Articulo de Nihilum sobre Aion

[Metrika]

Bueno S3EKER me acaba de pasar este link de un articulo hecho por la guild Nihilum, para los que vengais del WoW seguro que esta guild os sonará de algo ya que fueron la primer guild en matar casi ( se podria decir sin el casi) cualquier boss chungo que puso blizzard de por medio en muy poco tiempo, haciendo practicamente todos los first world kills. Para los que no conozcan esta guild, siemplemente decir que es una guild muy hard core, que cumple sus objetivos en muy poco tiempo a base de muchas horas de juego y dopando sus personajes al maximo.

De momento solo estan las 2 primeras partes del articulo, si Fleiva o Rider lo pudieran traducir se lo agradeceria mucho, siestais ocupados decirmelo y lo traducire yo en cuanto pueda ;)

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/519.png
INDEX

1<SUP>st</SUP> part :
Introduction
General Information
Lore & Races
2<SUP>nd</SUP> part :
Classes
Combo & Skills
Items & Stats
3<SUP>rd</SUP> part :
PvP & PvE
Miscellaneous
Conclusionhttp://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/520.png
Aion. You’ve probably heard about it on some MMORPG Websites, seen random screenshots and the developer's name: NCSoft. Instantly, your brain does the math: NSCoft + excellent graphics = grindfest, let's close this window and watch other upcoming games. But this time, it will be different! Why?



NCSoft used to aim at the Asian market, like Blizzard does with World of Warcraft but instead for the NA/EU market making the game casual friendly and releasing WoW/TBC in NA/EU first. With Aion, NCSoft's plans are to develop it for the western market, instead of the asian one.




Lots of players think that MMORPGs from Asian developers are grind fests because players love that. That's not entirely true, let me explain why. Players from Asia starts video games with a bigger interest for MMORPGs than western players. And the most successful are Lineage 1 or 2, grind-oriented.



They keep developing games like lineage 1/2, 2Moons... cause that's the type of games Asian players are used to. But for a few years, NCSoft has developed its NA/EU branches, establishing subsidiary in Austin (Texas) and Brighton (England). They have also started publishing games like Guild Wars, City of Heroes, City of Villains and more recently, they develop free/micropayment games (Dungeon Runners, Exteel), along with P2P (Tabula Rasa).



That's why tons of people think Aion will be in a good shape to conquer the NA/EU market! In addition to that, it was clearly announced that Aion will be the next-step in the conquest of new customers, featuring short quests with good rewards... But don't be fooled, NCSoft won't drop the asian market easily, so they tend to satisfy both (western and eastern). That's why it's gonna be difficult to continue satisfying their Asian customers, and providing interesting stuff for new players from NA/EU.



Now that I have tried to explain and simplify the history and the actual commercial move from NCSoft, I will present you Aion: Tower of Eternity.


Informations written in this article are subject to change!

(the game is still in early development)

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/521.png

Aion...wait, what?



Aion: Tower of Eternity is a Fantasy/Sci-fi MMORPG developed by NCSoft, featuring CryENGINE (game engine used in Far Cry), that combines PVP and PVE (PvPvE). It was first announced during the E3 2006, it's developed for Windows and the game is currently in Closed Beta Test (CBT) for Koreans only (details about Betas will be explained later in this article).



The game will be released in Asia first, then in NA/EU with a minimum delay/gap between them (Asia and NA/EU), there is no official date of it's release announced yet, but Developers are aiming at 2008. Concerning the payement, the game will probably cost $40 with a monthly fee of $15 (nothing officially announced though, it's just a prediction). Nothing announced about a collector's edition, there will be big, regular expansions once or twice a year, and their releases will probably depend on the area (like WoW).



Four important details about Aion:



Interactive gameplay systems

The actions of each faction on each individual server will eventually trigger consequences, which will then change each server's live environment. No two servers should ever be the same (except maybe at the start).



PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment)

Aion: The Tower of Eternity features an evolving conflict system, which manages the complex relationships and alliances between realms, races and guilds. The system also controls a third NPC faction, the Balaur, who may act as the enemy - or the ally - of players.



Free flying and flying combat

Take to the skies and soar over the landscape, with wings that allow your character to access remote areas, travel to different parts of the world - and to engage enemies in aerial combat!



