Requirements:

• GTK 2.x;
• KDE 3.5;
• Lazarus IDE, FreePascal compiler and a steady heart if you wish on compiling it.

Changelog v1.1:

• Added SQRT, to find the Square Root;
• Added x!, for any factorial calculation you need;
• Added 1/x, for quick dividing.

You can download the KCalc.tar.gz binary here, while we given you the sources to KCalculator under the GPL. The sources, also in .tar.gz format can be download from here: KCalc-Source.tar.gz. If you receive bugs, leave them as comments here and I will try to treat them ASAP. Also, v1.2 will feature a QT implementation once the FreePascal/QT bindings are done.

Hope you enjoy it,
Catalin Z. Alexandru

Ski Challenge 08 has been licensed to various different media-partners, primarily TV-stations and leading newspapers in 7 different countries so far – including Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Canada.

After more than 3 million players last year, Greentube is expecting between 4 million and 5 million players worldwide between now and March 2008. This figure seems to be quite a conservative estimate, as within only 2 weeks after launch, the different editions of Ski Challenge have been downloaded more than a million times!

Greentube has been working hard on updating the game with latest 2.0-features such as a video creation-tool directly embedded within the game.

The free download game is fully financed via in-game advertising and includes advertising brands such as Siemens, Audi, Telenor, Swisscom, Visa, Samsung, Red Bull, to name just a few. Most of the advertising brands have been partners of this game since the beginning in 2004, as the advertising value and image-transfer effects generated by the game are more than convincing.

You can see a birds eye view of the Circus Maximus, various theatres, entertainment centres along with night time city scenes.

Imperium Romanum, will be published in February/March 2008 at a price of £29,99. The title will be released by the Kalypso Group worldwide, excluding Spain and Italy.

The trailer, intersperses shots of the titular character lifting weights and smoking his cigar with shots of alien monsters. It ends with an admonition to "Stay Tuned."

"This is a teaser. It’s not a full blown trailer like the 2001 trailer," said 3D Realms’ George Broussard. "I tried to be clear about that in the message board post, so just bear in mind that it’s a teaser."

We are also preparing a free add-on for all Sudden Strike 3 players. It contains two multiplayer maps and a single mission. We are going to make such additions on a regular basis. Multiplayer maps and new features will also be included. Estimated release date is April 2008.

Characters begin their journey by choosing one of four base professions – Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest. This initial tier of development impacts on everything from a character’s strength, to their combat prowess, to their magical abilities, ultimately shaping the players actions throughout the game.

However, higher-level players can tailor their character further still, with each profession offering two advanced classes, bringing the total number of character types available in Aion: The Tower of Eternity up to eight.

While the initial choice of character class will largely depend on each player’s personal style, the ability to develop a character through the advanced class system ensures that players have all the tools they need to create a character that is unique to them.

The Warrior

Bold, brave and possessing immense physical prowess, Warriors excel in close-quarter combat. Strong performers in a wide range of situations, Warriors are relatively easy to master and when fully realised can unleash a spectacular range of physically devastating skills.

Depending on how players prefer to approach combat, Warriors can specialise as either Gladiators, who concentrate on dealing damage through brute force, or Templars, who combine fierce fighting with defensive chants and techniques.

The Scout combines great agility with swift attacks. Scout players require a deft and accurate touch to get the most out of this tricky class, however the rewards are great and offer the greatest variety in play style of all the basic classes.

Scouts that specialise in ranged combat develop naturally into Rangers, an advanced class equally adept in the use of blades and traps. For those Scouts who prefer to stay hidden and strike from the shadows, the Assassin class is the perfect choice of advancement.

Mages compensate their weakness in physical combat with the ability to launch devastatingly powerful magic attacks. In addition, Mages must learn to divert and evade the enemy so that they’re able to attack from the relative safety of range.

As Mages advance, so their mastery over the elements of water, air, earth and fire increase, their choice of advanced class determining how that mastery is manifest. Spiritmasters can summon and control elemental spirits, while Sorcerers channel elemental power into fearsome magical bolts and missiles.

Spiritual warriors, Priests can use healing and self-protection spells to excel in melee combat, and launch powerful ranged magic attacks too. This makes them not only useful support characters in a party of adventurers, but also powerful combatants in their own right.

