The RIFT

Many thanks to Katabri of Tank Telara for helping out with these notes!

Shyntyrr fills in for Desikis, and today’s guests are: Cindy “Abigale” Bowens and James “Elrar” Nichols.
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Many thanks to Katabriof Tank Telara for helping out with this week’s notes!

Adam Gershowitz is our interview today, but the interview was done before the delay of Phase 2 of the World Event, so some mention will be made to the event going live on the original date.

These notes give a synopsis of the interview. To hear the full answers, please listen to our podcast!
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[01.08] Also, Sie wollten mit uns ein wenig über die Community und den Weg Richtung Headstart sprechen? (Anmerkung: bezog sich derzeit aufs engl. Forum, kommt beim dt. Forum noch)

• “Trolle” sind ordnungsgemäß entfernt worden.
• Sobald Headstart beginnt, muss man ein aktives Konto oder eine Pre-Order haben, um im Forum posten zu können.
• Nach dem Headstart muss man ein aktives Konto haben, um posten zu können.
• ab dem 23/2/11 gibts auch die Möglichkeit Paypal für Vorbestellungen zu nutzen
• Forumsänderungen sind dazu da, das zahlende Kunden ihr Feedback geben können, und nicht diejenigen, die nur kurz ins Spiel geschaut haben.

[08.20] Wann können wir mit dem neue Foren rechnen, also den Server-Foren und der größeren Aufteilung der Kategorien?

• Definitiv zum Spielstart.
• Ich warte noch immer auf die endgültige Liste der Server.
• Server-spezifische Foren kommen, sowie ein paar neue Kategorien, wie zB. die Fanseite Kategorie!

[09.30] Wird es eine Möglichkeit geben seinen Charakter mit dem Forum-Account zu verbinden?

• Möglich.
• das ist etwas, was sie sich noch anschaun werden, momentan aber nicht wirklich wichtig ist.

[11.35] Können Sie etwas zu den Fansite Foren sagen?

• Sie wollen einen bessere Verbindung zu den neueren Fansites herstellen.
• Updates wurden nur langsam durch die Masse an Arbeit vorgenommen, aber sie arbeiten hart daran, um die Dinge am laufen zu halten.
• Fansite-Sektion wird es nur Fansite Betreiber erlauben, Themen im Forum zu erstellen, so dass die Seiten ein wenig mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekommen.

[14.30] Was tut ihr, um euch auf den Start vorzubereiten?

• Es wird kein Podcast am 28. Februar geben, nächster vorläufiger Termin ist der 7. März für das nächste Podcast.

[18.39] Wie steht ihr zum heißen Thema der Charakter-Anpassung?

• Hautfarben Bereich wird erweitert.
• Brüste-Schieberegler und andere ähnliche Systeme würden sich direkt auf die Leistung auswirken.
• Es wäre schädlich für die PC-Leistung bei großen Events, wenn man eine größere Anpassungen hat.
• Gameplay ist wichtiger als Charakter-Anpassung.
• Die Entwickler-Künstler wollen mehr tun.
• Make-up und Augen-Auswahl stehen in direktem Zusammenhang zur Performance.

[24.17] Open PvP: was könnt ihr uns dazu erzählen, wie zB. Belagerungen, Angriffsziel basiertes oder Ancient Wardstones?

• Wenn man eine große Anzahl von Spielern zusammen hat, entsteht auch sofort offenes PvP.
• Geteilte Zonen gibts genügend auf dem Weg bis Level 50.

[25.39] Was ist mit Sprosshafen? Nicht die Kriegsfront, sondern die Zone.

• Ist ein wichtiger Teil der Geschichte.
• Sie wollen es dahingehend erweitern, wenn sie die Zeit haben, und wenn sie genug Zeit haben es gut zu machen.
• Die Kriegsfront wird zum Start verfügbar sein.

[26.51] Was ist mit den Rätseln? Wessen Idee war das?

• Simon.

[27.50] Wann können wir uns auf Stühle setzen?

• Eine der Fragen, die die Entwickler zum erschaudern bringen.
• Sie werden es in Zukunft hinzufügen, ist aber kein wichtiger Faktor für sie.

[29.20] Wie seht ihr die Bewältigung des Endgames? Habt Ihr eine Art von zeitlicher Projizierung, wie lange Spieler brauchen werden den aktuellen Endgame Content zu schaffen?

• Ja, aber sie werden diese Zahl niemals rausgeben.
• Diese Zahl ist verbunden mit der Spielentwicklung.
• Sie erschaffen das Spiel nicht nach einem zeitlichen Ziel, sie entwerfen es und fragen sich dann, ob die benötigte Zeit sinnvoll war.

