There be pictures here!

There be pictures here!
Darksiders II

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Been a While!

Wow! It has been months since I last put out a meaningful update. The reason for this is my lack of playing Aion for a period of time after 4.0 proved to be fairly disappointing. But I have since come back in preparation for 4.5's launch (hopefully soon!). I'm hopeful that 4.5 will breathe some life into Aion once more as it brings back many of the classic components that made the original game an exciting and new kind of experience.

Steel Calvary is bringing a lot of older content up to current endgame levels. Most notably, the Abyss will be making a grand return with the central forts upgraded from level 50 to level 65. The rewards for these forts will be raised as well to balance out the amount of work that will be required to siege and defend these reinvigorated forts. To pair with the flight-heavy abyss updates there are also numerous skill updates for every class, most of which add to their repertoire of aerial combat skills. Together, these updates can revive what was perhaps the most dynamic and interesting siege area Aion has seen in it's many years. Nothing quite compares to that old school hectic flight combat.

In other news, Steel Calvary also brings in the last of the new classes. The final class to be added is the Aethertech, a robotic juggernaut with a mix between damage dealing and tanking capabilities. Numerous videos have already been posted detailing the effectiveness of this mechanical monstrosity in PvP. Still, much remains to be seen in regards to their roles in group settings and PvE instances so there is plenty of ground to cover!

The last major and perhaps most important change 4.5 wrestles with is a total overhaul on the Abyss Point ranking system and, more specifically, how high ranking transforms are managed. This new system is called the Honor Point system and will be added in as the new determination of rank rather than amount of abyss points alone. The point of this alteration to the ranking system is to encourage siege activity and remove inactive/non-beneficial officers from the limited number of spots available. These highly coveted positions will be reserved for the more active players who contribute regularly to their faction. These points decay each day and can be earned through sieges, key instances, and certain quests. With any luck, this will stop the long-time issue of lazy players hoarding points and wasting highly beneficial spots on the transform list.

Depending on the difficulty/complexity of the new instances coming in 4.5 there may or may not be direct guides posted here. If I find myself in a position to write them then I shall! But if not, I'll give as much information as I can for referencing!

Happy flying, Daevas.

-Fest

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Computer Explosions & Update

So...it sounded like gunfire and smelled like burning happiness when my beloved computer exploded. It was definitely a worst case scenario, I had to take a moment to let it sink in that I no longer had a nice computer. I woefully tossed and turned for a few moments before finally coming to the conclusion that this was, in fact, not the end of the world.

It was however a pretty significant change of pace for me, someone who is online for a majority of their free time generally doesn't have a whole lot of backup plans when your source of fun/work/communication just up and explodes. But all was not lost, I dusted off my now quite old backup PC that hadn't seen the light of day since I got my new rig and cleaned up the myriad of viruses and old programs.

So all was not lost but it's certainly a different level of gaming and whatnot as I'm using a machine that is approaching its 10th birthday...but anyway.

The computer explosion has meant no more Aion for me as I simply can't run it on the level I'm used to and PvP is an absolute nightmare (I'm a ping/fps brat when it comes to Aion, don't judge!). So, I've had to seek other entertainment while my computer is being fixed up. I found this in Warframe, a new free-to-play third person shooter. It's fairly less demanding than a full fledged MMO but it has a lot to offer gamers on a budget or those who don't have amazing computer setups.

I'm honestly not sure if I'll be able to get my pre-4.0 Aion project off the ground since I can't even access most of the content that was supposed to end up in there (Back up your projects, don't suffer like me!) since it...well it exploded.

I'll be back in the swing of things sometime next week when my computer gets fixed! Hopefully before 4.0 launches!

There might be a brief Warframe post in the next few days...I'm hesitant to post anything concrete about it since they're still developing and changing the game on a large scale while it's in beta. We shall see!


Thanks for reading!

-Fest

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Aion announcement!

Aion recently announced that 4.0, the largest content expansion we have seen, will be landing in June. That leaves just a few short months before our world gets flipped upside down (In a good way, hopefully!). I'm working on a project right now, it's a tad different than my typical guides but still quite important in my opinion.

I'd like to put together a "Best of 3.0" presentation and I don't have a clue what it'll look like yet. All I do know is that I want to include things that were iconic and defining about the 3.0 era as I see 4.0 as a reinvention of Aion more than a content expansion due to the new classes and numerous core changes to the game's formula. Much will remain the same but so much will change so I find it important to at least try and capture some of the more wonderful moments of the game up until now. It'll likely be a multi-part project with perhaps a video and maybe a pseudo-scrapbook.

If this kind of thing piques your interest and you'd either like to contribute screenshots/video/ideas then by all means use the "Contact Us" function at the top of the page or leave a comment below!

-Fest