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AION 3.1 Brings Back More Open World PvP

Mar 8, 2012 Articles Recommend, aion|251views

Sarpan and Tiamaranta are two new zones in AION 3.0 for players to level up, explore and do crafting. NCsoft makes most of the new areas neutral zone and doesn’t allow players to do pvp there and it seems that those who were complaining about free open world pvp before will be happy to see the change. However, it’s hard to please all, the change in update 3.0 dissatisfies PvP fans and NCsoft has to make another balance in AION 3.1.

Patch 3.1 has been released in Korea and might be available in Chinese server soon. In this update, PvP areas in Sarpan and Tiamaranta are expanded and the new map becomes more dangerous. Players can travel between neutral area and pvp zone by using the teleport devices in the border. More risks bring in more rewards - the new PvP zone is now more rewarding. AION players, what do you think the change will affect you?

In addition to the balance between PvE and PvP area, AION 3.1 adds a new instance for level 55-60 players. This 6-man instance offers normal and difficult versions, each of which can be entered under certain condition. Meanwhile, there are some adjustments for old instances (Tahmes, Sand Lord’s Lair, etc.) and Siege gameplay in Tiamaranta region.

AION will release update 3.0 in NA and EU soon and update 3.1 could be released later.

Tags: aion, PvP, World

Free-to-Play AION Offers Polished Leveling and More Challenges

Feb 22, 2012 Articles Recommend, aion|265views

Gameforge’s free-to-play AION is now in closed beta in Europe and today, the new publisher released a trailer to warm you up for the upcoming launch. You can find in the trailer the contents every one can enjoy in the F2P AION.

AION F2P Feature Trailer

Except for what you can see in the trailer, Gameforge teases some changes and new contents for AION(EU) such as new instances, a better rewards system, and more opportunities for leveling up through quests. There are over 3,900 quests as well as mentor system to let new players to grow up faster and easier. You can play version 2.7 at launch and have the opportunity to enter Crucible Coliseum arena while you can get your hands on new upgradeable weapons and armors. Padmarashka’s Cave for up to 48 players serves as the end-game raid in this version.

Gameforge is not only working on moving AION to free-to-play model but also preparing for the release of 3.0 update which introduces in Housing System, mounts, weather effects and so on. You can check out AION F2P website for more details.

Tags: aion, Free-to-play, Polished Leveling

Vindicuts Takes Playable Demonstrations to Attend Comic Con 2010

Jul 20, 2010 Articles Recommend, aion|695views

Nexon America will take its first physics-based action MMO Vindictus to Comic-Con International 2010 at the San Diego Convention Center, featuring Vindictus’s playable demonstrations. Nexon America will be at the Gaming University booth, #4445, with demo stations set up for the first hands-on of Vindictus offered to the public.

New Skill Play Video

Vindictus uses a modified Source Engine to enable actions like throwing, shattering, binding with chains, piercing with spears, and more. The Phase 1 of Vindictus Closed Beta will start soon. Nexon will announce the selected testers on the official site on July 22nd.

Tags: 2010, aion

4Story, 2years anniversary events

Jul 2, 2010 ArchLord, City of Villains, aion|322views

Upcoming July 7^th is 2 year anniversary of world acclaimed hybrid MMORPG 4Story, global.4story.com. For last 2 years, Zemi Interactive has been chasing all MMO fans’ dreams and trying to those dreams come true continuously. This July, they are found to be planning to take a short break on bring new dungeons and new tales and distribute unique events and mini game for the reward of fans’ so-called blind love.

Event Details -

1. The Altair and the Vega event!

Period: PST 7th of July~ 21st of July (2weeks)

Details: Collect the event drops (beads, paper, and silk thread) from all fields in Iveria and you can craft special buff items. Moreover, you have an opportunity to craft other kingdom’s armors and weapons, even 38 items.

2. Rock, Scissors, Paper event!

Period: From 7th of July

Details: Rock, Scissors, Paper NPC will be applied in each village! Bet your game money and beat the event NPC to double your winnings! It’s not all~ you can aim for consecutive winnings to claim many fabulous premium items and even some cash points!

3. Transfer merit points event!

This is a secret event! You will be able to exchange your merit points to buy 4Story Premium points.

4. 38 weapon giveaway event!

Period: From 7th of July to 6th of Aug.

For all of you who play 200 hours of 4Story and charge 200USD at premium shop of 4Story during the event period will be granted with one 38 performance level weapon of your choice.

For more information, please visit 4story global site : www.global.4story.com

Six-Month Aion Retrospective

Apr 5, 2010 Articles Recommend, aion|264views

You’ll have to forgive us if we’re a tad bit tardy with our six-month Aion retrospective. Traditionally we like to get these look-backs out on, or just before, the actual anniversary date, but in Aion’s case, we were hoping to be able to drop a bit of information (like, say, a release date) for the 1.9 patch motherlode that NCSoft is poised to unleash on the North American servers.

Alas, deadlines being what they are, the actual six month anniversary came and went and we don’t have the earth-shattering news we were hoping for. That said, there have been a few noteworthy tweaks made during the game’s initial run, and we’ve collected them for you after the cut.
Aion played a relatively conservative hand over its first six months, foregoing huge patches and ginormous gameplay changes in favor of bug fixes, optimization, and small-scale class balancing tweaks. The big news was more about the goings on outside of the game, both in the form of account issues and visions of the future.

Of bots and bans

Nearly everyone agrees that one of Aion’s major problems during the early part of its life was the number of kinah-seller bots. Many of us can recall adding five to ten names (if you can call CcchsjkerhhtWTFlol a name) to our ignore list each time we logged into the game during those first few weeks. As a result, NCSoft lowered the ban hammer on an epic scale, and, while the bot problem has not been completely eradicated, there are noticeably fewer farmers spamming the chat channels. As an additional anti-spam measure, chat channels were restricted to players level ten and higher, as was the whisper/private messaging mechanic and the character search function.

In addition to mass account bannings, a thirty minute AFK timer was also instituted, which cut down on the number of spammer store fronts. Login problems caused by private stores during the title’s busy post-launch rush were also alleviated in the process.

Changes aren’t permanent, but change is

On the gameplay front, several changes were made to the fortress siege mechanics. Among the most notable were vulnerability timer reductions from two hours to a half hour, general performance tweaks, and additional contribution medal rewards. Additionally, the first six months saw many tweaks to class skills and balance. An exhaustive list of each change is beyond the scope of this article, but a few of the more noteworthy nudges were given to Spiritmasters in the form of magic accuracy boosts, two additional skills, and the ability for their pets to fly. Other classes received love as well, including the Cleric (a buff to the thunderbolt skill) and the Templar (a hate boost for a stigma taunting skill). Smaller, but still noticeable gameplay changes included spell cast range increases, lowered defenses (but raised hit points) on elite mobs, stigma shard cost reductions, and functionality for checking your instance cool down timers.

The biggest gameplay change has, thus far, been semi-permanent. In early 2010, NCSoft began offering double experience weekends on all servers, which resulted in players flooding back to the game on specified weekends and gorging themselves on a forty-eight hour diet of grind-friendly mobs and repeatable quests. Clearly the developers have noticed the player demand for an easier leveling curve, and it will be interesting to see if they take it further (as they’ve hinted at for upcoming patches) or leave well enough alone and continue the bonus weekends.

