Post F2P thoughts

[Pachycrocuta]

I'm loving rift so far as a F2P (well, I lucked out and got a box copy for $5!). Blows WOW out of the water imho. My shoulder armor isn't bigger than I am! I just wish Orcs were a playable race. :-( . And no cutesy panda bears.

It is nice about the shoulder armor. Oh, and no "cutesy pandas", but we do have cutesy female dwarves:


Although, for the record, I had no problem with the pandaren. Females, anyway. Couldn't stand the males.

[Deleted]

I'm currently taking a look at Rift F2P after a long break (played a 50 mage at launch, mainly pvp) and I'm impressed with the state of the game. The cash shop is well implemented and the fact that it doubles as an all-purpose shop selling useful items like drinks, bags and mats everywhere is great. Not seen any outrageous cash grabs yet and it's good to see that most items are available for credits or in-game currencies without devaluing end-game or certain other (season events) rewards that must be earned by playing the game.

I am a WoW player and I generally consider that game to be the yardstick so far as combat systems, responsiveness and PVE design are concerned. The WoW devs have enormous resources at their disposal, which allows them to introduce new systems and content at regular intervals. This also means they can offer a broader range of content such as multiple raid difficulties.

In light of this I don't think a direct comparison between WoW and Rift is all that meaningful - however, I do feel that the basic game systems of Rift are superior (save for combat responsiveness) and probably constitute the pinnacle of 2nd generation MMO design. The soul system is miles ahead of any other implementation of the "class & talent-tree" based character progression paradigm.

It also seems likely that, in that sense, Rift won't be surpassed as the end of the current generation is drawing near. Most of the more notable recent and upcoming titles move away from the GCD-combat, class-based, linear and vertical design of the EQ/WoW era. Which on a personal note worries me; I just don't like the "twitchier" combat of GW2 or ESO with their aimed attacks and relatively few spells. I prefer a challenge based on developing and optimising a character for the task ahead (stats, talents, gear with lots of spreadsheets and number crunching) and choosing which ability to use (from a large selection including plenty of longer cooldowns and situtational abilities) at the right time; executing an attack should be as easy as selecting a target and pressing the hotkey (if I wanted a game with obvious choices, but harder execution I'd play a shooter).

Anyway, Rift is cool and you should check it out!

[Lathais]

I am a WoW player and I generally consider that game to be the yardstick so far as combat systems, responsiveness and PVE design are concerned. The WoW devs have enormous resources at their disposal, which allows them to introduce new systems and content at regular intervals. This also means they can offer a broader range of content such as multiple raid difficulties.

Not to turn this into game vs. game but until recently, Trion was pumping out content way faster than Blizzard was, with far less resources. Blizz picked up thier game though and Rift started seeing less per patch though are picking it back up. As far as varied difficulty levels, that is a design choice, not a broader range of content. A lot of Rift players, myself included, think multiple difficulties are poor design and should not be done.

[Recondition]

I'm loving rift so far as a F2P (well, I lucked out and got a box copy for $5!). Blows WOW out of the water imho. My shoulder armor isn't bigger than I am! I just wish Orcs were a playable race. :-( . And no cutesy panda bears.

First thing I farmed plat for REX for was this bad boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vtrnLSXO6g
that's not to say Rift doesn't have its share of cutesyness, this is an MMO where the default dog model is often a corgi after all. :P

[ariakul]

First thing I farmed plat for REX for was this bad boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vtrnLSXO6g
that's not to say Rift doesn't have its share of cutesyness, this is an MMO where the default dog model is often a corgi after all. :P

LOL. thats almost as awesome aas the rift commercial with the panda.

Corgi > Pug!!!

[Tarkenoff]

I hadn't played Rift for about 8 months. F2P, got back in, and spent $40.00 on bag slots, bank slots, and professions. That is $40.00 I would not have spent otherwise, and I am sure I am not the only one

Rift just has so many things going for it in the way they do professions/souls/content/open world pve/...everything. The combat is very clunky for me though. It seems like there is always a slight delay when I send a command until it executes, and that has bothered me since Day 1. How is all of this related to F2P? It lets people experience it!

