New Podcast Is Up

Hey everyone,

This is just a quick update post to let you guys know that the Epic Elyos Podcast, hosted by Sarc, Raim, and yours truly, is now up on Lagwar.com.

Just because I've moved to Multiplaying doesn't mean I've given up on Aion. :D  I want to thank everyone who has come by this blog, and I truly hope you'll follow along with me in my new adventures throughout the interwebz.

~Rer

Movin' On Over

To Scenic, Multiplaying.net!

Well Then... That Went Well

Grinding Sucks.

Alright Then... Let's Do It!

I'm gonna do it...
Nothing shall stand in my way...
I will succeed!
'ERE WE GO!
ITS BEGUN!

THIS IS IT!
ALL OR NOTHING!!!

I'm going to nonstop grind for the next two days!!!!

Wish me luck, and /pray for me, because Aion knows I'm going to need it....

Alright Then... Let's Do It!

Disclaimer~ "Non-stop" means whenever possible excluding real life crap.
Not a continuous 48 hour period.

/Ragequit

No, no, don't freak out.  I'm not quitting the blog.  I just found lonomonkey's post featuring the very overused yet still hilarious Aion version of Hitler's nerdrage to be pretty accurate of how I felt last night.

I went with the guild expecting to have some fun on Rer, only to get /facepalmed by the CrySystem.dll error (aka, memory leak when you render too many players/things) and subsequent crash.  To make matters worse, for whatever reason, my computer completely turns off when Aion crashes.  You can imagine this being a major pain in the butt when I have to reload Steam, Vent, Interwebz, Skype, etc. and then open Aion in Steam (I find communicating with people while playing important/pleasurable).  By the time I had logged back in, the Deity had already been slain.  As you can imagine, some waffling words were thrown about, and I then ragequit vent and crafted for a few hours.

(This is not to be taken as saying Aion is a bad game, simply for humor)

On the bright side, NCSoft does recognize the problem and has stated that they are working very hard to fix it.  They've been timely with issues that Aion has faced thus far, so heres to hoping they continue down that road.  Not to mention Eirikr getting some extra time to craft himself a few awesome armor sets for use later on (stacked w/ +crit! <3).

Sidenote~ If you're looking for me on Steam, I am now officially Rer.
First To Fall has been retired. *Taps is heard in the distance*

Off Topic: My Roomate, Vaksha

(Don't lost interest! Embarrassing shenanigans of Rer included!)

So, as some of you know, I'm in college.  My roommate, Vaksha, is a good friend I've mine that I've known for a few years now, and he also happens to be an aspiring filmmaker (Clichés Incoming!).  Honestly though, I really enjoy his films, and considering he was nice enough to mention my blog in one of his, I figure a cross promotion is without a doubt earned.  He used to make still motion Lego videos, but after taking a film class with me (yes, you can see my horrid acting, enjoy), and studying the profession, he has since moved onto vloging (is that a word? Video Blogging :P). Anyways, without further adieu, I give you his latest video, featuring yours truly... (keep in mind this is labeled Off Topic)

EXPLODING Chunky Soup!?

So evidently my blog is insightful... LOL.  I'm serious about the Podcast thing by the way, stay tuned for that. I also have a question for you guys, now that you've seen my face do you think you'll perceive my writing in a different way?

Sidenote~ I told him Fable 2's ending was bad, but did he believe me? Noooooo.

Getting Away From All The Hubbub

While I still love playing Rer, every now and then I just need to take a step back and get away from it all.  These days, the best place to do that is the starting zone.  Once known as the land of lag, where quest items were fought over in gladiatorial style combat, it has since calmed down and become quite peaceful.
I'm enjoying my time on Eirikr, my Warrior.  I'm fairly certain he will end up as a Gladiator, despite my curiousity of tanking.  This is mostly due to my hatred of slow grinding (if I'm going to be killing something for hours, said something is going to die fast).  Update: Totally decided to suck it up and roll a Templar.

Anyways, I guess the point of this post is to remember that getting to 50 shouldn't be a race.  Yes, I know that being one of the first may come with its advantages, but is it really worth it?  You should enjoy the time you spend leveling up your character, and if you find yourself growing frustrated or tired, just take a break.  There's nothing wrong with rolling an alt or taking a few days off from the game.  Your guild and friends will still be there when you get back, and it will do you a lot of good in the end.

