Don't remember why I joined or what my join date is.

edit: ah 06. Still dunno why I joined.

I agree with the OP.

What I am wondering is why are developers so keen on either going full sandbox or full "theme park". The fact is I do like some choice in a game, I like having many things to do and such. However I also like having some sense of direction in a game and the last thing I want to do is to be wandering around like a lost puppy thinking of something to do.

I'm just wondering why so many developers feel the need to go to the extremes. I also feel like the term "sandbox" is used as a cop-out by many developers and as a synonym for "no content".

I got invited, awesome :D.

To be honest I came back to the game and started a new character for 1.9. The game is still the same as ever except that unlike release there is no longer a good influx of same-level players to PvP against in the Abyss. 95% of the time you're going to be going up against guys who have a good number of levels and gear up on you and in Aion that matters a lot.

I didn't care that I was getting ganked (its just a little annoying is all) but I did care that there was honestly nothing of interest going on anymore in the mid levels. I ended up getting to the mid 30's before quitting again. (I was a level 50 back near release).

So yeah if you had issues with the Grind and such not much has made it better. There are some repeatable quests which are cool but ultimately not that interesting.

I love FFA PvP if it's done right and I don't consider myself a "hardcore" MMO player at all.

I just enjoy fighting other players as opposed to AI all day. After all it is just a game, I'm not going to cry if someone ganks me.

I get preorder bonuses all the time from steam :P.

Steam is amazing. Not only does it have great deals on games but the fact that I can install my games on any PC if I happen to switch over is huge. D2D is not a bad service but I find it a lot more annoying to have to go through their website to get what I want, not to mention that I would be missing out on all of the community features.

I tend to actually run even non-steam games through just so I can use the steam overlay.

Honestly the attachment to a boxed copy is something I don't really get anymore. I understand some of the older folk are cautious of this idea that you may not technically "own" a physical copy of what you buy. Personally I've embraced the idea of digital downloads and much much prefer it to having to deal with something like gamestop.

Also the reason why some games require steam is that it makes certain things a lot easier for the developer. You have a platform which allows you to set up automatic patching and allows you to join a friend automatically through the friends list. Not to mention you also would get access to steamworks and steam cloud which for developers is huge.

Me and my roomate could use one.

Nadril.zhc@gmail.com
hawkk.jp@hotmail.com

---

Originally posted by FunkyLasagne

---

Originally posted by Nadril

I don't really get why you guys are blaming NCSoft for this. It's not like they want to alienate a portion of their customer base, that would just be ridiculous. Blame the country or the EU if anything.

---

 
??? What have the country or the EU got to do with it?  What an odd thing to say.
 
We can't get Amazon Kindle in the UK.  I'll write to my MP and blame the government about it.  Maybe hold a demo.

---

They stated it is a licensing issue. That doesn't mean NCSoft is purposely avoiding certain countries, it means they are having difficulty obtaining a license for them.

I don't really get why you guys are blaming NCSoft for this. It's not like they want to alienate a portion of their customer base, that would just be ridiculous. Blame the country or the EU if anything.

---

This is the facts. you make your own Class here no one told ya to go gimp yourself lol.

---

So I gimp myself because I want to play as a melee archetype? Un-fucking-believable XD.

I'm not gimp when I play my rogue or warrior in WoW.
I'm not gimp when I play my enforcer in Anarchy Online.
I'm not gimp when I play my assassin in Aion.

Yet I'm gimp because I want to play as a melee player? They're superheroes and yet you try and use a "real world" example. What about the hulk? Is he a gimp because he is melee only? Or the juggernaut, is he a gimp? :D A hell of a lot of superheroes are melee oriented ;p.

Melee super heroes not being viable is just silly. Defending this fact is downright stupid. Do you really want it to be a game where people are just flying around pewpewing at others?

Hopefully your post is wrong, because if melee was really that gimp it would be a really sad fact.

---

Originally posted by Kabaal
Nadril what type of machine were you using to get that low performance, i don't need the low down on every spec just wondering which card and CPU /speed you're running. CO seems highly dependant on CPU speed from what i've seen. On the Ati 4850 increasing the clock speed on the CPU from 3.5 to 4 made me go from 20--25fps to roughly 30-33, on the other hand doing the same with the GTX295 only made me go from 40-50 to 42-53, changing GPU speed on both cards made less than a 5fps difference.. My CPU's are 6850's so i honestly couldn't run them at 4ghz non stop, only for a test, newer CPU's than mine seem to do it fine though. I had another point when i started typing that but right now it escapes me (i wandered off to do something else in between :p), but another point would be that my 20-25fps on the 4850 would cause problems somewhere donw the line i'd imagine. Doing Lairs, organised close quarters PvP etc would proabably grind to a halt. Just guess work, but certainly not good enough for a 4850 which athough now cheap is a very good card.

You mention not enough skills worthwhile using. Some builds depending on what your staple skills are do have plenty of skill that they use all the time, but others just don't need many. So in a way i half agree with you there as personally i choose a build that requires quite a few.

