This post is back-dated to keep it off the front page.
In May of 2018, there are were problems installing Aion from NCSoft.
A couple of days ago, I tried a clean install on another computer and got the same error. When you try to “report the error” you get another error, probably because the Launcher / Updater can’t reach the web page to report the error. Woops.
Update: I just completed a clean install and it worked without error. Looks like they fixed the problem I saw two days ago.
So here are the steps to install Aion from NCSoft from scratch, and how to get around this problem if you encounter it. We can hope that they fix the install soon so that this error is not encountered. I mention “Aion from NCSoft” since there are private servers out there. I’ve tried one of them, but I’m not suggesting you install Aion from a private server.
Install Aion from NCSoft
Start by making yourself an account on the Aion Online website. You’ll need to type the account email and password into the launcher, so use a password that is easy to remember and type, not one created by your Password Manager.
After you fill out the form to create an account, the website will send you an email to authorize your account and your IP address [ The Public IP address not the IP address your computer has on your private network. ], once you have read the email and copy / pasted the code from the email into the website to authorize the account, you can log into the account.
In the list of games on the account settings page – pull down the My Account pull-down at the top right of the screen – you will see Aion. Do not worry about the subscription. They would like to have you buy a subscription, but the game is completely free to play. This is not a trial. You have the complete game available to you. There is an online game store of course, and the subscription gives you some benefits that make leveling faster, but, trust me, the game is fun to play and you will level quickly up to at least level 20, where I have played, without any paid benefits. For example, at level 9, you Ascend, and are given level 50 gear, which you can wear immediately. So you will be playing like a level 50 player from level 10 onward. And the gear is stylish silver too. More on creating your characters and beginning game play later.
Once you start the installer, you’ll see a series of screens.
I suggest that you choose another place to install the program rather than using the default:
If you have a second SSD in addition to your system drive, you may want to put Aion there. Aion will take about 32GB of space but requires about 65GB during the install process. They could have unpacked the files a little at a time and avoided this. So watch out if you are tight on space on the installation drive [SSD recommended of course].
And then you’ll see another series of screens as the installer updates. Then the launcher runs itself and you see these screens. You’ll need to log in with the account you created.
Windows Defender Exclusion
Now it’s time to make some changes to Windows Defender so that it will ignore Aion files and not scan them for malware.
Type “Windows Defender Settings” into the Cortana search box at the bottom left of the screen – No, your other left. This brings up a panel. Follow the screens to set an Exclusion for a folder for the NCSoft folder.
Now you can log into the launcher and install the game:
This is going to take a long long time to complete the install. You’ll see a page that asks you to enter the code that was sent to your email to authorize this public IP address for your account. If your public IP address changes you’ll see this message again and another email will be sent to your email.
At some point the button on the bottom right of the dialog will change to BLUE and say Play Now. The install is not complete, but apparently enough of the game has downloaded to allow you to create a character and play. I have not tried this. I’ve always waited until the install completes. Somewhere along the way the button will change to “Install Game”. This is pretty confusing. You can play before it’s installed? I have no clue what’s going on. But if you wait until the end, then use “Install Game” it will work. At least after you fix the problem below, if you see this error. Â Update: this bug was fixed.
If along the way you get this, as I mentioned above, then there is a fix.
Shutdown the launcher. You may get some errors along the way. Just ignore them.
Download this fix, rename the NCSoft/Aion/objects folder to “objectsbad” for example and unzip the fix zip archive to the NCSoft/Aion/ folder to create a working objects folder, and then restart the launcher and let it complete. If you don’t see the error, don’t worry about and just play the game.
Looks like this fix is old news. The install I just did worked just fine.
Factions in Aion
There are three factions in Aion.
You can play as Asmodian, the dark, and Elyos, the light. Balaur is not a playable faction. You can only create characters of the same faction on a server. So once you select a faction on a server, you are stuck with that faction on that server. So if you want to play “With” rather than “Against” your friends you need to choose the same factions on the same servers as they do. I have chosen:
| Faction | Server |
| Elyos | Katalam |
| Asmodium | Danaria |
If you make a mistake, you need to delete characters and start over. Or pay to transfer your characters between servers. It costs about $20US to transfer a character between servers.
Character Names and Creation
Here are some pages that give you ideas for names for your characters. Character names are basically only the first name. You can use a leading capital letter. Some folks don’t do that, it seems. But the leading capital is preserved. Perhaps other capitals are preserved as well. I have not looked up the exact rules for character names. Here are some lists of interesting names to consider.
I have no idea where this fellow got these names or what rules they follow, but I would rather use names like these rather than names with contemporary references that break the style of the game. I usually take ideas from lists like these and then make up something like them. I found many of these names are taken.
The character creator is quite functional and you can make beautiful or ugly characters of your choice. There are way too many hairstyles and other choices, and the body part size sliders are more functional than you would expect.
Update:
Cosmetic Issues
For Asmodian characters, unless you want a tail clipping through your gown or armor, find and uncheck the “Mane” choice which is a “Tail”. No choices on how the tail looks, but you may not want it dragging through your armor.
Also, be sure and set some lipstick. Especially for Asmodians, you look like the Undead with no lipstick and they don’t default to having any.
Here is before and after the $10 plastic surgery to fix the hairstyle and add some lipstick. Also, make the eyes lighter, and chest smaller in the character customization screen since they look darker and larger in-game.
Characters Per Account Limited to Eight
Update: Oddly enough, you can create no more than 8 characters total on an Aion account. And there is no way to buy more character slots. Looks like they are missing a wonderful opportunity to make money as folks pay, oh say for example, $10 each, to create new characters up to a max of say 40 or 50?
Tera starts with 2 characters per server per account, but you can buy more up to some reasonable maximum. I think the current maximum is about 15 characters per server. Each time Tera adds a class they give you a new slot to create a character if you play during the introduction event. The trial for FFXIV allows creating up to 8 characters, one per server, but once you subscribe you can create up to 40 total with eight per server, and it does not cost beyond the price of the subscription to have this many characters. But since in FFXIV, every character can be all the classes, there is much less need for ALTs. World of Warcraft allows 50 characters, even if you are playing the Starter edition, which is free but with a level cap of 20.
In Aion to have more than 8 characters, the only alternative is to have multiple accounts, and I can find nothing about a maximum number of accounts from the same IP address. Tera limits the number accounts per IP to 6 logins per day. You can have more accounts per IP, but you can only use 6 accounts from the same IP address per 24 hours. No such restriction in Aion, so far as I can tell.
Enjoy, and see you in-game.
:ww
Windy Weather 