Rift: Head Start Journal

SBFord

Rift's head start program for players who preordered the game began yesterday. Included in the mob that flocked to Rift servers was MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy who is keeping a diary of his experiences during the pre-launch days leading up to March 1st. Check out why Bill is buried in a pile of turtles and more of his thoughts about the Rift Head Start. Let us know what you've experienced in the comments.

All day long I read about horrific queue times, a sure sign that lots of folks took some time off and pre-ordered Rift to get in on the new fantasy MMO. Needless to say, I was ready to go home, log in and wait a couple hours before I could play. Amazingly, perhaps due to my Irish heritage, when I logged in they just opened a new PvP server called Tearfall. I grinned sheepishly, clicked, and away I went creating my Bahmi Cleric.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Rift Head Start Journal.

feirited

I cant wait until i can play this (yes i dont have money to this right now). 

SBFord

Let's just say that I've got one of those turtles but would have rather had a horse. I'll cut off my nose to spite my face and walk until I can afford to buy a horse. :P

Other than that, I'm having a blast!

BillMurphy

They're pretty cheap, Suzie.  The horses I mean.  Just don't go "role" crazy, and you'll have more than enough by level 20.

SBFord

Oh I know they're cheap. It's just that money is at a premium at the start. I'm a level 11 weenie. :P And the role crazy thing? Not me. Luckily, I did that during the whole beta and got it out of my system. Now it's just Marksman and Ranger until I feel otherwise.

JeroKane

I'm having a blast too!  Really really smooth headstart launch. A real breeze for a change, after all the failures the past 2-3 years.

My gf and me came prepared. Downloaded the client a day in advance when we got the email.

Then yesterday we patched up and logged in about 15-20 mins or so in advance and waited (with coffee and tea ) for the servers to unlock and were in the moment they opened!

Not a single issue ever since.

I guess (reading about some hefty queues yesterday) it must be a tad worse on the US servers? Altho all EU servers are full too tho.

So eventho all the EN EU servers are all Full, I had not a single queue at all so far. I could and still can log in any time I want. And it runs smooth as silk. ( we play on a RP PVE server here in Europe )

EvilGeek

I feel for  the poor folk who are waiting to join friends and guilds on over crowded servers, luckily for me i haven't had any problems with queues, rolled on the RP PvE server and we've been fine, aside from the queue problem the game so far has been flawless. I played all betas so I'm not surprised by that, I am impressed with the further improvements of performance since OB. Trion have done a good job of delivering a very stable game. 

Aion was the last launch I was part of and the queues were just as bad then as they are for rift now, Rift trumps Aion though by being able to handle so many on screen at once, it's impressive to see that many players fighting along side each other with no real degradation of performance, only thing to suffer is FPS which is down to my machine.

BlackUhuru

Besides the queues for some servers the launch has been very smooth with no crashing or down time at all. I was able to get on my server after about an hour and half and played about 14 hours straight with no down time or patching...

 

Great job Trion and keep up the good work!!!!

BarCrow

I like turtles.

 

 

 

.......seriously...game is fun as hell..imo. Clean ..smooth and seemingly bug free in my experience. Only problem was the quick spawn rates..but this is expected with all the people trying to kill the same mobs for the same drops at headstart.. Great game...don't think you'll see me in that OTHER game anytime soon...if ever again.

rtbbvr

Glad to see a smooth soft opening. If the game can hold its large population I think its will be quite sucesseful.

Juaks

For me was a very pleasant experience. Performance was better than previous betas, no lag, no crashes, better ping. All this in the middle of a huge ammount of people. Respawn times on mobs are tuned faster so It´s not that hard to do quests with masses of people doing them.

I am having a BLAST!.

Hellfyre420

I'am sad i'am gonna miss the earlie launch but beer + smoke is more important for me this weekend lol.. Ill see ya guys on Rift next week tho

plescure

Really enjoying it too. The queues are a grind but to be expected but apart from that its been loads of fun so far.

 

In fact something happended to me last nifght that hasnt happended for a long time. agter spending a fair few hours of the evening playing Rift, i then went to bed and dreamed i was playing Rift. that hasnt happended to me since back in the day when i was playing the mmo whose name i dont like to mention cause i hate it now as it stole 4 years of my life!!! Give me my 4 years back you bstard!!!

 

Any way Rift is sweet

Sys7em

After re-selecting my server 5 minutes after launch, I was in a queue that lasted 3 hours. That's what I get for picking a popular High population US PvP server :P Once I was finally in the game, I had a blast and no performance issues the entire day.

Ruinal

There is a certain ironey having a turtle mount having come from Earthrise. 1 hour + queues on Blightweald at the moment, but *shrugs* I don't really mind the wait too much.

Hyperwolf

I have a one and half hour queue wait on Wolfsbane this morning. I think a LOT if not all Australian guilds decided to base there which might be pushing it up a bit. On Launch day I logged in 5 minutes before the servers went live and played a ridiculous number of hours. No crashes, bugs, or lag.

Game is super fun, and for map explorers like me they added a lot of nice little secrets. My favourite is probably this huge Guardian cannon on top of the highest point of the Silverwood map, which took quite a bit of getting too.

Haven't had this sort of feeling of enjoyment in an MMO release since EQ days.

Valentina

I'm having a blast.

khargon

game is simply amazing, and easily one of the smoothest headstarts I've ever been in.

Inktomi

Waited 4 hours opening day: No biggie.

Every name I wanted was already taken: No biggie.

The server was lagging so hard I watched the letters come op after I typed them in guild chat: Still, no biggie.

Cursing, swearing, call outs, chuck norris jokes, your mama jokes, trolling and spamming in level 1-9 chat: Straw that broke the camels back. 

I will start when all the kids are over lvl 40 or have gone to bed.

Swanea

This game has so much polish it's amazing.  The first game in what? 7 Years with this much polish.

Ramblebrain

Im having so much fun! I feel sorry for all other games coming out soon..... Ghost town hehe

caymon

Originally posted by Inktomi

Waited 4 hours opening day: No biggie.

Every name I wanted was already taken: No biggie.

The server was lagging so hard I watched the letters come op after I typed them in guild chat: Still, no biggie.

Cursing, swearing, call outs, chuck norris jokes, your mama jokes, trolling and spamming in level 1-9 chat: Straw that broke the camels back. 

I will start when all the kids are over lvl 40 or have gone to bed.

 

 Youe could have just left the channel

allinan

No queue time for me opening and I have not seen one at all playing Friday evening.  Impressive soft launch by Trion!  Have tons of fun here as well.

DestinoBR

damnn, you sunny beach and, golden sands, and guirls, My vacation started on the exact day of the head start, damnit

I will be playing my pre order after march 10th!

how stupidy a man can be!

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

McGamer

I'm glad some say the game seems bug-free. For me though, the graphics look too much like EQ2 or Vanguard which equals boring so I won't be trying the game. I'm happy sticking with Lotro until GW2 or Tera comes out.