Originally posted by EricDanie

Originally posted by markoraos

Originally posted by EricDanie

 By the way, Aion offers a PvPvE "Battleground" and Arcade-style Instances.

The PvPvE battleground works as a race to kill a Balaur (the NPC race) commander inside a ship, players have many different routes to take which use different strategies. Killing enemy monsters award them points, and killing enemy players (you may stumble on the enemy group from the other race that is in the same ship) will drain points from them.

There is a set time and whoever gets more points in the end wins, be it the end by commander death or by time out.

And the PvE instances, like I said before, work in an arcade-style (that is what they call 'em). They offer you different paths with different difficulties, and the faster you get through to the boss,  the stronger he will be and better loot he will carry. Sounds a lot more interesting to me than the usual instanced dungeons concept.

 

Hmm, the description of PvPvE open realm is not really accurate. Tho the Balur are the third faction and yes, there is the "boss" balaur carrier ship, the RvR itself is very very important as well. There are 8 castles in the Abyss, each uniquely designed and with a farmable instanced dungeon inside (from v1.5). Obviously the faction that holds the castle gets to farm the instance which is a good reason to defend it. In addition castles give gold income to the leader of the guild who claimed it. (info from kilkil2, the nice korean guy)

The third faction, the npc Balaur, can attack and take over player-held castles, especially if they're left vacant, and even join ongoing sieges. They randomly ally with one player faction or the other and it seems that they tend to help the underdog. (dev interview info)

And finally, besides the Abyss and PvP instances there is the raiding option. The PvE zones have portals to the oposing realm which periodically open and close. You can go through them and lay waste to the enemies PvE zones... However you are out of your own territorry and respawning can get risky (the kisk respawn stone that you drop can be very easily destroyed). There are even infiltration quests that require you to go and do damage to the enemies soft underbelly. :)

 

I was writing about the PvPvE Battleground (instanced map) that was added in 1.5.

I just wanted to mention things to do besides Abyss world PvP, that has the battle for artifacts and castles control you described pretty well, but it may not be always that you wish to do massive PvP, especially when the castles aren't avaiable for capture or defense as they are within the non-capture timeframe.

 

Oh soz, my mistake then. :)

Yeah, the insta battlegrounds were pretty reviled in WAR until they whittled their rewards to down below the open RvR ones. Now it's a cool way to spend the 15 minutes waiting for someone to log in , or the warband to assemble. Nice, I have nothing whatsoever against instanced PvP as long as the world PvP is alive and well.

I think Aion's PvP (RvR) system is very well thought out. Though you loose AP by dying there is still a good reason to go to Abyss.. and that is AP gained through PvE there. You can get your carrot even if there is no one around. The size of the carrot tho depends on your skill and cunning. Very cool.

And as for rifts... well imo the PvE carebears, raiders or whatever had their way for far too long. It's only fair that PvP people get a quality mmo finally, don't you think? It's not like we have that many options...

Originally posted by EricDanie

 By the way, Aion offers a PvPvE "Battleground" and Arcade-style Instances.

The PvPvE battleground works as a race to kill a Balaur (the NPC race) commander inside a ship, players have many different routes to take which use different strategies. Killing enemy monsters award them points, and killing enemy players (you may stumble on the enemy group from the other race that is in the same ship) will drain points from them.

There is a set time and whoever gets more points in the end wins, be it the end by commander death or by time out.

And the PvE instances, like I said before, work in an arcade-style (that is what they call 'em). They offer you different paths with different difficulties, and the faster you get through to the boss,  the stronger he will be and better loot he will carry. Sounds a lot more interesting to me than the usual instanced dungeons concept.

