Es ist wieder soweit, es ist Olnigg Zeit ;-) In diesen Tagen ist wieder eine neue Ausgabe des bekannten Olniggs erschienen, welche sich diesmal mit dem kürzlich releasten MMOROG RF Online beschäftigt.

Spieler, die einen Schwerpunkt ihres Handels in der Ausübung von PvP finden oder sogar darin ihren einzigen Lebensinhalt sehen, und die zusätzlich ein Stakkato von Mausklicks bis zum Erreichen des obersten Levels ebenfalls nicht scheuen, die werden an RF Online bestimmt genauso viel Gefallen finden, wie Dr. Hannibal Lecter an einem frisch herausgerissenen Herzen. Alle anderen sollen mit dem Erwerb dieser Software ein wenig vorsichtiger umgehen und die Pros und Contras gut miteinander abwägen. Da ich mich persönlich eher zu den "Alle Anderen" zähle, ich meine virtuelle Befriedigung kaum in einem Hack-and-slash-PvP-Multiplayer suchen werde und mir die Lust auf eine tiefer gehende Spielanalyse im vorliegenden Fall so sehr fehlt wie RF Online anspruchsvolle Spieltiefe, muss ich daher die heutige OLNIGG-Ausgabe mangels eigener Erfahrung leider ausfallen lassen.

Einige erinnern sich noch an die Umstellung der Homepage von Sigil Games Online und warten nun erwartungsvoll auf eine Änderung an der Homepage zu Vanguard Saga of Heroes. Brad McQuaid hat sich diesbezüglich im offiziellen Forum dazu geäußert und erklärt, dass zuerst einmal die Firmenhomepage umgestellt werden musste und nun als nächstes die zu VSoH kommen wird. Im Zuge dessen soll anschließend auch die FAQ erneuert werden.

1. They, like many people at Sigil, wear multiple hats (have multiple responsibilities). 2. After revamping our sigil.com site, vanguardsoh.com is next but not ready. I want to get that revamped before focusing too much on the FAQ, especially when, as mentioned, you still have the old FAQ, tons of info on this board, and the great FAQ at Silky Venom (see link in above post). thanks for your patience.

In einem Beitrag von Sigils Director of Business Development Zack Karlsson hat sich im offiziellen Forum dazu geäußert, dass es bei Vanguard Saga of Heroes möglich sein wird auf jedem Server der Welt heimisch zu werden und es keine lokalen grenzen geben wird.

We won't impose geopolitical boundaries on people. We may license the game for localised content to a particular region -- in that case, they may not have access to the US servers. But, any version of Vanguard published by Microsoft and developed by Sigil Games Online will not have that restriction.

Nachdem es nun schon die Tage genug Gesprächsstoff gab, so warten Silky venom und Vanguard Spheres mit Kurzinterviews auf, bei denen sie sich mit den Entwicklern von Sigil Games Online unterhalten. Neben solche Sachen, wie sie zu Sigil gekommen sind und auch warum sie in dieser Industrie ansässig wurden erfahrt ihr noch ein wenig mehr über sie wie welche ihre Lieblingsklasse sind. Interviewed werden Amanda Tarr, Lisa Boleyn und Tina Hou bei Vanguard Spheres und Sean Mailton, Josh Deep und Garret Fern bei Silky Venom.

Q: What is it about your job you most enjoy? A: There’s a whole lot that I like about my job. But to trim it down, I’d have to say that I most enjoy the creative environment, the smart people, and working on something that I do in my free time anyway. Q: What class/race is your favorite and why? A: In most games, I play a healer or a healer hybrid. Part of this is because I like helping people, and the other part is that I find it generally requires a lot of attention. I also like casters, especially pet casters, because I enjoy complex gameplay. I really like using utility spells and/or a pet to help control combat because it makes it more challenging for me. Q: What would you most like the women, who are looking at VSoH, to realize about this game in comparison to many of the others? A: The two biggest things that I think players will see are the next step towards a living, breathing world as well as the resurgence of community in MMOs. We are planning on filling players’ plates with content to explore for many years, and we believe that it can be much more satisfying to see the world we are building with friends. In that regard, we’re working hard on making the group gameplay as rewarding as we can, and also providing many communication options to stay in touch. And of course the thing I’m personally most excited about is the depth and challenge that we’re working to achieve in our combat. It will certainly be easy to play any class with a minimal learning curve, but the mechanics that we’re introducing will allow the avid player to really showcase their playing skill by learning their class inside and out and using it in creative ways to overcome whatever challenge the mobs come up with.

