Originally posted by fiontar

Originally posted by jomargue

You know the PvP in Aion at moment : 90% ganking

Nothing big for us ppl that started from day 1 , with serums and a bit of skill u can escape from being ganked 95% of the times. But thats because lvl difference between us all is not so big . Now imagine in 6 months , new player starts game, gets to lvl 25 in 4-5 days , and gets to the abyss, everything is good and groovy so far. He happily heads to the starting quests zone, and bang , gets 1 hit by lvl 50 ganker in full abyss gear .   And again everytime he goes back ...  bye bye Aion

 

I think devs should put some ingame mechanics to stop lvl 50's ganking newbies or I fear game will empty in less than one year when regular players start leaving for the next big title and newcomers say bye because of gankers

 

 

You are 100% right. In fact, I think we have already reached the point where new players are going to find the game unbearably frustrating as they advance into the PvP enabled areas.

It's a completely predictable consequence of a deeply flawed game design. The game seems to have been built around the concept of driving away the bottom 95% of it's potential customer base. There are band aid fixes that could lessen, to a small degree, the negatives of the game's PvP design, but NCSoft has rejected them out of hand.

This is the game, being played as intended.

You can avoid getting ganked fairly easy but A. Staying out of the abyss when playing solo and B. Sticking to safe zones.

You can get to max level fairly easily by doing so.

Originally posted by mrbbman

I would have to say that Aion is designed with a veteran MMO player in mind. It incorporates many things that players liked about other MMOs. If I hadn't played another MMO before I would probably find the game complex and intimidating. Then again I started on EQ, which some people found to be complex and intimidating so who's to say? My guess is that this MMO will only reach EQ sized audiences (which is still a very good audience mind you) but it won't draw new people into the fold. KOTOR and Star Trek Online will probably do more for that than this game will.

I'm a veteran MMO player, who doesn't mind working to level up a toon. I have come to hate Aion in just two short weeks of post launch game play.

It's a game for gankers. Few others will have long term enjoyment from the game.

Originally posted by Hydroblunt

 

LOL

Mage, Ret Pally, Rogue & DKTard.

On occassion you need to use more than 5 skills but the game has been quite simplifed toward a couple PWN skillz for damage classes.

  Wow, you people are easy target practice. Where to start?

  How about mage? 

  Sheep, counter spell, frost nova, ice lance, blink, remove curse, fire blast (yes non-fire spec uses it too), mirror image, ice block, spellsteal, frost bolt ...

  How about rogue?

  Sprint, evasion, vanish, blind, sinister strike (or hemo/mutilate/backstab), rupture, eviscerate, FoK,  garrote/cheapshot/ambush, kick, dismantle, sap, kidney shot, deadly throw, gouge, tricks of the trade (3v3/5v5) ...

  How about death knight? 

  Icy touch, plague strike, heart strike/blood strike, death coil/frost strike, death pact, death strike/obliterate/scourge strike, chains of ice, strangulate,  mind freeze, death grip, icebound fortitude, rune strike, empower rune weapon ...

  Finally, ret paladin? 

  Exorcism, flash of light, holy light (when in shield), hammer of wrath, avenging wrath, aura (varies), seal (varies), judgment (varies), cleanse, hands (i.e. sacrifice), turn evil ...

  Did any of you notice something?I didn't even include the special skills from the talent trees for the most part (/ skills being the exceptions, since they just replace basic strikes). So add at least 2 skills to the lists I had given and you'll have something much larger than 3-5. It brings me much enjoyment to expose a troll.

Originally posted by fiontar

It's a game for gankers. Few others will have long term enjoyment from the game.

...and here I thought only those that like "Asian grinders" would enjoy the game.  Good to know gankers will as well.

>_>

Originally posted by SonikFlash

I'll be ganking my weasily black heart out. Why?  Because Elyos are elitist pigs and I love to kill em =)

:(

Meanie

I suppose the grind is present, but to be honest as far as levels are concerned once I broke 25, I rocketed up, you basically go from dungean to dungean and get free exp

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Originally posted by fiontar

It's a game for gankers. Few others will have long term enjoyment from the game.

 

...and here I thought only those that like "Asian grinders" would enjoy the game.  Good to know gankers will as well.

>_>

Well although fiontar may have exaggerated a bit, you gotta admit that this game is a ganker's dream come true

 

I think devs should put some ingame mechanics to stop lvl 50's ganking newbies or I fear game will empty in less than one year when regular players start leaving for the next big title and newcomers say bye because of gankers

 

Another retard that needs a dose of L2P - the devs did put in a mechanic if a high level player ransacks lowbies they LOOSE ABYSS POINTS... mean they cannot buy armour or use high abyss rank skills if they loose to many points.

Originally posted by jomargue

Originally posted by Wickedjelly

Originally posted by fiontar

It's a game for gankers. Few others will have long term enjoyment from the game.

