I love you Saerules!
I'm just a big meanieface, rawr 
Rift
February 21, 2011 at 5:54 am
(This post was last modified: February 21, 2011 at 6:10 am by Violet.)
I don't even remember where I heard about rift now... but I do remember clicking http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html and being instantly blown away with the customization. Such a sight (to me, who has been looking at http://wowtal.com/#k=.aei.shaman since the talent trees were gutted in WoW) meant that after my mind started working again: i really couldn't not look up the game.
Resulted in several long days of me reading everything about Rift that wasn't nailed down by an NDA. I'll do what I can to condense information to you lot, but I will also be a linkmonster incase anyone is genuinely interested in reading any more about the game and doesn't want to use google because it is an evil company that will take over the world if you and me do not act >_> And don't worry... i'll have spoiler tags all over this, incase someone really doesn't want to know
or such-sort 
I've spent the last two and a half days playing in the open beta, and I'm still high from how fun it was. Having a blast on a computer with horrid screen-tear... practically unheard of for me >_> Anyway... enough about me having a blast, that might make you lot uncomfortable or raise your expectations higher than they should be
First: the environment. My experience was limited to (there are spoilers in these articles!) http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/zones/freemarch.php and http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/zones/meridian.php , freemarch being largely a hilly grassland, and Meridian being the capital city of the Defiant. The world itself has some interesting lore, and screenshots of freemarch and meridian in spoilers beneath it.
http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/planes/index.php
Honestly, the game is only okay looking at low settings, and ultra settings are very nice indeed.
Second: the factions. There are two, so sorry to people looking for a trifaction game I don't consider this spoilerworthy http://www.riftgame.com/en/factions/guardian.php http://www.riftgame.com/en/factions/defiant.php i swear it's like Trion is trying to specifically sell people on being Defiant XD My bet is that guardian-side will be full to the brim with religious people XD Of course, it isn't the case that they are all faithful... http://www.riftgame.com/en/video/feature...eo-v8.html
Third... the class system. Zoh Mah Gawds. http://www.riftgame.com/en/classes/system.php and play with http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html ... there is no better way to explain how epic this system is. And trion will likely add in more classes as time goes on. Tank as a rogue? Done. Heal as a mage? Done. Tank/dps as a cleric? Done. You want to support? Plenty of it to go around in every archetype. Dominator/Stormcaller/Chloromancer is ridiculously broken and op... and so is everything else. This is not balanced on a 1-1 ratio, but on impact made as a part of a group. Oh... and you can have 4 different soul-trees to swap between. Tank has to leave? No problem... chances are that one of the remaining players in the group can tank... and chances are you can get a tank instantly by using the chat channel. Healer not quite able to handle the healing load? Not a problem... chances are that a dps or support in the group has a healing offspec (or in the supports case they can just help heal from the start).
Four: PvP servers with actual PvP in them.
Five: The namesake of the game:
RIFTS. ARE. FUCKING. AMAZING. It's no wonder Scott Hartsman seems so giddy in his video explaining what they did with Rift... he knows what his team just pulled off. In the beta a few days ago there was about eighty people together shutting down a rift... and not a fucking hiccup of lag where I was (granted, that was better than my home internet... but i never once dealt with lag ingame). And if you don't think rifts are as fucking amazing as I do, then you can just not play this game
Six: This game is very similar to WoW. If someone is utterly sick of everything remotely related to WoW, then they probably won't love what boils down to a polished and updated WoW with some horrid stuff removed and a bunch of nice things added. I have never seen an MMO released *this polished*. The open beta was a complete game, and the developer is fixing all of the little things and improving on the game even still (it's an mmo, it is always being fixed/having stuff added >_>). The UI is similar to WoW with addons, the combat is similar (if a lot more customizable), it's still a basic fantasy MMO, there are raids, and there will be healer/tan/support/dps roles (oh wait, the support role is new >_>).
Seven: The first day or so of open beta had trolls like WoW Trade chat. By the 4th-5th I am no longer seeing any trolls. Instead I'm seeing a lot of good discussion and a helpful community in the world-spanning level-specific channels (once you hit ten, it is goodbye to all trolls 0.o). Granted, they may come again on release, but this.... community... comes as a bit of a shock to me after playing World of Solocraft since the cross server dungeon finder came out (the WoW server communities are largely dead, i don't know many people from my servers (any of them) that aren't in a guild with me anymore). I'm seeing people actually looking for a group, and apparently succeeding in finding them, as there is no LFG spam (on Silkweb anyway) during the end of the open beta ^_^
Eight: There is no language barrier (that I am aware of). The opposite faction can hear exactly what you say to them via yells (and i think says). This makes PvPRP soooo much easier. Finally i can walk up to some low level scrub, and instead of ganking them on the spot (and hoping they call for help), i can tell them to bring some of their higher leveled friends around, and maybe I won't shoot them now, and let's dance while we wait for them to show XD
Nine: A few of the animations do need some work, and the underwater portion of the game (any time you get in water) is in need of some serious work. This was one of the only signs that the game was still in beta, i personally expect trion to fix this by launch (so far they have been *Very* receptive of their playerbase's suggestions and many of the bugs being reported in one beta are fixed by the next beta). One of a number of this kinda of thread: http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.ph...e.../page1 Maxxed graphical settings in Beta 4:
Open beta max graphic:
Random videos:
10: Raids: 20 man instanced. 10 man rift raids (more info if anyone other than me is interested, I'm kinda burnt on Riftdwarels and my alienware computer not yet being here, but here's one link (SPOILERS!!!).
.
.
.
TL: DR? Saerules finds this game fun... it obviously involves the torture of orange cats.
