One thing I want from MoP...besides PandasFollow

The farming sounds kinda cool, also pet battles

first thing i think of when i see the title of this post "besides pandas" is one of my guildies, a dwarf in pink armor, riding around on a giant panda mount. and i just start laughing

Oh look, it's manic Mallace on the left side of the pendulum again.

We've got fishing and survival coming, we've got zone events that tell more of a story coming. We've got instant adventure coming to Ember Isle, we've got the mentor program and leaderboards. The list goes on and on. But it's not all coming out TOMORROW, so we need to forget every goddam thing we've been told and rant about how it's all raiding and Trion is only releasing raids and that's all Trion does is raids so I'm playing Aion instead because BARBIE DRESS-UP PALACE LOLZ!

Whatever. You'll rage about it for a while and and then you'll be back to nuzzling Trion's nuts and praising them for all the things that they do so much better than Blizzard and EA/Bioware (and probably NCSoft by that point, too.)

The circle of Mallace continues...

Like I said, Manic Mallace on the low swing.

Hammerknell came out when? Last August? September? And you're pissy that raiders are going to get a new "full" raid 6 months later? Because everything that has been added since HK for the non-raider has been insignificant, amirite?

Protip: EVERY MMO player gets bored. You're the guy over on every forum I visit posting bullet points of every patch and everything Trion has done heralding them for how fast they add new content and how much better they are than Blizzard or EA/Bioware or whatever studio you've got a mad-on for that day. Until you get bored. And then you're all, "They don't listen dubbya tee eff they need to change before <whatever> because RAH RAH RAH!!"

Instead of accepting like a grown-up that you're in line for a break and that it's normal and that no MMO developer will ever preserve your rapt attention for years on end, you've got to get all critical. You've got to blame. You've got to make a hypocrite of yourself. For every argument and every tirade you've ever launched at someone who had the audacity to question Rift's quality and pacing of content releases, you're here doing it yourself right now.

Grow up, guy. Seriously. Just accept that you're bored, take responsibility for it, go enjoy something else for a while, and come back when you're ready. This "Trion had better do <whatever> before <whatever game> comes out!" bullsh*t is old. It's old. It's in the geriatric ward getting a two finger anal probe from a fat sweaty male nurse...and liking it...it's so old. If you want to argue like an angsty 11 year old about why you're right and throw more bullet points at me and tell me whatever. Whatever you can come up with. Fill yer boots.

It's old. Stop being such a hypocrite.

This is a quote from you, Mallace, about three months ago:


http://rift.zam.com/forum.html?forum=222&mid=1323911146234958299&h=50&p=1#16

So.. Trion gives raiders something to do after six months and that's now a bad thing. In the meantime they've implemented several features that had nothing to do with raiding as Aurelius pointed out. In Mists Blizzard is going above and beyond giving people options for endgame advancement.

I'm not actually sure what you're looking for at this point, but it does look like you're just bored with what you have and you're upset because the thing Trion is giving you isn't the thing you want right exactly now. I'm afraid it doesn't work like that.

A new game launching draws players from every other game like it on the market. Always has, always will. No single game is the deathknell of any other single game. Hell the original Everquest is still running after 13 years, nothing managed to ever KILL that either and it's old as hell.

Rift will go on long after these other games launch. It will always have its dedicated supporters and dedicated detractors, but it will do so until Trion decides it's done and not before; that's how this industry works. The only time a game "fails" is when the company behind it decides that it has. And I can only think of a very small number of examples from the last ten years of that happening, it's quite uncommon.

If you enjoy Rift, play Rift. If you try out SWTOR and like that, play that. If you want to check out WoW, check out WoW. MMOs aren't marriage, you aren't locked into a relationship for the rest of your lives til death do you part. If you need something new, go get it.

That's not the game you signed up for.

Unless my memory is atrocious (and that's always a possibility) I don't remember them saying anything about an expansive sandbox style game.

The Rifts are supposed to be the center piece and not just a gimmick and it confuses people who look at people perfectly fine having 20man raiding defining the end game. There is literally no reason a bunch of EQ devs and producer can not drop housing into this game.

I have to say that watching mallace and and Aurelius go at it is quite entertaining.

I've said it before, but for Rifts to be more pivotal in the game experience, zones need to be better designed around them. Right now, they're more like afterthought additions that just spawn some mobs situationally. As a newbie zone, something like this wouldn't work, as it can mean halting progression. However, I'm also not fond of the approach EI took in being for "geared 50s" and stocked with mobs with artificially bloated HP just to slow people down from steamrolling and punishing people who focused on gearing as tanks instead of DPS while leveling/grinding.

