The Aion Experience

Hidden patch improvement...

2009-10-01T09:56:00.002+10:00

I'm not 100% sure if this came in with the Patch 1.5.0.8 or was snuck in some other time, but it's pretty cool. For those of your brave (or silly) enough to remain in the public chat channels, you can now block the annoying idiots without too much effort. Instead of having to type /block , you can now right-click directly on the players name and select to block them.

Small, but very handy feature. Especially for the people who create their names by sneezing and headbutting their keyboard.

Patch Notes 1.5.0.8

2009-09-30T12:34:00.000+10:00

Aion will during the next maintenance period receive a new update addressing a couple of common game and localization issues. We are right now focusing on getting rid of critical game bugs and polishing our French and German versions of the game. Keep reporting issues and bugs as you encounter them through the appropriate channels, and we will track them down and squash them as quickly as possible.

Patch Notes: 1.5.0.8

Dredgion Instance Maps now show in correct languages
Item comparison tooltip has been rearranged
Gender Tags for title will now show up appropriately in FR and DE
Fix to Auction House where some users were not credited correctly for crafted items

FR Language Update:

Fixed Abyss Maps
Fixed LC1 map
Various terminology changes
Corrected various punctuation and spelling errors in dialog and quests
NPC Audio fixes
UI fixes for FR language
Bug fixes/grammatical edits for Item descriptions
Various translation corrections in dialogs and quests
Various cutscene text/audio issues have been fixed

DE Language Update:

Fixed Abyss Maps
Fixed Sanctum map
Made various map name changes in Altgard and Morheim
Various terminology changes
Corrected various punctuation and spelling errors in dialog and quests
NPC Audio fixes
Various Skill books have been edited for grammar and consistency
Various cutscene text/audio issues have been fixed
UI fixes for DE language
Bug fixes/grammatical edits for Item descriptions
Various translation corrections in dialogs and quests

A Basic Introduction to Professions for Rangers…

2009-09-29T22:15:00.012+10:00

In Aion, there are six different crafting skills: Alchemy, Armorsmithing, Cooking, Handicrafting, Tailoring, and Weaponsmithing. Unlike WoW, there are no limitations in Aion on the number of professions you can take up, you can in fact learn them all. That said, you can only become a master in two of them, making the highest/best crafted items pretty much exclusive to the player that created them.

After doing some research, I’ve decided to go Tailoring as my primary profession on my Ranger, and potentially Alchemy as my second major. Tailoring provides me with leather armor, while Alchemy will keep me stocked with potions, scrolls, and Manastones.

While reading numerous discussion threads out there, there is are debates on which is the best combo for a Ranger:

Tailoring / Handicrafting
Handicrafting / Alchemy
Tailoring / Alchemy
And every now and then a Cooking / one of the above option

As you can see, there tend to be three primary options as a Ranger: Tailoring, Handicrafting and Alchemy. I would have gone Tailoring/Handicrafting, but I’m lucky in that my partner has decided to take up Handicrafting so I will just ask him to make my bows.

While you can only level two professions to master levels, you can take and learn all the other professions and level them up to 399 skill. This won’t give you the best recipe’s those trade skills have to offer, but you will cover your basics. I will be doing this with cooking for example…

It’s also worth noting that while you can learn them all, it takes an insane amount of Kineh to level them up, not to mention time, so unless you are a glutton for punishment, you’re already level 50, have nothing else to do and are allergic to alts, most players won’t level all on a single character.

What each Profession brings to the table…

Just because there are ‘recommended’ options for a certain class, does not by any means you are forced to take them. It is completely up to you what you want to skill up. Before you take my word for it (god forbid =p), let’s have a look at what each profession does…

Alchemy

Alchemy is used for creating potions, scrolls, Manastones, orbs, and spellbooks - Alchemists can craft items that will be sought after by every class in Aion. Whether you want to craft your own potions to avoid paying the high vendor prices or provide them for your guild prior to that big raid, alchemy has something for everyone.

Other than orbs and spellbooks, all of the creations are considered commodities. Thus, they are not very difficult to craft and are not sold for a lot of Kinah. At all times, you can find lots of potions, scrolls, and Manastones through a Trade Broker, private stores or the trade channel. Furthermore, the materials required for crafting these items can be easily found as well and will be picked up by most players as they level through the different areas.

The main perks of Alchemy as a Ranger is having access to your own potions, scrolls, and Manastones, something we all use frequently and may not want to have to buy. Late in the game, potions and scrolls are extremely important when it comes to PVP or PVE, hence having the ability to craft your own potions and scrolls in large amount really comes in handy.

I would not suggest picking Alchemy to simply craft orbs and spellbooks to sell, as there are better crafts for that. One negative for being an Alchemist is that it requires lots of inventory/bank space. There are lots of various materials (lots of herbs, basic materials, and Manastones) required to craft everything, which can fill up inventories fast.

Armorsmithing

Armorsmithing is used for creating shields, chain and plate helmets, chain and plate armor. Armorsmithing is very useful to have if you are of the Priest or Warrior classes, but not really for a Ranger as you can’t wear any of what you create.

As far as using it to make money, it simply requires too much time to be of any real value, but occasionally you will have an extra 'proc'd item that will sell for a lot.

Cooking

Cooking is only used for creating food. This, more or less, is used for temporarily boosting certain statistics. It is fairly inexpensive to cook and I would suggest it to anyone who uses food on a regular basis. However, there is little money to be made from it if you include the time it takes to gather and cook. Also, you can simply purchase food off of the Trade Broker or from a merchant with near the same benefits for a reasonably cheap price. If you plan on consuming lots of food, as in never being without a buff, then I'd suggest it. However, if you only plan on using food for groups or hard areas, I wouldn't suggest spending the time raising it up.

Handicrafting

Handicrafting is used for creating rings, earrings, necklaces, glasses (head slot), bows, and staffs. Handicrafting is both expensive and time consuming to craft, but also said to be the best craft for making money. For jewellery, gems are the primary material which unfortunately are fairly uncommon throughout all areas and can only be gathered once per node. Unlike everything else that can be gathered 3 times, the single gathering increases the amount of time required to gather lots of materials for attempts.

On top of the gathering aspect, it is pretty much required to 'proc*' on the initial recipe to make anything of value, both to you or to someone else. Once you do proc, you can then use that for an even better recipe, which in turn also has a chance to proc. Even if the second recipe doesn't proc, you will still have a very valuable item to use or sell. If it does proc, the value triples. *Proc explained further down…

Overall, Handicrafting is the best craft for making money. You can spend 2 hours gathering and create a few valuable pieces of jewellery that will sell for lots of money. On top of that, good rings, earrings, and necklaces are hard to find other than from Handicrafting. If you choose Handicrafting as your main or secondary craft, you will not be disappointed.

The reason for Rangers leaning towards Handicrafting is the ability to make bows, however, it has been commented some Rangers who made it up in levels during the Beta that it’s really only ‘Handy’ while levelling to make sure you have good bows as you progress, but once you reach the upper levels, there are better options out there.

Tailoring

Tailoring is used for creating belts, cloth helmets, leather helmets, cloth armour, and leather armour – ie, the armor a Ranger wears. For this reason alone, it makes Tailoring (previously known as Sewing, thank god they butched the name up) a front runner option.

While I am chosing this profession as my primary one to concentrate on, I’m doing so with the hopes of better armor at the higher levels. I’ve only been able to find items up to level 28 in the Aion Armory, and so far, I’m disappointed.

All the stats on the pieces focus highly on Physical Defence and Evasion, not really high priorities to a Ranger. I have read around a few threads, and been informed via discussions on Twitter that there are some really nice pieces with lots of attack and crit, so I’m hoping it’s just a case that the database at the armory hasn’t been updated yet.

As of writing this, there is not a big market for making money from this craft and it is just as time consuming and costly as Armorsmithing.

Weaponsmithing

Weaponsmithing is used for creating daggers, swords, maces, greatswords, and polearms. Weaponsmithing is both costly and time consuming to create, but fairly rewarding.

While yes, a Ranger will make use of some of the above weapons, it’s not a high enough reason (in my opinion) to focus on it. If weapons are a concern of yours, you can go without it and purchase similar items from the Trade Broker for similar prices. For instance, if a 100 damage sword can be crafted for roughly 100,000 Kinah in materials and failed attempts, then there's probably a 90 damage sword for sale through the Trade Broker at 90,000 Kinah.

The real benefit from Weaponsmithing is gathering lots of materials and attempting to get as many proc's as possible and then selling the ones you don't use.

Weaponsmithing works similar to Handicrafting where you need to 'proc' the regular recipe in order to use in another recipe and then 'proc' that to get an even better result. Even if the second proc fails, you still will have a valuable item to use or sell. If it succeeds, you will have a very valuable item. The best results can fetch prices in the millions at the higher levels.

Ok, so what is a ‘proc’?

When you craft an item, most of them have a 25% chance to ‘proc’ into a higher quality version. For example, if you are crafting a white item and, upon reaching the end of the meter, you will suddenly hear a ding, the meter resets and now shows the crafted item as a green or higher quality piece of gear with a different name. It’s the exact same item, but with much better stats. The best part is that this extra upgrade doesn’t cost you a thing mats wise!

Of course, the chances are completely random and you can waste quite a few attempts on the hopes of a proc…

Why call it ‘proc’? Well, the term Proc is an abbreviation commonly used in programming to refer to an event - a "procedure" - triggered under particular circumstances. In the gaming world, it generally refers to a weapon or item activating with the "Chance on Hit" or "Chance on Use" effect (an ability or a spell).

Because the upgrade to a higher quality item happens at the end of your attempt to craft, I call it a proc…

If you still need more understanding, watch these two videos. In the first one is a normal creation, however in the second is the ‘proc’ occurring (around 0.7)…

Warning: It has been admitted by many a player that the ability to proc a creation is addictive and much like gambling.

Where to train Professions

Once you have decided on which profession you would like to pursue, it’s time to train up. To make it nice and easy for you, all the trainers are located in the one area, which saves you having to run all over your city to find multiple trainers.

For Asmodians, go to the Temple of Artisans in Pandaemonium and find:

Alchemy: Honir
Armorsmithing: Kinterun
Cooking: Lainita
Handicrafting: Lanse
Sewing: Zyakia
Weaponsmithing: Rogi

For Elyos, go to the Artisans' Hall in Sanctum and find:

Alchemy: Diana
Armorsmithing: Vulcanus
Cooking: Hestia
Handicrafting: Utsida
Sewing: Daphnis
Weaponsmithing: Anteros

Each trainer has their own room within their respective areas, and above the doors you will find the corresponding banner:

Because I’m Asmodian, you can see their map below…

Now that you have learned a craft, there are a few important guidelines to follow. The first is accessing your craft window. To do this, open up your Skills window (hotkey ‘K’) and select the Crafting tab, then Right-Click on your craft to bring up its window. At the top of the window, under the name of the craft, is your experience bar. If you just learned it, it will say '1/99'. As you get closer to 99, just like gaining regular experience, the bar will fill up. However, when you max out at 99, you will need to return to your craft's expert (the names listed above) and pay to learn the next level. The following are the prices to pay.

Lesser = ~3,500 Kinah
Regular = ~17,000 Kinah
Greater = ~115,000 Kinah
Expert = ~460,000 Kinah
Master = ~1,500,000 Kinah?

When you pay the price above to learn the next level, you will gain 1 skill point. For example, if you are at 99 and pay ~17,000 Kinah to become a Regular crafter, your skill will become 100.

The large area below the experience bar in the crafting window is the list of your recipes. They are organized by category and you can hide or show each category by clicking the box to the left of the category name. When you accept a Work Order, they will automatically be the first category.

The two boxes on the right side, called Product and Required Materials, are just that. When you click a specific recipe, the end result will appear in the Product box and the required materials to make that recipe will appear in the Required Materials box.

On the bottom right of the window are two buttons and a box in-between them. The right button is to craft the number in the box of the currently selected recipe. The left button is craft all, which places the maximum number you can craft of the currently selected recipe into that box.

When you are actually crafting, the success or fail rate is dependent on your skill compared to the recipe and chance. If your skill is equal to that of the recipe's level, your chance of failing is around 33%. If your skill is 3 points higher than that of the recipe's level, your chance of failing is around 15%. If your skill is between 5 and 10 points higher, your chance of failing is minimal. Once you are above 10, your chance of failing is incredibly low. Once the recipe turns grey, your chance of failing is 0.

Lastly, as you level up, visit the same merchant as you do for supplies to purchase some of your craft's recipes. The rest of the recipes can be obtained through quests or are dropped.

Actually Crafting

If you just started a craft, go to your craft's expert and accept the work order for '1P' (stands for a skill level of 1 point) by clicking ‘Work Order’. Now, find a workstation and Right-Click it to bring up your craft window. Select the recipe for the work order. Since the Tailoring quest requires that you make 3 Medical Guaze and you are provided with all the materials needed, simply hit the “craft all’ button.

Once you are done, return to your craft's expert, select the word order option again and turn in the completed task. Continue this process until you are at a skill of 10 and can receive your first real work order. Repeat this process to level up your skill and enjoy the free experience that accompanies it, as measly as it is, it all adds up. As you start to reach the higher level work orders, you will need to purchase additional components to complete the items.

And that’s it, voila, you are now set to start the dreary (or exciting depending on your level of enjoyment) process of levelling up your professions!!

