Small Reputation Accelerator Tomes have been removed from the Skirmish camp curiosities vendors.

[Nonde]

Honestly, this seems like such a stupid idea. I was so happy about what you did with the anniversary, since I'm a new enough player for it to have helped out a lot, and I even bought VIP because I wanted to support you and the future of the game, but then you have to go and do something that given, doesn't affect me yet, but affects lots of other people negatively, and I think that's the last VIP I will get, if you're not actually making the game better like it seemed you were with the anniversary giveaways and the freeing up of the old content.

If as someone suggested a number cruncher reasoned that high sales in skirmish camps = high store sales they need also to take into account the costs of pushy sales tactics as these have driven many of us to go on $ strike. Player hostile decisions have cost them approx $500 of my money + that from many other vets + as here discourages new players from paying as well.


For general interest, removal of rep accelerators is also the topic of this currently 10 page thread: https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...Patch-tomorrow

[DoRonRon]

If as someone suggested a number cruncher reasoned that high sales in skirmish camps = high store sales they need also to take into account the costs of pushy sales tactics as these have driven many of us to go on $ strike. Player hostile decisions have cost them approx $500 of my money + that from many other vets + as here discourages new players from paying as well.


For general interest, removal of rep accelerators is also the topic of this currently 10 page thread: https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...Patch-tomorrow

5 MC is the buy in to reset daily tasks, it says. Commonly 10 tasks @300 rep - that's if you have the task items. But ofc you do, you are playing the game as directed, aren't you?

3k rep > 50 LP

Store Rep 5k rep for 250LP? Surely that's for the "convenience" of the inept, ill-informed and desperate usual suspects only? Like the Imbued Legacy Replacement scroll and other such.

Don't care for it myself. But if pointing this out provides another rake head for SSG to leap toward, so be it. Good for a laugh at least. I checked out the Official stream over the weekend and see that the falsehood that it was the players fault for Store only keys when it was that dev that messed up double dailies but denied and refused to check was where the fault lay, least originally.
Classic butterfly effect.

The "Code Archaeologist" may wish to confirm that...

Edit: lol 250 LP for 2k accelerator, my bad

[Hydranova]

Boy, am I glad I grabbed accelerator tomes for the Enedwaith faction reps beforehand on my main! Cause after all, the only option for those after epic/landscapes/deeds is dailies- while admittedly I didn't do all of the latter two, I did do most of landscape and slayer deeds are just replacing one grind with another.

[Sherush]

This proves it you don’t care about your costumers. We yelled and screamed and begged you not to take this away. And you did. I have a long memory and every time you do something to screw with the customers I get a little more disappointed and my love of the game gets less and less. You are making it harder for the vip servers as well.

[ATomiX96]

Bring em back ... the sooner you bring em back the less criticism youre gonna face from people.

[Nonde]

. . . the falsehood that it was the players fault for Store only keys when it was that dev that messed up double dailies but denied and refused to check was where the fault lay, least originally. . . .

Not forgetting Cordovan saying (close paraphrase) 'We have listened to players and removed keys' - then put them in the store. For years we got it's the players' computer, ISP etc too despite ppl in diff countries with diff computers and ISPs reporting the same issues.

PS Double dailies were indeed dev caused - and the issue was fixed before they removed they key quest. Mordor dailies reset at 3 AM then again at the usual instance reset time so was a window where ppl could do a 2nd run. No idea how many or how often ppl did double runs but likely a minority of players and while needed to be corrected for fairness this in no way justifies removing the key quests. Blaming players for their efforts to force store sales makes their actions the worse.

[Arnenna]

I checked out the Official stream over the weekend and see that the falsehood that it was the players fault for Store only keys when it was that dev that messed up double dailies but denied and refused to check was where the fault lay, least originally.

I remember this change hitting live and it was laughable, although it induced much anger for a lot of players.

The whole - we listened to the players about the dislike for lootboxes in the game, and therefore we are removing keys from the game. We are keeping keys in the store though, because there are players that get a lot of joy from opening the lootboxes, was SSG's first really shady move and its been a slippery slope ever since..

That was the day that many players stopped investing heavily into the game, either with money or played time.

the change in itself was really bad, but passing the buck onto the players was the worst I've ever seen hit patch notes.

[Forodir]

I remember this change hitting live and it was laughable, although it induced much anger for a lot of players.

The whole - we listened to the players about the dislike for lootboxes in the game, and therefore we are removing keys from the game. We are keeping keys in the store though, because there are players that get a lot of joy from opening the lootboxes, was SSG's first really shady move and its been a slippery slope ever since..

That was the day that many players stopped investing heavily into the game, either with money or played time.

the change in itself was really bad, but passing the buck onto the players was the worst I've ever seen hit patch notes.

