How to improve Aion Classic and attract more active players?

[Squid]

1 hour ago, Nalariel said:

There're many levels of surviving. If you cut all arms and legs only body and head left could considering as survive as well but I'm talking about surviving with full body not just the head.

This was exactly my point but this is different to that because it is about money and when money is concerned they will keep it open so long as it is profitable for the publisher. So it will not thrive but it can survive.

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I'm not saying all paying players are not important, I saying massive stuff p2w like candy needs to be gone. How else people making money with all drops removed ? You would rather have drops and making kinah than buying candy and make kinah right ?

Who ruins the game more that 1 player that buys 1 billion kinah through RMT that can buy w/e they want when ever they want or those 50 players who buy 10 candies and sell them every day who can buy 1 enchant stone every 2-3 days giving the market time to recover? The answer is obviously that 1 player that buys 1 billion.

I was making anywhere from 25-100m daily depending on how much Access denied came across and yoinked 5 dot insane kishar mobs from me. People were selling candies for 80k EA giving people a 20% profit i was selling my items at a 30-40% profit so people were just buying the whites/greens from me instead of buying candies from players. Beyond that judgement weapons were selling for close to 2.5m instant sell and you would get up wards of 20 of them a day on a great day.

You could as a subscription player make money if you played the game and knew the money making locations. When i quit i bought out the broker of level 45 golds 800m+ worth and just extracted all of it then gave away all the stones to friends. Players who were lazy made no kinah because they were lazy. f2p players make no kinah period so their PoV was a non factor.

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If you can't see important of survival of free players then don't ask or complain why servers are so dead. You can do everything in the world but Aion classic won't alive as long as you discarded important of free players.

I understand the theory behind the survival of free players but the reality is you can see the outcome of the lack of interest in Aion in the NA region w/o them. Having another 300 f2p players playing Aion does not put Aion in a healthy state you need close to 2000 players to bring it back.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Squid

[Tron]

Offer a cheaper sub option that has limits ( 3-5$ gets you 3 hours of siels a day) - This is something NCwest should be capable of doing with their toolset. 

 

Allow F2P players to do quests and get the rewards but not allowed to loot dropped items. This is something NCwest can not do with their current toolset.

 

Promote PVP videos, Fort Sieges and streamers to bring players back and entice new players.  This is something NCwest can do with their current toolset.

[Inactive]

Well, one of the reasons why the game is dying is because they market to toxic people.  The main thing bringing toxic players in is the P2W. They also go beyond that and market appearances that are inherently toxic such as https://i.imgur.com/1BjnMY8.jpeg. It's like they are supporting toxic behavior.

[Avator-KT]

May I add another issue is that a -significant- portion of our players are EU and can't participate in half the content?

Can't we have another tiak window earlier in the day?

Sieges a bit earlier? Even for east coast NA.. divine from midnight to 1am is maddness

 

 

[Squid]

15 hours ago, Avator-KT said:

May I add another issue is that a -significant- portion of our players are EU and can't participate in half the content?

Can't we have another tiak window earlier in the day?

Sieges a bit earlier? Even for east coast NA.. divine from midnight to 1am is maddness

 

 

Tbh i would love to see a time change before i see another nerf. @Rin plz take this in to consideration.

Edited May 2, 2022 by Squid

[Inactive]

Not like this is all that is wrong with Aion Classic, but they could increase the amount and frequency of shard drops permanently. Shards are usually at 1,200 kinah each.

[Funkula]

Hi everyone, 
Just a reminder to keep it civil and avoid attacking each other.  I've removed a few posts.
Regards.

[marikazan-KT]

Some glaring issues i see for any new or returning player.

Due too low population and most people now at 50.

Skill Books and Stigmas are in ridiculously short supply,there should be a vendor or Event leading up too 2.0 launch.

I saw a inescapeable judgment go for 20 Million Slashing Winds 10 million plus ,new players cannot compete with that same as Stigmas high demand ones are rarely on broker.

Group Content a lot of campaigns do require groups too complete it takes hours to get groups for quests and dungeons,who wants to play in a empty MMO.These end campaign quests should be made so they can be done solo,since the population is unlikely to ever recover.

We have had loads of Experience Events and also double AP so why still refuse to put in 100/200% Experience and AP amulets into shop permanently?

Also AP amulets why not increase ones for a hour like before even with 100% weekends it takes hundreds of thousands of AP to grind out a basic 30 elite set.

Gear drops while im all for running dungeons players want too see gear progression,running any dungeon whether it be FT or  other dungeons simply to get a Extendable which is a given for pvp is not enjoyable and just makes people quit,and again at 50 players hit the paywall because a lot dont have half a billion kinah to drop on a weapon.

I was really hoping Korea would of learnt from its original release and fixed the issues that saw the game bleed thousands of players in the first few months,there was a lot of opportunity here to make this game sustainable with some minor tweaks before its release yet they are always done after the games lost players it makes no sense when it was preventable.

[Tasoulaaaa]

@marikazan-KT  With 2.0 there is a stigma merchant and the 42 skill books can be purchased in the class skill trainer.

