Bullroarer Update 19 Preview and Release Notes - Updated 9/30/16

[Tangaar]

lol really xD?
I came back after some long absence to see how things are going but there is not a single balance for creep classes?
Yeah lets gather some herbs ^^

[tmw777]

I just downloaded the last update but when I tried to login it was closed?

[Elwenwing]

I just downloaded the last update but when I tried to login it was closed?

The Bullroarer server is usually opened during the weekends!

I expect they will be open it again this friday!

[Latanab]

why? so creeps can be even more overpowered than they already are? So one Warg can take out even more hunters?...ridiculous. It would be just rewards to buff hunters so they can take out a creep camping out next to a graveyard farming freeps (as is usual)....I hope hunters get buffed so much that Wargs actually have to use tactics to kill them one on one rather than just run up an eat like a food cart.

lol

[curiosity22]

Did I miss anywhere that Hunters can still only self cure poison?

Every other class can heal wounds fear etc inc poison..

Hunter butt of all jokes..

[Fatefoot]

UPDATE 9/30/16:

Cape of Belfalas Housing

• Own as many individual Premium houses as you want & keep your classic house
• Premium upkeep is waived for VIPs. Upkeep is possible with gold or Mithril.

It isn't clear how this applies to kinship housing.

1. Can a kinship own a Cape of Belfalas kinship house and retain it's classic kinship house?

2. I assume Cape of Belfalas kinship house upkeep is payable regardless of VIP status of members - please confirm! (Yeah I know it's obvious but assuming isn't always the cleverest thing for hobbitses to be doing )

Thanks Cordovan.

[Lairlore]

I would like confirmation that buying a Belfalas kinship house will retain the vault storage upgrades.
This is important if it was maxed with Mithril Coin.

I would also like to know how many of each house type are in a neighborhood please.

To answer the previous question, on Bullroarer I had to abandon my existing classic kinship house to buy a Belfalas Kinship house.

[Gandalphor]

Somehow I am not certain how Pelenor after battle is pretty nice looking after being infested with orcs, haradrim, easterling, etc. compared to a city that lies in ruin.


And given that Will gives tactical mitigation I would like to ask devs to consider giving Might a physical mitigation value.

[Hallandil]

Somehow I am not certain how Pelenor after battle is pretty nice looking after being infested with orcs, haradrim, easterling, etc. compared to a city that lies in ruin.


And given that Will gives tactical mitigation I would like to ask devs to consider giving Might a physical mitigation value.

Physical mitigation was originally part of vitality, but was removed in update 13 (one of the worst updates imho) when a clean sweep move was made in an attempt to balance the unfinished trait trees of Helms Deep (update 12)

[Gandalphor]

Physical mitigation was originally part of vitality, but was removed in update 13 (one of the worst updates imho) when a clean sweep move was made in an attempt to balance the unfinished trait trees of Helms Deep (update 12)

In any case I'd say that we should have a stat source of phys mit when we have a stat source of tact mit. Doesn't have to be much, just make some stats more useful. Especially vitality which we have less and less.

[Fatefoot]

I would like confirmation that buying a Belfalas kinship house will retain the vault storage upgrades.
This is important if it was maxed with Mithril Coin.

I would also like to know how many of each house type are in a neighborhood please.

To answer the previous question, on Bullroarer I had to abandon my existing classic kinship house to buy a Belfalas Kinship house.

Lairlore

Thanks for the answer and adding another pertinent question about kinship housing.

Out of interest how do you get a level 7 kinship during a beta? (Yeah another BR noob question)

Any ideas about whether there has been any discussion of upkeep for a kinship house owned by a kinship with (a) a VIP kin leader; or (b) a kinship all of whose members are VIPs?

The sudden switch from Mithril Coins to Gold upkeep makes some of us wonder what the details are and given that there is limited time to catch the discount on Mithril Coins, we were hoping to get some clarification from a definitive source which nowadays means Cordovan

[Lairlore]

Fatefoot,
I am certainly not a definitive source, nor am I overly knowledgeable on everything Bullroarer...
I never thought of the kin age question, so I can only assume that a new kin starts with at least rank 7 for the purpose of kinship house purchase.
As there was no player wipe, my previous character already had a kin on BR, and I forgot the specifics of the rank 7 kin.

