Lua UI Plugins in LOTRO

[Thoroval]

One wall-o-text deserves another I guess.

I don't know why people get their panties in such a wad when the subject of DPS/HPS/Threat Meters come up. They have so many valid uses that they far outweigh any possible PERCEIVED negative aspects.

However would anyone get a negative perception?

...YOU FAIL...
...you just suck...
...you don't belong...
...that 1 person sucks...
They don't know what they're doing.
They aren't geared right.
They don't know their class...
THEY DON'T BELONG...
I for one would much rather eliminate those people from my raiding team.
I don't want to group with...
...those complete and utter bumbling idiots who don't have a clue...

Oh, maybe that's how. I suspect your post had the desired effect on many folks as you intended. Anyways, moving on...

Good, quality players working together flawlessly and with great skill is what makes content easy. Not meters.

Okay, you almost had me agreeing with you, but then you argue against yourself.

No, the fact is: without a good dps meter, we're all just bumbling idiots who THINK we know what we're doing when in truth we're all just guesstimating at our own abilities and the abilities of the others in the raid group.

Which is it? Are meters a requirement or not?

A few of you have said roughly "dps/hps/threat meters makes the content so easy that the only options are to increase the difficulty or be bored". That is a bunch of bull and you know it...

I experienced that transition in WoW so I know it's not bull, and I suspect you know that as well. Look. I really could not care less if you had meters. I used them in WoW and I'd even use them in LOTRO if available. But I'd only welcome meters IF Turbine wouldn't increase instance difficulty based on the leet raiders complaining about "ez mode" instances. Unfortunately, Turbine already does that even without meters. It would only get worse with meters.

You yourself write at length about how meters let the so-called "good" players refine their DPS/healing/whatever to such a degree that basically everyone is at the absolute peak and similar in performance. I agree with you. That will happen. The Devs themselves won't be able to put out more DPS or healing or whatever. I submit that will in fact result in trivializing content as it exists today. Turbine will soon hear the cries of "we beat the latest raid in a week!" and "no more care bear content!" They'll have no choice but to dial up difficulty (just as Blizzard did). That means the only folks who will capable of doing the content are those who:

• "spend hours practicing/refining their rotations based on DPS meter data"
• "spend hours trying out different traits/skills/gear/buff combinations to squeeze out every last drop of DPS"
• "spend hours researching/studying boss fights/encounters"

That's a lot of hours! In other words, the only folks who will capable of experiencing the content are the minority of the player base who have that kind of time. It's nearly there now.

I've been in LOTRO beta testing several times and I've been in raids testing new content on my main that I know very well. The instances aren't balanced for the average player. They just aren't. They're balanced to give leet raiders something to do for a while. Turbine has to do this or they'd be filleted alive.

Now, add in the meters. The leet raiders will get even more efficient (I know they will; we certainly did in WoW), they'll beat new content even quicker, and Turbine will have no choice but to further increase difficulty.

But listen to me. I don't want to nerf end game instances. Hardly! I've always advocated Turbine have a "quest mode" (with zero "phat lewtz"; just allow players to complete quests and deeds), "regular mode" (with decent loot), and a "hard mode" (with teh awesomest phat lewtz! that make "an even better player") for their raids and other large end game instances.

Give me a quest mode, then tweak that hard mode and make it insane. That way the leet raiders can have their glass chewing grind and their gear. Quest mode would allow other, average players to experience the story within those spaces. And why shouldn't they? They pay the same amount of money as the leet raiders. Should they be excluded because they aren't "Good, quality" "powerful" players "who give a rip about the game" (because everyone knows only leet raiders give a rip about the game), "are doing their jobs correctly" and "don't suck?"

Think about it. Of all the content in game, what content are you, the leet raider, excluded from? None. What content am I excluded from? Only the end game instances. (Please, let's not argue about how I could access that content if only I'd take the time, aka mortgage my life. I do NOT have that kind of time. Period.) A quest mode would allow everyone else to experience the content and the hard mode would allow you, the leet raider, to keep your challenge. Is that really too much to ask?

(Blizzard has apparently learned a lesson to some degree. I heard recently that they're using some tech to slowly increase a buff, something like LOTRO's Inspired Greatness I guess, within the top end game instance so the closer Cataclysm comes, the more likely it is that everyone will get to see that content before everything changes. Good move by Blizzard. It allows the leet raiders to have their brag and yet includes more and more paying customers as time goes by.)

To answer my own question above, yes, I believe it is too much to ask. Turbine doesn't seem interested in opening up their end game instances to their average players. So I don't think you have much to worry about. Turbine seems to be listening to you and not the rest of us. The end game instances have definitely been getting harder.

So I'm sure you'll get your meters eventually and the content will get even harder to compensate because you and your friends will have "tweaked" your outputs to the absolute theoretical max. And when you put your leet stats in your Bio (like some folks put their crit numbers in their Bio's today), I'll be sure to read it, be very impressed, then move on knowing that I'm actually enjoying the game instead of working a second job.

I'll end with this. If Turbine posts and says "We're expanding Lua to allow meters (DPS/healing/threat/etc.) However, ALL beta testing conducted will have that aspect of Lua disabled (ripcorded). If raiders beat the content in a week when it goes Live, then so be it. We're not increasing the difficulty.", then I will join the campaign for meters. Until then, I hope Turbine avoids it. That's based on experience, not speculation or emotion.