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» Warhammer Incoming |
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Jul 14, 2008 - 6:00 AM - by Faelor
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Hello everyone!
I apologize I haven't been around. After discussing the future of the site with other individuals we're going to be fine tuning the forums (seriously) for Vanguard, Age of Conan and soon Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. We'll be including the Shadow Warrior for sure, and it's under debate if we want to throw in the White Lion and Squig Herder. Please list your feedback here!
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0 Replies | 200 Views
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» Vanguard Producer's Letter - January 2008 |
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Jan 19, 2008 - 2:31 AM - by Faelor
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Hello Vanguard!
It's been too long since we've talked. Holy smokes it's nice to see you again! You guys have to visit more often and at the very least, please call once in a while to let us know how you're doing. Heck, we never hear from you anymore!
I was driving to work this morning and I was thinking how I was going to wrap up all of the details into a letter that really represented the good work that we're doing right now. The same thoughts I have had for about a week now but haven't carved out the appropriate time to write it down in a consumable format. What I was really doing was over thinking the process. Not to simplify things to the point of having no depth but I think by the time you read down to the bottom, all you really want to know is what we're working on and how does that affect the game, you, your character and your play experience.
"Under Promise and Over Deliver"
This process can be a convoluted progression though (and I have many people here that will back me up on this). "Don't give out dates!" "Don't give out quantities!" "Don't promise anything!" These are the comments that remind me not to stick my head out too far or it will get lopped off. Internally and externally. Holy Smokes, I'm afraid of my own shadow at the moment. I'm afraid that if I promise you the sword of 1,000 lies or potentially a feature that was promised by a previous developer/producer/<fill in the blank>, I will be setting myself up for failure. We all know what happens when promises are made without any thought to implementation. That's why I'm NOT going to tell you a single thing about what we're working on right now. That's right - Nothing! How do you like those apples?
But, if I were to say something, it might look like this....
Update 4
Everyone knows that we just published Update 3 at the end of the year and the next update can only be Update 4 by chronological standards. ...And also, we may have already stated that we've been working on Update 4 so there isn't anything I can take back now and say we aren't working on Update 4. So yes, "I" let the cat out of the bag. Number 4 follows number 3...shhhh!
"Put a stake in the ground"
Seriously though, I made mention that we are working on a few things in a previous post and we are targeting the end of February to publish it live. Maybe I should not have done that but let's be honest about this for a minute... Below, you'll read through some of the items we are working on. If by some unexpected reason one or all of those items are not ready at the end of February, we will publish without it or hold off the update a few more days until it is done right. End of February - We have to have a target or we'll never hit the mark. If we miss the mark, we'll find out why and correct for the next time.
"We're past the point of publishing something that is incomplete"
Bug Fixing
We're making a conscious effort towards bug fixing, polish, and optimizing the game. That's it in a nutshell. Me in a nutshell. Without quantifying, we're spending a good portion of our time fixing bugs, putting polish on the game and increasing performance. Goal for the team is to put out an update every two weeks that contains nothing but these changes. We're targeting to fix a lot of things at one time, each and every time including targeted fixes to increase performance in APW to say the least.
Permanent Flying Mounts
Stolen from the desk of Lead Designer, Salim Grant:
The griffons of Telon are in trouble. An unknown force has been stealing the magic known as hybrid magic from the griffons, causing them to die painful deaths. In order to stop this, King Targonor has formed a group known as Griffon Watch. Griffon Watch's task is to investigate and stop the evil behind these deaths. As a player you will assist the Griffon watch in their task. As you do so, you will gain ranks, titles, a necklace that increase in power as your rank does, and most importantly a griffon mount to call your own. This quest will send players into battle all over Telon destroying the denizens of areas like Rahz Inkur, Old Targonor, and Gorgalok. There are also two solo boss encounters that will test your abilities as you use a flying mount to combat one of the bosses and play a mini game to defeat the other. When all is said and done you will have a flying mount to soar the skies high above Telon and if you can gather enough friends you can make that mount even more powerful.
