I got to play Aion at PAX

rafmeister · August 2008

I went to PAX on Friday and got to play AION for about 20 minutes or so. The version they were demoing at PAX was the Beta 2 Version. They had only gotten the beta 3 version a week or so before PAX so it was not ready for public consumption.

First impressions of the game in the little bit of the game I was able to see while playing is that it is very polished for a game as far along in development as it is. The game looks gorgeous. I just hope my computer can run it at that level of detail. I absolutely loved the interface. It was clean and functional with very little clutter. We were only allowed to play pre-made characters, but you could look at the character creation process and while it may not be as complex as some it certainly seemed sufficient for my tastes.

It has a real death penalty thank the gods. Experience loss on death as well as a minor debuff. Debuff removal and partial expinece recovery can be obtained via an NPC for a price. I only particpated in PVE content as PVP content does not start till level 25 when you can go to the Abyss. When flying you can fall to your death if you run out of light time typically 1 minute although at higher levels we were told flight time could be extended via potions and items.

Batlle seemed very well paced with the normal button press activated skills. There will be skill chains in solo and group combat. When asked they said their intent was for a player to be able to do PVE only content if the wished to get to max level or alternatively once they were able to enter the ABYSS (at level 25) you could level up entirely in the PVP environment. This goes along with the whole PVPVE concept they are pushing.

Crafting and gathering are already in I did do some gathering, but didn't acutally craft anything. Some gathering nodes are in mid air and you have to fly to gather them. There are also NPC mobs that can be fought in the air as well.

Questing is divided up between missions and quests each with their own seperate tabs. Missions are short uncomplicated things like fedex deliveries, kill x creature type things, while quests are typically more involved and lengthy and may involve several missions.

when asked about player housing and such they said they did not know if that was going to be included or not at this time.

while 20 minutes of play time is in no way shape or form anywhere near enough time to make any kind of concrete judgements, I was impressed by what I saw and enjoyed my play time. I certainly think this game may be something to take a look at. I got myself singed up getting into preview events so hopefully I'll get a chance to do so before release which they said is for sometime early next year.

Ephimero · August 2008

Pretty much what I felt when I played in GC, the game is hella polished.

Did you get to see reactive skills? Like, if you parry an attack with an assassin, you'll get the chance to use a stun skill only then, and if your gladiator throws your enemy to the floor, another skill will show up. I think the whole reactive combat adds a lot of interaction and fun and I know that at level 12 you only see 1/10 of what you'll see later on since you're meant to be learning step by step

Btw, the PvP in the game might start before level 25 due to rifts, Elteron (sp?) forest is a place where rifts happen and that's around level 15 iirc.

Nice to see more people enjoy the game on the demos.

Sharajat · August 2008

Out of curiousity, the death penalty is removed in PvPvE, right?

Anyway, this game sounds amazing. I think this is going to be the A+ title of the past few years that we've been waiting for while taking hits like Vanguard and TR.

opzero · August 2008

I have a question for the people that have tried it how is the controls in game? I'm not taking point and click or wasd, i mean is it fluid like wow or clunky like vanguard. How my character controls in pvp could be a game maker or breaker for me.

Ephimero · August 2008

The game looks more like WoW's and not Vanguard's in terms of character control.

Valentina · August 2008

The death penalties are not final, yet. But for PvP and such the xp loss won't be there.

Ephimero · August 2008

They were deciding the death penalty after receiving feedback from players during CBT3. Nothing is final yet until the korean OBT starts.

Bigdavo · August 2008

I know you only played for 20mins but can you give any sort of answer on how much content there is yet? Do you think there will be enough quests to be able to reach max level and always be occupied without having to resort to mob grinding?

Edit** Can you also tell me what the character creation is like (assuming you are allowed to?)

joeshmoe · August 2008

From what I've read from people who got to play at GC and PAX, they had pre made characters, but there is a video somewhere that shows how in depth the character creation is (not to mention that the version of the game they were using in those events were CBT 2 and I think the new character creation system that I'm talking about wasn't implemented till CBT 3. I could be wrong though). If anyone knows what I'm talking about, maybe they can post a link to the vid.

Ephimero · August 2008

I think there was a mixure between the CBT2 client, and a nerfed CBT3 character creator, since you could make really small characters, but the tattoos options and another option were blocked.

The character creator tool is advanced as no other that Ive seen at least, around 30 sliders to modify the face and the body, and the changes obtained out of them are extreme, thousands of colors for hair, around 12 colors for skin, lips colors, like 10-15 hairstyles.

About the quests, I was a bit more focused on testing the combat, but the quests that I did were really rewarding and there were a lot of NPCs with quest icons, from the main storyline and side quests, I was getting like 50 kinah per mob, and a quest I did to escort a guy to a boat gave me 950 kinah and 1//4 of a xp bar. I only reached level 14 with a level 12 character cause I didn't play that much, but there are lots of things to do, and it only gets better when you access to the abyss.

Qmire · August 2008

Sounds amazing and pretty good!.

Once again i just can't wait to try it out myself.

So much time they got to polish it, wonder how it will hit the market if also marketing PR are as good as the game itself.

