A Letter from Executive Producer Aaron Campbell

[Frisco]

I missed all the Bounder's Bounty talk while away on vacation, but it seems like it's not the players' fault that the idea wasn't properly thought through prior to making promises about how the process would play out. How was anyone surprised by the number of people who would need to be contacted? We all have access to a calculator. Why didn't they realize the amount of work that would be required before advertising the competition? Lots of people logged in more than they would have and played in ways they might not have otherwise in order to receive the promised reward, and now the reward is being changed because it's "too much work" for the people who put together the contest.

I think it's silly to expect people to be placated by a "20 Questions" answer when what they want is for the initial promise to be fulfilled.

[Crell_1]

I missed all the Bounder's Bounty talk while away on vacation, but it seems like it's not the players' fault that the idea wasn't properly thought through prior to making promises about how the process would play out. How was anyone surprised by the number of people who would need to be contacted? ...

I think it's silly to expect people to be placated by a "20 Questions" answer when what they want is for the initial promise to be fulfilled.

I think the issue was they hadn't originally expected to do 50 names per world. Account wide title recognition would have been cool, in light of this larger volume.

[rosey21]

I missed all the Bounder's Bounty talk while away on vacation, but it seems like it's not the players' fault that the idea wasn't properly thought through prior to making promises about how the process would play out. How was anyone surprised by the number of people who would need to be contacted? We all have access to a calculator. Why didn't they realize the amount of work that would be required before advertising the competition? Lots of people logged in more than they would have and played in ways they might not have otherwise in order to receive the promised reward, and now the reward is being changed because it's "too much work" for the people who put together the contest.

I think it's silly to expect people to be placated by a "20 Questions" answer when what they want is for the initial promise to be fulfilled.

I think it's silly how some are going on & on over this.

Yes they didn't think things out clearly like they should. Things happen, that's life.

Frankly I would rather see them tend to other issues that are much more serious then this. Right now I just don't see them having the extra time to wait on 1400 people to contact them in a name change.

[Frisco]

I think it's silly how some are going on & on over this.

Yes they didn't think things out clearly like they should. Things happen, that's life.

Frankly I would rather see them tend to other issues that are much more serious then this. Right now I just don't see them having the extra time to wait on 1400 people to contact them in a name change.

The issue is as much about customer service as it is about the actual names. Why promise something, and then not follow through? Obviously they're within their rights not to make good on promises, but on top of that, it's adding insult to injury to condescend to the people who are complaining about the broken promise. If I were unable to fulfill an obligation, personally, I'd be far more contrite.

[Testis]

Are classes being open up to other races in the update?

[Sapience]

Are classes being open up to other races in the update?

No they are not. It's not currently in our plans.

[rosey21]

No they are not. It's not currently in our plans.

***sobs***

I want a hobbit LM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just think how cute they'd be with there wittle pets. Awwwwwwwwwwww

[Thornglen]

***sobs***

I want a hobbit LM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just think how cute they'd be with there wittle pets. Awwwwwwwwwwww

I don't know. I might always be a smidge afraid that sabercat was looking at me and seeing a hobbit-snack. :P

[Frisco]

***sobs***

I want a hobbit LM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just think how cute they'd be with there wittle pets. Awwwwwwwwwwww

It's funny to imagine them whacking mobs in the shin with their tiny "staffs" (which, knowing hobbits, is probably just old gaffer's cane)

Would their pets be half-sized as well? A rabbit-sized polar bear cub?

[Bladzer]

We want raids
It is useless to launch a new area without having to make new raid
I have some questions: How turbine think about putting FA 95 on game? will put in skirmsh camp to catch up with seals as did the content of lv 85?
When I say that the game is lost is because he really is lost, homesick when things were really hard and there were raids unique items that only a few people possessed

[Testis]

I want Warden to be open to Dwarves. A Warden is a cop with specialized skills. It should be available to all races. But there'd be nothing better in the game then having a Dwarf in a screaming class. Baruk Khazad!

