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Bah, Here Goes: Age Of Conan Vs Aion?
After thinking for around 2 months about which MMO to play (not constantly for 2 months mind you), I've decided to go with either Age of Conan or Aion. I own both games, and have played both games for roughly the same amount of time (around 10 days each). I played both when they first came out and stopped playing around the 10 day mark, as I was so addicted to WoW back then, that I couldn't stay away from it (I know, pathetic).
Thankfully I managed to sell my WoW account to a friend so I'm now free of it. Anyway, I enjoyed both Aion and Age of Conan a hell of a lot when I played them, infact I enjoyed them pretty much exactly the same, therefore I'm stuck between choosing which to sub to now. I have both games lying in my DVD rack gathering dust, but I can't seem to decide which to play.
I've heard a lot of people say that Aion is no longer the crapfest it was back when it first came out, and that it's had some MAJOR improvements, with some still to come (patch 1.9). On the other hand, I've also heard people saying roughly the same thing about Age of Conan. So here I am with two decent games (IMO anyway), yet I can't decide which to play.
To be honest, the only thing that MAY be swaying me is the fact that IGN and Gamespot both score Aion lower than Age of Conan, but I try not to let ratings convince me "too much".
Therefore, if you guys don't mind, and aren't going to resort to flaming me with "it should be up to you, we can't decide for you" type of comments, I'd very much appreciate it if you could help me decide which to re-sub to.
Thank you very much in advance, I'd appreciate it ^_^
Comments
IMO depends if you prefer large scale pvp (zerg commonly called) were flying is another factor in tactics sometimes or not so large scale pvp were among the pvp you have added the fatalities when killing someone.
The rest is a matter of preferences on your opinion of the pve.
If you like things like PVE raiding then AoC for sure, currently in Aion there really isn't much to do, you can use thier pvp systems for a couple months and have a great time, since the classes are all pretty fun, everything is clean and nice but you have to be pretty satisfied with repeating the same PVP situations to stick to it. When they add the ground abyss and whatever new content they do with 2.0 I will prolly resub for a bit, but it will likely be the same but with 2-3 more pvp options.
just my op
Well the largest scale PvP I've ever been involved in would probably have to be Wintergrasp in World of Warcraft, which I enjoyed a lot. I'm not sure what large scale PvP is like in Aion though.
EDIT: OK whilst I love PvP, I'm pretty much more into the PvE aspect of MMOs. I'm guessing AoC has a better PvE experience than Aion? Also, speaking of PvE, which game is better in terms of endgame?
Both have free trials. Go play them.
.
You want me to tell you? Okay. Age of Conan.
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Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Link me to the free trial to Aion and I'll be happy to try it out, although you'll have a hard time doing so I bet.
Aion is such an easy game to get bored with. People talk about how good pvp is and how uber they are but aion pvp is for kids.
Its no different then WoW other then having chains.
Becoming a "twink" envolves you wasting so much of your life probably about 3-4 months to get a set of pvp armor and inorder to twink it on, get ready for this..... all u gotta do is equip it. Really though.
Coming from a game like Anarchy Online where you actually 'twink" , having to actually do hours of math, swapping implants over and over, changing perks to get on the best armor is no easy task. Getting really sick of the word twink in games that require no twinking.
But back on topic. Its an ok game but just ok. PvP is a shortage depending on what server you go to. Server merges are coming soon.
Everyone thinks the game is gonna get better with 1.9 and 2.0 but there sadly mistaken. The game doesn't have anywhere as good a pvp balance as guild wars. Can't argue GW has the most balanced pvp in any mmo do to the fact that there is a million builds to counter each other.
Aion doesn't promote teaming do to the less xp per team memeber, though thats how most games are. Not sure why teaming up should = harder mobs and more xp. It is a MMO and all.
Aion gathering is like putting a low voltage charge to your balls as you do it, really its right up there with the fun factor.
NCFail tends to keep randomly banning people for no reason. They do apologize and give your acct. back but after you lost a few weeks of game play.
