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Concerns about Aion.
Hello, forgive me if some of these things have already been discussed / answered.
I am really on the fence, whether I should buy Aion. I bought Lord of The Rings Online, Conan and Warhammer all during their release dates(as well as SWG, WoW, Guild Wars and so on and so forth...) and many of these games bound me to become dissapointed by them. Or, i just lost my interest rather quick.
I do love WoW, for it's responsive controls, and fluid animations and PvP. I like how it's sort of casual-friendly with Rest XP, and short dungeons and no XP reduction penalty upon death, and no permenent item decrese. The importance of items however, the raids, the reputation grinding, the long travel times(sometimes taking 15-20 minutes just to get to where you have to go) and the boring same-same FedEx quests helped ruin the fun. With that said, I am subscribed to it now, and yet again feel like I want to leave. But I always seem to Boomerang back to WoW.
SWG was my other big love. I didn't mind the grind that much, because I was surrouned by an absolutely amazing community that made everything SOE did for the first two years more than tolerable. Best MMORPG time I ever had.
Guild Wars, together with old SWG was my other real MMORPG passion. Instant travel time, great art and music, pretty good controls and interface, and lots of content. I love this game, and I think the developers are fantastic. They are the only ones I would defend in a heartbeat!
What I have heard from Aion is this; Aion is a P2P MMORPG from NCsoft that is supposed to be a "Spiritual Lineage 3". Now I have never played Lineage 2, but I heard the horror stories about how much grind there is in that game. But I have also seen ultra awesome videos of what looks to be actual thousands of players doing massive sieges.
That is sometimes I have always wanted. PvP on a massive scale.
So my questions to you people who are in the beta;
1)How fluid are the combat animations? Can you "Run and shoot" with a bow and arrow for example? And can the person with a sword, move while chasing enemies running away? Basically swining sword while moving, or do you have to stand still to pull off an attack?
2)Does the game have WASD controls, and if so, how good are they? How responsive is everything. Is it like a Gears-of-War or WoW type of WASD, or is it more like some of the free MMORPGs!?
3)How is death handled in the game? Do you loose XP when you die?
4)I saw some videos of PvP duels and some kind of Chinese Arena Match. Is there world PvP, and if so, what kind? How large scale, is there rewards, and stuff? Can a guild do something meaningful together?
5)Grind. Is there enough quests to not have to resort to farming mobs for XP?(I heard yes and no on this subject, so a bit confused)! How long would you say the grind is? What is it comparable to? Longer or shorter than WoW 1-80?
6)Do you have any impression of the community so far? What kind of people will play Aion? I am in my mid 20s now, and I was a bit bummed by seeing many of the people I played with in WoW was around 14-15. It was okay, and I met some nice teenagers, but I also wished to play with someone my own age, because I just like to do that(have more in common, same type of humor etc..).
Do you also know what community features Aion has? I assume it has guilds and player crafting, but is there other social tools and things that makes finding allies and friends fun and rewarding? There wouldn't be anything like Guild levelling like in Warhammer would there?:)
Thanks, i hope you can answer some of these questions!
Comments
Can't respond to all of your questions but will try my best on what I can.
1. Yes you can move about when you fight and for some classes such as the Scout you need to do this. Scouts do their most damage when behind the mob so if fighting solo you can open up with a surprise attack from behind but later you can quickly move behind and execute another attack from behind for high damage again. At the early levels doing this hasn't been much of an issue but hard to say what it will be like at the higher levels. Caster classes tend to be more restricted as is normal.
2. Yes WASD are used and seem fluid though it is probably too soon to see if during combat things move as well as say during a PvP session in WoW.
3. When you die you lose Exp but it can be restored by visiting a Soul Healer and paying some money. It doesn't appear at this time that you lose a huge amount of Exp or that it costs a lot buy back. Personally, I prefer the loss of Exp over what WoW does where your armor degrades. The reason for this is that in the end in both games cost you some time and effort but in WoW it sort of encourages you die and the game and the dungeons are built around the idea of just keep dieing until you get it right.
4. There is the Abyss which is a world PvP and there are rewards galore to be gained in fighting there but not everyone is thrilled with PvP so it remains to be seen how well this is taken up by the players.
5. One person's grind is another person's fun. At the early levels there is no grind in the sense that you just have to kill massive amounts of mobs to advance. You do have to kill some mobs and complete quests to gain Exp to advance so you will have to work your way through this content before you get to the higher end content.
