Trion had their 1st October 2014 Wednesday Livestream where they answered a whole bunch of Nightmare Tide-related questions.

Click here for a replay of the 1st October Wednesday Livestream video on twitch.tv.

Legend:
Black/Normal Text = Livestream Summary.
[Dark Blue Text] = My own comments. i.e. May not be indicative of actual content.

Trion had their 1st October 2014 Wednesday Livestream with Livestreamer “Cole” Marshall, Community Manager Eric “Ocho” Cleaver, Senior Design Director Simon “Dead Simon” Ffinch and Executive Producer Bill “Daglar” Fisher. Also a brief guest appearance by Senior Systems Designer Lisa “Faratha” Boleyn answering Dimensions questions.

As always, everything can be subject to change prior to the content hitting Live.

The Q&A has been grouped up into categories and summarized for an easier read.

General

• EU and NA will have same launch time and date.
• Release Date: They’ve been tempted to postpone release. They look at feedback each day and will make the call pretty soon whether to release on Oct 8th or a later date. If you have any concerns, voice them on the forums – let Trion know what you think. [Confirmed delayed till 22nd Oct]
• You gain Planewalker: Water Attunement via in-game currency from the RIFT Store. Cannot be purchased with Credits. Only other way is via purchasing a Nightmare Tide Digital Edition pack. Via ‘Abyssal Crusader’s Marks’ earned by completing Expert Level 65 dungeons. This will unlock per char. [r]
• Itemization and crafting issues are being looked at.
• Old raid gear will get you through leveling but you’ll need new gear to get into end-game content (Experts/Raids).
• RIFT 4.0 and beyond: “There is an over-arching plan” – Daglar. Talked about 5.0.  Yes, there will be new bad guys in 4.0 but they are not making them public yet.
• Experience gain above 65 outside of Planar Attunement? Discussed but not currently on the table. However, if players provide suggestions for it on the forums it might get bumped up on the priority list of things to get looked at. – Daglar.
• Nightmare Tide Digital Editions on Steam: Trion indicated that they ‘believe’ that Steam wants to only allow these digital editions to be up on Steam at 3.0 launch. Daglar has asked CM Ocho to check on that info though.

Open World

• Akylios-like mobs above Draumheim are not open-world raid bosses. They’re just there to be killed [Watch out for the Akvan Matriarch].
• No Volan-like encounter. Chose to spend resources on more encounters rather than a single big one.
• Margle Palace is still undergoing polish.
  

  “A lot of stuff comes together at the last second and we’re constantly looking at – “Hey, is this going to be ready or not? Are we going to be happy with the quality level of this stuff?” – and if we don’t think it is ready, we’ll move the date. I mean that’s just how it’s going to work out guys. We’ve said before that next week is a target date and we’re getting all your feedback from beta right now, so let us know what you think!” – Daglar

• There are Water Rifts in the Plane of Water because there are various oceans within the Plane of Water and some of them invade each other via those water rifts.
• Instant Adventures: Only Goboro Reef has IAs for now. Trion will decide whether to add IAs to other zones later.
• Puzzles: Draumheim and Tarken Glacier puzzles are already up (so is Goboro Reef). There’s also a speed run achievement for completing Goboro Reef puzzle in under 15min. These are not gated, although due to griefing, Draumheim and Tarken Glacier puzzles requires a ‘ticket’. Only one ticket exists at a time, so only one person can interact with the puzzle at a time to prevent griefing. [Not sure how this would prevent someone from just sitting there with a ticket and doing nothing to prevent others from trying the puzzle though unless there’s a timer on the ticket.]
• Future Zone? Have plans for additional zone/s, but nothing 100% promised. [Probably Myrkur Depth]
• Other Planes? “You’re not going to be going to the whole Plane of Fire or anything of that nature, at least not in the current plans”. – Daglar. MikeD and CaptainCursor will have plans for the artists once they finish polishing the expansion.
• World Raid Bosses? Not on the list right now. Interesting experience and fun to make, but they’d prefer raid guys to make more raid encounters in more dungeons right now.
• Zone Event in Safe Zones like Tempest Bay/Draumheim? Did some before [Storm Legion World Event], but issues with afkers and people just want to craft and not be bothered with mobs. Dead Simon stated they wouldn’t rule it out in the future, but they have to be careful about implementing zone events in safe zones.
• Stronghold mechanics in Nightmare Rifts? Daglar stated that you should suggest it to MikeD who created both pieces of content.
• Artifacts: Start off with only normal artifacts. In a later update they’ll add Twisted and Unstable Artifacts. Dead Simon is also toying with a 4th type of Artifact that “might have something to do with Nightmares”. [Technically the 4th type could be considered to be Bounty artifacts, so this would be a 5th type].
• Soul Bounty Artifacts in PvE Boxes: Hasn’t been on Trion’s radar yet, but it’s a good suggestion. – Daglar.

