Choose my Adventure: Into Morheim
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as our two months are up, we'll do it all over again in a new game!
I don't think it's any secret that when I started this series in Aion, I wasn't having the best time. I was a bit irritated at the grind and seeing the same exact monsters every few levels. The linear nature of the quests pushing me forward on rails didn't help, either. But as you may be able to tell, I seem to be enjoying myself more and more each week. This week is no exception. In fact, I would say my interest in the game has doubled since last CmA.
Why? Well, several things. Keep reading after the jump to find out why I'm thinking of keeping my sub going even as I approach the end of my time with Aion in the Choose my Adventure series.
This week, I left the security of Impetusium and its coin grinding quests to explore the eastern side of Altgard. The Black Claw Village and Black Claw Outpost called my name, so I gave it a shot.
One thing I've noticed about Aion is that the difficulty of quests is fairly random. I was level 19 at the time I ventured in, and most of the quests I had were labeled as 17. Sometimes this means I can whip right through to the quest objective; sometimes it means I'll get killed in .0001 seconds. Needless to say, I didn't make it very far as a Spiritmaster, but when a guildie (legionie?) offered his help, I jumped at the chance.
We flew through the entire area, killing Black Claw, meeting quest objectives and taking down some of the area's most difficult bosses. By the time the night was through, I was a healthy level 21. I also was able to grab my first blue item drop from one of those bosses. It was a genuinely fun night.
From there, I was able to clean up a few remaining quests in the Calderon Hill area (although I didn't finish all of my Altgard quests yet) and make the trip to Morheim. I was excited to see Morheim, not only because it's a slight change of scenery, but I'd heard such great things about it. I've also heard that there's a less-PvP-centric zone I can visit, since PvP isn't really my thing. I may check that out.
Changes with 1.9
As promised last week, I wanted to take a look at some of the changes I saw once 1.9 dropped last Wednesday. At my comparatively low level, just about all of the major changes went right over my head, but there were a few features I noticed.
First, there are the floating quickbars. I haven't been around long enough to get annoyed by the way they were before, but I'm all about more customization for our UIs. But the thing that made me the most excited was the addition of more flight paths. You can imagine the shouts of glee (no, not the TV show) when I saw a new flight NPC standing near me in Impetusium right when I logged on. No more running back to Trader's Berth to take that flight to Altgard when that new mail icon popped up.
But beyond those very small things, I won't see the improvements from 1.9 until I hit level 30 or so. Will I make it that far? I'm not really sure yet. It depends on so much more than what I've seen so far, but I'm going to see how far I get.
Next week
So now I'm overly excited to be on a new map, but I'm not sure where to start. I've been dabbling my way through the Morheim city quests, but I need a direction from here. Luckily, I have a few readers to guide me through. Let me know in the comments below what I should do in my final week with Aion in Choose my Adventure.
Since next week is E3, the subsequent installment of Choose my Adventure won't be until the following week, where I'll be spending my final days with Aion (in this series, at least). Then you'll get to hear my final thoughts on the game, choose a new game and we'll do it all over again! Can you believe it's been almost six weeks already??