Hmm, the description of PvPvE open realm is not really accurate. Tho the Balur are the third faction and yes, there is the "boss" balaur carrier ship, the RvR itself is very very important as well. There are 8 castles in the Abyss, each uniquely designed and with a farmable instanced dungeon inside (from v1.5). Obviously the faction that holds the castle gets to farm the instance which is a good reason to defend it. In addition castles give gold income to the leader of the guild who claimed it. (info from kilkil2, the nice korean guy)

The third faction, the npc Balaur, can attack and take over player-held castles, especially if they're left vacant, and even join ongoing sieges. They randomly ally with one player faction or the other and it seems that they tend to help the underdog. (dev interview info)

And finally, besides the Abyss and PvP instances there is the raiding option. The PvE zones have portals to the oposing realm which periodically open and close. You can go through them and lay waste to the enemies PvE zones... However you are out of your own territorry and respawning can get risky (the kisk respawn stone that you drop can be very easily destroyed). There are even infiltration quests that require you to go and do damage to the enemies soft underbelly. :)

Originally posted by nailszz6

Eylos.. I can already see from the %, imbalance FTW.  I wonder what playNC does when all of the launch Asmodeans get tired of getting zergrolled, and instead decide to reroll as Elyos.

There's a third faction in there to balance things out and run with the underdog if need be. And, oh yeah, annoy the hell out of everybody. :)

If you leave a keep undefended the Balaur npc faction will eventually take it. They might attack even if it is defended. From a devs interview I learned that they might even crash a siege and join one faction or the other or just stomp on everybody. (this last one is unconfirmed by players tho, as far as I've been able to research)

From what I heard on the other post from the cool korean guy who's been playing it from korean beta, it even seems that the ultimate Balaur boss is so tough that Elyos and Asmodeans should (and actually can) band together to take it down.

Originally posted by EduardoASG

Been following Aion for a while and i was surprised with the NCSoft change of plans for Aion beta.

First, they only providing a very limited number of keys to promotional websites..

Second, they offering beta acess to whoever pre_order their game.. Pre_Order a game the costumer doesnt know as a way to acess a limited preview or else? Has the gaming industry marketing schemes came so low that they have to use theese methods to sell a game?

Makes you think.. "What piece of c..' am i preordering ?"

 

Are you crazy or insane?

The game's been out for almost 9 months in far east.

Whatever it may be it most certainly isn't "unfinished" in any way.

As I said, WAR has its problems and many things annoy me to no end.

However, when I hear people bitching about stuff that's pretty much obviously their problem and not the game's I blow my top.

As for Mythic again... Well the game could have been much better and the blame is on Mythic. There were many bad decisions there which the original fan base kept warning about and they were ignored. Just one example is the two-faction system which is pretty much obviously an inherently unstable one. Any game design student worth his salt could have told you that. You use 2-faction models when you want to create a game system that is "finisheable". One side eventually gets advantage and positive feedback loop magnifies this advantage till the game finally ends. A mmo is a game system that cannot have an endgame, by definition - you want people to play indefinitely, rather than just till the "finish" the game. Therefore you need at least 3 factions to keep balancing each other through alliances which makes the system self-regulating. (Or 2 with a negative-feedback regulating mechanism like in Aion).

That's just one of the most glaring flaws in WAR design and I'm mightily pissed off to realize that Mythic actually didn't have a clue about one of the main reasons why DAOC was such a success. While other PvP mmos suffered meltdowns though inherent imbalances with 2-faction or anarchistic (which lead to one group dominating) systems they (randomly, it seems now) stumbled into the winning formula with their 3 factions.

T4 campaign is sucky. But it is playable and enjoyable. It could be much much better but it is something when compared to what else is on the market. Keep design is horrible - keep sieges are tactically dull and a repetetive pain. The only thing saving them is the strategic context they happen in. There is no real variety to open PvP on a tactical level - why didn't they diversify the keeps and bos? Why no contestible PQs in RvR lakes? Why are RvR lakes so small, linear and empty when compared to PvE areas? See? I can bash WAR as well - it is a bashable game, no doubt about it.

But I digress. I know WAR's flaws, but for christs sake the crap I sometimes get to read on this site has no relation to sanity or reality. If you want to criticize WAR then at least make an effort and state real problems and flaws.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by markoraos

 

The game has its flaws. However they are not the ones you listed. You are talking as a WoW player who wanted to play Wow. Well guess what, WAR isn't Wow and if you play it as WoW then you'll be disappointed. Because it isn't WoW. Do you realize that? Can you even comprehend it? The best possible game for people who play WoW-style is WoW. Any onther game will be inferior simply because there can't be any other game more WoW-like than WoW.

