Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
File:Vanguard logo white.gif
Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment (Formerly Sigil Games Online)
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Designer(s)	Brad McQuaid
Engine	Unreal Engine 2.x Modified (current) Unreal Engine 3.0 (possible future) [1]
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	January 30 2007 Early Access: January 26 2007
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a high fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Sigil Games Online, and now developed and run by Sony Online Entertainment. Originally, the game was co-published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), and the company producing it, Sigil Games Online. The game was released on January 30 2007, with an early access date of January 26 2007 for pre-order customers. On May 15 2007, it was announced in a press release that Sony Online Entertainment had completed a transaction to purchase key assets of Sigil Games Online, including all rights to Vanguard . The number of games sold are about 200,000, while the number of subscriptions (players who play longer than the free month you get for buying the game) is around 90,000.

Gameplay

Vanguard offers three primary areas of play: Adventuring, Crafting and Diplomacy. Each of these 'spheres' can be played independently of each other, although there are many points of potential interaction where it will be greatly to a player's advantage to be grounded in more than one of the spheres. There is also a fourth, smaller sphere, Harvesting, which is however strongly linked to Adventuring. There are no restrictions to any combinations between spheres.

All four spheres have their own set of clothing, which can give magical bonuses to the stats and skills involved. Once a character performs an action in the sphere, he automatically and visually switches to the corresponding clothing.

Adventuring

Adventuring contains a traditional set of MMORPG classes, with some notable additions. Classes are broken into four basic categories, protective fighter (tank), offensive fighter (damage dealer), defensive caster (healer), and offensive caster (nuker). True generalists are missing, albeit some of the classes have a more generalist approach.

All classes have hitpoints and endurance, and most also have energy. Fighting classes use endurance for special attacks, while most casters use energy for their spells. The classes differ drastically in their gameplay, and many have special abilities which activate only on criticals or other special circumstances.

Advancement in the combat sphere comes through combat and completion of quests. Solo and casual advancement is possible throughout the levels, but the quickest advancement and best rewards come from balanced group play.

Every level starting at level 10 players get attribute points which can be spent to customize their character and differentiate themselves from other players of the same adventuring class. These points are awarded five times per level at the 20% marks with the fifth time being a level achievement.

Harvesting

Most adventurers also learn harvesting, which forms a fourth, albeit quite simple sphere. A character can have a primary and a secondary harvesting skill, out of a total number of five. This is freely selectable, even if many people prefer to choose their harvesting skills in harmony with their crafting class. These skills include Reaping, Skinning, Lumberjacking, Quarrying, Mining, and Harvesting.

Even people unable to harvest a resource can help others in the group harvest that resource as long as they have the required tools and a high enough skill in that harvesting field (i.e. the generic harvest skill has to be high enough), so a group of three or more people can harvest any resource effectively as long as there is an expert for any of the skills in the group.

The harvesting is split into five levels of experience. All but the beginner level requires reaching another 100 points in that corresponding skill, buying a special book from the harvest merchants, and buying a new, more expensive tool for the higher quality resources.

Much more than Crafting and Diplomacy, Harvesting requires, at higher levels, traveling into very dangerous areas, which is why only experienced adventurers can become experienced harvesters, and the harvesting sphere is not truly independent from Adventuring.

Crafting

The second 'sphere' of Vanguard is Crafting, and involves creating objects and items using recipes. Crafting recipes are each made up of a different set of actions that must be performed in a particular order. Each of these actions cost what is known as 'action points' and takes from the action pool. The maximum amount of action points available varies with each recipe. While crafting, certain complications may arise which may affect the crafting process. Complications are usually but not always detrimental. The player can attempt to correct complications and resume crafting. Through experimentation, players can discover new recipes and formulas.

A character's crafting level is independent of its adventuring level. It is entirely possible to level exclusively in crafting without ever engaging in adventuring combat. Crafting experience comes primarily from work orders. Work orders are the crafting sphere's equivalent of quests. An NPC will commission a work order and provide raw materials. The crafter then produces the requested items, receiving skill and monetary rewards in return.

