Vanguard: Saga Of Heroes

[Therin]

Blame K-Chan for pointing me to this...but it looks pretty damn cool. Be awhile before it's out, though...

http://www.vanguardsoh.com/

[RiseOfZalman]

Looks too much like Everquest for me.

[Cobalt Katze]

As Therin said, the game is basically in pre-alpha mode at the moment, so there's still a full year of development left until it releases.

That said, I've got a few tantalizing details about the game's design and early renders of the various races in the game to share with the thread regardless.

The game is essentially broken down into 3 "spheres" of gameplay: Combat, Crafting/Gathering, and Diplomacy. The following are various points laid out by the devs during their E3 demonstrations.

Combat

- Success is contingent upon reacting to the actions of your opponent.

- Players will need to seek out items, both crafted and looted, in order to combat their enemies.

- Spell casters will be able to engage in magical combat with other spell casters.

- Players can cast different spells in concert with one another, creating awesome spell effects that are greater than the sum of their parts.

- Melee fighters create openings that can be exploited by their allies.

- Both spell casters and melee combatants can perform attack chains that enable them to string together an opening, a bridge and a powerful finishing ability.

- The perception system will allow skilled characters to determine what their opponents are about to do and respond appropriately.

- The perception system will allow players to learn abilities by watching NPCs.

Adventuring

- Adventuring classes fall into one of four archetypes:
- Protective fighter
- Offensive fighter
- Healer
- Arcane caster

- Each class has unique gameplay.

- Areas exist that cater to varying gameplay intensity styles (Casual/Solo, Group, Raid)

- Encounter routes - Hand-crafted mini adventures that exist as a layer on top of traditional population.

Crafting

- Immerses the player in the process of crafting through an action point system that raises crafting to a new level of interactivity

- Execute actions and resolve complications that arise while managing your pool of actions and working your material.

- Crafters will be able to advance to the top levels without the need to adventure.

- Crafters will play an important role in the building of player cities and vehicles as groups of crafters get together to construct these items.

- Through the use of the work order system, crafters will be able to advance and gain access to secret crafting guilds that hide the secrets to lost recipies.

- Attaining recipes will be done in multiple ways such as experimentation.

- Gain inspiration and use it to increase your chances of success or of unlocking other recipes.

- Forge powerful items at ancient crafting stations throughout the world.

Diplomacy

- NPCs have wants and needs that can be acted upon by the players.

- Allows the full utilization of assets created for NPC cities and villages. Cities become "diplomatic dungeons."

- Provides a way to solve problems without killing NPCs.

- Allows "RTS"style command of NPCs for the management and growth of player cities.

- Supports both solo and cooperative gameplay.

- Integrates and is interdependant with the crafting and adventuring spheres.

- Adds another sphere of advancement, complete with item acquisition, skill choices, and long term goals, greatly increasing replay value.

---------

There's also a ton of various feedback from fansites and the like from E3, but I think most credible and consise comments are from Woody of GU Comics:
http://www.gucomics.com/xviews/vanguard_e3.php

---------

Now with the races, keep in mind that this is all pre-alpha and everything will be tweaked with over the next year of development. Also, they were captured from a video someone took of the presentation. However, I think there's a very strong sense of style and personality to the characters so far. Also note that there is no customization added to them yet, which will supposedly be extremely in-depth, allowing even bone structure to be altered.

I'll be showing the races in order of what continent the hail from. The game takes place on three major continents:

Thestra, which is modeled after your traditional european fantasy.
Qalia, which is more african in origin with an arabian nights sort of feel.
Kojan, taking its inspiration from asian countries and mythology.

That said, there's humans on every continent.. however, like our world their looks mimic variations you'd expect from human cultures around the globe.















---------













--------











(Not pictured: Half Elf)

So there you have it haha.. more info than you probably wanted!

[Godwyn]

Game looks like it could be fun. With all the customizability, and player housing, sounds like it might be the closest an mmorpg has come to a new UO. If so, that would be awesome, and I will certainly be getting it.

[Advent]

Reminds me of Runescape just better graphics