Things to look forward to in the Update!

[Reillan]

I'm looking forward to increased storage, shared storage, and the new cosmetic storage. Will be full of win.

No, that's not the thing I'm looking forward to most. I'm most looking forward to 6s Rallying Cry cooldown.

[Darmokk]

I'm looking forward to increased storage, shared storage, and the new cosmetic storage. Will be full of win.

That, and traveling ports for everyone.

[Sapience]

That means if I log into the game in the morning and stand next to the Michel Delving vault man, then at some points as the server gets more populated towards the evening I will see half the people around me vanish?

No it means when the number of people around you meet the max number allowed, the next person to enter that area will be in a new layer and any additional people will be there with them, until that layer also reaches the cap and a third layer is created.

[redgold9]

Here's something else to look forward to, we will be able to re-visit session play instances. There will be a book at the Spire of Meeting in Rivendell, "read" whenever you want to experience any of these again.

[Gerp]

For goodness sake, Sapience just said that it will be dynamic and will layer the areas when the performance is affected. When the area isn't taking a performance hit from having too many people in a small area the layers will turn off. How does that affect 'immersion'?

People complain from all the lag when too many people are in an area, and then they complain when Turbine does something to alleviate the problem... They just can't win can they?

The majority of players probably will never notice the layering.

I'm not an RPer so immersion doesn't mean much to me but i think what the poster was refering to is if you run into the 21st hall hang out for a little bit craft then your kinmate or buddy wants to meet you there so they port to the 21st but due to activity now there in another layer and you can't meet up. I know sapience (think it was sapience could be wrong) that you could move people to your layer if there in ur fellowship. But i think that may have been what the imersion poster was refering to.

Also odd side note if by some miraculas odds you could end up being the only person in said zone for example if your on a small server or on at off hours and you walk into the 21st hall and your over the limit for that layer do you start the whole new layer by yourself and you ahve the place to yourself till mroe people show? or is somethin in place to make sure theres always at least x number of people per layer and just pull people from layer one into layer 2 if layer 2 isn't populated enough?

[Darmokk]

No it means when the number of people around you meet the max number allowed, the next person to enter that area will be in a new layer and any additional people will be there with them, until that layer also reaches the cap and a third layer is created.

Sounds good. So there's a person starting out alone for a while and then either new people join him, or if enough people leave from the "lower" layer he would eventually be merged with them?

[MysterX]

Sounds good. So there's a person starting out alone for a while and then either new people join him, or if enough people leave from the "lower" layer he would eventually be merged with them?

I believe they would have to leave the area and come back, or join a group with a leader in a different layer and warp to it that way. I don't think anyone will ever shift from one layer to another without causing it to happen somehow.

One thing that confused people in DDO is you could see your party members' map dots on radar, but if you were in different layers and didn't realize it, you'd be looking around trying to find them since the map is telling you they are right in front of you.

[Darmokk]

I believe they would have to leave the area and come back, or join a group with a leader in a different layer and warp to it that way. I don't think anyone will ever shift from one layer to another without causing it to happen somehow.

One thing that confused people in DDO is you could see your party members' map dots on radar, but if you were in different layers and didn't realize it, you'd be looking around trying to find them since the map is telling you they are right in front of you.

Any chance to put in code that e.g. keeps kinships in the same layer?

Apart from facing being possibly the only one in Bree, on Landroval of all places, another concern is that I dual-box. Not for fighting and hence not in a fellowship, just for crafting, bagspace and vault shuffling. If kinships were in the same that would save me the trouble of pulling AWOL people into the right layer.

I also meet kinship people quite a bit in-game, and that is with a small kinship.

[MysterX]

Any chance to put in code that e.g. keeps kinships in the same layer?

Apart from facing being possibly the only one in Bree, on Landroval of all places, another concern is that I dual-box. Not for fighting and hence not in a fellowship, just for crafting, bagspace and vault shuffling. If kinships were in the same that would save me the trouble of pulling AWOL people into the right layer.