All games design and build content to control access and force players to spend time working their way up for a lot of different reasons. To a certain extent levelling is a silly thing to force people to do. They could just allow you to create a top level character and start from there and this would allow them to get rid of all the tedium of leveling and the creation of all those zones. But leveling does have some benefits and for some of us the process can be fun.
The grind in most games tends to actually arrive once you start to get near the top and you run out of quests and other content to do and then you start to grind for AA points or faction or to run the same raid every week so that people can gear up.
I don't think anyone can honestly answer if Aion will be a grind until it has been out for some time.
I'll give it a go:
1] yes you can run and shoot at the same time, in fact the game gives you bonus's for doing this. If your running forward you gain a bonus to your damage, backwards you get defence and side to side you get evasion bonus. its about 10%
2] WASD controls seems just like every other WASD ive played. The beta is a bit laggy because..well, its a beta, but i've played on CN servers with no lag and it was fine.
3] you do lose XP when you die, but you can simply buy this back.. its not so cheap as to make it pointless, but its not so expensive that your going to feel the pain.
4] There is lots of pv p kinds, arena's yes. open world yes, Raid pvp, control point and of course you can pvp while flying too.
5] Personally I think every mmo has grind, and Aion is not without its grind, howevers its nowhere near as bad as lineage or any typical Korean MMO. And actually, the graphics, audio, animation are breathtaking so its one of those weird games where actually, you dont mind grinding a bit.. in some cases you will have completed your quests, but heck.. lets kill a few more just to be sure XD
6] You cant really determine what kind of community in game has on release compared to beta, I personally think this is the luck of the draw, and usually once I get settled into a guild, I dont party with randoms much. But everyone does seem excited to be playing Aion, so everyone Ive met have been courteous and cooperative.
This is all I can answer for now.
1)How fluid are the combat animations? Can you "Run and shoot" with a bow and arrow for example? And can the person with a sword, move while chasing enemies running away? Basically swining sword while moving, or do you have to stand still to pull off an attack?
=> The combat is verry fluid and responsive, you can shoot while running with a bow if they are instant shots. For the person with melee weapons, yes they can run around while fighting and pulling off special skills. So basicly you only have to stand still for skills that take X seconds to cast. There is also a unique system: when you run forward your attack is increased (charging, pushing into battle), when you run backwards your defense is increased, when you run sidewards/strafing your dodge is increased (very usefull for assasins)
2)Does the game have WASD controls, and if so, how good are they? How responsive is everything. Is it like a Gears-of-War or WoW type of WASD, or is it more like some of the free MMORPGs!?
=> The game has WASD controls AND click to move ( this last one can be turn off ). Its like the WoW type of WASD, responsive & fluid etc. For example you can also hold right mouse button and press left to strafe. There is also auto-run.
3)How is death handled in the game? Do you loose XP when you die?
=> As far as I know you don't get any XP loss. When you die you have a debuff like the ressurection sickness in wow. This can be removed by a "healer" NPC for some gold, or you can wait for it to fade away by itself.
4)I saw some videos of PvP duels and some kind of Chinese Arena Match. Is there world PvP, and if so, what kind? How large scale, is there rewards, and stuff? Can a guild do something meaningful together?
=> The game is so called PVP / PVE, but the majority (at this point) is pvp based. Basicly there is a never ending war at a very large scale in the abyss, a place between the two worlds of the asmodians and the elyos where they continouisly fight for victory. There are also ranks, abyss ranks, the better you are in the abyss the higher rank you'll get. I know there are loads of rewards for fighting in the abyss (pvp armor & weapons). I can't tell more about this at this points as the abyss is not open yet in the third closed beta event. It will be open in the next (4th) beta event.
5)Grind. Is there enough quests to not have to resort to farming mobs for XP?(I heard yes and no on this subject, so a bit confused)! How long would you say the grind is? What is it comparable to? Longer or shorter than WoW 1-80?
=> I would say the grind is NOT more then wow. At this point there are enough quests to go through the game. Ofcourse you sometimes have to grind a little to close those 3-4 bars of XP you need, wich isn't all to big. I know NCsoft is adding more quests to even clear that little grind gap.
6)Do you have any impression of the community so far? What kind of people will play Aion? I am in my mid 20s now, and I was a bit bummed by seeing many of the people I played with in WoW was around 14-15. It was okay, and I met some nice teenagers, but I also wished to play with someone my own age, because I just like to do that(have more in common, same type of humor etc..).
=> First off I want to say that the higher tier of players in wow actually is 20-30 etc. About Aion, My impression so far (forums/in-game) is that it has a very mature community. But that may change when the game is released as those retards are to stupid to get into a closed beta anyway.
