Friday, May 1, 2009

GDC09: Hands-on with Aion

To understand the game Aion, you first need a bit of background on its setting. Aion has many of the trappings you would expect to find in a typical fantasy MMO, but it is a completely original IP with some unique elements. As a player, you are a resident of Atreia, created by the deity Aion, and torn asunder by ancient war between the human races and the Aion's former servants, the Balaur. After millennia of struggle, the Balaur succeeded in destroying the Tower of Eternity, Aion's embodiment on Atreia, splitting the planet in half. In the game's present day, the Asmodians live in the harsh, frigid climates on the upper half of Atreia, far from the sun; while the Elyos live in the sun-drenched, tropical lower half of Atreia. Neither recall the details of the cataclysm that split the world and both blame the other for the destruction that befell Atreia.

Today, fragments of the shattered tower have begun to drift through the heavens and mysterious portals have opened in the world, transporting the Asmodians and Elyos to the Abyss that lays between the two halves of Atreia. Here, they meet one another and their old, neigh-forgotten enemies, the Balaur.

Unsurprisingly, war is at hand. In Aion's "PvPvE" system, you'll fight against both the opposing faction and the NPC Balaur at every turn as you seek to unlock the mysteries of the world around you.

Aion originally launched in Korea in November of 2008 -- and it's likely that in the months since launch, NCsoft has had a chance to polish any rough edges that might have originally been present. The game has, of course, been localized for the American audience -- in more ways than just translating. Throughout the game, the team has taken care to remove text and references that make sense to an Asian audience and replace them with references that will make sense for an American audience.

When you first enter the game world, you're met with the expected character creation screen. Your first choice is faction: do you want to play as an Asmodian, with glowing eyes and dark skin? Or as an Eylos, with their radiant features?

Once you've selected a race, you're offered the choice of male or female versions of four classes:

Warrior: A melee fighter ready for battle. At level 10, a Warrior can choose to become a Gladiator (with a focus on dealing damage) or a Templar (with a focus on protecting others).
Scout: A versatile class that relies on speed and agility over brute force. At level 10, a Scout can choose to become a Ranger (an archer with superb survival skills) or an Assassin (an expert in stealthy carnage).
Mage: Magical damage-dealers who are weak in close combat. At level 10, a Mage can choose to become a Sorcerer (a master of water, fire, air, and earth) or a Spiritmaster (who can summon elemental spirits to his aid).
Priest: Specialists in the art of keeping others alive in the heat of battle, Priests are also capable of spells to aid their allies or thwart their enemies and can even stand on their own in close combat. At level 10, a Priest can chose to become a Cleric (a healer equipped with mace and shield) or a Chanter (a healer with a focus on strengthening allies with powerful buffs). For those concerned about playing a different game after level 10, don't fret. Though obviously each specialized class takes their own unique direction in the game, specialized classes will still share a number of base abilities. And if, for example, you're a Gladiator, but you'd really like a healing spell? The game allows you to customize your abilities through the use of stones you can equip which grant you access to specific spells. You can only equip them in towns and can only have a limited number equipped at once. (For a point of comparison, it sounds similar to World of Warcraft's glyph system, only more powerful.) Out soloing? Perhaps you'd like a heal spell to be self-sufficient. Out with friends? Maybe you'd like some buffs to cast on your allies. Does your party not have a Mage? Perhaps you should pick up some ranged magical damage. All of these are possible.



And after that? Why, character customization, of course! Aion allows an impressive level of customization for an MMO with the goal of never having to run into a duplicate of yourself in the game. There are a wide variety of pre-made options to chose from for face shape, hair, eyes, ears, etc, but you can go beyond the presets and tweak every detail of your features with numerous sliders.

And, while both the Asmodians and Eylos are basically humanoid, if you want to play an Elf-type race, you can make your ears pointed and your character tall and slender. Prefer to play a Dwarf? Make your character short and stocky and give them a beard. We can't say that your options are completely limitless, but they're certainly quite varied.

