Inside Look at Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Update 3

Thom Terrazas, producer of Sony Online Entertainment’s Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has posted a letter to Vanguard players covering some of the changes being introduced in phases 2 and 3 of Update 3.

Terrazas expounds upon the Vision of Vanguard and hints at changes being made to fundamental game mechanics. The team is striving to optimize game mechanics and stability of the system.

One of the many changes players will see are character model improvements such as the removal of unnecessary bones for faster rendering of characters and making the character models sexier in general.

Players can also look forward to changes to the travel system to make grouping easier, increased loot drop percentages and a tweak to expedite the experience gain cycle to increase fun factor. There are also planned additions to combat tactics such as a Stun ability and the death penalty will now only cost players degradation of their items and the trauma of traveling back to the scene of their death.

What else is coming?

In no particular order, here are a number of topics we are evaluating for change and improvement:

• Additional player housing
• Improved map; map icons that distinctly show points of interest
• City and Dungeon maps
• Readily available information showing you where you can adventure at your level
• Factions in towns
• Consistency – Streamlining hand off quests that lead you in the proper direction for character progression
• Changing some buff spells to group based
• Combat Visual Timing – Improve the timing on combat responsiveness (when you click on an ability, the action performed is in sync)
• Player power curve versus NPC power curve
• The ease of obtaining bags (especially at lower levels)
• Additional high-end content – Raid and Non-Raid content
• Increasing the Quest Journal size – Also adding organizational tabs to distinguish Adventuring quests from Diplomacy and Crafting quests
• Regional banks – remove them!
• UI improvements
• Alternate form of currency – Special “coins” to redeem at certain Vendors for obtaining items such as adventuring, diplomacy cards, titles, potions, etc.
• Alternate advancement or specialization for your character

via Vanguard: Saga of Heroes