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Originally posted by ste2000
Yes I am done with Aion.
I really tried hard to like it, but it is just not my kind of game (yes I know you like it.........calm down and sip your coffee).
I ve been always a bit sceptic toward eastern MMOs, or what I call the "kill 2 million rabbits to gain a level" games, but being an optimistic I really hoped Aion could be the exception.
So I preordered the game few months ago and played beta.
Wasn't extremely impressed with beta, but having a free month included (but mainly because I could not get a refund) I decided to give it a go after release.
I have to say that actually the art style of the world (I am not talking about graphics itself) are rather good, it does deliver a sense of fantasy world which many other fantasy MMO fail to deliver (Warhammer).
The scenaries in Aion are quite amazing at times, until Mech Warriors apperars (explanation on this further down the thread)
But that is the only positive aspect of the game.
The negative issues on the other hand, are quite many.
Let's start with the smaller or trivial issues:
 
1- The character Armors.............just too Korean (you know what I am talking about, pointy sharp stuff emerging from your body with not actual functionality whatsoever)
I would rather see the classic fantasy Armor set, ala Lord of the Rings (the movie) not the pointless Turbine game.
The characters in Aion looks more like Mech Warriors (see, I told you I would explain it), rather than fantasy heroes.
Also almost all the armors looks pretty uber starting from level 10 (so you feel a hero at level 10......OMG I am a hero, a HERO!), but worst of all they all look similar or rather undistinguishable from one another.
They are different and well detailed actually, but only if you really look at them very close.
But from medium, long distance I hardly can distinguish the classes from one another, let alone a player from one another, is he a warrior is he a chanter......ohhh actually it was the letter box, my bad :(
Plus, artistically they are ugly.
They are well done but not attractive at all, fairly out of place with the scenary, they are just way over the top (my own opinion)
Those armors would look good in Anarchy Online, I can see my Enforcer wearing with pride one of those Aion warrior shiny armors (Funcom take note for AO 2, I want a set of blades on the shoulders of my Enforcerer please)
 
2- The flying ability
Well, where do I start..................I ll start from the beginning I think.
Flying seems like a good idea, I hear you thinking, and I agree with you......if it only was true.
Problem is that in Aion you don't really fly.
80% of the map is offlimit, and where you can flight, you already forgot of being able to do so and you just don't do it.
But here is also another twist.
Because NCSoft gave us the "gift" of flying (thank you lads, french kissing later), they thought it would make sense for characters not being able to swim, which actually make sense if you were able to fly, although ducks do fly and swim at the same time, so it is not impossible to do both, but let's pretend ducks never existed for the sake of arguing.
The final result though, is that not only you can't fly but now you are not even able to swim, and there is not trace of a mount either, not even a donkey always useful to climb mountains and harsh terrains.
They say you will be allowed to fly more at higher level, fair enough, but I can't be bothered to get at 40 before I can use my wings.
Just let the character "ascend" at level 40 rather than level 10, having wings but not being able to use them is just frustrating and just bad design.
I have a suggestion actually, since we are allowed only limited fly and the armors look like Mechs suits, wouldn't make more sense having some rockets mounted on your back instead of having wings?
At least you can pretend you run out of fuel when you can't fly, but what is the frikking excuse of not being able to use wings most of the time, if we exclude those few unlucky ones affected by acute arthritis?
 
3- Fucking personal shops
Honestly this is the most annoying thing you can ever put in a MMO, I am aware some likes them (otherwise there would not be so many around), but I just hate them.
When you enter in a city or village you have to get through the sea (if not ocean and sometimes galaxies) of people sitted on a stool selling shit, considering there is a perfect functional AH which does the job 10 times better than a personal shop I demand to know what's the point of it.
Now I understand if people set up a stall in front of a dungeon or close to a leveling area where AH nowhere to be seen, but what is the frikking point of sell stuff in a city when the AH is just few yards away..........just pathetic.
 
4- LAG (see above)
No, I don't have a C64 which runs on oil, I have a 6 months old DDR3 ram based system, yet as soon as I approach a city or a village I have the time to take a shit, have a shower and drink a coffe before my character reach the planned destination (just few yards away by the way)
Fact is that actually the engine is quite good (considering the good graphics) and when you are in a reasonably populated area the engine works flawlessly.
But when you approach areas invaded by the above mentioned parassites, everything goes tits up.
Just bloody annoying.
 
