Translation of <NCsoft Office Interview - Part 2 - TIG - 01/09/08>

[zornhau]

Like any translations (and also interviews with developers ), take everything you read w/ a grain of salt . . . enjoy!

Aiming to differentiate class/race by stigma and skills
TIG> I heard that experience between the races becomes similar in open beta. If that is the case, what differences will there be afterwards between Elysea and Asmodae?
- It will be through stigma system. We are planning to introduce new stigmas through patches weekly. We will be introducing not only stigmas with simple restrictions based on class and race but also stigmas based on various conditions.
Initially, we planned to create and finalize class-based stigmas first and then create race-based stigmas. Furthermore, we didn’t just want to create a lot of simplistic content, so we will probably progress slowly.

TIG> Because there are delays in auto-attack and auto-movement and difficulty of melee-characters effectively dealing with opponents from 360°, this strongly favors the range-characters in Abyss PvP.
- The delays in auto-attack and auto-movement [probably from point-and-click] are being continuously tuned at the moment. Other than response-speed, we are trying to balance the classes through skills.
For example during a fortress siege, capture skill is changed to instant-use. It will be possible to pull an escaping enemy right in front of the character to attack.

TIG> There were many times when stigma skills with a very long cool-time wasn’t practical to use.
- The problem was that the skill-effectiveness didn’t match the cool-time. We are making progress in matching re-use time and skill’s efficacy.

TIG> When there are lots of stigmas with really long cool-times, it’s possible to finish a fight with 1 skill. Are there plans to counter this?
- The stigma you’re describing is unique, so we don’t think it’ll cause that much unbalance. There are many rank-based stigmas that have even more power.
For example, it’s possible that right now a good player can win vs. two opponents. Rank-based stigma users can take on an opposing party and win. There will be many stigmas that are hard to gain and have lots of restrictions but will equivalently be more powerful.
Depending on the rank, there will be stigmas that allow you to take on a raid-boss 1v1. We will tell the public specific details of rank system at another time.

Raid is also a part of content! Considering PvE
TIG> Are there considerations to add contents other than Abyss?
- We are surely thinking about PvE contents. We are adding raid and hunting (areas).

TIG> There were a lot of instances where monster’s (attack) pattern is way too simple and strongest (?) or higher ranked monster’s pattern was similar and only hp was higher by several fold. There are thoughts that PvE is too simple and doesn’t exceed the math game of level and number of party members needed?
- We are tuning this. We are planning to make major changes to hp, damage, and attack pattern of strongest [?seems like a specific type e.g. champions] monsters. In fact, the biggest problem in CBT3 seemed to be instead response time. All those aspects will be fixed.

TIG> Because there are no restrictions on the number of people that can engage a raid boss, it became raid fight = people mobilization. Are there any measures to counter this problem?
- We are addressing this by having both public and instanced regions. In certain regions, we arranged to have raid bosses where the only requirement to take it out is to have enough people. On the other hand, there will be bosses where more people will make the raid more difficult to succeed.

TIG> Like WoW, will there be bosses that require a specific strategy to defeat?
- Yes. Most likely at first, the raid bosses will be similar to those found in Everquest. On the other hand, in instances, raid bosses similar to those found in WoW dungeons will appear. However, like we have said above, we are planning to design dungeons in a completely different way.
Since this game is coming out several years after WoW, won’t it get boring if the play-style offered remains the same? Furthermore since we’ve determined that we have plenty of ordinary contents available, we are planning to make unique contents instead of relaxing.

Brand new type of instanced dungeon where war and raid coexist!
TIG> Are there plans for instanced dungeon?
- Instanced dungeon will appear during open beta. First, common type of instanced dungeons will be introduced. However as the game progresses [later patches/chronicles ala L2 I’m assuming], you will be able to see special forms of instanced dungeons only seen in Aion.
(Due to the author’s request for further explanation) For example when looking at Age of Conan , they’ve designed good dungeons. However, when PvP is the aim, instanced dungeon doesn’t match very well. On the other hand in Aion, instanced dungeons and RvR will be integrated naturally. Please anticipate dungeons that are head-and-shoulders above what have been seen before.

