Some Questions for you all

[acrobat]

1) Did you do the free trial? If so, do you like it? Is the game much better than it was when you last played? Will you subscribe when the trial ends? Or will you uninstall it again?

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.

[Paleghost]

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.

I actually haven't played in a bit, but I know you can cast berries on other and they are in bigger stacks now. No longer needed to trade them. Other than that, not many big changes to druid cept in pvp

[acrobat]

I actually haven't played in a bit, but I know you can cast berries on other and they are in bigger stacks now. No longer needed to trade them. Other than that, not many big changes to druid cept in pvp

Thanks. Can you still do PVP? I thought the PVP servers got closed? Or do you just mean like duels or something?

I am quite tempted to play it again but... I've been quite tempted for a year :P I miss the game but I have other things to play so I'm not really desperate. I would be a lot more likely to go back, if I knew there was some stability there.

[Rourke]

I didnt CTD on the trial...but i wan't too impressed either. It feels empty now. A lot people left are bitter and rude i found also. I won't be re-subbing, it's still laggy, and unfinished....not gonna pay for that.....again. One raid zone doesnt make a game good again.

[Lonestryder]

1) Did you do the free trial? If so, do you like it? Is the game much better than it was when you last played? Will you subscribe when the trial ends? Or will you uninstall it again?

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.

Here's my perspective, Acrobat:

Did you do the free trial?
No, I cancelled and resubbed about two months ago.

If so, do you like it?
Although I did not do the free trial, I think I can say that overall, I do like the game that is currently Vanguard. It's "nice".

Is the game much better than it was when you last played?
Subjective, but performance wise the game has improved dramatically for me. 30 minutes tweaking my game options (with much help from members on this forum) and the game runs fairly well.

Will you subscribe when the trial ends?
This depends on two things, really. Firstly, I want the producer to lay out the plan for 2008, or at least a framework for the plan. Normally I'd say that isn't necessary for me to request, but given that the old Vanguard is obviously not SOE's cup of tea, I'd like to know the flavor of the new one.
Secondly, it will depend on whatever is stated to answer the above...the "direction" if you will. If it's a direction I can live with, I'm in. If it isn't, I'm out.

Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.
No clue here, but doing a search on the official forums should bring up Druid changes from the GU notes.

Overall, and comparing it to what is available currently on the market, it matches my game requirements closely enough to play. However, I play with one foot out the door, and have no plans to join a guild until the direction of the game is known. It's a waiting game for me right now, quite literally. In a merlot induced flourish one evening, I wrote http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?topic_id=22077 which pretty much sums up the big picture for me right now.

[acrobat]

Thanks guys. Such a shame :( It all still sounds "so close but no cigar", which is pretty much how it was a year ago.

[Mreynolds]

A year after release and something isnt there then it most likely isnt ever going to happen.

[acrobat]

Yeah. Especially considering there aren't many people left working on the game now.

[Dorfeater]

1) Did you do the free trial? If so, do you like it? Is the game much better than it was when you last played? Will you subscribe when the trial ends? Or will you uninstall it again?

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.

1) Yes, but the game is still the same as it was, I logged into my old character for a few mins, but then decided that maybe if I started a new toon I could experience the game and the changes from the ground up. Aside from what seemed to be a couple more quests than I remember.... I noticed no changes at all. Except performance of course, a little better there.

Still the same old bugs I remember from before, still the huge world with nothing in it. No CTDs though.

I will continue to play the game through the trial, I'm really trying to give the game another shot, but I cannot say I will be resubbing. No chance. Maybe next year.

[Dragon-RD]

1) Did you do the free trial? If so, do you like it? Is the game much better than it was when you last played? Will you subscribe when the trial ends? Or will you uninstall it again?

No I re-subbed a couple of days before it was announced. However I can say that since canceling after the first month and re-subbing sometime after GU1 and my PC failing on me that i'm hugely impressed with the progress the game has made. First performance is no longer a problem, I havnt fallen through the world once as of yet but I have got stuck a few times walking through large rocks. I say stuck I was able to exit the same way as I entered but really you shouldnt be able to walk through them at all. A number of quests that were bugged have been fixed, including the annoying witch doctor one at Gaxton Village (martok starting quest) his room no longer gets filled with NPCs. I have encountered a rather annoying billing bug (yeah its not in-game but its more of a heads up) where my subscription just vanished. However with in two days SoE have sorted me out, so i'm now able to play. Overall, yes I will be re-subscribing to Vanguard.

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.

Like Paleghost said berrys stack higher and don't need to be traded.

On the side note: Yes you can still PvP. The Team PvP and Free For All PvP servers were merged into one PvP server.

[acrobat]

Overall, yes I will be re-subscribing to Vanguard.What made you quit in the first place, and what is it that specifically makes you want to play it again? Or is it just a general feeling of things being less buggy and stuff now?

I'm not sure I can even remember why I quit now :p I think I was just disappointed in my character. I was a good Druid, and I knew what I was doing and my gear was a bit better than most people's. But still, I was grouped once in a high level place (35+ when not many people where that high yet), and the group leader was pissed off at all our DPS, and I get the impression that it was especially me she was peeved with. She eventually said, something like, "This isn't working guys, I'm going to have to disband this group and make a better one". Sounds rude I know, but you can't really blame her I suppose. The mobs where taking forever to die, and it was very boring. We where all just sitting there for hours... spamming our buttons and watching as the mob's health sloooowly reduced.

