[Aion] Is Now Completely Free To Play. 3.0 Is Now Live.

The Dude With Herpes

Thought I'd throw this out there. Just got an email saying this:

Get ready to dive in with both wings! We're reactivating all accounts that are inactive prior to June 1, 2011 (no banned or trial accounts, sorry) in time to let you join in for a free taste of the new content and features of Aion 2.5. And every day you log in during the reactivation celebration, you get free in-game digital items, ranging from a new Ninja Motion Card to versatile Platinum Medals!

Reactivation Starts: June 3, 2011 on 8 a.m. PDT
Reactivation Ends: June 13, 2011 on 8 a.m. PDT

So if you're in good standing, and have previously paid for an account, you should be reactivated June3-June13 for free.

So I guess I'll get to check out 2.5 after all. Too bad I don't currently have a PC that can handle the graphics upgrade but eh, I'll give it a looky loo.

Silas Brown

Goddamnit. I resubscribed like a week ago!

The Dude With Herpes

Damnit, I can't see you post without getting that fucking song stuck in my head.

Thanks

ass

Silas Brown

From the grave, Elemenstors strike again 8-)

Magic Pink

So what's the cheapest way to play this? Can I download it and just start doing the 14.99 sub price if I like it or do I need to pay for an activation key?

The Dude With Herpes

You still need to buy a key; but you should be able to get it fairly cheap. You can buy it via their online store (listed as Assault on Balaurea as that's the "default" game now) for $29.99. Amazon has it for $19.99 if you want to wait; there's also a listing for the base game for $4 on amazon. Assault on Balaurea was just the 2.0 patch. They put out a retail package for it but if you already owned the game you got it for free. What the box did for previous owners was give them some in-game pets or somesuch and a free month if they purchased it.

The Dude With Herpes

Silas Brown wrote: »

From the grave, Elemenstors strike again 8-)

The new Legion cloaks look freaking awesome. Makes me wish the whole PA Legion things had panned out and players didn't drop off so fast. Of course, I'm one of the droppers but still. :lol:

Magic Pink

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

You still need to buy a key; but you should be able to get it fairly cheap. You can buy it via their online store (listed as Assault on Balaurea as that's the "default" game now) for $29.99. Amazon has it for $19.99 if you want to wait; there's also a listing for the base game for $4 on amazon. Assault on Balaurea was just the 2.0 patch. They put out a retail package for it but if you already owned the game you got it for free. What the box did for previous owners was give them some in-game pets or somesuch and a free month if they purchased it.

So I can't just buy the 4$ box and make it work, right?

Silas Brown

Which server will you be playing on during your free activation week, Herpes?

The Dude With Herpes

Magic Pink wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

You still need to buy a key; but you should be able to get it fairly cheap. You can buy it via their online store (listed as Assault on Balaurea as that's the "default" game now) for $29.99. Amazon has it for $19.99 if you want to wait; there's also a listing for the base game for $4 on amazon. Assault on Balaurea was just the 2.0 patch. They put out a retail package for it but if you already owned the game you got it for free. What the box did for previous owners was give them some in-game pets or somesuch and a free month if they purchased it.

So I can't just buy the 4$ box and make it work, right?

afaik you should be able to. A game key is still a game key.

EDIT: It's been awhile Silas but IIRC my Elyos were on Yustiel and Asmo were on Zekiel. That sounds right. I only really played my Elyos much though, since that's the side that got an absurd amount of kinah when my account was hacked and I kept it :lol: My old Templar felt dirty though so I had remade him and I don't think I had gotten very high last time I played.

Silas Brown

Heh I remember that. I think I was raging that you were levelling so much faster than me and it turned out you weren't even really playing.

Magic Pink

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

You still need to buy a key; but you should be able to get it fairly cheap. You can buy it via their online store (listed as Assault on Balaurea as that's the "default" game now) for $29.99. Amazon has it for $19.99 if you want to wait; there's also a listing for the base game for $4 on amazon. Assault on Balaurea was just the 2.0 patch. They put out a retail package for it but if you already owned the game you got it for free. What the box did for previous owners was give them some in-game pets or somesuch and a free month if they purchased it.

So I can't just buy the 4$ box and make it work, right?

afaik you should be able to. A game key is still a game key.

But will that get me this Assault On Bears expansion and what not?

Silas Brown

Magic Pink wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

You still need to buy a key; but you should be able to get it fairly cheap. You can buy it via their online store (listed as Assault on Balaurea as that's the "default" game now) for $29.99. Amazon has it for $19.99 if you want to wait; there's also a listing for the base game for $4 on amazon. Assault on Balaurea was just the 2.0 patch. They put out a retail package for it but if you already owned the game you got it for free. What the box did for previous owners was give them some in-game pets or somesuch and a free month if they purchased it.

So I can't just buy the 4$ box and make it work, right?

afaik you should be able to. A game key is still a game key.

But will that get me this Assault On Bears expansion and what not?

The expansion itself is free. Assault on Balaurea is basically a big update. The AoB box is just the game discs that are slightly more up to date and also comes with a code for a free pet or something. The only difference to you if you get the "vanilla" game is a longer patching time and no free pet.

