During this year’s GamesCom we were present at the Q&A event with the Korean developers at the NCSoft booth. The event was hosted by the charming German Community manager Imhotep and developers present were Jiho Lee and Seungwuk Baek. Most of the event was in German, which we are not very good with. We would like to ask our community members to help us with the translation if at all possible . One question per person and we’ll have the video translated in no time. If you feel like helping out you can leave your translations in the comment section bellow.
From the information we were able to gather, the most important announcement is that there will be separate builds from now one. On for the Korean market and one for the Western audiences. “Our” version should have better Abyss rewards, higher drop percentages and more XP. Please do correct me if I am wrong (somewhere near the end of the video is this information). We also managed to ask about the mounts in the game and they should be coming soon. They probably won’t have the same mechanics everywhere (PvP zones for example), but they are working on the mounts system.
If you haven’t played Aion 2.0 on the Public Test Server, but you are still interested in what the game looks and plays like check out this video we made at this year’s GamesCom convention in Cologne, Germany. The video showcases all sorts of new content and mechanics in the 2.0 patch. We can see the new lands, new wings, windstreams, new instances (including some 12 man lvl 55 raid instances) and pets functionality.
The footage is in German, but don’t worry if you don’t understand the language – the video speaks for itself. The presentation was given by German Community Manager Imhotep (very charming and very nice).
During the last few days a fair amount of attention was drawn to Aion 2.0. Pet System which we covered in our latest guide Aion 2.0. Pet System Part 1. The upcoming free expansion Aion: Assault on Balaurea introduces an entirely new pet subsystem to explore. You will have access to functional pets capable of storing goods, assisting with crafting, acting as guardians by alerting their masters to nearby enemies, and of course those simply designed to make their masters look good.
The pets system will continue to develop and evolve moving forward, but we’re looking at five pet types to start out with:
* Companion – Adventure with their owner throughout Atreia
* Signal – Alert their owner to the presence of enemy players
* Pack – Expand their owner’s inventory
* Fortune – Produce items for their owner after being well-fed
* Purebred – Provide their owner with multiple functions at once
You’ll have 100 dedicated pet slots available to populate, but can only own one of each type, and are only capable of summoning one pet at a time. You will retain features such as inventory space increase even while the pet providing the feature is put away. The pets you own can be given names, and these names are not unique, which will allow you to choose names freely and make changes whenever you so desire. And as a special treat, a new type of pet emote will trigger unique animations for each type of pet (watch out Westminster Kennel Club, there’s a new set of tricks to teach those old dogs).
There will be different ways to get your hands on these pets, including buying them from in-game merchants or the NCStore, getting them as quest rewards, item drops, or through special promotional events.
Aion: Assault on Balaurea is a free expansion, but there will also be a new boxed version with an upgraded client preloaded available for purchase (MSRP $39.99). To celebrate the release of Aion: Assault on Balaurea, those who purchase the expansion will receive an adorable Speckled Ailu pet (it’s much like a panda). Some retailers will for a limited time also offer an exclusive Companion pet along with the Speckled Ailu: NCsoft Store: Fuzzy Elroco, Amazon.com: Beluslan Kitter, GameStop: Grassy Drakie, Best Buy/Best Buy Canada: Heiron Kitten, QVS: Altgard Kitter Companion Pet, Steam: Skullabra Krall, Wal-Mart: Border Daggie
Today Tamat has announced that the free transfer signups will be reactivated on Monday, August 16 at 8:00 a.m. PDT, with the first transfer set to begin on Wednesday, August 18.
We realize that many of you are anxious to hear an update regarding character transfers. The development phase of the improved character transfer system has been completed and is currently undergoing testing to ensure that future transfers will help balance server population. The dynamic system that we’ve created will allow us to reopen the transfer service with automatic safeguards in place to prevent mass transfers negatively affecting server balance.
Our current plan is to reactivate the free transfer signups on Monday, August 16 at 8:00 a.m. PDT, with the first transfer set to begin on Wednesday, August 18. We realize some players were separated from their friends and family after the first wave of transfers. This process will provide an opportunity for those players to reunite, and we’re dedicated to helping those of you who are currently isolated from your friends. However, because these transfers will be automatically controlled based on faction population balance, trying to reunite with your Asmodian friends on Vaizel or your Elysean friends on Zikel may not happen right away.
Here at NCsoft, we’re passionate gamers just like you, and because of this, we hold ourselves to an extremely high standard for Aion. The first round of character transfers didn’t go as well as we had hoped. For that, we’d like to express our sincerest apologies. We very much appreciate your patience as we restore the game environment to a state where you can reunite with your friends and transfer more successfully moving forward!
The free upcoming Aion expansion Assault on Balaurea known as Aion 2.0, will be live on Test server from August 18th 2010. This week we have a new question for you: Will you play Aion 2.0. on Test server?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
