Recently I picked up Aion at a Gamestop sale for $19.99. I needed something to pass the time between now and FFXIV's release date so I figured "Why not?" and bought it. I've only played for two days but I can tell you right off the bat why I wouldn't recommend this game...
* Server race restrictions - Say you have a friend that's an Elyos on a specific server... Depending on the ratio on that server (Or at least I'm assuming this is why.) it will not allow you to make a character of a specific race. For example, if I tried to play on Siel it forces me to make an Asmodian. I want to make an Elyos, why must it restrict me to the race I don't want to play as?
* Graphics - Aion has some really beautiful graphics, while not a bad thing in the least there's many glaring flaws I've noticed in my short time of play... I have a male Elyos mage and wearing two different pieces of armor (top and bottom) causes them to overlap, terribly I might add. During character creation your character's face completely flickers in then out when changing hairstyles, what's up with that? I've spotted numerous areas where vegetation just seemingly vanishes into walls poorly.
* Clipping - I've lost count how many times I've gotten stuck in what almost seems like an endless perpetual fall. I've tried hopping over a fence and I get stuck on it suspended in mid-air. I've had issues getting stuck on the ground and in one instance, falling through a railing in the Sanctum city.
* Playerbase - In the starting area I met a few nice people, one person even helped me finish a quest and I didn't even have to ask. But throw that out the window soon as you ascend to a Daeva. A bad pull left me dead outside a city's gates and people just kept on running by. One person even proceeded to tell his friends he had to crap on my dead corpse before they ran off.
I've yet to get to the point where I have to worry about PvP but if it's anything like I've been reading around here I can tell I'll be chucking the game in the garbage within minutes of reaching a high enough level where PvP becomes semi-mandatory. The fact you can fly and the graphics gave me high hopes for this game, even more it was made by NCsoft and I've always enjoyed Guild Wars from time to time. But now I'm finding myself wishing I never wasted 20 bucks for this game. I'm gonna play for awhile longer to see if things improve but this may end up being shelved just like WoW was.
I've expect some of the stuff I listed above from like Guild Wars or some other free-to-play game, but NCSoft wants you to pay $14.99 for this game. For the same price I could play a F2P game and waste the money on game mall stuff to help me out.
Edited, Aug 10th 2010 11:42pm by SamusKnight
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AION has some issues, none of which I have ever wittnessed in your post though.
It sounds like you have a driver conflict issue. I have played since US release and not once had any of these problems. I have two PC's as well, both have different specs and none have any of the graphic issues you are experiencing.
You started the game at a pretty bad time. They recently did a free server transfer that caused MASSIVE inbalance because everyone left to servers where their race is dominant. One being elyos of Siels.
There is a fix in the works for it, and it should be completely resolved within the next 2 weeks, for now it's tough for new players.
Also, a lot of new players in the starter zones can't afford or don't have ressurection spells. And since you were sitting right outside town it would of been smarter to self rez at an obillisk in the town, because you wont have to run to a safe spot with soul sickness on if you just rez at an obi.
MMO RULE 101 = Do not judge a games community by the actions of some players.
Like any game, low levels can get ganked in PVP but lately it's very rare and the only people I see complain are forum trolls and people with very low kill counts and green gear.
Point being, this game is not for the faint of heart, you hve to be dedicated and willing to put forth a lot of time and effort to be succesful in AION. I've been playing for approaching a year now not including betas. And I've been loving every minute of it.
It sounds like you have a driver conflict issue. I have played since US release and not once had any of these problems. I have two PC's as well, both have different specs and none have any of the graphic issues you are experiencing.
You started the game at a pretty bad time. They recently did a free server transfer that caused MASSIVE inbalance because everyone left to servers where their race is dominant. One being elyos of Siels.
There is a fix in the works for it, and it should be completely resolved within the next 2 weeks, for now it's tough for new players.
Also, a lot of new players in the starter zones can't afford or don't have ressurection spells. And since you were sitting right outside town it would of been smarter to self rez at an obillisk in the town, because you wont have to run to a safe spot with soul sickness on if you just rez at an obi.
MMO RULE 101 = Do not judge a games community by the actions of some players.
Like any game, low levels can get ganked in PVP but lately it's very rare and the only people I see complain are forum trolls and people with very low kill counts and green gear.
Point being, this game is not for the faint of heart, you hve to be dedicated and willing to put forth a lot of time and effort to be succesful in AION. I've been playing for approaching a year now not including betas. And I've been loving every minute of it.
Ok, about the graphics... Here's what I mean...
