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

Shadowklr wrote:
SpyNavy wrote:

I don't think anyone has an issue with that. Problem is that with the small GWJ player base it shrinks the pool of guilds available for both sides. People should play where they like because the purpose is fun, but it will reduce the goodjers available on either side which is why we went with a majority vote for sides. Personally I don't really have a strong feeling either way, but early on the feeling was strongly Defiant.

Fair enough. I want to play defiant anyhow. I just wanted to throw out the suggestion.

The regular playerbase of ANY GWJ Horde guild is less than a handful. blackhand Alliance is where it is at. Dividing your efforts early on in what still seems to be a blackbox of an MMO is nothing I would recommend.

Personally, I've been burned one time too many to play another MMO not produced by Blizzard or CCP right on release. And seeing that they have an NDA in place 2 weeks before "launch" reminds me oh too well of Aion and APB.

I hope to be positively surprised in 3 months time, because this game has potential. Let's see if they can actually use it.

Luggage wrote:

And seeing that they have an NDA in place 2 weeks before "launch" reminds me oh too well of Aion and APB.

Well, Aion wasn't pushing end-game content and development that I'm aware of right up until release, and beyond. With rift there's not been any NDA for months now on any of the beta content as it's been approved, and what's there is more than Blizzard had at release with the MMO they did. The things the NDA covers are primarily content that Rift has and will have in place for launch that the other guys simply didn't have in game yet, so I don't have a problem with that.

Blizzard happened to hit the market at the right time, and all the stars aligned to provide them the capital to reinvest in their game to make it a real behemoth, which they did, and it has a lot of nice features - no doubt. But features are nothing more than code and the ability to fund the code-monkeys who generate it.

I think the team behind rift has a solid idea for their product, a solid niche, and my hope is it will generate enough interest and RoI to warrant the coders to flesh it out into something truly grand.

'course, only time will tell - I had big hopes for Warhammer as well.

alexicacon wrote:

'course, only time will tell - I had big hopes for Warhammer as well.

And Age of Conan. And Aion. And Allods.

Other than that, you are correct. What was true and led to the respective downfalls of the above mentioned contenders says NOTHING about how Rift will do. It would be interesting to peak into a parallel universe where WoW wasn't the right game at the right time though.

As I said earlier in this or another Rift thread: the game interests me a lot, I just won't jump into any new MMOs right on release anymore.

Luggage wrote:

As I said earlier in this or another Rift thread: the game interests me a lot, I just won't jump into any new MMOs right on release anymore.

But then you won't get a cool name dude!

Holla wrote:
Luggage wrote:

As I said earlier in this or another Rift thread: the game interests me a lot, I just won't jump into any new MMOs right on release anymore.

But then you won't get a cool name dude!

:)

Well, maybe one of you kind gentlemen can reserve "Luggage" for me. The rest will work out as needed, so far I have been pretty successful in not reusing character names.

Luggage wrote:
Holla wrote:
Luggage wrote:

As I said earlier in this or another Rift thread: the game interests me a lot, I just won't jump into any new MMOs right on release anymore.

But then you won't get a cool name dude!

:)

Well, maybe one of you kind gentlemen can reserve "Luggage" for me. The rest will work out as needed, so far I have been pretty successful in not reusing character names.

I'll reserve "purse" for you.

Well, I'm going to have a 2nd account anyway, and I'm already reserving Stormspain. I can reserve luggage on it too.

I'm still a little troubled by their complete silence on balancing the faction populations, which implies they just don't intend to do so. In the scheme of things on a pve server it only affects queues (afaik), but it still looks like 2/3+ of the population is planning to roll defiant.

Maybe it does not really matter at all, WoW (among others) has shown us that over time these things shift back and forth which makes it rather hard to predict which side will be overpopulated at any given time.

I'd perfer Defiant but I can understand why (with the lower population) some people are calling for Guardian.

I'm pretty much fine with either. I'll go where ever the GWJ population is.

krev82 wrote:

I'm still a little troubled by their complete silence on balancing the faction populations, which implies they just don't intend to do so. In the scheme of things on a pve server it only affects queues (afaik), but it still looks like 2/3+ of the population is planning to roll defiant.

