Rift goes to closed BETA! *Shameless Plug*

[Hazardous]

Hey dudes,

*puts on shameless plug hat*

Rift is the game I've been working on for the past year now, I always said I wanted to work on fantasy style MMO's but I never thought I would get the opportunity, being locked away downunder.

Fortunately around a year ago Daz got hold of me and a few months and some rediculous visa shannanigans later I was here in awesome California.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago, Trion announced that we are going into closed BETA! Its been epic so far - I'm guessing its only going to get epicer!

If you like MMORPG's you should definitely give it a shot! Head over to the site and Register for Beta http://www.riftgame.com/en/

Here is a couple of oldish trailers for the 2 factions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqhcLHDAl1g <-- Guardians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD0nRD4jTRI <-- Defiant

Its awesome to see how far the game has come since these trailers were made haha!!

Enjoy!

P.S Tell me which races you like the look of the most, so I can brag if they are my ones :P :P

[Xenobond]

Yeah boi, it's β time!

I've been playing here and there for the last 5 months. Was having some issues while playing in α. Haven't had time though this month to get going on the β, but looking forward to see how much it has progressed.

[Purplepaint]

Great work polybro, i have been following this game for a bit, and i like the style.

I'm going to have to say for my favorite race without playin is the high elves, but only on principle that i am a High Elf/ Eldar player in Warhammer Fantasy/40k :P.

I do like the Mathosian, and the Kelari styles aswell :)

P.S signing up for the beta right now :)

[crazyfingers]

Sweet, a buddy of mine working as a game designer just hooked me up with the beta, if you see Ellery around tell him crazyfingers says whats up :D.

Looking forward to trying the beta and seeing the cool arts!

[Hazardous]

Xenobond: Badass man! We should guild up!
Purplepint: Wooo! I did a bit of the female high elf stuff, but the Kelari heads are mine :D :D yeah I said it!
Crazyfingers: Dude, Ellery sits just around the corner :D Will say hi!!

[SnowInChina]

played the alpha? to like level 20
its running pretty good in this state
effects and characters look good

but the one thing i was really disappointed were the weapon models
seriously, they are so ugly
lets hope the high level weapons look better =(

but, everything else was fine :)

[b1ll]

Sweet Congrats to you, daz and the other Pcers. ^_^

[Purplepaint]

Xenobond: Badass man! We should guild up!
Purplepint: Wooo! I did a bit of the female high elf stuff, but the Kelari heads are mine :D :D yeah I said it!
Crazyfingers: Dude, Ellery sits just around the corner :D Will say hi!!

Excellent :), i will probably try every race/class combo anyways.. but high elves first of course ;)...

well hopefully i get an email to give it some testin :P

[XenoKratios]

The game looks beautiful, but my PC cannot handle it, I think.. or at least thats what I conclude after reading the WIKI.

Good luck Hazardous, I love your works sir. We also share the love that Final Fantasy XII provided.

BTW. How is your Fran model coming along?

[Anuxinamoon]

Psh you and you characters, Haz. The environments are where it's at ;)

[Malus]

So where's my beta key man? :P

[Bigjohn]

Congrats man! that's awesome.

I know what you're saying about wanting to work on a fantasy style MMO, it's my dream too. One day! I don't know about an MMO per-se, although that would definitely be awesome, but just work in anything fantasy would be a dream come true. Not that I'm hating my current job, quite the opposite

About the races, definitely Kelari are awesome. Eventhough they're your basic Dark Elf, I don't care, I still love that kind of stuff.

Is there some link with better shots of the races? The standard one on the site has only a few really small shots.

[Hazardous]

Anuxinamoon: Environment artists duplicate entire cities for collision volumes, and steal all my draw calls, get out of here! =P
Malus: You wouldnt play anyway!!!! Your way too hard at work on prepping for dominance war!!!! :D :D
BigJohn: Thanks dude, I dont think theres any better shots of the races online yet. Which is a bummer.... hmmmm.

[JacqueChoi]

I will play this game, just to see all the chicks you made.

[Malus]

Damn your logic fiend!!

[CJE]

Congrats msn, I'm looking forward to playing it! Polycount Guild!?

[Spark]

Congrats man, game is looking good and tell DAZ hello from me please:) He's been gone to long, I would say I would like a key as well, but figure I will get pulled into Dominance War and should play it safe:)

Spark

[Purplepaint]

Congrats msn, I'm looking forward to playing it! Polycount Guild!?

/agreed


I got a key earliar today from a massively.com giveaway :)

[Hazardous]

jacquechoi: Thanks bro! Theres a few in there, I wonder if youll be able to pick out the ones I touched up!
Malus: amiright!! seriously dude hahah!!
CJE: Polycount guild... you could be onto something man haha!
Spark: Thanks man, I will say hello when I get to work tomorrow morning.
Puplepaint: You snaffled one of those ? damn dude awesome!

[Purplepaint]

Haha yes i got one, i'm a ninja when it comes to stuff like that ;)

[Daz]

Congrats man, game is looking good and tell DAZ hello from me please:) He's been gone to long, I would say I would like a key as well, but figure I will get pulled into Dominance War and should play it safe:)

Spark

Haha thanks man. Miss you guys too tbh! I lurk actually, always did since I "left". Troy didn't even point me to this post, just noticed it. I check out pc a couple of times a week, but never felt the need to post since well, my time is severely limited and I didn't want to get sucked back into fucking around on the intramawebz (no offense intended by that statement). Shit I don't even facebook, let alone post on forums.
I'm proud of the game, it's come an awful long way since early alpha, since we didn't start major environment polish til after alpha started (and we're still polishing). Videos and screenies definitely don't do it justice and I'm looking forward to hanging out in the world when there are a lot of players around. But fuuuuuuk, don't ever make an mmo, just don't :-) Just say no. Make that cell phone game you always wanted to.
But there's some really awesome Art in the game, we should figure out an Art dump.

[Flaringo]

...
But there's some really awesome Art in the game, we should figure out an Art dump.

Oh yes you should

[Anuxinamoon]

But there's some really awesome Art in the game, we should figure out an Art dump.