The way to save the game isn't to put exp and ap boosts in the cash shop permanently with more pay to win, But the ap weekends should be permanent as when the event was active the abyss felt alive again.

The drop rate for gear is fine as it should take a while to get the end game gear, with drop rates of lower lvl dungeons should be buffed for 2.0.

In kr atm they have made Sr a solo instance and u can get a full Sr set in 3 days with a wep from then u go on to udus then besh.

My major complaint is the low drop rate of Goldstone, world golds, balic mats and stigma shards they need to balance the drop rate for the na server as we have a lower pop.

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Tasoulaaaa

[Tasoulaaaa]

I do agree with you that the campaigns should be soloable with the herion quests are nasty if u don't have a competent group for the last 2

[marikazan-KT]

11 minutes ago, Tasoulaaaa said:

@marikazan-KT  With 2.0 there is a stigma merchant and the 42 skill books can be purchased in the class skill trainer.

The way to save the game isn't to put exp and ap boosts in the cash shop permanently with more pay to win, But the ap weekends should be permanent as when the event was active the abyss felt alive again.

The drop rate for gear is fine as it should take a while to get the end game gear with rates of lower lvl dungeons being buffed with 2.0.

In kr atm they have made Sr a solo instance and u can get a full Sr set in 3 days with a wep from then u go on to udus then besh.

My major complaint is the low drop rate of Goldstone, world golds, balic mats and stigma shards they need to balance the drop rate for the na server as we have a lower pop.

 

I dont really think the droprate for gear is fine when players can do a 100+or more runs and not get a weapon that is not fine.

As to AP amulets i hardly think they are massively pay2win most players are 50 now and have 50 elite or 40E,adding amulets even for use by players 45 and lower only would give them a much needed boost to at least farm a starter pvp set.As i stated to even farm a full 30 elite set armor,accessories and weapon is hundreds of thousands of AP and even with event buff your only getting 140 AP per kill on guards which also stupidly diminishes as you rank up taking even longer.

Since we dont have a population like Korea whereby pvp is abundant at all levels and people can earn decent AP then farming guards is the only path for new or returning players  who want a set before working on 50/40 elite.

As too stigmas and skills something should be done asap,its difficult to be effective with your class if your missing major stigmas and skills because they are not available due too nobody farming the instances anymore and lack of players around in low level zones getting drops as they level.

Eitherway we are all entitled to our views and at this stage i have very very little faith in our NA team implementing things anymore,experience dealing with na has taught me that.

Edited May 2, 2022 by marikazan-KT

[Tasoulaaaa]

It looks like when we will be getting 2.0 where most of your concerns will be addressed. Eg stigmas and skills books from venders.

If we start getting ap boosts in the cash shop it will turn alot more ppl off aion with ppl wanting more skins and dyes and not boosts.

With 2.0 ap is just handed out on a silver plater with 4 new forts, eso, tiak, dredge and 1.0 forts we will be swimming in ap.

You have to remember as well the na team doesn't do much development as most of the changes come from kr as looking at what they have will most likely come to us.

I have been farming for 40e on my glad in the last few days on the lowers there are maybe only 5-10 ppl that I see farming that fort and most if not all of them are alts of mains since it it just better to hit 50 and start doing dredge, tiak and forts for ap

 

[Cyfur]

Because AIon Classic on the North American servers is an international audience not just American, there should be 4  Dredge sessions per day at 6hr intervals, and 2 Tiak sessions at 12hr intervals to cater for the other time zones.

[Tasoulaaaa]

I was just thinking about there should be 2 tiaks to better serve the na, eu and oceanic players

[Murderhobo]

So, no one has any ideas for attracting new players?  I mean all the ideas and hope for 2.0 is good for existing players who want to make an alt, but I don't think that is enough to draw in new players.  This game has two components story and pvp.  The issue is that the story is now hidden behind a pay wall, so what is there to this game to get a new player?  Most people now a days have cellphones, the games there can be a person's first interaction with gaming.  Now how many people have bought something off one of these handheld games and regretted it?  I have, I bought an upgraded weapon on a game and after the purchase I learned I had to clear three more levels just to use the darn thing.  Now take that experience and look how Aion works.  The new player is playing and after the first hour the game stops them from picking up items that are only for the NPC.  You wouldn't fight the birds for feathers in any part of this game except the NPC wants them.  So now you are having flash backs to when you bought that weapon and can't use it!  First impressions are everything and F2P people do buy in eventually if they like the game enough...I did until recently.  So from a new player point of view why would you pay to do something from the story line? Or to farm money?  You need both but you have to pay to do either, so why bother playing the game at all?  This is why you will see a new player on for a little bit then see the message in chat "What does it mean I can't pick up items at this time?".  We respond with "It means you need to buy the Aura."  and that player may or may not decide to quit the game entirely.  

If you want to bring in new players let them be able to pick up quest items and farm white gear and kinah again.  There was no need to hide these bare basics behind a pay wall other than NC is trying to force the subscription on people.  Cultivating new players is a balancing act.  You don't want to give everything away, but if you give nothing away then your player base shrinks to the point where only the end gamers are left and that is where we are now.  You can't even complete the fruit collection at the first level now without the aura so why would new players waste their time or money on a game that is sliding into the P2W category now? 

