Player Submitted 20 Questions – Supersized to 40.

[Al.]

This really isn't good enough. You picked a question which allows you to be as evasive as possible around the answer, and then say WHY you are changing threat, and WHAT is was before, but not how it IS going to be. We need a proper explanation as to how threat is going to work.

They said it. Threat will be passive with some taunts, you can elevate your threat still

[Danchir]

To me, a different space would mean that it looks different. Whereas with skirmishes the spaces were identical regardless of group size, there were no new rooms. I suspect it may be like some earlier spaces: one look when you're in the Battle In The Tower skirmish versus the BG raid, some of the rooms are shared in common but they're not the same, or maybe the epic book Carn Dum fight with Mordirith versus the Carn Dum instance fight with Mordirith.

If it was a space that is different in landscape terms, I guess it was going to be advertized as such - with its own instance name and so on.

I understand it as the instance will look the same, but the versions for 1/2 on one hand and 12 (for example) on the other are two different (but exactly defined) designs in terms of mobs, challenges, difficulty etc., i.e. not like the skirmishes where everything scales 'automatically' with group size. But the space itself I expect it to look the same.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

They said it. Threat will be passive with some taunts, you can elevate your threat still

Can you elevate your threat? Because from what I'm hearing, the only way to manage aggro is attempt to out dps the dpsers and use forced taunts...

[Lohi]

Can you elevate your threat? Because from what I'm hearing, the only way to manage aggro is attempt to out dps the dpsers and use forced taunts...

We'll need more info on this. Right now there just is nothing except a few brief statements with no details.

As we have it now it is impossible to out DPS the DPS classes or even any non-tanking class. Ie someone stacks up 2000 agility as their primary stat and you can't expect someone with a one handed weapon to keep up (tanks will be stacking on vitality instead of might/agility). Since tank classes won't be able to tank that way, and they aren't changing how enemies work, then there has to be more than just some forced taunts.

(On the other hand, the devs think mounted combat is ok as it is even though tank classes traited as tanks can not hold aggro when all other chars can do 10 times the damage output. But in that case I think they intended that non-tank classes can function as mounted combat ranged tanks.)

[Moln]

We're still going to have deeds based on skill repetition, but those and the quests that used to dive traits, now give trait points instead.

If skills are bought in the trait trees (which I'm guessing since we're apparently doing away with skill trainers) there is the possibility that a player might not buy a skill a deed requires, thus never using it and opening any such deeds associated with it. Is this being addressed in some way (auto unlocking deeds by level, marking such skills, or guaranteeing all such skills are in their classes common usage list)?

That's a pretty significant pile of additional trait points. Will it be possible to max out a tree (one of the three for a class) without any of these points (making them available for other trees), or will all these extra points be necessary to do so (or will it not be possible at all?)? If the latter, is some consideration being given for some that are more painful to get (for example I just noticed one I think on my captain that can only be incremented by raising fallen fellows, which is kindo hard if you don't group much)?

[Thorwyn99]

Okay I like the sound of this. If I understand correctly the solo instances will probably drop bronze medals with a chance at silver if you complete added objectives, the 3 and 6 man will drop bronze, silver or gold depending on how many objectives you complete, and the 12 man one will presumably drop silver and gold with platinum available if you are a fairly hardcore guild.

As the only way to get Platinum is from the 12 man challenge mode does this mean we will finally get back to best gear for raiders? Are the casuals / soloers going to moan that they cant convert gold to plat? (probably). Will turbine crumble and give them what they want? (really hope not)!

My question is this - and I hope Sapience can give us a definite answer - Will there be any locks in place or will it be a farm fest? I'd like to see a daily lock for the 1/2/3 man content and weekly locks for the 6 and 12. If not, within a week the raiding guilds will have farmed all their plat medals and be done with the expansion which would be a real shame. I like the idea of a medal progress bar. Assuming a complete 12 man clear gives enough medals to fill half the bar and a full bar gives 1 of 10 best in slot pieces of loot this would give at least 20 weeks of weekly raiding.

Protip for Turbine - give paying subscribers (not lifetimers) a +25% medal gain passive. P2W? No. Pay 2 advance faster? Yes. More money for Turbine? Definitely.