 

...and here I thought only those that like "Asian grinders" would enjoy the game.  Good to know gankers will as well.

>_>

 

 

Well although fiontar may have exaggerated a bit, you gotta admit that this game is a ganker's dream come true

You may be correct but it will mean a loss of subscriptions, folks are not gonna pay to get ganked all the time.

Jihad works both ways

Originally posted by Regnevanz

 

I think devs should put some ingame mechanics to stop lvl 50's ganking newbies or I fear game will empty in less than one year when regular players start leaving for the next big title and newcomers say bye because of gankers

 

 

Another retard that needs a dose of L2P - the devs did put in a mechanic if a high level player ransacks lowbies they LOOSE ABYSS POINTS... mean they cannot buy armour or use high abyss rank skills if they loose to many points.

 

Did I miss something, but atleast according to e.g. this thread at AionSource.com and this blog they say that you will only lose abyss points from dying. That being the case I wonder in which scenario does a level 50 player lose against, say, a level 27 player? I think just this uneven fighting is what concerns most and is what is here refered to as ganking. If there are no counter-measures to prevent something from happening it will happen. Saying that you won't gain anything from killing a player of that much lower level means nothing for the people who get their kicks from ruining others' gaming experience (see e.g. Darkfall newbie ganking). And there are these people on every multiplayer game I have thus far played from MUDs to FPS to MMOs. Sure you can rely on something as "player driven punishment" but that is a bunch of empty words in 99% of cases.

If you indeed do lose points from killing someone significantly lower level than you in Abyss, then, I do agree that there are sufficient safeguards in position to prevent ganking from happening. Although even this isn't foolproof as there may be some who e.g. want to focus on raiding and don't give a rat's ass from Abyss Points but it certainly ought to be a minority. But if there is nothing to punish you from killing a player, why not just quickly gank that newbie on your way to <enter whatever direction you're heading>.

Ganking is happening now already, so don't need to wait until people get to level 50, but guess what usually people would call friends and guild to seek revenge. 

NCsoft did put more prevention in 1.5 such as "High rank" would lose more Abyss points, and will show up on the map if he/she kill newbies.  Rift has number and level restriction, so no high level players would enter a rift which is for low level players.

For Losing in PVP, you don't really lose much in PvP.  You only lose Abyss points and maybe your dignity, that's about it.  most of time it's pretty safe in regular zone, and it's 100% safe in PvE zone (only 1 for each realm), so if people really want to avoid PvP, they can easily avoid it.

In Abyss is fair game to everyone, so it's suggested to group with people or fight near either the fortress belongs to your realm or guard tower where you receive quests and NPC will protect you.

I'm sorry folks but you either have too much time on your hands or you think too much....lol. How about just playing the game and having fun rather then being negative about Aion. If you don't like it or think it will "fail", dont play. Its pretty simple.

I'm loving Aion. I could care what others think of it. I could care less if the hardcore gamers leave because they decided to rush to 50 and run out of content in a few months. I bought the game to have fun, plan and simple. You all really need to do the same or just cancel your sub and go try something else. Because honestly, all you whiners do nothing but ruin the community anyway... 

Do us all a favor and leave Aion to folks that are enjoying it!! :-)

The developers seem to have made a choice to strike a balance between allowing open world pvp to happen (and thus ganking) but also to realize that unchecked open world pvp kills server growth as new players cannot advance.  If somebody wants to start on an Aion server 6 months or a year from now, here are some of the allowances that the developers have made for them.

(1)  There are three categories of zones, the completely RvR Abyss, completely pvp free zones (zones without pvp are sharded so you can always find a spot), and zones with "rifts" where only a few small number of level-appropriate characters can enter before and only every 90 minutes per spot.   So a new player can choose "unwanted pvp free," "limited pvp," or a full pvp zone.  As there are group areas in every zone, a player could concienably play the whole game and enjoy endgame content without the possibility of ganking.  So I do not think that the possibility of ganking in some zones kills the game.

(2)   Even in the Abyss, the rewards are set up to discourage ganking.  Abyss points, awarded in the abyss for pvp and pvE are the only way to achieve "Maximimum level endgame armor."  A new player just setting foot into the abyss for the first time awards fewer Abyss Points (AP) than a high level mob, so it is ineffient to gank low level players instead of high level players or even PvE (which generally gives lousy awards taken alone).  Plus, deaths penalties in the Abyss scale and somebody can lose days or weeks worth of progress towards max level armor if they die at max level.  Given this penalty (and the significant bounty of Abyss points that your death awards)  trying to gank lowbies for almost no rewards in zones that are less than 2 minutes away from big cities seems low reward/high risk.    You are not just risking your place on the ladder but also your progress towards endgame armor.

