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how is rift?

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  • watchawatchawatchawatcha Member Posts: 960

    Originally posted by Alyvian

    Originally posted by watchawatcha

    To the OP I will say this.  The game is solid.  The game in Beta is better off than many of the recent MMOs to come out.  If you like WoW, EQ, etc. that focuses on PvE with some PvP options thrown in; you'll probably like Rift.  If you are delusional and think that DAOC type game will EVER be a big hit, then you won't.  PvP will never maintain a user sub base long enough to justify a long standing MMO.  PvE will.  I point to MMO history as my facts for judge and jury.  There's a lot of people out there who are seriously 'mad brah' that this game isn't a third faction RvR/sandbox game.  The game never said it would be.  These people lied to themselves and are now ticked off that what they said to themselves isn't true.  The game is next-gen in that it will drop with 3 warfronts (PvP BGs), 10 dungeons, 2 raids, rifts/invasions, complete End Game content at launch.  NO OTHER MMO HAS DONE THAT.  Not one...ever.

    dont think it was said anywhere there would just be 3 :) (and if the trend continues of an unlock every 10 levels for one ya looking at atleast 4)

    good point.  didn't think of that

  • VolgoreVolgore Member EpicPosts: 3,872

    I also like it very much because it has alot of the games i liked to play minus the things i didn't like about them.

    -it's like WoW, but doesn't annoy me with a filthy community or 2004 graphics that makeme beyond sick

    -some of it reminds me of Lotro, but brings the higher fantasy-level and actuall PvP i missed there

    -the art style is lovely as in EQ2, but without the plastic characters

    -it has a taste of WAR, but with working and very solid tech

     

    Trion didn't do alot of new stuff, but what they did they did right -and they seem to keep on doing so. Their attitude towards their fanbase is also great.

    image
  • JianyuJianyu Member UncommonPosts: 42

    Originally posted by Wicoa

    Originally posted by donkeys

    Very casual overpriced and overhyped WoW-clone.

    You had me at casual :) they had me at housing :).

    Dunno what game you're following, Rift does not have player housing of any kind at this time.

    Check out my blog, Adventures in Atys!

  • ParadoxyParadoxy Member Posts: 786

    Originally posted by erictlewis

    Originally posted by Azzkicka


    Originally posted by Paradoxy


    Originally posted by Alders


    Originally posted by holifeet



    - Lacking in group play

    - Dynamic content has promise but at the moment it's just a mass, random brawl of solo players with little to no interraction.

    - The game doesn't really promote interraction with other players. especially in rifts.

     

    Couldn't disagree more with these 3 points. 90% of my play time has been in groups. I honestly haven't grouped this much since FFXI.

    Perhaps it was just the server i was on but as soon as i ran up to a rift i had invites to help take them down. If i didn't then i would initiate the invites and never get turned down. During invasions everyone was in or shouting for raid/alliance invites. It's amazing what happens when people stop being stubborn and antisocial.

    I must have run Iron Tomb and Fae a dozen times each in groups to get people geared up and for fun.

    Most of beta 3 i spent in groups doing nothing but PVP. I think the only time i was solo was when i had to go afk.

    I spent entire beta 3 in group of 12 players or more. Even when you don't see anyone asking for parties all you have to do is make a little initiative. Just say 'raid starting for rifts pm me if you need invite' and you will have full party in few minutes.

    I haven't grouped so much since FFXI myself and i played it for good 4 years. Rift is one the most social games i have played in a long time. So much so i got sick of it and wanted some time alone; ;p


    It's funny b/c I spent pretty much all of beta 3 and most of beta 2 grouped as well.  Rift seems like the most group oriented MMO to be released in a long time to me.


     


    The only reason I can think to why these people don't think Rift is group oriented is b/c


     


    a) Grouping is not forced, however it is certainly not penalized either.  In fact it is rewarded with extra experience, faster levelling, etc.


     


    b) They didn't play long enough to experience any of the zone wide events or mass PVP that took place, and they never did any of the instances. 


     


    c) They choose to play solo then whined about it.  Yes solo play in Rift is an option OMG GASP!!!

     

     

     ROFL the most group orentend MMO.   I almost spit mountain dew all over my screen.  Wow the only thing that I goruped for was the rift invasion events and most of those fell appart within minutes.

    It has a lot of solo stuff,  and the crafting well he he if you want to call it craftiing.

    Oh well I got a good laugh out of that comment.

    So i guess we are just making up stuff to fool everyone rightt? rifts, invasions, dungeons not enough group content for you? yes quests can be soloed but even if you just want to quest on your own you still need help of others to defend the quest hubs or the invaders will form footholds and hinder your questing or crafting.

    Only because you want to limit yourself and don't want to make use of all the oppertunities that game provides you for grouping doesn't mean game is not group oriented.  if you like forced grouping you can play FFXI, it will suit you more.

    Who could have thought that WOW could bring super power like USA to its knees?


    Originally posted by Arcken

    To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no?
    Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible

  • MMO_FanMMO_Fan Member UncommonPosts: 178

    Nice post, Rabenwolf. Thanks!



    I watched a few videos and it appears there are few multi-mob encounters. Could someone comment more about crowd control, mob AI and encounter scripts?



    Watching the PvP videos it appears players are fighting for no reason. Are there reasons to PvP - like zone control to farm items/mobs (EQ, EvE), defeding your player housing, guild hall or player city (SB, AoC) from destruction? Can someone speak more about reasons to PvP and player/guild owned assets?



    Also, is there invisibility, flight/levitate or knock-back spells/abilities.

  • JianyuJianyu Member UncommonPosts: 42

    Originally posted by MMO_Fan

    Nice post, Rabenwolf. Thanks!



