CQ finally more competitive after 5-man limit

Since the 20-man limit was downsized to 5 I had way more fun playing CQ on the EU-shards than before when I was getting stomped in a 3vs20.

There have been a roller-coaster rides on the teams I was on, going from near winning to total obliteration to finally winning again. Often it hangs very much in the balance between at least 2 teams. What's also fun is as soon as one team comes out ahead, the two other teams band together and take them down a notch.

Some ideas to improve it even further:

1) Time limit

I can see a match lasting forever during low population scenarios where few kills happen. A 2-3 hour time limit would help there and also letting people plan their play time better when they know how long it will take in this case.

I still had fun playing 10vs10vs10 at an ungodly time but it can take quite a while to finish :).

2) Remove turrets counting as kills for the weekly

A big one. Turret farming has to go, period. May have to adjust total kill count and kill count to CQ-lock down a bit downwards then.

3) Better rewards

Right now it feels CQ isn't really worth playing for rewards except for the weekly (which needs too many kills, 1000-1200 would work better IMO) and for the favour at the end kinda.

Please add something worthwhile in the chest at the end, like a chance for a Warmonger token, Favor Infused Accelerators, maybe Eye of Untold Madness for T2-relic upgrades (tho I'm not sure if that gets bolstered down atm, since I don't have any).

Something a PvPer is happy getting, and a PvEer might still make good use (lower than T3 progressed ones probably, since T2 dictates the bolster ceiling and PvP-gear lvl right now) of.

4) Use matchmaking for CQ at the start

Right now it is insta-join at the start and people are getting shuffled based on the numbers of their teams and who is able to fill them it seems. Why not hold the queue a minute or so to see who all queued and then reorganize them into teams based on ELO (not sure if performance and stuff like "played healer last 5 times" still matter in wfs).

Then after this minute is over, when CQ opens it takes the normal 45 seconds inside Stillmoor to start.

Best regards and thanks to Trion for the change, even though it is just a test right now!

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RIFT 3.5: Hotfix #9 2/10/2016

RIFT 3.5: Hotfix #9 2/10/2016

NA: 2/10/16 7:30 AM PST
EU: 2/11/16 2 AM GMT

== FEATURES ==

PATRON BUFFS
We’ve updated Patron benefits with TWO brand new bonuses! Patrons are now immune to soul vitality loss, and have a 50% reduction on Auction House fees and commissions.

In addition to these new bonuses, the following convenience perks are now exclusive to Patrons:
- Stacking charges for Dungeons, Warfonts, and Instant Adventures.
- Accumulating rest experience.
- Queuing for specific Warfronts and Dungeons.

For further details, please check out the discussion thread.


CALL TO ARMS
The planes will enter mayhem mode in Freemarch and Silverwood once again the weekend of February 12th through the 14th with new repeatable quests and rewards.

Patrons can speak to the Planar Challenger in Sanctum or Meridian for a new and exclusive Daily and Weekly quest. Jump in and join the fight!


RARE ADVENTURES COME TO MINIONS!
Now when adventuring, special rare adventures can appear, signified by a special icon! When completed, these rare adventures offer extra bonus loot in addition to their normal rewards. They can also be shuffled away for free, should you wish to do so.


== GAME UPDATES ==

GENERAL
* You can now buy an additional 20 wardrobe slots! Find them in the character sheet.
* There are now 4 more Bank Vaults for purchase!
* Fixed several instability issues when changing graphics settings with parallel rendering enabled.
* A number of chats have been made cross-shard, allowing you to talk toanyone in these chats on a cluster level! They are as follows:
- All level range chats
- World Defense
- Events
- Trade
- CrossEvents
- Note: Any time a player logs in, they will see a message pop up in the chat console several times saying that they are already in that channel. This is a bug, and will be fixed in an upcoming hotfix.
* Fixed an issue with the UI sometimes showing white icons.


RIFT STORE AND SERVICES
* Dream Weavers can now purchase recipes to craft Cosmic Aggressor and Defender Essence Supply Caches! Look for these recipes on Bob and the Rift Store. Open these caches to find incredible essences, even epic ones that can be upgraded to unbelievable strength!
* Dimensioneers, looking for Planetouched Wilds items? Check out the Korvan Dimension Item Grab Bag added to the Rift Store!
* A new grab bag has been added to the Rift Store containing brand new ice building blocks!
* The Flipped Wedding Garb costume is now available in the RIFT Store. A variant of the existing Wedding Garb with a twist: tuxedo for the ladies / dress for the gentlemen!