Priests that specialise in healing and protecting their allies naturally progress to the advanced class of Cleric, the ultimate support class. Alternatively, Priests can become Chanters, pious warriors that boast both healing and ability-boosting powers.

Players will be able to experience all eight character classes for themselves while exploring the incredible world of Atreia when Aion: The Tower of Eternity launches later next year.

“Screenshots of Gothic 4 have not been released by the developer Spellbound nor Publisher JoWooD Productions. The recently released screenshots did not originate from our new RPG game and do not come close in comparing to the graphical level that Gothic 4 will reach”, explains Johannes Natterer, Marketing at JoWooD. “Gothic 4 will far exceed the aesthetics shown in the mentioned screenshots. At this stage of development we feel that it is too early to release screenshots [...]”.

Jumpgate Evolution lets you jump into the cockpit and fly your ship just by moving your mouse, giving sci-fi fans a unique opportunity to experience a large and versatile universe. As a space hero from one of the three different nations: Solrain, Quantar, or Octavius, players can interact with both PvP and PvE content earning advancement through combat, mining, missions, exploration, and trade.

From a variety of small fighter ships and capital ships to giant battle stations, players get to engage in galactic space combat for an MMO experience unlike any other. Visually stunning graphics at minimum PC specs, accessible yet rich gameplay, and advanced AI are just some of the prominent features of this new epic and dynamic online universe.

In addition, both new in-game screenshots and game footage have been added to celebrate the website launch, alongside a collection of previously released concept art, in-game screens, and backstory, providing fans a deeper glimpse into the ever-expanding Jumpgate Evolution universe.

Sensible World of Soccer brings all its classic elements to a new generation of players across Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360. The game keeps all of the original touches that made it such a genre defining title, as well as introducing all-new optional enhancements to bring the game up-to-date.

Sensible World of Soccer introduces all-new online multiplayer modes, allowing players worldwide to take up the challenge and compete in intense online soccer matches in true Sensible Soccer style. The game also includes both original & updated custom graphics modes from the original designer of SWOS allowing players to experience the game in High Definition.

"SWOS is a much-loved franchise with a global fan base and Codemasters Online is pleased to exceed our fans expectations with this all-new version of the game," commented Tim Hodges, Associate Product Manager, Codemasters Online. "This is the authentic SWOS experience in every way, with the added bonus of high resolution HD graphics and online functionality."

The title is being developed by Melbourne, Australia-based Heatseeker developer Transmission Games, and will be powered by an unspecified "all-new engine."

Heroes Over Europe follows the stories of three Allied pilots in World War II, from the invasion of France to the devastation of Berlin in 1945. It will feature new game modes unique to the franchise and a more comprehensive focus on online play. The console version of the game is expected to be available in Fall 2008, while the Windows PC version will ship in early 2009.

According to the publisher the blend of first-person shooter and tactical squad based gameplay has been in pre-production for two years at developer EA Los Angeles. "EALA has a long history of developing ground breaking real-time strategy games with the Command & Conquer series," commented Mike Verdu, VP and general manager at EA Los Angeles.

"That series also originally introduced the Tiberium universe to gamers worldwide.". "Now, we are growing Tiberium from a simple backdrop to a fully realised universe with its own unique, hybrid squad-based shooter gameplay."

The music propels the game into high speed action with forty major artists including Alice in Chains, Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden, Twisted Sister, Jimmy Eat World and N.E.R.D., as well as rising stars Airbourne, Jupiter One and Junkie XL who have been signed to EA’s own music label, Artwerk.

Set to release January 25, 2008, Burnout Paradise offers a true open world environment built for intense speed, excitement, and exploration within Paradise City. Feel the aggression in the streets off and online*, as friends can connect instantly in one another’s game to heat up the competition.

Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Music Marketing at EA, said, “Burnout is one of the world’s most popular racing franchises and demands a soundtrack that matches the game’s intensity at every level. "

"We believe we’ve crafted a truly volatile mix of rock’s most dangerous tracks — beginning with the iconic ‘Paradise City’ — for an audio fuel as explosive as the game itself." The complete in-game soundtrack for Burnout Paradise includes:

Burnout Paradise has been rated E10+ by the ESRB and 3+ by PEGI. Developed by the award-winning team at EA Criterion in Guildford, the game will hit stores on January 25, 2008. Demo is now available worldwide on the PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Marketplace

Update #005 not only fixes bugs and balancing issues, but also introduces several new features that further enhance the gameplay and online experience, including the ability to prevent team stacking. It will be automatically downloaded and installed when users log onto Massgate.

