Stuff from WAR I'd like to see in Aion

[teriyaki]

Ok, before the trolling starts, I'd like to say that I'm not trying to say that WAR is a better game than Aion or even that it is a very good one on its own. Mythic did a lot of things wrong with WAR but they also did some things right and I'd love to see them in future games and especially Aion since they do share some common themes, the biggest being emphasis on PvP and especially open world PvP.

1. Open groups. Ok, this one is very useful in WAR and imo every new mmo should have this feature, especially if it is a PvP mmo. In PvE you have the time to actually talk, advertise etc etc etc but in PvP things often happen in a matter of seconds. If someone stumbles into a large PvP situation he should be able to join the group as fast as possible and without bothering anyone in chat etc.

The system I'd like to see is very similar to WAR and would work as follows: You can declare your group as open or closed. If it's closed than people can get in only through direct invites - pretty much like normal mmo grouping. If it is open then it becomes visible in a grouping window and anyone can join by just clicking a button. Additionally you can join an open group by simply targeting a member and right clicking "join group".

Say you're flying in the Abyss and you see a keep siege going on. You want to join and simply click on one of your allies and click "join group". You don't have to waste time on chat, you don't have to bother anybody, you just join the fun. Ofc if its a guild/closed group then its another matter and it's their own battle.

2. Guild banners. A very cool concept. Your guild can design its banner which gives various buffs to allies in range. The buffs are unlocked through the guild's advancement and each guild can have its own banners favoring attack, defense, healing, resistances etc etc. Since the bonus applies to all faction members in range and not only guild people it promotes faction solidarity. When a famous guild with awesome banner comes into play everybody bunches up to get the buffs and defends the banner as if it were their own.

A banner carrier can plant the banner into the ground which makes it vulnerable to other side taking it. If a banner is carried the bearer cannot fight effectively but can push the frontline and motivate his allies to advance. However if he's killed the banner drops to the ground. Banners are huge fun and they give another layer of complexity as well as focus to PvP ("their banner is out! get it!!")

3. Trophies and silly inconsequential titles. Everybody loves them. Tho trophies (statless items you can stick on your armor) might be a bit too much bother to implement imo vanity titles (that don't carry any bonuses) could be implemented. At the moment titles bearing buffs mean that people will wear a title that is the best for their class.. which is not very good for variety and individuality. I'd love to see the titles like "The Zapped" "The Sentinel of Sanity" "The Insane" and "The Drunkard." GW had a similar system as well and players loved it.

4. Guild Alliances, if only on the level of a shared chat channel.

5. No individual death penalties. This one is a pretty controversial subject and done to death elsewhere. However I'll just say that it's proven its worth in WAR and that the fears of people "playing like idiots because they don't fear death" are pretty unfounded. The only real consequence of this in WAR is that generally players are much more willing to engage in PvP, it gets less frustrating overall and that sacrificing your character to benefit the group (or realm) is much more common. In short it promotes unselfish and even heroic behavior.

6. Very fast mana regeneration. Basically there is no mana in WAR. While this might sound weird to those who haven't tried it, it works perfectly. There are only action points which regenerate very quickly (like rogues in WoW) and mages use the same action point pool as anybody else. Once you try this system you realize that you can do without mana in a classical sense and that it's really nothing more than a tedious time sink when you have to regenerate that blue thing after combat. If warriors don't have to "drink water" after combat then why should mages? And oh yeah, it makes caster classes much more fun to play!

Well that's it then, off the top of my head.

/edit
oh, how could I forget this one? Thanks Aleria for reminding me!

7. Double targeting. This one is absolutely great - you can target one unfriendly and one friendly target at the same time (yourself included). This is a must for all healers, buffers etc etc etc. I'm still amazed how this isn't a regular feature in mmos.

oh and I didn't mention PQs and Tome of knowledge on purpose.. although great features imo it is a bit to late in the game's dev cycle to implement those. However Balaur events do sound suspiciously similar to the PQs general principle.

