SwagVault MMO Blog

SWAGVAULT AION Super leveling Guide Chapter IV

November 19, 2009 – 11:14 pm
Posted by: monica

Chapter Four
In-depth analysis of the economy

The economic system of AION is complicated, but also reasonable.
The system is generally divided into several ranks, not farming/drafting levels.

About Rank
Rank 1: 000P-099P
Rank 2: 100P-199P
Rank 3: 200P-299P
Rank 4: 300P-399P
Rank 5: above 400P (Master)

The comment that the economic system of AION designs reasonably is based on its idea of “Rank”.

For example:
If an item is in the range of 200P-299P, all materials by air/ground farming are in the range of 200P-299P. No item exceed this range will be used. The boundary is clear.

Alchemy can prove this well. From Rank 1 to Rank 4, every rank have one set of weapon flux/armor flux/accessory flux, potions, remedies, scrolls and so on. If the potion is in the range of 200P-299P, red/blue herbs, pure platinum gem and aether are all farmed in the range of 200P-299P.

In terms of equipment, each rank in general normal armor and rare armor covers two equipment levels (excluding non-master legendary smith and Dragon Lord Set).

Take armor crafting for example,
Rank 1 corresponds to Level 13, Level 18
Rank 2 corresponds to Level 23, Level 28
Rank 3 corresponds to Level 33, Level 38
Rank 4 corresponds to Level 43, Level 48

Each rank in normal armor and rare armor covers two flux levels, that is each equipment level corresponds t o one set of red/blue/white flux at the same level. (The below mentioned one set of weapon/armor/accessory flux crafted by master namely is flux set for Level 48 armor/Level 50 weapon.)

For example:
The farming materials needed for Level 43, Level 48 armor are same, but different in quantity. In terms of ground farming, materials are all from the range of 300P-399P, while in terms of air farming, material is aether from the range of 300P-399P. Level 43 and Level 48 correspond to different flux sets.

Each crafting skill is put into a one-to-one correspondence with farming material at each rank.

For example:
In range of 200P-299P, tailoring only corresponds to 235P Tailoring herb and 2XXP herb will never be used for tailoring. Similarly, in range of 300P-399P, tailoring only corresponds to 335P Tailoring herb. (235P and 335P are Elyos’s points, which are different from Asmodians’s. But basic framework is same. The below mentioned are all Elyos’s points.)

Air/Ground Farming in range of 000P-099P corresponds to crafting in range of 000P-099P, two equipment levels and two flux levels.
Air/Ground Farming in range of 100P-199P corresponds to crafting in range of 100P-199P, two equipment levels and two flux levels.
Air/Ground Farming in range of 200P-299P corresponds to crafting in range of 200P-299P, two equipment levels and two flux levels.
Air/Ground Farming in range of 300P-399P corresponds to crafting in range of 300P-399P, two equipment levels and two flux levels.

Each crafting skill needs three kinds of materials: basic ground farming material, aether through air farming and flux.

There is a reminder that basic ground farming materials are rarely in crafting list. Generally, it shows on the list as semi-manufactured item crafted with processing materials, which are sold by NPC, such as thread and cloth made of tailoring, ingot made of ore, leather made of skin, etc.

The basic ground farming materials for some crafting skills are not from ground farming, but are items acquired from mobs, such as skin for crafting leather armor and bone/meat for cooking food. 

Mobs levels, the levels of items acquired from mobs are put into correspondence with crafting rank and equipment levels.

For example:
Armor Flux acquired from mobs from Level 31 to Level 35 corresponds to armor crafting from 200P to 299P, armor Level 33.
Armor Flux acquired from mobs from Level 36 to Level 40 corresponds to armor crafting from 200P to 299P, armor Level 38.
Armor Flux acquired from mobs from Level 41 to Level 45 corresponds to armor crafting from 300P to 399P, armor Level 43.
Armor Flux acquired from mobs from Level 46 to Level 50 corresponds to armor crafting from 300P to 399P, armor Level 48.
And also:
Skin acquired from mobs from Level 31 to Level 40 corresponds to tailoring from 200P to 299P, leather armor from Level 33 to Level 38.
Skin acquired from mobs from Level 41 to Level 50 corresponds to tailoring from 300P to 399P, leather armor from Level 43 to Level 48.

After understanding this correspondence, players can be clear about what equipments may be produced at different levels.

