Summer LOTRO Executive Producer’s Letter

[Frelorn]

Hello again residents of Middle-earth!

I hope that you are enjoying Update 16: Ashes of Osgiliath as much as we are. The flowers of Ithilien are as beautiful as the destruction of war-torn Osgiliath is haunting.

Now that Update 16 is out, we are turning our attention to the next suite of work before us and I want to share some of those exciting developments with you. Our major content initiatives for the remainder of the year are:

• New PvMP Map: It is true, we are currently working on a new PvMP map which will take place in a version of Osgiliath. We are designing this space now and it should be going through its first round of feedback with the Player’s Council in the near future. It will also be getting extensive Beta feedback on Bullroarer when ready and released this summer.
• Adventures of Bingo Boffin: Also set for a summer release is this new episodic quest in which you will follow the trail of a new Hobbit friend Bingo Boffin as he traverses Middle-Earth. Each week a new episode of the quest will unlock showing you where Bingo is off to next.
• Minas Tirith: For the late Fall World Designer Chris Pierson is already hard at work carving this shining example of Middle-Earth beauty from stone…errr…ummm…code…a nd laying the ground work of an exciting and surprising take on the Siege of Gondor that will be unlike anything you have seen before. We are really excited about the plans, but won’t spoil them here.

In addition to our new content, we are kicking off a series of major service upgrades for The Lord of the Rings Online which should be completed by end of September of 2015. Let me outline the details of those changes.

• New Store: At the end of the month of June we will be transitioning to a completely new store that features more payment options, one click buys and a cleaner interface. As part of this transition, those of you relying on certain alternative payments will lose access to those payments beginning June 12th for a short amount of time. Within a month of that date, however, we should have a new store online that will provide many more payment options than we have had previously. We are also taking advantage of this opportunity to update and streamline the in game store to be a better experience all around.
• New Servers and Datacenters: We spoke about this Turbine wide upgrade at the beginning of the year and had expected to have it done by now, but weather and other obstacles set us back. We finally have some progress and we can safely say that by the end of September of 2015 we should have the servers moved to our new datacenters with upgraded hardware and Operating Systems. The US servers will operate from our new datacenter in New Jersey while our EU servers will move back to Europe and reside in our new datacenter in Amsterdam.
• Transfer Systems and Server Merge: To support the move to the upgraded server hardware we will be implementing an improved server transfer service that will run from the game launcher rather than a website. Once implemented, server transfers can be account or character based so that all your account level items including marks, Mithril coins, etc. can be transferred. We are also adding functionality that will allow Kin leaders to disband their Kin on one world and then recreate it on another maintaining status and achievements earned by that Kin over its lifetime. More details and breakdowns on all of this to coming in the next few weeks as we move into final phases of development and testing.

You will have 3 months past the date of the launch of the new service in which to continue playing on the smaller worlds while planning and or making your move to a larger server. After that point your characters will always be available to be transferred to one of the remaining worlds, however you will only be able to log in to the remaining servers. More details on all of this as well as detailed instructions on how to move will be provided in email, in-game mail as well as website and forums in the months to come.

• Other Features: There are a number of other features we are still developing and are not at the point of talking about yet for the remainder of the year. More on all of these things as they come closer to fruition.

So as you can see it will be a very busy few months. We are really excited for these changes and what they mean for the future of Lord of the Rings Online and we hope you are as well!

More from me and the team soon,
Athena “Vyvyanne” Peters
Executive Producer

[frost702]

• New PvMP Map: It is true, we are currently working on a new PvMP map which will take place in a version of Osgiliath. We are designing this space now and it should be going through its first round of feedback with the Player’s Council in the near future. It will also be getting extensive Beta feedback on Bullroarer when ready and released this summer.

Any word on balancing?

[Frelorn]

Edit post, fixed some dummy typos from me.

[Frelorn]

Any word on balancing?

Overall balance is also something that is being worked on.

[frost702]

Overall balance is also something that is being worked on.

Very down-to-earth and beautifully said. Highlighted the importance of balance in the eyes of the devs and showed me exactly what problems that they were going to fix.

Thank you.

[robbie1435]

I'm a little bit shocked and unimpressed by this EP letter for one minor reason: The format.

Usually we get an official link to the letter, professionally formatted and "smexy" looking. This time... All we get is a... Forum post? Seems a little shocking.

While I'm impressed by the content, I honestly think that it needs the old professional format to give it that extra bit of excitement and officialism.

[Warmutkan]

Could you edit "guild" to say "kin" throughout? Because, ya know.

[Aurin_EU]

Awesome! Looking forward PvMP map, Frelorn you gave this game a new era, new hope, thank you <3

[Altair6]

Bah! Warmutkan beat me to the pedant post.

