Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[amiable]

I updated the first post with this info.

Retail Information:

To be best of my knowledge, the servers that are currently available in the North American open beta are the same servers that will be available during retail launch day.

That being said, if you have no previous alliances or ties, feel free to join us during retail.

Launch Server: Zikel
Launch Faction: Elyos

Also, I am playing Asmodian in Open Beta just for fun, you are free to join me there as well:

Open Beta Server: Yustiel
Open Beta Faction: Asmodian

Send a friend request to Enti if you want!

Is this the official "F13 players who will quit in a few weeks guild" or a group of folks with a bit more staying power?  Should we start lobbying for a board?  Should that board start directly in the graveyard?

I may check out retail to see if the miracle patch really works.

[Segoris]

You can't see opponent names, just Rank.

You just mean the red area above the avatar right? Because targetting someone showed their names in cbt5 & 6.

[Draegan]

Hmm then I stand corrected. 

[Kail]

It works but it [bypassing Game guard] violates the EULA obviously.  Use at your own risk.  I have zero issues with Gamegaurd though, so I don't use it.

Not really up to scratch on cheating, what kind of response does this typically entail?  Right now, I can't play the game at all, so it's not like the punishment could do anything worse than that... but I do have a purchased game, here, and I don't want to get banned from using it when this thing launches.

Finally got a login for the forums.  I guess if your username has a capital letter in it, the forum software isn't coded to recognize it.    There's already a seven page thread on the problem I'm having on the tech support forums, so maybe it'll get looked at...?  Sigh.  I find myself logging into WAR becaue it's more stable; the irony is painful.

[Modern Angel]

I hear tell they'll ban you out of hand. I'm in the same boat: I'm only playing right now because I disabled GG and I suspect that I won't be banned in beta. But the neat thing is apparently you CAN get a refund if you bought on Steam so...

[Koyasha]

If it's detected, banning the account seems likely.  Best case scenario might be a suspension or something, but I don't imagine they' do anything less than a ban.

However, I've disabled Gameguard with Fyyre's modifications for every phase of closed and open beta so far, and I always disabled it when I played Lineage II, which I did several times for months at a time, and never had any sort of problem from it.  So from my personal experience, at least, it's pretty safe to do.

[rk47]

Heh, I can see why a lot of people are giving this a mess. Really shiny at first impression, but if you've played L2 & WoW a lot, the game is like a blend of it and you'll know what to expect. Good points...eh..I guess they took what's good and combine it into a solid blend. It'll break no new grounds. Aerial combat aside, nothing pulled me in. Oh, gold farmers are already PM-ing me in beta.

[Draegan]

Gold Farmers?

Which server were you on?  I didn't get any on Vaizel.  Were you on Siel or Israphel?

[Segoris]

Oh, gold farmers are already PM-ing me in beta.

That's weird, I was in 3 of the "closed beta" weekends and have been in the open beta this whole time without a single gold farmer message. This includes both tells and mails. Also, I'm on Siel which is a high pop server and was kind of expecting it there.

I'm not saying I thought they solved the problem, I just thought they were doing a good job. Looks like that problem has mixed results as well.

[Shatter]

Odd, Ive played beta since China OB and havent had 1 tell for gold.  I have friends that play in C-Aion and they havent had them there either. 

[Threash]

Odd, Ive played beta since China OB and havent had 1 tell for gold.  I have friends that play in C-Aion and they havent had them there either. 

That would be like little mexican kids trying to sell chicle to each other.  Why would there be gold farmers in beta? i expect to see shit tons of them at release, but what kind of jackass buys gold in open beta?

[Nonentity]

Is this the official "F13 players who will quit in a few weeks guild" or a group of folks with a bit more staying power?  Should we start lobbying for a board?  Should that board start directly in the graveyard?

I may check out retail to see if the miracle patch really works.

I'm just getting everyone coordinated onto one server. Once we're there, we'll see what we can do about getting a guild started.