After you leave character creation, you can additionally customize your look via gear. The game has a variety of armor options which can all be dyed, so you may outfit your character however you wish. (For customizing your stats, obviously the armor you equip has specific properties, but you may also apply magical gems to your armor to tweak any piece to your preferred playstyle.) The game also features what we're told is an in-depth crafting system, with which you can make your own armor and weapons.

Once you've decided to call it quits with the character creation mini-game, it's Into the game you go!



Regardless of the faction you chose, you'll be immediately tossed out into an impressive landscape -- even though the game is being imported from Asia, it's not been out long enough to show any age. The graphics (as shown off on no doubt pimped out demo rigs) were stunning. (NCsoft hasn't officially released system requirements for the game's North American release, but the Korean version lists Pentium 4 2.8GHz, AMD Athlon 2800; 1 GB RAM; GeForce 6600, Radeon X1550 as a minimum and recommends Pentium Dual Core, AMD Athlon 64 X2; 2 GB RAM; GeForce 7600, Radeon X2600.)

The game's starting zone -- at least in this early build of the game -- assumes you're familiar with basic MMO conventions (like how to move around, how to locate quests, and how to use hotkeys) and drops you straight into the action. You start near a questgiver, indicated by a colored arrow overhead. Talk to the questgiver, accept the quest, and you're at the beginning of a beautiful friendship with the game's super friendly quest system. Key terms (such as locations, NPCs, or objects you're supposed to find) in the quest text will be underlined. You can click on these for additional information -- including locations on the game's map. Though occasionally an objective will simply tell you it's at a difficult to find location, for the most part this system eliminates the nuisance of running around for twenty minutes hunting down a quest item -- or visiting a database site to look it up. Everything you need to know is right at your fingertips. (Call it easy mode if you'd like, but remember that World of Warcraft's iconic yellow exclamation point was once considered a ridiculous addition that made the genre far too simple -- and now such clear quest indicators are taken as a matter of fact.) Following quest instructions was simple, and the additional indications of where exactly to find things was certainly helpful in getting around.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

NCSoft Pist About Aion Bot

NEW YORK Dec. 10, according to South Korean media reported that South Korean game maker NCsoft Korea asked the police to investigate online games 8 plug-in manufacturing or sales companies, involved in the games, including "AION", "Heaven," " Heaven 2 "and so on, NCsoft has also said it would for overseas Chinese mainland, such as plug-effective means of manufacturers.

NCsoft said that the requirements of the investigation was mainly due to the illegal manufacture or sell plug-in will affect the ordinary players of the game fair and balanced, deprived of players playing the game fun.

Said, NCsoft was illegal to take such a positive external action, mainly because of their just-listed "AION" are also beginning to plug the Daguai automatic procedures, the use of plug-in player will automatically Daguai accumulate virtual currency of the game, And then on-line game currency trading or trading account of the game, equipment and so on.

South Korean law, for the illicit manufacture of plug-in games, once identified, will be sentenced to 1 year in prison or a fine of up to 10,000,000 won, South Korea have had the court found illegal plug-in the case.

Recently, the Korean game industry with the South Korean government is to work together to put an end to illegal plug-in, many sites have begun to remove the plug-in keyword advertising, the South Korean government in July in the game industry and the revitalization of the plan to Congress by adding a penalty to spread plug-in The terms of the Korean Physical Culture and Tourism Ministry announced that in the medium and long-term game plan to revitalize the industry, also expressed the plug must not be allowed to exist.

Aion Guide: Stigma System

Aion Stigma System allows players to further customize their characters, so that players of the same class are not necessarily identical in their abilities.


Sealed within each Stigma Stone is a powerful skill that makes a significant addition to your character's aresenal. While some of these stones are readily available, others can be very rare and therefore prestigious. Stigma Stones can be equipped on your character through the Stigma panel. The number of Stigma Stones you can equip depends on the level of your character.


