So I was on the pts downloaded a 365mb update and notice literally nothing changed and there were no notes. This has happened before so I went about datmining stuff and found some interesting stuff

New raid coming on or around 1/4/2012 (data inidicated when this world event is ending) is called Infernal Dawn

Infernal Dawn Cathedral:

Infernal Dawn Crystal cave:

Maelforge room:

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New room in Infernal Dawn raid called the Lava room. This image is big and I did not want to resize it
 

http://oi41.tinypic.com/2e4hj44.jpg

There also appears to be a new race coming with Planetouched Wilds. They are called the Estrian!

Estria front view Power Plant:

Estrian side view Power Plant:

Estrian building

Main city?

This was filed under dungeon called Dream Hive! 5man?!?!10man?!?!

Random building devoted to the sun

nice work! Looking forward to it despite the fact that I have not consumed all of the current content. Hurray for casual gaming!

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Originally posted by VoIgore

This! And it makes me wonder how the heck can professional scene veterans juggling with multi-millions not get this?

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In Trion's defense, their problem isn't necessarily not listening to a major portion of their base (which they are guilty of). Trion's problem is what most every mmo before it's problem was; lack of PROPER vision.

Trion started making Rift (plans) six years ago as an idea, a time when WoW was the game every casual player wanted to play. WoW was only two years old (gasp!) and had the genre by the balls. Everyone knew this was THE game that was going to eat your lunch because it was simple fun and everything worked. Even Hartsman as a EQ/EQ2 employee (whichever) could see that plain as day and no matter what he did, Blizzard was kicking his company's ass badly. He saw the writing on the wall back then. But the problem was he failed to diagnose the problem properly.

He failed to anticipate that after eight years of WoW, that people would be tired of elves, dragons, most two faction anything and above all.. magic and fantasy. There is still a market to be had but most people are shifting. That's why you started to see crappy Sci-Fi games and others like Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Global Agenda, etc being made back a few years back. They saw the future but didn't have the money or expertise to make proper games.

Hartsman naively thought that the secret to WoW's success lied in dungeons and raiding when that was only a portion of the players. Most of the players wanted casual, light and non-threating stuff ala WoW. If you doubt this, look at the Rift officials at all the players saying not enough "middle content" for soloers and casuals; all raid crap.

Making a game you THINK everyone wants in 2006 is quite different from what they will want in 2012 and it takes a real talent to know that, and even more talent to make exactly that.

Imo, this is what Bioware knew four years or so ago and saw STORY was a missing theme in most mmos that people craved and could keep them subbed vs a loot carrot grinding endgame.

Originally posted by MyGarona
"Big time raiding is dying. . ."
In an era where the average attention span is about 22 minutes the amount of customers willing to pay for multi hour events has to be fading fast.

i don't think it's attention span which did that, but instead the reality of getting large groups together who can play nice.

personally, i play all games with my wife. we're not much into large groups because we seldom have any good experiences in guilds. i'd love a few more things built around smaller groups because they're both easier to manage, often friendlier, and less likely to turn into a lootfight over who gets what, where, when and why.

given also that raids are just a mario bros boss with abnormal hp, a few extra jump animations and galaga-style speeding up at the end, i feel it's hardly worth the effort. give me something a little more creative than that and i'll be on it like a fly on garbage. stop mmo "dungeons" being little more than a donkey kong level.

I do not see big time raiding going anywhere as long as the concept of guilds exist in mmorpg's. Also yes it is 6 weeks after 11/16/2011 and I think Trion specifically gave us dates this time because of TOR

Originally posted by headphones

having said all that, i thought rift had a lot of potential. it had some great ideas. but it quickly became a raiding-focussed thing we just weren't into.

I have 3 pieces of gear on right now that I got only doing Rifts. Like I said before there are a lot of people in this thread who have not played Rift in 5-6 months.