Lightning reflexes is the worst passive out of all the Defensive ones btw. I've no idea what their thinking on that one was unless they were trying to make sure it wasn't as stupidly good as CoH's SR, in which case they went too far.

---

my specs are as following:

9800M GTS 1GB
4GB DDR3
2.3ghz Core2duo

As far as Lightning reflexes go, it's nice to hear now that it was terrible :/. It fit in with the rest of my melee abilities so I picked it... I don't even really want to get into something about PvP balance though, I was too frustrated and bored with the way they set it up to figure something out.

---

Thats the thing you dont get it.

Lets take a example. In Lotro, my loremaster (a CC / debuff class with pets) had 4 bars (or about 40 skills configuration).

My hunter on other hand could be played (combat) with only one bar. The rest was about out-combat skills like traveling, tracking, etc.

Now CO can be played with even less skills than that Lotro hunter. You can have (depending on build) a pretty solid build with 6 core skills. How come?

CO skills usually do not have a cooldown. 0 downtime. You do not need to click power 1, then power 2, then power 3, power 2, power 1, power 4, power..... With no cooldowns, you do not need several powers that do the same thing.

You are coming with a regular MMORPG expectation about skills. To play CO, you need to change it to a action game. More like a console game. Simple because thats how the game is built.

You dont need to like it as some people will and some wont. But if you dont understand it, then you will still think there are too few skills. You may even end up with a built with 12 attacks (at level 40 you will have 14 powers). You will be gimping your build. Instead of variety, you will be wasting power points.

CO is a action game MMORPG. Simple as that.

---

Meh. The MMOs I have come from are "action oriented" games. In WoW a lot of abilities don't have a CD other than GCD. (I played a Rogue). In Aion the assassin does have CD's, but that is to prevent button mashing skills.

What I don't understand is what is so great about no CD vs a CD? No CD just means that you are going to be spamming that attack (depending on the situation). If I'm in AoE I'll spam my AoE ability, and maybe my root. If I'm in a 1v1 fight I'll spam my single target DPS skill.

Not to mention my melee class had CD's. Two of my attacks both had a 6 second CD. (Dragon charge and some other attack I forget).

A lack of CD does not = action oriented. In Aion it is still very "action oriented" but it does have CD's on spells -- there just is enough to not have to sit and auto attack.

I hate to really bring up Aion because I know people are going to say I'm a troll, but it's really the best example I had.

---

Originally posted by kal08

---

Originally posted by Nadril

I really wasn't impressed in my time during the beta.
- I had few skills. Even at level 40 I didn't have many abilities. I had myself a buff, a charge up attack, a bleed, an attack that does more damage after the bleed, a sumrmon, a heal, an AoE and a temporary dodge buff. Compared to what I've used in other MMO betas I've played, even in the low levels, it was kind of sad.
- Combat felt choppy. This might have been partly an issue due to my shitty FPS I got in game (getting 15 fps even if I go on all lows, and I can play Crysis @ all highs with 30fps? TF2 with 70fps? I mean it's pretty weak) but the combat just was not smooth at all, not what you would expect from an action oriented game. Often times it felt like my auto attack energy builder animation would get in the way of attacks or all kind of stuff. Really, it felt a lot more choppy than even WAR at launch.
- PvP felt... bad. The "hero games" were nothing more than DM/TDM matches, save for one which had some VIP ruleset thing. In my experience players had to go a certain build with certain skills in order to survive. You almost always had to have regen. Ice casters seemed to fuck me up with huge stunlocks and burst damage (Doing more damage than I could from a range). Since you can pick any sort of skill set you want without restriction it lends to a lot of imbalanced combos, many of which made my melee oriented character a pain in the ass to play.

---

 
Few skills? Read the post (by me) before your reply....
Bad engine? My 2 years old PC (core 2 e6750, 2Gb ram, 8600 GT) runs it on high (not max) with average 60FPS.
PvP is fun. Melee takes more time to learn, but it can and it will kill ranged guys. Defensive passives are important. Regen is not the only one.
My level 30 force hero with PFF was usually top 1 or 2 on arena matchs.
My level 20 might hero with defiance was usually top 2-3.
Player skill + teaming working + good build (you dont need a FOTM build, just a good one) is what you need. If you lack any of those 3, yeah, PvP will suck. You can accept it and work to improve your weakness or just give up.

---

---

Few skills? Read the post (by me) before your reply....

---

It is a few. Compared to other recent games I have played there is a lot less stuff you are going to use in combat. It's great if having 10 abilities to use is a TON of skills for you, but it really isn't.

---

Bad engine? My 2 years old PC (core 2 e6750, 2Gb ram, 8600 GT) runs it on high (not max) with average 60FPS.

---

And that is great for you. However it runs 15-20fps on my rig. And, yes, I have all up to date drivers. It's a terrible engine if it doesn't run on a multitude of systems well.

---

PvP is fun. Melee takes more time to learn, but it can and it will kill ranged guys. Defensive passives are important. Regen is not the only one.

---

I ran with the Lightning Reflexes defensive passive, but it didn't seem to do much at all compared to everyone else.

---

My level 30 force hero with PFF was usually top 1 or 2 on arena matchs.

