RIFT Live Datamining for 13th May 2015

Below you can find interesting datamined files from the Live client for RIFT 3.2: Hotfix #6 patch. It’s been a while since the last datamining since most files in recent Live/PTS updates have been for bug fixes or load performance improvements.

Summary:

• Nightmare Squirrel Mount. Possibly for a new artifact type reward?
• Backpack. Backpack models for all races/genders.
• Fairy Costume. Twyl’s outfit + possible fairy wing?
• Western Hat. A Western Hat.

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). A lot of the stuff below is pure speculation based on files found and thus might be completely wrong.

Nightmare Squirrel Mount

Nightmare Squirrel Mount Rig

RIFT 3.2 Hotfix #6 included a ‘mount_squirrel_nightmare.ma’ in the files. There’s also a skin attached.

Nightmare Squirrel Mount Skin

So this is the Nightmare Squirrel Mount.

There’s no information on how to obtain the mount, but there’s two clear possibilities for this:

• Lockbox, or
• Some kind of Artifact-related reward.

Squirrels are a common theme for artifact and rare mob-related rewards. There’s a whole line of Planar Squirrel Mounts related to Unstable Artifacts.

Will the Nightmare Squirrel Mount require Planar Nuts gained from Unstable Artifacts? Perhaps, especially if they introduce Unstable Artifacts for the Plane of Water.

Nighmare Artifact Reward?

However, I have another thought: Perhaps the Nightmare Squirrel Mount is gained from special ‘Nightmare’ artifact set currency.

Back a few months ago, Dead Simon posted up this image below:

New Artifact Types

It clearly shows three artifact types that we don’t know of yet. The green glow seems like an obvious candidate for a ‘Nightmare’ artifact type. Nightmare Artifact; Nightmare Squirrel Mount? Seems to make sense.

Backpack

Backpack Skin

We’ve seen this Backpack skin before in a previous datamining. Is it a quest item, a dimension item or perhaps one of those temporary items you carry on your back, like sourcestones and crates?

Well, the latest hotfix has the following files:

RIFT Backpack Model

It’s definitely not a dimension item. There’s a model for every race and gender so it’s clearly something to be equipped by players.

However, it’s unknown at this time whether this is a new wardrobe slot, something that can be accessed in the Cape slot, or something entirely different like a temporary interactive item that makes the backpack appear on your character for a few minutes.

It could potentially be related to the craftable fluff items Morticus mentioned would be coming with Patch 3.3. Perhaps Outfitters can create a costume backpack.

Fairy Costume

Fairy Costume Icons

Back in March, as part of the “A Look Back: Datamining the Future” article, there were a few “fairy” icons discovered that didn’t seem to exist in the game.

Now we have the skins:

Fairy Costume Skins

This is basically a player version of Twyl’s outfit:

Twyl

Expect this outfit to pop up at some point in the future. Perhaps for Summerfest?

Since the first 5 icons are now skins, could we potentially be getting fairy wings as part of the costume bundle? The 6th icon is “fairy_wings_01”. Perhaps we’ll get Twyl’s autumn wings?

Fairy Wing Skeleton Datamine

Previous datamining revealed a ‘human_male_wing_fairy.ma’ rig, but this might simply relate to Twyl and Prince Hylas’ fairy wing rigs and might not be related to fairy wings for players themselves.

Glasswing Shroud Cape

The Fairy Wing could work similarly to the Glasswing Shroud cape. In other words, a cape item with enough transparency to make it look like wings.

That said, there’s existing player wings (albeit temporary ones) in the game already such as from Angelic Flight and Overload:

Wings: Angelic Flight and Overload

The ‘Fairy Wing’ might also be an interactive item that you can cast for a temporary period of time. Or perhaps it’ll be similar to Patron’s Radiance and based on a toggle-able buff so it won’t use up an item slot or gear/wardrobe slot.

Patron’s Radiance

In any case, thanks to the new fairy costume skins revealed in this week’s hotfix, we’re one step closer to finding out whether the ‘fairy_wings_01’ actually exists!

Western Hat

Western Human Vanity Helmet

The final interesting object in the data files was this ‘human_male_vanity_western’ hat.

Western Hat Skin

Perhaps another costume item ready for Summerfest?

Finally some interesting data files after a bit of a draught. It will be interesting to see where we will be able to obtain the Nightmare Squirrel Mount, and the Fairy Costume might lead to Fairy Wings which is something to look forward to. The Backpack files could give us a new costume type/slot and both the Fairy Costume and Western Hat could be aimed for a Summerfest release.

When’s Summerfest? No details have been provided by Trion at this point in time, but last year it began on 3rd July, 2013 began on 19th July and for 2012 it began on 27th June. So there’s still a good 1.5-2 months before the Summerfest World Event starts.

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