[31.15] Gibt es Gedanken zu einem persistenten, umkämpften Dungeon wie Darkness Falls in Dark Age of Camelot?

• Sie haben bereits darüber diskutiert, aber es ist erstmal nicht am Planungs-Horizont.
• Zukünftige Inhalte werden meist davon bestimmt, was sich die Community am meisten wünscht.

[31.48] Was ist mit den Server-Namen? Wie sind die Namen für den Headstart?

• Einige Server sind die gleichen wie in der Beta, während andere anders heissen werden.
• Sie werden kurz vor Headstart bekannt gegeben.

[32.33] Wie wollen Sie die Anzahl der Server ausgleichen?

• Es ist extrem gefährlich zuviele Server beim Headstart zu öffnen.

[33.14] Wie viele Spieler können online sein, bevor eine Warteschlange beginnt?

• Es ist unterschiedlich.
• Manchmal ist es bezogen auf Spieleranzahl, Server-Leistung und anderen Faktoren.
• Die Obergrenze für die Server-Kapazität ist noch nicht erreicht worden.

[34.08] Habt ihr weitere Pläne für dynamische Quests?

• Ja.
• Ein Spiel, dass 100% Dynamik ist, wird keinen Spaß machen.
• Ein Spiel, dass einige statische und einige dynamische Inhalte hat, wird extrem unterhaltsam.
• Die Leute wollen Dinge, zu denen sie zurückkehren können, um sie zu tun.
• Sie testeten eine 100% dynamische Welt, und fanden, das es sich frustrierend spielt.
• Es muss ein gewisses Maß eines dauerhaften Zustandes vorhanden sein, was Sinn für die Spieler macht.
• Sie werden mehr dynamische Inhalte in der nächsten Zeit hinzufügen.

[36.50] Sind die Anfänger-Zonen instanziert?

• Ja.
• Ihr könnt euren Freunden aber in den anderen Instanzen beitreten.

[37.10] Aus technischer Sicht: bekommt Rift volle SLI-Unterstützung?

• Es unterstützt derzeit Crossfire.
• SLI ist in Arbeit, genauso wie andere Video-Angelegenheiten.

[38.24] Wird das Spiel die neuen 6-Kern-CPUs in vollem Umfang nutzen?

• Ein Spiel nutzt nicht alle Kerne, später vielleicht garkeine schlechte Sache.

http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?7579-Frame-Rate-Hardware-Technical-FAQ&p=215258#post215258

[39.10] Habt ihr euch das mal angeschaut, wenn man zu den kleinen Instanzen zur Gegnerfraktion läuft und stirbt, das man dann aber wieder in den eigenen Zonen wiederbelebt wird?

• Das ist ein Bug.
• Ihr solltet in der gleichen Zone respawnen, in der man gestorben ist.

[40.24] In einer der Betaversionen gab es Verbrauchsmaterialien, die Sie in die Zone der gegnerischen Fraktion teleportierten, sind diese noch im Spiel?

• Nein, das waren nur Beta Gegenstände.

[40.56] In Bezug auf Low Level Inhalte, man kann die erste Kriegsfront mit Level 10 betreten, aber man kann Belohnungen erst ab Level 25 bekommen. Schaut ihr da nochmal drüber?

• Ja.

[1:08] So you wanted to talk to us a little bit about the community and the lead up to launch?

• “Drive by trolls” have been effectively removed.
• Once head start begins, you must have an active account and pre-order to post.
• After head start you must have an active account to post.
• 2/23/11 Paypal for preorders
• Forum change is driven by making sure the paying customers give the feedback, not those just viewing the game.

[8:20] When can we expect to see the new forums with the server forums and bigger breakdown of the categories?

• Definitely by launch.
• Still waiting on the final list of servers.
• Server specific forums are coming, as well as a few new categories – such as the fansite category!

[9:30] Is there going to be a way to tie your character to your forum account?

Possibly.
• Its something they’re looking at, but haven’t really looked into it too much yet.

[11:35] About the fansite forums?

• They want to establish a better relationship with the newer sites that have been created.
• Updates have been slow due to work load, but they are working extremely hard to get things running.
• Fansite section will only allow fansite operators to create topics in the forum, allowing the sites to have a bit more exposure.

[14:30] What are you guys doing to prepare for launch?

• No podcast on February 28th, March 7th is the tentative date for next release.

[18:39] What about the hot topic of customization?

• Skin tone range is being expanded.
• “Boob” slider and other similar systems would directly impact performance.
• It would be detrimental to PC performance in large events to have larger customization.
• Game play comes over character customization.
• The artists want to do more.
• Make up and eye selection are directly related due to performance.