Titles

Titles are earned by completing specific quests or events in Aion. There are close to 50 different titles for each both the Asmodians and the Elyos. Each title has a small stat bonus associated with it that is applied to the character only while that title is being used. After obtaining multiple titles, you can choose which one is active, and hence, which bonus is applied.

Each profession has it’s own bonus title for making it to master status, and this can influence your decision. The titles for Professions are:

(Please note these may be incorrect, please let me know if they are)

Asmodian

Alchemy: +36 Maximum MP, +2 Magical Accuracy, +3 Magical Res

Armorsmith: +36 Maximum HP, +4 Physical Def, +8 Block

Cooking: +36 Maximum HP, +36 Maximum MP, +5% Speed

Handicrafting: +8 Accuracy, +3 Evasion, +2% Atk Speed

Tailoring: +8 Magic Boosting Power, +2% Flight Speed, +2 Flight Time

Weaponsmith: +3 Physical Critical Hit, +1 Physical Att, +8 Parry

Elyos

Alchemy: +44 Maximum HP, +2% Atk Speed, +4 Wind Defense

Armorsmith: +8 Magic Boosting Power

Cooking: +1 Physical Att, +8 Magic Boosting Power

Handicrafting: +2 Flight Time

Tailoring: +52 Maximum HP, +3 Flight Time, +3% Flight Speed, +6% Speed

Weaponsmith: +11 Magic Boosting Power, +3 Magical Accuracy, +4 Fire Defense

Question and Answer time!

In my quest for knowledge on all things professions, I came across a few interesting questions being asked as well as responses posted. I figured I would share them here as they might help answer any questions you might have. J

Question

How does the gear compare to drop/quests? For example, in WoW, your crafted gear is great until you hit high end, then it's crap, and the materials you need are often ridiculous, so ridiculous that, by the time you've found all the mats, you're already too high for it to be effective. Is crafted gear viable at the highest levels or end game? I'm assuming Alchemy is well used, everyone needs potions, but what about the rest?

Response

The gear is actually usually better than equal-level drops/quests. If you want to see for yourself, check out the Aion Armory (AionArmory - Aion Database) and search for a certain piece of gear and compare the ones that say 'Craft' to the ones that say 'Drop' or are quest rewards.

It does take a long time to gather materials, but you do get experience for them. Say for instance you just reached Level 13 (the first level for crafted gear). If you wanted to make an entire set of the 'proc'd gear for yourself, it would probably take around 5 hours. However, you would also gain at least half a level, if not more (this includes raising your skill level), and you would have about the best gear you'll be able to find until Level 18 (in which you could go and craft your next set of gear). Having the crafted gear really does help when levelling at higher levels. The content becomes harder at a more rapid pace than at the low levels.

As far as usage, all are used for the most part. If you enter any of the craft rooms, you'll find quite a few people working there. I would say cooking is the least simply because you can easily just buy food. But even so, it is also the cheapest to do, so people often find themselves becoming a cook.

Question

My question is which adventuring levels coincide with the crafting levels. For example, say I am level 10, what crafting level would I want to be to by that point? And when should I craft myself a whole new set of gear? How long will it last me? I like your concept of crafting sweet gear every time you reach a new tier persay.

Response

Level 10 coincides with a craft skill of 0. Level 15 coincides with a craft skill of 50. Level 20 coincides with a craft skill of 100, etc.

For armor, the required level on the sets you can craft are 13, 18, 23, 28, 33, etc... For weapons, the required levels are 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, etc...

The difference between each required level is 50 skill points. So the Level 15 required weapon is between 0-50 skill points (the recipes are at slightly different points). The Level 20 required weapon is between 51-99, etc.

Usually what I do is work on gathering ore (that's what's used for both weaponsmithing and armorsmithing) and Aether as I play. Whenever I see a node, I get it. In addition, I also have to gather other stuff to keep my extraction skill high enough. Every 10 levels the required skill to gather stuff goes up by 100. So once you're in the Level 20 zone, the minimum required level is on the stuff is 100+.

In other words, you have to gather a lot to keep your extraction skills on par with your level.

So, I crafted a whole new set of armor and a weapon every 5 levels. If you didn't want to craft that much though, you could probably do it every 10 levels. I'd start with the lvl 18 armor/20 weapon, then 28 armor/30 weapon, etc. You would probably be okay doing that.

Question

Do professions have bind on pick up items - What about the items you can only make when you have mastered a prof(400)?

Response

From what I've seen, all of the crafted stuff is tradeable until you equip it, including the master stuff I believe.

Question

I'm confuse about proc'd from reading all post it mean upgrade your gear to next tier green->blue->gold?

Response

Here's an example... the other day I was crafting the Lvl 13 Plate Chest piece... which is this

Steel Breastplate - Items - Aion

The plain white Steel Breastplate. On my first attempt, it 'proc'd and became a Shining Steel Breastplate, which is green.

If you check out that link... and look at the "Combo Items" on the right side... that's what the regular can 'proc' into.

As you craft the Steel Breastplate, once the 'pass' reaches the maximum there's just a random chance the bar will reset and then the Steel Breastplate turns into a Shining Steel Breastplate... and then you continue crafting until you pass or fail.

There aren't items with the ability to proc twice. At armorsmithing 0-50 and 51-99, the recipes are white only. From 100-150 and 151-199, there are white and green recipes. So if you gather the materials for the green recipe, craft, and it procs, it becomes a blue. Then from 200-250 and 251-299, there are blue recipes... same rule follows. Etc.

For other crafts, it's slightly different. For Weaponsmithing... 0-50 and 51-99, there are white recipes only that can proc into green. From 100-150 and 151-199, there are white and green recipes. However, the green recipe requires that you proc the white recipe first. Here's an example:

Titanium Polearm - Items - Aion - You start with this and keep crafting Titanium Polearms until you get one to proc into a Shining Titanium Polearm. So when using that recipe above, you can either craft a Titanium Polearm or Shining Titanium Polearm.

If you get a Shining Titanium Polearm, and then find or buy the green recipe: Craftsman's Titanium Polearm - Items - Aion - you can craft a Craftsman's Titanium Polearm. If that procs, it becomes a Craftsman's Shining Titanium Polearm.

For that tier, that's it and that's the best. For higher levels, you can obtain blue recipes and eventually orange recipes - but the same rule follows.

But some crafts, such as armorsmithing, only require special mats, not having to create a white proc, then a green proc, etc.

Like this recipe: Craftsman's Titanium Breastplate - Items - Aion - The Craftsman's Titanium Breasplate (which is a crafted green) requires no other piece of armor to craft, only mats, and it can proc into the Craftsman's Shining Titanium Breastplate.

I hope this clears it up some lol. I know it's a pretty complicated system until you try it out.

**********

If there is anything reported wrong, please let me know. :)

Did you know...

2009-09-29T07:05:00.000+10:00

Did you know you can split items stacks?

If you have multiples of any item, you can split them off into smaller stacks, or individually. And to do this is very easy - simply hold down your shift button, and then right click on the stack you want to split. A window will pop asking you how many you would like to move. Simply enter the numeric value of your choice and hit the ok button. Click in your inventory where you would like the newly created stack to be and voila - done!

Not only can you split stacks of your own items, you can split stacks found in personal stores. Say if someone is selling 50 of an item, all in one stack, yet you only need 10 of them. Well guess what? You can purchase only 10 off him! You don't have to buy all 50!! And it's just as easy as splitting your own stacks.

In the shop window, shift + right click the stack of what ever it is you want to buy, a window similar to the previous one will pop up, only this one asks you how many you want to buy.

Enter your desired amount and then click ok. And that's it. Now you buy your 10, leaving the 40 or how ever many was originally there left over for someone else to buy!

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to work when buying from the Brokers... or perhaps I just haven't figured that step out yet.

How to stop the spam!

2009-09-28T20:16:00.002+10:00

Just hours ago I vented my frustration at the constant "gold spam" messages I get via whisper. I'm not sure if any of the official Aion representatives read this blog, but an interesting tweet was sent out a little earlier in direct relation to the "spam via whisper" topic. Apparently, my suggestion to block whispers from people is already in game (or was added extremely quickly and without patch lol).

If you open your search window (hot key 'v'), and click over to the friends list tab, you can select yourself to be invisible via the drop down menu on the top right.

Unfortunately, this doesn't mean you can't still receive unwanted whispers if the gold sellers already know your name, it just means you don't show up on any searches. I guess it's still a good step because it means you won't need to remember to change your setting when you want to look for a group so long as you are making use of the LFG channel. I'm pretty sure if you set your status to Looking for Group you won't show up though.

That said, the first thing I did after seeing the tweet (besides retweeting it) was log straight into game and change the settings on my two characters.

After all, the only person I know in game at the moment is my partner, and he can just talk to me. So the need to receive whispers at this point in the game is nill. I'm too low for groups, and when it comes time to look for them, I'll just change the setting back temporarily.

At least it's a step to stopping my building nerd rage.

While we're on the topic of pond scum such as gold sellers, I read a very scary tweet today and am wondering if anyone's heard anything, has any insight or can hopefully, tell me it's all wrong and my account is safe. @evilsnoofy on Twitter made a comment that "the fact that #aion sends account names (not just user names) via clear text over the chat channel is frightening."

I don't think I've ever had a tweet get my attention so fast.

Upon further querying, evilsnoofy told me that, "If you run a packet sniffer, you see each chat line someone sends is prefaced by their user name *and* account name. Not encrypted at all. Only a matter of time before a brute force attack will yield passwords."

Now, I can not confirm this. I have no idea how to get a packet sniffer let alone run one. When I hear sniffer, I think of a cute Labrador or beagle at the airport. I did ask @aion_ayase to explain, or at least give me an idea if it was correct info or not, but so far no response.

Has anyone got any info? I did some searches, but because I'm such a good girl (grins), I've not got the foggiest on what to actually be searching for. I can't see this being a widely publicised affair if it is true, no hacker is going to give away info that might jeopardise him or his income if they already know about it. But I'd like to know that my time leveling up isn't going to be wasted because half my account info is already advertised to the devious sort who know where to look.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go change my password to some 20 character STRONG, face rolled across my keyboard, incomprehensible gibberish. Oh yeah, and don't talk in any channels, or reply to spammers at all! Stick to friends only!

Hopefully I will be able to make a post very soon confirming that this isn't the case and there is nothing to worry about. If anyone official from Aion does happen to notice this post, please feel free to send a statement my way. Ta.

The Spam is going to kill me!

2009-09-28T12:36:00.000+10:00

Ok seriously gold sellers... Kineh sellers... what ever you're called, stop with the !@#$ing whisper spam!! Sorry... minor nerd rage there.

That is all I see. All day. Every day. And it's driving me nuts.

My character name begins with an 'A' (Alexan) which is the reason I get so many whispers my partner believes. His name begins with an 'S' and he doesn't see anywhere near as many as I do. That image above for example, was all in the space of 10 minutes. Those final three were when I was AFK to... well... I was AFK let's just leave it at that. But I wasn't gone long!

Yes, I could use the block feature (/block for those not familiar) but it's usually a different name every time. I've already got 7 of them on the block list. Not to mention it can take a few goes to add their almost unpronounceable name that I can only assume was generated from rolling their face over the keyboard. And by the time I finally add them, I have a new name whispering me.

Currency Selling (or RMT - Real Money Trading) exists, and is growing because a substantial percentage of players want the benefits it provides. That's all fine and dandy, but for every player that wants the benefits of having their in game life handed to them on a silver platter, there is another that can't stand it and would happy see all the gold sellers skewered by threading them ass first.

I've got no problem with people wanting the easier road. I do have a problem when it affects me. The websites that exist - no problem. The parasites that invade my game space to spam me with crap I don't care about - problem.

Every major MMO in the last few years has been infested with the likes of these scumbags. Of course, they have not always been so noticeable. I remember back in the days of EQ, especially in the earlier days, you never really heard boo from them. It was also the time when the currency was generated by the players. I have more respect from a company who will help the global economical crisis by paying players for their gold and on-sell it than the snail slime that hack accounts and obtain their funds in more dubious matters.

If you speak to most people, the problem isn't the act of purchasing Kineh, it's how the Kineh is obtained in the first place and the spam that every player has to put up with. If NCSoft sold the Kineh to players, at a rate that the 'black market' couldn't compete with, most people wouldn't have as big a problem. We wouldn't get the in game spam, hacked accounts etc.

Unfortunately, the problem isn't related solely to a momentary distraction of my attention by the spam. Gold farmers who gather the money will identify an area that enables them to generate the most wealth per hour. This can lead to bottlenecks in these areas which often times are places that normal players will have to pass through during the natural order of progression. If left unchecked over time, the flooding of gold into the online economy can often time lead to inflation driving up the costs of items sold between players via the auction house.

Now, while we're all spitting our venomous words and thoughts towards the gold sellers themselves, lest we not forget some of the blame can also be sent back at our fellow player. The farmers and sellers would not be in business if it were not profitable. And it is profitable as long as players are willing to take the easy way out and shell out real life cash for in game cash.

Let's say a farmer buys Aion for $50, and manages to send an advertisement to every player on the server only one time before being banned. In many cases, that farmer only needs to find one or two players willing to do business to justify the $50 for the new account that gets banned.

The only (quick) solution I can think of right now would be to block the ability to whisper from anyone under level 10. Just work it into the lore if you must - Daevas are the only ones with enough power to be able to whisper and be heard across the other side of the game. There's already a block on the ability to use the chat channels until level 5, surely they could just make it "ability to talk... period" until level 5?

