Posted by Spooner | 5 Comments

Aion’s directional combat system, a breath of fresh air

By popular demand/request, I want to shed some light on how PvP combat in Aion can branch out and how the directional combat system pretty much cinches the fact that the Abyss is going to be a lot of crazy fun.

One thing I like about PvP is the unpredictability for the most part of fighting against a living breathing player who can be affected by stress, emotion, bloodlust, confidence, or panic. All these things factor into most PvP matches when the adrenaline starts pumping and no pussy ass DBM or Omen addon can win the fight for you and hold your hand. No in PvP my friends, it should be a battle of wits and skill.

Keyboard turners are fucked. Here’s a diagram showing you how your character’s movements can affect your combat potency, thoughts?

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Posted by Spooner | 7 Comments

Aion: Dreadgion Siege Briefing

So what’s the Dreadgion? It is a massive battleship that occasionally appears in the Abyss controled by the NPC faction, teh Balaur.

With a size bigger than a fortress, this giant ship is armed to the teeth with powerful guns. Its mighty hulls are powered by dragonic reactors and gravity controls.

It functions with one goal in mind; capture of the fortress. It appears during Abyss sieges and drops down numerous Lv50 elite troops, and neutralizes the targeted fortress within minutes.

In order to defend from such an attack, it not only requires the help of the Guardian NPC, but also large organized groups of players.

This may be the largest threat you will ever face in the Abyss and is essentially unstoppable by any conventional means.

Schematics:

• There are 3 targetable parts on a Dreadgion. All of these have a legendary amount of HP with powerful attacks.

Draconic Cannons

• These are orb-shaped objects that are installed all over a Dreadgion.
• They will attack any targets that get too close to the ship.
• These guns use a skill called “Shockwave of Destruction” that does around 3k~4k damage to a Templar in lvl 50 unique gear. If you get channeled in it for too long, there’s no way you’ll survive. Most of these are also installed in pairs and have range of 30m. Not only that, but they also use beams that paralyze players and use other AoEs.

Reactors

• It is not exactly known what these parts do. Getting within a certain proximity rewards you with a face full of “Barrier of Destruction” and a quick trip the Soul Healer.

Gravity Controls

• We don’t know exactly what these things do either. These structures occasionally emit beams that decrease your movement speed/flight time. It won’t damage you but it will pretty much make you leave you dead in the water.

When does the Dreadgion spawn?

While the exact conditions are unknown, Dreadgions seem to appear most frequently during fortress sieges (in which case everyone in the fortress got slaughtered, usually). This is probably true since Dreadgions were designed to balance RvR.

Upon complete emergence of a Dreadgion, everyone in the area is alerted with its appearance, and its location becomes marked on the map. If you want to see it in person, you can just visit the area marked on the map. Just remember not to get too close or you will get owned.

Can it get worse? Yep.

It always moves with the same goal in mind; get to the targeted destination and drop the troops to conquer the fortress. It simply moves toward the fortress and by the time you see the warning message; lvl50 elites are swarming at the gates.

If anyone ever experienced getting wtfpwned near a fortress; you’ll notice that 8~10 elites spawn around the fortress each time you see the drop animations.

Lvl 50 Elite Guards can’t even put up a fight.

Draconic Elites:

There are basically two types; Elite and Heros. They only appear in presence of a Dreadgion.

They’re strong enough to blast through Lvl50 Elite guards and have a huge aggro range, making it very hard to pull them one by one. Best to go after them with a full party and pulling one at a time into a hidden corner or alcove and dispatch them fast before they call for help.

• They have different ranks supposedly, but only the Upper class has been seen.
• There’s fighter, sorcerer, cleric, and ranger for Hero type and fighter and cleric for legendary type.
• If killed, they drop slightly more Abyss points than regular elite mobs and have identical drop table as regular lvl 50 draconic mobs.
• They disappear once the fortress is captured (guardian NPC is defeated)

They spawn en mass around the Guardian and move in for an epic battle with him.

Majority of the skills it uses are frontal AoE attacks. It damages all targets within 10 meters to its front by 3000 and with a 3 sec stun follow-up; very scary.

It’s supposedly a sorcerer but it’s armed with a sword that shoots lasers. It also summons a lvl 40 hero ranked fire spirit.

It’s supposedly a ranger but it can transform you into trees for some reason. Getting owned by its skill-spam as a helpless tree will leave you speechless. Walking into 4 traps at the same time is not a fun experience either.

Even the balaur knows that dual wielding is the best. It’s massive burst can make an assassin cry.
To really hunt for these, you need to have at least 2 parties sticking together.

Can anybody kill these things!?

The almighty Dreadgion. There’s actually one place where you can see one that’s destroyed. If you visit the Ra Miran Island in Upper Abyss, you’ll find the remains of a once mighty battleship.

You can also find lvl 38~40 Draconic mobs hulking around in this area. I’m guessing these were the crew members. There’s also a Named mob called Captain Rahibre, whom I’m guessing was the captain of the ship. I wonder what it took to destroy this Dreadgion.

