Sapience confirms no new instances/raids any time 'soon'

[Bhoris_they_spider]

I assume this source is legit:

http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.co...-january-2014/

So, no new instances/raids any time soon which probably means all of 2014.... Maybe time to move on for the old guard of dedicated raiders?

[Darlgon]

I assume this source is legit:

http://lotroplayers.mymiddleearth.co...-january-2014/

So, no new instances/raids any time soon which probably means all of 2014.... Maybe time to move on for the old guard of dedicated raiders?

Were there any left?

Yeah, its in the producers letter too.

“Take a break from expansions”


We’ve heard a lot of you suggest we take a break from the annual expansion cycle, and we agree! We’d like to take the time to revisit some older systems, add more region content, and just generally have more Middle-earth to explore throughout the year. When the Players Council last visited, we asked them what they thought of a year that focused on more content and more opportunities to refine and improve existing systems. They echoed the sentiment we’d heard from many of you and were unanimous in their support. They were also very passionate on one point; VIPs should get this new content for free. (Again, we agree!)

Interesting side note. Last night, Lotro crashed without warning to desktop. As I was logging back in,, I was looking at the loading screen of the LM trying to fend off a snowbeast with his staff. I realized, on that screen, the text "Includes the massive 12-person raid: Helegrod". Most of the ones in my kin and I came from 30 person raids in EQ. To call a 12 person raid massive is kinda a joke, but four years later, it is on us. We like Tolkien too much, plus most of us have families now and cannot raid as much as we did then, so I guess a 12 person raid is massive now.

[devilhand]

With out appropiate end game content its the end of the game. period.
3+ years playing the game and since RoR this is on a abysm going deeper in it, were every time they say they will do something its completly mis directed to what they should do.
Festivals are more important it looks... who cares about those non sense things, its annoying to be closing the auto quest everytime it pops up. If dressing up and cosmetics its what Turbine focused on for 2014, then they dont understand this is LOTRO and not Barby Online.

[Gromit1710]

I wonder what this year will bring then...

I get the feeling that the Big Battles are only run because that's where the jewellery is atm. Seems like most of Brandy is burnt out on them already. If they don't tweak or add new drops, not many people will continue to run them once they are satisfied with their set drops. I still need a gold item and after getting over 200 platinum medals between sidequest and overall.. I still don't. My buddy got one on his 3rd plat reward cash in.

There's something missing with the Big Battles. I applaud the effort that the devs put into it, taking the game in a different direction. But they don't give me the same overwhelming urgency to perform to the best of my class's ability in a group to survive like a good ol T2cm did before or even during RoR.

The Big Battles feel disconnected to me, that I'm just an observer doing quick-time events in a cut-scene.

So the first quarter of 2014 is=

Update 12.2 = bug fixes and balance changes - Late jan? early Feb? So then another 2 month or so pause before the next update (historically)

April before any chance of 95 FA's, new drop gear, Moors fixes (and there's a bunch needed) or other content.

[Chefson]

* Community Update videos will return once the team returns from their holidays. The aim is for a video every two weeks.

* He is hoping to stream more often this year. Perhaps once a week on Fridays, and maybe with some Devs pulled in too.

Well at least they are concentrating on important stuff, like making videos of each other...

[Vulcwen]

* Community Update videos will return once the team returns from their holidays. The aim is for a video every two weeks.

* He is hoping to stream more often this year. Perhaps once a week on Fridays, and maybe with some Devs pulled in too.

Well at least they are concentrating on important stuff, like making videos of each other...

Maybe you forget that the devs kinda need things like this, it should work as a motivator, and there is one thing, if the devs have no fun in working on the game, it will definitely not be good for the game.

[Zaddoc]

So reading between the lines of Sapience's responses and the Producers Letter, we are a long long time away from ANY kind of content, instance or region or otherwise.

Ouch.

[Darlgon]

I wonder what this year will bring then...

I get the feeling that the Big Battles are only run because that's where the jewellery is atm. Seems like most of Brandy is burnt out on them already. If they don't tweak or add new drops, not many people will continue to run them once they are satisfied with their set drops. I still need a gold item and after getting over 200 platinum medals between sidequest and overall.. I still don't. My buddy got one on his 3rd plat reward cash in.

There's something missing with the Big Battles. I applaud the effort that the devs put into it, taking the game in a different direction. But they don't give me the same overwhelming urgency to perform to the best of my class's ability in a group to survive like a good ol T2cm did before or even during RoR.

The Big Battles feel disconnected to me, that I'm just an observer doing quick-time events in a cut-scene.

So the first quarter of 2014 is=

Update 12.2 = bug fixes and balance changes - Late jan? early Feb? So then another 2 month or so pause before the next update (historically)

April before any chance of 95 FA's, new drop gear, Moors fixes (and there's a bunch needed) or other content.

