Feedback Update: Titan Coins, Katalam, Events, Compensation Follow-up

[Arctic]

Hi everyone,

We wanted to take this week to provide an update on some of the discussions we’ve seen in recent weeks. In addition, we will soon be sharing a Letter from the Producer to provide an update on our goals and intentions with Aion here in North America. We felt that some questions that we’ve seen, such as inquiries about the Auto-Hunt system, would best be addressed by sharing some of our high-level vision - and we look forward to discussing!

For now though, let’s discuss some of the more straightforward topics which have been recently brought up:
 

Titan Coins

Soon after we published our most recent update, we saw numerous discussions concerning the nerf to Titan Coin drop rates. Players correctly speculated that this change was designed to accompany the Auto-Hunt system seen in Korea, and to that effect, are likely not necessary to maintain game balance here in the West. We are working with the development team in Korea to obtain the necessary information to correct the issue. Thanks for bringing it to light!

Arena Compensation

As promised during a previous update, this weekend we provided some long overdue compensation to players who had participated in a past Arena season, but had not received any reward for their time and effort. We apologize that it took so long to get compensation into the hands of players who were affected by this issue. Thank you for your patience.

Katalam Restarts

We’d like to update you all that progress has been difficult to come by in finding the cause of the NPC issues related to the Katalam server. While we continue to investigate the cause, we felt it was vital that we made process improvements to reduce the amount of downtime players were experiencing, especially when the issue occurred over the weekends. We are confident that going forward, we can issue a more rapid response until this issue is resolved.

Events

Lastly, we’d like to bring up events as part of our ongoing efforts to address the pain points you identified when we began this initiative. To help us make meaningful change on this topic, we have introduced a new thread where we would like to hear your targeted feedback and inputs regarding events. Please keep conversations in that thread restricted to events, so that we can have productive and meaningful takeaways.
 

Thank you for your continued support and feedback for Aion. We hope you enjoy the upcoming Anniversary festivities, and will see you next time!

 

[Vantheria-DN]

Thanks for the update; much appreciated. Good new about undoing the Titan Coin drop nerf in the future too. We look forward to that.

[Squid]

Quote

Titan Coins

Soon after we published our most recent update, we saw numerous discussions concerning the nerf to Titan Coin drop rates. Players correctly speculated that this change was designed to accompany the Auto-Hunt system seen in Korea, and to that effect, are likely not necessary to maintain game balance here in the West. We are working with the development team in Korea to obtain the necessary information to correct the issue. Thanks for bringing it to light!

Is there any chance we can get more information on this? Like are NCwest trying to get original rates back or is Korea are they planning to add some other system for NA as to not upset the Korean player base? Because i just want to speak out and say i do not want a bobo coin morphing recipe to fix the issue since we need all the XP we can get.

[Arctic]

@HealingSquid-KT Can confirm, we will be looking to get the original rates back.

[Squid]

Ok awesome thanks.

[LadyLoredana-KT]

I am really upset about the drop of "Titan Coins", just when I'm in the middle of getting some armour pieces and accessories the drops are very rare! The same thing happened with the Pandora quests, after doing the quests so many times and getting so annoyed of the many repeats you deleted the quests? I was left with half accessories ....I was working on getting the wings!

Come on I only play solo, by choice, and it takes longer to get things, I know but you could have left the Pandora quests there in Lakrum, why did you delete them?

Now the same thing is happening with the Titans Coins, well I find Aion resembling every day more as a job than a game and after so many years (11) of playing it I think is the right time for me to say goodbye. 

I must say that I had good friends a good happy time playing it in these past old six-seven years, but it has changed so much now and it's so sad.

[Bintang-KT]

It's nice to see some acknowledgement of these issues, thank you.

@Kibbelz

I would like to ask in regards to the Titan drop nerf that you also take a look at the open world cubic drop rates too? I could be wrong and maybe someone here already knows(?), but I'm guessing we're also sharing the same droprate for cubics as Kaion? Clearly this also would put NA players at a dissavantage in comparrison.

[Nyali-DN]

10 hours ago, Bintang-KT said:

I would like to ask in regards to the Titan drop nerf that you also take a look at the open world cubic drop rates too?