Otherwise all very interesting. Looking forward to Bingo's adventures.

[jrsbebes]

Thanks for the update , so excited.

[Thornelas]

Looks like a huge amount of work for a few changes that will be totally worth the wait & problems, hotfixes, bugs etc. that are bound to appear... Awesome to see how much effort you are putting into this game!

Even though there's no talk of it (yet), I keep hoping for a visual upgrade of the characters and maps, however small, and an update to the boring & weak mounted combat... Perhaps in 2016

[Arathaert]

Thanks for the update!

Couldn't be more excited for the PvMP update!

And - whoever is responsible (MoL?) - nice nod to early drafts for Bingo's name. It's appreciated!

[Teragoon]

So nothing on crafting...that is disappointing.

The Episodic thing seems fun though.

[Cavar]

While you're building new servers and adding a new store, how about re-building the lottery system? It can't be that hard, even if you don't have the original code.

[gildhur]

You will have 3 months past the date of the launch of the new service in which to continue playing on the smaller worlds while planning and or making your move to a larger server. After that point your characters will always be available to be transferred to one of the remaining worlds, however you will only be able to log in to the remaining servers. More details on all of this as well as detailed instructions on how to move will be provided in email, in-game mail as well as website and forums in the months to come.

Don't suppose we get any forewarning which servers will be merged into which?

[infinitewhimsy]

[Frelorn]

Don't suppose we get any forewarning which servers will be merged into which?

Yes, you will. As soon as we have the final details and a dates, we will let everyone know ahead of time so they can begin planning and organizing where they might move to.

[superboxer2]

How about you making the current t2s doable. Not even playing lotro till they make it so I do t have to spend 7hr I a 3man t2 and not be able to Complete it

[Rufkin]

If I'm reading this correctly, we are starting transfers in July and ending in September... Are we going to have to wait until July to see a list of closing servers?

With the new store will we see overall prices changing or is this a layout/bug fixing effort?

[infinitewhimsy]

Since they are being done, they are clearly doable. Sounds like your 7 hours would have be better spent procuring the gear necessary to the content, rather than trying to bruteforce it.

[Gardhik]

How about you making the current t2s doable. Not even playing lotro till they make it so I do t have to spend 7hr I a 3man t2 and not be able to Complete it

Update 16.1 is due to 9th june.

[steelrain79]

for the pvmp, any chance we can finally get some lvl correct cloaks and first agers? and decent rank based weapons and cloak upgrades?

yellowcab, hunter, brandywine

[Mundungas]

• Transfer Systems and Server Merge: To support the move to the upgraded server hardware we will be implementing an improved server transfer service that will run from the game launcher rather than a website. Once implemented, server transfers can be account or character based so that all your account level items including marks, Mithril coins, etc. can be transferred. We are also adding functionality that will allow Kin leaders to disband their Kin on one world and then recreate it on another maintaining status and achievements earned by that Kin over its lifetime. More details and breakdowns on all of this to coming in the next few weeks as we move into final phases of development and testing.

You will have 3 months past the date of the launch of the new service in which to continue playing on the smaller worlds while planning and or making your move to a larger server. After that point your characters will always be available to be transferred to one of the remaining worlds, however you will only be able to log in to the remaining servers. More details on all of this as well as detailed instructions on how to move will be provided in email, in-game mail as well as website and forums in the months to come.

Athena “Vyvyanne” Peters
Executive Producer

I don't see whether or not the server transfers will be free, and for how long?

[xdjxzxde]

• New PvMP Map: It is true, we are currently working on a new PvMP map which will take place in a version of Osgiliath. We are designing this space now and it should be going through its first round of feedback with the Player’s Council in the near future. It will also be getting extensive Beta feedback on Bullroarer when ready and released this summer.

Like it, so excited about this.

• Adventures of Bingo Boffin: Also set for a summer release is this new episodic quest in which you will follow the trail of a new Hobbit friend Bingo Boffin as he traverses Middle-Earth. Each week a new episode of the quest will unlock showing you where Bingo is off to next.

Like it, good idea.

• Minas Tirith: For the late Fall World Designer Chris Pierson is already hard at work carving this shining example of Middle-Earth beauty from stone…errr…ummm…code…a nd laying the ground work of an exciting and surprising take on the Siege of Gondor that will be unlike anything you have seen before. We are really excited about the plans, but won’t spoil them here.

Sounds fun. I think these are much needed initiatives and I look forward to them.

[Snowlock]

Oz map is a go huh. After all the years of killing a pvp system that would've limped along on its own, you had to go and put the final nail in the coffin on it to appease a few PC members who can't win at PVP without Turbine's help. LOTRO is about to get one map smaller, what a lousy thing to do to its remaining fans. No wonder everyone quit this game. Well, you deserve what's coming. Enjoy.