On the official Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes website, it was announced that In-Game support is currently in limited operation while Account and Technical Support are currently unavailable due to wildfires in the San Diego area. The development team just recently moved to the SOE San Diego office and it looks like they'll have more to worry about than just getting used to their new office space.

This means that any game or account problems that players may be experiencing will probably not be addressed until the fires have died down and all the systems are back in operation. If you still want to try to get in contact with a GM, you may have to wait some time as the announcement stated that response time may be delayed.

If you're experiencing problems and don't want to wait, you might want to try accessing the Knowledge Base or sending an e-mail to Sony since that line of communication is still functional. You can find more details via our Read Link.

 

Game Update #3 has just been released for Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The latest batch of changes updates Ksaravi Gulch, adds various new features, and fixes a few of the bugs in the game.

Among the major updates include a revamp of Ksaravi Gulch. It now has new quest lines, items and events, as well as a new Wyvern mount for players to get. The game also now has a Spam filter which should lessen the amount of unwanted messages from gold farmers and the like. Finally, players will be happy to know that the memory leak has already been fixed, so the game shouldn't be slowing down anymore after a few hours of playing.

All the changes implemented should make life easier for many Vanguard: Saga of Heroes players. If you're interested in finding out more, the entire Game Update 3 can be found by clicking on our Read Link.

Four servers have merged to form the new Xeth server in Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. While there were various bugs that popped up, the merge was handled pretty well.

This move marks the start of a series of server merges in the game. The next realms to be joined together are Targonor, Floredyn, Flamehammer, and Shidreth. These four will be now known as Seradon. Don't worry about your characters though since those who have been displaced by this move will be given one free server change.

Go ahead and try the new server. Xeth should have a larger population base making much easier to find people to trade and adventure with. Keep checking back here for more updates on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

  

Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has rolled out its second game update. This patch looks to polish up and smooth out a few of the more problematic areas of the game as well as make it more accessible.

One of the biggest changes done was level based diplomacy, which means that no longer will this be based on skill but on the character's level. The conversions are pretty simple, divide your diplomacy skill by ten, and that will be your level. Obviously, NPCs and items have already been updated to reflect these changes.

 Another major change is the addition of rest experience. Resting now increases the rate at which your character will gain experience from adventuring, crafting, and even diplomacy. To balance this out, once a player gains experience in a particular sphere, rest for that type of experience will be exhausted. The developers must have realized that players have other real world duties and can't afford to play eight hours every day.

Here are a few other changes that players might be interested in knowing:

• Quest Journal and Tracking – The layout of the quest journal window has been changed to allow more info to be shown at once, your list of quests is on the left, and the info for the quest you have selected is on the right, making for less scrolling.
• Looking for Group (LFG) Improvements – Including more functionality and a more intuitive process.

Following the Game Update, a server merge is scheduled to occur allowing more features to go live including:

• Guild Halls – Plots are now available for purchase and will operate in a similar manner as regular housing does, but will require new components and efforts from all three spheres of Vanguard.
• The Brotherhood System – Brotherhood is a method for players to gain experience for one another, even if some players are offline.

So go forth and try it out, since Update 2 is already live. Before you go, you might want to check out the three screenshots we have of the game below. If you want the full notes on the update, feel free to click on our read link to see it.

  

 

People who picked up Vanguard: Saga of Heroes would have probably heard about the plans for a server merger in the game. While some players lament this move by Sigil Games and Sony Online Entertainment, others have actually happily accepted this change. Why wouldn't they be, considering that you get to choose what server you'll be on (though PvE to PvP transfers will NOT be allowed) and players get one free server change when it's implemented.

The details regarding this merge have already been announced, there will be two U.S. PVE servers, one EU PVE server, and one U.S. PvP server. Thunderaxe, Woefeather, and Gulgrethor would merge into U.S. server A PVE while Targonor, Hilsbury, Flamehammer and Shidreth would merge into U.S. server B PVE. Tharridon, Varking, and Frengrot will form the PvP server and all the current Europe servers will form the EU server A. No names have been decided yet, a contest will be held to determine what their titles will be.

A problem with the server merging that they have yet to address are the guild names. This may or may not be a big problem depending on how many guilds share the same name. So far, they have said that this is still under discussion.

That said, more details were discussed regarding this and if you want more information, feel free to click on our read link. Be sure to keep checking back here for the latest updates on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Sigil Games and Sony's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes now has flying mounts for rent. This addition should allow users to traverse vast tracks of land more quickly. It gets much better than that, though. The price is a relatively low 20 silver and they have different mounts for each continent.

