Aion - Chinese Beta

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 30, 2009, 5:58 am

Well, I own stock of a Chinese company, so I figured I'd do something chineesy in games too.

Aion is sort of the successor to Lineage II. Those that have playe Guild Wars and Lineage know that NCSoft puts out a good product.

The beta won't be out until end of 2009 in the US but you can try out the Chinese version if you don't mind jumping through some hoops. (this is not for anyone that sucks at doing something a little challenging and researching a little)

....no seriously....don't attempt this if you aren't wanting to mess around a lot and still possibly not be successful in getting the beta to work. You'll only frustrate yourself.

Couple sites for you:

Main Aion website:

http://www.aiononline.com/us/

Two fan sites with lots of infoz:

http://www.aionsource.com/

http://www.aionglobal.com/

Lots of high quality videos to give you an idea of what the game looks like: (work your way lower and deeper into the videos to see some nice battle scenes)

Character generation and classes videos also there to see:

http://www.aiononline.com/us/media/video/video.html

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Guide for how to setup acct and play on the Chinese servers:

http://www.themondrated.com/showthread.php?t=4110

hey, if you don't have to work for it, it's not worth it!

Be SURE you generate a Chinese Adult ID when you get to that part in the guide otherwise you get booted after 5 hours as you have a child acct by default.

downloading the 5 files needed, I was getting 10+mbps so not bad. Just grab the five files as instructed. (~6+ gb)

Make sure you also grab the English patch linked from this thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357662

-----

I've only played for a few minutes to make sure everything worked. It took a little messing around but got the game patched etc.

This game is freaking gorgeous. Think Guild Wars but even better looking.

As I'm into character generation, I'll show some screens of my first attempt:

I'm in! Picking server (I chose Taranis for no particular reason)

Much like Warhammer/WoW etc, you can be one side of the other. You can't have characters on both sides.

Class choices are the same on both sides with male/female versions.

Another class. Descriptions are pretty basic.

You have TWO tabs full of facial adjustments in this game. Shown is one. Plenty of room to personalize your looks.

You also have some body adjustments. Thankfully, there are about 25 EXCELLENT premade looks you can start off with to modify. Everyone looks good. There are no ugly looks in Aion for the presets. I suppose you could uglify yourself though. Metal in this game looks amazing. Still pictures don't do it justice.

Winni is born! I created a warrior since I figured info for the Chinese beta would be scarce so a melee class might be a little easier to figure out.

Anyone that's played Guild Wars or Lineage (NCSoft) will recognize the style.

This game looks great visually, even better in game than in screens.

I haven't flown yet. i don't know if I sprout wings or if I have to earn those. Check out some of the links for the flying stuff etc. My images are from within 50 yards of the newbie spawn point so don't show much.

If you're bored and feeling adventurous and don't mind downloading 6GB worth of files with the chance you'll fail at getting it to run, it's worth a look. i think the beta will remain active through the 15th of May, the last I saw on one of the boards.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » April 30, 2009, 10:55 am

5 years later and it still has worse graphics than Worlds of Warcraft.

miir · Post by **miir** » April 30, 2009, 11:28 am

Fairweather Pure wrote:5 years later and it still has worse graphics than Worlds of Warcraft.

Are you joking are are you really that fucking blind?

miir · Post by **miir** » April 30, 2009, 12:29 pm

Seriously though...
This game obviously (and smartly) doesn't have cutting edge graphics that will require the latest and greatest video cards from NVidia or ATI. But to even try to compare the graphics to WOW is pretty ridiculous.

The character models easily have 10x the polygons of WOW character models.
The water effects consist of more than a semi transparent texture with a couple frames of rudimentary animation.
The shadows are more than shapeless blobs beneath the characters.
Environmental shadows are actualy shadows... not painted textures.

I'm disappointed in some of the environmental (especially ground) textures but overall the game looks fantastic.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » April 30, 2009, 1:48 pm

I went fishing for Winnow and caught a Miir.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » April 30, 2009, 1:50 pm

Might want to throw it back. They are out of season.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 1, 2009, 1:25 am

Played a little tonight as a mage. They have a pretty nice root but I think I'll stick with warrior for now.

Here's the other tab for face. It's mostly color adjustments:

two colored eye look.

