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Aion: Giving It a Go
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest entry into the MMORPG.com Staff Blog, Bill Murphy, the self-proclaimed swag hag, admits to scoring a copy of Aion in its new Assault on Balaurea packaging during last week's PAX in Seattle. Because of so generous a gift, Bill is giving Aion a try. Check out his thoughts about trying Aion and then add some of your own.
At PAX this year players, fans, and press who attended the Aion: Assault on Balaurea panel were greeted with a nice surprise on their chair… a newly minted retail copy of the game in its Assault on Balaurea packaging. It seems that Aion is really trying to rebrand itself as the free expansion launches by putting new boxes on store shelves and letting the press and players know that they’ve been listening to their complaints since the game launched.
Read more in the MMORPG.com Staff Blog.
Comments
That was a pretty constructive comment that made no sense. But I like when the companies do that at conventions, they did it with lotro last year.
Giving it a go too, I am EU so made a new character on Telemachus, aim to be a cleric
Good to see them steering the game to more popular choices, ok the Rifts got nerfed because of all the ganking, but I am sure if it proves too unpopular they will try something different
What is important is they are changing things to help and improve the game
" the Rifts got nerfed because of all the ganking"
Would not call it nerfed, unless you had powerful friends helping, the quests in the pvp area were neigh impossible. More like fixed. A friend had 47 deaths to finish one quest. If they did not fix it, a lot of players just gave up which results in a lost subscription.
PVP is only fun when you have a chance and if a game is not fun it dies.
*-*
Fair point Ozmodan and glad someone who is more knowledgable of the impact of the change has stated something
I also have to agree with Ozmodan, i played all the Aion beta that they had: Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Australia, Europe and USA, and the final motive that in the end after official release of Aion i did not buy it was that more than 60% of all in game quest's were group depending, ideea that i actually appreciate on NCsoft, couse they actually wanted with this to create a stronger in game community and a better way for players to enhance their role playing skills that in present are missing in a lot off mmo's, but what they did not realize was that they actually got too far with this ideea and the real pleasure that you have when loging in to your account and start questing for the pleasure too discover more of the game and is lore, you just remain stuck most of the time on a campaign or quest just becouse you cant find at that moment a group/party that they share the same quests/campaign's with you.Going to pvp now, well i really had faith that with the official release it will improve, but i also play on a friend's account, and going to Abyss that is largely empty was a big "surprise".
Hopefully with the upcoming release of the 2.0 patch Aion: Assault on Balaurea players will experience something improved, as the NCsoft promise with this new patch, the great ability that players will have to determine the fate of the in-game world.This is a great upgrade that sounds really good, hope that it doesent just sound and it will actually be as good as my eyes can read it.
I bow and say good luck and good game.
Yours truly senior mmorpg gamer Droopyblue.
well that was me. got tired of being ganked so I qq'd and unsubbed. you hit the nail on the head right there. PVP is only fun when you have a chance. I got killed by players way higher than me, but not only that, I got killed by players lower than me but they had godly gear. I thought I was geared well but they had shit I didn't even know existed and pummeled me faster than someone 10 levels above me. and this wasn't a few ganks here and there, it was every day several times an hour. I couldn't explore any longer, and that sucked because I really enjoyed exploring in my own lands and eluding environmental danger.
I had no interest in visiting the other side, I even dropped all the quests for the other side, but apparently that wasn't enough. this would have made a phenomenal PVE game.
lmao these guys are like little kids.
there so bent out from losing so much players, there making childish actions like this one...
i lost my account info one day so i sent them an email stating i would like to gather my ifo because i want to try aion again.
they sent me my stuff an i payed a month of playing time.
well i log in an play for about an hour an log out. never sent them any pathetic comments such as your game sucks oh im going back to wow blah blah blah nothing like that
well nothing is key word because i just simply deleted the client off my pc an went back to doing somthing else
later that month, a friend came over an asked to check out aion i said sure i have about 5 days left.
we opended it up tryed to log in an got this messege "your account is Banned"
went online an tryed to log into my nc-soft account it was banned aswell
i "lol'ed an closed the window.
i thought it was pretty funny a game company will ban a random player for not playing there game even tho i payed them for a month.
A Old Friend Once told me " I'll Make ya Famous"
box download ^
A Old Friend Once told me " I'll Make ya Famous"
meh the pvp in this game still isn't great... Number 1 reason I won't play it. Flight pvp was the dumbest idea ever, although it was looking pretty cool on paper.
It is highly likely that your account was banned because it was compromised and used by hackers while you weren't playing, not because of some sort of random selection. A simple phone call to CS will fix this for you.
Azerin i completely agree with you with the phone call or maybe an email send to them with your problem, that actually helps, but the account hacked i dont really think so, they have a really good sistem anty hack, the random selection is one possibility not to strong but they actually may had some sistem issues thinking that the game is only at the beginning, i remember back in 2005 when i start playing WoW i had some guild mates that had this problem also for no reason, later in 2006 i also experience the same thing 2 or 3 times for no ones fault only sistem issues, few emails send explaining my problem had the problem solved.It is not really normal for thinks like this to actually happen but in most cases it happen's this and more other issues, in game or account issues.
I've got to say.. This was one of the bigger epic fails games released.. Between the bots (thousands and thousands of them) and the hacks along with the constant siege crashs.. I've got to say, it's been one of the very few MMO's I regreted buying.. And I purchased Tabula Rasa and it ranks up higher on my list then Aion ended up turning out.
Unless they removed 90% of the bots (last I heard botting is still a major problem in the game) and fixed the crashs + added enough new content into the game to remove the grind post 30.. I doubt I would ever think about playing the game ageain.
