Arriving at the air port in Las Vegas, one can immediately find slot machines! It was 108 degrees! I knew I was in the desert, but man… stepping outside was an adventure within itself. My cousin had picked us up from the air port and we were on our way to the Hilton Hotel.

When we arrived at the Hilton, we went to our room which was upgraded due to them giving our previous room to another person. They didn’t charge me extra, and I got a bigger bathroom, so I happily took the room. I dropped off my things, and we went to visit everyone. This was the first time I got to meet some of my guildies, and I was giddy. My guild leader, Thund, was there. He is indeed a very down to earth guy, and surprisingly everyone seemed just like they were online. It goes to show Vanguard folks aren’t fake. Hehe.

Anyways, I found myself talking to so many people, and it was really nice to meet them all. I even managed to get myself up on stage. It’s a bit embarrassing, but I guess it’s out there anyways. I did the /agree emote and head banged it out on stage. Yeah, I’m a dork. After the first day of meeting everyone and the introduction to Fan Faire, we were sent off into Vegas to either find some adventure or get smashed and party in our hotel rooms.

The next day, we had panels that started at about 3pm, so everyone was out and about. The first Vanguard panel was about “Classes, Combat and Development.” The panel included: Salim “Silius” Grant, Thom “Phathom” Terrazas, Nick “Glip the Gnome” Parkinson, Tiraslee, and Ichie. The hour was filled with many questions. There were a few questions about bank space and Silius commented that messing with bank space is a bit iffy because of the bugs that can occur when doing so, and everyone laughed it off. Another option that people were asking about was placing soul bound items into houses, or being able to place a soul bound chest that would work for only that person’s items, and they did say that was an idea they could think about. Even placing armor and weapons into houses was mentioned, and they said they were looking into it.

Crafters and high level quests were brought up, as well as Diplomacy. Silius mentioned that they were focusing on the adventuring side currently, but there will be more in the future for Crafters and Diplomats. The topic of Galleons was mentioned, and Silius said that they did not want to put in Galleons without any content. Many people argued that we can make our own content with the boats. Although Silius did say that he understood their opinion, he stated once again that they wanted to implement content that would offer a use for these large boats.

Of course once that was mentioned, fishing came up. Fishing will not be in GU6, but is currently being worked on. I’m interested to see what is going on with that. Silius also said that there will not be sea life when galleons/fishing are implemented, so don’t expect that any time soon.

Not that many classes were brought up, but Rangers were said to be getting their 6 new pets that they would be able to use, as well as the abilities going along side of them. They would also be able to set up camps. I’m interested in hearing what these camps do. Maybe if your group logs out at a ranger’s camp, they will get rest experience? Heh, just a thought.

A marketing question was also asked, and Silius did a breakdown of their plans for marketing. At the moment, it seems that their money is going mostly toward development and the people currently playing. I believe that they are relying on Isle of Dawn to bring in new people, and hopefully, it will do just that. They are not putting any more boxes on the shelves in stores. I found this to be a down fall of their marketing, but I can understand why they are doing this. They did think about perhaps having Isle of Dawn download CDs in stores, which I think would make up for not having boxes in them. They are going for a virtual market, which is plausible, but we’ll see how well it works for them. I know I will do my best to get the Isle of Dawn free trial out there to as many people as possible.

There was a lot talked about during this panel, and it even went a little bit into the next panel, which was the State of the Game panel. The only new addition to the panel was Moonlite, all of the former panelist were present. They started us off with a video about what they have implemented in the past, which included: Guild Halls, Ancient Port Warehouse, New Combat Particles, etc. Next they showed us the video of what was coming out in the near future. Both of these videos were made by Tiraslee. Tiraslee actually joined SOE because his videos he did when he was with Silky Venom back in the day. It’s nice to know where people started. He is a really neat guy, and I was honored to be able to sit down and have a talk with him about it. Anyways, the video went over Isle of Dawn, Player Models being revisited, and Pantheon of the Ancients. The final shot was of Nexus and had us all teased to the max.

I had already touched a bit on Isle of Dawn, but I guess I can go over it again. They want it to bring in people. It will be an easy download for us to show our friends, acquaintances, and family in order to give them a feel of what Vanguard is all about.