I have a top piece of armor that clips into (if that's the correct term to use instead.) the lower portion of my armor. The top armor that extends below the waist goes into the long cloth garment worn about the waist. The end result is it sticks out in places. But there's more. When using a spellbook the character will sometimes fold his arms across his chest if standing idle. If in a combat pose when using the Flight Transporter instead of closing the book it remains open with his hand going through its center. Getting stuck doesn't happen all too frequent but I've jumped over a fence or two just to get stuck on it. Moving backwards or to the side usually fixes it however.
And I know the flickering faces isn't just a driver issue, it's happened with about 3 different video cards. It doesn't actually "flicker" in that it keeps going in and out but rather when you change a hairstyle the face disappears then reappears each and every time you change the hairstyle. The same can be said about when changing armors. Unequip a body piece and it turns invisible for a second before the new armor appear. While overall it doesn't seem like much when combined with the rest of the issues I've mentioned it adds up. Another piece I didn't mention is the scripts or text. I've seen at times where there's a misplaced "n" here or there in an item description. Many quests, especially in the Elyos starting area are missing their graphical icons for rewards. It's just a black box with the letters "Re" in it.
The clipping issues I've mentioned about vegetation can be seen in certain spots too. The vines hanging from the trees overhead actually clip into this one stone archway. Collision detection in this game seems a bit off where there's a branch or something that hangs overhead just low enough that a tall character can get snagged on it. I forget where it was but I think it was on the way to or from Agaric Spore Road in Poeta. I've gotten stuck on the logs laying around the pathway to the Timolia Mine near Pernos' location. For the price they want to charge for Aion combined with how unpolished the game appears, and how unbalanced the game is right now just rubs me the wrong way. Apart from the imbalance nothing is too game-breaking yet detracts from the overall value of the game.
And by the way, it was right outside of Verteron Citadel I got killed... A Lv13 huge crab snuck up on me and before I could make it to the city one-shotted me. I was mere feet from the gates too. Normally I just resurrect at an obelisk but I had spent the last of my funds for the teleporter to Verteron. If I chose to res back at my binding place I'd be stuck back at the Sanctum. I was hoping to avoid this but no luck...
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 8:31pm by SamusKnight
I have a top piece of armor that clips into (if that's the correct term to use instead.) the lower portion of my armor. The top armor that extends below the waist goes into the long cloth garment worn about the waist. The end result is it sticks out in places. But there's more. When using a spellbook the character will sometimes fold his arms across his chest if standing idle. If in a combat pose when using the Flight Transporter instead of closing the book it remains open with his hand going through its center. Getting stuck doesn't happen all too frequent but I've jumped over a fence or two just to get stuck on it. Moving backwards or to the side usually fixes it however.
And I know the flickering faces isn't just a driver issue, it's happened with about 3 different video cards. It doesn't actually "flicker" in that it keeps going in and out but rather when you change a hairstyle the face disappears then reappears each and every time you change the hairstyle. The same can be said about when changing armors. Unequip a body piece and it turns invisible for a second before the new armor appear. While overall it doesn't seem like much when combined with the rest of the issues I've mentioned it adds up. Another piece I didn't mention is the scripts or text. I've seen at times where there's a misplaced "n" here or there in an item description. Many quests, especially in the Elyos starting area are missing their graphical icons for rewards. It's just a black box with the letters "Re" in it.
The clipping issues I've mentioned about vegetation can be seen in certain spots too. The vines hanging from the trees overhead actually clip into this one stone archway. Collision detection in this game seems a bit off where there's a branch or something that hangs overhead just low enough that a tall character can get snagged on it. I forget where it was but I think it was on the way to or from Agaric Spore Road in Poeta. I've gotten stuck on the logs laying around the pathway to the Timolia Mine near Pernos' location. For the price they want to charge for Aion combined with how unpolished the game appears, and how unbalanced the game is right now just rubs me the wrong way. Apart from the imbalance nothing is too game-breaking yet detracts from the overall value of the game.
And by the way, it was right outside of Verteron Citadel I got killed... A Lv13 huge crab snuck up on me and before I could make it to the city one-shotted me. I was mere feet from the gates too. Normally I just resurrect at an obelisk but I had spent the last of my funds for the teleporter to Verteron. If I chose to res back at my binding place I'd be stuck back at the Sanctum. I was hoping to avoid this but no luck...
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 8:31pm by SamusKnight
The imbalance of races will be fixed.
Haven't a clue why you were in Vet but soul bound in Sanctum.
Think that maybe a driver conflict or need to be updated.
There are big mouths in any game. Cripes, look at Wow if you want trash talk all the time. Aion doesnt. So you got picked on by one.
As far as rezzing, you only lose xp which you can buy back later when you have some coin.
That said, not every game works for each person.
Haven't a clue why you were in Vet but soul bound in Sanctum.
Think that maybe a driver conflict or need to be updated.
