abyss posts

Aion gets a post-launch discussion in Game Developer magazine

by Eliot Lefebvre Jan 10th 2010 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, MMO industry, Opinion

With a couple months under its belt and a more stable playerbase, Aion is no longer in the state of just-launched new hotness any longer. You might be one of the game's still-numerous fans, or maybe you stepped away from the game because of the grind. Either way, there were a number of innovative and interesting features in the game, which was designed from the ground up to appeal to gamers on both sides of the pond.

The latest issue of Game Developer magazine has a lengthy feature on what went right and what went wrong from the Aion team's point of view. The CryEngine and the game's overall level of polish are both cited as decisive positives for the game, helping the game feel more vital and engaging. The limited amount of flight early in the game is also pointed out as helping to simplify the learning curve, as navigating combat in three-dimensional space can get overwhelming for first-time players.

On the flip side, the developers also talk about the amount of pressure on the frequently-changing team, as well as the technical and conceptual troubles with working on the Abyss. If you're interested in reading the full article, you should pick up a copy of the magazine, which is only around $4 for a digital copy.

Tags: abyss, aion, aion-postmortem, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, cryengine, developer-discussion, flight, game-developer-magazine, gdm, launch, ncsoft, postmortem, pvpve

Five quick tips for Aion (week 3)

by Brooke Pilley Oct 21st 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, New titles, Tips and tricks

Welcome to our third installment of "Five quick tips for Aion." The title is pretty self-explanatory so let's just jump right into things, shall we? This week's post features the trade broker, group recruitment, faster XP, rift locations, and custom signatures!

1. Quickly search the trade broker
It can get annoying typing out the full name of an item in the 'Buy' tab, especially when the names are all case-senstitive and can be quite long. Here are two quick tips to speed up the process.

a) If you have an item in your inventory and want to do a quick 'Buy' search to see how much it is selling for, simply ALT + Left Click the item in your inventory and the search bar will be auto-filled with the complete item name.

b) If you don't happen to have an item in your inventory but know its name, you can simply enter the first letter of each word (capitalized) in the search box. For example, you can search 'T S L J' instead of Thin Soft Leather Jerkin. Some item names share the same initials, so you can narrow the search by adding a second letter in lower-case. For example, 'M W F' will result in Major Weapon Flux and Minor Weapon Flux. If you only want Major Weapon Flux, search for 'Ma W F.'

Tags: abyss, aion, aion-tips, featured, grouping, ncsoft, pvpve, strategy, tips-and-tricks

Aion Abyss rankings show assassins like it on top (Korean)

by Brooke Pilley Sep 5th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Classes, News items

We stumbled upon this interesting Aion chart that shows off the current Abyss rankings on the top five Korean servers. There are a few things you should know before drawing any absolute conclusions. First, the list only ranks players by their total Abyss Points (AP) and doesn't factor in many of the variables associated with AP gain (e.g., solo, group, PvE, PvP, exploit, etc.). Also, it doesn't necessarily reflect class imbalance issues (power or population), but we're sure that's the conclusion most people will jump to.

After tallying up the class numbers, you can see that Assassins seem to be dominating the Abyss rankings, while Spiritmasters are at the bottom. Of the top 100, 48 are Assassins and 2 are Spiritmasters. With three classes tied for second and a few others not far behind, at least that seems quite balanced in terms of class spread. Exploitation is also mentioned in this thread and there appears to be one blatant case of it in the rankings (i.e., the level 30 Ranger with the top rank for his server). PvP games inevitably result in lists like this and it will be interesting to see how things pan out on the North American servers when Aion launches later this month.

Want to know more about Aion? NCsoft invites you into the world of Atreia where the Elyos and the Asmodians fight each other and the evil Balaur for control of the shattered planet. Check out out all our coverage of this highly anticipated MMO!

Tags: abyss, aion, aion-korea, assassin, korea, nc-west, ncsoft, pvp-rank, ranger, rvr, spiritmaster

Aion concept art features ominous Abyss, winged Balaur

by Samuel Axon Jun 22nd 2008 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, New titles

We don't spend too much time covering NCsoft's Aion here at Massively -- partly because news is sparse -- but that doesn't mean we're not interested. In fact, we're intrigued by the game's art direction. It has an eerie, fragmented, dream-like vibe that reminds us of the oldschool roleplaying-oriented game Underlight. It also features lots and lots of wings, since all players and many NPCs can fly.

NCsoft has released four new works of concept art. Check them out and you'll see what we mean. One of the items -- pictured above -- depicts one of the Balaur. The Balaur are fallen angels responsible for the sundering of the world. The other three items depict the Abyss, the setting for Aion's endgame PvP encounters. Those have a bit of an Outland vibe, what with the shattered earth floating in space and all.

Tags: abyss, aion, angels, art, artwork, balaur, concept-art, endgame, fallen-angels, ncsoft, outland, pvp, underlight, wings