Feedback: Update 10 Mithril coins

[Sapience]

The release of Update 10 will introduce a new in-game currency called Mithril Coins. They can be purchased in the LOTRO store with Turbine Points and can be used for a variety of services including Stablemasters, Fast Travel to NPCs in quests, Reviving, Mannequins, and Daily Quest resets.

Read the Q&A and post your comments here!

[Segarnis]

So these will replace Travellers Writs? And what does VIP get you that you won't have to purchase Mithril Coins for?

[zalladi]

Considering some people have been stocking up on these things that will be converted, I do hope the conversion ratio is far more than 1:1, because looking at that revival use example picture, if it costs 15 mithril coins to use 1 revive, whereas it would originally cost only 1 revival tome, and then if the transfer rate is only 1:1, that is quite a huge steal from players with many of these existing items.

So, any confirmation on what the exchange ratio will be for all items that will be converted?

[uvm.tp]

So, any confirmation on what the exchange ratio will be for all items that will be converted?

That is one thing the Q&A is missing. Another would be the "bound to" nature of the coins. Bound to Account, one would hope.

[Unique]

Will Mithril Coins be account wide or per character currency?

[Crell_1]

What have these to do with Manquins? How are they changing? Currently we just purchase the outfit we want from the store directly with TP. .. The thought of going to an intermediate currency to do that seems odd.

I second the Account wide/character-level question for the currency.

What are the planned conversion rates for existing currencies to this currency?

Any idea when we'll be seeing Bullroarer up so we can try and answer some of these questions for ourselves =)

[Sapience]

Considering some people have been stocking up on these things that will be converted, I do hope the conversion ratio is far more than 1:1, because looking at that revival use example picture, if it costs 15 mithril coins to use 1 revive, whereas it would originally cost only 1 revival tome, and then if the transfer rate is only 1:1, that is quite a huge steal from players with many of these existing items.

So, any confirmation on what the exchange ratio will be for all items that will be converted?

Sorry if that wasn't clear in the 1:1 example. The 1:1 refers to value to value. So you'll be compensted for the purchase of the tome with the appropriate number of Mithril coins. Not 1 tome is converted to 1 mithril. Again, sorry that wasn't entirely clear.

That is one thing the Q&A is missing. Another would be the "bound to" nature of the coins. Bound to Account, one would hope.

They're bound to account just like marks, medallions, etc.

[TrueLokaster]

Will Mithril Coins be account wide or per character currency?

I think we got a hint when is mentioned in the dev diary:

Does this mean the LOTRO Store is going away?
We have no intentions of removing the store, which is a great place to buy bigger ticket items like account-based purchases and unlocks.

Seems like the Store will be a place for "big" items account-wide while the tokens will be you'll use to pay for character-level ingame services (without having to open the Store for it).

I'm really skeptical about this.

[Ardineck]

Considering some people have been stocking up on these things that will be converted, I do hope the conversion ratio is far more than 1:1, because looking at that revival use example picture, if it costs 15 mithril coins to use 1 revive, whereas it would originally cost only 1 revival tome, and then if the transfer rate is only 1:1, that is quite a huge steal from players with many of these existing items.

So, any confirmation on what the exchange ratio will be for all items that will be converted?

I was going to post almost the same thing. Perhaps this is just a poor job on a press release or perhaps it's "covering bases" for later. Either of the possibilities seem horrible to me - either Turbine isn't learning a lesson in preparing and editing information releases (and the mistakes they claim they continue to make honestly are just...sad) or Turbine is making a change to content already purchased by converting dimes into pennies and calling them poker chips. I pray that it's not the latter and simply another mistake related to editing and images.

EDIT: It appears Sapience responded before my reply was complete. I applaud that response, but my opinion on the press release editing remains unchanged. Contrary to previous promises, Turbine is not learning from mistakes.

[Crell_1]

They're bound to account just like marks, medallions, etc.

Just so we're clear. Bind to Account at the server level, or a truely account wide currency (like TP) ? Last I knew Turbine had no tech for transfering server-level currencies between worlds for character transfers.

Festival Tickets (Aka Quest Resets) before were a character level currency, so the conversion to something at even a server level is a nice improvement, unless you want to move your character, in which case the investment into the currency becomes stuck at the server you were leaving.

[cossieuk]

What is the TP price of these coins?

[Sapience]

Just so we're clear. Bind to Account at the server level, or a truely account wide currency (like TP) ? Last I knew Turbine had no tech for transfering server-level currencies between worlds for character transfers.

Festival Tickets (Aka Quest Resets) before were a character level currency, so the conversion to something at even a server level is a nice improvement, unless you want to move your character, in which case the investment into the currency becomes stuck at the server you were leaving.

Obviously, using the examples given, this is server level. Just like Marks and medallions.

[Crell_1]

Obviously, using the examples given, this is server level. Just like Marks and medallions.

Thanks for reiterating.

I was optimistic that with the shift away from character-level currencies and the consolidation, that perhaps it was implemented more like Turbine points than Marks/Medallions. Perhaps that's something that could be considered in the future (perhaps while your service department is looking at streamlining & automating character-transfers).

[Placida]

How will these coins be purchased? By that I mean, will they only be available in bulk? If I only want to buy 1 revive, would I have to buy a stack of 50 (or some number) of coins that exceeds what I would need?

[Belnavar]

Sounds good to me. Better to have a single currency that can buy all these services when desired than lots of different writs for different purposes. It also means if I buy 100 traveller's writs but want to revive on the spot I can use some of those rather than having to go to the Store for more purchases.

