Release Nov 18th

[SarielAngelisa]

It is not entirely fair to use a 2+ year old quote to support a claim. Yes, they originally said that the Epic would be free, however as time goes on plans do change, and especially this is true for this particular genre. I could easily point out times where other companies in other markets that have gone on to state similar things, with a few of them being far more egregious to the results.

That said, you should also probably quote the entire statement as well, as it is nowhere near the context you're providing it to be.

all my point is they make promises and then go back on their word....that is my point. like i said i get it its all about money...like all games are. i pay to play this game I'm not complaining about having to pay I'm complaining about the promises and breaking them. its is one way to hurt their business which i know of four people who been on this game for years who payed for it all and now do to changes they left cause this game was different then other MMO's but now they are making it like them MMO's. well anyways lotro will make it changes, its up to the person if they get HD or not. all i asked is how many more promises they will make then break...

[PKCrichton]

So I've been skimming the thread looking for the answer but hadn't spotted it yet.

Are the +10 Quests and Shield of the Hammerhand going to be offered in the store like the 6th Bag and Outrider token have been?

[Crell_1]

So I've been skimming the thread looking for the answer but hadn't spotted it yet.

Are the +10 Quests and Shield of the Hammerhand going to be offered in the store like the 6th Bag and Outrider token have been?

Not at launch; Though, they expect the +10 Quests to show up eventually.

Note: Because it is the first time that an item has been both an XP accelerator and a cosmetic there's no indication of what form the shield of hammerhead would take if it'd ever appear.

Source: Lotro's Twitter Feed at various times. Forgive me for not looking them up.

[Sapience]

So I've been skimming the thread looking for the answer but hadn't spotted it yet.

Are the +10 Quests and Shield of the Hammerhand going to be offered in the store like the 6th Bag and Outrider token have been?

The +10 Quests I can comment on. File it under "eventually", though I don't know when that will be.

[PKCrichton]

The +10 Quests I can comment on. File it under "eventually", though I don't know when that will be.

Not at launch; Though, they expect the +10 Quests to show up eventually.

Note: Because it is the first time that an item has been both an XP accelerator and a cosmetic there's no indication of what form the shield of hammerhead would take if it'd ever appear.

Source: Lotro's Twitter Feed at various times. Forgive me for not looking them up.

Thanks for the info. At least we know the 10 quest slots will be in the store at some point. It would be nice to hear back on the Shield before launch for those last people still debating on 'How shall I obtain this content'.

Another question is we have heard that Housing Storage is being changed into a vault type system where you buy spaces at an even higher cost than we have been accustomed to over the last 6 years. Are those who already own housing chest space going to have to pay the new prices to keep their chest space?

[Nosdracir]

Oh aye...

No offense to any new player intended, but I can see it now...

Level 10: "Hey, I just joined this game two hours ago. Wanna do BB?"

Level 95: "The Valar take me!"

:P

My opinion: Grouping is hard enough without there being 85 levels between skill sets of the players. Enough folks get to 85 and still not know how to play their toon other than autoattack, and facerolling. And this is supposed to make grouping more fun and exciting? Hmm...

I don't mind playing with new folks. I do so all the time, on my lower level toons. But playing with people who have absolutely zero clue what they're doing, on an at level battle, with my endgame toon? Color me unconvinced.

The Epic Battles have different roles. Tank/Heal/DPS/CC is much less important than the EB Engineer, Leader, & Vanguard skills. Sure a level 10 will be inexperienced, but a level 20, who has been working on the solo EBs or duoing with a friend could have developed decent Engineer or Leader skills or both and be an asset for any group. (Vanguard looks like it needs decent DPS from your scaled up class, so 85 scaled to 95 will be much better than 20.)

[Darlgon]

It is not entirely fair to use a 2+ year old quote to support a claim.

Really? I seem to remember that Reagan was mocked even after he got out of office for saying "No New Taxes" during his campaign .. Or was it another president? Lets face it, when statements like those are made, and readily accessible IN THE GAMES OWN FORUMS, its hard to not be held to them. Not to mention that they ran an entire ad campaign on the "Thou shalt not pay" tag line, including a Super Bowl ad. Look up that phrase, the commercial is still on YouTube, advertising that Lotro is still Free to Play.