Riftway Improvements
More information stolen from the design team
We will be making improvements to Riftways! We'll be placing Riftways in locations that are logical from the standpoint of content progression in order to increase accessibility and guide players from one content hub to the next. The goal isn't to supersede travel in the game as it is now by allowing too quick of travel to any location in the world at any given time. Vanguard is a realm of mounted travel by discovery and exploration. In the future, we may have additional abilities that assist in getting a party member from one area to another in order to group up faster for battle but let's see how this improvement helps towards that issue first.
We will be introducing players to the Riftway system a bit easier; a bit sooner and with a bit more intuitiveness. We'll be giving quests to new players that allow them to travel through the Riftway in order to get to regions similar in level in order to keep them in appropriate level ranged content.
Riftways will be more identifiable on the map and will be tiered and color coded by a level range to help players travel to content hubs equivalent to their own level.
Player Character Improvements / Helmets!!
We've talked about the improvements before but here is some information from the art and coding team on this subject.
For more than just the time we've been back from the New Year, art stepped up to the task of optimizing the player character skeletons. Also, we've had to re-weight and re-export all player character assets as a result of the skeletal optimizations and let's just say that the amount of assets and work put into this is pretty staggering.
On top of that, we've also managed to get helmets in, which is one of the benefits of the skeletal optimization. Sounds easy right? Well, here's a little breakdown of the work involved to put helmets into the game: A few dozen unique designs multiplied by two genders and then multiplied again by nineteen races. Not too shabby, eh? Do the math and you'll see that it is a great accomplishment by everyone involved.
Three Classes Revisited
During this next development cycle, we'll be revisiting three classes. The Druid, Dread Knight and Paladin.
In order to do a thorough job when revisiting and making changes to classes, we go through a series of steps to identify inconsistencies in most of the following areas: Solo, group and raid DPS; Usefulness in the solo, group and raid roles; Discrepancies between classes and their roles (perceived and real claims); and then we ask more questions along the way like: Do the abilities work as intended? Is the class fun and unique? Can we streamline the class to remove unintended features or non-features? Can we emphasize the strengths of the class further?
We use our own experiences playing these classes and/or talk to other team members to get feedback on previous line items. We run through a series of checks and balances on collected data and goals. We have class leads that give us feedback to consider when evaluating necessary changes. We read the forums to corroborate information and in the end, we make the changes, test it out and package it in an update for you.
That's enough about process so here are additional goals we had for ourselves when started to evaluate these classes:
Druid- Low DPS compared to other caster classes
- Phenomena not being used toward the main purpose of the class (DPS) and not being used often enough
- Adding in some uniqueness
- Abilities that don't match the goal of the class
- Abilities that don't function correctly
Dread Knight- Add 2 handed tanking for uniqueness
- Fix broken abilities
Paladin- Integrate their class mechanic, Gift of Virtues, within their gameplay more seamlessly
- Differentiate combat forms
- Fix broken abilities
- Make sure abilities add to fun factor of the paladin
- Add wield preference type weapon and shield
I am going to reserve the right to not go any further here and punt the ball back to the designers who will go into more detail as we get closer to our update.
"That's not everything"
We have many more things we will be doing in the next few weeks and like the punt to design from above, I need to reserve my right to button my lip (before someone else does) on further changes and disclose that slowly over the next few weeks leading up to launch. Also, it will allow me some peace with the Community, PR & Marketing Teams because they love getting their hands on this stuff first J
Gold Farmers
You may have noticed a few posts recently on the boards regarding gold spammers. I just wanted to reiterate that we are taking these players very seriously and we are banning each and every account that we catch. I wanted to thank everyone for helping us as well by sending in your /petitions. This helps quite a bit and we will be taking extra measurements to step up the process in getting these headaches out of Telon.
Best of the Best
One of the things that we would like to do more this year is by giving you extra events that you can look forward to throughout the year. The Best of the Best style tournament is just one of those ways to get you to show off who you are in game
Starting next week, Customer Service will be running a Best of the Best style tournament on all servers, for all classes. Get your swords and spells ready folks, because this is going to be a battle until the death, with only one left standing! Read more on this on our News Section and good luck!
That is about it for the Producer's letter. Thank you for reading through it and I look forward to your comments.
