On Sunday, June 20, a force known now as the Elysean Council on the Triniel server organized over 300 Elyos to capture the Divine Fortress, something no other North American server has managed to achieve. We had the chance to speak with the leadership involved in this great accomplishment to get a taste of what went into planning an event of this magnitude.

Congratulations on your successful siege on the Divine Fortress! Can you first introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your character?

Nightroad: I’m Nightroad, Legion leader of Haven. I have been playing since the second closed beta. I play a level 50 Templar, and strive to play it the best I possibly can by investing a great deal of time into working on combat strategies and gear.

Ceranwrap: My name is Eddie, a.k.a. Ceranwrap in game. I’ve been playing Aion since launch, but I would consider myself a semi hardcore player.

Okani: Hi! I’m Okani, a 50 Sorcerer from KDO. I’m getting more used to PvP, and I decided to help my new Legion get more active in the Abyss and make the players more active. I enjoy both PvP and PvE. It just depends on my mood.

- Larger Image -

Grolley: I’m Grolley, a 50 Assassin and the brigade general of Deviance. I am a full Miragent Assassin with all PvP accessories.

Koneko: Character name, Koneko. Leader of the guild SunShine. I play an Elyos Assassin. Still working on some PvP gear but otherwise in full golds and definitely a force to be reckoned with. I enjoy PvP and PvE. I’m an all around player, and I like to excel in what I do in both fields.

Kaithiel: My main is Kaithiel, a tiny little Spiritmaster. I’ve been playing Aion since the second beta. I am level 50 and slowly working on Miragents. My character is slow at progression as I spend much time running my Legion and working on the Elysean Alliance on Triniel. I’m the contact girl. Not much to really say about myself other than I’m always busy. Unfortunately, it’s not always busy with getting game play done so much as resolving issues and promoting inter-Legion relations.

As early as May, Haven has been organizing sieges on the Divine Fortress. In your opinion, what was different this time around?

Koneko: Well, the first time was just a damage test, not of what we could do to the Deity but of what the Deity could do to us. I wasn’t present for this, sadly, so I took SunShine down after stomping the Asmodians during a fort defense sometime after, and we decided to experiment a bit as well. We managed to get the Deity to about 80% before we decided we knew what we needed to know and left. I can’t honestly answer this question as it is stated because we did not give a serious attempt until now, and we got it.

Nightroad: This was our first serious attempt at capturing the Divine Fortress. We have, however, just played with it with a few alliances in the past. So the largest difference is that we actually brought a sizeable enough force for the attempt, as well as great dedication from the Elyos faction.

Okani: We were not aware of this until about a day before the actual siege. Most of our Legion members were like, “Um . . . What? Are you serious?” Haha. I was even a bit doubtful myself, but what was the worst that could happen?

- Larger Image -

How many people participated in the siege on Sunday night?

Nightroad: Approximately 300 Elyos were present for the raid at the time of the fort going vulnerable. I’m sure there were more stragglers however that showed up late.
How were the tasks broken up between all the various Alliances? Do you think that certain Legions were better suited for specific roles?
Nightroad: In the beginning, Haven’s alliances headed out early to gain artifact control, while the Elysean council and other Legions, including Sunshine, Deviance, and Knights of the Divine Order, continued grouping up. After we all were set and ready to move out, we executed our plan thoroughly as a whole unit. This is unlike our regular sieges, where artifact and PvP duties are delegated out to various Legions/alliances, but ended up working in our favor.
Kaithiel: Normally anytime we plan raids we try to assign different alliances different tasks so that we can all move together striking at once. For this particular siege, Haven had its main alliance, which was ready early, going out after the core artifacts while the Elysean Alliance worked on getting as many Elyos involved and ready as possible. We all grouped up together to make our move as a whole unit.
Okani: The tasks were rather simple, the healers stayed out of range, healed there members, and helped heal other alliance members as well as nonalliance members, and it made it fair to the lesser PUG alliances, in my opinion. I think it was very organized, and people knew what was going on thanks to the planning by Nightroad. He even made a channel just for the siege so we could all communicate.

What does this successful capture represent to you?

Grolley: This capture is a great representation of the organization and dedication of our Triniel Elyos. This success shows that we get things done at a higher level as a race as opposed to individual Legions. I feel we have one of the best organized races around. When we plan, we make things happen.

Nightroad: This siege represents what we can do when we work together as a faction and fight it through to the end without giving up—the attitudes that everyone had, and the effort put forth by all the Elyos regardless of level or gear. It showed me the full ability of the Elyos on this server—that we can go and do what we set out to. I am hoping that the determination and pride that we gained will now be a part of our faction as a whole and will come into play each night on the battlefield with both the willpower and attendance to back it up.

Ceranwrap: Simple, it represents the power of unity. When you get a bunch of people together focused on a single task, you can accomplish anything.

Give us a glimpse of what this encounter was like for you. What were the biggest challenges you faced, and where do you think you excelled as a victorious force?

Kaithiel: For me the biggest challenge was to stay alive! Lol, I can’t tell you how many times I died. Other than that, it was guiding and trying to keep the PUG alliances together and positive during the siege. Once people die, they start to leave, and we needed to keep everyone there and engaged—so lots of motivating and encouraging going on during the siege. I think being able to effectively communicate, since the alliance leads were together on one Vent, helped with direction—and that the plan was simple and effective also helping.

Nightroad: The biggest challenges during the fight with Ereshkigal’s Claw were managing the additional mobs post-50%, as well as the mass amounts of reflect it would cast in the 50% to 25% phase. However, beyond that, keeping everyone’s morale up was also a challenge as well, especially after we lost Kysis Fortress to the Asmodians because our entire force was engaged with Ereshkigal’s Claw.

Ceranwrap: This encounter represented the greatest challenge the game had to offer. Until then, the challenge was gearing up to be competitive in PvP. To be the first North American server to do this, that is where we all excelled.

In many ways, the Divine Fortress represents the end-all be-all encounter currently in Aion. Now that the Elyos own it, how do you plan to defend it?

Grolley: Conquering the Divine Fortress is just the beginning. Some may say, “The game is over. Elyos have done it all.” Hopefully, the Asmodians use this as a motivation to take it from us. This is what Aion, to me, is truly about: PvP. I welcome the challenges, and I hope that we have the ability to cover Divine with Asmodian blood for weeks and even months to come. Giving away our tactics will take the fun out of it for the Asmodians. Some things just need to be discovered and not given out freely.

- Larger Image -

Nightroad: Divine Fortress may represent the last accomplishment for Aion; however, it is far from the end in reality. With the fortress layout and game mechanics, defending should not take nearly the same force it actually took to capture. However, its significance to us and North American Aion makes holding it very valuable to our community. Currently, the primary benefits of holding the fortress itself, which include morph recipes and a 5% run speed title, have already been obtained. Its value in 2.0 will increase that much more with the addition of the instance.