ECONOMY ADJUSTMENTS
* As part of our efforts to improve the RIFT economy, we're increasing the cap on currency for Free players to 5,000 Platinum.
- Because these sorts of changes can produce effects that can't be completely predicted, this change is an experiment in progress. We'll observe impact, and adjust as necessary in the future.
* After observing the shifts in the RIFT economy, a number of store-bought crafting materials used in Savant recipes have had their prices increased to account for inflation. The following items now cost 1p50g, up from 1p:
- Shell Grinding Stone
- Crustacean Oil
- Coral Lacquer
- Byssal Cord
-Disintegrating Blend
- Essence of Reverie
- Teal Wax
- Inelastic Thread
- Salt Flux
-Waterproof Ink


INSTANT ADVENTURE

INTREPID: HAMMERKNELL
* Caches from boss kills now have a chance to drop an unstable version. The unstable versions are locked but when opened have a guaranteed chance at an item drop along with other loot.
* Rewards from Hammerknell Instant Adventures now properly upgrade to have higher stats.


ZONES AND EVENTS
* Zone Event: Bloodfire Behemoth: The colossi that spawns should no longer gain the Planar Evacuation buff and despawn pre-maturely. The colossi should also no longer gain the Burning Out buff which allowed it to be killed in a very short amount of time.
* As an experiment, we've rebalanced the way that zone events spawn. They should now spawn more evenly across all zones. Since it is an experiment, we'll be monitoring the results, taking feedback, and tweaking until we're happy with it!

ASHORA
* Quest: Army Ants: The quest objective has been reduced to 60 kills, down from 100.
* Achievement: Burning Ants: All Architects in Ashora now count towards this achievement. Additionally, all Architects in Ashora are now valid targets.

GLOAMWOOD
* Quest: Crystal and Key: The location of Jary Snoes ghost has been moved slightly to no longer appear under a frequent rift spawn.

IRON PINE PEAKS
* Quest: In the Wrong Place: Sentinel Veliz should once again offer this quest in Icewatch Ridge.
* Quest: Shipment Triangulation: The red tracking markers should appear more reliably on all graphics settings.

PLANETOUCHED WILDS
* Quest: A Tempting offer: Fixed an issue that could cause this quest to become stuck after a client crash.

SCARLET GORGE
* Zone Event: Shambling Hordes: The individual zombies that accompany the boss are no longer immune to attack when they first spawn.


CRAFTING

IMPERISHABLE PRISMATIC MOTES
* In an effort to reduce the amount of components required for various crafting upgrades, Imperishable Motes have been replaced by a new unified component: Imperishable Prismatic Motes.
* All existing Imperishable Motes now convert to Imperishable Prismatic Motes when right-clicked.
* All recipes that originally called for Imperishable Motes now use the new Imperishable Prismatic Mote.
* All Crafting Rifts that dropped the various Imperishable Motes now drop the new, unified Imperishable Prismatic Motes.
* Imperishable Prismatic Motes drop less frequently than their elemental counterparts did, but should be much easier to obtain as you no longer need to hunt for a specific drop.

APOTHECARY
* The Phenomenal Bottle of Spell Strikes and Phenomenal Bottle of Critical Strikes recipes now require 6 Sarleaf Extracts, down from 12.
* The Illustrious Bottle of Critical Strikes and Illustrious Bottle of Spellstrikes recipes now require 12 Sarleaf Extracts, down from 24.

ARMORSMITHING
* The Tormenting Metal Amender recipe now requires 24 Pelagic Requirements, down from 48.

ARTIFICER
* The Opaque Ornament Amender recipe now requires 24 Pelagic Fragments, down from 48.

RUNECRAFTING
* The Rune Amender recipe now requires 18 Capricious Stars, down from 20.
* The Advanced Rune Amender recipe now requires 8 Capricious Stars and 7 Nightmare Stars, down from 10 and 8, respectively.
* The Opaque Rune Amender now requires 24 Pelagic Fragments, down from 48.


