Tell the Community Team - New and Revamped Systems - 4/8/10

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.[/QUOTE]

1. Slayer deeds! why do I need to kill 100 bears to prove my loyalty? and why do I have get the 'killer of bears' title before I can start working on the actual virtue? Surely there are better, more story-driven ways to get virtue ranks? Make them quest rewards or faction rewards. Just getting rid of the titles would be ok; I have a bajillion titles already and all the ones I really like came from quests or exploration deeds.
2. While its not quite directly in line with what you were looking for, you might try tightening up Volume 1 a little bit. Its great that is all soloable now but there are 13 books, some of which contain close to 15 chapters. That's just a bit too much for a solo player to work through; I know that asking for 'less' content sounds weird but I'm soloing a lot of Vol 1 content on alts now and it can get a bit, well, boring sometimes. I really want to take part in the Epic storyline but if it could go a bit faster that would be great.

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Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

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Hmm, at the moment I've got nuthin here. More may come later.

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Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

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This is a bit subjective but I don't spend a whole lot of time raiding mainly cuz I'm just too busy. Its great content and the token system works well, I just don't get to do it that often

Well, that's my 2cp

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Scalable instances: (like the skirmish concept) so non-uber regular folk like me can still earn the best gear, but also not have to grind for it so long that LOTRO becomes a chore or a second job. I am a casual player that likes to play many alts, but they always seem sub-par due to time requirements to earn the good gear.
2. Housing: beautify the Bree neighborhoods with colors other than drab brown. Expanding the hook idea so many people are writing about is good too.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Add a threat/aggro meter so I know who has the most threat and I can quickly be able to tell how much threat a skill adds.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Festivals
2. Monster play

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Housing. Many have mentioned the hooks and lack off... I would go further. If houses could be expanded - i.e. you buy a small and add on as your cash flow improves. Also, while I understand why you made housing never come back onto the market, it is a pain in the posterior. I live in a ghost town - I have not seen another sole in my hood in months. 2/3 to 3/4 of all houses are locked at any given time. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
2. Kinships. Nothing has been done to enhance the benifits for kins since they started. I joined a kin just after beta, I am now kin 2nd. Since before housing started we have been at max - and no additional benifits since then. How about message boards in the kin house, kin banks, maybe an enhancement to passing gear and goods between members.


Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be? I am afraid I just don't know what to say to this question.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Inn league
2. festivals - I just never have the time and even more, I don't have the space to keep the rewards if I did spend my time earning them.

It seems housing is a hot issue, so I won't bring that up other than to say it is a huge money (gold) sink that I should never have wasted my hard earned coins on. This system should be a pay once system, no maintenance.

Question 1:

1 and 2 Crafting and Economy: These go hand in hand and they should be re-done from the ground up. The only reason crafting exists in a video game is to make the game more interesting, if it does anything else than it is broken. The economy only exists to facilitate the exchange of goods and services between crafters and other players making the crafting system worthwhile. Therefore anything that is an impediment to the economy is an impediment to the crafting system.

Firstly, the crafting Professions should be as interesting and unique as the Class system is. If someone wanted to create a character who's only purpose was to be an armorer or weapon-smith the game should still be engaging. See SWG's crafting system prior to the so called "Combat Enhancements". I knew many players who only played for the crafting system, and they drove the economy. Unlike the WOW model where the only people playing to make gold, and thus driving the economy, are gold-farmers.

Next, everything that a player receives should be worth something to a crafting profession, no vendor trash. Grey items should be broken down for raw materials or "upgradeable" to yellow or purple by the appropriate profession. Items crafted should have many (by many I mean 5 or more) customization slots that allow for the crafter to increase the base stats to make each piece unique. For example: gold (or copper, or silver, etc) inlay on armor or weapon to boost Will, the setting of precious stones to increase Radiance, or the alloying of iron in Jewelry to increase durability, etc. All resources should have many generic uses in all professions.

Items should not be bound, or have infinite durability (except maybe LI's). Items should be repairable by a crafter but never to 100% (durability decreases as a function of the number of times it is repaired), once it becomes useless break it down for some raw materials (salvage). Services, such as repairs, should only be performed by crafter or an NPC hired by the crafter. Crafters should be able to hire an NPC in an area appropriate for their level to provide unattended player services.

Crafters should be able to hire NPC workers to mass produce items, particularly consumables (i.e. food, tokens, etc.). The Auction House should be the network of vendors that already exists and it should automatically "distribute" player crafted items to level appropriate vendors according to the type of item the vendor sells. For example the heavy armor vendor in Bree sells all the heavy armor of level 10-20 posted on the AH by players. Vendors that sell vendor trash are a waist of pixels, code and client/server resources. Vendor trash itself is a waist of my inventory.

So much for brief (sorry).

Question 2.

