I don't think the UI is all that great or bad. What I don't understand is the WoW argument. OMG, new game has buttons on their UI, so stolen from wow...or the minimap, omg stolen from wow... health/mana bars omgz stolen from wow. I mean I realize that back in EQ, we typed every command in at the prompt, had no status bars whatsoever and had to hit tab to see the map (ok we did on the map, but AC2 had a minimap before WoW did). The UI is a basic function of a game, and will have the basic functionality and look in every game created that uses a keyboard and mouse to interact. I just don't get the obsession.

Actually, after posting this I realized I havent seen the default wow UI since shortly after launch...I shouldn't post about what I don't know. I have used pitbull ui frames and bartender to completely change my wow ui, so rift may look exactly like the default wow UI and I wouldnt have a clue...apologies.

Useful link...

http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?86638-US-Server-queue-data-10-15-am-PST-24th-Feb

If Briarcliff doesn't straighten out, we may join the Lanys crew. (if that would be ok) Still struggling not being on a PvP server.

You guys really feel like this group will hang together for the most part?

I can't speak for anyone else (not that I even know what the organization of this shindig is), but I'd love to kick some more ass w/ you guys.

I hate it when car manufacturers put the wheel on the fucking left side of the car here in the US. I mean god damn, INNOVATION people.

Your sarcasm card was pulled after you made the following statement a few posts up:

Sorry you guys waited 5 hours to play on a server where a billion people had decided to pre-roll on to what was already the unofficial aussie/eurotrash server ?

I had fun logging in instantly on Laethys. Lotham also had a low queue. Could have picked from about 4 or 5 more with less than 10 min wait times to get in as well. Will they stay that way. Of course not. But it will get better when people decide to flake and quit and it certainly didn't call for the crazy amount of bitching that went down over it.

A better analogy would be where to place things on the car's dashboard. And indeed, car manufacturers have changed many different nuances over the years, even if the general layout is somewhat similar. Even small steps in a different direction are nice to see once in a while, especially when there's obvious reason to change some of them. 10 years ago, I'd put down money that the same people saying it's fine would claim there's nothing broken about the EQ UI. Don't fix it!

There's always room for improvement.

It's a small issue, I just thought it was funny. My primary concern with the game is its slow-paced and uninspired pvp. Out of anything one can take out of the major MMORPG's like WoW, PVP remains one of the realms in which there's a ton of room for innovation and improvement. From what I can see, Rift all but pulled another copypasta.

again you're missing the MAJOR point Rift has been promoting/advertising and in essence winning with, we are doing nothing NEW and EXTRAORDINARY, we are taking what we and our tester feedback feels is the best of each MMO giving it some improvement, and throwing our own spin and lore on it.

we'll see if its sustainable, but head start has been smooth, beta was as well.

Sooner people keep getting that message, the less there will be to bitch about, but people in general will always find something to bitch about, goes back to pleasing some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but never can you please all of the people all of the time.

Also remember they stated in development/alpha testing that this was a PVE first focused MMORPG.

Hehe, I'm comfortable w/that seeing how much crap WoW stole from other games. Fuck...it took them 5 years to steal EqII's water for cryin' out loud lol.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

I'm not sure why you would get overly concerned about Venen's points about lack of originality.. since he makes the exact opposite points in regards to Starcraft 2.

At least the Lanys drama scene hasn't changed much lol.

Why would a company announcing they're doing something potentially objectionable make it any less worthy of being bitched about?

Though, as I've already alluded to(for those not particularly adept at reading comprehension), I don't really care if it's original or not as long as it's good. Minor things that have little to do with gameplay like the UI fall into the category of "mess with it if you want, just don't make it unplayable". There are areas in certain genres where obvious steps forward can be taken. RTS games are at a tough turning point where there's less room until something more radical comes along. MMORPGs are at one where there are countless different directions developers can go, but they're all refusing to in light of WoW's success.

Either that, or they're bombing completely due to radical and bad design choices.

Why do you think that? Any video game development has countless directions they can take. The problem is investors want to see a profit. The more investment a game requires the safer it is to stick with known good models. Why is an RTS different? Cause there is only "one" model?

Just picked up a server first for discovering some crap epic pants from the puzzle quest in overlook.

