Well since SoE has decided to close down Halgar server and shift everything to Telon server, my friends and I will be looking for a new game to play in place of Vanguard. We won't be transfering to Telon as the ping, lagspikes and freezes on that server make the game essentially unplayable there. We were overjoyed that Halgar didn't have those problems, but now that it is being closed we will have to look elsewhere for our gaming. It is a shame as we loved it here, but there is no future here for us if Halgar is closed. I am looking for suggestions for an alternative game that is as good as Vanguard, not so easy that you can sleepwalk through it and can supply enjoyment for group players. What games do you recommend for us?
Instead of having the "Bearer of Doom" attitude, maybe hang out, and see if it's really that bad on Telon after the merger there are already a lot of European players on Telon..
If there was another game out there as good as VG we'd all be be there playing it! I'm hoping EQN is the answer and hopefully ESO will will be decent enough to keep me busy until that is released. Between the PotA grind I'm doing and no info from the dev team on what the future holds for VG I find it harder and harder to continue playing. It seems the population has had a serious decline on Telon of late as well Nothing worse than sitting around LFG for a mind numbing KDQ run
You are not going to find another game like Vanguard. Why don't you wait until the network code fix goes live and see what happens instead?
Aside from the lagginess, Vanguard is an excellent game. There is no other game with the rich detail to character development. period. I have played many over the last 14 years and this game is hands down the most impressive when it comes to character development.
I would be happy to keep playing Vanguard on Halgar server as it is, or on Telon server IF they can provide a far better gaming experience than they have done up to now. There is no point in playing a game that has horrendous lagspikes and freezes which makes it unplayable. I have played on both the Telon and Halgar servers and unfortunately Telon was totally unable to provide a stable, reliable gaming experience. As for being a "Bearer of Doom" Karii, SoE is the bearer of doom, because they are shutting down the only one of the two servers that didn't have problems for me and my friends. Our group has just broken up for the Easter holidays but I know when they all come back there is going to be a lot of ill-feeling and cursing of SoE. We all got together playing as a group on Halgar, because we were all suffering the same poor performance issues on Telon. We have in the past discussed what we would do if Halgar was to close as we were worried that it was on the cards and we all agree that playing on Telon server was not a viable option and that quitting Vanguard would be our only option in the event of such a merger. We know there are European players on Telon who don't have problems playing there, but unfortunately just because some don't is irrelevent. It doesn't matter how many are happy there if the gaming experience is subject to continuous lag and freezing problems for us. I know from personal experience that the ping on Telon (4x what it is on Halgar) makes the game unplayable for me. So I may have no choice but to quit. I will wait until after the network code fix goes live to see if it makes a difference, but unless it inproves performance by at least 400% it may not be enough to make Telon a viable server for some of us.
I do agree with you that the game loses so many valuable players simply from the fact of it being unstable and choppy. Just last night the entire world crashed. That's a shame for such a fantastic game. I have recently returned to the game and I am having a blast, but I do remember leaving exactly for that reason. Time will tell, but past capabilities do not give me great hope that this fantastic game will ever be anything more than what it is.
if there were anything out there like vanguard most of us would have left the lag and the itemization failure behind long ago. The truth is, we have more fun here than any other game we have played so we stay. I think SOE is looking for something to replace VG as well, but realize they can't, so they keep a few people working on it while they find another way to build an EQ like dynasty. They recognize that something here has built loyalty and are trying to capture some of that in new projects. I amy complain, but will stay til the lights go out for good.
As for now, there is nothing like VG. Most of us are even returning players as other games have proven "not worthy". I sincerely hope VG will get some real attention now with that server merging. Mabe some updates, more content, bugfixing, addon (?) etc. If that will not happen, there is a big comet coming at us, more a rising star that will crush every "not perfectly supported" MMORPG ... Its "ArcheAge online", created by Jake Song (he did Lineage) and it blows. I have 2 friends who have the time to play it (seems its possible to play in Korea via some Proxy heh) But check it out for yourself : http://archeage-online.com/ This is it if you can wait out, trust me.
ArcheAge is years from having a US version released. And Asian MMOs do not xfer to US/Euro players well. Just a cultural difference thing. Elder Scrolls online might be the closest thing to something like VG, but still early on ESO also.
I coulda swore I saw somewhere that Trion planned for a Q4 2013 or Q2014 release date for US Arche Age. That is not "years" away, but again I cannot find that article anymore either so maybe I was just making it up
If so that would be interesting. I have some friends at Trion, maybe I will see what I can find out. I have been following ArcheAge for a few years now, and I know the question of Western servers has been brought up a number of times, and Song always says they are not planning on US release until a year or so after Korean release. And I think their big target is the emerging China players. That is a much larger fish to fry then the US.
When Asian games get "westernized", all that usually happens is the language changes. Aion is a good example where an Asian game got "westernized". It was never the success in the US that they expected due to the "oddness" mostly due to the underlying cultural differences. This comment from Trion makes it sounds like like they might be aware of that and will do more then change the language. A lot of what you see in ArcheAge looks like Song took it straight from EQ and Vanguard, even though he never credits it. He credits other MMO's like WoW that also stole their content and gameplay ideas from EQ and Vanguard. Will be interesting to see though. I usually never hesitate to try a new MMO, and ArcheAge has a lot of Vanguard like appeal, aside from the full PvP aspect. But that may also get westernized.
ArcheAge looks like a big steaming pile from everything I've seen on it. It might have a few innovative aspects to it, but all in all it does not look like something I would ever want to play. I tried lineage2 for about 2 weeks. It was horrible. The only hope I have for anything to actually replace VG is eqnext. But we'll see.
Isn't that ProSabenSat company or whatever holding the European servers now. IN Europe, even less ping.
At least give it go around and if you do decide to leave, try something temporary until Hobart's team has implemented the network and client changes. You never know, a miracle can happen. With EQNext releasing at the end of the year, according to Mr. "I cannot seem to put out the right information at any time and love to mislead my customers", you may just end up there anyhow.
I have tried Telon server and the performance is absolutely awful. So I have deleted most of my Halgar characters and transfered what is worth keeping to a couple of main characters which I assume will be transfered to Telon at the changeover. I will drop back from time to time and see if there is any improvement in performance, but considering the performance issues I have been experiencing on Telon, Hobart's team need to be able to supply miracles! And considering the recent performance of SoE even keeping either server running consistantly, what are the chances?
Stupid question, but have you tried Telon out for a lengthy period of time? The performance you describe having on Telon, I have never experienced it. Or did you just try it out like once for an hour or two and call it quits?
I have tried various characters in various places over the last few weeks. Early mornings (GMT) I can get a character to work on the Isle of Dawn, although it is rather jerky with frequent freezes. Afternoons and evenings I can't even load the character without the game crashing to desktop after a really long time attempting to load. Thestra start point is the same. I can usually start a Kojani character at any time, but as soon as I leave Shang Island I get massive lagspikes and crash to desktop. I have never managed to get a Qalian character to load at any time. I have never had any problems in any place on Halgar server, only on Telon. I know that it is not just me because I usually play with other players who have told me that they experience similar problems when they have tried Telon. Some of whom admit that it is worse for them and they have never even got any character to work on Telon. I know from personal experience that my ping on Halgar is around 80-90, while even at its best, the ping on Telon is 350+ and the connection indicator at the right of the task bar is continually changing colour like a set of traffic lights, with a lot more red than green. When I first tried this game a couple of months ago, the performance was bad, on Telon, but not as bad as this.
I played for hours today on Telon today with no problems if you count out increased ping compared to Halgar.
