Feedback: Update 10 Mithril coins

[ROCOMAN]

Obviously I don't know the extent of what you can do with these coins, but it really seems like these services should be included for VIP free. Why do VIPs need to pay to use features like the travel to quest? We're already paying 10-15 dollars a month, and as time goes on, it seems more and more silly that I'm actually paying for this, and mostly getting nothing. The fact that people are seeming to just accept that Turbine is nickel and diming VIPs confuses me, why should we be treated on pretty much the exact same level as F2P players. I'm sure you would make more money if you actually gave people legitimate incentives to put out the cash for a sub /rant.

Something that I would like to see clarified: Store buffs like attack damage and tomes of defence, will they remain in lootboxes? If not, will the existing ones remain in our inventories, or will they be converted to MC?

[cossieuk]

Will we need MC to buy cosmetic items or will it still be TP? I only ask as mannequins is mentioned as one of the services you need MC for.

If you do need MC for cosmetics will you be able to buy exactly the number you need for a cosmetic item or will you always have some left over. If there are some left over then you will need to spend more TP that you do now for the cosmetic item you want.

[zalladi]

Something that I would like to see clarified: Store buffs like attack damage and tomes of defence, will they remain in lootboxes? If not, will the existing ones remain in our inventories, or will they be converted to MC?

Tomes of Defence and Attack Damage should be unaffected by this change, as they are buffs, not convenient mechanics (Such as travelling writs and revival tomes). If, however, these items are also removed from the game, I will not be a happy player.

[knnindy]

i like it since it would save me several bag spaces

the removal from the loot table is a bummer though, may be you can come up with dailies that reward this item, these items isn't really a must for me, however, having them drop is the fun part, just noticing their different colored names makes me scroll up the screen to check what they are

[Crell_1]

I don't see anything here mentioning them going away, but I did immediately think "how is this different from the design of Destiny Points, and why aren't these perks just being folded into this system (with purchasable DPs)?" Cynically, I'd guess the answer is 'because DPs can be earned'.

DP can't be used by non-VIPs.

Additionally, they were trying to phase out DP entirely or so they claimed awhile back.

(No, I dont accept the transitory Earn TP->Earn Mithril Coins as an reasonable meaning of 'can be earned in game')

[Dragonetti]

First, thank you for a concise teaser of the contents of Update 10. I'm looking forward to even more instances than I anticipated.

Currency consolidation is usually a good thing, and I like the idea of replacing several store-bought tokens with single purposes with a single currency. We're getting a lot more versatility. It seems like these Mithril Coins will be used for services that are easier to exchange for in-game rather than through the store, such as the aforementioned Stablemaster's and Traveller's writs and the revival tomes.

The store sells items directly, not services. This cuts down on making new items which activate services so I'm wondering if these coins will work for things like auction or bard services in the field at some point. I'm still not sure how mannequins fit into all this, but once Bullroarer goes up, we should know more and I'm sure someone will keep a list of currency conversions and services available with Mithril Coins.

My one hope, though, is that these never offer advantage over convenience. In particular, no bartering for gear with Mithril Coins. One can hope, eh?

One suggestion, though, would be to integrate this currency further into the game. Perhaps as the currency of a Dwarven black market or as recently unearthed coins of rarity and antiquity worth a fortune to specialty collectors. It'd be nice to have some in-game explanation in addition to being tokens purchased with Turbine Points. You guys have lore experts so I'm sure you can figure something out.

[Yoohooham]

this is will make more people leave the game, enjoy!!!!!!!!

[Shukar]

I have conflicting thoughts about this. First I'm wondering about yet another currency to keep track of, especially in my Premium Barter Wallet which has WAAAY too much stuff in it now. (Yes, I invite any dev to take a look at Shukar's barter wallet if they want to see Barter Gone Wild.)

On the other hand, one of my characters has been MUCH more lucky at winning Revival tomes from the Lottery than any of my others. While you may not have made design decisions around that yet, I'm hoping that when the revival tomes convert to mithril coins, then all my characters will have access to something useful.

[Boraxxe]

One suggestion, though, would be to integrate this currency further into the game. Perhaps as the currency of a Dwarven black market or as recently unearthed coins of rarity and antiquity worth a fortune to specialty collectors. It'd be nice to have some in-game explanation in addition to being tokens purchased with Turbine Points. You guys have lore experts so I'm sure you can figure something out.

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Who needs gold or silver...heck, Mithril coins are much better anyway.