Aion graphics are pretty sweet but no where near customization of players as AoC.
Aion is a game where you are gonna get ganked over and over while leveling so get use to it. If you can't handle it, this is def not the game for you.
AoC has boobs :]
If you roll a character in Aion might as well go elyos since they get better skills and are NCsoon's love children.
Don't get me wrong Aion is an ok game so is AoC but not good enough PvP for me imo.
You could always do what so many of us are doing, go play some golf or watch some tv. Gotta catch up on those episodes of the office, until a decent MMO comes out.
GW2, Star Wars or Earthrise please save us.
I couldn't stand the controls in AOC when I've tried it. I enjoyed the visuals and everything else I experienced that the game offered me, but the combat system wasn't something that I enjoyed. My brother on the other hand loves it.
Given that, I went with Aion because I was more comfortable with controlling my character. My Aion account is also currently unsubscribed until more endgame content is introduced.
The thing is I guess, is that I've been waiting for GW2 for over 2 years now, but I'm just looking for something to fill the void until it actually comes out. I'm getting burnt out playing singleplayer games, I'm starting to miss the group fun & communication that MMOs have to offer, among other things.
I'm sort of swaying towards Age of Conan now I guess, although Aion isn't completely ruled out yet. I just don't understand why GW2 has been in the works for around 2-3 years yet the official response to it's release date is STILL "It'll be released when it's ready". No sh*t. Although I understand they're taking their time in order to release it as polished as possible, but it'd still be nice to hear from them when they at least estimate it to be released.
I hear ya can't wait for GW2. Def best pvp game ever made was GW1. I am sure they will have it out by november.
Another game to try out is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfgYaUY-mM0 apb its free to play at least. Not your traditional mmo but something different. Not a fan of the GTA kinda games but it looks kinda cool to be able to go to there anarchy server and just drive around and shoot cops aka RL players over and over.
I played Aion before it was out when I got into Chinese Aion. So all in all, I played Aion for 7 months. I instantly fell in love with it, thought the combo system was really cool, the graphics were amazing. It was an outstanding, polished game. Then, I got to lvl 49 (1 from Cap) and stopped playing alltogether. Havn't been back in the last 5 months, Why you ask?
Aion has no soul. It seems to be a lot of disjointed ideas put together by superglue. There's no depth to the story or the world. In fact, the story and world just seem like excuses for the glittery graphics and the combat. Slowly but surely, I even got tired of the combat. The whirrling acrobatic moves became more of cliched overkill. I was no longer having fun.
I love PVE, but the instances were poorly designed, with a lot of repetitive content. The bosses were tank and spank, with no thought, or skill involved. You just need to have the gear to survive the damage. The PvP was fun, until you realized that the "large scale" battles in the abyss caused people to crash, consistently. You had to use "shift F+12" so that other NPC's were not viewable in order to prevent the crash. Dredgion, a "battleground" if you will was nothing more than one group training all the mobs on the other group.
It just seems Aion had some ideas but they were poorly implemented. Aion, seemed like a really really hot woman with absolutely no brain or personality. It was a shallow experience and it took me a few months to realize it. Hence, why even after being only a single level away from cap, I stopped playing and never looked back.
AoC was the complete opposite experience for me. Initially I hated it. My computer couldn't run it on nice settings back in '08. So it didn't look great at all. Also, I hated the UI. In WoW I was used to big numbers flashing on my screen, not millions of little numbers. So I quit after a week or two. Fast forward to years later, with a great PC running on max settings. I can say AoC's graphics are the best on the market. BETTER than Aion. I also got a G13 gaming pad which made the combat in AoC soooo much more fun. Positioning in AoC matters, active blocking matters, forward/sideways/backword leap matters. In AoC you will die, and you will die often. It is challenging. The combat is VERY VERY satisfying and visceral. The fatalities make my day.
