh of Peril now require 300 motes of ancient power. - The warrior belt ritual was incorrectly requiring the mid-tier catalyst despite the fact that it should require the lowest tier. This has been fixed. - Celestine Ward - Thorian Glowban will now offer a quest for classes that cannot use the ancient orb of moon and stars, and yet chose it as their quest reward. This quest will allow you to exchange the orb for a different reward. - Khegor’s End - The quest ‘Tome of Stone’ is now able to be completed. - Coastal Graveyard - The quest ‘It All Hinges on You’ is now able to be completed. You will have to abandon and retake the quest if it is already in your journal. - Wardship of the Sleeping Moon - Thorian Glowban will now continue to accept runes even after he is willing to give you complex ritual catalysts. - Thorian Glowban now offers a shield as a reward for completing the quest ‘Ancient Weapons of Leth Vareal. - Zaraj Arena - Added several quests to the Zaraj Arena.
WORLD POPULATION NOTES - Adventurers, be on the lookout! Additional overland rare/unique NPCs have been added to the Tursh/Rindol, Trengal Keep and Coastal Graveyard area. These creatures vary from two-dot solo to six-dot difficulty. - The Var Efreet of Afrit now like all races a whole lot less though none are KOS. Orcs, Goblins, Vulmane, Kurashasa, and Dark Elves rejoice as you for once, are liked more than other races. - Cragwind Ridge - Nebberzek and Xexxinez now spawn less frequently. - Jadeon will now start dropping loot again. - Marsh of Peril - Faction rewards from killing NPCs in the dungeons Vol Tuniel and Thelaseen have been increased by one point per NPC to further reward players who dungeon delve. NPCs that already granted multiple points of faction have also been increased by one to five points. - Lost Temple of Vol Tuniel - Relsom Serile has moved into the Recondite Threshold and will now happily offer his services as a ranged weapon vendor. - Celestine Ward - Llyn Serile has moved into the Celestine Ward and will now happily offer her services as a ranged weapon vendor. - Jathred’s Twist - The Vault of the Hidden has received an itemization and population pass. - Azebaj Hive - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often - Ceros Isle - Killing Rhinos should now update the Reckless Rhinos quests correctly. - Several rare NPCs on the island were missing their loot. This has been corrected. - Dargun’s Tomb - Several of the rare / named NCPs will appear more often - Gauthek Village - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often. - Karrus Alljur - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often. - Karrus Hakrel - Overland Camps - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often. - Ksaravi Gulch - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often. These NPCs will also appear after a time regardless of player interaction. - Ksaravi Hollow - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often - Lair of the Vi’Rak - The Vortex to the Lair of the Vi’Rak will now teleport your entire group if they are within range of the vortex. - The Vi’Rak Neophyte should now drop loot as intended - Mound of the Zihurr - Reduced the effort required to spawn the Ant Prince and Ant Queen in the Mound of the Zihurr. - Redcap Storehouse - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often. - Renton Keep - The Renton Keep Missive, “Task For Renton Keep: A Watchful Eye”, has had its coin reward reduced. - Trengal Keep - Several of the rare / named NPCs will appear more often. - Vol Tuniel - Rare NPCs in Vol Tuniel will now appear more often, enjoy! - Solathus the Armor of Vol Tuniel is now somewhat more difficult his loot has also been adjusted accordingly - Additional Rare NPCs have been added to the dungeon. Some of these new rares will appear when the dungeon has been uninhabited by players for a time period. - Kaon’s Rush - Overland population has been slightly decreased. - Zaraj Arena - NPCs in the Zaraj Arena are now immune. This should help prevent people from doing encounters that are too difficult for them through kiting, and in turn stopping other players from using their challenge tickets.