[Orodbril]

One thing that IS bugging me though, is there a chance in future updates that building guild rep will be quicker/easier? I'm level 53 and I'm with the tailors guild, and I ONLY just hit expert of the guild (third one in), considering I've been crafting since level 10. Building guild rep takes far too long and it's starting to annoy me. I want to buy improved recipes, but by the time I can actually craft and equip them, I will have far out-levelled them, because it takes too long to level up in the guild. I hope this is something that can be taken into consideration in the future.

They just reduced the amount of reputation you get with each item with the relase of HD. Before HD each item gave more rep than now (former East-Emnet even more than West-Emnet nowadays or the same I think), so there was kind of disappointment when players explored that during the beta because they already preproduced the items for the new rep-level (maybe even considering rep-boosts from skirmish-camp), so that they had far too less and couldn't tel their kinmates and friends because of the NDA. That was one of the first things I told my kin, when the NDA was lifted. For myself it wasn't that bad because I had more rep-items than actually needed and the little difference was taken away by the rep-boost. Even my jeweller-twink who wasn't prepared that much had enough rep with the boosts.

So, however, Turbine propably won't make a U-turn in this case, when they just went into the other direction 4 months ago. So the rep-boots might help you - without endlevel-character they are rather expensive in the skirmish camp (some marks - slightly more than 100 - and 12 medallions I think for 1 item/1000 reputation doubled). If you have kind of much gold you can also buy them at the auctioneer (normal price should be 8 g for 10 items/10000 rep doubled, but the last time I looked at the auctioneer was before HD so it could have changed...)

Orodbril

[Orodbril]

oops my apologies I think you are right about the Taking the hobbits to isengard. my mistake. Maybe things are looking up. Hurray.
I think i just got so used to reading about competitions etc and then seeing that you had to be in America to enter I eventually gave up and just stopped even reading about them all. Now i feel a bit encouraged. thanks.

Which other competitions? I haven't read any other in the last time...

And most prize competitions are available in parts of Europe, specifically Germany, France, Monaco and Corsica (as part of France). Yeah, there are a ot more European countries, but Europe isn't excluded at all. I think Turbine has said that there are problems with the law in the other countries with this kind of prize... but I don't exactly know it..

[VeteranLurker]

Thank you for the update.

My 2-coppers re the return of Hobnanigans: hopefully this will be only an occasional event, not a persistent/constant event at The Horsefields? I've not been around long enough to have played Hobnanigans, and look forward to trying it, but I have been part of a group which has used The Horsefields for team riding demonstrations for a couple of years now. If that venue will no longer be available, it would be nice if there were another venue made available for riding events (possibly larger, to more easily accomodate war-steeds). Aside from its size, the major attraction of The Horsefields is that it is flat, has a fence border with discernable side-markers, is not over run with mobs (thus safe for audiences), and is close to a large town with stable/travel-options. If you wonder what these team riding events are all about, join us this Saturday at 2:30 pm /servertime on Landroval.

[Carlyndra]

*crosses fingers* Please let there be a housing update, please let there be a housing update, please let there be a housing update...

[Sapience]

My 2-coppers re the return of Hobnanigans: hopefully this will be only an occasional event, not a persistent/constant event at The Horsefields?

This is the current plan. It isn't intended to be an 'all the time anytime' type of event.

[Mar-Evayave]

oops my apologies I think you are right about the Taking the hobbits to isengard. my mistake. Maybe things are looking up. Hurray.
I think i just got so used to reading about competitions etc and then seeing that you had to be in America to enter I eventually gave up and just stopped even reading about them all. Now i feel a bit encouraged. thanks.

Unfortunately, there is exactly zero that Turbine can do about the latter things. Those are things your country exempts you from participating in (assuming you are not in France or Germany, which I believe are the only European countries that qualify for many of these things).

On the brighter side, the Hobbit event is going to be on all servers and a full server list can be viewed HERE (in case you haven't had a chance to look over it just yet; I was a bit disappointed that both of my servers weren't scheduled until May). And Hobs will be an in-game feature if the devs can get it up and running again. Oh, also the lottery system. That was obliterated in that big freak storm earlier last year -- hopefully that gets fixed as well.

