MMORPG.com was joined by Simon Ffinch (“Dead Simon”) in a Planetouched Wilds Preview video, taking a look at the new zone and some brief Patch 3.4 info.
A few pieces of new information was revealed; briefly:
- The new artifact sets (Poison, Burning, Nightmare) have Sight buffs that last 15, 10 and 5min respectively.
- 3.4 will introduce 80+ new artifact sets, containing 600+ artifacts.
- Puzzle Hints. The puzzle on Callweddi will give you a puzzle piece. Finding how to get to Callweddi Village (the area above the puzzle) will be the ‘real puzzle’.
- Hint #1: You’ll need to go to the old world, Storm Legion and Plane of Water/etc to figure out the complete puzzle.
- Hint #2: There are NPCs in the world who are puzzle experts. If you know them ‘consult’ them again to help you complete the real puzzle.
RIFT 3.4 Launch Date
Near the end of the video (34min 20sec) they briefly discuss the release date.
Dead Simon mentioned “early October” whilst Arnie (sp?) mentioned that the date has moved a few times, but the latest information is that it is slated for October 6th. (And yes, that’s a Tuesday. Trion probably wants to give more room in the week just in case they need to run a hotfix).
Dead Simon then mentioned that they previously pushed the original date back to spend more time polishing the patch up, but at this point in time, he’d be “quite surprised if the date moves again”.
In short, the tentative date is October 6th 2015, but it could be pushed back.
[Update 09.29.15:] Director of Community Relations Linda “Brasse” Carlson has mentioned that the release date would be “on or about October 7, 2015”. [r]
Be sure to check out MMORPG.com’s full video for further information about 3.4 and the Planetouched Wilds! It also sounds as though they’ll have an article up surrounding the video so keep an eye out for that.
RiftGrate 
Looking forward to it. I may return more full-time to RIFT to finish the Nightmare Saga (including stuff like grinding Nightmare Rifts) too.
Trion keeps adding so many side activities. Ugh. I’m barely finishing Mathosia and moving into Brevane+Dusken, how dare they add SEVERAL more artifact types and puzzles!
I’ll enjoy the PTW quests at least. Probably won’t be ‘complete’ with the zone itself for another year.. or two… oh Vigil…
I spoke with Omi in Tempest Bay. She told me to talk to her sister. I’ll have to transfer someone over who has done all the henges so I can get there. I’ll let you know where she sends me.
Unfortunately, my character that had the henges completed couldn’t get a word out of Omi or her sister in the Dendrome even though I gave her the puzzle pieces since they’re account bound. So, it looks like you have to be the one who actually did the puzzle. Considering how much trouble I had just getting to the puzzle, I won’t be able to get any further before it goes live.