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Aion: Assault on Balaurea Dated
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The first free expansion for Aion is set for deployment on September 7, 2010. Called Assault on Balaurea, the expansion will be available digitally and in stores in North America on September 7th. The expansion will be digitally available in Europe on September 7th and in stores on September 10th. Retail versions will feature an in game pet as well.
In Aion: Assault on Balaurea, the exciting new chapter of Aion, characters have the ability to align together to launch massive counter assaults against the invading Balaur on their homeland while experiencing new and updated instances and zones, an increased level cap, new weapons and items, new skills and added flight mechanics. Characters will not be alone as they explore the new areas, as Aion introduces functional pets equipped with in-game benefits.
Find out more about the expansion's specifics at the Aion site.
Comments
ooooh ... ull have to buy the second part oooouch... fail
oooh i was wrong it's free
Not likely was hoping their last few updates would bring the game more in line but it really does lack in several areas when it comes to overall content. There just isn't much imagination in the game and there is a serious lack of content.
Well, my first thought is that this is an actual expansion. What has gone before was more of an effort to fine tune things, throw in a bit here and there.
This is not to say that this will be a robust and giant expansion pack. As information comes out we will see.
As far as the comment of another poster mentioning "Aion's flaws", that really depends on what one is saying is a flaw.
If the game play of Aion is not to a person's liking that might not indicate and actual flaw but that the game is not to their liking.
One thing I did see a lot of when the game was in beta/initially released, were a lot of wow players complaining that the game wasn't WoW 2.0.
Yet some game friends of mine and I felt that Aion got many things right over WoW due to our taste in games.
Where I think Aion went wrong was that it was not marketed correctly. Saying that players could concentrate on what they wanted, whether pve or pvp was somewhat misleading. It really meant that players could concentrate on one or the other if they desired but they would always have to deal with "the other choice" whether they liked it or not.
Another issue in my opinion is the story arc in general and the starter area.
The starter area needed a few more group things, even I could see that. There is one encounter in each part that could require a group but it could be soloed. Slowly but surely no one did groups for it after a short while. You then get to lvl 9/10, got to the city, become a daeva and it seems a bit anticlictic in regards to the whole wings thing.
In beta and on release people were just getting their wings and didnt' have any idea how to unfurl them, when they could use them, etc. Until they were sent to an outpost and eventually you run into another npc quest that forces one to learn how to use the wings by saying "just fly up there".
There is some forced grouping. Not sure if this is a flaw but it doesn't sit well for some. My thought for this type of content is that group quests and activities should always be available, always offer decent rewards and not punish people with bad xp. However, When major story installments or certain rewards require just grouping in a game that can mostly be soloed, it seems clunky. If it's supposed to be a grouping game make it a grouping game. If a good part of the game is soloable then the grouping parts just stick out like a nail in a board.
Lineage 2, for the most part, had gotten the whole solo grouping thing right and it's a shame they didn't incorporate some of that.
And of course, making fortresses flippable sort of negates their specialness. Oh sure, battleground objectives can be fought over but attaining a fortress should allow the holder more than a small amount of time to hold it. Again, Lineage 2 did a decent job with this. Otherwise people are pvp'ing over flippable objectives and after a while it starts becoming like Sisyphus. Like rolling a boulder uphill and having it roll down and then rolling the boulder up hill again...
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
You know its funny.. NCWest has been going in the right direction lately and there is still alot of qq everywhere. Since merge (Its only been 2 days) and they announced two "mini-events" that actually are pretty nice compared to their previous ones. They released FREE server transfers for an entire month. They put out a release date for the long awaited expansion that is content filled with instances for all levels and a new "world" Balaurea to explore/fight/capture forts/and whatever else you can do there.. So content is not going to be a issue after that. Give them some credit for bringing life to this game. Subs haven't declined in months on the contrary they've increased. When Final Fantasy releases ofcourse there will be the FF followers quitting Aion to go that path. Some will play Final Fantasy for a couple months and realize thats not what they expected and quit that game and return to Aion as well.
