Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[Shatter]

I seriously doubt there would be a level increase outside of a paid expansion.  Current top level items do say they take up to level 60 manastones which don't currently exist so that part is probably true.

Aion like NCSoft's other MMO's dont have paid expansions, they are free

[UnSub]

Some NCsoft titles have paid expansions, but these are on top of free content updates.

[Setanta]

I seriously doubt there would be a level increase outside of a paid expansion.  Current top level items do say they take up to level 60 manastones which don't currently exist so that part is probably true.

Aion like NCSoft's other MMO's dont have paid expansions, they are free

Guild Wars?

Not that I want  to start the is GW a MMO or not debate. To be honest, I'll wait and see - an expansion pack is a huge cash cow, especially if it was for Aion and I'm sure the company has considered the pros and cons and would be occasionally thinking of it in this day and age of DLC.

[Nebu]

Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but the only reason that I can think to release an expansion free is that you believe it will make you more in current subscriber retention than it will in box sales were you to sell it outright.  I just don't see a reason to release content for free unless you feel that it's going to lead to greater revenue that way... that or it's not enough content on its own to justify its own box. 

[Shatter]

GW doesnt require a subscription.  Ill clarify my statement, NCSoft doesnt charge for expanions in their paid subscriber based MMO's and that will include Aion. 

[UnSub]

I should have said, "CoH/V, with City of Villains originally being a separate purchase and now with Going Rogue coming as a separate purchase" up front.

[Shatter]

Supposed leaked info on Aion patch 1.9.

• New skills for every class (including new skills specifically for countering stun attacks)
• Dozens of daily quests with different objectives and rewards
• New quests, increased quest rewards, and increased instance drop rates
• Dredgion enhancements
• Max item enchantment increased to +15
• An increase in experience gain (including a new experience bonus system: Energy of Salvation)
• Soul Healing, Soul Binding, and Flight Transportation cost decreases
• A mechanic that allows two two-handed weapons to be combined to create one more powerful two-handed weapon
• Looking for group (LFG) functionality improvements
• Numerous user interface improvements

[01101010]

Supposed leaked info on Aion patch 1.9.

• New skills for every class (including new skills specifically for countering stun attacks)
• Dozens of daily quests with different objectives and rewards
• New quests, increased quest rewards, and increased instance drop rates
• Dredgion enhancements
• Max item enchantment increased to +15
• An increase in experience gain (including a new experience bonus system: Energy of Salvation)
• Soul Healing, Soul Binding, and Flight Transportation cost decreases
• A mechanic that allows two two-handed weapons to be combined to create one more powerful two-handed weapon
• Looking for group (LFG) functionality improvements
• Numerous user interface improvements

Too late. 

[Shatter]

Sure, its late but Aion hasnt had the bottom fall out like AOC, WAR, STO, CO and other games.  I would be interested to see just how much they actually change the xp curve. 

[Nebu]

Supposed leaked info on Aion patch 1.9.

• New skills for every class (including new skills specifically for countering stun attacks)

Who would have known that stuns in a pvp mmo would be a bad thing?   

[Falconeer]

Too late to be a million customers success. Not too late to make me happier. Not too late to make it a more entertaining game. It's never too late for that.

[ghost]

Why do PvP MMOs insist on putting stuns, roots and disables in their games? 

[Threash]

Why do PvP MMOs insist on putting stuns, roots and disables in their games?  

Apparently it adds "strategy".  Most fun pvp in any game so far has been tier 1 warhammer.  No cc of any type and no more than 3-4 skills for each class and it has yet to be surpassed.

Edit: what this game needs over absolutely anything else is to complete change the drop rates on everything.  You should NEVER kill any boss mob and get NOTHING, EVER for any reason.

[UnSub]

Too late to be a million customers success. Not too late to make me happier. Not too late to make it a more entertaining game. It's never too late for that.

I think combined Korean and Western (EU / US) subs is well over 1m players. NCsoft's last figures make it look like about a 50/50 split between Korea and EU / US in terms of revenue, which is pretty good for Aion.

[Rasix]

Apparently it adds "strategy".  Most fun pvp in any game so far has been tier 1 warhammer.  No cc of any type and no more than 3-4 skills for each class and it has yet to be surpassed.

Rooooooooooooooooooots.  Bloody roooooooooooooots.

[Falconeer]

Too late to be a million customers success. Not too late to make me happier. Not too late to make it a more entertaining game. It's never too late for that.

I think combined Korean and Western (EU / US) subs is well over 1m players. NCsoft's last figures make it look like about a 50/50 split between Korea and EU / US in terms of revenue, which is pretty good for Aion.

Yes, but around here I've been told multiple times that Asian numbers do not count. In this very thread too.

