Primal

RL: Male, 34.

Game: 35 characters = 30 females + 4 males + 1 huge (male). One of the females has a third costume that's a Huge, but the character is intended at base to be female

I always prefer to play females in any game. I just like girls, they look better, dress better, and are to my mind far too under-represented, especially in get-hands-dirty type roles, so I make more than my share. I think of all the action and horror movies where the girl acts as victim, and in my mind most games are essentially an action or horror movie in which I can take part, so I make females that actually do what I've yelled (or at least thought) at too many TV and movie screens: "STAB THE SON OF A *****! [Or who/whatever.] Punch his throat, face, ear, eye, stomp his instep, just ******* DO something!" (Yeah, I play mostly blue-side, I admit it.)

(I may be misunderstanding the point here.) I find it difficult to play "super"heroes, and really get into them. Oh, I have a few, but don't really think about them much outside the game. The ones I do think about the most, are all pretty natural, not necessarily in specified origin, I mean that they conceivably could exist out here, albeit with less flash.

My MA/Regen doesn't do anything particularly supernatural besides heal quickly, and frankly that's just really enhanced for the sake of convenience. With some unfortunate exceptions, people can heal a lot of injuries. I think of my main like Jackie Chan, who you'll note in a lot of his movies makes a point of saying essentially "OW!"

My Archery/Energy, who'd be Archery/MA if I could help it, has precisely one out-there power, Rain of Arrows. /Energy is a substitute for "punches your face if you get close", not ideal but all we have. Sadly, we do not have "powersets" like "Aim for the head, fire, take cover, toss grenade if necessary".

Etc. I do mainly Heroes (and Villains) that are military, police, assassins, natural types. Frankly when people talk about cosmic encounters and huge events, I lose interest. Large-scale stuff just leaves me cold, I just don't make characters that can contribute much. I guess some would think I'm unimaginative and small-minded, but "big" just loses its impact quickly. It's part of why I've never bothered with fighting Hamidon, for instance.

Outside certain places, usually with BAR in the window, it sounds like you're standing outside a bar. There's a murmur of conversation, occasional glass clinking. Pretty nifty.

When influenced by the sweet embrace of Wild Turkey 101, it makes perfect sense. Apparently. Especially when one is so enamored of such that they feel the need to append the proof to the name.

I have a few to offer.





Yes, the following guy does deserve a smack. His bio was just as abrasive as his chat:



I'm...not sure what's happening here. I lose track of events about halfway through.



And finally, from the "No Comment" department:

Email sent as well. (Strange, Primal_EU joined in 2005 but has has never posted at all. Funky.)

Sweet. It took longer to come up with some alternates than it did for them to change it. Thanks Niviene (or whoever, heh.)

Mechanics-wise Aion is nothing really special. I have not played Lineage but I'm told it's rather like that, if you haven't played it either then that won't help.

For me a game is all about the combat, and especially the Chanter is a lot of fun to play. They can use mace+shield, but they really shine when using a staff, which they wield like an actual martial artist would...and I'll leave it to more knowledgeable folks to name the style. They're front-line buffers and damage dealers, with fewer healing spells than Clerics but more offense. Awesome solo, as you might expect, PvE anyway.

PvP is a big part of the game, and frankly I haven't made it there yet. It really begins in the mid-20s. Supposedly, PvP is dominated by Sorcerers, the ranged damage dealers (think Blasters) and Assassins, Rangers close behind. Melee takes it in the shorts, and the Spiritmaster (pet class) is pretty much just screwed until very high levels, as they have only a few offensive spells and the pets are mostly ground-bound. Though some patches are on the way, and who knows what they'll bring. I haven't heard much about the two Priest classes, Cleric and Chanter, in PvP. There's a large PvP zone, the Abyss, but enemy forces can and do come through Rifts into regular areas and can attack people at will, although there's a system to discourage doing that for very long.

It's damn pretty, the world of Aion, and pretty friendly to PCs. Mine's probably 4 years out of date, and it runs Aion just fine. Biggest problem with the game is the fighting over spawns and resources out in the world. There's a particular quest-chain Asmodean side that ends with needing a particular spawn, a boss in a cave, and it's notoriously camped. Not unusual to hang around there waiting for it to pop up, and then it gets murdered out from under you by some high-level, or a random spawn aggros you whil you're waiting, and some other dude just waltzes in and takes your kill while you're preoccupied. Growl.

Crafting is time-consuming and expensive, frankly, I didn't bother much with it. You can buy some materials but others will need to be found in the wild or in auctions.

Dunno about registration date, but post counts can be hidden, or at least moved a screen deep. On some other forums using the same software, you have to click on the person's name to see their total post count.

It'd be fine with me if it was all totally made admin-view-only, if that's possible. Rep, post-count, reg date. It'd get rid of a lot of the BS.

(Answering seriously even though it's a joke.) Aion's hair IS animated. I don't recall if long hair blows in the wind all the time, but doing something active will make it swing. I know my pony-tailed Ranger's hair flips over her shoulder when she does her little intro-spin on the select screen.

Of course, the engines are rather different too. I suspect we won't see animated hair unless we see an engine overhaul. Ghost Widow's famously flowing hair is essentially a cape if I understood it correctly, and it only looks passable (not even that good) with that hairstyle.

