Aion - The Tower of Eternity

[Draegan]

I liked the first 10 levels as well. I had fun.

Cut scenes are interesting with a story. The campaign quests do a good job of narrating the zone.

Is the game play dynamic and interesting? No, it's your typical DIKU gameplay (which I happen to enjoy). I don't see what you're expecting in the first two hours of a diku game. I don't see how Aion is any different than your first 2-3 hours in WOW.

Can anyone point out a difference other than in vanilla it might of been slightly quicker?

[Stromni Redbeard]

Originally Posted by Vorph

I'm not sure why anyone would compare this to WoW, all I can think of is that I'm playing Lineage 2.5.

This is exactly how i felt after playing the beta. I suppose if i had 2-3 really good friends, or maybe a whole guild going into it i would be more excited, but as it stands now, i am probably not going to end up buying it.

[Believe]

I actually agree with mek on nearly all his points. I really can't see how people disagree, besides the obvious personal preference.

I find as a pre-15 Scout and Warrior you do have to heal nearly after every mob. Warriors (Templars) just do not do enough damage, and the only reason they get away with it is because they have so much more HP than other classes. As a Scout, unless you get crits, you're going to have to heal after every mob. As someone pointed out before, the auto attack damage as a Scout is just pathetic, and you rely totally on abilities.

And as stated, it's pretty pathetic to NOT make the low level experience as entertaining as possible. That is what makes people interested in the game, hooks them to keep playing. The majority of people aren't going to trudge through hours and hours of boring game play just to see if it gets better. While I agree Aion is slightly better than some recent MMOs, it's still nothing to brag about.

[regret]

Originally Posted by Ferr

As Ely you can get into a Tursin group at 17ish and do those early quest chains, which will take you to 18-19. The middle range quest chains will take you to 19-20 np. In CB I went into Tursin at 17 on my glad and left that zone at 22 after farming chief for a few hours.

Ah, thanks for that. I haven't grouped up yet for those because I'm playing on the EU servers with some lag.

[Draegan]

If you're healing after every mob even after 10 you're doing something very wrong.

I've played every class up to 11 at least except a Templar. 18 SM, 14 Sorc, 19 Ranger, 20 Cleric, 16 Chanter, 12 Assassin.

My Assassin was killing things in under 12 seconds at level 11. I cleared the mobs around Altgard for all those quests faster than any class. I would have to use a herb treatment every 5-6 mobs. An herb treatment is what, 2 second cast?

[Vandyn]

Originally Posted by Believe

I actually agree with mek on nearly all his points. I really can't see how people disagree, besides the obvious personal preference.

I find as a pre-15 Scout and Warrior you do have to heal nearly after every mob. Warriors (Templars) just do not do enough damage, and the only reason they get away with it is because they have so much more HP than other classes. As a Scout, unless you get crits, you're going to have to heal after every mob. As someone pointed out before, the auto attack damage as a Scout is just pathetic, and you rely totally on abilities.

And as stated, it's pretty pathetic to NOT make the low level experience as entertaining as possible. That is what makes people interested in the game, hooks them to keep playing. The majority of people aren't going to trudge through hours and hours of boring game play just to see if it gets better. While I agree Aion is slightly better than some recent MMOs, it's still nothing to brag about.

Yea I agree with this as well. The early levels should be about trying to draw you in, get you interested in the character/gameworld/story/etc. But Aion doesn't do this. It makes you go through this tedium to get to the good stuff. In fact, the defenders of the game constantly harp that the game is great once you get to the abyss. When I'm playing now I'm trudging through this not because it's interesting or because it's 'that much fun', it's because I'm expecting it to get better because other people have said that it will. The game shouldn't be designed like that. WoW has it's issues, but one of it's great points when it launched was the beginning experience was so incredible that you wanted to keep advancing (the whole carrot on a stick analogy).

[Man0warr]

Even if you have to sit and heal it takes like 4-5 seconds to heal to full. What's the big deal? This isn't even a pve game, why are people harping on it being the same as every other pve game when that's all it's trying to be.

[Believe]

Originally Posted by Man0warr

Even if you have to sit and heal it takes like 4-5 seconds to heal to full. What's the big deal? This isn't even a pve game, why are people harping on it being the same as every other pve game when that's all it's trying to be.

While I don't think it's a huge issue to have to heal after every mob, the point stands that you still have to at low levels. Some people may find that aggravating.

And while you may not thinks it's a PVE game, that's all it is for half the game. I think it's a pretty valid point, because it's all the player experiences in the stages where they decide if the game is worth a damn.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Pyros

And mek I don't think there's anything fanboyish in what I said about this game, in any post.

I think he was commenting more about the vitriol with which he was attacked. He made some very valid points about how Aion has so much potential and it seems to be just settling for mediocrity. You have Lyte over here talking about how clearly the Koreans are okay with it so it must be good. Not that they're not known for just taking it up the ass like the good little rang rangs they are or anything. Lineage 2 was a great game. Yeah.

What you and others are not grasping is that sometimes we aren't just bashing a game for the sake of pointing out how terrible it is. We're just disappointed. We were hoping for a graphically inspired game thanks to the talent of our asian overlords while still adopting the game design philosophy of accessibility in the west.