What I hate is players that played the first few months of the game and still qq about it like they know the game inside and out. 99% of problems posted about Aion today have been improved in some aspect or fixed entirely and with 2.0 thats only going to fix all the issues even greater. This is my incite but atleast its a nonexaggerated input like most "forumer's" that I have seen lately.
yea they never fixed the grinding issue and the ungodly amount of time it takes to reach max and enjoy what little endgame there is. The first 30 levels were awesome and they it just went downhill from there
You're trying to tell me that as of September 7th when they release 6 new instances that it will not help with the grinding problem? Then you sir are spolied by WoW. A game that has been released for what 6 YEARS now. You think when Final Fantasy/Guild Wars2/TERA or any other upcoming game releases that its going to be packed with years of things to do without any grind then you have obviously never played a MMO. All MMO's at first lack things.. Idc who the developer is.
For example: I cannot WAIT for Diablo III's release. That to me is what I am waiting for.. But I have to be honest with myself. When the game releases there will be bugs/glitches, not enough content after a few months, lag, etc etc.. There will be qq from people saying it took 12+ years to make a game that has flaws.. Blah blah. Players need to chill and realize what caters to one person won't cater to another. My best friend absolutely loves seafood.. I cannot stand the taste of any of it. So should I go around and say seafood tastes like shit and no one likes it. Its fail! Dont buy it. You'll die. I don't think so.
too bad they bann their paying customers at the drop of a hat and most of the time for no just cause.
Dont forget Diablo 3 is just a single player game with multiplayer on the side. Its not an MMO so you cant really complain about content.
Dont forget Diablo 3 is just a single player game with multiplayer on the side. Its not an MMO so you cant really complain about content.
worse than that Dungeon Siege 3 looks like the better game for the 2011.I know how Diablo is and I also know that most of the population is all about online and the ladder system. There will be specific content for online only so to me it falls in the bracket. Whether its open world or not.. Its still a mmo. Millions will play and you can play with those millions (just not all at once).
Will there be MORE quests or will we have to grind to the new cap lvl?
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
XP Needed to Level:
50 – 51: 146,070,028
51 – 52: 177,464,778
52 – 53: 204,255,001
53 – 54: 236,485,764
54 – 55: 271,392,354
Have fun with the Korean grind.
1,035,667,925 XP to get five levels. At an average of 3M XP/quest that will take 346 quests. Numbers are fun!
Like I said, enjoy the Korean grind.
Too bad they haven't fixed aerial melee combat and it doesn't appear they ever will. Not to mention the related issue of character animations and skills. For those that don't know your character actually stops and you lose control of them while they perform an animation to do a skill That's the most important fix they need and why a large portion of people left. Not to mention that the repetitiveness of the game is ridiculous. I must've run the same instance 50-100x btw lvls 46-50. I have a 50 cleric in full fenris, and just thinking about gaining five more levels makes me want to fall asleep. Although I guess my toon is lvl 51 already as you still gain xp @ 50. Anyone know if you're going to be able to keep that xp? I assume so, but still not bringing me back I guess.
Steam: Neph
All I can say is that I'm glad I quit this game early. They completely lied to the customer base by saying that it wasn't as grindy as the typical Korean MMO.
Grindon, oh, I mean Aion (get it? cause you grind) is a horrific game which tries only to punish its subs. It's funny that NCSoft's Guild Wars 2 looks to do the exact opposite. How funny that is.
The grind arguement is so bloody old. If you're going to attack the game, at least attack it on something that has merit. There's plenty of things other than grind you can dish the game for.
Me, I'll be playing it and enjoying it.
Okay, so we'll make it 230 quests then to account for you very generous assumption that all quests are kill quests, and that all kill quests will give approximately 1.5 million XP (these are the numbers YOU gave to me.) Dailies give atrocious XP so I'll discount that, as well as crafting and gathering -- inconsequential when you need one billion experience.
