Facts and Fiction of Aion

[Senshi]

There has been an increase in posts that give a wrong impression of Aion, be it reviews or random blogs. This problem does not just affect AionSource but all of the Aion news sites. I plan to keep this thread updated with any new rumors that might arise and if they are false I will debunk them. If anyone wants to add something, just post here or send a PM with the details of the rumor you want added. Tips and suggestions are appreciated.

If I make any mistake please inform me and I will fix the error accordingly. For some examples of reviews written by people that are either blatantly misinformed or suffer from heavy favoritism, you can click the two links that follow.

MMOSITE
WoWRiot

Some food for though concerning reviews can be found in the following entry:
AionSource: On Reviews

Where can I find server status list of Aion?

Aion Server Status

When will the open beta start?

Players in Europe and North America will be able to try out Elyos and Asmodian characters on version 1.5 of the game client, which has not yet been seen in the west. The test will run from 6 to 13 September, and will include all the added features of 1.5 such as more character customisation options, new zones, instances, skills and quests. A level cap of 30 will remain in place to ensure testers stay around the same level.

Players who pre-ordered the game can get early access to Aion through the pre-select or Headstart programs, which start after the OBT, on 18 September for pre-select and 20 September for Headstart.

With what version will AION launch in EU/NA?

Aion will launch with version 1.5, the third major content patch.
Source

What is Pre-Selection?

Originally Posted by Ayase

The pre-selection will be before the head start, yes.

It will allow pre-order owners to reserve a name and create their characters before everyone else, and before the game gets going for real.

When does the headstart actually start and how long will it last?

The head start will start the 20th of September in both NA and EU.
The retail launch will start the 22th in NA and the 25th in EU.
The effectually means that people in the EU with a pre-order will have 5 days worth of a head start and the people in NA will have a 2 day head start.

Source: Courtesy of Unddu

What about retailers not sending copy of game on release date, 22nd, or 25th September?

Originally Posted by Ayase

The grace period is counted inside the Head Start, and the Head Start is contained within your preorder key. You will need to apply a retail key before the last day of Head Start ends (on the 22nd and 25th respectively for NA/EU). Retailers will ship the game with the aim of having it in your mailbox or local post office no later than Head Start day. I don't want to speculate that they might arrive earlier, since I don't know what sort of margins retailers will be given. Hope that makes sense, and that I'm not missing any aspects of the question.

What is the level cap in Aion?

The level cap in Aion will be 50. The only reason some confusion regarding this aspect arose is because the version of Aion used in China capped the players at 45. This was caused by the company that handles the Chinese aspects of Aion and their slow updating practices. I will repeat it once more, Aion will have a level 50 cap.


Abyss Ranks listing points gained and lost are in the following chart




Aion is all about grind

There are enough quests in AION to reduce the grind to a minimum. You will still have to kill mobs along the way to your quest point, but if you explore a bit and kill the mobs in your way instead of sneaking past them, you will have to spend a minimal amount of time on grinding.

Aion is designed to be fun during leveling and at the end game, so there is no need to rush through the content. The game is fun from the moment you create your character, not just at max level.

The patch with which AION will launch in EU/NA (1.5), adds a lot of level 35+ quests that further reduce the amount of time you need to grind. There are also plenty of added instances, which will make the leveling process even more fun and rewarding.

If you consider killing a certain number of the same type of mob for quests, grinding, then yes AION will have grinding. But not more so then any other western MMO out there. For further information about the 1.5 patch and its contents, check the link provided below.

Another feature of AION is the fact that crafting grants experience. It's not much when compared to normal questing, but due to the nature of crafting it does add up.

The last point of interest is another addition added with the 1.5 patch: The battle shugos. This is an instance for people that have not yet reached the level cap, filled with plenty of quests and evolved Shugos, designed with the casual player in mind.

Source


It takes at least 12 hours per level to level after level 35

This is pure speculation at the moment. The version used as a source for this information is the version of AION played in China (1.0). This means that none of the three major content patches is taken into consideration.

There are plenty of added quests for the levels between 35 and 45. They serve to remove a lot of the grind that was initially needed in AION.

