AION - New NCSoft Title

[Awake]

It's not like World of Warcraft. Read up about the abyss over at Aionsource.com. I can't say too much (Aion is under an NDA, although, they don't actively enforce it). What I can say is that future MMO's will be inspired by WoW, since it's a huge success. I don't see that as a bad thing, as long there's many other things as well. And Aion surely have a lot of things that WoW doesn't.

As for the bot issues, I can't speak for NCAustin, but, I know NCSoft Europe will do a great job with Aion. All I know is that NCAustin are looking for a Community Coordinator for their Aion team right now, while NCSoft Europe already have had one for a long time.. plus more.

It's obvious NCSoft have put a great deal of effort and polish into Aion. It's so incredibly polished in it's current state and it's still in Closed Beta. Hopefully I can release more information soon.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Bo Jackson

Let me start by saying that I am really looking forward to this game. But after watching those videos does anyone think this looks almost too much like WoW? The bird flight looked exactly like a gryphon, and the assasin gameplay looked exactly like a rogue in wow, the map looked exactly like the WoW minimap, and when that girl was running around the desert even the controls and camera angle and UI looked like WoW. That looked exactly like someone running thru the barrens or something. I don't play WoW anymore for a reason and I think this would be a shame if this game became a wow clone. I enjoyed playing wow but in the end I really didnt like how the end game unfolded, but leveling up it was an amazing game. Maybe the leveling up will be similar and the end game will be much better perhaps.

There could be many faults with this game, but the UI (which isn't WOW like it's just similar to almost any other game out there that uses the same mechanics), the animation, the camera control are just industry standards.

How would you do it differently? You want different camera movement? How is the minimap going to be any different? What changes would make you happy about it?

All deserts will look the same. Though their art style is not cartoony like WOW but its not EQ2 either.

[Grumpy Old Fart]

I sure hope Awake is correct. I also hope, based upon those comments, that NC-Soft Europe is the one to convert this game for the English-speaking world. I think I made it abundantly clear above what I think of the NC-Soft morons responsible for running/translating/etc. the NA version of Lineage 2.

A new PvE game with a long character development process and a good/hard end-game would be a wonderful change. Even though WoW BGs are addicting as hell, I'm sure the next time I do the "berserker rage" thing and un-install it will be the last time. And seeing how much Horde suck in Stormstrike and Alliance suck in Nightfall (my two main level 70 BattleGroups), that might be real soon now.

[Rathi04]

Aionsource partnered up with Curse gaming and had a bunch of info added about the game.

[Character]
The character cap has been raised to Level 34 for part 2 of the CBT. Here are the other changes.

Changes
1.HP/MP recovery rate while sitting down has been increased.
2.Death/Resurrection penalties are not applied if killed by an enemy PC, only if the character was killed by a NPC or monster that inflicted higher damage. (Level is not decreased if there are resurrection penalties already in effect.)
3.If 10 seconds have elapsed since taking off for flight, then it is possible to take off again immediately after landing. However, the flight duration and flying gauge recovery period remain unchanged.

[Rifts]
In many parts of Eltnen and Morheim, Rifts will open to allow players to enter the areas of the opposing race. These passages will remain open permanently during the CBT.

1. Rifts are distributed throughout Eltnen and Morheim.
2. Caution is advised when passing through a Rift, as it teleports the character to a random place in the opposing race’s area.
3. Players can return to their own area through a Rift located in the opposing race’s area.

[Abyss Points]
If you have already seen the Abyss Points and the Rank Information in the Character Status Window, then you are probably wondering how you can get these Abyss Points. Abyss Points are earned by entering the opposing race’s area via a Rift and then killing their characters or NPC guards. More ways of obtaining Abyss Points will be introduced in the future.

1. Abyss Points earned can be viewed in the Abyss Tab of the Character Status Window.
2. Abyss Points are not only earned, but can also be lost when killed by enemies in combat.
3. Defeating a higher ranked enemy yields more Abyss Points, and also less points are lost if defeated by a higher ranked enemy
4. If you are a member of a Legion, Legion Contribution Points will increase when you get Abyss Points.

[Stigma]
Stigma Quests can be obtained once Level 20 is reached. Through the use of Stigma Stones characters can change their abilities in a variety of ways, even obtaining additional abilities.

1. Completing the initial quest opens 2 Stigma slots, and subsequently an additional slot is opened every 10 levels.
2. You can obtain Stigma Stones through Stigma Quests once reaching Level 20.
3. There are different Stigma Stones for each class, and each stone’s Active/Passive skills can be checked.
4. Socketing a Stigma Stone uses Stigma Shards, which are obtained as quest rewards at Level 20
5. To obtain more Stigma Shards you must defeat the NPC guards of the opposing race.
6. Other than from quests, more Stigma Stones can be obtained from hunting monsters.

There is more at Aionsource.com, these are just the things I found the most interesting.

[Draegan]

Cool. I bet this game is bigger than WAR if it's not a crazy asian game and actually sane.

[Draegan]

closed beta 2 screenshots. - AionSource.com

Some screenshots from a korean beta tester.

[Draegan]

http://www

And a closed beta review from a tester, translated from korean.

[ModernDayDruid]

Game is jaw droppingly beautiful...

[wild_whiskey]

Originally Posted by Draegan

GuildCafe: Player Profiles, Free Guild Hosting for MMORPG, FPS, RTS, gaming clans

And a closed beta review from a tester, translated from korean.

That's a pretty well-written review. I feel like if the MMORPG gaming community in America came off as level-headed as this writer does, the development responses would be much more narrowed and effective instead of kneejerk overcompensating.

[Soldaris]

massive erection.

[Itzena]

Bump for the benefit of flv.
Hint, hint.

[flv]

This thread is retarded for the first pages, a newcomer watching it will close the explorer before going into the first open minded posts, I'd rather use the newest one. It wouldn't be the first game with 2 threads here, AoC used another just cause a guy was trolling, this one has 10 pages of mindless trolling, don't see why this thread should be kept alive.

[Affinity]

This game looks totally bad ass. I'll probably give it a whirl when it comes out. The only problem I can foresee running into is if this game comes out around the same time of WOTLK. I wont reactivate WOW until then, but I do plan on playing it just because.

On a side note, anyone else find these social icons amusing? I'm sure all kinds of captions come to mind...

[Pyros]

Not sure this will release at the same time as wow. Hard to say when blizzard will release wotlk at all, however I think they might try to deliver at the same time as WAR. Now, war might release first, simply because it's a new game, so eve if the game isn't perfectly polished, wtf they care, they'll have all the daoc retards flocking to it like it's the second coming of jesus. Blizzard however can't really release a shitty expansion on their perfectly polished game(at least I don't think they should, but wtf I care, it looks just like more of the same old stuff). But I think blizzard would consider warhammer as more of a direct opponent than Aion.

That and Aion doesn't look like it'll be ready before sometimes in early 2009. WoTLK should be ready before the end of the year, unless they slack heavily.