I got to level 25, it was still the same "boring" quest gameplay on rails.
Good enough for a couple of months, but I doubt I'll have the patience to get more than 2 alts through the same stuff.
Well, the game is designed in such a way that with 4 avatars you'll be covering every single calling and soul combination possible.
Unless of course you want to reroll on the other side of the conflict.
I think your settingyourself up for a very underwhelming game experience if you expect the game to change after level 10. Trion has indicated nothing about later gameplay to suggest the game becomes anything more than it is at level 10.
I played both factions in the last beta, while things look diffrent, its overall the same experience for either side, even the quest reward equipment and rinfs are exactly the same in every way....like that lv 12 2h staff you got on guardian...well its there as a reward for a slightly diffrent quest on defiant.
Just look at it for what it is, a polished game that doesnt try to break any molds or draw outside of any lines. If your typical mmorpg bores you to tears, Rift will bore you to tears...if you enjoy mmorpgs for what they are, you will enjoy rift...especially if you choose the right class....look for pvp balance and class role issues in the next beta, my prediction is that will be the games unraveling..still has yet to be proven as we havent seen endgame or mid game content, but it was there 1-30...some classes as a whole and certain souls were utterly useless in execution.
I think the game does change after you hit 10, at least for me.
You can do Warfronts and really start contributing to closing Rifts. This is where the game really begins imo. I don't have to touch a quest unless it has a reward I really want. I would rather PvP and close Rifts then do quests. If I wanted to do quests to level I would play every other mmo on the market.
(Note: This is mainly aimed at those who thought the 1-10 experience was too boring to get past)
Thought the 1-10 Rift experience was kinda boring? Me too. You only had a few skills to use, and you were completely railroaded into following the quests. Unoriginal and boring and a WoW-clone, right?
Well... sort of. Here's the thing though, and this could apply to a lot of the other MMO's coming out as well: In Rift, the level 1-10 zone is the starter zone. It is meant to introduce a completely new player who has never played an MMO before, to the concepts and workings of this MMO.
I think that label doesn't really apply to anyone who comes to this site. We're all experienced MMO players here, often of multiple games over the span of many years. We already know how an MMO plays, especially one that isn't radically different from the other games on the market. Simply put, the start zone isn't designed for us.
Someone asked in another thread why MMO's should be given any leeway in regards to 'capturing your attention'. Well, in single player games, you usually have tutorial levels as well - some are good, and a lot definitely aren't. But you power through the tutorial anyways, because you know the game will properly start once you're done. In my opinion, the starter zones in MMO's are exactly the same: You can't really tell anything about the game proper until you get out of the starting zone. Sure, some starting zones are awesome (AoC's Tortage is a good example of this), but in most games, starting zones serve only to introduce new players to the genre, and to the game-specific concepts of that particular game.
So for those who are critical of Rift (or other new games coming out for that matter), do yourself a big favor: Get out of the starter zone, and try playing in the actual game for an hour or two before passing judgement.
(And if you still think it sucks after that, well then you have something to base it on, and your opinion will be an informed one, rather than borderline trolling. Everybody wins!)
Rift's wants you to get to End Game and for good reason.... It's frikkin Epic....
Gone are the days of lackluster End Game.
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
Well wrfronts do add to the game, however i really wish they were as fun as warhammers scenarios, i think warfronts need a lot of work, at least the ones i did didnt seem anything special, and i didnt particulairly like the layout of the first one you do, it seemed like a half hazard layout, with no real flow, and lots of LOS obsticals...it felt cramped.
How do we know the endgame is "frickin epic"? I didnt think anyone had played endgame yet.
Yes the earth rift is hard, but the mechanics of it are the same as the first rifts you see in freemarch...tank n spank.
Id like to see some variety in objective in addition to the tank n spank rift mechanics later on.
And i hope your right about endgame being epic, its just something we cant claim untill people have actually played it....also epic is great, but will it be epic after a month at endgame?
I just hope there is a lot of endgame feedback after this beta, i hope a lot of people acutally get there. I want to see videos of endgame pvp and raids, i want to hear balance feedback on classes for PVE and PVP. My fear still remains that the most effective raid groups will be all clerics and warriors, with mabey a few rangers, same with pvp.