GUI NOTES - Quests will now be colored in the quest log by their relative difficulty to your level. - Crafting work orders will now be colored by difficulty in the journal and in the work orders window. - The parry chance displayed in the tool tip for martial swords is now correct in both cases. - Added a Diplomacy Container slot to the diplomacy section of the character sheet. Eventually all diplomacy containers will be moved over to this slot. - Crafters with many recipes will no longer be able to actually build a house in real life while waiting for their recipe list to expand. (Expanding crafting recipes is now much faster.) - Added a tutorial pop-up that explains the death penalty when you die. - Group Loot options viewed by non-leaders will now wrap correctly instead of being cut off. - Right-clicking on toolbelts when crafting will open the toolbelt so you can see what's in it. Left-clicking will change to that toolbelt as before. - The selected toolbelt is now indicated with the green checkmark when changing crafting toolbelts. - Percents are now displayed for crafting grade and progress so you don't have to mouse over the status bars to see them. - The crafting toolbelt selection window will now properly close if you cancel crafting while it is open. - Mail composer window will now auto fill in the subject with an item name if sending an item and their is no subject currently set. - Item 'Equipped Effects' are now shown in the item examine window. - The title window is now larger so long titles will fit correctly. - Your selected titles will now display correctly when you log in and the display won't be messed up by gaining new titles. - You will now see an indicator below your player status window when you have an active petition in the queue. You may click on this icon to edit or delete the current petition. - Added "SGOUI HOTKEYBANK UP" and "DOWN" commands for UI modders to utilize. - Brokers: Fixed alignment issues with the purchase confirmation window and the purchase amount. - Fix for some hitches related to being a member of a large guild. - The work orders window has been expanded to make work order text more easily viewable. - All of your group members will now appear on the map instead of only the first person to join. - Group member positions will no longer stop updating on the map after the member dies. - Changed the group member map indicators to purple so they match group member names. - Added a new "friend" parameter to /who, e.g. "/who all friend" will return a list of all your online friends without having to open the Social window. - Percentage-based item mods will now correctly show a % sign after the mod in the item tooltip.
CODING NOTES
- Fixed a substantial client memory leak. This will greatly minimize any further occurrences. - Major improvements to NPCs teleporting to you when you are levitated and fleeing or in the water and fleeing have been made. However, continuing to cast on/attack an NPC in the situation where it doesn't think it can path to you will cause it to port to you. - fixed a problem where sometimes an ability would have an effect that kills you, and in a duel since you don't die, it would end the duel but keep processing other effects that would actually kill you. - Fixed a bug in which your corpses would disappear from your travel journal after you camped. You should now see all existing corpses in your travel journal, including ones you were unable to see before. - Fix for a bug where items were sometimes being unequipped after looting a corpse then relogging. - Fixed a bug that was causing abilities of the same ability line (or of mutually exclusive lines) to not display the same refresh timer. - Fixes to issues with NPC names having the wrong faction color.
ITEM NOTES
- The Cloak of Vindication is now soulbound. - All adventuring Martial Staffs now correctly use the “Two-Handed Blunt” weapon overskill - All adventuring Bladed Staffs now correctly use the “Two-Handed Pierce” weapon overskill - Starspark Melded Chestguard has had it’s statistics adjusted - Thousands of Adventuring Armor, Jewelry and Weapons have had their statistics increased/fixed/adjusted. This will result in any item in question being better; in some cases, a few hitpoints or energy were removed to increase DPS or a single attribute but, as stated, the items will ALWAYS be better in those situations. - All Maces, Clubs, Daggers, Wands/Rods, Greatstaves and Greatmauls have had their appearances updated and retiered with the new models in mind. This change in “tiering” will result in item models changing, some to a “better” model and some to a “not so