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Aion Hands-On Report
MMORPG.com`s Community Manager Richard Cox writes this article on his hands-on experience with NCsoft`s highly anticipated MMORPG, Aion.
When I was getting ready for PAX I was told one of the primary reasons for going would be to check out Aion. PAX would be the first time the general public in North America would be getting their hands on the game. Much like most people out there, I really didn’t know a lot about the game. In fact I was going in with a lot of preconceived notions and assumptions. It is a Korean made game after all, so as such it comes with certain stereotypes. I’ve played more than my share of Korean MMOs and I have to say for the most part the majority of those stereotypes exist for a reason. While at PAX I spent probably an hour chatting with various members of the development team and probably between two and three total hours playing the game.
First of all, a little background on the game for those of you who haven’t really been following it much yet:
Aion: The Tower of Eternity takes place on the world of Atreia. The world is split into two halves with a collection of shards and ‘islands’ between them. There are three factions in the game, but adding a twist to the normal faction based games out there, one of them is entirely NPC controlled. The two player controlled factions are the Elyos and the Asmodian. Foregoing the stereotypical ‘good vs. evil’ setup, Aion’s factions are more along the lines of ‘light vs. dark’. The Elyos (the light) live on the bottom half of the world, where the sun still shines and everything is still bright and pretty. The Asmodian (the dark) live on the top half of the world, where the only light they receive comes reflected from the Elyos world below, giving everything an ominous glow to an otherwise dark world. The third faction is the Balaur, the ancient enemy of all the people of Atreia, whose constant war is what led to the cataclysm that split the world apart. Between the two halves of the world lies the Abyss, the game’s primary PvP area.
;)
Now to the good stuff, all the juicy info I managed to get out of the various developers I talked to. Most of my tour was handled by Brian Knox, the Associate Producer, though various others came and went throughout the hour, including the main producer. This is going to be rather sporadic as we jumped from topic to topic as they came to my mind. I’ll start off with character creation: Aion’s character creation is set up in a multi-tier system. You start off by picking your faction; Elyos or Asmodian. Then you pick your archetype: tank, support, melee dps or ranged dps. From there you select one of two classes per archetype. For those who aren’t as concerned about the appearance of their character, you can take the simple route of just picking through a couple of pre-generated faces, hairstyles, etc. But for those who want absolute control over how their avatar looks, you can then drill down and adjust just about anything you can imagine using sliders. There is also a ‘random’ button for the impatient among us. Playing around with that for a while brought up some pretty funny combinations; it seems that you don’t have to keep everything proportional with the sliders, resulting in some characters with big heads or extra long necks and such. Another great addition to the character creation system is a preview option, which will let you see how your character will look with some example mid and high level gear.
One of the first questions I had about the game was the grind. We all know how much of a grind Korean games can be. As it was explained to me, Aion will definitely be the exception to this notion. Max level is 50 and the leveling pace will be on par with World of Warcraft’s, which really isn’t that bad at all. When I asked how this was being received in Korea, where the game is already in beta, I was told that they love it. Grind heavy games are really all they’ve ever known over there according to Brian, and now that they’re experiencing different setups, they’re really enjoying it. WoW is hugely popular over there and so far the feedback on Aion’s leveling pace has been very positive.
;)
Next up I asked about character customization (skill wise) and alternate leveling. Aion will have a system they’re calling the Stigma system. Your character will have five Stigma slots into which you can place skills/abilities from other classes. So if you want to give your melee class a little bit of healing, or maybe a little caster firepower you can. This allows you to customize your character’s abilities to more fit your play style without completely changing the class. Also while PvPing in the Abyss you earn Abyss Points, which translate roughly into something similar to Realm Points if you’ve ever played Dark Age of Camelot. Much like DAoC’s Realm Ranks, you gain PvP ranks as you collect Abyss Points from PvPing and you are able to buy Abyss items. Titles seem to be all the rage in MMOs as of late, and Aion doesn’t disappoint in this department either. There is an extensive title system and the titles in this game actually provide bonuses to attributes and such. Another system you can use to further customize your character’s combat ability is the manastones which drop as loot quite often. Your weapons and armor have slots that you can use these manastones to imbue extra bonuses on the gear. During the time that I spent playing the game they seemed to drop fairly often and provided all kinds of different types of bonuses. There also appears to be at least one other way to mix up the abilities on your character. While snooping around in the auction house I noticed one of the searchable categories was “Skill Books” so it seems that you may be able to find skill books to add skills to your character as loot/drops, but I was unable to get any information on that, so merely speculation at this point.