Although it won't completely stop the problem, it will make it more frustrating for farmers. Or perhaps, add in an option to "only receive whispers from people on your friends list" and that would help it even further. Think about it, you have that option ticked 90% off the time, and drop it only when you're looking for group and actually want whispers. Or hell, let's get really advanced and have it same option automatically make an exception when you're in the LFG channel... That way the player won't even have to remember to re-tick it.

What ever you Aion guys do, please... do something!

Version 1.6 Patch Notes

2009-09-28T07:23:00.000+10:00

There's a lot of info coming out about the 1.6 Patch coming up soon - although ironically, no date information about when it's coming. I've gathered some info from all over and will update this post with anything else I find.

There's some really cool stuff in there, like the CAPTCHA image to stop botters farming, the ability to change the order of your skill combos, and the best part: You can no longer run out of range of player spells after they've started casting. I haven't started any ral PvP yet, but that has to be a pretty big deal for those who are already up there!

Please note that these changes are not yet confirmed.

Items

1. There’s now a low chance of getting metal poisoning every time a player attempts to collect ore; metal poisoning can be cured by using ‘Chant of Purification’

Chant of Purification can be used by entering the prompted combination of numbers and letters (CAPTCHA) you will be given a total of 3 chances to enter the combination correctly if a player fails all three attempts, the character won’t be able to collect any more ore for an extended period of time.

2. In order to prevent any more accidents with item extraction tool, NCSoft has made several changes. Item extraction tool’s icon has been changed. Using the automatically align function in the inventory will move the extraction to the first cell the progress bar of extraction tool will now be shown as red, equipped items cannot be extracted.

UI

1. In Aion have added a new information tab that displays the remaining waiting time for all of the instances. The new tab will display both you and your party members waiting time for all instances.

2. Added a number pad for any Kina input box there can be used to enter numbers by clicking the color will change depending on the amount.

3. Have made the following changes to the auctioneer. NCSoft has added ‘includes words’ option to the search tab along with ‘exact match’ items can now be added to your auctions just by right clicking on the item with auction window open.

4. You can now choose to automatically align items in the inventory. Players can also change names of each cube.

5. Aion now has a preview option for color sprays and hair dyes.

6. A new preview option for hats.

Skills

1. You can now change default order of combo skills in the combo skills tab. You can make those changes by simply drag + dropping the skills.

2. You can no longer run out of range of player spells after they've started casting.

Aion Quests

1. NCSoft has increased quest item drop rates for Stigma quests.

2. Additional special descriptions for quests with special rewards, such as more cube space, abyss points, or titles.

3. Significantly increased the HP of NPCs associated with Daevanion quests. Some of these NPCs will not respond to enemy faction players nor can the players attack these NPCs.

Aion Instances

1. NCSoft has made significant changes to stats of every monsters in Dark Poeta instance.
- These monsters are now more vulnerable to spell damage.
- These monsters are now more resistant to physical damage.
- All monsters excluding the bosses now have lower hp.

2. Nerfed the damage of several skills the Dark Poeta S rank boss Tahabeta casts.

3. Lowered the difficulty of Steel Mane instance.

4. Increased the drop rate of stigma fragments in Steel Mane instnace.

5. Added an elevator to the Steel Mane instance.

6. Added NPC guards to Dreadgion instance exits.

7. Changed the stats of monsters in abyss fortress instance. They will have lower hp but more resistant to physical damage

Aion Characters

1. Lowered the effectiveness of elemental resistance.

2. Attacking will no longer interrupt auto run

3. Lowered the amount of stigma shards required to equip stigmas.

4. Increased the daily AP limit for characters higher than 1star lieutenant rank.

5. Summons (Pets) can fly!

First Impressions as a Ranger

2009-09-27T19:13:00.000+10:00

Last night was the first proper chance I got to play for any length as a Ranger. And I have to say, I'm already questioning my choice. Having played a Hunter in WoW as my final character before I quit, it seemed a natural choice for me to chose the Ranger - especially as I found the Hunters one of my favourite classes to play over all. Unfortunately though, the Ranger is no Hunter!

One of the first annoyances I had was that the ranged damage was slooooow, painfully slow. I would fire off my two special attacks and then just stand there like a deer in headlights while the mob ran an me. It took a few minutes for me to realise there was no auto-attack damage coming and that's why I was barely making a scratch with my arrows. I watched a few more mobs and couldn't figure out why there was no white damage.

After some googling, I discovered that there is currently a bug with the auto-attack and the special abilities and seems to be most obviously experienced by the Ranger class. What's worse is that this bug appears to have been around for quite some time now - since the early beta stages! There's one thread I found dedicated to the frustrations this bug brings and the fact that there is still no fix for it.

Once I figured out I had to mash my 'c' button to get it going, things started to lose a bit more health before they reached me. Which brings me to my second and so far, biggest frustration. I'm a ranged class and yet I do 50% to 75% of my damage with melee weapons! What the?! Of course a mob is going to run at me when I shoot it, but if the slow portion of my Entangling Shot doesn't land, I'm screwed!

Now remember, I've come from the Hunter class where I had a pet to distract my prey while I shot arrow after arrow into it. In Aion... no such assistance. This means that a Ranger needs to kite if he doesn't want to get hit. Unfortunately there are no readily accessible football fields for me to make use of to kite around!

Unless I'm just doing the whole kiting thing completely wrong, which is more than a possibility given the last time I kited was as a Druid in Everquest, you need a lot of room do it it. I tried the "just walking backwards" method and nearly fell off the world. I switched to the "move in a circular motion" method and pissed off 10 other mobs trying to enjoy their day who instead, turned their attention to me. Kiting? Not easy.

One thing I did discover last night was you can use your "ranged" damage while the mob is trying to chew your face off. Yes, a bow and arrow and point blank range, nice. Since my bow can actually do some nice damage - anywhere from low 100's to high 200's for normal and crits, I decided to give that a go for a while. I'd pull the mob and then just continue to arrow it down while it was at my feet. Annoyingly, it took forever to die that way. Perhaps there's some sort of damage bonus the further away you are?

After that didn't work, and after getting really frustrated at the kiting bit, I decided to shoot as many arrows into the mob as I could before switching to my sword and dagger when it got close. Hey guess what - this brings up yet another frustration!! Having to constantly switch weapons is doing my head in. I go to pull a mob, but oh wait, I don't have my bow equipped. I swap and pull the mob, it gets close and I spend 30 seconds smashing the shit out of my weapons swap button because lag hasn't caught up with my request and I can not do a single melee attack until it does.

WoW at least had that right - a Hunter would automatically swap from bow to weapons when a mob was too close to archer. And even if my weapons were the last thing used, if I selected a ranged shot ability, she would simply whip out her bow. Easy!! Aion, you should take note please.

After a mob is close, and once I do manage to swap my weapons out, I've usually lost a good chunk of my hitpoints and are frantically mashing as many melee abilities as possible in the hopes of simply retaining my life. Unfortunately my melee damage is still only so-so as it's the left overs from my levels one through to ten. I don't have the throat slitting abilities of the assassin, I've just got the scraps to make use of. Which, when you're trying to kill a mob who is not level six or seven and in fact has a lot more hitpoints... takes forever!

I'm not giving up though! I did have a momentary thought of restarting and going Assassin instead, but I see them everywhere and so far have only run past two Rangers. No no, I'm going to keep pushing through as I've heard over and over that they get better, especially at 16 and beyond. I've also been told that they are far more enjoyable in a group situation where you can stay at ranged, which is also where all their damage is. Thankfully hubby didn't take long to convert to Aion (about 3.2 seconds) and I'm driving a good friend of mine up the wall with all the info and screenshots I'm sharing so he will cave soon and join us. Which means - a walking group!

I did also get a lot better as the night progressed. I have to remember that I'm new to the Ranger class and although it bears resemblance to my beloved Hunter, they are not the same, and I can't expect to be brilliant as soon as I start playing. After an hour or so of play, I did manage to kill a few mobs by kiting and managed to take out quite a few more before they even touched me (they were slow movers lol). I kind of feel like Aion's Ranger is almost WoW's Warlock (in the beginning at least) - they take skill to play and until they get changed, will be reserved for the ones willing to put in the time. And we all know how skilled I am... =p

I've also heard that later on, the PvP is all about ranged distance, so I'm hoping that will play in my favour, especially as PvP tends to scare the crap out of me most times lol.

So far, the things I want fixed/improved are:

Auto Attack!! This HAS to be fixed and now! I shouldn't have to spend the majority of every fight mashing my 'c' button to either enable, or reenable it. Fix it now please.

Weapons swapping. If my dagger and sword were the last things used and I hit a ranged ability, just pull out the bow. I know it's there, I shouldn't have to remind my character that the arrow goes in the bow and not the dagger. Same goes for close range combat - stop whacking the mob with the bow and pull out something sharp! Automatically!

And lastly, which is a minor thing yes, but still annoying, when the mob is dead, put your weapons away please. With your weapons still drawn, not only do you look like an idiot when you run, it keeps you in combat and stops you using other functions. Just put them away once the fight is over.

So far, that's it. I'm sure I'll find more things out as I progress along. I am only level 11 (almost 12!) so far...

Did you know...

2009-09-27T10:00:00.003+10:00

Did you know you can link items in both chat and your private store message?

That's right! Just like linking in WoW, you can link armor, weapons, manastones and more in both chat and your private store message. By linking an item, it allows other players to click on it to see the stats and information, which is very handy for armor and weapons as everyone can see the stats of the item without having to ask you.

Linking in chat is very easy - simply hold your CTRL key down and hit your right mouse button. Done!

Linking in your store message is a little tricker - unfortunately you can't link directly into the message section. Insead, you need to link your items into your chat bar but don't press enter just yet. Once you have linked all the items you want, select the text and then copy and paste it into your store message.

Obviously the above image doesn't really show much use for it, however when you have green items, it's a good way to get people's attention as they run past all the shop message spam in the cities and major gathering areas.

Aion Gathering 101

2009-09-26T20:12:00.014+10:00

Click here download this guide! (PDF)

Aion Gathering 101

Coming from WoW where you had limited profession slots to use up with your choices, it’s a bit difference experience in Aion where gathering skill (also know as the extracting skill) is basic to every class and both factions. Basically everyone starts with it. I always enjoyed Herbalism in WoW, both for the ease of the profession itself (herbs were everywhere), but also because of the money that could be made from selling the raw herbs themselves. Of course in Aion, the market is going to be flooded with the different ingredients since everyone can collect them.

Then again, this is a good thing because it means you shouldn’t need to spend too much of your own Kineh purchasing those ingredients for your chosen profession should you wish to skill up quicker than you’ve gathered. Especially when you realise that the gathering skill is not profession specific – all players can gather apples, herbs, and metals, etc.

Another good aspect of this is the fact that it makes gathering very simple… which could also be viewed as a negative if you’re like me and don’t like things being stupid simple. Keeping with the cons, because you can’t focus on gathering the materials you want (just herbs, just ores, etc), you not only do you get a whole bunch of other junk that you probably don’t need for the crafting profession of your choice, but with everyone being able to gather the same stuff you can’t really sell them very well.

This is where having a Legion (guild) comes in handy as you can play swapsies with everyone to get the items you need, and get rid of the ones you don’t.

Regardless of the unwanted clutter, it’s a fun skill that you don’t really have to do much extra to benefit from, so why not raise it as you go? At first most new players under-value the skill and will probably pass quite a few plants that can be collected because they are too busy with getting their character past ascension.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that you gain xp for every item collected with the collecting skill and many later quests will involve the act of collecting which will reward everything from reputation and exp, to items.

Who can pass up death-free experience? Not to mention additional quests for even more exp!

How to Gather…

The actual gathering process is a bit different if you’re coming from WoW. The act of gathering is the same – right click, double click or select the gathering icon on your hot bar. What’s different is when you start gathering an item, a success progress bar and a failure progress bar pop up. Normally this is all handled behind the scenes and you don’t get to see it happening.

The extent to which a success or failure progresses either bar is determined by your skill rank in relation to the required rank for that node. If the player’s skill rank is the same as that required to gather a given node, then there is about a 33% chance to fail the entire process.

The greater the player’s skill rank becomes in relation to the required rank, the lower the chance of an overall failure. Once the player’s skill rank surpasses the required rank by more then 20, it becomes impossible to fail. Success provides experience to the character and skill until the player’s rank surpasses the required rank by 40. At this point the skill can no longer gain rank.

So even if gathering fails, you still gain experience! (unless of course you’re 40 skill points above the item)

Players from levels one through to nine are treated as humans, therefore the only way to gather resources is to rely on the human method of pulling them out with your hands. At level 10, which is when you become a Daeva, you learn the ability to manipulate “Ode” energy. This replaces your human gathering skill and you gain two new skills.

One is Extract Life Force, which is useable on the same types of materials as you could as human – plants, ore, wood, etc. You gain the ability to extract the essence of the target and reconstruct it into its purest state without harming them, just like humans would with tools.

The second skill you gain is Ode Extraction, which only Daevas are able to perform and this starts at level 10. The main difference with this skill is Ode shards only spawn up in the air.

Tip: Make sure you watch your flight timer while gathering Ode. If it runs out while you are in the air, you will fall and possibly die!

Ode energy is made up of the essence of all substances, and Daevas have the ability to extract the essence from the target resources and reconstruct them into their purest state without damaging them as humans would with their tools.

