Rift Reloaded: How I Would Improve Rift

Rift is, without a doubt, the best MMO on the market today.  I've done seven years of WoW, six months of Final Fantasy XI and three months of Warhammer Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Aion alike.  I've played Guild Wars 2 extensively (quite a bit more than just a lone beta weekend if you catch my drift).  I've done a month of Tera and I have an active account for The Secret World as I type this.  All of these games bring something positive to the table but none of them can compete with the overall quality of Rift.  Comparatively, Guild Wars 2 and WoW have better PvP.  Aion and Final Fantasy XI have significantly better music and provide superior overall immersion.  Tera, by and large, has combat that is a bit more fun and engaging.  Star Wars: The Old Republic has an incredible companion and crafting system that leaves Rift's traditional MMO crafting system in the dust and even Warhammer Online has some bits and pieces such as keep sieges that leave perhaps a small bit to be desired in Telara.  Rift may not be the best at any particular category, although I'd make an exception for Rift's raid content.  Yet Rift is good at just about everything leaving us with an exceptionally polished and high quality MMO.  With all this said, however, are there improvements to be made?  Absolutely.  As any MMO company knows, the real work begins once the game has shipped and nobody comes even remotely close to challenging the speed and scope by which Trion delivers outstanding content.

Despite patch 1.9 being a very recent addition to the game, patch 1.10 is already well under way.  Further, Rift's Storm Legion expansion is pending a Fall release.  Guild Wars 2 releases at the end of August.  Mists of Pandaria hits shelves less than a month later.  I want nothing more than Trion to not only compete with these titles, but to really show the world that Rift is, has been and will continue to be the best MMO available.  It is in the spirit of this cause I present my thoughts on how I would personally improve Rift in the coming months.  This list is not exhaustive and I'm purposely leaving out substantial features such as "a new raid" or "a new Warfront".  Rather these changes are focused in large part around improvements that can be made to the existing content of the game to the benefit of players everywhere.  Without further adieu, let's begin:

• General
• A "loop music" feature has been added to the UI under "Audio".
• Attentive travelers may now encounter a few new musical tracks throughout Telara!
• The LFD tool is now cross-faction!
• Disgruntled Defiants and grouchy Guardians may now defect from their faction.  A new epic questline is now available for each Defiant and Guardian should they choose to defect.  Returning to one's original faction is possible but let's just say one must "pay their dues" to win back the favor of their original comrades.
• The races of Telara are no longer faction-specific.  Kelari Guardians?  Dwarf Defiants?  You bet!
• All new titles associated with the leaderboards have been added.  Think you're hardcore enough to earn the most favor in a week?  Prove it!  Think your guild is good enough to complete Hammerknell Fortress in record time?  Get to it!  Title rewards are shown in the leaderboards UI similar to how they are shown in the achievements UI.
• Tier 3 Planar Attunement has now arrived and offers new interesting abilities for all elemental schools along with some modest stat improvements.
• New weather effects have been added to the game including sandstorms in Shimmersand and thunderstorms in Moonshade Highlands.  Weather effects can be toggled in UI settings.
• Training abilities at your class trainer may now be done in bulk.  Click the "Train All" button and you will be prompted with the total cost.
• Character
• In the interest of maintaining an RP-friendly environment, moderation is getting a much-needed boost for RP shards.  Naming policies and chat guidelines will be strictly enforced on these realms.  Potential transfers to RP shards will be prompted of these policies and must accept them before being allowed to transfer there.
• Players may now create a background or story behind their character that is visible to other players through inspection.  To access your back story, open up the character panel and select "Background".
• Questing
• We realize that questing is significantly slower than other leveling methods.  As such, experience rewarded for quests has been increased across the board.  This increase is less noticeable at lower levels but is substantial at higher levels.  For example, a level 40 quest that presently rewards 3000 experience upon completion, will now reward approximately 7000 instead.
• We've streamlined many of the quest hubs and "tied them together" a bit better so players have more direction while questing.  No more should you have to wander aimlessly in search of peril!
• Conquest
• The Oathsworn, Nightfall and Dominion alike have perfected a means such that players no longer take falling damage while in Conquest.
• The total number of extractors has been reduced to 20.  Zerg play can be fun but capturing and holding an extractor should be important.
• The amount of Empowered Sourcestone mined by an extractor increases over time.
• The portal destinations of Caer Mathos, The Eye of Regulos, Burlingham and Briarcliff now have portals of their own.  Visiting one of these locations allows you to port to any other portal you currently own.
• Base mounted speed in Conquest has been increased to 150% for all participants. Mounted speed can still be improved through crafting.
• Favor and prestige gains for defending an extractor have been slightly increased
• Favor and prestige gains for capturing an extractor have been substantially increased
• During the final 10 minutes after a Conquest match has been won, a moderate bonus to favor and prestige gains is applied.
• The kill counter has been reduced from 5000 to 4000.
• The sudden death timer that begins when a faction hits or exceeds 60% ownership, has been reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.
• PvP
• PvP gear vendors now provide only two sets of PvP gear for purchase: the previous tier and the current tier.  The prices for the previous tier gear set have been set to the prices that presently exist for the lowest tier of PvP gear while the prices for the  "current" tier gear have been set to the prices that presently exists for the highest tier of PvP gear.
• Notoriety with The Unseen and The Order of the Eye is now obtainable within Warfronts.
• Mounts, costumes, weapon effects, companions and more!  All new vanity items are available through the PvP vendors, for some favor of course.  Many of these items carry rank restrictions so hit the battlefield and perhaps you can one day own your very own Fluffy, the Destroyer of Worlds!
• In order to keep lower-level PvP as competitive as possible, Warfronts while leveling now automatically bolster all participants to the maximum level for that Warfront bracket.
• The PvP planar attunement trees are now "separate" from the elemental trees and favor is now the currency for this instead of experience points.  Any existing points spent in a PvP hex will stay but future points will now leverage favor instead of experience.  Respecing Planar Attunement will now return favor for any PvP hexes.
• Instant Adventure
• Instant Adventure has been overhauled to tell more of a story with each campaign.  No more mindless "kill 10 wolves because that's what the quest tracker says".
• To accommodate story-telling as part of Instant Adventure, experience and loot rewards have been adjusted.  The result should be a slight overall increase in the amount of XP and loot you receive compared to Instant Adventures of old.
• Instant Adventure has arrived for Scarwood Reach, Scarlet Gorge, Moonshade Highlands and Iron Pine Peak!
• The ability to queue for Instant Adventure per zone regardless of present location is back and all zones are now listed in the IA panel.  Queuing for a random adventure still exists and provides a bonus to IA gains for a fixed number of IA campaigns that day.
• Dungeons
• Rewards for completing a random dungeon have been adjusted and ascended now have a choice among the following:
• 6 Plaques of Achievement
• 4 Marks of Ascension
• 3 Greater Marks of Ascension
• 2 Infernal Marks
• 10 Inscribed Sourcestone
• Crafting
• A whole new line of enhancements for Seals are now available for Runecrafters.  Want to have your attacks apply a stacking fire DoT instead of that 9 AP rune?  Now you can!  Want getting hit to provide a 20% chance of increasing your mitigation?  Go for it!
• A new section to the personal bank is now available for storing crafting mats and, what's more, this section is account-wide so you can now use crafting mats from any of your characters for any of your characters.  And, yes, you can use these crafting mats directly from the bank without needing to have them in your inventory.
• An assortment of recipes for vanity items have been added to the game files and can be acquired throughout Telara!  Sometimes the best reward for churning out a well-made potion is the ability to transform into a werewolf!

This list is far from complete but, in the interest of brevity, I'll stop there.  These are merely some of the improvements I would make to Rift with the goal of improving engagement and generally making the playing experience more fun overall.

What are your thoughts on these changes?  Do you find them agreeable or are there some you are opposed to?