Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[01101010]

What comes to mind right now is Age of Conan.  A terrific game up to level 20.  I am wondering whether a similar outcome awaits Aion with folks quitting at level 25:

http://forum.mmosite.com/topics/245/200906/22/799,1.html

Good read but is that the 1.5 version that person is playing? I do agree that pre 1.5 the game felt very grindy, and I still agree that the guild system is terrible.

Dated June of '09. Chinese servers didn't get 1.5 till when? I assume not till recently, so ...

[Falconeer]

To be fair 1.5 didn't ease the grind. It just added more quests, but save for a few epic or dungeonish exceptions, quests in all MMORPGs are just grind in disguise.

[jpark]

So far Age of Conan memories persist - anyone have experience or knowledge of instances available during leveling?  Are there any and are they any good?

The somewhat dated article (June) I linked a few posts above indicated there was little to be had if I understood correctly.

[Outlawedprod]

A lot of people are unable to login or if they can they get terrible latency. Yet there are some who don't have issues. So far they have taken all the servers down and back up once today that I know of.

I'm pretty much experiencing the same problems and I had no issues during the previous CB weekends.  I bet they were using a different datacenter for those.

Some folks in this thread talking about ongoing latency problems with lineage2 servers recently and it returning full force with Aion OB.
http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=204346&page=5
Note http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?p=2930908#post2930908 from 9/2/09.

Certainly doesn't instill me with confidence if today's problems turn out to indeed be datacenter related.

[Simond]

Well, some people are having fun with the character generator, apparently:

[Threash]

The amount of variation in character sizes is a little too much, i saw a female that would barely reach garycolemans knee running around.

[Venkman]

Wait, you're complaining about too MUCH choice? 

What is with the furry creature NPCs? They don't seem to fit at all.

[Threash]

Well in most games being that tiny would be an advantage in pvp, i can easily see that being abused by people getting into places where they are not attack-able.

[Venkman]

Is collision detection that fine in Aion where this would be an advantage? I ask seriously. I guess we could just wait for three months before noticing that everyone PvPing is knee high to a grasshopper of course

[Trippy]

It's more a targeting/visibility issue.

[Venkman]

Ah. And this isn't offset well by being able to target on the minimap? Or is that turned off in PvP? Haven't gotten that far yet.

[Modern Angel]

Game Guard. 

[tmp]

Is collision detection that fine in Aion where this would be an advantage? I ask seriously.

Think it doesn't even need to be fine to give an advantage something 4+ times smaller. Not entirely sure though, maybe they use fixed size bounding box for all characters... though that'd be slightly different case of stupid.

[Chimpy]

, maybe they use fixed size bounding box for all characters... though that'd be slightly different case of stupid.

It would be like playing Quake3 all over again, though!

[waylander]

Supposedly the hitbox of a character is the same regardless of size.  The advantage to being small though is to easily get lost in the shuffle of mass PVP, and maybe be able to sneak around a little better.  I haven't been to the Abyss, but from the videos those things look huge and maybe a team of small characters could sneak by larger forces engaged in a fight.

[Threash]

Or by having HUGE tanks covering up tiny casters.

[Segoris]

http://forum.mmosite.com/topics/245/200906/22/799,1.html

This is not a good write up as far as accuracy goes.


As for avatar size discussion, here is some insight after some pvp experience with both a tall SM and a short ranger:
When I was on my SM, I had no problem targeting even the shortest characters. That would, admittedly, be different in a large group situation, but small group/skirmish it was absolutely no problem. Also, IIRC, there's only 1 ability with a base range greater then 25m (the SM's clipped wings spell or whatever it's called now) so ranged characters hiding from a long distance while engaging in combat isn't really as easy as it seems while up against competent opponents. People's names are huge and clearly visible from a good range (probably 75m+, 3x the normal ranged characters range before enhancements), this makes hiding behind a lot of objects pretty tough at times when there's this HUGE red name + rank (reading along the lines of Asmodaen Soldier First Class <Name>) sticking out from over an object.