The game has a lot of idle animations in it. When it started to rain and I was standing still, my character summoned a leaf umbrella. Although it doesn't matter that much, it is nice to see the characters be a little responsive to the environment.

Besides being the best looking MMORPG, I haven't gone far enough to see if anything separates it from the rest of the MMOs. I hear the flying is fun but I haven't gotten that far.

Yawning means it's time to log for the night! That was a non activated yawn for being idle but some of the emotes in the game provide props to aid in your efforts to convey whatever it is you're trying to convey.

Everyone is Chinese but I've received a few offers to team and one to join a guild I think. I've rejected them all so far. I go solo!

Some screens of wings: (if they don't red-x)

That guy's about to get pwn'd by a carrot wielding warrior!

If only he had brought his fish sword!

This is one of those games where you can just run around and admire the scenery and character/mobs.

just go here and start flipping through the pictures and you're bound to be impressed:

http://www.aionsource.com/photoplog/index.php?c=1

use arrow keys once you have pic opened.

miir · Post by **miir** » May 1, 2009, 9:10 am

Man, this is a really nice looking game.
The screenshots really don't do it any justice.

Like winnow says you have to jump through some hoops and endure some hideously slow downloads to get the game running but it's worth the time and effort.

I started a mage on um.. I actually have no idea what server I'm on.

Newbie quests are pretty standard fare.
I like the mob design... lots of unique animations.
The UI is very intuitive.
I like how you can click on names in quests and it will place a map marker for their location.
It seems to be free of the irritating and frustraing quirkiness that plagues most Asian MMOs.

I think I saw only 2-3 other players with english names.
The group and alliance invite spam got annoying after a while.

Latency was pretty bad at times.
I got some pretty funky rubberbanding and spellcasting lag.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 1, 2009, 10:15 am

miir wrote:
Like winnow says you have to jump through some hoops and endure some hideously slow downloads to get the game running but it's worth the time and effort.

Latency was pretty bad at times.
I got some pretty funky rubberbanding and spellcasting lag.

the third 1.9GB data pack was downloading slow for me. I stopped and restarted that file download and it jumped up to the 5-9mbps speed. I used torrent only for the zip file because someone mentioned on a board that the non torrent version sometimes didnt work.

Haven't noticed much lag so far but they are asian servers so I won't be surprised. I have my game controller setup for Aion.

I'm going to try a Asmodian (dark side) character tonight.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 1, 2009, 11:44 am

Hmm. This does look pretty slick. I will dig around this weekend to see if I want to go through the pain to get an early peek!

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » May 1, 2009, 12:16 pm

holy shit an asian rpg hang on while i go fucking play it

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 1, 2009, 6:50 pm

What's with the RPG racism?

The point is that it's not just another Asian RPG. I've been following this one for a year. Asian MMOs are a dime a dozen but the quality ones, especially from the Lineage II/Guild Wars developers, deserves a look.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 1, 2009, 8:31 pm

- Plate Armor - can only be worn by Warrior class (glad and templar) high physical defense, crpa magic res and crap dodge
- Chain Armor - can be worn by Cleric class (cleric and chanter) medium physical defense, medium magic res and medium dodge
- Leather Armor - can be worn by Scout class (ranger and assassin), regular physical defense, high magic res, highest dodge
- Cloth Armor - can be worn by mage class (sorc and SM), low physical defense, highest magic res, high dodge

on another note, Warrior class can wear ALL types of armor, Cleric class can wear all armors except plate, scout can wear cloth and leather, etc, im sure u get the drift

Nice that a warrior class can wear all armor types. There's chatter about warriors using robes when fighting mages. Interesting if for nothing else than being able to change your looks. a DPS gladiator might opt for leather armor.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 1, 2009, 11:02 pm

Check out the size range for your character:

That's quite a size difference. All the sliders have a wide range on them. They aren't just for show.

I made my new warrior huge so I could see he armor. Asmodins seem to have more interesting looks although the women have a strange fur line running down their backs. The clawed hands and feet are cool though.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 3, 2009, 2:58 am

Played up till level 10 tonight. Got my wings!

After the first 5 or so levels of very standard grind stuff, the main path Mission Quests have been great. Even for beta with sketchy dialog in places, the story is entertaining and the cut scenes are great, using your own character in them.

The main quest for level 9 is getting your Wings.

