December Newsletter a question

I read the folling and I think its great to read this

•Radiance & its removal in Q1 –We’ve received a lot of feedback on Radiance gating since its introduction and are pleased to announce that Radiance gear will no longer be a requirement for any of our instances or raids. In fact, with the release of our Q1 update next year, we will be removing Radiance from the game entirely. It will not be present in the new Instance Cluster or Epic Book and will be removed from all current instances. You should get your first look at a Radiance-free LOTRO on Bullroarer in early February of next year.
•Next Steps with Legendary Items – We’re planning on doing two upgrades to Legendary Items next year – one in the Q1 release, and one later in the year. The goal is to respond to a bunch of your feedback and to incorporate some more versatility, flexibility and less randomness into the system. We’ll certainly be releasing a dev diary on the Q1 changes as we get into next year.

The question that I have is as follows: I am glad were pulling radiance out, do you intend to put another artificial gate in the place of radiance to gate the raid cluster content? That is all I want to know from Kate.

If we pull radiance out, but put in another artificial gate to lock folks out we have done nothing and have not learned. That is all I got to say, but finally looks like they might be listing to the vet player base.

Has anyone started a "But I took months to grind my rad gear and this is not fair to me!" thread yet? ;)

Oh there will be another gate im sure. Will always be some divider between casual/hardcore. Just trying to appeal to all playstyles.

Radiance is being removed, not replaced. There is no other gating mechanic being added.

Well..

There it is, ending months of speculation.

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Originally Posted by Sapience

Radiance is being removed, not replaced. There is no other gating mechanic being added.

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Two thumbs up!

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Originally Posted by geoboy

Well..

There it is, ending months of speculation.

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Only becasue people have missed it previously. One of the pre November update interviews said this.

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Originally Posted by Petromir

Only becasue people have missed it previously. One of the pre November update interviews said this.

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Yup, I was going to track down which one it was but this makes it sooo much easier when the question arises in the future.

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Originally Posted by Petromir

Only becasue people have missed it previously. One of the pre November update interviews said this.

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Correct. We've said it several times since we announced it during a Dev chat during the free to play launch.

Could you please explain why Turbine first implemented the gating system in the first place and then explain why it's being removed? I'm more curious than anything, like to know random facts and such.

I understood those statements as a confirmation of the end of gear gating, not the end of all gating mechanisms, such as deed / quest or rep.

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Originally Posted by geoboy

I understood those statements as a confirmation of the end of gear gating, not the end of all gating mechanisms, such as deed / quest or rep.

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They arent removing all gating, they are removing all raid gating and arent replacing it. Rep/deed gating is a different kettle of fish, and has not been announced for removal I don't beleive.

Can you guys make it so that Moria, Loth, and DG Medallions can be traded in for skirmish marks? If radiance is removed there will be one less reason to run any of the Moria instances. At least if people can trade their tokens in for the universal LOTRO gear currency, then everyone gets a reward for running it.

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Originally Posted by geoboy

I understood those statements as a confirmation of the end of gear gating, not the end of all gating mechanisms, such as deed / quest or rep.

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The only gating I've heard that may be in place would be an exploration type quest/deed. When the instances were added to instance join I seem to recall that it was mentioned that for future instances you may have to "find" the instance on lanscape before using instance join. I'm not sure if that will still be the case, but that would be one very small type of gating in the future.

(But that's a by-product of the instance join and not related to radiance at all.)

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Originally Posted by Sapience

Radiance is being removed, not replaced. There is no other gating mechanic being added.

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This scares me, really does.

And the reason is simply this. Back in SoA, where the level cap was 50 and pretty much everyone had the same gear (same class), the Rift constituted a challenge because of execution, not because (so much) of gear.

3 Years later we have 65 as a level cap and a wider variety of things that may influence the outcome of an encounter. Legendaries (yes, they are being removed, but since no one knows how they are being removed lets stick with them for now...), way more jewelery options, a lot of different options gear wise (all these new armour sets...) which influence the stats to have and what not...

All this is in way bigger proportion than the Rift ever was. So... without any gating mechanism...

1) The raid is going to be too hard for not so dedicated players (call them casuals if you wish...), which constitute the majority of the player base according to some sources around here. If this is the case, what's going to happen? People will ask for a nerf... and it will be dumb down... Because if they don't nerf it, people will complain and stop playing it (remember the Gauntlet?). And Turbine doesn't like unhappy costumers, especially if that means less credit card swipes :)

2) The raid is going to be easy ala School and Library revamp so it can accommodate everyone... So everyone is "happy"... Except people who have been waiting for something new AND challenging for quite some time now.

So yeah... which one is going to be?

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that everyone could go to the Rift. But I'd love to see something to prevent a fresh 65 with a week of playtime get the same thing I got with months of playtime in order to improve my characters.