I've been playing for the last month. I already have a 63 Guardian and a 50 HoX. You get a free lvl 50 character of your choice once you have one character at 50. The more I play, the more I realize the combat in AoC has depth and strategy. In Aion, it just felt like a zerg fest, especally in pvp. The PvE in AoC is also very well done. The bosses are not tank and spank, and do require strategy or a gimmick. In AoC you feel part of the world, rather than controlling an avatar in the world.
Again, all this is my subjective opinion. But, AoC has way more potential. The game was left for dead and it came back from the depths of the MMO abyss/obscurity. AoC is truely a labor of love for the developers. I would much rather support a company that puts their heart into a game, rather than a game designed purely to maximize profits.
My 2.5 cents (post longer than I anticipated).
I'd definitely suggest AoC over Aion. You'd have a good time playing both probably, especially if you enjoyed WoW. Aion doesn't really offer too much unique besides a limited flying system. AoC brings a few unique things to the table.
AoC is a great game to try once. I haven't played the expansion, but you can breeze through to cap pretty quickly (as a hardcore gamer, it takes me about a week to hit max level on most characters on AoC, which is far shorter than even WoW's which is a relatively short leveling curve). You'll experience loads of group content along the way if you take the time too, but it may be difficult to find a group at lower level since most are max.
The combat system is unique, but if you don't like the controls you can always switch to a magic user, which plays pretty much the same as in other MMOs. The mature rating while advertised poorly (CLEAVAGE! SEXY MMO! /sigh) is used well, and people don't really run around naked if that's a fear of yours. There are still some technical issues with the game along with broken quests (at least when I tried it again a couple of months ago) and not counting the expansion content which I have no idea, you'll burn through all but the content (again, a hardcore gamer can do so within a week on hitting max level) except for Tier 3 raids. PvP is there, but it's battlegrounds and the occassional sieges (which finally seem to be working well) which while fun, are a pain in the ass to setup and do especially if you plan on making your own guild (requires months of farming, enough players, and attacking at specific times). If you are casual enough, the game could easily keep you occupied till Guild Wars 2 comes out, and even if you only plan on paying it for a month, it's going to be well worth that month of time.
Both Aion and AoC have improved, but I believe AoC improved more so. That is taking into account AoC was a complete mess at launch with loads of broken crap and completely unbalanced classes (marred by technical issues too, but I didn't really suffer from them so I can't comment), but when I tried it again a lot of it has been fixed, with level gaps cleared up, classes feeling a lot more balanced, sieges working, and lots of new content including many new dungeons and a PvP system.
OK great, I guess AoC it is then. Many thanks for helping me make up my mind guys, it's much appreciated. Can I just ask though, you said if I play a caster type class in AoC that it will be like other MMOs right? Do you mean it will take away the "left attack, right attack, overhead attack" features which you experience as a melee class? If so, that's even better, as I don't particularly like those controls (the ones with the arrows on the skillbar). I'm sure I'd get used to them, but if I don't HAVE to use them (which I gathered seems to be the case with caster classes right?) that's great.
flying girl boys vs blood and tits...........unless your a pedophile you shouldn't need us to tell you which one to play.
Playing: PO, EVE
Waiting for: WoD
Favourite MMOs: VG, EVE, FE and DDO
Any person who expresses rage and loathing for an MMO is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
Casters do not use directional attacks, no. Straight button mashers.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I'll give you my general opinion of both games.
As for my experience I played AoC at release for about 2 months and ended up leaving after many people I knew left the game. i had a lot of issues with bugs like many, though I never reached end game so I cant comment on that. I went back about a year later to check it out and did see a few changes but not enough to stay and the population seemed low. I have to say that I just came back to AoC as of 3wks ago. After reading a lot of positive posts from different forums and seeing what Funcom had changed and with the new expansion I felt it was a good time to give it a go again.
As for Aion, I played in beta though it was limited. I had a lot going in my life and couldnt give it the test that I usually do with a beta. I didnt feel I had to log on and that gave me a bad feeling ( i mean there was no anticipation of, wow cant wait to log on tomorrow ). Aion released and after it had been out about 3wks I decided to give it a shot really thinking that I wasnt able to give it a fair shake since I had limited time with it in beta.
