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So I saw some interesting pets in 2.0 and was wondering where they were coming from. It turns out that the NCSoft store has them for sale in the Aion part of their shop. And no, they're not part of the $40 expansion box for sale.

I thought I'd share what I found for those who may wonder where the pets are coming from and how much they cost. All of these pets seem to be applied per account, which means that one purchase will get the pet for all of your characters on the account. The prices aren't bad for what are mainly vanity items.

I'm assuming that these pets aren't available from drops in the game, although some of them (the porgus) do seem similar to what is already available. If anybody knows any more about these particular pets inside of the game, please let us know.

The list of pets and prices are shown below:

• Golden Nyanco, alarm pet, $9.99
  
• Pesky Manduri, alarm pet, $9.99
  
• Bottlenose Tion, decorative pet, $7.99
  
• Mau Cubling, decorative pet, $7.99
  
• Pudgy Porgus, Fortune Pet, $9.99

What the Pets Look Like

Cheers,

Snoozle

Maintenance and Full Download for Assault on Balaurea Launch

The Aion servers and the website will be brought down at 4:30 a.m. PDT, September 7, 2010 for the Aion: Assault on Balaurea (2.0) patch to the game and servers. It's estimated to take no longer than 8 hours.

We hope that the community is prepared for the launch with lots of caffeine and that they have stacked up Tutty and Beans for the occasional snack.



While most people have updated clients for the 2.0 launch tomorrow, there are also full installers available as shown in the Aion Online News release on the topic.

The full client is available via direct download from the NCSoft partner GamersHell and it’s also available from the NCWest Torrent server:

• NCsoft Torrent: ftp.ncsoft.com/Aion/Client/Torrent/Aion2.0.0.2_FullInstaller.zip.torrent
• Gamershell 1.9.0.3 – 2.0.0.0 Download: http://www.gamershel...oad_63074.shtml
• GamersHell Full 2.0 Client Download: http://www.gamershel...oad_63072.shtml

Bunny thought it might be helpful to post up a snippet of instructions for people for the incoming 2.0 patch and here are her instructions.


Patching the Game Client

The first thing you should do is update your game client to 2.0.0.2, which is the patch EU/NA are going live with. To do this, simply boot up the NCsoft launcher and select "Check For Updates" in the drop down list then wait for the download to finish and apply.

You can check if your game has been patched correctly by checking the properties in the launcher. If it says 2.0.0.2 for your "Local Version" then you're good to go.


How to Handle Error 72 "Patch Server Not Found"

The patch server is likely to be under some strain while everyone updates at once, which sometimes causes the "Error 72" problem. To get around this, you can download the two patch files you need directly. Simple click the below links to start the download. When the download is complete, move these files into your Aion installation folder.

• 1.9.0.2 to 2.0.0.2 Patch (EU ONLY)
• 1.9.0.2 to 2.0.0.2 Patch (NA ONLY)
• 2.0.0.0 to 2.0.0.2 Patch (ALL)
  

For most people, two of the above files will be all you need.

However, if you haven't been trickle-downloading the main patch over the last week or so then you'll need to get that too. The main patch is quite big, so I recommend checking if you already have "Aion_Main_1.9.0.3To2.0.0.0.ncpatch" sitting in your Aion installation folder. If you don't have it already, you can get it here manually.


Finding the Patch Notes

Patch notes can be found in several places. Firstly, the Initial Korean Patch notes are rather extensive for 2.0 ( Read More ), so I recommend checking those out first. If you're wondering what has changed between that at 2.0.0.2 you can check out the incrimental patch notes ( Read More )

If you want the simple version, you can check out the summary Feature Guide on the powerwiki ( Read More )



Hopefully, with the above information and reminders the launch will go smoothly. Generally speaking, they normally don't, but with some Tutty and Beans available, at least there will be something to eat if there are any issues tomorrow.

Cheers,

Snoozle

AionSource Exclusive Interview - Chris Hager

At the NCSoft Booth

So, a member of the Curse staff (Amira from TeraFans.com) was very lucky to catch up with Chris Hager at the NCSoft booth during PAX 2010 in order to ask him the very questions our community wants to know more about. It was 9am and in a fairly loud environment with people wandering around with blinking lodus amulets. Yes, you heard it correctly - NCWest thinks even real people need more lodus amulets. I understand that before the launch party there were people break dancing with them on their ankles and wrists. I just had to wonder how much extra xp they were getting...

