I kept seeing over chat' "will someoen please kil so I can finish my quest, it's killing all the quest mobs".
I'm sure he wasn't having a great time.
See thats where the devs went into a slight wrong approach IMO. They should have made the Rifts the centerpiece, maybe even have the quests all about the rifts (maybe they do, I haven't played). Even make the rifts sort of like what it is in Oblivion (ie stop the tide of creatures coming forth, then enter the rift to close it).
They do!
Sure you got the standard run of the mill quests and quest hubs.
But you got lots of daily quests centering around Rifts and Invasions.
And during the major invasion events, like yesterday, you automatically get a quest about the event assigned to your quest log.
To the best of my knowledge the nonstop rifts and invasions have been stepped up and increased for the beta and testing them and server load and such. I believe the rifts and invasions will be different in release and scale up or down based on the amount of people in a given zone or area.
I ran into a "lesser invasion" late last night. We only had a couple people in the area and both the invasion and rift were mostly filled will soloablr mobs and maybe one or two easy elites and we all got decent rewards. I imagine that's what rifts and invasions will be like as the game become more and more top heavy. It's still fun though even if your only taking them down with a handful of players instead of 100.
I never did try WAR, so Rift is my first experience with public quest type encounters. I've gotta say, it's great fun! None of that mucking around with "INVITE PLS!". Just target and gogogo! The rounds of "Great job!" and virtual high fives after closing a rift was great. Really brought the community together, and this is coming from a hardnosed soloer. This beta event convinced me. I just preordered.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
I also want to add that both rifts and invasions reward the player well. I've yet to run into an instance were I didn't receive a reward. Unlike War that had you filling an influence meter and collecting two or three static rewards and your done in rift your always finding useful stuff so you actively seek these things out.
After one invasion that turned the entire sky red all over the zone, I saw one person post in chat:
"Wow, I am going to go make love to my pre-order receipt."
I laughed out loud.
That one event kinda convinced me to buy this game. I was hopping around doing... nothing much, 11:10 PM, was ready to go to bed, when all of a sudden a huge message pops up on my screen, the sky turns red, and monsters start pouring out from all over the place. Must've been hundreds of people fighting back the invasion all over the map, and we all converged on the final boss that spawned. Very epic, came out of nowhere too.
Thinking of quitting for now so I don't get attached to be soon-to-be-wiped cleric.
This is what precisely what this genre needs. People are so caught up making comparisons and witty quips about how this game does not do anything new but the fact is it takes all the old stuff and yes even copied from other games but it does it makes it fun. Fun ! Have we actually forgotten how much we enjoy fun ?
I do not know about others or those who sit up on a podium listening to themselves think and while trying to tear this game down which is actually quite easy to do have not taken time to enjoy something old and tried that works. Yes it is fun folks. Just get into it and check all your poser stands by the door please I am tired of seeing them on the threads but then again may be that is where most people are at these days ...busy tearing up games and not even trying to have any fun.
Hearing a story like this makes me seriously want to pick up this game when it comes out.
Dude i was just hanging near a quest npc in some far off area when i noticed these giant boar type demon things rushing down the side of a cliff.
The feeling of 20-30 elites rushing straight at you and then suddenly being surrounded by damn near the entire zone fighting them off for rewards is a crazy experience.
I mean one minute im just reading some quest text and the next im fighting with 50+ people and collecting rewards and a ton of XP...
Funny enough I think this aspect of the game is what makes me overlook the linear nature of the questing. In Beta 1 the rifts weren't this active and most of my time was spent following the linear questlines which got a bit boring when done in that manner. In the following betas the Rifts were tweaked and invasions were activated and suddenly I was running for my life or strategically questing to get xp, it was like night and day.
So yeah I think the Rift system has brought back that sense of danger other MMOs have forgotten to include. I'm loving it and now I don't want to play too much either so I don't get to attached just to have them wipe my toons.
