AION teach the world when the Games Convention in’08 the reaction of people into the graphics AION was fantastic. Perhaps you would have not even realized that we were improving the lighting effects to add an extra layer of realism, so that objects such as buildings, rocks, etc. are combined to form more naturally in the environment. Look at the pictures where we compare the old with new, and we are confident that opinareis which is a big improvement to the already amazing world of Atreia. Let’s start our tour at the top of Atreia in Asmodae. After the epic disaster when the world was split apart, most of the light reflected from the bottom is here, from land Elysee. In the absence of sunlight, can you imagine that the effects of illumination will not have a big difference here, but you sorprenderéis enough to see that this is not true.

Click on the images and you see how Asmodae has new lighting effects, producing more diffuse shadows and temperamental weather. Suddenly the atmosphere back to life with a much more realistic and three-dimensional. The objects blocking the light to other objects behind them and the roofs shade the floor and walls beneath them. The architecture of the buildings is more clear and definite, giving a new appreciation for the structural components that make up the buildings.

The lighting environment also plays a very important role. Look like the light from inside a house inhabited now shines through the windows or as a stream of lava puts a warm glow red on a rock.

Let us continue the journey by Elysees, the lower half of Atreia. Almost permanently in the land bathed by sunlight now you’ll see the buildings of course reflected by the light while their shadows invite you to relax if you make a lot of heat.

Check the dramatic changes in lighting Verteron. In one, a car broken appears more realistic while its wheel creates shadow on its surface. In addition, the buildings now stand out with its appropriate tone while the shadows now appear on the surface of the walls of buildings.

And last but not least, a look at the interior lighting. This room is inside a building of Pandaemonium before the changes were already well but now look what happens when we add some new effects. The room immediately seems much more warm and intimate and you want to sit at the table, Gazing at the fireplace and never get up again - only if it had not struggled so epic against Elyos and Balaur in the Abyss!

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History

In May 2006, NCsoft announced the development of Aion and that the game would be featured at E3 2006.^[1] NCsoft has confirmed on October 31, 2007 the Korean closed beta will start. ^[2] According to the European Community Coordinator the game will be making an appearance at the Leipziger Messe Games Convention August 23-26, 2007 Germany. It has been confirmed that NCsoft will not be at the Tokyo Game Convention in 2007. Actually, the Korean Open Beta is announced to start on 11 November 2008. Aion will be also presented at GStar 2008 in Korea.

 Story

Based on an interview with Ken Choi recorded in October 2007, this is the background story of Aion.

In the beginning, the Balaur, a powerful race of servitors created by the god Aion roamed the world of Atreia. However, their own will led them to disobey Aion’s wishes and they rebelled against their creator. Aion then created the Empyrean Lords, the forerunners of another race, the Daevas. Even though the Daevas were less powerful as individuals then the Balaur, Aion gave them a sense of loyalty and worship towards himself so they would obey him in all matters.

The Daevas fought with the Balaur and expelled them from the world Atreia into a different dimensional plane. For a time there was peace. But the Daevas, though all loyal to the god Aion, had different views regarding the Balaur which ultimately led to them splitting into two different Factions. One part of the Daevas wanted to end the eternal war with the Balaur and try to make peace, while the other side wanted to fight until the end. The Emprean Lords, too, divided into the Shedim, and Seraphim Lords.

The Balaur offered a peace treaty but through a betrayal (that has not yet been elaborated on), the Balaur were led to attack the Tower of Eternity, the physical representation of the god Aion, and destroyed it, causing a catastrophe that brought destruction upon the world and split the Tower of Eternity into two pieces. Now Atreia is separated into two halves with one remaining half of the tower on each part of the world.

The lower part of the world is inhabited by the Elyos of the Seraphim Lords and is blessed with sunlight; the upper half, inhabited by the Asmodians, Shedim, only receives a fraction of the sunlight. Because of this separation, both factions have become bitter enemies, blaming each other for the destruction of the Tower of Eternity and their world, and each side believes they have to destroy their opposition to ensure their own survival.