Oh hell yes. Make it so! :D

[Hazardous]

Haha thanks man. Miss you guys too tbh! I lurk actually, always did since I "left". Troy didn't even point me to this post, just noticed it. I check out pc a couple of times a week, but never felt the need to post since well, my time is severely limited and I didn't want to get sucked back into fucking around on the intramawebz (no offense intended by that statement). Shit I don't even facebook, let alone post on forums.
I'm proud of the game, it's come an awful long way since early alpha, since we didn't start major environment polish til after alpha started (and we're still polishing). Videos and screenies definitely don't do it justice and I'm looking forward to hanging out in the world when there are a lot of players around. But fuuuuuuk, don't ever make an mmo, just don't :-) Just say no. Make that cell phone game you always wanted to.
But there's some really awesome Art in the game, we should figure out an Art dump.

God your right I totally forgot to reunite you, soz guys! I must of been...... awwwww I dunno BUSTIN MY BALLS on the character create instead!!!!

The game has come along way, even from when I started back earlier this year till now the difference is huge. Its all chipnko dude lol.

I support the art dump.

P.S Xeno: SOz man i havent touched that model for a long time :S Hopefully one day ill finish hr!

[TortillaChips]

Looks pretty good, just reading a little and trying to get my head around it all. It seems like a pretty interesting class system with lots of different variations available. I'm guessing your three classes all have to be in the same class type? And are all classes available to all races/genders? (I notice the Warlord page uses 'her' whereas the others use 'their). I'd probably pick Kelari or Mathosian given the choice. Looks interesting, I may sign up to see if I can give it a go.

[Anuxinamoon]

I'm guessing your three classes all have to be in the same class type? And are all classes available to all races/genders? (I notice the Warlord page uses 'her' whereas the others use 'their). I'd probably pick Kelari or Mathosian given the choice. Looks interesting, I may sign up to see if I can give it a go.

We have 2 player factions. Each faction has 3 races. Everyone can choose any one of the 4 callings; Warrior, Cleric, Rouge and Mage.
In your calling you will have access to different souls which you can mix and match three at any one time. You can save out these soul builds as roles. This allows you to set up specific roles for different play styles.
For example, if you were a warrior you could have a role for tanking, one for solo DPS and some for PvP.

It is a little overwhelming at first but its really fun when you figure it out and start experimenting :)

[vcortis]

Been looking forward to hearing more about Rift. The screens look great and the class system is quite intriguing. When are you guys going to talk about PvP?!?!

Also... beta key :D?

[Hazardous]

vcortis: Did you get a beta key in the end ?!?

More pimping!!

Here is the latest video fresh off the press!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZawbMZwBZc

And here is a video of a recent event we held called Gamer Day! Keep an eye out for Me and Wife together around the 1:25 mark!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stup_N3mujE

heh!

[Xenobond]

Hellz yeah. Spotted the Gersh in the vid, as well.

[PatrickL]

Signed up. Can't say I have much faith in MMOs any more, but I'm willing to give it a chance.

[vcortis]

Nope didn't get one yet. Saw that latest video on Massively today. Looking good! The invasion action was nice to see in full force.

[Bigjohn]

Looks great man. Definitely love the art and how everything looks and feels.

Gameplay wise, I don't think it's for me. I'm much more of a PvP player (Subscribed to Warhammer right now), and I don't think I can stomach another level grind.

But visually speaking it definitely looks awesome. I love that warp portal with the space-octopus. That's awesome.

[crazyfingers]

Beta couldn't be on the verge of going live at a worse time, finally have time to work on Pre Dominance War stuff and now this thing pops out. Must resist neglected MMO urges...

[Hazardous]

I have to post it!

March 1st Release Date announced... and a surprise for you all in this vid. Hilarious! Marketing FTW!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzpnQrUjB14&feature=player_embedded

[Bigjohn]

I have to post it!

March 1st Release Date announced... and a surprise for you all in this vid. Hilarious! Marketing FTW!!!!


http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/04/thems-fightin-words-rift-commercial-takes-on-wow/

[Gav]

Congrats dude :)

[JasonLavoie]

weopweop congrats, looking good mr H :)

[JacqueChoi]

want!!!! I want!!!

[Purplepaint]

I can has!

[evilblah]

Argh! first the steam sales... Now this!!! Looks amazing!

[glottis8]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/05/rift-to-launch-in-march-preorders-now-available/

yea.. i just saw this on pc gamer. good advertising. Good luck!!

[ScudzAlmighty]

looks really awesome Haz, good job :thumbup:
(spotted you in the vid too :)

[Hazardous]

thanks dudes!

Scudz: Waaa ? Where am i in that video lol ?!

[almighty_gir]

any chance of getting me a beta key? :P

grats btw :D

[ScudzAlmighty]

haha thats you right at the start, don't deny it. :) nah i just meant the earlier dev video's you posted and pointed out you were in

Speaking of Beta keys though, I got one through an nVidia newsletter and after i signed up ( I hate mmo's and was only doing to support you by the way) the Trion site tells me I'm not invited to anything. even after accepting my key!?!

I'm blaming you personally for that btw...

[vcortis]

Scudz they do their beta kinda janky. The beta keys allow you to sign up for beta... then they randomly select people who have applied a key to play for a beta event.

Like for instance I have 4 beta keys applied on my account, and have yet to be invited to a single beta event. Meanwhile, my friend who has 1 beta key has been randomly invited to every event so far. Ironically he hasn't been able to play any of them because he has problems getting the download to work correctly with his Mac.

It's a bit confusing, and I too was delighted with glee when I saw I had a beta "invite" in my inbox, then quickly had my hopes dashed when I learned how it actually worked.

Anyways grats Haz, from what I've heard it's shaping up to be a good game. Excited to hear how the PvP stuff goes this weekend.

[Striff]

Sweet, got invited to this weekends beta. Looking forward to playing it...hopefully it reminds me of Everquest.

[Jungsik]

SWEET WEEKEND BETA FOR ME ! +_+ ~ been waiting for so looooong

[Jungsik]

i cant wait for the rifts to just randomly show up and rape me in the face lollll its gonna be fun :D

[Tyler]

I played the first round of beta. Then the install got corrupt the second week and i couldn't be assed to download 6GB+ again since then. I liked it, but with my internet connection it takes hours to download stuff.

