lool

Wow... the mmorpg genre has indeed been standing still for far too long...

Not that it's wrong business-wise, considering the number of players who are willing to fork out the money for the same shit over and over again every single time.

Originally posted by xenom

i first want to see: funcom made us all believe we'll have big sieges with 300+ players in AoC as well :P

i doubt their engine can even handle this today with a few cpu/gpu generations in between ^^ funcom may prove me wrong but i don't trust them :P

 

exactly

hmmm dota with better graphics. can anyone say hype?

Originally posted by Master10K

Wow. I'm just surprised this game is almost a year old and yet this review would have remained mostly the same, if it was written within a month of the game's release.

I have to agree, and will go even further to state that the alpha version wasn't that different either. 

If I had to review the game during the last alpha stage, then the pros and cons would have been the same except for maybe the plot (probably because it was still mostly a mystery).

Sorry to hijack the thread, but anyone knows how big 2.5 is?

I have to say that Aion is the only post-WoW MMO that I've kinda missed after quitting, thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

Am planning on resubbing with a friend in the next couple of days and roll new chars to experience all the new stuff, anyone who wants to reroll (or is new to the game) send me a PM, maybe we can play together! (EU server)

The main problem is that most of the good and wealthy companies will rarely deviate from making a traditional MMO because it's much more risky and there's a decent chance it will fail hard and ruin their reputation (not to mention drain their resources). They stick to the tried and tested method and milk the customers as much as possible, and it will never stop as long as it stays somewhat profitable, aka people are still buying the crap.

Also the only companies that try to develop something new are the ones that don't have the huge budget needed to make said game at least 'decent' on all fronts, and the only reason these companies are giving it a go is because it's nigh impossible to compete with other established companies by making the same crap over and over again.

It's been in a state of deadlock for a few years now, surely it can't stay that way much longer?

Originally posted by Toferio

You wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To gank them is your real test
To grief them is your cause
You will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Teach noobs to understand
The power that's inside
Mo-o-ortal!~

lol, funny :p

I'm not playing any MMOs atm (busy with sc2 :p), but as soon as I feel like playing one again it's going to be Aion for sure.

It's one of the games you actually 'miss', and that doesn't happen too often. I mean as far as MMOs go it's one of the few games in which I've enjoyed my stay on the whole, though that's just me.

It's definitely worth giving it a shot, and your first reaction might well be "Wow this game is surprisingly good". It's so polished and beautiful, animations look great, flying is cool, combat is fun and engaging depending on the classes (some more than others obviously), each class serves its own purpose. Also every few levels something new opens up to you, such as wings @lvl10, stigmas @ lvl20, Abyss @lvl25, new wings @lvl30 etc. (I hope I'm right about the levels 'cause it's been a while :p).

The most important thing though is to make little goals for yourself instead of the big one such as "GETTING TO LEVEL 55", because it takes considerably more time than say WoW and it will get boring if you don't vary your game play options and do a bit of everything for maximum enjoyment, and there are ALOT of different things you can do (group instances, solo instances, group quests, solo quests/grinding, group Pvp, crafting/gathering, fortress battles) and the higher your level the more stuff there is to do like raiding world bosses, rifting into the enemy lands as a guild (this has got to be the most fun I've had in any MMO ever).

Having said that note that some people actually enjoy playing solo the entire game and ganking the shit out of others, it's just that Aion isn't particularly designed for that type of game play.

Getting into a cool active guild is vital as well, you cannot imagine how different the game is when played with guildies/friends.

Basically Aion is not for everyone (cliché I know :p), it all depends on your point of view: Are you against mob grinding? Do you hate Asian art style? Are you in it for the journey as well or mostly the destination (aka 'endgame')? Are you a solo gamer or prefer group play? etc.

The game is a very good game for what it is, it simply cannot disappoint the players who know what they're getting, it's not a 'flawed' game that sucks. It can however disappoint the players who get into it expecting something else, and that's their own fault for getting something they would never have liked.

Hope this helped ;)

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by dreamscaper

Originally posted by Oy-jord

LOL, I didn't even know people were still playing this game.  *shrug*

 

 

You DO realize this game is second in active players only to WoW, right?

Not here in the west, it is barely surviving.  

 

So what, all MMOs are "barely surviving" except for WoW over here. I bet Aion is still easily top 3 along with EvE and obviously WoW.

Does it still take forever to kill a normal mob ?

