November 19, 2007
This is a bit overdue, but our guild hall is finally decorated so it’s time for a little tour!
The Revelry and Honor guild hall sits atop one of the hills on Keejay Cove.
It’s a Qalian style guild hall, with a great view of Skawlra Rock nearby.
Construction lasted several long and arduous weeks.
It was a great feeling when we opened our doors for the first time!
Here is a view of the entry hall. I love the tilework in here.
A view of the heroes – Idaria, Jerric Targonor, and Elia.
Our version of carving initials onto a tree.
Here is the guild kitchen. Don’t ask why there is a bed in the background.
The guild bar. The tipped over cup is my fault!
Guild dining hall. Screenshot was taken from the stage. Dinner Theater!
Cozy dining areas overlooking the kitchen and bar.
The Guild Library
Here’s an interesting room. It’s the guild training room and test of agility. Those who can carefully hop from table to table, and reach the end of the course, can open a chest and discover a prize! (Guildies only atm) Thanks to Pawz for desiging this fun!
Here is the Revelry and Honor Council room, where we discuss very serious business. Very. Serious. What I really love about this room are the three maps of Telon that Dunthain designed. You can see them on the back wall of the room. Very creative!
Here is the study, where our diplomats hone their parley skills.
The guys’ barracks…
And the girls’ room! We win!
Here’s another shot of it, because it’s such a cool room.
This is my favorite room – the den!
Lastly, here are a few guildies during a recent “Name that tune – 80′s song” contest, organized by Weatus. The chandelier was a great hang out spot…until I sorta tipped it back and forth using the Move Item ability. I wish I had fraps so I could show the tumbling guildies.
There are so many who deserve thanks for their role in our achievement. We had many guildies contributing in the effort, from farming diplomacy pages, to harvesting, to donating coin for purchase and upkeep. We had a few who really made the difference, and deserve a big thanks. Drax was a real diplomacy hero, and we were lucky to have him not only help out with the diplomacy pages, but also come join our guild. Rancorr and Ciridan were our crafting heroes, both working tirelessly to gain the skills needed for crafting much of the hall – and then putting in a ton of time making stuff! Thanks also to the decorating skills of Andaraiel, Dunthain, Torradan, and Pawz. We also met a lot of nice guilds, and we appreciate working together with them as we combined our efforts to build our halls. Special thanks to Sacred Haven, The Burning Legion, Shadowfire, and Order of the Hammer. We were glad to have helped them out and we appreciate their help in return.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard General | Comments (5)
November 13, 2007
Here it is!
Bam
This is really nice to see. Brent over at Virginworlds has been doing a tremendous job keeping his finger on the pulse of the mmo industry. It’s so awesome to see him immortalized on a Legends of Norrath game card (and a good one at that!)
There are a lot of gaming sites that pump out large volumes of pretty window dressing, but Virginworlds delivers the goods. If you want to know what’s going on in the world of gaming, this is the place to visit. He does it because he’s passionate about gaming, which makes it all the more cooler. This is well deserved, and a real tribute to his hard work.
Congratulations to Brent!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (3)
November 12, 2007
Ah, yes, the question of all questions in the MMO world right now – how do you make a game that is challenging, but not so frustrating that you end up throwing your mouse (or worse) across the room in frustration.
Game designers are always trying to find the limit of how long players will stay with something that’s difficult before expecting to see progress. Go to any MMO forum and you’re bound to see a thread or 12 that debate this very issue. But while players will discuss it to no end, you rarely see any specific comment about it by those in the industry. Sure, they tweak and adjust the games in order to address the balance between challenge and frustration, but rarely expound on it.
So it was curious to say the least when Brenlo and co-host lifted the cork right out of the bottle during their discussion of the Vanguard Producer’s Letter. Here’s the transcript (thanks to this thread at Silky Venom), but I highly recommend listening to it. Zip over to the 32 minute mark for the Vanguard piece. (I bolded certain parts)
She: They’re talking about making the death penalty not so severe, which I’ve heard is big a controversial topic…
He: It is a big contro – oh, sorry – ah well, you know.. that game is an interesting game, ahh… interesting, interesting game *old man’s voice* we can do many psychological studies on the impact of that game *normal voice* but that’s a hardcore crowd, it’s a crowd that kinda grew into the MMO back in the old days of Everquest. You know, a lot of those people are the faithfuls from the early days of Everquest when the game WAS very difficult. What some people call a challenge, others call frustration and that’s kinda why these games have evolved to remove some of those frustrations for the mass audience and Vanguard is gonna logically have to follow that route as well, they’re going to have to remove those frustrations.