Our characters earn currency in game by doing things IN GAME.
Should our characters get currency some other way?
Well, maybe our characters can get currency by having their fairy-godplayers just buy some TP and convert it into the new game currency: Mithril coins.

Another stumble down the slippery slope.

[furtim]

This really seems like a cosmetic change more than anything. I guess, if nothing else, it will streamline the LOTRO Store database and make searching it a little easier. ;P

The tomes will no longer exist in game so no. However, again, when Bullroarer opens up we'd love to hear feedback and suggestions.

Well, in that case, my first suggestion is going to be that Mithril Coins should drop at about the same rate as the old revival tomes used to...

[Lestache]

Although this change does seem rather silly, I can see how it's beneficial for Turbine.

People already spend more money when they don't feel like they're actually spending money (see studies regarding spending habits with credit/debit cards vs. with cash). The further you remove the currency from actual money, the easier it is for people to spend it.

Of course, taking it too far would be a bad idea, because you don't want a system that is so confusing that people are unable to spend money, but having a new currency that is an additional step removed from actual money actually does make some sense for Turbine.

I'm sure that many people will have self-control and not suddenly start spending Mithril Coins like crazy just because, "they only cost TP, not money!," but as with most micro-transaction-based games, it only takes a few "whales" to make the system profitable.

Oh, and to echo an earlier poster, thanks for making the first U10 announcement about a Store-related item rather than actual game developments. With all the buzz from the recent Twitter dev chat, I was beginning to fear that I was playing a video game still.

[Haradim]

Can't you just remove the travel writs and revival tomes and not add in a replacement?

Lacking that bright future: Why the intermediate Mithril Coins and not just TPs? Buying Turbine Point to buy Mithril Coins to buy what I want still seems more complicated than necessary.

I kind of wonder about this as well. It should look better if the UI doesn't say "TP" everywhere (though "Mithril Coins" will probably annoy the more lore-focused anyway ).

[Nyrion]

My opinion? Erm, okay.

I really don't see anything to get my knickers in a twist over. Neither do I see anything to go "OMG THAT'S AWESUM!"

It's just there, and I'm thinking, "Fine."
Streamlining is good though I suppose.

[Khallan1706]

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Who needs gold or silver...heck, Mithril coins are much better anyway.

Our characters earn currency in game by doing things IN GAME.
Should our characters get currency some other way?
Well, maybe our characters can get currency by having their fairy-godplayers just buy some TP and convert it into the new game currency: Mithril coins.

Another stumble down the slippery slope.

I doubt you'll be able to guy TP anymore. Remember all those threads about not being able to find TP cards in stores anymore, now you know why.

[Eartholloth]

I doubt you'll be able to guy TP anymore. Remember all those threads about not being able to find TP cards in stores anymore, now you know why.

Not necessarily... I believe combo cards are coming & it's for either LOTRO or DDO usage.

[Eartholloth]

.......................

[Rifka_ofRohan]

Sapience, you've answered every question except the most important one. What is the point of being VIP if every game perk is sent to the Turbine Store?

People who pay to play each month expect that when new things are offered some token of appreciation be given to people who pay to play. Let's face it, if you didn't have monthly pay 2 play gamers Turbine would have much less income each month to work with. If we are only given the same things that F2P players are given as something else to purchase in the Turbine Store, then it really isn't worth it to us to continue paying a monthly fee.

I use the 500TP each month AND buy extra turbine points regularly to keep up with items that I want from the store. However, if all of the perks are going to be Turbine Store mandates then it doesn't seem wise for me to continue paying a monthly fee when I can just buy turbine points as needed, buy quest and raid packs, and skip the regular cost of monthly fees.

Give pay 2 play people incintives to continue paying and you may find yourselves with more people who are willing to pay the VIP which will = more income for Turbine. Stick every game perk in the Turbine Store and you may find that you end up with less income when the payers decide it's no longer worth the money.

And just to clarify, P2P people do not expect EVERYTHING to be free... We do however expect that when updates are done and changes are made that some perk be given to p2p players as a token of appreciation for our monthy funds..

[Stirella]

Well,

we only *just* got travelers writs introduced to the game. We hardly had a chance to really get to know them, and they are already being replaced with something new.

This shows poor planing, you cant bring out something NEW and then replace it right away.Means you didnt plan it out right from the start.

Still, whereas i can see how the change will prove usefull in its own minor ways, it still saddens me that when the community at large has *many* more serious requests and gripes with the game, it looks like dev time is still consumed with fluff (yes, i class this as fluff) .
I wish other, more important things had a nice Q&A like the mithril coins have, instead of vague sometime in the future (TM) regular forum posts.

