Five New Instances in Update 5

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lomeloth

Seriously?



Most of the changes you mention come regardless of whether one purchases the expansion or not. Stats, virtues, level cap, classes - all free. Not tied to the expansion purchase, only to the expansion timeline. The two are not the same.

---

Lets back up..where has anyone said that Level 75 cap will be available without purchasing anything in the store for freeps (yes, creeps will be 75 automatically.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crell_1

Lets back up..where has anyone said that Level 75 cap will be available without purchasing anything in the store for freeps (yes, creeps will be 75 automatically.)

---

Hmmm. I read it and noted it as odd, because I actually had thought it unlikely, myself (since it's called out specially in the advertisements for the expansion). But it's consistent with the updates to F2P allowing people to reach 65 without purchasing MoM or Mirkwood.

I can't find where Turbine has explicitly stated it though, so I'll retract that part of the post - I've learned at least as well as anyone else not to go by inference around here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lomeloth

Hmmm. I read it and noted it as odd, because I actually had thought it unlikely, myself (since it's called out specially in the advertisements for the expansion). But it's consistent with the updates to F2P allowing people to reach 65 without purchasing MoM or Mirkwood.

I can't find where Turbine has explicitly stated it though, so I'll retract that part of the post - I've learned at least as well as anyone else not to go by inference around here.

---

Hehehe...Yeah, it's consistent with the later updates, but *not* getting it without the expansion is consistent with the initial F2P release, where they were capped at 50. So, this is a point that could go either way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warriorpoetex75

<snip>

You don't HAVE to preorder Isengard to get access to the instances when they are finally added. You can buy Isengard from the Lotro Store after the xpac goes live.

---

You do NOT know this at all. In fact all the indicators would suggest that if you do not pre-order Isengard from the "Lotro Web Store" as Sapience clearly articulated you very well may have to spend more money for those Instances if you choose to buy Isengard from the in-game Store...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arbalister

Hehehe...Yeah, it's consistent with the later updates, but *not* getting it without the expansion is consistent with the initial F2P release, where they were capped at 50. So, this is a point that could go either way.

---

Agreed. This is something I can see going either way. Likewise with T7 crafting. They purchase gated it for a period (Moria, L60 -T6, Mirkwood L65), and removed the gate at update 2..There's no reason they couldn't gate them now and drop the gates for Update 5. ..we'll see..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crell_1

Agreed. This is something I can see going either way. Likewise with T7 crafting. They purchase gated it for a period (Moria, L60 -T6, Mirkwood L65), and removed the gate at update 2..There's no reason they couldn't gate them now and drop the gates for Update 5. ..we'll see..

---

Yeah. I'm sort of expecting the in-game store to have something like a quest pack, crafting pack, instance pack, etc...and *maybe* a full "expansion pack" that includes them all. I thing that latter is something that they haven't finalized yet, if it's even in the works. And I'd expect that buying them separately will total out to "something north of the MoM expansion," with the expansion pack (if there is one) somewhere between MoM's expansion pack, and "something north."

But that's just speculation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warriorpoetex75

And I've seen the new regions. They're bigger than you think they are. They also each have their own maps. Dunland is about the size of Bree-Land. Isengard is about 1/2 that size(maybe a little bigger). And yes the gap isn't overly large but it isn't supposed to be. Read the books sometime. Technically, it IS 3 regions. Again, you're just splitting hairs. Be happy we're getting anything at all. They could have decided to release each section separately in the store and charged way more.

---

Right, I can reserve judgement on the size of this expac till it hits, but: it has been sold at a premium price. No, they would likely not get away with charging more. Nor in any way dole it out in smaller pieces for "way more".
The expansion is being ridiculed on globallff on my server on a regular basis now.

Quote:

---

The xpac isn't just about new regions. There's A LOT of changes happening. Stats, Virtues, Classes.. I could go on and on. "An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game." This xpac meets the requirements to have the title 'Expansion Pack'.

---

You really, really cant drag in the class and skill changes and claim they are part of the expansion. The changes are on several classes affecting the class from level 1; and stat changes affect all players whether they buy ROI or not. If people who didnt buy ROI would play with the pre ROI stat limits/class skillsets etc, I'd agree. Lvl 66-75 skills ARE part of the expansion, however. Or at least I think so unless people somehow manage to play to 75 without buying the expac. In which case it wouldnt be.

this was a long thread, so maybe i missed it, but...