[Shatter]

Well not that Im an Xfire fan(for many reasons) but I do think it gives a generalized idea how a game is doing.  Aion since launch in NA has consistently held between 6th and 10th place.  So compared to other games that have come out for the past few years in NA like AOC, WAR, CO, and even STO which is only 1 month old its doing better then all of them.   On a different note I can also say that every person I started the game with no longer plays which leads me to believe they are gaining new players to some degree to compensate for those who are leaving. 

[Threash]

Too late to be a million customers success. Not too late to make me happier. Not too late to make it a more entertaining game. It's never too late for that.

I think combined Korean and Western (EU / US) subs is well over 1m players. NCsoft's last figures make it look like about a 50/50 split between Korea and EU / US in terms of revenue, which is pretty good for Aion.

Yes, but around here I've been told multiple times that Asian numbers do not count. In this very thread too.

They don't count as far as the mythical one million subs number that is thrown around so much, that refers only to NA accounts.  I read nothing on those notes about fixing flying pvp, /sadf.

[Draegan]

I'd resub if some of the changes included permanent more than double experience gains.

[Shatter]

I'd resub if some of the changes included permanent more than double experience gains.

Double XP is nice but those final 3 levels or so to 50 even with double xp are still a beatch.  I think 49 to 50 with double XP took about 8 hours of grinding, 2 hours of that was with the lodas amulet

[Falconeer]

At 39, gladiator, I scored 5 hours of mindless grind sporting very good armour and weapon, killing the most xp-efficient mobs and using:

- Double XP weekend (+100%)
- Lodas amulet (+20%)
- Rest XP (+40%)

160% bonus XP, and it still takes 5 hours of mindless grind to get to level 40 out of 50.

Bottom line is, I am impressed by your 8 hours, it doesn't sound so bad at all. I guess you are a much better player than me. I would really like to know what you were killing and how fast when you were 39.

[Draegan]

He could of been farming elites with a Ranger/SM.

[Chimpy]

They need to do more to fix the mind numbingly stupid fail and lose weeks of work mechanics that drive the top level characters to say fuck it and run. One guy I know calls the "lose your entire set of manastones when you fail on the last one" or the "oh your heart of magic didn't proc? GG and now go and farm up 40million in boiling blood stains to tray again!" mechanics 'risk vs reward'. Of course, he is one of those people that can play 15 hours a day so assumes that anyone that is not cool enough to not have a job and catass all day needs to man up. When will people get it that you need to have SOME level of accessibility for your non-catass for a game to have a healthy population in this day and age?

Also, the abyss imbalances are stupid. The "your faction has too many forts, other side gets an abyss pvp buff" does not kick in until one faction has 7 of the 9 forts. And the Balaur don't seem to do much to equalize things either. I saw 2 dredgions come out during a time when 1 of the 2 lower forts that elyos had and 1 of the 5 upper forts that Asmodeans had. The one on the upper layer just totally ignored the fort vulnerable up there, but the lower one was taken. Thus elyos went from having 2 lower forts to having 1 and the asmodeans got to keep their lockdown on the Abyss Point via PvE pinata that is upper layer forts. There are almost no servers in the US or EU that have anything other than a totally lopsided amount of abyss control. And since defending forts gives rediculously better rewards than taking forts now, the side with forts has a distinct advantage.

[Threash]

Triniel has been extremely well balanced with one side dominating for a few weeks then switching to the other.

[Shatter]

At 39, gladiator, I scored 5 hours of mindless grind sporting very good armour and weapon, killing the most xp-efficient mobs and using:

- Double XP weekend (+100%)
- Lodas amulet (+20%)
- Rest XP (+40%)

160% bonus XP, and it still takes 5 hours of mindless grind to get to level 40 out of 50.

Bottom line is, I am impressed by your 8 hours, it doesn't sound so bad at all. I guess you are a much better player than me. I would really like to know what you were killing and how fast when you were 39.

At 39 I think I was killing mobs in the abyss under Kyiss fortress, they were level 40 balaur, they offer more XP then PvE area mobs.  I wasnt grouped at 49 not killing elites, but as a cleric I can get a constant kill rate going with 0 downtime, I never run out of mana and my gear at the time was all cloth with all magic boost for max damage.  I was killing Brohuns(SP) which are level 50 mobs in Brusthonin, the sentinels are rangers that have no phy def and die very easy mixed in with warriors. 

[Falconeer]

Yeah AByss XP is lovely. But I am sure it was easier in the very first days. Now it's gankfest. Which I greatly enjoy, but it's not good for XP.

[Shatter]

Yeah AByss XP is lovely. But I am sure it was easier in the very first days. Now it's gankfest. Which I greatly enjoy, but it's not good for XP.