[Cyfur]

I have been playing Aion since 2009, and one thing I have noticed is there is hardly any decent gear for sale on the brokers compared to 12years ago. eg. I can't remember the last time I saw a Zap weapon. Something has dramatically changed compared to the original Aion, and I like to know from NCsoft what they did.

[Nia]

As a returning player I'd like to see:

• Leveling survey items available to more than one character. The leveling support items are really useful, but for those of us who haven't settled on/geared a main yet, it's painful to have everything locked to one character.
• Kinah for skill books please  It gets painful around level 40 with how expensive everything is.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Nia

[marikazan-KT]

14 hours ago, Cyfur said:

I have been playing Aion since 2009, and one thing I have noticed is there is hardly any decent gear for sale on the brokers compared to 12years ago. eg. I can't remember the last time I saw a Zap weapon. Something has dramatically changed compared to the original Aion, and I like to know from NCsoft what they did.

This is a huge issue for all players.The point of any game is too see Gear and character progression.My legion mates told me many dont see a glad geared until they have Bakarmas spear.When i read about players doing hundreds of runs and getting nothing it just turns players off playing a class and the game overall.

Not all players can drop half a billion on their weapon,all the issues that have been raised in multiple posts are all the same issues that were a problem back in 2009 poor droprates and lack of character progression.

Droprates and even craftable weapons for certain classes are overlooked this time round again making  you undesirable to groups for Pvp.

Before 2.0 drops they should consider the following for at least 2 weeks prior.

Double droprate event across all dungeons and world bosses to help people gear for 55.

Double AP everyday for 2 weeks prior.

Double Experience everyday for 2 weeks.

Another crown event for all players 40 and lower for logging in.

As much as i like classic at least in retail getting weapons was far easier all those event with weapons that could be sold was a huge boost for many classes,and you can say its pay2win but its not any different to what is happening right now AP feeds, gear feeds,even accounts being bought, all progression can be bought.And  when a game makes getting gear so hard to obtain people will get desperate and buy it.

 

[Cyfur]

Bonus weekends only highlight the structural problems in the game, they don't fix them.

Gear inequality has always been the downfall of Aion.

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Cyfur

[Nalariel]

@Squid Squid you probably right about surviving.

I checked this news https://mobilegamer.biz/nintendos-mobile-games-are-about-to-hit-1-8bn-in-lifetime-revenues/
It showing fire emblem heroes making nearly 1 billion when download is only 18m.

I guess Aion probably going more solo oriented.
It's funny you guys paying more less players in game.  If you guys want more players you have to pay less lol.

[Squid]

7 hours ago, Nalariel said:

It's funny you guys paying more less players in game.  If you guys want more players you have to pay less lol.

I got a bit of a story here for ya, I use to be a P-server owner for a game called Ark: Survival evolved. It was on my own server in my house but it got really popular, To the point where i was spending more time being an Admin than actually playing on the server which created a situation where they actually offered me money to stop playing and go full time admin or hire people to be admins on the server. Anyways long story short i was making about $1200 a month with 250-350 people playing the server. As people started quitting those who were left started donating more money out of fear the server was going to shut down so i went from $1200 to $2500 a month despite having less than 70 people playing on the server at that point. Due to going back to the official servers due to the main release i no longer wanted to be admin.

In the end i gave people who were around for the 3 months before i shut down the server a refund because simply because it was people spending out of addiction and fear of losing their progression rather than spending to enjoy the game. 

It genuinely still mind boggles me to this day how people can start spending so much purely out of fear of losing something in a game world.

[Forthyn]

On 5/1/2022 at 10:53 AM, Tron said:

Offer a cheaper sub option that has limits ( 3-5$ gets you 3 hours of siels a day) - This is something NCwest should be capable of doing with their toolset.

Honestly, I agree with the above in the sense there really does need to be a cheaper subscription option. This game isn't worth $15/mo in its present state. Even Final Fantasy XIV has a cheaper subscription option for those who don't want full character slot access — the only difference between their $12 and $15 sub is having additional characters on the same server. Their Legacy subscription is $7 a month

Free Trial users should be able to collect quest items. Period. Or allow Free Trial to be in place until a character reaches lv40
Some may say, "But... the bots!" What about them? All limiting drops for Free Trial has done is decimate actual players wanting to enjoy the game and, by extension, choke supply on the broker. Level 30 balaur drops are over 200k on the market board. It's obscene 
 

[Ponci]

Shutdown current server and release new one with truly free to play model.

[Tasoulaaaa]

2 hours ago, Ponci said:

Shutdown current server and release new one with truly free to play model.

Lol that's insane everyone would quit if that would happen what about ppl that were farming for 9 months to get the baka spear and the next day it was shut down and relaunched, ot just got full 50e and that happened.

Also what patch would it start at? 1.2 then we would have 1 more year of patches.

[Cyfur]

7 hours ago, Ponci said:

Shutdown current server and release new one with truly free to play model.

It didn't work for Aion Retail why would it work for Classic? Retail has less online F2P users than Classic.