Questions for Severlin on Friday 19th Feb Cord of Rings

[TearMaker]

As nobody else has stepped up to open a thread I will kick it off and transfer the questions from the other thread so that we can all ask from the one place. If they ignore the thread then that in itself is an answer to your questions.

Here is the questions from the other thread to start... then anyone else who has questions can add them as their own posts

Here is 10 questions from Joedangod

1. It's clear that players are growing more and more annoyed with the imbued LI system, what steps are you going to take to address their concerns over the sheer grind required for these items?
2. The new virtue system has resulted in an exponential increase in grind, whilst we have more freedom in terms of what we do to advance virtues we are required to do a lot more work overall to get to the same reward we had before. What plans are there in regards to making the new virtue system more player-friendly in terms of time investment required?
3. Both of the aforementioned systems (Imbued LI's and Virtues) have prominent store means to bypass their respective grinds, does SSG expect the average player to be paying for these items?
4. Over the years the store has gradually been shifting to a fairly pay-to-win system with items such as stat boosts (permanent and temporary), items and now virtues being made available there. Are we to expect further monetisation of player power in this regard?
5. New players have a pretty steep barrier to entry, it can be slightly mitigated by purchasing VIP but expansions remain a hefty investment for someone to make so early on in their LOTRO career. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more palatable price or even included within VIP?
6. Many feel that VIP has lost a large portion of its value with the release of the micro-expansion WoTP. What is SSG doing to address this concern?
7. Class balance work is happening at a glacial pace and we often simply receive small changes that mostly just confuse players as to their purpose. Has SSG charted out a roadmap for this or are they simply making tweaks on an ad hoc basis?
8. Captains are currently the strongest tank by far due to their exceptionally strong defensive cooldowns and unparalleled support capability, how are SSG planning to address this tank imbalance?
9. With each update we see stats repeatedly being bloated by an absurd amount, this mostly serves to further trivialise the previous patches content and make said content redundant in terms of rewards. Why do our stats keep getting inflated like this?
10. The gap between players is perhaps most notable in the moors where, after the recent changes, MPers find themselves easily killing the average freep. How do SSG intend to address this disparity to foster a more fair and competitive PvMP environment?

A couple from Braer

1. How did the term exploit get to a point where it now encompasses the player economy of store rival goods and doesn't include the over purchase of premium store items to negate years long grinds? Empowerments and 120 Valars. And what happened to the promise that virtue exp would never be available in the store?
2. How are you going to address the obvious lack of Lotro game knowledge vs DDO at the decision making, management, level? Little accounting for consequences on the game to drive store sales.

A couple from Faethyn

1. What are LOTRO's plans for 2021 and 2022?
   
2. When will Gundabad be finished, and what else can we expect this year and next year?

from Arnenna

1. Will we ever see ad hoc or tiered subscriptions, where we can subscribe to parts of the game without having to pay for stuff we already have?

A couple from Elebraen

1. While reviewing some old patches, I noticed a lot of clean-up work was being done to the old regions, seemingly in tandem with the region progress on the Legendary Servers. The clean up of Angmar is one I can remember off of the top of my head, and the helium trolls in Trollshaws gave me a giggle. I haven't explored the opened up area in Angmar yet, but I plan to go there. I understand that 2020 was an "all hands on deck" sort of year, but my question is: Do you plan to continue with cleaning up the old region bugs and expanding on the old areas a little bit?
2. I saw a few screenshots of the new lighting system and I really like how it is going to brighten up some very dark dungeon areas, especially in Moria. But my question is: Is this new lighting system going to tone down the overly bright characters of Galadriel (in Celeborn's court) and Mithrandir? Gandalf the White is a little TOO blindingly white, and so is Galadriel. And if this new lighting system isn't the right fix for the overly bright problem, is there a lighting solution in the works for that?
3. While I was hunting around for the changes that applied to my own classes specifically, I noticed that few changes have been made to the classes recently and the attention seemed to have turned to fine tuning PvMP, which had to wait until the class balance was done first. Can I take this to mean that the company is generally satisfied with the fine tuning of the class balance as it currently stands?
4. I really love the idea of boats on a river for a new way to travel, and the Wildwood ships are stunning. I would take the slow ride just for the sightseeing. Would you consider putting ships like that on Lake Evendim in place of the swift travel rowboats that are there now? Just a nice way to see Annuminas from the sea.
5. A lot of recent attention has been given to crystals and scrolls for my imbued LIs because that's what I currently have to work with for my high level characters. But in the new imbued legendary system that is going to encompass the old one, do you intend to keep using crystals and scrolls as a means to opening up new tiers? And if crystals and scrolls are to be done away with altogether in the new system, is there going to be some other "add item" method by which tiers must be unlocked before item XP can be added to the tier? Or will the tier unlocks be more closely linked to current character level?

By Glondel

1. I would add a question about how they are planning to improve servers performances. Most of the raids and in particular AD is super laggy for most of the europeans servers and waiting 1/2 to see a skill happening would make any other improvements among the ones you mentioned pretty useless

Couple from Garan

1. Are there any plans to enhance the Lua API?
2. Will Carryalls be exposed to Lua?
3. Will the Wardrobe be exposed to Lua?
4. Will item IDs for Lua Item and/or ItemInfo objects be exposed?
5. Will Quest and/or Deed info be exposed to Lua?
6. Has anyone at SSG looked at the known issues list for Lua compiled back in 2014? https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...1-Known-issues

Couple from Braer

1. I'd like to ask if there is any supervision of official streamers
2. What are the criteria for being a moderator on the official streams?

[Seregthol]

Here is 10 questions from Joedangod

1. It's clear that players are growing more and more annoyed with the imbued LI system, what steps are you going to take to address their concerns over the sheer grind required for these items?
2. The new virtue system has resulted in an exponential increase in grind, whilst we have more freedom in terms of what we do to advance virtues we are required to do a lot more work overall to get to the same reward we had before. What plans are there in regards to making the new virtue system more player-friendly in terms of time investment required?
3. Both of the aforementioned systems (Imbued LI's and Virtues) have prominent store means to bypass their respective grinds, does SSG expect the average player to be paying for these items?
4. Over the years the store has gradually been shifting to a fairly pay-to-win system with items such as stat boosts (permanent and temporary), items and now virtues being made available there. Are we to expect further monetisation of player power in this regard?
5. New players have a pretty steep barrier to entry, it can be slightly mitigated by purchasing VIP but expansions remain a hefty investment for someone to make so early on in their LOTRO career. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more palatable price or even included within VIP?
6. Many feel that VIP has lost a large portion of its value with the release of the micro-expansion WoTP. What is SSG doing to address this concern?
7. Class balance work is happening at a glacial pace and we often simply receive small changes that mostly just confuse players as to their purpose. Has SSG charted out a roadmap for this or are they simply making tweaks on an ad hoc basis?
8. Captains are currently the strongest tank by far due to their exceptionally strong defensive cooldowns and unparalleled support capability, how are SSG planning to address this tank imbalance?
9. With each update we see stats repeatedly being bloated by an absurd amount, this mostly serves to further trivialise the previous patches content and make said content redundant in terms of rewards. Why do our stats keep getting inflated like this?
10. The gap between players is perhaps most notable in the moors where, after the recent changes, MPers find themselves easily killing the average freep. How do SSG intend to address this disparity to foster a more fair and competitive PvMP environment?

Just stick to those 10. Don't distract him with any other details or side issues till he answers these first.

[OghranNasty]

Agreed

[Pontin_Finnberry]

5. New players have a pretty steep barrier to entry, it can be slightly mitigated by purchasing VIP but expansions remain a hefty investment for someone to make so early on in their LOTRO career. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more palatable price or even included within VIP?

They just updated older Expansions, if you are a new player, you can buy the new Expansion Trove for $60 you get 6 expansions all of them previous to Minas morgul, I think since this is a brand new change it very unlikely they would be included with VIP or change price since they just did that with expansions in the new market, however there no individual packs yet if want to buy them separately, Cordovan did say they would do that in the future, be nice to know more on that.

[Schattenhand]

10. The gap between players is perhaps most notable in the moors where, after the recent changes, MPers find themselves easily killing the average freep. How do SSG intend to address this disparity to foster a more fair and competitive PvMP environment?

That's why vastin and his colleague are working on PvMP gear for freeps. But a few additional thoughts from Sev would be welcome nonetheless.

[Tancanspanc]

Agree with the above / OP.

Just stick with those original questions, and don't let them get sidetracked by the inevitable "when are going to introduce a unicorn/goldfish/baby yoda cosmetic pet" type nonsense.

[Strider5548]

Class balance is my #1 thing, especially with regard to tanking. I would really like to know if Severlin understands that Cappies are currently godly OP, and if he even knows the state of other tanks like Blue Wardens?

The disparity in the ability of tanks in LOTRO today is the worse/widest gap in any game I've played since EQ1, where nobody cared about balance because it was EQ1...the first MMO of its kind.

If he could tell us what specifically they plan to do to improve the blue warden, that is enough for me to leave happy.

[Hephburz-2]

As nobody else has stepped up to open a thread I will kick it off and transfer the questions from the other thread so that we can all ask from the one place. If they ignore the thread then that in itself is an answer to your questions.

Here is the questions from the other thread to start... then anyone else who has questions can add them as their own posts

Here is 10 questions from Joedangod

1. It's clear that players are growing more and more annoyed with the imbued LI system, what steps are you going to take to address their concerns over the sheer grind required for these items?
2. The new virtue system has resulted in an exponential increase in grind, whilst we have more freedom in terms of what we do to advance virtues we are required to do a lot more work overall to get to the same reward we had before. What plans are there in regards to making the new virtue system more player-friendly in terms of time investment required?
3. Both of the aforementioned systems (Imbued LI's and Virtues) have prominent store means to bypass their respective grinds, does SSG expect the average player to be paying for these items?
4. Over the years the store has gradually been shifting to a fairly pay-to-win system with items such as stat boosts (permanent and temporary), items and now virtues being made available there. Are we to expect further monetisation of player power in this regard?
5. New players have a pretty steep barrier to entry, it can be slightly mitigated by purchasing VIP but expansions remain a hefty investment for someone to make so early on in their LOTRO career. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more palatable price or even included within VIP?
6. Many feel that VIP has lost a large portion of its value with the release of the micro-expansion WoTP. What is SSG doing to address this concern?
7. Class balance work is happening at a glacial pace and we often simply receive small changes that mostly just confuse players as to their purpose. Has SSG charted out a roadmap for this or are they simply making tweaks on an ad hoc basis?
8. Captains are currently the strongest tank by far due to their exceptionally strong defensive cooldowns and unparalleled support capability, how are SSG planning to address this tank imbalance?
9. With each update we see stats repeatedly being bloated by an absurd amount, this mostly serves to further trivialise the previous patches content and make said content redundant in terms of rewards. Why do our stats keep getting inflated like this?
10. The gap between players is perhaps most notable in the moors where, after the recent changes, MPers find themselves easily killing the average freep. How do SSG intend to address this disparity to foster a more fair and competitive PvMP environment?

These questions are really good, I'd just like to expand on question 4 and 5 though, if I may.

In terms of question 4, has SSG thought about an overhaul of the store? Especially with regards to pricing of certain items, even more so when the MC cost of certain things is in direct contrast and competition of the item that is being offered in the lotro store itself i.e. star-lits and legacy tier upgrades which are all availalbe for 10 MC but are almost 3 times the price for direct LP purchase. Furthermore, if things were more reasonably priced you would see a lot more people buying from the store (not that that in itself should be encouraged, but in a f2p game, microtransactions are indeed a source of income and I feel like SSG is missing out on a HUGE potential market because things are just priced far too steeply in relation to their actual worth).

In terms of question 5, I cannot imagine how daunting it is to join the game as a new player right now, especially seeing the game as level cap 130, and then finding out that VIP does not even offer you the required amount of content to get to the level cap, many people would feel cheated for buying it - I would seriously recommend including "old" expansions in VIP, especially when they have been released for a year or more, I cannot think of any other game that requires players to go back and purchase 10+ years worth of content in order to be able to reach the level cap (or, just to experience the game), as someone who has brought all of these expansions, and pre-ordered many of them, this really should not be a wall for new players, we pay for the privaledge to play them on release, or whatever fluff was included in the pre-order, NOT to have absolute completely limited access above everyone else who hasn't brought them, especially after a significant period of time has passed.

Other than that, all of the other questions are absolutely spot on and I would like to hear Severlins answers.

P.S; one final question if I may, what content, outside of U29 is coming between now and Gundabad for end-game players.

[twittfounder]

I appreciate the desire to ask provocative questions...however, I want to point out that each and every one of Joedangod's questions is written from a perspective of negativity and hostility. Is there a way to present the questions in a way that don't immediately create a barrier and defensiveness? They aren't BAD questions at the heart, but ... this creates a pretty hostile environment.


1. Could you address the complexity with the imbued LI system?
2. Are there any plans to to make the virtue system more new player friendly?
3 / 4. Could you talk more about ways you plan on combining the monetization of the store with player experience?
5. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more accessible price or included within VIP?
6. War of the Three peaks feels like a reduction of value in terms of paid expansions. Can you address this concern with respect to pricing and content for Gundabad?
7. Can you share the roadmap for class rework? In particular, captains seem to be overvalued as tanks. Could you address this perceived tank imbalance?
8. Thank you for helping work on the PVMP rebalancing. Can you share plans for continuing rebalancing and timelines?

[Joedangod]

I appreciate the desire to ask provocative questions...however, I want to point out that each and every one of Joedangod's questions is written from a perspective of negativity and hostility.

Ironically I deliberately avoided being hostile/negative for the reasons you give. In fact I don't believe the questions are negative, they certainly describe negative aspects of the game but that is required to properly contextualise the question being asked. Your rewrites, whilst certainly a bit more neutral, are also exceptionally vague in comparison.

We have the choice of pushing for specific answers or settling vague ones, I don't think many would be happy getting vague answers at this point. Of course, I could be wrong in that regard. Your questions are a viable alternative but I feel you are pushing a bit too far in the opposite direction here.

[kudurru1]

We have the choice of pushing for specific answers or settling vague ones, I don't think many would be happy getting vague answers at this point.

Precisely.

I prefer a clear answer over a vague one even if I don't like that answer. Both sides would benefit from more back and forth communication.

[Bhoris_they_spider]

Ironically I deliberately avoided being hostile/negative for the reasons you give. In fact I don't believe the questions are negative, they certainly describe negative aspects of the game but that is required to properly contextualise the question being asked. Your rewrites, whilst certainly a bit more neutral, are also exceptionally vague in comparison.

We have the choice of pushing for specific answers or settling vague ones, I don't think many would be happy getting vague answers at this point. Of course, I could be wrong in that regard. Your questions are a viable alternative but I feel you are pushing a bit too far in the opposite direction here.

You have been playing since at least 2011 and seriously expect these questions to be answered explicitly with a level of detail that satisfies you?

The purpose of the live stream is so a dev can interact with the fans and talk about the new zone he has created and the hopefully reveal some interesting stuff from a design perspective. If you consider this 100% fluff, do yourself a favour and don't bother attending, you will only end up being extremely disappointed, trust me.

[mithelenthor]

You have been playing since at least 2011 and seriously expect these questions to be answered explicitly with a level of detail that satisfies you?

The purpose of the live stream is so a dev can interact with the fans and talk about the new zone he has created and the hopefully reveal some interesting stuff from a design perspective. If you consider this 100% fluff, do yourself a favour and don't bother attending, you will only end up being extremely disappointed, trust me.

I think we all know that smoke and mirrors will be used at best.

I think a few things may happen...

They will either defer the whole process which tells you exactly what Severlin thinks of the Lotro community.... (a cash cow for his DDO love)

This thread and its answers will be ignored entirely and the stream will be moderated to hell and we will end up with the usual fluff questions with the same old "I dunno" dunce answers...

or they will try and throw some other donkey under the bus and let them flounder or try their best to confound the weak of mind by showing how they have improved imposter density by 3% in a whole year...

[Once_of_Bree]

I appreciate the desire to ask provocative questions...however, I want to point out that each and every one of Joedangod's questions is written from a perspective of negativity and hostility. Is there a way to present the questions in a way that don't immediately create a barrier and defensiveness? They aren't BAD questions at the heart, but ... this creates a pretty hostile environment.


1. Could you address the complexity with the imbued LI system?
2. Are there any plans to to make the virtue system more new player friendly?
3 / 4. Could you talk more about ways you plan on combining the monetization of the store with player experience?
5. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more accessible price or included within VIP?
6. War of the Three peaks feels like a reduction of value in terms of paid expansions. Can you address this concern with respect to pricing and content for Gundabad?
7. Can you share the roadmap for class rework? In particular, captains seem to be overvalued as tanks. Could you address this perceived tank imbalance?
8. Thank you for helping work on the PVMP rebalancing. Can you share plans for continuing rebalancing and timelines?

Glad it wasn't only me that thought the OP's questions overly hostile and the OP's defence of them is hysterical, what has hostility got to do with specificity? Your questions are much better, same underlying question but without the hostility.

[Bhoris_they_spider]

As nobody else has stepped up to open a thread I will kick it off and transfer the questions from the other thread so that we can all ask from the one place. If they ignore the thread then that in itself is an answer to your questions.

Here is the questions from the other thread to start... then anyone else who has questions can add them as their own posts

Here is 10 questions from Joedangod

1. It's clear that players are growing more and more annoyed with the imbued LI system, what steps are you going to take to address their concerns over the sheer grind required for these items?
2. The new virtue system has resulted in an exponential increase in grind, whilst we have more freedom in terms of what we do to advance virtues we are required to do a lot more work overall to get to the same reward we had before. What plans are there in regards to making the new virtue system more player-friendly in terms of time investment required?
3. Both of the aforementioned systems (Imbued LI's and Virtues) have prominent store means to bypass their respective grinds, does SSG expect the average player to be paying for these items?
4. Over the years the store has gradually been shifting to a fairly pay-to-win system with items such as stat boosts (permanent and temporary), items and now virtues being made available there. Are we to expect further monetisation of player power in this regard?
5. New players have a pretty steep barrier to entry, it can be slightly mitigated by purchasing VIP but expansions remain a hefty investment for someone to make so early on in their LOTRO career. Can we ever expect to see early expansions reduced to a more palatable price or even included within VIP?
6. Many feel that VIP has lost a large portion of its value with the release of the micro-expansion WoTP. What is SSG doing to address this concern?
7. Class balance work is happening at a glacial pace and we often simply receive small changes that mostly just confuse players as to their purpose. Has SSG charted out a roadmap for this or are they simply making tweaks on an ad hoc basis?
8. Captains are currently the strongest tank by far due to their exceptionally strong defensive cooldowns and unparalleled support capability, how are SSG planning to address this tank imbalance?
9. With each update we see stats repeatedly being bloated by an absurd amount, this mostly serves to further trivialise the previous patches content and make said content redundant in terms of rewards. Why do our stats keep getting inflated like this?
10. The gap between players is perhaps most notable in the moors where, after the recent changes, MPers find themselves easily killing the average freep. How do SSG intend to address this disparity to foster a more fair and competitive PvMP environment?

A couple from Braer

1a. How did the term exploit get to a point where it now encompasses the player economy of store rival goods and doesn't include the over purchase of premium store items to negate years long grinds? Empowerments and 120 Valars. And what happened to the promise that virtue exp would never be available in the store?
2a. How are you going to address the obvious lack of Lotro game knowledge vs DDO at the decision making, management, level? Little accounting for consequences on the game to drive store sales.

I will answer these questions for you without having any knowledge of LOTRO development or video game development :

1 - We are always looking for new ways to make the LI progression system feel more satisfying and rewarding for players. We are exploring options for catchup mechanics for new players via some internal prototyping but cannot talk about this further
2 - One of the drivers for the new virtue system was to give players the opportunity to further improve their characters by revisiting old areas and expansions. We wanted to create a system of progression for players that had an element of reward but did not feel mandatory in the context of overall character power. We are currently quite happy with how the system is performing but will actively monitor player feedback and potentially introduce new in-game options for acquiring VXP
3 - Unfortunately there is no 'average' player in LOTRO, we try to introduce store items that are generally useful to a fair portion of the player base. Likewise we have players who hardly ever use the store. Getting the balance right here is an area we are always looking to monitor and improve to make sure we are generating as satisfying an experience for our players as possible.
4 - See above, new items will be constantly introduced in to the store and we actively monitor feedback as to how the player base feels about these.
5 - We are always looking to reduce any barriers to entry for new players. Last year's quest pack and expansions promotions were well received by many new players. We will be looking to run further promotions in the future but it is to early to talk about what these might be.
6 - We are always looking for new ways to reward our VIP and have some ideas that we are internally prototyping. It is to early to share any details of these at this point.
7 - Class balance and performance is constantly being monitored by our team. Trait and skill changes occur with almost every patch and some class reworks have been internally road mapped. These are some way off and we are unable to talk about them at this point.
9 - The tanking classes as a whole are currently being looked at internally and we expect future balance changes. We cannot say exactly when these will go live however.
10 - We now have developers actively working on PVMP balance, so a satisfying PVMP is very much an ongoing goal for us. Initial feedback has been positive so we expect further improvements to go live in the future.

1a - We appreciate the frustration players feel when changes get made to the game and we look to avoid this as much as possible. Unfortunately we are not always able to talk about the rationale for altering in-game or store items but we are constantly listening to player feedback and hope to minimise any frustration caused in the future.
2b - At all levels of game development we realise the benefit of keeping players happy and engaged, ultimately decisions we make are never going to be universally popular and so have the potential to create division within the player base. We are meticulous in reviewing our internal decision making process and are always looking to learn and iterate on the past.

[Mythreindeer]

I will answer these questions for you without having any knowledge of LOTRO development or video game development :

1 - We are always looking for new ways to make the LI progression system feel more satisfying and rewarding for players. We are exploring options for catchup mechanics for new players via some internal prototyping but cannot talk about this further
2 - One of the drivers for the new virtue system was to give players the opportunity to further improve their characters by revisiting old areas and expansions. We wanted to create a system of progression for players that had an element of reward but did not feel mandatory in the context of overall character power. We are currently quite happy with how the system is performing but will actively monitor player feedback and potentially introduce new in-game options for acquiring VXP
3 - Unfortunately there is no 'average' player in LOTRO, we try to introduce store items that are generally useful to a fair portion of the player base. Likewise we have players who hardly ever use the store. Getting the balance right here is an area we are always looking to monitor and improve to make sure we are generating as satisfying an experience for our players as possible.
4 - See above, new items will be constantly introduced in to the store and we actively monitor feedback as to how the player base feels about these.
5 - We are always looking to reduce any barriers to entry for new players. Last year's quest pack and expansions promotions were well received by many new players. We will be looking to run further promotions in the future but it is to early to talk about what these might be.
6 - We are always looking for new ways to reward our VIP and have some ideas that we are internally prototyping. It is to early to share any details of these at this point.
7 - Class balance and performance is constantly being monitored by our team. Trait and skill changes occur with almost every patch and some class reworks have been internally road mapped. These are some way off and we are unable to talk about them at this point.
9 - The tanking classes as a whole are currently being looked at internally and we expect future balance changes. We cannot say exactly when these will go live however.
10 - We now have developers actively working on PVMP balance, so a satisfying PVMP is very much an ongoing goal for us. Initial feedback has been positive so we expect further improvements to go live in the future.

1a - We appreciate the frustration players feel when changes get made to the game and we look to avoid this as much as possible. Unfortunately we are not always able to talk about the rationale for altering in-game or store items but we are constantly listening to player feedback and hope to minimise any frustration caused in the future.
2b - At all levels of game development we realise the benefit of keeping players happy and engaged, ultimately decisions we make are never going to be universally popular and so have the potential to create division within the player base. We are meticulous in reviewing our internal decision making process and are always looking to learn and iterate on the past.

Bravo! Well done and on point.

Here's a question: why don't the new owners spare the gaming world and Tolkien fans from any further pain and close LoTRO?

[TearMaker]

Glad it wasn't only me that thought the OP's questions overly hostile and the OP's defence of them is hysterical, what has hostility got to do with specificity? Your questions are much better, same underlying question but without the hostility.

Can we try and not criticise how people post as it only achieves to de-rail the thread...

The threads purpose, no matter the small % chance of getting a reply, is to ask questions that we want answering. As long as someone isn't breaking any forum rules then they should be free to ask in whatever fashion they feel is expressing their feelings.

While wasting time criticising others and you will almost definitely feel the need to reply to this post, (which is your right under the rules and you can post how you feel about the questions folks raise) it doesn't help to achieve anything and if we can get an answer to a quarter of the questions anybody in this thread wants to ask then I think it would be worth letting folks say how they feel in their own way.

But remember also that if they don't go ahead with it or do not answer the questions then they have made the companies voice heard by ignoring us and that in itself means they either have no answer to your questions or they have no plans to implement the solutions to your problems.

[Arnenna]

I have one question, that I've asked a few times, and never received an answer to.

I own all content. I have an army of crafters and do not need any more, so no need to guild up. I have swift travel, uncapped currency, all trait slots open, and journeyman riding on all my characters. I have access to vaults in every main hub in Middle Earth. I have access to vendors in almost every town in Middle Earth. I don't buy or sell anything on the AH for most part, because I earn what I need and have no use for large amounts of gold, so 5 AH slots is plenty enough. I can access mail in every town in Middle Earth.

So getting around is easy, crafting is covered and then some, sending and receiving mail is easy. Selling stuff in my bags and fixing my gear is easy.

I don't PvMP, so never gonna need that.

So here's the question. Why would I ever need a sub? What incentive is there to sub? It doesn't even provide content now. It will when this new level 45 area arrives (maybe)? So, pay a sub to play new lower level content that will take a couple of hours to play through! No, I'll LP that or wait it out until later. I don't mind paying for expansions - full ones.

Will we ever see ad hoc or tiered subscriptions, where we can subscribe to parts of the game without having to pay for stuff we already have?

[Hephburz-2]

I think some may have forgotten, I tried this once before, it did not go well, and my questions were worded similar to your own.

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...-Devs-Cordovan

You can see the kind of responses that were given, I don't think you should expect anything more or less. So if I may.

Thank you for the suggestion.

[Loochaldo]

1.) Why don't you care about LOTRO?

2.) How dare you?

[Elebraen]

I do have a few questions to throw into the pot.

While reviewing some old patches, I noticed a lot of clean-up work was being done to the old regions, seemingly in tandem with the region progress on the Legendary Servers. The clean up of Angmar is one I can remember off of the top of my head, and the helium trolls in Trollshaws gave me a giggle. I haven't explored the opened up area in Angmar yet, but I plan to go there. I understand that 2020 was an "all hands on deck" sort of year, but my question is: Do you plan to continue with cleaning up the old region bugs and expanding on the old areas a little bit?

I saw a few screenshots of the new lighting system and I really like how it is going to brighten up some very dark dungeon areas, especially in Moria. But my question is: Is this new lighting system going to tone down the overly bright characters of Galadriel (in Celeborn's court) and Mithrandir? Gandalf the White is a little TOO blindingly white, and so is Galadriel. And if this new lighting system isn't the right fix for the overly bright problem, is there a lighting solution in the works for that?

While I was hunting around for the changes that applied to my own classes specifically, I noticed that few changes have been made to the classes recently and the attention seemed to have turned to fine tuning PvMP, which had to wait until the class balance was done first. Can I take this to mean that the company is generally satisfied with the fine tuning of the class balance as it currently stands?

I really love the idea of boats on a river for a new way to travel, and the Wildwood ships are stunning. I would take the slow ride just for the sightseeing. Would you consider putting ships like that on Lake Evendim in place of the swift travel rowboats that are there now? Just a nice way to see Annuminas from the sea.

A lot of recent attention has been given to crystals and scrolls for my imbued LIs because that's what I currently have to work with for my high level characters. But in the new imbued legendary system that is going to encompass the old one, do you intend to keep using crystals and scrolls as a means to opening up new tiers? And if crystals and scrolls are to be done away with altogether in the new system, is there going to be some other "add item" method by which tiers must be unlocked before item XP can be added to the tier? Or will the tier unlocks be more closely linked to current character level?

[Glondel]

I would add a question about how they are planning to improve servers performances. Most of the raids and in particular AD is super laggy for most of the europeans servers and waiting 1/2 to see a skill happening would make any other improvements among the ones you mentioned pretty useless

[Gildoriel]

Can we try and not criticise how people post as it only achieves to de-rail the thread...

The threads purpose, no matter the small % chance of getting a reply, is to ask questions that we want answering. As long as someone isn't breaking any forum rules then they should be free to ask in whatever fashion they feel is expressing their feelings.

While wasting time criticising others and you will almost definitely feel the need to reply to this post, (which is your right under the rules and you can post how you feel about the questions folks raise) it doesn't help to achieve anything and if we can get an answer to a quarter of the questions anybody in this thread wants to ask then I think it would be worth letting folks say how they feel in their own way.

But remember also that if they don't go ahead with it or do not answer the questions then they have made the companies voice heard by ignoring us and that in itself means they either have no answer to your questions or they have no plans to implement the solutions to your problems.

Agreed - the perception if something is too critical or too harsh may be an entirely cultural difference. I know in some countries it is a sign of respect if you come straight to the point and avoid any "bla bla" about what you want to say (this isn't meant disrespectful by me, I just don't know what the correct English word is so I try a descriptive expression). In others countries this is considered rude and you have to go out of your way not to make the other person feel hurt. So we shouldn't judge other people on the way they express their questions. As long as there are no swear words or name calling it is okay. I perceived the OPs questions as very factual, even if it is entirely his own perspective which some may share, some may not.

[Frace]

You have no need to pay for VIP, so don't pay for VIP. I understand that you want to, so if that's the case, go ahead. I don't fancy seeing something like: 5$ per month to keep swift travel, 10$ per month for swift travel and keeping your trait and virtue slots open, 20$ per month for VIP as it is now in a VIP revamp.

And you know if they change it, it will be something like that. Changes never seem to work in the players' favour anymore.

I have one question, that I've asked a few times, and never received an answer to.

I own all content. I have an army of crafters and do not need any more, so no need to guild up. I have swift travel, uncapped currency, all trait slots open, and journeyman riding on all my characters. I have access to vaults in every main hub in Middle Earth. I have access to vendors in almost every town in Middle Earth. I don't buy or sell anything on the AH for most part, because I earn what I need and have no use for large amounts of gold, so 5 AH slots is plenty enough. I can access mail in every town in Middle Earth.

So getting around is easy, crafting is covered and then some, sending and receiving mail is easy. Selling stuff in my bags and fixing my gear is easy.

I don't PvMP, so never gonna need that.

So here's the question. Why would I ever need a sub? What incentive is there to sub? It doesn't even provide content now. It will when this new level 45 area arrives (maybe)? So, pay a sub to play new lower level content that will take a couple of hours to play through! No, I'll LP that or wait it out until later. I don't mind paying for expansions - full ones.

Will we ever see ad hoc or tiered subscriptions, where we can subscribe to parts of the game without having to pay for stuff we already have?

[Arnenna]

You have no need to pay for VIP, so don't pay for VIP. I understand that you want to, so if that's the case, go ahead. I don't fancy seeing something like: 5$ per month to keep swift travel, 10$ per month for swift travel and keeping your trait and virtue slots open, 20$ per month for VIP as it is now in a VIP revamp.

And you know if they change it, it will be something like that. Changes never seem to work in the players' favour anymore.

I'm not talking about "changes". There is nothing wrong with keeping the current VIP package as it is. But in addition to it, it would be nice to see some ad hoc options. So if a player only wanted PvMP, they could subscribe to just that, or if they only want swift travel, same deal.

I don't currently pay a sub, there is nothing in the package that I need. I'm really not in the habit of paying for stuff I don't need, or already have.

If they were to change it to what you suggest they would, and not "keep" the original package, this game would slide of the side of the planet very quickly.