The Convert Substance skill allows you to reconstruct the essense and is obtained upon becoming a Daeva. The skill does not come with a skill level and initially you only have a few options. Additional plans and recipes can be purchased from NPCs.

The biggest difference from the gathering skill is that the Ode shards spawn only high up in the air. The Ode shards have the same properties as regular resources, but the type of Ode that can be obtained differs based on the chance.

Because Ode Extraction is an entirely new type of skill, it also starts at skill level 1 – note though that the extract life force skill will be the same as your gathering skill was before you ascended. Of course, the first ode’s you will see (as Asmodian) will be in the Altguard and will be too high to extract, requiring a skill of 50. This is probably to stop people simply farming those ones over and over to raise their skill.

A couple of other things to note is that the higher in the air a Vortex is, the higher level of Aether it contains, and the higher skill it requires to extract it. Also, while on the ground you can only gather three times from a resource, in the air, the vortex nodes yield up to five aether units, and staying aloft until you get the last one can be a dangerous challenge!

The essence of “Ode” exists within all things in the world of Aion. Its role is important enough to define the difference between humans and Daeva as beings who can’t manipulate Ode and those that can. The Devine Power is also a form of Ode, which is obtained when it is released from the enemy upon death, therefore being absorbed by the player and converted into the form of Divine Power.

Sharing is caring…

Or at least that’s what my mother told me. But when it comes to gathering, it’s every man for themselves! Each plant or node will usually give you 3 tries, with one (the middle attempt) often blowing up when attempting it. While other players can not steal your gathering during a specific turn, its 3 turns are first come first serve. So you will occasionally see a player wait until you complete one try and they will immediately go in for the second. I’ve already had this happen to me a couple of times which is annoying.

It’s up to you if you chose to respect the first come first serve rule and move on when you see another player gathering an object. Or if you want to be a Douche and try to jump in the second they stand back up. Personally, I’d like to think most people would respect and move on… sadly, there’s too many children and idiots infesting the servers.

The Different Things you can Gather

Plants, Herbs and Fruits are by far the most abundant type of resource and will likely be the main and possibly only thing you see during your first few levels. They appear everywhere on the planet’s surface so are great for raising your skill, however they do not appear within the Abyss.

Minerals and Gems are found both on the planet’s surface as well as in the Abyss and come in two forms. The first is minable with each new training level, while the other has node specific rank requirements and a different appearance. Gems are the rarest of the nodes found on the ground throughout Atreia and generally appear where several can be found in relative proximity.

Fish and Shellfish are found where there is water (lakes, wetlands, marshes, etc) as one would expect. And lastly are the woods which contain the least variety and are found scattered throughout Atreia, although more common in the woodland type environments.

At this point, it’s fair to mention, that for most nodes there are two types of material that can be found. The regular version received 95% of the time and a rare version, often of the same material. The exception to this, from what I’ve seen, is woods.

That takes us to the aerial gathering skill and gathering from odes. Yes its odes, not nodes, in order to represent the difference between aerial and ground gathering. Odes differ from regular ground gathering in that there is only one available every 25 skill ranks. Additionally, they can only be found in zones where free flight is available.

The last manner of obtaining materials for crafting is the traditional method of killing mobs throughout the game. Mobs throughout the world drop several materials, although there are a couple key ones that will be found continually across all levels. The two important enough to mention are the leathers and the crystal balls. Leathers drop off of most mobs that you would expect them to, so anything with a hide. Crystal balls drop off everything and appear in three colours; red, blue, and white.

In closing it should be noted that most of the general materials also have different rarities. Two simple examples are gems and crystal balls. For gems, the node may produce a regular version of the material that is any quality. The rare version, when one is available, will always be of a quality a step above the regular version produced. The exception being that there are no unique quality materials at this time. In the case of crystal balls each ball occurs in different rarities and any colour crystal ball may drop in any rarity.

Gem and crystal ball rarities

What are the Crystal Balls?

The Crystals aren’t related to crafting. Instead, they are gathered version of potions basically. As mentioned above, there are three colours you can collect:

The Life Crystal (Red) restores 5,000 hitpoints.

The Mind Crystal (Blue) restores 5,000 mana points

And lastly, the Recovery Crystal (white) restores 5,000 hitpoints AND 5,000 mana points.

Unfortunately all the crystals require you to be level 50 or above…

Basic knowledge for your info

Spawn locations of resources do not change in type when they respawn, they are always static, if you find a specific type of resource you want, you will be able to find it again in that same place.

Material difficulties are increased by 5, and you can only gather materials equal or lesser than your skill level.

Most materials spawns allows up to 3 chances to extract material from it, some special materials might only allow one chance. The gathering is also shared between other players.

Only two things can happen upon extracting materials, fail, or succeed. As your gathering skill increases, it is easier and faster to extract lower level materials.

Resource materials stack up to 1000!

Gathering Tips

Tip #1 – Gather while you’re levelling, between skill cool down, and healing time so you don’t feel bored.

Tip #2 – I personally like to gather 1 type of material for 10-15 skill point gain, reason being as your skill increases it gets easier and faster to gather that type of material, and you still gain skill at the same rate between 1-10 skill points of that material.

Tip #3 – You must purchase level 2 gather after 99 skill points, level 3 after 199 skill points, etc… To acquire level 2, 3 and beyond, go to Sanctum if you are Elyos or Pandaemonium for Asmodian and learn it from Vitality Master which are located in the crafting area.

Tip #4 – How to stop instant fail. One of 3 thing will happen when your extracting materials, succeed, fail, and instant fail. The first two you will gain skill points from, but the third one you gain nothing. To stop instant fail while gathering either take 1 step at any direction or take a 1 – 2 second break in between attempts.

Did you know...

2009-09-26T07:34:00.000+10:00

Want to take screenshots but don't want your interface in the way? Simply press the F12 key and poof, your UI is hidden! F12 again and hey presto it's back!

How to get a bigger Cube!

2009-09-25T19:14:00.000+10:00

No this is not a sales pitch to enlarge anything other than your characters cubes lol! Like most MMO's, many players struggle with bag space, especially if they are a little bit of a pack rat like me. While I am far better than my significant other sitting over there (he's a bloody magpie I tell you), I still have a tendancy to hold onto things if I'm not 100% sure I don't have a need for it. Things brings on the problem of space - I usually run out of it very quickly.

Aion uses cubes to hold all your belongings, and as you find out when you speak to Bacorerk (Asmodians), cubes are much larger inside than they are on the outside. This is Aion's way of saying "your character can carry a whole lot more than you'd imagine"...

When you start out in the game, you are given a cube containing 27 slots. This might seem a lot, but you watch how quick you fill it. You can upgrade your cube to contain a further 9 slots as soon as you reach Aldelle Village and have 1,010 Kineh.

To enlarge your cube, all you need to do is speak to Bacorerk...

Bacorerk can only upgrade your cube to level 1 (the added 9 slots), however, when you reach Pandaemonium, you can speak to either Nekorunerk or Ondarinerk located in the Temple of Gold and they will further expand your cube ...

Level 2 which adds a further 9 slots to your cube will cost you 12,221 Kineh. You can also use these guys to purchase levle 3, which adds the final 9 slots to this cube for a further 61,105 Kineh. I have yet to learn what you do after you purchase those... I will update this post when I find out.

30 minute timer for Private Stores!

2009-09-25T13:35:00.002+10:00

We are bringing the servers down at 6:00AM PST (more), September 25th, for maintenance. The purpose of this downtime is to tweak the way Private Stores work. A timer of 30 minutes will be implemented to prevent these shops from being abused as a means to prevent disconnection and alleviate queues.

The maintenance is expected to run no longer than 1 hour.

Thank you for your patience!

That's the official word posted here. Huzzah for their quick response addressing the issue!

Ascension Part 2...

2009-09-25T12:01:00.000+10:00

Following on from my Finally sprouted some wings... post, I wanted to share the second part of the Ascension journey, which is when you actually arrive in Pandaemonium - the Asmodian capital city. One of the most common things you hear when you talk about Asmodians, or to Asmodians in game is the darkness. Elyos bathe in light, Asmodians live in darkness. Upon entering Pandaemonium, which I just have to say is the coolest name for a city (pretty much Pandemonium), is that a lack of sunlight does not equal a lack of beauty. Check out how pretty this city is!!

And yes, I'm posing in that last one lol.

Once I got past marvelling at the beauty that is Pandemonium, I went back to find Heimdall of the City Guard to finish the quest line. Byte, he's really not that hard to find lol, he's right at the entrance. Upon speaking to Heimdall, you get to watch yet another cut scene (I am loving these things) where two guards rush at you. Apparently Daevas are a little more Diva and don't like anyone other than their kind in their city.

Heimdall apologizes and informs you that you need to head to the Great Temple of Pandaemonium as a formal Ascension ceremony takes place to finish your journey from Raider to Daeva. This is a great ceremony and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it (yes, another cut scene), even when I was mocked as I walked down the carpet to high priest Balder who oversees the ceremony itself.

Once the ceremony is over, you are sent to your respective trainers to complete the final step and are given the choice of some very nice weapons - or at least Rangers are. I'm not sure if the caster classes are given armor options or not. Naturally I took the Bow as I didn't have one yet...

And voila! That is pretty much the end of the Ascension chain and you are now a fully fledged Daeva. Congratulations. I loved following the story line involved with this, especially when you speak to the final trainer and hear why some of the other Daevas might not be so welcoming to you. Now it's just time to prove your worth.

Of course what Ascension is complete without the ritual showing off of the wings? These things are AWESOME cool and I am so glad that I chose Asmodian so I get the really funky black ones. I mean c'mon, who doesn't want black wings?!

Did you know...

2009-09-25T05:04:00.001+10:00

Did you know... that pressing the "," (comma) button will bring you in a rest state in which your HP/MP will recover faster than usual?

This might not seem like a big deal, but used wisely, this can save you a lot of potion in the long run. Think about it. How often did you wait for someone to arrive on a location while you were waiting and your HP/MP wasn't recovering as fast as it could with this little trick?

Of course, the main area most people will use it will be solo fighting. Knowing that the "," will recover your HP/MP faster is a godsend when you are fighting your way through large areas of moobs. Often you end up without MP or you're low on HP. Instead of waiting for it to recover, you can press the "," button and your HP/MP will recover a lot faster.

Simple, but effective. Happy Hunting!

Finally sprouted some wings...

2009-09-24T20:00:00.000+10:00

That's right, I ascended! Warning: Ascension is a big deal in a Daeva's life, so this blog post ended up a tad longer than I expected lol. It does contain what actually happens during the quest line though, so if you've already done it, then you can just skim over those parts...

I was aiming to ascend last night, however our Internet is beyond shocking sometimes and I spent the first half of the night trying not to break my keyboard. I then spent the second half of the night putting my daughter back to bed as a possessed toy with a ticking clock decided to just start ticking on it's own which freaked her out. Just quietly, it didn't help my over active imagination either. All of a sudden I realised that I couldn't let my mind run wild and freak me out with thoughts of ghosts in the house playing tricks as I have to keep calm and convince my daughter that there's nothing wrong lol. If you knew my imagination, you would know what a feat that was.

Between resettling her, and the lag, and then the server down time, I didn't make it very far. I would like to take this moment to thank Aion for the 60 second warning for the server down time. I mean really, you couldn't have given everyone a bit more of a heads up? I'm just thankful I wasn't out fighting and could quit straight away. I'm sure not everyone was so lucky.

As you can see in that image, I was already working on my Ascension quest line when the servers went down. I was not a happy camper lol. I would have been further along if it wasn't for the lag we get. Not only do we have the "Aussie connecting to a US server" lag, we also have the "!@#$% Telstra sucks" lag, accompanied by the "moved to one of the fastest growing areas in the state and it can't handle the pressure" connection lag. Basically - we're screwed.

That's every night prime time at the moment, although the second one was only at 4pm. Early mornings aren't that much better, even 9am is getting up there...

Then again, I'd happily settle for 600ms at night time instead of almost 2 seconds behind everyone. The 'rubber-banding' as it's been named by the players is enough to do my head in. Last night I would be trying to get to one mob who was only 5 feet away, and instead, I would rubber band for 15 to 30 seconds and watch five people pass me and kill it. The worst part is, there is nothing we can do about it - Telstra hold the monopoly on Australia's internet system and until that changes, we just have to eat the crap served to us.

Today however, during the midday nap hour, with internet running smoothly and possessed toys safely stashed under the bed, it was time to get my rear end out of the starting area and ascend!!

The quest series itself is pretty cool and like everything else so far, very easy to follow. You get to deal with this guy called Munin, who has been detained deep within the Ishalgen Prison Camp. Trapped within a crystallized prison cell which looks very cool, Munin is your key to Ascension.

This Daeva can discern the future, even from within his cell. This expert fortune teller is able to tell your future and how you will ascend to be a mighty Asmodian. But first he needs some items to help piece together your past - 3 cards of fate.

I'm not going to ruin it for you by posting the entire quest outline here - I can't see anyone needing a 'walk through' for it. All the people involved are people you have already had dealings with through other quests, so just read the dialog, use the built in location helpers and you'll be all set.

Once you have collected the cards, returned them and done all those steps, the real fun begins. As Munin reads the cards, he begins to weave patterns in the Aether, and suddenly you are transported to an outer-worldly realm, wearing a full set of Asmodian armor (very cool). The sky is a mix of dark, blood-like colors, and scattered about are several giant, swirling vortexes - Portals.