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Not really. Not all genres are created equally and it's not all happy little rainbows. The only exception is when you have genre-bending, in which case they're intruding on other territory anyway. If I invent a genre that represents a puzzle game in which I move a single piece vertically with no exceptions, I have boxed myself in pretty good by that genre. In the same sense, an RTS game represents a game where it's rare if not impossible to include the immersiveness, exploration, deeper player to player interaction, continuity and progression, and a few of the other things you'd find in an MMORPG(or even non-RPG). It's not that you can't have those elements in an RTS, but the genre does not lend itself well to them. Its focus is on managing units tactically and strategically, seeing a broad big picture of the action, and less on interactivity and progression from a first-person immersive perspective. Again, you can bend the genre, but at some point it becomes something different.

The way the RTS genre is set up right now, you've got an excellent formula via games like WC2-3, StarCraft, the old versions of C&C, and those that break some trends but don't really separate themselves from the main themes like SoSE, DoW, SupCom or CoH. That formula is time-tested and can still be expanded upon via side-implementations like better match-making, stat tracking/semi-progression, more cohesive units and gameplay, more sides to choose from, better storylines, etc - all of which SC2 expanded upon, but I'm not convinced we've reached the peak. The MMORPG genre is a baby compared to the RTS genre, and it's also wide open due to its very nature. We're talking about open-ended first-person worlds where one can do and interact with practically everything and at the same time use a social dynamic to shape it. Innovations that fit with the genre are still being made and significant ones have been made even in the last 5 years, even if they've fallen under the radar a bit due to WoW's success, though we're far from seeing the epitome of its form.

We have our guild up and running on Spitescar (PvP) if anyone would like to join us. Briarcliff was too much on the opening day and everyone wanted to hold on to a PvP server.

http://www.looksmatterguild.org

Boo.

Belmont crash for everyone?

We've got a facebook group we used to organize too for anyone who joined from here or is thinking about joining:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=gro ... 49749&ap=1

If you want invited just shoot me a message on there:
http://www.facebook.com/brendanhough

the queues are fucking retarted. Got to 37 on the server i am on but im rerolling on a lower pop server. Going to get worse once the retail crowd hits.

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I actually saw Zero@Spitescar in a Warfront. I /wave and then killed him (well, me and the other 9 people beating on him). So far the warfronts are fun.

Yeah Belmont, Spitescar, Seastone and Aedraxis are in the same (BG) cluster so good chance of seeing you guys in there ;p

Yeah.. i've been noticing that... Here's our user names.

Muligan = Muligan
Xolar = Mythwalker or Xolar
Zeronus = Tombomb
Duty = Duty or Bludy

I hope you guys can see our names from your view on the ground! hahahhaha

Been really fun so far though... heard 31 NEW servers tomorrow.

Hopefully that'll cut queues down.

The game looks interesting, level up 4 classes (callings) instead of wow's 8, broader talent tree's (souls), and up to 4x talent spec's (roles) to change between.

WoW quest/model meets Vanguard graphics, + Warhammer Rift group gang bangs, and some DaoC PvP. Runs ok on my laptop with a nvidia 9650M GT. dual core 2.4Ghz cpu. doing cleric for heals, and curious if justicar can really tank as well as a warrior tank. shaman dps is decent.

A handful of old mithril web are on snarebush, defiant. would like to pick a server with a lot of old lanys, but you tards always pick the busy long queue servers without fail. then all wander off to different servers. =P

Rift sounds interesting.

Azzi, wander over to Belmont. And bring the gang.

LOL Givin, awesome sauce... is Justicar that bad?

I gave in and bought this thing on Steam. I'll have it completely downloaded in like an hour..

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Justicar is fine for any group shit you want to do, and most end game assumptions are based pretty much on the face pure tank classes get so much more in the way of defensive abilities.

am I blind or do I not see paragon on that chart for warrior class

Reaver/Paragon/Riftblade puts out some ballsy dps, especially AE

I have run that or Rift/Champ/Para thru beta

In this game you can sort of switch around your role whenever you want, right? So long as you stick to the same archetypes? I downloaded and will play around with it, but how much do I need to agonize about the souls to start?

Don't have to agonize at all. You have to pay to reset your souls, but it's a nominal amount. Just don't build something that sucks or you'll have a hard time leveling. I'd say you should stick to their recommended complements, but I didn't.

