Beta Event #5 - Part 1

Howdy doody, folks! My apologies for getting this blog for the 5th Aion Closed Beta event out to you so late. The event has been over for a couple of days now, but I've been lax on updating you on the NEW COOLNESS I experienced this past weekend. Because I was focusing more on gameplay this weekend (as opposed to picture taking), this update will not be broken up by days ... but by parts. There will be two parts - each part consisting of about 70+ pictures. :O) I hope you enjoy it!

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SO ... my original goal for Beta Event #5 was to get my main toon (Maladhiel, Mage, Spiritmaster) up to level 20 (minimum). But ... plans change. I didn't really feel like playing my gal Friday evening (day #1 of the event), so I created a new character.




Hello, my name is [INSERT NAME HERE], and I'm an Alt Addict.

Hi, [INSERT NAME HERE].



This is my Asmodian Warrior - Malarwen. Say hello, Malarwen.



"Hello."

You can't hear it, but voices have GONE LIVE for this beta event. What do I mean by the voices having gone live? They've finished (or mostly finished) the voice-overs for the game so we got to hear them speaking English for the first time. I made her sound sultry-sexy. :O)



Why did I decide to create a new toon? Well, I figured that I should probably sample all of the classes before the game goes live in September ... so I could get a better idea of what kind of character I want to play.



Heh ... burning bush. :O))



As you can see, I enjoyed taking pictures of Malarwen from behind (for some odd reason). I guess I just wanted perspective shots (her looking at something and us seeing what she's looking at ... but still getting her in the shot cuz I like her outfit).



Have I yet mentioned that I love the graphics for this game?



Well, I do. Here's a better shot of that Obelisk you can click on in certain towns to bind yourself to. So ... when you die, this is where you end up rezzing. It costs you money to change your bound point. I think the higher your level, the more it costs.



*blinks innocently*

So ... I didn't play Malarwen for very long on Friday evening. Last week was a real bitch to me ... wore me out something fierce. So ... I actually went to bed early Friday. When I got up at 7:30 AM Saturday morning, I was in the mood to play with Maladhiel. Hence ... the sudden change in characters. :OD)) And no. I did NOT start playing Aion at 7:30 AM Saturday morning. I started at around 9:30. :O))



So when I started playing her, she was teetering between level 17 and level 18 (about 3/4 of the way through level 17). *claps*




One of the quests she completed sent her back to Pandeamonium where this dude made this announcement ... basically taking credit for her work. *grumbles*



But the Kinah she earned got her this nice new orb for her magicks! It's BLUE!!



This room is pretty darn empty.

This next series of shots are something that I wanted to try to show to you all. In this game, when you allow your toon to take the "public transit" system (a.k.a. Flight Transportation), it's not like in most MMO games where you allow your toon to ride some kind of mount and it takes hoof or wing to wherever you need to go ... and they pretty much follow a trail and the only way you can change the camera view/angle is to move your mouse as you're auto-running/flying. Not so in Aion. When you travel by this method, you are swooping and diving and all sorts of other awesome movements that if you tend to get motion sick by watching movies/videos, you might want to close your eyes if you play this game. :O)) So ... without further ado, here are the shots:














I LOVE IT!! My pictures, however, do NOT do it justice! :O)



Absorb that vitality, Mal!



Maladhiel by fire light. :O))




For some reason, this reminds me of something Lord of the Rings-ish. :O))



A different kind of burning bush sits behind Mal. :O)



Can you see her breath? :O)




Do you see this greenish glow around Mal? This is what happens when your character earns DP up to level 1. Just let your SOUL GLOOOOOOOW!! ;O) (For all you "Coming to American" fans. *LOL*






Erm ... yeah. That is Maladhiel. One thing I can say about this form - it's USELESS!! You move slowly along the ground (as opposed to in the sky). You can't do any neat combat moves when you attack. And ... well ... it SUCKS!! >:O( It was nice to transform for a bit, but it's really only cosmetic. >:O( She won the ability to transform twice from completing a quest. Bah. It would be so cool if it did something AWESOME. But alas.



Sitting in a tavern ... glowing. :O)



This guy looks familiar ... but it's not the same guy as was in the newbie area. Same face template I think. So ... Mal is currently standing in a zone that has mobs upon mobs upon MOBS. It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to solo this area. I was informed that it was only going to be this bad for the beta ... but ... I dunno. Mal died here ... a LOT.



But they shore haz some purty flow'rs. :O)




DP level 2, ladies and gents!!



That's a water spirit that belongs to some other character. What is Mal doing, you ask? She is currently in that zone that has all those ELITE mobs I was just muttering about. She followed a group in to mainly earn XP (cuz for some reason, if you battle with a group, even if you aren't grouped, you earn XP if you hit the creature even once). She actually managed to complete one of two quests in this region before she died a horrific death (since the group basically abandoned her ... being under no obligation to stay with her while she tried to complete the second of the 2 quests). I don't blame them. They hung around me long enough I guess.



*blinks*



*blinks* *blinks*

What?




This is Ladybihiya, my Elyos Warrior. After I took a break on Saturday and came back, I decided to log into Vent for the first time to talk with the folks I will probably be joining a legion with come launch. My original plan was to continue leveling Maladhiel, who reached level 19, but they mentioned they'd started new toons on a different server to accommodate those who couldn't make toons in the other server we were running around on. SO ... I figured I would make an Elyos toon, too, so I could join them (mebbe).

This next series of pictures is the new prologue you see when you finish creating your toon. This prologue was not in the previous events. It explains things a bit better about how your character ended up where he/she ended up in the beginning. Bear with me while I show you the few shots I took:












Sorry for the picture quality. They don't do the cut-scenes justice. Nope they don't. The last shot is of LadyB waking up in the newbie area.



And here she is. Ain't she purty?




And definitely a warrior chick in all her chain mail.




I found this really funny. This person's toon (I think) was stuck in this position. He became unstuck after a time, but it was still funny. It reminded me of those "live statues" that you see in places like London. :O)



Remember how I said I had failed to capture a good shot of my male toon Gokuu playing the flute to wake the elder trees? Well, I managed to get a good shot with LadyB. :O)



Here's another glitched character. He kept glowing like that ... and when he moved, he didn't move so much as glide ... arms crossed ... in that exact same position. :O)




LadyB in her new armor.




You see that cape? That cape signifies that I am now a member of a legion (a.k.a. guild). :O)) It's an automatic thing you receive. I thought it was pretty cool. I think once your legion reaches a certain level, and your toon reaches a certain level, you can change that cape a bit so it doesn't look like that of all the other legions (which is what it looks like now - like all the other legions).





WOohoo! It's time for LadyB's first flashback! :O))







Hmm ... I guess the Elyos wings look much better on LadyB than they did on Gokuu. *nod*

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Part 2

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