The new character models or the revisit as they referred to it seemed pretty neat. Once I got home, I was able to take a more in-depth look at it, and I was a bit unsatisfied. First of all, there is something weird going on with all my characters’ faces. Most of my characters are female, so I don’t know if that changes anything. Their mouths all seem off. They look like they are pouting or pissed off nonstop. I don’t really mind the pissed off look, but why does it look like they’re monkeys? The boob slider, no matter where I put it, makes the boobs look kind of silly. They seem really off, like they are going to shoot out and punk you in the face torpedo style. The shoulder pads seem to be floating on my characters. If they moved, I fear it might fall off of them. I guess I shouldn’t harp on all the bad things because they did put in some really nice changes. My Dark Elf now has her long ears back, and her eyes look more Elvin once again. I just feel that there should be a few changes.

Some people didn’t like the new gear that was given to the female characters. There were two sides to the story as there always is. Some like to have their female characters look more feminine in gear, where as others find it to look very slutty or too scandalous. Perhaps, they will try to put in different types of gear, so people can choose what they want. Silius did mention that they could try to do that, but they were trying to go for the more fantasy realm type gear for females. This is one of those situations where you can’t please everyone.

The Pantheon of the Ancients that we once knew as a newbie zone is now an elite group content area. This is similar to Old Targanor mobs for the griffon quest, etc. This will be challenging group content for players. They said that you would not be required to have finished APW in order to group in this area, but you may want to have decent gear, and know your class well. Once you get past the group content, there will be a raiding part of Pantheon of the Ancients! I was excited to hear that it will be a 24 man raid area. Silius did say that from now on they hope to be putting in all 24 man raid content. This is an exciting time for raiders in Vanguard. All we were told as far as content wise was that PotA will be giving us more of the inside scoop on Gods in Vanguard and what their role is in the world of Telon. We were told that there would be a new riftway- a black one. From what I gathered, this riftway would take us to the raid area of PotA, and perhaps, take us to other realms in the future.

Once we have finished the group part of PotA, we were told that we would choose our God and depending on our God, we would pray to him/her and they would give us some kind of blessing. These blessings would be given to us in buff form and last certain amounts of time or till our death. It was interesting, and I can’t wait to see how it all works out. We were told that some content would require these buffs, but most of the current content would not require that we have these blessings. I’m excited and can’t wait to see the new dungeon in action!

After the panels, we had a bit of time to sit down and hang out with the development team which was really cool. They are a great group of people. I learned a lot of information about how the insides of game development work and what not. I am convinced that the Vanguard team really wants to do whatever they can to make content fun and group oriented, but they have to work with the income that they are receiving.

At 6pm, everyone gathered into the huge ball room to hear John Smedley’s speech. For Vanguard players it was not the most memorable moment of being in Vegas. He didn’t mention anything that promoted Vanguard.

After the speech, people were invited to sing karaoke with a live band, get drunk, and hang out with friends and some of the development/community reps of the games.

I found myself playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with all my guildies, a few of the Vanguard development staff, along with some spectators. All I can say is that D & D that weekend was one of the best D & D experiences I have ever had. Everyone role played their part, and not one person was out of character unless they were speaking with the Dungeon Master or answering a question. It was good times indeed. We played every day until about 7am at one point. It was crazy, but fun.

The next day we had to be up and at the live quest event by 12pm. For some of us, it was a bit hard after being hung-over and tired. Ellyra had us group up in groups of 6 to 8. We were given a letter, which was poisoned. How lovely, eh? I thought it was a bit cruel of her to do that, but I really think she didn’t want some of us to make it to the ball. (I’m kidding of course. She loves everyone. Nice gal.) Anyways, off we were to do the quest. We went from NPC to NPC figuring out the mystery and finding items for new quests that we received along the way just to get a cure from the curse that we got from the letter. It was interesting, especially since all the developers and community representatives were playing the NPC roles. Very cool event. I’m glad I was a part of it. If you want to hear what our groups were doing and how we spoke to the NPCs check out Episode 52.2. It’s pretty funny.

After the live quest, we were welcomed to the High Level Panel. We had a lot of really good conversations going and Silius was gladly answering all of the questions. He even joked around a bit. I think after being stuck as a Raki all day he might’ve been a bit delusional. (haha) Anyways, we talked about a lot of interesting things. A few diplomacy and crafting questions were asked again, but not that many. Most of the questions were on the adventuring aspect of Vanguard. Most of the information presented was previously known. Pantheon would require players to work together as a team, and that is what they are going for- team work. They said trash mobs would be killable by most high level people, but the named would be challenging and require people to really work as a team. I brought up the idea of having a /anonymous macro for when I am playing on Sartok or even playing in general, and Silius said that Ikik would get on that a.s.a.p, which was really cool. It won’t be in GU6, but perhaps GU7. He also said they’d look into putting a Biography page in like there is in DDO, etc. It was wonderful to hear the developers speak so passionately about the game.

The final panel was the player made quest. It basically went over what was all needed in order to make a quest in Vanguard. They made it a bit more minimal than usual, so that players could get an idea of what goes into making a quest. During this time, Silius and the other developers were answering many questions from the players. I ended up talking to a few people from other sites such as Ten Ton Hammer and Allakazam. We all talked about how we try to promote Vanguard or what our restrictions were, etc. It was interesting and we had a very intellectual conversation that I enjoyed deeply.

Fan Faire was truly an amazing journey and I am so glad that I mustered up the money to make it out there. The “Grand Banquet” was a ton of fun and laughs. Beau’s team had won the live quest which was pretty sweet! I tried to gather as many pictures as I could of people at the Banquet sitting with their guildies, etc. After the Banquet, we had our final D & D night, which was sad, but lots of fun. We even had a few more spectators than in the past. My hotel room was packed full of people just enjoying themselves. If I embarrassed you by asking your name, I’m sorry. I just wanted to make sure I knew who was in my room! =)

Well, I guess that wraps it up, eh? I advise everyone to go to Fan Faire next year. Start saving up now! There are memories I made that I will never forget, and I wish I could share them with you all.

The final day, Vendolyn, Goblin, Merd, Barar, and I saw the Stratosphere, which was really high up in the air. At night, Xaices, Vendolyn, Merd, Barar, and I went to the Bellagio’s and watched the water show. It was beautiful. I stayed up talking to Vendoyl, Merd, Barar, and Beau that night. We had a lot of interesting conversations, and it was sad to see everyone leave. The next morning we were on our way home, wishing we could’ve hung out with everyone all over again.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures, and hopefully, you’ll be able to make it out next year! Maybe, we’ll be going to Europe. Who knows?

~Luper the Dragonslayer

There’s been a few discussions on whether the starting gear in the new trial is “too good” and whether this tends to pressure all players, new and old alike, to only reroll future characters on the Isle of Dawn, possibly leaving other starter areas to “dry up” and become ghost towns.

Also debated is whether starting crafters will be adversely affected because they will lose any possible market or motivation to craft tier one items in comparison to the new gear.

After spending a pretty good amount of time on the new isle, I don’t think these issues are really going to be a problem.

While the gear on IOD is indeed excellent for a starting player with no resources, it is far from “killer gear” that outpaces anything that can be acquired on the mainland. First characters always start out dirt poor, and in fact I had abandonded my very first character, a young halfling ranger, before she ever reached the level of 10 because I struggled so hard in keep her well-geared. By my third or fourth character, I had started the habit of “endowing” new characters with assets from my previous tries, via ingame mail, so that each “new generation” of characters had a somewhat easier start than the previous. Many players of course are immune to the altoholic syndrome, and stick with one main character only, or simply resist the temptation to “twink” new characters with their older ones. They are the ones who will benefit the most from the new Isle, because you walk out at level 10 with every slot filled with good solid usable gear. But it is not perfect gear, and it doesn’t give the IOD character a huge advantage over characters rolled in traditional starter areas. After my new IOD dreadknight finished her final quest, I took a screen of the stats of a live server “twinked” dreadknight I had at level 9, and was surprised to find the mainland character was overall actually very competitive, perhaps even better geared than the new character in some ways:

