Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[Nebu]

But i don't think a lot of hardcore pvp players realize that is the ends to their means.

They understand.  The zerg of poor players is your friend.  It's like a herd of sheep to a small pack of wolves.  The sheep have a false sense of security.  The wolves derive pleasure in finding ways to kill superior numbers of sheep. 

This is one of many reasons my DAoC 8 man held together years after most of us would have gotten bored solo.  It was just too fun being able to kill 20+ players with an organized 8 man group. 

[Falconeer]

For the other two around here still playing:

I hit the 1M mark, and decided to celebrate by wasting lots of money on weapon enchantment. Not because I thought it was a good idea to spend all the money I gathered since launch, more becasue I'm curious about game mechanics and wanted to see how much of an improvement is to have a weapon at +10 (+40 attack?) over one with no enchantment. Obviously, no formulas are available anywhere, and while the +10 is clearly just the number of enchantments said weapon has, the +40 should be the damage/attack added. If this assumption is correct (and it should, since my attack level grows 5 points for each enchantment, while for example it grows of 2 points with a +2 attack manastone), it means my +10 lev 30 green spear is inherently WAY better than any no-enchanted lev+35 blue spear (the green 30 costs 300k, the blue 35 costs 2.5M). Well, maybe. Cause it doesn't really shows. I got back to the same mobs I was grinding with the unenchanted spear expecting overkill, and the result has been disappointing to say the least. The average damage looks absolutely unaltered, and the time to kill mobs seems the same. I'm sure I could run a deeper analysis, with numbers, tries, averages and all but I don't feel like it. For now, suffice to say enchantments suddenly seems like a huge waste of money. Or maybe the enhancement is simply not so significant to be noticed by the human eye. Which is another way to say "disappointing".

On another note, and more unsatisfaction, my debuff seems to do nothing too. Wether I debuff the mobs before hitting them or not doesn't seem to change anything in the pace of the combat. I'm sure there has to be some changes at the numeric level of the game, but it's not noticeable which once again proves to be not so satisfying. Finally, I went back for a quest in a level 20 zone, and bashed a few mobs there for quest purposes. Imagine my face when I realized I was hiting them for the same damage I hit mobs 13 levels higher than that. Yes, they die faster cause they have less HP, but shouldn't their physical defense much lower (and my ATK much higher)? Again, I'm sure the values are not exactly the same, but it really doesn't seem like I'm so much powerful than I was a 20, other for the fact that I have more skills so I can spam more stuff instead of waiting for cooldown.

Any similar or different experience on your part?

[Shatter]

A number of things in Aion dont make much sense and I agree that enchantments are useless.   Take Physical defense, its been found that its basically a useless stat.  It does so little its not worth having and for me as a cleric also means it makes no sense to wear chain over cloth.  Cloth gives me more magic boost, magic resist and a lot more mana vs chain sets and I have found I take about the same damage in cloth as I do in chain anyhow.  In fact I would be better off with leather over chain for the evasion stats compared to phys def.  As for debffs, I found the same thing on my SM.  The atk debuff I have doesnt seem to make any difference to the dmg my pet takes.  You would think my pet would take say half the dmg or 1/4 the dmg when attacking a debuffed mob vs non-debuffed but it doesnt.  I even moved the spell from my hotbar to the sidebar since I stopped using it. 

[Ashamanchill]

Didin't we see this shit with AoC at the start? Where armor meant ziltch in PvP, and your stat attributes had no meaning?

[Lantyssa]

That's great news (if I ever return)!  I can go from plate to chain so that I can make my gear look like the awesome chain set at the beginning of the game.

[Glazius]

Wow, seriously? There's no advantage to upgrading gear aside from the incidental buffs on it?

Or does gear even HAVE incidental buffs?

