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Rift: A Glimpse of Ember Isle
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Rift team has posted a brief overview of Ember Isle, a zone set to make its appearance in v1.6. In addition to the short text article, devs have released a dozen concept art shots showing off some of the local critters that will inhabit the area.
Check out all of the artwork on the Rift community site.
Comments
The artwork looks cool, hope to see this in game soon.
What kind of zone is this going to be? What will the level range be?
As far as I know its a level 50 zone. The enemies range far above level 50 in some cases. This tends to take into account Planar attunement benefits.
Definitely enjoying the art direction they took with the kelari and the structures on the isle as a whole. The recent videos of the island seemed oddly familar almost.. Vaguely Zeldaesque?Thaths not a bad thing I guess
I still can't really get into this game. Played at launch, got 50, got gear, quit just before much raiding.
Came back and started fresh, got 50, got some gear, quit just before raiding.
It is beyond depessing to see how horrible the auto-grouping in this game has become. With only 4 classes I understand it can be difficult to get a balanced group but I find that my mage is grouped with 3, even 4 other mages in 90% of every LFG group I get into.
It is NOT fun to spend hours running the same instances over and over... PERIOD. Let alone running those same instances and having to fight for the often rare drops you need.
The token system that just about every major MMO is using these days really helps to resolve this problem. Unfortunately those tokens available are usually for sub-par equipment.
P.S. Class design is pretty terrible. Only have experience with mage right now but EVERY possible or viable spec combination is so watered down I think even the devs would admit how bad things have become.
Just as an example, the Chloro healing spec for mage does the following:
1) Cast Zap (or whatever the higher ranked channeled heal is called)
2) Repeat
3) maybe turn on a temp buff that makes you do more damage and healing but isn't required usually
Every other heal is a LOSS in healing power. And the same goes for most other specs. Of the 4-8 damage abiities they give the class, only 2-3 at best are usable as the others actually reduce the damage output of the class.
God. Every post about RIFT have complains !! Man, if you dont play RIFT anymore, just dont read this text. Thanks !
the new zone is open on the test server. it's massive and looks amazing.
I've never understood the appeal of planar attunement/AA. It doesn't really give you any more control over your character as the min/maxers have already determined the exact path you're supposed to take from the skill tree and furthermore, it's just another grind to keep you chasing the carrot longer.
To me, the AA grind is even worse than the gear grind. AAs always felt like tacked on levels, and when Trion starts balancing encounters based on players with a certain number of attunement points, it really drives home that idea.
Looks good, but hopefully they will add some additional lower levels zones soon also. One of the main reasons that leveling up in Rift is so boring is because of the lack of zone choices at each level range.
Currently Playing: DAOC Uthgard
Previously Played: UO, DAOC, Shadowbane, AC2, SWG, Horizons, COX, WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, Vanguard, Rift, SWTOR, ESO, GW2.
No, you see everyone that's ever played Rift has the right to complaints. Without end. For any reason. And they don't have to offer solutions or alternatives. They're paying customers so they can say whatever they want. Don't you get it?
Truthfully, Rift is never going to be good enough for the disenchanted "pure" or "real" gamers out there. The Rift forums have had college level essays on wny Rift fails because:
Raiding is too easy
Raiding is too hard
Dungeons are too easy
Dungeons are too hard
Class/Role system is not good enough
Class/Role system balancing is not good enough
PVP is not good enough
There is not enough lateral sandbox play
Quests are universally never good enough
Artifacts, Acheivements, Crafting all failures and not good enough
Zone design too linear and not good enough
Zones are too small
Art design/combat animations/effects/ not good enough
Too many features are missing
Undesirable features have been added
Population is reduced and/or leaving the game
90% or higher of Player population will leave and game will shut down when: SWTOR-GW2-Secret World-Arche Age-TERA-MMO Of Your Choice releases
Rift is a clone of any and every MMO that has ever been produced
Rift was not designed as something completely different, like GW2, but players will play Rift for hundreds of hours anyway so they can inform us Rift fails because it is not like GW2 or (insert MMO of your choice here)
Did I miss much? And the above is only a sampling of what gets posted on various forums. (To be fair, some have posted some honest & thoughtful critiques. And have stated they are either moving on, waiting for something else or going to design their own MMO.)
