Rift: Planes of Telara

[Hawkbit]

Bah, people don't want choice!  You've gone crazytalk.

Also, the yogscast - do they have one where they get to see a rift for the first time?  I can only imagine the squealing involved...   

[Sheepherder]

It's kind of strange that nobody has tried solo dungeons in a big way yet, given that instances are intended to grant greater developer control and facilitate smaller group sizes.

[Rasix]

It's kind of strange that nobody has tried solo dungeons in a big way yet, given that instances are intended to grant greater developer control and facilitate smaller group sizes.

Funcom tried with AO.  They just really did a poor job with it.  Shocking, I know.

edit: Not sure it even counts, since they were generic, simple structures meant for grinding.  AO disaster patch broke them in hilarious ways.   

So yah, nothing in a "big way".  Nothing compared with the effort put into group endeavors.

[UnSub]

It's kind of strange that nobody has tried solo dungeons in a big way yet, given that instances are intended to grant greater developer control and facilitate smaller group sizes.

Well... Cryptic heavily instances everything, and catches a lot of flak from some sections of MMO players as a result.

[Sheepherder]

Instance everything != lots of single player dungeons.  Most people are willing to accept that they have to zone in to a dungeon space.

It's a fine point, I know.

[Phred]

I don't know, that would be ideal for someone like myself.  I've been pining for solo (more accurately scalable) instances since my life made it impossible to raid. I don't give a crap if it's slower progression or provides worse rewards.  For all of its faults, AoC had some nice solo instances that were pretty enjoyable when they weren't buggy as all hell.

Holy shit! I was thinking to myself just the other day about this. I was even gonna start a thread about it. People can say what they want about taking one of the M's out of MMO, but that is exactly what I have wanted to do recently, what with the new WoW dungeon system punishing the whole group when someone a)acts like a tard b) doesn't know their class inside and out c) the healer accidentily blinks d) general lack of group cohesion. It really emphasized how sick I am of the group paradigm. I mean, I liked the instances, but I am sick of failing for some shit that isn't my responsibility.

You guys know about skirmishes in Lotro right?

[Zetor]

Or any non-TF mission in COH, really...

[jakonovski]

Most people are willing to accept that they have to zone in to a dungeon space.

Which brings up a question: why aren't dungeon load times masked the same way as zone transitions? It's a huge point of immersion.

[Sheepherder]

Performance and the difficulty of synchronizing between three computers.

[Threash]

Don't underestimate just how well Rift runs on lower end machines. Nothing approaching WoW but on max(ish) settings in both games I get better performance in Rift on my past its prime machine. It's not going to compete with WoW's lowest settings but it does better than I expected.

Oh no, Rift runs great for what it looks like.  But we are still gamers, try running it on a college students cheap ass laptop or on grandmas 8 year old fourth generation hand me down though, those are the kinds of set ups that can run wow.

[Lantyssa]

Yet another thing Guild Wars solved years ago...

[Sky]

Which brings up a question: why aren't dungeon load times masked the same way as zone transitions? It's a huge point of immersion.

Because dungeons are private instances. Zone transitions you're going from one public space to another. I guess you could refine my idea with it being a seamless transition that still gives you a popup for private versions of the instance.

[Nebu]

Oh no, Rift runs great for what it looks like.  But we are still gamers, try running it on a college students cheap ass laptop or on grandmas 8 year old fourth generation hand me down though, those are the kinds of set ups that can run wow.

Call me an elitist, but I'm fine with this.  Any barrier to entry tends to have a positive effect on the spam in general chat channels. 

[Rasix]

That's kind of a dumb line to draw.

I don't know, that would be ideal for someone like myself.  I've been pining for solo (more accurately scalable) instances since my life made it impossible to raid. I don't give a crap if it's slower progression or provides worse rewards.  For all of its faults, AoC had some nice solo instances that were pretty enjoyable when they weren't buggy as all hell.

Holy shit! I was thinking to myself just the other day about this. I was even gonna start a thread about it. People can say what they want about taking one of the M's out of MMO, but that is exactly what I have wanted to do recently, what with the new WoW dungeon system punishing the whole group when someone a)acts like a tard b) doesn't know their class inside and out c) the healer accidentily blinks d) general lack of group cohesion. It really emphasized how sick I am of the group paradigm. I mean, I liked the instances, but I am sick of failing for some shit that isn't my responsibility.

You guys know about skirmishes in Lotro right?

I haven't been able to slog though LOTRO enough to get to them.  Are they equivalent in story/design/scope as the group/raid instances?  If not, they're just another take on AO/COH/others slapdash, throw away instance attempts.

[Nebu]

Skirmishes are just instances with reward vendors and some side goals.  The fun is that solo, you can complete them with an NPC that you also can level/develop over time.  While I really enjoyed them initially, they do get old pretty fast. 

[Sky]

Call me an elitist, but I'm fine with this. 

You say that like it's a bad thing. Fuck the herd.

[jakonovski]

You say that like it's a bad thing. Fuck the herd.

I would like to question claims of elitist individualism because one plays a mass market computer game.
 

