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Aion Pros & Cons
Pro:
- Quest have link to place X on map showing you general area for quest or npc.
- You get a small amount of exp from gathering materials for crafting.
- There are skills that chain together in combo & even better step 1 of the combo on your hot bar rolls over to step 2 giving you 2 in 1 button on your skill bar for combos.
- Manastones: Like a gem/socket in other games, but you can use them as early as level one and they drop off common mobs. Neat to be able to customize gear right out of the gate.
- It's been said before, but wow what an awesome character creation . . . options are limitless.
- Gathering gets quciker with skill up. As you level your gathering the lower level items are almost instantly gathered instead of it being the same set timer every time you gather a node.
- Cut scenes from quest. Beta doesn't have the english voice over yet, but I enjoyed the cut scenese and love the idea of a short clip instead more text.
- The titles you get from quest actually prove useful. Different titles provide you with a passive stat bonus.
- Large cities have a teleport stone to cut down on travel time from one side of the city to the other side.
- You're not forced into wearing an ugly power ranger suite because it's has the best stats available. You can take the look of armor you like and blend it with the stats you like by combining the two at a choosen NPC.
Cons:
- This is an opinion, but I've never been a huge fan of the trade store idea . . going back to FFXI. Note there is still an auction house system so this isn't a deal breaker.
- Only two factions to choose from. After playing MMO's for years and having many different choices this feels a little limiting.
- The gathering animations all look the same reguardless the type of material you're gathering.
- 1st major city you teleport doesn't draw you in with immersion. It's a huge empty city with very little going on. This was a major let down because you're talking about good/bad demigods with huge floating cities . . that don't feel like they servce a purpose.
- You can gather for lvl one, but there's no npc or explination as to why or what you're gathering for. It's not until level 9/10 do you get to city that you can use the items you've been gathering for ten levels.
-- This is only a small list of things that stood out to me when playing 1-10 for the first time --
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
Comments
I agree, with everything stated. I believe many of the cons you listed can easily be fixed during beta. I'm sure many of them have been corrected already in the asian release, and if not I'm sure they are aware at least (especially the gathering animation bug you mentioned).
There is another bug I wish they will fix as well... I play in 1920x1200 and it seems that some of the windows or tooltips are cutting off the text (i.e. tooltip of a mob or another player). Even the Character Profile window will do that sometimes, and my character in that window looks like he was drawn with Microsoft Paint, very 'pixelated'. It's strange.
The fact that you don't feel like you have a purpose in the game is because there is actually a cut scene that plays after you create your character.
It's understandable that you don't know what's going on, I would be too if it wasn't for the fact that I already knew what happens =P
To the OP, Kudos for an excellent overview of the first few levels, that's the best and most honest "state of the game for the little guy" that I've seen.
Nice job!!
I actually like the personal store idea. I liked it in FFXI as well. Problem is in Aion, they boot you if you go afk too long so I can't set up an alt as an item shop when I'm afk
PROS:
Game performs extremely well even with low end graphic systems.
Game client and server runs very well even with massive number of people in the same area all fighting. Most games won't even run with 100-200 people in one area never-the-less actually having them all fighting and doing stuff.
Easy to use User Interface, looks nice and very functional. yes a few things will need to be tweeked still but I'm sure a few patches will fix the remaining items.
Fairly decent graphics and audio. yes not all graphics is 100% best on the market but does a very good job overall especially since the game requires very little system resources.
Game has tons of character customization, both looks (Toon creation and armor/weapon looks) and functionality (Manastones, godstones, titles, stigmas and enchants). Pretty much you can make your character look and function completely different from everyone elses.
The game is being translated into multiple languages world wide.
Tech support for NCSoft seems to be very good. In game and on the phone.
Lots of good suggestions and game enhancements on the beta forums from people actually playing the game. NCSoft seems to be listening and the community seems very interested in helping out. Although there are a few dumb posts on the beta forums, almost all of the posts have been very good constructive feedback.
CONS:
Game does not have a lot of content yet as it's still early on. Very few instances (3 now with 4 more planned next patch) so far and only one starting area for each faction. Yes time will most likely fix this but for people who play a lot they may run out of things to do while waiting on the new stuff to come out.
There are some items in game people are not happy about. Some missing functionality like being able to look around while you move. That most damage to the mob gets the credit for the kill issue has quite a few people stirred up. There are lots of polls and posts about these and other issues on the beta forums. I suspect NCSoft will break down and change a few of these things but we really don't know at this point how it will pan out as this is still beta.
UNKNOWNS:
Only the text for Asmodian levels 1-10 have been finished so we don't know how the translations for everything else will be. Only the rough translation have been done so far. If the translations are as nice as they did for those Asmodian 1-10 levels then we should be good to go.
None of the translations for the rest of the UI and system messaegs have been finished yet. How will they turn out?