True but I just leveled my ranger in the same place(my ranger is 47 now) and if your faction owns the fortress it certainly helps lol

[Shatter]

Stole this from na forums, aionsource is down.  Tamat said there will be 20 pages of patch notes for 1.9 so I think this is only some of it

U.I. for LFG search engine

U.I. for repurchasing solditems to NPC (cannot repurchase when the selection window closes)

Additional movable optional U.I.quickbars

Anti-stun skills – available forall classes at:-

Lv 40 – immediately recoverfrom stun condition, and can use a skill to buff up resistance by 1000 againststun for 7 second

Lv 48 – Morespecifically according to class:-

Warrior: 40: Increase Accuracy
48: Fury – vastly increasephysical attack but decrease defence for 8 seconds

Templar: 40: Increase Accuracy
48: Recover 25% ofhealth & for 30 seconds, increase maximum health by 25%
50: Increase EnmityIII

Ranger: 48: Gives target physicaldamage and push oneself 25m back

Assassin: 48: (something technicalI don’t understand, something like gives physical damage and goes up to secondlevel, goes into 5th level ruin or something…)

Sorcerer: 30: Decrease resistanceto magic crit
48: moves forward30m

Spiritmaster: 30: Decreaseresistance to magic crit
48: Gives firedamage and absorbs 100% of it in health & 50% in MP.

Cleric: 30: Increase magic critdefence
48: Creates a shieldthat absorb damage for 30 seconds, but cannot use any magic/physical skillduring this time

Chanter: 48: a physical damageskill

(and other various adjustmentsto current skills…etcetc…)

There will be a new stat thatwill relate to an increase in healing ability, and also new stats that willrelate to critical(?) abilities. The critical abilities can be divided intomagic crit, magic crit defence/resistance, physical crit defence/resistance,etc.

If a stat has been increased bya character via the usage of items or mana stones, the character’s spirit,trap, energies will correspondingly increase their stats.

There will be a NPC that sellsall stigmas in the major cities.

The magic resistance due tolevel difference has been altered – if the attacker’s level is vastly higherthan the attacked, the rate of magic resistance will be greatly reduced.

System to unite two weaponsinto one. The sub-weapon will be destroyed, but part of the stats and manastoneslots of the sub-weapon will be reinstated into the main weapon. The manastoneswill remain intact after fusion.

The type ofweapon must be the same, and main weapon must be of equal or higher level thanthe sub-weapon. After fusion, 20% of the sub-weapon’s base attack and magicattack will be imbued into the main. This will not include the amount enhancedby item upgrade (i.e. +10 stuff).

All the optionsof the sub-weapon will be added to the main weapon. However, only the higher ofattack speed, speed of revolution (?), PvP attack % increase will be used.

(there is morebut I lost interest….blahblahblah)

Item upgrading increased to+15. 1-10 upgrade will exist as it is now. However, upgrade from 11-15 isdifferent – a single failure will lead to +10, instead of -1 as usual. Thesuccess rate from 11+ is lowered.

There will be an item toincrease success rate for item upgrade and manastone socketing. These will bedivided into Upper/Middle/Lower class, and the higher the class, the greaterthe success rate. These will be available for purchase through NPCs in main citiesand towns. You must have these in inventory while upgrading/socketing in orderfor the effect to be in place.

An increase in crafting limit. Ifyou pay certain amount of kinah to the NPC when at crafting skill 449, you willbe able to go to the next level cap 499.

Increase in vitality and aetherability cap – to 499. There is also a level requirement to reach the new caps. Forinstance, you must have lv 40 & level 300 or lv 50 & level 400 to getto next level etc.

(Again there ismore, but lost interest….blahblah)

New costumes for the Elyos and Asmodiansthat can be purchased from the main cities. On top of this, the required levelfor customising items will be reduced from lv 30 to lv 20. Furthermore, therewill be a new wing (lv 50) available for purchase.

Things relating to systemimprovements:-

Ø Energy of Salvation –experience buff thing from lv 15 onwards. These are experience buff that aregiven in points after certain period of time has passed online; and will beused automatically while doing any activity such as hunting, gathering,mission, quest, PvP for an increase of 30%. These points will be nullifiedafter more than 10 minutes of logout time.

Ø Increase in the number of teleportpoints & obelisk. Plus, a reduction in obelisk set-fee and Soul healingfees, and travelling fees.

Ø The areas that you can usuallyfly to (?) have been reduced from before.

Ø Certain dungeon instance droprate is changed or will feature a new item

Ø To reduce the stress oflevelling, certain NPC merchants will be situated in certain towns and citiesthat will lend out equipment for a fee. The equipment or items will be onlyavailable for a certain amount of time, and will automatically destruct afterthat period. These equipment will not be available for mana socketing or itemupgrade, nor will be available for item fusion.

Ø There will be new items andequipment that can be purchased through Abyss Points without the requirement certainmedals. The levels for these equipment are 25, 35, 45.