As we currently pay kinship house upkeep only from the leader, I see no reason for that to change.
Bad if the leader is FTP, but the free upkeep for VIP is a nice perk.

Also for the new housing area, I would love to see a map that shows the house street numbers as well as street names.

[Fatefoot]

As there was no player wipe, my previous character already had a kin on BR, and I forgot the specifics of the rank 7 kin.

Thanks. That explains what seemed impossible

As we currently pay kinship house upkeep only from the leader, I see no reason for that to change.
Bad if the leader is FTP, but the free upkeep for VIP is a nice perk.

Well, as I understand it at the moment, if the kin leader is VIP, the kin pays no maintenance. If this is correct, it will make the high investment of Mithril Coins by one player's account (the Leader) considerably more attractive.

Considering how big this is a factor, a clarification from Cordovan before the Mithril Coin discount ends at 10am (server time) tomorrow would be community friendly, but I'm thinking that this may still be under discussion by the Dev Team.

Also for the new housing area, I would love to see a map that shows the house street numbers as well as street names.

HEAR! HEAR!

And SIGNPOSTS! They seem to have been deprecated generally in new regions. I remember as a new player in 2008 how useful it was to be able to click on signposts at junctions to find my way around each new area. My brief forays on BR into Cape of Belfalas housing areas required me to turn corners, travel along the road a little and inspect a for sale notice or house owner pop-up to find out which street I was on. I vote for a homestead map AND signposts on the meandering junctions. "Streets" can be easily confused with entrance "paths" to many houses which have "paths" the size of the main roads unlike the classic homesteads where the distinction is obvious in all cases. (Obviously while there are For Sale signs, this isn't an issue, but once purchased, we can turn a corner and wait for the slow on screen pop-up to tell us we're headed for a house rather than continuing up a street.)

Now that beta has completed, apart from "Fall" (or should I say "Autumn"? ) has anyone read an approximate U19 release date?

[Angel_Baby6]

Now that beta has completed, apart from "Fall" (or should I say "Autumn"? ) has anyone read an approximate U19 release date?

Just FYI the beta is not completed yet I think we will still have 1 build starting today or so

[Dirlettia]

Just FYI the beta is not completed yet I think we will still have 1 build starting today or so

My client just patched so you may be right about an imminent 3rd test.

[cdq1958]

My client just patched so you may be right about an imminent 3rd test.

Confirmed. I patched but the server is not open.

[Angel_Baby6]

Confirmed. I patched but the server is not open.

Yeah its not yet open the server. Waiting, waiting......waiting

[Fatefoot]

I would like confirmation that buying a Belfalas kinship house will retain the vault storage upgrades.
This is important if it was maxed with Mithril Coin.

I would also like to know how many of each house type are in a neighborhood please.

To answer the previous question, on Bullroarer I had to abandon my existing classic kinship house to buy a Belfalas Kinship house.

Lairlore,

I've been on Bullroarer (open Beta) and tested many variations so here are the answers as at the current beta patch.

Names of types of houses:

"Old" (or what some of us have called "Classic"): Personal, Deluxe and Kinship
"New" (Cape of Belfalas) is generally known as Premium Housing with sub-types named: Stately, Luxurious and Deluxe Kinship.

Answers to your (and my) questions:

1. Extended kinship storage will appear in the new kinship house:
   
   As before, each newly purchased house storage starts with 30 slots and can be extended for Gold and Mithril Coins.
   
   I purchased a Kinship house in The Shire and maxed the storage out with Gold and then Mithril Coins up to 255 slots.
   
   In order to buy the Deluxe Kinship house, as you said, I had to abandon the Shire Kinship House.
   
   There was no refund of Gold or MC. However, once I purchased the Deluxe Kinship house, the chest started with 255 slots.
   _
2. Each homestead starts with the following types of Premium House (prices vary depending on location, location, location ):
   
   6 Stately Homes (124 interior hooks, 18 exterior hooks). Prices in Mithril Coins: 137, 145 or 243 (Upkeep: 1gold if not waived)
   
   14 Luxurious Homes (140 interior hooks, 27 exterior hooks). Prices in Mithril Coins: 422, 445 or 493 (Upkeep: 1gold if not waived)
   
   4 Premium Kinship Houses of which there are two locations:
   
   - 2 on the Cape of Belfalas (mainland) with 180 interior hooks and 36 exterior hooks. Prices in Mithril Coins: 707 or 745. (Upkeep: 5gold if not waived)
   - 2 each of which is on an island accessible to non-members (Tol Lochul and Tol Falthui) with 180 interior hooks and 63 exterior hooks. Price in Mithril Coins: 894. (Upkeep: 5gold 500silver if not waived)
   _
3. To answer my own question, upkeep is waived for ALL types of Premium housing owned by VIPs including Deluxe Kinship houses.