1. Number of Stigma Slots

Each character can equip up to 5 stigma stones.
However, with the current level cap at 45, you will be able to equip a maximum of 4.

Level 20: 2 Stigma Slots
Level 30: 3 Stigma Slots
Level 40: 4 Stigma Slots


2. Stigma Quest

In order to gain access to your stigma panel, you will need to complete a quest.
The quest can be acquired at Level 20, and is common for all classes of the same race.


3. Stigma Stones

Upon completing the stigma quest you will receive your first stigma stone. Other stigma stones can be acquired as drops from monsters. Regular monsters drop stigma stones very rarely, while named monsters are more likely to have one in their possession.

Stigma stones can be traded, so you can always acquire it from other players if you don't want to test your luck at a drop.

4. Equipping Stigma Stones

In order to equip a stigma stone you will need to talk to a Stigma Master, located in major cities.
You will also need to have the required number of Stigma Shards. The number depends on the level of the Stigma Skill.

Stigma shards are common drops from monsters in the Abyss area. You also get shards as a reward from the Stigma quest (1 time only).

Shards consumed when equipping a Stigma stone will not be returned if you unequip the stone, so be very sure when you choose which Stigma stones to equip.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Aion Daevanion Weapon Quest (LvL 30, Elyos)

Here is a quest for Aion Elyea , it is writen by Zumbaro . Thank you for providing us this valuable aion quest guide , let’s credit to Zumbaro . Now please read …

This quest starts at the same npc as the Armor quests end at and requires that your character have the full Daevanion Armor set equipped…

After initiating the quest you’ll be requirred to collect 150 of an item, the mobs that drop the item are lvl 30-32, plan to take pots or other items you’ll need cause you may be there for a couple hours, there are 3 versions of the mob at the location indicated on the map, all 3 drop the quest item as well as a named 5 dot mob that appears…

Having acquired 150 of the quest item return to the NPC where the quest started and after a quick dialog you’ll be required to kill 3 different mobs located in the abyss and you’ll have to kill 30 of each, this can be easy or difficult as the mobs are all level 30 but depending on the location control situation you may deal with excess Asmodians or long flights if a close port isn’t available, also note you will need 4000 DP for the final step of the quest so finishing this step with it is a little bit of a bonus…

Having successfully killed all 90 mobs required return again to the NPC where the quest began, after the dialog there are still 2 things required for the last step, you’ll need a gem similar to the ones for the armor quest and you’ll again need 4000DP. Starting with the gem which is available at a shop in SW Elysium, its the one with the giant ring in front of it and you’ll speak to the NPC on the left inside…
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 727×600.

Now if you don’t have 4000DP and don’t want to farm it you can purchase the following item from the auction house and it will provide the 4000DP for you…

Now with gem and DP return to the NPC that started the quest and after quick dialog you’ll be given the chance to choose your weapon!

Thank you for your reading ! Welcome next time !

Aion Weapon Guide

Want to know the Weapons about Aion ? You will get it after reading the following guide …

Category

- Dagger, OHSW(One Handed Sword), Mace, Staff, Book, Pearl, THSW(Two Handed Sword), Spear, Bow

Only Dagger, OHSW, Mace are one handed weapon

Dagger - Low damage but high attack speed, it fits Ranger and Assassin
OHSW -normal damage and attack speed, and equip shield meanwhile, it fits many classes.
Mace - normal damage and attack speed, good at magic attribute but bad in critical attack, it fits Templar
Staff - high damage but slow attack speed, good at magic attribute, it fits Cleric and Templar
Book - high damage but slow attack speed, good at magic attribute, it fits Sorcerer and Spiritmaster
Pearl - good at magic attribute
THSW - High damage but low attack speed, it fits Templar and Gladiator
Spear - Highest physical damage but low attack speed, only Gladiator can use it
Bow - only Ranger can use it and need arrow