There is a vendor who gives raid level gear for doing zone events. It is not a raid or die game like some people try and paint it. I do not understand the need to comment 5-6 months after you quit a game about something that is out dated information.

It is still not a pvp game, so I would hold out for GW2 if that is what you want. No instanced raiding at all and no gear chase = best pvp'rs in the world will flock to that game and most people will be surprised how bad they get drilled.

12/28 will be six weeks after 1.6.  The fact that no info has been anounced, and IA isnt in game yes, leads me to believe there will be a longer delay.  

Content is content, raid or not, however.  If that's ALL there is in 1.7, 1.8 than I would have a problem with it because I am not a raider.  I really hope Trion cracks this issue because I think we've all been blinded by WoW's success and since there are so many people playing/played that game we have no real idea what percentage of players truly like WoW's endgame.  I know I hated the raiding side of it and at least 2 or 3 friends just didn't persue it.  Granted, I knew at least 2 or 3 other people who did raid but eventually they too left the game.  So....basically we need to see if this raid or die endgame can be changed  and something "new" put in to keep people playing, aside from level cap increases and expansions just making the game grow vertically.

Personally, I am very impressed with Trion and their development plans, although I wish Rift was larger as a world and such, but they are working pretty quickly with what they have.  Heck, I can't complain, they comped me a free month 2 days ago after I had unsubbed and was going to sub back in a few months whenever they put in non raiding content and non- I need tier 2 gear to complete content like Ember Isle, lol.  So, I at least can log in each day this month and get my fae yule snowflakes to grab my reindeer mount and rudolph pet (I'm a sucker for pets, mounts and collections, hint hint).

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Originally posted by Puremallace
I do not see big time raiding going anywhere as long as the concept of guilds exist in mmorpg's.
 

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Even games coming out next year are staying away from 20+ man stuff so Trion COULD technically grab anyone interested in that archaic style of play, but it's definitely passe now as far as video game design.

http://www.gamesradar.com/rifts-instant-adventure-going-live-next-week/

Exclusive: Rift's "Instant Adventure" going live next week

Jump in, kill stuff, jump out starting next week

I think Rift has bigger issues to address other than adding new raids.  Like the lack of a varried leveling path, or limited starting zones.  

But, I'm at least glad they are pumping out some form of content, and if the current subscribers are enjoying it then at least they are doing something good.

Originally posted by popinjay

 

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Originally posted by Puremallace
I do not see big time raiding going anywhere as long as the concept of guilds exist in mmorpg's.
 

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You should probably read more industry news on 8-16 man raids maximum. It's the current trend.

 

 

Even games coming out next year are staying away from 20+ man stuff so Trion COULD technically grab anyone interested in that archaic style of play, but it's definitely passe now as far as video game design.

Big time raiding died with the release of Burning Crusade.  The fact that 10 mans are considered raids is insulting to any old EQers.

Rift and, from the looks of it, GW2 at least have some content geared for massive numbers though 

PM:  Are IAs still 50 only?  Its absolutely mind boggling to me how Trion releases stuff that could be applied to mid levels very easily but chooses not to.  No reason for PAs to not start until 50 for instance.

Originally posted by teakbois

PM:  Are IAs still 50 only?  Its absolutely mind boggling to me how Trion releases stuff that could be applied to mid levels very easily but chooses not to.  No reason for PAs to not start until 50 for instance.

It is confirmed 45+

- Planar attunement starting earlier makes no sense really because you get two different xp bars? Also the xp for one planar attunement lvl is 500,000. That is like 15+ lowbies levels lol

If you look at the UI for it there is obviously room for more areas. It says Stillmoor/Shimmersand now, but you have to remember who else in the mmo industry has this? This is like WoW's LFR finding, but for open world lol

Trust me it gets reptetive if that is all you do. I do not recommend more then 30min a day doing it.

