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New House

538614788_Inactive — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:29:00 GMT

Last night we managed to scrape together the coin to finally purchase our first plot, and have begun the process of constructing a guild house on it. The plot is less then five minutes ride north along the shore from Konarthi Point, on the east coast of Thestra.

Go and check it out, there's not much there except the foundation and frame of the house but we hope that soon it'll grow to become a very tiny guildhall. with this home we can make ourselves a pseudo guild storage, and are located very near Konarthi point, one of the few outposts with all amenities plus it also is the location of the only known ship crafting station on Thestra.

The plot cost was fairly reasonable at 2.5 gold and a 25 silver a week upkeep. We've placed 6 weeks of upkeep onto the plot so the guild funds are drained fairly dry once again. Once we erect the home on the site the house itself will also have an upkeep of about 25 silver a week, meaning that the guild fund will need to receive a minimum of 50 silver a week for us to keep the site open.

I think this is an excellent start, but it's only the staging point of many more things to come in the future.

Construction of the house requires resources, the following is the construction checklist of items we've still to collect for the construction to happen:

150 - Thestran Sandstone Housing Brick
1 -       Thestran Soapstone Cornerstone
40 -     Standard Wood Panel
20 -     Standard Wood Housing Beam
6 -       Iron Fasteners
20 -     Thestran Firegrass Thatch

Tresic or Eridanis will likely have our Iron Fasteners built before long, and I am rushing to level to the point where I can create the sandstone bricks and soapstone cornerstone. But the wood and thatch remain for guild members to step up and help out.

See you in game!

A Quiet Week.

538614788_Inactive — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:42:00 GMT

It's been a quiet week in the guild with many, indeed most, members with real world obligations keeping them from the game. Priority should always rest with obligations made in the real world, and an understanding that Vanguard is simply a game is an unwritten requirement of being a member of The Eternal. However we look forward to seeing you all again this weekend and the upcoming week, it's been very quiet.

This week has been a week of crafting, with many members absent those who remained focused in on the crafting skills. Profit from these efforts come not just in coin but in new equipment which can be produced by the artisans of the guild. However our guild funds are slowly beginning to collect, and we are beginning to make progress towards our initial goal of a guild house. This house will serve several purposes besides being simply a gathering place. It will also serve as an excellent resource drop point, a sort of guild bank and inventory location.

A Server has been decided on for Ventrilo, I must however admit to delaying the move to rent a server till the server will see more use. The optimal pricing for Ventrilo servers are paid for on a yearly basis, however the initial server will likely be rented on a monthly basis, and I'd like to start it up when it'll be used regularly by the entire guild rather then the three or four of us who've been around regularly this past week.

The Host I've selected is Darkstar Communications (http://Darkstarllc.com) which seems to offer good prices, good customer service, and several features which make it a hosting leader in my opinion. However, since the actual purchase has yet to be made I'm still fielding opinions for alternative server hosts.

This weekend we hope to have a couple guild harvesting groups running, stocking up on resources is a necessity we will need sooner rather then later. As usual recruiting remains a priority as we continue to slowly grow, this will likely never change as attrition will slowly thin our ranks as time goes by. Thankfully our recruiting model means that our attrition rate isn't severe, and thus we will continue to recruit slowly and carefully. Recruitment ads are to be limited, and we are only going to use them to put the guild name out into the public eye, and offer it as a possible alternative to other guilds. We are not direct recruiting in game, nor will we accept caveats such as members only joining if they can have an officer position to begin.

We started our existence as a small family like guild, and no matter the size we grow to, in this game, previous games, or future games, I hope that we always feel part of something special, and not simply another cog in the machine.

In a blink of an eye, another week

538614788_Inactive — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:22:00 GMT

Time does indeed fly, it's already been a week since I last posted a news item. We're going into weekend two of Vanguard and so far things look good. I'm not saying that everything in the last week has been great, but in general I feel that the game has what it takes to keep subscribers happy.

