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New blog up from a grizzled old poster
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/heerobya/022011/21457
Yeah, I've been away from MMORPG.com for some time now.
It seems to be the things to do to post a blog about Rift, so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.
Read and comment if you dare.
It's a long read, but I highlighted the juicy bits for skimming pleasure.
Comments
Average if I tally up my scores for Rift-
7.67
Good, some things I just don't know yet or would like to see improved.
Great write up, pretty much sums up my feelings and concerns.
Thanks!
I'll likely do a follow up after Beta 6 is over.
I can appreciate the time and effort put into this blog. It's a good read. Thanks for posting it. Quite enjoyed going over it.
Very good review overall, heer. I just want to comment on 2 things. Excuse my soap-box commentary on PvP, but here it goes.
Though "Crafting" is something that I consider juxtaposed to it's importance in game-play, economy, community and merchandising; at this point it seems pretty rudamentary to me and I might have given it a "6". Maybe more experience is needed, but then again, maybe a "7" is a good themepark score.
As for PvP, if you havent PvP'd yet, I probably would have left that as "tbd" following B6. But I agree with your commentary [. . .many of the open-world dynamics of objective control, invasions, etc. coupled with the potential for open-world PvP and especially on PvP servers could allow for a LOT of great potential for Rift to be free from the grinding based instanced PvP that ruined WAR and ruined WoW. ].
With the new Beta 6 changes just announced yesterday to PvP mechanics, there is much that is left to the imagination when the game is only 3-weeks out from early-start; but that which they 'just' implemented was a drastic change and certainly needs to be followed-up with and bolstered with game-play by the devs. What was once faction v faction motivation to attack and defend hubs that aligned with lore, story and faction doesn’t 'seem' to exist as much as it did in B5. I understand what the problem was, but the solution they implemented can be considered as pretty over-reaching.
On a PvE and PvP server, the loss of killing quest hub Wardstones (there wasnt a hub that wasn't a quest hub) is synonymous to many with loss of reason for open-world faction v faction; players once had a reason to be in those places and that would lead to actual faction v faction interaction, PvP. The only thing I found disruptive about it was the killing of an NPC repeatedly, and the solution to be to make any hub npc have a 10-minute invul timer once it respawns.
Now those hub wardstones are invulnerable and new wardstones off the beaten-path, away from population game-play areas, are going to replace them as targets or capturable flags. If the endgame open world PvP revolves around killing NPC's to take a wardstone or to capture a flag without actual meaningful PvP, over time, well, that will result in a 5 score from me.
This PvP mechanics change might be incentive for more PvEvP players to roll on a PvP server, which is a good thing. I happen to roll on a PvP server and my game-play style has always been PvEvP, but these PvP changes certainly make it unappealing for me to roll on a PvE server, which I think is turning into more of a solo-rpg server.
So with these new PvP mechanics, the new wardstones, we dont know what the incentive,value, purpose or community motivation is going to be to attack or defend them. Worst case is capture the flag with a timer that gets reset so ownership flip-flops with no motivation or player-interactive encouragement to take it, no influence on game-play and no realizable reward. I hope it's not essentially another capture the flag mechanic that is meaningless; a flag that now exists in the middle of the wilderness that has no purpose to PvP interactivity, no draw to defend and no encouragement to take.
I'll be interested to read your take on it following B6.
Good read and fair ratings for the most part, although I would have given it a bit less on stuff like armor design, world design and classes / rifts / crafting myself (I'd say RIFT floats at 6.5-7 for me).
But still, very fair.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Agreed, well done.
If you don't mind me saying put in another separate category of simply 'Fun Factor'. Because there are lots of games that I have given high marks to but just failed to deliver on the 'fun factor' if that makes sense lol.
Imo it deserves a 8.5-9/10 for fun factor. I haven't had this much fun playing an mmo since the lauch of SWG.
Good points all, thank you.
I hope I am as impressed with the PvP as I believe I will be.
My general strategy this time around is play a single character as fully and completely as I can, where as before I played multiple characters to many different stages/levels and really only focused on one towards the end - while still missing out on PvP and dungeons.
Given the massive changes to the open-world PvP objective system I think I will definitely be rolling on a PvP server for this cycle.
Kind of worried though, haven't got my invite for tomorrow's test yet! VIP key and all, still waiting Trion!
I'm also looking to go outside my "comfort zone" of archetype roles - I generally play melee characters like Tanks or Warriors, or Holy/Light based healers.
So I'm either going to role a Mage or Rogue type.
Thinking either something crazy and silly like Marksmen/Assassin/Bard or Warlock/Chloromancer/Archon.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
A fair assessment.
I really like how simple and medieval looking the armors in the game have been.
Plate actually looks like metal instead of rocks or crystals or some other weird sh!t and isn't all frilly and over-the-top.
However some of the female armor is just ludicrous, as you can probably find many examples of on the interwebs.
Too many thongs and too much butt cheek.
Trion, I understand the audience is generally mostly male, but come on... this isn't a JRPG.
On my cleric I went from an awesome chest piece that looked like plate and had a chain mail skirt, then I crafted a statistically better chest piece, which was a low cut v-neck and it revealed to me that my leg armor, before hidden by the awesome and very cleric-like Chain skirt, was a thong...
Which brings up a valid point I think I am going to formally suggest to Trion via the official forums and in-game feedback tools.
GIVE US AN APPEARANCE TAB.
I believe LOTRO and EQ2 both have this, one character tab with the armor and items you wear for stats, and a separate character tab where you equip items and armor specifically for looks that has no statistical relevance.
I mean, they have armor dying which is a great step in the right direction, but please, an appearance tab would make many of us very happy pandas.
Worried about not knowing how well geared your opponent is in PvP?
If you join an instance, you automatically show your stat gear not appearance tab gear.
On a PvP server in the open world, it would only add to the excitement for not knowing exactly what your opponent can do.
They already have this in GREAT abundance with the fact you can only see other players Archetype unless you inspect them.
That Cleric you are about to attack could be a healer, could be a tank, a ranged dps, or a melee beast. You're only hint is what weapon they are carrying.
Bravo.
Take it to the next level!
I'll reply here as well as comments, since some other blog trolls seem to get all the attention and this one was very well written. I'd love to see you post it in the official forums.
Not only was your page easy to read, but you even went through the trouble of colored summaries so that people could skip down and find pertinent information in a pinch. You outlined every subject well and it was a pleasure to read it. Even if I vehemently disagreed with your points(which I did not), I would still be greatful for your expertise in being thorough and to the point on most subjects.
Thank you again.
This is well written and interesting. Also much easier to read and not rambling on and on and making 50 references to WoW like the other blog.
I aim to please.
Excited for beta 6 today! Finally got my invite email, all patched up and waiting to go.
I didn't know they kept characters between betas? So I should be able to get into dungeons and PvP much quicker not having to re-roll.
Updated blog to follow -
Lots of changes this beta.