Aion going Free-to-Play, already in February 2012.

[Zeus]

Game is dead and deleted off my machine, reading this post just makes me feel all warm inside that I deleted it, may the force be with you!

[Ashelia]

I'm gonna stick with what I've been saying for months. I'm still curious about 3.0 so when it comes, I'm surely gonna check on it again.
I don't care if it's free to play now, although it does make things easier for me to check it out, before making a decision to stick around or not.

[Teaser]

i sent a mail regarding instance cooldowns some days ago and this is what i got as reply:

Hello there,

I apologize for the late reply. Happy New Year to you first.
Thanks for your feedback. You are - obviously - not alone with the
concerns on the cooldowns.
However, and I am sorry to burst your bubble, but the cooldowns will
unfortunately stay this way. There are fine adjustments done (see Fire
Temple) but in general, and as a start for the f2p model there will be no
changes.
The changes were made in agreement with NCSoft. It might be possible that
the CDs will be changed in future though.
I admit: I don't like it either as player.
I will forward your idea about free instance scrolls for vets or a
similar.

If you have questions, more suggestions or want to express your concerns,
don't hesitate to drop a mail.

Kind regards,
BlackVelvet

[Ker]

Really sucks week dead soaked mudthorns

[WhiteHorse]

2 days ago, I also received a reply and was from the same representative:
---quote-------------------
Greetings to you and your legion,

Happy New Year and I hope you had a good start into 2012.
Thanks for your feedback.
The cooldown issue is one of the Top 5 discussions/concerns of the
community and got adressed pretty fast already.
The anger is understandable and from my player point of view...well... it
sucks.
However the cooldowns will currently stay as is. Those were made in
agreement and in cooperation with NCSoft and we need a starting point
somewhere.
So it won't be changed right away for the moment. It might be possible
that the cooldowns will be adjusted according to players' adaption and
concerns later.

If you have further questions, concerns and such, don't hesitate to drop a
mail. Suggestions are also very welcome.
If needed and requested, and that's an offer I made to all legions so far,
I can have direct contact with your members.
That means: discussing with you on your legion forums, have a chat.
I did that for one legion already and it was actually a nice experience
for both sides and if you feel that it is a good idea and also good to
break the ice, just yell and we can arrange something .

Kind regards,
Blackvelvet
----------------------------

So, RoyalStormers, if you still have doubts or constructive feedback/sugestions to give and wish so, I can request for him to come to our forum and talk to you all. A very nice and noble offer, respectable at least.

[Teaser]

thats quite a nice feedback and i think you could send him details to join our forums indeed, not only for the doubts and sugestions now, but also for future questions and discussions.
it can also help boost a litle more our community, because in theyr future official forums, he can quote some of us in a discussion, if he wishes ofc (player X from RoyalStorm suggested.....).
im quite tempted to ask them how is the localization process undegoing and ask if they plan to launch 3.0 with the f2p change as a ''lure''
considering the time the other major updates took from korea live to europe/na live, im a bit hopefull that they might launch it in the conversion or even before.

[Ker]

Sounds like a good idea indeed. Great support really. In fact I only had real good support experiences with Aion staff in the past.

[WhiteHorse]

Uther, about the localization and aion 3.0.
It will happen, but will take time. That has been already an official answer on their FAQ. Do not expect 3.0 to come in Februrary, it will come later on (no date specified yet)

[Yuuhi]

Secretly hoping 3.0 is far away. My chars still need quite the gear first

[WhiteHorse]

What for Knuckles? I mean, with the level cap increase to lv60 you will likely want the best of the best gear and that will be lv60 gear I expect.

[Yuuhi]

Experience tells me that you won't get the best gear if you go straight to the max lv, especially if a server has been around for a while already. Im also keeping my alts at lv50 still because:

- Lv50 dred is usually super easy because most of the asmos in there are pathetically weak, so it's easy AP if you bring a nice geared group with you that can handle trains form asmos
- Arenas are almost just as easy (There are only 2-3 ppl in there who can actually beat me in chaos). My alts usually end up in first place if those exceptional ppl arent in there
- You can only rift up to lv50. Lv55 pvp is usually dull because it's almost always zerg vs zerg in balaurea

So the reasons I won't lv to 60 immediately and instead work on my gear first are kinda like the above:

- Most overgeared ppl will go to 60, so lv51-55 arena/dredgion will be much easier to get insignias/ap if you stay lv55
- Drop rates in Esoterrace won't lower for me if I go with groups up to lv55

There ya have it. When it's time for me to go lv60, I'll be ready for it. If I go to lv60 right away, I'll just be put up against the overgeared ppl again and trust me, it'll be harder to reach your goals. At lv50, I can already work on my gear for 55 and the same thing can be done about lv60 gear

[WhiteHorse]

That was basically my plan for my Sorc lv30 with full daeva set:
- To make it accumulate enough AP to buy lv40 AP full gear and only then starting to level up from 30 to 40.

