Originally posted by vesavius

Originally posted by WizGamer

I actually just came back too. I am really liking it. I just hate the aether and essence tapping system. It's unbearably tedious.

 If it had launched as it is now (with maybe better drop rates and toned down RNG) this game could easily have been a long term major prospect in the West with stable subs in the millions, but thats a lost opportunity now. NCS only have themselves to blame tbh.

This is why beta should be more than a marketing campaign. We knew in the beta weekends that there were issues, even with them limiting us to keep us out of the problem areas (full-on grind at 40+)

Putting it out there for the those who came back and are getting swamped with items and want to plan ahead a bit of time.

The Aion Adventurer's Guide was launched in Summer of 2010 with the goal of educating players about available content for their level and providing some useful rewards.

I hope you find the list handy. Check out it's split into Elyos/Asmodian.

I spent 54 bronze coins buying a blue level 26 dagger not knowing I'd get a fabled one for levels 25-39...so I was a bit mad and got a-searching hehe.

Originally posted by nblitz

Putting it out there for the those who came back and are getting swamped with items and want to plan ahead a bit of time.

The Aion Adventurer's Guide was launched in Summer of 2010 with the goal of educating players about available content for their level and providing some useful rewards.

I hope you find the list handy. Check out it's split into Elyos/Asmodian.

I spent 54 bronze coins buying a blue level 26 dagger not knowing I'd get a fabled one for levels 25-39...so I was a bit mad and got a-searching hehe.

Very good, thank you :)

I did the trial, got to 20 and was hooked. Bought it yesterday.  I had to do 2 things to make the transition easier, I moved my mini-map and character icon to the top to give it a familiar feel, and I disabled the voice thing for casting spells. 

Other than those two things (Which is simply a personal preference), I am having a blast.   Great graphics AND great gameplay. With the mentor system in place, every zone seems packed with people helping people.  Very nice game all-around they created.

I knew the mentor system was decent in theory. I heard it was widely accepted and popular in Korea. And it turned out decently in praxis with enourmous potential if they keep polishing it.

Crubicle token system is pretty much a undeniable major answer to the big RNG droprate QQ. And best is rewards are scaling with your strength/skill as you progress further. A psychological (maybe conicidental) favorable decission that hampers you generic shortsightened player to percieve it as "tedious and annyoin work/grind" before anything else, as it often ends up for repeated processes with guaranteed rewards. The primary goal shifts from "DO X RECEIVE Y (WITH CHANCE Z)" to "GIVE YOUR BEST AT X FOR BEST RESULTS TO RECEIVE MOST OF Y". The classic way has been a binary success/fail (kill the boss dont kill it) results leading to expectations of rewards for success And when rewards are not deliverednothing else but the game is blamed.  But here, when the results are not satisfactory, not anymore the game is blamed for being forked against them, as "damending too much time" or for "too randomized" rewards (lag etc ofc excluded) but player blame themself or eachother for not reaching satisfactory=optimal results, only until they reach optimal results. The player becomes a variable in the blamegame. At the end of the day its not "gee if we had killed that boss we might have received drop Y by some chance" aynmore, its "gee if we  where so close to reach phase X and thus get much better rewards". I think of the Crubicle as pretty shallow content that should receive some attention from the lore and scriptwriterdepartment to create some more context around it, but its already one of those maybe shallow but durable "game" elements that keep certain other MMOs massively popular.

Though this patch was all in all pretty decent for what it offers it didnt deliver to me personaly and my desires to get back frequent real PvP into Aion (aka not  pointless chickenfights in an (upcoming) arena or repetive and mindless instancezerg) at all.

Though still I hope the roll out the 2.6 patch fast here since there has been set some positive vibe set into motion. Populationgrowth can never hurt even if its through PvE elements. Chestboxes will give another hit to the RNG QQ and the relic calculator might finally give even the dumbest play a hint at the importance of relics for AP gain. Auto group finder will give it alot of attention atleast. Most optimal would be an announcement to release it closely after the first monthly subscription period of all the current resubscriber but I doubt they will still make it into July with the release.

ok I just dl'd the trial, and am enjoying it so far, is there a noobie guide anywhere?  Can you not chat in trial?

Originally posted by MikeJezZ

Will Aion die when GW2 comes? Cus im planning to play it a little now

Nah, but GW2 and SWTOR are going to take pretty big chunks out of a lot of current MMOs

Just wrapping up the free welcome back for former players and I have to say well done NCSoft!  You are heading in the right direction and I am very excited about the 3.0 release (mounts finally!),  I will sub off and on now for sure. 

Welcome back to Aion :D

I played Aion when it first came out and was really impressed... but.... the biggest upset I have with the game is how combat starts. Not how combat IS, but how it starts. I hate having to pull out my weapon at the start of each fight. I feel like the game is purposely trying to make me feel like i'm wasting time preparing for a fight. I recently tried the free trial and it seems to be the same as it was before. I cannot seem to get passed it, and it is game breaking for me.

To each their own and I hope you all have fun with it, because the rest of the game seemed to be rather interesting and genuinely entertaining. I just can't get passed the delay in initial combat. Maybe I am being too picky, but it ruins the game for me. =(

Originally posted by Karnage69

I played Aion when it first came out and was really impressed... but.... the biggest upset I have with the game is how combat starts. Not how combat IS, but how it starts. I hate having to pull out my weapon at the start of each fight. I feel like the game is purposely trying to make me feel like i'm wasting time preparing for a fight. I recently tried the free trial and it seems to be the same as it was before. I cannot seem to get passed it, and it is game breaking for me.

 

To each their own and I hope you all have fun with it, because the rest of the game seemed to be rather interesting and genuinely entertaining. I just can't get passed the delay in initial combat. Maybe I am being too picky, but it ruins the game for me. =(

Not sure what you mean, I just resubbed as well and started an assasin. I just press a skill and my character auto runs to the terget, executes the skill and continues auto attack.

I came back due to the free trial as well.  One thing thats real important to me is activity.  If the only time I hear or see other players is my factions capital city, then I might as well be playing a singple player RPG.  AION is active everywhere I have beeen since I resubbed, PvP, PvE groups, cities/towns, chat...It feels like a living breathing world.  I recently quit an MMO that came out just a few months ago, because my server was EMPTY.  Glad to say AION is very active and all the changes are great.  3.0 will bring back even more players IMO.    Having alot of fun.

How's the PvP in Aion now? Still mandatory, and is it still ridiculously gear/class based?

Originally posted by Chaotic16

How's the PvP in Aion now? Still mandatory, and is it still ridiculously gear/class based?

 AION is still a PvP game.  there are plenty of carebear offering out there, if thats your thing.  PVP can be gear/class based, but most classes IMO are viable solo, and since when isnt gear of prime concern in any MMO (pve or pve) ???  Regardless, pvp has many forms, if you only look to solo pvp, then pick your class accordingly.  My pvp enocunters are many times group based, so working as a team in a pvp environment is mroe important to me then solo.  I mean, it is an MMO...

I just bought it few days ago after 1 week of trial, i'm liking it, but the terrain textures are worring me, even with all on max, but all the rest is a really good.

I reactivated my account the other day.  They've improved most things that people complained about.  I personally didn't have a problem with the game and I think they just made it easier.  Anyways, the on thing that the game still lacks is depth.  From lvls 1 - 55 it's just a long grind.  There's no good story to the game.  If you take FFXI for example every expansion had a big captivating story line to pull you in.  So, after so many lvls you felt like you were accomplishing stuff in the game world unlike Aion where the main story is worse than some of the random quests in the game.