Einmal mehr gibt es etwas neues zu Vanguard Saga of Heroes zu lesen und zu sehen. Die Kollegen bei 1UP haben ein neues Preview zu dem kommenden MMORPG herausgebracht und verfeinern dieses mit ein paar exklusiven Bildern aus der sagenumwobenen Welt Telon's.

For anyone who misses the infamously steep difficulty (and corresponding feeling of accomplishment) of EQ, Vanguard is a game to be keeping an eye on if you aren't already. But, judging by the large and enthusiastic community the game has gathered so long before its release, that doesn't seem to be much of an issue.

Wie wir vor zwei Tagen eine herunterladbare Version 3 des Vanguard Saga of Heroes Beta Clients gab, so schnell wie sie gekommen ist, ist sie auch wieder verschwunden. Statt dessen hat sich Nick Parkinson im offiziellen Forum zu diesem Missstand geäußert. Laut seiner Aussage handelte es sich dabei lediglich um einen Test neue wege zu erschließen, wie Sigil Games Online ihre Software an die Spieler bringen kann.

As you’re now well aware, the Vanguard beta is indeed going to be hosted by File Planet from here on out. Microsoft and File Planet people are currently testing the downloads, so they are responsible for the download numbers you are seeing. However, Beta 3 is NOT starting yet. Its unfortunate that the File Planet page with beta information was made public as it was certainly not our intention to get anyone’s hopes up under false pretenses. Right now we’re just updating the way we distribute our beta client, nothing more. Don’t worry, when Beta 3 starts you won’t have to hear about it first from anyone but us. :-)

So wie Lazer aus unserem Forum aufgefallen ist, wird es wohl schon sehr Bald in die 3. Phase der Vanguard Saga of Heroes Beta gehen. Jedenfalls bietet FilePLanet nun den Client für die benannte Phase mit knapp 5GB zum Download an. Doch spielen können nur nach wie vor diejenigen, welche bereits einen betafähigen Account ihr eigen nennen können.

Link: Download des Beta Clients
Link: Eure Kommentare bei uns im Forum

Bei The Safehouse wurden zwei neue Interviews mit Darrin 'Talisker' McPherson zu den Klassen Rogue und Necromancer veröffentlicht. Die zwei Interviews sind es auf jeden fall wert gelesen zu werden.

The Vanguard Rogue: Straight from the Source As is our way here at the Safehouse, any time we get the chance to ambush a developer about the status and future of the Rogue class, we take it! Just before the banquet dinner, Fricka and I managed to lure Darrin McPherson (aka Talisker, Master of Classes, and Hater of Coffee) into a side room where we proceeded to tag team him for information. As always, Darrin was a wealth of good info, and artfully painted a picture of how he envisions the Vanguard Rogue, how it's changed over its development, and possibly, what's in store for it in the future. The Evolution of the Rogue Class Fricka and I wanted to know how Darrin defined the Rogue class for Vanguard, and how it had grown from its original paper designs into what it is now. Darrin: It's the same fundamental idea that I had originally, which was, I wanted Rogues to be stealthy in combat. I wanted stealth to be one of their primary functions...I would say that the original design was that we focused strictly on combat and how that would work with stealth. And then when I actually sat down to design it, I decided that I wanted two more things, more flavor, more utility. So I gave the Rogue the ability to use items that no one else could use, and the ability to get items that he could use to make that equipment, so that he could exist by himself. He doesn't need a crafter [emphasis mine, it's an important distinction. The move is aimed to avoid paralyzing Rogues with expensive crafted components ala Final Fantasy XI, not to make them a soloing machine].

During the Fanguard dinner in San Diego, the Safehouse had the good fortune to be joined by Darrin McPherson, aka Talisker, the man behind designing Vanguard's classes. On a whim, I asked him “So how about the Necromancer?”, and got far more than I bargained for. It's one thing to have a dev write a reply to an interview saying “I'm excited about [suchandsuch]”. It's a different story when you see their eyes light up, and a smile creep across their features involuntarily, as they talk about it. The Vanguard Necromancer will offer players a unique style of play that will truly set them apart from their fellow casters of Telon. Traditionally Necromancers have been “wizards” essentially, that have a dark flavor of magic. They often drain life, summon dead things from no where, cast spells like "Dark Painful Wanna-bee Fireball" and make their foes miserable by making them decay or suffer horrible disadvantages. Darrin wanted to take it a step further than most other MMO games have. The Vanguard Necromancer not only casts magic of a dark nature, their magic is death magic.

Wie Brad McQuaid im offiziellen Forum bekannt gab wird es in Vanguard Saga of Heroes auch fliegende Reittiere geben. Es ist nicht die Frage ob, sondern wann. Möglicherweise sind erste Teile eines solchen Systems schon zu Release vorgesehen aber wohl noch nicht alles.

