Executive Producer Scott Hartsman gave us all sorts of details on upcoming Rift content, from experience gains past the level cap to new types of instances and PvP features.

We just attended the first Rift State of the Game press conference with Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, and it's safe to say that Trion Worlds has a ton of content planned for the game. Hartsman discussed post-50 uses for experience; PvP changes in the form of PvP rifts and Warfronts; a new gameplay option called Instant Adventure to quickly get you into dynamic content; new Chronicles of Telara instances for solo players and small groups that focus on story; and much more.

Keep reading after the jump for all the details straight from Hartsman!

Earning Experience Past the Level Cap

Players will soon be able to fill up their experience bar and earn points that can be used to enhance their characters. “To tie it to the story, you've been reborn, you've become a level 50 ascended and have been fighting against the planes for so long. After so much time, you unlock the ability to obtain the power of the planes themselves,” Hartsman said.

You'll continue to earn experience to collect points that will be spent in new planar attunement trees. The trees will grant you things such as simple bonuses, weapon and spell specializations, and potential ability modifications. Hartsman said they will only allow players to modify their abilities if it doesn't break the balance of the game.

He said that earning experience past level 50 goes hand in hand with the upcoming Instant Adventure system and the Chronicles of Telara instances. “It's the large picture, and we're ridiculously excited to get it out there,” he said.

Instant Adventures

The purpose of the new Instant Adventure gameplay feature is to “make the mass scale fun accessible to more people.” As Hartsman said, Rift's gigantic dynamic events are fun if you're in the right place at the right time. “How do we let people who are interested in that create critical mass on their own? What gameplay systems can we put in place to make that happen? That is the underlying theme behind it,” he said.

The idea behind Instant Adventures is that you're going to be able to come online and indicate your interest in these dynamic events by clicking a button, and you'll be placed in a group to fight through rapidly escalating encounters that take advantage of rifts and invasions. "It will escalate up to new content that will be unique to this system,” Hartsman said.

“The number of people in a group together will be presented with challenges that the system knows matches their group size. There is an additional reward mechanic for completely these adventures that is unique to the system,” he said, noting that the distribution method of rewards will be similar to the rift system.

Chronicles of Telara Instances

The new Chronicles of Telara instances are for solo players or small groups, and they'll focus on making the game's lore accessible to more people through key characters and areas. "We're targeting epic settings and unique aspects of stories that will only exist in these chronicles, as well as fighting alongside key characters you normally don't get to see, We want people to walk away saying, 'that was cool!' ” Hartsman said.

Hartsman emphasized that the Chronicles instances are not simply a scaled down version of normal instances. “We want a unique type of experience and not just you in a cave. It will be a setting you normally won't see,” he said, noting that the first one takes place in Hammerknell.

The Chronicles of Telara instances are the type of content you'll see added in the regular content updates. As with everything else Hartsman discussed during the press conference, they're on Trion's short to medium timetable.

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