Get the Expansion for free for next four days.

[Edge-]

Playing through so far...

Holy shit, did they need to make the stat jump that big? I'm in mostly expert/T1 gear from NT, but stuff like the first weapon you get has almost double my spellpower. This goes a long way in explaining the insanely stupid stat inflation this expansion.

Also, first hands-on blush with the Infusion system - this is a completely annoying, unfun, bullshit grind intended to bleed plat out of the economy. Not looking forward to it at all, will likely do my best to ignore progressing in it until after 4.2 and whatever this "revisit" to the system they've talked about.

Zone is gorgeous so far, but hot damn is it making my rig chug at times (max settings for the most part, rarely had issues with it before).

[Slipmat]

I was going to post that link to the Docket filed in this trademark Lawsuit case, beaten to it.

Seems a bit strange for some 'Charity' to think it holds dominion over a word like Starfall? i'd have guessed Trion would have had a good case but you can't tell in these sort of things, Children's Charity Vs Games Company that i doubt most of the Jury would know of if they didn't play video games?, i wouldn't like to call the odds.

So you can either be cynical and think this was just a 'rush job' and excuse to change the name or you can look upon it as a clever marketing idea like 'hey, if we have to change names let's do a fresh campaign to try and get older/new players to try it out'

Also,if you've already bought the Expansion in the past two weeks you are entitled to a full refund, confirmed by Brasse.

Ok folks... the official time frame for refunds on SFP is now set at two weeks (down to the second: 1209600 seconds).

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...ml#post5305674

[Morgaith]

This is nice, i might actually try it to see what's changed, i do agree that it looks like a desperation move though.

[Lathais]

It's obviously a very aggressive strategy to try and get new players, but it's going to work for anyone who hears about it. I'm installing the game now just to log on and play, even though I never made it through the last expansion. It certainly won't hurt me to run the steam downloader for 30 minutes. I miss the game this used to be, but it is what it is.

I don't have any intentions of spending money or a great deal of time on this, but hey it will be fun for a little bit.

I tried real hard last night to not install it and log in. I succeeded for the time being. I probably won't make it through the weekend. As much as i hate that they are doing this and loathe certain decisions and certain people at Trion, I likely will not be able to help myself.

[shadowmatrix]

As for the name change...yeah, I'm calling bullshit. They're looking to get away from the SFP name because it's got such a terrible reputation given the expansions early struggles and repeat mistakes. Ain't nobody going to confuse "Starfall Prophecy" for that charity, and it's actually pretty fucking gross and disgusting to me that they'd use it as their excuse. I can't think of a single other expansion that's changed it's names midway through.

You might not be aware of this but WWE used to be WWF. They changed their name from World Wrestling Federation because of issues with World Wide Fund for Nature concerning the initials. yeah those types of issues do happen from time to time.

[Lathais]

You might not be aware of this but WWE used to be WWF. They changed their name from World Wrestling Federation because of issues with World Wide Fund for Nature concerning the initials. yeah those types of issues do happen from time to time.

They happen, but it's stupid. All Trion really has to do is show up in court and say, "Hey, we're not even in a similar industry, no way this could be confusingly similar," and cite a few cases where the same thing happened and it's done and over. I know this because I have been involved in a few Trademark disputes for pretty much the same thing. Not going to say the name of one of the companies I help run, but I will say that other companies have tried to sue us for trademark violations and after the first one, we didn't even need a lawyer. Just represented ourselves and got it thrown out because the industry was completely different.

The purpose, or spirit, of the trademark law is so that if you have XYZ Company that sells widgets and I start a company and call it XYZ Services and also sell widgets, I can't trick your customers into thinking I am you. Why in the world would Trion want to trick any customers in to thinking they are an educational charity? Who would even think they were an educational charity if they tried to say they were? It's not confusingly similar enough because what the two entities do are not related in the least. They really have no case. I can almost guarantee you that Trion has some sort of legal team that could easily fight this. They chose not to, because changing the name is actually good for them, as long as they have a halfway decent reason. This looks like a great reason to most people and does start to distance them from the bad name. Actually a smart choice, but if you know anything about trademark law, you know how stupid this is.

[Edge-]

You might not be aware of this but WWE used to be WWF. They changed their name from World Wrestling Federation because of issues with World Wide Fund for Nature concerning the initials. yeah those types of issues do happen from time to time.

I am aware of that, and the instances of this happening in general. But most of the time the companies that have to change the name of their product/brand/company/whatever announce why they're doing so (i.e. we're in a legal battle over rights to the name that we either can't win or don't want to fight) rather than leave some cryptic message that's open to interpretation.

Unrelated - played a bit more, giggled at Sir Bearington being in the game. Trion seems to be leaning hard on the jokes early on. Him, finding garden gnomes and shit. They are not taking this expansion too seriously out of the gate. Will slowly continue to tinker my way through, though I should probably bother looking up more current builds for my mage since all of mine are likely 1.5+ years old at this point.