Actually that's not how i read it, i read it like 12 mans give a bonus to the amount of medals you get, as well as the main objective and first time completion.
Can turbine please clarify that ? Can all medals be earned in all settings or are some restricted to the higher group sizes ?

[robbie1435]

Q40: Palantorio: According to rumors, the Epic quest line will no longer be playable for free to play players and will only be available if you purchase the expansion. In the past we were told the Epic story would be free. Why the change?
A40: MadeOfLions:[/B] The Epic Storyline began life as paid content, and when LOTRO became Free To Play we converted many of the Epic Books in order to make them playable by anyone. Every Book of ‘Volume I: Shadows of Angmar,’ every Book of ‘Volume II: Mines of Moria,’ and every Book we’ve released so far of ‘Volume III: Allies of the King’ is free. That’s thirty-four Epic Books, and those will remain free. Since we wanted the Epic Story for this expansion to tell the story of the Battle of the Hornburg, we needed to tie it into the Epic Battles system, which is a paid part of the expansion. Sometimes the Epic Story needs to tie into the region content or into a new system in order to properly represent the tales of Middle-earth we’re telling. It provides a more compelling experience to those who purchase the expansion, and I think that’s worthwhile.

I hope this doesn't mean I need 12 people to do one of the epic quests... Hard enough getting a regular raid now-a-days...

Glorgnorbor

[NaktiesKarys]

Sorry if I missed something, but have one weird question.
I'm F2P and as such I am limited to free trait slots. I have purchased some of them and was thinking about purchasing more for Turbine points.
Turbine clearly stated about player's possibility to purchase some "class tree" space for mithril coins.
Question: what would be the situation if free player purchased trait slots? Return TPs? Give more space?

[monk_tbd]

Sorry if I missed something, but have one weird question.
I'm F2P and as such I am limited to free trait slots. I have purchased some of them and was thinking about purchasing more for Turbine points.
Turbine clearly stated about player's possibility to purchase some "class tree" space for mithril coins.
Question: what would be the situation if free player purchased trait slots? Return TPs? Give more space?

This is not a weird question at all.

They somewhat answered it in a Twitter Q/A before:

Q5: banjolier: For players who spent TP to unlock trait slots, how will you convert our existing purchases to the new system? #LOTRO
A5: HoarseDev: Your specialization choice gives you access to bonuses as you spend points. #LOTRO
A5a: These are unlocked in the same way as the old slots and those purchases carry over to the new system. #LOTRO

So basically you will not get all the bonuses whatever they are (I guess mainly similar to the trait line bonuses that we have now and some specific skill enhancing bonuses as well).
How that will affect the class and its capability we will see.
Currently not having all class trait slots is quite a nerf so I expect it to be similar with the new trees.

[hucklebarry]

Q39: Eyeslayer600: I heard you guys would possibly update the System Requirements of LotRO. If you are, what are the new requirements?
A39: You heard right! This is an ongoing discussion and has been for some time. I will say that we have a proposal on the table for new computer min specs, but until we make a decision on whether or not to pursue this proposal it would be premature to publish any specifics.

I'm going to make an unpopular suggestion...

If, twitter, facebook, random forum messages are going to continue to be official [exclusive] sources of news, then those need to be included in the system requirements. By exclusive, I mean a single piece of news, like an update status, a patch note clarification, etc, that are not also echoed on more official channels like the game launcher. Often piecemeal offerings are catered to one or the other. IMHO, the game launcher should obtain all game related news (making this request obsolete)... but currently it does not work that way and many folks who agree to Turbine's ToS, but not Twitter's are left wondering what is going on with LOTRO.

[Feldanor]

I apologize if this has been asked but i haven't found it yet. Will the current content that has been scaled to level 85 be scaled to 95, including the Erebor instances and if not why not?

[Darlgon]

I apologize if this has been asked but i haven't found it yet. Will the current content that has been scaled to level 85 be scaled to 95, including the Erebor instances and if not why not?

Ummm.. No.

Q19: Yulin-Gladden: Are there plans to scale older raids as part of HD? Specifically Moria and Isengard.
A19:jwbarry: No. The instance designers have been completely focused on delivering Helm’s Deep and Big Battles to the fullest scope and highest quality possible.

Head to the top of this thread and read the chat please.

[Grimdi]

Ummm.. No.

[B]

Head to the top of this thread and read the chat please.

