The Aion Experience

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After much procrastinating, I did it. I cancelled Aion. Not through any particular fault of the games. More a combination of a lot of factors.

-> Our lag. Until we move house, which we are currently working on, we will always have incredibly bad lag. Being in Australia our lag is bad enough, but this is unplayable lag. Especially for a game based around PvP.

->My friends have all left me. Including hubby. Being completely alone in the game after having them to chat to is making it really hard to log in.

->Dragon Age. And for that matter, Torchlight and even to a very slight degree… The Sims 3. But mostly Dragon Age. Single player games are really grabbing me what with their ability to stop when ever you need, no requirements to have friends playing, and in the case of Dragon Age, the in-depth story line. And Alistair. Who can stay away from that handsome man?

->Summer. It’s coming. It’s already here some days. This means weekends down the beach, not sitting inside hiding from the cold on our computers. Summer always means less game time.

->Work. I’ve been working on a project for months now, and it’s all about to go live. Complete with support forum requirements plus more, my time is going to diminish dramatically once that’s going.

As you can see, it’s not anything wrong with the game as much as it’s just a bunch of other things. The game hasn’t grabbed me, not enough to make me choose it over another, nor is it that “omg is the end of the day I want to play” draw that WoW or EQ had over me. Like DAoC, Eve Online, and the few other MMORPG’s I have tried outside of the two major ones, it was a great little time waster that I enjoyed while I played it. Unfortunately for Aion, once the ‘newness’ of the game wore off, there wasn’t enough to keep me going.

My subscription runs until the 22nd of January, which still gives me two months. That’s how much hope I had for this game, I purchased a 3 month subscription right from the get go. I don’t think I ever did that with WoW…

Will I play it before that runs out? I’m not sure. I can’t see myself playing it any time soon, not with the hustle and bustle that is Christmas fast approaching. I’ve got no idea what I’ll do with my characters, probably just leave them there to rot, poor things. I know there’s at least two fellow Nezekan bloggers out there, so maybe I’ll track them down and give them my measly amount of Kinah lol.

For now, I’ll continue playing Dragon Age, The Sims and occasionally Torchlight. I’m obviously not going to be worrying too much about this blog any more as it is only about Aion. I’m going to miss my devoted readers terribly, but urge you to update your bookmarks to http://ozgirlgamer.com which is my ‘general’ blog about anything and everything… mostly gaming, but occasionally other random drivel that’s usually entertaining. I really should have started this one as a generic blog, I don’t learn my lessons first time around (I also have a sims only blog lol). I LOVE the comments from everyone, love hearing what you’re all up to and really do hope you’ll follow my ramblings over at OGG.

And of course, I’m always on Twitter and up for a chat any time!

I wish everyone still playing Aion a prosperous future with much Kinah and Elyos killing! As I said, absolutely nothing wrong with the game for me, just a case off too many other things going on, plus not enough grab to keep me going.

P.S. This blog won’t be going anywhere for the time being, so all content, guides and did you know posts will remain in tact.

Greetings,

A lot has happened since I last addressed our community. We’ve launched our long awaited product Aion and have been pleased and challenged with keeping up with the massive player demand.

There’s no doubt that we’ve done some things very well with Aion: the product is polished and incredibly fun. We managed to deploy to North America and Europe within the same week and have experienced strong demand. As most of you are aware, this has come at a cost in the form of queue times. This is by far our biggest challenge and has led to some frustration as players wait to enter their server of choice.

In preparation for Aion’s launch, we ran calculations of our presale numbers with historical conversion ratios and expected concurrency numbers, which led to our determination of launch day server needs. In addition, we had a 25 percent additional capacity in hardware reserve and the ability to increase server population. We’ve further responded to the overwhelming demand by adding additional server worlds in all languages, and still we are working around the clock to address the incredible demand. For example, we’re seeing timeframes where 60 percent or more of our players are playing at any given time. This is a significant event by any MMO standard. Another surprising development is how long players are staying in game—I think that’s a testament to the enjoyable nature of the product.

