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Aion: the Tower of Eternity. Another great from NCSOFT
http://www.plaync.com/us/games/aion/
System Requirements
The systems Aion will be running on today at Gstar were optimized for performance. I believe the suggested specs will be slightly higher than Lineage 2. (Note: For reference, the suggested specs for L2 are Pentium 4 2.4GHz or better, 1GB RAM or more and GeForceFX 5700 or better)
Engine:
The engine that is currently being used for Aion is the CryENGINE that was developed by Crytek as a demo. Shortly after it's creation Crytek and Ubisoft realized it's potential and used it in it's first game Far Cry. Soon enough it made it's way into Aion.
Plot:
"In Aion, players are divided between those that are "The Chosen" and those that are "The Fallen." The Tower of Eternity exists as a gateway into the Abyss, and acts as a portal between dimensions. When a great evil opens the gateways, it awakens the Dragons imprisoned within the Abyss, who seek revenge on both worlds. It is here that an epic conflict begins, as you take your first steps on a journey to bring salvation to the world."
"In Aion: The Tower of Eternity, players must choose a side between two warring factions: the Chosen or the Fallen. Once their world was whole; a perfect union joined at the center by The Tower of Eternity. When a great catastrophe shattered The Tower of Eternity, it split the world into two halves - and awoke the Dragons, a warring race exiled within the extra-dimensional Abyss. The Dragons now seek revenge on both of these new worlds, sparking an epic conflict. The part you play, the side you choose and the decisions you make will help determine the ultimate fate of Aion."
Factions:
There are 3 factions in Aion, 2 of which are playable. The two playable factions are The Chosen and The Fallen.
~The Chosen:
The Chosen live in the lower portion of the World of Aion which is said to be "more alive, vibrant." (Ju-hyun Jang, Producer)
~The Fallen:
The Fallen live in the upper portion of the World of Aion which is "more somber... darker." (Ju-hyun Jang, Producer)
~The Dragons:
The third faction which are server-controlled are the dragons. "The (Dragons) are a server-controlled NPC faction, so players cannot choose to play them. However, just because they are controlled by the server doesn't mean they are stupid; they can make choices, and players will never quite know what they are going to do. For example, imagine a castle siege-style scenario, where one of the player factions, the (Fallen), is attacking the (Chosen) faction's castle. In the middle of this siege, the Yong may appear. When they arrive, no-one will know what they are going to do. They may have previously helped the (Fallen), but that doesn't matter; in the siege, they might betray them and help the (Chosen). Or they might help the (Fallen) to siege the (Chosen's) castle. Or... they might try and take the castle for themselves, fighting against both the (Chosen) and the (Fallen). The important thing to realize is that the (Dragons) are not typical NPCs. They are the third faction in the game, and they have free will, which makes them very unpredictable." (Ju-hyun Jang, Producer)
~Factions
Unfortunately there have been no pictures released of The Fallen faction yet. All the people that are seen in the screenshots and concept art have been from The Chosen or The Dragon factions. However, it has been said that The Fallen are "darker and more opulent."
Classes:
There's not a lot known about the different classes other than pictures of them and their names:
~Wizard
~Ranger
~Fighter
~Priest
The World
Atreia, the name of the world of Aion, is not like any other conventional world.
"In the beginning, Aion was a single world, a hollow globe intersected vertically at its core by The Tower of Eternity. After a cataclysmic event that occurs in the game's pre-history, the top and bottom halves of the world are split in two, with the Tower of Eternity reduced to a shattered ruin."
Ju-hyun Jang explains:
“The world of Aion resembles a globe, divided horizontally into two halves. The lower half is the world of the Chun (The Chosen), the upper half is the world of the Ma (The Fallen). So basically the world-map of Aion is not on a horizontal plane, like a traditional fantasy world; instead it's vertical. With this in mind, some parts of both worlds can only be accessed from the air - such as floating castles, and islands in the sky. Because of this, all of the player characters can gain wings."
The area lying in-between these two worlds is referred to as the Abyss.
"The Abyss is the great battlefield of Aion, which consists of flying rocks and pieces of land. Located on these flying "islands" are military bases and strongholds. Large battles and sieges take place here between the Chun (The Chosen) and the Ma (The Fallen) and the third NPC controlled faction Yong (The Dragons)."
The Abyss will also host flying dungeons to explore and dominate.
Flying
"Glide effortlessly through the skies in Aion™. Flying is not just a means of transportation – flight is an extension of the combat system and can be an integral part of taking on your foes in battle. Clash swords high above the ground and use flight-specific skills to defeat your rivals. Aion™ adds a whole new dimension to combat as you pluck your enemies from the sky, rain down destruction from above, toss your opponent into the air, and more. This isn’t your usual MMORPG combat – you will need to form new strategies to slay your adversary."
