Resistance Is Futile

I keep moaning about not having enough time to play. So many things I need to do online!

• Do Empyrean Crucible daily (done)
• Go places with my friends (never enough)
• Do dredgion, farm abyss points and platinum medals, dailies, gather (pending)
• Learn to hunt asmos (ludicrous emm pending)

So how many hours a day? Because the two hours I play every day are definitely not adequate.

But then I look at my tank. He plays long hours. He plays so many hours, that by the end, there is no real stimulation. He does all those every day and many more. He has full Stormwing, he has tons of AP and medals, in short he has almost everything. And you know what happens? He is bored. Disappointed. He sometimes considers leaving the game.

So how many hours a day? Because the long hours he plays every day are definitely not adequate.

Some very capable legion members have already moved to different games, seeking the challenge of new goals. Is there really a point?

The comic above, from Nerfnow.com, really summarises my concluding thoughts better than any post could. Check the site, I think most of this guy's strips are really funny.

New Character Design UI

 OK mate, you are strange and you are creeping me out!

Easy To Please Online

Some time ago I read yet another comic of the Thenoobcomic series.

While I was reading it, I couldn't help but smiling to the poor wanna-be forum moderator idiots depicted there.

As if anyone would want to become a forum moderator! As if there is anything special (or desired) in that title! Of course not.

Only an idiot would care for forum power, and I am no idiot!

But.. wait.. Community people are nice people, no?

Today I received a message from

saying

This means that I get my own "title" in official aiononline forums, and it comes in colour! It also means that effort is recognised - I hope. Not to mention recognition of how mature, friendly, and the other, I am.

I realised that I love the recognition - even if it only comes as a colourful name label. Or fangs.

Dyes and dies

New blog colours!! Cool or what!

Needing a refreshed approach to on line life, I tweaked with the design of this page. If this doesn't work to cheer me up, I will buy those!

Same approach in game. You can change skins, or if you prefer a lighter approach, you can just change the colour of the armour. For that, you need dyes.

Or dies.

Some non-native english speakers get confused with the spelling, and more than once I heard them asking about black or red die. I cann't help it, I smile each and every time!

I know, i know, on line lingo can accept a lot of those, it is not after all possible to have all those people speak the same.. each language has it's own origin.

How many hours a day?

A good friend of mine is temporarily giving up Aion. Two reasons led to this decision:

• financial issues (scary, no?)
• time issues

the latter reason (=time) being more important. He told me:

"After I stopped playing Aion, my day got 8 hours longer."

But this makes no sense, I thought. He did not really play 8 hours a day.

Oh wait..

He might not play, but he was connected for quite a lot every day.. After all, each day he had to:

• craft two heliotrops 
• log with each toon, visit trader to sell items
• do daily quest
• do other daily quest
• craft potions or food or scrolls

 And it is not just him, we all have to do those as often as possible.

And of course some of the days you have to:

• do Abyssal Splinter quest run
• do weekly quests

Yet those are "complementary" activities, none of them is *really* playing. Because when you "really" play, you will do an instance, dredgion, or some kind of legion activity. Time starts to stretch.

When you want to do an instance like Esoterrace or Besh, you need to:

• wait for group to complete
• wait for random-group-member-1 to eat before you start
• wait for random-group-member-2 to re-connect after dc

Ok this is getting serious - too much auxiliary time, lost time, noise, for each "real" activity.

As I think of the "to-do" list, the list keeps getting longer. I am worried.

 Xkcd demonstrates one way to make it.

Important considerations

The 2.5 patch has been up for a while, and a lot of things are in my mind - so many important decisions to make in game!

• How should I use the plastic surgery ticket? 

I think my hair colour needs a re-vamp. At the same time, this ticket might be my opportunity to get a bit taller/older. Cool.

One thing that scares me though: the character creation and modification engine has no "undo" button. What happens if I make a change that I do not like? How do I get back to my usual self?

• What should I buy first with the Empyrean Crucible Insignias? 

I was going for the loot-pet, but my adult side asks for weapon or armour. 

 

Which means I need to do a comparative study of prospects and stats, in order to target the optimal choice. Or hire a consultant to do the study for me, feed him the desired outcome, and use his presentation to persuade all the conflicting inner voices.

