Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
| Vanguard: Saga of Heroes | |
|---|---|
| File:Vanguard logo white.gif | |
| Developer(s) | Sigil Games Online |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Online Entertainment Sigil Games Online |
| Designer(s) | Brad McQuaid |
| Engine | Game and First Expansion Pack Unreal Engine 2.5 Second Expansion Pack Unreal Engine 3.0 |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | Q1 2007 or later (est.) |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a high fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in development by Sigil Games Online. The game is set to be co-published by Sony Online Entertainment(SOE), and the company producing it, Sigil Games Online. With gamers estimating a winter of 2006 release date, Vanguard is currently in the third phase of beta testing.
Development
Sigil's Vanguard team is notable for being composed of many EverQuest developers, including designer Brad McQuaid and the late artist Keith Parkinson. Most of the developers have worked on other MMORPGs and other EverQuest-related games. From its small beginnings, the team has grown to several dozen.
Development began in early 2002 and the publishing deal with Microsoft was announced in April 2002. The game's title was announced on March 16, 2004 — exactly five years after EverQuest was released. Sigil displayed the game's first screenshots in April and announced that Vanguard uses the Unreal engine in May 2004. As of May 2006 Sigil has announced that they have become the co-publishers of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes due to a mutual separation with Microsoft based on Company interest. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has been named to assist Sigil in co-publishing and distribution.
Beta
The Vanguard developers decided to Beta test the game in phases. Currently the game is in Phase 3 of Beta. People wanting to play in the closed beta must register on their forums or sign up through a promotional opportunity. During the beginning of each beta phase the developers randomly pick people to play in beta via their forums and promotional opportunities.
Developers described the phases as the following:
The information below was retrieved from The Vanguard SOH official FAQ
Phase 0: Work out technical issues -- how do developers get the code up there, testing issues, patching, etc. Basic infrastructure stuff. Then stability -- get the code at least stable enough that beta testers will not be overly frustrated. Start with a small portion of the world and slowly turn additional regions on over time. Developers began Beta 0 “Friends and Family” testing with a very small group of people in August 2005.
Phase 1: Start testing gameplay. Begin with the basics, and then move on to the systems that make Vanguard more unique. Also study how both world size and the world being seamless affect the game.
Phase 2: Continue testing, but with a lot more people. Focus on the mid to higher level game, as well as continue on with crafting, diplomacy, and the other more Vanguard-specific systems. End the phase by filling up the continent Thestra with testers such that critical mass in terms of population has been achieved.
Phase 3: Fill up both Thestra and Qalia. Continue to monitor how fast people are advancing, plus everything else that was in phase 1 and 2. Test even more high level areas, but probably not the highest level areas, unless with specific, hand chosen focus groups. The primary focus, however, will be on finalizing levels 1-35. Currently Testing
Phase 4: Determine the target number of people in a single shard, preferably arriving with a number in between over populated and too sparsely populated. Add Kojan, completing the world. Finalize itemization, character advancement rates, tweaks to Crafting, Harvesting & Diplomacy.
Phase 5: The shortest phase. Bring in a LOT of people (EQ had 25,000+). Have multiple shards online and make sure there are no issues there. Test billing, login, etc. Do everything developers can to make sure nothing catastrophic happens when developers turn on the game for real. Perhaps open some of the high end content briefly, but still being careful to keep mystery in the game.
Community
Even with its distant release date (based on McQuaid's comments that an MMORPG takes at least three years to build) a community has begun to form around the game. Many of the fans have followed the development, recognizing the team's EQ heritage. Sigil has been periodically revealing concept art, screenshots, and the setting's history and lore. Some of the artwork was created by well-known fantasy artists such as Brom and Don Maitz and the late Keith Parkinson.
Much of the community has formed around the website's forums, but there have also been events such as fans visiting Sigil, IRC chats, and contests. Fans that have visited Sigil are prominent members of the MMORPG community, including uberguild leaders, webmasters, and bloggers. A "Community Summit" was held on October 7, 2004 that showed Vanguard to a larger audience from the game's own community.
Vanguard was also the first game to implement a community affiliation program to support the fan sites that support Vanguard. Through this program affiliates are granted exclusive content to display on their Fan sites as well as exclusive interviews with development and artistic staff. The community fan sites are made of both old and new community based web sites dedicated to not only Vanguard but many other MMORPGs. This list of Vanguard fan sites includes, but is not limited to; “The Druids Grove”, “Silky Venom”1, “Vanguard Stratics”, “Vanguard Spheres”, “Vanguard Tact”, and “The Safehouse”.
Shards
Each realm (or server) is referred to as a “Shard.” There are two confirmed server types which are Player versus Environment (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP). Sigil has stated Role-playing (RP) realms will be added after release.
Telon
Vanguard is set in a fantasy world called Telon. Most of the known playable races are from traditional fantasy: gnomes, humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, barbarians, and half-giants. Less traditional is the vulmane, a race of intelligent bipedal wolf-men (unlike werewolves).
Geography
There are four confirmed continents in the world of Telon.
- Thestra – A European type continent with mountains, wetlands, and forests. Thestrans, High Elves, Dwarves, Lesser Giants, Varanjar, Halflings, and Vulmane inhabit Thestra.
- Qalia - Middle-eastern type continent with mountains and deserts. Qaliathari, Mordebi, Dark Elves, Gnomes, Kurashasa, and Varathari inhabit Qalia.
- Kojan – An Asian themed continent with jungles. Kojani, Half-Elves, Wood Elves, Raki, Goblins, and Orc inhabit Kojan.
