We got a chance to wrack Josh York’s brain in regards to Trion’s direction for itemization with 1.7 and beyond. With the latest game update we see Trion flexing it’s muscle in creating a itemization system that should give the room to grow as we inch closer to the one year mark. With these changes, we are probably going to be seeing a new tier of content very soon. Hopefully these changes will help create a smoother transition to new game content.

The biggest test to the new itemization system will come with the next tier of content. Previously, PVP gear remained the best in slot option due to being able to get a full set well before the natural saturation point in Hammerknell. With the new PVP changes and gear more easily gotten, at least there isn’t a major grind. Hopefully the implemented changes allow a much smoother transition for new and returning players along with long time veteran players.

Josh York is an up and coming developer for Trion, and you might remember him from an interview we did when he was part of the QA team. He’s working with the Itemization team and we thought he was the perfect person to talk to about the new itemization system in 1.7!

Keep reading for the full interview.

TRION WORLDS AND CHINESE ONLINE GIANT SHANDA GAMES TEAM UP TO MAKE HISTORY, BRING RIFT™ TO CHINA

Success of Award-Winning First Title Rift^TM Drives Accelerated Growth in Global Markets

REDWOOD SHORES, CA – Feb. 9, 2012 – Trion Worlds, the leading publisher and developer of premium games for the connected era, has entered into an exclusive agreement with Shanda Games, a top Chinese Internet company, to release the award-winning title, Rift™ in China. The broad-scope relationship will grant Shanda an exclusive license for Rift localized in Chinese/Mandarin, and set a new bar for Western-developed games provided in the East.

“Our collaboration with Shanda is a huge step for Western premium games in China and we are proud Trion is at the forefront, setting the standard once again,” Lars Buttler, Founder and CEO, Trion Worlds, said. “The appetite for great, new original game experiences like Rift, that disrupt the existing paradigm of traditional gaming, is universal.  Shanda, with proven track record of localizing and delivering content, is the best publisher for Trion to offer gamers in Mainland China an authentic Rift experience.”

Trion’s accelerated expansion to Asia follows the unparalleled success of Rift since launching last March.  As recently reported, the company saw more than a million active accounts in just four months and North American and European revenues of more than $100 million.  Rift’s swift success proves gamers are embracing original, high-quality new properties and rich, dynamic game experiences built from the ground up for the new generation of online gaming.

“We are delighted to bring Rift, Trion Worlds’ much-acclaimed award-winning title, to China,” said Mr. Alan Tan, Chairman and CEO of Shanda Games. “Rift offers an adventurous online world with fantastic dynamic content and stunning graphics and has attracted many devoted fans worldwide. Based on our experience and expertise in the China market, we are excited about the upcoming launch of RIFT to our broad gamer audience and are confident in the success of Rift in the China market.”

The Shanda partnership showcases Trion’s commitment to a global premium online games business that defines the future of games.  Today’s announcement follows Trion’s updates of a $85 million round of strategic growth equity financing, and the company’s plans to launch an initiative which comprises both a consumer platform and a full-scale publishing and development platform, code-named Red Door, later this year.
More details regarding the launch of Rift in mainland China, including launch timing will be announced at a later date. For more information on Rift, log onto www.riftgame.com.
   

GENERAL
* Caduceus Rise: Master: The achievement for defeating all bosses in Master Caduceus Rise is now achievable!
* Ember Isle: Calling the Gnar: Reduced the objective count on this quest.
* Warfront chat now ‘sticks’ as the default chat channel after chatting with /wf, similar to how other chat channels stay default after used.

GENERAL
* Added Guild Bankers to the Manufactory in Meridian and Bahralt Street in Sanctum.
* The Guild Roster tab now has a checkbox to show/hide members logged in on the mobile app.
* Guild quests that require killing Guardian or Defiant players now update properly against Mercenaries.
* Increased the Planar Attunement level cap.
* Fixed a few Master Craftsman’s Mark recipes that were not Bind on Pickup.
* Fixed temporary rune effect icons that appeared on your character even though the item was in your inventory.
* Item: Diona’s Greaves no longer have Focus.
* Characters should no longer seem to be sinking into the ground in some situations.
* Artifact collections that have 3 lines worth of potential artifacts once again show up properly in the Artifact UI.
* Zone Event notices should now be properly broadcast on European shards.

Originally posted by Zinbik (Source)

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Stalwart Citadel: Now adds 30-90% of your Wisdom to Block.
Devout Deflection: Now adds 25-75% of your Wisdom to Parry and 25-75% of your Intelligence to Dodge.
Sovereignty: Now deals Life damage and stuns the enemy for 2 seconds.
Supremacy: Now reduces Physical damage taken by 9-18%.
Thorvin’s Law: Now causes Mien of Leadership to reduce non-Physical damage taken by 2-4% plus an additional 1.2% per point spent in Justicar above 26. No longer has an additional Spell damage reduction.

Who doesn’t want a Pet Rock? You don’t need to feed or water this little boulder of joy to keep it happy and think of how useful it can be! Pet Rock makes a wonderful seat for enjoying the sunset, or an impromptu table at a picnic for two. You can even fry a Roc Egg on your Pet Rock on an unusually hot day! But how do you get this stony companion? That’s the tricky part, which is why I am here to guide you to your very own precious Pet Rock!

