RIFT’s Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) was updated on the 4th September 2015 with a 1.46GB update. Data files contain Planetouched Wilds assets, a few wardrobe skins, some Wilds loading screens and Planetouched Wilds music!
PTS itself has changed all shielding abilities to only absorb 85% of incoming damage up to the shield amount. There’s also some nice Harbinger changes, pushing 61 Harb DPS up, some UI changes and crafted gear for Primalists. Check them out in the PTS Update for 4th Sept 2015 article.
Patch version TEST-303-23-A-1035388.
Summary:
- Sound Files. Planetouched Wilds Music; Trove Music; NPC Voices.
- Thumbnails and Loading Screens. Planetouched Wilds-related loading screens.
- Datamined Skins. Lizardman, Bahmi Skins, Vase Skins,More Planetouched Wilds Wardrobe and a Shield Skin.
- Other Data Files. Extra Life Logo; Dimension Building Block: Discs; Dimension Crafting Station: Laboratory.
As always, everything below is subject to change prior to hitting Live and some things included below may never make it to Live release.
Sound Files
First up are some interesting sound files from the latest patch.
Planetouched Wilds Music
No names for any of the files, but I assume these are from the Wilds and have given them filenames that reflect their content:
- Wilds Throat Singing. A collection of throat-singing. Probably files that are used to make up the Planetouched Wilds Battle Music.
- Planetouched Wilds Music. Just random background music. Perhaps played when you are in a canyon.
- Planetouched Wilds Battle Music. I assume this music appears during combat in the Wilds. It’s actually a collection of many separate sound files – you can hear the throat-singing amongst the other sounds!
Chances are that a lot of the files are combined at random with different ‘head’ and ‘tail’ sound files to make up dynamic background music.
Sound Designer Jason Clark actually explained this head/tail splitting process back during the 22nd May 2015 Livestream. What this means is that the songs you hear from the above files probably aren’t going to be 100% accurate compared to what you will hear in-game.
Trove Music
Oddly enough, the latest patch contains music from one of Trion’s other games, Trove. It was under the filename “mus_battle_music.013”.
Perhaps we’re getting a Trove Rift or something similar?
Trion does like to cross-promote between their other games so some new Trove-related content in RIFT isn’t out of the question. Hellbugs and the Voltan Fragger rifle costume come from Defiance and we’ve had Trove-related items as well like the Trove’s Cubic Cloak cape. Trion’s most recent cross-promotion between games was in March with the Vox Budgie Mount rewarded in RIFT for reaching Level 20 in Trove.
The fact the filename is “mus_battle_music.013” leads me to believe we’re going to get some kind of Trove-related Rift, since Rifts use their own background music that temporarily replaces the sounds of the zone when you are in them.
Of course, the music file could also just be in relation to a dimension music box.
NPC Voices
A large amount of voice-overs have been added in, ready for this Friday’s Open Testing. There’s thousands of files so I’ll mainly be putting brief non-spoilery compilations of some of the NPCs below:
- Possible King Khar Compilation. Might be King Khar. Think most of it is from the Khar Warfront Announcer you get with The Wilds Pack.
- Insult Woman. An insult-prone woman. Might be Uriel, but I’m not sure cause I’m a Guardian. (By ‘beautiful singing’, I think she means this.)
- Death Curse Woman. Someone who likes death curses.
- Weepy Woman. An unhappy woman.
- Uzukhel. Uzukhel? Uzukhel! Ooo…Uzukhel. Uzukhel!
- Various other NPCs. Brief compilation of a few of the other NPCs heard in the files.
King Khar sounds like he’ll be quite the interesting character and if those are mostly his warfront announcer lines, I hope there’s a tradeable version of it in the future! Usukhel, on the other hand, sounds like she’ll be very annoying with Usukhel this and Usukhel that.
Thumbnails and Loading Screens
Thumbnails
Various map preview thumbnails. It seems there’s at least 7 porticulums in the zone located at various town/city hubs. The top middle is clearly the portal to Rhaza’de Canyons whilst the other one might be the canyon’s preview itself.
Loading Screens
Various loading screens related to the Planetouched Wilds.
The revered redhead.
A very large crystal dino.
Probably the base of the Ascension Machine.
Something important. Probably with mechanics.
The Great Wheel of Time in Shal Korva. Click image for larger view.
