NC has taken the servers down for an eight-hour maintenance ahead of the October 5 commercial launch, and the accompanying patch includes a surprisingly useful collection of quality-of-life changes, bug fixes and balance adjustments. Character deletion becomes dramatically faster, the AFK timeout is being extended, quest objects should become less irritating to interact with, several five-player bosses are getting stronger, and the strange Level 45 Duty bug we warned about yesterday is finally being fixed.
Maintenance began at 07:00 CEST on October 5 and is scheduled to last eight hours, putting the planned reopening at approximately 15:00 CEST. That is also when the new free-to-play population can begin joining the new October 5 Launch Servers.
Character Deletion Drops From Seven Days to 24 Hours
One of the biggest practical changes concerns character deletion. Until now, deleting a character involved a 168-hour waiting period. That is seven entire days, which is a fairly impressive commitment to regretting a character name.
After the launch patch, that waiting period drops to just 24 hours. NC is also lowering the minimum level required to delete a character from Level 10 to Level 1.
That should make early experimentation much less painful, particularly for new players who choose the wrong server, faction or character appearance during launch. Server choice still matters, of course, especially because free server transfers do not begin until October 14 and Advanced Access characters cannot transfer onto the new Launch Servers.
The AFK Timeout Is Getting Much More Generous
NC is also changing what happens when a player leaves the game unattended.
The timer before an inactive player is redirected back to the server selection screen is increasing from 30 minutes to three hours.
That is a substantial difference and should be particularly welcome during launch, when stepping away for dinner should no longer mean returning to discover that your character has quietly been evicted from Atreia.
In-game announcements are also getting more screen time, increasing from three seconds to ten seconds. Not revolutionary, perhaps, but considerably more useful for those of us who require longer than the reflexes of a caffeinated teenager to read a system message.
Quest Objects Should Be Less Annoying
The patch also addresses one of the less glamorous problems of launching an MMO with a very large population: everybody trying to interact with the same object.
NC says interactions with objects required for quest progression are being improved. Some objects will no longer disappear after another player uses them, while others will return faster after being activated.
That change arrives at a sensible moment. AION 2 already passed 171,530 concurrent Steam players during Advanced Access, and that figure did not include PURPLE users. The full free-to-play launch is about to add another wave of players to the same early quest areas.
Some Five-Player Bosses Are Getting Buffed
Not every change makes life easier.
NC says the stats of several bosses are currently too low for the intended difficulty of five-player party content, so those encounters are being adjusted upward.
The patch notes do not specify every affected boss or provide individual stat changes, which means players should expect some group encounters to feel harder once the servers return. If you are already entering the dungeon progression loop, our AION 2 Fast Gearing Guide covers the upgrade priorities worth sorting out before throwing expensive materials at temporary equipment.
It is also a useful reminder that Advanced Access has effectively doubled as a very large live balance test. If five-player bosses are dying too easily, NC now has enough real-world data to start tightening them up.
The Level 45 Duty Bug Is Being Fixed
Yesterday we warned players not to open the Duty tab before reaching Level 45. Doing so could prevent Duties from becoming available immediately after hitting the required level, forcing players to wait until the following day.
That workaround should no longer be necessary after today's patch.
NC specifically lists the Journal Duty issue among the bugs being fixed, so players should once again be free to explore menus without accidentally sabotaging tomorrow's progression. A small victory for curiosity.
Quest Blockers and the Vanguard Title Are Also Fixed
The update contains several smaller fixes as well. Characters occasionally snapping back to their previous position while using Auto Move near other players should be corrected, and a duplicate Content entry in the Key Settings menu is being removed.
NC is also fixing an issue where closing the client during certain quests could prevent subsequent progression. Players stuck while moving through the Poeta or Ishalgen Hero Quests will receive a Quest Tracker option allowing them to teleport to Verteron or Altgard.
Finally, the English client incorrectly displayed the Vanguard of Atreia title as Shaper of Heavens after players obtained it. That naming error is being corrected as part of the same update.
The Real Launch Starts After Maintenance
Most of these changes are not enormous individually, but together they make this a much more substantial launch patch than a simple server opening.
Character management becomes less punishing, AFK players get more breathing room, quest bottlenecks should improve, one annoying progression bug disappears and some group bosses are being pushed closer to their intended difficulty.
Advanced Access gave NC five days of players finding all the places where AION 2 bends, breaks or simply behaves strangely.
Now the doors open for everyone.