Scenarios popping are just an example. If you play it WoW-style, logging into a queue and waiting doing nothing you WILL be inevitably disappointed. Because this is what you do in WoW. You log into a queue and wait for scen to pop. In WAR it is different, you DO NOT WAIT for a scen to pop - it is a game with different gameplay dynamic. In WAR you can go and do things, including RvR while "waiting" for a scen... and when scen eventually pops you say "oh cool, i might do that or i might continue whatever I'm doing"... which is different from WoW where you have to stand by a NPC and fiddle your thumbs so it really is important that you don't wait for bgs too long... which is NOT a problem in WAR, due to it having a different game dynamic. Can you even comprehend that there are games out there that utilize a game dynamic different from WoW's? Or are you so brainwashed that it is really incomprehensible to you?

This is like talking to a brick wall ffs.

 Surprise...

No, actually you can join BG's in WOW from everywhere. Surprise. You quest, even do daily  open world PvP quests and when you feel the urge to do a BG, you join. ... A few seconds later the queue is open.

You no longer need to talk to an NPC.

You also can FULL level (experience) only through PvP in Wow. New in patch 3.2.

You now also can shut down experience gains both in PVE and PVP.

You can also have dual specs and changing from a full tank to a full healer in ... 3 seconds ... in a dungeon/raid. One button and wham: gear changed accordingly right in the middle of nowhere. How about a portable bank to store the second or thirs pvp set. PvP gear and Pve gear change for that instant BG: one button. ....

So ? Where is that dynamic offer now ?

 You know what that shows?

It shows that (Xn,... Sn) = WOW is the formula everyone needs to AVOID instead of making another WOW clone.

Blizzard just has all the cards in hands. And the one or two good cards they can lay their hands on, they integrate and the result is known now for the last 4 years.

Get out of the playing bracket, that's the only solution for the competition. It is very simple.

Make OTHER mmo's instead of Wow clones. Simple.

 

 

Lol, wow copied WAR's scenario queuing system along with PvP XP ALTHOUGH PvPers have been yelling for it FOR AGES and now WAR is a WoW clone? And don't get me started on the "WoW version" of orvr... lol...

The twinks were ruining PvP for YEARS ffs! And they didn't do ANYTHING about it! Christ how hard could it have been to put "here's 10 xp for each kill in a scen" ffs! Jeez, being thankful for PvP XP in Wow is like saying "thank you" when you get a kiss after being raped.

Lol....

Just lol.

I don't care if they make WoW the God Jesus of MMOs (which it is obviously not) with all the stuff I ever wanted in it. They are dirty. They copy and steal things from other games only when they see they work and that they cannot justify not having them... and even then they supidify them and make them pointless and too late. Their title system is just an example. And how many bgs are there in WoW after all those years? You running that same old "who gives a sh***" if we win or loose AB" still? With cross-servering and the money they have they could have at least 50+ bgs running there already with no problem whatsoever, both in production and eventual waiting times. But they're not doing it. They could have fixed the horrible annoyance of scenario queuing and grinding PvE for PvP YEARS ago but they didn't - and why? Because they don't really care - they did it only when someone forced them into it. If it weren't for WAR you'd be still standing by that npc twiddling your thumbs. Lol.

This whole conversation is completely pointless and ludicrous. I see no reason to continue it.

Originally posted by Vilu

Ok thanks all!

I guess pre-oder it is, after all, it's just money and i can't have any of it with me when it all ends ;)

That's the true spirit that will get us all out of recession!

Salut!

(I'm preordering my copy right now :) )

Hey man, awesome info you're giving here and I thank you very much for it. :)

I'd like to know some more general stuff regarding gameplay experience itself, the stuff that's pretty important to me and lotsa PvP players out there but they don't seem to get asked...

1) PvP XP. When can you start getting it and what is the rate compared to PvE?

2) I heard about Colliseum (that's pre 25 PvP instance) and it sounds cool.. however do you get XP from participating and is there more than one pre-25 PvP instance in the game?

3) How's PvP instance queuing? Can you join up from anywhere in the world or do you have to talk to a NPC? Are they open all the time or are they cyclical? Is there cross-servering or do you play with only the guys from your server?

4) Balaur - what's their impact on the game? Do they appear in abyss only and how often?

5) Guilds - I heard there are 3 ranks to them. How is guild UI? What are the customization options? Is there an auto-tax system? Guild bank? Alliances?

