Aion - The Tower of Eternity

[Draegan]

Take a look at the Abyss video someone posted somewhere. It's pretty cool.

[woqqqa]

Originally Posted by Draegan

The previous two comparisons make no sense what so ever other than they are both Diku-MMOGs.

What would you compare it to, if anything?

[Seig]

Well if you remove the flying aspect Aion is just a re-skinned Lineage 2 with a lot more content and modern MMo features.

[Draegan]

I would compare it to a cross between WOW and Lineage with a little bit of Guild Wars thrown in?

It's a standard Diku-MMOG. You have classes, levels, and quests. Combat and class setup isn't anything revolutionary, and pretty much the same as WOW. It's responsive, fluid and very much well done.

I don't know how you can compare it to EQ2 with a shit ton of classes and a shitty combat/skill design. I don't even get the Runes of Magic comparison since it's basically a WOW clone who has a unique feature of dual classing (which is fun).

[Pyros]

Don't tell anyone on Aionsource, but Aion is basically a korean version of WoW. By korean version, I mean it has the usual korean touches:
1) slow xp curve with grinding
2) tradeskills with failures/possibility to destroy your previous upgrades, +1-+10 items, heavy reliance on food/potion system
3) PvP centric but not "carebear" battlegrounds based PvP, just your basic HAI I GANKZ U PvP

Now that might sound negative, but I think the style has its charm, especially when it wow made, so it's not as gayish retarded as a pure korean mmo. But other than that, it's just a new reskinned wow. Which unless you're an Aionsource tard, is a GOOD thing since wow has the most fluid and best combat system ever which lends itself very well to good PvP, and has some very user friendly features instead of being a clunky pos where your arch enemy is the UI or the loading bars.

[Draegan]

^^

Yes, though the grind isn't really there in the first half of levels but is there at the end. Some of the 1.3 changes look pretty interesting in fixing some of the issues though.. which are just adding content rather than straight grinding sessions.

[Vehn]

just play the chinese version and get the english patch for it... 5 dollars will buy you 60 hours + 5 free hours and their's no level limit!

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by Vehn

just play the chinese version and get the english patch for it... 5 dollars will buy you 60 hours + 5 free hours and their's no level limit!

It's also laggy as shit, made me quit before lvl 10 during beta.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Pyros

It's also laggy as shit, made me quit before lvl 10 during beta.

Yeah that is the reason I didn't play at Chinese launch.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Draegan

The previous two comparisons make no sense what so ever other than they are both Diku-MMOGs.

I was talking about the game from 1-10 which he won't be able to do. The UI's have a very similar setup and art to them. The Korean game world is much prettier then the EQ2 one but for the most part they play extremely similarly at that low level.

For what it's worth by the way you can still access the Ellyos or whatever server and create new characters there if you want to play the 1~20 game. They didn't char wipe or anything.

[Pyros]

They said Elyos is capped at 10 too, and if you have a char higher than 10 from the previous weekend, you won't be able to finish your current level.

P.S.: Japanese voices are pretty nice, if you watch anime stuff. Japanese Voices!

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

I was talking about the game from 1-10 which he won't be able to do. The UI's have a very similar setup and art to them. The Korean game world is much prettier then the EQ2 one but for the most part they play extremely similarly at that low level.

What do you mean by playing extremely similar? EQ2, WOW, LOTRO, AION all play the same at levels 1-10.

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by Draegan

What do you mean by playing extremely similar? EQ2, WOW, LOTRO, AION all play the same at levels 1-10.

Not necessarily.

Here's my take:
EQ2, you first choose between 24classes, after which you start leveling with 1skill, however you get 1 to 2 skill every level until... well until like 40 or whatever, you might get new versions of existing skills too sometimes, but often with a new one. In 1-10, chances are you get 10 to 14new abilities. Risk of death is null, penalty is null.

Lotro you choose between 9classes, and start with a couple of abilities. Again you gain new stuff every level. You end up at 10 with around 12 abilities. Risk of death is null, penalty is null.

Wow you choose between 10classes, and start with a couple of abilities. You get 1 to 2 new abilities every 2 levels, you usually end up with 6-8abilities by 10. Risk of death is null, penalty is null.

Aion you choose between 4 classes, and start with one ability. You gain 1 to 2 abilities every 2 levels, usually end up with 5-6 unique abilities(more if you count combo follow ups). Risk of death is decently high, and death has drawbacks starting at 6(xp loss).

So it's in fact different, but not the right way, and it's what makes this beta so retarded. You catch up on abilities between 10 and 20 when you actually choose your REAL class, which is why you have jackshit until then pretty much. Also dieing is very easy since basically adds will rape a scout or a mage(unless he's a decent player and can kite, and the root isn't resisted), and depending on your life/mana when it starts and the lvl diff, can kill warriors and priests too. It gets better after 20 for most classes, that's why it's so bad to showcase the game on these levels in my opinion(1-25 is a very good span however).

[Zehn - Vhex]

I meant exactly what I said. The default UI is laid out almost exactly like EQ2 (granted it's been awhile since I played). The graphics are very similar although Aion is very much prettier. Character generation feels about the same. The quests are very similar and the "single starting point" feel is there as well. The skills are doled out in the same manner as well.

The 'class split' feature and sub-combine upon sub-combine and pass/fail system for tradeskills are also reminiscent of early EQ2.

So you can chill out D. It's like I offended your girlfriend or something. Playing Aion I get a very EQ2 vibe from it. It's like they took a normal korean dev team, sat them down and forced them to play EQ2 and WoW and said, "this is what Western people like!"

Then every so often they forget what they're doing and start designing for Koreans again and someone has to come back in and smack them with a ruler. Then from what I've read here and other places, around level 35ish the ruler broke and after that it's full blown Korean horseshit. But now they've bought new rulers and are patching it to make it more like EQ2/WoW again so who knows.

[Pyros]

Well if anything I feel it has more of a wow vibe than an EQ2 vibe, but haven't played early EQ2. The UI is closer to wow's than EQ2, remember there's no default minimap, and when you show it it's a shitty square of pixels, it has little portraits in your unitframe. With that said, the general UI is laid out the same, because everygame since wow/EQ2 is laid out the same. Lotro, AoC, Warhammer, Vanguard. Only darkfall has its own UI system but it's very special anyway.

Char gen is definitely much better on Aion though, but that's mostly because EQ2 is like 5years old. Quests again are the same in every mmo since then, single starting point I disagree, Aion basically only has 2 zones and one path for each, EQ2 has multiple paths and 5starting zones(limited by race choice though). Probably didn't have that much at release but still you don't release a new game comparing to what other game were doing 5years ago.

But I said earlier, it's basically a korean wow. It has some very korean like features(click to move, stupid personal shops spam, xp loss on death, crafting/item enhancing and grinding/tons of mobs EVERYWHERE) but it's closer to the western market, simply because the western market works well over there too so they had to align to the concurence and not just keep churning shitheaps like they did before.