I've gotten around becoming attached to beta characters. Four things that I do that keep me slightly detached from my character. One, randomize button is my friend. After making a kick ass looking character to test the system I hit randomize to create a more stand in look to them. Second, I randomize the name, third I pick classes that I normally wouldn't create on my first or second play through. And forth I don't join a guild. All of that keeps my character feeling like a place holder for my true release character, no attachment to look, name, class or other players. I can level all day that way. On the plus side souls like Hunter, Justicar and Void knight have been a surprise and something I would never had experienced if I just started from release.
I was in Beta 3 and I almost walked away from this game. The first 10 levels just felt like it was a little too much like War and WoW. Out of shear boredom I decided to stick with the testing and give the game a chance. I was very glad i did. The game grows on you like a fungus and as much as I want to stop playing the beta so I won't be sick of the game by launch, I'm addicted.
It appears to be a very solid game technically, my shitty single core amd 2gigs of ram and an 8800 runs the game perfectly fine without the low render setting and I haven't crashed once.
The last beta I played with a few different low level characters, this time I decided to try and level to 20 and test out the warfronts.
The first day of Beta 4 was insane. I logged in, did a quest I had in my journal and ran to turn it in. Low and behold, an invasion had ganked all the NPC's. It was a tough one too, so people start trickling in to hand in their quests and we are all standing around getting owned, (it was the first time I've ever been graveyard camped by a freaking bunch of mobs) we formed up a group and cleared out the town.
Meanwhile, I notice off in the distance an odd number of rifts. The invasion starts to ramp up, my group finally cleared the quest hub and 2 more sets of invaders slam into us. We frantically fought them off, more and more people are showing up. I sat down for a drink and looked around the country side and saw shit going down EVERYWHERE. It looked like freaking armageddon. I counted about 12 rifts and dozens of invasions on the map. I realize this was some sort of focus testing, but it was awesome, and it hooked me.
A couple of days later, I'm about 7 levels higher. I'm knocking out quests and it's starting to feel a little grindy so I experimented with a different role. I went from full blown Stormcaller to Chloromancer at the touch of a button. I was lost for another 3 hours trying out my new abilities, figuring out what worked and what didn't and before I knew it I was back at the quest hub with another two levels under my belt.
I went afk for awhile and noticed that there was a rift opening up about 30 feet away from town. I ran over to to try and fight it off and start to get my ass handed to me. So I run back to town and a bunch of invaders roll in and slaughter everyone. So a bunch of us group up and start fighting off the invasion. It's getting harder and harder. We fight off one group of invaders and more attack us. More people start showing up and the fight is getting intense. The rift beside town is going unchecked because everyone is too busy fighting off the invasion.
All of a sudden a 20 foot tall raid boss barrels into town and scatters everyone with some sort of crazy AoE knockback. We fought that bastard for what seemed like 10 minutes. There must have been 60 people there, hordes of mobs, an unchecked Rift and my computer is still chugging away without a hitch.
In the end I got some good loot, totally forgot why I was in town in the first place, and burnt the living shit out of my dinner because I was too busy killing internet monsters.
This game isn't the second coming of Jesus or anything. But there is fun to be had here.
I know I have been in some epic fights in this game. I am only lvl 13 but in those 13 levels I had more fun than I ever had in WoW in 13 levels.
DO NOT GO AFK unless you want to die. LOL
+1 about having fun, more than any MMO game I have played in years, WoW / EQ2 / LotRO / GW included.
And about AFK, I have a fun story too. Yesterday, while I took a stop from doing quests, I decided it was time for a bio-break. I played enough Rift to know you mustn't leave your chara around, when any rift can open up above you any time. But I had to go desperately and I didnt have my Meridian teleport full yet.
I parked my character near an NPC but behind a huge boulder, in order not to be detected. My wife wasn't at house and my toilet door is directly looking at my PC. So I went for loo and left the door boldly open to check if anything happens. I thought I could hop in action if I am done early. I was checking the monitor while taking care of business. And a minute later after I sat, I saw an invasion passing by the road where I was near. I panicked at once but the invasion suddenly just turned around and moved to another direction. I was saved by the bell or another player challanging them. Thank you Defiant gods.