Okani: Well, we plan to have, hopefully, a large number of people ready at hand just in case the Asmodians start something, and I’m pretty sure Nightroad is going to have a plan to maintain Divine’s current state. I’m sure we can handle it. I mean come on, we took it with the Deity not on our side and Asmo interference. I’m confident we can keep it under an Elyos name.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, and congratulations again!

Nightroad: I would really like to use this opportunity to formally thank all the raid leaders, supporters, and the Elyos of Triniel. Your dedication, support, morale, and willpower made this possible. As much as it was a pleasure to lead this raid, it would not have been possible without everyone else that showed up and helped out.

-The Aion Community Team

In addition to all of the fun activities that will be taking place on the show floor, we will also be hosting the first official Aion Fan Gathering! Join members of the Aion team and fellow players at Dave and Busters on July 22 for games, food, and a chance to score even more limited edition Aion swag!

The first 100 guests to arrive at the Aion Fan Gathering will receive a limited edition Tutty ’n’ Beans. Attendees at the Aion Fan Gathering must provide an invitation and be at least 21 years old or accompany a parent or guardian over the age of 30. You can pick up your invitation at our booth #5345, or print and bring an electronic version before the event!

See you there!

—The Aion Community Team

With just under a week until the server merge and the free character transfers begin, we’re getting excited to hear your feedback about the improved server balance. We truly feel that you will be happy with the end result.

To take advantage of the healthier populations that the servers will have, we’ve been planning a series of epic PvP events that we will be running over the summer leading up to the upcoming Aion®: Assault on Balaurea™ game update. Stay tuned for more information on that.

This week we have not one, but two questions from the community that have been answered by Chris “Kinslon” Hager, our producer. Enjoy!

Question of the Week

Pavlova of Ariel asks:

“Everyone is so caught up on character names, but what are you guys doing about duplicate Legion names?”

Because we have fewer Legions than characters, we’re able to be more hands-on with Legion name collisions. Our customer service team is going through active and inactive Legion names, and we will be changing names based on specific criteria (Legion size, contribution points, and so on). Similar to how we are handling name changes, if your Legion’s name is changed, we will be adding a two-letter designation derived from the name of your original server to the end of the Legion name and giving your Brigade General a Legion name change coupon. You’ll notice changes to Legion names over the next couple of days leading up to the merge.

Kyperioth of Siel asks:

“I was wondering if we could get some solid population numbers on the approximate faction size after the merger.”

Coming from a number-crunching background myself, I know that numbers are important. Although that question seems like something I’d be able to give you a quick, solid answer on, it’s actually complicated, and the answer is less clear because we don’t know what will fall out after the free character move period ends.

Coming from a number background myself, I know they are important. We all put on our number crunching hats when we merged the servers, and we had a lot of defining criteria to work with. In the end, we ranked all of the information we had together to merge the servers we felt fit the overall criteria the best, but overall server population and faction size were the main contributing factors in our final solution. We worked hard to make sure the servers that were put together were as balanced as we could make them.

The unknown factor is a human one. We can’t calculate the rate at which people will transfer during the free transfer period, and faced with a possible race conflict (not being able to play both Asmodian and Elyos characters on the same server), which players will move which characters to which servers. Each of the new, blended servers will evolve and change over the few weeks after the merge to take on a life and vitality of its own. We’ll see Legions pitted against Legions and develop some healthy Asmodian vs. Elyos bloodshed. I know I’ll be doing my part in the Abyss battles!

Do you want the Aion team to answer your question or discuss a topic of your choice? Send an email to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com with your character name, server, and question!

In Other News

Let’s have a look at what’s been going on in the Aion community.

Siel Style
Victrola of Siel has been interested in fashion in MMOs for over a decade and has created a blog highlighting the fashions found on that server.

Better than GPS
Ever wanted to have locations of monsters for your in-game notepad? Annebelle of Spatalos has put together a notepad map to Asmodian and Abyss monsters that you can use in game.

Homage to Marchutan
Aion roleplayers are holding a roleplaying event focusing on the Shedim Lord of Fate, Marchutan. Enjoy, won’t you?

Rheeza’s PvP Compilation
Rheeza has a great short video highlighting some daring kills and large-scale fights defending Elysea.

Knowledge Is Power

Remember to follow the Community Team on Twitter and Facebook to stay on top of Aion news!

Aion Facebook Page—Become a fan today!

Aion Steam Gaming Group—Join our Steam community!

Tamat (NA Community Manager)
Ayase (UK Community Manager)
Imhotep (DE Community Manager)
Arathaur (FR Community Manager)

The Eye on Community article series is a way for us to highlight current, interesting, wacky, passionate, intriguing, dramatic, or just plain awesome things going on in the community. Please send your submissions to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

—The Aion Community Team

* * *

The Battle Reporter is, in short, a war
correspondent that relays stories from his/her server to the masses of
Aiononline.com. These stories, War Reports, are to be written on a
sporadic basis and upon completion, submitted to the community team for
publish right here on our website. 
To apply for a Battle Reporter position
within the War Effort programme, send an email to the Aion community team at aion_community@ncsoft.com, including the
following information:

1. Your full name
2. Your character/server
3. A 400 word sample article outlining the past
   two weeks’ most notable events on your server, written in a journalistic
   and objective fashion.

We will be accepting members to our
programme on a continuous basis, and even if the roles of your server
are filled for the moment being – there is a capacity of one Battle
Reporter per faction and server – we’ll keep your details on file and
may contact you down the line. 
Good luck!

With the imminent server merge on July 14, we wanted to let you know that we will be changing some Legion names in the next few days.

Before the merge, we will manually identify Legions that may run into a naming conflict with another Legion during the server merge. After identifying all Legions in conflict, our customer service team will be applying a set of criteria to determine which Legions will maintain their names without any change and which Legions will have an identifying server abbreviation appended to them. These name changes will be taking place before the merge.

If your Legion receives a server abbreviation added to the end of your Legion name, the Legion’s Brigade General will receive a free Legion Name Change Ticket after the merge is complete. Your Legion may then opt to keep the Legion name with the server abbreviation or change its Legion name after the server merge occurs.

We’ve updated our Server Merge FAQ with more information. Make sure to give it a look, and let us know what you think in our forums.

—The Aion Community Team

Due to technical complications occurring during the first execution of character transfers today, we have unfortunately found ourselves in a position where we need to further postpone the transfers until a solution is found. The issues did not appear in prior testing and have forced us to go back and perform careful investigations. We decided putting character transfers on hold would be a much more preferable option than having to face the risk of corrupting character information.

We will continue to do our outermost to ensure an as good character transfer experience as possible, and will announce further details as soon as they become available to us.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

- The Aion Community Team

****** UPDATED ********

NCsoft Reveals Release Date for Aion’s Highly Anticipated Free Expansion – Aion®: Assault on Balaurea™

Aion Players in North America and Europe can begin exploring the world far beyond the traditional territories of Asmodae and Elysea beginning September 7th.

