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by **Eliot Lefebvre** Oct 9th 2009 at 11:00AM

Just like the tile says, there's a way you can help low-level players in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes -- become a mentor. With the most recent patch, Vanguard has added a mentoring system to help players of differing levels adventure and interact in a meaningful fashion.

Similar to most mentoring systems, the high-level player's abilities and stats are capped at an appropriate level for the mentored player, restricting them to abilities they would have been able to use at the lower level. In all other ways, however, they'll function as a perfectly normal player, including gaining experience at the rate of a lower-level character. As a result, the tool is both an excellent way for dedicated players to introduce their friend to the game and a method for them to earn a little extra experience in the process. The mentoring system is fully usable if your friends are in the free trial area as well, which is one of the best ways to encourage a player to stick with the game over a longer period.

The patch also included the usual plethora of bugfixes and minor balance tweaks that have come to be standard fare for the MMO industry. Take a look at the full patch notes for the details.

[ via WarCry ]

by **Krystalle Voecks** Sep 24th 2009 at 2:00PM

We don't often get to look into the lands of Telon, so we're glad when one of the adventurers who spends time in Vanguard decides to drop us a line. Today's One Shots comes to us courtesy of one of our regular MMO world travelers, Johanis, who spent some time in Vanguard not too long ago and sent in this image of a strange meeting that took place. He writes in: Urlay, my low level Necromancer in Vanguard was wandering around the area near Khal when she came across a rather large friend...thankfully he was friendly and actually offered her a quest. That's good to know, because we don't happen to see a lamp handy to put that big fellow into.

One Shots cannot live on a diet of our screenshots alone! We need reader submissions to keep the worlds we check out interesting and varied. So the next time you're out spending time in your favorite MMO, why not grab a screenshot and tell us a bit about your adventures there? It's easy and fun. All you have to do is email an image to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game it's from, and a note letting us know what's going on. (Also, please make sure your image is at least 1024px across and has as few UI elements as is possible.) We'll post it out here and let everyone share in your tale!

Gallery: One Shots

by **Krystalle Voecks** Sep 12th 2009 at 2:00PM

Sure, you can get all manner of mounts, but in very few games can you get a boat of your own. Today's One Shots shows off a lovely shot of several ships, just ready for passengers to head off for adventure in Vanguard. Toad, who sent this in, describes the scene: Toad along with his friend Aenedor take a break from hunting elementals and stand together admiring the Tall Ships moored in the Sea of Kojan, part of the Kojani Archipilago. Player owned galleons were a relatively recent addition to Vanguard and are still quite rare so it was very cool to see these three along with two smaller vessels moored amongst the islands of Kojan.

Does your favorite MMO boast a cool-looking way to get around? If so, we'd love to see it. Just grab a screenshot and email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it along to us.

Gallery: One Shots

by **James Egan** Aug 30th 2009 at 8:00PM

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes doesn't get as much attention as other SOE games, but it clearly has a dedicated community of players. It's also a game that has seen a significant amount of change since it launched, and the developers are continually improving Vanguard through player input.

The latest announcement from the Vanguard developers is about the new weapon sets they're going to introduce, specifically for the Druid, Necro, and Sorcerer classes. They write: "You might have thought that we forgot about 3 certain classes when we were featuring some of the new weaponry. Never fear, this week we were able to wrangle the final 3 weapon sets up for everyone to check out in all their glory."

by **William Dobson** Jun 30th 2009 at 11:00AM

When most people think of Vanguard, they usually remember that the game had an extremely rocky launch period. A lot of things were changed and fixed after the game was sold to Sony Online Entertainment. The original developer Sigil Games Online (headed by former SOE superstar Brad McQuaid) was also sold in this deal. McQuaid's blog welcome-page mentions that he's been on a break from the games industry since the above events in 2007, but "as of late, he's starting to get that itch again...". It was probably this itch that prompted him to start a multi-part post-mortem of his time with Vanguard at his blog.

McQuaid said that he will be addressing topics in chronological order, and part one deals with what he calls the first big mistake that Sigil made: get everything in writing.

"The first mistake that would have a serious impact later in development was the verbal agreement with Microsoft that Vanguard was to be a first rate, AAA title."

It sounds like a change at Microsoft led to a completely different level of support for Vanguard; less funding, less time, and overall a different outlook on what Vanguard was to become.

"So the moral of the story is one that should have occurred to us: get everything in writing, get it into the contract, because even a company like Microsoft can suddenly undergo significant changes to its management and teams. And when those changes do happen, you might as well be dealing with a new company – anything and everything can change, and change quickly."

Part two of the post-mortem will be dealing with the good and bad aspects of creating an all-star team, and we'll bring it to your attention when it surfaces.

by **Seraphina Brennan** Jun 29th 2009 at 8:00PM

So the beta launcher is finally un-betaed! Sony has officially pushed the Station Launcher into the "final version," dropping in voice chat, simplified menus, faster servers for downloads, and the ability to run the launcher without administrative rights as well.

The fun stuff, however, is really contained within the voice update. This new voice, dubbed "station voice," lets you communicate with friends from within the game or outside of the game. Creating a room from outside of the game is done with your in-game character, letting people who are on the station launcher join you, or people inside of the game join your room from the inside, no launcher required.

Plus, the other new features like the upgraded servers that will give more downstream bandwidth for game updates, are certainly nothing to sneeze at.

This doesn't mean that Sony is done with upgrading and changing the launcher, as they've already pledged to continue taking user feedback and pushing that into their product to constantly make a better launcher.

