Well, if you're gonna clone something...

[Raeshlavik]

First, let me direct your orbs to the following: http://www.riftgame.com/en/

So, being as I'm a huge fan of MMOs from both the player and developer angles, I tend to throw my hat into the ring for any MMO beta that comes along if only to see what they're up to. Well, along comes "Rift - Planes of Telara" which I diligently check out at E3 a couple years back and write off as "good concept art, no gameplay".

So here it is in beta, scheduled to be released 'soon', and I have another look - and am shocked at how similar its main mechanics are to the old Horizons designs.

First off, Rift centers around, well, rifts. Rifts are extra-planar (death, fire, water, air, etc) doohickies that appear and let bad stuff into the game world. They randomly show up in the game world and begin to corrupt the area around them and spawn lower-level critters that defend them. Over time if left alone they spawn more difficult critters and some of those wander off to open more rifts. Eventually the rifts create a 'foothold' which is a very difficult higher-level fortified area.

If you're feeling a sense of dejavu, this is pretty much the anchor and blight mechanics from Horizons which culminate in something akin to the deadlands areas.

But wait, there's more!

Rift has what they call a 'souls' system wherein a player can choose to level a class to a certain point in order to access traits of that class in another class - so you can have things like plate wearing mages, druids specialized in death magic, and rogues using bows imbued with the powers of the elements.

Dejavu again... We call this 'multi-classing', but I guess that doesn't sound fantasy enough.

The basic premise of the character is that you are 'Ascended'; some great hero slain during the last war (where the Dragons were either banished or imprisoned - it's unclear) and brought back mysteriously to fight in the current war and given great powers over death itself. And last but not least, Rift is what they call a dynamic world - they can change things on the fly without needing the typical patch process.

Oh, and the crafting system is much like our beloved Istaria with gathered and processed base materials used in recipes, but not quite as deep as there is no alteration of the recipes.

The things Rift really missed is a decent selection of races - they have the typical six flavors of human (bleh) - and there is no player housing.

I don't consider this a contender for anyone happy with Istaria as it's still missing many of the things that Istaria offers a player, but I do find it interesting how often they use the word 'innovative' when discussing their core functionality, and we've been playing with it for years.

So, yeah, it's definitely not a WoW clone... But I'll pass.

[Frith-Rae]

There's a thread over on the 'Forum that cannot be named' where we've been discussing things through beta as we have a few posters who are in the beta. Got a couple people who will prolly sub up and keep going, they're having fun.

I've got like..2-4 games I sub to already so I'm not into starting another one (also in SL with my Seawolf Avatar lol ), but yea there's info to be had for those who wish to discuss it where people have actually gone through the beta and plan to give it a try.

PM me I can post you the forum info, but that forum isn't allowed to be posted on this forum *rolls eyes*

[rizo/nawkia]

Ill say it looks nice, but mmos take from others an try an makem better. TO me thats just how life works:/

[Raeshlavik]

Ill say it looks nice, but mmos take from others an try an makem better. TO me thats just how life works:/

Agreed. It's not that they're borrowing stuff, it's the fact that they are borrowing Istaria's stuff.

I don't see any issue with it either, it's just some small vindication that the things we like about Istaria are, in fact, novel enough to be used in another game.

I'm of the opinion that everything that's come out in the last 4 years or so has pretty much been warcraft with higher detail models - so it's nice to see another game get it's day in the genetic sequencer.

[Armameteus]

I'm of the opinion that everything that's come out in the last 4 years or so has pretty much been warcraft with higher detail models - so it's nice to see another game get it's day in the genetic sequencer.

And if it's any indication of where those types of games have ended up (in the grave, that is), then this one will likely die off too within a short while.

[Riaken]

Ill say it looks nice, but mmos take from others an try an makem better. TO me thats just how life works:/

This one promises to be complete at launch, not like horizons was. That's a plus right there. Couldn't get into beta will wait for launch.

[Dragonboy]

(where the Dragons were either banished or imprisoned - it's unclear)

Banished or imprissoned?!? Bad game, very bad game...

[Romirez]

Banished or imprissoned?!? Bad game, very bad game...

same here, i have no interest in it, unless there is a certain scaled 4 legged creature we can play as. and only one game has those.

[Jorev1]

I beta tested Rift and it's a WoW clone, it has nothing similar with Istaria.

[Whysp]

First, let me direct your orbs to the following: http://www.riftgame.com/en/
So, yeah, it's definitely not a WoW clone... But I'll pass.

I've played WoW. I've played Istaria. I even got into the Rift Beta.

How you describe the way you see Rift, I can see how you'd compare it to Istaria. But I'm going to have to shatter your little bubble of hope.
It has more in common with WoW than it does Istaria.

There's two factions in the game; they both have the same enemy, they're both warring with each other as well as this third party villian. The site even offers instances in which you'd be able to openly PvP with anyone in the game world, simply because they're the other faction.

You may get 3 souls in Rift; but that's all you get at any given time. You can't take all 49 schools and mix and match to your heart's content. You have to make choices, and it often causes one thing to suffer.

The crafting may be a gather/process deal, but you're limited to 3 professions at any given time. And there's 9 professions in the game. And you typically need 2 of the 3 gathering professions to fuel one processing profession.

I could keep going, but I'm probably skirting some NDA right now. Bottom line: I've said "Just like in WoW" so often when playing Rift that I didn't log more than a total of 48 hours, in the week I had the Beta. And not once did I see something and immediately think "This is just like in Istaria!" Which I find kinda sad, because Istaria is still among one of my favorite games.

[Fix]

Rift is not exactly what I could call an 'anything' clone.

