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Touring Telon: Six years of Vanguard
Few MMO gamers can forget the legendary bad launch of Vanguard and the drama that surrounded its development. Even fewer MMO gamers can remember what the game was like, as the population started small and stayed small. For a half-decade, the title wallowed in relative obscurity compared to the rest of SOE's lineup, and in fact, many predicted that it would be canned. As we know now, SOE decided to go a different way. The studio threw its faith behind Vanguard last year by relaunching it as a free-to-play MMO and giving it an actual development team once more. While Vanguard isn't in the league of major sluggers in the industry, the title is now thriving and seeing a renaissance that players new and old are enjoying. To celebrate Vanguard's 6th anniversary, we got on the phone with Producer Harvey Burgess and Game Designer Corey LeFever to take a brief tour around the latest content in the game and to talk about the road from F2P to the future.
One Shots: Introducing Slappy
We're finishing off pet week on a fun and silly note thanks to Massively reader Leonatus: Hi there, my name is Leonatus, and the featured screenshots is about one of the coolest pets ever created: Slappy the Cool from Vanguard's Isle of Dawn! Adventuring in Telon can be undoubtedly stressful: Always on the brink of death, killing hordes of mobs only to see their spots replaced by their amazingly similar cousins some five minutes later. Hobgoblins life is no better though, but they sure know how to party! And if you're patient enough, with just a little diplomacy they will let you attend to the shows of their funkiest star. As the old orcish saying goes: "if James Brown was an hobgoblin, his name would be Slappy the Cool". Are you ready for next week's One Shots theme? We've seen your gear, your mounts, and your pets; now it's time to see you! Snap a screenshot of your favorite character in your favorite MMO. Let us know about him or her by sending the screenshot, your name, and some information about the character to oneshots@massively.com, and we'll feature the character here on One Shots! %Gallery-112285%
TERA play diary visits the Isle of Dawn and the Tainted Gorge
TERA's Community Play Event may be over, but the Community Play Diary is still rolling right along. For those of you who haven't checked it out yet: The diary is basically a running commentary on the fantasy MMO's newbie experience (at least until narrators Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman move on to some higher-level play fields). The En Masse community management dynamic duo is back with the latest diary installment, which finds the pair finishing up its tour of the Isle of Dawn and moving on toward the Tainted Gorge outpost. Along the way, we're treated to random nuggets of advice and commentary relating to gathering and ranged aiming as well as a few mentions of noteworthy quests in the area. There are also some accompanying screenshots that are worth a look, and you can view the piece at the official TERA website.
TERA play diary talks world size, combat timing, and more
The Isle of Dawn may be the proverbial newbie area when it comes to TERA, but if En Masse Entertainment's recent Community Play Diaries are any indication, the locale is anything but a smallish tutorial zone. En Masse's Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman are back with another diary entry that aims to give readers a glimpse into everyday play sessions involving the upcoming fantasy MMO. The fact that the dynamic duo are still on the Isle of Dawn after several weeks worth of diaries speaks to the sheer size of the place. "The Island of Dawn feels big, and when you look at the game map, it's really just a tiny blip. One of these days, I'm going to have to do a run-across-the-world adventure and time myself," Mical writes, while also hinting at the vastness of Arborea proper. This week's diary sees Mical and Berman carving a path through the Isle's numerous mobs toward Leander's Outpost. Along the way, they find time to discuss the finer points of TERA's action combat, and more specifically, the way that timing, motor skills, and repetition will determine your success -- as opposed to RNG and better equipment. "Since this is my alt character and I haven't played AnungUnRama since last week, fighting the terrons and noruks feels a little sluggish, and it's not hard to see why -- my timing's all off," Mical explains.
En Masse unveils more TERA screens
The kind folks over at En Masse Entertainment continue to feed our TERA habit, this time in the form of their second Screenshots of the Week offering. As with last week, the shots focus on some of the big nasties that populate the Isle of Dawn. Community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman has all the details on the official forums. "This darkened corner is infested with fearsome monsters and evil manifestations who threaten the local populace with their presence. Heroes are needed to rise to the challenge and send these foes back to the darkness," he writes. You can view the images on the official TERA website, or for larger versions, check out the official Flickr photostream. Can't get enough of Massively's TERA coverage? Be sure and check out our exclusive Lore Dev Diary as well as the associated screen shots.
One Shots: Onward into the Isle
Today we're checking in again with Luni, who recently sent in a One Shots from Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. With the recent opening of the Isle of Dawn as a trial area, we've heard from other players who are giving this game a try. Luni wrote in to let us know that the area is proving to be a very immersive experience and fun to play, and so far we've been enjoying the trial overall too. (Look for our First Impressions on it coming up soon!)If you're playing a game we don't often see, why not drop us a screenshot and tell us about why it's your favorite game? We're always glad to see games that may not get as much coverage elsewhere - and learn about ones we may not have heard of. Just bundle up your screenshot along with your character name, server and a quick blurb about the image, then send it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Yours could be the next one featured!%Gallery-9798%
Vanguard Game Update 6 goes live, adds free trial/newbie area
One thousand. That's how many bug fixes are in Vanguard's sixth game update, which has now gone live. In addition to the fixes, there's a new newbie area for levels one through ten called the Isle of Dawn. Word is that it will eventually serve as a free trial setting. For now, though, it's just an easy place to get a new character started.SOE also redid character models, offering new customization options and making some changes that lower the models' system performance hit. You can keep your old look if you want, though.The most controversial changes are a whole slew of class damage adjustments. SOE looked at every single class in the game and adjusted its damage output to ensure "that each lands in their correct place in the spectrum of classes." The details of all those changes are buried in the patch notes. Did you get nerfed or buffed? Read up to find out.
