No Gear Reset
One of the most surprising elements in the State of the Game is that Trion isn’t planning a full gear reset. We asked them why they made this choice when so many other titles opted for a clean slate. “It’s always great to have progression but it’s not great to feel like everything you’ve done over the last two years is now worthless,” Bill shared. “We looked at the game and realized that RIFT continues to evolve and we don’t need to do what every other game we’ve worked on has done before.” Instead, they want to keep players motivated to dig into content right up to the release of Nightmare tide and reward players by ramping them directly into the experience. Top-tier loot isn’t likely to be replaced until after players start digging into level 65 content and even a little beyond.
Nightmare Rifts
“These are the Hunt Rifts of Nightmare Tide,” Mike told me when describing Nightmare Rifts. Imagine, if you will, a rift that doesn’t end. Wave after wave of enemies pour out on strict timers, offering power-ups and rewards to keep you moving forward at a break-neck pace. Eventually you will be overwhelmed, that much is inevitable, but in the meantime you fight to beat your last record or prove to your guildmates that you are the Ninja Warrior of Telara. Coming back levels later with better equipment and enchants, you beat your record and earn even greater bragging rights. These are Nightmare Rifts, a system wrought from the same mold as horde modes, finally taking shape in the MMO world. And, like most rifts in RIFT, they will scale depending on the size of your group.
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Free For All (Even Those Equipment Slots)
Seeing the content on the table, I had to ask: All of this, everything being talked about here, is free? “Every level you need? That’s free. All of the dungeons? That’s free. All of the quests? That’s free,” Bill said. “We don’t put our actual content behind paywalls. That’s anathema to our business model.”
Which raises the question many players have been asking, what about those equipment slots? One of the concerns we’ve heard raised is just how difficult these will be to earn in the game, without first paying to unlock them. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘easy’ to describe it,” Bill said, “but I would not use the word ‘excessive.’” Instead, Trion is shooting for a middle ground where it’s a nice option to support Trion but isn’t necessary if you would rather just play the game and unlock the slots per character. “We don’t want to make it too onerous. We know that’s not fun.”
And if players should choose to do neither, that may be an option as well. I asked, partially out of curiosity for players who may not take the time to unlock them and partially for hints on what these slots may be, if they were necessary – required – for success at endgame. “They’re going to add power to your character,” he said. “How much power is still up for debate, but it shouldn’t be make or break. If a character is missing a ring, is that make or break? I don’t think that’s make or break.”
“Yes,” he continued. “The ultimate one-percent, high-end raiding people are probably going to scream bloody murder about this. I love those guys but they’re making a way bigger deal out of it than it will ever possibly be.”
Release Date?
Try as we might, we couldn’t get them to pin down a release date. What we do know is that Nightmare Tide will be launching sometime this year. What that means for now is that sometime in the next five months, we will be seeing Patch 2.8: Madness Wakes setting the stage for all that is to come, on top of adding some much needed improvements to the auction house.
For more of our interview with Trion, check out the official podcast next week as we release the full audio of our 30+ minute sit-down.
Christopher Coke / Chris has been an MMO player since the days of MUDs. He has been playing RIFT since beta and has been a fan ever since. Follow him on Twitter: @GameByNight.
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