1. has it been confirmed that ROI will be available for TP from the turbine store?

2. if so, has a price in TP been set, and is it comparable to the cash price?

3. will the update 5 instances have a separate TP price, and not be part of the x-pac if it was purchased with TP?

4. is this all still being debated by the marketing guys in-house? ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dean340

this was a long thread, so maybe i missed it, but...

1. has it been confirmed that ROI will be available for TP from the turbine store?

2. if so, has a price in TP been set, and is it comparable to the cash price?

3. will the update 5 instances have a separate TP price, and not be part of the x-pac if it was purchased with TP?

4. is this all still being debated by the marketing guys in-house? ;)

---

So far number 4 seems to be the answer. No word on when this will be finalized.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dean340

this was a long thread, so maybe i missed it, but...

1. has it been confirmed that ROI will be available for TP from the turbine store?

---

Yes it will and Sapience has confirmed that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dean340

2. if so, has a price in TP been set, and is it comparable to the cash price?

---

A bit above the cost of Moria is the best confirmed information we have thus far.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dean340

3. will the update 5 instances have a separate TP price, and not be part of the x-pac if it was purchased with TP?

---

We don't know for certain, however Sapience clarified twice that the Instances are included if you pre-order Isengard from the "LOTRO Web Store" If you don't pre-order and buy it from the web store we don't know if the Instances will be included and/or if they will cost more when they are eventually released.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dean340

4. is this all still being debated by the marketing guys in-house? ;)

---

Exact pricing and Official confirmation of the Instance costs has not been released so it would seem that either they don't know yet or they know and just aren't releasing that information yet...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark_J

YWe don't know for certain, however Sapience clarified twice that the Instances are included if you pre-order Isengard from the "LOTRO Web Store" If you don't pre-order and buy it from the web store we don't know if the Instances will be included and/or if they will cost more when they are eventually released.

---

I think that should be "Turbine Web Store" not LotRO web store. I'm only being picky because it would be easy to confuse that with the LotRO in game web store which he didn't mention yet. You can buy Isen for cash now or after launch from the Turbine Web Store. It's the first post in the thread.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sapience

We are currently preparing five new instances for release post Isengard.

Rise of Isengard will be released on September 27 along with a 24 Player raid. There will be 3 Three player, 1 Six player and 1 Twelve player instance released in Update 5, the first update after the release of Rise of Isengard. These instances will be free to any player who has pre-purchased the Rise of Isengard expansion or who purchases after launch via the Turbine Web Store.

---

Then random forum guy asks and gets the answer:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stephen1981

sapience when you say turbine web store you mean in the in game LOTRO store ?

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sapience

No. The Turbine web store is the same store we use for the Isengard preorder.

---

Now that should make it all clear as mud.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arbalister

Yeah. I'm sort of expecting the in-game store to have something like a quest pack, crafting pack, instance pack, etc...and *maybe* a full "expansion pack" that includes them all. I thing that latter is something that they haven't finalized yet, if it's even in the works. And I'd expect that buying them separately will total out to "something north of the MoM expansion," with the expansion pack (if there is one) somewhere between MoM's expansion pack, and "something north."

But that's just speculation.

---

Lets back up.. From my conversations with Alphaman last night during CSTMs live podcast, I'm confident T7 crafting will be open for everyone.

I can confirm 'open landscape' access to Dunland, (He wasn't specific about the rest of the areas, but given the epic comment below I suspect this is true of Isengard and the Gap of Rohan as well). You will still have access to the new Epic book for Free; This means you'll be able to level to level 75.

And since there are tasks at level cap...and I believe the rest of 66-75 as well..you've got a way to grind the rep for the faction reputation gated recipes... Provided the recipes cost 'coin' and not some kind of 'quest only' currency you barter.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FyreBrand

I think that should be "Turbine Web Store" not LotRO web store. I'm only being picky because it would be easy to confuse that with the LotRO in game web store which he didn't mention yet. You can buy Isen for cash now or after launch from the Turbine Web Store. It's the first post in the thread.



Then random forum guy asks and gets the answer:




Now that should make it all clear as mud.

---

It seems pretty clear to me. At this point in time the only way we know for sure that you get the instances for free is by pre-ordering Isengard through Digital River (Turbines Web Store) and paying cash.

We do NOT know if these Instances will be free under any other conditions, they may not be.

Clear as a bell...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark_J

It seems pretty clear to me. At this point in time the only way we know for sure that you get the instances for free is by pre-ordering Isengard through Digital River (Turbines Web Store) and paying cash.

