Why Aion?

[ringthree]

So basically this is a PvP based game and the content revolves around the PvP aspect more than PvE. While this isn't my normal cup o' tea, it's something I wouldn't mind trying from time to time. I could just think of logging on as queuing up for a battle ground or playing Brenner or something.

A few PvP related questions.

1) Are there sanctuaries? Are there any sanctuary leveling areas? Is it better to level through PvP?

2) What are the rewards for PvP? Should I gear up through PvE before engaging PvP?

3) How much stupid ganking is there? I don't mean like a rogue stealthing and killing me when we are the same level, I mean some douchebag gets bored and decides to ruin a leveling area for lower level players. I saw someone mention that you can't corpse camp, why is that?

4) Is there a disincentive to gank? I saw someone post that it's not as rewarding to gank lower level players so people don't do it. I found that to be quite funny. Douchebags love PvP (non-douchebags love it too of course) and that always leads to moronic behavior.

5) How well balanced is PvP? How long do PvP fights last? Is most PvP just the random gank encounter or do groups intentionally seek each other out?

[Gryffes]

So basically this is a PvP based game and the content revolves around the PvP aspect more than PvE. While this isn't my normal cup o' tea, it's something I wouldn't mind trying from time to time. I could just think of logging on as queuing up for a battle ground or playing Brenner or something.

A few PvP related questions.

1) Are there sanctuaries? Are there any sanctuary leveling areas? Is it better to level through PvP?

2) What are the rewards for PvP? Should I gear up through PvE before engaging PvP?

3) How much stupid ganking is there? I don't mean like a rogue stealthing and killing me when we are the same level, I mean some douchebag gets bored and decides to ruin a leveling area for lower level players. I saw someone mention that you can't corpse camp, why is that?

4) Is there a disincentive to gank? I saw someone post that it's not as rewarding to gank lower level players so people don't do it. I found that to be quite funny. Douchebags love PvP (non-douchebags love it too of course) and that always leads to moronic behavior.

5) How well balanced is PvP? How long do PvP fights last? Is most PvP just the random gank encounter or do groups intentionally seek each other out?

1. You can level entirely in PVE areas, although 20-50 you cant avoid PVP if the enemy faction comes through a rift it's quite likely you could go 20-50 without seeing more than 10-20 enemy faction members if you chose to.

2. PVP points = PVP gear = +% damage given -% damage taken in pvp, if you level in the abyss you get PVP Points for killing PVE monsters....but you're open to the risk of gankage.

3. There's a decent amount of lowbie ganking going on but that's because endgame isnt developed yet and even a few ranks into the pvp ladder you get 1 point for ganking a lowbie ( 88,000 kills and you can get an epic! ).

You cant corpse camp because there is always the option to release back to your homepoint, which cannot be contested.

4. Yeah if I'm high ranking and go solo, if I kill you as a lowbie I get 1-100 points ( not much ) if you kill me you can get 500-10000..... so small groups of lowbies banding together to counter a higher level soloer or even a group would rack up mass points if the lowbies get even 1 kill even if they all get wiped out.

5. Depends on setup, size etc small 1v1s can take 10s if you have a powered up sorc/ranger/etc vs an unexpecting opponent, a good battle might take 30-60s and group battles similar - longer.

Obviously larger group battles can take quite a while.

Balance is quite decent, although everyone is whining about Sorcs at the moment.

[Man0warr]

Both sides have an area you you can level 20-30/40-50 in with no fear of PvP. They were added in the most recent patch, Brusthonin for Asmodae and Theobomos for Elysea.

[Anakron]

You cant corpse camp because there is always the option to release back to your homepoint, which cannot be contested.

Just wanted to add that you could bring temporary "portable homepoints" and set them in relatively safe areas (they can be destroyed). An entire group or alliance can bind to it (alliance ones more expensive), they last for 2 hours, so they make for good ways to rejoin fights relatively easily. Of course, you don't want to set it too close such that you get killed as soon as you respawn.

[Kerberoz]

You really aren't comparing the in-game stats on gear between games and then comparing the difficulty of getting that gear between games? You really aren't comparing these things without even considering the differences in movement between the two games.

No, I'm not comparing stats between games. I'm comparing the way the games work in general. Pick any other example and it'll be the same deal. FFXI = spend retarded amounts of time sitting around staring at pops, not even playing the game, for gear which has no equal. Or spend retarded amounts of time repeating the exact same easy fight for a 1% droprate which has no equal.

I'm not saying Aion is special. I'm saying XI is especially bad compared to most MMOs and pretty much anything will seem godly after years of it.

[Tomino]

FFXI = spend retarded amounts of time sitting around staring at pops, not even playing the game, for gear which has no equal. Or spend retarded amounts of time repeating the exact same easy fight for a 1% droprate which has no equal.

this is true but you're missing an important point.
in FFXI it could take 1 year to get the best weapon for your class/job.
in WOW it could take 2 months, but said weapon will become obsolete and so there will be another 2 months for the newer one. Add all these months together and they might get even more than 1 year.

This said, how's Aion approach to itemization? Infinite ladder WOW style where a lv50 item is absolutely superior to a lv30 one?

[MogKnight]

1) Are there sanctuaries? Are there any sanctuary leveling areas? Is it better to level through PvP?

2) What are the rewards for PvP? Should I gear up through PvE before engaging PvP?

3) How much stupid ganking is there? I don't mean like a rogue stealthing and killing me when we are the same level, I mean some douchebag gets bored and decides to ruin a leveling area for lower level players. I saw someone mention that you can't corpse camp, why is that?

4) Is there a disincentive to gank? I saw someone post that it's not as rewarding to gank lower level players so people don't do it. I found that to be quite funny. Douchebags love PvP (non-douchebags love it too of course) and that always leads to moronic behavior.

5) How well balanced is PvP? How long do PvP fights last? Is most PvP just the random gank encounter or do groups intentionally seek each other out?

1) The leveling area from 1-9, 10-20, 20-?? (I think it might be able to take you to 50, not entirely sure though) and your faction's city are all sanctuary. No one from the opposite faction, under any circumstances, are allowed in those areas for your respective faction. The Abyss and the rest of the leveling zones are open to PvP due to the interaction of the opposite faction being possible.

2) Killing players or killing mobs in the Abyss will net you Abyss Points. Those points are kinda like Honor in WoW. It determines your rank and also lets you buy items and gear.

3) In the Abyss area, high level ganking occurs more often than not. In non-abyss areas, rifts appear that allow you to teleport to the opposite faction's areas. However, these rifts do have a level restriction and usually place you in an area where the level difference isn't so high. The thing is, since people organize groups, you tend to get caught up in these steamrolls. However, you're not "stuck" if something like this happens and you can choose to go to another area to XP. When you die in Aion, it's much like FFXI: You can choose to return to your home point, be raised on the spot or if you set up a kisk (think portable home point) you can res up there as well.

4) Ganking is good for the ganker in one way and bad in another way. The thing is that you cannot see the level of the opposite faction player. They will always show up as a ??. However, in time, when a player kills more and more of the opposite faction, they start getting a debuff which displays their position on the map and also will eventually prevent them from using kisks to resurrect themselves.

5) Well, the game's focus is mainly on group PvP and well, you're going to be doing a lot of "picking your fights" in this game. I can't say I have lot of input on this one mainly because I've just been busy trying to grind up and just taking advantage of PvP stuff when I see fit. Haven't really been doing duels but yeah... Sorcs usually have been doing a lot of raping.

[Alyric]

A friend and I preordered Aion and like a few others expected it to hold us until FFXIV...

I would rather play a game that I am already pimped out in with my friends and help them than play through a pretty WoW with 800 times the bots/spammers/18 hour lockout leveling instances.

So I just got my bud a copy of the vana collection today. He's loving it, especially because he's a big FF fan but never tried XI (got drug to WoW with all his friends back in the day.)

Guess FFXI can hold us til FFXIV.

[Falisa]

I don't want to get into another WoW vs Aion debate but I find everyone who claims Aion is another WoW to be incredibly naive. I have yet to see someone who says this to actually provide details as to why they think this and I would actually like to hear them.