Speaking of the auction house, it seems Aion will feature both an auction house system and a personal store system. I asked about the crafting system and was basically told to not expect a reinvention of the wheel here. They’re going with a pretty typical trade skill system in Aion, so if you’ve crafted in an MMO you probably know what to expect here. Recipes will apparently come with both skillups and as dropped loot items. The in game mail system does have one really neat feature, or at least I thought so. You can pay slightly more for “express delivery” when shipping some items to a friend. Which basically means, if you’re out raiding a dungeon or something really far from civilization, you can send out a plea over your guild chat or through a tell to a friend, who can then buy you some potions and have them delivered directly to you. Very handy, I can’t count how many times I’ve had to run back to town for potions or such in a game only to get back and find the area I was in had respawned or someone else had moved in and was camping it. Ever been in a game and found an extremely cool looking set of armor, but the stats/bonuses on it weren’t as nice as the crappy looking stuff you’re wearing? Well, consider that problem solved in Aion. It seems you will have the ability to ‘combine’ two different sets of armor, making the one you want to wear for its bonuses look like the one you want to wear for its appearance. And forget a simple dye system; in Aion you’ll be able to add particle effects to your gear. There will also be a system in place for uploading your own custom guild emblem, which will be displayed in various places on your character for showing off your guild allegiance. The guild system itself seems fairly typical of MMOs and there will be an alliance system for grouping multiple like-minded guilds together.
;)
Combat in Aion seemed very fast paced and fun when I was playing it. There is an extensive combo system in the game with a lot of branching paths. Combos will trigger both reactive and passive effects. Some will lead up to more powerful attacks; others will trigger buffs, etc.
Naturally though, the biggest feature in Aion is the flight. The devs I talked to went out of their way to stress that flying in Aion is not just a mode of transportation. The flight in the game is there because of the combat system, it’s all about the aerial combat. Flying really isn’t meant to be used to get from point A to point B, though if you want, you certainly can. You are limited in the amount of time you can stay airborne, and if you don’t keep an eye on your timer, you WILL plummet out of the sky like a rock. And there are skills in the game targeted solely at the aerial combat (knockdowns, for example). If you thought knockdowns were a useful skill when fighting on the ground, wait ‘till you nail one a couple hundred feet in the air. And as you’re fighting in the Abyss, beating back the opposing factions, you’re gaining influence. Influence seems to affect most things throughout your homeland, the higher your faction’s influence in the Abyss is, the cheaper items become in shops for example.
Another interesting feature that I learned about was the random portals. As explained above, the world is split in half and each faction has their own part, which is primarily PvE. This is where you’ll do all of your leveling and such to get ready to head into the Abyss. However, just to throw a little twist into the system, every so often a portal will appear randomly in the world. It won’t stay open for very long, I was told five minutes tops, but that’s subject to change based on tester feedback. While this portal is open, anyone who stumbles upon it can go through to the other faction’s main areas and wreck havoc. As soon as you die you are sent back to your own world and the portals are meant to be pretty rare, so this should add a little bit of suspense to your PvEing without adding the full on ganking that a truly open PvP environment brings.
As far as PvE content goes, it looks like there will be plenty to keep all the PvE junkies out there happy. There are the typical MMO style random quests as well as a pretty extensive storyline set of quests. One cool feature I stumbled upon while playing was that the entire dialogue is saved in your quest journal, for those times when you’ve forgotten a small detail of what you were told to do and don’t feel like going all the way back to town to talk to the chap again.
So to wrap up what I’m sure is quickly turning into a short novel, I didn’t go into this with very high expectations. Like a lot of people out there, I’ve tried a lot of the Korean made MMOs and just couldn’t get into them. While they’re not my cup of tea, they obviously do very well and people out there like them. Given that, I really didn’t anticipate Aion being much different, but I was wrong. The time I spent playing the game was a blast. As I’m sure most people have already seen by the various screenshots and videos around the web, the game is stunningly beautiful. Even in the short amount of time I was playing I actually felt like I was accomplishing something. I did quite a few quests, found nice gear and manastones, and explored quite a bit. Aion has definitely moved quite a bit higher on my ‘most anticipated’ list and I’ll be keeping a much closer eye on what’s happening with it.
"MMORPG.com`s Community Manager Richard Cox writes thsi article on his hands-on experience with NCsoft`s highly anticipated MMORPG, Aion."
Also I assume it takes awhile for the link to come through?
Houston we got no link ^^
what is this? is that the whole article? ......
That was a really good hands-on report, which will surely shed some light on this game for many MMO gamers out there.
The article can be found here http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253/feature/2212
Knowing how impatiant i am i prob. missed it, but is there a release date on Aion?
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253/feature/2212
Here's the full article.
nm I didn't see it there two posts up...
What is refreshing, and we keep seeing this from NCSoft about Aion.
They are not out to change the wheel...especially if it is not broken.
They just want to take what they like about our old games and fix it up. I prefer this attitude if you know your game is a clone (*looks at WAR and the fanbois who say it is new...yea right)
The game at least looks good and has some fun and unique attributes. I am ok with that.
