I've been really tempted to come back as it has just about everything I've been looking for in an MMO depth wise (minus factional PvP but I can do without with everything else that's there) but the fact that SoE has all but shelved the game has kind of put me in a "why bother?" state. 

Side note: The one thing that always made me sad about this game is that Kojan was never realized as a full continent )=

You're kinda late for the whole CS debacle. The big issue was that the CS items were WAY overpriced. Like, 10X what was being asked for in Russia, and Gpotato even admitted to pricing things for a "core market" or some crap which basically meant "well we expected some idiots to pay out the ass for it anyway, so we gave it a shot". Since then the prices have become reasonable. 

The main point of contention was the FoD mechanic, wherein if you die, you lose 25% of your stats  for upwards of 30min to a few hours. This stacks four times. The only way to rid yourself of it is with Incense items which are on the CS. They cost $3 for a bundle of 20 now, which at 30min a pop and only really needing to be used during raids/heavy PvP, isn't that bad. However, they used to cost considerably more. 

In the future it's going to be more of a moot point however as FoD is being removed and the Patron system revamped, at least it is in the RU version. Gpotato has actually been playing the good guy for once (likely because they don't want to lose more subscribers) and have been putting off localizing the horrendous patches that were ripping apart the RU servers, so eventually FoD should be a moot point. 

Don't listen to anyone going on and on about runes being an issue. Most of them have no idea how the rune system works or exaggerate the influence the CS has on them. You can get picks that have a fairly large one time cost that improve your chance of removing/combining runes, and that's about it. The bigger cost is in the chips used in the process. It helps a bit, but it hasn't been a game breaker from what I've seen thus far.

The biggest concerns seem to be with how CS centric development is obviously being driven. For every thing that gets fixed or overturned to be less CS dependent, something else crops up in its place. They seem to be focusing on adding more consumable and repeated expenditure items, rather than adding customization items and things that don't directly effect the playability of the game. 

That being said, it's fairly fun. PvP is in need of balancing though and there are still some bugs with abilities and such. The Astral part of the end-game is pretty much the driving force to keep playing as it's very cool. People have been complaining and trying to goad for some kind of nerf of cash shop item to reduce the time to make an astral ship, but personally I like it where it is. I'd rather they be an accomplishment you have to work for than something handed out to everyone who grinds to 40. 

Originally posted by GrubbsGrady

I had tried to play this game a while ago but they did not support windows 7, and when I called support he said they had no plans to support it. Does anyone know if it changed?

Eww, that's not going to help things. Though I'm less than surprised. Shame, I actually liked Vanguard. Unfortunately, it's not going to get anywhere given the cutbacks and population issues.

Originally posted by tranceam

you can also try to watch in-game videos uploaded by eve players  on youtube for example to see whether it suits your needs or not.

Not really. Youtube videos highlight the 15minutes of climactic battle, but don't exactly go over the months of  prep and isk grinding before said battle. They're highly disingenuous. Trial is really the only way to accurately get an idea for the game. 

If it ends up being another overly instanced arena based game, I'm out. I honestly can't stand the current GW. It was novel when it first came out, but the arena's, instances, and "cooldown based" gameplay are wholly uninteresting. 

Thread titles like this. Not helping the cause....*faceplam*

The only people I respect are the ones who enter the game and can remain "people" and not glorious douchehandles that think they're superior to everyone because they got a lucky roll on a drop somewhere, or because they insist and adhere to some bullshit arcane looting/guild/raid system(gearscore, etc)  that only exists so they can measure themselves above everyone else.

People who are friendly, can be immersed in the game, play it well, but understand that it's a freaking game and not throw a tantrum like a 5yr old because "OMG HE USED THIS SKILL! HE SHOULD HAVE USED THIS ONE! OMFG NOOB!" and basically, not being a min/maxing asshat who believe everyone must follow some cookie cutter build for maximum mathematical efficiency, rather than play the way that makes them most comfortable and effective themselves. 

Basically, anyone who doesn't identify and glorify themselves by their guild accomplishments, how "leet" they are, or other competitive bullshit. You can be the picture of perfection for your class, that all strive to be, but if you're also the biggest asshandle on the planet, I have no respect for you or anything you do. Your "accomplishment" is meaningless to me. 

Sadly, there are not nearly enough of these people. 

Originally posted by reijan

First off, no reason to insult someone. That is also against the ToS, by the way. And secondly, what does it matter? All those rented items have no effect on your gameplay. If you dont want to rent digital items, you don't have to in Aika. I found the cash shop pretty fair so far, so I don't know what you are getting all worked up about. Don't like having those items only for a short period of time? Dont buy them!

