For a game that’s been out for only a little over a year, RIFT has a solid assortment of quality-of-life features. These are the little things that often go unnoticed, but really make a difference when to comes to our enjoyment within the game: smooth, built-in UI features, and the ability to customize those UIs further. A polished AH, the guild perk system, being able to flip between souls on the fly, the dungeon finder, achievement system, and the wardrobe system. Oh, yeah, and AoE looting. Other games have since added it, but RIFT was among the first big MMOs that added the feature.

Among the latest added 1.8 features, we’ve seen even more great quality-of-life features. The guild finder, the fishing and survival additions, and the new fishing dailies. The NPCs for which that are in actual convenient spots. Convenience? Come on– how often does that appear in an MMO? And last but not least, we can’t forget about leaderboards. They’re convenient in the sense that they display information that’s normally quite difficult to obtain, and what’s more– leaderboards are fun, and profit all kinds of players.

The coolest aspect about leaderboards is probably the fact that you can find out so friggen’ much with them. You can see data from your server, guild, or all servers. You can see data within the various divisions and leagues, or just see the top 50 players within a category. There are 89 leaderboards total, which is, well, a lot. They’re separated into five different ladders: PvE General, PvE Group, PvE Raid, PvP, and Crafting. Like I said– something for everyone. Trion posted a handy little introductory guide on using leaderboards this week. Take a peek!

Leaderboards are, of course, great for players who raid. It’s now easy to keep track of what guilds have completed which raids, and also keep track of the number of achievements obtained in the lower-tier raids. This helps players get a feel for the raiding situation on various servers, and since different chunks of time can be used as a filter, players can also get a sense for which guilds and players are actually active. This is vital for players looking for a new possible guild.

The feature’s great for players who don’t raid, as well. Players who love to run dungeons can time themselves against other groups, or compete against other players for slaying rare monster, closing rifts, collecting artifacts, gathering PA experience, and many other score cards that were previously pretty hard to track. Crafters are also able to keep track of the rest of the crafting world around them, and add a little competitive step to their normal crafting weeknight.

PvPers can have a little fun with the feature, too, and use it to track wins, healing, damage, kills, favor, and various warfront objectives. Leaderboards aren’t a measure of PvP skill, but they are another way to add a little competitive fun to instanced PvP. Players who enjoy PvP but don’t always enjoy farming out ranks or favor may find keeping track of leaderboard statistics enjoyable, and may find themselves more eager to follow warfront objectives and help lead their team to more wins.

Competition, though, is an interesting notion. Many gamers thrive on competition, and because of it, will strive to greater heights, perform better, and approach raids, currency/experience grinds, and PvP matches with a heated passion rarely seen without that competition. Passion, as we all know, can be helpful or it can be destructive. Lately, on RIFT’s official forums, I’ve seen a couple of cases of players frustrated about the higher level of competition seen in some players since the addition of leaderboards.

MMO players, by and large, will always find something to complain about, but I find these particular cases interesting because of the simple fact that leaderboards don’t offer any type of reward. They don’t offer anything by the way of fancy mounts, pets, artifacts, or even achievement points. Why would some players take the leaderboard system so seriously as to anger other players? It all goes back to competition, and bragging rights, of course.

The best example of this phenomenon I can think of is the idea of a new level 50 player, barely able to queue for an expert dungeon. Let’s say they queue as a healer. The tank and all three DPS in the group are geared to the teeth and proceed to gather up entire rooms full of mobs in order to obtain the quickest time possible. The healer finds themselves frustrated, and for good reason. They may not be able to keep up mana-wise, but here’s the kicker, I think– if the tank is that geared, it’s their responsibility to either slow down, or toss on some more survivability gear in order to take less damage.

Competition may be fun, and even more fun thanks to the leaderboards, but with that competition comes responsibility. Players need to be aware of who they’re playing with, and against. They need to know their group’s limits, and hold those limits to a higher priority than their leaderboard rank. Also, players should use a little common sense when running leaderboard runs. Grab a similarly-geared tank and healer, and DPS if possible. Grab people you know, who are after that same goal, and issues like this won’t arise.

Some players have suggested an additional option to select when queuing up for expert dungeons that would announce a player’s interest in running a speed run. The problem with this? Unless the option has an additional gear requirement (which would require a lot more coding), players in all levels of gear would select the option in hopes of getting a super-short run. I’m also not sure the issue’s prominent enough to warrant a solution like this.

At the end of the day, it’s really left in the hands of the players. Looking for a speed leaderboard-ranked run? Gather a select team. Treat it like any difficult achievement. With a hand-picked team, players stand their best chances of obtaining that ranked time. That way, everyone wins.