[Falconeer]

I am sure if you run a real analysis of the numbers, with averages and all after beating 50 of the same mob with and wthout armor, with and without enchantment, with and without debuff, you will find the true numerical advantages. To be fair, you can 'perceive' them when you get a major upgrade of your stuff.
My gripe is that it's barely noticeable to the naked eye, and that sucks. Sometimes you just want to see numbers changing immediately upon you performing an action (upgrading, casting a debuff). When the modification is so subtle you need to run tests to verify it, or start clocking your mobkilling spree with a stopwatch to be sure you gained an edge, the whole upgrading process is not really satisfying.

I'm ok as the visuals are so cool that I care about style more than numbers, but a debuff has to fucking debuff. For real.

[stark]

other for the fact that I have more skills so I can spam more stuff instead of waiting for cooldown.

+Attack only effects your white damage and will do nothing for your damage skills.  Are you threading your attacks or just skill spamming?  Around the 40's it actually becomes faster to kill mobs with white damage than using skills if you are gladiator 

[Falconeer]

Uhm, with +Attack you mean weapon damage too? You saying the skills always do the written (in description) damage regardless the weapon you are using? I could be using a Level 1 spear and my skills would inflict the same damage as if I was wielding my lev 30 +10 one?

I'm going to read that link now, looks juicy.

[gryeyes]

We had this conversation a month ago, its not consistent how weapon damage applies to skills. Its variable on a skill by skill and even class by class basis. All I know is that its not intuitive or consistent. That said enchanting a Tome to +6 increased my MB by a good 5-10%, with a benefit instantly observable. Sorry melee!

[Chimpy]

So I just got back to Sanctum after a quest, and all of the Private store advertising bots had been touch of death'd by a GM. 15 winged corpses all in front of the bank/broker hall was nice to see.

First time I have seen a visible evidence of NCSoft doing anything.

[Falconeer]

New patch rolled on the Korean servers.

In short, better rewards for Fortress sieging, both attacking adn defending. Easier to get medals for the casual contributor too.
Better performances in sieges.
Spiritmasters pets can now fly.
Three new social clothes.

The Sieging part is cool:

1. Because sieges only last 30 minutes now (Divine Fortress still lasts 2 hours), it is much easier to defend a fort than having to defend for an entire 2 hours.
2. Since everyone who successfully defended a fort can earn medals, we can expect a much higher fort defense than before.
3. Legions defending the fort will earn the legion-based medal rewards as well as the personal medal rewards. On top of personal medals, Guild Leaders will get some medals at the end of the siege to give out to their guildees as they see fit.
4. Medal rewards are more widely given out to lesser contributed players, hence not having all the high contribution players earning all the rewards.


The Social clothing part (it can be superimposed-worn over your battle gear), you have to see it. Since traditional clothes from Korea, Singapore, Japan and China (plus the mandatory Sexy Santa stuff, including a reindeer-horned hat) were already in the game, they added American, Russian and European (?!?!?!?!) traditional ones.

[01101010]

Until they put in a black suit and tie with a white collared shirt, I will keep my account inactive. 

And yes, I would make Rude in a heartbeat if/when they put that in the game - Lore be damned.

[gryeyes]

In short, better rewards for Fortress sieging, both attacking adn defending. Easier to get medals for the casual contributor too.
Better performances in sieges.

3) The most recent patch notes for 1.5.1 show that defending legions can now gain medals for successfully holding a fortress but many people feel this will not be enough incentive for fortress defense. Can you clarify if only the controlling legion gains medals for defense, or is it the entire race? How can one legion be expected to defend against an entire race?

    * For the medals, once a fortress has been successfully defended, the Brigade General of the fortress will receive the medals via in game mail, and will be responsible for distributing accordingly. This allows the Brigade General the ability to award those who actively participated in defending the fortress, both inside and out of his/her own legion.

http://www.aionsource.com/forum/news-announcements/86334-aionsource-interviews-lani-liv-blazier-about-upcoming-1-5-1-patch.html

What a wonderful idea!

[Morfiend]

 

[01101010]

3) The most recent patch notes for 1.5.1 show that defending legions can now gain medals for successfully holding a fortress but many people feel this will not be enough incentive for fortress defense. Can you clarify if only the controlling legion gains medals for defense, or is it the entire race? How can one legion be expected to defend against an entire race?

