The Countdown to Release

An Interview with Nick Parkinson

by Zinn

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There's no doubt that the team at Sigil Games Online, developers of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, are some of the busiest people in the gaming industry right now. Despite the fact that Vanguard is poised to launch on January 30 and the team is burning the midnight oil to bring it to the masses, we managed to capture Sigil's resident gnome, Nick "Glip the Gnome" Parkinson, and ask him some questions about Vanguard's impending release.


[TenTonHammer]: When does the 3 day head start period begin? What time? If you can't give us a time now, will we be informed before release?

[Nick Parkinson]: Look for a press release about this to go out very soon. We’ll be giving folks plenty of time to see it so they can make plans to play the game.


[TTH]: Is there or will there be a way for nervous people like myself to verify that they registered their code correctly and will be allowed into the 3 day head start?

[NP]: If you registered your code incorrectly it wouldn’t have been accepted. So if it didn’t give you any errors you should be fine. That said, if you still want to double check I’d recommend e-mailing customersupport@sigilgames.com. They’re swamped right now though, so it may be a little longer than normal for them to get back to you.


[TTH]: How will the transition from the three day head start to release work? Will there be a break between head start and launch or can we keep playing without sleep straight through the 30th and beyond?

[NP]: You can keep playing straight through!


[TTH]: When will Beta 5 end? How much time will there be between the end of beta 5 and launch?

[NP]: Beta 5 will end on January 23rd at 11:59pm PST. The head start for pre-orders will start not too long after that, we’ll be getting more information out on that very soon.


[TTH]: How is server stability and performance coming along? What should we expect to see at release in terms of stability and performance?

[NP]: We’re constantly working to improve both stability and performance. Over the past week or so alone in beta you should have seen a noticeable improvement in performance. We’ll constantly be trying to improve performance after launch, even when it’s at an “acceptable” level.

In terms of server stability, we’re not too worried about that. There’s going to be some bumps along the way as there always are but SOE has been down that road before and they know what they are doing. They’ve been fantastic to work with in regard to this stuff.


[TTH]: Will we be able to set up and register accounts prior to release if we use the digital pre-order or any other means of purchase?

[NP]: You’ll need a copy of the game, [whether digital download or boxed], to create a specific Vanguard account. If you’ve got the Station All Access pass already we are included in that.  


[TTH]: Will guilds or individuals be able to reserve names beforehand? If so how will that work?

[NP]: There currently aren’t any plans for name reservations with the exception of the test server. The test server will be brought up initially with characters from the beta 1 server as a thank you for our long time testers, and we will add qualifying characters from the newer beta servers over time as we monitor the population and needs of the test server. Only characters created on or before January 18th will transfer to the test server and only characters that were accessed from December 15th to present will be copied.


[TTH]: Can you tell us the list of server names and types?

[NP]: In addition to the servers below, we have overflow servers on standby for when they are needed.  

8 US PVE
Thunderaxe
Woefeather
Gulgrethor
Targonor
Hilsbury
Shidreth
Flamehammer
Florendyl (RP Preferred)

1 US PVP
Tharridon

1 US alt PVP
Varking

1 EU PVE
Gelenia

1 EU PVP
Frengrot


[TTH]: Do you all sleep?  You have been putting up at least one huge patch everyday--sometimes two.

[NP]: 4:00 a.m. to 4:15 a.m. is designated sleep time, but sometimes if we’re lucky we get ‘til 4:30!  Kidding aside, that’s just the nature of the beast. We’ll be going pretty strong for a few weeks after release as well, then once things have calmed down we’ll probably slow things for a little bit while folks get the chance to recharge.

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