This is the Abyss, the nether region nestled between the two shattered halves of Atreia, and you’re standing on one of the many small, floating rocky islands that dot the Abyss. You see a line of wounded Asmodian soldiers before you, and the apparent leader — Archon Legionary Hagen — beckons you forward.

I had to stop for a minute and bathe in all the "Alexan is here, huzzah" commentary lol. That was just too cool. Yay me!

The Asmodians are in a desperate struggle to attain the floating island of Narsass. Standing in the way of Asmodian success however, is the leader of the Elyos known as Hellion. It's time for you to step up! You must fly to Narsass and defeat Hellion personally — that is your destiny.

After you accept the quest, you immediately spread your wings and spring off the island, passing groups of Asmodians and Elyos engaged in aerial combat. All of this is out of your control so just sit back and enjoy the view. Eventually you get knocked to the ground and take control of your character once again. When this happens, you are immediately greeted with the welcoming party - 4 Elyos soldiers. Don't panic like I did though, you have a 15 minute buff which makes you near indestructible against them. You won't (shouldn't) die...

After defeating the Elyos soldiers, you come up against Hellion himself. For still hold control over your character and do the best you can. however, the battle will not go well. You are soundly defeated after a blinding assault. At this point you once again sit back and enjoy the cut scene...

Suddenly you seem to recover, but you’re back in your old armor again, and the form of Munin appears nearby. “The future is not fixed,” he says, and he reveals that trying to change the future is why he was imprisoned in the first place. You agree to mutually help each other — Munin claims he will need help in the future, and in return he will help save your life down the line — but first you must become a Daeva and pick a class.

This is where my dilemma kicks in. I had planned to go Ranger before I even acquired the game. Coming from the Hunter class in WoW, I knew I loved the pew pew pew. The problem was however, as I was leveling up to ten, I got to have some fun with the 'assassin' style abilities - hide, backstab, really big crits, etc. I really, really loved all the close combat moves and the damage that the backstab attack did. I was having way too much fun. So much so that I was starting to question my Ranger choice...

When I was finally presented with the choice of the two, I didn't know which way to go. Feeling 'stuck' in that I couldn't really just walk away and keep playing while I decided, being put on the spot didn't help the decision making process. My mouse kept wavering back and forth between Ranger and Assassin.

The biggest cause of my confusion was actually due to my time in WoW. Prior to WoW even entering the closed beta I knew I was going to be a Warlock. I planned everything around it, including a class website just for them. In the beginning I did love them, dearly. But as time passed, it felt more like a requirement to play one than any choice. In the end, I fell in love with the Hunter and there I stayed. So I sit here asking myself if this will be the same thing? What if I end up loving the Assassin but don't find out until later because I went with my first choice, the Ranger?

In the end I figured it didn't matter. So what if I change later? By that stage I won't really care about reading all the quest text like I am now, I'll just zoom through the first 10 levels and take it from there. Right?

So Ranger it is! It wasn't an easy choice I must admit, but I'm happy that I've made it. I still have that "what if I love the Assassin style more" thought loitering in the back of my mind, but I can always make one later and find out. For now though, I'm sticking to my pew pew heritage and ready to shoot some arrows into Elyos arse!

Oh yes, a little tip for all those still waiting to ascend - don't keep holding off the quest line that makes it happen because you want to finish all the other starting area quests first...

Because I ran around finishing up all my quests so I had a clean quest log, I was only 1/4 of a level away from 10 when I handed in... bugger.

My first group in Aion - oh boy!

2009-09-24T16:09:00.000+10:00

I'm too sure if you can call two people a group, but I was in one today. And I'm happy to report that it's absolutely no different to any other MMO where you randomly group with who ever walks by - makes you want to practice typing with your face.

I was doing one of the "find Rae" quest lines, which really, should just be renamed to "where's Rae" along the where's Waldo lines as she's never in the same spot twice and is usually buried amongst rabbits or mobs trying to kill her. I mean really, how can one girl get into so much trouble and still be alive?

Anyway, I was doing the step where you find her in the cave and you have to destroy the power generators and make the big orange portal explode. Which of course all happens without so much as a eyelid bat from the mobs not 10 feet away. Running past another player in there, I had the message pop up on my screen if I'd like to join a group.

I figured why not right? I'm in an enclosed area, with lots of mobs that I have slaughter through to get to the generators I need, and I had the funny feeling the 'big bad guy' with a different name to all the rest was going to also be a tad harder. Wouldn't help to have some assistance...

Assistance. Let's just pause and ponder that word for a moment. What does it mean to you? For me, it would generally mean help right? Attacking the same mob that I am? Waiting for your partner to be ready, and at least over half health before going and attacking another mob? Allowing you to finish destroying the generator before running off, agroing 3 mobs and then running around like you have a firecracker up your ass yelling for help?

I mean really. I join a group to help things progress quicker - not to babysit a player who can't help but poke every mob he passes... going the wrong way!

I did learn however that there is the 'dice roll' system when it comes to loot in a group. Sadly I didn't get a screenshot of it as the nincompoop I was grouped with couldn't sit still and I wasn't able to properly pay attention. Which brings me to my other annoyance with him. We had two changes to roll for loot - the first one was a spell book which I passed to him (oh yeah, you have roll or pass) as he was a caster. The second was a pair of leather boots, ie the kind of leather I like against my cold dark skin, and not only does he roll, but he wins and says "oh, did you need those" then RUNS AWAY!! That bastard picked up the boots, dangled them in my face and then took off.

For more information on group looting, I found this helpful page: Group Looting. Basically looks the same as WoW...

Die Spammers Die!!!

2009-09-24T07:28:00.001+10:00

Ok seriously, I am getting so sick of being spammed with the bloody currency traders!! It was bad enough when they flooded chat channels, now I have to have them spitting and breathing all over my ears?

The only good thing is I'm not familiar with my whisper colour yet so I don't really notice them. But something has to be done about this surely. I'm getting a whisper every 15 minutes at this rate!!

A Quick Look into Aions Private Shops

2009-09-23T20:09:00.002+10:00

Ever since the early days of online games, the ability to trade virtual goods between players has been one of the most interesting factors of MMORPGs. While some players dedicate a huge part of their time to playing the market, others prefer to spend their time more focused on actual game play. But even then you will need to participate in trades every once in a while.

Aion introduces a new twist on a familiar feature – the person store. Those entering the MMO world via World of Warcraft would only be familiar with the central Auction House (AH) system where you passed your goods over to one of the NPC merchants and set your price. When you returned to the game some hours later, you’d hopefully see the new mail icon indicating you had money waiting for you from the sale.

Back in the day of EQ, things were a little different. It was up to you to fix hooks inside your cloak, stand in a room full of other cloaked people and then flash when ever you saw a prospective buyer walk past. Ok, not quite that lewd lol. But close.

In EQ there was a single zone called The Bazaar. If you were ever on right after a server crash or down time, this would be nothing more than an empty room similar in resemblance to an indoor market hall. When the servers were alive and kicking however, it would be crammed with players all over hawking their wears. So crammed, that Sony eventually implemented a change that hid all players on arrival and only showed the ones selling goods you were after when you did a search. I blame the Ogre's, they kept sitting on the Gnomes...

The system worked well. Being a Mage back then, I was able to summon as many pet items as my bags could handle before I went to bed and wake up to pocketfuls of cash.

Aion has taken a leaf out of both games. There are four ways to sell items in Aion: NPC Vendors of course, as well as personal trades via the designated trade channel. Those two are kind of a given. The real money however is made via the private shops and the trade brokers.

Like all games, NPC vendors provide the most basic form of trade and of course will pretty much always give you the lowest sale price out of all your options. Some items are worth much more than a vendor will pay for it, but because this is a very simple and fast way to get rid of items you don't need, a lot of players sell items for a very low price to vendors, unaware that they could have gotten a better bargain by selling the item to another player. A prime example of this would be manastones: basic low level manastones sell for only two Kinah to a vendor, yet default to 10 Kinah via a personal store (of course you can change that price easily). So the only stuff you want to sell to vendors are soulbound items that you cannot trade with other players, or grey quality items that are basically junk and can be disposed of quickly by the handy "sell all misc" button at every vendor.

Most other items you will find are useful to another player in some way and should be sold via direct trade (using the in game trade channel and whispers to find a trade partner), a private shop or the trade brokers.

Unlike EQ where you were designated to a single zone to sell your wares, a private shop can be set up anywhere in the world. This is both a good and a bad thing. Good in that you don’t have to travel to sell what you don’t want, and of course can start selling from level one if you wish. But bad in that you will find your screen full of the little messages people leave above their stalls. Especially bad FOR THE ANNOYING FARTS THAT USE ALL CAPS!!! Gah...

Of course, a private shop is only useful if placed in a location where a lot of players come by, and one of their best uses is probably to provide a specific quest item right next to the corresponding quest NPC. The big disadvantage of this trade method is that you can't do anything else while you have your private shop active, besides using the chat, so unless you are going away from keyboard for a while, you might prefer to use the trade broker instead.

Which brings in the biggest issue everyone has with private shops right now. You can AFK for hours and not get dropped from the game. If you walk away from your PC with your character just left standing there, you drop after 20 minutes. But with a private store open, you can stay online for 1, 2 or even 10 hours. This is of course wreaking havoc with the current server queues as the AFK store owners are blocking people from logging into the game, and then those same people set up a store so they avoid the queue again. Giant snowball effect and not the fun throwing kind.

So please: Only use the private stores for good, not evil!

I’ll do a separate write up for the trade brokers as I’ve not yet had a chance to use them myself just yet. I promise, as soon as I get to a major city and use one, I will tell you all about it. But for now…

How to Set up Shop!

Ok, so setting up your private store is really easy. Y is the default hot key to open the private store interface, in which you will see something similar to this.

Obviously the first time you use the store your inventory will be empty. To add items to your inventory, you simply double click what ever you want to sell from your bags located directly below. When you do this, another mini window will pop up asking you for a price, and will already be filled with the default sales price. It’s up to you if you wish to adjust the price or not.

The Store Message field is what appears above your head (see image) and can be anything you like. Use this to advertise any potentially rare or excellent items to attract buyers.

Once that’s done, simply hit start. And that’s it. You’re all set to start waving in any potential customers – no really, spin your camera around (both mouse keys) and watch your character for a few minutes hehe.

NCsoft promises “at least one major update a year”

2009-09-23T17:28:00.000+10:00

Aion’s will get “at least” one major annual content update going forward, NCsoft has confirmed to VG247.

“There will be at least one major update a year,” said brand manager Christian-Peter Heimbach, talking in an interview published today.

“You know this from our previous titles. We’re currently adjusting on how we’re going to make these available, but there will be free content updates for all players, and we’re looking then at how big the major updates will be.”

The MMO, which has collected a giant 400,000 pre-orders, is now live in the US and will go live on Friday in Europe.

NCsoft has long adhered to a system of providing its MMOs with yearly content updates.

Source: VG247

Aion want to go down the low pop server path...

2009-09-23T12:06:00.002+10:00

Aion Producer Brian Knox speaks out on the issues of long queues to get in the game during "head start" and now the official launch of Aion. According to Knox the average wait time in the queues has been about 3 hours on the popular servers, and NCsoft's suggestion is to go to the low pop / recommended servers.

Why were queue times necessary at all. As this event was for pre-order customers only, why wasn't it easy to predict exactly how many servers would be necessary to make sure that players weren't waiting in line?

Brian Knox: There are numbers and stats that help us predict servers. We know what our average percentage of users is per active accounts at a peak time based off our beta events and our other products. We know how many users our servers can handle at capacity, and we know how many users makes for an ideal game play experience in Aion. Most importantly we know that there will never be a time when every single Aion customer wants to log in and play all at once than when we first turn on the servers. All of these go into picking the correct server count and the right time to spin up new servers.

We had to keep max server capacity low at first because everyone was crammed at the starting area. Had we opened it up to everyone, no one could have progressed. As the day went on, we opened up the servers more and more. We want to ensure that our servers are healthy during Head Start, but also once a retail code is applied. These next few days we will be calculating data and weighing the ideal time to open more servers. I think that the community will understand that in a game with PvPvE how important a healthy populated server is and that we do not want to go down the low pop server path...

Source: VE3D

Aion also posted an official statement regarding Server Queues and Course of Action:

At NCsoft our commitment is to making the MMO player experience the best it can be. And while Aion has seen a very successful launch that has exceeded our expectations in many ways, we are aware of the longer than usual queue times that players have experienced on some of the servers. This is due to the initial rush of players that we’ve seen in the early days of the game’s launch in Europe and North America.

Since the opening of Head Start this past weekend, we’ve have been heavily focused on striking the delicate balance between managing busy servers with queue times versus overcompensating by adding new servers too quickly that are then underpopulated and don’t deliver a fun experience for players. We did indeed see an initial rush on the first days of Head Start which resulted in longer than desired queue times for some of our servers, and we are working around the clock to alleviate this. In fact, we are happy to confirm we have increased our server caps and are adding an additional server in both North America and Europe by this weekend, and we will continue to evaluate adding additional servers.

That said, we do have alternate servers where players are experiencing lower queue times. People can get a real-time update and select that choice on our website at: http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/

We continue to monitor issues closely and strive to address player feedback quickly to ensure the best possible experience.

Source: Aion Online

@israphel on Twitter told me today that they had to wait in a nine hour queue! That's insane!!

