[MMO]Rift: Planes of Telara

[Mangala]

NDA was lifted on this today - and while some stuff has been seen on its own website: http://www.riftgame.com/en/ - no doubt as a result lots more info will be forthcoming.

Its a mmorpg - 2 factions, pve, pvp etc  Rifts that spawn across its world dynamically changing the regions around them for a random amount of time/npc incursion from rifts are fought back.  Seems to take from a variety of the market mmos out at the moment.

Intro for each faction:

(Guardian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ-4IPopXFQ

(Defiant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah31R8-ZHN4

Basic features include:

Level 50 cap;
There is an achievement system;
Classes are known as callings. And there are 4 initially Warrior, Cleric, Rogue, Mage. On top of which each calling gets 8 souls (think of these as specs ala Wow/WAR etc) More on this here: http://www.riftgame.com/en/classes/system.php Effectively it looks like 270 possible combinations to choose from when building a character;
Rifts (dynamic open world encounter) scale based on number of people in the area. (PQ's anyone?);  More on Rifts: http://www.riftgame.com/en/game/rifts.php
There are dungeons for groups of 5, 10 and 20. A dungeon may have wings you cannot access when you are lower level. When you arrive at the dungeon at a higher level those wings will open up. The dungeon inhabitants may have changed, mob placement may have changed and there maybe new or different bosses. It will be a different experience;
Death Penaltys in the form of stat loss etc;
Heroic Challenges - "which are essentially miniature raid bosses that appear in instances and immediately act as quest goals"

Fly throughs of parts of the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBI2xgEhtgQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNXq1JeJZXE

Some first hand info on the recent Closed betas now that the NDA has gone is showing up across the net, including several forums I use. So I'll post the first one that impressed me:

It's a fun, highly polished game that borrows heavily from WoW in class and combat mechanics. The soul system is a borderline brilliant leveling innovation. Leveling is primarily quest based using TBC quest style mechanics (Using clickies, kill 'x' quests, escort missions, loot 'x', etc.), and is the only way you get new soul trees for your character. Rifts are fun, lots of fun, giving you amazing experience and loot drops based on your contributions made (Healing, DPS, buffs) during a rift event, which consist of five increasingly difficult stages. If you don't close a rift in time it spawns a raiding party, which heads towards a player NPC quest hub and can take it over.

The souls are divided into four main categories: Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, Mage. Each category uses the same base mechanic (mana for clerics, energy/combo points for rogues, etc.), and has eight souls that each fill different roles in a fight (tank, heal, DPS, support). When you choose a soul, you gain access to their tree, and whatever base/default abilities are associated with that soul. I focused mainly on the cleric souls, so I'll go into detail on how those worked.

Clerics have access to the following souls:

- Warden (water based HoT healer. Base ability is a HoT)
- Sentinel (light based AoE/balanced healer, base ability is an instant heal)
- Purifier (Fire based direct healer. Base ability is a self damage absorbing shield, think PW:S)
- Druid (pet based support/melee DPS. Base ability is a pet summon that can cast a weak HoT or nuke)
- Shaman (Melee two handed DPS, base ability is a self+melee damage buff and a fast attack)
- Justicar (self heal/group heal tank. Base ability is a buff that heals you a % of damage done when using a damage ability)
- Inquisitor (ranged light/dark magic DPS. Base ability is a light based fast casting nuke and an instant DoT)
- Cabalist (ranged AoE dark magic DPS, Base ability is a 2 second cast time 'bomb' spell that does massive AoE damage once the NPC either dies or takes 'x' damage)

You get your first soul at creation, your second soul from a quest around level 5, and your third soul from a story quest near the end of the second leveling zone (between roughly level 17-20). You can buy alternate specs, which lets you swap to a different point allocation in your souls. So it is possible, for example, to have Warden, Inquisitor, and Justicar as your three souls, and be able to swap between healing, tanking, and DPS between fights. Mind you, each soul has synergy with other souls in terms of how the abilities and talents work, so while you CAN do this, it isn't optimal.

The classes all have interesting enough abilities and dynamics that I'm very intrigued to see how this is going to work out at level 50. You can already begin to see some exciting game play by 20.

Now, no one is saying this is a wow killer - noone uses that term anymore. Wow is the elephant in the room of the MMO market and nothing except Blizzard themselves will change that, but quite a large portion of their playerbase only plays it as there is nothing else about that they get a good feel for, to me it looks like 2011 will change that with Rift and SWTOR both releasing during it.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this and also trying to get into the more open betas/stress tests going forward and will report back here.  It could actually be fun.

[Mangala]

Now a post that focuses on a downside or two from the posters pov:

I won't post an entire review, but I'll touch on a few points. I'm big on questing and lore so I think I'll focus on that and let others talk about the various other elements instead for now. I may chime in on other things that I liked/disliked later.