Any mmo indeed has that first introduction towards the genre wich can be regarrded pretty boring, or you can regard it as finding out how the game runs paying extra attention to the enviroment your skills etc.
I fon't get the comparison btw with FPs tutorials. A FPS (single player) lasts for about 8 hours max. so you your tutorial is quite short. the tutorial of an MMO is longer but it should be because an MMO is something your are gonna spend alot more time in and can be quite diffrent from the others you play.
edit: ohh and MMO's really all have the same basic system. there issnt really a way around that but there doesnt have to. It's the diffrences between diffrent MMO's wich should pull you in . Like in Rift the rift invasion while not being particulary special i was having fun just hoping around that entire map with a ton of people zerging evrything down:P In warhammer the RvR zones in the later areas become really intresting, and in Rf online (join the Bellato on Lethorn we need more bodies ) the chipwar 3sided battle can be immense.
If you really think all those MMO's are alike then you should either try a diffrent kind of MMO (talking about completely diffrent EVE / Pirates of the burning sea) or accept the simple fact that MMo's are not your thing anymore.
For me Rift was a total fail in Beta 1. I leveled 2 character to level 10. I was bored to tears.
I gave the game a second chance in Beta 5 because I read so many good things about it. The game changed/evolved a lot between those betas.
I started to get hooked past level 12 or so. Once your character start to get shape with souls, spells and skills it get much better, and the boring linear world opens drastically.
I read about next generation and new standard and such. Not sure if I buy this game, but: Maybe we need Devs who can make polished games with the resources given. In the case of Trion it was 50 million for a polished game. Of course I´d like to see a Vanguard 2, or DAoC 2 or EVE without waiting, but maybe Rift is the beginning of Devs able to plan their possibilities with given cash.
I agreed with OP from the minute I got into this beta. So I have leveled all the way to 20 and my opinion didn't change at all. Neither did the game play or anything else. This game isn't for me for all the reasons listed in a million other threads. But yes OP I agree it generally takes more than the first 10 levels to decide if you really like an MMO or not.
Threads like this always tend to insult me. It's like,
"Don't like Rift, why don't you getting past level 10" (proceeds to explain to me what a tutorial is)
You can be insulted all you want, but the thing is, in most MMO's, the tutorial is really not a good way to gauge the game at all. In most cases, the starter areas suck compared to the rest of the game, and in some cases (again, mentioning AoC's Tortage), the tutorial is the best part of the game - either way, they don't give you, as an experienced MMO player, much of an idea what the rest of the game is going to be like.
I wasn't asking you or anyone else to like Rift. By all means, hate on it all you want - All I was asking was to keep the discrepency between starter areas and the actual game in mind when trying out an MMO, be it Rift or any of the other new games coming out. Judging by a lot of the responses here, that's something that people tend to forget.
So yeah, be insulted, hate on this or any other game, I don't really care. I'm just more interested in seeing informed opinions on whether a game is good or not, than I am in seeing "I played it for 5 minutes and it sucks" opinions. Those hold no value to me.
I think your settingyourself up for a very underwhelming game experience if you expect the game to change after level 10. Trion has indicated nothing about later gameplay to suggest the game becomes anything more than it is at level 10.
This is just completely false. One would be hard pressed to make a statement that lacked any less truth. Statements like these are spread about throughout many forums and those tens of thousands who've played the game now, know how false it truly is.
And Trion has indicated in almost EVERY podcast that the game becomes more than it is at level 10. Seriously in almost every interview they've said it and detailed how the game ramps up.
In other games you can say Yes or No to a tutorial and if you do it, then it's only one mission.
Not 10 levels.
At least cite some examples.
Now lets be honest, the first 10 levels in rift take naff all time to do. Plus they not only give you the required information to play the game they introduce you to the world , it's setting and it does that very well in my opinion.
Before i start,i point out i was a noob,only playing until level 10,but i already had 3 souls and plenty of choices.The game may very well change drastically,however i am commenting on what the game showed me,so show some respect and not flame me,like i am saying i know the whole game and realize i have no idea of the game post level 10.