[Shatter]

Odd, Ive played beta since China OB and havent had 1 tell for gold.  I have friends that play in C-Aion and they havent had them there either. 

That would be like little mexican kids trying to sell chicle to each other.  Why would there be gold farmers in beta? i expect to see shit tons of them at release, but what kind of jackass buys gold in open beta?

Probably to start advertising before the game comes out, not necessarily to sell you gold in beta but for when it goes live.  Not like they are busy selling gold in WHO or AOC so they might as well jump on the next gravy train. 

[rk47]

Odd, Ive played beta since China OB and havent had 1 tell for gold.  I have friends that play in C-Aion and they havent had them there either. 

That would be like little mexican kids trying to sell chicle to each other.  Why would there be gold farmers in beta? i expect to see shit tons of them at release, but what kind of jackass buys gold in open beta?

Probably to start advertising before the game comes out, not necessarily to sell you gold in beta but for when it goes live.  Not like they are busy selling gold in WHO or AOC so they might as well jump on the next gravy train. 

Someone's bound to bookmark the gold site to 'pre-order' a bunch at release. Money = power in early game.

[Venkman]

Serious question: does the 20+ game qualify as "early" in that money is power? I ask because before what is so needed it's worth buying rather than waiting for the quests/drop to provide in PvE?

[rk47]

Serious question: does the 20+ game qualify as "early" in that money is power? I ask because before what is so needed it's worth buying rather than waiting for the quests/drop to provide in PvE?

I never reached that high, but why I said money = power is because there's so many consumables you can buy early on to increase your killing speed, and when quest starts sending you on those equal level mobs, you start to get spells resisted and such. You'll really want high accuracy and damage output to compensate for the slowdown. And just look at the vendor sell prices, it's never gonna be enough relying on auctioning off drops ala WoW. In World of Warcraft, I can just rely on quest greens and solo power through to level 40 or so in a week. But I honestly doubt it will be sufficient in Aion.

[Venkman]

Ah ok that makes sense. I'm disappointed that the rate of new spells and spell upgrades starts to drop off considerably in the teens. So far it hasn't been a problem that Sleep/Flight/Flee couldn't resolve, but I can see something of a return to the EQ1 days where you were at your weakest right before the next level you get a bunch of new spells and upgrades.

For having entered this game completely blind, I do gotta say I'm impressed with some parts of it. Feels like the first Eastern import semi-balanced for a Western playstyle. Haven't hit 20 though and doubt I will by tomorrow night, so no idea if once PvP+ starts whether the enjoyment falls off a cliff.

And that's not the right way to say it, but I love when I hear people talk about finances and use the phrase "fell off a cliff". it just tells such a colorful story

[Morfiend]

Ok slight side track.

My friend has just above what would be considered minimum specs, almost identical to other people who are running Aion:

Specs.
Intel 2.8 GHz P4
2 Gb DDR 400 MHz RAM
Radeon X1600 Pro
XP Pro

And he is getting major graphics issues. He is very computer savvy, and has all upgraded drivers and such. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing:

[Segoris]

Another thing to use money on: Bag and bank space. It's fucking expensive after the first upgrades. It goes from like 1k, to 10k, to 25k per row in the bag or the bank.

it's never gonna be enough relying on auctioning off drops ala WoW. In World of Warcraft, I can just rely on quest greens and solo power through to level 40 or so in a week. But I honestly doubt it will be sufficient in Aion.

IMO, the AH/broker in Aion is incredibly easy to be profitable on since certain green items (good tank plate with hp or parry, leather with crit or +attack, etc) sell for insane amounts. In addition to price gouging items, I've disenchanted my old gear (and crappy gear that won't sell for much) and sold those mats for 5-20k (depending on the level of the enchant item). The only thing I don't like is how limited the number of items you can auction off at the same time are (I think it's a max of 10 slots). If it was ~20 slots I'd love it, I don't mind there being a limit, I just think the current limit is too low.

