Aion: ID or Password does not match

Viperlotus: I seem to be having some trouble getting into the open beta. I'm using the same ID and password that I did for the closed beta, but I keep getting this message. To make things worse, the game kicks me out right after that, and I have to go through the starting process again. Anyone having or has had this issue and can help?

EDIT: Hmm... it seems updating my password solved my original problem, but the client keeps closing out due to an "unexpected problem." I imagine this has to do with the instability of the servers, and that other people are having this same issue as well. Either way, thank you for your help.

HERE: NSCoft has said awhile ago that updated their password servers. You have to update your password in your aion account on the NCSoft website. you can just use the same password you used before. https://secure.ncsoft.com/.

LOLI's Aion(Pics)

Aion open beta hits some hiccups

Aion open beta hits some hiccups, but aion patches are on the way!

It seems that no game can find that smooth stride regarding their beta testing these days, but thankfully that's what beta testing is for -- squashing bugs. (No matter how much marketing we seem to lump atop these tests these days.)

The Aion development team has heard the community's call regarding the lag, authentication server, gameguard anti-cheating program, forum authentication script, and beta key release schedule. They understand that the problems with the aion lag experienced by North American users, as well as the login server not working, is frustrating. However, they are devoting resources to finding out the cause and will be patching the game ASAP.

As for the GameGuard, it seems the feisty little program has been coughing up more errors than usual for some users, making it another notch on the "to-do" list. Unfortunately, the beta forums didn't feel like cooperating either, leading to some users becoming unable to login and post their problems.

But, the team is making movement forward and will continue to iron out problems before release. We here at Massively wish them the best of luck in doing so.

Are you interested in the Aion open beta? Well no worries, you can grab your key from Fileplanet when you're ready to take to the skies. No Fileplanet membership is required, all you need to do is sign into Fileplanet with a standard account and download away!

Aion Enchantment Guide

Aion Enchantment is a basic way to enchant in Aion , please read the following Aion Enchantment Guide about enchantment and hope you have a good time in this game !

1. First you must creat the aion enchantment stones.

In order to create them, visit a nearby General Goods Merchant and purchase Extraction Tools. One set of tools is used per extraction. In order to extract, you must Right-Click on the Extraction Tools and then Left-Click on the item you wish to extract from.

1) You can only extract from items that can be enhanced. These are your chest slot, legs slot, shoulders slot, hands slot, feet slot, primary slot, and secondary slot.

2) When you extract from an item, that item is destroyed. Do not extract from items you wish to keep or use, obviously.

Once you have extracted an item, you will receive Enchantment stones. They come in the form: Level # Enchantment. The level corresponds to an item's level, not your level.

2. Now How you apply them for an item ?

The first important part is figuring out the level of the item you wish to enhance. Quite simply, the item's level is the required level to use that item (but there is more!). This can typically be found just by looking at the item's statistics, as it will say what level is required. For some items, such as quest rewards, there is no given level on the item. In order to figure out the level of these items, you must know what level the quest was that resulted in that item. For instance, if a quest said "Level 10" in front of it and completing it resulted in an item, that item's level would be 10.

Once you know your item's level, the next step is figuring out what level Enchantment stone to use. In order to do this, you must know whether the item is of White rarity, Green rarity, Blue rarity, or Orange rarity. You can simply do this by looking at the item and seeing what color the item's name is written in. Once you know the item's level and its color use the following to figure out what aion Enchantment stone to use:

White Item = Item's Level +1-10 Levels
Green Item = Item's Level +5-20 Levels
Blue Item = Item's Level +15-40 Levels
Orange Item = Item's Level +30-50 Levels

3. Take note that using the lower extremity will cause you to have a lower chance of success.

If you have a Level 10 White item, you will have a higher percent of success if you use a Level 13 Enchantment stone than if you used a Level 11 Enchantment stone. Also, if you use too high of an Enchantment stone, your chance of success will be diminished as well.

Now that you know how to create aion Enchantment stones and use them to enhance your gear. Thank you for reading and enjoy yourself !

Aion Launch Server List Released

A lot of people have been waiting for this, so here you go, the official aion server list 9at least starting out) for launch!