There are three crafting classes and each of them knows two specializations. The player can choose their specialization when they reach level 11 in the crafter class. It is possible to switch the specialization, but doing so will permanently remove all recipes of that specialization. The classes are Outfitter (Tailor or Leather-worker), Artificer (Carpenter or Mineralogist), and Blacksmith (Armorsmith or Weaponsmith)

Diplomacy

File:VanguardDiplomacyBoard.jpg

The Diplomacy game board.
The bottom half represents the player.
The top half represents the computer opponent.
To the right is the Dialogue Point Marker.
To the left is the Statement play area.
In the centre are the available Expression types.

The third "sphere" of Vanguard, Diplomacy, allows a player to influence their faction and to gain benefits for themselves or other players by means other than simply killing large numbers of enemies. As well as obtaining faction, gear and money, one major reward of Diplomacy is Civic Benefits, which are usually in the form of city-wide buffs triggered by city diplomats for the benefit of the crafting, adventuring or harvesting spheres. Diplomats are also expected to play a primary role in Player City Management at a later stage of Vanguard's development.

Diplomacy borrows some elements from collectible card games. A player gradually increases their total reservoir of cards as they advance in level and complete quests. A player must also choose a five card "deck" customized to the needs of each individual "parley".

The Diplomacy encounter is known as a parley. At the beginning of a parley, both players start with a pool of Dialogue Points (the number depending on the encounter difficulty and the player's diplomatic skill). The goal of a parley is to use Statements to influence the diplomacy marker. Every turn the diplomacy marker is on one side of the board, that player's dialogue point total decreases by one. The first to zero dialogue points wins the parley. As the player progresses toward this goal, sentences appear indicating the conversation that is taking place, tying the mechanics of the card game back to role-playing.

Players use this parley mechanism in all the fields of diplomacy, which include Early Diplomacy, Civic Diplomacy, and Missions (Quests).

As a character advances through diplomacy he or she earns titles that can be displayed front of the character name, e.g. 'Messenger' or 'Ambassador'. These titles represent skill levels, not classes. Diplomacy "classes", or areas of specialization, have been mentioned as a possible future design element but are not currently part of the game or planned for the near future.

In addition to skill level, which is gained by performing any Parley, Diplomats must also manage Presence. Presence represents the character's status in a community (called a 'Station') such as Crafters, Outsiders, or Academics. Status accrues slowly by parleying with people of the appropriate station, but the majority of Presence gains come from clothing -- a Diplomat might wear a ragged shirt to raise Outsider Presence or Silk Pants to raise Noble presence.

Performing Parleys usually results in a reward of "information", such as "Rumor of Blackmail" or "Evidence of Trends". When enough of these items have been collected, they can be turned in to Informant NPCs to receive cash, clothing, or items. It should be noted that, at present, no actual information is gained, merely a token in inventory with an appropriate name. That is, receiving a "Rumor of Arcana" will not reveal to the player any additional information about the game world.

As of this time, there is no PVP (Player versus player) element to Diplomacy, but it has been stated that the system was designed with players being able to 'duel' diplomatically with each other. What, if any, benefits or consequences this will have is unknown.

Game World: Telon

Vanguard is set in a high fantasy world called Telon. Most of the known playable races are from traditional fantasy: goblins, humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, barbarians, and half-giants. Less traditional are the "beastmen" -- the Vulmane, Raki and Kurashasa, races of intelligent bipedal wolf-, fox- and cat-men (unlike werewolves).

Geography

Four continents were originally planned for release, but the fourth one was not completed in time and will likely show up in an expansion. The three continents currently in the game are:

• Thestra – A European type continent with mountains, wetlands, and forests. Thestrans, High Elves, Dwarves, Lesser Giants, Varanjar, Halflings, and Vulmane inhabit Thestra.
• Kojan – An Asian themed continent with jungles. Kojani, Half-Elves, Wood Elves, Raki, Goblins, and Orcs inhabit Kojan. Kojan is not a full continent, but only supports play up to roughly level 20.
• Qalia - Middle-eastern type continent with mountains and deserts. Qaliathari, Mordebi, Dark Elves, Gnomes, Kurashasa, and Varathari inhabit Qalia.

The fourth continent is to be called Lothenland. Not much is known about Lothenland except that it is surrounded by icy weather created by a magic force.

