*Release* Rift Catch-All - if it isnt for any of the other threads - it goes here

Poking at the forums before crashing, and I ran across something I hadn't heard of before.

The 10 man raids? They are expert rifts you apparently have to pay to open (no clue what currency)...

And they are out in the open.

Not instanced. Not sanctioned off. Open for anyone to wander in and 'help'. Ever try to do the WoW world bosses? Like the dragons? When the other side was trying to do them too, and had no reason not to contest you for them?

Ever try to do that boss at the end of vanilla WoW, the one that used to be in the Blasted Lands, who came knocking down the walls of the cities? Ya, you couldn't kill him because any time he killed a player, he healed, and low level players wouldn't stop attacking him (which healed him as much as killing a 60).

I'm seeing all kinds of problems with this design. Its shockingly naive for the devs to think that there won't be problems with this.

From what I understand, the game makes distinctions between those who opened the raid rift, and those who didn't. Special rules and loot only apply to the initiating raid, for everyone else it's just an especially difficult rift instance that doles out regular rift loot.

While I've loved the rifts in the first couple of zones I've gone to I'm starting to have some concerns. When there are a hundred players running around having an impromptu rift raid is easy. Now that I've apparently reached a zone where there are far fewer players and lots of bottleneck areas I'm finding myself getting more annoyed at seeing a rift than excited. Without the mass concentration of other players running around sealing rifts I'm running into quest hubs that have been wiped out by marauding monsters or major rifts full of elites blocking choke points in a valley. It's really irritating when I have to stand around for 10 minutes waiting on a quest giver to respawn just so I can turn in the half dozen completed quests I've got. I'm just wondering if they're going to make adjustments for lower population zones.

The rifts and invasions actually do scale by level. You have to have a certain concentration of players to start seeing the elite mobs pop out of them. The rest should be relatively solo-able.

Also, Kehama, you might check out the Ascended power that you can use to buff you damage against planar creatures. Doubles damage for 30 sec, I think. You can purchase from the planar focus merchant in Meridian.

Ok Just found something interesting/scary. As some of you know my account was hacked recently, I did EVERY scan on my computer and know it wasn't anything there. Today I logged into my iTunes to buy the new I Fight Dragon's CD with some Christmas gift card money I hadn't spent yet (about 10 dollars). I logged in and only had .50 cents! Someone had bought a bunch of apps... I do NOT own an iphone. Half of the apps have names not in English. /gerrrr (also angry birds)

LtWarhound wrote:

Poking at the forums before crashing, and I ran across something I hadn't heard of before.

The 10 man raids? They are expert rifts you apparently have to pay to open (no clue what currency)...

And they are out in the open.

Not instanced. Not sanctioned off. Open for anyone to wander in and 'help'. Ever try to do the WoW world bosses? Like the dragons? When the other side was trying to do them too, and had no reason not to contest you for them?

Ever try to do that boss at the end of vanilla WoW, the one that used to be in the Blasted Lands, who came knocking down the walls of the cities? Ya, you couldn't kill him because any time he killed a player, he healed, and low level players wouldn't stop attacking him (which healed him as much as killing a 60).

I'm seeing all kinds of problems with this design. Its shockingly naive for the devs to think that there won't be problems with this.

They have definitely designed for this. Only the 10 raid people get full rewards and credit. If someone comes by and just starts attacking they aren't going to steal any loot from the raid. Also these are in extreme high level areas so it probably won't be like a million people running by. It is nice to see something different and I'm sure if they see some issues crop up they will work to resolve it.

While I've loved the rifts in the first couple of zones I've gone to I'm starting to have some concerns. When there are a hundred players running around having an impromptu rift raid is easy. Now that I've apparently reached a zone where there are far fewer players and lots of bottleneck areas I'm finding myself getting more annoyed at seeing a rift than excited. Without the mass concentration of other players running around sealing rifts I'm running into quest hubs that have been wiped out by marauding monsters or major rifts full of elites blocking choke points in a valley. It's really irritating when I have to stand around for 10 minutes waiting on a quest giver to respawn just so I can turn in the half dozen completed quests I've got. I'm just wondering if they're going to make adjustments for lower population zones.

While it sucks that the quest hub is down, there are plenty of things to do or other quests. The rifts and invasions are part of the game and I for one don't want that diminished. They really give me an investment in the game, like I'm actually defending the area. I've done all the quests in Freemarch, Stonefield, Scarlet G, Scarwood and almost done with Moonshade and I could always got to another town or zone and do something.