I’m sure many of you are thinking, “That’s all fine-but how does that help me get in and play the game? What is NCsoft doing for me?” Fair question. First… Read more »

The Aion customer support hot topics page has been udpated as of October 2nd and currently looks like the following…

Queue Times and Waiting to Play

The popularity of specific servers has caused queues to be necessary. These queues are based on the given server load. The wait times for our more populated servers will be longer than the wait time for less populated servers. You can use the tracking tools on the Aion website to determine which servers are most populated and which ones will have the longest or shortest wait times in the login queue. Login queues will shorten (and disappear) over the next several days as players spread out across our currently available servers. We are also working on several ways to alleviate the wait time in the queues.

Faction Balance

We will only be allowing players to create characters of one faction on each server. For example, if you create an Elyos character on Siel,you will only be able to create Elyos characters on that server. Because of this, we will be closely monitoring the faction balance on each server during launch and after. If we see a particular server is starting to become unbalanced in favor of one faction, we will temporarily disable character creation of that particular faction on the server. Please be aware this temporary character creation block could change every few hours. If you find you are unable to create a character of your preferred faction choice, please wait a while and try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience this maycause, but we feel this is a necessary step to maintain a well balanced server.

Read more »

Aion will during the next maintenance period receive a new update addressing a couple of common game and localization issues. We are right now focusing on getting rid of critical game bugs and polishing our French and German versions of the game. Keep reporting issues and bugs as you encounter them through the appropriate channels, and we will track them down and squash them as quickly as possible.

Patch Notes: 1.5.0.8

• Dredgion Instance Maps now show in correct languages
• Item comparison tooltip has been rearranged
• Gender Tags for title will now show up appropriately in FR and DE
• Fix to Auction House where some users were not credited correctly for crafted items

FR Language Update:

• Fixed Abyss Maps
• Fixed LC1 map
• Various terminology changes
• Corrected various punctuation and spelling errors in dialog and quests
• NPC Audio fixes
• UI fixes for FR language
• Bug fixes/grammatical edits for Item descriptions
• Various translation corrections in dialogs and quests
• Various cutscene text/audio issues have been fixed

DE Language Update:

• Fixed Abyss Maps
• Fixed Sanctum map
• Made various map name changes in Altgard and Morheim
• Various terminology changes
• Corrected various punctuation and spelling errors in dialog and quests
• NPC Audio fixes
• Various Skill books have been edited for grammar and consistency
• Various cutscene text/audio issues have been fixed
• UI fixes for DE language
• Bug fixes/grammatical edits for Item descriptions
• Various translation corrections in dialogs and quests

There’s a lot of info coming out about the 1.6 Patch coming up soon – although ironically, no date information about when it’s coming. I’ve gathered some info from all over and will update this post with anything else I find.

There’s some really cool stuff in there, like the CAPTCHA image to stop botters farming, the ability to change the order of your skill combos, and the best part: You can no longer run out of range of player spells after they’ve started casting. I haven’t started any ral PvP yet, but that has to be a pretty big deal for those who are already up there!

Items

1. There’s now a low chance of getting metal poisoning every time a player attempts to collect ore; metal poisoning can be cured by using ‘Chant of Purification’

Chant of Purification can be used by entering the prompted combination of numbers and letters (CAPTCHA) you will be given a total of 3 chances to enter the combination correctly if a player fails all three attempts, the character won’t be able to collect any more ore for an extended period of time.

2. In order to prevent any more accidents with item extraction tool, NCSoft has made several changes. Item extraction tool’s icon has been changed. Using the automatically align function in the inventory will move the extraction to the first cell the progress bar of extraction tool will now be shown as red, equipped items cannot be extracted.

UI

1. In Aion have added a new information tab that displays the remaining waiting time for all of the instances. The new tab will display both you and your party members waiting time for all instances.

2. Added a number pad for any Kina input box there can be used to enter numbers by clicking the color will change depending on the amount.

3. Have made the following changes to the auctioneer. NCSoft has added ‘includes words’ option to the search tab along with ‘exact match’ items can now be added to your auctions just by right clicking on the item with auction window open.

4. You can now choose to automatically align items in the inventory. Players can also change names of each cube.

5. Aion now has a preview option for color sprays and hair dyes.

6. A new preview option for hats.

Skills

1. You can now change default order of combo skills in the combo skills tab. You can make those changes by simply drag + dropping the skills.

