Bullroarer Update 32 - Beta #1 - CLOSED

[LordOfTheSquids]

Bullroarer is CLOSED

Beta is now closed, thanks for your participation and feedback!

Server Opening Time: Tuesday, 12/14 ~1:00 PM EST
Server Closing Time: Thursday, 12/16 ~3:00 PM EST (Subject to Change)

• Report A Bug
• Guide to the Eyes and Guard Tavern
• Character Copy is AVAILABLE. This can be accessed through the 'Transfer' button on any LOTRO Launcher.
  
  • PLEASE NOTE: The database has not been wiped. If you have copied a character from Live to Bullroarer since 12/01 you will not be able to copy that same character again
    
  • Deleting this character will not allow you to re-copy. Please refer to the linked thread for information regarding Character Copy.

Housing Update
One of Smaug’s last treasure hoards has been opened and the Dwarves of Erebor have moved to reclaim it! Join them in owning a piece of Midde-earth, in the Great Hall under the Mountain!

This new premium neighbourhood will include twelve Base Premium Houses, one special Base Premium House, six Deluxe Premium Houses, and one Premium Kinship house, along with a full suite of town services and social spaces for you to enjoy with your kinship and neighbors!

In addition to the new neighbourhood, Erebor Housing introduces new exterior music and dayfile hook types to allow players even more customization options for their homes and extends the usage of housing permissions to allow players to make their yards fully private from uninvited guests.!

Release Notes - Beta #1:

Housing:
- New neighborhood consists of 12 Base Houses, 1 Base+ House, 6 Deluxe Houses, and 1 Kinship House
Introduces the following new features to housing:

• Private yards! Set usage permissions on the gate leading to your home to allow only those you want to be able to open the doors!
• Cave Dayfiles! Change how you experience subterranean living with a set of Dayfile objects to change the lighting in your front yard!
• Exterior Music! Music Boxes are now available for yards!

- Fun Neighborhood Features:

• Full suite of town services/travel options!
• Take the high dive into swimmable gold coins!
• Get your friends, enemies and spectators to participate in a life-sized game of chess or checkers!
  -Preview Only:
• Erebor Broker and Real Estate Ledger are accessible in the E&G Tavern basement next to the Rohan Housing Brokers.
• Decoration items can be purchased from Trotter in Tavern.

General:

• Various Z-fighting issues in Gundabad have been fixed.
• Various stuck spot issues in Gundabad have been fixed.
• Gundabad Quests: The story of Câr Bronach concludes in Gundabad with 20 additional quests for level 135-136. If you have completed questing in Câr Bronach, speak to Mézto at Grúmachath to continue.
• All the old craft barter recipes for LI relics have been removed from their associated vendors.
• Mission - Gundabad - Lay to Rest - Dwarf-wights now patrol the space and have proper appearances
• Gundabad Geode Hunter: Barter prices have been adjusted.
• The wargs for 'Corrupted Heirlooms' will no longer count as North Downs creatures - so now they won't trigger deeds (but especially not when you find them in Rohan).

[purpleshadow1]

No reward track AGAIN. I'm close to giving up on LOTRO for a while!

[Nydhogg]

Should this be 31.2 instead of 32?

[Moskva]

Everything new is good, but there are many nuances that remain untouched:

1. When creating a character, the class starting parameters show funny numbers at the start of the game, which, in my opinion, do not affect the gameplay.

2. Fate points for VIP players are also outdated and require revision!

3. VIP privileges .. why run constantly to the NPC and take a quest from him? Add to interface!

4. Revise the Hobby Gift Rewards!

5. Servers - lately there have been terrible lags, how are things going with tests of new parameters?

6. Add to the game the ability to preview items from exchangers. I can’t see what a dog / cat looks like until it is activated!

7. Add the ability to preview costumes on the character (enlarge the window where you can measure clothes)

8. Make a compact personal account, which will contain ALL information about my account and the content that I purchased! I'm tired of my personal account from the turbine!

9. Revise the interface of the auction, make it possible to preview items before buying them as they might have looked before activation.

10. The character editor is maral and physically outdated.

11. Optimization of the game - I still play the game when my FPS jumps from 62 to 10 and back, wherever I am. I have been playing this game for a very long time and already tired of adjusting it constantly, for some unknown reason I cannot even set high settings, since I cannot enjoy such a picture for a long time, FPS starts playing with me.

There are things that are needed now, so that it would be convenient, but they were forgotten about.

[Elflord410]

So......... Plenty of time and resources for fluff, but can't be bothered with reward track.

I just don't feel like logging in much anymore.

[Hephburz-2]

Not particularly related to the above notes, but I have two small requests for champions that I hope the team/Vastin could take a look at SOON.

• Could you please lower the cooldown of Champions Challenge from 30s to 10s, Champions already struggle more-so than other tanks with aggro, there is no reason especially why their ST taunt is 30s (20s longer than every other tank classes ST ranged taunt), or at least make something in blue to lower the cooldown from 30s to 10s.
• And also the force-taunt aspect of the "horn of champions" skill, does not copy threat, at all, which makes keeping AoE aggro without True Heroics, a nightmare - True Heroics with a 2min CD can not really be relied upon! This is something that has been mentioned a few times, and I have also passed this along to Cordovan a few times, can this please be fixed soon!

On another note, it would also be nice to see some revision to the Blue Capstone, Quick with a Blade, either making Merciful Strike a force-taunt OR make it apply some kind of buff/debuff to the target, but this is less important.

[semmelbroesel]

<sarcasm>

Oh good, housing updates, goodie goodie - just what we all asked for - not boring stuff like major bug fixes or server upgrades. It's not like your server connection doesn't randomly freeze even in near-empty areas or private instances...

</sarcasm>

Seriously, last night in low-level Mirkwood, 12 of us were frozen to the spot for 20 seconds and couldn't get skills off properly for the next 5 minutes or so. This is too common and has been for years now.

SSG, you are not going to win new players or keep old players from leaving by giving them housing updates.

Work on your server infrastructure so the game is playable. And get your non-existent customer support staff figured out.

A simple rule of economics: When money is tight, don't save your money by going all the cheapest routes - invest what you can into improvements and more staff (within reason), and the money will eventually come back in.

I have worked for half a dozen companies that did exactly what you are doing now - and they all went belly-up.

We all love the game in general without new fancy gadgets. Just improve your quality instead of adding empty quantity, and your fan-base will be truly grateful.

[Strider5548]

Not particularly related to the above notes, but I have two small requests for champions that I hope the team/Vastin could take a look at SOON.

• Could you please lower the cooldown of Champions Challenge from 30s to 10s, Champions already struggle more-so than other tanks with aggro, there is no reason especially why their ST taunt is 30s (20s longer than every other tank classes ST ranged taunt), or at least make something in blue to lower the cooldown from 30s to 10s.
• And also the force-taunt aspect of the "horn of champions" skill, does not copy threat, at all, which makes keeping AoE aggro without True Heroics, a nightmare - True Heroics with a 2min CD can not really be relied upon! This is something that has been mentioned a few times, and I have also passed this along to Cordovan a few times, can this please be fixed soon!

On another note, it would also be nice to see some revision to the Blue Capstone, Quick with a Blade, either making Merciful Strike a force-taunt OR make it apply some kind of buff/debuff to the target, but this is less important.

Regarding your second point, I would actually like to see true heroics CD lowered significantly in blue rather than horn of gondor turned into a force taunt. Why? Because I think it makes things more interesting to have horn of gondor not guarantee threat, you get the mobs locked for 5 seconds and it's up to the champ to do enough damage to keep them held.

Blue champs certainly are missing a reliable forced AoE taunt, however, and imo it makes more senes to have true heroics CD lowered to something like 45 seconds.

[Hephburz-2]

Regarding your second point, I would actually like to see true heroics CD lowered significantly in blue rather than horn of gondor turned into a force taunt. Why? Because I think it makes things more interesting to have horn of gondor not guarantee threat, you get the mobs locked for 5 seconds and it's up to the champ to do enough damage to keep them held.

The champ can't do the damage though to keep them held, so, you know? And Horn of Champions (Blue line, NOT horn of gondor (the stun horn)) IS already a force taunt, it's just not copying threat like any other force taunt is.

[Runmymouth]

A few notes.

1) Can we make it so you don't fall from falling off the balcony on deluxe houses? If not, can we get a respawn point inside of the housing instance.
2) The VIP vendor is far away and hard to find because of different levels, can we get it as part of the interface, a daily quest, outside every house's gate? Something?
3) The UI around the new special house is funky (I am certain you knew this already). I can provide screenshots if needed.

