PTS Datamining for 21st May 2015 – Part 1

RIFT’s Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) was updated on the 21st May 2015 with a 3.55GB update. The update contains 340 PAK files with tens of thousands of files, similar to March’s 4.79GB update.

Due to the amount of files, datamining will be split into multiple parts. In a rare turn of events, I’m posting up some of the datamining before the PTS Update article because the PTS currently crashes at 40% loading screen.

Patch version TEST-302-46-A-1006590.

Summary:

• More Backpacks. Grisly-themed, casual and alchemist-themed backpacks.
  
• Twyl’s Wings. Another wing!
  
• 3.3 Crafted Fluff Icons. Companion pets, weapon skins, body vfx, eye glows and more!
  
• Fishing Poles. Various planar-themed fishing poles!
  
• Mount and Mob Skins. Red Crabnarok, Unidentified and Great Hound Mount skins. Also Bearded Skywhale and Armadillo skins.
  
• Other Interesting Skins. Green Thing and Bear Eagle Bar.

As always, everything below is subject to change prior to hitting Live and some things included below may never make it to Live release.

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More Backpacks

There’s two more backpack skins! This leads me to believe that player backpacks will in fact become a reality. There’s a slightly more grisly backpack with some bone textures and tribal text whilst the one on the right is typical camping gear – a green bedroll and a woodcutter’s axe.

As you can see, the one on the right has an axe, large bedroll and minimal baggage compartments.

Could these possibly be slated for the Summerfest World Event? Camping does seem summer-ish and could work well with the scavenger hunt quests. No info from Trion, but it would be a good time to introduce them.

Alchemist Backpack?

I assume this is a backpack, although the skin is much larger than all the other backpack skins. You’ve got near-empty double-flasks, small vials and larger jars with green and blue goop. This clearly has something to do with alchemy.

Perhaps it will be a crafted cosmetic backpack for Apothecaries?

Appearance Sets Tab

Gingers mentioned earlier this week that Trion is working on an ‘Appearance Sets Tab’ for the Character Sheet. No other details were provided, but perhaps this has something to do with these backpacks and information pertaining to player wings.

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Twyl’s Wings

Just yesterday we found blue wings from the RIFT 3.2 Hotfix #7 data files. Just a day after that the PTS gets an update and we’ve got ourselves Twyl’s Wings!

The skin matches up perfectly (minus the ‘cold’ bits) with Twyl’s wings, and alongside Twyl’s costume skins datamined the week prior, it’s now almost beyond a doubt that we’re getting player wings!

Only qualification is if the skin happens to use the cape’s rig in which case it would look as-is. Hopefully it’s actual wings and not a cape skin that is wrapped around our backs.

Given this is a skin, it will probably be stretched out in-game so it might not be as small as it looks here.

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3.3 Crafted Fluff Icons

Morticus announced a while back that the main crafting professions would be getting a whole bunch of new craftable ‘fluff’ items. These would be slated for RIFT Patch 3.3 and the ideas he was floating up were as follows:

• Apothecary – Fireworks and fun potions.
• Artificer – Companion Pets.
• Armorsmith – Plate/Chain Costume Bundles.
• Outfitter – Leather/Cloth Costume Bundles.
• Weaponsmith – Silly Weapons.
• Runecrafter – Not determined yet.

Datamined Icons

Now we have what looks like icons for these craftable fluff:

Note: I’ve only shown all colors for the first three rows to save my sanity. Just note that every one of the remaining icons all have multiple colors.

1st Row: Character Glow VFX

It is highly likely that the first row relates to the glow visual effects (‘vfx’) you can get that surrounds your body. These might be craftable versions of existing fluff items like Gem of Boundless Energy, Touch of Vivid Dreamer and Touch of the Flames which you can get from various World Events.

