Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[Hindenburg]

mechanics-wise there isn't any real difference between doing over and over the same daily quests at level cap and doing pretty much the same quests while gaining levels. Or doing instance at level 70 and doing another instance at l.80 (especially if l.70 was the 'endgame' not that long ago) ... yet only one of these is claimed to be fun.

Mechanics-wise, I've more buttans to push than at lower levels, therefore, OPTIONS, MAN. Also, since overworld mobs stay the same, the equipment I do get does make me more powerful, vigorous, and, overall, a pretty cool guy.

If I could pvp at level 10, it would still be boring as fuck since I've all of 3 buttons to use, and one of them is only useful at the start of the fight. There is no variety, spice of life, etc.

Plus, barbie mode. It only really starts at the cap.

[Segoris]

I played a chanter to 16.  I want to like this game more than i like it.  

The last couple of levels fighting mobs feels like hitting a brick wall and taking it down piece by piece.  The pace of getting a mob dead seems slow.  I'd rather kill 3 mobs in the same time for the same xp one gives, for some reason.  

Grind seems inevitable.  Not quite enough quests to get me to level 16 without also killing spare mobs here and there.  

Solo pace is way too slow.  Duo pace is fine.  But it's not exactly fun to solo.

Good lord Pandemonium is huge and I run too slow and wtf I can't even use my wings there?

Way too many things to collect for quests, not to mention gathering, and way too few slots in inventory/bank.

As for slow killing, I think that may mostly be due to you being on a healing archetype. I got that back when I played an Enchanter in Chinese OBT, but this round I went with the Spirit Master and a Ranger and I didn't have that problem at all.

As for quests and inevitable grind, I didn't get that at all through level 20 on both a ranger or a SM. I'm sure it will happen later, but for 1-20 on two different chars I didn't feel that. I was playing Elyos this round, Asmo may be a bit different though.

And yeah, Pandemonium is huge, so was Sanctuary, but those teleport systems that bring you from one end to the other made it so it wasn't bad. I'm also with whoever said they liked the crafting system, I did as well. It is basic enough to not be complicated, it isn't shitty while trying to be different like EQ2's, it's different enough to have its own charm, and it's based on the crafters level. I like it.

I do agree with the things you like though, what they did right they did better then most have in the past.

[Xanthippe]

Well, that is good to hear about the pace of chanter being slower than others.  Chanter's fine in a duo, but solo was tiring.

Also, I didn't know one can teleport inside Pandemonium.  That certainly would have made things easier for me!

The crafting system is maybe the best I've seen in a beta.  The mechanics don't thrill me (success/fail bars) but I can read while crafting a batch and playing in a window.  Will it be similar at launch, i.e., no need to pick one or two crafts, but ability to pick whichever ones that one wants to fund and spend time on?

[tmp]

Mechanics-wise, I've more buttans to push than at lower levels, therefore, OPTIONS, MAN.

Frostbolt, frostbolt, frostbolt

Yah, the skill rotation gets longer; people just make their macros longer to accomodate for the most part.

Also, since overworld mobs stay the same, the equipment I do get does make me more powerful, vigorous, and, overall, a pretty cool guy.

at l.70... "chance to crit against l.70 enemy: 10%". You do X dps.
at l.80... "chance to crit against l.80 enemy: 10%" You do 20% more dps, mobs have 20% more health.

the more things change, the more they stay the same.

this is all to be filled under the big "duh" of course

[Hindenburg]

Frostbolt, frostbolt, frostbolt

Frost mages were SRS BSNS BACK IN MC! You forgot the water button and the extreme inventory management sim.
The warlock, on the other hand, required way too many buttans.

Your mob argument missed the point, tho. We're considering a solid cap. But yes, duh.

[amiable]

Well, that is good to hear about the pace of chanter being slower than others.  Chanter's fine in a duo, but solo was tiring.

Also, I didn't know one can teleport inside Pandemonium.  That certainly would have made things easier for me!