None of the audio and speech translations have been finished yet. How will they turn out?
None of the ingame movies are finished. How will they turn out?
Only some of the cut scenes are done and none translated yet. How will they turn out?
We've also not seen any of the stuff added with patches 1.1 and 1.2 yet (1.3 is in the works as well). Patch notes are great and all but can't really grade them until we see them.
It's difficult to get drawn into the game completely at this point with so much of everything disabled or not finished.
Even though the game seems very polished so far, there is still a lot of work for NCSoft to do. And only as few months left for them to do it in. Will they be able to finish all this in time and still make the release date?
On a good note NCSoft seems to be very dedicated to finishing the game and producing patches. They are making money hands over fists so they have the backing they need to keep it up.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
I like this OP when it comes to opinions. Straight to the point, no jokes, no corny puns, if anybody is gathering the pros and cons for this game, this should be one. I just want to comment on 2 cons. There are two diffrent gathering animations. One for when you are a human and one for when you are a Deava. Human your pretty much doing it by hand and Deava uses no hands (almost like absorbing the material).
With factions, I think that con will go away once you further experience the game past level 20. First major city will be the main place for a lot of things going on and people will always be there. I think for beta nobody had no reason to stay or hang. In retail people will be there for getting skills, quest, crafting, dueling, buying, selling, trade, meetings, and fooling around. It will be a big special place when retail comes around (if your talking about Sanctum & opposite faction city).
Gathering, yeah I know how you feel a little, but I think you find out in the next area that you can still gather the same items and you learn more then, but I understand you.
Great topic OP.
-In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08-
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RISING DRAGOON ~AION US ONLINE LEGION for Elyos
yeah, the time out/server disconnection is a serious flaw in design and intention if the personal store is actually supposed to be useful. doesn't seem like they could create a rule that characters with a personal store open are exempt from the time out?
One thing to the OP, there's a quest, very early on the game that makes you gather angelica, if thats what you mean with lack of knowledge about why to gather stuff.
Actually, I prefer the system for the exp going to whoever does the most damage. It makes more sense than exp only going to the first tagger. It's the same system that was in EQ. I don't see what the problem is.
I think most people have an issue with the item/exp being taken from them. I'm not against it and it helps prevent power leveling. It also plays to the MMO experience. So many people play a MMO to play solo . . . make that make sense. If you group you don't have to worry about someone robbing your exp or item.
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
Actually they have not done any of the translations yet except for Asmodian levels 1-10. The English patch that they have installed is just a quick and dirty literal translation. Call it a rough draft. What they are in the process of doing is having hired authors go through and rewrite all the quests, UI text and system messages from scratch. They have finished (With the exception of the minor tweaking still here and there) Asmodian 1-10 quests so far as well as a few UI elements (Like the log in screen). That's all the translations that have been done. There are some really good interviews they have had with the developers on the translation process. It's pretty fasinating actually. The Asmodian 1-10 quests before they finished the translations were very bad. They read much better now. None of the voiceovers are done, the help system is deactivated as those translations are not done. the in game start of game movie is disabled. Quite a bit still needs to be finished.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
hence it being "beta" can't judge a game by it. i don't believe your no translation thing, i read every quest i did for both sides and it looked fine to me.
Translated and localised aren't the same things. You can have something totally in english but not be grammatically correct or written so it doesn't flow too well. I saw this and typos and extra characters on some lines.
They're not done
Good OP! I only disagree with the major cities feeling empty. I thought they felt grandiose and there's enough NPC's around and that move around the city to make it feel alive everywhere. And once live they'll be actual people too. Cities that feel empty to me are the ones in Vanguard it's like you're playing a game in alpha...
^_^
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
Actually they have not done any of the translations yet except for Asmodian levels 1-10. The English patch that they have installed is just a quick and dirty literal translation. Call it a rough draft. What they are in the process of doing is having hired authors go through and rewrite all the quests, UI text and system messages from scratch. They have finished (With the exception of the minor tweaking still here and there) Asmodian 1-10 quests so far as well as a few UI elements (Like the log in screen). That's all the translations that have been done. There are some really good interviews they have had with the developers on the translation process. It's pretty fasinating actually. The Asmodian 1-10 quests before they finished the translations were very bad. They read much better now. None of the voiceovers are done, the help system is deactivated as those translations are not done. the in game start of game movie is disabled. Quite a bit still needs to be finished.
Yeah, I missed having voice during the preview. I think having voice overs would add alot to the experience. Voice helps create a immersive experience. Hopefully by the next preview at least some of the voice will be ready.
It was only that one city that felt that way. The smaller cities felt alive and well, and in Aion's deffense it could also be the lack of population due to the game being in beta.
I'm imagining post release it will be full of people with their personal store open, but ncsoft needs to ensure there is a dedicated reason to visit the city or it will always have that empty feeling.
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy