Arnie's Vanguard Preview
Here is where I am supposed to be giving you all a rather long description of the preview I had of Vanguard : Saga of Heroes. First lets take the time to get to know roughly who is making this game.
Sigil Games Online is a new game development company, with no titles released yet under its name to date. The company is lead by Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler; both have worked with each other before in similar environments. They recruited what seems to be the best of the best in the MMOG gaming industry. Names such as Keith Parkinson, Dave Gilbertson, Tom King, Steve Burke, Ryan Elam, Bill Fisher, and Cindy Bowens are but a few of the names you'd recognize. With this team setup, innovation and an MMOG Industry revolution is in the works... and it is.
Vanguard : Saga of Heroes is intended to be a 3rd Generation MMORPG, setting new standards to the gaming genre; Revolutionary graphics engine coupled with amazing communications tools and a team that can use today's technology. This is the first time in the MMOG gaming industry that there have been a gathering of Industry tycoons to release one title.
I was invited to visit the team again, to take another good look at the game. Many things have made their way into the game already, now what I can tell you and I can't is going be the hard part of it all.
The first thing we were shown that is new is a Terrain Hyper Detail system. Basically this toggled setting will greatly enhance the details on terrain. The players view is broken down into layers, the further the view, the less detail you see, which will save on system resources. As you get closer to objects, they alpha blend into a much more detailed texture. Now how many layers there are, I have no idea. However, I know that the closest layer to the player has been recently added, which gives so much detail you truly feel like you are walking on real ground, expecting to hear twigs snap under your feet and the ruffles of leaves. Now how they implemented this without bogging down their systems is beyond me, they've played a real balancing act between performance and system demands.
Then we were shown their shadow system. This is not new technology by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure did look cool. Advancing the time machine in-game we were able to see fast versions of how the shadows work. It is a very fluid motion that basically follows the light that the sun and moon emits. Nothing too spectacular, right? Well, being that these guys like to go beyond expectations I was quite surprised to see the following. Not only does the sunlight have effect on the player in terms of Shadowing, but it also plays with textures. You really see this change during night time, the bump mapping will reflect the moonlight and give it more of a nightly feel.
Also to boot, Situational shadow casting from objects other than the sun and the moon are also present. For example we were shown a model with a lantern, during the daytime, there were no shadows cast from the Lantern, however, as the night started to set in, the lantern started to cast shadow of the model. Now you think, "Cool!! This looks great!" Ahhhhh yes it does look awesome, but lets move the model around a bit. So as the model starts walking, the lantern follows the hand motion of the model and you can see its shadow following the lantern, which is just mind blowing. The light doesn't only light up the model and cast shadow on the ground, it also casts light on any nearby structure, causing them to have shadow, but to further improve upon that, the shadow of the figure and these structures actually stretched depending on where the light was. So here we have a very complete and complex shadow system.
We were also shown something worthy of Exclusivity... a new race that has yet to make it into any of the screenshots that have been released. In succession of height, we were shown a Half Giant, a human and then what seemed to be a child sized model! What was it? I hope it will be revealed soon, though it's obviously from one of the other starting continents.
Also as a little kicker to the races, they will turn their heads towards their targets. which also includes vertical neck movement for example when a Half-Giant looks at a shorter race.
How does Concept art make its way from the hands of the Artist to the 3D representation of it in a gaming space? We were shown the work of Christian Akesson during our tour; let me explain briefly what happens.
The Concept Art, after being approved, is sent to the 3D Modelers. They take the Concepts and render them into Maya. Pretty simple huh? Well. not really. We aren't talking about simple models. If you have seen any of the Concept Art you can see that there is nothing simplistic about them. For the first time in my gaming life that I have actually seen Concept Art replicated EXACTLY as it was drawn. We were shown a very tall structure that is to be put into Lothenland, It's height is sky piercing and it's structure is very refined. I can't wait to see peoples reactions when they come up to this beast of a tower. Most of it will probably be filtered by the bad word language filter.
We were then taken to the conference room where we sat down with Steve Burke and John Cappozi and started getting into the real nifty gritty game mechanics of Vanguard. Without going into too much detail because I know this will get the slashed off by the mighty Brad, I'll try to speak as vaguely as possible.
First of all, whatever you think, chances are they thought of it and probably took it 10 times further than you can imagine. That was my first mistake. I threw an Idea out on the table that I have been itching to see in an MMOG set, they basically told me that they had plans of something like that. but 10 times better than my idea and then into details as how this idea fit into the Game mechanics. I was floored at the cohesiveness of it all, his answers were very well structured so it was obvious that this subject was something very concrete.
We also talked about their Advanced Encounter System. Which I think many people will love. Without going into too much detail, in fear of giving too much "secret sauce" and getting this chopped out. Lets just say that encounters will not be 100% guess work, but rather have some marginal variances. Mob Intelligence will matter, and their reactions maybe different from one encounter to the next, one hour the mob may think differently than he next, or maybe one day to the next.
Combat will also have it's marginalities of differences, some thinking will have to be made on the players behalf during battle which may very well turn the tides in a battle. Bad decisions may also have dire consequences, or may not, depending on the mistake. You can also just hit attack and walk off and eat grubb or take a shower if you wish, But just remember that maybe your actions will allow others to react accordingly. Everyone has their piece of the cake when applying themselves more than simply pressing the attack button.
Also, just to tease you all a bit, who says that some mobs won't be watching for YOU to slip up and make a mistake? Maybe the tables have turned where you aren't attacking a mob, but where the mob is attacking you! How would you like that for a change?
Now there is much more to the Advanced Encounter System, but I will not go into it because this is major Sekret sauce.
Well this pretty much concludes my Preview, wish I could say more about what I had seen and talked about. Unfortunately, some stuff should stay a mystery till you try it out for yourself. I had a great time with these folks once again, and hopefully they will have me back more my next quarterly check on the game's state.
Keep up the great work guys! This is going to be a Kick Ass game.