In terms of ground farming, corresponding rare and legendary materials can be farmed in most farming materials. Apparently, normal/rare/legendary word materials correspond to normal armor/ rare armor/legendary armor at the same rank respectively. 

This rule applies to semi-manufactured item processing. For example: tailoring herb is made into cloth, including rare cloth and legendary cloth. Accordingly, rare cloth corresponds to rare cloth armor and legendary cloth corresponds to legendary cloth armor. 

This rule also applies to air farming. For example: in terms of aether acquired through air farming, normal aether corresponds to normal armor, rare aether corresponds to rare armor and legendary aether corresponds to legendary armor.

This rule applies to flux, that is rare weapon/armor/ornaments flux corresponds to normal armor; rare weapon/armor/ornaments flux corresponds to rare armor; legendary weapon/armor/ornaments flux corresponds to legendary armor.  

The crafting of some rare armor and legendary armor need mobs and even rare word and legendary word materials acquired from boss. Dragon Lord Set is the most typical example.

After understanding farming and crafting, let’s analyze economy.

In terms of economy, players are under economy stress all along. In AION, players do not hunt a group of mobs at one time. Moreover, the equipment drop rate is quite low, so the resource competition is tense and various expenses are high (such as purchasing exp, skill learning fee, delivery fee, etc.) At the beginning, all players do not have enough money. Players only put on equipment they obtained and the collected materials only can be sold as soon as possible. The economy in AION is gloomy.
First bucket of gold is important in Pioneering Stage

Players may purchase materials from auction and craft some normal armors. then sell normal armor to stores for kinah . At the beginning, some players will be trained in air farming and ground farming by the support crew. With their farming level increasing, players will accumulate many materials from ground farming and many low-grade aether gem. Compounding with some fluxs at the same level, those above materials and low-grade aether gem can be made into normal armor. Although this method brings meager profit, it is the most direct method early. Players should plan a good procurement of flux, so as to improve the profit. It is a good idea to smash high-level normal armor into stone and then sell the stone latter. In AION (KR), I once adopted procurement method. Through accurate calculation of the cost, I purchased the cheapest materials (which are for air farming, ground farming and flux) from auction house, which will ensure a few profits (Generally, 200,000 worth of normal armor will make 30,000-50,000 net profits). Finally I will give up because I spend not enough time to level up.

In this period, players will be able to pay alchemy, and immediate heal potion is the most popular. As we all know, one bottle of immediate heal potion may save one’s life, which means player don’t need to soulheal this time. If player does not have enough time to learn alchemy, he/she must prepare immediate heal potion even he/she has not abundant kinah. Whatever the stage player stays at, he/she can accumulate enough kinah through alchemy. Because potion from NPC is expensive but does not help much, while the cost of medicine for alchemy is quite low.

In the pioneering stage, it is difficult for player to earn kinah through life skill in equipment crafting. Generally, player levels up by hunting mobs and can obtain one rare armor at least, even can obtain several legendary armors and unique armors. Players can obtain reward: Level 30 will give a legendary accessory; players can do two legendary armor quest in Level 33 and Level 43; players can do heroic golden weapon quest, etc. Although the quality of those equipments are not good, they are transitional equipments. If player does not care much about those low-grade equipments, he/she does not need equipment renovation in auction house when he/she obtains not enough kinah.

Developing Stage

As part of players almost reach the highest level, most players stay from Level 30 to Level 40. Accordingly, purchasing power begin to rise.

Businessmen who sell consumables will be the first to gain benefit.

Players start to buy mana potion to level up, instead of lying down and waiting.

Players who earn not enough kinah, never think about food. After earning enough kinah, players start to pay attention on food and gain more buff, so as to improve efficiency of leveling.

As the conflicts in abyss and fissure become fierce, top consumables related to PVP from 300P to 399P are very popular.

In AION (KR), I have earned over 100 million within one week through air/ground farming and alchemy in this period.

The followings are top consumables related to PVP from 300P to 399 P:

The followings are top consumables:

48s wind serum, 30% running scroll, 30% wind scroll, 9% courage scroll, 4000DP Aether Jelly

Here we can know that the 300p to 399p aether will be core material for consumable crafting and also other related ground farming materials.

The merchant who sells the unique armor looted from Bosses also get great benefit.

The lv50 player and other close to lv50 players begin to have ability to hunt the world boss in own race area and abyss. And they have purchasing power to buy the unique equipment. The lv40,lv45 unique equipment will be hot-selling products.

