bulroarer june 2017?

[bosstaron]

Anyone know when Bullroarer next goes online? I heard sometime in June, but I cant be sure.
Thanks
Bossatron

[Kander]

Anyone know when Bullroarer next goes online? I heard sometime in June, but I cant be sure.
Thanks
Bossatron

I heard that too, but you never know, and certainly you're not gonna get any official information about beta date until the actual testing time, so keep an eye on the beta servers each few days but I'm not even sure it will be a full open beta.

[valgorlim]

Odds are it will be a closed beta with nda in full effect .
As we have to buy the xpac , that is the way it has always been done in the past .
Plus my guess it will be by invite only. so watch your emails.

[Hallandil]

Odds are it will be a closed beta with nda in full effect .
As we have to buy the xpac , that is the way it has always been done in the past .
Plus my guess it will be by invite only. so watch your emails.

Cordovan already said on Livestream + Interview on LOTRO Player's News that the beta on Bullroarer will be open, that the expansions lead up will be different from how it was done previously.

[Cordovan]

We'll have more information as we get closer to the date. We have a tentative date in mind, but it's a bit early to announce it formally, as things might shift a day or so in either direction.

[siipperi]

What ever they decide to do with bullroarer we can be sure we can test product in beta stage on the live. The continious theme of turbine since gondor updates.

[bosstaron]

We'll have more information as we get closer to the date. We have a tentative date in mind, but it's a bit early to announce it formally, as things might shift a day or so in either direction.

thanks cordovan!

Thanks guys!

[hrtatckone]

Thanks for the info.

[Grimdoin_EU]

We'll have more information as we get closer to the date. We have a tentative date in mind, but it's a bit early to announce it formally, as things might shift a day or so in either direction.

We're at least 2 weeks closer to the date aren't we?

How about a little tease with some sugar on top pretty please?

[Rainith]

Well, since the threads in this forum just got pruned, I'd say we're getting closer...

[Caanwick]

Looks like the 23rd is the magic day, per Cordovan on his live stream.

[Bragolos]

If BR goes up on the 23rd, does this mean theyll show some of it BEFORE the 23rd? Did he mention anything about that?

Edit: preview is at thursday on Cordovans stream, 6 PM Central European Time, Mordor will be shown. BR will go up for us on friday.

[Caanwick]

If BR goes up on the 23rd, does this mean theyll show some of it BEFORE the 23rd? Did he mention anything about that?

Just that next Thursday's live feed would be him and some devs previewing it from an internal server before it hits BR.

[Herwegur]

Cordovan already said on Livestream + Interview on LOTRO Player's News that the beta on Bullroarer will be open, that the expansions lead up will be different from how it was done previously.

This has me very interested and optimistic. Good to see transparency of open beta instead of closed beta, allowing everyone to see what is coming before they make decisions to buy. And it really speaks well to the confidence of dev team to openly show what is coming and keep discussion open about possible changes etc. Since players can preview and weigh in before deciding to buy, their testing and feedback will carry more weight. I really like the sound of all this and this change to open up the expansion beta for all players instead of closed beta.

[Cordovan]

The current plan is to have our first preview of Mordor next Friday on Bullroarer, probably starting later in the day. I also plan to do a sneak (spoiler light but spoilers) peek next Thursday starting at Noon. This will probably happen on an internal dev build rather than Bullroarer, but we'll see. As with any prediction, it's possible something could change, but that's the goal.

[x72]

The current plan is to have our first preview of Mordor next Friday on Bullroarer, probably starting later in the day. I also plan to do a sneak (spoiler light but spoilers) peek next Thursday starting at Noon. This will probably happen on an internal dev build rather than Bullroarer, but we'll see. As with any prediction, it's possible something could change, but that's the goal.

Cordovan any chance to get screenshots of the new race? I know many people are waiting for it include myself

[Theomur]

Cordovan any chance to get screenshots of the new race? I know many people are waiting for it include myself

I reckon/hope he'll show us on Thursday during his Cord of the Rings Twitch Stream on the official LotRO Twitch channel

[AaylaKheledlire]

No pre-order versions? No 'big' info about the expansion, only the patch notes, before test server?

[BotLike]

No pre-order versions? No 'big' info about the expansion, only the patch notes, before test server?

It's been mentioned the pre-order window will only last a couple of weeks.
Thats suprising , certainly , but not that important , all that matters in the end is the quality of the end-product.

Looking forward to thursday. ; )

[valgorlim]

We have been waiting for this moment for ten years, rushing anything is pointless we wait with baited breath. making beta open was a smart idea to showcase mordor I hope it exceeds all our expectations.