Many of you have been curious to learn what the names of the Aion servers will be at launch. We've listed the server names below along with their associated time zones. The servers are aligned to those time zones (e.g. affecting fortresses) so that players on the East Coast as well as those on the West Coast can have blocks of game time to play during each server's prime time. Daylight saving will apply at launch.

Before the start of preselection (which begins September 18, 2009), we will also give our fans from the Oceanic region the chance to take part in an online community poll where you can indicate what server you'd pick unofficially if you want to play with your friends and neighbors. We hope to show instant results in the poll so that you can see which server provides you the best chance to meet them.

We are going to post a similar community poll for roleplayers. We have decided not to officially tag servers as roleplaying servers and enforce specific rules on them. However, we do believe that roleplayers are an essential part of our community, and we support their initiative to claim their own unofficial roleplaying server. Aion gives you the ability to create your own chat channel, and we are already seeing a lot of roleplaying groups out there who are defining their own rules and building up their own communities. Take your time to organize your group before the poll goes live, and then pick the server that would give you the best chance to find players with the same roleplaying interests.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Atreia on one of these servers at launch!

Aion Launch Server List Released

(1)North America: (UPDATED LIST AS OF 09-11-09)

[West] Siel GMT-8
[East] Israphel GMT-5
[West] Nezekan GMT-8
[East] Zikel GMT-5
[West] Vaizel GMT-8
[East] Triniel GMT-5
[West] Kaisinel GMT-8
[East] Lumiel GMT-5
[West] Yustiel GMT-8
[East] Marchutan GMT-5
[West] Ariel GMT-8
[East] Azphel GMT-5

(2)Europe:

[ENG] Spatalos
[ENG] Telemachus
[ENG] Castor
[ENG] Perento
[ENG] Gorgos

[GER] Kromede
[GER] Thor
[GER] Votan
[GER] Balder

[FRA] Urtem
[FRA] Vidar
[FRA] Suthran

NCsoft releases Aion Podcast #3!

Get a firsthand look at the NCsoft office in Seoul, Korea, in the third official Aion video podcast found exclusively at incgamers.com, Gamereactor.net, Gamona.de, EveryEye.it, Hardgame2.com and PowerUnlimited.nl! Join Associate Producer Lani Blazier, Lead Designer YongChan Jee, Lead Artist Hyung Jun Kim, and other members of the development team in your inside peek at Aion. The team talks candidly about how the design makes the game appeal to players across the globe, the future of Aion, and more.


Also, the server list located here has been updated. Please take a look and note the changes.

Aion Version 1.5 Impressions

It's been one year since I first saw Aion: Tower of Eternity and those wings I admired are about ready to take flight in the US.

Developer NCSoft has learned a lot since the massively multiplayer online game went live in Korea last year and they've integrated as much as they could into version 1.5, which will be the game that launches in the US this September.

First up is instancing; aion 1.5 adds 14 new instances to players past level 20, a scoring system to all instances to encourage replay-ability and a whole lot more story to pad it all out. NCSoft takes their storytelling very seriously – especially since they're dealing with localization – so they've put professional writers on their adaptation team and skipped automation programs that find and replace text in favor of going through and rewriting text line-by-line.

Also new to aion patch 1.5 are character design options. Aion already had a pretty detailed character creation system to start with from what I can remember, but now they've added 14 new character presets, more westernized character appearances and the ability to create wee people and near-giants with new body types.

As far as classes and balancing goes, NCSoft has added one new spirit for each of the two playable factions in Aion that the Spiritmaster can summon (Spiritmasters can summon up to four spirits). There're also new class specific quests at levels 30 and 50 and a new tier of rarity to items (called "Eternal"). The armor sets have been tweaked, too, allowing for bonuses when you're wearing a complete set and for an ultimate badass look when you match really good armor with some of the incredibly detailed new wings they've added.

The developer showed me a trailer for aion version 1.5 while telling me all I've told you above. In it, I saw dramatic dragons, cat people and somebody being shot out of a canon. But what really impressed me was what I saw when they actually loaded up the game and played through a couple of areas to show off.