Now, a three-sided war is waging between the Elyos, Asmodians and the Balaur, with the main focus for each faction being the control of the Tower of Eternity. Communication between the god Aion and the Daeva has ceased, and while nobody knows what happened to the god Aion after the tower was destroyed, both factions know they have to prevent their part of the Tower of Eternity from being destroyed in order to ensure their survival.

The players take the role of leading characters of each faction, starting out as lowly soldiers, eventually realizing their power and potential, becoming more and more powerful and rising in the ranks of their race’s military to eventually become Generals of the army they fight for in this three-sided war.

Factions

Aion features two playable races, the Elyos and the Asmodians. Both races have the same origin, which explains the fact that they are not that different in their appearance. The most distinctive differences are the skin color and the wings. While many player refer to the two races as “Good” and “Evil” respectively, the developers explicitly pointed out that they can not be categorized as simply good or evil, but that their motives are much more complex.

Elyos

The Elyos live in the lower half of the world and receive the majority of the sunlight. Subsequently their world is bright, colorful and filled with green plants, lush green woods and tropical beaches. The sun also influenced their appearance. The Elyos are very much like humans with light skin and no extraordinary characteristics. The Elyos are led by the 6 Seraphim Lords, ultimately ruled over by Azariel, Lord of Light.

Once an Elyos becomes a Daeva, he/she can make use of feathered wings.

Asmodians

The Asmodians inhabit the upper half of the world and receive only a small fraction of the sunlight. Consequently their realm is quite dark; blue and dark green dominate the colour palette, while the flora comprises exotic plants that can deal with the little light they get. The lack of sun also influenced the Asmodians’ appearance over time. They developed a darker skin in blue tones and grew claws on both hands and feet. They are led by the 6 Shedim Lords, ultimately ruled by Asphel, Lord of Darkness.

Once an Asmodian becomes a Daeva, he/she can make use of batlike wings. This was later changed to a ravenlike appearance to attract more people to the race.

 Balaur

The Balaur are NPCs and cannot be chosen at the character creation screen. They inhabit the Abyss, have artificial free will, and are designed to be unpredictable when they appear. For example, they may side with you during a skirmish with the opposing faction, but afterward they may decide to turn on you. They are described as draconic beings (which is also suggested by their name, as “Balaur” is the Romanian term for a multi-headed dragon).

 Classes

There are eight classes currently in development. Each faction will have a slight variation in class skills once they reach the first promotion at level 10. Higher-level players can tailor their character further, with each profession offering two advanced classes, bringing the total number of character types available up to eight.

The Warrior

Bold, brave and possessing immense physical powers, Warriors excel in close-quarter combat. Strong performers in a wide range of situations, Warriors are relatively easy to master and when fully realised can unleash a spectacular range of physically devastating skills.

Depending on how players prefer to approach combat, Warriors can specialise as either Gladiators, who concentrate on dealing damage through brute force, or Templars, who combine fierce fighting with defensive chants and techniques.

Gladiator

Fighters are skilled in using a variety of weapons, ranging from swords to halberds, their ultimate goal being to master a wide variety of fighting techniques tailored to the characteristics of their weapons.

• Special ability: Close combat
• Play style: Gladiators prefer to defeat their enemies through brute force power and devastatingly accurate blows as opposed to fancy sword play and trickery.

Templar

Fighting with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, the Templar is both guardian and fierce combatant. To remain effective, the Templar should stay on or close to the front firing line.

• Special ability: Protection chants
• Play style: A warrior that fights with his head as well as his heart. The Templar provides shelter from enemy fire, absorbing much of the brunt in battle.

The Scouts

The Scout combines great agility with swift attacks. Scout players require a deft and accurate touch to get the most out of this tricky class, however the rewards are great and offer the greatest variety in play style of all the basic classes.

