Soldiers on the landscape

[West-northwestook]

I really like Jokeurthewise's theory that the use of your soldier might only be possible close to felloship locations.
For once it would allow Turbine to implement more open landscape quests for (at least) small fellowships again which have been asked for several times without leaving the dedicated solo or duo players out in the rain.

And while I have not the slightest idea about programming I'd like to imagine that the landscape bound use of the elven stone to get inspired greatness (f. e. during the epic line in the North Downs) could be used as a stepping stone to trigger your soldier symbol when you get near a fellowship area.

[Ventata47]

The only issue I have with soldiers on the landscape - and I guess its optional whether you summon them of course - is............the lag.

[Elenluin-Menelloth]

I really like Jokeurthewise's theory that the use of your soldier might only be possible close to felloship locations.
For once it would allow Turbine to implement more open landscape quests for (at least) small fellowships again which have been asked for several times without leaving the dedicated solo or duo players out in the rain.

And while I have not the slightest idea about programming I'd like to imagine that the landscape bound use of the elven stone to get inspired greatness (f. e. during the epic line in the North Downs) could be used as a stepping stone to trigger your soldier symbol when you get near a fellowship area.

This will be the best way to implement it, I hope devs thought like that too.

[DelgonTheWise]

The only issue I have with soldiers on the landscape - and I guess its optional whether you summon them of course - is............the lag.

Could be worse in the cities. Consider Lagtrev? Maybe they need a sign at the gates, "No sidekicks allowed". Or ala Star Wars, "Hey! We don't serve their kind here. Your <soldiers>. They'll have to wait outside. We don't want them here.". ..

[Pathalion]

I'm really not concerned. This isn't an issue in SWTOR, for example.

Plus, assuming what you're suggesting proves to be true, maybe it'll force more people to group up. I still don't understand why 6 different people will run around in the same square mile, killing the same stuff for the same deed and never talk or join forces. It'd go 10 times faster.

Actually, it wouldn't as the EXP per kill will be shared between players rather than just one. Completion time would be a little quiker but not by that much. Unless, of course, the mobs are above level.

[flyingcircus]

Actually, it wouldn't as the EXP per kill will be shared between players rather than just one. Completion time would be a little quiker but not by that much. Unless, of course, the mobs are above level.

there are bonuses to XP in groups
having a fellow of three already grants a bonus of 44% per kill and the total is then divided between all players in range

so yes fellows make it indeed go faster in any regard but i think it should be up to to the people to decide if they want to group up
asking doesn't hurt

[vermknid]

Does the implementation of "soldiers on the landscape" imply a cessation to the introduction of future skirmishes? I haven't seen any announcements concerning the introduction of more skirmishes for the last expansion, Rise of Isengard, which I find worrisome, any thoughts?

[watarun]

Great news! I've been asking for this basically since Mirkwood came out.

I doubt they will re-balance it - bear in mind, while something might be "EZ Mode" for those of you with top end gear and the like, the game is actually pretty hard compared to others, at least once you get up into Moria.

Yes, it might come as a shock to many of you, but it's true. LOTRO was originally a very old school game (albeit not a sandbox) and thus had a very high difficulty level and silly restrictions. The F2P switch removed some of the sillier restrictions (the horse at level 35 most notably) but the difficulty stayed intact, and indeed, as the gap because the top end gear and gear obtained just doing PVE grew, the game grew harder.

For instance, at 65, mobs in Enedwaith have more morale than my champ does. By comparison, at early levels, he had 4-5x as much morale.

And lets not forget the treadmill that is LIs. If you don't do it, you won't be doing much DPS at high levels, much less improving your skills. This reduces the reliance upon having to grind those out (then you'll now also have to grind up your horsie...)

You seem to have the opposite experience to me. The game has got stupidly easy after F2P, before it was challenging but fun. As a non raiding person I got to lvl 75 on my LM and Burg with Moria gear!
Extra help seems just a way to go to the store to upgrade your landscape soldier and horse, I am dreading this change.

[Trilwych]

This seems like a terrible idea.

There are already enough issues with skirmish soldiers only within the limited skirmish landscapes available, which Turbine has a very tough time fixing consistently, so I highly doubt they have the resources (i.e. third party) to ensure the vast majority of current and future PvE terrain is smooth for all pets. A friend of mine stopped playing her LM because her pets got stuck all the time, and I only use my herald in enclosed spaces like skirmishes/solo instances. The command cooldown will also be a greater problem, especially if there's an accidental/multi-mob pull. And the lag... ALL pets should automatically be dismissed in major hubs or entering instanced city areas. Not everyone likes having a "pet" class---Oh, but "You don't have to summon your soldier if you don't want to"?

While many will argue that Turbine has been consistently nerfing content difficulty for years, I still wonder how Turbine might balance future content, taking into account any expectations of having a soldier pet.