[Jungsik]

downloaded the game - started playing it but wont let me create shards...or even show me an option to select :/

[Jungsik]

oops - totally forgot it was called 'weekend beta'

palying it right now and its REALLLY FUN

[Hebs]

noice! that trailer looks tits! :D

[Hazardous]

noice! that trailer looks tits! :D

Haha thanks man! I only recently discovered that Grassetti was working on it! Couldnt believe it!!

[Anuxinamoon]

If anyone wants in on beta, you can add this to your account.

This has 25 uses, so up to 25 people can apply it.

C2XC-KYLM-QEQY-RKHG-LJXQ

[Hugh]

If anyone wants in on beta, you can add this to your account.

This has 25 uses, so up to 25 people can apply it.

C2XC-KYLM-QEQY-RKHG-LJXQ
wait can you give a link to use it at?

[Anuxinamoon]

wait can you give a link to use it at?

Opps forgot that part!

To Apply the VIP Code:


Go to https://account.RIFTgame.com (http://click.trionworlds.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=7cm96,jh79,nzh,spz,jetd,cru8,jy75) to login or create a new account.
Click "Apply Code" on the left-hand navigation bar and enter your VIP key.
You're done! You will automatically be invited into the remaining beta events.

[Hazardous]

I dont have 25 friends, what kind of socialite do they think I am ?!?!?!

Adding my VIP code here for you guys to use up if you'd like!!

FNJ3-9PCX-7KWZ-7CQR-76R2

go go go !

[Bigjohn]

I dont have 25 friends, what kind of socialite do they think I am ?!?!?!

Adding my VIP code here for you guys to use up if you'd like!!

FNJ3-9PCX-7KWZ-7CQR-76R2

go go go !


omg sweet! Thanks so much.

Edit:
Just used this code successfully.

[Striff]

Thank you for the VIP code! :)

[Fomori]

Yeah thanks! Would like to try this game....

[Tom Ellis]

Thanks so much for the code. Ive been waiting to try this for ages, looks awesome.

[TortillaChips]

Woop thanks, so this we'll get to try this out on tuesday through friday?

[Nemlet17]

I want to play this so bad. It's defiantly going to be taking time out of my life when it releases. Come on beta code.......!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tom Ellis]

I want to play this so bad. It's defiantly going to be taking time out of my life when it releases. Come on beta code.......!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scroll up for a smile :)

[Nemlet17]

Scroll up for a smile :)

Gahhhhh, yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well my social life is over. Thank you.

[HntrLuc]

Sweet! Thanks for sharing some keys guys, me and my wife have been hoping to get in on this :P

[b1ll]

Sweet! Thanks for sharing some keys guys, me and my wife have been hoping to get in on this :P

Yeh cause your both Lazy bums!

[Anuxinamoon]

Yay! I hope you all have fun :D

[Hazardous]

Np guys!

Tortillachips: It will get you into all remaining beta events I believe :)
HntrLuc: Tally ho!! Dont worry about Uncle b1ll, hes gettin too old for games!!! :P

[JacqueChoi]

I got in!! thanks Mr. Hazardous and Mrs. Anuxinamoon!

:D


I'll give it a whirl. Waiting to be invited to the BETA event.

[Hugh]

yes its on the 25th to 28th Im in

[daphz]

thanks for the code! I'm looking forward to checking this out

[Bigjohn]

The class system looks real interesting. I like it how (from what I read on the website) you pick a base archetype, then pick what class you want within that. So you can go as a healer, and then if after a while you get tired of it, you can spec it into dps. Or vice versa or what have you. Saves you the need to reroll and level several alts.

[JacqueChoi]

I'm playing on:

Server: Gnarlwood
Toon Names: Windforce & Gnarbaculus
Alleigance: Guardian

[Tom Ellis]

Played last night with my Fiance, LOVED IT!

I've been a longtime WoW player, and obviously this tends to jade my view of new MMO's a little but honestly, it's really fun.

Character art is incredible, I'm playing a Defiant Eth Warrior, love the hairstyles!

One thing I noticed though, some of the animations seem a little broken, or missing! When my character 'arms' himself, his weapons/shield just appear in his hands rather than him grabbing them off of his back etc. I tried the same with another race (Dwarf... can't remember the Rift name!) and the animation for grabbing the weapons was there, but then they just jump onto the characters back.

I guess overall it's the animation blends that look a little sketchy right now, the individual animations are awesome.

Great stuff though, looking forward to playing some more after work tonight!

[Slum]

daww! damn lurkers swiping up those codes :( They're both dead now

[Hazardous]

Slum: Try this one!

P2WH-R6W2-HJWE-9REZ-PR7E

creationtwentytwo: Thanks dude glad your enjoying it! were all still polishing as hard as we can, thanks for the feedback ill pass it on!

[Slum]

yay!

[Bigjohn]

Played last night, loved it too. Although I'm mostly interested in the PvP, and I just hit lvl10 last night so didn't get a chance to queue for BGs. I'll do it tonight.

Playing on Silksomething server as a Kelari. Their racial is going to cause problems in PvP later, I'm sure. Might as well be on the side dishing out that damage.

Loving it so far.

[daphz]

I'm enjoying it, I really like the sounds/music. But the one thing that hit me is how well it runs. I don't know what kind of magic they put into it but I get no lag even with the graphics cranked and TONS of people on screen, compared to other MMOs where it would chug along with a screen full of people.

[maze]

The concept of the rift looks very cool, I ve been doing organic modeling & texturing for the box of the game advertising!

[JacqueChoi]

The game is fantastic BTW!!

:D absolutely love it! Funny thing is, a LOT of people in the chat channel was simply saying they were gonna make the jump from WoW to this, and were going to convince their guilds.

[Bigjohn]

The game is fantastic BTW!!

:D absolutely love it! Funny thing is, a LOT of people in the chat channel was simply saying they were gonna make the jump from WoW to this, and were going to convince their guilds.