TIG> In other words, raid and RvR contents will coexist in one dungeon?
- Yes. Of course, it will be a bit more complex than that.

TIG> In the past, image of aerial dungeon was shown. Will there be one in the open beta?
- We are planning to introduce aerial dungeons after the open beta at an appropriate time. There was a case where when we introduced Abyss a bit too quickly for the players as a gift, common field was left empty. Instead of just adding a lot of contents, we feel it’s necessary to control this procedure carefully.

TIG> There was lots of cases where healers had a hard time to find a party b/c their party-play efficiency was too low.
- We are already fixing the problem of party-hunting efficiency and healer class. We’re tuning the player’s experience so that the effort put into party-hunting matches the reward received through experience pts and items.
Furthermore even now, healers have sufficient power to solo effectively. The problem is that in the case of healers what type of items and stigmas are equipped makes a huge difference in how effective they are in hunting. Instead, we have now completely fixed the sections pertaining to healing and buffs.

Changing the quest’s reward rationally!
TIG> When examining WoW, it’s possible to level up and acquire lvl-required items purely through questing. On the other hand in Aion, the quests only gave out experience or small amount of money. Because of this, there are opinions that, even though there are many quests, there doesn’t seem to be as much importance to quests in comparison inside the game.
- We are still adjusting the quest’s reward. Specifically although quests are completed, we’re trying to prevent a loss of experience from completing a quest [for the time spent I’m assuming]. In addition, item ‘that I wish to acquire’ type of rewards were rather weak. That is also being modified.

TIG> In that case, is it possible to reach max level just through quests?
- It’s a problem of effectiveness of time prepared. In the best case scenario we will try to make it possible for people to reach max level only through questing. However for now, we’re considering both quests and hunting [as necessary?].

Introduction of new zones dedicated towards stories (missions) involving special levels!
TIG> How far has new zones have come along?
- Basically for each race, there will be an introduction of a region that’s small and will be used to develop story line for special levels. Something will happen that will allow progression of story if you look at the later parts of the story. Furthermore, this will occur in public field and not in instance zone.

TIG> In that case, will there be more zones dedicated towards certain levels?
- The new contents introduced will focus more on instances rather than special zones. However, the reason for more instances in the latter half of the game is that we’re trying to prevent the reduction of Aion’s RvR conflict if majority of users end up leveling in the instanced dungeons more often. [not sure if I’m not translating this sentence right but doesn’t seem to make too much sense to me atm]

TIG> What’s special about the new zones?
- There will be more hidden contents and raid bosses. The hidden contents will be focused to give the players a feeling of wonder and discovery. Morehaim(?)’s hidden contents is just a hint of what’s to come. You’ll often say, “What’s this!” There were many in-house testers who were very surprised.

[lyankyj]

Thank you!!!!

We are planning to introduce new stigmas through patches weekly.

Hmm, dunno if this is a good or a bad thing (too often?) - though it will be easier to maintain balance by releasing these stigmas.

It will be possible to pull an escaping enemy right in front of the character to attack.

Already in the game, at least for templar.

there will be stigmas that allow you to take on a raid-boss 1v1

Well, that's gonna be hard to get

there will be bosses where more people will make the raid more difficult to succeed.

Thats what I'm talking about!

We are planning to introduce aerial dungeons after the open beta at an appropriate time.

AFTER, wtf is that mean? There will be more testing after OB, or what?
But, it is good to have aerial dungeons!

However for now, we’re considering both quests and hunting [as necessary?].

OUCH....OUCH.....OUCH...

Though I think hunting is referred to PvPvE in the Abyss - killing Balaurs will get you AP and XP aswell.