Cheers,

Ric

From what I understand based on chats, dev responses, etc. is that they will be going back to the old lock and key method a-la The Rift, Carn Dum, etc.

Not sure how that will affect the pre-Watcher instances because I don't see needing six different keys to get into the Watcher's lair. They may end up completely revamping it, though, so who knows.

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Originally Posted by RicardoFurriel

Legendaries (yes, they are being removed, but since no one knows how they are being removed lets stick with them for now...)

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Point of order. Legendaries are *not* being removed. According to the latest word they are scheduled to receive two "revamps" in 2011. They are being changed, hopefully for the better, but they are not going anywhere.

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Originally Posted by RicardoFurriel

This scares me, really does.

And the reason is simply this. Back in SoA, where the level cap was 50 and pretty much everyone had the same gear (same class), the Rift constituted a challenge because of execution, not because (so much) of gear.

3 Years later we have 65 as a level cap and a wider variety of things that may influence the outcome of an encounter. Legendaries (yes, they are being removed, but since no one knows how they are being removed lets stick with them for now...), way more jewelery options, a lot of different options gear wise (all these new armour sets...) which influence the stats to have and what not...

All this is in way bigger proportion than the Rift ever was. So... without any gating mechanism...

1) The raid is going to be too hard for not so dedicated players (call them casuals if you wish...), which constitute the majority of the player base according to some sources around here. If this is the case, what's going to happen? People will ask for a nerf... and it will be dumb down... Because if they don't nerf it, people will complain and stop playing it (remember the Gauntlet?). And Turbine doesn't like unhappy costumers, especially if that means less credit card swipes :)

2) The raid is going to be easy ala School and Library revamp so it can accommodate everyone... So everyone is "happy"... Except people who have been waiting for something new AND challenging for quite some time now.

So yeah... which one is going to be?

Cheers,

Ric

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Legendaries being removed? What do legendaries have to do with armor anyway?

As I see it this now gives people a better chance to mix and match gear that might even be better than "rad" gear...

Also it has the potential to make crafted armor usable again to more people...

Additionally more people will try these previously gated instances which is also a good thing.

I dont really see a downside of this.

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Originally Posted by RicardoFurriel

This scares me, really does.

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I mostly agree with you. I like a gate, just not one that dictates my gear. I would have liked to see a Deed-Based gate (ie need to complete challenge mode in all lesser instances in a cluster before you can attempt the raid).

My guess is store gear is on its way and they got rid of radiance to lower the outrage from raiders if they were to sell (20+ rad) radiance gear. Without radiance all they have to do is have the stats be a tiny amount lower then the raid gear and the casual gamers will go crazy with happiness, and turbine will feel it is ok to put it in there cause it is not the best gear out there.

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Originally Posted by Falconor

My guess is store gear is on its way and they got rid of radiance to lower the outrage from raiders if they were to sell (20+ rad) radiance gear. Without radiance all they have to do is have the stats be a tiny amount lower then the raid gear and the casual gamers will go crazy with happiness, and turbine will feel it is ok to put it in there cause it is not the best gear out there.

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I dont think so.... They removed radiance because it was roundly hated by a majority of the playerbase since it was first put in place.

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Originally Posted by geoboy

I mostly agree with you. I like a gate, just not one that dictates my gear. I would have liked to see a Deed-Based gate (ie need to complete challenge mode in all lesser instances in a cluster before you can attempt the raid).

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Yeah I mean that's basically the way Helegrod currently works isn't it? What's the problem with continuing that model? Most people don't object to the idea of a gating system of some sort, they object to not having any choice in what gear to wear.

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Originally Posted by RicardoFurriel

But I'd love to see something to prevent a fresh 65 with a week of playtime get the same thing I got with months of playtime in order to improve my characters.

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I must have missed the part where they said that removing radiance gating would mean raids would drop all their rewards for every person participating on the first run through. Losing the radiance will mean people like me will probably get to sight-see once or twice. It doesn't mean we'll be snapping our fingers and getting all the rewards they have to offer. Any reward that both requires a group and requires lots of iteration is something I'm absolutely never going to get, so you're safe from getting overrun by hordes of casuals.

Besides, why do you really care? It took me quite awhile to get to level 50 on my first character, but players these days can do it in a month or less. Who cares? It's not a competition for limited resources - I'm no better off if you suck, and no worse off if you don't. "Game Experience May Change During Online Play". They could improve that sentence by changing "May" to "Will".

Khafar

But I took months to grind my rad gear and this is not fair to me!








. heh,..couldnt resist..

and as none of my characters have one iota of Rad gear,...I'm pretty cool with it.
:p

That's good to hear. Now if we could just eliminate end-game armour sets and class restrictions on armour altogether, I'd be even happier.