How about Northern Mirkwood and Beorn, the bear guy? That was my favorite part in the Hobbit book and I would really like to go there.
How about Northern Mirkwood and Beorn, the bear guy? That was my favorite part in the Hobbit book and I would really like to go there.
I want to see the South Farthing, shown on the Shire map but inaccessible. Also, how about connecting Ered Luin and The Shire with a new zone so that we no longer have that teleport link? I suspect that they aren't interested in going back to low-level content like this, but I would really like to see Eriador expanded and refined. Perhaps more revamps of existing zones would be more realistic. In particular, refreshes of Misty Mountains, Trollshaws, and North Downs would be amazing.
Please do not put this high on your list, Turbine. It's just something I'd love to see worked on eventually. No rush, as there are more important things that need done. But I'd love to see some emotes revamped. My kin as an "emote of the month" we do to help people get those hidden emote deeds done. Right now we are doing 'flirt' and.... Well.... Frankly if anyone in real life flirted like that they'd get laughed at. I know flirting in Middle Earth is different than flirting in today's modern world, but seriously. It could be a LITTLE better than what it is. :P Or even some new emotes! Ask the players for ideas, I'm sure they are full of them. :)
Thank you.
I am new to LotRO and of course love it.
Expansions are quite disruptive with new levels, gear resets, etc.
OTOH, Expansions get publicity. I knew at some point I wanted to play LotRO but finally pulled the trigger due to the HD publicity.
So my concern is you need some phrase that will get all the gaming sites to cover it. How much ink does the 97th patch of a game get versus "New expansion launches!" How about calling them extensions?
tl;dr: lack of content labeled expansion means you will need to work a bit harder to get noticed. Please do so; the game deserves it!
P.S.: any inventory efforts will be most appreciated!
No, I don't agree! I'd like to see the quest to destroy the Enemy's Ring, something that took 6 months' time in Tolkien's novel, completed before I start collecting Social Security.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
So there will be new content, only not delivered via expansion? I'm fine with that, especially if it's free to VIPs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
It definitely is. That's a big part of the reason that I have 3 lifetime accounts. The bag space situation has improved greatly since LOTRO's inception in April 2007; it is much appreciated. (Anyone else remember having stacks of quest items--boar innards and the like--in your storage bags?)Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
Players were calling for a housing revamp ever since its release. This is a long awaited enhancement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
That would be an awfully puny change for its hype as THE teaser of the whole coming year in the Executive Producer's annual letter.Quote:
Originally Posted by oaceen
This seems more the right oomph to match the prominence of the tease. It would be, as Kate said, a "new addition" rather than simply a revamp of something existing.Quote:
Originally Posted by gildhur
Beorn is dead. However, his relations, the Beornings, do still walk Middle-earth.Quote:
Originally Posted by TobaOni
Two very encouraging messages I took away from this Letter:
1. An acknowledgement of the need to slow down and give some lovin' to the game. (I'm sure anyone who actually plays this game anywhere outside of level cap will appreciate this.)
2. A message that some lovin' is coming for VIPs. (I like my existing perks, but my subscription should get me additional perks when new costs are introduced into the game; see Housing Chests and Mithril Coins in general. At some point, subscribers are getting gouged, ya know?)
It was a nice surprise to see this Letter from Kate today and I definitely approve of the ideas and direction it offers.
Merry Christmas, LOTRO!
Instances and raids needed. Please address group content.
So many good things to comment on, choosing just this one right now; I agree, so much that can be done to improve it. There are some improvements to the Kin house systems I'd like to suggest but I'm guessing that the format of the houses will be changed when they recreate our personal houses so, my primary suggestion would be:Quote:
Originally Posted by Narghast
1) input/outtake log for the Kin house chests/vault,
2) a permission format that can be linked to our Ranks, i.e., "Recruit" (newest members) are not permitted access to the chest/vault, each rank up has permissions to take out x-number of items per day. It's a system that's used in another game I've played for years and, having been a Guild/Kin leader myself there, takes a very few minutes to set up and, most importantly, prevents wholesale theft from happening. Sadly, we've all seen that happen. The log shows who, what was removed/put in, and when.
This is much more efficient than having to list each Kin member individually and change their permissions as they move up in rank. We can change rank from our "O" screen from anywhere in Middle Earth without having to port to the House. In the game I referred to above, the Leader designates which ranks have permission to change vault settings when she/he sets up the House AND the permissions granted to each Rank she/he creates. It's a one-step system. Coding I know nothing about but I'm confident that our Devs are clever enough to figure it out or, ;) pm me and I'll give you the name of the game I mentioned and you can go check it out for yourself to get the visual of the system. I'll even provide you with screen captures if that would help. The same goes for the housing system "over there".
Overall, this letter is such very good news!
I definitely like the idea of you guys taking your time with content. I'd prefer better content that's been worked on, rather than rushed content, just to get it out there.
A lot of things disappointed me.
For sure the easy mode of leveling/raiding for end game.
New Book is really bad and lore some time it is ... not enough good.
Nothing can be a true challange and many time I have sensation You are working as a random team.
