RIFT Live Datamining for 11th February 2015

Below you can find interesting datamined files from the Live client for the RIFT 3.1: Hotfix #3 patch.

Summary:

• Carnival of the Ascended Files. Featured Images, Balloon Parade Sea Model, Carnival Cape and Party Duck Companion Pet!
• Disc Mount – Air. A second ‘disc mount’; not the ‘Sting Ray’!
• Interesting Icons. Magnet and ‘disc mount’ icon.

As always, everything below is subject to change and even though these were datamined from the Live client, they might end up not appearing (or appearing months later).

Carnival of the Ascended Files

Carnival of the Ascended World Event is fast approaching and with it comes some new files appearing in the Live data with the latest hotfix.

Carnival of the Ascended usually begins at the end of February til some time into March. Last year it began on the 27th February. Given that World Events begin on Thursdays at 3:30PM Server Time, this year’s Carnival could potentially begin on the 26th February.

Featured Images

World Event Feature Images

These are likely RIFT Store front page mini-feature images. Some of them are clearly Carnival of the Ascended (balloons, dragon floats), but others are probably for Summerfest (beach, campfire, treasure map/scavenger hunt).

You might have noticed the roulette in the top-left image. This either relates to the roulette that appears in Shimmersand where you can gamble your plat away, or the special Codex: Wheel of Fate.

Unfortunately the Codex: Wheel of Fate warfront was removed in last year’s Carnival of the Ascended and the achieves relating to this warfront were moved to Legacy. As such, the special warfront is unlikely to re-appear this year.

Balloon Parade Sea

Balloon Sea Parade Model

The Carnival of the Ascended includes Dragon Floats/parades that march through the zones in Mathosia, Brevane and Dusken. It seems that this year we will be getting a Yrlwalach parade that will march around the Plane of Water.

It will be interesting to see whether or not we get a Yrlwalach pinata to wack for loot, like the existing dragons in previous Carnivals.

[Personally, the front view of the model makes Yrlwalach look like some freaky baby in a fancy bib with a traditional Oni mask on. And he needs his diapers changed.]

Carnival Cape

Carnival of the Ascended IV Cape Skin

It has been almost four years since Trion launched their first title, RIFT! Launched on March 1st 2011 (NA; excluding 1-wk head-start), it’s been quite a ride thus far. To celebrate, here’s the skin to the 4th Anniversary Cape!

Although there aren’t a lot of new additions to this year’s Carnival, Tacitus has stated that Trion are planning “for a major Carnival update to celebrate our fifth anniversary” for 2016. That’s quite a whiles away, but that’s definitely something to look forward to!

Party Duck Companion Pet

Party Duck

A ‘party duck’ companion pet that is obviously for Carnival of the Ascended with a party hat. Not sure if there are other new companion pets coming with this Carnival of the Ascended.

Disc Mount – Air

Disc Mount Air Model

So, we’ve datamined the normal Disc Mount model and skin before. It looks like a mechanical Sting Ray with Onir-like color and design theme.

Now with the latest datamining of the Live files, we’ve got the model for the second mount, “mount_disc_air”, which is clearly themed around Crucia and the Storm Legion.

In fact, the second icon from the previously datamined icons was assumed to just be a reactive for one of Crucia’s Storm Legion platforms. Turns out I was wrong – it’s a second Disc Mount.

Possible Disc Mount Air Skin

And here’s what is assumed to be the skin for the Air Disc Mount. Lightning, two sides of the central orb, each ‘segment’ and the vertical line being the center strip that connects the two sides like a blue Oreo.

No idea when or how these Disc Mounts will appear.

Interesting Icons

Here’s two interesting UI icons. Some speculation:

Magnet Icon

What could the magnet icon be used for? The main thing that jumps out at me has to do with Dimensions. Senior Game Designer “Morticus” has stated previously that he wants to add “Item Locking” and “Incremental Rotation/Scaling/Movement” options with Bulk changes included.

So basically you would be able to select a number of dimension items and bulk-rotate/scale/move/lock them.

That sounds like something a ‘Magnet’ icon could be used for as a likely toggled icon for performing bulk changes to numerous Dimension items at once.

Disc Mount Icon

The other icon is clearly the original disc mount (the ‘sting ray’). We’ve already seen a larger, inventory-style icon for the Disc Mount, so why this smaller one with the border?

Possible Foothold

Going through some of the files, I came across a “00000058.gfx” file that contained the following line:

• indicator_foothold_hover_disc

A foothold? Now that’s interesting. Perhaps it’s just a map UI put in place to indicate where a quest hub is located. Or perhaps there’s some kind of conflict between the Onir/Pelagic Order and Crucia’s Storm Legion.

The only other time we’ve had unique footholds was for the border between Ashora and the Dendrome where the Architects and Empyreal Alliance got their own foothold icons.

So, perhaps we’ll see a World Event or Promo Week where Trion will introduce a new foothold or temporary quest hub related to these Disc Mounts.

A few Carnival of the Ascended additions as we approach the annual World Event (usually held end of February or early March). There’s also more Disc Mount information, including confirming a second, Air version of the mount. Look forward to those appearing on Live at some point!

For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining of the PTS and Live clients.