Rift: Planes of Telara

[Threash]

Parses? f that.  Anyone who dropped below 75% was a sure kill.

[Modern Angel]

Nah, elite mobs and stuff. Not really to min max but I was intensely curious how the purely back loaded damage stacked up against some of the others. In solo PvE and PvP the damned thing is hilarious, especially PvP because nobody notices the charges on them.

[Morfiend]

My level 12 Riftblade warrior is ruling the damage charts in the Warfronts. The flame spear + the flame finisher dot + the AE ability.

[Tannhauser]

If there are keys floating around, could I get one?

[Merusk]

If there are keys floating around, could I get one?

The escapist is where I got mine.  You've got to be wiling to Facebook friend them, however.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/contests/register/RIFTvip

[Lantyssa]

I doubt the 25-use VIP keys posted a page or two back are exhausted.

[Tannhauser]

Thanks guys, downloading the game now.

Edit to remove stupid question.

[Mrbloodworth]

I doubt the 25-use VIP keys posted a page or two back are exhausted.

Having issues finding them.

[Ghambit]

FP has a fresh batch available also.

[ezrast]

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=17033.1750, near the bottom. Also

[Mrbloodworth]

Tanks!

[Threash]

I really like what they did with crafting and salvaging, it keeps crafters leveling their skill from flooding the market with below material cost items.

[Xanthippe]

I applied for beta on the Rift website Saturday morning and was immediately sent an invite.  Seems the game was more or less an open beta this weekend.

I made a Kelari ranger/bard/saboteur.  What fun!  She's turned into more a bard/ranger/could-be-anything.

Why is it more fun to play a game when I don't understand what half the stuff in it does?  Artifacts, that slot in the character screen at the bottom center (what does that thing do and what am I supposed to put in there?), rifts, guardian invasions, and so on.

I'd not had the motivation to play WoW for a week and had already canceled my kids' account.  I think I'll be canceling mine and picking this up.  (I'm sure I'll resub to WoW sometime after Ghostcrawler removes his head from his ass).

Snappy combat, drop-in-and-play fun.  I like the attitude of those who were running the beta.

[Draegan]

Last Saturday was a stress test event which is why it's essentially an "open beta" that you still need to be invited too.  Not sure why they just don't open it up.

[Nebu]

Why is it more fun to play a game when I don't understand what half the stuff in it does?  Artifacts, that slot in the character screen at the bottom center (what does that thing do and what am I supposed to put in there?), rifts, guardian invasions, and so on.

Because once you understand the game you can begin to quantify how long it will take to get to the level of ability you want.  

I'm with you 100%.  The longer a game stays shiny and new, the longer I remain ignorant to the pointless grind ahead of me.  

[kildorn]

I will say the balance seemed way off this phase. Marksmen turned crazypants, non healy clerics were mauled, and some of the higher tier skills turn silly (suddenly you open up stuns, healing debuffs and interrupts all over the place)

And the latest zone opened is.. content sparse, to say the least.

I like the game, but I feel like it still needs some time in the oven, and it's making me feel like WAR's beta did: that we're testing zones in phases not to force us to test the hell out of it, but because the next zones aren't done yet.

[Draegan]

I will say the balance seemed way off this phase. Marksmen turned crazypants, non healy clerics were mauled, and some of the higher tier skills turn silly (suddenly you open up stuns, healing debuffs and interrupts all over the place)

And the latest zone opened is.. content sparse, to say the least.

I like the game, but I feel like it still needs some time in the oven, and it's making me feel like WAR's beta did: that we're testing zones in phases not to force us to test the hell out of it, but because the next zones aren't done yet.

They are testing zones in phases for other reasons.  They are iterating the shit out of the lower level zones to get more and more feedback out of them.  The rest of the zones are being testing and abused in their other tests.

[shiznitz]

I haven't seen anything about grouping dynamics.  Is there a level range to group and share exp?  Is there Mentoring? Is it needed?  If my friends are level 20, can I play with them at level 10?

[March]

That's what WaR said...  Then they hammered the XP curve to keep folks from advancing into under-developed areas.

I'm concerned that the XP curve, the soul acquisition process, and the respec costs will be blown-up at launch for all the usual reasons that Devs seems to fall for time and again.  The game is fun in Tier 1 precisely for the fast character development, and easy experimentation.  Slow all of that down to "protect" the later part of the (un-)finished game, and suddenly the grind to add a point to a talent that increases your block rating by another 5% of your Spell-power just isn't as cool.  I'm seeing mixed messages on the boards on this: XP is what it will be at launc vs. XP is much faster so we can test content... don't know which is correct and would be interested in a definitive statment (if one has been made).