To get one, just seek out any of the Mount Masters near any rift way point. When you do get hold of a mount, it remains with you for five minutes. During that time, you can mount (not that way you perv!) and dismount as many times as you want. This is good news for newer players given that it's much simpler than the long quests that World of Warcraft has.

No word was given on if the timers still run when your character exits the game (we assume it does) or performing air raids on foes by dropping in on them and hacking like crazy even before you hit the ground. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

We've previously reported that Sony Online Entertainment has acquired Sigil Games, the company responsible for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Vanguard.

We've previously reported that SOE has reassured that they won't dumb down Vanguard for its fans. Well, here's a bit more from Sony regarding Vanguard. This time, the reassurance comes from Sony Online Entertainment's John Smedley.

Speaking to Shack news, John Smedley says that the reality of the situation when it comes to Sony's acquisition of Sigil Games is that they "stepped in at the last second when Sigil couldn't get funding."

He reassured that they see Vanguard as a very strong game, and that they'll do their best not to make a repeat of Star Wars Galaxies. Yes, Sony admits that they screwed up Star Wars Galaxies. Here's Smedley's words:

Absolutely, you know, performance improvements, bugs, definitely at the top of our list. We're not going to go in and make some broad-sweeping changes. We tried that with Star Wars Galaxies, we screwed it up, and we're not going to do it again. [laughs] It really is as simple as that. We try to learn from our mistakes. Maybe we're not always perfect, but in this particular case let's fix the things that are broken, not the things that aren't.

While Smedley is a bit mum on the specifics of their plans for the game, he does note that they have performance and bug issues on the top of their list. He also notes that they have a content plan that they're currently outlining, and that subscribers to the game should expect a lot of free updates.

As for an expansion pack, he hints that they have that in mind. However, he does say that they're "not even really discussing that part yet".

Feel free to head to the complete interview via our "read" link below.

So it has been settled that MMO video game title Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Sigil Games are now wholly-owned by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).

There have been reports that some employees were fired on the spot because their positions are quite redundant. The question now is what happens to those who were not fired? We know that former head Brad McQuaid was retained in an advisory role, how about the others?

Jeff Butler, on the other hand, is being transferred to SOE's San Diego office to lead a team of five developers and create a new prototype MMO. However, this project is not on a full scale basis and it's still uncertain if it will ever see the light of day.

Also, SOE Director of Corporate Communications and PR Courtney Simmons said that fans shouldn't be worried by the recent acquisition because SOE is going to take care of Vanguard. She explained,

People who purchased Vanguard knew what they were purchasing. There is no doubt that Vanguard is a hardcore game, for hardcore MMO fans and SOE is very much committed to that vision. They have no plans to dumb it down for a mass audience.

Well, this is actually the second time that it came to Sigil's rescue when it comes to Vanguard. Before all of these happened, Microsoft partnered itself with Sigil Games to published the product. However, that didn't push through and the reins were picked up by SOE May of last year.

That explains the "on-the-spot firings" reported earlier. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has acquired Vanguard developer and co-publisher Sigil Games. There are going to be job losses in this kind of full acquisition: in an interview with Next-Generation, Sony PR confirms the job cuts and notes that they are in the "redundant" positions such as customer service and marketing, as well as a consequence of the post-release slowdown at the developer.

So, what will happen is that Sigil becomes one of SOE's studios, retaining its Carlsbad offices, and continue to be in charge of Vanguard. Brad McQuaid, Sigil CEO and the game's executive producer, will continue his duties to Vanguard as Creative Director and serve as a consultant with SOE.

A small group of Sigil employees will move to SOE-San Diego to work on "a prototype for a new MMO." And finally, the Sigil brand itself will be dissolved, with SOE having absorbed practically everything else.

  

Sigil Games' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has been receiving a lot of attention with the lay-offs and changes that Sony has been planning for it. Still, life (or at least virtual life) goes on in the game, thus the Gamer Day celebration.

We have eight screenshots of the said event and all we can say is that it looks fun. While we have to say it looks fun, there's just something about the dragon that tugged our heartstrings. (Ok, I admit it, I like dragons.) They also took some pretty good pics of some characters with some pretty nasty-looking gear going on some instances.

All in all, the GamersDay looked to be a success. Still we can't help but think about what's happening behind the scenes between Sigil and Sony. Without further adieu, here are the screenshots. Enjoy.

  

More screens await after the jump!