Dungeons

The dungeons range broadly in size and theme and different varieties are found everywhere. Although most of the dungeon content is aimed at the 'full-group' encounter (six players) there are numerous areas, particularly at the lower, introductory levels, purposefully designed for solo and 'small-group' (2-3 players) encounters. There is no instancing throughout all of Telon.

Housing

File:Vanguard Housing may2006.jpg

A player home

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 he/she will have to find a near by appropriate zone to place the building. Player owned cities have been confirmed, although not much is known.

Like the rest of the game, player constructed buildings are not instanced. When a player builds a structure, all other players in the game can see the building and interact with it, with any limitations the owner has imposed. Buildings can be damaged and destroyed, so buildings that are abandoned for months may not remain standing.

Characters

File:Vanguard Human Races may2006.jpg

Varanjar, a playable barbarian race

Characters in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes are made via a valid Vanguard account. Eight characters can be created per regular account (12 for Station Access accounts). When a character is created the player will start off in one of the three main continents depending on the race chosen during character creation. 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.

Races

Each race inhabits one of the three main continents. Players can eventually leave the continent they originated from when they advance in level. This is at the moment done through a teleporter NPC. (at release the ships were not operational)

Races differ in looks, but also in race feats, their diplomatic affinity, the adventuring classes they can choose. Every race has a special ability that unlocks at a certain level to help distinguish them from the other races. For more detail on this, please see the community links at the bottom of this page.

Racial Enmity

On all servers, each race is KOS (Kill On Sight) to certain other races. On special servers (Team PvP) groups of similarly minded races literally fight each other.

Regardless of the server, a player still has to increase their own faction with another race before entering the core areas of a race that is in conflict with their own. This is not as easy for some races; while Dark Elves, Orcs and Goblins really have to work in order to increase their faction due to the large number of races that despise them (and vice versa), most other combinations are not aggressive. For example, the Kurashasa are only attacked in Khal (hometown of Mordebi and Qaliathari) and Mekalia (hometown of the Gnomes).

In order to safely enter areas of a faction or race that hates the character, characters can either perform quests, kill specific types of mobs, complete work orders, or successfully engage in diplomatic parley--all usually in an outpost near the town area in question.

Servers

Release Servers

There are two server types, Player versus Environment (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP). The PvP servers have 2 rule set options, Free-for-All, and Team-based.

As of June 1st, 2007, the server names, locations, and types were:

• Thunderaxe (US/PvE)
• Florendyl (US/Role-playing Preferred/PvE)
• Woefeather (US/PvE)
• Gulgrethor (US/PvE)
• Targonor (US/PvE) (unofficial oceanic) [2]
• Hilsbury (US/PvE)
• Shidreth (US/PvE)
• Flamehammer (US/PvE) (unofficial French / Français - Francophone non-official)[3]
• Tharridon (US/FFA PvP)
• Varking (US/Team PvP)
• Gelenia (EU/PvE)
• Frengrot (EU/Team PvP)
• Infinium (EU/PvE) (Added between pre-launch and full launch to handle high EU load)

Merge Servers

Due to low player populations in the game, SOE announced on May 31st 2007[4] their intent to begin merging servers. Specifics on July 11th 2007[5], by developer "Hasium," reduce the original servers to four:

• Xeth PVE US
  • Thunderaxe
  • Woefeather
  • Gulgrethor
  • Hilsbury
• Seradon PVE US
  • Targonor
  • Florendyl
  • Flamehammer
  • Shidreth
• Halgar PVE EU
  • Gelenia
  • Infineum
• Sartok PVP US FFA
  • Tharridon
  • Varking
  • Frengrot

Development

File:Vangold1024.jpg

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Sigil's Vanguard team is notable for being composed of many EverQuest developers, including designer Brad McQuaid. 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 2.0 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.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) Involvement

In May 2006 Sigil acquired marketing rights from former publisher Microsoft and hired Sony Online Entertainment to take over marketing of the game. Sigil maintained full control of development, funding, intellectual property rights, and in-game customer service (GM and Guide programs). Although SOE was responsible chiefly for marketing, publication, distribution, subscription services and maintenance of game servers, some of the SOE's game designers and artists did participate directly in the Vanguard's development. Sigil had back-up systems in place at all times to reduce risk of unscheduled downtime on SOE's part.

