Vanguard: Saga of
Heroes Year in Review

by Zinn

Introduction

Where do I start? So much has happened to Vanguard Saga of Heroes in
2006. When the year began we knew little about Vanguard other than the
“Vision” and some conceptual theories regarding the
core game play mechanics of combat, diplomacy and crafting. As the year
has passed not only has the Beta progressed but so has our knowledge.
We now know a great deal about each class, combat, crafting, diplomacy,
death penalty, end game design, and general game mechanics. When 2006
started Vanguard was a distant wish with little chance of releasing in
2006. Now as 2007 dawns Vanguard is not just a distant hope but a game
we will soon be able to play. While we wait on release lets take a look
at Vanguard in 2006.

Beta stages 2-4

Vanguard entered Beta 2 on December 15th of 2005. Beta 3 began on
August 11th ending on December 13th, 2006. In Beta two, Sigil attempted
to test and refine its core systems of combat, crafting, diplomacy and
harvesting. All four systems underwent massive change during this
period. In Beta 3 the continent of Qalia was added; the entire
continent of Thestra was closed down and revamped; and the first
starting area of Kojan was added. Beta 4 has started by adding the
final two Kojan starting areas.

Combat

Combat underwent drastic changes in 2006. In Beta 2 Vanguard combat was
very reactive with combat being based around the ability to perceive
upcoming enemy attacks. The player had many meaningful choices and was
rewarded for href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=vtth-screenshots&id=01_20_06_TenTonHammer_1of2&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 94px; float: left;"
alt="Combat - beta 2" title="Combat - beta 2 (click to enlarge)"
src="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/vtth-screenshots/01_20_06_TenTonHammer_1of2.thumb.jpg"
hspace="4" vspace="2">reacting well to what
her enemy was doing. To make such a system work fights had to be very
long and combat very slow. It’s reported that this system
didn’t go over very well with many of the testers and
resulted in many combat revamps. The signature feature of the old
system, perceiving enemy attacks, is now long gone and unlikely to come
back. Combat is much faster paced now and less reactive, although Sigil
is still constantly tweaking combat and has plans to make it more
reactive and to give players more meaningful choices during combat.



Vanguard will release with 15 classes. Two classes, the Berserker and
Inquisitor, will be added some time after release. Much information has
been learned about each of the 15 classes including detailed spell and
ability information. For a closer look at individual classes take a
look at our href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/#Class%20Guides">class
guides, which are constantly being updated to reflect all new
information.

Crafting

During 2006 we learned a great deal about Vanguard crafting. There will
be 3 crafting classes at release, the Blacksmith, Artificer and
Outfitter. The last crafting class, the Alchemist, will be added
sometime after release. Each crafting class has 2 subclasses. Crafting
is regarded in beta as extremely well done. Unlike most other games
crafting in Vanguard actually href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=article-illustrations&id=ScreenShot_00007&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 120px; float: right;"
alt="crafting UI" title="crafting UI (click to enlarge)"
src="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/article-illustrations/ScreenShot_00007.thumb.jpg"
hspace="4" vspace="2"> requires some
thought and skill. Experience and levels are gained by doing Work
Orders for NPCs. Work Orders are quests given by NPCS to make useful
items for NPC guards and townspeople.



In addition to armor and weapons, players will be able to construct
boats, housing and any item that one sees in an NPC building. Players
can buy plots of land and build residential, commercial and industrial
structures. Some time after release city building will be added to the
game. City building will allow players and guilds to build towns,
fortifications and outposts out in the wilderness. Crafting may play a
role in the health of these player made cities. For a more thorough
explanation of crafting see our href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=436">crafting
preview.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy will no longer be level based but rather skill based from
skill level 0 to 500. There will be 4 main Diplomacy classes, Thug,
Philosopher, Demagog and Charlatan, which will become available at
skill level 150. Each class will divide into two subclasses at skill
level 350. Diplomacy will affect the world and players within it.
Players can use diplomacy to create area wide buffs and to influence
NPCs to open quests for crafters and adventurers.



Diplomacy will be one of the main vehicles used to reveal game lore and
the storyline to players. As a player engages in a diplomatic encounter
with an NPC the NPC will reveal information to the player. This
information may add lore, storyline and sometimes may direct the player
to quests. Diplomacy will also open up quest lines to players and
access to NPCs that he would otherwise not be able to access. Once city
building is introduced Diplomacy may play a role in keeping player
cities healthy and running smoothly.



Vanguard Stratics’ excellent October href="http://www.stratics.com/content/portals/vanguard/content/features/previews/061012_diplomacy.php">Diplomacy
preview provides further details. 