    I watched a few videos and it appears there are few multi-mob encounters. Could someone comment more about crowd control, mob AI and encounter scripts?



    Watching the PvP videos it appears players are fighting for no reason. Are there reasons to PvP - like zone control to farm items/mobs (EQ, EvE), defeding your player housing, guild hall or player city (SB, AoC) from destruction? Can someone speak more about reasons to PvP and player/guild owned assets?



    Also, is there invisibility, flight/levitate or knock-back spells/abilities.

    While in dungeons there might be a need for crowd control, I haven't encountered that yet. Its likely that it exists at higher levels, though. Scripting is the same, the only really interesting scripting is an AOE ability on the last boss in Iron Tombs that you avoid by jumping into a protective circle, but there's probably more at higher levels.

    That being said, there's absolutely no interesting AI to be seen in levels 1-20, rifts or otherwise, aside from one named that I've fought (Veras, who turns into a wave and just starts knocking people around randomly). Right now every single enemy is either ranged or melee, and other than that the only distinguishing aspects are their appearance, health, and damage.

    There are no player-owned assets. There are factional wardstones at each quest hub, but at this time they can't be taken over by players, only NPCs. Once taken over the quest NPCs despawn and the controlling faction gets some guards that spring up, but right now it doesn't take too much work to fight these back. This might change if players can destroy / create wardstones in higher level zones, and might be a redeeming factor of the game for me.

    There are knockbacks, although I haven't tested whether or not they actually work to knock something off a cliff (from the looks of them, they wouldn't). There are no real fluff or super-utility spells to speak of.

    Check out my blog, Adventures in Atys!

  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by Spiritraiser

    Originally posted by Zefire

    For me it was nothing more than 5 minutes game.

    Totaly cloned.

    Play before you buy and dont waste money on unworthy games.

    So what? Every game is copying the others in the market atm anyway. The issue is if it works or not!

    I don't believe that's entirely the case. Many games take hints from others but the best games will add in something new to the old bits that work well.

    GW2 are changing things radically and the 40k MMO is reported to be really working on something different.

    You almost seem to be suggesting that it's fine to just make the same games over and over, but with a different setting. That's the problem with the genre. It seems to be just a few development companies that want to make a change.

    They're the ones that will be rewarded is my hope. MMOs need a breath of fresh air.

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by Wicoa

     

    Oh and player housing WHOOP.

    What player housing? There is no player housing in Rift unless I've missed some announcement.

    If they have announced it and are maybe trying to sway people with its inclusion, then sorry but thats a weak grab.

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • darkboazdarkboaz Member UncommonPosts: 160

    Rabenwolf really is right on the money.


     


    If you wanted to like WAR but  found it to be far too lore braking in it having a Order side and Chaos side then this has something for you as its 2 sided and complete with its own lore. Unfortunate the upcoming 40k game wants to jump feet first into the same lore flaw that WAR had.


     


    As the game stand now you do not over con to the mobs so if you are running around sealing rifts level 7 world mobs will still agro on to a level 20 player.


     


    The coning of mobs is quirky I have seen only 3 con symbols and they unfortunately do not help to estimate the toughness of the mobs. There are regular cons which generally you can beat with in a few levels. Then there are elites there is no way discernable to me to determine how you will do against them. I have taken on and beaten them one level lower then me and been handed my head by one that was 7 level under me. Lastly, there are the bignamed mobs like at the end of some quests and events. They are amusing the first time you watch others fight them but annoying to do your self. They are gimmicky and do things like turn people into animals and have HP’s that rival the US debt. Here is my run down on  what it is like fighting them, for the first 5-10 minutes it was amusing, the next 5-10 got boring, the next 5-10 got annoying during the next 5-10 you wander off realizing the rewards at this time are not worth the effort of staying for more of the fight. Kept thinking maybe the waves of attacks where about tuning the mob but I was wrong.


     


    Yes, this game is pretty polished and more or less bug free and that is unfortunately unheard of in beta. To me its much like the old Automobile manufacturing in the US the mantra for years was do not worry about getting it out of the factory right, the dealer can fix it latter. You should not get praise for simply doing something the way it should be instead you should be chastised for doing it wrong.
  • SinnSinn Member UncommonPosts: 93

    Originally posted by Rabenwolf

    Originally posted by kingtommyboy

    This thread is only for people who play rift in beta. I've never been a rift fanboy. I also never really followed it. But I'm getting curious about this game when I see the screenshots. So my question is, what is rift like? Is it a good game? Did you liked it while you were playing the beta? What are the pro's and con's? What do you think about the game? Please only answer when you actually played the beta, I want to read real opinions.

     

    Rift is like playing the most sub par and generic mmorpg in existence and having a small twist to give the illusion its deep.

    The illusion pays off with its class system. 

     

    Here's what you need to know:

     

    Class System:  It is not a real multi-class system. Very few people actually look at it and see what they did. There are really only 4 independent classes in the game. Each class has 8 skill trees (excluding the pvp tree, which isnt really a full on tree). These trees are called souls to help cover up the fact they are just skill trees. So where WoW has 10 classes and 3 trees per class.... Rift does something similar but changes it to 4 classes with 8 trees, though only 3 trees at any given build. In essence they are not much different. 

    Furthermore, Rift's skill trees are not really deep and or varied. Many skills in one tree will be nearly identical to another tree, just with a different name and perhaps different element attached to it. 

    In addition to that, 60% of the trees are DPS oriented. Most have dps, but 60% are more "high end" & "constant" dps oriented. 

