[Gortef]

Well, the Headstart for this MMORPG began yesterday so I think it should be about time to ask if there are any other Aioneers here?


For the others:

http://www.aiononline.com/

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is a fantasy MMORPG, chronicling an epic conflict between the Elyos, the Asmodians and a server-controlled NPC faction, the warlike Balaur.

Basic Storyline

In Aion: The Tower of Eternity, players must choose a side between two warring factions: the Elyos or the Asmodians. Once their world was whole; a perfect union joined at the center by The Tower of Eternity. When a great catastrophe shattered The Tower of Eternity, it split the world into two halves - and awoke the Balaur, a warring race exiled within the extra-dimensional Abyss. The Balaur now seek revenge on both of these new worlds, sparking an epic conflict. The part you play, the side you choose and the decisions you make will help determine the ultimate fate of Aion.

Key Features

    * Interactive gameplay systems

The actions of each faction on each individual server will eventually trigger consequences, which will then change each server's live environment. No two servers should ever be the same.

    * PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment)

Aion: The Tower of Eternity features an evolving conflict system, which manages the complex relationships and alliances between realms, races and guilds. The system also controls a third NPC faction, the Balaur, who may act as the enemy - or the ally - of players.

    * Free flying and flying combat

Take to the skies and soar over the landscape, with wings that allow your character to access remote areas, travel to different parts of the world - and to engage enemies in aerial combat!

    * Beautiful and detailed graphics

Created using a modified version of the Crytek engine (as used in Far Cry), Aion: The Tower of Eternity is the most graphically beautiful MMORPG yet released. Astounding levels of detail on characters and in environments immerse you in the world of Aion.


A special note goes to the character creation system which is pretty damn flexible.

[Liberator]

Have the beta, much like every other Korean MMO, there is nothing about this game that grabs you at the beginning and makes you say "Hey!  I wanna spend my money on this!"  But I say this coming off of a 4 year stint on WoW, which has an interesting earthy world.  Everything about the starter area in Aion for either side is so sterile as to almost be a hospital.

[TESLA]

Yeah was playing for about four hours on Monday, so far so good,

it is interesting


but the loading time is crap!!! 5hours to queue to get in!!!

[Gortef]

Yea Aions starter areas are not so sandboxy as in other MMO's. But the idea is to get yourself aquainted with the game, the story and so on. The real thing begins in Abyss (and Morheim/Eltnen) where the PvPvE happens in full scale.

On the other hand it depends on the person what he/she thinks is the "wow I wanna play" factor.
For me with Aion it was the nice graphical appearance, lively characters, lore, fun combat system... and of course the wings

The queues are a true real problem, that's a fact. Even the NCSoft community representative said that they are open for peoples suggestions even though they also do have their own ideas to solve the big annoyance. Usually when people refer to NCSoft they also have the impression of a company that doesn't listen the community (Lineage2 and botting is a good example), seems like they are trying their best to loose that impression with Aion. At least now. Hopefully it will continue. Ayase (the representative) has been quite active.


Oh yea... here's mah Assassin called Silkki on Spatalos.

[NGTM-1R]

The existence of your illegitimate son of disco has forever soured me on this game.

[Gortef]

The existence of your illegitimate son of disco has forever soured me on this game.

You should see him now since I managed to craft a better torso jerkin, which has a pinkish default color. Now THAT's disco looking.

http://uk.aiononline.com/livestatus/character-legion/search?serverID=31&charID=8844

[Spoon]

At first I was like: "Awesome, wings!"
Then I saw a gameplay vid...
Great, an other 13 in a dozend mmorpg korean grinding fest with a WoW ripoff interface. Boooring.

[Fury]

Indeed. Aion and Champions Online has not received such positive comments that I would buy them. Not before there is free trial anyway. I have high hopes for the Old Republic however.

[Liberator]

I too am looking forward to The Old Republic, but I'm afraid Bioware will fall into the same trap of trying to compete with WoW as it is now after 5 years and 2 expansions(3 by the time TOR comes out), which is where all of the other "WoW Killers" have fallen down.  You can't compete with WoW.  It's like trying to destroy a Sathanas with a Pegasus, it's too big.  Something that Blizzard has done to this part of the gaming industry is raise the standard of acceptable quality.  Where most MMOs fail however is when things get tough, they don't have a polished game because they rushed to print before it was ready, either because of financial pressures or over-eager execs.