Google translated Korean source

China Aion Reviews

The reviews based on the version of AION played in China, give a biased and sometimes plain wrong impression of the game. General information may be derived from these reviews, but the fact that there have been 3 major content patches renders much of the information invalid.

As said before the Chinese AION is effectively 1.0, while AION for EU/NA will be launched with all three major content patches. This means a huge addition to the game in terms of content, balancing, new stigmas, skills and fixed bugs/features.


Stacking up on Magic Resistance mana stones makes you invincible versus casters

This is simply not true. Of course it helps, but it doesn't make you invulnerable and it severely gimps you in all other areas.

Game Balance

The balance between classes is very important in any MMO centered around PvP. At the moment the balance (even in 1v1) is fine. Some skills are more useful than others, some characters might excel in certain areas and be significantly worse in others. Remember, unless you give every class the same gear and skills, there will not be a perfect 1v1 balance.

Most remarks made at a perceived lack of balance are made by people that use characters below level 50 in 1v1 situations. Since most of the PvP will take place in groups and at maximum level, there is simply no way the balance can be perfected at every level for 1v1 fights.

But I always lose against class X in 1v1

As said before AION does not aim to create a perfect 1v1 balance. 1v1 situations will occur, but most of the time PvP will involve more than just two people. There are certain classes that shine more in situations with more people and there are classes that shine more in situations with less people. As long as overall balance is maintained, which seems to be the case, the PvP will be a lot of fun.


How is PvP in Aion?

Kindly refer to this thread made by our very own Commander-in-Chief of Flames Steb Starwin


Travelling in Aion is cumbersome

There are indeed no mounts, so if you are unable to fly you will have to walk sometimes. However there are more than enough flight paths in every zone (every significant settlement has a *flight master*).

You can also glide if you jump from higher ground and catch a breeze. This will increase your travel speed significantly. Gliding is also possible in every single location.

Furthermore you also have a Return skill that serves the same purpose as a heart-stone. It has a 20 minute cooldown and teleports you straight back to whatever town you bound yourself to. Binding to a town is done via Obelisks. Binding also makes you respawn at the obelisk you bound yourself to.


The flight time is too short (1 minute at start)

You can increase your flight time as you progress through the levels. At certain levels (30,40,50) you can buy a new set of wings (and if you bought the CE edition you get a free pair of wings at 30) and all these wings will either increase your flight time or give other benefits. Using certain potions or scrolls will further add to your flight time. In game there are certain floating rings that enable you to fly even longer.


Flight controls are clunky

The majority of the experienced community finds it easy and smooth to handle. The flight controls can be bound to other keys. Moving in a 3D space will take some getting used to, but you can customize the buttons to fit your playing style.

After death I will respawn at a far away obelisk

There are obelisks in pretty much every town. You can bind yourself to which ever obelisk you want, which means you resurrect at that specific obelisk. When you die you lose experience and have a debuff called Soul Sickness, which makes you move like a turtle. The soul healer that stands near the obelisk can, for a certain amount of Kinah remove the debuff and restore nearly all of your XP. You lose a very small portion of XP per death, and gain a bunch of XP debt on top of it. Raise Sickness keeps adding up everytime you due until you heal your soul at Soul Healer.

Left click button in order to pan the camera

Currenty you can right click to pan the camera. This was addressed in the beta and is said that panning camera with left click button is going to be implemented at release


The chat functions forces you to type out the entire name of a channel to be able to talk in said channel, for instance /group for talking with your party and /legion for talking with your legion

The shortcuts are different from other MMOs in the past. This doesn't mean they are not there. For instance instead of typing /r to reply to someone, you can simply press the T button. Other examples would be /le for legion and /gr for group chat.

"t" Reply to last pm
# , /gr /group Chat on group
@, /le /legion Chat on legion/guild
! /shout local shout
$ /alliance /al Alliance chat (raids of upto 4 6 member groups)



The UI cannot be customized

It is true that the amount of options when it comes down to customization of the UI is less than stellar. The *No add-ons* policy employed by NCsoft further limits the possibilities for UI customization. You can only chose between two different UIs.

The chat box however is fully customizable.


