Five quick tips for Aion
by Brooke Pilley 
Sep 23rd 2009 at 11:00AM
Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Game mechanics, Tips and tricks
For those lucky enough to get past Aion's login queue, we're happy to announce five quick tips that will enhance your gaming experience. You can expect more of these kinds of posts in the weeks and months ahead. Let's get right into it, shall we?1. Change the channel
The initial rush of new players coming in to Aion can really bung up certain areas of the game. While we're all for being social (see #5), this can lead to some long and frustrating waits for shared PvE content. Or maybe you're on a lower end rig and the massive amounts of players on screen is causing you performance issues. There is a remedy and it's called channel surfing.
Click the menu tab near your skill bar > Click 'Support' > Click 'Change Channel' > Pick a channel from the drop down and press 'Okay' -- You will be teleported to the exact same spot in another channelYou may also need to change your channel to meet up with group mates or rendezvous with another player to make a trade (item, gold, etc.).
2. Extended gliding
Once you reach level 10 and earn your first set of wings as a Daeva you'll no doubt want to take full advantage of flying and gliding whenever possible. You've also probably come across a number of people gliding along on seemingly flat/horizontal surfaces and scratched your head in disbelief. It's actually quite easy to do:
Enable auto-run and take your fingers off the forward movement key > Jump and tap your spacebar to extend your wings (for best results start on a slight or steep decline) > Press and hold your backward movement key (usually S or the down cursor) when you are just about to hit the ground > Your avatar will rise back up > Stop pressing backwards > Rinse and repeatNCsoft basically calls this "thermodynamics;" pockets of hot air that allow your character to rise up while gliding. You can also steer left and right with your keyboard or mouse. But remember, enabling autorun makes all the difference.
3. Be a kleptomaniac
When you see something pick it up and use it, trade it, or sell it! Kinah is extremely important in Aion and there are a lot of money sinks from traveling to crafting to buying back lost stats after death. You are also highly encouraged to learn a craft so you become self-sufficient from a gear perspective and are able to earn money on the side. Learn to use the trade broker (auction house). It's also recommended that you buy an extra row of cube space (inventory) so you can carry more stuff. Don't forget to use your warehouse (bank) to store crafting materials before you go out hunting. This gives you more bag space for new goodies!
4. Manage your info
The 'All' chat tab can become extremely cluttered and it's very easy to miss out on important information. You can manage the filters on your other chat tabs by right-clicking on them. You can also add new chat tabs for specific purposes. Personally, I've added Legion- and Whisper-only chat tabs so I don't miss out on any important information. I'll check them every few minutes and then return to my default 'All' tab.
5. Be social
Aion is a highly social MMO, even though it may not appear that way from levels 1-18. Those early levels make it easy for players to be self-sufficient but beyond them you're going to start relying on people more often. Aside from the progression gains, it's also beneficial to socialize with others from a mental perspective. Chatting in chat or in vent stimulates your brain and helps you from becoming too singularily focused. Ask questions. Volunteer answers. Join a legion (guild). Shoot the $#*&. You don't have to become a social maniac but it doesn't hurt to stretch your mind from time to time. And yes, your character will get phatter l3wt too...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dranaerys said on 11:48AM 9-23-2009
6. If you are on a popular server, set up an afk shop isntead of loging unless you look forward to 6h queues next day. :P
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nekoali said on 1:31PM 9-23-2009
Don't do this. I'd like to repeat: DON'T DO THIS! This is an extremely jerk move to do. You're basically saying to everyone who sees you 'my online time is more valuable than your online time.' This is not going to win you any friends, especially for someone who just had to wait a half hour to get in because you were to much of a jerk to log off when you were done playing. And this is the sort of thing people will remember later on in the game when looking for group members. People have long memories for when someone's been a jerk.
Oh, and those long queue lines? They get shorter whenever people log out. That's how it works. So every person you find who is AFK for a half hour, an hour or eight hours is just making the queue times that much longer. When you're done, log the heck out. Suck it up for queue times, it's better in both the short and long run for everyone involved, including you.
I'd like to see the AFK stores removed entirely from the game actually. Not only are people abusing them like this, they're also annoying, rarely worth buying from, annoying, get plopped down in the most inconvenient areas, annoying, tend to slow frame rates when you get a bunch of them in an area.. oh and did I mention they're ANNOYING? Seriously. We have an auction house. Use it.
myr said on 4:29PM 9-23-2009
Personal stores have more legit uses than you're giving them credit for. Setting up a shop with crafting materials right in the crafting hall will generally net you more money than selling stuff on the broker, where people have to teleport back and forth to go between (in sanctum anyway, I think Pandaemonium's were closer). Same thing with sellable quest items. Also, with a limit of 8 or 10 items on the broker, and 8 characters across your entire account, it's very easy to run out of selling space if you're a power seller like myself.
