I think if it was too complicated from the start it would turn off too many people. The learning curve ramps up pretty quickly as you get out of the starter area and mobs start hitting like trucks. :)

My first elite mob group was quite entertaining with that surprise. To compare it to WoW, it felt like I was running just staring to run level 80 Heroics in quest item greens. A little harsh until you get the hang of it, but very gratifying.

At level 20, when you start going into the Abyss - you CAN start leveling up through pvp. You have to earn it first. :)

Originally posted by solareus

Genuine fiirst impression :

The game looked dated right off the bat had to doube and triple check to see if the settings where full blast.

THe First portion of combat sounds, where poor,

...the animation from my preference criteria was simply poor, 

Judging from the amount of posts you are making saying the same thing, it is hard for me to believe that NCsoft could put any ANYTHING that you would enjoy. What are truly expecting? The game scales very well with all types of hardware and most importantly it runs smoothly.

The only gaming engine that runs comparably is WoW in my eyes, but even that is becoming clunkier. AoC, WAR, EQ2... the engines were completely disappointing. You don't want to be playing a game that runs like a snail on even decent hardware. That just turns off the majority of the playerbase.

If the game did not run so smoothly I would not be as impressed. You can make anything look beautiful and have it run at 1-2 fps, that won't make it a better game though.

Most of the issue still stems from people not actually playing the game. They jump to conclusions after playing it for 20 minutes. It is an MMO and a very polished MMO at that.

I just hope the US launch has a great kick start for the community, because it does deserve a decent chance. With PVP being an end game focus, a strong and active community is what will make or break the game.

I have been playing on the Chinese servers for over a month now and I have come to love Aion - the more time I spend in it, exploring the worlds - the more time I see the little details that have been put into the game.

GRAPHICS

The graphics engine is incredibly solid. Not only does it look beautiful, but it runs smoothly with zero lag. The animations are a very nice touch which are missing in most MMO. As you level up and have more combos to chain together this becomes more apparent.

INTERFACE

Clean. Simple. Works. I am not a fan of addons, only because I hate the idea of a company having to balance content around them (*cough* WoW)

You can move around just about any piece of it to how you like it. The built in macro system is not too bad either, just takes some practice getting used to it.

COMBAT

The basic ideas are there same, but the addition of combos and knockdown/knockback on melee crits are nice touches. I have not played a caster class yet, so I cannot comment on spell crits.

QUESTING/GRINDING

As a long-time player of both Lineage 2 and WoW, I am happy to say this is a nice blend between the two. I have not reached max level yet - only mid 20's - but have yet run out of quests. I have read that there is some grinding between certain levels, but there are also ways to avoid it, such as leveling up your crafting.

Also my understanding is that the majority of the content they are implementing will be for END GAME. Do you really want them to focus on content that you will pass through within a brief window - or have more to do once you are max level? I would prefer as little content needed in the game to reach max level and give you the basic understanding of how your class functions. Throw everything else late game to keep me entertained without relying on rolling endless alts over and over and over.

The in-game Quest Log is fairly decent. It is helpful and prevents you from pulling your hair out when stuck. Could be a little more polished.

CRAFTING

The crafting system is very nicely implemented and also makes slight changes to the system to encourage you to work on it.

1. You get normal XP while crafting (it may not be much but it adds up over time)
2. You can do crafting quests (Work Orders) which will supply a good chunk of 'Government Assisted Materials' that allows you to level up your crafting by purchasing vendor-available materials. The trade off is that you do not keep the items you make, but instead turn them in when the quest is completed. The reward is generally some required materials or recipes for you to learn. If you wish to keep the items (and farm the mats) you can level up crafting as you would in other games.
3. The items you make can CRIT and make it a higher grade piece of equipment (White > Green > Blue > Etc)

Very cool system. Very good reason to level up your crafting when you can make QUALITY gear that will be useful. Crafting are making a killing on the Chinese Servers because CRIT gear is the best gear in the game.

MUSIC/SOUND

This is the first mmo I have not turned off the music. The sounds are a little typical, but they do not bother either.

ENVIRONMENT/MISC

These are some minor things that I have noticed when playing through the game.....

When sitting down in a sandy area then standing up you will see your toon brush the sand off of themselves.

When you are standing in an area with snow, you will see them rub their arms and do a little dance trying to make themselves warm up.