[Phantion]

Well, and actually, they are being very smart in a way we don't normally think about.

Let's think back to the last expansion of the game: Helm's Deep. It was enormously scaled (filling-in the map from what is now the Far Anorien border to the Gap of Rohan was... pretty ambitious; East Rohan was equally so- compared to the smaller expansions of RoI and Mirkwood comparatively). There was hype. There was -tons- of hype. An early pre-order. Like how, with East Rohan, there was huge hype. For... mounted combat. For Helm's Deep, the hype centered around epic / big battles and trait trees.

Now, then. Where did all that hype and promotion get then-Turbine? Well, mounted combat came across as lackluster, buggy, filled with problems, to many players. The raid-cluster that followed East Rohan was not lauded with praises universally by the player-base- and Erebor had little to do with Rohan anyway. With Helm's Deep, trait trees... players reacted, on the these Bullroarer forums, with outrage, wanted the Team to change their mind, etc. Epic Battles... not really universally praised either- and also quite buggy.

In short: The Hype made people aim for the heavens with their expectations- and anything (as -everything- would) falling short of that came across as messy and lackluster- and so the Hype, ironically, in my humble opinion, put big holes in the ship- the game's LOTRO-Titanic had hit more than one iceberg. The main parts of the Titanic's of Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep that remained above-water were, of course, the well-crafted storylines and the fantastically-drawn game-world: to which I give the Team full and wondrous credit where due But the Hype surrounding the rest of it... might have made expectations a tad... unrealistic? It also might have made the process of trying to fix issues more... over-pressured and cumbersome.

So, its -ingenious- of them, from my perspective, to not... over-do the hype. They've promoted the expansion in more informal ways- on the live-streams for the 10th Anniversary, including the stream announcing Chance Thomas's return to the game, and et al. etc. There's hype- but its... I wouldn't use the word subdued: I'd rather call it... tactful. I can't get inside the heads of the Dev Team, but I'm -guessing- that they want to take a more measured and -careful- approach: to avoid the over-Hyping that sank key portions / intended-selling-points of Helm's Deep and Riders of Rohan before it. This is... smart on their part- and I really applaud the Team for this.

So let's hope, when Bullroarer arrives next Friday, that instead of raising our expectations to the highest heights- let's expect that there -WILL- be bugs that -SHOULD BE- reported- and that's what Beta's really all about. They need our feedback! Let's not let them do it alone this time.... With good, insightful bug-reporters, good beta testers, and an overall spirit of contribution, of let's make this expansion LOTRO's best expansion ever!, I venture to hope that this will be a good one.

[Bragolos]

Well, and actually, they are being very smart in a way we don't normally think about.

Let's think back to the last expansion of the game: Helm's Deep. It was enormously scaled (filling-in the map from what is now the Far Anorien border to the Gap of Rohan was... pretty ambitious; East Rohan was equally so- compared to the smaller expansions of RoI and Mirkwood comparatively). There was hype. There was -tons- of hype. An early pre-order. Like how, with East Rohan, there was huge hype. For... mounted combat. For Helm's Deep, the hype centered around epic / big battles and trait trees.

Now, then. Where did all that hype and promotion get then-Turbine? Well, mounted combat came across as lackluster, buggy, filled with problems, to many players. The raid-cluster that followed East Rohan was not lauded with praises universally by the player-base- and Erebor had little to do with Rohan anyway. With Helm's Deep, trait trees... players reacted, on the these Bullroarer forums, with outrage, wanted the Team to change their mind, etc. Epic Battles... not really universally praised either- and also quite buggy.

In short: The Hype made people aim for the heavens with their expectations- and anything (as -everything- would) falling short of that came across as messy and lackluster- and so the Hype, ironically, in my humble opinion, put big holes in the ship- the game's LOTRO-Titanic had hit more than one iceberg. The main parts of the Titanic's of Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep that remained above-water were, of course, the well-crafted storylines and the fantastically-drawn game-world: to which I give the Team full and wondrous credit where due But the Hype surrounding the rest of it... might have made expectations a tad... unrealistic? It also might have made the process of trying to fix issues more... over-pressured and cumbersome.

So, its -ingenious- of them, from my perspective, to not... over-do the hype. They've promoted the expansion in more informal ways- on the live-streams for the 10th Anniversary, including the stream announcing Chance Thomas's return to the game, and et al. etc. There's hype- but its... I wouldn't use the word subdued: I'd rather call it... tactful. I can't get inside the heads of the Dev Team, but I'm -guessing- that they want to take a more measured and -careful- approach: to avoid the over-Hyping that sank key portions / intended-selling-points of Helm's Deep and Riders of Rohan before it. This is... smart on their part- and I really applaud the Team for this.