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).

On May 15, 2007 Sony Online Entertainment announced they had acquired all assets of Sigil and retained over half the developers of Vanguard to work for Sony and to continue developing Vanguard.

Community

Many of the fans have followed the development, recognizing the team's EQ heritage. The team also realized very early on how important community is, and opened their official forums long before even releasing a name, in July of 2003. Sigil has been periodically revealing concept art, screenshots, and the settings 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 had formed around the Sigil website forums, but there have also been events such as fans visiting Sigil, IRC chats, and contests. A "Community Summit" was held on October 7 2004 that showed Vanguard to a larger audience from the game's own community.

For release, Sigil decided to remove the centralized forums in favor of a community controlled structure where they maintain regular visits by official Community Liaisons. There has been considerable criticism for this move in some of these forums. Through this arrangement, 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 also many other MMORPGs.

Criticism

There are some criticisms of the game.

• The game was released before it was ready, leading to:

• Some servers being underpopulated and groups being hard to find.
• Lack of content for higher level players. (Many planned high level areas were not included at launch.)

• Missing most character creation and customization options.

• There are bugs which can make it difficult for some players to progress in areas of gameplay.

In April of 2007 Brad McQuaid, CEO of Sigil Games Online, addressed these issues and provided some explanations:

"Had I had the financial resources, ability to place the product later, etc. I would have given us about 3 more months to get more polish in, more high level content in, and to distance ourselves from the WoW expansion." Full quote

• Performance is bad on older systems, and even some newer computer configurations.

In March of 2007 McQuaid alluded to the cause:

"For a variety of reasons and mistakes on our part that I won't get into right now, Vanguard was released with system spec requirements that were too high for January 2007. " Full quote

Notable Dates

Date	Event	Description
March 16 2004	Naming	The game's title was announced exactly five years after EverQuest was released.
August 2005	Beta 0	(“Friends and Family”) - 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.
October 13 2005	Beta 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.
January 2006	Beta 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.
May 2006	SOE "Partnership"	Sigil acquired marketing rights from former publisher Microsoft and hired Sony Online Entertainment to co-publish the game.
August 11 2006	Beta 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.
	SOE Client Transition	The Beta 3 client also transitioned from Microsoft to Sony Online Entertainment's server configurations.
December 12 2006	Beta 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, and tweaks to Crafting, Harvesting & Diplomacy.
January 4 2007	Beta 5	The shortest phase. Bring in an enormous amount of people (EQ had 25,000+). Have multiple shards online and make sure there are no issues. Test billing, login, etc. Do everything developers can to make sure nothing catastrophic happens when developers bring up the servers for live play. Perhaps open some of the high end content briefly, but still being careful to keep mystery in the game. The NDA was dropped for this phase of Beta.
January 23 2007	End of Beta	The Vanguard Beta concluded with numerous beta events including reverse dragon raids, pirate ship role play, "bumper boats" (racing), and fan site honour trinket give-aways.
January 26 2007	Pre-Order Launch	Vanguard launches early for anyone who pre-ordered the game.
January 30 2007	Official Launch	Vanguard officially launched worldwide.
May 15 2007	SOE Acquisition	Sony Online Entertainment acquired all assets of Sigil, retained over half the developers and continue developing Vanguard.
*Beta information retrieved from The Vanguard SOH official FAQ

Reviews

Rating	Details/Link
Negative	Vanguard - Anti-Review on GamersWithJobs
7/10	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on TrustedReviews
Positive	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes : Video Review on HEXUS.gaming
7/10	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on Games Asylum
3/10	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on 1up
8/10	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on Game-Spectrum
C+	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on Game-Revolution
7.5/10	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on GameSpot
3/5	Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review on GameSpy

External links

Official websites

• Official Vanguard: Saga of Heroes site
• Official Vanguard: Saga of Heroes community website

Community websites

• Silky Venom
• Ten Ton Hammer
• The Safehouse
• The Vanguard Wiki
• Vanguard Spheres
• Vanguard Tact
• vgRealms

Previews

• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes on IGN.com
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes on GameSpot
• Vanguard: Saga of Heroes on Ten Ton Hammer