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Explain the Rifts hype, please.
sleeper100
Member Posts: 5
Hello everyone,
i have been reading about this game lately and i am having some problems understanding something. I have not participated in any of the beta events for now and i am just curious what is so special about the dynamic Rifts in the game, as it appears its one of the main selling points.
Based on what i have read and watched, Rifts are events that spawn some mobs in waves, that can eventually attack a quest hub if they are close enough. Is that all or i am missing something? Some people are comparing them to WARs PQs , but the PQs had story about them, different mobs, different stages and so on. The Rifts here for a person that have not yet tried the game look like just waves of mobs spawned at random points in the world(eventually explained by the games lore i guess). Is that it, or i am missing something, because it looks a bit strange to me. I guess its fun a couple of times but ..... i mean is the whole "dynamic content " just mobs spawned in groups from time to time?
Comments
The RIFTs are entrenched in the story, hell they're in the name of the game.
The rifts pop up randomly because they're supposed to be breaks in what separates the various planes of the world in Telara, through which enemies are invading.
Don't know if it's the rifts themself that hype the game, I'm sure people tend to do that with most semi promissing games these days.
Anyways, from what i can tell rifts can spawn "randomly" they then can attack nearby questhubs and larger villages. They interact with eachother in that they attack eachother if they come across eachother. To seal a rift you have to complete 5 stages.
The cool thing is perhaps not what they do in the first 20 (now 27) levels but what the developers can do with them over time. It can become really interesting I reckon.
Anyways, I haven't done that many but they seem to be some good fun, abit too many people join in though but thats to be expected when everyone is around the same level. Later on there is more diversity in gameplay wich leads to a spreading out of the playerbase.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
First of all, the hype may be the thing that ends up hurting this game. (Edit: I've really been enjoying it a lot, but it's not super-innovative, and since I like it and want to play it, I worry about backlash from the hype hurting the population in the long run.)
I would say that the REAL selling point is the soul system, which lets you retool your character within its archetype if you've bought more "roles" (like a spec). For instance, one of my characters is a Reaver/Void Knight/Riftblade, but I bought a second role, so I can switch to being a Paladin/Beastmaster if I want to.
Rifts are similar to the Public Quests in WAR, except that they can spawn pretty much anywhere, and if they are left unchecked, they start sending out invasions, which are groups of mobs that go out and attack nearby towns and settlements. The rift mobs will fight each other as well, if they are opposing factions, which is interesting, at least.
You pretty much have it right. Rift are dynamic in a few aspects. The three main aspects are random location, scaling, and world interaction.
The main attraction to a rift is that it can change the world. When you look at what Cata did to WoW, that's what rifts try to do, but on a much maller scale. Rifts will change areas or maps and make then look different. Said area or map can be more or less hostile depending on the rift and its duration. This is a notch beyond WAR's PQ as any change will stay until acted on by other players.
So I guess what makes rifts so hyped, is that the world is not ALWAYS static. The problem with Rifts, is that change only comes if the rifts win. But players are always fighting rifts, so in a sense, players are fighting to keep a more static unchanging world. In due time, as prophets say, the rifts should occasionally win and alter the world.
However long that may take is up to speculation.
Thank you for the answers. Probably my question should have been: You see a Rift forming(or whatever its called), and your reaction is :
1. OK, 4 minions, 3 normal, 2 bodyguards and after that a boss.(scaled on the population i guess) or
2. Wow a Rift, i wonder what will come out now.
Looks like there is a bit of a touch to the whole thing then , with the changed zones, footholds and such.
RIFT is polished, old-school and simply fun, three core components most MMOs lack. It's more enjoyable than most MMOs, and thats about all I can say. It's not really unique at all :P
Exactly as in your last sentence. Ppl are now fighting cos of 2 reasons: it's new and they all are anyway in one of 4 zones. What can happen once released players guardian side on european english pvp server (don't remember it's name, sorry:D) could see on friday as everyone was doing warfronts and so few were fighting rifts when the zone was taken by rift spawns completely (there was nice red sky then btw that reminded me alot of Oblivion near spawned gates).
CORRECTION!!!!
There are a lot of misconceptions about what Rifts are in this game. Most of the posts above are wrong or just repeating the sales pitch.
What you need to know is that
1) Rifts are not randomly placed. They all have the same spawn locations. Static spots in every zone in which a rift can only appear. This was seen in beta and confirmed by Trion. Random spawn location claim was just a marketing move which they had to correct when players called them out on it, its not actually part of their design.
