Rift: Planes of Telara

[Alderaan]

http://www.riftgame.com/img/logo-home.png
http://www.riftgame.com/en/index.php The first RIFT beta event begins Dec. 3rd, 2010 at 18:00 GMT. Details for additional events will be available on www.RIFTgame.com/beta as they are announced.

Join legions of adventurers in Rift: Planes of Telara, a new fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in a world being torn apart.

Rifts violently rip into reality across the land and release powerful forces that threaten the very existence of Telara. Each breach brings with it new characters, events, and treasures, while the world itself changes dynamically around you.

The rifts have divided the people and endanger the world. Whether you fight to seal the rifts forever, or harness their power for your own, epic adventures lie ahead for those willing to fight for the future of Telara.


The Rifts of Telara

Mysterious rifts are tearing the world of Telara apart. A powerful magic explosion during the final days of the Shade War has left the veil between Telara and other planar dimensions fractured and torn.

Treacherous and powerful, these rifts occur when another plane of reality intersects with the magical Ward protecting Telara. Rifts create doorways for planar invasion, destroying the lands and people of Telara, but they may also grant otherworldly power to those brave enough to seize it.

Now no part of Telara is truly safe. Invasions can occur anywhere and at any time, and the danger to the world is growing. Two major factions have emerged to save the world of Telara from the rifts: the Guardian and the Defiant. Each faction works in different ways to preserve Telara's future, and both seek to undermine the other.


The Plane of Life

There is no ground in the Plane of Life, and there is no sky. Both are overgrown with plants as exotic as they are deadly.
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The Plane of Death

The Plane of Death is an endless, flat expanse of dust and bleached bone. Shadowy tendrils slither across the horizon, while vast obsidian spikes tear from the ground to claw at skies of purple and gray.
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The Plane of Fire

The Plane of Fire is a broken and cracked expanse of sharp rocks and blasted mountains, valleys obscured by smoke and ash.
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The Plane of Water

This is the plane of nightmares, the bottomless depths of its endless sea mirroring the darkest corners of the mind.

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The Plane of Air

The Plane of Air is made up almost entirely of its primary element: an endless, turbulent sky.

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Dynamic Layered World

Every player experiences a different adventure in the living, breathing world of Telara. Rift: Planes of Telara™ has all of the traditional quests and deep story arcs you expect from a fantasy MMO role-playing game, but there is unpredictability to life in Telara that guarantees even familiar terrain can offer new dangers and opportunities.

Whether it’s a previously peaceful farm being ravaged by demons, a tranquil forest glen suddenly ripped apart by a violent rift, or merely an unassuming traveling merchant with astounding wares, spontaneous events are taking place all across Telara for you to discover and take part in.

The ebb and flow of activity in Telara is always changing. Thousands of unexpected encounters are occurring at any moment, making every adventure unique — with more being added all the time. And just like in real life, you can revisit favorite haunts to see what's different, adding a novel sense of exploration to even well-trodden ground.

Races

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Guardians are the chosen of Telara's gods, the Vigil. When the tyrant Aedraxis called forth the power of the Plane of Death and devastated Telara, the Vigil chose the most powerful souls taken by the Shade to be the archons of the next age.
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The Defiant do not care whether the gods abandoned the world or not. To them, this entire planar convergence disaster is the gods' fault in the first place. Indeed, as soon as things went from bad to worse, the gods suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.
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Classes & Callings

In the Ascended class system, Soul Attunement is the player’s ability to commune with the souls of Telara’s honored dead and gain their powers and abilities. Each Calling has a unique selection of souls that can be embraced by the player, providing nearly endless opportunity to discover the path that’s right for them!

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Warrior Classes

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Champions are powerful Warriors who excel at melee combat. Wielding massive two-handed weapons, these battle-tested fighters find few equals in one-on-one battle.
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Reavers are warriors who combine the art of combat with the entropic energies of death. The slightest touch of their weapon can spread disease, incite madness, and death to those unlucky enough to face them.