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» Are You the Best of the Best? |
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Jan 17, 2008 - 9:27 PM - by Faelor
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Announcing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes' Best of the Best!
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Starting next week, Customer Service will be running a Best of the Best style tournament on all servers, for all classes.
To participate you must have a clean record; meaning you must not have broken the rules and policies or Terms of Service, (Exploiting, third party programme use), and be level 50. No mounts are allowed during the fight and you will be given a specific area that you will duel in; moving out of that area will disqualify you.
We will begin with the Bard class. The schedule will be as follows:
Halgar - Noon Pacific Time on Thursday 24th January 2008.
Xeth - 5pm Pacific Time on Thursday 24th January 2008.
Seradon - Noon Pacific Time on Saturday 26th January 2008.
Sartok - 5pm Pacific Time on Saturday 26th January 2008.
Shortly before the event a GM on the server will make a world broadcast asking for the names of those wishing to participate. Please only send your name one time, not follow up tells. Do not send a tell for your friends, they must do this themselves. Once cleared, you will be summoned when it is your turn to duel to a location to be announced! This will be one fight knock out event and the winners will move to the next round, held immediately after the first round is completed. Please make sure before you decide to join in the event, you have enough time to move on throughout the day if you win.
The outright winner of the event (1 per class) will be awarded 1 platinum, a special title "Tournament Champion" and a /broadcast to the server annoucing your new boasting rights!
New class BotB's will be posted after the Bard tournament has been completed. The GM's decisions are final.
This post has also been placed on each server board where you can reply.
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As seen here: http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/po...topic_id=26129
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» Vanguard Development Moves to the San Diego Studio |
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Oct 15, 2007 - 4:48 PM - by Faelor
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The Vanguard development team is relocating its offices to SOE's San Diego campus effective Monday, October 15, 2007. As part of the integration into the SOE family, the developers will benefit from having access to shared resources and the combined experience of SOE's other game development teams. As a result, not every Carlsbad employee has been invited to stay with the development team.
Under the new leadership of Thom Terrazas, an eight-year SOE veteran, SOE will continue its commitment to Vanguard and its players. The remaining Vanguard team members are going to continue to deliver on an exceptional product. They are a creative force in the online games space and we look forward to continuing the vision for Vanguard and to continue to deliver groundbreaking game play. SOE remains committed to seeing Vanguard grow and prosper.
This was posted at the official Vanguard: Sage of Heroes site, located here.
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1 Reply | 745 Views
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» Server Merges to Begin Tuesday, August 28th 12:01 AM PDT |
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Aug 27, 2007 - 2:17 PM - by Faelor
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Server Merges to Begin Tuesday, August 28th 12:01 AM PDT
The much anticipated server merges will begin on Tuesday, August 28th at approximately 12:01 AM PDT. The process will take a few days and require a bit of downtime. The schedule for the merges is as follows:
Xeth PVE US 12:01 AM PDT August 28, 2007
-Thunderaxe
-Woefeather
-Gulgrethor
-Hilsbury
Servers will be brought down at 12:01am (pdt) August 28, 2007
The expected down time is anywhere between 7 and 12 hours, with the new merged server being brought back up sometime after 7:00 AM PDT.
Seradon PVE US 12:01 AM PDT August 29, 2007
-Targonor
-Florendyl
-Flamehammer
-Shidreth
Servers will be brought down at 12:01am (pdt) August 29, 2007
The expected down time is anywhere between 7 and 12 hours, with the new merged server being brought back up sometime after 7:00 AM PDT.
Sartok PVP US FFA 12:01AM PDT August 30, 2007
-Tharridon
-Varking
-Frengrot
Servers will be brought down at 12:01am (pdt) August 30, 2007
The expected down time is anywhere between 7 and 12 hours, with the new merged server being brought back up sometime after 7:00 AM PDT.
Halgar PVE EU 5:00 PM PDT August 30, 2007
-Gelenia
-Infineum
Servers will be brought down at 5:00pm (pdt) August 30, 2007
The expected down time is anywhere between 7 and 12 hours, with the new merged server being brought back up sometime after 12:01 AM PDT.
For more details on the upcoming merges, please visit the Official Vanguard Forums!