I think I should begin stressing it more but unless your game's name is World of Lordcraft and you borrow elements and lore from the game itself, I don't really think you can call it a "Clone"

Infact. It's hard to call any game a 'clone' today because EVERY single MMORPG out there borrows ideas and sometimes even designs from OTHER games. Every game has done it. Even WoW. Every single MMORPG out there has borrowed elements, either minor or major from another. No matter how original it looks, SOMETHING has been borrowed.

[Dhalin]

Rift is not exactly what I could call an 'anything' clone.

I think I should begin stressing it more but unless your game's name is World of Lordcraft and you borrow elements and lore from the game itself, I don't really think you can call it a "Clone"

Infact. It's hard to call any game a 'clone' today because EVERY single MMORPG out there borrows ideas and sometimes even designs from OTHER games. Every game has done it. Even WoW. Every single MMORPG out there has borrowed elements, either minor or major from another. No matter how original it looks, SOMETHING has been borrowed.

There's a difference between borrowing ideas and outright ripping them off another game.

Heck, look at Rift's Soul System. Doesn't that look almost -exactly- like WoW's Talent Point UI? Looks like they copied/pasted and added a couple things on top. It works almost exactly the same way, and even looks the same, except there's 3 trees instead of 2, and they have the arrows pointing in different directions a bit.

And then as other players mentioned... the fact where they ripped off, like, 80% of the premise behind Horizons/Istaria, and then changed it around just a little, re-named a couple things?

Like I said....

To Borrow is one thing.
To pretty much rip things off other games is another subject entirely.

[Dakoren Ironhand]

I've been playing RIFT quite a while now. Even sneaked into the Alpha and did all closed & public beta's.

Its a quite nice game, its really challenging and has so much content and dynamics in the game its amazing. The crew behind the game is well, I dont know how to describe it beside, excellent. They are so on top of their game and respond to player feedback in a way that really impressed me.

RIFT itself, is setting a new standard in the MMO world, and its anything but low. Im looking forward to see more coming from the TRION office.

As for the cloning, which everyone seems to be ranting about here. I think there are a few ways you can approach stuff in life. Use good ideas but make them better, or create new ones without even knowing if they are going to work. I think TRION did the first of those two. As I've seen all content in RIFT now, I can tell you, maybe it looks 'copied', but I can tell you, its not.

[Takora Drakan]

I have also played the beta of the game with Dakoren since beta 5 if I remember right, and well I have to be honest. It was a blast. After I was out of the "tutorial" where I fumbled myself around like a n00b, well yes I was one. Since was not used to such "new" games, since the only mmo I played really for long time was Horizons, so I had to get used to the newer style of the interface.

So after I was out of the tutorial, well I was awestruck from the first minute to be honest. The whole world, the interaction with the players. Yes at the start I compared it to the launch Horizons, but quickly discovered that It was a world on its own. Nevertheless how much the Death Rifts made me think of the WA. Even I was "unwanted" on a PvP Server, the players where relative mature and friendly to each other. And the seamless world, woa. No loading between "zones" or better said areas, awesome. The events in the zones require the community, that it works together, to complete the tasks in order to protect the towns (and even the npcs help you in "Crusades").

And really, I never had any lag of sorts, despite 100+ players hammered on the epic monster that tried to invade the town. Since the game actually does turn the spell effects off itself to prevent any lag, or other thing that might slow you down. After the fights, it was all normal again. :3

Also I loved the dungeons, and actually how they interacted with you, in some parts the world, or area actually interacts with you, which gave me many moments full of accidents and laughs.

I was also impressed by the support/GM staff, reports where answeared within 2 minutes and GMs also showed up to help in case something was borked, which was only one time for me in the beta. I played already other betas where the games where bug ridden it was not funny anymore, but the beta in rift was actually very smooth and bug where very rare.

I would have subbed it if I had the time to play a MMO regular.

And Dragons are the bad guys in the game, which makes me sadface.

[joemarra052075]

this is why I wish we as the players could figure out a way (other than winning the lotto) to fund Viterium with about $200mil (the development cost for RIFT) and re-make/re-launch Istaria. Istaria on a similar engine to RIFT would be incredible.

[Fix]

It WOULD be increadable, but this may sound strange...

But I somehow love istaria as it is Sure it could use a few tweaks here and there but I love the current engine.

It just FEELS right.

[joemarra052075]

if it were to be done it would have to be done very carefully to keep the same feel. The one big area we would notice is up to date graphics. Most of the changes would be behind the scenes and would be to allow expansion, multiple npc's without bogging down the server, removal of obscene load times, ect, ect, ect.

[Dakoren Ironhand]

this is why I wish we as the players could figure out a way (other than winning the lotto) to fund Viterium with about $200mil (the development cost for RIFT) and re-make/re-launch Istaria. Istaria on a similar engine to RIFT would be incredible.

I believe your incorrect last i've heard is $50-$100 mil

[joemarra052075]

I believe your incorrect last i've heard is $50-$100 mil

That is a lot better and would be easier to acomplish

[Darkwing_Duck]

same here, i have no interest in it, unless there is a certain scaled 4 legged creature we can play as. and only one game has those.

Actualy Romi, there IS another MMO where you can play as a dragon, but I have to say after playing it, it`s still not as cool as Istaria, the dragon designs are meh..., and the camera angle royaly sucks! only nice difference is dragons can craft/wear visible armor. othrwize Istaria will win it over every time!
Foundations of Hope is this other game btw :P

Only thing I wish could happen is if they bring the neo schools to live shards. then my Falkor can join neodruid
but we`ll see. ^^
Never played Rift so I have no clue whether it`s a good game or not. I play WoW every once in a while, but I get kinda bored easily in that MMO. Istaria just has that way of keeping me entertained whether I`m hunting, crafting, or just sitting around role playing XD I can play Istaria for hours, and hours