Yeah, I thought so too.

It all depends on the PvP for me and my friends, we'll be checking it out tonight if all goes well.

And man, I love the 3-tree customization thing. Really awesome way to experiment with classes.

[TortillaChips]

Wasn't very pleased with mage or warrior classes but sort of found my home with a druid/justicar/shaman mix. Gave PvP a whirl but as a level 10 it's probably not the best idea, seemed fun though.

[moose]

Was playing a little too.

From the onset, i think its a little convoluted in creating a character. Choosing from the 4 bases is cool, but what is a "druid justicar shaman?" How do i get that? where do i get that? I realize i can create characters and try - but would be nice if the initial 4 options outlined a set of what they can be/do in more detail.

its really pretty tho!

[TortillaChips]

Definately thrown in the deep end at the start, you can ctrl+click the classes to see their talent trees, and from that you can sort of work out what class you prefer and what skills you could take from 2 other classes. So for instance I decided to take the druid class because of the melee magic mix they have, and then justicar 2nd for their extra damage with maces and ability to heal while you do damage, and the shaman 3rd for their increased damage and crits I think. As for how it'll all plan out I have no idea, but you can't put all your skills in one tree so you need to look at the others for little extras.

[Bigjohn]

Yeah, it's definitely more involved than other games. Which I think is great. It's confusing at the start, and I think they could have done a better job easing the players into it, but I can see it being some serious fun later on.

On the Druid thing, it's so funny, I made one and thought it'll be awesome. Then next thing I know I get a fairy pet. /deletechar. My GF would love that though hehe

[Hazardous]

thanks for the feedback / thoughts dudes, will forward these on :)

[Tyler]

Very nice CGI Trailer! I wish my internet was decent enough to allow me to download the game again :(

[JacqueChoi]

Absolutely love my triple-offensive glass cannon build.

Going with Marksman-Ranger-Assassin, and maxing out the Critical passives on each.

:D

[Anuxinamoon]

Hahah Jacque that's a hair trigger build. Love it :D
I love my bard but I also have a pwn face assassin burster with huge crits and moar DoTs :p

BigJohn, there was a great pvp story (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/431/view/forums/thread/304861/Scarlet-Gorge-Mass-PvP-battle.html) I read that really got me excited. :)

Moose: druid justicar, shaman is a cleric calling. I'll link you the soul builder from zam (http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html) if you would like to view any callings soul.

[Bigjohn]

Did a couple of hours of PvP tonight, mostly in the Warfronts. Was pretty nice I gotta say.

[almighty_gir]

Yeah, it's definitely more involved than other games. Which I think is great. It's confusing at the start, and I think they could have done a better job easing the players into it, but I can see it being some serious fun later on.

On the Druid thing, it's so funny, I made one and thought it'll be awesome. Then next thing I know I get a fairy pet. /deletechar. My GF would love that though hehe

my entire guild did /petname maledict, because one of our guildies is maledict, and you know... faerie :D

[TortillaChips]

I got a little carried away with closing rifts, invasions and PvP..

[evilblah]

Ok ok ok, so now I am just totally sold. Is the beta still running? Any codes laying around? I gotta try this. I just watched some youtube videos and my mind = fully blown.

I am a big PvPer in WoW, anyone got a quick comparison for me?

[Bigjohn]

I am a big PvPer in WoW, anyone got a quick comparison for me?

No arena (yet?). Mostly Warfronts (BGs) in this beta phase, although it sounds like they have some plans for open-world PvP too, but I haven't seen that. I think that's in the next beta phase.

They have a progression system just like Warhammer, with a touch of WoW's honor system. You get currency from PvP kills (like WoW's honor) that you can buy gear with. At max-level it becomes like Warhammer with a renown-rank system. PvP kills still level your character past the max-level, only in a PvP experience bar. Then there are vendors with expensive gear that requires a high PvP rank.

[moose]

Moose: druid justicar, shaman is a cleric calling. I'll link you the soul builder from zam (http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html) if you would like to view any callings soul.

awesome!

I want to play more with it, seems like it'd be really fun to customize how you want to play!

[Bigjohn]

Anyone knows how come the beta runs during the week, and not on the weekend?

[Tom Ellis]

Just finished playing for this beta, will be at work tomorrow for the remainder (we're on UK time).

Gotta say, really enjoyed it, looks beautiful, quests are enjoyable and the souls are complex enough to be fun, but not too much to be confusing. Thanks again to Hazardous / Anuxinamoon for the keys, both me and my girl had a lot of fun playing!

Looking forward to the next beta... also gonna get the collectors edition on pre-order I think!

[Anuxinamoon]

The beta has been extended to Saturday morning at 10 a.m. PST.
The past Betas have been on weekends (save the special xmas gift beta) so for those who work on weekends, a weekday beta was planned. :)

[JacqueChoi]

Can you two tell me which characters you've made?

:D


Where they are? I soupped up the graphics to max, and the game just looks absolutely stunning.


My character looks like a total badass right now.

^_^


Love this game!!!!!



Hoping for an Art Dump when the game gets released. That goes for Prototyp3, and Daz too!

[pear]

polycount guild or gtfo

[Bigjohn]

I have a Kelari (op-racial) Mage called Glennbeck on the Silksomething server. I forget the exact name of the server, but can't be too many that have Silk in the name. I'll probably be playing tonight after work.

Where do you have a character Jacque? I wanna start a new one to see some of the other archetypes, maybe make one on your server.

[JacqueChoi]

Ha ha! posted before! I'm on the Gnarlwood server.

2 Toons, Windforce is my Marksman/Ranger/Assassin.

Gnarbaculus is level 1.

:D

[Bigjohn]

Which race though? I think there's a separation between guardians/defiant.

[TortillaChips]

Just went onto the rift forums and found this http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?39214-Pantyless-guards-Shame-on-you-Trion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4

[Wahlgren]

I played as a female plate user... and well. It's all plate bikinis and miniskirts.

Out for a swim.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/469564/wtfdevs.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/469564/Screenshots/Rift02.jpg


What I looked like at the end of beta 5.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/469564/Screenshots/Rift03.jpg

[teaandcigarettes]

I lol'd at that pantyshot more than I should have.