Today, NCsoft, the world’s premier publisher and developer of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs), unveiled the official release date for Aion: Assault on Balaurea, the next exciting chapter in Aion that entrenches players into a rich storyline in which their actions will determine the fate of the world. Aion: Assault on Balaurea releases digitally to PCs in North America and Europe on Sept. 7, 2010, however, players looking for retail boxed copies of the full game featuring exclusive in-game pets will find them at select retailers in North America on Sept. 7 and on Sept. 10 in Europe.

In Aion: Assault on Balaurea, the exciting new chapter of Aion, characters have the ability to align together to launch massive counter assaults against the invading Balaur on their homeland while experiencing new and updated instances and zones, an increased level cap, new weapons and items, new skills and added flight mechanics. Characters will not be alone as they explore the new areas, as Aion introduces functional pets equipped with in-game benefits.

Unlike any MMO before it, Aion is a uniquely crafted online gaming experience where flight offers much more than just a way to gracefully explore the landscape – it is a strategic and integral part of combat, quests, and exploration. Players will use flight to dive into battle and plunge through thousands of unique, story-driven quests, all while trying to save and control a world literally shattered in half from centuries of brutal conflict.

For more information about Aion and Aion: Assault on Balaurea go to http://www.aiononline.com.  

About NCsoft

NCsoft, headquartered in Seoul, Korea, is the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games, including the critically acclaimed Aion®, Lineage®, Guild Wars, City of Heroes® and Exteel® franchises. NCsoft West is a division of NCsoft that holds operating responsibilities for North America, Europe, South America, and Australia/New Zealand. More information can be found at http://us.ncsoft.com.

My fellow exalted,

The screams of war
have rung in our ears for years now. Many of you have felt, directly or
indirectly, the rush of victory, and the crush of defeat. We have tasted
the copper tang of our own blood in our mouths, but our forces have
also stood atop the mightiest of fortresses and claimed absolute
dominion over it. I write these words not to startle or instil fear in
your hearts, but to steel you each for a new dawn in this conflict.
Allow me to explain.

Today, we are faced with a unique
opportunity. The lands of Atreia have opened up for us like the Elysean
flowers under spring’s warm embrace. They are ready and waiting for us
to redeem them from the two pillars of evil that threaten their halls
and chambers. You can be sure that both the Balaur and Asmodians will be
preparing similar strikes, but it is the Elyos who have, and will
always have, the greatest of boons: Aion’s favour. You are the reverent
few, the chosen disciples who must rise, and prove to Aion that the
blessings we received were not misplaced.

However, this is not a
simple call to arms. Lord Kaisinel has instructed me to approach you,
my fellow Daevas, with a unique proposition. We wish to attach unique
positions to our Legions, Battle Reporters who can relay real-time
information back to everyone involved in the Elyos war effort. With this
information, our Legions can truly act as one; our efforts can be
coordinated, concentrated, and when our Fortresses feel the strain of
the enemy’s presence, you will be able to flock to them and drive the
scourge from our lands.

I turn to you, the bravest of the
brave. Volunteers will serve Elysea in these new posts, and will connect
the mighty Elyos forces into a single, indefatigable, irresistible
powerhouse.
All those interested in answering Lord
Kaisinel’s call must follow the below attached instructions.

Faith and arms!
Belleraphax

* * *

The Battle Reporter
is, in short, a war correspondent that relays stories from his/her
server to the masses of Aiononline.com. These stories, War Reports, are to be written on a
sporadic basis and upon completion, submitted to the community team for
publish right here on our website.

To apply for a Battle Reporter position
within the War Effort programme, send an email to the Aion community team at aion_community@ncsoft.com, including the
following information:

1. Your full name
2. Your character/server
3. A 400 word sample article outlining the past
   two weeks’ most notable events on your server, written in a journalistic
   and objective fashion.

We will be accepting
members to our programme on a continuous basis, and even if the roles of
your server are filled for the moment being – there is a capacity of
one Battle Reporter per faction and server – we’ll keep your details on
file and may contact you down the line.

Good luck!

We’ve received quite a lot of feedback and suggestions from you on how to handle name collisions since we outlined the process for server merge same-name conflicts.

Limitations in our merge tools prevent us from applying criteria to determine the rightful owner of a name in advance of the merge. To balance that shortcoming, we’re devoting a lot of customer service attention to resolving any name change abuse or name poaching.

After listening to your feedback, we’ve incorporated that feedback into an abuse resolution policy. The appeals process of this policy applies to cases where a lower level character claims the name of a more active, higher level character. The process also addresses cases where two active, high-level characters make claims to the same name.

Our Server Merge FAQ has been updated with more information, including what criteria we’ll be looking at to determine the rightful owner of a name and instructions for submitting your appeal.

—The Aion Community Team

The United Postal Services Association of Atreia has for
decades provided timely deliveries of standard and express mail, as well as
warehouse storage via subsidiaries.

Our Board of Directors has recently informed us that they intend
to merge world servers, and appointed a committee responsible for resolving and
reviewing any mail logistics issues likely to be encountered in such a major undertaking.

The committee wants to give our postal services customers information
that it hopes will be useful given the impending server merge.

Q: Will we be able to
keep our mail after the server merges?

A: Yes, all mail
will transfer over to your new server, including attachments. However, to eliminate
any likelihood of anything going wrong with your mail and attached items, read
and delete your mail, and store attached items in your inventory.

Q: Will our Account Warehouse items still be in our Account Warehouse?

A: Yes, Account
Warehouse items will be transferred along with the characters.

Q: What if I have
Elyos and Asmodian characters on the same server after the server merges?

A: Account
Warehouses are not shared between Elyos and Asmodians. The Customs Service would
simply never agree to it. If you end up with both Elyos and Asmodian characters
on the same server, your Elyos and Asmodian Account Warehouses will be
separate.

Q: What if the total
amount of items in my Account Warehouse exceeds the total limit after the
servers have been merged?

A: All items will
be saved in the Account Warehouse, but you will not be able to access any items
that do not fit within the Account Warehouse’s 16-slot limit. Any items
exceeding 16 are still stored in the Account Warehouse, but will remain
invisible until some items have been moved to another storage space, such as a
character’s Cube or Warehouse.

If you have any additional inquiries regarding Warehouse,
mail, and express mail services, contact the Aion community team. They manage all feedback solicitation on
behalf of the United Postal Services Association.

Yours sincerely,

Kaknyerk

Chairman,
Board of Directors

United
Postal Services Association of Atreia

We hope you
enjoyed this past weekend’s double experience weekend. This week we
announced the updated Refer a Friend Program. The program starts on June 23, 2010. 

Inviting a friend to give Aion a spin will not only land you a couple of goodies (3 Major
Ancient Crowns and one month of
free game time), but your friend will also gain an item pack to help
your friend get started. The friend pack comes loaded with 25 Lodas Amulets, 100 Lesser
Running Scrolls, 100 Lesser
Courage Scrolls, and 100 Greater
Recovery Serums.