I am looking forward to giving this game a try. The flight aspect is intriguing and the avatars and the war remind me of angels and the struggle of good verses evil, or in this case light versus dark. The backstory is one that I might actually get into more than some of the other mmo's.
Can't wait.....
Can't wait....... bleh...
I cant wait for this game to be out. The classes look interesting, and the customization looks deep. Seeing as NC has had a very loose NDA and the amount of positive feedback from the beta testers, most of us can assume that the game is very polished and ready for release in Q1 of 09.
Huh no, they are looking forwards to it because it's Warhammer, not because it's new, a WoW clone or anything else, because it is Warhammer Online, the end. That said I've no interest in that game, so anyway....
Very good Aion review! And this is why we Aion fan peoples have been crazy anbout this game for a while now, it's what we want in an MMO in a pretty package. It's not out to change the face of the MMO world, but it is out to make things fun in an entirely new world with some high fantasy elements but with enough of a twist that it feels very fresh, or that you are on a new planet/dimension or whatever. ;)
After the reading the decent article,i am still VERY skeptical of a korean game.
Crafting,my fave ,really wasn't discussed much so i can't comment.Usually these games rely ONLY on imbuing weapons/gear,end up being some version +1 +2 whatever.
It sounds like the Abyss fighting is TIME=REWARD a big failure IMO,especially since it sounds like the best gear will most likely come from the abyss.
Auction house is a good idea,they get credit for making that obvious move ,those stalls they like to use were a joke.
I don't like that niche idea of flight one bit.I guarantee you 99% of the players will ALL be flying making the rest of the game design a failure.It reminds me of going through HORIZONS and every player was a darn dragon or when froglok was released in EQ2 and a million of them were running around.IMO flight should be earned,by say once you hit level 50,you can forfeit 20 levels and start over at level 30 with flight.Some idea along that lines,rather than allowing the whole server to fly around the air.
Do not like potions,that is so old school it's not funny.There idea of instant delivery is also a nice way to give the RMT an easier way to make residence in there game.
The combat system.I would expect the usual 500 mph poor animations ,korean games all have.I would also expect battles to be over very fast,witch will make there combo system a waste of time.Not only will it be a waste,but with fast paced fights they will ALL want to be using attack dmg combos rather than some useless buff that won't matter since the fight will be over too fast to gain anything from it.
i do agree and sort of like there portal idea,at least as the way i am understanding it?This means you can ONLY hit the other sides realm through a portal and can't just run over there at will?It should go one step further and make you earn your way in via a PVE battle of some sort in that 5 minute time span.
The final thing is the talk of grind.I have a good idea that they may remove the killing grind,but i guarantee they will add in the move from point a to pint B grind ,witch is even worse.By this i mean,you will get quests that will send you all over hell acres just for the sake of creating a time sink.So ya you may not need 500 kills to get from level 20-21,but you will most likely end up with the same time frames to achieve the higher levels.
The other thing i noticed is that the author has done EXACTLY what i have done on MANY occasions.Hit some game for 2-3 hours and think this is cool.Games ONLY get worse over time as the new game and new looks get old real fast.They always end up the same old same old,it takes a good amount of work to make the game good.I have yet to see one korean game EVER that shows a lot of work was put into it.They are always about glowing swords,shiny armour and you killing mobs or other players,the rest of the game world is always static and very boring with no interactivity.
I will reserve giving this game too much credit,until i finally get to see the finished product,it's already got one bad mark against it being a PVP game.
pity that they didn't show you guys the abyss :P
uk.youtube.com/watch
LMAO that looks like MU online,all you can really enjoy from something like that is looking at 500 names scrolled across the screen.I know i know the usual you tube doesn't do a game justice, i surely hope not from that video,it makes AION, like i said MU online and going back 15 years in gaming.
Aion, the future hit :)
LMAO that looks like MU online,all you can really enjoy from something like that is looking at 500 names scrolled across the screen.I know i know the usual you tube doesn't do a game justice, i surely hope not from that video,it makes AION, like i said MU online and going back 15 years in gaming.
If you enjoy instanced battlegrounds and limits telling you that you can't fight cause there are way too many people on that spot, Aion isn't for you.
Sold.
-adding Aion to my list of stuff to get.
Plus, I like the ability to add skills from other classes to my toons.
Well First off before I begin let me say that from all the previews I've seen and all the videos I've seen, this definitely is not your run of the mill Korean MMO. Further solidifying the fact is that NCSoft is working on this game, not random korean company #1938232. Yes NCSoft also gave us Lineage 2 which was one of the worst grind games in MMORPG history, but they're also known for publishing innovative titles, so obviously they're not afraid to do something different.
Crafting is like a traditional western MMO crafting from the little bit I read on it. Can't go into details as I don't know much about it, but I know there are different crafting professions out there.