Instead we get an uninspired boring mess. Classes couldn't be more cookie cutter if they tried and there's totally not going to be any repercussions for having 1 tank, 1 healer, 1 token buff class that might as well cast his shit then afk in the corner and then 5 dps classes vying for the three remaining group slots. Though realistically it's more like 4 vying for 2 because you're going to want at least one sorcerer. I foresee many "4 dps lf tank/heals then gtg" in Aion's future. "But glads can sorta tank if you gem/gear properly!" and yeah, hunter pets can tank too but why would you -want- them to? Besides, I garunfuckintee you 95% of the gladiators you invite expecting them to have a tank suit will say "sry, I'm dps." Have fun.

And it isn't even major things like PvP being laughably balanced, PvE being boring or the game turning into a Korean grind fest during your mid 20's. This game suffers death by a 1000 cuts. Why is there no opacity slider on the chat window? Why do I have to make a macro to buff all raid groups when group buffs should just automatically hit all raid groups?

What's the point of it taking 5+ seconds to gather from resource nodes with a chance to fail? Why is flying randomly disabled in some zones but not others for lowbies? Why such a tiny inventory when I have to carry a spare set of gear with me and various consumables? Why are there so few ranks in the legion window? Why is there a delay before you auto-run?

And so on. Much like when I bitch about WoW my point here isn't to point out how bad a game Aion is or anything like that. It's to point out that it could be and -should- be better.

[Vandyn]

Originally Posted by Believe

And while you may not thinks it's a PVE game, that's all it is for half the game. I think it's a pretty valid point, because it's all the player experiences in the stages where they decide if the game is worth a damn.

That brings up something. Is the average PvP player going to constantly want to trudge through 20 levels of however long it takes just to get to the part that they would be interested in? Especially if that 20 levels is the same no matter the class you play?

[Draegan]

I've seen many pvp videos without clerics and tanks. I've seen Dredgion compositions that were all rangers and one gladiator.

Chanters and Gladiators can heal and tank just as well as Cleric and Temps in most of the pve content. Without any major gear changes.

You can also move your group windows.

There is a legion bank. Or there is supposed to be in any case. There was a mob at the bank titled "Legion Warehouse"

Legion ranks, agree they need more. It's really shitty what they did there. It's not game breaking though.

Buffs? Yeah kinda silly, but I think there are only two buffs that priests get that are single target right? I can't remember if there are any more. The only other buffs are auras.

Are you saying PVP isn't balanced? From all account it's more balanced than any other DIKU out there. But I'll reserve judgment until I see it. PVE boring? I havn't done a dungeon yet, have you? Still reserving judgment, but the Dredgion looks cool from the videos I've watched.

Resource nodes. Gathering resources in this game are so much better than WOW just because they are more plentiful in a more concentrated area. At least in the first half of the game. The time to harvest decreases the higher you get though. And *gasp* there is only one resource gathering skill, and everyone can get it. Same with professions. You can get all of them and master 2. Pretty awesome to me.

Oh and crafting isn't necessary since none of the results are BOP from what I know.

Hey and everyone can ress people with ress stones they sell. That's pretty fucking cool. That's pretty damn convenient. They sell cheap city port scrolls as well. That's also pretty damn convenient.

Are there some annoying things? Sure. The opacity setting? I like it with 0% opacity so it doesn't bother me, and it darkens when I mouse over it. Am I going to judge a game because I can't change it? No because that's fucking stupid. Are there some retarded controls like mouse look? Yes. Does it take longer to level? Yes, but not long by Korean MMO standards, just long by today's WOW standards only after they nerfed exp for the first 60 levels.

Inventory is a pita as well.

[woqqqa]

In case anyone's interested, Fileplanet's now giving away more open beta keys for free to anyone who signs up (free accounts too, no need to buy a sub), so if you didn't feel like paying 5 bucks or whatever FP's monthly sub is for one, here's your chance: Aion Beta on FilePlanet

[Zehn - Vhex]

And you could do Magister's terrace without a protadin tanking. But why would you -want- to unless you had no choice.

[Draegan]

What are you referring to? Are you comparing a 5 man dungeon in WOW to some ambiguous argument that may or may not happen in Aion?

[intelnavi]

Plus you have the whole mechanic of moving backward = 200% block and parry. Movement mechanics are great also when you need a proc from something (counterattack, etc).

I just don't know what the alternative is at this point. WoW is pretty much dead to me until next year when they go back and address some of peoples complaints about the game (old world content, flying in old world, leveling in old world, etc). Even then they are deciding to raise the lvl cap, I don't know how much more of that game I can stand. I can't even stand raiding anymore and that was always my favorite part of the game. Until Jumpgate/D3/Borderlands/motherfuckinganything what else is there to play to satiate my needs of this genre? At least this is relatively stable, unlike many others that come to mind. I mean fuck, we've seen some bad launches.

As long as endgame pvp or pve or pvpve isn't total shit, what have I got to lose? Let's discuss that instead of complaining about the first 20 lvls being boring.