It makes people question the integrity of the company.

[DarkCntry]

Really? I seem to remember that Reagan was mocked even after he got out of office for saying "No New Taxes" during his campaign .. Or was it another president? Lets face it, when statements like those are made, and readily accessible IN THE GAMES OWN FORUMS, its hard to not be held to them. Not to mention that they ran an entire ad campaign on the "Thou shalt not pay" tag line, including a Super Bowl ad. Look up that phrase, the commercial is still on YouTube, advertising that Lotro is still Free to Play.

It makes people question the integrity of the company.

You know how many times my Cable company has decided to add a new surcharge to my bill despite stating many times over that it won't do it? The point I am trying to make is that as time changes, so do directions and priorities. Adjustments will happen to make sure that the product is capable of still turning whatever profit it needs to make, as such, if anyone truly expects these promises to be forever, then they really should get a grasp on reality...after-all, there's an entire market of things built on broken promises (see: divorces).

I also am not entirely sure about your last bit about advertising LOTRO as free-to-play, are you trying to say that it's not the case? Last I saw, there were no required purchases to play the game.

[Thorwyn99]

Another question is we have heard that Housing Storage is being changed into a vault type system where you buy spaces at an even higher cost than we have been accustomed to over the last 6 years. Are those who already own housing chest space going to have to pay the new prices to keep their chest space?

I would really like to know this too.

[trcanberra]

I would really like to know this too.

I would be VERY surprised if you had to re-buy something you already own.

[Thorwyn99]

I would be VERY surprised if you had to re-buy something you already own.

I agree, but they have been awfully quiet about the housing chest change(unless i missed it) a blue confirmation would ease my mind .

[LaGere]

Yes. Prior to this expansion the Epic Story line has been free.




Exactly right.

The Epic Story in Helm's deep is very tightly entwined with the Epic Battle system. The story in Helm's Deep is the Epic battle we all know from the books. We've returned to the core story line from the lore and that line leads in a direct path, laid out by the Professor himself, into Helm's Deep and the battles and heroic deeds that occur there. As a result, this means the Epic story requires the purchase of the Helm's Deep expansion. Otherwise you'd not be able to complete it as it moves through the Epic Battle system.

I don't know if this was asked or even answered before, but why did turbine so tightly entwine the epic story with the big battles when it is so plain to others that it didn't have to be like that? what is the plain and simple reason for doing it that way? If I knew a truthful answer it might lead me to buy it but for now I can't possibly see going on with this story until the truth comes to light. Just be honest...no spin. Just the facts good sir!

[Darlgon]

Another question is we have heard that Housing Storage is being changed into a vault type system where you buy spaces at an even higher cost than we have been accustomed to over the last 6 years. Are those who already own housing chest space going to have to pay the new prices to keep their chest space?

Wow PKC. I thought you had everything nailed down from what all you have accumulated from Beta. ;P

I read a Beta tester post, I think somewhere in the mess that was the Dev Chat on the NDA drop, that said that you started with 60 spaces and then had to buy more, some with in-game coin and some thru the store. Since two chests now is 60 spaces, hopefully that means you wont have to pay a second time.

[Darlgon]

I don't know if this was asked or even answered before, but why did turbine so tightly entwine the epic story with the big battles when it is so plain to others that it didn't have to be like that? what is the plain and simple reason for doing it that way? If I knew a truthful answer it might lead me to buy it but for now I can't possibly see going on with this story until the truth comes to light. Just be honest...no spin. Just the facts good sir!

Here read this.. From here

https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articl...ep-quest-notes

When you buy the Helm’s Deep expansion, you will also get access to the next three Books of the Epic Story:

Volume III, Book 11: The Golden Hall
Volume III, Book 12: War in the Westemnet
Volume III, Book 13: Helm’s Deep

But why are these Books tied into purchase of the expansion? I wrote a post on the forums in September to explain the decision,


...