FFXI has no tutorial,it is YOUR game to move about as you wish,you are not tied down to follow some linear pattern of quests that everyomne else is also following.In FFXI everryone can be off somewhwere else doing something different,in RIFT everyone starts at the same quest,well at least those in that starting area,i am not even sure Rift had more than one starting area.How can it be considerd YOUR rpg if you are following the exact same pattern as everyone else?Also if the gear is tied to the quests,then most likely everyone is using the exact same gear,ack,pretty much means everyone is playing the same single player game,not a MMORPG.
Also unlike the OP stated i was only about level 10 and already had plenty of spells ,no shortage and i already had my rotation that didn't look to ever be changed for the rest of the game.I also noticed that thalf of my spells could literally be tossed into the trash bin as they were just overlapping spells doing the same thing ,different name.However unless someone can tell me that say a Ice spell is more important than a fire spell based on elemental properties?Does Rift utilize elemental properties,i didn't notice it?Also can spells be resisted or missed,again i didn't notice it.
Here is my opinion and how i feel about class structure design.It takes a lot of effort to make a well thought out class,it also holds the developer accountable for it's design.Now as in Rift's case,the devs clean their hands by just making a bunch of spells and says here you choose.I prefer to pay someone for using their mind and making me some real nice classes to play,i don't want to choose anything from anywhere,i want to feel like i actually am a class and not just a morphling.
I would say by any means Rift is NOT a bad game ,because it is not,it just doesn't have the feel of being well thought out or very in depth in any one area.I could use more examples,but as always i end up with a 5 paragraph post ,trying to prove my point.If you look for in depth design in games,you will see it ,if you just play to level and follow quests,you probably won't notice anything.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I made it to level 26 on a clericdruid and level 21 on a rogue anger. I was bored with the quests but I kept playing cause I didn't really have anything else to do. Problem with what you are asking is you are sorta force to stay where you level is in rift as you really aren't effective at killing thing 5 level higher than you. Trust me I tried, all it lead to was death. Rift also sorta forces you to do their quests as the exp you recieve for killing mobs is piddle compared to turning in quests. I was sorta hoping for a happy medium, but there was none. If I chose not to do quests I would have only been able to make it about 20 level of one character in the time I played during the week.
Now I do hope things change before the game goes live and they realize there are those of us that do not like to be fored to quest. This is sorta what I am hold hope on. If they don't increase the exp you get from mob killing I most likely will not get Rift. I don't think telling someone they need to invest another 10 levels will sway them. That just my opinion though. There are thing people like and don't like and if certain things don't change in the upcoming beta events I will not be getting rift. Telling people to get out the noob areas isn't going to cure boredom if thats what they are having.
I agree with what you said alot, OP. I almost quit the rift beta halfway through the Guardian starter zone (After quitting the Defiant one in like 15 mins), it was sort of confusing, the thrust you deep into the lore very quickly and I wasn't able to appreciate that, and all the exploding things were rather annoying. I'm glad I stuck with it, and started to feel really engaged about the time you leave the little town area and check out the twisted forest.
I'm glad I stuck with it. As soon as I went through the portal (in an unexpectedly epic cutscene might I add) I was hooked. The new zone was calmer, not all....... orange ( I hate sunset effects in game. Makes everything washed out and both starting areas have that baaaaaaad.) and it felt like a place I actually wanted to be, in the present. I'm still not above, like, 7, but I like it. I do think they don't do a very good job of introducing crafting professions, and confused me by only showing a few of them and then telling me I could have 3...
Anyway, Rift is a solid game, and thats a LOT better than many, many MMOs these days, so It will get at least my 50$ soon ( Now with TF2 items?!), although Im not sure how long I will continue to sub.
-------------------------------- -Been there, done that: Xsyon, WoW, EVE, Maplestory, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, FF11, Rift -Currently playing: Not MMOs -Wants to check out: SWTOR, Dark Millennium
I made it to level 26 on a clericdruid and level 21 on a rogue anger. I was bored with the quests but I kept playing cause I didn't really have anything else to do. Problem with what you are asking is you are sorta force to stay where you level is in rift as you really aren't effective at killing thing 5 level higher than you. Trust me I tried, all it lead to was death. Rift also sorta forces you to do their quests as the exp you recieve for killing mobs is piddle compared to turning in quests. I was sorta hoping for a happy medium, but there was none. If I chose not to do quests I would have only been able to make it about 20 level of one character in the time I played during the week.