Question of the Week

Arielin from Meslamtaeda asked:

“I would like an explanation of
how to reach Draupnir Cave easily as an Elyos.  Do I have to do the
Meeting a Mau Spy quest, and where is the Corridor for the cave
located?”

Great question, Arielin, and thanks to our many players who
have helped guide their fellow Daevas on the Draupnir journey!

To enter
from Elysea, you must first complete the quest line for Meeting a Mau Spy. If you have not collected the two key quest pieces and
turned them in, then you will be denied access
into the corridor.

The Dimensional Corridor has an
appearance similar to a rift. It is located near the entrance to
Indratu. 

Many
Elyos players find that they prefer to rift to Asmodae and enter the
instance from the entrance in Beluslan. Bringing a
kisk allows players to respawn and re-enter the instance if things get tough.

In
Other News

Let’s have a look at what’s been going on in
the Aion community.

Family Photo

Chocolate
Thunder wished she could see all of her characters in game at once. What
she created was a fantastic custom family photo!

Divine Fortress Falls!

Congratulations
to the Elyos of Telemachus for capturing the Divine Fortress on June
12, 2010. Check out Part 1
of a three-part video
collection documenting the momentous battle.

This is War

Another great Aion
Machinima has surfaced from Lillers of Spatalos.
Enjoy, won’t you?

High Energy Assassin

Anike takes to
the Abyss to try out the
new skill changes and leaves destruction in her wake.

Knowledge Is Power

Remember to follow the Community Team on Twitter and Facebook
to stay on top of Aion news!

Aion Facebook Page—Become a
fan today!

Aion Steam Gaming Group—Join our
Steam community!

Tamat (NA Community Manager)

Ayase (UK Community Manager)

@aion_ger  (DE Twitter
Feed)

Arathaur (FR Community
Manager)

The Eye
on Community article series is a way for us to highlight current,
interesting, wacky, passionate, intriguing, dramatic, or just plain
awesome things going on in the community. Please send your submissions
to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

—The Aion Community Team

Aion’s Refer a Friend program saw its dawn with the game’s launch last year, and veteran players have been able to invite their friends to try Aion out ever since. With the recent launch of 1.9, we wanted to give this program a hefty refresh, brimming with new rewards!

Clear out your backpack, load up on potions, and get ready for more double experience action! That’s right—another double experience weekend is on the horizon! This is a superb chance for returning players to dive back in and for new players to level up that first character. This weekend is also a great time to check out the new additions from 1.9 or take advantage of the faster increase in gathering and crafting skills. Enjoy!

Question of the Week

Shadria of Vaizel asked:

I have no daily quests button on my screen. How does one start this?

Great question, Shadria! Our PowerWiki team has put together a wonderful Guide to Daily Quests. Each race has two organizations offering daily quests, but you can only be a member of one organization at a time. PvE daily quests are offered at level 30, and PvP daily quests are offered at level 40.

The PvE daily quests for Elyos are offered by the Alabaster Order. Talk to Typhon in Heiron.

The PvE daily quests for Asmodians are offered by the Field Wardens. Talk to Deryk in Beluslan.

The PvP daily quests for Elyos are offered by the Radiant Ops. Talk to Pompo in Teminon.

The PvP daily quests for Asmodians are offered by the Blood Crusade. Talk to Viscum in Primum.

Now that you know how daily quests work, give them a try, and let us know what you think!

Do you want to be the one asking the Question of the Week next time? Send an email with your character name, server, and question to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

In Other News

Let’s have a look at what’s been going on in the Aion community.

Yustiel Elyos PvP Tournament

Team Korea is hosting a PvP tournament for teams of Elyos on June 12, 2010.

A Daeva’s Journal

Nezekan’s own Lilkka has created a wonderful journey, detailing the in-character progression of her Asmodian. Enjoy!

Big Bad Dark

Follow Darkai in this artistic Aion machinima as he battles the forces of Elysea on Kalil.

Canadian Rainwater

Jaris from Gorgos has been busy yet again! See that latest from one of our favorite Aion comic series.

Farewell to Primum

Mechwarrior and Co share a fond farewell to Primum Landing raids, in this short PvP video of their final attack on Primum Landing.

Chromaticity

Ever wanted to make your screenshots pop off the page? Lumiel’s own Tairan has a fantastic collection of enhanced screenshots that will make your jaw drop!

The Ranger’s Quill

Lumiel’s Noctum is both quick with the arrow and the verse.  He has shared selections of his character-based poetry and song.

Knowledge is Power

Remember to follow the Community Team on Twitter and Facebook to stay on top of the Aion news!

Aion Facebook Page—Become a fan today!

Aion Steam Gaming Group—Join our Steam community!

Tamat (NA Community Manager)

Ayase  (UK Community Manager)

@aion_ger (DE Twitter Feed)

Arathaur (FR Community Manager)

The Eye on Community article series is a way for us to highlight current, interesting, wacky, passionate, intriguing, dramatic, or just plain awesome things going on in the community. Please send your submissions to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

—The Aion Community Team

The Atreia Summer World Cup is all about representing your country (or a substitute country). But you have the added bonus of a playing fun game and being able to participate in a daily raffle for sweet prizes!

How does it work?

Since Atreia Summer World Cup is a Flash game, you first need to make sure that your browser has Adobe Flash Player installed (which it probably has already).

Head on over to the Atreia Summer World Cup website, and hit the “Play Now” button! Pick the country you’ll be supporting by selecting from the country flags displayed. Read the brief game instructions, and go score a gooooooooooal!

Did you say prizes!?

Yes! If you play the game and submit your scores, you stand the chance to rake home one of several SteelSeries or Aion prizes daily, including a Kinzu Optical Mouse and a Qck Limited Edition Aion Asmodian Mouse Pad! We will also be giving away packs of white and black dyes—or how about a chance to win a can of Tutty ’N’ Beans to stockpile for the unavoidable post-apocalyptic future?

In addition to these daily raffle prizes, a large raffle will take place at the end of the Atreia Summer World Cup for an Alienware M11x Laptop, a SteelSeries Siberia v2 Full Size Headset, a SteelSeries Xai Gaming Mouse, and six copies of Aion are at stake.

Head on over to the prizes page for a full breakdown!

I’m there!

So are we! The game is open to both European and North American players. If you’re interested in any of the awesome prizes, there is no reason to linger. It begins now.

-The Aion Community Team

To celebrate the successful launch of 1.9,
and to thank you for all your patience during our launch, we’ve decided to host
a double experience weekend.  We’ll begin
the festivities this Friday June 11, 2010 at 8pm server time and conclude them
on Monday June 14, 2010 at 8am server time. This weekend is the perfect chance
to check out 1.9 with your main, or create an alternate character to experience
what 1.9 has to offer lower level characters.

Clear your
weekend schedules, tell your friends, and join us in Atreia for a fun weekend
of double experience!

