Rift Gamescom Report Part 1/2

Thanks to Keepro and Soulghost, I have received a HUGE list of notes taken from interviewing Archonix at Gamescom 2017 in Germany.  What follows is a topical summary of what they discussed from the notes both of them have taken.  This will mostly be a bullet points list.

Please understand – all details are subject to change! The concepts and solutions put forth here represent works in progress.  Remember, nothing is guaranteed until it is patched to live!

“With Prophecy of Ahnket you advertised several new systems (Fragments, LFR, Legendary Skills, Individuell Reward Charges). Do you think it was a good decision to implement them so early in the expansion or would have been a version with polished Legendaries and LFR enough for the start?”

• Fragments should’ve waited until level 70, maybe with a little less RNG
• Vladd is focused on this right now.  We hoped to have something out 2 months ago, but we want it to be at a bar we are happy with.
• Eternals we wanted at launch.  “How do we solve the problem of I’ve been raiding for 9 weeks, but I don’t have my weapon.” Making this a questline was the best approach.
• Fortresses should’ve waited, those were rushed at the end, and are currently being reworked on the backend.

“You stated in the livestream that there will be less guided PTS testing? What is decision for that beside saving DEV time and isn’t it much easier to have first hand feedback instead of reading the combatlogs?”

• This is part of the move to 10-man, it’s easier to do a lot of internal testing with 10-mans than 20-mans.
• Team has stepped up Internal testing, and it is going better now that they have a consistent group for this.

 

“For 4.3 and 4.4, will we continue to see 10-mans only?”

• Yes.  This is our current way forward.
• No plans for 20-man content in the future.
• “Bastion of Steel” internal name for the new 4.3 raid.  New raid that takes place in and around Crucia’s Spaceship “The Claw of Crucia”.  No more details!

“The players are concerned about the current RNG system (Fragments, Gear, Essences) I understand why you increased the grind to give the DEVs more time to work on new content/fixing and even the hardcore raider that rush through the content have something to do. But on the downside the casuals or players that can’t grind as much are frustrated.”

• Biggest problem with fragments internally is too many RNG rolls.
• We want it to be a system that is easy to understand, but complex on the backend.
• Instead, it’s just complex and difficult to understand for everyone, and it is a shot in the dark.
• The team understands that this needs to be fixed
• Original plan was for fragments to drop like candy.  Destroy, keep what you want, recycle the rest.
• However, it’s impossible to find what is good from what is bad.
• We need to stop dropping these for classes you are not playing.
• Get more frags for calling you play. Less RNG for secondary stats.
• We do not plan on getting rid of secondary stats being randomized

 

“What about a Stat exchanger item for fragments?”

• Not going to say “no”, but not on the schedule

 

While none of these are guarantees, Potential Fragment change ideas include:

• Sacrificing certain fragment types to make a guarantee at a specific stat roll.
• Introducing “seasons” – every update or 2 we refresh the fragments system, introducing new frags, new stats, etc.
• Right side to come 2018 at the earliest (not planned for 4.3, maybe 4.4 or later).
• Ways to change affinity of slots.
• Dropping fragments from the appropriate Rift.  “Death frags from a death rift.”

“Any plans on revitalizing Reddit and do an official Rift Discord?”

• The team has talked about working with Reddit more, and might do some AMAs later this year. (no guarantees)
• As for discord, the team currently prefers to keep it unofficial
• Nice thing is the instant feedback from Discord
• Archonix tries to ask quick questions there occasionally, but doesn’t always get the expected answers
• EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to events this past week, there has been a lot of discussion involving Discord as a platform.  Yaviey has provided a response on the forums regarding the challenges of an official Trion-run Discord.

 

“Details on challenge servers?”

• Things like “bonus dungeon effects.  Example: healing is lowered in iron tomb for a weekend”
• The team has been throwing around a ton of ideas since the announcement.  Now it is a matter of choosing the right ones.

 

“Nightmare Rifts?”

• On track to eventually return.  Team has a NMR7 built for 65, but needs to be scaled to 70.

 

Other notes:

• The team likes the idea of Side-Upgrades, and these might be coming back for armor perhaps in the future.
• The idea for Hidden Achievments so you can buy Eternal Weapons on a vendor for your alts was appealing.
• There are plans for an Amnesty Program for people that have been banned in the last years to give them a second chance.
• A new warfront is in the works
• A Group Summon Patron ability is being discussed.
• The server team is working on making the auction house cross-server and preparing for mega-server tech.  No ETA on this.