Try 2015, for new content, if the whole year will be spent polishing the game from starter zones to Helm's Deep. Maybe some new skirms related the lower zones.

[Reximus]

Interesting side note. Last night, Lotro crashed without warning to desktop. As I was logging back in,, I was looking at the loading screen of the LM trying to fend off a snowbeast with his staff. I realized, on that screen, the text "Includes the massive 12-person raid: Helegrod". Most of the ones in my kin and I came from 30 person raids in EQ. To call a 12 person raid massive is kinda a joke, but four years later, it is on us. We like Tolkien too much, plus most of us have families now and cannot raid as much as we did then, so I guess a 12 person raid is massive now.

Have you been inside Helegrod with all the wings? That's what's massive, not the number of players.

[Beaniemooch]

While I'm happy the Rift will never be scaled what they're saying is what we have is all we're getting for about the next year plus. I am sad beyond words.

I never watched a Community Update video in the past and I don't find it likely I will watch one in the future. I want to play lotro with some content included.

Sapience, I appreciate the fact you're playing the game on a low level character and streaming live, but honestly I never watched it when you did it before and I don't think watching the Community Manager play is game content. Perhaps for some of the kids who have a lot of hero worship it might be neat to see you in the moors where they all run out and try to find you to say they saw Sapience, or try to find you on a low level character so they can run around and again find you, but selfish as it sounds I play this game for me. I want to play. I'm not sure how anybody streaming the game live is helping either the game or me or any of my raiding buddies who have moved on. Add that to the fact you seem to do it during the day on work days (understandable since you're paid to do this, it is your job) and kids are the most likely to see it because the rest of us have jobs too.

I remember a post in beta where a Turbine blue name said they expected when the expansion went live they'd have a couple of weeks of just absolute doom and gloom hatred and bashing and then it would settle down, like always. Do you consider the forums now settled? I'd be very curious to see if this continued reaction is what you all expected.

[Peresbert]

What if instead of making a new one, they fix/tweak older ones. Imagine a 95 BG T2C being just as hard, or maybe harder than the 65 raid at cap. Would you sign onto that? I believe stuff like that is what they'll be up to.

[Beaniemooch]

What if instead of making a new one, they fix/tweak older ones. Imagine a 95 BD T2C being just as hard, or maybe harder than the 65 raid at cap. Would you sign onto that? I believe stuff like that is what they'll be up to.

No. I don't want to run the same thing I've run forever. I wouldn't sign up for that.

You mean Barad Guldur, correct?

[Burrito]

Patch 12.2 will likely arrive late this month. It will contain largely bug fixes and balance changes.

PLEASE tell me they fixed Hunters and their ability to use Heightened Senses in the Ettenmoors?

The Rift of Nurz Gashu will not be scaled, period. Players get misty eyed about this particular instance, far more than they ever liked it at the time. Scaling it would cause even more complaints no matter how they do it.

Sad, really. This probably means that none of the other older content will be scaled either.

The power outage that delayed the release of HD also messed up the hardware that runs the Lotteries. As a result they are down with no ETA.

A...power...outage...broke...t he...lotteries??? I REALLY find this one hard to believe, and i work in IT. And so do my friends that work in IT. And so do their friends that work in IT.

Community Update videos will return once the team returns from their holidays. The aim is for a video every two weeks.

What is there to update? There's no new instances coming, it's going to be some time before we see new content, if at all. This isn't GW2 where they actually have new content coming out every two weeks and have something to talk about.

There will be no new instance cluster release in the near future.

"Big Battles" are here to stay.

He is hoping to stream more often this year. Perhaps once a week on Fridays, and maybe with some Devs pulled in too.

Uhh...why? There will be no new systems to show, so why bother streaming or dragging the Devs away from their jobs?

I really hate to say this, but welcome to the end of LOTRO, people.

P.S. Does anyone want about 800 gold and my stuffs?

[Peresbert]

A...power...outage...broke...t he...lotteries??? I REALLY find this one hard to believe, and i work in IT. And so do my friends that work in IT. And so do their friends that work in IT.

So you, never in your life, dealt with an extreme surge through the non-power lines, or lightning hit a building? I have dealt with both. Information transport line surges are what cause damage in my experience. You, like so many other people, must not know to run your info lines through surge protectors. Turbine may have made the same, all too common mistake. And how about lightning hitting a building? That can cause many hardware issues even when you take all the proper surge precautions.

By the way, the latter could have easily been Turbine's issue. There were reports of 2 office buildings getting hit by lightning in the Boston area during the time they had their power outage.


And yes Beanie, it was a typo. If they retool it right, I'd be in. It won't be any longer than 8mo-1yr interruption in the cycle. There will still be a VIP quest pack this spring/summer (as said by Katz), and I see another small quest pack around the late fall. Then the next major release will be the Gondor expansion.

