Word From the Vanguard Devs and Play From the Isle of Dawn

The new episode of Ardwulf Presents is up and available: Part 2 of my Let’s Play from the Isle of Dawn. The hour-long first episode proved pretty unweildy when it came to rendering and uploading, so I’m shooting for 30 minutes or a little less for the rest; I hope to have Part 3 available by Tuesday morning and to get to either Crafting or Diplomacy in it.

In further Vanguard news, there’s an interesting thread over of the game’s forums where lead developer “Silius” Grant talks a bit about what’s planned moving forward. Right now, plans are still in flux but what’s on the table includes:

• A small content update hitting in the next couple of weeks, featuring a new overland raid and “A new system that will benefit everyone and reinforce the idea of exploration in Telon.” No clue what this latter might be.
• Work on the next big update, City of Brass, has started. As I recall some work had already been done in the past, so this is presumably a resumption.
• More items should be showing up in the marketplace.
• Initial planning on the next big dungeon after CoB is underway. This place is not Stirrhad, the Nexus or the Cave of Wonders. The first two, when they do get worked on, will be a mix of group and raid content; the last may be 100% raid.
• The general priority is to utilize parts of the world that are currently empty before adding any wholly new areas. Which is cool by me — it’s not like there isn’t plenty of space.

SWTOR F2P in Autumn, Details Available

Beginning the day as believable rumor and ending it as unsurprising fact is the news that SWTOR is going free to play. This fall, in fact, and lots of details are already available.

Having gone through the ins and outs of many of these models, I’ll not do so here, although this one is along the same lines, with a sub option and limits for free players. Interestingly, though, most of the limits seem to be daily caps on the amount of warzones, flashpoints, space missions and the like you can play. I’ll be curious to see how that works out.

Also, EA is saying that SWTOR subs are still”well above half a million.” I’m not sure I believe that, given the shrinkage in the number of servers, but perhaps there’s lots of people who bought 12-month plans and just aren’t actually playing anymore.

I have, as I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago, been playing SWTOR on the free trial, very occasionally. I’m curious to see whether I play it more when it goes fully freemium. Maybe, but it’ll be nice to not have to stop at level 15.

(Yes, I’m still here this week, but I’m busy. We’re leaving on Friday, after which I will be off the grid for eight or nine days.)

Brad McQuaid Returns to Vanguard. No, Really.

The fiddly bits of Vanguard’s free-to-play model may not have been unexpected, but this is. If it were April 1st, I would have chortled. But it’s for real: Brad McQuaid is returning to the Vanguard team.

I see no sense in belaboring the details, but getting back to game development is probably the best thing for Brad, and while I’m not a McQuaid fanboy in any sense it’s both good and interesting to see him back with Vanguard.

Brad has apparently been back with SOE since February, most likely (it seems to me) working on Vanguard behind the scenes this whole time. The accopanying Developer Spotlight is pretty light on details of what’s being worked on.

I may have more detailed thoughts on this subject later.

Vanguard’s Freemium Model Announced

Today SOE announced the details of the plan under which Vanguard will operate under its new f2p model. So we have a new producer’s letter, the obligatory free to play benefits matrix and an accompanying FAQ. No launch date for the new model has yet been announced, but the aforementioned producer’s letter says we’re “approaching the final stretch.” I expect that means 2-3 more months, giving us a release in August or September, likely coming in before the end of the announced “Summer” date.

The membership matrix is shown above, but let’s dig in and take a closer look at the plan and the details we know — and don’t — so far.

