Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[01101010]

There was also a new wrinkle: one yutz figured out that most people don't change the default size of their chat window. He cleverly spaced out the text so that the word "[Prompted]" appeared on a new line as if it was an official message. As usual with such nonsense, the sentence that followed had enough grammatical and spelling errors to tip off the experienced; however, there were some people who got tripped up by it. As you'd expect, a phishing site.

Not all that new, but shocking none-the-less. I mean seriously, how does that slip the noose of the EULA? What I am really in awe of is the lack of official forum gold spam/phishing posts. Not sure why they have not blown that area up yet since not one admin seems to be able to operate it and they have openly admitted they can not activate anything.

/block is annoying, but it works. Shouldn't HAVE to /block spam, but meh... at least the queues have eased up from hours to 10-20min on servers.

[Venkman]

You're still getting queues? SIEL has been labeled "High" but I haven't had a queue since they raised the cap.

Haven't been on Israphel since I created the pre-order character though. So I get barraged by Modern Angel's wall of text. But as Koyasha pointed out then, I experienced the same. It was about 12 people just spamming as fast as the channel would let them. And I say 12 because in 45 seconds I had blocked 12 and hadn't again experienced spam

I don't get the forum problem either. But then, WoW trained me to avoid the oboards at all costs.

[gryeyes]

I have not been stuck in a queue on Isphrael yet, only gotten DCed a single time (man getting booted to the desktop on a crash is annoying). Been maybe two instances of lag becoming unbearable both for brief moments. But i do play fairly late at night and on an east coast server, while living on the west. 24.6 greatly looking forward entering the abyss. My gear is complete shit, hoping to find some easy upgrades.

[jakonovski]

I have a stupid question: is it possible to change the text size of the npc dialog window?

[Draegan]

As far as I know, no.

[Drubear]

Kewl: while we're in "asking stupid questions" mode - do you have to do the 1-9 thing for every toon? Or do you get a buy once you've done it once on a server?

[Draegan]

Yes, you have to do 1-9 with every toon.  It sucks but really after you do it, it's only 2-3 hours of time.  My last new character as a Mage -> Spiritmaster, i got through the first ten levels in 2-2.5 hours.

[tmp]

You're still getting queues? SIEL has been labeled "High" but I haven't had a queue since they raised the cap.

Still an "over 2000" queue on Tuesday evening on EU server (spatalos? one of these crowded [eng] ones)

[Venkman]

Ouch. So I'm east coast playing on west coast, and that could be part of it. Or it could be the harbringer of "our EU launch blew away all of our expectations, we're getting ready to blah blah blah"

Kewl: while we're in "asking stupid questions" mode - do you have to do the 1-9 thing for every toon? Or do you get a buy once you've done it once on a server?

As Draegan said, 1-9 for all characters. However, expect this to change probably within 6 months or so, probably based on having a character at the cap. It's not the 1-9 that's the chore. When you want another character in the Abyss, the 1-25 becomes a real bear.

[gryeyes]

The gap in power from a level 24 character to 25 is insane. Or maybe its more pronounced with assassins? Does anyone have a link or knowledge about how attacks/skills interact. It appears my special attacks interrupt auto-attack and aren't based on weapon damage + skill damage. Creating a situation that I might be losing damage by using my specials, even the pure damage based specials. Especially in instances where the combo animation takes a second or so to go off. Or a link to some addons so i can figure it out myself?

Edit: I love the amount of cut scenes, even tho most of them are of terrible quality.

[Falconeer]

Playing a gladiator, I realized that timing my specials to go out JUST a second after the auto-attack animation started it gives me more DPS. This is because the specials cancel autoattack, but the damage is always calculated at the start of any animation, so you can time your specials and fire them off like right after (actually a few milliseconds before) the autoattack damage pops out. This way you'll basically cancel the animation for the autoattack but not its damage. It's harder said than done. I ran many tests and it works for me. By just firing all my specials I get on cooldown at the end of the first whole skills cycling and I only get one autoattack. Instead, by timing my way I get a couple two or three more autoattacks in the same timeframe, not to mention that I can even use this as a fight starter: approach mob to autoattack him and fire your first special a few milliseconds before autoattack hits. That results usually in having the damage of the autoattack calculated even though the animatin didn't show as it has been canceled by your special one, but you get the damage of both.