[Hazardous]

I swear this has nothing to do with me guys.........nothing at all.

[Bigjohn]

Dunno what these guys are complaining about. I like it.

BTW Hazardous, played around with High Elves last night, was really digging the character art on those. Not sure if that's you or not, but good job :)

PS
Gnarlwood seems to be the Polycount server.

[Malus]

Unfortunate place for a seam there Hazardous. :P

Smooth that cooch!!

[Hazardous]

Games going live headstart tomorrow morning 10:00am PST. Shit just got real!!

Didn't think it would be so exciting to launch an MMO!! THis guy is totally pumped:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhQBynvTEOY&feature=player_embedded

Shakeweightin...... bruh.

[Malus]

You ready for this bra? :P

[almighty_gir]

gonna be playing on an EU pvp server.

o/

[Tom Ellis]

Yeyuuur, my awesome Fiancee got us both boxed copies of the CE, so head start tonight!

I'm not sure if I'm excited enough to do a naked video of me with a Shakeweight, but I'm pretty damn excited.

[Bigjohn]

You guys decide on a server yet?

[almighty_gir]

almost rank 36, doing guild raids on an open pvp server is wicked sickness. fighting guardian scum over who's going to kill an invasion boss >;]

[Tom Ellis]

36?! I'm only level 9! Absolutely loving it though.

Props to Trion too on the handling of the server issues too. Queues the first night were like 40 mins, and each night it's gotten lower to the point it's pretty much instant login now.

[almighty_gir]

http://crazyferretstudios.com/public/rift1.jpg
http://crazyferretstudios.com/public/rift2.jpg

my toon so far.

[haikai]

I didn't play during beta, but I checked it out on opening day and I'm pretty impressed with Rift so far. I've tried a lot of different MMOs and this might be the first time I thought one was a solid competitor for WoW in terms of overall polish and features.

The game also looks a lot better in person than how the trailers have presented it so far. I'm not sure if it's just the kinds of locations and shots used in the trailers or what, but it's a good looking MMO. http://www.polycount.com/forum/images/smilies/pcount/icons/thumbup.gif

One minor thing I noticed that detracted from the gameplay is the lack of audio cues in some situations. I've come to expect some sort of sound for just about everything in WoW, and it's really noticeable when it's not there. Hopefully that's an easy thing to patch in the future.

Congrats to Haz and Anux and the rest at Trion! Keep up the good work.

[Bigjohn]

So which server are you guys on? I'll be playing Defiant, hopefully on a PvP server.

[almighty_gir]

i'm defiant, on Whitefall - EU pvp server.

and Haz, the art is fantastic. however you need to go and slap whoever is responsable for making the tree bark on EVERY tree in the game look like snake skin.

[Bigjohn]

Oh EU. I play on the US side. Made some characters on Rasmolov (PvP), Defiant side. Ballbreaker, a Cleric.

[Tom Ellis]

Yeah sorry BigJohn, EU here too. Guardian on Cloudborne PVP.

[evilblah]

Hey all, I'm on AshStone on the Defiant side right now. Got a guild going and already rocking guardian face. If anyone wants to join, jump on and IM me. Evilblah - Warrior

[Daz]

Hey! Thanks for buying the game guys and glad people are having fun with it but dayam, you guys are totally killing me with those screenshots! ;-P
Mind If I desperately try and claw back some street cred?! Some recent grabs of my own:

http://www.daz-art.com/images/ip2.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/ip3.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/ip4.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/lf2.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/lf1.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/ip1.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/g_start.jpg

http://www.daz-art.com/images/fmarch1.jpg

[almighty_gir]

haha, yeah the scenery is really nice Daz
http://crazyferretstudios.com/public/rift3.jpg

rank 41 now... got 3 50's in guild.


mind if i ask though, why does super-sampled AA in the game not actually look like super-sampled AA?
it's reccomended to use game settings rather than hardware forced AA, which is cool. but it just doesn't look as good as if i use hardware.

[Daz]

Yeah, there's been a fair amount of flak directed at us over the AA support.

Bottom line: We use a deferred renderer (there isn't really any of the Gamebryo code left in the renderer, it's all Trions). And in DX9, there's apparently a showstopping reason why a defferred renderer can't do true super sampled AA.
A DX11 client would rectify that situation, but I can't say when that might be.

[Bigjohn]

Where is that frozen landscape? I didn't get there yet.

[Shaffer]

Wow this really tempting you jerks, I'll have to check this out but I'm on spring break and want to get some work done. This is exactly the type of assets I want to see a polycounter working on.

[Daz]

Bigjohn: Iron Pine

[Justin Meisse]

really loving the epic public quests - Just fought off a major water invasion in Freemarch during lunch. I have a Defiant on the Stonecrest server, a pyromancer named Virinis.

[arshlevon]

looking sweet, i dont do MMO's but i was watching my friend play over his shoulder the otherday. very polished, i cant really say that about any other mmos besides wow.

[Bigjohn]

Just thought I'd put it out there again. Me and some friends play as Defiants on the Rasmolov server (PvP). My chars there are Ballbreaker, and Chucknorris.

If anyone wants to, you're more than welcome to join :)

[eld]

So,

Gamebryo eh?

[Hazardous]

glad you guys are diggin it!!

eld: Yeah we are using gamebryo, but its hard to really say that - if someone was to license the engine / tool off the shelf and compare it with what we are using, it would be like using 2 vastly different toolsets. This is my second project with Gamebryo and both times weve gutted the entire rendering side of things just for starters.

[eld]

glad you guys are diggin it!!

eld: Yeah we are using gamebryo, but its hard to really say that - if someone was to license the engine / tool off the shelf and compare it with what we are using, it would be like using 2 vastly different toolsets. This is my second project with Gamebryo and both times weve gutted the entire rendering side of things just for starters.

Yeah true, I'm not of the illogical "gamebryo creates cancer in everything it touched" kind of crowd.

I can see how studios would need to develop further on the gamebryo codebase since the company behind is no longer around.

But still, content over rendering engine, and it shows in rift.

