AION - New NCSoft Title

[Kolle]

hard to imagine playing in a cafe like that after so many years of owning one in the privacy of my home

anyone know why they can't afford to own a computer and home net access?

[Draegan]

I believe it's a social thing. Like going out for happy hour down at your local pub.

[Grave]

If such a thing was more prevalent in the States I would probably go there occasionally. It'd be alot more fun to shoot the shit with another player while doing something boring like farming, and going with some buds would be easier than trying to group up at someones house with all your PCs. Obviously I wouldn't want that to my only option for playing though.

[Draegan]

My brother in law used to live in Williamsport PA. I visited one weekend and at the time he was only 20 so there was no hanging out at the bars so he took me to a "cyber cafe". Never been to one before and it was a pretty cool place. Couple big screens with 360's attached to em. Largely though, there were about 6-8 clusters of high end PCs all on a network to play a large assortment of FPS's and of course WOW.

I saw a large assortment of neckbeards, mouth breathers, emo fags, and goth homos playing the game. I'm a pretty normal looking dude and I did nothing but chuckle at this. I prefer to associate with these people through the internet, not by bodily odor association in a large dark room.

[Teljair]

We had a "cyber cafe/lan center" open up about 30 miles from me last year. It was really cool, but they had to close up 4 months later.

[Clug]

Any word on an open beta on this anytime soon?

[Draegan]

2nd Stage Beta is going up in Korean at the end of the month I think, so nothing new until then.

If you want to actively look for updates check out, www.aionsource.com and their forums.

[Vatoreus]

When I was in the military in Monterey, CA I used to go down the the cafe all the time. It was called Tweak'd and it was mostly for the social interaction. We'd all get on there and play WoW or CS or WCIII or whatever else and just fuck around on LAN or in internet games. It really is a fun atmosphere, especially if you get to know the guys who work there and they are cool. The guys generally kept the place open WELL past closing and just let everyone play for free. You could open running tabs for snacks and shit too, was good times. I actually really miss that place, had some of my best times gaming there. Second best times were when I'd go to a buddy's place off-base and there'd be a huge house full playing computer and poker off and on.

[Hatorade]

wrong thread^^?

[Korioni]

Originally Posted by Hatorade

wrong thread^^?

Just part of a former sort of derail about Internet cafe's.

[Itzena]

Nicked from elsewhere, teh prettiez:
"Aion: Tower of Eternity" - Media Blowout 2008 - The next step... - NeoGAF
Aion - Ultimate Media Blowout Thread (Warning: Picture blowout) - NeoGAF

Some of those look like prog rock album covers.

[DMyst]

Originally Posted by Itzena

Nicked from elsewhere, teh prettiez:
"Aion: Tower of Eternity" - Media Blowout 2008 - The next step... - NeoGAF
Aion - Ultimate Media Blowout Thread (Warning: Picture blowout) - NeoGAF

Some of those look like prog rock album covers.

Wow the game looks amazing. I really dig the art style.

[Hatorade]

Awesome info thanks....still no real hope of this game being any good...but it certainly looks like fun.

[Draegan]

The fact that it has WASD movement give me hope that a korean port could actually be good.

Depends on the level grindage.

Here's a quote from the link, it's linewrapped so it's readable, atleast to me.