For the full patch notes, check them out on the EverQuest forums, located in this thread.

by **Krystalle Voecks** Jun 29th 2009 at 2:00PM

We've seen various pop culture references in our various different MMOs, but this is perhaps the first time we can honestly say that we've seen a star lookalike in terms of the character's face in a game. Sure enough, our keen-eyed regular contributor, Johanis, was adventuring in Vanguard, and happened to notice that this character resembled a well-known face, so he sent this screenshot to us. He writes: Here is Urlay (doing her best Vanessa Williams impression) adventuring in Vanguard. Though she is a very low level Necromancer, I feel she is destined for greatness. Wish her luck!!!

Have you spotted a character that looks like, or is named for, someone from pop culture? We love those pop culture references in MMOs. If you find some, send those in to us at oneshots [AT] massively [DOT] com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll post it out here and give you the nod for spotting it and sending it in.

Gallery: One Shots

by **William Dobson** Jun 22nd 2009 at 3:00PM

Not being able to attend this year's SOE Fan Faire doesn't mean that you'll miss out entirely. Aside from the biggest news that we'll undoubtedly bring to your attention right here on Massively, you will actually be able to watch SOE CEO John Smedley's community address streaming live on Friday the 26th of June, at 7:00PM PDT. Although visiting the link for the event right now seems to prompt us to register, Amnerys' post on the EverQuest forums says that this isn't necessary: "You don't need to register or have a password! Just visit the page and view!"

This will be the third year of SOE's annual community addresses. To get an idea of what to expect this Friday, you can check out the presentation from Fan Faire 2007 on Youtube. The link to keep bookmarked for the live event is this one right here.

by **Krystalle Voecks** Jun 17th 2009 at 2:00PM

With the blog of Brad McQuaid springing back online after a long hiatus, many folks are once again talking about Vanguard - for better or worse. Of course, while McQuaid has been offline racing dirtbikes, the folks at SOE have been hard at work improving the game leaps and bounds from those early days. Today's One Shots shows off a dreary, stormy night, and a poor, sodden wanderer - CaptainZoli - who decided it might be better outside than inside. CaptainZoli writes: The thirty day trial lured me back to Vanguard, and here is my character, Lanidia, taking part in said return, standing outside the Asylum in preparation for a dark and stormy night of adventuring.

One Shots is in need of more screenshots, so if you've taken some time while out adventuring, why not gather them up for us and send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com? Add your name, the game it's from - guild, server and description welcome too - and you're set. Couldn't be easier, eh?

Gallery: One Shots

by **Shawn Schuster** Jun 16th 2009 at 12:00PM

Remember Brad McQuaid? As one of EverQuest's original creators and eventually the man behind Vanguard, Brad is a legend in the gaming industry. Sure, his reputation spiraled downward after his time with Sigil and Vanguard, but he has now come out of hiding to tell us all that we should play Vanguard!

Wait, what? Is he now working for SOE again? Well, no one knows if that's the case or not, but the fact is, Brad seems quite keen on getting back into the industry. After taking a few years off to "ride street bikes and dirt bikes, as well as drive sports cars, as often as possible", Brad wants to start creating games again. So if you're a fan of Brad's work with EverQuest, Vanguard (or even WarWizard), head on over to his newly-revamped blog and show him some support.

[EDIT: Some are speculating that this is an impostor. You be the judge.]

[Via Common Sense Gamer]

by **William Dobson** Jun 5th 2009 at 8:00PM

An upcoming patch to Vanguard has been designated as the "Player's Choice" update, and recently the players decided that it should be focused on bug-squashing. The next phase of this process is now underway, and players can submit their choice of which bugs to fix at this thread. There are a few guidelines for people planning to put in their two cents, the most important being that each person can only submit one bug, and they should do their best to avoid repeating previously suggested ones.

The thread will be open for two weeks, and after that time, a poll will be created for forum-goers to vote on Vanguard's worst bugs so that they can be targeted with priority. When one player asked why the devs wouldn't simply work off the bugs submitted by players with the "/bug" command, Salim "Silius" Grant replied, "This way we are hoping to get the most high profile bugs that the players want fixed right away. Digging through /bug does not tell us just how important or how many people are seeing this problem." If the whole thing goes to plan, a bunch of really irritating bugs should be eradicated when the update rolls out.

by **William Dobson** Jun 1st 2009 at 11:00AM

E3 may be the show on everyone's minds right now, but SOE is doing what they can to make sure that people don't forget that they have their very own event later in the month. They've put up a preview of some of the digital schwag that attendees will receive for coming to SOE Fan Faire 2009, and the new rule this year is that you'lll be able to get one in-game item for each game you have an active account for -- no need to choose just one anymore.

The preview has pictures and some details about the items, and there's one in particular that will probably get the most attention: the Dianoga Dumpster for Star Wars Galaxies players will spit up collection items if fed once a week for a month, and besides that, it just looks kinda cool. Other neat items include a statue of Firiona Vie for EverQuest II, and a flying dragon mount for Vanguard, although, that one might divide people due to its bright pinkish-purple color. Registration for the fan faire is still open, so if you simply must have a pink dragon, now's the time to book.

by **William Dobson** May 27th 2009 at 12:30PM

Thom Terrazas just recently replaced Clint Worley as the producer for EverQuest, and we were lucky enough to get the chance to speak to him about the move. Among other things, we found out what's in store for the current playerbase in the future, why EverQuest newbies should try the game, and learned that although the 51/50 server type won the latest poll, we should hold out hope for other new types too -- maybe even a "Classic" server. We snuck in a few questions about Vanguard and PlanetSide as well. To get Thom's take on these things and more, click through and read the full interview.