Despite random competition issues, I think the leaderboard system is a solid, fun quality-of-life addition to RIFT. Many gamers like statistics, and for them, leaderboards are perfect. The system also has some great potential for future additions that will be easy for Trion to implement. It’d be nice to see some cooler PvE and raiding categories that track particular, difficult achievements. What else would you like to see added to the leaderboard system?

One of the problems with diving back into the world of Telara on an alt or completely new character is the fact that, well, RIFT’s quests aren’t always that exciting. Sure, some of the quest chains are awesome. Some entire maps are awesome. I’m a huge fan of Gloamwood and Iron Pine Peaks, for example. Other maps, for me, prove a little more difficult to muddle through the second or third time around (Scarwood Reach and Scarlet Gorge, I’m looking at you). I don’t know what it is about the 30-40 leveling hurdle, but for some reason, my alts always get stuck there.

I don’t think I’m the only one with similar leveling hurdles, either, because many new players that are trying out RIFT for the first time find themselves a little underwhelmed at around the same levels. Trion was pretty quick to notice one of the glaring issues at these levels and have since changed the entire look of Scarwood Reach. The lush, green surroundings are a huge improvement, believe me, but there’s still… something off about the 30-40 level range.

Maybe it’s the fact that both Scarwood Reach and Scarlet Gorge share similar arid, war-torn environments. Moonshade Highlands always seems like a breath of moist air after questing in other areas, and it, of course, is. Until you know, Droughtlands comes into play. Ugh. As silly as it may sound, our questing environments matter, because they help immerse us and make us feel involved.

I think, in part, that’s why for those of us with characters at endgame, Ember Isle is so exciting to wander around in. Ember Isle has a bit of everything– gorgeous shoreline, lush forests, dangerous peaks, and tons of currency and PA to gather. Trion, take note of this. Just in case, you know, you guys are developing an awesome, new city for us to wander around in the future. Mmm, new city…

Where was I? Ah, yes, leveling hurdles. There are currently a couple ways of overcoming these hurdles. First, players can skip questing altogether, and level through dungeons, rifts, warfronts, or some combination of all of those. All ways are quite possible, and can be pretty fun. I personally am having way more fun than I thought I would by just running around to the nearest rifts and planar tears on my Rogue. I find myself ahead of the leveling curve, and with a solid chunk of planarite that will only help me when I reach level 50.

Leveling through dungeons and warfronts isn’t quite as simple. Possible, sure, but in the case of dungeons, players may have to learn to embrace all of the roles of their class if they plan to make the most of the queue. Not that this is a bad thing– I encourage any player new to RIFT or to a particular class to try out all of the possible roles. That’s where RIFT branches off from the “other” MMOs. We’re free to experiment and do a little bit of everything. It’s encouraged, it’s allowed, and it’s fun. Learn to tank, learn to heal, and learn to plunk away at motifs! Just uh, don’t fall asleep doing the last one.

Warfront queues move quicker, but twinks (players with maxed-level characters who intentionally create a set of “perfect” gear for their lower-level alt in order to perform well in PvP) often get an advantage when it comes to playing against newer players. Many players are frustrated regarding the issue, but unfortunately there isn’t a lot that can be done about it unless Trion decides it’s necessary to do so.

The remaining solution? Powering through the levels with the realization that yes, better things are to come. RIFT’s endgame is where the action’s at, and levels 40-50 are quite amazing as well. Some of my best RIFT memories took part during these levels, where the maps get large, expansive, and there are multiple goodies to start working toward as far as planarite, sourcestones, and crafting materials are concerned.

Speaking of better things, Instant Adventures while leveling, which are currently in development, should be amazing for alts and players new to RIFT. Paired with the mentoring system which is now on the public test shard, I think many of these sluggish leveling spots will easily become rectified. I talked about this subject a few weeks ago.

There’s also always the possibility of Trion going back and adjusting the leveling content again, to help new players look at questing through a different colored lens. World of Warcraft did a complete overhaul to their questing system, and many players found themselves eager to suddenly level a whole bunch of new characters. Sometimes a little creativity goes a long way when it comes to quest implementation.

For the meantime, we’re left with the options at hand– warfronts, dungeons, powering through quests and dynamic content, and the promise of some cool features headed our way. Fear not, altaholics and new players, Trion’s on our side, too.

