Aion

[Deepz]

So, after the first beta weekend, I'm really enjoying this game.  Unlike most foreign MMOs, I was able to quest to the available cap (20 this weekend), and had plenty left over.  There are some really fun group quests that are actually kinda tough, and generally require 6 appropriately leveled characters.

The separate quest lines (Campaign/Normal) lets you quest around doing mostly menial, albeit not all just "KILL 400 BOARS LOL", and then hop over and do some fun quests for massive experience.  Each level has a new campaign quest chain, though you can do higher level ones early if you feel like it.  I never once had to grind, and in most cases, had fun glide bouncing all over the world avoiding mobs to get to my objectives faster.

I played a Gladiator up to level 20, and in PvE it was really a lot of fun.  Cool animations,  big numbers, etc...  In PvP however, you basically get stomped by any caster.  I read up some and apparently it's between 21 and 30 that you get all your tools to deal with them, so it's not such a huge deal.  BG's (Abyss) open up at 25, so it's mostly just losing duels that happens at 20.

I didn't try crafting at all, though I might end up playing around with that next beta weekend (July 17th if you want to pre-order and get a key)

I actually may end up playing a Templar when it goes live, as I've heard nothing but good things about the class, and really this whole post is just a place so I can post this special little Templar ability:

[Amna]

When I played for the relatively short time that I had to do so, I gained mixed feelings.

The game looks nice, the cliche phrase for the game, and the frame rates is definitely a lot better then WoW. However, it's too unstable. When you shift from a 60 to 30 in WoW due to some intensive spells or large enviroments, the transition is hardly noticable (although there are a few exceptions). However, it is WAY too noticable in Aion and happens very frequently while questing just due to the wonderful variety of landscapes. It's a pain to go from 100 to 40 back and forth and takes away from the game experience quite a bit. Even with "Fixed FPS" on, this wasn't solved.

Obviously there is more to the game then what I've seen but from just general play I've basically made this list:

Likes:
Quest items being 100% drop rate so you never need to extend your stay.
Chain-Spell system. It definitely looks interesting to learn.
Being able to tell the distance between you and targets.
Highly detailed character creation.
NPC Locater. It's simply awesome.
Setting up a private shop. It makes it feel more like those poor man's MMO though.
The manastone system and spell leveling / learning. It's pretty cool and nice to be able to advance your stats in a much greater fashion then WoW.

Dislikes:
Unstable FPS rate despite being high.
Poor camera control.
Target frame being at the center top when the rest of the UI is on the bottom.
Unable to de-target by clicking non-interactive enviroments like you can in WoW.
Long loading time due to the NCSoft Launcher.
When you move even a single step when talking to an NPC and trying to accept a quest, it immediately closes the chat box.

Yea most of the issues aren't even really gameplay related but more of the gameplay experience. It just really feels like the engines need more tuning.

[Kadrix]

They said in 1.5 or whichever patch is coming up, that they will implement an option to use the left click to pan your camera, just like you can in WoW.

I leveled an Assassin to 16 or so and it was alright, I don't think I was playing it well since I rushed learning the combat system, but I liked Gladiator a lot more. Assassin felt like I was playing some gimp ass version of a subelty dagger rogue, which I didn't really enjoy.

I had no issues with fps on the game, maybe my computer is just better then yours. I do agree with your other pros and cons of the game though, the location of npcs and mobs is fucking amazing.

[Deepz]

Dislikes:
Unstable FPS rate despite being high.
Poor camera control.
Target frame being at the center top when the rest of the UI is on the bottom.
Unable to de-target by clicking non-interactive enviroments like you can in WoW.
Long loading time due to the NCSoft Launcher.
When you move even a single step when talking to an NPC and trying to accept a quest, it immediately closes the chat box.

There's a Fix FPS checkbox in the options, that will stabilize it for you. You can also run the launcher in the background on your computer and it won't add extra load time.

[Amna]

Even with "Fixed FPS" on, this wasn't solved.

It shortened the gap but didn't really help. It's not like WoW's Vsync that just throws it into a constant state of 60 or w/e shitty comps can get up to.

It wasn't that it was low fps, it was just that it kept fluctuating for the various enviroment.

Oh also, why the fuck can't the Show FPS option stay active even after exits.

[monmoth]

Overall its very wow like with some improvements. The combat combo system is cool. I seemed to run out of quests around 17ish. There were like 2 I didn't do yet so maybe that would have opened up more(two that I could have soloed). I reserve judgment until I see what the end game is like. There's no way you can get a good read on the whole game until you're there. The foundation is solid though.

[Kval]

Overall its very wow like with some improvements.

Except it has many throw back Asian mmo throwbacks, and plenty of other problems already in the first 20 levels.  I don't see much here that is much different then LotR or Warhammer.  If I had time I could make a bigger list of faults then Amna's.

Leveling in a fresh mmo is always fun though, and NCsoft can sell it, so I'm sure it will be popular for the standard 2-3 months.

[Amna]

Yea I'm sure I'd be able to make a bigger fault list too but like I said, I spent very little time on it and those were just the most noticable. Like...right off the bat noticable.

[Deepz]

Yeah, I think it's almost a definition that any early mmo is going to have a ton of stuff wrong with it.  The real question becomes how good are the developers at responding rapidly to it.  That's more of a remains to be seen thing.

I would be curious how long the list of faults with the current state of WoW would be though

[monmoth]

Its not really a new mmo, its been out in korea since late last year. All they are doing is localizing it, which means making it less grindy and american friendly. Wow has its minor problems but at its core it's very solid.

[Deepz]

Actually what they're doing is pretty unique.  Localization is just translation for the most part.  What they are doing is culturalization.  They know what American players like about pacing and MMOs, and tuning the game to attract an entirely different playerbase.

[Kadrix]

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm?page=2&thread=240629&bhcp=1

Only read the first page or 2, but its a bunch of information about pvp balance and roles from a dude that plays on the asian servers, has a video or two of abyss combat, explains how the abyss and pvp system works.

[heartburnz]

aoe deathgrip wat

[Asmo]

http://www.aionsource.com/forum/general-discussion/20946-patch-notes-v1-5-update-shadow-balaur.html

So NCSoft are trying to pull out the stops and ensure that the US launch will have a bunch of end game raiding content. Quite interesting to see some of the stuff they are adding with the forth coming patches.

[monmoth]

So after playing it more this weekend I have to say there are things I like about the game but there are far to many at my current level that I don't. Maybe its becuase I'm playing the one tank class in the game but killing things isn't that fun at the moment. Killing equal level mobs leaves me with half health and takes a lot time to do. Tanking is also kinda frustrating becuase all you have are a couple of abilities which are high threat but not high enough to pull off someone who started attacking before you. Also you have almost no aoe threat. You can tank maybe two targets and that's about it. Some of the quests are poorly designed. For example long respawn timers, only one person can loot the item you need in a group, and only one person can do an escort at one time even if your in the same group. 

I'm at the point which I need to grind out the next level becuase there some repeatable quests that offer very little xp rewards but that's it. So right now its not that fun. I feel like I'm trying to level as prot in wow with low mitigation.  I'm holding out to see if I can make it to 25 and enter the abyss. If that is fun it would worth the working though the lulls in leveling.

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