Beautiful and detailed graphics

Created using a modified version of the Crytek engine (as used in Far Cry), AION: The Tower of Eternity is the most graphically beautiful MMORPG yet released. Astounding levels of detail on characters and in environments immerse yourself in the world of AION. (developerss are aware that the graphic requirements should stay medium/low)


System requirements have been announced for the Beta:


Minimum :

CPU: Pentium 4 2.8GHz or AMD Athlon 2800+

RAM: 512MB

VGA: GeForce 5700 or Radeon 9600, DirectX 9c or higher

Hard Drive: 20GB available space

Windows XP or Vista



Recommended :

CPU: Pentium 4 3.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3000+

RAM: 1GB

VGA: GeForce 6600 or Radeon x1550, DirectX 9c or higher

Hard Drive: 20GB available space

Windows XP or Vista



The game will be localized (texts AND voices) in English, French and German (of course Korean and probably some other Asian languages...). There will be servers for US, EU, Asia. We don't know: if servers will be localized in EU, if there will be oceanic servers and if account allows playing from any zone (eg having a EU account and playing on a US server)



There will probably be some game protection (like WoW with the Warden), and if there is, this will probably be Game Guard, already present in the Beta version of Aion and previously used in Lineage 2, Mu Online, Ragnarok Online etc.



Details about BETA:

The Korean Closed Beta Test began the 31.10.2007, with only 1 race playable: the Elyos and only 10 levels available (for the first week). The principle is simple: each week (corresponding to a theme like a new city revealed...) there is 5 levels unlocked, and only ~10 hours of playing during weekends. The Asmodians became playable during the 6th week and the first part just finished at the end of December (so 8 weeks), it'll resume with a new chapter in February. We don't know the number of chapters/parts composing the Closed beta. There will be a Korean Open Beta Test probably, since there is a subscription available only for Korean. So don’t ask for it, you can’t subscribe.



And about the NA/EU Beta: there will be some Beta Test (closed or beta, or even both) for NA and EU during the first half of 2008, probably not at the same time even if NCSoft wants to run the 2 betas in parallel.


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/522.png


So basically, there are 3 factions: the Elyos, the Asmodians and the Balaur, fighting in the world of Atreia.


Short story:


At the beginning, the god Aion created a race of servitors, named the Balaur. But unfortunately, they rebelled, so Aion decided to create another race, the Daevas, even if they were less powerful than Balaur, he didn't forget this time to give them some loyality! The Daevas succeeded in their given role, which was to fight and expel the Balaur in another dimensional plane, establishing a peaceful world... But during this 1000 years war, the physical representation of the god Aion, the Tower of Eternity, was partially destroyed, leading to a cataclysm, creating the final world where player s will be able to play. The world looks like a globe, now divided horizontally into two halves: Elysea and Asmodae, and the Abyss, the central part of the world.


Artwork of Atreia

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/531.jpg


Elysea is the lower part, receiving the sunlight, where the Elyos live and Asmodae is the upper part, receiving only a fraction of the sunlight and this is where the Asmodians live. Due to the explosion, the Balaur are back to Astrea, mostly in the Abyss, core of the battle between Elyos, Asmodians and now Balaur ( Elyos and Asmodians enter in a struggle right after the 1000 years war, blaming each other for the destruction of the Tower and their world ). But there is another reason for this war, a substance, called Aether which is massively present in the abyss whereas pretty rare in the world, allows them to fly... and to control the entire world, you need to fly!


Details about the 3 main factions:

You can only select Elyos or Asmodians as your character race, you can't play Balaur, that's a NPC faction, a little bit special (we’ll see why later). You can create only 1 faction per server, and you can play both on the account. Opposite factions cannot: chat, party/raid... together, like WoW.


Elyos

They reside in the light part, having as you can presume, a colorful world, with forests, lots of green plants... Their physical appearance is like humans.

Elyos group with their capital in background: Sanctum

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/524.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/535.jpg)


<H2 align=center>Asmodians


</H2>They reside in the dark part of the world, probably full of swamp, few plants with blue, dark green and black as dominating colors. They look like the Elyos, but with darker skin in bluestones, some claw s at their hands/feet, and a tail!


Asmodians group with one of their cities in background: Altgard

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/523.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/532.jpg)


Elyos and Asmodians can get wings at level 10, obtainable after completing a quest. They look like feathered wings for Elyos and Dark Bat-like wings for Asmodians. There won't be so many differences between Elyos and Asmodians (probably for avoiding balance problems) so only their world, appearance and some skills are different, classes are the same for both side. It has been said that Asmodians level curve is faster in the beginning, while Elyos level curve is faster in the end. And the max level is 50.

Elyos wings (perhaps upgraded version) & Asmodian wings (you can also see their tail)
http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/526.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/536.jpg)http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/525.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/533.jpg)





Balaur (NPC)



This is the NPC faction, they are present in the Abyss, balancing the war between Elyos and Asmodians. Eg, if Elyos are dominating the Abyss, the Balaur will help the Asmodians. They look like dragons!


Balaur (poor quality, screenshot from trailer)

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/527.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/534.jpg)




Of course there is more than 3 races, let's have a look on the others...