better” model. The weapon’s appearance and tiering is based upon the level and the rarity of the item. In the future, when higher tier models are patched in, that addition will result in the shuffling of some of the current higher tiered models to lower tiered models, making them available at earlier levels and more common rarities. The remaining weapon types are also currently being retiered and should be updated in the patch(es) to come. - Shield of Promise has been increased to Heroic and is now Soulbound - Blessed Chain Vest has been increased to rare from uncommon - Bounty Hunter’s Cuirass and Greaves has had it’s AC reduced and funneled into other statistics on the items. - Higher level effects on wands and staves have had their names adjusted, which should clarify their power in relation to the lower level effects. - Llyn's Drakerune Belt is now bindable instead of soulbound
ART NOTES - Rejoice! The main theme for Leth Nurae will now play when you enter the main part of the city. It has been absent until now. - The following abilities have received edits ranging from minor to extensive for animations particles and sounds:
CLERIC Aegis of Blades Anathema Bestowal of Brilliance Divine Barrier Divine Light Endowment of Fervor Fist of Rebuke Flames of the Faithful Gift of Ardor Hallow Maul of Divinity Maul of the Gods Purification Renewal Replenishing Strike Sacrifice Spirit Ward Turn Undead
DISCIPLE Blessed Wind Essence Thief Fleeting Feet Gift of Vitae Gift of Anguish Impenetrable Mind Kiss of Heaven Kiss of the Slug Kiss or Torment Leech’s Grasp Sages Endowment Sun and Moon Disciple Touch of the Ox Touch of Woe
DREAD KNIGHT Aphotic Shield Armor of Darkness Bane Bleak Foeman Cull Dark Ward Devour Mind Devour Strength Dreadful Countenance Dreadful Visage Frighten Hatred Incarnate Ravaging Darkness Scythe of Doom Shadow Meld Slay Symbol of Despair Symbol of Suffering Symbol of Wrath Terror Incarnate Vile Howl
PALADIN Aura of Divine Power Aura of Radiance Aura of Replenishment Aura of Shielding Blade of Vol Anari Blessing of Vaelion Boon of Vol Anari Champions Might Contrition Courage Cry of Illumination Cry of Solace Dictum of Valus Final Stand Hammer of Judgment Hammer of Valus Judgment of the Bloodthirsty Judgment of the Envious Judgment of the Impure Judgment of the Proud Judgment of the Wrathful Lay Hands Marshalling Cry Paragon of Justice Sentinel's Blessing Shining Beacon Smite Vanquish Vothdar's Mighty Strike Wings of the Avenger Zeal
RANGER Arrow of the Moon Arrow of the Sun Barkshield Barkskin Bullseye Cripple Critical Shot Dawn Arrow Debilitating Shot Dusk Arrow Entangling Web Hawk Talisman Hurricane Panther Talisman Poison Shot Precision Style Shocking Arrow Speed of the Wind Splitting Arrow Stalker's Grace Stunning Shot Thorn Cloak Tiger Talisman Wind Talisman
ROGUE Backstab Blackjack Blinding Flash Blood of Decay Blow Dart Dazzling Flechette Death Whirl Elusive Mark Explosive Flechette Extract Keen Eye Last Ditch Strike Quickblade Relentless Rogues Kiss Ruin Snaring Flechette Water Breathing Scroll Fade Trick Attack Fatal Stroke Eviscerate Vital Strikes Smoke Trick Deadly Strike Impale Shiv Kneebreak Revenge Feint
WARRIOR Battle Frenzy Diehard Disarm Enrage Grim Determination Life Rend Power Attack Shout of Defiance Shout of Fury Stinging Cut
~The Vanguard Team
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Riggswolfe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8046
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Well, that patch certainly looks impressive. Let us know if it truly improves things Falconeer. Oh, and guys? I like to hate on Vanguard as much as anyone but hating on it for Double XP weekends while praising games like COH for having them is a little over the top.
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"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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Well, that patch certainly looks impressive. Let us know if it truly improves things Falconeer. Oh, and guys? I like to hate on Vanguard as much as anyone but hating on it for Double XP weekends while praising games like COH for having them is a little over the top.
Um, what? CoH/V get's slammed repeatedly for the extent of it's grind, so them implementing a double exp weekend is a good thing. Same with Vanguard, the difference is that CoH/V was out years before they felt the need, Vanguard has been out a couple of months and was DESIGNED to glorify 'old skool grind'. It's a tacit admission of failure and that their entire premise is flawed and so they fully deserve to get slammed for having to do it so soon after launch.