[24:17] Open PvP, is there anything you guys can talk about such as sieges, objective based, ancient wardstones?

• When you put a large amount of people together, you almost instantly create open world PvP.
• Shared zones will be available all the way up to 50.

[25:39] What about Port Sion? Not the warfront, but the zone.

• A key part of the story.
• They want to expand upon it when its time, and when they have enough time to do it well.
• The warfront will be in on launch.

[26:51] What about the puzzles? Who’s idea was that?

• Simon.

[27:50] When can we sit in chairs?

• One of those questions that the developers cringe at.
• They will add it in the future, and its not a game breaker for them.

[29:20] What about content consumption at the end game? Do you have any type of timing projections of how long it will take players to complete the current end-game?

• Yes, but they will never give that number out.
• Said number is built into the design.
• They don’t design around a time goal, they design and then ask themselves if the time taken is reasonable.

[31:15] Any thought about a persistent, contested dungeon such as Darkness Falls from Dark Age of Camelot?

• They’ve discussed it, but its not on the horizon.
• Future content will be mostly decided by what the community is asking for.

[31:48] What about server names? What are the names going to be for release?

• Some servers will be the same as in beta, while others will change.
• Tentatively will be announced just before head start.

[32:33] How are you going to balance the number of servers?

• Its extremely dangerous to open too many servers at launch.

[33:14] How many people can be online before a queue starts?

• It depends.
• Sometimes its based on population, server performance, and other factors.
• Hard cap for server capacity has not been reached yet.

[34:08] Do you guys have more plans for dynamic quests?

• Yes.
• Making a game that is 100% dynamic becomes not fun.
• Making a game that has some static and some dynamic becomes extremely entertaining.
• People like to have things that they can fall back on to do.
• The game engine cannot do those mechanics in a “fun” way.
• They tested 100% dynamic world, and found it frustrating to play.
• There needs to be some amount of permanence for the world to make sense to the players.
• They will add more dynamic content over time.

[36:50] Are the newbie zones going to be instanced?

• Yes.
• You can join your friends in other instances.

[37:10] On the technical side, is Rift going to fully support SLI?

• It currently supports crossfire.
• SLI is a work in progress, as well as other video matters.

[38:24] Will the game make full use of the new six core CPUs?

• A game not using all the cores evenly is not a bad thing.
• http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?7579-Frame-Rate-Hardware-Technical-FAQ&p=215258#post215258

[39:10] Is running to the newbie dungeons and dying, then respawning in a friendly zone going to be looked at?

• This is a bug.
• You should respawn in the same zone that you died in.

[40:24] In one of the betas you had consumables that would teleport you into the opposing faction’s zone, when you swapped to ascended powers are those still in the game?

• No, those were beta items only.

[40:56] In regards to low level content, you can enter the first warfront at level 10 but you can’t get rewards until level 25. Is this being looked at?

• Yes.

[2:14] The Pet systems – will we ever see a training system, or a way to differentiate your pet from other pets?

• Definitely not something they are looking at for launch.

[2:59] Are titles going to be anything other than bragging rights, or will they add something like stats later on?

• They will be purely cosmetic.

[4:00] Since you’ve come on board, what is the single largest change you’ve made to the game?

• They can’t pick any specific instance.
• Exposing the whole story to everyone.

[5:14] Are you happy where the game is for release? Is it where you thought it would be?

• It’s farther ahead than they thought.

[5:57] What’s the biggest surprise that you thought was going to work but ended up having to turn around?

• Nothing that changed 180 degrees (completely around).
• Some changes they’ve had to make – maybe 20-40 degrees – but nothing major.
• They originally thought the class system to complex, but after the Betas decided that players were doing fine.

[8:08] Do you think it’s possible to listen to the fan/player base too much?

• Yes, definitely.

[8:15] How do you balance that line?

• You cannot read the forums and look for ‘volume of screaming’, or ultimatums.
• You can look at the volume of people that are concerned. If a lot of people are concerned, they will look at it.
• They apply their own wisdom/smarts and make their own decisions.
• Looking at the heart of the concern – not necessarily the specific feature being talked about.

[9:28] Are there suggestions that you see in the forums that you are tired of seeing?

• There are some topics that cause them *physical pain* to see appear.
• One of their personal issues is: Player Housing. (Note: Opinion of one developer, not the indicative of the company as a whole. Several other developers seem to love player housing!)
• They like these topics because it keeps the developers honest.
• The entire team reads the forums.

[11:29] How do you balance convenience with building a living world?

• Time it takes to get to max level isn’t a concern because they’re happy with how well done their end-game is, and they want people to enjoy the levelling game.
• The amount of time something takes and the fun you have while doing it are not tied together.
• They’re “creating market” for this type of game play.