There is a dream sequence that takes you into the future. Here's a shot of my with wings in it:

The detail in the game is very good. Here's a ranger type firing arrows:

This game handles uneven terrain very well with the character models. Makes for more realism:

The cut scenes are pretty and take your character as is and puts it in the scene.

----

I've grouped with Chinese players twice. First one knew two words,"go" and "follow" that was it. We still managed to be pretty effective on a quest.

The music is outstanding IMO in Aion. Usually the first thing i do in games is turn down the music volume but I haven't touched it yet in Aion.

The second one didn't say anything, he was a mage and I tanked. Worked pretty well.

Impressive game so far and I'm only level 10.

I'm liking the Asmodian side of things. I think it has a little more character to it than the "light" side which is more traditional looks. I didn't see enough of the Eloy side to have a good idea though. Maybe Miir can comment on the look and quests on that side.

The game is pretty polished. It Looks beautiful and I haven't crashed once and the servers are stable with no lag for me.

There are some original EQ-ish type long travel distances in the first 9 levels (before you are transported out of newbie land) Perhaps they're there so you appreciate your wings more later. There are enough bind spots and gold drops steady enough to spend on teleports etc. so it's not much of an inconvenience.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » May 3, 2009, 10:18 am

Winnow wrote:I've grouped with Chinese players twice. First one knew two words,"go" and "follow" that was it.

Ha! Usually the symptoms you've just grouped with a gold farmer in EQ2!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 3, 2009, 9:37 pm

Still having lots of fun.

Flying is a great addition to this game. PageUP/PageDown to take off and land, R to Elevate and F to descend. I'm not sure how well it works on the regular keyboard but I have my gamepad setup to handle this nicely. You can't fly everywhere and there's an endurance meter on flight so you can only fly for 30-60 secs (at least so far for me). The cool thing is that you can glide in any area. If on a cliff or even stairs going down or anything going down, you can hit the jump button once and then tap it again to bring out your wings and glide. While this is a lot of fun just to screw around with while traveling, it also helps get away from mobs as you glide pretty fast so finding a downward slop helps get away from stuff.

There are some impressive sights in the game. These things are HUGE. I couldn't get the camera angle to look up enough for a closer picture to show scale. in the picture, I'm still quiet a ways from them.

Everything besides the ground textures seems great. Armor detail is high and there's a nice variety.

Couple more things about flight. The flight bar also has another internal timer. This is about 10 seconds or so. If you take off or glide and then land, you can't take off again until the meter is full. I'm sure it has something to do with PvP strategy. Important to know though if you're running along a non fly area and jump/gliding...you don't want to glide on a little hill and then fall to your death off a cliff because your meter isn't refilled.

I anticipate some deaths due to flight meters running out as well. if you're not low enough when the meter runs out, you plummet to your death.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 4, 2009, 11:33 am

OMG GRAVE ROBBER SMUGGLER!!!

Gotta love the translation.

It is a pretty good looking game by the screenies.

miir · Post by **miir** » May 4, 2009, 11:41 am

I'm diggin it.
I like the combat system.
Most classes seem to have skill chains and reactive abilities... similar to Vanguard.
There's also a nice balance between grinding and questing. The game is actually kinda challenging is you stick strictly to questing.

I have characters on servers 105 and 109. 109 seems to be pretty laggy.
I think you can only make 2 characters per server.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » May 4, 2009, 11:46 am

Have yall tried 2/3-boxing yet or is it not worthwhile?

I'd rather not group with plat-farmers, lawls

miir · Post by **miir** » May 4, 2009, 2:06 pm

I'm pretty sure that nprotect gameguard client prevents multiple instances of the game from being run on a single PC.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 4, 2009, 7:46 pm

I hit level 13 last night.

Enjoying myself and occasionally group with random Chinese people.

Pretty fun trying to communicate what's going on. I ran out of arrows. The ranger eventually figured it out and started pulling mobs instead of me doing it as a Gladiator. Thankfully it's very easy to swap weapons so pulling with a bow and then whipping out the gnarly pole weapon works well. (you can also buy arrows hella cheap. 100 for 100G and can load up on 1000 plus arrows so it doesn't tend to be a problem running out of them)

I can play this game with one hand the way my gamepad is setup. Even the flying part. I tend to use the mouse to look around though and right click to attack targets with my bow.