Sigil and SOE have done a good job keeping the secondary market suppressed on Vanguard as well, there are of course sellers already, but the major market of Ebay doesn't have any listings for items or coin. Bugs have been removed, and a balance issues addressed, of course this has also introduced its fair share of new bugs and new unbalances. However they're industriously working on the game, and I think it's fair to give them kudos for what they've addressed and what they've managed in the last two weeks. However there remain many major issues that still need to be looked into, there's work to be done yet.

Still if one doesn't focus on the flaws and blemishes, Vanguard stands out as an excellent product on the whole, and I think with time the polish will come and the great ambition and vision of the game developers will pay off with a game which has the potential to outlast it's competition.

On the Guild side of the equation, recruitment continues as we start to get our bearings within the game. Our Guild recruiting creed of Quality over Quantity still remains our focus, however don't discount quantity completely, to do great things, one needs great people, but a great number of them certainly doesn't hurt. Prices in Vanguard for the major purchases such as guildhalls and ships will require group effort, and likely more then a dozen or so members could reasonably accomplish.

Guild Events are in planning and will start slowly being worked into the schedule shortly. Voice servers are in the works, a server host has been tenatively selected pending further research. Scheduling for routine events are being discussed, Monday and Friday Evenings still being the current placeholders.

Website participation events are also on line to begin shortly. We've got a host for screenshots and the information on how to send them to be hosted on the webpage is contained in the member forums.

We're also beginning to build the guild funds, you can see our current total in the Bank/Needs page. As of this writing we've got two moths locked in a duel to the death for a dessicated piece of mothball, more information in the forums. Also watch the needs listing, as we're going to be encouraging people to start making use of it, our guild artisans have managed to attained impressive growth in crafting skill and they'll need resources as time goes on.

Most importantly though, have fun, and lets have a good weekend.

Btw, there's a submit news button down there somewhere, and also comment buttons

First Weekend

538614788_Inactive — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:54:00 GMT

Today marks the beginning of the first weekend of open release on Vanguard. Tonight is when a lot of new players will be taking in the world, and seeing for themselves how Vanguard plays. It's an important time for Vanguard the game as well as for us players who have committed to playing the game. How Vanguard does this weekend may be an indicator for it's future success and how the media portrays the game. Gone are the days when any given year would only have a single major release, today's MMOs are directly competing with several concurrent releases. We have LotR, Warhammer, and Conan coming out this year, all major and highly polished title. World of Warcraft is also not about to lose it's dominance of the market and has released it's first expansion, The Burning Crusade. It's not a competition we need to get aggressive about though, the other games will draw those players who choose to play that style of gameplay. However Vanguard's financial success does directly affect us, the more players who purchase the game, and then subsequently stay long term subscribers will denote the resources which Sigil has to continue to expand and patch the world of Telon.

We owe it to ourselves to make it as easy a transition we can for any new players coming to the game. It's not simply altruism on our part, though that is an important part of The Eternal creed, but rather self interest, every player which we create a positive perception of the game in is another paying subscriber contributing to our own improved gameplay, and the life of Vanguard the game.

Unfortunately on the personal front this weekend also marks when I am moving homes, this means that I may be around Saturday for only a limited time, however I will not be present at all on Sunday and may not be able to log into the game until Tuesday at the latest. Missing out on opening weekend is disappointing since it is also the time when the most new players are available to try to recruit. I am hoping that all members will kick in to direct players to this website, and to try and answer any questions which are raised about the guild. If someone does show interest, spend some time getting to know them, and decided if you are sure you wish to sponsor them into the Guild. Each player has a part to play in the dynamics of the guild, so do not sponsor anyone you are not absolutely sure about.

Lets all have a good weekend!

Open Release!

538614788_Inactive — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:10:00 GMT

Today's Open release when the servers will hopefully be flooded with new players. This is an important time during any MMO's life, and for every guild. There will be a lot of new players out there, asking questions and requesting information. Hopefully everyone here in the guild will take the time to answer these questions and hopefully ease some of the growing pains every new player experiences when he first sets foot in a new MMO game.