My level 20 might hero with defiance was usually top 2-3.

---

This is irreverent really. Good for you.

---

Player skill + teaming working + good build (you dont need a FOTM build, just a good one) is what you need. If you lack any of those 3, yeah, PvP will suck. You can accept it and work to improve your weakness or just give up.

---

I will tell you that I didn't fully get a chance to give a really good, fair shot at PvP combat because I was lagging so terribly. As a melee it meant that I would have a pain in the ass time even hitting someone, because trying to run up to a target running around or flying around is impossible on 15 FPS.

That being said I really don't see much skill beyond the build you pick.

Also please don't take this like I'm trying to Psudo-review the game, I'm not. I'm just expressing my experience I had with the beta -- a large part of it which was pretty much ruined due to shitty ass optimization.

I really wasn't impressed in my time during the beta.

- I had few skills. Even at level 40 I didn't have many abilities. I had myself a buff, a charge up attack, a bleed, an attack that does more damage after the bleed, a sumrmon, a heal, an AoE and a temporary dodge buff. Compared to what I've used in other MMO betas I've played, even in the low levels, it was kind of sad.

- Combat felt choppy. This might have been partly an issue due to my shitty FPS I got in game (getting 15 fps even if I go on all lows, and I can play Crysis @ all highs with 30fps? TF2 with 70fps? I mean it's pretty weak) but the combat just was not smooth at all, not what you would expect from an action oriented game. Often times it felt like my auto attack energy builder animation would get in the way of attacks or all kind of stuff. Really, it felt a lot more choppy than even WAR at launch.

- PvP felt... bad. The "hero games" were nothing more than DM/TDM matches, save for one which had some VIP ruleset thing. In my experience players had to go a certain build with certain skills in order to survive. You almost always had to have regen. Ice casters seemed to fuck me up with huge stunlocks and burst damage (Doing more damage than I could from a range). Since you can pick any sort of skill set you want without restriction it lends to a lot of imbalanced combos, many of which made my melee oriented character a pain in the ass to play.

The one fun time I had in game was mostly messing with the character creator or messing around in game with a couple of friends. The travel powers are really cool too, even though they also lend to some imbalance.

I just felt like the game wasn't all that polished from my time played in beta and that the PvP was not worth doing at all (even if it is just a side thing). Like I said before too the combat felt fairly one dimensional compared to other MMOs out there as well.

Just felt like I had to ask around and see if anyone else is getting this issue. First off, my specs:

9800M GTS 1GB - 186.03 Drivers (up to date)
4GB DDR3
2.3ghz Core2duo
Vista 64 bit

It's a laptop, yes, but it also runs Crysis on 30fps and tears up any other game. I was hoping the same for Champions Online, but I've been plagued with some pretty terrible FPS problems with it.

The issue is that no matter what setting I have it on it always runs around 15-20 fps. I could crank it up to maximum -- 15 fps. I could put it all the way down to the lowest settings possible -- 15 fps. I might gain a couple of FPS from doing that, but nothing near what you would expect. Even though Champions is a nice looking game it shouldn't be taking that much.

Just trying to figure out if this is an issue I'll have to try and fix or if it something on their end. I feel like I can't even get a proper look at the game because of how terrible it runs.

(That being said I have no interest in playing the game at launch. However, I would like to get at least a somewhat fair assessment of the beta -- and lagging around while trying to do level 40 PvP as a melee sucks).

EDIT:

Ok nevermind, just found out beta ended on the 24th. I thought I heard it was until Wednesday.

Now I'll never know ;p

Really any combination can work if you're good.

It's hyped because players are having fun.

I honestly don't mean that as a trollish response, but its true. NCSoft has done very little to hype Aion in the west, most of it is done by the players. I can't explain why either, listing down a laundry list of things just doesn't do anything really. It's just some combination of everything that seems to work very well and is enjoyable. Again this is all impossible to explain to someone who hasn't really played the game.

This has been asked a lot.

So far it seems like most classes will be pretty evenly played, with SM lagging behind a bit.

I'd recommend Aion, but it doesn't have instanced PvP (aside from one instance).

---

Originally posted by seabass2003
 It's totally subjective and really needs to be looked at on a case by case situtation.

---

I agree.

Personally I'm a college student so I end up with a lot of free time. The way I figure it is that as long as I am not blowing off any plans with friends or blowing off school, who cares? I'll admit that I will have some days where I will probably play for a decent amount. Not anywhere close to 16 hours, mind you, but still a decent amount of time.

Of course I probably actually don't spend a TON of times on MMOs since even though I may be on the PC there might be a whole lot of stuff I am doing. Being someone who is trying to get into some freelance web design (I've got a few projects I have done so far) I may be doing that, I may be playing some other game, I may just be surfing the web or I might, finally, be playing an MMO.

Like what was said above though, I think it varies depending on the person and the situation. For a college student having a large amount of playtime seems fine -- I mean sometimes there just may not be anything going on. However I think I would raise an eye if a man who worked 40 hours a week, had a family and kids and still played for that long constantly. (Not taking into account breaks or anything like that).