Why abuse long time players?

[Hastran]

From Bullroarer Update 33.1 - Beta #3 - CLOSED:

"As there are no plans to use relics or shards in the future, relic masters and their services have been removed from the world. Combination Legendary Item services are now only forge masters. A few relic masters bestow quests or are related to quests, and have been turned into forge masters so as not to break those quests."

Really? I have toons with 500+ K shards and they will be worthless? I have bought Relics that came with upgraded Expansions and they too are now worthless? So years of gains and investment are thrown away...and there is no recompense. Can I get a 10% refund on all the expansions I have purchased that included "special relics"?

Just because people have been loyal customers who have played a long time and supported the game financially, doesn't mean you should abuse them. It is clear that the Management at LotRo neither values nor appreciates, the ones who have supported this game for years.

[the7hing]

From Bullroarer Update 33.1 - Beta #3 - CLOSED:

"As there are no plans to use relics or shards in the future, relic masters and their services have been removed from the world. Combination Legendary Item services are now only forge masters. A few relic masters bestow quests or are related to quests, and have been turned into forge masters so as not to break those quests."

Really? I have toons with 500+ K shards and they will be worthless? I have bought Relics that came with upgraded Expansions and they too are now worthless? So years of gains and investment are thrown away...and there is no recompense. Can I get a 10% refund on all the expansions I have purchased that included "special relics"?

Just because people have been loyal customers who have played a long time and supported the game financially, doesn't mean you should abuse them. It is clear that the Management at LotRo neither values nor appreciates, the ones who have supported this game for years.

Probably as a farewell gift:
https://twitter.com/Combrod_/status/1547929507931164677

[Frisco]

Do you know why you have 500,000 shards?

Because they were always useless.

Everything you're spending time, effort, and money on today is going to be obsolete in a year. It's just he way of gaming. Enjoy it now. You'll be selling/overwriting/destroying/disenchanting it soon enough for the next new thing. And you won't be getting a refund for it. Obtaining it is the fun you're paying for.

[Once_of_Bree]

Do you know why you have 500,000 shards?

Because they were always useless.

Everything you're spending time, effort, and money on today is going to be obsolete in a year. It's just he way of gaming. Enjoy it now. You'll be selling/overwriting/destroying/disenchanting it soon enough for the next new thing. And you won't be getting a refund for it. Obtaining it is the fun you're paying for.

Agree 100% I'm fed up with the number of people complaining about shards & relics , one of the most pointless by products of just playing the game.

[Arnenna]

I'm ok with losing shards and relics. Yes, people worked for them, I worked my butt off to keep my pile healthy when they were useful. But, we don't need them anymore and there is nothing else that we have now that would need them. Same with relics, we don't need relics anymore, and there is nothing in the new system that are an alternative to them. All they do now is take up valuable space.

The only thing we actually need now is traceries (replaced legacies) and enhancement runes (replaced empos). They allow us to trade in both of those as they are still relevant as in old versions of new parts of the new LIs. Everything else that was part of the LI system, is just dead wood.

[DoRonRon]

Agree 100% I'm fed up with the number of people complaining about shards & relics , one of the most pointless by products of just playing the game.

But it's more about them never being maintained. Like you could make an LI with a ridiculous number of shards when they were dropping into your bags so much that people were filtering them out of loot, many to their recent cost.

They were useful as far as tweaking your bridles but few of us were that concerned, to our recent advantage. However the cost of processing was in a time where there wasn't so much gold about.

I can agree, much rather that they become obsolete than be turned into another revenue stream.

EA make a FiFi game and a FiFi Manager game, SSG seem to have rolled both concepts into one game. The pie chart overlap getting narrower and narrower.

[Loox]

Relics are still a barter reward for sigils. /sigh

[Belnavar]

I think the simplest solution to this issue is to a make a barterer where you can trade your shards and old high-tier relics for Ancient Script.

-Bel

[DavidmeetHal]

I think the simplest solution to this issue is to a make a barterer where you can trade your shards and old high-tier relics for Ancient Script.

-Bel

I would like this.

[DoRonRon]

I would like this.

The "Lotro Manager" concept is perhaps not your thing?

Pity we can't trade AS as I have loads of it and already laundering it for 20% returns and 700+ at 101 on the reward track to process.

[istvana]

I have played MMOs where old, unsupported and essentially useless mechanisms and currencies never go away. So a new or returning player is endlessly confused as to what is valuable and what, at best, was once valuable.

I heartily approve of eliminating mechanics and mechanisms and currencies that are essentially useless.

Not because I like making games easier and easier - I do not. But keeping outdated currencies and mechanisms doesn't make anything *harder* it makes things more confusing.

[biggamer]

I think the simplest solution to this issue is to a make a barterer where you can trade your shards and old high-tier relics for Ancient Script.