Resulted in several long days of me reading everything about Rift that wasn't nailed down by an NDA. I'll do what I can to condense information to you lot, but I will also be a linkmonster incase anyone is genuinely interested in reading any more about the game and doesn't want to use google because it is an evil company that will take over the world if you and me do not act >_> And don't worry... i'll have spoiler tags all over this, incase someone really doesn't want to know
I've spent the last two and a half days playing in the open beta, and I'm still high from how fun it was. Having a blast on a computer with horrid screen-tear... practically unheard of for me >_> Anyway... enough about me having a blast, that might make you lot uncomfortable or raise your expectations higher than they should be
First: the environment. My experience was limited to (there are spoilers in these articles!) http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/zones/freemarch.php and http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/zones/meridian.php , freemarch being largely a hilly grassland, and Meridian being the capital city of the Defiant. The world itself has some interesting lore, and screenshots of freemarch and meridian in spoilers beneath it.
http://www.riftgame.com/en/world/planes/index.php
![[Image: 20112524339.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img209.imageshack.us%2Fimg209%2F7269%2F20112524339.jpg)
![[Image: 20112513514.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img190.imageshack.us%2Fimg190%2F995%2F20112513514.jpg)
![[Image: 201125133815.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img197.imageshack.us%2Fimg197%2F600%2F201125133815.jpg)
Second: the factions. There are two, so sorry to people looking for a trifaction game
I don't consider this spoilerworthy http://www.riftgame.com/en/factions/guardian.php http://www.riftgame.com/en/factions/defiant.php i swear it's like Trion is trying to specifically sell people on being Defiant XD My bet is that guardian-side will be full to the brim with religious people XD Of course, it isn't the case that they are all faithful... http://www.riftgame.com/en/video/feature...eo-v8.htmlThird... the class system. Zoh Mah Gawds. http://www.riftgame.com/en/classes/system.php and play with http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html ... there is no better way to explain how epic this system is. And trion will likely add in more classes as time goes on. Tank as a rogue? Done. Heal as a mage? Done. Tank/dps as a cleric? Done. You want to support? Plenty of it to go around in every archetype. Dominator/Stormcaller/Chloromancer is ridiculously broken and op... and so is everything else. This is not balanced on a 1-1 ratio, but on impact made as a part of a group. Oh... and you can have 4 different soul-trees to swap between. Tank has to leave? No problem... chances are that one of the remaining players in the group can tank... and chances are you can get a tank instantly by using the chat channel. Healer not quite able to handle the healing load? Not a problem... chances are that a dps or support in the group has a healing offspec (or in the supports case they can just help heal from the start).
Four: PvP servers with actual PvP in them.
Scott Hartsman Wrote:If you choose to play on a PvP server, it’s our assumption that you not only don’t mind that level of interruption from that PvP attack-and-defense style of gameplay, but are actively excited about taking part in it. If you want uninterrupted PvE questing, choosing a PvE server is definitely recommended.Oh, and did I mention stealthing teleporting snipers (Rifstalker/Marskman/Assassin) and trap-laying teleporting heal/buffers (Saboteur/Riftstalker/Bard)? Not to mention that you can decided exactly how many points you spend in each of those trees, so even if someone else is like you (a stealthing teleporting sniper), they could well be more focused on their teleports than their ability to shoot you. When you see someone carrying a bow in pvp, you'd naturally assume he's a marks (or if he has a pet as well, then ranger) primarily... and then you'd be dead when he teleports behind you and blows you up with hand grenades.
Five: The namesake of the game:
Six: This game is very similar to WoW. If someone is utterly sick of everything remotely related to WoW, then they probably won't love what boils down to a polished and updated WoW with some horrid stuff removed and a bunch of nice things added. I have never seen an MMO released *this polished*. The open beta was a complete game, and the developer is fixing all of the little things and improving on the game even still (it's an mmo, it is always being fixed/having stuff added >_>). The UI is similar to WoW with addons, the combat is similar (if a lot more customizable), it's still a basic fantasy MMO, there are raids, and there will be healer/tan/support/dps roles (oh wait, the support role is new >_>).
Seven: The first day or so of open beta had trolls like WoW Trade chat. By the 4th-5th I am no longer seeing any trolls. Instead I'm seeing a lot of good discussion and a helpful community in the world-spanning level-specific channels (once you hit ten, it is goodbye to all trolls 0.o). Granted, they may come again on release, but this.... community... comes as a bit of a shock to me after playing World of Solocraft since the cross server dungeon finder came out (the WoW server communities are largely dead, i don't know many people from my servers (any of them) that aren't in a guild with me anymore). I'm seeing people actually looking for a group, and apparently succeeding in finding them, as there is no LFG spam (on Silkweb anyway) during the end of the open beta ^_^
Eight: There is no language barrier (that I am aware of). The opposite faction can hear exactly what you say to them via yells (and i think says). This makes PvPRP soooo much easier. Finally i can walk up to some low level scrub, and instead of ganking them on the spot (and hoping they call for help), i can tell them to bring some of their higher leveled friends around, and maybe I won't shoot them now, and let's dance while we wait for them to show XD
Nine: A few of the animations do need some work, and the underwater portion of the game (any time you get in water) is in need of some serious work. This was one of the only signs that the game was still in beta, i personally expect trion to fix this by launch (so far they have been *Very* receptive of their playerbase's suggestions and many of the bugs being reported in one beta are fixed by the next beta). One of a number of this kinda of thread: http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.ph...e.../page1 Maxxed graphical settings in Beta 4:
Open beta max graphic:
Random videos:
10: Raids: 20 man instanced. 10 man rift raids (more info if anyone other than me is interested, I'm kinda burnt on Riftdwarels and my alienware computer not yet being here, but here's one link (SPOILERS!!!).
.
.
.
TL: DR? Saerules finds this game fun... it obviously involves the torture of orange cats.
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