6) What is the average death waiting time? When you die do you have to run for ages down the same old road to get back to the action or can you rejoin the fray pretty quickly? I don't mind death penalties/debuffs and whatnots but I detest any kind of death time sink longer than 30 seconds (or a few minutes if we wipe). I like my PvP fast and furious with minimum downtime. :)

7) What are the rewards for raiding enemies PvE zones? Is it only an occasional AP or do you get scouting quests for example? Can you farm other faction's PvE areas if you're able to hold on there?

8) And finally can you utilize non-character actions in PvP, especially open? Meaning: summon allied monsters and npcs, use siege weaponry, trigger certain PvP-related events such as zone-wide buffs/debuffs etc etc or is it just I can outdps your hp before you can outdps mine?

Thank you extremely much for the info!

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by markoraos

Originally posted by Zorndorf

@ Markoroas.

Wow has since patch 3.2 leveling through PVP and since 3.1 joining BG's from anywhere.

Since these 2 new things in WAR destroyed that game's RvR, you would think it would destroy Wow.

Nothing could be further from the truth of course, because Blizzard integrates all good things and actually makes them work inside their own game system.

----- > Why does it work in WOW and not in WAR?

Because WOW uses clustered BG servers. So joining a BG is joining in a queue of around 200.000 players. On max level that's a 1 min opening time. You have 30 minutes, you want a fight at 08.00AM. No problem. In War you would be waiting ....

Because WOW (limited) RvR is all concentrated in one zone where everyone just happens to be and so half of the server is already present (in that part's main capitol). Hence 100vs100 fights every night on every server. In WAR you end up fighting NPC's in non guarded Keeps...

You see : these two simple examples show the difference between Mythic and Blizzard.

Comparing the two things always worked against Mythic's child. Always. No matter how many times you would say Wow is crap. IF it were true, it would only mean War was crappier.

Now those are your words. I don't agree with using them, but you started it (again).

 

Yappa yappa yappa.

I could never get into wow bgs precisely because they're pointless instant gratification, precisely because of cross servering.

In WAR you fight against people you know. For something that actually impacts the game world. My gaming session usually consists of orvr with queueing for scenarios. If the scenarios are slow coming I do open RvR which is always happening somewhere and I never waste a minute my gaming time. There is always some action in the world and even at 4 AM I can find 5 more people on the server who want to take over some battlefield objectives. When we start taking them those few guys not asleep on the other side notice that and they gang up to stop us. Fun and mayhem ensues.

If you stand in a WC all night and bitch that scenarios are not popping then you deserve being bored. And you can shove those pointless WOW bgs where the sun don't shine mate. Making WAR scens cross servered like in wow would be one of the things that really could break the game for me.

 

Players are not to be blamed in WAR that their scenarios don't open.

Players are not to be blamed they have to fight NPC's in RVR end game content with no "real players" in sight.

Players are not to be blamed they can't have PvP 24/24 hours around the clock.

Players are not even to be blamed there are no full/full servers anymore to get the game going.

Only Mark Jacobs and Mythic are to be blamed for that.

I let you in on some secret: players want to have FUN in a game, and "meaningful" RVR that simply doesn't exist on 90% of the servers or "PvP that doesn't open" due to some realm limits ... is no fun at all.

Those are game mechanics.  Game mechanics prime hype anytime. A BIG mistake WAR didn't have server clusters and much more concentrated RvR zones.

In fact Mythic screwed up about anything they could screw up: from unresponsive laggy gameplay to the core design of simply what people search for in ANY game.

 

The game has its flaws. However they are not the ones you listed. You are talking as a WoW player who wanted to play Wow. Well guess what, WAR isn't Wow and if you play it as WoW then you'll be disappointed. Because it isn't WoW. Do you realize that? Can you even comprehend it? The best possible game for people who play WoW-style is WoW. Any onther game will be inferior simply because there can't be any other game more WoW-like than WoW.

