1. #1
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    Gloamwood and Other Adventures

    So, being a Rift Newbie I'm sure a lot of people here will find this old news...but, I am having a lot of fun with the game and wanted to talk about it with people who won't look at me like I am fanatical... (Maybe some very very minor spoilers, so I'm not using the tag)

    So first off, I loved the look of this zone when I stepped in. I'm sure many people might say it looks like Duskwood, or whatever game have you, but it really is just on a higher level than any 'dark' zone like that. The architecture and atmosphere are brilliant. Running around that place was pretty cool.

    As I was finishing up quests there, the zone invasion...let's just call it what it is, the Werewolf Invasion, was awesome. After doing the Hag questline, which was very well written for this style, it was pretty cool to fight that off. I've never spent so much time in a game, forgetting that I was trying to turn quests in or do something specific, in order to run rampant all over the zone with people around me slaying Wolves and Altars and the like. I mean it was all over the place with the Rifts, the Attacking Mob packs, etc.

    It really made me stop and think though...why have people (myself included) hailed GW2 as really 'breaking the mold' with regards to questing, when clearly Rift was doing the same thing (though still keeping traditional questing which I love)? I mean...all GW2 did was take that concept and build a game off it. I know we say Rift stays under the radar, which is cool and all, but damn this game really has the whole package. And I'm only level 27. I haven't even begun to go achievement farming, serious profession leveling, rep grinds, dungeons, raids, etc. My mind doesn't comprehend how this isn't more popular, considering I haven't played an MMO so intensely since Vanilla WoW.

    PS: Did get run through the Goblin instance in Gloamwood...it was pretty phenomenal. I remember looking up into the 'sky' and seeing all the lights that were goblin structures and whatnot seeming to go on forever. It was definitely a very well done instance. If the rest of them are on that same level, I've found the best MMO I've ever played and don't plan on stopping any time soon.

    Sorry for the fanboy sounding rant, a friend got me into this game and I am just shocked at what I've been missing.

  2. #2
    Herald of the Titans theWocky's Avatar
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    Rift shamelessly copies the best from other MMO's and makes it their own. Makes it better, in fact.

    You like druid healing? We got Wardens... and our HoTs have HoTs!
    You like Warlocks dots? We got Cabalists... and our DoTs have DoTs and those DoTs have DoTs!

    You like talent trees! Man, have we got talent trees! 76 points to assign, biaatches!
    Overwhelmed by all the choices? No worries man, here's some templates that automatically assign the right points as you level!
    Even a brief guide to show you what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to play.

    Free server transfers? You got it!

    You like different play styles? Heck give em a choice of NINE different specs/souls to choose from for each class.

    You like Guild Wars 2 mob-tagging! You got it!
    AoE looting? I think we invented it!

    You like that Postal Mail Addon from WoW? Heck, we built it in!
    You like tweaking your GUI? It's built in?
    You want addons? Give em an API for writing them.
    You want to record your boss fights in-game? Build it in! Add a couple of other social networks too.

    Mobile guild chat on your android / iphone? Yeah, do that too! Add in a couple of scratch 'n sniff games too and the ability to chat to anyone on your friends list too.

    You like boss fights with actually decent animations instead of one or two boring animations and sounds - and attention to detail, story and want an antagonist? Heck, each Raid has one!

    You want lore? Every quest contributes to it! You don't need to read!

    Then, they go and constantly update things! We don't like the starting area. Needs a mailbox for our vets so they can access their mounts at level one. DONE. Oh, yeah, change the starting spawn area so they have less distance to run and get started. Put them in front of the damn quest giver. DONE.

    We don't like the look of scarwood reach or Perspice. Let's revamp it - as a full content patch? - nah, just do it as an "extra".

    We don't like the character models of the Cleric and mage pets. Heck, lets redo all of them.
    Ah yeah, keep tweaking those player avatar character animations till they look a bit better - we're not happy with them. Make them better and more alive!
    "But sir, do we have the resources?"
    "Are you shittin' me? DO IT."
    DONE.

    We need more abilities for the player so that we can make more interesting PvE.
    Let's add Planar abilities! Let's add the ability of every class to be able to res so that people don't have to force the healer to run back all the time!

    Lets give peeps more to do besides daily quests. Let's give em onslaught quests! Let's give them more Instant Adventures, more Zone Events. Lets make a helluva lot more Rift types! Let's make Hunt Rifts!

    Let's make a leaderboard for peeps that are achievement hunters to compare themselves against other players!

    Let's add player housing and huge, HUGE collection of rewards and items to decorate with!

    Let's add something more than pets to collect. Artifacts - like a trade-carding game and treasure hunting all-in-one!