Since you seem to be pliant and subjective to letting people rob you blind, I have some bottled air for sale. It's only $5 a bottle!

Originally posted by drbaltazar

Originally posted by Kordesh

Originally posted by maddi12345

The CS doesn't even affect the game whatsoever! You can play the game without ever having to buy an item and be just as good as all the other players. Please don't listen to him. So far, the CS hasn't affect anything ingame except easier dungeon groups. 

[Mod Edit]

I never said anything about the CS effecting the game. All I did was point out the ludicrousness of paying real money to RENT CS items. 

 like the other said !it doesnt affect gameplay !so far a lot of player i have spoken to like this game

and if todays pvp channel being full is any indication this game will be huge

my only 2 major nono so far are these:

1:bot!yep they are a plague ,gpotato fixed pretty good the gold digger

nono they are still there but they are mostly in the city

2:xtrap:im sorry i thot it would do fine, but im sorry to say  countless player having various issue with it

make it impractical in a heavy pvp scenario like aika will be

and it will be !most of the player are still too low lol we re just beginning to see wave of 40 s

there are high level but they arent rampant. and i saw a video of aika asia and we are blocked lot of access still

(beta)!but you should have seen the huge number of player there,only thing i had was sound issue they will have to take a look into this but aside from that !i cant put it into words.but if any took fraps today please write the site down here .because so far

all streamer are having issue streaming this game .(yep xtrap)and one other thing

a feature called blurr .please deactivate this ;when you stream!

TY!

 

And like I said before, I never said anything disparaging about the game itself. I gave no opinion on the GAME of Aika. However, it's cash shop is an unmitigated scam that's once again pushing the boundaries of "how badly can we rip off the player" in MMOs. You're telling me that the fact you're being charged to rent digital items isn't completely outrageous?

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Originally posted by Kordesh

Interesting read, but the way it was worded seemed to lean very carefully to making a "co-op MMO" sound appealing. IE: Hey, the really important part is the community right, imagine if you could play kotor with your friends! That would be good  enough right? >>

I'd like to see this be more than a completely overwrought "LOOK AT THIS! STAR WARS! STAAAR WARS! EWOKS WITH DOUBLE LIGHTSABERS HOLY SHIT!" situation, with gameplay feeling like a co-op version of KoTOR, but until I get my hands on this, it really seems to keep leaning in that direction. 

 

If I had to choose between a solo fest to the level cap like WoW, and a good co-op game, I think I'd have more fun in a good co-op game.

And if I had to choose between paying monthly for a solo fest MMO or good co-op game, I would play the solo fest, because a co-op game isn't an MMO nor would I be paying a monthly fee to play co-op!

Originally posted by maddi12345

The CS doesn't even affect the game whatsoever! You can play the game without ever having to buy an item and be just as good as all the other players. Please don't listen to him. So far, the CS hasn't affect anything ingame except easier dungeon groups. 

[Mod Edit]

I never said anything about the CS effecting the game. All I did was point out the ludicrousness of paying real money to RENT CS items. 

I don't want to lay this one on Gpotato, because it may very well be the developers who designed the CS items to function like this, but the fact that you RENT the clothing items for your Pran in AIka is so outrageous that it would be hilarious were it not so offensive to the sensibilities of the community.  So not only are you selling digital bits with infinite supply at a real world cost, but you're not even letting us keep the item, simply lease it for a period of time and then get the joy of paying again? I really hope people are not this stupid. 

<p>The US is hypocritical in this regard. They'll give porn a pass because it's "adult" and "regulated" but put  purposeful or even tasteful nudity in something like a game or a piece of art and suddenly the moral right is rioting in the street with cardboard signs and fox news is screaming "PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDRUNZ!" Additionally, the ratings board here is fairly corrupt. The ESRB will demand "lesser" games censor the shit out of themselves, but will give bigger titled with larger budgets a free pass on a lot. Additionally, companies in the US like to censor the hell out of shit to bring their ratings down, because they feel T rating=more sales. </p>
<p>Hell, look at Allods, which lost the bathhouse quest line because it was too "suggestive" for their US/younger demographic, but left in the half naked lamias and the quest where in someone talks about how awesome sex with lamia's is, and the sexy elven underwear. It's completely inconsistent as to what gets censored and what doesn't, and ends up being whatever they think will be a "hot button" with the vocal moral right in this country.  Dante's Inferno the game has more giant phallus structures, vagina doors, and tits than you can wave a cross at, but it's not in the news because nobody cares. Grand theft auto has a poorly rendered sex scene that requires a mod chip or PC mod to access? NATIONAL NEWS AND CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS! </p>
<p>It may not seem like it, but the US is crazy conservative when the right set of obnoxious people hear about something. </p>

Originally posted by osmunda

Originally posted by holdenhamlet

Is this some sort of permanent loss?