Weapon Data

1 - Name [color shows its grade] 2 - Category, 3 - Level required
4 - Attack speed [Rapid, normal, slow, very slow] / Attack Num
5 - Attack power, 6 - Actual attack speed
7 - Attack accuracy, 8 - Critical attack rate
9 - weapon defence (The rate block enemy’s attack)
10 - Weapon slot num for combination
11 - Whether this weapon can be strengthened

Attack Speed / Attack Num

Dagger - 1.2 / 1 [Fast]
OHSW - 1.4 / 2 [Noraml]
Mace - 1.5 / 3 [Normal]
Staff - 2 / 3 [Slow]
Book - 2.2 / 1 [Slow]
Pearl - 2.2 / 1 [Slow]
THSW - 2.4 / 3 [Very Slow]
Spear - 2.8 / 4 [Very Slow]
Bow - 2.4 / 1 [Very Slow]

Attack Num means the number of the attack, for example Dagger can only cause single attack, but THSW is possible to cause attacks for 3 times, of course it depends on ur luck.

Aion Weapon Strengthen

The attack increases according to the type of weapon.

Attack increases when weapon+1 :

Dagger, OHSW (+2)
Mace, Staff, Book(+3)
Pearl, THSW, Bow(+4)
Spear(+5)

Magic increases when weapon+1

Mace, Staff, Book, Pearl (+10)

+4 Dagger, attack inceares 8


If anyone has good suggestion , please post then out in our comment , we’d like to see your precious words there . Thank you ! Have a good tine in Aion !

Aion Guide: Shortcut Key Guide

Here is a Aion guide of the Aion control , it tells you how to use the shortcut keys so makes you play this game more easier …If you are a newbie , read it ! Hope helpful !

W Move Forward
S Move Back
A Move Left
D Move Right
Q The view turn Left
E The view turn Right
PageUp Open the wings
PageDown Hold the wings
R Rise when flying
F Lower when flying

P Character window
K Skill window
I Inventory window
Y Personal Shop
J Quest window
M Map window
O System option
G Guild window
L Alliance request
H 1:1 Help
V Search friend
X Peace Mode / Attack Mode
Esc Cancel
Print Screen Take a screenshot

Tab Choose the nearest enemy
C Normal attack at the target
T Select a user previously whispered
B Soul Attack On / Off
Space Jump
1 ~ = Using skills in the skill slots
Ctrl + 1~= Using skills in the first expanded skill slots
Alt + 1~= Using skills in the second expanded skill slots
. Walk / Run
NumLock Auto run
, Sit / Stand
F1 Choose yourself
F2 ~ F6 Choose other team members
F7 Choose the nearby player of your side
F8 Choose the players in an area
F10 Main Menu
F12 Hide / Display all windows
Shift + F12 Hide / Display other players
Shift + ~ Hide/ Display chatting area
Shift + T Trade with the target
Shift + Z Switch the wenpon

/ + Name Whisper
/W + Name Whisper
/S Normal chatting
/Y Scream function
/T Select a user previously whispered
/P Team chatting
/G Guild chatting
/PP Keep the team chatting channel
/GG Keep the guild chatting channel
/friend + Name Invite a friend

Note : You can change the shortcut key in the System Option.
Have a good time !

Aion: Chinese Beta Impressions

AION: Chinese Beta Impressions
by Malcom

The internet is a truly amazing place; a gathering of people from all cultures and ethnicities. It is a place where people hate you for your ideas, not what you look like. That said, it's usually a good idea during your travels through the magnificent digital world to make as many friends as possible, which is something I attempted to do with one of my earliest reviews on Atlantica Online. During this mind-broadening journey, you might want to consider picking yourself up a couple of asian friends. Tales of old tell of oriental heroism and perseve…yeah, whatever, they can get you into NCSoft betas. This is exactly what happened when one of my friends, born and currently located in China invited me to play AION: The Tower of Eternal Awesome with him. After I downloaded all the files, and he helped me register my account, I was ready to log into NCSoft's latest virtual fantasy world.

