Trion had their first RIFT Livestream for 2016 on 8th January 2016, with some brief talk about puzzles, quests and lore. Trion also celebrated the company’s 10th Anniversary with a whole heap of livestream giveaways!

Click here for a replay of the 8th January 2016 RIFT Livestream video on twitch.tv. RIFT portion of the video starts at 3hrs 7min 58sec in.

Legend:
Black/Normal Text = Livestream Summary.
[Dark Blue Text] = My own comments. i.e. May not be indicative of actual content.

Trion had their 8th January 2016 Livestream with Senior Game Designer Nicholas “Captain Cursor” McDowell, Senior Design Director Simon “Dead Simon” Ffinch and Senior Community Relations Manager Eric “Ocho” Cleaver. There was also a guest appearance by Trion Worlds CEO Scott Hartsman during the stream.

Table of Contents:

• Trion Worlds’ 10th Anniversary. Started 2006; first game RIFT launched in 2011. 5 games launched since, with 6th in alpha.
  
• General Info. MoM IA; possible hint at Ghar Station Prime; future puzzle; Twisted Artifacts in Planetouched Wilds; and more.
• Livestream Giveaways. Extra to celebrate 10th Anniversary of Trion Worlds.
  

As always, everything can be subject to change prior to the content hitting Live.

Trion Worlds’ 10th Anniversary

Trion Worlds’ CEO Scott Hartsman made a guest appearance on the stream to announce that it was Trion Worlds’ 10th Anniversary! That might come as a surprise for many players since RIFT (Trion’s first game) launched in 2011, but Trion Worlds was founded in 2006.

Trion Worlds now has 5 games under its belt (RIFT, Defiance, Trove, ArcheAge, Devilian) with a 6th in alpha (Atlas Reactor). Here’s to another 10 years! And look forward to RIFT’s 5th Anniversary (March 1st)!

General Info

Captain Cursor participated in some Instant Adventures in-game whilst they answered questions relating to quests/lore/puzzles. They couldn’t reveal much about any upcoming content other than what is already known.

Most devs are back in the office, although some like Archonix are still out.

• Captain Cursor has been busy writing a lot of lore and artifact sets.

• Dead Simon has been busy making the artifacts for future content, working on a future puzzle [probably related to ‘Simon’s Playground’] as well as Twisted Artifacts in Planetouched Wilds. The next puzzle won’t have a plat wall like Callweddi.

• Port Scion has been a topic of conversation multiple times. The devs would neither confirm or deny whether they’ll ever let the Ascended attempt to take back Port Scion.

• Lore: Lord Arak (after Mind of Madness raid) will be gone for at least a while, although he probably won’t be gone for good. Khar will probably be coming back at some point.
  • “Lord Arak” is an anagram, but it seems players have been unable to guess what it is.

• When asked about reducing gearing costs, Vladd in the chat channel mentioned Trion has a few ideas floating around and that they are “forthcoming”.

• 1/0 dimension glitch is being worked on, although if you have any definitive reproduction steps, please send them to Trion/post on forums as it will make finding the issue a lot faster.

• We will see new souls for the Primalist. No ETA. [Vladd has previously mentioned that the 4 new souls would fill the roles of Ranged ST Burst DPS, Melee ST Burst DPS, Support, and AoE/Raid Heals.][r]

• Instant Adventures:
  • Trion reiterated that Mind of Madness Instant Adventures are coming. No ETA.
  • Trion is considering other IAs for older raids, but that it will be “all a function of time and production schedule” – Captain Cursor. Tacitus has a list and order he wants to add them in and they have specific ideas, but will be subject to schedule. Dead Simon: “You will be seeing them. No promises or knowledge even of exactly when”.

• Captain Cursor has ideas for the next Saga questchain, and would like to explore upcoming villains. No details or ETA. He also has plans for Orphiel. No details.

• Captain Cursor likes the use of ‘phasing’ based on quests. Basically a way to get that feeling of reclaiming the world and making it better – see things change over time but without affecting other players who haven’t experienced the quests yet. I.e. Ghar Station Tau quests, where the version of the station you see depends on which quests you’ve done.

• Although Dead Simon is most known for working on artifacts and puzzles, he also takes a management role for the team (which is his main job).

Optimizations

Dead Simon attempted to mention something about optimization or graphics, but was silenced by CM Ocho as something they couldn’t talk about yet.

Somebody put there: are you planning on updating RIFT’s graphics? Well…not…*maybe gesture*..mm..aa…aa” – Dead Simon.

Yea, let’s not talk about anything in that direction. – CM Ocho.

