ZAM Attends Rift State of the Game Conference
This article originally appeared on ZAM on July 14, 2011.
Executive Producer Scott Hartsman gave Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff all sorts of details on upcoming Rift content, from experience gains past the level cap to new types of instances and PvP features.
We just attended the first Rift State of the Game press conference with Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, and it's safe to say that Trion Worlds has a ton of content planned for the game. Hartsman discussed post-50 uses for experience; PvP changes in the form of PvP rifts and Warfronts; a new gameplay option called Instant Adventure to quickly get you into dynamic content; new Chronicles of Telara instances for solo players and small groups that focus on story; and much more.
Keep reading below for all the details straight from Hartsman!
Earning Experience Past the Level Cap
Players will soon be able to fill up their experience bar and earn points that can be used to enhance their characters. “To tie it to the story, you've been reborn, you've become a level 50 ascended and have been fighting against the planes for so long. After so much time, you unlock the ability to obtain the power of the planes themselves,” Hartsman said.
You'll continue to earn experience to collect points that will be spent in new planar attunement trees. The trees will grant you things such as simple bonuses, weapon and spell specializations, and potential ability modifications. Hartsman said they will only allow players to modify their abilities if it doesn't break the balance of the game.
He said that earning experience past level 50 goes hand in hand with the upcoming Instant Adventure system and the Chronicles of Telara instances. “It's the large picture, and we're ridiculously excited to get it out there,” he said.
Instant Adventures
The purpose of the new Instant Adventure gameplay feature is to “make the mass scale fun accessible to more people.” As Hartsman said, Rift's gigantic dynamic events are fun if you're in the right place at the right time. “How do we let people who are interested in that create critical mass on their own? What gameplay systems can we put in place to make that happen? That is the underlying theme behind it,” he said.
The idea behind Instant Adventures is that you're going to be able to come online and indicate your interest in these dynamic events by clicking a button, and you'll be placed in a group to fight through rapidly escalating encounters that take advantage of rifts and invasions. "It will escalate up to new content that will be unique to this system,” Hartsman said.
“The number of people in a group together will be presented with challenges that the system knows matches their group size. There is an additional reward mechanic for completely these adventures that is unique to the system,” he said, noting that the distribution method of rewards will be similar to the rift system.
Chronicles of Telara Instances
The new Chronicles of Telara instances are for solo players or small groups, and they'll focus on making the game's lore accessible to more people through key characters and areas. "We're targeting epic settings and unique aspects of stories that will only exist in these chronicles, as well as fighting alongside key characters you normally don't get to see, We want people to walk away saying, 'that was cool!' ” Hartsman said.
Hartsman emphasized that the Chronicles instances are not simply a scaled down version of normal instances. “We want a unique type of experience and not just you in a cave. It will be a setting you normally won't see,” he said, noting that the first one takes place in Hammerknell.
The Chronicles of Telara instances are the type of content you'll see added in the regular content updates. As with everything else Hartsman discussed during the press conference, they're on Trion's short to medium timetable.
New PvP Content
A large portion of the press conference focused on new PvP content that's coming to Rift in the form of Warfront changes and new PvP rifts. A new Warfront gameplay type called Escalation will be added to the Whitefall Steppes map. Hartsman couldn't provide many details, but it will be available for testing on the Public Test Shard today, July 14. According to Community Manager James “Elrar” Nichols, the Guardians and Defiants have deployed massive rune cannons on the map, and players must "capture three Sourcestone from the field and hold them at your base to win. Beware though; Sourcestone can be stolen directly from your base by the enemy."
As far as future Warfronts are concerned, Hartsman said they're working on a brand new Warfront they've playtested internally. “We like it a lot,” he said. "All I can say for now is it's new chaotic fun in a setting you wouldn't expect a Warfront to take place in."
Hartsman said that their world PvP plans are based on feedback from previous features. They started off with things like raid rifts and Ancient Wardstones, which tended not to work as well as they'd hoped. They've since added PvP dailies and hotspots, which helped add incentives and prove there's a desire for world PvP. “PvP rifts are the next logical step,” he said. “We're building on the theme of a known place in the world where PvP is the key activity.”