The problem I unexpectedly came across, was that me with lv30 most ppl are several levels above, and even if they would get naked, I would still have my skills resisted 95% of the times.
My mistake: I tough if I would invest enough on Magical Accuracy to compesate for the people having more Magic Resist. But truth is, that even if their MR is 0, just because of the level difference being more than 15 levels they will resist no matter what.
I guess then I will have to level up to 40 already so that I can hit everyone .

[Ashelia]

oh yeah, I remember those MR tests... couple of levels did a lot, while gear barely seemed to change a thing.

[WhiteHorse]

While on Teamspeak, we already debated about some concerns related to the f2p model of Aion.
Today I sent an email back to the replier of my previous email exposing the concerns and asking info about the 2 topics.

------------------
Hello Blackvelvet,
thank you for your honest and nice reply to my previous contact.
I shared it to the legion, we thank you your offer, your answer was straight forward and I believe it is not required to come specially to our forum to calm anyone. We still hope however that, after launch, the managers review this subject again.

I personally would like to express two of my worries about the Free-to-play model that is still not very clear.

A) Premium shop:
- What type of items will be there?
We hope for fashion (ie: pets, furniture, skins, dyes...) and useful things (ie: bag expansion, server transfer, rename, plastic surgery, ...)
In short, nothing that affects the outcome of fights (ie: exclusive gear, buffs). We fear such would ultimately drive players away.
"League of Legends" is a good example of a game that has a premium shop and is free to play without being a "pay to win" or "who can afford the most" game. And that has attracted over the time many players.

B) Bots, Gold Sellers, Spammers:
- what preventions for their possible return are being made, and what effective in-game tools will be in place to fight any appearances?
Aion on it's young weeks was heavily attacked by these, but NCSoft with much effort was impressive and cleaned the game in a good way, and it was kept so.
The concern is that with the free-to-play model, this is going to attract the attention of Bots/Gold Sellers/Spammers. Although the Starter accounts have limitations of in-game communication and shops. The concern is still valid if we think of bots and hacked accounts.
Currently there is a way of reporting "bots" in-game with a "skill". Unfortunately, it does not work in places like Sanctum (where sometimes I felt the need to report mail spammers as 1 or 2 appears every few months.)

Any remarks or info you can share about these two subjects?


Greatly appreciated your attention.

Best regards.

Whitehorse - RoyalStorm @ Spatalos
-----------------

Let's see what reply is given about these.

[Teaser]

Download Aion immediately and win access to the Beta phase.
Aion-Free-to-Play’s release is getting closer by the minute. Start Aion’s pre-load today to prepare for its launch in February. The gates of Atreia will be opening up for the first pioneers on the 26th of January. Explore the free-to-play version of Aion for three weeks during the Closed Beta.
With a bit of luck you can secure an access key for the Beta phase, as we will be having a draw amongst the Aion newsletter subscribers (register for the newsletter here). Or take part in our partner draws on several gaming websites.

What’s more, we’re rewarding your heroic deeds as a pioneer: by participating you will automatically get a Veteran account for Aion’s live version, which will be released in February. If you are very active during the Beta, you will be rewarded even more abundantly: when you reach levels 10, 20 or 30 you will receive additional Gold Packs which will have an increased duration correspondent to the level.

There’s another couple of things you should know: the Closed Beta will only be available in English, German and French and support will only be provided in English. And last but not least, all characters will be deleted after the test phase is finished and you will receive your gained rewards in the live version.

from aion free to play website at: http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/news/beta

as an extra info, the beta client can be downloaded allready and it will be the same when servers come live.

The game client can be used for the Closed Beta starting on the 26.01. as well as for the game’s launch in February.

more info and download link at: http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/betapreload/

EDIT: the gameforge client, when installing, will detect ncsoft aion instalation and will ask to copy to the new folder. less time to download and dont need to copy manually
after instalation, i noticed that it says ''gameforge game launch V3'' and only works for aion f2p (no more selectable games in launcher), would love to see this as an indication that aion 3.0 is coming up with f2p model ^^