Scenarios popping are just an example. If you play it WoW-style, logging into a queue and waiting doing nothing you WILL be inevitably disappointed. Because this is what you do in WoW. You log into a queue and wait for scen to pop. In WAR it is different, you DO NOT WAIT for a scen to pop - it is a game with different gameplay dynamic. In WAR you can go and do things, including RvR while "waiting" for a scen... and when scen eventually pops you say "oh cool, i might do that or i might continue whatever I'm doing"... which is different from WoW where you have to stand by a NPC and fiddle your thumbs so it really is important that you don't wait for bgs too long... which is NOT a problem in WAR, due to it having a different game dynamic. Can you even comprehend that there are games out there that utilize a game dynamic different from WoW's? Or are you so brainwashed that it is really incomprehensible to you?

This is like talking to a brick wall ffs.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

I played WAR and and I am not willing to invest time and money  in Aion because of what I saw in Lotro, Ad&D, TR, AoC and WAR.... You name it (exception PotBS, at least these guys tried to bring something new).

All the same game: leveling through exp. Heal, tank, spank, fantasy and wanting your subs money with half baken (this time Korean) copycats of what Blizzard has at their disposal.

Aion will recruit the same mmorpg hoppers every new product enjoys with every launch. With every hype and lie (remember the fake non confirmed 3.5 M subs already) and every hopper will want to defend his "investment" of 50 bucks....

The same 500K hoppers that jump form game to game and stay ... for the free playing month.

NO game published in these last 4 years attained more than 200K past the 6 months launch.

Mostly they just cannibalize each other.

What's the use of discussing the differences as big as an ant with exactly the same game if the development isn't even on par with the industry leader. The game everyone of your friends in RL play.

As long as any "new" mmorpg only can show a new river bend and a stat changer on gear, they just kill off each other.

So what's the use of comparing ?!?! ---> The mmorpg hoppers will hop ... and leave with a 25% stay defending they found " the best game ever" until the next copycat goes after the Blizzard goldmine.

Next.

Is this another "We are the wow, all resistance is futile" from you Zorn?

Originally posted by Zorndorf

@ Markoroas.

Wow has since patch 3.2 leveling through PVP and since 3.1 joining BG's from anywhere.

Since these 2 new things in WAR destroyed that game's RvR, you would think it would destroy Wow.

Nothing could be further from the truth of course, because Blizzard integrates all good things and actually makes them work inside their own game system.

----- > Why does it work in WOW and not in WAR?

Because WOW uses clustered BG servers. So joining a BG is joining in a queue of around 200.000 players. On max level that's a 1 min opening time. You have 30 minutes, you want a fight at 08.00AM. No problem. In War you would be waiting ....

Because WOW (limited) RvR is all concentrated in one zone where everyone just happens to be and so half of the server is already present (in that part's main capitol). Hence 100vs100 fights every night on every server. In WAR you end up fighting NPC's in non guarded Keeps...

You see : these two simple examples show the difference between Mythic and Blizzard.

Comparing the two things always worked against Mythic's child. Always. No matter how many times you would say Wow is crap. IF it were true, it would only mean War was crappier.

Now those are your words. I don't agree with using them, but you started it (again).

Yappa yappa yappa.

I could never get into wow bgs precisely because they're pointless instant gratification, precisely because of cross servering.

In WAR you fight against people you know. For something that actually impacts the game world. My gaming session usually consists of orvr with queueing for scenarios. If the scenarios are slow coming I do open RvR which is always happening somewhere and I never waste a minute my gaming time. There is always some action in the world and even at 4 AM I can find 5 more people on the server who want to take over some battlefield objectives. When we start taking them those few guys not asleep on the other side notice that and they gang up to stop us. Fun and mayhem ensues.

If you stand in a WC all night and bitch that scenarios are not popping then you deserve being bored. And you can shove those pointless WOW bgs where the sun don't shine mate. Making WAR scens cross servered like in wow would be one of the things that really could break the game for me.

Originally posted by Anthara

Originally posted by markoraos

And yes, the customers were playing wrong and Mythic was screwing the poodle by not showing clearly how to play right (probably even they didn't know it, in fact it is very possible that was actually the case). I still stand firmly by that statement of mine. I had loads of fun even before the orvr influence and the rest. It was enough to yell "lets show them what we're made of! /join me for BLOOD!" and you'd have some pretty rough fun, no matter what the effing grind rewards were.

 

I am sorry but... are you really using your brain for a second? You wrote 500.000 lines of text and you didnt even stop to think what you was saying?

