Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Preview
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Sigil's view of the player characters so far in Vanguard is somewhat guarded. As the title indicates, it is a Saga of Heroes, so one would reasonably expect the characters to have heroic proportions, either in stature or mentality or both. For the actual races, the focus is on the starting continent of Thestra, which will feature PC races of: Thestra Human, Barbarian, Half-Giant, Halfling, High Elf, Dwarf, and Vulmane (a bi-pedal wolfman). Innate racial abilities will come into play and will be balanced. According to Sigil, there will be no ONE race that will out-anything another race on all counts. Classes, according to Sigil, will be based on high fantasy, with all the usual paraphernalia, but it is too early to go into details other than to assure players that the selection will be satisfying. I suspect the balancing question will take some time to resolve so as not to repeat the headaches that arose with the EQ balancing chaos.
Character creations will allow for manipulation and customization of features, clothes and items. Whatever is worn will affect the character's appearance, using the layer techniques that have been so effective in latter EQ, upcoming EQ2, and some of the other emerging games that are relying more on newer technology than what we have been used to in the past. In Vanguard, the detailing will be so precise that a person might spot a helm on someone and remark, "Oh, my, a Crown of the Iron Maiden. I've only heard of them before. This is the first one I've actually seen in person." Now THAT's detail!
