the main issue that is arising in this game is not similar to AOC, its more similar to Lineage2. In which there are a large turn out of bots, gold farmers, gold spamming to legit players. its annoying, frustrating and despite NCsoft so called stance little has been done, though NcSoft would like you to think they do ban, but considering I seen several groups of the same bots days later, despite autoreporthunting them  nothing has been done. IM sure they ban some, but hardly enough to make a dent.

The same  issue that is already taken a stranglehold on Lineage2 for the last 2-4 years is already occuring in the broker is incrreased prices in items within AION. miniscule lvl 7 items and weapons going for 25-50k lol despite barely having 10-20% of that by the time ur lvl 7,  You literally couldn't make that much kinah by level 7 even if u wanted to. IF a hardline attempt to destroy the Bots, farmers and other various degenerates in the game that are making life in the game difficult for everyone isnt taken care of, Aion is going to be no different than Lineage2 , its going to be run by bots.

literally 2 hours ago a player was hocking a Godstone that caused a 2% chance to stun a player for 5 seconds, its a blue item but he was selling for 30 million kinah lol. or i've seen lvl 30 orange items for 20-40 million kinah. its absolutely retarded, i can already see where this game is heading.

very good quality for an Indie dev studio. major kudos to the features. Being a Lead Art director for Pillar 4 Ent, Xshift Online CyberPunk MMO,(yup we finally got investors  yay)  So I can appreciate the difficulty and fun going into such a Project. Requires dedication, hardwork, and joy of the industry to see this all the way through. Good luck on your project and lets see where this leads, reminds me a bit of mechwarrior, but I always loved mechwarrior, and this hands on approach with the mechs is pretty nice, including the rich features you have. So keep it up and hope to follow this as it develops.

With us we are debating whether to use the Hero's Engine or Unigine + Project darkstar for our MMO. We are currently using Hero's Engine for a undisclosed Social MMO project currently as consultants helping push out their demo. So far its a dream come true, gotta pinch myself sometimes.

i agree the pvp is atrocious, so stay away from it, as but the PVE is phenomonal, so if you want just ask around which servers have the most density in population. Im on blackburrow currently though I may see if i can move all my chars to another server if i am able but hopefully I wont have to. but otheriwisethis is correct, EQ2 has some of the best Raid content in MMO;s. I am going back to Eq2 soon when i get paid so I gotta just buy SO expansion.

SK's are okay, but youd be beter off with a warlock or some other tank class, such as a guardian or a berserker. even a paladin is a good class, as I have a nice lvl 80 Paladin now, and its very useful.

over the long term and content wise, Eq2 is far better, and the graphics have lasted far longer despite being released in 2004. Long with monumental graphics engine overhauls to bring it to more modern requirements regarding multi core suport and more GPU oriented shaders, lighting, and shadows, id say EQ2 has far more lasting appeal. ive been playing off and on since release as well as LOTRO during its rlease and including beta. Not to say LOTRO aint fun, but its way to group oriented, and has dropped more players than id like, but then again I got a lvl 38 elf hunter, despite being a good character and haveing pretty decent gear, i find I have far more difficulty grabbing groups in LOTRO than i did in EQ2, even with my mid 50 characters in EQ2. Id either get powerleveld or id have enough options of players to roll around my lvl 50-60 characters to have fun in the lower end content vs using my lvl 80 paladin ( which is a blast, though still gotta get my epic truth of marr sword almost there which sucks lol)

here a short run, given both depending on the server you may or may not run into popuilation issues, but LOTRO seems to be more pronounced in this issue than EQ2.

both hve good PVE there is no denying that, but EQ2 has far more, also has a better Achievement system to differentiate your character depending on the focus u wanna go, LOTRO tends to be a bit more cryptic but not horribly so.

Graphics engine in EQ2 has stood up well, though some people would tend to whine the player models look a bit plastic, but im not sweating that, thats more shader value oriented such as the "gloss" or "specularity" in using normalmaps etc. as the shader goes up so will the quality of the player models. however player models look horrible in LOTRO. LOTRO has better environments though especially with the lighting in DX 10.(but dont forget it came out in 2007/8 if i remember correctly)

Performance wise, EQ2 has a bit more meat to it than LOTRO. So expect to have a somewhat beefier system to play EQ2.

LOTRO is more zoneless, though there are zones in the city. EQ2 because of the zones has more poly count, so you end up with more richer more organic models. but Im a firm believer that texture art quality also plays an equal role.

animations are smoother and better in EQ2, and particle system is also better.

EQ2 has a RMT shop, and legends of norrath TCG but Neither agree with its existence, as well as I never use it, and frankly do see a reason to given i got more than enough veteran xp pots lol. but you can sell the TCG cards for a buttload of plat to players who play it. almost everything is complete Fluff items,the advantage is almost negliable if at non existent which is a good thing.

In the end if I were to pick one, EQ2 would be my choice.

I purposely got myself banned from this game so I wouldn't have any reason to go back to AOC. Mainly due to the bad coding, bugs, crashes, failed promises, half assed content, pvp system is practically pointless other than gear grind and features that disappeared after launch(take a pick). IT took a over a year to get where they are now, and its quite sad. But I harbor no real ill will, I do hope it improves, I'd hate to see what happens when this game falters tot he point they have to close more servers.

to clarify i was in fact doing a combination of exploitive acts, as well as expletiive outbursts at people and found this was in fact the first time i was ever banned for a day, ive done it multiple times before, and never heard squat. IT took them almost 4 hours to contact me from what the stuff i was saying earlier to lvl 25's ganking everyone in whitesands. so my outbursts were both in form of venting, and a quasi-curiousity to see how far I could go with my outbursts, cause i remembered not getting repremanded multiple occasions and one of my friends stated they tried but nada so tried it out.

