Please tell me this isnt true :(

[Punkinchunkin]

http://docholidaymmo.com/2012/12/11/...rely-a-gimmic/

Apparently there are ZERO plans to evolve mounted combat. This makes me one sad puppy. But at least we know now its a waste to spend 1 penny on your mount, hes just a "one trick pony".

[TheMadCat]

Admittedly I didn't watch the video and it may have been elaborated on there, but the question and comment the blog centers around is whether there will be any mounted combat instances and the response was the typical non-answer. That's an awful long stretch to go from no instances focused on mounted combat (Which I have a difficult time imagining anyways) to that's all you'll ever see of mounted combat.

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

I dunno, I've seen lots of misinformation/mistakes/jumping to conclusions from that guy in the past. No reason why this should be any different. He's definitely stretching quite a bit here with this blog post.

[Shaele]

Well its unusual for Turbine to put a system in place and then not expand on it...

Unless you look at housing, hobbies etc

[Frisco]

I'm glad they aren't going to try and make group content out of mounted combat. Can you imagine the nightmare of trying to make something like that challenging? And then the nightmare on our part, because we'll actually have to spend TP and time grinding out a bridle?

I love it as it is. A fun mini game.

[Anavalar]

Well its unusual for Turbine to put a system in place and then not expand on it...

Unless you look at housing, hobbies etc

And housing and hobbies are bling not core game development. Mounted combat represents what must be an insane amount of time and resources. To not get more content out of that investment doesn't sound likely.

Of course I'm sure Turbine had hoped for more of a buzz and a draw around this both in the lotro community and in the greater gaming community. Hopefully this may happen over the long term. I'll take it over GW2 any day myself.

[Eartholloth]

I'm glad they aren't going to try and make group content out of mounted combat. Can you imagine the night mare of trying to make something like that challenging? And then the nightmare on our part, because we'll actually have to spend TP and time grinding out a bridle?

I love it as it is. A fun mini game.

Not too mention the LAG!

[TheMadCat]

Well its unusual for Turbine to put a system in place and then not expand on it...

Unless you look at housing, hobbies etc

Eh, I thought about that but mounted combat is or I guess could be a core feature. It'll at the very least be prominent in the next expansion and could have it's uses in other areas of Middle-Earth so I'm not sure if this will suffer the same fate of Turbine's other neglected features.

[Anavalar]

Not too mention the LAG!

Ah, there indeed is the fly in the ointment.

[PerinStone]

Couple of thing I heard in the little bit I listened to

- they expect the Hytbold instances to come back in update 9.
- Update 9 within a couple of weeks and IC still in February
- The upcoming raid has 3 "wings" and is about the Battle of Dale. (about 55:30)
- They mentioned "Flood of Isengard" (54:00). I assume this is the name of the expansion (i.e. Western Rohan)

As far as the premise that there will be no additions to MC, I don't see that being mentioned.

t first question revolves around Mounted Combat instances and Aaron’s answer is:

“It is something we’re thinking about, but is not in our current plans”

This seems like a stretch to take this comment and apply it to all of MC. I have to think we'll use our war steeds in Western Rohan and some in Gondor. Just because there won't be any instances doesn't mean we won't still use our steeds or there won't be any updates.

[Dwarendele]

Well its unusual for Turbine to put a system in place and then not expand on it...

Unless you look at housing, hobbies etc

Well Turbine has done something like this in DDO with a region known as the Red Fens, there the gimmick was underwater combat - and the whole region had instances where your character could swim under water and even combat (kind of - the combat took place in a "air -bubble" that you maneuvered around the bottom of the ocean like a hamster in a hamster ball - so it was kind of whac) but to the point, this was the only region it was implemented in - other regions (even areas released after the Red Fens) didn't have this underwater option - sooo... could be?

But I agree with other people - the blogger makes a bunch of leaps and to me seems to be mostly a "Turbine Basher" especially with his opinion of Turbines motives for adding combat mounts and the sell of mounts in the store. He accuses Turbine as being just awful enough to set up the whole mounted combat region : Rohan for the sole purpose of selling mounts in the store.

What he doesnt say is that people are buying them like hotcakes and cant get enough of them - Sounds like supply and demand to me, nor does he mention that the LOTRO community has more or less demanded mounted combat from Rohan since the days of SoA - did Turbine really have any other choice but to make MC the central theme of a horse culture expansion? That would be like releasing MoM without going underground.

[Rugongrod]

Let's hope they don't expand on it. I prefer old skool destruction, but that's just me.

[Crell_1]

Doc's a long-time player, and although his posts of late have been disappointed in the direction Turbine has headed, he's also got some stuff about the game he likes. He's well-written and coherant, and logical when it comes to most of his content, and talks about what he'd do to make it better, that makes it worth reading, whether or not you agree with his opinion

It's a clip pulled from the last 10minutes of the LotrO Reporter interview. given that they let slip that there's another landscape area being worked on,(~50m), and have already talked about some stuff related to western Rohan (w/ Massively) I see no reason to view this comment from +Rowan as anything other than to NOT expect MC outside of landscape content going forward.

[ScionofAngmar]

How awesome would it be to ride out and face a herd of Mumakil in a MC instance? The answer is: very.