There does seem to even be a disadvantage with playing a smaller avatar as a ranged characters: hills. These things give me LOS issues (as they should) while I'm currently playing a ranger. I don't remember having these problems on my spiritmaster who was much taller. Thought it's nothing like how WAR was at first where any bump in the road created LOS issues for nerfherders, this is actually very well done. Compared to hiding behind objects and using a smaller avatar, attacks from the air are going to be better for attacking without people noticing, if you can pull it off.

And I agree, Guild options are still crap though.

[Falconeer]

Another think gthat irks me. If you make your first character Elyos, you can't create ANY Asmodian character on the same or ANY other server! Or vice versa.

I understand not letting me roll two opposite factions char on the same server. But different servers? Isn't clearly a scheme to make people eventuall buy a second box when it's time to roll an alt, or worse, to simply join a guild of friends on a different server? If it stays like this, choosing one faction can screw up your possibilities in the long term, or just force you to buy another box or delete all your characters. I can't believe it really works like this.

[Draegan]

They are doing population balances for Open Beta from what I've read.

[Nebu]

If your game has a significant pvp component, then equalizing players seems a logical step in the development process.  Allowing drastic size changes will affect gameplay even if their targeting boxes are the same size. 

[Pax]

If you make your first character Elyos, you can't create ANY Asmodian character on the same or ANY other server! Or vice versa.

Does the game even have some kind of nation chat channel to justify such a restriction to the metagame?

[Modern Angel]

Another think gthat irks me. If you make your first character Elyos, you can't create ANY Asmodian character on the same or ANY other server! Or vice versa.

What the fuck are you talking about? You can have different factions on different servers. I do.

[Falconeer]

It didn't let me! Warned me that I had to choose carefully BECAUSE thet decision was final, and in fact it was! I tried creating on some other servers and it went directly to the Elyos creation page.

Maybe there was a lock which has been removed. Trying again now.


EDIT: Yep! Whatever prevented me to make other faction's characters on different servers has been removed. Bug or bogus feature, everytihng's in order now. Phew.

[Modern Angel]

They have a hard cap on each and every server to prevent imbalance. Too many Elyos, no Asmodians. And vice versa. Guess which faction is wildly popular due to their stupid trimmed eyebrows and drow skin tones? What you ran into is the fact that the Asmodians are the Alliance times a billion as every weeaboo dickweasel makes an Alucard ripoff. You mistook the trends as a hard cap on all servers, which isn't the case. The good news is that the denial apparently fluctuates by the minute.

In broader thoughts, I'm playing this and... I don't get it. It works, it is admittedly gorgeous, pretty polished... but I just don't get the second coming crowing, especially by people I know who really do know better. I can see thinking it's okay but the noise surrounding this is unreal. My only working theory is that it has nothing to do with Aion and everything to do with WoW ennui except lots of people are just too fucking addicted to go play a non-MMO. There is simply nothing remarkable about this game; indeed, in terms of things like skill trees, gear, interface and several other things it's a glaring step BACK to the pre-WoW/pre-GW days.

[Falconeer]

I just don't get the second coming crowing

Seriously, who? I still have to meet a single one considering it remotely close to second coming. The opposite, seems to me that even those who are gonna play it (me included) are, for the first time, completely unenthusiast and self-conscious about its limits.

EDIT: (me included)

[Modern Angel]

You get the usual crowing by the community at large just like any MMO. Those people are inconsequential and are better served brushing up on their skills at making Baconators. But I've got friends, folks on other boards, the apparent entirety of WAR's population, people leaving very established WoW guilds, a few folks here. I just do not get it. For me, my curiosity got the better of me and I figured I try everything out when it comes out so I picked it up... a month's average fun with the wife and some old friends, just like Champions. It's not bad by any means, just not special.

[Threash]

It works, it is admittedly gorgeous, pretty polished

That alone will get you the entirety of the left over WAR customers.  WoW is nearly five years old, people are ready to leave for a new game no matter how good WoW is.  To someone who actually enjoys diku style MMOs, which happens to be a lot of people, there's just no reason NOT to play Aion.  A brand new WoW, or a WAR/AOC without all the incredibly stupid shit is exactly what a ton of people are looking for.

