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Old 03-13-07, 09:28 PM   #73
Xion X2
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Default Re: Double Experience Weekend on Vanguard... Again

Originally Posted by UDawg
Sorry, no one plays Vangaurd. They are all playing WoW.
Of course they are. WoW has been out 2 1/2 years longer and has had much more time to gain a fanbase. People who have been playing that game for 500+ hours aren't likely to suddenly drop it for an MMO that has only been out for a month.

Give Vanguard that same amount of time, and we'll see what it can do. There are already many who have migrated over from WoW or Everquest.

It is one dimensional. Either you grind killing mobs or you grind harvesting, or crafting.
See, this is the kind of contradictory crap I'm talking about. You say Vanguard is "one-dimensional." One-dimensional does not mean what you're saying it does. You just brought up two other huge aspects of gameplay in Vanguard in addition to grinding.

That is not "one-dimensional." That is multi-dimensional.

If you think there's too much grinding in Vanguard, then just say "there's too much grinding." But the label you're trying to apply doesn't fit. Vanguard is anything but one-dimensional.

You are at a huge disadvantate by not playing WoW. WoW is faster paced, better physics and great PVP.
I'm sure I'm at at least a slight disadvantage by never playing it. I plan on picking up another MMO soon to test out, but at this point that other MMO will be EQ2 before WoW. EQ2 at least has decent visuals, from what I've seen.

Graphics? You really want to talk about graphics?
Umm, yeah. I really want to talk about graphics.

*scratches head*

LOL! at least WoW's engine works.
How hard is it to emulate crayola crap?

Sure its stylized cartoon look may not look at good as Vanguards excelent realistic look but they knew enough to not over bloat graphics in a faster paced game.
Vanguard is not built for current machines. I have the feeling they wanted to future-proof it so it doesn't look like recycled dog crap two years from now like WoW looks. Even my 8800GTX SLI system cannot run it completely maxed out at 50fps, although it can come close.

And yes, obviously some of that has to do with optimization, but some of it is due to the fact that Vanguard is just a very damn good looking game and has an unparalleled draw distance. It's also the first game to use volumetric clouds just like Crysis will. The VG team says they cause a significant performance hit.

When you say the game runs like "crap," then those are factors that you have to take into consideration. Turn these new graphics effects like volumetric clouds and the insane draw distance off, and your older machine will run the game much better.

The more graphics you have the more you slow the online experience down.
How so? Has nothing to do with it. It has to do with what kind of machine the user is playing it on.

Ya have to balance out the netcode with the graphics. So if you have to have a high end computer to run it then you appeal to a very small number of people. Blizzard did this right.
I don't think they did it right. Not at all. Screw those who are too lazy or too cheap to go out and buy a decent graphics card for their rigs. Why should the rest of us have to suffer for that?

You don't have to design a game for low-end computers in order for it to be successful. F.E.A.R and Oblivion both sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and both of them pushed current hardware to its limits at maximum settings when they first came out.

Now in the future Vanguard will get their engine to run smooth but right now it is total crap.
I agree that it has a long way to go, but from what I've heard from others this was the case with both Everquest and WoW when they were first released.

So, I'll guess we'll see. Already in just a month Vanguard runs about 30-40% better overall than it did when it was first released. So they're making good progress. If you turn bloom off and cut back the draw distance a little, then it helps in a big way. My game never drops below 30fps anywhere when I disable SLI and run on a single GTX, and I have everything completely maxed except for draw distance.

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