There
is no possible chance of NCsoft satisfying everyone
with their first major patch since the launch of
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion">Aion.
From the looks of it, they
are hitting the ball right down the middle of the fairway and staying
away from
major overhauls to the game. I guess they shouldn’t have to
make sweeping
changes since the game has been out for over a year. There are some
areas of
the game receiving some upgrades or modification, but a good portion of
the
player base doesn’t see changes in areas they want (such is
the nature of not
pleasing everyone all the time).
The
bulk of the changes describe solutions to gameplay
issues such as spelling, name changes and correcting tool tips. Those
items
aside, there are some class specific changes within the set pieces (ie
“…of the
Steel Beard Pirates”) will receive speed bonuses and a
complete set
will
provide a more class specific bonus (cloth set adds Magic Boost while
the leather
seat adds Physical Crit). For a brief discussion of the
highlights, read on.
src="/image/view/76350">
style="">I Feel the Need, the
Need for Speed
Movement
speed, drop rates and faster EXP gains seem to play
a major theme in this first round of changes. A welcome change includes:
Books in the Aetherogenetics Lab and Alquimia Research Center.
- Slightly increased the drop rate from monsters in the Instanced
Dungeons.
- Greatly increased the drop rate from the final bosses in the
Instanced Dungeons.
Speed
Kills: In Dark Poeta most of the mobs and bosses are
going to move faster, and we’re seeing the first boss nerf of
Steel Rake as
he’ll have a lower difficulty.
Leveling
speed, Experience points: crafters and gatherers
will enjoy an increase in EXP for their efforts and players can obtain
Boiling
Balaur Blood from a repeatable quest to complete the Daevanion Quest.
Speaking
of experience points, “many” (how many is that?)
quests for both Elyos and
Asmodians will reward with more EXP.
increased the EXP gained from gathering and crafting.
Cash
and Prizes: In addition to more EXP for quests in
select areas, the quests should reward more Kinah (cash) and provide a
higher
chance of gaining contribution decorations (which will stack to 1000).
Dropped
like a hot rock: One change highly sought after is
the increase in drop rates for the repeatable quest items.
style="">Judging Your
Character
The
character changes appear fairly minor, but it’s
difficult to tell when the patch notes do not include numeric
definitions of
the changes. Most of the skill changes highlighted an increase to
damage,
reduction in Mana cost and increased the threat reduction skills (What,
increased the reduction? What are you smoking Medeor?). The only
character
skill nerf appears to be Assassin’s Contract of Evasion
cooldown being doubled
from 30 seconds to 1 minute. One last character change is a reduction
in the
EXP penalty for being in a group of characters with differences in
their
levels.
style="">Saving the best for
last?
Phew,
they are finally dealing with one of the major issues:
the spelling errors in the description of reward items and NPC dialogs
of some quests. style="font-family: Arial;"> style="">
Patch
notes are always a fun topic of discussion since they
are rarely inclusive of all the changes and will change many times
prior to
hitting the live servers. The response to the patch notes seem to be
positive
(since most of the changes are improvements), but the community wants
more of
course. There is no mention of how NCsoft plans on combating the
ongoing gold
spam or botting issues. If it were my call I wouldn’t alert
those segments to
my plans either, but I might spend a bit more time reassuring my paying
customers that measures will be taken to preserve the game’s
integrity.
Overall
the first patch has taken longer than anticipated as
it’s been on the test realm for quite a while and does not
repair/increase some
critical dropped items such as stigma and book drops. For some there
are going
to be issues not addressed that become deal breakers, but overall
NCsoft seems
to be taking a methodical approach to fixing their game. In opposite
fashion,
too many radical changes make the game inconsistent and NCsoft
doesn’t appear
to be heading down that path.
For a full rundown of the patch notes, head over to
the
href="http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion/Patch+Notes+1.5.1.0">powerwiki
on Aion’s site.We’ll
keep an eye out for more changes, but in
the meantime cautious optimism is the phrase of the day. Do the patch
notes
draw any conclusions for you, or are they just window dressing?
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