    Shall we add a sort of a hero class to this expansion? No... lets give each class a new soul!

    The world is too small. We haven't got enough space to put stuff in. Make the world three times bigger. Do it.

    TRION: These guys are paying us monthly. We have a content patch to get out in 6~8 weeks. Every six to eight weeks.

    Back on topic - to the OP - it's hard, after playing Rift Storm legion not to be a bit overly passionate about the game after seeing the service and quality you get compared to everything else out there.

    For those people not playing Rift. Everything. I mean EVERYTHING mentioned above has been implemented from Rift v1.0 to 1.11 and then to v2.1.

    It has been one month after the expansion, Storm Legion was launched and we already got patch 2.1 - got a new 20-man raid, a new, improved world event, a new Chronicle (mini one-man dungeon with more content and story than most five-mans) - what did you get for your $15 this month?
    Last edited by theWocky; 2012-12-17 at 03:08 PM.

  3. #3
    Scarab Lord Azuri's Avatar
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    Yeah Rift is one game where stopping to smell the roses by looking up and around actually are worthwhile. I streamed Rift quite a bit this weekend in 1080p and it was amazing how many questions were asked about the game that people had no idea about and I stopped to point out areas with attention to detail.

    At the end of the day "dynamic events" are scripted events idc how much a developer hypes them. The key is who does them better. After playing Rift's zone events which is a more appropriate definition GW2 dynamic content for me anyways was a bit bland after Rift's continuous changes to them and adding new ones at quick pace I was unable to find much immersion or real world epic feel.

    The Volan event spawned at around 4:00am my time Saturday night after the event I check my DPS meter to see 189 unique DPS players participated and that doesn't include healers who didn't register on the meter. That is what a living breathing MMO is all about.

  4. #4
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by theWocky View Post
    Rift shamelessly copies the best from other MMO's and makes it their own. Makes it better, in fact.
    I think a lot of the features they kinda innovated/championed...but the rest of your post made me laugh, because it is pretty true. I know some people might think the holidays are a little 'dinky', like the sled minigame, but I like the overall concept. The way they reward all your activities, even during a holiday, is pretty substantial too. It motivates me to attack every objective/rift I see because I need those snowflakes. They are like crack.

    It's nice to have specific activities for the holiday, but letting you do your own thing while still experiencing and getting rewarded for that holiday is also amazing.

    ---------- Post added 2012-12-17 at 09:52 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Azuri View Post
    Yeah Rift is one game where stopping to smell the roses by looking up and around actually are worthwhile. I streamed Rift quite a bit this weekend in 1080p and it was amazing how many questions were asked about the game that people had no idea about and I stopped to point out areas with attention to detail.
    I got so excited playing the game that I kept harassing my wife while she was trying to do a programming project for her finals. Apparently I was excited enough to make her download Rift Lite and start an account lol.

  5. #5
    I will agree with all that was said. But for me, Trion removed a nice lore-filled aspect of the game a little over a year ago. Back when you got to choose your 3 souls by the end of the starter area, and if you wanted more, you had to get a lure from the person with that under their name, find a rift tear, and then kill it. Before I started doing those quests, I kept thinking "Why are they called souls?" Doing those rifts cleared that up for me.

    As an ascended, you are basically an empty body brought back to life, and that husk is imbued with the souls of a Necromancer or Justicar or Ranger, etc. And doing those quests to get the others, it showed you that you pulled a certain soul into Telara, captured it, and fused it with your body. It was one of those special touches I really enjoyed about this game, and makes me sad that they removed it.

    But that's really my biggest gripe, followed by a slight gripe with the art style of some of the creatures, and the basically non-existant variety in race selection. But those are paled in comparison with the awesome that is the full game.

  6. #6
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pachycrocuta View Post
    As an ascended, you are basically an empty body brought back to life, and that husk is imbued with the souls of a Necromancer or Justicar or Ranger, etc. And doing those quests to get the others, it showed you that you pulled a certain soul into Telara, captured it, and fused it with your body. It was one of those special touches I really enjoyed about this game, and makes me sad that they removed it.
    That does sound cool, but I'm guessing that the system is already confusing enough for people used to traditional class systems. I'm also guessing this is before the time where you could pick your role in character selection and have it tell you how to spec your character? I think they probably traded off a little bit of coolness for a lot of instuctional utility to get people more comfortable with the game.

    While it is sad to see a cool feature go, it's normally for a well calculated reason.