Do you also know what community features Aion has? I assume it has guilds and player crafting, but is there other social tools and things that makes finding allies and friends fun and rewarding? There wouldn't be anything like Guild levelling like in Warhammer would there?:)
=> I don't know much about this as the first content of Aion (without the abyss / dungeons ) doesn't really push you into the social direction. Ofcourse there are guilds, friend lists, "/who" functions etc.
I hope I gave you some information.
Greetings.
PS: Don't let all those wow fanboys ruin your impression of a wonderfull game.
You also lose XP on death, some of which is restored by the healer.
OP it is worth buying it for the first month and you will be able to tell if you wish to continue. This is what im doing and within that month they do not fix some things or at least say they are coming i will shelve the game.
MAGA
most of what you asked has been addressed i'll fill in some of the blanks.
there is no BGs in this game there is the Abyss for PVP wich is open world area for pvp. there is deffinitly stuff for guilds to do together in pvp like taking over a castle and making it yours.and you won't see much ganking going on by high lvls on lowbies, there is pentalties in place and benifits for other high lvls of your race to show up and save the day, and not just because they're bored.like the more lowbies the tool kills, the more abyss points he'll be worth for some one to kill.
some one already said you do lose exp when you die but you can buy it back but its not that big of a deal considering you never have to repair your gear..ever.
umm all in all might be about the same as lvling 1-80 in wow but there is only 50 lvls atm. so it is slower but the lower lvl cap would make it about even to hit the cap.
there is crafting in the game and its top notch, items are very comparible to raid and pvp gear in quality. there is differences but its mainly because what the gear is for. like as in wow the pvp would have more pvp stats like high hp and what not, but the pve stuff might give you more dmg out put.
so far all the people i met in the chinese retail have been 20s +, and i think the slower lvling will turn off the younger crowd. honestly to me it plays more like an old school MMO with how it lvls. while its not forced grouping everything deffinitly goes much better in a group. so i think the game will have a much tighter community just for that fact alone. like in wow when you go in pugs for an instances no one talks hardly at all and you may not group with the same people again, so people only care about getting loot and could careless about the other players unless they're guildies.its not really wows fault, its just people don't interact with other players enough in wow, unless they're guildies.
Thanks for the quick responses.
To ask a bit further about the XP loss;
How big is the loss of xp when you die? Do you also lose xp from dying in PvP? Can you lose so much xp that you lose a lvl? And would that mean, that if your at max level and pvping and dying, you can decrease in lvls if you die enough?
its not a huge amount, but enough to make you more carefull and more aware of what you're doing. and there is no corpse runs, when you die you spawn where you're bound at. and there is crystals sold at the merchants you can us eto rez players and you don't need to be a healer to use them. no you can't de-level when you die. and no exp loss in pvp, you get the debuff when you die but when you spawn next to the healer , she only charges 1 gold to cure it. and in Aion tehre is only 1 currancy no copper,silver, and gold. its only 1 thing , Kinah i think its called.
you can also buy portable bind points to take outside a dungeon or what ever that lasts a couple hours. so when you die you don't have to run all the way back out there.
5% exp loss dying from mobs or falling to your death from flying.(buy most of it back from soul healer)
You can't delvl and there is no exp loss for pvp, but you do loose abyss points dying from pvp.
5% exp loss dieing from mobs or falling to your death from flying.
You can't delvl and there is no exp loss for pvp, but you do loose abyss points dieing from pvp.
yeah forgot about losing abyss points when you die in pvp, but that makes it more skill than how many hours a day you can waste in there. would be like losing honor points if you died in BGs if they did that i would think people would team up and be more organized than just zerging.
The loss of XP is negligible at lower levels, gets a bit more later on. Should be more if you ask me but nvm. Not sure about losing a level tho, never been in such situation.
In PvP you lose abyss points. You gain them through killing opposite faction players but you lose some when you die. Which is probably the best thing that can happen because if you really wanna get them sweet abyss wpns you have to be good in pvp and you have to prove it. Which ofc will make a big difference between the bad players and the good ones. You won't be able to grind your way to the top just by facerolling 3 buttons and waiting for more and more points each week and eventually get what you do NOT deserve. You will have to stay at the top and prove why you're there. Depending on your abyss rank for example you will earn more points if you kill higher ranked player or if he kills you you will lose less points because he's higher rank and he will gain less points from you. The way to the top is hard here.
This is a pvp system that may actually work.
Just on the XP loss on death thing.
It's about 3 to 5% xp for you level.
