The traditional live broadcast with the creators of the MMORPG AION 2 brought a lot of news that will certainly change the usual rhythm of the game. Seo In Seop and Kim Nam Joon have unveiled a massive update plan, including the launch of new dungeons, the introduction of the Potential system, and the long-awaited class change feature. Particular attention was paid to working on errors. The team acknowledged past missteps in content complexity and announced massive compensation. We present to your attention a detailed analysis of all theses of the broadcast, covering every aspect of the future development of the project:
- The broadcast opened with a festive greeting. Seo In Seop and Kim Nam Joon appeared in front of the audience wearing traditional Korean hanboks to wish the players a Happy Lunar New Year. They once again confirmed the information about their promotion, emphasizing that this is the merit of the entire community, but immediately assured the audience that the new positions do not mean their departure from development. They will continue to personally participate in streams, monitor balance and communicate directly with players, trying to make the game even better.
- Once again it was said about the fight against bot farms, because of which the developers had to take an extreme measure – a complete temporary blocking of the creation of new characters on all servers. The team explained that this was necessary to “sterilize” the playing space. While the influx of new bots has been stopped, the developers are manually cleaning out the existing accounts of violators, which has already made it possible to remove tens of billions of illegally farmed Kinara from circulation. Although the lockdown has already been lifted, it will be replaced by new, strict systemic restrictions.
- Starting tomorrow, new technical barriers for bot breeders will be introduced. The limit on creating accounts from one IP address or physical device will be reduced three times (from 30 to 10), which was the result of long negotiations between the developers and the company’s security department. In addition, a unique PvP protection system was announced. Characters who fail the captcha check and become suspects will become vulnerable to being killed by players of the enemy faction, and in the future the developers plan to allow even members of their own race to kill such violators.
- The developers shared information that the owners of bot farms began to use “viral marketing” tactics, ordering negative comments on social networks and creating a false impression that there is no fight against them, and are also trying to sue the company in order to find out secret methods for detecting software. In response to this, the AION 2 team stated their unshakable position and intention to continue the cleanup, despite legal pressure, and also mentioned that a system of mandatory verification of accounts by real names is in development to further complicate the lives of violators.
- The second stage of “rematching” of servers begins in the Abyss, which will now become a regular practice. Pairs of opposing servers will be constantly mixed up to prevent players from becoming accustomed to the same opponents and to prevent one faction from maintaining dominance throughout the entire season. This solution is aimed at maintaining dynamics and excitement in cross-server battles. However, the developers admitted that in the future (by season 3) the balance system will be completely revised based on the statistics currently collected.
- The changes also affected the Siege mode itself. Now the time of their holding is strictly fixed (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 21:00 Korean time), and the main innovation is the simultaneous launch of sieges on the Lower and Middle levels of the Abyss. This will force race leaders to make difficult tactical decisions and divide the forces of their “zerg” into two directions, since the limit of participants in each zone will also be limited. The solution should prevent lag and create conditions for fairer and more strategic battles for small and medium groups.
- The system of penalties and rewards in PvP has been completely revised. The developers decided to remove the loss of Abyss Points (AP) upon death, as it demotivated players to engage in battle, but retained the impact of death on Rating Points so that the ranks of officers and generals would still reflect real-world skill. Also, a specific buff for rank 9 beginners was removed, which experienced players used to abuse without specifically increasing their rank. Instead, a single bonus of 30% to damage in the Abyss has been introduced for all participants, which evens out the chances and makes leveling up the rank more logical.
- A new system for calculating Rating Points is being introduced, which is now completely focused on PvP activity. Points received for killing monsters in PvE since the start of the season will be canceled in the leaderboard, so that the top rankings are occupied by active fighters, and not those who simply farm mobs for a long time. To prevent fixed fights and spillovers, the limit on receiving points from the same enemy is now updated every hour, and not once a day, which allows you to fight with the same opponents throughout the day, but limits the ability to quickly increase your rating.