~Tell us about the free-flying function in Aion. How is it being designed?
Though I cannot discuss any specifics at this time, I can tell you we are trying to design this feature so that it has a unique feel to it. Free-flying will be one of the most important skills players will learn in Aion. However, you won't have to spend an extensive amount of time in the game to be able to learn this skill.
Worthplaying.com, Interview with producer Ju-hyun Jang
PvPvE (Player vs Player vs Environment)
"Combat in other online role-playing games consists of PvE (Player vs. Environment): fighting computer-controlled monsters, and PvP (Player vs. Player): human-controlled characters fighting each other.
For the first time in the MMORPG genre, Aion™ brings these two game features together in an evolving and seamless system. PvPvE manages the complex relationships and alliances between realms, races and guilds; it also controls the mighty Dragons, a non-player faction and a common enemy to all players, regardless of faction."
Game Play
~A frequent criticism of certain MMORPGs is that there can be too much 'grinding' in the game - the repeating of certain tasks for experience. Is that the case for Aion?
During development we've focused on not adding grinding based on numbers to arbitrarily extend the lifecycle of the game. In Aion, you won't have to repeat one quest 100 times or kill 1,000 monsters just to gain experience.
Worthplaying.com, Interview with producer Ju-hyun Jang
from Gamespot
Gametrailer from here
Aion Play Video
Aion E3 trailer
Aion Gstar video
Full Screenshots and Concept Art from here
Atreia (The Aion World)
Too big to post
The Abyss (A Dungeon)
~Too big to post
AION: The Tower of Eternity is still under development by NCsoft, and any information related to the game is subject to change with the release of more information.
Original Posted by LoM2 on Penny-Arcade)
Comments
Have no fear, Xru is here.
lolz j/k. Actually I find it kind of flattering that someone liked it enough to post it somewhere else.
-Benhamine (LoM2 on Penny-Arcade)
{IT'S HERE}Tank and Spank: Two Gamers' Quest for a Good MMO{IT'S HERE}
But yeah it's all good and apology accepted ^.^
-Benhamine
{IT'S HERE}Tank and Spank: Two Gamers' Quest for a Good MMO{IT'S HERE}
What can I say?
This is looking great.
Worlds that change on player actions.
Wings and flight combat.
Plus promises of great character customisation.
And look at those graphics!
To those who don't want to bother looking into it and have expressed their "opinion". Your just punching yourself in the face.
Currently Playing: Everything but MMORPGs
Cancelled: L2, FFXI, VSoH, LotRO, WAR, WoW
Looking Forward To: SW:TOR
Sure, the game looks good, but as for the world changing depending on player actions. I've heard a lot of MMO's say this would happen, but when I actually played it, I never saw any changes at all. It's not like you can lead the world into total destruction or anything.
But of course, being able to fly seems like something no other MMO has attempted, and the graphics make the game look so much better to look at.
Hmmm...
Can't find it now, but somewhere on ncsoft's site I've read that they're planning on releasing or starting beta tests of Aion at the end of 2007 or 2008 (can't remember which), in Korea that is.
Cheers.
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=The best bash.org quote ever=
Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance
Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
Auto Assault.
Anyways.. it does look pretty nice but its to early. Flight combat could be interesting, and I wonder how that server controlled faction works.
_____
Auto Assault.
Crap you are so right. Must have forgot about that one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=The best bash.org quote ever=
Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance
Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
So I feel the same about this game as every Unreal MMO... it's on something, that was not made to handle that sort of enviroment. This is the Crysis engine, think of the butchering that must be done in order to make it work on a MMO scale.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
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Currently Playing: Earth Eternal (Closed BETA w00t!), Eternal Lands, Magic World Online, ACE Online, Dark Orbit, Dead Frontier, Wizard 101, SpellCasters, America's Army, Dungeon Runners, Runes of Magic, DotA
----***I ONLY PLAY F2P MMORPG'S!***----
(A lot of these games I jump around too, I'm most dedicated right now to Earth Eternal and Eternal Lands...)
It looks good with pretty and detailed graphics. I hope it's not another asian grind fest, but I'm mostly concerned about controls. If controlling your character is as quirky as in lineage II, it's a definite deal-breaker for me. I absolutely hated the click-to-move controls in Lineage II (I know there was a WASD alternative, but it didn't work very well for me).
Personally I dislike the manga art style used in most of NC Soft's games, but from a technical point of view it's stunningly beautiful and I could certainly live with it if the rest of the game is any good. Looks promising so far...