I also meet kinship people quite a bit in-game, and that is with a small kinship.

I thought the fellowship-only method for switching zones seemed a little short-sighted...

In the DDO model, if an area is layered, you could click on the name of the zone on the radar, and it would become a pull-down menu that would let you switch to a different layer.

In the beta I only noticed layering in the starter zones (I avoided Enedwaith because I want that content to be fresh to me when it goes live) but the only method I saw for layer switching was to join a fellowship and warp to the layer the leader was in.

I don't think it will be an issue for multi-boxers, but for kinships who just want to gather to play some 30-man drunken freeze tag in bree-land (really, I want to see that), or players looking to escort a chicken friend through the Midgewater... the layering system may pose some challenges if it ever happens on the landscape.

[Wilpatmo]

One might even say...dynamically.

I see what you did there.

[Celebrawn]

Not likely...


From what I've heard, it's only when there are more people than the social panel can display at once that it will start layering. That means you can still have 150-200 people in the 21st hall bogging it down...


Of course, they might create smaller layers for smaller-yet-just-as-crowded areas like the 21st, but the above is how it works in spots like Bree and Thorins hall.

Does this mean if they have the layers set to 150 in Bree, and there are 151, there will be some lonely guy all by himself in one layer? lol

[trancejeremy]

So basically it's like Guild Wars, how the towns were instanced? But presumably you can't switch channels/instance yourself...

I don't care, since I never talk to anyone in game and vice versa, but at the same time, it does get lonely if you are in the last instance/channel/layer.

[aleczander]

I thought the fellowship-only method for switching zones seemed a little short-sighted...

In the DDO model, if an area is layered, you could click on the name of the zone on the radar, and it would become a pull-down menu that would let you switch to a different layer.


I don't think it will be an issue for multi-boxers, but for kinships who just want to gather to play some 30-man drunken freeze tag in bree-land (really, I want to see that), or players looking to escort a chicken friend through the Midgewater... the layering system may pose some challenges if it ever happens on the landscape.

Agreed.
If nothing else, give us an option, like in DDO, to switch layers from the radar screen. I might encourage my kin to always "jump to layer 2" when in 21st just as a matter of habit. Chicken runs definitely need this functionality.
Taking all our barterables and turning them into currencies would also help server load a lot.

[Solo2007]

Correct. This is set based on our server performance tuning and can be adjusted as needed. It is not tied to the social panel. It is not always in effect in all areas, even those we turn it on for. If the populations drop below those thresholds in that area, then there will only be one layer, if it goes above it then the number of layers will grow according to need and performance requirements. One might even say...dynamically.

Wait, Wait- Layering is this the samething that Atari does with STO that you can have numerous of instances - one on top of the other and that you might get dump into lvl other than what your team is on.

I play STO and it is one of the distracters from it. Being in an instance and your team is in another. but getting together is a problem. It would be okay if you can change instance like STO but without trying to jump from one instance to another which should be a straight jump.

[Lohi]

So if it says 200+, chances are you've got some layers going.

An alert icon shows up if layering is on in your area, must like the icon for reduced visibility due to load.

[BroadwayJizzie]

I'm looking forward the the speed, intuitiveness, and flawless transactions of the lotro store.

[BroadwayBlueshirt]

I'm looking forward to buying the convenience of being able to buy an advantage from the store. And hopefully buying a goat. Are goats in the store? I hope so. I regret not buying the adventurer's pack when it included a goat. I made it all the way to Lv.65, all the way through Moria, and did all of Vol.2 without ever buying a goat.

[RusselDog]

I'm looking forward to;
- Fresh me..... i mean new blood coming through our servers.
- being able to join instances from anywhere in the game world, and not having to wait for a horn/captain summons.
- making toons on every server and blasting through deeds in the Shire, Ered Luin and Bree just for the TP.... It's going to hurt coming up with names that don't get me rage whispered on Landroval.
- more shared storage space.
- a separate storage location for all the barter tokens etc that we get now. Oh what? They haven't made one yet? DAMMIT!