I still think that they are not playing to their biggest strength: Role based game-play regardless of Archetype.  It appears to me that they are falling between two stools:

Stool the first: Warriors should Tank, Rouges DPS, and Clerics Heal.
<RIFT in current implementation>
Stool the Second: Choose the look/feel and mechanics that you most enjoy, and perform all the roles needed to explore the world.

I am, however, impressed with lots of little QoL iterations over WoW - the sorts of things that made me appreciate WoW over DAoC 6-years ago (though, definitely not as drastic).

[kildorn]

I will say the balance seemed way off this phase. Marksmen turned crazypants, non healy clerics were mauled, and some of the higher tier skills turn silly (suddenly you open up stuns, healing debuffs and interrupts all over the place)

And the latest zone opened is.. content sparse, to say the least.

I like the game, but I feel like it still needs some time in the oven, and it's making me feel like WAR's beta did: that we're testing zones in phases not to force us to test the hell out of it, but because the next zones aren't done yet.

They are testing zones in phases for other reasons.  They are iterating the shit out of the lower level zones to get more and more feedback out of them.  The rest of the zones are being testing and abused in their other tests.

That leads to Conanitis: your lowbie zones are AWESOME because of all the feedback and changes. But then you hit the stuff that needs feedback and changes. Once you leave Gloamwood, the quests dry up, flagged Story chains just randomly end with no actual story resolved, and you start getting sent all over creation to find level appropriate quests (my favorite are the level 30 chains that lead you to the level 28 quest hub)

edit: don't get me wrong, every phase is leaps and bounds better than the last, polish wise. I just fear that with the current level brackets being tested and the usual 2 phases of a zone being open to it being "good", and the massive balance changes last patch.. it seems like they need more than the ~3 weeks they have left to finish Rift.

[Abelian75]

That's what WaR said...  Then they hammered the XP curve to keep folks from advancing into under-developed areas.

I'm concerned that the XP curve, the soul acquisition process, and the respec costs will be blown-up at launch for all the usual reasons that Devs seems to fall for time and again.  The game is fun in Tier 1 precisely for the fast character development, and easy experimentation.  Slow all of that down to "protect" the later part of the (un-)finished game, and suddenly the grind to add a point to a talent that increases your block rating by another 5% of your Spell-power just isn't as cool.  I'm seeing mixed messages on the boards on this: XP is what it will be at launc vs. XP is much faster so we can test content... don't know which is correct and would be interested in a definitive statment (if one has been made).

Honestly I don't agree, but not because I think you need to meter out the rewards.  I don't think a player should have to be thinking about more than two soul trees for a WHILE.  That shit is complicated.  I'm ok with working on figuring out the best talents to get in a single tree, or two trees, for quite a goddamn long while.  I really think the soul system is by far the most unapproachable part of this game, and if they thrust that shit on people too early I think it could turn people off.  You really need some time in a single soul tree to get a feel for it as a real, "solid" entity that is self-contained and powerful all on its own.  If my ability bar is crammed with tons and tons of abilities from three souls (often with essentially duplicate abilities from different souls) by level 12, I think that's too much.  I'll still totally play it myself, no question, but I'll be thinking, "Man, this could really turn some peeps off."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I don't like the system.  I do like it, but I like it as something to think about after I've been playing for a month or so.  I certainly don't think there's any need to ram too much complexity down people's throats right away.

Edit:

That leads to Conanitis: your lowbie zones are AWESOME because of all the feedback and changes. But then you hit the stuff that needs feedback and changes. Once you leave Gloamwood, the quests dry up, flagged Story chains just randomly end with no actual story resolved, and you start getting sent all over creation to find level appropriate quests (my favorite are the level 30 chains that lead you to the level 28 quest hub)

That isn't really the same kind of jarring thing as Age of Conan had.  AoC literally completely changed the level of content fidelity the moment you stepped out of Tortage.  Suddenly there's no voiceovers, no long, plot-driven quest chains, etc.  It converted from an extremely narrative-based questing system into a more standard WoW questing system.  Rift's are WoW-like from the start, there's never any illusion being presented.  Now, if it does decay into just being less good than the earlier stuff, that totally sucks, but it's not quite the same as AoC where it didn't just stop being good, but changed altogether.

Still, though, that sucks, and I hope they do have a chance to make it not suck.  I'm just saying I don't think it would inspire the same sense of "Oh, the previous content was a lie" that AoC did.  Rather, "Oh, they didn't finish this part yet.  That blows."  Cuz AoC's later levels WERE finished (as I recall), it's just that it sucked.  Permanently.  Because they changed the game after Tortage.

