Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[Draegan]

I don't know.  I think they want people doing it once a day only, like a heroic dungeons in WOW.  Why it's time related, I have no idea.

[Falconeer]

Because it's a contested instance. They want people crammed in a short time window to fight against each other. If you had the whole day to try it, you would end up with many groups waiting on their asses for an opponent that never comes. This way, they are basically bottlenecking everyone into a specific timeframe to make sure there's enough meat on both sides to shoot the cannon. Yhis is because you NEED two groups of different factions to start it.

Say me and my group decide to try the Dreadgion at noon, or at 3am in the morning. We get together, we group up and oooh no opponent team, no game, massive unsatisfaction, ragequit! This way, you can't be that creative like 10am with your friends, you have to do it in the fixed, shorter timeframe and since everyone else will have to do the same timeframe, chances to be opponentless are greatly reduced.

EDIT: Finally, by cramming everyone into the same timeframe, they reduce the chances for exploiters to just meet with a "friendly" opponent team at weird times to be sure the matchmaker will be forced to pick those two teams since they are the only appliants, this way making it easy to "fix" the result and game the system. More teams, more random matchups, less exploitability.

This, assuming I got the system right. Which I doubt.

[Threash]

Because it's a contested instance. They want people crammed in a short time window to fight against each other. If you had the whole day to try it, you would end up with many groups waiting on their asses for an opponent that never comes. This way, they are basically bottlenecking everyone into a specific timeframe to make sure there's enough meat on both sides to shoot the cannon. Yhis is because you NEED two groups of different factions to start it.

Say me and my group decide to try the Dreadgion at noon, or at 3am in the morning. We get together, we group up and oooh no opponent team, no game, massive unsatisfaction, ragequit! This way, you can't be that creative like 10am with your friends, you have to do it in the fixed, shorter timeframe and since everyone else will have to do the same timeframe, chances to be opponentless are greatly reduced.

EDIT: Finally, by cramming everyone into the same timeframe, they reduce the chances for exploiters to just meet with a "friendly" opponent team at weird times to be sure the matchmaker will be forced to pick those two teams since they are the only appliants, this way making it easy to "fix" the result and game the system. More teams, more random matchups, less exploitability.

This, assuming I got the system right. Which I doubt.

This, like the pop cap thing they are trying is another of those systems were you just gotta wait and see if the inconvenience it causes actually fixes the problem its supposed to address.  I don't know if it will or not, it will obviously suck for people who play at odd hours but at least the idea is sound. 

[Draegan]

Yea but it's not the end all be all of the game though.  It's like the retarded ranking argument from a month ago.

[Threash]

Yea but it's not the end all be all of the game though.  It's like the retarded ranking argument from a month ago.

And its infinitely better than WARs "we know there's a problem, suck it up" approach to the issue of not enough players for pvp or realm imbalance.

[Shatter]

Aion Launch Version!
September 17, 2009 4:34 PM
Greetings!

As we draw closer to tomorrow I wanted to give everyone a brief update on the progress of our live version. We are excited to announce that we will be serving out the final update for you to patch within the next few hours. You will be able to use this version for both our Preselection and our Head Start. We are very excited with our final product and think that you will be as well! Below are the release notes for the patch you will see later today:

- 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.

Xaen
Aion Producer

[Morfiend]

- 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.

Hell yes.

[Morfiend]

I got so excited about no gameguard, that I forgot why I came to this thread.

My guild is going to the AZPHEL server. In case anyone needed some friends.

[Lyzira]

Should be some popular news.  You beat me to it! :)

[Venkman]

Awesome.

Pre-selection is just character name and style reservation right?

[Shatter]

Should be some popular news.  You beat me to it! :)

People happy you have made

[Lyzira]

Awesome.

Pre-selection is just character name and style reservation right?

Yes, you'll be able to select your server and create your character (two of them), just not get into the game til Sunday.

[Draegan]

I wonder how big the last patch is going to be before live.  I'm going with under 100mb; if that.

[Threash]

Just the fact that you are obviously listening to concerns rather than stubbornly pushing ahead with obviously flawed things is such a breath of fresh air.

