Aion - The Tower of Eternity

[Vehn]

Originally Posted by Kharza-kzad

I've heard the zones are not segregated, that there is some way for the enemy to enter. I despise world pvp myself. If I want to fight other players I'll go to a war zone. If I'm leveling or questing, I don't want to be bothered by other players.

If there's no completely seperate way to level, I'll likely stop playing.

Bye. 'Cuz portals will pop up in the level 20+ zones and the enemy can enter them to come into your zone and procede the gank fest. Combine that with the fact that their's only 1 instance per zone for all level 20+ zone's and you'll see some gank parties roaming around quite often. Just get ahead of the leveling curve!

[Tolanin]

I really wanna know what the pvp systems are supposed to be.. i got yelled at for assuming it was gonna be a wow esque game so I assume there is some sort of world pvp or siege pvp that makes it not just a wow clone?

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by Rhym

Random Concern/Rant:

At least until level 20 the Asmo/Elyos zones are completely segregated. I believe at 25 Abyss opens up and almost everyone will be leveling there as I heard the mobs give ~35% extra experience. This kind of concerns me. So from 25-50 (and we've all heard that the later levels start taking a lot longer to get through) we will mainly be in one zone. I've heard it is an enormous zone, but still seems like it'll get redundant. Besides the Abyss I know there's other zones for Elyos/Asmodian based on the map yet these appear to be like the early zones; segregated from the other faction.

The point I'm going for, and this is also a big reason to me why Warhammer's RvR sucked, is that:

1. In a 2 faction PvP game segregating the questing areas is bad because you remove one of the most exciting segments of any PvP game: random world PvP.

2. Areas like the Abyss or Warhammer's RvR lakes funnel everyone into one place to do all the PvP and when you have 2 factions this encourages one thing: mass zerging. I don't mind a zerg every once in a while and a big fight can be fun, but I'd rather be spending my time in smaller group battles. You can still get that, but you have to work much harder for it when everyone is clinging to an enormous zerg force the whole time they PvP.

3. I think 2 faction PvP is structurally flawed because population imbalance ruins it. Always, one side has more people or is better organized and generally dominates the other. Without a 3rd faction which can be allied with to beat back the superior side you end up with a one way street of PvP. I'd much prefer 3 factions or FFA to any 2 faction PvP game. As flawed as Age of Conan was at release, I had an insanely fun time leveling up because of all the world pvp and danger of never knowing when someone you see might decide to attack. Anyone you saw could be a foe and that made it really fun.

1- While you're basically safe in the starter zone and the zone after, starting from 20 on, there's random spawning Rifts that teleport you to the mirror zone in enemy territory. Check Aionsource for a raid this past weekend from Elyos on Asmodian lands, big fights and stuff. In 1.2, they added various mechanics to prevent too much ganking though, the more you gank(and the bigger the lvl diff is) the more points you accumulate, which reveal your position on the map, give various zone warning to everyone and debuff you some. So you'll have the choice of being in your own race zone getting less xp but being safer(but still not totally safe) or being in the abyss, seems fair enough to me. The abyss might get boring though since it's all very much the same as far as I could tell, there's various "levels" but they're just big floating rocks. I guess there's more quests in your own zones though, and abyss is more for grinding and pvping.

2- About that I think one thing that's made differently is the xp is very good in the abyss, so you also go there to level. In WAR, you'd go to the RvR zone only to pvp, which obviously force you into big swarming zergs running around trying to find some people to kill, but when you're there for xp grinding, you don't want to be in a raid since obviously you get shit for xp, you'll stay in small groups. In AoC zergs were also quite efficient because the xp was split in a retarded way so having tons of people didn't really matter as long as you had the good spots. I mean, sure people will try to stick together so they have backup, and some "islands" will be owned by various faction, but don't think you'll see zergs running around trying to find single people to gank in there, at least not until people start reaching 50; could be wrong though. I do expect huge zergs for the fortress fights, but that's pretty obvious.

