[Megathread] Aion

[Tea]

Well, the european f2p version was crap on crap...even though Im suppose to get a less restrictive account because I was in beta for f2p version. I hate f2p versions that are restrictive in a p2win way. Not for me.
I dont think I got higher than 5ish levels, but then I heard no pvp until you hit 20+ lvl or something, and leveling isnt that fun that I considered it worth it. I understand its some half-asian grind game but I never loved grind as in quests thats just kill this and gather that and no real meaning to it. With more spare time, more interest in meaningless grinds perhaps I would have gotten further. But I hate things, and be forced to grind and level for pvp that is my only interest.... nah. Even though I heard pvp is fun in aion... it's just too long grind to consider it worth to check out... especially in a game that's p2win where you always will have an advantage over players if you pay.

[edgecrusher]

EU version sucks...a lot. Gameforge (and all the other EU publishers) are horrible and they pretty much ruin anything they get their hands on : /

What do they sell that' P2W though? I don't remember seeing anything in the cash shop you couldn't earn in game, other than some of the manastone things that make it so it can't fail, and that's more a convenience than anything else >.>

[Lysah]

EU version sucks...a lot. Gameforge (and all the other EU publishers) are horrible and they pretty much ruin anything they get their hands on : /

What do they sell that' P2W though? I don't remember seeing anything in the cash shop you couldn't earn in game, other than some of the manastone things that make it so it can't fail, and that's more a convenience than anything else >.>

Yeah, mostly money saving. You can get consumables through the shop, or eliminate the cooldown on dungeons. You can flat out buy some of the better enchantment stones, for example, but it's not like you NEED to pay money to get the best stuff as far as I know, which is certainly true of other games. If people want a more asian more pay to win game they can go look at Maplestory, where it's virtually impossible to progress without paying at a certain point. I still love that game, too, though :x

[Whiteboard]

I still play Aion. Leveling now has a non-PVP 'server' that you can nearly get to cap on, and is almost as effortless as WoW is. I play WoW too, and enjoy both for different reasons. They're not the same game but it's close enough where adaption was pretty easy. It has some things I wish WoW had, like at-level instances designed to be soloed, and exactly two gathering methods everyone can get without locking out something else.

[Sarac]

Rift is amazing even on medium graphics the detail blows me away compacted to wow and I loved the instances so idk what u is smoking and aion is like the worst mmo to play. It was good then they descided all pvp and it fell from there

Aion looks twice as good as Rift, there is no point even discussing it as the level of detail is twice as big...The guy I'm quoting is clearly a fanboy of rift so I wouldn't take anything he says seriously. (Rift is a good game, don't get me wrong...it's basically WoW with a different GFX Engine)

That said, I played Aion and the combat was really fun...more fun than WoW (had more to do as a tank at level 20 than I did on max level WoW). Though if you aim for PvE you're better off skipping this game. Aion is a mainly PvP focussed game + it suffers from what most Asian MMORPG's suffer from and that's the leveling grind. But if you are into PvP than Aion was pretty awesome.

I'd advise you to try The Secret World but I haven't tried that myself. If you like WoW, but want a change of scenarie/theme than Rift would be the best choice for now.

[endersblade]

I tried really, really hard to enjoy Aion. But so many things turned me off. Not the least of which was that flying had a time limit on it, and that that grind was monumentally long and boring. I gave made props to anyone who managed to get to cap level in that game.

[philefluxx]

I played at launch when it was a grindy. Then I picked it up again sometime earlier this year and it was much better. Many QoL features added, quests and a ton of other things. I saw EdgeCrusherO0 say something about a bonus XP server so Im currently DL it again to check it out.

[Drihan]

Aion is a very beautiful MMO, same with Tera. SWTOR still has it's merits, but I just stick to the single player content and 4 man group content. I played Aion for quite a while, but there was just something, can't explain it, that didn't allow me to be drawn into it. A shame really, the graphic detail is very good, the instances and raids are great, mechanics work very well (a bit harder to get a grasp of compared to WoW though), and the animations are amazing. I definitely recommend trying it out, if not for the long haul, at least it will provide you with some enjoyment.