Future perfect

While not a change per se (at least not yet), no doubt the biggest attention-grabber of Aion’s initial six months took place outside of the game itself. The title’s future potential was showcased in the radical Visions trailer, and, even though it didn’t do anything for current gameplay, it did re-kindle much of the launch period enthusiasm for the game when it debuted in November 2009.

Similarly, NCSoft’s plans for the forthcoming 1.9 patch showcased a bit of a directional change for the title in the form of lessened travel and death expenses, signs of an easing leveling curve, and new quest content and group-building tools. Finally, in a move sure to please even the most jaded Atreian cynic, NCSoft just announced a makeover and major functionality upgrade for the much-reviled official forums. Mark April 5 on your calendars for the move to the widely adopted vBulletin forum software.

Endgame

Aion’s first six months were relatively quiet when measured against the painful teething of other 2009 MMORPG releases. While there were a fair number of tweaks and balances, major revamps were nowhere to be found, in part because of the smooth nature of the game’s launch, and also because NCSoft still has a few biscuits in the oven.

Tags: aion, Retrospective

Aion’s Early Start So Far

Sep 22, 2009 aion|646views

This is what Aion looked like for those of us who managed to log in at around 12:02PM Pacific time yesterday, two minutes past the servers going live.

If you look closely, you can see my chanter-to-be Caliban, lost amidst a sea of people acting how they normally do when gathered in large groups via the internet. The server is Azphael; the side Asmodian. For the next five hours I would randomly crash three times, say the word “fuck” on at least 120 separate occasions, and eventually make it to level 9, at which point I left the newbie hubbub behind in favor of the more subdued, higher-level hubbub.

we talked about queues a upwards of seven hours long, and while I certainly commiserate with those left waiting, it almost seemed as if the servers remembered who was online in case of a crash, letting them slip right back in as soon as they returned. At least this was my experience. I’m almost positive that at one point my server went down completely, and there were a few instances of severe server-wide rubber-banding (running the length of a road and finding yourself snapped back to the beginning), but otherwise things seemed rather smooth considering the huge influx of players.

My main problem was due to the initial rush. With that many people in your starting zone, quest items will be camped, and quest monsters will be slaughtered mercilessly. At first NCsoft had 10 instances of the newbie area available for players to freely switch between, but each one was packed, causing severe quest bottlenecks, especially when the quest required players to click on one item that spawned every two minutes. It was chaotic.

Later in the day I went back through and completed some of the quests I skipped, and things seemed to have calmed down a bit. I suspect the full launch tomorrow will experience similar problems. My suggestion? Skip quests and grind, or simply wait a bit to start leveling up.

I’ve managed to make it to level 12 so far myself, with Caliban the chanter kicking ass and taking names left and right while searching for a guild that’s a little more about roleplay than most. I know, good luck with that, right? Either way, I hope to see some of you in game. If I don’t respond, I’m asleep with my face on the keyboard.

Tags: aion

Aion:The attack speed myth about Polearms vs. Greatswords

Sep 16, 2009 aion|2,416views

Unless there is something about the way these stats are read or used/applied to the weapon, I fail to see the attack speed advantage that a Greatsword (GS) has over a Polearm (PA).

Here is why I believe so.

I went through the list of every orange con weapon in the Aion armory to see how many weapons have additional attack speed as a stat.

For the PA, 11 out of the 38 weapons listed had an attack speed buff. Or 29% of the weapons.
For the GS, 12 out of the 42 weapons listed had an attack speed buff. Or 29% of the weapons.

So based on that information, it certainly appears that there are just as many PA’s with attack speed as there are GS’s.

Also, the attack speed percentages themselves are pretty much the same, usually ranging between 16 to 19% on the orange con weapons I reviewed, depending on their level.

There is of course the base weapon speed of 2.4 for the GS versus 2.8 for the PA, but it is my understanding that is for auto-attack only. Which doesn’t fire at higher levels when skill chains are being used.

So to compare apples to apples, Menotios’ Greatsword versus Menotios’ Spear, here is what I found (I wish I knew how to link those images in here);

Menotios’ Greatsword;
Attack 316- 334
Attack Spd 2.4
Physical Crit 10
Magical Acc 270
Accuracy 880
Parry 833
—————-
Max Hitpoint 264
Physical Crit 52
Physical Attk 33
Attk Speed 19

Menotios’ Spear;
Attack 241- 449
Attack Spd 2.8
Physical Crit 50
Magical Acc 270
Accuracy 780
Parry 793
—————-
Max Hitpoint 264
Physical Crit 52
Physical Attk 33
Attk Speed 19

So comparing apples to apples with two level 50 weapons the differences slice out roughly in this manner:

Average attack for the PA is 345 with the chance to go low and the chance to land high burst damage. A 6% increase in average damage over the GS.
Average attack for the GS is 325 nice and consistent.

Pa has 40 more points to crit.
GS has 40 more points to Parry, as well as 100 more points to accuracy.
The 40 points in crit and parry offset in a way as far as stat allocation is concerned. The crit is more valuable, both can be offset by manastones. So the real difference boils down to the 100 accuracy points, or if I understand it correctly, a 10% difference.

So 6% extra damage versus 10% accuracy. With a slight nudge to the PA for having extra crit instead of parry. Some people may not feel the need to add that extra parry and use their manastones for something else. Also another slight nudge to the PA for having burst damage. It’s a little easier to heal someone who is getting hit and consistantly dropping in a measured manner than someone who gets hit lightly then gets clobbered by a couple huge burst hits. Which the PA can very well do. They could be down and out before the healer can react.

That seperation in stat allocation seems consistent throughout the weapons I reviewed. So you will pretty much see the same difference throughout the weapon selelction, not just my examples. Occasionally the stats at the bottom change and accuracy or knowledge may be the stat, which mixes things up a bit, but in the attack speed debate, it is pretty clear.

So unless there is something that I don’t know as far as how the point allocations work, attack speed truly isn’t a factor in the Polearm versus Greatsword debate. At higher level weapons you are just as likely to get added attack speed on a PA as you are a GS. Even a quick review of the listed blue con weapons revealed the same information.

Tags: aion

AIon give players a preview of the system at Penny Arcade Expo 2009

Sep 9, 2009 aion|1,318views

Aion, one of the most anticipated MMOs of this year, launches on September 22nd and NCSoft was on hand at Penny Arcade Expo 2009 to give players a preview of the system, running the latest build, build 1.5. Even if some area maps were still in Korean, we were promised it would be completely localized by launch. Lani Blazier, Associate Producer at NCSoft West was on hand to show me the newest features that will all go live by launch.

We looked at the character creation screen which has two tabs. A basic tab which allowed players to select preset styles, and the advanced character customization which gave players slider bars to change many aspects of their face and body. 40 new default faces per faction were added for basic customization, as was the option to change eye color and in response to player feedback in beta, players will be able to change leg length to create some seriously short characters. There are no last names provided in Aion and no change of life name change at Ascension where player characters evolve to Daeva and gain their wings. Players may only use letters in their names. No numbers, spaces or any other keyboard characters. So characters with names like xxx222 or x@x_xxx will not be running around in Aion.

The tutorial system has also been revamped, with added video and voice-overs to provide a better newbie experience so players won’t be trying to read a great amount of text while trying to figure out how to move around, fight in Aion or otherwise navigate the day to day in game.