2) Rifts are not "completely random" in their timing either. If I had a 3 sided dice with numbers 1-3 on it, and began rolling it every 10 seconds... do you honestly think I wont get all 3 of those numbers in a short period of time? If one of those numbers triggers the Rift for example, it will happen. From what I have seen and based on the bit of programming knowledge I do have, Rifts use whats known as a random number function. Every update cycle will include when to have the system roll to see if the Rift will open or not. The chances are high that you will see rifts open up many times in a day in the same location if they do not change this function. Furhtermore, It is also posible, judging from the Rifts seen in beta, that they have hard coded a timer so that if no Rift spawns within that set time, it will automatically spawn one and start the process over.
In short, Trion will make sure the Rifts are plentiful..since it seems to be their attempt to cover up lack of good content, including quests and variety.
3) Invasions and spawns have set way points. They do NOT move around randomly. Think of it like a train on a train track. It only has one way to go..and thats along the tracks. If the Rift that always opens on the bottom corner of the map spawns a group of mobs that run out of the rift, you can know exactly where they are headed. It doesnt even look natural. Strangely enough, if you open the map and mouse over the rift force, it will tell you exactly where they are haeded. This is done because THEY USE WAY POINTS. Nothing random here folks!
Many games in the past have used this as well. Even World of Warcaft has mobs that move on way points.
***********************************************************
Conclusion: Rifts are merely mob spawners. There is nothing magical going on, nothing deep, just a similar mechanic with different visuals to give the impression of something new and great. Quest hubs are designed to get killed every single time the moment the rift force reaches their hub via set path which is all timed and planned by the system. Its all smoke and mirrors, a marketing ploy but noting truly "revolutionary" much less intelligent. Sorry.
Note: I was a big supporter of Rift until I actually played it and saw the gimmicks for what they were. There is a lot of lazy design in Rift, they didnt make a real system that addresses their concept, but rather, an illusionary one to give the impression of the system being there without it actually being built right. Rift is recycled mechanics with different lable and less quality than the competition.
Good way to ruin the fun Rabenwolf! Of COURSE a computer game is going to have SOME logic built behind it. It HAS to have it or the environment would not be controllable, and as a developer, you need to maintain control. So thanks for pointing out the logical development of rifts and how they are not really random.
As a programmer myself, it still FEELS fun and random. Yes, over a lengthy period of time in one area, you'd start seeing patterns and possibly figure out the system, but in general, the rift system feels fun and fresh.
This is a good and accurate explaination, and the interesting part is the last sentence. In the future, players may be able to invade rifts and go into them.
I opened a level 15 "Tear" last night and had a few other players around me, which was good. I just "popped dynamically at my location, and it was fun and entertaining to see a non-fractured community cooperatively defeat the spawns from the Rift, get rewarded for it, and prevent an invasion force from comming through it by not letting it sit dormant, but closing it.
Again, a very interesting sellin-point of this game is the "Dynamics" and Dynamic inclusion of community, the server as a whole to work cooperatively to guard against the opposing factionsplayer-base that might be able to come through a Rift that is not battled, in the future.
I agree, this is one of the main selling points for me. It always seemed odd that people had "their mobs". If this was a world and you saw someoen fighting for their life against an invader from the beyond you might jump in to help. But normally if you tag another's mob there's the obligatory "sorry" and you run by while they finish the encounter.
For me, the Rifts and their invasions are closer to what I imagine a world against an otherwordly force would be like with people comign together and fighting to defend their areas.
Because of this it's one step closer toward my preferences. however, for some people it's going to be a pain in the neck because all they are going to want to do is "level in peace" and they are going to find that won't be possible in some cases. Game grows on me more and more.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
The main reason of Rift hype was that people thought it will be a spiritual successor of EQ and Vanguard - i.e PvE game for hard core PvE players. Beta sessions prooved this to be wrong, so the current Rift ''craze'' is based on the fact that the game is polished.
Wow.
Well that solves that then. Another fraudulent MMO claiming to be something its not.
No clue. I found rifts to be boring and tried to avoid them after the first 5 or so.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Thank you Rabenwolf, thats what i needed to know.
Thanks for the post Rabenwolf, very dissapointing. I just heard about rift a few days back, read about some of it's features and decided i'd like to try it. I still would like to try it out but you dissapointed me a lot with that post. Thanks for opening my eyes though.
You made up your mind off of one review post? Seriously? And people wonder why there are so many forum warriors here with agendas to sway players away from new games with bogus reviews. I hope that you Atleast are willing to form your own opinion once the game offers a free trial...Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Of Course, I never said I was no longer going to try the game, just dissapointed about that feature. -_-
Ow.
