This, That, & The Other Thing

Random thoughts about MMORPG gaming. This blog may not be used more than once, only time will tell. I have my own gaming blog that I generally post to.

Author: Mysk

Firstly this does not have anything to do with Game Guard.  Even in beta we had a way to disable it (and many done this in order to get XFire working).  It is, as it's always been, a useless bit of junk.

The problem with NC Soft is NC Soft.  I didn't play L2 beyond the closed beta, but I've certainly heard the stories just as most of you have.  Now I'm seeing it in action.

Aion, as we know, is infested with bots.  The spamming itself was reduced, but the botting is as bad as ever.  There were bots (and spammers) in Aion in the CLOSED BETA.  Additionally, some of the bots from the Head Start are still kicking today.

Now we're seeing entire guilds of nothing but bots.  Dwarven Kingdom is a small one that exists on both Yustiel and Marchutan, both started by a bot with the same character name.  Then we have More, comprised of two bots at this time.  Then, with 20 members / bots to its name, is Koum.

These are just off the top of my head.  I'm certain that there are more, and as we see with Dwarven Kingdom these bot guilds can exist on more than one server.

This is made worse by several players in the community basically enabling the existence of bots by insulting or laughing at anyone who mentions reporting them.  Then they go on to say that the bots "aren't hurting anybody" and they actively defend the bots (!!) by saying things like "if people want to bot then it's not your business" (that's actually a quote) and "if it's not affecting you directly then what's your problem with them (ed: 'them' = 'bots')?"

Of course, the ultimate enabler is NC Soft themselves.  I've read stories, but a reasonable person likes to think that such stories are exaggerations created by a small group with an agenda.  We see it all the time here at MMORPG.com.  Now I would be foolish to not take those stories seriously; I can even understand why some conspiracy theories have formed about NC Soft being in some form of partnership with the botters.

It's like I said above, some of the bots that existed in Head Start are still active today on Yustiel.  How many /AutoReportHunting repots have these bots received between Head Start and today?  Yet they continue to exist and thrive.  They fill the Broker (aka "Auction House") with goods (including the occasional gold item drop), they farm nodes, they farm mob vender trash for coin.  Hell, as we see, they even form guilds.  All of which goes toward collecting in-game currency which is used to fuel their spam-based business, which itself is known to steal credit card numbers.

Yet NC Soft does absolutely nothing about these bots, and (certainly a vocal segment of) the players in this game seem to think that the bots are perfectly okay to have around.  The fact that the same bots from beta and head start exist today simply adds salt to the wound.

NC Soft's website likes to spew out positive PR about their actions, but it may as well be posted by bots.  There is nothing happening in Aion to take care of the problem - they are in fact encouraging it by their stubborn inaction - and I'll admit that, in this case, I should have paid more attention to the forum comments.

Peace out.

My "Esmer" characters are generally assassin types or as close to that as I can get.  Fallen Earth hasn't presented my character with a second dagger yet, but it's good to know that one can certainly dual wield in the game.

And it's a surprisingly decent game; a hybrid between your standard theme park MMO and a sandbox.  The sandbox feel is something that I really appreciate about Fallen Earth, although there's an argument to say that it's an illusion.

I much prefer the skill point based system over the typical Fire 1, Fire 2, Fire 3, ad nauseum of other MMOs.  The skill points give a sense of freedom.  On the flip side there are still specific "builds" - suggestions or otherwise - that can be followed, and those work out to essentially be a class.  The hybrid nature of the game shows quite clearly, and there's noticeably more freedom in your character's development than what you have in your average MMO.

The atmosphere is... well, it's a post-apocalyptic setting.  In the desert.  It's not exactly "pretty".  That's not to say that it doesn't look nice, because it kind of does, it's just really brown (oh what a rebel with the blue hair - gasp at the color!).

Esmer here is a newb character all of level 4, I think, so maybe there are better locations.  I know that the game's setting is the grand canyon area though so I expect to see many more different shades of brown (that has to be really boring for the art team).

Crafting is something that you'll definitely do.  So far it seems like every little thing that you loot, pick up, or otherwise salvage is somehow useful.  It's actually proving difficult to stick to one trade skill, which is in stark contrast to other MMOs that force a player to master merely one or two. (just keep an eye on how you spend your points)

Anyway, all of that aside it's actually a good game.  Buggy, but good.  Give it another month or two to iron out these bugs and I could see myself subbing to it.  Dare I say that it feels more mature (as in "grown up") than other MMOs?  That's not a comment about the community, merely on the game.