In terms of GMs getting involved in player activities (take the following with a grain of salt; I'm not, nor have I ever been, employed by Turbine or Codemasters; this is merely my understanding of the situation), keep in mind that the Codemasters employees really didn't have a lot else to do. They weren't, from what I understand, the developers. They maintained the servers on their end and provided GM service to keep the peace, etc. The bulk of the real work in actually creating and running this game was done by Turbine from the start. And now that Codemasters no longer maintains any servers or invests anything into this game, we now only have the US employees. As it is Sapience has been at home during at least one of the Hobbit events. I wouldn't be surprised if he was paid for that time, but still... *shrug*

Yes, he technically was a corrupted ent. By what you can read of the quests (Spoiler alert): Nurzum was part giant (man kind) & part huorn (nature kind). He was a chimera achieved by Saruman's experiments. I almost pity him as Saruman took him when he was young, weak & inocent & convinced him to turn against men & ents that where once his friends.

Back to the original theme, im looking up for those revamps. They will be very welcome.

No he wasn't! He was a warg!

jk! xD He sure is the most twisted pile of rubble I've ever seen, but he is so covered in ice that I often find it hard to see the resemblance to "modern" Ents. Though seriously... giant/huorn hybrid? How in the world did that kind of a union take place? O.o Akin to the uruks, I suppose. That's all the other side could do -- take what Eru created and corrupt it. Thus wargs, trolls, uruks, and so forth.

Trait trees are not Skill trees. This is a fundamental difference in what we were expecting vs. what we got. This made it harder to swallow.

I must say I find it not quite as hard to swallow as many do. There is certainly a difference between trait trees and skill trees, but when I look at the old trait system, even it was not 100% a trait system. Several of the Legendary Traits were in fact skills. Yes, some old skills (that were not traits, even if they were affected by traits) are now also in the trees, but it doesn't seem like it's so very different. Yes, we have skills that are locked into specific trees that previously were available freely by any player. But it seems to me that the old trait system received a revamp (the introduction of the tree system itself) and some of our old skills were grandfathered into it. Couple that with some skills that have flat out been altered/combined/removed, and we have the current system of a hybrid skill/trait tree (with code skills separate from the tree system, some of which may or may not be affected by it).

TL;DR

There are simply more skills in the trait tree system than there previously was in the trait not-tree system, if that makes sense.

As for what we were expecting, I knew from the first dev diary (or whatever format that was used way back then) that some more of our skills were going to be tied into the trait system than there were under the previous system. I also knew that some skills would be altered/combined/removed. The only part I didn't know was to what extent. I was actually impressed. I had this panic-attack-mental-image of having only 2 rows of skills. I actually have more than just 2 rows. Some of my classes have their quickbars almost as full as they did before, only now I can finally arrange them in a manner that makes more sense to me. I tend to take things to the extreme in my mind -- so when I saw I actually had more than 2 rows, I was thrilled. And that's merely on what I expected in quantity. Quality is an entirely different fruit.

It's funny to imagine them whacking mobs in the shin with their tiny "staffs" (which, knowing hobbits, is probably just old gaffer's cane)

lol Sara Oakheart comes to mind. *mock whine* I wan' my walkin' stick! *end whine* Gah, the most hated (and most memorable -- it's kinda a love/hate thing, though the emphasis is on the second emotion) NPC by my kin. A close second would be Mazog (sometimes it seems we'll never be rid of him!). Third (not quite as strong as the first two) would be Laila (every time I go back to the BDs I see she has once again gotten lost -- does she never learn?!). xD

[LesleyPhillips]

And, Welcome back! : )

[gandalfnho]

Nice changes, will love to see a revamped North-Downs and Flooded Isengard too. And don't forget some new dailies options for West Rohan which gives Westenmet coins as rewards, only the warbands aren't enough (only 2 coins/warband and many aren't soloable) and crafting instances, especially as an extra option to get the tier 9 compendium

[Armdyl]

any reveals for the Moors yet? I mean besides the creep stat update and I do believe a dev did mention creeps traits were getting some love too, but besides that and catapults anything else?