Chris Hager Speaks

So while a Snoozle would have stood transfixed and staring at the lodus amulets, Amira actually got down to the important questions fairly quickly. Chris was very generous with his time and answered a lot of our questions. Below is a transcript of the interview. Hope everybody enjoys it!

Q: We understand that localization beyond language is beginning to occur more in 2.0. What kind of things are you localizing? What are the differences between the East and West?


A: Currently there are a couple of small changes like the fort seige timers and a couple of droprate differences. In Assault on Balurea, we're doing a lot of different changes just for markets outside of Korea. A lot of droprate increases; there will be more news coming out on droprates. We've also got a lot more quest experience now. If you look at 1.9 and 2.0, you'll find a lot of the same quests with differences in experience.

Q: Are there any ideas about encouraging PvP outside of instances?

A: Part of what the new zones do is that they actually kind of bring PvP together more. It's almost like taking the Abyss and evolving it a little bit, because now it's in a persistent zone. You have to take over your own side's fortresses to have access to the other side's fortresses. That's what's encouraging people. It's almost like a rift, but it's not at the same time. There are parts where when you die, if you're on the other race's side, you'll have to go back to your own zone. It's kind of like we're taking the new changes to the rifting system and applying it to the new persistent zones. We're trying to make a little more PvP incentive. You've got the rifters and that's all they do and they login and kill people and that's what we're trying to stop.

Q: What kind of changes are being considered to help the population on the oceanic servers thrive?

A: We're doing a lot of marketing and a lot of PR. We're doing some interviews with the Australian and Oceanic specific media. We're trying to get the hype up more. We're also making sure that everybody's available to transfer into and out of those servers so, we can fill up a good population. You've gotta have a good population to sustain a server. If we don't, we either have to fix it or we've got to change it. So we're trying to do as much as we can inside and outside of the game to get people back on that server.

Q: Has NCSoft ever considered making a special PvP server with less guards?

A: We're actually looking at that. We always throw around the idea of different rulesets: it's like “Oh, we've got this extra server, what do we want to do with it?” Changing the guards is something that's a little bit difficult. I was actually talking to our developer, because he was here this week at PAX and he says that they're actually looking to reduce some of the guard levels throughout the game, because we know it's kind of hard to get in there. It's easy to get killed by some of those guards when you're trying to do stuff. We've never actually done anything with rule-sets yet, but it's always on the table.

Q: How did NCSoft react to the spiritmaster protest in Korea?

A: It was actually interesting to watch. That's a situation where they have the Korean build and we get our build 2 to 4 months later. We can kind of see it all unfold and we can see what their player’s reactions are so we can gauge how our players might react. And then what the development team does; y’know, just like the Assassins during 1.9. So we saw it coming, we knew that that was probably what was going to happen. We were able to take a look at it, we were able to talk to the dev team and kind of get a plan together. So they’re working on class balancing; it’s always you tweak one class and then you tweak that one and then this one and it’s forever a balancing act. So when we see the Korean market react that abruptly to it, we know that our players are going to react strongly to it. We kind of preemptively go talk about it like, “Hey, what are you guys doing about this, how are you going to fix it?”

Q: Are there any kind of special events planned for after or during the launch of Aion 2.0?


A: Yeah! That was actually one of the things we talked about in our panel yesterday. We have been working with the development team over in Korea going over specific holidays we want to celebrate in Aion and the latest 2.0 build, that build that will be going live on Tuesday, will have event NPCs already in the game. You’ll be able to see them! We don’t have the event turned on yet though, we’re waiting, but it will be kind of a taste like, “Yes, we are going to have events throughout the holiday season. And yes, they’re actually there. We’re not waiting to get them in the game.” So yeah! We’ll be seeing a lot more in-game supported events and holidays including new items, new quests, and new in-game assets.

Q: What is being done to balance factions in Aion 2.0? Previously the Elyos were considered to be favored over the Asmodians.


