RIFT 3.0 producer letter

Nadia

goto link for full article

http://community.riftgame.com/2014/06/24/rift-producer-talks-rift-3-0/

RIFT is constantly evolving – just take a look at some of the changes we’ve made over the last year that you can experience now:

• New Open-World Zone – The Dendrome
• New Chronicle – Queen’s Gambit
• New Sliver – Grim Awakening
• New Dynamic Content – Strongholds
• New Raid – The Infinity Gate
• New Raid – Planebreaker Bastion
• New Dungeon – Realm of Twisted Dreams
• New Chronicle – Infernal Dawn
• New Warfront Mode – Domination: The Black Garden
• New Warfront Mode – Domination: Karthan Ridge
• Prestige Rank 90 and New PvP Gear
• Cross-Shard Functionality for Instant Adventure
• Hairstyles Expanded
• New User Experience Tutorial Quests
• Performance Optimizations for VFX
• Song of Dreams Saga – Test bed for underwater content that helped shape our 3.0 expansion
• Major Class Update – Paragon
• Major Class Update – Tempest
• Major Class Update – Warlock
• Major Class Update – Purifier
• Zone Streamlining – Iron Pine Peak
• Planar Attunement Expanded
• Wish Lists in the Store
• International Shard Support – Play on any server in the language you want!
• Performance Optimizations for Low-End Systems
• PvP Matchmaking Updates
• New Dungeon – Return to Deepstrike
• Updated Chronicle – Intrepid Hammerknell
• Updated Chronicle – Intrepid Greenscale’s Blight
• Updated Sliver – Intrepid Drowned Halls
• New Chronicle – Planebreaker Bastion: Aftermath
• Updated Chronicle – River of Souls
• Temporal Flux Promotional Event! (Originally known as Mech Week)
• World Event: Fae Yule
• New Tradeskill: Dream Weaver – completely for free
• Artifacts – Unstable Artifacts (and zone events) added to the game
• Artifacts – Bounty Artifacts
• Air Saga Storyline Added
• Experimental Zone Type: Bloodfire Stronghold – with forced mentoring
• New Raid Rifts
• Dimension Quality of Life Updates
• PvP Dimensions
• New Conquest Mode – Steppes of Infinity
• Massive update to Preset Souls (Purposes) for all level ranges!
• Budgie Madness Promotional Event!
• Updated Ascend-a-Friend Program
• World Event – Carnival of the Ascended
• Major Class Revamp – Cabalist
• The Dream Soul Pack – Introduced 4 new Souls!
• Soul quests that explore the lore behind the new Souls
• Binding of Blood Dragon Raids – Revisiting (and reimagining) iconic battles with the dragons
• Cross-Shard Enhancement – No Anchor Required
• UI Enhancements – Macros System Expanded
• UI Enhancement – Dye Previewing Expanded
• Unicornalia Promotional Event!

 

Bladestrom

That's pretty impressive IMO.

JDis25

Rifts that scale sound awesome and engaging.

 

Minions; i'm not sure i care about them but might be cool.

 

Looking forward to some art and screenshots, I don't play Rift now but have checked in since Vanilla and have a max level character. It is such an underappreciated game. Of course it has it's problems, so does WoW, so does GW2, etc. Rift is a charming game with excellent Lore if you do some outside research. Storm Legion did a great job at presenting it, Vanilla... not so much. I can't wait for this expansion.

 

Not sure I like the idea of being able to buy equipment slots, when others will have to work for it, seems kind of P2W, BUT i understand that Trion is a business and needs monetary support to stay alive. I will probably end up paying for the expansion since right now, you really can play for absolutely Free. Sure you can buy gear, but it is expensive and relatively quick to earn via PvE.

jklauderdale

There's also a slight level cap increase to 65 and they apparently took notice of how many peoples' jaws dropped after viewing the stats on their first green item in Storm Legion. 

 

I'm just returning to the game and playing around with the new Mage and Warrior souls, both of which are alot of fun. I've purposefully rerolled my characters to see how they've changed the game and I'm not really sure I like how they've... "streamlined" leveling. I understand the need to do so but they've made exploring half of almost every zone unnecessary. I suppose after complaining about the linear breadcrumb trail from Stonefield to Iron Pine Peaks I shouldn't comment on them expediting the process. It's just that there's little threat now in the quests or mobs 2-3 levels above you unless you're actively rifting and the aggro range is now practically nil

 

The game still holds true to their incredibly flexible character creation but it seems that there's little challenge left in it for the solo quester

xenorace

I have recently returned. I played the game launch day up until a few month after Hammerknell came out. (Burned out with raid progression)

The game feels and looks great. Easily one of the best looking MMOs IMO. Textures, effects and character models are all top notch. When I used to play I had some dinky dual core and lower end graphics card and ran the game max. Now with a nice 8core CPU and a lot of RAM the game just glides along. There are some minor connectivity issues I am having but other then that the game is smooth.

There are mixed feelings on the streamlining of not only content to level you "easier and faster" but also streamlined souls. There are presets you can choose now.

As far as the content, it's basically any MMO that's been developed. As an MMO grows and adds content other content gets missed. Games like Everquest that have 10+ expansions would be an example of this. Granted in EQ2 at least you can lock your level to complete content, Rift you cannot.

I enjoy the new preset souls. I decided to just roll a rogue as that was the 1 character I never played when I was active, I found it refreshing they had these presets, saving me time from having to figure out my build either on the fly or hours with a skill calculator. Once you get endgame I suppose you can go back and mess around with making your own build, but from experience if you are raiding, you are more then likely going to be forced or asked to play a specific role in a raid anyway, so these presets should not be a shock.

All and all, best f2p I've played. Worth the time and I keep asking myself why I left. Everything feels and plays great. Lots of events that are easy to jump into and out. There is literally no shortage of things to do or explore in Rift.