Title: | Vanguard: Saga of Heroes |
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Developer: | Sigil Online Games |
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Publisher: |
href="http://www.microsoft.com/games/default.aspx">Microsoft Game Studios |
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Community Site: | href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com">Vanguard.TenTonHammer.com |
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The North American massively multiplayer online roleplaying market got its
kick into mainstream gaming channels when Richard Garriott shipped Ultima Online
to the exhilarated gaming masses. The real coming of age of the genre was
brought on by a little game called EverQuest, of which Brad McQuaid was no small
part.
Brad McQuaid is now with Sigil Games Online and hopes are high that his
current title, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will herald in the third generation of
massively multiplayer online role playing games.
I was fortunate enough to sit down with Travis Williams, the senior producer
and Darrin McPherson, a game designer who ply their trades creating Vanguard:
Saga of Heroes for Sigil Games Online.
When asked to sum up Vanguard in one sentence, Travis offered the obligatory
"Only one sentence?" After much deliberation the answer was clear,
"We're making the game that we want to play ", he said wiping his brow
in the much to warm demo room.
But is it the game that gamers want to play? That's really the reason we as
media come to these events and try to portray what we see, hear and even feel
into mere text for you read. How do I as a gamer perceive Vanguard: Saga of
Heroes? Perception is a very personal attribute...and in Vanguard it's an
important one. That's right, perception is a character attribute that has been
built into each character in the game. As a character experiences the gameworld
he or she "learns" from doing things. Just like in real life, as you use your
skills in any given area they become more proficient. What is incredibly cool
about Vanguard is that player characters can learn from observing NPCs. A
magic-user for instance will be able to identify more hostile spells as his or
her perception grows. Seeing the spell being cast on you by the Goblin sorcerer
may hurt the first time, but as you learn how he is casting it you may
eventually be able to identify the spell and then, watch out! Your level of
perception might allow you to counter the spell or if your perception is high
even turn it back upon the Goblin himself.
The team is trying to "make everything that you do in the game more
interactive... " than in other MMOs to steal a phrase from Darrin. Unlike
some games where you can start combat and then go make a sandwich Vanguard will
give you the opportunity to really shine as a skilled player.
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Combat chains somewhat like those in Final Fantasy XI or the combat wheel in
EverQuest 2 will allows groups of players to chain together abilities to perform
feats that would otherwise be impossible. Several casters for instance, might
channel their power to another magic user who in turn unleashes an incredibly
powerful spell on the opponent. A warrior might knock down an opponent so that a
rogue could use one of their special abilities to finish the opponent off.
Vanguard is being designed to provide interactive and entertaining group play.
This is not to say that a solo player will not enjoy the game, but the game
mechanics and the game focus are definately skewed towards playing with friends
in a group.
An interesting feature of combat is that a player can have both an offensive
and defensive target. As a warrior for instance I may have a target that I am
trying to slash to bits with my sword. I may also have my pal the cleric as my
defensive target. If anyone tries to hurt my healer chum, then they will have to
deal with me.
Combat encounters have also been given an interesting twist. An encounter in
a dungeon for instance, might go like this; The party enters the dungeon and
begins taking on the denizens that lurk there. At some point they may trigger a
"ring' event in which perhaps they need to clear several waves of baddies, or
clear specific rooms. The "minion" mobs are not encounter locked in any
way. Other players in the dungeon can take them out or even heal you or help
you. Eventually you will spawn a "boss" mob which *is
* encounter locked to your party. This stops would be griefers from letting you
do all the work only to jump on the boss mob at the end.
Vanguard will not have instancing of zones. Unfortunately our time was cut
short and we couldn't delve into how areas of high player density would be dealt
with.
Crafting has been built in a unique and entertaining way. You
"fight" the item you are harvesting. That's right folks, that pine tree
isn't going to just hand over the lumber. Expect a good swift limb in the chops
if you attempt to hack it down. O.K. they don't *really* fight
back, but you can die while harvesting if you don't manage your stamina well. If
you want to take on bigger harvesting tasks you'd better bring a friend, or two.
As Travis put it, "Imagine in real life...if I wanted to cut down a pine
tree, I could probably do it alone, but if I wanted to cut down a redwood tree
it would take forever without some help." This of course begged the
question, "Can you cast root on the tree? " (/huzzah) Crafters can also
hone their skills in different ways. One lumberjack might be fantastic at
getting the most quantity out of a tree, while another might not care about
quantity, but is able to harvest the highest quality items. Working together,
they might find that they can get the best of both worlds. MMOGs always seem to
favour either crafted items or looted items in terms of their quality to the
player. In Vanguard a crafted item of the same level as a looted item will be
equally desired by players. What is nifty is that the best items in the game
will require a combination of looted items and crafting.
We were told that the learning curve in Vanguard is steeper than most MMOGs
on the market right now. It's definately aimed at the hardcore MMOG player who
likes to play in a group atmosphere.
It was obvious from the start that both Travis and Darrin have a passion for
the game that they are creating. They love the game, and if it continues down
its current path I'm confident that you will too.
John "Boomjack" Hoskin
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