.


Mau


Looks like feline humanoids, traveling in the Asmodians zones. They're intelligent fighters, but due to internal struggle, they can't really dominate the Asmodians territories. They can tame beasts and they have some shamanism culture.


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/529.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/538.jpg)



Shugo



They are like Gobelins in WoW, friendly for both Elyos and Asmodians and having skills in commerce. They have taken control of trade and commerce during the Millenium war, some of them began to trade in the Abyss and between both worlds, forming a division named "the dark cloud" becoming a little bit unfriendly.






http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/530.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/539.jpg)


Krall


One of many barbaric races found in the world, kind of like Ogres, having an incomparable physical strength. They are using Kobolds (another race) as slaves, for mining the Aether (remember...that's the substance needed for flying). There are different types of Krall: wardens, Slaves, Scouts...

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/528.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/537.jpg)

[Metrika]

2da parte:

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/542.png


There are 4 schools of classes, names are official and will be the same for both Elyos and Asmodians. At the creation character page, you choose a school and later (level 10 or 20) you can specialize by picking a class within that school. There are 2 classes per school, so that brings us to 8 classes! There isn’t a lot of description text, but I will put schemes & videos. Pictures: in the items paragraph.

School of Warriors

Gladiator: Looks like the warrior from WoW, large choice of weapons, easy to learn and probably hard to master.

Templar: This will be the tank of Aion, probably a different tank than other MMORPGs because of their absorb skills.


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/551.jpg



Video - Gladiator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3SNLqTejG4




School of Scouts


Ranger: Got both ranged and melee skills, along with traps. They will be able to stealth, they won't have pets. According to Ncsoft this class will be hard to master.

Assassin: Like other MMORPGs, high damage in short-time, stealth, and importance of positioning (3-4x more damage in backstab compare to a front/side attack). Like the Ranger, it'll be difficult to master, they have some skills allowing teleport behind theirtarget, and they use many "tricks", clearly not a "1-button-win" class.



http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/550.jpg



Video - Ranger Soloing Elite mob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2g3pQyL8O0


School of Mages

Sorcerer: Ranged-nuker, very weak in closed combat, spells following the enemy movement, concentration (stats) may be acquired with items, allowing less chance for spell interruption, interrupted spells doesn't mean canceled.
Spiritmaster: The pet class in Aion, 4 types of pets: air, fire, earth, water - each with a particular role. Pet's skills are still undecided.

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/Mage-schemfix.jpg


Video - Sorcerer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=easmPbTsdrI

Video - Spiritmaster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxHDMdgBCk0



School of Priests


Cleric: Their role will be mostly about healing and protection, but they also have some melee skills and projections. They are likely to mainly wear a shield + a 1-handed mace.
Chanter: They can heal, but their main role will be to buff (short time buffs, probably 5 minutes). So looks like ahybrid class with 2-handed weapon or 1-handed weapon + shield.


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/549.jpg

Video - Priest (cleric propably)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVHufDxZUk4

Video - Priest (cleric again...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-o70MalN8U

Video - Chanter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0-FCC8Nn_I


There will be Heroes, not like WoTKL (Death-Knight), but probably more like Lineage 2 or RFO, which means only a very few per server with greater powers than a simple character. They will be recognizable with some glow or elements in the armor. So Heroes will have to be assisted and protected in the Abyss, being a serious advantage for the faction having one. I'll cover this system a lot more in the 3<SUP>rd</SUP> part.

Nothing about class switching or subclasses have been announced, in Lineage 2 eg, you can choose at level 40 a subclass, meaning a new class on the same character (without dropping your current class, the new class chosen will be at lvl40) and you can choose which class you want to level/play whenever you want, works like the talent respec in WoW (talk to a NPC in city).

Video - all classes : Gladiator, Templar, Ranger, Assassin, Sorcerer, Spiritmaster, Cleric and Chanter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKTEaYhbaRY


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/544.png


There are different types of skills: normal, special combo, chain combo, activated combo, and conditional. There is ~80 skills from level 1 to 40 for the Sorcerer, but there is some upgrades (basic spells get ~5 upgrades), so it’s not 80 different spells.

Chain combo and Activated combo works the same way: a condition is required for their use/activation that could be a spell, a reaction...

For instance, fighters should be able to use skills :
Explosive Strike (attack skill) -> Stun Strike (knocks back) -> Chance Strike (attacks fallen enemy). Stun strike is only avaible after a successive Explosive Strike and Chance strike only after a successive Stun Strike. This way, you can inflict more damage by doing combo, and having a more "active" fight.
You can also have a skill available for few seconds only after a dodge or parry (like some skills in wow).
Conditional are probably skills having a specific type of weapons as requirement for being used, like Backstab in WoW requiring a Dagger.

