Just Some Thoughts

I wasn't sure if I wanted to write this or not but I was bored and thought to myself: "eh, why not" so here goes. I've split this post off into sections to avoid it being some huge wall of text that hurts the eyes.

First off, I want to start this by saying thank you to the team for making this server and I am in NO WAY trying to tell anyone how to do their jobs. These are just some thoughts and/or suggestions I've had since I started a few days ago with some friends. I will try my best to keep things as unbiased as possible but I'm sure there will be some, and there are likely going to be a few things I may get wrong or just don't have the correct information for, so please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about anything. I don't mean to sound ungrateful at all in this post so if I do, please forgive me. I'll try to put things in the order that they are experienced so now to get to the point-

The Leveling:

Spoiler

Thanks to the EXP rate, this isn't a big issue although I believe quests are currently at 5x and not the advertised 10x. I can see it discouraging some newer people. Information is key here and knowing where to go definitely helps make this better. People who have played this game before will fare better here, but newer people will struggle (most people are only aware of this game or server's existence by word of mouth anyway, figuratively speaking) - not much devs can do here; people just have to learn to communicate. That being said, I still thought it was worth mentioning.

I'm not sure if only giving Gaia weapons were a great choice although it is an appreciated effort. They are relatively weak after a certain point and it can get pretty difficult for some classes. Maybe consider increasing the level of weapons given to new players. In other servers I've been on, we were given Eternal or Fabled (Dazzling Daeva?) weapons and even then, it was still a struggle at some points for certain jobs though I understand this can't be helped. I didn't mind it too much; I just wished we had something more than Gaia weapons. Also if it is changed, please consider giving 3 weapon chests to certain or all classes like Templars. Those eternal weapons are somewhat obsolete at level cap but it will make the leveling process much better. These issues become increasingly more discouraging for those that like to make alts.

The Dungeons:

Spoiler

This being a classic server with increased rates (I'm not sure what it's officially considered as), I expected to see more, and better, drops. I got better drops but more would be nice. The higher rates are what attracted me to bring myself and friends to this server. I'm not asking for everything in one kill. From my experience, it seems that loot tables are limited to a certain amount of drops (IE: 1 mythic, 2 eternals, etc). I'm not sure if this is due to coding and if it's something that can be changed, but please consider allowing more than one mythic or at least changing the entry limits of dungeons. This goes for chests that you open after looting bosses as well. I have not been able to do IS as of yet, so I'm not sure how it works with the chests from there.

This leads on to my second issue with dungeons: entry limits suck. Once you do your runs, you can't help friends do theirs anymore (this is mostly only a major problem in low pop servers). Of course you can make alts, but with the leveling process being as it is, it would take a few hours or up to 1-2 days to get one up to level just to run content. After that, it'd still have to get somewhat geared to run the dungeons. I'm not really sure what the plan is with this as I've seen some kind of VIP service to allow more entries put in this game before, but it doesn't take away the issue; it just makes it slightly better. I don't want to have to plan dungeon runs every day as I just don't have the time to commit to doing all this anymore, and if my friends that I brought to the server get shafted, there isn't a whole lot I can do about it - it stinks. I don't mind farming and grinding, I just don't want to have to wait for days or weeks to get one thing.

Also, the sooner people can get decent gear, the sooner they can get into PvP and feel like they aren't just going to get melted. This process doesn't need to be instantaneous, but it should also not take forever. A lot of people just don't have the time to commit to a needlessly long grind anymore. At some point, they're just going to choose to do other things or just not play. It would also probably make people more willing to buy more skins from the donation shop as they will finally be able to put those skins on a piece they aren't just going to throw away.

The Crafting:

Spoiler

I am on the Asmo side. I don't know if the merchants are just not selling the correct items, or if there are supposed to be different NPCs to buy designs from, but currently the only craftable scroll under 400 alchemy is the Greater Raging Wind scroll. The Greater Running, Courage, and Awakening scrolls are locked at 500p and those use anima. No one likes those. If it is intended for us to farm the designs then I don't mind, but there is no information on where to farm them as I believe they are supposed to be buyable from the NPCs in the crafting area. Please give us information regarding this. Example below:

Spoiler

DP isn't hard to get if you know where to get it, but it is kind of annoying that we don't have access to jellies mostly because of reasons stated above. As I said before, I don't mind having to farm the designs, but there just isn't enough information out there and I'd like to know from the devs here if there is some plan for this before I go and mindlessly kill a bunch of mobs. Due to this, morphing is tedious and crafting isn't complemented by it as well as it should be.

Also please let us know if the success rates of crafts have been increased or if there is any intention to. It would help with whether or not I commit time to helping friends make certain weapons. (Please do increase them AND the proc rates... the proof quests for some of these crafters like cooking are horrendous).

