The RIFT

[1:10] New competition: Check www.RiftPodcast.com for details in the next couple of weeks!

[1:40] Interview with Simon “Dead Simon” Ffinch and Cindy “Abigale” Bowens begins

[2:04] Abigale announces internal Beta dates are set! Beta is coming soon(tm)!

[2:24] Interview with Simon Ffinch, Trion’s Senior Design Director, begins

[2:30] Simon describes his background in the industry, as well as what he does on Rift. Simon manages the Content Design Team – a team of about 30 people who are responsible for all of the content that goes into the game.

[3:38] Simon once again recounts how he received the nickname of “Dead Simon”?

[5:28] Simon gives a quick rundown on questing in Rift:

• At its core, Rift is full of quests – mostly built towards solo or small groups.
• Each area or ‘zone’ in the game has it’s own individual storyline to tell, usually culminating with some large fight.
• These smaller stories tie into the larger, main storyline for the entire game.
• Since each faction views the world differently, both tell the story of Telara from a different viewpoint. This creates two unique perspectives to discover!
• “Off-Story” questlines that do not pertain to the main story will exist in the game, and may reward special items or be purely for fun.

[8:28] Simon discusses Epic quests, race- or faction-specific quests, and extended questlines.

• There are no plans to launch with class or race-specific quests, this includes Epic quests. Trion already has ideas for post-launch content, including Epic quests.
• Faction-specific quests are already in the game.
• More specifically about factions, non-player factions will exist in game that you can gain reputation with.

[9:41] Arithion asks Simon if there will be any game-spanning questlines

• The main questline, telling the story of Telara, will span the entire game.
• There are two different storylines in Rift: one from the perspective of the Defiant and one from the perspective of the Guardians.

[10:28] Simon discusses for which type of players the quests were designed.

• Outside of the main storyline, which features solo or small group quests, Rift will feature both group and raid quests.
• Group and raid areas, usually dungeons, do have quests designed for them.

[11:13] Simon confirms that souls will be obtainable through quests.

[11:21] Arithion questions the difficulty of the Soul Quests.

• Simon describes how they want players to be able to acquire the majority of souls by the time they reach level 50 (level cap).
• The Last few souls will be pretty difficult to obtain, some involving long and/or difficult questlines to achieve.
• He also explains that they do not want to force souls on the player, and instead will let them choose from a list of the remaining souls they need to acquire when they complete these quests.

[13:01] Simon dismisses the likelihood of “Choose-your-own-ending” style quests due to the enormous amount of work involved. He would rather have the time spent doing multiple single-ending quests, than a complicated multiple-ending quest.

[14:01] Simon explains how they plan to draw players into the game at the beginning

• They are currently remaking both of the starting areas from the previously viewed ones at PAX or GamesCom.
• The main thing they wanted to accomplish was to solidify what your faction is about and why you hate the other faction. They also wanted to set the stage for the story of Telara.

[15:45] Simon discusses quests and other things to do once a player has achieved max level (Currently 50)

• There are definitely max level (50) quests, and are currently adding more quests.
• Faction quests do exist that you can get faction with and eventually get items from.
• There is a large variety of things to do once a player has achieved maximum level including high level Rifts, Raids, and challenging versions of the dungeons.

[17:35] Simon explains how Daily quests are implemented throughout the game and throughout the level ranges

[18:12] Arithion inquires about how experience gain is balanced throughout the game

• Leveling in different ways, through Rifts, Groups, Dungeons, will be a viable way to gain experience in the game. This means that those who prefer not to use Quests to level will have alternative means to level.

[19:02] Simon explains the reasoning behind Quest Hubs in Rift.

• Quest Hubs will be used primarily to deliver the main storyline.
• Explorers will find many different little surprises, including strange quests and supplies in hidden areas.

[19:58] Simon talks about Quests involving Rifts and how they will increase in difficulty as a player progresses throughout the game.

[21:02] Simon explains how Dungeon Quests will work.

• Upon entrance to a Dungeon, the “Main Quest” will be given to the players.
• Players can obtains other quests from questgivers, usually near the Dungeon.
• Daily dungeon quests will exist in the game.

[22:26] Arithion asks about the balance of Quests in the game.

• Every quest in the game cannot be an “epic” style quest, since every quest would then become non-epic.
• There will be some quests that involve running around or killing 10 rats as well as some longer storyline quests.

[24:20] Arithion asks about quests rewarding unusual things

• There will be Reputation (Faction) quests in the game for players to achieve.
• The system is in place to introduce interesting rewards for quests.
• An example of other quest rewards includes crafting recipes.

[25:12] Simon talks about Access Quests when Rift launches.

• There are no plans for Access Quests in Rift when it launches.
• Post-launch, some new content might need to be unlocked via player involved quests.

[26:00] Simon discusses how MMOs should be Massively Multiplayer.

• The only time that players will enter an instance will be in Dungeons or Raids.
• The entire world itself is non-instanced, so each player will be able to interact with those around them. This includes the starting areas.

[26:53] Simon explains how random Dynamic Quests will be in Rift

[27:55] Arithion asks about the process of getting quests into the game.

• The developers will usually implement the quest in-game and test it out to determine if it is fun before deciding if it should be tossed aside.

[29:12] Simon explains how Trion plans to handle pop culture references or humour in Rift Quests.

• They do not plan to include pop culture references that will be forgotten, however puns will be included in the game.

[30:18] Simon expands on non-adventuring related quests.

• Some quests might be self-contained and tell their own little stories.
• Different quests, for example for recipes, might involve other aspects of the game such as crafting.

[31:22] Simon talks a bit about Guild Quests.

• Guilds can be comprised of a large number of members, and as such Guild Quests will be larger and tougher to complete, especially as the guild progresses.
• Example quests for a Guild might be Rift-based or PVP-based quests.