Sigil Entertainment’s Vanguard has been out for a few months now and as some players race to hit the level cap, others are taking their time enjoying the world that’s been presented them. I’m one such player. And, while I’m not a Vanguard expert by any stretch of the imagination, there is some sage advice I’ve picked up along the way from other players and a bit I’ve gleaned myself.

Starting out in the world of Vanguard can be a bit overwhelming. The world of Telon is made up of three known continents right now: Thestra, Qalia and Kojan. While this might not seem like much, Thestra can be such a pain to travel the old days of getting across West Karana in Ever Quest 1 seem like a picnic. At any rate, players start out on one of these three continents and begin their quest in the world with very little gear or money.

Getting started, players will find is pretty easy if they do a few things:

Quest: As it is with EverQuest and the other similar fantasy MMOs games, questing is the surefire way to fast experience and item upgrades. Get as many quests as possible and do them.

Stick to the roads: The roads in Vanguard aren’t “safe” by any means, but they are safer than trying to take shortcuts, no matter how appealing they might be. When possible, stick to the roads for travel from one town to the next.

Value money: Money is hard to come by, very hard. At level 27, I’ve barely broken the gold mark and since I’m not a big tradeskiller, it’s not looking like wealth will be in my future. Fortunately, upgrades for the most part come cheap right now on my server, but this will likely change as more wealth is gained and moved about the world.

Pay attention to player crafted gear: Unlike other games where player made items are generally topped by a lot of drop items, this isn’t the case in Vanguard. This isn’t to say the stuff that drops is all junk, but the fact is tradeskillers have a real niche here.

Tradeskill: I know I said I’m not a big tradeskiller, but this is the road to wealth. Players who tradeskill might not have their coffers overflowing, but they tend to do better than those who don’t. Plus, tradeskilling is a game in and of itself, which has made it a whole lot of fun for those who have the time and inclination to get into a craft. The tradeskilling set up in Vanguard is very well done and infuriating to a point, but it’s hooked many a person more than even adventuring.

Diplomacy: This offers another game in a game that I haven’t personally experimented with all that much. It’s fun, I can tell you that much and pretty complex, as well.

Soloing advice: Soloing is pretty easy for most classes to achieve and the fact is there are a ton of solo quests available. Just take care to con mobs. They’re set up on the old fashion green to red system with purple thrown in for good measure. The dots on the targeting device indicate the complexity. Solo mobs are typically two dots or less, but many a class can take on a three or four dotter with relative ease.

Have fun: This is the biggest bit of advice I can offer anyone starting out. Take your time, make friends, ask questions and explore what Telon has to offer. There’s a lot more than meets the eye.

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Labels: sigil, sony, vanguard, vanguard advice, vanguard tips

As Sigil Entertainment and Sony Online Entertainment are busy touting the first big update for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, players are wading through the muck created by the game’s premature release.

With annoying bugs in abundance and little or no help from GMs other than some fairly rude comments and strict requirements for reporting said bugs, the game would better benefit from an exterminator right now. Instead, players will be getting update that includes new weapons, adventuring areas, NPC classes and most likely new and improved bugs, too.

Don’t get me wrong, Vanguard’s shaping up to be a good game. It’s well thought out. It’s beautiful. And, there’s enough content that solo players and groups can have an equal amount of fun. But as a player, I’d sure like to see what’s broken fixed before more content is added to the title. March 6 is way too early to be talking content additions.

Some of the persistent and annoying problems with the title right now include:

Missing mail
This still appears to be a problem. The check’s in the mail excuse is actually legit in Vanguard.

Broken world/quest locations
Some mobs that are supposed to transport players to different locations in the game to speak to NPCs send them instead to locations under the world, rending the quests useless. While there is a /stuck yes command to enable players to free themselves this command comes with a rather harsh (and somewhat rude) warning that all requests will be reviewed for abuse. (And probably go on your permanent record, too!)

Group bugs
Players invited into groups are being dropped spontaneously, only to find they cannot be invited again because they are “already in a group.” The only fix for this is time or a full log out.

Harvesting
Some players are still having issues with not gaining harvesting skill updates when they should.

Once all of these and a host of other problems are fixed or at least beaten back, then new content should be added. But, right now, adding more things to go wrong just doesn’t make sense and it could backfire and turn players off.

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Labels: sigil entertainment, soe, sony, vanguard, vanguard:saga of heroes

If you’re among the thousands that have already signed up for Vanguard, or you hope to be, there are a few things players of the latest entry on the MMORPG market need to watch out for.

While the game is a whole lot of fun, these particular bugs can really take the wind out of an adventurer’s sails. Some of them can be avoided, others cannot. On the upside, based on GM conversations in game, it sounds like many of them are being worked on currently.

Confirmed bugs GMs are aware of include:

Mail not working
Be very careful what you send through the mail in Vanguard right now. The system works, but not all the time. Getting this one fixed on a player-by-player basis can be a mess, too. Players need to /bug report the issue and it’s best to have both the sender and the receiver do so. I have a set of enhanced horseshoes lost in the ether somewhere, so I’m speaking from first-hand experience here.

Harvesting skills not advancing
This one is really irritating and what’s worse, some of the GMs don’t seem to be aware of it. The harvesting primary and secondary skills on some characters refuse to go up, no matter what’s done. Keep in mind, you do have to have the right tools and training to harvest, but even when all that’s in order, some players are seeing no advancements. I understand from a GM conversation today that this is being addressed.

Other irritations:

Seamless seams
Vanguard is a “seamless” game, but watch out, when you hit what would normally be a zone, it appears as if your computer has locked up. This is a very minor irritation, especially when you get used to it, but the first few times the lack of a “Loading … please wait” message is very noticeable.

Missing mobs
Some of the mobs in this game ghost during battle. To reset them, move away. Otherwise, you might not be able to get a spell off to your detriment. Oh yes, ghosting mobs can still get you!

Customer service
It seems anything that has Sony Online Entertainment attached to it has this problem. The customer service overall is pretty darn slow. It took a few days to get answers about the harvesting issue. I had messages from two GMs. One was clueless. The other, thank goodness, seemed to have a handle on the situation.

Vanguard’s a very new MMORPG and bugs are to be expected. Overall the game play is great, the world is beautiful and the quests are mostly fun.

I’ll post up a starter guide in the next few days to help newbies get their feet wet. As much as SOE drives me nuts, I’ll have to admit, they tend to back very fun games.

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Labels: mmorpg, sigil, soe, vanguard