Rift Previews: Trion Worlds Event: Rift: Planes of Telara Preview
MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy returns from the Trion Worlds event in San Francisco and delivers his full report on Rift: Planes of Telara, formerly known as Heroes of Telara.
By William Murphy on April 26, 2010
I had the pleasure to spend last Thursday evening in the company of my peers in San Francisco, being treated to a bevy of sneak previews and demos of games from Trion Worlds. No longer going by the name “Trion World Network” the company has changed their brand and logo to reflect their focus: to create and innovate in the online gaming arena. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Lars Buttler took center stage after a brief time spent scarfing down appetizers in order to introduce us to the company’s new look and moniker. But the real star of the evening was undoubtedly the games, and we didn’t have to wait long to find out just what Trion has been up to in the year since they last showed their hand at E3 2009.
Scott Hartsman, who gamers might recognize from the glory days of Everquest and Everquest 2, is the Chief Creative Officer of Trion’s Redwood City, California studio. At last year’s E3 Trion unveiled plans for their flagship MMORPG, Heroes of Telara. We were told it would be a revolutionary fantasy MMORPG with some truly unique ideas… then everything went dark. Heroes of Telara went into ninja-stealth mode and hardly a word was uttered about it in the time since. The silence was finally broken Thursday night with the unveiling of a brand new trailer, along with a brand new name.
Heroes of Telara is no more. Long live Rift: Planes of Telara. Aside from being an all around (in my opinion) better and more interesting identity for the game, the new title ties thematically into the game’s rather deep and involved lore. The world of Telara is experiencing a sort of dimensional phenomenon called “Rifts” which are basically portals to another dimension or plane of existence. The Rifts are causing creatures and life from other worlds to seep into and threaten Telara. It would appear that the beings from other planes aren’t interested in being friends with the people of Telara.
There are two factions of belief concerning the Rifts on Telara. There are those who believe the powered offered by the Rifts is sacred and to be revered through the upkeep of ancient vigils. These folks are called the Guardians: sort of your standard good guys. Then there are the Defiants. These are the more rebellious people of Telara. They see the Rifts as a gift and a potential source of power. Rather than upholding the vigil, the Defiants want nothing more than to harness the Rifts’ power despite the danger inherent within them.
As you can probably guess, these Rifts are the primary characteristic of the game. Rift: Planes of Telara is very much a fantasy-themed game in the vein of Everquest, World of Warcraft, and other titles in the genre. However it’s the title’s art style and extremely vibrant HD graphics that will help distinguish it from the pack. The trailer we were presented with highlighted the game’s stunning visuals. The artists at Trion seem to be channeling Jim Henson in the way their characters and creatures look and move. It was readily apparent from Scott’s presentation that the development staff is putting a lot of effort into nailing a cohesive and original look for the game. The lighting, armor, water, and animations all looked worthy of a finished product and the game’s still only in the alpha stage.
Scott gave away a few more details before stepping down for the other presenters. Trion aims to continuously evolve their storyline and the shape of the world itself through the use of the Rifts. Plot points and major social events will all be fed through these tears in the world that open up to other planes of existence. As a way to truly bring players together across the world, create factional conflict, and in general make for more than just a theme-park, the Rifts will be the developer’s way of keeping the game alive and fresh each day.
For the time being we know of at least two different planes which will seek to move in on Telara through the Rifts. The Plane of Death is much like it sounds: a dark horrific existence. Meanwhile the Plane of the Life represents a more primal and naturalistic world filled with creatures that are akin to plants. Scott promised there were many more planes to be revealed, but that for now these two are the ones they’re prepared to share. Really the possibilities of the Rift system are endless and only limited by the art department’s imagination, so it will be interesting to see what else the team can come up with before the proposed 2011 launch.
Hartsman also briefly talked about the class system in place. At E3 last year, it was revealed that the game was targeting the ability for players to switch classes on the fly in-game and level each class independently on the same character. It wasn’t clear whether that early design decision was still in place, but Scott and the other developers at the demo kiosks assured us that we’d know more about their class system in time and that we wouldn’t be disappointed.