Another rule is that at least every other day, the same topic must get a new thread, the same people will eventually get involved, the debate will go back and forth just like it did in the previous threads, and nothing will ever get "solved" because both sides are positive they are correct.

Of course, rule 3 is that someone will be along shortly to point all this out, again, and it'll last until the next thread starts up. 'Round and 'round she goes.

I think footy for Aussies means rugby. I've been known to be wrong occasionally though.

I don't care for the split-up boards either, myself, not just the one for "Oceanic" types but the Euros either. It all fosters a sense of little groups, not a community. To me, better for people trying to organize some time-specific event to note the time zone, if it's that limited a thing. But hey, if people ask for an enclave, who am I.

Hmm. In life I'm scatterbrained, ADD-ridden, high-strung, manic-depressive, with a tendency to observe quietly and then speak. I have tons of acquaintances and just a few friends, but for those friends I'll do anything. I like helping people, preferably in a way that allows them to feel they did it themselves. I don't need or want fame or great wealth. I regret that I didn't join the military back when they were hard at recruiting me (and these days I might be a bit old), I have a soldier mentality.

I play mostly Scrappers, especially ones with soft control. I also play Controllers and Dominators, as my preferred style of attack is to render an enemy a non-threat then eliminate them. If this game had some FPS-style mechanics, i.e. headshots, I'd play an Archery Blaster exclusively.

...Basically, I have no idea how to answer this question, do I?

New format took a bit (i.e. a day) to get used to, and some Bookmark fixing, but I prefer the new boards now. 'cept for the NA tag, but that's temporary supposedly and it's really minor.

Frankly I didn't care for the "zoom to what the boards consider the newest post in the thread" thing, because it was very rarely the last post I had actually read anyway. Many times I had never clicked on a thread at all.

I've seldom had the need to go to the main site from here. Just not much of a problem for me.

You can multi-quote people. Too, if you want to address someone directly and aren't satisfied with it looking like a general reply to the thread, you can just quote them.

Color scheme is fine with me.

And I like the Euro-NA integration. I like that a lot, the most of all in fact, it breaks down the barriers. New perspectives, new people, one big happy family and all that.

New forums are okay with me. No timeouts or lost posts at all, issue-free.

Judging from the reminisces I see from former EQ players, here and elsewhere, apparently there really are people who enjoy spending a great deal of time just preparing to play the game. Who spent hours of uneventful traveling and waiting so they could get to whatever would finally make them money and/or experience. Or maybe they didn't actually enjoy it so much as endure it with gritted teeth, and now they're considering themselves leet and moaning about how soft players are these days. Could go either way.

I don't mind repetitive if the combat system is entertaining and/or there are drops involved (enhancement drops count too), but lengthy travel time is something I don't care for, especially when there's no story reason for it. If I'm in Peregrine, there better be a darn good reason why the mission is in Perez, otherwise I get annoyed. Office buildings and caves can be anywhere. I don't do AE, but I can see the temptation.

Aion is doing very well for itself so far, and when it launches in NA I think it'll do well too. More money for the parent company is (usually) nice for all the children too.

PK, I hate to tell you this, but "busted" is pretty much a direct synonym for "caught" in America too, at least where I'm from, and I'm pretty sure it's widespread. The police can bust you, and the owner of the cat can bust it for eating...whatever the heck that is.

It's hardly obscure slang. In fact, YOUR definition is a new one on me.

My Ogre, SS/Will, rather heavily Oblivion-inspired in background:



And I think my Axe/Fire Brute (yes, both are Brutes, oddly) counts:



I had the idea of an evil demonic-looking warrior, something Conan might see as one of his more exotic foes, who wound up in our world after being banished. (I should note that both of these are in the teen levels, and as such are wearing their prison-issued garb still.)

I bought the Science pack for the sole purpose of letting my Claws/Dark Vampire have her "War Form" finally. She's quite a petite and unassuming (aside from the glowing red eyes) 5'3"ish in her regular form, and a 7' Huge Warwolf-thing in that billowy Magic cape when angered. I know it's a huge cliche but it looks cool enough to me that I don't care.

I have at least two other characters who'll be getting a big demon form as a final "costume".

Note that none of this is me arguing against (or for) anything:

I'm indifferent to bases, and anything to do with SGs.

New T/SFs mean nothing to me, regardless of level. I've barely bothered with the ones we have.

I do not participate in AE at all, so I'd like to say anything that happens there stays there...but of course it's changed lots of things in the game and will continue to do so. Theoretically though I'm indifferent to it. Make sense?

I don't care what sets happen or not for Tankers. I don't play that AT.

I'm neutral on a moon zone, underwater, and outer space.

Big "meh" about new Purples or PvP badges.

You know that spawn-size selector a lot of people are swooning over? I'm not one of them.

Most PvP topics don't have anything to offer me.

Dual builds? I have zero need for them.

...Believe it or not, there are plenty of things I'm interested in. I know I sound like a real wet blanket.

If it was $25 sure, $30 why bother. I am really looking forward to Aion but nothing else of NCSoft's really grabs me. Well, at least until Blade & Soul, but who knows if we'll see that stateside.

Edited: This thread got me thinking about why I haven't checked out Dungeon Runners, and now I'm downloading it. Perhaps I should change my vote to Yes on the NCPass.

Well, bummer. Was in the mood for some Bots/TA action tonight.