Scouts that specialise in ranged combat develop naturally into Rangers, an advanced class equally adept in the use of blades and traps. For those Scouts who prefer to stay hidden and strike from the shadows, the Assassin class is the perfect choice of advancement.

Ranger

The Ranger lives by the bow and is a naturally talented archer. However, the bow is not the only weapon for Rangers, for they are also masters of the sword and dagger and adept in using traps.

• Special ability: Range diversity of attack
• Play style: Rangers need to make predictions for combat situations and adapt their tactical decisions to cope with rapidly changing circumstances.

Assassin

Assassins are experts in deft movement and the silent termination of their target. Employing a simple but deadly strategy, there are endless tactics with which to exact a swift and soundless blow to unsuspecting foes.

• Special ability: Striking without detection
• Play style: The main combat strategy of this class is to approach the enemy stealthily, then deal high damage with one mighty blow, targeting the enemy’s vital areas.

 The Mage

Mages compensate their weakness in physical combat with the ability to launch devastatingly powerful magic attacks. In addition, Mages must learn to divert and evade the enemy so that they’re able to attack from the relative safety of range.

As Mages advance, their mastery over the elements of water, air, earth and fire increase, their choice of advanced class determining how that mastery is manifest. Spiritmasters can summon and control elemental spirits, while Sorcerers channel elemental power into fearsome magical bolts and missiles.

Spiritmaster

The Spiritmaster follows the path of magic, mastering the elements of water, fire, wind, and earth. Sorcerers call on the strength of their spirit to issue bolts of fire or to freeze every bone in the body of an enemy.

• Special ability: Summoning powerful elemental Spirits
• Play style: A true commander of the elements will know how to engage in combat, practice magic, and choose the perfect moment in a given situation to summon spirits.

The Spiritmaster’s chief responsibility is to summon and control elemental spirits, powerful forms of nature incarnate. This is done through a series of specific commands, such as attack and defend, that can be given via a simple onscreen control system. Other, more specialised and yet to be revealed commands exist beyond these basic controls, with each form of elemental spirit having its own unique skills and abilities. The challenge for the Spiritmaster comes from recognising which element to call on at any given time. Earth spirits are strong in defense abilities, Fire spirits specialise in ranged attacks, Water spirits concentrate on healing powers while Wind spirits are best utilized in melee attacks. While it’s not possible to control different types of elemental spirits at the same time – Spiritmaster’s cannot control both an Earth and Water spirit simultaneously, for instance – by summoning the correct spirit for the situation in hand, Spiritmasters have the power to turn even the most desperate battles into a complete rout of the enemy. A situation that could prove immensely useful when adventurers come up against some of the more powerful rogue elemental spirits(…).

Official NCsoft description: (…) Using powerful magics derived from the forces of nature, Spiritmasters will find themselves an integral part of any adventuring party due to their ability to summon and control fierce creatures based on the four cardinal elements of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water.

Sorcerer

As well as using the power of the elements to strike fear into the enemy’s heart, the Sorcerer can control Water, Fire, Earth, and Air Spirits with ease. A Sorcerer’s skill set becomes very diverse as their combat ability evolves.

• Special ability: Long-range damage-dealing spells
• Play style: Concentration during spellcasting is key, hence the reason Sorcerers team up with defensive classes for protection.

The Priest

Spiritual warriors, Priests can use healing and self-protection spells to excel in melee combat, and launch powerful ranged magic attacks too. This makes them not only useful support characters in a party of adventurers, but also powerful combatants in their own right.

Priests that specialize in healing and protecting their allies naturally progress to the advanced class of Cleric, the ultimate support class. Alternatively, Priests can become Chanters, pious warriors that boast both healing and ability-boosting powers.

Cleric

Following the path of healing, the Cleric uses the power of magic to fortify an ally’s body and heal their wounds, or even resurrect a Daeva whose soul is separated from its body.

• Special ability: Healing and protection
• Play style: The main role of the Cleric is to provide support to allies through healing or fortification. They can also be formidable soldiers in battle, using a mace and shield.

