So I found this on amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vanguard-Saga-Heroes-PC-DVD/dp/B000MMW7O8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1271952741&sr=8-3Vanguard online for 2 quid. Think I'm gonna get it, since vanguard seems to have alot of decent ideas. Anyone else interested? Theres a free 14 day trial too for anyone interested. Though I think that's limited to a special trial island of some kind. Not sure if its worth giving the trial a go first, bearing in mind that you cant use the 30 days you get when you buy the game with your trial account (though you can just make a new station account and use the 30 days on that ith different characters).
http://vanguard.station.sony.com/isleofdawn/ Is the trial.
For those that dont know about vanguard heres a quick run down:
There are 19 races. Aside from the 6 human races there are also fantasy staples like dwarves (yay!) half giants, elves, wolf men, etc. There are also 15 classes ranging from the traditional warrior and druid, to more unique blood mage, drunken monk, psionicist and disciple.
Vanguard is also unique for having a sphere system, where each character has access to 4 spheres of advancement: adventurer, crafting, diplomacy and harvesting (which is a minor sphere). You can advance your character in each sphere independantly, get different sets of skills, abilities, equipment etc for each sphere and so on. Apparently you can play your character as a pure crafter and never go adventuring though I dont know exactly how viable that is. Apparently each continent has its own crafting style, so a basic sord from one continent will look different than a basic sword from the other two. You can also craft player and guild housing. And ships/boats.
Diplomacy is the last major sphere, and plays like a card game, where you cajole, badger, or intimidate people into doing what you want. I'm not sure to what end you would do this, but looks interesting anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_Saga_of_Heroes Heres the wiki if you wanna take a look.
So anyone else interested in this? Anyone played before and want to weigh in on what its like?