[dom]

I must say this is one of the most polished mmos to be released. Everything from UI to gameplay is very well implemented. Good job to those who worked on this!

[Hazardous]

eld: Totally agree man, its all about the team and how they utilise the tools given. On the other hand tho, exceptional tools in the hands of an exceptional artists well...

dom: Woah dude, mad props coming from you!! - I really appreciate it, ill be sure to pass it on to the team!

[Drumonman]

Great job on the game, first of all it was the smoothest launch of any MMO I've tried before, second the game is fun as hell.

Not only is riding around Riftbusting major rifts pretty fun, but when invasions happen all hell breaks loose, that's even more fun.

Can't wait to get into the higher level zones and content.

I'm on Shatterbone (PvE) with a couple of buddies.

EDIT: Can't wait to upgrade video card so I don't have to play on low quality renderer, but props to you guys for including that feature so people like myself with shitty computers can still enjoy the game. :)

[evilblah]

HEY! I just wanted to share that last night I got my fiance into Rift. Now she is running around as a cleric kicking ass for the Lord! This will be one of the first games we play together like this and I am super stoked! We played for about 3 hours last night!!

[almighty_gir]

HEY! I just wanted to share that last night I got my fiance into Rift. Now she is running around as a cleric kicking ass for the Lord! This will be one of the first games we play together like this and I am super stoked! We played for about 3 hours last night!!

dude... soon she'll be wanting to wait behind to loot all the mobs while you're trying to push on to the next rift.

in before devorce due to you rolling need on something she wanted.

[Anuxinamoon]

Hahaha this game is great for couples though. Duoing stuff makes things really fly.
Good to see people enjoying the game. I have a hard time trying to resist playing it so much.

Daz: Post moar screens please!

[evilblah]

@almighty_gir - I already thought of that! I rolled a rogue, she a cleric, I am using firearms, she maces, armor is different, and I am letting her snag all the artifacts because I have another character (that is higher level) snagging artifacts for me. Haha!

@Anuxinamoon - Yeah it is. I am really happy with this experience so far. Can't wait to take her into her first instance or warfront.

[Two Listen]

Man, I'm feeling really disappointed right now. I REALLY wanted to get into this game. I loved just about everything about it. Great artwork, loved the class/skill system - absolutely adored the concept. And the game ran like a dream when I played it.

But when I wound up playing in the beta I tried it for one day and just couldn't bring myself to do more than that. For two reasons. I couldn't for the life of me create a character I wanted to play. I was reasonably pleased with what I could do to the face, but I had few hair options - and regardless, my head was stuck on this stocky body.

I am a thin guy. A really thin guy. I weigh less than 110lbs. I like to make characters somewhat reflective of that. But no matter what, I just felt like this beefy, clunky looking guy character. It was even a neat character if you're into that sort of thing, it just wasn't at all the type of character I wanted to play.

It looks like females do not necessarily suffer this same problem, obviously it won't be hard to get a thin girl character. As is so commonly the case. But I'm not one of those guys who plays girl characters.

And the second thing - invisible walls. Maybe these aren't common for all parts of the game, but I ran into a lot of them in my small bit of time playing. I started it up, am running around this castle thing, ok got a couple quick intro quests done. Pop out into a town that seems to be involved in a battle, ok sweet. And then "Woah, look at that cool stuff over there. Man I want to get there bad." *walks up small hill* "...wait, what? Invisible wall? Why invisible wall, I totally should be able to get over there!"

And then later I find I actually can get over to where I was trying to get to. Like right at the spot I was trying to get to, right on the other side of this invisible wall. I just had to spend an extra minute going around a different way and I couldn't really find good reason for it. There wasn't anything special about going the proper way from what I could tell.

Totally turned me off of the game. I wanted to play it. I wanted to enjoy the beauty of the game and really dive into the gameplay system. This sounded like my perfect MMO. But I just couldn't force myself to do it. The most fun I had playing the initial tutorial areas was when I died, and could wander around having an out of body experience and really take things in.

Ah well. It was a great game and there's so much potential there. I'm sure a majority of people will be real happy. Just wish I could've found more in it for myself. I never want to play a beefy looking guy with short hair. There's a long hair option? Yeah, I found a good one. It just had a bunch of sticks in it. Literally, sticks in it. And leaves.

[Geezus]

Soooo, you won't be playing the game because you can't make a thin male character and had to walk around an invisible wall for an extra minute? O.o

Anyhoo, I picked this up on Sunday. Loving it so far. Gorgeous game, tons of build options, awesome public quest/RIFT system, familiar gameplay. All around happy right now. Great job and thank you to everyone who worked on this!

[Two Listen]

Soooo, you won't be playing the game because you can't make a thin male character and had to walk around an invisible wall for an extra minute? O.o

Haha, yeah I guess you could sum it up that way. I can be a pretty picky person, I know. I don't think it's totally unreasonable, though, do you? I mean. Focusing on and building up your avatar is sort of a huge part of the MMO experience. As is exploring the game world. The invisible wall thing I probably could've gotten used to if I was playing a character I really dug. Really though, "thin male character". It's not like I'm looking for the ability to alter individual limb length or add horns or goat hooves or have glowing green cyborg eyes.

Maybe I'll get lucky with an expansion adding a new race or something of the sort a ways down the line. *shrug* I'll certainly keep an eye on it.

That being said, I still thought it was an awesome looking game. And I can tell the people who worked on it really put a lot into it - and it shows. Not going to let my personal character tastes get in the way of that acknowledgement, so thumbs up to those who worked on it nonetheless. :thumbup:

[Hazardous]

I am a thin guy. A really thin guy. I weigh less than 110lbs. I like to make characters somewhat reflective of that. But no matter what, I just felt like this beefy, clunky looking guy character.

Hey Two Listen!

Thanks for the thoughts man, its always genuinely interesting for me to hear feedback and oppinions especially with regard to character related things!

But theres something I wanted to ask you about this comment in particular.

If something like this can prevent you from playing a game - do you not play god of war or red dead redemption for the same reason? Or do you not care about it as much because in those games you expect to take on the role of a 'hero' in a storyline as opposed to taking on the role of 'you' in the storyline?

