Known Issues: Fornost Revamp?

[Tatuaje]

Fornost and Dol Dinem getting the love would be awesome! DD has so much potential, the story line there is good - the repeated trips and rewards are thin though.

[Celebria]

Nobody can do Fornost for the entire rest of the year?

lol That's going to bug some completionists trying to level their lowbie alts.

Glad I just finished mine before the update.

Hope this isn't true of the upcoming Cd/Uru runs for me or the Moria 6-mans for my leg trait.

[GoldenusG]

Mildly irritating, as I had planned a solo trip when my Champ got a one-handed L75 legendary worth spitting at (The ones he's found so far are so dire, he's sticking with his L65 Third Age Spear...) That said, planning and actually doing are two completely different things, so I'm not too grumpy.

[SapienChavez]

the good news here:

Sara Oakheart will be sitting in a her cage for a good 6 months.

may she rot!

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Nobody can do Fornost for the entire rest of the year?

Three months. Look for it in June, 2012 as part of Update 7.

lol That's going to bug some completionists trying to level their lowbie alts.

IMHO - It is not going to the folks with lowbie alts. The completionists typically do the content once per player. Repeats are done when there is replay value. Fornost is not one of those places.

It is a valid concern for those completionists that have never done Fornost. Most of these people are going to do Fornost at level 75. Finding groups for the old Fornost is very difficult. North Downs is not a popular quest pack to buy. Most people seem to bypass North Downs for Evendim.

[Kentelyoo]

Very good news !

A suggestion for any future instance revamp. When you split an instance into different wings, try to keep the wings physically attached to each other via a door or archway. I think doing it that way would avoid the disjointed feeling that many people hate.
If done right, you could run the entire thing without noticing the split. Of course, the nice thing is if you want to stop after the first or second wing, you continue where you left off.

I remember being disappointed by the Great Barrow revamp. When I finished the first wing, I looked everywhere for the door to enter the second wing. I thought I could continue the adventure right away if I chose to.

[Darzil_Northshield]

Any chance you can either change the captain (and other?) quest drops (Rotted Barghest Paw) that used to drop only in Fornost and Bree Barrows from level 39-43 Barghests, as they no longer drop in Bree since those dungeons were revamped, and now Fornost is unavailable can only be gained from grinding skirmishes.

[Malachi108]

Any chance you can either change the captain (and other?) quest drops (Rotted Barghest Paw) that used to drop only in Fornost and Bree Barrows from level 39-43 Barghests, as they no longer drop in Bree since those dungeons were revamped, and now Fornost is unavailable can only be gained from grinding skirmishes.

Those items drop from Barghests in Angmar since Update 1 I believe.

[Nyrion]

Do you guys think they might be revamping the entire North Downs at the same time?

I mean I don't think I was around when GA got an update, but did the Lone-Lands get a pass at the same time as well? If so, they may do the same here.

[Vandervahn]

North Downs is certainly a strong contender for a revamp. While Misties and Trollshaws probably need the attention even more, that may be
A. reserved for some tie-in rework along the "The Hobbit" release (not saying anything like an actual expansion, just a brush-up with whatever is possible)
B. put back because it is not unlikely that many people own the Trollshaws and Misties already through the Path of the Fellowship QP, either bought separately or through RoI Legendary/Mithril edition. So less financially attractive (guesstimation).

[12qw]

I am glad that Fornost is getting a revamp, but my kin is (was) planning to do a run this weekend as part of our plan to level up a group of alts together, and complete everything as we go. Guess that's not happening anymore :P. Hopefully it is scaled cuz by the time it is released, we would all be well beyond the level range.

[Vilan]

While I am all in favor of more instances being available at end-game, and Fornost certainly is a good candidate as it is very rarely run at this point, I do think that there is a downside to scaling instances. The downside is that, once an instance is scaled, it very rarely will be run at its original level. Of course, I don't have stats to justify this statement, but from my experience it is true. Very few groups form to run GB at level 20 any more. It's almost impossible to find a level 40 group for the Annuminas instances. School and Library aren't run much at 52. On the other hand, I see lots of groups posting for GA at level 32-38.

I guess my fear is that as Turbine scales more and more instances, there will be more and more people that solo all the way to level cap without running anything at all in groups. That's a LOT of soloing already with the cap at 75 - when it gets to 85 it is going to be that much worse.

Just my two cents.