Harvesting

Harvesting at one time looked to be quite revolutionary. Sigil had
planned for harvesting classes and actual harvesting combat whereby
players would get special attacks, buffs, debuffs and actually engage
in solo and group combat with a resource. All this sounded great in
theory but it did not work as well as Sigil intended in beta. Sigil
removed all harvesting classes and special attacks. Harvesting is now
quite simple. Click on a resource to begin the harvesting encounter and
then loot it when the resource is depleted. Each player can gain skill
in 2 of the 5 harvesting skills, mining, quarrying, skinning, reaping
and lumberjacking, Groups can harvest the same resource and extract
more from that resource than an individual. Harvesting is no longer
level based but skill based. Harvesting like Adventuring, Crafting and
Diplomacy has its own separate tools and armor.

Game play

When the year began Vanguard’s game play was centered on
gaining experience by killing monsters. The success of World of
Warcraft’s quest-directed game play has likely affected the
design for Vanguard and could possibly affect every new MMORPG for
2007. In 2006 Vanguard changed its philosophy to quest-directed game
play. Quests will lead players around the world of Telon and comprise a
substantial portion of the player’s experience.



href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=vtth-screenshots&id=08_16_06_TenTonHammer_3of4&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php4"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 92px; float: left;"
alt="group buff" title="group buff (click to enlarge)"
src="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/vtth-screenshots/08_16_06_TenTonHammer_3of4.thumb.jpg"
hspace="4" vspace="2">This has caused quite
a bit of controversy. While quest-directed game play may be the wave of
the future many players do not like being led by quests. Quests make it
harder for groups to stay together as people are constantly leaving
once they finish their quest. In Vanguard, players will have
options--they can either quest from level 1-50, or level grind by
killing monsters without questing. There will be many dungeons to crawl
and places for players to grind or camp if they wish. Brad McQuaid, CEO
of Sigil Games, has said it is Sigil’s intention that pure
grinding will be a slower way to level than questing. Sigil here is
trying to walk a delicate balance and appeal to both types of players,
questers and those who dislike questing.



Even with quest-directed game play Vanguard is still designed to be a
group oriented game. Early in 2006 we learned about the 20-60-20
philosophy. Sigil’s concept for all levels of gameplay,
including, the endgame, is content distribution that is roughly 20% for
raiding, 60% for single groups and 20% for solo and casual (2-3
players) play. Sigil has said that players will be able to solo from
level 1-50 but that the rate of progress will be slower than when
grouped.

Death Penalty

Vanguard has a dynamic death penalty where the death penalty changes
depending on the level of difficulty of the enemy the player is
fighting. One of the signature parts of Sigil’s vision for
Vanguard has been a significant death penalty--a penalty that has
enough sting to make players fear death and to teach and reward players
for playing better. The new death penalty has eliminated corpse runs
for most deaths. This has caused a great amount of controversy and has
caused many people to claim the vision is being “watered
down.” But in all fairness, Brad McQuaid has said for quite
sometime that he is not committed to corpse runs, rather that he
doesn’t care what the penalty is, as long as death stings.
This penalty has been evolving all year. Brad explains the latest
version of the death penalty below.

Below are links to the two latest versions of Sigils death penalty.

• href="http://www.fohguild.org/forums/574894-post114.html">New
  Death Penalty
• href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1278950&postcount=202">Old
  Death Penalty

End Game Loot Policy

Contrary to what many people believe Vanguard’s endgame is
not designed around raiding nor is it designed to give raiders any edge
in gear. Vanguard’s endgame is designed to reward those that
use all of the game’s endgame attractions. The best gear will
come mainly from single group activities but the best gear will also
come from a variety of content including solo/casual content, raid
content, quests, crafting, diplomacy and other activities. If you want
the best gear you will have to do all the activities or trade for the
items that come from play styles you choose not to play.



To learn more about Sigil’s endgame loot plan, please take a
look at Brad’s endgame loot posts below.

• href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1401499&postcount=194">Post
  1
• href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showpost.php?p=817405&postcount=54">Post
  2
• href="http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showpost.php?p=821802&postcount=150">Post
  3
• href="http://www.silkyvenom.com/pages/faq.php?faqid=586&expand=591#faq591">Post
  4

Challenge

Many people talk about Vanguard being more challenging but what does
that mean? How will Vanguard be more challenging or difficult than
other games? Bill Fisher, senior game designer, talked a little bit
about what Sigil means by challenge in our href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=411">dungeon
interview with him.  He said:

In vanguard there will simply be a smaller margin of error. Mistakes
will be more costly and have a much greater chance of causing your
group to wipe. Combined with a stiffer death penalty simple mistakes
will cause a great deal more pain. When EQ1 was released the margin of
error was quite low which forced groups to play better. Small mistakes
could wipe your group. People were not only forced to learn how to play
their character but how to group, choose a leader, listen to that
leader, pull to safe spots and so on.