In short, despite anticipating it very highly, I do not like Rift. The major reason for this is the questing.

Quests are the main avenue of advancement in Rift just as they are in World of Warcraft or various other MMOs, and Rift's take on it is a perfect example of what is wrong with this system. Quests have become the new grind, and very few players actively like doing it. It has become something we feel like we have to do to advance instead of something we actually want to do. I've got countless posts on these boards and in this thread alone on how to fix this, but it is simply too late for Rift to do something new here. These quests are absolutely the most run-of-the-mill circa-2004 quests that I was sick of as soon as I started. If you've played WoW/Aion/EQ2/Warhammer you've likely already done every single quest in Rift (unless things drastically change after 20 - not likely). There is absolutely no innovation and no creativity whatsoever here, and yet it is the biggest part of the game while making your way to cap. Extremely disappointing.

The most humorous thing about the questing system is that Trion likely thought it was fine because it is what WoW has done and WoW is so successful. The thing is, Blizzard's devs have outright said their questing was horrible. They've taken steps over the years to improve upon it and with Cataclysm they truly have at least done what they can with a flawed system and made the experience far more fun than it used to be. Trion was unable to think ahead themselves to move forward and thus now the game they were emulating has surpassed them before they have even released. Simply put, questing in Cataclysm is 10x more fun than it is in Rift.

One of the main reasons for this is storytelling, one of the most important aspects of these games to me.

In a good RPG, you aren't thinking about grinding out that next level. You aren't sighing because you have so many more things to kill or boring quests to complete until you ding. We've put up with that for awhile in MMOs because there was nothing else, but that is finally changing.

With amazing innovations like phasing, WoW is finally moving to a point where you are actually going through what feels more like an engaging, cohesive experience in each zone and leveling is at last taking a backseat to simply completing these parts of the game. When you're an Alliance character in your early teens and you enter Westfall, it is no longer about grinding out quests that you aren't going to read until you hit 18 or 20. Now there is a story there that is hard to miss even if you skip the quest text because of the way it is presented. You are completing this story and when you're done you sit back and realize you hit level 20 without even noticing. That is how it should be.

With Rift, there is none of that. From what I can tell the lore itself isn't terrible (though it certainly isn't good) but most people will not even become interested in or even know what is going on because they aren't going to read the dull quests and there is very little going on outside of that text to communicate the story or what is happening. Occasionally NPCs will spout off some poorly written dialogue, but there is little context if you didn't bother to read the quests. Even if you did, it is unlikely that you feel any connection to what is happening.

Therefore, the quests are just a constant grind. And you REALLY feel it. Right from the start. It is insanely mundane and boring to the point that I wanted to stop playing before I even hit 20 in the first beta, but I pressed on because I wanted to see the first dungeon. I killed boars. I collected meat. I ran from here to there and back to the NPCs who treated me like a glorified errand boy despite the fact that I am supposedly this great hero, this ascended soul. It certainly doesn't feel like it. No, here I am as I was in WoW in 2004 – nothing but a messenger boy who does meaningless tasks that are passed off as somehow important to saving the world.

There is no adventure. Despite the desperate situation the world is supposed to be in, there is no sense of urgency or excitement.

So, I've gone on enough about that. Here are some suggestions that would improve things for me personally, though it is likely too late to do this until an expansion or something:

Racial starting areas: The races seem very bland currently. I have no connection going in and do not even gain one as I play more. Shouldn't there be more to this than just looks and racial traits? I think so, and I think giving each race its own starting area would perfectly solve this issue in addition to the flaw of only having one starting experience per faction. I'm actively discouraged from rolling an alt on Rift because I can't stomach going through the exact same dull experience as I did before. Part of that is just a problem with the quests themselves, but with different starting areas I could at least have a little variety perhaps. This also helps the world feel more real and alive. It currently does not. Extremely bland.

Phasing: I'll just outright say it. You cannot compete with WoW without phasing. You need to get on it and implement it asap. It is an excellent way to tell a story and offer the dynamic content that is so often touted with this game. Once this is in, you have a huge amount of options when it comes to improving questing.

Improve questing and player involvement: Quests need to feel less bland and involve the player on a more personal level. Get us involved and caring about what is going on. What does being an ascended truly mean to me? What if I didn't want to be one? Why don't I have more choices? Why don't my actions affect the zones I am in (again, you need phasing) despite these quests suggesting I have put an end to some threat?

I want to feel less like a cardboard cutout “superhero” who despite being praised by every NPC I walk by ends up being tasked with collecting meat, killing wolves and boars, and swimming around shallows picking up bits of whatever. This is insanely boring and quite frankly insulting in 2010.