East
Coast Servers—Begins at 8:00 p.m. EST

Azphel, Israphel, Lumiel, Marchutan, Meslamtaeda, Triniel, Zikel

West
Coast Servers—Begins at 8:00 p.m. PST

Ariel, Fregion, Kaisinel, Siel, Vaizel, Yustiel 

Oceanic
Server—Begins at 8:00 p.m. AEST

Nezekan 

See
you in Atreia!

—The Aion Community Team

We have just released a fully updated version 1.9 client installer. This client includes all the smaller updates and allows anyone to jump straight into the game after installing with no patching required!

This full client is available via direct download from our partners at Fileplanet and GamersHell, it’s also available from our own Torrent server.

NCsoft Torrent:

ftp://ftp.ncsoft.com/Aion/Client/Torrent/Aion1.9.0.1_FullInstaller.zip.torrent

FilePlanet Direct Download:

http://www.fileplanet.com/204286/200000/fileinfo/Aion-Client-v1.9

GamersHell Direct Download:

http://www.gamershell.com/download_59678.shtml

Enjoy.

—The Aion Community Team

Greetings Daevas,

This week we released our first major update for Aion, which was met with a lot of excitement and positive feedback. We’re extremely proud of the update, which sets the stage for the upcoming Aion®: Assault on Balaurea™ expansion scheduled to be released in the fall of this year. This recent update and the future expansion were designed to complement one another, so there’s still plenty to look forward to in the coming months.

With that said, we’re curious to know what you think about 1.9, and that’s our Topic of the Week.

Topic of the Week

Now that many of you have had some time to explore the new content and changes made to Aion with our 1.9 update, we’d love to hear your initial thoughts. Whether it’s feedback about what we did right, comments about what we could have done better, or suggestions about what we could do to polish the update, please let us know in the thread in the forums titled: 1.9 Update: Feedback and Suggestions.

Do you have an idea for the Topic of the Week? Drop us an email with your character name, server, and the topic at aion_community@ncsoft.com

In Other News

Let’s have a look at what’s been going on in the Aion community.

Kryptakronakonalyte Aion PvP [Volume 3]

Blowfish and his gang of rifting bandits are at it again, but this time they’re fighting each other. This video is dedicated to a PvP mini-tournament that took place on the Fregion server.

Give Me A Sign

Lillers of Spatalos has put together a fabulous piece of Aion machinima.  Enjoy!

The Baluslan Bomber

Menaace of Azphel shows us how to PvP as a sorcerer without getting a blood stain on your gleaming, white suit.

Earth’s Wrath

Bailene of Triniel displays the power a Cleric can deliver in rifting PvP.

The Unfortunate Screenshot

Seraphyc of Siel has created a new thread in the official forums dedicated to screenshots that weren’t taken with good timing in mind. Have you taken a screenshot before a most unfortunate demise? Head on over to the forums, and share it with the rest of the community.

Knowledge is Power

Remember to follow the Community Team on Twitter and Facebook to stay on top of the Aion news!

Aion Facebook Page—Become a fan today!

Aion Steam Gaming Group—Join our Steam community!

Tamat (NA Community Manager)

Ayase (UK Community Manager)

@aion_ger (DE Twitter Feed)

Arathaur (FR Community Manager)

The Eye on Community article series is a way for us to highlight current, interesting, wacky, passionate, intriguing, dramatic, or just plain awesome things going on in the community. Please send your submissions to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

—The Aion Community Team

This week the highly anticipated 1.9 update went live on the public test server, and guess what, we’ve had thousands of players online testing the new content before it goes to the live servers this upcoming Wednesday.

As exciting as that is, we’ve been busy releasing new videos this week, including a new Aion Podcast, a preview of what’s coming with our free fall expansion, Aion®: Assault on Balaurea™, and our third installment of our educational PSA series, The More You MMO, Earn Your Powers.

Make sure to give them a gander, but first check out our Question of the Week!

Question of the Week

Roshania of the Marchutan server asks:

Are you planning to address the issue with the Fenrir/Miragent pants quest?

This is a topic we’ve heard reverberating within the Aion community for some time now. Crafting a Hot Heart of Magic is no small feat—unless you’re insanely lucky, that is. Thankfully, we’ve made these quests much less painful with the 1.9 update.

For starters, the amount of Boiling Balaur Blood Stains required for an attempt at the Hot Heart of Magic has been reduced to 100 instead of 125. This is complemented by the fact that Boiling Balaur Blood Stains now drop off normal and elite mobs of levels 43–50. We expect that this will reduce the price of these components found on the Broker and make finishing the quest much more accessible. Will the quest still be difficult? Of course, it will. Our goal was to adjust the previous gameplay experience that had undoubtedly led to an increase in broken keyboards, mice, and in some instances, walls.

You also might want to note that if you’ve failed to Crit your Heart five times, you can talk to Moorinerk in Pandaemonium or Koruchinerk in Sanctum. I have it on good authority that they have a special interest in regular Hearts of Magic.

Do you want to be the one asking the Question of the Week next time? Drop us an email with your character name, server, and question at aion_community@ncsoft.com.

In Other News

Let’s have a look at what’s been going on in the Aion community this week!

Click, Click, Boom!

Kaledon, of Telemachus, cleaves his way through Elysea in this impressive display of Gladiator PvP.

Asmodian RP Legion Faire

Interested in roleplaying on Lumiel? Valiere and crew are putting on a meet and greet event for all Lumiel Asmodians.

Aion Cosplay

The character classes of Aion are displayed beautifully by this professional Chinese cosplay group.

First Oceanic Tahabata kill!

Follow the action as Aoi No Kaze and Bored Aussies team up to take down Tahabata!

Hito’s Amazing Sketches

Check out Hito’s pencil sketches of his teammates and experiences in Aion.

Bikini Armor Crafting Service

Bikinis are not what he makes, it’s his name and one of the hippest brands on this side of the Abyss. Bikini is an Asmodian on Gorgos and helps people craft armors asking for nothing in exchange (but doesn’t say no to donations). Let his kindness inspire you!

Knowledge is Power

Remember to follow the Community Team on Twitter and Facebook to stay on top of the Aion news!

Aion Facebook Page—Become a fan today!

Aion Steam Gaming Group—Join our Steam community!

Tamat (NA Community Manager)

Ayase (UK Community Manager)

@aion_ger (DE Twitter Feed)

Arathaur (FR Community Manager)

The Eye on Community article series is a way for us to highlight current, interesting, wacky, passionate, intriguing, dramatic, or just plain awesome things going on in the community. Please send your submissions to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

—The Aion Community Team

We are bringing the Aion Public Test Servers down at 07:00 a.m. PDT today, May 25, 2010 for maintenance. 

The PTS servers will during this maintenance be patched to version 1.9, and we estimate this process to take around 3 hours. 

You can already download the patch in your NCsoft Launcher by double-clicking the AionPTS entry. It should automatically detect that a patch is available and attempt to download it. If you experience issues or have questions, head on over to the official PTS forums!

See you there!

Important: Please keep in mind that the Aion Public Tester Servers are meant for testing new patches and game additions, and in that they are not suitable for main characters.