When chatting with people, certain words will trigger emotes automatically.

All of these little things add up and although you may not notice it right away, it adds a great feeling to the game.

BOTTOM LINE

The game is polished and beautiful in its own right. It is fun and enjoyable so long as you can get past the slightly steeper  learning curve. This is not WoW.

This is Aion and it is very promising. I am very much looking forward to it, not because it is something revolutionary, but because it does a lot of things right AND it is not WoW.

Originally posted by Samuraisword

Too much instancing.

I don't play MMOGs to be in a private world.

Judging from your signature and avatar you would seem to be a TCOS fan yet in the following dev interview you can easily find the following information (http://www.tcos.com/sbforum/viewtopic.php?t=12557)

==================================

MMORPG_Taera: Trickarius asks, Will there be instanced areas within the game? If so, what areas will instancing mainly be based on?

[TCoS]Wolf: Yes... there will be a lot of instanced areas within the game. These areas are mostly dungeon areas, but also Ancestral Quests are part of those instanced areas. Would be rather annoying to see a good guild kill the Demon Army General again.. just before you reached him. I know Adinthalos can be a real pain. but I want him to be a pain for everyone.. not just a select number of people. hence...

[TCoS]Wolf: ...his place is instanced.

[TCoS]Wolf: Several raftyards are also instanced.. meaning that you go there for quests but you don't want other players ruining a certain event. Those are there too.. although those are in a minority group.

===========================

So you come to the Aion forums to bitch about instancing?

Nice post.

I would agree that instancing has its pros and cons, but if done well it should not take away from your enjoyment of the game.

World pvp/pve is good, but can be equally frustrating and can create just as many problems that are easily solved by instancing.

For now every petition I have sent in has had a response - be it a bugged ToO or mission or some hardware errrors, all has been resolved.

The gm support is some of the best in the business because they actually have the power to alter your character  - try getting help in LOTRO or WOW for example, the gm's are worthless with stock answers.

In TR I have had gm's teleport me to the quest npc to turn in my quest immediately and make sure it works, I have not had that happen since EQ.

All in all you must be playing a completely different game. I am still curious how high you leveled in the 3-day trial, lower levels they squashed those bugs a while ago.

I do not think the Rage changes will really make that much of a difference. I have not had a chance to test it out so for now I will withhold judgement.

With the Rage changes, I am sure it is more of a way to get people to play more on the specialist side of the skill tree - instead of the majority going down soldier because of a single damage buff (at quite a low level tier).

If you are enjoying the game, I seriously doubt the changes will change your mind.

The clan vs clan pvp is a lot of fun... and it still lets people who want to play PVE only have their game. No complaints from me.

I would test in the middle mouse wheel button and see if the zoomed in camera is 'enough' of a fps for you... otherwise best of luck finding your next adventure!

Healers are nice and always have a spot, but the nice thing about the game is that your core weapons - pistols, rifles and shotguns are always on par with the soldiers as well.

The difference may be the Rage buff, which you can pickup when grouped with a soldier anyway so the point doesn't matter.

Enjoy the change of being able to actively play a combat role in an mmo finally, and not gimp out your healing abilities in doing so.

I would argue that TR is only as repetitive as any other game other game out there. You have 5 abilities and weapons that can be loaded at any one time, however different situations will require different setups. Which can add a lot more depth to the game then people seem to acknowledge.

Likewise,  each skill level may have a completely different effect - which can also add extra confusion. :)

If you read through the quests as you play through the game you will realize that the story-telling is top-notch. So if you enjoy that sort of things it is a big plus. You may be killing x and y mobs, but the back story is there and very interesting.

The action is nonstop and it is easy to stop at a control point and just play there for an hour or two with some fellow AFS trying to take it back and defend it.

If you rush through the quests, you may find yourself not enjoying the experience as much - but it is up to you. I would just say take your time and explore the game that is before you. You will not regret it.

I am just thinking the PVP revamp will come hand in hand with the 'bio-enhanced' races.

Would make perfect sense to have you select your 'race/faction' halfway through the game, which then leads to a galactic battle between whichever side you choose ... perhaps that too will be tied into ethical parables to determine your future alliance.

AFS, Corman, Forean, Bane, etc.