I think about this kind of stuff all the time, all aspects of peoples thoughts regarding how they should look, and how much control / customisation a player should have over their toon in an mmo is interesting to me!

[Daz]

eld: apologies for being seemingly pedantic about this, but there are so many misconceptions and mis-statements out there about Rift and Gamebryo ("the reason Rift looks exactly like X game is they share the same engine", that sort of thing) that I did just want to clarify something If I may: The term 'game engine' can obviously be perceived to mean different things. Sure there's maybe some code in there that's Gamebryo that's the framework of the game, but the actual *renderer* is all Trions. The deferred aspect, the shadows, the hemispheric lighting, the shaders, there's nothing in there that's Gamebryo code. We add to it all the time (e.g anyone playing today will notice a huge upgrade soon in the exterior lighting in an imminent patch). So it just gnaws away at me when I see people describing the renderer as Gamebryo, when it's basically not, we chucked it.

Big fan of your minecraft texture pack btw, can't play without it...

[Two Listen]

Hey Two Listen!

Thanks for the thoughts man, its always genuinely interesting for me to hear feedback and oppinions especially with regard to character related things!

But theres something I wanted to ask you about this comment in particular.

If something like this can prevent you from playing a game - do you not play god of war or red dead redemption for the same reason? Or do you not care about it as much because in those games you expect to take on the role of a 'hero' in a storyline as opposed to taking on the role of 'you' in the storyline?

I think about this kind of stuff all the time, all aspects of peoples thoughts regarding how they should look, and how much control / customisation a player should have over their toon in an mmo is interesting to me!

Ah, yeah sure I don't mind elaborating a bit.

Something of that nature wouldn't stop me from playing God of War or something similar, no not at all. For pretty much the reasons you specified. It's a predetermined character, with a persona and story all its own. It's own history, it's own personality, obviously the character's design and look is going to be part of the package. When you step into a game like Jak and Daxter or God of War or Doom 3, or Prototype, or what have you, you're not stepping into a role playing experience. If I'm going to sit down to play Doom 3, I'm going to sit down and be that last man standing ready to kick the shit out of demons.

MMOs though are a lot different than that. Think of any MMO you can. Guild Wars, Aion, City of Heroes, Final Fantasy. I'd bet my savings that if you go to related forums - official or fan operated, that you'd have at least one HUGE thread for people to post their toons. When I sit down to play any MMO, I always put a lot of thought into what sort of toon I'm going to be making. I've got this persona in my head, because an MMO grants you that freedom. Besides - additionally, I buy something like Prototype, ok, I paid $50, cool, get to play through the story and what not. But I buy an MMO, I'm buying the game, and more often than not I'm paying monthly as well. Which isn't really a big deal, it's just, on my $9 an hour job right now - haha, you know, kinda counting pennies sometimes. Can't have a bunch of different MMOs at once. :)

I'm not a "roleplayer" to any extent. I don't like to sit there and pretend that I actually am my character and when I'm playing Oblivion I don't give a shit about having my character eat or try to actually "become" that Dark Brotherhood assassin. But when I play a game that gives me the freedom of creating my own character, especially one I'll be leveling up and expanding upon myself for sometimes months at a time - I at least want to be able to connect in some manner to the character I'm staring at as I run back and forth from quest to quest, monster to monster. Playstyle often serves a variable you can decide upon by class, clothing and such by armor, etc. But there's only one chance you get to decide just the basic look of your character, and that's at character creation.

I don't expect ridiculously detailed Oblivion or Aion style sliders for every feature and proportion possible. Sure it can be cool, but I don't expect it for everything. But I do like at least to have a decent range to choose from. In Guild Wars if I didn't want to be the bulky warrior I could be the thin ranger, or the even thinner Necromancer. In FFXIV you've got your tall elf thing, your itty bitty lalafells, your huge muscular male race, as well as some more normal human or cat thing to choose from. Rift just didn't seem to give me that. I could do some pretty cool things with the face - could even change the angle/length of my ears sometimes! Facial hair, lots of hair colors, that sort of thing. But then it went down to body and I had a slider for, if I recall, kind of just a basic height that might've just scaled the entire character (I don't remember exactly). My character looked great from an art standpoint, I would've really liked to see these characters in the world and interact with them. It just...was not what I wanted to play myself. If there was a simple "weight" slider, I would've been set in a heartbeat. I can deal with sticks in my long hair, heh.

A lot of guys I guess like to look muscular, the whole big arms broad shoulders thing. It shows - in games like Aion where you can create just about anything under the sun, most guys are huge as can be. I just can't get into that. I prefer lean characters. And if I can get long hair - I'll take it! Especially for games in fantasy settings, it's really common in fantasy/fictional movies for longer hair on guys but in games they might toss you one ponytail. You'll have 10 different hairstyles of a real short length, comb overs, that covering one eye emo look, the thing that looks like a shampoo mohawk, etc. And then toss you the one longish braided ponytail or something.

Sometimes I think the reason for not adding a weight body slider or longer hair is due to technical stuff - armor problems that might arise or something. But if it's feasible for female characters, I know that's not always the case.

...ah...I ramble way too much. Anyway, I think you get the idea. In Guild Wars I played a necromancer most often, had a lean villain in CoH/CoV, chose the smaller more average sized human race in FFXIV, etc.

It's kinda silly, I know. I've tried in the past to just sort of overlook it. But if I'm going to be doing that, I figure might as well stick to something a bit cheaper. I suppose everyone's got those odd little things they get hung up on.

[Bigjohn]

Yeah, I'm kinda like the way Two Listen is. The difference is that I go in with a very specific idea in mind of what kind of character I want to play. So hopefully there's enough customization within the game to let me hit that theoretical character at some point. Games that don't have enough customization options for me to make just the right one, end up completely shutting me off.

Rift does one of the most awesome things with the soul system. Especially the way that within a class you can build so many roles. So if I have an idea for huge big guy with a two-handed weapon that does nature-based attacks, ok, play a Druid. Or a small dude shooting death magic, just make a warlock or something. And interestingly enough, the Cleric which can be a Druid, can also be a Cabalist. So it hits both of those within the same character. Stuff like that.