Also, as for the 18 hours lockout complaint....FFXI isn't full of lockouts? Every single thing you do in FFXI has a lockout timer. I don't see the difference.

[Gryffes]

I don't want to get into another WoW vs Aion debate but I find everyone who claims Aion is another WoW to be incredibly naive. I have yet to see someone who says this to actually provide details as to why they think this and I would actually like to hear them.

If people only played 1-25 then I could see how they think it could be a wow clone.

But yeah actually posting that just makes them look retarded as from mid-game on they are nothing alike.

[Kerberoz]

18-hour lockout is a big deal but 72-hour lockout isn't? Or 5-day lockout on ENMs? I want some of that Kool-ade.

The only "similarities to WoW" are things that nearly every MMO except XI share, because SE values being different over doing things right.

[Hyan]

The only "similarities to WoW" are things that nearly every MMO except XI share, because SE values being different over doing things right.

Y'know, if you had played MMO's other than FFXI, you'd value the same thing as they do. The 'right' things get quite boring after the millionth time.

[Syntex]

Y'know, if you had played MMO's other than FFXI, you'd value the same thing as they do. The 'right' things get quite boring after the millionth time.

But if you do these things differently and not include or use them people will bitch about it as well.

There was no left click to rotate camera and people bitched until it got changed.

A lot of people look at the standards and say its WoW based on that but what makes Aion different from WoW is after you look past the standards you start seeing a better designed game.

[Hyan]

But if you do these things differently and not include or use them people will bitch about it as well.

There was no left click to rotate camera and people bitched until it got changed.

A lot of people look at the standards and say its WoW based on that but what makes Aion different from WoW is after you look past the standards you start seeing a better designed game.

Of course it may be better designed, but that doesn't mean it's different from WoW. More polished, more everything.. but still at the core the same thing.

But yeah, it's a trade. Either you have innovations in the game in exchange for less features found in other MMO's, or you have every good feature found in existing MMO's in exchange for lack of innovations. Copying content from other games is easier than making up new features after all.

Just choose what you prefer really, but calling us masochists for preferring the first option over second is silly and ignorant. (in regards to Kerb's comment on page 2)

[Falisa]

"OH GOD IT HAS BUTTONS AND YOU CAN MOVE A CHARACTER AROUND AND DO THINGS" is all I hear when I see someone say its a WoW clone with no reasons as to why.

[Gryffes]

Of course it may be better designed, but that doesn't mean it's different from WoW. More polished, more everything.. but still at the core the same thing.

No.

[Hyan]

"OH GOD IT HAS BUTTONS AND YOU CAN MOVE A CHARACTER AROUND AND DO THINGS" is all I hear when I see someone say its a WoW clone with no reasons as to why.

Okay.

The combat, first of all. It is fast paced, has auto attack feature and consists of spamming skills in a set pattern. It has some unique tweaks to it like self skillchains and so on, but they don't really change the gameplay in any particular way. At the core it's still the same combat we've seen in games from as early as 2001, but more polished.

You also level by doing quests(up to like level 30) and getting exp. There are something that reminds me of skill trees which give you more and better abilities. The grind hasn't changed in any particular way, there are extra additions but nothing amazing. Well, after 30 you level by grinding, but isn't that kind of a step back from questing anyway instead of progress?

There are instances and raids to do, with the difference that they're pvpve instead of just pve. Bigger and better, but that's it.

They're not some features that only exist in WoW (really, what features are like that?) but the thing is that they are old, nothing amazing and we've seen them before.

[Priran]

wow invented leveling by doing quests and getting exp

[Hyan]

wow invented leveling by doing quests and getting exp

They're not some features that only exist in WoW (really, what features are like that?) but the thing is that they are old, nothing amazing and we've seen them before.

>_>

[Aevis]

idk, you sound like you'd complain about a new beat em up that it's one guy on the left, one on the other and it's over once the health bar has reached 0. innovative games might be interesting experiences, but it mostly ends there. check tabular rasa. i can understand if you are specifically looking for some real inovation and thus aion won't fill your belly. now criticizing an mmo for beeing an mmo is a bit silly.