Maybe the soul system, the rifts, or whatever raid game Trion boasts in the end will be enough for a lot of you guys, but for me personally I don't want to play a game where I have to stomach the entire leveling process and just get through the dull grind in order to hopefully find some light at the end of the tunnel. I used to be willing to do that. I am no longer.

[Keggi]

i had a beta invite to this but passed on it as it didnt seem like a real beta just a weekend pass to check it out.

and looked like the usual wow clone.

[Mangala]

i had a beta invite to this but passed on it as it didnt seem like a real beta just a weekend pass to check it out.

and looked like the usual wow clone.

The betas were real betas, just weekends during the closed beta (I looked it up).

Ive seen a video of the ui now - and jesus its eq/wow/war all in 1!!

[Keggi]

yeah you were invited to one weekend beta event and then nothing more thats not real beta to me.

a few forum ppl were invited as vips to beta test the whole way through but only the the ones with brown noses got those.

[Jarkko]

I am in the closed beta, or at least the next phase of beta (from Tuesday to Friday). Anybody else in now, perhaps giving any suggestions to a noobie?

EDIT: Ah, seems I am one of the brown-nosers mentioned above   as I have access to all beta tests until the game launches.

[Mangala]

I am in the closed beta, or at least the next phase of beta (from Tuesday to Friday). Anybody else in now, perhaps giving any suggestions to a noobie?

Play endlessly with the char creator, research all the souls a given "class" can have and look into the talents (for want of a better word) granted by those souls for that class.  Dont just pick a generic type and roll on in, the souls are what makes this game different from its peers.

[Keggi]

well i finally gave the beta of this ago and i must say i liked it.

loved the graphics though my gtx460 with 2 gig helped alot also loved the rift concept had some cracking battles but must remember to only heal my group and not try healing the whole raid on my cleric.

ofc its a wow/everyother mmo clone and i hear its the warhammer engine but it sure seemed alot more stable.

i did think i was lagging quite a bit when i first logged in but some helpfull person told me to turn my shader down a notch in the video settings and this did the trick even with 50 or so people in the same area.

think im giving this ago till atleast swtor comes out maybe september as i got tired of cata very quickly.

[Mangala]

Ive been reading up on the dungeons, they sound pretty good - and there seems to be at least 1 thats limited to each specific faction

Have you given those a go yet?

[Keggi]

first instance starts at level 17 and i only reached level 14 as i was trying different classes but i did find myself in one by accident when i jumped down a well which a quest lead me to.

i started doing the quest then noticed a few elites roaming around so had a read of where i was and found out it was an instance it looked gorgeous sort of an outdoor instance(gardens of fae i think its called) it seemed very sprawling and i heard it takes some time to complete.

edit:realm of the fae its called:)

[Mangala]

Might give the next beta phase a go then if there is one before the release in march.

I tried it a while back, but didnt give it a proper go, so may have to.

[Keggi]

Might give the next beta phase a go then if there is one before the release in march.

I tried it a while back, but didnt give it a proper go, so may have to.

next beta starts 4th feb 18:00 gmt(i think) ends 7th then 15th till 22nd and headstart is 24th of feb

[Jarkko]

Well, I did like the game suprisingly much   So much I did preorder it.

Tried all archetypes on each side, played in all 10 characters to levels 11-14. I avoided getting to 17 on purpose, don't want to ruin the feeling in those later on (altough intend to check out things in next beta).

It's basically what WoW was in 2004. Copy all the good things from existing MMO's but make them slightly smoother. While the soul-system is cool, it is pretty much similar to the LOTRO trait system with a splash of WoW talent-trees. Rifts and invasions I found immensely fun, even though those are pretty similar to LOTRO skirmishes combined with the Public Quests from WAR.

In all, I don't know *why* I liked the game so much. Might be because it is new and shiny (I tend to like new things that are shiny...), but I believe there is something there. I can't put my finger on what it is, but it is definitively best of the MMO's I've been in closed beta phase (LOTRO, AoC, WAR, Fallen Earth).

Of the 10 toons I played 6 were on Guardian side and 4 on Defiant side. I think I'll definitively be a Defiant, their background story is IMO much more cooler. Besides, it feels cooler to step back in time through a time-machine to prevent things going all hell, instead of being an ancient hero woken by gods to fulfill a prophecy. The Defiants feel more like "ordinary people" who just have to fix things that went wrong, instead of the Guardians who all are so full of their goodness :p



Piglet the boar with his bard-ranger-blademaster pet called Fitzer.

[Mangala]

You guys might like this then:

[Mangala]

No invite for me for this weekends Beta try.

Still following all I can on this though, seems interesting.

(PS for those who did, if you can get to a mount vendor at any level under 20 and can afford it, they removed the min20 limit on mounts).