I hope that's on their list too since it's been a major part of the game since 6.2. Back then the rates were much much better and you could actually work on it. Nowadays it's a very tiring grind and even after farming for hours, you still can't get things maxed out at all or even get close to getting in your stats. Would be nice if they can fix the rates to how it used to be or find a way to make them more accessible! Not even talking about the endgame cubics, I'm talking about the basic ones like HP, Magic Attack etc etc

[Ksara-DN]

Any help is welcome, however these discussions and changes in my opinion are temporary. The secret to a good recipe is the combination of the ingredients. What was taken from AION was the ingredients. You removed an important part of the game. NCS Korea changed the essence of AION and it certainly reduced the number of customers. Falling revenue is a trend. See what you (NCS US) did with SIEGE.

NCS US destroyed SIEGE's PVP. SIEGE decreased. It is obvious that the revenue plummets. SIEGE is the only motivation for several people. There should be more and not less.

I say. It doesn't make sense to hold a meeting if you don't take the customer's opinion into account. It makes no sense to hold a meeting if you remove the vital elements of the game. I really want to help, but it is difficult. Many players talked about several things and all was ignored.

I can give many examples, but NCS are you listening to me?

For example. Thinking about new players. 

They want a mount. They want a tiger, but the NCS has removed that from the game. Why did you take that out of the game? You should have created a way to get any mount and you shouldn't take that out of the game.

Currently the missions in the game do not offer anything. You will only achieve something with the events. So, there are only players on AION when the event is good. This is ridiculous.

You also get something with NCOINS, but that makes AION => pay to win.

The player should be able to get resources by doing missions, but missions offer nothing. So the players have no goal. There is no reason to play. There is no reason to do arenas, there is no reason to do groups. ID, IB, PF, AD, IDD and etc. It is all superficial or difficult. There are almost no groups in the LFG.

The problem is this. AION has lost its essence. What's the point of having wings if you can't fly? Air combat is over. The transformations have destroyed the cosmetic and appearance of your player. Having many characters became an advantage so your MAIN lost relevance and meaning.

Having a strong class is another big mistake. So NCS tries to compensate for that with NERF and that creates demotivation. Some classes are suffering NERF since AION 4.0 and continue to this day. As a result, the game became very unbalanced. Never has AION been more unbalanced than today. I am FULL DARK TALON +15. I'm dying before I can even count to two.

I think that AION needs to gain momentum. The Cooperative game needs to come back. There needs to be motivation to play. We need to recover the sense of group, of union, of mission, of league, of lead,  of purpose. This is not difficult.

More one sugestion:

Imagine if during the week you completed all IDDs, ID, PF and etc. and in the end you would get a chest with an important item. Example: A mount of your choice or a legendary transformation. This is an example of motivation and movement. Play with objetive.

I will stop here. I don't want this text too big. Others can help as well.

I hope that NCS reads my topic. I'm tired of being ignored.

[Squid]

@Ksara-DN One of the things we as players do not care for is the information that they obtain beyond just this game which is why they lost the essence of Aion.

Linage 2 mobile has proven(speculating here) that old spenders and existing spenders are willing to convert over from PC to Mobile in their most profitable region. So while we see Aion as a single entity they see it as a product worth destroying to increase profits on the actual Aion 2 mobile successor to Aion.

I would wager that thanks to the information they can keep on our spending habits they have gotten enough information from L2 spenders and returning/existing L2 spenders spending on L2M that they do not need to care about Aion anymore.

The Aion we knew and enjoyed is gone. Unfortunately the gaming scene has taken an even worse turn than just mobile gaming. These mobile games have been getting PC partners and are now seeing even bigger profits from the mobile versions. Expect Aion's PC successor to be Aion 2 mobile converted to PC.

 

If we really wanted change it would have to come from the entire community. EU/NA/Oceania/KR/RU and w/e other region Aion to speak out as one but that is going to be impossible because Aion was designed in a way that guilds with in your own faction hate each other let alone working together.

[Ksara-DN]

On 07/09/2020 at 10:24 AM, HealingSquid-KT said:

@Ksara-DN One of the things we as players do not care for is the information that they obtain beyond just this game which is why they lost the essence of Aion.

