Greetings Daevas,
My name is Nyoka and I’m the Product Manager for AION Classic in Europe. This version of the game has been an exciting and challenging project for us from the very beginning, as we were dedicated to ensuring that AION Classic offers a smooth and entertaining experience for our players. While there were a few initial hiccups, we have managed to overcome most of them and we now see thousands of players enjoying their adventures on the servers. Your positive feedback about the game so far makes us very proud, and we will continue doing our best to provide everyone with the best experience possible!
In this post, we want to give you a recap of the state of the game since the launch, and more importantly, share with you all a very exciting preview of what we have planned for AION Classic for the rest of the year.
With the coming updates, we intend to inject plenty of variety and fun, making sure there’s something new for you to explore every few weeks.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s take a brief moment to look back over the story so far:
The AION Classic Launch – A Little Success Story
The server was launched following a slight delay on 25th April 2023, as we needed some time to fix a few initial technical issues arising from the complicated interface between the NCSoft and Gameforge platforms. We also wanted to make absolutely sure that we could accommodate the large number of players who had been so eagerly awaiting the game’s release.
Immediately after launch, we suffered some login issues and DDoS attacks. Even though the login issues were swiftly resolved by our support team, we have seen an increase of DDoS attacks in recent days, sadly affecting our players’ user experience in a negative manner. However, the AION Classic team has been working hard (even over the holiday weekend!) with our studio’s tech security team as well as with external partners, and we will continue to work hard every day to provide you with as smooth and unrestricted a gaming experience as possible.
Despite those two topics, the AION Classic launch in Europe went so well, that shortly after the launch of the Atreia server, we had to open up the Tahabata server to meet the burgeoning demand. We’re very proud of the fact that there are now two well-populated servers out there, both exhibiting a surprisingly healthy balance of Elyos and Asmodians!
Roadmap 2023 – What to Expect This Year
There’s plenty more exciting content lined up for you this year, that much is certain! But before we go over the details, we’d like to briefly explain our thought processes:
In future you can look forward to updates shaped by the contents which the players in Korea are enjoying. We also want to tweak that content so that it always meet the needs of our players.
Our roadmap for 2023 is therefore designed to have a decent balance, providing us with enough time to put each new version through its paces. Nevertheless, we still want to ship the content as early as possible, so the pixels are still fizzing by the time they reach you on the servers.
Please note that some of the names mentioned below may not be final and are subject to change. We’ll announce the exact release dates for each of the updates in due course in separate posts or on social media.
Summer 2023: Classic 2.0
Slated for the end of July, this update will raise the level cap for your heroes to 55. In addition to new gear, you’ll find more levels available for crafting and gathering skills. The update will also see the reintroduction of some well-known and beloved PvE and PvP instances:
New level cap 55:
- additional gear
- additional crafting skill levels
- additional gathering skill levels
New regions with Inggison and Gelkmaros
PvE instances:
- Udas Temple
- Lower Udas Temple
- Beshmundir Temple
- Taloc’s Hollow
- Upper Abyss instances
- Esoterrace
PvP instances:
- Chantra Dredgion
- Tiak Research Base (6v6)
Autumn 2023: Classic 2.4
In September we’ll further expand the selection of popular instances, with something for both PvP and PvE fans to get their teeth into. You can also look forward to some new weapons for dishing out the punishment:
- Liberated Beshmundir Temple
- Abyssal Splinter
- Arena of Glory
Late 2023: Classic 2.5
No chance of things cooling off this winter, with both brand-new instances and old favourites being released on the servers:
- Solus Eris
- Deathly Chamber
- Crucible Challenge
- Padmarashka’s Cave
Doubtless you’re as excited as we are about the upcoming updates, as this year still has plenty of thrilling new content to offer. We’d like to once again thank everyone for helping to make the AION Classic launch a fantastic experience for all involved. Your feedback is very important to us – please keep it up!
See you in Atreia!
Nyoka & The AION Classic Team