PvP is going to play a huge role in this game in the endgame, for them not to reward players for their abyss fighting would be downright silly. Why would you complain about something offering players that spend time more reards in an MMO? That's the whole damn point of most MMOs, those who spend the most time come out on top.
Flying has been designed so that it's short bursts of combat, not overdrawn fights where no one fights on land. Like Richard mentioned in his preview, flying is not meant for going from town to town, it's meant for some bursts of action that can have some very rewarding and sometimes very negative effects. Everyone can fly, so it's not like only certain people can do it. IMO the way they designed it was perfect, I don't like the idea of only flying combat, but I do like the idea of it being a significant part of the game.
We've had a lot of translated reports from Koreans about the grind, it has not been difficult to level at all. Yes they could very well change it a bit from release, but like the Associate Producer said in the preview, it was their goal to make the leveling closer to WoW. I don't think it'll be significantly changing.
Lastly about the 2-3 hour comment, this article is simply a preview, how can you knock the author for writing a preview, which the whole purpose of a preview is to write your impressions of the game based on a limited and small test. I can't really think of a preview that was ever negative, the whole point of them is to show the person playing it the finer points to the game so that there is little room to write about the negative sides. You can't blame the author for that.
Honestly I don't even think playing the game will convince you otherwise that this game has the potential to be good, you are turned off by PvP games apparently, so why do you even bother trying to be convinced it will be good? Some people don't like PvP games, and that's fine. No need to knock a game just because it's not your taste. I don't like EVE because of the pure sci-fi setting and the fact that it revolves around space ship battles. Does that make it a bad game? No, it's just not my thing.
Three articles about crafting/Gathering in Aion:
www.aionsource.com/forum/general-discussion/2671-translation-crafting.html
aionhun.hu/jameinkaiser/crafting3.htm
www.aionsource.com/forum/general-discussion/4591-translation-gathering-resources.html
Those are from CBT2 (April? 2008) and CBT1 (January? 2008). Changes and improvements were announced for Open beta.
Does the mini map have proper quest markers like Warhammer online and Age of Conan? Or are you left searching all over the place, or Alt-Tabbing to a website to find out where to go for a quest?
Also...I think that flying should be constant and enabled for the entire world. One of the things I hate absolutely is the downtime due to Travel in MMORPGs. I timed a session in Lord of the Rings Online, and in a 1 hour session I spent 30 minutes walking. That is utterly ridiculous, and is one of the reasons I stopped playing LOTRO.
With a proper flight mechanic, the Developers had a chance to do something truly unique, and to develop a combat system that would work both in the Air and on the land. They could also have developed quests etc. that take advantage of this vertical motion.
I think they have not taken this mechanic far enough, which is a shame.
Also, why do people keep using YouTube for game videos? You can never make out a darn thing. Vimeo is so much better for game video. http://www.vimeo.com/956073 This shows the game off much, much better. It is pretty...a different artistic style than I tend to see in 'Western' MMORPGs to be sure.
The fighting looks absolutely frenetic and reminds me of watching a Street Fighter battle. FAST! :-)
Which could be both good and bad.
My comments about liking the game after only 2-3 hours was based mostly on the fact that I went in with pretty low expectations and a lot of assumptions/expectations because it was another Korean MMO. I was pleasantly surprised and really liked what I saw so far. Does that mean I'll like the final product? Beats me, I wish I was that psychic, I'd win a couple lottos over the next couple weeks. Don't try to read too much into it, I liked what I saw, I enjoyed what I got to play, nothing more, nothing less, I'm not declaring it the end-all be-all of MMOs or anything, just my opinion of what was presented to me at PAX.
Quests have a kind of "wiki" attached which based on hyperlinks, opens a new window which let's you know further about what you're reading, and there's a "locate" button to find out where the stuff is.
There are teleport systems to fly between cities, it's a scripted bird which takes you to the next city/basement for a small fee. Also, there are certain speed up tunnels which you have to go through while flying in order to get faster to the places.
They've developed quests, gathering, and many features around flight, in one of those you have to race against a watch to reach point B from point A as part of the flight training. There are even flying raids, and many strategical points in fortresses which can be only reached through flight.
People uses youtube to upload aion CBT videos cause the korean famous sites use something similar in terms of resolution, to find high res videos you would need to know korean and browse smaller forums.
i may have missed something (other than the brief mention in the combat paragraph) but.....
how was this hands on?
hands on the devs?
what i read was the devs say it will be this way - the devs say you can do this or that
what did you do exactly?
Probably played it on one of the computers there while a developer talked about it, like everyone else?