[Ceinwyn]

Am I the one of the few players that isn't thrilled about the idea of an invisible mailbox in the field? I mean, it is a nice feature idea, and I am sure many players will love it, and I am very happy that the game continues to grow, expand and evolve, but I like the realism aspects of the game most of all.

[Orodbril]

any reveals for the Moors yet? I mean besides the creep stat update and I do believe a dev did mention creeps traits were getting some love too, but besides that and catapults anything else?

I would say that where a catapult is there is also something to get destroyed, right?

So just a speculation, but imo it would be logical that there will be also changes like real (I mean real, REAL) Gates (really ) and maybe other points which can be attacked, maybe also a tower and artillery on the top of the keep. But however, it's speculation, but introducing a catapult normally means more than introducing a catapult.

So it could be that keeps change entirely (while not the whole map) and also the outposts may change and in this regard also changes to the keep-outpost buff system (in better balanced way at least), so that they adapt to (seemingly) most players opinion concerning their contribution to disbalance situations oppositional to their intention while still keeping this kind of system and further use it - so kind of refinement/polish --> improvement (maybe that the outposts give more damage like now, when you own them, but a infamy/renowm buff when they are controlled by your enemy or other small effects which don't contradict to the owning side but still give a little use as rebalance)

Orodbril

[chrisli]

Am I the one of the few players that isn't thrilled about the idea of an invisible mailbox in the field? I mean, it is a nice feature idea, and I am sure many players will love it, and I am very happy that the game continues to grow, expand and evolve, but I like the realism aspects of the game most of all.

That was my first thought as well - I don't actually object to having to go to a mailbox, because it makes sense that you should have to. (Of course it's sort of weird that everyone's mail is in every mailbox, but still. :P ) However, since it looks like a lot of players like it, I'm okay with it and I'm glad they're adding more benefits to being a subscriber.

[MithrielWielder]

Good news on the inven/mail changes for VIPS, and good timing on the announcement in view of the anxiety over the recent personnel losses . . .

but . . .

I really had to lol when I read the first three items --- everything the players have said they do NOT want:

--Session play has been universally condemned all the way back to game launch . . . yay we get more MANDATORY session play!
--The initial SOA version of the game is viewed by most original players as being the Golden Age of the game . . . yet the current developers seem intent on ruthlessly destroying all of the original content, making that forever unavailable -- North Downs content to be destroyed and replaced with more of this easy mode content I guess-- as has gone the original Moria, GB, Fornost, Helegrod, on level L50 group content, on level L60 group content, on level L65 group content, on level L75 group content, and on level L85 group content.
--and best of all- no new on level group content, the #1 thing the players want (hmm, wow I just thought of a great idea-- instead of having the developers spend all their time destroying old content, what if they instead spent time on creating new content!)

Its no longer aggravating tho-- Its just comical, its like they try to figure out exactly what people don't want, and then do it

Well, at least they aren't raising the level cap again.

[SlopranoDark]

Ettenmoors changes:

Monster Players:

• New amazing skills
• More landscapes to defend/attack.
• Sieges on castles in other landscapes.
• Possibility to have higher ranked Portrait Frames:

1. Elite (Rank 3)
   
2. Elite-Master (Rank 6)
   
3. Nemesis (Rank 8)
   
4. Arch-Nemesis (Rank 12)
   
5. Rare Elite (When Rating is at or above 1,250)
   
6. Rare Elite-Master (When Rating is at or above 1,500)
   
7. Rare Nemesis (When Rating is at or above 1,750)
   
8. Rare Arch-Nemesis (When Rating is at or above 2,250)

!!.They're custom portraits!!

Free Peoples :

• New amazing skills.
• Possibility to have the NPC's portraits (Such as Defender etc.) when reaching higher ranks.
• Sieges on castles in other landscapes.

Physic changes:

• When in first person, you can see your weapons, hands and horse etc.

Cost changes:

• Appearance costs lowered from: 7500 commendations to 2500 commendations

This was an old post of mine which everyone disliked. I hope it will still be implemented though.