Q: Why did Kerb quit XI?

Disclaimer: This is a rant. Purely opinion. If you don’t want to read it, hit the little back button. In fact, if you dislike me and are still reading my entries, I must ask, “Why?”. Unsubscribe, delete your bookmark. Worry about yourself. I’m not going to waste time “defending” or justifying myself. I don’t have to. This is not “Q_Q’ing” because I’ve already put my money where my mouth is… far away from Sage Sundi’s tiny, wrinkled penis. This is merely informative. I will apologize in advance for the shitty formatting/grammar and stream of consciousness which will most likely be disorganized.

By the way, I’ll try to finish up and publish the last few dat mods I was working on before I uninstall the game.

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Lots of screenshots ahead

Soooooo started over with a new char on Siel this time! Jowah got a copy and we both joined a legion with Tay/Genko and a couple of their friends! Ended up making generic purple-haired girl with too much makeup again. I’ll work on a better char for retail, lol. Jowy is pressuring me to make a male, but they all end up looking so bad D::::::::::: All the male hair is… metrosexual.

Hope for lesbian weddings in-game! >.>

Anyway! On to the screenshots of doom!

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Not getting into FFXI shit at the moment, that’ll be another entry.

Anyway, joined Aion beta! Only levels 1-20 were available, so I didn’t get to try out any Abyss stuff or later levels. Spent most of my time just getting used to the game so I didn’t try out much grouping or PvP. Also didn’t try out crafting yet. Will give that a shot next beta weekend!

Made an Asmo ranger male but got a bit bored with him, so meet D’aww:

First impression was that the character customization is fucking incredible. You can make your character look like anything; big, small, pretty, ugly, unique, exactly replica of something, whatever.

Graphics blow any other MMO away, by far. Still screenshots don’t even do it justice. Most of these are on medium-high settings, some of the ones at the end of the post will be high settings. The world feels alive and the number of tiny details really caught me off guard; little things like mobs growling at you when you’re close to aggro range, little squirrels/rodents/snakes crawling around, wild dog-things attacking livestock, etc. The game engine runs flawlessly regardless of one or eighty characters on screen. This actually ran at a constant 30-40 fps on high settings and didn’t shit itself when I turned shadows on or went into town:

The second major difference from FFXI that I noticed was the Quest and EXP system. No more grinding the same exact 3-4 types of mobs from level 1 until cap! Everything gives EXP: quests, kills, gathering, crafting, etc. Obviously the option to grind is still there, but even grinding is better. You don’t need a group for everything, and you certainly don’t need a perfect setup. You can actually solo on any class! /shocked. Quests are separated into storyline/mission-type and random NPC “help me out” quests. Even better, the game actually gives you some info on the quest, and doesn’t just leave you wondering what to do and sitting around until someone else posts into on the wiki. Maps are actually useful and can be used to locate NPCs!

Combat is pretty fast-paced and involved. No more nuke->sleep->nuke->sleep, then resting for 3 minutes before the next mob that will never drop the item you need. Combat chaining is a refreshing break from 100 TP->WS. I ended up playing Spiritmaster, which is the summoning class. Playing a pet job that isn’t horribly broken is quite an experience. Your summon can actually tank, has voke, doesn’t do retarded shit like aggroing random mobs, etc. I’ll probably stay SM for retail launch, but might give Sorcerer a try. Dunno!

Mobs are all unique and somewhat intelligent. Beasties will try to run away and call their friends, pack animals stick together, mobs don’t chase you until the end of time. Oh, another thing– no zone lines! That was the most retardedly unrealistic shit ever. A level 5 beetle does not like like a level 30 beetle! Oh, and the crabs are way better than XI, too:

At level 10 you gain wings and get to choose a focus class from the 4 basic starter classes. You also get access to your capital city (Sanctum for Elyos, Pandaemonium for Asmodians) and teleports to the higher-level regions. At 25 you get access to the Abyss; hopefully I’ll be able to reach that during the next beta!

Overall the game is very smooth. Commands don’t get lost or delayed 15 seconds because you just used an item, gameplay is pretty balanced and not just focused on spamming the same shit. This is a PC game and not a poorly-ported console game, and it shows. You can play in a fucking window without using third-party software, and they don’t hide simple things like mob statuses or food effects…

Zones are absolutely gorgeous…

and I used to think Zi’tah looked nice.

One of my major reservations is the PvP aspect, as most of endgame is PvPvE, apparently. Never been a huge fan of that, but I’ll be willing to give it a try. At least it’s team-based. Another concern I have is the claim system, where the mob isn’t “yours” unless you deal enough damage to it, but then again the game isn’t built around claiming 21-24hr world spawns for 1% drops that you e-sucked someone off to lot on.Also not a huge fan of the UI looking so similar to WoW, but it can be customized a bit, and I guess it’s a pretty standard appearance anyway.

Actually tried out some PvP towards the end of the beta, but it was mostly just one side chasing the other around, since we weren’t attacking or defending anything and pretty much just fucking around:

Anyway, overall a great experience, for me at least. There’s 3 more beta weekends this summer. If you want to join, easiest way is to preorder the game. Poke me if you want to group up or just kill each other~

Oh yeah, and I figured out how to post HD videos on youtube, so here’s like a minute of test footage, lol:

*____Link____*

Will post more soon, been avoiding everything lately