    * For the medals, once a fortress has been successfully defended, the Brigade General of the fortress will receive the medals via in game mail, and will be responsible for distributing accordingly. This allows the Brigade General the ability to award those who actively participated in defending the fortress, both inside and out of his/her own legion.

http://www.aionsource.com/forum/news-announcements/86334-aionsource-interviews-lani-liv-blazier-about-upcoming-1-5-1-patch.html

How do you type that out in the patch notes if you are affiliated in some capacity with the game and not start bleeding from the ears or at least the eyes? Good grief! 

[Sheepherder]

Best design decision, ever.

[Lantyssa]

Awesome.  More medals for my legion!  (HTF do you even track down non-legion members who helped defend?)

[waffel]

I mean do they expect the leader of the legion controling the castle to sit and watch and take down the names of all those who participate and grade each person themself and determine who deserves what and who does'nt, cause that just screams of people screwing others over intentionally.

sounds fun!

[UnSub]

Best design decision, ever.

Most hilarious design decision ever.

Would this kind of thing even work out vaguely fairly, even in Korean gaming culture?

[Nebu]

Would this kind of thing even work out vaguely fairly, even in Korean gaming culture?

It will work great for the friends of the brigade general!   

[Numtini]

Oh, the realm forums are going to be an awful lot of fun to read after battles.

[01101010]

Oh, the realm forums are going to be an awful lot of fun to read after battles.

FIFTY DKP MINUS!! - Sorry, but it keeps ringing in my ears for some reason when I reread that.

[Falconeer]

I would call this "The Drama Patch". I'm frothing in anticipation at all the stuff it'll generate.
Honestly, I love it but I have a thing for imbalancements and crazybold design decisions. And drama, of course.

[Shatter]

You are all morons and dont see the ease of how this works.  You go defend a fortress, 95% of those who show up crash anyways so the Legion leader who has to dish out medals will only have about 3 people left standing there...duhhhh. 

[Triforcer]

That kind of design decision reminds me that East Asian gamers and developers have minds so unlike our own that they might as well be tentacle-covered horrors that drink blood from five-sided triangular moons in a dimension that SHOULD NOT BE. 

[raydeen]

That kind of design decision reminds me that East Asian gamers and developers have minds so unlike our own that they might as well be tentacle-covered horrors that drink blood from five-sided triangular moons in a dimension that SHOULD NOT BE. 

Well, if anime is any indication....

[DLRiley]

The fun part is that Falc is the only one "I'm frothing in anticipation". So should I been mailing a copy of "Game Design For Dummies" at NcSoft Korea or what?

[Falconeer]

Uhm, seems like november 24th NC Korea is going to announce the first big patch-expansion, called -for now- 3.0.

[Shatter]

Uhm, seems like november 24th NC Korea is going to announce the first big patch-expansion, called -for now- 3.0.

please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase please dont be a level increase

[Ard]

Oh, it'll be a level increase, and there'll be a UI change to add another xp bar under your xp bar, making each bubble 1/100th of a level instead of 1/10th. 

[Draegan]

People hit level 50 too fast so they're doing something about it.

[Falconeer]

Random Aion fact #1: based on official server data updated daily, 57 days from launch only 0.8%  (zero point eight) of the global population across ALL NA/EU servers is level 46-50.

Random Aion fact #2: there are 18 EU servers and only 14 NA servers.

[Shatter]

Random Aion fact #1: based on official server data updated daily, 57 days from launch only 0.8%  (zero point eight) of the global population across ALL NA/EU servers is level 46-50.

Random Aion fact #2: there are 18 EU servers and only 14 NA servers.

0.8% - 0.7% of botters = 0.1% actual players

[Falconeer]

Level 50 botters are now actual players. Just, players who botted their way up to the cap and will now brag about how hardcore they are.

Found this in 3 split seconds, what a polite tutorial.