    A developer posted this awhile back in the Beta forums. (NDA has been lifted) It shows the trees and their focus in case anyone wanted to protest my "60% claim". 

    So far the over all opinion on the forums is that the trees and classes are way too imbalanced at the moment. Right now theres no reason to not play a cleric who can dish out massive dps, heal, get a pet, tank and be a caster (both aoe, cc and direct damage). Cleric will be the most played class, playing anything else in a PvP and even PvE environment will be silly unless they make changes.

     

    Rifts: Despite what some try to claim, Rifts are not random. Not in the sense you are thinking. They all have the same spawn points. This means Rifts will only appear at pre-set spawn points. Eventually you can start seeing  where they will spawn before hand, and thus make your rounds. Invasions and NPC scouting parties are really just mobs spawned that run along a preset path. Thus you will know where they are going to go, in addition the map tells you where they will go. Kind of defeats the purpose. During rifts, players rush to "tag" as many mobs as possible in order to get the loot and points for the leader board, thus cheapening the effect of "working together."

     

    Quests: Take the word "generic" to a whole new level. They absolutely suck. Even many f2p games have better quests. I had to argue with some numb nut over on the beta forums about this issue. He defended quests as being great because the "quest text box was interesting". He actually tried to call the generic text in the text box as being the quest game play. Quests are a constant Kill 10 wolves, and collect 10 mushrooms.  There is very little scripting at all in the quest system, its as if they just copied and pasted the quests over and over and over and just changed the mob to kill or the item to pick up.  PvE quests are just bad!  To make matters worse, you dont even need the text box as the moment you "accept a quest" from a generic NPC standing in one spot with an little icon above their head, you get a large yellow circle on your map telling you exactly where to go and what to kill. Its a fairly brainless ordeal.

     

    Crafting: So minimal and badly done, it makes WoW's crafting system look genius and deep. The general feedback on the beta forums is that crafting is dumb, boring, and essentially pointless at this point and time. Unless they redesign the entire process, I doubt it will be better later on.

     

    Leveling: You spend more than 1/3 of the entire leveling process in one small linear zone. Yes, over 1/3!  The max level is 55 and you finally leave the starter zone (not tutorial zone) at lvl 20.  Each side will have their linear progression of zones after that. Defiant with the southern zones, Guardians with the northern zones, and the contested zones around Port Scion which is in the very middle.

     

    Dungeons: Not nearly as well made as dungeons found in other games. They are mostly uninspired, pointlessly hard generic npcs. Very little is done in the way of scripting.  Currently if you die on a generically placed boss after a tunnel filled with elite mobs just standing around, you can rez and come back to the boss and their damage taken will still be the same. There is no real penalty right now for dying in a dungeon. 

     

    Conclusion & Final Thoughts: After playing in all 3 beta events as well as being present at their E3 booth and seeing it first hand.... I find the game underwhelming, uninspired and really sloppy. Its as though they had a great concept but couldnt actually execute it in a manner that would really impress. 

    For starters they went with the GameBryo engine, which is just bad. It has the GameBryo visual feel to it as well, which is why its getting a lot of "warhammer" comparisons. They clearly didnt invest their time and money into designing a well rounded game.  This means, crafting, PvE, Quests... everything not part of their "npc rifts" was just slopped together. It feels like they didnt even try to do a better job than the competition. This wouldnt surprise me since they are also developing another mmorpg at the same time. My hypothesis is that Rifts is just a means to get some early revenue while they work on something they probably care more about. The mmorpg in question is the SyFy channel mmo they have licensed.

    Keep in mind Rifts are just Player Quests ala WAR, though without much of the well crafted scripted events. Tabula Rasa did a lot of the things Rifts do, and they came across as doing a better job at it. Games like Dark and Light had mobs who actually migrated and dwindled dynamically based on player involvement. So dynamic gameplay isnt all that "new", we are just waiting for someone to do a really good job at it.

    The world is full of hostile mobs. You cannot take two steps without running into another generic mob that for some reason has a grudge against you. Get within its radius and it will make its sound fx and charge at you. This not only helps break what little immersion might be present, but really makes riding around on a mount a pain in the arse. Freemarch (defiant starter)  is a lot more open and slightly better to navigate than say Silverwood (guardian starter). Cities really were a let down. They are a couple of huts with a few NPCs standing around them and perhaps one big building in the center. You will be disappointed in the size and scope of your faction city, as its more of a faction hut.

    I believe Rift is trying to sell itself on being a next gen AAA title without actually adding next gen AAA content across the board. Their marketing department is running in over time really trying to sell the image of the game and hide its simplistic and below average design. Right now, this game wont be able to keep a large player base past the 3 and then 6th month mark. It will have its small niche of loyal fanatics but it will be hard pressed to do better than Aion much less WAR. 

    The good is that the dev team seems responsive and they come across as a very likable bunch. I just wish I could say the same for their product.

    I actually loved what I saw at E3 and followed the game closely. This response is completely neutral, and comes from playing all 3 beta's extensively. Conclusions are neutral and fair. Just being honest.

    My best advice is, dont hype yourself up over this game. Sadly, it is not worth it.

    THAT WAS IT! Tabula Rasa did this stuff how could i forget that game but I pretty much agree with what you're saying  - I will get it but basically just to hold out until guildwars 2 or kotor come out  .. because a game literally can't make me more bored then I already am when i have nothing to do lol

  • KilmarKilmar Member UncommonPosts: 844

    It's good, but

    - its wow 2.0 mostly

    - it has no crafting (just the collect, click, wait system)

    - it has no housing

    - it is mostly played solo

    - it is very very very very linear and handholding

     

    But  I like the soul system and that it took the collection quest system from EQ2 :)

  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by Paradoxy

    So i guess we are just making up stuff to fool everyone rightt? rifts, invasions, dungeons not enough group content for you? yes quests can be soloed but even if you just want to quest on your own you still need help of others to defend the quest hubs or the invaders will form footholds and hinder your questing or crafting.