ACHIEVEMENTS
* We've added a slew of new achievements!
- Planar Novice, Planar Acolyte, Planar Adept, Planar Master, and Planar Commander: Complete tiers of Planar Attunement.
- Fashion Icon: Unlock Wardrobe slots.
- Revered Crafter: Become Savant in 4 crafting professions.
- Legendary Crafter: Become Savant in 8 Crafting professions.
- Vault Keeper: Unlock 10 bank Vaults.
- Just Role With It/Role Tide!: Unlock 5 character roles for your calling.
- I Was Framed!: Unlock five portrait frames.
- Badge of Honor: Unlock 7 portrait badges.
- Fancy Pets/ Pampered Pets: Unlock combat pet skins.
- Patronly: Use a Patron ability.
- Bank Holiday: Unlock 30 bank slots.
- Fully Loaded: Unlock 8 bag bar slots.
* The following achievements have been moved to Legacy:
- Quantity Over Quality
- Try Not To Look Too Desperate
- Pie For An Eye
- Compulsive Gifting
- Dirt Hurts
- Rampant Dysmorphia
- Single Barrel Blast
- Water Bomber
* The following achievements have had their point values increased:
- A Most Nec-romantic Getaway
- I Get Around
- Quick On The Draw


DIMENSIONS
* We’ve increased the buildable space in the Shal Korva dimension! Dimensioneers should now have much more room to build and explore.

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5 Years of RIFT – New Producer’s Letter From Archonix!

Here is the newest letter from trion worlds:

Greetings Ascended,

As we approach 5 years of RIFT, I look back on the amazing journey we’ve all taken together. RIFT has grown from the shiny new MMO on the block into a game that influences the industry and continues to lead in new and exciting directions with Instant Adventure and Dynamic Content. Not only is it a time to look back, but it’s also time to look forward to some of the exciting new features coming to RIFT in 2016. We’ve got some amazing changes planned throughout RIFT’s 5th anniversary, both in terms of in-game content and the underlying technology, and we’re happy to talk about them today. It’s going to be an incredible year!


Before we get into all that, I’d like to take a moment to thank you all. RIFT is more than just planar invaders and battling Ascended: it’s each and every one of you who have been part of the journey. Over the last year we’ve had the opportunity to meet players from around the world at live events, like our parties in Boston and Seattle for PAX and in Cologne for Gamescom. Getting the chance to meet those of you who share our passion for RIFT is something that truly makes this job an experience unlike any other. I’ve also continued to be amazed by the generosity of the RIFT community during the Extra Life marathon this year, and you should be proud of your willingness to lend help to some of those who need it most. You are our inspiration, and I can’t imagine a better group of people to share Telara with.

We’ve been busy since our last anniversary, releasing 4 major updates, 3 new tiers of raiding, Intrepid Instant Adventures, a new Dungeon, and the long anticipated release of Planetouched Wilds. Our focus has been on releasing innovative new content, while, at the same time, reinvigorating some of our best existing content and keeping it relevant to RIFT today. Intrepid IA’s are one of our favorite features in the game, as they open up some of our most exciting and challenging raid content for every RIFT player to experience. Now every RIFT player can experience the most menacing encounters and work together to defeat the greatest evils threatening Telara!

2015 didn’t just include new things to do, but also new ways to do them! We introduced a massive revamp to the Wardrobe System, even more amazing rewards for Patrons with the introduction of Affinity, and the first new Calling since the launch of RIFT: the Primalist! While the adventures you experience playing RIFT are truly epic, doing so in new and interesting ways – and looking oh-so-fabulous in the process – is just as important as the dragons you slay.

Over the last year we’ve also learned a lot more about how you want to play RIFT and the kinds of things you want us to offer. Learning from you and improving the RIFT business model is what keeps the game advancing and us crafting amazing story lines. We’re making a few changes to ensure that RIFT’s next five years are as full of amazing developments and breathtaking content as the first five. We’ll continue to evolve and change in this area, finding exciting and fair ways to reward those who support RIFT for all of us to enjoy. It’s a tough balance, but it’s a task we never take lightly. We’ll continue to listen to feedback and find ways to address your concerns when we do make changes, so that together we make RIFT as healthy and successful as it deserves.

Let’s talk about the 5th anniversary celebrations. Our first major update of the year will be RIFT 3.6: Celebration of the Ascended, coming in early April. Part one of the update will be this year’s Carnival of the Ascended, complete with all new quests, rewards and more! Moving beyond the anniversary we have news of additional souls for all callings, a new daily login reward system, as well as continued PVP improvements. The second half of the update is due to drop late in May and contains our second Intrepid Instant Adventure, featuring the best of The Mind of Madness. Now every Ascended will be able to journey beyond the Cosmos and do battle with the Tenebrean deities powering Lord Arak’s evil plans!

