Aion (Open Beta, Launch Day Info too!)

[ajax34i]

According to Mr. Lee, the overseas versions will set higher quest EXP gains and fewer death EXP losses than the Korean version. In Aion 2.0, the overseas players will not only enjoy a higher item drop rate after killing bosses, but also experience more convenience in many fields. "

Sucks to be Korean I guess.  I wonder what their reaction is at reading that.

[Threash]

None of that will make a difference if they don't completely change the manastone/enchanting mechanics.  Everything else was slightly harsh but not horrible.

[Kail]

None of that will make a difference if they don't completely change the manastone/enchanting mechanics.

Will it make a difference, yes.  A lot of us didn't even make it to the manastone grind because the XP curve is ludicrous.

Will it fix everything, probably no.  But if they can fix the XP I'll at least give them a shot.  They've boosted XP before, though, and it wasn't very much.

Sucks to be Korean I guess.  I wonder what their reaction is at reading that.

Probably similar to the Americans and Europeans who level before the boost is implemented: "this PROOVES how hardcore and awesome we are!"

[Threash]

Once they added the double exp weekends the levels just flew by really. 

[Count Nerfedalot]

http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-08-10/aion_set_up_an_overseas_dev_team_for_more_localized_content.shtml

...those in Japan don't show much interest in PvP.

say what?

[sam, an eggplant]

Sucks to be Korean I guess.  I wonder what their reaction is at reading that.

I imagine they're laughing uproariously at the weiguk pussies.

[Kail]

Once they added the double exp weekends the levels just flew by really. 

Double the what now?  Is that a regular thing?  I thought it was a special event.  If that's going on every weekend, yeah, disregard my previous post.  XP boost would be kind of pointless if we're already getting double every weekend.

[Chimpy]

Once they added the double exp weekends the levels just flew by really. 

Double the what now?  Is that a regular thing?  I thought it was a special event.  If that's going on every weekend, yeah, disregard my previous post.  XP boost would be kind of pointless if we're already getting double every weekend.

It has been going on approximately once every 3 weeks since February. Works for tradeskills too, which is another part of the game that needs a swat with the "fuck you NCSoft" stick.

[Rendakor]

I didn't find the crafting too terrible to level up, although the fact that it's a pure money sink to grind writs or whatever is pretty annoying. The gathering skills, on the other hand, can go fuck themselves. Who the fuck thought it would be cool to make Flight-only harvestable nodes when you can only fly for 1m at a time? And to give them a separate skill you have to grind so you can't just harvest shit without risking death... 

[UnSub]

I thought it was funny they chose a Korean guy to decide whats best in other markets because you know....those Korean guys at NCSOft have done such a good job of that so far lol

NCsoft is a Korean company who doesn't trust NCsoft West to do more than tie their own shoes.

Aion launched well in EU / NA. Lots of comments that the initial game was good, but it isn't holding onto players.

Launching into different markets with different cultures is difficult, but companies all over tend to underestimate the challenges.

[Shatter]

I thought it was funny they chose a Korean guy to decide whats best in other markets because you know....those Korean guys at NCSOft have done such a good job of that so far lol

NCsoft is a Korean company who doesn't trust NCsoft West to do more than tie their own shoes.

Aion launched well in EU / NA. Lots of comments that the initial game was good, but it isn't holding onto players.

Launching into different markets with different cultures is difficult, but companies all over tend to underestimate the challenges.

I expect these type of errors from a new company but not one thats had games launched in multiple markets for many years already.  I mean, how many MMO's does NCSoft have/had under their belt in more then 1 region?  I guess the point is they should already know what the NA market wants / needs and what they launched in Aion was in many ways the exact opposite of what should of been.  A year later, they are only now realizing this enough to do something about it?  Clearly the pocket book speaks louder then the player base. 

[Threash]

Once they added the double exp weekends the levels just flew by really. 

Double the what now?  Is that a regular thing?  I thought it was a special event.  If that's going on every weekend, yeah, disregard my previous post.  XP boost would be kind of pointless if we're already getting double every weekend.

It has been going on approximately once every 3 weeks since February. Works for tradeskills too, which is another part of the game that needs a swat with the "fuck you NCSoft" stick.

Before that it was once every other week, in January they lowered the exp curve though.

[Shatter]

DBL XP weekends rare occur anymore.  They are about every 5-6 weeks now as they felt they could phase them out with 1.9. 