    Only because you want to limit yourself and don't want to make use of all the oppertunities that game provides you for grouping doesn't mean game is not group oriented.  if you like forced grouping you can play FFXI, it will suit you more.

    I stand by my first comment; there is a lack of group play in Rift. You don't need to group for rifts but it would be handy and make battling them more efficient. People do dish out invites, too, but it's rare. For 9 people out of every 10 it's a case of just get on with it. I wouldn't be surprised if you dished out invites and got people refusing to group. Certainly no one chats in the groups and many people possibly just accept for the convenience of hoping to get a heal.

    I'm even wondering now about the need for an auto-grouping feature for Rifts. They are so easily beaten with a mass of solo players that I don't think people being in groups would make all that much difference. I've pushed the possiblity of that feature over the last few days but I'm really not sure it matters now.

    I'd would like to see the overall difficulty of Rifts massively upped. Without grouping Rifts are beaten back no problem. With organisation they wouldn't stand a chance. Invasions should be calling for reinforcements because once they take over a quest hub they seem to figure it done. There's no thought to keeping it and it makes the job all that more easy for the playerbase.

    Questing does not require groups, full stop. There is no reason why you need to group with someone to complete quests. Your argument that you need other players to protect hubs isn't really all that valid either. When quest NPCs are defeated by an invasion they return so quickly that it doesn't really matter. If you didn't want to fight invasions you could head away and kill a few mobs and return a couple of minutes later to find someone has repelled the invasion and you can turn in your quests.

    The only real reason to group in the first 20 levels of Rift is the dungeons; Realm of the Fae and Iron Tombs. I only took part in Fae but I found it lacklustre and uninspiring. If anything it was as linear as the quest progression. You followed a path through the realm, battled staticly placed mobs in small groups, a boss every so often and a final boss at the end. I may have done it 3 levels over the quests but it was so easy I never broke a sweat.

    Over all grouping in Rift is an option rather than a necessity. Nothing about the first 20 levels is designed to be group-based bar the dungeons, and they are uninspired twaddle. The Rifts might benefit from people being grouped but they might also be damaged by it. Trion have set their sights on Rift being an easily soloed game. It may change later in the levels but by then it will be lots of people tired of the same old thing and an ailing population.

    Anybody saying 'you can group' is stretching for reasons to validate it. Rift is a handheld linear experience with less difficulty than noughts and crosses.

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • AzzkickaAzzkicka Member Posts: 157

    Originally posted by holifeet

    Originally posted by Paradoxy



    So i guess we are just making up stuff to fool everyone rightt? rifts, invasions, dungeons not enough group content for you? yes quests can be soloed but even if you just want to quest on your own you still need help of others to defend the quest hubs or the invaders will form footholds and hinder your questing or crafting.

    Only because you want to limit yourself and don't want to make use of all the oppertunities that game provides you for grouping doesn't mean game is not group oriented.  if you like forced grouping you can play FFXI, it will suit you more.

    I stand by my first comment; there is a lack of group play in Rift. You don't need to group for rifts but it would be handy and make battling them more efficient. People do dish out invites, too, but it's rare. For 9 people out of every 10 it's a case of just get on with it. I wouldn't be surprised if you dished out invites and got people refusing to group. Certainly no one chats in the groups and many people possibly just accept for the convenience of hoping to get a heal.

    I'm even wondering now about the need for an auto-grouping feature for Rifts. They are so easily beaten with a mass of solo players that I don't think people being in groups would make all that much difference. I've pushed the possiblity of that feature over the last few days but I'm really not sure it matters now.

    I'd would like to see the overall difficulty of Rifts massively upped. Without grouping Rifts are beaten back no problem. With organisation they wouldn't stand a chance. Invasions should be calling for reinforcements because once they take over a quest hub they seem to figure it done. There's no thought to keeping it and it makes the job all that more easy for the playerbase.

    Questing does not require groups, full stop. There is no reason why you need to group with someone to complete quests. Your argument that you need other players to protect hubs isn't really all that valid either. When quest NPCs are defeated by an invasion they return so quickly that it doesn't really matter. If you didn't want to fight invasions you could head away and kill a few mobs and return a couple of minutes later to find someone has repelled the invasion and you can turn in your quests.

    The only real reason to group in the first 20 levels of Rift is the dungeons; Realm of the Fae and Iron Tombs. I only took part in Fae but I found it lacklustre and uninspiring. If anything it was as linear as the quest progression. You followed a path through the realm, battled staticly placed mobs in small groups, a boss every so often and a final boss at the end. I may have done it 3 levels over the quests but it was so easy I never broke a sweat.

    Over all grouping in Rift is an option rather than a necessity. Nothing about the first 20 levels is designed to be group-based bar the dungeons, and they are uninspired twaddle. The Rifts might benefit from people being grouped but they might also be damaged by it. Trion have set their sights on Rift being an easily soloed game. It may change later in the levels but by then it will be lots of people tired of the same old thing and an ailing population.

    Anybody saying 'you can group' is stretching for reasons to validate it. Rift is a handheld linear experience with less difficulty than noughts and crosses.

    How about increased XP and faster levleing?

    How about b/c its fun to play with other people rather then yourself?

    Why does grouping have to be required? The option is there, and you are even rewarded for it.  If you dont take advantage of it you have only yourself to blame.