Granted, I generally have one 999m item in my store as well. I don't mean any offense to any particular player by doing this, I'm just calling out NC's poor server management.
tw34k said on 7:51PM 9-23-2009
If your name starts with any of the first 5 letters of the Alphabet, let your friends know your going invisible and use the /anon feature to avoid almost constant farmer spams and tells, since theres no method to report or block the account this will keep you moderately sane.
I'd love to be more social but widecap proxy kills the game chat which for the earlier levels isnt too bad, considering its more like barrens chat from what i've seen, and i cant particularly say i miss it, i know at higher levels im going to want to fix it though.
Mr Angry said on 12:13PM 9-23-2009
Point 2 is a very good point.
I was able to get all the way from one side of the city to the other in almost a single glide last night, which I thought was great and after I landed, my group mate told me to explain how the hell I did it, so I gave gliding lessons for next 2 hours, which was quite fun, and actually profitable too! It's definitely a fine art to get the best flight time when gliding, so much so, I usually land in the middle of a lot of mobs, because I spent too long trying to get maximum air time!!
Changing channel is often abused however, especially with boss mobs, which is a pity as it's a nice mechanic to allow you to keep enjoying your gameplay, but is now being abused quite a lot!
Other tips from me would be to
Click the cog on the top left hand corner on the chat box to reduce the size of the font, as the default is quite large.
The BEST tip ever, is when at the auctioneer, alt left click and item in your inventory to post the full name of the item in the auction search box, to work out optimum pricing. This is definitely not widely known right now, as I've made close to 500k Kinah just reposting items for sale in the last two days. The auctioneer also takes account of capitalization!
As soon as you finish the noob island experience, get into the air and start harvesting. If you run out of air time, glide down, as this uses less flight timer (I find 2 pips is time to start heading down)
IF you screw up and fall, wait till about 20 feet from the group and hit space, you might have a little left in the tank to avoid a death and glide for just one second which will be enough to stall and just be a health hit, rather than a death.
And my final tip is, give this one a shot. Yes it is stylized and Asian and a bit grindy, but you know what, it's very good and very much fun. Try going to the other factions area and having a lot of fun, I've high hopes for end game!
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Colin Brennan said on 1:56PM 9-23-2009
Great tips Mr. Angry. I'm certainly taking some of those into account next time I play. ^_^
Sorcefire said on 12:13PM 9-23-2009
The single biggest difference or challenge I see so far is the channels. It's easy to forget to check the channel you are in when grouping or meeting others in the game.
Changing channels is not immediately evident and you have to navigate to a menu to do so. This menu is also not accessible from the main menu which means hunting for it at first.
Beyond that the idea of instanced zones is kind of interesting. In a zone with too many AFK shops, gold sellers, or just people? Zone into a new channel and watch them disappear. Takes the frustration out of congested zones when doing quests (also makes an easy way to get away from gankers chasing you).
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Dranaerys said on 12:49PM 9-23-2009
Changing channles is only valid from lvls 1-20, where there is no pvp or gankers. Once you enter the lvl 20+ zones, there are no more channels and its one single consistent world. A world full of gankers :p
Celestian said on 2:04PM 9-23-2009
There are still non-pvp zones that have 2 channels at 20+. For Elyos Theobomos.
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Shava said on 2:50PM 9-23-2009
Try taking your /legion /whisper chat tab and "tearing it off" to the space above the usual chat tab area - this way you don't have to keep swapping tabs.
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talesia said on 8:47PM 9-23-2009
Some nice tips, thanks everyone. Here's one for all of you once you get to PVP level:
The PvP Radar
Create a new Chat tab, and pull it away from the rest of your Chat Tabs. Name it "Radar" or something, and put it where it's easy to keep track of. There is an option to show only Enemies combat actions - filter out everything else for your Radar tab.
Now, you'll know when an Enemy is around and performing actions - even if they hide within range, you'll be able to see it on your Chat Radar... because Knowing, Is Half The Battle. ;)
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Jack said on 4:12PM 9-23-2009
Tip 7: get to the level cap so fast you can enjoy the pvp end game a little. Get back to the mmo you was playing or try a new mmo game again and save your self 15 bucks :D
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Mr Angry said on 6:33PM 9-23-2009
Another fantastic tip, check both your Email and current auctioneer sales online from the character portal, so useful to avoid having to log an alt to see how things are going. It's a brilliant piece of functionality and I guarentee Blizzard will have this integrated by the end of this year!
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Ananda said on 12:07AM 9-24-2009
Re: Tip #2 - thanks so much for the clue! It had me coasting all over the place. Also note you don't have to mess with auto run, just stop pressing forward after you jump.
@talesia - that PvP radar sounds really handy too, I'll have to try that when I get leveled up.
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