Frankly given the state of this game, the unfullfilled features that was taken out of launch, or broken due to bugs, crashes or otherwise craptastic programming, I felt Id rather have myself banned so they have no reason to call me back for "improved magical patch that fixes everything finally". its just one more thing on top of the other problems plaging this game that destroys a otherwise wonderful IP by a lackluster and crappy development house. they did it with anarchy online when it launched and the same as been proven today. i even cursed at the GM via email mutlple times lol so im gonna see if they "expanded" my 1 day ban.

they didnt fix shit, its a poorly designed game. buggy code, unoptimized client and graphics rendering engine. the game is utter failure in tangible form. im trying to get myself banned in that game is its close impossible. lol i finally got a 1 day ban, but im hoping for a perma ban. lets hope. unless someone wants my account i dont want it frankly.

yeah its a phish scam, i moused over link. its different link from the actual link it states. so dont click on the link, just promptly delete your email, and run anti virus and adware.

since i wont ever come back to this game, them removing my character from my character list due to not being subbed, will even more secure my position of not bothering to play this game ever. i wont have characters to play with lol. good riddance. thank you SOE.

i agree darkfall was interesting to see launch. but its more like darkfall is interesting like a car crash is interesting. everyone likes to see one. its scary, ugly, yet you cant look away. but i dont deny the game has garnered what can be only determined as a freakshow of arguments, and counter argument, fanatic fanboism's and trolls alike. never before i seen a game have such fun, inviting antics follow its wake lol. truly enjoyed it beyond anything else, it made for a continuous good read.

i think i may just wait and see what happens with the conq patch and make my decision based on the overall activity on the servers on aoc website. until then ill be playing Aion for now. thanx for the info.

ive gotten tired of wow and the battleground afkers/bots and its obvious that people who disagree with a petition for votekick feature are dubious to say the least. not to mention blizz as ignored this issue for a long time now. so Ive quit, and I am deciding to come back to AOC, but im hearing drops in populations so I dont want to really come back to a dying game. Only bright side ive seen so far is the big patch comng up that will fix and add to the conqueror class which made my day, but i dont want to seem like Im wasting my money.

Originally posted by Aramath

Originally posted by SlayVus

Originally posted by reaperuk

The Open beta keys were available from Fileplanet on the 1st, which you would have been told at the time you downloaded the client. I got mine on the 1st and registered it to my NCSoft account the same day. I was never in closed beta and haven't pre-ordered, so I'm afraid you're wrong.

 

The Open Beta key was only available to SUBSCRIBED FilePlanet members.

So if you didn't spend any money somewhere your not getting in into their so called "Open" beta. It's more like "We only want previous CBT testers, Pre-Order Customers and PAYING FilePlanet subscribers" Beta.

There beta approach is stupid and unneeded. I do have a payed FP account, but I won't be playing this game only because I'll be playing Fallen Earth.

Hehe, it should be obvious by now to anyone who has had a game from NCSoft before.  They dont do closed or open betas.  They make people pay for early entry to their game.  Been doing it since Lineage 2.

actually thats inaccurate, i got into closed Lineage2 beta when it was avialable. so i didn't pay for it. its suddenly seems companies feel compelled to charge people to try the unfinished game in hopes to make some cash in an opportunistic greed. its only happened in the last year or 2 this sudden trend makes me realize its not even worth paying for MMO's anymore, I wont be out right buying a MMO unless I can try the beta, or I can get a trial so I can safely test it without putting money upfront on what could possibly feel like I wasted money for a game I dont like. reviews, and opinions from other players and website will only give you so much insight to the game, you have to try it yourself, but to be forced to either pay upfront on an unfinished game yet to go gold, or pay $50 for a game you have yet to try, is unfair, and unfounded. but i say for those who dont mind paying $5 for the privilege of testing the game, just realize your actions have wide open consequences to other players who dont wish to waste their money and feel an educated purchase is the best course of action rather than jumping in blindly opening their wallet. i tried Fallen earth closed beta up until it shut down to be released.and im glad I did, though it had interesting aspects, I found it to be quickly boring clucky, and not really engaging over the long term. this allows me as a consumer, and gamer to make educated decisions on my purhcase and my entertainment to make it both long lasting, and worth the money I spend.

hes talking about that bullshit website Fileplanet.com where they charge people for open betas lol. i always hated that damn website. fucking con artists. after the BS i went thru with Age of conan, ill never pay for a beta again. when Fileplanet says open beta they actually mean closed beta cause they charge u to get an actual beta key, even then despite paying them for a subscription ur not promised an actual beta key, its first come first serve, so they try to nickel and dime as many suckers as they can. i avoid that site like the plague, plenty of other websites to go to except for the few hyped up betas that come ever so often. quite sad really.

bout time they gave the conqueror some damn love.

for me it didnt work at all, every since yesterday server says down. so oh well so much for an open beta.

i tried to play it, and seems the servers are down. even last night on the 23rd around 8pm or so. downloading this game was completely pointless.

yeah im definitely gearing towards full SSD storage, with a back up high capacity storage tradtional HD 1TB for photoshop textures, 3d scenes, and other design files I have. ive researched SSD's although they are bit expensive still the speed u get fromthe blow away traditional platter drives.

thanx guys i appreciate the assist. i will probably update, later on once i purchase it :P. i heard some good things about the i7 975 but the amd 3.2ghz 955 phenom looks like a beast, and is dirt cheap lol. so i got a good month or 2 before i can buy this. i may very well dismiss the SSD's as its not really cost effective and go with the velociraptors. ill update.