Randolph Gets The Boot: Vanguard

The ineffably and appositely named Boots Randolph's signature tune would have made a fine backing track as I tramped up the ramp to New Targonor over and over this morning. Did you ever notice how long that thing is? Or how confusing the entrances to Ahgram are, never mind the maze of streets once you get inside?

Faster than a speeding camel...

I was on foot (or camel) because Vanguard is off life-support. Long ago, when the Vanguard dev team was down to two men and a dog and the dog was only part-time, Randolph the Thematically Inappropriate Reindeer became untethered from Glorian,Telon's version of Christmas (don't worry, I had to look it up) and became flyable all year round. Well, who knew how long Vanguard had left? Glorian might never come again.

But it did. Against any sane odds Vanguard clung on and now here we are looking at a future filled with Glorians-to-Come. In preparation for the once-thought impossible conversion to Free To Play, the dev team has "quadrupled". I think that means there are four of them. Anyway, it's wonderful news for everyone.

Except Randolph.They took away his magic dust. Randolph's hooves don't sparkle any more. More importantly, he doesn't fly. Not on April Fools Day (no Telonian equivalent, as far as I know). Not at Easter (ditto). Next December, for one month only, he'll take to the air. Until then it's shanks's pony. Or any pony. Just don't try to ride into town on a reindeer because this one doesn't only not fly, he doesn't even move. I think that's a bug. Nice to see some things in Vanguard never change.

The road goes ever on

I'm not as annoyed about Randolph's demise as I was when I replied to Ardwulf first thing today. Randolph was never meant to last all year and he does look pretty daft. Still, I think that they could have waited until the purported level 20 flying mount quest is in before removing him. It seems petty to do it this way round.

Let's not focus on the negatives, though. Randolph wasn't the only contentious freebie niggling away at some veterans' sense of justice. His presence rankled but so did the absence of the Bracelet of Lucky Charms from any character made before the Isle of Dawn tutorial appeared. All the way to fifty it's a best-in-slot item that you get for completing the main quest-lines on the starter island. It upgrades automatically every ten levels so that you never outgrow it until you hit the post-50 end game, when you can go for the grown-up version, the Kamelot Crystal Cog.


If you made your character before the Isle of Dawn existed, or if you decided to start in one of Vanguard's many very excellent racial starting villages, this must-have was a can't-get. Until now. If you're paying and playing today, there's a Bracelet of Lucky Charms waiting for each and every one of your characters (although I think you might have to get to Level 10. My level 8 Goblin just got a blank look). Which is why a procession of rakis, orcs, goblins and even humans from Team Bhagpuss were trundling up that ramp.

Fox included for scale

Along with the Bracelet they all picked up a title (The Loyal) and a foot-high banshee companion pet called an Ancient of Telon. I also took the trouble to grab the massive 88-slot Gatherer's Sack Of Collectables for everyone who didn't already have one. Get it while you can, I say. It's meant to be for the Mekalian Extravaganza of Science and Technology, which is only supposed to last a few weeks. The MEST Fair's been running non-stop for several years but how much longer will that be allowed to go on?

Beware, gnomes. First they came for Randolph...

I Can See Your House From Here!

Virtual worlds allow us to do many things we'll never really do. Fight with dragons. Conjure demons. Swim lakes in full plate armor. Close to the top of most of our lists is flying.

Immersion? We don't need no steenkin' immersion!

Really, who wouldn't want to be able to fly? We dream about it all the time. Although in my dreams of flying I'm not usually sitting on a reindeer.

The problem is, our virtual worlds are also games. Allowing players to move with complete freedom in any direction isn't always a great idea. Why would you fight your way through a heavily defended  pass if you could just fly over the mountain and wave? In the jargon it risks trivializing content.

  In MMOs that have flying hardwired into the milieu it's not an issue. You couldn't really have a superhero game without flying.

Wallet? Check! Keys? Check! Jetpack? ...

 It's when flying gets bolted on to a game that's managed without it for years that the trouble can really start. I was very apprehensive about the introduction of flying to EQ2. I didn't really think it would work. Well I was wrong.

Evaporation? Wash your mouth out!

Not only does flying work wonderfully well in EQ2, in all but the oldest zones it works seamlessly. All those desert mountain peaks, islands in the sky and vast plains seem to have been made for free flight all along. I suppose it really shouldn't come as such a shock. We've been cadging lifts from NPC flight-masters for years, after all. EQ2 had griffon flights even in beta. The real surprise is that it's taken so long.

No fair! I wasn't ready!!

The way that new freedom of movement for our characters has been introduced is exemplary. If I was skeptical about flying I was positively scornful of the proposed Leapers and Gliders. Ludicrous! Ridiculous! Laughable! But they really work. It's a great progression, from a ground mount to one that makes prodigious jumps to hang-gliding on the back of a giant flying lizard. Culminating in the glory that is true free flight.


The different mounts don't even supersede each other. There are places easier to reach with a leap upwards than by flying around and down. The ground mounts are much faster on land than the flying ones. It actually makes some kind of sense!


I'm not saying I'm sold on flying in every virtual world. We don't have it in Rift yet and I'm not sure what it would add there. But I'm much more sanguine now about the prospect that all MMOs will inevitably go airborne in the end.