A more informative (p)review of Rift Beta 5 because I found the above report lacking: http://www.higgens.net/tansfairgrounds/?s=tansfairgrounds-020211

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I bought the game on Steam sale. And I love it.

But I hit lvl 20+ on my characters and what I am starting to find out that open zone is basically some stuff to do until lvl 20. And thats it ?!

After that you can either play , always almost same PVE mission. Or TF2 like PVP maps. And Arena.

Is that all ?

I mean the game is great. But honestly there is no much content there.

I played for 1 day and allready saw all the game has ?

 

Same goes for equipment.

I am above lvl 20 and i so far found 2 basic gun types. And thats all.

There is even no place to buy different guns.

 

Am I missing some thing ?

 

 

 

 

Missing a lot of things.  At 30 you get access to Conquest Gear which are substantial upgrades to previous skill/weapons which cost aceloads of Tokens (which will take some effort in accruing).  Beyond 30 is the introduction of AvA and territorial dominance (I have yet to partake in this as I just hit 30+ recently).  In these 'territories' one can build resource collection/tech labs, vehicles (siege engines/weapons), and more in effort to protect your Agencies base.  I also enjoy the addition of Double Agent missions - a lot of fun to throw an "E" to PvP (akin to Aion's PvPvE stuff).  I've partaken in 3-4 raids and they've all been a nice challenge with great close-calls/memories.  Crafting is sort of a grind, but I like things that don't come easily ~ I yet to even begin using consumables.  The map diversity from pvp, raid, pve, pvpve, ava/territory is vast.  Mods will take you a very long time ~ giving you plenty of reason to go back into the fray.

I see lots to do.

Action-RPG that is cheap and beautiful, with great strategy/cooperation elements that I can play casually with friends.

The community isn't that bad.  Sure City/Local chat is full of e-tard and trolls, but what MMO isn't these days?  I've even been lambasted by these folk, but let me tell you what;  after someone says something stupid or offensive to me, I've gotten others who message me and say "Don't worry about that guy - he's a tool" or " You did great, eff the troll".  This has happened several times, where others have praised my efforts while people who have no idea how stuff works complain/whine/blame others for a failed pve/pvp/raid or dbl agent mission.  In any game you'll find the people who take it too seriously.  I'm in it for the fun, and this game brings it in spades.  So in my mind, there are the complete fools who like to express their unexperienced opinions with everyone and the respectful, gracious and appreciative players who compliment, and thank you for a job well-done.

Cliffs; community ain't bad~ plenty of nice people in GA.

Originally posted by maskedweasel

I love global agenda because its fun, fast paced, and I like pretty colors.

and Tribes nostalgia~

There are some good guides out there~ MMO champion and Wowhead (under tripping the rift) have some great information along with an alliance walkthrough here:

Farigrounds Alliance walkthrough and information: http://www.higgens.net/tansfairgrounds/?s=tansfairgrounds-110210

MMO-champ: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2054-Cataclysm-Prologue-Elemental-Invasions-Started

Wowhead: http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=4887

Have fun everyone!  This is truly an epic time!

Originally posted by Quirhid

Freedom doesn't make a good game.

Agree - any good game has it's boundaries set in place.  Many of those games would be complete chaos without the rules that define them (or the goals).

Tower of Frozen Shadow (EQ1 - Velious Expansion); I loved how each floor required the players to obtain a key to advance to the next level.  I also enjoyed all the different themes of each floor; library, wedding floor etc.

Zangarmarsh (WoW - Burning Crusade Expansion); after leaving the desolate burning planes of Hellfire Peninsula my wife and I were pleasantly surprised when traveling West to come upon epic fruiting bodies that formed a forest.  The music, the blue'sh hue, the Spawning Glen, the Coilfang reservoir's spiraling water cyclone, the ogre island with a tree as a bridge floating in the middle of space and so forth.

The Grey (EQ1 - Shadows of Luclin Expansion); I remember the first time walking into this zone and immediately my breath-meter started depleting.  As this expansion was on the moon, this particular zone was on 'light-side' where the vacuum of space had sucked all the air out.  An interesting pyramid leading down below the Grey was Ssraeshza Temple, flanked by obelisks and guarded by serpent-humanoids.  The concept was more interesting than the flat grey wastes were.

Kedge Keep (EQ1 - release); an underwater dungeon!  Very few and far between are these magnificent gems.  I remember delving deep into this keep dozens of times for my Staff of Elemental Mastery; Water off of Phinigel Atropos.  Loved the green robe from here too.  Many interesting fights and twists and turns and you swim about.

