Beta 3 Incoming...Soon-ish



Sigil CEO and Vanguard Exec Producer Brad McQuaid posted some new
details on the highly anticipated phase 3 of Vanguard beta, which we've
been told is due to begin by the end of July. Here's a target="_blank"
href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1259420&postcount=281">quote
from the official forums:

To be up front, nobody has been invited into beta 2.5 for
quite some time. We need to make the transition over to SOE servers,
front-end, patcher, etc. which should be happening in the next week or
so. Then we will move beta 2.5 players over to the new set up for a
week or so and make sure all is good. Then we will launch Beta 3 which
will include a lot of people from both pools (the message board pool
and the CGM pool). And when I say a lot, I mean thousands.



And it's not just about getting the SOE stuff ready that we need to
accomplish before starting beta 3 -- we are also making ready ships,
turning on part of Qalia, finishing a revamp of Diplomacy, and
finishing up some major optimizations aimed at medium settings (what
most testers will use) so FPS won't be nearly the problem it has been
in earlier betas.



Also of significant note is the ability for beta testers to invite
groups of friends and guilds into beta 3 -- we really need to get
critical mass on one server ramping up as well as community (and then
when that is in place, the player driven economy should start to form).



All of this is happening fast, and like I put in the FAQ, I think beta
3 will start by the end of July. If it slips into early August I will
let you know, but I don't see any signs of that happening at this
point. The team is really getting a lot done preparing for Beta 3.
Tweaked systems, higher framerate for average gamer machines, easier
access via SOE's front-end and patcher, most quests focused on levels
1-35, many UI changes and much work on the newbie experienece (which
includes UI mods as well as quests that intro you to the various
spheres of gameplay), and much more.