Enter at Your Own Rift: Three terrific player dimensions that have to be seen to be believed

"Oh man, guys, I am going to go flat broke from Dimensions," I whined into guild chat.

While it seemed like everyone else in my guild was sprinting through Storm Legion, hitting level 60, and gearing up for the new endgame, I was puttering around at level 51 in my brand-new home, trying to figure out the best place for a kitchen nook. Earlier that day I had blown over 100 plat to purchase a new Dimension and outfit it with one of every item that was on sale in the Tempest Bay canals.

If you love player housing, then RIFT has got your next fix. It's flexible, it's insanely easy to use, and the possibilities are just about endless. I'm still fiddling around with ideas -- I think I'd like to make a haunted maze for visitors to enjoy -- so to get inspired, I started hopping around to other players' Dimensions and see what they whipped up. I'm pulling three examples out of the many that are already out there just to show off what this system is capable of doing.

Ball Shack

On our server, Ball Shack is currently the most popular player Dimension by a really wide margin, and it's not hard to see why this is the case. Having utilized a whopping 1081 objects, the designer has created a place that's brimming with details and cool architectural designs.

The main tavern looks just great (I love the fire square and chandelier), but it gets nuts when you realize that the creator made a second floor out of spare parts. And then, what the heck, a third floor as well.

That's one of the cool features of Dimensions: You can build pretty much any structure you want, including additional rooms, floors, and even houses.

Case in point: When you exit the tavern, you will be treated to a gorgeous backyard with several other structures. There are a couple of multi-level tree forts, a floating hotel, and other curiosities.

Ball Shack obviously took a lot of time, effort, and money to create, and it benefits from having so many objects at hand to do so. Sometimes you will awe people just by having a lot in a confined space, but that's by no means the only way to do it.

Death Mistress' Lair

Well, at least you kind of know what you're getting with a title like that! This is a gruesome dungeon full of impaled horrors, floating brains, bone wallpaper, and giant viscera. Also, there's a really cute bedroom tucked to the side for some reason.

Death Mistress' Lair uses the Breach Chamber, which I previously assumed already looked scary. Maybe, I thought, the player just tacked on a few odds and ends to a pre-established horror palace. But no, Breach Chamber looks pretty benign in other instances, so my respect for what's been done here has gone up a few notches.

Floating Islands

Within a Dimension, every object is rotatable, resizable, and able to be placed anywhere along the X, Y, and Z axis. This freedom means that objects don't have to be limited to window dressing; it can transform from decoration to building material, from frippery to fun activity. I've already seen a lot of players working on jumping puzzles and other ways to exploit the vertical space, and so I've chosen Floating Islands as a good example of what can be done.

Floating Islands takes place in a waterlogged plaza without a lot of available flat ground with which to work. This player decided to make his or her home up in the air instead and created a series of islands connected by stairways to lead us up there.

Building things up in the air just seems like a lot of fun to me, and I wonder how many players won't even think to do that until they see it done. By the way, the view is great once you get up there, and I think this Dimension could be a top tier contender with a little more work on the aesthetic.

Really, we're just seeing the mere beginnings of what could eventually be an incredible bounty of player-created spaces. I think a lot of RIFT gamers are more concerned about leveling and content consumption at the moment, but Dimensions will always be there waiting for when things slow down.

So what wonders have you seen when you've gone Dimension hopping?

Whether they're keeping the vigil or defying the gods, Karen Bryan and Justin Olivetti save Telara on a weekly basis. Covering all aspects of life in RIFT, from solo play to guild raids, their column is dedicated to backhanding multidimensional tears so hard that they go crying to their mommas. Email Karen and Justin for questions, comments, and adulation.