Rift At 20

I wrapped up the head start/launch weekend in Rift by hitting level 20.  I'm most of the way through the quests of Silverwood, and have done most of the local rift events at least once. 

Overall, I'm impressed with the game.  I have not encountered any obvious bugs or server issues.  I am waffling on whether to use the low quality rendering option, but a commenter correctly discerned that this is actually my fault - the CPU speed on my laptop is below the stated minimum specs of the game (1.73 GHz, with a requirement of 2.0).  I didn't even think to check those numbers because they're usually set laughably low - WoW at its launch minimum specs would have been a painful experience - and Trion gets points in my book for putting the bar at a point where the game actually runs in a state that you'd be willing to play it. 

One thing that is a bit disappointing is the realization that the zone I've already cleared is my only option for future Guardian alts.  Yes, the experience will play differently on future characters because of different numbers of invasions, rifts, etc.  Yes, it's vitally important that players not get scattered between so many zones that there aren't enough people around to do open world content (a major problem Warhammer faced).  Even so, I've already seen some of the zone-wide events multiple times, and I'm already shrugging when the giant Satyr with the AOE squirrel-morph ability attacks Argent Glade yet again.  I'd ordinarily keep my alts on the same server/faction, but going to the other side is tempting simply for variety.

(One actual functional complaint about zone invasions - it's not always easy to tell which of the invasions and rifts in the zone are part of the bigger event, and which are ongoing random incidents.  This kind of matters because I'm assuming that you only get contribution towards the purple Rift currency if the stuff you're fighting is actually part of the zone event.)

That said, replay value only matters because I'm looking forward to at least one re-roll to see how the other callings live.  This speaks to the high quality game that Trion has put together.  I also feel that I'd like to see whether/how the higher level dynamic content is different from the entry level stuff.  So far, most of the invasions and rifts that I've seen is relatively tank-and-spank (especially with large enough numbers of players present), and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out at higher levels. 

Regardless, I'm definitely looking forward to at least one trip through Telara.  That may seem like a low bar, but it's actually a major accomplishment compared to what other games have managed for launch. 

Lighting Versus Stability

I'm generally not much of one to complain about graphics quality.  I'd like my games to run, and will make some compromises in visuals to have that happen.  Where I start to get unhappy is when it becomes hard to see.

The following screenshots show the difference between Rift's high and low quality rendering scheme. 

High Quality Low Quality

The big difference is the lighting.  In the high quality image, the torch lights up the gazebo, while the low quality version just treats the torch as a shiny object.  The issue is far more pronounced indoors.

High Quality

Low Quality

Indoors, the very same scene becomes drastically darker - with lower ambient light, they're counting more on the torches actually working.  In any normal situation - wandering around town, soloing, or even fighting a rift in a full raid group, my computer runs fine with the normal setting.  The place where I run into trouble is when I get near the main target of a large invasion event - in this case, with hundreds of mobs and players in the same area, the client sometimes crashes.  As of this evening, Trion seems to have fixed things so that at least you don't have to wait in the queue again if this happens, but it's still a bit irritating.  The client itself isn't sure how to advise me on this dilemma.  When I open the program in low quality mode, I get a warning upon login that I'm going to have reduced quality as a result.  However, if an invasion crashes the client on normal quality mode, I can expect a tooltip the next time I log in suggesting that I switch down to the low quality version.   Unfortunately, you can't switch without closing and restarting the client, and you don't always know when to expect an event that will be large enough to matter, so it's a tough call.  Do you want a slightly worse experience all the time to mitigate the relatively rare instance where things get out of hand?  Or does dropping out at some crucial moment outweigh missing out on the game's otherwise impressive graphics and muddling around in the dark? On the plus side, at least these issues don't crash the server. Still, it's an unfortunate kind of choice to have to make, and perhaps a big part of why developers have shied away from this kind of large scale event of late.

Quick Rift Pre-launch Weekend Notes

I've gotten into the Rift Headstart, with a level 14 High Elf Cleric (14 Justicar, 2 Druid, 2 Sentinel) named Telhamat on the Byriel server.  Here's a few random thoughts from the weekend so far.

• Queue Queue Moar:
  The queues are probably the story of the game so far - many new servers have been added, and Trion is plaintively asking players to actually use them.  Either the problem will fix itself with players quitting by the one-month mark, or there are going to be chronically overcrowded servers (especially Faeblight) for a long time going forward, because no one wants to move once they're set up camp on a popular server.  Personally, I put the time in queue to productive use prank calling the Rift Watchers hotline.  (The gang plots my demise at minute 26 of the linked episode.) 
  
  
• Rifts/Invasions Are Everywhere
  People often compare Rifts to Warhammer Public Quests, but I think they've missed the broader point.  You might log in and find a quiet solo game that plays a fair amount like, well, Azeroth.  Come back in peak hours and you might be killed four times between the newbie camp and your faction's main city by level 18 invasions that are destroying the entire zone.  (This was my experience trekking across Silverwood on opening night to sign the charter for the Telara branch of Ferrel's guild, Iniquity.
  
  With Invasions, Trion has tried to create the "War is everywhere" feel that Mythic hoped RVR would bring to Warhammer.  It's not safe to AFK anywhere because invasions could get you (and it's not safe to log off, because the queue will get you - yes, going back to the character select screen sends you to the back of the line).  Because NPC's actually do what the developers want, in a way that players usually don't, it looks like they might suceed. 
  
  
• Wait, I just got all the souls?
  Having experimented in beta, I was sure I wanted to start with Justicar, Druid, and Sentinel.  My fourth pick would be easy, because I'd debated between Purifier and Sentinel for the healing slot, and it's good to have both for your healing role anyway.  I wasn't sure what I'd want next... but it turns out to be a moot point because you get all five of the souls you didn't start with almost immediately upon hitting level 13.  The "quest" to obtain these souls requires you to participate in beating any rift, and then fighting a mob version of your desired soul (which your public rift group will generally do for you, if you click the item immediately after the rift closes). 
  
  The good news is that it's now basically impossible to find yourself with a build
  you don't enjoy playing.  Also, I didn't really care about several of the souls, and might not have bothered to chase them down if they were hard to obtain.  Even so, it seems a bit anticlimactic to have all of the souls at such a low level.

Overall, I'd say the launch is going well.  That said, I think I can probably get to level 50 before that first monthly bill comes due.  It's going to be very interesting to watch mid-level populations (especially on the new servers) as the population moves to the cap.  

Predictable Blizzard Marketing Is Predictable

"As long as we're digging in my 2008 archives, I suppose we can expect some patch 4.1 news around the February 24th Rift Headstart, since that's how Blizzard treated Warhammer."
- Me, Feb 1

"Patch 4.1 on PTR - Zul'aman and Zul'gurub are back!"
- MMO-Champion, morning of February 24th.