PTS Datamining for 1st July 2015

RIFT updated the Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) on 1st July with a 1.9GB update! The datamining for the latest update includes a whole bunch of Planetouched Wilds assets, mini-maps and other interesting models and rigs.

Missed the PTS Update? Check out all the additions to the PTS here!

Summary:

• Planetouched Wilds Assets. Mathosia Map Update; PTW Mini-Maps; ‘Jad’ NPCs; Shal Korva Models; ‘Blue Man’; Ascension Machine; Ruins; Planetouched Wilds Creatures.
• Wardrobe Skins. Nightmare Armor Set Skins; Planetouched Wilds Armor Set Skin.
• Other Interesting Files. Aquatic Bears?; Enigma Mob; Winged Mob; Great Hound Rig; Possible Warfront Addition.

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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Planetouched Wilds Assets

A couple of Planetouched Wilds-related files popped up.

Mathosia Map Update

First up, as per the PTS Update article, the Mathosia continent Map has been updated. The Planetouched Wilds has expanded significantly since the original grayed out area. It is now a size comparable to Shimmersand, Droughtlands and Freemarch put together.

A high-res version was in the data files. Unfortunately the PTW zone is grayed out. There’s no version without that portion hidden yet.

You can access the high-res version here (4096×2168; 8.6mb).

PTW Mini-Maps

A couple of updated mini-maps popped up for the Planetouched Wilds since the last compilation. Below you’ll find snippets of the mini-maps. It’ll take a little longer to pull everything together:

The gray parts are buildings that haven’t had texture applied to them yet. So they probably look like gray slabs in-game.

Unfortunately can’t tell much from the mini-maps. However, the below compilation looks like some sort of open temple, given the grass strip in the middle. The bottom-half is a cliff, so this is probably located in a high position. The bottom of the building seems to open up and go beyond the cliff’s edge. Perhaps an area to perform rituals overlooking the rest of the zone.

The below image is completely different from the above two. As such, it likely belongs to a different faction. The orange circles are clearly the orange hot air balloons seen at the entrance to the zone on the PTS. As for those large ‘seed’-shaped objects; those are probably massive banners of some sort. Perhaps Telara’s version of wind farms.

Given the use of hot air balloons, the structures to the right might actually be floating.

And another location. Not much garnered from it, except that the rocky floor texture is the same as the ‘temple’ above. So, probably same faction.

It’s good to see a lot more of the structures textured. There’s still a lot of gray parts, but it’s coming along nicely. The mining areas seem to have had a color scheme change; turning from blue to brown/red. Or perhaps that just depends on which type of crystals dominate in a particular area.

Possible ‘Jad’ NPCs

The below looks to be possible ‘Jad’ NPCs. The “Jad (65)” artifact set on the PTS states:

The fierce hunters of Jad hunt the powerful Sky Leviathans that migrate over the Wilds.

Jad could just refer to a faction (a particular Bahmi clan), but it could also refer to a different descendent of the Shalistiri, the ancestors of the Bahmi.

There’s no actual info on what who these NPCs are in the above skins since none of the data files have any informative filenames, but they are clearly tribal.

The Bahmi are more ‘purple’ in skin tone whilst these NPCs seem more pale-blue. Perhaps an indication that they are closer to their Plane of Air ancestors then the Bahmi we normally see around us.

Also, some interesting filenames found in some rigs that probably relate to the ‘Jad’:

• P_PTW_skyfishing_lure_01_c.dds
• A_PTW_sky_fishing_machine_01.ma
• A_PTW_sk_sail_support_03.ma

Rigs themselves weren’t interesting (just lines), but these probably relate to the ‘Jad’ since they hunt the Sky Leviathans. Will we get to fish in the sky? Who knows – these might just relate to models and not to a new kind of fishing for players.

More than likely the Jad reside in the houses on top of the floating islands shown at the wall separating Droughtlands and Planetouched Wilds on the PTS.

Shal Korva Models

According to an artifact set found on the PTS, Shal Korva is a Bahmi Keep. As the set states:

The remains of this mighty keep has become the refuge of the bahmi as their homeland falls through the planes.

It is quite a primitive location – although, vast. Lots and lots of scaffolding and wooden platforms combined into what seems to be quite a complex structure.

Lots and lots of scaffolding and wooden platforms.

Some parts (like the top-left model in the below image) seem to hint that Shal Korva is located alongside a cliff at one of the various mining sites in the zone.