Class specific armor sets have been added in game to further differentiate the classes looks and silhouettes. Obtaining and equipping a full set of armor will provide full-set bonuses. The advanced stigma system will also be in game. This requires combining different stigma stones in a chain to attain the advanced stigma, and this is accessible at level 45. A 5th tier of rarity for equipment also will be in-game at launch, with five sockets in each piece.

Aion has a system of game instances which they use to provide further diversity in game content to their players. They are simply termed “Instances,” and at launch, there will be over 20 different instances. They are all tougher gameplay content that will require a group and one of the first that players access is the one that provides players training to go into the Abyss. That is, after Ascension. Players gain their wings quite early (level 10) and once they have their wings, are able to enter the Abyss. These instances will also provide chances for unique armor and weapon drops from mini-bosses and end-bosses.

I was shown the current end-game instance, the Dredgion. A Balaur ship battle ship that is accessed through the Abyss. This is high level content and is a race between the Elyos and the Asmodians to the end boss. Clearing rooms of Balaur as they progress, messing with each other along the way if they wish to, up to the end chamber. Some of these instances actually scale. Each team earns points for kills and this actually determines the rewards that drop off mini-bosses and bosses. In the Dregdion, the teams are staged and given two minutes to buff before the gates open and then it is a race to the finish where you not only have to worry about the Baluar, you have your ancient enemy to dispose of as well in order to cash in. Chambers cleared will not respawn so one team could possibly run in and behind the other to attack them.

Some of the instances are an alternate copy of the world that players are familiar with. Dark Poeta, for example, is the dark, depressing and evil version of Poeta, a lovely bucolic newbie stomping ground. There are several mini-bosses to be ganked for fun, experience and profit in Dark Poeta, but these instances are repeatable, so players do not need to clear the entire instance but may choose to clear the front areas only, especially if they do not have the three to four hours required to do the entire instance. It can be rushed through; we are told, in about two hours or less by a group that is really on top of their game. Again, the points scored determines the strength and loot table of the end boss. We cheated with GM powers, GM killed some creatures and skipped most of the mini-bosses, resulting in few points earned and a weak end-boss which dropped something equivalent to a rusty sword.

PvP in Aion takes place mostly in the Abyss. With 3-D combat, and the terrain of floating rocks in the desolation of space, the main strategy seems to be stealth and ambush, using the element of surprise. Hiding just under the lip of a rock and using your camera to pan around, players can check on enemy movement and maneuver around the rocks to best surprise their opponents. Items gained in PvP have their equivalents in drops in PvE. Although items are not geared specifically toward PvP, for example - they can be used in all situations, but as I was told, the stats on the items are designed to benefit PvP play a little more than PvE play, and vice versa.

Aion development in the US consists mainly of the localization of content previously published in Korea. Being about six months behind ensures that any bugs and balance issues are first worked out before it launches in the US. Aion launches with build 1.5 with full content to level 50 and is currently in open beta from September 6th to the 13th. Apart from some server instability issues at launch of open beta, Aion looks ready and polished.

Tags: aion

Aion: Balancing the Linear and the Sandbox

Sep 1, 2009 aion|722views

The other day, I was reading through some of the forums and I noticed an interesting thread about Aion being too linear in its game play. I thought this was an interesting topic as some people were saying that it should be more of an open / sandbox style game. While on the other side, people were expressing that they were fine with having some structure and guidance in the game. This got me thinking about what I feel an MMO world should be like.

Looking at traditional pen and paper role playing games and how a story unfolds, there might help in understanding about the right way to have an MMO story play out. Standard RPGs usually have between three and six players and one game master. The players create their characters and control their actions by telling the game master what they want to do or where they want to go and how to interact with non player characters (NPCs). This is pretty much the same with MMORPGs. Players create their characters and use the keyboard and mouse to tell the character what to do. The game master’s job, in a nutshell, is to create a story or goal for the characters to accomplish. They can use a pre-made adventure as the setting for the characters. These games lead the players from one encounter to the next to tell a story in a fairly linear fashion. Game masters that create their own world may have a game that is more of a sandbox style. Players are able to explore the world and learn about it as they go along. Both could be fun to play in their own way. With a linear style game players experience the entire story, but may not see the whole world. In a sandbox style game players may be able to see everything but not feel that they are doing anything other than killing monsters.

In my opinion, Aion is somewhere in between a linear and a sandbox game. From the opening cut scene, I got the impression that there was an interesting history that leads up to the current time in the game. As your character completes quests, you discover more pieces of the story and learn that you played a bigger role in the struggle between the Elyos, Asmodians and Balaur.

The campaign quests that you pick up through the game must be completed in order and reveal more of the story. I would agree that these quests are linear and are designed to get a character from point A to point B in the story.

For example, when your character first wakes up in the initial zone of the game and you complete the first few quests, you see that they lead you to your first campaign quest. The campaign quests, in turn, lead you to your ascension quests. Much like the pre-made adventure in a pen and paper RPG, the game is leading you through the story. If this didn’t happen you would just be running around killing Kerub and Zaifs or collecting Angelica. Yet you are not limited to just going along the path from one quest giver to the next. I like to wander around an area and see where I’m able to get to on the landscape and what areas are just backgrounds. I discovered that there were some areas of the map that I couldn’t get to, but for the most part you can explore the areas that are opened on it. Not a complete sandbox, yet roaming around was interesting.

While wandering around the different zones, you’ll find a fair number of side quests to pick up from quest givers and some random NPCs that also give out quests. For me this adds to both the sandbox part of the game and expands on the history and flavor of the story. Let’s say that I just completed one of the campaign quests and on my way back to the NPC, I kill something that drops an item that starts a side quest. I can go do that side quest, which may lead me to an area that I have not been in. I am not forced by the game to complete it. If I don’t do that quest, does it impact what happens to my character? Not really, other than maybe not getting some extra experience points or some other reward.

But these quests give the NPCs lives of their own outside of being just a quest giver and add flavor to the story. One might have you stealing a robe from a nymph that is swimming in a pond in the middle of the night while another has you collecting flowers for a fisherman’s secret love. I feel these are more of a sandbox part of the game since you do not need to complete them. Another feature that I think would fall into the sandbox side are the Flight Transporters. You do not have to walk to a new location that has a Flight Transporter in order to use it. A more linear approach to them would require that your character walk to that new location before you can use the new Flight Transporter. In Poeta there are only two Flight Transporters, one in Akarios Village and the other at Melponeh’s Campsite. When you get to Akarios Village if you want to fly to Melponeh’s Campsite you can.

I feel that the development team has done a good job of making sure that there are enough areas to explore and discover hidden things while making sure that you always come back on track so that the story of Aion progresses. For me, this creates a fun experience that will keep me playing and be watching for updates to the game that may add new content and hopefully open up areas that were unexplorable. Could it be more open, it’s possible. Is it to linear, my opinion is no.

Tags: aion

Aion Developer Journal: Five Things I Learned from Aion’s Lore

Aug 24, 2009 aion|829views

When I started working on Aion, we were staring at about two-million words…and a looming deadline. The two-million words were coherently translated into English, but they still needed significant help if they were to resonate with a Western audience. From the very first story meeting—heck, from the car ride to the very first meeting—we realized that we were doing something that hadn’t been done before. We were taking a full-fledged MMO, stripping it down to its narrative essence, then rebuilding it so that Aion’s story showed as much polish as its art and gameplay.