 Chanter

The Chanter’s specialty is in healing and fortifying magic, but they can also use a magic staff to great offensive effect. The Chanter uses mantras to strengthen allies and raise their morale..

• Special ability: Fortification magic using healing and mantras
• Play style: While fortifying allies is its greatest strength, in an emergency a Chanter can transform into a powerful soldier and can fight in close range combat using their magic staff.

Elyos and Asmodian classes are the same, though racial differences are planned. Balaur classes will be announced at a later date.

Features

Flight

A distinctive feature that this game will have is the concept of flying. This will be a limited [active skill], during which the character will be able to perform various exclusive skills against ground and air players. It will also be used to find higher elevation areas or materials that are not accessible through walking. Initially when you receive the power of the Daeva at level 10 you’ll receive a flight indicator with a 1 minute timer. Later the game will come out with items to upgrade your flight time.

 Game Engine

The game uses the first generation Crytek’s CryEngine. This same engine was used in the development of the first person shooter FarCry.

Visuals

The game will be inspired by multiple themes and has a distinctly unique atmosphere which can be described as ethereal or dream-like. Environments depicted in screenshots and videos display soft, vibrant colours and light bloom, for the Elyos, and dark and snowy describing a chilled northern atmosphere for the Asmodians.

Character Customization

At first glance the character creation system is not too dissimilar to mmo’s like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Ultima Online, etc. It shows the character, class and other information to one side while having the player’s avatar on the other. So far there are preset appearances that can be used if a player does not wish to go more in depth, for those that do, the system offers sets of sliders that can modify facial features and height, similar to the system seen in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

The game will feature a system to allow a player to reuse the graphic of the weapon they like and craft it with the stats of another. This adds another layer of customization and strategy and allow players to adapt their looks without sacrificing better stats.^[12] With this system you can put some colours on some of your armors.

 Music

The music has been created by Ryo Kunihiko. A sample of the soundtrack can be heard in the background by visiting the official Korean site.

 Skill Chains

Depending on the weapon you use, you’ll have access to its skill chains. Skills can be purchased from Markus (name may change) and must correspond to its appropriate slot in the chain. The length of the skill chain can not be modified.

 PvP System

The end game of Aion will revolve around battles within the Abyss (PvP Zone). Within the Abyss are castles where large scale battles will take place. The game currently does not allow factions to fight within their own. Guilds in control of a castle are entitled to funding from taxes and players within the faction get specials from NPCs.

The participation in PvP is rewarded with PvP “Points”. The game ranks you as you win battles against fellow players. At certain ranks your wings will change in appearance to show your status. Also certain items can be purchased with these points like high end armors and weapons.

Raids

Raids will consist of up to 9 parties with up to 6 players per party (54 players).

~ You in the eyes of AION ~

Miss ~!! You go on like this, I will Jiaojiu Ming’s Oh!! ~

~ Only days when cats are also a good way!! ~

~ Man!! You too you crazy!! ~

I would also like to, such as how long ah?? I am afraid I can not stay open beta!! ~

Now I’m not against having female characters in game.  I’m not against female characters having a chest (although, realisticly, with their body shape and what they do in the game, a DD bra size is very unlikely), I’m not sizest! What annoys me is the ‘armour’ or lack of that’s covering our females. Here is a perfect example from both sexes on ridiculously inappropriate battle dress.

Well yep, better dressed in tatters than nothing

Actually, I struggle to understand where on earth this would be appropriate. The last strippers I saw started off with a hell of a lot more on than that. I hope you don’t jump in that game otherwise our little huntress is going to be worrying about more than just the opponent.

Now this is appropriate battle dress! I wonder if female characters in C9 have the equivalent kick-arse attire. It seems that cabal has got the right idea (somewhat). It seems you can have sexiness without becoming rediclious. It’s not the only mmorpg that has manage to keep some decency though - which is positive sign, no less.