Ephimero · August 2008

The game is deffinetly getting spotlighted on every single internet gaming website now, the hype machine is gonna start as the reports are all possitive.

Sharajat · August 2008

Originally posted by Ephimero

The game is deffinetly getting spotlighted on every single internet gaming website now, the hype machine is gonna start as the reports are all possitive.

Yeah, but for once the hype machine appears to be players who played the game saying how damn awesome it is, instead of Richard Garriot/McQuaid/Failcom/Turbine/SOE promising how their game will revolutionize the known universe, and probably go down in history with Doom, Starcraft, and WoW.

NCSoft is kind of like "Well, it's an awesome game, but honestly, we're not going overboard on marketing yet."

Frankly, I haven't seen that sort of hype since, well... World of Warcraft and EVE (both of which got amazing word of mouth (as well as, in the case of WoW, substantial marketing).

star · September 2008

I had about the same experiences. I really, really enjoyed it. Graphics are gorgeous, great interface, skill use is great and the character creation is hands down the best I've seen in a AAA MMORPG to date. I didn't get a chance to hop into the Abyss, but the PvE is pretty vanilla - just really, really well excuted. It's the little details that made it really enjoyed - the transparent map overlay, the reactive skills popping up by your character instead of staying on the action bar so it's easier to spot them.

I'm definitely going to be preordering it.

Rio_Aion · September 2008

I got about 3 hours total @ PAX. I'll write a littel report of my own tomorrow. Just wondering what Aion goodies you walked away with? I got 4 shirts, 1 hat, 8 buttons, 2 bracelets, two signed pictures of the female models @ GC '08, a big Aion bag and a keychain thingy. Also, I managed to get my hands on a Aion Media Pack DVD and A 2008 NCsoft Press Kit DVD. The CDs im pretty sure I wasnt suppsoed to get, but I just asked as many people as i could until I finally found someone who got them for me

NC_Kieron · September 2008

Rafmeister, thank you for sharing your experience with Aion at PAX. It sounds like you enjoyed your time.

The characters at the demo stations all started out at level 12 as we wanted Aion fans to be able to experience the initial stages of the game without the growing pains of the earlier levels. Level 12 is also after the Ascencion quest so the characters had their wings and could experience flight.

Crafting can be started earlier than level 12, but in a different zone than was available in the demo.

Bigdavo asked about content and character creation. It is our intention to provide content so that grinding is kept to a minimum, although that is available as an option for those that wish to do so.

Character creation is extremely detailed, there are 24 sliders for facial features, 13/14 sliders for physical features (m/f), and a number of different hair styles. Facial decoration such as scars, tattoos and hair will be available in the future. Hair, skin and lip color have a large number of pre-set options as well as palette to chose from.

Sharajat mentioned the difference between some of the industry's big names touting their titles and word of mouth in regards to marketing. Aion's NA and EU release is slated for 2009; we still have a number of months to build up some hype. We are thrilled with what players and media are saying about Aion, but are not going to rest on just that alone. Marketing efforts will ramp up in the near future.

Rehmes · September 2008

Thx for the read, i have followed this game since the beginning and i cant wait for its release.

EDIT: NC_Kieron, thank you for coming and sharing those details with the community, cant wait to see once it goes live. Keep up the good work.

Sharajat · September 2008

Originally posted by NC_Kieron

Rafmeister, thank you for sharing your experience with Aion at PAX. It sounds like you enjoyed your time.
The characters at the demo stations all started out at level 12 as we wanted Aion fans to be able to experience the initial stages of the game without the growing pains of the earlier levels. Level 12 is also after the Ascencion quest so the characters had their wings and could experience flight.
Crafting can be started earlier than level 12, but in a different zone than was available in the demo.
Bigdavo asked about content and character creation. It is our intention to provide content so that grinding is kept to a minimum, although that is available as an option for those that wish to do so.
Character creation is extremely detailed, there are 24 sliders for facial features, 13/14 sliders for physical features (m/f), and a number of different hair styles. Facial decoration such as scars, tattoos and hair will be available in the future. Hair, skin and lip color have a large number of pre-set options as well as palette to chose from.
Sharajat mentioned the difference between some of the industry's big names touting their titles and word of mouth in regards to marketing. Aion's NA and EU release is slated for 2009; we still have a number of months to build up some hype. We are thrilled with what players and media are saying about Aion, but are not going to rest on just that alone. Marketing efforts will ramp up in the near future.

Thanks for the details. I'm reasonably hyped about this, but you'll understand that we're all a little gunshy.

Hearing player testimonials help, and while I expect your marketing campaign to focus on those, having beta tester interviews or posting beta blogs might help convince some people that the marketing is for a good product.

I'm looking forward to seeing this game.

vidiotking · September 2008

i am an avid mmo player and have been watching this game for atleast 8 months. I am a graphics junkie and this game looks to me to be the fix! If the gameplay is atleast decent, and the story/lore and end game can hold its own i WILL be hooked. I wish i cud play it now, but i guess conan/war will have to keep me busy till launch. How about sending some T-shirts or buttons my way, ty