[Draegan]

Why can't it have wicked gear? Fuck those grouptard and raidtard assholes. Either make grouping a fun exercise in its own right or gtfo.

I've been wanting scaled dungeons since forever. Have a popup asking which instance you want to enter 1) Public (contested, old school) 2) Solo 3)Group 4)Raid. You could even break it into Solo - Easy/Med/Hard, Group - Duo/Trio/or just scale it to the group, whatever. Static content ftl.

But ultimately, I love mmo developers because they consistently show me how much they don't want my money. Good show, chaps.

Go play DCUO 

Solo Hideouts, Duo Missions, 4 man group alerts, 8 man raids!

[Phred]

Skirmishes are just instances with reward vendors and some side goals.  The fun is that solo, you can complete them with an NPC that you also can level/develop over time.  While I really enjoyed them initially, they do get old pretty fast. 

They are definately more advanced than the old ao style private instance though. As well as developing your npc "pet" each instance has a bit of a plot and strategy to it. Some are defensive, like fighting off an invasion of a town with various npc's helping you, others you might go through the town, rescuing clumps of beleagued citizens. Sadly as most fixed content they do get old rather fast but the rewards are nice enough to keep you coming back anyway. Not only do you get epic armor every 8 or so levels but you can also buy rare crafting materials and recipes that let you take some of the tedium out, like mass processing ore to metal and such.

On the npc helper you develop. I boggle sometimes at just how retarded they have made the ai for these things. It must have been deliberate as the captain's helper pet doesn't act near as brain dead from what I can tell. I've had mine get stuck behind a stump and unable to walk over a 4 in high broken wall on the ground. And they specifically coded the naming code to disallow as many variations on I am a moron as they could think of to prevent you from naming it appropriately.

[Segoris]

Curse has posted the beta 5, 6, and 7 schedule. Even though it's not officially announced for 6 and 7, the leaks/early reports haven't been wrong yet so I figure I'll post this up.


Beta 5
# Jan 25th, 18:00 GMT - Jan 28th, 18:00 GMT
# Levels 1-30 (Guardian and Defiant)
# Access to Scarlet Gorge, Foul Cascade and the Codex Warfront!

Beta 6
# Feb 4th, 18:00 GMT - Feb 7th, 18:00 GMT
# Levels 1-35 (Guardian and Defiant)
# Access to Scarwood Reach, King's Breach and the Whitefall Warfront!

Beta 7
# Feb 15th, 18:00 GMT - Feb 21nd, 18:00 GMT
# Levels 1-42 (Guardian and Defiant)
# Access to Moonshade, Droughtlands and the Runic Descent Warfront!

[Shatter]

So levels 43-50 wont have open testing before launch?  Ummmm

[Ard]

There's an 8th unlisted beta yet (as far as I remember hearing about at least), and a full access closed beta going on that no one can talk about due to an NDA.

edit:  Actually, taking another look at those dates, if that's accurate, maybe they dropped the 8th beta in favor of the head start period, since the 7th beta ends a few days before the launch of the game.  This does make me a smidge worried.

[Shatter]

There's an 8th unlisted beta yet (as far as I remember hearing about at least), and a full access closed beta going on that no one can talk about due to an NDA.

I know thats the scary part.  They really should have a beta weekend or 2 of content and classes levels 43-50 like they have been for lower levels(or plan to).  Keeping the end game quiet with a locked up very limited beta with no plans for any OB time for what is probably the most important part of the game doesnt give me a warm fuzzy feeling

[Threash]

The latest newsletter has vip keys with 25 uses.

[Kitsune]

Um.  Requesting vip key, then!

[Shatter]

Here is mine, 25 people can use it for the beta

YJ7J-3Q3H-EWC2-LFCF-KWHD

To Apply the VIP Code:

Go to https://account.RIFTgame.com to login or create a new account.
Click "Apply Code" on the left-hand navigation bar and enter your VIP key.
You're done! You will automatically be invited into the remaining beta events.

[jakonovski]

I used one, many thanks!

[Murgos]

77P6-W7ER-CELL-WWK6-REYM
 

To Apply the VIP Code:

 

Go to https://account.RIFTgame.com to login or create a new account.
Click "Apply Code" on the left-hand navigation bar and enter your VIP key.
You're done! You will automatically be invited into the remaining beta events.

25 more

[palmer_eldritch]

May not need them but just in case: this should be good for 24 more uses

KPPH-FL2T-CTFD-MGH6-6GGL

[Kitsune]

Much obliged!

[Hawkbit]

The newest PvP video is intriguing.  It seems as if they're going more for a fun PvP and less epeen PvP.  I'm interested to see how the whole "rifting into your enemy faction for world PvP" is going to be accomplished, especially on a PvE server.

[Segoris]

edit

[Hoax]

I wonder if we should have put those hidden behind spoiler..

[Threash]

Or PM.

[Hoax]

I took one and passed it on to some RL friends before the faceless interwebs claim them all regardless. I am 90% sure I wont pay for Rift but I'm interested in the reminder of what WoW was like without having to play WoW.