One thing I do not understand with the mmorpgs is that, they try ever so hard to create a believable world wrapped in rich lore and character building and interaction. A fantasy that you can escape to a play a part, a role. A place where you can take on your own persona within this fantasy and shape the landscape of this ever changing world in which we live in. And here you are with less material on you than your average g-string. That’s what break the fantasy right away. This is even before I pick up a sword or bow or dagger or axe to go slash bash and wack things with (and one would only assume, sooner rather than later, be bash, slashed and wacked back). I can now see why people were never much of a fan of Shadowbane: TOO MUCH CLOTHING!

So now, here I am, little old Pino, begging something of game developers/designers: please put clothes on your character, male and female. We do realise that if we choose to play a female character it will contain breasts. I’m just not sure it needs to be that obvious.

Yours in gaming, Pino…

If the possibility of playing Aion at one of our demo booths in Leipzig combined with all our community activities is not enough to convince you to book your trip to Games Convention 2008, then the time has come to think again.

Starting with Leipzig and following on several other occasions later this year we’ll be offering the chance to not only register your interest in taking part in the future Exclusive Preview Event of Aion: The Tower of Eternity, but also to actually leave the convention knowing that you just won your spot. Yes, indeed. Each day we will randomly select 200 lucky fans to receive an email confirming their future slot and the fact that they will exclusively be contacted again when it’s time for letting people test and try out Aion at home in 2009, before our European launch.

I can clearly hear you all joining up in a glorious chorus of ‘Woohoo!’, but hold on - we’re not quite done yet….

There will be several competitions and activities each day at the Games Convention that offer you the possibility and chance to secure a slot.

If you join us for our community day on the show’s Sunday you’ll even have multiple opportunities to win a slot. The previously mentioned costume competition is just one of the activities where we’ll be giving them away to the winners.

Watch out for more announcements about how to win a spot in the coming days until the Games Convention 2008.

On the afternoon of October 23rd, in the R&D center of Seoul’s Samsung District, NCsoft held a press conference for the launching of Aion. Aion will mark NCsoft’s first self-developed title launch in five years, since the launch of Lineage 2; the game’s open beta service will begin on November 11th.

The press conference took the form of a Q&A session between press members and three Aion production team leads — Producer Yong-Chan Ji, Technical Director Maro Shim, and Art Director Hyung-Joon Kim.

The following is a summary of the Q&A that took place.

Q: Is the open beta date later than scheduled?
A: I think that depends on where you set the bar. It’s definitely later than we had planned last year or before that, but the plan was always to have a November Open Beta release throughout the year so I don’t think we’re late in that sense. Generally we stuck to the plan this year.

Q: What would you say is Aion’s key attraction for players?
A: There are many of course, but I think Aion’s RvR system is unique in that it can be enjoyed by both PvP and PvE players.

Q: A giant boss monster makes its appearance at the end of the promotional trailer. Can we expect any gameplay similar to Shadow of the Colossus?
A: That part of the content may end up being a spoiler for our players so I won’t reveal too much just yet. I can say however that the boss is still in production, and it will feature gameplay elements quite different from Shadow of the Colossus. We’re looking forward to its release.

The giant boss monster featured in the trailer.

Q: The abyss sieges in CBT3 were extremely laggy. Has this been improved?
A: We’re still in the process of tuning that area. By the time open beta starts we’re confident that players will be satisfied with the results.

Q: How many players are you expecting to hold per server?
A: We’re estimating our servers to hold about 5000 players per server. We’ll have at least 10 ready to go for open beta.

Q: Roughly how many hours of content can we expect in the open beta client?
A: That would be tough to estimate because it would differ very much from player to player. What is for certain is that we definitely benchmarked our content against the amount of content that western MMO games generally have at launch, rather than our past games such as Lineage or Lineage2.

Q: Could you talk a little bit about the art direction of Aion?
A: We always held the highest standard while creating Aion, so the word that came up a lot was ‘luxurious’. To achieve that feel we used a lot of deeper shades and tried to add dynamism to our weapons and armour. Weapons and armour that grow and shrink depending on the situation are examples of that.