With the above issues I could actually live with, if it wasn't for the more serious problems.............
1- Gameplay.
To me is too solo oriented
The first dungeon is at level 25..............WTF
Up to level 20 you can easily level with quests, boring but at least they do the job.
Once you hit 20 is like hitting a wall (actually it was 18 when I run out of quests) , and the game enters in complete Korean mode (the no fun mode, just to make it more clear)
You start wondering around looking for things to kill without reason and by then you start feeling the grind (there s where the famous 2 million rabbits come in action).
Problem with Aion is that it has 4-5 dungeons in all and the first one is available at level 25.
In other games if you run out of quests or you got bored of grinding you can enroll yourself in a group and pass few hours killing shit in a dungeon until you fight the final Boss who hopefully drops uber stuff (which regularly people ninja from you.....but at least you have a glimpse of hope)
None of this luck in Aion unfortunately, if you run out of quest to do, it s either grinding or log out, I usually choose the helthier option...............the second one
 
2- No community interaction
During my time in the world of Aion I never felt the need to /whisper anyone nor to get involved in general chat, not even to insult people.
I think the last game I played without the need to communicate whatsoever was Warhammer, although the chat is not dead unlike Warhammer (but do not expect any intellectual discussion going on, Barrens talk more likely)
But again, a game where there is no real need to communicate with others is not a well designed MMO in my view.
And the solution of finding a guild is not actually a real solution (I know some of you was thinking it ;) ).
I tend to join guilds at higher level, while I prefer to do PUGs and socialise with the whole server during my leveling.
So a game that force me to join a guild at level 10 in order to enjoy the social part of a MMO is not good enough for me.
You should be able or encouraged (not force) to interact with people in a MMO without the need to join a guild.
That's why I play MMOs and not Multiplayer games.................
 
3- Too few dungeons
Personally I prefer a group oriented play style, so this is a personal preference.
While I can put up with the odd solo quest and the odd grinding session, my main activity in MMOs is dungeon crawling with a group of friends or even better with complete strangers.
In Aion you will have to wait 25 levels before you can group in a dangeon, and the number of dungeons after that is quite limited.
Of course Aion is about PVP(sort of), but the lack of PVE variety just killed my enthusiasm, hence I could not bring my self to try PvP, shame.
But if the game wasn't so repetitive I would have done that, so it is not my fault.
 
In conclusion Aion is not actually a bad game (believe it or not).
Compared to other recent AAA games is rather good, unfortunately not good enough to keep me interested.
It is just average.
If you like WoW you could safely try Aion, although as much as I hate to say that, WoW is still a far better game than this one, but if you want different settings and you are bored with WoW (and you love Mech Warriors), this game can entertain you for a while.
But a WoW killer it ain't.
This is quite clearly Lineage 2 plus quests, Aion brings nothing new to the genre and certainly does nothing to address the issues Korean games have in the western market.
Shame, that is a missed opportunity from NCSoft.
Bring on Guild Wars 2 guys........that's more like it.
Although I didn't like GW because it was a multiplayer game disguised as a MMO, I believe Arenanet finally understood what MMORPG means.............so I am confident they will show their Koreans collegues how to make a good western MMO ;)

I hope you enjoyed my wall of text :)

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Mr. Set2000,

What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

--Principal

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Originally posted by Carnivorous
lol at these "OP is burned out"  comments. The industry is burned out, not the OP.
Recycling the same sh*t over and over again can last only so long.
 

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Says the dude with the Guild Wars 2 banner in his signature.

I actually like Aion. For me with MMO's it's about how the combat feels. I don't notice a grind when my attacks are fluid. (Which is why I left Warhammer)

In a nutshell, Aion is FFXI + WoW. If you liked those games, you will probably love Aion. If you are looking for something more immersive, you may have to wait.

Always wait to buy a new MMORPG. It takes a month to work out the kinks and see where everything settles. If you actually enjoy the game, the month delay will be nothing in the long run. You won't even remember it.

I haven't played Aion, but in general I don't think Bootcamp is a great solution for gaming, especially with the HD2600 ATI card. The drivers that come with bootcamp do not seem correct for this card. Even after a lot of tweaking, I never got respectable frame rates out of TF2 (which it should have handled with the same specs on a Windows box).

I also had an issue with Bootcamp messing up my system time, which I blame for some crashing issues I eventually had on my Mac. Everything went away after uninstalling.