On a different topic, until people start rolling alts, Freemarch hasn't been very populated. I hope they have some stuff planned to draw people back at least for short periods of time. it would be nice if activity was low for a number of days, and rifts closed on their own without player intervention that a huge event would happen that would draw players from other zones or you could lose part of meridien or something.

Yay for an authentication type deal! "Coin lock"

Coin Lock

Users will be coin locked if they log in from a significantly different location. When their account is coin locked, they will be sent an email to the address that they have on their account (their login email) with a code to enter into the game.

Users will see the Coin Locked icon in the spot where their tutorial button shows up. Deactivating the tutorial tips will not turn off the Coin Locked button.

While in a Coin Locked status, users will have the following limitations:
• No access to the auction house
• No ability to SEND mail. Users can still receive and view mail as well as remove items from mail
• No ability to SELL to vendors. Users can still purchase items from vendors
• No ability to salvage, runebreak or destroy items
• No ability to trade
• Users can continue to play and gain coin and items, but cannot get rid of them.

If you are Coin Locked, simply click on the Coin Locked icon and enter the code found in your email from Trion.

If you log in and your account is coin locked, check your email! Someone may have logged in from another location with your account.

If you do not receive the email, please click on the Coin Locked icon and click the “Resend” button to have the email resent to you.

If you cannot access your email or you are otherwise unable to change your Coin Locked status, please contact Customer Service.

We're also working on the addition of two-factor authentication at the login level, which will let you use an app or a cell phone as a way to ensure that you're the one logging on. (You may have heard of this in other products as a SecurID or an Authenticator.) We'll be sharing specifics on that as soon as we can as well.

good...sooner the better...dont like playing in fear.

Good for that, I'm a big fan of the authenticator.

I like authenticators myself.

*buries his hands in his face* Damn, how the hell did you people get 'They are gonna steal my phat lewtz!!!!' out of that post?

Lets try this again.

You are a group of defiants (ya tech!) and you spend your hard earned cash to open an expensive Expert Rift.

The mobs spawn.

The stealthed guardian (boo!) uncloaks, taunts the boss. Runs off, boss and minions chase after him, he drags them through your group, chaos ensues. Cue Yakety Sax.

Or...

You are fighting the boss, almost winning, two guardian tanks walk up, and chain taunt the boss out of the rift and the boss resets. Ready to do the fight again? Hope so, cause those guardians can keep griefing you all night long. And its a PvE server, good luck getting them to stop. Complain to the Game Masters? Okay, how many days did it take to get an answer to being hacked, Hydi?

Extreme case? Another group tags the boss first, and kills him. I bet the rift closes at that point, that's the current design. Sure, no phat lewtz for the other group, but they aren't there for purplez, they got what they wanted. Don't think it can't happen?

This is a craptastic design, open to problems. The bright spot is that GWJ won't be doing Expert Rifts any time soon, so other people will have the chance to enjoy the pain, which will (hopefully) cause the devs to bubble these rifts to protect the people opening them. Oh, and did I mention there are already posts on the forums complaining because this is happening, now?

Weren't you the one freaking out about griefers earlier in the thread, and how they would make the game unplayable after release?

Here is a pic of me at the Rift Pax Party last Friday:

IMAGE(http://natejensencreative.smugmug.com/Events/TRION-PAX-BOSTON-RIFT/IMG5828/1216037768_ShjPe-XL.jpg)

Not seeing you in that picture....

Well, I've done some expert raid rifts in Stillmoor. We didn't have a problem with the ones we did. I really do not believe it will be all that big of an issue - if so, I'm sure it will be addressed. The game's been on the marked officially 2 weeks as of today. Let's try to keep things in perspective.

Now, on to something else - and this is just hearsay because I personally can't substantiate it - and I have not tested this, it's just on the forums. But there's a rumor going around that the account hack is due to the game client being executable separately from the front-end authenticator, and it's possible to hack the client executable itself and probably pass it the user account in the same format that it expects it to come from the authenticator server and the login client.

If this is the case, then that would negate the need for a password whatsoever for anyone connecting as a passthrough by hacking the game client to pass it just the account and go in. Now, that would still not account for Hydi's iTunes account getting hacked as well, which she confirmed also used the same user/password as her Rift account -- so the evidence points that the hackers had both her user and password in that case at least.

I'm just letting you folks know that there's postings on the rift forums from other folks who say it can be done, and that the hackers are getting email addresses to try based on gaming forum websites and fansites, plus other download sites where people register with the same email.

Make of it what you will -- I don't know and don't claim to know.

Whether it's true or not isn't the point. The point is, I strongly recommend everyone to go to the webmail system of your choice, create a brand new email account that has absolutely ZERO affiliation with anywhere and anything, then change your rift account to that dummy email.

