Yesterday’s second official RIFT live stream sparked some interesting community feedback. It made players more excited for Storm Legion and the unveiling of the new Mage soul happening during the next live stream, but it also raised a few questions, most of which pertained to the lack of new information revealed yesterday. One of those questions was regarding Planetouched Wilds, and why it wasn’t discussed during the live stream.
Planetouched Wilds was discovered in development on the PTS last August, and ever since, players have speculated about when we’d see it. Most figured we’d see it either right before Storm Legion, or in the actual expansion. However, since it was rumored to be on our current continent, the likelihood of it being in the expansion seemed questionable. It was a solid question. Elrar responded to it, and had a few things to say about Planetouched Wilds and Trion’s live stream in general. Keep reading to find out more.
Here’s the original post:
“Livestream was mostly a waste of time–nothing new was covered or announced except that new hairstyles are coming with the expansion. Everyone was asking about Planetouched Wilds in the chat and the only things that were covered were the typical marketing responses about stuff we’ve already heard-PA will continue in some form and souls are getting new points.
Not trying to be overly critical here, but why is the community/marketing department setting aside time and resources to put together these livestreams if you aren’t going to at least acknowledge topics that are being asked about? Even just a ‘we don’t have any information on Planetouched Wilds’ would have sufficed. At least try to pretend that you don’t have your answers and discussion totally planned ahead of time.”
And Elrar’s reply:
Originally posted by Elrar (Source)
So -These Live Streams are going to service as many players as we possibly can while we identify and establish who is watching these live streams, how much value you get from them, and what formats get the best response.
We likely won’t always have sparkly brand new features or juicy chunks of info to share; but we do want to recap the information that’s important for you to know, the feedback we’re seeing, and new/additional information that enriches your experience.
Sorry if your expectations were raised a bit beyond our intentions – but I promise you, the upcoming MAGE SOUL UNVEIL will be brand-spanking-new to everyone!
And to answer the question on Plane Touched Wilds – we’re not actively working on the zone, nor is it a planned part of the expansion at this time. I’m not saying it will never happen (I don’t know the future), but I just wanted to put that matter to rest as I have seen it come up a few times.
The Expansion will have 6 all new zones – MASSIVE zones bigger than Ember Isle filled to the brim with all of the knowledge, learnings, and experience we’ve picked up in the past year and then some. There is more than enough to look forward to there and that’s where we’re focusing our time and efforts!
Cheers,
Developer clarification is always good in MMOs, and this is one of those instances where we’re given exactly that. Players have been speculating about Planetouched Wilds for a while now, and while it’s disappointing to see that the idea was seemingly tossed aside for the time being, at least we know what’s going on with it. It’s also good to receive clarification of the intentions behind the live stream, because many players were probably under the impression that they were going to always focus around new content, which isn’t going to always be the case.
In the thread where the question was originally raised, some players expressed frustration about Planetouched Wilds:
“While I AM excited for everything coming out this year, I am incredibly disappointed that plane touched wilds and the rest of the main continent isn’t being finished.
I just hate seeing MMOs where the massively part is clearly limited.
It’s just not a full world to me when there’s areas that aren’t done and inaccessible.”
Full worlds are definitely appreciated, but our RIFT world is going to be seriously expanding when Storm Legion hits. For now, that sounds promising. Maybe in the future, Trion will revisit Planetouched Wilds.
LET'S GET SOCIAL