As I write this, those two-million words are done—“done” being a euphemism for “mostly done but still subject to tweaks, bug fixes, and all the last-minute changes you expect right up to launch.” Here are some things that what we jokingly called the “Aion Westernization Army” learned along the way.

The Player Characters Have the Privileged Viewpoint

When you think about the story of a fantasy world, it’s easy to get caught up in the big-picture stuff: the world-creation story, the rivalries and alliances among the gods, and the sorts of stories you’d find in your world’s equivalent to Bullfinch’s Mythology. But the player who made that 1st-level warrior doesn’t care how Aion came into being. How could the player care, when we haven’t had the chance to provide any context other than a short prologue video?

At times, I felt like tattooing “You care about what the player cares about, stupid” onto the insides of my eyelids. One of the first things we did was figure out when the players would be likely to care about a particular aspect of the game, then time the “reveals” in our narrative so they matched that timing.

For example, an Aion character can visit the Abyss, the game’s central PvPvE zone, starting at level 25. And the Abyss War is central to the narrative—it’s the all-consuming focus of both Asmodian and Elyos societies. We timed the narrative so that players learn only scant details about the Abyss at first—it’s a mysterious place where many of the faction’s best soldiers are, and that’s why the “home front” needs your help. As your character approaches level 25, though, we provide the context that brings all those scant details into focus. When you go to the Abyss for the first time, you have a sense of the gravity of the moment.

Show the Wreckage Left in the Story’s Wake

The blessing and curse of storytelling in an MMO is that unless a game rigidly forces you to follow a particular narrative line (and Aion doesn’t), we writers have to tell our stories without knowing what order you’ll undertake all those quests and meet those Non-Player Characters (NPCs)…if indeed you interact with them at all. We can’t mandate the order, and we can’t make you pay attention.

But that’s the trap: We writers don’t really have “our” stories. The players are the motivating force for the storytelling–the story is theirs. In Aion, we get across the overall narrative obliquely. A war-weary general may make an offhand comment about the ruins of Roah, and a historian might talk about the city of Roah as it was long ago, but it’s up to the players to put those pieces together. NPCs who say, “Let me tell you a story…” are my worst enemy. Instead, Aion has a lot of NPCs who show you what the narrative left behind on its way to the players. But once the narrative reaches the players, it’s all prologue for their experience in the game.

Respond to the “Why Don’t You Do It Yourself?” Question

When we were staring at a list of more than 2,500 quests, making them as diverse as possible was crucial. And as we read through the quests, one key East/West difference stood out. Given a typical “NPC offers you a quest” situation, Western players tend to be a lot more interested in an explicit answer to the “How come you need me to do this, Mr. NPC?” question.

In the last few months, I’ve seen our writers come up with more answers to that fundamental question than I’d thought possible. Any MMO player can come up with an approximation of our list–the Player Character (PC) is more powerful…it’s a test…the NPC has other duties–you get the idea. The presence of the answer matters more than the exact nature of the answer. Put another way, the quest writer doesn’t get to blow off that question.

Even “Extraneous” Language Tells a Story

In Aion, new players are thrust into a society at war—a society where the wolves are at the proverbial doorstep. And Player Characters are expected to jump in and contribute right away. I’ve always been fond of in media res storytelling (where the narrative begins in the middle of the story), but that meant that our new Elyos and Asmodian PCs have to learn about life in Elysea and Asmodae while they’re busy fighting, traveling, and doing all the core gameplay stuff.

Player attention is a precious currency, so we resolved early on to make every word you read count. If you play an Asmodian character, you don’t click the “Accept” button or “OK” button when you’re talking to Morheim’s brigade general. Depending on the situation, that button says something like “Blood for blood!” or “The task is mine.”

“Blood for blood!” is the Asmodian version of a military hoo-ah; it can mean almost anything in context. But its overt meaning reinforces two core Asmodian principles: an eye-for-an-eye attitude toward perceived wrongs, and the notion that all Asmodians are one big clan—all of the same blood. And “the task is mine” reinforces how seriously Asmodians take their duties. They don’t just undertake a task…they own it.

It’s just a little thing, sure, but those buttons subtly reinforce the Asmodian mindset. And it sure beats “OK.”

Write Through the Game Elements, Not Around Them

One of the things that drives me crazy about MMOs is that despite the fact that they take place in made-up worlds, the narrative tries to pretend that some of the game elements don’t exist. Character death is a good example. Many MMOs are inhabited by NPCs who somehow don’t notice that the Player Characters die, but then a couple minutes later, those same PCs are just fine.

One of the delights of Aion lore is that it cops to the game elements by making them central to the fictional world. Aion PCs can’t die under ordinary circumstances because they’re Daevas. When they take enough damage to be “killed,” they’re yanked back to the Obelisk that their soul was bound to in the first place. And everyone in the world knows that Obelisks work that way. In fact, that’s a key answer to the “Why don’t you do it yourself?” question we talked about above. The NPC answers, “Because I might die, but you’re immortal.”

Rather than asking the narrative to ignore frequent PC death/resurrection, Aion asks the narrative to highlight it. And when I’m running around Theobomos and my Templar gets killed, that makes all the difference in the world. My “death” isn’t an interruptation of my personal narrative. It’s a continuation of that narrative.

Where the Story Goes From Here

We’ll be applying the five lessons—and probably fifty other lessons my colleagues will remind me about—with each Aion expansion released worldwide. Despite the bumps along the way (some file-naming puzzles and a massive XML file we nicknamed “Cthulhu” come to mind), we know that job of reworking Aion’s narrative isn’t easy, but it’s fundamentally repeatable.

But weirdly, it’s not the story told in the next Aion expansion that I’m looking forward to. It’s mid-September, when countless players start exploring Aion for themselves. Watching those stories play themselves out one level, one battle, and one quest at a time is the sweetest reward a storyteller could ask for.

Tags: aion

AION: Abyss territory

Aug 17, 2009 aion|2,645views

In Aion, after the events that led to the destruction of the Tower of Eternity, the world of Atreia was torn apart and is now divided into Asmodae and Elysea. Between those two parts lies the Abyss, a shattered wasteland containing the remains of the Tower of Eternity, now home to the Balaur, Aion’s hostile NPC faction.

The Abyss is one of the game’s core features and represents the main Realm-vs-Realm zone. It is accessible for players of at least level 25 and requires a quest chain to be completed before you can enter. The chain is started automatically as soon as you reach level 25 and will take you to your faction’s capital city, where you have to take on a few lore-related puzzles and can then choose one out of three different tasks to complete, before you get to take a final test that requires you to prove your flying abilities. Once you gain access, you can enter the Abyss through one of the portals located at your faction’s major quest hubs (for example above Verteron Citadel or Altgard Fortress) - the portals are only reachable via flight and will take you to the main fortress of either the Elyos or the Asmodians in the Lower Abyss.

The Abyss will provide you with more quests and monsters that can take you all the way up to level 50. Although you can choose between staying in your relatively safe homeland to level up, taking the more dangerous route of leveling in the Abyss will reward you with increased experience gain from monsters, as well as a steady income of Abyss Points - which serve as both a measurement of your PvP rank and a currency for PvP items, crafting recipes and Abyss abilities. The highest-ranked officers of a faction get access to the most powerful rewards, some of them can actually transform a player and enhance his power considerably for a short amount of time, granting him additional, devastating abilities. However upon death, or when you buy rewards, you lose Abyss Points, and can even be demoted to a lower rank again.

The drawback of hunting in the Abyss is of course the ever-present danger of being attacked by the opposing faction, and the designers have done an excellent job at creating points of interest and choke points in the Abyss to bring them together. They consist of three layers:

The Lower Abyss is where you start out and where you will find the most faction NPCs and quest givers.

The Upper Abyss contains higher level mobs, more fortresses and artifacts, and can be reached by taking one of two teleporters that are located at the opposing ends of the Lower Abyss.

At the center of the Upper Abyss is the Eye of Eleshuranta, where you can fly through to reach the Core of the Abyss - located there is the biggest fortress, as well as nine artifacts.

Both factions have their own stronghold, which is the only place in the Abyss where you are safe, and where you can find quest NPCs and all the vendors you need, including trade brokers and a warehouse. There are also several portals that can take you to the most important regions of your home world or to other fortresses in the Abyss if your faction has control over them. These fortresses are - just like the artifacts - initially occupied by the Balaur and in order to conquer them, your faction has to defeat the numerous Balaur elite NPCs, overcome the fortress gate and then defeat its Guardian, a raid boss of considerable power depending on the fortress you are attempting to take. Naturally you will also have to battle the other faction for these fortresses, creating what the designers call a PvPvE environment.

Sieges are only possible once every few hours, and after the siege window is over, ownership will be locked for a period of time. Owning these fortresses grants your guild and your faction bonuses, like being able to teleport into it, access to its fortress-specific PvE-dungeon, and influencing the tax rate and prices at NPC vendors.

Although flight plays a very important role in the Abyss, and most PvP encounters will involve a lot of aerial combat, a fortress is protected by a force field that makes flight in its immediate area impossible. To conquer a fortress, legions will have to defeat the opposing troops on the ground and use siege weapons to gain entry to the fortress. If the fortress is owned by a player faction, the defenders will have to fortify the gate in order to hold it long enough to drive back the attackers.

Additionally, you can take over artifacts that are usually located near a fortress. Artifacts will grant your faction bonuses like buffs, or they provide the ability to debuff enemies or even activate a powerful magic area attack. Similar to a fortress, you must first defeat the artifact’s Guardian to be able to use it. Once you have conquered an artifact, friendly NPCs will spawn and guard it from then on.

Once all fortresses are taken by one of the two factions, the battle against the Balaur is far from over. It is uncertain what exactly triggers Balaur attacks, but they supposedly serve to help balance the power struggle between the Elyos and the Asmodians and thus prefer to attack a fortress of the stronger faction. When the Balaur attack, they do this by deploying their powerful Dreadgion - a battleship that can easily wipe out whole armies with its arsenal of weapons. It also drops a horde of Balaur soldiers onto the battlefield.

Rumor has it that this battleship is actually a raid boss, but it has yet to be defeated on the asian realms, and it is not sure if it is actually possible to do it at this time. So like the in-game tutorial says, whenever a Dreadgion appears it is better to take cover.

Tags: aion

Aion: Comic Con Preview

Aug 1, 2009 aion|1,001views

As I mentioned to Editor Jon Wood, the difficult articles to write are always about either the games in Pre-Alpha where most everything is still under wraps, and the games so close to launch that NDA has been lifted and most everything has been revealed. Aion falls squarely in the latter. I’ve seen, written and read about Aion since it was revealed to the Western audience at E3 2006 as Aion: The Tower of Eternity, and had hands-on play when it was provided at Cons. So what is it about then?

Aion, the latest title from developer NCsoft is billed as a PvPvE MMO that is being developed simultaneously by both NCsoft in Korea and the US, with Korea being about nine months ahead, and the US version localized as it develops, for the Western market. The world Aion, Atreia, resembles a globe that has been torn in half. The lower half is a lush green world as it receives the benefit of sunlight where the Elyos live. The upper half is dark, cold and arid, the world of the Asmodians. In Eons past, the two halves were joined by vertically by the Tower of Eternity and the Elyos and Asmodians were one people, but when the tower was destroyed in the thousand year war, the factions turned on each other and blamed the other for its destruction.

The PvP is one of the Dark (Asmodians) against the Light (Elyos), and most of this PvP takes place in the void between the halves of Atreia, the Abyss. Once in a while though, a fissure opens up in the world (announced in a worldwide message) and players of one race can enter the fissure to find themselves in a corresponding portion of the other – that is to say, in a level appropriate area. These fissures have a percentage chance of opening, and when they do, they remain open until a certain number of players have passed through or when two hours are up. Your only way to return is by teleporting home or dying. If you go about griefing newbies though… you may find that your teleport spell doesn’t work.

Aion is not so much race against race but faction against faction, as a third exists. The Balur live in the Abyss and is an AI controlled race which is used as a balancing mechanism. They can and will attack either race or even both, which is the reason for PvPvE: Player versus Player versus Environment – the Balur. There’s a different percentage chance that one action will be decided upon and it all depends on what is happening at the time. The Balur can decide to be your enemy or your ally, or even turn on you after assisting you defeat your enemy.

There are the usual four generic fantasy classes in Aion; Warrior, Mage, Priest and Scout, branching at level ten to two specialties, but Aion introduces flight as a part of combat strategy. A player starts their ascension quest and can ascend at level ten to Daeva status and gain their wings in a beautiful cutscene sequence, starring their own character, and gorgeous, feathery, huge wings they are too. Believably sized, glorious Archangel wings, not little bumblebee wings that really shouldn’t enable it to fly. Although you now have access to new areas, new materials on land and in the sky, as well as aerial combat and two flight-centric stats, flight is limited in time and geography. It is a statistical and strategic balancing act. Even with gear, potions or food that can increase flight time of speed, players will have to manage their flight time and decide when it is an advantage to take to the air and when it is best to stay grounded.

“In areas where you can’t fly,” said Associate Producer, Lani Blazier, “you can still glide.” I tried that out, jumping off a cliff and gliding as far as I could. “It’s a favorite pastime in the studio, challenging each other to see who can get further.”

Combat also features a chain-of-skills system. Basic attacks unlock more powerful ones on the fly so you aren’t locked into a sequence of mashing the same buttons and waiting for them to recycle. What’s better, these chain icons appear around your character so you don’t have to take your eyes away from the action to watch your hotbar.

Graphics are beautiful in this game. Gorgeous lush landscapes, beautiful details and animations and animated emotes (35 of them so far) so smooth you want to play with them again and again. That combined with cutscenes that are built into many quest sequences really draw the player in.

The customization system allows you to apply the look of one piece of gear to another that you have. At level 30 players can take the visuals from one piece of armor and the stats from another and mesh them together to create a unique combination. There is a restriction though; players can only mesh visuals/stats within the same type of material, i.e. cloth to cloth, leather to leather, plate to plate. You can apply the stats of your higher level armor and yet look like you are still wearing lower level armor if you wish. All end level characters are not going to look like every other of its own class. This makes PvP that little bit more interesting as you cannot judge your opponent by their armor. All you can really tell is that they are level 30+.