Special combo probably means Party combo like in FFXI, working like that: player A casts some spell, player B casts right after him a spell re-enforcing the spell from player A.

(I’m sure about names and descriptions, it’s just the association that’ I'm uncertain)

About the talent-tree, I’ve seen some old screens with like 2 or 3 tiers with ~10 icons, but I’m not sure, that was probably the old Combo-tree, and here is a new screenshot, showing something very familiar to a skill-tree !

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/555.jpg


Skills use Mana, and you’ll notice a 3<SUP>rd</SUP> Bar on some screenshots, named DP. Divine Power (DP) is a powerful energy skill that grows when fighting mobs or players and doesn't decrease when afking in city or traveling but being reset when disconnected. So...what's the use? You can do lots of things with it: craft items, transfer it to another person and of course, use some skills.

DP-skills depending on the class, except for one being the same for all, some kind of ultimate, blasting every enemies surrounding and consuming the entire gauge (this info is pretty old and this skill probably isn’t existing anymore). No need to say that those DP-skills are more powerful than regular skill, the DP being more difficult to obtain than just mana. I forget one thing: DP skills are different whereas you’re Elyos or Asmodian, that’s the only “effective” difference between the 2 races. Let’s have a look at those skills (rank 1):

Warrior:

Elyos:
Increases physical attack power and maximum hp by 30% for 30 seconds
Target: Self only
Casting: Instant
Re-use time: 1 minute

Asmodians:
Inflicts 410~421 physical damage and drains hp for same amount
Target: Self
Casting: Instant
Re-use time: 1 minute

Scout:

Elyos:
Evades all physical attacks for 10 seconds
Self only

Asmodians:
Increases evasion, normal weapon resistance, shield resistance by 100% increases resistance to all elements by 100% for 10 seconds
Self only

Mage:

Elyos:
Restores mana by 75%
Self only

Asmodians:
Increases casting speed by 50% and all skills consume 0 mp for 10 seconds

Priest:

Elyos:
Absorbs damages up to 2000 at 100% rate for 30 seconds every time you are attacked.
Self only

Asmodians:
Restores 100 hp every 3 seconds for 30 seconds
Self only



http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/547.png


There are 3 different types of items: Normal items, Abyssal items and Drakonic items. (names are unofficial). Abyssal are items you can get by doing PVP (when killing an enemy you get some PVP-points, we will talk about PVP in the next section) and Drakonic items are crafted items with materials obtained by hunting the Balaur in the Abyss. Like WoW, there is some soulbound items (Bind on Pickup) avoiding trade etc.

You can customize your armor with different colors of dye (like in Guild Wars and EverQuest), and when a set is complete, there is a glow surrounding the character. Dye can be purchased from a NPC, prices aren't high, but perhaps there is rare colors only availble with PVP or PVE.

One thing that makes Aion special is that you can upgrade your equipment without changing your skin, it's like transferring stats from an item to another, without changing its appearance (don’t know if its only for crafted items or every items). Also, armors look great even at low level and the same armor will look different whether it's wearied by an Asmodian or an Elyos.


Level 20 armor set (head isn't part of the set)
you can also notice the glow from the necklace

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/540.jpg



Huge screen ! Elyos at left side, armors look different depending on the race

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/Class-armorfix.jpg



different colors of dye : red, yellow/green (original skin), white.

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/553.jpg

Video - Dye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=033JytHQUTw


Some shields and weapons (Elyos left side)

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/543.jpg


About slots for equipment, there is: head, necklace, shoulders, chest, legs, cloak, waist, gauntlet, boots, 2 earrings, 2 rings and 2 weapon sets (switch with ctrl + z)


Screenshot with equipment (with stats & panels)

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/556.jpg


And now, the characteristics/stats. It works like WoW, players don't choose stats when getting a level, it's done automatically. However, they can choose their equipment and so on, personalization is made this way. There are 5 known special-stats given by armor: magical defense, physical defense, focus, evasion and mana.

They are all explicit, except perhaps focus, meaning less interruption for spells, and evasion probably equals to dodge. There are also 4 different type of armors: Robe, Leather, Mail and Plate being different with the stats they bring.


Comparisons:


Physical Defense: Plate > Mail > Leather > Robe
Magical Defense: Robe > Plate > Leather = Mail
Focus: Robe > Mail > Leather = Plate
Evasion: Robe = Leather > Mail > Plate
Mana: Robe > Mail = Leather = Plate.

Other common stats (that can be upped with items) : Strength, Intelligence, Will, Spirit, Agility, Stamina, Speed (running).