The Aion Quest System

2009-09-23T07:52:00.000+10:00

The original Everquest never really had 'quests' per say when I was playing. The play was more sandbox style, more open ended. You decided what you wanted to kill, where you wanted to kill and for how long you wanted to kill. That type of experience gain certainly had it's pros in that you didn't have to do a whole lot of running around, and if you were lucky enough to get one of the good spots in the zone you were currently at the right level for, you could spend ages there making mountains of experience and plat (gold).

Of course there was then the matching con that if you didn't get into one of those few lucky spots, you were left to pick up the dregs and make do with what ever you could fight off from other nearby groups scrounging for the same lackluster mob numbers. Or worse - you didn't even get into those groups and instead spent your time sitting at what ever safe spot or zone entrance applicable, constantly spamming the zone that you were in fact looking for either group category. Basically you begged for someone to give you something to do.

Oh yes and there was no solo playing unless you were either a Bard or Druid. Everything was group based.

EQ did have quests, but they were for a specific purpose, usually your class item. They were also long, painful chains that were only completed until the first few expansions were released making the reason for the torture obsolete as the first drop in the first zone by a wanna be boss had better stats so why would you waist your time? So yeah... no real questing.

Moving from EQ to WoW, and into the quest based leveling system, it was like stepping into the future. Here you were not only handed quest objectives the moment you logged in... quests were everywhere! And they gave you experience, coin and omg armor upgrades! The 1st generation MMO players that popped their cherry with WoW really don't know how easy they have it.

And of course, if you have an IQ over 10, you are able to garner everything you need from the quest text and very rarely do you need to rely on the many database websites available to you that give you even more information, usually accompanied by screenshots. And of course if you still can't figure it out from all that, there are the hundreds upon hundreds of user submitted comments giving you locations, specific instructions (behind the 3rd rock closest to the big yellow ball) and even more detail.

If that still isn't enough, then you have the option of installing 3rd party mods that give you in game directions complete with little directional arrows telling you that you are going the right way. I'm surprised there isn't a big flashing "WRONG WAY" sign that invaded your screen space if you weren't... then again, I probably wouldn't be surprised if I get told there is.

My point? Questing in WoW is easy, gives you all the experience you could need and comes with the bonuses of coin and loot. Nice.

Now, I move from WoW to Aion and just when I thought they couldn't make it any easier, I am proven wrong. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE what they have done and I think it's awesome!! I've already commented that you can click the names of NPC's, Mobs or locations involved in that quest to not only see more info, but to also see a marked map location of their whereabouts. That's just too cool.

But now, Aion takes it one step cooler by giving you choices!! Check this out:

Of course all quests in WoW give you the option of accepting or telling the NPC to bugger off, you could just close the window. But here, Aion gives you the option to accept or actually inform them that you're too busy. It really is the polite thing to do. Naturally being busy doesn't grant you any XP lol, but is still kind of cool.

This particular quest actually had me feeling a bit sorry for the guy involved. Anyone on the Asmodian side might recognise this quest - for the Elyos among us, basically you're told that there's a guy who doesn't do any work unless you yell at him. By the time you get to him (a few quest steps), and yell at him, you discover that the reason he's not meeting his quota is because the mobs are taking all his sap lol. The poor bastard also comments about how he's being yelled at constantly now haha - because of all the new questers being told to go out and yell. LOL I really did feel for him.

So, being the kind person that I am, I agree to help. Doing so, I get yet another choice - and this one is more than just an accept or abandon option.

This kinda threw me for a moment. What if one of the mobs was the wrong one? This wasn't as obvious a choice as the last one... I could actually get it wrong. I ended up choosing the Sylphen because it sounded like siphon and he was talking about something taking all his sap. In the end I don't think it mattered which one you chose as the quest giver doesn't appear to know either and just says that what ever you chose sounds about right.

Another quest choice that I liked was one of the first ones I did. It's around the lake I screen-shotted earlier, and involves a fisherman who has a thing for the girl on the dock. You run around getting flowers so he can give them to her, only, he's too chicken to actually hand them over. You then get the choice to help him out one more time, or tell him to man up.

Being the nice raider that I am, again lol, I opted to help him out. Later on I chose the man up option on another character and I was disappointed to find out that it doesn't actually lead anywhere. I thought that perhaps it was like those books where you chose the direction of the story as you went? But sadly no. Telling him to man up just has him agree and then you still go through the process to eventually help him because he just can't do it.

A lesson to all men out there - man up! Do it yourself! lol, chicks don't dig cowards...

The last feature I noticed about the Aion quests, and one that really helps me, is when you speak to an NPC involved in a quest, the text informs you of a new quest you haven't yet accepted, and a quest you are currently in the progress of completing.

In WoW of course, you didn't have this feature. And it was always a minor annoyance when you had the option of two because I inevitable always chose the wrong one lol. Here, I don't have that problem! I realise it's only a small thing, but it's still pretty cool and yet another step forward in the online MMO questing experience.

All in all, I'm seeing lots I really like in Aion and I can't wait to see more!

Less than 10% of Aion players able to play...

2009-09-22T21:48:00.005+10:00

That's the claim being made by GDN apparently.

AION Online Drops the Ball on Launch - Massive Queues to Play

NCsoft has dropped the ball on their launch of AION Online? It sure seems like it. Reports are coming in that there are queues of 2,500 people and more as well as three hour waits just to get into the game. It seems that their 18 server strategy will never be able to hold up to the 400,000 plus pre-order gamers that are already trying to get into the game. 18 X 2,000 (player caps on servers) = 36,000 = less than 10% of gamers will be able to play at once. Not a very smart strategy if you ask me.

This just seems to be a case of poor planning on the part of Ncsoft. When pre-orders began to soar they should have thought about opening new servers for the launch. To only be able to hold less than 10% of the games sold just seems ridiculous.

GDN has contacted NCSoft about the issue and is awaiting reply.

Of course, we can only assume that they know NCsoft only has 18 servers for Aion players. And even if that is the case, I can't imagine setting up 18 servers would be that cheap - so imagine setting up the required 200 servers needed if you use the maths of 400,000 ple-orders divided by 2,000 server caps.

That said, I have to feel sorry for people like who ever took the following image. 7 hour wait? Ouch!

Gold Spammers already?!

2009-09-22T12:05:00.005+10:00

During my 5 years of WoW play time, one of the most annoying things to read in chat besides the Chuck Norris jokes, was the gold seller spam. Not only spam because they would repeat the same thing 50 times in the space of 25 seconds, but also because it was unwanted. Just like all the emails I get asking me if I would like a bigger penis that would also last longer in the bedroom, the gold selling ads are of no use to me because I have zero plans to ever purchase in game gold no matter how broke I am.

For those that don't know me well enough yet - I'm one of those zomg real life female gamer. Hence the no use for penis enlarging email spam lol.

So Aion's not even officially live yet right? We're still in the head-start program and only a portion of the eventual player base is currently online. I may not understand the need to purchase online currency, especially in a game like Aion where my level 7 character currently has just over 8,000 Kineh, but I do understand that currency selling, power leveling services and the like are big business. So really, I shouldn't be surprised when I see the following pop up in chat last night...

Apart from the fact we all got spammed with it about 5 times before it stopped, who ever is involved pre-ordered Aion in order to offer this service first. Which leads me to two questions...

How can they possibly have enough money to start offering it for sale? And
WHO could possibly need money THIS early in the game?!

I mean seriously!! As I already mentioned, my level seven character already has over 8,000 Kineh, and I've not been hording any. I've purchased skill upgrades, a sword off a vendor and a couple of in game flights. I've not nothing left to spend the rest of it on! WHY would I need to buy more?!

I can only assume that it's a copy and paste advertisement meant only to highlight the leveling, CDK (CD Key) and the Game Cards. But still... leave the advertising spam to the mountain of banner ads you see all over websites and be done with it. Make sure your own website is SEO'd properly and people will find you when they google for "buy Kineh" or similar. Otherwise give me your email addresses and I can forward you on all my penis emails - we'll swap spam.

Just stop spamming me in game with it!!

P.S How do you pronounce Kineh? Is is Kin-eh like you're a tad Canadain? Or Ky-neh?

The Beauty that is Aion

2009-09-22T08:26:00.002+10:00

I had already read over at another blog I follow that Aion was extremely beautiful. However like most things, screenshots really don't do it justice and it's not until you actually get in game that you see just how magnificent everything looks. I mean really, really pretty.

Hubby, who watched over my shoulder last night for ooooh all of about 15 seconds before sliding back to his PC to order the digital download of Aion (he lasted long huh?) commented that it resembled that of the EQ2 graphics. I personally never played EQ2 so can't really compare, but I'll take his word for it. It's similar to EQ in that if someone jumps in and starts whacking a mob you're already hitting, they get partial XP which comes out of your XP pool. Meaning you get less. That's one thing WoW really got right - the ability to tag mobs!

There's a few other similarities here and there while I'm sure I'll mention as I remember them. For now though, I'll stay mesmerized by the beautiful surroundings in game, which if you remember, I'm Asmodian so it should be all dark and gloomy. If these are the sort of graphics I'm surrounded by, I can't imagine what the Elyos are being blinded with!

Ok, so first off the sky. I took the time to look up last night due to a comment left on a previous blog entry about how bright it was. I hadn't actually noticed that at the time as I was too busy being all excited and giddy at the fact I was online lol. So last night, I did what most gamers probably don't take the time to do, and looked up. And... it was worth it.

How awesomely stunning is that sky?

I noticed I could see right through to space, and given that there is some sunshine (or at least light) during the daylight hours, it means that the plants are still able to flourish here. I'm not too sure where here is just yet as I can't figure it out. Last night one of the quests involved an old witch taking a look at my palm to see my future. In the vision she shared with me, there was certainly no sunshine, no trees and nothing 'pretty' at all. I can only assume that I am still on some form of earth type location and when I ascend, I will finally be surrounded by my Asmodian like environment.

Can anyone else shed some light on that for me? Where exactly are you levels 1 through to 10?

The good thing with sunshine and all the goodness that helps nature grow, is you get to see spectacular trees like this one.

The tree sits in the middle of a large lake full of clear blue water. Just as beautiful was the tree itself, it was also surrounded by the cutest mobs lol. Yes, I'm a girl, I find the web slinks adorable and I want one as a pet haha.

Not the best shot of one, but I was trying to kill it at the time - hey if I can't have one as a pet, then no one else could either! I also like the water birds there but forgot to grab a shot of them. Doh.

You do a few quests around the tree so you get to soak it up for a while before moving on. The good thing about Aion that is similar to WoW is that the game shuffles you along from quest area to quest area. There's really no reason for anyone to not know where you need to go next as you just follow the quests you're given.

I thought I wouldn't see much better than that tree for a while... then I got about 10 steps up the road and saw the sunlight streaming through the trees to get this image

Stunning!

I could have taken a hundred shots of the different things I saw last night, I really could. A combination of a new game, and beautiful graphics made it very easy to go "aaaw wow, look at that" all night. Of course, the only thing prettier than the graphics I was surrounded by, was my character herself. The log in screen shots I took the other day really didn't do her justice. Check out the hotness that is Alexan!

Hooooot. I lost track of how many "any girls online?" questions which was of course followed by the next 15 minutes of "real girls aren't on the internet/don't play games" banter that could induce nothing more than an eyeroll from me. I ended up having to turn my chat channels off last night as the sheer utter stupidity that was spilling out of other people's brains was making mine hurt. I'm not about to dare tell them that a character as hot as that is also a real life female. It wouldn't be nerd rage that would end up all over me... ick!

Aion Street Date Broken!

2009-09-21T12:07:00.003+10:00

Thankyou Kmart for breaking the street date for Aion and allowing EB Games to release my copy to me a day early! I was meant to be going up tomorrow to pick it up, or at midnight tonight if you were that desperate to play. Instead, I got an SMS while out and about informing me that I could pick up my copy immediately. Sweeeet.

And we're in!!

2009-09-21T08:16:00.002+10:00

Although my subconscious must have a clock in view somewhere and I did in fact wake at 5am this morning, I had no plans to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed to jump onto Aion straight away. I also figured there'd likely be either a queue, or server issues as expected with a game launch, and wasn't about to get out of bed just to sit and stare at my computer.

But I'm up now, and I'm online!! Wahoo!!

Click to enlarge

I considered making my daughter some toast, and me some breakfast before I did anything. To just leave my Alexan standing there breathing in the fresh air she's waited so long to breath. But then my daughter asked for cheese which she can eat on my lap and I noticed the first quest giver was just centimeters away lol. Since she was happy and eating, I figured why not just do the first quest right?

Finding your feet in a fresh MMORPG is always interesting, but when you've not even logged into your previous MMO (WoW) in a few months, it's even more fun. Although I had the basics of moving, I couldn't figure out how to open my inventory, locate my quest journal and for the first time since the beta of World of Warcraft, I paid attention to the in game tutorials lol.

Once I found the menu button and noticed the hot key letters beside each of the functions, I was pretty much good to go. Until 5 seconds passed and I forgot which was which.

Thankfully, the questing side of things really makes it easy! When you speak to the quest guy (right click works just fine, yay), not only does he tell you where to go - ie down the road, etc - but you can click on the NPC names of others involved and you get a second window pop up giving you info:

Click to enlarge

And if that wasn't easy enough, if you click on the locate button within that second window, you get a map!!