The Dude With Herpes

If even that.

There have been patches since 2.0, and I imagine the 2.5 patch is pretty damn hefty.

Whatever box you buy (IMO go for the cheapest one if it's valid, no reason to invest in a game you might not enjoy; I regret paying the full $50 at launch, but I imagine time spent over time has panned out to make it worthwhile hour for hour) you're probably still better off at this point bypassing the disc installation and just doing a straight download of the whole game via the ncsoft launcher. It probably won't take any more time than installing off a dvd then patching.

spookymuffin

The 2.5 patch was 3.9 gigs. Took a while to patch, even at 900kbs. I haven't gotten to test drive it yet, due to me having to work, but I'm thinking about hitting it up when I get off work.

Elimination

All previous subscribers from before June 1'st who are not currently subbed get their accounts activated for 10 days starting on the 3rd. Just a heads up for those (like me) who want to check out the new changes and take a look.

Island

Not going to lie.... I resubbed to this a few days back...

AND

It's not bad... a little less grindy then it was before (more quests!), and I still love the art style.

Asmo's on Zizkel get (50) 50% XP tokens! Makes leveling super fast...

Each level you get a survey which gives you stuff. (Pots/scrolls/gear/weapons/etc) pretty cool.

Kinda wish I hadn't resubbed with the free time coming up....

Anyways if you are on the fence try it out... might be surprised!

(Between this and EVE, and Guild Wars and Steam sales and arrrggghhhhh I HAVE A PROBLEM)

Tcheldor

I'm enjoying my SM now. Got him to 26 from 16 in like 5-6 hours while making sure to do all the quests. I forgot how much I enjoyed this game

Elimination

I dont know if anyone else has seen this yet but Nvidia just sent me an e-mail with a free copy of Aion. Did anyone else get this?

If anyone wants my EU code (It came with an EU one and an NA one.) Go ahead and use this: ZCNM-RH4Y-RL59-98F9-AZTQ

Skeith

Hmm. Maybe I'll come back to this; is NCSoft's downloader totally awful still?

Transporter

Skeith wrote: »

Hmm. Maybe I'll come back to this; is NCSoft's downloader totally awful still?

Not sure, actually. The patcher's awesome, not sure about the straight downloader though.

Also roll Elyos Zikel Skeith DO ITS. I need someone to play with dammit.

Elimination

So anyone see an actual difference with the graphics update? All i see when i turn it on is tons and tons and tons of bloom, no more Anti-Aliasing options, and SSAO seems to be enabled, so theres slightly more shadowing to objects.

I also see some weird textures. They dont seem broken, just the colouring is a little off...

grouch993

I really liked the art and some of the game concepts. Just couldn't stand the fact that it was aimed towards ganking lower or less well equipped players. Anything done to address that problem? Besides making rifting nearly impossible?

Elimination

grouch993 wrote: »

I really liked the art and some of the game concepts. Just couldn't stand the fact that it was aimed towards ganking lower or less well equipped players. Anything done to address that problem? Besides making rifting nearly impossible?

Ganking has been gone for a long time now, since like...last year. You get massive debuffs for ganking lower levels now i believe.

Transporter

Elimination wrote: »

So anyone see an actual difference with the graphics update? All i see when i turn it on is tons and tons and tons of bloom, no more Anti-Aliasing options, and SSAO seems to be enabled, so theres slightly more shadowing to objects.

I also see some weird textures. They dont seem broken, just the colouring is a little off...

Pretty much the only significant thing is the shadowing on pretty much everything, and sunlight stuff.

Toothy

Ok, so I decided to try this out. Is there a reason everyone says Chanter blows? 'cause it seems like the kinda class that's right up my alley.

The Dude With Herpes

The screenshots of the new lighting and stuff makes some areas look significantly different. Also they seem to have a higher resolution picture of the world in the background. I could just be imagining that. It would be disappointing if it really didn't make that big of a difference because those videos/screens looked really nice.

However, I was under the impression that if the game decides that you don't have a machine that can handle the new graphics, it straight up won't let you turn them on. Maybe that's a problem? Or not?

I don't know. I guess I'll see in a week or so when the free time starts.

Also I just checked the Aion site and looks like my Elyos are on Vaizel and my Asmo's are on Zikel.

IIRC they all had server transfer tickets on them from the whole merge thing; but I don't recall if those were of limited duration or not. So if everyone is in a specific location checking things out, I would be happy to move as I have no connection on those servers at all. I could be remembering totally incorrectly however.

If you want to check where your characters are (if you played before), just go to the aion website and in the center of the toolbar click My Aion and search. If you haven't logged since the server merges last summer your character will have its basic name with a two letter code which was for the server they came from initially. But it'll still tell you what server they're now on.

Elimination

If my machine cant handle the graphics, neither can anyone elses. I can run The Witcher 2 on maximum, Metro 2033, Maximum with DX11 Rift, Maximum with Supersampling...everything I own can be run at max, lets put it that way. And i never drop below 40fps on any of them.

The graphics, there is definitely a difference between the two engines. It just isn't the difference they lead me to believe it would be. The omission of working Anti-Aliasing is especially bad.

