Q&A with Sr. Designer (from Dec 2007)

www.massively.com/2007/12/05/catching-up-with-angels-qanda-with-aions-senior-designer/

I laughed at that link, you see the designer talking about how to succeed in Asia now you can't make just another grinder thus why they are focusing on quests, and then, 2 of the first 3 replies saying "it looks like a grinder".

Dunno whats so hard in keeping an open mind lol

On the FAQ on the topic of Zoning are we talking about when im about to cross to an area it starts loading it and it should "hopefully" be loaded by the time i step on it or every area has a loading screen?

Originally posted by rav3n2

On the FAQ on the topic of Zoning are we talking about when im about to cross to an area it starts loading it and it should "hopefully" be loaded by the time i step on it or every area has a loading screen?

Zoning as a loading screen in long ranged instantaneous teleports and entering in instanced dungeons. Other than that...crytek ^^

Damn, thats a major turn off for me :( why does everyone insist on instanced worlds nowadays, hate loading screens.  Ohh well looks good non the less.

Originally posted by kitsunegirl

Player shops... *sigh* Worst thing about Lineage 2 (aside from the pking) was the player shops. Seas of afk-shops in Giran.. 3 minutes just for the city to finish loading. And it looks like they are in this game too. I wish that they would make a market instance in the major cities and have that be the only place you can set one up.

afk-shops = eyesore.

Its too bad they didnt do shops like the old SWG, was nice to have your own shop set up somewhere with computer characters selling your stuff while you were off-line or out doing other things. Some people made some really cool looking shops and I always loved traveling around looking at different ways people set up their shops.

Thanks for putting all this info here, very well done!

Originally posted by rav3n2

Damn, thats a major turn off for me :( why does everyone insist on instanced worlds nowadays, hate loading screens.  Ohh well looks good non the less.

I think there was a misunderstanding, you can run from a extreme to the other extreme without finding a loading screen in your way, nor an instance, however, if you teleport instantly to a place far from you, you will get a loading screen, just like you get a black screen in games like Lineage II, which is as seamless as you can get.

About instances, there are some dungeons for less hardcore clans to get decent gear there, the Abyss, the best area in the game for raids, items and pvp is completely seamless.

Thanks for putting this up, this helped allot. :D

For some reason i cant quote anymore but to add to what ephi said, there will be minor instancing but there will also be zoning however there are a few details that people must keep in consideration

- ONLY the newby area's will have this zoning, to prevent them from overflooding on launchday (so we dont get 20 people going for 1 mob as most non instanced mmo's got), This is just to prevent the server from chrashing due to extreme strains being launched at the server at the beginning of the beta.

- The only time these instances will go in effect is when a certain population point in these zones is crossed, what that exact point is unknown to me atleast

- ALL other zones wont have any form of zoning, besides the ocasional (mostly quest related) instance and are in effect seamless

And to the poster above me :), my pleasure were just all doing our little part in reducing the misconceptions there are about aion :)

That's not zoning, that's channeling :P

And yeah, Aion will have channels on the initial zone due to the players rush on the first days, that channeling, not cause of technical limitations, but cause of smoothness for players, devs stated that they know first impressions count a lot, and they don't want to ruin players experiences by having them waiting for mobs on the initial rush.

There's no channeling outside that initial zone and outside of those initial days, I have the Ayase quote somewhere, just search for "singleton" in Aionsource.com and check the option posts instead of threads to see it by yourself :)

mehh eq2 playing up :>, where it was called several instances of a zone :) but yeah channelig is what i meant :)

On another subject ,PVP, the factions, is the PVP completely dependant on the faction( faction X can kill faction Y ppl, and you can only duel your own faction) or the factions are there for certain mechanics but you can still attack people from your own faction?

Originally posted by rav3n2

On another subject ,PVP, the factions, is the PVP completely dependant on the faction( faction X can kill faction Y ppl, and you can only duel your own faction) or the factions are there for certain mechanics but you can still attack people from your own faction?

No , you can't. As you said , there are duels and as far as I know some arenas where you fight with players from your own faction, for fun!

Im not one to go on (and on and on and on) about "WoW Killer" ideology but I have a strange feeling that this game might just give old 'World of Borecraft' a good old shot in the kindeys (with regards to population culling).

Given that Aion looks like a game that WoW players will like; I doubt very much that this game will be for me. Which is a good thing for NC soft because it means that the vast magority of main stream gamers might just come home to graze.

Good on ya NC soft. Keep up the good work, you do an excellent job of creating very basic, low strategy, mainstream mmo's; which in turn keeps the vast majority of gamers away from the boring old games that I play. It is much appreciated.

Was kinda hoping they kept the PVP system from L2, the flag and be red if you PK people and that it was faction independent, would be nice as well that you could party, etc... with whoever you wanted that being the other faction or not. That with sieges in the mix would give it the political aspect and guild relations L2 had which was one of the best in my opinion.

Interesting stuff !

 Thanks for a great FAQ!  This gives me a lot of info and it looks like a great game!  I have seen information that states the price will be placed at $14.99 a month and I have already pre-ordered the special edition on amazon for 70 dollars but they also have the regular edition on pre-order for 50 dollars.  This game is definitely gonna be the best new game I've played in a while!

zack, our local devs didnt even say how much it was gonna cost if anything per monrth

and they dindt say either how much the normal version would cost OR if there would even be a "special" version. At this time its pretty much just a well, cause i aint got other words for it, scam. They sold you air nothing more, nothing less till the devs state what they are planning to release and for how much

I'd like to know a little bit more about the healing, if someone can enlight me :P

Is the healing like lineage 2 with all those different types of healing(group heal, heal, greater heal, greater group heal...)  and more like look who's taking damage or the amount of damage the tank is taking and healing accordingly.

Or is it like WoW where the healers basically have to spam heal on the tank even when he is not taking that much damage making sure he won't get crushed and die... no room for looking and healing.

Originally posted by Alyvian

zack, our local devs didnt even say how much it was gonna cost if anything per monrth

and they dindt say either how much the normal version would cost OR if there would even be a "special" version. At this time its pretty much just a well, cause i aint got other words for it, scam. They sold you air nothing more, nothing less till the devs state what they are planning to release and for how much

Well, they already confirmed it's P2P. From aiononline.com/us

How much will Aion cost?
We anticipate Aion will be similar to our other subscription-based games, featuring a boxed product and associated subscription fees.

Originally posted by Anghel

I'd like to know a little bit more about the healing, if someone can enlight me :P

Is the healing like lineage 2 with all those different types of healing(group heal, heal, greater heal, greater group heal...)  and more like look who's taking damage or the amount of damage the tank is taking and healing accordingly.

Or is it like WoW where the healers basically have to spam heal on the tank even when he is not taking that much damage making sure he won't get crushed and die... no room for looking and healing.

It's more like L2 in terms of healing (looking at party bars and healing the one who needs it) at least in pvp, even tho healers in Aion have some DoT's and some damage skills.