So expect complaints on any Rift topic, in general. If you like Rift, be prepared for the fanboi label etc. Trion could say "we're turning this game into a huge, open world sandbox" and there would be screaming about Trion's lack of focus. Trion could say "we've compiled the top 10 feedback topics and we're implementing everything on this list" and there would be screaming about Trion's narrow vision.
I think I'm just going to use the above as an auto script for um, certain topics. :-)
I much rather have them take out all those fetch quest from the game, make all the story/epic quest into chronics, and let zone events and individual rifts as the main PvE progression. Dynamic Events in Rift is almost like a tacky afterthought.
When a game tries to do everything, it ends up achieveing absolutely nothing
How much WoW could a WoWhater hate, if a WoWhater could hate WoW?
As much WoW as a WoWhater would, if a WoWhater could hate WoW.
Nice artwork. In general, the art style of Rift was not one of the problems I had with it.
Here is two reasons why an AA system is so appealing to many:
1. Most MMOs have little character progression at max level. Its gear, gear and more gear. When you get a piece of gear you dont change your character at all, and a month or less later (in the modern era) when you change that gear youll have nothing to show for your old piece.
AAs are permanent. Its something that will always stay with you.
2. So you are all decked out in t2+ gear. Your friend, a fresh 50, wants to start gearing and starts (as he should) with a t1 dungeon. Now you were going to help him anyway, but now you actually get something for doing it. Everything you do now has a benefit. Ran for a piece of gear that didnt drop? Stil got AAs.
Trion did put in a very boring AA system so far, but its young and has plenty of room to grow. In a game thats designed so people will not want alts, they shouldnt be afraid to give them a little more power than they have now.
The Rift forums are like any other MMo forums, filled with a lot of garbage.
And there are going to be people that want rift to be easier, or harder. There will be people that complain about balance and nerfs, even when the balance really isnt terrible. This is the type of stuff that happens in every MMO and is par for the course.
However, if you really look around and ask 'what complaints is Rift getting that isnt standard, release era MMO complaints?'
What clearly comes to the top is that people feel Rift lacks a certain...charm, flair or soul. Along with the very valid complaint of a small, cramped, linear world, which kind of ties into the first part.
And while that isnt an issue for many people, theyll come posting how Rift is the best game ever and is doing so well, when it isnt. Its not doing poorly, but half the servers are gone and the people that say 'but they increased their load', from what research people have done (and these numbers are given by one of the biggest pro rift posters on its forums) it appears the server caps have gone from 1800 to 2000. not exactly a big number to counteract the loss of 46 of 99 servers.
Its not going to die after SWTOR, but it *will* be impacted. 90% wont leave, but it will be a noticeable % that at least disappears while they try out ToR, maybe they return in a few months maybe they dont.
This weekend is pretty big too, because WoW will almost definitely announce an expansion, due next spring. If they change form their current borefest and have features that intrigue people (which is probably a 50/50 shot at this stage) that will be another bump in the road Rift will have to contend with.
Still, Id imagine half of Rift's population isnt going anywherem what the other half does depends on what Blizzard, Bioware, and Arenanet deliver.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
The jack of all trades, master of none is definitely what stands out the most to me. These are my experiences so don't take them as an attack on Rift.
- It has collection quests, which is fun but the randomness makes it annoying to complete since I end up with tons of repeat pieces I don't need.
- The class system is fun when you mix and match but It would be better imo to make a single huge tree and let everyone build however they like.
- The dungeons are extremely grindy and can't be soloed unless you are much higher than needed which is a let down for me. I don't want to repeat a dungeon for coins to buy the good gear.
- Rifts are fun the first few dozen times but damned if they don't get old after the hundreth to get the shards for gear.