I had been doing everything I could. There where two of us druids in the group, although I was a few levels higher than the other guy. We where doing the exact same things, so its not like one of us sucked and was doing something wrong. And I was literally blowing my mana as fast as possibly could, on every mob.. I was using my special spells and all my dots, my pet, and my nukes as fast as I could cast them, and it was just completely underwhelming :(

What pissed me off the most, is that I wasn't a healer, and they nerfed my once awesome mezmerise spell so that it only worked on certain animals which was about 2% of the damn game :( I also didn't really have any buffs. So I was basically a pure DPS class, and yet my DPS was shit. I don't like feeling like that, and I didn't just want to restart as a Psion because everybody was doing that and the Psion population was going through the roof at the time.

I also had been waiting like 35 levels for a damn cloak (I think it was a cloak), and there was just one quest to get the cloak, but the quest seemed broken to me. Several people tried to help me, and one guy even walked me through every step, but it just wouldn't complete. I was also getting a bit bored of the constant relentless quests. They then released a new patch that caused all kinds of graphics issues, and 90% of my guild had already quit, so I would have been crazy to not say, "F this" and leave, so thats exactly what I did.

I'm sure some of that is better now, but I'm not sure if it's enough. I would just resub if it wasn't for the fact that I have lots of new games that I like now. I have several good single player games, and I've started playing an EQ Emulator again, which although not quite as good as Vanguard, is pretty damn close, and yet it's free. The free thing is important because I don't like paying for something that isn't great. It's a principle thing rather than a money thing.

Like Paleghost said berrys stack higher and don't need to be traded.

On the side note: Yes you can still PvP. The Team PvP and Free For All PvP servers were merged into one PvP server.

That sounds really promising. TBH I can't really remember what those berrys did. Weren't they just a slight health regen thingy?

The PVP thing I am very interested. I don't know how bad it is in Vanguard, but I used to play on a couple of pvp servers in EQ, and it breathed new life into the game. Anyone here have experience of that server?

[Dragon-RD]

What made you quit in the first place, and what is it that specifically makes you want to play it again?

I quit the game a month after my free month ran out at launch. From performance problems to a couple of annoying bugs, falling through the world and logging out then back in at a totaly different spot as two, but kept a close eye on the game while gone. I gave LoTRO a try and Tabula Rasa and then it hit me while browsing SV that I really wanted to play Vanguard with out the bugs which I guess some of the 100 or so guests SV gets think the same way, half the time this forum has more users than the official forum. I think the main appeal of the game to me is the variety of classes it makes grouping more interesting and I like the way they are all pretty different from each other. Secondly I don't mind a bit of crafting, don't do much dipo but its a break from adventuring every once and a while. I think the best way to describe why I returned is Vanguard makes me feel free. Plus the performance improvements didnt hurt ;)

Im always discovering new things about the game aswell. A couple of nights back I was in a group with a Monk who asked me to get a axe to help him harvest. I didnt even know you could group-harvest I thought it was bugged. So group harvesting makes it less of a grind to get the mats required to make gear.

But don't get me wrong there are still parts of Vanguard I hate such as the auction house window. When searching for armour you still cant select Heavy, Medium or Light. And I find the weather system particually annoying when its dark and you've got a ton of white dots flying about and not even both tourch lights help you to see.


That sounds really promising. TBH I can't really remember what those berrys did. Weren't they just a slight health regen thingy?

Yep they get your HP back.

[acrobat]

I really miss it :( I'm just not so sure about resubbing because there was so much that annoyed me. I think I will wait and see what happens with this newbie area situation. If they decide to leave them as they are, I'll resubscribe. If they consolidate it into a newbie isle, I won't bother.

[Dragon-RD]

I really miss it :( I'm just not so sure about resubbing because there was so much that annoyed me. I think I will wait and see what happens with this newbie area situation. If they decide to leave them as they are, I'll resubscribe. If they consolidate it into a newbie isle, I won't bother.

Likely to be your best bet acrobat. But sadly its looking pretty grim about the trial island situation. It's called the Isle of Dawn and its on its way in april :(

Source: http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/devchat/2749-Vanguard-Developer-Chat-Log

WarCry: AnnraThannar: When will trial island be ready and is trial island also dedicated for old buddy key owners. I hope so, because it may help reducing spam.
Phathom: Trial Island is a name that has a poor association with it at the moment. The Trial Island was started with the intention of having a stand alone client that new players can try out. Our current intention for the Trial Island is to use it as the new starting location for most of the races and new players.
Phathom: The Isle of Dawn is the actual name now "Spoiler Alert"
Phathom: We plan on restarting work on the Isle next month and expect to have it out to you near and around April
Phathom: Spam -- We are looking at issues at the moment with this but we want you to be able to get your friends back in the game to experience a much better starting experience
Phathom: and allow you to be there to share the new experience without having the content too low for you to play. We're still working out the detail

[Adaman]

1) Did you do the free trial? If so, do you like it? Is the game much better than it was when you last played? Will you subscribe when the trial ends? Or will you uninstall it again?

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know.


1: Yes....no, the game runs better, but it's a dead world. I will NOT resub.

2: Beats me, only played a monk and a Paladin.

[Gecon]

1) Did you do the free trial? Paying customer since release - in other words: no.

2) Does any one know if there have been any changes to the Druid class since about March? If so, please tell me what has changed, if you know. Theres a ton of changes to *ALL* classes since Release, or March (which was IIRC month after release).

But I dont play Druids, as I dislike that class - at least in the form it has in Vanguard.

I know for sure however that this class had a ton of changes as well.

[acrobat]

Hmm, that made me interested to try it and see about the class changes. That was one of the most important things to me.

The trial isle is a downer though :( Hopefully they will make a good job of it, and not like EQ2's trial which was bland.