Really liking the Warrior/Gladiator so far. They can wear all armor and use most of the weapons so any nice thing that drops typically can be used.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » May 4, 2009, 11:51 pm

Great screens!

Game looks great!

How fun is it though with only four classes?

Are there any martial arts or just sword, dagger, bow, magic?

Is crowd control needed or can you plow your way through dozens of mobs solo?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 5, 2009, 12:53 am

Kwonryu DragonFist wrote:Great screens!

Game looks great!

How fun is it though with only four classes?

Are there any martial arts or just sword, dagger, bow, magic?

Is crowd control needed or can you plow your way through dozens of mobs solo?

-the four classes branch off into 8 total classes after level 9.

-can't comment on end game or past the teens in levels but fun to play and pretty to look at.

-The Kwon could probably roll through mobs non stop using only a food sack as club while pulling mobs by throwing fishcakes at them, but from what I gathered when grouping with other classes, two player parties can pretty much roll non stop without resting much. As a Gladiator, I grouped with a Ranger and we didn't have to stop between pulls. I did fairly well with a cleric type but the Ranger/Gladiator combo seemed better. I'd pull with bow, get agro, the ranger would unload some high damage shots with snare, then I'd whack the mobs once or twice with my quad hitting pole weapon of doom, and get agro back right before the mob died so little to no damage to either player.

Seems like a good two player party type game. It's fine solo though as well although the final mission level 9 quest was a bit of a bitch for me to do solo.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 5, 2009, 3:07 pm

Sorry no screenshots from last night! I was beating up on some cute little mouse looking thingies so it was kinda embarrassing. On top of that, I have a new AE spin attack that hits everything around me so I was killing chickens and other little critters that happened to be close by.

All I could think of was the line from O'Brother Where Art Thou, "Oh George, not the livestock!"

miir · Post by **miir** » May 5, 2009, 3:52 pm

I want to try a priest class, what server are you on, Winnow?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 5, 2009, 5:12 pm

miir wrote:I want to try a priest class, what server are you on, Winnow?

Don't know exact spelling but its something like "Juctice" (only server that looks like the word "Justice"

Sartori · Post by **Sartori** » May 5, 2009, 10:01 pm

I'm on Lumiel, trying out a scout, but haven't had much time so I'm very low level. Thanks for the guide and stuff Winnow!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 5, 2009, 10:42 pm

Winnow wrote:
miir wrote:I want to try a priest class, what server are you on, Winnow?

Don't know exact spelling but its something like "Juctice" (only server that looks like the word "Justice"

I just noticed that there are two similar server names. I'm on Justiel.

np Sartori!

miir · Post by **miir** » May 6, 2009, 9:27 am

That's weird, the only server names I see are numbers.. like Server109, Server105...

Sartori · Post by **Sartori** » May 6, 2009, 5:44 pm

Do you guys get a "The remaining playing time is %DURATIONTIMENOSEC" message when you log in ?

miir · Post by **miir** » May 6, 2009, 6:03 pm

Did you register your account as an 'adult'?

Sartori · Post by **Sartori** » May 6, 2009, 6:24 pm

Thought I did, but maybe it didn't work. Haven't been able to play it much (Only level 6 atm), but I'll probly have time to find out today. So you don't see that message when you log in?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » May 6, 2009, 7:45 pm

Sartori wrote:Thought I did, but maybe it didn't work. Haven't been able to play it much (Only level 6 atm), but I'll probly have time to find out today. So you don't see that message when you log in?

I get the same message. It doesnt mean anything. I'm registered as an adult.

Miir, check the very first screenshot. It has pick of the servers I see when I'm on the server screen.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 23, 2009, 10:46 pm

Aion launches in the U.S on September 22nd:

http://kotaku.com/5301119/aions-western-launch-dated

Sartori · Post by **Sartori** » June 24, 2009, 9:14 pm

More interested in beta dates

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 24, 2009, 10:48 pm

Sartori wrote:More interested in beta dates

There isn't going to be a US beta.

They are doing a few "events" but there will be no open beta in US.

Lynxe · Post by **Lynxe** » July 19, 2009, 7:53 pm

Asanako, Kavden, me and a few other newfs some here may or may not know are planning on playing it (possibly zoggmak).