Edit 2:  Shit, I'm becoming a fanboy, aren't I.  Fuck.

[kildorn]

Rift has voiced content for major characters, which is jarring in some later quest chains (because you get MAJOR DUDE TALKING, followed by other dude just.. using text bubbles to hold the conversation)

There's a funny one in Gloamwood where major characters 1 and 2 chat at each other, and major plot character 3 just sits there using /say

But Conan's main problem imo wasn't the lack of voiceover work, it was that Tortage told a story, had deep quest lines and reasons to go here and there... and then dropped you into the untested/never seen before wasteland of "go kill X fozzles for no reason" and huge content gaps.

(as an aside: that's why you should beta with your live xp curve in place: because WAR found out that when you change your curve seconds before going live, you wind up with MASSIVE CONTENT GAPS where your quests dried up and you need to grind 3 levels to get the next quests.)

[Amaron]

So popping my head out of lurking here.    I'm curious if people are willing to make predictions.  On top of Blizz dropping the ball with Cata and this game = not made by shitties things look interesting.   Not sure I'm all that psyched for a "better than WoW" WoW clone but I'll try it.   I'm more interested in watching Trion investors peeing their pants in joy and watching the whole industry go "WTF" collectively though.

[March]

Honestly I don't agree, but not because I think you need to meter out the rewards.  I don't think a player should have to be thinking about more than two soul trees for a WHILE.  That shit is complicated.  I'm ok with working on figuring out the best talents to get in a single tree, or two trees, for quite a goddamn long while.  

Sure, I could see a Tier 1 system where you get 1 soul for, say 10 or 15 levels then your second soul (though I believe they recently changed this based on feedback, no?) - but I'm talking about the ability to get the Ranger soul, then the Rift Soul then the Saboteur soul.  If I can drop/add souls almost for free at the trainer (as it is now), then I could live with only having 1 or 2 equipped in the early game.  The system only really gets fun when you have big handfuls of points to spend, anyway.

Still, I think the bigger problem you hint at is that the Archetypes are poorly "synergistic" across souls - esp. at low levels.  This is exacerbated by the fact that the rouge basically has 6 flavors of DPS which are not optimized to work with a Non-DPS role like Tank or Healer (they don't really work all that well together as DPS either for that matter).

[Ghambit]

I wonder why studios dont make these MMOs from the top-down rather than the bottom-up.  It goes against the base 'carrot on a stick' mechanic when your game degrades as you level up, rather than getting better.  To me, this at its heart is what WoW did well... as you leveled, things got more and more interesting.  Every game released post-WoW aside from Eve (which doesnt count) has done the complete opposite... as you leveled, things got less and less interesting.  

The short-term fix was that many of these games sped the leveling process along and purposely made it bland just to get to the endgame, ala AoC.  But, too often said endgame is buggy, unfinished, and lacking any real depth.

My fear from what I've been hearing is that Rift may be of the latter.  Instead of the world coming into focus as your character gets old, the world gets more fuzzy.  I personally care nothing of the early-game, I'm more of a traditionist in these regards.  I should be a weak, confused whelp when I'm lvl 1 and things get better as I go.  Matter of fact, I would've been happy not even being 'Ascended' until the last level in Rift, let alone have access to multiple souls.  With this comes the realization that Rifts/Invasions shouldn't even be 'fightable' until endgame; they're better served twisting the map with their untouchable chaos while we level, rather than just being dummies we beat on till we tire of them.

[Abelian75]

So popping my head out of lurking here.    I'm curious if people are willing to make predictions.  On top of Blizz dropping the ball with Cata and this game = not made by shitties things look interesting.   Not sure I'm all that psyched for a "better than WoW" WoW clone but I'll try it.   I'm more interested in watching Trion investors peeing their pants in joy and watching the whole industry go "WTF" collectively though.

I have been pretty much wholly won over by the game, but I'd be really surprised if it actually surpasses WoW or anything.  That seems a little extreme, I dunno.  I feel like saying I expect it to be the most successful post-WoW MMO thus far might jinx it, but that's kinda how I feel.  I really like it.  Although I think more significantly than that, I just can't see how I'd ever really want to play WoW rather than Rift except for just a change of pace.  Even aside from the game mechanics and graphics and shit, it's just an extremely pleasant-to-use piece of software.  I value that... a lot.

[kildorn]

So popping my head out of lurking here.    I'm curious if people are willing to make predictions.  On top of Blizz dropping the ball with Cata and this game = not made by shitties things look interesting.   Not sure I'm all that psyched for a "better than WoW" WoW clone but I'll try it.   I'm more interested in watching Trion investors peeing their pants in joy and watching the whole industry go "WTF" collectively though.

