Deep Dive into Game Mechanics — Channeling
Welcome to our Deep Dive blog series where we explore all aspects of Aion Rising’s game design and mechanics in greater detail.
Today we are kicking off our Deep Dive blog series with a look at the Channeling Action. Actions are the fundamental ‘unit’ of Aion Rising’s gameplay loop and the principal way you will interact with the game world. There are four different Action types: Channeling, Ambushing, Exploring and Questing.
CHANNELING
In Aion Rising, NFT Heroes vie for control and mastery over Aion, a potent form of magical energy that is extracted from two sources — Leylines and Nexuses. Every Hero possesses an innate ability to Channel Aion which can be improved via the Hero’s stats, items and abilities.
Lorewise, Channeling Aion grants Heroes a surge of raw power that hones their mind, intellect, and instincts, while also bestowing upon them enhanced physical abilities like speed and strength. In terms of game mechanics, Channeling provides the Hero with experience points, a reward of $AION tokens and a small chance to find items or recipes.
Leylines are the more common type of Aion source, and are uncontested; Heroes can freely Channel from Leylines without fear of ambush. Channeling from Leylines will always return a successful result, with the tradeoff that Leylines are not the most lucrative sources of Aion energy and other rewards. There are slight differences in the loot tables for different Leylines, so it can be useful to visit different ones.
Nexuses are the less common, more potent sources of Aion energy found in the game world. Unlike with Leylines, Channeling from a Nexus carries a risk because Nexuses are always contested by either another player’s Hero or an NPC enemy. Successful Channeling from a Nexus will always return a greater reward than from a Leyline. Unsuccessful Channeling from a Nexus will still return a small reward.
GAME DESIGN
The Channeling mechanic achieves several important objectives within the context of game design. Channeling is in many ways the central mechanism of the game; it is the primary way in which Heroes earn $AION tokens, progress their Hero’s powers and level up. It is also the central narrative device in the storyline; Aion Rising kicks off in the aftermath of the Great Storm which has left behind powerful Aion energy fields which have become an important resource for the nations and factions of Cambria to seek control of.
Bifurcating the Aion sources into two types allows us to create a risk vs reward decision-making fork. Players must choose whether they want to play it safe and collect $AION and level their Hero from ordinary Leylines, or test their mettle in combat for the chance of greater rewards. We continue to tinker with the specific mechanics of winning and losing for Nexus Channeling, because we don’t want to create a snowball effect where the strongest Heroes from the start never lose a fight and then continue to enjoy an essentially risk-free path to the best rewards. We want Nexus Channeling to always present some form of risk without taking away a player’s ability to develop a proper PVP champion that is built for combat in the game.
LEADERBOARDS, COMPETITION AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS
The fight over Aion is not just a narrative device — there will also be monthly Leaderboards with prizes for the top Channelers of Aion in order to encourage healthy competition amongst Cambria’s Heroes. We want to reward active players who execute with skill and strategy, and have some exciting plans on how to keep these periodic competitions fresh and interesting.
That’s all for today. We will be covering the other three Action types in future blog posts so stay tuned. If you want to learn more about Aion Rising or have any questions, connect with us on Discord.