For a game that the company hailed as something that would compete ageainst World of Warcraft.. I've got to say, they failed on so many fronts. A case of too little to late at this point I imagine.
Thomas I think you're exaggerating or only tried Aion when it was initially released.
When it was released, there were lots of bots. When rifting I often walked round the edge of a small lake killing bots. By the time I had looped around the lake the first bots I killed had respawned and made their way there again.
Now there are far fewer bots, maybe they did remove 90% of them. There's the occasional gold seller spam but that doesn't bother me much.
I cannot remember ever crashing out of Aion.
And they haven't removed the grind - but it's slightly easier. It's a tradition of NCSoft updates to add new features that makes the grind easier for newer players - for example you can now combine two weapons for a slightly more powerful weapon and you get two different types of rested exp. If you enjoy the mechanics of the game then the grind shouldn't bother you.
I believe they are genuinely trying to improve the game and lots of people do enjoy it.
This is the one game that still gives me pause. I did the beta, the pre-launch, and played release for a few months before realizing that most of the concepts of the game while sounding good on paper, did not translate well to actual gameplay. It was like the developers came up with ideas and said to each other "hey yeah this sounds like fun", but there was no one on their development team to analyze how these systems could be abused, and therefore they did not create any methods to counterbalance or eliminate such abuse.
My point is I had alot of fun until I saw the writing on the wall. And I have wanted to return many times, but I read how it only got worse and worse. At the time when I left:
1- There was so much gold spam you couldn't see any public channels.
2 - Server lag was an issue, as was login queue times. I had to start over on a new server 2 weeks after release because it was unplayable (I had started on "assphail").
3 - Bots were rampant. I was running a guild and had to kick many of my own guild members for botting.
4 - Group play was actually undesirable because of the exp penalty.
5 -The crafting RNG...I find it intolerable and most definitely "not fun". I see this kind of mechanic as a cheap way to keep your player grinding and paying a monthly sub.
6 - Rifting was actually a blast at pre-launch and early live until the whole "pvp doesn't start until 50" mentality kicked in and people skipped rifting for power-leveling instead. This, of course, is not NCSoft's fault but maybe there could be something in the game to encourage more participation at lower levels.
7 - Grinding PvE mobs to get PvP points? What? That makes no sense.
8 - Running dungeons for very little xp and often ZERO loot? What's my motivation then? Because aside from loot and exp, the dungeons were very straight-forward and not much fun.
There's more, but I don't need to go on. So have these issues been addressed? I've been reading some nightmarish posts about the server merges, the free server xfers being cancelled midway, how most servers are completely dominated by one side, etc.
Wanted to try it like forever but after reading these boards it seemed too expensive to just buy it and possibly leave it in 1 week. Fortunately (or not) in a few beers evenng i said to myself "wth im gonna buy it and see, the 5 day trial won't be enoug anyway". Will try to answer these aspects considering my limited time ingame atm (i'm only lvl30 now so)
1. Bots are gone. Really. All of them i think. I've been playing daily for 2 weeks, i had not one gold spamming message.
2. The lag etc - well the game sux on this aspect. First i thought it was my PC so i went to a friend who works for a gaming magazine and has a crazy PC, the game was still a slide-show in crowded areas - Sanctum, Pande etc.
3. No bots. Never seen one. Playing MMO's for like 11 years now (was working for that magazine also) and i think i can "feel" a grinding bot.
4. I found nothing that would lure me into grouping. I've tried grouping for some group quests, having to kill some elites, the XP was worse than i got for killing normal mobs solo.
5. Still sux. Dunno how it was before and if it is improved but... cmon... i leveled a skill from 50 to 105 and it took me 2 hours ingame... the process takes too much time. I don't mind the "fails" so much if the crafting AND gathering was instant or almost instant.
6. Cannot answer that, did not experience it
7. Partially agree. On the other hand, my friend told me you got no "help" to start pvp-ing. No "take this basic pvp set, go and mass pvp, help yourself by helping others".
8, Agree. Did the lvl30 dungeon and the solo dungeon, the bosses dropped no loot (except last boss, which dropped like 2 items) - that was the thing which really i did not understand. I think that it is normal to help players during the lvling experience, give them a few greens, a blue, just to get a "feeling" of the game... i think it is not the case here. I ran the 1st solo dungeon 5 times, the last boss dropped the same 2 items every time.
I do not know if my answers help. I did not reach "endgame" so things might differ there. I will probably go with my cleric to that point, and see if things "change". I don't have big expectations, there's lots of whining on channels coming from hign-lvl people in terms of "i have nothing to do now"
The most weird things for me were the XP penalty for grouping (i feel normal for MMO's to struggle for ppl to group and create communities) the total lack of loot from dungeons (really... wth?), the insane crafting times and the laggy flying pvp combat. Sure, the game looks great but... i do not think that would do it for me. It does not have the depth of older MMO's. It does not have the polishing or content which WoW brings (for me it is a WoW-style MMO).
The pve is plain boring - the mobs have too much HP, they do not become a threat, no interesting things so far, no special abilities etc, just too much HP and boring to kill. Rarely some of them puts a debuff or a bleed on you. The pvp is horrible, especially when flying is involved - as someone else said, it looks good only on paper. Yes the game is "something" to play before something else "good" is launched, and that's only for the ones who got bored of their "regular" MMO, being it WoW, LoTRO, AoC etc.
Thank Simmihi, your answers do help. It's pretty much what I expected to hear and correlates with what I have read from other posters. I will not be re-subbing.