I. Graphics/Art - 11/11

When it comes to graphics, art, armor and weapon design, NCSoft goes to eleven. It's not about whether you like their style or not. That's not it at all. NCSoft excels in this department because their animation is always top-notch, their spell effects(if a bit exaggerated at times) look wonderful, and everything moves at optimal speed the whole time you're playing. I know, eastern MMO combat looks a bit anime'ish, and perhaps a bit fake to some people due of the over-exaggerated acrobatic feats that some games add to their melee classes, but damn it, it's a fantasy game. I'd rather my guy smoothly somersault off the enemy, reach orbit at the height of the jump, and then come crashing down furiously in a well-animated sequence, than have my guy take awkward stabs at his opponent.

It makes it all seem that much more heroic. It makes you believe that your character fights with confidence, and it's a lot better than having to look at the way some races held weapons in World of Warcraft; it made me wonder if they really had any combat training at all, or if they just bought an adventurer certificate in Chinatown for 1 dolla, 1 dolla.

Animations, and NCSoft's artistic excellence aside: a lot of the beauty in AION comes from the heavily modified version of the Cry Engine they use. We've all seen what the Cry Engine can do in FPS's like Crysis. To see that sort of graphical potential in an MMO is truly astounding. There is no better word than breathtaking to describe the environments, characters, and how it all comes together to create this outstanding virtual reality. It's true, there have been other games with amazing(er) graphics, such as Age of Conan in DX10, but…It's Age of Conan.

One can praise NCSoft for its artistic prowess all day, so let's move on for a little bit. Let's talk about character creation. We'll keep it short since there's nothing too innovative here, but then again, it's just character creation. How innovative can you really get after a certain point? Character creation has pre-defined hairstyles, faces, body types, etc. It also includes an endless amount of possibilities for facial construction by way of sliders. Want to make your character look like Barack Obama? Go ahead. You can do it if you spend enough time messing with the sliders. Although there are no races other than "human," you can move the ear slider up to have pointy ears and look like an elf. You can also be as tiny or as big as you want(within humanly limits). It's refreshing. I don't have to play a hideous gnome if I want to be tiny, and me being smaller doesn't give me any special racial traits over the towering behemoth standing next to me.


II. Gameplay - 9/10

I'm the kind of person that's never really impressed by flashy videos. Previews, trailers, video walkthroughs, all of that stuff bores me. You could be showing me the birth of Jesus Christ on video and I wouldn't really be impressed, unless I witnessed it for myself. AION was one of those things. My friends constantly bombard me with videos from this game or that, saying "look at this game, it's so cool!" but I always end up closing my YouTube tab dissatisfied and bored.

It wasn't much better when I got into the game and was given my first quest. I sighed and said to myself "damn it, not this again." After following the very linear path of fruit theft and insect killing that was laid in front of me, I started to wonder if I really wanted to take this game further. Then, I started getting missions. Missions are like quests, but they advance your own personal storyline. At first, they're not much different from the other quests, you get some short 5 second cinematics showing you which mobs you have to kill, as if they were something special. However, as you progress they start getting more intricate, and by level 10, I was foaming at the mouth for more. PvE is PvE, and I don't think it will ever evolve past "fetch me ten fish" or "kill six wolves," but I get the impression from NCSoft that they're at least trying by giving you your own personal storyline to follow(in cinematics) in-between fish-fetching and wolf-killing.

Overall, gameplay is incredibly smooth. Everything loads quickly, and even though I was playing on Chinese servers, I hardly got serious lag. I keep a pillow handy by my desk, since I play Warhammer Online and even at 4GB of RAM I have to take naps every time I switch zones. AION didn't even give me enough time to fluff my pillow before everything was done loading. Here's a not-exaggerated re-enactment of how zone loading works in AION, following this format: hours:minutes:seconds:microseconds.