- To ensure that PvP players do not lag behind in development from those who wear specialized PvE sets, a powerful buff on damage to monsters in the Abyss has been added to the reward system for Abyss ranks. This will allow top fighters to effectively farm resources and bosses without changing into less protected equipment, and rewards from the bosses themselves in the Abyss will now be given in the form of chests with medals, which will make the process of obtaining equipment more predictable and fair.
- In response to complaints about overcrowding in popular farming locations, balancing was carried out in the Corridor dungeon. The efficiency of gaining experience and drops in all four side rooms has been raised to the level of the central room. Now players do not need to compete for one point and interfere with each other, since farming has become equally profitable in any part of the dungeon, and for factions that are completely losing in the Abyss, a special temporary rift in the Corridor will open in their peaceful zone to compensate for the lag.
- A new Tier 4 dungeon, “Temple of Mui,” has been announced, which will become available immediately after maintenance. The developers admitted their past mistake with the overestimated complexity of Dramata and promised that the new content will be much more accessible to ordinary players. The difficulty of the bosses in the Temple of Mui has been adjusted so that groups with an average level of equipment can successfully complete them, while receiving new top-end weapons and jewelry.
- A deep equipment improvement system called “Hero’s Connections” has been introduced, in which Wisdom Stones will play a key role. These stones allow you to open additional slots for customizing parameters in items with 100% probability. The Soul Essences required for this will now be able to be mined in the new dungeon, found in Odium cubes, or created through the conversion of materials. This change should make the process of bringing a character to perfection more transparent and less dependent on luck.
- The developers have announced a radical reduction in prices for enhancements and breakthroughs of heroic equipment. Now the cost of one attempt at high enchant levels will be about 40 million Kinara, which is significantly cheaper than the previous values. Moreover, a retroactive compensation system has been introduced. All the difference in previously spent currency will be returned to players by mail, and the cost of the Inheritance function (transferring progress from one item to another) has become free, so that players can easily change equipment when they receive better analogues.
- Our immediate plans include the introduction of a “Potential” system for dungeon equipment, which will allow players to increase the PvE characteristics of dropped items (damage to monsters, protection from them) by absorbing duplicates of the same item. This decision is intended to make dungeon gear more competitive with expensive crafting, giving players a long-term goal for repeated runs of dungeons and making each item dropped a valuable resource.
- There has been a transition from personal limits to server limits (per account) when collecting Od and Energy. Now players do not need to log in to four different twinks to collect the daily resource requirement (about 2800 units), since all this can be done with one main character. This change is aimed at combating game fatigue and freeing users from the need to waste time on routine leveling and maintenance of additional characters for the sake of crafting resources.
- As part of the holiday update, a large-scale Lookbook was revealed with new cosmetic items. The store will feature traditional hanboks, as well as themed wings and a new mount, the mythical beast Haechi. The developers promised that all holiday events, including those dedicated to Valentine’s Day, will have a 100% chance of success, so as not to upset players with failures during the holidays.
- We were once again reminded of the development of the long-awaited “Change Class” feature. The developers admitted that they resisted this idea for a long time, but the huge number of requests from players forced them to change their mind, and now they are working on a coupon that will allow you to change your profession along with automatic weapon replacement. There was also mention of an upcoming nerf to Divine Stones in PvP – the duration of their control effects will be reduced so that the outcome of the battle depends more on the player’s skills, and not on the random triggering of paralysis or stun.
The stream featured large-scale raffles for real gifts, including an iPad Pro and Samsung Galaxy smartphones, as well as unique plush keychains with the game’s mascot (Red Horse), which will not go on sale and will remain exclusive to quiz winners. For all other viewers, a promo code LUCKYAION2 was issued and a daily distribution of rewards (Dungeon Tickets, Odes, Resurrection Stones) was promised for two weeks, which is twice as long as originally planned.
