DISCLAIMER: The news you are about to read are pure speculation and have not been confirmed by any respectable or official source. The patch version numbers are being used as a way to differentiate them from the current version of the game and to put them in a certain timeline. There is no confirmation of what the actual numbering of these patches will be, nor whether the patches will ever see the light of day! We just thought we share the news from the old rumor mill.

There have been some rumors circling recently about “AION 2.0″ and it coming out in February, 2010. There is no official announcement by NCsoft so far. If this update does hit the Korean servers this month, due to localization, we’ll probably wait to see it for a few more weeks/months. According to mmosite.com this big update will offer:

“Aion 2.0.”

(just a title to differentiate it from the current version)

1. New Level Cap – 55;
2. New Talent System: From lvl50, players can get one point per level;
3. New weapons and corresponding skills, each class will have about 3 new skills;
4. New Guild Skill for Guild Leader only;
5. New Maps for Elyos and Asmodians;
6. New Abyss map on the ground;
7. New lvl 60 Manastone;
8. New Instance: Alatr in the Water(Translated from Chinese)
9. New 24 people Guild Raid

We have also dug up some interesting details on Aion Source concerning the so called “Aion 1.8″ Patch notes. The source for this info are Korean test server patch notes, translated by one of the members of the Aion Source community. Comparing these with the ones above we can see similarities, but in all honesty the notes below seem more likely to be real than the ones above. Remains to be seen who was right (if anyone).

Aion Patch Notes 1.8

1. AP Gain System Change
Until now, if a rank 9 killed a 1 star he/she would gain more AP than a rank 5 killing 1 star, but now if the rank difference is more than 5, you gain less AP.
This will prevent mass suicidal kill attempts on you (if you are high rank) just to get your kill.

2. Ground Abyss
Well that’s about it. There’s gonna be a ground Abyss.

3. Dredgion’s Appearance
Dredgion will appear much more frequently during sieges and will take forts much more often. Also Seed of Detection II will be added which will allow Hide II to be seen.

4. Alliance Dredgion
They say there will be a dredgion with multiple teams going in. With 3 teams on each side, but not like forming an alliance then going in like in sieges.

5. Defensive Godstones
Theres gonna be defensive godstones. Its gonna be something like 10% proc rate heal 890 hp, 2% proc remove all CC from yourself.
These trigger not upon hitting with your weapon, but on receiving attacks.

6. Divine Abyss Points, Divine Medals
These new things can only be gained through PvP. They say these can be gained only from other PCs. For the points you’ll need to just PvP. And theres gonna be quest to earn Divine Medals through a certain amount of kills. Really focusing on PvP.

7. Manastones and ASPD Items change
This is for balancing, but there’s gonna be a different way of being able to slot manastones.
Manastones for spear, manastones for daggers, manastones for greatswords… are gonna have different levels of manastones available for them. Also, items with ASPD will have a lower accuracy. Probably because everyone looks forward to ASPD items.

8. Tezo’s Instance
Like I said earlier there’s gonna be ground abyss, which means there will be forts, which also means there will be Abyss Instances. This is not a new map, but sort of like Fire Temple/Draupnir Cave type. Mobs in this instance will also be placed randomly each time you enter, its gonna be challenging/annoying.

9. Item Level Upgrade
Note: I dont quite get this part, and so does this guy… but here I go
No level cap raise, but there’s gonna be sort of an item upgrading system. At level 50, you can upgrade your item. (note by Aion Life: this looks like the feature Lord of the Rings Online has, where you can level your legendary weapon)

The AionSource.com hacking saga continues. All Aion Source forum members just received an email with the following contents:

It has come to our attention that during a recent attempt to hack our website, hackers may have gained access to email addresses used to register accounts here at AionSource.com. We always value your safety, and strive to maintain your trust. We’ve comprised a list of ways to protect yourself and what to be on the look out for. DO NOT TRUST ANY EMAIL LINK that is related to your password for Aion Online or AionSource.com, always open your browser and type in the website address manually…

We value your time, and assure you we are doing everything in our power to prevent problems like this from affecting our network in the future. Your safety and ability to use our website worry-free is our top priority

If you have been a member of that forum please make sure that you do not click on any links whatsoever if you receive Aion related emails. The hack might produce phishing attempts of other nature as well so be extra careful about links in emails from sources you are not familiar with.

Aion Source forum was the largest gathering place for the Aion community and people at Aion Source did a huge service for the Aion community. Please make sure you support these guys, they did their best and the opponent is much more powerful than anybody thought. Also, I hope that official forums will get much more attention now and be brought up to speed ASAP.