It will be interesting to see if the crafted versions will be exactly the same as the World Event ones, and whether or not their initial activation will have the special vfx that the World Event items have, such as with the Touch of the Flames:

2nd Row: Eye Glow VFX

Glowing eyes. They currently exist although there’s no on/off toggle for them and only appear in certain situations:

• Cleric Inquisitor’s ‘Spiritual Scrutiny’ buff gives a white/yellow glow.
• Storm Legion dungeon/raid gear sets give a purple glow.
• Primeval Feast raid gear set gives a green glow. They can also appear when equipping Swarmlord Khargroth’s Impalers, gained as a rare drop from “The Exuvia of Khargroth” zone event.

The icons seems to indicate there will be 6 Eye Glow VFX items: Purple, Yellow, Green, Blue, Red and White.

Will these be an on/off buff toggle, a potion that lasts a few minutes or something else entirely that makes use of Gingers’ “Appearance Sets Tab”? Who knows. In any case, look forward to more…vibrant raids with your fellow players in the future!

(There’s one other possibility as to what the eye icons relate to; that these are somehow related to Artifacts, since the colors match the colors Dead Simon showed off here.)

3rd Row: Skin VFX

It’s not that obvious, but I think the 3rd row of icons refers to skin-based vfx. Basically something similar to the Architect Technological Marvel item, which converts the texture of your character into sand. So different colored character color overlays.

(Unfortunately since the Wardrobe System changes came in, the Architect Technological Marvel item no longer turns you into sand).

4th Row: Weapons

Like with all the other icons, the 4th row has multiple colors for each type of icon. The icons are clearly weapon-based and might refer to the ‘silly weapons’ that the Weaponsmith will be able to craft.

It could also relate to glow vfx similar to the ones we currently have in the game. The staff could indicate 2-hander glow, the shield for shields and the bow for ranged glow, perhaps allowing us to have different weapon glows for different wardrobe slots, in different wardrobe sets.

5th-6th Row: Companion Pets

5th-6th row are probably companion pets crafted by the Artificer profession. The banana could be a ‘silly weapon’ though.

7th Row: Other

The first icon in the 7th row might be some kind of transformation item. The second one could be a runspeed buff or perhaps something like floating feather vfx.

P.S. – Trion, I was mid-way through writing a ‘Rift Wardrobe’ article about vfx items and how to obtain eye-glows. You ruined me! orz.

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Fishing Poles

There’s a few rigs and skins for new Planar Fishing Poles. These will likely be crafted by the Fishing profession. Will we finally be getting fishing rifts to make use of these, or are they purely cosmetic?

With the introduction of the Atragarian Fishing Pole, it seems the response from players have been pretty positive when it comes to extra glow vfx on poles, so these are likely purely cosmetic in nature.

1. Death Fishing Pole. Are the spines just reference, or do we get…perhaps…spines coming out of the water when we fish?
2. Earth Fishing Pole. Looks like some part of the pole is a crystal that changes color, likely to alert players there’s fish on the line.
3. Fire Fishing Pole. Doesn’t seem to have anything interesting except the charred look. I’m guessing it might have flame vfx.
4. Nightmare Fishing Pole. Not sure why what looks like the Porticulum skin is in the right-half. Just reference? Or maybe…a platform appears beneath us when we fish?
5. Water Fishing Pole. Looks like it might replace the traditional length of the pole with segments of a crustacean’s claw.

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Mounts & Mob Skins

A few new mount/mob skins found.

Red Crabnarok Mount Skin

Isn’t it strange that we only have the Cobalt (blue) Crabnarok Mount? The above skin looks like it belongs to a red version of the Crabnarok Mount – perhaps Crimson.

Chances are it’ll appear in a Limited Edition: Crimson Crabnarok Trove.

Unidentified Mount Skin

What is this? The bottom-left looks like a saddle so I’m guessing this is a mount.

However:

• It’s not the Razorback mount skin since the saddle looks different and we already have an unarmored version.
• It’s not a variation of the Rokkox mount because the Rokkox (although horny) only has 3 claws. That said, the top-left ‘holes’ in the skin probably indicate where horns are supposed to be, and that would be similar to the Rokkox’s horny jaw.
• It’s not a Yarnosaur. Those are too hairy and only have 3 claws as well.

