Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[ghost]

Wish I would have gotten a beta key........................too late now I suppose.

[WayAbvPar]

My five minute review is very positive. it's your standard bunny bashing, but the client is responsive, everything is reasonably well laid out, character control has a good feel, and with everything turned to max it looks pretty damned good and I'm getting over 100fps.

I am starting to feel like Charlie Brown again. Maybe this time Lucy will actually hold the ball in place!

[Draegan]

One thing I hate:

I can remap my mouse look.  Normally its left mouse button, but here it's shift right MB.  Fuck.

Thats all though for now.

[Tale]

and I'm getting over 100fps.

Take a look at the textures up close, even on the highest graphical settings. The textures are clever and colourful, but ridiculously low res. The flashy effects surrounding the textures sort of make up for it, but look at anything up close and you can see why it runs so fast.

[Typhon]

In a PvP-semi-centric game, isn't that the pinnacle of implementation?  A game that looks good, but is using low-res + bald face trickery to keep frame rates high for everyone even if many people are onscreen.  I read what you typed and thought, 'well someone in that shop knows what he/she is doing'.

[Slyfeind]

One thing I hate:

I can remap my mouse look.  Normally its left mouse button, but here it's shift right MB.  Fuck.

Thats all though for now.

Can, or can't remap your mouse look?

[Venkman]

I can't imagine he'd be so pissed about being able to adjust the setting

[01101010]

I am starting to feel like Charlie Brown again. Maybe this time Lucy will actually hold the ball in place!

that... That is so dead on it needs to be framed.

[Tale]

In a PvP-semi-centric game, isn't that the pinnacle of implementation?  A game that looks good, but is using low-res + bald face trickery to keep frame rates high for everyone even if many people are onscreen.  I read what you typed and thought, 'well someone in that shop knows what he/she is doing'.

Yes, it wasn't really a criticism. The low res textures work. But it felt a little odd to see WoW-esque low res textures in a 2009 game because it could look really old up against new release games in a couple of years. Maybe the slick Cryengine and flashy effects will save it from that.

[Venkman]

Oh come on, Wow lowres felt old in 2004. Every time we think there's a collective raising of the default visual bar, some new game comes along to show us that tech unto itself doesn't matter as much as style.

[Lantyssa]

Guild Wars would probably be a better comparison.  Low res but looks really good.

[Tale]

Again, I'm not criticising, just wondering how fast the "look" of Aion will age. I grew up playing Commodore 64 games so I know resolution doesn't matter for gameplay. Aion's textures up close look like WoW 2004, but like I said, maybe the better engine and effects will continue to hide it well. Just pointing out something that stood out for me. You're all correct, it runs like liquid.

[Draegan]

The game looks good.  But I'd rather performance trump looks when it comes to something having to be subpar.

[Hawkbit]

Especially in a PvP game.

[Threash]

You know it could just as well look like shit AND run like shit ala WAR.  I'll take one of the two any day, preferably performance.

[gryeyes]

I must be taking crazy pills I find the graphics pretty impressive.

[Tale]

The graphics are impressive. I only mentioned the texture resolution.

[Ghambit]

This is a very "efficient" MMO.  If it had released before WoW we'd be pissing ourselves with excitement.
As such, I'm not sure if it's enough for me to sub. even though it's a nice game done well.  I need something new.  If I wanted "same," I'd just save myself the grind and work my AoC endgame.

<patiently waits for JGE/Champo betas>

[Simond]

So it's EQ2 with anime graphics?

[Tale]

no

[Hawkbit]

What's the status of PvP in the beta?  Are they actually showing the mass scale battles yet?

[Draegan]

What's the status of PvP in the beta?  Are they actually showing the mass scale battles yet?

This beta weekend is capped at 10.  PVP basically starts at 25 when you can enter the Abyss.  There will be weekends where you start with a high end character.  I think I posted a schedule somewhere.

[Numtini]

I am starting to feel like Charlie Brown again. Maybe this time Lucy will actually hold the ball in place!