Under the terms of the agreement, Illuminate Labs will join Epic’s prestigious Integrated Partners Program, and its technology will be immediately available to any publishers or developers that license UE3.

By incorporating Illuminate Labs’ Beast lighting solution into UE3, the two companies have enabled artists to seamlessly add global illumination to development environments using the renowned Unreal Editor.

Beast is also a fully platform-independent baker that utilizes the open-standard FBX file format, which allows users to easily add extremely complex baking functionality to 3D asset creation tools. UE3 licensees can instantly start taking advantage of Beast’s features that are new to the engine, which include:

• Global Illumination baking
• Skylights from HDR images
• Baked soft shadows with transparency

Future feature sets developed by Illuminate Labs will be incorporated into UE3 per the partnership. “We are very proud to be part of Epic’s Integrated Partners Program,” said Magnus Wennerholm, chief executive officer of Illuminate Labs.

“Visual quality and cost effectiveness in the production process are key issues to all games studios, and with this partnership UE3 customers will benefit from easy access to our advanced lighting technology.”

“We are very pleased to give our licensees access to one of the most advanced lighting technologies available through this partnership,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games.

“Integrating Beast into UE3 will help our licensees more easily create games utilizing best-of-breed global illumination techniques. We welcome Illuminate Labs into the partners program and look forward to empowering more developers through this relationship.”

Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program establishes a formal business relationship with exceptional companies making cross-platform technologies which integrate with, and are complementary to, UE3.

Under the IPP, Epic provides continuous UE3 source code access and full technical support to IPP members. Companies who join the IPP agree to provide a high level of technical support for UE3 licensees through Epic’s established support channels, keep their implementations up-to-date with the latest engine versions and collaborate with Epic on potential promotional and co-marketing efforts.

Developers utilizing the UE3 and Beast technology integration include Gearbox Software, creators of the celebrated Brothers in Arms franchise, the upcoming first-person shooter based on the Aliens motion picture and Borderlands for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“Gearbox Software likes to stay on the cutting edge of video game technology,” said Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software. “Gearbox licensed new technology from Illuminate Labs for several of its upcoming games."

"This new arrangement with Illuminate Labs and Epic Games will ensure that the technology is supported at the source and will help Gearbox Software continue to make the most technologically advanced and graphically impressive video games as a licensee of Unreal Engine 3.”

Havok’s innovative Behavior SDK and composition tool allows technical and non-technical game developers to create infinite numbers of sophisticated next generation character behaviors easily and quickly on a wide range of game platforms, including PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Havok Behavior is a key element of Havok 5, the highly acclaimed modular suite of run-time technology and artists’ tools which dramatically accelerate the development of cross platform, cutting edge electronic games and special effects for film, in line with the requirements of the world’s top developers and producers.

Pandemic Studios has licensed Havok Behavior 5 as part of the Havok Spectrum bundled product, which provides out-of-the-box integration between Havok Physics, Havok Animation and Havok Behavior.

Havok Behavior 5 takes interactive character behavior authoring to a new level, by establishing the first unified authoring environment and SDK that intuitively combines the power of physics with procedural animation and traditional animation assets.

The power and utility of this unique system empowers game developers and artists alike, accelerating production 10-fold, and opening the door to hybrid character performances that have never been seen before. Designed with the creative members of the development team in mind, the Havok Behavior Tool gives complete control to game character creators.

“Havok is an essential ingredient in what makes our games great,” says Josh Resnick, president at Pandemic Studios. “By consistently integrating the Behavior 5 tools across our projects, our teams are instantly empowered to take their creativity to the next level. Games like Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Saboteur simply wouldn’t pack the same punch without Havok under the hood.”

“At Havok, we are committed to assisting cutting-edge developers create the very best games, economically and on time using ground-breaking technology.

The Havok Behavior Tool helps users rapidly compose game-playable behaviors that provide immediate “what you see is what you get” results on every major game-platform available, including PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PSP, and PC.” said Jeff Yates, VP of Product Management at Havok.