Now I do hope things change before the game goes live and they realize there are those of us that do not like to be fored to quest. This is sorta what I am hold hope on. If they don't increase the exp you get from mob killing I most likely will not get Rift. I don't think telling someone they need to invest another 10 levels will sway them. That just my opinion though. There are thing people like and don't like and if certain things don't change in the upcoming beta events I will not be getting rift. Telling people to get out the noob areas isn't going to cure boredom if thats what they are having.
It's completely fair if you don't like the game for what it is, I'm not telling you any different - And yeah, straight out grinding mobs doesn't really work in Rift - however, you can viably level just by doing rifts if that's what you want, from about level 15 or so and up. Possibly sooner. I know that when I devoted time to doing rifts, especially with the public grouping system they put in, I was levelling pretty damned fast. Same goes for Warfronts, from what I hear - that's an aspect of the game I haven't tried out yet - So there are alternative levelling paths - just not mob grinding, and if that's your thing then Rift won't be it for you.
Personally, I was having fun getting "distracted" along the way. If I was doing only questing, I very likely would have gotten bored as well - but I was doing crafting and harvesting on the side, and letting myself get distracted by Artifact collection, and of course by rifts opening up. Those things together have done a good job so far at keeping me entertained, and at keeping things from getting too stale for me. Will it hold up? No idea, but I'm willing to give it a chance.
As for getting out of the noob area, I think my point still stands - you're free to disagree with it of course - but I'm still of the opinion that you can't judge a game by the starter area alone. If you're still bored when you get out of the starter area, then chances are you won't find the rest of the game fun.
Yes you can viably level grinding mobs in Rift as well as doing quests. However you cannot equally do both in the same time period. If you do quest you will level 10 times as fast as just killing mobs and hunting rifts. There in is the problem. I would much rather just do a few quests here and there and hunt rifts, fight back invasions and PvP warfonts all day. Problem is you can level efficiently doing it that way. I tried to just hunt rifts and invasions on my second character and it just takes ENTIRELY too long to level that way. Which is the reason I was Bored to tears. I know this is a completely different game but sorta the same problem lies in Champions Online. If you just wanna fly around and be a hero you cannot advance as fast as doing the quest. Which is why I call it forced questing. Its not really forced on you but if you wanna see advancement you gotta do the quests. That is the problem I have with Rift.
If they up the Exp you get from rift chasing and invasion stopping and PvP. I will not have a problem with this game. As it stands not the fastest way to level though in Rift is FORCED QUESTING. I hope they do make changes so people have another route to advancement, or you may be correct that Rift may not be the game for me.
After level 10 did nothing for me. It s still a very boring game. The rifts just became a complete annoyance as I was trying to get anything done. They re not fun at all IMO.
I found myself starting off questing as per usual in themepark style MMOs, but as time went on and level 11+ came I was out hunting rifts and invasions while grinding the usual style quests.
Eventually I was almost invasion hunting exclusively and attempting each time to combat the boss mob during the world events, during this time I found levelling exponentially quicker - though it may have been possible that it was due the fun that time passed without much notice, overall I found the experience quite awsome and even finding myself quite excited about the next RIFT beta event tomorrow.
Basically I feel that both methods of levelling are equally valid - but invasion hunting, etc. will definetely be what I'm doing during release.
M
"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!" - Sun Tzu, the Art of War
I enjoyed the starter areas more than the main game world on my first character. My only complaint with the starter areas is the final battle. They need to use phasing/instance to give the player an epic feel to the battle. The first time I got to the final battle, other players have already engaged and by the time I joined in, the battle was over and my quest updated due to the actions of the other players. All I could do was port into the main world, missing the majority of the encounter and gaining a bad impression of the game.
When I entered the game world it was over crowded with players all in competition for mobs and crafting resources etc. The game turned into who could be quickest to tag a mob. Rifts became tiredsome due to the zerg like nature of the battle. It was chaotic and the mobs were usually dead before you could take any action. I never thought I would be wishing for population caps before opening another instance of the area, i.e. AoC, EQ 2 etc. After a couple of hours i logged off in frustration.
