Vanguard offered its Game Update #6 yesterday, finally fixing and updating their character models, something promised pretty much from launch. Worth it? Definitely.
Prior to the fix, my halfling bard had had her eyelids removed, and further changes to the ambient lighting system had left her face perpetually in shadow. Here she is pre-patch and as she appears now; below is a closeup of her face.
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 Today I’m going to sing a serious song about love, commitment and OOOH LOOK AT THAT PRETTY BIRD!!!! |
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Her breasts are bigger, her armor is more detailed and seems made of more separate pieces, and she has a happier, livelier expression. Players don’t roll halflings because for their supermodel figures, so not sure what the reason was for that, but all in all, she looks far better than before.
Humans weren’t hit as hard with the ugly stick pre-patch, and aside from looking burlier and getting eyelids and a new haircut, Stout Henry doesn’t look all that different. Here’s the before-and-after to judge for yourself.
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 Damn, I’m good looking. |
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So, way to go, Vanguard team 🙂 The game’s characters now look as fantastic as the landscapes.
They do look a bit better. Have the animations changed at all? That was a big problem I had with VG, especially dual wielding daggers as a Rogue.
I really liked the classes and dungeons I experienced though. It’s too bad the game has such a small dev team.
Animations are identical, near as I can tell.
Yes, but what about
zombiesHigh Elves?This game has Elves.
Elves and MMO’s make for some bad MMO juju.
Evil!
(j/k)
Anyways. I agree, the models do look considerably better. But, the animations look like WAR’s model animations. Stiff, they run like the 6 Million Dollar Man (old person reference…).
Maybe GU7.
After a certain point, you just have to realize that graphics are more important for screenshots than gameplay. While I do want my characters to look their best, I’m way more likely to stick with a game if it is fun, rather than how good its graphics are.
Vanguard, the game, has never felt compelling to me. It’s my personal belief that EQ2 is better in every way, and the couple of unique things Vanguard has, like diplomacy and being able to craft boats and a wide variety of unique mounts, does not make the game compelling enough to play. Plus, I can’t find my way around anywhere because of their useless maps.
I’d MUCH rather see them implement useful maps, or just remove maps altogether, than for something purely cosmetic like running animations.
I’d point out that LotRO running animations were pretty awful as well, but I have the feeling I’d be preaching to the choir there 🙂
AoC animations are not that bad. I would counterpoint Tipa by saying that there is something nice about travelling an MMO world and enjoying breath-taking views, snowy mountains, crystal clear waters, murky tropical jungles, etc etc.
I mean, yes most of my time in my mmo is spent trodding around some dark dungeon waiting for something to jump out at me & smash me to a pulp. But, for example, yesterday we stormed a battlekeep (it was deserted, so nobody fought back) but it still was amazing watching an army of trebuchets levelling buildings to the ground, and stand at the top of the hill and laugh at the destruction we caused as smoke billowed into the sky. I took a good amount of screenshots!
How is the rest of Vanguard graphically? It doesn’t even look much better than EQ2 as far as I can see. The ‘diplomacy’ system (or w/e it’s called) piqued my interest when I read about it, but I’m trying to stay away from all things SOE for the time being.
Is the gameplay better somehow? What is it’s defining feature making it different than others?
lol I just looked up and realized you responded to half of my questions already before I even posted!
Thanks Tipa!
🙂
AoC is another game I just don’t have time for. Luckily, it was also saturated by bloggers, so I kinda feel like I played, even though I never did.
The thing that pisses me off most about MMOs is the willingness of the blogger community to do a marketing department’s job for them. Do we really HAVE to know every possible detail of a game before it launches? Can’t ANYTHING be left for us to discover on our own?
I like games where I don’t have a clue. Spore, for instance. I knew pretty much nothing about the game going in, and now, my third time through it, I think I am finally figuring out how to play it. I like that 🙂
Re: AoC, I hope good people like you stick with the game. It’s the loyal players that influence the devs the most, that become part of the collaboration between dev and player toward making a unique and fun MMO.
Haha, thanks for the compliment Tipa, I appreciate it!
To return the compliment, I would say your guild Nostalgia is an interesting idea.
Sort of like that Pox group for WoW where the same 6 people log in on the same day every week to level up, and they all have to stay the same lvl etc etc.
I have an 80 Shadowknight and 80 Shaman with a total of like 5000 AA, maybe more, and all the epic aug quests (BiC) etc all done. I know that game inside and out, and every time I read your Nostalgia blog it reminds me of old memories I had. I can recognize every single screenshot, and where it was taken too. It’s funny looking back at how much one world can become your home. I still stop in my old guild’s webpage to say hi now and then.
As far as the Marketing Dept thing, I mean you aren’t FORCED to read other people’s blogs about WAR, but I do understand where you’re coming from. I totally enjoy figuring out how to do stuff in the game, even if I’m smacking my head against the wall for an hour trying to figure out why something isn’t working lol!
Well, you’re taking AoC to a whole new level with your dance pad/wiimote thing. That’s going to get people really excited when you finish it and do your Youtube 🙂 I think that’s pretty interesting.
I’m not forced to read the posts of other bloggers, but I like them all so much, that I’ll listen to them talk about games I don’t play just because they are such a pleasure to listen to and to read. It just takes me a long time to warm up to a game; I’m not often a first adopter and I don’t usually get too excited about games before they launch. I used to — I was psycho with anticipation for EQ and DAoC — but I got over it. Once the big rush is over, if I still want to play a game, I can play with other people in the second wave, like I did in EQ2 and WoW (I did play EQ2 at launch for about three months, then quit for a year; I played WoW extensively in beta but didn’t play it live for a year, etc). Everyone is a lot more relaxed and interested in just enjoying the game and not racing to the end; it’s just a better experience for me.
Plus, after a year, I’ll have forgotten most of what I read about the game, the “OOOH SHINY!” crowd will be on the next game, and I’ll know if it’s worth playing — by seeing how many bloggers are still playing it 🙂
After a certain point, you just have to realize that graphics are more important for screenshots than gameplay
Yet, I would rather look at my characters run in WoW or EQ2 than LOTRO or Vanguard.
I do not think good graphics and good animation have to be exclusive…
Yes, AoC has some of the most realistic run models, yet look at Guild Wars (especially the female run is quite…uh…unique…ok it is cutesy, yet I could see a woman run like that…I would LOVE to see a woman run like that…*nervous laugh*) and their running animations are awesome also.
And they have a 10th of the pixels of Vanguard.
I remember when EQ2 had horrible run animations for females, and they fixed it. So, I do believe I am not the only one who is so vain as to like their character to look “cool”
But, as to the good gameplay. Yup, that is so true. WoW had that in spades. That is why I would rather play WoW than LOTRO and it’s oh so pretty landscapes.
Now, I just prefer a more “invigorating” experience overall…that will include gameplay AND visuals.
I will stick to my guns darnit!