The PvP:

Spoiler

Scrolls are limited because of crafting issues and food is limited to the same reason. Incentives are not there, and I have heard but have not confirmed that PvEing right now in many cases is better AP. Incentives are not necessary, but would be nice. Most PvPers do PvP for the thrill, but that's not to say that incentives wouldn't help because they would increase the chances of seeing new names and new groups to fight which also increases the fun that is had. This goes back a little bit to the leveling part of my thoughts. If people can reach level cap faster, they can get into the PvP faster which is a big part of what keeps people active.

Some jobs require multiple sets to do well in PvP and with Blood Marks being the only real attainable set right now, it poses some short term problems (possibly long term depending on how this server grows). Medals right now are just not attainable to be able to complete those sets, and some jobs are just not fun to PvP on because of this. This also leads onto the next issue: sieges.

I didn't think this part deserved its own section so I'll just include it with this one. Without a proper siege schedule, no one really knows when to expect them and can't really plan for them (I read somewhere from a mod I think, that said it was in the works so this may or may not be a problem for much longer). If there is some infographic we can get regarding this, it would be nice. With the population as it is, it may be worth considering nerfing fort deities and/or gates to a certain degree until this changes.

Please also consider some other ways to allow us to get medals. I'm sure people wouldn't mind grinding the AP if the medals weren't nearly impossible to get. I don't want it handed to me. Let me PvP or do something to get them outside of the usual means.

The Manastones and Enchanting:

Spoiler

Manastones right now are in low supply and high demand. Without them, PvP is no fun for a lot of people. While some jobs thrive in an environment where no one has manastones, not every job is enjoyable in those conditions. Please either increase the socketing rate or make it not break all the previous stones on fail. Even doing both to an extent would be nice. I'm not trying to make the donation shop pointless for this purpose, but I shouldn't need to feel like I HAVE to use it, especially when it comes to comp stones which basically don't exist at this point yet with this population. As it is, it takes about 3 days or a little over just to get one felicitous socketing assuming that all the voting links work properly. This will kill any desire to keep playing for me as I love making alts and playing them in PvP, and maybe a good amount of other people too. My suggestion would be to increase manastone drop rates and do one or both of the things stated above. Possibly decreasing the cost of felicitous socketing on the shop could help too. Any of those things would be nice.

Enchanting is fine so far in my experience. The rates aren't really all that bad if you know how to use the proper stones though knowing the formula would be nice. Getting the stones is the tedious part so an increase in drops would alleviate that to a good extent.

I've played Aion on and off for years, just coming back when I was bored. I've been to many servers throughout the years and seen some bad and good decisions made so I just thought I would put some personal thoughts here. I used to play on this server way back in 2.0 when a lot of these retail rates weren't here, and it was a lot of fun because of a high population even though there were P2W elements like full ABG being purchasable. I'm a little tired of seeing all the "retail rate" servers that have come and gone. Don't get me wrong, I really do not mind doing some grinding and putting in some effort. I don't have anything against those rates; I just don't have the time to commit to it anymore. I play private servers for the nostalgia and fun, not the mind-numbing grinding and horrendous RNG we had to deal with on retail in certain areas of the game; I'd rather just not deal with it altogether. I know that not everything I've stated is something that everyone will agree on but do let me know what you guys think after reading this. It would be nice to hear from others. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a nice day!

 

Thank you for your input. I can't guarantee that most things will be implemented but we do our best to create a quality gaming experience for all of you.

I agree and we will add a third fabled weapon chest (players will use Gaia's weapon up to level 35 and then have another option).
I went through the database several times and couldn't find any fabled /eternal box containing level 10 weapons. We had no choice but to go for Gaia's, which is better than nothing.

The VIP system can't be implemented in this version but Instance Entry Boost Pack can be found on our webshop. The pack increases the number of entries for level 65 instances.

Yes, we will add the schedule later.

I believe it is possible to add them as a PvP reward for X kills as in previous versions. We will look into it.

I agree and I personally think the rate is quite low and should be increased.

 

In regards to the weapon, I can help as I have the photos of what we used in another retail server, they are really good ones as they can be used at Level 1 (while having the stats of a Lv 55 Weapon), here is the code for one of the weapons, and I'll leave some photos of how it was delivered after the character was created:

https://aioncodex.com/5x/item/100200848/




It had all the weapons, unlike Gaia Chest which is lacking like half of the options, it was good enough until 65 and to do 65 content it was ok.

 

That's a custom box as you can see. We will look into it.

 

I agreed with this sugestions ,and like i suggested in the past "Making" a map focused in pvp its a good idea to make ppl encounter other players
Idian its and option i guess