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Aion or Rift?
Looking for a mmorpg, haven't played one in years.
All this hype about Star Wars The Old Republic got me wanting to try out one again.
I didn't research either game and both forum sections seem a bit dead so I try here to get some basic questions answered.
I like a sandbox economy like in Star Wars Galaxies.
-Individual stores, people can not put everything on an acution house. This means I can and must actually interact with people (store owners, traders, etc.) and could make trade (routes)
-Craft equipment should be in demand, so item decay plus crafting items should be better then dropped weapons. Or dropped weapons should be very rare. I want to hunt for materials, craft stuff and make a profit.
I also like to make a profit with crafting on a lower level and with most stuff you can craft. So not like in world of Warcraft where only certain items can make you money and raw material is actually worth more then the end product (I HATED that, the idea alone disgusted me, main reason I only played it for 3 weeks)
I like grouping with people
-I'm not talking about long/main quests, that never works, just casual grouping to do some casual stuff. Like in Star Wars Galaxies where you killed random creatures or picked up some crappy quests to go kill random creatures.
-Some raiding
-Groups need to be formed fast. either by a tool or a social hub with spamming people.
Do either Rift or Aion even remotely have stuff like this?
Comments
Personally I recomend Rift. What you say though, it sounds like you might be leaning towards Aion, particularly with the first point. Not sure though if player run shops aren't all that 'player interactive' as you might like on Aion. In terms of groups, both games have their own parts. Aion is a bit more forceful with grouping, though raiding is a large part of Rift and requires a team effort. Raid rifts are always around and your going to have more success grouping up in it.
Like the above poster I prefered Rift but it sound like Aoin might be your thing, At least for the first part. The grouping however would be much easier and casual in Rift, considering Rifts themselves need groups and pop up at random. Rift has also implemented a LFG tool.
From what you're saying, I agree with the above posters, Aion would fit you better. My personal reccomendation would be Aion also. Aion is a little more edgy, they do their own thing for the most part. Rift was made playing it safe. While both games are good, Aion was a bit better (Personal opinion).
"Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it."
AION will be free next month.
For your 1st point none of this games.
Both economy is around AH.
Craft in AION is boring for me, but maybe is fun for you. Craft in RIFT is close to WoW.
About your 2nd point.
RIFT is a raid game. you get lvl cap real fast and then start raiding. While leveling you will make some auto-groups (people dont even speak to each other).
In AION , after become F2P im sure theres no problem at all making groups while leveling.
Have fun, dont thing any of this games is for you (based in what u looking for), but try it
Thanks for the replies.
Rift is definetly out, it has a very healthy 500k players but all servers have low population..
Always annoys me why ALL games I've played are always so slow to merge servers, the more people playing on a server the better.
Since Aion is going free to play soon I'm not paying 20 dollar for that so that one is out as well.
Back to.. nothing.
You really want folks to tell you what to play? .....oh ok I will. Neither.
What are you smoking? All servers aren't low population.
High Medium Low
This is just US servers.
PvE:
Alsbeth
Atrophinius
Belmont
Byriel
Crucia
Deepwood
Galena
Gnarlwood
Greenscale
Greybriar
Keenblade
Laethys
Millrush
Shatterbone
Silkweb
Threesprings
Wolfsbane
PvP:
Briarcliff
Dayblind
Deepstrike
Faemist
Freeholme
Seastone
PvP-RP:
Sunrest
PvE-RP:
Estrael
Faeblight
Shadefallen
According to http://www.riftstatus.net/shards/na/trends they are..
What you're looking at is not server popluation, but rather the "trend" of all servers combined. The trend shows how much of a total day were servers at a specific level. If it shows the brown line at 80% then 80% of the day it was low, the other 20% of the day it was either medium or high, it's hard to see but there are also green and red lines that represent high and medium population. Use this: http://riftideas.com/shardwatch/ It's much easier to see, and look at the server's prime time populations.
Don't get your hopes up for Aion, I'm willing to bet you'll be paying a hefty sum to the item mall to get the most out of that one when the eventual f2p conversion hits. Although, they've done a really good job keeping Lineage 2 reasonable, so I guess we'll see. That aside, I can't really recommend one game over the other because they're both very different. If you want the combination of open PVP added to your daily PVE-grind, then go Aion. If you want to be left alone for the most part, Rift is probably the safer bet. I've never run into PVP in Rift (mind you I didn't play long, but I did play when it was most populated), but I got ganked plenty in Aion. Even after the nerfs.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Why is SWTOR not on your list?
Ah. I got the feeling I wasn't reading those charts properly..
That chart of yours shows all servers except Wolfsbane at medium (or lower) at peak times.
Still not perfect but a lot better then low (whatever that means in actual players)
Can I play on an US server from the EU?
I played on US servers in other games since I play after midnight and EU servers get empty after 23:00.
You mean because it's THE hyped game of the moment.
I'm feeling the hype therefore I read a lot about the game, watched some videos, etc.
I have decided it is definatly not for me. I get the feeling it's a watered down Mass Effect with some poorly implemented MMORPG elements. And the whole core of the game is broken.
You'd be correct...
As for playing on US servers I am not sure, but I don't see why not.
You can always try the free trial of Aion then when it launches F2P continue your progression if you like it. I heard through the grapevine they are releasing new servers when F2P launches so idk if that is even a good idea. At least you would know if you like it though. Aion servers are known for being imbalanced, either the Ely's dominate or the Asmo's dominate. I won't tell you which one is better cause I have not tried Rift. I know a few people who quit Rift after getting max level because of lacking end game content. Again that's just heresay because I have never played it. Aion is not easy to get max level prepare for a grind. I have always liked the crafing in Aion because most Items that drop from monsters arent as good. There is serious in game currency to be made by crafters if you can find a server where the population is farely fresh. When I played it was very hard to sell the beginning crafting Items because of the lack of low level players and the overflow of such items. There are other ways to use those items, by breaking them down and getting + stone's off of them. Hope that little tidbit of information helps you decide. I know the woes of not having a game to play all to well.
"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."
Thank you, that is exactly what I like to hear. This whole dropped gear nonsence being more powerfull then crafted items is making crafting unnecessary, expensive a grind and futile.
Perhaps I'll do the Rift free trial and then wait for new Aion servers when it goes free to play.
Also keep in mind the weapons you get from dungeuns/instatnces far surpasses alot of craftable ones, but they are only availabe at certain lvls. For ex. 35, 45, 55 and so on. But when you get to level 55+ it gets harder to get those levels so you will want the weapons in between the dungeun/insatnce ones as well.
"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."
http://www.riftserverstatus.com/
Just found this and this shows a lot more servers then http://riftideas.com/shardwatch/ and also shows a lot of them on high?
Now I'm confused.
You can better use Trion's own.
RIFT has better classes and its has a more robust endgame.
I also prefer the rift/invasion system over Aions open world activities.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing