The RIFT portion of yesterday’s Trion Friday live stream extravaganza was, unsurprisingly, focused on RIFT’s big move to a free-to-play system beginning on June 12th. Daglar joined Simon and Elrar and explained how some of the systems will work in greater detail as well as updated the RIFT community on some promising changes to the current Patron reward system. The team has been listening to all of our feedback and has made a few changes that, overall, make being a RIFT veteran a little more appealing.

Elrar also showed off the in-game shop in its current state and let Daglar talk a little bit about the different categories of items, the Loyalty tiers, and a whole lot more. To catch a replay of the live stream, you can see it here. Alternatively, keep reading to see our detailed highlights roundup.

During last Friday’s official RIFT live stream event, the Trion team showed off some pretty awesome Dendrome goodies. We found out a bit more about the Architects, which is the insectoid race that has helped Crucia build a few of her undertakings. Laethys was the last true master of the Architects. They’re from the Plane of Earth but aren’t greedy for gold and treasures. They do consume the life force and energy from living things, however, which is a process that leaves behind piles of sand as a byproduct of sorts, which is why the Dendrome is half sand and half lush forest. It’s also why Ashora is full desert.

The goal of the Architects? To have another Queen, it would seem. A fair bit of concept art like this image was previewed during the stream. Elrar also showed us the interior of the Infinity Gate, which is pretty huge. We also saw a sneak peek of the new Hellbug rifts (and mounts/pets!) coming to RIFT starting on Wednesday, May 1st.

In a recent news post, Trion announced that the team will be holding a special live stream event on Friday, April 26th that will focus on the Architects, “an ancient race whose technology has the power to traverse the very fabric of space and time.” The live stream will also delve into the story surrounding the Architects and how that story will evolve when Dendrome is released in RIFT 2.3. The live stream event will take place at 1:30 PM PST on Trion’s Twitch channel.

For more information, see the official announcement.

During Trion’s Friday live stream extravaganza yesterday, Elrar and UnloadedUT hosted a second Dimensional Thunderdome event that took place in the new Moonshade Pools dimension on the PTS. Dimensional Thunderdome is, well, pretty awesome, and definitely worth the watch if you missed the live stream. Dimension-building experts facing off on teams to see who can build the coolest random-object-in-a-hat? Entertainment at its RIFTiest.

One highlight of the show was Elrar stealthily throwing in a preview of a new vanity pet coming to RIFT. Raptr users will immediately recognize the little guy who’s previewed above in the title image. Yep, that’s the Raptr raptor! Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Raptr, it’s this nifty gaming site and software that’s free and can be used to connect with other gamers, share screenshots, news, etc., and track your gaming time. Raptr often pairs up with game companies like Trion to give away in-game goodies and promotions as a reward for being a member of Raptr.

Elrar announced yesterday that we’ll be seeing the arrival of the new Moonshade Pools dimension next week. This dimension will be one of the largest personal dimensions in-game and will sport a 1000-item limit. It also, of course, features one of the most gorgeous areas of Moonshade Highlands. Elrar also announced that the team will handing out some dimension goodies (two ferns to be exact) for players who are signed up to receive the RIFT newsletter. The team will also be holding a couple of special live stream events for the grand opening of Moonshade Pools:

Originally posted by Elrar (Source)

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TWO LIVE STREAMS – www.twitch.tv/trionworlds

Dimensional Thunderdome – Friday, 4/12 @ 1:30PM Pacific: 3 Teams Enter, 1 Team Leaves. Show off your dimensioneering skills and compete for prizes!

Moonshade Pools Tour – Friday, 4/19 @ 1:30PM Pacific: The two winners of our Joy of Dimensions Contest have been hard at work decorating their own Moonshade Pools. We’ll show you just how awesome it can look!

For an early tour of the empty dimension, check out our Moonshade Pools Dimension Preview.

So, Elrar said something pretty interesting during last Friday’s Trion Worlds live stream event. The team was talking about the upcoming launch of Defiance, which is Trion’s MMOTPS that’s a direct crossover with the upcoming SyFy television series by the same name, and Elrar asked about the special red Dodge Challenger mount that’s obtainable when pre-ordering Defiance. A player in-game then asked if we’d see the Dodge Challenger make an appearance in RIFT as well (at around 11 minutes into the live stream). Elrar answered with this: “No, but there is going to be a sweet, pimped-out ride from Defiance making an appearance in RIFT. Ssh!”