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» EQ Producer Letter - 8/13/07 |
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Aug 27, 2007 - 1:51 PM - by Faelor
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Hello everyone! Now a Producer's letter that has a bit more meat to it compared to the one that rolled out prior to Fan Faire.
Fan Faire was an absolute blast and I want to thank all of the players that were able to make it. There were quite a few questions at the panels and I believe that most all of them were addressed. (I do have to say that there were a few that we had to take note of and look into J). We had some technical issues at the "next expansion" panel when the PC didn't have EQ installed, but luckily one of the EQ designers brought his laptop and we were up and running in no time.
The room was packed and everyone was able to see a few of the zones from the Secrets of Faydwer. There was even a short explanation of the retail vs digital business by Russ Shanks.
I feel sorry for the Gnomes out there, I mean you are very crafty and make some of the best machines around, but in this expansion you may have gone too far. The large catapult that fires players up to the floating fortress is slightly overpowered and as I said in the presentation... there are a few gnomes that have missed their target and can be found littered across the zone. (When you tinker, you win some and you lose some.)
We also announced the new TCG (trading card game) that will be implemented into EQ and EQ2. Our SOE Denver office has been doing the majority of the work and the EQ and EQ2 teams have been working on getting everything up and running. We have been spending tons of time playing and giving feedback to SOE Denver and we believe it will be a blast to see everyone on the public servers jump in and play. The game is a blast to play and the card art is really good. We worked on a few special loot cards that you will be able to get through booster packs.
It was critical that we included booster packs in the game for everyone. Sure you can buy booster packs whenever you want but you don't have to buy them to get them from creatures in the game. Keep in mind that we are not placing the boosters on specific NPC's in the game so for those of you that are planning on camping for boosters, sorry... no soup for you! One last thing, for the people that attended Fan Faire, your accounts will be flagged and the client will download automatically. We will be doing a closed beta on the TCG and we will be handing out booster packs throughout the beta period. Once the beta is over we will then open the game up to the remaining players and then the real challenge begins! TCG battles will be a great way to pass the time while playing if you are waiting for friends or that elusive NPC.
Once the game is open to everyone, booster packs will only be available via NPC drops and through the station store. I would encourage everyone to go visit http://www.station.sony.com/ and follow the Legends of Norrath link to find out more information including links to the exclusive loot cards found in both EQ and EQ2.
Now to a few ideas that I have been thinking of.
The progression servers were a great concept and they actually are a huge success. Although we did a server merge on these servers to keep the players tight and available for grouping and opening the new content it has made me think... think about the idea of having a set of servers that are setup with a special rule set. What do you all think of that? I know that there have been discussions about different gameplay types or different rule sets before but I figured it was a conversation worth having again. The development team has a few ideas of their own but I wanted to hear what the players had in mind. Join the Special Ruleset Servers discussion.
Another sticky point seems to be about getting low level players into the game. One of the things that I have noticed is that many of the more experienced players don't have much of an incentive to go back down and help lower level players. This is something that we have been discussing during our late nights and team meetings. I think it is something that you (the players) should have some feedback in. I mean we could put in one of the ideas that we have but I would rather get some feedback both on your ideas and on ours and make a decision that is best for the game. I will get a post up that we can all throw some ideas around in. Join the Incentive for Helping Lower Levels discussion.
And finally...
One of the panels that we had at Fan Faire was a quest workshop. It turned out to be a hit and the people made it had a great time. I would love to have events like that not just on Fan Faire! It is something that we would need to provide a system for the players to enter information in a useful way that we could use on our end when implementing quests and other content. Please let me know if that is something that you would be interested in. We have a ton of work with each expansion and various other Live events but I think that events where the players can actually participate would be a great addition to the game.
One last thing- Many of the people at Fan Faire were able to get a set of EQ dice that had unique logos on them from the upcoming expansion. We still have a ton left and will be finding some creative ways to get them out to you guys. I know that we will be handing out sets at Gencon so if you happen to be at the show, stop by the booth and get a set!
Clint "Jourdian" Worley
EverQuest Producer
Sony Online Entertainment
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» Item Preview News From Cylus |
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Jul 28, 2007 - 1:12 AM - by Faelor
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An item preview system is currently coded and awaiting a code review, as well as testing. Those speed-bumps aside, we just wanted to let folks know that it was on the plate, mostly eaten and will be finished asap, unless it gives me indigestion.
