Brand new video footage shows off the power of the elementals in NCsoft?s stunning new MMORPG, Aion: The Tower of Eternity Take control of the forces of nature and unleash the power of the elements on your enemies in NCsoft?s forthcoming online epic, Aion.
Of all the character classes available to play as in Aion: The Tower of Eternity, NCsoft?s amazing new online RPG, the mysterious Spiritmaster is one of the most intriguing. Using powerful magics derived from the forces of nature, Spiritmasters will find themselves an integral part of any adventuring party due to their ability to summon and control fierce creatures based on the four cardinal elements of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. The Spiritmaster?s chief responsibility is to summon and control elemental spirits, powerful forms of nature incarnate. This is done through a series of specific commands, such as attack and defend, that can be given via a simple onscreen control system. Other, more specialised and yet to be revealed commands exist beyond these basic controls, with each form of elemental spirit having its own unique skills and abilities.
The challenge for the Spiritmaster comes from recognising which element to call on at any given time. Earth spirits are strong in defence abilities, Fire spirits specialise in ranged attacks, Water spirits concentrate on healing powers while Wind spirits are best utilised in melee attacks. While it?s not possible to control different types of elemental spirits at the same time ? Spiritmaster?s cannot control both an Earth and Water spirit simultaneously, for instance ? by summoning the correct spirit for the situation in hand, Spiritmasters have the power to turn even the most desperate battles into a complete rout of the enemy. A situation that could prove immensely useful when adventurers come up against some of the more powerful rogue elemental spirits that wander Aion?s immense and incredibly detailed game world.
Here are another 2 episodes of Ken Choi discussing Aion. In this 2 parts he talks about the casual and hardcore game play in Aion and he mentions grinding and obtaining high level items.
You can watch them here , later in the video gallery.
And guys a small PS from Ayase:
He would like to remind you that Ken Choi is a Senior Game Designer, and he is not a PR guy just put there with a bunch of ready-made answers to promote game.
With these Episodes of Ken we wanted to give you straight and honest answers to some of the larger questions, directly from the dev team.
The character customization satisfactory level seems to be lower than expected. What are your future plans?
The current level of customization is only ?temporary?. In the future, players will be able to customize eyes, nose, arms, legs, voice, make-up, over thirty different types of aesthetic features.
We?ll also have a ?pre-made? appearance available for players.
The characters seem to ?slip? on the surface. Are you planning to fix this?
We?ve observed this a while back and it will be fixed. Wouldn?t it be weird for us to leave it the way it is?
There?s a lot of questions involving the division of the top and bottom of the character?s body. Explain.
To say it short, they?re divided. Due to things such as flight motion, attack range and etc., it just looks weird sometimes. We?ll make sure to get this fixed in the future.
Explain the special features of items, especially the weapons. Explain the transforming/shapeshifting system as well.
Aion will, unlike other games, allow you to use elegant-looking items (that look high level) starting early in the game. We?re thinking of making different appearances for modified/growth-based items(???). The retractable mace shown in G-Star video is such an example. There are also effects such as a glow around the whole body when a set is completed.
Also, we were told that the transforming armour shown at G-star seems rather dull, but the actual process will feature effect such as rays of light hovering around the body and a variety of other effects.
The requirements seem rather high. In the final release will there be an optimization process?
One thing I need to confess, the current version of Aion is not optimized at all. The most basic LOD (level of detail) isn?t even optimized. Once we?re finished with the process it should run fine even on a Geforce 6600.
There?s been a lot of praise regarding the game?s extravagant graphics and scenery. What do you think of this?
We were told that the scenery is really pretty, but that doesn?t necessarily equate to being a good thing. It?s easy to become bored of the pretty graphics.
To make sure that doesn?t happen, we?re relying not only on pretty scenery but also on diversity. The game will feature diverse environments such as sandy dunes, snowy terrain as well as lava-filled environments to make sure players don?t become bored of the scenery so quickly.
What sources did you refer to as you were designing the scenery, characters, etc?
Mainly surrealist arts.
Large floating objects can be seen in-game. Do these mean anything?
These are a type of an underplot ( Aion Novel ). Aion will have a lot of mystical elements through the beginning half of the game. Players will ask ?why?? and they will find the answers as they progress through the game.
What?s the environmental concept behind Asmodian and the Abyss landscape?
The Asmodians share a common root with the Elyos. Therefore the landscape needs to show some similarity with the Elyos. What we?ve implemented is the concept of ?light and darkness?. The Asmodian landscape uses the theme of darkness more than the Elyos, but at the same time offers the ability to view beautiful lights in contrast with the darkness, in short a ?festival of light and darkness? is what the Asmodian scenery could be described as.
As for the Abyss, the concept features a fourth-dimensional, surreal space-like visual.
What are the features you paid the most attention to as you created the three factions?
Aion was designed from the beginning to appeal to the players.
For example, the Elyos males have ?handsome and gentle? images while the females were designed to look ?innocent and active?. Equipments were designed with bright and cheerful colours as well.
Asmodians, on the other hand, were designed to give the impression that they were surviving in a cold and harsh environment. Males were designed to look ?wild? and the females ?sexy?.
As for the Balaur, we wanted to break the traditional look of Western dragons. They?ve almost become science fiction style ?aliens? at this point, but we?re planning to expand even more. Of course the traditional RPG-style dragons are featured as well.
The Drakonic lineages are as follows: Lizardmen -> Naga -> Drakan -> Dragons
Do you have any personally favoured race or monsters?
The Kerubims. Their personalities are set to show diversity. There are the aggressive, angry ones as well as the ones waiting patiently for an opportunity. The game didn?t implement 100% of what we wanted, but you will be able to observe a good amount of Kerubim actions.
Today we are moving to the fourth closed beta week and I would like to share a small closed beta video as well as another two parts with Ken Choi on AionThe Tower of Eternity.
Part 7 - Aion Storytelling Part 8 - Character customization
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [environment]](http://www.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20071121172729_e84326ee.jpg)
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [environment]](http://www.aionglobal.com/uploads/thumbs/20071124/Aion-4.jpg)
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [environment]](http://www.aionglobal.com/uploads/thumbs/20071124/Aion-5.jpg)
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [graphics]](http://www.thisisgame.com/board/files/0/img/20071121173755_f2153e2e.jpg)
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [graphics]](http://www.aionglobal.com/uploads/thumbs/20071124/Aion-2.jpg)
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [graphics]](http://www.aionglobal.com/uploads/thumbs/20071124/Aion-1.jpg)
![Interview with Art Director Kim Hyung Jun [graphics]](http://www.aionglobal.com/uploads/thumbs/20071124/Aion-3.jpg)