[Joedangod]

• Could you please lower the cooldown of Champions Challenge from 30s to 10s, Champions already struggle more-so than other tanks with aggro, there is no reason especially why their ST taunt is 30s (20s longer than every other tank classes ST ranged taunt), or at least make something in blue to lower the cooldown from 30s to 10s.

It’d need to lose the debuff if that change went through.

[Hephburz-2]

It’d need to lose the debuff if that change went through.

Or make the cooldown change a blue-only thing / reduce the debuff in blue.

[Runmymouth]

A few more notes.

1) Floor surfaces are not displaying.
2) Are we able to edit the green pillars into a different theme inside? (ideally outside too with ambiance but I can understand that not being an option).

[OghranNasty]

No reward track AGAIN. I'm close to giving up on LOTRO for a while!

It has already been stated that the reward track is pushed to Januari.

[Joedangod]

Or make the cooldown change a blue-only thing / reduce the debuff in blue.

Would have to be a pretty substantial nerf to the debuff.

[Happybudgy]

It has already been stated that the reward track is pushed to Januari.

This Bullroarer housing preview will go live before Christmas then?

[Happybudgy]

<sarcasm>

Oh good, housing updates, goodie goodie - just what we all asked for - not boring stuff like major bug fixes or server upgrades. It's not like your server connection doesn't randomly freeze even in near-empty areas or private instances...

</sarcasm>

Seriously, last night in low-level Mirkwood, 12 of us were frozen to the spot for 20 seconds and couldn't get skills off properly for the next 5 minutes or so. This is too common and has been for years now.

SSG, you are not going to win new players or keep old players from leaving by giving them housing updates.

Work on your server infrastructure so the game is playable. And get your non-existent customer support staff figured out.

A simple rule of economics: When money is tight, don't save your money by going all the cheapest routes - invest what you can into improvements and more staff (within reason), and the money will eventually come back in.

I have worked for half a dozen companies that did exactly what you are doing now - and they all went belly-up.

We all love the game in general without new fancy gadgets. Just improve your quality instead of adding empty quantity, and your fan-base will be truly grateful.

I am so reminded of this: https://www.engadget.com/2012-12-04-...bby-horse.html

"Would you pay $50 for an in-game toy hobby horse? That's the question that Turbine put to players in Lord of the Rings Online this past Sunday. The studio put the item on sale on the test server store for 5000 Turbine Points (roughly equivalent to $50) and asked players for feedback on the item and price.

The hobby horse functioned as a standard mount with an increase in traveling speed, even though it was a toy horse head on a stick. Unsurprisingly, players were not overly thrilled about the hobby horse and filled the thread with concerns and discussion over the expensive item.

Following a few days and several hundred posts, a representative for the game said that the price will be changed: "The hobby horse will now not be going live with that price point. [Turbine is] experimenting with items and pricing on the store. This test was, as is obvious from your feedback, unsuccessful. The feedback was somewhat expected.""

[Nanganark]

Can we please remove the maximum usage level for all valars including upgrades? I think if you buy a Valar, you should be allowed to use it with any character, because after all it was paid by (your) money.
I hope that in the future all characters no matter what level (except novice) may still open them.
What do you think of this idea?

[MourneBlade]

Not particularly related to the above notes, but I have two small requests for champions that I hope the team/Vastin could take a look at SOON.

• Could you please lower the cooldown of Champions Challenge from 30s to 10s, Champions already struggle more-so than other tanks with aggro, there is no reason especially why their ST taunt is 30s (20s longer than every other tank classes ST ranged taunt), or at least make something in blue to lower the cooldown from 30s to 10s.
• And also the force-taunt aspect of the "horn of champions" skill, does not copy threat, at all, which makes keeping AoE aggro without True Heroics, a nightmare - True Heroics with a 2min CD can not really be relied upon! This is something that has been mentioned a few times, and I have also passed this along to Cordovan a few times, can this please be fixed soon!

On another note, it would also be nice to see some revision to the Blue Capstone, Quick with a Blade, either making Merciful Strike a force-taunt OR make it apply some kind of buff/debuff to the target, but this is less important.