  7. #7
    Herald of the Titans theWocky's Avatar
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    Yeah, I miss that too. Maybe what they should do is make it so that you do one quest in the started zone and it allows all the souls to be absorbed to you. I don't mind the race thing too much. I guess it makes animations easier to attach to mounts, combat, etc.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    That does sound cool, but I'm guessing that the system is already confusing enough for people used to traditional class systems. I'm also guessing this is before the time where you could pick your role in character selection and have it tell you how to spec your character? I think they probably traded off a little bit of coolness for a lot of instuctional utility to get people more comfortable with the game.

    While it is sad to see a cool feature go, it's normally for a well calculated reason.
    Yeah, it was before the preset purposes they introduced. Sometime during Summer 2011, they changed it to where you can purchase your souls from your class trainer for 20g each I think. And then they changed it to the purpose thing where you start with all your souls when you first create a character. I can understand why they did that (I think a lot of people complained about the whole capturing the souls thing), but it still makes me sad.

  9. #9
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    It's funny, because I was a little hesitant heading to Gloamwood of what it would look like. For some very odd reason I felt like there would be no diversity in the landscapes. It was definitely a great shift. The Guardian starting zones remind me of Teldrassil a little bit...though with the obviously much better graphics that this game has.

    It's very hard for me to even find something to complain about so far. If it had to be one thing, it would be that it is too easy to get dismounted. Though it is better in that regard to every game except WoW. Most games are practically auto dismount when you are hit, which I think ruins the whole feeling that you are on a mount charging through enemies.

    Getting back to the theme of the topic though, please tell me there is a snow covered zone in this game. They are always my favorite.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    It's funny, because I was a little hesitant heading to Gloamwood of what it would look like. For some very odd reason I felt like there would be no diversity in the landscapes. It was definitely a great shift. The Guardian starting zones remind me of Teldrassil a little bit...though with the obviously much better graphics that this game has.

    It's very hard for me to even find something to complain about so far. If it had to be one thing, it would be that it is too easy to get dismounted. Though it is better in that regard to every game except WoW. Most games are practically auto dismount when you are hit, which I think ruins the whole feeling that you are on a mount charging through enemies.

    Getting back to the theme of the topic though, please tell me there is a snow covered zone in this game. They are always my favorite.
    Iron Pine Peak, I believe if you go to Sanctum and then head through a portal on the Plaza to your right, there is currently a sleigh racing course thing you'll be able to Port to, which is a pretty awesome Mini-game, althought I would suggest staying near the sledding route because they are quite some beefy 40-45 monsters outside of it =)

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    It's funny, because I was a little hesitant heading to Gloamwood of what it would look like. For some very odd reason I felt like there would be no diversity in the landscapes. It was definitely a great shift. The Guardian starting zones remind me of Teldrassil a little bit...though with the obviously much better graphics that this game has.

    It's very hard for me to even find something to complain about so far. If it had to be one thing, it would be that it is too easy to get dismounted. Though it is better in that regard to every game except WoW. Most games are practically auto dismount when you are hit, which I think ruins the whole feeling that you are on a mount charging through enemies.

    Getting back to the theme of the topic though, please tell me there is a snow covered zone in this game. They are always my favorite.
    Iron Pine Peaks is snowy. Lotsa snow and yetis and water elementals. It's a nice looking zone, and its storyline fits as a precursor to Storm Legion (most of IPP is all about Crucia).

    I was not really a fan of Gloamwood, as I don't really like the dark zones. It's why I didn't care for Stillmoor. I like the forest setting of Silverwood, the look of Moonshade Highlands, and the brightness of Shimmersand. And as for the mounts: The higher the mount, the less likely you are to get dismounted. The "level 1" mounts that you start with, they are skittish, which means they are likely to dismount you when you get hit. The level 20 mounts (or 25, they used to be level 35) have a less likely chance for dismount. And the level 50 mounts (110% speed) are sturdy, and have the least likely chance to be dismounted. Not sure about the new speed of mount added with SL, though.

  12. #12
    I'm glad to see someone else appreciates Gloamwood as much as I do. Back at release, the entire Shadefallen Keep area was like a mini outdoor dungeon. Between ranged mobs, casters and patrols, you had to line-of-sight targets and hide behind brick walls to clear an area. There were so many twists and turns and misdirects with the location of quest targets that you could easily get lost or frustrated the subzone wasn't easier to navigate.

    While you're still in the zone, do yourself a favor and just LOOK over the achievements for Gloamwood. There's an achievement for locating X number of caves and you start to realize how little of the zone you've actually explored.

