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Enter at Your Own Rift: The little things
For me, it's all about the little things in life: the smell of a good cup of coffee, the enthusiastic hug of my two-year-old, an illicit pack of Lemonheads candy, or throwing punny tags into Massively articles. While big things are essential to have and get right, it's the little things I find that give life its unique flavor. So when I enter MMORPGs, I'm always on the lookout for little things. Oh, sure, PvP and raiding and overarching epic stories are all well and good, but it's from the little things that the soul and flavor of a game emerges. I'm often far more delighted when I stumble upon a funny little Easter egg in a game than if I win that roll for a purple piece of armor. Today I want to look at 10 little things in RIFT that I've come to appreciate and savor over the past month or so. Maybe these elements don't get all of the glory, and maybe they're even seen as superfluous to some, but without them the game would be far less to me. So while we rush between rifts and struggle with expert dungeons, I'd encourage all of us to take some time to reflect on all of the supporting cast of features that are just as important to the overall effort.
Beta 5 patch notes posted for RIFT
If you've been following RIFT closely over the past few weeks, you know that the fifth beta event has just begun. That means it's time for a new batch of updates, and the staff at Trion Worlds has come through. The notes for the newest event have been posted, and they contain an exhaustive number of changes, including a much-requested public grouping system and a number of UI improvements. There's also the usual collection of bugfixes and changes based on testing feedback. Many players had requested some sort of open grouping system to coincide with the game's dynamic events, and the new public group system facilitates just that. Although the system still requires clicking a few buttons and flagging yourself as open for public groups, it streamlines the process of getting everyone organized and cooperative during a rift battle. RIFT testers and fans should take a look at the full list of changes before diving into the newest event.
RIFT beta 5 introduces public grouping, will be "twice as big" as beta 4
Ready for their fifth taste of RIFT this week, beta testers will find a host of changes and improvements waiting their assessment. Chief among these is a much-requested feature: public grouping. Because so much of RIFT's dynamic content revolves around spontaneous zone events, players have clamored for a way to quickly group up instead of spending precious time spamming the chat channels. Two UI additions now allow players to connect with public groups as efficiently and quickly as possible. This news comes from Scott Hartsman, who posted a lengthy preview of RIFT's beta 5 event on the official forums today. Announcing that beta 5 will be "twice as big" as the previous beta event, Hartsman revealed that the team is increasing the number of servers from 18 to 32, which should allow for up to double the amount of players. Other changes in store for players this week include a better organization of planar currencies, Rogue energy fixes, ranged sound improvements and "significant love" for invasion mechanics. Hartsman also revealed a few items that the team is working on for future updates, such as better racial abilities and master looting. You can read his full announcement here. %Gallery-111840%