Well. I may try to solo some 3-mans with RoR, I suppose, but so far, nothing announced for RoR looks appealing to me; this least of all. I'd rather Turbine properly and completely revamp the stupid I.F., revamp the wallet, fix all the existing skirmish pathing/AI issues, revamp housing, properly implement the xp control, and tweak the Legendary system into something more legendary than struggle with two completely new (well, not the soldiers per se) game mechanics for which they undoubtedly shipped the development offshore or something. :/ Heck, more skirmishes would be nice too.

__________
IJ/IF skirmish rewards data | Crit crafting & the RNG | Dumb noob things we've done in LotRO...
"Be not so eager to advance that you fail to experience the moment, in life and in all things." -Deluros, Rivendell

[Wagnard]

Mark my words: I m pretty sure is another way to cash more money from the players.

[Unique]

Mark my words: I m pretty sure is another way to cash more money from the players.

Well of course it is, they are a business not a charity.

How else do you think they can pay their staff to create new things and their bills to bring us the game. There may be a free to play option but they have no free to create and run option.

Everything they offer in the store is optional, they are going to put more and more things in the store for you to buy, it's up to you to decide if you want to or not, no need to get bitter about it.

[Mark_J]

Well of course it is, they are a business not a charity.

How else do you think they can pay their staff to create new things and their bills to bring us the game. There may be a free to play option but they have no free to create and run option.

Everything they offer in the store is optional, they are going to put more and more things in the store for you to buy, it's up to you to decide if you want to or not, no need to get bitter about it.

They have crossed the line of some of the Store Items being 'optional' a long time ago. Unless you meant that some of the Store Items are the best 'option' available in the game...

[GCT]

I just want to say that I love love love this idea.

After playing SWTOR, I can't possibly play another game without a companion. I was even thinking about leveling up a Lore-master for the pet.

Now I will simply wait to come back to LOTRO until after the next update.

A million thanks, Turbine!

[Zarador]

Mark my words: I m pretty sure is another way to cash more money from the players.

Do you think those entertaining commercials during the Superbowl are there to amuse you and the Go Daddy girls just want to have you visit the site to make them feel wanted?

Welcome to the forest Bambi!

On a positive note, the more enticing they make the game, the less it feels like squandering points and the more it feels like an investment in your liesure time gaming hobby.

[Maelendil]

I just realized that the soldier on landscape is scheduled for update 6, not RoR. Why is this thread here and not in general discussion ?

What I envision for this is a zone restricted access to our soldiers: you may only summon your soldier in the new zones, but not in bree land for example. This would keep the early zone balanced as they are, otherwise mobs will need a serious buff to avoid being facerolled by maxed out soldiers.

[Ferthcott]

I just realized that the soldier on landscape is scheduled for update 6, not RoR. Why is this thread here and not in general discussion ?

What I envision for this is a zone restricted access to our soldiers: you may only summon your soldier in the new zones, but not in bree land for example. This would keep the early zone balanced as they are, otherwise mobs will need a serious buff to avoid being facerolled by maxed out soldiers.

Probably because it will be like IF: introduced - RoI, many attempts to fix - U6+, might as well leave it here


Also, there is some sort of twisted justice in a vision of new zones being balanced *with* skirmish pet in mind. I recall plenty of claims about LIs being "optional" when people dared to complain about their current shape. Well, here we go, another segment of the game with "optional" path (alternative being: "you die more often"), now you can all share the pain! :P

[Lilka]

I just realized that the soldier on landscape is scheduled for update 6, not RoR. Why is this thread here and not in general discussion ?

Because I made it the day both announcements were made, and it hadn't been made clear on that day that the skirmish soldiers were coming with U6, not RoR.

[GCT]

I just realized that the soldier on landscape is scheduled for update 6, not RoR. Why is this thread here and not in general discussion ?

What I envision for this is a zone restricted access to our soldiers: you may only summon your soldier in the new zones, but not in bree land for example. This would keep the early zone balanced as they are, otherwise mobs will need a serious buff to avoid being facerolled by maxed out soldiers.

So it's only going to be in the new zones? Could someone link proof of that, please?

This makes me sad. I'd like to play LOTRO in a new way with a soldier out in the old zones. And if that makes the game too easy for you, then simply don't call out your soldier.

Why are so many people bothered with how other people play? This is why I don't come to the forum much, even though I've been playing on and off since beta. Too many people in other people's business.

[whheydt]

So it's only going to be in the new zones? Could someone link proof of that, please?

This makes me sad. I'd like to play LOTRO in a new way with a soldier out in the old zones. And if that makes the game too easy for you, then simply don't call out your soldier.

Why are so many people bothered with how other people play? This is why I don't come to the forum much, even though I've been playing on and off since beta. Too many people in other people's business.