  • BelgaraathBelgaraath Member UncommonPosts: 3,205

    This is not a bad game. It really is all about where your head is at the moment with MMOs, your gaming experience, and what you are looking for. If this game was released 2-3 years ago, I would be all into it. However, I am totally burnt out on WOW, LOTRO, AOC, Vanguard, EQ2, Warhammer, etc. I am just tired of opening a text box, forcing myself to read a paragraph of what is supposed to be part of a larger story, and completing the quest. I just can't force myself anymore to read the uninteresting material and just grind my way through these quests. I need something that makes me want to quest again. Makes me want to pay attention to what I am doing. Its not that the mechanics of this game are similar to all of the others out there, its that it doesn't make me excited enough to PVE. I'm hoping that SWTOR will make me want to pay attention to the story again and make questing something more then opening up a dialogue box, hitting accept without reading anything, and collecting the XP.Also, GW2 may bring something different, not sure yet if the dynamic system in that game is more hype than substance. Only time will tell.

    There Is Always Hope!

  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by Azzkicka

    Originally posted by holifeet


    Originally posted by Paradoxy



    So i guess we are just making up stuff to fool everyone rightt? rifts, invasions, dungeons not enough group content for you? yes quests can be soloed but even if you just want to quest on your own you still need help of others to defend the quest hubs or the invaders will form footholds and hinder your questing or crafting.

    Only because you want to limit yourself and don't want to make use of all the oppertunities that game provides you for grouping doesn't mean game is not group oriented.  if you like forced grouping you can play FFXI, it will suit you more.

    I stand by my first comment; there is a lack of group play in Rift. You don't need to group for rifts but it would be handy and make battling them more efficient. People do dish out invites, too, but it's rare. For 9 people out of every 10 it's a case of just get on with it. I wouldn't be surprised if you dished out invites and got people refusing to group. Certainly no one chats in the groups and many people possibly just accept for the convenience of hoping to get a heal.

    I'm even wondering now about the need for an auto-grouping feature for Rifts. They are so easily beaten with a mass of solo players that I don't think people being in groups would make all that much difference. I've pushed the possiblity of that feature over the last few days but I'm really not sure it matters now.

    I'd would like to see the overall difficulty of Rifts massively upped. Without grouping Rifts are beaten back no problem. With organisation they wouldn't stand a chance. Invasions should be calling for reinforcements because once they take over a quest hub they seem to figure it done. There's no thought to keeping it and it makes the job all that more easy for the playerbase.

    Questing does not require groups, full stop. There is no reason why you need to group with someone to complete quests. Your argument that you need other players to protect hubs isn't really all that valid either. When quest NPCs are defeated by an invasion they return so quickly that it doesn't really matter. If you didn't want to fight invasions you could head away and kill a few mobs and return a couple of minutes later to find someone has repelled the invasion and you can turn in your quests.

    The only real reason to group in the first 20 levels of Rift is the dungeons; Realm of the Fae and Iron Tombs. I only took part in Fae but I found it lacklustre and uninspiring. If anything it was as linear as the quest progression. You followed a path through the realm, battled staticly placed mobs in small groups, a boss every so often and a final boss at the end. I may have done it 3 levels over the quests but it was so easy I never broke a sweat.

    Over all grouping in Rift is an option rather than a necessity. Nothing about the first 20 levels is designed to be group-based bar the dungeons, and they are uninspired twaddle. The Rifts might benefit from people being grouped but they might also be damaged by it. Trion have set their sights on Rift being an easily soloed game. It may change later in the levels but by then it will be lots of people tired of the same old thing and an ailing population.

    Anybody saying 'you can group' is stretching for reasons to validate it. Rift is a handheld linear experience with less difficulty than noughts and crosses.

    How about increased XP and faster levleing?

    How about b/c its fun to play with other people rather then yourself?

    Why does grouping have to be required? The option is there, and you are even rewarded for it.  If you dont take advantage of it you have only yourself to blame.

    If you find it fun to kill mobs that are easily soloed with help then go for it. I'm bored soloing stuff let alone with the added firepower of a group. It's like going in to a group dungeon with a raid, and then telling the person arguing there's not enough raiding that they're wrong.

    Maybe I sound picky but I do like my grouping to be challenging. If the only reason to group is to make easy content even easier then that's making a laughing stock of the game.

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • WrenderWrender Member Posts: 1,386

    Originally posted by Rabenwolf

    Originally posted by kingtommyboy

    This thread is only for people who play rift in beta. I've never been a rift fanboy. I also never really followed it. But I'm getting curious about this game when I see the screenshots. So my question is, what is rift like? Is it a good game? Did you liked it while you were playing the beta? What are the pro's and con's? What do you think about the game? Please only answer when you actually played the beta, I want to read real opinions.

     

    Rift is like playing the most sub par and generic mmorpg in existence and having a small twist to give the illusion its deep.

    The illusion pays off with its class system. 

     

    Here's what you need to know:

     

    Class System:  It is not a real multi-class system. Very few people actually look at it and see what they did. There are really only 4 independent classes in the game. Each class has 8 skill trees (excluding the pvp tree, which isnt really a full on tree). These trees are called souls to help cover up the fact they are just skill trees. So where WoW has 10 classes and 3 trees per class.... Rift does something similar but changes it to 4 classes with 8 trees, though only 3 trees at any given build. In essence they are not much different. 

    Furthermore, Rift's skill trees are not really deep and or varied. Many skills in one tree will be nearly identical to another tree, just with a different name and perhaps different element attached to it. 

    In addition to that, 60% of the trees are DPS oriented. Most have dps, but 60% are more "high end" & "constant" dps oriented. 