Almost every single thing I talked about in this article, as the developer was talking to me about it, I was looking at it in game. That's the main reason its all as sporadic as it is, we came to different topics as I stumbled upon it in the game. The Stigma system for example, I was going through the different panels of the Character window in game and saw the Stigma panel and asked about it. I flew, I fought, I did quests, I explored... I did lots of things...
bla bla bla bla
launch 2009
y gameplay
here www.youtube.com/watch
korean grindfarmer
www.youtube.com/watch aion = mmorpg?
korean grindfarmer
Just to be clear there is no good and evil in Aion. Just 1 part where sunshine can still come and 1 part where shadow is. ( all cause by an event further explained in the bio )
Following this game for a half year now ^^ Cant wait. But will test warhammer, just curious :p
If you enjoy instanced battlegrounds and limits telling you that you can't fight cause there are way too many people on that spot, Aion isn't for you.
I stopped taking Wizardry serious, when he said most korean games have bad animations. Hell WoW is one of the few games in the west. Where the models animate well enough to even be on par with some of the korean games I've played.
If you enjoy instanced battlegrounds and limits telling you that you can't fight cause there are way too many people on that spot, Aion isn't for you.
I stopped taking Wizardry serious, when he said most korean games have bad animations. Hell WoW is one of the few games in the west. Where the models animate well enough to even be on par with some of the korean games I've played.
I don't understand how someone can complain about a MMORPG being massive, specially with these graphics, hats off to the coders for such optimization, got tired of limited battlegrounds where you're thrown against a bunch of randoms.
The article read OK but this game will be very PvP centric in an RvR format (Player vs Player in "team" Realm vs Realm combat based upon race/side you choose). By "very" I do mean it is planned to limit gak happy folks activities by not allowing "baby slaughtering" but it will "encourage" you to participate by having most of the leveling up benefits, and the like, IN the PvP areas.
Access to the PvP Abyss is via portals which are level limited.
The designers do appear to be rather smart on their implementation in that the PvP area (called the Abyss) has 3 factions in it: 2 Player sides and a computer controlled "random" side that can appear randomly but will also be less likely to attack the weaker realms forces vs the stronger realms members. The 2 player controlled sides battle to take the 5 keeps, which grant benefits to those that take and hold them. The computer controlled side will help "balance" the imablances of 1 side outnumbering the other, which holds more keeps than the other and such other considerations. How and why of it is the developers "secret" and something that they can tweak.
Many aspects of what I have discovered are not really to my tastes but most *ALL* of it is still "wait and see". Why? Because the game is NOT in release yet and there are a lot of things that can and will change plus, as I noted above, the developers have left themselves tools to "tweak" the PvP experience after it goes live by adjusting how that computer controlled 3rd "team" interacts with the 2 player sides.
One thing I did find out was that it will have "contention" even within a realm for "world resources".
The Abyss has 5 "keeps" that can be conquored and held. The guild that holds a keep actually can get income from that keep for holding it -- the elite get richer by the rest buying stuff that may only be available from a specific keep. HOW this is decided, I don't know. A mixed raid -- would it go to the raid leaders guild or the person who gets the killing-blow on the keep boss or what? Lots of little questions but the overall is a realm will controll the keep with a guild "owning" it so gaining benefits from that ownership. Good for "the ubah's", good for those that don't care who owns it. "Contention" with any other guilds that wish to hold a keep.
There will be "bosses" out there to fight. From the sounds of it, a lot of this will be "world" based vs instanced. This draws images of WoW's early world-bosses where only the top guilds usually got to fight them. Thus some "contention" for these encounters as in who gets to fight the boss when it's up and the like.
etc...
A whole bunch of the stuff is being adjusted but, as some mentioned, this is one of the most visually stunning games I've seen coming out. To me, eye-candy isn't everyting. I chose WoW over EQ2 -- not for the visuals of the game (EQ2 had more "realistic" graphics) but for the game play and to get the hell away from SOE who I felt had "trashed" EQ in the time they controlled it. I went from WoW to LoTRO which *IS* a graphical upgrade experience but I decided on this for a variety of reasons, not the least of which has turned out to be the "more mature" atmosphere in the game.
Aion... Lots of promise but the PvP "contention" aspects of the game look to appeal to a younger croud. I'm not into having PvP force-fed to me nor being penalized for not participating in those aspects of the game. Don't get me wrong on PvP -- I did rank up several chars in WoW's system before quitting and I have over 22 "creeps" and a few "freeps" ranked up in the LoTRO PvMP system. It's just that I prefer doing PvP when *I* want to and not feeling I must go do that every time I'm in the game or my "char's progress" suffers... Thanks but no thanks if that's how it'll be. Again, it's mostly just wait and see...
very nice overview
but...
can you do a combat exlusive article next time ?
for me te combat interface is the heart of the game.
me for example i love how aoc handles combat and i hate the wow/war style while i tought lineage2 of click and execute was ok but not as good as action combat in aoc/ddo.
you hinted about a combo system so pleeeaaaaase if you find the time give us a detailed look into combat in aion, what controlls are used and how the combat system is like.
