AionSource interviews Lani "Liv" Blazier about the upcoming 1.5.1 patch!

[Knite]

Hey everyone-

AionSource was recently given the opportunity to send in questions related to the announced 1.5.1 patch for Aion and our good friend Lani Blazier (aka Liv) was kind enough to answer them for us.

Be aware that this interview only covered questions about the first part of the 1.5.1 patch notes (thus a relatively short interview). We are expecting NCsoft to reveal details about the rest of the patch notes very soon and if more questions arise, we will see if we are able to shed some light on those as well.

For now, take a look at our exclusive interview and post your thoughts or questions below. And remember to check back for the anticipated second part of the 1.5.1 patch notes!

1) We've been told that 24/7 customer support is on the way and the new filter has really cut down spam in chat channels, but we are still seeing goldsellers sitting for days and days in personal shops in major cities (where they cannot be autoreported) with nothing being done to them. Can you elaborate if/when we will see in-game GMs on all servers taking care of these advertisements and, hopefully, bots as well?

• Our CS team is always hard at work providing a lot of support to different areas of the game. Because of their increased efforts, many players have already seen the results you’re talking about from RMT spamming in chat. We are also fighting other forms of exploitation (hacks, bots, etc) and while they aren’t visible, GMs are actively fighting against bots, and gold sellers.

2) The community has been working to help NCsoft find a fix for the memory leaks and crashing during fortress raids. Have there been any advancements with this issue? Is there a fix on the way in the near future?

• We have been actively communicating with the development team on fixes for this memory leak and are especially grateful to the community for the data they’ve been able to submit. The dev team is working on solutions and we hope to have something to announce soon.

3) The most recent patch notes for 1.5.1 show that defending legions can now gain medals for successfully holding a fortress but many people feel this will not be enough incentive for fortress defense. Can you clarify if only the controlling legion gains medals for defense, or is it the entire race? How can one legion be expected to defend against an entire race?

• For the medals, once a fortress has been successfully defended, the Brigade General of the fortress will receive the medals via in game mail, and will be responsible for distributing accordingly. This allows the Brigade General the ability to award those who actively participated in defending the fortress, both inside and out of his/her own legion.

4) When the experience and rewards for some quests are increased, as stated in the patch notes for version 1.5.1, what retroactive compensation will be available to players who have already completed the quests that undergo this change? Will players receive "back-dated" experience and rewards?

• We understand that this will be a concern, however, at this time there aren’t any plans to retroactively reward experience and rewards. The main purpose for making these changes were to even out areas where leveling and rewards were short, so folks that have already passed this have gotten over this hurdle and wouldn’t see as great of a benefit as those who are experiencing it right now.

5) The patch notes say, "Slightly reduced the EXP penalty due to the difference in the levels of group members when in a Group or Force." There are a lot of concerns that leveling solo is better than leveling in a group. Is this going to make a significant difference or are more changes planned?

• Leveling in a group is always beneficial because you can tackle more difficult mobs together with less rest. This update reduces the penalty so players are rewarded even more for grouping up. As of now there are no announced plans for more significant changes to group xp.

6) "Characters under Level 5 can no longer use the Search function on the Find Buddy window." With the latest patches, this means that beginning characters can no longer whisper, mail, or search. Several current players are concerned that this will make the game unfriendly for new players. What are the recommended ways for new players to communicate with each other in order to make friends before level 10?

• There still a number of ways new players can chat, in the local channel and in groups. In the first zone, there are two main points where new players tend to gather, and those are where hunting groups generally form. Hitting these areas will help new players meet folks that are doing similar quests and in turn build friends that will be around long after level 10.

7) When can we expect to see patch 1.5.1 live on Western servers?

• 1.5.1 is currently in the testing stage in the West and we hope to deploy it to all live servers in November.

8) We've heard that there will be more patch notes next week for us- will these also be for the 1.5.1 patch?

• Yes, the patch notes we are posting are part 2 of 1.5.1 update and will be included in the patch.

[Snoozle]

Thanks for the news!

[Sardoni]

Clearer definition on how ownership is determined would be an important caveat to this new defense system.

Does the quantity remain the same as an offense?

i.e. for defending Eastern Siel you now have:

http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/a...resses#hd54634

2 Gold Medals
(Top 10 Players)
3 Silver Medals
(20 Players)
2 Silver Medals
(30 Players)

20 gold medals, 120 silver medals in your mail?

[SirNiko]

Actually, I'd like to see an in-depth guide explaining how everything in the raid works.

The other night we interrupted and wiped an asmo raid on a Balaur controlled fortress when the boss was at <25%. The Elyos were in disarray at that point: half said we needed to clear out and let the boss "reset" or the Asmos would get the kill even if we finished it. The other half said bosses don't reset, and we need to kill the boss now. After some back and forthing and no boss reset, the Asmos regrouped and finished the job.

How does this work?

-SirNiko

[Deezlar]

he must be an Assassin... his evasion is awesome.

[Iceband]

1. Grouping is not a faster way to level...not at all, even with all same level toons, its still not faster than flat solo grinding. There needs to be a group xp bonus, intead of it cutting down on xp per member...IE it currently divides xx amount of xp by x number of groupmates...this is a crap design.

2. Your GM's epicfail if they cant clear out the same gold sellers in the same place for 3+ days now...not saying their not doing anything, what I am saying is...it APPEARS that your not doing anything when this blatent gold seller spam is in every single city hub in the game, the same char for day after day.

Pretty much everything else looks good to me.