• Membership Levels: One interesting aspect is the lack of an intermediate tier of membership between free and subscription (“Gold”) accounts. Looking over the details and comparing the Vanguard f2p matrix with those of EQ and EQ2. This is a little bit of a surprise, but it shouldn’t be; EQ2′s plan in particular is a bit confusing for the newcomer, although that’s probably less true today than it was when EQ2 went free. Some of the benefits one might have otherwise expected under a “Silver” plan have been rolled into the free package, while others have been kept for Gold players.
• Available Races: Those available for free are Halflings, Half Elves and the Thestran, Qaliathari and Mordebi Humans, with the rest purchasable in the store. This is not surprising; if anything, it could have been one race per contiennt, so I’m not entirely displeased with the options that will be available to free players. But then, I tend to favor human characters anyway.
• Available Classes: Those available for free are the Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer, Disciple, Necromancer and Monk. One fear I had going into this was that the free plan would sequester all of Vanguard’s great and novel classes behind the paywall, leaving us with the straight and relatively conventional Warrior, Rogue, Cleric and Sorcerer. While those classes do have some interesting twists in Vanguard, Classes like the Bard and Necromancer are more interesting and unique. So it looks like they met me halfway on this: the Necro and Disciple are unique and desirable classes with great underlying mechanics, and the Monk is interesting as well.
• Currency Cap: Even at the Silver level, the currency cap in EQ2 is low enough to cause problems in the upper level ranges. Vanguard’s cap of 1 plat seems pretty high, in contrast; Ardwulf is level 30 and has seldom exceeded 10 gold, let alone approached a plat.
• Gearing Limits: Free players are restricted to “Common” items. This one is the big variable; if by “common” we mean only the very lowest level of gear above vendor trash, then it’s nearly a game-busting limitation anywhere north of level 10. I would guess that there will be some kind of purchasable token (probably cheap if EQ2′s method is anything to go by) that will let you equip higher tiers of items.
• Quest Journal: Subscribers will get the current limit of 50 quests, while free players will be capped at 15. Given that this covers all three spheres and the quests therefrom, free players will need to manage their quest log very carefully.
• Miscellaneous Restrictions: Free players cannot form (but van join) guilds, can receive (but not send) in-game mail, have a limited set of social commands (/say, /tell, /group and /guild) and are barred from Caravans, Brotherhoods, Fishing and Housing. Only the last is significant, and since Vanguard’s housing is open-world, it’s really kind of neccessary for it to be limited to subscribers. One open question is what happens when a subscriber lapses to a free account. Does their house just vanish? Or is it locked until they can re-subscribe?
• Existing Players: Former subscribers get full access to their existing characters made prior to the f2p conversion, without having to unlock anything. Good call; anything else would have been met with great umbrage.
• There are, as of now, no known restrictions on crafting, diplomacy, harvesting or boats. Although gear is a question, and some crafting is dependent on dropped mats that will be hard to impossible to get without doing raids that may be off-limits depending on how the gearing limit shakes out. Otherwise, free players will enjoy open access to the huge open world and all the game’s content and can level straight up to the cap of 55 in all three spheres.

There are no huge surprises either way, based on these details. The model is closely akin to those of EQ and EQ2, with more of the range of classes and races available to free players and with the currency cap less of a thumb-in-the-eye issue. We still need a date, of course, and more details need to be made clear. And we also need to see the cash shop in action to find out what kind of stuff is available there. But I am tentatively happy with what I see so far, and relieved that f2p is finally, finally on the horizon for Vanguard.

Guild Wars 2 Out August 28

The new ArenaNet video, below, pegs the Guild Wars 2 release at August 28, 2012. Not radically far from what I figured, and not even all that far from the June date that GameStop started a torrent of rumors with a while back.

The rest of the MMO industry can now begin jockeying for positioning around that date.

EQNext, Not Next Year

Massively reports, and Wilhelm remarks, that we shan’t be seeing any information on EverQuest Next any time soon. The relevant SmokeJumper quote courtesy of EQ2Wire:

EQ Next is still being built within a black box. The *earliest* we are currently considering that we *might* reveal info is late this year. We’re being very particular about what needs to be in the game before revealing it to folks, so until that stuff is ready, we won’t be showing anything. (Screens you saw from a couple years ago are completely obsolete now and are not pertinent to the current game at all.)

SOE is actually pretty good at trickling information out to the public, if you are paying very close attention. Naturally some individuals took the mention of the project as a sign that release was imminent, leading to the idea in some quarters by 2012 that it was vaporware. Of course, I don’t have to tell my readers these things take a long time to develop and that SOE isn’t the biggest or the richest development house out there. It’s gonna take a while. If we assume that serious discussions started happening in 2009 (as seems reasonable) then given a typical five-year development cycle we should expect to see a launch in 2014.

When SOE said that a new chapter in the EverQuest franchise was being planned back in 2009, it was clearly only in the thinking stages at the time, and when they started to talk about it at FanFaire in 2010, it was still obviously very early in development. So not hearing any details soon is not a surprise. 2013 is clearly going to be the year of Planetside 2 for SOE. They are mounting a big push for it and it’s drawing a lot of very positive buzz. My guess would be that we will not, in fact, see anything substantial on EQNext this year, as Creative Director Dave Georgeson implies is possible in the quote above. By the end of the year, of course, the narrative in certain quarters will be that more info was in fact promised, and that SOE is again the House of Lies. But you can’t unlearn stupid.

We may hear something at FanFaire… er, SOELive this year, or possibly afterward. Maybe even a screenshot or two. But I think we won’t start to see serious information until 2013, and possibly not before SOELive 2013. As for release, I think 2014 is possible, but I’m not holding my breath. I’d say 2015, possibly even 2016 are more likely.