Another two minutes later, I noticed some commotion at the road and I found out that invasion was back already. Some players were fighting it and my nearby quest NPC was involved too. I wasn't finished yet so I could only watch what was happening from afar. The invasion mobs killed other players, killed the NPC and somehow found about good old me. I had to watch my character butchered by 5-6 mobs in seconds and couldn't do anything about it.
It was both shocking how they could find me and also so funny that I was laughing in the loo all by myself like a lunatic. This kind of moment makes this game a must-play for me. I am an already happy Collector's Edition pre-orderer.
Originally posted by elocke In Beta 1 the rifts weren't this active and most of my time was spent following the linear questlines which got a bit boring when done in that manner. In the following betas the Rifts were tweaked and invasions were activated and suddenly I was running for my life or strategically questing to get xp, it was like night and day.
Yeah, rifts spawning every 2 minutes in beta is fun but what about release?
Will release have rifts more like beta 1 or like now? Are rifts at release actually just a small reprieve from the monotonous questing every couple hours?
Yeah, lots of people in this topic are proclaiming how fun the constant rift invasions are but it is not normal rift behavior. I wonder how they will feel after they buy the game and the rifts are acting normal now.
The cries of "oh man, this is SO awesome" will turn into "hey, where are all the rifts? What am I supposed to do now? The horrible quests?"
It was both shocking how they could find me and also so funny that I was laughing in the loo all by myself like a lunatic. This kind of moment makes this game a must-play for me. I am an already happy Collector's Edition pre-orderer.
Originally posted by elocke In Beta 1 the rifts weren't this active and most of my time was spent following the linear questlines which got a bit boring when done in that manner. In the following betas the Rifts were tweaked and invasions were activated and suddenly I was running for my life or strategically questing to get xp, it was like night and day.
Yeah, rifts spawning every 2 minutes in beta is fun but what about release?
Will release have rifts more like beta 1 or like now? Are rifts at release actually just a small reprieve from the monotonous questing every couple hours?
Yeah, lots of people in this topic are proclaiming how fun the constant rift invasions are but it is not normal rift behavior. I wonder how they will feel after they buy the game and the rifts are acting normal now.
The cries of "oh man, this is SO awesome" will turn into "hey, where are all the rifts? What am I supposed to do now? The horrible quests?"
Probably lead to a lot of disappointed customers.
I would imagine that Trion has the ability to adjust the frequency of both rifts and invasions to fulfill customers needs. I mean honestly if rifts and invasions were your games hook would you sit by as customers complained that none were spawning?
It was both shocking how they could find me and also so funny that I was laughing in the loo all by myself like a lunatic. This kind of moment makes this game a must-play for me. I am an already happy Collector's Edition pre-orderer.
Owned on the toilet. How humiliating.
Heh, yeah. You know what they say: In Rift, PvE grinds you.
It is a nice story and it happened to me a few times as well. The major invasion events are especially fun.
The only problem is, and I found that I've been having this feeling more and more is: "I just want to craft some effin boots, damn it!"
Sometimes you log in and really have your mind set on something and that's when the constant invasions become annoying.
If you really want to hunker down and just get some crafting done, go into the main city to the crafting area there. It is underground, which makes it invasion proof and there is a banker and mailbox right there in the crafting area.
As far as the OP, that is exactly what attracts me to this game. I constantly find myself in the same situation. I think that actually helps break up the pace, so you always feel like your doing something constructive. No long runs to just kill 10 spiders and bring their silk back. A quest like that could take over an hour if you choose to jump into all the rifts and invasions along the way there and back. And why would'nt you? They give great XP as well as rewards to use to buy nice gear or upgrade items.
In Beta 1 the rifts weren't this active and most of my time was spent following the linear questlines which got a bit boring when done in that manner. In the following betas the Rifts were tweaked and invasions were activated and suddenly I was running for my life or strategically questing to get xp, it was like night and day.
Yeah, rifts spawning every 2 minutes in beta is fun but what about release?
Will release have rifts more like beta 1 or like now? Are rifts at release actually just a small reprieve from the monotonous questing every couple hours?
Yeah, lots of people in this topic are proclaiming how fun the constant rift invasions are but it is not normal rift behavior. I wonder how they will feel after they buy the game and the rifts are acting normal now.
