Heroes of Telara

=This page is Legacy and pertains to Rift's old name, Heroes of Telara.= ''Heroes of Telara', or HoT, is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). It has been under development by Trion Worlds since 2006 ,and is currently planned to be released sometime in 2010. The following is an almagamation based on the various E3 2009 (p)reviews, interviews, tweets, and official information so far released about Heroes of Telara by their producer, Trion Worlds. For larger versions of the screenshots below, please visit the [Category:Images image gallery].

The official site can be found at http://www.riftgame.com. You can also find them on Twitter, and Facebook.

The Setting
A high-fantasy setting that has at least Humans, elves and dwarves, in addition to goblins, ettins, and other fantasy mainstays. The architecture is fairly standard 'fantasy', with a whimsical feel to it at points.

Player Characters
Three playable races - humans, elves, and dwarves. Able to make realistic faces for player characters. There are the four standard class archetypes - Warrior, Rogue, Cleric, and Mage. In addition, there are Subclass cards which can be found to give you further abilities such as Berserker (a warrior with AoE (Area of Effect) attacks) and a necromancer-like warrior subclass, the Grave Lord, which can summon skeletons, and a Paladin warrior subclass. Subclasses are restricted to a specific core class. You can go to a town and switch between main classes, making it no longer necessary to make multiple characters to play more than one class. This class change also swaps items.

Not known - If there is any benefit to making separate characters (aside from having different races, looks, etc.) as opposed to just one character with all four classes on it to switch from (i.e., is there any sort of skill cap on a single character). Do not know if there will be a 'gold' fee to change classes, what the level limit is for character classes, or what sort of possible factions there will be in the game to choose from. Do some subclass cards have level prerequisites as well? What sort of talent or feat system is there to customise a character as it levels up? How in-depth is character creation...sliders versus presets, etc.

Graphics
Graphics are good and at least on par or better than Vanguard and Age of Conan and have a stylized realism to them. NPC/PC faces are quite varied and realistic, with a surprising level of detail.

Not known - DirectX 10 or higher? (assume at least DX10). How realistic the water is - one screenshot shows some muddy-looking water, but we've yet to see something along the lines of the water in Tortage in Age of Conan).

Combat
Faster paced (some general comment from E3).

Game Engine
The game is using a thinner thick client than most MMORPGs today, and the bulk of the data will be held server-side as opposed to the usual scenario where everything is downloaded and stored locally on clients. The servers can dynamically reallocate resources as they are needed. These two items will help to run the dynamic 'heroic quest' system, which seems similar to the public quest system in Warhammer, although even more dynamic. Player actions an inactions can result in changes in NPC actions, culminating in major events such as the sacking of a town or city. The game world is dynamic even in the absence of player actions and quests, although more details have not yet been released in regards to how so or examples given.

Not Known - Which DirectX is being used. Will it benefit from dual or quad core machines (i.e, how multithreaded is the engine)? Will there be a 64-bit binary? Speedtree for trees? 3D Grass? Does the focus on a thinner client mean that more network data is being sent? What is the impact on game latency, especially in a crowded area or a raid. Descriptions of the game seem to imply a lack of zones, but is the game non-instanced along the lines of Vanguard and World of Warcraft, or will it be instanced like Age of Conan or Everquest II? Similar question in regards to dungeons. How complex is the dynamic 'heroic quest' system? Can local events possibly trigger changes on a global scale? Are the possible events predefined in each area and follow a set pattern over and over?

User Interface (the UI)
Has (at a minimum) hotbars, minimap, and health and mana bars.

Crafting
There will be crafting, and no limit to the number of crafting or gathering skills that an be trained. Not known - What can be crafted? Will items be as good as 'top tier' items that can be found in game.

Player versus Player Combat (PvP)
PvP will be faction based. Player factions, of which there will be four (possibly more).

Mounts
There are at least two types of mounts that players can ride (some apelike creature and something that looks like a it came out of the Pleistocene), both of which are visible in the E3 Trailer Video.

Not known - It is not yet known if there are different speed mounts, or if there are multiple-character mounts or flying mounts.

Other Unknowns
Will there be PVE raiding (there is raiding mentioned now, check link on left)? What will the System Requirements be? Will there be player housing? What is the death penalty? Is there item decay? What 'money sinks' will be in the game? How important will items be? Is the user interface extensible? Will there be regional servers (for EU, US, E. Asia, etc.) or global servers?

Video
Official E3 Trailer Video: