Padd Solutions

Well no, not really but I did when Aion opened. A lot has happened in the last couple weeks. Avalon is of course the largest legion with the most Abyss points on our server. We hold a fortress which we defend nearly every evening. Aion doesn't work the same way that SRO does because it's faction vs. faction. We defend our own plus any other fortresses that are held by Elyos. That was three till last night. (I'll get into that later)

I leveled up to 38. That is not super high level but it's at the head of the curve. I am constantly distracted by the multitude of other things to do in this game. Crafting takes up my time every so often, gathering has to be maintained and Ive been kinda leveling my aether gathering up when no one is looking. I'm playing with the Broker, trying alternative ways to make kinah on other chars on my account. Ill make a post about it once I get some solid ideas.

Currently, the bane of my existence is KRALL MOLARS. Innocent little drops from Elite mobs that give blue gears. I want them all. Im leveling too fast in that area tho and I think you kinda outlevel the place around 42. Im getting closer.... Right around 35, till around 42 the game gives you grindy ways to get a full set of blue gear. While anyone can get the same gears, most throw up their hands in disgust at trying to get 100 or 150 krall molars or each piece (in a group that means you get 1 for every 6 mobs). I am determined. I have the pants cause I wanted them more than the shoes but the shoes and hands are next. The messed up part is you do it all over again in another area for blue jewelry. Right after that you do a campaign quest and get a blue helm. Viola, full blues.

So here are some screens from the last week. They start with an image from a cutscene I just thought was cute cause it showed the actual party (yeah, in order from L to R that is AkillerX, me, Spanktastik, Corrupt, KanjiX and Fly) and go through fighting in instances, fighting bosses, winning the fort, the Dredgion and some nice scenery.

Maire Gilmartin wrote:

Dear girlscangame,

You have an ad for evonvy on your blog. You might want to remove it
as its got a bad rep for being spam, the ads are also rather sexist.

I was going to ad a link and then I saw you use "retard", in one of your blog posts.
I wasnt going to mention it, but then I thought I might as well say something.
That word is pretty uncool to anyone with mental or disability issues, so its
not a good word to use if you want them as readers.

Have a good day
mer

Dear mer,

Im so sorry for offending you. Im glad that whatever your mental disability is, it doesnt prevent you from reading my blog. I wont be removing Evony ads, I like that game. I also think that the female body is quite nice and makes for great advertising. Just because one is a girl, doesnt mean one has to be a militant man hating feminist. Sexism only seems to bother ugly women in my experience.

-nightbloom

I think that we made the correct leap of faith, leaving Silkroad Online before that ship sunk completely and swimming over to the little tropical island of NCSoft's Aion. Avalon the legion is huge. We lead the Elyos in Abyss points and size and even if we weren't huge, the game would still be incredibly fun. I have leveled to 27 and been rifting, in the Abyss, done my first instance ever and been in Vent with 50 ppl.

While Silkroad Online wasnt my first MMO, it was close and it was the one I played the longest. I also experienced a lot of "firsts" in SRO. My first guild, made my first movie, made my first game site etc. The quest to recapture that first feeling is impossible. I have tried so many new games over the last 5 years, but after a week or so, the urge to play kinda dwindles and I ended back in SRO.

But Aion has been different. I havent even thought about SRO. I have made movies in Aion, written guides and read page after wiki page of information. I havent been this enthusiastic about a game since the 60 cap on silkroad Online. This game really has everything. I tried my first real instance where our group killed a raid boss and got a rare drop. I dyed my armor blood red to match my cape.  I climbed mountains like we did in the old days of SRO.  I PVPed for hours and hours in the enemy lands.  I have made so many new firsts and the game isnt even live yet!  So much of the fun of gaming had been drained out of SRO that I'd lost my grip on why we play at all.  SRO was about proving a point and die trying.  Aion is just pure fun.

