Gamescom 2012: Trion’s RIFT

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

The squee heard around the world. It was on Thursday, did you hear it? That was me, getting to see Storm Legion with my special host Adam Gershowitz the Senior Producer of RIFT. I started out waiting in a little waiting area where there were all sorts of people. Slowly, one by one all of Trion’s games were called and press who wanted to see them scurried into their rooms until there was only me. I was given a look and asked what game I was here for. The man seemed quite surprised to see someone waiting for RIFT. (End of Nations seems to be insanely popular in Europe.) As soon as I walked in the room and saw a Harbinger on the screen I squeed. It didn’t actually occur to me until after the meeting was over that I had met the Adam Gershowitz. But even then I was still so pumped I couldn’t stop smiling.

What was it that had me so excited? More than anything it was seeing Dimensions. As a roleplayer I adore the idea of player housing but since there was no information released I nearly had forgotten about it until I saw it. Dimensions are little chunks of Telara for players to make their own. I know there are a lot of questions about how it works and I tried to get as many answers as I could so I’m going to summarize them.

Dimensions are picked by the player out of a preset selection of locations from Telara. They had considered making it worldwide but ultimately the preset locations were easier to do and most people would all be wanting the same places anyway. So, you get your little plot o’ land and the building begins. Players will basically have access to anything the devs have. Fond of a particular lamp in Granite Falls? It’s most likely there. Not only is that lamp there, you can make it huge or tiny, rotate it every which way, and it can even float in mid air if you want. One thing they really hope to see is what players can make out of the various items instead of preset buildings.

Speaking of lamps you can play with the lamps making them brighter or dim to your liking giving you the ability to create unique areas with a variety of lighting options. Various special items can be used to bring weather to your Dimension as well as giving you day and night. Another thing they’ll be allowing is for people to own multiple Dimensions. You will be able to unlock Dimensions with Achievements and performing certain tasks. And if you decide to switch to the new Dimension you just got they’ll pack up all your things from your first Dimension and move them to the new one. Awfully nice of them, that really is the worst part of moving. So, how do you access these Dimensions? Well the owners of the Dimensions get keys which go in your inventory and allow the owners to access them from anywhere in the world. Friends and family can get special permission to enter and of course access will be made available from the main cities. I know already I’m going to get sucked in and not leave for a few months at the very least.

Some other information I learned during the presentation had to do with things that had already been announced. I just got a few more details on them. Like for instance we will be using the Infinity Gate. Or that awesome tusked mount we’ve seen will be for people who take advantage of the year’s subscription to RIFT and get Storm Legion free. That Colossi we saw during the first reveal breaking down a wall will actually be a repeating event on a timer of around 3 hours. So if that wall is up it is a safe bet that either someone is taking him out, someone failed before or a fight will be coming soon.

I also asked about Planar Attunement and what would be happening with it after the level cap. I learned that players will still earn towards Planar Attunement. It is a completely separate system from the 1-60 experience. The new zones are made so that a freshly dinged level 50 is just as able to play as someone who has filled their PA. This is fantastic news for me because I am so behind in my Planar Attunement.

Storm Legion is topping my Christmas wish list this year. And Christmas might be coming a bit early this year. If you buy a year long subscription to RIFT you will get Storm Legion free plus you get an awesome mount. If you already have a subscription like I do don’t worry, they stack! So go buy yourself another year of RIFT!

Retweet our twitter post for your shot at winning this bad boy! (the helm that is. Ardua sold separately)



One final note, we didn’t return from Gamescom empty handed. We’re going to be tweeting this article on OnRPG’s Official Twitter and anyone who retweets it will be entered into a drawing to win one of four of these bad ass helmets. You know you want it!