Aion: Assault on Balaurea Pets Exclusive Interview

12 Aug 2010 at 18:05:20 by Paul Younger

NCSoft are set to release Aion: Assault on Balaurea next month and one of new features coming to the game is the game's new pets.

NCSoft are to add five types of new pet to the game which can be acquired through questing or purchased through the NCSoft store. The new pets include the Companion which is simply a cosmetic pet, Signal which warns players of nearby enemies, Pack which adds more inventory space, Fortune which produces items, and finally Purebred which can provide multiple functions at once.

IncGamers caught up with  Dominic Wai, Aion European Brand Manager to find out more about the furry little blighters. We also bring you a few exclusive videos of the pets in action which can be found below the interview.

The new pet system coming in Aion: Assault on Balaurea brings new types of pets to the game with different ‘abilities’. Can you explain in a little more detail about the five different types of pets and what real benefits the Signal, Pack, Fortune and Purebred bring to the game.

Of the five the Purebred is especially intriguing, as it’s actually a pet with more than one function. There are several different varieties of Purebred, there are pets which alert you when they see enemies and help you store items. There are others that produce items as well as store them, as well as other combinations. The four other versions of pet either have only one function or are cosmetic.

100 pet slots are being allocated to players but so far we have seen a dozen or so different pets in action from the Korean servers. How often do you plan on adding new pets to the game?

We aren’t ready to disclose a schedule for pet releases, but we have exciting plans to use pets in a variety of different ways, such as the football playing Shugos that appeared on Korean servers during the World Cup. Lots of players enjoy collecting so we have provided lots of slots so they can compete with each other to build fantastic collections.

Pets will also be able to carry out emotes, how many on average does each pet have and do these serve a purpose or are they purely cosmetic?

Following on from the idle animations available for player characters, pets also display animations similar to this. Whether chasing an imaginary fly, rolling on their backs to have their stomach tickled or just wagging their tails intently, pets are sure to bring a smile to players’ faces.

While pets can be acquired via quests and in-game purchases, you also mention that pets will be available via the NCStore. Have you got a pricing nailed down for these and will all pets be available in the store?

We haven’t announced any prices for the exclusive pets on the NCsoft Store, but do remember that for the pets available from the store, there are also pets with similar function available in game. 

Will there be different quests based on each individual pet or will the same quests be used based on what type of pet you are looking for such as Pack, Fortune, Signal or Purebred.

Currently some of the pets are obtained from doing quests and we will be looking into expanding this further in the future. In a continually changing environment the game is updated on a regular basis. We have some exciting ideas about this but we don’t want to spoil the surprise!

Will pets that are included in the new retail SKU be exclusive to purchasers of the game at retail or will these also be available in-game at some point in the future?

The pet available with the new retail SKU will be available as an upgrade for current players via the NCsoft Store. Some exclusives will be available from the NCsoft Store in the future.

The pet system has already been seen in action on the Korean servers, and based on the experience so far, how much tweaking has had to be done to the pets system and what changes have been added or removed?

The pet system has been really well received in Korea and we’re looking forward to introducing it in the West. We are always keen to hear from our players and changes are implemented in future updates based  on this feedback.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about the pet system or the Assault on Balaure expansion that will get AION fans super excited?

We have introduced the new pet system to give our players something fun to collect and show off, whilst at the same time offering some very useful functions. The pets will be great companions to the players and we are sure everyone will find one to suit their tastes. Assault on Balaurea will be available for the public to test on the Public Test Servers from the 18th August and there will be more information available on the events page of our website during gamescom 2010.

Watch the IncGamers exclusive pet videos!

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