Today’s update to PTS includes the following (high level notes; more details to come):

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CONQUEST
* An early version of Conquest is now on PTS for testing! At this point, Conquest will only be accessible when specifically enabled for a playtest.
* Align yourself with one of the three warring groups – the Dominion, the Oathsworn, or the Nightfall, and join three-way cross-shard conflict in a contested sliver of Stillmoor.
* Capture, defend, and enhance conflict points to not only control the region but also gain access to bonuses and resources for your team.
* Fight Colossi on the field of battle to demonstrate your power and gain additional buffs.
* The Conquest Bar displays your current Conquest bonuses and can be found in the ‘K’ menu under Conquest.
* For those looking to contribute in ways other than direct combat, gather Sourcestone resources and use them to create beneficial effects that help everyone in your faction. These resources can be deposited in a depot inside your base where other crafters can also process them.
* New crafting recipes for use during Conquest are now available on the trainers in Sanctum and Meridian.
* Matches begin to lock down when a single team claims 40% of the control points, or when 5,000 deaths have taken place in the match; at that point a 10 minute timer will begin for a last chance at rallying your troops!

MENTORING
* New Mentoring system allows you to set your character’s level below what it actually is, whether you’re on your own or playing with a lower-level character.
* Mentoring is available for characters of level 11+ and you can only reduce your current level, not increase it.
* The new Set Ascended Mentor Level menu option now appears when right clicking your own character portrait. You can choose what level you’d like to set your character to from this option.
* When right-clicking the portrait of another character, the menu option to set your mentor level to the target’s level appears.
* While mentoring, your stats, abilities, regeneration, etc. will be temporarily reduced in line with the target level.
* Grouped characters using mentoring will receive bonus experience as long as the character with the lower natural level remains within 2 levels of the mentor and the mentor remains at least 5 levels below their natural level.

PRESTIGE RANKS / ARMOR
* Prestige Ranks are now increased to 50!
* The added ranks offer new milestone titles and additional Planar Attunement bonus experience when attained – 2 Planar Attunement levels worth for each rank.
* A new set of PvP Armor is now available in line with the Prestige Rank increase.
* Increased the effect of Bolstering in line with the addition of new PvP gear. Warfront Bolstering is now applied to all characters up to rank 25.
* PTS NOTE: The new rank set armor is temporarily using the previous set’s appearances on PTS.

Originally posted from The Blog (Source)
Introducing Conquest – Test the latest in RIFT PvP on Thursday, 5/17

Three faction PvP and the essence of open world combat will soon storm upon the shores of the Public Test Shard!

Welcome to Conquest – choose your side and square off in a no-holds-barred, interdimensional battle royal on Thursday, 5/17 @ 4:00PM PDT (11:00PM GMT). This is the first massive test of this brand new feature!

Conquest at a Glance

• Engage in massive, cross-shard battles capturing the excitement of Open World PvP at its best!
• Align with one of three new factions, the biggest difference is their philosophy. (You will be able to change factions.)
• Earn rewards and bonuses for your team – or supercharge yourself with bonuses that can be used outside of Conquest!
• Everyone can contribute – crafters play a vital role in every Conquest battle.
• This is a brand new feature, details and specifics will likely change based on your feedback and play tests. For the latest info keep an eye on the PTS Forums!

Three Factions From Beyond the Ward

As the Bloodstorm’s onslaught continues to weaken the Ward an ageless feud has breached the divide between worlds and now embattles our own!

Beyond the Ward stretch infinite versions of Telara – each with their own fate and heroes and from the void between them three factions have formed. Their conflict is concerned not with the Vigil or technology, it is to answer one basic question:

What is the role of the Ascended in the cosmos?

To rule, to protect, or continue to ascend.

You must choose your path, Ascended: Are you a Ram, guarding the flock under your iron grip? Do you protect your pride, your virtue gold as the Lion’s mane, keeping the helpless from harm? Or do you soar like a Raven into the twilight – cleansing all corruption in your wake across the universe, whatever the cost?

Conquest – Capturing the Essence of Open World PvP
Not all Telaras were created equal – and some slivers of our world may control the fate of all.

This is a game about domination. Set in the windworn foothills of Stillmoor, the familiar landscape has been transformed with control points and sourcestone powered fortifications as Ascended banners billow under the blood-red sun.

• Pitted against two additional competing teams you must wrest control of as many Sourcestone Extractors as possible while preventing your opponents from doing the same.
• These control points open access to buffs and resources to your team which provide a wide variety of benefits in addition to unlocking additional buffs and abilities you earn by contributing to your factions cause.
• You won’t find gated doors in Conquest – your battle is on the field, not in a cozy castle! However, Caer Mathos (cleansed of its Endless occupants) now holds strategic importance for all three forces.
• The match ends when a single team has claimed 40% of the control points or 5,000 players are killed – once this happens a 10 minute timer will start, this is your chance to make a last grab for control – after which you’ll earn your rewards!
• Conquest offers yet another way to augment your gameplay and characters and there’s something for everyone. Even crafters play a vital role by refining the battlefield resources into upgrades and even more perks – you’ll find new recipes available at your crafting trainer!