What Scott did reveal was that each character’s life in Telara essentially begins with their death. Each player is thereafter referred to as an “Ascended Soul”. We didn’t get to see how this comes about, but one can assume it’s handled during the tutorial stages of the game and serves as a handy way of dealing with death and resurrection from a lore perspective. Perhaps as an allusion to the game’s class system, Scott also mentioned that during their adventures players will encounter, take on, and take into themselves the souls of other heroes. Whether this means that a sort of multi-classing is still in place remains to be seen, but it certainly sounds as if the designers have a few tricks up their sleeves.
All said and done, Rift: Planes of Telara came out looking like a bold new take on a familiar game style. The Rifts themselves, dynamically spawning social events that can happen any time in the game world are potentially a very exciting way to bring players together and give them common goals or even something to fight over given the game’s competing factions. After the presentation we had the chance to demo the game with the developers and came away with a good grasp on what the title’s all about. Check back later for our demo coverage of Rift: Planes of Telara.
This is awesome! I was so looking forward to hearing some news about this game. The concept art looks very promising
I second that! The more I see and hear about this game the more excited I get. Thats a rare thing for me where mmos are concerned. For years I have been seeing one boring badly designed game after another come out, to the point where I have pretty much given up on the genre. Trion might actually be the company that gets me back into playing mmos.
Its the dynamic content aspect that has me interested the most. I'm so sick of these dumb mmos with their rigid stories that encourage players to ignore each other and play the game like a single player game. Storylines should not be rigid and they should not be the same for every single player. That works fine for single player games but for online multiplayer games its ridiculous. Trion seems to be trying to get away from that by giving players reasons to interact with each other and influence the world they inhabit. That afterall should be the whole point of a massively multiplayer game.
The only thing I dislike the look of is the way that players will be able to switch classes on the fly. That sounds a bit daft to me but I will wait and see I suppose. It might work out fine in practice.
Wow, I know there was already a game similar to this called "Rifts" published by Palladium Publications...Well actually it is a pencil and paper RPG but the theme is very much the same as "Rifts: PoT"...Originality: FAIL.
While i didn't thoroughtly read the article....I have a question:
Is Heroes of Telara changed in terms of what the game was going to be, or is this just a name change? I was looking forward to Heroe of Telara...
Sounds good. Sounds like some innovation for the first time in a long while, lets hope it pans out. I've watching this one since they announced it and I'm thinking it could be the "sleeper" hit of the year(whichever year it comes out in, heheh)
Actually i was looking forward for this game but when i saw the trailer it reminded me for Aion: The tower of eternity. The expectations were great but at the end it turned to be nothing but a grind fest. Both trailers seem very similiar. Just my opinion nothing more.
gamne looks freaking awesome, is there any eta? is it 2010?
Says they are aiming for a 2011 release. The game looks promising.. hopefully it turns out to be good.
hmm not so "refreshing" info for me yet, and by the time it comes out it will have mr Tera, FFIV, Cataclysm, SW:TOR... to fight a tiny spot for.Well let´s see.
Completely psyched for the game since it was announced. Been waiting for some information for a while.
I'm not sure if it's just a name change or a complete re-work of the game like Tabula Rasa did, but if it's the same game as Heroes of Telara was intended to be, this game sounds so amazing.
Those of you who say no "refreshing" info on it yet should read more about the actual game on information posted up. Very, very promising title.
Looks very interesting. I'll have to keep my eye on this.
Ummm....I'm very familiar with Siembieda's Rifts and, apart from dimensional portals, there's no similarity here at all. Are you seriously suggesting that Heroes of Telara is somehow copied from Palladium's PnP game? It should be noted that the concept of an invasion through dimensional rifts didn't start with Palladium. Ever hear of Planescape? The works of Michael Moorcock? Magic the Gathering?
"FAIL" is making a wild statement like you did with absolutely nothing to back it up. Go do some research (no, I won't "google" that for you) and come back and try to tell us how the two games are anything alike. I'll be right here in my Glitter Boy mecha until you come back.
Sounds interesting, I'm a little bit tired of fantasy style games though, but I'll be waiting to see how this shapes up.
The 'ressurecting into another identity' thing could be used for interesting game mechanics imo, if they dare do it.
This game looks like yet another WOW clone. Even though Ive never played it, I will still slam it and judge it as such. No originality, nothing special. Its going to suck and you are wrong if you have an opinion that states otherwise!
*disclaimer*
The above is intended as a joke (sorry if you left your sence of humor at the door). I made it cause I was bored. Do not take it seriously LOL.
Anyway... It does look kinda cool. :)
Well judging from this information alone this game looks to be very promising, the lore and visuals are outstanding however how many times before have we seen this?. As an fan of the MMORPG genre one learns to not get over excited over new games, as you all probably know very often games like this (Aion, Warhammer etc etc) come along and get you all hyped up then when they come out there a complete disaster (Aion was a complete grindfest and in my opinion a disaster whereas Warhammer was a little better in that it offered alot of enjoyment but eventualy I got pissed off by the lack of effort the developers put into the classes, they were all the fucking same?).
So early signs of this game are very promising indeed, it seems to have the kind of world event system that brings players together that I love in MMO's, Simliar to Warhammer. By this I mean that you events such as battles etc exist in the world and everybody can play together, another thing I liked about Warhammer was the ability to easily and quickly jump into a group to participate in these events.
Ill defintely keep a close eye on this game and hopefully some day in the future I will get the opportunity to test the game in beta, crossed fingers this one turns out as good as it looks. Now back to Bad Company 2! Crainey OUT!
This finally sounds like the next gen game we have all been waiting for!! HOOORAAAYYYY!!!! I cannot wait to play it! :D
It'll be interesting to see if they do actually use this Rifts system to introduce truly dynamic content in a way I mentioned in one of my blogs. Or if it'll just be a standard "Invasion of Group A" in January and "Invasion of group B" in February. The system has alot of potential if used creatively to make the game unique in a large aspect.
What I hope they have interesting enemies and no more fighting bunnies and wolves. I'm playing runes of magic atm and just can't get into game where I've to beat regular wolves, spiders, beetles and... ugh... mushrooms. I'm also hoping for tiered monsters so we won't be constantly outleveling missions and enemies! I think scaling monsters is pretty much a necessity if they plan to allow all levels to enjoy these potentially "game wde" changes. Otherwise this content is going to be end-game heavy soon while potential new players get left behind.
Seeing how the graphics are promising. I'm also hoping for a lot of character customisation as that's one of the things I enjoy doing. So rather than keep changing your equipment with every new items I'm hoping you can keep the looks while changing stats for the item (essentially taking stats of another item and putting them into the ones you wear). Plenty of sliders too!
There are quite a few things I look at when evaluating a new MMO. All things below are important to me:
I'm a vocal supporter of tiered gameplay where the sense of growing power comes through tiers. Levels merely give you more abilities and points and fall within three or four tiers. Enemies and quests are tiered but not level bound, so as long as you fight and quest within tier your level doesn't matter. When you move from one tier to another there is significant boost in both visuals and power, and enemies you face change from lowly grunts to mighty dragons, so you won't be fighting spiders at level 1 and spiders at level 60. Saves developers the headache of having quest for every level and players from outleveling items, quest and enemies constantly.
Anyhow. I'm not really expecting Rifts will fill all these needs but dynamic environment goes a long way providing they can actually pull it off.
Looked nice until I saw it was forced Gank
Pass.
What does that even mean? lol
Forced PVP dude.
All I can say about those screenshots is WOW!
(and no, I am not talking about Blizzards flagship).
Easily the best looking MMO gfxI have seen so far.
And the game play doesnt sound too bad. Factional warfare and dynamic rifts? Could be a marketing stunt and be nothing more than an Aion rip-off but I hope not. The genre desperatelyneeds something new and innovative.
