With Aion's first birthday taking place today, we decided to sit down and chat with Producer Chris Hager about the game's latest expansion, Assault on Balaurea, and their plans for the future!

ZAM: What about in terms of development schedules? NCsoft appears to be following the pattern of releasing massive content updates every four to five months; can we expect more of that style in the future, or will there be smaller updates scheduled from now on?

Hager: Creating and producing content can be a time consuming effort, especially depending on the focus of that content.  Sometimes updates take longer than expected because the overall focus of the update is different.  With the 1.9 update in June for example, the focus was on improving the current game experience, which meant inserting daily quests and adjusting drop rates, fixed in game costs and XP within the existing content.  This update required more back end system adjustment and not as much in terms of creating and testing new zones, art assets, etc.  With Assault on Balaurea the focus was on new content (new zones, instances, pets, etc) which required extensive new assets, items, zones, bosses and new back end coding as well.  Providing players a healthy balance of tweaking existing content (1.9 update) and brand new content (Assault on Balaurea) each year is a good goal to have. 

ZAM: These days, with the release of pets in the NCsoft store, it seems like the Aion Team is getting prepped to really use that store to its fullest potential. Are there any plans to bolster the NCsoft store with anything else other than pets in the near future? Perhaps cosmetic clothing or wings?

Hager: We're always looking to provide fun items that also give some added value to players.  With the addition of pets into Aion, we saw a great way to offer some unique pets you wouldn't normally get in game.  The response to selling pets on the NCstore has been very positive, and we're looking at what other types of items we can put on there that would help the players to have fun in game without selling something that would be game altering.

ZAM: One thing players have been wondering about is the level cap in Aion. Are there plans to further push it up to, say, level 60 or level 70 in the future? Should players expect every major expansion, like Assault on Balaurea, to come with a level cap raise?

Hager: Every major expansion like Assault on Balaurea will bring something new to Aion that engages and challenges our players.  I can't talk about future level changes, but I can say that players can expect us to constantly raise the bar with regard to new and exciting content with each expansion.

ZAM: A controversial issue that came with Assault on Balaurea was the new changes to the rifting system - namely, the protective buffs that players gain on their 'home turf' in the lower level zones, as well as an increase in the number of guards. Why do you feel this change was necessary, and will there be further modifications to rifting in the future?

Hager: The rifting changes are something we are monitoring very closely among all of our communities.  The initial change for AoB was made to counteract a lot of the griefing issues players experienced throughout this past year.  With the 1.9v update last June, there were some slight changes made but that wasn't enough to combat the overall griefing issue.  With AoB some more dramatic changes were put in place, and to date we have a healthy debate on our forums of positive and negative responses.  We are gathering feedback and will be working with the development team directly to make sure that we're on track and keeping rifting fun and engaging but limiting potential griefing.

ZAM: We all know how much everyone loves their pets, and we're sure that there are dozens of pets just waiting to be released. Could we get any hints as to what future pets will be coming, or if there are any new pet types that might be in development right now?

Hager: Funny you mention that...  Jiho Lee from the overseas development team was here in Seattle recently for PAX and we were discussing what changes are coming to pets.  He said that he's looking into different functionality for the pets (some of which sound very cool but I can't say what they are) as well as additional unique looking pets.  Needless to say, the introduction of pets was just the beginning, and we will be seeing some great additions to the pet system in future updates.

ZAM: And that's all we've got for this time around! Thanks a lot for sitting down to chat with us about Aion's latest expansion, Assault on Balaurea, and the future of this wonderful game! Happy Birthday Aion! Here's to hoping for many more years to come!

Hager: Thanks for having us!  We're thrilled with the response our players have given us with Assault on Balaurea and can't wait to bring bigger and better to Aion in the next year!

And that's all for now, folks! If you have any questions that you'd like to see answered in our next Q&A with the Aion Team, be sure to drop a comment below to let us know!