A few former SRO people have followed me over and tried to bother me.  lol  I should take some screens and post them but I never remember to cause they always seem to bug me when I'm doing other things.  I hope that more SRO people leave that dead end game and come to Aion.   Even in SRO you cant have a guild the size of our Legion.  All are hardcore PVPers from other games like WOW and Warhammer.  New people are everywhere.  The game is beautiful and that really helps. Come join me on AionArena and check out Aion.

So usually cosplay isnt my thing... But I liked these images, I thought they were nice. This a professional cosplay group called "League of Vampires" from China. Enjoy!

Because our legion is a Ventrilo using legion and has been for many years, we get into great discussions that I wish I could record and share with the public. As anyone who knows me knows, I played Silkroad Online since it opened and recently quit because it is apparent that Joymax does not really care to solve the botting issue to anyone's satisfaction. There are now very few actual legits playing the game and I think that JM really has no reason to clean up. Their user base is nearly 100% botting and botters dont want botting to be banned. Joymax is so completely ignorant of the situation that we have incidents like this... [GM]Gargamel wears a bot company logo teeshirt at GNGWC '08

So here is a list of the reasons why Silkroad Online players specifically will love playing Aion Online and find it's style familiar.

1. Open PVP - While Aion does have an arena, it also has rifts and the Abyss. They give it a new name (PvPvE) and make it basically involuntary whether or not you want to be a target or not. You can and will be PKed by the other faction while you train. Silkroad had open PVP as well but with a penalty and using cape/jobsuits. Aion removes the conditionals and just lets you have a free for all. After level 25 you can train in the Abyss... actually both factions train in the Abyss at the same time. Think of the possibilities.... Korean gaming models own PVP.

2. Community - Because when you create a char on a server and it stays on that server for life, you always know the people you are fighting against and with. In the opposite faction, you get to know names and legions even if you cant understand what they are saying specifically. Friction is going to happen because the competition is open and encouraged. Sro also had that before the jobbing system was changed. You knew who was robbing you. In Aion, you know who is ganking you. You can see their name, look up their legion and see their stats. If you want revenge, there is another rift opening up somewhere....

3. Common Area Bosses - While there are some instanced bosses, most are just open. If you want to kill a named boss, you gotta camp him. In the Abyss, you have the aggravating factor of the opposing faction to deal with. Even in some instances, both factions can enter. In Silkroad Online competition for bosses was epic. Aion is the same way. Check out the description of "Dreadgions" here. Aion boss killing in the Dreadgion is like killing Medusa and everyone is in job suits.

4. Fortress - Aion has those. They are wild too and more than one per server. It's not just Elyos vs. Asmodians either, it's Elyos Vs. Asmodians vs. Balur. Yeah there is a third faction that is AI controlled. From what we understand, sometimes the Balur help you, sometimes they help them, sometimes they fight both. Reminds you of silkroad doesnt it? FACK MATHER! There are real bonuses for being the faction that owns a fortress too, not just sitting around collection money and fighting twice a month. You get access to a dungeon and special quests that come with it.

5. Death Penalties - Once you get high level in Silkroad dying becomes painful. You wince when you see that 5% loss because you know that it's gonna take you hours to replace it. Aion has that plus soul sickness wich means you can gain some of that lost XP back (not all) at a very stiff price. Why is this good? Because when someone does something dumb to get the party wiped, it's not just "oh well" and move on. There are real incentives to being on top of your game. You try not to die because it starts to hurt after a while. Earning money in Aion is hard!

6. Botters - Unlike SRO, there are none. That isnt familiar but it certainly is a reason Silkroad Online players will love the game. At least the old school legit ones.

7. Responsible Management - Aion has that. No absentee company that ignores you and feeds you form messages with heavy engrish overtones.

8. GMs - I have personally seen more than one of these in Aion and the game hasnt opened yet. I also have both CMs on my twitter. They actually RESPOND when you talk to them. No shit, it's true. GMs that are more than a pink message telling you that the server is going down for maintenance. O.. M.. G..

