Aion’s graphics & UI compared to WoW
In my previous post I told you about character creation in Aion and today I’ll continue describing my experiences with the Aion UI in terms of how it compares to WoW. (Click any image for gigantor version.)
Graphics
The graphics are nothing short of spectacular. The regular gameplay graphics are on par (and in some cases better) than WoW’s cut scenes. I delight in exploring to find new stunning sights and new critters. Sometimes I come around a new corner and just gasp at how amazing the view is.
Home cities
The home cities – there is only one per faction – are stunning and large, along the size of Orgrimmar. However, they are not very intuitively structured, unlike Undercity or Ironforge, but the maps are labeled so you’re never lost.
NPCs
Having said that, the NPCs leave a bit to be desired. I really can’t tell one from the other because they’re not very memorable. Also, there is only one throughline story on each faction (up to level 14 where I am) that has a recurring, vaguely interesting character. There are no Thrall/Jaina storylines, no Tirion Fordringers or Sylvanas’s (Sylvanae?).
Animations & emotes
Lastly, the character animations are entertaining. If it starts to rain and your character is standing still for a minute or so, she breaks out an umbrella-sized leaf over her head. If it’s snowing, she puts her hands up to marvel at the snowfall.
You only have about 10 basic emotes to start with – laugh, dance, greet, etc. There are more complex ones that you can buy from vendors, like a birthday song or a marriage proposal!
User interface
You can see that the UI looks extremely familiar, no? It’s a little cleaner and more compact and you can put it on the bottom or the top of the screen.
1) Standard HP/MP bars with one addition: DP. I think this stands for Daeva Points. (At level 10 you get your wings and you become a Daeva.) These build over time as you kill creatures. For every 1000 DP you get a special attack. You can save up to 4 attacks (4000 DP) or use them as you go along. Unfortunately, they take a LONG time to build up and they reset when you log off. I’ve played for as much as 2 hours and only JUST gotten to 1000 DP.
2) You get lots of attack bars: 2 sets of 4 each.
3) Your options menu and a monitor of your faction influence. Since I haven’t gotten to any PvP yet, I am not entirely sure what this meter shows. All I know is that you don’t build rep over time like you do in WoW, it’s a dynamic bar that moves during combat. Or something like that.
4) This is your flight timer. At first you get 60 seconds of flight time, longer if you glide once in a while.
5) Mini map, of course. By default it does NOT point North (the top of the map is wherever you are headed and changes accordingly), however you can change the settings to keep North at the top.
6) Optional quest tracker. This is very intuitive to use and stays out of the way, unlike WoW’s built in quest tracker & some add-ons I’ve used.
Map
The coolest thing about the map is that it has a second option. You can display it normally by pressing M, or you can display it as a transparent HUD, like the picture to the right. Very useful when you need to see more of a general direction than the mini-map shows.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Either I never noticed that you lost your DP when you logged, or they’ve changed that. In beta if you died you lost your DP, but kept it if you logged.
Either way, I find it funny that they have it reset if you log but turn around and give you a warning every hour that you should turn the game off and go do something else (if they still do that).