Linage 2 mobile has proven(speculating here) that old spenders and existing spenders are willing to convert over from PC to Mobile in their most profitable region. So while we see Aion as a single entity they see it as a product worth destroying to increase profits on the actual Aion 2 mobile successor to Aion.

I would wager that thanks to the information they can keep on our spending habits they have gotten enough information from L2 spenders and returning/existing L2 spenders spending on L2M that they do not need to care about Aion anymore.

The Aion we knew and enjoyed is gone. Unfortunately the gaming scene has taken an even worse turn than just mobile gaming. These mobile games have been getting PC partners and are now seeing even bigger profits from the mobile versions. Expect Aion's PC successor to be Aion 2 mobile converted to PC.

 

If we really wanted change it would have to come from the entire community. EU/NA/Oceania/KR/RU and w/e other region Aion to speak out as one but that is going to be impossible because Aion was designed in a way that guilds with in your own faction hate each other let alone working together.

Thinking about what you said my conclusion is that there is no hope. Unfortunately the most important details about the game are still being ignored.
I cannot understand why NCS makes adjustments to the game in the opposite direction of our expectation. Every upgrade is always demotivating. The update is frustrating and what was good ceases to exist.

Example:
Not to mention the others, I'm just going to talk about SM.
After 11 years of playing. Never has SM been so bad. I have never felt my character so disposable. My experience with AION is now just frustration.

There is no incentive in the PVE. In the PVP the combat was destroyed. The SM dies in less than 2 seconds in PVP (same GEAR). I did tests. The FEAR only makes sense for the SM to flee. I don't want to run away from combat. This is horrible.

Other players may disagree with my opinion about SM, because everyone has complaints from their class and everyone is right because the game is unbalanced. However, the adjustments that NCS makes are always bad for AION.

On top of that, NCS Korea destroyed the game's history. De-characterized the lore of game and removed much of its content. Everything that was fun on AION has now been removed. Example: Air combat. (please remove transfomations about my skin)

In this latest update, SIEGE has been reduced from 4 events to 2 per week. Fortresses have been reduced from 7 to 3. NCS has withdrawn credits from Ing / Gelk and you are not able to do GP in Pradeth and Silona at the same time. SIEGE's time was also reduced with the death of BOSS. Before SIEGE reached 50 minutes and now ends in just 25 minutes.

So all NCS has done to date is to take the fun out of AION and so there is no hope for the game.

Right now I'm trying out another game. In less than 2 hours I already realized that players invest in the game, help the MMO to grow and this is because the company knows the importance of the customer and is always trying to understand what the customer expects from the company and the game.

What I'm going to show you now is something that is impossible to happen at AION, because like you said, they don't care. I'm sorry, but that is the truth.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GLKZQke3w6hR-hXsE1bwxx5PJenY4Q3wqhGcWbYvjFc/edit#

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X5q6ZzTuftYFOJZ3RnmORVph_alGLrjg3A85oJseRYU/edit#gid=1092213049

My summary about AION today:
BUG, constant errors, falling, lag, hackers, imbalance, enchantments that fail all the time, impossible transformations, dead PVE, frustrating PVP, missing items, meaningless content, non-existent market, expensive items, bad events, end of homes, end of cosmetics, end of mounts, useless wings. Stimulating individuality, detachment from its main character, rotation of classes, no leadership, end of SIEGES, end of legions and organization, end of strategies, pay to win, veterans have no value.

[Dialook-DN]

How much fun is it being one shot killed by Asmos who run the maps for the most part, There is no balance and little fun PVP anymore.  I can play Aion if there are no Asmos around to one shot me, but why play a game when you cant PVP with Asmos anymore?  I never understood how you could ruin a game with so much potential,  We can not fly and PVP anymore, you removed so many maps, no more fun Seiges etc, etc. 

 

[Sookoll-KT]

12 hours ago, Dialook-DN said:

How much fun is it being one shot killed by Asmos who run the maps for the most part, There is no balance and little fun PVP anymore.  I can play Aion if there are no Asmos around to one shot me, but why play a game when you cant PVP with Asmos anymore?  I never understood how you could ruin a game with so much potential,  We can not fly and PVP anymore, you removed so many maps, no more fun Seiges etc, etc. 

