Cheats-Area.com

   This isn't the first time that Sigil Games' MMORPG is about to enter a beta-testing phase. The first one, very limited, began back in August 2005, and since then Vanguard's fantasy world continued to welcome increasingly more inhabitants on probation: phase 2 began in October 2005, pahse 3 in Summer 2006, and now it looks like the developers are readying to enter not only a new year, but also a new beta pahse.

   As usual, FilePlanet is the one inviting us to sign-up for the Vanguard beta, whose game client will have 6.6 GB! Even though the invitations for the beta will only be sent out in January 2007, the client itself can already be downloaded now, but only if you're a FilePlanet subscriber.

   According to the planning listed on the Vanguard website, there are still another couple of beta phases left until the final launch, estimated to take place in the first quarter of 2007. Here's what's left to be done in the meantime:
"Phase 4: Determine the target number of people in a single shard, preferably arriving with a number in between over populated and too sparsely populated. Add Kojan, completing the world. Finalize itemization, character advancemet rates, tweaks to Crafting, Harvesting & Diplomacy.

Phase 5: The shortest phase. Bring in a LOT of people (I think EQ had 25,000+). Have multiple shards online and make sure there are no issues there. Test billing, login, etc. Do everything we can to make sure nothing catastrophic happens when we turn on the game for real. Perhaps open some of the high end content briefly, but still being careful to keep mystery in the game."    Seems to me they still have a ways to go, so better not get impatient until next year. Not much longer now.