We do NOT know if these Instances will be free under any other conditions, they may not be.

Clear as a bell...

---

I believe it was said that if you pay for RoI via the Turbine Web Store at any time with cash you will still get the instances for free (no sure thing on the price though after pre-order)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark_J

It seems pretty clear to me. At this point in time the only way we know for sure that you get the instances for free is by pre-ordering Isengard through Digital River (Turbines Web Store) and paying cash.

We do NOT know if these Instances will be free under any other conditions, they may not be.

Clear as a bell...

---

Read the quoted text carefully. It says, like 4enzix mentioned, if you pre-order OR purchase after release, from the Turbine web store the instance content will be included with your purchase. So a Turbine web store purchase is going to get you the full meal deal either way. You just won't get the pre-order goodies after launch.

He didn't say whether that would be bundled in the LotRO store with TP, or if it would be accessible from the LotRO store on launch day, or what the price in TP will be. Everything about the LotRO store purchase is still being ironed out or at least not currently disclosed (I'm putting money on the latter). Other than a vague statement that said we could buy xpacs with TP there has been little additional information. Remember with Turbine what they don't say is as important as what they say.

Like I said, clear as mud which by the way was just a light-hearted reference to the confusion of sorting this stuff out and nothing more. Is it crystal clear for you now?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FyreBrand

Read the quoted text carefully. It says, like 4enzix mentioned, if you pre-order OR purchase after release, from the Turbine web store the instance content will be included with your purchase. So a Turbine web store purchase is going to get you the full meal deal either way. You just won't get the pre-order goodies after launch.

He didn't say whether that would be bundled in the LotRO store with TP, or if it would be accessible from the LotRO store on launch day, or what the price in TP will be. Everything about the LotRO store purchase is still being ironed out or at least not currently disclosed (I'm putting money on the latter). Other than a vague statement that said we could buy xpacs with TP there has been little additional information. Remember with Turbine what they don't say is as important as what they say.

Like I said, clear as mud which by the way was just a light-hearted reference to the confusion of sorting this stuff out and nothing more. Is it crystal clear for you now?

---

It was crystal clear before the past few posts.

Pay cash and you get the Instances, don't pay cash and take your chances having to pay additionally for the Instances.

The TP cost for Isen was said to be something a bit more than Moria but no exact amount confirmed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Warriorpoetex75

Sapience said in a much earlier post that Isengard will cost 'North of MoM'. Which means it will cost more than 2495 TP. Which means it will technically be more that $30. Considering how HUGE this xpac is (And I don't refer to just the regions) it makes sense to be at least the price of MoM.

---

It doesn't really make sense at that price if it doesn't include the instances.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zathscorp

It doesn't really make sense at that price if it doesn't include the instances.

---

It doesn't make sense to me that Turbine just doesn't say 'If you buy Isengard you get the Instances free'.

It shouldn't make a difference if you use your credit card at the Digital River site or you use your credit card to buy Turbine Points. Without the Instances Isengard is a glorified quest pack...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sapience

Update 5 will be available before the end of the year.

---

I'm late to this party, but this is good news. I'm not too worried about 'end game' content when I have 10 levels to plow through.

Looking forward to it!

Wow.

I was gone for the weekend, come back and still not a word.

This is very upsetting.

First of all, thank you Sapience for giving us this update - 5 new instances (one of which another raid) is great news indeed. Even though it's kinda sad they aren't being released with ROI. But this means end-gamers get 3!!! raids in one year. When was the last time this happened? Yes, we don't know if the Update 5 raid is a lair raid or a multi-boss one (could you please give us some information regarding this Sapience?) but still. It's 3 new raids :)

And we'll get The Inn of the Forsaken back on T2 with ROI, so yay for that (which for me is almost like getting a new instance because frankly, I don't run it on T1 and we only had what? 2 weeks before it was taken down?).

Now, I've been beta testing ROI and to be quite honest...there's no way this ISN'T an expansion. We're getting 10 more levels, new skills, new armour, new crafting (and this alone is worth being called an expansion IMHO), tons of new quests, the longest epic book ever (or so I think), and a new landmass to explore. And did I mention the crafting yet? Because it's just...wow :D

Yes, there are things I'm not happy about (why are you making me re-learn my main?), but I'm really loving the new areas, and updates the expansion brings us.