AION(9:10:57:48AM): Loading… here's a tip for you.

Me(9:10:57:49AM): "Oh, c-"

AION(9:10:57:50AM): Done.

Switching zones is so quick, they're going to have to include their loading screen tips on a separate manual. I can't imagine anyone can get past the first word in any loading screen tip before the zone's completely loaded. This is good, and it can even add a fun minigame to AION. See if you're quick enough to take a screenshot of the loading screen so you can read the tip it included. Impress your friends with your lightning-fast printscreen reflexes.


IIa. The Grind:

The very thing that keeps us playing MMOs is rapidly growing into a scary word: grind. How much of it is actually in AION? Well, I don't know, and I don't think we'll be able to know for a while other than what people playing the Korean release tell us. Even then, it's all a matter of how much time you have to play, how you manage that time, etc. Levels 1-10 go by pretty quick, which is good, because level 10 is really where the game starts. You get your wings, you get your real class, you get praise from your fellow realm-mates, and most importantly, you get a new emote. That's right. This emote allows you to stand in lowbie areas and lord your wings over everyone who still doens't have them.

From what I've seen though, and the fact that the level cap is 50, if you're PvEing the entire way there, it's going to feel quite grindy.

IIb. The wings:

You probably skipped the rest of this article so you could read about wings and flying in AION. Here's the honest truth: It's fucking awesome. Everyone loves flying. Even if you hate planes or heights. We all dream of having wings so we can drop things on unsuspecting people below. AION finally makes that dream a reality. Starting at level 10(after you complete your ascension mission) you will be able to fly. There are certain areas where you can't take off, but you'll always be able to show off your wings or at least glide down a ramp. You can only fly for a limited amount of time, but as you keep leveling, this amount of time increases. You're also subject to a flight cooldown whenever you glide with your wings.

Once you get to one of the first areas where your flight is actually not restricted and you can go up as high or as low as you want, you'll shed tears of awe. It sounds like something boring, right? Flying around. Druids could do it in World of Warcraft, gryphons could do it, you can fly in Perfect World. You've even seen videos of people flying in AION on YouTube. However, you've never experienced it for yourself… BUT I HAVE! NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!

Honestly, until you get to fly around in AION, and do some combat or even some exploring up in the skies, I don't think you can pass judgement on it. Watching birds fly is boring as hell. Watching other people fly on YouTube is not only boring as hell, but it usually also means having to stand the horrible background music people put in their videos. Try flying out for yourself when you get a chance, see how you like it. Get some cardboard wings and jump off your rooftop, if you want.

Note: I will not be held responsible for any deaths that occur from my above comments, although if you suffer an accident you survive and develop psychic abilities, please contact me.

III. Overall impressions:

Overall I am very impressed by NCSoft's latest MMO. I was obviously expecting the game to look truly amazing, no doubt, but the gameplay is really what exceeded my expectations. I haven't even been to The Abyss yet, though I do plan on writing about that once I've experienced it. Still, even though I've been doing the same old questing stuff, there's just something about the game that makes it all the more bearable than other recent MMOs. It could be the wings, I don't know. I can take a break every now and then from questing simply to soar into the skies and fly around a little bit. It's really refreshing.

Even though it's not a full loot sandbox, this game has an incredible sense of freedom. The game is still in beta, but it feels so finished. Other than issues caused by the eternal dark curse upon the earth, more commonly known as GameGuard(which I doubt will even be added for NA players), I never crashed, I rarely got lag spikes, and I was never once disconnected from the servers. Ever. No 10k latency, no 5k latency like some games had at release. I'm looking at you, Age of Conan. They could release this game tomorrow, in beta, and I'd buy it.

I can't wait until the North American version is released, and I can play with all my friends(that's right, all two of them).