We're a Free-to-Play game now, so obviously that requires a change in approach. We gradually modified the way the Epic worked. People forget now, but when the transition to F2P happened the existing expansion packs didn't have free Epic Books - you had to pick up Mines of Moria in order to do its six Epic Books, and if you didn't have Mirkwood then Volume II Book 9 was also blocked away. As the level cap increased and we got further and further into the game (and further along in our story's timeline), we loosened restrictions on what you needed in order to experience those Epic Books. You could play them for free, and you could solo them (if you wanted - except for the Volume II Epilogue. That one's on me, guys. Sorry!)


...


But there would come a time in the future when the decision wasn't so easy. What if there were a system looming on the horizon that would be the centerpiece of an expansion, such that everything was tied into it, and the Epic Story needed to interweave with it in such a way that we couldn't separate the two, but we also couldn't give you the entire system for free? Ah, I'm sure our Future Selves will handle it.

Well, here we are in the future, confronted with a system that allows you to experience the Battle of the Hornburg in all its rainy glory, and an Epic Story that would be doing you a disservice if it didn't tell the story of that battle. There are players who play the Epic even without buying the expansions, and I am sorry that this is a change for you guys. But it's a change that serves to reward the players that do pick up the expansion, and makes the expansion a better deal, more worth your time and your money. This is just an expansion change for now - I'm hoping we can keep the Epic Story free in other updates. But for big expansions I'd expect that it'll be featured as one of the Things You Get on the 'virtual box.'”

Wait, did I not just quote that in answer to you in another thread? Click the link and read the article.

[Morons]

" Well, here we are in the future, confronted with a system that allows you to experience the Battle of the Hornburg in all its rainy glory, and an Epic Story that would be doing you a disservice if it didn't tell the story of that battle. There are players who play the Epic even without buying the expansions, and I am sorry that this is a change for you guys. But it's a change that serves to reward the players that do pick up the expansion, and makes the expansion a better deal, more worth your time and your money. This is just an expansion change for now - I'm hoping we can keep the Epic Story free in other updates. But for big expansions I'd expect that it'll be featured as one of the Things You Get on the 'virtual box.'”

the part with the big expansion really made me laugh, moria was a big expansion helm deep a big quest pack nothing more imho.

[Lohi]

Sure a level 10 will be inexperienced, but a level 20, who has been working on the solo EBs or duoing with a friend could have developed decent Engineer or Leader skills or both and be an asset for any group.

But even if inexperienced, it doesn't matter. No one is forced to group with anyone else against their will. If you want to help that person, then you're allowed. Maybe it's a kin member, maybe it's that annoying person in glff who keeps asking "can someone help me powerlevel?", or maybe you just want to try. This applies even if the character level scaling applied to real instances and not just big battles.

In big battles not that the solo battles allow 2 players. Unless the level 10 player is full of bad luck, you won't be doing worse with that extra player than by being solo. Plus two level 10 players can both level up to 95 and do that same epic battle. It gives those level 10 players something to do, which is very useful if they don't have a quest pack, and it helps out level 20s who are tired of running the same skirmishes. Ie, if they purchase the expansion there is still something useful from it for low level players.

Note that level 85 players will also automatically scale up to 95 as well. A level 75 who certainly knows the class will also scale up and can play alongside someone who's 95. And so forth.

[Lohi]

ook up that phrase, the commercial is still on YouTube, advertising that Lotro is still Free to Play.

But the game is still free to play! Nothing has changed that. The epics requiring the expansion doesn't change that. The game has always required TP purchase of quest packs for free/premium players, and this is just a more expensive version of that.

After F2P was released, epic quests were NOT free to all players! You had to buy Moria expansion to even enter Moria, and have the Mirkwood expansion to enter Mirkwood. If you think that commercial was lying then it had been lying since before F2P was released.

[Lohi]

if anyone truly expects these promises to be forever, then they really should get a grasp on reality...

I saw the news recently about World of Warcraft and free to play. The headline, not written by Blizzard, said "Blizzard rules out free-to-play World of Warcraft". However the actual article does not really say that, it says "It's not something we're currently considering." Woah, almost the same thing Turbine said about LotRO when DDO when free to play... I'm really interested now to see what happens when and if Blizzard does change their mind: will their fans accuse them of breaking promises, even though no such promise appears to exist?