OMG, an online computer game where you are "forced" to play against other people.
I'm not sure if this is relevant but in a previous article about this game (sorry cant be bothered to find it), an example of one of their dynamic encounters is described. A horde of imps and demons invade a town and players of all level ranges can contibute to saving it. Some of those demons will be too tough for lower level players to tackle but they can still help other players to take them down or assist in other ways, such as by taking on the smaller creatures and perhaps helping to put fires out.
This event isnt just constantly happening over and over again like in the PQ's in WAR and its not a static "simulation" of a town being invaded where the players involvement is irrelevant like in pretty much all other mmos. This situation can apparently get triggered as the result of some other situation. Also unlike in other mmos that have rigid stories, this event can have different outcomes. The town might get destroyed and not be rebuilt for weeks.....or it might get saved and the towns folk will be most grateful. Different quests then become available as the world has changed because of the players efforts.
This kind of gameplay in mmos is long over due. I just hope it actually turns out to be as they say it will be because if it does then it will highlight how inferior all the previous mmos are and will set a new benchmark for the future mmos.
I can beleive that some of the developers worked on Everquest. I say that because it sounds similar to the Planes of Power from Everquest. Each Plane was a different environment. You reached the planes through fixed Portals in the Plane of Knowledge. So what makes it new?
Dalonely
Well thats just stupid. You're going to avoid an ONLINE game in which you PLAY WITH OTHER PEOPLE because it allows your actions to effect others? Oh well there will always be plenty of online single player games with built in co-op features in which you can read a rigid unchangeable story like a book while watching others all around doing the same. I much prefer the idea of playing a REAL mmo myself but each to their own.
Yeah I know its shocking isnt it! On online game where you dont just play against the computer?! Waaagghhh!!! The world must have gone mad!!!!
Mind you I dont actually remember ever reading anything about pvp in this game. Was it in one of their articles somewhere? I must have missed it. I thought this game was all about repelling creatures from rifts and working with others to change the game world and cause events to unfold.
Ah the factional warfare. Got it. Silly me. Something else to look forward to then. People that dont like competing with others can probably avoid it though.
I found Heroes of Telara a long while ago then like said they went quiet. I was interested in what it could be, and now I'm thinking it could be a fun game. I'm currently sick and tired of forced classes, no unique character builds, static worlds where everyone does the same thing. Having dynamically spawning tears that can be turned ot rifts that will hopefully pump out some random baddies that escalate requiring help from more and more people does seem quite epic. Hopefully they do some events that could be truely epic requiring a good chunk of the server population.
I'm really looking forward to this as long as I don't become distracted playing one of the other good looking MMOs coming out this year.
Forced pvp, while not my favorite choice, isn't a gamebreaker for me. Full loot pvp is. Hopefully they DO NOT make it full loot.
Looks very interesting, will be watching this one.
Just calling it like I see it. Basically if you removed the world of Telara and replaced with Earth I would say it was a game based on the Palladium setting. The simularities are just to close to say otherwise. Like I said, fail.
There is no forced PVP. Not sure who came up with this one.
Jotull started that one off with his knee-jerk reaction to anything that even remotely hints at players effecting each other in an online game. I can only assume he was deeply scarred in a pvp battle from one of the many badly designed mmos currently available. This sort of thing happens all the time on these forums. I read through the article and the closest thing I can find to pvp is this.......
The Rifts themselves, dynamically spawning social events that can happen any time in the game world are potentially a very exciting way to bring players together and give them common goals or even something to fight over given the game’s competing factions
It doesnt directly mention pvp at all so how that translates into "forced pvp" is anyones guess. It does however refer to factions that compete with each other. That could of course involve players fighting against each other........or it could also involve players trying to effect the outcome of a particular event in different ways by reacting to situations differently. An example of non pvp factional conflict might be that one faction is doing quests to keep a portal open that is allowing demons through while the other faction is doing quests to close it.