Vanguard F2P Gets a Trailer

After years of neglect, it was a surprise to many, including myself that Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was presented at this year’s E3 as part of SOE’s stable of games. You’d have thought it would be, of course, but this was a big year for SOE at E3 with the overwhelming focus on showing off Planetside 2, and even at SOE’s own FanFaire event (now called SOE Live) there has been a grand total of zilch for the last couple of years.

Vanguard’s upcoming transition to f2p is a big, big deal for a game seen as struggling by the public at large, and with good reason. Comments by SOE chief John Smedley about wanting Vanguard to get a proper relaunch were encouraging. Vanguard getting a place at the table at an E3 where SOE was a major draw was more so — it shows that SOE is actually serious. Now Massively has broken the news that SOE showed off a trailer for the free to play Vanguard at E3… and it’s pretty strong.

I’d embed it, but the embed code for whatever video hosting Digital Trends is using makes WordPress unhappy, so head over to Massively for a look.

EDIT: Now embedded, courtesy of kaozz, who’s been chronicling her adventures in Vanguard as well. Head on over there and have a great read.

38 Studios Is Dead, Alas

In the creepiest MMO news of the year, Project Copernicus died on the same day — May 24th — as Nicolaus Copernicus did in 1543. I just don’t have it in me to gravedance upon the officially kaput 38 Studios. Lots of quality folks are now unemployed, and that’s not happy for anyone. Curt’s getting his share of flak for what went on, and he’ll get more as time goes on. There’s no need for me to dish out more.

Ironically, though, the big winner in all this may turn out to be Turbine, which hosted a job fair mere blocks from 38 Studios’ HQ a few days ago — and surely everyone at 38 saw the writing on the wall when paychecks started to bounce. That is what I find most upsetting about the whole situation, the breach of the most sacred bond of trust between employer and employee.

Elder Scrolls Online: It’s Official

The big news of the day is that The Elder Scrolls Online is officially, openly, a real project. The MMO blogosphere is torn, with many gasping in ecstasy at the very idea, and others clawing at their hair because it’s such a bad idea. My opinion is that we know very, very little right now, and forming an opinion would be premature. Extremely.

On the one hand, it’s an exciting idea. The Elder Scrolls series seems to me a natural fit to an MMO. Of course, translating the features that made a game like Skyrim such a titanic hit will not be a simple task. What works in a single-player RPG doesn’t necessarily work in an MMO. There’s the question of scale, for one — Skyrim is big enough for one player to wander around in and think it’s huge, but if there were hundreds, much less thousands or people crawling around in every dungeon it’d seem like a lavish fantasy shoebox. There are obviously other issues as well, but that’ll keep for later discussion. In the main, the trick will be to capture those elements that make the Elder Scrolls games special without being able to rely on the crutches of single-player games.

But on the other hand, it seems that in some corners people are leaping to imagine that the in-development title will necessarily suffer from the limitations of MMOs. This at a time when we know “there will be an Elder Scrolls Online” and just about nothing more, and despite the fact that the single-player games in the series have avoided some of those common traps.

From where I’m sitting, it’s too soon to tell. But what is certain and sure is that starting today there will be a lot of eyes on this project.

A Look Inside the Guild Wars 2 Beta

My first hour or so of Guild Wars 2′s beta weekend is complete. Here’s what I think so far.

• This is a deep game. So was Guild Wars 1, but at a glance this seems at least as deep.
• The pace of the gameplay is very fast, and Guild Wars 2 wastes no time in getting you into the thick of it. To progress in this game is to explore, and you’re shoved out that door almost immediately.
• Game performance is horrific. And because the game is so fast paced but the controls are so sluggish, this is a real and large problem. I see two reasons: one is that the client isn’t yet graphically optimized so it’s basically running all on your CPU with no help from the graphics card, and the other is that there are a huge number of players in game canvassing everything. Also, 100% of the players are channeled into 60% of the starter areas, which can’t be helping. I expect this to improve, possibly even in the context of this weekend.
• Even so, it is sensually appealing, from the character models to the scenery to the music to the animations. Everything looks and sounds great.



• Dynamic events seem to work and are not trivial — unless you drift in at the very end it will take a while to complete a stage.
• The map is terrific and tracks your progress inside the zone.
• I am currently taking a break while the hour-plus of video I took renders and uploads. Expect this latter part of the process to take several hours, but when I have working links I will post them.
• The first video, of character creation, ran into some problems and did not take, so I scrapped it. I’ll try to get another character creation video in.
• I’m playing a Warrior on the Tarnished Coast server named Ardwulf Hrenson. Currently level 3. Keep an eye out for me if you’re around.

I’ll be playing more throughout the weekend. There will probably be more video but given the performance issue I’m disinclined to dabble in PvP at least today. There will be time for that later.