2016 is also the year of tech for RIFT, and a place we’ve actually ramped up hiring over the past year. We’re incredibly excited to reveal that the first of our planned updates is the addition of true multicore support to the RIFT client. Our engineers have been making heroic strides in transforming what was once thought of as an impossibility for the RIFT engine into a reality! For those less technically savvy, this will allow RIFT to take advantage of more of the capacity of processors released since RIFT’s launch. Our goal is to improve both the performance and stability of the RIFT client. Early stages of alpha testing are already underway, and have been going extremely well. Over time we’ll be expanding the test to include more and more of you. Faster performance and more stability for RIFT, that’s something that benefits everyone!

Because this is such a huge change, we can’t give exact estimates of when it will be ready, but we’re pushing hard to make it happen as quickly as possible. Once this is ready, we can move on to the next big technical update, which has been going on in parallel – We’re happy to share that we have been converting RIFT to a 64-bit client. It’s another massive amount of work that’s been going on for a long time now. It’ll multiply the benefits provided by true multicore support and allow RIFT to fully utilize your computer’s memory to provide even more performance and stability gains!

So join us in this celebration of the first five years of RIFT, all of you who have been a part of RIFT, and looking towards what the next 5 years of RIFT brings!

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What if You Could Gamble in Rift?

How awesome would it be if you could gamble in Rift? I mean, the game is already a pretty cool free to play MMORPG. It has a decent player base and a lot of fun things to do. So if you added in a gambling element, that might give it even more fun for certain players.

I love casino games but one of my favorites is live roulette. I think if there was live roulette options in Rift, a lot of other players would have fun with it too. If you could gamble for credits in the game, a lot of people would probably be all over it. Rift credits can be used to purchase boots, equipment, mounts and other fun stuff from the in-game store.

The only question I’d have is how you would work in classical gambling in a fantasy world so that it makes sense. Since there are also role-playing elements, there are many different ways you could likely make it work. That said, I think if it was written into the story, it’d be even better. Although that’s not likely to ever happen, it can be fun to think about.

What kinds of games would you want to see in Rift if there was gambling or a casino feature added? What races do you think would be most likely to gamble if it was in the story? Since you can’t play roulette in Rift right now, you can head over to leovegas and enjoy a few games, maybe in between your play sessions of Rift.

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Apotheosys says good-bye

Apotheosys, #1 raiding guild in RIFT quits over boss controversy in the latest tier of raiding, and posts this goodbye tirade on their guild site along with this video.




Anyone discussing the video/post in the forums/game/twitch are having their Trion Worlds accounts banned for harassment.

This is a wonderful display of what not to do, on both ends. Either way it is a wonderful train wreck to watch!

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Counterstrike Betting: The beast has awoken?

Since its initial appearance and popularity amongst game players Counter Strike has had a more declining player base. Not so long ago, some people even considered CS a dying game in esports. 

The launch of CS GO
Something drastically changed for the better when in 2012 the new version of the game Counterstrike: Global Offensive was released. Even if the release where haunted by some major flaws for example unoptimized code resulting in pretty harsh fps drops. For a speed, tactics and accuracy shooter this was devastating. 

The fact that the competitive features were quite poorly constructed, also made a bad impression on the community. 

The Turningpoint
Things gradually improved after some updates in 2013, and in larger numbers players now began to abandon the final original version of the game Counterstrike 1.6, which was built on Valves old Half-life engine. One other thing that’s said helped to reverse the negative spiral was Valve directly supported the game in order to make it a popular esport. The bad ranking system has also changed and CS GO might now have one of the best matchmaking systems in all of esport. 

Things all in all have therefore really begun spinning for CS GO with hundreds of thousands of active players and also new major leagues being founded. With more players and a bigger community the big money has whether you like it or not hit the genre. Gone with the wind are the poor old days. 

And Valve is laughing all the way to the bank… 

How big can it get in the future?
On the topic of big money: The fact that Counterstrike has become one of the most popular competitive games in esport has awakened some major commercial actors. Most prominent of these is the betting industry which until this point mainly has focused on traditional sports. Bet 365, Pinnacle sports and other brands have all betting in CS GO. Since the game is so competitive, the brands see the same opportunities to excite fans as any other sport. 

The potential has also been seen at marketers who have started to position themselves in different ways online. A great example of this is the search affiliaties in Sweden where new sites targeting esport betting, and counterstrike betting traffic pop ups daily. One example of this is Ebets.se who specificly targets the Swedish CS GO community who like to bet on their favorite teams. 

There are also several other takes on traditional betting, which involves skins. Among the more noticeable there are skin (for weapons) trading markets and skin casinos. 