Right on NCSoft

Take note Gaming Industry, because random apology gifts like these are very well received by your consumers.

Major kudos NCSoft, this is an awesome way to show that you care.  Also, (hope I'm not jinxing myself here) I haven't had any goldspam today! The new filter is definitely working as intended.

(Quick Update: Gah!  Now they're just doing it in [][][][][][][] instead of English!  Even so, its much less frequent.)

Waffling Ludicrous

I've been pretty chill about goldspam in Aion lately. The block feature is easy to use, and it only takes about 30 seconds to clear up my chat for my gaming session. That's tolerable, I can live with that. Then, of course, this shows up:

Then, for whatever reason, I just lost it.  I seriously just had a mental flip out.  Why the waffle should I have to remove past gold spammers from my Block List?  Why the waffle does the Block List even have a limit?!?!
I'm fully aware that NCSoft is aware of the situation, and they are actively working towards reducing the amount of gold spam in Aion.
So, in order to maintain my mental sanity (did I mention I'm also very ill, yet I still have to go to class/work, hence I have a slightly short fuse at the moment?) I've pondered a few small solutions that NCSoft could implement.
They won't fix the issue completely, but they'll sure as waffle make the ride easier:

1. If a Name Doesn't Have a Vowel, Auto-Boot: Fdhfg, Dgb, Htpg, Dfdfd, etc.  I think its fairly obvious that none of these people are real players, so why even let them play?
2. 50+ Blocks, World-Wide Auto-Block for 30 minutes: Yes, I'm aware that this could very easily be taken advantage of, but if someone blocks an innocent person, I wouldn't be surprised if they themselves were blocked out of spite.  So hopefully society would have the brains to not abuse this.
3. **No Limit to the Block List**: Until the goldspam is greatly reduced, its just dumb to have a limit to our Block List.  Give us at minimum, a three times longer list, if not infinite.
4. Remove Players Who No Longer Exist: If goldspammer X no longer uses character Y, please automatically remove it from my list so I don't have to bother doing it.

These are just a few steps that could really ease the burden on players. While most of us would love to see one ultimate BANHAMMER occur, I think it would be much wiser to destroy this issue in fast-paced incremental stages.  I'm sure everyone would be very thankful.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to eat some chicken noodle soup, take some medicine, and block some more gold spammers. X_x  MEDIC!

All Quiet on the Western Fort

As Bel describes, three days ago the Vaizel Asmodians took the to skies in full force. We managed to successfully capture our first Fort and morale was high. On Sunday, we grouped up once more and managed to actually take not one, but two Forts! /victory and /cheer ensued, and we all went to bed with a little more AP in our inventories. Monday morning, we woke up to:

Zomg the Balaur Ninja'ed Our Fort!

Though some weren't too happy about losing one of our Forts, personally I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I now have solid evidence to prove that the Baluar are a force to be reckoned with, and that they will be a key for balancing control between the Elyos and Asmodians later on.

When Aion's Fortress timetables were first announced I wasn't too pleased about it. However, now that some time has passed, I'm actually happy with the current system. While it may not allow for meaningful 24/7 Objective Based PvP Hotness, it does give players a big enough window to duke it out until they grow tired, after which it closes itself up to prevent ninja 3 A.M. Fort takes... unless you're the Balaur. It has a good balance between over-saturation (which leads to staleness and boredom) and drought (which leads to frustration of not being able to PvP).

Now, as you may have noticed, I've been somewhat lacking post-wise these past few days. Sadly, the RL faction has breached the Fort of Rer's Gaming Time, so I haven't had too much to write about. However, I do have a few interesting things to discuss later on this week. So while things may be quiet here at IAAN every now and then, never fear, for Rer is always here... or sleeping.

On The Road Again

Que classic song! While spending the weekend with my family traveling the Midwest and visiting different college football games, the thought dawned upon me... we travel a lot in Aion. I haven't actually bothered to record hard numbers, but it seems like a good 5-10 minutes of every hour is spent traveling.

At first I never really noticed (largely because I'm always multitasking with podcasts, vent [... and I just now realized I've had an open mic for the past 20 minutes... Waffle!], music, ... or writing blog posts lol), but we spend an awful long time (and large amount of Kinah) porting, flying, gliding, and walking from point A to point B. To make matters worse, one small slip up and you'll find yourself doing it all over again from your Obelisk point.