 

Same here... 1-2 shots and back to obelisk...

I have put an effort to my pvp set almost a year and it's still absolutely useless! 

What's the point of this game now? Where is fun? What are we doing here?

[Ele-DN]

12 hours ago, Dialook-DN said:

How much fun is it being one shot killed by Asmos who run the maps for the most part, There is no balance and little fun PVP anymore.  I can play Aion if there are no Asmos around to one shot me, but why play a game when you cant PVP with Asmos anymore?  I never understood how you could ruin a game with so much potential,  We can not fly and PVP anymore, you removed so many maps, no more fun Seiges etc, etc. 

 

And to be able to get in a pvp state, its months of farming enchantment stones, deava books, stigmas, minions.. S rank. Then cubics and boss cubics for accessories that is used in pvp. Oh, and ultimate transforms.. difference between  a one second kill to a 20 second kill.

[Vantheria-DN]

When I want fun pvp that lasts longer than 3 hits, I log off Aion and play Mobile Legends.

You know shit's bad when a phone game has much more fun and dynamic pvp than a PC game. lel

[Shainygirl-DN]

Totally agree with Ksara. Not to mention that each update (especially from 7 onwards) Lower the FPS and raise the PING (on different types of PCs) to the point that my players stay stopped when an asmo or an Elyo happens. I have everything to level up my sin, but it doesn't make sense. Every "major update changes everything." I remember that, among other things, events like the Tiamaranta eye made me gain momentum in the game, professions, and everything that Ksara mentioned. It really is a shame. And yes, BDO (with low ping and good fps) makes me nostalgic for what Aion was.

[Hallo-DN]

I would consider myself geared enough for pvp (talon all 15+ but feel thats completely useless now ) but still get 2-3 shot by some.This is why I dont bother really with pvp anymore.

  If someone was to ask me, whats fun about Aion? I would struggle answering this question since NC loves to keep removing/nerfing everything that is likeable about this game and force us the cr*p we dont want ...

[Squid]

2 hours ago, Vantheria-DN said:

When I want fun pvp that lasts longer than 3 hits, I log off Aion and play Mobile Legends.

You know shit's bad when a phone game has much more fun and dynamic pvp than a PC game. lel

Good to see more and more people understanding that mobile games are currently better than Aion PC. 

[Briearios]

On 9/13/2020 at 10:27 AM, Dialook-DN said:

How much fun is it being one shot killed by Asmos who run the maps for the most part, There is no balance and little fun PVP anymore.  I can play Aion if there are no Asmos around to one shot me, but why play a game when you cant PVP with Asmos anymore?  I never understood how you could ruin a game with so much potential,  We can not fly and PVP anymore, you removed so many maps, no more fun Seiges etc, etc. 

 

 

On 9/13/2020 at 11:04 PM, Sookoll-KT said:

Same here... 1-2 shots and back to obelisk...

I have put an effort to my pvp set almost a year and it's still absolutely useless! 

What's the point of this game now? Where is fun? What are we doing here?

 

On 9/13/2020 at 11:21 PM, Ele-DN said:

And to be able to get in a pvp state, its months of farming enchantment stones, deava books, stigmas, minions.. S rank. Then cubics and boss cubics for accessories that is used in pvp. Oh, and ultimate transforms.. difference between  a one second kill to a 20 second kill.

I can relate to these comments. I was out doing the caps in Lakrum. Sin with Marchutan popped out of hide and my HP was at 35%. I popped my remove shock shield, he stunned me, he destroyed my shield with no effort and I was dead. Went back later the camp and a glad with Kaisinel knocked me down, had me at 50% and the same sin came out of hide. Not even acquittal could help me. Came back to that camp again, the same glad was there, knockdown, 50% hp, remove shock shield, was gone in like 2 hits? Knockdown dead. Went back to see what the sin's damage was and advanced feral slash crit for 30k. Both of them had full +15 stigma and daeva skills and were camping that place.. Only reason I didn't log off was because it was my last camp and I wanted it done... FUN FUN.