3- I agree with, 3sides or FFA is the best way to go, FFA being my favorite since it doesn't force you to group with people you dislike anyway. I don't know how pop imbalance will be fixed, the Balaur race is there to even the fights by raping the winning side with their super spaceship stuff, but not sure how that actually works.


Edit: My posts take too long to type lately, but Tolanin the pvp here is more like daoc I guess, it has fortresses that give stats, and artifacts that also do various stuff(less powerful), and you siege them with special vehicles thingie, and kill the guardians in there, stuff like that. Other than that you get points for killing people, and lose points for dieing(more than you gain) and you use these points to buy shiny gear. They're also adding a PvPvE instance, some kind of instanced Darkness Falls.

[Lost Ranger]

I have played enough of the beta now to question if Aion is going to be worth dropping money on come September. My first complaint is that the introduction to the game is just fucking boring. I REALLY wish the "start as a generic class and advance later" thing would just die already. EQ2 did the smart thing and did away with it completely. If someone wants to play a Ranger then let them play a damn ranger. Don't make them do hours of boring "scout" shit first. This is VERY noticeable if you have interest in two classes of the same type. Lucky for me I didn't want to test a Assassin and a Ranger. Talk about a chore.

Once I finally got my Ranger/Gladiator and Chanter to 10 the game play picked up a bit. That made me feel better. My next complaint showed up though. The quests are all as generic as the starting classes. It is just a non-stop stream of kill and collect quests. I prefer this to endless grinding but not by much. Class game play is going to be VERY important if this continues all the way to max. Which I hope it does not.

My current feelings for the game are just kinda mixed right now which is a shame considering that as a new MMO it should be all fresh and good times even if the suck starts later. I loved the first part of AoC as a example. Even a horrible game like that managed to hook people at least for a little while. I don't get that with Aion at all which makes me think I should just save my time and money and hold out for something else. The end game of Aion might be a total blast with the pvp and sieging but if the road to that is just dull then they will lose a ton of potential business. I have to September though so might as well keep testing things out and see if things turn around.

[Rhym]

To Pyros: Excellent points as always, especially in number 2. That's something I didn't think of and I think will help a lot.

To Lost Ranger:
I'm also "meh" on playing generic until 10 and then pick a class, but in the end getting to lvl 10 on my priest Archetype, which is probably the slowest, in my first run through the game took a grand total of 3 hours. So it isn't a big deal

I actually prefer Aion's simple quests to WoW's more elaborate ones. I don't like having to alt-tab out to search a quest on WoWhead to quickly figure it out or download a mod like Questhelper. I don't play MMO's for the story and I don't like reading all the quest text. Like Araxen, I'd rather have it be kept simple. Then I can listen to my music, chat with friends, or my latest hobby of listening to language lessons. Sometimes after an annoying day at work I feel like zoning out and grinding mobs for a while to pass the time.

Remember that quest chain in Zul'Drak with the Troll Warlord and you act as a spy? I couldn't of hated a quest chain more than that. I need to turn into this abom and blow up what mobs and then turn into a skeleton and go back to talk to him and then turn into a ghoul and use a wand on crystals and put the crystals in these cauldrons and blah blah blah. It's sad, but I'd rather someone just told me "Go kill a shit ton of boars."

[HTFriend]

While I understand the focus on the NA beta in this topic, anyone has some feedback from Korean's players regarding the state of the game after several months (granted it can be compared to NA version, since they might tweak some stuff like exp rate) ?
Basically, I would like some feedback regarding the state of the game at mid/high end level. Is it "fun"? Is it PvP only or is there some PvE raid along with it? Is the PvP somehow balanced (solo or group) or is it a gank feast? Is the crafting worth? Etc ...
I'm likely to buy the game, so I would like to know if the end game is worth it since I'm desperately trying to find a MMO to stick to for quite a long time.