    A developer posted this awhile back in the Beta forums. (NDA has been lifted) It shows the trees and their focus in case anyone wanted to protest my "60% claim". 

    So far the over all opinion on the forums is that the trees and classes are way too imbalanced at the moment. Right now theres no reason to not play a cleric who can dish out massive dps, heal, get a pet, tank and be a caster (both aoe, cc and direct damage). Cleric will be the most played class, playing anything else in a PvP and even PvE environment will be silly unless they make changes.

     

    Rifts: Despite what some try to claim, Rifts are not random. Not in the sense you are thinking. They all have the same spawn points. This means Rifts will only appear at pre-set spawn points. Eventually you can start seeing  where they will spawn before hand, and thus make your rounds. Invasions and NPC scouting parties are really just mobs spawned that run along a preset path. Thus you will know where they are going to go, in addition the map tells you where they will go. Kind of defeats the purpose. During rifts, players rush to "tag" as many mobs as possible in order to get the loot and points for the leader board, thus cheapening the effect of "working together."

     

    Quests: Take the word "generic" to a whole new level. They absolutely suck. Even many f2p games have better quests. I had to argue with some numb nut over on the beta forums about this issue. He defended quests as being great because the "quest text box was interesting". He actually tried to call the generic text in the text box as being the quest game play. Quests are a constant Kill 10 wolves, and collect 10 mushrooms.  There is very little scripting at all in the quest system, its as if they just copied and pasted the quests over and over and over and just changed the mob to kill or the item to pick up.  PvE quests are just bad!  To make matters worse, you dont even need the text box as the moment you "accept a quest" from a generic NPC standing in one spot with an little icon above their head, you get a large yellow circle on your map telling you exactly where to go and what to kill. Its a fairly brainless ordeal.

     

    Crafting: So minimal and badly done, it makes WoW's crafting system look genius and deep. The general feedback on the beta forums is that crafting is dumb, boring, and essentially pointless at this point and time. Unless they redesign the entire process, I doubt it will be better later on.

     

    Leveling: You spend more than 1/3 of the entire leveling process in one small linear zone. Yes, over 1/3!  The max level is 55 and you finally leave the starter zone (not tutorial zone) at lvl 20.  Each side will have their linear progression of zones after that. Defiant with the southern zones, Guardians with the northern zones, and the contested zones around Port Scion which is in the very middle.

     

    Dungeons: Not nearly as well made as dungeons found in other games. They are mostly uninspired, pointlessly hard generic npcs. Very little is done in the way of scripting.  Currently if you die on a generically placed boss after a tunnel filled with elite mobs just standing around, you can rez and come back to the boss and their damage taken will still be the same. There is no real penalty right now for dying in a dungeon. 

     

    Conclusion & Final Thoughts: After playing in all 3 beta events as well as being present at their E3 booth and seeing it first hand.... I find the game underwhelming, uninspired and really sloppy. Its as though they had a great concept but couldnt actually execute it in a manner that would really impress. 

    For starters they went with the GameBryo engine, which is just bad. It has the GameBryo visual feel to it as well, which is why its getting a lot of "warhammer" comparisons. They clearly didnt invest their time and money into designing a well rounded game.  This means, crafting, PvE, Quests... everything not part of their "npc rifts" was just slopped together. It feels like they didnt even try to do a better job than the competition. This wouldnt surprise me since they are also developing another mmorpg at the same time. My hypothesis is that Rifts is just a means to get some early revenue while they work on something they probably care more about. The mmorpg in question is the SyFy channel mmo they have licensed.

    Keep in mind Rifts are just Player Quests ala WAR, though without much of the well crafted scripted events. Tabula Rasa did a lot of the things Rifts do, and they came across as doing a better job at it. Games like Dark and Light had mobs who actually migrated and dwindled dynamically based on player involvement. So dynamic gameplay isnt all that "new", we are just waiting for someone to do a really good job at it.

    The world is full of hostile mobs. You cannot take two steps without running into another generic mob that for some reason has a grudge against you. Get within its radius and it will make its sound fx and charge at you. This not only helps break what little immersion might be present, but really makes riding around on a mount a pain in the arse. Freemarch (defiant starter)  is a lot more open and slightly better to navigate than say Silverwood (guardian starter). Cities really were a let down. They are a couple of huts with a few NPCs standing around them and perhaps one big building in the center. You will be disappointed in the size and scope of your faction city, as its more of a faction hut.

    I believe Rift is trying to sell itself on being a next gen AAA title without actually adding next gen AAA content across the board. Their marketing department is running in over time really trying to sell the image of the game and hide its simplistic and below average design. Right now, this game wont be able to keep a large player base past the 3 and then 6th month mark. It will have its small niche of loyal fanatics but it will be hard pressed to do better than Aion much less WAR. 

    The good is that the dev team seems responsive and they come across as a very likable bunch. I just wish I could say the same for their product.

    I actually loved what I saw at E3 and followed the game closely. This response is completely neutral, and comes from playing all 3 beta's extensively. Conclusions are neutral and fair. Just being honest.

    My best advice is, dont hype yourself up over this game. Sadly, it is not worth it.

     Hey Raben, Did you post this on the BETA forums? If not you really should. Excellent writeup!!! 5 stars!

