Hi all, Sorry to jump in here but just wanted to say that I've recently returned to the game and I'm currently playing the character in my signature (Flamecrest Stormcloud: Necromancer) on the Isle of Dawn. I've played a bit in the past but never really got into the game that much due to not having much spare time to play. That's kinda changed now and I'm currently level 9 and learning the game all over again. I'm kinda doing a bit of everything in game as I learn the ropes! The diplomacy and crafting systems are very well designed and are very enjoyable! I'm a big fan of crafting and gathering items and have always liked the depth that Vanguard offers when it comes to crafting in game. Anyway, feel free to give me a wave if you spot me running around the isle with my pet! Thanks
you know whats funny? 95% of all newcomers don't kow there is a torch hotkey that lights up whole environment.. in dark spooky dungeons its great. in vol tuniel it lights up the wall murals, (YES, the wall murals. go find 'm.). isn't the torch listed in general skills these days? i remember it was hotkeyed as basic key when i started a char.. can't remember it still is now..gonna check that. just a random good tip thrown in.. hit k or shift k or whatever key yer torch or "beta" torch is set to. you won't regret it. and the /setfog 250000 was good tip too...
Welcome back to the game Flamecrest!!! Look me up if you run into any crafting barriers, and check out my levelling guide.
With the anti-aliasing, there are at least three or four different systems and multiple sampling rates of each. Can be a matter of determining which works best. If you don't miss it, fair enough. I don't like jaggies. At one time torch was in general skills, I don't see it now. The majesty of a pc game involving keyboard is using as many keys to streamline play as you can familiarize with. Tab to target, H to hail also built in, but it's all customizable if you want it to work differently. Trouble is there are so many key commands, there's not much free space to work with, you could change them more than add much to it. T does /tell, r is /reply, the awsd for movement is duplicated by directional arrows...you could erase that to free up a cluster, or change the directional arrows to something else. Plenty to play with to make things more efficient and personalized.
Hi Flamecrest, I was actually crafting next to you last night (or your today, depending where you live). I was that Vulmane Amnath; I'll give the AA another shot, it works fine with other games but Vanguard was bugging out (things disappearing for example). I completely forgot to play with the UI!
What worked for me was FXAA off, and using 8x CSAA to override application setting. The worst thing now in all graphics is that small rocks in places like Sundering Wastelands just blink in--really have to watch where you are going instead of the foreground and then it's not such a bother. But I'm pretty sure that's the game's rendering and nothing would mop it up. I'm not an fps freak though, figure once you're getting past 20 its smooth enough. The eye is only capable of so much and your reflexes are no faster than 250 ms of ping, if that. Usually I get much more than the 20 fps but will admit a few things like fire breath up the snout bog it down.
Hi, Yeah I really enjoy crafting and harvesting I reached level 10 today and still questing etc on the Isle of Dawn. Really enjoying it.
Going to chew up one of my own tips about targeting macros. While it's true they do work with abbreviations or short forms, if you need to be sure, use quotes. On another character in a trial I kept trying to hit a corrupted essence that was right in front of me and the game continuously selected a corrupted pegasus 285m away. Not likely to be a common problem with harvesting or life in general, just goes to show that there are still things that take time to sink in! Bardwise, I think they changed the loot table...went to the spot where I had found several drums, wiped it out six or seven times got nada...wound up spending some gold. For those macros like to switch to dps song, it was /wear "Sword You Have" primaryhand /wear "Axe You Have" secondaryhand /playsong "Your Battle Song" Quotes always necessary for items, spells, etc.
A quick update following the weekend, which I was lucky enough to get in some game time. 1) rerolled again, this time so I could reclaim my desired character name. Playing a human (sorry, forgot the race) and was able to get her to look like she wasn't a doll 2) I was unable to get AA working through my graphics setting (ATI/AMD graphics card) but after reading some older support threads here, I was able to get it done using a post process FXAA injector. That combined with Amnath's /setfog suggestion makes the game look a lot prettier! 3) I'm still on the IOD, it's taking longer than I first thought. I'm trying to go the adventuring, crafting and diplomacy quest lines in parallel as I feel the stories compliment each other and are more immersive this way. I'm starting to see why people love this game In fact, I'm rather surprised I've taken to Diplomacy as much as I have; generally I skip through 'wall of text' conversations in games but this method is so engaging and interesting! I haven't done a lot of crafting, only the stuff I need to progress quests, so I really should experiment further with it. 4) other players are so friendly, even during conversations regarding SOE (that usually become argumentative) people were friendly, polite and understanding. Gobsmacked. Thanks for the macro tips in regards to the Bard song, I haven't updated my macros but I'll do that tonight.
Thestran human has nice racials much along bard lines...understandable about the ati, Vanguard cooperates more with nvidia for whatever reason. When you get some drums, hand won't matter as they are 2h. Text can be really important to figure out some quests, and even then it's not enough for some. Actual mystery here sometimes. Eventually diplo does get samey and there's nothing much to see, but the gearing and cards are lively stuff. Good to see someone getting into it all, sign of longevity most likely!
I do wonder whether this game has the legs long term, with things like EQN around the corner... heck, I wonder if the original EQ and EQ2 will have the legs or will EQN cannibalise the lot? Personally for now I don't mind, I can't wait to level some more and get deeper into the game and some grouping. All this solo stuff is for appetisers.
Hi again, I've just discovered the quest to leave the Isle of Dawn now. I think I've spent around 4 - 5 days on the Isle in total and I'm not done yet! There's still crafting and harvesting to do! I'm not really in a hurry to leave as I'm kinda learning the game again after returning to it last week. During my journey around the Isle I've met some really help helpful players, taken part in a few good groups and found myself a nice guild. I've also created the lucky charm item from combining the three items - http://vanguard.wikia.com/wiki/Bracelet_of_Lucky_Charms
The end of the Isle is a little dungeon with an elevator; although I think I heard they implemented a way to skip it, it used to be required. If it can't be solo'd 2 people should be enough. Vanguard will probably keep clipping along for years, there is high level stuff in the works, the low to mid stuff is supposedly mostly finished with revamps. Unity is awlays welcoming, I am a dungeon fiend myself and as many as I've managed to pull off, there's still some I'm looking to ransack. So I keep alts parked at lower levels, the endgame is too much of a plate full to make any real attempt to get lots of characters into it. The bracelet is a nice item, remember to right click it every 10 levels and it gets more powerful.
As I said, I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. Hopefully the end game is interesting, usually by the time I get to end game I've lost interest due to the choreographed mechanics of boss fights.
That will be a different thread It all comes down to what gratifies players from a game, and I'm in a minority even amongst the minority who've tried this. In US summer, of course a lot of people cruise off to other things...past couple of weeks, my other outlet's been unavailable and I've spent a good bit of it soloing up mythic weapons and casting them off as vendor fodder--and I don't mean I stormed Amnath through a levelling dungeon, I sweated out something level-appropriate that no one else really paid attention to. By having a mix of solo pursuits with various dungeons and raids keeps it alive for me. With a bard there should be a spot for you in anything you choose to join; tanking is not really that way, and if that was my only toon I might have given up. The times you'd be expected to just stand there and hold an instrument are...well, I haven't seen that happen yet.
