Patch news dominating the MMO news sites at the moment.
SWTOR 1.2
Star Wars the Old Republic has it’s second major patch in preview now.
- A new operation (raid) and a new flashpoint (dungeon) are to be expected of course – I guess both will be end-game level 50 content so I won’t see them for a loooooong time.
- UI customisation is good, though I’m happy enough with the default UI that I’m not fussed about this.
- The legacy system is also not very relevant to me at the moment, as I’m only just over half way to cap on my main. But it is nice to have something to work on after reaching 50. The cross-class ability system with ‘heroic moments’ to trigger them in conjunction with a companion sound rather fiddly – is this like heroic opportunities in EQ2 but with your faithful companion instead of another player?
- The guild bank and better GTN search are both very welcome features of course.
- It’ll be nice to see new content if only to keep my guildmates happy while I crawl to level cap – I guess by the time this lands I may have more free time to be moving forward at a better pace.
Rift 1.8
Although I haven’t been playing Rift I do still have a sub and I follow news on the game.
The video for the anniversary features interviews with several devs, plus some hints and screens from the new patch.
- Again as with SWTOR the raid content is of no relevance to me, I do have a capped Cleric in Rift but he’s not even geared for heroics as I’m way behind the stampede on the power curve.
- Instant adventure changes to incorporate more story sound very promising as it’s pretty bland grindy content at the moment.
- A zone-wide city sounds intriguing, I like megacities as a setting and would welcome a Rift-style version of the same to explore. I hope it isn’t “raid geared characters only need apply” in terms of the challenge level.
- Plus the Trion dev team seem actually to be committed to adding some depth to the game, as a glimpse of a whiteboard lists tradeskills (are these EQ people perchance?) of trapping and fishing; now if only they add cookery to that mix!
In any case between these games I have something to look forward to as we move towards summer. I’m holding off on EQ2 as I want to see what sort of a mess Sony make of this ProSieben takeover. Plus although I like EQ2 a lot, I fear I’ll need to invest time in joining a guild to get anywhere really in the game and at the moment that’s too much of a commitment…