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Posted by Spooner | 8 Comments

Interview with Aion Producer Brian Knox at Gamescom

You know, I like Brian Knox. I used to think that the only developer/producers that were worth listening to were those at Blizzard. It’s nice to see that NC soft has charismatic employees that actually know what the shit they’re doing with a project. More than once Brian Knox was caught off guard with the interview as it was pretty much 100% unrehearsed – but every time the answers were short and to the point.

Developers and the likes seem to think that they need to bullshit some long story for a simple question, not here though. Example: “Are there plans for future expansion packs in Aion?” – “Yes. Next question. Of course there are…”

Pay extra attention to his take on PvP at the 4:00 minute mark (I fucking love it by the way) and at 13:50 when they announce NO WEEKLY MAINTENANCE.

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Posted by Spooner | 13 Comments

Spooner’s Aion Q&A 1

So I get asked a lot of the same questions pretty regularly both here and on my YouTube channel, I figured a good idea (God help me) would be to do a short Q&A video (more like straight up audio but whatever).

I’m in the process of rendering chunks of the session and such but I want to take more questions to see if I can fit them in or include them in the next session. I’ll be updating this list with any new questions I have, please leave your questions in the comments section and quit spamming my YouTube inbox!

• How do you record videos?
• Are Sorcerers really over powered?
• What are the minimum system requirements?
• What’s the difference between the two races?
• Isn’t Aion just a WoW clone?
• Is Aion another Korean grind-fest?
• How do channels work?
• Do you have to group in this game or can you play solo?
• What’s with the crazy Asian yelling during combat?
• Do I have to PvP?
• Is there any PvE content?
• Will this game bomb like AoC and WAR?

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Aion: Hey Sheffield, let’s go Rifting… (PvP Part 2)

Hello boys and girls. This is your old pal Stinky Whizzleteets. This is a song about a whale, NO! This is a song about Rifting, that’s right! I don’t think you know what rifting is. I’ll teach you to rift! I’ll teach your grandmother to suck eggs! Now boys and girls, let’s try it again!

First and foremost, rifts are the only way for players of one faction to cross over and enter the continent of the opposing faction. So the only way an Elyos can enter an Asmodian zone is through a rift. They open at random in most of the zones level 20+ and can be used for a plethora of reasons from gaining access to instance dungeons on the other side of the world, or more… exciting prospects. Outside of the Abyss, rifts are the only way to engage in PvP in Aion.

Now, rifts are one way portals. Once you make it to the other side you’re stuck there unless you die/release or return (hearth). When one opens there will be a zone wide (region) announcement. The only way to not be kicked from that zone upon death/release is to use a Kisk (portable rez point) and bind to it; it’s pretty key for your team to hide your kisk someplace where enemy players won’t typically find it and destroy it. Rifts spawn in 7 different locations in a region, 2-6 at a time is possible, and there is a limit to the amount of players and their level that can pass through.

Let’s look at a few maps courtesy of the Korean Aion Powerwiki:

The blue markers indicate where the home team can leave their zone. The red ones show where invaders enter the zone. Obviously the numbers/letters match up, 7 leads to G, 6 leads to F, and so on. Here’s a chart that shows the rift restrictions:

Symbol     Player Cap     Level Restriction           Cycle Timer

1/A                12 People                        28 or Lower                        2 Hours

2/B                20 People                      32 or Lower                        2 Hours

3/C                35 People                      36 or Lower                        2 Hours

4/D                35 People                      37 or Lower                        2 Hours

5/E                40 People                      40 or Lower                        2 Hours

6/F                 50 People                      40 or Lower                       2 Hours

7/G                50 People                       45 or Lower                       2 Hours

Those were the two lower level areas, you enter Morheim or Eltenen at Lv 20(ish) or the most part. One tactic that has had a major surge in popularity has been zerging. When you have a few high level invaders, about the only way to make a strong defense is to gather up tons of lower level players to chase them off. It gets very intense and hands down some of the most fun in the game outside of the Abyss. Most higher-ups are content to be playing for better rewards and more challenging gameplay in teh Abyss anyway. Here are the two other maps for the last two zones where rifts spawn as well as the restriction charts:

Symbol     Player Cap     Level Restriction           Cycle Timer

1/A                24 People                        35 or Lower                        2 Hours

2/B                36 People                       35 or Lower                        2 Hours

3/C                48 People                       46 or Lower                        2 Hours

4/D                48 People                      40 or Lower                        2 Hours

5/E                60 People                      50 or Lower                        2 Hours

6/F                 72 People                      50 or Lower                       2 Hours

7/G                72 People                       50 or Lower                       2 Hours

That pretty much does it. I hope you find this information useful as well as keep in midn that when the game makes its official release in NA/EU the locations might change somewhat. You can also find this information ina  few other places, namely the Korean Powerwiki, but I can’t read Korean.

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