Excellent read. keep them coming I can't wait to get in.
I might be a dinosaur but a level speed comparable to WoW isnt something Im looking to.
So 1-2 week and you reach max level or only a couple of days for the hardcore junkies? bleh.
Everything else sounds fine. Im looking forward to this game which hopefully will be half as good as reviews indicate.
I for one am looking forward to Aion. I've been away from MMORPG's for a long time, but this game might make me return to this genre. For those others interested in learning more about the game, I found a great forum. Link: www.aionsource.com
I don't like games where other players can kill me without my consent to PvP so I will steer clear from this one I think.
And Gameguard has hindered me in the past to play for any longer periods of time in Lineage II and I think that the same will be true for Aion.
The graphics looks nice though.
Also I wrote up a little article about some other things Aion has going for it. Check that out here.
I'm glad the one poster straightened me out on a few things,thanx no prob there ,i can be proved wrong whatever.
Some of the things you answered made the game look a little better,but of course it is still pre specualation,not an actual released game.
To the other guy,i never said i don't like PVP games,my fave game of all time is unreal tournament lol.You don't get anymore PVP than that.What i don't like is the way MMO's try to interact PVP with PVE,and ALways PVP is horribly done,by my standards anyhow.I do NOT agree with open ended FFA PVP,that is not a chalenging system,maybe to the weaker player it is ,but no way in hell is is any challenge what so ever to the stronger player.
Look at it this way,if you can't see the fail in such a system.Player A looks over at player B and thinks to himself,you know that guy is really decked out in gear and has a lot of high ranking skills, i think i'll go commit suicide and fight him for a guarantee loss...lol,it won't happen.The other side of the coin has player A looking over and thinking,man that dude is an easy kill i'll attack him because i have nothing to lose.
When i see PVP i want a system that is so fair across the board any player can kill any player,with there own real life abilities ,not some abilities they got in a game because they can spend all day playing ,because they don't work.Easiest way to explain PVP would be to look no further than UNREAL T.,that is what i expect from PVP,because that is IMO the best PVP system i have ever played in.
On the topic of flying the author did not say it was bursts only he did say it was possible to fly from town to town if you wanted to do so.
Lastly,to the guy who said i shouldn't complain about TIME=REWARD,or he was asking why i should,you answered your own question.I don't care if most games do it,there all failures IMO,It is not the proper way to do it,and any such game that rewards players in that matter is a poorly designed game.No matter what you may think about my pre conscribed thoughts on AION,i NEVER hold any grudge,and can and will change my mind in a heartbeat if this or any game turns out to be much better than what i thought.
I was never a final fantasy fan ,didn't really care about the franchise at all,until a friend made me watch it a bit and understand it a bit more.Then i decided to try and give there games a try and was amazed at the effort and thought that was put into there games,SQUARE ENIX is the most amazing developer on the planet,at least until some better one comes along.I am never a fanbois for life to ANY developer or game ,i can turn sour fast and move over to another developer as soon as they earn it.
Oh?
Didn't I?
The flight in the game is there because of the combat system, it’s all about the aerial combat. Flying really isn’t meant to be used to get from point A to point B, though if you want, you certainly can. You are limited in the amount of time you can stay airborne, and if you don’t keep an eye on your timer, you WILL plummet out of the sky like a rock. And there are skills in the game targeted solely at the aerial combat (knockdowns, for example). If you thought knockdowns were a useful skill when fighting on the ground, wait ‘till you nail one a couple hundred feet in the air.
"limited in the amount of time you can stay airborne" == timer as far as I know...
Nice article indeed
The low leveling curve is prolly there because this game is designed for pvp mainly. For "grindfests" one has to wait for Lineage 3 hehe.
Also the engine seems to be very well used. I have great expectations for this game, and atleast the community team so far has been a happy surprise.
If I remember correctly, the flight skill has 5 minutes cooldown. And you really can avoid PvP if you really hate it. Just beats me why on earth someone would play mmo-games if one only wants to do PvE content.
Also I wrote up a little article about some other things Aion has going for it. Check that out here.
Gathering information on the PvP aspects of a game can be a bit difficult to ferret out before a game ships. Little about it is covered with detail in reviews versus such things as the look and feel of a games play, combat systems, etc... Therefor I can see where your statement comes from with respect to this game but it appears to be misleading. Here's some of the info I found on Aion as I looked into it (I had to go back and find some of this from when I first looked into it a few months back... *snicker*)
www.youtube.com/watch
That is Part 6 of an interview with Ken Choi -- there are 10 or 11 parts to that interview on YouTube. -- He's a Sr. Game Designer for Aion. Here are excerpt statements of his on the question:
"...of course you can level up in non-Abyss areas until you reach maximum level but it won't be as efficient as when you're hunting in the Abyss which will have all the higher level MOBs..."