[Skrigg]

You might not be able to get a reliable answer on that as of now. I believe 1.5 just hit Korean servers which added a lot of content to mid to high level. From what I have read it is being praised, this is the same version that NA will get on release.

[NativityInBlack]

My quick run-down on the game based on the CB3 (played a Asmo Cleric to 20).

Starting with things on Aion that reminds me of EQ1:

1- You can meditate (rest) anytime,
2- Could use a nice armor+shield and main heal,
3- Slower Mana/HP regen,
4- Long levels,
5- Roaming world bosses that can see you before you see them, with nice drops.
6- You can grind if you want,
7- You can fail on crafting combines,
8- You lose XP on death (buyback with cash),
9- "train to zone" is back.
10- Spells/skills are again like the tradeable scrolls, missed buying skills ahead.

Some may view the above as step-backs, if so just skip the game.

General pros:

Fantastic customization and character graphics, well modeled monsters, general artistic cohesion with the theme, flight mechanics limited but alright, fun combat and game play, solid crafting (grindy, expensive but good outcome), felt fresh - even after reading this 134 pages thread - I'm still learning the game, end-game with pvp sieges, instances and raids that should be 100% ready for Retail. Loot and stats matter and make sense, armor look upgrades are scarce but look good.

Cons:

Anywhere PVP will give me headaches with the wife / no blue-walling for her, swimming is borked/not done, player shops anywhere fucking sucks, world graphics/textures varies from awesome to early guild wars, it's being marketed as a flying RPG game but that's not quite the truth, flight is limited to the pvp zone or on a really short time elsewhere.

To the guy that is wary of the world pvp, Rifts are on a 2 hours timer (so hardly it would be full-time action, they are moving PVP'ers to the PVP zone) and it shouldn't be a gankfest, here the early protection system that will be in play "Slayer System":

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Penalties of PvP in Low Level Areas

If you go on a killing rampage in enemy territory (does not apply to the Abyss), you will receive penalties for doing so. This is called the Slayer System. The effects are as follows:

1. Depending on the amount of killings you will receive points. If your penalty points go over a certain limit, you will receive the penalty effects. If you kill lower leveled players than you, you will receive more points.

2. The penalty effects are categorized into two. One is a Debuff/Curse and you cannot use rifts. The second is a Judgment and under this effect you cannot be resurrected in any Kiosk placed in the enemy territory, as well as use rifts.

3. The name of the Curse/Judgment depends on the race. If you are Elyos, you will receive Curse/Judgment of Asphel. Asmodians will get Curse/Judgment of Ariel.

4. Once you come under Curse or Judgment, your location will be revealed throughout the local map for the entire opposing faction members. Also, even if you are under a hiding skill, your title will be seen, making it even easier to be spotted.

5. You must go back to your own lands or the Abyss and wait for a certain amount of time for the Curse or Judgment to disappear.

6. If you or someone else kills a slayer, 12 nearby players of the dead body will receive buffs.

7. The killer of the slayer will be announced throughout the area chat under the format of [Race]s Hero [Killer of the Slayer] has defeated [Slayer] while he was under [Judgment or Curse] of [Ariel or Asphel].

The game graphics are really nice, couple pics I took (nothing new Asmo newbie land):

Spoiled as it's 1650x1050 and this is not pgt:

Gorgeous forest:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Ghost ship:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Someone complained about my grammar earlier, hope this is not too badly written, I'm a Brazilian in Rio, learned most of my English with EQ+.

Overall I think the average FoH poster will have a decent time with Aion, it's a solid purchase (even more if you are 40/40+ on WAR, 80 and tier geared on WoW etc).

Score so far 8/10.

