Community Notices, Cube Expansions & Gaming Conventions!

[Cynic]

As Halloween comes to a close it seems NCWest is on a chatter storm.

Also be sure to make your entires to Aionsource's Mystery Event!

Eye on Community 10.30.09

Navalie, Templar on [ENG]Telemachus, asks:

"Many are complaining that it gets too slow to level up on some levels. When are you going to do something about that?"

Character progression is a complicated matter. Look at the famous board game, Monopoly. If each player started the game with twice the amount of money or a set of properties already owned, the challenge would be reduced, and ultimately the game would not be as enjoyable. However, the game would not run for as long, and you would more quickly get to the point where you manage the red hotels, which-let's face it-is good fun.


We want Aion to be as enjoyable as we can make it. We realize that the rate of progression is a little bit too slow in certain areas of the game right now, and we recognize that there are things that can be done to improve that. We want players to be able to reach the Abyss in a timely manner so that they can go head-to-head with the opposing faction, but we also want them to enjoy the game's lore and reach immersion in the world of Atreia. The golden middle road is the one we are aiming for. The recently posted Aion 1.5.1 patch notes highlighted a few imminent actions we are taking to increase the speed of progression:

• We are increasing the experience reward of a lot of quests. Many of these are in the level 15–30 range.
• We are increasing the experience gained from gathering and crafting.
• We are slightly reducing the experience penalty applied due to the difference in levels of group members when a character is in a group or raid alliance.

As we move forward, we have more plans to not only include more quest experience boosts for the higher levels, but also infuse the game with a flow of new content and new mechanics that ensure that gameplay is fun and entertaining.

* * *

Another week has passed, and we're rapidly nearing the Halloween weekend. We introduced a couple of forum updates with our latest website maintenance (post bumping!) and took a stab at creating a scary Aion character with Aion's character customization system (send us your own creations to aion_community@ncsoft.com).


Without further ado, let's have a look at the community happenings you sent to us this week!


Aion Pumpkins from Legio XIX

Pumpkin carving is one of the reasons why we love Halloween. Granted, it's messy, and yes, it takes time and patience, but it's an art form with great potential to produce masterpieces! I definitely suggest that you take a look at awitelintsta's carved Aion vegetables. They're pretty nice.


Tora's Art Study

Toraneka set up a thread over at Aionsource for a couple of Aion character sketches she made. Looking good so far!


Eye on Community article is a way for us to highlight cool stuff each week that you do. Keep your submissions coming to aion_community@ncsoft.com.



Fly safe,
Aion Community Team

Aion Veteran Rewards are in Sight!

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned that Veteran Rewards, fine loot destined to fill the treasure chests of our most steadfast Aion players, are on the horizon. The concept is simple: The longer you play our game, the cooler things you get! Aion's Veteran Rewards will first be available on November 4, and at that point, those of you who have played the game for a month or more will be able to redeem your treats.

The first reward package will contain an Expand Cube Ticket to expand your inventory space, a Pop Legend dance emote to get funky with, four Lodas Amulets to boost your experience gain, and four Revival Stones to bring life and light when things look grim.

Visit our Veteran Rewards page to find out more!

Aion comes to DreamHack Winter - Bring Your Snowsuit!

DreamHack Winter is one of the largest PC festivals in the world and annually hosts more than 10,000 LAN-partying gamers for three full days. This year's iteration of the festival takes place between November 26 and 29 in Jönköping, Sweden.

We are bringing an entourage of 16 fully decked out Aion gaming stations for anyone who hasn't yet tried the game to DreamHack! Representatives of the Aion team will be staffing our booth. They'll be there to help you answer questions and to show you the ropes in Atreia. Once Aion gets all of your friends properly hooked, we will have demo serial codes to give to your friends so that they can try the game a bit more before committing to a purchase. The demo serial codes will run for three days, five game play hours, or seven levels, whichever comes first.

Our festival schedule offers a hot Aion PvP tournament where brave battle teams will duke it out against each other in our booth. Shiny prizes (loot!) will be provided by Razer and SteelSeries, given to the victors in the tournament's prestigious DreamArena finals.