The fourth continent, Lothenland, is not immediately accessible to all levels. Not much is known about Lothenland. What is known is it is surrounded by icy weather created by a magic force.
Dungeons
Not much is known about the type of dungeons Telon will have. However it has been stated, by Sigil, that there will be no instancing.
"Dungeons simply exist within the world. Walk over a hill and you might find a human castle taken over by orcs, delve into a chasm and you might find the cavernous entrance to a mini dungeon or play area. There is no loading – you simply enter and leave. Of course, many monsters have “leashes” which stop them from being “trained” too far from their dungeon of origin."1
Housing
Housing has been confirmed to be included with the release of the game. There are three types of buildings that are crafted by players and sold to players.
- Residential Buildings – Player owned homes.
- Industrial Buildings – Crafting player owned buildings.
- Commercial Buildings – Commercial shops and stores owned and run by players.
Placement of the crafted building is limited. Developers have divided areas up into zones. If a player wants to build a house in a certain area of a continent s/he will have to find a near by appropriate zone to place the building. Player owned cities have been confirmed, although not much is known.
Characters
Characters in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes are made via a valid Vanguard account. It is currently unknown how many characters may be created on each account. When a character is created the player will start off in one of the three main continents depending on the race s/he chose. The player will then advance through traditional MMORPG leveling. Unlike traditional MMORPGs Vanguard breaks up different leveling types and puts them into different leveling spheres.
Thestra
- Thestrans (Human sub race)
- High Elves (Elf sub race)
- Dwarves
- Lesser Giants
- Varanjar (Barbarian sub race)
- Halflings
- Vulmane
Qalia
- Qaliathari (Human sub race)
- Mordebi (Human sub race)
- Dark Elves (Elf sub race)
- Gnomes
- Kurashasa
- Varathari (Barbarian sub race)
Kojan
- Kojani (Human sub race)
- Half-Elves (Elf sub race)
- Wood Elves (Elf sub race)
- Raki
- Goblins
- Orc
Races and class restrictions
Currently there are twelve unique races. Barbarian, Elf, and Human have their own sub races. There are seventeen unique classes. When creating a character the player must pick a race and then pick a class. However, not every race can pick every class. Each class is limited to a certain number of races.
Spheres
The information in this section was retrieved from the official forums.
Each style of play is broken up into what is called a sphere. There are three types of spheres: Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy. Each sphere will have a level and will increase in level as you perform certain actions. For example if you fight various monsters your adventuring level will eventually increase. A player can choose to level any sphere at any time, but is not forced to level any sphere. All three spheres effect your character overall. There are no restrictions to any combinations between spheres making each character very unique.
Adventuring
This sphere contains what will be most recognizable as a traditional set of MMORPG classes, with some notable additions. Classes will be broken into four basic categories, protective fighter (tank), offensive fighter (melee damage dealer), healer (defensive caster), and arcane caster (magic damage dealer).
Characters in this sphere will be encouraged to group up, and advancement will come mainly through combat. Solo and casual advancement will be possible throughout the levels, but the quickest advancement and best rewards will come from group play. Within each class will be a system of skill points that will allow a player to further customize their character and differentiate themselves even from other players of the same adventuring class.
Crafting
The second ‘sphere’ of Vanguard, crafting is like nothing you have ever seen in any MMOG to date. Gone are the carpal-tunnel inducing days of EQ style crafting where all that was required to advance was patience and a tolerance for repetitive stress injuries. Crafting recipes are each made up of a different set of actions you have to perform in a particular order. Each of these actions cost and take from a pool that is known as the action pool. The max amount of action points available vary with each recipe. While your are crafting and performing these actions you will have problems arise that can affect many aspects of the process. You can have up to three of these on you at a time and which ones will occur is based on the crafting station you are using, its quality, the recipe and the material you are using. Through experimentation, players will be able to discover new recipes and formulas.
As a sphere, crafting will have its own set of classes and levels. Your character will level up and advance within the crafting sphere independent of the other spheres.
Diplomacy
The third “sphere” of Vanguard, diplomacy takes the concept of factions and player interaction to a whole new level. The diplomacy system in Vanguard will allow players to have a direct impact on the politics and development of their world by interacting with NPC’s . Diplomacy For example: Want to get land rights to build a new city in a resource-rich area? Use your guild diplomats to smooth things over with the local politicians and help grease the skids.
As a sphere, diplomacy will have its own set of classes and levels. Your character will level up and advance within the diplomacy sphere independent of the other spheres.
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) Involvement
In May 2006 Sony Online Entertainment acquired marketing rights from former publisher Microsoft. This deal has been controversial in the Vanguard fanbase community because of SOE's questionable reputation amongst former players of EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies.
Nevertheless, Sigil maintains full control of development, funding, intellectual property rights, and in-game customer service (GM and Guide programs). SOE is responsible chiefly for marketing, publication, distribution, subscription services, and maintenance of game servers.
It is notable that this partnership represents a homecoming of sorts for Sigil CEO Brad McQuaid who was--along with Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley, Bill Trost and Steve Clover-- one of the four original developers of Everquest for SISA (Sony Interactive Studios America renamed Verant Interactive in 1999).
External links
Official websites
Previews
Useful information
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes wiki and compiled FAQ
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Developer Digest
- Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Anthology of Telonian Lore
- Vanguard Fansite: The Vanguard Library A Fansite, guild, and Player city
- VanBard for Bards in Vanguard Saga of Heroes fansite
- Vanguard Rangers is the source for any Vanguard player who is interested in the Ranger adventuring class fansite.