I'm not sure about other email providers, but gmail will also let you forward this new dummy email to your regular email account, so it's transparent to you as an end-user.

And finally, once you've done that - do not give that email to anyone, don't write it publically, don't use it on any website, and be EXTREMELY vigilent about which websites you visit, because keyloggers are out there.

Finally, regarding RIFT game accounts being hacked, let's try to keep things in perspective. Trion is working on it, and it's an inconvenience - sure. Fixes and then long-term solutions are being rolled out soon, and in the whole scheme of things, a video game account isn't exactly the same order of magnitude as say, your primary savings account.

LtWarhound wrote:

*buries his hands in his face* Damn, how the hell did you people get 'They are gonna steal my phat lewtz!!!!' out of that post?

Lets try this again.

You are a group of defiants (ya tech!) and you spend your hard earned cash to open an expensive Expert Rift.

The mobs spawn.

The stealthed guardian (boo!) uncloaks, taunts the boss. Runs off, boss and minions chase after him, he drags them through your group, chaos ensues. Cue Yakety Sax.

Or...

You are fighting the boss, almost winning, two guardian tanks walk up, and chain taunt the boss out of the rift and the boss resets. Ready to do the fight again? Hope so, cause those guardians can keep griefing you all night long. And its a PvE server, good luck getting them to stop. Complain to the Game Masters? Okay, how many days did it take to get an answer to being hacked, Hydi?

Extreme case? Another group tags the boss first, and kills him. I bet the rift closes at that point, that's the current design. Sure, no phat lewtz for the other group, but they aren't there for purplez, they got what they wanted. Don't think it can't happen?

This is a craptastic design, open to problems. The bright spot is that GWJ won't be doing Expert Rifts any time soon, so other people will have the chance to enjoy the pain, which will (hopefully) cause the devs to bubble these rifts to protect the people opening them. Oh, and did I mention there are already posts on the forums complaining because this is happening, now?

There may be a couple threads but most people don't have issues. I mean, if one or 2 guys try to pull a 10 man rift they are gonna die pretty quick. That being said, they do have the ability to bubble the expert rifts but want to see how people work without it. If 8 out of 10 expert rifts get done then I'm all for keeping it, maybe make some indicator so people that like to help know it is an expert rift.

BUT, not bad design. Trying to change the boring old closed instances for every big encounter is a plus in my book. If it doesn't work out overall, at least they tried and they can easily fix it.

As far as money, it takes 500 planarite, I have over 11k right now sitting in my pockets. The souls needed from expert dungeon may or may not be a hassle I don't know yet.

Expert dungeon souls are easy to get. I had lots on alpha.

Arovin wrote:

Here is a pic of me at the Rift Pax Party last Friday:

IMAGE(http://natejensencreative.smugmug.com/Events/TRION-PAX-BOSTON-RIFT/IMG5828/1216037768_ShjPe-XL.jpg)

Wow Arovin you are an attractive young lady.

Who is the dude standing next to you?

alexicacon wrote:

Well, I've done some expert raid rifts in Stillmoor. We didn't have a problem with the ones we did. I really do not believe it will be all that big of an issue - if so, I'm sure it will be addressed. The game's been on the marked officially 2 weeks as of today. Let's try to keep things in perspective.

Now, on to something else - and this is just hearsay because I personally can't substantiate it - and I have not tested this, it's just on the forums. But there's a rumor going around that the account hack is due to the game client being executable separately from the front-end authenticator, and it's possible to hack the client executable itself and probably pass it the user account in the same format that it expects it to come from the authenticator server and the login client.

If this is the case, then that would negate the need for a password whatsoever for anyone connecting as a passthrough by hacking the game client to pass it just the account and go in. Now, that would still not account for Hydi's iTunes account getting hacked as well, which she confirmed also used the same user/password as her Rift account -- so the evidence points that the hackers had both her user and password in that case at least.

I'm just letting you folks know that there's postings on the rift forums from other folks who say it can be done, and that the hackers are getting email addresses to try based on gaming forum websites and fansites, plus other download sites where people register with the same email.

Make of it what you will -- I don't know and don't claim to know.

Whether it's true or not isn't the point. The point is, I strongly recommend everyone to go to the webmail system of your choice, create a brand new email account that has absolutely ZERO affiliation with anywhere and anything, then change your rift account to that dummy email.

I'm not sure about other email providers, but gmail will also let you forward this new dummy email to your regular email account, so it's transparent to you as an end-user.

And finally, once you've done that - do not give that email to anyone, don't write it publically, don't use it on any website, and be EXTREMELY vigilent about which websites you visit, because keyloggers are out there.