2. You can no longer run out of range of player spells after they’ve started casting.

Aion Quests

1. NCSoft has increased quest item drop rates for Stigma quests.

2. Additional special descriptions for quests with special rewards, such as more cube space, abyss points, or titles.

3. Significantly increased the HP of NPCs associated with Daevanion quests. Some of these NPCs will not respond to enemy faction players nor can the players attack these NPCs.

Aion Instances

1. NCSoft has made significant changes to stats of every monsters in Dark Poeta instance.
- These monsters are now more vulnerable to spell damage.
- These monsters are now more resistant to physical damage.
- All monsters excluding the bosses now have lower hp.

2. Nerfed the damage of several skills the Dark Poeta S rank boss Tahabeta casts.

3. Lowered the difficulty of Steel Mane instance.

4. Increased the drop rate of stigma fragments in Steel Mane instnace.

5. Added an elevator to the Steel Mane instance.

6. Added NPC guards to Dreadgion instance exits.

7. Changed the stats of monsters in abyss fortress instance. They will have lower hp but more resistant to physical damage

Aion Characters

1. Lowered the effectiveness of elemental resistance.

2. Attacking will no longer interrupt auto run

3. Lowered the amount of stigma shards required to equip stigmas.

4. Increased the daily AP limit for characters higher than 1star lieutenant rank.

5. Summons (Pets) can fly!

We are bringing the servers down at 6:00AM PST (more), September 25th, for maintenance. The purpose of this downtime is to tweak the way Private Stores work. A timer of 30 minutes will be implemented to prevent these shops from being abused as a means to prevent disconnection and alleviate queues.

The maintenance is expected to run no longer than 1 hour.

Thank you for your patience!

That’s the official word posted here. Huzzah for their quick response addressing the issue!

Aion’s will get “at least” one major annual content update going forward, NCsoft has confirmed to VG247.

“There will be at least one major update a year,” said brand manager Christian-Peter Heimbach, talking in an interview published today.

“You know this from our previous titles. We’re currently adjusting on how we’re going to make these available, but there will be free content updates for all players, and we’re looking then at how big the major updates will be.”

The MMO, which has collected a giant 400,000 pre-orders, is now live in the US and will go live on Friday in Europe.

NCsoft has long adhered to a system of providing its MMOs with yearly content updates.

Source: VG247

Aion Producer Brian Knox speaks out on the issues of long queues to get in the game during “head start” and now the official launch of Aion. According to Knox the average wait time in the queues has been about 3 hours on the popular servers, and NCsoft’s suggestion is to go to the low pop / recommended servers.

Why were queue times necessary at all. As this event was for pre-order customers only, why wasn’t it easy to predict exactly how many servers would be necessary to make sure that players weren’t waiting in line?

Brian Knox: There are numbers and stats that help us predict servers. We know what our average percentage of users is per active accounts at a peak time based off our beta events and our other products. We know how many users our servers can handle at capacity, and we know how many users makes for an ideal game play experience in Aion. Most importantly we know that there will never be a time when every single Aion customer wants to log in and play all at once than when we first turn on the servers. All of these go into picking the correct server count and the right time to spin up new servers.

We had to keep max server capacity low at first because everyone was crammed at the starting area. Had we opened it up to everyone, no one could have progressed. As the day went on, we opened up the servers more and more. We want to ensure that our servers are healthy during Head Start, but also once a retail code is applied. These next few days we will be calculating data and weighing the ideal time to open more servers. I think that the community will understand that in a game with PvPvE how important a healthy populated server is and that we do not want to go down the low pop server path…

Source: VE3D

Aion also posted an official statement regarding Server Queues and Course of Action:

At NCsoft our commitment is to making the MMO player experience the best it can be. And while Aion has seen a very successful launch that has exceeded our expectations in many ways, we are aware of the longer than usual queue times that players have experienced on some of the servers. This is due to the initial rush of players that we’ve seen in the early days of the game’s launch in Europe and North America.

Since the opening of Head Start this past weekend, we’ve have been heavily focused on striking the delicate balance between managing busy servers with queue times versus overcompensating by adding new servers too quickly that are then underpopulated and don’t deliver a fun experience for players. We did indeed see an initial rush on the first days of Head Start which resulted in longer than desired queue times for some of our servers, and we are working around the clock to alleviate this. In fact, we are happy to confirm we have increased our server caps and are adding an additional server in both North America and Europe by this weekend, and we will continue to evaluate adding additional servers.