[Perhaps this is in relation to the 2-3 big projects that are being worked on in parallel regarding optimization that Rough Raptors mentioned during Trion’s 24hr Extra Life Charity Livestream][r].

Trion is not ready to release any details yet.

Creative Inspiration

There’s currently a ‘super-high fantasy’ direction for the story. CC wants to delve more into existing characters.

Captain Cursor mentioned that if they ever get to Ghar Station Prime [which is in Myrkur Depths], he envisions that it will have a Jules Verne vibe. [Works include “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea“.]

A lot of undersea stuff; crazy inventors; all sorts of deep, underwater horrors; clockwork creations… – Captain Cursor.

Nice, crazy sorts of Victorian tech. – Dead Simon.

The devs mentioned that foreshadowing of future content is dotted amongst various books, artifact sets and quests that currently exist in the game.

To Myrkur Depths?

[Speculation]

Not only did Captain Cursor mention Ghar Station Prime, but the way he and Dead Simon talked about it seems to heavily hint that we will be going to Myrkur Depths.

In Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea“, a group goes out on an expedition to deal with a mysterious sea monster that later turns out to be an advanced submarine. The book follows the crew as they explore the ocean’s depths with mysterious and/or unfortunate deaths along the way.

At some point Dead Simon mentioned ‘submarine’ and Captain Cursor briefly mentioned ‘Commissar’.

If you listen to the broadcasts from other Ghar Stations during the quest chain in the Plane of Water, you’ll hear communication from the Commissar of Ghar Station Prime, who clearly mentions that Ghar Station Prime is in Myrkur Depths. He talks about fixing a coolant leakage and that “we will soon start our ascent”. He also mentions “Ghar Station Prime has reduced corrosion on port hatch by 5%”. ‘Port hatch’ possibly referring to a hatch on the left side of a ship or submarine.

• File: Ghar Station Prime Commissar’s Broadcasts.mp3. (Note: Firefox users might have trouble streaming it; you can still download though).

No confirmation from the devs, but the stuff they talked about all seem to point to Myrkur Depths.

[/Speculation]

About Producer Letter

A Producer letter is in the works, like the usual State of the Game Addresses of the past. However, Archonix is not back in the office yet until approx. end of next week.

No exact ETA has been set for the letter[, although CM Ocho previously mentioned it would pop up some time in January][r]. No info on what will be in the letter, although you can check out previous State of the Game Addresses below to get an idea of what has been previously written in these letters:

• 2011, July: “Summer Update: RIFT Into the Future!” by Scott Hartsman.
• 2013, January: “RIFT: Year Two State of the Game (Part 1)” by Scott Hartsman.
• 2013, January: “RIFT: Year Two State of the Game (Part 2)” by Daglar.
• 2013, November: “State of the Game Address – November 12th 2013” by Daglar.
• 2015, March: “Game Director Archonix on 4th Anniversary & Plans For 2015!” by Archonix.

[With Archonix on holidays until the end of next week, we probably won’t see the Producer’s Letter until late January.]

Livestream Giveaways

Livestream Channel Giveaways

During the Livestream, a handful of livestream chat channel viewers received:

• 1x Primal Khadlig Mount to 10 livestream viewers.
  • Mrtankz, 5N0ZZ83RR135, SleepyMcgee, Amaean, Bookahnerk, Boozebgood, Lionheartts (sp?), petterson_On, Packsie.
• 1x 30-day Patron Pass to 10 livestream viewers.
  • Lucasusf, Raskull360, Zenas (sp?), ophooi (sp?), Coffeejelly, Lordbreeze_, Tree_nope_lease, CenteroRift (sp?), ItsAiiko, Dizbo814.
• 1x The Wilds Pack to 3 lucky livestream viewers!
  • Danisprivateidaho, Prolegy (sp?), Wackywooo (won, but asked to reroll), Phaeril.
• 1x Silver Tier Loyalty to 1 lucky livestream viewer!
  • Sobaus69.

Congratulations to all the winners!

You should receive information about your prizes in the ‘Inbox’ or ‘Other’ Tab in your Twitch inbox within the next few days.

(From Left to Right: CEO Scott Hartsman, CaptainCursor, Dead Simon and CM Ocho.)

(Captain Cursor with his custom “Captain Cursor” hat and Dead Simon with his Pinkie Pie mug.)

Not a lot of details provided – lots of “maybe” and “can’t say”. That said, there’s some tidbits to speculate on until Archonix gets back into the office and writes that Producer’s Letter, including whether or not we’ll be heading to Myrkur Depths.

Past Livestream Summaries can be accessed here.