Rift .. the next big thing?

[katanaso]

A very long way and improvement from what EQ1 was!  13 years of technological improvements definitely shine!

I could only imagine the feeling now if I was jumping into a MMO that looked like that.  I recall the "Holy bleep" feeling of amazement when I started EQ right after it went live.  It's what pulled me away from AW.  I could not imagine being addicted to a MMO again though! 

As Dan (CorkyJr, +Tiff) would say, some of us became "Nomads in Tights"....   

[Tac]

As for the vids posted ..watched 'em .. 'shield fighting style' .. felt a yawn comin on .. not a whole lot of dynamics in hidin behind a shield with a sword swipe now an then .. the environment looked a little bare .. 90's style

Difference is FFXIV lets you fight directly, similar in a way to mount and blade. If you dont raise the shield or time your attacks correctly you will lose badly. Rift,EQ,WoW, LOTRO just give you a huge icon list to click like crazy and no matter what your character will do it automatically.

Rift is a lot like Lotro and WoW (clone of really) so I do not see anything innovative or worth my time playing. Character 'skill trees' ? As messed up as shadowbane's was... and as silly as The Witcher had.

Dunno, I just hate the fact that these companies push out clones of other games hoping to make a buck rather than truly innovate.

[moot]

Mount & Blade Warband
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De_3fDkmD-k

Dramatized gameplay footage.  There's probably better showcase vids of the game, but I don't have time to look for them.  The animations are very old school, but the combat mechanics are about as realistic and elaborate as you can get without getting too hairy for mouse + keyboard.

Another video I skimmed mentioned 200+ players in a single battle.  Dunno how near the limit that is.  The inventory part of the game is pretty extensive.  Lots of gear to choose from, though obviously not as extreme in variety as a fantasy game. 

[Tac]

warband has a huge issue with multiplayer since the game is literally nothing more than an extensively modded version of mount and blade. Same marketing scam that was pulled by the TOTAL WAR games when they released Napoleon Total War...its a fixed & modded up version of Empire Total War. Lol.

Warband IS a good game though. I just wish taleworlds had actually spent time coding the game from scratch to be multiplayer.

[moot]

Yikes

[ink]

couldn't stand M&B......im sure it a bit better then it was when I tried it, but it was to Clunky for me. and had massive amounts of bugs.     

[moot]

I didn't do much more than play it for archery.  It was pretty fun as far as that went.

[Kazaa]

I managed to play the RIFT beta. It feels and sounds almost exactly like WoW, but looks so much better (apart from most spells, which look very poor in comparison). Sounds are also meh.

Not sure what the min requirments for RIFT will be. I have a beast rig and I can barely 60FPS solid on high settings.

I doubt I will buy RIFT, I find MMORPG gamepaly so repetitive.

[BoilerDown]

What kind of PvP are they planning?  I find most PvE boring now-a-days.  I played EQ1 from nearly when it came out until WoW was released, then played WoW until almost a year ago, then dabbled in DDO (its free).  But the only PvE that has kept my interest was the non-instanced kind in EQ1, and the PvP in WoW, while poor most of the time, was the best thing in that game.  I don't know of anyone planning non-instanced PvE any more, but if Rift has some decent PvP plans I might try it.

[Grayeagle]

You can almost feel the chill of the high mountain air

Skyl, a rogue ..exploring the high roads on ol' Blackie above the madding crowd.

As far as PvP .. they have servers for straight up Defiants vs Guardians ..on a PvE server you can get flagged or flag yourself for it, they have warzones for team fights ..they have instance dungeons and non-instance crawls .. raids are ..well .. all kinds. Rift raids are a blast.

As far as clicking an icon .. prep moves, moves to build up a finisher, debuff/disarm moves, stuns/slows, and finishers pretty much decide how effective you can be.. its not just auto attack.
Can't see as moving the mouse and clicking keys on the keyboard is much different .. your description sounds like they use a keyboard-mouse template base. In either case you are clicking keys and moving the mouse and if you know your character and the abilities and have a decent rotation that works you will be highly effective.

Now to tie it into air combat .. patient of mine was an F-15 pilot back in the day when they were new .. he told me he had a sequence he went thru ..a 'kata' if you will ..if anyone ever got near a firing solution on him ..he said it wasn't enough to just do one move, you had to have a string you worked on as an individual .. something that became reflex with practice. Ideally a set that generated a firing solution on the bandit

-Frank aka GE

[Saxman]

(Image removed from quote.)

You can almost feel the chill of the high mountain air

Skyl, a rogue ..exploring the high roads on ol' Blackie above the madding crowd.

As far as PvP .. they have servers for straight up Defiants vs Guardians ..on a PvE server you can get flagged or flag yourself for it, they have warzones for team fights ..they have instance dungeons and non-instance crawls .. raids are ..well .. all kinds. Rift raids are a blast.

As far as clicking an icon .. prep moves, moves to build up a finisher, debuff/disarm moves, stuns/slows, and finishers pretty much decide how effective you can be.. its not just auto attack.
Can't see as moving the mouse and clicking keys on the keyboard is much different .. your description sounds like they use a keyboard-mouse template base. In either case you are clicking keys and moving the mouse and if you know your character and the abilities and have a decent rotation that works you will be highly effective.

Now to tie it into air combat .. patient of mine was an F-15 pilot back in the day when they were new .. he told me he had a sequence he went thru ..a 'kata' if you will ..if anyone ever got near a firing solution on him ..he said it wasn't enough to just do one move, you had to have a string you worked on as an individual .. something that became reflex with practice. Ideally a set that generated a firing solution on the bandit

-Frank aka GE

That screenshot makes me think of warhorses scaling near-vertical inclines in Mount and Blade...

[Grayeagle]

Fortress-Castle across the valley is under seige, a Death Rift has opened off to the right, and it looks like rain!

No more hay-burner .. this one runs on magic and a bit faster to boot.
(yes ..this is a print-screen shot right out of the game .. now if we could only get our holo-deck intereface!)

-GE