[Fleiva]

Happy to see some real game designer ideas, they pretty much nailed it when talking about instances mixed with pvp games. This game is on good hands.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by zornhau

Like any translations (and also interviews with developers ), take everything you read w/ a grain of salt . . . enjoy!

Aiming to differentiate class/race by stigma and skills
TIG> I heard that experience between the races becomes similar in open beta. If that is the case, what differences will there be afterwards between Elysea and Asmodae?
- It will be through stigma system. We are planning to introduce new stigmas through patches weekly. We will be introducing not only stigmas with simple restrictions based on class and race but also stigmas based on various conditions.
Initially, we planned to create and finalize class-based stigmas first and then create race-based stigmas. Furthermore, we didn’t just want to create a lot of simplistic content, so we will probably progress slowly.

Weekly during the beta they will probably insert new stigmas and see how people react to them/see how they are utilized, then either tweak them or remove them. That's my guess.

TIG> Because there are delays in auto-attack and auto-movement and difficulty of melee-characters effectively dealing with opponents from 360°, this strongly favors the range-characters in Abyss PvP.
- The delays in auto-attack and auto-movement [probably from point-and-click] are being continuously tuned at the moment. Other than response-speed, we are trying to balance the classes through skills.
For example during a fortress siege, capture skill is changed to instant-use. It will be possible to pull an escaping enemy right in front of the character to attack.

TIG> There were many times when stigma skills with a very long cool-time wasn’t practical to use.
- The problem was that the skill-effectiveness didn’t match the cool-time. We are making progress in matching re-use time and skill’s efficacy.

TIG> When there are lots of stigmas with really long cool-times, it’s possible to finish a fight with 1 skill. Are there plans to counter this?
- The stigma you’re describing is unique, so we don’t think it’ll cause that much unbalance. There are many rank-based stigmas that have even more power.
For example, it’s possible that right now a good player can win vs. two opponents. Rank-based stigma users can take on an opposing party and win. There will be many stigmas that are hard to gain and have lots of restrictions but will equivalently be more powerful.
Depending on the rank, there will be stigmas that allow you to take on a raid-boss 1v1. We will tell the public specific details of rank system at another time.

Damn, that's gotta be some badass skills/stigmas to take on a raid boss. Then again, they could be talking about the really simple ones.

Raid is also a part of content! Considering PvE
TIG> Are there considerations to add contents other than Abyss?
- We are surely thinking about PvE contents. We are adding raid and hunting (areas).

TIG> There were a lot of instances where monster’s (attack) pattern is way too simple and strongest (?) or higher ranked monster’s pattern was similar and only hp was higher by several fold. There are thoughts that PvE is too simple and doesn’t exceed the math game of level and number of party members needed?
- We are tuning this. We are planning to make major changes to hp, damage, and attack pattern of strongest [?seems like a specific type e.g. champions] monsters. In fact, the biggest problem in CBT3 seemed to be instead response time. All those aspects will be fixed.

TIG> Because there are no restrictions on the number of people that can engage a raid boss, it became raid fight = people mobilization. Are there any measures to counter this problem?
- We are addressing this by having both public and instanced regions. In certain regions, we arranged to have raid bosses where the only requirement to take it out is to have enough people. On the other hand, there will be bosses where more people will make the raid more difficult to succeed.

TIG> Like WoW, will there be bosses that require a specific strategy to defeat?
- Yes. Most likely at first, the raid bosses will be similar to those found in Everquest. On the other hand, in instances, raid bosses similar to those found in WoW dungeons will appear. However, like we have said above, we are planning to design dungeons in a completely different way.
Since this game is coming out several years after WoW, won’t it get boring if the play-style offered remains the same? Furthermore since we’ve determined that we have plenty of ordinary contents available, we are planning to make unique contents instead of relaxing.

So we will be getting lots of new stuff all the time? Sounds good to me.