AoC is a prime example of what could have been with even 6 more months of development and beta time.

Blah, I'm rambling now.

[Fury]

From the looks of it, TOR doesn't compete with WoW as TOR doesn't seem to have the traditional tank/dps/healer class trinity. Gameplay seems to be closer to KotOR than WoW.

[Stormkeeper]

Thank God for that.

[TESLA]

Is anyone here playing Aion on the EU servers?

[Gortef]

Bumping this with a new video.

NCSoft has released a new trailer called Aion Visions into the tubes (also called as Aion 3.0 or Aion 2.0 depending on who's calling). It shows how Aion will look like in the future (visually and gameplay wise aswell) if/when they manage to implement all the new features into the game.

People at AionSource have been analyzing the trailer and made a list what they have noticed to be the possible new upgrades. And this is all just speculation at this point since no official patch notes have been made in public. Apparently the only thing that the NCS representatives have said is that many of the seen features in the trailer are coded and working, but how working is the real question. Also one of the rumors is that Korea might get at least some of the new features on this winter... we'll see when the time comes.

Anyway here's the list:

- Upgraded Graphics! DX10? Dynamic lighting and overall crisper visuals
- New Zones! We saw a dangerous jungle, a vast living desert, an underwater city and world, and residential zones outside of the major cities!
- Dynamic Weather and seasons! Falling leaves, Accumulating and melting snow!
- Player Cities! Customizable houses and skins, multiple styles, customizable furniture and layout, city bulletin board, city decor. Did we see anything about legion halls?
- Mounts! One and two person mounts of at least 5 varieties, mounted combat, creature taming abilities.
- Improved Combat! Fluid motions, collision detection, unarmed combat, new weapons (Crossbow and Whip) and abilities! Finishing moves?
- New Classes? Fans have speculated Monk and Tamer classes.
- Player City Sieges! Bring the fight right to the doorsteps of your enemy! Houses appear to be destructible! Summon a Colossus to help? New defensive siege weapons- Aether Cannon?
- Vehicles- Boats were shown in front of player cities and also as a means to reach the underwater areas, but can players own and control them? Airships were also seen bringing a player to the city siege.

And here's the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PAM0wr7cZ8


Personally... I had this goofy Joker like grin on my face during the whole flick. It made me really hyped. After sleeping one night I'm still hyped but thinking realistically all those new features are all nice and cool but what truly matters on this point is that will there be more quests and are the people at NCS gonna keep up banning the bots (16.000 accounts got the Banhammer on this week... which is nice). Nevertheless... I'm still hyped as heck

[Fury]

Looks okay, I'm still waiting for free trial.

[Gortef]

Many are... hopefully NCS will release the free trial possibility soon.

[Liberator]

I did the open beta.  Devs seem to be learning ways to improve certain gameplay features from WoW.  Certainly the graphics are better for what they are.  But the problem this and all the other "WoW killers" have had is that they don't really do a good job at pulling you into the universe you are supposed to be inhabiting.  Blizzard does one thing better than anyone else that's tried it, they tell a story.

That said, it AoC were to go FTP, I'd be all over it.  i just can't justify 2 game subscriptions when I have 4+ years invested in WoW.

[Gortef]

I personally like the lore behind Aion. Also some of the quest stories are quite fun.

[Gortef]

Bumping this old topic to give a note that Aion just got a big update, 2.5 Empyrean Calling.

It brought all the usual things updated usually do; additional instances, items... leveling goes even faster (which was not a problem if ya ask me).
But also more interaction with pets and Advanced Graphics engine which indeed made the game look quite stunning.
And things that I either can't remember right now or am too lazy to write here.

So if ya ever have had a though about trying Aion, now is a good time.



Oh and I also got my Assassin upgraded just a few days ago...

[Herra Tohtori]

GOD  MY  OH

[Flipside]

He's a Soul Man!!

Dadadada Dadadada!!