The Dude With Herpes

It's probably because it's using an older Crytek engine, 2.5 or something. I know other games using older-ish engines have issues with any sort of HDR lighting and AA, Oblivion for instance can't do both.

Maybe they should have taken the effort put into upgrading the lighting system into just converting Aion over to the newest Crytek engine.

Elimination

Yeah as it stands it looks like they just cranked the bloom to 11 and put some extra shadows in.

Transporter

Toothy wrote: »

Ok, so I decided to try this out. Is there a reason everyone says Chanter blows? 'cause it seems like the kinda class that's right up my alley.

Chanter does not blow. Like, at all. The people who say it does are the kind of people you do not want to associate with anymore.

Not it doesn't do wtf dps, and it only has one class it outright wins against in PvP 1 on 1(Glad, the rest don't really go so well).

However, it's a near absolute necessity in any PvE or PvP group. You make people hit harder/harder to kill/faster then the other guys. While doing decent damage yourself. It's a win win in any group situation.

Silas Brown

And it's worth noting that group situations are pretty much what matters in Aion. One on one PvP is a joke. Either someone is outleveled or someone has the "winning class." Chanter is fuckawesome because many groups won't even run without one, and for good reason.

spookymuffin

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

Also I just checked the Aion site and looks like my Elyos are on Vaizel and my Asmo's are on Zikel.

This is where everyone's characters should be, if they had an account near launch. The way the servers merged, this is where all my characters ended up as well.

Hunter_Killers

I've been kicking around the idea of playing again, haven't actually played since last year. Currently on Siel Elyos with a 36 Gladiator/31 Cleric but don't really have alot holding me there other than the time spent on crafting/gathering.

Planning on checking it out again during the reactivation period.

Skeith

Transporter wrote: »

Skeith wrote: »

Hmm. Maybe I'll come back to this; is NCSoft's downloader totally awful still?

Not sure, actually. The patcher's awesome, not sure about the straight downloader though.

Also roll Elyos Zikel Skeith DO ITS. I need someone to play with dammit.

My asmo is on Zikel, apparently. There any way to move my kinah from asmo to Elyos?

Toothy

Transporter wrote: »

Chanter does not blow. Like, at all. The people who say it does are the kind of people you do not want to associate with anymore.

Not it doesn't do wtf dps, and it only has one class it outright wins against in PvP 1 on 1(Glad, the rest don't really go so well).

However, it's a near absolute necessity in any PvE or PvP group. You make people hit harder/harder to kill/faster then the other guys. While doing decent damage yourself. It's a win win in any group situation.

Ok, cool. I was pretty dead set on playing one. I'm not really planning on playing by myself, so it should go over swimmingly.

Transporter

Skeith wrote: »

Transporter wrote: »

Skeith wrote: »

Hmm. Maybe I'll come back to this; is NCSoft's downloader totally awful still?

Not sure, actually. The patcher's awesome, not sure about the straight downloader though.

Also roll Elyos Zikel Skeith DO ITS. I need someone to play with dammit.

My asmo is on Zikel, apparently. There any way to move my kinah from asmo to Elyos?

I don't believe so.

But you seriously don't even NEED any.

They now give you so much free shit when you level it's not even necessary.My 20 ranger is literally only spending kinah on training, and that's it.

And by free shit I mean, "HEY, YOU LEVELED, HERE'S SOME HEALTH POTS/MANA POTS/ TWO PIECES OF GREEN GEAR/WEAPON THAT IS ACTUALLY NOT BAD". Every. Single. Level. So far at least.

Also when my account got hacked, after sending in a GM petition that I was, you know, NAKED, without anything other then my one set of Daevonian armor with no stigmas on any character they apparently gave every one of my charaters a full set of greens and 600k spending money.

So I'm just sitting on 1.6million and growing with NOTHING TO SPEND IT ON.

Transporter

Also if anyone else is on Zikel and dosen't want to roam around without a guild tag/just want to kick it I has guild. Apparently I made one ages ago for some god forsaken reason. Just PM me and I'll get you in.

The Dude With Herpes

spookymuffin wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

Also I just checked the Aion site and looks like my Elyos are on Vaizel and my Asmo's are on Zikel.

This is where everyone's characters should be, if they had an account near launch. The way the servers merged, this is where all my characters ended up as well.

That's what I thought but now people are talking about Elyos on Zikel and what is this I don't even

spookymuffin

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

spookymuffin wrote: »

The Dude With Herpes wrote: »

Also I just checked the Aion site and looks like my Elyos are on Vaizel and my Asmo's are on Zikel.

This is where everyone's characters should be, if they had an account near launch. The way the servers merged, this is where all my characters ended up as well.

That's what I thought but now people are talking about Elyos on Zikel and what is this I don't even

People split up pretty hard after the game lost population, but everyone thats coming back for the free time should be on the same servers we're on. I'm part of a guild on Elyos/Vaizel (pretty casual, not OMG RAID HARD) if anyone wants in. I have a couple toons on Asmo/Zikel, but I never play there because dirty furbacks make me sick.