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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The main idea behind the double XP weekend was to help cut the level gap already present in many Guilds due to bugs, alting, adapting to the new game, guild forming, late boxes and so on. Of course it's a double-edged sword, but I am pretty sure it brought more good than harm (no matter how many people you hear scream the opposite, as this is definitely the case where the only vocals about the issue are the harmed one).
It did a wonderful job in my guild tightening the roster, even if, of course, a couple of guildees complained that they just lose even more ground than before.
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shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
the plural of mangina
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They should give everyone 10 hours worth of double exp per week, and a switch to activate it. Make it rollover, like cell phone minutes. Make it account based instead of character based, so you can spend your 10 hours worth of double exp catching up to your guild group, and they can either save their 10 hours or make alts.
The WoW/EQ2 vitality system is the best way to do this. Casuals then have an exp bonus every time they play. I have never run out of vitality in EQ2 as long as a take a few nights off. I never get to powergame on the weekends anymore. That is how most of my guild burns it off.
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I have never played WoW.
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Hutch
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1893
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O cutely animated dog! Are you a metaphor? What for? For the game this thread addresses? Or for the thread itself?
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Plant yourself like a tree Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning. The sun will shine on us again, brother
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Signe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 18942
Muse.
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O cutely animated dog! Are you a metaphor? What for? For the game this thread addresses? Or for the thread itself? Yes! Yes! I don't know! Maybe! Your questions intimidate me!
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My Sig Image: hath rid itself of this mortal coil.
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Nebu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 17613
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 This is probably as good a choice.
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"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
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Simond
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6742
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From reading elsewhere, there's a couple of changes which weren't included in the patch message...for some reason: 4-dot and above mobs have had their xp nerfed. Special melee attacks have had their damage reduced by up to 50%
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"You're really a good person, aren't you? So, there's no path for you to take here. Go home. This isn't a place for someone like you."
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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4 dots mobs XP was just boosted (last patch before this), so this is pretty stupid.
Nerf to special attack's damage is in the patch notes, just written differently, like: "Damage was calculated the wrong way. Now it's calculated as a given number NOT a fraction blah blah...".
Still a nerf.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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This is like watching Verant fumble around with balance changes in EQ all over again except that the frequency of changes are sped up an order of magnitude.
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Simond
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6742
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The best part is when quite a few of the vanbois of a month ago (not you, Falconeer - I'm talking about the rabid loonies) are now coming up with statements along the lines of "If I knew that it was going to be this buggy/my class would keep getting nerfed/slow travel was this annoying/the solo grind would be this bad, I'd never have subscribed" I mean, it's not like that's what anyone with prior experience with Sigil/Verant and half a brain was saying all along.... 
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"You're really a good person, aren't you? So, there's no path for you to take here. Go home. This isn't a place for someone like you."
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Joey
Terracotta Army
Posts: 56
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I'm done.
I managed to get my Monk to level 19, but for the last 5 or 6 levels, I clearly wasn't enjoying it. As others have stated, the game is pretty fun until you hit the brick wall in the mid-teens. Once you reach level 14 or so, solo quests are damn-near impossible to find, and as time goes on, it's getting more and more difficult to find enough players in the post-12 levels to group with. Grinding on spawns doesn't really get you anywhere, as the XP gain is so seriously slow. At this point for me, it feels like the world is kinda cut off, as I simply can't progress anymore. I can be logged in for a very long time and walk away having not really accomplished anything.
And yeah, the lack of sidekicking and whatnot is REALLY weak. A couple friends of mine picked up the game last week so we could all play together, but ended up quitting yesterday because they gained no XP at all when grouping with me. They both managed to hit level 12, at which point they decided that the game was just too rough and returned to WoW.
With Vanguard, you simply have to have A LOT of time to dedicate, be in a good guild with lots of players who are all about your same level, be very forgiving of poor performance and bugs, and possess a real desire for seriously hardcore level grinding. For me personally, I simply have far better things I could be doing with my time. Besides, paying $15 a month to beta test a blatantly incomplete game is horseshit.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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I'll just be over in the corner, chuckling and wringing my hands together...solo.
