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Hello, guys, here is Aion. As we all know, recently we are always release the news of Aion1.9 update and 2.0 patch, right? Aion news is coming fast and furious of late, as Massively brings you another exclusive interview with Lead Producer Chris "Kinslon" Hager. Last week we spoke about the 1.9 update, currently slated to hit the live servers in early June, as well as the general state of the game. So today we are going to talk about the Aion 2.0 patch due in the Fall, as well as take the wraps off the new teaser trailer direct from Korea. Finally, we've got some exclusive screenshots of the new content in action.
Got all that? Good. Check out the screenshot gallery below, and fly on over to page two for the interview and video.
Massively: We've all perused the lengthy translated patch notes for 2.0 and there's some good stuff in there. Will all of it make it into the American client or are there things unique to different versions of the game? If so, can you give an example of what might be in the Korean 2.0 that isn't in the American 2.0 or vice versa?
Pretty much everything is coming to America. There are a couple of things in regards to fortress siege timers and things that we already changed here in the West and our players are content with. Energy of Repose, the rest experience, we changed that prior to Korea. So out of 1.9 Energy of Repose is the 2.0 Energy of Repose, and Korea just changed their system to reflect ours.
The notes feature a lot of tweaks to the UI, but no mention of additional hotbars or any kind of UI customization (for example, a player might want to put the radar on the left rather than the right, etc). Any plans to add this functionality for 2.0? If not, any particular reason why not?
1.9 brings in two additional hotbars -- floating hotbars, that allow you to customize them and move them all around. When you count up all the hotbars we have, we have 6 hotbars and 10 different rows. We feel the players are really good as hotbars go.
As far as additional UI customization, such as moving around the other UI elements, we're looking into that as we're always looking to make the UI more user-friendly. We wanted to concentrate on content enhancements, so we can get all of that content in there, and work on the UI in an ongoing process. It just wasn't our primary focus for Aion 2.0.
The pet system notes mention an alertive pet that will warn its owner of nearby enemy players. Can you talk about this in a little more detail, for example, what is the range, are there any ways to counter/avoid the pet detection, etc.
We haven't gotten into a lot of depth of testing here at NC West yet. We'll be forthcoming with that information once we get the data and do the extensive testing with 2.0.
With the Multi-type pet, the notes say 'more than one function.' Are there certain combinations for this or are there uber-pets that are alertive/warehouse/productive all-in-one?
There are a bunch of different types of functionality (insert pet types here) and we're always going to have additional pet types, especially down the road we might have multiple pets. But right now, the pets are one use only, and we might do "multi-use" pets down the road.
The patch notes mention that kisks can no longer be installed 'in certain areas.' Can you elaborate on this? Are there certain well-known kisk locations that NCsoft considers to be exploits?
There's one specific area that comes to mind, and that's fortress sieges. There are specific areas that are prone to having kisks placed on them. While it's not exactly an exploit, it's pretty close, and that's one of the areas where the development team was targeting. I think that's one of the areas that won't be allowed in the future, or will be limited. 2.0 also brings a whole bunch of new kisk types out there, like ones that look like water or sand. We're not trying to dissuade users from using kisks, just so they're not used in ways that are unfair to everybody.
Similarly, can you explain the changes that have been made that prevent players from staying for extended periods of time in certain regions of Elysea, Asmodae, and the Abyss? How long and which regions? Is this in response to player complaints about 'griefing' and forced PvP due to rifting?
This is about player griefing using rifts and staying in areas. Players will level up, use Abyss points, get PvP gear, and then park in a zone and terrorize that zone for hours, days, weeks at a time. It's something that's decent in the short term, a couple hours or days, but not something for long term camping of sites. It turns from a neat game feature to a griefing tactic, if you're killing the same player every day for two weeks. We want to keep that system fun, but take away the incentive to grief.
They're looking into tweaking the rift system to then further allow players not to grief. But if players want to come in for a few hours, the fun still isn't taken away.
How do you foresee the new windstream and geyser mechanics affecting gameplay? Are there portions of the new zones that are only accessible via the updrafts and streams?
The trailer we're releasing actually goes more in-depth with this system and the geyser system. It gives players a new way to travel using wings, so you can use your wings longer and make them feel like a truly connected part of the game.
But you can actually use geysers to get to new areas. I know on the one map that you can use a geyser, pop up, and glide into a great crater where they are monsters, so this is great for explorers.
There are two types of windstreams: one where you have to fly in it until the end, and a more gentle one that allows you to hop in and out of the stream. It's going to give the players a lot more freedom of movement, freedom of travel, and it's just a new way to travel. It keeps you immersed in the game, which is what I really like about it.
You mentioned Fall 2010 as a target date for 2.0 in your recent community letter. Do you foresee the update going on the test servers a good while prior to live, or will most of the testing and tweaking be ported over from Korea? (Speaking mainly in regard to all the new 50-55 skills being added, and how they will affect game balance, and also the relatively short one week time frame between 1.9 test and 1.9 live).
When we get a client, it's already been through the rigors of the Korean servers, but we always like to check our added files and our localization files. Now, 1.9 is a fast turn-around time because we wanted to get the content to the players quickly.
However, 2.0 will have a longer PTS soak time because of all of the content in it. It's more content for us to check, and it's more content for the players to play through. While 1.9 was more system changes, Aion 2.0 is content changes, and I anticipate that we'll be keeping it on the public test servers longer.
The localization testing is almost as important as the functionality testing that Korean testing does. If there's a misplaced tag in the text it could create an issue as bad as keeping a campaign quest from being completed or crashing the system. Plus, when you take it from Korean to English, and then English to other languages, it compounds the problem. So that's why it's fast, but we still want to check.
Any final thoughts?
To go along with the 2.0 update, we're actually naming it "Assault on Balaurea". This next update will have both Elyos and Asmodian forces finding Balaurea, the land of the Balaur. Balaur is actually on the outside of the planet, and the players are now taking the fight to the homeland on the outside, and that's where the players will be doing the 50-55 content.
Players will be tracking down exploring parties that never came back, and exploring Balaurea, and the lore really solidifies the entire 2.0 experience. And there will be additional areas opened in Balaurea in the future. I've been looking forward to it. I've been on the Korean PTS for a while now, and I'm excited as a player because it offers solo level instances at 18 and 37 -- we have tweaks to skills at the lower ends. Plus, I'm a sucker for running through instances, enjoying the really great story, and getting great loot from the bosses at the end. So that's the stuff that excites me about 2.0, and I hope it excites our players as well.
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