Ask the Dev Team Feedback

[TurbineCommunity]

We recently asked players to submit questions to the dev team. We had originally planned to publish 10-12 of the most common questions and their answers. Due to the number of questions we received, however, we’ve decided to publish several sets of questions and answers over the next few weeks.

You can read the first set of questions and answers and post your comments here!

[atimes]

Thank you for the responses.

I'm intrigued by the change to the legendary book system and can't wait to hear more.

Looking forward to all those upcoming dev diaries you guys mentioned

[PCchick]

I find it hard to believe that the minstrel question was chosen instead of the heal animation root questions that undoubtably came up.

Clarification - heal animation roots refer to the root AFTER a heal goes off - not the induction duration root.



and...


No new plans for a pvp zone makes me one sad warglet.


Anyway, thanks for responding to the community, even if I don't care for some of the answers.

[TheOneRinger]

Well it has some nice info... but I don't understand what is meant in the answer for minstrels.

As I understand it, and certainly for myself, the issue is not that we want to heal on the move, that is obviously not going to happen. What is really frustrating is if I happen to be healing at the HoC second boss and the flames start below me I'm dead no matter what I do. If I interrupt my heal I'll be forced to stand still and do an annoying flourish, even if I interrupt it by jumping or running. The best suggestion I know is to allow the rooting flourish to be used on the move, not the induction. That way we don't string heals together too quickly, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is the purpose of the flourish, but we don't get rooted to the spot immediately after a heal.

Thanks for the Q&A but I'm still really frustrated, having to rely totally on luck to beat certain bosses.

[xx19kilosoldier]

Thanks for some of the candid responses. I really thought that it would all be fluff, but some of the big questions surrounding the game where asked and answered. Kudos to tackling them.

Now whether they will go over well is another question all together.

[atimes]

Yeah. I think the devs misunderstood the issue surrounding minstrel heals. It's not the induction that's the problem. It's the little flourish they do AFTER the induction/heal (which continues to keep the minstrel rooted) that's the problem.

There are times on my minnie that I'm running from a fight (a dwarf running from a fight shames me. . . /cry) where I'll stop and cast a heal and because I'm still getting beaten on due to the after induction flourish root I end up with the same or less morale than I started when I'm actually able to move again .

The good news though is Turbine is SURE to monitor this thread so if they didn't have an understanding of the issue they will soon and hopefully it'll get addressed by book 9.

Unless the flourish root is WAI in which case we are just gonna have to suck it up

[TheOneRinger]

Yeah. I think the devs misunderstood the issue surrounding minstrel heals. It's not the induction that's the problem. It's the little flourish they do AFTER the induction/heal (which keeps the minstrel rooted) that's the problem.

The good news though is Turbine is SURE to monitor this thread so if they didn't have an understanding of the issue they will soon and hopefully it'll get addressed.

I hope so, that thing really irks me.

[Merciful_Death]

Radiance is a plague to me. I am not in a raiding kinship because I don't like raiding.

While the radiance was only for the Moria instances that required it, I could just ignore it all and move along.

But now we have other content coming, Dol Goldur, which will also require radiance gear (Not 100% sure where I saw this info) and THAT is a place I want to play. But I DON'T want to slog through the Moria instances over and over and over and.... to maybe get radiance gear.

So what is being done for THAT situiation?

Can I just BUY a radiance pass? Maybe add a dollar or two a month? Buy it one-time for $10.00? Spend 15 gold on it? Get it from raising my factions high enough?

Anything but going through the Moria radiance instances!

[TheOneRinger]

Radiance is a plague to me. I am not in a raiding kinship because I don't like raiding.

While the radiance was only for the Moria instances that required it, I could just ignore it all and move along.

But now we have other content coming, Dol Goldur, which will also require radiance gear (Not 100% sure where I saw this info) and THAT is a place I want to play. But I DON'T want to slog through the Moria instances over and over and over and.... to maybe get radiance gear.

So what is being done for THAT situiation?

Can I just BUY a radiance pass? Maybe add a dollar or two a month? Buy it one-time for $10.00? Spend 15 gold on it? Get it from raising my factions high enough?

Anything but going through the Moria radiance instances!

I don't suppose you thought of reading the dev blogs on the subject? Or noticing that Steefel said the radiance gate would still only be on raids?

[atimes]

Radiance is a plague to me. I am not in a raiding kinship because I don't like raiding.

