Wednesday, March 29, 2017

[Off Topic] Patch 4.1: Forged in Flame

     Hey look yall! Forged in Flame is FINALLY here!!!! Wooooo!!! I bet everyone is super excited about the long awaited 4.1 patch. Ever since I first learned about it and how we'd finally get an actual raid, and new content, I was tickled pink! I'm so excited to dive into this new stuff this patch! All kinds of things finally happening in Rift, which has me super relieved. I've been concerned about the lack of things to do at end game and that it would drive too many players away and Rift would be left dead in the water, which is something I definitely do not want! So imagine my surprise when I got off work today and saw that I had an update. To be honest, the time kind of got away from me and I forgot that today was the 29th. Well, I knew that date, but I forgot that it was significant for Rift! So now I have something to look forward to tonight and tomorrow, since tomorrow is my day off! The good news just keeps on pouring in, because I can finally have the green light to move back to my apartment this week! I've been waiting 8 months now to move back, after the flood that happened in August. Ya, 8 months it took them to repair it. WTF were they up to for those months?? Who knows. I guess they were just not in a great hurry, since it was all paid out by insurance. I was just sort of floating in limbo in this other apartment they stuffed me in until mine was ready, and I've been so miserable here, all my things packed in boxes. I haven't been able to work on my costumes or anything creative, and it's killing me to not unleash my creative side other then with this blog and my fanfiction story! :(

     But enough with that, let's get back to Forged in Flame! I watched the livestream for the art and design of Rift a bit ago, and I have to say, I'm blown away by the beautiful art that is going to be in the new raid, Tartaric Depths. Especially that beautiful flaming boss dragon. Omg I want him as a pet or a mount!! Why couldn't Maelforge look that stunning?! This dragon looks epic! The entire dungeon looks epic actually! My only fear is that it won't be enough of a challenge to keep the raiders happy for long. I really hope they have more raids in the works or something to keep the end gamers satisfied until the next expansion. I hope they can turn things around and lift Rift out of the dust, because I love this game and its beautiful design and I want to keep playing it for years to come like WoW! Speaking of WoW, they just came out with their huge patch on Tuesday! Lots of crazy things going on in that game too! All new content, new questlines, new mounts, everything! Super excited about that too. So I'm actually a bit torn of which game I want to play and for how long. So many games, so little time! lol
Here's the list of stats for 4.1!
  • Tartaric Depths-entry lvl raid for experienced players as well. A prison created by Alaviax (dunno who that is...) to keep all the Red Flight dragons (there's more then one, and they are called Red Flight now??? I'm thinking Alexstraza and her brood now haha!) contained. We have to stop Queen Carli's plan to implement the prophecies of the Goddess of Fate, Aia! Oh noes! Sounds neat! :)
  • Better Dyeing-new tinting quality for Wardrobe items that can be dyed. I'm looking forward to checking this out.
  • New Dye colors, as well as more variety! Gonna have to check into this too!
  • New crafting recipes available!
  • Eternal Items-best in slot, end game weapons for players. Includes abilities that can reduce raid wide dmg, do all kinds of other neat stuffs! There's 2 ways to get these. From drops or by doing the epic questline!
  • 6th Carnival of the Ascended! This begins on March 30th though.
  • Starfall Prophecy available now with credits or Affinity points! Man, wish I knew about this before hehe. Oh well, I don't regret pre ordering it! :)
  • Earring slots now unlocked for all players
  • Planewalker: Water, has been removed. This makes me kind of sad.
  • Mounts can now...walk?? Really? Must check this out!
  • Cross shard trading. Finally yay!
  • lvl 65 boost and trade skill boosts now available on the store!
  • Looooooots of changes to classes. Some nerfs, some buffs. Read the notes here for all the details on that.
  • Capes are now double sided!
  • Tons of dimension stuff added and tweaked.

     Apparently, TD (Tartaric Depths) is an "entry level" raid though, which makes me kinda sad, cause there's no other raid coming out soon, so hardcore raiders will have to deal with potentially easy content. Kind of a let down there. Another thing about TD that's different is that there is no trash mobs! What, no trash mobs?! That's never been heard of before! Half the content of a raid is the trash mobs lol! I'm not sure what to think about this turn of events. On the one hand, ya who cares about useless mobs that give you no reward or benefit for killing them. Players would do everything in their power to bypass the mobs anyway so they wouldn't have to waste time fighting them, so why have them in there? But trash mobs also make the raid last longer, which could be a good thing. The longer a raid lasts, the more entertained your group is going to be, even if it's frustrating. If you just add something to some mob groups, like random green drops or something, that would be more of an incentive then removing the mobs entirely. It would make players feel like their doing something meaningful, rather then just plowing through the raid in mind numbing boredom. Of course that's just me the WoW raider talking, since WoW raids are notorious for being full of packs of trash mobs, and I'm used to having to mow through them between each boss. It will be weird to have no trash mobs at all to kill. We'll just have to see I suppose!