A: Well I’m an Asmodian, so I always try to come up with the Asmodian side a little bit more. We’ve done a couple of things on our side, just from a straight visual perspective. When you first login and create a character, we now have the Asmodian side highlighted first. So it’s those subtle changes that we think are going to help. The not so subtle changes are that we’re trying to promote it a lot more heavily. If you take a look at the Korean launch trailer, it’s pretty much all Elyos. If you look at our trailer, which we’ll be releasing soon, it’s got lots of Asmodians in it. We’re trying to make sure we get the Asmodians out and in front of the people.

Q: Are there ever going to be any constant activities, aside from instances and fortress sieges, in the Abyss?


A: No, not that I’m aware of. Obviously this specific update is very instance heavy. We’ve also got a lot of persistent world raid bosses in the new zones which are going to make up a lot of the non-instanced content. You’re going to have to get a lot of alliances together to take these guys down. So, you’ll find these in the new zones, not the Abyss at this time.

Q: Are double XP weekends planned to occur regularly after 2.0 is released?


A: Yeah! We have a schedule down. When we did it earlier this year, every two weeks, it was to help counteract a lot of the issues people were having with leveling while they were waiting for 1.9. Now with 1.9 and 2.0 the leveling is better because now it’s just a matter of players getting in and enjoying the content. We don’t find that there’s a need for double XP as much, especially after 2.0 with the increased experience. But we will still have them, they’ll just be a little more unique than every two weeks or every month.

Q: If a Dredgion is to attack a fortress during a siege, is it always a guaranteed Balaur victory? Or can the Dredgion be defeated?


A: You can defeat the Dredgion. We’ve taken a group of GMs in-game and we tried to do it and it’s pretty hard. But it is technically possible!

Q: In many interviews, we’ve heard that leveling will be easier in 2.0. In what ways will it be easier?


A: So one of the major changes is the increased experience I was talking about. We’ve gone through and we’ve increased the experience throughout the entire game, not just the new content, but from 1 all the way up to 55. We’ve also increased the item drops in a lot of instances and we’ll have more information about additional changes to item drops in the next month or two. That’s all aimed at getting players the gear they need to make leveling fun. We also added solo instances at level 18 where leveling was a difficult point, and at level 37 where there was also kind of another wall for leveling. So we’ve added content, tweaked a lot of the experience and droprates so that players are better equipped. They get through the leveling faster and they enjoy the content more.

Q: Will you increase the droprates of all instances or only outdoor bosses in 2.0?


A: Instances as well. The new instances are already increased between what Korea has and what we’ll be getting. And with 1.9, we tweaked a couple of droprates as well. We’ll have more information on more changes in the next couple of months.

Q: Is there any information about what the next expansion is going to be after 2.0 and around when players will be able to see it?


A: We don’t have any information on it yet. I can tell you that I’ve had a couple of conversations with the development team on the topic and I can tell you it’s pretty cool. But we don’t have an official date, title or anything like that. But they are working on it and it is pretty cool.



So that's the interview created directly from the questions that you folks asked. Stay tuned for more as we were also very lucky to have an interview with the Wonder Girls at the launch party (complete with photos!).

Cheers,

Snoozle

The latest eye on the community finally answers a major question that people such as puremallace have been asking in Aion Discussion - xp will not reset in 2.0 and soul debt will not be forgiven.

They also provide several guide links, although they missed our very own guide for Taloc's instance from VashioKun. I wanted to point out to the community that his guide is in the guides section right now, because it's a very detailed guide with lots of images to help people through. I love those types of guides.

Quote

Cheers,

Snoozle

~Nukey~ Tells All - From the Korean Perspective

~Nukey~ is a member of our community who just happens to speak both Korean and English. He also plays on both the K-Aion server Siel and the NA server Vaizel as an Asmodian in the <MAYHEM> Legion (NA + Chinese + Korean Guild). He is somebody who knows more about what is happening in the Korean game version than we've been able to figure out with Google Translate (Google Translate has a personal vendetta against Snoozle creatures).

Without further ado, here's what ~Nukey~ wanted to tell us.





It sounds bad, but 1.5 to 1.9 ~Nukey~ did not accept Templars in his group, except for doing Tahabata "Easy mode" runs if some high dps was not on to get it done faster. Even if they were full 40 elite, 50 elite or fenris.... Now, ~Nukey~'s group is taking a Templar or not going.

