Vanguard: Unplayable on the average PC

[Kalthanan]

Ok, check this out. I got into Vanguard beta like a week ago. I downloaded the FIVE GIG file, which UNZIPS to another FIVE GIGS or so, *THEN* you can install it. Sloppy.

The registration process has you jump through about 8 or 9 hoops before you can get everything done, and it assumes you don't have a forum account, which is stupid since YOU NEED ONE TO GET INTO BETA.

THEN you actually run it.

Ok, let me describe my computer for you. I am running an AMD 3500+ with 2 gigs of DDR (3200?) in dual mode. I have a Geforce 6600 GT. Not an "old" computer, but not new and top of the line either. I can play DooM and Halflife and F.E.A.R. and Oblivion, with a lot of bells and whistles and pretty lights and shinies at pretty good resolutions.

Vanguard runs like a dog. I set my screen to 1024x768 with all options turned down or off and the clip plane as far away as I can throw an ogre, yet the game runs at sub 20 fps at the best of times, under 10 fps in a city.

Text is ugly. There are tons of graphic bugs; every time I open my journal or map for the first time, it glitches in one way or another until I resize the screen.

I tried to play. I got a character to level 4 or 5 with my computer wheezing the whole time, but it's just not any fun trying to play that way. So I guess I won't be playing Vanguard at all until I upgrade my computer with a new motherboard and dual $200+ video cards or something.

[Gennesis]

That's how EQ2 was for me (plus I wasn't into the whole tradeskill thing). It's not fun playing a game when you need to have the textures so low you can't tell that your char has a face, or the armor just looks like a continuation of the skin in a different color. bleh.

[Catweazel]

How much of the graphics /processing load is "by design" and how much is due to inefficient beta code?

I remember beta testing for Bethesda for Arena / Daggerfall / Morrowind and the beta test software was still mostly unplayable when marketing called time and the development team burnt the midnight oil on final fixes for the gold release. The shipped software was nothing like the beta we all remembered just a few weeks prior.

EQ2 was playable but not at the highest resolutions. On my mid range machine it was still a beautiful experience. SOE (rightly in my opinion) identified that in a game intended to last 10 years there was little point designing it for today's computers.

I certainly don't play EQ for the graphics experience, although every now and then I am still in awe at certain graphics effects or scenery or mobs. When I look back at early EQ screen shots it was appaling in its infancy.

The Games industry drives the hardware industry and has for many years. I would gladly pay hundreds of dollars to upgrade hardware for 2 to 3 years of gaming enjoyment and I bet you hundreds of thousands of other people will to.

How long is the beta program intended to last? Are you bound by a NDA? Any other details you can share in terms of game mechanics?

[Kalthanan]

From what I understand, a lot of the mechanics are under frequent revision. Apparently a lot of people are unsatisfied with the game the way it is.

Just as an example, there are over 4000 people in beta. Average players per night was quoted at 100. That's one out of 40 people playing.

I know this is beta, and there is debugger code turned on, and beta testers are supposed to be *testing* not just running around having fun. I look at it this way, though: I get to preview the game and have a little fun, and in exchange I make bug reports. In this case, however, I would have to be paid to beta test because running around and doing stuff is a chore with the rendering lag.

I played EQ2 in beta and had a much more playable experience than this. It is definitely aimed at a higher tier video card and computer than I am using. For everyone hoping to play Vanguard on a middle-of-the-line computer, don't even think about it.