The lure of instant gratification is tempting. You may see an advertisement to buy a character from someone (or some company) online instead of putting in the work to level the character yourself. However, buying a premade character isn’t the route to instant “uber-pwns” that you think it is.

When you buy a character, you could be buying a character created by a RMT company or a power-leveling service. Not only could your security be compromised by dealing with these companies, the link your character has to these companies will lead to your account being eventually banned. Even worse, your character could have been a character stolen from another player who has been hacked.

We’ve teamed up again with Rooster Teeth to bring you a depiction of the impact you have on your teammates when you buy a character online. Remember, you have to earn your powers to learn your powers.

You wouldn’t buy expensive jewelry on the street, nor would you pay for a new car without first getting title, so why would you buy a character online?

The more you know, the more you’ll MMO.

—The Aion Community Team

Greetings Daevas,

The much anticipated 1.9 update for Aion will be making its way to our live servers next Wednesday, June 2, 2010. You can already prepare for this by preloading the patch and have it ready for installation on launch day!

Your NCsoft Launcher will now begin to incrementally download the update over the next couple of days leading up to launch.

If you want to try 1.9 already and help us test it, why don’t you give the public test server a try? While 1.9 will not be available on the live servers before June 2, the PTS has it running already!

- The Aion Community Team

We are bringing the Aion Public Test Servers down at 07:00 a.m. PDT today, May 25, 2010 for maintenance. 

The PTS servers will during this maintenance be patched to version 1.9, and we estimate this process to take around 3 hours. 

You can already download the patch in your NCsoft Launcher by double-clicking the AionPTS entry. It should automatically detect that a patch is available and attempt to download it. If you experience issues or have questions, head on over to the official PTS forums!

See you there!

Important: Please keep in mind that the Aion Public Tester Servers are meant for testing new patches and game additions, and in that they are not suitable for main characters.

It’s been an exciting week here at NCsoft! Many of you have probably already seen the letter from our producer, Chris “Kinslon” Hager. In the letter, Chris gets down to business releasing the live date for v1.9, a general timeframe for 2.0, and brief tidbits about our plans for server transfers and server merges. If you haven’t yet read it, I’d encourage you to do so!

For those of you playing on the PTS, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve begun to make sections of 1.9 available for incremental patching. Many of you have asked us why we’ve begun to release pieces of the patch in the PTS, and the answer is simple: your convenience. Because of the sheer size of this update, we wanted to make it easy for our players to download the update. We plan to use the same patching strategy on the live servers, and you can expect to see that begin sometime next week.

We’ve been overwhelmed by how excited the community is about the 1.9 update. That brings us to our Topic of the Week.

Topic of the Week

What feature in 1.9 are you the most excited about?

This week we announced that 1.9 will be available on the North American and European public test servers on Tuesday, May 25, 2010. A week later the 1.9 update will be available on the North American and European live servers on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.

We would love to hear what feature you are the most excited about. Can’t wait to light up Kromede? Have you been saving that special bow to combine it with another two-handed weapon? Excited to have new apparel to customize your character with?

We would love to hear your thoughts in our official forums.

Do you want the Aion team to answer your question or discuss a topic of your choice? Drop us an email with your character name, server, and question at community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

In Other News

Let’s have a look at what’s been going on in the Aion community.

Win Free Game Time Cards for Aion with Aionopedia

The Aion Encylopedia, Aionopedia, is hosting a competition. Contribute to their website and receive a chance to win one of four 60-day Game Time Cards for your Aion account.

Meslamtaeda PvP Tournament

Does your team have what it takes? Yeonsoo is hosting his second PvP Tournament on Meslamtaeda!

Trailer Variante

The Variante Legion of Suthran takes to the skies fighting for Asmodae!

Chanter Power!

Vera and Team Korea highlight the high-speed Chanter PvP in the Abyss.

Nerifes’ Aion Adventure

Nerifes has started a pictorial journal of his travels through the world of Aion. Enjoy the journey!

Knowledge Is Power

Remember to follow the Community Team on Twitter and Facebook to stay on top of the Aion news!

Aion Facebook Page—Become a fan today!

Aion Steam Gaming Group—Join our Steam community!

Tamat (NA Community Manager)

Ayase (UK Community Manager)

@aion_ger (DE Twitter Feed)

Arathaur (FR Community Manager)

The Eye on Community article series is a way for us to highlight current, interesting, wacky, passionate, intriguing, dramatic, or just plain awesome things going on in the community. Please send your submissions to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com.

Until next time.

Fly high, Daevas!

—The Aion Community Team

Happy reading!

—The Aion Community Team

Some answers have been shortened for the English version given below. The full interview can be found in French.

Could you please introduce yourself? How long have you been playing Aion, what class do you play, and what is your Legion?

Forga: I am Forga. I started playing MMORPGs with Lineage II and began playing Aion with the Chinese beta. My character is a Cleric, and I am Legion co-leader of Origine, along side Stel.

Falkynn: Yes, of course! I am Falkynn. I’ve been a MMORPG player for a long time. I have played Aion since the first beta, and have been playing since September 20, 2009 on Suthran. My character is an Assassin, and I am a member of Origine.

Ansea: I’m Ansea, and I’ve been an MMORPG fan for a long time. I first drifted into Aion on Phase 6 of the Aion European beta. My character is a Templar, and I wear the colors of Origine, the Legion that was foolish enough to entrust me with the role of raid leader.

Madacik: I am Florian “Madacik” Virlouvet, and I turned 27 years old this past spring. I have been playing MMORPGs for 10 years. I started playing Aion with the Chinese release in April 2009 so that I could get a leg up on to the game and its classes early. I played the various European beta weekends and finally ventured into the French server Suthran at the prerelease as a Spiritmaster in the ranks of Millennium, the Legion in which I am an officer.

Lolaa: Hello, I’m Lolaa, Legion leader of Option and siege coordinator with that Legion on Suthran. I have been playing Aion since its release in Korea almost a year and a half ago. My main character is a Spiritmaster.

Nagora: Hello, I’m Nagora. My character is a Sorcerer that I have played since September 25, 2009. I am Legion leader of BabyBoyZ. The staff members of BabyBoyZ were very important in the siege effort, and I want to be sure to acknowledge our officers: Yuugi, Graendal, Poupx, and Shantra.

Selket: I’m Selket, and I am a long-time MMORPG fan. I have been playing Aion since September 25. I am a member of Midgard, play a Ranger, and was a raid leader during the fortress siege.

What did the Divine Fortress siege represent to you?

Forga: Winning this siege has been a collective Legion objective for Origine since very early after our Legion’s inception. Some of our members did some tests on the Divine before they were even level 50 during the first weeks following the game’s release. The green Eye of Reshanta has become a true symbol for our faction. The siege members rallied under that symbol for more than four weeks, enduring my instructions and commands, and coming back in larger numbers every try. This achievement is really one for our whole faction (the Elyos) on Suthran. Many Legions and players all gathered and pulled together to triumph over this Divine for Suthran.