Yes, everybody who rolled a Temp believing that they were the end game tank, who then discovered that everybody could use a Glad or maybe even a Sin for tanking, well, now you ARE the end game tank.

Hate is 100% fixed along with P.def now. If a ranger takes a mob from 100% to 10%, it is now possible to use voke + taunt and grab aggro on the mob from 10% to 0%. This was not possible with 1.51 or 1.9.

Why is a Templar tank needed? Here's a video that demonstrates the concept - look at 2:05 - 2:30 especially. The Templar goes from 14k to 0 in one shot. He didn't use the 4k DP + Iron Skin that he was supposed to use for the next 2-3 skills and died. The group just managed to recover.



2.0 end game bosses aren't able to be tanked without a Templar. Padmarashka and Sematariux have been attempted with a raid of 90 level 55 full eternally geared Koreans and they got it down to 75% at best with a 200,000 HP Governor Templar tanking. ~Nukey~ calls them Ped and Sed as they are the eternal god dragons.

They are the only two mobs in the game that have not been killed yet. They cast AOE/SLEEP/SILENCE/STUN/TREE/SLOW and can throw instant 10k-50k hits.

In PVP, Templars can be real beasts. Watch how he switches from GS to Mace + Shield depending on who he's fighting. Look at the weaving, the motions, and the 5-10+ banging on him while he can still kill people >____>!!!



And for those Templars who are out there that think they're geared, check the following out and drool.



Here are some videos ~Nukey~ has given us for our enjoyment. If you click on the links then it will take you to the full browser versions.










In Korea with version 2.0.1, the Divine fortress is fixed and the Balaur take it quite often. I believe NA will go live with 2.0.1. The Balaur fortresses go vulnerable 3-6 times compared to the 1-3 in the regular abyss and the Balaur take them back like crazy.
The first two new forts for each faction are easy, with just sheer numbers. Around 300-400 per takeover.

The enemy faction forts are extremely difficult just because you need to move 500+ faction members through the canyon (which is all 55 elites + 55-57 legendary/heros with a large aggro radius), move into the enemy zone, and defeat faction "guard towers and defenses" (2-3 of them, because you are not going to glitch or glide or chance a 300-500+ raid on mountains). Once in the enemy land and in position, players need to take both artifacts before attempting a successful attempt on a fort. Artifacts are the safest spot to kisk after using 2 of them. The following are some videos showing important parts of the new fort system.

Gelkmaros Dragons/Balaurs Taking Back a Fort

NC-KOREA finally addressed the issue of preventing an "imbalance in gear" when there is one faction overwhelmingly in power. If The Elyos have 0 forts and the Amso have all 4 of the new Forts, then the Elyos Govenor will spawn in 2 hours at the "outpost center", located in the mid-eastern part of the Ingg. map. On a side note, Korean's do come prepared to Siege (that's 50-60M in weapons alone below).



The benefits of one faction having the four forts are as follows.

• Pet's are available for questing once the 4 forts are taken. Yes, the mystery Shugo is obtained from a fort quest on the enemy faction's forts.
  
• You are unable to craft the Orange to Orange Eternal proc without owning 4 forts ( Craft-able items from the NPCS). If you are a master crafter.
  
• Quest items are obtained by taking the enemy faction forts, losing them, and retaking the forts again.

The question everyone on these forums and the official ones have is "How the heck do I do the quest <Blessing to the Agent>" (editor's note: there is a version for all the weapon types on the Armory). There is a 117,000 kinah item available from the general goods vendor.



Well, it is Part #1 of 4 for the lvl 54 extendable weapons quest. If the Elyos (as a group) use 100 of these items total on their Governor, then the Governor will use (1 time only) an "insta gib move" to the other faction. The Regional Governor is absolutely Insane. It has wiped 400-700 players in Korea with using that single move. It is very hard to recover without kisks.



For the quest, players need to use 10 of these items, to complete 1/30 for the part #1 of the quest. In total it costs around 32,000,000 to complete 30/30 repeats for the "generator" to "heal" your faction's governor.

