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AION: Great MMO or GREATEST MMO
LoM2
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System Requirements
The systems Aion will be running on today at Gstar were optimized for performance. I believe the suggested specs will be slightly higher than Lineage 2. (Note: For reference, the suggested specs for L2 are Pentium 4 2.4GHz or better, 1GB RAM or more and GeForceFX 5700 or better)
~Source
Engine:
The engine that is currently being used for Aion is the CryENGINE that was developed by Crytek as a demo. Shortly after it's creation Crytek and Ubisoft realized it's potential and used it in it's first game Far Cry. Soon enough it made it's way into Aion.
~CryENGINE
Plot:
"In Aion, players are divided between those that are "The Chosen" and those that are "The Fallen." The Tower of Eternity exists as a gateway into the Abyss, and acts as a portal between dimensions. When a great evil opens the gateways, it awakens the Dragons imprisoned within the Abyss, who seek revenge on both worlds. It is here that an epic conflict begins, as you take your first steps on a journey to bring salvation to the world."
~Source
"In Aion: The Tower of Eternity, players must choose a side between two warring factions: the Chosen or the Fallen. Once their world was whole; a perfect union joined at the center by The Tower of Eternity. When a great catastrophe shattered The Tower of Eternity, it split the world into two halves - and awoke the Dragons, a warring race exiled within the extra-dimensional Abyss. The Dragons now seek revenge on both of these new worlds, sparking an epic conflict. The part you play, the side you choose and the decisions you make will help determine the ultimate fate of Aion."
~Source
Factions:
There are 3 factions in Aion, 2 of which are playable. The two playable factions are The Chosen and The Fallen.
~The Chosen:
The Chosen live in the lower portion of the World of Aion which is said to be "more alive, vibrant." (Ju-hyun Jang, Producer)
~The Fallen:
The Fallen live in the upper portion of the World of Aion which is "more somber... darker." (Ju-hyun Jang, Producer)
~The Dragons:
The third faction which are server-controlled are the dragons. "The (Dragons) are a server-controlled NPC faction, so players cannot choose to play them. However, just because they are controlled by the server doesn't mean they are stupid; they can make choices, and players will never quite know what they are going to do. For example, imagine a castle siege-style scenario, where one of the player factions, the (Fallen), is attacking the (Chosen) faction's castle. In the middle of this siege, the Yong may appear. When they arrive, no-one will know what they are going to do. They may have previously helped the (Fallen), but that doesn't matter; in the siege, they might betray them and help the (Chosen). Or they might help the (Fallen) to siege the (Chosen's) castle. Or... they might try and take the castle for themselves, fighting against both the (Chosen) and the (Fallen). The important thing to realize is that the (Dragons) are not typical NPCs. They are the third faction in the game, and they have free will, which makes them very unpredictable." (Ju-hyun Jang, Producer)
~Factions
Unfortunately there have been no pictures released of The Fallen faction yet. All the people that are seen in the screenshots and concept art have been from The Chosen or The Dragon factions. However, it has been said that The Fallen are "darker and more opulent."
~Source
Classes:
There's not a lot known about the different classes other than pictures of them and their names:
~Wizard
~Ranger
~Fighter
~Priest
The World
Atreia, the name of the world of Aion, is not like any other conventional world.
"In the beginning, Aion was a single world, a hollow globe intersected vertically at its core by The Tower of Eternity. After a cataclysmic event that occurs in the game's pre-history, the top and bottom halves of the world are split in two, with the Tower of Eternity reduced to a shattered ruin."
Ju-hyun Jang explains:
“The world of Aion resembles a globe, divided horizontally into two halves. The lower half is the world of the Chun (The Chosen), the upper half is the world of the Ma (The Fallen). So basically the world-map of Aion is not on a horizontal plane, like a traditional fantasy world; instead it's vertical. With this in mind, some parts of both worlds can only be accessed from the air - such as floating castles, and islands in the sky. Because of this, all of the player characters can gain wings."
The area lying in-between these two worlds is referred to as the Abyss.
"The Abyss is the great battlefield of Aion, which consists of flying rocks and pieces of land. Located on these flying "islands" are military bases and strongholds. Large battles and sieges take place here between the Chun (The Chosen) and the Ma (The Fallen) and the third NPC controlled faction Yong (The Dragons)."
~Source
The Abyss will also host flying dungeons to explore and dominate.
Flying
"Glide effortlessly through the skies in Aion™. Flying is not just a means of transportation – flight is an extension of the combat system and can be an integral part of taking on your foes in battle. Clash swords high above the ground and use flight-specific skills to defeat your rivals. Aion™ adds a whole new dimension to combat as you pluck your enemies from the sky, rain down destruction from above, toss your opponent into the air, and more. This isn’t your usual MMORPG combat – you will need to form new strategies to slay your adversary."
~Source
~Tell us about the free-flying function in Aion. How is it being designed?
Though I cannot discuss any specifics at this time, I can tell you we are trying to design this feature so that it has a unique feel to it. Free-flying will be one of the most important skills players will learn in Aion. However, you won't have to spend an extensive amount of time in the game to be able to learn this skill.
Worthplaying.com, Interview with producer Ju-hyun Jang
PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment)
"Combat in other online role-playing games consists of PvE (Player vs. Environment): fighting computer-controlled monsters, and PvP (Player vs. Player): human-controlled characters fighting each other.
For the first time in the MMORPG genre, Aion™ brings these two game features together in an evolving and seamless system. PvPvE manages the complex relationships and alliances between realms, races and guilds; it also controls the mighty Dragons, a non-player faction and a common enemy to all players, regardless of faction."