And I forget to add that there are some items being able to be in the account bank (yes, it appears there will be character bank and account bank)

Stigma...sweet name that will remind some of us, the materia system in FFVII, explanation : armor isn't the only way to differentiate characters, there is the Stigma system! Every character around level 20 will be able to use some special "stone" named stigma, each character got 5 slots for them, so it's not something you put on your gear like gems and their are class specific (there isn’t 5 slot at level 20 though, every 10 levels one slot is unlocked probably). The only thing we have seen is that stigma brings some "training" allowing character to use shield, plate or halberds...(there is a stigma for each types of weapon and each types of armor but they differ whereas you’re fighter or priest) Perhaps in the future we will see some classes specific skills, being available to some other classes through the stigma system ! And hm... you can purchase stigma through a NPC, price are quite high : 200 000 quina (=gold, but it's not the same scale a WoW of course...)

Now that I’ve talked about some weapons, it's probably the best moment to give you a list of every type of weapons... So, there is Longsword, Shortsword, Greatsword, Mace, Halberd, Staff, Bow, Dagger, Tome and axes haven’t been seen yet.

Let's talk about trade-skills! Works a little bit like WoW, there is 10 different professions non-class specific, and there are some stations for crafting (like forge). I don't have an exact list of them, but here's what I've seen so far: Tailoring (robe & leather craft), Armor crafting (mail & plate craft), Weapon crafting, Alchemy, Woodwork (staves and bow craft), Cooking (buff), Enchanting and there is a skill named collection, works like mining, herbalism... except it's all-in-one and it’s probably considered as base-skill.

Video - Some trade-skill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlDZsqz383w

Video - Tailoring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK4nvcy3Sgs

Video - Cooking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_VgHDySuYU

Forge - Artwork

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/picturedb/21/546.jpg

2nd part finished! be prepared for the next part!

[Metrika]

3ra parte de la entrevista:

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/pvppve.png



First, let's talk about instances, there is only 10% of the world being instanced, so it's not like GuildWars (where only cities are persistent) nor WoW where there is tons of instances (But the instanced zones in Aion work like those in WoW). Those 10% are mostly used for story telling.



PVE:

There will be Raid bosses in both instances and the persistent world. A party will consist of 6 players, and a raid will be composed by 4 parties (so 24 players). 2 types of raids: the first one like Lineage, with huge amounts of players, and the second type requiring more strategy. And there also a possibility of Raid NPC/Monster influencing the faction war if he's important (like the faction Boss in WoW, but with bigger issue than just 10 honor…)



PVP:

As I explain before, fighting in Aion is very active, and PVP skills will appear around level 40. Now here is a quick list of what kind of PVP you can do:


First of all, in the Abyss, which is the core of conflict, you will also be able to encounter the opposite faction in the persistent world, in zones around the Abyss at a middle/high level (Like in WoW, low level zones are kinda protected, each faction having their own territories). You can duel your own faction, you can raid cities, PVP in arenas (just for fun, no ranking system). Oh and you will be able to teleport in enemies territories through portals that spawn randomly, with a huge signal in the sky, noticing players from everywhere that a portal just spawn, and also indicating about the portal, avoiding useless traveling.


This paragraph about PVE and PVP is relatively short, 'cause most of PVE and PVP will be in the Abyss... Read on.



http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/abyss.png

The biggest thing in Aion: the Abyss, where you will be able to PVE, PVP and XP!

The Abyss looks like a giant floating island with tons of smaller ones surrounding it. The fight in the Abyss isn't like a Battleground in WoW, it's eternal and will never be reset. The Abyss is a dangerous place, with the interaction of Balaur and the opposite faction, but for balancing that, this will be a great place for finding items, materials, purchase abyssal items and of course, do some XP!

There will be outpost/castles (probably around 8 or 10) at the beginning, controlled by the Balaur, and players with small group or raids will be able to take control of those. Having a castle for a guild will be VERY important, it will allow your faction to buy some items/etc through traders (selling special items), , gather materials and the guild owning the castle and ONLY the guild (not the faction) will receive taxes from the land. Of course, for taking control of a castle, you will need some help... let's say with siege weapons! But those siege weapons can only be obtained through PVE (you will probably be able to craft them with some stuff gathered in the Abyss) or the Auction House. That's why it'll be important for a guild to have both PVP and PVE sections.

Don't forget that Balaur are here to balance the game, so if the Asmodians control 90% of castles present in the Abyss, Balaur won't be agressive towards Elyos, and if the Abyss is way too unbalanced, GM's may take control of the Balaur faction. They have a lot of artillery like Battle-carrier, so there are different levels of them.

And did I mention that the guild owning a castle will be able to recruit/purchase NPCs like mercenaries for helping them defending the Castle? 'cause you know, defending a castle won't be an easy task! You can do much better than recruit NPCs of course, that was just an example, you can upgrade the Castle with force fields, add repair machines etc.


For avoiding exploiting in doing some chainkillzergzone, the developers have implemented a "Devanion Mist" disabling the PVP system if Elyos and Asmodians are too present in a limited area (won't affect the PVE) also allowing you to breath and relax for a short time.


Another important thing in the Abyss is the presence of Artifacts, debris from the partial destruction of the Tower, allowing players to obtain/trigger special abilities that might turn the tide for your faction and having a huge repercussion on for example sieges. Those artifacts only work in specific regions, not the entire Abyss, and they are different types: offensive, recovery, buff, debuff etc...

As previously said, the Abyss offers higher experience gain, materials for specific crafts (draconic items) and some quests. There are also title-specific skills, only obtainable by having an Abyss title (which can be probably obtained with PVP-points).




Moving on...

You kill opposite faction: you gain PVP-points, allowing an abyss title, allowing some specific skills.

You can also buy abyssal stuff with PVP-points and PVE-points when one of the castles is taken by your faction.

You kill some Balaurs: you gain PVE-points, a lot of XP and gather some stuff, allowing building siege weapons, craft drakonic items.

You control a castle: you gain taxes, and you can upgrade your castle and allow your faction to buy items and more. You have to let your faction remain in your "land area" to farm etc, or they will leave, meaning no more gold from taxes, and less protection!



Details:

You can't get PVP-points by killing low-level players, and the Hero system is probably the Abyss-title. Don't know if there will be diminish returns with PVP-Points (meanings points are reduced if you kill the same person multiple times)



During the Korean Closed Beta, the Abyss content was released partially, "the Grand Abyss" (probably the main center island/continent) will be revealed in March.

Trailer from the GStar 2007 showing the Abyss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMKX2Td3vEs

I know, the quality sucks, that's why there is a HD LINK (http://www.gamershell.com/download_21942.shtml)

Abyss Concept art


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/abyss1thumb.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/abyssart3large.jpg)http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/abyss2thumb.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/abyssart2large.jpg)


Castle Concept art

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/castlethumb.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/castlelarge.jpg)


Balaur Carrier

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/balaurcarrier.jpg


Artifact being activated

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/artifactthumb.jpg



http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/misc.png



So, nooow let's see some random details: gameplay, flying system, quests, leveling ,User-Interface...

First of all, the gameplay... the WASD movement is fully supported with auto facing it seems (possibility to disable/enable probably) and you can click to move too! You can jump, climb and alter the fight by doing some movements (being in permanent movement allow more dodge than staying at the same position). The gameplay looks more WoW-like than L2-like after viewing some videos.

I previously mentioned the fact that players can obtain wings and can fly with a quest at level 10 and you’re probably wondering lots of things about flying after reading all those lines...There is 4 ways of transportation: walk/run, free flight, flight using path and teleportation.

Walk/Run : no need to explain.
Free flight : limited (in both persistent World and Abyss, even if Aether is more present) and the skill has a Cooldown (something like 2-3 min of flying with 10mins cooldown)...and you can only fly in specific zones. I can already see this small tear growing at your left eye... that's right, the free fly is limited in time and zone and has a cooldown. But don't worry, there is something nice about flying coming in the next lines.



Flight using a path : it works like the gryffon in WoW, except that it uses your wings. You talk to the NPC, there is a map with waypoints, you choose the destination and it's all automatized.

Video about path flight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9joneOnOoE

Teleportation : works with portals, allowing long transfers and easy raiding of enemy cities (the Mage will have some skills to make portals to cities, there will also be portals in cities and random teleport swill spawn for raids like I mentioned in the PVP part). The Gladiator will have spells for teleporting party members (in any zone)

And hmm, no, there is no mounts. Maybe in a future expansion, but nothing have been announced about it. So now the good thing with free fly is that you can attacksother players while flying! And you have access to more powerful skills than usual (Conditional skills – have to be in the air) and there are some potions for increasing the duration of flight. Also when you fall from the sky, you lose HPs. The Chanter will have the possibility to increase the flight duration through his buffs (named mantras)



About leveling… The level system is announced being the same as WoW, with quests, and lots of different quests: killing, gathering, short quests with good rewards, group quest…There will be XP penalty on death (no items drop), but you can't lose levels, only XP (if you are at 1% XP in the level 11 and you die, your XP will stay at 1% and your level at 11)

Questgivers are recognizable with a blue arrow above their heads, there is no detection of questgivers on the minimap and there is a tracker displayed on the UI (similar to WoW). When your quest is finished, a yellow sun (probably) is displayed on the NPC corresponding. You have a quest-log like every other MMORPGs with probably a limit of quest that you can have at the same time, there is an indicator for the level suggested and a small recap of the selected quest!

