Trion had their 4th September 2015 Friday Livestream where they showed off various locations in the Planetouched Wilds and revealed planned open testing date: 11th Sept 2015.
Click here for a replay of the 4th September 2015 Livestream video on twitch.tv. RIFT portion starts at 1hr 5min 26sec into the video.
Legend:
Black/Normal Text = Livestream Summary.
[Dark Blue Text] = My own comments. i.e. May not be indicative of actual content.
Trion had their 4th September 2015 Friday Livestream with Community Manager Eric “Ocho” Cleave, Lead Content Designer Julia “Darkmoon” Flemming, Senior Game Designer Nicholas “Captain Cursor” McDowell and RIFT Game Director Christopher “Archonix” Junior.
Table of Contents:
- RIFT Open Testing.
- Planetouched Wilds Zone Preview. Various mobs and location screenshots.
- Other Tidbits. Dance Partner Dimension Item, Greathound to become amphibious and info on future RIFT Livestreams.
- Livestream Giveaways
As always, everything can be subject to change prior to the content hitting Live.
RIFT Open Testing
Trion mentioned at the end of their stream that Alpha testing for 3.4 is planned for next Friday, 11th September 2015.
- Planetouched Wilds and the Primalist calling will be accessible.
- Testing will be open to everyone, and the test shard will be open 24/7.
- Exact time for testing on the day was not stated.
Note: The date is planned for 11th Sept, but it could potentially be pushed back. You probably should not call off work just in case.
Planetouched Wilds Zone Preview
Darkmoon and Vladd tease players on other side of Wall.
Overview
Planetouched Wilds is a rather large zone coming with the launch of RIFT 3.4: Into the Wilds. It is about the size of Tarken Glacier.
First area you’ll encounter (Cosmic Steppes) is the size of Droughtlands by itself. There’s about 18 major areas in the zone as well as four hubs.
Painite Shards (red crystals) that you see all over the zone are crystallized evil; the bad karma of the Bahmi of the Wilds that has been crystallized in the zone.
Note: In the below screenshots, a lot of the NPCs/etc are not populated yet.
Intro Questline
An intro questline will be made available just before the zone is opened up on Live. You’ll be able to start it with an in-game mail message. The introduction questline will explain how the Planetouched Wilds becomes accessible.
First quest once you’re in will be from Uriel Chuluun in the Alliance Camp where you will be tasked with looking for someone very important to her.
New Porticulum
Wilds Porticulum
As shown in a previous livestream, there’s a new porticulum!
Bounciest Zone
The Shalistiri will give you a gift that allows you to jump higher than normal. This is one of several gifts they will give.
When you are inside any of the open canyons, you are given a reactive that you can use to super-jump back out of the canyon. Just be aware that if you don’t aim correctly, you can miss or hit your head on the underside of the ledge. (You can jump multiple times though).
Ancestor Rocks
There are many floating islands which Captain Cursor refers to as Ancestor Rocks. Players will be able to access some of them.
Floating Islands. Ancestor Rocks.
Wilds Mobs
A few mobs from the Wilds were shown off.
The Baac are ‘abomination Bahmi’. It’s a mystery as to how they came to be.
The Baac. ‘Abomination Bahmi’.
The Skyhunters use the wood-drake model, although they have a scaley skin and bat wings. [In fact, this is probably where that ‘bat wardrobe‘ outfit comes from!]
Feral Skyhunter. Like a scaley wooddrake.
A ‘Moth’. Has large wings and a long ‘tail’ section.
Waftwing Moth.
Dinosaur. Trion showed off a huge ‘crystal rex’ mob that was moving across the Cosmic Steppes. Check out the Concept Art as well. Calling it ‘Crystal Rex’ because the actual name was too small to see.
Name unknown. Calling it ‘Crystal Rex’.
‘Crystal Rex’; another angle.
A Wild Khadsuul. Spiny croc.
A Wild Khadsuul appears!
Babaroos are annoying monkeys. “You just want to punch them in the face” – Captain Cursor.
Furious Babaroo Female.
Khadgak are smaller, triceratops-like beasts with painite crystals growing on them. There’s also the Khadbukh which look like dino versions of the yarnosaur.
Khadgak & Khadbukh.
Painite Khadlig. Graciously known by Trion as “the very definition of a Rough Raptor”.
Rough Raptors…I mean, Painite Khadlig.
Skywhales! 6-handed, furry, bearded whales that fly in the sky. Of course since they fly and the krill are on the ground, their eyes are on their chin.
Skywhales~
An adorable, little Krill floating around. Hoping no skywhales will eat it.
Salkin Krill.
And the Bahmi eat the Skywhales and use their hide for their tents. The great cycle of life.
There’s also a whole heap of other mobs in the zone not shown above.
Cosmic Steppes
The Cosmic Steppes is the first place you’ll encounter. Very large, open plain area you can see in the Skyhunter image above. It used to be called Rhinenahyrcaros Steppes after the cosmic rhinoceros of the same name; but only Darkmoon could pronounce it so they changed it to Cosmic Steppes.
