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Field Journal: Seeking instant gratification in RIFT
I've always been pretty open about my feelings on RIFT: I have an immense admiration for the mechanical ideas and the sheer effort Trion makes, but the world-building and aesthetic choices put me to sleep. The game firmly belongs in the category of those games I wish I liked but don't. While I played the game's first 20-something levels (not to mention trying out several alts into their teens) early in its existence, it just could not hold me. Further attempts, such as during free weekends, in the unlimited free trial, and after the conversion to free-to-play, uniformly resulted in my milling about for a couple of hours before getting bored and uninstalling yet again. Maybe if I ignored the world entirely and focused purely on constant activity, I could get into it. Fortunately, RIFT's Instant Adventure system offers just what I need to test that theory.
RIFT releases Update 2.1, begins Fae Yule
You've gotten a taste of the new festival content, you've seen the huge raid, but nothing will prepare you for RIFT's 2.1 update quite like this post will. Trion Worlds took the curtain off of its first post-Storm Legion update today, triggering the game's seasonal Fae Yule celebration as well. The centerpiece of Update 2.1 is a 20-person raid called Endless Eclipse. The new endgame raid is not the only challenge being added, as Trion's patched in a new expansion-themed chronicle, updated the PvP conquest system for level 60 battles, and added weekly crafting quests for high-level adventurers. With Fae Yule's second round in the game, Trion's shoved in plenty of more activities and rewards. There's a nifty sledding minigame, holiday-themed instant adventures, lots of dailies, and merry decorations for players' dimensions. This update comes out on the heels of Trion's announcement that the studio was suffering layoffs.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Six things I learned about leveling via instant adventures
With a few weeks to blow before Storm Legion arrives to give us a wealth of new content to explore, I decided to roll up an alt in RIFT and see just how far I could get him in the meantime. The character is a mage, and the Harbinger soul looks wicked awesome, so I figured, why not? I wasn't that interested in going back through all of the quests and zones, however. I've done them, explored them, and made peace with them, and I knew that chugging back through all of those quests would drive me nuts (and take too long!). So instead, I figured I might as well try a new tactic: I resolved to just use instant adventures augmented by dungeon runs for the entirety of my leveling experience. It's a huge plus in RIFT's favor that this is an actual option, and I quite enjoy IAs anyway, so that choice felt right. Over the past week of doing this, I've learned a few interesting lessons about chugging through IAs as a character's sole source of XP, loot, and advancement. For anyone who might be following this path, I'd like to share those lessons.
Enter at Your Own Rift: First impressions from returning players
What do a statistician, a tinkerer, a party guy, a time-challenged player, and my better half all have in common? They're a handful of gamers who have recently been playing RIFT with me, and many of them have come back after a break from the game. It's pretty much been one coincidence after another that they've all come back around the same time, and while we all get along swimmingly, we all have differences in our playstyles that make this group a decent representation of the RIFT demographic on the whole. Would the game hook in everyone? Would the second time be the charm? Hear their impressions in this week's Enter at Your Own Rift.
RIFT's Update 1.9: An interview with Scott Hartsman and Hal Hanlin
"It's about more players being able to do more things with each other." That's how Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman described the core goal behind Update 1.9. And based on the upcoming changes, it looks like there will be plenty of opportunities for both. From Conquest to mentoring to low-level instant adventures to the new 10-man sliver and even the arrival of global chat across all servers, the world of Telara has several exciting new changes on the way. Massively sat down with Scott Hartsman and Design Director Hal Hanlin for a roundtable discussion about what's in store for 1.9. Read on for highlights and a look at what's coming from this rather beefy patch.%Gallery-159097%
Enter at Your Own Rift: Why update 1.9 could be the best one yet
In the most recent Enter at Your Own Rift, we looked at Conquest, an exciting new opportunity for instanced three-faction PvP. It's been generating a lot of buzz, and players have had two chances to check it out its development on the test server. Conquest is scheduled to be part of RIFT's Update 1.9, which is probably just around the corner if past update schedules are any indication. But that's not all that's planned for the next game update, and there are two additions that I think could very well be gamechangers for RIFT. The first is a mentoring system, and the second is the addition of lower-level instant adventures. In this week's column, we'll look at both through last week's test event and explore why they could make update 1.9 the best one yet.