The cries of "oh man, this is SO awesome" will turn into "hey, where are all the rifts? What am I supposed to do now? The horrible quests?"
Probably lead to a lot of disappointed customers.
Well, I think that's what the devs are going to have to figure out.
If they kept it up like Beta 4 then people could get really tired of it. It might be fun for a few weeks but after a while it will be "same old same old".
So they will have to figure out a decent balance. As it is they've just introduced the rift puzzles so that is one way to break it up. And who knows what else they have planned?
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Lol... Well the crafting is nothing special tbh, gather stuff, go to a suitable workplace, watch a progress bar... about sums it up.
You can add some bonuses by adding planar stuff which you can more or less buy (though you need luck) and buy stronger recipes from a vendor.
At least most of the stuff you can craft is quite useful.
As for the invasions, yeah they do get annoying. Though they're also good XP if you get a group, I once killed one foothold and occupying invasions after another with a group and got more XP than we could ever hope to get from the quests.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
I've not played myself but I imagine the BALANCE for Rift events is variability in frequency and to avoid predictability. You need quieter times for the chaotic ones to be more enjoyable. You need to have no idea what will happen when or where BUT pure randomness becomes just as monotonous as no randomness. So there needs to be some pattern/order/sense to make things interesting.
It sounds like this is absolutely possible with this game with a single dev/GM being able to toy with the spawning rates. Can this be done on the fly?
I am thinking I will indeed try this game, with the phiosophy of avoiding non-story quests, just crafting and exploring and letting the event system pull me along. I was told in another thread (one about quality of the quests) that this would be viable gameplay.
Comments
Definately fun, I had a couple massive rift events drop me like buttered toast, when everyone finally started helped was a blast,
Someone actually commented either in the forum or in chat yesterday
Rift " where PVE raids you "
i chuckled
"All expectation leads to suffering" Buhhda
They do!
Sure you got the standard run of the mill quests and quest hubs.
But you got lots of daily quests centering around Rifts and Invasions.
And during the major invasion events, like yesterday, you automatically get a quest about the event assigned to your quest log.
You know what is actually quit fun and gives lot of people fond memories from EQ1 ?
You can actually kite and train these invasions all the way to a quest hub full of people and unleash havoc on unwarry players!
I did this several times and it was great fun! LOL
I ran into a "lesser invasion" late last night. We only had a couple people in the area and both the invasion and rift were mostly filled will soloablr mobs and maybe one or two easy elites and we all got decent rewards. I imagine that's what rifts and invasions will be like as the game become more and more top heavy. It's still fun though even if your only taking them down with a handful of players instead of 100.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I never did try WAR, so Rift is my first experience with public quest type encounters. I've gotta say, it's great fun! None of that mucking around with "INVITE PLS!". Just target and gogogo! The rounds of "Great job!" and virtual high fives after closing a rift was great. Really brought the community together, and this is coming from a hardnosed soloer. This beta event convinced me. I just preordered.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Awesome story!!
This is exactly the kind of game play I've been waiting for. I can't wait to play! ( I don't like beta play..waiting for launch)
Lots of other simular stories in this thread..thanks for sharing.
After one invasion that turned the entire sky red all over the zone, I saw one person post in chat:
"Wow, I am going to go make love to my pre-order receipt."
I laughed out loud.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
That one event kinda convinced me to buy this game. I was hopping around doing... nothing much, 11:10 PM, was ready to go to bed, when all of a sudden a huge message pops up on my screen, the sky turns red, and monsters start pouring out from all over the place. Must've been hundreds of people fighting back the invasion all over the map, and we all converged on the final boss that spawned. Very epic, came out of nowhere too.
Thinking of quitting for now so I don't get attached to be soon-to-be-wiped cleric.
Yeah that's the biggest problem with this beta.
I'm not going to play a lot because everything's getting wiped anyway...
Fortunately, i leveled two chars to level 15-20 and that convinced me
This is what precisely what this genre needs. People are so caught up making comparisons and witty quips about how this game does not do anything new but the fact is it takes all the old stuff and yes even copied from other games but it does it makes it fun. Fun ! Have we actually forgotten how much we enjoy fun ?