There was some other article that mentions how players can choose how they react to different situations, effectively casting themselves as good or evil characters. This is great because the ability to make decisions in an mmo allows the ability to roleplay........and I mean really roleplay with actions and watch the results of those actions unfold in the game. Currently there are very few mmos that allow anything close to this. The vast majority of them are just stories and the players cant choose or do anything. If people want to roleplay in those mmos then they have to resort to "pretend roleplay" by typing stories into the chat channel which is shit in my opinion. Its like reading a book or watching a film while pretending that you're doing something else.
Nicely done article. And another game for me to follow. :)
I hope it's more unique than other recent releases. I want to put my time into a game but every time I try to play one I feel like I've done this before. I am hoping this sets itself from the pack in some good way.
I don't know... the graphics and sound look nice, although not breathtaking. The story is... meh. Portals appear and elementals attack a world. Pretty generic story imho. There are hundreds of stories around portals suddenly appearing with attackers pouring out. Also, the rifts sound pretty much like public quests from WAR. A rift pops up, you got to kill some enemies or another minor objective, and if you succeed the rift closes and you get your rewards depending on how long or how well you participated. Is it anything different than public quests? I mean they were fun (when people were around to do them), but taking a feature from another game and calling it the main theme of your own one is odd. And elementals of earth water fire air life and death... well, seen that. Also, the thing about "absorbing souls near rifts" or something sounds like gaining reputation or tokens, and I hope that won't result in a heavy grind. "I need to rift only for another 200 hours to get the special rift-mount" or something like that.
But maybe it ain't bad, too early to say. Maybe they come up with interesting skills and zones and profession and what not, too early to say.
If I'd had to rate my interest in the game between 1 (not at all) and 10 (I scout the internet for hours, trying to find more information and would kill for a beta spot), I'd give it something a 4 I guess.
Nice to see that some western developers have FINALLY seen the benefits to playing all classes on one character (ala. FFXI) assuming that's still in place.
Whilst the graphics look nice though, I haven't heard anything at all unique about this game yet... need more info before I can really say what I think of it.
Trailer and Fan Youtube Video here(will look better when it switches over to 720p)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKuz1TKwic
I too would like to see some dynamic content.
This wouldn't be the first game to try it however.
Horizons ( now known as Istaria ) was the first....perhaps Ryzom too. I experienced in Horizons though. For example it took a server's worth of people, working together, to free two playable races. Some folks guarded against mobs while crafters would go in and apply materials to say a collapsed cave. After a few weeks and a rediculous amount of materials a new playable race was unlocked. Horizons also did this to a new town...simular thing only we had to rebuild some alters that would clear away the blight in which the undead lived in. good times
I would greatly like to see the return of some gameplay simular to this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKuz1TKwic
Wow....the "rifts" part of the concept...things "breaking through" into the player realm...sounds an AWFULLY lot like some of Ragnar Tournquist's The Secret World...... O.o
Love the idea. Have a feeling these two games with be the scary gritty (TSW) and colorful fantasy (RIFTS) versions of something a bit....similar in some ways. I guess we'll have to wait and see though.
At least now I have TWO games on my radar. :) That's cool! =D Will be interesting.
Totally stoked for this game. Hope we don't have to wait a long time though.
Been following this game since day 1 and I'm a little disappointed to see that some of the original concepts have not (yet) been confirmed to be in the game since the remake like: Class Loot Cards, Other forms of dynamic content, and the ability to play and level up all classes on one character. Hopefully they will still be a part of this game.
In my view, although I love the art style and direction, that alone will not be enough. This game will make or break on its promise of real, true, dynamic content. That would indeed be revolutionary (and much needed) for the mmorpg genre if executed to the promise of its potential.
At this point in time it will be impossible to find any creative piece of work that doesn't share some similarities with another piece of work. And the fact that you pointed out that this game has something in common with another game has also been done before too. So by using your logic .... You: FAIL.
Just calling it as I see it.
New trailer is pretty rad.
P.S. - HoT sounded better. /shrug
Great. They have got PvP in my PvE. Again.