There are no add-ons allowed in AION

This is indeed the case. Whether or not this is a bad thing remains to be seen. Examples in the past have shown that rampaging add-ons can do more damage than they are worth (de-curse for instance).

Aion tries to copy WoW

AION is not a copy of WoW, nor does it try to be. It employs tried and true MMO elements that have been around long before WoW became what it is today, while adding things that WoW doesn't have. WoW was not the first MMO around and did not single handedly invent the entire genre.

The quest system of AION is horrible

Quests in AION are comparable to those in other MMOs, but with cut scenes added to improve immersion. The story quest lines make you feel very involved in the game world and up to par with or perhaps even better than those of other MMOs.

What makes questing in AION a lot better than other games is the addition of clickable entries in your journals. Instead of having to use an internet site, simply clicking the name of a mob or a quest object in your journal will show you its general location on the map. It's accurate enough to simplify doing quests, but not accurate enough to be followed blindly.


Aion has no English Dubs

This is simply not true. The voice acting and texts will be fully localized, meaning all in game dialogue/text will be in English. Some confusion might have occurred because people were playing the Chinese version of AION using an English language pack which only changed the in game text and not the spoken dialogue


The system requirements for AION are way too high

This is not true. You can play AION on a PC that's several years old, without suffering from unbearable FPS rates.


Minimum Requirements
CPU: Pentium 4 2.0GHz
RAM: 1GB
VGA: GeForce FX 5600(128MB), DirectX 9 or higher
OS: Windows XP


There are no instances

There are plenty of instance that come with the launch version of AION, the following snippet is taken directly from the translated patch notes for patch 1.5.

Version 1.5

- This will be a new approach compared to the traditional WoW-style instances. The first type of instance is an arcade instance. Its focus is going to be strategic group play to kill the boss as soon as possible.
- Both elyos and asmodians will be able to access these instances through rifts. You'll be traveling to the region that was recently conquered by the Dragons.
- The reward will vary depending on how you decide to clear this instance under how much time. Since you'll be killing dragons, you'll be acquiring abyss points. The final boss will also vary depending on your strategy, meaning your reward will vary every time.
- It's up to you if you want to go for all DPS speed run, or full party extermination going for every Named Mob in the instance. The reward is going to be items with a grade or two higher than the currently highest grade unique items.

Source

PvP is all about gear instead of skill

This is no more true than it is for any other game. In order to get the best PvP gear, you first have to PvP a lot. Meaning you won't have that extremely good gear as you progress through the PvP ranks, it will be your skill that decides whether you are successful or not. The same goes for the PvE side of AION, in order to get the best PvE gear you first have to complete the PvE parts of the game. Gear makes you stronger, but you cannot get the gear before getting a certain level of skill in the game.

There are too many bots in this game.

There will be bots and hacks in AION just as there are hacks and bots in other MMO games. However the stories people hear about huge amounts of bots in the Chinese version of AION are not relevant for the experience we will have with the NA/EU version of AION. This is because the Chinese version of AION is outsourced to a Chinese company and as such is no longer in the hands of NCsoft. This also explains in part, why China is still playing version 1.0.


What is Stigma System

The Stigma system employs slots you unlock at certain levels (you get the first one at level 20). In these slot you place Stigmas that will then give you a certain ability. The effect however is not as significant as a Talent Tree (yet). This means you can make your character different from another person playing the exact same class.

An example would be the Dual Wield Stigma that enables Gladiators to dual wield. Note that there are both Stigmas that give a passive skill and Stigmas that give skills that are to be actively used.

The advanced Stigma system employed in 1.5 will add additional Stigma slots that can only be filled with Advanced Stigmas and only if the prerequisite normal Stigmas are used in the normal Stigma slots. An example would be: In order to use Advanced Stigma C in your advanced Stigma slot, you need to have normal Stigma A and B in your normal Stigma slots.


Aion is too linear

The initial levels of Aion are designed to be linear on purpose, it acts as a tutorial for new players and help establish the story.

In other MMOs like WoW, the Death knight class starting area is extremely linear as opposed to the starting area of its older classes. And this 'linearity' gained an extremely positive reception from that games player-base. Aion has employed this story-driven formula to all of its classes.

A focused story driven game experience is bound to be somewhat linear to help connect the story elements.

Q&A and General News Links: {Thanks to Arrowtaru}

IGN: Aion: Tower of Eternity Q&Al
Limited Collector?s Edition for Aion Detailed by NCsoft - GameGuru.in
General News | Aion

Patch Notes and Translation found here. Thanks to Thats Too Bad for all translations.


Big thanks to all the people that helped me fix error and gave suggestions, the list includes but is not limited to:
Aleste
Unddu
GrayArea09
Nadja
Starliner
niuniu
Serina
Darkheron
Sashimi
Miacova
Malais
Feenix
BIanca
beonka
Nathonas
That's too bad
Stebthefirst


Special Thanks go to

Aleste for providing motivation to start this thread
Unddu for a lot of updates, spelling mistake correction and formatting of the text.

[Marina]

you shouldnt lie or bash on other games in a post like that where you actually expect nice intentions.

[Nay]

Didnt see any facts, only your opinions

[Senshi]

Originally Posted by Marina

you shouldnt lie or bash on other games in a post like that where you actually expect nice intentions.

i'm answering stuff from reviews. troll.

[Aleste]

You are fast, i,l talk about additions that need to be made soon.

-----------
A sticky in the general forums should explain:

-The difference between NA/EU version of Aion and China's version of Aion.

-Demonstrate the character creation system and its possibilities to viewers with images, screens showing distinct and clearly different creations to present all the possibilities of the system.

-Demonstrate the questing system with images of NPCs, quest interface and quest text. 3 distinct quests in 3 different areas.

-Talks about the changes made by NCsoft after the Beta feedback, to end the 'NCsoft' doesn't listen argument.

-Article would address the following misconceptions:

*Aion zones are linear and narrow

*Aion consists of grinding

*Aion combat is unbalanced

*There is no end-game

*Traveling in Aion is hard

*Aion needs strong PC

*Aion is full of bots

All supported with images, in non-opinionated writing.

[Unddu]

1. 3 New types of instances!

- This will be a new approach compared to the traditional WoW-style instances. The first type of instance is an arcade instance. It's focus is going to be strategic group play to kill the boss as soon as possible.
- Both elyos and asmodians will be able to access these instances through rifts. You'll be traveling to the region that was recently conquered by the Dragons.
- The reward will vary depending on how you decide to clear this instance under how much time. Since you'll be killing dragons, you'll be acquiring abyss points. The final boss will also very depending on your strategy, meaning your reward will vary every time.
- It's up to you if you want to go for all DPS speed run, or full party extermination going for every Named Mob in the instance. The reward is going to be items with a grade or two higher than the currently highest grade Unique items.

Guess there are instances

[niuniu]

Some of those are actually wrong too, quite misleading - instances being one of them..

[Jetlag]

They added instances and keep adding them in recent patches as far as I know. Bots aren't confirmed yet.

[Senshi]

I said correct me if i'm wrong to update :/ i'm not perfect i'm just trying to make a compliation

Updated and Rep+ for Unddu for instances update.

[Nay]

instances = channels

dungeons = dungeons

[Kaimira]

I really hope this doesn't get stickied. Take the opinions out of this and spell correctly at least. And quit saying " If you looking for something like WoW go play WoW". Seriously.

[Senshi]

Originally Posted by Nay

instances = channels

dungeons = dungeons

channels are only in 1st starter areas from what i know, nit on abyss and high level areas like where you go thru rifts.

[Nadja]

Originally Posted by niuniu

Some of those are actually wrong too, quite misleading - instances being one of them..

there are more than 12 instances as of 1.5

[Nay]

Originally Posted by Senshi

channels are only in 1st starter areas from what i know, nit on abyss and high level areas like where you go thru rifts.

it was for those whining that there are instances in Aion, there isnt, But there IS dungeons which they probably mean

[Nadja]

Originally Posted by Senshi

channels are only in 1st starter areas from what i know, nit on abyss and high level areas like where you go thru rifts.

there are channels throughout the game. Times to change channels increase with level.