The next day I logged back in wanting to give the game another chance. I knew my problems was related to over population and not the game mechanics. This time I made a new character and when I got to the main world it was like night and day compared to the day before. It was still busy with players, but you got a good feel for the game and Rifts became more interesting not just a zerg fest and I was able to compete for resources etc.
The only bad point I can think of at present is the Warfronts. I only did the one in the teens, Black Garden or something. I feel the devs need to adjust the level differences to five levels instead of ten or follow WARs example and buff the lower level players. In my early teens it was quite common to be one shotted and my damage was poor when combatting the high teen players. The devs need to find away to balance the system between the different level ranges so the low level players can compete.
I find this a probleme with MMO's, "It won't be fun till you get to level 10, 20, 30, etc..." or " It won't be fun until you played a month of it." Hear the second one a lot for Eve. I think there are more immediate problems with MMO's, but if someone could make a game fun sooner I think it would have good success. MMOs are the only type of Entertainment that takes a long time to get fun in my opinion.
It would be nice if a game came out that gave you options at the start, not just "made for people that never played MMO's," or "Gives zero direction at all." They do it to single player games, and I don't see why they can't do it for MMO's?
I thought Rift was fun from the start. It's got some basic stuff to start with but really you blow through that in like 15-30 minutes. If you have played mmos for 10 years then yeah it might seem redundant but then you aren't really much interested in playing the game but perhap more interested in being in the end game??
In any event I especially loved the defiant starting area and especially the story. Tech, time travel, dragons, and a crazy world etc. Wow how can you not love it. Sure you start with only a couple abilities but if you started with 10 you wouldn't know what to do with them
As you level and you add souls the complexity and choices grow rapidly. God mucking with your souls and configuration at lvl 20 is a whole game in itself. Killing your first rift around lvl 6-7 is boring?! If you think so then maybe it's time to start playing some other type of genre.... You have obviously been burned out by wow :P
Comments
I think the game does change after you hit 10, at least for me.
You can do Warfronts and really start contributing to closing Rifts. This is where the game really begins imo. I don't have to touch a quest unless it has a reward I really want. I would rather PvP and close Rifts then do quests. If I wanted to do quests to level I would play every other mmo on the market.
20 lvl -> rift/invasion bosses are awesome and check couple mine videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_729qixN-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTuPKWrtOww
Rift's wants you to get to End Game and for good reason.... It's frikkin Epic....
Gone are the days of lackluster End Game.
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
Well wrfronts do add to the game, however i really wish they were as fun as warhammers scenarios, i think warfronts need a lot of work, at least the ones i did didnt seem anything special, and i didnt particulairly like the layout of the first one you do, it seemed like a half hazard layout, with no real flow, and lots of LOS obsticals...it felt cramped.
How do we know the endgame is "frickin epic"? I didnt think anyone had played endgame yet.
Yes the earth rift is hard, but the mechanics of it are the same as the first rifts you see in freemarch...tank n spank.
Id like to see some variety in objective in addition to the tank n spank rift mechanics later on.
And i hope your right about endgame being epic, its just something we cant claim untill people have actually played it....also epic is great, but will it be epic after a month at endgame?
I just hope there is a lot of endgame feedback after this beta, i hope a lot of people acutally get there. I want to see videos of endgame pvp and raids, i want to hear balance feedback on classes for PVE and PVP. My fear still remains that the most effective raid groups will be all clerics and warriors, with mabey a few rangers, same with pvp.
Any mmo indeed has that first introduction towards the genre wich can be regarrded pretty boring, or you can regard it as finding out how the game runs paying extra attention to the enviroment your skills etc.
I fon't get the comparison btw with FPs tutorials. A FPS (single player) lasts for about 8 hours max. so you your tutorial is quite short. the tutorial of an MMO is longer but it should be because an MMO is something your are gonna spend alot more time in and can be quite diffrent from the others you play.
edit: ohh and MMO's really all have the same basic system. there issnt really a way around that but there doesnt have to. It's the diffrences between diffrent MMO's wich should pull you in . Like in Rift the rift invasion while not being particulary special i was having fun just hoping around that entire map with a ton of people zerging evrything down:P In warhammer the RvR zones in the later areas become really intresting, and in Rf online (join the Bellato on Lethorn we need more bodies
) the chipwar 3sided battle can be immense.
