This year at GDC and PAX we took a look at what's coming down the pipe
for NCsoft's PvP-centric MMOG where the players have wings, style="font-style: italic;">Aion.
The team has a whole lot planned for style="font-style: italic;">Aion
players and will be introduced in the upcoming update: style="font-style: italic;">Empyrean Calling.
The update will offer more features for style="font-style: italic;">Aion
fans to keep busy and entertained for some time yet.

First, the level cap is increasing from 50 to level 55 giving players
more gameplay and more ways to advance their character. More levels
mean more content and more fun.  Also, the game will be seeing
a graphical upgrade to make the environments much more vibrant and
alive. We were shown some before and after images, and while we've
always considered style="font-style: italic;">Aion
to be a good looking game, the updates to the engine really make the
environments and models pop out of the screen. It feels fresh and clean.

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Legions will also get a bit of a boost as they will now have five ranks
for the Brigade General to define and assign. This means more
customization for Legions (also known as guilds) and each rank will
have customizable guild privileges.



More functional pets will also be added to the game, giving more
diversity in group makeup and solo play. style="font-style: italic;">Aion's
had functional pets for some time now and NCsoft is looking to expand
that even further.



New instances are being added. The first of which, Drana Esoterace, is
a giant outdoor instance designed for group play. The instance is large
enough to support its own wind stream system right within the instance
itself. For those who may be unfamiliar, wind streams are tunnels of
air which allow the player to travel quickly around the area by gliding
through the streams - a perfect bit of fun when your character has
wings.



The Empyrean Crucible is the second instance players will see and it
offers a gauntlet event players can progress through. The instance
supports a full group and consists of up to ten stages of five rounds
each where players will face increasingly difficult opponents. The
longer they can hold on to victory, the better their reward will be at
the end of the event. The environment shifts and changes around the
group of players as they progress through the rounds, creating a fluid
change of scenery.

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Terrain maps have received an overhaul as they become more functional
with zooming options, detailed terrain markings, and a set of toggles
for various waypoints a player may find useful. The map controls and
scrolling is similar to what would find in a Google-maps application.



The Empyrean
Calling update launches later
this month and we suspect it will be met with much rejoicing from the style="font-style: italic;">Aion
community. Stay tuned to Ten Ton Hammer for more on style="font-style: italic;">Aion
and the Empyrean
Calling.