[Sookoll-KT]

1 hour ago, Treos-DN said:

 

 

I can relate to these comments. I was out doing the caps in Lakrum. Sin with Marchutan popped out of hide and my HP was at 35%. I popped my remove shock shield, he stunned me, he destroyed my shield with no effort and I was dead. Went back later the camp and a glad with Kaisinel knocked me down, had me at 50% and the same sin came out of hide. Not even acquittal could help me. Came back to that camp again, the same glad was there, knockdown, 50% hp, remove shock shield, was gone in like 2 hits? Knockdown dead. Went back to see what the sin's damage was and advanced feral slash crit for 30k. Both of them had full +15 stigma and daeva skills and were camping that place.. Only reason I didn't log off was because it was my last camp and I wanted it done... FUN FUN.

Yep... pvp is totally dead now.

Aion's pvp was the only thing I liked here, so it's "game over" for me.

Those damn +15 stigmas/daevanions, collections and gemstones must go to garbage can all together!

[Briearios]

2 hours ago, Sookoll-KT said:

Yep... pvp is totally dead now.

Aion's pvp was the only thing I liked here, so it's "game over" for me.

Those damn +15 stigmas/daevanions, collections and gemstones must go to garbage can all together!

I wouldn't mind all of that nonsense if there were equal opportunity to get those items as a free to play player but Korea is not budging when it comes to NA. I don't expect things to get better since they had to give people ultimate transformations last week due to complaining. I expect things to get tighter. Like other regions letting you have ultimate transformation after 6 months of work is fine for me. I don't want to be given stuff freely but they are not even willing to budge on that. You can get +15 daeva skills as a free to play person. It would just take very very long. Not sure +15 stigmas is obtainable when after +9 is 30% chance for us. As for ultimate transformations at a 13% chance to get one when fusing 6 legendaries.. Without good tier luck.. HA..

[Arhangelos]

Because just having Dark Talon +15 is so early 7.0.

Now you need +15 stigmas, +15 daevanions, the new pve asccessories from hard mode pve instances that are better for pvp than actual pvp accessories, dazzling gemstones enchanted to at least +5, 3x identical type runestones for the transform you are using all enchanted to +5, those special weapons that give you additional skills just by having them in your inventory, and obviously 2~3 sets for every situation with all the above mentioned again done to those additional sets.

The +15 stigmas are doable with the new rates (even without stormwing), the +15 daevanions simply require time to get all you need (unless you were present in stormwing event), the rest is practically niche items that nobody can simply have them, unless they either spend a ton of money to buy them or items you need to be a leader of a big zerg/legion so you can do things exclusive to zergs and earn them from big world bosses or the boss on the enemy main city etc.

The gap between playing the game and being a pro has never been bigger, so the bast majority of people will never get to what is regarded end game now at all.

[Danasa-DN]

16 minutes ago, Arhangelos-KT said:

Because just having Dark Talon +15 is so early 7.0.

Now you need +15 stigmas, +15 daevanions, the new pve asccessories from hard mode pve instances that are better for pvp than actual pvp accessories, dazzling gemstones enchanted to at least +5, 3x identical type runestones for the transform you are using all enchanted to +5, those special weapons that give you additional skills just by having them in your inventory, and obviously 2~3 sets for every situation with all the above mentioned again done to those additional sets.

The +15 stigmas are doable with the new rates (even without stormwing), the +15 daevanions simply require time to get all you need (unless you were present in stormwing event), the rest is practically niche items that nobody can simply have them, unless they either spend a ton of money to buy them or items you need to be a leader of a big zerg/legion so you can do things exclusive to zergs and earn them from big world bosses or the boss on the enemy main city etc.

The gap between playing the game and being a pro has never been bigger, so the bast majority of people will never get to what is regarded end game now at all.

I was watching the stream of a person that hard p2w and he himself said "I am not good i just spent alot in the game"... All stigmas +15 DP daevanion +15 Sun/Moon weapon, and he was killing ppl like they were made of paper

Some ppl run around with +20 runes (if that is not p2w idk what is)

To much of a gap and imbalance with this patch

[Squid]

@Kibbelz Since you did arena compensation can you look in to sending out some T-shirts to the competition winners back during the 10th anniversary event? I hear that some or maybe all of them still have yet to receive their rewards for winning.

[Arctic]

Thanks @HealingSquid-KT - I've made a note to investigate.