Rift- Housing And Levels

Dire and I.

Rift has been a lot of fun since returning. I've managed to hit level 46, soon to be catching up to the rest of the population and able to join in on the new expansion. I'm very excited about this! While I hear it is a lot slower than 1-50 I do hear lots of good and interesting things about 50+, I look forward to seeing what is ahead.

I started back on my mage at level 23 and since then I've done Instant Adventures all the way to my current level. They've flown by and really been a lot of fun. The money I've earned has been decent and it is always enjoyable to work with others as I level, not soloing all the time, the world feels less lonely than most games I play. It just feels different. I like that things are fast paced and fun with the IA's. I wanted to try something different instead of solo questing all the way to the cap, this is exactly what I was looking for. Not as stressful as a dungeon run would be, yet still working with other players.

Rift has certainly brought back an old feeling, an excitement. I can't wait to participate in the Christmas (Yule) event this year, I really look forward to it. I love games that offer lots of fun events and I hear the events in Rift are very rewarding. I've taken part in a few but not seriously, always in passing.

Dire!! Can you PLEASE stay still long enough for a pic?!!!!

Dire is still playing, I can mentor him or we can join in instant adventures, I think this helps a lot. He seems to be enjoying himself a lot. There have been games in the past that he hasn't meshed well with, I had hoped Rift wouldn't be one of these that just didn't stick. Vanguard was one of them, unfortunately, as well as EQ2. He played EQ2 to the cap at one time, but it never really captivated him. Rift seems to hold his attention better and he seems pretty excited about playing, which I am very glad to see. Sometimes it can be hard to find a game where you and your family/friends/spouse equally enjoy playing.

I've saved up money and gotten things that make me happy, like costume pieces. I love that Rift has a wardrobe slot for items, it is easy and works well. Dyes are relatively cheap and easy to access, that is another plus. While we don't have as many [colors] as GW2  or even EQ, and we can't seem to mix them like GW, it is still quite nice to have the option. Dire says I blow my money on silly stuff, maybe I do, but I enjoy doing it! Plus, I always look smashing ;)

Another guilty pleasure of mine would be decorating my Dimension. I've expanded the item limit twice. Now I have had time to fully experience how these work and compare them to other games. The best housing for years in any MMO has been EQ2. If you want to go into sandboxes I'd have to say Second Life is a huge contender, but it is also limited to things like constant payments for land, prim limits, which case I still say EQ2 is better because you don't have so many restrictions and payments of RL money to keep a place.

Instant Adventure on the beach.

Rift housing is great, I enjoy it a lot. It gives me something else to work on when I want to do something fun and creative. Housing is one of my favorite aspect in MMO games, any game that offers housing is better for it, they enrich games, add depth, they are creative outlets. I like the fact that you can add to your houses and land in Rift. I like that you can place anything anywhere. The controls are easy, CTRL+D is a wonderful tool to copy and paste a duplicate item in the same position and the same size (as long as you have another in your bags).

It does have a few drawbacks though. It is expensive to expand. Then again, we don't have to pay an upkeep and thankfully we can expand, I'd be heartbroken if I couldn't expand. The biggest beef I have is that most of these houses are very, very expensive. You won't see most of them until later on in the game. But we can get a free house and expand until then, so there isn't too much to complain about there. It gives us something to work towards.

There are many beautiful places in Rift.

The housing has a lot of room to grow. More items will needed to be added on a regular basis, I hear that holiday events will add to this, which is good. The controls are simple but leveling and turning an object can sometimes be tough to actually level out. The rotations don't highlight as they do in Second Life, which sometimes can cause you to grab the wrong one and turn... oops! But you can hit esc and undo it. It will take a keen eye to make sure things measure up just to look good. In EQ2 when we rotate an object it snaps into the directions. With Rift, much like Second Life, a hairpin turn can skew the whole object, but that is also the beauty of having more freedom. It can be more time consuming but you can place things just so and don't have to stack things just right, like you might have to in EQ2.

EQ2 has a HUGE scale of housing, from cash shop housing to cheap, small inns, which make housing more accessible to all levels. It also has a massive quantity of items. For now it still remains ahead of Rift in my honest opinion, but I think Rift will be stiff competition if the developers keep churning out ways to improve and add to this wonderful system. If anything, a wonderful alternative if you are looking for a different game with housing. I really applaud Trion for this addition to the game, these dimensions are simply stunning, truly gorgeous. They were a major pull for me to return.

That's it for today. I hope to hit 50 by the end of the week, we'll see how that turns out. My son has been very sick over the holiday weekend. We thought he had strep but... it seems he has aphthous stomatitis. I've been trying to figure out what has been wrong with doctors visits and many different medications to help alleviate his pain. He's simply prone to horrible mouth ulcers and there seems to be no reason why he gets them, or why they are getting worse and more often. It seems he has the worst case yet, causing me to resort to baby juices and trying to hunt for food he is able to eat. Keep him in your prayers, please.

And now I leave you with some screens of my housing, some costume stuff and just other neat pics- The housing, it is a work in progress:

The placement interface for objects.

Building, this was the addition of stairs and the first room.

Eventually the room has expanded but this was how it started.

Dancing in Meridian, lol.

A dragon in the city!

More building, adding flowers and such.

I love the flowers, wish I had more. All in due time!

As you can see in this pic the room has a 'porch' added to it and trees in front of it for a quaint look. Since then I've added another part, more pics in the next post.

Steps I added in, overlooking the beach at night.

Some furniture.

A little sitting area on the addition I built.

Overlooking my land.

The room from above.

Looking down the steps. The pet thinks the roof is a more suitable perch, obviously, lol.

Building, checking all the angles making sure they are all aligned correctly.

A bed I crafted, yay for crafting items!