[Deleted]

they can use this extra income to implement or improve the damn engine, or actually use client side instead of server side, they should have the income now to actually actively monitor the security, having a better gameplay would work wonders, and before people ask, ive got a very powerful system.

the game for me still suffers the same issue pre FTP, long queues every time for dungeons as dps, also no other player seems to help provide a sustainable item availability on the AH, this is for all level brackets, and for the love of god, stop with the one shotting mechanics, its bad design as opposed to being hard, even touhou has more leeway then this and is much much harder in difficulty....

[Edge-]

they can use this extra income to implement or improve the damn engine, or actually use client side instead of server side, they should have the income now to actually actively monitor the security, having a better gameplay would work wonders, and before people ask, ive got a very powerful system.

the game for me still suffers the same issue pre FTP, long queues every time for dungeons as dps, also no other player seems to help provide a sustainable item availability on the AH, this is for all level brackets, and for the love of god, stop with the one shotting mechanics, its bad design as opposed to being hard, even touhou has more leeway then this and is much much harder in difficulty....

The engine is definitely an issue, with the biggest problem being that it's only effectively using a single core of the CPU. If they allowed for multi-core support, performance would improve dramatically. Supposedly 2.4 (next patch) has some improvements in the works (not multi-core support though), but we'll see.

IIRC the game is set up like WoW in that actions are registered client side and then resolved at the server, so I don't see the client/server side issue thing you're talking about.

Security? They had the issue at launch but since then they've not had any breaches that I know of, so I'm not sure what needs to improve.

Better gameplay? Ok...that's one of the vaguest statements ever. What about the gameplay is bad?

Long queue's for DPS is a given. The dps dramatically outnumber tanks/healers, and the problem is compounded in this game by there only being 2 dps slots rather than 3. No game has figured out how to deal with that issue yet. People just don't like playing tanks or healers, even when enticed with instant/near instant queues and additional rewards.

Which one shot mechanics? They definitely exist, but it's absolutely not touhou. Touhou throws a million things at you at once and you need to constantly be on your game. All the one shot mechanics I've seen thus far are nowhere near that frequent, and generally give you more than enough time to get out of them even if you were distracted for a few seconds.

[Deleted]

the gameplay relating to the damn engine, since its not very smooth at registering or rather the delay in the spells, man thats damning, though always thought that was related to it being server side as opposed to client side.

the one shot mechanics that notice a lot of bosses have, 5 man or raids, having abilities that one shot you doesnt make it hard, just silly and bad design, they can think of better ways to stress you out more, just think its silly, avoiding is all good and everything, but they dont need to develop one shot killing.

was using touhou as an example, it has more leeway then say for example grun i think it was, the work boss in hammerknell that goes underground and leaves a one shotting trail, though touhou is the more difficult game, and that boss where you gotta plant bombs or something as well, one person blows it up, the whole raid wipes, its just a waste of time and bad design, could of had it more or less leave a perma debuff where any more just increases damage taken so to speak, but they decided on a one shotting mechanic...

- - - Updated - - -

ah forgot to add, the security comes from the fact its the reason why most mmos use server side as opposed to client side, sorry for the way the sentences might be structured if thats caused confusion

- - - Updated - - -

worm* not work

[Recondition]

Creepy, my UI is pretty much set up exactly as yours. I didn't even notice it until half way in because it looked just perfectly familiar

That's not my video, I just googled "Panda mount rift" :P But to answer your question--every element of the Rift UI is customizeable so play around with it and the elements you don't like until you get it where you want. It works perfectly for me and there's little clutter.

[Rukha]

I've been playing rift since 2 months after launch. I accidentally stumbled upon it when it was in Open Beta, enjoyed the beta, then didn't buy it because I didn't know anyone playing the game. I was still very active in WoW tho, so that did play a big part in it.

