Summer Update: RIFT Into the Future!

[ScrollTroll]

Have the mounts give special ability complementary to the zone or better yet the terrain. example Steppe terrain desert... camels get the picture.. You have the mounts just need the abilities. yea i would like my check sent to P.O. Box

[Moecoastie]

First off, I want to thank Trion for providing this "state of the game" post. Sounds like your team has been working hard and really trying to shape this game into something that will appeal to everyone. For that, you deserve nothing but praise.

Personally, I read these statements with a bitter sweat approach. Everything sounds exciting, everything sounds promising. PvP, alternate PvE playstyles, innovative ways to access Rift, etc...but I still struggle with the colors in the game.

Ive tinkered around with the settings in the game constantly over the last 4 months trying to get it to the point where I can concentrate and enjoy playing without having to struggle to see what most see plainly.

I do not mean to make this a grumpy post but I couldnt help but read this post, get excited, then face the reality that I still havent found a way to cope with color scheme and lack of customization to the UI that makes playing this fun game difficult.

[Voqar]

I like to PvP at times, I really do, but ultimately I find games that involve leveling, building up gear, developing characters over weeks/months, and all that, to be PvE games. It is so very difficult to integrate PvP in such a game and make it meaningful (and not just some appendage or random "you're red you're dead" murder for no reason).

DAoC integrated PvP pretty well but even that game had specific PvP zones vs PvE zones and battlegrounds.

The thing most of us more PvE players truly hate is seeing what is at heart, and at essence, a PvE game, ever get tweaked or distorted because of PvP when PvP always ends up being lacking or sucking in general and can never ascend to match the quality of the PvE game. So when souls are altered, abilities are altered, etc, due to PvP balance, and it screws up PvE in any way, it's really annoying.

Because.

PvP in a game as complicated as a MMORPG, with classes, specs, gear, play style, varying styles of interaction (1v1, group v group, raid v raid, wide open world, etc) - ie, a megaton of combining factors, you will never, ever, EVER have balance. There is no way every soul can be balanced for 1v1. Ever. Period. There is no way you can even fathom the potential role and soul combinations of a 5v5 or 10v10 and truly balance it.

So every time the PvE game is butchered in the name of PvP balance...it's a sad joke.

This isn't just limited to Rift, it's genre-wide.

I actually have no idea why people want serious PvP in MMORPGs when the entire genre concept is PvE. Online shooters, games like battlefield - games that present a more level playing field that emphasizes skill over build, gear, and other potentially unbalancing aspects, is the only place you'll ever find true quality PvP.

World PvP is pointless...unless it has a point. Maybe Rift has potential here...all the rift events and zone invasions show the game has the potential for stuff to shift control. If you could PvP invade an opponents areas and take out their ward stones and NPCs...maybe it'd add some point. It would be pretty much impossible to ever balance on a server by server basis due to population imbalances and stuff like that. But maybe there is some way to make world PvP in Rift something other than random murder for psychopaths.

[Ungratefll]

Please dont become another WOW where you release new endgame so fast that only the ones who have completed the endgame get to move on. Also, please do not make any certain class and spec the most OP in pvp, right now im enjoying the fact that its pretty even. All in all the game is really good right now, and id be dissapointed if you all started to release stuff as fast as wow.

[RiftChampion]

Iv played many rpg based games over the years by far one of the best games i like is RIFT however it would be awesomer if this development team considered flying mounts dragons waverns ect and making so when all players get to level 50 theirs not just a player cap at lvl 50 perhaps level cap at 65 so u can keep leveling and based incentives for continuing to play past level 50 suck as more gold earned from high level questing and perhaps new battlegrounds their arent that many

[Telnedra]

Thanks for the much for the update! Really looking forward to crafting recipe/patterns. My hope is that they are not only Epic, but possibly Legendary...and that they are definitely comparable to drops in a raid or even better. Rift is a great game and looks like its getting better at a rapid rate.

Definitely needed the explanation of souls/roles clarification for new players.

[evilhippo]

Question: Why do you *have to* run dungeons? And why do them over and over and over again?

Because other than zone events, which are great, there is very little else to do... particularly if you detest pvp in this format like I do, leaving... dungeons.

[Rakanishu]

Because other than zone events, which are great, there is very little else to do... particularly if you detest pvp in this format like I do, leaving... dungeons.

Rather annoying, isn't it?

[Alex113]

I very much agree with Laelaa. More dungeons. And I don't mean the 20 man raid type ones. Regular 5man ones that everyone will be able to access will be more than enough. (why not give us an extra D with every patch the same way you seem do with T3s for example)


I have been enjoying the game for a couple - maybe almost 3 months now.. However..
Find a way to make end game more accessible for us, casual gamers.
Ive hit a "hardcore" wall lately and Ive suddenly lost most of my interest in the game once I figured all that's left for me is to get a full epic T2 gear set (half way there also) (meaning Ill have to grind T2s for a couple of weeks at least and also grind boring collect/kill X daily faction XP quests) just so that I can find my way into an unfriendly as per usual (tho not something that has to do with Trion, its more of a...mmo social thing) raiding guild with members that take things juuuuust a bit too seriously. Maybe i'm just unlucky with the overall community on my shard, dunno..