Brand new type of instant dungeon where war and raid coexist!
TIG> Are there plans for instant dungeon?
- Instant dungeon will appear during open beta. First, common type of instant dungeons will be introduced. However as the game progresses [later patches/chronicles ala L2 I’m assuming], you will be able to see special forms of instant dungeons only seen in Aion.
(Due to the author’s request for further explanation) For example when looking at Age of Conan , they’ve designed good dungeons. However, when PvP is the aim, instant dungeon doesn’t match very well. On the other hand in Aion, instant dungeons and RvR will be integrated naturally. Please anticipate dungeons that are head-and-shoulders above what have been seen before.

TIG> In other words, raid and RvR contents will coexist in one dungeon?
- Yes. Of course, it will be a bit more complex than that.

What teh ****, insta-dungeons? Interesting, very interesting. I have no idea what they're going for or talking about, but it sounds as if it's something someone hasn't done before...

TIG> In the past, image of aerial dungeon was shown. Will there be one in the open beta?
- We are planning to introduce aerial dungeons after the open beta at an appropriate time. There was a case where when we introduced Abyss a bit too quickly for the players as a gift, common field was left empty. Instead of just adding a lot of contents, we feel it’s necessary to control this procedure carefully.

Oh god, how I love hearing these words. That damn flying dungeon does exist!

TIG> There was lots of cases where healers had a hard time to find a party b/c their party-play efficiency was too low.
- We are already fixing the problem of party-hunting efficiency and healer class. We’re tuning the player’s experience so that the effort put into party-hunting matches the reward received through experience pts and items.
Furthermore even now, healers have sufficient power to solo effectively. The problem is that in the case of healers what type of items and stigmas are equipped makes a huge difference in how effective they are in hunting. Instead, we have now completely fixed the sections pertaining to healing and buffs.

Changing the quest’s reward rationally!
TIG> When examining WoW, it’s possible to level up and acquire lvl-required items purely through questing. On the other hand in Aion, the quests only gave out experience or small amount of money. Because of this, there are opinions that, even though there are many quests, there doesn’t seem to be as much importance to quests in comparison inside the game.
- We are still adjusting the quest’s reward. Specifically although quests are completed, we’re trying to prevent a loss of experience from completing a quest [for the time spent I’m assuming]. In addition, item ‘that I wish to acquire’ type of rewards were rather weak. That is also being modified.

TIG> In that case, is it possible to reach max level just through quests?
- It’s a problem of effectiveness of time prepared. In the best case scenario we will try to make it possible for people to reach max level only through questing. However for now, we’re considering both quests and hunting [as necessary?].

Introduction of new zones dedicated towards stories (missions) involving special levels!
TIG> How far has new zones have come along?
- Basically for each race, there will be an introduction of a region that’s small and will be used to develop story line for special levels. Something will happen that will allow progression of story if you look at the later parts of the story. Furthermore, this will occur in public field and not in instance zone.

Ah! Small zones that DO CHANGE based on the story progression?! So they're trying to keep their old promises...somewhat.

TIG> In that case, will there be more zones dedicated towards certain levels?
- The new contents introduced will focus more on instances rather than special zones. However, the reason for more instances in the latter half of the game is that we’re trying to prevent the reduction of Aion’s RvR conflict if majority of users end up leveling in the instant dungeons more often. [not sure if I’m not translating this sentence right but doesn’t seem to make too much sense to me atm]

TIG> What’s special about the new zones?
- There will be more hidden contents and raid bosses. The hidden contents will be focused to give the players a feeling of wonder and discovery. Morehaim(?)’s hidden contents is just a hint of what’s to come. You’ll often say, “What’s this!” There were many in-house testers who were very surprised.

YES, HIDDEN STUFF. GOD MY PANTS ARE TIGHT.

[lyankyj]

Originally Posted by Mark

What teh ****, insta-dungeons? Interesting, very interesting. I have no idea what they're going for or talking about, but it sounds as if it's something someone hasn't done before...