Our Swedish Aion fansite has also arranged for festivities. If the thought of being surrounded by other Aion fans for three days nonstop appeals to you, then the following seat numbers might just be worth staying nearby: D22:65-D22:51 and D21:66-D21:52. Fansite staff, members, and several prominent Scandinavian Legions will be present to hold the Aion banner high and steady.

DreamHack still has spots available, whether as a visitor or to partake in the full event. Don't miss it!

And that sums us up for NCWest recaps for now, happy gaming all and see you in the Abyss!

Later,
Pumpkin-Head Man Cynic <3

[Deezlar]

Nice recap and good info.

the recent patch notes eeked another month out of me, so maybe its the saving grace for the game!! They genuinely seem to listen to the players issues, rather than assume we are idiots that will pay to play no matter what!

++++++ for Aion right now. A month from now, that could change =P

(EDIT: I dont wish for that to sound like me staying for 1 more month is the saviour of the game =P I just mean more people will continue their subs for 1+ months on the strength of the patch! )

[Landar486]

no news on the crashing issue?

[Deezlar]

Originally Posted by Landar486

no news on the crashing issue?

been said already that the Korean dev team are looking into this one.

Basically meaning that the Organ grinder (koreans) rather than the monkeys (EU/US) are working on it. Expect a pretty nippy fix for this!! Obviously in computing terms that could be weeks or years!!!

[murasamune]

Originally Posted by Deezlar

Nice recap and good info.

the recent patch notes eeked another month out of me, so maybe its the saving grace for the game!! They genuinely seem to listen to the players issues, rather than assume we are idiots that will pay to play no matter what!

++++++ for Aion right now. A month from now, that could change =P

(EDIT: I dont wish for that to sound like me staying for 1 more month is the saviour of the game =P I just mean more people will continue their subs for 1+ months on the strength of the patch! )

ya i totally agree

and i think ncsoft has an understanding that if they pump out content and patches they'll get their subs

[Hwin]

Christmas should be good in Aion and Seattle if the current player base sees these promises effected in 2 to 3 weeks time. Aion is still "new" in the west so Ill still say wait and see on what is delivered.

[VendorTrash]

comparing Aion to Monopoly....really?

[Zookz]

Whether they compared it to monopoly or not, their point is still valid.

I'd rather they not push it too far, or leave it as bad as it is now. It needs to be a good medium.

[Sardoni]

I call Park Place

[Lewelle]

YouTube - Creepiest 4 minutes of children's TV ever (wiggles)

YouTube - Creepiest 4 minutes of children's TV ever (wiggles)

[Jazdevi]

Wow, thanks NCSoft, increase quest exp !

Oh wait... i'm lvl 40+ so i won't get any quest exp increases at my level.. figures since there's no quests at this lvl anyway

Well anyways, i'm having fun on my SM, only took a few hours to reach 22... insane ^^

[chorda]

Originally Posted by Cynic

• We are increasing the experience reward of a lot of quests. Many of these are in the level 15–30 range.

Wait what? How about increasing xp rewards for 38+ quests, some of them are absolutely ridiculous. And please scale the experience given by mobs better, I get 33k from killing lv 43 enemies (3 levels higher than me).

[Remii]

While it is a good start, we need more changes!

[Eg1]

We are increasing the experience reward of a lot of quests. Many of these are in the level 15–30 range.

Note it says many so maybe the few quests we get post 30 will have increased xp? I would rather see a few more quests in the post 30 range than increased xp, it's quick enough to level we just need more motivators to grind the PvE content

[Anrynn]

Originally Posted by Deezlar

been said already that the Korean dev team are looking into this one.

Basically meaning that the Organ grinder (koreans) rather than the monkeys (EU/US) are working on it. Expect a pretty nippy fix for this!! Obviously in computing terms that could be weeks or years!!!

Mmmhhh, I've been leveling slowly because of this effing bug. But if its not fixed soon there's no point in continuing playing this game as I wont be able to participate in End Game.....

As I understood it the bug wasnt present before the 1.5 Patch. So... roll back the files that the techs messed up?