During PAX Prime 2012, one of the major Storm Legion details announced was that we’ll be seeing major changes to the Planar Attunement system, including a move to an account-bound PA system. Hartsman, the announcer of this change, didn’t go into too many details, which left players to speculate as to what exactly Trion’s intentions are with this setup. Daglar issued a response on the official RIFT forums yesterday that helped clarify a few things for us:
Originally posted by Daglar (Source)
Shared pool means that we intend to combine all PA’s earned on all of your characters, up to the maximum PA value available.If you have 50 on character A, 100 on character B, and 250 on character C that is a total of 400 PA to spend per character.
The exp required to gain a level – the bar itself – is intended to be shared across all of your level 50+ characters. The intent is that if you are playing character A and log off at 50% of a level costing 500,000, and you log onto character B, you see the exp bar at 50% through the same level costing 500,000.
It seems Trion is going the most direct route here, which is to allow players to share all of their PA experience between characters, and also allow them to spend that total on each character separately. This presumably would also include new alts as they reach the level cap. The good news? This will make switching mains halfway through a raiding tier fairly simple. The bad news? Some players are feeling that this “shared pool” system actually simplifies things a little too much.
Let’s explore some player feedback on this announcement. Most of it’s contained with this thread, which is where Daglar’s responses can be found.
First, let’s look at some negative opinions. When the PA announcement was made during PAX, many players speculated that Trion would make it so the PA experience pool would be shared, but not spendable on every single 50+ alt. This would mean that they could easily switch mains, but not be able to instantly have four alts with maxed PA. This idea seemed like a comfortable compromise between the two extremes, which is why some players were surprised at Daglar’s clarification.
“Even though this is a fantasy game, I enjoy progressing my characters individually. This course that Trion has taken, removes that possibility. I level a brand new 50 (or soon to be 60) and I get a huge, unearned and unexplained (and unwanted) bonus to his power. I don’t want an easier game. I left that behind. Or so I thought. A combined total to choose which characters to apply the points to? Sure, no problem. I’d choose the one that earned it. Don’t give me PA welfare please.”
Another opinion:
“So basically if you have one toon that is maxed, all of your other toons will magically be maxed as well. Even more reason for me to sit AFK in Meridian until raid time now…”
Essentially, once a player earns maxed PA on one character, yes, they’re done with the PA carrot-on-a-stick until Trion adds more levels. Let’s not forget, also, that we’ll have a whole new tier of PA when we reach level 60 in Storm Legion.
Players who are for the change are relieved that they’ll be able to easily switch mains if need be, play alt characters without needing to feel guilty, and enjoy being able to play the expansion’s endgame with a little more freedom and flexibility in mind.
“Trion said PA wasn’t meant to be grinded. People ignored them. Now those people are gonna get huffy about it. No one to blame but themselves.
Great change.”
“I welcome the changes as they promote “Playing the game” instead of “Grinding the game” as well as giving people the freedom to re-role anytime.”
The new PA changes certainly embrace one major ideal that surrounds RIFT’s soul system– flexibility. But at the same time, there’s no denying the fact that there are plenty of carrots to chase in the game. RIFT is certainly a gear progression MMO, which makes the current PA system a decent fit. Is there a such thing as too much flexibility?
How do you feel about the new PA changes?
LET'S GET SOCIAL