     About the Eternal Items. To me they seem almost like a cross between a legendary and an artifact weapon in WoW: Legion. Legion had these new weapons introduced called artifact weapons, that were unique and special for each class/spec combo. They lvled up with you and you could do special things in game to unlock different looks for them and abilities. So this kind of reminds me of the Eternal items in Rift. But that's ok because I like the artifact system in WoW. It's fun and different and unique. It would be fun if Rift did class mounts or special class quests too! That would be so epic to do!! I would love it!! :) If your listening, Rift devs, I think that would be an awesome addition to the game for players to be busy with. That's the biggest thing about a linear, content driven game like this one. You have to always be providing players with something new to do. If you don't they get bored and frustrated, and although they might stick around because they have already dedicated so much time and effort to the game, they will become increasingly bored and annoyed and will perhaps jump on whatever shiny new game comes out that seems similar. This is what happened to me after all, when Rift first came out. I literally leaped right into Rift and left WoW in the dust for like a whole year-the first time I've ever unsubbed from WoW for any extended period of time actually!

     Also coming in 4.1 is new Planar Crafting stuff! You can get new specialized rewards for each of the professions, and you can craft all new best in slot items, as well as ranged items! Woot! And the ability to gain more from gathering professions too would be a plus! Can't wait to test that out!

     Well I suppose I'm done ranting about the new patch for now, since my download is now complete and I can go play the game for myself! Happy Rifting!

 

Saturday, March 25, 2017

[Off Topic]: 2017 Producer's Letter!

    Well, I just read Rift's producer's letter for this year, and I gotta say, even if it was just comfort words and an apology, followed by some stuff to sidetrack us, I can definitely say, it definitely worked on me lol! I'm sooooo dreadfully excited to see what's coming up next! I can't wait to get Rae to that point, omg! So much awesome. I'm looking forward to the epic questlines involved in the new Eternal Items next patch (4.1) as well as all the new and cool stuff coming with 4.2! Finally weekly quests, new raid rifts, new IA's, and a whole buttload of other stuff!!! So much information was given, my mind is still reeling. I know that the devs have a pretty tough, and often thankless job, especially among us players. I think gamers are very critical and quick to offer snarky, hurtful comments where not needed, simply because we are spoiled, entitled nerds who are used to just having everything we want at our fingertips. And we are very passionate individuals. When it comes to the games we love and cherish, we can get pretty hot and bothered about things that don't go our way. For that, I have to say I'm sorry Trion! I've read plenty of cutting remarks on the forums, that do nothing but insult without offering basis for their hurtful comments, as well as evidence or solid proof of why they have been so wronged. Sometimes we get stuck in a certain mindset and our stubborn selves don't want to expand out of it, or admit that we were out of line. Of course, on the other end of that spectrum, after reading many posts on the forums about the state of SFP and the end game content, and then witnessing it for myself, I have to say that there was definitely quite a few things lacking in this new expac, which makes me sad, because I want everyone to enjoy Rift, so that they continue to support it, so that I personally can make sure Rift will be around for me to play for years to come! Because I love Rift just as much as I love WoW and I would be devastated if I ever learned they were shutting down servers, or that the population was so low they were unable to support actual, updated content on a regular basis.

     So I'm happy to see this letter finally going up, because people have been crying for the producer's letter since the beginning of January. I just find it funny how enraged everyone was that the producer's letter took so long, because I myself keep every single email that Rift has ever sent me, and I have an email from last year proclaiming that 2016's producer's letter was ready to read, and that was in the middle of February. So they aren't too far off their mark by having this one in the middle of March. Cool your jets, peeps. It's just a letter!

