The Aion open beta kicks off on Sunday at 9 a.m. PDT and Producer Brian Knox has written a lengthy letter outlining all of the changes players can expect to see when they log in to try out the 1.5 patch. Knox begins his letter by explaining that the content for this patch is the same as the 1.5 patch that's available in Korea. However, the team just implemented a major terminology overhaul to help Westernize the game, so don't be surprised to see that many skills and items have changed.

Knox emphasized this is not the final update before Aion launches in North America on Sept. 22. The launch version is currently in internal testing. The open beta patch will include new areas, races, quests, default faces, UI changes and more. You can view the full patch notes here.

The team is still listening to feedback from players, so be sure to submit suggestions during the open beta. For example, fans asked that the left mouse button be used to change the camera, and this feature has been added in the update. You can read Knox's full letter below.

Hello!

Welcome to the Open Beta Test for Aion in both Europe and North America.

Below you will find a list of the major changes and additions to Aion since you last participated in our Closed Beta Test. We have done our best to provide a comprehensive list of changes. The Open Beta brings the game content up to the 1.5 patch that is available in Korea; the same updates that were made to the Korean live servers are being implemented here, as well. While there may be some differences when comparing the official NA/EU notes to fan site translations of Korea's official notes, the game content is the same.

Not only does Open Beta bring a number of game improvements and additions, you'll also notice that we had a major terminology overhaul to complete our effort of Westernizing the game. Many skills and items have changed since the Closed Beta Test and should be a welcome surprise as you explore the world.

While we feel the Open Beta version will provide a complete experience, we wanted to note that this is not our final update before launch. Our launch version is in internal testing, and it will continue to flesh out the 1.5 update with the help of your feedback and experiences in Open Beta.

Please remember this is an Open Beta Test, and while our goal is to provide you with a flawless Aion experience, there are behind-the-scenes infrastructure tests happening to prepare for launch. One very important area that will affect everyone is that we will be balancing races as folks rush to log into the servers. As a result, you may get a "This race cannot be created" message because that server is starting to become unbalanced. It's important to us that we try and keep a balance of the races during the Open Beta of Aion. If you come across this message, please feel free to try another server or wait until the server balance has tipped back.

Another hot topic has been our Web site and whether we will be bringing over some of the services that Korea has provided to their community. The short answer is yes! Just like the PowerWiki, we will be bringing some of these services to our own site. We hope to begin rolling them out in the coming weeks.

Overall, we are very excited for Open Beta - it is a culmination of a lot of effort and the feedback of our community. For example, one of the most requested features during Closed Beta testing was a suggestion to use the left mouse button to change the camera. We also added more content both in the persistent game world and in instanced dungeons. You'll see this change and many others were added in this game update, including:

1. New Areas: Theobomos (Elysea) and Brusthonin (Asmodae)
2. New Instances!
3. Over 40 new default faces have been added to character creation.
4. Increased PvPvE rewards
5. UI changes (click-to-move has been disabled by default)
6. New items!
7. New skills + increased balance
8. Tons of new quests.
9. Advanced Stigma Stone System
10. Chat Channels
a. Class
b. Region
c. Looking For Group
d. Languages

Find a full list of patch notes here.

With this update there is a lot of great content and a very fun world to explore, and we hope that during Open Beta you will experience the magic that is Aion.

Open Beta starts 9 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. BST, 6 p.m. CEST) on Sunday, September 6th.

Brian Knox
Producer, Aion