The character creator is also something that has to be seen. There are two systems – one tab provides you with 22 faces, 44 hair styles, six body types, premade combinations and allows you to change colors of hair and eyes. The other tab opens up your sliders. I think I counted 25 sliders just for the face alone.

“You can totally create yourself or your favorite celebrity in game,” said Lani. “There’s an Aion Obama loaded up on Youtube.”

So what is new and upcoming? Well, Aion is launching in the US with two major PvE content updates included due to Korean development being about nine months ahead. The Dreadgion Battle Ship is an instance in the Abyss where players will actually be able to interact with the Balur, and will feature RvR quests which pit Elyos against Asmodian against the environment as they race to the Boss. The Spiritmaster (Mage Pet Class) will have a new summons – a fifth spirit. A combination of Wind and Water for the Elyos and a combination of Earth and Fire for the Asmodians.

Finally, a Power-Wiki database will be on their website for any and all information about and in the game; Stats, game play, quests, class information, it will all be there. Aion launches September 22nd 2009 and Lani reminds us that Pre-Orders = entry into Beta and also let us know that there are some exclusive emotes in the Collectors Edition. So many games, so little time.

Tags: aion

Aion:Associate Producer Interview

Jul 22, 2009 aion|723views

Q:There are those who say that Aion has the potential to be the much-foretold WoW Killer. What are your opinions on this?

A:World of Warcraft has certainly changed the face of the MMO industry and has brought a new audience of players into the genre. That said, with Aion, our focus from the very beginning has been to create a fun and unique MMO that appeals to a global audience. We’re launching with an extremely polished game; with a ton of PvE content (over 1500 quests on day one); and we’re launching with a more western style of combat and gameplay. Combine those elements with Aion’s unique world and deep storyline, stunning visuals, and its innovative features such as flight and PvPvE, and I think you truly have an experience that will have broad global appeal. That being said, we’re very happy with the momentum we’ve seen building behind the game as we look toward its launch in North America and Europe and do appreciate the enthusiasm our fans have for Aion!

Q:Are you currently planning to have an open beta prior to the NA / EU launch?

A:Yes, we are. We haven’t released any details yet but our closed/open beta schedules can be found on the main page of our official website: www.aiononline.com.

Q:Based on player feedback from the last few beta sessions, can you give us an idea of what might be changed before launch?

A:The beta community has done a terrific job of posting their feedback on our beta forums. Between each event we spend countless hours reviewing and compiling comments/suggestions for the Korean dev team. So far we’ve made changes to the UI, grammatical errors, glossary term fixes and NPC dialogue. There are still more events to come though, so changes/fixes will be an ongoing thing until launch.

Q:What, specifically is Aion doing to appeal to both PvP and PvE style players? How do you plan to keep one side from being disadvantaged?

A:Even with well balanced PvPvE gameplay, we realize that there will be some players who prefer PvE over PvP and vice versa, and those folks will definitely have the choice to lean towards one play style over the other. The benefits and challenges from PvP and PvE are very similar - this allows players to transfer back and forth between play styles without feeling like they’re missing out on big rewards by only focusing on one.

Q:What, if anything about the design of Aion changed from the Asian market version to the NA / EU version?

A:Because the game was designed for a global audience, we haven’t had to change much at all. Our biggest effort and the most obvious changes will be in the localization/culturalization of the game. We have a talented team of published fantasy writers who have spent an incredible amount of time reworking the lore and NPC dialogue so that the content is culturally relevant to the Western market. Gameplay and all core mechanics will remain the same.

Q:In an article at IGN, they tell us that Aion has reached 3.5 million subscribers in Asia. Is this number accurate and how is this number achieved? Active, paying subscribers?

A:We have yet to release official numbers, however we are pleased with how the game is doing in eastern territories and players reception to the beta in the West.

Q:Many freshly-launched MMOs have recently done well in box sales, but suffered from severely flagging numbers in terms of retaining subscriptions. What about Aion will make players want to continue subscribing?

A:Aion can have killer graphics, an interesting and well developed story, the most robust mmo character creator system ever seen, endless gameplay customization, and it’s still going to come down to the most important question, “Is the game fun?”. Players are going to keep coming back to Aion because at it’s core it’s a fun game to play with rich beautiful graphics, solid and stable game functionality and a compeling storyline. There’s something for everybody: if you love spending hours in the character creator, you can. If you want to focus on PvE only, you can. If you want to get down and dirty in the Abyss for some PvPvE action, you can. If you’re all about numbers, there are plenty of items in game that will allow you to enhance and tweak your stats. We are launching the game that in less than a year has already had 2 large updates - we are constantly updating that content to keep it new and exciting.

Q:Some early user reviews of the game have called it “grindy.” Can you speak to the nature of “the grind” in Aion?

A:From conception the designers of Aion realized that “grind” was a major issue in games and knew it was particularly unpopular amongst Western gamers. They placed a lot of emphasis on addressing this in Aion - they understood how important it was to have tons of interesting and diverse quests accompanied by deep, fun and immersive lore. Players are going to experience everything from quick stand-alone quests to interconnecting story-arching campaign quests. We recently announced that we’re launching with version 1.5 - which means players can expect even more content than was available during our closed beta events, including many more quests at all levels.

Tags: aion

The Sights of Aion

Jul 15, 2009 aion|621views

Aion is not just an amazing MMO… It is an incredibly beautiful game, unlike any other I have seen before. The level of polish is remarkable and the game itself runs smoothly without any lag or visible glitches on an average system. I must say that I was blown away by the visual aspect of things immediately at character creation. As you can see in the screenshots, the amount of customization detail and options is staggering, but what is even more important is that these characters are stunningly modeled and animated in the game itself. I cannot even begin to imagine the time and resources that have been allocated to make the character models shine as much as they do.

As soon as you log in into the game, you realize that the entire world has been given the same attention to detail. All monster models are beautifully rendered, full of detail and truly unique from a conceptual point of view. To put it another way, you will not be hunting rats and bandits in this game. Well to be completely honest, at times you will be killing some bandits, but their unique look will keep you wanting to come back for more. The game has a multitude of unusual monsters to encounter and over the course of the week in beta I have never gotten bored of the world. Just when I thought I had seen it all, there was another surprise just behind the corner. I want to emphasize that monster animations are incredible and I was awed by the realization of how much the creatures are actually part of the world, rather than just mobile objects as we are used to seeing.

NCsoft did not stop the “razzle dazzle” with the Fauna department. Flora is equally mind blowing and the texturing technique used make flowers and plants makes them appear scarily life like. For example, I could see the white fuzz on the back of this sunflower. It was very visually pleasing and I will not deny that in the back of my mind I really wanted to reach out and touch it.

The majority of today’s MMOs tend to resort to placing humanoid character models for NPCs around towns. These are not the only kind of shopkeepers that you will get to know in Aion. This world has the feeling of a twisted fairy tale (which is fine by me just as long as I do not feel like I am playing the same old game I played for the past decade). And so my Aion general goods vendor was a bearded Amish squirrel looking thing. How can you possibly say no to this guy’s wares?

One aspect of the game that I usually find irresistible are character emotes. Aion has broken yet another visual record for me with abundance of beautifully animated character emotes. The animations look elegant and realistic. There are approximately 30 or so animated emotes at your disposal, and they can all be accessed via command line or user interface. I have spent hours entertaining myself with these and I have a feeling you may too!