[maxjenius]

Well Turbine has done something like this in DDO with a region known as the Red Fens, there the gimmick was underwater combat - and the whole region had instances where your character could swim under water and even combat (kind of - the combat took place in a "air -bubble" that you maneuvered around the bottom of the ocean like a hamster in a hamster ball - so it was kind of whac) but to the point, this was the only region it was implemented in - other regions (even areas released after the Red Fens) didn't have this underwater option - sooo... could be?

Except mounted combat is rather less outlandish than underwater combat. And underwater combat has been a part of PnP (A)D&D for decades, so they probably wanted to add some of if for that reason. But the outlandish D&Dishness is one of the reasons I stopped playing DDO.

Bottom line, DDO underwater combat smacks much more of "experimental" than LotRO mounted combat does.

[Silverangel]

Skirmishes have evolved over time? My warhorse already has far more versatility and customizability than my skirmish soldier. There is less content for my warhorse than for my skirmish soldier, but on the other hand the skirmish reward system has been absorbed and eclipsed by dungeon currency and now even warbands give marks. The skirmish system in LotRO, in itself, is like the half-dead Christmas tree in the Charlie Brown special. Humbug.

[Kheld_GB]

I'm glad they aren't going to try and make group content out of mounted combat. Can you imagine the nightmare of trying to make something like that challenging? And then the nightmare on our part, because we'll actually have to spend TP and time grinding out a bridle?

I love it as it is. A fun mini game.

Considering the complexity of Lotros exisiting boss fights in instances (where so many different tactics are needed) compared to other MMO's (where DPS races to beat enrage timers seem common) I think Turbine could easily make a challenging Mounted Combat boss fight if they wanted to.

The problem is, I think they are afraid of the knee jerk whiny flame fest that would erupt on these forums if they spent precious time & resource on a MC Raid rather than a traditional foot combat raid.

[The_Bruce]

I would be surprised if they haven't thought about making skirmishes with MC.

There are many Hytbold instances involving MC albeit just hack and slash but there could easily be a piece of landscape with objectives in it for group or solo play.

[spelunker]

If mounted combat weren't completely revamped first, I'd have zero interest in MC instances. Mounted combat was relatively interesting for about half an hour, and from that point on its been a cooldown waiting, face-rolling, kite or ./follow fest with zero thought or depth. At the risk of offending people who love MC, the main reasons I see people give for enjoying it are 'I can hit ___ mob for XXXX damage' and 'I can kill ____ mob with XXXXXXXXXXXXX morale without taking any damage.'

If they keep MC for more landscape questing and such fine, but MC has been a complete flop for me and barring a revamp I couldn't care less if I never do it again.

I will admit I enjoy the more 'realistic' handling of riding a war-steed to the unicycle movement of regular mounts. Customizing its appearance is certainly a nice feature for people that are into that (great way to boost store sales without cutting into game content, imo).

[Neumi]

@OP:Wish granted
"this isn't true "

I am not so sure about the article, but I can understand that they hesitate to change MC. They already put a lot of resources in it and the restult ... well, it's fun, but it's not viable to be the new game play style. It's just too difficult for them to design content for MC.

[evangel]

I love mounted combat. And not because I can do x damage and not get hit or whatever. I just love riding around killing stuff. I dunno, its fun to me. I was hoping there'd be more

[Wof]

Personally I hated mounted combat and would be glad if it disappeared completely. What peeved me most about it is the way half my characters' skills got nerfed to 'slows' so as not to upset the stupid mounted mobs. So even if you didn't mount up you still couldn't play your character properly anymore! That's why my main characters are now shelved and I am playing low level alts instead, so I can play them using their skils the way they are supposed to be played. If there is ever content in the 80's that they can play properly without having mounted combat ruining it, then I will go back to them.

[Belechael]

Mounted combat is great on hunter, captain, minstrel, RK and loremaster. Melee mounted combat just doesn't work for me, and especially on guardian and warden its a PITA.

They need to change several stuff in order to make it fun for every class, and then we would probably have to have different briddles for different roles in different situations (light horses in open spaces, heavy for tanking in fellowships for example for tanks), and that is not fun at all.

I remember talking to friends of mine about mounted combat before they started beta, and saying that Turbine is damned if they do it right and damned if they do it wrong. If right the players would expect a lot more, and they won't be able to deliver for various reasons, and if wrong they would have wasted a lot of developer's time and resources for nothing.

For what it's worth imho this time they got the ranged mounted combat as good as possible!

[Bhoris_they_spider]

This is good news! MC as it is will give some variety within the questing of the next couple of zones while not taking away developer time from more important things like having a structured end-game!

Sure it could use a couple of tweaks but I think it is developed as it needs to be. LOTRO is more or less based on the trinity tank/healer/DPS system so we certainly dont need mounted skirmishes or instances. While people thing they sound 'cool' on paper they would most likely be as enjoyable and tedious as a daily Bugund run.

[DutchEZmoder]

I'm very glad i didn't even spend 1 TP on my war-steed, even when the color packs were 50% off. I always felt it was just another way to rip off money from costumers. The system is pretty poorly implemented, as it seems there wasn't much time invested into it. Now i see why, it's just there to make money, with no plans for the future... When the new instances didn't include even 1 mounted combat instance, i knew this mounted combat was just a gimmick. Thanks for confirming that!