Champions were never meant to be main tanks, Blue line gives them the ability to off-tank somewhat, as in taking aggro for a little bit to give the main tank a little breathing room. (although this does make the healer work harder)

Also, IMHO NO SELF RESPECTING CHAMPION PLAYS IN BLUE LINE. If you can't play a champ in yellow or red or a red/yellow, yellow/red hybrid and survive ahh well that is just sad!

[Hephburz-2]

Champions were never meant to be main tanks, Blue line gives them the ability to off-tank somewhat, as in taking aggro for a little bit to give the main tank a little breathing room. (although this does make the healer work harder)

Also, IMHO NO SELF RESPECTING CHAMPION PLAYS IN BLUE LINE. If you can't play a champ in yellow or red or a red/yellow, yellow/red hybrid and survive ahh well that is just sad!

Lol? Obvious troll is troll.

[Strider5548]

The champ can't do the damage though to keep them held, so, you know? And Horn of Champions (Blue line, NOT horn of gondor (the stun horn)) IS already a force taunt, it's just not copying threat like any other force taunt is.

yea I'm mixing the names and terminology but I know what you're talking about.

I still think any change has to also consider true heroics, a 2 minute aoe taunt with threat copy as the only option is just not enough. I like the fact that horn of champion at least gives you a life line every 20 seconds (or whatever the CD is). I used to think horn of champions should do a threat copy as well, perhaps it should, but between the two I'd rather see true heroics CD reduced so it becomes more usable.

Regarding the champion's challenge debuff, yea 30% with 50% uptime is too much, perhaps a 20s CD would make more sense.

I'd rather see the debuff stay the same and not have a super short CD, I think any less than 20s would be OP unless the debuff is changed (which I'd rather not see).

[TobiasEstForte]

Reward track won't bring much money to SSG's table, you guys have already paid for Gundabad. Premium Housing on the other hand...those mithril coins sales are going to go up. Remember lag doesn't effect housing much so people will still buy it despite server conditions

[Runmymouth]

The hitching posts are hard to get through underneath the other cosmetic positions. I am thinking these are tempoary locations in the yard but it is nice to be able to have all the crafting next to each other.

[Pequen]

Reward track won't bring much money to SSG's table, you guys have already paid for Gundabad. Premium Housing on the other hand...those mithril coins sales are going to go up. Remember lag doesn't effect housing much so people will still buy it despite server conditions

I for one am waiting to buy the expansion until it is finished and the reward track is available. I am sure there are others as well. So yes, there is money to be made by finishing the expansion content.

[wrath247]

I for one am waiting to buy the expansion until it is finished and the reward track is available. I am sure there are others as well. So yes, there is money to be made by finishing the expansion content.

From an economic perspective I do somewhat get why Erebor could be a potentially higher income at the moment and long-term than Gundabad.

At present we don't have any numerical values so we'd really just be guessing things based on basic concepts but,

Normally when businesses/games make a push for certain products/items it's generally coming from the mindset that there is a large playerbase that will consume said good. Now idk how the view of this is on other servers, but on Crick at least there are ppl waiting for next year to buy it with LP.

So weighing the income from Gundabad, it'd be Potential Income vs. Guaranteed, and again high prices does not = high income; especially when it comes to how pricey the higher bundles are so the net income for that likely mostly comes from the base editions at best.

Housing, however, seems to be part of their long-term investment. Because unlike Gundabad, premium housing is something anyone on any level can purchase and if you wanted to buy one you'd more likely commit to paying irl cash by virtue of the high price ceiling whereas Gundabad can just be grinded for with the lower LP price ceiling. This also aligns with the goal of moving away from an unlock based economy, and transitioning to cosmetics/player housing.


Short Version:

Long-term income: Accessible Housing on any lvl VS. Expansion needing max lvl
Price Ceiling: BOTH are likely to be of equal range; BUT mithril coins will probably go on sale
Earnable through grind? : 2495 lp (which kudos if you want to wait) vs smth smth 6000+ plus, Gundabad in this regard wins BUT in doing so emphasizes the irl cash factor for premium housing


Note: Considering how regardless of the price ceiling, Rohan was said to be a success, then the latter might also be true for Erebor. That and it really seems to be their intent to finlly broaden housing and provide as many opportunities for players (especially newer ones) to live in Middle-Earth and feel at home.

Also check out the interview with Scenario on this!