(Mainland DK on left, new IOD DK on right):

The first thing I looked at in looking at the new armor was of course base AC, and even though the level 9 “mainland DK” still had another level of catchup it did look like the IOD baby tank had far superior defenses. However, the twinked mainland DK I was able to select specifically the stats that I wanted to focus on, and while IOD gear was “suitable” for the class it tends to favor a well-rounded approach to stats vs a mini-maxxed approach. My hit points and attack rating on my mainland DK thus were actually significantly higher than the IOD DK, and obviously when she gains the final level 10, those numbers will be even higher. The IOD tank has better defense ratings, however. All in all — it’s a fairly close tradeoff. In comparison, my mainland baby disciple actually had an advantage over my IOD disciple, in that I was better able to focus on “solo gear” for her. The IOD disciple received a lot of gear that I would not have selected msyelf (focusing heavily on WIS/energy, while I prefer STR/VIT/dps oriented gear). So the mainland character will always have much more control over what gear and what stats are favored.

A second factor — it may be difficult, possibly impossible, to “twink” new IOD characters. There are no mailboxes or brokers, and it’s unclear still whether new IOD characters will have access to house recall spells. The only backpacks new IOD characters have access to are 4 or 6 slot bags, and now not even any banks, so newer players must constantly sell off any items to vendors as fast as they acquire them. While the IOD new character ends up well outfitted at level 10, they have to wait until the final quest completiion to get some of that gear — my DK tank probably gained almost half of her final AC in the last dungeon quest, and up until that point would actually have been significantly behind the mainland DK, who could have any gear she wanted as early as she liked. Until the final dungeon, for instance, I was still using the barebones chest and legs and gained 208 AC just from the final chest+legs. Probably half my AC came from the last dungeon, while my mainland dreadknight had high AC+dps from level one on.

The lone longterm “advantage” of starting out on IOD is the Lucky Charms bracelet you get that grants +5 to all stats (except CON, unsure if that is an oversight) and is upgradeable at higher levels. However, you must have at least 10 levels of diplomacy to equip the bracelet, and whether all players will have the patience to actually complete 10 levels of diplomacy, I don’t know. At least now however there is a very strong motivation to jump into the Diplomacy sphere early on, which I personally think A Very Good Thing though I suspect at some point someone will complain about being “forced” into the sphere. I have no idea what the later upgraded versions of the neckpiece will look at, so can’t respond to claims by a few that they will now be “compelled” to reroll new IOD characters to be competitive at later levels.

** edited note: silius posted on the forums that the charm’s requirement for 10 diplomacy was not intended, and has since been removed on internal versions of the isle**

I think there will continue to be a very strong attraction to starting secondary characters on the mainland, for the following reasons:

1. Traditional starting areas will always have a fresh approach, new lore, and a distinctive “new” storyline to explore. One common complaint some had with age of conan was that once you did the starter area once, you were pretty much disinterested in running through it again. That is going to be the same with Isle of Dawn, and I think the majority of players will want to see what it is like to start in the Vulmane area, the dwarven area, dark elf area etc rather than run through IOD multiple times. Hard to say how much of a draw facotr the charm bracelet will be, given the extra work to level in diplomacy as well, and compared to the huge advantage the older areas offer in terms of fresh new content.
2. Isle of Dawn characters have less ‘freedom’ and opportunities than mainland characters. On the mainland, you can run a level 2 character to any place in the world, and experience ANY level appropriate quests, dungeons and content. On IOD, you have ONLY the much more narrowly directed main questline to follow in a linear order. You can’t on a whim go see what other dungeons and quests are like, you can’t opt to “not do” a certain quest, you have less choice in what to do or where to go at any stage of development. This may not matter as much on a first character but it matters a lot for me on a second character! This to me gives a huge advantage to mainland starter areas after a player has already run through IOD once.
3. Isle of Dawn characters have less “early access” to powerful gear compared to other areas. With no brokers or mailboxes, regardless of their personal assests on other characters they cannot select highend adventureer gear right from the start nor choose the stats they may actually want to focus on. They cannot make multiple baby crafters that mail each other supplies and items, they cannot gear up with Gwartak or other “highend” starter gear, and the “boss drops” on IOD are actually in many ways less powerful than mainland counterparts, mostly seeming to drop jewelry, rings and earrings, rather than armor and weapons. A couple of exceptions there (darkwood bow) but again usually you can still find much better drops of those same items on the mainland and at the broker. They also won’t have access to some of the lower level crafting/diplomacy quest items that are actually more powerful than IOD counterparts, such as crafter quest gear, “Master” tools at level 5, diplomatic mounts and containers (they do get a small 10-slot diplo pounch, but not as good as the mainland one).