Well like I said, so far it's just bunny bashing--from what I'm reading the beta today only goes to 10th level. I didn't have much time to play.

But a lot of betas, I have played for five minutes and already found major issues that made me sure I wasn't going to play the game. Characters don't feel right when they move. Systems don't work in an intuitive way. IMHO if you get those kinds of feelings, there's only so much a game can do to make up for them. And sometimes they can--LOTRO's engine is really squishy, I always feel like I'm playing in mud or with like a 500ms ping, but it does so much else right, people learn to live with it. But one thing I've noticed with really popular games is the basic character control just feels right, feels natural. You just hop in and play. And that's how this feels right off.

I mentioned the FPS because post lich king, I had to start dumbing down graphics even in WoW with my 6750/8800gts system. MMOs even ones designed to be highly playable on low systems generally don't have that great a performance.

[Draegan]

A little tip I found out while playing the COB, if you click on a blue "link" in the quest log it opens up a box describing that link.  You can hit the locate button in that box and it'll give you an "X" on your map/mini map on where that thing is so you can get to it.

You can locate quest objectives and locations etc. 

[tmp]

You can locate quest objectives and locations etc.  

For some quests the location of objective will be hidden but for most of them yup, it's basically built-in quest helper thing.

iirc it's also possible to get the tracking on map through typing /slash commands directly, haven't looked into it though.

[Ghambit]

A little tip I found out while playing the COB, if you click on a blue "link" in the quest log it opens up a box describing that link.  You can hit the locate button in that box and it'll give you an "X" on your map/mini map on where that thing is so you can get to it.

You can locate quest objectives and locations etc. 

That feature, to me, is the best in the game.
Everything else is pretty plain.  Fun, slightly grindy, but plain.

Oh, and they need to fix the cutscenes and looks like they still have some verbal translation to do.

[Falconeer]

Don't you like the overlay "n" map? I love that.

[Draegan]

What do you mean by "n" map?

Edit: Oooooh I see.  Cool.

It's an opaque map that overlays your main screen like diablo2.

[Draegan]

Crafting is non grindy so far.  First I did a quest to craft some iron things and got a dagger recipe.  Then I did a craft order and the dude gave me the supplies and I hit craft and I get free crafting levels.  Awesome.

And I get crafting supplies for doing it.  Sweet.  I guess the only grindy thing you need to do (so far) is grind out mats for shit you want to craft.

[Threash]

I pre ordered, dont have a code yet.  Is there anywhere i can dl it so i can jump right in when i get the code?

[Draegan]

Torrent perhaps?  Not sure.

Edit to add:
Screenshots

I love personal stores.  Good times.

[tmp]

Crafting is non grindy so far.  First I did a quest to craft some iron things and got a dagger recipe.  Then I did a craft order and the dude gave me the supplies and I hit craft and I get free crafting levels.  Awesome.

As you gain crafting levels the new NPC orders will require you to spend some money on the additional components. But yup, it's quite more friendly than having to farm mobs/nodes for the piles of components needed to get through the levels, i liked it. You even get regular xp from that crafting, not much but it adds up.

[Draegan]

Crafting is non grindy so far.  First I did a quest to craft some iron things and got a dagger recipe.  Then I did a craft order and the dude gave me the supplies and I hit craft and I get free crafting levels.  Awesome.

As you gain crafting levels the new NPC orders will require you to spend some money on the additional components. But yup, it's quite more friendly than having to farm mobs/nodes for the piles of components needed to get through the levels, i liked it. You even get regular xp from that crafting, not much but it adds up.

Yeah when I got to 10 point orders I had to buy 2 components per item.  But each item was like 30 gold,  which is nothing.

[AcidCat]

I pre ordered, dont have a code yet.  Is there anywhere i can dl it so i can jump right in when i get the code?

Yeah it took me about two days to get my code from Amazon, just started the DL a few minutes ago. Going through the NCSoft site you do have to enter the code before you can start downloading.

[gryeyes]

Guess im gonna pre-order this to get some beta going. Even if it breaks my personal rule of not pre-ordering MMO's.