Currently, it works as such:
1) When you mouse-over an item, the tooltip w/ the item's stats pops up. If you have auto-compare on (under the Interface tab in Settings), the appearance of the item will automatically replace the appearance of the same slot that you currently have equipped. The compare window will, of course, also spawn.
2) If you don't have auto-compare on, you can mouse-over the item and trigger the preview by pressing and/or holding SHIFT; in some cases, this way makes it easier to preview the item on your character because the extra compare tooltip doesn't eat up screen real estate and get in the way.
3) Both of the previous mechanisms work even if you don't have an item equipped in the previewed items slot.
4) The preview of that item's appearance will remain on your character until you are no longer examining the item, at which point it is replaced by what you have equipped.
Misc:
* Mounts are currently disabled for preview, for technical reasons that I won't bore you with; am actively working on a half-finished solution, though, so maybe in the future.
* Preview currently works for Brokers, Vendors, Quests NPCs and other item examine methods that work with compare; it does not work for links sent to you by other players. Again, maybe in the future, as I'd like that as a player just as much as y'all.
* You can preview anything, even if you can't use it. And when I mean anything, I mean that the ugliest Orc Warrior in the game can preview that gorgeous, sleeveless robe and feel just as much as a man as the preening High Elf Sorc.
Finally, and perhaps the most imporant, I have no idea as to when this feature will make it Live; the code is functionally complete in it's current state, at least in my eyes (lol), but it needs to pass testing and a code review, of course.
We just figured that it'd be a good idea to let y'all know that it has the possibility of going in a lot sooner than most of the "glass half empty" people would have you think 
Have a good weekend, folks!
Yours,
Silas Morse, Game Designer
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» Uberguilds Radio Broadcasting LIVE from SOE Fan Faire |
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Jul 26, 2007 - 2:46 AM - by Faelor
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Uberguilds Radio is excited to announce that starting on August 2nd through August 5th Uberguilds Radio will be covering the Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire live from the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. DJ Sam “QforQ” Houston will be broadcasting live from the Uberguilds Radio booth on the Fan Faire floor at the Rio. Tune in for live interviews with developers of your favorite SOE game, recaps of events, coverage of exclusive Fan Faire announcements and more!
During the week of Fan Faire Uberguilds Radio will be giving away SOE swag and running contests along with the live coverage of the Fan Faire. Make sure you tune in for our exclusive coverage of the event and a chance to take home some great gear!
If you have any questions you would like to be asked when interviewing developers from your favorite SOE game, please email them to Questions@UberguildsRadio.com with the game as the Subject.
Stay tuned to Uberguilds Radio and www.UberguildsRadio.com for more information and announcements leading up to and during SOE Fan Faire.
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0 Replies | 454 Views
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» Age of Conan: Class Preview - Guardian |
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Jul 24, 2007 - 5:20 PM - by Faelor
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While this may not be news about the Ranger class in Age of Conan, it is news! The official AoC site has posted a preview of the guardian class!
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Clad in heavy armor that would break the backs of lesser creatures, the guardian strides Hyboria, a walking fortress of steel, iron, and leather, wielding mighty polearms or one-handed weapons and great shields. Where others would waver or fall, knocked back by a skillful foe, the heavy plate armor of the guardian insure such hits fall aside like so many pebbles. The guardian stands tall and resolute in the face of foes, secure in the finest of armor and wielding the most deadly weapons.
Guardians are not just hulking figures in heavy armor, however. While Guardians have access to a full range of armor, from simple cloth to imposing suits of full plate armor, no fortress is complete without a way to strike back at its attackers, and guardians have an array of combat abilities that focus on their strength: letting their opponents wear themselves down trying to penetrate impenetrable steel, then striking with all the fury of a raging wind. Members of this class can choose one-handed weapons of the blunt or edged variety and pair it up with a shield, or they can forsake the shield entirely and take up one of the many polearms Hyboria's weaponsmiths offer.
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You can read the entire preview of the guardian class here!
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