Update 17?

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Originally Posted by Vyvyanne

Regular updates and no expansion packs is the current plan. We are doing new regions every full number update (U16, U17, etc) In between those (15.2, 16.2, etc) we are doing system work and smaller content drops like the PvMP map and Bingo Boffin.

The ranged weapons issue is a bug, I will have to look and see if that is something we have corrected, I am not sure that we have.

As for Cosmetic Weapons they work the same as cosmetic armor. You will have three new slots on your wardrobe for putting in any weapon or shield that you own. There will be some compatibility issues with certain items, but you will get a tool tip on the wardrobe for that slot telling you why they are not compatible and the visuals will default to the equipped weapon. There will be some bugs as we roll this out the first time as there are thousands of potential combos, but we are really happy to have it where it is and hope to expand upon it in coming updates.

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I'd be onboard with a mix of larger and smaller updates, as it (hopefully) should be possible to push out the smaller updates about every two months, which seems to be about the cadence you're hitting now.

Having some official word on the 80-90% certain things in the pipeline would be helpful for the community, as right now you've left the future to our own imaginations, which largely becomes "WEEE'REEEEE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEEDDDDD DDDDDD!!!!! OH NOOOOOOOEEESSS!!!!!"

Vyvyanne, thank you for responding with information regarding future updates.

We would love to know if new 3, 6 and 12 man runs are planned for update 17.

New instances with good loot (meaning at least 10% improvement on existing stats) are essential to maintaining the interest of the player base and attracting new ones.

I recommend not wasting too many resources on cosmetics that might detract your attention from development of new instances and better gear.

Adding a higher tier of essences will mitigate the advantage gained by the recent exploiters and would give us incentive to run the new content.

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Originally Posted by Vyvyanne

Regular updates and no expansion packs is the current plan. We are doing new regions every full number update (U16, U17, etc)

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What's the region for u18?

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Originally Posted by Vyvyanne

Regular updates and no expansion packs is the current plan. We are doing new regions every full number update (U16, U17, etc) In between those (15.2, 16.2, etc) we are doing system work and smaller content drops like the PvMP map and Bingo Boffin.

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Sad to hear. :(

The quarterly/episodic/whatever releases haven't held my interest because the areas don't seem as nice as full expansions.

None of the new areas compare to Moria, Isengard or Helm's Deep. If Minas Tirith is just a so-so quest pack, I'm gonna be pretty disappointed at such an important part of the story being condensed down.

Are we never going to see anything quite like a real expansion again?

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Originally Posted by LethalLethality

Sad to hear. :(

The quarterly/episodic/whatever releases haven't held my interest because the areas don't seem as nice as full expansions.

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I try to treat Western Gondor/Central Gondor/Eastern Gondor as one big expansion.

Yes, it took them a year to release all three separately. But taken as a whole, they are on a par with prior expansions (imo)

Would you rather wait a whole year to get one xpac...or get updates quarterly(ish)?

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Originally Posted by bucko39

I try to treat Western Gondor/Central Gondor/Eastern Gondor as one big expansion.

Yes, it took them a year to release all three separately. But taken as a whole, they are on a par with prior expansions (imo)

Would you rather wait a whole year to get one xpac...or get updates quarterly(ish)?

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Even all three Gondor areas failed to capture me like Isengard and Moria and Rohan did. The expansions just feel more detailed and cared for, but that's just my opinion.

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Originally Posted by LethalLethality

Even all three Gondor areas failed to capture me like Isengard and Moria and Rohan did. The expansions just feel more detailed and cared for, but that's just my opinion.

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I can respect that.

In my book, nothing beats Moria :)

Also, what ever happened to the movies for Epics? The last one I remember was Helm's Deep with the Huorns, IIRC.

Would really like to see those make a comeback.

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Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

The MMO market is really really saturated currently. There are too many products available for us to choose from.

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Genuine question - is it really? I do occasionally get a hankering for another MMO but I either think it looks like every other WoW-ripoff with dull story and gameplay, a very pretty looking fancy game with no depth (Guild Wars 2), or a unique premise that royally flopped (The Secret World.) Blade and Soul looks kind of interesting but it's taken so long to arrive in the West it looks old already. I have half a mind to check out FFXIV again, as apparently it's good, but I was part of the Beta Disaster of the first launch so I'm loathe to get back in.

There are a few big titles and a whole host of small forgettable ones. LOTRO is in the middle, veering towards the big titles, I like to think (yeah, fanboi, lol, whatever.) I certainly always end up coming back, but for the last couple of years nothing's even made me hit download. They''re becoming like Facebook games - churned out by the dozen, but no real draw. People seem to try the new titles but seem to return to a home title, be that LOTRO, WoW, Eve, GW2 or whatever.

Or, I'm wrong, and there's loads of great MMOs to try :) Which would you recommend? (something more story/RPG than PvP, if you please.)