When asked if any changes will be made to PvP to make it more viable for a casual player, Hartsman said, “I don't think of it as a huge grind despite the fact that it's a long-lasting experience. The moment to moment gameplay is supposed to be the larger fun of PvP, which is why Warfronts are popular.” He mentioned that daily quests pay out well, and said PvP rifts will do the same. “It's definitely a long journey, but as a person who's moderately high up myself, I play because I enjoy the gameplay,” he said.
Cross-Shard Instances
Trion is testing a cross shard LFG system on the Public Test Shard, and Hartsman went into quite a bit of detail about their larger plans for the servers.
"We started by optimizing the servers like crazy. The next step was to buy a lot of server upgrades to basically act like a force multiplier to up the Wargroup capacity themselves. About two months ago we boosted the Wargroups themselves from four shards to eight shards. The next step after that was to get free character transfers rolling to take advantage of this extra capacity. The next step, which we're on now, is we're doing a lot of prep behind the scenes of swapping shard hardware around to get everyone into as large a Wargroup as possible. Once the densities of players match the destinations they transfer to, everything gets better. We're going to end up with a greater concentration of cross-server pools for everyone. … It's all this larger plan around getting players more concentrated into larger Wargroups. That is the method behind all of the madness."
Miscellaneous Topics
Executive Producer Scott Hartsman gave Editor-in-Chief Darryl Gangloff all sorts of details on upcoming Rift content, from experience gains past the level cap to new types of instances and PvP features.
We just attended the first Rift State of the Game press conference with Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, and it's safe to say that Trion Worlds has a ton of content planned for the game. Hartsman discussed post-50 uses for experience; PvP changes in the form of PvP rifts and Warfronts; a new gameplay option called Instant Adventure to quickly get you into dynamic content; new Chronicles of Telara instances for solo players and small groups that focus on story; and much more.
Keep reading below for all the details straight from Hartsman!
Earning Experience Past the Level Cap
Players will soon be able to fill up their experience bar and earn points that can be used to enhance their characters. “To tie it to the story, you've been reborn, you've become a level 50 ascended and have been fighting against the planes for so long. After so much time, you unlock the ability to obtain the power of the planes themselves,” Hartsman said.
You'll continue to earn experience to collect points that will be spent in new planar attunement trees. The trees will grant you things such as simple bonuses, weapon and spell specializations, and potential ability modifications. Hartsman said they will only allow players to modify their abilities if it doesn't break the balance of the game.
He said that earning experience past level 50 goes hand in hand with the upcoming Instant Adventure system and the Chronicles of Telara instances. “It's the large picture, and we're ridiculously excited to get it out there,” he said.
Instant Adventures
The purpose of the new Instant Adventure gameplay feature is to “make the mass scale fun accessible to more people.” As Hartsman said, Rift's gigantic dynamic events are fun if you're in the right place at the right time. “How do we let people who are interested in that create critical mass on their own? What gameplay systems can we put in place to make that happen? That is the underlying theme behind it,” he said.
The idea behind Instant Adventures is that you're going to be able to come online and indicate your interest in these dynamic events by clicking a button, and you'll be placed in a group to fight through rapidly escalating encounters that take advantage of rifts and invasions. "It will escalate up to new content that will be unique to this system,” Hartsman said.
“The number of people in a group together will be presented with challenges that the system knows matches their group size. There is an additional reward mechanic for completely these adventures that is unique to the system,” he said, noting that the distribution method of rewards will be similar to the rift system.
Chronicles of Telara Instances
The new Chronicles of Telara instances are for solo players or small groups, and they'll focus on making the game's lore accessible to more people through key characters and areas. "We're targeting epic settings and unique aspects of stories that will only exist in these chronicles, as well as fighting alongside key characters you normally don't get to see, We want people to walk away saying, 'that was cool!' ” Hartsman said.