"...it will have that risk element. That is deliberate because we want the players to be gradually introduced to the element of having to fight your enemy faction..."
So when a game designer says that you can get to max level without PvP but that it won't be as "efficient" as PvPvE... Then also makes statements about "it would be wise..." and the like... Well, if it would be wise to go if you wish to level up "efficiently" then what would it be to NOT go there?
If you've played MMO's for a while, that "wisdom" carries a bit more meaning than the preceding portion of his statement that it is "possible" without PvP -- especially when the rest of that topic is about the Abyss and why players should go there. At 25th level you can start going to the Abyss and it seems that they want you to go there as close to that as you are willing and able to go.
As the information on the game points to: The first 25 levels are PvE based "learning time". The first 10 levels are "learn the controls and figure out the basics". The next 15 levels appear to be about learning specifics of your class operations, fight and the like. They'll go by pretty fast, similar to WoW.
At 25th level on up, you'll be "encouraged" to go to the Abyss, PvP area. No, you don't have to -- the same as you don't have to ever get a mount in WoW. You can play WoW entirely without a mount for travel but it does tend to slow one down a bit and limit what one can do compared to other players -- especially as you get closer to "max level".
In other words -- can you advance without PvP? Yes. Would anyone in their right mind play the game with a handicap of NOT going to the Abyss when that's where "the good stuff" and "faster advancement" is at? ...
Now; if you're around level 25 going in there, can much higher level "enemies" easily hunt you down and kill you? That's a tougher question but, in every MMO I've played so far, the difference between someone half "max level" and someone max level is quite a bit with respect to how well they can "compete" with each other and all are in the same PvP zone.
How PvP play works, with respect to protections, ability to participate AND avoid it, does carry meaning to a good portion of a games player base. If you are going to have to go to PvP areas to progress should you expect to be fodder for a good while? I don't think you nor anyone else currently has an answer to this question. So it's at the wait and see stage... Perhaps some more info will come out as the release date approaches.
FYI -- you're correct on the keeps. There are more than 5. I don't recall where I came up with the 5 but each major island in the abyss has a citadel and the Abyss is a zone they can easily expand due to the nature of the place. Also there was something about different "values" for having different keeps but, again, I couldn't recall where to find the references.
As to portals -- the level protection prevents sub-25th levels from getting in -- sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't even want to touch on the "random" portals because they seem very odd and also seem to violate the separation between sides outline for the game . Each realm has it's "safe home area" and combat between sides is to be done in the Abyss yet these random portals... I've no idea how those will work if it lets "enemy troops" get into your "safe" homelands.
Flight has a dynamic cooldown. As of the CBT2 client, low level players (12ish) had 1 minute of flight time. If they used 30 seconds of this and landed, there would be a small 5 second cooldown for the flight skill itself, but after that they could fly again to continue ticking their timer down. Now, any time you're on the ground, not flying, your flight timer is recharging +3 seconds every 5 or so.
So (and these are unofficial numbers, but fairly close as of CBT2) you have 1:00 of flight time and you fly to a floating island above you that has a quest and it takes you 25 seconds to get there, leaving you with 0:35 on the timer. You land and begin talking to the npc. It takes you 20 seconds to read the quest blurb and accept the mission, you should have, roughly, 47 seconds of flight time, now.
It has been said that there are buffs that increase flight time as well as other factors. Abyss points can be spent to "upgrade" your wings. Whether this is just appearance or if it makes them stronger, its not known. Flight time may also increase with level- also unknown at this point.
Yeah they are wing upgrades, which add stats and stuff from abyss, also the look gets upgraded.
Gathering information on the PvP aspects of a game can be a bit difficult to ferret out before a game ships. Little about it is covered with detail in reviews versus such things as the look and feel of a games play, combat systems, etc... Therefor I can see where your statement comes from with respect to this game but it appears to be misleading. Here's some of the info I found on Aion as I looked into it (I had to go back and find some of this from when I first looked into it a few months back... *snicker*)
www.youtube.com/watch
That is Part 6 of an interview with Ken Choi -- there are 10 or 11 parts to that interview on YouTube. -- He's a Sr. Game Designer for Aion. Here are excerpt statements of his on the question:
"...of course you can level up in non-Abyss areas until you reach maximum level but it won't be as efficient as when you're hunting in the Abyss which will have all the higher level MOBs..."
"...it will have that risk element. That is deliberate because we want the players to be gradually introduced to the element of having to fight your enemy faction..."
So when a game designer says that you can get to max level without PvP but that it won't be as "efficient" as PvPvE... Then also makes statements about "it would be wise..." and the like... Well, if it would be wise to go if you wish to level up "efficiently" then what would it be to NOT go there?
