Developer Q&A - Planar Attunement Respec, Upcoming Gear Changes & More!

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/general-discussion/287720-developer-q-planar-attunement-respec-upcoming-gear-changes-more.html#post3482080

Hail Ascended!



Welcome to the first Developer Q&A - a new feature aimed to give you a closer look at the development of RIFT while answering common questions & suggestions. This list will never be exhaustive and we realize you all might have many questions but we aim to cover as many different areas of the game with each one as we can.



Whether on the forums, facebook, twitter, fansites, or in game - we appreciate all of your feedback and encourage you to continue to share, thanks!



Do you have any plans to make Hammerknell more accessible to more raiders?



We’re fairly pleased with the current state of Hammerknell. That said, we always want to see more and more players get a chance to experience the zone while still being challenged and having a sense of progression. We always keep a close eye on how the community is progressing through the zone and individual encounters – for example, as you may have noticed, we recently implemented an additional reduction to the Toughness, Hit, and Focus required to be affective against Jornaru and Akylios, the final encounter in Hammerknell.



Another project we are currently working on is reducing the massive jump in power between Hammerknell (and PvP Rank 8 players) and the rest of the game. Not to worry we’re not nerfing anyone! Hammerknell and Rank 8 gear will stay as is, however most of the other 50+ gear will get upgrades. Those players who are just starting Hammerknell will thusly find it a bit easier to get started in the zone and do glorious battle with the vile denizens found within.



We know you’re undoubtedly excited to learn more about everything we just talked about – once we have more specific details you’ll be sure to know!







Crafting Rifts are a great idea but can be frustrating when your rift is closed faster than you can get contribution and you can wind up getting little to nothing from them, any quality of life plans for this feature?



Our solution to this is a bit broader than crafting rifts, but they’ll benefit as a result of some changes we have planned. The plan is to implement Rift NPC health scaling based on the gear level of participants in the rift.



What does this mean? Right now NPC health only scales with the number of players at a rift, meaning that when players with very good gear start running rifts our scaling falls apart causing rift stages be completed almost instantly in some cases. This new change will make it so that better gear = stronger NPC’s in addition to the number of players. This should make each stage last longer and give you the chance to earn more contribution.







A recent interview hinted at “driving a wedge” between Guardians and Defiants – anymore details you can share yet? Inquiring minds want to know!



Ever read a news article that took one tiny bit of information and blew it up out of context for a catchy title? Happens to RIFT too! This statement was made in the context of the World Event being planned for RIFT’s first anniversary – during which a schism develops which results in Guardian and Defiant NPC’s getting into a drunken brawl (too much merrymaking). During this chaos PvP will be an optional method to the madness, but those who wish to stay strictly PvE are more than able to.



Of course, what would a world event be without a culminating massive planar invasion that challenges the two sides to come together for the greater good? Until then - check out the article for more general info about what we've been working on!







Is there anything roleplayers have to look forward to in the near future?



It’s cool, we don’t like stabbing stuff all the time either – well, most of us probably...



Homicidal tendencies aside, we feel you when it comes to fluff, and many here are avid role-players or RP supporters. We just posted the Notes from the First RP Town Hall, this should give you great insight into the discussion we’ve already had. To recap from it – we’re looking at ways to empower roleplayers to have the ability to run their own events and control over their RP experience. What that means is still being defined but to start things off we’re proud to announce that weddings will be making their way to Telara. You’ll have the dress, rings, and even an instance with a ceremony if you decide to use it! Expect to see them pop up on PTS in the near future and we’ll keep in touch as our plans for improving your RP develop.







What’s the philosophy behind Planar Attunement? Are the points intended to be complimentary to gameplay or a form of it?



While Planar Attunement can be used as its own form of gameplay, it’s really intended to complement existing gameplay by giving players more rewards for doing the activities they already know and love. This is why we’re constantly tweaking just how much PA XP players get from various endgame activities. In addition we’re making a few other tweaks to PA that will it to mesh better with a players particular playstyle, the most exciting of which will be adding a re-spec option!







Getting Bind on Pickup recipes outside of raids makes me sad – any chance some of these can be made Bind on Use and brighten the days of crafters in our lives?



Thanks for pointing this out, good news is we’ve noticed it as well. A number of our BoP recipes will be switching to BoE within the next few patches, so keep an eye out for it!







Why are creatures on Ember Isle so much more powerful?



As our 50+ population grows so does the difficulty of 50+ content we release. Ember Isle was designed to be more of a challenge for players that have been 50 for a while and that are actively engaged in some of the higher end content. Of course,Fresh 50 players too can definitely take advantage of all that EI has to offer, but they should probably bring a few friends!







I’ve been enjoying Instant Adventure but with the exception of defending the wardstones you don’t do any rifts or invasions – what does the future look like for IA?



Instant adventure is a pretty new feature so we’re still watching how it plays out on live, but we’re pretty excited about it around the office and have in fact been working on even more improvements. If you haven’t noticed already we’ve improved the XP payouts for 50+, and we’re also working on integrating dynamic content (rift, invasions, etc.) into instant adventures but we don’t have a set ETA on that quite yet!







Chronicles and the latest World Events have awesome looking costume weapons, but no wardrobe slot for them – are there plans to allow you to change the look of your weapon through the wardrobe feature?



Adding Wardrobe weapon slots is a topic that comes up pretty frequently around the office. That being said we won’t be adding them in the near future =( Overriding a weapons appearance is much trickier then changing the appearance of a helmet or a pair of boots. It effects the players animations since not all weapons support all animations, as well as being a key indicator to what type of opponent you are facing in PVP. As such it’s not quite as easy to just toss in as people might assume.