Mounted combat is a given in Rohan, so I don't consider that "new". Just know that a Rohan sans mounted combat is an unforgivable departure from the canon.

Okay, this is an idea I have had banging around in my head for many years for an MMO game mechanic. I think it would be difficult to implement (or at least complicated to implement), but most things worth doing are difficult. I also think it will be perfect for Rohan in the north considering their conflict with Isengard, and for the conflict between Gondor and Mordor (yes I am a total Tolkien nerd :) ).

The vision for this mechanic starts with areas of the map where there is an ongoing battle for control of that area by two (or more) factions. The area of the map would go through different stages and basically loop through the stages with different factions gaining control of that area for a period of time. For LOTRO the factions would be good vs evil, or freeps vs creeps in PVMP terms. The different stages would be a large scale combat stage, a healing/rebuilding stage, a preparation/ intelligence gathering/patrolling/small combat stage. After which the loop starts over with the large scale combat stage.

The large scale combat stage could essentially be PVMP, with a mix of quests surrounding the epic battle theme. This is time for players to be in the thick of it on both sides. Minstrils healing, RK's nuking, Champ's hacking and slashing, etc on the battle field. Lots of NPC's from both sides involved in the fight to give it the epic battle feel. Players can go out solo and find a pack of NPC's to help, or put together a fellowship or raid and hit some bigger targets on the battle field. This should have a kind of "instant action" feel when a player enters the area and quickly lead into a near chaos feel in the middle of the battle. Players can move in and out at will.

Eventually the battle will subside with one or the other side "winning". Who wins should depend on the quantity of player involvement on each side. The winner will gain control of the area and begin to rebuild the defenses against the inevitable counter attack. While the loser goes of to lick their wounds (healing quests) and plan the counter attack. This is the time for resupply (crafting) quests, tending to the wounded quests, and training (new NPC recruits) quests. This stage should have a "respite" feel, ie. rest while you can as there will be a lot of work to do soon.

The next stage is the preparation stage. The armies have amassed and are planning their attack/defense. Patrols (solo/fellowship/raid quests) from both sides are out getting intelligence and getting into small engagements. Spies from both sides are skulking (solo/small fellowship quests) about (yay Burgs!) gathering key intelligence. The air is tense with anticipation as last minute resupply, training and rallying (buffing) the troops quests are being completed. The end of this stage culminates with the newly rebuilt (loosing) army marching out to the battlefield to reclaim what was lost.

Then, of course, the loop starts over. Player participation at each stage is key to the outcome of the large scale battle in the form of buffs, numbers of NPC's on each side, etc. The stages should last about a week each and the loop should go on even if the players do not participate, however the outcome of the large scale battle is greatly effected by the participation of players at each stage.

The main points here are to generate the feel of a large battle and provide class and crafting profession specific quests that effect the outcome of the battle. Everything that the players character has experienced, all the grinding and training and traveling, will have specific roles or benefits in this event loop.

uh.. wow that is long. Oh well.

Question 3:

See rwsteve1044's post.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Animations. In particular, combat and walking animations are clunky and unnatural. They could use a complete overhaul
2.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Random events would be fun. Random visits by GM-run NPC's, I'd like to see more of
Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. If I enjoy an activity I'll do it. If not, I avoid it.
2.

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Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

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1. Housing - eliminate maintenance and add crafting and additional storage to neighborhoods.
2. Storage - We need a closet to keep our costume clothing, we need an attic to store our decorations. The best way to fix this is to *stop making fluff items BOA!* so that I can get one item and share it with my alts! If you're going to make me get the same item on all of my characters at least give me somewhere to store it all!

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Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

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Fluff games! I'm imagining something like Tiddlywinks. It would work kinda like a skirmish where you could open up a game and other players could join. At first I was thinking players would "ante up" before the game started and the winner would collect the pot ... but I have reconsidered that idea as it would promote gambling. Perhaps a variety of titles could be available instead. There are some unusual terms in Tiddlywinks that would make for great titles. I can see it now... "Ify, Squidger Extraordinaire" or "Ify the Squopped" or even "Ify, Master Winker".

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Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