More than one premium house (Stately or Luxurious) can be owned by characters on the same account. Every character on that account (on that World) will see all the houses on the character housing panel and will get the return to personal house skill. If a character has purchased a house, it's return skill goes to its own house and the address appears in the skill tooltip. If that character hasn't purchased a house, it's return skill goes to "a Premium House" without showing the address (so far it seems to be the last premium house purchased by another character, but I'm not trying to test that exhaustively!) If a character on that account also owns a Personal or Deluxe house ("classic"), that house is retained and the return skill for all characters on the account exists so each character may have up to 3 housing return skills: Personal, Premium and Kinship.

I think that's all the answers now but I'm still testing if you have any more questions

Adding a note to clarify: One character can purchase multiple premium houses in different neighborhoods. They must be quite wealthy! Quite how it's decided which house they return to with their Return to Premium House skill isn't something I'm likely to investigate

[Oelle]

...and again, I am done with all available Quests.

Finally, really all quest can be finished, which is nice as this is the main thing that has to be like that before it goes live :P

There are some bad/missing translations left, parts of the landscape like imlad morgul needs some work (i dont really know, if i prefer the invisible wall at the bottom of the secret stairs or if i was more happy with the stones... but the bridge is totally wrecked up, flying over the ground in many parts...)

The german voiceover has still not happened. Its okay to wait with that until all Texts are done... but as thats the case after one more day of work on texts, it should be done soon. Better before release. It was really not cool to wait till u17 until u16 got the right sounds. so please dont wait longer than 19.1 for translated voices if it cant be done for release of u19.


Generally, i dont really know what to do with this update. There is no new challenge anywhere, but there is a new level of essences... every player playing the whole queststuff gets 7 chests of teal ilvl246 essences. I dont see how these are needed for anything. why are there several different essences on one levelcap at all for one stat? if you want to add new essences, please do it with a rise of levelcap. not just like this. and crafting is still not available, which makes me ask: will guild-crafted essences be the same like what we get from playing featured instances? or will lvl105 guildcrafted essences be ilvl246? it just doesnt make sense to have two different essence-itemlevels for one quality of items for the same level. please dont do that again.

as for the flowerpicking... i cant bother doing it at all.
i can still play all content in the game with lvl100 equipment without problems, so grinding flowers for better equipment is just not needed for me. there is nothing i'd need equipment for as there are no new challenges and i'm not really interested in the fluff i get from those barters. therefore, all i get from u19 is nice storystuff and a beautiful landscape. nothing more or less. i'm a non-raiding min/maxer (minimum effort needed for maximum result that is needed to do what i want (not minimum effort to get maximum possible result)) with lots of toons. i just get the minimum required gear to win the all non-raid challenge stuff. there is nothing character-progress-wise in u19 for me. nothing. like in u18 (besides a higher levelcap that got me 3 traitpoints there). so whenever we get a higher levelcap, there will be no reason left to play u18 or u19 for any players that already know the story from playing it with their mains. not even legendary item progressstuff like SoE or crystals... just nothing.
but the updates lotro does dont have to cater to all players i guess. someone will like all that housing or cosmetics and maybe he pays for it unlike me :P
still, there are LARGE areas with no flowers at all. for those that want to go flowerpicking, it would be much better if the flowers were spread throughout whole of northern ithilien.

[AlexACH]

As far as I know, there have been some general buffs to a Hunter's damage and Purge Poison.
I would like to point out that Press Onward should also have some changes. My suggestion would be to:
- restore 30 % morale and power
- 20s cooldown(with legacy equipped)
- for blue & yellow lines, it should be have no induction
- for red line, it should have a 1s induction

Also, why are there no changes to PvMP armours yet? You should introduce some that use T8 essences.