[Lantyssa]

And he is getting major graphics issues. He is very computer savvy, and has all upgraded drivers and such. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing:

Jaggies are usually an indication of overheating.  If it only happens for Aion, then I don't know.

[rk47]

Ok, I've done a little reflection. I can say this with confidence the true reason why Aion can't grab me at all.
After killing fellow players in Northwarden and Morkaine Temple for exp & levels of Warhammer, I just simply cannot stomach hunting 20 butterflies and assortments of wolves, bears and furries for 20 levels just to take a peek at the RVR.

[IainC]

If killing furries is wrong then I don't want to be right.

[Morfiend]

And he is getting major graphics issues. He is very computer savvy, and has all upgraded drivers and such. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing:

Jaggies are usually an indication of overheating.  If it only happens for Aion, then I don't know.

No, it also did the exact same thing in Champions. But not in AoC.

[Threash]

Ok, I've done a little reflection. I can say this with confidence the true reason why Aion can't grab me at all.
After killing fellow players in Northwarden and Morkaine Temple for exp & levels of Warhammer, I just simply cannot stomach hunting 20 butterflies and assortments of wolves, bears and furries for 20 levels just to take a peek at the RVR.

I basically agree with that but getting to level 20 was not very time consuming at all.

[Morfiend]

And he is getting major graphics issues. He is very computer savvy, and has all upgraded drivers and such. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing:

Jaggies are usually an indication of overheating.  If it only happens for Aion, then I don't know.

His Card specs while running Aion.

[Feverdream]

Ok, I've done a little reflection. I can say this with confidence the true reason why Aion can't grab me at all.
After killing fellow players in Northwarden and Morkaine Temple for exp & levels of Warhammer, I just simply cannot stomach hunting 20 butterflies and assortments of wolves, bears and furries for 20 levels just to take a peek at the RVR.

I am right there with you.

I'm a little shocked to admit that Warhammer did that one thing so well that it sort of spoiled me.

I'll wait for Aion's release and then try to level to endgame, but I'll confess I am not 100% sure I can do it.  I may retain more (relative) sanity if I just wait a few months for people I trust to tell me whether the endgame is worth leveling for.

What's weird, though, is that I am 100% certain I would find at least some enjoyment in the process of leveling yet another character in WoW...and that's without even taking into account that I can level in WoW BGs now, which makes it even nicer.

On the surface, WoW and Aion PvE leveling/questing seem really similar.  So why does the idea of leveling AGAIN in WoW (which I'm not actually gonna do; just using the idea to make my point) sound at least somewhat appealing, while the thought of leveling even once in Aion makes me wonder if I'll be able to play the game at all?  I can't figure out what it is in Aion that is leaving me so uninspired.

[Draegan]

Serious question: does the 20+ game qualify as "early" in that money is power? I ask because before what is so needed it's worth buying rather than waiting for the quests/drop to provide in PvE?

From what I see, it'll help you buy up equipment from other people to disenchant it to enchant your own gear.  If you can consistantly keep your weapons and offhand equipment at +10 it gives you an advantage in speed in level.  Not a GIGANTIC advantage but a decent one with the exception of SMs and Sorcs.

You also might be able to level your crafting faster by buying mats from others and also crafting the good equipment.  Or just downright buying it from others who are selling it.

[01101010]

I have no clue about ATI but that fan speed looks low. I manually set my fan if i am going to be pushing my graphics card to at least 50% if not 70% depending on the game. Fans can be replaced a bit cheaper than the whole cards these days - IMHO.

[Koyasha]

As far as I can tell, power shards are not level-limited.  An absurdly rich player that wanted to spend foolish amounts of kinah on leveling up a lowbie fast could purchase high level power shards and make use of them to massively increase their damage.  As mentioned, a constant supply of potions is also highly useful for leveling, as are the funds to get things to +10.

