Will SSG understand Soon(tm) that making empowerments bound is going to destroy the game?

[WorrBinpike]

It's funny that you still are discussing this. The thing is here, they wont patch it out anymore. And to be honest, its like 20 different people here discussing it, the majority of player sin the game seems not to care about this.

Next to come:

- Throne SoE will be bound/have amax tier on it (i bet they will do it in the near future). It doesn't make sense to let them as they are now
- solvents also will be BoA (Thats another thing, that doesn't make sense if they are not touching them)

Deal with it.

Reclaimer: I hate these changes, worst thing ever. But its simply not enough people complaining here.

[Aoumiel]

<snip>... unless you were trying to play a game with our anti-fraud team and remove the cash payment by several steps.

With the recent, initial mention of 'anti-exploit' in the same context of the discussion around the previously unbound scrolls, and now this, referencing the anti-fraud team and potentially reselling the much in demand SoE as a means to clean fraudulent transactions, I think we're getting closer to the true motivation for the draconian changes initially suggested for U28.3.

The initial proposal for SoE changes was so out of the blue, so unasked for, so restrictive, and so completely disconnected with how players progress their LI's (first cap at tier 44, not even usable post imbuement. rep enhancement tomes bound and capped at lvl100) I think they initially stemmed from something the anti-fraud team picked up and suggested.

Post the ridiculously cheap valar sales, I think a lot of players found themselves in a position where they wanted raid ready characters with maxed ILI's and they wanted them now! The combination of the 'LOTROFREEQUESTS' promo and the massive increase in valared chars led to an even greater demand for scrolls, and the easiest and quickest method for getting scrolls at that point was the MT dailies. With Gondor content now conveniently unlocked on fraudsters accounts, and easy access to rep boosting tomes, illegal sellers picked up on the hot opportunity around SoE's. So the gating and binding of rep tomes would be aimed at hindering MT scroll farming accounts from achieving the required rep to unlock the dailies. The binding and capping of SoE's would be to prevent fraudsters from using that particular piece of content to profit.

The adding of more tier capped scrolls to other weeklies and wrappers was a consequence of the community outcry at changes that unequivocally made their grind more tedious.

I now strongly suspect the root of the u28.3 SoE changes were associated to an increase in fraud related directly tied to SoE's acquired in MT and Dol Amroth. If this is indeed a change driven by the anti-fraud team, the fact that regular players are feeling the pinch of cracking down on exploited content is beyond sad. If there is such a high demand for something people need for their character progression, to the point where others farm it and sell it via illegal means, then fix the root of the cause! Don't make it even more grindy for players that play by the rules!

As others have already suggested, tie ILI tier progression to experience gain, or provide enough sources of SoE to allow people to naturally and continually increase their ILI's as they level (not gate them behind weeklies that require a lot of time to unlock). For those that have valared/ somehow made it to 130 with unmaxed ILI's, provide adequate sources of scrolls via barter for currencies that are quickly capped and essentially useless.

IF this is indeed a game of playing whack-a-mole with fraudsters, then the last few remaining sources of unbound SoE's will be next on the hitlist. If they could could figure out a method for farming DA/MT SoE's for profit, they will switch to doing the same for SoE's from RT's and Throne.

[wrath247]

It's funny that you still are discussing this. The thing is here, they wont patch it out anymore. And to be honest, its like 20 different people here discussing it, the majority of player sin the game seems not to care about this.

Next to come:

- Throne SoE will be bound/have amax tier on it (i bet they will do it in the near future). It doesn't make sense to let them as they are now
- solvents also will be BoA (Thats another thing, that doesn't make sense if they are not touching them)

Deal with it.

Reclaimer: I hate these changes, worst thing ever. But its simply not enough people complaining here.

Better to voice our issues and disappointment than to be silent. Our voices, no matter how small need to be voiced or this will continue to move on. There is no dealing with it, we have a right as the community and players to be heard. Especially when on every site these changes were posted they were flamed by anyone and everyone who read them.

[LadySelene]

*facepalm* stop blame LS !!! Legacies are already capped depending on character level! This wasnt needed.... $$G is doing this to get more money from players.