Substantial upgrades promote a more ample community environment, including two-sided customizable trading cards for every player, opponent ratings and active forum support to aid new and veteran players and the only online game to offer saved personal game highlights.

The new release further improves the community experience by allowing participants to play within their own region, play in a level-based official Power Tour Cup or challenge other competitors from different countries!

“We are very excited about the upgrades and additions we have included in Power Soccer for this major update,” said Johan Christenson, CEO of Power Challenge. “We have created a unique platform that merges the best elements of console play into the deep community involvement of web-based gaming."

"With a worldwide player base our goal was to make the game more enjoyable and allow anyone to play anywhere there is an internet connection. The new user interface gives players the ability to create a personalized team in minutes, and to be ready to play a head-to-head, full-screen 3D matchup in 30 seconds or less.”

Power Soccer is currently running 50,000 one-on-one matches per day, with a projected 1 million matches daily by December 2008. With this kind of growth Power Challenge has implemented several key improvements that will help to encompass the needs of such a large audience.

These upgrades include increased player detail and additional models, gamepad support for console veterans, instant rematches and live system administrators to better address unsportsmanlike conduct.

This two-minute trailer shows story clippings from its predecessor “The Mysterious Codex” along with new scenes of “The Lost Sword of Toledo”. Not only parts of the rendered intro movie are shown, but also actual in-game scenes from the beginning of the game. “AGON: The Lost Sword Of Toledo“ will be published by Kalypso Media Ltd in February/March 2008.

The new nForce 780i SLI MCP brings a multitude of new functionality to Intel platforms, including support for the new Enthusiast System Architecture specification and PCI Express Gen 2.0. It is also the first motherboard solution to also support the new 3-way SLI technology, the industry’s preeminent multi-GPU platform solution based on NVIDIA GeForce graphics processing units.

“Our customers aren’t going to bed with visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads. They’re dreaming of playing games like Crysis in their entire splendor, running on NVIDIA SLI technology,” said Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest.

“With nForce 780i and an Intel Yorkfield CPU under the hood, those visions will quickly become a reality. We’re excited to offer our customers fully-equipped rigs with not one, not two, but three of NVIDIA’s most extreme gaming GeForce graphics processors, the perfect platform for experiencing the most advanced games ever developed.”

NVIDIA 3-way SLI technology offers an unmatched PC gaming experience, delivering up to a 2.8x performance boost over traditional single graphics card platforms.

For playing this year’s most cutting-edge games, including Crysis and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, 3-way SLI technology lets gamers ratchet up the resolution to 1900×1200 and 2500×1600 respectively, while partaking in all of the tasty eye candy, including high-dynamic range lighting, motion blur, and realistic effects.

“You can forget the cookies and milk this year,” said Alabaster Snowball, administrator of the North Pole’s naughty & nice list. “What Santa really wants is the ability to play Bioshock on a new gaming rig configured with an nForce 780i SLI-based motherboard and 3-way SLI graphics.”

Global system integrators and industry-leading motherboard partners planning to offer NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI MCP-based products include: Arlt, Asus, Atelco, Biohazard Computers, Chiligreen, Colorful, CyberPower, Digital Storm, Ditech, EVGA, Falcon Northwest, Gigabyte, HP, Hypersonic, Ibuypower, K&M Elektronik, Maingear, Meijin, MSI, Puget, Rombus, Vigor Gaming, Voodoo PC, Warmachine, XFX, Xi, and more.

Ignition Tokyo and Ignition Florida will further develop the company’s capabilities to create original and innovative intellectual properties for the electronic entertainment industry.

These additional studios, along with Digi-Guys, will be responsible for the creation of new IP specifically for the next generation formats. As previously announced, Ignition Entertainment’s goals are to include development of original IP and licenses across a number of formats.

“This is an important time for us. With the addition of these new studios we will increase our capacity for producing original product,” said Vijay Chadha, Ignition Entertainment CEO and co-founder. “The opening of both Ignition Florida and Tokyo is a stepping stone to building a stronger and more focused development group. These studios are an important addition to the company and will be a solid foundation on which future plans will be built.”