    If you like the feel of Gloamwood, wait till you see Scarlet Gorge. It's actually a very small zone for Guardians, with only 33 or so quests, but it's like a cross between WoW's Redridge and Searing Gorge. It's probably amongst the least appreciated zones, but once you recognize how much thought went into creating the layout and how many 'hidden' locations are totally reachable, you'll see why we didn't have like 40 zones to quest through when the game was first released.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Kittyvicious View Post
    It's very hard for me to even find something to complain about so far. If it had to be one thing, it would be that it is too easy to get dismounted.
    Just want to say that this does get better. Faster mounts=harder to dismount. That is not to say that it goes away entirely, and it can still be a pain in your ass at times, but at least it gets better.

    As other stated, yeah, they got you covered with a snowy zone, as well as a desert zone. They pretty much covered all zone-types.

    Also, I was pretty much in awe the first time I entered Gloamwood too, and had a lot of fun with the Hag quests as well.

  14. #14
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pachycrocuta View Post
    Iron Pine Peaks is snowy. Lotsa snow and yetis and water elementals. It's a nice looking zone, and its storyline fits as a precursor to Storm Legion (most of IPP is all about Crucia).
    Sounds awesome. I love killin me some Yeti.

    Quote Originally Posted by Pachycrocuta View Post
    And as for the mounts: The higher the mount, the less likely you are to get dismounted. The "level 1" mounts that you start with, they are skittish, which means they are likely to dismount you when you get hit.
    Quote Originally Posted by Lathais View Post
    Just want to say that this does get better. Faster mounts=harder to dismount. That is not to say that it goes away entirely, and it can still be a pain in your ass at times, but at least it gets better.
    Ah, that would make sense.

    Quote Originally Posted by Acquiesce of Telara View Post
    I'm glad to see someone else appreciates Gloamwood as much as I do.

    While you're still in the zone, do yourself a favor and just LOOK over the achievements for Gloamwood. There's an achievement for locating X number of caves and you start to realize how little of the zone you've actually explored.
    Yeah...I'm trying to open the achievement pane as little as possible, because the seconds I've glimpsed at it already have me too excited and I want to save a lot of it for after I have leveled. It's already too easy to get distracted with artifacts, fishing, and so on. Then I saw puzzle achievements and I immediately closed it...that's just too much excitement and fun for right now.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lathais View Post
    As other stated, yeah, they got you covered with a snowy zone, as well as a desert zone. They pretty much covered all zone-types.

    Also, I was pretty much in awe the first time I entered Gloamwood too, and had a lot of fun with the Hag quests as well.
    It really was well done. I want a little bit of everything in my fantasy games, from the macabre to the spritish elf land stuff...they do a great job with the balance. The aesthetic of the game just fits so well for what it is doing.

    I know a lot of people want to compare this to WoW, or say it was a clone when it came out, but playing the game I just can't justify that at all. I think they did a perfect job using a familiar system that was comfortable to play, while giving you tools to make it stand out for yourself...while making their own game that is really nothing like WoW.

    It's just really great to have two distinct MMOs that fit into exactly how I want to play at any given time....loving playing Rift right now and I hope it continues to bring them in enough subs to stay steady.

  15. #15
    Its always nice to see when someone new perceives the game in the same light as we do.

    Last night I had this incredibly long assignment that was due and really only had 30-40 mins to play once I finished. I logged in, stared at my toon, started considering what my priorities were and then realized that there really isn't enough time in the world to complete what I had in mind. Between the incessant requests from guildies to heal experts, announcements for Hunt Rifts, Zone invasions for SL continents, wanting to do the chronicle, the optional daily crafting and questing content, joining conquest which was due to start in 10 mins or trying to decorate that new dimension i've been delaying.

    Then I remembered that I still had to do the world event quests. 30 minutes later, Once I finished, it was 12:20 am and I had to go bed and get up for an early meeting.

    It is that feeling of being overwhelmed with options upon logging that I think is what an MMO is all about, coupled with that sense of loss when you have to log out that you know you've missed out on something fun today by not being able to partake in your activity of choice.
    {I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. }

  16. #16
    The Unstoppable Force Kelimbror's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Antipathy View Post
    It is that feeling of being overwhelmed with options upon logging that I think is what an MMO is all about, coupled with that sense of loss when you have to log out that you know you've missed out on something fun today by not being able to partake in your activity of choice.
    It's kinda awesome and kinda terrible to feel like this, but it is a large part of what is compelling. There is no way to tailor the 'right' amount of content so that everyone has exactly enough to do, so more than enough for just about everyone is the way to go. I think part of the sense of urgency is the fear that whatever game your playing will suddenly not exist tomorrow. I'm trying to tell myself that there will be time to get these achievements, time to do fishing more, time for this and that...a lesson I have had to learn very well with WoW.

    As long as you can approach the game with that frame of mind, Trion seems to do a good job of keeping the content overflowing for you. It really is the right formula for me right now and I wish I had been with it this whole time.

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