Trion had their 3rd October 2014 Friday Livestream where they talked more about 3.0 and other upcoming events.

Click here for a replay of the 3rd October Friday 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 3rd October 2014 Friday Livestream with Livestreamer “Cole” Marshall, Community Manager Eric “Ocho” Cleaver, Senior Design Director Simon “Dead Simon” Ffinch and Executive Producer Bill “Daglar” Fisher

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

Nightmare Tide Information

• New launch date for Nightmare Tide is October 22nd 2014.

Open Beta Testing

As mentioned at the start of the week, Open Beta is up for Nightmare Tide. CM Ocho has listed the main areas that they are looking for feedback on:

• Nightmare Tide Dungeons. Both Normal and Expert versions. (Accessible via LFG window, default key “i“);
• Shadow From the Beyond Level 65 Chronicle. (Accessible via Chronicle window, default key “j“); and
• Nightmare Rifts. (Lures obtainable in RIFT Store -> Rifts -> Nightmare, default key “]“).

Trion also mentioned that they will be scheduling PTS playtests between now and launch so keep an eye out! There will possibly be random prizes provided to random players who test.

Please provide feedback either via the in-game feedback report or on the forums.

Gear

• Open World gear is equal to Dungeon gear in 3.0. However – because of this – Trion have added in a weekly cap (currently 35k on the PTS) to prevent players from farming dungeon-equivalent gear in a single week. [There’s a thread on the RIFT Forums with players providing feedback on this cap to open world currency. Check it out here and get your voice heard!]
• Earrings Unlock: The in-game currency option for unlocking the Earrings slots has been ‘finalized’ (although still subject to change). However, “It will take several weeks of playing the game to earn that” – Daglar. [The Earring Unlock is not under Services anymore with the latest update so cost is currently unknown (previous placeholder was 100k Void Stones).]
• New Lockbox, “Cobalt Crabnarok Supply Crate” (scaled up to 65) has gear drops that are under expert-level. When fully-upgraded, they upgrade to expert-level. However, the cost to upgrade [using Abyssal Crusader’s Accelerators] is similar to purchasing expert gear directly so there’s no ‘short-cut’. These will be available at launch.

Mounts

• Amphibious mount upgrade item will appear post-launch and probably cost Credits although that has not been finalised yet.
• Rivertail can be upgraded.

Open World

• There’s quite a few people who make artifacts including Dead Simon, CaptainCursor and Faratha.
• CaptainCursor created all the Nightmare Tide artifacts (descriptions, names/etc) and Dead Simon placed them all. So if you find an artifact name that makes you chuckle, credit CaptainCursor and if you see an artifact floating in the sky, blame Dead Simon!
• There’s several Achievement and Artifact rewards for Nightmare Tide content already up on PTS. More will be added in prior to the expansion launch. However, the deadline is expansion launch – after the expansion they will not add new rewards to existing artifact sets/achievements because players who completed the sets/achievements prior to new rewards being added in won’t receive those rewards.
• Lucky Coin Vendor: Priority is to get rewards in for achievements and artifact sets prior to launch. Afterwards, Dead Simon will look into adding more stuff to Lucky Coin vendors.
• Can send minions to get dimension items. There’s no dimension items specific to the minions system – yet.

Autumn Harvest World Event

Autumn Harvest World Event will occur in approximately a week or so after Nightmare Tide launch – potentially. (MikeD previously stated approx. early Nov a few months ago).

• There will be new stuff. One being an item with a ‘Flaming Skull’ feature. [There was no indication whether this is a costume or mount, although this datamined skin here is likely the skin for the item.]

Extra Life Charity Event

Extra Life Charity Event is actively supported by Trion each year and this year is no different. CM Ocho has stated that the event will be a big priority for the community team next week. Dead Simon also mentioned that a lot is happening for Extra Life.

Briefly, Extra Life is a charity that helps fund purchases of equipment for Children’s Hospitals. It is marked by a 24hr gaming session on a specific date. For this year that date is the 25th October 2014.

Last year was a blast and you can read all about it in our Extra Life 2013 Round-up article. A whole variety of fundraising and donation milestone rewards, livestream giveaways, player-run contests and up to +80% game-wide bonuses were active throughout the 24hr session.

Make sure to mark the 25th-26th October on your calendar!

Possible Bonuses

Over the next two weeks prior to the launch of the Nightmare Tide expansion, Trion might run game-wide bonuses for patrons and non-patrons such as experience and token bonuses. These can be turned on at a drop of a hat.

Trion has suggested that you post on the RIFT Forums if you have any specific requests. [I’ve seen some suggestions for Mayhem events to tide players over until the expansion.]

Performance/Optimization

• Trying to fix issues with certain SLI set-ups. Trion are having trouble reproducing these SLI-related issues but they are known are engineers are working on it.
• Aware of issues with players crashing in Margle Palace. This should be fixed with today’s PTS update.
• No promises, but Trion are looking to get 64-bit support for RIFT at some point.
• If you are using shadows, you should notice a performance increase on the PTS (and on Live for 3.0 launch).
• DX12 support? Odds are, no.

Marketing

CM Ocho went over some of the marketing for RIFT briefly.

• Seeing good results on social and paid promotions.
• They’re running several search ads.
• Skins are planned (but need to change dates).
• On a PR level – Trion have been meeting press and there are further tours scheduled for this week.

Other Info

• Fishing Crafting Rifts – Looking to get these in post-3.0. “Hope to get something in the game at some point” – Dead Simon. No promises though.
• Game Time Cards: You can still apply codes for  any unused game time cards you still hold.
• Purchasing the Nightmare Tide Digital Editions should grant you loyalty, and should also work for Ascend-a-Friend.
• Not extending Guild Levels at launch. This is something to look at for 3.1 or 3.2.
• PA Levels – Expect more PA Levels once a lot more players are maxed on the existing PA cap. The % of players right now at this cap is relatively low.
• No plans to remove macros since they assist a lot of players.
• No plans to use attunement as a gate to accessing raids or specific dungeons. “No, that’s a terrible idea” – Daglar.
• No plans for flying mounts, but gliding mounts have been discussed for the future – Daglar.

Livestream Giveaways

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

• 1x Ducklar companion pet to 5 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 and Ocho)

A bit more information about Nightmare Tide as well as hints at upcoming events such as the Extra Life Charity Event and Autumn Harvest World Event.

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.