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One of the main tenants of the Rift has always been that foster community, so it was no surprise when only a few months into the adventure, we were invited to a summit of the community to discuss the state of the game. Before the summit gave us a copy of an advanced “state of the address was the game” the largest producer Scott Hartsman, which will be posted later today on the official forums of the Rift. Scott was at hand, with our host Chris Schmidt of Trion, to answer questions of ourselves and many other major MMOG sites.

Among the most popular topics were questions about the world PvP, new styles of PvE content, the means to advance your character after level 50 and more. Below is a list of questions submitted by the various outlets, to read for enjoyment;

Curse Gaming: Are there future plans to add content to low levels for the game? All to help encourage players to create alts?

Scott Hartsman: Yes, the general idea of ​​the expansion in the world and adding more stuff for people at all levels is something we were happy to work on planning we started to launch content of position. This is not something that is in the immediate future, so I will not go look for it in the next two weeks, but it’s something we have plans for expansion in the future.

Curse: Are you planning to add server instances to cross PvE dungeons or PvP warfront? Or something to help reduce queues such long that some players are reporting?

Scott: Yes, in fact, there is really more of a plan stretching around the whole thing and I want to explain it in its entirety so it makes sense. The short version is: warfront are already cross-shard, wargroups worked pretty well. For instances themselves, we evaluated the same thing. Since we have improved the dungeon loot and made more available, we saw a huge boost in the number of people running instances up to level 50 range. The main problem is that while we have a lot of people standing in line, they are not lining up at the same time so that we would like to introduce the cross-shard for it – the same way that warfront work.

The comprehensive plan goes something like this, we began by optimizing servers, the next step was to buy a whole bunch of upgrades to the server to act as a kind of force multiplier for us the capacity wargroup then two months ago, we stimulated wargroups April to August splinters splinters. The next step after that was to introduce the free server transfer, which was implemented in the updated content last step now is a lot of preparing behind the scenes involving the exchange server hardware around so that we can put people in a wargroup as large as possible. Once the densities corresponding to the destination that everyone has moved then things will get better. Once we have all of this, we have a greater concentration of the cross-server pools for all and that we can do much more intelligent decisions about a whole bunch of topics that will improve the overall gameplay. We have the internal list of things we need to do and were to step 5 of 6 towards completion of the plan.

Gamereactor: Can you elaborate on the type of new gameplay warfront; climbing.

Scott: The type of gameplay is occurring in warfont Whitefalls Steppes, and I will not go too far into detail about it, but it is something that will be available soon on the Public Test Shard. I highly recommend the test in its test phase.

Gamereactor: What can we expect from the new adventure of instantaneous events?

Scott: This is a part of what I call the method to the madness. We have a comprehensive plan that ends adventures instant, the post 50 experience chronic and bodies. The idea behind doing the adventures instant is quite simple; Rift is at its best for many people when they get to take part in the crazy world of gameplay to get involved in huge events, but these are so dependent on being online or in the right place or not to be occupied when it starts. So we were thinking about how we can allow players who are interested in creating a critical mass on their own, and what systems of gameplay that we put in place to do it. The idea will be that you can come online and indicate your interest by clicking on a button and you will be rapid escalation in encounters that take advantage of a variety of dynamic content that is available in today’s world and that new systems that will be added just for these meetings. The underlying theme is to celebrate Mass more accessible to more people.

KillTenRats: Recent changes to Valor who were on the PTS does not do it on the live servers, are there future plans for changes in the sense the players PvP and PvE players differently?

Scott: We use the fragment Public Test to test things. We tested some changes valor crazy enough last month and then did not deploy to live servers. We test things on the test, what we do. We knew that in this test we would not be driving these changes, but we needed the test parameters of healing to help implement other changes that are being targeted strictly for PvP healing. We use test data to make changes to target things that need adjustment. The ability to change aspects of healing and damage that affect people who are involved in PvP is just common sense for us. We do not want to nerf every healing class in the game just because its control in PvP. If something has a problem in PvP, it must be correct in PvP and PvE with the same questions.

KillTenRats: How satisfied is the team with the dropout rate in current world events, such as the frame of the running water?

Scott: One thing quickly to clarify this issue, it is more than simply a kind of rift, the amount is lower invasions, anchors and heartbreak. In general, we are quite satisfied with the way things work, but one thing that we have not released is that the articles are not exclusive to this event – they are becoming rare drops in meetings related Hammerknell the world after the event is over. This includes new content Telara Chronicles so they will not only make looters.

KillTenRats: What if all the plans are for Asian Pacific and Oceanic servers?

Scott: It’s very important to us. It’s a complex issue that even in 2011 we have to build relationships with ISPs as many years. Such things as traffic, traffic limits and other obstacles that make it difficult to run a business MMO. We have a group whose mission in life is to establish these relations and the implementation arrangements that allow our players to patch and play the game. In my ideal world, we would have local speed of light in each country hosting that people play, but it is not realistic. One of the things that Trion is put in place arrangements to host an edition with people in other country.

Massively: It seems that interest in racing rift declined recently, plans for divisions and other dynamic content more attractive?

Scott: Rifts is a building block for us, were the starting point on which we built with other forms of content. We do not assume rampaging through rifts would be something that people would indefinitely. If you look at the content we made out of these building blocks, they are really as popular as ever. It’s just that the types of activities have become much more diversified. For example, improvements in the level of 50 currencies of reward in the 1.3 patch made these attractive rewards. We also introduced the theme of the Month Planar, which are water heartbreak and death to coincide with the current world event. Crafting faults are also quite popular, but we have some cost issues to twist that we think will make them even more attractive. Raid are tearing off the table right now largely due to daily quests that have recently been introduced to them. I would say that on most servers now that there are a dozen or twenty groups of the two factions running PUG raid faults, which is phenomenal and pushes us to further develop them. We also recently announced PvP heartbreak that we think is crazy popular.

