Recovery via INTERNET DRAGONS

I know a few of y'all play MMOs.

I have been an MMO player on and off for a while. A friend recently pointed
me at an MMO I had not heard of previously.

The MMO is "RIFT", by Trion -- an indie dev company, basically. They have a
bunch of people who used to work on EQ and WoW and stuff. RIFT is described
by many people as a "WoW clone" or an "EQ clone" or a "DAoC clone" -- whatever
they used to play and enjoy, it reminds them of it.

This game is everything I ever wished WoW would be. The character development
system is much more interesting and deeper, the crafting is better, and the
developer is the most responsive I have EVER seen. The game is currently in
beta, with an open beta starting the 15th. In the last couple of weeks:

1. People on PvE servers (the game distinguishes between these and PvP
servers) complained that people were ganking quest givers and quest hubs,
which was annoying. This was Beta 5.
2. Trion implemented a specialized fix, which is that guards are now much more
dangerous *to player characters only*. NPC invasions can still wipe out
quest hubs.
3. In Beta 6, people reported that, while this was awesome on PvE servers, it
broke gameplay on PvP servers.
4. As of today, 4 days later, they've announced that in the open beta, the
guard change will apply only on PvE servers.

Now, a couple of things:

1. This is more attention to the needs/desires of PvE players than Blizzard
has given in the last 6 years.
2. This is also more attention to the needs/desires of PvP players than
Blizzard has given in the last 6 years.
3. Blizzard has said that having game mechanics be different by server type
is far too difficult and can't be done.

Being very much a PvE player myself, I also note with some joy that RIFT
allows the player to disable the "auto-flag" mechanism for PvP. If I
accidentally target a flagged enemy of some sort and try to use a power, I
get an error message saying "target incompatible with PvP flag state".

If you have ever liked a fantasy RPG or an MMO, this is probably worth
looking at.

(And if you're curious about the levelling system, please just assume an
8-page rant about the best and most flexible character levelling system ever,
only without the insane brokenness of a lot of generic point-buy systems.)

-s
--
Copyright 2010, all wrongs reversed. Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.seebs.net/log/ <-- lawsuits, religion, and funny pictures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_(Scientology) <-- get educated!
I am not speaking for my employer, although they do rent some of my opinions.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Which online game to play?
    ... Guild Wars - best team PvP ... WOW - Best PvE, decent team PvP...probably the best overall quality of production ... Far more mature crowd than most mmos & a much more relaxed pace in general; prettiest visuals of an mmo out there for my liking; my first pick if you aren't a LOTR hater ... best player economy...if you like more complexity than quantum electrodynamics lol! ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg)
  • Re: World PvP
    ... 15 non-pvp flagged alliance planning a mass zerg. ... Players asked for more world PvP. ... would satisfy some subset of the player base. ... So people on PvE servers can't get the buff? ...
    (alt.games.warcraft)
  • Re: World PvP
    ... 15 non-pvp flagged alliance planning a mass zerg. ... Players asked for more world PvP. ... would satisfy some subset of the player base. ... So people on PvE servers can't get the buff? ...
    (alt.games.warcraft)
  • Re: Playing WoW as a Female Character...
    ... Some games split their servers up into those where PVP ... (player versus player) ... arenas (PVE servers), or that can happen anywhere in ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg)
  • Re: Levelling on a PVP Server
    ... same way for a DHK flag system. ... When I see lvl 60 Horde join ... > or not a certain player poses a thread to a certain other player in ... It's exciting, it encourages pvp, it ...
    (alt.games.warcraft)