Fine LS has nothing to do with it. Why tier caps, let's ask?

Recently bound, barterable for motes/embers scrolls were introduced. The reaction of the playerbase:
5% : Pffff, store solution to the scroll grind? Lootboxes should rot in hell!
95% : Wow, more scrolls??
No one complained about them being BoA.

If SSG:
1) Made MT & DA scrolls bound, but without cap,
2) Added a lot more (bound, uncapped) scrolls to 105-130 zones (or just latest paid expansions, MM and WoTP) -
people here would hardly notice #1. As it would address the main problem first, but resolve both problems (grind and gold farming) at once. There are still sources to get unbound scrolls for friends, it would be a disaster to cut them off.

And, if we stop complaining / whining / etc, it might lead to even more nerfs, otherwise SSG may reconsider. At least it's the only reasonable path I see ahead of us.

[fealegwe2]

who in their right mind will fork out 295 LP for ONE scroll ?

[Braer]

For me, the MT Smiths grind at least had me "earning" my intended rewards. If not through difficulty but time spent, and with Cisterns; revealing of the nuanced mechanics that may still frustrate others. The throne one boss run in contrast offers nothing one could self delude any idea of "earning". It has to be next on the list or their implied motivator is bunkum. It has the same issue for me that freeloading on raids for unlocks and sides that provide mats has. Not earned and in a way exploitative. Yes I'm in a minority, but been here long enough to see the moral erosion over time.

Cry fraud but ignore store items pricing that have cheaper MC choices for the same results and can only be in place through neglect, ignorance or fraud on the unwary. Cry fraud but ignore the fraud played on players with fundmes that suggest prior contributions when demonstrably none were made. Cry fraud but leave in place an exploit that circumvents the entire Virtue grind if you can pay enough.

No wonder I'm pushed to over step the "rules"...

[WorrBinpike]

Better to voice our issues and disappointment than to be silent. Our voices, no matter how small need to be voiced or this will continue to move on. There is no dealing with it, we have a right as the community and players to be heard. Especially when on every site these changes were posted they were flamed by anyone and everyone who read them.

Off course i kinda agree with you on this. But 99% of the things they patch in the game, stays in the game no matter how hard the users don't want it.

[Fegefeuer]

Just to make it clear, my position in this is not to make suggestions hoping that they do changes to the game. My intentions with my threads and comments is purely for educational purposes. I say this for the people saying things like "funny that you are still discussing this" or "it's always the same people commenting in forums". I agree with these affirmations. But I just want to state that I have zero hopes that they do any change. In fact, not only they will not remove the binding, but they will bind the rest of empowerment sources.

At this point what I'm more curious about is if they make solvents bound. It would be very very interesting to see the reaction of the community.

[Arnenna]

Just to make it clear, my position in this is not to make suggestions hoping that they do changes to the game. My intentions with my threads and comments is purely for educational purposes. I say this for the people saying things like "funny that you are still discussing this" or "it's always the same people commenting in forums". I agree with these affirmations. But I just want to state that I have zero hopes that they do any change. In fact, not only they will not remove the binding, but they will bind the rest of empowerment sources.

At this point what I'm more curious about is if they make solvents bound. It would be very very interesting to see the reaction of the community.

Yeah, they're never going to do that. At least, not until something arrives that can take their place.

[Fegefeuer]

Yeah, they're never going to do that. At least, not until something arrives that can take their place.

Never say never, we thought that they would never increase LI grind even more... or we did?

[Mythreindeer]

A rather dead-end topic it seems.

The longer the real issues get kicked down the road again and again the sooner another Tolkien-based MMO comes along and gives all these nice people a place to go to.

LoTRO - I kinda' feel bad for whatever sucker company buys this mess next.

[Braer]

who in their right mind will fork out 295 LP for ONE scroll ?

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...ugh-March-28th!


Zonflux and another streamer were both being lead astray and regularly promoting sales to viewers. If you've never discovered the MC options on the IL UI because your motivations lie elsewhere you might fall for it. The easily confused are ripe for this kind of thing and I'd have to say the comms is nothing but utterly confusing at times.

It's no surprise the feedback was ignored or perhaps SSG were allowed to believe that this feedback was untrue.