In EQ1 and DAOC every player had to learn these basic fundamentals of
good grouping or they would have difficulty href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=vtth-screenshots&id=08_16_06_TenTonHammer_4of4&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 92px; float: right;"
alt="outside Hillsbury Manor"
title="outside Hillsbury Manor (click to enlarge)"
src="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/vtth-screenshots/08_16_06_TenTonHammer_4of4.thumb.jpg"
hspace="4" vspace="2"> gaining invites to
groups and continue to level. In EQ1 if you played poorly you simply
did not find good groups. People quickly learned to cooperate, listen
and work together as teams. In my Vanguard beta experiences this is the
case. Small mistakes are much easier to make and the cost of these
mistakes is much more painful. Players are simply taught to play better
and work better as a group in Vanguard.



In more modern games fundamental grouping skills were rarely needed
because the margin of error was so large. In newer games people could
make all kinds of mistakes and the group would live. But even if they
died death penalties were very small. If someone went AFK, or had no
idea how to play their class, or if they would run ahead and pull agro
it wouldn’t matter because your group could still win. Games
like EQ and Vanguard encourage good group play while many recent games
do not.



Playing in Vanguard beta I have noticed the difference in the margin of
error. Simple mistakes and sloppy play have large repercussions.
Players are forced to play better and they do get better. I find there
is a greater feeling of accomplishment. The margin of error is the
fundamental difference in challenge and one of the key parts, in my
opinion, of Vanguards vision.

SOE

In May of this year, in a shocking move, Sigil announced they had
bought back the publishing rights from Microsoft and had entered into
an agreement with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) to publish Vanguard.
This caused a great uproar in the community and a strong backlash
towards Vanguard from much of its fan base. For a few weeks after the
announcement, anti-SOE threads dominated all Vanguard forums. But like
most controversies this one died down with time. Many people still
don’t like SOE, but are primarily concerned not about which
company is publishing Vanguard, but about the quality of the game
itself.



Brad McQuaid explained that the move to SOE was in the best interests
of Vanguard. He said that partnering with SOE would allow for a longer
beta and a better and more complete game at release. For the most part
Sigil did refused to explain the true reasons behind the move. A few
days ago Todd Masten, Senior Game Desinger at Sigil Online, made a
statement on the href="http://www.fohguild.org/forums/627603-post1393.html">Fires
of Heaven forums, which seems to explain why Sigil may have
parted ways with Microsoft. He said:

Looking at Brad and Todd’s statements together it’s
not hard to draw the conclusion that Microsoft may have been pressuring
Sigil into a much earlier beta and release than they had intended. If
this is true then the merger with SOE in retrospect looks to have given
Vanguard a much better chance of success.

Respect and communication

One thing we learned about Vanguard in 2006 is that neither Brad nor
any of the Sigil developers actually sleep. Amazingly they post
continuously at all hours on the forums. Not just Brad, but many of the
developers post on the forums and interact with the fans. Most game
developers over hype their games promising everything and delivering
little. With Vanguard it’s the fans who have over hyped the
game and driven up expectations. Sigil and Brad have done their best to
manage expectations with Vanguard. Brad has spent a good amount of time
on the official vanguard forums trying to keep expectations for
Vanguard within reason and attempting to correct any misconceptions.
Sigil is trying something quite novel by treating their fans with
respect and honesty in an industry known for treating fan bases like
cattle. Sigil should be applauded for their interaction with the fan
base. It is a model that other developers should learn from.

The Vision

All year long Brad has told people that Vanguard will not be a game
just for hardcore player or for casuals but will be targeted towards
the core player or average player. Brad has said that you cannot
stereotype players. Rather players simply like different types of game
play, game features and game styles. This does not make any game style
or preference superior to any other.



href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album04&id=ScreenShot_02207&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 113px; float: left;"
alt="Ca'ial Brael" title="Ca'ial Brael (click to enlarge)"
src="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album04/ScreenShot_02207.thumb.jpg"
hspace="4" vspace="2">Brad has explained
that Vanguard’s systems--from its endgame loot system to
dynamic death penalty-- will attempt to offer something for most types
of players and play styles. Vanguard will offer quest-directed game
play for questers and group and solo play for those who prefer to
adventure alone or with a partner. There will be content for solo
players, group players and raiders. But the important point is that
Vanguard is trying to reach out to most, if not all, play styles
whether one is a quester, crafter, diplomat, raider, casual player,
hardcore player, EQ1 fan, WoW player or something else. Sigil is trying
to offer content for these different types of play styles while not
watering down the challenge or infringing upon other styles of game
play. Take a quick look at the end game plan. Everyone can play the end
game as they wish. If a player doesn’t wish to engage in
diplomacy, raiding or in soloing/casual content they don’t
have to. They will still be rewarded playing the game how they want to
play it. Players can simply play the game the way they want if it does
not infringe upon other people’s enjoyment. That seems to be
what Vanguard is all about: offering content choices for everyone.