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1. Chicken play! I actually love the concept but seldom have the time to engage in it. I actually took my first character through all the chicken quests last weekend after reading this thread. It was a hoot and I really like my new Cloak. I'll be doing more Chicken play in the future ... I just don't know when I'll find the time.
2. Class quests - There should be a way to do these solo. I know this isn't the answer you're looking for here but if there were a way for me to solo the upper-level class quests I would participate.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Housing (revised) - Free form decoration placement. Choice of internal floor plan. Ability to expand that floorplan after purchase including things like crafting facilities for kin houses (minimum). Develop Hobbit housing floor plans that actually LOOK like Hobbit housing. See Housing Provisioner's and Bag End for Hobbity floor plans. Ability to change external appearance to one of the already existing appearances, i.e. if I want my Hobbit hole to look like one from Woodhall, then I should be able to change the appearance. The graphics already exist in game. So many more awesome suggestions on these forums.
2. Hobbies (expanded) - Plenty of suggestions around. I'm less concerned with what and more concerned with more. One small revision: Add the ability to sit while fishing. My Hobbit feet need a rest.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
I like Hayoo's Tavern Revelries, although you may want to look at all all his Tavern ideas and roll them up into one nice big release.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Instances - We're a very small kin and don't have the people or mad skills to do instances designed for the elite players. I really wish instances had a "quest mode" that wasn't very hard, was scalable (small fellowship minimum, full fellowship, or raid), didn't drop any awesome loot (so the leet players won't complain), but still allowed you to finish quests and deeds. Until something like that happens, I'm stuck waiting until I significantly outlevel instances before I can experience them.
2. Exploring - Because I just don't have the copious amounts of gaming time to wander around like I used to.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1. HOUSING
2. HOUSING, HOUSING, HOUSING! holy ronald macdonald, if Turbine employers would receive $1 each time its community members mention HOUSING, you guys would all be flying your damn own jets by now!

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

Becides wiping out the old HOUSING (and another $1!) and adding an entirely new playable houses, well, the Tavern thing mentioned above sounds pretty fun.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. Chicken play, Tags - those nice little minigames, would like to see more of them after you'd fixed ... oh wait for it... HOUSING! another $1 here!
2. Fishing - it's nice to have a break from grinding another hundred of wargs for a deed, but can we have more new fish or rods or whatever, it's just gets boring too soon.

Question 1

1. A way to move housing hooks around more.
2. A way to get shorter cooldowns on Reputation maps.

Question 2

A new hobby, Tentmaking, depending on your level of Tentmaking, you could make small tents, larger tents, ext, or even small houses in certain places that would stay like a toggle skill until another was made. It could even use items from other places, metal, and wood for example. It would be a great thing to have around if you were throwing a party or playing music somewhere. And, so they didn't cause trouble, blocking paths and things, they could have health, so if you wanted to, you could destroy one.

Question 3

1. Tag/Freeze tag. Would be more fun if expanded and there was more obstacles, and your Fellowhip dot was not visible on the map.
2. Chicken quests, They are really fun, but, there should be a reward that lets you turn into a chicken at will, Either for a short time, or a toggle skill, or like mounting a horse.

[This Brittking now: my son is one of the younger players in the game and I thought you might like to hear that point of view since there are many. I notice that younger players enjoy ownership, customization (especially around housing), mini games, and interaction ( like D.R.A.G.O.N. or he keeps wanting to be able to put objects in the game that others can destroy). Also, cliff jumping and jumping onto places that are unique. Thanks for reaching out, keep up the good work]

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Housing. Hooks either need to be drastically increased OR eliminated in favor of a free flow style.
2. Mounts. I expect you'll be tricking them out more as tech becomes available for Rohan but this could use some love and it could be a totally unique system for this game.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be? Tough question. Hobbies ala Mapmaking, Animal Training and so forth that can have a peripheral effect on game play.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Chicken Play
2. Music. You guys have something totally unique here and should really make use of it more.

I would like a better way to sort the buffs/debuffs in the UI. Or maybe just make the rows they are in longer so they don't overlap the person belows health. I know there are some things you can do Such as show only things I cast. But I hate doing that because then you can't see wounds poisons etc. Putting on only dispellable effects lets you see the wounds and cuts down on clutter, but then I can't see what I have cast on different people. Maybe something class specific, I.E. a way to turn of seeing mini ballads or captain buffs.

I think I might be happy if it were possible to combine the Dispellable effects only, and my effects only. But currently checking one box automaticly unchecks the other.

Maybe just make the Buff/debuff icons scale so we can make them smaller so we can fit more? Or heck, maybe just separate peoples vitals so more can fit? I'm not picky just something plz.

Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Revise the whole idea of providing rare loot on a random number, particularly for quest drops. The RNG that lotro uses has high serial correlation ... which means if your lucky, you will be done quickly, if not, it could take a couple of nights. For the quest drops ... just skip it ... make it number of mobs defeated or at least provide a high probability drop. Some nights the black badges are done in the first 5 mobs, some nights nothing drops for the first 25 mobs and then 5 badges drop on the next 6 mobs. Probably not really random .... The Symbol of Celebrimbor fits this bill too. I don't know what sequence it's in, but there are some very very long cold streaks for some and some very hot for others. If it were a more advanced RNG, maybe these things would work out. (Note to readers: for those who think that reproducing the mean probability is an adequate measure of an RNG, go do some reading before you comment).

2. Give us some preset configurations of gear and traits we can switch between when switching from soloing to raiding to instances to pvp ... you can keep the trait switching costs, just don't make us have to do the book keeping to remember which traits and gear to use.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Mounted combat


Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Music
2. Housing activities