I do not know about others or those who sit up on a podium listening to themselves think and while trying to tear this game down which is actually quite easy to do have not taken time to enjoy something old and tried that works. Yes it is fun folks. Just get into it and check all your poser stands by the door please I am tired of seeing them on the threads but then again may be that is where most people are at these days ...busy tearing up games and not even trying to have any fun.
Funny enough I think this aspect of the game is what makes me overlook the linear nature of the questing. In Beta 1 the rifts weren't this active and most of my time was spent following the linear questlines which got a bit boring when done in that manner. In the following betas the Rifts were tweaked and invasions were activated and suddenly I was running for my life or strategically questing to get xp, it was like night and day.
So yeah I think the Rift system has brought back that sense of danger other MMOs have forgotten to include. I'm loving it and now I don't want to play too much either so I don't get to attached just to have them wipe my toons.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I was in Beta 3 and I almost walked away from this game. The first 10 levels just felt like it was a little too much like War and WoW. Out of shear boredom I decided to stick with the testing and give the game a chance. I was very glad i did. The game grows on you like a fungus and as much as I want to stop playing the beta so I won't be sick of the game by launch, I'm addicted.
It appears to be a very solid game technically, my shitty single core amd 2gigs of ram and an 8800 runs the game perfectly fine without the low render setting and I haven't crashed once.
The last beta I played with a few different low level characters, this time I decided to try and level to 20 and test out the warfronts.
The first day of Beta 4 was insane. I logged in, did a quest I had in my journal and ran to turn it in. Low and behold, an invasion had ganked all the NPC's. It was a tough one too, so people start trickling in to hand in their quests and we are all standing around getting owned, (it was the first time I've ever been graveyard camped by a freaking bunch of mobs) we formed up a group and cleared out the town.
Meanwhile, I notice off in the distance an odd number of rifts. The invasion starts to ramp up, my group finally cleared the quest hub and 2 more sets of invaders slam into us. We frantically fought them off, more and more people are showing up. I sat down for a drink and looked around the country side and saw shit going down EVERYWHERE. It looked like freaking armageddon. I counted about 12 rifts and dozens of invasions on the map. I realize this was some sort of focus testing, but it was awesome, and it hooked me.
A couple of days later, I'm about 7 levels higher. I'm knocking out quests and it's starting to feel a little grindy so I experimented with a different role. I went from full blown Stormcaller to Chloromancer at the touch of a button. I was lost for another 3 hours trying out my new abilities, figuring out what worked and what didn't and before I knew it I was back at the quest hub with another two levels under my belt.
I went afk for awhile and noticed that there was a rift opening up about 30 feet away from town. I ran over to to try and fight it off and start to get my ass handed to me. So I run back to town and a bunch of invaders roll in and slaughter everyone. So a bunch of us group up and start fighting off the invasion. It's getting harder and harder. We fight off one group of invaders and more attack us. More people start showing up and the fight is getting intense. The rift beside town is going unchecked because everyone is too busy fighting off the invasion.
All of a sudden a 20 foot tall raid boss barrels into town and scatters everyone with some sort of crazy AoE knockback. We fought that bastard for what seemed like 10 minutes. There must have been 60 people there, hordes of mobs, an unchecked Rift and my computer is still chugging away without a hitch.
In the end I got some good loot, totally forgot why I was in town in the first place, and burnt the living shit out of my dinner because I was too busy killing internet monsters.
This game isn't the second coming of Jesus or anything. But there is fun to be had here.
+1 about having fun, more than any MMO game I have played in years, WoW / EQ2 / LotRO / GW included.
And about AFK, I have a fun story too. Yesterday, while I took a stop from doing quests, I decided it was time for a bio-break. I played enough Rift to know you mustn't leave your chara around, when any rift can open up above you any time. But I had to go desperately and I didnt have my Meridian teleport full yet.