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Righteous defenders of the weak, Paladins use heavy shields and divine blessings to stand as a bulwark against their foes. The Paladin’s large shield not only offers protection, but affords many opportunities to launch devastating counters in close combat.
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A Warlord’s commanding presence expresses itself in auras that inspire her comrades to victory and cow her enemies into submission, allowing her to control the field of battle.
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The Paragon moves like a furious storm, never giving his enemy time to regroup. A master of dual-wielding, he uses parries and disciplined forms to build up power attacks and stay out of danger.
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Telara’s original wielders of magic gained their powers through pacts with minor elemental spirits. Through devoted study, these Clerics reached out to ever-more-powerful beings, soon communing with demons, faeries, and gods. These holy men and women founded a number of spiritual disciplines: some focused tightly on a narrow ethos, while others retained more free-form theological allegiances.

Cleric Classes

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The tradition of the Purifier begins with a baptism by fire, a test of faith from which only the strongest souls emerge. Those who pass are reborn as masters of the curative secrets of fire, able to heal the most grievous wounds with a searing touch.
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The Inquisitor is a cleric who no longer follows the doctrines of life or death alone; instead, they stand between these forces demanding purity from both. An Inquisitor passes judgment on those who are worthy, and damns those who are corrupt.
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The Sentinel brings the blessings of light to all who do the will of the gods. Capable of healing many wounded at one time, Sentinels bolster their allies and protect themselves with divine wrath.
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Justicars are healing clerics who fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their allies in close combat. Conviction builds with each swing of their weapon, bolstering nearby comrades and powering the Justicar’s potent healing magic.
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The Shaman binds the power of the icy north to his very being, wreathing himself in pure elemental force. This power augments a Shaman’s attacks, making him a powerful melee combatant, and provides shields and reactive healing.
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The history of martial combat stretches back to the earliest days of Telara, when war was a brutal, messy, simple affair. This, as any Rogue will tell you, was the heyday of the Warrior. Their own tradition began much later, after people learned to fight with their minds as well as their muscles.

Rogue Classes

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Possessing deadly agility and mastery of the blade, the Nightblade can also draw upon the planar magics of fire and death to deal doom in a variety of ways. Favoring light armor, their ability to stalk and quickly eliminate their adversaries means the unfortunate quarry rarely has the chance to defend, let alone counterattack.
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Rangers are consummate hunters who know the strengths and weaknesses of every beast, taming animal companions to augment their considerable prowess in ranged combat. This synergy between bow and beast allows Rangers to handily overcome the most daunting obstacles.
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Masters of subtlety and subterfuge, an Assassin’s ability to walk in the shadows allows them to bypass obstacles and launch devastating surprise attacks. A rare few survive the initial assault, only to succumb to virulent poisons.
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Blade Dancers are masters of wielding edged weapons. They specialize in ritualized combat movements that are lightning fast. Blade Dancers can overwhelm even an accomplished opponent's defenses, setting them up for a devastating coup de grace.
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The Riftstalker is a defensive specialist who bends the planes to enhance his constitution and shift in and out of the physical dimension. These highly skilled and survivable combatants keep their opponents’ focus while easily evading incoming blows.
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Since the dawn of time, spirits, creatures, and eruptions of energy from the elemental planes have shaped Telara in profound ways. Mortals watched planewalkers call forth elemental power, and gleaned from their techniques the basics of arcane magic. Through research and experimentation, the ancient Mages learned to control the elements without pledging themselves to any gods or minor spirits. After mastering broad elemental incantations, Mages focused their studies on individual elements, tapping the potential of primal forces controlled by a skilled hand.

Mage Classes

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Elementalists are mages who specialize in manipulating and controlling the raw energies of the planes. Through fierce discipline and strict study, these mages dedicate themselves to commanding the harshest and most chaotic forces known to exist.
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Consummate practitioners of the dark arts, Warlocks embrace the grim forces of entropy and death. Protected within a cloak of shadows, they lurk on the edges of the conflict, as their deadly energies inevitably consume all that stand in their way.
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Pyromancers are destructive mages whose sole focus is the mastery of fire, from launching massive incinerating blasts, to trapping their opponents behind a smoldering wall of flame. No other Ascended can match the sheer destruction at the Pyromancer’s fingertips.
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Stormcallers are mages who channel the raw fury of the wind and water to command the battlefield, chilling their opponents to the bone or stopping their hearts with electric shock.
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Archons are support specialists who steal their opponents’ strength and convert that raw energy into beneficial magic. These mages bolster their allies and unleash potent kinetic blasts, quickly turning the tide of battle.
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The Ascended (Class System)

In Rift: Planes of Telara, players are one of the Ascended, a Telaran slain during the great Shade War and resurrected to combat the forces of Regulos. As an Ascended, players have access to special powers, the greatest of which is "Soul Attunement", the ability to commune with, and embrace, the souls of Telara's ancient fallen heroes.