Cosmetic

• No new hairstyles on launch. Need to add code support for it, but it is something they want to do in the future.
• There’s 3 new armor sets at launch for open world, dungeon and raid. [There’s also 4 weapon sets: Skelf, Onir, Nightmare and Glacial]. The quest set isn’t up on PTS yet so if you have been questing in the beta, you might have noticed the quest gear has placeholder (old world) models.
• Some general wardrobe bundles will be available at launch, but others in the pipeline for after launch.
• There are some new aquatic companion pets.
• There are new dimensions. Shadow Scion from some digital edition + 3 from Savant Dreamweaver recipes. You can check out a previous Dimensions Livestream for more information.
• If you have a suggestion for new graphics for soul abilities, post them up on the forums. Not on top of to-do list though.

Chronicles

• No more chronicles are in the works – at least not at release.
• Trion will take a look at how many people use Chronicles to decide when/if to add new ones.
• If they do make new ones, it’ll most likely be higher-level versions of existing Chronicles prior to adding new ones.
• Will Chronicles flesh out to add the rest of the dragons (Chronicles only have Greenscale and Laethys)? It is definitely possible and there’s quite a few designers who want to do so. However, no promises of when it might happen. – Dead Simon.

Dungeons

• The two “Return to” dungeons will be released Day 1. [Return to Empyrean Core and Return to Iron Tomb]
• There’s 4 brand new dungeons + 2 “Return to” dungeons.
• Will probably have more dungeons planned further down the line.

Raiding

• 10-man “Rhen of Fate” will be released on day 1. The 20-man “Mount Sharax” will be released later. [No indication of when exactly Mount Sharax will be released.]
• There probably will be more ‘Intrepid’ raids. Daglar also mentioned that ‘Intrepids’ are pure level raises whilst ‘Return to’ add additional mechanics.
• Daglar stated he would love an original, pre-nerf Gilded Prophecy with level raised.

Q: Intrepid versions of 20-mans?

“That is definitely on the table, but like I said before, sometimes people scream bloody murder if we just level raise some things. I would love to bring back some of the old encounters, because again, some of these encounters people never saw. I would love to go back to Hammerknell some day though I think Return to Hammerknell would be more enjoyable than just an Intrepid: Hammerknell, but we’ll see”. – Daglar

Q: Will there be more than one 20-man or 10-man in the first tier of raids?

“So, as you guys have kind of seen before we typically release a 20-man, and – once we started adding 10-mans, a 10-man – and typically a raid tier has (for a 20-man raid tier), there’s typically about 8 bosses. So, I believe there’s 5 bosses right now (for Mount Sharax), so I think you could expect – theoretically – an additional three bosses in the future for Tier 1. But we’re going to look at all that stuff and determine if that makes sense to do in Tier 1 or Tier 2, see how difficult this stuff is and see where best to put our resources at”. – Daglar.