The quest system might be attractive, but the duration for reaching the level cap will be one to three months, depending on your play time.

As an example, there is 200 quests (normal & group) for both Elyos and Asmodians from level 1 to 20 at the moment in the Beta. So, that makes 100 quests to each side. In WoW, human side, doing the northshire valley, Elwynn Forest, Redridge Mountains, Westfall (should do 20 levels) there is 90 quests (normal & group). BUT, it's only the 20 firsts levels, perhaps later there is more group quests, or less quests, anyway, this will be longer than WoW to reach the level cap!

Pssst......come over here...


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/Quest-giver-thumb.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/Quest-giver-large.jpg)

Here's your cookie!
http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/Quest-reward-thumb.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/Quest-rewards-large.jpg)




Guilds system... works like Lineage 2, there are different levels, for creating a guild you will need game currency (quina) and 10 members. And that's only the 1st level, limited to 10 members! You will also need to pay for keeping the guild status, pay for upgrades that give the guild access to a bank probably and the possibility to add grades and members of course!



Player housing/guild housing is something in early development but that will be part of a future expansion. The housing consist of having a personal house where you can put fun things and chatting with friends…(that's my definition) Players will be able to sell items through personal shops and Auction House.



There is a mail system with 2 different types : normal and some RolePlay thing, with a shugo-messenger.



About potions & foods, there will be health/mana potions with instant effect, having a cooldown and foods will work like buffs (only 1 buff food at the same time).



AAAAH almost forgot, the User-Interface! There it is, you got a player frame, some actionbars, a minimap, a chatframe customizable with tabs, a target frame, a party frame (don't know if there is a raid frame) and a quest tracker, nothing surprising. The customizable/"open source" UI is still under consideration (exploit issues).
The User-Interface

http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/UIthumb.jpg (http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/UILarge.jpg)

Loots and drops seem to work the same as WoW, there is some BindOnPickup items, a Lootframe, an option for auto-loot being developed (there is shift-click like wow already implemented). Don’t know how loots are managed in a raid/party…



Nothing announced about a Game voice chat, maybe later…



Macros:



/skill [Name]

/use

/quickbar x y z (x for location of the actionbar, y for page of the actionbar and z for the slot where the skill is)

/delay x (desactivate the macro for x seconds, when you wants to make a macro with skills having cooldown)

/select %partyx (with other argument like %self, %pet ...)

/yell, /general, /whisper for chat...

/attack

You will also be able to make macro for swapping weapons, register some variables (cause macros are character limited)

Character customization:

You'll be able to change the appearance of your hairstyle, hair color, facial, full body (height, arms, legs), voice and 2 special features!! You can also zoom the “head” for more details.


[I]Character Creation


http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/charcreation.jpg

Video: Asmodian creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO7IpqOemHc

Video: Elyos creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHrwNqxOelk


Some of you may have read somewhere the importance of weather... well the feature with weather influencing spells has been dropped, but it will however affect some NCPs, monster spawns and the environment will also affect the gameplay (fire doing damage…).

I was talking about Abyssal title, but you can have a Title displayed on the NamePlate (that’s the information displayed above each character), wearing an item in your inventory that gives stats. Eg : you have an item that gives stats, without needed to be in a slot of your equipment (diablo2 system), and its name is “Silver Scarab”, then your name displayed will be : “Silver Scarab Lolicon” (assuming you have named your character lolicon). You can have more than one of this type of item in your inventory, and you can select through a panel the title you want to display.

A recurrent question asks to NCSoft is about bots and goldfarmers... Lineage 2 got a bad reputation for having TONS of them and NCSoft announced that they will try to change the game design and maybe implement some tools for reducing it (in Aion, not L2). Final point will be the music, composed by Ryo Kunihiko, a famous composer




http://gfx.nihilum.mousesports.com/arkhaal/conclusion2.png


So this preview gives TONS of information, interviews from different sites, some of them may be deprecated cause when someone is interviewed, he doesn’t resume from the last interview previously made with another person, he made a new one, so he may talk of the same thing previously explain but with different terms (translation done by fans & pros increasing the diversity of terms). That’s what happened I think with the Hero system being the Abyss-Title thing.




The game is still in early beta, there is lots of feedback from beta players and that’s interesting, NCSoft knows what points they have to improve and modify, most of feedbacks reporting the lack of customization (in spell/stats terms) : there is only DP skill and a (little?) talent-tree for differencing 2 players from the same class, and the stuff bringing stats.


