Ember Isle - Something stirs underwater

[Slipmat]

The more astute or exploring players will by now have noticed a few changes made to Ember Isle when 2.4 dropped.

First of all, there's a new base on a small island called Breaker Point just to the west of stranglewood and it has it's own travel stone, but...it's underwater all the intriguing stuff is to be found.

There's a huge city now underwater called Ruins of Gakulos, also included is a big complex further north called the Temple of the Moon but the spectacular looking part is an underwater lave eruption and flow called the Dream Furnace. No one is speaking, no one seems to know what plans are afoot for Ember Isle

[Puremallace]

That city has been there since Ember released. I was always confused there were zero quest or any real reason to go there.

[Onorvele]

The name is new - and if there's a lava flow, that's new too.

Reason to go there? Was often a great source of artifacts, but that seems to have faded in recent patches.

[Slipmat]

That city has been there since Ember released

What was there at the start was just a few buildings and what looked like Caduceus Rise underwater, compare this video i made when Ember Isle came out and go for a swim now, the "city" is 10 times bigger



The Dream Furnace and Temple of the Moon are totally new, as is Breaker Point where the new travel stone is, something is brewing alright

[Deleted]

Ember isle is beautiful, and there were fun big pvp battles going on there on pvp server when big world events took place. Perhaps pvp IA will start there?=)

[Puremallace]

Ember isle is beautiful, and there were fun big pvp battles going on there on pvp server when big world events took place. Perhaps pvp IA will start there?=)

Daglar is pretty clear they do not drop dev time into something unless there is a future point to it. I have to wonder if they are using that as a live server testing ground for 3.0 content of a possible underwater zone. That is what they used planetouched wilds for.

Updated:

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...ml#post4512185

We have some upcoming content in Ember Isle, it's true. Due to some schedule juggling the art made it onto live before the population. Feel free to explore ahead of time (we won't stop you) but things will be much more interesting in "an upcoming patch". We'll talk more about this little experiment of ours later.

[Slipmat]

Time to solve the cryptic comments, Captaincursor, Lore master, posted this on the Forum:

We have some upcoming content in Ember Isle, it's true. Due to some schedule juggling the art made it onto live before the population. Feel free to explore ahead of time (we won't stop you) but things will be much more interesting in "an upcoming patch". We'll talk more about this little experiment of ours later.

Source: http://forums.riftgame.com/general-d...lready-ei.html

[Puremallace]

I am guessing world event? There are things down there that give swim speed buffs. We are a little overdue for some type of underwater race or zone.

[Slipmat]

Confirmed by Simon "Dead Simon" Ffinch that Update 2.5 will have the Ember Isle underwater zone up and running

If i'm getting it right, it's more an "experiment" to see how much underwater combat/traveling around will players tolerate or want, guess it's a way to then tuning Rift 3.0 and the Plane of Water around what we like/dislike about underwater stuff

It's all discussed towards the end of this 2.4 play through for Gamespot, around the 45mins 30 secs part

[Fkiolaris]

The only underwater zone I have ever done is the one from Cataclysm and I really didn't like it (also seems the majority of players didn't like it at all, Blizzard stated as much). There are many factors for that, primarily the fact you move slower, the addition of a 3rd dimension in a game that was clearly built as 2D in terms of combat and questing etc etc. That is not to say that water or sea-themed areas are bad, but I hope they followed closely the attempts in WoW for that and took some notes/lessons.

[Recondition]

I actually am one of the few who liked Vash'jir and I eagerly await 3.0's leveling. I can't wait for whatever this new zone is.

[Calliso]

I actually am one of the few who liked Vash'jir and I eagerly await 3.0's leveling. I can't wait for whatever this new zone is.

I am one of the few as well. Also from what it looks like the plane of water won't be all underwater maybe just a couple zones. So its not like those who hate underwater zones will be out of luck completely. And who knows if Trion pulls this off very well they may even make some people who normally hate water zones like the ones we will see in the expansion.

[Puremallace]

Well got to admit atleast they are willing to try and practically reshape an entire expansion over our feedback. I look forward to it. The speed buff thing that is there is nice. They clearly need water mounts.

Give me a lapras that swims underwater or a freaking turtle!!

[Calliso]

Yeah the speed/water breathing buff is really nice. But I do hope that we won't have to rely on just those and get some sort of water mount for the underwater zones in 3.0. I think a two headed sea turtle would work nicely! :P

[Syce]

they should add in a SeaDoo event or weekend event on the lake of solace. SeaDoos are fun

[theWocky]

Yeah the speed/water breathing buff is really nice. But I do hope that we won't have to rely on just those and get some sort of water mount for the underwater zones in 3.0. I think a two headed sea turtle would work nicely! :P

That would be nice - a seahorse would be cool too, however.

[Deleted]

I liked vash'jir but I had higher expectations of the area. Being inside the big turtles brain, was hoping there would be a big raid to kill that turtle later. However, you leveled there once and never had a reason to go back. Blizzard didnt take advantage of the region.
I dont think Rift should put all their leveling content next xpac underwater, and if they do decide to have one underwater zone.. at least make it meaningful, perhaps endgame

[Arbs]

I liked vash'jir but I had higher expectations of the area. Being inside the big turtles brain, was hoping there would be a big raid to kill that turtle later. However, you leveled there once and never had a reason to go back. Blizzard didnt take advantage of the region.
I dont think Rift should put all their leveling content next xpac underwater, and if they do decide to have one underwater zone.. at least make it meaningful, perhaps endgame

Nah the raid (Abyssal Maw) was suppose to be in Cataclysm but got scrapped & supposely moved to the next expansion if it includes Queen Azshara.

But underwater zones are fun, but they need to be done right.

[Khelendros]

Nah the raid (Abyssal Maw) was suppose to be in Cataclysm but got scrapped & supposely moved to the next expansion if it includes Queen Azshara.

But underwater zones are fun, but they need to be done right.

TOA for DAOC was the best underwater expansion for PVE content (though it wrecked DAOC pvp irrevocably, but thats a seperate issue) the actual underwater content in DAOC was amazing though.