[Koyasha]

I am quite happily amazed at this news.  Really.  Makes me a lot more confident in us being listened to about important things like this, also.

[Lantyssa]

If they added leveling pacts I'd be about as happy as possible.

[Shatter]

Just the fact that you are obviously listening to concerns rather than stubbornly pushing ahead with obviously flawed things is such a breath of fresh air.

This

[Morfiend]

Anyone know if the release client patch will actually remove gameguard from my system, or will I have to get more extreme on it?

[BitWarrior]

GameGuard will be removed in the patch for the live version.

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.

Source

[Draegan]

GameGuard will be removed in the patch for the live version.

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.

Source

Wow really?  I hadn't known.  Thanks for keeping up to date with this thread.

[UnSub]

- 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.

Hell yes.

Anyone else see the "GG will be patched in after launch - let's see you throw your characters away then no matter how much you gripe on the forums!" in between the lines of this message?

[Ceryse]

Anyone else see the "GG will be patched in after launch - let's see you throw your characters away then no matter how much you gripe on the forums!" in between the lines of this message?

The starving and insane optimist in me says its more that they couldn't get an update from GameGuard resolving the many (valid) issues with it by launch, thus will patch it back in once they get it. The overwhelming realist in me thinks you're far closer to the truth than not.

But still, this is fucking good news. GameGuard was my single biggest gripe with the game, which was kinda sad.

Hopefully my computer won't melt three days into launch like it did open beta.

[Kail]

Anyone else see the "GG will be patched in after launch - let's see you throw your characters away then no matter how much you gripe on the forums!" in between the lines of this message?

I suspect not.  If it is all part of some diabolical plan, they'd patch it in post-launch, and avoid putting it in the beta altogether.

And adding Game Guard isn't like nerfing XP or something; problems with it mean a lot of people can't play the game at all, really.  If they do add in Game Guard and I do have problems with it, I will be unsubbing, regardless of how shiny my pants are, and I don't see many people doing otherwise.  If you can't play the game, you can't play the game, so why pay for it? 

Anyway, the wording of the announcement makes it pretty clear that GG will probably be coming back, so I'm not breaking out the champagne or anything, but it's still good news to me.

[Ixxit]

I wonder how big the last patch is going to be before live.  I'm going with under 100mb; if that.

Downloading now.  Looks line 618 MB.   I played up to the 3rd or 2nd last day of open beta, so no sure if there was any significant patch after that.

  Glad they are getting rid of GG for the time being;  it spawned an irrational hate in me for this game. 

[Zetor]

Hm, so no rootkit... I think I'll give the game a whirl now.

Is it possible for a Euro to play on a US server without the usual "get a US friend to buy a US client and send over the disks + serial number" trick?

edit: if someone from the US buys and gifts a US version of Aion to me on Steam, would I be able to play on the US servers?

[Numtini]

Hmm, I upgraded my client a couple of days ago, but before they announced there'd be one more patch and I'm still not patching today.

[Draegan]

Yeah there was a 600mb patch a few days ago.  I think you'll have a patch before 3pm EST.

[Segoris]

Hell yes, great notes. Though I have to ask, I see we can create two characters, is that the max total or is it only 2 per server? I don't remember reading anything that clarified if it's total or per server, though I'm guessing the latter.

We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future

I hope this becomes the only empty promise they make, I'd be okay with that if they didn't follow through in trying to find ways to force GG as being needed to play

[Malakili]

[Falconeer]

Weak.

[schild]

Weak.

Aion? Yea. It is.

[Severian]

400,000 preorders according to NCSoft.

[Nebu]

400,000 preorders according to NCSoft.

Didn't WAR have like 700k? 

I'm surprised Aion isn't matching up to WAR.  Not enough hype apparently. 

[Draegan]

Hell yes, great notes. Though I have to ask, I see we can create two characters, is that the max total or is it only 2 per server? I don't remember reading anything that clarified if it's total or per server, though I'm guessing the latter.

The 2 toon max is just for the preselection period.

[Falconeer]

Weak macro, weak preorder numbers. Weak wait, lemme play FFS.