I fired up the Launcher and began the process of patching my installation. During the download I took time to read through the major Game Updates and changes, each one making a point to note fixes to crash bugs and performance. Once I was patched I entered the world of Tellon for the first time in nearly a year. Much to my surprise my characters that I created were still there, as was a heap load of /claim rewards for my account (18 months of time accrued). Now it was time for me to challenge Mr. Terrazas and see if indeed the changes were real and noticeable.

Allow me to give you a quick back story before I dive into my findings. I participated in the last two betas for Vanguard prior to the official launch. On launch day, with my collector’s edition in hand, I added my serial number to my account and began the formal journey into the game. Sadly for me (and many others) the final product that was released to the public was anything but final: numerous crashes, performance hitches, broken quests, faulty textures, and overall sluggish game play plagued the launch of Vanguard. It is important to note that my computer is no slouch but it is also not a Cray. My system specs at the time of the launch (and today for that matter) are:

• Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
• 2 GB RAM PC3200
• 400GB HDD (2x 200GB) on RAID0
• Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB on PCI-e
• Creative Audigy 2
• Windows Vista Ultimate

Again certainly not a super computer but very much able to handle most any game I’ve thrown at it. At launch Vanguard suffered from sub-standard frame rates on my computer. This was especially noticed whenever I was traveling through an Outpost or if I attempted to group. I also had issues with crashing whenever I traveled through a “chunk” (a.k.a. loaded zone area) on the map, sometimes even falling through the world to my death during the chunking (switching between the current area into the newly loaded area). Frequently I’d hitch in combat situations causing many deaths from simply not being able to participate in the battle. I lasted maybe 2 months at most after launch before I switched back to Everquest 2 and said goodbye to Vanguard. This was sad for me as I was very much excited for Vanguard and what it promised.

Flash forward to today: Skeptical though I was after logging in for the first time I found that the performance of the engine was significantly improved. I found my level 14 Cleric in Three Rivers Village, right where I left him all those months ago. I will admit I scoffed at first as the world around me loaded in pieces at a time. My initial frame rates hovered under 10 fps for the first 20 seconds or so. In the back of my head all I could think was “no changes here.” However once I actually began to move around the area things picked up quickly. I found that while still somewhat lower than I’m used to in other games the FPS were indeed greatly improved overall. In open areas I achieved an average of 30 FPS. Indoor areas (inside of cabins, houses, even the castle in Leth Nurae) I found my FPS pushing over 40. The only low points came from Outposts, but even these were acceptable given the level of detail the engine is designed to deliver.

Combat hitching seems to be eliminated. I opened my quest log and started running a handful of quests to see how the engine would fair in combat. Indeed Thom had it right when he said it was night and day from the launch. Even more to my delight is that again the FPS during combat maintained a steady rate, even with multiple targets pummeling me.

The major concern I had was the chunking. Now I must say that while I am pleased with the changes made here I believe that the Vanguard team does need to focus on continuing to make the process seamless. I intentionally passed through chunks aimlessly just to see how well it would perform and if it would cause a crash. I experienced some hitching during the chunking, sometimes up to 10 seconds of hanging, but nowhere near what I experienced at launch. Never once did I crash or fall through the world. I never passed through a chunk only to be surprised by an already engaged target forcing my death rattle. Though still not quite seamless the chunking process is very much stable and smooth enough to satisfy any player that quit the game shortly after launch because of the aforementioned issues.

I wish I had more time during my 3 days of play to see more of the game, but alas the real world always takes priority over video games. However I can honestly say that Thom Terrazas spoke the truth during his interview on Allakhazam. The performance optimization that the team has been working on has greatly improved the game play experience. If the development team continues to improve upon the changes they’ve already made I believe that Vanguard could stand a strong chance of being a late life surprise to the MMORPG market. However it will take more than just technical improvements to sway those who were lost along the way and encourage new players.

SOE and the Vanguard team need to finish the “trial isle” that has been rumored for months on end and actually release it to the world along with an actual ad campaign. Also an invitation should be extended to former Vanguard players, granting free access to former account owners so that they too can see what has changed. And personally I’d like to see an expansion to the game sometime in the next year or so. After all the current level 50 cap will prove to be standard fare for any MMO player.

Overall I have to commend SOE and the Vanguard team for continuing to support and improve a game that many in the industry assumed left for dead a long time ago. With continued effort in both the technical and marketing ends Vanguard could indeed live a second, more successful life. I encourage anyone who left the game early on to take another look… you’ll be pleasantly surprised.