#1.
Vanguard isn't Horizons. But it so far has come the closest to that Horizons feel that I've taste-tested so far and in some ways it feels like what Horizons might of been if they were recreating it. On the beta forums parts of the game was compared by the playtesters to UO, EQ (both 1 & 2), WoW, DAoC, SWG, & Horizons, so Sigil definately gleaned some good ideas from many areas and crafted this game with their own view.
#2.
You can't be a dragon. You can't multiclass. But it does have a lot of different races you can be including 3 animal races and of course dwarves & elves. It also has 15 different adventure classes and all the ones I've tried so far have been interesting. And you're allowed 8 characters per acct. Oh! about underwater races. Not at this time, although I did read they do want to add them in the future. (Hey, at least for now we can swim)
#3.
It does have fairly detailed crafting, although again you can't multiclass in it and no, it is not race specific (Though dwarves & gnomes at least do get a little racial boost in Harvesting. I'll have to get the new racial benefits written down soon.). The 3 main catagories are: Blacksmith for metal items such as armor & weapons; Outfitter for leather and cloth items; & Artificer for stone items, wood items, and jewelry (Alchemy didn't quite make it in, but as far as I know they are still planning to add it later). To build houses, boats, & some advanced items you'll need stuff more than one of the classes. Also when you get more advanced you can specialize in subcatagories.
Harvesting has it's own catagories, but you're allowed to have up to 2. They are: Mining (metal), Quarrying (stone & gems), Lumberjacking (wood), Skinning (leather), & Reaping (fiber). Interesting note, if you harvest the same skill in a group (such as a bunch of folk grouping and then mining) you'll be able to gather more from a resource node and are more likely to get special resources.
Player made items are suppose to be usually better than what you can find in monster loot and there are ways to add extra benefits to an item while you are making it. Unlike Horizons you don't get a piece paper when you learn a recipe, so you won't fill up storage with them, but you also can't pass a copy onto another person. The fastest way to gain skill in crafting is to go to an NPC and get a work order from them. It is also a way to earn a little bit of coin.
If you don't want to hang in the various areas auction chats to sell your stuff, there are NPCs in most of the major communities that let you put your stuff up for sale on the local Exchange; similar to Horizons town connies except the list is for a whole continent, not just one town. When you make a purchase from the Exchange, it is sent to the mailbox and you recieve an in-game notice that you have mail. To get your purchase, just go to the nearest mailbox, click on it, it shows you a list of your in-game mail, and click on the letter that is sent from the Exchange. The mailbox system is also great for sending stuff from one of your characters to another or sending stuff from one continent to another. So far I'm sent items that my dwarf couldn't use to JJ's & Matt's gnomes and resources to Matt for his blacksmithing. P.S. It's great for leaving a msg for someone too!
#4.
There are many quests in this game, but you don't have to do them to raise your adventuring levels. I do recommend doing the beginning quests though, because it will teach you a lot about how to play Vanguard. (And I've found most of beginning scenarios fun & interesting). For almost each player race you have a seperate starting place and beginning scenario. A couple like the Wood Elves & the Raki do start in the same place. (See my Vanguard Races & Classes album to get the starting areas
http://picasaweb.google.com/UnicornsLady/VanguardSRacesClasses )
#5.
Housing is similar to Horizons. There are certain areas were plots have been designated and on those plots you get certain building choices of what can be built there. During the open beta only housing was set up as the choices, but there will also be merchant shops, and crafting shops. Most of the plots I found during open beta cost 1 gold or 2.5 gold, but there were a few huge plots that were costing 1000 platinum.