Some additional character animations are present in the game, but unlike emotes these are primarily triggered by external world events. One interesting example would be your character’s reaction to weather changes. Not only are weather effects themselves extremely realistic and visually satisfying to watch, but also it is a real delight to see how your character reacts to them. In this example, a sudden rain shower had washed over the village, my little lass has decided to cover her head with an improvised umbrella made out of a leaf.

During the course of my leveling from level one to ten, I have encountered a quest which required me to speak with a guardian of the forest. At this point in the game I have experienced story line and visual effects that have left me incredibly impressed. As I was standing in the world and initiating a dialogue with what appeared to be an ancient tree, the live world frame has been seamlessly replaced with a beautiful animation that has introduced me to some of game lore story. When the movie sequence was completed, I was just as smoothly returned back to the world. Perhaps the screenshots I have provided will show my fascination better, after all a picture is better than a thousand words. I would like to add, that this kind of flawless visual flow switch happens a lot over the course of your questing and it is extremely satisfying.

Perhaps the most visually stunning movie sequences I have experienced in Aion were during my wing initiation ceremony at around level ten.

A truly beautiful scene was further enhanced by the fact that my current worn gear and my character details matched exactly to what I indeed looked like in the game itself. I would guess this is done programmatically with some real time rendering technology.

I would like to say that although Aion succeeds visually, it is by no means the only thing it is good at. The storytelling is impeccable, environments are really fun to explore, quests rarely feel boring and the game is just plain fun to play. For those who have enjoyed Guild Wars and wished it was a true MMO, your prayers have been answered. Aion has taken all the best from both genres and merged it into one amazing game experience. Aion beta has left me impressed and breathless and wanting more!<

By Vitaliy Dikker

Tags: aion, Tower of Eternity

AION:Player takes her experiences with the highly anticipated MMO

Jun 19, 2009 aion|815views

If you take away one thing from this first look at Aion, I hope it’s this: Do not do what I did, and switch between Free Realms and Aion in the same playing session. Your brain will explode. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

Aion is big in the Far East. Really big. A localized, Westernized version is coming to North America this year. The development team behind the game is so confident they’ve got a hit on their hands that they allowed people to post screenshots from the beta event two weeks ago, and the NDA officially lifted on June 16th.

So what’s it like?

There is an unholy degree of character customization. For my female warrior, I had 44 hairstyles, 20 faces, and six bodies. There were 23 “premade” face/hair combinations. There were tattoo options. And there were 25 face sliders to customize everything from eyebrows to nose tilt. And there will apparently be voice options as well, although they were not functional while I was testing. There are also body sliders. Some people pushed those sliders aaaaaaaaall the way to the right, predictably.

When you’ve finished creating your character, and you choose the avatar to be played from the character group on the beach, your little simulacrum is extremely excited to be chosen.

It is fantastically gorgeous, with thousands of little details to gorge on. The landscapes are sweeping and epic. The animations look like they were done with motion capture, and within a few feet of the opening spawn point, you’re sure to find people testing their new emotes.

There’s much more variance in terms of the differences between male animations and female animations. Even at level one, combat animations are flashy and dramatic.

On top of all this, the spawn rate during the beta event was jacked to eleven, with millions of two legged rat things and thousands of armadillo things waiting to die. I logged in for the first time within an hour of the floodgates opening. Should have been a slideshow, right?

My machine is a dual core Dell (1.86 Ghz), ,,P, with two GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS. As I’ve said elsewhere, it’s two years old, and loaded up with every MMO in existence, half a dozen RPGs, and a crapload of my secret vice, puzzle adventures. While I was playing Aion, I had my email and IM running, as well as an image editing program open to crop screenshots on the fly. I did not attempt to play Aion on the road, so I only experienced the game on a Fios connection.

If it hadn’t been for all the people, I might have thought I was playing a single player game. I never had the slightest delay at any point, doing anything, over the course of several days. I cannot name a single MMO in my experience where that was true at launch, let alone beta!

The sound was phenomenal. It was gorgeous, lush, and did a lot to create mood. It never sounded repetitive at all.

While I did not get to experience either flight or fighting other people in my three day journey of discovery, I found plenty of evidence that neither is an afterthought. Anyone following this title for any length of time already knew that, but if you’re just now catching on to Aion: Koreans do not do PvP as an afterthought. The Asian market expects it to be an integral part of the game. The game is therefore not balanced by testing the PvE, and then tested for PvP at the last minute.

When you first log in, you’re invulnerable. After you finish a fight, you remain in combat mode for several of the longest seconds of your life. These are the most basic anti-exploit mechanisms possible, and you would be stunned at how many PvP betas I’ve encountered without them. Or maybe you wouldn’t be. Anyway, it’s not just that:

The interface has elements you can mouseover to see if someone’s in range, even flying people. The layout and location demonstrate that aerial combat is something the game was built around, as opposed to added into the game to sell a few extra copies.

Questing was both a disappointment and a wonder. Here is where I warn future Aion players to not even look at Free Realms. I was finishing up my FR review when the Aion event started, so I played both titles in the same hour. I swear that FR made me stupid. I kept looking for the green dots to lead me to each objective, I couldn’t find simple objects because they weren’t sparkling like a rapper’s front teeth, and I felt vaguely let down that killing a rat wasn’t a cause for fanfare, celebration, and text messages assuring me of my greatness. Instead, NPCs were openly insulting me, accusing me of sleeping on the job, of having no honor, of not caring about anyone but myself.

I got over it, mind you, but the disorientation persisted for a few minutes. The insult routine is a little odd, from a Western point of view, but it’s stemming from a cultural ideal where newcomers must prove themselves. Respect is earned, not granted. Just relax and level up; the peasants will respect you by level five.

It’s definitely not a Western MMO, even with all the cultural localization they’ve been doing. (That localization is not complete, or was not as of mid-June. Some of it is just funny - “We will not let you wretches to take the goal!” - and some of it’s annoying, such as when the Korean word for a particular object could be either of several English words, and the NPC uses both in a single line of dialogue.) It’s hard to put a finger on what makes it foreign, beyond the obvious stuff like the heckling. And the obvious stuff like the talking ferret. What is it with Asian games and talking furballs?

Anyway. Quests. The interface is marvelous. They don’t load up your quest journal with tons of data you may not need, but all the nouns can be clicked to feed you more information:

There’s a great waypoint system as well, where your destination of choice appears as a purple X, and as an arrow on the minimap.

The first few levels of quests, sadly, were mediocre at best. The standard “save the farm, kill the rats” material. When you’re done, you are solemnly thanked for solving a problem that clearly still exists. I should have taken a screenshot of the farmer thanking me for solving his armadillo infestation as one respawned directly under his pitchfork.

There’s no attempt at even hinting at the backstory (big apocalyptic event, sundered the world, erased your memory - got that from Google!), except that a few NPCs mention that you’ve lost your memory. The early quests don’t do anything to set up the situation, or to even create a vague sense of curiosity over what’s happened to you and your world. If you have played as many MMOs as I have, you are going to spend the first hour or two with a sense of “oh, god, not this again,” and you will be strongly tempted to go back to the world where you already did these levels.

Do not make this mistake.