Someone else metntioned destiny points.

It pisses me off to see we STILL dont have the replacement we were promised.
Since that promise, we have seen the introduction of travelers writs, and now mithril coins.
How many *new* currencies will devs work on BEFORE they get to working on a replacement we were promised SO many months ago??????

Please answer this.

thankyou.

P.S.

If you dont plan to revamp destiny points as a VIP perk, and plan to remain with Cash purchased only currency (tp, mithril coins) instead of ingame earned equivalents for VIP (Destiny points), just man up and say so.

[DavadaOT]

I'll ask what's on everyone's mind:

As a Metalsmith, will I be able to mint my worthless Mithril Flakes into slightly more valuable Mithril coins? I've got this great Dwarvish coining press that I've been just dying to try out.

[Cara_Gilrain]

I admit I, too, am finding it hard to see why there's all the negativity about this.

It just seems to give us flexibility. Instead of having to buy revival tomes, relic removal scrolls, travellers' writs, etc etc, I'll just get mithril coins instead and use them as needed/wanted, on the fly.

Now I can see how this might benefit Turbine. If I have Coins, maybe I'll choose to 'Revive' when I wouldn't have bothered to buy a revive scroll. So maybe, just maybe, I'll use a few more Coins than I might otherwise have done and therefore buy a few more TPs than I might otherwise have done. But that's down to us to choose.

If Turbine wants to extract more money from us, they don't need Mithril Coins to do it! They're already in entire control of the pricing of every single item in the store. If they decided to rip us off, it wouldn't be Mithril Coins that made that happen or not. They can already do that. And we can already choose whether or not to buy rip-off items (did that hobby horse ever make it into the store?).

It seems like a simpler, more flexible system to me. Hopefully whether that's true or not will become clearer on Bullroarer.

[Nyrion]

Yeah gotta love the QQing going on in this thread & now people are nit picking over the order the devs are being delivered. Jeez people lets sit & complain about every little petty thing such as this about the game. Time for another vacation from this place...

It's partially self-inflicted I think. Turbine's done some pretty dodgy things with the Store, some of them quite recently. It's gotten to be such a sore topic to players by this point that the Devs doing ANYTHING with it, or even just recognising its existence causes some of them to flip out.

[Trobon]

I'll ask what's on everyone's mind:

As a Metalsmith, will I be able to mint my worthless Mithril Flakes into slightly more valuable Mithril coins? I've got this great Dwarvish coining press that I've been just dying to try out.

Using personally minted Mithril coins is outlawed in the Treaty of Durin.

My one complaint with this whole thing would honestly have to be using the term Mithril coin. First of all, those don't even look like anything a Dwarf would ever allowed to be made out of Mithril. I also don't like that the metal just gets tossed around. Mithril flakes worked well, but coins?

Oh well, I'm just harping on a small detail.

[Lestache]

Well,

we only *just* got travelers writs introduced to the game. We hardly had a chance to really get to know them, and they are already being replaced with something new.

This shows poor planing, you cant bring out something NEW and then replace it right away.Means you didnt plan it out right from the start.

Still, whereas i can see how the change will prove usefull in its own minor ways, it still saddens me that when the community at large has *many* more serious requests and gripes with the game, it looks like dev time is still consumed with fluff (yes, i class this as fluff) .
I wish other, more important things had a nice Q&A like the mithril coins have, instead of vague sometime in the future (TM) regular forum posts.

Someone else metntioned destiny points.

It pisses me off to see we STILL dont have the replacement we were promised.
Since that promise, we have seen the introduction of travelers writs, and now mithril coins.
How many *new* currencies will devs work on BEFORE they get to working on a replacement we were promised SO many months ago??????

Please answer this.

thankyou.

Shhh. Please stop mentioning destiny points. We can still use the ones that we have banked, and I'm fully convinced that whatever comes along to "replace" destiny points will not be the least bit equitable to those of us who have a lot of DP stored up.

[voalkrynn2]

These are substantial notes about in-game currency [only available in the store].

Can someone point me to notes about the Update 10 game content?

[Crell_1]

It just seems to give us flexibility. Instead of having to buy revival tomes, relic removal scrolls, travellers' writs, etc etc, I'll just get mithril coins instead and use them as needed/wanted, on the fly.

How is this any different than Turbine points, and then using those as needed/wanted on the fly?

It means we can't pre-purchase specific goods/services at a discounted rate.