  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by keithianw

    This is not a bad game. It really is all about where your head is at the moment with MMOs, your gaming experience, and what you are looking for. If this game was released 2-3 years ago, I would be all into it. However, I am totally burnt out on WOW, LOTRO, AOC, Vanguard, EQ2, Warhammer, etc. I am just tired of opening a text box, forcing myself to read a paragraph of what is supposed to be part of a larger story, and completing the quest. I just can't force myself anymore to read the uninteresting material and just grind my way through these quests. I need something that makes me want to quest again. Makes me want to pay attention to what I am doing. Its not that the mechanics of this game are similar to all of the others out there, its that it doesn't make me excited enough to PVE. I'm hoping that SWTOR will make me want to pay attention to the story again and make questing something more then opening up a dialogue box, hitting accept without reading anything, and collecting the XP.Also, GW2 may bring something different, not sure yet if the dynamic system in that game is more hype than substance. Only time will tell.

    Spot on, that man. Regardless of the group issue, Rift is a dull and uninspiring grind. It's the same game that has been made countless times in the last 5 years. It's like colouring brocolli orange and hoping your kid won't be able to tell the difference, but it's still brocolli and still tastes like brocolli.

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • watchawatchawatchawatcha Member Posts: 960

    Originally posted by Wrender

    Originally posted by Rabenwolf

    Originally posted by kingtommyboy

    This thread is only for people who play rift in beta. I've never been a rift fanboy. I also never really followed it. But I'm getting curious about this game when I see the screenshots. So my question is, what is rift like? Is it a good game? Did you liked it while you were playing the beta? What are the pro's and con's? What do you think about the game? Please only answer when you actually played the beta, I want to read real opinions.

     

    Rift is like playing the most sub par and generic mmorpg in existence and having a small twist to give the illusion its deep.

    The illusion pays off with its class system. 

     

    Here's what you need to know:

     

    Class System:  It is not a real multi-class system. Very few people actually look at it and see what they did. There are really only 4 independent classes in the game. Each class has 8 skill trees (excluding the pvp tree, which isnt really a full on tree). These trees are called souls to help cover up the fact they are just skill trees. So where WoW has 10 classes and 3 trees per class.... Rift does something similar but changes it to 4 classes with 8 trees, though only 3 trees at any given build. In essence they are not much different. 

    Furthermore, Rift's skill trees are not really deep and or varied. Many skills in one tree will be nearly identical to another tree, just with a different name and perhaps different element attached to it. 

    In addition to that, 60% of the trees are DPS oriented. Most have dps, but 60% are more "high end" & "constant" dps oriented. 

    A developer posted this awhile back in the Beta forums. (NDA has been lifted) It shows the trees and their focus in case anyone wanted to protest my "60% claim". 

    So far the over all opinion on the forums is that the trees and classes are way too imbalanced at the moment. Right now theres no reason to not play a cleric who can dish out massive dps, heal, get a pet, tank and be a caster (both aoe, cc and direct damage). Cleric will be the most played class, playing anything else in a PvP and even PvE environment will be silly unless they make changes.

     

    Rifts: Despite what some try to claim, Rifts are not random. Not in the sense you are thinking. They all have the same spawn points. This means Rifts will only appear at pre-set spawn points. Eventually you can start seeing  where they will spawn before hand, and thus make your rounds. Invasions and NPC scouting parties are really just mobs spawned that run along a preset path. Thus you will know where they are going to go, in addition the map tells you where they will go. Kind of defeats the purpose. During rifts, players rush to "tag" as many mobs as possible in order to get the loot and points for the leader board, thus cheapening the effect of "working together."

     

    Quests: Take the word "generic" to a whole new level. They absolutely suck. Even many f2p games have better quests. I had to argue with some numb nut over on the beta forums about this issue. He defended quests as being great because the "quest text box was interesting". He actually tried to call the generic text in the text box as being the quest game play. Quests are a constant Kill 10 wolves, and collect 10 mushrooms.  There is very little scripting at all in the quest system, its as if they just copied and pasted the quests over and over and over and just changed the mob to kill or the item to pick up.  PvE quests are just bad!  To make matters worse, you dont even need the text box as the moment you "accept a quest" from a generic NPC standing in one spot with an little icon above their head, you get a large yellow circle on your map telling you exactly where to go and what to kill. Its a fairly brainless ordeal.

     

    Crafting: So minimal and badly done, it makes WoW's crafting system look genius and deep. The general feedback on the beta forums is that crafting is dumb, boring, and essentially pointless at this point and time. Unless they redesign the entire process, I doubt it will be better later on.

     

    Leveling: You spend more than 1/3 of the entire leveling process in one small linear zone. Yes, over 1/3!  The max level is 55 and you finally leave the starter zone (not tutorial zone) at lvl 20.  Each side will have their linear progression of zones after that. Defiant with the southern zones, Guardians with the northern zones, and the contested zones around Port Scion which is in the very middle.

     

    Dungeons: Not nearly as well made as dungeons found in other games. They are mostly uninspired, pointlessly hard generic npcs. Very little is done in the way of scripting.  Currently if you die on a generically placed boss after a tunnel filled with elite mobs just standing around, you can rez and come back to the boss and their damage taken will still be the same. There is no real penalty right now for dying in a dungeon. 

     

    Conclusion & Final Thoughts: After playing in all 3 beta events as well as being present at their E3 booth and seeing it first hand.... I find the game underwhelming, uninspired and really sloppy. Its as though they had a great concept but couldnt actually execute it in a manner that would really impress. 

    For starters they went with the GameBryo engine, which is just bad. It has the GameBryo visual feel to it as well, which is why its getting a lot of "warhammer" comparisons. They clearly didnt invest their time and money into designing a well rounded game.  This means, crafting, PvE, Quests... everything not part of their "npc rifts" was just slopped together. It feels like they didnt even try to do a better job than the competition. This wouldnt surprise me since they are also developing another mmorpg at the same time. My hypothesis is that Rifts is just a means to get some early revenue while they work on something they probably care more about. The mmorpg in question is the SyFy channel mmo they have licensed.

