With the targeted release date for RIFT 3.0: Nightmare Tide quickly approaching– on October 8th to be exact– the Trion Worlds team got together for a live stream event yesterday that Executive Producer Bill “Daglar” Fisher and Senior Design Director Simon “Dead Simon” Ffinch both attended. Plenty of forum questions were asked ahead of time and many were answered. Unfortunately, there was also talk about some features not quite being ready for launch. There was even talk about Trion possibly not meeting their target release date after all.
Here’s a brief rundown of what we found out:
- The new 10-man raid sliver, The Rhen of Fate, will be released on launch day while the 20-man– Mount Sharax– will come at a later date.
- The release date for Nightmare Tide isn’t set in stone and remains flexible. This is why the team has been careful to use the term “targeted release date” thus far. Trion is currently weighing their options and is very much interested in our feedback. They haven’t announced anything officially yet, but Daglar said that they will make a decision within the next couple of days as to whether they’ll be able to meet their targeted date.
- Margle Palace (the new main city/hub for 3.0) is still being worked on and polished.
- The amphibious mount upgrade items won’t be available until at least a few weeks after launch. The team is still debating where they’ll drop from.
- Planewalker: Water attunement (which is needed to equip some pieces of level 65 gear) can be purchased off the RIFT store, but with in-game currency (most likely either world currency or dungeon currency).
- The only zone that will have instant adventures upon launch will be Goboro Reef. It hasn’t been decided yet whether the rest of the zones will have IA.
- There will be three new armor sets in 3.0– the leveling set, the expert dungeon set, and Tier 1 raid gear. The leveling set artwork is still being worked on.
- We might be getting 1 more raid in Tier 1 post-launch in addition to what we’re getting on launch/closely after launch. This isn’t for sure yet.
- We’re not getting chronicles intended for duos in 3.0 as of yet. There’s one chronicle so far– Shadow from the Beyond– and it’s soloable. The team’s deciding what they want to do with chronicles at the moment. We’re likely see higher level versions of old chronicles before completely new ones.
- Trion does have plans for additional zones in 3.0, but whether we’ll see those plans come to fruition depends on how the expansion goes.
- There will be no Volan-like world bosses in 3.0.
- 3.0 is launching with 4 new dungeons and 2 remakes (Return to Empyrean Core and Return to Iron Tomb) with new mechanics.
- We’ll probably see a few more intrepid sliver 10-mans along the way. We might one day get intrepid 20-man raids.
- The new combined PvE/PvP system essentially allows you to PvP for raid-quality gear if you so choose to or PvE for PvP gear if you choose to. The raid currency can be obtained from PvP, raids, dungeons, and weeklies that are offered for every playstyle. There’s a weekly cap for this currency. F2P players will likely have to do every type of activity to max out while Patrons will be able to have a bit more flexibility and pick and choose activities to reach that cap.
- The new warfront in 3.0 will be released on day 1. It’s called Ghar Station Eyn and is currently on the PTS for player testing. It takes place in the Plane of Water but isn’t underwater.
- There won’t be any new notoriety-boosting consumables available upon 3.0’s launch.
- There are new dimensions coming with 3.0. Four, specifically. One from the Collector’s Edition and three from Dreamweaving.
- 3.0 will launch with normal artifacts. At a later date we’ll get twisted and unstable artifacts. Dead Simon is also toying with a fourth type of artifact– something nightmare-related.
- The new puzzles won’t be gated behind artifact sets.
- Conquest won’t be available until level 65.
After watching the live stream and doing a bit of PTS testing, unfortunately, one thing becomes apparent: Nightmare Tide isn’t launching with nearly as many features as many players would like. A few features are still even being worked on– with a targeted release window for less than a week away.
This also brings up another area of concern. If features and artwork are still being worked on with a targeted release less than a week away, there are inevitably going to be more than a few bugs when 3.0 is pushed out. The expansion’s only been in open beta since September 30th. That, itself, is a bit of a red flag. Is Trion rushing things this time around?
Seatin offered his take yesterday, and honestly– I can’t help but agree for the most part. Trion definitely seems to be rushing to get Nightmare Tide out, and this could do more harm than good in the long run. Polish is important, as are multiple endgame options. Perhaps there’s a good reason the release date wasn’t set in stone.
What do you think? Is Nightmare Tide ready for release?
The post RIFT: Live Stream Roundup and a Question – Is Nightmare Tide Ready? appeared first on JunkiesNation.