The achievement really pushes me personally to continue to play as a faction. New challenges are on the horizon, and the Elyos from Suthran will always be ready to step up!

Lolaa: This was a truly enormous challenge. Winning this siege was a goal that unified all of the Elyos on Suthran, giving us a thirst for victory and the will to push our server into the international spotlight. Winning the siege first was a dream come true.

This win confirms that all our work was not in vain and shows everyone in the rest of the world that France is not dead yet in the gaming world of MMOs.

How many people were online on Saturday night? How did you share the tasks, and how much time did it take you overall?

Forga: More than 500 Elyos from all levels worked on this siege. (Special thanks to the low levels who understood how important they were in this faction challenge.) No fewer than 23 cohorts were present, and perhaps even more than that once you count those that were scouting in the Abyss to keep an eye out for Asmodians.

Task assignment and delegation gelled as time went on. We improved our organization and coordination during our attempts to optimize our strategy for the different phases of Ereshkigal’s Claw, guardian of the Divine Fortress, when the fortress is under Balaur control.

To allow for communication across our whole faction, we used two audio servers: one for Legion raid leaders and one for all invited Elyos. On the raid leader audio server, Falkynn directed strategy and watched the attack timers. The leaders/officers then relayed information to their respective Legion audio servers. On the audio server with all invited Elyos, Ansea relayed the strategy live. During previous attempts, Shinae had Ansea’s role and did a great job. I also relayed important information via the different chat channels until the whole faction exploded in joy as we succeeded!

The principles of primary importance about a Divine Fortress capture attempt are unifying the Legions to coordinate well, unifying your faction, and motivating the troops so that they don’t give up after the first wipes. The Divine Fortress is currently the biggest endgame faction vs. faction challenge that Aion offers. If you don’t organize it well, you won’t see your faction’s colors flying over the fortress tomorrow!

When did you start to plan your strategy? How did you adapt it through your different attempts?

Forga: As I mention before, taking over the Divine Fortress has been a goal for Origine since the first beta. It was the Holy Grail of Aion, and it still is. The first attempts took place during the second and third months after the game’s release. Those attempts weren’t serious, but taught us a lot about basic troop positioning. We also used those forays for assessing the power, targets, and frequency of the boss’s attacks. Additional attempts took place the following months, but our Elyos drive to win began when the faction alliance was created. March 21 marks the day of the return of the Elyos faction into the Abyss, which was mainly Asmodian then. Around that time, we started thinking about seriously organizing to take down the Divine, and we became convinced that doing it was not an impossible mission.

We built the strategy by analyzing logs, listening to player feedback among the different classes and roles, and trying different positioning tactics. Many people gave a huge part of themselves and invested a lot of time. We all started to lose count of the sleepless nights in the effort—what dedication! But today we admire the culmination of five weeks of effort: the return of the Elyos as a force of reckoning and a green Divine Fortress!

Falkynn: We started planning our strategy in earnest some months ago following our first assault with two cohorts on the fortress. We adapted our strategy after carefully analyzing the Balaur reactions to our actions and to the positioning of our troops. We’ve never made the same assault twice. During each try, we tweaked our strategy and tactics on the fly in real time to fit the battle circumstances. After each try, we analyzed what we did and adapted our strategy for the next try. Our goal was to craft the best strategy possible while taking into account that we would have many players to handle and direct all at once. It was hard work. I have lost track of the sleepless nights I spent analyzing logs, watching videos, and researching on the Korean and Chinese websites for the slightest scraps of information. I also got valuable data and direct feedback from many players. (Special thanks to all the Origine members who were present during the first tries.) Even though the analysis took a lot of time, figuring out how to implement a good strategy based on the data took twice as long! The slightest detail could change everything in terms of optimizing DPS while minimizing loss. Writing it all down took a long time, too.

When I look back, the most resource intensive aspect of the siege, though, was directing the assault live during each attempt. To coordinate so many players at once was a true challenge. To remember everything, to keep the details at my fingers, and to still adapt our strategy on the fly was exhausting, but still really enjoyable! Even though many players helped me, at the end of the day, I had to think on my feet and make tough calls. It was a big responsibility that I handled successfully, I think. I know I was not really alone, though. Forga and Lolaa were there to coordinate organizing the Legions into an alliance. (They are an awesome two-person team that is the envy of the entire world!)

The bottom-line goals were that all the Elyos should be able to take part in this, we’d build the best strategy and organization that we could, and characters would die as few times as possible.

Nagora: I will leave you with these words from Erinor and Camille, members of BabyBoyZ, who helped the faction wide siege effort a lot with the strategy:

“[T]his combat has been very interesting, and the Divine Guardian definitely lives up to the definition of a world boss. This faction-wide siege is the first time in Aion that we had to put in place such a complex strategy and organization. It was a true challenge. Because PvP was so prominent in this effort, our leaders were pushed to adapt constantly to the unknown and unforeseeable.”

What was the biggest challenge in your opinion?

Forga: The biggest challenge was uniting the Elyos for the effort, and fortunately it was successful before our first big attempt! Harder to deal with was maintaining Elyos motivation after each failed attempt. The more we tried, the better we got at each effort. The only problem was that a Divine Fortress attempt involves a stiff financial character cost for consumables, kisks, and so on.

My personal biggest challenge was to announce to the faction that we were going back for the Divine Fortress each Saturday evening without being sure that it would unlock in time. It was always a bit of a gamble!

Falkynn: For me, it was to unite the faction and to hold back the Asmodians.

Ansea: I’d say to maintain our faction’s motivation after the numerous attempts and the many difficulties we faced.

Madacik: To gather enough players on a Saturday evening at 10 p.m. to kill the boss in the allocated time while holding back the Asmodians. Beyond that, it was a well-oiled effort—every one of us knew what to do and when.

Lolaa: As siege faction coordinator, I focused on wearing down the Asmodians for weeks. I put a lot of weight on the psychological efforts that, for me, were key to our success. In fact, after the “Counterattack of the Elyos Army” (published in one of the Eye on Community articles), we always stayed on the offensive on the Asmodians during the siege to attract more players and to show off our organizational ability.

Nagora: Achieving this goal required unfailing factionwide coordination. Beyond the strategic challenge of sieging the Divine Fortress, pulling together this huge group collaborative effort was a huge step. The biggest challenge was to allow the Legion to become a driver within the project.

Selket: Maintaining high performance, sufficient manpower, and optimum placement to avoid a boss reset and to push back the Asmodian waves.

What lessons have you been taught by this experience?

Forga: A lot of Legions managed to put aside their rivalry (or bickering) in order to act in the faction’s interest. Solidarity and cohesion took precedence over inter-Legion rivalry, and that sort of focus will always need to be the case.

Falkynn: United we stand, divided we fall—of course! Old problems can be overcome. Overall, though, I learned that being an immortal Daeva is very handy!

Ansea: That it’s good to have a comrade who has got your back.