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Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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Perhaps I'm just misremembering, but I recall the same wall being there at 15 in EQ. Most 'newer' folks didn't recognize it because they came in after Paludial Caverns was around, so it was easy to breeze on through to somewhere around 25-30.
However, I distinctly recall having a monk, a ranger, a shadow knight and a Cleric I left dangling at 14-18 because the XP just STOPPED at that point, and it was more advantageous to focus on the warrior, then druid (when I finally realized warriors were NEVER going to solo at the level of play I was willing to do).
So really, big "Mission Accomplished" there Sigil. You've recreated EQ1 circa Kunark from what I've read. Pity for you that so few seem to want it.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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That mid-teen wall is EXACTLY like EQ1. I hit it with my warrior right around the mid-teens and was never able to solo for experience after level 20. I was lucky by that time, because I ran a pretty big friendly guild when I hit 20 and had groups most nights. But when I didn't, it was a waste of time to stay logged in. Of course, that was also back in the days of hell levels, when 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45 took about 3 times as long as the previous level.
I hit 20 about a week after Kunark came out, soloing Iksars in a cave in Swamp of No Hope. That was before everyone discovered Lake of Least Resistance for those levels.
I will never go through that kind of shit again.
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Rithrin
Terracotta Army
Posts: 149
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I can be logged in for a very long time and walk away having not really accomplished anything. I'm experiencing the same thing. And I'm amazed really, as I can't understand how I can log on for three hours and walk away wondering how I got no experience, finished no quests, and have only managed to lose money. Its mind boggling. As much as everyone likes to say this is EQ1, its actually worse. I solo'd/PUG'd from 1 to 40 or thereabouts in Pre-Kunark EQ with little issue (gear started sucking eventually, though) before I was really forced to join a guild. I feel in VG at 20 what I felt in EQ at 40. I'll admit, though, that on double xp weekend the xp gain felt like it was about right. They should have just kept it there.
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The sweetest wine comes from the grapes of victory.
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slog
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8234
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I played a Troll Shadowknight in EQ at release so I was subject to multiple penalties. This sounds worse.
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Friends don't let Friends vote for Boomers
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Sauced
Terracotta Army
Posts: 904
Bat Country '05 Fantasy Football Champion
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I'm sure the old chart is still out there somewhere, but troll sk was brutal if I remember correctly. I think halfling druids were at 75% xp to level, but the troll sk combo was 125%.
Getting to 20 pre-Kunark is what Vanguard always seemed to be going for, and why anyone would want to experience that again is just beyond me. I think I was still using a minotaur axe and had finally gotten my third piece of banded and could finally leave the Dervish camps for the Caiman camps in Oasis. Just the thought makes me want to kick McQuaid in the nuts, something I haven't felt the need to do in over 7 years.
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El Gallo
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2213
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IIRC, trolls had a 20% xp penalty and all hybrid classes had a 40% penalty. So troll SKs took 60% more to level than any other class. They eventually removed the class based penalties, but the race penalties were still there when I quit (PoP-era). Iksar also had 20%, Ogres were at 15%, Barbs 5%, and asslings had a 5%? bonus. There were also class xp bunuses for warriors and rogues (I think that was it) of I think 10% and 5%. All IIRC, but it's scary how much shit I remember from that game. It's almost like it was a substantial part of my life for a couple of years 
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This post makes me want to squeeze into my badass red jeans.
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Simond
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6742
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"You're really a good person, aren't you? So, there's no path for you to take here. Go home. This isn't a place for someone like you."
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Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11127
a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country
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Yes, interesting. Hey, what about them doing it permanently? The first game where you always get double XP on the weekend. And to spice it up a bit more they could make the other 5 days "hell-days" with just half the normal XP.
"To put players right in the action of Game Update #1 and as a continued thanks to our community, we are giving players a second opportunity to receive double adventuring kill experience this weekend!"
Uncanny.
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« Last Edit: March 08, 2007, 05:11:51 PM by Falconeer »
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Margalis
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12335
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Joey, tell us how you really feel, please!
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vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
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