First of all, most of the quest text was voiced and it sounded good instead of stilted. Second, the quest text wasn't a line-for-line brick that matched the voice over (NCSoft thinks of quest text as "notes" rather than "the script.") The third thing I noticed was the new tutorial system – it features short videos with pleasing voiceovers that instruct noobs on exactly what they're supposed to do for everything from accessing the inventory to interpreting the map. It was very pleasing to the eye and welcoming for newcomers (and of course completely skippable for the more experienced).

After the show-and-tell period ended, I got to ask Producer Brian Knox a few questions. It was a special moment because I had just worked out in my head that my anniversary with Kotaku was coming up – and it was sort of an anniversary for Aion as well.

Knox said that what he's learned in the year since I saw him last is that developers should never compromise. If they're going to do something, they want to do it right – that's the strategy he wants NCSoft to maintain in its western branch. That's why his team spent so much time and effort on the localization so they wound up with a good story instead one riddled with translation flukes like "Immolate Ejaculation."

Knox also stressed just how much Aion relies on its community for support. The game is introducing a PowerWiki where more experienced players earn rewards for helping out new players by answering questions in the frequently asked questions section. He said that the developer hopes to use tools like these to let the community know they're being heard and that they can have an impact on the game.

The one thing Knox doesn't want to hear about Aion version 1.5 is the dreaded "G" word. Grind, in his opinion, is something that's monotonous and Aion goes out of its way to never be that. It's tough, he says, because the term "grind" has been blown out of proportion in the last five years of MMO history – and that's a lot of time for his game to fight against. But he's confident that his team has gone through the game enough to respond to criticism like "there's nothing to do at level xx!" and prevent mid-level lulls.

Lastly, Knox left me with the admonishment that Aion is not trying to be a World of Warcraft killer. There's room enough in the world for both it and Aion, he says – and Aion is its own game, not a clone.

Sheesh, I could have told you that after one look at the wings. It's quite different to be your own mount and be able to throw down in player-versus-player while flying.

Aion 1.5 goes live in September. Keep an eye on our Penny Arcade Expo coverage for launch party pics.

Aion patch 1.5 official HD video

Korean Aion players are getting ready for the third major content update in patch 1.5. To hype up the occasion NCsoft released a trailer for the upcoming patch featuring all in game footage of the new instances and battlegrounds. The 1.5 patch is the one the Western players will be starting the game with, so you might want to check out what awaits us all. All of you playing the Closed Beta events are sure to recognize the Dark Poeta, inverted version of the Elyos starting area. This is now a new instance full of Balaur that requires lvl 50 and a quest item to enter. There is also a pirate infested instance called Steelrake Valley for lvl 40+ players, new battleground ( Dreadgion ) and new Abyss instances. You can read the translated patch notes here.

But the star is certainly the new trailer showcasing all of the above. Watch it in HD if at all possible because it really is worth it.

Here.

Tags: Aion, Dark Poeta, Dreadgion, patch, Steelrake Valley, video

Aion OBT Patch 1.5 Details

NCsoft has given a comprehensive list of changes that will take place in the latest aion patch 1.5 for the MMO, Aion, which will feature in the upcoming open beta test.

Players who were on the closed beta test will notice a large addition of content and features in patch 1.5, which is much closer to the version that Aion will launch with later this month. The European and NA client will match the version that players in Korea have, where the game has been live since last year.

The Aion team has apparently done a lot more work on westernisation, and players will notice many changes from the CBT client. The terminology of many skills and items has been overhauled too.

Players are advised that Aion devs will be balancing races on servers during the OBT, so if the population of either race grows too fast when the servers open, players may receive a “This race cannot be created” message. Once the balance has evened out, the message will be removed again.

Anyone who played the CBT will probably not be surprised to learn that one of the most requested features during the testing was to allow the left mouse button to move the camera. This has been implemented, along with many other features including:

New Areas: Theobomos (Elysea) and Brusthonin (Asmodae)
New Instances
Over 40 new default faces have been added to character creation.
Increased PvPvE rewards
UI changes (click-to-move has been disabled by default)
New items
New skills + increased balance
Tons of new quests.
Advanced Stigma Stone System
Chat Channels: Class, Region, Looking For Group, Languages

The full list of patch notes can be found on the official Aion site.