[Airwaves]

I played it at launch, was one of the funniest games I have played.... Until you got to about level 30 and relise the game was half finished and they forgot to put in more quests. Then you ended up just having to grind mobs the whole time.

[frankcrest]

nope not gonna pay for a game

[Virtua]

(Rift is a good game, don't get me wrong...it's basically WoW with a different GFX Engine)

I don't think you've played Rift. Also, to a lot of people Rift looks better. Aion is kind of goofy and trippy looking. Rift is a bit more grounded in reality and has darker environments.

[Laephis]

Aion was great for the first couple months, especially if you were lucky enough to be on the TopGoon server with all their shenanigans.

[Xeonde]

I dunno...I can't agree that Rift's graphics were good at all, unfortunately. The races were unattractive, even the females, and every spell looked the same. I played a rogue for a bit, and every ability was him moving his weapons. Then I played a Mage: Necro/Stormcaller/Warlock ... and like, Icicle, Thunderbolt and Cloudburst all had the same animation, and Raging Storm (which was a single target ability..?) had the same animation as Electrocute... I can't deal with that, it enraged me to not feel like anything was different.

I did the first two dungeons. They were boring. I couldn't get into them at all...

I hate PVP so Aion may not be for me. Sigh. Oh well back to dailies -_-

[philefluxx]

nope not gonna pay for a game

Guess you missed the part where its f2p...

[Tea]

Oh I cant remember exactly what in eu version was pay to win, but probably the dungeon cooldowns and also I think there was limts for the pvp items... dont know if you bought them for some kind of medals and then the f2p version limited the number of those you could earn. Oh forgot to add, if the game wasnt based on gear progression it would be ok but reading about outgearing in the forums, gear progression seems to be the way of the game and earning gear faster... especially if it's RNG behind loot... it's p2win if you get more chances for the loot to drop and especially if that gear is much better than gear that are "easy" to obtain. Overall also a way too restrictive game. I just hate the annoy to pay model... and it's not because I dont want to pay if the game is good. I pay if there are good things to pay for that doesnt make me better than the f2p players. Like in planetside2 that has a good model, I am premium member and also bought additional station cash but hey... Im around rank 5000 on the leaderboards and I bet many players that are above me havent paid a dime for the game. Simply the f2p models I like and I much rather support. So games like aion and star wars and I dont know... they just make me feel sick for some reason. I just think it's a shame to ruin good games or potential good games with crappy business models.

[philefluxx]

The grind isn't even there anymore FYI. Between adding in hundreds of quests to remove the need to either grind mobs or do repeatable quests over and over, and the new fast-track server which grants 50% bonus xp till level 50, it's pretty easy to level.

So I was trying to figure out which server it was and then I found this: http://gameguide.na.aiononline.com/a...t-Track+Server

Pretty neat imo, finished downloading and will be checking this out today.

[poser765]

I played Aion at the beginning, but when they added Captchas to enter when you gathered mats, that really just made me instantly quit.

Seriously, captcha to farm mats? Screw that...I detest captcha.

[Herecius]

Lookin' for something free to fill in the free time? I recommend giving Vindictus a whirl. Awesome combat that reminds me of some kindof hybrid between DMC and Dark Souls. It's a much more personal experience though for the most part, less massively multiplayer, more small parties in instances. Still great though.

[Socialhealer]

I played Aion at the beginning, but when they added Captchas to enter when you gathered mats, that really just made me instantly quit.

hah sounds a great way to stop botting but yeh sadly they've ignored the downside for people who aren't bots.

[RoKPaNda]

I don't think you've played Rift. Also, to a lot of people Rift looks better. Aion is kind of goofy and trippy looking. Rift is a bit more grounded in reality and has darker environments.

I think that was a fair assessment of Rift. It's basically WoW with a different and more realistic art style which appeals to some people more. It's one of the few MMOs that have been done correctly in recent years. At the moment I'd say as far as overall quality goes I'd put it as WoW = Rift > Aion > Others. With SWTOR constantly flipping between just after Aion and somewhere at the bottom of the barrel with each decision EA makes.

If Aion was a little more lively I'd probably play it more, but it doesn't feel very lively. That said, it's a giant step up from where it was at launch in terms of quality and user friendliness.