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my 22 questions about aion
(English is not first language; so please do not be to hard on the grammar and spelling)
I would like to ask those who have played and tested the game to enlighten me a little; please feel free to elaborate your answers:)
1. Does Aion have talent trees like wow?
2. How does Aion handle level differance between players that want to group togheter(aoc had a tutoring system; wow have less XP from kills)
3. Is it possible to get to max level with questing or are you forced to kill mobs for some levels(please tell how it is now and how its supposed to be)
4. Is there a questtracker in game?
5. How well does the game support addons(like wow)
6. What pvp system is there(bgs; arena etc)
7. How much does gear impact your character power(lets say gear in wow makes your character up to 500% stronger from naked to full epic)
8. What social aspects of the game is there? (housing; guild city; guild levels etc)
9. What other than social aspects and hacking mobs is there in the game(collections minigames of some sort etc)?
10. Is there a whole new game when reaching max level(like wow) or is it limited to a couple of instances and pvp
11. Is there any recording of what you have done?(Like achevements or that book in warhammer)
12. Is there exploitation and cheating going on?(other than bots; thinking of reports from darkfall)
13. Is there few or many animations; thinking NPC animations; mob animations; attackanimations(lotro had to few at release)
14. Do they reuse the areas you explore; like having you go back to the same area for 5 quests(that you cannot do at the same time)
15. What timesinks is there? (like vanilla wow; flying from darnassus to tanaris......)
16. Moneysinks?(or does not money matter cus items are restiricted by BoP or other design)
17. How is the general economy of the game; playerdrived throug crafting and auctions or gamedriven trough questitems and vendors?
18. Do the Ai something suprice you or do you always know what they will do after getting to, say level 10?
19. Is there a working LFG system?
20. Is there private dungedons for groups and single players?
21. Seamless or instanced(please compare to other games like wow; aoc; warhammer; lotro and ddo(or other if you feel like it)
22. PvP oriented games tend to attract players with a hostile attitude; is this so for Aion?(see darkfall forum; or compare wow/aoc genrral forum to the pvp forum to see what I mean)
Thank you for your time to answer this questions :-)
Comments
I'm sorry but, how about reading the FAQ for yourself?
If you have any questions after doing so, I'll gladly help out. I'm not however going to spend 5minutes on each and every one of your 22 questions as It would take around two hours to finish them all!
Why, I'll be happy to answer all your questions but let me start first by saying......oh crap the wife is bitching. Oh well, perhaps next time.
Ignore the idiot comments above. Ask all the questions you want please.
1. Does Aion have talent trees like wow?
They are not called Talents but are similar yes. They have two things. Titles and Stigmas. Stigmas are actually objects you can quest for, buy or whatever that grant your character other abilities (Like healing spells for a tank). Titles are earned by various methods. When you activate a title the title grants you various abilities (Ups your spell damage or intelligence or ups your defenses etc). It’s actually more complicated then that but you get the idea. The main thing though is you can change these as you play to change how your toon plays.
2. How does Aion handle level differance between players that want to group togheter(aoc had a tutoring system; wow have less XP from kills)
Higher level toons receive lower XP like in WoW.
3. Is it possible to get to max level with questing or are you forced to kill mobs for some levels(please tell how it is now and how its supposed to be)
I leveled up to 43 (Mage) with 1 toon without doing any pvp or grinding. This is with the Chinese 1.0 version. Version 1.2 adds a bunch more quests beyond the version I have played.
4. Is there a questtracker in game?
Yes. The quests log in AION rocks. Holds a bunch of quests and each quest is written in a sort of Hypertext style. When you see the name of something, creature, NPC, place etc. they are clickable. Clicking on them will bring up a description or photo and sometimes maps of the person, place, or thing. The more popular the ‘thing’ the more info is available. Harder or more obscure things will reveal no real information. The quest log really rocks in this game.
5. How well does the game support addons(like wow)
Currently no addons for AION. Now as a former addon junky in WoW that was an alarm for me at first but after a bit of playing I realized it didn’t need any addons. I suspect they may add some form of addon support at some time. There is a fairly decent scripting language in the game to build macros.
6. What pvp system is there(bgs; arena etc)
Pvp is not instanced. Although pvp can take place anywhere mostly it’s done in the abyss. Pvp involves fighting against other players and the demons of the abyss. Those demons sometimes help and sometimes are against you. Sometimes they help or hurt the other side as well. I’ve actually seen them help both sides before. Go figure. There are quests involving pvp. PVP mostly involves a lot of strategy taking over or holding various locations from the 2 opposing factions. Also remember pvp is in 3d as well with unlimited flight time in the abyss.
7. How much does gear impact your character power(lets say gear in wow makes your character up to 500% stronger from naked to full epic)
Similar to WoW. Better gear helps and yes once you have better gear you can do more things and improve your gear more. But the game is not just gear oriented like in WoW. The emphasis is on the play and having fun and the lore. It’s not just a gear grind.
8. What social aspects of the game is there? (housing; guild city; guild levels etc)
Housing, not at this time although they have said they plan to add it at a later date. 3 levels of guilds, really the only difference is the maximum size of the guild really. Most of the usual guild controls. I was a guild master in WoW for many years but have no started on here so I have not actually seen the guild controls first hand so getting all this second hand. Yes you can have ranks and such. There are a lot of social chat channels and such as well. The social panel is really nice and well done. Got to love this game’s UI.
