Maybe we need AIon Classic...

[Bittena-DN]

So unless your buried deep under a rock.. a very large rock you have been at least hearing about reactions to Blizzards WOW classic.  Post cata I ended up switching over to AION because WOW ceased to be a challenge.  AIon gave me the challenge back and it was every bit as difficult as original WOW (if not a little bit more so!).  I remember that period.. getting to level 20 was "OMG I'M LEVEL 20!" and every milestone on the way to the level cap mattered.  Mobs were tough, grouping was necessary and world PvP was everywhere.  You could get ganked at as moments notice (that part was a bit over the top and did get nerfed down somewhat. A minority of the player base was good with it, most did not like it because there was no fair chance to even get away in most cases much less win.  It was a problem.)

Todays Aion is a cake walk all the way to level 6o with gear being a gimmie and and it's all about the end game..  In retrospect this is not a very fun system 'cept for those that all ready got the goodies.  Before the gimmies started happening though there was a period, a golden age of AION where I mr. crap at the key board managed to work up to general rank doing PvP in a legion where we picked every go getter we had heard that had been rejected by the greater community and turn them into a PvP force to be reckoned with under Evilparaguns.. (You may recall him with a fond hate.. We all had gotten so much crap for so long we just didn't care anymore.. and went out in righteous fury and made a place for our selves).

So NCSoft... I know it's been said before and suggested as some sort of AIon classic (certainly whats running on private servers world wide should be a CLUE).  So maybe there finally is a place for an official AIon classic and a chance to take the lessons learned over the last several years and make a better Aion.. and if ya gotta retcon a few things.. do it.

To the regular lurkers go ahead and comment all you want.  I don't follow the forums any more and I wont be getting any notification on replies to the thread.  I don't play Aion any more because there's no challenge.  There little feeling of accomplishment on the way to the level cap and the current system in spite of the gear leaves player woefully unprepared for the end game because they never have to actually test their skills on the way up the levels so they get to cap and have no clue what to do.     

I recall back in the day players literally whining about "How grindy AIon was"  Yet the reality is it was never anywhere as grindy as WOW was.  You never had to spend 20 minutes to an hour getting from A to B for a quest or to discover a new zone.   

I loved playing AION back in the day.  it was visually stunning, fun story lines, epic struggles everywhere.  Today... not so much.  And it seems other then a hard core of players there just not that many of you playing.   Actuall new players are far and few between.  Is the game dead? No. Your still playing so the game is not dead.  But I remember there being many many servers for the NA region and now you have.... 3.   Maybe, just maybe looking to AIons past may save its future.

Bittena sends

[The Secret Cow Level]

Aion Korea used to have a classic server, known as "Master Server" during the 4.x days.

But it had major differences:

• Failed attempts at equipment enchant resulted in destruction of the item.
• Greatedly increased exp requirements for the last few levels below the level cap

Aion 5.0 was essentially modeled after the Master Server.

The Master Server was no more when 6.0 arrived over there, and converted into a standard server like the other servers. It was said it was due to the lack of developer attention being paid into it. Those who have the most powerful master server equipments were handed out the same compensation gear (Zenith / Winged Champion) as the live servers did.

Master Server was never enabled on NA or EU during their time of existence.

[Squid]

The number 1 difference between Aion/NCwest and WoW/Blizzard is less cheaters.

In theory you can have a great time in classic Aion however the reality is everyone will still be botting they will still cheat upper/lower forts to get AP to get gear so they can have a advantage to camp farming locations to yell out "Your literal rubbish uninstall already". Aion has and always will play like a survival game where making others quit so you can get care free progression = fun gameplay. While this is actually a great system it lacks longevity.

WoW on the other hand goes back to its roots where players want to play together systems in place where your forced to play with bad players if the bad players have a bigger group then you and are stealing all the quest mobs. They also actively ban botters and especially cheaters. When was the last time you heard of cheaters surviving long enough to compete for end game gear in WoW? 

We could go through all the major points but you have to remember one thing. Aion is a WoW clone. Aion got released with all the conveniences that classic WoW is removing. Quest hubs/LFR and w/e it is they are removing.

 

But since your not gonna come back here to the forums anyways no real point in typing any more reasons as to why classic Aion servers would flop but WoW classic will not.

[GenericUser25154]

No. Thanks for passing by, though.

For real now. We don't have the numbers nor would have the numbers for yet another server. People say they would play Aion classic and all, but we all know that nobody has time nowadays for that shitty grind.

I know I don't. Back then I had no wife or children, I barely had a job (6h/day). I could play for 10h straight if I wanted to. Today I can barely play 2 or 3 hours. And I think that this is the case of most Aion players today.

You say gear is given out? Have you at least tried enchanting and promoting you gear at all? It takes 4-5 months to get endgame gear if you don't P2W. I don't think that that is fast at all.