The clan vs clan fighting is a lot of fun and you can declare on however many clans at any one time. So if one clan is a little more rare - pick another fight. :P

Firearms 3+ at least and just switch between rifles/shotguns/pistols depending on the situation.

Chainguns are decent for boss fights and certain other situations, but using full time seems a bit rough.

It is just nice to see so many people excited about it, especially when during the beta period there were so many people saying

'I haven't played this yet, but I hear it sucks.'

Once you play it, you realize there is something incredibly fun about it. I just hope it continues to expand and grow and hopefully it will be around for a while.

Just keep submitting your feedback to the devs!

Originally posted by Elikal

And all is CLICK CLICK CLICK, like I were a tester for the stability of mouse buttons. It started quite enjoyable, but I start to get this hamster wheel feeling now, which usually takes one or two YEARS to establish.

Another thing that added to it: the difficulty was raised CONSIDERABLY after the end of beta. And as a result, it takes quite a lot of more effort to get things down, and so the hamster wheel becomes a hard treadmill at end-teen levels. I had only died 1 or 2 times in the weeks of beta. Now, I die a dozen times a DAY. Sure, some like it hard. But since TR has no strategical value at all, or lets say *almost* no, besides kneeling and standing behind some sandbag, you die because you bring too few ppl or just because too many new Bane mobs spawn by some random thing.

In all the many, many death since launch I never felt there was any strategy in it I could change, as some kind of lesson. It was firepower and numbers, thats all. Many quests you could once solo on your level you either have to outlevel by mindless grinding (which due to the XP ratio of grind VS quests is rather pointless) or you must bring a team, so I felt TR has lost a lot of soloability, and thus the idea of some quick, casual fun. For me, this feels like TR shot itself in the foot, because casual, quick fun was what I felt was THE niche for TR. Now, it need planning and coordinating and recruiting groups for every single bit, besides maybe the most early and arbitrary missions.

With the total absence of any social depth I fear TR will only appeal a very small group of people beyond the initial hype weeks.

The majority of XP earned has been shifted to a more quest based grind, which I cannot say I mind as I enjoy exploring the game and not being fixed in any one spot for too long.

With all your deaths you should have realized that your environment, weapon type, mob type and character's position can all play key roles in the outcome of a battle.

A lack of social depth is not on part of the developers, but the users. I group with clan members and pickups every night I am on  whether it is questing, control points or PVP. I do not need the developers to add in any lame /lfg tools other then the channel that is already in game.

As far as click click click.... I have not played a computer game yet where that is not what you are doing with your mouse.

I would argue, I spend my time on mmorpg.com while at work and spend my time playing TR at home.

I think the 'depth' that most people feel is lacking in TR is only partially true...

The story in TR is top notch, so long as you read it. I am still under the impression that 90% of the players will not be reading it though only looking at X and Y.

The control points are a lot of fun! You can literally get sucked into fighting back and forth  for hours - just when you think you have it, more drop ships appear and you lose it again! I do like that the rewards for that are recipes which can be used for crafting purposes.

I would agree that the crafting system is far from complete, but at the same time I cannot express enough how nice it is to be able to modify your armor/weapons and make some really sweet gear from it! Instead of raiding for hours, you just create the piece of gear that you are looking for with the mods you want.

The ability system seems weak at first - it is strange to have access to the different tiers, but you come to realize that each tier may have an entirely different use then the tier before it. Thus, creating a rather complex system to understand.

If you love exploration then TR is also a great game for you! The world is beautiful and there is a lot to see! Between the 2 planets and 4 major continents - it should last a while to go through all the quests and have fun a long the way.

From the limited clan v clan experience I have had, it really is a lot of fun and hope that once they continue to polish it up in the coming weeks it will be even better.

If you can accept the fact that the end-game will not be revolving around raiding, but rather a mixture of PVE and clan-based PVP - you should enjoy yourself.

What more do you really need in customization? There are plenty of options for it - just get in the game and start enjoying it.

Where on their site are they claiming to have a massive raiding/pvp explosion of content? Are you looking at some other site for information?

Everything I have found claims that the content is not in game yet and will be coming... how is that 'hiding behind a mask?'

TR has just as much a chance for success as any up and coming MMO out there, but as with everything only time will tell. If you do not enjoy TR then do not play it, keep waiting for WAR and then wait for whatever the next big game will be after that....