That said, we do have alternate servers where players are experiencing lower queue times. People can get a real-time update and select that choice on our website at: http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/

We continue to monitor issues closely and strive to address player feedback quickly to ensure the best possible experience.

Source: Aion Online

@israphel on Twitter told me today that they had to wait in a nine hour queue! That’s insane!!

That’s the claim being made by GDN apparently.

AION Online Drops the Ball on Launch – Massive Queues to Play

NCsoft has dropped the ball on their launch of AION Online? It sure seems like it. Reports are coming in that there are queues of 2,500 people and more as well as three hour waits just to get into the game. It seems that their 18 server strategy will never be able to hold up to the 400,000 plus pre-order gamers that are already trying to get into the game. 18 X 2,000 (player caps on servers) = 36,000 = less than 10% of gamers will be able to play at once. Not a very smart strategy if you ask me.

This just seems to be a case of poor planning on the part of Ncsoft. When pre-orders began to soar they should have thought about opening new servers for the launch. To only be able to hold less than 10% of the games sold just seems ridiculous.

GDN has contacted NCSoft about the issue and is awaiting reply.

Of course, we can only assume that they know NCsoft only has 18 servers for Aion players. And even if that is the case, I can’t imagine setting up 18 servers would be that cheap – so imagine setting up the required 200 servers needed if you use the maths of 400,000 ple-orders divided by 2,000 server caps.

That said, I have to feel sorry for people like who ever took the following image. 7 hour wait? Ouch!

It’s no surprise with the official realease date of Aion just a few days away that the news is flowing thick and strong. Xaen updated the Aion website with some updates about the Aion Launch Version!

Aion now features all three languages French, German and English. To select your language simply right click on Aion within your launcher and go to Properties->Language Options. Please select which languages you wish to download and which you wish Aion to display.

After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we’re focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.

The level cap is now level 50 (previously 45).

Players will be able to reserve 2 character names during Preselection and create 8 characters in total once Head Start begins and beyond.

Channels will be set to 10 instances for the beginning 2 zones of each faction. Please note that these will be lowered as characters progress and spread throughout Atreia.

After reading how much trouble the GameGuard was for some players, I’m very happy to hear that it won’t be featured at the launch. In fact, Sideshow shared his frustrations a little while ago and mentioned how he had to wrestle for hours just to get in!! It turned out to be his Comodo Firewall software butting heads with GameGuard. I agree with his point that if your anti-cheat, anti-hack program requires people to remove real security software to work, than you’re not doing it right.

In keeping with the launch news, it’s time to gear up with Preorder and Collector’s Edition Items if either of those categories apply to you. The benefits are many to be had if you have preordered Aion or are the owner of a rare and much coveted Limited Collector’s Edition. Notable among these is an array of in-game items you can give to your characters.

To assign them to your characters, please follow these instructions.

NOTE: You will need to follow these steps for each new character you create in order for it to receive the items. You will not be able to do this right now, but the feature will be enabled shortly.

1. Log into NCsoft Account Management.
2. Click the Game Accounts link.
3. Choose your Aion game account listed on the Game Accounts page.
4. Click the Apply In-Game Items link in the Actions section.
5. Select the server your preferred character is on and click the Next button.
6. Select the character you wish to receive the items and click the Next button.
7. You will then see a list of all the items or item packs that may be applied to that character. Click the checkbox next to the item pack(s) you wish to apply to that character and then click the Next button.
8. Review the confirmation page and then click the Apply the Items/Item Packs to this Character button.

You will then get a message saying that the items/item packs were successfully given to that character. You should have these items when you log into the game – simply pay a visit to your in-game mail box.

Press Release — September 17, 2009

With Record-Breaking Preorder Sales, Aion Takes its Place as the Biggest MMO Release of the Year!

Momentum building for game’s launch next week as preorders near 400,000, making Aion one of the must-have games of 2009

It’s official – Aion is the biggest MMO launch of the year and is one of the must-have games this holiday season. NCsoft today revealed the latest preorder figures for its newest massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, Aion, which is nearing 400,000 preorders and outpacing other major MMO launches this year.