So the question arises, how do we allievate this problem? Lucky for us, we have a lot of options.

1. Make Friends with a Sorc: If you have access to Pandamonieum/Sanctum (via their portal), you can set your Obelisk/Return point to your leveling area, hence greatly reducing your graveyard run and travel time, without fear of being stranded or taking forever to get back to a major hub.


2. Town Scrolls: At first I wasn't really into these, because I didn't think they were worth their vendor cost. However, upon partaking in discussions with my guildies and trying a few myself, I've come to accept that the time (and portal costs) you save porting around with those scrolls is actually worth it.


3. Travel Sparingly: Once you arrive in a zone, stay there. Don't suddenly run back to Panda/Sanctum because you forgot to do some trivial errand. The longer you're able to stay in a zone and be productive, the more Kinah you'll save.


4. Don't Bind to Your Abyss Fort: There's no need to, and here's why. Its free to enter the Abyss from one of the major hubs, but it costs money to go to a hub from the Abyss. Sure, you'll lose 10 seconds having to fly into the portal (/gasp!) but the small amounts of Kinah you'll save will add up.

Well, that's about it for now. I would write more, but I'm dead tired and full of classic Chicago style pan pizza. If there's something that I've forgotten that you think is a good tip (which I'm sure there is), drop a comment!

Pro Tip: Don't try to turn your graphics up on a laptop that clearly can't handle it.
GO GO PHANTOM RER!!

Sidenote~ Anikka, what's up with Sin Healing? If you read this can you leave a comment or shoot me an email?

Buying Kinah Isn't Justifiable

As you've probably already read on Aionic Thoughts and AionSource, NCSoft is going to start taking a much more hardline approach to gold spam in Aion. Honestly, after reading this I was in a much more upbeat mood... but then of course I just had to read "that one post". The post that just really gets under your skin, and makes you want to deck the author. I'm not going to link it or reveal where I read it, but put simply it went something along the lines of this:

"I have a life and job. Hence, I can't afford to play Aion 24/7 like some people. That's why buying Kinah is justifiable and fair, because it allows me to catch up to those 18 year old d-bags."

Let's review shall we? "Its okay to purchase virtual currency because it reduces the gap between hardcore and casual players in a game." Yea... that's what I thought you said. Now then, before I explode in a righteous fury equivalent to 10,000 Abyss Cores, lets discuss why the above statement is absolute bullwaffle.

First and foremost, you're playing a MMO. You're expected to only receive as much as you are willing to give. Buying gold doesn't just magically level the playing field, it completely skews it in one direction. Not to mention, it goes against the very purpose of a MMO, which is to live a life as your character. You don't see me magically obtaining money out of thin air in real life do you? So what makes that suddenly acceptable in a MMO? Nothing, that's what.

Second, you're hurting other player's experiences. How can you be okay with "buying 1337 gear and pwning faces" or "jacking up your server's economy because you can afford to". It isn't fair to other players to have to live with you're cheating ways. You're having a direct detrimental effect on other player's enjoyment. How would you like it if I farmed your waffle 24/7 in the Abyss just because I had better gear that I didn't even work for?

Third, in the end, you're cheating yourself. I hate to say this, but I actually feel sorry for the people who buy gold. They're the ones who won't ever feel the sense of accomplishment that we true gamers feel. They won't be able smile and reflect upon all of their hard work when they finally max out their crafting or get that one last piece of gear.

Finally, I have living proof that disputes this statement. Check by Multiplaying or go ask other honest casual gamers who have lives and jobs of their thoughts on buying kinah. I can say with 100% certainty that not a single one will tell you its justified. Buying gold because it lets you catch up in a game so you can play with people who actually worked and earned their waffle doesn't make you a gamer. It makes you a parasite, one that I intend to squash as much as possible mind you.

So... what're your thoughts about buying Kinah reader? (I promise I won't explode in your face if your thoughts are different than mine :P)

Benchmarks!

Just a quick little status report of (Insert Awesome Aion Name).

Thus Far I've Had:

Posts: 50 (This one being the 50th)

Visits: 5000! (2,835 of them being unique visitors. Not bad!)

Visitor Loyalty: Min: 1 Visit, Max: 200+ Visits!