Who knows.  I've played it for one day and that's difficult to base an opinion on, but at this stage I'm not inclined to say that the game is "sucks".

Now it's time to get my arse to bed.  Weekends.  I love 'em. . . usually.

A good suit needs a good hat, yes?  I've always liked simple, and I find myself wishing that I could turn off the display of equipped weapons (ala the helm and guild tabard options).  My character looks like she's dressed for a night out - or perhaps a Sunday stroll through spring vistas.

Nevermind the freezing cold background.  Poor Asmos.

That collector's edition / pre-order hat has been difficult to give up (quite like the title, actually).  It's still better than this one when considering the +79 to HP and MP that the CE hat gives a character.  I'm a sucker for making my tune look decent, though, so after 30 levels this simple yet fitting hat won me over.

Such as is.  (the title is still "Settler of Aion", though)

The point of this post?  Hm.  I don't know.  There isn't one, but it's bed time and YOU just read my pre-bed rambles.  Poor you. :(

/g'night

Related Post: lvl 30

PUGs = Pick Up Groups = Random strangers forming a group.

Yet it's a good question.  PUGs are made up of other players, which is to say all of us.  The people who well and truly suck shouldn't be as common as those who have at least an average skill at playing the game.  Seriously, MMOs are about as dumb as anything can get.

So what is it about a PUG that just fracking sucks?

Clearly my evening in Aion didn't go so well.  Our PUG's tank kept switching targets, he refused to mark (he told everyone else to do it), the archer decided to pull a couple of times (oh nice add thx), and sleep kept getting broke.  It was a disaster that ended predictably in everyone getting killed.

Does a PUG simply boil down to ego?  Is the complete lack of co-operation some form of primitive need to try to take control of a group?  It's really not that difficult for everyone to work together, and yet there are complete failures such as the one that I experienced this evening.

I'm quite curious about the psychology and social dynamics behind the dreaded PUG, but that's just how nerdy I roll.

edit: I should mention that not all PUGs go this way.  Perhaps it's simply that we remember the worse experiences and everything else isn't worth remembering because it goes the way that we expect.

Level 29 went quickly.  Very quickly.  This reminds me of "hell levels" from launch EQ:  They took forever, and once you were through the hell level the next level seemed to slide by as little more than an after thought.  In fact I missed the opportunity to do the game's first instance, but that's the way that it goes.

Anyway, upon hitting level 30 you can use the item remodeler.  Seems kind of silly to me to restrict it to 30+, but it makes for a carrot-on-a-stick to keep you going.

Several days ago I noticed a player using one of the fluff clothing pieces as a model for their armor.  I was surprised because I was under the impression that this wouldn't be possible.  This was one of those times where it feels good to be proven wrong.

Click the images for a larger view.

You can guess what I done the moment that I hit 30.  I wanted to do a little something special for hitting the big "three-oh", so in spite of actually liking the way that the armor looked I went straight to Panda to get a fresh, new look.  The dress that I wanted the most - and as a guy that feels kind of strange to type - was far too expensive, so I snagged the next best thing.

Good'ol assassin.  She's looking gorgeous as she kills.

It has occurred to me that this can (and probably will) single me out when there's a group of elyos attacking.  In fact I got jumped tonight by a character which, coincidentally, may very well have been using a speed hack.  I sent a submission via the website asking them to check into that incident, and I fully expect my submission to go ignored.

Anyway, standard complaints (and it's kind of sad that such complaints are "accepted" standards) aside, another little treat when hitting 30 are those nice Collector's Edition wings.  They look a bit different from the vendor wings and they have an extra 10 seconds of flight time (on top of what the vendor wings give you).  IIRC these are 40 seconds instead of the standard 30.

Honestly though, they're a bit ugly.  They look like the wings of a bird that has been the victim of an oil spill.  Maybe you disagree though, and that's just fine in my book.

Oh, and I'm headed into the next area.  My problem of having too many quests continues and I had to drop several from the log.  There's a whole lot of house cleaning that I need to do in regards to 'quests', but I can't clear them out without grouping.  Again, standard complaint (see other blog entries)...