Another thing is.. as a cleric player I find 2 big issues with the class especially since the game at char creation claims them to be sortof.. a jack of all trades. First, you NEED to make it less easy for R5-6 cleric PVP builds to dominate those capture the flag Warfronts. When 2 or even more fully geared players can't even touch you for a few mins.. It just gets..ridiculous, annoying even for them. And the 2nd is you must simply make ranged cleric DPS better. Even pre-50s (with green color gear even) all other classes simply do nearly or above double the damage a ranged epic geared cleric can do (not that melee is really much better btw). Clerics are mages/casters, so it doesnt make sense, to me at least, how they can be so good as healers yet so laughably weak as DPS. (comparing for example mages, who have at least a much better healing/dps balance, and the lesser armor doesnt really play such a great role since cleric tanks become clearly 2nd rate, even to rogues, the closer you get to T2 instance level) So to sum up for clerics, more ranged dps, less pvp 1vs10 survivability and maybe a small tank build upgrade to make cleric tanks build viable for T2 raids and T3s.
I do not claim to be a mmo gaming expert (not even close) or anything and do not troll (means Im not trying to provoke other members for emotional responses) Just hope someone from the "inside" team somehow ends up at least reading this :P

[Caliden]

While this does sound progressive, evision this improvement from an old MMO hand. You and your raid group enter a death rift, and proceed to clear the rift, and at some point, your raid leader plants a beacon down, and by way of the beacon, holds the rift open, not closed. The raid then enters the rift, into the world of the dead, to take the fight to Regulos and his minions on their own world. Imagine the possibilities.....Assume the minimum requirements of lvl 50, and guild with enough rank to say emplant a transplanar portal. I remember the days of old, taking the fight to Cazic Thule in the plane of fear, Inneroth in Hate, and so on and so forth. Whole planes dropping loot specific in most cases, with the gear looking like Death, Air, Fire, etc etc. All these great powerful colossi that make zone events happen could have their own little sections on their own planes. Endless Possibilities...

[shroomie]

Thank you all at Trion for sharing all these insights with us! Those of us that enjoy Rift as a true hobby, appreciate hearing all of this.

Keep up the great work!!

[hebbe61]

(haven't read through the entire thread so might be a repeat)

I would like to see an upgrade to crafting/faction recipes etc

Outfitting/Armorsmith/Weaponsmith/Artificer tends to loose their attractiveness when you hit 50 and realize that you might be able to make stuff that will keep you ok enought geared as a fresh 50 but will soon loose out as endgame progresses.

Faction recipes tends to get left behind cause when you hit the req faction to buy them you have outlevelled what you can make.
Maybe some sort of crafting quest?
Hit glorified with Order of Mathos and unlock a quest that lets you make better gear.

[Phizeke]

Trion listens to its community! Number 1 way to go!

[Pzyche]

Thanks for such clear and open communication. You've covered several very key things i think. I started playing with my girlfriend and we've been levelling up thre characters each in tandem, at 38-40 now. It's a great game - love it.

I've found the two big issues/fears about the longevity of the game for us in are Endgame Dread (For us, raiding and end-game grinding are just very WoW-school and we wouldn't really be interested in that) and the too-rapid levelling speed. For instance, my 26 cleric has only dome about half the quests in Freemarch and only a handful in Stonefield, but is 'past' those two already. Doing some dailies, dungeons, pvp and rifts just catapults you through the levels way too quick. I'd really be happy if it was a bout two- three times harder and oh, no rest either. Anyway, it's good to hear this is something being thought about.

A more varied Scarwood is definitely a good idea. Gloamwood was really atmospheric by comparison.

I've really enjoyed the world event, it's full of good challenges , neat rewards and a real aura of building menace - nice!

[Maauro]

I would like to have several long and kind of hard quest chains where at end you finish in high end peace of gear for certain slot.
To have quest chain for each slot which at the end give some kind of satisfaction and reward for completing quests. None of steps in chain should ever require you do do anything bigger than 5-man dungeons.

So, long quest chain requiring lot of solo stuff to do, lot of 5-man dungeons (to get needed drops from there), even include finishing specific Expert Rifts (though somehow they should be locked in way that no more than 5-mans can actually do them) etc. etc.
At the end of each chain you get awesome item in certain slot.

That way people who do not like raiding or PvP or like adventuring will have possibility to get awesome gear rewards and if quest chains done right also they would have possibility to have lot of fun during completion of those quest chains.