I'm using the numbers you've given me and made a rough estimate. I'm not sure why you're being such a petulant child about it.
There is grind in Aion. Does that hurt your feelings or something? I was just making an observation.
I included the 1.5M from kill quests into the quest reward for 4.5M XP.
1,035,667,925/4.5M=230 quests. I know, math is hard. Of course it's not a conclusive number, but it's not arbitrary either. You gave me the numbers I just did the math. It's ballpark at best, but it gives an indication of how many quests you need to do if your numbers are accurate. Where did you pull your arbitrary numbers from by the way?
You will be grinding repeatable quests in 2.0. There's really no debating that.
Some fanboy seems to be overly defensive (imagine that.)
Not playing Aion anymore, but even I can see that you're QQing and trolling around.
Some people can't handle it when they can't speedlevel to the level cap. Others can, if they're having fun then it's no grind.
For those people that think that leveling is a bore and want to reach level cap within 2-3 weeks, there are other MMO's to choose from.
... really, some gamers have gotten so lazy: I can recall reaching level cap in EQ took ages, but we had fun every level we played even if there were far less quests available than in MMO's these days.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I too have stopped playing Aion, but I agree that Zookz's numbers are trolly and not really additive to the case against Aion, if you want to make one. The "grind" in MMOs can come from many places...lack of quests, low xp gain, money/equipment requirements, etc.
You can almost always find something to complain about in any MMO concerning the grind if you want to in my opinion. If you cannot, then the criticism is that the game is too simple and I reached the cap too quick.
If you want to complain, you can. You can complain about every game out there. Even the current king of MMOs, which I have never found very interesting or good, but that is my opinion and I feel no reason to sway others to my view.
I also agree that this race to end game level cap is silly, but I do not only blame the players for that. Many MMOs have had crummy gameplay through most of the game only to promise good end game play either PvP or raid. I am getting picky, but my favorite MMOs and games have been fun throughout. It just makes no sense to me to waste my valuable time playing something that is more work than fun for a significant period of time. Warhammer Online is a good example of getting this wrong, in a new way, yet again. Tier 1 was pretty fun and engaging, especially with the original starter areas, but T2 and T3 had significant fun factor fall off, but that was not suppossed to matter since "everything" changed at tier 4. Bad plan.
Games should be fun throughout. I do not think that is too ridiculous of a demand given the money we lay out for these games over their lifetimes.
Great news, finally THE release date is.. um.. released!
To the dudes calculating how much exp it takes to level and using them to "prove" that Aion is a Korean grinder: Not only is the argument ludicrous, but it also goes to show how obsessed some people are about getting to max level. I never understood the urge, do they think it's because they feel like they have "cleared" the MMO? or 'cause it all magically "starts" at level 50?
I remember a few months ago when some friends used to ask me about Aion: first question was always "what level are you?". Really weird.
Would multiplying the current 50levels by 100 make it better for them? They would level much faster this way!
Whatever happened to the days when it was all about playing in a virtual world, exploring, interacting and making new friends, being part of a community, diversifying our game play, making our own fun? Kinda sad that the majority nowadays don't care for anything like that, they just want instant gratification, which is the one thing that MMOs were never about.
ok this is all great news but my concern is still regarding the grind FROM 35-50 stage, i really wanna come back to the game but it was not enjoyable experiance when you have to ust kill things over and over without any story arc/quest so i ended up leaving the game at level 38.
so my question is to any of our veterans out there, will they remove the grind and replace it with quests in that area where i left of??do not get me wrong but i have no problem with the time it takes to get to max level, but my problem was the fact of the grind based leveling and not quest based.
helpful answers are always appreciated
A True Master who Knows his own limit...
I didnt mind the grind so much really, but you did have to have a good team and some classes found it really hard to get a good team since no-one wanted them in the party.
People also seem to be ever so selfish, they wont stop to help even guild mates if it means their XP p/hour rate dipped a little.
Loved the game, but the players spoil it