It has never taken ages to kill a normal mob, it just seems to take really long at the beginning because your gear is sub-par, you don't have any experience playing your class, you have very few abilities, you didn't use pots, you played exclusively solo etc. Anyway the higher level you get the more fun you will have combat-wise.

It's also worth noting of course that certain classes kill faster than others (duh), so just pick a sorcerer instead of something like templar. Also some classes flourish after lvl17, some are really strong early lvl then become comparatively weaker until the upper 30s etc., choose your class wisely, research a bit on each.

Concerning the aggro range.. it's the first time I hear complaints about that personally, maybe you should try pulling in a safer way.

Contact support and tell them about it, they'll remove it. Good luck :)

It's already out

Glads used to be the gold farmers best class choice, so they are doubtlessly good! xD

The issue with glads is that they are relatively weak early on, but the higher his level the better he gets, and is one of the most gear dependent classes. You will kill at a low pace pre-lvl20-25, but after that it gets better with every level and you'll be a killing machine with minimal downtime.

Obviously you're both talking about solo grinding. Downtime is dependent on the class you play, as some classes solo better than others. Having said that, most classes are good enough and require barely any downtime at later levels. What class do you play?

Take chanter for example, I have literally no downtime between mobs provided I pop a mana pot every once in a while, and they kill relatively fast as well. Sorc is a monster dps class and you can kill extremely fast, though you use up mana really quickly if you spend it lavishly, but you should have minimal downtime with mana pots as well. SMs are one of the best solo classes thanks to their insane DP skill, and good geared sins are really good as well.

It's worth noting that SMs, ranger and sorcerer are the best at kiting elites.

If you want to play solo most of the times, pick a good solo class and use pots. Don't be stingy! xD

Lets compare the armor coolness transition from early -> mid -> end game:

WoW: Shitty -> Good -> Great!

Aion: Good -> Great -> Awesome!

Of course you can use any type of skin for your high-end gear/weapon later on, but that's something else.

I know what you mean, though I think there is this "visual feeling of accomplishment" in Aion as well, but it's simply on a different scale! xD

Thanks, was a nice interview, really fun to read! :)

I especially liked the talk about new engaging PvE content as it was just "meh" pre-2.0 imo. Haven't done much in Balaurea yet, but definitely looking forward to it after a few months break from the game.

Well they call it "free expansion". Even though you can actually buy it with the original game and get some fluff items/pets with it, you don't need to. You can download it, but it will take a while to update 'cause you have to download a few gigs worth of patches.

Grindfest at lvl25? It's really funny how opinionated the term "grind" is, every single person has his/her own definition! Anyway for what it's worth, here's an interview from yesterday, I pasted the most relevant info concerning this infamous "grind":

"""Q: We understand that localization beyond language is beginning to occur more in 2.0. What kind of things are you localizing? What are the differences between the East and West?


A: Currently there are a couple of small changes like the fort seige timers and a couple of droprate differences. In Assault on Balurea, we're doing a lot of different changes just for markets outside of Korea. A lot of droprate increases; there will be more news coming out on droprates. We've also got a lot more quest experience now. If you look at 1.9 and 2.0, you'll find a lot of the same quests with differences in experience.

Q: Are double XP weekends planned to occur regularly after 2.0 is released?


A: Yeah! We have a schedule down. When we did it earlier this year, every two weeks, it was to help counteract a lot of the issues people were having with leveling while they were waiting for 1.9. Now with 1.9 and 2.0 the leveling is better because now it’s just a matter of players getting in and enjoying the content. We don’t find that there’s a need for double XP as much, especially after 2.0 with the increased experience. But we will still have them, they’ll just be a little more unique than every two weeks or every month.

Q: In many interviews, we’ve heard that leveling will be easier in 2.0. In what ways will it be easier?


A: So one of the major changes is the increased experience I was talking about. We’ve gone through and we’ve increased the experience throughout the entire game, not just the new content, but from 1 all the way up to 55. We’ve also increased the item drops in a lot of instances and we’ll have more information about additional changes to item drops in the next month or two. That’s all aimed at getting players the gear they need to make leveling fun. We also added solo instances at level 18 where leveling was a difficult point, and at level 37 where there was also kind of another wall for leveling. So we’ve added content, tweaked a lot of the experience and droprates so that players are better equipped. They get through the leveling faster and they enjoy the content more."""

All 13 servers are packed except the oceanic one I think, but faction balance is borked. Population has been stable for some time, it has been that way since a few months after launch.

EDIT: There are 2 server statuses: Recommended and Full, so Recommended includes everything from low to high, and full is a lagfest, the like we haven't seen since launch I believe.