We've been discussing this in an other thread (forgot where:P)!

Ah! Small zones that DO CHANGE based on the story progression?!

I think it is like Pre-Searing Ascalon(<3<3) vs Old Ascalon, though here these areas won't be instanced!

YES, HIDDEN STUFFS. GOD MY PANTS ARE TIGHT.

MY FAV THINGS TOO!!!! I MEAN HIDDEN STUFF, NOT PANTS!

[Mark]

Sure, LYJ. Sure.


Pants.

[Waterelfo]

Originally Posted by zornhau

TIG> In that case, is it possible to reach max level just through quests?
- It’s a problem of effectiveness of time prepared. In the best case scenario we will try to make it possible for people to reach max level only through questing. However for now, we’re considering both quests and hunting [as necessary?].

haa.. I wanted to level just through questing ... But auch! Stigma to take a raid boss alone..

[lyankyj]

Zornhau!

I think in the

TIG> In that case, is it possible to reach max level just through quests?
- It’s a problem of effectiveness of time prepared. In the best case scenario we will try to make it possible for people to reach max level only through questing. However for now, we’re considering both quests and hunting [as necessary?].

part "hunting" means grouping - group quests! So it says, previously they wanted ppl to be able to solo their way through quests to max lvl, but for now, group-questing is also necessary for leveling!

[Haubix]

Thank you!

[Becto]

WHOOOO I'm glad to hear that pvp is included during the pve, that way it'll make it allot more fun! Someone from the other race peeks by when your killing a mob.. gank them for fun. That will definately help relieve some of the bordom. (Excited!)

[zornhau]

Originally Posted by lyankyj

Zornhau!

I think in the


part "hunting" means grouping - group quests! So it says, previously they wanted ppl to be able to solo their way through quests to max lvl, but for now, group-questing is also necessary for leveling!

I'm not sure. They specifically used the word 사냥 which means hunting, but since hunting can be in groups I guess what you're thinking can apply. . . but since they said "quest and hunting" (퀘스트와 사냥) side by side and said will be required I'm not so sure. Guess things can change before we get the final client and who knows it may be possible to lvl purely by quests soon after the release.

P.S. Instant dungeon means instanced. Sorry for the typo.

[lyankyj]

Originally Posted by zornhau

I'm not sure. They specifically used the word 사냥 which means hunting, but since hunting can be in groups I guess what you're thinking can apply. . . but since they said "quest and hunting" (퀘스트와 사냥) side by side and said will be required I'm not so sure. Guess things can change before we get the final client and who knows it may be possible to lvl purely by quests soon after the release.

P.S. Instant dungeon means instanced. Sorry for the typo.

My assumption was based on this part:

We are already fixing the problem of party-hunting efficiency and healer class.
healers have sufficient power to solo effectively. The problem is that in the case of healers what type of items and stigmas are equipped makes a huge difference in how effective they are in hunting.

First it says they are strong in solo, then it mentions huntng as a different thing (previously mentioned as party-hunting). Now, since soloing involves grinding aswell, that problem with equipped stigmas can not be referred to hunting aka grinding.

First he addresses a problem regarding grouping (grinding or questing is not relevant here). Then, he says solo is cool, then he goes back to party-hunting.

And just like he referred to grouping in the "how effective they are in hunting" part, he could easily refer to grouping as hunting in that other part aswell.

Does this make sense?

[Eau]

Did I hear men with tight pants in here!?

Anyway, yeah. I'm very, very happy to hear about hidden thangs! I got so bored in WoW that I exploited to find 'hidden stuff' like Hyjal, and Kara. (Pre-tbc)

WTB Aion! Have mats (Mountain Dew, taquitos, spare time!)

[lyankyj]

Now they just need to replace the radar with a normal minimap so we could actually enjoy the exploraton of these items.

[Eau]

I sense mods for this.