The crafting system is maybe the best I've seen in a beta.  The mechanics don't thrill me (success/fail bars) but I can read while crafting a batch and playing in a window.  Will it be similar at launch, i.e., no need to pick one or two crafts, but ability to pick whichever ones that one wants to fund and spend time on?

i played a Chanter too and I also felt PvE combat was slow...  So maybe it is jsut the healing classes.

[Ceryse]

It feels slow as a Cleric as well. Up to about level 14ish the pace seemed fine. After that its gotten a bit slower in how long it can take to kill a mob. Especially with resists and the whacky fun with auto attack turning on and off. A big part of it might be the animation, though, as you have to wait for animations to finish, and some animations take too long. I've had to grind occassionally, but not too often; only level 23 now, however.

I'm not fond of how they turned off the general chat and such for beta.. feels too quiet in-game, but with the sheer number of assholes I've come across, probably for the best.

Oh, hey.. my crafting is almost done.

[Draegan]

The chanter is slow, but faster than a ranger at the early levels.

I've leveled, over time, an SM to 18, Chanter to 16, Ranger to 15 and some other classes to 11 or so.

SMs are a cake walk.  Kill fast, no downtime.  Chanters are tanks at this level.  I could take several mobs at once and do decent DPS but not much.

Rangers are ass.  But apparently improve tremendously at 16 and 19.  You get your first ranged attack chain at 16 and then another stun at 19.  For fuck sake they designed the early levels of the ranger in full retard mode.  Until 19 you're constantly changing between melee and ranged weapons.

[Lantyssa]

Played over the weekend.  The early levels seem just about perfect for a duo.  The roomie is a priest while I was a rogue.  They pull, I surpise attack and unleash everything I have.  A solo rogue looks like it would be painful as you'd need to keep waiting for timers to really take advantage of surprise attack.

I love the character creation.  My Asmodean rogue has this cute lazy pirate look about her.  She likes sleeping a lot.  (Awesome emote.)  My only complaints about creation is that you cannot choose eyes independent of face (my pirate had to have blush and a mole with her red eyes, though be able to choose additional facial options on top if it is nice), nor create a longer pointed nose which look good.

The story is very linear, at least in the tutorial area.  I like the story around the quests though, and it seems some thought was put into think about people's motivations and showing that life isn't black and white.

[Morfiend]

I have been reading aionsource.com on and off, and wow, just wow. Those people once again make me really appreciate the posters here at f13. There are so many idiots and mini-Grunks that it makes me wonder where they all came from.

Here is a reply I got when I posted saying less Grind was good for subscription numbers.

Grinding is another term for 'non-linear game play'. Allowing you to run around and kill misellanious mobs so that you can gain more special items, monies, xp and satisfaction.

A linear game would not allow grinding and you would be shuffled along a few different pre scripted paths and then the game would end.

MMO's are desinged to have grinding, if you don't like it, get Baulders Gate or Diablo and have fun playing a pre-scripted game with minimal interaction amongst other players.

FYI WOW has tons of grinding although the leveling curve is extremely quick and easy.

Grinding makes for a great gaming experience.

(He is quoting me here)

Honestly, the less grind Aion manages to have in their game, the more success it will have.

Incorrect

[sam, an eggplant]

The signal/noise on the internet trends towards 0. That sounds about right. Are you really surprised?

[Koyasha]

You like the sleeping emote?  I was commenting, and everyone I knew agreed, that it looked like an insanely uncomfortable position.

And yeah, not being able to choose eyes independent of face is a real annoyance for me.  The face you mentioned DOES look sleepy, which is why it so doesn't fit for my character, although the eyes themselves would be great.  Also not being able to see numbers or adjust RGB directly on skin/hair shade.  It takes so much effort to find the exact right shade of skin that doesn't look too light, but hasn't become entirely greyish either.

I made it to 20 on my Gladiator.  Got the dual-wielding stigma and tried it out.  It feels ok but I hear it's weak in pvp.  Plus I don't like the stance.  Probably gonna stick to Templar or Chanter next time around.