It also had to do with the role. Say I want to play a nature-based offensive class. In other games it's almost guaranteed that a nature-based class is a healer, meaning not offensive. So tough luck. But Rift has enough options that you can pull it off (Druid, Chloromancer). Although more would always be welcome.

What it's missing is some armor customization. I need a Scottish kilt.

[haikai]

In regards to what Two Listen was saying:

A lot of developers are going to shy away from making (intentionally) hideous female characters or weak males. This reminds me of when Blizz introduced the Blood Elf males in WoW and how there was an uproar over how slender they were (to put it kindly). Blizz gave in:
http://www.2fps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/oldnew01-1.jpg

There are a lot of things that go into character customization that often seem counter intuitive to players. On Guild Wars we were able to mine data on which faces and hair styles were most popular among players. We tried to make a decent variety, but the argument can be made that you want to be making stuff that most of your player base can enjoy. So does that mean you drop the offbeat selections (disfigurements, exotic styles, etc.) even though a minority of players really want it? Is it worth it to spend an equal amount of time on an asset that will be only picked by a fraction of players?

Obviously the value of visual variety should not be underestimated, but some people think you should keep the player characters heroic and attractive and leave the fat/old/skinny characters as NPCs. Or you can give players ultimate control like in Aion/Perfect World where the results are as likely to be hideous as gorgeous.

It's not hard to make a slender option, and it's usually not about technical limitations (well, sometimes... ). It's about what decisions were made to appeal to as many people as possible for fearing alienating potential players. Throw in the increasingly global nature of MMO games and wanting to be successful in other markets where sensibilities for characters can be drastically different makes things even more difficult.

That aside, I do think it would be nice if there were some more variety in Rift characters, particularly between the factions, but, again, I've been through character customization stuff enough to understand the reasoning behind it. Thankfully the selections that are available are nice. Besides, I usually have no qualms picking attractive female characters. Thanks, Haz! :)

BTW: I've not run into any invisible walls yet... but maybe that was fixed for release or maybe I haven't been as adventurous in my exploration. However, there are a few other things that I've noticed such as not being able to swim up and forward at the same time (holding jump and pressing forward), spells not visually being cast sometimes, many sounds being nearly inaudible underwater, no camera collision with water surface plane, sometimes self cast spells require two clicks if you don't have yourself targeted already, and some other minor stuff that I can't remember at the moment. Not that I want to turn this into a bug thread or anything, but I'm hopeful you Trion folks can take note of it if you haven't already! It's always encouraging to see the steady mini patches you've been releasing to iron stuff out, and I'm really looking forward to the new lighting Daz mentioned.

[Two Listen]

In regards to what Two Listen was saying:

A lot of developers are going to shy away from making (intentionally) hideous female characters or weak males. This reminds me of when Blizz introduced the Blood Elf males in WoW and how there was an uproar over how slender they were (to put it kindly). Blizz gave in:
http://www.2fps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/oldnew01-1.jpg

See. That change they implemented. That would really annoy me. I've never been interested in WoW, but if I were a player that would really annoy me. Both the old and new versions even still look identifiably as members of the same race. Why on Earth would you not just have both? (They didn't keep both, did they?) Does it really make sense if you were going to play, say...a mage, to be that huge to begin with? With your shoulder nearly eclipsing the size of your head? Of course by WoW standards I guess that's pretty tame.

I know they're appealing to as many people as possible. On a related note, for me the whole "Oh we're the same race so we all have to have the exact same build and muscle mass" has always been a blow to immersion.

Besides, if you were to implement a weight slider, I can pretty much guarantee it'd be used to some degree by most everybody. It's not the same as throwing in a type of facial hair or face template that only a few would choose, making the time it would take to implement worthwhile for the entire playerbase.

[Bigjohn]

See. That change they implemented. That would really annoy me. I've never been interested in WoW, but if I were a player that would really annoy me. Both the old and new versions even still look identifiably as members of the same race. Why on Earth would you not just have both? (They didn't keep both, did they?)

Yeah, that's the part I don't get. Why not keep both?

Too many options is bad too. You can easily get into the Football Helmet Clown Shoes (http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2010/11/4/football-helmet-clown-shoes-guy.html) territory that way, as Sirlin puts it. But if they've already done the work, and people (however few) already like it, then why not?

The part that I really never understood is how come when they add character NPCs they don't make them playable too? Might as well I'd think. Like in WoW with the Lich King expansion they added the Vrykul. Which are characters and have equipment slots. So I would think you might as well make them playable as well and give the players more options. I'm real curious as to how come it doesn't happen that way.

[Justin Meisse]

the High Elves and the Kelari are pretty skinny

[Bigjohn]

Still not sure which US server you're all on. I just picked some random pvp server.

[Geezus]

Still not sure which US server you're all on. I just picked some random pvp server.

I'm just on a random pve server for right now. Just playing around with builds and whatnot. If everyone decides to join up on a solid pvp server, I'd be down to re-roll!

[Bigjohn]

I'm just on a random pve server for right now. Just playing around with builds and whatnot. If everyone decides to join up on a solid pvp server, I'd be down to re-roll!

Like I said earlier, me and a friend play on Rasmolov. PvP server, defiant side. Would be awesome to see some PCers there.

[Geezus]

Like I said earlier, me and a friend play on Rasmolov. PvP server, defiant side. Would be awesome to see some PCers there.

Right on, I'll make a defiant toon on Rasmolov later tonight, most likely.

[evilblah]

AH! Bigjohn! AND Geezus! Join me on Ashstone! Pvp with a guild and all! =) Lets do it!

[Ennolangus]

Hahaha this game is great for couples though. Duoing stuff makes things really fly.
Good to see people enjoying the game. I have a hard time trying to resist playing it so much.

Daz: Post moar screens please!


I agree! I play Rift with my fiancee several times now, and we both thoroughly enjoy it! We can be the classes we love but without having to worry about the hardships sometimes of soloing.

It's a great couples game, though, it's a great game in general.

Haven't played this much of an mmo since WoW a few years back.

Great job guys! truly digging it!