The OBT kicks off on Sunday 6 September at 5pm British Summer Time and runs until 13 September. The game goes on sale on 22 September in NA, 25 September in the UK.

Aion Open Beta Updates

From the hallowed halls of NCWest comes word on the aion open beta, an interesting read.

It's been an interesting week with lots of not-so-pleasant surprises and various explosions throughout the world of Aion, thankfully NCWest have been quick to respond. More below...

Aion Open Beta Updates

The Aion Team extends a huge thank you for the overwhelming response we have received throughout the beginning of our ongoing open beta testing. We've had a few hiccups along the way, but have managed to resolve many of them with your persistent help, reports, and sincere desire for the game to run as it should.

The main topic of discussion over the past few days has been lag, in particular on the North American servers. We believe we have resolved the issue, but we will aggressively work to continue to improve and prevent similar issues. Over the next couple of days, we will do more in-depth troubleshooting to flush out the issue. It is very important to us that the game plays as intended for everyone, and we won't rest before we reach that goal.

The second issue we are addressing is the authentication server, which from a player point of view, is the login process. We are investigating the issues with its behavior during today and this evening to search for errors in our setups and to try a few different ideas we have that will allow us to understand the player reports and improve its behavior. We will let you know ahead of time if this will impact service in anyway.

The next issue is GameGuard. We are aware that a couple of new errors have popped up since our closed beta tests. We are working on a patch that will address a couple of them. Feedback is essential as we troubleshoot these errors, as the data you give us helps us narrow problem factors down and reach solutions quicker. To give you additional information and suggested fixes that might help your GameGuard-related situation before you need to call upon a customer services representative, we have added a GameGuard information page on AionOnline.

The beta forums have been a quieter than normal, in part due to irregularities with our forum authentication script. Certain upgrades that needed to be made for open beta apparently weren't completed in time, preventing both new and old accounts from logging in. The fix is now implemented. If you were able to log in prior to this update, but notice that you are suddenly unable to, make sure to update your Aion account password following these instructions. Your password update may take as long as 30 minutes before it is effective.

The final noteworthy topic relates to beta keys. Many of you have wondered why we have been so restrictive in distributing them. We know many of you have guildmates or friends who would love to give the game a try before making a further commitment. To ensure that we had time to set our servers up properly and get rid of initial connectivity issues, we throttled the key giveaways and so that we could ramp the distribution up slowly but securely. We are now at a stage where we are confident enough to open this final beta phase up to a much broader audience by giving away North American open beta keys to everyone! FilePlanet is hosting this giveaway, and you will not need to be a paying subscriber in order to get your hands on one of the keys. FilePlanet also have a number of European keys to give away, so get them while they last! Many more European websites in different languages will also be offering European keys.

Again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued help in the open beta test. With your help, we will flush out any remaining issues before the upcoming release of Aion!

Aion: Flight 101

Aion: Flight 101
Flight is probably the thing which has drawn most people to Aion. The idea of soaring high above the cloud on a pair of white/black-feathered wings is a universally appealing one. The reality, however, is a little different. Flight in Aion is not something you can do immediately nor indefinitely and the rules for this are not just to be annoying, they are a part of the game's world and lore.

Join us after the jump when we look at everything you need to know about using your wings.


Getting your wings and using them

Only Daeva can fly and every player will become one at level 9. You get your wings but can't use them properly until you leave the starter zones of Poeta and Ishalgan and head to Verteron or Altgard at level 10. To summon your wings just press Page Up. R will make you rise, F is the descend button and Page Down dematerialises your wings. If you fall off something, press Page Up (even if there is only a fraction of flight time left) just before you hit the ground to save yourself from a grisly death.

You can't fly but you can glide

Flying is -- oddly -- banned in Sanctum and Pandaemonium, the Elyos and Asmodian capital cities. However gliding is something you can do wherever you are. Press the spacebar to jump and if you're in the right place your wings will spread and you can glide. It's a great way to outrun rampaging mobs. You can also glide while flying, just press space again and look for the yellow status bar.