Follow the source link above for full information on the different factions.

Some cryptic Trion staff member posts have surfaced on the official RIFT forums this past week. A staff member by the forum name 3 3228466 787 is the main culprit, with posts that are intentionally cryptic, containing poetry, numerical codes, random pictures, and phrases. Fans of the game and forums have banded together in an attempt to muddle through the confusing posts, and figure out what the heck the folks at Trion are up to.

What do we know so far? Here is a summary of the posts, findings, possible theories, and reactions so far. I’ll try and keep this post updated with the latest information, so if you know of any new details, feel free to drop me a line. Special thanks to the awesome people on the official forums who helped come up with this information. It’s all interesting stuff!

Here’s the thread where it all started, on Thursday, May 10th. Telara-style poetry! Staff member 3 3228466 787 then went on to post little hints in other parts of the forums that directed players back to the original thread. These were found in the PvP and Warfront forum, Public Test Shard forum, and Dungeons and Raids forum.

The first cryptic aspect of this post was, of course, the poster’s name. By using a simple phone keypad code, players deduced the name translates to “3 FACTION PVP.” Interestingly enough, “3 FACTION RVR” also works. Either way, big hint.

Here’s the poem:

Nemo surdior est quam is qui non audiet

The voices echoed in chamber halls,
Through valleys wide and darkened den
The time has come for all to heed
For the flesh of Telara shall be rend

As an answer comes with great resound
The drums of war fill the bitter air
Three points the blade, but two edges bleed
Not merely one thrust for the bloody fare

The fog of war, blood bridle deep
The time is now, a chance to decide
Which song you sing, which promise you keep
To bear upon Death’s dear sweet bride

Growing seeds of domination born
All opposition shall give way
To an empire spanning from sea to sea
The iron Ram the only way

A promise given forever more
To conquer and to shed all fear
Never to rule, but born of war
The Lion’s vigil to protect those held dear.

The Raven’s consequence of a latter day,
Our destruction will meet no end
Telara is doomed by our ill born fate
Unless we continue to ascend.

The title, which is in Latin, translates to “No one is more deaf than he who will not listen.” The poem itself alludes to a war, two forms that shift into three, a trio of animals, and a decision that must be made in order to end the war. Later on, 3 3228466 787 went on to post a series of posts that contained pictures depicting various images in the poem: here, here, and here.

The first contained an image of a ram, lion, and raven, the second a blue lion’s paw, and the third a combination of the word “machine” (with an image of a machine) added to the word “born” (with an image of a newborn baby). The images depicted seem to emphasis the animals, and the concept of being “machine-born”, which is one of RIFT’s themes, mainly originating from the Defiant faction.

3 3228466 787 posted an amendment of sorts later in the thread, with this:

“Choices are the hinges of destiny.”
~ Pythagoras

…. To Protect

……. To Save

……… To Rule

What is your choice, Ascended?

This seems to emphasize the need to make a choice between three goals. Just by using the knowledge we already know about the factions, we can deduce that “to protect” probably means Guardians, “to save” means Defiant, and “to rule” represents this new third faction. This seems to make sense with the three animal symbols. Ravens have been seen as the Defiant symbol in early beta, and Guardians seem to fit under the lion by the wording of the poem (“The Lion’s vigil”), which would leave the ram to represent this new faction. All of this is pure speculation at this point, of course.

Players went on to theorize that the war described in the poem could allude to the coming of Crucia, which was then shot down by 3 3228466 787, who posted here, with the paw, using the same numerical code. The code, when translated, says, “Wrong guess” and “No Crucia”. Players then went back to the drawing board.

Coincidentally enough, on the very next day, last Friday, Trion announced a huge, new PvP feature being tested during a PTS event this coming week. The actual feature being tested hasn’t been announced, which is unusual for Trion. It’s as if they’re being intentionally cryptic here, too. Coincidence? Probably not.

As to why they’re being cryptic? It’s hard to say, but honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is partially an attempt to get a little public notice. Let’s face it– There’s a lot of soon-to-be-released buzz and beta buzz flying around the MMO scene these days. Is Trion using this little adventure as a way to get attention a bad thing? Not necessarily. While many of us are more comfortable with Trion’s usual upfront manner when it comes to announcing new features and additions, there’s nothing wrong in a little creativity and fun every once in a while.

So what does Trion have up its sleeve? The facts seem to open doors to few different scenarios.