About the grindfest, they already lowered the XP required during the Friends&Family beta (6 months ago?) and I’m sure they won’t hesitate to make other improvements for the leveling if it's necessarily.
They only unlock 5 levels/week during the Closed Beta, that's probably for a better understanding and analyzing about the leveling curve. There are videos showing people grinding and it seems pretty fast (the ranger video soloing the Elite mob paste in the class parts, the XP bar gets like 1 bar)



You can notice that the Official site for US and EU is pretty light in content, compared to the official site for Korea and all Korean fansites full of information (don’t worry, most of the information in this preview is a translation from those sites) and the reason for that is probably about hype, the beta being only in Korea at the moment, they know that players want a flawless game at the release, so they’re taking time to do things correctly, and don’t want to do like WAR-zomfg-beta-up-oh-noes-wait-there-is-something-wrong -lets-keep-the-beta-down-for-3-months or DnL (there is tons of games being released in Beta/Gold too early like Burning Crusade eg).



So they’re developing the site and they’ll put the content when it’ll be ready, probably at the same time that the Beta for NA/EU. And since the Closed beta isn’t finished, there is lots of things being fixed/changed, they probably don’t want to announce details and change it every weeks.



I hope this preview was pleasant to read, and gives you information you were waiting for and of course, wipe all the cliché about grindfest.


Thanks to: aionsource.com, gamemeca.com, mmosite.com, thisisgame.com and specially Jameinkaiser, Elliot, Haubix, Awake and Sunshine!

[S3EKER]

God save the queen! ( metrika, of course )

Te dejo esto antes de irme para comer, vuelvo y ale, todo ya puesto con links, imagenes, videos... no puedo hacer una especie de "macro" para darte un voto positivo cada vez que entro en la web ? jaja

Gracias como siempre Metrika ;) a mi me ha parecido un buen resumen del estado actual del juego. Creo que empiezo a tener claro la clase que hacerme...y la raza, sigo dudando, cada vez la cabeza me tira más hacia elyo, por las armaduras más q por otra cosa.

[Metrika]

Gracias a ti por pasarme los links ^^
Creo que es muy buen articulo viniendo de donde viene, ya que Nihilum no es moco de pavo XD
En el apartado dos no se porque me sale todo el texto como si fuera un link >< he estado intentando arreglarlo durante un buen rato pero no hay manera. Lo dejo tal como esta y luego si tengo ganas volvere a la carga a ver si consigo solucionarlo ^^

Un saludo y gracias por el link s3eker, ahi va un punto de repu pa ti ^^

[S3EKER]

La verdad es que si nihilum anuncia algún dia su entrada en Atreia ( el mundo de Aion ) podría traer detrás muchos seguidores, y el que siempre se beneficia es NCsoft al conseguir un feedback de gente que saben lo que es llevar al limite un juego.

[Metrika]

Bueno ya solucione lo del problemilla que se veia como un link todo el texto del articulo, y tambien he añadido la tercera parte del articulo :)

Si veo que mañana los traductores no dijeron nada (sera porque tienen trabajo y estan liados) me pongo a traducir la primera parte aunque sea :)

Y si, si Nihilum decidiera jugar a Aion, estoy segura que muchas otras guilds grandes tb les seguirian los pasos, solo por intentar retarles en este juego. Aparte del gran grupo que deben ser los propios Nihilum. Eso seria mucha gente en Aion ^^ y gente que sabe jugar a la perfeccion y no se andan con tonterias a la hora de ponerse enserio con un boss.

[riderstorm5]

ok si tengo oportunidad de acabar esta traduccion despues de estudiar, reservo este espacio para subirla ;)

[Blackguard]

Gente, en Aion Hispano la estamos traduciendo. Si quereis mirar algo o simplemente informaros, pasar por este tread, aunque eso lo dejo a vuestra eleccion; pero no estaria mal dejar de lado los conflictos e intentar estrechar lazos entre las dos comunidades.

http://aion-hispano.com/foros/showthread.php?tid=392&pid=5801#pid5801

[riderstorm5]

Gente, en Aion Hispano la estamos traduciendo. Si quereis mirar algo o simplemente informaros, pasar por este tread, aunque eso lo dejo a vuestra eleccion; pero no estaria mal dejar de lado los conflictos e intentar estrechar lazos entre las dos comunidades.

http://aion-hispano.com/foros/showthread.php?tid=392&pid=5801#pid5801

gracias, la traduccion la estoy trabajando solo que he estado algo liado,pero si a los usuarios les parece bien echar un vistazo a la suya me parece perfecto ;)

sigo trabajando en la mia pero aun asi se agradece :)

y respecto a estrechar lazos en ambas comunidades, todos estamos poniendo de nuestra parte para ello ;)
olvidemos las diferencias