[Shatter]

http://na.aiononline.com/pets/

Pets for xpac.  Free expansion but for $40 you can buy a box version and get 2 pets(one with 12 inv spaces) :P  Also states that the pets can be acquired in game and the C-Store and while details arent fully available yet, wanna bet the coolest pets that are most useful are in the Cstore :P

"Pets confined to fetching the morning paper and performing crowd pleasing tricks are now a thing of the past. The upcoming free expansion Aion: Assault on Balaurea introduces an entirely new pet subsystem to explore. You will have access to functional pets capable of storing goods, assisting with crafting, acting as guardians by alerting their masters to nearby enemies, and of course those simply designed to make their masters look good.

The pets system will continue to develop and evolve moving forward, but we’re looking at five pet types to start out with:


Companion – Adventure with their owner throughout Atreia
Signal – Alert their owner to the presence of enemy players
Pack – Expand their owner’s inventory
Fortune – Produce items for their owner after being well-fed
Purebred – Provide their owner with multiple functions at once


You’ll have 100 dedicated pet slots available to populate, but can only own one of each type, and are only capable of summoning one pet at a time. You will retain features such as inventory space increase even while the pet providing the feature is put away. The pets you own can be given names, and these names are not unique, which will allow you to choose names freely and make changes whenever you so desire. And as a special treat, a new type of pet emote will trigger unique animations for each type of pet (watch out Westminster Kennel Club, there’s a new set of tricks to teach those old dogs). 

There will be different ways to get your hands on these pets, including buying them from in-game merchants or the NCStore, getting them as quest rewards, item drops, or through special promotional events.


Aion: Assault on Balaurea is a free expansion, but there will also be a new boxed version with an upgraded client preloaded available for purchase (MSRP $39.99). To celebrate the release of Aion: Assault on Balaurea, those who purchase the expansion will receive an adorable Speckled Ailu pet (it’s much like a panda). Some retailers will for a limited time also offer an exclusive Companion pet along with the Speckled Ailu."

[Ard]

So lemme get this straight.  The expansion is free, but if you spend $40, you get two pets?  Am I missing something, or is NCSoft now completely off their rocker?

edit:  and as my wife just pointed out, it's also a repack for new players, but still, if your only new perk is two pets, the expansion is free, and the current retail version can be found for $30 or less, wtf?

[Shatter]

Yup, you basically get a boxed version of the game(original and xpac) although if you currently play the xpac is free.  So the $40 for existing players is basically for 2 pets, one of which adds 12 inv slots and the second (depending on where you order from) probably doesnt do anything lol. 

[UnSub]

I expect these type of errors from a new company but not one thats had games launched in multiple markets for many years already.  I mean, how many MMO's does NCSoft have/had under their belt in more then 1 region?  I guess the point is they should already know what the NA market wants / needs and what they launched in Aion was in many ways the exact opposite of what should of been.  A year later, they are only now realizing this enough to do something about it?  Clearly the pocket book speaks louder then the player base. 

To date, NCsoft's failures (TR, AA) in NA/EU outshine its successes (GW, CoH/V).

Some senior people at NCsoft obviously had (have?) a dream of one MMO that has a large player base over multiple regions, ala WoW. That dream hasn't yet come true and I don't know enough about Blizzard's regionalisation process for Asian markets to really have a stab at why WoW picks up significant numbers of Asian region players while Aion struggles to hold on to NA / EU players in numbers. Maybe WoW has the content that appeals to all levels of players whereas Aion's content is more limited in its appeal.

[Rendakor]

Just a guess but...

Asian player picks up WoW, goes "Hey this is easy!" 

NA player picks up Aion, goes "Fuck, this shit is annoying" 

[Chimpy]

So lemme get this straight.  The expansion is free, but if you spend $40, you get two pets?  Am I missing something, or is NCSoft now completely off their rocker?

edit:  and as my wife just pointed out, it's also a repack for new players, but still, if your only new perk is two pets, the expansion is free, and the current retail version can be found for $30 or less, wtf?

Actually, I found when I was playing Aion that the vast majority of players I knew still playing 6 month out would pay 40 bucks for the magazine sub to get character customization options. More than half the people I knew still playing when the magazine sub thing came out bought the 40 dollar 12 issue subscirption to get the pink wings and/or the black and white dyes.

If they are still playing at 2.0 they will gobble the 12 inventory slots up like it is nothing at all.

[Segoris]

Overall, I like this pet system. It's taking an accessory and making it useful. While it's not the first time this has been in a game, it is still nice to see more than the cosmetic pet and pet class only style pets being used. I'm not a fan of the $40 for two pets crap, but as long as the function of the pet is still available from other pets and only the avatar of the pet is exclusive I don't mind it so much.