The Pet Rock is a forced spawned pet, but I’m labeling it a dropped pet as it does “drop” from a specific rift event. To start you need the Encroaching Death Rift. If you are 50 (or you have a good friend who is) the PA Death Lure can summon this Rift, however which Death Rift the lure summons is random so expect to spend some time just getting the correct Rift to appear. On the first stage of Encroaching Death you will see a Demolitionist mob spawn along with some Skeletal Workers and a few Overseers. Avoid pulling the Overseers because you want to stay in Phase 1 until you get the pet! Carefully pull the Demolitionist over to one of the boulders the Workers are mining. Kill the Demolitionist at this boulder, as he dies you’ll see him explode which will break down the boulder. Each boulder may take a few Demolitionist to break, but as long as you don’t progress the rift into Phase 2, Demolitionist will spawn every 30 seconds or so. Eventually, if you keep detonating the Demolitionist on boulders (even the ruins) a clickable Pet Rock will appear on the ground for you to loot!

It took me 2 solid hours of rift summoning to get Encroaching Death to pop, but it was well worth the effort for this gloriously stationary Pet Rock!

The MMO market is larger than it’s ever been. There are quite a few quality games available now for MMO fans, and more are scheduled for release this coming year. With this kind of competition, many MMO developers are taking steps to attract new players and keep the attention of veteran players. The first step? Creating a quality game. Trion has succeeded there. The second step? Making that game accessible.

Some MMO companies are converting their games to a free-to-play model in order to make their game more accessible to their player base and still bring in a profit. Other companies, like Trion, are taking a different route– the trial version route. RIFT is now free, up to level 20, for new players and returning players. This announcement was made a few days ago. The details about this free version, also known as RIFT Lite, can be found on Trion’s official site.

Originally posted by Hartsman (Source)

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Hello, Ascended!

What an amazing year it’s been. As we approach RIFT’s first full birthday, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the things that have happened since launch and discuss the thinking that will shape the year to come.

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know that we think about MMOs differently than everyone else. To us, everything is about the quality of the service, the speed of meaningful updates, and the relationship that combination creates with you. We never forget that you are the reason we do everything we do.

In our last big Producer’s Letter, we talked about the kinds of themes we were aiming for. We talked about making more story-based adventure available to more people (which surfaced in the form of Chronicles and Slivers), unique and better ways to play with others as easily as possible (which took the form of Instant Adventures, Onslaughts that added new build-and-defend gameplay to Ember Isle, and the largest zone events we’ve ever created), and ongoing advancement that occurs even after you hit level 50 (which then arrived in the form of Planar Attunement).

GENERAL
* Corrected some items that were changed to Bind on Pickup that were previously Bind on Equip, and fixed several items whose required level to equip was inadvertently raised.
* If you are currently over the Favor cap, you can now regain spent Favor when returning an item during the refund buyback period.
* Mobs in Expert dungeons and first-tier Raids and Slivers have powered up and now deal increased damage and have more health.
* Increased hit points slightly on standard population mobs from levels 42-52.
* Augments have returned to providing the same bonuses on crafted items as they did in 1.6. Existing augmented items should be automatically updated.
* Mathosia: A Dim, Dark Eye: King Aedraxis should have his usual appearance back.
* Fixed the occasional doubled message when gaining certain updated Achievements.
* Using /resetuitodefaults should no longer cause a client crash.

PVP
* Reduced the amount of Valor provided by PvP armor sets by 7.5%.

SOULS

CHAMPION
* Weapon Specialization: Now increases damage by 0.4% per point spent in Champion, and no longer has a max damage bonus cap.
* Deadly Strikes: Now enhances damage by 11-33%, increased from 6-18%.

PARAGON
* Teaching of the Five Rings: Now increases damage by 0.4% per point spent in Paragon, and no longer has a max damage bonus cap.

PYROMANCER
* Glyphs of Power: Increased base bonus to 10% from 5%.

RIFTBLADE
* Rift Fury: Now increases damage by 0.4% per point spent in Riftblade, and no longer has a max damage bonus cap.

DUNGEONS, CHRONICLES, SLIVERS, AND RAIDS
* Bosses in Runic Descent and Foul Cascade that come from Rifts are engaging properly again.
* Caduceus Rise: Updated mob placement to make pulls slightly easier.
* Greenscale’s Blight: Fixed the Prince Hylas loot tables.
* River of Souls: Chains of Death: The Achievement ‘In Service of the Soulstream’ will now be granted at the correct time, instead of at the incorrect time, which was not correct.
* River of Souls: Chains of Death: Increased the priority of the ‘Essence of the Endless’ disguise so that it doesn’t drop off when using other disguise/shapeshift items.

WEDDINGS
* Wedding Rings now get converted into Used Wedding Rings if they are equipped at the time of divorce.
* Taking a wedding gift no longer prevents guests from using the forge at a Dwarf wedding ceremony.
* Eth reception guests now show up *after* the ceremony, instead of before it.
* Cancelling while taking a wedding gift no longer prevents you from receiving more gifts.

Welcome to RIFT 1.7: Carnival of the Ascended!

== FEATURES ==
* PvP: Prestige updates, PvP Planar Attunements, and Warfront Mercenaries, oh my. Check out the PvP Update sections for a lot of info on the latest in RIFT PvP.
* Sweeping changes have come to the progression of gear at levels 45+. See ITEMIZATION ADJUSTMENTS, below, for details.
* No matter who you are, you now have twice as many Expert Dungeons to play in! The two tiers of Expert Dungeon difficulty have been combined into one.
* The new Soul Preset system is now available for use by all players, old and new. Check out USING A PRESET BUILD for info on how you can use the new, optional Purposes to try out new specs.
* Playing RIFT with that special someone? Maybe you’d like to propose at the top of the Stonefield waterfall? IN-GAME WEDDINGS are now available for Ascended.
* A new Chronicle appears! Grab a friend and disguise yourself as Endless Cultists to infiltrate and sabotage Alsbeth’s plans within the River of Souls!
* The Master Mode of Caduceus Rise is now available for the conquering!
* A sixth role is now available for purchase!