Finally, regarding RIFT game accounts being hacked, let's try to keep things in perspective. Trion is working on it, and it's an inconvenience - sure. Fixes and then long-term solutions are being rolled out soon, and in the whole scheme of things, a video game account isn't exactly the same order of magnitude as say, your primary savings account.

Thanks for the good post.

I was worried about the possibility of the Trion web server being swiss cheese so i waited till after today's patch launched to go change my game password which already obeyed all the normal rules for a strong password (more than 8 characters, numbers, special characters, caps, etc) Now it's more like 18 characters and all the goodies in it and toally unique compared to any other password i have.

Next up i'm gonna take yer suggestion on the email account and create one just for rift that nobody has and change my rift login to it cause the one i was using is an ancient mail account that i use for most things i sign up for...

Good suggestions.

read this off the dev tracker this morning, i finally started reading the dev tracker, those are usually decent.

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Default Hartsman: Weekend Security Update

Quote Originally Posted by Hartsman View Post
Hi, everyone -- I wanted to get an update out for the weekend after the last day of excitement around here. On last night's fix -- I'm very happy to confirm that we did fix a login vulnerability, with significant assistance from an extremely clever user. The root cause was a very subtle bug in error checking of our login validations deep in the server code. No personal information or any such was leaked out, and no outside attacker penetrated our servers, networks, or databases.We'd definitely like to thank Mr. ManWitDaPlan for the well-timed assist. Sir, we salute you and offer our most heartfelt thanks.The rest of what I'd like to add isn't to detract from the above well-deserved compliment, but it's important to include in the comprehensive picture.The sobering fact is that account security remains a multifaceted issue, as attacks from other sources continue. It's important to remember is that while a hole was identified and fixed as rapidly as we possibly could, there are still hackers and botnets trying account/password combinations from compromised web sites and past MMOs. They are doing this right now. Those attacks have been coming constantly since we launched the game. The only thing that changes are how many hundreds of computers are trying to get into your account at any given moment, where they're coming from, and how many are succeeding.We do block them as they are detected, but the fact that they are using distributed botnets (compromised computers from across the globe) means that this will remain something that we will continue keeping an eye on, forever. For users getting hacked this way, Coin Lock is currently doing its job protecting people's belongings, provided that your RIFT password and EMail password are both complex and entirely different.Both the login fix and the Coin Lock addition have been doing their part in signficantly reducing overall incidents over the last 18 hours. Neither one is a silver bullet, but so far it is looking to be a solid one-two punch for the weekend. Then, with two-factor authentication coming very soon, we expect security to be improved even further.All totalled up, under 1% of accounts with characters have had characters impacted. However, 1% of a surprisingly large number is still very noticeable. Our staff has been, and will continue to be, working around the clock to get those impacted back in shape. We'll continue hiring on even more people to help people with issues of all kinds, as quickly as we can. (Another round of hires begin on Monday, and there will be even more to follow.)As always, thanks very much for your time, your attention, your assistance, and your patience!- Scott HartsmanExec Producer, RIFT

http://riftdb.com/

Curse rift database. Nice info to have.

Kehama wrote:

While I've loved the rifts in the first couple of zones I've gone to I'm starting to have some concerns. When there are a hundred players running around having an impromptu rift raid is easy. Now that I've apparently reached a zone where there are far fewer players and lots of bottleneck areas I'm finding myself getting more annoyed at seeing a rift than excited. Without the mass concentration of other players running around sealing rifts I'm running into quest hubs that have been wiped out by marauding monsters or major rifts full of elites blocking choke points in a valley. It's really irritating when I have to stand around for 10 minutes waiting on a quest giver to respawn just so I can turn in the half dozen completed quests I've got. I'm just wondering if they're going to make adjustments for lower population zones.

This game sounds a lot like WAR in that regard. I had a lot of fun in WAR until I hit level 30 (I think), and then the zone population plummeted and I was bored and lonely. This was actually a good thing in Star Trek, because there everything can be solo'd so groups weren't a big deal. Having open zones and the biggest ship around was fun for a while.

I'd like to give this game a shot, but coming in and getting "MMO screwed", like I have in pretty much all the modern ones, doesn't seem like a risk I am willing to take.

Honestly i havn't seen any issues here... Rift events are based on zone population apparently and seem to be going off pretty well. The problems with wiped out quest npcs are happening so rare and isolated that it's a non issue. More often i fight with the npcs and manage to kill the invading mob pack when nobody else is around.

You don't need rift events either other than the occasional one. The rewards you'll get pre level 45ish for doing rift events you will level out of so fast it'll make your head spin and there'll always be plenty of rift activity at the high end for you to get some uberrewards.