Only until when we get true mounted combat (whether on the ground or, later, in the air) implemented, which as noted by other posters per previous posts by me, may or may not be implemented fully by launch. But it's definitely of matter of 'when' and not 'if'.

Erneut haben sich Brad McQuaid und Jeff Butler zu einem Interview zur Verfügung gestellt. Dieses mal beantworteten sie Fragen von Gamezone bezüglich in wie weit sich das Spiel seit der ersten Bekanntmachung auf der E3 vor einigen Jahren verändert hat.

Question: Vanguard was first shown at E3 a couple of years ago and then, true to your word in 2004, it was on the floor at E3 in 2005. Has the game changed in any ways between then and now? Brad: “I would say, for the most part, the vision, the core design, has stayed very much the same as we planned initially. Certainly, in beta, as we have received feedback on our systems, what’s fun about this, what’s not so fun about this. We’ve made some changes but as far as the fundamental core of the game, I’m pretty proud as to how …” Jeff: “We’ve gone through it so many times. These development cycles are so long that one of the biggest dangers you can fall prey to is a lack of focus in terms of what your IP is, your thought processes and your philosophies. So we sat down, and we were six guys in that 1,000-square-foot building, we could pull up the design schemes and I could show you that our ancient documents that dictate what our philosophy for how we wanted our ranged combat to be …” Brad: “Some things got more fleshed out. We had come very original ideas. We said we want this, we want …” Jeff: “Diplomacy is a great example of what we said we wanted to implement …” Brad: “… when it came time to actually implement it in code, then you go from a high-level design to a lower-level design and adapting it so the designers can deliver it in the program. And then you look at those, talk to different people and actually implement them. But nothing fundamentally, as far as the realization or fleshing out of those ideas relative to how the game is progressing, relative to how technology is, what we hoped was possible with our engine that either turned out to be not as possible, or – more often than not – more doable. Oftentimes we were able to exceed our expectations, what was very rewarding.”

Nachdem gestern die Homepage zu Vanguard Saga of Heroes wegen Wartungsarbeiten vom Netz genommen wurde, so ist sie heute wieder zu erreichen und wartet mit einer überarbeiteten Beta FAQ auf.

We are excited that you'd like to help us with beta testing for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes! The following information should answer all of your basic questions about how to get in and what the process is. As we go through the various testing phases, we'll add more people and we'll update the information. If you have any questions about becoming part of the Vanguard community, please contact community@sigilgames.com. Are you in open beta now, so that everyone can jump in and play? We are currently in closed beta with a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA) – which means that players who are chosen aren't allow to disclose anything about the game or to even let outside people know that they are in the beta. We do have a secure area of our forums where beta testers can discuss the game and give us valuable feedback. How do I get into the beta? Potential beta testers are chosen at random from the registered users of our forums (http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/index.php), so feel free to register and become a member of our community. I'm a reporter. Can I get in to the beta? We occasionally give sneak peaks to the press, but we are not yet allowing members of the media to be in the beta on their own. If you have a specific press-related inquiry, please send an email to pr@sigilgames.com. How will I know if I've been chosen? We send small batches of invitations on an irregular basis so there is no way to tell for sure if or when you will be selected. If you are selected though, you will receive an email from a Microsoft address with the subject "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Beta Invitation". Your best chances of getting chosen are to be an active, registered member of the Vanguard community.

Auch an diesem Wochenende werden wir im Zuge der Marketing Kampagne von Sigil Games Online mit weiterem Lesestoff versorgt. Dieses mal erhalten wir neue Eindrücke von Yahoo! Games, welche einen Besuch in San Diego abhielten und neben einem Preview auch ein Interview mit Brad McQuaid und Jeff Butler durchführten.

The word is out about Vanguard: it's the hardcore massively multiplayer game that's not for the sissies who'd rather kick back and play World of Warcraft. This is the tough-guy MMO with complicated tactical combat, mandatory group harvesting, extended dialogue trees, grueling corpse retrieval runs, prohibitive death penalties, and metal clamps that send a shock to your nipples when you take damage. At least that's what some of the buzz would have you think about this new massively multiplayer RPG from the guys who created Everquest, the original tough-guy MMO. But the buzz is a bit of a distortion of developer Sigil's approach. Their idea isn't to be prohibitively difficult so much as it is to raise the stakes. Sigil founders Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler repeatedly hit a few talking points during the course of a day-long demo. One of the main themes is to be challenging without being tedious. They talk about returning a sense of accomplishment to an MMO. They both use the phrase "give the player more head room", which is obviously the language of guys who've gotten their World of Warcraft characters to level 60 and asked, "Now what?" But first to clear up a few misconceptions: There aren't any nipple clamps. The "death penalty" is a standard experience point loss. You can offset that loss and get back your equipment if you recover your corpse. Your party can help you by actually dragging your corpse away from danger. If your party is wiped out, you all respawn at the nearest outpost (one of the main advantages of having player housing on the front lines).

