I used the downtime to post my thoughts.

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As you may or may not already know, I am the current Site Manager for IGN's Rift Kingdom. Closed beta 5 for RIFT is currently underway, and I thought I would take a few minutes during the current server downtime to reflect on the new stuff so far. We are currently on the second day of most widely available beta so far, and the developers are applying the second update to help improve stability and performance.



For people that participated in the earlier betas, a lot of the existing content remains the same. The starter area plus the first two faction specific zones are full of new players. Trion has opened up a ton of new servers and a new shared zone called the Scarlet Gorge, which includes a new dungeon and an increased level cap from 27 to 30, as well as a whole lot of polish.

Read more over at IGN's Rift Kingdom or visit my personal site to see my screenshots from the event.

 

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(In Warhammer, you could solo a PQ up until the last boss. Wait, reset and get stuff, just not the last boss uber stuffs.)


This was one of the concerns my husband and I talked about when I first started researching Rift.


What happens on an unbalanced server? What happens on a low-pop server? Do these things appear as a result of number of people in the zone? Can you cause one to appear? Can you solo one?


And even with the answer to (solo) from what I've seen on the boards being questionable, and the answer to can you make one appear being qualified with quests/items, I'm still looking for answers to that.


I've seen the "call for the good of the realm" go out when Rifts rolled through towns. (For now).


I know my guild will go out together and 5-man these for kicks.


Given how smoothly the concept of the PQs from Warhammer have been implemented (with significant improvement), that's giving me some hope that they might have good answers.


This all hinges on how good a job they do with dynamically matching the number / size / frequency of rifts to the playerbase in the zone. You'd like to think they are planning for additional players coming into the game at later times and for slower "casuals".

 

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Nice!


Just an FYI: trick I learned in DAoC a long time ago with steep canyon walls: turn your character sideways parallel to the side and slide down. (Not good dying in an enemy zone.) Also, I'm lazy: out exploring in Telara and took lots of "shortcuts" this way with no problems.


...except... yeah.. well, getting back up.... sometimes. (Some of the lowbie areas - level 20 and lower), you could use the old sideways strafe jump up the hills.


I hate to think what your vitality was. Did you figure out what happens at 0%?


Screenshot of Scarlett Gorge is gorgeous. Reminds me of an old Tribes 2 (FPS) map. Standing on a ledge like that was a guaranteed headshot.


The one thing I've been doing out here is not following the set track on quests, off exploring finding new mini-hubs and yes, I agree, sometimes getting back to the quest giver is ...annoying.

 

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First character was a warrior, got kind of bored, just started a nightblade rogue, omg, I"m loving it.

 

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I'm also liking the look of the defiant characters way more, dunno why everyone is playing Guardians.

 

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Looking at polls done on the official forums, us Guardians are grossly outnumbered.

Everyone wants to be Kelari

 

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Yeah from what I understand the Guardian is the underdog, and I'm feeling it playing my Rogue right now in the Warfronts.

 

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I like the way my dwarf rogue looks. I guess I'll be an underdog.

 

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OH well I am not surprised then. I found the Defiants way cooler looking in all 3 races. I mean, I hate how the dwarves look, both sexes. Ultimately looks alone won't choose my side I'll go where the people I like to play with go.

It is funny though how they always make the evil races better looking in MMO's, is it that hard to make a cool looking good guy?

 

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once you hit level 10, que up for some pvp. you will get a sweet blue weapon...which just kicks ass

 

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