Letter from Aion producer

Aion producer, Brian Knox, posted a new articles up on the North American Aion website. He talks about the updates in patch 1.5 and the open beta. Open Beta starts 9 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. BST, 6 p.m. CEST) on Sunday, September 6th. I can’t wait!

LETTER FROM AION PRODUCER BRIAN KNOX ON OPEN BETA

September 3, 2009 2:07 PM

Hello!

Welcome to the Open Beta Test for Aion in both Europe and North America.

Below you will find a list of the major changes and additions to Aion since you last participated in our Closed Beta Test. We have done our best to provide a comprehensive list of changes. The Open Beta brings the game content up to the 1.5 patch that is available in Korea; the same updates that were made to the Korean live servers are being implemented here, as well. While there may be some differences when comparing the official NA/EU notes to fan site translations of Korea’s official notes, the game content is the same.

Not only does Open Beta bring a number of game improvements and additions, you’ll also notice that we had a major terminology overhaul to complete our effort of Westernizing the game. Many skills and items have changed since the Closed Beta Test and should be a welcome surprise as you explore the world.

While we feel the Open Beta version will provide a complete experience, we wanted to note that this is not our final update before launch. Our launch version is in internal testing, and it will continue to flesh out the 1.5 update with the help of your feedback and experiences in Open Beta.

Please remember this is an Open Beta Test, and while our goal is to provide you with a flawless Aion experience, there are behind-the-scenes infrastructure tests happening to prepare for launch. One very important area that will affect everyone is that we will be balancing races as folks rush to log into the servers. As a result, you may get a “This race cannot be created” message because that server is starting to become unbalanced. It’s important to us that we try and keep a balance of the races during the Open Beta of Aion. If you come across this message, please feel free to try another server or wait until the server balance has tipped back.

Another hot topic has been our Web site and whether we will be bringing over some of the services that Korea has provided to their community. The short answer is yes! Just like the PowerWiki, we will be bringing some of these services to our own site. We hope to begin rolling them out in the coming weeks.

Overall, we are very excited for Open Beta – it is a culmination of a lot of effort and the feedback of our community. For example, one of the most requested features during Closed Beta testing was a suggestion to use the left mouse button to change the camera. We also added more content both in the persistent game world and in instanced dungeons. You’ll see this change and many others were added in this game update, including:

1. New Areas: Theobomos (Elysea) and Brusthonin (Asmodae)
2. New Instances!
3. Over 40 new default faces have been added to character creation.
4. Increased PvPvE rewards
5. UI changes (click-to-move has been disabled by default)
6. New items!
7. New skills + increased balance
8. Tons of new quests.
9. Advanced Stigma Stone System
10. Chat Channels
a. Class
b. Region
c. Looking For Group
d. Languages

Find a full list of patch notes here.

With this update there is a lot of great content and a very fun world to explore, and we hope that during Open Beta you will experience the magic that is Aion.

Open Beta starts 9 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. BST, 6 p.m. CEST) on Sunday, September 6th.

Brian Knox
Producer, Aion

You can read the article here: http://na.aiononline.com/en/news/letter-from-aion-producer-brian-knox-on-open-beta-1.html

Open Beta dated!

Hello fellow adventurers! Today we got some great news from NCsoft. They finally announced when they will open the servers for the long awaited Open Beta! It’ll be from September 6th to the 13th. A whole week of Aion, aren’t we lucky. They also told when we will be able to login to pre-select our name and server. It will be on the 18th. And finally on the 20th, all hell breaks loose as they launch the game for those who pre-ordered!

Within the next four weeks, we will treat European and North American gamers to two opportunities to jump into the world of Aion and explore Atreia as Asmodian or Elyos characters ahead of its release in Europe on 25th September and North America 22th September. Aion’s Open Beta Test featuring version 1.5 will take place 6-13th September and will include numerous Western enhancements, including improvements to Aion’s innovative character customization with a host of Western styles, as well as new zones, instances, skills, quests and continued game balancing and improvements. Open Beta will retain a level cap for both Elyos and Asmodians characters at 30 allowing players to focus on getting to the same level so they can explore the lands of Atreia together, as well as the Abyss.

Players who have pre-ordered Aion will be treated to a Pre-Select and a two-day Headstart period giving them the opportunity to explore, organize and progress through the game prior to the official launch. Pre-Select will take place on 18th September, while Aion’s Headstart will begin 20th September. Players can still participate in the Aion’s Pre-Select and Headstart programs by pre-ordering the game through several participating online and brick-and-mortar retailers.

Also you can now download the patch for open beta with your NCsoft Launcher or by Fileplanet.

Following our recent announcement regarding the commencement of Aion’s open beta, we have taken steps to ensure a smooth setup and preparation process for all participants. While our Launcher will incrementally update your client, the new and patched Aion open beta client has also been distributed to a select few partners around the web to prepare for our open beta test. To get your hands on it, you may visit FilePlanet or download it from GamersHell(available later this week).

We have in addition to the aforementioned options added a brand new one that has been long anticipated by the Aion community, namely the possibility to download the full open beta client via our BitTorrent tracker (md5 checksum). We have even arranged for a patch torrent for those of you who already have the closed beta client installed, but want to get prepared for open beta!

As added extra spice, FilePlanet will – besides distributing the client – be giving away a load of open beta keys starting on Tuesday 1st. Get in the starting pits if you do not have an eligible Aion account already! Eligible accounts include any previous closed beta participants and those who have preordered or prepurchased Aion.

Don’t risk missing out on this opportunity; grab the client as soon as you can! Get ready to spread your wings and soar into open beta!

Be quick, the patch is 3038.7 MB, If you don’t want to wait looooooooong minutes on the 6th, I suggest you start downloading now

Guess who will be there for the Open Beta, the Pre-selection and the head start ? Yours trully, Thalired! So all you North American reading, if you want to hang out ingame, drop me an email or a comment here, I want to know which server everyone is choosing so I don’t wind up alone.

Sources: 01 – 02

Patch Note 1.5 translated

That’s To Bad, a member of the AionSource forums translated the 1.5 patch note. Version 1.5 is the version we will get to play on September 22, september 20 for those who pre-ordered. It’ll be the same version as in Korea. which is pretty good if you ask me, I’ve played a couple of game that never had the same version as their Korean counter-part. Anyway, here’s the translated patch note.

- Lots of instances have their reentry times changed.
- Cast speed bonus added to some unique items, now no longer exclusive on the super-rare hero weapons.
- Can master two crafts.
- Toggle helmet show/hide in preview item.
- Number of Chat Tabs available increased from 6 to 7, also added separate language chat channels (English, Jibberish)
- Rifts show level limits
- Added a key option to select nearest dead body
- Game now highlights skills, recipes, stigmas, and emotes you’ve already obtained in Red.
- You are now notified if your arrow or power shards fall below 100 amount.
- New costume here obtainable in Theobomos and Brusthonin.

- And a bunch of other stuff.

You see the bolded part ? That’s the part I like the most. Now I can’t wait to play.

Source (via Aion Tower)