Aion: I really like the character creation, armors and weapons ( its the same thing that drew me to Lineage 2 ) and the World enviroment in some area's is really great looking. First off my higest toon is 42 Assassin and 37 Templar. So no, I did not participate a lot in the Sieges. But I did get a good feel for the PvP. PvP for me was a blast, sure I had my ass handed to me a lot but thats the only way you get better. it made running from one area to another not so boring because you had to be on the look out for either an Asmo Gank Squad or an opportunity to score some PvP pts. There were a couple of area's were leveling was at a standstill and you had to grind out on mobs or you could grind out on Abyss Quests ( Repeatables ) for Pts. I will say that PvP in the Abyss can suck as a melee, its alot about your level/gear against a casters level/gear and a pita since you cant melee while moving/flying. If you cant close that gap your toast or you better make your retreat for another day.
The game is a grind as far as leveling is concerned. You can not argue that. If you compare the % of the population that is lv 50 against those that are not its a huge gap. If you dont mind it, great. I know some changes are/were made with patch 1.9 and we should see more in 2.0. I canceled my account a month ago and will wait for 2.0 to come out and see what happens. Suppose to be adding more instances and quests in the game to help with the gap during certain levels. I still think that unless they lower the exp needed per Level that really wont matter or they really improve on the quest experience rewarded for quests. Crafting is a Huge Time and Money sink, IMO. My experience is with Armor Crafting. It has made a recipe that is needed to advance from 399 to 400+ almost non-exsistant. I have done over 400 Work Orders hoping to receive this recipe as a reward and I have never seen the recipe for sale. If it was it would be many Million Kinah. So thats 400 x 16k Kinah ( thats the mats for each set of work orders ) I have spent over 6million Kinah. Yea lots of fun.
Besides the Grind, the drops in Instance Dungeons from Boss Mobs is so horrible. You spend 35min to 1hr ( depending on group) and kill the boss and get little to nothing. Usually a crappy Grn Hat or those crappy stones and some Kinah. This is also suppose to be fixed. Not sure if its 1.9 or 2.0.
AoC: Character creating is also very good. I have to say the World Enviroment wins over Aion. I just love the look of the different enviroments. With the addition of the latest expansion it has helped with leveling/instances/quests for many of those level gaps. I am currently running my lv 30+ Bear Shaman through these new area's and its rather enjoyable. My highest toon is a 70 Barb so I have not been part of any Sieges. I have taken part in the creation of a Clan/Guild Town/Keep. I have to say it is a very cool feature. I havent tried Crafting since returning but did it at release. Major changes to Crafting I had read so many bugs were fixed. I do like the fact that I had made weapons that my toon still uses. Crafting doesnt seem like a huge time sink, sure you have to gather like any other MMO. When compared to my Aion experience of Crafting in AoC seemed a little better.
My experience with leveling solo and in groups is a real difference from my experience in WoW and Aion. Solo in AoC is like any other MMO, not always a lot of fun. What I do enjoy is that it isnt always a walk in the park. I find my self either needing to retreat or just plain dieing. Really taking the time to figure out a game plan sometimes instead of just running in there like i could in WoW and leveling multiple mobs. With the Combat of AoC if you dont make the best decisions your going to find yourself in trouble. Watch where your mobs are shielded, make sure you position yourself so you can hit multiple mobs with your melee.
I havent put in the same time with AoC that I have with Aion. I still read that there are issues with the Sieges and PvP in AoC. I dont know how true because I havent done them. There is a decent population in both games. AoC is seeing a lot of people returning and some new people. Aion from the server i was on seems to be fine. Always see people on and instances dont seem to be a problem to find groups. Leveling in AoC is a lot easier and is less time consuming. AoC also gives you a free level every 6 days to use on characters over lv 30. You also get a one time lv 50 toon you pick the class. Saves on leveling one toon to 50 at least. Combat in AoC is much better than in Aion, IMO.