Fishing, survival, and dragons: The Trion Team talks about RIFT's 1.8 update
As the Carnival of the Ascended draws to a close and the last of the piñatas and balloons are put away from RIFT's first birthday, Update 1.8 is just around the corner. It's full of new content, including the new raid zone Infernal Dawn, fishing and survival skills, and lots of game improvements. Massively took part in a roundtable discussion with Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, Design Producer Hal Hanlin, and Producer Adam Gershowitz to get all the details on Update 1.8 and more. Read on for highlights!%Gallery-153032%
Scott Hartsman: A fully dynamic RIFT 'lacked clarity'
It's a well-known fact that throughout a good portion of its development process, RIFT was designed to be a completely dynamic world free from the traditional questing system. So why did Trion Worlds feel the need to shoehorn in these established MMO elements? Scott Hartsman doesn't duck the question in a recent interview but gives an open explanation for how the process came to be. He said the team originally began with a huge concept of a world where everything could change and be transitory but discovered that it had one big flaw: Players didn't feel connected to the world they were supposed to be saving. "A lot of it came down to a lack of clarity," Hartsman admits. "People need to feel like they have a place in the world in order to feel like it's a world they want to keep coming back to." To provide a way to anchor players in the story and place of the world, the team went back and added a static layer in addition to the dynamic one already present and created new ways for the two to interact. Hartsman reveals that everything in RIFT is created, balanced, and scaled by designers, as the team rejects fully machine-generated content (although the devs have used programs to assist in the design). He says that the team's main focus, from before launch until now, has been to get its subscribers to play together, as those relationships help "stick" a player to a game like nothing else.
RIFT celebrates its first year by looking back... and looking beyond
It's been a tremendous first year for the RIFT team, and as the devs embark on year two for the game, they have taken a moment to look at the progress the title has made and where they intend to take it from here. "We built a really good foundation," Technical Design Director Peter Ju said, "and now we're just going to keep expanding it, expanding it, expanding it." Apart from the expected proud testimonies from RIFT's developers, a new anniversary video shines some light on the development process. Ever wonder how Trion Worlds can pump out updates in such rapid succession? One of the reasons is that the tech is structured so that every dev can run -- and experiment upon -- a server on his or her own computer. The team is excited about a brand-new 20-man raid that includes a dragon made entirely of treasure, not to mention a zone that's composed entirely of a city. A brief shot of a marker board suggests that the team is mulling over trapping and fishing professions as well as a possible mentoring system. You can get pumped up for RIFT with this video after the jump!
Enter at Your Own Rift: Looking back at RIFT's first year
As I ran around smacking loot piñatas (finally, someone acknowledges these things for what they are), I wondered how on earth RIFT's first year went by so fast. The Carnival of the Ascended is just around the corner, and on March 1st, the game officially celebrates its first birthday. In just one year, RIFT has seen seven game updates, a handful of world events, and all sorts of new additions and improvements to the world of Telara. Rather than being a straight-up retrospective, this week's Enter at Your Own Rift is looking back on the first year with a Justin-style list of highlights and even a glimpse of what's coming in 1.8.
RIFT devs on Russian revolution, improved itemization, and solo success
RIFT Live Producer Hal Hanlin and Systems Producer Adam Gershowitz were flagged down by fansite Magelo to tackle a grab bag of various questions about the game, including the process of injecting this title into the hearts of the Russian populace. According to Hanlin, the Russian release of RIFT was "very smooth," and he credits Trion Worlds' partner in the region, GFI, with assisting in that. Even as itemization improvements continue to roll into RIFT, the devs state that they're constantly monitoring damage output. For the next patch, Warriors will see a buff to their DPS as attack power will be tweaked to boost the pain. Hanlin promises that "soloable content is very important to us" and pointed at the success of Instant Adventures and the Chronicles of Telara as proof that Trion has responded to the desire for such content in the game. The devs touch on small details from the recent patch and their vision for expert dungeons as well.