Anyway, Mac != PC even with the same hardware. My Mac is a work-horse and probably the best machine I've ever owned, but I am saving to buy a mid-range $500 PC for gaming.

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Originally posted by skai
It was solved pretty fast. 
Look at www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php for a complete walkthrough
or do the puzzles on your own for bragging rights.
 

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Wow yeah that was much harder than I was expecting. Lol, it looks like I just stumbled across the Flickr page of the guy who was manipulating the the Flower of Life in Illustrator. Very tough puzzle.

Yeah I'm not sure about the 8. I haven't found a use for it yet.

I think I'm on to something.

The cube in the bottom right corner. 5 o'clock-ish. It has a picture of a honey comb. The words spell out Flickr, and 8.

There are alot of allusions to Flickr in the text as well. When I went there I did a search for "Sanctuary of Secrets" (in quotes). The last listing had an image that I saw on another one of the cubes.

It was named floweroflife, which was my first successful entry into the puzzle.

Well, I think that's just the thing with sandbox MMO's. It's up to the players. I think on the whole, in video games or anywhere else, there are more good people than bad. Good people also tend to be better players, and eventually whoever it was harassing you will be hunted, tracked, looted, rolled, and tossed around the game until they quit or get a clue.

So I guess what I'm saying is that although it sucks that you may get harassed at some point, in the end the game is better if the players are allowed to police it themselves.

It's gotta be Disciple of Khaine. I was in Temple of Isha last night and a 31 Dok did some 179k damage, and 78k healing. I wish I would have screenshotted it.

Me and my girlfriend both rolled Witch Elves on Badlands to see how OP they were, and I also saw a level 9 (i think?) DoK soloing a level 9 HERO!! Bear. Solo'd it.

Can't be done with any other class.

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Originally posted by dterry

 
MMO's should be fun from Day 1.

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It is. Roll a toon on Badlands server (Order side if you want an exact copy of what I did). I was able to ORvR by level 4. Scenarios popped so fast I made it to level 8 in a single night doing nothing but PvP. There was tons of action there. I actually rerolled another character in T1 rather than keep going.

Witch Hunters are complete badasses. They have the coolest looking armor in the game imo, and they live up to it. The executions they get to do with the pistol take away HUGE chunks of life, and just look cool to boot.

As a healer, I always try to keep up the WH because they seem to be the nicest blend of raw DPS and survivability. (ie Bright Wizard goes down to fast, and White Lion doesn't seem to give you the same bang for the buck.)

They are not heavily armored, but I wouldn't let that stop you. They can stand fairly tough, and the speed with which they drop squishies is pretty terrifying.

PS. The class isn't for you if you don't like dying though. Sometimes they have to trade themselves to snatch a healer. I died alot with this class, but still loads of fun.

It's the layout design. There are too many keeps, and there are too many zones to defend. Keep hopping is just a natural side-effect.

I disagree that most people see keep hopping as a means to an end - Epic rewards. I think that people just want to make headway. Face it, if you're at a keep and there are 2 full Warbands defending, you're not gonna take that keep. As boring as Keep hopping may seem, so does staring at the same flight of stares for an hour until eventually the Keep door locks and everyone gets wiped.

That's both boring, AND frustrating because it feels like a huge waste of time. The BEST battles I ever have are out in the Open. No Keep Lords, no crowded stairways, just 20 on 20 out in a lake somewhere. If we could see more of that, the game would start to make some waves.

The layout design is to blame. Players were spread too far apart. There were too many things to do across too many zones. You didn't need to visit every races' Tier to level, so players were all over the place. There was no realm pride.

I mean, look at all the good stuff this game has. PQs are nice despite what the haters say. Open Parties were another great idea. Battlefield Objectives. The Tome of Knowledge although it's sometimes TOO much. Leveling through PvP was another great idea. The game has solo quests, group quests, dungeons, PQ's, Keeps, Guild Levels, Renown Levels, EXP Levels, Guild banks, Guild Vaults, Guild Buffs, etc. etc.

This game has a TON going for it, but I think in the end the layout design just hurt it. Without any World Defense channel, and with people spread out all over the globe, it was hard to find action, and people got bored.

PS. It is getting alot better now though. With the ORvR Epic rewards, it's pretty easy to find a Keep to Siege or a BO to take now. That wasn't the case for the first few months.