You know, it depends on how you interpret "scale" in that answer. My guess is that "scale" should be read as "made scalable", not as "increase the maximum scaling level", given that the question used fix-level examples only. Official clarification on that would be useful though.

[wikjif]

Ummm.. No.

[B]

Head to the top of this thread and read the chat please.

Grimdi is correct. Every instance that currently scales will have its maximum level set to 95 as they have done at every level cap increase since they introduced scaling instances at level 65.

[Feldanor]

Grimdi is correct. Every instance that currently scales will have its maximum level set to 95 as they have done at every level cap increase since they introduced scaling instances at level 65.

nice one. i heard that the erebors bg and od were not being scaled. glad to see there will still be the option to do them

[Darlgon]

Grimdi is correct. Every instance that currently scales will have its maximum level set to 95 as they have done at every level cap increase since they introduced scaling instances at level 65.

Source? Since I quoted mine? The dev chat this whole thread is based on... WHICH SPECIFICALLY says NOT.

Oh, and I have yet to be in an expansion where they leveled up older stuff with the new xpac.. they waited until the skirm packs came out 2-4 months later, if they were even planning on it. What was it.. a total revamp and 3 years for Fornost?

Actually.. I want to be clear... JW Barry said:

Q19: Yulin-Gladden: Are there plans to scale older raids as part of HD? Specifically Moria and Isengard.
A19:jwbarry: No. The instance designers have been completely focused on delivering Helm’s Deep and Big Battles to the fullest scope and highest quality possible.

"They have been completely focused on HD and Big Battles.. "

That pretty much rules out any other instances... unless the NDA drops tomorrow and someone says otherwise.

[Lohi]

That pretty much rules out any other instances... unless the NDA drops tomorrow and someone says otherwise.

But the scaled instances are already scaled. It's minimum work to scale it to 95 and wouldn't require "instance designers". Even if they leave them alone and don't touch it I suspect they'll scale and the only thing missing would be fine tuning and moving the challenge mode from 85 to 95.

[evguenil]

That pretty much rules out any other instances...

I am not an expert, but I think Q19 and A19 are about non-scaled instances like Moria.

[nanuk09]

So there is no quest pack like there was in Rohan, just the all in one bundle?

[Grimdi]

So there is no quest pack like there was in Rohan, just the all in one bundle?

Yes. Unless they change their plans.

[Darlgon]

Nor sure of a good place to put this post, as it is about HD, just like all the 40 questions.

By my count, November 18th is in 21 days.

Any word on more dev diaries to answer player questions (like the hinted at changes to threat) and the dropping of the NDA so we can get some real player feedback on all the changes? Maybe another 20 questions? Or is the release date being slid back?

Thanks for info.

[Darlgon]

OMG.. Thanks.. within 24 hours even.

And, the first real good news I have seen out of HD.

Related side-note: no Elf army. You know what I’m talking about.

/CHEERS LOUDLY for MoL.

[Rufkin]

Q39: Eyeslayer600: I heard you guys would possibly update the System Requirements of LotRO. If you are, what are the new requirements?
A39: You heard right! This is an ongoing discussion and has been for some time. I will say that we have a proposal on the table for new computer min specs, but until we make a decision on whether or not to pursue this proposal it would be premature to publish any specifics.

Could you please clarify whether this will simply be a recommended System Requirements or is Turbine discussing disallowing access to old systems?

[Grimdi]

Could you please clarify whether this will simply be a recommended System Requirements or is Turbine discussing disallowing access to old systems?

It will be official system requirements, meaning that if you're below them and encounter hardware/performance related problems it's your problem, not theirs. This could include the client requiring certain hardware features on the CPU/GPU and not running without those (stuff like SSE2 or Dx10), but I consider that unlikely to be added. The server won't reject you because your CPU has 200 MHz less than listed in the requirements or only 1 GB memory (that would be a braindead decision), but wether the game is playable then is your problem.

[Lohi]

Could you please clarify whether this will simply be a recommended System Requirements or is Turbine discussing disallowing access to old systems?

They almost certainly won't disallow it. Almost no game has ever done this. Instead it means that if you are below the "recommended" requirements and you have poor performance, then it is to be expected. The point is to not look at the 6 year old requirements and expect that an average computer from 6 years ago will handle Helms Deep smoothly.