It’s called Cosmic Steppes because there are literally gigantic footprints littered all over the area left behind by a giant cosmic rhinoceros.
Cosmic Steppes. Footprint.
Carver’s Deep
Carver’s Deep is one of the open canyons filled with painite crystals and various crystal/rock mobs.
Carver’s Deep. Underground, open canyon.
When you are in canyons, you get a reactive ability that allows you to super-jump all the way to the ground floor above.
Ovog Shrine
Home of Primalism. Where the Bahmi who conceived the Primalists banded together.
Outskirts of Ovog Shrine.
Inside the Shrine are a whole bunch of red statue heads lined up, and part of the area is submerged in water.
Ovog Shrine. Interior.
You can also super-jump out of the water.
Khort
“A very sinister place filled with mystics and sorcerers…and snakes.” – CaptainCursor. There are snakes everywhere. Lots of them. Lots of Bahmi in the area too.
Khort.
Shal Korva
Shal Korva is the city of the Planetouched Wilds, but it is not a capital city. [So probably won’t have the full range of vendors/NPCs/questgivers that you see in places like Tempest Bay and Margle Palace.]
Shal Korva
The Great Wheel sits at the center of the city, and right in the middle of this stone wheel is the Bahmi’s main adversary.
The Great Wheel. Click image for larger view!
Shal Korva’s central structure has multiple layers of wooden platforms and stairs.
Shal Korva Platforms.
This leads up to the open-air throne room. Just like in the concept art!
Shal Korva Throne Room
Sitting on his throne is Khar <Titan of the Wilds>, surrounded by his various Courtesans. He is a member of the Silver Wolf Clan.
Khar, Titan of the Wilds.
And yes, that’s a sheep. Sheep are exotic animals in the Planetouched Wilds. The sheep is one of his prized possessions!
Rhaza’de Canyons
Underneath Shal Korva is the entrance to Rhaza’de Canyons, the new Expert Dungeon in the zone. The area just before the dungeon’s entrance is slightly filled with water, acting like Roman-style baths.
Shal Korva. Roman-style Baths and entry to Rhaza’de Canyon.
The dungeon itself will be shown off during a future livestream.
Ascension Machine
Trion showed off a massive ‘Ascension Machine’ that was created by The Magician. Apparently certain beings have been throwing dead bodies and painite shards into the machine. Who knows what will happen!
Ascension Machine.
Callweddi
Trion briefly showed off Callweddi again. To learn more information about the area, including some screenshots of what the vendors sell, check out the previous livestream here when Dead Simon showed the place off.
Callweddi. View from above.
Note: Dead Simon mentioned that you don’t need to have completed any artifact set to get access to the puzzle.
Other Tidbits
A few other tidbits from the livestream:
- Possible ‘Jolt’ mount in the future. Maybe.
- Planar Crafted Lures will be usable in the Planetouched Wilds.
- Morticus will probably add stuff from the Planetouched Wilds as dimension items at some point in the future.
Dance Partner Dimension Item
There are various ‘Dancing Partner’ dual-use items coming to the game. These can be placed on the ground, or added to your dimension. There’s some for the various races and genders.
Some of these you will be able to obtain by completing specific Planetouched Wilds artifact sets like “Callweddi” and “Planetouched Wilds” sets.
Amphibious Mounts
- The Greathound mount will become amphibious in the future.
- Trion plans on making all future mount rigs amphibious. (That’s new mount rigs, so reskins of existing mounts won’t apply).
Upcoming RIFT Livestreams
Next week Trion will hold another RIFT Livestream. They did not mention at what time or what the topic would be, although RIFT Livestreams are usually held on Fridays at 3:30PM PDT.
- Mind of Madness raid won’t be shown on livestreams until after 3.4 launch.
- There will be a livestream showing off the upcoming Rhaza’de Canyons Dungeon.
Livestream Giveaways
Livestream Channel Giveaways
During the Livestream, a handful of livestream chat channel viewers received:
- 1x Power Pack to 5 livestream viewers.
- 1x 4th Anniversary Arclight Rider Mount to 5 livestream viewers.
- 1x The Wilds Pack to 5 lucky livestream viewers!
Congratulations to all the winners!
(From Left to Right: Ocho, Archonix, Captain Cursor and Darkmoon)
Tidbit: Did you know Captain Cursor’s hat has his name on it?
Tidbit2: Darkmoon is wearing the new Corgi t-shirt!
A pretty good portion of the Planetouched Wilds was shown with the latest livestream. Look forward to testing the zone and the Primalist calling out starting next Friday, 11th September 2015!
Be sure to tune into next week’s livestream as well. Time and topic unknown, but RIFT Livestreams are usually held on Fridays at 3:30PM PDT.
Past Livestream Summaries can be accessed here.
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