It's not going to bomb barring a WAR style MYSTERY PATCH a day before launch. But it's not going to have anything near crazy sub numbers, either. I'd say they're on their way to trying to do what WoW did well around the TBC/Wrath era (please the customers, not the rabid posters. Add in QoL features like a better LFG system and clean up the quest breadcrumbs), but this last patch has me hesitant that with all the attention on them the devs just went crazy. (across the board nerfs to anything that wasn't standard role trinity, large increase to world mob lethality)

It's like they're trying to embrace the "we're hardcore, not like those WoW pansies!" theme, which is pretty much how you kill your game. They were doing well at "we're a highly polished WoW alternative if you're tired of that game by now"


edit: soul complexity wise: the trick to picking souls is to pick one you want to do, one that compliments it (passive bonuses, or a specific low level skill you really want), and one that is useful at roughly 0-10 points. I see a lot of boring souls (archons win for "this is never supposed to be a "main" soul, right?" imo), and a lot of really good post level 20 souls (Stormcaller is currently my model for "this is what a soul should be like", a lot of passive easy stuff low tier with some powerful utility, and seriously interesting damage stacking mechanics in the high tier)

[Abelian75]

I wonder why studios dont make these MMOs from the top-down rather than the bottom-up.  It goes against the base 'carrot on a stick' mechanic when your game degrades as you level up, rather than getting better.  To me, this at its heart is what WoW did well... as you leveled, things got more and more interesting.  Every game released post-WoW aside from Eve (which doesnt count) has done the complete opposite... as you leveled, things got less and less interesting.  

The short-term fix was that many of these games sped the leveling process along and purposely made it bland just to get to the endgame, ala AoC.  But, too often said endgame is buggy, unfinished, and lacking any real depth.

My fear from what I've been hearing is that Rift may be of the latter.  Instead of the world coming into focus as your character gets old, the world gets more fuzzy.  I personally care nothing of the early-game, I'm more of a traditionist in these regards.  I should be a weak, confused whelp when I'm lvl 1 and things get better as I go.  Matter of fact, I would've been happy not even being 'Ascended' until the last level in Rift, let alone have access to multiple souls.  With this comes the realization that Rifts/Invasions shouldn't even be 'fightable' until endgame; they're better served twisting the map with their untouchable chaos while we level, rather than just being dummies we beat on till we tire of them.

I'm going to take a totally uneducated guess here, based purely on the fact that the Rift devs seem to be just plain good at this shit from everything I've seen thus far.  My guess would be that they have done a decent amount of work on the endgame itself, and the level cap content, and that the gap that does exist is probably similar to the STV pain that WoW had at launch.  That doesn't excuse a gap, don't misunderstand me, but... yeah, you're right.  There can't just be an end to the content.  I can't imagine they'd make that mistake though, so my hopeful guess would be that the content they risked not having enough time to finish is neither the early stuff or the final stuff, but rather the late-middle stuff.  We'll see I guess?

[Threash]

So popping my head out of lurking here.    I'm curious if people are willing to make predictions.  On top of Blizz dropping the ball with Cata and this game = not made by shitties things look interesting.   Not sure I'm all that psyched for a "better than WoW" WoW clone but I'll try it.   I'm more interested in watching Trion investors peeing their pants in joy and watching the whole industry go "WTF" collectively though.

If they manage to have a successful launch like AoC or Warhammer i expect them to do really good, second best to wow in sub numbers (second by a very large margin).  People obviously want to play something new yet familiar, and this doesn't have the blatant pitfalls of previous attempts.

[Merusk]

I really like what they did with crafting and salvaging, it keeps crafters leveling their skill from flooding the market with below material cost items.

Yeah that was a clever little twist that I really liked.

Also, Rangers/ Marksman are exactly how I'd expected WoW to have revamped the class YEARS ago.  Tried one out late yesterday because the cleric hit 20 and was slowing down and it was pretty fun.  

I dislike that I've read the xp is amped-up in the game right now, because starting about 18 I noticed the leveling really started to slow down.  It could be that I was behind on quests from all my rifting, but it seemed like getting from 18 to 20 took nearly as long as going from 1-13.

It's like they're trying to embrace the "we're hardcore, not like those WoW pansies!" theme, which is pretty much how you kill your game. They were doing well at "we're a highly polished WoW alternative if you're tired of that game by now"

Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled by most of the community for this aspect alone.  The game isn't any more difficult than WoW ever was, but I saw a lot of people trumpeting how "this game takes skill."   Really made me want to turn off newb chat and avoid the game in general when I'm able to do these things again.  It's a nice, well-polished DIKU that's got similar mechanics to WOW but a nice alternative twist.  (And a hell of a lot more classes.)