So all in all tonight didn't have a lot of action, but it has crossed an important mile stone in the game.  I'm looking forward to the level 33 skills which, I hope, will make me a bit more competitive in the abyss.

Ah, in case you're wondering, my leather waring 'Sin can use caster cloth armor for the purpose of remodeling.  My guess would be that a plate wearer can use plate, chain, leather, and cloth for remodeling.

So that's that.  Later folks.

I basically played the camera man in a quick Elyos sweep last night.  It's kind of unfortunate that it worked out that way, but such as is.

Here's the video of when they were cleared out:
www.wegame.com/watch/Aion-Elyos-Sweep-PvP-camera-man/
Music:  "Move" by Wonder Girls

This is the elyos modus operandi. They use these large groups against single players, so it's no surprise that these chuckle heads were in fact going around ganking single players.  I lured some out into the desert as they tried to get me (their ranger failed at stopping me) and as soon as there were two or three of us the group ran away.  Hilarious.  Truly hilarious.  Their unfortunate ranger got left behind and proved that he was better at running away from me than he was at chasing me, but he bumped into a second player and failed at fleeing (sleep lasts waaaaay the hell too long).  I said it before & I'll say it again:  These folks are screwed once they're forced to face characters roughly equal to their own.

This video captures the end of things and sadly I don't have a vid of my chasing or running through the desert.  (sarcasm:) Now THAT would have been exciting (/sarcasm).

The alliance that cleared them out killed them off a little faster than I expected.  You'll see me stop on the hill and say something like, "Need more down the road. Most of them are down there." Then of course I glide down only to find that they're all already put down lol.  It was good to see a group of asmos working together.  Not working together seems to be our main fault, as I've mentioned before.

Oh well.  Hey, at least they got some cake (birthday emote taunt at the end).

I briefly signed into the game last night to see what would happen to my character that I had left sitting in Elyos land.  It went as expected:

http://www.wegame.com/watch/static_warning_Yeah_it_went_as_I_thought_lol/
Note: Audio Static Warning (the static is a bug in the WeGame software's audio recording)

The female character was level 29.  The male character was lvl 31.  Character information can be found on the Aion website.  98% of my character's slots were unsocketted at the time.  Squishy character got squished. :)

Side note: The GUI really needs a fix.  Many (repeated) clicks on the icons do not register and this, of course, causes me to miss some attack opportunities.  The outcome of this encounter clearly would not have changed had all of my clicks registered on the game's GUI, but fighting in general would be less frustrating.

Anyway, log in fail.

http://www.wegame.com/watch/Test_Vid_Into_Elyosia/

The WeGame recorder seems to work well enough, although the videos are small enough that you can't see what I'm typing.  On the bright side it should be fairly easy for me to record some video to add to my posts here.

We have such minute attention spans these days.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes.  I suspect not well. :)

^ Insert image feature is broke.

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Spirit Masters are to get flying pets in the next big patch.  Most of us know this already.  Their inability to follow you over basic terrain was one of ... nay, I think THE... largest complaint that I had about the class.

Now that this issue is going to be fixed I have been slowly tinkering with a SM alt.  I'm in no hurry to level the character, but I do wonder if I'll have a new main once the pets start flying.

I guess we'll see.  I'll need to go  back and read my Spirit Master rant to see what other issues I had. :P

Later.

Things do get slow in this game, and at the moment I feel like I'm butting my head against a glass ceiling.  Thankfully those XP buff items that they gave out have helped some, but it's still slow.

A big part of the problem is the lack of cooperation on my server.  The Asmos on Yustiel don't seem to like playing together.  This... surprisingly.... holds true in the abyss.  I'm going to assume that everyone knows what the abyss in Aion is, but in case you don't it's the PvPvE area of the game; basically you hunt mobs in the same location that the opposing faction hunts in.

It's a riot.  I'm honestly convinced that the Elyos couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag without using a fire hose and a chain saw.  At 28 I've duo'd a level 44 Elyos.  He allowed himself to be tanked so far that we got him down to nearly half his health.  Why is that a big deal?  My standard (aka white damage) attacks do 1 (one) point of damage to the numbskull.  So it's all special attack spam.  Then there's the fact that he could kill my assassin in one or two hits.  He eventually did.  Maybe I should have used my hate reducing skill on him? lol  Back onto the tank with you, nub!