And below is most likely where the ‘Chief’/’Elders’/’Council’ reside. Big, large banners, symmetrical and (likely), the highest point in the Keep.

So that’s Shal Korva, the “refuge of the bahmi”. Interestingly, mini-map compilations of the zone seems to indicate that there’s a lot of thick wood and stone structures in the zone. If Shal Korva is where the Bahmi of the Wilds resides, then who lives in the stone/wooden beam structures? Friend or foe?

Blue Man Skin

Okay, maybe the stone temples are populated by these blue folks:

A descendent of the Sharax (ice giants in Tarken Glacier) perhaps? A more Plane-touched descendent of the Shalistiri? Or perhaps this is a Shalistiri, a “lord of the sky” [r].

The mouth that is ‘drooling’ some kind of black substance in the top-left probably indicates that this is an enemy. A corrupted guardian of some temple perhaps.

Ascension Machine

No model/rig/skin, but a filename popped up in one of the .nif files:

• A_PTW_ascensions_machine_capacitor_01.ma

Did the Bahmi in the Planetouched Wilds create their own means of Ascension?

Ruins

Not overly exciting, but here’s some ruins.

The sails on some of the floating rocks are rather large and it seems certain architecture is built around ‘sail supports’ – thick poles that go from the sails below the floating rocks all the way up the top to the buildings above.

Planetouched Wilds Creatures

According to past mini-map compilations, there’s a lot of crystals in the Planetouched Wilds. It doesn’t come as a surprise that there would be crystalline mobs!

Razorbeast Crystal Dino

A razorbeast crystal dino!

Remember that concept art that Game Director Archonix showed off in his 4th Anniversary letter? The size of the human in the bottom-left corner seemed to indicate that we might be getting dinosaur-like mobs in shape and size!

Well, now we have the skin of this mob, and a rig called “razorbeast_crystal_dino.ma”. It’s a dinosaur!

With the Sky Leviathans (presumed ‘skywhales’), this crystal_dino and “babaroos” that took “fruit from the tallest trees”, it seems there’s going to be at least a few giant beasties in the Planetouched Wilds!

Note: This might not be the Razorbeast Crystal Dino, but instead a ‘Raptor Crystal Dino’ as the skin doesn’t have a name. That said, there’s currently only Razorbeast and Ram Crystal Dino rig files.

Ram Crystal Dino

Here’s the rig for the Ram Crystal Dino!

No Skin Yet.

Sky Whale

The Sky Whale. There’s also a smaller version (probably its offspring). These are assumed to be the Sky Leviathans mentioned in Planetouched Wilds artifact sets.

Captain Cursor has posted concept art for the hairy sky whale, and a datamined skin shows that it has 6 hands (yes, hands).

From the Sky Leviathan artifact set:

The Leviathans of the clouds have come to the wilds to feed on the vast swarms of krillados.

Krillados

From the Sky Leviathan artifact set, it sounds as though the Krillados refers to the pill bug-like creature datamined previously:

The skin looked like some kind of pillbug/armadillo hybrid. However, the following rig has been datamined from the latest PTS Update:

Are those…wings? And ‘drake’ as the base skeleton? So the Krillados are…ancient, 6-winged Krill. I guess that’s why the Sky Whales have 6 hands…so they can grab each of the Krillados’ wings.

Unknown Mob Skin

Still no idea what the top skin is from below. However, there’s now another skin that looks like it could be the ‘back half’ of the first skin.

The small arms and lack of a prominent neck + the fins leads me to believe this is some kind of sea creature in the Planetouched Wilds.

Abomination Skin

Some kind of abomination. No clue what. Probably Death-themed. There’s actually quite a few colors of this ‘mob’. Either just something to do with lighting, or there’s multiples of this ‘mob’.

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Wardrobe Skins

Some new wardrobe skins popped up in the data files for the latest PTS.

Nightmare Armor Set Skins

A variety of skins for a new ‘Nightmare’-themed armor set popped up. This doesn’t seem to be for all classes as there only seems to be two ‘pants’ skins. The below skins are likely for only two classes.

The bottom one is likely the Mage set given the amount of cloth bindings in some of the smaller pieces and the general lack of plate/chain. No clue what class the top skin would be, but probably not Warriors (since they are usually heavily plated).