Unlike Horizons you do have to pay a weekly rent (I think Dark Ages of Camelot does this), and for the 2.5 gold plot it was 5 silver. The only outlandish rent I saw was on the 1000 platinum plots, the rent there was 1000 platinum a week. I figure they'll have to lower that rent in the long run or even the biggest of the guilds won't buy those plots. (Here's the link to the album with the plot pics, I just don't have them labled yet.
http://picasaweb.google.com/UnicornsLady/VanguardBetaPlots )
Also unlike Horizons, buildings have doors and we will be able to decorate the interiors of our homes, set who is even allowed in the building & when, and other advanced options. So! No more worries about someone ransacking our homes! (abit like UO houses)
#6.
Vanguard's world is big. Like modern Horizons big! Maybe even bigger. So to get around the world besides your own two feet there are horses that you can buy by the time you are 10th lvl. and to get from one continent to another or out to the various islands (in case you don't want to swim all that way & possibly get eaten) there are boats. There are ships that run regularly from certain ports to get you to the next continent over, but you can also build your own boat and take it wherever you wish.
When you are advanced enough, you can used fancier steeds, such as Unicorns, Camels, & Shadow Hounds (think Hellhound) and eventually when you're high enough winged steeds such as Griffons, Pegasi, Dragons, and JJ saw a Phoenix. (I got to fly on a Griffon one night during the open beta, you again can go anywhere with it (not a set route like a lot of the other games) and it felt quite a lot like the how the dragons fly in Horizons. Fun!)
#7.
Gnomes hate Dwarves, Elves hate Goblins & Orcs, and Goblins & Orcs hate just about everyone!! There are Factions in this game. Which means for those of us not on the PvP server certain communities will have NPCs that might kill your character on sight in the beginning until you kill enough of their enemy that they decide you're ok. The communities that will kill a certain race on sight I have also listed with the pictures of the races.
#8.
Pets! Besides your steed, so far I've found that several of the beginning quests will give you a temporary pet. As a gnome I got this huge hawklike creature
http://picasaweb.google.com/UnicornsLady/VanguardBetaGnomeCapitalMekalia/photo#5023385031152466626 and as a dwarf a got a huge (cute in my personal opinion) spider. Also if you pick Necromancer, you learn fairly earlier how to call up an undead pet called an Abomination to help protect you and attack your enemies for you. I don't know if there are more pets since I haven't gotten very far yet.
#9.
If you wish to play together immediately I suggest you play the same race. Unlike Horizons everyone does not start at the same place. Most of the races have different starting spots and they are spred out on 3 large continents (one of the continents is an archipelago). Some of the few races that start together or almost together are: Halflings & Thestran humans (start in nearby communities); Lesser Giants & Varanjar (start in same community); Half Elves & Kojani humans (start in same community); Wood Elves & Raki (start in same community); Orcs & Goblins (start on same island, maybe same community); Qaliathari humans & Mordebi humans (start in nearby communities); Kurashasa & Varanthari (start in nearby communities). Hopefully I'll get some good info in the near future where to go to get to the ports that have the ships that will take you from one continent to another.
AND! Don't forget Factions!! People already have been accidently killed when they didn't know that the town they were meeting friends at was Kill On Sight for their race. So if you do plan on making different races, plan on not meeting up immediately and meet somewhere safe for all of you.
#10.
Just like Horizons was Vanguard requires a beefy computer. My computer is barely cutting it, I stand still alot and I'm at the lowest settings. JJ's & Matt's computer that are only a year old are doing fine though.
Here is Sigil's recommended specs for a computer to run Vanguard (it should of been heavily recommended!):
Windows 2000/Windows XP/Vista
3.0Ghz Intel processor or 2400+ or higher AMD processor
2GB of RAM.
100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer. Vertex and Pixel Shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 256MB of texture memory.
100% DirectX compatible sound card
Broadband Internet connection
16x speed DVD-ROM
20 GB of hard drive space
Ack! This turned out huge! And I haven't even started telling you about Diplomacy! Sorry, but believe it or not, I'm just skimming the surface. Vanguard is even more detailed than Horizons and even after a whole month of playing entensely the 3 of us have a lot more to learn of the basics. But it has been a whole of of fun so far!!!!