When Aion began its rifting trial last December it intended to figure out just how broken the mechanic was for attackers. Defenders had been buffed with additional protection that prevented potential invaders from posing a proper challenge so developers decided to lessen it to see its balancing effect.

With the protection for defenders in Heroin and Belusland removed and those from Morheim and Eltnen lowered starting last month, Aion players have had the chance to form an opinion on whether these changes should be made permanent.

The preliminary verdict: “Majority of players agreed with having protections in Heiron and Beluslan removed. The majority of players told us that though they liked the lowering of the protective buff in Morheim and Eltnen, they felt that the protective buff should be slightly increased,” revealed Aion in a recent blog post.

Far from fining these survey results final, the developers are extending the rifting trial for “a few more weeks.” We think this is just a validation period for collection supporting in-game data. But this could also be a chance for casual Daevas who had been AWOL over the Christmas break to experience the rifting changes and provide feedback through a second survey planned near the end of the extended trial.