(3)  The death penalty for a low level player who gets ganked and who isnt ready to start accumulating abyss points is inconsequential.  Surprisingly, in many ways it is still "safer" in the pvp zones, occaisionally getting ganked, than in the pvE zones where the Pve is much harder and where tricky pulls or respawns can quickly accumulate a costly death penalty.

What could kill the game for new players in 6 months is the huge emphasis that the game has on grouping.  I think North Americans/Europeans are used to handholding and solo-friendly gameplay, and you can even GO to the abyss without finishing a quest that pretty much requires you to group (because the mobs are that tough) if grouping gets hard to do (and if the LFG channel is unusable because it is filled with spam), then that could cause frustration.

I like how most people in this thread didn't even answer the OPs question.  They just gave their mini review of the game and called other people stupid.  I guess that's mmorpg.com for you.

As for the OPs question, I would say yes it will attract a few new players but not as much as other games made in the west. 

Originally posted by mrbbman

I would have to say that Aion is designed with a veteran MMO player in mind. It incorporates many things that players liked about other MMOs. If I hadn't played another MMO before I would probably find the game complex and intimidating. Then again I started on EQ, which some people found to be complex and intimidating so who's to say? My guess is that this MMO will only reach EQ sized audiences (which is still a very good audience mind you) but it won't draw new people into the fold. KOTOR and Star Trek Online will probably do more for that than this game will.

I don't play nor plan to play Aion.  If it was designed for MMO vets then chances are it's greatest numbers are here now and it will be a steady decline for months to come.  If the vet players were going to play it, then they mostly likely are already, which means you have the newish players left.  If Aion is too intimidating then your not going to get many new subs.  I think it will find it's balance, but I wouldn't expect the same numbers it has now in 3 or 4 months.

Remember back when you guys were waiting for Aion to come out? I still am, and im pretty sure im not alone. I avoid both betas and launches like the plague... And im a pvper, getting ganked is part of the trade for me. From where i stand people racing to cap and endgear are mostly;

A) Top guilds, the guys fighting to be the first at everything and who are in it for the RvR/PvE. Smart ones usually care about good pr and dont go out of their way to gank lowbies unless it gets them KOS with anti PKers or someone who makes for good pvp. Since this game is strictly RvR PvP this guys are unlikely to make trouble as they dont need to make enemies. Theres almost always an obnoxious top guild that might do some ganking but its usually kept in check by the others.

B) Insecure pve players that got into a pvp game, usually the "beat someone the first day in prison" type. These are the guys so afraid of getting ganked theyll make up by grinding like degenerates. A few will turn into the mean kind of ganker but most of those who stay will eventually relax, adjust, and go back to their carebear ways helping lowbies. These guys are unlikely to gank new players.

C) Competitive players, regardless of background. More likely to duke it out with people their own level. This guys are likely to advance somewhat slower than A) or B) as theyll be wanting to figure things out on their own. Theyll take advantage of a good oportunity but mostly they wont waste their time ganking much, being more time conscious. Also this guys will be spending more time on alts so they might have some more sympathy for newcomers.

D) Lousy griefers, and i mean lousy as descriptor not an insult. Griefers that know what theyre doing will not worry much about level cap as theyll be using alts a lot, so they concentrate on playing an op class at a certain level range and gank at a niche where theyll know to have little risk and more victims. Since bad griefers are usually bad players theyll eventually run into trouble or ragequit at the first chance. Anoying bunch but not much of a problem.

E) Casuals who raced out of launch excitement and will later go back to their old ways (playing markets, soloing, etc) a few will transition into a diferent kind of player but those who can pvp will behave more like C). The rest wont bother much with ganking.

Im sure there are many players who are just waiting for the initial rush to die out and for the big issues to be settled (queues and such) also there many pvpers that will likely wander in just to give it a try. The game will loose many players the first three months but its likely to atract a decent number of players on the next three, a lot will just be curious. Myself i never started leveling at launch in any game and never found myself in trouble for it. Yea, carebears may suffer a bit, but most of those who were gonna give the game a try are already in. In my experience comunities in games with open pvp tend to be better as theres a very real reason to keep things cool. I think Aion may have atracted too many pve people (and way too much WOW people) so it might have a larger number of subs leaving than otherwise. It will be alright tho. There might be a couple of half empty servers after a while but not to a degree that will cause mergers on the first year. Once the games been around for a while theres a good chance it will grow.  If nothing else the design is very atractive.

As much as I dont want to, if I dont see lvl30 wings on Elyos, I leave them alone /shrug

Others don't feel that restricted. I've been attacked by people 10 levels higher than me. I don't mind, but it happens.

(You can't tell the level of your opponent ingame, but you can always visit the official site and check their profile. Once you're dead, that is).

I think its a fair indication if you get the drop on them and can't move their hp bar a single hit point it was a bad idea :P that said with the restrictions and the diminishing returns I've seen very few upper 30's hanging around high 20's areas. So new players shouldnt be overthreatened