Castle Mistmoore (EQ1 - release); On the same continent as Kedge Keep, this little vampyric doosy threw me through some loops.  Man, the death penalty was sick..  I loved how this zone accommodated players of many levels.  I loved all the secret entrances and pitfalls that Everquest put throughout.  I also enjoyed the Soulfire quest that brought me there to camp a Troll for hours upon hours on end.  The atmosphere and feeling of power was strong.

Although I have played more than two dozen MMORPGs, try as I might, my list of favorite zones includes many WoW and Everquest related areas.  A few other favorites include, Unrest (EQ), Blackrock Spire (WoW), Old Sebilis, Temple of Veeshan, Cobalt Scar, Winterspring and many more.  I would put some FFXIV zones up there, but not very memorable just yet (need years of exposure).

I am seeking anything in between the genres of RTS-to-Turn-based strategy games.  Where each "skill" used is thought about (like Chess) or even Spellborn's roulette system.  Anything out there?

Originally posted by GoldenDog

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the rotation of their planet around their sun.

 

It's like how places in alaska get sun 24 hours a day.  It's all about what part of the planet is facing the sun during rotation. 

If the planet is thrown off axis (which it was because it's falling apart), it can very well put a portion of it in perpetual darkness.  Elyos live on the hemisphere facing the sun, the asmos do not.  And it's their own fault according to the lore.  They can't move to the northern hemisphere because it's occupied by the Elyos. 

I think you misunderstood.  

Why not live on the surface above?  It gets light...

Originally posted by tryklon

Originally posted by highblur

Originally posted by Aikko

Loads of customization

Lets face it not many players  wants to look the same, Aion has a great character creation setup. Also loads of different armour and rewards throughout the game. If that wasn't enough theres craftable gear and also dyes so even if someone got the same chest piece as you you can change the colour. Theres also vendors that can change the design of your gear at a price a believe (correct me if am wrong). And ofc socketing. Another thing that was lacking alot in guild wars which killed it for me.

 

Response:

People say there's load of customization all the time, but it seems that people don't really know what that means...  just because one can change eye colors, skin colors, facial bone structure and girth doesn't mean shist to me.  You are all the same meso/ecto/endomorph body-types.  There are no unique silhouettes.  If you want to know what unique looks like - take all of the characters and just look at their silhouette (outline).  Minus the hair/armor styles, you all have the same bodies (minus girth/width).  That is NOT unique in my opinion.  Unique/high customizability comes with different races, small, large, animal-like, pan-dimensional etc.  For example, Everquest (trolls, ogres, humans, gnomes, dwarves etc) or Warcraft (Draenei, orc, gnome/goblin, worgen, tauren, etc), FFXI (Taru taru, the big guys, humes etc), Vanguard, Warhammer, City of Heroes, etc (almost every game but this one).   If you just took their silhouettes you would see vast differences between characters in any one of the previously mentioned games.  Aion fails at silhouette diversity..

In my opinion, Aion characters might have a lot superficial customization, but no real unique options to make you stand apart from another (minus armor customization).  Discuss.

 

 

I do agree that the body types in this game, although can be very customized, keep sharing the same feeling. But one must see that the game presents us 2 races, not 5 or 6, two, this is Aion. And inside this 2 races you can customize you avatar in the way you want and never find anyone the same as you.

I agree that being able to look different than another of the two races is great ~ but that is being highly overexaggerated as if you will all look different (from the neck-down too) which is far from the truth.  To me, this isn't that ground-breaking.  EQ2 and a slew of others prior to this game had the whole bone-structure thing down (and for tons of other races to boot).  They should stop proporting this as a key-feature or something that is amazing... in my opinion, it's expected.  Just pointing this out, so that no one is dissapointed, come release.

Originally posted by Aikko

Loads of customization

Lets face it not many players  wants to look the same, Aion has a great character creation setup. Also loads of different armour and rewards throughout the game. If that wasn't enough theres craftable gear and also dyes so even if someone got the same chest piece as you you can change the colour. Theres also vendors that can change the design of your gear at a price a believe (correct me if am wrong). And ofc socketing. Another thing that was lacking alot in guild wars which killed it for me.

