Vanguard Producer's letter to the community details what's in store for Vanguard
It's been about a month since the Vanguard development crew made the big move from Carlsbad, and they must be settling into their new lofty digs at SOE HQ in San Diego, California, as work on Phase II and III continues as scheduled. Other than that, what's Vanguard's plan? Well, cleaning up one of the worst MMOG launches in the history of the genre isn't an easy feat, and SOE has delegated Thom Terrazas to command Vanguard's development team to some sort of victory.
In Vanguard's defense the game has drastically improved since launch but much more still needs to be done. Terrazas has already shown frequent communication with the playerbase on the official Vanguard forums since taking the assignment. In his recent letter to the community Terrazas details Vanguard's long term development focus and proposes a few controversial changes that some consider "WoW-ifying" the game. The two biggest changes causing a forum uproar are: implementing a faster leveling curve and removing the experience loss component from the death penalty. (More after the jump.)
Is this really a good idea? I don't think World of Warcraft players are going to read about these changes and rush to jump on the Vanguard bandwagon. I'm sure that isn't the intent but is it a good move? I'd be more focused on retaining the players already subscribed to the game. There's already a 28 page and counting threadnaught with many displeased Vanguard players vetoing the changes, and yet others who support the changes. There are several proposed changes that a majority seem to agree on:
Further enhancements to improve game/computer performance
Advanced tactical combat
UI improvements
Other planned changes include:
Additional player housing
Improved map; map icons that distinctly show points of interest
City and Dungeon maps
Readily available information showing you where you can adventure at your level
Factions in towns
Consistency - Streamlining hand off quests that lead you in the proper direction for character progression
Changing some buff spells to group based
Combat Visual Timing - Improve the timing on combat responsiveness (when you click on an ability, the action performed is in sync)
Player power curve versus NPC power curve
The ease of obtaining bags (especially at lower levels)
Additional high-end content - Raid and Non-Raid content
Increasing the Quest Journal size - Also adding organizational tabs to distinguish Adventuring quests from Diplomacy and Crafting quests
Regional banks - remove them!
Alternate form of currency - Special "coins" to redeem at certain Vendors for obtaining items such as adventuring, diplomacy cards, titles, potions, etc.
Alternate advancement or specialization for your character
For the full discourse be sure to read the letter. Any Vanguard players here welcome the leveling and death penalty changes? Anyone have plans to check out Vanguard in the near future?