Read more: http://www.ebets.se/esport-betting/

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My fond memory of the summer the game came out

When Trion Worlds launched Rift back in March 2011 i was so happy. I had just finished high school and i had about 3 weeks to do anything i felt like before i started my summer job at my uncles company, as a clerk in a small computer shop. I was really looking forward for the summer job because i'm very interested in computers but now i finally had some time on my own. Thank god!

First thing i did when it launched was to take the bus into the city in my local hometown and got a copy of the game. You probably know by now that i didn't spend much time outdoors those 3 weeks. This game really captured me and i don't regret i spend so much time playing it.

When i was playing i was a guardian and i enjoyed that more than being a Defiants. After my summer job i started to play the game more and really enjoyed it playing with friends. During that time a friend of mine had started to play online casino. He had signed up and got some cash for free. I signed up as well and enjoyed playing casino also. It was a great rush. Little bit like when i got my hands on Rift the first time. Only this time i could actually win money. Since i worked in the summer job, i deposited 20 euros and got a bonus of 20 euros as well as some free spins. I immediately won 300 euros! The whole amount i got from my summer job! Sweet! I told my mom about and she said i should save the money because otherwise i will just lose them again. Even though i dont like when my mother is right but this time she had a point. So i withdraw 250 euros and just played with the rest. It was a great summer!

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[RELEASE] Xerbot - RIFT Bot (Mob Killer / Glider)

We are pleased to announce our RIFT bot!

The free version is limited to 1 hour per session and maximum 3 abilites, though you can re-run the bot as many times as you like. The bot runs along your configured path and uses the abilities which you have configured to kill all mobs along that path.

If there is enough demand, then we will work on other bots for Warfronts, Rifts, etc. in the future.

Quick Start Guide

1. Download Xerbot and extract it to your desktop. link
2. Download the RIFT Glider script and copy the contents of the zip into the Xerbot folder on your desktop. link
3. Open xerbot.exe inside the xerbot folder on your desktop, in the menu click File->Script->Start, select "RIFT Glider" and click the start button.
4. Perform a scan. If you get "missing manifest.txt" then click the browse button and select your RIFT live folder, then scan again.
5. Set up your path and abilities and other configurations.
6. Click run.

Screenshots

Videos
Links

Website: eRepublik Bot, RIFT Bot - Xerbot

If you have any questions or concerns, then post a reply to this thread, send me an E-Mail or create a thread on our forums.
We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

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By the Numbers: 4 Years in Telara [Infographic]

The codes are cool, I didn't get one, QQ, who cares. The real story in that picture is Plu@Brutwacht.

16,791 hours played is 699.625 days of the 1461 days ((365 x 4)+ 1 for the leap year) Rift has been out.

That means he (or she, but i'm assuming he) has been logged into Rift for 47.89% of his life during this time, or 11.5 hours a day every day.

Holy shit.

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How to get from level 50-60 in 4-6 hours (Warning: 160% XP Vials Required)

My baby mage is going to be 50 soon so this seems like a very good leveling strategy. I do have one question: Some people recommend hitting the initial Storm legion zones at 48 instead of 50 to get a boosted rate of XP.

What are you thoughts on that?

My concern is that it'll end up costing me more time having to kill the level 50 SL mobs while I'm 2 levels below them. But with the 160% (or 200%) Xp boost, that could end up being quite effective.

 

Suggested specs, unfortunately I don't have any guides up for these leveling specs but if I get 3+ requests for a certain guide, I'll probably make it:

Warrior:
51 Tempest/ 4 Warlord/11 Riftblade
51 Riftblade/4 Warlord/11 Tempest (If no Storm Legion souls, replace Tempest with paragon)
51 Champion/11 Warlord/4 Paragon

Mage
51 Harbinger/11 Chloromancer/4 Elementalist
51 Elementalist/11 Chloromancer/4 Necromancer
51 Pyromancer/11 Chloromancer/4 Harbinger (4 Archon if no SL souls)

Cleric:
51 Shaman/15 Defiler/0 Justicar (51 Shaman/9 Druid/6 Justicar if no SL souls)
51 Druid/9 Shaman/6 Justicar
51 Inquisitor/15 Defiler/0 Justicar (51 Inquis/6 Purifier/9 Justicar if no SL souls)

Rogue:
41 Nightblade/21 Riftstalker/ 4 Tacticianhttp://forums.riftgame.com/game-discu...
51 Marksman/11 Riftstalker/4 Tactician (4 Saboteur if no SL souls)
51 Ranger/11 Riftstalker/4 Tactician (4 Saboteur if no SL souls)

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