[Qhue]

As predicted I'm now jonesin on Aion withdrawal. I could install the chinese version and the english language hack-patch...but I think I'd rather wait for the NA optimized version. Besides I have approximately 0.00% chance of getting the significant other to play on a chinese server

[NativityInBlack]

Originally Posted by Qhue

As predicted I'm now jonesin on Aion withdrawal. I could install the chinese version and the english language hack-patch...but I think I'd rather wait for the NA optimized version. Besides I have approximately 0.00% chance of getting the significant other to play on a chinese server

Hah had the same discussion with the lady here yesterday.. we went for rb2 song packs instead.

[Inconsiderable]

I just hope EU release has 1 FFA PvP server which allows you to kill people in your own faction if you desire to do so.

Even thou I am a PvPer (elitist, hardcore and oldskool of course) I hate the idea of randomly killing people because their name is red while being unable to kill the real retards.

[Draegan]

You're going to be hoping for a very long time.

[NativityInBlack]

They should just blowup this sucker into 4 server types.

FFA PVP
PVE
Normal
Roleplay

Would be hard to keep but Bliz keeps 4 server types (PVE,pvp,RP,pvprp) and is making a lot of money for years.

Eastern MMO's could break into server types as well, more players, more money, more power.

I mean "whaaaa I was ganked" -> "go play PVE"
"I'm bored I want to gank" -> "go FFA"
"Thou shalt love thy fellow player" -> "go roleplay"
"Oh I'm hot for a fucking rule-set milkshake" -> "go normal"

They could have all answers in the same game, keeping the subscribers, that would be smart instead of trying to fit the players to their own tunnel vision. When the only answer is "go back to WoW" "go sandbox pvp on Darkfall" etc, that's a lost opportunity over almost nothing.

(I like the normal rule-set BTW just mentioning that I think that more rule-sets = more game for the same cash)

[Man0warr]

This is probably the most brutal MMO I've played since EQ, and I like it.

The mob AI is very well done, and there is a sense of realism.

For example, the mobs in the swamp area east of Altgard Fortress are hard as hell to see, and theres a ton of them, they really blend in with the environment.

As a ranger, it's impossible to sneak up on kharnif (cat) mobs with Hide.

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by HTFriend

While I understand the focus on the NA beta in this topic, anyone has some feedback from Korean's players regarding the state of the game after several months (granted it can be compared to NA version, since they might tweak some stuff like exp rate) ?
Basically, I would like some feedback regarding the state of the game at mid/high end level. Is it "fun"? Is it PvP only or is there some PvE raid along with it? Is the PvP somehow balanced (solo or group) or is it a gank feast? Is the crafting worth? Etc ...
I'm likely to buy the game, so I would like to know if the end game is worth it since I'm desperately trying to find a MMO to stick to for quite a long time.

Well getting good info out of people playing the korean game is pretty hard, mostly because there's not many. That said, you could expect the end game to be rather decent considering the game subs has grown over time, instead of dropping to shit after the first free month like it did in WAR. Now, that's korean players, so again it might not be what western players look for, but that's also what makes it hard having a good idea of the end game, the people playing the korean version probably like the endgame so they wouldn't be very objective. Still, aion is the 2nd highest subs game after wow if you count asian territories, and it's been out for like what, 8months in korea.

From the look of it, it's very daocish. You take fortresses, grind abyss points for better pvp gear, and do a bit of pve raiding on the side for more gear options. You also invest tons and tons of money in crafting and enhancing your gear so you have the perfect gear(+10, full improved phys crit mana stones, 2nd set of resist etc). The endgame being PvP, it's usually self sufficient, but they keep adding pve content for people who like that better, it seems in the version we're getting there will be a decent amount of instances and dungeons to do(some linked to the pvp fortresses, some actually pvp dungeons and some just pure pve stuff). From the looks of it, there will be plenty of shit to do at the cap lvl because we benefit from a few months of patching, which is a big advantage over the last few games. If your endgame is PvE mostly though, a game like EQ2 probably has more content, or wow even though wow tends to wipe progress every now and then so the pure amount of pve at any point isn't all that big. I'd say the amount of pve is closer to what lotro can offer.