9. What other than social aspects and hacking mobs is there in the game(collections mini games of some sort etc)?
Lots of crafting and pvp, guilds, quests galore, lots and lots and lots of lore. The quests are really well done. Can’t wait for them to westernize them to see how they change the lore. Lots of collecting for selling or crafting. Can’t recall any mini games. Anyone remember any? Occasionally there are cut scenes in the game (Mini movies) to break up the routine.
10. Is there a whole new game when reaching max level(like wow) or is it limited to a couple of instances and pvp
Well WoW wasn’t really a whole new game at max level so not quite sure what your asking here. Although there are a few instances in WoW you can only do at max level there are instances throughout the game at various levels. One of the problems with WoW is the difficulty in getting groups for lower level instances though. Anyway in AION there are not a lot of instances as of yet. Only 3 actually. They will be adding more later. Most of AION takes place in the open world.
11. Is there any recording of what you have done?(Like achevements or that book in warhammer)
Ummmm there are Titles (See question 1 above). You can also see each quest you have already completed. Nothing quite like WoW’s Achievements or Lord of the rings online deeds.
12. Is there exploitation and cheating going on?(other than bots; thinking of reports from darkfall)
I suspect every game will have ways for someone to cheat. There are some people botting but I’m not sure why. There is no reason to buy gold in this game as it is not gold oriented. Gold is really easy to come buy. Gold is called ‘Kinah’ in the game right now although I suspect they will change it to ‘gold’ when they westernize the game. I’ve not found any ways to cheat in the game yet.
13. Is there few or many animations; thinking NPC animations; mob animations; attackanimations(lotro had to few at release)
Tons and tons and tons of animations. Wow this game has so many animations and they are so well done it’s amazing. All the little things as well. Just tons of it.
14. Do they reuse the areas you explore; like having you go back to the same area for 5 quests(that you cannot do at the same time)
Yes they do. Go kill 5 mobs, oh wait thank you. Now can you go kill them again to get to the main boss then kill him too please? You often find yourself go back to areas you’ve been in before.
15. What timesinks is there? (like vanilla wow; flying from darnassus to tanaris......)
Flying is fairly quick. There are two flight methods usually. One is a slow flight (Which is still pretty quick and one is a quick teleport. Those two are found at most ‘flight paths’. This is on top of the flying you can do or the running you can do and using the Return ability (hearthstone equivalent). Really no long time sinks that I can think of. There are also rifts that pen up for people to travel through as well.
16. Moneysinks?(or does not money matter cus items are restiricted by BoP or other design)
Most items are what WoW would call ‘soulbound’. Not really too many money sinks. The game once again is not money oriented.
17. How is the general economy of the game; playerdrived throug crafting and auctions or gamedriven trough questitems and vendors?
A mix of all of the above. Players also have the ability to set up mobile stores and sell things but to be honest I don’t care for it much as I really don’t want to just sit in front of the computer and wait for someone to come along to buy something from my store. Auction house works best but they really do need to add the ability to put more items in the AH. It’s really limited now.
18. Do the Ai something suprice you or do you always know what they will do after getting to, say level 10?
AI of mobs is similar to WoW for general mobs. The AI of the demons in the abyss however is much more intelligent. They will switch sides and they use strategy and such. Common for demons to stun you then run away and heal themselves etc.
19. Is there a working LFG system?
Yes a very good social panel. Work very well.
20. Is there private dungedons for groups and single players?
Very few instances although they have stated they are making many more. None oriented for single players. No crafting instances for example. Not yet anyway.
21. Seamless or instanced(please compare to other games like wow; aoc; warhammer; lotro and ddo(or other if you feel like it)
Mostly seamless. There first two zones you are in are channeled. The rest are instanced but the game loads the instances in the background so you rarely know you are changing areas. Only if you do a Return or teleport to a capital city do you see a loading screen and 9 times out of 10 you can even read the tip on it as the load screen is gone that fast. Channeled by the way means in populated areas the game will created copies of itself and move new people into those new instances. So there can be for example 10 different instances of the starting zones going at once but you can only see the mobs/people in the one you are in (And yes you ca change channels). This means you will never have 10 zillion toons all in the same starting areas although you could do so in the non starting area areas.
22. PvP oriented games tend to attract players with a hostile attitude; is this so for Aion?(see darkfall forum; or compare wow/aoc genrral forum to the pvp forum to see what I mean)
Every game has its jerks and yes we have all been ganged up on in pvp for example. One nice thing about AION is the age level seems to be a bit higher then say WoW but mostly just because every kid in the world wants to play WoW right now. When AION is released here in the UA and Europe as well as Japan and Australia it will start to get more and more immature players as more people start playing it. Count on it
Thank you for your time to answer this questions :-)
Your welcome. In closing all I can say is if you have played WoW or LOTRO or EQ 2 you will feel right at home here with AION. Also remember that all discussed here is for the Chinese 1.0 version. The game is currently up to 1.2 and we have not seen those changes on the servers we have access to yet and the game has not been westernized yet. the English patch that's out is a hack at best.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
I gotta say, thanks a TON to VABeachDave, I was getting slightly skeptical about the huge grindfest people keep complaining about, saying 85% of the leveling is just random grinding, glad to hear that at least it's quest-based grinds, which aren't bad. I prefer having direction and rewards for killing things instead of mindlessly killing things.
Definitely got me re-hyped about this game *beta 40% downloaded for this weekend!!!*
The grind thing people are posting is just pure bull or just trolls trying to start flames on the forums. There are tons of quests. In addition you also get xp for collecting things although not much. There are also repeatable quests you can do over and over again if all else fails and your lost and can't find any additional ones.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
Even two post here that support that:)
Thank you for your lenghty reply; nice to get some honoest and unbiased information.