Reindeers aren’t the only creatures making a racket this holiday season. Aion pets are also scrambling to find new owners until December 31 so you’re welcome to adopt two to your liking by purchasing an Aion: Assault of Balaurea game disc.

Everyone who buys the game box before 2011 arrives will get a free Speckled Ailu (upper left in pic above), the cute panda with a 12-slotted backpack for your item storage, and another pet depending on the selling store. The full list of bonus pets per game vendor is as follows (from left to right, top to down in pic above):

• The striped squirrel Fuzzy Elroco from the NCSoft Store
• The mouse-eared and white-furred Belusian Kitter from Amazon.com
• The black-as-night cat Heiron Kitter from Best Buy
• The sharp-beaked Grassy Drakie from Gamestop
• The bone-adorned Skullabra Krall from Steam
• The dark-pawed cat Altgard Kitter from QVS
• The russet brown dog Bolder Daggie from Walmart

These pets became available months ago when Aion: Assault on Balurea first launched and enabled each Daeva to collect and use pets. But apparently, the guys at NCSoft think these cuddly creatures have had enough of the spotlight. There’s a big possibility that this batch of bonus pets will no longer be available in the future so grab them while they’re still roaming wild.

Christmas came early in Aion, with Victor Shugo assuming the role of metagame Santa. The NPC will be accepting requests for in-game data, and will broadcast the results to the rest of the community.

Victor Shugo has already revealed the drop rate increases in upcoming Aion 2.1 for the Fire Temple, Dark Poeta, and Beshmundir Temple on both normal and hard modes. Additional testing requests even of the noob nature can be sent via e-mail:

“Often we get questions about how does X work? Does having this item in your inventory actually cause THIS to happen? Is it true if you do Z that this will happen?” NCWest Community Coordinator Trine said in defense of the Victor Shugo service, which some naysayers claimed as being unnecessary.

We think it’s quirky though in how it evolves “fan service” to “fan-generated service.” On the plus side, it has on-demand accessibility (you just e-mail experiment requests to vshugo@ncsoft.com) but on the minus side, it can easily devolve into spam data. We’ll wait a few more weeks before deciding if Victor Shugo deserves a Eureka!

Running from Sept. 22 to Oct. 6, Daeva’s Day will see ascended Daevas collecting Cake Coupons from random mob kills. These Cake Coupons will start a quest that leads to a buff-giving cake piece or crackling fireworks. Each Cake Coupon quest can be finished ten times per character.

Also available at each of the capital cities and across Atreia are non-repeatable quests which, after completion, will reward Pointy Hats and Heart Headbands. You know, for those times you want to be disgustingly cute or silly.

For those looking for more function that fun, NCSoft West also revealed the 12-month Veteran rewards soon to be given out to its most loyal subscribers who’ve been playing the game since launch.

The most impressive of the bunch is the Aqua Griffo Egg (above) which is like the Swiss Army knife of Aion pets. It has three abilities that make it a feathered pack mule with built-in sensors and junk item shredder:

1. Pack ability allows it to store 18 items.
2. Signal ability alerts you of nearby, non-hidden foes.
3. Fortune ability converts fed junk loot to a possible gift.

Hoping that these events and freebies will compensate for the some of the issues that have been cropping up lately as a result of the massive server merge, NCSoft West Executive Vice President Lance Stites hinted at the planned improvements for Aion.

“…[N]ew western specific events, continuing refinement to drop rates and experience, a 64-bit client to make performance better than ever and expanded pet functionality are a few things we know are coming,” Mr. Stites said, triggering a round of groans from some fans who believe rifting should be fixed first before anything else on that list.

Long the source of crucial information for Daevas, the Aion PowerWiki has uploaded several new articles tracking the dungeon and Dredgion changes that came with the 1.9 Update last June.

Instanced dungeons have been revamped to include Heroic class Judge weapons for mid-level characters. These changes cover dungeons from Fire Temple to Dark Poeta, and involve the easing up of entry requirements, increased drop rates, and fatter loots from existing mobs.

“Now Daevas can smack around Kromede from a safe distance with their extendable Spear of the Judge, or don a plundered Gentlewoman’s Dress or Princess’s Dress and dance a jig on Triroan’s desiccated remains,” boasted the instanced dungeon article on the vast improvements that came through in the 1.9 Update.

Meanwhile, Dredgion rewards are better than ever due to the upgraded inside the Balaur battleship. Silver and Golden Medals will now be awarded for achieving certain objectives and can be claimed via Michalis of Teminon Landing and Votan of Primum Landing. Even Abyss Points have been increased for those who successfully conquer the Dredgion.

These PowerWiki updates should prove essential to Daevas still mastering the higher end-game content in time for the anticipated Aion 2.0 Update, which is already in final testing according to NCSoft.

April 29 was a bittersweet day for Western Aion players who inched closer to a live Update 1.9 with the launch of two public test servers, but was also reminded of their catch-up game with Koreans who gained access to the more advanced Update 2.0 on the same day.

Last April 22, Aion developer NCSoft announced that US and EU subscribers–commonly lumped together as the Western community–would gain access to two PTS erected specifically for testing Update 1.9 and, presumably, future content patches. Update 1.9 became live in Korea a month ago, but Western players have not seen it due to lengthy “translation processes” needed for US and EU markets.

Western players saw the two PTS as a way to placate their unrest over what the translation hold-up, but an announcement that Update 2.0 is now live in Korean PTS renewed calls for NCSoft to better synchronize their content patches across the globe.

Initial testing for both Western PTS saw the usual disconnection problems, but feedback was positive once players got into the game world due to the easier leveling, increased drop rates, and availability of GMs for bug and error reporting. The Western PTS can be downloaded via two methods but manual copying is far easier provided you follow the instructions well to avoid a disastrous client deletion.

But if you’re more interested in knowing all the features coming with Update 2.0, then better wait a little much longer; NCSoft said the patch notes will be uploaded at the official website early this week in English, French and German.

It’s 38 pages long before translation so you might want to save a box of popcorn for when it finally hits the official website–and melts your buttered mouth with a hot new pet system, new zones, and the Path of Wind movement system.

Pic from MMOSite.com along with other Update 2.0 screenies.

It’s a fresh clean slate for Aion as it launched its new V-Bulletin-powered forums, which underwent a massive overhaul in the past few weeks. NCSoft announced the upgrade earlier in response to suggestions that the old model lacked even simple features such as creating post signatures.

The Aion developer said the change will give a “much wider array of functionality” to the official forums, citing better highlighted posts from the Community Team (for quick browsing of major announcements) and user features such as thread subscriptions and a private message system.

A quick look at the V-Bulletin website shows the features available to the Aion forums, but the list could be limited depending on the level of manpower NCSoft assigns to regular updates.

Feedback has been mostly positive due to the inclusion of basic customization features long requested since the MMO launched last year. We think enough promotion and a smooth roll out in the coming weeks should be enough to convince a portion of the fan base now holed up in posting haven Aionsource.com to relocate to the official forums.

NCSoft announced the old forum content won’t be imported to the new forums, so it called on previous posters to start threads to kick off things. If you’re eager to flood the message boards, try to hold back a little since access to the revamped web hangout could be interrupted at intervals for follow-up maintenance.

March is more exciting because the six-month mark will give us cool pair of Black Cloud Wing Feather. The Asmodian version has a more sinister look while the Elyos is the epitome of feathery justice. Can’t wait for these!