Like say you 10000 xp for your next level, when you die and lose 300 to 500 xp
Now you if needed 15000 xp for your next level, you would lose 450 to 750 xp
When buy back your lost xp from the healer you don't get all of your lost xp, just part of it like 65%.
So say you lost 750 xp on death you would get about 487 xp, back.
I tested this on a level 7, I lost 2.99% on death and got back 66.78% of what I lost.
You can't delevel.
You don't have to buy back xp to level, but your xp bar will be grayed outed and you have to work the missing xp too before you level.
Then dont die so much, pick on mobs your own size
Besides if you die from pvp you pay 1coin and you lose 0 xp. So If you lost alot of exp dying or getting deleveled its your own fault. I got to level 20 without dying even one time, so there must be somethign wrong with your playstyle.
I think you missed the point. He was trying to be informative about the exp loss situation (and I must add he was closer to the truth than most of the posters here). What was your purpose?
I am confused as to why this thread is titled 'Concerns about Aion.' and not 'Questions about Aion.'
Thanks for the XP calculations. Great responses and info in here.
Aion is not for you.
As far as I understand it, the game has been out for quite a while in China and Korea right!? Has anybody made it to max level over there?
If a person wants to PvP(and RvR with his guild) how much time investment would you reckon one would have to invest every day to be good - or get the right gear enough to do good!?
Basically - How much time a day to be succesful at PvP at end game. Do you reckon it would be like a first person shooter but in MMORPG form, were you can just hop into the world, fly to where the action is, and have some nice pvp fights for a good 15-20 minutes, log out, and have had fun?
In WoW, once you get to lvl 80 you have to spent a long time getting the honor for the required pvp gear to do well, and there are usually long wait times to get into a battle, and it can be hard to organize anything with anyone outside a guild. I find this really takes away from the "game" time and just adds filler and "downtime". I wonder how Aion is at end game in relation to it.
Now I imagine nobody could have gotten max level in beta, but maybe someone has managed to get max level in Korea, and maybe speaks english!? Any info on this would be appreciated.
And thanks for the responses.
In Aion there are 4 forms of active PVP.
1) Same race Arena PvP
2) Rift RvR PvP
3) Abyss RvR open PvP (+all area flight)
4) Abyss RvR Siege PvP
You can do rifts as soon as you hit 20 which is (8 hours or so from 1).
Abyss is lvl 25 (16 hours or less from 1).
You can recall out whenever you want, unless a party is relying on you. The siege system is very similar to L2s siege system (tons of fun). I'm not sure if they are going to have lower exp loss in the siege zones like they did in L2. L2 was 4% exp loss on regular death, and 1% loss on siege area death.
It's not like WoW. WoW has instanced off meaningless PvP in Battlegrounds and Arena that are nothing but another hidden grind to get more gear which in the game is much more valuable than skill.
In Aion from 25-50 most of the game takes place in the Abyss where it is an open PvP area with 8 fortresses for the two factions to fight over, world raid bosses for the factions to try to take down and fight over, instances within the fortresses, instances in the world for PvE, and even an instance where one group from each faction enters to kill a boss while also trying to fight off the enemy group.
There aren't queues you just go into the Abyss and quest, fight over fortresses, PvP, etc. In the Abyss it is PvPvE because there are 2 enemy player factions and 1 NPC faction called the Balaur who mix things up a bit. Every action you take through the Abyss having to do with RvR/PvP results in Abyss points which you gain for doing good, and lose for dying. Running these RvR instances results in Abyss points also (some of them) and these points can be used to get PvP gear. If you get high enough you can get an ability to transform for 10 minutes every couple hours into this badass that can take on 10v1. However the more Abyss points you get the higher the price on your head for enemies and it becomes increasingly dangerous like a large target growing on your back. Also ganking lower levels increases this price on your head.
The Abyss gear I believe is the best in the game PvP wise, but doesn't provide an overly ridiculous advantage. Crafted gear I think is second best, but i'm not 100% sure. Just going off what friends have said of Korean version. Aion seems to allow a much greater deal of skill over gear from what I have seen. There is a post here by kilkil2 that i've referenced a hundred times where they, as a full group of 6, defeat about 18 opposing players, and then defeat a full force (24 players). I don't know if it's because gear doesn't make you a god, or because the combat seems to be at a very quick pace, or a combination of these, but it looks intriguing and fun.
Don't think WoW, but more DaOC. Aion has similar elements from many games throughout the leveling process with the early levels being like a Guild Wars/WoW/Lineage 2 hybrid and the later game being like a Lineage 2/DaOC hybrid. Sort of...