About WOW classic. I give it 6 months for the nostalgia, then it will die out. Again, nobody has time to grind for hours nonstop nowadays.

[Kubei-DN]

A master server wouldn't save Aion from its current condition. It would bite the dust within months if not weeks. The current patch can be improved on but NCWest simply refuses to do so. For example, how come we get 1 run for IDD (2 if you have prestige I believe) yet KR/EU/RU have 4/4? And let's not talk about GST, BCM and the xform durations.

Simply said, NCWest has zero interest in keeping this game updated and active. They know it's on the verge of death, they're just waiting for the final blow.

[The Secret Cow Level]

Ragnarok Online (International): Classic server (Pre-renewal) is shutting down.

"Unfortunately due to the age of the server software, we can no longer support the Classic server. "

That server had been basically been running on old server software, along with players connecting to it using old version of the Ragnarok client (Missing lots of features in the renewal client). The renewal client is not compatible with the classic server. All without the support of the developers in Korea.

They are going to attempt to perform character transfer to the main (renewal) servers if technically possible, but there are no guarantees in case if they couldn't find out a way to migrate the characters data form to renewal.

Even if possible, the gear are not transferring. The only thing would transfer would be character levels, but even then that would be basically useless because pre-renewal has a level cap of 99, while main server has level cap of level 175. Look at their exp chart.

[The Secret Cow Level]

In the last few months of playing Ragnarok Online I used to play on that classic server. Then I moved to Aion here when Aion was on version 3.5.

That server (population) died rather quickly.

[Shayded-KT]

I do have time to endlessly grind, semi retired working 2 days per week. I stayed loyal for the most part to this game until 6.x. There was always something for me to do, as boring as some may think, it was different things for me. Crafting, trying to solo instances running dual client. Started the day with OW, Dredge, then kamar all of which I loved to run. Abyss forts, lowers back in the day and upper forts near the end. Didn't afk forts I enjoyed them. All that taken away and crammed onto basically one small map with nothing to do after the first day and one Fort?....or is there more not sure. Miss Gelk forts. At one time I was running 4 accounts all with prestige and would make new characters just for the sake of....well because I enjoyed leveling them. Guess I am different maybe that's why i still use a flip phone and play PS2 games... on my pc....because its different. Getting too old I guess. Have a great day gonna go raise my cooking craft.

[Cheesecake-DN]

We barely have enough people for the servers we have. A classic server (and what era do you want as your classic server? 1.9? 2.7? 3.7? 4.7?) would last three months and then meet the same fate as Ereshkigal and Beritra (bad patches aside, people get really bored/distracted really fast). WoW has had millions of players to nostalgia bomb with. Aion NA has never been so blessed, and most people, if they did come back, would play up until about level 40ish, if 1.X era, and then realize how little kinah you have vs cost of skills where you couldn't buy most of your level 40 skills, the lack of run speed boots (unless you like grinding the nyerk out of krall molars and the Asmo equivalent or ground out the mats for the crafted ones with the added bonus of having to get the recipe you needed to get expert + proc the expert crafts), where blue gear meant you were geared, gold gear made you a god, miragents/fenris was the shit to have but was gated behind RNG and grinding for those stupid boiling balaur blood stains, twinks would two-shot you to where you couldn't level, and the grind from 45-50 was a soulcrushing Korean grindfest.

I liked 2.7 if superclassic era and 4.7 if more recent, but neither one will hold players for long, especially with the abysmal management NCK and NCW have thrown at NA.

God, didn't mean to rant as hard as I did. 1.X just wasn't the be all end all that people nostalgically think back on, and it wouldn't hold up in 2019. 2.7 had an okay balance with everything, and I loved the armor skins of 2.X, lol.

[GenericUser25154]

I don't know why people think it's fun to grind... I'll never understand. I mean, endlessly grind mobs. It's one thing you do some instance over and over, and another thing to not even be able to run that instance lol.

[Squid]

1 hour ago, KonkersGG-EK said:

I don't know why people think it's fun to grind... I'll never understand. I mean, endlessly grind mobs. It's one thing you do some instance over and over, and another thing to not even be able to run that instance lol.

Grinding mobs involves far more then just grinding mobs(in many games). It all boils down to player interaction. That is why people love grinding mobs as it allows for player interaction from both your own factions/guilds and then the enemy guilds/factions as well.

[GenericUser7527]

Aion Classic sounds like a good idea until you realize that it'd still be handled by NCWest and thus succumb to the same problems that led to Aion's current state. 

[Neleth-KT]

Holy cheese o_o another topic about Aion classic.