As for the 'grind', it's interesting.  I was around 14-18 when I felt like I was out of quests or something a few times, and I kept getting frustrated because there weren't any quests, until something snapped in my head and I was like...why the fuck am I standing around being frustrated, just because the game isn't telling me what to go kill?  I hearkened to the days before WoW re-trained us to be led by the nose at all times, decided for myself what to kill, and quickly proceeded to gain two levels in relatively short order.  Also considerably more money than I was making by questing.  Quests in this game are interesting for the story and sometimes they have specific useful reward, but for the most part it would seem that the best way to play is just to Go Forth and Kill Shit.  This varies depending on the level you're at though.  At very low levels the quests seem better than killing.

[Morfiend]

In the patch notes they said that we should be able to choose eyes when the game is released, plus they are adding even more facial features.

[Draegan]

Duoing is the best way to level apparently.  I heard that there is no exp penalty for a group of two people.  I havn't been able to test it out.  Anyone notice anything in groups?

And it is pretty amazing how running out of quests makes us feel lost because of WOW's training.  In the end it's not that big of a deal (unless grinding starts to encompass every minute of your game play).

[Lantyssa]

You like the sleeping emote?  I was commenting, and everyone I knew agreed, that it looked like an insanely uncomfortable position.

It looked fine to me.  I can't imagine leaning back on a cloud being all that uncomfortable.

[Musashi]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

[amiable]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

Is this possible?  If so let me know...  i would kind of like to do the same thing.

[Segoris]

Rangers are ass.  But apparently improve tremendously at 16 and 19.  You get your first ranged attack chain at 16 and then another stun at 19.  For fuck sake they designed the early levels of the ranger in full retard mode.  Until 19 you're constantly changing between melee and ranged weapons.

I didn't get that at all. Once I hit 10 I was fine on my ranger, except level 12 for some reason that level was a bitch killing even cons. I only partially agree that it gets easier as they level up to 16. I think it's more they just play more differently as they become more ranged capable and less dependant on the stun/surprise attack/melee attack to finish off mobs. Personally, I actually preferred them being melee capable and having to switch between melee and ranged since the playstyle kind of reminded me of a DAoC ranger who's specced with enough melee to be effective.

The class is good, but the UI for it sucks is what it comes down to for me. I think a macro (or for it to just get programmed into the regular UI) so when ranged or melee abilities are used that the correct weapons are swapped in and a new hot bar with those abilities show. Basically think the equal to WOW's warrior with weapon switch macro where it ties in the stance swap. That would make switchign between the melee and the range less shitty while allowing for that mixed style of play instead of just back peddling and shooting to kite that so many people seemed to enjoy.

On a side note, if that gets put in for a ranger, then the improvement of the pet bar/ui that allows me to put the special attack/taunt/heal on the pet bar, damn that would be nice.

A solo rogue looks like it would be painful as you'd need to keep waiting for timers to really take advantage of surprise attack.

From what I hear you get a lot more timers later and supposedly the assassin turns into something similar to a stunlocking WOW rogue. I'm not 100% on that since it isn't something I've experienced, but all stories sound the same regarding how they become later on.

[Musashi]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

Is this possible?  If so let me know...  i would kind of like to do the same thing.

Theoretically, yes according to the help file.  However it gives no instructions.  I have a ticket in.  I'll pass on what I find out.

[Falconeer]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

Aion is a PvP focused game, WoW is a PvE focused game.

[01101010]

I love the character creation.  My Asmodean rogue has this cute lazy pirate look about her.  She likes sleeping a lot.  (Awesome emote.)  My only complaints about creation is that you cannot choose eyes independent of face (my pirate had to have blush and a mole with her red eyes, though be able to choose additional facial options on top if it is nice), nor create a longer pointed nose which look good.

I believe they are entering eye color into the game very soon... my guess would be open beta, or possibly release. Unless of course that was all rumor.