[niuniu]

Never really cared for any of the stupid titles in WAR, or the trophies. They had too much of that nonsense and not enough core gameplay.

The Open Groups could be good though. Very nice for levelling up in those elite areas.

[Cocidius]

I agree with all but five. That was one of the big reasons WAR was a zergfest.

[Clubmaster]

I liked WAR very much indeed, it just performed so poorly in open rvr that i had to quit.

1. This would indeed be a nice addition indeed.

2. Well the fact that abyss pvp takes place in the air most of the time, planting banners in the ground wouldn't make much sense.

3. Nice to have but not necessary.

4. will be in at some time, i'm sure.

5. there are no death penalties in pvp.

[Cocidius]

2. Banners on the back, not interfering with normal abilities, would be great.
5. The loss of Abyss points is a pretty big penalty, methinks.

[Dementia-13]

I have to agree that the open parties feature would be a nice addition

[Eldadelin]

Originally Posted by Cocidius

2. Banners on the back, not interfering with normal abilities, would be great.
5. The loss of Abyss points is a pretty big penalty, methinks.

Think you only lose a significant amount from 12? +

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by Cocidius

I agree with all but five. That was one of the big reasons WAR was a zergfest.

Nah, I don't think so... Zergfest was caused by there not being multiple objectives that had to be taken at the same time. Now when a faction pushes to lock the zone zerging is the surest way to loose it. A multi-pointed force that coordinates will always win over a zerg except when the battlefield is a chokepoint or single objective.

Imo individual penalties actually promote zerging because then players have an additional motivation to seek safety in numbers. No death penalties actually encourages risk taking. From my mmo experience the larger the death penalties, the larger the reason to zerg and gank people when you're sure they cannot defend themselves etc etc etc.

Oh and imo death penalties in OPEN world PvP are inherently unfair because open world PvP is inherently unbalanced on a tactical level, unlike instanced arenas and battlegrounds. You shouldn't be punished excessively (beyond having to respawn) just because 10 more guys joined the mofo you were "dueling" with.

[Popov]

Originally Posted by Eldadelin

Think you only lose a significant amount from 12? +

He said Abyss points not XP, if you have never been lvl25+ then you aint seen an Abyss point

[Eldadelin]

Originally Posted by Popov

He said Abyss points not XP, if you have never been lvl25+ then you aint seen an Abyss point

I has in C-Aion, but when I die in PvP I barely lose a decent amount. My rank is pretty low though.

[Livvy]

I think WAR has some nice features and at least some - in your list- would be nice to add to any new MMO ( including Aion) . I also find threads like this to very useful, listing good stuff in other MMO's worth considering for Aion .

[Aleria]

I'm surprised you left out one of the best features, the double target system. You can have a friendly and a hostile target at the same time, making life much easier for healers in assisting with spikes, CC or seeing what is the enemy casting.

[Five-Magics]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

Nah, I don't think so... Zergfest was caused by there not being multiple objectives that had to be taken at the same time. Now when a faction pushes to lock the zone zerging is the surest way to loose it. A multi-pointed force that coordinates will always win over a zerg except when the battlefield is a chokepoint or single objective.

Imo individual penalties actually promote zerging because then players have an additional motivation to seek safety in numbers. No death penalties actually encourages risk taking. From my mmo experience the larger the death penalties, the larger the reason to zerg and gank people when you're sure they cannot defend themselves etc etc etc.

Oh and imo death penalties in OPEN world PvP are inherently unfair because open world PvP is inherently unbalanced on a tactical level, unlike instanced arenas and battlegrounds. You shouldn't be punished excessively (beyond having to respawn) just because 10 more guys joined the guy you were "dueling" with.

so your saying running off the cliff and dieing so you can spawn back at camp so you dont have to run as far to get to the next ob is risk taking?

[Jetlag]

Open groups would be veryyy nice!

[Unddu]

Originally Posted by Jetlag

Open groups would be veryyy nice!

I'd actually like to see the game being tough enough for you not to want to hop on to every darn bandwagon open group around. A good alliance system would be a lot better.