She: Or they’re not gonna see any new blood.
He: Right. And I know as much you guys love your game and you want it to be your game – in order for the game to grow, you have to make it appeal to as many people as possible. And I’m not saying that it’s gonna become a WoW and I’m not saying it’s going to maintain its Vanguardyness or whatever you wanna call it-
She: The Vanguardyness
He: – but they have to do things to try to allow other people to play and one of those is – that’s a very steep death penalty in that game and making that a little friendlier can get some other people interested, because it is a huge expansive world with a lot of content, lots of challenges, a beautiful art style and we WANT people to enjoy that.
She: We do, we do.
He: We do, we do.
She: Very much so. Well, they have a whole list of stuff here that they’re looking to add in, evaluating for change and improvement as the wording is here -
He: But, check out Thom’s podcast, give them your feedback -
She: His Producer’s Letter…
He: Thom’s Producer’s Letter, yeah. Thom’s doing his own podcast, it’s the Thom Therazzas “I eat donuts podcast”.
She: *laughs*
He: What was that, Cat?
She: *muffled* I hope they didn’t get any of that. *laughs*
He: Cat says she hopes she’s not recording that one.
This is just a snippet, and it follows Brenlo’s impersonation of the old, crochety, EQ gamer, which is a whole other blog entry.
There are several things I found to be surprisingly interesting. First of all, from the comments, they seem to feel that the death penalty in Vanguard is “steep.” For argument’s sake, let’s look at what the death penalty actually is.
If you die in Vanguard, you leave a tombstone at the point of death. Any gear you have on that’s not soulbound is left on the stone, and you lose some experience. If you can get back to your tombstone, you can loot it for your gear plus much of your lost experience. But you can also summon it at any altar, which gives you back your gear but you don’t get the exp. In all my 50 levels of playing, doing plenty of soloing and dungeon crawling, I have not had a time where I worried about dying, and believe me, I’ve taken plenty of chances. Steep would be rotting corpses, lost gear, (stolen gear!), and multi-night corpse recoveries. I endured all of those in Everquest. Vanguard is not Everquest.
It’s arguable whether the death penalty is actually steep in Vanguard. I’d argue that it’s not, but that’s not the real meat of the podcast discussion. What is most curious is that they seem to think that the death penalty is the reason why subscriber numbers are so low. At least, that’s what I inferred from the ultimatim that old, grouchy, gamers of Vanguard need to get used to a milder death penalty or we won’t see any new blood.
Look, the death penalty isn’t why people left Vanguard. People left because they couldn’t run the game, even on an 8800 with Vista. They left because they’d spend days and days trying to kill thousands of ants, click things, and do handstands to spawn the ant queen, only to find out that it wasn’t working/wasn’t in the game. They left because after having two consecutive double experience weekends, they had bumped into the edge of content, and discovered that there was a lot that was completely unfinished. They left because they were falling through the world, they were stuck in combat, they saw rampant hacks and duping, and they got tired of seeing something as simple as a door to the Beranid Hills quest hub be broken, months later. If you want to talk about things that are frustratingly difficult in Vanguard, the death penalty would be pretty far down on the list.
People *are* looking for a challenge – 200k were looking for it the day Vanguard went live, and that’s even after all the scuttle about it being troubled. I’ve said it again and again, but there are lots of gems of content in this game that are challenging – and lots of fun. What drove people away is that the frustration of having to try to wade through all the issues with the game to see those gems. To say that people left because the death penalty was too stiff is oversimplifying and shows a lack of understanding about the game, which I’m realizing I probably have a little too much of right now.
/steps slowly away from the keyboard.