It's strange to see a new book for end game with no group istance and no challange ... not one time but from isengard start ...
Another really big bad issue of the game is the itemization ... never scaled item from on level old istance ... useless drop from raid ... all random drop ... that's started from isengard... raid give only symbol else trash loot ... no sense !!
Tier 2 same drop ... enamy with only more HP and more damage ... never change fight or tactics.
Every expansions make old content useless ... Big battle are the best example ...
Well ... you have done BB just for lure new players to buy new expansion ... else no reason to start BB from level 10 ... but level 10 BB kill istance and skirmish starting from level 20 !!!
I don't wanna talk about pvp ... but pvp it's the only part of the game where you can keep a fight/challange.
We still play here, we still trust. This year I not bought preorder only for my disappointment but i hope you will work on make the game great as before.
Good luck and i wish you a merry xmas and happy new year togheter !
Guiwinner aka Mirko
Raiders have been arguing against expansions and level cap increases for a long time. The Turbine League of Agreeable Players told us we "1337ists" and that "expansions are fun" and that "if you don't have level cap increases there is no progression." Now the League of Agreeable Players are all applauding Turbine's wise decision to backpedal on the money grab, I mean expansion, cycle. Is there now any doubt that there is a class of player that will blindly support whatever Turbine decides to do?
If one really wants to know why there will be no expansion next year, one need look no further than the abysmal sales of Helms Deep. Attribution to the Players Council is just marketing.
1. That's just my opinion.
2. I could be wrong.
As has been mentioned several times already. Raids, 6 man's and 3 man's of the new variety and sine hard, like diamond hard. and interesting possibly as a spin off from a quest line. eg. Last march of the ents would be awesome.
How about one of these new areas also including group quests or signature areas? it's a thought.
And hey is this early? good stuff.
So it's nice to see stuff like this getting posted in terms of attempts at least but if we drop back just about one year to the Last Letter from an Executive Producer it's a toss up as to whether any of this has substance or is just lip service.
From last year:
We hear pretty much nothing about what the Player's Council does except when they're being blamed for making bad decisions in regards to changes. It seems pretty obvious from many of the beta changes before HD and more importantly what got left out of live, this expansion saw the least amount of Dev interaction or responsiveness to anything players were asking to have fixed.Quote:
Player’s Council – We are doubling down this year on the conversation between Turbine and you, our players.
One of two things that actually happened from last year's letter, although the response is pretty mixed as to how "battles of epic proportions" played out, and it's a bit baffling to see how many things were unfinished (a microcosm example being red ruby icons for emeralds)Quote:
Western Rohan – I am at this moment standing on the parapet of the Hornburg
Flat out never happened, and ironically it's listed again this year with a broken link...kind of an ominous foreshadowing. Last year's letter also lists how Player's Council was going to help here...yeah.Quote:
Housing – I am extremely pleased to say that this year we will be tackling a major revision to the Housing system. In February and March we will be gathering information about how Housing should change, and then we’ll be releasing revisions to the system in the latter half of the year.
In many ways this was poorly handled and still is broken even after multiple rounds of Beta. And in fact we're still looking at things getting even worse as with 12.1 and broken guardian response skills.Quote:
Class Adjustments – Later in the year, we will be making some significant changes to the skills and traits of the Free Peoples classes.
Thanks for the letter, but it really would be better to have something more concrete as opposed to more of what we've had in the past.
Yeah, I have my reservations in regards for the logic behind this shift in philosophy, but I'll reserve judgement until we see how the quarterly updated turn out. I think the existing game is gravely in need of polishing, so hopefully this will allow that to happen. I think this is largely an extension of the micro-transaction concept in which they charge smaller amounts over a longer period of time in order to make it more palatable to customers and smooth out their revenue as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by bastiat1
I approve of both. Would rather wait couple more months for better housing that will last years than have mediocre changes now. Also, finally more incentives to stay VIP.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
No word of "grouping/challenge/instances/raids" really worries me. It sounds to me like it's gona be another Wildermore every quarter with solo solo solo and then grind same 10 solo instances daily for rep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
"Moments from the lore" just means session play in Paths of the Dead and Dead Marshes. I hate these, would rather have it in proper release as new region.
Revamping old maps will only be good for new players or alts and they'll be done with them in couple days. It's not endgame. Idk how it makes sense from business perspective to put time and resources there rather than design solid instance cluster that would keep endgamers happy for whole year. As someone already said, one traditional raid is all we ask for atm.
I'm even worried ur gona try revamp classics like Rift/CD/DN and turn them into refarmable wings with reduced mobs and difficulty and destroy last good memories for people.
Tension with no lack of proper grouping options besides rerunning same old content can really be seen on forums and in-game now. I don't know why people who like raiding are hopeful reading this letter, to me it's just fool's hope as Gandalf would say. :p
I don't mind improvements to inventory and festivals but can't figure why these 2 are gona be the only focus? It's not like they're in terrible shape as they stand. What about:Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapience
-lagggg
-putting at least daily locks on scaled instances to stop overfarming
-fighting inflation that spiked after not monitored Horse Lord farm
-nothing new for Moors again despite the amount of money ppl spent just to join there (vip)? It's kinda tradition but can't even give some different outfits to freepside instead of ugly green for years.