I parked my character near an NPC but behind a huge boulder, in order not to be detected. My wife wasn't at house and my toilet door is directly looking at my PC. So I went for loo and left the door boldly open to check if anything happens. I thought I could hop in action if I am done early. I was checking the monitor while taking care of business. And a minute later after I sat, I saw an invasion passing by the road where I was near. I panicked at once but the invasion suddenly just turned around and moved to another direction. I was saved by the bell or another player challanging them. Thank you Defiant gods.
Another two minutes later, I noticed some commotion at the road and I found out that invasion was back already. Some players were fighting it and my nearby quest NPC was involved too. I wasn't finished yet so I could only watch what was happening from afar. The invasion mobs killed other players, killed the NPC and somehow found about good old me. I had to watch my character butchered by 5-6 mobs in seconds and couldn't do anything about it.
It was both shocking how they could find me and also so funny that I was laughing in the loo all by myself like a lunatic. This kind of moment makes this game a must-play for me. I am an already happy Collector's Edition pre-orderer.
Will release have rifts more like beta 1 or like now? Are rifts at release actually just a small reprieve from the monotonous questing every couple hours?
Yeah, lots of people in this topic are proclaiming how fun the constant rift invasions are but it is not normal rift behavior. I wonder how they will feel after they buy the game and the rifts are acting normal now.
The cries of "oh man, this is SO awesome" will turn into "hey, where are all the rifts? What am I supposed to do now? The horrible quests?"
Probably lead to a lot of disappointed customers.
Owned on the toilet. How humiliating.
Will release have rifts more like beta 1 or like now? Are rifts at release actually just a small reprieve from the monotonous questing every couple hours?
Yeah, lots of people in this topic are proclaiming how fun the constant rift invasions are but it is not normal rift behavior. I wonder how they will feel after they buy the game and the rifts are acting normal now.
The cries of "oh man, this is SO awesome" will turn into "hey, where are all the rifts? What am I supposed to do now? The horrible quests?"
Probably lead to a lot of disappointed customers.
I would imagine that Trion has the ability to adjust the frequency of both rifts and invasions to fulfill customers needs. I mean honestly if rifts and invasions were your games hook would you sit by as customers complained that none were spawning?Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Heh, yeah. You know what they say: In Rift, PvE grinds you.
If you really want to hunker down and just get some crafting done, go into the main city to the crafting area there. It is underground, which makes it invasion proof and there is a banker and mailbox right there in the crafting area.
As far as the OP, that is exactly what attracts me to this game. I constantly find myself in the same situation. I think that actually helps break up the pace, so you always feel like your doing something constructive. No long runs to just kill 10 spiders and bring their silk back. A quest like that could take over an hour if you choose to jump into all the rifts and invasions along the way there and back. And why would'nt you? They give great XP as well as rewards to use to buy nice gear or upgrade items.
Well, I think that's what the devs are going to have to figure out.
If they kept it up like Beta 4 then people could get really tired of it. It might be fun for a few weeks but after a while it will be "same old same old".
So they will have to figure out a decent balance. As it is they've just introduced the rift puzzles so that is one way to break it up. And who knows what else they have planned?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Lol... Well the crafting is nothing special tbh, gather stuff, go to a suitable workplace, watch a progress bar... about sums it up.
You can add some bonuses by adding planar stuff which you can more or less buy (though you need luck) and buy stronger recipes from a vendor.
At least most of the stuff you can craft is quite useful.
As for the invasions, yeah they do get annoying. Though they're also good XP if you get a group, I once killed one foothold and occupying invasions after another with a group and got more XP than we could ever hope to get from the quests.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Sounding much better than earlier.
I've not played myself but I imagine the BALANCE for Rift events is variability in frequency and to avoid predictability. You need quieter times for the chaotic ones to be more enjoyable. You need to have no idea what will happen when or where BUT pure randomness becomes just as monotonous as no randomness. So there needs to be some pattern/order/sense to make things interesting.
It sounds like this is absolutely possible with this game with a single dev/GM being able to toy with the spawning rates. Can this be done on the fly?
I am thinking I will indeed try this game, with the phiosophy of avoiding non-story quests, just crafting and exploring and letting the event system pull me along. I was told in another thread (one about quality of the quests) that this would be viable gameplay.
Good post thanx:-)