This creature has several horns and other protrusions, with a hide. But it has four knuckles. There’s also a bunch of skulls to the right of the skin. Is it a new gorilla mount/nakmok mount? Those have 4 fingers, although none of them have exposed knuckles.

Perhaps it’s a new Rhino mount! It could also be a new mob whose chest armor or shoulderpads just so happens to look like a saddle.

Great Hound Mount

The first Great Hound mount skin that we’ve come across thus far. This is the purple-colored, white-stripped variety.

I wasn’t able to find any new mount animation filenames in the race config files, so this might end up using an existing rig. The most likely candidate would be the Ki Rin rig.

If you haven’t seen them before, here’s the concept art for the Great Hound mounts:

How will you obtain one? No clue – probably a new Promo Week. These hounds look like they are inspired by fish so who knows, maybe one of them will become Lord Arak Raid’s conqueror reward! (all speculation here). The black one would go well with the launch of Myrkur’s Depths.

Bearded Skywhale Skin

I was confused at first, but after thinking it over for a while, I think this is the bearded whale that Captain Cursor showed off a few weeks back:

As Captain Cursor mentioned:

I believe that’s a whale with a beard. One of Mr. Maybee’s creations. [r]

Now you might be thinking, “What? It’s hairy and has fingers, it can’t be a whale!” True, it does have fingers, and it sure is hairy. But just take a look at the concept art above.

• The weird 2-pronged ‘hairy hat’ above the eyes on the skin match the head of the whale in the concept art.
• The white hair in the left part of the skin matches the beard/giant-whispers in the concept art.
• The most compelling evidence (besides the ‘hairy hat’) is where the arms are. If you look at the center of the skin, there’s two front holes and one back hole. This indicates that this mob has 4 arms at the front and 2 at the back, just like in the concept art!!!

So…try to imagine some kind of hairy, dexterious, bearded skywhale with 4 front arms, 2 back arms, a giant fin…and…fingers.

Now I’m not quite sure whether this is in the Planetouched Wilds or some kind of nightmare in Lord Arak’s Raid.

Armadillo Mob Skin

This one’s easier to identify. Clearly an armadillo…with lots of insect-like appendages.

Or a giant pillbug? In any case, it looks like it could potentially roll up into a ball. Incoming high-movement boss encounter?

Unless this is supposed to be a crustacean, it’s likely meant for the Planetouched Wilds.

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Other Interesting Skins

Green Thing

Is it a shield? A new Summerfest quest hub doodad? A Life-based Lifter mount? Qwindawella’s less-pumpkin-y carriage?

No clue. Probably Summerfest related.

Bear Eagle Bar

Interesting bar popped up. Note that the arrow was something I added in, but it was part of the same PAK file and looked lIke it belonged there.

Is this a progression bar for a new zone event in the Planetouched Wilds (“PTW”)? Perhaps there’s two tribal factions warring against each other for resources in PTW, one being The Bear and the other The Eagle. Perhaps those of the Eagle faction are Bahmi who wish to stick closer to their ancestors from the Plane of Air, whilst the other faction is more grounded in reality.

I do remember Trion talking about the Planetouched Wilds becoming a potential Conquest map during a livestream, but it was talked about in passing and there was no 100% confirmation on whether we would get something like that. Could there potentially be a two-faction Conquest map?

Or perhaps this is something similar to a constant back-and-forth in the open world between two factions in the zone, with PvE objectives that push the arrow back and forth.

Nothing much to go on; everything is pure speculation at this point.

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Quite a few new stuff has popped up even with the first ~17k files searched through. Part 1 of the PTS Datamining for the 21st May 2015 shows a variety of new potential fluff crafts, mounts, mobs, another fairy wing more backpacks and an odd two-faction Bear-Eagle bar.

You can check out other articles related to the recent update below:

• PTS Datamining Part 1
• PTS Update Part 1
• PTS Update Part 2

For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining here.