Here comes the asshat community. Again.
it's got my attention , any idea of when the beta is ?
I tire of people who keep saying they want something orgininal. What else can be done? Short of virtual reality, everything has been done at one point or another.
Do these same people say " I can't find a car to buy because they are all the same, they all have 4 tires, a motor, seats, radio and such...booorrinng..I won't be fooled by the great looks and performance!! .. .I want something orginal !!"...good grief.
Most people go looking for a car when the car is ready to be bought i.e. on the lot and ready for sale. Not pre-ordering and agonizing over next years models.
my first thought was Aion meets AoC (AoC from the screenshot of the warrior in armor). All sum total, this will be one (or several) to watch. Curiosity killed the cat and we'll see how this one pans out. I am certainly hoping that at least ONE of the new titles over the next 12 months is something I can sink my teeth into and stay with for a couple of years.
The concept art is nice indeed. The game-play trailers on their website look good as well.
Too bad it's yet an other RvR game :(
Awesome game,Aion+Runes of Magic=Riftmso this will be the perfect mmorpg.Does anybody know a rel. date or if it will be f2p?
I see this everytime someone announces a new game. Everyone jumps on the bandwagon and ooh's and aw's. Then the game comes out and it is nothing like we anticipated. This genre has been flooded lately with a lot of crap.
A good MMO takes a long time to make, the timeline here is very suspect! I will take a wait and see attitude on this game and not get any hopes up. Maybe they will surprise us and produce a good game, but I have my doubts about that.
Getting excited about this game at this point is ridiculous.
What a shame... this looked good until I saw they had gone PvP with it and I have come to hate the communities in PvP games (which is ironic because I actually like pvp, just hate assholes). Oh well, lovin the look of FFXIV anyhow so it'll be easy to pass.
Well when I buy a car I do take into consideration looks of the car and if they all look the same then I consider finding something else. And when all cars look like worn down bars of soap I consider buying an older car that has some creativity in its design.
Yes every video game can be linked to other video games or sources as rip offs or inspiration. After a while though it gets annoying when you see a new game come out and it looks like the person who designed it didn't take any time in creating the setting and borrowed the meat of it from another source. This is where I consider finding something else to do then promote this kind of creativity (or lack there of).
XD
Two words why Rift's, Planes of Telara will be a huge original Everquest type of success,,,, "Scott Hartsman" is the lead creative figure behind this project.. He is one of the few who helped mold the original EQ into the legend it became for many years..
I love the name change from Heroes of Telara to Rifts, Planes of Telara.. The name change alone sounds more innovative, massive in scale, and not confusing as to what this game will be about. Sounds to me R:PoT will be like the next coming of Everquest.. I can't wait to hear more in the upcoming months!
it's not f2p it will have a monnthly fee according to their forum faq
This is such a pleasant suprise. I can't believe we're actually getting something that may feel as glorious as the original days of Everquest! I think this game has high potential and the feel of it is absolutely my favorite theme yet. I know we all get excited each time a new game is on the horizon, but this time it looks like they're ready to deliver. I will be following the website closely for updates.
Oh and the way they make the characters ascend into true heroes is a great concept! I especially like the thought of gaining knowledge and abilities from, "heroes of the past", I mean, I thought it was totally incredible the dance with death that Richard Rahl had in sword of truth, where the sword let him feel the ancestors abilities and mind and become a lethal force in the world through that knowledge. Here's to inventive fantasy reborn!
Too bad then. That game don't stand a chance against the upcoming releases.
What's funny about that, is right after the article mentioned rifts, I saw an advertisement for Aion right below the paragraph. =)
Obviously I understand that the rifts are used in a different way and such.. But it struck me funny.
On a serious note, it looks interesting. And to be honest, I welcome anything that tries to break away from what has become 'the norm'. So I wish the best of luck to the company. At the very least, it will be a title that I try to follow for a while.
Acidon
I can guarantee that this game will not be forced PvP (on all servers). These devs have been around the block too much for that and know that most people don't like it.
