Friday, April 16, 2010

Could you explain the westernization process of patches like 1.9 to us?

“Many of us are wondering why it takes a few months to receive new patches. Could you explain the westernization process of patches like 1.9 to us?”
We have to go through quite a few steps to bring an update from the Korean to Western markets. The first step, obviously, is getting the update so we can begin testing. This step, while seemingly simple, involves several moving pieces: receiving the localization content (the words, tooltip information, UItext, names, quests, and so on), the client update, and the server update. Depending on the size of the patch or expansion, our localization team will begin receiving the new content and poring through it for up to weeks in advance of receiving the software client that goes with it. The localization team creates new terminology for new systems, creatures, maps, names, and pretty much anything else that is new and language-related. After that, the team makes sure that any new files it has received match the previous terminology changes, which leads to lots of exacting search and replace work. Once terminology is complete, the localization team goes through all the new story-related content (quests, NPC dialogs, and so on) and rewrites it. The team transforms that content into native English speech delivered in a natural tone and idiom that makes sense in a westernized culture while preserving the unique lore of Aion. When the team members finished that, it’s time to translate that English version into French and German. After that translation, another round of editing goes on to ensure the translations were done correctly and convey the intended meaning and use the correct idiom for those languages.
When the content is solid enough that it can be tested and we’ve received the client and server update from Korea, our QA team goes to work testing not only the functionality of the update (testing against patch notes and system changes) but also to test the new content in all three languages. Many times, the content goes through several testing iterations during which we change the wording, tweak the UI and its labelling, and fix bugs as they are found. As the testing is going on, we also prepare the technical side for an update. We create new installers, plan the server updates, and plan and test the backend technical pieces that deliver the new software, integrate it into the software, and talk to the various databases that are integral to getting the content and new features from us to you, the player.
Last, we let everyone know about the update! This involves a scheduled and coordinated effort by our Community, Marketing, and PR teams to get the word out through the press, various events, the forums, news items, and email messaging.
I understand that the time between when an update is released in Korea and the time it is released here seems excruciatingly long, but we are not sitting on our hands during that time period. We’re working hard, striving to keep up our high standard of quality, and hustling to get the update out to you as quickly as possible.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

New forums and the release

Greetings Daevas,
You’ve probably noticed that we’ve had a busy week with the launch of our new forums and the release of the first article in the “Ask Kinslon” 1.9 interview series. If you haven’t already had the chance, check out our new forums, and tell us what you think. Now it’s time for our weekly question from the community!

Question of the Week

Deshy from Telemachus asks:

''Why was the option to post comments on our character profile/Aion live status removed, and will it come back in some way?”

We’ve temporarily disabled our comment system to protect our users from a new initiative from RMT organizations. These companies have begun spamming our players’ comments with advertisements and phishing links. Unfortunately, we currently have no effective way to combat this annoying behavior. Rather than let it get out of control, we turned off the comment feature before the spamming and phishing in character comments became a larger issue.

We’re hard at work implementing better tools to enhance this feature of our website. We plan to bring comments back online as soon as those tools have been completed. Although we understand that you enjoyed leaving your friends comments, we take your safety seriously, and our actions are a testament to that.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Step leveling guides

One of the earliest sites for Aion online, run by two experienced MMO players (Krinadon and Faiona), also has some of the best guides available. This doesn’t really come as much of a surprise to us because we know that the writers are hardcore gamers themselves, and therefore end up knowing pretty much all there is to know about 99% of all the games they pick up.
Right now they offer step by step leveling guides for both factions, and more guides are being worked on as we speak (for example, a Named monster guide and a detailed gathering guide). But for now we’ll take a closer look at the ones that are available.
The leveling guides take you through every step you need to take to get from 1-50 as fast as possible. This is done by showing you which quests to do, in what order, and which ones to avoid to save time.
Another great perk are the color coded maps they provide, giving the locations of all important places you need to go. You can have a look for yourself what the guides look like by downloading their FREE 1-10 guide right here.
You don’t have to buy a guide from 1-50 if all you need is a bit of help from level 30. They provide 4 different packages depending on where you are in the game.
FTWGuides <- This site also has a 1-50 Leveling guide for both the Elyos and Asmodian factions, but judging from the sample video on their site the layout might not hold the same quality as Kozen or KFGuides. Another difference is that Kozen and KFGuides come in PDF format, while FTWGuides is a member site.
For easier reading, and the ability to download the guides to your hard-drive and print it out, I’d still go with Kozen or KFGuides for now. But by all means, check out their sample video and make your choice after that.
Killer Guides * <- Still the only site providing Class specific guides for Aion as far as I know, but the quality of their work is sadly a bit flawed right now. They purposely make it out like they have some incredible secrets that only they know about. The truth though is that the information in their guides can be found elsewhere as well, for free.
* Note for Killerguides: They have been known to utilize false marketing tactics, such as saying that a product is available for sale even though it hasn’t been released yet. So feel free to send them an email, letting them know how you feel about their false marketing tactics. You will however get free life-time updates whenever you buy from them, so you can always grab the latest, most complete copy.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Crafting areas were over flowing