Ignition Tokyo and Florida will join Digi-Guys (WarDevil) in the common goal of pushing far beyond the confines of conventional ‘next-gen’ thinking and produce unique, innovative and platform leading videogames & digital content across all media, utilising a broad spectrum of games & movie CG experience.

“With games such as Crysis and Hellgate: London pushing PC gaming graphics, gamers need a powerful GPU to get the best experience. GeForce 8800 GTS 512 supports DirectX 10, offers killer performance, and does it all for around $299-349.”

• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB graphics cards are available today, just in time for the holiday-buying frenzy.
• Coming on the heels of the introduction of the critically acclaimed GeForce 8800 GT, the GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB graphics card delivers impressive new levels of performance in the $299–$349 price range.
• GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB graphics cards offer an intense gaming experience with stunning special effects and high-definition visuals for the hottest holiday PC games, such as: Crysis, Hellgate: London, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament 3, and Call of Duty 4, along with full support for current DirectX 9 games.

• NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB offers 25% more graphics processing power than NVIDIA products previously offered at the same price point.
• The GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB also offers new features such as support for PCI Express 2.0, dual-link HDCP, and the second-generation PureVideo HD engine from NVIDIA.
• All GeForce 8800 GPUs support NVIDIA SLI technology which allows you to use two graphics processors in unison, sharing the graphics workload.
• GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB graphics cards are available now from leading add-in card manufacturers, retailers, and system builders.
• The NVIDIA PureVideo HD engine delivers astounding Blu-ray and HD DVD movie picture quality on a PC with 100% offload of H.264 video decoding, freeing the CPU to perform other tasks and significantly reducing power consumption, heat, and noise.

Guild vs. guild combat for up to 300 players will occur every Friday, and will combine real-time strategy elements, like building defensive structures and commanding NPC troops, with fast-paced MMO combat, leaving the victors in control of a city’s taxes and financial gains for an entire week. Guilds that enter the fray will have access to mighty siege engines, formidable guard towers, and fearsome monsters to aid them in battle.

"With Legend II - Fortress Wars, players of Silkroad Online will be reminded what we mean by ‘massively multiplayer,’" said June K. Son, General Manager of Joymax. "This game has always offered players an open-ended means to forge their own destiny. Now, by allowing them to seize and control cities, we’re letting them change the course of the entire world."

Available for 800 Microsoft Points exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, each map offers a unique experience. Standoff’s symmetrical valley, with its entrenched bases and fields of boulders is ideal for mid-sized objective and Slayer game types, while Rat’s Nest’s vast, labyrinthine passages bring something new to the “Halo” multiplayer experience: an indoor vehicle paradise, strongly influenced by the Campaign mode, ideal for big team battles.

Finally, Foundry is the ultimate Forge map – players can edit every single object in this voluminous industrial warehouse, place stairways, walls, bridges and tunnels to create an entirely new play space and build almost any kind of map they can think of.

As if the legions of "Halo 3" players needed more reasons to stay logged on to Xbox LIVE, Forge also allows players to edit and customize all three maps, keeping “Halo 3’s” multiplayer experience fresh, exciting and evolving. In addition, ongoing updates to “Halo 3’s” matchmaking playlists ensure that ranked and social gameplay remains dynamic and competitive.

The maps of the Heroic Pack are available in matchmaking today to those who have purchased the download. All three maps will become available as a free download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace in Spring 2008, just prior to the next wave of all new “Halo 3” multiplayer maps that are sure to make Halo 3 Xbox MP more popular than ever.

To celebrate the release of its new quiz game, Alan Hansen’s Sports Challenge, Oxygen Games has teamed up with psychologist Dr Aric Sigman to bring you some top tips on how to increase your reaction times and get to the top of the leaderboard this Christmas.

A moderate dose of caffeine decreases the time it takes to prepare a response for a complex reaction time task. The amount of caffeine in one cup of strong tea or coffee increases reaction time and your ability to resist distraction, plus it works within minutes.

Alcohol slows reaction times – that’s one of the reasons we have drink-drive laws. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which means that it does the opposite of stimulating you and a lot to slow you down. Denounce the firewater until your celebration drinks after you win the competition.

A lot! Fatigue isn’t fast or clever but sleeping a lot is. Your reaction time gets slower when you are tired mentally or physically. The more complicated the task, the slower you will be when you suffer fatigue. Mental fatigue, especially sleepiness, has the greatest effect.