9. Queue Login - When the servers are crowded (and they will be for OB) Aion doesnt have a fake queue system that makes you wait for 5 hours or ask you to pay for a idiculously overpriced ticket to log on. They have a real queue system that counts down and gives you an ETA for login.

10. P2P - We all know that while Silkroad Online calls itself F2P it is in fact not. In order to be competitive, not have to grind for hundreds of hours at a time, pick up your drops and defend yourself in PVP you can easily spend $50 a month in silk. Aion costs $15 and that is all you have to pay. For $15 you are always on even ground with anyone else in the game. They have costumes you can buy at NPCs, res scrolls, reverse returns, etc and they are all obtainable with Abyss points or basically the more you PVP, the more speshul stuff you can buy.

In Silkroad Online legit players were choked out by the mechanics of the F2P, bot mecca atmosphere of the game. People who couldnt afford to pay real money for lots of silk were grossly overpowered next to those who could. Real players couldnt level in bot infested areas and botters didnt mind because they werent there to see it most of the time. The mass infestation of gold bots made buying gold both easy and cheap driving the market into a tailspin overpriced ridiculousness. New players cannot join the game and replace those who quit because as a legit quits playing (or playing legitly) he is instantly replaced with a botter and his or someone else's 20 goldbots.

Try Aion in the Open Beta on September 6th. If you dont already have a key, make an account at File Planet and try to win one.

It's been both boring and eventful lately. My cat got her first shots. She was a brave kitten and didnt bite or scratch ANYONE. I was impressed. My once Silkroad Online website is now completely devoted to Aion Online. That involved a lot of deleting (which I must say was TOTALLY difficult). I still have a lot of SRO resources that are up for grabs like a complete Wiki and all my silkroad renders and images Ive collected over the years (image kits). I'm not ever going back to SRO. I dont have it on my comp, I only saved a handful of screenshots. Its like getting a divorce. SRO and I have been together for 5 years but we've lose that lovin' feeling and it's gone... gone... gone... whoaoaoaoaoaw. (If you dont get it, watch this video)

We have organized a donation drive at Aion Arena. We used our first bunch of donations to get a Signature Generator. It's super easy to use and takes absolutely no skills at all. You can just generate text, drag and drop it where you want it on the backgrounds. There are 115 backgrounds and growing so everyone should be able to find something they like. Not everyone can make their own graphics so this is good for them.

I also made a new flash for the main page of the webiste. It has a story behind it too. I made one and didnt like it at all. It was my graphics and even I thought they were hideous but I had a creative drought. So I asked Fly about flashes or sites that he liked and after a few minutes of him sending me sites, he found some article about website trends. The number one trend is embossed lettering. So I read the whole article, noticing that big text and plain backgrounds are also a nice trend. I go online and look for a tutorial on how to make that embossed lettering. I find one, make the panels for my flash and get it up. The first thing that Cruor says, "It looks like the CS4 icons." I go and look at them and yeah, they do. MUTHAF****A! I dont care though, I like the flash and it's staying. ^^ Damn Adobe and their trend setting icons!!!

So we are all still sitting around starting at eachother, waiting for Aion to start back up again. It does so on the 6th of September. See ya on the Triniel server!

Here is a recent pic of Ferocia.... I took it about 5 minutes ago. I've compiled a complete web album of pics of her.

OMG Chaucer as a badass former angel kicking ass... Mean grandmas... Avenging angels... Biblical Horror... I am so watching this movie.



This film is directed by a first time director, Scott Stewart... who was a big deal with the visual effects house, The Orphanage - which did incredible work on films like SIN CITY, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, THE HOST, SUPERMAN RETURNS, the last two PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and IRON MAN. He also was the Digital Mastering Consultant on JACKASS: THE MOVIE. Odd credit, huh?