I then left WoW (mostly getting burned out on the game). Looked for something fresh and new, then remembered Rift and started playing. Found an awesome guild and had a great time overall (only PvE content since I don't like to PvP). A month or 2 before the F2P announcement, I quit raiding and dropped down to an extremely casual play. Real life was undergoing a lot of changes which in return resulted in me no longer being able to keep up with raiding.

Ok, back to F2P. For me it's actually a blessing that F2P was introduced. I can still enjoy all aspects of the game but without the subscription. Due to my extremely limited amount of time, I cannot justify for myself paying a sub. I play something like once a week for an evening. When I play, I mostly only focus on Dimensions. the F2P model allows me to continue to enjoy the game I enjoyed so much for the past years.

I am extremely happy so far with the model itself as well. an extremely well done cash shop (although horrible look-and-feel). I am not limited in access to content, which is an extremely big positive, and if I want to spend some money (In support of Trion for continuing making a great game) I can spend it on items that support the focus of my gameplay.

Overall I am pleased with F2P.

[RoninaThorstone]

It is nice about the shoulder armor. Oh, and no "cutesy pandas", but we do have cutesy female dwarves:


Although, for the record, I had no problem with the pandaren. Females, anyway. Couldn't stand the males.

THAT'S DIFFERENT.

Short chicks are awesome.

[Pachycrocuta]

THAT'S DIFFERENT.

Short chicks are awesome.

Best female dwarves I have ever seen are in Rift. They are so much better than the males.

[hablix]

Been playing Rift lately. Their model is so smart it's frankly beautiful. It really does give me the full game to play, but dangles JUST enough of of a carrot that I really do want to put the cash down to unlock the features, like the extra bag slots or auction postings. These are non-essential features in that I can play and enjoy the game without them, but the advanced player or at least the enthusiastic player will want them to get the most out of their experience. So, I just dropped $50 to buy 8500 credits, enough to unlock the extra slots and post auctions; as far as I'm concerned I just "bought" the game, and Trion has built so much good will with me that I foresee more purchases in the future. Blizzard could learn a thing or two, because at the same time I'm seriously considering cancelling my sub over so much bad will and disillusionment over their transmog paywall controversy, I'm voluntarily giving Trion $50 they didn't even demand from me before they let me play their game.

As for the game itself, well, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that I've been making apologies and excuses for Blizzard for a long time. My only other MMO has been GW2, which was good, but so far Rift is even better. For one thing, it has mounts... Lots of mounts. And they look far, far better than WoW mounts. Gear looks amazing. Grouping options are awesome. Did WoW steal LFG from Rift or vice-versa? Rifts are like Dynamic Events + Scenarios, epic and sometimes zone-wide. Instant Adventures add even more grouping options for the leveling player. Not saying that Rift is categorically "better", but I am saying I feel like an asshole for being such a hardline Blizzard apologist while there was such a competitive offering out there that I dismissed out of hand because 'no MMO will ever beat WoW.'

[Kelimbror]

Best female dwarves I have ever seen are in Rift. They are so much better than the males.

I like the males and females because they look like what real fantasy dwarves would look like instead of walking caricatures.

On topic: I couldn't get over the dry spell abandonment this game received as Defiance was being launched. I tried to, but the apathy I developed over that time period remained. I tried to convince myself I wanted to play again when F2P launched as it is one of the better models, but their general disregard for their former subscriebrs(note: not bad treatment, just moved on from them ideologically) and the dearth of content prior to launch had a lasting impact on my desire to play.

Combined with the beyond terrible performance of the new zone at all times of the day, not to mention the utter broken game when a zone event starts, and Rift has pretty much fallen from my sights. I still have it installed as I know my fickle nature with MMOs, but as of right now there's just not a very compelling reason to play the game outside of a raid environment...which is a shame because I loved the world it exists in, the feel of the races and the characters, but something is just missing for me and I have probably moved on from Rift for a long time.

[Clymene]

I like the males and females because they look like what real fantasy dwarves would look like instead of walking caricatures.

