The dust has not yet settled but already Sony's PR department has begun to prepare the way for major changes to Vanguard. The Director of Global Community Relations for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) released a statement with this key heads up:
“When people become attached to an idea it’s actually worse than becoming attached to an IP,” said Crosby. “People might get upset about red squirrels versus grey squirrels in a game like Lord of the Rings Online, but they’re usually willing to be somewhat forgiving. But when people are attached to a vision, they’re a lot less forgiving. It’s the ideas and not so much the content they’re attached to, and when those ideas change, that’s very upsetting.”
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/7846
What "very upsetting" changes should we expect? I have some thoughts:
1. While they wont remove the death penalty completely, I expect it to be liberalized. I wouldn't be surprised to see changes made along the lines of what has been previously floated on the test server. I expect the death penalty with include either losing your gear or a (mild) xp loss but not both.
2. Crafting will be streamlined and crafting xp will be increased. The streamlining might take the form of "one click" construction for recipees that are so low that you'd be assured of an "A" if you went through the whole process. The xp might be increased by allowing xp for non-work order objects. If leveling crafting becomes very quick they may also reduce the effectiveness of the produced objects.
3. As a way of improving performance and streamlining the engine we will see some forms of instancing. This will be done to reduce the number of textures that need to be loaded at a fiven time. I'm sure they will try to make the the instanced areas subtle by making them parts of the world that are really only accessible from one location -- like dungeons.
4. They will try to take the strain off the chunk servers by changing the topography so that chunks are only accessable through limited choke points. This will make it easier to pre-load chunk information and reduce the chunk lag.
5. They will formally end the affiliate site program. Before the end of the week, they will open an official site to help manage the flow of information about the changes. they will continue to maintain relationships with the fan sites for promotional reasons.
6. You will stop hearing projections of ship to ship combat and RTS-like village building from Brad McQuaid or anyone at Sony. The previews that you hear will be more restrained and plausible -- like the introduction of raids.
Sony: "Change is coming to Vanguard"
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