When you can use your wings

At the right hand side of the UI, you'll see a small fair of wings surrounded by a circle. This is your flight timer. The wings will illuminate in areas where you can fly but these will often be few and far between. Why, you ask? Well Daeva use Aether to fly and this substance is slowly draining from Atreia. Some areas have more than others, which explains why certain parts of the world allow free flight and others force you to run like the mortal you once were.

Time is of the essence

Because of the Aether shortage, flight time is at a premium. When you start out you get sixty seconds but as you level up, you also have the chance to pay for better wings. Now these don't just look awesome – and cost a bomb – they also had an added bonus of extending how long you can stay up in the air. We mentioned they cost a fortune though right? The wings can be purchased from special vendors in the capital cities if you're interested in a little window shopping though.

Aerial combat is the key

Once you learn to fly, a whole new world opens up. Literally. Your wings also work in combat (in certain areas). If you're low on health or mana, this can be a life-saver. All you need to do is fly up to flee combat or you can hover just out of range of melee attacks and throw all you've got at whatever you happen to be fighting.

Aion: Transportation 101

Aion: Transportation 101
Transportation is important to any MMO, especially one like Aion which doesn't include the option of a mount. Yes, there are no cats, no horses or flying creatures to ride. It's just you, your feet, your wings and a little magic. Now the starter zones might look small but the main areas are ten times the size which can take a good half an hour to cross, not including time spent dying. Today we're going to have a look at transportation and what you need to know to navigate around. Elysea and Asmodae so join us after the jump to find out the secrets of travel in Aion.
On the wings of a bird

As a mere mortal, your transport is somewhat limited. You can walk, you can run and you can hitch a ride on a bird transporter. It costs Kinah but if you're in a new area, there's normally one or two flight points pre-entered allowing you to get to a new area without dying. It's also a nice quick way of getting from A to B using the scenic route, an epic fly-over of the landscape that will take your breath away. However, this can also highlight potential quest hubs and give you an idea of the terrain you'll be facing.

Bind points and Return

As we've already told you, Soul Binding is very important within the mechanics of the game. However it has another perk as it also allows you to use the "Return" spell every 20 minutes. Much like a teleportation spell or a hearthstone, this little spell will portal you back to wherever you've bound your soul in a matter of seconds. Just make sure you're not in combat when you try to do this and use it wisely. The only problem with this is that settlements are often quite far away from quest areas. This means you will always end up doing some running hither and thither. That said, it's a handy way of saving time and Kinah when you need to hand in a load of quests.

Map reading for beginners

Aion comes with two kinda of map. Press M and the screen will be taken up by a parchment-covered map but press N and you will get a transparent map laid over the screen which will allow you to travel without getting lost. You can also mark a species of mob, NPC or location on the map as well as find out a little about it using the in-built encyclopedia. The map system is such that it's nearly impossible to get lost and if you do, just find a road and follow it.

Gliding

Post-ascension, gliding can come in handy when you need to get somewhere and have a long run ahead of you. You can't do it forever but it can make a five minute run pass a bit quicker as well as avoiding random mobs. To glide, just press the space bar. Don't press forward as well and if you're high enough, your wings will appear and air currents will buffet you in the direction you're heading. Indeed it's possible to go quite fast and quite high.

Teleportation for beginners

When you ascend, you will be able to use a portal to teleport between landmasses, cities and settlements. It's something only Daeva can use (apparently the Aether would rip a fragile human to pieces) and is the only way to get to Sanctum or Pandaemonium. Teleporters are staffed by NPCs who will tell you where you can go and give you a quote. Yes, it costs Kinah (as does everything in Aion) but is the only way to get from one island to another.

Aion: Five things you need to know about surviving in Atreia

With NCsoft's release of Aion coming up on the 22nd and 25th September in North America and Europe, we thought we had better give you the basics on the land of Atreia ahead of the open beta which begins today. So, we're going to give you all the info you need to dive into their beautifully detailed world. After the jump, we're going to look at the five things you need to know if you've never played Aion before.