I imagine that on a PvE server there will be a flag of some kind like in WoW.
What will you guarantee this on? Purely on your imaginings?
There will be a PvE server? How do you know that? What is that based on?
You see, I look at the following quotes and think that this will be a 'forced' (as in no, you dont have to PvP, but you will be gimped if you dont) PvP game....
"Player vs. Player (PvP) combat will definitely exist inside of Rift in many forms and fashions... as you can probably guess, these Rifts are the primary characteristic of the game."
"As a way to truly bring players together across the world, create factional conflict..."
"The moment a rift spawns and word gets out, it could become an instant hotspot for PvE and PvP alike - and yes, there will be PvP between the more lawful Guardians and more chaotic Defiants, naturally. The two factions could cooperate to seal the rift and get loot for all... but then again, why help your enemy gear up? Why not sabotage their attempt?"
"Two major factions have emerged to save the world of Telara from the rifts: the Guardian and the Defiant. Each faction works in different ways to preserve Telara's future, and both seek to undermine the other."
You might say it is 'optional', but rifts seem a valuable source of gear and loot and very much now one of the primary play drivers, and can (and will be) PvPed over. I see no talk of different rules servers, and we will see how 'optional' PvP stays when you are rolled over by a Defiant zerg that wants to smack you down just for the sheer lols of it when trying to close a rift.
PvP it self isnt an issue to me, I enjoy it in practise, but I can't stand PvP communities... they just attract assholes and retards and I for one cba to spend my leisure time in that kinda of environment, which is a shame because a lot of Rift appeals to me.
I guess my main hope remains with FFXIV to deliver for the co-op play PvE people.
Bah. Yup. I agree. Well....that's a bummer. Thought I had another game to add to my extremely short list of anticipated games. Guess not. :( I don't particularly care for games that are PvP-centric. I like for there to BE PvP of some sort...sometimes I'm in the mood for it....but I don't particularly care for it being "required" basically. Except in the case of a game the style that "The Agency" seems like it might be. But...I'll have to see. HATED CrimeCraft. If it's another instances only type shooter with just a big indoor city that serves as a lobby and they're going to call it an MMO? Pffft...forget it. If I want to play something like that....I'll just play CS Source with my son.
Another thing I noticed a while back, the graphics of the world and monsters reminded me most of FFXI which is a good thing.
I lost interest in this when they gave Jon Van Caneghem the bum's rush.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/22/trion-asks-president-and-cco-to-try-on-new-career
From their FAQ:
Will there be Player vs. Player combat in Rift: Planes of Telara?
Player vs. Player (PvP) combat will definitely exist inside of Rift in many forms and fashions. More details will be released about our PvP systems and servers in the upcoming future.
Not much to go on. I don't like most PvP systems and the communities that pop up around them either. But the sentence above does "suggest" possible PvP "servers". I'm going to take a wait and see approach regarding PvP until more information is released. I'm still reasonably hyped for the game though; lots of good stuff to be seen.
Indeed it does, thanks for that quote.
I would be more then willing to give this game a go if they support the PvE community by taking the EQ multiple rules sets approach.
From the FoH forums: (Scott Hartsman responding)
I know Scott is probably not speaking officially, but it does look like different rulesets and servers, with pvp not being forced on pve servers. Can't wait for more info. Hopefully they will have a solid E3 presence.
Ahh nice, I havent been to the FoH boards for a long time (got sick of the asshattery over there), so it's to see these responses. Thx again :)
It looks interesting, but then again, almost every MMO looks interesting before you play it
"OMGOMGOMG!! IT LOOKS SO GREAT! MUST HAVEMUSTHAVE, WILL DROP WoW, EQ2, AION AND RUNESCAPE FOR THIS!!"
Rofl. It is a WoW clone, all the way to the graphics.
GT interview
Trion Chief Creative Officer Scott Hartsman talks advantages of having a veteran MMO dev team and a universe of worlds connected by Rifts in Planes of Telara.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI87hLNhcBw
Rasputin, you just showing yourself up.
