Aion: Hands On Preview Part Four - Page 2

11 Aug 2009 at 15:19:13 by Bill Vaughan

Unlike other MMOs, in Aion your character can learn all the crafting professions in the game. You automatically learn the two extracting professions, but you can learn Armoursmithing, Alchemy, Weaponsmithing, Sewing, Cooking and Handiwork. A quest to craft simple items starts off each profession, then further crafting increases your skill. When your character reaches a certain level of proficiency they can learn new crafting skills. As with the application of Mana Stones etc, if you fail while creating an item, all the materials are lost. This can be a costly error, so be sure not to aim too far above your ability.

When it comes to trading, there are a fews ways to sell on your goods. You can simply sells to vendors and, as mentioned before, you can use the Trade Brokers in towns and wait for your items to sell while you continue questing, or log off for a while. People go to the brokers to browse through goods for sale by others, so be sure to put your items up at a reasonable price compared to others for sale, or no one will buy them. The other option is to set up your own Private Store. You'll often see characters sitting in busy places under a banner selling their wares. Click the character and choose to view their Private Store to check out what they're offering. The benefit of selling your goods like this is that there is a better chance other players will see your items instead of having to trudge through everything on offer at the Trade Brokers. You can shout out what you're offering while sitting at your private store, or set up your toon with some snappy sales pitch to repeat once in a while, and go make dinner, leaving them to sell the goods alone. Place your character at arrival points or busy spots for best results.

Cities are also good places to find other nice items sold by vendors. Characters in Aion have a recall option with a 20 minute cooldown which takes them back to a saved location, but you can also purchase recall scrolls that zaps them to major towns around Elysea or Asmodae. Other consumable items are available such as scrolls for faster movement or longer flight time, food and potions that give buffs, and Odella Powder that is used in the health and mana recovery spells.

I've probably put around 10 hours into my main character so far in Aion, and at level 13 he's just starting to discover all that trading and professions have to offer. There's certainly no lack of things to do in the game at this point, and the professions are interesting and beneficial enough to keep me interested. Next week I'm gong to crack on with levelling to see what else gets thrown at characters as they progress. So far there's been so sign of instances or PvP, or any need for joining a group, but with a fresh zone lined up before me I'm pretty hopeful!

Don't forget to check out our interview with Aion's associate producer Lani Blazier which we published earlier today, and if this is the first on our Aion previews you've seen, find the others here:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

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