PvP

• Max level for gear that can be taken into PvP without being bolstered is epic Tier 1 mark gear. Relic will be bolstered.
• You can reach the bolster ceiling solely from PvPing for mark armor.
• Rune stats will remain after being bolstered. Daglar was unsure about dream orb stats (which are usually higher for higher level/tier gear).
• Raid Trinket bolstering – Trion will keep an eye on Raid trinket effects on PvP. If they become a problem they’ll nerf them in PvP.
• New warfront: Ghar Station Eyn, will be available at launch. The warfront is about Manugo and Deadly Numbers with 11 objects to pick up and Manugo Stations to interact with.
• Warfronts will not reward Void Stones. Void Stones are open world currency gained from zone events, nightmare rifts, carnages/etc. [You’ll earn ‘dungeon’ and ‘raid’ marks for Warfront dailies].
• For Conquest: See popularity once it is re-introduced at 65. Then decide whether to make another map or not based on usage.
• Conquest Points and Perks (including mount speed buffs) gone with 3.0.

Mounts

• Crab-like mounts will be available that requires Manugo League faction notoriety. Pretty expensive plat-wise. They are 155% mount speed which is the new, highest mount speed.
• Amphibious Mount Upgrade Item will become available a few weeks after launch. Yet to decide how to obtain it.

Q: When will the Shark Mount be released with a laser on its head?

• “Great question for Marigold…probably not for launch”. – Daglar.
• “Gatling laser”. – Dead Simon.

Misc

• Minions hotkey is default to ‘v’, so be careful if you are currently using ‘v’. Check your keybindings via ESC -> Keybindings when 3.0 launches. (also, diving is ‘z’).
• Already making stuff in preparation for the annual Extra Life Charity Event. [This year it’s being held 25th October].
• More Tales of the Deeps stories? CaptainCursor would like to do so but he is extremely busy at the moment.
• Design a Minion/Companion Pet Contest. Whether this is held or not is up to CM Ocho, but he indicated that he liked the idea and it will probably be done in the future. However, it will be at least a month after expansion launch before he will start thinking of creating such a contest.
• A bit of multi-threading going on with 3.0. But limited, although work continues on it.

Q: Favorite Areas in the Expansion:

• Dead Simon: Dropping to Draumheim from Goboro Reef; Love seeing the dream versions of Port Scion, Sanctum and Meridian. Also likes Rust Harbor.
• Daglar: Headfell Farms is hilarious.
• Cole: Vanilla Goboro Reef.
• Ocho: The Atragarian Well.

Scripting for one of the Puzzles:

Nightmare Tide Puzzle Scripting

Cole showed off one of the Nightmare Tide Puzzle’s scripting. Intense.

Q: What is the most challenging thing to implement in the expansion?

• Biggest challenge for the team was Water Planes. Falling out of the sky (‘ocean sky’). – Daglar.
• Vision, concept art for the Plane of Water – Dead Simon.

Q: How much did the F2P model affect the expansion compared to Storm Legion?

• Affected it a lot. WE’ve been on both sides of the P2W coin, so had to adjust. – Daglar.

Q: Favorite quote from 3.0?

• “You’re wearing the wrong hat” – Dead Simon.
• Favorite quotes from Professor Mann – Daglar. Mentioned that Professor Mann will be a warfront announcer with some 30-sec long call-outs.

Livestream Giveaways

During the Livestream, a handful of livestream chat channel viewers received:

• 1x Ducklar companion pet to 2 livestream viewers.
• 1x Unstable Artifact Thief Cache (contains a buttload of artifacts) to 3 livestream viewers.
• 1x Nightmare Tide Ultimate Edition Pack to 1 lucky livestream viewer!

Congratulations to all the winners!

(From Left to Right: Cole, Dead Simon, Daglar, Ocho)

A good few Q&A related to Nightmare Tide in this livestream. Look forward to Friday’s Livestream which Ocho has announced is a ‘pre-release livestream’.

You can check out other Nightmare Tide Content information we’ve compiled here, or delve a little deeper and read up on all the latest Nightmare Tide-related articles here.

Past Livestream Summaries can be accessed here.