If you really think all those MMO's are alike then you should either try a diffrent kind of MMO (talking about completely diffrent EVE / Pirates of the burning sea) or accept the simple fact that MMo's are not your thing anymore.
For me Rift was a total fail in Beta 1. I leveled 2 character to level 10. I was bored to tears.
I gave the game a second chance in Beta 5 because I read so many good things about it. The game changed/evolved a lot between those betas.
I started to get hooked past level 12 or so. Once your character start to get shape with souls, spells and skills it get much better, and the boring linear world opens drastically.
Threads like this always tend to insult me. It's like,
"Don't like Rift, why don't you getting past level 10" (proceeds to explain to me what a tutorial is)
In my opinion better support Rift.
I read about next generation and new standard and such. Not sure if I buy this game, but: Maybe we need Devs who can make polished games with the resources given. In the case of Trion it was 50 million for a polished game.
Of course I´d like to see a Vanguard 2, or DAoC 2 or EVE without waiting, but maybe Rift is the beginning of Devs able to plan their possibilities with given cash.
I agreed with OP from the minute I got into this beta. So I have leveled all the way to 20 and my opinion didn't change at all. Neither did the game play or anything else. This game isn't for me for all the reasons listed in a million other threads. But yes OP I agree it generally takes more than the first 10 levels to decide if you really like an MMO or not.
Steam: Neph
You can be insulted all you want, but the thing is, in most MMO's, the tutorial is really not a good way to gauge the game at all. In most cases, the starter areas suck compared to the rest of the game, and in some cases (again, mentioning AoC's Tortage), the tutorial is the best part of the game - either way, they don't give you, as an experienced MMO player, much of an idea what the rest of the game is going to be like.
I wasn't asking you or anyone else to like Rift. By all means, hate on it all you want - All I was asking was to keep the discrepency between starter areas and the actual game in mind when trying out an MMO, be it Rift or any of the other new games coming out. Judging by a lot of the responses here, that's something that people tend to forget.
So yeah, be insulted, hate on this or any other game, I don't really care. I'm just more interested in seeing informed opinions on whether a game is good or not, than I am in seeing "I played it for 5 minutes and it sucks" opinions. Those hold no value to me.
http://machineborn.guildportal.com - Now recruiting players!
This is just completely false. One would be hard pressed to make a statement that lacked any less truth. Statements like these are spread about throughout many forums and those tens of thousands who've played the game now, know how false it truly is.
And Trion has indicated in almost EVERY podcast that the game becomes more than it is at level 10. Seriously in almost every interview they've said it and detailed how the game ramps up.
Before i start,i point out i was a noob,only playing until level 10,but i already had 3 souls and plenty of choices.The game may very well change drastically,however i am commenting on what the game showed me,so show some respect and not flame me,like i am saying i know the whole game and realize i have no idea of the game post level 10.
FFXI has no tutorial,it is YOUR game to move about as you wish,you are not tied down to follow some linear pattern of quests that everyomne else is also following.In FFXI everryone can be off somewhwere else doing something different,in RIFT everyone starts at the same quest,well at least those in that starting area,i am not even sure Rift had more than one starting area.How can it be considerd YOUR rpg if you are following the exact same pattern as everyone else?Also if the gear is tied to the quests,then most likely everyone is using the exact same gear,ack,pretty much means everyone is playing the same single player game,not a MMORPG.
Also unlike the OP stated i was only about level 10 and already had plenty of spells ,no shortage and i already had my rotation that didn't look to ever be changed for the rest of the game.I also noticed that thalf of my spells could literally be tossed into the trash bin as they were just overlapping spells doing the same thing ,different name.However unless someone can tell me that say a Ice spell is more important than a fire spell based on elemental properties?Does Rift utilize elemental properties,i didn't notice it?Also can spells be resisted or missed,again i didn't notice it.