[Nebu]

A brand new WoW, or a WAR/AOC without all the incredibly stupid shit is exactly what a ton of people are looking for.

I agree, except that Aion still has a decent amount of incredibly stupid shit in it.  Late game grind, too much cc, ill balanced pvp classes, etc. 

You're really just trading one flawed system for another based on "newness". 

[Threash]

A brand new WoW, or a WAR/AOC without all the incredibly stupid shit is exactly what a ton of people are looking for.

I agree, except that Aion still has a decent amount of incredibly stupid shit in it.  Late game grind, too much cc, ill balanced pvp classes, etc. 

You're really just trading one flawed system for another based on "newness". 

I just don't think i can make those judgments without actually trying them.  If you told me Aion had a gear ward system then yeah i could say that's fucking retarded without playing it, but so far i haven't seen anything like that.  There are certainly potential problem areas, but without hands on experience i'm not ready to call them obvious failures.

[Modern Angel]

I'm not confident that people are going to be jumping for joy when they find out there are no skill trees and the Trinity is locked in hard coded style. If it were an evolution in any way I would get it but I'm not seeing it. I don't even know what it's marketing selling points are. What's the hook? Honestly, what's the evolution here? I totally get giving it a spin; I mean, I am... even if it was completely late night impulse buy I sort of kind of regret. Mostly I look at the art and environments and wonder how Guild Wars somehow seemed more alive five years ago.

[DLRiley]

The evolution is that its at least not Mortal Online which insist on being pre-internet. 

[Modern Angel]

The evolution is that its at least not Mortal Online which insist on being pre-internet. 

That has fuckall to do with my question and is an excuse for you to get a hate hard on for some game nobody gives a shit about in a thread not dedicated to it.

[Musashi]

The answer I got several pages ago was that it's all about the pvpenis.  I replied, "But Battlegrounds, Arenas, and Wintergrasp?"  The reply I received was, "LoL, not a pvp focused game noob."  I can't determine what makes a game more PvP intensive than WoW.  It's beyond my primitive ability.  Therefore, I doubt the validity of that claim, as it seems pretty evident that WoW has as much 'srs bsns' PvP as this game, if not more. 

So, I believe the answer to your question ("What's the hook?") is:  Ignis Fatuus.

[Modern Angel]

I like this reply.

[Falconeer]

"LoL, not a pvp focused game noob."

Dear Musashi, the answer was more like: "this has worldly pvp and it's all about it, instead of being something you can choose to take part in or not".
Aion is not a game PvE people can play. It doesn't even has your average PvE server, as soon as you hit level 20 you are fair game. Now I am sure a few die hard PvErs will tenaciously try to stick on, blinded by the shiny visuals of the top tier armours, but they will eventually convert to PvP or quit. Because this is an ONLINE WORLD (not just a game, that's the catch) focused on PvP.
In our discussion Musashi (was that you?), which started when you said you canceled your order due to not enough differences from WoW, I claimed Aion is ALL about PvP, and that is what it has over WoW: a world, and a gameplay, COMPLETELY focused on PvP. Never said this PvP is better than that PvP, neither me or you know the answer to that yet. I just "claimed" the big difference is in how significant to the gameworld PvP is. Totally in Aion, barely in WoW where it's pretty much confined to instances, like a minigame.

Look at it from the outside, say you are an alien visiting two unknown planets: on one you observe a massive war going on forever with no safe zones and civilians keep dying like flies so they have to arm and take part in the war until there's no civilian left just fighters, while on the other one people beat the shit out of each other but they do it in arenas and stadiums wearing coloured shirts and protection like gloves and helmets and civilians aren't affected by that a little bit. Hey! I like the second world most! But, since it's a game, let me play the first one please. And yes, that's your difference. Doesn't mean it's a better game, just different enough.


What, you went out for holiday, came back bored, and decided to necro the discussion we had two months ago just for fun?