Then there are the (surprisingly many) would-be Elyos gankers who walk right into the guards or the lightening tower.  Seriously?  I think that I have actually lost count of the number of wanna be gankers who have killed themselves on our tower or on our guards.  These folks.. they don't have a lick of skill.  That's what happens when you focus on plowing through characters that are roughly 10 levels lower than your own:  You learn nothing, and you still play like an idiot at 40+.

Yet they do have one thing over us:  They travel in groups.

Aside from the odd exception, and thankfully I have had a few, I will ask in /say to those around me if they would like to group up or partner up.  I never get a response.  I ask for a group in the zone-wide channel & again get no response.  Elyos (aka, the red named gankers) can be in our immediate area and they still won't group up!  It's amazing.  I kind of feel like I'm watching a sociological or a psychological experiment as I'm playing in the abyss because they just REFUSE to break out of their solo mind set.  And they get killed for it, including ~30 seconds after I politely warned them that Elyos were just around the corner.

They weren't bots, they just refuse to group.

So... level 28 has been slow, yeah.  It's frustrating, but I'll hit 30.  It's not pleasant but I've had worse grinds (EQ back in the day, 'yo).  I now have so many quests in my character's log that I can't pick up anymore before I complete what I have, so I certainly have enough to do.

By the by, the abyss has some very sweet XP from just about everything that you do.  Vendor trash also brings in more cash.  The fact that I can taunt Elyos is a bonus.  12 kills today.

Now about trade skills...

Wow oh wow, now that's the grind in the game!  And a monumental money sink.

• Gather the items. Don't buy them, you need your skill up to do gather "quests" anyway.
• Two gathered items equal Item A.  Two of Item A equals Item B and C. Numerous "Item B" and "Item C" are required to craft your item, among fluxes and usually a green item or two.
• Way too many different flux (colored spheres). Minor, lesser, normal, greater, worthy, blah, blah
• Oodles, and oodles of money.  My last craft grind cost about 130,000 kina (kinah = gold).

Work orders are used to grind levels, but you still need to buy items off of the vendor to complete the work orders.  This is what cost me over 100 grand in coin.  It will cost me about 119,000 to buy my next rank, and then probably twice that to actually level to the rank (you buy the rank from the trainer once you reach a certain level and then you grind it).

This is the kind of craft system that I would expect to see in a MMO the first time that craft systems were ever added to MMOs.  It's rough as hell and is as punishing as it is rough.

A lot of complaining here, so where's all the fun?

This evening, much to my enjoyment, I got into a very spontaneous PUG and we worked together fairly well to clear a would-be Elyos gank squad from the area.  (I suppose it's redundant to say "gank squad" and "Elyos" together.)  That was pretty cool.  Short lived, but cool.

I watched a number of Elyos suicide on the tower and guards.  I still chuckle a little when I see this.

This week I gave away some boss mob white drops in the starting area.  This kind of reminds me of the Neriak newbie log in EQ. lol.  Yeah, I retired in that game long before I retired the sub...

Inside reference: Someone pointed out to me that the guy's castle actually DOES exist.  That was a, "Dude, cool!" moment.  You'll have to play an Asmo to know what I'm referring to here.  Now that said there's nothing saying that he actually does have the key to it, but the castle does exist.

My guild works together fairly well.  They're MMO vets so it's all old hat to us.  I appreciate this more after some recent PUG action both with and without guildies.  A.D.D. + area filled with Elites = "wait, what..?"

Oh, I watched some Elyos in the abyss jump off the side of the floating island and die.  Maybe this was on purpose or maybe it was an honest mistake.  It's hard to say.  Let's be honest, though.  I did this once myself because I hit the space bar to jump and it activated glide, and there was no way back up from that (cool down timer for flight didn't clear in time).

Bum rushed lvl 39+ players tonight with my lvl 28.  Thank you kisk for suicidal fun times (used up its respawn charges, but it was psychotic fun while it lasted).

Lastly, taunted some Elyos with the store.  It's the only thing that the store is useful for.

It's bed time. Maybe I'll have some photos and videos next time.  I'll have to test out the WeGame recorder with Aion.