There are big mouths in any game. Cripes, look at Wow if you want trash talk all the time. Aion doesnt. So you got picked on by one.
As far as rezzing, you only lose xp which you can buy back later when you have some coin.
That said, not every game works for each person.
Gayle wrote:
Haven't a clue why you were in Vet but soul bound in Sanctum.
My guess would be that he had just arrived in Vert from Sanctum, had not realized binding in Sanctum is useless, and got rick-rolled by Crab Norris shortly after arrival. :(
I played it for a bit. Some classes were kind of fun up to 15-20 but the pace for killing seemed really painfully slow. Each kill takes a long time followed by allot of downtime even bandaging or herb treating like crazy. I was not looking forward to leaving the carebear zones into the land of maladjusted bad touch gankers either.
Plus the prices for things later in the game screamed RMT or endless grind.
Also flying was a joke. You can fly for 1 minute... in 10% of the tiny zones. Go try Champions Online. You get rocket boots/teleports/flying/Ice Gliding at level 5 and fly your **** off like a Pro. Way more fun. :D
I will say it did have pretty magic sparkle and the Asian shiny happy world color palet of a FF type game. Made me a bit nostalgic for years ago when I played FFXI. The counter to that is it also reminded me of the painful factory worker grind of FFXI. Tedious things have more value! We call tedious things "Challenge" or "difficulty" and wear our pain with pride of good worker!
/pass
Plus the prices for things later in the game screamed RMT or endless grind.
Also flying was a joke. You can fly for 1 minute... in 10% of the tiny zones. Go try Champions Online. You get rocket boots/teleports/flying/Ice Gliding at level 5 and fly your **** off like a Pro. Way more fun. :D
I will say it did have pretty magic sparkle and the Asian shiny happy world color palet of a FF type game. Made me a bit nostalgic for years ago when I played FFXI. The counter to that is it also reminded me of the painful factory worker grind of FFXI. Tedious things have more value! We call tedious things "Challenge" or "difficulty" and wear our pain with pride of good worker!
/pass
I quit with a Gladiator at 50, Cleric at 41, and most other classes around 30. The grind tends to pick up considerably after 37, and while NC had promised reductions and TNLs and new quests, we didn't really get either in 1.9 to a meaningful degree.
That said, there's a large disparity between ranged and melee classes. The latter tend to be much more gear dependent (not to say mages or rangers don't need gear, they do), but the skills at the ranged player's disposal are often effective "enough" to get by. Melee classes must also invest in bandages/powders and potions to keep uptime minimal, while ranged types can usually skimp on this expense if they know what they're doing and maybe don't mind resting after 10 or so kills.
PvP is relatively imbalanced, usually boiling down to who attacks first (by surprise on those already weakened from other fights) and either outnumbering or outleveling. Racial disparity is often moot, despite how tightly some cling to it as the cause for their failures. The rare monster "advantage" of Zapiel and such for Elyos is pretty much gonna be moot come 2.0, anyway. The fort system is poorly implemented and only really promotes zerging (which sucks if your side doesn't have the numbers to counter such).
While 2.0 is going to be adding some much needed things, for me it's kind of too little, too late. The solo instances do my gladiator no good since she's outleveled them. I'm still screwed on Miragent's since the leg quest is a giant money sink I just can't pay for in any reasonable time span. Other equipment requires gear from instances nobody wants to run with you unless you're already pimped out, too. Catch 22, really, but this isn't an issue specific to Aion.
Overall, I wanna say the game just dies off after 35, and this can be hit in a few weeks even at a casual, non-schizophrenic pace. I suppose $20 isn't a bad deal nowadays, but NC still has issues they need to work around, among them being the West division given freedom to alter the game independently of the Korean vision.
That said, there's a large disparity between ranged and melee classes. The latter tend to be much more gear dependent (not to say mages or rangers don't need gear, they do), but the skills at the ranged player's disposal are often effective "enough" to get by. Melee classes must also invest in bandages/powders and potions to keep uptime minimal, while ranged types can usually skimp on this expense if they know what they're doing and maybe don't mind resting after 10 or so kills.
PvP is relatively imbalanced, usually boiling down to who attacks first (by surprise on those already weakened from other fights) and either outnumbering or outleveling. Racial disparity is often moot, despite how tightly some cling to it as the cause for their failures. The rare monster "advantage" of Zapiel and such for Elyos is pretty much gonna be moot come 2.0, anyway. The fort system is poorly implemented and only really promotes zerging (which sucks if your side doesn't have the numbers to counter such).
While 2.0 is going to be adding some much needed things, for me it's kind of too little, too late. The solo instances do my gladiator no good since she's outleveled them. I'm still screwed on Miragent's since the leg quest is a giant money sink I just can't pay for in any reasonable time span. Other equipment requires gear from instances nobody wants to run with you unless you're already pimped out, too. Catch 22, really, but this isn't an issue specific to Aion.