Get into a RIFT Instant Adventure faster than watching this promo video
"Players are in for good surprises," Trion Worlds' devs promise. "It's like nothing you've ever seen in an MMO before." What's all this about? Why, it's the upcoming Instant Adventure feature for RIFT, where players can jump right into massive group content without having to sit in a queue or worrying about group composition. This "nonstop excitement" is hyped via a new video diary in which the feature is quickly demonstrated while the devs hit all the talking points in less than a minute. Instant Adventures are designed to deliver quick group quests without having to pull together specific roles or wait for world events to occur. By clicking on the Instant Adventure button, players are brought to either Stillmoor or Shimmersand and a special encounter is launched that scales up and down with your group's size. Give it a look and see if this is as good as the devs' word -- the adventures start (instantly) after the jump.
The MMO Report: The beard is gone edition
An unashamedly beardless Casey Schreiner* bookends a special (albeit late) edition of The MMO Report this week, and it's all about RIFT's colossal 1.6 update. The Report features RIFT Producer Adam Gershowitz, who declares that RIFT is now well-known for being "the MMO that updates the most" while discussing November's impending From the Embers patch, RIFT's sixth major update and its largest to date. Gershowitz explains that the update inserts a massive new zone-playground for endgamers, the Ember Isle, complete with the new Rise of the Phoenix raid instance, the Caduceus Rise dungeon, the instant adventure "looking for quests" tool, and RIFT's first recurring holiday event, Fae Yule. (*Casey's de-bearding was, he claims, "for the greater good," and by the greater good, he means in the service of a swanky Petyr Baelish Halloween costume. How cool is that?) Hit the jump for the special edition MMO Report!
Trion's Hal Hanlin and Mike Daugherty give details on RIFT's update 1.6
RIFT has gained a reputation for its fast and furious pace of updates, and doesn't appear to be ready to shed that image any time soon. Players are currently participating in the Ashes of History world event, and learning some clues about a mysterious new island, which is due soon with Update 1.6. In addition to the launch of a new overland zone, Ember Isle, there will be new group content, new zone invasion mechanics, and a new feature called "Instant Adventures." Design Director Hal Hanlin and Content Lead Mike Daugherty took some time to talk to Massively about Update 1.6. Read on for highlights from the interview.
PAX 2011: RIFT sifts through the Ashes of History
PAX has come and gone, but the good news keeps pouring out. Over the weekend, RIFT fan site Rift Junkies got the opportunity to grill Trion's Simon Ffinch and Hal Hanlin about the show itself and the upcoming 1.5 patch. Generally, the devs were pleased to see the crowds pack around Trion's booth, especially since playable stations were always full. They noted that many current RIFT players came to log into their accounts and show off the game to newcomers. Patch 1.5 was a major focus of the interview, and Ffinch and Hanlin said that casual players should rejoice at its approach. Tentatively scheduled for September, 1.5 will include the new Chronicles system that has solo or duoing players exploring hand-crafted instances. These instances are designed to be "snapshots" of the larger raids they're associated with, and will give both casuals and raiders a better glimpse into the lore behind the setting. For example, the Hammerknell Chronicle will tell the story of how the king and prince become corrupted. The patch, which is called Ashes of History, will also include the new planar attunement trees ("It's the players beginning to start taking controls of the powers of the planes," Ffinch explained) and the super-tough "master mode" for dungeons. It's interesting to note that this patch is setting the groundwork for the exploration of a larger Telara, as players will begin to find and renovate items that will eventually allow them to head to new zones. Hit the jump to watch the full interview!
Enter at Your Own Rift: Forward thinking
RIFT right now feels like it's in the middle of that quiet pause right before all hell breaks loose. In game, we're in the thick of the Waves of Madness event, and good old Scotty's ammunition is working well against the doors of Hammerknell Fortress. The question is, what will happen once the doors are finally broken? Outside the game, Trion CCO and Rift Executive Producer Scott Hartsman posted a "State of the game," which outlined what they have planned for the fantasy MMO down the road. But it actually leaves us with more questions than answers. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll look at the world event as well as the summer update, and speculate on what's really coming to Telara.