With that being said, The Asmo council will have to give up the 4 forts to the elyos and not defend or attack in order to start the quest. On the flip side... When either faction attacks the other faction's forts and *gains the most AP + CP for their legion* They obtain a special quest item in the mail.

The item is as follows: Mastarius's Favor

So on the Korean servers, the dominating faction takes the other sides forts over and over, and loses them on purpose to obtain the quest items. When "the player base" decides they are ready they keep the forts, they turn in the 9 quest items for this weapon for example.

When the Governor spawns and is killed, the players receive god-stones, enchantment stones, quest starting rewards and the coveted "quest item". It is possible to turn in that item plus the golden item for an eternal item, such as this weapon. After a player completes the 5/5 armor plus the weapon, they are given the "chain" unlocked quest to turn in for the eternal.





Level 55 Eternal Weapon's do drop with some of the best PVE stat's in the game. One example is Yamennes' Tome, although the 19% is a cast speed increase and not an attack speed increase.

Some new information is that the Divine Splinter Drops *ACTUAL PVP DEF% + ATTACK% gear* lvl 52-55 golds with 4-slots. Comparable or better to lvl 50 elite shirts.



The Inggison/Gelkmaros set is an amazing set that is fairly cheap to obtain, even if you have Fenris. Many Korean sin's for example have this set stacked with 100% MR. Along with the new sin skill that gives +500 MR + (-200 MR) for the enemy by using lightning slash. So +700MR from skills plus all the MR from the set bonus and socketed. I will be obtaining mine.

It is only 13,000,000 Total for 5/5 Set at around 10-15 days of "grinding". Here's an example shirt.

• 2M for Gloves Killl XXX Mobs obtain XXX items repeat 40x times X 50k
  
• 2M for Shoes Killl XXX Mobs obtain XXX items repeat 40x times X 50k
  
• 2M for Shoulders Killl XXX Mobs obtain XXX items repeat 40x times X 50k
  
• 3M Pants Killl XXX Mobs obtain XXX items repeat 20x times 150k per turn in x 20 times = 3M
  
• 4M Shirt Killl XXX Mobs obtain XXX items repeat 20x times 200k Kinah per turn in X 20 times = 4M

People have gotten full Vielle/Mastarius sets (the quest series is detailed in a section above), but if you're talking about the "eternal gear set" then the answer is no. 500-2,000 Koreans lead to the Gov's drop of 2-4 Eternals (100% eternal drop rate confirmed by Korean DEV on playforum.net/aion). Everyone who helped with the kill will get godstones, enchantment stones, and the quest item (the really good item you want) in the mail.



Here's a picture of the Ing/Gel armor quests from the Korean version. It's the same as in the NA version.



The level 53 craftable eternal set is available for players too. Things like the Master Carved Hoca Tunic can be made by players.







~Nukey~ has been able to identify that dueling should not be affected by the defense buff obtained whenever you're in a lower level homeland area. This means that right now, the PTS and Korean versions differ in at least that manner. We know that the swimsuits aren't in the NA version either. ~Nukey~ believes that all other factors are the same between the PTS and the Korean version - this includes the guards.





~Nukey~'s favorite part, because he loves both PVE & PVP and doesn't just side one with aspect of the game....

FREE ( haha nothing's free in life ) Eternal RING + NECKLACE + EARRING from quests!

The steps needed for this quest are:

• Take 24 hopefully level 55 char's ( usually take another full alliance with you, to guard you in PVP)
  
• Kill 3 Hero lvl 55 red bar Guards
  
• Spend Kinah
  
• Get Free Eternals: ring quest, necklace quest, and the earring quest

Both factions guard these (NPCS) insanely on the Korean servers! They don't want the other faction to obtain free externals. The kinah amounts are incorrect on the website for NA too. It should be a 20M Neck, 15M Earring, and 10M ring.





Since Asmo's often complain about being under geared compared to the Elyos, here's a "hidden" quest for them. The Elyos can figure out the quest for their side themselves.













So that's the interview that ~Nukey~ gave us over PM's and he is looking forward to seeing everybody in 2.0. I personally am looking forward to dusting off my Templar for the uber tanking experiences of 2.0.



Cheers,

Snoozle