    Keep in mind Rifts are just Player Quests ala WAR, though without much of the well crafted scripted events. Tabula Rasa did a lot of the things Rifts do, and they came across as doing a better job at it. Games like Dark and Light had mobs who actually migrated and dwindled dynamically based on player involvement. So dynamic gameplay isnt all that "new", we are just waiting for someone to do a really good job at it.

    The world is full of hostile mobs. You cannot take two steps without running into another generic mob that for some reason has a grudge against you. Get within its radius and it will make its sound fx and charge at you. This not only helps break what little immersion might be present, but really makes riding around on a mount a pain in the arse. Freemarch (defiant starter)  is a lot more open and slightly better to navigate than say Silverwood (guardian starter). Cities really were a let down. They are a couple of huts with a few NPCs standing around them and perhaps one big building in the center. You will be disappointed in the size and scope of your faction city, as its more of a faction hut.

    I believe Rift is trying to sell itself on being a next gen AAA title without actually adding next gen AAA content across the board. Their marketing department is running in over time really trying to sell the image of the game and hide its simplistic and below average design. Right now, this game wont be able to keep a large player base past the 3 and then 6th month mark. It will have its small niche of loyal fanatics but it will be hard pressed to do better than Aion much less WAR. 

    The good is that the dev team seems responsive and they come across as a very likable bunch. I just wish I could say the same for their product.

    I actually loved what I saw at E3 and followed the game closely. This response is completely neutral, and comes from playing all 3 beta's extensively. Conclusions are neutral and fair. Just being honest.

    My best advice is, dont hype yourself up over this game. Sadly, it is not worth it.

     Hey Raben, Did you post this on the BETA forums? If not you really should. Excellent writeup!!! 5 stars!

     yes he did.  almost verbatim

  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by Wrender

     Hey Raben, Did you post this on the BETA forums? If not you really should. Excellent writeup!!! 5 stars!

    Even if he did it would be given one star by those blinded by unoriginality, when their poorly written, two sentenced ramblings of fans get an automatic 5 stars. Then Scott Hartsman would turn up at the end of beta and say how marvellous it is to see the overwhelmingly positive reaction Rift has got form the whole of the community, leading you to think 'eh'.

    Call me a cynic if you like. image

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • SinnSinn Member UncommonPosts: 93

    it sort of always happens like that people who love the game will try to justify their purchase until the end of time - I try to see a consistent stream of comments that are similar to each other because in no way where there is thousands of people who play would they say the same negative thing about a game  - I really haven't seen anyone say anything super great beside (rifts) being good but who knows it's still early things can change - like i said for myself it's something to tide me over until the big two come out.

  • CecropiaCecropia Member RarePosts: 3,985

     

    Nvm. Please delete.

    "Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb

  • GoggyGoggy Member Posts: 84

    Originally posted by Sinn

    it sort of always happens like that people who love the game will try to justify their purchase until the end of time - I try to see a consistent stream of comments that are similar to each other because in no way where there is thousands of people who play would they say the same negative thing about a game  - I really haven't seen anyone say anything super great beside (rifts) being good but who knows it's still early things can change - like i said for myself it's something to tide me over until the big two come out.

     Ok, GW2 is one of them, what's the other one?

  • holifeetholifeet Member Posts: 532

    Originally posted by Cecropia

    Nevermind...he realised what side i was on...but I'll leave my reply in 'cause I like it.

     

    Errmm...I'm on your side fella. They're blinded by unoriginality and can no longer see how stale it has become. They don't realise no more Ferraris and Lambos would be bad.

    The genre needs change...fast. Someone needs to make a Ferrari instead of Volvo after Volvo...safe but dull.

     

    (as for the 1 star comment...I made a post on the beta forums saying exactly how stagnated I felt Rift was. It got marked down by people...and I put effort in to it. The threads above and below were 2 or 3 line 'wow rift is great' exclamations that got 5 stars)

    All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
    .
  • CecropiaCecropia Member RarePosts: 3,985

    Originally posted by holifeet

    Originally posted by Cecropia

    Nevermind...he realised what side i was on...but I'll leave my reply in 'cause I like it.

     

    Errmm...I'm on your side fella. They're blinded by unoriginality and can no longer see how stale it has become. They don't realise no more Ferraris and Lambos would be bad.

    The genre needs change...fast. Someone needs to make a Ferrari instead of Volvo after Volvo...safe but dull.

     

    (as for the 1 star comment...I made a post on the beta forums saying exactly how stagnated I felt Rift was. It got marked down by people...and I put effort in to it. The threads above and below were 2 or 3 line 'wow rift is great' exclamations that got 5 stars)

    I seem to be experiencing some sort of temporary reading comprehension disorder. At least I hope it's temporary :)

    "Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb

  • SinnSinn Member UncommonPosts: 93

    Originally posted by Goggy

    Originally posted by Sinn

    it sort of always happens like that people who love the game will try to justify their purchase until the end of time - I try to see a consistent stream of comments that are similar to each other because in no way where there is thousands of people who play would they say the same negative thing about a game  - I really haven't seen anyone say anything super great beside (rifts) being good but who knows it's still early things can change - like i said for myself it's something to tide me over until the big two come out.

     Ok, GW2 is one of them, what's the other one?

    KOTOR but that is because it has this story mechanic that I love in bioware games and I feel like MMOs  have zero soul you just click through the text to deliver mail or kill X amount of something..i mean if you're going to do that at least mask it with an idea that makes it interesting - it's good people are excited for this game but like the guy said above me ...people become used to settling for less and then it just creates stagnant world

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