Do I think it's worth paying $30 and more? Sort of. Do I think it's an expansion? YES! Would I have liked to see the new 5 instances with ROI? Yes, but there's nothing I can do about that so I'll go and find something to entertain me until they come out. Like farming. And farming my beloved / behated 3-man instances. And doing OD on 75 because I want the horsie :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wynniekins

First of all, thank you Sapience for giving us this update - 5 new instances (one of which another raid) is great news indeed. Even though it's kinda sad they aren't being released with ROI. But this means end-gamers get 3!!! raids in one year. When was the last time this happened? Yes, we don't know if the Update 5 raid is a lair raid or a multi-boss one (could you please give us some information regarding this Sapience?) but still. It's 3 new raids :)

---

We do not know for certain this Update will come before the end of the year. They have not given a specific date yet. They appear to be uncertain when they will be able to deliver it (except to say it won't be on RoI launch day)... So, to crow about three new raids in one year is a bit premature.

Quote:

---

And we'll get The Inn of the Forsaken back on T2 with ROI, so yay for that (which for me is almost like getting a new instance because frankly, I don't run it on T1 and we only had what? 2 weeks before it was taken down?).

---

While I am glad to see it come back, because I would love to run it on T2 with friends, I don't think finally getting an instance that hasn't worked properly since its release months ago actually counts as new. At least as a VIP I didn't have to pay for it; if I had, I'd be rather non-plussed at the wait to consume it fully.

Quote:

---

Now, I've been beta testing ROI and to be quite honest...there's no way this ISN'T an expansion. We're getting 10 more levels, new skills, new armour, new crafting (and this alone is worth being called an expansion IMHO), tons of new quests, the longest epic book ever (or so I think), and a new landmass to explore. And did I mention the crafting yet? Because it's just...wow :D

---

To be quite honest right back, most of what you mention is freely available whether or not one purchases the expansion. Only the quests and raid seem to be tied to the expac itself; the new levels, skills, epic book, crafting, and landmass will be accessible to all players. When you consider that the raid was originally supposed to be part of a free update, being able to access it as part of a paid expansion seems... well, less than worthy of celebration.

Furthermore, we still have no indication whether this Update will be free to VIPs as all others have been in the past. Since they've tied it to the expansion, and given the following information from Aaron Campbell to CSTM, the answer seems more likely to be No than Yes:

Quote:

---

Aaron clarified what comes with the expansion purchase and what is available to all for free, purchase or not. The regions added in this update (Update 4) will be accessible to all, without any artificial boundaries in place between Enedwaith and Dunland. The recently announced Update 5 will contain instances free to those who pre-order the expansion or buy it in the Turbine web store (buying it at isengard.lotro.com, with a credit card or PayPal). When the expansion is released in the LOTRO store (the in-game store where you spend Turbine Points), Aaron believes the expansion will have separate parts to buy with TP individually, saying that this is one benefit to pre-ordering.

It is important to note that a good portion of the content will be free to all regardless, with Epic Quests continuing to be open in addition to tasks and levels.

---

Since we still cannot make an informed purchasing decision due to the utter lack of information about when and in what configuration the expansion (and now its subsequent update) will be on the store (the costs thereof in TP aside), I am getting less and less enchanted with the whole experience.

to me that still leaves a option open for the full packages with everything from the expansion and update 5 included

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mark_J

It was crystal clear before the past few posts.

Pay cash and you get the Instances, don't pay cash and take your chances having to pay additionally for the Instances.

The TP cost for Isen was said to be something a bit more than Moria but no exact amount confirmed.

---

Instances are supposed to be free when you buy an expansion. VIP's and Lifetime accounts are not supposed to be paying extra for instances, whether you pre-order or not.

I paid my lifetime account back when this game was beta, and the *only* thing I was required to buy was full Expansions... and nothing else. That was part of the deal.

I'd also be willing to bet this is the very reason why they have intentionally left these instances out of the expansion pack.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 0rdinary0wl

After thinking more and more about RoI, I've come to a conclusion about what is making me really dislike this expansion so far. It's the spirit of the thing. I used to believe Turbine would always do right by us. Yes, they still need to run a business, but I felt like they would always throw us a bone once in a while.

Now it seems like Turbine's position has shifted to: what's in it for me? It's like they won't do anything just to be nice, but rather only in response to overwhelming criticism to save face (like this announcement), or to maximize profit (possibility of update 5 instances not free without using money to get the expansion).

---

I agree with this.