Click to enlarge

So really, there should be absolutely no need to read "where do I find so and so" in chat. Of course there is, every 3 bloody seconds!! Just as there is the "press Alt + F4 to equip an item/find the quest/kill a mob/make a naked girl appear". I can't believe people still think that works, or worse, that it does!

On top of that, there is the already annoying for 1k spam. /sigh I hate people sometimes. Then I remembered it's the first main day of the school holidays here in Australia and the game is likely to be flooded with the annoying cretins I try very hard not to swerve and run over in my car at 3:30pm each day.

But still, I'm in, and I'm loving it so far. As of this posting, I've completed my first real quest to kill 4 beasts and dinged level 2. I really hope leveling isn't going to be that easy!! For memory the first quest in WoW also dings you to level 2 (remembering the Undead ones at least) so I'm not too worried for yet. I'm just in no rush to reach level 50 and want to enjoy the ride.

For now though, I've logged out and will make some breakfast...

Characters Created!

2009-09-19T19:24:00.006+10:00

Yay! I have my first two Aion characters saved and are not so patiently waiting for the early start program to, well, start. I decided to create my Ranger (currently Scout level of course) and the Cleric just because I had two slots so I might as well use them. I'll be playing my Ranger first I think, it will be easier to solo. Plus, I keep hearing all the PvP side of game play which, coming from WoW, I have to remember it's not all going to be an easy run like I'm used to. I'd like to have a bit damage capability under my belt. I want to survive and kill, not just survive and bore my opponent by healing until they give up lol. I don't want to be like a Paladin! Gah!

Although not up at 5am to create them, I did jump on before breakfast lol. I'm such a geek. My poor daughter was left to her own devices while I fawned all over the pretty graphics and omg unbelievable amount of options to tweak. Of course, her being left on her own equates my lounge room being destroyed lol. Toys as far as you could see...

Ok, so let's relive the experience of creating your first character shall we? I'm sure there's at least 3 people out there who haven't pre-ordered and will have to wait to do this. The first thing you have to decide is what faction you want to align with. As already mention, I'm all about Team Asmodian...

It actually took me a while to be able to see that screen. Since there is only one Oceanic realm assigned at the moment, I was trying to log into Nezekan. Instead of seeing the above however, I just kept getting a rather confusing message that I could not create an Asmodian character. Everytime I tried to proceed, I went straight to the character creation screen and it only showed Elyos. Pretty, but not what I wanted.

What the error message wasn't clear about, was that there were faction caps coming into play and obviously there had been so many Asmodian's created already, that they weren't allowing anymore to be created until it was balanced out with Elyos targets... I mean players. It was only through googling and Twitter did I learn this though which was annoying.

After half an hour or so, I did get to see the above faction selection and after choosing, was shown to the next screen, where you get to select your class. This screen actually threw me for a second lol. I'm used to the WoW screen where it's quite clear you're making a new character. Here you get to see all pre-made examples of each of the classes and you choose from there. It only threw me for a second and it was first thing in the morning lol.

I decided to create my Ranger first, so chose the Scout (F), aka female option. Scout (M) obviously being male...

The first random choice scared the absolute hell out of me lol. I was NOT expecting this to be looking back at me!

Of course, looking at that I also had a momentary freak out and thought "oh crap, do I really want to play Asmodian?" Thankfully, that's the only real scary face option there. Everything else is pretty sweet and lovely considering the darkness they live in.

Flicking through all the different facial features, I noticed there were a lot of 'Asian' hairstyle options, which makes sense given the games origin. There were also some really nice, more western styles I guess you'd call them. The best part though? Is the sheer number of hair styles there were to choose from in the first place. I think I counted through to 39 or some crazy high number!!

This is great for variation among the player base, after all, there's nothing more annoying that feeling like clone number 469 and seeing so many others that look just like you. Unfortunately, it's bad when you get to a hairstyle you like, realise it's number 32 and you can't remember if you liked that more or less than styles 3, 7 and what about 19? If they could make it so you could say, favourite 3 hairstyles, that you could then view side by side to chose from, that would be much better!

Once you have selected your hair, it's onto the face. You have the predefined shapes and features, or, you can flip it over to the advanced and use the sliders on nearly every aspect you can think of. Lips, eye shape, eyebrow arch, noise length, nose width, nose point! Just like real life, everyone can be different.

Word of warning however, do not hit reset. It does NOT return your settings to the default before you started fiddling and turned your face into a Picasso. It resets everything to the middle of the slider. I had to exit all the way out and start again lol.

After your face is perfect, it's onto the perfect body! And you have just as many sliders here as you did before. Hips, waist, arm length, leg width, etc. You can change everything. I chuckled as I turned my pretty little Ranger into a knuckle dragging ape lol. And oh my goodness, shrink their head down just once for a good laugh!

By the time I was done, almost an hour had passed. And that was just one character. My second (the Priest), I was little quicker with as I actually liked the majority of the random options that were presented to me. So you want to see what I have so far?

I introduce to you... Alexan! This is my Ranger...

She looked really good in the character creator. I really really liked what I ended up with. She came across with a little Kate Beckingsale looks, with a similar attitude to her character in Underworld. I liked it a lot! When I was watching her in the character selection screen however, I did get a bit concerned. Gone was the "I will mess you up" attitude and, instead replaced with a bit more "oh woe is poor little pouty me"...

I'm annoyed at myself I didn't grab a screenshot of her in the character creation as that gets nice and close up. And of course, I probably couldn't replicate her again if I tried lol. Oh well, will just have to see what I can capture in game when it finally goes live.

I also didn't think to grab a shot of my Priest either. Bugger it. I think I was just having way too much fun and was too excited at the thought of finally being able to play. You can have a quick peek at her - I introduce to you Caelius!

With my two character slots filled already, it was time to get up and start actually doing some housework and other real life things. You can't save anymore characters once you've saved your two, but you can keep playing with the creator to see what else you can make. I might do that a bit later tonight.

I had a quick look over the other class examples that were standing there, and I have to admit, for once, the men of the game are pretty good looking. Normally the females outshine the men with blinding good looks. The men of Aion however, as pretty boy as they might be, look pretty good. Check out this handsome fella...

Yummy...

Aion PC Games Video - Episode 4

2009-09-19T12:34:00.000+10:00

Aion at IGN.com

News Catchup...

2009-09-19T09:11:00.011+10:00

It's no surprise with the official realease date of Aion just a few days away that the news is flowing thick and strong. Xaen updated the Aion website with some updates about the Aion Launch Version!

Aion now features all three languages French, German and English. To select your language simply right click on Aion within your launcher and go to Properties->Language Options. Please select which languages you wish to download and which you wish Aion to display.

After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we're focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.

The level cap is now level 50 (previously 45).

Players will be able to reserve 2 character names during Preselection and create 8 characters in total once Head Start begins and beyond.

Channels will be set to 10 instances for the beginning 2 zones of each faction. Please note that these will be lowered as characters progress and spread throughout Atreia.

After reading how much trouble the GameGuard was for some players, I'm very happy to hear that it won't be featured at the launch. In fact, Sideshow shared his frustrations a little while ago and mentioned how he had to wrestle for hours just to get in!! It turned out to be his Comodo Firewall software butting heads with GameGuard. I agree with his point that if your anti-cheat, anti-hack program requires people to remove real security software to work, than you’re not doing it right.

In keeping with the launch news, it's time to gear up with Preorder and Collector's Edition Items if either of those categories apply to you. The benefits are many to be had if you have preordered Aion or are the owner of a rare and much coveted Limited Collector's Edition. Notable among these is an array of in-game items you can give to your characters.

To assign them to your characters, please follow these instructions.

NOTE: You will need to follow these steps for each new character you create in order for it to receive the items. You will not be able to do this right now, but the feature will be enabled shortly.

Log into NCsoft Account Management.
Click the Game Accounts link.
Choose your Aion game account listed on the Game Accounts page.
Click the Apply In-Game Items link in the Actions section.
Select the server your preferred character is on and click the Next button.
Select the character you wish to receive the items and click the Next button.
You will then see a list of all the items or item packs that may be applied to that character. Click the checkbox next to the item pack(s) you wish to apply to that character and then click the Next button.
Review the confirmation page and then click the Apply the Items/Item Packs to this Character button.

You will then get a message saying that the items/item packs were successfully given to that character. You should have these items when you log into the game - simply pay a visit to your in-game mail box.

Press Release — September 17, 2009

With Record-Breaking Preorder Sales, Aion Takes its Place as the Biggest MMO Release of the Year!

Momentum building for game's launch next week as preorders near 400,000, making Aion one of the must-have games of 2009

It's official - Aion is the biggest MMO launch of the year and is one of the must-have games this holiday season. NCsoft today revealed the latest preorder figures for its newest massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Aion, which is nearing 400,000 preorders and outpacing other major MMO launches this year.

Already topping preorder sales charts, securing accolades from major media outlets, garnering event awards, including gamescom 2009's "Best Online Game" and PAX's "Best MMO" by Inside Gaming, and receiving rave reviews from players in the game's beta testing, Aion has steadily built its reputation as the biggest MMO release in recent years. And unlike many Eastern MMO imports, Aion has been uniquely designed to appeal to Western audiences. Along with a completely rewritten storyline spanning more than two-million words, players will experience enhanced character customization with a host of Western styles, new zones, instances, skills, quests and continued game balancing.

As a bonus to the nearly 400,000 players who have preordered their copy of Aion, they will be treated to server Pre-Selection (beginning tomorrow September 18) and a two-day Headstart period (beginning September 20) allowing them to get a jump start on their exploration and progression prior to the official launch on September 22. Players can still participate in Aion's Pre-Selection and Headstart programs by preordering the game through several participating online and brick-and-mortar retailers, including the NCsoft Store, Amazon, Best Buy, EB Games Canada, Fry's Electronics, GameStop, Steam and Target.

Unlike any MMO before it, Aion is a uniquely crafted online experience where flight offers much more than just a way to explore the landscape - it is a strategic and integral part of combat, quests, and exploration. Players will dive into battle and plunge through thousands of unique, story-driven quests, all while trying to save a world literally shattered in half from centuries of brutal conflict. Using one of the most flexible and in-depth character customization systems ever featured in an MMO, players will be able to create genuinely distinct characters and explore a visually stunning world of ethereal beauty brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets.

Source: Official Press Release

On a lighter note, the fourth installment of "Tales of Aion" is live and ready for you to read.

Michael Lafferty at GameZone.com spins the riveting story of "Tales of Aion". The fictional chronicle is the continuing story of the Elyos Esala'ayni and the Asmodian Korasai. This most recent installment, the fourth in the five-part narrative, features Korasai. Now far away from his home of Pandaemonium, the Spiritmaster Korasai and his allies must face a threat in the damp, thick air of Mahindel Swamp. Read the fourth installment now, and catch up on the first three installments, all on GameZone.com. We've provided links to all are four parts below.

And last, but certainly not least, Aiononline.com is Suiting Up New Player-Focused Web Features!

The release of Aion marks the beginning of a long anticipated story--your own. We are introducing a wide array of new functions in our website to provide more player-focused information for Aion.

Have you ever been dying to show off some of your character's new equipment to a friend quickly and easily? We have gone to great lengths to make this as easy as it should be. Aiononline.com will soon be updated with a quick character search function and detailed character pages that will allow you and others to view your characters with all their accoutrements directly in a browser. You will also be able to view server statistics and Abyss Rankings in order to follow your own and your friends' progress through the game--or to find out what numbers you need to beat to reach the top!

Aion's official forums will let you socialize with fellow gamers. They will supplement the forums of our fansites to make an excellent medium through which you can get to know other players from the servers you play on.

We will also continue to update and improve the PowerWiki, which will go through numerous changes as we transition to the new website. Its layout will be updated, a lot of new content will be added, and the search function will be improved beyond the previous one.

Aiononline.com is suiting up - and you're invited.

This is actually going to work in my favour I think. Last night, when I couldn't sleep as the excitement of thinking about creating my characters refused to evacuate my thoughts, I was also thinking about this blog. As it's just getting on it's feet, the sky is the limit and I can do anything with it at this stage.

Much like I did on my Sims Blog with the family profile pages (still in progress), I was thinking about creating character pages to show off my current achievements, level, skills and abilities. Instead of the family photos like with The Sims, I would screenshot any major armour upgrades and keep a memory log of all the looks my characters went through.

Of course, depending on how the Aion character pages work out, it might save me some time and effort and I'll just link to those instead. That way we won't have to worry about my faulty memory having to update them when things change too lol. So yes, I'm excited about that feature personally.

Ironically, I had a fleeting thought about creating a Ranger site much like my beloved Warlocks Den that is now in other hands. I spent a very enjoyable five years building that community up, and often I would think that I should have created a Hunter site instead (as I played a Hunter more than a Warlock towards the end...)

But that thought was very fleeting and is now an annoying lingering idea that needs to go away lol.

Choosing your Class...

2009-09-19T04:30:00.000+10:00

In approximately half an hour, those who have pre-ordered Aion will be able to take part in Preselection.

Starting 12:00 p.m. PDT (more) on September 18, 2009, eligible players will be able to start their game clients and log in to create a total of two characters ahead of everyone else. You can name and create these two characters through the standard character creator and be ready to play with these characters right when the game Head Start Program begins (but not beforehand). Preselection will end 9:00 a.m. PDT on September 20, 2009 (more).