When I imagine this potential zone, it might be easier to consider it 8 zones in one, locations affected by iterations of influence from the two factions and the planes. Depending on who controls where, the terrain will vary, the mobs will differ, and with that possible quests and challenges. Planar forces can be much more active, constantly trying to conquer regions from the players and other planes alike. Ideally, the zone should not look the same one day after the next when trying to be a more fluid, "contested" environment. However, just as I don't feel such an area would be newbie friendly, I don't believe such an area should totally slap the soloist/casual player in the face.

I share the sentiment that things to do outside of raiding are rather limited at the moment. Experts/DRRs aren't very exciting, plus they epitomize the faults of the RNG and rewarding large (20-man) groups with 1-4 (often trash) drops. The objectives don't really vary. The locations are lame and unchanging (within the rift itself). They're pretty much just zerg and gtfo. Personally, I have no interest in large guilds or affiliating myself with any kind of arbitrary player point system. They're prone to exploitation and mean nothing if said guild one day poofs for whatever reason. To that end, it's why things like marks, plaques, sourcestones, or even planarite are good things, since it takes the people element out of getting reward. These currencies just need to be better available for the non-raider as well as having more to spend on at reasonable prices.

At the moment, I'm holding out until Diablo III. Benefits of that game not having a monthly sub aside, it will be something "more fresh" when it finally does roll out May 15th. 1.8 and Infernal Dawn means nothing to me. Cooking and Survival will be fleeting distractions where, once maxed, probably become rarely used since platinum isn't really needed to play and crafted goods typically fail compared to raid counterparts. If EI IA retains the guaranteed IS per clear, that'll help a bit in fleshing out some planar gear more quickly, but it's still gonna be the grind of grinds when you consider the current sets are like thousands of IS to acquire. I maybe have roughly 600 IA to my name between SM and SS. Those weren't acquired particularly quickly, maybe over 2.5 months of active play doing it when I could. I am not a fan of the recent Zone Event changes that ultimately lessened the frequency of ZEs. It also seems like certain ZEs tend to be favored over others throughout all the zones, which kind of makes them old hat when you're getting Sand Worship for the billionth time. To that end, the earlier mentioned dream zone would basically be 24/7 ZEs, maybe even introducing situations where players team up with the NPC enemies to eliminate a common threat.

Overall, I don't care about weddings or housing. If I really wanted to roleplay, I know plenty of free text-based mediums where I could get a particular itch scratched without the game's combat system being a hindrance to the process (While RP itself is NOT rewarded like smacking mobs is). Housing reeks more of a resource sink that ultimately won't change the playing situation any, and if for some reason people with pimped out houses got buffs compared to those who don't, I'd expect some major backlash since it's one of those things that'd favor the hardcore/no-lifers even more who really don't need such advantages.

On the other hand, I'm aware I'm a harder customer to please, if not simply through age and exposure to media and gaming over the years. I've seen good ideas executed poorly. I've seen bad ideas given too much attention and shelf life. I've seen enough of the people element in online gaming to know it's both its greatest strength and weakness. I can applaud Rift for being a bit more pick-up-and-play friendly over past titles, but that style currently has its limits, perhaps due to pressure from the hardcores not wanting "lesser" peers being competitive. That's one of the ugly aspects of the people element.

My guess is devs are watching stuff like GW2 to find out if things like WvWvW will really be accepted. I mean honestly WvWvW is just Aion's abyss concept with 3 servers put together.

Devs are probably hesitant especially when it comes to pvp'rs because they are so fickle and unsub faster then a normal pve player. If you look at the criticism of Rift back in March 2011 the comments were like "Rift needs a open world pvp zone like Ilum in TOR and TOR will kill Rift because it has Ilum". Now Ilum goes down as the biggest disaster in mmo history next to the FF14 launch.

I do think they need to take the Rift concept and put it on steroids. When a invasion takes over and it is not dealt with it builds a fort with walls you have to invade. It makes perfect sense that after a invasion takes over that they would build walls or defenses. They already build turrets, so why not a defense structure? It could take Ember Isle to the next level.

They do need to introduce Tier 2 raid planar gear sooner then later and not make one piece cost like 1,000 inscribed sourcestones or some insane amount. Right now estimates say 12% of the player base has cleared Hammerknell. I think with ID coming out the elitist could give a damn if they made the gear available through zone invasions and instant adventures. Right now with Ember Isle IA there is literally no carrot at the end of the stick to chase.

With 1.8 you are looking at 90% of your playerbase literally an entire tier of gear behind 10% of your player base and that is a failure in my view. Instead of dropping constant nerfs on Hammerknell give alternative ways to gear up to tier 2 raid.

Edited, Mar 22nd 2012 10:18am by Puremallace