Missing Session Plays?

[Kenomica.]

Hey, I know Session plays get a bad rep, but I for one have always enjoyed them - and often go back to Rivendell to repeat some of them when I want to remind myself of some of the story.

However, I've noticed that in the Rivendell "Chronicle of Events" - there are many Session plays not listed, such as those from Rohan, Helm's Deep. It's a shame as These are some of my favourites

I am not asking for new session plays (although I wouldn't complain...though many would) - just the ability to repeat the ones that exist.

I thought the Chronicle of Events was supposed to contain all Session Plays?

Am I missing something?

EDIT :

With the help of the internet, travelling in game and KM3161 I have found the following Session Plays, though these are only the ones from the EPIC, There are many others NOT from the epic that are unable to be repeated.

• Volumes 1 to 3 - 12 Sessions : Rivendell, Chronicle of Events - REPEATABLE
  
• Grey Company Interludes - 7 Sessions : Wildermore, Nona's Cave - REPEATABLE
  
• Volume 4 - 1 Session : Hill of Erech - REPEATABLE
  
• Helm's Deep Gate Warden - 1 Session : After Sunrise, Main Gate - CANNOT REPEAT
  
• Flooded isengard - 2 Sessions : Merry & Treebeard - CANNOT REPEAT
  
• Dead Marshes - 1 Session : Supplies - REPEATABLE
  

Non Epic Session Plays that you CANNOT REPEAT :

• Remembering Thrymm - 1 Session
• The Day the Giant Came - 1 Session
• Núrzum's Wrath - 1 Session
• The Legend of Folca - 1 Session
• Survivors From the Ford - 1 Session
• Let's Take the Hornburg! - 1 Session
• The Darkness Over Lebennin - 1 Session

[Yula_the_Mighty]

The Chronicle of Events only has the Session Plays that Turbine linked to the Chronicle of Events. Turbine went to a great deal of effort to link all of the Session Plays to the Chronicle years ago. It became a discontinued feature that is no longer fully supported. You have specific Session Plays that you want added to the Chronicle. Ask for them.

My personal opinion as always. The number of people working on Lotro has been reduced a lot since Helms Deep launched. Turbine does not have the resources to do everything that want to. Turbine does not have the resources to do everything that used to do in the past. Turbine is making difficult decisions as to what will be provided given the limited resources.

The primary focus appears to be adding landscape, moving the story along and providing content for us to consume. The supporting stuff like the Chronicle does not get done because Turbine would have to reduce the size of the landscape, content to get the resources for the Chronicle. I believe Turbine stopped providing cut scenes for Epic Line.

[Kenomica.]

It seems a waste to not have them repeatable, especially since a lot of work went in to them.

I should hardly be a difficult thing to do, considering they recently added an instance to the Rivendell Reflecting pool - since it was missing. This is a very similar thing, I assume.

Of course, I don't know Turbine's code-base or what complications may arise when linking Session plays, so this is purely speculation.

Since session plays are becoming something we most likely won't see any more of - it would be nice, as a one-time effort, to have them all added to the Chronicle of Events.

[KM3161]

Not all the session play events are from the chronicle.
Epic Volume 1-3 are from the chronicle'
Volume 4 is from the npc near the Hill of Erech and the Wildermore sessions are from Gleowines map in Nona's cave.
I'd have to visit the Chronicle to see which are missing from it for the 1st 3 volumes, and i wish they would add them if they are missing.

https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Epic_Session_Play

[Kenomica.]

Oh, really?

As in, repeatable? I'll have to log in and check!

[KM3161]

Oh, really?

As in, repeatable? I'll have to log in and check!

Gleowines map in Nonas cave and the Paths of the Dead sessions are repeatable. I just did those again the other day.
Once all map sessions are completed then the only place to replay them is from the map in Nona's cave. All the other maps no longer work and are phantom quest rings.
Have to check the chronicle for others to see what's there and missing.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

I should hardly be a difficult thing to do, considering they recently added an instance to the Rivendell Reflecting pool - since it was missing. This is a very similar thing, I assume.

I can only talk about my own experience as a software designer many years.

The issue is not one of it takes an hour or even five minutes. There isn't developer time that is not scheduled by management. We have perhaps 8,000 hours available per week assuming 40 hour work weeks. Management typically assigns us 12,000+ hours of work a week which always take more than 12,000 hours to do. We do not get paid overtime. Everybody decides to pick 40 hours of their assigned 60 hours worth of work. We typically work free overtime to get that 40 hours worth of work done.

It is common for developers to work 50 - 60 hours a week. You want to do something that I like to do such as the Chronicle that is on the would be nice - like to do list but not assigned to be done by management. You have to work even more overtime hours. Most of us have a family that gets annoyed by us spending more than our expected hours.

Currently I am in a better situation that some developers. I have the nice situation of splitting a full time position with another developer. In theory we each work 20 hours a week. We telecommute. We get paid overtime unlike the regular employees. In spite of having to pay extra, there will be times when they will ask us to put in more than our 20 hours. I can remember one week when the two of us put in sometime crazy like 130 hours. Yeah it was nice seeing a pay stub before taxes that was 3 times what I normally get paid.

When I first started. It was 40 hours a week. We got paid overtime. We were scheduled maybe 30 hours worth of work which took more than 30 but less that 40 most of the time. Management was very careful about planning and herding the developers because of the must get approval to pay overtime. That all changed when we went to no overtime. The focus moved to getting as much work out of us as is possible.

Although I have never worked for a manager liked this. I heard managers talk about developers like we were light bulbs. Burn them as long and as hard as you can. They burn out. Get a replacement. My own manager years ago. Do not work for this guy or that company any more. I had been working 80 hours a week. My project was way past the expected deadline. My manager - the guy above my supervisor - came by to encourage me to work hard. I told I am burned out. Going home tonight at 5 PM. Going to sleep. I am so tired. My manager told me - you do that - You will no longer have a job. Fine - I am going home. In morning I will report to Human Resources first time for out processing. He decided to back off.

Hopefully, no developer at Turbine had a unpleasant conversation like I did with this manager. It is fun work. It is stressful and very hard on relationships. I am lucky I have a extremely loyal and loving wife.

[KM3161]

The chronicle itself only lists 12 sessions to repeat
maybe a few more are spread out thru the land like the few i mentioned.
It would be nice if they were all available at the chronicle but i doubt it now.
Thanks Yula for explaining why we probably wont see the missing events from the chronicle.

and i forgot to mention above that there is also 1 repeatable session in the Dead Marshes.

[Kenomica.]

The chronicle itself only lists 12 sessions to repeat
maybe a few more are spread out thru the land like the few i mentioned.
It would be nice if they were all available at the chronicle but i doubt it now.
Thanks Yula for explaining why we probably wont see the missing events from the chronicle.

and i forgot to mention above that there is also 1 repeatable session in the Dead Marshes.

So far I have found :

• Volumes 1 to 3 - 12 Sessions : Rivendell, Chronicle of Events - REPEATABLE
  
• Grey Company Interludes - 7 Sessions : Wildermore, Nona's Cave - REPEATABLE
  
• Volume 4 - 1 Session : Hill of Erech - REPEATABLE
  
• Helm's Deep Gate Warden - 1 Session : After Sunrise, Main Gate - CANNOT REPEAT
  
• Flooded isengard - 2 Sessions : Merry & Treebeard - CANNOT REPEAT
  
• Dead Marshes - 1 Session : Supplies - REPEATABLE
  

and :

Non Epic Session Plays that cannot be repeated :

• Remembering Thrymm - 1 Session
• The Day the Giant Came - 1 Session
• Núrzum's Wrath - 1 Session
• The Legend of Folca - 1 Session
• Survivors From the Ford - 1 Session
• Let's Take the Hornburg! - 1 Session
• The Darkness Over Lebennin - 1 Session

I can only talk about my own experience as a software designer many years...

I understand that, I truly do.

I am a game developer myself. Not in a large a structure as something like Turbine/Warner Brothers, but I do get what goes in to it. However, games are art as well as business. At risk of sounding romantic, love is needed just as much as marketing and business strategies.

The fact that the current Turbine team have taken the time to add Cosmetic Weapons, a new PvMP map and various Quality of Life improvements does fill me with hope, however.

I'm glad you have it good, and it's a shame you've had bad experiences too. It definitely is gruelling but rewarding work; I'm with you there.

[Xhiu]

Thought I was the only one that liked Session Play. Well other than chicken runs

Happy to see I'm not the only one. I'd rather have a session play, where there is some activity, than a wall of text. If I wanted a wall of text in a game I'd go back to text based games.

side note: Thank you, MoL for your sessions of brilliance.

[Kenomica.]

Thought I was the only one that liked Session Play. Well other than chicken runs

Happy to see I'm not the only one. I'd rather have a session play, where there is some activity, than a wall of text. If I wanted a wall of text in a game I'd go back to text based games.

side note: Thank you, MoL for your sessions of brilliance.

Definitely. I think they allow a much better way of telling the story from other characters' perspective.

I'd love MoL or another blue-name to respond / take note of this thread.

[kickman77]

UIsnt there also the session play in the 21st hall that shows the fall of Moria.. if its listed im sorry I juist dont remember its name

[KM3161]

UIsnt there also the session play in the 21st hall that shows the fall of Moria.. if its listed im sorry I juist dont remember its name

The chronicle has 'The Fall of Moria' and 'We can not get out'



I enjoy the session play. I wish Turbine would add the missing ones to the chronicle.

I enjoy the reflecting pool sessions also but prefer the Epics where we see thru another character's eyes'

Besides just the Epic sessions there are also landscape sessions that i would like to see added.

https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Session_Play

[cdq1958]

Thought I was the only one that liked Session Play. Well other than chicken runs

Happy to see I'm not the only one. I'd rather have a session play, where there is some activity, than a wall of text. If I wanted a wall of text in a game I'd go back to text based games.

side note: Thank you, MoL for your sessions of brilliance.

No, you're not. I love session plays and I love quest text, especially in story based adventure settings. What I don't like too much of, though, is voice acted cut scenes that are more than two or three minutes long.

[Kenomica.]

UIsnt there also the session play in the 21st hall that shows the fall of Moria.. if its listed im sorry I juist dont remember its name

Yeah, this one is repeatable in the Chronicle of Events at Rivendell

I am happy that there are around 20 repeatable Session Plays (as opposed to the 12 I originally thought) - but it's a shame that there are around 10 that cannot be repeated. Especially the Gate Warden (my favourite)

[Silmelin]

I love session plays too, and I hope as many as possible will be made repeatable one day

[OldMadeOfLions]

I should hardly be a difficult thing to do, considering they recently added an instance to the Rivendell Reflecting pool - since it was missing. This is a very similar thing, I assume.

It's similar in concept if not in execution -- adding instances to the Reflecting Pools is a much simpler thing, because it doesn't have the overhead of needing to support the logging-out and logging-back-in process that sessionplays do. Making a session repeatable via the Chronicle of Events requires the creation of an all-new quest for each session, which takes more time. When I get some free time, I'll see what I can do about getting some of these sessions into Chronicles, but for now I'm fairly swamped and can't promise that it'll be soon.

But I'm glad there's a desire to replay some of these!

MoL

[Kenomica.]

It's similar in concept if not in execution -- adding instances to the Reflecting Pools is a much simpler thing, because it doesn't have the overhead of needing to support the logging-out and logging-back-in process that sessionplays do. Making a session repeatable via the Chronicle of Events requires the creation of an all-new quest for each session, which takes more time. When I get some free time, I'll see what I can do about getting some of these sessions into Chronicles, but for now I'm fairly swamped and can't promise that it'll be soon.

But I'm glad there's a desire to replay some of these!

MoL

MoL, the legend appears!

That makes perfect sense, thank you for your explanation. Apologies if I came across as if it was a trivial thing (nothing in game design is, of course)

I'm really pleased to hear that you'd like to do this, and that you can see the positivity. I hope you get the time to do so, even if it isn't something you can do soon

[kickman77]

It's similar in concept if not in execution -- adding instances to the Reflecting Pools is a much simpler thing, because it doesn't have the overhead of needing to support the logging-out and logging-back-in process that sessionplays do. Making a session repeatable via the Chronicle of Events requires the creation of an all-new quest for each session, which takes more time. When I get some free time, I'll see what I can do about getting some of these sessions into Chronicles, but for now I'm fairly swamped and can't promise that it'll be soon.

But I'm glad there's a desire to replay some of these!

MoL

\
Thanks. Some of the session plays are amazing (especially on their stopry telling aspects)

Perhaps maybe a hidden deed can be made up for the chronicle when you add new sessions to it... maybe award a title like Chronicler of Events or something... would be nice

[SimplexMinded]

It's similar in concept if not in execution -- adding instances to the Reflecting Pools is a much simpler thing, because it doesn't have the overhead of needing to support the logging-out and logging-back-in process that sessionplays do. Making a session repeatable via the Chronicle of Events requires the creation of an all-new quest for each session, which takes more time. When I get some free time, I'll see what I can do about getting some of these sessions into Chronicles, but for now I'm fairly swamped and can't promise that it'll be soon.

But I'm glad there's a desire to replay some of these!

MoL

It's nice to see interest in the idea of fixing this. Currently at level 70, I've never come across a session play I've done, that can't be done again (That I'm aware of), but it would be nice to repeat every SP once I've already completed them in the main story.

Thank you for considering looking at the issue when you aren't so busy. I understand how busy you can be working on a project this large, and the thought of you going back when you can is appreciated.