http-equiv="content-type">
Weekly Hot Topics

October 19th, 2007

Weekly Hot
Topics

Collected by Dalmarus

---

<!-- if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='"); document.write ("http://ads.tentonhammer.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random); document.write ("&amp;what=zone:93"); document.write ("&amp;exclude=" + document.phpAds_used); if (document.referrer) document.write ("&amp;referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); document.write ("'><" + "/script>"); //-->

href='http://ads.tentonhammer.com/adclick.php?n=aefd7612'
target='_blank'> src='http://ads.tentonhammer.com/adview.php?what=zone:93&n=aefd7612'
border='0' alt=''">

It's that time of the week again everyone, where I bring you the Weekly
Hot Topics featuring both the href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38">TTH
Vanguard forums and the  href="http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/forums/list.m">official
Vanguard forums. Changes within the Vanguard development
team, along with the ups and downs of Game Update 3: Phase One have
given people plenty to talk about on the forums, so let's get down to
it!



Have you come across a thread you'd like to see featured? href="mailto:[email protected]">Send it off
(with a subject of "Weekly Hot Topics"). Or if style="font-weight: bold;">you want to be
featured, start an engaging thread on href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38">our
forums here.

TTH Vanguard Forums

href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=20167">Vanguard
Development Moves to the San Diego Studio - By Ralsu



With the announcement of SOE closing the Carlsbad office and having to
let some personnel go, there has been a lot of concern about the state
of the game lately. The loss of some of the more vocal developers on
the official forums came as a blow to many players. There is some worry
that the remaining team is not enough to handle the future of the game
the players envision, whether it be from lack of manpower, or has been
stated, perhaps a lack of understanding the current state of the code.



As mentioned in the thread though, there are still a number of Vanguard
developers that have been around the game for quite some time. While
the loss of people is never easy, the game should still move forward as
intended.

 



href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=20120">Dynamic
Duos #1: Tank + Healer - By Ralsu



So what do you think the best tank+healer combo is? Warrior and Shaman?
Dread Knight and Bloodmage? How about a Paladin and Disciple? Or do you
think any tank combined with a cleric will out do any of the others?
There are some interesting arguments being made for and against the
various combinations. Get in there and let us know what your
experiences have been so far!

Official Vanguard Forums

href="http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?&topic_id=20636">GU3
phase 1 review- MASSIVE performance Increase! - By Krazymagic



Krazymagic is well known for his sometimes blunt manner in expressing
his displeasures and concerns with the game, and is rarely silent about
issues he feels are important to be brought to the light. It's great to
see a post like this from him since (as is mentioned in the thread) it
has the odd effect of lending more weight to the truth of statements
made.



Along with a number of players, Krazymagic has seen a huge increase in
FPS (Frames Per Second) during gameplay. Some players are reporting
increases of more than 10-20 FPS from before the latest patch. That's
great news for everyone. What kind of changes have you seen?



For those that have not seen much of an increase, it has been suggested
that going into the vgclient.ini and setting the UseVSync= setting to
FALSE to disable vsync will help.





href="http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?topic_id=20730">Game
Update #3 Phase 1 specific bugs - By Hobart



While the latest patch has seen a nice improvement for players in terms
of FPS and less CTD's, it certainly hasn't been without its own issues.
There are a number of bugs currently being worked on for an upcoming
hotfix, but Hobart is requesting players to report any new bugs that
are not in his initial post. The list of known bugs from this patch is
a little longer than I would have expected, but with a game this
complex (and with screwy coding they had dumped into their laps after
the Sigil buyout), it's not necessarily surprising. Bugs listed range
from Necromancer pets continuing to attack corpses to multiple equipped
effects showing up. Take a few minutes to get over there and check out
the current list Hobart has going. If they don't know about it, they
can't fix it, now can they?





href="http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?&topic_id=20597">Major
loss of confidence in VG - By Mentin



With the recent changes and consolidation efforts of SOE, it's to be
expected that a certain amount of nervousness is going to creep into
the community as to the current state of affairs. That type of reaction
would be perfectly normal. The perceived lack of any communication from
SOE management though, has thrown a large number of the
community into a quivering mass of insecurity. Mentin brings his
concerns to light in this post, and the amount of responses is quickly
growing.



Changes like this within a game's development team, when not followed
with words of reassurance from the management, is like throwing fuel on
the fire for the "Doom and Gloom" types that roam around all forums.
This added fuel begins to slowly corrode the sense of faith the normal
players have. Community members can only listen to so much negativity
before they begin to believe it themselves. Statements like, "Since SOE
isn't saying anything to the contrary, maybe it is true" begin to worm
their way into the minds of other players, and a cascade begins.



How do you feel about the current state of affairs with the game?

Conclusion

While things may feel like they are
in an uncertain state of flux, I think it's important to ask yourself a
couple questions to get a feel for your own state of mind. Are you
currently having fun in the game? Has performance increased for you? Do
you look forward to your play time? Is this a game you think your
friends should be playing?



If the answer to the majority of those questions is "yes", then take a
deep breath and try to have a little faith that the game will continue
to improve. We all want some kind of statement from SOE, but give them
some time to catch their breath and give us some assurances about the
future state of the game before you start crying that the sky is
falling.



There are a number of hard working and truly dedicated people on the
Vanguard team. Many of the developers work on bug fixes during their
own time. Honestly ask yourself how many times you have stayed at work
on your own time just because you thought something needed to get done,
but knew you weren't going to get paid for doing it. Most of us have at
some point in time, but I doubt it's on the regular basis that these
individuals do.



Could I be completely wrong about all of this? I suppose it's a
possibility, but I seriously doubt it. You don't have to be blind to
everything, but try and have a little faith.







Let
me know here!