-promised kinship revamp
-graphical facelift for characters/many NPCs. They look terrible while overall graphics is really nice for 7yr old game.
-fixing Draigoch so can actually finish it (only instance in the game i wasn't able to - bugged every single run)
-official global channels
-exploring option of making LFF for instances/raids cross-server
Any of these would do game more good than improving on systems that aren't so bad to begin with. For me, overall the letter is disapointing with priorities screwed up.
Like so many others, I would like some challenge. I remember starting just after Mirkwood came out. Barrow downs was scary on level. My first character is a Captain, as it was similar to the Paladin class from AD&D, a warrior with some divine blessing and healing powers. I made my 2nd character a Champion, as the Captain didn't kill efficiently. Then I had the problem of having to wait between battles to restore morale with food. From the champion I bought a 3rd char slot (f2p at that time,) and then the warden class which I loved. It kills faster than a captain, and could self heal so I could not only take on harder mobs, but keep a nice pace with no waiting between fights. Even so, there were edgy moments most of the time, dancing on the edge where a messed gambit spelled doom, and just one inconvenient stray mob joining in meant Death. Joining up with a fellow kinmember playing a captain allowed us both to expand our knowledge and understanding of our classes, and it was a blast running together, and truly gratifying taking on the occasional wandering rare elite. Now there isn't even enough danger for a solo character.
Moria was truly scary, both from the gloom, mazelike areas and harsh mobs. Nowadays, even before the HD overhaul of classes I walked two runekeepers and a loremaster through moria without feeling that adrenalized charge of a hard on the edge fight. Come on, Moria is the big bad Mother of all dungeons that has come after. I was about the only person in my kin who LIKED the menacing shadows, who delighted in exploring off the path. To face the enemy with just a shield, spear and a couple of javelins deep in the dark where turning the corner was hairy cuz I never knew what to expect, an empty passage with just some rats and bugs, or a lurking band of Orcs/goblins and a hellish hard fight. Now it's more like Las Moria, bright bloody crystals everywhere and puny victims. Bring back the fear! Give us danger! Make the first sight of the sky upon entering Lothlorien magic again!
----
On another note, in the Big Battles it would be nice to have some free enemies. The kind that rushes with the others and attacks whatever gets in the way, be it Rohirrim or the players, so that the melee players can get in the defensive line and actually be targetted, or a tactical/ranged player can blast on something that actually notices and perhaps pushes through the line to get us back, or punish healers. It's not that hard. Let the free mobs rush in with the others and just follow regular threat rules. I stated in another thread that I marched one of my runekeepers up in front of the rohirrim line and everything ran past her. Normally in a raid/skirm/instance she would be eaten like bacon before the mobs continued forward. Yes, keeping the regular warriors, commanders and sappers is fine, but please please add a couple of mobs that attack anything. Trying to repair/disable/crank objects is a lot more scary when some mobs actively try to kill you to stop you. ;)
V.
Unexpected, and intrigued to see how it turns out. Just do remember quality, not quantity; don't rush the content to meet each quarterly deadline.Quote:
“Take a break from expansions”
Yeah my thoughts exactly, ive currently cancelled my sub due to turbines refusal to balance things atm...and from lack of challenging end-game content. If the decision not to release a yearly expansion means they start bringing out new instances/raids then i woleheartedly agree with it.....but i have my doubtsQuote:
Originally Posted by Germ0498
Please take us north into Mirkwood, Thranduil was facing battles this time in the game as well as Laketown and the Dwarves. This would be a perfect time to take our characters north to help out.
Sounds like a good plan and I endorse it (for what it can be of worth..). It is a good idea to stop with the level cap increase because it only leads to new grinding and suddenly kills older, not scalable content. I like the idea of adding new areas at the current level cap. They say you're gonna make the Isengard cluster scalable, that's a good thing. There's plenty of older content to make worth playing at cap and you know what I'm talking about: Angmar cluster (imho the best instance cluster in the game) not to talk about Moria (I'd love to see again Igash at 95 ! :-D) etc.. While you're at this, don't forget that is the rewrd system that makes content played by players: remember when you first scaled Fornost, no one played it at first because there was no worthy reward, when you added it, it became one of the most played instances at cap. Hope you will keep up with our expectations as I (we?) love this game !
One final note: please do what you can to avoid end game content become too easy and not challenging, as it is now. I think this is because of class revamps and new trait system, I'm sure you'll balance it out.
I don't think last years expansion sold well either. Not so sure this is the sole reason but I think something else played a part in them going this route.Quote:
Originally Posted by bastiat1
Next year they need to get it together because I think there gonna have a uphill battle keeping players more so then other years.
Less of the "check privies" and all around mindless clicking quests would be a plus also. Can't tell you how boring that gets. Once in awhile I get, but entire quest lines, one after the other, of just running back and forth to click something and watch a bar fill, is just tedious.
Ooo, where's the sale data posted, I must read it!Quote:
Originally Posted by bastiat1