So let's hope, when Bullroarer arrives next Friday, that instead of raising our expectations to the highest heights- let's expect that there -WILL- be bugs that -SHOULD BE- reported- and that's what Beta's really all about. They need our feedback! Let's not let them do it alone this time.... With good, insightful bug-reporters, good beta testers, and an overall spirit of contribution, of let's make this expansion LOTRO's best expansion ever!, I venture to hope that this will be a good one.

Completely agree with everything you said. Although a little formal announcement of the presentation of next thursday on social media, combined with one big Mordor-teasing image wouldn't hurt .

[peachy16]

Well, and actually, they are being very smart in a way we don't normally think about.

Let's think back to the last expansion of the game: Helm's Deep. It was enormously scaled (filling-in the map from what is now the Far Anorien border to the Gap of Rohan was... pretty ambitious; East Rohan was equally so- compared to the smaller expansions of RoI and Mirkwood comparatively). There was hype. There was -tons- of hype. An early pre-order. Like how, with East Rohan, there was huge hype. For... mounted combat. For Helm's Deep, the hype centered around epic / big battles and trait trees.

Now, then. Where did all that hype and promotion get then-Turbine? Well, mounted combat came across as lackluster, buggy, filled with problems, to many players. The raid-cluster that followed East Rohan was not lauded with praises universally by the player-base- and Erebor had little to do with Rohan anyway. With Helm's Deep, trait trees... players reacted, on the these Bullroarer forums, with outrage, wanted the Team to change their mind, etc. Epic Battles... not really universally praised either- and also quite buggy.

In short: The Hype made people aim for the heavens with their expectations- and anything (as -everything- would) falling short of that came across as messy and lackluster- and so the Hype, ironically, in my humble opinion, put big holes in the ship- the game's LOTRO-Titanic had hit more than one iceberg. The main parts of the Titanic's of Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep that remained above-water were, of course, the well-crafted storylines and the fantastically-drawn game-world: to which I give the Team full and wondrous credit where due But the Hype surrounding the rest of it... might have made expectations a tad... unrealistic? It also might have made the process of trying to fix issues more... over-pressured and cumbersome.

So, its -ingenious- of them, from my perspective, to not... over-do the hype. They've promoted the expansion in more informal ways- on the live-streams for the 10th Anniversary, including the stream announcing Chance Thomas's return to the game, and et al. etc. There's hype- but its... I wouldn't use the word subdued: I'd rather call it... tactful. I can't get inside the heads of the Dev Team, but I'm -guessing- that they want to take a more measured and -careful- approach: to avoid the over-Hyping that sank key portions / intended-selling-points of Helm's Deep and Riders of Rohan before it. This is... smart on their part- and I really applaud the Team for this.

So let's hope, when Bullroarer arrives next Friday, that instead of raising our expectations to the highest heights- let's expect that there -WILL- be bugs that -SHOULD BE- reported- and that's what Beta's really all about. They need our feedback! Let's not let them do it alone this time.... With good, insightful bug-reporters, good beta testers, and an overall spirit of contribution, of let's make this expansion LOTRO's best expansion ever!, I venture to hope that this will be a good one.

People already have high expectations for this expansion because it is MORDOR!

As to your little lecture on reporting bugs etc. Excuse me but there have been plenty of people who have reported & gave well thought out & very detailed feedback & most of the time it has fallen on deaf ears so now many don't bother because they feel what's the point.

[Joetzim]

Well, and actually, they are being very smart in a way we don't normally think about.

Let's think back to the last expansion of the game: Helm's Deep. It was enormously scaled (filling-in the map from what is now the Far Anorien border to the Gap of Rohan was... pretty ambitious; East Rohan was equally so- compared to the smaller expansions of RoI and Mirkwood comparatively). There was hype. There was -tons- of hype. An early pre-order. Like how, with East Rohan, there was huge hype. For... mounted combat. For Helm's Deep, the hype centered around epic / big battles and trait trees.

Now, then. Where did all that hype and promotion get then-Turbine? Well, mounted combat came across as lackluster, buggy, filled with problems, to many players. The raid-cluster that followed East Rohan was not lauded with praises universally by the player-base- and Erebor had little to do with Rohan anyway. With Helm's Deep, trait trees... players reacted, on the these Bullroarer forums, with outrage, wanted the Team to change their mind, etc. Epic Battles... not really universally praised either- and also quite buggy.