So Tanaris and the Eylos for you come go-live Winnow? (Assuming Tanaris is a go-live server)?

Anyone else planning to play?

Avestan · Post by **Avestan** » July 20, 2009, 2:29 pm

I'm gunna play with a couple friends.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » August 31, 2009, 8:05 pm

While searching the latest stuffage on the newsgroups, I noticed Aion Retail 1.5.0.1 full install is on the usenet. ~10 GB.

Might save some of you peeps some install time later.

Jarori Bloodletter · September 5, 2009, 2:39 am

If it has Gameguard you won't even be able to run your Media player and play it at the same time.

And it does so its a dealbreaker for me.. i wont be playing it.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 5, 2009, 1:16 pm

Jarori Bloodletter wrote:If it has Gameguard you won't even be able to run your Media player and play it at the same time.

And it does so its a dealbreaker for me.. i wont be playing it.

The Chinese beta had Gameguard and I was able to run other apps just fine. But if you're worried about that, there are ways to disable Gameguard. I don't recall if I ran music in the background at same time but why would you do that? This game has excellent sound, both music and effects. If you need music, that's what your iPod is for. My PC speakers have their own Aux in so you can bypass the PC and play mobile devices directly through the speakers. If you're worried about music, get PC speakers like that. Most have aux in ports.

I ran Aion in max window mode on one monitor and had no problem at all using apps on my other monitor. If you go full screen, then it's always a hassle to switch (although I was still able to but the game would go black screen on the game would minimize, can't remember which). With Windowed mode, you can still see what's going on in the game while doing other things on the PC.

Here's an Aion comic put out by DC. It's not that good really but I'll post it anyway. (14mb -pdf)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 17, 2009, 11:16 pm

Jarori Bloodletter wrote:If it has Gameguard you won't even be able to run your Media player and play it at the same time.

And it does so its a dealbreaker for me.. i wont be playing it.

Greetings!

As we draw closer to tomorrow I wanted to give everyone a brief update on the progress of our live version. We are excited to announce that we will be serving out the final update for you to patch within the next few hours. You will be able to use this version for both our Preselection and our Head Start. We are very excited with our final product and think that you will be as well!

Below are the release notes for the patch you will see later today:

- Aion now features all three languages French, German and English. To select your language simply right click on Aion within your launcher and go to Properties->Language Options. Please select which languages you wish to download and which you wish Aion to display.

- After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we're focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.

- The level cap is now level 50 (previously 45).

- Players will be able to reserve 2 character names during Preselection and create 8 characters in total once Head Start begins and beyond.

- Channels will be set to 10 instances for the beginning 2 zones of each faction. Please note that these will be lowered as characters progress and spread throughout Atreia.

Xaen
Aion Producer

I like to keep up on the MMORPG news.

For those that didn't get a chance to play the beta (pretty much everyone!) This is the best MMORPG to come along in a long long time.

Avestan · Post by **Avestan** » September 18, 2009, 4:17 am

So. Pick a server. And a side I guess.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » September 18, 2009, 12:55 pm

Winnow wrote:- After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we're focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.

So.. Get you playing and hooked and then turn it on. Great plan !

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » September 18, 2009, 3:42 pm

I don't understand the issue with GameGaurd. I didn't cause an issue for me on dual monitors in the Chinese Beta. Must be an XP thing. Works great in Windows 7 x64!

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 18, 2009, 8:13 pm

this game needs a forum

omg omgomg can't wait. start a VV guild stat

hope it runs on me laptop

Avestan · Post by **Avestan** » September 19, 2009, 2:21 am

ok so

server: Ariel (changed)
side: Asmo

Any problems with that?

made a priest (Cleric): Sigil
and a war: Tex

can't wait to start tomorrow.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » September 21, 2009, 9:14 pm

Avestan wrote:ok so

server: Nezekan
side: Asmo

Any problems with that?

made a priest (Cleric): Ave
and a mage: Arx

can't wait to start tomorrow.

Nez is supposed to be the 'official' Oceanic server, so you may wanna flee elsewhere unless you play at odd hours.

Avestan · Post by **Avestan** » September 22, 2009, 3:13 am

Changed server to Ariel

My chars are Tex (Templar) and Sigil (going cleric). I think the cleric will be my main.