Rift Getting Massive Storm Legions Expansion

[DoctorFinger]

I'm not too fond of MMOs, so I'm consequently not too up on Rift. But I know we have a bunch of dedicated players, and I'm sure they'll be happy to hear about the new Storm Legions expansion.

And this definitely qualifies as a full expansion. No pansy little patch here. The new goodies are headlined by a new continent. No, that's wrong. There are two new continents, more than tripling the size of the existing overworld, with 7 new dungeons, 3 raids, a Chronicle to explore. The level cap has been bumped up to 60, and they've added a new soul for each class. Plus there is a massive new Colossus boss which literally tears the land up as it passes.

For the full list of features in Storm Legion click the 'more' button.

A VAST NEW WORLD
• Adventure across two huge new continents that more than triple the size of the existing world
• Experience epic stories that reveal the true power in Telara … and the gateway to the planes
• Make your move to the island city of Tempest Bay, a new stronghold for both Guardians and Defiant

10 MORE LEVELS, 4 MORE SOULS
• A new Soul for each Calling expands the Ascended Class System – build the hero you want!
• Rise to new heights of power through 10 challenging levels, increasing the level cap to 60
• Play your way! Choose how you level with questing and Instant Adventure everywhere, onslaughts, rifts, events, and more

BRAVE THE STORM
• Achieve greatness with 7 new dungeons, 3 raids, a Chronicle, and more!
• Join the Hunt: New rift gameplay propels you into battling increasingly-challenging planar bosses
• Fight legions of fantastic creatures, including a Colossus that interacts with – and ravages – the world like you’ve never seen

MAKE TELARA YOUR OWN
• Dimensions: Customizable spaces allow players and guilds to own a sliver of Telara
• Take your professions to new heights with Grandmaster crafting
• Become the talk of the town and boost your stats with stylish new capes
• New puzzles, artifacts and collectibles, achievements, mounts, pets, titles, and much more

Trion Worlds has not said when Storm Legions will be released or how much it will cost.

Source - RPS

[Widgetcraft]

Should be interesting to see how they implement player/guild housing.

[Shjinta]

Yesssssssssss I seriously can't wait. I've been playing Rift on and off and I still love the game to death. Just no one to play with.

[Dark Acre Jack]

Funny, just yesterday I won a month's pass from Raptr for playing a lot of RPGS.

Loaded it up and was quite impressed with the lore & really digging it until someone told me to go kill 6 zombies.

Just. can't. do. it. anymore.

[bean]

I really liked this game but after about a month I had no desire to play it anymore. I think that the last 10 levels at launch were really hard to get and even after all that time, and the gameplay - even with all the options - got too repetitive.

The Rifts themselves were the first thing to get boring. It's the coolest part of the game when you start, but after a while it just bored me to tears. Maybe these additions will make it interesting to me again, but I'll wait for the expansion to be cheap.

[SilentScreams]

Rift was good, but if you're already bored of WoW (which I most definitely am) then Rift has nothing to offer.

[bean]

@SilentScreams - I think the general MMO setup that WoW stole isn't the problem. People aren't burned out on all FPS and all RTS because their basic game mechanics are all the same.

I think the problem is that WoW has over it's 7 years removed more and more of the bullshit. If you play the post-cataclysm game, the quest areas flow from one to the other very well with many new bad guys with different behavior and a variety of quests that keep the game very interesting (at least on your first run).

Other standard MMOs are looking at the gold-standards of WoW and making equivalent feature sets (well SWTOR desperately needed a dungeon finder at launch and still doesn't have one), but they are either not listening to people who understand the importance of game flow or the people in charge of world design simply don't understand how to actually pull it off - or, more likely, they weren't given the tools needed to make good game flow in time to iterate - test - and reiterate. (SWTOR has other issues than this, but I'm just discussing this one because WoW does it right and really none of the others do).

[Farsight]

Originally Posted by bean

@SilentScreams - I think the general MMO setup that WoW stole isn't the problem. People aren't burned out on all FPS and all RTS because their basic game mechanics are all the same.

I'll disagree. I think the basic setup IS the problem, we just put up with it for a long time because of the uniquely massive aspects of the games.

The reason people keep playing FPS games is because the basic gameplay is fun. The basic gameplay we identify with EQ/WoW/etc is not fun. It's the hoop we jump through to get to the fun stuff.

[bean]

Originally Posted by Farsight

I'll disagree. I think the basic setup IS the problem, we just put up with it for a long time because of the uniquely massive aspects of the games.

The reason people keep playing FPS games is because the basic gameplay is fun. The basic gameplay we identify with EQ/WoW/etc is not fun. It's the hoop we jump through to get to the fun stuff.