[Falconeer]

The gold spam issue, official word:

Addressing Gold Spam
10-06-09 22:39:04views 5272
While Executive Producer Lance Stites took time to address some of the most prominent issues raised in the Aion community last week, we want to specifically address another issue that is a top priority for the team here at NCsoft: in-game real money trading (RMT) advertisement, sometimes referred to as “gold spamming.” These activities are something we’re actively combating right now. They are also something you can help us with, and something that we are committed to addressing continually in the future.
 
We currently have Game Masters monitoring all our servers. They track chat channels closely and have been banning thousands of spammers every day. This form of active monitoring is a part of a much larger network of tools and sensors that we’re currently utilizing to help create a better game experience for the Aion community across the board.
 
If you’re experiencing chat spam, there is a way for you to address this immediately on your own and help us create a better gameplay experience for everyone. You can use the Block User feature. All you need to do is to right-click on a user’s name and choose to block that user. While this doesn’t eliminate the problem, it is one small step you can actively make to improve your game experience. Using Block User also helps us identify spammers much more quickly.
 
We are considering a number of methods to address this chat spam that have been implemented in previous games, as well exploring new technologies and what they may have to offer to improve your game experience. One upcoming feature for Aion will be an improved chat filter to help reduce the overall chat spam. This filter, along with new tracking and monitoring methods, is the first of many steps that we’ll be taking to help resolve the issue of gold spamming.
 
We appreciate all the feedback and ideas you have been giving us so far. We will continue to scour the communities out there for other ideas as we go. We absolutely recognize how important this is to you and a good game experience in Aion, and we reiterate that we are currently addressing it. Thank you for your patience and for all of your input.

[Ashamanchill]

What Falc said pertaining to glads is true. That being said, if you are a dual wielding class (like a glad can be, i picked up the stigma for it), your dps is higher not doing any specials, just letting the auto attacks run through.

Edit: Specials are still better for pvp though, where the hits dont come at certain, regular intervals.

[Kageh]

Specials are pretty important for the buff/debuffs though, even if the auto-attack DPS is higher. When grouped with melee dps, the gladiator (warrior) armor debuff makes a noticeable difference, and the shielding buff is pretty cool when soloing, because at the expense of a couple seconds longer fighting it can reduce downtime to zero.

[gryeyes]

I find that hard to believe, auto-attack is based on your weapons damage, skills are not.  So unless skills reduce DPS by a substantial margin (this should be immediately apparent), no way could this statement be true. The spread in damage between similarly leveled weapons varies greatly. And it definitely would not be true across all dual wielding classes regardless of weapon.

[Kageh]

Considering glads and the fact that polearms can 4-hit on auto-attack but not on specials, it doesn't seem that improbable to me. Can't comment on dual wield, but it certainly seems the way that sustained auto-attack DPS is higher with two-handed weapons than with spamming specials.

[Ashamanchill]

With a polearm, no just auto attack sucks. With dual wielding, I just use the Great Cleave skill (which is kinda like a weapon through), and the Severe Weakening Blow to debuff them, then just sit back and let him auto attack. My avatar does two attacks every 1.4 seconds. Give it a try.

Edit. Dammit, forgot to mention. Things like + Attack mana stones only add to your weapon swing damage, not special damage. At least it doesn't change the displayed damage on the tool tip, while changing out your weapon with an inferior one will.

[Draegan]

Weapons do affect your specials, at least they did on my Ranger.  I don't know how they do though and it might not be universal throughout the classes and skills.

[Shatter]

Dont gold spammers have to get level 5 to spam the channels too? 

[Draegan]

Dont gold spammers have to get level 5 to spam the channels too? 

Yes.

Also, according to some translations of the korean test server, they are drastically changing the exp reward for quests for the top levels.

[jakonovski]

I'm only level 13 and thus have no idea how big the grind is, but compared to how WAR handled insufficient high level exp rewards, that is  

[Xanthippe]

The gold spam issue, official word:

Addressing Gold Spam
10-06-09 22:39:04views 5272
While Executive Producer Lance Stites took time to address some of the most prominent issues raised in the Aion community last week, we want to specifically address another issue that is a top priority for the team here at NCsoft: in-game real money trading (RMT) advertisement, sometimes referred to as “gold spamming.” These activities are something we’re actively combating right now. They are also something you can help us with, and something that we are committed to addressing continually in the future.
 