Money

The currency of Atreia is Kinah and you use it for everything from teleportation to getting your soul healed. Kinah is awarded for quests and also drops from mobs (though the reason why continues to elude many of us). Aion comes with quite a gold sink though, with teleportation from Sanctum or Pandemonium costing on average between 800-1400 Kinah, depending on where you want to go. Fortunately the average mob drop is around 200-400 Kinah, depending on levels. Our advice is simply this: Save, save, save and save some more.

Soul Binding and Soul Healing

Everyone has a soul, your avatar included. Souls can be bound to special Obelisks which serve both as a bind and resurrection point within the game. These magnificent statues will have an NPC called a Soul Healer next to them who will be able to offer Soul Healing, post level six, that will restore lost XP after you die. The catch is you can only bind to one Obelisk at a time (it also costs money) and Soul Healing gets more expensive each time you use it. So make sure you bind at the town nearest to where you are questing and try not to die!

Legions

Legions are basically guilds but with a levelling aspect. You can pay money to level the Legion up and get benefits like a snazzy cloak and logo. They also come with banks – called warehouses – where you can stash loot and, of course, there are the other perks of playing with people, instant groups and social fun. Join one if you can!

Making money

Since Kinah is all important, you'll want to make as much of it as you can. So start gathering herbs at level one and sell whatever trash or drops you don't need. You can also set up your own store if you want and advertise money. By the time you Ascend, you should have around 10,000 Kinah saved up. You should spend some of this on expanding your Cube though as it makes questing much easier and means you can carry more.

Surviving in Atreia

Always pack the following essentials: potions to restore mana and health, buff food and Manastones (which increase your stats). Don't forget to change your title depending on your class and spec. Also bind often or you'll face a long run and use potions and bandages during and after a fight. The less you die, the cheaper it will be in the long run.

10 reasons to enjoy AION in September!

AION is coming and many of us have tried it, what's your impression of AION? NCsoft spent 4 years and 18 million dollars on developing AION. And we do see the wonderful graphics and much creative contents in AION. I think there are 10 reasons to enjoy AION in the coming September:

1, Full-scale production. The developers refered to more than 500 mythological books of east and west to creat the world of AION. So you're traveling in a legendary world when flowing in this game. The music in AION is produced by the group which composed music of Lord of Ring.

2, The nice graphics and the wonderful view. Almost in every scene you can enjoy the wonderful view, the mythological architecture and the natural beauty are pleasing to me.

Aion also uses the best weather system I have seen . It makes extensive use of lighting effects; the rain hits the ground, the clouds change, there are fog effects, you can hear the thunder and lightning is applied to the environment objects on thunder strikes, etc...

3, PvPvE System
The end game of Aion will revolve around battles within the Abyss (PvP Zone). Within the Abyss are castles where large scale battles will take place. The game currently does not allow factions to fight within their own. Guilds in control of a castle are entitled to funding from taxes and players within the faction get specials from NPCs.

The participation in PvP is rewarded with PvP "Points". The game ranks you as you win battles against fellow players. At certain ranks your wings will change in appearance to show your status. Also certain items can be purchased with these points like high end armors and weapons.

4, Flying! You may fly from level 9, and fight in the air. If your charater jumps from the Sactum, don't worry, just spread your wings.

5, The diversified crafting system.
In Aion, there are six crafting skills including weapon smith, armor smith, alchemy, cooking, sewing, handiwork.

Yeah, you may design dazzling clothes, armors and badges in your interest!

6, Easy to earn kinah
It's a pay to play game, so leveling or fighting is relatively fair(). Easy to collect weapons and sell them for Kinah. My package is always full of potion, food, weapon and remainder of the monster.

7, Powerful social animation system
Dance! Yeah, you may dance as a famous star in AION. Expressing your emotion such as laugh, sleep, wave, anger...by powerful social animation system is so easy. Your character will catch a fish when standing in the lake, take a lotus leaf as umbrella when it's raining...

8, Wonderful places for dating

9, Suprises!
Suprises are almost everywhere when you're hanging around in AION. You may be changed into little corn or parrot to fullfill the quest. Suddenly you can see the fabulous pterosaur flies gracefully over the sky...