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Originally Posted by bucko39

This does make me wish I saved the "cool looking" weapons over the years. I can think of a champ sword right off the top of my head that I wanted to equip all the time--looked like something the corsairs are wielding in Gondor at the moment.

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It may lead to people running old content just to get desired cosmetics.

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Originally Posted by Careth

@Vyvyanne

I do hope that we're not doing like for like only, as in I've equipped a one handed sword so I can only use a one handed sword as appearance. If that's the case I'm really worried for Runekeepers, as all they have is runestones...

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I'm not sure the animation system will handle an RK swinging around a halberd or whatever. Replacing like-for-like weapons should be pretty straight forward, but beyond that, I don't know what difficulties lie in the code. Guessing you'd have at least limits of the same handedness of weapons... a champ dual-wielding staffs or 2-handed hammers might not be allowed.

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Originally Posted by LethalLethality

Even all three Gondor areas failed to capture me like Isengard and Moria and Rohan did. The expansions just feel more detailed and cared for, but that's just my opinion.

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Actually non-expansion regions usually more detailed than expansion ones. For example not all villages in both RoR and HD regions have names. Or compare details of Stangard and any other rohanic town.

Speaking of W\C\E Gondors they are combined looks bigger than any previous expansion (with exception of Moria of course).

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Originally Posted by Almagnus1

I'd be onboard with a mix of larger and smaller updates, as it (hopefully) should be possible to push out the smaller updates about every two months, which seems to be about the cadence you're hitting now.

Having some official word on the 80-90% certain things in the pipeline would be helpful for the community, as right now you've left the future to our own imaginations, which largely becomes "WEEE'REEEEE DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEEDDDDD DDDDDD!!!!! OH NOOOOOOOEEESSS!!!!!"

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Nothing is 80-90% certain until we are actually working on it, which is why I only discuss features one update out or very vaguely, two. This allows us to adjust plans to what the current needs of the community and the balance of our team. It also keeps us from promising things that once we start working on might turn out to be completely different or impossible to do. We have a database full of ideas of things we think we will do, but only a handful can make each update, so talking about them here wouldn't cause anything but frustration.

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Originally Posted by robbie1435

Submit an in-game ticket with item name :)

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Thanks for the tip. ;)

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Originally Posted by LethalLethality

Sad to hear. :(

The quarterly/episodic/whatever releases haven't held my interest because the areas don't seem as nice as full expansions.

None of the new areas compare to Moria, Isengard or Helm's Deep. If Minas Tirith is just a so-so quest pack, I'm gonna be pretty disappointed at such an important part of the story being condensed down.

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It's worth remembering that the LOTRO team on Turbine is much smaller than was the case when Moria was produced. At least now we're getting content in smaller and more regular chunks with the story moving forward. In fact think about what we've had since this time last year - three sizeable content updates that are free to subscribers covering three regions of Gondor, an epic battle, an instance cluster and a whole host of other changes. That's not bad when one looks back to how bleak the picture was following HD.

Decided recently to take a hiatus from lotro until you consolidate servers , I have been playing on withywindle for years but its so dead now I just have lost heart . I'm certainly not spending money moving my characters to other servers and I don't want to go through the leveling on a reasonably populated server like Brandywine . I hope you sort it out soon because having so many dead servers just leads to people giving up on lotro which is a shame because its a good game .

Vyvyanne, is the virtue rank cap increasing anytime soon? The last time it was increased was with U14, which was in July of 2014. Since then, we have been able to earn up to 25 ranks of virtues (maybe even higher, I don't know) but we haven't been able to use them. Is it possible to increase the virtue cap to at least 21 (preferably 22 or 23)?

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Originally Posted by Aeviternus

Are we never going to see anything quite like a real expansion again?

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They are currently working on the Mordor expansion, true story. Shelob's Lair is a raid in that expansion and has been started on, again, true story.

Ive been waiting 8 years for the Housing revamp.

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Originally Posted by Herwegur

And big hint to the lotro store team: will pay for unique/exclusive weapon skins too.

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Definately. Also, would be nice if they made a set or a few of (other) exclusive ones and put them into lootboxes to add a bit of reason to them again, either as straight-up random item or as a pick-what-you-want box.

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Originally Posted by hobbit1968

Ive been waiting 8 years for the Housing revamp.

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You should have given up eight years ago. =D

The way its set up, every neighborhood is its own unique instance, on its own unique server, and each server has over 160 neighborhoods, you're looking at editing over 4,000 instances manually, x 20+ houses, x 20+ hooks. I'm sure some of it could be batched, but its an insane complexity any way you look at it.

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Originally Posted by hobbit1968

Ive been waiting 8 years for the Housing revamp.

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No you haven't since feature haven't been that long in the game.

Cosmetic weapons??!!! Yay!!! :D

All very positive news, the recent changes have mostly been things people have been asking for for a long time.