Fortune – Produce items for their owner after being well-fed

Magical digestive tracks

[Lantyssa]

It works for coffee.

[Shatter]

This is NCSoft, we already know that pet will shit out nothing of real value....ever. 

[UnSub]

And what do you know? The NCsoft financials for Q1 2010 are out.

Aion earned about US$62.5m in Q1 2010, down from about US$78.8m in Q4 2009. That covers both Aion in South Korea and Aion in the Western markets.

Q2 2010 sees Aion earn about US$52.6m, about a 16% decline in revenue from last quarter from all markets. At a glance it isn't clear exactly which markets are causing this - it would appear that whatever NCsoft is losing from Aion is being picked up elsewhere. However, Aion continues a downward slide.

Quickly looking at the quarterly report sees the main stories as Lineage 1 still doing great things for NCsoft's bottom line (something about microtrans?) and that Richard Garriott's payout ate up probably 50% of NCsoft's income for the quarter.

[rk47]

 That faked resignation letter while he was in space plot is out of this world. I still can't believe NCsoft think they can get away with it.

[hyuu]

That faked resignation letter while he was in space plot is out of this world. I still can't believe NCsoft think they can get away with it.

You'd be surprised at what illegal and immoral things people do to take over a failing MMO.  

[Lianka]

uh huh

[UnSub]

I still can't believe NCsoft think they can get away with it.

There's likely a very good reason why some very senior NCsoft West people suddenly got demoted around the time the lawsuit started.

[billy10388]

This torrent might have good speed (3.2 MByte/s - atleast from Sweden):

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/71349789/aion?tab=summary

No, it's not a pain in the ass. It took me ten minutes to register and, eeeerrr, verify my age.

PS.
I don't think Chinese ID are illegal to spread, just unethical. Like many other countries' IDs, they're just numbers computed from birthdate, birth place, gender and so on. Not sure however, so at your own risk.

Such a very amazing link!

[Shatter]

http://forums.aiononline.com/na/showthread.php?p=373492#post373492

"As you may have heard, we’re making a few changes to the rifting system with Assault on Balaurea. These changes are based off feedback that we’ve received in the past, and although we cannot go into much specific detail about the change percentages we wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that these changes have been made so you can experience them firsthand when Assault on Balaurea launches next Tuesday.

Part of the changes coming with Assault on Balaurea is that guards from Sanctum and Pandemonium have been re-deployed to protect their lands from enemy invaders. These protective guards will make it more challenging for rifters to move around. Another change that has been made is the installation of protective shields powered by Aether that will protect Asmodians in Morheim and Beluslan and Elyos in Eltnen and Heiron. These protective shields will make it more difficult for a rifting assailant to murder helpless Daevas on their home turf. Even with these changes, rifting will still be fun gameplay mechanic for the attacker, and much for fair for your unsuspecting target."

So basically they nerfed rifting.  Its not techincally a shield or buff, its a permanent dmg reduction that players in their homeland always have so its much harder to be ganked by rifters that enter their homeland.  IMO a good change since twinking/rifting has become a huge problem. 

[Chimpy]

Just think, had they made some of the changes that they keep talking about being asked for by their customers 6 months ago, they might actually have a decent customer base to be excited about their 2.0 patch/expansion!

[Outlawedprod]

Only CM  whose name I can recall from when I was playing.
Andrew “Tamat” Beegle  has left.
http://na.aiononline.com/board/notices/view?articleID=392

This is probably a shop but one of my friends who is still active linked me this fine image he saw posted around:

[Chimpy]

Seeing as their expansion was released almost a month ago and no one ever posted on this thread about it, you can safely assume that no one here cares at all about the game (and few if any are still playing it).

[Shatter]

The expansion came out < 3 weeks ago or so.  Ive enjoyed it so far, it adds more decent PvE content but the pvp is lacking still largely due to the server imbalances.  With this expansion they've made it a fairly solid PvE game though.

[Soukyan]

The expansion came out < 3 weeks ago or so.  Ive enjoyed it so far, it adds more decent PvE content but the pvp is lacking still largely due to the server imbalances.  With this expansion they've made it a fairly solid PvE game though.

"Seeing as their expansion was released almost a month ago and no one ever posted on this thread about it, you can safely assume that no one here cares at all about the game (and few if any are still playing it)."

[waffel]

So um question....

Uh.... why doesn't this game have a trial...?