-Bel

[Crell_1]

I'm not a fan of having another transitory currency. If you want to purchase specific goods and services, buying with TP allows us to easily purchase them at the specified rate. Enables sales on specific items rather than all the services, etc. Enables lotteries for the specific item in question. Will we be seeing 'Mithril Store' Sales to go along with our Lotro store sales?

[Hudson7]

2 questions:

1. Do you need to have the premium barter wallet to share these across your account?
2. Do we still have a free revival every 2 hours?

[MasterBurik]

So I suppose Revive Tomes (And perhaps other soon-to-be coin-based items) will no longer be on lootbox loot tables, or will they be replaced with X Mithril Coins?

[Braghus]

Do you know why games like World of Warcraft and Tibia, with more than 15 years still online and with a good amount of people playing? They don't have "benefits" with real money.

LOTRO have the most epic lore of all, and Turbine knows how to take advantage of it, the game is awesome, there's no way to say the opposite here. But the only reason that i've decided to try LOTRO was to find a way to play without any kind of "Pay to Win" system, i don't mind to see people buying horses or clothes from the Store, but Tomes of Might? (At least 5 or 6 of then, i can't remember) Star-lit Crystals? Legacies? Why should i fight Draigoch to drop a crystal, where's the merit of have an upgraded sword, when someone can simply buy the crystals and legacies from the store?

I'd prefer to pay monthly, and have a real good game where everything you have earned, comes from hard fights against bosses, rare drops or personal achievements, than a free to play game, where you need to pay a VIP to access Ettenmoors, and buy tons of TP's for benefits.

I always defended the game, but these things are starting to get a bit exaggerated in my opinion

[DobbelB_EU]

I fail to see the advantage. It shouldn't have been that hard to add the number of travel writs to the return to quest objective screen. But at least they show the amount of coins you have in the interface now.

Anyway, I guess they have the same price as the new writs. I hope they don't raise the price of those items. Revive tomes are 150TP, and require 15 coins. So that's 10TP each.

[phaiLbuS]

This is so awesome! I already save my turbine points I get every month for items that USED to be in game but now can only be purchased in store, and they won't even give VIPs ONE free mithril coin! They must buy every single one like F2P and Premium players do! /end sarcasm.

Please tell me, what is the point of VIP anymore? PVP access? Whoop-di-doo. Nobody except the hardcore pvpers actually go out anymore. Access to SoA? They basically gave out half of that expansion away for free, and nobody visits trollshaws and misty mountains anyway. 500 TP a month? In that same amount of time I might as well create a new toon and grind out 500 TP, which will in turn save me money from not subscribing. Am I missing anything else that makes VIP SO much better than F2P/Premium? /end rant.

[DarkEmpyrean]

How will these coins be purchased? By that I mean, will they only be available in bulk? If I only want to buy 1 revive, would I have to buy a stack of 50 (or some number) of coins that exceeds what I would need?

Well of course they will. 1000TP for a stack of 10 I bet, what a deal!...just kidding (but not really).

Im glad the devs have found the time and manpower for yet another way to try to leech TP out of everyone, while many bugs still run rampant throughout Rohan and Update 9. Maybe we'll be able to buy bug fixes with our mithril coins.

[SkyWarpPro]

I imagine the more the game can combine certain items the better the game will run and be optimized to run. When a game gets to big, it becomes increasingly difficult to add new features without bogging down the system. (ie. extra bag, more vault space, etc).

So not only does the combining of these elements (seasonal items started heading this way too) improve gameplay in making things less complicated, I imagine it improves the quality of how the system runs. Even if it only improves system performances by fractions of a percent, it may be enough to allow for other new features to be added.

[Bhoris_they_spider]

OK, so lots of interesting and exciting things coming with U10 (hopefully!) and you decide the first dev diary to release pertains to 'Mithril Coins'?

I honestly do not know who makes these decisions but they seem VERY out of touch with your player base! Hint Hint... give us some good stuff first then hit us with the store stuff after! I know nothing about marketing/psychology etc but surely that is common sense?

PS I switched off when i read 'mithril coins' and didn't even bother reading the 'diary' proper.

[Sapience]

How will these coins be purchased? By that I mean, will they only be available in bulk? If I only want to buy 1 revive, would I have to buy a stack of 50 (or some number) of coins that exceeds what I would need?

Currently you'll be able to purchase stacks as small as 5 mithril coins and as large as 250. When bullroarer goes live later this week, we encourage you to take a look and provide feedback. Obviously, being Bullroarer, everything is subject to change prior to going live.

Sounds good to me. Better to have a single currency that can buy all these services when desired than lots of different writs for different purposes. It also means if I buy 100 traveller's writs but want to revive on the spot I can use some of those rather than having to go to the Store for more purchases.

-Bel

More accurately you'd buy Mithril Coins that you could use to either pay for travel or revival. You decide on the fly which you need when instead of being locked into those 100 writs when you really want to revive.

2 questions:

1. Do you need to have the premium barter wallet to share these across your account?
2. Do we still have a free revival every 2 hours?

1. No you do not.
2. Yes. That remains unchanged.

So I suppose Revive Tomes (And perhaps other soon-to-be coin-based items) will no longer be on lootbox loot tables, or will they be replaced with X Mithril Coins?

The tomes will no longer exist in game so no. However, again, when Bullroarer opens up we'd love to hear feedback and suggestions.