If you've played MMO's for a while, that "wisdom" carries a bit more meaning than the preceding portion of his statement that it is "possible" without PvP -- especially when the rest of that topic is about the Abyss and why players should go there. At 25th level you can start going to the Abyss and it seems that they want you to go there as close to that as you are willing and able to go.
As the information on the game points to: The first 25 levels are PvE based "learning time". The first 10 levels are "learn the controls and figure out the basics". The next 15 levels appear to be about learning specifics of your class operations, fight and the like. They'll go by pretty fast, similar to WoW.
At 25th level on up, you'll be "encouraged" to go to the Abyss, PvP area. No, you don't have to -- the same as you don't have to ever get a mount in WoW. You can play WoW entirely without a mount for travel but it does tend to slow one down a bit and limit what one can do compared to other players -- especially as you get closer to "max level".
In other words -- can you advance without PvP? Yes. Would anyone in their right mind play the game with a handicap of NOT going to the Abyss when that's where "the good stuff" and "faster advancement" is at? ...
Now; if you're around level 25 going in there, can much higher level "enemies" easily hunt you down and kill you? That's a tougher question but, in every MMO I've played so far, the difference between someone half "max level" and someone max level is quite a bit with respect to how well they can "compete" with each other and all are in the same PvP zone.
How PvP play works, with respect to protections, ability to participate AND avoid it, does carry meaning to a good portion of a games player base. If you are going to have to go to PvP areas to progress should you expect to be fodder for a good while? I don't think you nor anyone else currently has an answer to this question. So it's at the wait and see stage... Perhaps some more info will come out as the release date approaches.
FYI -- you're correct on the keeps. There are more than 5. I don't recall where I came up with the 5 but each major island in the abyss has a citadel and the Abyss is a zone they can easily expand due to the nature of the place. Also there was something about different "values" for having different keeps but, again, I couldn't recall where to find the references.
As to portals -- the level protection prevents sub-25th levels from getting in -- sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't even want to touch on the "random" portals because they seem very odd and also seem to violate the separation between sides outline for the game . Each realm has it's "safe home area" and combat between sides is to be done in the Abyss yet these random portals... I've no idea how those will work if it lets "enemy troops" get into your "safe" homelands.
Your post doesn't make much sense. That's like saying dungeons shouldn't be allowed in games because, since the exp and rewards are better, people are forced to play in them.
Risk = Reward, in life and games, and the Abyss is there for people who want to take the risk. You're not encouraged to spend all your time in the Abyss, you're encouraged to play the damn game however the hell you like. If you don't want to go to the Abyss, then don't! I know I probably won't, I'm more of a PvE buff myself.
In any case, a lot of the above are preconceived notions you'll have to let go. I understand we've all played almost every MMO out there and are a little bit jaded, but if you're going to stick with that attitude you'll never be happy, and you may as well just stop playing like...now.
And another thing, you're comparing yourself to other players, because those who enter the abyss may reach the end-result before you...however, if you don't want to PvP, why does that matter? I could understand people getting stronger, faster, then turning around and pwning you...but if it's not open PvP, who cares if the PvPers hit lvl 50 in a week when it might take you a month? Just go at your own pace and enjoy the game, stop worrying about what other people are doing with their time.
EDIT: In response to Abyss level restrictions, no one has declared whether specific areas of the Abyss will come with level restriction, however it has been stated that killing someone lower level than you will yield little to no reward. So unless you piss someone off, or they're just kind of a dick, you won't find a lot of lvl 50s ganking lvl 25s
WOW ^^ i cant wait anymore i think this game will be best next gen MMO :)
Sounds like it could be worth a try, but Ubisoft need to learn from EQ2. The archetype system wasn't well received there, it won't be well received in Aion either as the community get to the point of making alts and find out the reason why EQ2 dropped. It adds a grind to the game where people have to play through the archtype to try a class they want to play out ,only to get there to find it's not for them. This can burn people out.
First the archetype will not be a problem i think. if you choose the warrior archetype youll have to choose between a tank or a dmg warrior, support archetype you choose between a buffer or an healer, etc so the choice isnt that bad and if i remind right you choose your class at lvl10 or 20 max. And btw ubisoft will be only a distributor in europe nothing more than that. They dont have anything to do with the gameplay or the game at all. NCSoft made a deal with them cause its better to use a company that have better experience and a better distribution network than invest tons of cash to do it. :)
No distributors, UbiSoft or other, have been announced. NC Soft is a distributor itself, so I can't imagine they'd outsource what they can do themselves.
http://www.gamershell.com/companies/ncsoft/478150.html
I guess that does look familiar, my bad. Thanks for the clarification.
Note though, that is only for the French version of the game.
yeah the press relese speak about the french version only for now, we will see if things change with the new NCWest that regroup NCEurope and NCAustin.