If what you say is true, rifts are merely "repeatable scripted events" rather than random and dynamic, so there's nothing new to be seen.
It is legit information however. Do you want to say I am wrong about the fact that Rifts neither spawn in random locations (as admitted by Scott) or that mobs spawned are not random in their behavior what so ever? The objective parts of my post are just that.
Have you ever played a game called Tabula Rasa? They did what Rift is giving the illusion of doing, and they did a much better job at it.
I was at E3. I spent a bit of time at their very impressive booth (lots of flashy green objects around a stage) and listened to the sales pitch from Trion themselves. Initially I was impressed because they painted a pretty picture and made a lot of claims. It was only until I started playing Rift that I realized it was hot air, fake. They put a lot of their money and effort into marketing the game but very little in actually executing their concept in the game. Just because the package is pretty doesnt mean the contents are not going to be garbage.
Every single video Trion's marketing department is pushing is creating a false image of the game and how "dynamic" it is. Trion did the bare minimum while suggesting they did the "maximum" in designing the game and its "hooks".
It's clear by their very agressive marketing campaign (the number of videos they are pushing, the facebook and twitter push, the whole beta key event in which most beta keys were nothing but lottery tickets) that they are not relying on the game to speak for itself. Just look how they did their Pre-Order set up... free VIP key if you buy the game as a pre order. These are all the signs of a weak product that needs to use every trick in the book to get people to bite the bullet.
You have to be careful not to be fooled by companies that do that. In my eyes, its a form of exploitation. I would rather the consumer at least know what they are getting in to. This doesnt mean they cant have fun, but as long as they know what they are getting, it shouldnt be a problem.
Except my post wasnt a review. It corrected a few of the misconceptions on what "Rifts" are and how they are implimented into the game. Sure some of what I say is subjective, but you can ignore those points if you want. The concrete information is there and its much more reliable than copying and pasting the same pitch coming out of Trion.
Essentially. WAR's PQs were actually better executed than Rift's rifts! There was much more in the way of scripting, layered events and story telling that would go on in a PQ in WAR. For example, in WAR... you could start a bar fight that would turn into a player quest just by messing with some guys beer. This was a well scripted event.
Rifts on the other hand are just mob spawners that show up in the same locations. They are not varied scripted events, but just go through phases in which every time all the mobs are killed it poops out a few more mobs until an elite comes at the end. The Elite always spawns in the middle, and so everyone just runs up to glowing middle point and tries to get the first hit on the elite so they get credit. Its so boring and unchallenging. There is nothing deep at all about it.
My opinion on this is if you are going to copy the mechanics of an older game...you better as hell do a better job at it. Instead of building upon it, they under developed it. You see this thoughout the entire game. Crafting, Quests, Character progression... its all under developed compared to the previous generation. Crafting in Rift makes WoW's crafting system look brilliant.
Here's what I think is going on. Trion is a new start up thats trying to be both publisher and developer. They needed an initial money maker, not exactly their flagship product but something to get some revenue coming in. This is Rift. They quickly pumped out an under developed and highly marketed game while at the same time are developing 2-3 other games at the same time. Dont forget they are also working on a SyFy mmorpg. My guess is they will be putting most of their resources into some future project and just try to see what they can get with Rift. Thats just a guess though, and it is by no means objective just yet.
Other than this, Rabenwulf hit the nail on the head. Sure the game can still be fun for people, but let's call a spade a spade and recognize the truths in the game's design.
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Really? rofl
Really? rofl
Nahh. One of the big pluses for me with rifts is how rewards work. I honestly hated the roll system PQs used. Other than that rifts and PQs are staged the same they have multiple stages that end with a boss encounter of some kind. In gameplay it's basically the same the difference lies in rifts being more immersive due to much better graphics and effects. I do however like how rifts get kinda nuts if you don't shut em Down. Leave a PQ alone in War and it basically stays at stage one all the time, that's not te case in Rift.Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Yes... can you wrap your head around what "better executed" refers to in the poper context of "scripted events"? In essense they are quests as they should be, scripted and some what varied. One of WAR's strongest design features was how it scripted both PvE and PvP events. This is not saying WAR was a great game by any means. but you have to understand what scripted quest design means. I am not talking about anything else, whether its rewards or the loot system. Just the scripted layering of the event.
Wrap my head around? lol. Reagrding this comparison to WAR PQ'sand "Tear", "Rift", "Invasion" events, I must have played a different WAR where their "Static" PQ's were not only "Static", but had absolutely no relevance on the game world, no relevance to factional completion,
the script was the same over and over and over and over again.
So take your WAR scripted design....really.