Apparently chain-swords aren’t entirely new; they existed in the CBT3 client of the game.

Q: NCsoft is now considered one of the experts on the Crytek engine. What could you tell us about your experience working with it, the strengths and weaknesses?
A: The CryEngine allows for amazingly high quality terrain textures. The lighting rendering technology is also quite astounding, so a lot of those base elements were taken care of. But it’s still an older engine compared to some others, and since it’s not an engine made for MMORPGs we did have some difficulties in creating large open areas.

Q: One of WoW’s strengths is the users’ abilities to create add-ons. Will this be supported in Aion?
A: Until this point all our effort was put into creating a strong base interface. We’re still looking at implementing a similar add-on system but we haven’t come to a decision yet. We’ll be making that decision as the game develops further.

Q: Is there a specific player base Aion is targeting?
A: We aimed to create an MMO enjoyable by MMO veterans and new players alike. We hope too see all kinds of players enjoy our game.

An image from a dungeon available in Aion open beta.

Q: Open beta will no doubt attract the bot users as well. Is there a plan of action for this?
A: We separate bots into two categories. Bots that use mouse clicks and sit on top of the client can really only be dealt with at the service level and is hard to prevent at a technical level. We are doing our best to make sure we protect players from the other kind of bots by using sophisticated algorithms and other such solutions. A lot of the lessons and implementations we gained while servicing Lineage and Lineage2 will also be applied to Aion.

Q: Aion is attracting a lot of interest over-seas as well as here. Are there any systems or design decisions that target that audience?
A: I don’t think creating systems that target any specific cultural audience would guarantee our success there. Instead we’ve been focusing on the diversity of our content as well as their level of completion. As a side, I’m a big fan of a lot of foreign games and I’m subscribed to a few of the major titles. We’re fairly sensitive global trends in the genre and we always keep them in mind in our development process.

Q: How often will we see updates once Aion open beta begins?
A: We don’t have specific dates on large updates just yet, but we will go right to work on one immediately after open beta. Once the game is settled at a satisfactory level of content and stability we will look at releasing major expansions every 6 months to 1 year, similar to popular foreign MMO games.

Q: What would you say was your most influential game while developing Aion?
A: It’s hard because there were so many, but if I had to name one it would be Everquest.

Q: What’s the story behind the new wings seen in the trailer?
A: The wings themselves have greater capabilities. They will be used at high levels or in the abyss.

Q: Will there be mounts?
A: None in the plans at the moment. However there will be a number of transportation devices.

Q: Will we see the 12 Empyrean Lords in-game?
A: The Empyreans will be revealed in increments within the game. We will start with one and go from there.

Q: There isn’t a noticeable difference between the two races. Even their appearances are similar.
A: I understand this is an issue for a lot of players that are looking for ultimate diversity, but even by looking at WoW’s move with the Blood Elves it’s obvious to us what happens when one race is seen as the ‘monster’ creature while the other is seen as ‘human’. The feel might be similar for the two races but the options are there to allow for some dramatic differences as well. At this point I believe it’s for the players to decide for themselves how unique they want to appear.

Q: Are there any new game content implemented in Aion Open Beta?
A: We’ve added higher mastery content for trade skills, for players that enjoy crafting.

Q: Any instanced dungeons?
A: The dungeon that appears in the trailer is a kind of instanced dungeon. It’s not elaborate but the content has been designed for single parties.

Although the event was held after a lot of anticipation, in effect most of the information was presented beforehand through a press release without details on updated content. It was clear however that the team is in the midst of preparing for a smooth open beta. We will soon see if Aion lives up to the expectations of the industry as well as the players.

Obviously, Aion graphics aren’t everything, but this looks like a world we’d like to explore further. With the emphasis in Aion on travel in three dimensions, with winged movement and combat being an important part of the gameplay, it’s not surprising that the developers have ensured the environments look interesting from all angles.

Aion Gold