[Sardoni]

Well a method to the madness would be apropos.

Example: If a legion doesn't know how they got ownership of the fort in the first place; it's kinda moot to defend something you don't know how you got.

It really deludes the "accomplishment" if you have nothing tangible to point to or to "brag" about.

[Ephrum]

Defending. Giving all defense medals to the owning legion's leader, then counting on him not to nyerk them all and give them out?



Lulz. Good plan bro.

[Razmus]

Originally Posted by Knite

We are also fighting other forms of exploitation (hacks, bots, etc) and while they aren’t visible, GMs are actively fighting against bots, and gold sellers.

I feel like I am being lied to when I read this. We have all seen it, the SAME bots in the SAME locations for days on end. Any good GM could spend 1 hr in each server and take out most of the bots. Seriously....hire one guy on an 8 hr shift Mon-Fri. Problem solved. I'd do it for half minimum wage. The other half of my wage would be payed in the sweet feelings of revenge as the bots are banned.

The rest of the article was a good read, but this one statement is bull.

Originally Posted by Ephrum

Defending. Giving all defense medals to the owning legion's leader, then counting on him not to nyerk them all and give them out?



Lulz. Good plan bro.

I think it is safe to say if this happened, the players in the legion would mass quit and the legion would soon fail. Nobody is getting away with hogging medals. Well they will get away with it once, but thats it lol.

[darkanthony]

good try, but terrible outcome. try again ncsoft

[Shadowstryke]

Originally Posted by Razmus

I think it is safe to say if this happened, the players in the legion would mass quit and the legion would soon fail. Nobody is getting away with hogging medals.

I think this is what he is referring to:

Legion A owns the fortress, time comes to defend
Legions B, C, and D come to aid legion A in defending
They succeed in defending and the leader of Legion A recieves the medals in the mail
Now from the way it was put it is now up to the leader of Legion A to go and pass out the medals to not only his legion but to the members of Legions B, C, and D
But the leader of Legion A is a nyerk and therefore only passes out medals to the members of his legion and screws the other legions that helped in defending

If this is how the system is being set up where you have to trust another legion's leader to pass out the medals to people outside of his own legion then forget anyone coming to help and thereby still not having a properly functioning castle defense system that will encourage people to actually try and defend the castle they own or help another legion defend theirs, not to mention that I'm sure alot of random pugs also attend and help so they would also lose out.

I mean do they expect the leader of the legion controling the castle to sit and watch and take down the names of all those who participate and grade each person themself and determine who deserves what and who does'nt, cause that just screams of people screwing others over intentionally.

[Ephrum]

Originally Posted by Shadowstryke

I think this is what he is referring to:

Legion A owns the fortress, time comes to defend
Legions B, C, and D come to aid legion A in defending
They succeed in defending and the leader of Legion A recieves the medals in the mail
Now from the way it was put it is now up to the leader of Legion A to go and pass out the medals to not only his legion but to the members of Legions B, C, and D
But the leader of Legion A is a nyerk and therefore only passes out medals to the members of his legion and screws the other legions that helped in defending

If this is how the system is being set up where you have to trust another legion's leader to pass out the medals to people outside of his own legion then forget anyone coming to help and thereby still not having a properly functioning castle defense system that will encourage people to actually try and defend the castle they own or help another legion defend theirs, not to mention that I'm sure alot of random pugs also attend and help so they would also lose out.

I mean do they expect the leader of the legion controling the castle to sit and watch and take down the names of all those who participate and grade each person themself and determine who deserves what and who does'nt, cause that just screams of people screwing others over intentionally.

Exactly, thank you for understanding Shadow.

[coolgy]

Originally Posted by Shadowstryke

I think this is what he is referring to:

Legion A owns the fortress, time comes to defend
Legions B, C, and D come to aid legion A in defending
They succeed in defending and the leader of Legion A recieves the medals in the mail
Now from the way it was put it is now up to the leader of Legion A to go and pass out the medals to not only his legion but to the members of Legions B, C, and D
But the leader of Legion A is a nyerk and therefore only passes out medals to the members of his legion and screws the other legions that helped in defending

If this is how the system is being set up where you have to trust another legion's leader to pass out the medals to people outside of his own legion then forget anyone coming to help and thereby still not having a properly functioning castle defense system that will encourage people to actually try and defend the castle they own or help another legion defend theirs, not to mention that I'm sure alot of random pugs also attend and help so they would also lose out.

I mean do they expect the leader of the legion controling the castle to sit and watch and take down the names of all those who participate and grade each person themself and determine who deserves what and who does'nt, cause that just screams of people screwing others over intentionally.

And then next time you dont help them.. simple as that. What goes around comes around. Legions who dont share their medals with other legions helping them will be alone on the battlefield next seige.

[bugs77ca]

The medal idea is so gonna work.....

[Nakorox]

Originally Posted by Razmus

I feel like I am being lied to when I read this. We have all seen it, the SAME bots in the SAME locations for days on end. Any good GM could spend 1 hr in each server and take out most of the bots. Seriously....hire one guy on an 8 hr shift Mon-Fri. Problem solved. I'd do it for half minimum wage. The other half of my wage would be payed in the sweet feelings of revenge as the bots are banned.

The rest of the article was a good read, but this one statement is bull.



I think it is safe to say if this happened, the players in the legion would mass quit and the legion would soon fail. Nobody is getting away with hogging medals. Well they will get away with it once, but thats it lol.

I think the comment was about giving some of the medals to assisting legions. Of course they would be shared within the receiving legion...