Big improvements in Aion 1.5.1 patch
by Brooke Pilley 
Oct 7th 2009 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Patches
Based on the table shown in the notes, quest experience is being increased; to the tune of almost 500% on average (if our calculations are correct). The craziest example is a level 44 quest going from 13,300 to 703,820 experience (53 times as much).
Extracting aether now has a chance to debuff you with "Aether Venom." This debuff reduces your chance to successfully extract a gatherable down to 0. Players can remove this effect with a "Word of Purification" ability. Each character has this ability but to successfully use it, one must properly type in a captcha. This seems like an obvious attempt to prevent bots from gathering up all the game's resources.
Finally, Spiritmaster pets can now fly. We're not quite sure how this issue ever made it into the game at launch (design oversight or complication?), but 1.5.1 aims to finally remedy it so Spiritmasters aren't totally gimped in aerial PvP. Be sure to check out the full notes here.
[Update: These notes are for the Korean test server, so they're not final notes for the Western version.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jaidean said on 7:14PM 10-07-2009
This might make me try the game out.
Maybe I'm spoiled by other MMO's quest-based leveling, but I found the grind in Aion annoying.
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danarchy said on 8:06PM 10-07-2009
Honestly after like 2 whopping days of play im actually enjoying the return to grinding xp. The last couple games I played it had been nerfed to hell and I dont find quests all that much less monotonous than whopping stuff for fun and adventure. I would enjoy being able to do either as I want. The quests in Aion so far have been very underwhelming with the glowing exception of the storyline ones. The xp/cash reward was not even a percentage of what I got killing stuff for the quest. This is basically just a fix to allow both kinds of players the choice in how the play and I like it! :)
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Anu said on 9:50PM 10-07-2009
A Captcha? Seriously?
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Pingles said on 10:45PM 10-07-2009
LOL on the captcha.
Let's keep it in-character!
"Friend, I can remove thine curse but first thou must aid me to decipher these strange cryptographs!"
"Alas, thou art correct, it says grassy 639volume"
Matt said on 5:39AM 10-08-2009
A captcha sounds reasonable, i would have preferred a music based rhythm game ^_^ but unless pigs can fly, this would do for now, and it should be quite effective against botters.
Lethality said on 8:49AM 10-08-2009
It reeks of reactionary, with no forethought or planning whatsoever.
People, take this as a sign... this is how NC Soft will deal with everything... they won't bother fixing it, they'll just hobble it.
My account is already cancelled, so have fun.
Rawry said on 10:20PM 10-07-2009
Wow. I hope that xp increase stays, because that's the key to renewing my interest in that game which died out rather quickly.
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MrGutts said on 7:06AM 10-08-2009
Yeah I canceled already. They have some hardware issues to fix with the game client and they don't seem in too much of a hurry to fix it.
crsh said on 9:33AM 10-08-2009
Well the article doesn't explicitly mention it, but the XP boost is a series of quests in the 40s (and a handful around lv38-39); you still need to get there first.
Jason said on 7:25AM 10-08-2009
entering captchas in video games is fun!
This is the most poor way to combat botting -- if a bot uses an algorithm to control itself, then an algorithm can be developed to detect bots. It would be moderately challenging, but Aion's programmers don't like to be challenged I suppose.
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Scuffles said on 1:43PM 11-09-2009
Well not to mention that I'm sure the Aion developers could probably get their hands on the bots in question and rip them apart to see who they work making the job of spotting them that much easier ......
On the captcha ...... I'm sure the bots will be patched to deal with that minor inconvenience within two weeks ..... that or players complain so much its removed within two months.
Reihert said on 8:06AM 10-08-2009
I'm 24 now and never grinded. And I'm still overwhelmed with quests.
Of course, I didn't skip any quests, including the Krall ones that had horrible drops.
:)
So far loving Aion. On the changes, I approve it.
I love doing quests, reading it all and getting imersed.
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Jess said on 8:52AM 10-08-2009
FINALLY. The xp needed major buffing.
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Sorcefire said on 10:26AM 10-08-2009
Remember these are notes for the Korean test server. There's not telling if or when they will make it to the US game.
I have to say the grind is somewhat welcome for me. It's nice to just to kick on some music and grind away for a few hours without having to run about creation for quests. The Time-to-XP ratio is just overwhelmingly in favor of grinding considering how much running you do for quests.
Personally I'd like to see them fix their hardware & client issues as well as deal with the gold spammers before worrying about anything like this.
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