In short: The Hype made people aim for the heavens with their expectations- and anything (as -everything- would) falling short of that came across as messy and lackluster- and so the Hype, ironically, in my humble opinion, put big holes in the ship- the game's LOTRO-Titanic had hit more than one iceberg. The main parts of the Titanic's of Riders of Rohan and Helm's Deep that remained above-water were, of course, the well-crafted storylines and the fantastically-drawn game-world: to which I give the Team full and wondrous credit where due But the Hype surrounding the rest of it... might have made expectations a tad... unrealistic? It also might have made the process of trying to fix issues more... over-pressured and cumbersome.

So, its -ingenious- of them, from my perspective, to not... over-do the hype. They've promoted the expansion in more informal ways- on the live-streams for the 10th Anniversary, including the stream announcing Chance Thomas's return to the game, and et al. etc. There's hype- but its... I wouldn't use the word subdued: I'd rather call it... tactful. I can't get inside the heads of the Dev Team, but I'm -guessing- that they want to take a more measured and -careful- approach: to avoid the over-Hyping that sank key portions / intended-selling-points of Helm's Deep and Riders of Rohan before it. This is... smart on their part- and I really applaud the Team for this.

So let's hope, when Bullroarer arrives next Friday, that instead of raising our expectations to the highest heights- let's expect that there -WILL- be bugs that -SHOULD BE- reported- and that's what Beta's really all about. They need our feedback! Let's not let them do it alone this time.... With good, insightful bug-reporters, good beta testers, and an overall spirit of contribution, of let's make this expansion LOTRO's best expansion ever!, I venture to hope that this will be a good one.

I can't handle the suspense. There is a hype inside me that seeks to break out. Tiny cracks already appeared. I would scream but I'm wary of falling apart. They didn't show much. They didn't say much. They pretty much stonewalled. This, if anything, makes people speculate. It raises expectations. I secretely hope that the High Elf is more than just cosmetic appearance. I secretely hope for a new system that blows life back into the game, because it kind of feels like a carcass thrown ashore by the tide right now. Except we don't know if it's really a carcass or it can still be brought back to life.

There is a vacuum right now, where there should be tiny bits of information, teasers. And nature abhors a vacuum. So we fill it with our fantasies, hopes and expectations.

[Phantion]

I can't handle the suspense. There is a hype inside me that seeks to break out. Tiny cracks already appeared. I would scream but I'm wary of falling apart. They didn't show much. They didn't say much. They pretty much stonewalled. This, if anything, makes people speculate. It raises expectations. I secretely hope that the High Elf is more than just cosmetic appearance. I secretely hope for a new system that blows life back into the game, because it kind of feels like a carcass thrown ashore by the tide right now. Except we don't know if it's really a carcass or it can still be brought back to life.

There is a vacuum right now, where there should be tiny bits of information, teasers. And nature abhors a vacuum. So we fill it with our fantasies, hopes and expectations.

Oh I agree- there should be -some- form of hype. But remember, its very tricky. For 1 thing, we're not getting MOOOOORRRRDDDDDOOOOOORRRRR! We're getting post-Ring-destruction, just plain, Mordor. It gets a bit tricky- and this ain't the devs' fault. It's the lore. In "Battle for Middle-Earth" I and II by EA, there were film-based Mordor maps: but the lore was suspended in those cases. So you'd have large armies of Gondorians and such running around and fighting in Mordor. SSG, who is adhering far more closely to the books, can't get away with that sort of thing. So.... how do you hype-up a desolate wasteland in the aftermath of a Dark Lord's ruin? Post-apocalyptic Mordor.... hahahaha. The precise opposite of "Shadow of Mordor"'s -right-before-Sauron-rises-again- moments. Tis tricky.

So, I think.... yes, they need to hype it somehow, but they need to hype it realistically. The expansion might not quite be ready for that level of hype just yet- they've got a long road ahead of them.... Maybe that's why they are holding-back and waiting to let us see what they've got on Bullroarer next Friday- to see not a hyped-up-finished-product-that-will-never-be-finished-like-Helm's-Deep, but what they've really got: a work in progress.......

To peachy16 about the bugs- yeah, I know- that's the problem. I wasn't accusing anyone of "not bugging" stuff..... I've admittedly had troubles doing much of that in the smaller updates for similar reasons. I was only aiming to sort of figure, hey, its SSG's first expansion, really, now that Turbine and WB are gone..... I guess I'm kind of hoping that the general responsiveness to bugs will change now that its SSG and not Turbine- a naive little hope on my part. We'll know if bugged stuff gets ignored in further Beta builds.....................