Rift

Goodbye Stonefield, Hello Scarlet Gorge #Rift

stargrace May 26, 2011 3 Comments

It’s surprising how fast the levels go when you actually sit down to play Rift – I spent most of my free time yesterday in game, something I haven’t really done since release. I found myself working my way through the quests of Stonefield without too much trouble and before I knew it I had hit level 30 and moved on to the next zone, Scarlet Gorge. No surprise here the zone is red desert like with tall mountains of rock pillars and mining excavations, it looks fantastic. The best part about being in this zone is that while I never once saw a major invasion in Stonefield (and hence never earned any of the shards or stones required for the rare planar gear) I saw a major invasion almost as soon as I entered Scarlet Gorge (granted it WAS prime time US hours, which I don’t typically play) and earned myself two of the blue-type shards. Random note, the icon for the blue shards looks FAR too similar to the purple ones, so when you’re browsing the rare planar merchant it’s difficult to tell which shards you need for which items without actually mousing over the items. I think the blue ones should be given a blue background, instead of the purple one they currently sport.

My crafting is above my adventure level, which is something I’m always happy to see. I can craft up to level 32 items – but I have yet to come across supplies for that tier quite yet, so for now I harvest materials for my daily crafting quests. I’m saving up those artisan tokens for recipes, but I’m not sure if I want to purchase any or just keep saving up until I hit the end levels. So far everything I’ve crafted is far better then my quested rewards – dungeons being the exception along with planar gear and pvp rewards.

The progression is still very linear with some randomness thrown in depending on how you like to play. If you’re in a populated zone you could easily join a raid and bounce around doing nothing but closing Rifts and footholds, and level that way. You could queue for dungeons at the same time, and complete a quest here and there. The problem for me is that if you’re only doing one of these things (or even all three I suppose) it becomes very redundant for alts. I know they’ll have to do the exact same quests that I just completed, and that has put me off playing them. On the other hand they’re also both crafters (I have a mage and scout along with my cleric) and their crafting is far above the levels that they’re adventuring in. It makes doing my crafting dailies quite an adventure as I have to walk from location to location. I try to stick to the roads because being level 7 coming across level 18+ mobs makes for a very painful trip.

When it comes down to it – am I having fun? Yes. I am. I’m excited to be in a new level range, excited that I’m slowly closing the gap between me and my friends, and excited to work on my characters some more. I’ve done a lot of tweaking to my soul specs (I have three now) but I’m going to save those details for another post because I’d like to get into a lot more detail.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Why I’m Not Leveling #Rift

stargrace May 24, 2011 7 Comments

The title of this post is not completely true – I did hit level 26 today on my Defiant cleric. I’ve been playing off and on since release and this is my highest level character. Of course I’m playing Rift meshed between a handful of other games and real life, but there’s another reason why I’ve been neglectful in my leveling. Pictured above, the cleric in Stonefield. This zone is almost completely empty every single time I play. It’s me fighting minor rifts alone, me questing alone, and me in the small quest hubs alone. In fact the last few times I’ve played I haven’t seen a single other character around. It makes for some pretty lonely times. Of course, this is also mostly my fault. While everyone else was off leveling and exploring – I was playing other games and so I was left behind. It makes sense, I don’t expect anyone to hang back and wait for me and I state this every time I join a guild, that I tend to take things slower, and do my own thing. Sure, I could use the new LFG tool and get into a dungeon eventually, but I wanted to explore the massive outdoor world. I just wish this tier were not so desolate.

As if it were not bad enough that I never see anyone around me – I also never hear anyone in the public channels for my level or this zone. I enjoy doing my own thing and watching chat filter by, the illusion of being social without actually being social. Except for some reason that doesn’t work here, either. I’m not on Faeblight server which which is where most of my twitter friends ended up, I’m playing on Deepwood – and there ARE lots of players around. Meridian is full(ish) every time I head there. Because there is only one starter zone and progression is so linear and there is no mentoring in game there’s very little reason for folks to want to come back to the lower level zones unless they are working on achievements and collections. One of my major pet peeves has always been seeing huge empty zones – there should always be a reason for a player to go back to a zone within a game. When new zones are added (or levels) they tend to make older zones obsolete.

Needless to say, I haven’t been logging in nearly as much as I’ve wanted to. I do my crafting dailies, as well as the dailies in Meridian, and wander about completing a quest or two before logging out. Hopefully I’ll get inspired enough to work my way out of this tier and the next one will be better.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

It’s Pretty – But Is It Fun? #Rift

stargrace May 19, 2011 2 Comments

Servers are down right now for an update, and I’m backlogging a few days where I neglected to post (it’s actually the 25th, not the 19th) so I decided to upload a few more screen shots in my massive collection, and I’m struck by just how beautiful this game is. Screen shots are important to me in any game, I’m not sure why. I have folders upon folders of “memories” for the various games I’ve played. Those I’ve stuck with for years (EQ/EQ2) and those I’ve only played briefly (AoC). It doesn’t matter what the game, before I learn any of the commands for actual game play I want to know how to take screen shots. I’ve been that way for years now and I doubt it will change any time soon.

I was so frustrated with the lack of participation I found in Stonefields that I was ignoring the fact that the zone is incredibly pretty. Sure, the entrance is a desolate barren wasteland inhabited by trolls and other goon-like creatures but as soon as you hid the mid-way mark things brighten up considerably. There’s more population to speak of. One of the things holding me back slightly is that I prefer to do my zone quests in order and thus I didn’t even make my way to stonefields until I was well into 20, almost 21. Now I’m 26 and my quests are 21-22 which means there’s very little risk involved. Of course I did happen to stumble into a rift or two where I couldn’t defeat the bonus round by myself and limped away as fast as I could before I was smushed (or, after I was smushed as the case was a few times) but it was still pretty fun.

I’m having fun, which is important. Fun enough to grind by myself for hours in this little speck of land before I get bored? Probably not. But I don’t mind queuing while I quest, and at least then it’s broken up by a dungeon or two. I still think Rift really needs a mentor program so that you can play with your lower level friends without completely trivializing the content for them. I appreciate the fact that my level 50 friends can help me out with my quests, but when things die in one hit it makes me wonder what the point is, I may as well just be on auto follow and have them do everything for me.

A few things could be added to clinch this game for me. Number one would have to be player housing, objects crafted as well as quested and looted that could be placed in said homes. This gives players more ‘to do’ outside of slaughter. I enjoy working on achievements but I also enjoy just hanging out and talking to friends. Except I don’t want to just hang out, I want to do something that doesn’t require me worrying about whether or not I’m going to get killed while doing it. I also wish factions meant something besides just grinding for gear. I appreciate how factions work in EQ, they have meaning. You’re working on your faction for a greater purpose, and enchanters and their illusions become incredibly handy. I dislike the WoW faction grind, working away to a specific faction level in order to have a vendor item become available to you. Granted, I’m 26 and rarely (if ever) have come across this yet in my own travels in Rift, but I know it will come with time.

I enjoy crafting and doing my daily quests – but I think crafting is too easily accessible. It makes crafted items almost meaningless, and the market is so incredibly flooded with items that there’s no real point to them any longer. Harvested goods on the other hand can sell for a tidy profit, and I’m looking forward to doing some crafting rifts eventually. For now I’m content with my two dailies, and I’ve even gotten a few Artisan plaques from doing my dailies around Meridian.

Anyhow, enough of my rambling for now. Game should be back up, and I’m eager to try to reach the next tier so I can get a little closer to the rest of my friends who are playing. Despite the fact that this post sounds quite negative (well, for me in any case) I AM enjoying myself. It’s just a matter of finding my niche within the game. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!