I've seen this too. Although the option to run a scalable instance at the lowest level is still there, it doesn't really seem to be done. Not sure why this is. When it's locked at a certain level, people look at it as an instance for that level range. Scalable seems to mean "I'll wait until I'm at level cap to try that".

One suggestion, probably unpopular, would be to have a maximum level for the instance. Once you're more than, say, 10 levels above the set level, you can't get in. That would push people to group up and run them while they're still more or less on-level. Of course many would complain that they don't have time to find a group and they prefer to solo them later on, or that they could never manage to win [Big Shiny Housing Item] before outlevelling it. I dunno.

I will say that I ran Fornost twice on-level and had a lot of fun. Yes, it is quite long, especially if you don't know what you're doing. But there's a real sense of accomplishment to getting through it. I'm not a big fan of bite-size instances. Have some small ones available, by all means, but leave some big epic ones around too.

[jewahe]

I'm really, really glad to hear that Fornost is getting some love. I ran it a couple of times - and even beat the boss once (I have the armour housing item to prove it). I believe, tho, that I never completed all the quests.

I really hope it comes with a revamp of North Downs. Because Lone Lands is free, few people go into North Downs, and most of the people I've found there are VIPs/Lifetimers leveling an alt, as I did. And when I attempted to find a group for the Nan Wathren Western Pass quests (Black Fire, et al), I got a single response over 3 days. I didn't even attempt to find a group for Dol Dinen. I'd really love for the zone to be revamped as a level 40-50 zone, culminating in Fornost.

It appears I'm in the minority, but the idea of splitting instances doesn't really bother me. I simply don't want to be forced into an instance that takes hours upon hours to complete...give me instances that take 2 hours AT THE MOST - an evening's entertainment.

But, all other arguments aside: the bottom line is, if people are don't a piece of content, the devs need to take a hard look at why, and figure a way to remedy the situation. Otherwise, it is a drain on resources and a waste of programming time - not to mention a source of frustration for players who might want to experience that content.

[jewahe]

One suggestion, probably unpopular, would be to have a maximum level for the instance. Once you're more than, say, 10 levels above the set level, you can't get in. That would push people to group up and run them while they're still more or less on-level. Of course many would complain that they don't have time to find a group and they prefer to solo them later on, or that they could never manage to win [Big Shiny Housing Item] before outlevelling it. I dunno.

This certainly would be an unpopular solution, for several reasons:

-Some kins use the low-level instances to start teaching lowbies the ropes. Having a maximum level would lock high-level leaders out, either forcing them to roll another toon or just abandon their training sessions.

-You'd inevitably end up with a lot of people with incomplete deeds. Take a look at the threads bemoaning the "Old Goat" deed in Dunland for an example of how that would go over.

-Some high-level players like to replay low-level content - whether for the thrill of victory or the lust for gold.

That being said, I think having a "challenge" mode at all levels would be better - the current system of setting the challenge only at end-game does encourage players to wait.

[Craiden]

Hmmm, I hope it's done until my VIP expires at the end of April, as I was hoping to run this instance since about 3 weeks now. But it doesn't look it will be finished by then, or?

I was in there once, which was great fun as the highest level player was 39 an we did quite well until our guard suddenly lost connection and never came back. We waited for about 30 minutes until we looked for another player, didn't find one and then called it off. We did the first boss (?) in the "pool" and made our way up the hill, so I guess we were quite at the beginning and I wonder what else lay ahead of us and if we would have been able to finish it

[Vandervahn]

...and I wonder what else lay ahead of us and if we would have been able to finish it

Basically, Fornost
The part you did is no more than the front yard. Bit sad that it is closed off completely, as I had just rediscovered the thing to do North Downs deeds and get rep items as well as lower tier craft mats.

[ararax2]

I wouldnt be surprised if North Downs finally got a revamp.

Possibly adding in a Stoneheight quest hub. Since at lv 30 it still exists prior to it's destruction.

[ararax2]

That being said, I think having a "challenge" mode at all levels would be better - the current system of setting the challenge only at end-game does encourage players to wait.

Agreed, it makes little sense to put GB Cmode at max lv when people start it around lv 22.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Hmmm, I hope it's done until my VIP expires at the end of April, as I was hoping to run this instance since about 3 weeks now.

No possibility of it happening in 3 weeks. The earliest it would occur would be the next major update. Those are normally 3 months or more apart. June maybe.