10, More to be explored by you!^^

North American Aion servers to be located on east coast

One of our keen-eyed readers tipped us off as to a forum post by Ayase, aka Sebastian Streiffert, Aion's community manager, which confirmed an original email stating that Aion North American servers will be located on the east coast. Forum-goers whipped themselves up into a frenzy quite quickly over this news, especially those residing in the Oceanic region.

Gamers from Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore are often faced with crippling latency issues when playing on servers located stateside. This is usually mitigated by having some west coast servers or actual dedicated Oceanic servers. Since Aion has such a focus on PvP(vE) where lightning fast reflexes and speedy server responsiveness matter especially, you can kind of understand their concerns. Ayase's response after the cut confirms this news and tries to assuage their fears.

Ayase's response:

"It is correct that our North American servers are located on the US east coast, and the game servers for many of our other games have been for a long time as well. If any Oceanic players present here have participated in our closed beta stages, I do however think that most of you will be able to vouch for that this added distance does not constitute a major problem when it comes to latency.

Our servers are well-optimized and Aion is in its very core designed to tackle challenging client-server distances. Aion might not be launching with explicitly designated Oceanic Aion servers from day one, but we will carefully monitor the situation and if we see a large number of players experiencing issues as a result from their distance to our game servers we'll make sure to take action; to do our best to prevent any such issues from continuing."

Aion comic book

NCsoft and DC Comics have teamed up to create a limited edition comic based on Aion which focuses on the Asmodian Daeva Aiva. She might look familiar as her image is used to advertise the game and a statue of her will also be found in the Collector's Edition when Aion is released later this month.

"Aiva's Story" is the work of artist Neil Googe and writers David Noonan and Ricardo Sanchez. Aiva's life is torn apart when her family is killed by an Elyos raiding party. Embittered, she endures a harsh life as a mercenary, fighting Karnifs and the Mau. She brings with her a festering hatred for the white-winged Elyos, eventually ascending to Daevahood and is posted to the Abyss. The comic book will be available (albeit in limited quantities) at the Aion booth at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle but fans will also be able to get their hands on a copy by purchasing the game at GameStop in the US and Electronic Boutique stores in Canada..

Will you be playing Aion open beta this weekend?

With Aion's open beta set to launch this weekend (September 6-13), we're curious: Do you plan on giving it a shot? The game has gone through several closed beta phases dating back to early June. All closed beta phases leading up until the very last one were using an older version of the game client (1.1). They've recently upgraded to 1.5, so we highly suggest giving it a try before making any final judgments based on early testing experiences. We also hear the open beta version will be the version Aion launches with in North America and Europe. Be sure to read up on Shadow of the Balaur.

Aion Open beta characters will be capped at level 30, which is high enough to test a good mix of what the game has to offer including Rifts and the Abyss. Rifts are portals that will take you into your enemy's PvE lands and the Abyss is a giant PvPvE zone where the game's three factions battle for supremacy. I'm personally going to play a bit next week as an Elyos Gladiator named Snafzg on the NA servers, so make sure to say "Hi!" if you see me putzing around. Settling on a class has been challenging thus far.

Aion Abyss rankings show assassins like it on top (Korean)

Aion Abyss rankings show assassins like it on top (Korean)

We stumbled upon this interesting Aion chart that shows off the current Abyss rankings on the top five Korean servers. There are a few things you should know before drawing any absolute conclusions. First, the list only ranks players by their total Abyss Points (AP) and doesn't factor in many of the variables associated with AP gain (e.g., solo, group, PvE, PvP, exploit, etc.). Also, it doesn't necessarily reflect class imbalance issues (power or population), but we're sure that's the conclusion most people will jump to.

After tallying up the class numbers, you can see that Assassins seem to be dominating the Abyss rankings, while Spiritmasters are at the bottom. Of the top 100, 48 are Assassins and 2 are Spiritmasters. With three classes tied for second and a few others not far behind, at least that seems quite balanced in terms of class spread. Exploitation is also mentioned in this thread and there appears to be one blatant case of it in the rankings (i.e., the level 30 Ranger with the top rank for his server). PvP games inevitably result in lists like this and it will be interesting to see how things pan out on the North American servers when Aion launches later this month.