Maybe it does not really matter at all, WoW (among others) has shown us that over time these things shift back and forth which makes it rather hard to predict which side will be overpopulated at any given time.

If you are concerned about that, research the Aion or Warhammer population history. I haven't followed it closely, but our perception back in those days was that there was a lot more "dark side" players than "light side" players. As the initial hype wears off eventually, a lot of people will stop playing or guilds will re-roll to the less represented faction to have some challenge.
This will only provide you with a general idea based on a similar game, but the ratio of people wanting to be the "true ivil badass underdogs" to the soon to be "protectors of the innocent" out of principle won't have chanced much in the last two years.
Number of servers on release will also play a huge role. In Aion and Warhammer, there were a lot of old guilds from EQ, DAOC, WOW etc transfering over, so if they knew other guilds, they followed those to the servers they went. If there are too many servers, some will have a very screwed up ratio due to such "blobs" rolling one of the factions.

It's hard to forecast though. Not every MMO will necessarily go the way WoW has gone and end up with one faction being overrepresented when it comes to PvP. And the reason for that may not even end up being the optical and spiritual appeal of the races. In case of WoW, it was caused by the effed up racial system, which Blizzard should have replaced by a Elderscrolls-style Zodiac system years ago.

Well, up to the point everyone and their extended families just HAD to have a werewolf ...

Luggage wrote:
alexicacon wrote:

'course, only time will tell - I had big hopes for Warhammer as well.

And Age of Conan. And Aion. And Allods.

Other than that, you are correct. What was true and led to the respective downfalls of the above mentioned contenders says NOTHING about how Rift will do. It would be interesting to peak into a parallel universe where WoW wasn't the right game at the right time though.

As I said earlier in this or another Rift thread: the game interests me a lot, I just won't jump into any new MMOs right on release anymore.

I think I have tried most every major MMO since EQ and been burned by quite a few like all of the aforementioned titles, but I still can't resist being there day 1.

Luggage wrote:

And seeing that they have an NDA in place 2 weeks before "launch" reminds me oh too well of Aion and APB..

Beta NDA was lifted quite a while ago.

Yeah, they just use the Alpha NDA to to work out bugs in patches a few days before they hit the beta servers.

Based on my play time, I kinda favor Defiant.

After reading about both groups, Defiant does seem cooler.

Also tried the beta some and the game (have not leveled past 7) definitely seems worth a month of your time at least.

Tried a Paragon and a Blade Dancer/Marksman. I was digging the BD/marks combo, not sure how viable it is higher level, but my main enjoyment is stabbing or shooting mobs in the face.

All I have to say to reinforce my support for Defiant is this:

Clockworks Horses!
IMAGE(http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/MindTwister007/Rift/rift2010-12-0522-05-10-81.jpg)

karmajay wrote:

Tried a Paragon and a Blade Dancer/Marksman. I was digging the BD/marks combo, not sure how viable it is higher level, but my main enjoyment is stabbing or shooting mobs in the face. :)

I took up BD/Marks as well for I get the same enjoyment as you Found out that I had to add in a Riftstalker for the armor buffs to improve survivability.

I'm greatly enjoying the Warrior: Paladin/Champion/RiftBlade that I've been trying out during this Open beta. But I'm thinking of swapping out Riftblade for something else like Void Knight or Warlord. Because while the Riftblade's DOT are really effective, I get more fun out of the Champion's direct attacks and the Paladin's shield tricks. With Face Smash,Thunderous Kick and Blitz, I'm already a bane on spellcasters as I keep interrupting their casting. Add in Void Knight's mana drain skills and I'm set to be an enemy spell support killer.

Rolled a cleric healer, and i like it! Looks like I might have to change what my main will be at launch.
Warden/Sentinal/something with DoT(brain is sleepy can't remember)

Holla wrote:

Rolled a cleric healer, and i like it! Looks like I might have to change what my main will be at launch.
Warden/Sentinal/something with DoT(brain is sleepy can't remember)

Inquisitor perhaps?

My plan for launch is either Mage (Necromancer/Chloromancer/Archon) or Cleric (Shaman/Inquisitor/Justicar) both of these will be made at some point just not sure which I will focus on 1st.

