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Rift: Planes of Telara: Scott Hartsman Interview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Earlier this week, MMORPG.com's Michael Bitton had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco to visit the Trion Worlds HQ. While there, Mike spent time talking with Trion's COO Scott Hartsman. The discussion centered around Rift: Planes of Telara with topics ranging from multi-classing, to rift invasions, to exploration and PvP.
As far as PvP goes, Scott tells us that we can expect to see three quality warfronts (battlegrounds) at launch, as they are testing five or six right now and they expect the best ones to rise to the top. The idea being that they’d rather have three solid offerings over six that are “meh” as “no one comes back to meh.” One of the warfronts they are testing at the moment actually incorporates the rift gameplay as well.
Read the full Scott Hartsman Interview.
Comments
Looking forward to this game.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
We need more in for on the PVP BG PVP has alot of us worried on them turning it arena type PVP with a system like WoW pvp that is horrable. I a diffrent interveiw Open zone PVP was talked about now this kind of getting a bad feeling it will be a bad PVP system leaning toward's WoW's not DAoC type that alot want.
I'm definitely liking what I'm seeing with this game. Moar please.
Wasn't Scott the producer of EQ2 when the game was in its (imho) best shape? Alot of the things he talks about sound very similar, such as the collections, so for me it will be interesting to see what he creates here. One to look forward to.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Yes he was according to his site. He did EQ2 from the beginning to RoK epac.
one reason some oldtimer EQ2 players is looking forward to RIFT (personally not all that excited but oh well, might be cool, will see p )...oh and collections used to be awesome :P especially bone collections.
Thanks for the interview Mike. Now if you could just wrangle a World of Darkness Online interview from CCP. Scholar and a gentleman.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I really hope this game is going to be good. I don't like some of the decisions Scott and team have made, but overall it still looks to have some very exciting concepts including the dynamic system and the soul system.
Can you elaborate?
yay!!!
Gief moar BG-s!!!
I really like this game!
I'm gonna play iot!
I like pie! And rift!
Nice article .. I really like the fact that they are not worried about balance with regards to the specs.
I honestly cant wait for this game. I am more hyped about this than GW2 or SWTOR.
Good info there, im looking forward to this game. /crossfingers
I know i shouldn't assume but this article just made me very sad.
Battlegrounds? Does the MMORPG community really dislike PvP that much where we cannot get good open world pvp with meaningful objectives?
I guess the only way i'd play this is if these battlegrounds are as huge as a regular zone and can hold hundreds of players.
Well the way the market is going now maybe ill never get back to playing MMO's ever again. Hell its been 4 years now, why start now.
The fact that the game throws balance to the wind is worrying. Certainly one template will not suit all the game play roles needed, but is that enough to maintain balance? The ability to change your template ad hoc has serious consequences; are there no time delay or location restrictions? I can see this being useful in grouping though.
There was a suggestion that in pvp battlegrounds, disproportionate faction size would be balanced by the addition of npc’s. This is innovative idea, interesting to see how it pans out. You will have those who say it takes away the feeling of achievement if you can’t truly beat your opponents; on the other hand we have all been in pointless battles where we had no chance of winning.
well is awhile back now someone made the poll for FFA PvP, consensual PvP and no PvP at all....FFA PvP were by far in the minority, so yes. but who knows maybe they will have a PvP server.
Everytime i read about things that are potentially bad for PVP in this game i cackle with glee. 2 factions, SWEET!, possibility of ultra OP builds that everyone will play pvp with and make PVP worthless and no fun, AWESOME!
My most ardent hope and desire is that PVP will become an afterthought in this game and that they will focus on the PVE side of it which is what they should have done in the first place.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Open honest communication from a experienced well funded dev team... That alone has to be reason to look at this game.
That aside, loving the lore, the focus on community, the visuals and flavour, the systems and pretty much everything else I am seeing so far.
We are all cynical from having our fingers burned one too many times, I get that, but so far Trion have done everything right imo.
Hate to break it to you sport, but there is a huge following out there that actually does like pvp. Granted there are so many types of pvp, it's nearly impossible to please every one. Which is where we run into so much trouble.
If a company could use the DAOC RvR model for pvp /pve and actually manage to get it right (ala not WAR) they stand to make a killing.
Hate to break it to your sport, but i never said nor implied that there is anything wrong with PVP as a playstyle. I just don't think it belongs in Rift. Just like i thought Age of Conan's lore supported a PVE game more than a PVP game. The lore in RIFT is really quite the same in that it lends itself better to PVE. You supposedly have 2 factions with a common goal of keeping the earth from being over ran by planar demons, etc, but they're gonna take time out of the day to fight each other over what essentially amounts to philisophical differences... its ridiculous.
I love pvp mmo games, and i love pve mmo games, im just sick and tired of developers entertaining the 100% false idea that they can incorporate both into a game successfully. All you have to do is look at all the problems its caused WOW to see that it just can't work.
DAOC and WAR both worked as PVP games because the PVE in them was more of an afterthought and was there to support the PVP. PVP was still the primary point of the game.
EQ was succesfull as a PVE game for the exact same reason, but in reverse. PVP servers existed to satisfy that playerbase, but the primary focus of the game was PVE.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Rift looks really promising.
But Rift seems to go heavy on PVE with PVP thrown in which means PVP will be a mediocre experience.
It usally is this if a game is focused on PVP then usally PVE get shaften and shallow while if a game is aimed for PVE then PVP will get shafted and shallow.
I hope Rift proves me wrong.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
This game is looking better and better. Any Developer stating they can make a perfectly balanced game without resorting to Potatoes vs Potatoes is full of crap. I'm glad Rift decided to admit that there will be situations where one class combo is more powerful than the next and there will be flexible counters to most.
Battlegrounds can be fun. They even stated there will be meaningful Open World PVP, but I guess some people like to overlook that fact. I personally like the idea of capitalizing on an invasion to kick the enemy faction in the teeth.
Rift doesn´t sound bad. It is good to have a choice in near future, if one of the most wanted is going to tank.
God this game is so fucking epic.