 

Response:

People say there's load of customization all the time, but it seems that people don't really know what that means...  just because one can change eye colors, skin colors, facial bone structure and girth doesn't mean shist to me.  You are all the same meso/ecto/endomorph body-types.  There are no unique silhouettes.  If you want to know what unique looks like - take all of the characters and just look at their silhouette (outline).  Minus the hair/armor styles, you all have the same bodies (minus girth/width).  That is NOT unique in my opinion.  Unique/high customizability comes with different races, small, large, animal-like, pan-dimensional etc.  For example, Everquest (trolls, ogres, humans, gnomes, dwarves etc) or Warcraft (Draenei, orc, gnome/goblin, worgen, tauren, etc), FFXI (Taru taru, the big guys, humes etc), Vanguard, Warhammer, City of Heroes, etc (almost every game but this one).   If you just took their silhouettes you would see vast differences between characters in any one of the previously mentioned games.  Aion fails at silhouette diversity..

In my opinion, Aion characters might have a lot superficial customization, but no real unique options to make you stand apart from another (minus armor customization).  Discuss.

If the Asmodean are located in a territory with perptual darkness and such ~ why not move up on top of the shattered Earth, where sunlight is ample?  Is there some key reason why they feel like they need to live in the northerly darkened hollowed area instead of on the outer rim of the planet? hrm..

 In regards to "first contact" or "aliens on earth" ~ who's to say we haven't made first contact yet?  It's silly to think that it will be some Hollywood-type of scenario where a huge ship lands and shakes the hands of a human representative etc~ What about the shamans, channelers, mystic/psychics, schizo's, witches, seers/diviners/ovates etc who are all claiming to be speaking with beings not of this world (could be of a different world, or even dimension or time).  I'd have to say that we've been making contact for thousands of years and it is the disinformation/idea/thought that alien visitation has to come in some expected form (ie Hollywood scenario).  SETI (to me) is laughable~ it's like we're ants using some sort of primitive wave of information trying to dial out to a highly advanced receiver.  If any civilization is that advanced that is contains galactical travel, it most certainly will not be using radio frequencies still.  Think outside the box.

So now that we've established that we're already in contact with pan-dimensional/extra-terrestial beings, let's look at the technology aspect.  It is said (in the case of inter-dimensional travel) that each dimensions laws/rules/physics are completely different than our own or others, granting a different environment in which to learn and evolve (purpose of life in these shells we call bodies).  I've heard that situations (like Roswell) were summoning rituals/portals in which a rift was opened between two points (dimensions) and that when their (pan-dimensional) ship came into our world/dimension that it operated on different laws/physics and thus crashed immediately after coming through the wormhole/portal/etc.  Imagine the laws/theories that govern our world; gravity et al.  What if gravity (which is just a theory) was just a learning tool in our dimension of 3D (Time and Space), and was an obsolete learning tool in other dimensions?  Their vessels wouldn't survive long in our physics.

Let's take a look at it from another perspective, say a non-inter-dimensional view.  Let's say they're from another solar system, galaxy what-have-you.  It is rumored that Earth is surrounded by vessels observing our planet during a very special time of evolution or ascension on the Human-being's part.  That these/most vessels exist in a spectrum of light we cannot see~ for we can only perceive of a fraction of what can actually be seen (see "Visible light spectrum") is a possibility.  Cloak/stealth technology isn't a myth anymore~ our bombers are undetectable on radar because they lack 45-degree angles or the new stealth suits that can bend light or the other stealth suits that have little cameras that projects what is behind you to mask what is in front etc.  So even if we were being watched, we might not even know it.

Also it is said that any sort of Type II+ civilization or greater (we're not even a Type 1 civilization) would most likely have been a predatory species.  Like you say, the weak, sacrificial and uncompetetive die out~ the predatorial species seem to be the one's that live on.  

In regards to alien technology it is said that there was a bargain struck between John Dee and pan-dimensional beings during the medievil times in which he channeled to receive highly advanced information in exhange for our blood/negative emotions etc.  The information was so grand that John Dee could not retain it all and thus created Universities (Universe-Cities) in which hundreds of learned people would assimilate and translate the channeled information into feasbile material.  England, a country that didn't even have windows on their castles and the monarchs were living in poor conditions reversed 100-fold and became the seat of the mightiest empire during these times (there are no coincidences) and controlled nearly 2/3rds of the world.  This doesn't just happen.

