Dracis

I quit playing the beta. It just was literally the same ole thing for me, and I just lost interest. I felt the same about the LotRO as well. Both kind of blah, in my opinion, but that's me.

I know this is in one of the prequel books, or I thought it was, but when was Salusa Secundus nuked, or turned into a waste land? Also, does anyone know when the Sardukar started to be trained on Salusa Secundus? Thanks :)

Well, then you'll probably like LotR. It's got loads of quests, and so far, not one of them I have tried has been bugged. Which is pretty good for Alpha 3/Beta 1. Your best bet is to try and get into the beta and play it before it comes out.

That's correct, there will be pvp, eventually in Vanguard. As I understand it, there may be RP'ing servers and PvP servers. Although that may have changed.

That depends. What do you like about WoW? Is it the PvP? The raids? The quests? As far as an MMO, no probably not as good as WoW. It seems more like a single player game in some respects. As I haven't found a single reason to group with anyone yet. I'm also a PvP'er and from reading up on the subject, they haven't even put pvp in yet, as they are trying to find away to add it to Tolkien's vision. I like it more than Vanguard, but that isn't saying much either.

As I told Gunwounds, I got an invite to the Lord of the Rings Online beta. So far I am fairly impressed. As opposed to Vanguard, there seems to be a definate stroy line to Lord of the Rings. You are part of the story being told. While this is still the Alpha 3/ early beta, it definately exceeeds my expectations. It is very similar to Vanguard in some respects. Character creation, graphical details, and so on are very similar. Also the skills also seem to be very linear, just like Vanguard. One thing I will mention about the graphics, in LotR, the scenery is a big part of of the game. Quest NPC's and mobs actually use the underbrush to hide and jump out at you. I'm sure, that once PvP is in place, you can also use it to your advantage. The quests definately follow a story line. There are a huge amount of quests. Some of them are side quests, not involved with the main story, but there is a main story line to follow. I also like the fact that in the very beginning there is kind of a mini tutorial, that gets you familiar with the controls and combat. Vanguard did not have this. On to the problems. So far lag is a big deal in some areas. I haven't had any lag in comba yet, but definately in the main town areas there is some lag. Instances, like DDO, LotR has alot of instances, but they are only for buildings and certain quests. There is a large open area to walk around in, but I think there is way to many instances for my liking. There is no crafting in the game yet as far as I have seen, but it is included in the skills menu. Also there seems to be no PvP. I'm not sure of their plans on this, but I hope it will be added. Once again, like Vanguard, there are alot of items looted and/or quest items. While there are vendors to buy thigs from, you can get most of your armor and weapons from quests. So in closing, I'll list the positives and negatives: Positives: 1) Quest driven storyline 2) Graphical detail to little things 3) Tutorial 4) Sense of being invloved in the world and storyline/ almost a sense of urgency 5) UI layout is nice Negatives: 1) Too may instances 2) No crafting found yet - I haven't found this yet, it may be there 3) No PvP yet - I haven't found this yet, it may be there 4) Lag 5) Camera - there didn't seems to be any way to rotate the camera in combat I'll report more later as I find it.

I just restarted playing the beta after I posted that comment. I will admit, it is a graphically nice game, but graphics aren't everything. As far as game play. 1. Melee is handled point and click or via your keyboard. One thing I noticed, that unlike like other games i have played, if you get in front of your opponent, or they get behind you, you can't attack them. There is a targeting system, so I'm not sure if this is working as intended, or if it's a bug. 2.As far as aggro management, I never had 2 aggro mobs attack me at the same time, but the targetting system does change color. One thing I didn't like is how damage is shown for your character. It is shown up by your health bar, and not any where near your character. This may not be a problem for some, but I play on a 27in wide screen monitor, and sometimes I don't get to catch everything. 3. The magic system is just like every other system I have tried. As does the entire skill system. Some of the spell effects are cool looking, but nothing incredible beyond that. * A quick comment on the entire skill system. I have tried 3 different characters, in 3 different skill sets, and everything seems very linear as far as skills. There is literally no choice, as far as I have seen as to what skills you get. I will admit I haven't had a huge chance to play as I am a game developer myself and don't always have the time to play games that much any more. 4. As I said before, I haven't played all that much, but I agree with Rebirth, there is no general acution houses, which can be good, depending on how large the server is, and bad. Alot of items, like armor and weapons can be looted, all of the ones I have looted have different stats, benefitting one attribute or another. So i'm sure there will be a definite loot economy if things stay as they are. 5. Crafting, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try it yet. 6. There is no PvP in the game at all at the moment. 7. PvE system is ok. There are pleny of wild mobs running about. I'll tie this into something you didn't ask about, which is quests. in doing alot of the starter quests, which are pretty straight forward, go kill this, go collect that, return to NPC. There are bugs, like Rebirth mentioned, but nothing huge. 8. Leveling is fairly easy. I've only gotten to level 8 on one character, but it went fairly quickly, following the quests. 9. Diplomacy, I haven't tried this yet either. 10. Balance of the classes. Well, I can see advatages for each class i have tried, Necromancer, rogue, and Dread knight. So, at the moment, I can't see any imbalance issues, but someone always finds something. One thing to note, any real balance is an illision. I mean that sometimes, developers spend way to much time on balance, and not enough time on anything else. 11. As I only get to play in odd hours, I haven't been in any groups as of yet. Over all, Vanguard isn't a bad game. But, at least to me, there is nothing to make it stand out either. I guess that's the problem. As a developer myself, we're still working on our first full title, you look for more that just the usual ho hum style stuff. You look for innovations and new ideas. While there are parts of Vanguard I haven't yet explored and even though I'm going to play it a bit more, as of right now, I wouldn't purchase it. On a side note, I also won a beta invite to LotRO and am curreently doiwnloading that. If you want to know about that one, I'll be happy to post my first impressions after I've played it for a bit.

Well, this is my first post, and I should probably keep my mouth shut, but considering I'm in the beta too, I had to say something. Vanguard is not all that great. It's my point of view, and you can only truely judge by playing the game itself. First off, Vanguard looks, and feels alot like EQ2. I'm not sure how much of a hand SOE has a hand in it, as they are technically only the distributors of Vanguard, but I don't trust many of the big names once they get their hands on any game. Secondly, there is nothing truely inovative about Vanguard. It just seems like the same ole ho hum fantasy MMORPG. Ok, yes, you can sail a ship, which is different, at least for me. But nothing truely revolutionary either. As far as my MMO experience, I've played the original EQ, EQ2, SWG, Saga of Ryzom, World of Warcraft, Eve, Dark Age of Camelot, Dark and Light, DDO, Guild Wars, Roma Victor, etc, etc, etc... So I've been around a bit. I've said this probably on every forum I've ever posted on, and if you see Dracis there, it's probably me, "If you're not sure about the game, and you can't accurately judge by the community responces, then wait until there is a trail offer". Plain and simple.