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The MMO Report: Where the mobs raid you
The MMO Report returns this week with a special RIFT edition in celebration of the game's first birthday. In this extra-long show, Casey visits the Trion Worlds studios in Redwood Shores, California for a beard's-eye view of the game as it turns one. He meets up with such Trion notables as Scott Hartsman, Hal Hanlin, and Russ Brown as they chat about the Carnival of the Ascended, the anniversary events, the mobile app, and the record-breaking 20,000 marriages recently performed in-game. The devs also discuss how they balance fan feedback (endgame players are apparently the loudest) and claim that the latest patch features the "greatest balloons ever put into a game." Eavesdrop on Casey's tour in the HD video after the break!
Previewing the nuts and bolts of MechWarrior Online
MechWarrior Online might just be one of the most exciting titles to be announced in recent times. If you have ever played any version of the game or have ever enjoyed stomping around in the Battletech universe, you'll be happy to know that, yes, the new online game is actually being made. While the IP will soon turn 30 years old, it's still very popular. Some of us remember painting metal figures to place into our tiny lances, while others have fond memories of jumping and shooting, jumping and shooting, jumping and shooting. Massively joined the press roundtable for the game this week and snagged some juicy information. We talked with Piranha Games' President Russ Bullock and Creative Director Bryan Ekman about how the development process is going, how their philosophies influence design, and how the game will actually play. Click past the cut, and watch out for heat!
Trion Worlds takes players on a tour of RIFT's upcoming Hammerknell raid
Ia! Ia! Akylios f'htagn! You may have (read: should have, and if you haven't go do so now) seen our hands-on impressions article covering the new raid coming with RIFT's patch 1.3, Waves of Madness. The instance takes place inside of the abandoned Dwarven city of Hammerknell, where Akylios -- the Dragon of the plane of water and the object of worship of the Abyssal Cult -- has long been imprisoned. The cult has now breached the ancient stronghold and is in the process of awakening its aquatic master. In a new walkthrough video from Trion Worlds, VP of Development Russ Brown gives RIFT players a sneak-peek at the world event that will accompany the opening of Hammerknell's long-sealed doors. Once the doors have been opened, we're treated to a tour of the halls of the city itself, where the ghosts of fallen Dwarves and Abyssal cultists alike stand to prevent Telara's heroes from interrupting Akylios' awakening. The video shows off four of the raid's bosses, including Akylios himself, so those of you wanting to avoid spoilers can consider yourselves warned. Russ also takes some time to stop and admire the hauntingly lovely architecture and lighting of the deserted city, which is truly stunning. Any RIFT players who don't mind a few minor spoilers and who want to get a look at the upcoming content can click on past the cut for the full video.
RIFT podcast features Trion dev roundtable and fansite questions
The RIFT podcast is back with its 31st episode, and the latest show features a panel of distinguished developer guests from Trion Worlds as well as a smattering of questions from various fan website representatives. The guests include producer Scott Hartsman, vice president of development Russ Brown, and design producer Hal Hanlin, and the trio chats about a wide range of topics including botting, pet classes, and balancing game design with player demands. Also on the docket are tidbits concerning a RIFT random dungeon finder, target autofacing, and Trion's ultimate goals for RIFT (as well as a few thoughts on exceeding them). Head over to The Rift for all the audio antics.
Critical feedback on the road to RIFT's launch
Criticism, even well-meaning constructive criticism, is never easy to take. "Dealing with constant, live feedback is not always easy. Sometimes it can be a morale hit when people are overly critical of a feature," Trion Worlds' Russ Brown admits. In a new dev diary over on ZAM, Brown explains just how important feedback is to the development process, and how Trion is handling it as the team fine-tunes RIFT for launch. According to Brown, working on an MMO is different from working on a single-player title because one encounters -- and invites -- a lot more feedback on an ongoing basis. This turns out to be a double-edged sword: It can be disruptive to the team's schedule and require a lot of extra work in response to concerns and issues, but the feedback can also result in a much better product all around. Ultimately, Brown feels as though the team is actually paying attention to the players: "There have been times when I've come into the office in the morning to find work done by an entire group of developers staying late the night before to fix an instance or invasion. Not because some stuffed shirt told them to, but because they care, and just like the players in our alpha/beta, they want to make the best damn product possible. The only way to do that is to listen to your customers and react."
Russ Brown talks on Heroes of Telara
Information is scarce on Heroes of Telara, one of Trion World Network's upcoming MMO titles, but Trion's Russ Brown is helping to fill in the gaps by sitting down for an interview and talking about what the game will have to offer.Russ's interview with the MMO Gamer (all the way back from E3, according to Trion's Stephen Reid) is a great read for anyone exciting about the game's "emergent world" possibilities, as Russ talks frankly on how the team can get into the game and hijack the monster AI to control them, or how they can even do little things like have merchants who have limited time sales.Russ also talks about the game's class switching system and subclass system, where you can pair classes with your main class to emphasize or change their traits. If you want more of a fighting paladin than a healing paladin, for example, you could pair the paladin class with the fighter subclass.If you want all of the gritty details though, head on over to the MMO Gamer and check out the full interview. As we said earlier, it's worth the read.[Via MMORPG.com]