Hartsman emphasized that the Chronicles instances are not simply a scaled down version of normal instances. “We want a unique type of experience and not just you in a cave. It will be a setting you normally won't see,” he said, noting that the first one takes place in Hammerknell.
The Chronicles of Telara instances are the type of content you'll see added in the regular content updates. As with everything else Hartsman discussed during the press conference, they're on Trion's short to medium timetable.
New PvP Content
A large portion of the press conference focused on new PvP content that's coming to Rift in the form of Warfront changes and new PvP rifts. A new Warfront gameplay type called Escalation will be added to the Whitefall Steppes map. Hartsman couldn't provide many details, but it will be available for testing on the Public Test Shard today, July 14. According to Community Manager James “Elrar” Nichols, the Guardians and Defiants have deployed massive rune cannons on the map, and players must "capture three Sourcestone from the field and hold them at your base to win. Beware though; Sourcestone can be stolen directly from your base by the enemy."
As far as future Warfronts are concerned, Hartsman said they're working on a brand new Warfront they've playtested internally. “We like it a lot,” he said. "All I can say for now is it's new chaotic fun in a setting you wouldn't expect a Warfront to take place in."
Hartsman said that their world PvP plans are based on feedback from previous features. They started off with things like raid rifts and Ancient Wardstones, which tended not to work as well as they'd hoped. They've since added PvP dailies and hotspots, which helped add incentives and prove there's a desire for world PvP. “PvP rifts are the next logical step,” he said. “We're building on the theme of a known place in the world where PvP is the key activity.”
When asked if any changes will be made to PvP to make it more viable for a casual player, Hartsman said, “I don't think of it as a huge grind despite the fact that it's a long-lasting experience. The moment to moment gameplay is supposed to be the larger fun of PvP, which is why Warfronts are popular.” He mentioned that daily quests pay out well, and said PvP rifts will do the same. “It's definitely a long journey, but as a person who's moderately high up myself, I play because I enjoy the gameplay,” he said.
Cross-Shard Instances
Trion is testing a cross shard LFG system on the Public Test Shard, and Hartsman went into quite a bit of detail about their larger plans for the servers.
"We started by optimizing the servers like crazy. The next step was to buy a lot of server upgrades to basically act like a force multiplier to up the Wargroup capacity themselves. About two months ago we boosted the Wargroups themselves from four shards to eight shards. The next step after that was to get free character transfers rolling to take advantage of this extra capacity. The next step, which we're on now, is we're doing a lot of prep behind the scenes of swapping shard hardware around to get everyone into as large a Wargroup as possible. Once the densities of players match the destinations they transfer to, everything gets better. We're going to end up with a greater concentration of cross-server pools for everyone. … It's all this larger plan around getting players more concentrated into larger Wargroups. That is the method behind all of the madness."
Miscellaneous Topics
- There are plans to add more content for lower levels, but not in the immediate future.
- The drops in the Waves of Madness event will continue to be available once the event ends. “We're also going to be including them as rare drops in Hammerknell related content. That also includes one of the Chronicle instances,” Hartsman said.
- In regards to the popularity of rifts, Hartsman compared them to building blocks that are used to create more content, such as crafting rifts, raid rifts and PvP rifts. “As we take them to the next level and improve the gameplay, they get used more and more,” he said.
- Hartsman can't give a specific date on when players will be able to take the fight to the planes. “It is a theme we like also. It's something we're planning for the future,” he said.
- Following the launch of free character transfers, shard populations are “ridiculously good. In some cases, too good.” The team gets reports every hour of where players are going, and they monitor queue sizes and turn on transfers where needed. “People seem to be self-balancing real well,” he said.
- Plans are in the works for web and mobile apps. Hartsman couldn't give much detail, but said he's seen functional prototypes on a mobile device.
- Trion wants feedback on what types of non-combat secondary skills and activities players would like to see added to the game.
- Hartsman wants to host a Rift or Trion Worlds convention someday. “I would love that more than anything else. We will see when that fits into our plans,” he said.