-Bel

That would require them to actually do some work

[Pewpewmidget]

Cordovan is going to be coming around the corner to lock this thread because they do not allow discussions of current and former employees....

[SniperCT]

Cordovan is going to be coming around the corner to lock this thread because they do not allow discussions of current and former employees....

I mean no game does, it's kind of an industry standard, but this thread was made before he left and was a direct plea to the producer at the time, so I don't think that's an issue. OP can simply remove his name from the title.

[Melank]

Shards had been worthless for 8 months.

No need to do anything about it. Systems evolve and leave behind the scraps.

The same way that being level 130 with teal 445 item level gear is useless for endgame after level cap is increased to 140 and item level gear to teal 470 - 475.

[Lillipia]

I think the simplest solution to this issue is to a make a barterer where you can trade your shards and old high-tier relics for Ancient Script.

-Bel

Great idea

/sign

[Fresh_Pie]

I think the simplest solution to this issue is to a make a barterer where you can trade your shards and old high-tier relics for Ancient Script.

-Bel

This system is already ingame, has been for many years, since about 2008(?).
One of these Barterers is located in the M.Delving craft area.
Certain older items could be traded in for certain newer items.

[Pewpewmidget]

This system is already ingame, has been for many years, since about 2008(?).
One of these Barterers is located in the M.Delving craft area.
Certain older items could be traded in for certain newer items.

First I ever heard of this. Shards were used to meld newer relics (up to t10, never was able to meld Mordor relics or beyond)
You cannot do anything with the older relics as they are for the LIs that were dethroned in favor of this utter disgraceful LI system.
Relic-masters, and their services, are being removed. It's a change that was on BR recently.

Furthermore, there is only hub of NPCs that have to do with ancient script and neither of them want our shards or old relics.
Scrolls of Empowerment are flamed for a disgraceful amount of ancient script (25), that is not even enough for one yellow enhancement rune.
Star-lits are flamed for 2 lvl 86 epic enhancement runes. Totally useless for anyone over lvl 105.
Crystals of Remembrance are flamed for a decent amount of script, but they were the rarest of the old LI support items.
Old legacies are flamed for 50 ancient script and we were once able to buy an unlimited amount from class trainers and that was promptly patched out.

Point is, there's nothing for shards and sealed/fused/bartered old relics.

[DoRonRon]

First I ever heard of this. Shards were used to meld newer relics (up to t10, never was able to meld Mordor relics or beyond)
You cannot do anything with the older relics as they are for the LIs that were dethroned in favor of this utter disgraceful LI system.
Relic-masters, and their services, are being removed. It's a change that was on BR recently.

Furthermore, there is only hub of NPCs that have to do with ancient script and neither of them want our shards or old relics.
Scrolls of Empowerment are flamed for a disgraceful amount of ancient script (25), that is not even enough for one yellow enhancement rune.
Star-lits are flamed for 2 lvl 86 epic enhancement runes. Totally useless for anyone over lvl 105.
Crystals of Remembrance are flamed for a decent amount of script, but they were the rarest of the old LI support items.
Old legacies are flamed for 50 ancient script and we were once able to buy an unlimited amount from class trainers and that was promptly patched out.

Point is, there's nothing for shards and sealed/fused/bartered old relics.

It was only that there is an npc in the game already not that they were equipped to exchange shards or umpteen relics. Yet!

All these AS returns were likely coming from a less than thorough engagement with playing with the ILI's nuances. People farmed the bound Star-lit Crystals to eventually use at level 100 and save themselves from a real headache in imbuing and ruining a serviceable LI.

Now if the ILI system confused them can we expect this far more nuanced, complex and grindier LI system to be fully understood by the devs/engineers? Vastin: my hero, for taking it beyond colleagues' grasp.

[Pewpewmidget]

All these AS returns were likely coming from a less than thorough engagement with playing with the ILI's nuances. People farmed the bound Star-lit Crystals to eventually use at level 100 and save themselves from a real headache in imbuing and ruining a serviceable LI.

Now if the ILI system confused them can we expect this far more nuanced, complex and grindier LI system to be fully understood by the devs/engineers? Vastin: my hero, for taking it beyond colleagues' grasp.

The traceries and the runes to fill and level the 22 slots is more of a nuisance than the star-lits to level up dps and empowerment scrolls to level up 12-14 slots in my opinion.
Anyway, it is obvious that the AS returns were not thoroughly looked at and the current LI system is complete garbage.
Star-lit crystals and empowerment scrolls were uncapped for the large part of the ILI's lifespan so having the scrolls return 25 AS is a slap in the face.
Especially since a uncommon rune costs more and is only able to cover the first 10 levels of your LI's level range.
Star-lits are now completely worthless. Not even worth flaming them for the runes you cannot even use.
It is abundantly clear that no one plays the game or gives a damn because we all know that neither of them run any (challenging) instances or raids.

SSG never bothers to listen to us and our inputs or bothers to hire or associate with anyone that has a clue and lick of sense for the game. And listen to them.

[Melank]

SSG never bothers to listen to us and our inputs or bothers to hire or associate with anyone that has a clue and lick of sense for the game. And listen to them.

They should hire old time MMO active players from several MMOs as assessors.

Not system engineers that claim that they played MMOs once in their life times.

It's fine if you know mathematics, but it's not fine if you don't know how to apply the right relationships between systems because you're clueless about how current MMOs work and what's their players' criteria.


Raninia was a mobile game developer, not an old time MMO dev. And that's why he was so focused on buffing microtransactions like asian gacha mobile games, and applying restrictions like embers/motes/rep scrolls to then sell them through the LP store.

Lotro is not a mobile game, it should focus on how other high quality MMOs like WoW, GW2, ESO, FFXIV manage their solo content, group content, PvP, endgame, and learn from what they do successfully to replicate it.

The same way that WoW is doing now with GW2. It's copying what they're doing right and that's really getting them through with their new expansion.

But I highly doubt that Daybreak/SSG has any common sense around this issue.

Look at this:

The QA Tester is responsible for testing multiple aspects of Lord of the Rings Online. In the QA Department at Standing Stone Games reporting to the QA Lead, this position will be responsible for:

Hands-On reporting of bugs, balance issues, etc.
Performing regression and ad-hoc testing
Assisting in build approvals by completing smoke tests, test plans, and ad-hoc testing
Investigating bugs reported by players Work closely with developers and attend various meetings


Other Criteria

Prior experience playing The Lord of the Rings Online

Strong working knowledge of the MMO genre

Excellent communication, both written and verbal

Highly motivated and self-directed, with a drive to perform well and take initiative on tasks

Teamwork oriented

3+ years of experience as a software Quality Assurance tester, preferably on an AAA title

Knowledge of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office products (Outlook, Word, and Excel)

Experience with JIRA a plus

It's totally a secondary matter for them.

They will probably hire more mobile game developers and turn the game into Facebook's FarmVille at this rate.

Just click the damn daily gift box and get more "shiny coins" to buff your toon while people stop raiding because of lag, RPers can't have a proper event without lag, we have 9 months of endgame stagnation with 4 really poorly executed instances, players have to buy-to-play last expansion to then face p2w consumables and lootboxes from the store, etc.

[DoRonRon]

Yeah the prior experience of playing always crops up; somehow it's better that they have, for whatever reason, quit playing at sometime?

The Self-directed seems to reflect the trend for work done not reaching a patch note and we are left to "discover" the change and question our own senses when something is just not quite as we are used to. War-steed trait changes totally caught out a regular youtuber. Me; I'm wondering at a possible tweak to top speed turn-rate mounted, just can't be sure. CS couldn't help me to confirm a change of level requirement of a previously much completed weekly, like they had no record of any change.

It's not likely any colleague is going to notice I suppose and may be the route to actually fix some things off the clock?

I'm uncertain the Excellent communications criteria attached to every job has been met or maybe all lost in translation?

I guess we are now over the musings of a Producer on an EU datacentre and de-virtualisation.

[Fresh_Pie]

First I ever heard of this.....

Point is, there's nothing for shards and sealed/fused/bartered old relics.

My bad, I should have stated it differently. I was trying to point out that they already have "a system"
in place to barter old for new items. It just needs to have the neccessary tables updated if they were
to utilize it.

[SniperCT]

Look at this:



It's totally a secondary matter for them.

They will probably hire more mobile game developers and turn the game into Facebook's FarmVille at this rate.

Just click the damn daily gift box and get more "shiny coins" to buff your toon while people stop raiding because of lag, RPers can't have a proper event without lag, we have 9 months of endgame stagnation with 4 really poorly executed instances, players have to buy-to-play last expansion to then face p2w consumables and lootboxes from the store, etc.

I fail to see the problem based on what you quoted.

The first part explains what the job will be and what you'd do in the position. Like, those aren't criteria, that's the job description.

Literally the first 2 criteria are prior lotro experience and working knowledge of the MMO genre.

[Melank]

I fail to see the problem based on what you quoted.

The first part explains what the job will be and what you'd do in the position. Like, those aren't criteria, that's the job description.

Literally the first 2 criteria are prior lotro experience and working knowledge of the MMO genre.

It says "other criteria" it means that it doesn't really matter if you have that kind of experience. It's a plus, but it's not conclusive.

It's like going to an interview in which you own all the skills required and the RRHH person asks you: "Are you a good co-worker?" and you answer "Sure".