Here is my opinion and how i feel about class structure design.It takes a lot of effort to make a well thought out class,it also holds the developer accountable for it's design.Now as in Rift's case,the devs clean their hands by just making a bunch of spells and says here you choose.I prefer to pay someone for using their mind and making me some real nice classes to play,i don't want to choose anything from anywhere,i want to feel like i actually am a class and not just a morphling.
I would say by any means Rift is NOT a bad game ,because it is not,it just doesn't have the feel of being well thought out or very in depth in any one area.I could use more examples,but as always i end up with a 5 paragraph post ,trying to prove my point.If you look for in depth design in games,you will see it ,if you just play to level and follow quests,you probably won't notice anything.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I made it to level 26 on a clericdruid and level 21 on a rogue
anger. I was bored with the quests but I kept playing cause I didn't really have anything else to do. Problem with what you are asking is you are sorta force to stay where you level is in rift as you really aren't effective at killing thing 5 level higher than you. Trust me I tried, all it lead to was death. Rift also sorta forces you to do their quests as the exp you recieve for killing mobs is piddle compared to turning in quests. I was sorta hoping for a happy medium, but there was none. If I chose not to do quests I would have only been able to make it about 20 level of one character in the time I played during the week.
Now I do hope things change before the game goes live and they realize there are those of us that do not like to be fored to quest. This is sorta what I am hold hope on. If they don't increase the exp you get from mob killing I most likely will not get Rift. I don't think telling someone they need to invest another 10 levels will sway them. That just my opinion though. There are thing people like and don't like and if certain things don't change in the upcoming beta events I will not be getting rift. Telling people to get out the noob areas isn't going to cure boredom if thats what they are having.
so true. from 1-10 the game is utter crap but once you get into the teens it gets so much better.
I agree with what you said alot, OP. I almost quit the rift beta halfway through the Guardian starter zone (After quitting the Defiant one in like 15 mins), it was sort of confusing, the thrust you deep into the lore very quickly and I wasn't able to appreciate that, and all the exploding things were rather annoying. I'm glad I stuck with it, and started to feel really engaged about the time you leave the little town area and check out the twisted forest.
I'm glad I stuck with it. As soon as I went through the portal (in an unexpectedly epic cutscene might I add) I was hooked. The new zone was calmer, not all....... orange ( I hate sunset effects in game. Makes everything washed out and both starting areas have that baaaaaaad.) and it felt like a place I actually wanted to be, in the present. I'm still not above, like, 7, but I like it. I do think they don't do a very good job of introducing crafting professions, and confused me by only showing a few of them and then telling me I could have 3...
Anyway, Rift is a solid game, and thats a LOT better than many, many MMOs these days, so It will get at least my 50$ soon ( Now with TF2 items?!), although Im not sure how long I will continue to sub.
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-Been there, done that: Xsyon, WoW, EVE, Maplestory, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, FF11, Rift
-Currently playing: Not MMOs
-Wants to check out: SWTOR, Dark Millennium
It's completely fair if you don't like the game for what it is, I'm not telling you any different - And yeah, straight out grinding mobs doesn't really work in Rift - however, you can viably level just by doing rifts if that's what you want, from about level 15 or so and up. Possibly sooner. I know that when I devoted time to doing rifts, especially with the public grouping system they put in, I was levelling pretty damned fast. Same goes for Warfronts, from what I hear - that's an aspect of the game I haven't tried out yet - So there are alternative levelling paths - just not mob grinding, and if that's your thing then Rift won't be it for you.
Personally, I was having fun getting "distracted" along the way. If I was doing only questing, I very likely would have gotten bored as well - but I was doing crafting and harvesting on the side, and letting myself get distracted by Artifact collection, and of course by rifts opening up. Those things together have done a good job so far at keeping me entertained, and at keeping things from getting too stale for me. Will it hold up? No idea, but I'm willing to give it a chance.
As for getting out of the noob area, I think my point still stands - you're free to disagree with it of course - but I'm still of the opinion that you can't judge a game by the starter area alone. If you're still bored when you get out of the starter area, then chances are you won't find the rest of the game fun.
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Rift feels like a battle field, if you find it boring then where the hell are you hiding?
