I just saw this over at Massively, which sort of fits in with Tuesday’s post, SOE’s Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is slated to get some genuine new content.
The post on the Vanguard forums lists out:
- Overland Raid bosses
- New Dungeon – City of Brass: Massive progressive dungeon with thirteen bosses and new rewards for players that can survive long enough to obtain them
- Removal of Corpse recovery
- This will aid in making the leveling process more enjoyable as well as remove the frustration that can be encountered from suffering a death penalty
- Experience curve decreased – Experience has been modified to make leveling a new character a bit easier
- Increase in loot drop rates
- “Golden Path” – Riftways instructing players to ideal leveling areas with new rewards for all levels
So Vanguard has gone from “no devs, no fixes” to “okay, we’ll patch some broken stuff” to “okay, let’s get some new content together for you!” in the last year. Amazing.
And the City of Brass… one of my favorite Forgotten Realms locations in TorilMUD… I wonder what it will look like in Vanguard?
Plus the experience curve tweak sounds like they might have plans… maybe free to play plans… for the game after all. So count me wrong on that.
Is it too late to start this week over?
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
New reader to this blog. Been enjoyable so far.
I’ve been curious about Vanguard lately. I was debating giving it a shot sometime in the near future and then suddenly I read this and think exactly like you do. “I smell Free to Play in these patch notes.”
Given SoE’s recent track record, It sounds like a strong possibility.
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Okay, that is preparation for F2P.
Removing the death penalty, making leveling faster and adding a “Golden Path” will all be anathemas to the tiny remaining Vanguard hardcore. There is no way on earth that any of that can be directed at pleasing or appeasing the existing playerbase (unlike the raid content, which clearly is).
Bring it on, I say. If Vanguard and EQ1 go F2P it’s going to save me around £250 a year.
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@Bhagpuss: The comments in the forums from the vets that I saw are grumbling about the easing up, but seem to see it as a necessary evil, the price for getting nice things. But I didn’t read that far. I probably missed the first rage quit.
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If VG goes F2P I’ll log in from time to time. Maybe even level a character up far enough to really “grab me” too, who knows?
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That list really is weird. Half the changes are diametrically opposed to what VG and its community is about (as far as I can tell, haven’t played in a while). Bhagpuss might be on to something here… Then again, those changes would be but a drop in the bucket of “streamlining”, wouldn’t they?
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Interesting. Are they really expecting a big enough influx of players with F2P to make gambling a lot of time and money on new content for a game that must be barely holding its own right now worthwhile?
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I may be too new to understand (I was in the teens when last I played), but I thought there were already breadcrumbs via the Void transit system? What would a new golden path add to that?
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Sounds like obvious prep for a FtP transition. If so I applaud it. Would be one of the more unique FtP MMOs on the market if it went that way.
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I’ll start playing this game the moment it becomes F2P. I tried the starterzone some while ago and it was a great atmosphere with a crappy interface. Not worth a monthly subscription besides my other MMORPG’s but definately a game that I would play (and pay for extras etc.) if the basic game would go F2P.
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So they continue to think that dumbing down the game even more, making it more and more like WoW, is whats going to bring people in? Amazing. Fuck you SoE
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