PTS/Live update and datamining for both RIFT’s latest Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) updates and datamining of Live files. For April 15th Live, 21st PTS, 22nd Live + PTS. Not much to talk about so combining them all here.
If you’re interested, you can find the public information to the latest update here.
Summary:
- General Information.
- Hammerknell Instant Adventures.
- Planetouched Wilds Assets. More Mini-map compilations + interesting file names.
- Other Interesting Files. Razorbeast Sound Files, Updated Lord Arak Files, Instant Adventure Info.
As always, everything below is subject to change prior to hitting Live and some things included below may never make it to Live release.
General Information
A bit of general information about the latest PTS/Live patches:
April 15th was Patch 3.2. It contained over 500 PAK files but it seems the files are very similar to the 4.79GB PTS Update for 31st March [Update] [Datamining P1] [Datamining P2].
Main thing for the past two PTS updates seems to be Hammerknell Instant Adventures being enabled and fixes to the instance. There’s also more SL models from Frozen Tempest, Planebreaker Bastion and Grim Awakening on top of the Ethian and Dusken Spires models. Likely either models that were simply in the files, or they have been given some edits as part of Trion’s on-going game optimizations.
Hammerknell Instant Adventures
Hammerknell Fortress Instant Adventures – The Great Hall
Hammerknell Fortress Instant Adventures are now available on the PTS. To access it, open your Instant Adventure window (default key “.“) and select “Featured Adventure: Hammerknell”.
Unfortunately right now there is an issue with grouping so you will either have to go in solo or manually invite players to your HK IA group.
Test out the HK IAs and send in your feedback either in-game or via the feedback thread here, and be careful of the laser-mounted dwarves!
Great Scotty! ‘Tis the legendary Beam Emitter, Shorty!
Planetouched Wilds Assets
Looks like Trion have updated the upcoming Planetouched Wilds zone with new assets. Most of these aren’t that interesting, but it seems that the devs have completed the initial zone map environment pass and the architecture builders are starting to plot out some of the new buildings.
Mini-Map Compilations
A few new mini-map compilations have popped up.
Buildings Mini-Map
Planetouched Wilds Mini-Map Compilation – Buildings. Click image for larger view.
- The white, yellow and red blocks with the green dev arrows to the left might be Dead Simon figuring out the puzzle for Planetouched Wilds. The ‘line-up’ is similar to the dev work for other puzzles and Nightmare Rifts where all the assets are lined up.
- The square buildings in the middle seems to be giant temples. Clearly from the solid colors they are still in pre-texture/detail stage.
- The objects to the right are giant bones/skulls – makes sense given all the excavation from the other mini-maps datamined previously.
There’s other misc. walls, huts and pagodas. Not quire sure what the brown objects below the central temple are. Perhaps giant open huts.
Temple Mini-Map
Planetouched Wilds Mini-Map Compilation – Temple
Another temple. This one has what looks to be the ‘A_PTW_temple_large_01.ma‘ model at the center. There also seems to be ballistas in the south-west corner. The odd brown/green blocks are likely scaffolding.
The basic color scheme and blocky background clearly shows this building is in its beginning stages of development.
Planetouched Wilds Mini-Map Compilation – Another…temple?
This particular building…I wonder. Perhaps this will be the location of the zone’s puzzle. It could also just be the beginning stages of another temple.
Some interesting files for the Planetouched Wilds. Definitely has a few temples in it at the very least. If you missed it, be sure to check out the previous mini-map compilations which shows other parts of the zone. As always though, keep in mind it is heavily WIP.
Other PTW Info
Quite a few PTW files were in the 22nd April 2015’s Live data files. No new interesting models, but the names might be of interest:
A_PW_eth_ruins_wall_thick_stairs_01.ma
A_PW_eth_ruins_pillar_med_broken_02.ma
A_PW_eth_ruins_arch_med_broken_01.ma
A_PW_sun_orb_anim_01.ma
A_PW_infinity_steps_stairs_02.ma
A_PW_dendrome_wall_middle_03.ma
A_PW_cathedral_of_unity_01.ma
More and more assets are being added in and even filtering to Live. Three files of interest:
- Eth Ruins – Again, Ethian architecture – Looks like they had an influence in the Planetouched Wilds as well.
- Sun Orb – Will we be seeing a Sun Orb like the one in the Kingdom of Pelladane? Could be another potential threat to the Ascended in the wrong hands.
- Infinity Steps – So this is how we get to the Planetouched Wilds – via the Infinity Gate?
- Dendrome Wall – And it looks like the reason the Ascended couldn’t just walk over the mountains and discover the Planetouched Wilds from Droughtlands is because the Dendrome Wall extended all the way to the Planetouched Wilds. Or something like that.
- Cathedral of Unity – Looks like a new location for the Planetouched Wilds. Probably one of the square buildings from the mini-map compilations.
Other Interesting Files
Razorbeast Sound Files
Not that interesting, but there’s 97 Razorbeast mob sound files that were part of the 22nd April 2015’s Live data files. Lots of huffing, grunting and puffing. Looks like we’re that much closer to getting the boar mounts in-game.
Instant Adventure Info
During the Hammerknell Fortress Instant Adventure Playtest earlier in the week, Tacitus mentioned a few things of interest:
- Tarken Glacier Instant Adventures is next on Tacitus’ to-do list.
- He would also like to create an Infernal Dawn instant adventure, and perhaps even a Planebreaker one. Note that the way he said it, this is likely a personal desire and might not have official approval yet.
- It is “VERY possible” that we could get city siege IAs back in the future, but in instance-form. [This might link up to what CaptainCursor said about seeing a ruined Sanctum/Meridian.]
- Tacitus is interested in eventually having 3 queues once they have enough ‘raid’ IAs in the game. [Probably Random, Featured and likely one for Raids/Instances.]
Lord Arak Raid Files Updated
Lord Arak Raid – Heart of Darkness Fragment Models
Some of the Lord Arak Raid models have been updated slightly. The platforms surrounding the Heart of Darkness now have a vein-like model on the walls. The walls are likely the broken fragments of the Heart of Darkness so I assume these giant protrusions are blood veins.
A few interesting files, but overall the last few Live/PTS updates have been about fixing up the Hammerknell Fortress Instant Adventures and matching Live files with PTS.
If you’re interested, you can find the public information to the latest update here.
For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining here.
RiftGrate 
IIRC the Sun Orb had been thrown into PTW /waaaay/ before SL came out, like most of the beginning SL assets. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were more.
Also, the Dendrome Wall thing: if you followed the puppet shows, Salvarola makes a reference to putting the Eternal City wall in PTW, when an Architect tells him to put it in the Dendrome instead.
Eth ruins: this was a no-brainer from the start. The Eth lived RIGHT NEXT TO the Planetouched Wilds, and probably had a trade route set up with the Bahmi at some point. The ruins were either a result of the Convocation or rifts tearing the cities apart.
Must have missed that part from the puppet show, good to know! 😀 Yea, the Eth are right next door, but given how cut off PTW is from the rest of the place, I just assumed they weren’t able to cross the mountains to get there, and perhaps there weren’t any docks either.
There’s an area above Redoubt that actually leads into PTW if there wasn’t an invisible wall there.