Aion players enjoyed their first double experience weekend and it seems it was quite the success! Crafting areas were over flowing with players looking to take advantage of Aion's secondary game and the cities were alive with activity. It seems the experience boost revitalized the game, is this exactly what we needed or is it just a lazy quick fix to a serious problem? Nothing is worse than playing a game for Sehvekah: aion gold Maybe I'm just weird, but aion power leveling I *like* topping the wow gold meters by (sometimes well) more wow power leveling than 1k DPS with everyone else doing 1.5k-2k. Yes, it's an ego thing, but not like your knee-jerk reaction would indicate. See, when I'm in a group where *everyone* (including the tank and "healer") is doing 2.5k-5k+, I get my emblems, aion gold it's quick, sometimes I get an achievement -- but I never feel like I really *did* anything. Sure, nobody died, but even with emblems or the odd bit of loot from the IC five-mans, I walk away wondering what the point was. When I'm blowing up the meters with a group of more-or-less fresh 80s, though, it really feels like I'm *doing* something. I know I'm helping the tank hold aggro via glyphed TotT+FoK combo. aion gold I'm keeping the healer in mana by making things die faster before they cause too many problems. I'm helping the other DPSs by making their run that extra bit faster. Everyone (is) getting their emblems and sometimes upgrades from drops, there's the odd achievement, and damn it, the slower run makes it feel more like *something actually happened* beyond my getting two EoF for T10 and a few EoTs closer to kitting my 'lock out in heirlooms. And that's without mentioning the fact that aion power leveling these groups often have actual *conversations* and sometimes the awe of those new to the game, experiencing these "tired old dungeons" for the first time. Hell, it even gives me time to slow down a bit and actually *look* at the places I've been running though. So many times I've run Old Kingdom without paying attention to anything more than the loot pinatas scattered throughout, and that was really stupid on my part. A lot of these places are really awesome and deserve to be savored, rather than rushed through. So to all the newbs, thank you. You're wow gold making my playtime that much more fun, so I'll do my part to help you get the loot you need in return. To those who think recount/DPS means everything, go eat s*$@. Where do you stand on DPS thresholds? Do wow power leveling you believe that too much DPS is never enough? In world of Dungeon wow gold Finder aion power leveling PUGs with overgeared groupmates, when is enough DPS "enough"? hours of your day and logging out feeling like you accomplished absolutely nothing. With Aion's partial lack of quests beyond the early 20s, the average player can expect to spend at least part of their time grinding out levels and this becomes much worse if a player doesn't live for dungeon runs. While grinding kills is a common pastime for some players and popular in Asian games, for most North American and European players, it is most definitely a burden that we don't wish to carry. Read up on the first double experience weekend and get the latest Aion news in our weekly newsletter!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Patch 1.9 is Announced

Already on the Korean servers Patch 1.9 looks to build a lot of content and polish into the game. Much anticipated by fans, we've been anxiously awaiting an announcement of when Patch 1.9 would be applied to the North American server.
Well, today NCSoft announced that coming May 1st, Patch 1.9 will be coming to North America!
Greetings Daevas,
As I'm sure you've all been eagerly awaiting, we have finally announced patch 1.9's release for our North American servers.
After implementation and extensive testing on our Korean server we are quite pleased with the results and the player feedback. We are therefore rolling out patch 1.9 on Saturday May 1st at 02:00AM PST.
The servers are expected to be down for about 3 hours to apply the patch. More details on this as we approach May 1st.
Some of the nice features you’ll see coming with patch 1.9 include but are not limited to:
· 2hand weapon combine· purchasable stigmas for vendors· vendor buyback· new wings· new actions and titles· new spells and abilities for each class· and much much more!
Stay tuned for more information, and we'll see you on the battlefield.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Look Forward to New Forums

Last week we began carefully spreading the word about the approaching new vBulletin-basedforums for the official site. The more frequent forum dwellers among you probably caught wind of this and have begun to back up your important posts already. Now we would like each of our forum users to back up his or her important posts sooner rather than later! The old forums will be buried soon, paving the wayfor the arrival of the new forums on Monday, April 5, 2010, 10:00 am PDT (more).The new forums will be using vBulletin. They will offer a much wider array of functionality than the current ones do. This change offers the Community Team ample opportunity to improve our activities as well. Not only will our postings be more prominent, but you will also see increased support from other departments here at NCsoft.Some of the nice features you’ll see coming with the new vBulletin forums include:·Developer tracker
·Signatures
·User control panel
·Private messaging system
·Thread subscriptions
·Calendar
·Spam protection
·Custom titlesRemember to save all your important threads! This way you can help us by transferring over anything in the current forums that has helped you so that when the new forums arrive, those threads and posts can help future members.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

If you wanna buy aion skills?

If you wanna buy aion skills , just contact our customers service. Good luck!There are many person have questions about the aion siege system timer during these days, it has problems with the new fortress raid duration of 30 minutes.It also seems to cause a problem with the Dredgion. The aion siege system timer have been topics for debate dating back to a patch we released for Aion just before the end of last year. The argument is that the new 30-minute siege duration, during which the Guardian Deity is present, is too short for a siege to be easily completed. The timer change was initially brought to the table when we wanted to make fortresses change hands less often and be more valued. We wanted to make fortresses a little bit harder to take and a little bit easier to defend. The two-hour vulnerability timer we had at day one was too long and gave attackers too much of an advantage.
If you have no time to level up your character in Aion, you can come to our site and have a look, we provide the most secure how to build a terrain board . In retrospect, the recent aion siege system timer changes may have been too drastic and all parameters may not be optimal. We are actively monitoring the feedback you are giving us on the new duration and have kicked off a dialogue with the Development Team. We hope to have something to share with the community in the next few weeks. Rest assured, we are pursuing this issue. Most of the quests here will have you hunting the various spirits that reside in the Impetusium. Turbulent Mist Spirits and Turbulent Splash Spirits can be found in the waters to the south of the Heart while your hunt for Soul Essences will have you killing the various humanoid spirits that are found all over.