[Selah]

I went ahead and logged in to claim it. Going to give it a spin now that they've had time to patch it up. I'm leveling through the expansion pretty fast. Already level 67 and still in the first zone. Granted I have a ton of XP boosts active, a lot of the 160% pots in my bank, the red tier 10% boost, and I bought the intermediate pack for $20 and got the bag upgrade and the patron. Kinda cool to be finishing up the PA points I've been putting off. I'll hit cap, run a few experts, do the LFR, and check out PvP and post my thoughts on it, not that anyone asked.

So far, I'm not particularly impressed or disappointed. It's really about what I expected. Glad to see they're pushing the graphics engine and improving the aesthetics, could also be that this is the first time I've actually logged into Rift on my 4k system. Legendary abilities are okay, it's cool to be able to upgrade abilities in our trees even if they're just small upgrades. Would love to be able to get rid of masteries and get another 5 points to spend upgrading, but I've hated masteries for a long time now. You know, overall, because Trion has a small team for Rift I don't expect loads of content to be pushed in the way WoW is cranking out content (though this is the first expansion where WoW is outpacing Rift for patches pushed) but I would really love to see some quality in the game.

[Slipmat]

I should probably bother looking up more current builds for my mage since all of mine are likely 1.5+ years old at this point.

Here's the current latest and greatest 4.1 build for Mages, you have three choices, all based around 61 Pyromancer but each build then depends on what soul packs you have, like there's a build if you have all Mage souls, Harbinger and Arbiter, build if Harbinger only and a build for just the 'base' eight free souls so everyone is covered.

http://forums.riftgame.com/game-disc...cer-4-1-a.html

I also have 61 Harbinger builds with the same builds, all optional soul packs, Harb soul pack only, so if you like Harb and have it, just shout.

[Edge-]

Jesus, just looked in the actual build forum for mages and there are not that many folks left discussing SFP builds, much less 4.1 builds specifically. Guess I'll be looking at a few outdated builds and tinkering from there, or maybe screw it and just chug along with the ones I have until they don't work anymore.

[Slipmat]

there are not that many folks left discussing SFP builds, much less 4.1 builds specifically

Most people don't seem to bother with posting builds anymore on the Forum, it's all Google Docs nowadays, the build i linked from the Forum is this one from a Google Docs, some players are happy to share them, some seem to think it's classified info (looks over shoulder), here's an example:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1338370154

[Edge-]

Bah, do not like. I prefer not to use public google docs like that and generally avoid them whenever possible. That's pretty disappointing, the class forums used to be a great resource for builds for veterans and newcomers alike. Shifting to Gdocs definitely does not benefit newer/returning folks who very likely will never know that shit exists : /

Thanks though, I may poke around (though right now looking for a solo build for my mage, even if my existing elementalist/necro/harb builds seem to still more or less work.

[Tackhisis]

I tried to take their offer, but the old launcher is completely broken, and the new Glyph app doesn't support playing while streaming. So Trion's incompetence bit them once again.

[xenogear3]

Everything in this game is too confusing.

To fully enjoy the game, I have to buy all the old expansions and souls.
For example, the earring is still needed.
This discourages the new players.

The buffers and souls are also very confusing.

I cannot find a build on any websites.

The only reason I still pay attention to this game is because I still have 4000 in game credit.

[Slipmat]

To fully enjoy the game, I have to buy all the old expansions and souls.
For example, the earring is still needed.

The entire game is totally free if you log on for the next two days, you don't have to pay for any Expansions, earring slots were made free to everybody weeks ago.

4,000 game credits will buy you at least two souls packs out of the four available but best value has to be this pack, every, single new soul in the game, all in one pack, not sure what price it is for a non Patron but for Patrons it's 5,400 credits.

[xenogear3]

The earring is free now.
I also get Primalist Calling and 30 days for free (don't know why).

However, I thought we should get a free level 65.
I didn't get it.

[Primalthirst]

This depresses me. I thought Rift died years ago.

[thewallofsleep]

According to a poster on the Forum, it's a trademark infringement and Trion were going to get sued by Starfall Education Foundation

I don't understand how a video game company could get sued by an education company because they used the word "Starfall" in their game title. Should they sue Blizzard too? I mean, they do have a druid spell called "Starfall".

It just doesn't make sense to me.

[WskyDK]

This depresses me. I thought Rift died years ago.

It's brain dead. They're just keeping the body alive until the family gets there before they pull the plug.

[Slipmat]

I don't understand how a video game company could get sued by an education company because they used the word "Starfall" in their game title.

A case of "wouldn't somebody think of the children!".... Children's "Charity" Vs big, bad, evil Games Company who corrupt kid's minds. I wouldn't like to take a bet and call the odds.