How can you say (or Mythic or whatever else) that the costumers were playing it wrong???? LOL ...wait, I need to focus before my brain dies in a painful death from such idiotic, childish and ignorant statment. So the game sucks, but its the costumer fault cause he dont know how to play it. Dam, Mythic must be so brilliant that they made such an imba game that people cant figure out a way to play it correctly.

People play what a game has to offer, in any kind of game.... ANY. Some offer bigger variaty of stuff to do, others less, but in the end we all play our own way in a world created with certain mechanics.

 

Anyway, thats so disrespectful (my english is kinda crap btw) to gamers that I cant even believe Im reading it.

What?

As I said. I had fun at game's release. I saw the game for what it was and played it to have fun. And so I did. I got a bunch of cutthroats together and we went off to raise hell in orvr, no matter if that gives us better xp/hour or whatever. The folks who stood in WCs waiting for the scen to pop so they could grind up to max asap (aka the wowheads, unable to comprehend that you can actually DO things while waiting for a scenario) left the game because they didn't know how to make it fun for them. In the end they burned out of self-inflicted boredom and left the game bitching all the time about something they actually inflicted on themselves.

I had fun, they didn't. I'm still happily playing and enjoying the game and they aren't. What they got is this site and the right to bitch how the game sucks. Well who won? I got my money and time's worth back a tenfold. Life is what you make of it kiddo.

Originally posted by Shol

 

Just stand there, and press the exact same sequence of hotkeys every single fight. Repetitive is an understatement.

Dont think NCSoft claimed to invent some new revolutionary combatsystem for the game. You get the usual thing + some flying.

 

Lemme just elaborate on this.

The guy being quoted in the above quote is fulla crap, obviously.

Or completely ignorant and imperceptive? Whatever... but he's presenting himself as some kind of authority with actual experience.

In Aion if you move forward you get +20% damage bonus, if you move back you get a bonus to block and sidestep gives you a dodge bonus. Jumping while attacking gives you a combo of buffs/debuffs. Additionally there's loads of bonuses to be gained in positional attacks and not only for the rogue type classes.

What is wrong with this site? Who are those people posting here ffs?

So far Aion looks great to me.

The only real gripe that I have is that I'll have to PvE to 25 before I get the chance to PvP. From that point on it sounds like a dream, especially with XP from PvP they introduced recently.

But that's easily fixable I suppose... Just put 3 or so instanced BGs for levels 1-25 and I'll be a happy puppy. Nothing annoys me more than having to do the same old boring quests and "storylines" (meh) for each alt... But I guess WAR spoiled me in that respect - create a char, press that scenario button 1 sec after logging into the world and off you go. I could never EVER go back to the "PvE so you can PvP" crap again, but I'll make an exception for Aion.

/oh I just learned about the Colliseum. Cool. If there are several versions of it and you can advance xp there I AM a happy puppy.

Originally posted by todeswulf

I see the shills are out in force today.

Exactly. I wonder who sent them. /rolleyes

This whole thing with new mmos coming out and being butchered here with the "big lie" propaganda is getting so tiresome.. But hey, that's the way of the world. A 100$ mil a month can buy you a lot of love (and hate).

Originally posted by popinjay

 

---

Originally posted by markoraos

---

Originally posted by Newhopes

 

I've played on the Korean servers for a while now and all I can say is the end game pvp blows WAR away the little pve there is is based on open dungeons that normaly end up as big brawls as both side's fight over the bosses.

---

 
I'll admit that this sounds promising, but I'll wait to see what's the final score. As always I might turn out wrong, but leveling is a huge turn off for me (yes, WAR has it, to its shame) - and especially steep stratification of players according to their levels (grind for power ftw!). Additionally I don't see any depth in Aion's world design and that is what is the most important thing to me. Will the world constantly change and be different every time I log in? This is the only feature that can really justify paying a monthly subscription for me.

---

 

 

We'll save you a spot in the RvR, don't worry.

 

 

Whenever you're ready to leave, AION will be waiting.

Oh I don't think I'll be leaving WAR soon. I might play *gasp* TWO mmorpgs at the same time! Like... you know, the old days? When we played more than one game at a time? Lol.

Originally posted by Rohn

Originally posted by sancher36

Have to congratulate you guys on doing your best to destroy a game that had a load of potential. Since land of the dead even the t4 zones that were rocking are now almost totally dead.

