My Main Concern

[Skayth]

I poked around a little bit in the forums and did'nt see any one really bring this up, but my only worry is the faction vs. faction thing.

It is bad ***, but I remember when there was faction vs. faction in RF Online...after a while most servers had a one sided faction.
Then at one point when i returned to RF Online, every one was acc. faction.

WoW alliance vs. horde worked quite well and then there is RF online where it sucked. Maybe RF Online sucked cause there were 3 factions, and it just happend to stack up in a certain way.

Its just something that concerns me, other then that....I WANNA PLAY

[davidmoore]

I believe the introduction of the Balaur is to help mediate the 2 factions and to keep them even. Don't worry.

[Monarch]

I'll agree with David.

One reason I am interested in Aion, is because it sounds like the devs have that nice ace up their sleeve to try and balance the sides out if absolutely necessary. They don't have to use it... but if they really need to the option is always there.

[hits79]

who or what is Balaur?

[Soraan]

FFXI did it pretty well too. They used 3 factions, and only twice in my 3yrs of playing was there so much dominance by a nation (Happened to be San d'Oria both times) there was a Bastok and Windurst alliance the next week to balance it back out. Worked well though

[Ecronyte]

Originally Posted by hits79

who or what is Balaur?

Balaur are the NPC race of dragons. They can attack both sides. Their purpose is to balance out the factions, or to just cause trouble.

[Monarch]

Originally Posted by Soraan

FFXI did it pretty well too. They used 3 factions, and only twice in my 3yrs of playing was there so much dominance by a nation (Happened to be San d'Oria both times) there was a Bastok and Windurst alliance the next week to balance it back out. Worked well though

I should point out that the game first referenced (RFOnline) had three factions as well.

The issue being that when all three are open to players, one of them has the possibility of becoming far more powerful than the other two combined, depending on where players gravitate. On my FFXI server, Windhurst pwned everyone else, regardless of what the other two did to stop it. *wince*

Of course, in this case, the third "faction" will be a computer controlled (or developer controlled, if need be) group, that will be able to balance the tide if either the Elyos or the Asmodians begin to grow too powerful.

This has potential to make this one of the only 'faction-based' PvP MMORPGs that can avoid having one faction dominate in everything, at all times. And, quite frankly, the mere idea of that makes me quiver in anticipation. ^__^

[Ipmia]

Originally Posted by Skayth

I poked around a little bit in the forums and did'nt see any one really bring this up, but my only worry is the faction vs. faction thing.

It is bad ***, but I remember when there was faction vs. faction in RF Online...after a while most servers had a one sided faction.
Then at one point when i returned to RF Online, every one was acc. faction.

WoW alliance vs. horde worked quite well and then there is RF online where it sucked. Maybe RF Online sucked cause there were 3 factions, and it just happend to stack up in a certain way.

Its just something that concerns me, other then that....I WANNA PLAY

The only content RF had was PvP ( RvR for that matter).. the game was(is) empty lack of content/depth.. no active support to balance the classes ( and make the factions less played more attractive) nothing.. basicly RF sucked in all aspects because of it ^^. alos the game is horribly designed (classes being overpowered at some lvl range and very weak after etc ..)


WoW on the other hand didnt focus on pvp.. it was there but the game isnt designed arround it .. its jsut a feature for people that like that kind of pvp (i hate it )

DAOC also has(had) 3 faction.. actually it was the first massive mmo with that feature if i m not mistaken and it worked pretty well for many years

[Meleoffs]

RFOnline's classes and races were nerf-****ed in Giga 4, the Acc's got like 2x or 3x defences, the Cora got 2x magic damage or some crap, and the Bellato got 2x ranged damage, and all races ranged armor got elemental defence -20-50% which made the cora dominate.

[Disturbing]

Yeah I guess it's kind of sad that the factions can't attack same faction. I love goign alon gwith the storyline of the game, but there can always be someone that makes you mad. I think if they wen't with lineage II style of karma system if you attack same faction, it should be fine. Killing your own faction you get the disadvantage of being able to drop your items and people can kill you for a loss of EXP until your karma is no more ( Loose karma in PvE or Death ).

Who knows.... Either way, PvP Is going to pwn in this game.

[Koji]

Planetside did 3 factions very well. When 1 faction got stacked the other 2 got XP multipliers which helped existing players gain points quicker and improve and helped new players get into it quicker. Plus with contenant locking as soon as 1 team dominated a planet. The other 2 would move to another and start there.

Planetside was truely supreme in MMO PvP in my opinion. Huge amount of players all attacking or defending a base. Was awesome!