[Cynic]

Hey kids, as some of you may have noticed last night the Christmas patch was rolled out onto our shores. Straight away we noticed that things weren't quite adding up with the provided patch notes, Spiritmasters in particular.

NCSoft later updated their notes to include spiritmasters however the notes are still incomplete, lacking a lot of things we know have changed. On that note I've decided to write up a more extensive series of patch notes, chances are there have been changes even we've missed so please feel free to contribute :D

Warning: Not all of the legion/fortress related details have been confirmed considering how hard it is to test these things however the likelihood of this information being correct is fairly high. Do be sure to let us know if you see anything I haven't :D

What's really in your stocking.

Game Mechanic Changes

• Spiritmaster Pets have been granted the gift of flight, a sticky has been created in Aion Discussion regarding that also.
  
• Spiritmaster pet mechanics adjusted for aerial combat.

-When the player begins to fly, so to will the pet. The opposite is not always true.
-If either the pet or the spiritmaster is flying flight time of the summoner will be consumed.
-If the pet's flight speed is buffed the master's will be also, we assume the opposite is true (citation needed)
-The pet's speed will increase while flying.
-Once the summoner lands the pet will also when/if it gets in range.
-Whilst gliding only the move command is available for your pet.
-Your pet will attack aerial combatants however it can only be summoned on the ground.
-Pets do not receive falling damage.

• [B]Fortress Mechanics[/B] have been adjusted:

1. Fortress Guardians will now despawn after 30 minutes, there is still a five minute delay until their initial spawn. The 30 minute timer will not begin until then. The Divine Fortress is exempt from this with the bosses remaining for the full two hours.
2. Upon successful fortress defense not only will the defending legion receive medals but so to will the individuals who attended. In accordance with this the amount of medals distributed to each contribution bracket has been adjusted.

3. Contribution points (not AP) gained from killing PCs during fortresses has been lowered.
4. Medals are being shifted towards lower contributing players (see graph)

Event Updates:

• Holiday Event (The Solorius Festival)

[INDENT]-Holiday NPC's, Cheerful Decorations, and Festive Music located in both major cities
-Special Vendor NPC's that sell party favors for all to use
-Fireworks are now available from holiday NPCs.
-Functional pianos, toy store ones at that, have been added to the major cities.[/INDENT]

Added Content

[B]Costumes:[/B] Regional Costumes have been added. Available in the Divine Clothing stores where Solarius and other outfits are sold for a pretty solid fee you can dress up ;)

Dandy/Bustle:


Caftan/Sarafan:


Himation/Chiton:
http://static.plaync.co.kr/powerbook/aion/70/44/bd87edef55734f756aa4d2dd.jpg


Localization Changes:

• Renamed "Gains Stigma" to "Stigma Skill"
  
• Corrected the variables in the "Transformation: Guardian Deity General" skill for Asmodians II – V and Elyos III – IV from the incorrect lower level ones that were displayed
  
• Corrected the skill description and buff tooltip for "Dauntless Spirit I" to correct values
  
• Corrected the skill description for "Empyrean Fury I" to correct values
  
• Fixed NPC's Buri in Primum Landing and NPC Asellus in Teminon Landing inside of the Abyss from asking players to submit a petition
  
• Searching items in the Auction House is no longer case sensitive (uhh not new? o.o)
  
• Searching for other players is no longer case sensitive
  
• Shield Defense has been renamed to block.

Skill changes. (Not yet updated on AionArmory)

• Spiritmaster

Wing Root I - Skills - Aion cooldown time adjusted to 2 minutes, effect instantly removes 10% of flight. 3% every 3 seconds for every 30 seconds is then lost.
Spirit Disturbance I - Skills - Aion Crashing effect has been removed, damage effect increased.

Miscellaneous Changes:

• Restore timer for deleted characters over level 20 has been changed from 6mins to 7days
  
• 5.1/7.1 directional sound is now working.

Bug Fixes:

• Hair Dyes will no longer reset after 48 hours or future server restarts

Known Issues:

• Siege weapons cannot be activated after being deployed. We're currently working on a fix but have no set ETA at this time.
  
• Legion Emblems may reset after a server restart

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk315/DCynic/spacer.png

There's actually been a bit more added to the client however it hasn't been localzied yet so isn't available for most of you lot, a few may stumble across it though :D I hear that will be fixed pretty soon.

Regards and Merry Christmas,
- Cynic <3

[Sardoni]

O.o!

Yule tide indeed!

[Kryshael]

On a side note....I did notice that they had changed how many different channels were available in different zone. Was trying to camp Aishi for my sorc and was only able to switch between 3 channels instead of the normal 7. Not sure how many or which zones were actually affected by this.

[Tritos]

...i want a real live event. ; ;

[Furrybeans]

I noticed a few text changes mainly.

When logging out to the character selection screen the countdown actually tells you it will return you to the character screen, rather than "quitting".

A welcome change as it seemed ambiguous to me when I first started rifting - instead of "a rift to Asmodae has appeared" etc. it now says "a one-way rift to Asmodae has appeared" (or something similar, emphasising the fact each rift goes one way.)

I also hear that "Shield Defense" manastones are now called "Block" manastones.

[Carbonel]

Where is this toy story? :what:

[Kibo]

Cynic said:

4. Medals are being shifted towards lower contributing players (see graph)

I like. Giving players with lots of medals even more medals, successfully keeping them in the top, wasn't such a bright idea.

[Hyaline Breaker]

Also, if you haven't noticed, the "Shield Defense +x" Manastone was corrected to "Block +x".

[Ethos]

I'm starting to like this patch, and 30 min sieges will be interesting. Defending will finally be worth it now I guess with all the siege changes.

What's this extra content you talk about that's not yet been localized?

[Madruna]

Sweetness =D SM pet flying = OP!

[Matron]

Thanks Cynic!

[Asbodai]

Let's stick to the important stuff... where do I get my santa hat?

[Surge]

Good solid step forward with the fortress changes, good work NCSoft!

[TNO]

Aren't these changes half of the 1.6 patch?

[Cynic]

TNO said:

Aren't these changes half of the 1.6 patch?

And yet here they are on our servers, make of that what you will ;)

[PossumCraft]

Asbodai said:

Let's stick to the important stuff... where do I get my santa hat?

Seems the only festive clothing is the costume in the costume store that's been there since launch :P

[Kanojo]

It seems they also changed the way sound effects are played, so that the further away you are from the monster it gets quieter. It's a nice concept, however it made everything 3x louder when standing on top of a mob, and unless I stand within 5m of the target I can't hear the blast from my spells at all which tbh is really annoying. Good start but needs work.

[Asbodai]

PossumCraft said:

Seems the only festive clothing is the costume in the costume store that's been there since launch :P

So I could have got my Santa hat 3 months ago? ... /wrists

[TNO]

Does anyone else notice that the double xp buff also work for players above 35?

[Charliez]

What legion changes!?!