The blood-pact (bargain between Dee and dimensional overlords) was paid in full over time with the release of nasty plagues and world wars.  Each massive earthen war or plague would then be a giant leap in understanding/technology.  Soldiers wear important regalia adorned with symbolic pins/medals (skull and cross bones, druidic acorns/leaves etc) as they go to die in ritualistic battles all over the globe in their sacrificial garb.  The massive wars were just massive rituals of sacrifice to the dimensional beings that feed Britain (john Dee) new technology in return for their "blood spilled upon the earth" and the negative emotions that ensue from world trajedy.

Just thoughts~ I love to speculate.

 I am looking for something exactly like that~ nice dungeon crawls with interactive encounters and sprawling tunnels and labyrinths.  How is the combat different in VG, EQ2's combat seemed the same ol' - downloading and gonna trying out Spellborn whilst I mull over this decision.

 How are the open dungeons in VG compared to the instanced EQ2 ones?  I always heard EQ2 had very interactive instanced dungeons with secret paths, keys, puzzles and more.  I imagine it's hard to pull that off (not impossible) in an open instanced game~ 

 You get this Mirror through a quest at 18 that allows you to Bot for up to 3 hours.  You can put potions in the mirror and the skills you want to use, and let your character go massacre guys for hours.  Haven't tried it, but it seems interesting ~ atleast it know it's a grinder.

I agree with the art comments.. it's a beautiful game.  Lot of character and style.  The models are not reused as you level up, each enemy is a possibility of pet and they figure it's important to have the diversity.  

Open beta begins very soon and there will be a character wipe~ so one may wait till that happens.

Originally posted by GreenChaos

 

1994 - Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
1995 - Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
1996 - Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
1996 - Diablo
1998 - StarCraft
1998 - StarCraft: Brood War
2000 - Diablo II
2001 - Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
2002 - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
2003 - Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
2004 - World of Warcraft

For those of us that love Blizzard games other than WoW, WoW is a huge buzz kill.

 

So Diablo III, Starcraft II, and an unnannounced MMO aren't enough for you?  Minus the fact that they had two expansions since WoW came out (Expansion also take up your 1996, 2001, and 2003 slots) which have been a great addition to the gameplay and story.

I remember waiting for Half-Life 2 for what seemed like a millenia~ Valve did jack-else between HL1 and 2, but it was worth the wait.  Now Portal, L4D, TF2, HL2:ep I and ep II etc~  The lesson I learned, is that I don't mind waiting for a company to put out an amazing game, even if it takes a decade.  More oft than not, a tide of games inundates us from the company after their huge success and I welcome it.

Garnish some patience~ 

 As far as content goes~ it's been a beautiful journey from 70 to 80 so far.  All the new instances were amazing - the bosses, the gimicks and so forth were mostly all recaps to bring the new player up to speed with how to handle what has already come and gone.  The re-use of Naxxramas is meh considering I did it at 40 man ad infinitum~ but it's still fun to bring new friends through old material.  

Beyond all the amazing instance, skill and environment goodies that have been added I too feel that it is almost to the point of boredom.  The main reason is that it's all been "done" ~ the details are different, but the overall concepts have been reused, which I explain above is fine (in order to bring new players up to speed on raiding mechanics and fights).  

Don't be so ignorant to think Blizzard would make it "this easy" for the rest of the expansion.  This beginning taste is obviously to regear people at 80, get players comfortable with some basic encounters (void zones, shatter, portals to other realms, avoiding lava/aoes/clouds, spreading out/sticking together and so on), and prepare people for what is to come (forming guilds/community etc).

Now the question, What is to come?  Beyond asking the OP if he's actually even been able to complete some of the harder achievements (Immortal, Twilight Vanq etc)~ it's quite obvious that some very hard encounters will be incoming.  I believe to preface that, maybe a world event (akin to aq40) to open Ulduar or some sort of thing.  I believe Ulduar will be larger than what we have seen before, with maybe wings akin to Naxx and probably one Onyxia/Magth-type of encounter.  I know for a fact, those who are complaining that it is too easy now - will be crying at the all-too predictable bottleneck that will halt 80% of the raiders until the boss is "fixed" for them.

We'll see who is saying WoW is easy then.  I'll still be here~

Originally posted by ghettobooste

 effectively shrinks the game instead of expanding it. 

Well said.  I remember when our guild wrecked Naxx for months before TBC and we all had full sets and enough KT loot to make us happy.  Most of my gear was still used at 70, and was slowly replaced with the later stuff in instances.

I am just working on my tradeskills for now and other tasks that do not involve upping my equipment - for I feel it would be a waste of time.

Remember~ have fun!