Streamlining and scaling old content / ability to solo stuff

[Quickl]

Sorry if that was already brought up, I'm not frequenting the forums very often.

The Tolkien universe, LotR, Middle Earth etc. is a pretty old fandom, and naturally it's attracting a different kind of gamer than other MMOs. Maybe older ones (on average), maybe just those that want to play a game similar to a good fantasy book. I'm not actively playing very often, since real life takes its toll, but I regularely love to come back to check out the lands, the story, the lore that I love for over ten years - and it's really cool to read the books and follow along ingame, happily seeing all the small details the devs didn't forget to add, that are also mentioned in the books.

In short, I'm not here for hardcore raiding, grinding equipment, or experiencing new content first day. I know that many others are, and that's totally cool. But considering the pre-existing, deep lore of the game, I think that I'm not the only one who plays like that.


So basically, all I wanted to ask for: maybe consider streamlining old content? When I'm doing vanilla zones on my 130 char, I'm obviously not trying to win some rewarding fights, I just want the story and maybe collect some deeds. It really grinds my gears when I can't do, for example, some old instance, because you need two players for levers, or some other mechanic.

I'd go even further - there's no big reason why someone shouldn't be able to solo old content - old in the sense of, maybe ~10-20 levels below the own. It's not meta-relevant anymore, after all. But of course I'm happy to discuss possible downsides.


I could go on writing 5-6 more paragraphs, but maybe I'll leave it at that and wait for some reactions. What about you? Would you like some more solo-friendliness?

[Nydhogg]

I agree with you some things are silly, e.g. the latest Agoroth instance you need 3 people to stand in the light to start the final fight, which seems to serve no purpose other than being annoying. However, in something like OD wound wing, I think the 3 gauntlets make an interesting mechanic. I would not want content design to be restricted in a way such that it can be run solo in the future.

I know you suggested streamlining old content afterwards, but I am not sure that is worth the dev time.

In fact, I would rather have them not touch the instances at all. With that I mean if they had left OD unchanged surely one could easily 3man the OD challenges now. However, they 'streamlined' and scaled OD. So now you will need to run it at level 130 to get the challenge deed done and I think this is arguably worse for making it more accessible than just having left the instance untouched at level 65. Sure, the scaled 130 challenge version is a lot easier than it was back at level 65, but it's already an insurmountable challenge to find 12 people willing to run it.

Anyways, small chance you're on Arkenstone but I am always happy to run old instances.

[Quickl]

I definitely wouldn't want to take away the joy of some encounters for groups that like to do it at appropriate levels, and of course I'm aware that dev time is limited.

What I'd suggest are like the following points:

• Scale the power level in a way that PCs get much tougher with level, e.g. that mobs or even bosses >10 levels below won't be able to do more than a scratch to overlevelled players. There's the tortoise stone after all, if players want a challenge. The offensive scaling may be secondary, I'd be fine if it would take some time to solo old bosses, but they shouldn't be able to kill you. This would be a once-only thing, no reworking of single instances.
• Remove stuff like levers, they provide nothing and are just a cheap way of creating an artifical entrance barrier. This shouldn't be a task that takes very long from what I can estimate.
  If it's really needed to keep them, alternatively scaling them to group size would be enough. E.g. "if( min(group_size, lever_count) >= pressed_levers_number) then open_door".
• This point would be the hardest, but probably not that high of a priority (since there probably are only a few situations where change would be necessary) - check if encounters are un-soloable (for some classes even), e.g. permastun, multi-person mechanics, aggro swap mechanics etc. and try to solve it. This may be not possible for some encounters (unfortunately I don't know them all), but probably only a few. Most problems could be avoided if the tanking player would be unable to become the target of certain skills, or if certain mechanics wouldn't occur if only 1 player is aggro'ed. But sure, that may take a bit to actually develop - but it could be worth it, considering what I know about the demographics of the game's players.