Average Time Spent Here: 2 Minutes (Longest: 10 min, Shortest: 1 sec)

Langauges: 41 (Meaning I've had visitors from 41 unique langauges)

I know this is really nothing all that interesting to read, but I really do appreciate everyone who stops by this little blog o' mine. As always, I want to give a big thanks to all of the different blogs and sites that have links to mine, because they are still the backbone of my blogging "success" (if that's what you want to call it). If you take the time to visit my blog, perhaps you could squeeze a few more minutes out of your busy schedule to visit some of the newer ones that have popped up recently such as Aionic Times, Screaming Monkeys, Stunning Shot, and Winged Rage (the list just keeps on growing ^_^). Also, moar comments plz!! Kthxbai!!

Aether, Makin' It Rain and Making You Sleep

Today I'd like to discuss Aether. So let's start off with a brief explanation of what Aether is. *Ahem* As per the Aion Wiki: "Aether is the substance Daeva's need to obtain the ability of flight. It stems from the god Aion, and is also the power source of the Empyrean Lords."

Aether is also a core necessity of all the crafting professions in Aion. Potions, Armor, Weapons, Accessories, Food... hell, Aether probably has more uses than the Peanut.

Aether Collection Ranges:

Aether Powder 1-75

Aether Crystal 100-175 (High-Grade Available)

Aether Gem 200-275 (Greater and Pure Available)

Aether 300+ (High-Grade, Pure, and Brilliant Available)

In order to obtain Aether, Daeva's simply need to look up in any Flight Accessible Zone. Most zones tend to contain Aether in about a 75-125 level range. (In other words, 1-75, 25-100, 75-175, 175-300, etc.) Now, with the magic of bullet points, let's discuss the Pros and Cons of farming Aether.

Pros:

• Aether is always needed, so there is always a buying market for it.

• Since everyone needs Aether, you can make friends fast by sharing it.

• Its easy to do, and allows the player to perhaps multi-task. For example, I watch TV on Hulu while farming Aether frequently.

• Its a great way to help you sleep.

• You may find yourself meeting new people in chat, simply because you have nothing else better to do.

Cons:

• Watching paint dry is a step up on the Fun Ladder.

• The market for Aether is extremely volatile. Prices are constantly in flux and undercutting is rampant.

• Common mistakes (aka, death) can cut into profits.

So, with all of that in mind I figured I'd also give a few quick tips .

1. **Don't Overextend Yourself** - You don't have to have that one last Aether! Don't risk dying, play it smart and land safely. I can't tell you how much Kinah I've lost just from telling myself "Oh I can get this last one".
2. Don't Stop Gathering Non-Skill Ups - Even if it isn't raising your skill, its definitely raising your kinah!
3. Flight Pots, They Are Your Friend - Plan on taking some of your hard earned Aether and turning it into flight pots. These will be very handy and will actually, in the end, increase your profits by helping you maximize your flight time efficiency.
4. You Don't Have To Sell Right Away - If the market for your level of Aether sucks, don't sell! People will buy it all up eventually, allowing you to sell your Aether at a good price. Just sit tight and wait for the market to improve.
5. Sell In Reasonable Stacks - Its easy to have a lot of Aether in your bag, get lazy, and just post it all at once. Don't. Keep your Aether in reasonable stacks of 5, 10, or 15 so it is easily affordable for your buyers.

In conclusion, farming Aether is necessary, can make you rich, and is boring as waffle. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm rather tired. Time to go farm some Pure Aeth...Zzzz.

The Truth is Revealed... Kinda!

So, today I hit up my first major Fortress assault... and then crashed 30 seconds later. After about seven tries, I finally realized that my computer just couldn't render all of those people. (Easily 100+) I started to think of WAR and became worried... until Aion saved the day once more!

Thanks to an awesome tip from a guildmate (might have been Bel?), I learned that if you press (Shift + F12) you can make it so no characters render other than people that are directly in your group. At first I was apprehensive towards this because I could no longer see my enemy. However, after about five minutes I was used to the adjustment. Name tags will still appear, so if you click where their hitbox would be, you select them. It wasn't perfect, but it did allow me to enjoy endgame PvP without any lag or further crashes, well worth the slight inconvenience.

As for the Fortress itself, I found it enjoyable. Despite the big numbers, it was still possible to pick off strays and enjoy some small PvP within the large battle itself. I have to admit though, my favorite battles were the Open World Abyss fights afterwards. Our guild flew from pigeon point to pigeon point, picking off loose ones here and there. If we stayed in one location long enough, a good flock or two of pigeons would show up, resulting in a fairly major battle. I really enjoyed myself today, despite being easily the most killed (I wasn't known as Firstto Fall in WAR for nothing <3).

So, in conclusion:

• How have your Fort raids/defenses gone?
• Have you been forced to Shift + F12 yet? If not, are you going to use it now? (Remember that if you just press F12 your UI disappears, so don't be alarmed by that. Simply press F12 again.)
• Do you prefer Objective Based fights or Open World?

Go Hug A PuG

I'm not going to go into too much detail about about how bad Aion's community is at the moment. Overly Positive, Recherché, and Sin Healing have already hit the nails on the douchewaffle's head, and hence I'd just be over saturating the "wow this game is full of e-peen jerkoffs" posting environment.

All I'm going to say is that if the game's community is really "that bad" (which in some cases, I'll agree that it is), you have to do something about it. You can't just sit on the sidelines going "man that guy is a douche, I wish General chat didn't suck waffles". You have to risk getting involved if you want to see a positive change.

Some noob ask a noobish question? Some one else flame him for it? Completely ignore the waffle and answer the noob politely and with as much detail as possible in General chat. The noob will more than likely thank you, upon which other noobs will realize that someone is willing to help them. They will then in turn ask their questions. You need to answer again, pro-activity is the key in these situations. If you show people that you actually give a waffle about their problems, then they will feel appreciated and welcomed. That is how you create a positive gaming community. You don't feed the flamers, you just ignore them until people finally get that magical *bonk* on the head that being a jerkoff doesn't solve anything, and they also ignore the flamers. Eventually, the flamers will have no reason to flame because no one will care, or they will be looked down upon.

I'll openly admit I'm not perfect. I've had my fair share of hatorade rants and insult spewing fests. The important thing is to minimize them, apologize for them, and learn from them. These few posts I've mentioned aren't going to magically destroy the Barrens Chat that is currently residing within Aion, but they are cornerstones upon which you, and only you, can build.

The Power of Music

Today's article was supposed to be about how once you reach level thirty, the game becomes somewhat grindy. I was going to title the article "Face, Meet Brickwall" and have a funny picture of my character falling to his death onto a stone surface.

I can no longer physically or psychologically write that post. Please, listen to this song as you read to attempt to understand where I'm coming from. Hell, reading this post while listening to this song is practically an insult, my words aren't worthy of accompanying such brilliance.

I just came back from seeing Tommy live, and I literally can't describe how I feel other than "Holy waffle, I just had my mind blown at least three times in one sitting. This man just en-captured almost every genre of music with only a guitar and amplifier right before my eyes." Now then, you're probably thinking "That's great and all... but this relates to Aion... how exactly?", an excellent question.

When it comes to MMOs, unlike most people I tend to keep the in-game music on (unless I'm grinding up into the wee hours of the night). I try to analyze what sort of mood the music is trying to set, because it helps me get more immersed within the game. Sadly, some games (and I'm sorry for beating the dead horse here but...) like Warhammer (again, sorry) just don't have good music to listen to. That really depresses me, because I deeply enjoy listening to the "musical thoughts" of the game's creators. Now, insert Aion.

Aion's soundtrack is overall very well composed. Each zone has its own tone created by the music, which in turn helps me set the mood for when I am reading quests, following story lines, and battling. For example, the song Magma & Beast gives me that urge to slay some Baluar and Pigeons. I think about why the Asmodian's are fighting, and I remember to show no mercy. Images of armies, slaughter, and great glory pass through my head. Its music like this that I'm referring to, music that moves you emotionally, and Aion has it in spades.

Its through the power of music that I can overcome any obstacle or annoyance in Aion. That's why I'm not currently griping about how I have 1.4 million experience to buy back. That's why I'm not disturbed at how many mobs I'm going to have to slay to level up. And, that's why I'm writing this post (well that and I'm currently high on inspiration from Tommy).

Sidenote~ Here are a few other fantastic songs by Tommy, definitely give them a listen.

Angelina (A song dedicated to his youngest daughter)

Beatles Medley (Note how he plays the two different parts of Day Tripper on one guitar, make sure to also watch the Here Comes the Sun link.)

Classical Gas (Just plain awesome)