[Merusk]

I haven't seen anything about grouping dynamics.  Is there a level range to group and share exp?  Is there Mentoring? Is it needed?  If my friends are level 20, can I play with them at level 10?

Since you asked and were ignored; it's a DIKU with all the usual deals involving groups from what I can see. There's no mentoring excepting in the BGs where lower levels are buffed so as to not be fodder (tho they can't kill anything, either.. so use your stuns/ snares)

I wouldn't say mentoring is needed because everything is easily soloable and the rifts attract groups pretty quickly. The question is how true the latter will remain a month or more after launch when there's 1/200th the population to take care of invasions, etc.  If the early-hours pops are an indicator, it'll suck and you'll be getting killed by wandering badass invaders a lot.

[Draegan]

That leads to Conanitis: your lowbie zones are AWESOME because of all the feedback and changes. But then you hit the stuff that needs feedback and changes. Once you leave Gloamwood, the quests dry up, flagged Story chains just randomly end with no actual story resolved, and you start getting sent all over creation to find level appropriate quests (my favorite are the level 30 chains that lead you to the level 28 quest hub)

edit: don't get me wrong, every phase is leaps and bounds better than the last, polish wise. I just fear that with the current level brackets being tested and the usual 2 phases of a zone being open to it being "good", and the massive balance changes last patch.. it seems like they need more than the ~3 weeks they have left to finish Rift.

There is nothing similar between the testing methods of Conan and Rift.  There are two congruent tests going on.  Beta and Alpha.  Also, you've now seen, or least potentially seen, level 35 of 50.  That's a bit more than just seeing Tortage.

[Draegan]

Oh yeah: Open Beta

RIFT™ OPEN BETA EVENT SCHEDULED TO START FEBRUARY 15TH

 

Sign up at www.riftgame.com/betasignup to play in “Telara the Merciless” beta event

 

On February 15th Trion will lift the veil on their upcoming MMORPG Rift™ with a six-day open beta event, giving all would-be Defiants and Guardians the opportunity to preview the epic world of Telara before the game launches worldwide on March 1st. Servers are scheduled to be open from 10 AM PST on Tuesday, February 15th to 10 AM PST on Monday, February 21st, giving users a taste of Telara, including two playable factions, the first 42 levels of play, three PvP warfronts, and several zones and dungeons to explore.

 

Sign up now at www.riftgame.com/betasignup for a guaranteed spot in the “Telara the Merciless” beta event, and secure your spot in the Rift head start period (February 24-March 1) by pre-ordering the game now at http://www.riftgame.com/preorder.

[Amaron]

It's not going to bomb barring a WAR style MYSTERY PATCH a day before launch. But it's not going to have anything near crazy sub numbers, either.

Well see this is where I think it's going to get interesting.   This game at first glance appears to be so non shitty that I bet it was cheap to make.   When I say cheap I mean I see no signs that this client suffered from the usual fuckups.   There was probably no ball smashing bug crap that they spent 2 years trying to fix for a bazillion dollars ala WAR/AoC.

I kind of get the feeling that they could get something like 400~500k sustained subscribers.   Seems like small change to WoW but in reality it's probably a number that would have Trion investors making money hats.   I find money hats very amusing obviously.

[kildorn]

That leads to Conanitis: your lowbie zones are AWESOME because of all the feedback and changes. But then you hit the stuff that needs feedback and changes. Once you leave Gloamwood, the quests dry up, flagged Story chains just randomly end with no actual story resolved, and you start getting sent all over creation to find level appropriate quests (my favorite are the level 30 chains that lead you to the level 28 quest hub)

edit: don't get me wrong, every phase is leaps and bounds better than the last, polish wise. I just fear that with the current level brackets being tested and the usual 2 phases of a zone being open to it being "good", and the massive balance changes last patch.. it seems like they need more than the ~3 weeks they have left to finish Rift.

There is nothing similar between the testing methods of Conan and Rift.  There are two congruent tests going on.  Beta and Alpha.  Also, you've now seen, or least potentially seen, level 35 of 50.  That's a bit more than just seeing Tortage.

If there is a second group that has already content passed Scarlet Gorge and Scarwood and given it the thumbs up, their other group is terrible and should be replaced immediately. It's pretty undeniable that right now a zone comes out, then gets a pass, and another pass, and then is "good". Last patch changed the placeholder quest names in Gloamwood. It was THAT unfinished that they hadn't even finished naming quests.

"this has all been tested and the stuff you haven't seen is totally badass" is the "there's another client we don't have that fixes all the bugs" of this beta.