 IIRC, yes this is permanent. I believe it is an option they have in just for Beta testing.  If you actually walk (or float or whatever you do as a ghost) to the healer there is no stat loss. Teleporting to the healer (with stat loss) is in to make it easier to test but will not be an option after the game launches.

It teleports you to the nearest shrine, not the nearest healer. I know because I used it being completely lost at first (at least that stupid help menu is there now) and it just ported me to the middle of nowhere in front of a shine, and I still had to walk for the better part of forever to find a healer.  

One of the many joys you can experience each time you get killed because a desynced ferret mauled you to death and then teleported away. 

Hahaha that was amazing. I completely lost it at the "sandbox book."  Only thing I didn't entirely agree with was that he expected full on action figures when they mentioned they were going to be pewter ones, but I guess if you're not familiar with how pewter figures usually are you might think you were getting something else. That bag was amazingly terrible though. How much you want to bet all that blank space in the book was reserved for the game lore that never got finished (seriously, how do you still not have racial backgrounds on half your races at this stage?) . I felt instant regret upon getting the tin case with no manual or pretty much anything else for $70 as it was. Can't imagine how the loot bag guys feel. I would care considerably less about it though if the game didn't turn out to be a trainwreck. Last time I invest in an indie MMO. 

The disappointment he's expressing in that video is palpable.

These games are nothing alike. Completely ignoring the fact that one is essentially sci-fi and one is more of a post apocalyptic modern day setting, visually, they're worlds apart, they have completely different focuses, (Earth Rise being considerably more RvR/PvP oriented) and have completely differing feature sets. I seriously doubt anyone that's looking forward to Xyson is equally interested in Earthrise, let alone a statistically significant number of people. 

edit: I hope it's not like Neocron. That game was a trainwreck. Concepts were good, so I don't mind it its like that in respect of gameplay, but in actual practice....*shudder*

Originally posted by Cristina1

MO is absoluteley amazing and once they fix all the lagging/desync it will be trully epic.

People who want to grind boring quests a la WoW or the like should look else where though, MO requires you to use your imagination instead of spoon feeding you "WIN" buttons :)

Yes and I'm sure my children's children will enjoy it greatly when the problems are fixed, assuming they don't go bankrupt about two generations before that...

Originally posted by Frostbite05

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Originally posted by Frostbite05

MMO's have always been massive coop games. Look at every game out there you had the option to play by yourself if you wanted or to team up with others.

open world = no instances where you go and everyone in the game cannot follow.

co-op = instances where your group plays, everyone else in the world cannot follow.

"massive co-op" = you stand around in the same world before you jump into the instance.

standard co-op = there is a lobby where you are not in the game world with all the other players,  and you pick a co-op gmae to jump into from the lobby.

See that is a very very narrow view of what co op can actually mean. One way to look at it is just another word for a grouping based game. I mean look at WoW it has a massive game world with thousands of quests. You really don't need to do instances if you really don't want to even though they are the focal point of the game. People Also take instancing the wrong way. It doesn't take away from the mmo experience at all when implemented the right way such as WoW and LOTRO. I do respect your view and understand where your coming from. However, you need to expand on your perspective and see that Co-op really can mean more. Hell co op stands for cooperative game play aka grouping.

The question isn't there to dick around with "what co-op can mean". It's completely freaking obvious what the point they're trying to get across is, but everyone is too busy dodging the question and trying to go "welllll but co-op can also mean this depending on how you look at it sooooo it's a good thing 8D".  Look, the word TACO can mean A COMPUTER  if you "look at it the right way" that's not the damn point. If you want co-op, go play some damn Gears of War. Stop ripping apart the already tattered remains of the MMO genre. 

It's a terrible thing. Instancing is out of hand as it is, and there's nothing MMO about a co-op game. A co-op game is exactly that, co-op. It's not an MMO. I absolutely abhor the shift away from making proper virtual worlds and instead just throwing a virtual lobby up and attaching a bunch of instances to it. 

Interesting read, but the way it was worded seemed to lean very carefully to making a "co-op MMO" sound appealing. IE: Hey, the really important part is the community right, imagine if you could play kotor with your friends! That would be good  enough right? >>

I'd like to see this be more than a completely overwrought "LOOK AT THIS! STAR WARS! STAAAR WARS! EWOKS WITH DOUBLE LIGHTSABERS HOLY SHIT!" situation, with gameplay feeling like a co-op version of KoTOR, but until I get my hands on this, it really seems to keep leaning in that direction.