That said, I'm level 29 with over 700,000 kinah at the moment, and I've never had money troubles throughout the game.  And I could have considerably more if I worked the profit angle on a lot of things - I farmed some necklaces and shields I could have sold a number of for good profit, but gave them to a few people that needed them instead, and so on.  I also use power shards regularly - but only the lowest level, I don't feel the higher level ones are worth the extra cost.  And all my weapons since level 10 have been enchanted to +10 as soon as possible.  Even with all that, I've never not had enough money to buy my skills for the next level.  Money does not strike me as particularly hard to come by, unless you just don't try to earn any at all or for some reason are terrible at making money.  Being extremely unlucky is about the only other way to not have money that I can see.

[Venkman]

On the surface, WoW and Aion PvE leveling/questing seem really similar.  So why does the idea of leveling AGAIN in WoW (which I'm not actually gonna do; just using the idea to make my point) sound at least somewhat appealing, while the thought of leveling even once in Aion makes me wonder if I'll be able to play the game at all?  I can't figure out what it is in Aion that is leaving me so uninspired.

Because with WoW you know what awaits you, still have your rewards from prior achievements, and may still have friends there waiting for you. Aion is an unknown. Are there hidden content holes like AoC (yes, they existed Falc )? Is the best PvP the one you quickly outleveled like WAR? Will they do a massive XP nerf on day one? Is the thing an unbalanced mess later?

It's less about the cash than it is the time, though there isn't enough of both.

I think WAR and AoC burned out a lot of interest for another fantasy "WoW killer". Both big budget launches that succeeded merely in reminding everyone how high the bar was set by Blizzard. Aion doesn't even attempt to bill itself that way, which is lucky/good for them. They could enjoy a LoTRo like success, a competent and enjoyable game without the controversy of trying to be number one.

[Draegan]

There might of been some content holes prior in the 1.0 version, but thy have added a lot a long the way to 1.5.

[Engels]

And he is getting major graphics issues. He is very computer savvy, and has all upgraded drivers and such. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing:

Jaggies are usually an indication of overheating.  If it only happens for Aion, then I don't know.

His Card specs while running Aion.

Jaggies are a sign of a busted vid ram chip too, which can be -caused- by overheating, or can just go belly up for no good reason. Why would it show in CO but not in AoC? Who knows. I supposed there's a chance that there's some vid memory address space on his card that's only used for a shader type that's used in CO but not in AoC. Sounds unlikely, but you never know.

If its not that, then I'd do a bunch of stuff regarding disk health that your savvy friend has probably also done.

[rk47]

Ok, I've done a little reflection. I can say this with confidence the true reason why Aion can't grab me at all.
After killing fellow players in Northwarden and Morkaine Temple for exp & levels of Warhammer, I just simply cannot stomach hunting 20 butterflies and assortments of wolves, bears and furries for 20 levels just to take a peek at the RVR.

I basically agree with that but getting to level 20 was not very time consuming at all.

But is it fun?

[Falconeer]

You know what? I am biased. Even without the PvP, I would play this just to dress up my female chars. Best Princess Dresser in a long time. The art of this game would surely compel me to grind a few more levels.

[Quinton]

You know what? I am biased. Even without the PvP, I would play this just to dress up my female chars. Best Princess Dresser in a long time. The art of this game would surely compel me to grind a few more levels.

I like that the gear is nicely modeled (something that I enjoyed about FFXI) and not just a texture wrapped around a generic boot/shirt/etc mesh (boo WoW), but I feel like there's not much variety (possibly less so than FFXI).  Hit lv8 and my mage now is wearing shorts instead of a skirt thing, but that's about the only visible change in gear I've seen.

The idea that you can customize gear a bit with the manastones and so on is appealing, especially if you could hang on to cool looking gear and make it useful -- outleveling some of my favorite cool-looking clothing or weapons in FFXI always made me sad!