~Source
Game Play
~A frequent criticism of certain MMORPGs is that there can be too much 'grinding' in the game - the repeating of certain tasks for experience. Is that the case for Aion?
During development we've focused on not adding grinding based on numbers to arbitrarily extend the lifecycle of the game. In Aion, you won't have to repeat one quest 100 times or kill 1,000 monsters just to gain experience.
Worthplaying.com, Interview with producer Ju-hyun Jang
Gamespot's Hands-On Article
Screenshots and Concept Art
Atreia (The Aion World)
~Too big to post
The Abyss (A Dungeon)
~Too big to post
~Source
~Source
Videos
Aion G-Star Trailer
Aion E3 Trailer
AION: The Tower of Eternity is still under development by NCsoft, and any information related to the game is subject to change with the release of more information.
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With all of that said. Let the fun and speculation begin!
The dragon faction sounds puffed-up. I don't see them ending up being anything other than glorified NPCs. The classes have boring names but that may not matter.
Pretty, but I'm completely burnt out on anime style shininess. And the PvPvE seems similar to RvR, at least from the quick description.
That being said, I'd try a game like this just for the flying. That's all I did in CoH. Lots of flying.
LoL: failboattootoot
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
They've stated that they tried to not make it about the grinding:
"During development we've focused on not adding grinding based on numbers to arbitrarily extend the lifecycle of the game. In Aion, you won't have to repeat one quest 100 times or kill 1,000 monsters just to gain experience."
~Worthplaying.com, Interview with producer Ju-hyun Jang
The graphics remind me more of a Final Fantasy game than an anime and what they are trying to do with the PvPvE is make the game involve more PvP and the Dragons are just sort of their own "player-like." Like the Dragons are there to help balance out who is doing the most pwning.
As for the wings....hellz yeah! I think the idea of a tiered world instead of the same old continent to continent to continent, is a great idea. Plus with the free-flying system you can control your character in the air so you can go anywhere.
They stated that the flying system will be learned early on in the game:
Free-flying will be one of the most important skills players will learn in Aion. However, you won't have to spend an extensive amount of time in the game to be able to learn this skill.
~Worthplaying.com, Interview with producer Ju-hyun Jang
I hope this game lives up to it's potential. There's so much that hasn't been released yet: Fighting System, guilds, cities, and of course THE FALLEN(I hope they look f-ing Bad-ASS because I plan on being them hehe). They haven't released almost anything about the classes, but you have to admit that's the coolest looking priest you've ever seen haha.
One thing I thought that would be really cool if they did was that at the beginning of the game everyone is like a human. And then they could choose between different quest lines and then at lvl 10 you would do a quest in which you get killed or something. And depending on how you lived your "life" you would either become a Chosen or a Fallen. Just an idea I liked but I doubt they'll do it haha.
My key question for now is will the dragons have their overriding goals set by a 'Dungeon Master' style employee of NC soft (maybe 1 for each 5 servers) who can give the dragons interesting and relevant goals. Otherwise like all AI trying to do complex things it will be easily duped and players will just spend all their time farming Dragon spawns for loots by creating an ungaurded castle to lure them in or something.
MMOs are crying out for semi-controlled NPC mobs for more variety in PvE play. I wonder if this game is the one to provide it?
I do love the original class ideas though. "fighter" "priest" "wizard", where do they come up with this stuff? brilliant!
This is exactly how I feel.
I'll try it out when beta or the real game comes. I am a bit skeptical on how great it could be though.
ooOoOoooooOoOoOOoo
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
The engine you use to grind to 100 for the next two years? Sweet.
PokeCode: 3952 3495 1748
I don't think that the dragon race are going to have drops. The way they've been talking about them it gives me the feeling that they're supposed to simulate another player faction that chooses who they ally with based on who's doing the best at the time. In other words if the fallen look like they're getting stomped the dragons will come in and massacre the chosen or vise versa. There might be a "dungeon master" type person controlling them but most likely it will just be a program.
The reason I'm thinking this is because in the CoX PvP if one side is getting OWNED then a famous person from that side will come in and just destroy the other side. And the way they've been talking about the dragons reminds me of that. Developers have been known to borrow ideas from their other games before. I'm not complaining though. It's a cool idea.
Of course it could go the opposite way. The dragons could help the side that's winning only to turn on them after they've helped the winners vanquish the others. There are so many ways they could do it. I just hope they don't do something stupid like make them world spawns with phat lewt.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
I like the flying stuff going on, and the concept art looks lush. Hopefully they make the air battles interesting, instead of just on-land combat with flying animations. At the moment though it looks like every other korean MMO out there.
[edit] and that godawful voice in the E3 trailer announcing the name... so out of place.
I won't shed a tear if another anime MMO doesn't make it to the NA market. I wonder if they will have a dark elf class with big mamories and bad backs from running all strange.
As currently implemented, in-game flight goes down strict paths, much like gryphon rides in World of Warcraft. Currently the designers are considering whether or not to allow more freedom of movement while in flight.
Man I hope that is not accurate now. Not having free flight would pretty much destroy all the ideas I had on how awesome they could make this if they don't screw it up. Making flight paths one be one thing I'd call screwing up.
Of course, I also saw a quote about how important free-flight is, so who knows. Like all MMOs, gotta wait and see what actually makes it in.
Eyes forever focused, on the sanguine, metal dawn.
PokeCode: 3952 3495 1748
There's an 8-minute in-game footage out now. Some air fighting at the end. Looks pretty cool.
They've changed it. There's free-flight now.
Looking good. That first scene is great. I'm hoping the rest of the vid has the game running on lower graphic settings... but I really doubt it.