Get out there, help out, get seen. Then, give the public our website address, and answer any questions or direct the questions to me. We won't be inducting people into the guild right there and then, members should instead go to look at the website and fill out the application. If you manage to talk to a potential recruit for a length of time, and find them a well spoken and intelligent person. Perhaps consider telling them you're sponsoring them. Be prepare to check your account on the website daily or more during the first weeks of the game, as I will double check if you've truly sponsored someone, or they're just writing your name in as the individual who did an ad for the guild.

Recruitment is vital for every guild. We need members, but we're not a chain gang, we only want members who will fit in, understand our goals and style, and will become an asset to the guild as a whole.

The Guild Forms

538614788_Inactive — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 12:08:00 GMT

Thanks to the assistance of some good people, The Eternal have been registered as a guild within the game. This of course gives us access to the Guild Management tools within Vanguard, and also ensures that another group won't come and take our name before us.

So thus we begin our journey into the world of Telon, for all those members who are still on the fence, we've also gotten a hold of some 20 10-day buddy passes which we will be glad to give out to those who ask for them, come and give the game a try.

It is important to note that the guild is going to start play on the Continent of Thestra, though I hope that eventually we will have world wide guild presence, it may in fact be a long while before we get to the other continents. Thus for new members coming to join us, when you build you character try to ensure you select a race which starts on Thestra:

Dwarf
Lesser-Giant
Halfling
High Elf
Thestran Human
Varanjar
Vulmane

You're of course welcome to play any of the other races if you wish, but it might be hard getting to the main body of the guild, actually it'll be very hard, and a rather long trek. Thus it is highly recommended that you play one of the above races.

Sadly, Thestra doesn't have the following classes available:

Inquisitor (Not Implemented yet, but no Thestran race has it as an option)
Monk
Disciple

So if you must play as one of these classes, you'll have to select one of the other two continents, Kojan would be my pick since the continent is much smaller, and it's closer to Thestra.

Remember also that certain races are Kill on Sight at certain cities, I'll try to get that information posted up on the forums as soon as possible, it may affect which race you wish to select to play.

First Day Impressions

538614788_Inactive — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:14:00 GMT

Vanguard opened it's doors today to all players who preordered the game. I hopped onto the game this morning at 10 EST to do a little playing, reserve some names for guild members coming in later on, and see how smooth the transition seems.

My impressions thus far are extremely favorable, this is by far the smoothest launch I've seen for an MMO, and I've played my fair share. Of course the true test will likely be Tuesday the 30th when the game opens it's servers to the general public, and tomorrow when many players who work regular hours get a chance to get into the game. However during the entire time I was online, some 6 hours, not a single chunk crashed on the Shidreth Server that I heard about, there was extremely minimal lag. In fact players were reporting that they were getting 5 to 10 more frames per second compared to when they played during beta, and I can attest for myself that the game ran much smoother then it did during the Open Beta.

The transfer of the game from Sigil's servers to SOE servers has thus gone extremely smoothly, I remained at a healthy 200 ping or less for pretty much the entire time, and only had to relog a single time, and that was likely just my videocard complaining about the many players in the starting zones.

The Game opened on time, it stayed up the entire time, and a lot of new quest content has been unlocked. In all, Sigil should be proud of the smooth launch of their new Epic MMO.

Congratulations! And thank you for inviting us into your world.

A Fresh Start

538614788_Inactive — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:14:00 GMT

Well here we go again, a fresh game, a fresh start. And yes, despite the travesty which I created for our previous website, I'm at it again, this time hoping that the tools which come with Guildportal.com's sites will allow me to at least create something which will not induce nausea to the computer literate....

Welcome, and please feel free to chime in and give a hand around here... Unless you really want to see your website populated by stick figures which would shame a 2 year old....

Kilderon
Guildmaster