• 1^st part :
  • Introduction
  • General Information
  • Lore & Races
• 2^nd part :
  • Classes
  • Combo & Skills
  • Items & Stats
• 3^rd part :
  • PvP & PvE
  • The Abyss
    
  • Miscellaneous
  • Conclusion

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)

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).

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.

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!

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:

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

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.

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

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

Asmodians

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

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)

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)

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.

 

 

Shugo

&nbs p;

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.

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...

That's all for the first part! Second and third are coming soooon with a lot more information!