by Chris Ware on Apr 04, 2011
Thirty days into one of the smoothest launches in MMOG history, the
team at Trion ups the ante with the first major content patch of their
new title. Rift
launched with more content than any other new game ever had, and the
content team flexed its collective muscle by introducing
style="font-style: italic;">The River of Souls
patch so quickly. With such an ambitious and robust amount of
additions, tweaks and fixes we will spend the next few weeks looking at
the major points of the patch. We start our overview of patch 1.1 with
some of the biggest additions and fixes, next week we will continue
with a look at the changes made to the souls of Rift.
The most dynamic of the content unveiled in the patch,
style="font-style: italic;">The River of Souls
helps to flesh out the story of Alsbeth; a formerly highly revered
Guardian Ascended whos betrayal helped sow permanent discord between
the factions and made her one of the most important players among those
loyal to Regulos. Not content to rest on her laurels, Alsbeth is up to
even more nefarious work with her group: the Endless Court.
The invasion is taking place in stages and revolves around Alsbeths
desire to somehow corrupt or capture energies from the pipeline that
carries the fallen souls of Telara. The first stage was unlocked the
patch was released, with subsequent stages set to roll out over the
next few weeks.
Even players as low as level seven can conceivably earn rewards and
help to turn the tide against Alsbeth, with rift events and invasions
occurring in every zone.
Appearing just above your quest tracker, and with a similar look and
feel, this interface device works well to help sever as a visual guide
to the current state of affairs. It would be nice to see a
bit more detail here, but given the nature of the invasions
and the desire of most players to keep their interface uncluttered, it
works pretty well.
Located near the porticulum are several NPCs that give single and daily
quests, as well as a vendor that offers some vanity pets and class
specific rings. You will need a special currency known as Otherworldly
Sourcestone to purchase these items. Completing the daily quests, in
addition to participating in the world events will net you plenty over
the course of the event.
The inclusion of in-game Twitter feeds and screenshots for achievements
helped tie the game well to the social media aspect of MMOGs, but the
addition of in-game YouTube functionality takes it to a whole new
level. Spurred on mainly by meme creators, the number of game related
videos on the popular video site has gone through the roof in recent
years. Adding this aspect to the game really puts Trion on the cutting
edge of community builders in the genre.
style="font-style: italic;">The River of Souls is a dynamic
event that touches many aspects of gameplay
Having tons of content is a good thing, having tons of content with
dangling carrots of tangible rewards is a *great* thing. While some
players may decry any sort of currency based vendor loot as welfare
epics, they allow goal oriented gamers the ability to prioritize their
playtime and set attainable goals for themselves.
One of those trivial things that bothered me, and while I
know minor issues shouldnt be major complaints the devil is in the
details.
Once again Trion fights spam at its source oh the irony.
One of the best changes of the patch, and its one that isnt getting
much notoriety. One of the key parts of
style="font-style: italic;">Rift so far has
been the
emergence of cooperative gameplay (in an MMOG, go figure right?), but
to undermine that at the very heart of the game by creating a sense of
competition for rewards was counterproductive at best. Hopefully the
combat meters/epeen crowds wont be too upset by this.
If I were a Guardian I would thank the gods for this change, but since
Im not I will simply thank the folks at Trion for saving me tons of
frustration. Nothing is worse than multiple well-meaning individuals
triggering a mass resurrection spell at the same time and then watching
your charges go up in smoke as you bounce like bunny on crack trying to
cancel the spell cast.
There are some solid fixes here, but mostly cosmetic in nature with
Guild Perks still coming into their own at this stage in the game. I am
glad they explained the Journeyman fix however; I was going mad trying
to figure out which buff I was missing.
One of the biggest knocks on the game so far has been that the questing
is a bit anemic, and while I agree with that sentiment to a point, epic
quests have been a great way to immerse oneself in the story of Telara.
Dont let these quest lines die on the vine or get removed from your
quest log to make way for more solo-friendly fare, grab a friend or two
and get em done!
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/97143">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 267px;"
alt="Rift Invasion"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/97143">
Even the shouts of the enemies
are epic in Rift
I dont have any hard data to support this claim but I bet this was
one of the most reported bugs in the game recently. Logging out and
back in cleared the bug, but with the new mobile authenticator app and
increased security measures in place it would have been a serious pain
in the ass to do so.
Rogues, my heart weeps for you. Ok, that last part was a lie, welcome
to our world.
Coming soon: the Mage tanking soul. Why not? They
can do everything else in the game practically better than any other
soul, why leave out tanking? If I sound bitter, its because I am I
know they needed some love but come on. More on this rant in next
weeks article for sure.
Overall
reaction to the patch thus far has been positive with most
players enjoying both the content and the fixes. Next week we get into
the more controversial aspects of the patch, those relating to class
balance. Keep closing those rifts and battling back the forces of the
Endless Court in the meantime.