Hmm. . . I think there is something fun about the basic gameplay in standard MMOs (particularly in good ones with varying skill rotations and enemies that require movement rather than repeating the same skill rotation endlessly - think PvP and dungeons/raids).

The problem is burnout. It's good gameplay that people have literally done for hundreds of hours so changing the skill rotations slightly with different classes in different games isn't refreshing enough.

With FPS and RTS games, we simply play fewer hours in the same game. The gameplay and art and whatever "unique" custom mechanics an FPS has are fun until they aren't fun anymore and then we move on to something new without a thought about it.

However, because MMOs grant character advancement, many people see their characters as an investment. They look at an MMO when first trying it and judge whether or not they want to commit a year or two to it like they did their first MMO before they burned out on the basic gameplay.

I loved SWTOR and played it constantly for 3 months. For a single player game, I would have considered it an awesome experience as there are very, very few single player games that can keep my attention for that long (even with replays over a few years), but for an MMO, the goal is to keep me (and others) subscribed for years, so instead of being a tremendous blockbuster success, it is considered only a mild success (there are still millions of players, but there has been significant churn since launch).


As a side note: What might inform this conversation is playing Tera Online. I refuse to purchase MMOs without a trial or a beta though as so many are crap. I've been known to try them out when they do a really low price too (for example, Rift got tons of players when they did their $30 Steam sale only a month after launch - as an anti-churn measure. . . and a smart one. I'm surprised SWTOR didn't learn from it).

[Widgetcraft]

I'm of the opinion that World of Warcraft is still a very primitive game, largely ripping off Everquest, which was itself a graphical version of a MUD. In many ways modern MMOs still aren't even as advanced as Ultima Online, a game that came out in the mid-90's. The twenty-year anniversary of Ultima Online really isn't that far away, and no other MMO has managed to have the kind of persistent world it delivered. Comparing the state of the MMO genre to FPS, RTS or RPG games is ridiculous; imagine if games were still copying Wolfenstein 3D fifteen years after the fact.

[J Arcane]

Well, I tried to give this another shot, but the fucking client is bullshit.

[bean]

Originally Posted by Widgetcraft

he twenty-year anniversary of Ultima Online really isn't that far away, and no other MMO has managed to have the kind of persistent world it delivered.

I'd be interested in your reasoning for your opinion. What makes UO's basic gameplay more interesting than WoW's? If you just mean the ability to lay buildings to create urban sprawl as persistence, SWG did it too. Others haven't done it because they thought it was a bad idea. Maybe there is something else?

Comparing the state of the MMO genre to FPS, RTS or RPG games is ridiculous; imagine if games were still copying Wolfenstein 3D fifteen years after the fact.

We are talking about basic gameplay, and they are doing that. If you want to talk about innovations outside of basic gameplay then MMOs have also innovated with time.

(Also, there are obvious MMOs with very different gameplay than the EQ-style/standard MMO. We are talking just about the standard's basic gameplay not evolving drastically).

[J Arcane]

There is a distinctly unstructured approach to UO's world and playstyle that is simply not replicated by most MMOs. About the closest I can really compare it to is EVE.

There's no "zones" in UO, no quest paths, and mob levels vary wildly rather than being neatly ordered in same-level areas.

It encourages a more old-school CRPG exploration feel as compared to the increasingly structured nature of standard EQ-clones.

I'm not against EQ-clones personally, but I'd also love to see more games in the UO mold. More freedom = bueno in my book.

[bean]

@J Arcane - There are plenty of simulated world games like that and some have combat/leveling systems as simple as UO. From having enjoyed SWG's crafting system a few months after it launched, I can see the appeal, but the lack of a narrative and extremely simple gameplay mechanics eventually bored me. I didn't play UO for more than a month in beta, and I was hoping that Widget was talking about how the basic gameplay had been improved since beta.

However, your opinion of UO is as valid as my own. I'm not arguing that simulated world games suck or anything as stupid as that. I'm saying that the basic gameplay in standard MMOs is fun that we are burned out on it because players of those games have likely put in hundreds of hours between the various standard MMOs that share core mechanics like games in the RTS or FPS genres, but that unlike RTS or FPS games that we would consider huge successes if they captivated us for a month or two before we set them aside, we expect MMOs to entertain us for years - or they are called "boring".

[Reverant]

I'd like to see a modern game like what J Arcane is describing. Out with the funneling and in with the exploring, like single player games. DayZ, despite not being an MMO or RPG, feels like it has more features that players have been demanding out of MMORPGs than actual titles in the genre.