Hmmm....i don't need to think i will wait 2011 and play this game :D Rift:PoT :D
Im just amazed how ppl can get hyped up for one clone after the another, after having been burned so bad in the past.
That game looks and feels exactly like a WoW clone, much like Warhammer, which ppl swore was nothing like WoW, but it then turned out to be anyway.
Ppl will never learn, and we can await a new round of yellings on the boards about ppl feeling cheated, because they bought lifetime subs for a game that they or noone has ever played (how stupid can you be?), and the like.
As long as ppl behave like this, they will take it bent over by the industry, and we will be doomed to a new round of WoW-clones in the shitstorm of them, that we are in at the moment.
Personally, I think its just a little early to make determinations like "looks and feels" like a WoW clone. In my opinion its art style is unique and does not look like WoW except in the general "it's a fantasy world" sense. But I haven't seen enough to make a full determination. And the videos are certainly not enough to get a "feel" for the game, much less not having actually played it yet. Unless you are speaking of some of the conventional MMO concepts like hotbar combat, etc... which WoW didn't even event. Fact is, we still know very little about the game.
Although I agree with your general attitude of caution and reservation, I'm amazed that people can't just take a wait and see attitude. Trion is a new company without a record, we don't have much to go on unlike say, Cryptic. Who cares honestly if some people get a bit hyped for a game?
Now there's one thing expressed in Rift: Planes of Telara that is 100% nothing like WoW or in fact any other MMO before it; and that is the promise of true dynamic content. They may not deliver, sure.. they could be all full of talk. But if they do; if they can truly execute on this potential, I can almost guarantee you it will revolutionize MMOs for the better, and the same old "static" MMOs will simply not be able to cut it anymore.
The game looks exactly like WoW. Undeads like the same. You have the same cartoon trees and buildings.
The feel: Combat with two opponents standing still in front of each other, doing combat animations on the spot in front of each other. No interaction at all, save for a spreadsheet comparison of attack vs. defense.
Like we have seen in a trillion games so far. Gaaaah...
I am able to tell that the look and feel will be the same as WoW - and EQ for that matter, since WoW is an EQ-clone. Seeing that it is old EQ developers in charge, it is maybe not even a wornder that they are making yet another clone.
Look who else thinks the name is rather familiar :) :
http://www.massively.com/2010/05/11/...r-rifts-title/
http://www.massively.com/2010/05/11/palladium-books-sues-trion-worlds-over-rifts-title/
Hmm perhaps that will link the correct page.
I've seen it and played it....not a happy ending...definitely not a date nite affair.
I guess they should sue the BBC, Raymond E. Feist, and NCSoft while they are at it?
If you will go to the official forums a few of the general questions over the game can be answered either by asking the community or looking through the site.
It is if one is being very general some what like WoW and War. The rifts are public quests, dynamic randomly generated public quests, but still nothing totally new outside being unscripted. So far they seem rather entertaining and have been taken positively by individuals that have been able to play this portion at E3. The rest of the dynamic content works in much the same way as rifts and some of it is the ability to update and change the game on a server to server bases without patches.
The most and at the same time one of the least like WoW feature outside the cartoony high fantasy setting is the class system. There are going to be 32 starting classes called souls eight per calling. Each class under a archetype is more like a rpg specialization branch tree under the different archetypes. Players will by level 30 be able to spec out three souls and in some way randomly swap out souls when ever they want. The branch tree specialization system used in the classes includes a root, abilities unlocked as points are placed in the tree.
Rift isn't anymore a WoW clone really that it is a War clone or a EQ clone. Rift is content with leaving what works in MMO's alone and introducing some good ideas. The PvP on PvP servers is faction based open world and on PvE servers player choice. In gameplay its not completely unique or new, but innovative non the less. Go to the forum ask around, or simply look through the information on the site. Hopefully Rift launchs as a completed product and thus over comes the first barrier that has stopped some of the recent MMO's as it has a lot of potential.