The Soul Attunement system offers players nearly endless customization. In Rift: Planes of Telara, you’re encouraged to experiment with many combinations of souls and abilities to discover the path that’s right for you!

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Players choose an Ascended Soul from one of the four callings (Warrior, Cleric, Mage, and Rogue) at character creation. These initial souls, which grow in power as they become more specialized, are flexible and have well-rounded abilities that make them great for both solo and group experiences. Players can later choose to augment, or even replace, embraced souls with other souls from within their calling. The process of enabling souls that players discover in their adventures is called Soul Attunement.

Players will also gain more specialized "Heroic Souls" that open up a number of new and exciting gameplay experiences, offering special achievements and rewards for players who discover them all.


The Soul Tree

Each attuned soul grants players access to a unique "Soul Tree," which contains all of the traits and abilities that a soul had mastered during its life. As your character levels up, you earn soul points that can be used to improve that tree's soul level, granting players access to even more powerful traits and abilities.

The Soul Tree — Branch Advancement

Players invest their soul points into the branches of the Soul Tree, picking and choosing the specific abilities and passive traits they desire. With each point spent, the Soul Tree increases in level, periodically unlocking new advancement options higher up the tree.
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The Soul Tree — Root Advancement

Players automatically unlock new "root" abilities as the Soul Tree increases in level. If the branches represent the unique choices a player makes, the root represents the core power of the soul that all players have access to. Root abilities unlock quickly at first, but slow down as the tree’s soul-level increases.
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Multiple Souls

As an Ascended grows in power, so does his or her ability to attune souls. Leveling a character will unlock the ability to attune additional souls. A maximum-level player will be able to attune up to three souls of their choosing!
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Instances
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Darkening Deeps

In the deepest part of Gloamwood, the waterways under a once-stately Mathosian castle play host to the frenzied stirrings of creatures from the rifts. Gloamwood’s goblins built a city into this chasm’s walls, their hovels lining a path spiraling deep into the bedrock. Every day, goblins skulk from this hole to wreak havoc through the woods.
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Realm of the Fae

In Silverwood, in Hedgerow Court, there is an old wishing well. Anyone who falls down the well lands in a maze of high hedges, where the air is sweet and still and faeries flutter overhead.
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Deepstrike Mines

In the heyday of their Empire, the Eth Sorcerer Kings discovered sourcestone under the rolling hills of Stonefield. They carved out a mine like no other: not a maze of shafts but one enormous cave supported by twisting pillars, thick as ancient granitewoods and veined with glowing sourcestone.
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Abyssal Precipice

The highest spires of Iron Pine Peak are rightly called the roof of Telara, snow-capped giants from whose shoulders climbers could once look out upon the whole world. Today, these lofty peaks overlook a swirling storm of sleet and snow, as if hovering over an endless void. Over the abyss.
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E3 Gameplay Demo


E3 2010 - Rift General Manager Scott Hartsman


E3 Dev Walkthrough Vid


Iron tomb Instance

[bori]

This game does look promising. Gameplay seems very fluid and pretty.

[Insanecyclone]

I don't know why but I'm getting a Aion vibe from this. Will start out fantastic but go down hill after the first month.

I love skill trees now ,thanks to playing wow, going to get me interested in this. Any news of a beta someday?

[bori]

I don't know why but I'm getting a Aion vibe from this. Will start out fantastic but go down hill after the first month.

I love skill trees now ,thanks to playing wow, going to get me interested in this. Any news of a beta someday?

I do agree with you here. It might just be initial excitement for everyone. Am getting a Aionish Vibe as well. We'll see how it develops.

[Insanecyclone]

OP forgot site link too

http://www.riftgame.com/en/

[Hyan]

It's not made by a Korean company though is it?

But yeah need to see more gameplay, if it plays like every other MMO out there the skill tree system ain't gonna save it. Rifts sound fun though.

[Alderaan]

You may be right but it's the only MMO at E3 that has me interested.

At first i was worried that it did have an Aion vibe, mostly due to the rifts obviously, but it's not a Korean game.

The creative director worked on EQ and EQ2.

Still early and we don't know much about group/solo play or business model, but it has me interested.