I finally completed this one quest, you see, as an ordinary earthbound warrior. The talking tree snapped me to a cutscene. It was a “recovered” memory, and it was wonderfully done. The environment, the music, the dialogue, it all worked together to create a sense of mood and expectation. Before I could over think it too much, my character suddenly ran to the edge of a cliff and jumped. The sense of falling was rendered so well that my physical stomach lurched a little.

And then my angel wings snapped open, and I could fly. And kill.

I haven’t wanted to play an MMO until dawn in years, but I almost did that night. That quest marked a real turning point in the game. Many of the quests I got after that were better written, and the ones that weren’t, well, I didn’t mind so much. There was a new feeling to the game, like there was something I was working toward.

Tags: aion

NCsoft Financial Results: Aion Drives Sharp Rise In Sales

May 12, 2009 Articles Recommend, aion|479views

After seeing a drop in fiscal 2008 profits, NCsoft has started 2009 with solid financial results for its first quarter ended March 31.

NCsoft said numbers were up because it was able to generate major revenues with its new MMORPG, Aion, which launched in Korea in Q4 2008, as well as maintain stable Asian sales of its flagship franchise Lineage.

Aion drives sharp rise in sales

NCsoft (KSE: 036570.KS) today reported earnings results for 2009 Q1. On a consolidated basis, sales came to KRW 133.4 billion (USD 107.7 million/EUR 79.2 million), operating profit KRW 42.5 billion (USD 34.3 million/EUR 25.2 million), and net profit KRW 33.5 billion (USD 27.0 million/EUR 19.9 million). Sales, operating profit, and net profit showed sharp escalations with an increase of 34%, 221% and 422% respectively quarter over quarter (QoQ).

NCsoft explained that substantial increase in profit was based on solid maintenance of Lineage and Lineage II sales, in addition to Aion sales. The decrease in marketing spend and the narrow increase in operating costs QoQ (6%) resulted in the drastic growth of operating profit.

By region, first quarter sales came to KRW 89.2 billion in Korea (USD 72.0 million/EUR 53.0 million), KRW 10.8 billion in North America (USD 8.7 million/EUR 6.4 million) KRW 4 billion in Europe (USD 3.2 million/EUR 2.3 million), KRW 18.1 billion in Japan (USD 14.6 million/EUR 10.7 million), KRW 3.9 billion in Taiwan (USD 3.1 million/EUR 2.3 million), and KRW 7.4 billion (USD 5.9 million/EUR 4.3 million) from royalties. The successful launch of Aion influenced sales growth in Korea and expected sales of the Lineage series increased the significance of Japan. On the other hand, a decrease in Guild Wars sales due to no retail expansion package releases this quarter led to a drop of sales in the North American and European regions.

By game titles, sales of Lineage, Lineage II, Aion, City of Heroes, and Guild Warsincreased 23%, 33%, 34%, 5% and 3% quarter to quarter to KRW 29.4 billion, KRW 41.1 billion, KRW 42.6 billion, 6.8 billion and KRW 4.3 billion respectively.

NCsoft’s CFO Jaeho Lee said, “Aion has solidified its position as a new growth force without encroaching sales of the Lineage series. Starting with its service in China in Q2, we are ready for a successful launch of this triple-A franchise in Japan, Taiwan, North America and Europe within the second half of the year.”

NCsoft is expected to carry out large-scale updates for Lineage and Lineage II worldwide in the coming months. In Eastern territories NCsoft expects to begin beta tests for Punch Monster, Dragonica, Steel Dog and Metal Black within the year.

 

Punch Monster

Dragonica

 

Steel Dog

 

Metal Black

Aion:Introduction to the Daeva-Developer journal

May 11, 2009 aion|490views

I had been clinging to the ship’s wreckage for three days, watching as one by one, the other sailors grew weary and let go, slipping into the ocean’s embrace. At first I wept, but eventually no more tears came–for what good are tears when the sea itself stretched from horizon to horizon?

The sun was merciless by day, but the nights were worse. The temptation to close my eyes, to rest just a little–that temptation consumed me. Only the sure knowledge that the current would pull me away from the skeleton of our ship kept me clinging, arms locked around the spar.

I don’t know why I started breathing so deeply just then. But with each breath I took, I felt like I could breathe even deeper–like I could just keep inhaling forever. I heard the splashes behind me, but it was several minutes of impossibly deep breaths before I realized that the splashes were my wings. The breaths–of Aether itself, I suppose–sustained my exhausted body as the pearl-feathered wings lifted me skyward from the sea. After a moment’s prayer for the other sailors, I flew toward the rising sun.
–Kartellos of Elysea

To become a Daeva is to become power incarnate–to become a power your people desperately need. Ascension–the sudden, mystical evolution of an ordinary human to a winged Daeva–is a rare gift that brings with it tremendous responsibility: protecting the humans of Atreia from those who would destroy them. The Daevas are the first line of defense against invasions from the monstrous Balaur–and against incursions by Daevas from the other side of the world.

The people of Atreia revere their Daevas almost as demigods. Many dream all their lives of ascending to join the fight in the Abyss, a chaotic dimension created by the Cataclysm. But only a scant few attain that dream.

Ascension occurs when Aether, the invisible lifeblood of Aion and the source of all life in Atreia, infuses a human–often someone undergoing trauma or pain. Feathery wings emerge, and the new Daeva breaks free from the bonds of gravity and mortality to become something more than human.

With the power of flight comes the power to control Aether. After diligent practice, a Daeva learns to use Aether to enhance learned skills and natural abilities–everything from the swing of a sword to the casting of a magic spell. During this adjustment period, new Daevas learn all the ways that ascension has changed them.

The most painful task for the new Daeva isn’t learning to master Aether, however–it’s leaving behind the friends and family from the Daeva’s human life. Most break those human ties quickly, avoiding the drawn-out tragedy of watching loved ones grow old and die. Daevas can die in battle, but they stop aging once they ascend.

When newly ascended Daevas have become proficient in bending Aether to their will, they are ready to travel to the Abyss and fight beside Daevas who ascended before them–centuries before them, in some cases. Until either the Elyos or the Asmodians win the Abyss War, the Daevas will heed the call of battle, fighting to protect both their part of Atreia and humanity itself in the name of Aion.

That morning, we all knew Master Tauvrig was going to test us. But even the master didn’t know that the Mau were lying in wait, ready to ambush a band of recruits sent up the mountain that day.

The climb was exhausting enough. First we ran, then we clambered over the stones and scree of the foothills. Then we reached arm over arm, handhold to foothold, to conquer the cliffs near the summit. I was the fourth soldier to reach the clifftop.

Beyond the corpses of the first three climbers were nearly a dozen dark-furred Mau, weapons already dripping red. Though tired, I managed to shout “Blood for blood!” before charging into them. My life was forfeit, but a moment’s delay might be enough for my brothers and sisters to reach the clifftop and make it an honest battle, not a slaughter.

I must have surprised the nearest Mau, because we tumbled to the side in a clinch–then off the clifftop completely, plummeting to the rocks below.

My next memory is floating there, just a few feet above the rocks, my ebon-feathered wings bearing me aloft. The bloody ruin of the Mau lies below me, and I hear cries of battle above. There was a sharp stillness to the air and a rapid flickering in the shadows. But in that moment, I blocked out all the strangeness–all the implications of what had just happened. I had Mau to slay. –Hjerovane of Asmodae

Tags: aion