Im offiziellen Forum hat Brad McQuaid nun bestätigt, dass es für Vanguard Saga of Heroes eine Collectors Edition geben wird, welche aktuell von einem Freund des leider verstorbenen Keith Parkinson erstellt wird.

Yep, unfortunately Keith can't be the painter as we had always hoped and plans, but one of his friends and colleagues is, and like I said, we are very pleased with how it's turning out -- I really think it will stand out in terms of quality, much like the EQ boxes did. And yes there will be a collectors edition as well, and while I can't say much about it yet either, it's looking pretty cool as well.

Nachdem im Februar irgendwie alles und jedes Geburtstag feiert, so will auch Sigil Games Online diesen Zug nicht verpassen und feiert das vierjährige bestehen des Unternehmen. Wollen wir hoffen, dass es noch viele weitere werden und an dieser Stelle wollen wir auch unsere Glückwünsche aussprechen.

Link: Homepage von Sigil Games Online
Link: Kommentare im Forum

Schon ein Jahr ist es her seit dem Vanguard Die Gemeinde ihre Pforten geöffnet hat. Viel hat sich in der zwischenzeit getan. Es haben sich Mitarbeiter gefunden, welche mithelfen, neue Freunde haben sich im Forum finden können, der Content ist stark gewachsen und die Community wächst.

Als Dankeschön für diese Zeit möchten wir euch auf unser Emailadressensystem aufmerksam machen, welche ihr euch unter http://mail.vsoh.molgam.net registrieren könnt. Sicherlich ging das auch schon vorher, doch nun geben wir euch einen Gutscheincode mit, welcher das Emailpostfach vergrößert und euch auch sonst mehr Möglichkeiten mit der Emailadresse bietet.

Gebt den eine Woche lang gültigen Code VSoH.info Birthday 2006 in eurem Account ein und erhaltet mehr Speicherplatz, mehr Funktionalitäten und anderes.

Wollt ihr selbst auch noch etwas in die Community einfliesen lassen, damit wir nächstes Jahr zum Beispiel noch viel mehr Content feiern können, dann schaut euch doch einfach mal unsere Stellenausschreibungen an.

Über eure Kommentare und Anmerkungen warten wir jetzt schon gespannt im Forum.

Auf weiterhin eine gute Zusammenarbeit und viel Spaß bei uns
Euer vsoh.molgam.net Team

Nachdem erst die Tage zwei Previews zu lesen gab, ziehen nun GameSpy und GameZone mit je einem weiteren nach. Das Preivew zu Vanguard Saga of Heroes auf GameSpy umfasst ganze drei Seiten, wohingegen sich das bei GameZone auf eine beschränkt. Aber trotz der mittlerweile vier neu veröffentlichten Spielevorabbetrachtungen gibt es so gut wie keine neuen Informationen. Wollen wir einmal gespannt darauf warten, was sich noch in den nächsten Tagen tun wird.

In the competitive massively multiplayer space, there are only a handful of games that stand a serious chance of making it big, especially as the shadow of Blizzard's World of Warcraft phenomenon looms large. After a recent visit, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes looks to be one of them. Sigil Games Online is headed up by Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, key figures behind the development of the ground-breaking EverQuest, and McQuaid considers Vanguard the spiritual successor to the vision he had in mind for EverQuest. The game world was showcased during a demonstration, and it was quite impressive to see what Sigil has been able to do with their modified version of the Unreal 2.5 engine. The city of New Targanor was positively massive, and every nook and cranny of the castle and the outlying buildings in the courtyard are fully modeled from the inside out. The construction isn't limited to Sigil's behalf, however, as players will be able to build their own domiciles, shops, and taverns, complete with all of the visual features and floorplans utilized in the established cities, providing for an ever expanding world. Players will be able to stake out a plot of land as their own, shouldering the responsibility of paying upkeep and building their own base of operations. You won't be able to play the real estate market, though, as you're limited to a single chunk of land per character. The game's weather effects were also put on prominent display, with category 5 snowstorms, torrents of rain, and their associated thick clusters of billowing cloud cover that would pass over the game world in real time. Vanguard's aural features came to light here. The sound of your footsteps will take on a muddy aspect during showers, and the orchestral soundtrack will actually change based not only on location and weather, but also takes into account other variables, such as time of day, and player health. There are over 24 hours of composed music in the game thus far, recorded along with the Seattle symphony and choir.