[amiable]

Aion is a PvP focused game, WoW is a PvE focused game.

It was difficult to tell after all the hours of slaying anime-themed foozles to collect their asses.

[tmp]

I believe they are entering eye color into the game very soon... my guess would be open beta, or possibly release. Unless of course that was all rumor.

It was added in one of patches in Korean version, if i understand it right this patch will be included as part of NA launch. That said, from screenshots it looked more like just ability to pick the iris colour while other parts of the eye appearance (shape of eyelid etc) remain fixed as part of the overall face texture. Could be a wrong impression though.

[Koyasha]

If that's correct it's pretty much exactly what I want out of the eye thing.

[Draegan]

Aion is a PvP focused game, WoW is a PvE focused game.

It was difficult to tell after all the hours of slaying anime-themed foozles to collect their asses.

PVP really doesn't start until 20 and even then at level 25 you get into the Abyss.

[Nija]

I'm not really sure what this means, but this will be the first game that I pass on since Meridian 59 beta. I've tried everything, EVERYTHING between ~1996 and now. I have absolutely zero interest in this game and skimming a list of class skills sealed the deal.

I wonder if there are more people like me who are throwing in the towel on their MMO addictions at this point in time.

[Senses]

I'm kind of in the same arena you are, the difference being, I have decided there is absolutely no reason to jump into this one early.  This sort of reminds me of the movie you plan on seeing but can't be bothered to actually go to a theatre for.  I'll catch this one in a couple months on dvd if I hear anything good.

[Musashi]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

Aion is a PvP focused game, WoW is a PvE focused game.

And I've been around long enough to know that these terms are relative to your fancy, and mean little to me.

[Samprimary]

I'm interested in trying the beta now that I'm basically cold-turkeying the HoN beta.

Is there any way I'm getting in short of pre-order at gamestop?

[Lantyssa]

Pre-order from Steam?

[Samprimary]

I mean like are you guys going to have a hand-me-down conveniently available or a beta code or sommat.

It being f13, I thought I would ask!

[Strazos]

You missed my special thread...sorry.

Anyway, I've played a Ranger for the past 2 weekends, and got to 20 on Sunday. I Sort of like the game, but with all the other stuff coming out soon, I'm not sure I'll be buying, particularly because my friends both seemed a bit unenthusiastic about it.

I find that while I can usually stick with my bow and kite solo (NOT AGAINST ELITES, lol), to be effective in a group you have to weapon swap constantly as your abilities cool down. I would usually open with both self-buffs> stun shot> Snipe/Rapid Fire> snare shot. Then I'd switch to melee and use the backstab and melee combo and autoattack while my ranged abilities cycle. Unfortunately, I wasn't showing everyone else's damage, so I have no idea if I'm even putting out good damage.

I liked the game enough, and I'm curious about the new zones and PvP, but....dunno about picking this up at launch. I'll see what I am playing at that point.

At least my two groups with elites were positive experiences.

[Tannhauser]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

Agreed.  I'm back in WoW.

[Lum]

That actually sounds more like Lineage 2 players, who were very pleased with their hardcore-ness.

...and their 10k NA subs.

What cracks me up is that game after game comes out with a much more difficult leveling experience than WoW and fails utterly, yet not a single designer/producer seems to think to themselves: "huh, maybe if we make leveling experience EASIER, like the market leader, we may do better...".  My only guess is the folks who make these decisions do not actually play MMORPG's.

Not that this disproves your larger point, but Lineage 2 is closer to 100k NA subs, not 10k. Lineage 1 is around 10k NA subs.

[Falconeer]

Played over the weekend a bit.  I'm now trying to get my money back from pre-ordering on steam.

No reason to play this over wow.

Aion is a PvP focused game, WoW is a PvE focused game.

And I've been around long enough to know that these terms are relative to your fancy, and mean little to me.

Just saying, because of your fancy, you were silly in placing that order. The reason to play Aion over WoW is PVP. If that doesn't interest you, blatantly wrong preorder.