I tried out Pally/Champ/Warlord and I'm really digging it. I do enjoy my mage though, as well. I think I'll stay away from rogues and clerics for now. Possibly roll some alts just for diversity. But for me, it's a toss up between the warrior or mage. Most likely I'll roll the warrior/tank first, and have the mage come up behind in levels.

MoonDragon wrote:

I tried out Pally/Champ/Warlord and I'm really digging it. I do enjoy my mage though, as well. I think I'll stay away from rogues and clerics for now. Possibly roll some alts just for diversity. But for me, it's a toss up between the warrior or mage. Most likely I'll roll the warrior/tank first, and have the mage come up behind in levels.

God, I know its been said a million bazillion times, but I'm still deeply enamored with my Warlock/Necro. At level 30, I can assume a couple of roles in a party with just my one build that its outstanding. In fact, just the other night in a dungeon, I was the secondary healer, and it worked quite well too. DPS when I can, heal when needed, and let my pet keep aggro on one of the off-mobs while casting dots for everyone. Its more fun that most mages I've played in MMOs before.

what server are you guys playing on?

ranalin wrote:

what server are you guys playing on?

Shatterbone.

Shadowklr wrote:
SpyNavy wrote:

I don't think anyone has an issue with that. Problem is that with the small GWJ player base it shrinks the pool of guilds available for both sides. People should play where they like because the purpose is fun, but it will reduce the goodjers available on either side which is why we went with a majority vote for sides. Personally I don't really have a strong feeling either way, but early on the feeling was strongly Defiant.

Fair enough. I want to play defiant anyhow. I just wanted to throw out the suggestion.

I am interested in Guardian too. I like the "righteous" story arc even if they are arguably not so from the Defiant's point of view. That said I am interested in joining the GWJ community so will play where you guys choose. I just found your group so this will be my first game with you all.

The idea of having GWJ guilds on both factions on the same server has some really interesting perks associated with it. Will there be the cross faction trade or neutral auction houses? Not that we want to manipulate things, but having a community that crosses faction lines could be a cool concept.

danielpape wrote:

The idea of having GWJ guilds on both factions on the same server has some really interesting perks associated with it. Will there be the cross faction trade or neutral auction houses? Not that we want to manipulate things, but having a community that crosses faction lines could be a cool concept.

This has been suggested earlier in the thread... the primary argument against splitting the community between factions is that it splits the community between factions. Even if there are enough people who sign up at release to fill out both guilds, statistically most of those people will leave after a month or two and those who remain will be left with two short-staffed guilds who are forced with either relying on recruiting outsiders in order to run content, or abandoning one of the guilds to reroll with one faction.

ruhk wrote:
danielpape wrote:

The idea of having GWJ guilds on both factions on the same server has some really interesting perks associated with it. Will there be the cross faction trade or neutral auction houses? Not that we want to manipulate things, but having a community that crosses faction lines could be a cool concept.

This has been suggested earlier in the thread... the primary argument against splitting the community between factions is that it splits the community between factions. Even if there are enough people who sign up at release to fill out both guilds, statistically most of those people will leave after a month or two and those who remain will be left with two short-staffed guilds who are forced with either relying on recruiting outsiders in order to run content, or abandoning one of the guilds to reroll with one faction.

Good point Ruhk. Best idea will probably be starting in one place and see how things grow. As we play our tastes for factions may even adjust or become more firmly cemented. I'm really looking forward to launch. The beta plays AWESOME!

I'm thinking defiant will be very crowded the first couple of weeks or so, but you will see the tides turn and things will even out. I'm definately rolling a guardian alt so if any others want to roll alts we can pick a server. Please note no guild will be created just offering a few of us some familiar faces to chat with while on the other side.

uh to clarify those in open beta are on shatterbone defiant right? I can't seem to track anyone down in GWJ , GWJAlliance, etc

krev82 wrote:

uh to clarify those in open beta are on shatterbone defiant right? I can't seem to track anyone down in GWJ , GWJAlliance, etc

I'll be online tonight and can add you, probably around 10-10:30 Central time. Look for Hydi or Weema.