I was flipping through Twitter today when I saw that Darryl Gangloff of ZAM had done an excellent interview with Scott Hartsman regarding the Rift 1.2 patch. I’ve been pretty stoked with the prospect of this update and the proposed content. In this particular interview Scott goes in to a lot more detail and I was pretty curious about a few things he said. There is a lot of good here and also some curiosities.
I’ve been discussing the “looking for group” feature of Rift off and on with my fellow podcasters. The general consensus between us was that this was a fine feature as long as it remained server only. Scott pretty much addresses our concerns and notes that for now it will not be a cross-server system. That is good news to me but this is where I really found myself curious. In discussing the LFG feature he talks about rewards. “And then obviously there’s a pool that lets you play every day or just be a weekend warrior. There’s basically a rolling pool that can fill up to seven bonuses, at least that’s the way we have it tuned right now.” I’m not fully sure I understand the finer details of how the system works but the gist is there. If you use the looking for group system you will receive some sort of bonus. To be more specific, Scott later says, “As you level up and do the Tier 1 experts, you start getting expert achievement plaques, which let you buy gear. For our Tier 2 dungeons, you get more expert achievements plaques. One of the directions we’re looking to take it in the future is to also for the higher end ones give out an even better reward on top of that.”
It sounds to me that by using the looking for group system players are rewarded with shortened progression times and possibly even earning superior gear (eventually). To be honest I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that aspect of it. Now on one hand I will say that if PUGGING yields faster progression I have no real issue as long as it isn’t a huge advantage. To be quite frank I think anyone who can put together a group of strangers and succeed should be rewarded. On the other hand I feel like this punishes guilds. My guild is pretty inclusive but we do work well together. We’re also progression focused. If you can move faster and get better gear by using LFG it seems counter intuitive. Of course our chance of success is probably higher. That is why I am really more curious than anything. I’d love to hear some debate on this.
Scott and Darryl also discuss the new wardrobe system which has been another hot topic for me! You all know that I am relatively against this but mostly on the grounds of letting anyone wear any armor. I had thought this was fairly settled business but there was a new bit of information today! “. We don’t want warriors to be able to wear everything in the game while mages are just stuck in cloth. But in the wardrobe slot we have items marked as costume items or warbdrobe items, and anyone can equip those.” To me this means that we just might see mages in plate after all. I hope that isn’t the case. I’m pretty big against that but, on the whole, the system is still a neat idea.
The topic that I really wanted to hear about was the sliver, two group raid and Scott did not disappoint. “It’s a private raid instance for you and your raid. Fictionally, it’s supposed to be an alternate reality or alternate timeline.” The idea that Telara’s lore can be changed at any time without disrupting the time line is excellent. I like the various things that can be achieved with this and I’m a huge fan of alternate realities (I love those Star Trek episodes). I’m looking forwards to two group raiding and the way that Trion is handling the system sounds awesome. I’m curious as to where it fits into progression.
Scott talks about one of my other favorite activities, rifting. He mentions two new zone wide invasions that sound pretty interesting to me. “For one of them, the Guardians and Defiant both build their respective colossus and have them fight it out. There’s another one in Iron Pine which is all about defending the bulwarks.” The tower defense game sounds exceptional! I was the guy that sat with Dresden and Khallid, loaded up as many AIs in Star Craft as I could, and let the waves of zergs rush over our defenses. This sounds exactly like that and am looking forward to it! The colossus on colossus event also sounds pretty intriguing. Is it PvP or PvEvP? Only time will tell.
My final bit of excitement comes from ego! When I wrote my article, What I dislike about Rift, I pointed out that there wasn’t a refer a friend feature. Either Trion reads Epic Slant or a lot of people asked for something similar because we’ll be seeing it soon! I’m getting ready to start sending out those free trials!
No matter how you cut it there is a lot of exciting content coming out in patch 1.2 and it isn’t far off. Trion’s ability to generate solid content on a reasonable schedule has me completely impressed. I’m excited to play this game and be a customer of the company.
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
WoW’s LFD is designed to support its weakest players. Warriors who won’t/can’t tank, people who annoy everyone they meet, silent types who never take initiative, people who are just plain bad at the game are all supported by LFD, especially cross-server LFD.
Now you can argue that Bad is a valid playstyle as Tobold did not so long ago. Or you can argue that the system should encourage people to become good as EQ’s forced grouping and harsh death penalties certainly did.
What I’d like to see is an equilibrium, where being good is an advantage (which it probably isn’t in WoW) but being a bit slack isn’t ruthlessly punished (as it was in EQ).
In my situation we’re somewhat the victims of our own success. We have AWESOME guild runs. Problem is if we have 9 people online 5 will do the guild run and the rest will just mooch about not doing much. Sometimes I’ll log on and there will be about 8 50s online and no one’s thought to make a group (we have only a few “movers and shakers”). So I think single server LFD will help my guild as some of these guys will get into groups a bit more, so we’ll gear up and make better progress. I think also it will help people have more fun although it’s hard to know if someone is waiting for a few hours for someone else to make a guild group if they’re enjoying themselves with that playstyle. I guess they probably are.
I had the same feelings as you about the LFD tool. While I understand pugging is tougher, so yes getting a faster progression is nice…it does punish guilds I feel. Not all guild groups are the greatest, and depending on “how much of a bonus” we are talking, i may end up seeing progression minded guildies pugging instead of guild grouping.
I can’ t really comment till I see it in action, but I have reserved feelings on the whole idea of rewarding plaques for pugs. Jeez that sounds like some sort of charity
What about further bonuses, leveling, etc. for guild runs? From what I can tell… the only way the guild is currently leveling is by doing the guild quests.
If they could add a system for guild xp for doing dungeons with a full guild group I would say that would be a great compromise.
I had thought that the 7 bonuses were the current daily dungeon quests, but this interview makes it sound more like they’re a separate bonus for using the PUG-only group finder. Personally, I think that PUG’s have a worse rep than they deserve, as I’ve survived lots of them, but I guess I can always justify a failed experience as research for the blog.
As to the wardrobe system, this is what they get for not giving us pants.
http://playervsdeveloper.blogspot.com/2011/03/rift-elf-panties-for-psychochild.html