Already topping preorder sales charts, securing accolades from major media outlets, garnering event awards, including gamescom 2009’s “Best Online Game” and PAX’s “Best MMO” by Inside Gaming, and receiving rave reviews from players in the game’s beta testing, Aion has steadily built its reputation as the biggest MMO release in recent years. And unlike many Eastern MMO imports, Aion has been uniquely designed to appeal to Western audiences. Along with a completely rewritten storyline spanning more than two-million words, players will experience enhanced character customization with a host of Western styles, new zones, instances, skills, quests and continued game balancing.

As a bonus to the nearly 400,000 players who have preordered their copy of Aion, they will be treated to server Pre-Selection (beginning tomorrow September 18) and a two-day Headstart period (beginning September 20) allowing them to get a jump start on their exploration and progression prior to the official launch on September 22. Players can still participate in Aion’s Pre-Selection and Headstart programs by preordering the game through several participating online and brick-and-mortar retailers, including the NCsoft Store, Amazon, Best Buy, EB Games Canada, Fry’s Electronics, GameStop, Steam and Target.

Unlike any MMO before it, Aion is a uniquely crafted online experience where flight offers much more than just a way to explore the landscape – it is a strategic and integral part of combat, quests, and exploration. Players will dive into battle and plunge through thousands of unique, story-driven quests, all while trying to save a world literally shattered in half from centuries of brutal conflict. Using one of the most flexible and in-depth character customization systems ever featured in an MMO, players will be able to create genuinely distinct characters and explore a visually stunning world of ethereal beauty brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets.

Source: Official Press Release

On a lighter note, the fourth installment of “Tales of Aion” is live and ready for you to read.

Michael Lafferty at GameZone.com spins the riveting story of “Tales of Aion”. The fictional chronicle is the continuing story of the Elyos Esala’ayni and the Asmodian Korasai. This most recent installment, the fourth in the five-part narrative, features Korasai. Now far away from his home of Pandaemonium, the Spiritmaster Korasai and his allies must face a threat in the damp, thick air of Mahindel Swamp. Read the fourth installment now, and catch up on the first three installments, all on GameZone.com. We’ve provided links to all are four parts below.

• “Tales of Aion,” Part 1
• “Tales of Aion,” Part 2
• “Tales of Aion,” Part 3
• “Tales of Aion,” Part 4

And last, but certainly not least, Aiononline.com is Suiting Up New Player-Focused Web Features!

The release of Aion marks the beginning of a long anticipated story–your own. We are introducing a wide array of new functions in our website to provide more player-focused information for Aion.

Have you ever been dying to show off some of your character’s new equipment to a friend quickly and easily? We have gone to great lengths to make this as easy as it should be. Aiononline.com will soon be updated with a quick character search function and detailed character pages that will allow you and others to view your characters with all their accoutrements directly in a browser. You will also be able to view server statistics and Abyss Rankings in order to follow your own and your friends’ progress through the game–or to find out what numbers you need to beat to reach the top!

Aion’s official forums will let you socialize with fellow gamers. They will supplement the forums of our fansites to make an excellent medium through which you can get to know other players from the servers you play on.

We will also continue to update and improve the PowerWiki, which will go through numerous changes as we transition to the new website. Its layout will be updated, a lot of new content will be added, and the search function will be improved beyond the previous one.

Aiononline.com is suiting up – and you’re invited.

This is actually going to work in my favour I think. Last night, when I couldn’t sleep as the excitement of thinking about creating my characters refused to evacuate my thoughts, I was also thinking about this blog. As it’s just getting on it’s feet, the sky is the limit and I can do anything with it at this stage.

Much like I did on my Sims Blog with the family profile pages (still in progress), I was thinking about creating character pages to show off my current achievements, level, skills and abilities. Instead of the family photos like with The Sims, I would screenshot any major armour upgrades and keep a memory log of all the looks my characters went through.

Of course, depending on how the Aion character pages work out, it might save me some time and effort and I’ll just link to those instead. That way we won’t have to worry about my faulty memory having to update them when things change too lol. So yes, I’m excited about that feature personally.

Ironically, I had a fleeting thought about creating a Ranger site much like my beloved Warlocks Den that is now in other hands. I spent a very enjoyable five years building that community up, and often I would think that I should have created a Hunter site instead (as I played a Hunter more than a Warlock towards the end…)

But that thought was very fleeting and is now an annoying lingering idea that needs to go away lol.