Last one is the Great Wheel of Time at the center of Shal Korva showed off during the Planetouched Wilds Preview Livestream. From some separate skins for the various parts, it would seem as though the wheel actually turns in-game. Maybe.
Datamined Skins
A whole bunch of skins popped up on the PTS.
Lizardman
Some kind of Lizardman. There’s a ‘naga_male_air.ma’ so perhaps this is an Air Naga.
Bahmi Skins
A few Bahmi Skins.
First one might be that ‘Death Curse Woman’ from the sound files. You can see a Painite Shard necklace in the bottom-right that could indicate she’s somehow cursed and needs to carry the necklace with her at all times.
Bahmi with Painite Necklace
And this might be the death cursed ‘twin’ she was refering to. Also has a Painite Shard necklace.
Bahmi with Painite Necklace 2
And the below Bahmis are probably Uzukhel and King Khar. Maybe.
Probably Uzukhel and King Khar.
Vase Skins
Four skins of different colors: Blue, Green, Purple and Black. I’m guessing they are vase that store karma, totems or perhaps part of buildings with different color themes based on location/faction within the Planetouched Wilds zone.
More Planetouched Wilds Wardrobe
Two more Planetouched Wilds wardrobe sets. Might be Calling-specific drops, or faction colors.
Reddish Brown Wardrobe
Reddish Brown wardrobe could be a Rogue/Leather outfit.
Planetouched Wilds Reddish Brown Wardrobe
Purple Wardrobe
The Purple/Cyan wardrobe could be the Mage/Cloth outfit.
Planetouched Wilds Purple Cyan Wardrobe
Orange Wardrobe
Below is the previously datamined ‘Orange’ wardrobe. Could be the Warrior/Plate outfit.
PTW Orange Outfit Skin
They’ll probably be obtainable from the expert dungeon Rhaza’de Canyons, or perhaps as quest rewards.
Shield Skin
The skin for the Bahmi shield with the missing texture has now appeared. It hasn’t been added to the in-game model so you can’t view it just yet.
Other Data Files
Extra Life Logo
The latest data files included this game controller with wings and halo. This is clearly the Extra Life logo. Trion has participated each year in the Extra Life 24-hr gaming charity that benefits Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals since RIFT first began.
If you’ve never participated in the Extra Life charity event in RIFT, check out last year’s event for an idea of what goes on: RIFT Extra Life 2014.
This year Extra Life 2015 will occur from Nov 7th-8th! Keep an eye out in the coming weeks/months for Trion’s Extra Life article!
Dimension Building Block: Discs
No skin or in-game image, but a whole heap of files popped up with “disc” in their name.
Back in April, The Dimension Touring Company held a special DTC Roadshow livestream with special guests Morticus and Vladd. During the stream, they mentioned that they’d look into creating ‘disc building blocks’ for existing colors and textures.
Looks like we might be getting those disc blocking blocks for dimensioneers in 3.4!
Dimension Crafting Stations: Laboratory
The missing crafting station for dimensions seems to be up now. It will most likely be dropped from crafting rifts like all the other dimension crafting stations.
The Laboratories will probably be available when 3.4 hits with the other Planar Crafting additions.
A few additional information not yet up on the PTS. Looks like a ton of the music and voiceover files for Planetouched Wilds are up and there were quite a few other files that are probably adjustments to the zone. Dimensioneers will enjoy the new disc building blocks and laboratory crafting stations when 3.4 hits. Keep an eye out for Extra Life details!
If you haven’t already done so, check out the PTS Update for 4th Sept 2015 article which has all the information for the latest changes to hit the PTS itself.
For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining here.
RiftGrate 
I don’t know where else to ask, is there a zip file or location in the files that I can get all the loading screens’s images? I wanted to grab the new one for the “relaunch” of Rift/Trion Worlds with the “T3” boss in the center and Primalist on it?
Not sure where that’s located, but you can pull the background from the website itself (although without the RIFT logo). Here’s a few versions:
Not optimal images though. I’ll contact someone from Trion and see if they could add up a better quality version, perhaps in the fansite kit.
Insult Woman is definitely not Uriel. Uriel has an accent. I do love Uzukhel… can’t wait to actually see her.
Not sure if this has been answered before, but what is the Ascension Machine mentioned in the thumbnails?
According to the Planetouched Wilds Preview Livestream, it’s something that The Magician apparently created. It sounds like it might be one of The Magician’s earlier, failed experiments to create Ascended, long before the machine the Defiants eventually build to created the Defiant Ascended.