• Do I want to do Beshmundir Temple again? 

Oh, that's an easy one. No, i dont! I am not sure though if I ought to though..

• Where should I look for the new lolita costumes? 

I meant the student ones. Imagine me having a halo, a lollipop and a short plaided skirt! Sooo shallow!

If this costume/skin is available as a present, I do not want to buy it myself. I wish someone else buys it for me.. A handsome guy preferably!

Who do I choose and how do I make him realise that he wants to offer me a gift?








So many things in my mind.. It's a tough on-line life after all!

Mini-event: double drops

Today a series of mini events was announced, including an increase of drop rates from May 18th to May 25th.

I got so excited!! Increased rate of orange drops in Beshmundir Temple! I might even get my full set at last!

Picture from angrycritter

Then I realised. Even if they double or triple the drop rate..

We usually get 0 orange items.
For 7 days, we will be getting 2x0 orange items.


Aha.. now I see..

Game Related News

A plethora of news regarding Aion game is currently out. Presented here in shortest possible form :)

• Version 2.5 coming live (EU/NA servers) at 25 May 2011.
• Starting today 5/5/10, we can download the PTS client for the 2.5 version. The PTServer will not be available per se until May 12th. 
• The official name for 2.5 is "Empyrean Calling", stop calling it "The Patch". 
• Notes (for european version) were released today.

• Lineage I, II and Aion will get an in-game music player, at least in their Korean client. NCSoft cooperates with an online music company, 24hz, and the paid service started on May 3rd [source].

• China's online -game market means business! 
• The country's online game market will reach 6 bil doll by 2010, accounting for half the global market, according to newly released report from Cnzz.com, a chinease data analysis firm.
• Country has 338 million web users
• 2/3 of these 338 milions, play online games (does this happen where you live??)
• Most games are free-to-play.

• The new interface for aiononline.com is trying to be funny. See the message produced when you try to access a non-existing web page [try]. "Fallen Into A Rift - The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request".

Click Pic to Enlarge

• Cool pic found online [source]. Zerg Inc!

Click Pic to Enlarge

5 Tips 4 Better Healing

An open letter to all new clerics - includes hints and tips for better healing!


Dear friend,

Welcome to the order. Here are some advices to help you get started.

1. Each of your (healing) skills mentions how much it heals.
Just hover your cursor over the skill's icon. For example "Radiant Cure I" says "heals a target by 925 hp".
This "925hp" mentioned is the base and minimum result.

2. Your healing is affected by your level.
In levels 10, 25, 40, 49 you (automatically) get a passive skill called "Boost Healing" which increases the base result. Thus you heal more than the base result, ie what the skill description mentions.

3. You heal better when you fly.
You heal 10% more hp when you fly. This is because of another passive skill called "Winged Recovery".

4. Your healing is not affected by your character stats, nor your magic boost.
No matter how high or low your base character stats (e.g. knowledge) are, they do not affect your healing. Thus stacking magic boost manastones will only help in damage dealing, not healing. The only number that does affect your healing is "healing boost" (not a base stat).

5. Your healing is affected by your healing boost.
Healing Boost (HB) is an attribute found in chain armour. The more HB you have, the better you heal. Some skills can temporarily augment your HB. Details:

• For every 10 HB, heals increase by 1% of the base result. This means 1000 HB doubles the base healing amount.
• Excellent HB FAQ by Kaden.
• So far (4/2011) there are no manastones to increase HB and no cap has been reached.

Lots of studying is also required!

Tip to stay in Silentera

You have rushed into Silentera (place) before the sieges start, thus making sure you will be able to access Beshmundir Temple (instance). However you want to go to dredgion too.. but that means you will end up, after dredgion, to your home town.

Problem: If you do go to dredgion, you might loose your Besh run.

Solution: Kill your Aion client when viewing dredgion results. This will return you to your original location.

Explanation: It seems that you are transfered to town after pressing the "OK" button in dredgion results. By killing the client, you avoid that step. You still get your AP, but when you relog, the game only remembers the last place you were - in this case Silentera - and re-locates you there.

 I am not sure it was a good idea revealing this bug. 

Now my friends will go even more often to dredgion. Darn!