Yep, I cancelled my VIP subscription there in Mordor and haven’t restarted it since. I had the subscription running almost non stop from the introduction of VIP model up to Mordor. The game direction since has been a constant downhill.

[onor]

I remember this change hitting live and it was laughable, although it induced much anger for a lot of players.

The whole - we listened to the players about the dislike for lootboxes in the game, and therefore we are removing keys from the game. We are keeping keys in the store though, because there are players that get a lot of joy from opening the lootboxes, was SSG's first really shady move and its been a slippery slope ever since..

That was the day that many players stopped investing heavily into the game, either with money or played time.

the change in itself was really bad, but passing the buck onto the players was the worst I've ever seen hit patch notes.

As part of my "embracing the suck", Ive come to really enjoy the newspeak and doublespeak coming from SSG. What gets me is that they actually think so little of us that they say that #### with a straight face.

[greendarner]

I actually expect skirmishes to be phased out. As soon as they can re-write the Epic quest line to not require those that you cannot access any other way. Just plain old instances that you can get through solo.

[beg1und]

Another player here who is expressing his great annoyance at this decision. Don't think it will matter much to the market/store manager but I have spent a load of cash on this game since returning 8 months ago (a foolish amount, really) but will not at all be buying rep accelerators from the store; and at the price you have them now? Absolutely no way. In fact I will not be spending any more money on your store. I will only spend what LP I make just playing the game, however much longer that ends up being.

Did you people even stop to consider that inflation is crushing most people right now? Fuel prices are more then 200% higher than they were 2 years ago and grocery bills right at 100% higher. How much mad money do you think the average person has to spend on something like this? Or is it actually true that you don't care about the average player, just the handful of big spender end game raiders that waste gargantuan amounts of money on your store?


Edit: typo

[Kirchenmaus]

Why do you force people that much to buy simple things like the reputation-tokens via the shop or gaining it trough your 'missions'. Ever since the missions where implementet I feel more and more forced to run the same stupid missions day in day out. That is what's driving me away from the game! Daily grind is BORING!!!

Please bring back the reputation-tokens to the skirmish-barter.

[Arantha]

We are aware of the community's feedback on this change, but at this time we have no plans to add these accelerators back to Skirmishes. The ability of players to farm these accelerators with essentially no time or effort forced this change. We will be looking at ways to make sure there are plenty of in-game opportunities to earn these accelerators, but we did have to make this decision for the long-term health of that particular item.

do not understand a word, why is there no bidirectional communication?

[Neinda]

What comes to mind these days for me is SSG has turned a five star resort into a pay by the hour motel Witt the push to the store using in game items rather than developing items people want to buy. It doesn’t take resources or effort to move in game quality of life items to pay with real money in the store. Why use resources for actual game things when you can just raise the price on existing items? And if you make those quality of life items necessary to access content that’s a double win for SSG. This seems to be a focus on short term profit with very little long term future.

[DoRonRon]

This seems to be a focus on short term profit with very little long term future.

Not even profit, just some made up metric of how much the average playing customer pays a month to be presented to "investors". One paying $1000 dollars a month doesn't mean any profits. The share price woes should tell them that doesn't work. SSG having to increase that figure is the bottom line, everyone in hysterical denial. Plundering rich oligarchs in their rush to show off their state harvested wealth selling them yachts is a load easier though.

[DoRonRon]

I actually expect skirmishes to be phased out. As soon as they can re-write the Epic quest line to not require those that you cannot access any other way. Just plain old instances that you can get through solo.

Too much effort when you can revive some forgotten, unmaintained tech for some future "Event". Same old bugs and workarounds for added nostalgia and a host of new posts and reports flooding CS from the late comers.

P.S. Reminds me of the Skirmish Event where the uninitiated tended to group up thinking pooling their resource would make an easier time of it but failing to realise that it introduced wipe likely encounters into the mix.

[DoRonRon]

Lets breakdown the mission reward options for an accomplished capped player:

A Shard (plus 10k guild rep token and base mats) - Ember worthy (for now still).
OR
A 100% craft crit token. We have these stacked already with weekly tasks chasing rep, lol.
OR
A Universal Solvent. Need reduced in latest recipes and Missing the option to use malleables in there stead still. Best Essence not from crafting anyway - Embers.
OR
A Sealed random Teal Tracery (Mastery?) with a choice of Tracery reclaim or Rare Enhancement /shrug
OR
1,000 Virtue XP Valars have long since sabotaged that grind.
Small Reputation Acceleration Tome. TA DA
Essence Reclamation Scroll - still have stacks of the tracer/essence reclaims to flame. MT Silver and Seals the last skirm option (for now), the better source.
Tome of Extraordinary Experience. - Useless at cap and an over levelling trap for lowbies.