* PVP is possible in ALL areas, not just the abyss. Abyss is just in the middle though so it'll be most common. You bet we'll be rushing their zones and raping their lowbies as often as possible, as using flight you can get to the enemy's side. Griefing gogo.
* Air combat is confirmed to be very fast paced; it'll be WASD movement and mouse look only, much like a FPS. Normal movement can be click or WASD, whichever you like.
* There WILL be player housing, if not by release than implemented shortly after. Clan housing will also be available; and you will be able to pick where it's at too, and decorate it.
* Guild Emblems won't show up like L2; instead they show up on your guild's flags and can be used as decoration for armor and weapondry.
* If you "farm" a monster too long, it will evolve and become stronger. Antibot <3.
* The weapon enchant system is apparently very similar to the materia system of FF7. That should be... Totally amazing.
* Closed beta cap is 25, open beta is 50, final level cap is unknown.
* The dragon race won't have wings or tails, and the Asmodians (the devils) apparently don't grow wings either, but can still fly. It's unknown as to how right now, I would imagine they either get like semi-seethrough darkness wings or are propelled by magic. Both sides will have the same cooldown and flight length.
* Knowing when to fly, when to knock your opponent out of the sky and when to attack air-to-ground is apparently going to be important for PVP.
* Day and night change just like real life and there's an active weather system. Weather is confirmed to effect the environment AND... Skills? Should be interesting. I would imagine weather effects Flight, too, but that's just my speculation.
* Aion will NOT be focused on dungeons and will not require players to run instance dungeons or dungeons in general in order to succeed and get good equipment. (Of course not; you're supposed to chill in the Abyss.)
* There will be an auction house.
* The only time you can fight your own faction is in the arenas or duel mode.
* World will not be seemless, it will be zoned with 2-3 second loadings... This worries me about spawnkilling. Regardless, it's lineage-2 like.
* There are 4 basic classes (Warrior, Scout, Wizard, Cleric) that branch off into 8 classes (Knight, Fighter, Ranger, Assassin, Wizard, Elementalist, Priest, Enchanter.) You can think of these as Elven Knights, Rogues, Dark Wizards, etc. They further branch off into another two classes, for a total of 16 each. It's unknown if each side has different classes, though people are assuming they don't. Check the Classes Thread for more info on actual classes, and it'll probably be a lot more updated.
* One press release fron NCSoft clearly and energetically states that there will be no instances... But another one says that there will be. Good fucking job, NCSoft. We don't know if there will or won't be, as a result.
* There are plenty of floating cities that can only be reached by flying or taking a floating platform/airship. The Angel's "capitol" for example is suspended in the sky.
* Flight time is limited, think of it as a skill. You have a set amount of time you can fly and it has a cooldown. Items will be able to extend these but they don't believe that time will increase with levels. "Learning to use your flight time will be essential in PVP." For long, long distance there's a teleport system like L2. For short range, there's apparently an "auto-pilot" like thing for flight where you choose your destination and you'll go.
* Character customization is pretty damned nice. You can pick from some hairstyles (I would imagine about as many as GUild Wars allows, which is a good variety). You can then choose the color of the hair and skin. There's a sweet system that allows you to shape your face, and you'll also be able to alter eye color and choose your voice. Tattoos are present a well and are available for the face, and possibly other areas. They're also making a height/weight system that you can use to make your character anywhere from skinny to fat.
* Raising your PVP rank changes your wings and makes them sweeter looking, but as of right now they will not get more effective as they change. This fact is one of the reasons that I believe the Asmodians will get "dark energy wings", because uh... To leave that part out of them entirely is kind of rediculous. Then again, maybe you'll grow horns or some shit.
* There's no mounts in Aion. Why do you need them? You have wings. Shut up.
* Party size is 6 and apparently raids will probably be limited to 1 party. That means raiding should take a pretty long time and be a little more intense than "heal him. Spam hate." I'm worried that this will result in "prime parties" where certain classes won't get to raid because people will want an enchanter or a tank instead, but who knows.
* The game's looks are described as "dream-like" and if you haven't seen the movies they resemble Fable, with the exception of humans which look quite a bit more realistic. It's by far the best-looking MMO so far, absolutely no contest. The water effects are awesome and the sky is (as expected) the best looking I've seen in any game.
* Skills can be chained in a combo fashion, depending on the weapon you use. "Length of skill chains cannot be modified." What the fuck does that mean? Preset combos?
* There will be castles a-la L2 and guilds that get them will get special crap from NPCs (like books of giants from L2, lol) and will get tax money. Where have I heard this system before?
* You get PVP points for smoking people and they can be exchanged for high-end armors and weapons.
* The weapon and armor system is fucking neat. Not only can they be dyed like Guld Wars, but if you find a weapon that has a look you like and a weapon later that has higher stats, it's possible to change the new weapon's look to the one you like. This means it's going to be damned hard to judge opponent's strength, I bet, since you can't just be like "drac bow o shi-". It'll be cool to see how this pans out.
* NCSoft expects a flat $15 USD monthly fee, but it's possible it'll change. Release is expected April of 2008, possibly earlier.
* Aion runs on the CryENGINE1, which is the same engine FarCry ran on. It has better graphics and physics than the U3 engine and less system requirements. It's currently the only MMO being developed on CryE1.
* In the abyss, the 3rd faction (the neutral dragons) apparently gank both sides. This is obviously Anti-bot with an excuse, and it's an EXCELLENT idea.
* Aion is planned for 3000-5000 players per server, and there will be euro and asian servers. It's unconfirmed if euro players can get on U.S. servers.
* There's no character collision in Aion. That means no "MOVE FAGGOT WTF" blocking like in L2. In short, you can move through monsters and players.
* You can move while using skills, so combat is quite a bit similar to WoW.
* There's no info yet on if there will be Set Bonuses for armor, as they were in L2 but not Guild Wars. I would imagine there will be, though. There's also no info on if there will be a L2-esque grade system, or if it will be stats requirement a-la guild wars, or a simple direct level requirement.
* Stats are going to be static like L2 but there's a chance to custom mod them... Like L2.
* NEW Weapons currently have a set level requirement rather than a L2-like grade system, as shown in http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2...1635258wq3.jpg They can also be soulbound like in WoW, where you can't drop or trade an item after you've identified/picked it up.

[Grave]

* Aion will NOT be focused on dungeons and will not require players to run instance dungeons or dungeons in general in order to succeed and get good equipment. (Of course not; you're supposed to chill in the Abyss.)
* Party size is 6 and apparently raids will probably be limited to 1 party. That means raiding should take a pretty long time and be a little more intense than "heal him. Spam hate." I'm worried that this will result in "prime parties" where certain classes won't get to raid because people will want an enchanter or a tank instead, but who knows.

Those two are probably a deal breaker for me. Maybe I didn't realize what this game was going to be like, sounds as though PVP is the main focus of the game, instead of an equal or lesser part.