     Things mentioned in the letter that we can look forward to!
  • Eternal Weapons in 4.1 with a long and involved questline
  • Changes to Planar Crafting, with new BiS items!
  • Tartaric Depths-10 man raid
  • New Weekly quests
  • 6th Anniversary Carnival
  • Vostigar Peaks- New lvl 70 zone with new content, and even hardmode group content!
  • New Daily quests
  • New Full questline, with replayable content
  • New Zone events, new IA's
  • New Raid Rifts and Chronicles
  • New souls for the Primalist

    Another, truly epic sounding thing that Archonix mentioned in his letter was something called "Rift Challenges". Which he mentioned several times could not even happen, and there were no promises on it, but it seemed they had this brilliant idea to create a new, temporary, ever changing server, separate from the live servers, where you can go on and participate in special, hard mode, or challenge mode activities, which would then impact your live server status! It sounds truly awesome, right?! There's a lot of potential there for brand new items, quests, mounts. ANNNNNNNNNND the most important thing that he mentioned about this was a tiny little, innocently placed comment mentioning that one of the rewards could be......drum roll please......a new race. Yes, you heard it, a NEW RACE. OMG! We've had the same 6 races on Telara since the beginning of time, and it would sooooooooooo beyond amazing, if we could have a new race(s) introduced! Even though I know it wasn't a sure thing, or promised, or whatever, but already my mind is going through potential races that could be playable. Seriously, a truly awesome idea I would throw all my money at! Please Trion, please make this happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want new races so badly!!!!!!!!!!!! Some draconic would be neat! Or serpentlike. Or something with horns!!!!!!! Or wings....or claws....Ugh omg! There are so many potential ideas when the world we play in has such possibility for new races. With the mix of the Planes, and the exotic creatures that come from them, we could have all manner of creatures to befriend and have join our faction! HNNNNNNG this needs to be a thing. I will donate to it so it happens!!!

     Well anyway, that's my rant on the producer's letter. Very much on the hype train for Patch 4.1 and 4.2, as well as this new hint at Rift Challenges!

     Here's a link to the letter, for anyone curious and wanting to read the entire thing for themselves! Enjoy! 2017 Producer's Letter

Saturday, March 04, 2017

Golden Maw Lore


The Golden Maw
Pitiful plenty
Golden Maw: A mouth agape, with a bottomless gullet, starving even as it overflows with treasure. If another cult is as aptly named, do not say so around Laethys’s slaves, who are as envious as they are greedy, and they are greedy beyond all reason.
These are the corrupters and embezzlers, merchants who buy magistrates and magistrates happily bought. The Golden Maw holds its decadent rites in the halls of power and the parlors of the fabulously wealthy, and in the afterglow of gross indulgence they plot to seize more wealth and power.
The Golden Maw can be found wherever there is want, as filth can be found wherever there is plague. They wrest wealth from the workers, food from the farmers, toys from the fingers of children. And they always want more.
Architects of desire
The Golden Maw is a rigidly structured cabal. Acolytes bow to (and covet) the superior assets and influence of their leaders, a pyramid of lickspittles and lordlings topped by golden Laethys. They will free the Earth Dragon to flaunt her plenty over the wanting world, and hoard her discarded morsels.
Always remember that the Golden Maw gapes for every excess. The glutton, the pervert, the narcissist is welcome. Each believes Laethys loves the cultist who eats and is never sated, or wants her perfection and is never indulged… yet in all the planes there is but one being Laethys loves at all.

Golden Maw
Eboni gold

Richest of the ancient Ethian holds was Eboni, its queen Callista the dazzling gem atop a city of treasure. She and her fathers and mothers before her wrested untold bounties from the earth, and so made Eboni prosperous and fortified beyond the dreams of other Eth. The royal family had grown demanding in their tastes, and Callista was no different—it is said that as a girl she had a dollmaker’s hands struck off for making her a doll of porcelain and not gold.

Shortly after the Blood Storm first darkened the sky, Callista began erecting statues of golden dragons on every street corner. Passersby would find themselves wanting more: more wealth, more lovers, more power. And they grew ever more certain that their neighbors, their loved ones, their children had things they did not. All Eboni fell to squabbling, then to crime, then slaughter in the streets.

Soon, the few survivors lived like jackals amid the decay. When Laethys's army walked into the city, they dropped scraps of copper in their wake, and the people hailed them as saviors.

Eboni became the stronghold of Laethys, at whose bidding Callista had built the statues. After Amardis and her comrades turned the city into a volcano to imprison Laethys, they found Callista surrounded by flows of magma, scrambling on hands and knees in the dragon’s horde. Clutching treasure to her bosom, piling it on though she had more than she could carry, heedless that everything around her had already melted to glittering slag.

As the molten gold reached her, Callista did not scream but smiled, still beautiful. "Now I shall be like Laethys. Sheathed in radiance."