We currently have Game Masters monitoring all our servers. They track chat channels closely and have been banning thousands of spammers every day. This form of active monitoring is a part of a much larger network of tools and sensors that we’re currently utilizing to help create a better game experience for the Aion community across the board.
 
If you’re experiencing chat spam, there is a way for you to address this immediately on your own and help us create a better gameplay experience for everyone. You can use the Block User feature. All you need to do is to right-click on a user’s name and choose to block that user. While this doesn’t eliminate the problem, it is one small step you can actively make to improve your game experience. Using Block User also helps us identify spammers much more quickly.
 
We are considering a number of methods to address this chat spam that have been implemented in previous games, as well exploring new technologies and what they may have to offer to improve your game experience. One upcoming feature for Aion will be an improved chat filter to help reduce the overall chat spam. This filter, along with new tracking and monitoring methods, is the first of many steps that we’ll be taking to help resolve the issue of gold spamming.
 
We appreciate all the feedback and ideas you have been giving us so far. We will continue to scour the communities out there for other ideas as we go. We absolutely recognize how important this is to you and a good game experience in Aion, and we reiterate that we are currently addressing it. Thank you for your patience and for all of your input.

Really?  They have GMs monitoring channels and banning people?  I have trouble believing this.  Why do goldspammers operate all day long then?  Why do people phish all day long?

Every morning, I send in a gold spammer/phiser report.  Today's list has 9 spammers and 1 phisher.  1 spammer is also on yesterday's list.  I do it via the website because the petition system is fucked up.

Beginning to get pissed off that NCSoft's response to players is bullshit and "use block."

Beginning to believe people who say that NCSoft really doesn't care that much about gold sellers.

Is it really that difficult to ban someone for spamming a gold sales site?  It can't be done automatically right on the spot?  Suppose I logged in and spewed horrible racist- and profanity-laced speech constantly?  I find it hard to believe that I wouldn't get an immediate ban for that - so why no immediate bans (as in, see gold spam, ban account) for gold sellers?

[ghost]

It's probably harder to get rid of them than you think.  These guys have been practicing for years with WOW and Blizzard has never been able to fully get rid of them. 

[Shatter]

It's probably harder to get rid of them than you think.  These guys have been practicing for years with WOW and Blizzard has never been able to fully get rid of them. 

Cochroaches?

[Xanthippe]

It's probably harder to get rid of them than you think.  These guys have been practicing for years with WOW and Blizzard has never been able to fully get rid of them. 

I'm not talking about fully getting rid of them.  I'm talking about a GM having the power to ban someone on the spot.  How hard can that be?

LFG channel continuously scrolls all day long with spam messages from the same people.  NCSoft says they have GMs monitoring chat channels.

So why are these spammers - and the account phisher who appears daily with a new name - allowed to spam constantly, all day long?

Something is odd here.

[Threash]

Really?  They have GMs monitoring channels and banning people?  I have trouble believing this.  Why do goldspammers operate all day long then?  Why do people phish all day long?

They've been quite public about this, several times a day i get spam from GMs showing off their banhammer.  Since i am anon and dont understand why anyone would subject themselves to a public chat channel this is way more annoying than the non existant gold spam.

[Sobelius]

The gap in power from a level 24 character to 25 is insane. Or maybe its more pronounced with assassins?

Assassins also get something like a combination of 9 power upgrades/new powers at 25 (maybe other classes do too?).

[Xanthippe]

Really?  They have GMs monitoring channels and banning people?  I have trouble believing this.  Why do goldspammers operate all day long then?  Why do people phish all day long?

They've been quite public about this, several times a day i get spam from GMs showing off their banhammer.  Since i am anon and dont understand why anyone would subject themselves to a public chat channel this is way more annoying than the non existant gold spam.

Because maybe someone HAS to use public chat channels to find other people to do a group with?

The game gives us tools that are either completely and utterly useless or fucking irritating because they're filled with gold spam, or we have to spend 15 minutes a day upon logging in to block people, because NCSoft can't fucking ban people ON THE SPOT?

I think they have part time GMs, not full time, as they state.

I can't even submit an in game petition for any reason because their petition system is completely fucked.

Incidently, I do realize that complaints about gold spam can be irritating.  I don't do that in game.  

NCSoft is full of shit about how hard they're working on this.