All the people I know are logging in less and less and even my guild leaders are quitting to go play aion once release. I predict there will be nothing left to salvage of this game in 5-6 months time.

You keep coming up with promises to fix imbalances and CC issues yet fail to come up with the goods, months of waiting is not worth it.

 

 

 

Other than the first few days after the implementation of LotD, my experience with RvR does not match what you describe.  I haven't had much problem at all in finding RvR in the lakes on Phoenix Throne.

What server do you play on?

Yeah, me too. I play on Karak Norn EU and although for the first 3-4 days everybody seemed to take a vacation to the south things came back to normal pretty fast. Lotsa killing to be had in T4 zones and there's always someone shouting for reinforcements somewhere.

Tho I was a bit skeptical about lotd at first I admit that it did not manage to kill the orvr. I still stand by my opinion that it would have been much better as a regular and always open rvr zone but with PQs and PvE stuff mixed in (what's sorely missing in existing RvR lakes).  However, it's not that bad even like this - a vacation from the relentless T4 war.

Originally posted by Newhopes

I've played on the Korean servers for a while now and all I can say is the end game pvp blows WAR away the little pve there is is based on open dungeons that normaly end up as big brawls as both side's fight over the bosses.

I'll admit that this sounds promising, but I'll wait to see what's the final score. As always I might turn out wrong, but leveling is a huge turn off for me (yes, WAR has it, to its shame) - and especially steep stratification of players according to their levels (grind for power ftw!). Additionally I don't see any depth in Aion's world design and that is what is the most important thing to me. Will the world constantly change and be different every time I log in? This is the only feature that can really justify paying a monthly subscription for me.

Originally posted by Pheace

From that description WAR sounds like the same "crap" you're condemning the rest of the games over, except you get to spend your first day or so already doing what you'll get to do the rest of your gaming life.

"Working" to get to something. You see it that way, I don't. There's no reason the way up there can't be just as fun, even if it's something different. Levelling in WoW, and then the endgame, both can be fun. Levelling in Daoc, and then the endgame, both could be fun. It all depends what you want to do.

 

So all you care about is the PvP. I don't see why you're playing MMOrpgs then to be honest. LotD must be 10.000 thorns in your Eye right now. Gear, Weapons, Talismans that all give people that extra edge, and it's 90% PvE except for the purge.

 

A good FPS would seem to suit you much better. Heck, I play TF2 almost daily, maybe it's a good alternative for you. You even get *all* your items through PvP there! No Levels! :o

 

I grew tired of "pure" PvE because I don't see any point to it whatsoever in a multiplayer environment.

PvE is best suited for single-player games where you don't have other living people constantly reminding you that this mob with an epic quest is really just a bunch of pixels in an excel spreadsheet somewhere - quite detrimental to the required willing suspension of disbelief, no? Cooperative mp PvE can be a blast as well but it is pretty much pointless if  you want to build a persistent world. What the devs simply can't (or refuse to) grasp is that the only real enemy of man is man itself. That's how we function as species. There is no drama if there is no human opponent, even if only on a cooperative/competetive scale. (lol wow raiding would be completely pointless if there weren't other guilds and people trying to accomplish the same "PvE" goal). Even in so called "monster" movies there is always a living human antagonist to provide a dramatic conflict that the inhuman monster cannot provide.

A good FPS is a joy, however they all lack persistence, and what is more important, strategic depth. I'm not turned on by sheer twitch killing with no depth to it whatsoever. COD4 is WOW of online FPSs. Pure excrement in a shiny branded wrapper. I'm not interested in "mmo FPS" concept where the "FPS" consists at having to manually aim at mobs. I want a living world which is based on real conflicts between real people. Enough of that "boy hero saving the world" crap already - computer games stoped being purely kids domain a loong time ago and I have no idea why the mainstream devs still cling to this target audience.

Imo EVE online is curently the only "big" mmo that has its heart squarely in the right place. But it does have its flaws that prevent me from playing. I'm a casual gamer and it does  seem to require a bit too much comitment. A game with EVE's depth and vision and yet accomodating enough for casuals would be ideal for me, and I believe it wouldn't be that hard to design as long as you know where youre going.