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard General | Comments (14)
November 7, 2007
Today on my walk with the kids, we were being followed by a circling turkey vulture. Vanguard immediately came to mind. This game has had to endure the circling vultures for quite some time now, and the saga took a new twist last week with the announcement of a new direction for the game.
Last week, Vanguard’s new lead producer, Thom Terrazas, put out a letter that outlined the new vision for Vanguard. And yes, I know I just said the “v” word. There’s a lot there, and a lot to react to. It would be easy to pull out snippets, dwell on the less-than-rosy state of the game, and speculate on the prospects that it could get worse. But one thing that stuck out for me was that the current Vanguard dev team is seeking input and suggestions from the playerbase – so much so that they intend to add a new forum dedicated to just that.
So, here are my ideas for Vanguard’s future.
Provide more goals for guilds, rather than groups. There is no real benefit to being in a guild right now, other than pleasant chat and a guild hall. I’ve said several times that this is a great game for those who have a steady group, but that’s actually problematic, because it means that guilds are largely fragmented now into groups of no more than 6, and that’s only under the best case scenario of having guild members around the same level range and content.
Give us overland and dungeon raid bosses, give us content that requires more than one group, and please do that throughout the level spectrum, not just level 50 end game raid content. Longterm, give us content that demands a collective effort, and rewards the entire guild – perhaps housing/guild hall items with special abilities (buffs, ports, etc), or special guild talismans or charms that grow stronger with each defeated dungeon or boss mob. Make it something collaborative, and allow for even the lowest members of the guild to be able to take part in it. (Just don’t make it a massive timesink)
Take out the stuff that’s needlessly difficult and unintuitive, and make sure there is a purpose to anything in game that is hard to understand or not easily seen. No, I’m not saying slap a big red easy button on the game. What I’m talking about are game features that are the equivalent of the EQ blind barbarian. It may be a quaint memory to look back at how horribly all those newbie barbarians suffered, but let’s face it, stuff like that is fun for about 5 minutes, and then it heads right into hair-pulling territory.
There is a lot in Vanguard that is needlessly difficult to learn. The Riftway system, with its multiple networks, one way rifts, and vendor bought shards, is a great example of something that isn’t intuitive. Keep the system in place, but smooth it out. The Weakness combat system is another. It’s a subtle layer of combat where players can coordinate their attacks and exploit a weakness on the mob, ranging from stuns, to extra damage, to special attacks. The problem is, it’s so subtle, I bet 99% of the players either don’t know about it, don’t use it, or both. I’m not asking for a huge bell to go off whenever someone in the group starts a weakness exploit on a mob, but there has to be a way to make stuff like that a little clearer.
Also, take out the stuff that is extraneous and unused. The caravan system is a great example of that. The game has changed so much that it really has no purpose, yet there’s the tab for it in the social window, with little explanation about what it is or what it does. Stuff like that will only muddle the newbie experience, and makes the learning curve unnecessarily steep.
Lore – give it to us already! Please, give us a purpose for our time in Telon. We want to know why we’re here. We want to know how certain events from ages past are playing a role in the world that we’re adventuring in. We want to know more about the “Heroes” of Vanguard, and see evidence of their legacy. We want to know who the really really bad guys are in the game, and why they are so bad, so we can relish in their demise when we finally take them down. We want to see how the storylines we come across as newbs in the starting areas continue on as we travel and level. We want to know the story about quirky, interesting, little pockets of content, that we stumble on while exploring. (What *is* the deal with the Jux Brownie refuge anyway!)
I’ve read a couple of times on threads that the lore is written up, and just needs to be organized and presented in a better way. There was also a plan to get a lore forum up and running. Even if we can’t get the lore put in game right away, at least give it to us in the forum. There are so many gaps in the timeline right now – so many questions about what is going on in game. Heck, if you are seeking volunteers to do the grunt work of sorting and posting it, sign me up! We need lore!
Mentoring – I haven’t heard a word about mentoring since the first transition from Sigil to Sony, so I have less hope now that it’s on the horizon. I’ll say it again and again though. Mentoring is huge, and if there is any way to get it in game, it should be done.