Originally posted by Puremallace

 

- Planar attunement starting earlier makes no sense really because you get two different xp bars? Also the xp for one planar attunement lvl is 500,000. That is like 15+ lowbies levels lol

 

 

 

Going to need to be 2 experience bars when they raise the cap someday.  EQ1 and 2 both started before max level.  

Or maybe they never raise the cap but then they have to get real creative because people are going to want new abilties and new builds to play with.

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Originally posted by Puremallace
Exclusive: Rift's "Instant Adventure" going live next week

Jump in, kill stuff, jump out starting next week

Words: Hollander Cooper on December 2, 2011

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Imo, this is exactly the type of content Trion needs to be working on more often and not putting it in as an afterthought, which is what they've been doing. This is the type of content the ex-WoW fans want to see that they have as subs, not the raiding.

I think it's a good idea that you post your datamined content about this new raid info here on a third-party site and NOT on the Rift official General forums. If the people on that site see that Trion is planning new raids before addressing their PvP concerns and other content issues, it probably would be the last straw from what my buddy was telling me (who's still playing atm).

This type of news would be well received though, looks good.

Originally posted by Puremallace

Originally posted by headphones

having said all that, i thought rift had a lot of potential. it had some great ideas. but it quickly became a raiding-focussed thing we just weren't into.

I have 3 pieces of gear on right now that I got only doing Rifts. Like I said before there are a lot of people in this thread who have not played Rift in 5-6 months.

 

There is a vendor who gives raid level gear for doing zone events. It is not a raid or die game like some people try and paint it. I do not understand the need to comment 5-6 months after you quit a game about something that is out dated information.

 

It is still not a pvp game, so I would hold out for GW2 if that is what you want. No instanced raiding at all and no gear chase = best pvp'rs in the world will flock to that game and most people will be surprised how bad they get drilled.

good on you.

nowhere did i say i was giving you anything new. as for why i commented - because i felt like it and it was more or less on the topic. not sure why you felt the need to comment on my comment if all you want to do is be a negative nelly. i feel and still feel rift was a positive experience. it just let us down in the whole interest department. the pvp was imbalanced to the point of idiocy with the healing issue at the time (fixed or not, i haven't followed) and the pve was hugely fun when you have a million people running from rift to rift, but not so much when game launched and you had pockets of players. the game has paved the way, i think, for the future of DEs in mmos, and for that i thank it. i'd love to see hugely challenging DEs taking the place of raids. it gets everyone involved and you meet more people in a more positive way than in guilds and raiding.

my wife and i love our pvp. we're looking forward to continuing with the drilling.

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Originally posted by teakbois

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Originally posted by Puremallace
 
- Planar attunement starting earlier makes no sense really because you get two different xp bars? Also the xp for one planar attunement lvl is 500,000. That is like 15+ lowbies levels lol
 
 
 

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Going to need to be 2 experience bars when they raise the cap someday.  EQ1 and 2 both started before max level.  
 
Or maybe they never raise the cap but then they have to get real creative because people are going to want new abilties and new builds to play with.

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The PA was one of the reasons I didn't resub because at 50, they weren't hardly worth much to use and just grinding points for points sake was dumb. EI gives some new quests but at the end of the day, it's still basically grinding for PA since your level is capped. That and not having a reset available for the PA and being told to Pokemon it (gotta catch em all) if you make a mistake.

Doing it WHILE you level made it seem like non-grind, it just happened naturally.

The problem is the EQ2 system is the exact reason why it never caught on. Holocrons in TOR are a wierd way of doing Rifts PA's. They are there and small enough that it does not enrage the playerbase.

EQ2 you get it or you are screwed. Instead of a gear grind they added a AA grind too. EQ2 is going F2P for a good reasons and devs need to be careful what they decide to copy.

Also why would you grind? Ember Isle events gives one PA level per with up to 14 crystals that give 10k xp per. The entire point of the system is so you do not feel like grinding. It is XP you are getting anyways. I hate that WoW philosophy that you hit max level and you stop progressing.