[13:01] Are you looking to make a looking for dungeon finder?

• Yes.

[13:08] Is it going to be cross server?

• Possibly.
• The problem that occurs with non-group creating dungeon finders is the lack of use after release, effectively a waste of development time.

[13:56] Are you concerned about how it would affect the server community if it is cross server?

• They still don’t know if that’s how they’re going to go about implementing a dungeon finder.
• People don’t like to be the guy that shouts in a channel for 45 minutes and then the group fails.
• There is one dungeon finder so far; basing how the only system out there has done it to a possible implementation in Rift would be a huge mistake.
• People are falling into the trap that MMO does not mean WoW.

[15:55] There is more raid content now than you had planned, what happened that made you have so much more now?

• The team did a great job pushing and polishing the content they had prepped for release so much that they were able to create more content.
• The fact that the servers have been stable has allowed the team to start on future content.

[17:48] On the topic of Raid UI, are we going to see any future features such as a calendar or something similar?

• Yes, you can assume that things people have been asking for is being looked at.

[18:21] What is your release schedule looking like? Are we looking at two content patches and then an expansion, or something different?

• Right now they’re focused on launch.
• They have a road map of how they want things to go, but that is subject to change given how things actually happen.

[18:55] Are the current racials the racial abilities we’re going to see on launch?

• Yes.
• The stats per race are being looked at.
• The original racials were too powerful in the beginning, but they wanted the racials to stay impactful.

[21:22] Do you have a projection on how you want to go, particularly with raids, solo, five man, ten man, and rift content?

• Over time you can expect all of these, but initially the focus is on expanding raid content – both in zones and rifts.
• It’s more of a question of keeping the quality high, rather than pushing the content out quickly.

[22:30] Are you guys looking to do vertical progression (level cap increases per expansion) or more horizontal progression (staying the same level at each expansion)?

• Right now it’s not something they’ve focused on; all resources are mainly focused on launch.
• Horizontal progression runs into some unique problems than vertical, particularly when it comes to knowing how far other characters have progressed compared to others.

[23:50] Do you have a prediction on how quickly content will be deployed, from development to implementation on live servers?

• It depends on how complex the content is, ranging from an hour to over a month.
• They have the capabilities to push out content live while players are doing content.

[25:05] The raid and rift guys have a plan laid out for future content, correct?

• Yes.
• They’ve been in post-launch development mode for awhile now.

[25:28] Do you have any plans for GM launched events?

• Yes.
• Both GMs and the system have the ability to launch any event at any given time.
• GM launched content doesn’t scale nearly as well as the system being able to do it.

[26:50] How easy or hard is it to implement a new soul?

• It’s completely dependent on how complex the soul is.
• Balance makes new soul implementation much more difficult than actually creating the soul.
• They want to make things that are fun, not just something that feels like an add-on.

[28:50] Is there a possibility of more roles?

• Yes.
• They’re not going to add more until they see how everything spreads out and works.
• Adding more roles would need to have a monetary value, but balancing the point where respecs cost more than the roles is something they’re watching.

[30:45] Can you track the number of times people respec in game?

• Yes.
• They can track anything that interacts with characters and NPCs.

[31:07] Has there been discussion about allowing your PvP soul to have its own points?

• Yes.
• You should not have to get remove one of your PvE souls to play PvP.
• The reason that the PvP souls only have 21 points is to help balance the point distribution within the PvE souls.

[31:56] How are you planning on building out the world for future expansions?

• They have some ideas planned, but they’re not giving anything away just yet.

[32:19] Are you going to include an auto face feature?

• No.
• Anything that makes botting easier is not something they will want to add.

[32:55] On introducing new content

• Always want to make sure the new content is cooler than the previous content
• The goal is to give people more and more quality.
• They don’t want to “jump the shark”.

[33:38] Will there be any support for guild hierarchies, or anything that allows for other players to see guild achievements?

• Yes.
• There is content in development that will send out broadcasts based on guild level, world firsts, and other “cornerstone” achievements.
• 20 guild levels

[34:34] Will there be Armoury style features?

• Possibly.
• They want to focus on making the game a success first before adding more side features such as an armoury.

[35:26] On crafting, are there plans for rare materials, rare recipes, or raid drops?

• Recipes are created, just haven’t been turned on yet.
• They are intentionally not adding rare materials to help balance the server markets.
• The augment system is intended to help with the lack of this.

[36:32] What plans are in place to help curb gold farmers?

• The game has an in-game filter based off of player reports.
• They track hackers, and have already banned beta accounts and cancelled pre-orders.

[37:31] Do you plan on encrypting the games data stream?

• Yes.