- The crafting in Rift wasn't very good imo, where I have to grind dozens of worthless items to improve my skills.
- The towns were fairly lifeless, a few key people to talk to but most were just there for decorations.
- The endless warzone grinds were they game breaker for me. I earned most of the achievements but what I noticed is that there wasn't a real drive for RvR when you could just do warfronts. There were no stronghods with bonuses to the faction or bonuses to be had. The only RvR I ever saw was just a few guys griefing people who were missioning. I don't go in for stuff like that so don't look at me.
I don't know, Rift was fun for awhile but like a number of people have posted it seems to be missing some key ingredients that would have really made it a hit. I bought a CE and played for at least 3 months (probably a month longer than I should have) but in that whole time I wasn't floored. I recently played Aion for a month and really wish I had caught it back in it's launch and when I got to its capital for Elyos, also called Sanctum interestingly enough; I thought to myself damn now this is a city. I hope the people who are still playing Rift are having fun but for me it was just missing something.
I have to agree... Rift is missing 'something'. It just doesn't seem 'finished'.
Capital cities? Where?1 building surrounded by... a few huts? That's a capital city?
So many build choices that they all seem a bit watered down, as others have said. It's not that I want 'fewer' choices... I just want each choice to really matter 'more'.
The world seems... kind of 'bland'/boring in a lot of areas. But I guess it has to be 'open' because they need to have area's with space for rifts to port in.
Prestige needs to matter 'less'. The game is so gear-based that it suffers.
Each event seems to be a new kind of rift. And? Colors change... mobs kind of change... but they all come from 'a large tornado in the sky'... a rift. Why doesn't the earth open up for fire, earth, and water rifts? How about death rifts only spawning 'in the dark'? So many other things they could do to break up the hum-drum.
An auction house that needs some serious help.
The crafting system is also 'in need'.
Hopefully 1.6 helps. I really hope it does.
People have been hanging along from patch to patch since release, hoping for the game to get the missing "it" every next month.
What a great show 1.5 was, just yesterday! Today, players are again bored with the about meaningless AA system and finished the Chronicles the very day they went live. Players already talked about and longed for 1.6 and 1.7 the week 1.5 just hit the servers.
I'm afraid this is a thing that'll never change about Rift. If you hammer out patches every 4 weeks, every patch can only have as much depth as this timeframe allow you to put into it. On top of that, there's always alot of follow-up work also taking it's time, since every patch needed another week of hotfixes after.
I applaud Trion for their undisputable dedication rolling out stuff. But let's also try to be objective: alot of it was recycled, while the brandnew features often lacked in execution on various levels. At times Trion couldn't even patch in a quest chain incl. 3 quests that wasn't bugged at a stage and needed 2 hotfixes. So this 4 week patching process doesn't always come along with great quality -as fans like to believe: Part of it may also be a PR thing and a way Trion likes to display themselves to the players as "we're being busier than the rest".
This is what the defenders of Rift deny, for them it's all fine as long as they can only keep on cheering on the "never seen before patching rate".
They do seem to be getting that Rift thing down. Some of their raiding has been compared to C'thun and Yogg zero lights by the top guilds, so take that as a thumbs up.
I think that video left out Expert and Raid rifts. Too bad they can not go into detail and explain and the 10man is its own separate location and bosses, then 20man is its own location and bosses.
1. Every game rolls out buggy patches, including bugs tester have found already. Every single game. So patches than hotfixes to fix the patches are just MMO 101
2. Hammerknell is an exception though, as it was one of the buggiest raids, if not THE buggiest raid, ever released.
3. Its more like 6 weeks per patch. Doesnt really take away form the fact they have fast patches, and none of them are insignificant
4. No other game has had to have this many patches so fast to please their bored customers
5. None of these patches has effected the 1-49 part of the game, which needs a lot more help than the endgame. If you give people more compelling content you can get rid of some of the churn as people may be more inclined to roll alts, and they may get hooked better on their way up and stay.