[Alderaan]

Some more info:

*Groups are a max of 5 characters

# There is PVP.
# Faction based, there are two factions. The differing factions cannot team up or guild
# PvP will be completely consensual on PvE servers.
# There are "battlegrounds/scenarios".
# You can level with PVP, but you will need to some PVE.

*10 and 20 man raids

Servers

* There will be different server types. (PvP,PvE,RP)
* PvP will be completely consensual on PvE servers.

* Both static and dynamic aspects
* World is mainly seamless.
* Instances make up a, "very tiny fraction of the entire world's content."
* Dynamic "Rifts" that appear randomly and can cause larger changes on the world if they are not closed. Scale dynamically to the number of players in the area. Loot based on how much and how long you helped out in the process.
* Mobs have set behaviors (goals?) and do not always spawn in the same location at the same time. (curious how extensive this really is)
* Different servers will have different features depending on how the servers players progress.
* NPC's may have goals and may react to the world. "The one example I love to use a lot is the merchant that wanders the globe and has her own wants and desires. She wants to go from point A to point B, she gets bored if nobody shops with her, she goes home and restocks, you know, those sort of things."

[Alderaan]

The Hands of Death Walkthrough

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...-planes/700767

[bori]

That was pretty impressive. Seems like he was GM killing the mobs at the rift just to show the event. I am also impressed with the mounts and environment in general.

[Lucavi]

Feels like WoW and Dungeon Siege had one hell of a night together and popped out this sucker 9 months later.

That's not a bad thing, but I really feel like the MMO market (both free to play and subscription-based) is becoming very over-saturated with these types of split faction, high fantasy, save-the-devastated-world-esque games.

[Saxon]

Looks promising, nothing special at the moment, but as it gets closer to release could turn out to be pretty fun. Does remind me a lot of Aion, but hopefully not as grindy, more PvE content and no god-damn air combat. Subjob-esqe system sounds cool too.
Just hope they manage to balance the factions.

[bori]

Air combat in Aion was a nice idea, but the execution was terribly off, IMO. Controls were awkward for flight, and yes, it was too grindy.

[Arnwulf]

Yay another generic fantasy MMO, just what the gaming world needs.

[Man0warr]

Really looking forward to this game. Bill Trost is in charge of the company making it (one of the original EverQuest creators, a long with Brad McQuaid) and it's where Scott Hartsman works after leaving EverQuest 2.

Scott is probably the best designer/developer in the business, and single handedly revived EverQuest 2 after a shitty launch+first expansion.

[Komm Suesser Tod]

Yay another generic fantasy MMO, just what the gaming world needs.

That's a huge problem with new MMOs. While players and fans of new games coming out may not feel the term "WoW clone" isn't applicable to their brand of choice, none have really broken away from how they did it. There were a few tries, here and there, like with Age of Conan and Aion, but WoW remains on top, and until something completely new comes along, WoW will remain on top.

Stuff like the Warhammer 40k MMO coming out is certainly neat though, sci-fi finally getting some MMO love.

[Tobi]

Will definitely be trying this out, looks promising so far and a few friends are thinking of trying it out too.

[Alderaan]

That's a huge problem with new MMOs. While players and fans of new games coming out may not feel the term "WoW clone" isn't applicable to their brand of choice, none have really broken away from how they did it. There were a few tries, here and there, like with Age of Conan and Aion, but WoW remains on top, and until something completely new comes along, WoW will remain on top.

Stuff like the Warhammer 40k MMO coming out is certainly neat though, sci-fi finally getting some MMO love.

No one that doesn't play WoW really cares about topping WoW.

All we want is a fantasy MMO for the so called "western audience" built properly. One that plays like WoW but doesn't look like WoW. Aion could have been that but they fucked up with a terrible questing system, not enough PVE, and huge money sinks that don't appeal to us. This is just my opinion anyway.

There has yet to be an MMO since WoW that has great PVE and also great PVP that doesn't revolve around outnumbered ganking. You can't move forward and try new things if you can't even get the basics right.

There are a lot of ex EQ, EQ2, LOTRO people working on this game, so a lot of people hoping for the best.

[Lucavi]

Sounds like you want a true and proper Dungeon Siege MMO.

Nothing wrong with that.

[Alderaan]

E3 Dev walkthrough vid



Cracking up at BBD soundtrack at the start.