IOD is going to benefit mostly the new player with no resources and no knowledge of “optional” side content, rather than the established player. Which is exactly as it should be.

Crafting is an interesting area that I am still getting a feel for. However, the way crafting is set up in this game has always focused on steering young crafters directly into the NPC work order system rather than into the dynamic player economy. Very few new crafters in the regular game actually craft for fellow new adventurers — most of the current tier one/tier two goods crafted goods are actually made by a tiny minority of the crafter community, and aimed squarely at the affluent reroll “twink” market rather than the new player. Tailors are probably going to be in the very strongest position of a new player economy, both because IOD characters cannot acquire packs higher than 6 slots on their own, and because of the upcoming level requirements to backpacks that will prevent future twink characters starting out with 32-slot vielthread packs, and instead push a very large demand for 16-slot Jute bags.

Another aspect still making it hard to compare the “newworld” vs “old world” is that test server up until now still appears to have its regular “double experience” for adventurers. While some have argued that the new area was “too easy,” I did not find it so, especially for some classes (I suck as Psionicists and really struggled trying to roll a Psi on IOD). Once test server gets its boosted experience turned off, I’ll run a brand new set of characters through start to finish again.

My over all feeling is — Isle of Dawn gives a less frustrating start to first time players without access to resources like established players can start with. There is a much higher degree of direction and less “freedom”, but again it is more of in the way of additional new options for players rather than replacing the current content and areas. The gear they get is indeed quite good compared to other starter areas, but not overpowered compared to what established characters sometimes give their new rerolls. They lack access to things like powerful Gwartok and loot drop weapons on the broker, have less control over what stats to favor on their characters. In comparison, I had thought the new EQ2 “Kunark” starter areas pretty much “broke” the older adventuring/crafting content, and I think Vanguard’s development team successfully avoided some of the mistakes I feel were made in EQ2′s newer expansion starter areas. I think the current mainland starter areas will still be the favored approach for “secondary characters” because of the attaction they have always had: fresh content, additional lore, and greater choices and freedoms of the old world.

Isle of Dawn to me fits very well a specific need and area, rather than replacing and making irrelevant, any current existing content.

On the Southeast side of Dornal Coast, I was greeted by Denzea from the house of Paradigm. She was kind enough to show me Physician’s Gentlemens Club, which she decorated herself. She tells me that he’s a busy man and quite tall. 6 feet 5 inches to be exact! Mighty tall, indeed.

When we first entered, I walked into the receptionist area. There were benches for those who were waiting for their ride, or to get into the club. The Kojani chandelier really caught my eye as well. I could imagine the room illuminated by its light. She really did a great job at giving you a clean and simple entrance into the club.

Moving into the main area, there was a bar that fascinated me. It had a built in fish tank within it. Everything was made of Dusky Wood and looked great together, even the keg! I was amazed to see how tidy it was. I hear they have plenty of ale stocked away for the busy nights.

Parallel to the bar, I could see the entertainment room. Everything about this club was very high class. It was sleek and smug. A chic addition was how the furniture matched the bar. Fabulous!

Walking up the stairs of the club, you can see the buffet of hors d’oeurvres. I tasted a few and they were delicious.

She allowed me to see master Physician’s office area and room. His office was quite organized. In fact, a lot like the rest of his club. The furniture continued to match the rest of the house. Although, the chests really stuck out. I liked the stars on the side of them. I still wonder what he needed the axes for.

The bed room area was stunning. To the left was a fire place and hot tub. The room was large. The rugs looked warm and added a cozy feel to the room.