For the longest time, no one listened to Brad McQuaid when he preached
that Vanguard was not a hardcore game but a game for everyone. Rather,
people stuck to their preconceptions of Vanguard. But slowly it has
begun to dawn on people that Vanguard is not exactly the game they
thought it would be. Many have become upset or disillusioned because
Vanguard is quite different than what they decided it would be. They
may be upset about Bind on Equip items, Trivial Loot Code, the endgame
not being centered around raiding, the lack of corpse runs, inclusion
of maps, quest-directed game play or something else. This has recently
caused a great deal of backlash posts saying that Brad and Vanguard
have “lost the vision.” I would strongly disagree
and point out that if they had been listening they would have been
aware that Brad and Sigil have talked about most if not all of these
design decisions for years now. This is something that happens in just
about every game, when a game does not turn out exactly as people want,
they cry foul and raise a ruckus on the boards.

The Community

Anyone visiting the Official Vanguard Forums (OVF) might be shocked to
look back and see what the community and the forums were like at the
beginning of the year. The OVF used to be a friendly place where
arguing, disagreements, rants and attention seeking posts were the
exception, not the rule. Now we don’t need to read long
before feeling deeply sorry for Elar and Glip, the official forum
moderators. While the OVF has degraded in quality it is still much
better than most game forums this close to release. Glip and Elar
deserve a great deal of praise for the work they have done keeping the
boards as civil as they are. Fortunately for Glip and Elar the OVF
(except for technical forums) will be closing at release.



The in game community is something Brad and Sigil have been talking
about for many years. Sigil has said they hope to use in game mechanics
to make better communities and bring back the importance of player
reputation. Mechanics such as long travel time, regionalized economies,
group-centric play, player interdependence, stronger death penalties
and a smaller margin of error all are part of sigil’s plan to
make communities stronger and better. When I entered beta I had my
doubts that Sigil would be able to bring back strong communities to a
genre that has for the most part abandoned the idea of community. But I
have been very impressed with Vanguard’s in-beta game
community in terms of its skill and maturity. It has been many games
since I have joined pick up groups but in Vanguard I am constantly
amazed at the nice people I meet in pick up groups. It is quite
refreshing and I hope this better community will carry over to release.

2007 and Release

What do we know about release? We know that there are two stages of
beta left. We know that all 3 continents, 14 starting areas, and 15
adventure classes are in the game now. We know that Brad has said Beta
5 will last about 4 weeks and the NDA will be lifted in Beta 5. The
question then is how long will beta 4 last? Sigil appears to be pushing
strongly for a March/April release. Will they make it?  People
seem to feel quite strongly one way or the other. While we could have a
release as early as March or April most games do get pushed back and I
would not be surprised to see a summer release. My number one rule
about releases is never to trust anything a developer or game company
said about their release. They almost always get pushed back.



While many are impatient to play we all benefit when games take their
time and do not rush to release. Brad has said that href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album04&id=ScreenShot_02148&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 113px; float: right;"
alt="Kojan" title="Kojan (click to enlarge)"
src="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album04/ScreenShot_02148.thumb.jpg"
hspace="4" vspace="2"> WoW has upped the
bar as to what players expect from a new game’s release. Jeff
Butler, Vice-President of Sigil Games, has said players will no longer
tolerate a shabby release. Players will simply not give a game a second
chance after a poor release. Most likely Vanguard has only one chance
to impress the MMORPG fan base and that is at release. I hope Sigil
takes their time. Brad has said time and time again we will not release
until the game is ready. As much as I love Brad’s openness
and honesty with the community he is still a game developer and one
should always take what a game developer said about release with a
grain of salt. I hope he keeps his word to us and does not release
Vanguard until its ready.

Summary

Is there anything more exciting than a game about ready to release?
Besides DDO there has not been a major MMORPG release in two years.
Vanguard has now been in development about 4.5 years and its fan base
cannot wait to play. I know I start drooling when I think of release. A
lot has changed this last year to make us even more excited. We have
learned about the classes, the endgame, the death penalty and so much
more. But we also learned that the people making this game are darn
nice people. Brad, Jeff Butler, Elar, Glip and all the Devs should be
thanked for their hard work, honesty and great communication. They are
a breath of fresh air in industry where it has become hard to trust
developers. We should all take the time to wish them a happy holiday
and a good rest for the hard work and great year they have given us.