Your body clock works in circadian rhythms of roughly 24-hour cycles. Yet even with such a biological ‘clock’, there is variation in people’s daily rhythms. But disruption of the clock – by staying up too late or changing our sleep-wake schedules negatively affects our alertness and reaction time. Identify the time of day you experience your peak performance. Ask yourself; are you an early bird or night owl, based on what you think are your best times for high alertness. (Early birds are most alert before noon and night owls are most alert during the evening.)

Watching lots of soap operas and talk shows isn’t just unstimulating intellectually but has been recently linked with slower reaction times. Scientists believe this type of programming simply doesn’t exercise the brain enough and allows it to become flaccid and slow, like the people who appear on some of the programmes.

Even practising your reaction time mentally will increase it when it counts. Visualise the actual hand movements, and in your mind go through the motions as if it’s the real thing. And when you play the real thing you should be faster.

By contracting your arm and hand muscles for a few seconds (isometric contraction) and then relaxing them a number of times before you play the game seems to allow your brain to work faster. So squeeze, hold and relax … and again.

Activity-specific training movements that are practised in game-like situations are the ones most likely to be used in competition. So practise the actual reaction time movements in as realistic a situation as possible. Reaction times should increase within three weeks of practise and the effects will last for at least three weeks.

Physically fit people have faster reaction times. Furthermore, exercise actually increases mental performance and problem-solving abilities within 20 minutes. So if you are generally fit and you then do some aerobic-type exercise for 20 minutes before you compete, you’ll have a distinct advantage.

Get Aroused

One of the most investigated factors affecting reaction time is arousal, or our state of attention, including muscular tension. Reaction time is fastest with a medium level of arousal, and deteriorates when we are either too relaxed or too tense. And exercise improves your reaction time by increasing arousal.

For those of you with a masochistic streak, research consistently shows that receiving an electric shock every time you react too slowly will actually improve your reaction time no end. Alternatively, having someone make you feel anxious about your performance has the same effect, at least on simple reaction time tasks.

Illness and minor upper respiratory tract infections slow reaction times, make our mood more negative, and cause disturbance of sleep, which in turn slows reaction time even further. Watch who you kiss or shake hands with.

Distractions increase slow reaction time. Background noise slows reaction time by inhibiting parts of the cerebral cortex. TVs on in the background, mobile phones and email pinging noises slow you down.

Sugar and high glycemic foods can cause drowsiness. Despite claims that glucose will improve performance the opposite is likely to be true. Stick to unrefined carbohydrates and avoid sugary foods and drinks before you compete. Be a monkey and eat a banana instead.

Test your reaction times and put these tips into practise by playing Alan Hansen’s Sports Challenge - the perfect gift for any family this Christmas! Out on PlayStation 2 and PC now and Wii on 7th December.

In "Imperium Romanum", the map of Pompeii offers a special challenge, as the volcano Vesuvius is considered to be extremely unstable.  Again and again, the player has to deal with unpredictable earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, so that the successful accomplishment of this scene becomes one of the most difficult missions to complete the game.

"Imperium Romanum" will be published by the Kalypso Group in the German, English and French speaking territories by the end of February 2008. It is already considered to be one of the top PC-strategy games of the first quarter of next year.

In the game client, which was being showed at the Games Convention Leipzig ‘07, the player had the ability to choose between several different hairstyles, colours, shapes of their face, skin colours, character height and voice. It is also possible to alter eye colours and to add tattoos to the character face. A character build feature is currently being planned, which will affect the size of the character, ranging from skinny to big.

2. “Tradable wings” have been mentioned. Exactly what does it mean?

It was most likely a misunderstanding. Wings are not bought in Aion, but changed by other factors such as a rising PvP-rank.

We want to have short-term goals in the game, such as quests fitting within shorter timeframes. There will also be appropriate rewards for completing those. Very powerful game items (weapons and armours) will be attainable in different ways, making it easier for casual players to gradually work towards them.

It is possible to see that the Asmodians and Elyos come from the same origin. They have the same, fundamental humanoid shapes. An analogy would be to compare elves with dark elves.

Not at launch, but definitely as soon as possible. It is likely to be in the first expansion.