Ø Vitality points will be moreeasily distinguishable from its surroundings in Poeta and Ishalgen.

Ø If you put in the correctpassword while aether drawing, flight will increase by 5 seconds.

Ø New skillbook for Chanters throughNPC available, “Physical Attack Increase I”.

Ø Fixed all strange vitalitypoints (?).

Ø Fixed anomalies upon wearing anitem (equipment?)

Ø You can now view the skills ofthe “Target of the target selected” as an option.

Ø You can choose the specialeffects of either None/Self/Party/Alliance/All.

Ø You will now have the option ofviewing only the highest level of skills learnt in the Skill window.

Ø Select Title will be nowdivided into Special & Standard titles.

Ø The number of stigma slots andarrangements has been changed. The new stigma slots will be available to theplayer after a later update, along with new stigmas that will be available.

Ø There is a /heal Icon.

Ø …and various other fixtures….

Day Quests, which can be doneonce a day. Rewards will be variable, can include coins or medals for specialitems.

Drapnir Caves will havechanged drop rate and drop items

Dark Poeta will have higherdrop rate – for instance, the final boss will have higher drop rate the higherits rank

Bosses of Themobos and Adma andother instances will have increased drop rate.

Entrance requirements forcertain instances will no longer need a certain quest received to enter, just alevel requirement (Alquimia, Lepharists, Indratu, Ajoturan (?))

You may now freely enterinstances even after the quest mission has been completed

Dregion will be changed tobecome more tactical

Ø The boss monster will haveincreased drop rate

Ø Time will be decreased from 1hrto 40 minutes

Ø The five surkanas must bekilled in order for Adhati (?) to appear, and a message will be displayed toshow that he appears.

Ø There will be a new defencewall between weapons room (?) and a gravity control room (?), and a greatincrease in the HP of the defence shield over the entrance of (a certain room,don’t know direct translation)

Ø The amount of AP has beenchanged upon completion:

² Win: 3000AP to 4500AP

² Lose: 1500AP to 2500AP

 Tie: 2000AP to 3000AP

Ø The boss that may appear bychance Kalanadi & Rahkane, will have increased drop rate

Fire Temple boss will now drop a new series of weapons

More changes to the difficultyof Themobos Secret Laboratory

There will be a change to thecondition where the entrance to Drapnir Caves from Intrenika (?)and the entrance to Indratu from Belusan appears. In comparison, the rate andthe length of which the entrance appears will increase.

Indratu re-entry will bedecreased from 12 hours to 6.

There were morechanges and fixes to certain quests (some of requirements & some inrewards, etc) and stuff like details of new teleports and stuff, but Igot really tired and decided to stop here...

[01101010]

Things relating to system improvements:-

Ø Energy of Salvation –experience buff thing from lv 15 onwards. These are experience buff that are given in points after certain period of time has passed online; and will be used automatically while doing any activity such as hunting, gathering, mission, quest, PvP for an increase of 30%. These points will be nullifiedafter more than 10 minutes of logout time.

Wait, so the longer you are online playing/gathering grinding, the more xp bonus you get?   

[Xurtan]

It is not THAT unusual; a few games have had XP chains or the like. Where the more mobs you kill in a shorter amount of time the more of an XP bonus you get. (Not that it means much, but didn't WAR have something similar in beta?)

[Morfiend]

I thought this was worth noting.

Patch 1.9 will also introduce new timed items. Participating in daily quests or visiting a new item rental shop will give players temporary equipment, allowing them to participate in more advanced content without having to grind for days to get their equipment up to snuff.

[Xurtan]

Ugh, I've always abhorred timed gear.

[Shatter]

They finally posted the true patch notes, more then whats in the translated version above with additional details

http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion/Korean+PTS%3A+March+3rd+Test+Server+Update+1.9+Announcement

[Falconeer]

A limited edition system has been added.
 Certain items have a set quantity that can be sold. They will be marked as "sold out" when stocks have been exhausted.
 Sold-out items will be restocked after a period of time. The length of time varies according to the item.
 There are also items that have a maximum quantity that can be purchased by each character. In these cases, only a set number can be purchased by a player regardless of stock levels.
 

I like this.

Piano keyboards have been added to the main cities of Elysea and Asmodae.
 Jump from one of the 25 keys to the next, and different notes will sound.

Weeeeeee......

[Morfiend]

A limited edition system has been added.
 Certain items have a set quantity that can be sold. They will be marked as "sold out" when stocks have been exhausted.
 Sold-out items will be restocked after a period of time. The length of time varies according to the item.
 There are also items that have a maximum quantity that can be purchased by each character. In these cases, only a set number can be purchased by a player regardless of stock levels.
 

I like this.

2 per server, every 6 hours. Have fun grinding vendor items.