Comments on: Aion: Sweet Relief or T3h EZ Mode?

By: Another Aion Blog

Another Aion Blog — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:37:44 +0000

[...] of the game, came to AION’s defense, not only in the comments section of my post but on his blog as [...]

By: Rer

Rer — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:04:44 +0000

I look forward to it sir ^_^

By: Mojeaux

Mojeaux — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:01:31 +0000

Ok, I followed your link to the poll Rer, and in it I see Tamat, the community manager for AION, posting that the double xp DOES NOT apply to quests.

Soooo…. what does that tell us? I don’t know what it tells you, but it tells me that in order to get the double XP that most of your readers here are saying is a good thing, they will in fact have to… that’s right, GRIND more mobs in order to get it.

How, I ask you, does this alleviate the grind my friend? It doesn’t! In fact, what it does, is encourage you to find the highest level mob that you can take on by yourself and then guess what? Kill it over and over again.

Swing by my blog tomorrow, I’ll have a new post up that goes into more specifics about why I think this is not a very well thought out plan by NcSoft. Hell, the above alone should make that pretty obvious.

By: Keinermacht

Keinermacht — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:28:02 +0000

Yes, something needs to be done about the XP in Aion. There’s a reason you haven’t heard from me or any of the other old CotNS folks in a while… we are STILL grinding. Up to 42 on my Templar last night and it took 9 nights of 3+ hour sessions to get that single level

No, double XP weekends are not the long term solution, I agree with you here. It’s just postponing the pain from level 20 to level 35. Also I think it will screw with the economy by further jacking up the price of low-end gatherables (who is gonna bother leveling up their gathering to 200 on their super-fast journey to Eltnen/Morheim?) and reducing the supply of fluxes, etc.

I suppose the double XP weekends will be a fine time to make some more bank alts…

We in the former CotNS are coming to the slow realization that the Aion “endgame” such as it is really begins at 40… the further you progress through the 40s the more of the interesting mid-game content (Fire Temple, lower Abyss forts, etc.) you get “soft locked” out of due to loot disappearing when you kill mobs 10 or more levels below you.

The game is still fun to me however and a great way to pass the time until Guild Wars 2…

By: Raim

Raim — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:17:08 +0000

I am one of those guys that plays WoW and attempts to play Aion. I haven’t played recently due to the grind leveling. Although Rer and I may not see eye to eye on all matters Aion and WoW I have to say that I think we are on the same page here. I don’t mind a challenging or even long trek to max level. The thing that perturbs me with Aion is that I simply don’t have fun grinding packs of mobs over and over again. Playing the game should be fun, not a chore. It can be fun and hard, maybe even fun and grueling, but not the way Aion currently has it set up. Or at least that is what I think, to me grinding leveling is nothing more than a lack of content.

By: Dean

Dean — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:47:47 +0000

As a non-Aion player (played in beta…hated it) and kind of a “casual” when it comes to MMO’s, I think that accelerated experience is almost never a bad thing. The only time it’s a bad thing is when you don’t give the player an option to throttle it back if they so desire. The people who like to rush will rush no matter what, and the people don’t, won’t, or will rush through the crap they don’t like. I’d really like to see an experience slider of some sort instead of an off/on button (like Vanguard or EQ2). Give the player the choice.

By: I wish I had thought of that. :How To Play Warhammer Online

I wish I had thought of that. :How To Play Warhammer Online — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:22:21 +0000

[...] (who’s recently switched sides to play Elyos!) wrote an article about players perceptions of NCSoft’s new implementations of some XP boosts in Aion. [...]

By: Solvanirn

Solvanirn — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:32:45 +0000

Forgot to add that accelerating the lower levels will not really do anything to change the ‘grind’ later on. I just see it as a small bandaid fix.

By: Solvanirn

Solvanirn — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:31:04 +0000

I really wanted to enjoy the endgame of Aion. Getting there was the problem. When I do have time to play I usually do play around 3-4 hours at a time. What I felt in Aion was the problem was the lack of options, you hit X level, then did this, or go do this dungeon for 6 levels. I really loved the Training Camp levels as I could do one of those quick, then hit up a couple of quests and almost level. I could never really solo effectively in the abyss as I was lower level than most. I also had a huge problem with the no level cap in the abyss or even in the portals to the zones where you were supposed to be ‘safe’. Nothing was more frustrating than to have a level 40 sorc running around the 20-30 zone insta nuking everyone. Same with the abyss, but this was covered in another article as there no real incentive to stop one lone ganker who was messing up your mojo (aside from calling in guildies).

The other problem I saw was the real lack of enthusiasm for grouping in the abyss, even in the face of the ‘enemy’. I was a healer and didn’t get squat for healing outside of a group…why should I save you when you can’t even accept a group invitation. Such is the price for all healers in a pvp game although I never saw that problem in WAR. In the open RVR areas where I quested if there was trouble I could almost always get a group to help out. Maybe it was just a different mind set or player base than Aion.

I really love the idea of scenarios in WAR and wish there was more of a lower level PVP area/arena (not WoW arena, but more a small group battle arena 5v5 or 15v15, etc) before 25 as that is the whole ‘endgame’. Who knows if something like that will be implemented. I would also want a little more variety for a choice of zones or instances. If you were a certain level, you had to do this (having a hardcap for instances can be extremely frustrating, especially if you wanted to help out, but you would be a exp vacuum).

By: Rer

Rer — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:26:39 +0000

Yeah, I agree with you Grok. Once I hit 37 the grind went into full force and content just wasn’t interesting. While this specific change may not be that big of a deal, its important to note: “While we’re committed to providing a permanent solution, our long-term plans require development time.”

I personally infer this to mean “We are adding more content”. I could be very wrong in this respect, but I suppose we will find out soon enough.