[Beaniemooch]

And yes Beanie, it was a typo. If they retool it right, I'd be in. It won't be any longer than 8mo-1yr interruption in the cycle. There will still be a VIP quest pack this spring/summer (as said by Katz), and I see another small quest pack around the late fall. Then the next major release will be the Gondor expansion.

In the life of an MMO, 8mo-1yr interruption is a lifetime. VIP quest pack with no level cap increase is meaningless. I didn't do Limlight Gorge, and I stopped playing lotro for several months when Wildemore came out because it was worthless in my opinion. Quest packs for people who don't need questing doesn't give them something to do. You're not questing for XP - you're capped. You're not questing for gear - you don't need better gear, you're already OP. If you're questing for story that'll take you what, 3-4 days maximum?

There has to be some content in the game that sustains interest in people when questing is done. Right now big battles have fallen flat, even among people who enjoy them. They're not enough to keep us going.

For Turbine who envisioned people of all levels playing together in big battles giving it more legs, nobody I've seen takes lower levels into big battles and no lower levels I've seen have shown interest in going. It fell flat in this aspect too. I'm sure there's a small niche of folks that run with smaller toons but I'd bet it's less than the percentage of raiders Turbine admits to having as a playerbase.

If Turbine goes a year without some new playable content there will be few people left and no reason for new players to join.

And I'm not an IT person, never claimed to be, but if equipment was damaged by a storm wouldn't you just replace it? Insurance should cover it if the company can't afford to. And wouldn't the programming be backed up somewhere? I guess I'm confused as to why this would break an entire system of lotteries.

[Peresbert]

And I'm not an IT person, never claimed to be, but if equipment was damaged by a storm wouldn't you just replace it? Insurance should cover it if the company can't afford to. And wouldn't the programming be backed up somewhere? I guess I'm confused as to why this would break an entire system of lotteries.

It will be a custom built server. It has been ordered and will be in soon. I have had to order servers, and other highly specialized info equipment, as much as 6 months ahead of time to install.

[Veria]

It was pretty clear no new instances were planned in 2014 letter. Silence of people in PC every time it was brought up on forum just further confirmed it - they knew, they just couldn't tell us cause the ship has already sailed.

I expect 2014 "content" will be something like this:

1st quarter = Fangorn region, wildermore-like solo heaven that ppl will finish in few days and forget

2nd quarter = probably session play Paths of the Dead/Dead Marshes OR another solo heaven minimap that ppl will finish in few days and forget

3rd quarter = housing revamp, probably another solo heaven minimap that ppl will finish in few days and forget

4th quarter = probably another solo heaven minimap that ppl will finish in few days and forget


OD raid took over 8 months of work per jwbarry. So if they started now, it would still be minimum 6months to release. But we know it won't happen, they apparently think old festivals with few new quests, inventory revamp and 1 minimap per quarter that can be finished within a day or two will keep ppl engaged for the whole year. Priorities upside down.

Not planning to renew my VIP when it ends in 2 months for 2 reasons:

1) insane lag in pvp

2) lack of new group content in pve

I know, i'm in "single digit minority" so maybe see u in 2015 for checkup?

[Burrito]

So you, never in your life, dealt with an extreme surge through the non-power lines, or lightning hit a building? I have dealt with both. Information transport line surges are what cause damage in my experience. You, like so many other people, must not know to run your info lines through surge protectors. Turbine may have made the same, all too common mistake. And how about lightning hitting a building? That can cause many hardware issues even when you take all the proper surge precautions.

Backups. Redundancies. Failovers. UPS's. Generators. Do you think Turbine doesn't run redundant servers? (well, that's debatable).

Seriously, though, I've never heard, in my life, of a power outage affecting software unless whomever was handling it was so incompetent that they didn't have any of the things that I mentioned above running.

(Note: I am not saying that anyone at Turbine is incompetent, just stating that saying that a power outage caused software to stop working seems a little far fetched).

EDIT: Although this whole ordeal could be why they are looking for an Executive Director of Engineering.

[LagunaD]

They keep saying it, eventually people will believe them, I guess.

It does leave the question: why in the world was it considered necessary to invest vast development resources and antagonize a significant fraction of the player base to redo all the classes, when there is ZERO content, now or planned for the foreseeable future, in which class roles matter?

That to me, remains a real head-scratcher. The only thing I can think is that the class revamp was sort of a "senior project" for the new crop of inexperienced class dev interns to get their feet wet before being moved to higher priority projects.

[Frieja]

I've finally accepted the fact that I need to find a new MMO. It's really too bad that there are no other Middle-earth MMOs, but other than that 1 fact, the ones I've tried out today do EVERYTHING else better.