As far as planarite most folks seem to get more than they can possibly spend by higher levels. I just bought one of the most expensive items in the game in terms of planarite back at level 38.

You can totally level up to 50 solo in this game too. You won't get stuck unable to find a group and unable to level cause of it.

I always get MMO screwed...i mean ALWAYS...and yet i don't see HOW i can get mmo screwed in Rift yet and i'm up to 40 now, I can't figure out how i COULD get screwed unless i become a hermit and anti-social in game...in which case i'd still make it to 50, just never do any expert dungeons...

And leveling is so fast in this game and gear such a non issue with all the gobs of quest rewards and easy crafting that i've honestly caught myself wishing i could turn OFF exp gain sometimes which is just weird cause i HATE grinding.

If you feel screwed by Rift, i don't believe you're trying or just have another game you prefer and don't want people moving to rift:P

So far I've only run into a handful of quests that require closing Rifts. On those I'm still able to close small rifts solo as long as I'm careful, I just won't go near the major rifts without at least 2 other people in tow.
The invasion events can be both insanely awesome and horribly frustrating. Awesome in that's it's really cool to see a 20 man PUG raid form in the matter of seconds while you all fend off wave after wave of enemies attempting to take a wardstone. Frustrating in that if you're out in the middle of nowhere soloing some quests, minding your own business, you may get swarmed by a roaming band of planar invaders and be killed in the blink of an eye. Of course the same thing can happen with a bad pull, it's just slightly more frustrating because the invaders are highly mobile and you may have a dozen random groups rampaging across the map to get to a wardstone.
Over the last 2 nights I've taken part in 2 invasions. I've been in both from the first moment. The first time I stood at the wardstone and fought off the enemies. Before the even was over I'd collected over 2k planarite and 20 items including armor, weapons, consumables, collection items and those planar upgrade stone thingies. I felt like I was being showered with loot. So awesome. The second night instead of defending the stationary point I joined the group running around trying to close the rifts to end the invasion. That allowed me to collect 5 death trophies for the main quest that I'd been working on for 3 nights solid. Good stuff all around.

I'm curious what the retention rate (% who go on to pay for a subscription) will be with Rift now that the end of the free month is nearing. Judging from the official forums it doesn't look terribly promising overall. How about in our community though?

I will likely renew for at least another month, beyond that I haven't quite decided. I like the game but the veneer of the dynamic content has worn off and shown that it's not actually all that dynamic.
I think they need to cut back the rate at which rifts open- at any given time in any zone it seems as though there are at least two or three active rifts, and when you close those more open up in just a few minutes. If they were more rare It would make them more of an event, and closing them would be more rewarding. I've got so much planar currency right now that I almost CAN'T spend it all. That doesn't really motivate me to go out and close more rifts for more stuff I don't really need.

I chose the 6 month plan so I can pay $9.95 a month. It doesn't sound like much of a difference, really, but for some reason it makes a large psychological difference to me. So I will definitely be around after the first month I see your typical bellyaching on the forums, like you see for every MMO, but nothing out of the ordinary. I don't think it will be a ghost town after the free month. Most of the people I interact with in-game and threads I read seem generally positive.

I hope it doesn't tank - I'm enjoying myself immensely, despite taking it much slower and pouring less time in per session than I did in my last 2 or 3 re-subs to WoW. While I would prefer a larger world, with multiple cities and zones per level per faction, that really is my only main complaint. Everything else is either awesome (souls, dungeons, graphics, performance, open grouping) or at worst average.

I'm planning on sticking around for a while unless the game just absolutely tanks at end game which I'm not expecting. I'll occassionally take a break to dive into a single player game (I'm looking at you Dragon Age 2!) but otherwise I think Rift's got some legs on it. Now after SWOTOR and Guild Wars 2 comes out, I can't say. Seems like Rift was released at just the right time though.

I will be around for a while. I enjoyed the game immensely pre release and I see a ton of potential for it, dependant on how the development team takes and matures on the concept and vision in place now.

I see the game as being in it's infancy, and as such, i'm not going to go ranting and gnashing my teeth or griping about small stuff. And I see class balance as small stuff overall. Every MMO I've played for 12+ years has had constant and ongoing class balance tweaks. I figure rift does and will, too. I'd honestly be more upset if the classes were not in flux.

With rift, I'm happy to be in at ground level on another MMO, and I'm looking forward to growing with the game and being part of the community at large to see it prosper and grow.

I am in for the next several months. I will roll with Rift and SWTOR for my MMO fixes. Loving Rift when my schedule permits.