Since trucks and pimped-out ATVs don’t make a whole lot of sense in RIFT, our best guess so far is that we may be seeing a Hellbug mount. What’s a Hellbug, you ask? Take a look at the title image. That’s a Hellbug. Hellbugs are some of the main enemies in Defiance and come in all sorts of shapes and sharp-toothed sizes. They also make a super cuddly plushie and mascot of sorts, but don’t tell them that.

A Hellbug would make a pretty fitting RIFT mount, especially considering the wide array of cool-looking beasties we’ve already tamed as Ascended. As rumors would have it, the data for a Hellbug mount, pet, and accompanying mobs have reportedly been found hidden in the PTS files. When will we see them make a live appearance? Hard to say, but soon hopefully, especially considering Defiance launches April 2nd! For more Defiance news and info, check out the official Defiance site as well as our sister site, Defiance Junkies.

Hey, RIFT lore enthusiasts, remember this Q&A thread from well before the launch of Storm Legion? It was one of threads that we all kind of celebrated because lore, while present in-game in all of its fantastic nooks and corners, does not always make appearances outside of the game. Developers don’t often discuss lore, and lore questions tend to get glossed over during interviews. Well, the poor Q&A thread certainly got glossed over for more than a few months now, but rest assured– the folks at Trion are actually going to dive into that thread this coming Thursday, March 7th during a live stream event starting at 10:00 AM PST.

This live stream will be hosted by Elrar, of course, and Captaincursor, Trion’s appointed loremaster, will be making an appearance and taking a peek at questions players may have regarding lore and sharing some thoughts. Elrar has also invited players to come up with new questions for the loremaster and post them in this thread.

In Trion’s last live stream that took place Friday, Elrar showed off some of the new items we’ll be able to grab when Carnival of the Ascended 2013 goes fully underway in the coming weeks. He showed off a new mount that will be available who’s named Aurora. Aurora is a recolored version of Nebula from last year and is a galaxy-inspired steed that’s lighter blue in color and features a mane with icy fire effects. She also breaths out a frozen cloud of vapor every now and then.

Aurora, Nebula, and Tindrel (the clanking spider) will all be available this year. From the sounds of it, Pyrite Doubloons, which were what was used to purchase the two mounts last year, will not be making a return this year. That may mean that the mounts may be purchasable with Glass Beads or obtained during a quest similar to the quests involved in choosing one of the mounts from both Fae Yule and Autumn Harvest.

Keep reading to take a peek at a couple screenshots of Aurora that were taken from the live stream as well as a preview of some of the various Carnival of the Ascended-themed masks and other goodies.

Storm Legion’s mega beta weekend is in full swing along with Extra Life 2012 today, but just in case you aren’t able to attend the festivities, Trion held another fun live stream yesterday, this time focusing on Dimensions. Let me just say– player-made Dimensions are going to be hot in RIFT. The amount of creativity that players can put into them is frankly quite astounding, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the game attracts some new players due to the seemingly unlimited potential Dimensions have.

Let’s get right into the action and go over the highlights of yesterday’s live stream and Dimensions in general, shall we?

The team at Trion seems to have fallen in love with hosting live streams. Not that I’m complaining– quite the opposite, in fact. What’s not to like? We get the chance to see a little of what goes on behind the scenes (and see staff members make fools of themselves!), we get to watch some juicy Storm Legion beta action, and we even get a chance to ask the team some questions. Trion has quite the ambitious schedule of live streams planned proceeding the launch of Storm Legion, and yesterday that schedule was kicked off with a stream focusing on the questing and dynamic content of Storm Legion.

The entire stream’s available on Trion’s TwitchTV page for your viewing pleasure, or if you’d like a rundown of the highlights, my random commentary, and any new information that was revealed, keep reading. Oh, and as a warning– the actual stream does contain some spoilers of early Storm Legion storyline quests. During my writeup, I’ll steer far away from spoilers as possible!