The difference between Rift's souls system and WoW's talent tree is substantial. The biggest similarities would be that they look the same and dictate how the class plays. With WoW you have 3 static trees and almost always have to spec heavy into 1 to be useful. What Trion did with Rfit was make a game in which you have the ability to switch out souls with others you come across. They may be limited to start with, although from that interview it seems they won't have any lack of classes, but down the road they could add any number of new souls to keep things new. Even with a limited starting number of souls the options for class choice stand to dwarf any level of customization WoW classes have.
There is also the less then cookie cutter classes that have been added to the game already with more to come. This game has alot of new features to offer, and I can't wait to see all that have yet to be released.
Actually I think most skill tree cominations ARE viable in wow. Its just that the community attitude judges that if choice A is 5% less dps than choice B then it is "useless". With an attitude like that it would take perfect balance to make all choices viable. Not going to happen.
Ultimately, it sounds like a nightmare to balance, hopefully Trion can pull it off.
WoW has 100s of specs too that can create all types of weird class combinations, the problem is most of these aren't viable. The biggest issue I see here is that you might be able claim 100s of types of class combinations, but in the end if only a few are viable and how's it going to be any different from any other MMO's talent trees?
Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited about the game. Just not excited about this particular mechanic. The Rifts system looks fantastic and the game is in my Top 3 most anticipated MMOs.
I love to see them get balance right, but I think it's going to turn out that out of those hundreds of class combinations, only about 20-40 or so are viable, most of probably which dedicate themselves to one aspect (most groups are going to want pure healers and pure tanks in PvE, so whatever spec gives the benefit there is going to win out). Either that or a hybrid class is going to be disgustingly overpowered (tank mages in UO for example). Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, but in the end it's not going to turn out to be any different from WoW's talent trees.
I thought you could only have a soul in a particular archetype? I see IGN saying otherwise, but other sources seem to be giving conflicting reports.
Edit (From the official Rifts site, bolded some points on why it seems you can only pick from one archetype):
Souls
Players choose an Ascended Soul from one of the four callings (Warrior, Cleric, Mage, and Rogue) at character creation. These initial souls, which grow in power as they become more specialized, are flexible and have well-rounded abilities that make them great for both solo and group experiences. Players can later choose to augment, or even replace, embraced souls with other souls from within their calling. The process of enabling souls that players discover in their adventures is called Soul Attunement.
Note that there is no indication anywhere on their site that you can put a soul into a different calling than the one you picked at character creation, just seems like even the second and third soul you get later on is limited in your calling.
Wow nice find. So I guess the soul systen is basically just more talent trees in comparison to WoW's Talent tree system.
It looks like every other talent system you have in any current generation MMOs you have nowadays. You have 4 base classes and you can sub into one of 4 different subclasses in that archetype? How's this different from WoW's system in which you could turn each of the 8 classes into 3 different roles?
What's the difference between me making a Cleric lean towards damage dealing by going Inquistor or whatever and me making a Priest in WoW and going more towards damage dealing through the Shadow tree? Sure, you might be able to hybridize more in this game, but we won't know till the game is released if hybridization is going to be balanced (in other MMOs it's typically either been too weak or too powerful). You could spec into 3 different trees in WoW also, but it wouldn't be effective and thus typically nobody does it.
In WoW you have three skill trees.
In RIFT you can choose 3 skill trees out of (I beieve) 6 total skill trees and choose talent points from those.
/edit or maybe I am wrong. I "thought" I understood this system...
The number of "total" Souls per Archetype appears to be 8. The WoW analogy doesn't apply directly: Technically speaking, Warriors, Paladins (Except Holy), and Death Knights would all fall under the "Warrior Calling" in Rift (and, in many ways, do). Effectively, you're tearing the talent trees out of the "classes" and throwing them in a grab-bag of awesome.
That said, you CAN build characters the WoW way, by throwing all of your points into one tree, with any overflow grabbing what few bonuses from the most accessible tiers of the other two trees you're locked into (except, of course, you're never locked into trees at all). However, the more effective method will likely be taking talents from one spec to either exaggerate the strengths (To continue WoW analogies for the sake of ease, taking Arms Warrior, Ret Paladin, and Unholy DK abilities) of your chosen role, or to cover up the weaknesses (Mixing heavy damage from one Soul with defensive abilities from a more "tanky" Soul, for instance).
So, while it does seem similar to the WoW talents on the surface, the lack of limitations enforced upon it really does make it a very different animal.
Comments
OMG this sounds sooo good :-)
This is the game I am looking most forward too. I really hope it turns out well, because then I can see myself playing it a long time.
The difference between Rift's souls system and WoW's talent tree is substantial. The biggest similarities would be that they look the same and dictate how the class plays. With WoW you have 3 static trees and almost always have to spec heavy into 1 to be useful. What Trion did with Rfit was make a game in which you have the ability to switch out souls with others you come across. They may be limited to start with, although from that interview it seems they won't have any lack of classes, but down the road they could add any number of new souls to keep things new. Even with a limited starting number of souls the options for class choice stand to dwarf any level of customization WoW classes have.
There is also the less then cookie cutter classes that have been added to the game already with more to come. This game has alot of new features to offer, and I can't wait to see all that have yet to be released.
"cinnamon buns"
- Pickles
Actually I think most skill tree cominations ARE viable in wow. Its just that the community attitude judges that if choice A is 5% less dps than choice B then it is "useless". With an attitude like that it would take perfect balance to make all choices viable. Not going to happen.
Wow nice find. So I guess the soul systen is basically just more talent trees in comparison to WoW's Talent tree system.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
In WoW you have three skill trees.
In RIFT you can choose 3 skill trees out of (I beieve) 6 total skill trees and choose talent points from those.
/edit or maybe I am wrong. I "thought" I understood this system...
The number of "total" Souls per Archetype appears to be 8. The WoW analogy doesn't apply directly: Technically speaking, Warriors, Paladins (Except Holy), and Death Knights would all fall under the "Warrior Calling" in Rift (and, in many ways, do). Effectively, you're tearing the talent trees out of the "classes" and throwing them in a grab-bag of awesome.
That said, you CAN build characters the WoW way, by throwing all of your points into one tree, with any overflow grabbing what few bonuses from the most accessible tiers of the other two trees you're locked into (except, of course, you're never locked into trees at all). However, the more effective method will likely be taking talents from one spec to either exaggerate the strengths (To continue WoW analogies for the sake of ease, taking Arms Warrior, Ret Paladin, and Unholy DK abilities) of your chosen role, or to cover up the weaknesses (Mixing heavy damage from one Soul with defensive abilities from a more "tanky" Soul, for instance).
So, while it does seem similar to the WoW talents on the surface, the lack of limitations enforced upon it really does make it a very different animal.