Meaningful Travel! – Make it easy to reach popular content, and make the harder to reach content contain nice, unique, rewards. Populate caves, tombs, nooks and crannies with mobs that have interesting items. It doesn’t have to be anything epic or game changing, just stuff that helps make your character improve and be unique. (clickies, consumables, fun pets, house items, illusion masks, mount upgrades, etc).
Fix the AES content – The Advanced Encounter System has been a bugaboo from day one. Over time, though, it seems like the AES curse has crept into content that had been working ok. Pantheon is the saddest example of that. Here’s a fantastic dungeon, and for months now, it’s been broken. Temple of Xennumet, The Arena, and some parts of the CIS quest have all been affected by the wonkiness of the AES system. And while we’re on the subject, fix the Hegnerian event so that it isn’t a cutthroat, 2007 version of the Highpass Hold orcs. Put a shorter timer on it if nothing else, and adjust the loot table so that it’s not a farm mob. Yes, the rewards are great, but for many groups that do it, the level of difficulty isn’t with the content but with the enormous amount of competition gunning for it every night.
Housing Revamp – Put one way Rifts at all housing locations. Yes, it’s petty, but why should I have to shell out 20 silver every time I want to get off Keejay Cove, while Joe Deebs can click a riftstone and be off for free. Putting in one way riftstones to all housing areas doesn’t make the game easier, but it provides a travel benefit to those that have spent the time and money setting up a house. That seems like a fairly reasonable benefit! In addition, add more plots, and if it’s being tracked, give updates on where plots are still available. Also, allow people to move their house to another plot, and/or upgrade existing ones without having to abandon.
Plot costs need a revamp too. Many of the outlying islands that were originally intended to be the the most valuable because of their location to high end content, are now the least popular, because of the way travel has changed, and the fact that they’re basically not near anything. Lastly, make it easier to know where the mount vendors/crafting stations/banker/broker/mailboxes are. These POIs should all be on the default game map.
Add content for the early 20s and 40-50. These are the only two level areas where I’d log in and have a hard time coming up with a good idea of where to hunt. From level 20-25, it’s hard to find good quest hubs for solo and small group players. There are a couple out there, but some of them are in remote areas, and there just aren’t enough of them to get you through those levels.
From level 40 on, the content is also lacking. Again, there are a few quest areas, and the addition of Trickster’s Haven was great, but there needs to be more, particularly from 45-50. Put in a couple of Cragwind type quest hubs that gives you 40 different quests, each of which asks you to kill 15 of a particular mob. Something like that can be done fairly quickly, and can serve as a stopgap until some more creative and unique content can be fleshed out and put in game. In addition, having a consistent amount of content available at all level ranges, with ample numbers of quests to turn in for exp, will help smooth out leveling, and help avoid increasing overall experience, which most players don’t want.
Make the game “fit.” There has been a band-aid effect on this game going way back to beta. There was an original design, and original plan, and it didn’t pan out. The result has been layer upon layer of slapped on fixes and bandaids, and the overall game is suffering. Every time a hasty change is made, it has a ripple effect on everything else involving it, and leads to disjointed gameplay, confusion, and frustration. I could probably devote an entire rambly blog entry just to this point alone, but it’s something that really needs to be looked at.
These are just a few ideas, and I know mine or no better than the dozens and dozens of posted suggestions. But it’s fun to play armchair quarterback, especially when it’s actually sought out by the dev team. Half the battle will be just wading through the input!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard General | Comments (7)
November 4, 2007
Time to play a little catch up with my blog. The big news for me in game is that our guild finished construction on the Revelry and Honor guild hall, so I haven’t had many dungeon crawls to write up. I’ll put up an entry with screenshots of our newly decorated hall – it really is starting to take shape.
This past week, there were a few nightly Halloween events in game, and I was able to quickly catch one of them, so I snapped some shots. There were some all over, but this was from Khal, where Avarem and Tiraslee appeared as skeletal pumpkin heads to hand out candy, answer questions from the players, and lure us into a false sense of security while an army of creepy creatures amassed outside the city walls.
Here is Torradan. I can’t figure out a teenie skeleton can hold up that big drum!
I had to camp before I got my candy 
, but it was still fun to see the different things that people turned into from eating it!
Creepy!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard General | Comments (1)