No. There are currently no plans to implement regular mounts in Aion. Transport will be done by foot or by flying. There will also be a long-range teleport system and short-range travel-services in which you let the game control the flight to your destination.

No, probably not. There will, however, be items and skills which can enhance these abilities. In practice, this could mean that as the character progresses to higher levels – it also gains access to these skills and items.

The main PvP area in Aion is the Abyss. There are several castles in Aion, all which can be captured by player guilds on behalf of their faction. A siege is in its very fundament a raid. Initially, each castle is controlled by the Balaur, who will not gladly give it up. A guild leader would gather his or her troops and initiate an attack on the castle and its defenders. After defeating the NPC defenders, the castle changes ownership. Since the battles take place in the Abyss, it’s always possible that the other PC faction might interfere to either defend or attack. Once the castle has a new owner, there are a few hours during which no PvP can take place on the island. After this period, however, the castle is again open to attacks from the opposing faction.

There are many benefits to be gained from controlling a castle. The castle will have NPCs who vend unique items, whose sales the controlling guild may put taxes on in order to gain a bit of extra income. Guilds will also have direct access to the hunting grounds and resources surrounding the castle.

9. Will Aion battles and sieges be as massive and monumental as in Lineage II?

The Abyss is an open area with many strategic points. There are no set times for sieges or battles, but instead something that the players themselves may decide. It was one of our goals to not require the vast amounts of players as sieges in Lineage II did. While there are no technical limitations and a charismatic leader could well gather hundreds of players for a siege, 2 or 3 groups should be enough too, if circumstances are right.

PvP is very important in Aion. To get out most of the game, one should definitely participate in PvP at some point. We want to gradually introduce even non-PvPers to the PvP.

It is, however, not necessary to participate in PvP. One can go from level 1 to 50 without participating in a single PvP-battle. It will take a little bit longer, though, as the most rewarding hunting grounds often are those found in the Abyss.

A feature that is currently on a planning stage is to randomly open teleportation portals in the Elyos and Asmodian lands. This would allow for very random, occasional battles where even lower level players get a chance to experience PvP, without it being a constant threat and presence.

The basic reward in PvPvE is the same as in all other combat, experience. You will gain experience from killing both mobs and PC opponents in the Abyss. By collecting “PvP-points”, players can also gain access to very good high-end items, which otherwise can only be crafted.

There are also indirect benefits, since PvPvE in a way is a method to gain control of castles which come with a wide array of benefits themselves.

There will be health and mana recovery potions with instant effect. They will, however, have a re-use timer to prevent an excessive usage. There will also be foods with different effects on your character. Food will practically work as a buff, of which only one can be active at the same time.

There will be big, regular expansions once or twice a year. How they are to be distributed depends on the area.

This feature has unfortunately been dropped. Weather will however affect some NPCs and monster spawns.

The problem with Asian games, we believe, have been a design which is not overly complicated - very basic. With the exception of Japan, RPG’s have until recently not been a mainstream game type at all in Asia. In order to introduce players to the genre, games were deliberately made rather simple in their design. At the time, it was probably the right decision, as it introduced many new players to the genre. The demands on a game and its amount of content have, however, risen substantially lately in Asia. To survive on the market today, a very high amount of content is required. Due to this, it’s not an option to make “just another grinder”. Players need other things to keep them occupied while developing their characters. We have approached this issue partly by putting more focus on quests, allowing people to pursue professions and gather resources, and by incorporating an advanced combat system.

16. What will be done for Role-players?

Except from the extensive character customization, Aion will have a wide array of emotes to be used in various situations. We also plan to put some fun and cute “items” in there that don’t have much actual value except for role-playing. Other activities that could appeal to the role-players out there are resource gathering, crafting and of course cooking.

Not in the Asian market, but if this is deemed a good addition in a specific area, it’s up to the service provider in that area.

Yes, it is being considered.

We are still working on what information will be available for others to see. Character stats, guild status and castle/guild hall control are some of the things that probably will be available to see online. There might also be some sort of “score board”, with player scores reflecting many different game aspects.

Although not entirely related, we are also working on a “Hero” system. Becoming a hero will require a lot of work. Heroes will act as human boss mobs, much more difficult for enemies to kill than ordinary players. People will know when a hero enters an area.