I decided to hop in the hot tub. I couldn’t resist. It was perfect! I really can’t wait to get one of these into my house.

His bed was massive! It made sense though, since he was a very tall gentlemen. I loved how the chairs matched the bed. Very stylish. I pondered what was in the chest next to the bed, but didn’t take a peek.

I hear that the place is booming with customers at night. Supposedly, there isn’t much to do on the island, so many an islander find themselves wandering towards the club.

I’d have to say this was an interesting journey, but worth it. I will have to come by when they get busy and take some pictures of the place in action. I was thinking of maybe getting some friends together. If you want to check the place out, get in touch with me. We’ll have to get a crew together. Perhaps, we can grab some ale while we are about.

But I did. I found it. I sailed for a few days and asked around, and there it was.

I was sent by some Elf to the cold North, not too far away, but high enough to make me nervous and to make me cold.

There was some good harvesting along the way, though. Firegrass prices were still stable, and I needed a break from making arrows all day. I might even get into crafting bags out of firegrass. If not, I have friends that could use the materials.

I could see the tower she described to me, but above it flew a massive bird. I wasn’t sure about this anymore, and after my drowning I wanted to be so careful in life anymore that I wanted to turn back right then. The elf had told me that she, and others, could now help bring me back from the brink of death if I needed. Also, she “attuned” me to the local magic, so that if I were to fall in battle, I would wake up later unharmed, for the most part.

It would still hurt, though.

And there were the gates. The inside of my armor was fogged and snow began to fall. Likely place to find half-giants.

I began to do a few errands for some local folk, but was taken aback by the sheer size of the place. I felt my stomach turning at the great heights, but pressed on. I was curious about some of the Monoliths from the area, and sneaking around dim-witted half giants proved to be relatively easy.  Not falling off a cliff would be a different story.

I am still trying to read them all. I tussled with a few giants, and barely survived. I stayed stealthy, and tried to hug the shadows. Frankly, I am so scared of that blackness I had felt after my drowning, that I almost couldn’t move. But at night, the breeze died down, and it was so quiet that I would have sworn that I could hear the snow falling. Each flake fell so slow that it almost froze there, in the air.
Even the half giants seemed mezmerized by it. All we could do was watch as the cold stone became softened by a blue-white layer of snow. I knew then that I had to go on in this world, that I could not go on scared of death. This world was too big, too fantastic. I wanted to see it all.

I will continue in thisarea for as long as I can. I want to understand the giant’s culture more. There are some humans back in town that seem to know much much more than me, so I will try to bring everything I learn back to them.

And I can only hope for more night in the land of the Giants.

Rikoo

I will start doing more for people, up until now it is free. I would like to charge something for future siggys/art, being that I am doing a lot nowadays.

If anyone is interested in this or character art, let me know.

Here’s some examples:

Some new ones:

Just a nice little set of lower level armor that I saw while in the bank. I am thinking of setting up a “photo booth” type area and telling players to come and take a pic. Have an alt sitting there in the same position and have them come by…anyway..here’s the armor:

If you have som ecool armor let us know..we’d love to show it off!

Beau

Quest: Pristine Feathers

Quest: Wings of the Majestic

Rewards

Here is a link to each quest offered in Mekalia. The rewards are listed as well!
Note: More information will be added to each of these as more information is known. If you have something to add, please do so! =D
Bulwar’s Quests
Golan’s Quests
Holitha’s Quest
Mathise’s Quest
Vorille’s Quest
Grahf’s Quests
Korine’s Quests
Mathir’s Quest
Dantern’s Quest

After you turn in the quests to Dantern and Mathise, Dantern will then give you another quest for the Gnomish Device, but all you have to do is talk to him. Then he will give you the Gnomish Device. This device turns you into a tiny creature. It is instant cast, lasts only 10 minutes [which is sad=( ], and it has an hour long refresh [which is sad too =(], but it’s kinda neat.

Hint:
-About a 10% chance to drop the quests items

Here is a link to each quest offered in Mekalia. The rewards are listed as well!
Golan’s Quests
Holitha’s Quest
Mathise’s Quest
Vorille’s Quest
Grahf’s Quests
Korine’s Quests
Mathir’s Quest