[Threash]

Maybe its a lot more obvious for me since i actually don't get any gold spam and the thing that bothers me is the constant spammy messages from the GMs but i see them banning people all the time.

[tmp]

Maybe its a lot more obvious for me since i actually don't get any gold spam and the thing that bothers me is the constant spammy messages from the GMs but i see them banning people all the time.

I'd dare a guess it's the guy who has the chat channels enabled, that's in better position to judge what impact the GMs actions have on the chat channel spam, if any.

They may be doing something but if it has no apparent effect then it's quite like that zen tree thing.

[Koyasha]

I agree that they don't seem to be doing as much as they could, but they may have a plan to do things more effectively than the stopgap measure of banning a few accounts.  I don't know.  I also agree that their GM service is bizarrely absent.  I tried to submit a petition a few nights ago only to be told that I can't do it between like midnight and 8 am or something.  I don't know what's going on but they DO need to get on improving their support, stat.  This isn't L2 where we've come to expect a complete lack of support, GM's, etc.  The lack of support could cost them a lot of subscriptions since they're aiming at a market that has higher CS standards these days.

On the other hand, the spam still is not that bad.  I created a new character recently.  No blocks in my list, all channels active.  I blocked six spammers when I logged in, and bam.  My chat window was clear of spam.  SIX.  Across all channels, and that's in the newbie zone where they have access to general and trade.  They don't exactly level way up and go yammer in Morheim general chat very often.  Playing for the next four and a half hours or so brought my total block list to a whopping eight.  Unless I see a video of someone blocking people for several minutes and still having their chat window filled with spam, I call bullshit on any claim that people are having to spend more than a minute on login blocking spammers.  I'm not a fan of ludicrous exaggerations of this sort.  The point that spammers are annoying and it seems like they're not being handled effectively enough can be made without resorting to huge levels of hyperbole.

[Shatter]

You could hire 1 guy to monitor all 13 or so servers and just ban the spammers, that would take what...about 5 minutes per server?  Do that a few times  day and done deal. 

[Lightstalker]

Their idea of full time support is probably people in the role working a regular slate of hours as a full time employee, not 24x7x365 coverage as WoW has led us to take for granted.  You know, a perfectly legal and reasonable work-week definition of full time staff.  The hours where they will take a petition are from 7am and 10pm, they do provide 24hour time format but do not specify a timezone in this message they provide after your heartfelt screed is redirected to \dev\null. 

They probably are working very hard on this, and are also out of their depth when it comes to the CS expectations of this market.  They clearly didn't recognize how far away from what some of their customers deem as acceptable they are.  If they automate the banning of gold-sellers (or allow On the Spot no review instabans) in short order someone like, say a bunch of goons, will have banned everyone from the opposing faction on their server during an important/popular event.  This is a PvP game, afterall, and we've seen this before.

This game has provided a crude tool to its users in place of targeted tools (like refined LFG, or community based channels), as such they can't clamp down without impairing the game experience of non-abusive users.  There hasn't even been any complaining here about ToS violating guild names or guild crests yet, too much low-hanging gold spam fruit to be had.  This is just a combination of early WoW level chat sophistication + several years of learning from those same gold farming organizations.  It isn't really that spectacular, unexpected, or interesting.  If you've got a lot of spam problems you are doing it to yourself.  Leave Channel 1 if you don't want to deal with the iniaty of other players, come back only when you have a specific need to be in Channel 1.  I do run with most of the global channels disabled, if I'm blocked by group content...  I skip it.  Then again, I'm having more fun getting killed in unexpected places, like during the ascention quest.

[Gunzwei]

A lot of the gold-spam issue is just with the game itself and how much of a role $$ plays especially as you close in on 30. Item drops become few and far between and a few PVE deaths can wipe out all the income you've acquired over a play session. Just banning or blocking gold-spam will alleviate some symptoms but doesn't really address the problem imo.

I'm sure RMT's see AION as a treasure trove for making money due to the game's own mechanics. Unless NC-Soft starts changing in-game pricing or loot drops I only see the RMT problem getting significantly worse regardless of what bans or chat filters they put in.

[amiable]

Dont gold spammers have to get level 5 to spam the channels too? 

Yes.

Also, according to some translations of the korean test server, they are drastically changing the exp reward for quests for the top levels.

Wow, that is an incredibly good idea.  I suppose I am a little in shock hearing about a game company that isn't intentionally trying to destroy themselves.