On topic: I couldn't get over the dry spell abandonment this game received as Defiance was being launched. I tried to, but the apathy I developed over that time period remained. I tried to convince myself I wanted to play again when F2P launched as it is one of the better models, but their general disregard for their former subscriebrs(note: not bad treatment, just moved on from them ideologically) and the dearth of content prior to launch had a lasting impact on my desire to play.

Combined with the beyond terrible performance of the new zone at all times of the day, not to mention the utter broken game when a zone event starts, and Rift has pretty much fallen from my sights. I still have it installed as I know my fickle nature with MMOs, but as of right now there's just not a very compelling reason to play the game outside of a raid environment...which is a shame because I loved the world it exists in, the feel of the races and the characters, but something is just missing for me and I have probably moved on from Rift for a long time.

I believe this video describes your relationship with MMOs in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTHNpusq654

[Kelimbror]

I believe this video describes your relationship with MMOs in general.

I believe your observation as a bystander and non personal acquaintance of mine can be described with this word: Uninformed.

PS - Whether you meant it to be sarcastic or serious, my judgment is the same. If the collective 'you' thinks someone must always love a product and play that product, that their levels of enthusiasm and criticism need to be tempered instead of correctly expressed, then I don't value your opinion.

What collective 'you' calls fairweathered, I call intelligent consumerism and acute awareness of your position. It's arguable whether it's better to be blind and happy, or know the truth and be unsatisfied, but my personal opinion values the reality of a situation and not the false promises of of a self imposed illusion.

Edit: Can't say collective 'you' enough. (As I'm not using this post to stick it to you, in what is likely a bit of good natured ribbing...but I am using it to have a real conversation)

Edit Edit: It's fair to say my current perception changes rapidly, but it's rarely arbitrary and unexplainable and almost always predicated by actions of the developers or the state of the games themselves.

[Fencers]

Combined with the beyond terrible performance of the new zone at all times of the day, not to mention the utter broken game when a zone event starts, and Rift has pretty much fallen from my sights.

Dendrome is a lot better now. I don't experience the crushing, CPU melting performance as it was at launch.

But yea, Rift is pretty much a raid heavy game. Eventually, raiding is the endpoint for all character progression. A literal end game for some players, I suppose.

[Kelimbror]

Dendrome is a lot better now. I don't experience the crushing, CPU melting performance as it was at launch.

That's good to hear. I will obviously play it at some point, maybe when the upcoming announced performance changes are made I'll give it a look and see if it basically negates that issue. I normally don't have any of those problems on my rig, so it's an understandably big put off from playing.

But yea, Rift is pretty much a raid heavy game. Eventually, raiding is the endpoint for all character progression. A literal end game for some players, I suppose.

Unfortunately so...though it's the intended design and I can't fault that. Oh to be a young, starry-eyed new Rift player like I was 9 months ago when I argued with you about what you just posted. The world was so full of content...and then I did it all.

[Clymene]

I believe your observation as a bystander and non personal acquaintance of mine can be described with this word: Uninformed.

PS - Whether you meant it to be sarcastic or serious, my judgment is the same. If the collective 'you' thinks someone must always love a product and play that product, that their levels of enthusiasm and criticism need to be tempered instead of correctly expressed, then I don't value your opinion.

What collective 'you' calls fairweathered, I call intelligent consumerism and acute awareness of your position. It's arguable whether it's better to be blind and happy, or know the truth and be unsatisfied, but my personal opinion values the reality of a situation and not the false promises of of a self imposed illusion.

Edit: Can't say collective 'you' enough. (As I'm not using this post to stick it to you, in what is likely a bit of good natured ribbing...but I am using it to have a real conversation)

Edit Edit: It's fair to say my current perception changes rapidly, but it's rarely arbitrary and unexplainable and almost always predicated by actions of the developers or the state of the games themselves.

First it was meant as good natured ribbing. Second you're point about raids is very true. I've only logged in to the PTS recently because apparently I enjoy the challenge of trying to complete a broken world event. I've completed all the content for my playstyle. I wasn't subscribed during the downtime between 2.2 and 2.3, which I'm sure colors my perception, so I never got a sense of abandonment.