There has been no indication that the soldiers will only be usable in new zones. The fact that soldiers on the landscape will be introduced in U6--which was clear from the initial announcement--certainly shows that they won't be restricted to RoR zones (unlike the warhorses, which Turbine has explicitly stated will only be usable in RoR zones).

I'm not concerned about how others play. I'm concerned about how devs create new content. I fully expect some dev or other to reason that, since skirimish soldiers are available for use, everyone *will* be using them and design landscape quests that can't be completed without one being deployed...thus changing an "optional" feature to "required".

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

[Osolep]

On one hand I am excited about the prospect of bringing my Skirm Soldier on the landscape. I think that it is going to relly help with grinding slayer deeds. On the other hand they really need to improve the pathing of our teh melee soldiers becasue it is just horrable. Most of the time my skirm soldier gets stuck somewhere and finally gets to the combat when it is almost over. I'm hoping that they have taken some pointers from SW:TOR and can program this properly. It seems to have been an issue for awhile.

[Khafar]

I'm not concerned about how others play. I'm concerned about how devs create new content. I fully expect some dev or other to reason that, since skirimish soldiers are available for use, everyone *will* be using them and design landscape quests that can't be completed without one being deployed...thus changing an "optional" feature to "required".

This is a near-certainty, IMO. In fact, I'll be surprised if they don't eventually wind up making some previous content more difficult so that players using skirmish soldiers on the landscape don't find it all way too easy.

Worse, once it becomes a de facto standard for players above a certain level to be using skirmish soldiers, it will soon thereafter become a de facto standard for players above a certain (higher) level to be using fully leveled up skirmish soldiers everywhere. The content inflation will continue.

If the skirmish soldiers in LOTRO were as smart and useful as they are in TOR, this wouldn't really bother me all that much. Those don't have pathing problems, they're pretty good in whatever role you assign to them in combat, they don't aggro stuff gratuitously, they're more configurable, and they can even do useful stuff like selling your vendor trash for you, no matter where you happen to be (they run off for about a minute). Unfortunately, that's not entirely true here. If Turbine doesn't step up their game on their "pet" AI, I could see this being a very real net negative to the game for many players. We're not really "required" to do skirmishes beyond those few in the epic storyline, and many don't. This could turn out quite differently - either the game will be way too easy for some players, or way too hard for others.

Khafar

[Yula_the_Mighty]

The lack of functionality with our Skirmish soldiers and the ease by which they get hung on terrain or other problem is going to be a big turn off. Both Swtor and Skyrim have smart responsive and fun companions. I have not played Swtor. Everything I have read Swtor companions are like competent human players that follow your lead.

I am not looking forward to dealing with more lag, another grind system - one that is attached to landscape content and the frustrations of soldiers.

[bigsix66]

This is a near-certainty, IMO. In fact, I'll be surprised if they don't eventually wind up making some previous content more difficult so that players using skirmish soldiers on the landscape don't find it all way too easy.

Worse, once it becomes a de facto standard for players above a certain level to be using skirmish soldiers, it will soon thereafter become a de facto standard for players above a certain (higher) level to be using fully leveled up skirmish soldiers everywhere. The content inflation will continue.

If you’re correct, and if the folks in this thread who think that there will be a TP charge for summoning a landscape soldier are also correct, then this will be the official demarcation of where a store purchase became necessary to simply play the game with a reasonable modicum of success.

There are a lot of casual players in this game. I’m one of them. I don’t know if store purchases are “necessary” to either raid or PvP because I don’t do either, so I’ll let that issue be addressed by players who participate in those events.

For me, as of now it’s not necessary to buy anything from the Store to effectively play the game. I’ve leveled three toons to 75 without buying a thing from the Store. It’s not like I had a difficult time of it, either. My champ and LM didn’t get killed at all while leveling from 65 to 75, and I don’t consider myself to be a particularly good player.

What is being suggested in this thread would be a game changer, and in an ugly way. If quests will be designed to be significantly more difficult because of the assumption that everyone will be using a landscape soldier, and the use of that soldier will require a Store purchase, this to me would be a deal breaker.

Talented players might enjoy the challenge and be able to survive without a soldier, but the more casual players of lesser skill (such as yours truly) would be herded to the Store in what would be, IMHO, a most decidedly unacceptable manner. It would cause me to stop paying the monthly subscription fee that I have paid for the past 50 consecutive months.

Will Turbine be this foolish? I prefer to think they won’t be, but I’ve always been an optimist. Stay tuned. We should find out soon.

[Celembar]

This whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. The game is supposed to be about a hero *(you and you alone) living your story with other players aswell. But then you have a skirmish soldier with you???? all the time???!! Its like the story of you and your soldier not just you and other players. And i mean how will a burglar stealth? Will the soldier stealth aswell? It just messes everything up.

[Celembar]

LoTRO is just getting stupider and stupider. Mounted combat aswell?! This is just becoming a joke.