Lolaa: We’ve learned that by uniting and putting petty disagreements behind us that we’re able to take up the biggest challenges! All the players realized that everyone is important in this kind of event, from those playing low-level characters to those of the highest level. No one is useless.

Nagora: I’m not sure: “United we stand, divided we fall” or “What does not kill us makes us stronger!” Both of those sayings proved apt in the past months. A lot of Legions joined our alliance when the Asmodians were dominating in the Abyss. That competitive desire drove the Elyos to become stronger in number and skill. In addition, no Legion would have been able to achieve this on its own. We knew an alliance was necessary, and we proved it was effective.

Selket: The good thing to remember is that a united purpose makes you and your organization stronger!

What are the primary reasons why the Divine Fortress has been taken for the first time in the West on Suthran?

Forga: The main keys to success, in my opinion, have been determination and devotion, remaining motivated even after negative comments or failures, the will to keep trying to move forward, and listening to the players. Oh, and of course, a common goal: Take the divine fortress before v1.9!

Falkynn: There are many factors that let this happen first on Suthran. First, our server is the only one with a server time that allows people to avoid rush hour and therefore group up for massive raids and alliances. Second, we have an active server with a population starving for challenge that is able to unite. And last, we had Legions that put a lot into supporting their entire faction to get the Elyos to the top.

Lolaa: We tried, at a really early stage, to organize ourselves very seriously. Aside from attacking the actual Divine Fortress itself, we needed to unite our faction in order to face the Asmodians who, since the beginning on our server, were the most committed. From this need our project, Suthran-Elyos, was born, and it, as we had hoped, took on a lot of importance.

Selket: It all happened thanks to the tenacity and determination of our staff.

Any plans for the future involving a group effort among your different Legions?

Forga: Plans? We’ve got loads. I’m not sure how much of them I can share right now, though.

We’re gathering information about the famous Dredgions that are releasing their troops on our fortresses. If possible, we’d like to destroy them and watch them fall under our weapons into the unknown of the Abyss. At the moment, though, our focus is on the 2.0 content, with its new Abyss levels and four new fortresses, and what the strategic importance of that new content has for the Elyos.

Falkynn: To fight the Asmodian faction, which is a never-ending tussle. We’ll take the future challenges as they come, depending on what the new content offers.

Nagora: I can tell you that our leaders have spoken the word “Dredgion.” In the longer term, today’s announcement about the release of the 2.0 in Korea let us catch a glimpse of future challenges. By the way, BabyBoyz has already started translating the patch notes so that we’re prepared for that expansion.

When we announced that we were going to begin double experience weekends back in December, we mentioned that doing so was a temporary solution for an issue that we had plans to solve in the long term. With the 1.9 update hitting the live servers on June 2, we feel we can increase the rarity of these events. It’s important to point out that double experience weekends are not disappearing completely; we still plan to run these event weekends, though less frequently going forward.

You might be asking yourself what’s coming with the 1.9 update to enhance character progression. Well, for starters, we’ve added more quests, increased experience rewards for preexisting quests, and have added the new Energy of Salvation system, which grants you experience bonuses as you continue to play. We’re confident that these enhancements will offer a long-term solution to the character progression issue that you asked us to address.

So clear your schedule for this Friday, tell your friends, and join us in Atreia for a weekend of double experience goodness!

East Coast Servers—Starts at 8:00 p.m. EST

Azphel, Israphel, Lumiel, Marchutan, Meslamtaeda, Triniel, Zikel

West Coast Servers—Starts at 8:00 p.m. PST

Ariel, Fregion, Kaisinel, Siel, Vaizel, Yustiel 

Oceanic Server—Starts at 8:00 p.m. AEST

Nezekan 

—The Aion Community Team

Spring is in the air, the sun is out and the days
are getting longer, and that means it’s time for update news!  After much anticipation, I am happy to
announce the 1.9 update will be available on the North American and European
public test servers on Tuesday May 25, 2010. 
A week later, the 1.9 update will hit North American and European Live
servers on Wednesday June 2, 2010.  As
you might have read in the 1.9
patch notes or the 1.9 Q&A with
Kinslon, the 1.9 update includes a number of great game improvements based
on player feedback from around the world. 
We listened to your concerns about where the game play experience was
less than stellar, collected data to support this, and requested those changes
to the game for the 1.9 update and we continue to provide this feedback for
future updates too.  Along with a
reduction in costs, better experience for quests and increased loot drops, we
also threw in a collection of exciting systems and updates such as arms fusion,
daily quests, rental weapon/armor system and a new look for group UI feature
that are all aimed at improving the player’s experience.

Just as 1.9 is a culmination of your feedback, we
are constantly monitoring the community to see what the most relevant issues
are.  Back in October and November one of
the hot topics were server queues and at that point we promised that character
transfers would be available to help combat the queues.  Again in the first part of this year, we
promised these in the first half of 2010. 
I’m happy to report that the character transfer service will be live in
the middle of June and we will be offering them to all of our players for free
for a limited time.  As we get closer to
the live date of the character transfer service we’ll be releasing more
information so that you can prepare yourself and coordinate with your legion
and other online friends.

One of the more recent concerns that we’ve heard is
related to server populations, both in North America and Europe.  Some of the specific concerns you’ve told us
about deal with difficulty finding groups in game, having resources to
contribute to the overall server economy, and being able to gather strong
enough forces to enjoy the end game content, particularly the Abyss PvP zone
and Fortress Sieges. We heard your concern about this and did a comprehensive
examination of all of our servers across North America and Europe.  After reviewing all of the game, character,
and server data we found that certain level ranges or classes had healthy
numbers, but across ALL level ranges and professions  most of our servers didn’t have ideal
populations.  After a score of meetings,
it was decided that the best thing to do is to merge some of our servers so
that we have fewer, fuller servers with characters (and players) that are
balanced better in population across all levels and classes.  The primary goal of merging the servers is to
create an environment that gives you the best possible experience in Aion. 

I don’t relish the idea of mergers. (It takes a lot
of work to make them happen!) However, once it is
complete you should notice improvements in each of the new server economies, an
abundance of players to group and run instances with, a number of great Legions
to join or people to form new ones with, and a more tightly knit community.  When all is said and done, Aion will be a
better game because of the server merge. 
We’re in the planning stages, and will have more information on the
timing and execution in the coming weeks.

Finally, as you might have read in the 2.0
patch notes, 2.0 was recently released on the KR PTS Server.  Even though we have several other large
initiatives underway, we are already working on bringing 2.0 to the North
American and European to our shores.  It
is an immense undertaking that adds a lot of new content to the game, but we
are working steadily towards a fall target release date and are on track.  To get a preview of what is coming to Aion with 2.0
check out the initial patch notes.

As you can see, we have quite a busy couple of
months ahead of us; all aimed at servicing your needs and making Aion a better
place to play.  I am excited at the
prospect of what our players can expect in the near future, and can’t wait for
the results to speak for themself.

Thanks,

-Chris “Kinslon” Hager