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Originally posted by urbanmech

 
1.2 million copies - sold to retailers, not end users (customers)
800K subscribers - during people's first FREE month of play, much lower now
1 million active subscribers - totally wrong. I think what you are refering too was 1 million characters created. Each account could have 10 characters.

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I still don't see anything to refute what Mythic claimed in November. They had 800k subs. That was pretty well beyond the 1st month trial for people who bought at launch.

They have likely lost some players, and gained others. I've been in game lately, and it's far from a ghost town. Badlands server has near instant Scneario queues, with ORvR in at least the first 3 Tiers all over the place.

Warcraft Realms is showing 200k active subscribers through their census addon, and I'm pretty sure that is a low estimate considering the addon is still in Beta.

I think the only thing we know for sure is that WAR hasn't hit a million yet, or it would have been announced, but I also think it is much higher than just the 200-250k mentioned in some earlier posts.

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Originally posted by metalhead980

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Originally posted by Abrahmm

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Originally posted by metalhead980

Unless WAR still has more then half of its subs I believe FFXI is the most popular MMO in NA/Euro other then WoW.
I know lotro is near the 200k mark and AoC can't be over 200k either.

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What about Eve at 250k+?

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I never add in Eve with these other mmos, Personally I feel eve should be classified as a different MMO genre all together. Its a totally different type of game Ill put eve head to head with games like Jumpgate and STO later in the year.
But yeah if you wanna get technical yes Eve is up there right behind WoWs bazillion players and FFXI 500k+.

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Don't take this as a knock but how do you figure this? Warhammer sold like 1.2 million copies by November, and had like 800k subscribers. I also saw a post on this site linking to a database that showed over 1 million active subscriptions.

I got the first part of the info from here:

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=55715

Maybe it's already been said, but it lacks direction. Players too spread out doing too many things. They tried to make it appeal to everyone, and hit a point of diminishing returns.

It's worth it if you like PvP. I guess there are endgame issues where Fortress seiging is abnormally hard, but I'm only 22.

My advice would be to get on a server known for population like Badlands. Scenarios (battlegrounds) pop non-stop, and there is World RvR all over the place. You won't be bored. If anything, there is TOO much to do in this game so it can seem redundant. There's just no way to do all PQ's, all solo Quests, Scenarios, and World RvR. Just focus on what you like and you level that way.

God the OP is such a baby. It's a team game. People need to put themselves out there more and organize parties, and communicate.

It takes coordination to take a keep, or run a PQ. In FFXI people used to sit at the entrance to zones and shout for Parties all day. You couldn't even level without a good party. When have you ever tried shouting for group at a PQ or Warcamp? My guess is people are crying without ever having even TRIED organizing anything.

In Tier 4 you can't capture a city without taking control of 2 of the 3 Tiers. Holding Keeps is a big part of that, and once we have people at endgame trying to take cities, we're going to need more World RvR. Right now, the game is still maturing.

It's a good system, but you have to give it time. Two freaking weeks of a full on PvP leveling system + decent quests, good guild features, and a well-balanced class setup and people are STILL crying. Just shutup already.

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Originally posted by Blodpls

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Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

You guys are judging RvR waaaaaaay to early. Waite till the majority of players hit 40 + and start making alts.
 
Everyone playing is doing nothing but exploring the game, checking/feeling out classes, and leveling. Things will start to happen later, when people make alts and groups speficialy for RvR, start using tatics, and the guild systems ETC...

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How long are you guys gonna keep saying this for? Another week? A Month? A year?
It's been released for nearly a month now, that's more than enough time for people to get a feel for the game.
Endgame is here.
Telling people to wait does not cut it anymore.

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Yeah, I agree. I think this game is a blast right now. I'm not sure if you guys are guilded or not, but we don't seem to find a lack of World PvP on Averheim. Once the largest part of a faction levels outside a Tier the World PvP can drop off, but up until then, the RvR is pretty intense.

I also like Scenarios as a break, and so far I've enjoyed them all. I think this game is fun, so maybe if you think it's boring this is not the right game for you? I know that probably sucks to hear since there's not alot to choose from if you've been following MMO's for a while, but I think the game is pretty great.

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Originally posted by Mcpoopypants
WAR has who beat??? Noone...
Your competative yet play an easy-mode mmo?? hmmm

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Go back to school kid.