Its none stop fun and action
1-10 isnt "utter crap" Its just that you've done the same old vanilla themepark grind for years.
Considering its designed for the ultimate mmorpg newb, obviously it would bore you to tears.
You would probably enjoy yourself 1-10 if rift were your first mmo.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Yes you can viably level grinding mobs in Rift as well as doing quests. However you cannot equally do both in the same time period. If you do quest you will level 10 times as fast as just killing mobs and hunting rifts. There in is the problem. I would much rather just do a few quests here and there and hunt rifts, fight back invasions and PvP warfonts all day. Problem is you can level efficiently doing it that way. I tried to just hunt rifts and invasions on my second character and it just takes ENTIRELY too long to level that way. Which is the reason I was Bored to tears. I know this is a completely different game but sorta the same problem lies in Champions Online. If you just wanna fly around and be a hero you cannot advance as fast as doing the quest. Which is why I call it forced questing. Its not really forced on you but if you wanna see advancement you gotta do the quests. That is the problem I have with Rift.
If they up the Exp you get from rift chasing and invasion stopping and PvP. I will not have a problem with this game. As it stands not the fastest way to level though in Rift is FORCED QUESTING. I hope they do make changes so people have another route to advancement, or you may be correct that Rift may not be the game for me.
After level 10 did nothing for me. It s still a very boring game. The rifts just became a complete annoyance as I was trying to get anything done. They re not fun at all IMO.
I found myself starting off questing as per usual in themepark style MMOs, but as time went on and level 11+ came I was out hunting rifts and invasions while grinding the usual style quests.
Eventually I was almost invasion hunting exclusively and attempting each time to combat the boss mob during the world events, during this time I found levelling exponentially quicker - though it may have been possible that it was due the fun that time passed without much notice, overall I found the experience quite awsome and even finding myself quite excited about the next RIFT beta event tomorrow.
Basically I feel that both methods of levelling are equally valid - but invasion hunting, etc. will definetely be what I'm doing during release.
M
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I enjoyed the starter areas more than the main game world on my first character. My only complaint with the starter areas is the final battle. They need to use phasing/instance to give the player an epic feel to the battle. The first time I got to the final battle, other players have already engaged and by the time I joined in, the battle was over and my quest updated due to the actions of the other players. All I could do was port into the main world, missing the majority of the encounter and gaining a bad impression of the game.
When I entered the game world it was over crowded with players all in competition for mobs and crafting resources etc. The game turned into who could be quickest to tag a mob. Rifts became tiredsome due to the zerg like nature of the battle. It was chaotic and the mobs were usually dead before you could take any action. I never thought I would be wishing for population caps before opening another instance of the area, i.e. AoC, EQ 2 etc. After a couple of hours i logged off in frustration.
The next day I logged back in wanting to give the game another chance. I knew my problems was related to over population and not the game mechanics. This time I made a new character and when I got to the main world it was like night and day compared to the day before. It was still busy with players, but you got a good feel for the game and Rifts became more interesting not just a zerg fest and I was able to compete for resources etc.
The only bad point I can think of at present is the Warfronts. I only did the one in the teens, Black Garden or something. I feel the devs need to adjust the level differences to five levels instead of ten or follow WARs example and buff the lower level players. In my early teens it was quite common to be one shotted and my damage was poor when combatting the high teen players. The devs need to find away to balance the system between the different level ranges so the low level players can compete.
I thought Rift was fun from the start. It's got some basic stuff to start with but really you blow through that in like 15-30 minutes. If you have played mmos for 10 years then yeah it might seem redundant but then you aren't really much interested in playing the game but perhap more interested in being in the end game??
In any event I especially loved the defiant starting area and especially the story. Tech, time travel, dragons, and a crazy world etc. Wow how can you not love it. Sure you start with only a couple abilities but if you started with 10 you wouldn't know what to do with them
As you level and you add souls the complexity and choices grow rapidly. God mucking with your souls and configuration at lvl 20 is a whole game in itself. Killing your first rift around lvl 6-7 is boring?! If you think so then maybe it's time to start playing some other type of genre.... You have obviously been burned out by wow :P
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Ethion