While the radiance was only for the Moria instances that required it, I could just ignore it all and move along.

But now we have other content coming, Dol Goldur, which will also require radiance gear (Not 100% sure where I saw this info) and THAT is a place I want to play. But I DON'T want to slog through the Moria instances over and over and over and.... to maybe get radiance gear.

So what is being done for THAT situiation?

Can I just BUY a radiance pass? Maybe add a dollar or two a month? Buy it one-time for $10.00? Spend 15 gold on it? Get it from raising my factions high enough?

Anything but going through the Moria radiance instances!

That is being addressed with book 9. Currently for the first set of instances you have to complete the entire instance in hard mode and one member of the fellowship gets a specific piece. For the second set when you complete an instance in hard mode each member gets a token with each piece costing a set number of tokens.

The new system from my understand is that all bosses (not just the final boss) in the current rad instances will drop tokens that all members of the fellowship can get. You can then use those tokens to barter for any piece of rad gear you want. That cuts down on the grind significantly.

[JesseA]

Players will no longer cower at anything greater than 8 dread levels. Starting at 8 dread players will cower at the same rate as they currently do at 5 dread on live.

Did they mean to say "Players will no longer cower at anything less than 8 dread levels"? If not, I'm really confused.

[Merciful_Death]

I don't suppose you thought of reading the dev blogs on the subject? Or noticing that Steefel said the radiance gate would still only be on raids?

Hmm... condescension as advice... intriguing.

I apparently MISSED a dev blog on the subject. And I will go searcjh for it now that I know there IS one.

And when I find it, I'll actually link it, for the benefit of others.

[atimes]

Anything but going through the Moria radiance instances!

The Moria radiance instances are not that bad. If a group knows what they are doing the instances aren't that hard. The communities problem with the instances were not the difficulty (well maybe with Dark Delvings) but that we had to grind them over and over and over and OVER again.

Try it before you knock it. I find them quite fun actually. I had a burnout phase from them a few months ago (because I was grinding them constantly and losing roll after roll after roll) but I took an extended break from them and now I enjoy running them again.

[fenwe]

I guess it is a matter for the dev diaries to come out so that we can see what the details are on some of these changes. I really don't like the whole radiance gating system as it is. Raiding should be a matter of the better gear as a reward, not having to jump thru 6 whoops so that you can jump through a seventh and then an eith and ninth. I just don't see how it is going to work when a newbie comes in and wants to do the "old" stuff. Heck, I go into it a little late and trying to find groups to run some of it over again is tough. I can't imagine how bad it is going to be once the "system" has been in place for a while. *shrug*

Doing HoC and Forges is relatively straight forward. Just don't chain your heals together. Also, don't forget FH, Triumphant Spirit and Chord of Salvation. 16th is problematic though.

[Agarwaen26]

Why did you choose only the questions that are either A) stupid and off the point or B) stuff we already know? *cry*

For example, we Minstrels don't care about healing while moving, we just don't want the 2 second root after the heal goes off. And it doesn't take a genius to figure out why LMs don't have Legendary swords.

[fenwe]

That is being addressed with book 9. Currently for the first set of instances you have to complete the entire instance in hard mode and one member of the fellowship gets a specific piece. For the second set when you complete an instance in hard mode each member gets a token with each piece costing a set number of tokens.

The new system from my understand is that all bosses (not just the final boss) in the current rad instances will drop tokens that all members of the fellowship can get. You can then use those tokens to barter for any piece of rad gear you want. That cuts down on the grind significantly.

Yea, but you still have to go through the instances in a grind fashion. Now it might only be "4" times instead of for ever if you are truly unlucky, but you would still need to complete it successfully the X amount of times to get the item. PUGing some of those instances can be truly impossible, much less having to do it multiple times.

[TheOneRinger]

Hmm... condescension as advice... intriguing.

I apparently MISSED a dev blog on the subject. And I will go searcjh for it now that I know there IS one.

And when I find it, I'll actually link it, for the benefit of others.

Sorry, I messed up, didn't mean it that way. It was an editing error. As an apology: http://my.lotro.com/amlug/2009/08/13...arter-changes/

Orion's blog also has some thoughts, so I recommend checking his out too.

But yeah, Steefel did say that the raid had ton and tons of dread, not the three or six-mans.

Yea, but you still have to go through the instances in a grind fashion. Now it might only be "4" times instead of for ever if you are truly unlucky, but you would still need to complete it successfully the X amount of times to get the item. PUGing some of those instances can be truly impossible, much less having to do it multiple times.

At least you're going to make SOME progress in just about every run, unless your group can't even beat one boss in any radiance instance.

[ArcticAurora]

Congrats on answering mostly easy questions, the answers to which are already known or pretty darn self-explanatory. If this is what the rest of the Q/A's are going to be like, I'm not going to even bother wasting the time to write in.

/unimpressed at best

[IGolbezI]

I made a thread in the minnie section about the root thing, but seriously, I highly highly highly doubt these were the "most asked questions".

Some of them were just stupid, and some have already been answered before this was released.

[Nefarym]

The PVMP section left a little to be desired, is anything being planned for pvmp?

[TheOneRinger]

Congrats on answering mostly easy questions, the answers to which are already known or pretty darn self-explanatory. If this is what the rest of the Q/A's are going to be like, I'm not going to even bother wasting the time to write in.

/unimpressed at best

They actually confirmed several things we didn't know about elsewhere. Did you know about the mail improvement? That's pretty big for myself personally, did you know they were revamping legendary books and pages? Did you know they were reconsidering the amount of IXP it takes to level, or taking some legacies out of the game entirely? And you've only seen 1/3 of the Q&A, so you just might wait and see the rest.

[fenwe]

At least you're going to make SOME progress in just about every run, unless your group can't even beat one boss in any radiance instance.

*nods* True enough. Generally speaking it was usually the last Boss that wiped the PUGs I was in. The difference between KIN runs and PUG runs was always that last boss. *shrug* I guess I will see what happens and what the details are before forming an opinion. Keeping an open mind is key at times. One thing Turbine has proven is that they are willing to change things over time given reason and resources.

[Moondog548]

We think that the look and the attributes of our “Tier Sets” are rather rewarding in and of themselves. That they further unlock the ability to acquire even more powerful gear is a big plus.

Why on earth do you still believe it's a good idea to add "a big plus" that isn't needed (because the gear earned is already "rather rewarding") when it causes so many problems? The playerbase isn't happy with the system and you're just making more work for yourself stacking bandaids on the system instead of fixing it. You think the hardcores are pleased that your solution is to make their raid gear easier for everyone else to attain??? You think ANYONE is pleased to have no choice in the gear they can wear into gated raids?

Trait-based gating feels less rewarding as players progress through the various milestones of the process so we’ve decided to stick with using radiance gear to gate access to our raids.

SAYS WHO?!??!!?!?

You could GATE each instance that needs to be gated by giving it it's own individual pre-reqs without diminishing gear as a reward for completing the content, and without diminishing player choice of gear they use in the content, and without doing crazy mathematical gymnastics with dread/gloom/hope/radiance by simply not mechanically tying these three separate mechanics together in the first place! There is no reason to GATE via gear and there is no reason to GATE via Hope/Dread. Gate via something stand alone and simple!

Sorry, I don't like to post incredulously, but after I had heard so much right coming from Turbine, so much sooth indicating that they finally understood where things went off the tracks and had a plan to get us back on, to see this NON-SENSE posted back by the devs just astounds me.

EDIT: heh... the rest was pretty good.

[PhilippaSomerville]

Did they mean to say "Players will no longer cower at anything less than 8 dread levels"? If not, I'm really confused.

Yes, I couldn't make any sense out of their original statement either ("Players will no longer cower at anything greater than 8 dread levels. Starting at 8 dread players will cower at the same rate as they currently do at 5 dread on live.")

I'm assuming that means that we won't cower unless we have 8 dread, but confirmation would be nice.

[TheOneRinger]

*nods* True enough. Generally speaking it was usually the last Boss that wiped the PUGs I was in. The difference between KIN runs and PUG runs was always that last boss. *shrug* I guess I will see what happens and what the details are before forming an opinion. Keeping an open mind is key at times. One thing Turbine has proven is that they are willing to change things over time given reason and resources.

Amlug did say that all bosses would drop medallions. In theory, you could kill the first boss of one instance fifty times (I don't know numbers, I'm just guessing they won't let you farm an easy boss like that a couple times for your gear) and get one piece. I believe bonus objectives were also mentioned. For example, kill Igash without killing the devoted OR his archer adds, and you get two extra medallions.