I'm having fun following givin's flowchart on the tank line.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Just found that posted on another site that might have some useful info. http://rift.zam.com

The soulbuilder at Zam is nicely organized. I tend to run around with this build (lvl 23 atm): http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1chAk.Eboh0sbz.xzz
It's pretty low DPS but high survivability and allows for tanking random rifts & zone events. (and it's not too cookie-cutter)

That is pretty much identical to my tank build except for your zero point soul. I found the warlord -5% hit aura much more efficient than bull rush just because I pulled with hammer most times and bull rush isn't available when you've got agro and the paladin charge is.

Redundant of course if you already run with a Warlord.

this is my current dps warrior build
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1cALu.Vzsx.E00x.Ve

I'm enjoying the cleric's shaman melee dps. Crap for team healing but better nice crit damage.

Kula you should really get Plague Bringer in the Reaver line, you could be life leeching + doting up to 6 mobs at once instead of 1.

Givin, I like Bullrush for later. When I was on Omega I kept getting jumped & ganked by a build that pushed me back repeatedly so having both Pally Shield Charge & Bullrush was useful.

Waring, it's on my full build and my current instance build.

I made an Inquisitor/Sentinel/Purifier. No clue if that will be a good combination for healing later but seems fun so far.

Definately pick your main focus, warrior, cleric, rogue or mage.
Don't count on them being great in other roles endgame.

So I went healing for endgame, and will dps, and maybe tank just for groups. In time I'm sure it will become unbalanced and the best tank wont be warrior, best healer cleric, and it will be wow with all the balance crying.

World of SnaredCraft would be a better name for this game.

And thus, the honeymoon ended on Mar 4, 2011 at 6:07pm. It was uniq... er... awesom.... hmm... fun while it lasted.

Albeit quite brief

Heh, what's so bad about it all of a sudden?

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

I'm having a blast

Should I bother?
I have an ok laptop, but worried that it won't be able to handle it.
I meet all the minimum specs and most of the recommended specs.

The thing that is just short of recommended is my video card. I have a GeForce GT 330M and recommended is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 200M series or better. How far off am I?

I have an i7 core Q720 cpu 1.60 Ghz.

Would I be be beating my head against the wall if I tried to play Rift on this system?

I think he's trying to be witty, but failed pretty miserably.

You would have been better off going with your usual "k"™ routine Neesha. Game is fine. Sorry to disappoint.

Of course it is.

K™

I'm curious about Turbo's take on this game if he's still lurking somewhere...

I was a neanderthal and when I pre-ordered the game I went with a physical box from Amazon (I had a gift cert for them I've been trying to find a reason to use.)

Didn't realize that they wouldn't ship it until the afternoon of the 3rd, and that I wouldn't receive the game until several days after they cut off players who pre-ordered and hadn't put the retail code in.

Bleh, Spring Break just started and now I'm fucking bored =p My artifact collections need completing dammit!

Can't blame you for that. For me part of the joy of getting a new game ever since I was a kid has been opening up a tangible physical item and ogling the manual and box art. I've kept many of the old manuals, too. I usually pick up a physical copy if I can and it doesn't set me back much, but I have to admit Steam and Impulse are still very convenient.

Damned newfangled internets.

If it was a pre-order from Amazon, they usually have release day shipping. Pretty sure it's always the bottom shipping choice. I can't think of anything I've ordered from them not having that shipping option available.

I've never heard of it, so I probably overlooked it while ordering. I don't buy stuff online that often.

My current warrior solo build.

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cmAL ... .xGozdsMMz

As long as the mob is snarable and doesn't overwhelm you with heavy ranged damage you can solo it. I've solo'd major rifts with ease. With improved fork and some practice, you can kite 3 normal mobs around with no problem and if the shit hits the fan, you can root 2 of them later on once you pick up Stonespear. The reaver dots are all affected by all the +damage talents from the riftblade tree, resulting in some pretty awesome AE capabilities and if the shit hits the fan, just pop a 3 combo point Master of the Abyss and you're fully healed.

Rotation is simple enough.

Single Target
Freeze Armor --> Flamespear til you have 3 combo points -->Fiery Burst Repeat till dead. You could also add in a round of applying reaver DOTs in between flamespear spam if you're taking damage, that way you'll get some healing.

2-3 Targets
Fork --> Earth Burst --> Plague Bringer --> Soul Sickness --> Necrotic Wounds --> Infestation --> Fiery Burst --> Fork --> Earth Burst --> Flamespear to 3 combo points --> Fiery Burst Repeat

It does feel to be an odd warrior spec, seeing as 99% of it is ranged damage and will probably be nerfed in the future. Flamespear is cheap as fuck in PVP.