Overall, I wanna say the game just dies off after 35, and this can be hit in a few weeks even at a casual, non-schizophrenic pace. I suppose $20 isn't a bad deal nowadays, but NC still has issues they need to work around, among them being the West division given freedom to alter the game independently of the Korean vision.
Violence good. Sexy bad. Yay America.
Scholar
21 posts
I had the exact same experience after reaching level 30. The game just dies at that point.The grind is mental torture. It's a shame, the game has alot of potential. Maybe they will fix it.
#9REDACTED,
Posted: Sep 23 2010 at 9:35 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I never had any of those problems, but you know what - go play FFXIV and get back to us about how the graphics are there. How are those shadows? You know, the ones that aren't cast by anything but your own character? How about that huge freaking line that separates the high res stuff from the lower res stuff? How about the low framerates because of what a terribad engine it is?
yfaithfully wrote:
I never had any of those problems, but you know what - go play FFXIV and get back to us about how the graphics are there. How are those shadows? You know, the ones that aren't cast by anything but your own character? How about that huge freaking line that separates the high res stuff from the lower res stuff? How about the low framerates because of what a terribad engine it is?
At least the players in Aion chat. How many people in FFXIV ever chat? Few, because there are so few people playing from any one country that no one even speaks the same freaking languages. It's not an MMO, it's a way to do quests with your guild friends from FFXI.
This is a PVP MMO. It doesn't sound like you can handle that. Go play your Japanese trash - until it fails because the entire MMO community is having a field day laughing at it.
And so sorry about your $20 - go pay $75 to get a misprinted "journal" with the sweet FFXIV logo on it, and pray your game arrives in stores in time to actually get those 8 days of "pre-release" play. You do realize you're paying to beta test a console game, right?
I'm not an Aion fanboy - I quit at 35 over 6 months ago mostly because I didn't like having to group so much just for grinding. But it's a thousand times the game FFXIV is.
At least the players in Aion chat. How many people in FFXIV ever chat? Few, because there are so few people playing from any one country that no one even speaks the same freaking languages. It's not an MMO, it's a way to do quests with your guild friends from FFXI.
This is a PVP MMO. It doesn't sound like you can handle that. Go play your Japanese trash - until it fails because the entire MMO community is having a field day laughing at it.
And so sorry about your $20 - go pay $75 to get a misprinted "journal" with the sweet FFXIV logo on it, and pray your game arrives in stores in time to actually get those 8 days of "pre-release" play. You do realize you're paying to beta test a console game, right?
I'm not an Aion fanboy - I quit at 35 over 6 months ago mostly because I didn't like having to group so much just for grinding. But it's a thousand times the game FFXIV is.
Wow, who pissed in your cheerios?
I don't like FFXIV either but don't you think this is a bit harsh?
svlyons wrote:
If random outcomes aren't acceptable to you, then don't play with random people.
I tried Aion past 2.0 the community is trash.
why:
1 everyone trolls on forums and bring it to game.
2 can't join a guild till 25 and only for endgame pvp.
I tried Aion as 1 i love flight, 2 loved the character designs, 2 saw "vision" and it looked cool.
I log in and find you can't mail or whipser till 10. I found this as it was hard making test characters and sending kinah over. I tried getting a guild to help learn the game and some (sorry for flaiming) bimbo told me i wasn;t being constructive. That i can't join a guild at level 10 or under. I tried looking on the game and had nothing but "go back to WoW", log off and quit, can't join a guild at 10 or under. after 7 mnths of never being in a guild, not getting much help learning the game and reason the "mass "carebear" genocide threats both in game and in forums i left. "I don;t recommend Aion till the community stops acting like high school brats and treat newbies better. the gane gets more social and ppl stop using carebear as a derogitory term. :)
why:
1 everyone trolls on forums and bring it to game.
2 can't join a guild till 25 and only for endgame pvp.
I tried Aion as 1 i love flight, 2 loved the character designs, 2 saw "vision" and it looked cool.
I log in and find you can't mail or whipser till 10. I found this as it was hard making test characters and sending kinah over. I tried getting a guild to help learn the game and some (sorry for flaiming) bimbo told me i wasn;t being constructive. That i can't join a guild at level 10 or under. I tried looking on the game and had nothing but "go back to WoW", log off and quit, can't join a guild at 10 or under. after 7 mnths of never being in a guild, not getting much help learning the game and reason the "mass "carebear" genocide threats both in game and in forums i left. "I don;t recommend Aion till the community stops acting like high school brats and treat newbies better. the gane gets more social and ppl stop using carebear as a derogitory term. :)
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