The final bundle just for those who never could make the better choices.

Needs will vary somewhat, the hedge option has to be my choice, while it lasts.

[Daemonikal]

Obviously you're not doing this for the "health of the tomes" but the pocketbooks of your investors. I get it, you need to make money to keep the game running and that's ok. But don't LIE STRAIGHT TO US and expect us to be ok with it.

The net result of this change is that you've alienated a LOT of your players. I don't spend a lot of money in this game, but you can be sure after this that I will not be buying LP as long as this is the way you treat your player base.

To be clear: I don't care about the monetization, you have to make a paycheck, but I do *HATE* how shady y'all are about it and the way you basically GASLIGHT your community.

[beg1und]

do not understand a word, why is there no bidirectional communication?

Where did you find this from Cordovan? Players can not, in fact, farm these with little to no effort. You can only get them through weekly missions, which is anything but effortless.

I see 2 possibilities:

1. He's lying

or

2. He doesn't ever play the game and has no clue what's involved.

[Mirhaen]

Why do you force people that much to buy simple things like the reputation-tokens via the shop or gaining it trough your 'missions'. Every since the missions where implementet I feel more and more forced to run the same stupid missions day in day out. That is what's driving me away from the game! Daily grind is BORING!!!

Please bring back the reputation-tokens to the skirmish-barter.

It looks like we are expected to play the game in the way they want it, at a pace they want it, unless one wants to engage in abysmal grind and time waste. Fun made its final exit.

[Nonde]

Where did you find this from Cordovan? Players can not, in fact, farm these with little to no effort. You can only get them through weekly missions, which is anything but effortless.

I see 2 possibilities:

1. He's lying

or

2. He doesn't ever play the game and has no clue what's involved.

Post is #16 in thread "No Cord of the Rings": https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...he-Rings-today

My view of lying or clueless is in my reply in that thread which is copied here:

There are players below level cap + many at cap who don't grind instances for marks . . . test how long it takes to earn 25 medallions and 250 marks on a sub lvl 100 char and on a post 100 char who doesn't grind instances. It is obvious to players and I'm sure to you as well that the purpose of removing them is to push store sales as if ease of earning accelerators were the actual issue SSG would nerf/remove marks from the allegedly "no time or effort" instances. SSG would also have considered the entire player base by testing as above to see if they were in fact easy to earn for the majority of players but per usual SSG designs for the hard core minority/whales and throws the rest of us under the bus.

You were set the impossible task of trying to spin this obvious store grab - wouldn't have your job for quids - but 'The rep accelerators made us do it lest their health suffer!' is rather a stretch, albeit a creative one!

[SlavBG]

+1 Please bring the rep acceleration tomes back in the skirmish camps

[Lucrezia]

It looks like we are expected to play the game in the way they want it, at a pace they want it, unless one wants to engage in abysmal grind and time waste. Fun made its final exit.

And that is the same insidious, greedy, two-faced, good for nothing, *DISGUSTING* business practice that made me leave world of warcraft earlier this year. I am royally pissed off at these so-called "developers" ripping that same slimy page from Activision-Blizzard. I am ashamed of you, SSG. You make me sick.

[Devolved]

*Arriving stylishly late*

As folks have mentioned several times throughout, those accelerators were one of the few remaining items worth trudging out to the Skirm vendors for. Adding this on top of the previous anti-crafting-alt move of locking rep item usage behind specific quests ... disappointing.


Sure, in the grand overall scheme of the world this is a small thing. However, like a colony of ants, a bunch of small things can add up. I can see by the lack of a Power reply that we're spitting upwind in this thread, but there's my thought on it anyway.

[Mirhaen]

And that is the same insidious, greedy, two-faced, good for nothing, *DISGUSTING* business practice that made me leave world of warcraft earlier this year. I am royally pissed off at these so-called "developers" ripping that same slimy page from Activision-Blizzard. I am ashamed of you, SSG. You make me sick.

I don't know how much is SSG decision making, or someone above is fully in charge... but at any rate, results are saddening, to say the least. They have chipped away from us with time, and unfortunately chipped away all things that were fun and enjoyable. Crafting got diminished, locks and caps heavily administrated, more of RNG took place, old systems exchanged with even worst new ones, attempt to monetize on wrong items when they were given suggestions on what would people actually spend money on, grind introduced in literally everything, poor communication if any, lag issues, etc. All of it mentioned and explained in details through various threads already and it feels like it fell on deaf ears Lately I feel like having a second job, and even paying for it. I tried to stay hopeful and positive, but I see no end of this bad trend any longer, and will act accordingly.