Massively: Is there a word about the end game PvP zone, Port Scion?

Scott: We have some areas to live in the development, but will be later in the future. We will work on improving the world through rifts PvP PvP. We are pleased with the way the world has increased PvP sense the last update. Some of our attempts to bring to PvP players in the world to have fun and have worked some have not. Hot spots daily worked well and we believe that the rifts PvP is the next step in this evolution.

Massively: When will be able to go to the strife and take the fight to the planes?

Scott: Wow, I can not give a precise date on this, it is certainly a theme that we love and expect in the future.

MMO Report: New Tales of Telara be instances of the bin and the standard style bosses gameplay, or something new?

Scott: What are the parameters we aim epic places you can see, fighting opponents you will not get to see and NPC fighting along you would not normally get to fight alongside of . It is not just a smaller version of a raid instance is a unique and exciting experience. The first, which we playable and fun right now in our internal tests, is Hammerknell.

MMO Report: Are you still looking at separating the ranks in PvP

Scott: they take us back in the big picture of the creation of larger pools of players concentrated, hardware upgrades, free transfers, ect. We want to create the best gaming experience for everyone and we will make good decisions based on data we collect at this time. We note that although the ranks are as mixed as the splitting of the class is still the experience is enjoyable. We do not want to anything due to extended wait times.

MMO Report: How the reward system in the instant adventure will be implemented?

Scott: The objective is to keep it closer to the rift system and that this method of distribution. We found that players will appreciate the idea of ​​an equal reward is irresistible and it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

PC Gamer: there will be changes to PvP to make it less of a grind for the casual player?

Scott: I do not think it’s a lot of grind, despite the fact that it is a very long experience. The time to look upon the gameplay is what makes PvP fun and what makes the success warfront as they are. World PvP daily quest is a great way to get great rewards, raids and PvP that will escalate.

PC Gamer: Are the adventures be instant history of conduct or action driven?

Scott: The idea behind the story is certainly driven. We want to allow more players to have access to the type of characters and events that are usually the domain of raiders. We want everyone to interact with the main heroes and villains in a meaningful way.

MMORPG.com: Can you give more information about the alternate use of experience Endgame?

Scott: The primary objective is to find a sweet spot between a continuum necessary, and a system to feel like you get a reward just to play the game to cap. If this is not a version that is needed, people more comfortable. As an Ascended’s how: you are born again, ascended, you advance to level 50 and you struggle against the airplanes ever. So naturally, after so long you can unlock the ability to take over the planes themselves and turn against your enemies. You will earn points to use in all new attunement planar trees. There will be no bonus, specializations, and even the capacity changes (balance permitting). It is a combination of this system with chronic adventure instant PvP and heartbreak to keep people happy at 50 for as long as possible.

MMORPG.com: Solo and Duo content can be watered normally. How the Chronicles of Telara things be different?

Scott: We are actively trying to make sure we hit the bar by making such a unique experience, not just “look I’m in a cave.” They are going to be something big and epic, but for fewer people. This is the theme.

MMORPG.com: PVP global scale is difficult to catch up and be in much of the match. How Rift ensure that it is actually used and enjoyed?

Scott: It may seem like a risk, but for us, we try to iterate over the other features that did or did not work before. There were some things that we thought people would like to launch that they simply did not. Some things just do not stick. Daily PVP Hotspots and ended up being a success if, and now that the incentive is there they are on the rise. So Rifts PVP build on the idea that PvP is a point of activity, not just a distraction. We believe that the PVP Rifts are the next step and we would be really surprised if they do not take off into something successful.

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there a timetable for the release of the Chronicles of Telara? Content in expansion or content patch?

Scott: Chronicles of Telara is definitely update content level, in fact, everything we have discussed is short on content over the medium. The scary part of this is that its less than half of the things we have in active development. It is extremely amazing how much we have going on, but these are things that we worked on for quite some time and are more than happy to talk.

Ten Ton Hammer: How are the people shard do now that the transfer system went live?

Scott: ridiculously good, in fact, in some cases too good. We have followed closely the activities and we receive reports by e-mail schedule showing who goes where, whats the speed, whats the population on both sides guard and defiant look like they are in the queue and if so what are their time Waiting perfect? For incredibly complicated this system is, I’m just amazed at how he worked smoothy. We had hundreds of thousands of people who are doing well and this system works very well.

ZAM: Chronicles of Telara his example as an attractive way for small groups to get involved. Can we get advice on the characters and the stories we could see?

Scott: It’s a level of detail that I can not enter now. I am not afraid to talk about the overall vision for the future of the game, but I will not elaborate on what I can be sure that we get the best market information.

ZAM: no details on warfront news you can share?

Scott: We have a new brand that we work warfront on the inside and we love him a whole hell of a lot. We have plans and several early prototypes of things we have planned for next year to eighteen months. Yes, we have a new one that is chaotic and fun in a one would not expect to see a warfront in. I really do not want to oversell this one in case something happens and he does not live but we have lots of fun with it and hope it works.

As always, we thank our guests for Trion put together this event, and other participants for their astute questions. We look forward to seeing and hearing more about Update 1.4, it seems to be adding content as interesting and engaging to date.