-First of all I completely agreed Aion Master server basically became Aion 5.0 but I wouldn't considering master server as a true classic since it has many changes as moomoo mentioned.
-Second I don't think anyone miss hard leveling of 5.x or 1.x I miss 3.0 most because it's a patch where everyone was here NC still care about us there as no dps meter,everyone was welcoming and most important we still have scrolls without nasty transformation.
-5.x bring good things too such as luna caft and custom chain skills but they removed luna craft so it's kinda dull
-People miss whole 4.0 patch not a single map like Katalam the lastest Korea update telling us they don't understand what we missed.
-Aion can't get new players if I'm a producer of Aion I'll try to get old players back and best way to do that is launch Aion 3.0 classic where it had the highest pop and create alternate 4.8 as another timeline if the classic proven successful.

[Cheesecake-DN]

Aion 3.0 was big because that's when it went ftp. 

[Neleth-KT]

To say 3.0 was big because f2p is a bit too much underestimated 3.0
It's true f2p helping popularize of 3.0 but the patch itself good too.

Aion 6.0 was f2p in Korea but it's not big because patch 6.0 suck.

[Cheesecake-DN]

3.0 wasn't good until 3.5-3.7, by which point most of the starter crowd had left, when most instances were doable in your group had half a brain, kahrun gear wasn't an RNG grindfest to get, and gear in general was attainable.

[Aieryn-DN]

Hi,

Been playing since Aion's release. Call me crazy but my fav was 4x. I really loved the instances, scenery, and I never got bored. There was plenty to do even if your friends weren't on and you were solo for the day. Just my humble opinion.

[Kubei-DN]

There was even stuff to do in 5.x and that's considered a bad patch lol. 6.x just takes the cake on the crap scale.

[Matsukamy-KT]

4.0 was crazy at the beggining. Doing Sauro was just lol.

I think the best one was 4.5, or maybe one of the patches before it.

The creation of Harmony arena, and ID made the game more interesting. And I loved panesterra as well.

[Cheesecake-DN]

I lean toward 4.5 and maybe 4.7 being the best of the 4.X series (nyerk 4.8 and everything about it). :<

[Heuo-DN]

Honestly, I would like a classic server in NA region but its going to get messed up by NCsoft if they do it Best patch for me was 4.x  - 4.7(exluding 4.8 because game went boring  during that patch)

[Matsukamy-KT]

1 hour ago, Cheesecake-DN said:

I lean toward 4.5 and maybe 4.7 being the best of the 4.X series (nyerk 4.8 and everything about it). :<

Well, the late patches before 4.8 were good untill they created levinshore and kaldor.

[Aly-DN]

And @Neleth-KT and I agree once again! Not another "Aion Classic" thread!

It's funny how people see things differently. I played through all the incarnations of Aion and even though I look back at 1.5/1.8 as they best Aion had to offer, it's only because there was still joy and mystery in it all. Looking back I can admit that the grind was terrible, perma-rifting was soul killing and the freaking imbalance at end-game was turning the community into mindless potatoes. Every patch since then has had it's good and it's bad parts.

And I never thought there was anything glorious about a legion that spoon-fed players to be come transforms when they were wearing unenchanted, un-manastoned and not even complete sets of basic bloodmark gear. Talk about throwing kittens into a blender. Never seen so many people die so quickly after xforming.

Bottom line.. we don't have the numbers to support another server of any type.

[Ksara-DN]

The classic is good, but that will not help because the classic will also suffer from the current administration. In addition the classic version will split the few remaining players and will not bring the old players back.

Now, we need to speak the truth.

The truth is that the game has lost its essence. The story and the elements that made this game a huge success are gone and they do not want to and will not bring it back.

People like me ... Resist, but there is a limit.

We try to be faithful to the game even with all the problems, even with the NCS ignoring our requests and suggestions, but there is a moment where the actions of NCS are stronger than our resistance and today... we have reached the limit.

One of the characters in my family was suspended because we were playing together. Side by side. There are two computers using the same IP on a LAN network and this was interpreted as suspicious. One of our accounts was suspended.

We opened a ticket and it was solved, but we discovered that the problem happened because of PROXY. Unfortunately the PING reducer prevents cooperative play. If we do this one of our accounts will get a new suspension.

After 10 years playing AION this was the first time something like this happened.

For some reason now is the PING reducer is a villain. 

To block the reducer of the lag is more important than all the other problems in the game. So if we can not play AION as a family, our days at AION are will... End game to us.
 

[The Secret Cow Level]

Aion Korea used to have a classic server, known as "Master Server" during the 4.x days.

But it had major differences:

• Failed attempts at equipment enchant resulted in destruction of the item.
• Greatedly increased exp requirements for the last few levels below the level cap

Aion 5.0 was essentially modeled after the Master Server.

The Master Server was no more when 6.0 arrived over there, and converted into a standard server like the other servers. It was said it was due to the lack of developer attention being paid into it. Those who have the most powerful master server equipments were handed out the same compensation gear (Zenith / Winged Champion) as the live servers did.

Master Server was never enabled on NA or EU during their time of existence.