Here’s what is safe to say we know at this point:

Three factions are coming to RIFT
Players will have to choose between their current faction and this new one
The factions will be used in PvP in some fashion

Let’s think about possibilities for a minute. Players have now began to theorize that the faction “split” will happen with Orphiel Farwind splitting away from Asha Catari, and thus the Defiant faction. The lore seems to fit here, as well as the allusion to “machine born” and the fact that this new faction seems to be more aggressive than the two we currently have. If we see this situation or one similar, it’s likely that we’ll be given a choice as to whether to stick to our current faction or join the new one. We may also get the opportunity to change factions altogether, similar to World of Warcraft’s system.

There has been evidence of a new city in development, which seems to fit the theory well. At around 2:38 in the following RIFT anniversary video, some new architectural designs are seen that may fit with this new faction:

Some of those designs were also dataminned in late 2011 by a few sources around the internet. Some of these models were seen under the name “Estrian”, which may allude to the actual name of this third faction.

It’s also possible that instead of seeing a game-wide faction split/switch feature, we’ll see one that’s limited to a particular PvP map, warzone, or environment. I really hope this isn’t the case, but it’s a possibility, given the PvP-centered nature of the evidence at hand. Upon joining the new PvP map/zone for instance, we could be forced to choose a temporary alliance. We could also see something similar to Lord of the Rings Online’s Monster system, where players are able to roll as an enemy faction under certain PvP conditions.

There’s also the possibility that instead of splitting off into three main factions, players will be able to choose a new subfaction, and each animal symbol represents something new entirely. Trion has a lot of options here, and it’ll definitely be interesting to see what they come up with. It’s also interesting to speculate about what type of PvP addition we’re receiving. Will we see a new warzone, or possibly a new open-world PvP map? What about the possibility of RvR? That would make a lot of people happy. RIFT would do very well with some open-world PvP. PvP needs some kind of boost.

GENERAL
* Instant Adventure: Increased amount of experience given when participating in Instant Adventure on Ember Isle.
* Riftblade: Rift Storm hits no longer trigger Blade buffs or Elemental Touch.
* Laethys tweaks for Infernal Dawn raid.

GENERAL
* NPCs that are nearby but not fully displayed on your screen will show up briefly as green cylinder effects, until they are fully loaded. [this actually started after the last hotfix! ]
* Rogues now regenerate 24 Energy per second, up from 23.
* Elder Tablets and their lower level counterparts no longer grant Energy regeneration.
* White Wedding garb and veil have agreed to stop eating dyes without changing color.

RIFT Streaming Client - 11:00am PDT 5/9/12 [NA] - 7:00pm BST 9/5/12 [EU]

STREAMING CLIENT

RIFT patching just got a lot easier - introducing Streaming Client for RIFT!

• Streaming Client allows you the option to launch the game from the patcher without having to wait for the full data download to complete. You'll be able to start playing within a few minutes even after a large update, and the game will download the necessary data in the background while you play.
• Streaming Client works best on a 5MBps or better connection. If you have a slower connection, it is recommended that you let the patch complete before attempting to launch the client .
• If players and NPCs around you take a long time to load, or you're not happy with the game experience when streaming, you can close the client and wait for the patch to finish. Launching the client before downloads have completed is optional.
• The first time you launch the updated patcher, there will be a longer initial import process that will convert your existing game files for use with streaming - so you won't have to fully re-download them.
• In-game, a download indicator at the top of the screen will show the current status of your download, time remaining, and whether objects around you may be loading slowly. This indicator will disappear when the client is fully updated.

Originally posted by Daglar (Source)

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While there is a lot of passion out there about modifying other aspects of energy regen the one that I’m going to approve and push through for now is as follows:

Rogue energy regen will be changed from 23 per second to 24 per second.
Tablets will have energy regeneration removed from them.
This gives you the effective energy regen of a character using a tablet – for free and all the time.

We will not be addressing concerns regarding fervor or other energy regen buffs at this moment in time.

Daglar
Lead Game Designer: Rift

Originally posted by Zann (Source)

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Greetings Ascended!

Over the next week, some of you will be receiving an email from Trion Worlds asking you to participate in a short survey that will help us get to know you better, and help us understand how we can serve you better as RIFT continues to evolve.

To ensure that we get the best sample possible, we’re going to be sending the survey to a randomly selected group of accounts, so not everyone will receive one, but we did want to give you the heads-up that we are sending out some surveys, and they are legit. The surveys will direct you to QuestionPro (www.questionpro.com) and will not be collecting any information about your account, or any information that could personally identify you. We appreciate your participation.

Cheers!