RIFT: One Year Later

[wolvojay]

Well i just wanted to post this to say thanks for such a quality game, i have played rift on and off since launch (as i've had a lot happening in rl), but i'm currently at level 43 and loving it! I thought i may get bored once i hit the 50 but after reading up on the chronicles of attunement i think i'll be playing for a long while yet .

I can't really comment on PvP as thats not my thing, but i am about to head into Runic Descent for the first time later today and really looking forward to it. For the £9 a month fee this game really is worth it, i know i certainly get my moneys worth anyway, love my guild, love my char, love the the different areas in the game and love the helpful community.

I'm fairly new to the MMO scene i only got into WoW about 6 months before rift came out and was looking for a new MMO that i could be a part of from the very beginning, i have found that in Rift, great work guys keep it coming .

[sijmister]

Hey Scott and Rift Team,

Just saw the interview you guys did with The MMO Report, and I'm going to watch the rest as they roll out through the week. You guys did a great job telling people what your game is all about and I hope the rest of the interviews are just as good. The only thing that irked me was the cursor on the screen in that awesome picture behind Hal Hanlin XD. A pet peeve of mine. Anyway I'm excited to see what is to come as the game moves forward.

[Gunzip]

Rift is an awesome game, keep up the good work TRION.

[Essie]

So, I can understand the consolidation of servers. However, the amount of server lag even with the tweaks is horrendous. I just love being in an invasion and seeing the red warnings over my screen about ability prepping or some other nonsense. The invasions on the Faeblight server see a lot of participation, so much so that somehow, they are contributing to lag during raids. Not to mention the spacebar spamming balloon popping and horse racing games that are contributing as well right now. I have to say that wiping due to server lag because Beruhast's 1.2 second inferno lash was missed by 4 people spamming interrupts in hopes that server lag will not get in the way, is becoming annoying as well as frustrating. Tweaking the server to only have one invasion at a time, good idea. Not taking into consideration that even one invasion at a time is still causing lag due to high population, bad idea. I run at an unusually high FPS due to tech and ISP normally not falling below 50FPS at any time. Lately, I have suffered (some of you will troll this comment) through 22FPS and have been avoiding Ember Isle and the invasions as best I can since they drop me to 0-5FPS. I have watched as it takes sometimes 20 seconds or more during invasions to actually have an ability hit the target which has also caused me to loose ISS on end bosses. Not happy there since I have to come up with various tanking/dpsing/barding sources for my toon, plus have a cleric who needs various cores for healing/dpsing/and icar/support healing. Also, due to the lag issues, I have seen some of my guildies decide not to play at all since they are becoming frustrated.
So one year later in review, Trion announces SERVER LAG! Like it, or leave the game..... Yea, if server lag doesn't clear up, I prolly will not be renewing my sub. I have had my eyes on another game for a while and had planned to keep RIFT for raiding and such but the lag is annoying and will prolly drop sub when the new game is launched

[Woodmizer]

I played RIFT a lot lately. I have 4 level 50s. I play the game as a single player, and im not much for dungeons and raids. Just get home from work and do some questing and crafting.
The graphics in RIFT are amazing. Exiting worlds to travel. As im not doing dungeons, crafting is my main surce to get new gear. I made 4 mages all with different skills to supply eachother.
..and here it comes:
Any level 2 squirrel knocks me off my mount. I cant just go from A to B without kicking my way through.
I could get a fast mount, but all my gold goes to repair and mats, so i havnt been able to save enough for that yet. I had this idea, that one of my mages should have the Tormentor staff. Price on AH: 150 plat.
When i reached level 47, saving all loots from level 1, i was able to buy the staff. Now im collecting mats for the tormentor robes and shoulders. The amount on mats?! its a joke! I will have to grind from now till xmas 2015.
The grinding: Trying to attack with a brain is useless. The mobs i just killed simply spawn right behind me faster than i can say: "What the f..?!" Suddently im in the middle of 5 elite mobs comming from nowhere, knocking me half the way back to Sanctum to pay 87,5 gold in repair.. again.
Questlog is full of groupquest i cant handle alone. I just cleaned it and abandoned them.
Regarding loot: Most mobs dont drop any? Just killing and killing to get 87 gold and a 46 gold repair on soul.
This taste a bit like "dance little monkey dance"
Last: My computer crashes from time to time playing RIFT. i tried it all, but it still crashes. Only playing RIFT.
Even i bought a full year subscribtion, im leaving the game for a period now. Im full, and i had enough.
If any of you miss me, you can find me on Moonglade, WOW
Im done, and now its your turn to diss me and call me names.
Merry Xmas and a happy newyear to all

[G0PH3R]

Congratulations on 1st anniversary. I'm playing since beta and I have an healer cleric as main. Sure, lots changed until now and game is growing. Though I'm starting to lose my taste on game lately, and honestly I didn't play last month at all. My intention is not to bash anything as there are still tons of good in game, and great effort from production team which I respect a lot. I will write my points that make me feel discontent, and hopefully wishing to get heard.

During launch months expert dungeons were offering challenges to players, and I was getting excited completing them, kind of getting sense of achievement, not needed to be proven on stylesheet, but in my hearth. Experts got easy, easy, easier, easier... I got everything from them, consumed them. All right... So, I moved on by joining guild. Great mates. They helped me a lot joining raids. I ran few with them. It was great feeling. Unfortunately I couldn't continue as my playing times were restricted with rl issues. I can only spare 2 hrs max. Raids take much more when scheduled, and I don't want to be a team mate who leaves activities in the middle of runs.

Well thats ok with me, I can do low-mans I thought, but there I failed. Finding people for master mode dungeons is hard (extra hard for me because I have a bad habit not to group with people who ask achievements shame on me). Master mode is still not for the masses who moved on from experts and have low playtime preventing joining raids. So I feel kind of stuck in game progress at my current state.
I just want to feel sense of achievement (the real feeling).

Experts, world events, invasions, rifts are too easy that you get bored with game very quick. I sometimes ask myself, what am I doing one shooting mobs using only one ability, is this fun? For some I think answer is yes, but for me it is not a "long lasting" fun. We have lots of classes, tons of abilities and we ignore many during gameplay, even buffs. Elite mobs offer a challenge I agree, but I would like to see much more of them scattered all around suprising players with sudden appearances perhaps.

This is about excitement you get. If you don't get excited from content you don't play the game, which is consumer perspective that all you know about it much better. Catering casual players with grind and dry fun won't create long-term subs. Thank you for reading.

[Divexo]

If you're talking about the recasting channelled spells to get a big damage burst, that was a bug/exploit, and the way it worked in the beginning was bad for the game.

recasting firestorm halfway through its current cast is what I know/knew double tapping to be.

I would like to see an open zone contested mob(s) that would be top tier raid/raid rift type mobs. They could spawn randomnly every few days or so and if you completed the raid you would have a lock-out or unable to hit buff for a certain amount of time[week(s)/month] so all top guilds can have pull opportunities.

[Sandokhan]

Rift is a great game to play and the people is what makes the game for me. I just wish Trion would promote the game more and open up moore shards instead of closing them. Other then that the game is fantastic and worth evey peny.
Keep up the good work guys

How about increasing the existing shard´s popullation before opening new ones?

Trion would be better off merging shards, if you ask me. I´d like to see more people playing in my shard (Seastone).

[Anamchara]

How about increasing the existing shard´s popullation before opening new ones?

Trion would be better off merging shards, if you ask me. I´d like to see more people playing in my shard (Seastone).

ICAM! It's sad to log in and see "low" population on 90% of the servers. Trion needs to get their act together. TSW is coming and there is NO way Trion will keep their population and players if they don't get it together!

[Elyssea]

Hello Trion and congratulations for having a great and solid foundation on an already beautiful game!

You are doing a great work with Rift and I would love to make some suggestions, as a media professional and as a gamer. Allow me to start a bit with SWTOR. Besides some technical challenges it has (dynamic lighting/shaders and real time cloth) it presents the quest lines with convincing Voice Overs and atmospheric (and at times emotional) music score that places the player deeper inside the role. That game though has serious issues though and it's apparent it was rushed (the code is a bit of a mess as mob abilities even have stacking & name-space problems). Rift stands on a more solid ground.

Adding a cinematic feel could go a long way attracting a wider player range. This translates to additional camera angles, more music score and -of course- more Voice Overs. It could start with the story quests and then -perhaps- expand to other areas as well.

Now I understand that if the characters are not made for lip-synching, this is a tricky part of its own as it will limit the camera angles.

On a second aspect, I would love to see a bit more detailed animations. Some areas (i.e. the walk) still appear stiff and at times fast (some enemies die as if they go down with 5Gs). I am not sure if the animation sequences are retargettable (it would make things a lot easier). I love my Rift characters, but it's kind of strange watching them walk fast motion (I do like to RP as well, but the walk throws me a bit off to be honest).

As a third aspect, some extra atmospheric music scores could add a lot to the environments. You have the escalating music, so some atmospheric & suspense tunes could fill in nicely. Also, some sound effects could benefit greatly with extra bass as it gives the player the power of their moves/spells/actions. Audio is the 50% of any successful... audiovisual product!

I've been in Rift -active- since the beginning, but I paused playing since last Autumn (but didn't cancel my subscription as it's still running). Just yesterday I returned and started playing again and I have to admit that I am trully enjoying it! Rift is a really good game, and it can be magnificent.

I have 4xlevel 50 characters in Rift and I don't remember submitting any bug issues (at least serious ones). In SWTOR I have another 4xlevel 50 characters and I've submitted over 25 multi-bug reports. That says a lot about the quality of Rift's core.

That's my long two cents! I am not sure my suggestions will be taken into account, but that's a good way to win the "tougher" audience/player base out there. And then? Promote, promote, promote aggresively!

As for further in-game features, I believe the fellow players before have covered the basic grounds!

Keep up the good work!

[Souldancer]

I agree with the poster before me. The one thing that stands out more than anything else is the music in this game. Coming from WoW where, love it or hate the game itself, a masterful composer put together an epic-quality score, Rift just seems a little lacking. I love the game, and visually it is superior in every way to nearly all the competition, but that just makes it all the more lamentable that the soundtrack is just not up the quality of other games.

I don't agree that you have to go face-first into cinematic-driven experience ala BioWare, but it would be nice to have more interaction with quest-givers ala Bethesda.

That, and continue prioritizing the API for add ons so that the interface can be better customized, and you will have laid the groundwork for a mass return of players. All you will need is to announce an expansion pack (and you DO need to announce an expansion pack if for no other reason than to remind people that Rift is still here. Patch 1.8 doesn't drum up interest. An xpac would.)