by Jeff Woleslagle on Sep 22, 2009
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I'd like to say that we have some awesome Aion launch day tips
and insights for you (and we do on the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new">Aion
community site), but mostly we're still waiting in the queue.
So are many of you by the sound of it. So while we have a few hours,
let's take a look at what the server stats page can tell us about how
the head start impacted the game and what NCsoft could possibly do to
get us into the game a little faster. For that and more, check out
Loading... Queue Queue, n00b!
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"Biggest movers this past week:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/39">Dark AgeImportant
Dates
Last night I improved my server ranking in Aion in just minutes. Using
my daeva-like powers of patience I went from 1703rd to 1649th in the
queue, with only two hours longer to wait. Wait times will probably
escalate as the game goes live today, but it's really not as big a
problem as some are making it out to be. Just have your kid
/ longsuffering spouse / mailman log you in a couple hours
before you get home from work. Or, with the incredible 5-8 hour queues
we're seeing today, maybe you'd better log in before you go to work
tomorrow morning.
As
href="http://na.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=109&page=">this
notice portends, Aion has some special challenges to
complicate the queue. I don't quite get the phrase "we need to promote
characters on these [low population] servers" - will my Asmod on
Yustiel make private while my Elyos on Lumiel is still peeling
potatoes? I haven't encountered any reason to shift servers other than
the natural disincentive to wait in server queues.
But it's not just a matter of total server populations. This same post
notes that the server queue is doing race balancing too, to ensure that
nearly equal numbers of Elyos and Asmodians are in the game at the same
time. So, given the
href="http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/">server
stats, Elyos on just about all servers are a little more
likely to move up the queue faster, but Asmods have more Legions
(guilds) available to them and seem to be leveling faster. Take that as
your launch day tip from Loading. I am encouraged to see that
the pop caps will be raised as race balance evens out, but
with 97-99 percent of the playerbase under 20 and thus mostly
ineligable for PvP, I'm not sure why race balance factors in quite yet.
The server stats page also reveals some interesting insight into class
selection. The class split is remarkably similar across all servers,
with Spiritmaster and (surprisingly) Ranger classes the least favored
classes, and the Cleric, Gladiator, Templar, and Sorceror the
most popular. The Aion team wanted to make the Cleric a genuinely
attractive option rather than a healbot and they've apparently
succeeded. Fewer are opting for ranged support, and the pet class is
least popular at all. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in
the coming weeks.
The number one issue contributing to server queues in many players'
minds, and I think it's a valid point, are player-vendors. Basically,
you can convert your player into an NPC vendor and step away from the
game while your character sells items at fixed prices. It's a very
Asian game mechanic, and with the auctionhouse already live and the
thousands lined up to play, it's wholly unnecessary. If
NCsoft cannot or will not suspend the practice at least until the
server queues cool down a bit, players should be logged off after five
or so minutes of inactivity. That would allow you to set up shop during
a bio break, but not camp a server spot for long periods of time.
What else would you like to see NCsoft do to minimize server queues?
Your
thoughts welcome in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46503">Loading...
forum.
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion
General Discussion forum
style="font-weight: normal;">Still sitting and waiting!!!
Ah, server queues. Loading... touched on the issue
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74615">yesterday,
and today I'm offering up a thread for everyone who wants to discuss
Aion's long server wait times. Are server queues a bad thing?
Will
they be Aion's downfall, as some have suggested? Or are they simply a
sign of a game that everyone wants to play? And will things even out
eventually after the launch furor dies down?
For now, we're
looking at multiple-hour wait times to log into Aion's servers during
prime time. How are you handling the frustration? Share your thoughts
and tips in today's
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46472">epic
thread.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"While the server queues
and
semi-launch issues seem to be an issue now, it'll prolly work out to be
good in the long run. Best to not open up too many servers; ending up
with horrible population issues like WAR did, and have to close most of
them."
- Khalus
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
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