The professional BOSS hunter team, will have several boss hunting strategies and boss refresh time schedule. All these information are secret internal documents.

The prosperous economy

When most players are above lev46, the top superior flux will appear in trade broker with skyhigh price. And different crafting master will also occur which indicate the prosperity of economy.

The cooking master is the earliest master to occur. Because cooking is the only crafting skill whose master quest is not related to flux.4000DP Aether Jerry will be greatly supplied.

Then here comes armor master. Armor master is easier to reach, compare with weapon and handcraft masters, so the superior armor flux is hot-selling.

After that, the weapon master and handcraft master. Then the superior weapon and accessory flux will also be hot-selling.
The difficulty of master quest lies in making legendary equipment out from rare ones. If you were lucky dog, you may just use three sets of material for making rare equipment. If not, you may have none legendary equipment even you use 10 sets of materials. So the master quest requires large amount of money and great luck, which is hard to occur at same time.

So we could know that the rare and legendary superior flux is the hot-selling and expensive core material for the master quests. Hence, the normal superior flux is low price as it has nothing to do with master quests.  

What worth mention is that the weapon smith ad armor smith

Which master can earn more depend on the profession you guys choose in your server.

Lots assassin players buy kinah for their better equipments.

Ranger, spirit master, soccer are professions with high solo capacity, which makes them rich group.

Tank need high defense equipment for Bosses.

Some gladiator also will use kinahs for two weapon fight.

It’s not hard to see:
The hot weapon for ass/tank/glad is unique dagger and single sword.
The hot-selling armor for ass/ran is unique.

So we don’t need to explain some other items.

What earns more we can make example as follows:

Weapon smith master   —- make unique dagger/single sword

Tailor master         — make unique leather clothes

Plate armor master    —- make unique plate armor/shield.

It’s quite important to choose the target equipment for different body parts.

It’s difficult to get weapon, armor, pants, as they requires large amount of abyss point.

Crafting unique weapons with reasonable price will be hot-selling.

Regarding crafting armor, the clothes and pants are prior than shoulder, glove, and shoes. Because abyss reward equipment of these three part armor has some special features rather than the crafting ones.

Abyss rewarded accessory has reasonable abyss point requirement and good features, which become the first choice for players.

Monopolistic competition economy

Through the above analysis, we can make a conclusion that the massive consumable materials are centralized in 2 kind:
1.300P-399PAether
2.superior weapon/armor flux   

If one controlled the 300pto300p aether, he will be the one who controlled the economic artery of his own race. 70% top consumables rely on Aether while all high rank equipments also rely on it. So does the weapon and armor flux.

The 300p to 399p aether farming map are as follows:
1．Abyss 200P-399PAether gathering area：
 
Almost 70% 275Pand325p aether are located here(in the green circle)

275Paether can produce rare and legendary aether which is between200p to 299p.

While the 325p aether can only produce normal aether.
2．Eloys PVE 300P-399PAether area：
 
The green circle is the aether area for 300P/325P/350P/375P, the 350P/375P aether area here can produce large number of 300P-399P rare and legendary aether.

3．Asmodian PVE 300P-399P aether area:
 The green circle is the aether area for 300P/325P/350P/375P, the 350P/375P aether area here can produce large number of 300P-399P rare and legendary aether.

The asmodians also can find aether around the fire temple, which is also a original place to produce 300p above aether,

Some problems exist in the support legion team
 
Air and ground farming are not difficult. Player who levels up to the top level may spend 24 hours (at most two days) to let ground farming reach Level 399 and then need 24 hours (also at most two days) to let air farming reach Level 399. Generally, most ordinary players practice air/ground farming as they level up and then practice air farming, which complies with design mind of AION. Basically, the level of farming corresponds to that of mobs nearby. When player hunts higher mobs to level up, the farming item nearby can meet your leveling. As players level up to the top level, the ground farming will be close to Level 399. And problems happen.

1．Some experienced player always grind mobs at where there is lot useful gathering resources.
He may do the leveling-up and the farming together.

2．As the aether farming is mostly base on the player’s flight time. So it’s very important to gather a set of long flight time equipment to prolong the time you stay in the air. So it’s very important for your guys to try to use scroll, potion and etc. As we know the mana stone to prolong the flight time is unacquirable except some quest. Hence, the flight time prolong manastone has very great potential market.