Rift is going free to play

[Nefaro]

I'd be quite happy to set up a Grogheads guild, but it would have to be on Icewatch which is a European server.

I couldn't even log in tonight; free to play finally happened and the servers got absolutely hammered.

Don't think I wanna mess with EU servers.

Nef, good luck with SW:TOR.  Have you played it before?  I found it boring as hell - one of the worst MMO's I've played in fact (still better than WoW though).

Yes, I had pre-ordered it so got some time in. 

While the voice-over stuff was interesting.. the pve certainly gets dull & repetitive after a bit.  Things is.. all MMOs do.  I did enjoy the PvP in SW:TOR, however and I've read mention that they've been fixing up the open-area PvP stuff over time so figured I'd try to check it out (if my patience for pve holds long enough that is).

That's one thing I need in an MMO.. a well done open PvP zone in end-game where you can have faction warfare with an acceptable ruleset.  I've not seen many of them do it well, however.

[Huw the Poo]

Guild Wars 2 has that and you don't even need to do any PvE to get there.

[Nefaro]

Guild Wars 2 has that and you don't even need to do any PvE to get there.

Meh.  I wasn't as into GW2 as others.  I think part of it was the "lore" and gfx style.  The whole style in general.  The first GW also rubbed me the wrong way in a similar sense.  The relatively few choices in skillsets and such also didn't help.  So I didn't end up playing it very long. 

One big issue I have with Rift is that the gfx engine is pure sheeit.  I've heard it looks better on Nvidia cards but it looks & runs terrible on my desktop's AMD one.  It doesn't have proper AA, so I either get that crappy anti-aliasing that looks like smeared vaseline over the whole screen or big jagged edges on everything.  The post-processing just makes it look even worse with or without AA, too.  Don't get me wrong, Rift has it's good points but it's just as grindy and repetitive as the rest and I don't think it's much different than most of the other "theme park" MMOs.  Actually, it pretty much took the good concepts from most that came before it - probably why it did fairly well.

I've been burned out on MMOs for awhile now, but since many of them are FtP these days, it's easier to tinker about in them here & there to see if I'm serious.  That's usually not the case for long.

[Kushan]

Huw you cant switch regions in Rift. On the login screen (where you type your username, PW, and authenticator code...not the character screen), go to settings and you can switch between Europe and North America.

GW World vs World vs World PvP was fun, when you could get into it. I didn't care for the rest of the game. Liked the grahic style but the skill system was the most boring thing I've ever seen. It was reminiscent of the early days of WoW (and early Rift launch) when you could macro one key to be all your attack skills.

[SgtRock]

I downloaded and played a little Rift, still not sure I like it yet, need to give it more time. It's a big change coming from Guild Wars 2, still don't understand a lot of things,  the graphics are a real step down and I don't like the kill or resource stealing.  Your fighting some one to mine a resource and a higher level player runs in kills everything and takes the resource or how higher level players can run in take over an event, before your low level character can kill anything.

[Huw the Poo]

It is a theme park MMO, remember, with all that entails.  It just happens to be the best of them. :)

SgtRock, there are plenty of things GW2 does better than any other MMO, but what killed it for me was the spectacularly boring skills.  I'll take Rift over GW2 any day because combat is so much better.

Huw you cant switch regions in Rift. On the login screen (where you type your username, PW, and authenticator code...not the character screen), go to settings and you can switch between Europe and North America.

I didn't know that, thanks.  I'm not likely to switch to a NA server though. :)

[Nefaro]

Rift is claiming that it's totally free-to-play, and that there are no content limits. 

I haven't browsed through the cash shop, or looked for specifics yet.  Actually.. there's a good amount of screen junk they've added since release that I"m not familiar with.  It's like all the additions and free-to-play stuff kicks the learning curve up a ways, when you return.  ???

So.. does Rift have any good open end-game PvP now?  It didn't at release.

[Huw the Poo]

I haven't tried Rift's PvP in a long time so I don't know.  It's definitely totally F2P though; the entire world is open.  The only limitation is the Storm Legion souls; to use them you must either buy SL or, I believe, buy souls separately (a better choice for me, since I know I'll never use the warrior souls for example).

[Tpek]

^ So if I previously purchased Storm Legion and played as a subscriber, then everything is open to me?
Is there even any subscription option?

[Huw the Poo]

That's right, you should have access to everything.  You can still buy a sub which gives you patron status - priority in server queues and regular rewards.

[SgtRock]

That's right, you should have access to everything.  You can still buy a sub which gives you patron status - priority in server queues and regular rewards.

Ohh, so that's their plan, pay just be able to get into the game? :P I tried a few times last night and got nothing but, 1 hour plus wait times on every server in the list . I think I'll need to let things settle down, seems be combo of old players coming back and new player's trying it out. I did the dailies in GW2 instead and noticed it seemed empty, I wondered where all the players went?

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, I haven't been able to log in at all since it was opened to the great unwashed.  The same thing happens with any launch though; it'll improve.

Also they just retired my server and created two new ones, so maybe I'll have better luck tonight.

[Kushan]

Just tried to login. All the servers are full, wait time is 20+ minutes. Wasn't even this bad at launch.

[Huw the Poo]

Really?  You were lucky then - it was at least this bad at launch on Icewatch.

Happily, what Trion have done for the European servers worked; Icewatch is now just a trial server and I was able to log into my new server pretty much instantly (was 3 in the queue and I was in before the clock even appeared).

Picked up my pile of loyalty rewards which included a 110% speed mount and a dimension key, both of which would've cost me serious plat! 8)

[SgtRock]

Rift, lvl15 Elf Ranger, What am I not getting?

Loot System, 7 out of 10 items just give more quests, I don't need more quests, I want loot!

Equipment (Armor, Weapons, etc), venders don't sell any, creatures don't drop any, I've only had 2 armor drops, no weapon drops from level 1 - 15. The game seems to be little more than find the next quest that will give you the next boot, belt, weapon upgrade.

RuneCraft - how the hell do you find enough stuff to runebreak? It's only after I upgrade an armor piece, I have something to runebreak.

Quests/Combat - it's seems way too easy to kill something than just stand there until it re-spawns, kill it again & repeat  to get 5-6 things for a typical quest.