This is probably the Tier 3 raid set. Concept art for one of the sets was briefly shown in Lead Concept Artist Sven Bybee’s ArtStation profile back in February, along with other new artwork.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the helm only shows a green glow from within (like the Tribulation Soldiers).

Planetouched Wilds Armor Set Skin

Below is a wardrobe costume set for one of those (presumed) ‘Jad’ tribesmen in the Planetouched Wilds.

A total of six different skins. The lack of any ‘skin’ and the separate files clearly indicates this is a player costume set and not for NPC use.

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Other Interesting Files

A couple of other interesting files found:

• Aquatic Bears?
• Enigma Mob
• Winged Mob
• Great Hound Rig
• Possible Warfront Addition

Aquatic Bears?

The latest update had a separate config file for bear (Ursin/Panda) mounts. In it contained the following:

• anim\swim\move\asset\bear_mount_bear_swim_move_forward.kf
• mount_bear_swim_idle
• anim\swim\move\asset\bear_mount_bear_swim_move_backward.kf

It seems that Ursin/Panda mounts will learn how to swim at some point in the future! More than likely will require the Mount Training Manual found at RIFT Store -> Mounts. However, it could potentially mean that a new mount using the bear rig might be introduced in the future that is Amphibious.

Enigma Mob

A new config file popped up with a “rig\asset\enigma.nif”. A whole bunch of animation filenames including:

• anim\unarmed\magic\asset\enigma_unarmed_channel_wipe_raid_cycle.kf
• anim\unarmed\magic\asset\enigma_unarmed_channel_double_slam_enter.kf
• anim\unarmed\magic\asset\enigma_unarmed_channel_crush_exit.kf
• anim\unarmed\melee\asset\enigma_unarmed_shove_enter.kf
• anim\unarmed\magic\asset\enigma_unarmed_channel_eye_enter.kf
• anim\unarmed\melee\asset\enigma_unarmed_punch_swipe_combo_exit.kf
• anim\unarmed\scripted\asset\enigma_unarmed_scripted_enigma_shield_slam.kf

Enigma is most likely an enemy. Although unsubstantiated, I wonder if it’s a mob for the Lord Arak Raid; and perhaps even the Ape/Gorilla mobe datamined previously:

The Ape has a kind of ‘eye’ at its chest which could potentially be the “enigma_unarmed_channel_eye_enter.kf”.

Winged Mob Skin

This particular skin below is quite strange. If you look at the ‘body’, it doesn’t seem to have any legs. Instead, everything below the waist ‘branches out’ into multiple sections.

As such, I think this is the ‘dark’ version of the ‘umbral_white’ rig datamined below.

The two long lines to the side would be the wings, and the weird lower half would reflect the weird lower-half of the skin. At first the ‘umbral_white’ was thought to be a mermaid rig, but the word ‘umbral’ didn’t match with the mermaids since ‘umbral’ is “A dark area, especially the blackest part of a shadow from which all light is cut off” [r].

This new skin seems to be a better match for the rig. Of course, this could also end up being the ‘dark_genesis’.

Great Hound Rig

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’ll be getting Great Hound mounts in the future, given the skin and concept art shown previously. Now we have a rig:

However, what is interesting about this rig is that the Great Hound mount uses its own rig and not the Ki Rin rig as previously speculated. From the amount of lines in the rig, it seems the mount has a lot of moving parts, most likely related to its long tail and ‘ear whiskers’.

What’s also surprising is that there’s a separate “creature/greathound” rig. This seems to suggest that the Great Hound will also appear in the open, perhaps as a local resident of the Planetouched Wilds.

Possible Warfront Addition

Remember how Trion accidentally showed a new warfront “Hive Kaaz’Gfuu Assault” during their 3.2 Wardrobe preview livestream?

Some new UI text in the latest update could be related to this new warfront:

It seems Kiera Bacon was spot on when we were speculating back in March – the “Hive Kaaz’Gfuu Assault” warfront is most likely an assault-style warfront where you take turns defending an objective or attacking it. Hey, there’s even “Assault” in the name!

No ETA. In fact, Trion hasn’t mentioned anything about this warfront yet (outside of ‘accidentally’ showing it when revealing visible Elo Rating).

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A lot of new models and skins, especially in regards to the Planetouched Wilds. It looks like the Planetouched Wilds is going to turn out to be quite an interesting zone.

Missed the PTS Update? The latest update opened access to Nightmare Saga quests as well as the intro quests for the Planetouched Wilds. You can check out info about it here!

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