I'll do the quests in LOTRO because they are still good quality. Other than that, I don't particularly want to spend time in game anymore. No crafting, no deeding, no reputations grinds, certainly no Big Battles, no Legendary Item grinds (I'll keep my 85s), I'll wear quest reward gear.

I can't believe how much this game has changed in the last couple of years.

[Lusiwusi]

In my eyes, all Add-Ons with increased max-level were too fast to complete. From HD-Add-On i saw the first 95ers 4 hours after the HD has started. It took a long time to reach level 50 with SoA. So why it is so easy to reach the new max-level in such a short time?

Why players rush to new content the reach the new max-level in the shortest time? No developers can follow this speed to create new and new content.

A lot of players, who are doing instances, raids, skirmishes, i think are under pressure of time. I have no clue, why to run the same instance over and over again, hours and hours a day just to get marks, medaillons and gear and blingblings? Is this a kind of fun, i don't understand? Doesn't this destroy the fun of playing a game if the only thing i do ist farm the hell out of poor Sambrog?

And why should the festival responsible for the lack of other new content? I hope, there will be festivals in the future, too. Do we need more of them? I don't think so, There are pretty much of them and mostly they put new horses and other wardrobe in for the next event. Doesn't sound that this will be cost a lot of developing time. (btw: i like the festivals :-) )


But on the other hand:

Of course, new endgame content is needed.

The epic battles bring some fun. But i don't think, that they can motivate playing them for more than a year (or two?). The same thing with new skirmishes: They are to small in comparison
with a full lenght-raid. I hope they are working on an new instance and raid cluster.
Edit: Big Battles have one adavantage for me: The upscaling. Now i can play some kind of group play with the few friends, who have stayed in the game, on the same level. (my character stopped at 78).


Never the less we are also in need of a lot bugs to be fixed. And i hope, they will release a bunch of patches to get rid of most of them.

I don't need a big Addon every year, but if there will be one, i want a "really" Add-On with all components inside, so that it is worth called an Add-On. New huge landscape, masses of quests, a good epic story and as the highlight instances and a fantastic raid.


But how complicated is it to satisfy all groups of players?......


I will look forward into this year and i am curious about what will be there in the following months.

[Peresbert]

Backups. Redundancies. Failovers. UPS's. Generators. Do you think Turbine doesn't run redundant servers? (well, that's debatable).
Seriously, though, I've never heard, in my life, of a power outage affecting software unless whomever was handling it was so incompetent that they didn't have any of the things that I mentioned above running.
(Note: I am not saying that anyone at Turbine is incompetent, just stating that saying that a power outage caused software to stop working seems a little far fetched).

I'd think they'd only invest in one lottery server. It's not that important of a piece to them because Sapience fought tooth and nail to keep it. So when the hardware fried, they had to order a new one. If it needed to be specially built, having it be delivered soon without a "rush" would be a decent amount of time. Lotteries not working is not a huge game-break for me.

[Oderid]

Well guess its time to pack up and await the coming of Elder Scrolls Online, to be honest I should have seen it coming the last expansion was left wanting but it least it had a reason to log in from day to day with daily quests to rebuild Hytbold and the Erebor cluster this expansion gives no real reason to log in as the content is that easy there is no real reason to bother hunting for golds items in big battles.

[Grimdi]

It does leave the question: why in the world was it considered necessary to invest vast development resources and antagonize a significant fraction of the player base to redo all the classes, when there is ZERO content, now or planned for the foreseeable future, in which class roles matter?

My guess:
- To make it simpler to "advance" classes by just attaching skill points to levels (no need to invent new skills and such in the future)
- To keep people busy for a bit while they're relearning their classes
- Marketing. They're trying to get new people into the game, as new people who don't already have quest packs and other "convenience" features unlocked are likely to spend money for TP to get those. And "restored old loot system", "new endgame raids" or "second PvMP map" just doesn't attract new (casual) players with no reference to the existing game, while "Epic Battles starting at level 10" or "Completely redesigned skill trees" might. From a marketing perspective. Getting new players is more important than retaining existing ones.

[Anavalar]

From a marketing perspective. Getting new players is more important than retaining existing ones.

Please explain how that works. I've never been in the gaming industry but in every market I have been in, the smart money said "It will take half the time, effort and capital to make one dollar by keeping an old customer happy than it will to pull a dollar by wooing a new customer."

The only sense I can make of Turbine's current policy is if they have hard statistical numbers from sales and game-play analysis that prove to them that it is only a vocal minority of their existing customers that desire a challenging game and group content. If perhaps folks are spending their money on the Isengard and East Rohan quests packs and not purchasing the full expansions then that is giving Turbine a different picture of their base than the posts on the forum would indicate. If they had disappointing sales on Helm's Deep then their fall back strategy could well be easy sales of 795 TP zones with just quests and war bands.