Both games are good games. The bugs at release of AoC was a huge turn off for many, but many things have been changed and added to AoC. Aion is a great game as well. Just a very time consuming game as far as leveling. The rewared for finishing dungeons is horrible and needs to be fixed. I hope to see the future patches fix that and I will be returning to check them out.
Sorta longer than I wanted but hopes it helps a little.
That helps a hell of a lot. It has convinced me more to sub to AoC as opposed to Aion, which many people have suggested already.
Thank you very much indeed
Vanguard is where I went back to. No complaints yet. The updates are a breath of fresh air.
"My Fantasy is having two men at once...
One Cooking and One Cleaning!"
---------------------------
"A good man can make you feel sexy,
strong and able to take on the whole world...
oh sorry...that's wine...wine does that..."
Age of Conan quite literally cannot be as bad as Aion, on whatever level you compare the two.
I currently play Aion (occasionally) only because my son seems to enjoy the game.
If i were to start fresh today, I'd pick AOC so you've made the right choice IMO.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
AoC melee is just a button-masher, you hit 1, 2, 3 over and over and over again as fast as you can to keep swinging. I hated that, it is one of, but certainly not the only reason, I didn't pursue the game.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
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Why type when I can quote exactly how I feel. ^_^b
Go for Aoc. Or you could try the free trial of both.
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This isn't true. That may be the case when you're lvl 1, but if you do that in PvP you'll die. If you do that in PvE you will be the last in DPS, a poor healer, or a horrible tank.
The combat has a lot of depth to it. It's "easy" to pickup but hard to master. If you think AoC is button mashing, that's your shortcomming, not the games. I've played WoW, Aion, LotRO, Allods, FFXI, Warhammer, and a few others. The combat in AoC is very challenging compared to other games. Positioning matters, it requires constant movement to be effective, it requires defense in the form of active blocking or directional defenses. You can jump forward, sideway, or back to get short buffs depending on the situation. It requires you to CC, run and save your life, or run to regen health before you can go back in.
Case in point, as a 64 Guardian knowing what to do and what not to do means dying repeatedly or being able to take on 4-5 mobs (same level) at once.
No trial for Aion
I recently subed to both and for me their is no competition in the slightless. Its AoC all the way. So much so I wish I could have got my money back from Aion which after one day started to annoy me.
Now this is personal taste, as is much in life. But dispite Aion saying it has great graphics they seem so cartoonish where you are fighting bouncing mushrooms or strange cat people. The swords and armour are all massively over sized and thats when it hit me (should have done much earlier) that its made for the Asian market. Even the way my character runs seems strange to me.
On the other side of things AoC with its realistic graphics appeals to my western tastes. Characters look how they should, I'm not so happy with my warrior in a skirt for most his life but this is one minor problems. The combat feels better and more brutal where I'm cutting up people not stange stunted cat people. While the UI offers for multiple kills at once not just the one I'm tagetting. So for game play alone I have to go with AoC the game just got things right from my point of view.
But obviously this isn't everything, though while playing Aion as soon as I got into global it was spammed with people looking to run this or that. There seemed to be no community as such only people looking to run raids. Likewise to say their was too much grinding would be unfair, as some people like grinding. But to me it felt each level added abother 30k xp requirement and sent me back outside the city walls to kill the wildlife, which pretty much ment spaming by defensive move, 2 chain skills and then a couple of stand alones, back to defensive and repeat. AoC seemed to have more story and more quests and while not deep and meaningful as you might hope I noticed the grind a lot less till about 50th level.
Now I haven't PvPed in either, but from what I hear Aion with the flight option has a tendency to support ranged fighters. AoC from what I hear is a little more balanced with some classes better than other. So I would strongly recommend AoC but thats only if you have the same tastes as me, flight, cartoonish graphics and single tagert combat might be what you are looking for. Cause disptie suggesting AoC I think ultimately its a more difficult game and that can be a turn off if you only have a couple of hours after work and spend it getting beaten on my masses of NPCs.