Of course, preselection begins at 5am for me, so right now I'm still asleep and have zero plans to interrupt said sleep to make my characters. Unlike when I began in WoW, when I simply had to have the name Akasha as that was what I was known by on The Warlocks Den, there is no requirement or urgent need to grab a name before someone else does. In fact, I've not given much thought as to what I will use for names at all apart from the "maybe I'll just use the same names I had in WoW for my respective classes..."

Which of course brings me to my first dilemma. I know, the games not even live yet and already I suffer from internal struggles. The big question...

What class should I play?!

Having come from a Warlock background in WoW, it would seem only natural to lean towards the Spiritmaster class, right? A Daeva born under the Star of Spirits, the Spiritmaster is able to control spirits of Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind. It can call upon these spirits to attack directly, but it can also use indirect tactics such as borrowing the strength of the spirits to weaken an enemy or to inflict fear.

So basically a Mage like class that has pets? So... a Warlock.

The thing is, the Spiritmaster just doesn't grab me. There's no "oooh I wanna do THAT" aspect to it. While yes, the pets look really cool (see some of them in this video here), I've played a Warlock many times over in WoW courtesy of faction and server changes. And I also played my Mage for a while as well. No, I think I've had enough of the caster/pet classes for a while.

Which brings me to the first real possible candidate for my chosen class - The Ranger! Fighting off the memories of pansy Wood Elves dressed in tights (EQ), the Rangers of Aion look a lot more intimidating and a LOT more fun!

Check out this video of the Ranger in action - how cool do some of those abilities look?!

There's only one real thing in the 'con' column for the ranger. Check out what the official wiki says about them:

A Ranger is a Daeva with exceptional archery skills. Not only can a Ranger expertly wield a bow, but can make good use of a sword and dagger for close combat. The Ranger is also a master with various traps, making it both a formidable opponent on its own and a valued member of any group. Being skilled in both short and long range attacks combined with the ability to manipulate traps makes the Ranger able to adapt easily to nearly any situation. However, arrows and especially trap ingredients can become costly, making the Ranger one of the more expensive classes.

Expensive classes are no problem when their an alt, ie they have a higher leveled, well kitted out main character to support them. As a first class however, it can make life a little harder than it should be. Depending on the cash flow of the game however, it could be a case of choosing between arrows and say, food. Or it could just be a case of missing out on a few luxury extras. At this point though, I just don't know...

Of course, the only other class that is even in the running at the moment is the Cleric - a class that while great in groups, can apparently be quite hard to play solo. So then it becomes a choice of no money vs painful leveling. Hrm... But wait, I am a female player, don't we just get coin thrown our way? lol...

I've always loved the healing classes. I played a Priest in WoW for both Alliance and Horde, although my Horde one never seemed to make it high enough to count - dieing a lonely death at level 62. I love that healers are never (normally) short of group invites, and since I will be playing this game without my husband beside me, I'm going to need to be able to make it on my own. No longer will I have the luxury of riding in on his coat tails to what ever groups he manages to find.

I have to mention too, that in itself is a little bit scary. Ok, a lot scary. I don't remember the last time I played a MMO without him in game. Oh wait, yes I do, it was The Sims Online and I don't think that really counts lol.

Back to the Clerics, you can watch a video of them in action here. Personally, I find that example really boring. Granted it's only 41 seconds, which really can't do a class that much justice, but if it's not enough to really grab me in that short time, then maybe that's a sign?

The Cleric is a sub-class of the Priest. The other sub-class is the Chanter, a class I previously dismissed upon description alone. Tonight though, I watched a video of them in action and suddenly, I'm wondering if I settled on the wrong part of the fork too early... check this out.

That doesn't look half bad does it? The Chanter's main abilities are healing and fortifying magic, though in addition they have melee abilities with great offensive potential.

So healing and damage? That's good.

If you continue reading the official page however, you discover that the Chanter's casting ability is limited to lesser heals than that of a cleric and some lesser direct-damaging spells than that of a cleric. In comparison to the Cleric, Chanters exchange some of their magical ability to melee prowess.

So basically, they're not really good at anything, but are ok at everything? Hrm...

Ironically, I find myself sitting here wondering, out of the Cleric and Chanter, which class, and how many of each, would be required for high end groups and raiding? Would people prefer the superior healing of Clerics with just a few Chanters to back them up? Which means I might get screwed out of positions if I chose the Chanter?

Or are people going to want more Chanters with just a few Clerics so they can do damage and back up heal? Which means of course, I get screwed if I chose a Cleric?

I find that line of through really amusing. Because let's face it, when am I going to have time to raid lol?! I have a toddler who doesn't like to sleep and just WAY too much stuff going on. Still, it's a nice thought to think that in 6 months to a year when I finally do make it to what ever the max level will be at that time, that I might be able to see the big bad raiding bosses. So I do have to weight up these factors...

At the moment, my gut is telling me to start with a Ranger and play her as she can solo well. And then when hubby caves and joins me in game, which I know he will eventually, I will make a Cleric to follow him around and heal. After all, that's been our roles in the past - him the big bad protecting Warrior, me the dainty yet slightly aggressive Healer following his every foot step.

Aion Preorders Reach 400,000

2009-09-18T20:33:00.001+10:00

NCsoft says that with 400,000 preorders, its MMO Aion is set to trump rival major MMOs launching this year -- promising "the biggest MMO release in recent years" when the title launches next week.

Developed in Korea, Aion is better-tailored to Western tastes than other Eastern imports, NCsoft asserts. s currently up and running on around 225 servers across South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Japan. The game generated 40.6 billion won ($32.7 million) in revenues for NCsoft's most recent fiscal quarter, excluding royalties -- a strong start.

The publisher has never made a secret of its large-scale ambitions for Aion in the West; CFO Jaeho Lee has said it "could be the second [most] successful MMO in the U.S. market next to World of Warcraft."

WoW's apparently unshakable market dominance has presented a challenge for many publishers who've tried to launch major MMOs in the West only to achieve mixed results at best.

Titles like Funcom's Age of Conan and Electronic Arts' Warhammer Online launched to very strong initial commercial reception with heartening early user figures, but never dented WoW's userbase -- and later merged servers and laid off staff when launch spikes bled off in the weeks and months post-release.

That's the official word over at Gamasutra, however some of the comments do make you wonder if Aion will be able to make even a noticeable dint in the World of Warcraft player base.

Hillwins Lee writes, "The game at it's current state is lacking contents, I tried it for a while and it's just another glorified chat box. Though some of the skills are interesting and worth the first month subscription to look into."

While Victor Gont adds, "If anything, Aion will fail on its core mechanics and gameplay. Considering it has been out in Korea for almost two years, the content department should not be an issue like it was the case with AoC and War. Also if the number of preorders and beta players is a hint, people like the game."

It does make you wonder. I never tried AoC or Warhammer so can not comment on those two attempted challenges against WoW, and only time will tell with Aion. But I do remember back in the glory days of EQ, the same claims were made when other games such as DAoC or Earth and Beyond came out (two games I personally tried as well), yet EQ stood strong. I remember many people claiming that nothing would cause the death of EQ.

Then came World of Warcraft...

Of course, you can never really kill a MMORPG until there is less than enough players to keep a server going. Hell, even Runescape is still going... maybe not strong, but every now and then I hear the name dropped and chuckle. I chuckle because it's usually dropped by a prepubescent child who raves about how totally awesome it is, the same naive child who can't afford a subscription to a proper MMORPG and experience what real 'awesome' gaming is.

One day, a game will come along that knocks WoW into second place, or worse. Every game has it's moment when something surpasses it. I don't personally think Aion will be the game, especially with the excitement I've seen amongst my fellow gamers with all the news and information coming forth about Cataclysm. But who knows, we could all be wrong I guess? It would certainly be to my benefit if it did since it's the game I'm about to start playing lol...

But yes, it will have to be a very big game indeed to share that spotlight, let alone steal it. Let's see what Aion brings to the table!

News Source: Gamasutra, sent in by reporter Buzz!

Aion to Launch with Oceanic Server!

2009-09-18T07:12:00.003+10:00

The following official news post makes me very happy indeed. I've put no thought into what server I would play on at this point, but being in Australia, and having played on US based servers with predominately US based players before (EQ and WoW), I know the hassle that can come from wandering the world alone while everyone else sleeps.

WoW showed me the glory that can be Oceanic servers and how wonderful it is to be able to raid at 7:30pm, not 7:30am. No decisions yet on if I will join Nezekan or not, if it's been announced as the only one, then I think the Aion staff have underestimated the Oz gaming population and I'm not about to jump a server likely to crash from influx of players...

The key to launching an MMORPG of Aion's magnitude is communication. We been keeping everyone following the game aware of what our plans are and listened to your feedback, creating a dialog with you. We've also kept an eye on the various Aion communities, talked to Aion community members, and compared what they have said and requested with our beta test data. Based on all this input, we have decided to launch Aion with an Oceanic server set to GMT+10.

Our Oceanic communities have already masterfully executed unofficial polls indicating their server desires. To honor these community efforts, the North American server Nezekan will be adjusted to an Oceanic time zone and event schedule immediately. The server will however not be labeled as an Oceanic server right away, but we plan on changing that in a patch within the first two weeks after launch. We are doing everything we can until then to let everyone know about the plans for Nezekan's future time zone schedule to allow players to make informed decisions.

We experienced some frustrating technical difficulties with the surveys we launched early this week meant to help roleplayers and language-specific communities choose their unofficial game servers. Many Aion communities saw a need to coordinate their members and were much quicker than we were to organize surveys. We have decided to honor their hard work by permanently taking our own survey down, since we have no desire to interfere with what our great communities accomplish or cause confusion. We will continue to work with the fansites in our Fansite Program to promote their community survey results.

Souce: Aion Online Official news post

Go Team Asmodian!

2009-09-17T09:19:00.007+10:00

If you watched the Aion Intro Cinematic I posted, you'll know that the Asmodians are the other half of the Daevas; the counterpart to the Elyos, stemmed from the human race during the Millennium War. Apparently vindictive in nature, they've pitted themselves against the Elyos, who they perceive as at fault for the Epic Cataclysm in attempting to negotiate for peace.

This so sounds like the right race for me! Coming from a Warlock, and the Horde in WoW, the darker side of life appeals to me most. As I'm sure a lot of other long time WoW players looking at Aion will agree, the Asmodians are the Horde, while the pretty little Elyos living in all their sunshine and life are the Alliance. And if Aion is anything like WoW, the Elyos will be the childcare area... too many kidlets pretending to be grown up. No thanks.

The Asmodians live in the Upper Half of Atreia, known as Asmodae. Asmodae is a dark, cold environment, with little to no sunlight. The harsh world they live in has dramatically warped the physique of its inhabitants to almost a beastly standard. Every Asmodian is born with clawed hands and feet, glowing red eyes, a mane down their back and darker skin colors ranging generally from blue to purple. Those that ascend to the rank of Daeva are granted black feathered wings.

The harsh environment of the Upper Half has turned the Asmodians into fierce battle-hardened warriors, with a will to adapt and survive like none other. Though they look savage and brutal, they are a proud, loyal people. While the Elyos serve the Five Seraphim Lords, the Asmodians look to the Five Shedim Lords for guidance.

The official Wiki says:

The Asmodians are a brave and hardy people, separated from the Elyos by the Epic Cataclysm and plunged into a world of darkness and despair. To survive such desolation is one thing, but to thrive and prosper is quite another.

The scars of their history are still exposed for all to see; as the Asmodians sank into their cold and somber world, their bodies started to change. In the darkness, their skin fell pale, and as their eyes adapted, they developed an otherworldly glow about them.

To their own, Asmodians are infinitely generous and fiercely loyal - they would sooner give their life in battle than to see that of a comrade taken from them. However, outsiders beware; Asmodians are an increasingly hostile faction and will not think twice before bringing their colossal power into play. Similar to their Elyos counterparts, Asmodian Daevas are blessed with strength and the ability to fly, though their wings have darkened following many difficult years on Asmodae.

They now follow the Shedim Lords, the five Empyrean Lords ordered by Siel and Israphel to protect the upper foundation of the Aion tower, the Tower of Darkness, and with them have established the city of Pandaemonium.

Yes, definitely sounds like more my people. So I've decided to join team Asmodian on Saturday morning at 5am (my time) when I will be able to log in and create my first character. Now the hard part... what class to play.

The First Ever AION Official CG Video!

2009-09-16T19:41:00.003+10:00

Aion Intro Cinematic

2009-09-16T12:05:00.000+10:00

Taunting Me...

2009-09-16T02:21:00.001+10:00

After picking up my pre-order code yesterday, I downloaded and installed the client. This is the screen that now taunts me...

None of the buttons work which is a slight concern. Not even the 'quit' button works when I click it. Options or Credits taunt me with the same lack of response. Hopefully this is just because everything's shut down until the character selection and early start program beings and not something more ominous that I won't discover until everything is open and I'm the only one that can't log in...

A new beginning

2009-09-16T00:25:00.001+10:00

I've decided to create a new blog for Aion as I'd like to keep all my Sims related blogs in one spot, and any random Aion posts on their own. Plus, I'm not sure my Sims readers would care for Aion posts and more than likely, Aion players probably wouldn't care for Sims posts.

I've not real plans here, just figured I'd like a spot to document anything that happens. Not sure if there will be the same scope for blogging as the sims just given the completely different style of game, but who knows, I could be wrong. After all, I used to have a WoW blog which I used to make fun of all the moronic players I came across and that certainly had enough posts to keep me going LOL.