Bingo Boffins and Episodic content

[Gaming_Gal]

Add me to the list of folks who really enjoyed this week. I did it first with two of my fellow Éclair-Second Servings folk who use the Tortoise Stone. We were level 14 or 15, depending, and we managed just fine. It did take us a bit to figure it out, but we all had a blast.

I know since some folk blow through areas leveling or only have a few folk overall, so they forget more easily any landscape details, if they ever even noticed them while rushing through for those who don't enjoy the view or, Aule forbid, walk when possible. So for some, not knowing the area will make weeks like this much more difficult.

I love puzzles and riddles. But I agree...no jumping on moving platforms or the like! The crushers in Moria are enough! (Every time I go in there, all I can think of is Galaxy Quest: "This episode was badly written!", which does make me laugh until I get squashed to death...again.) Since there was a mention from Bingo that we'll most likely meet our Treasure Hunter again from time to time, I'm looking forward to it already.

When Bingo arrived at the Forsaken Inn the quest text at the end told you where Bert was. Always does when Bert arrives at a new place. Mind you, he's also still in the Shire and Bree.

From what I've seen so far, Bert is always near a hub stable for that region. Shire-Michel Delving, Bree-West Gate, Lone Lands- Ost Guruth. I expect that when we reach the North Downs, he'll be at Esteldin if my guess on the pattern is correct.

Oh! And add me to the "Bind to Account" list, please. The hatrack upgrades alone are a nightmare.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Oh! And add me to the "Bind to Account" list, please.

I hear you guys, but I've been told that it's a no-go on making these items Bind-to-Account; that would cause some major technical problems under-the-hood with the inventory system. Sorry!

MoL

[ShireDweller]

I hear you guys, but I've been told that it's a no-go on making these items Bind-to-Account; that would cause some major technical problems under-the-hood with the inventory system. Sorry!

MoL

Thanks for the reply! Oh well. I've stopped getting house items until I'm moved onto my new server and have a house there. At that time, I'm going to start a list of who owns what when I decorate, that should help.

[KM3161]

I enjoyed this weeks quest. We got to use our brain to solve a puzzle/riddle and Bingo didn't forget anything we had to go back for

[Laire]

I hear you guys, but I've been told that it's a no-go on making these items Bind-to-Account; that would cause some major technical problems under-the-hood with the inventory system. Sorry!

MoL

Would those same problems exist if you could just make the housing items not bound at all? Do you know if this problem only exists for housing items or all 'bound' items (such as horses that are duplicates of other horses on one character...)?

That might be a bit much, but thought I'd throw it in the question pool

[Mercho]

I'd like to see an auto bestow quest pop up each time a new part is released. Upon completing the quest the player could be awarded a map that could be used to port them to Bingo.

[TharbadThief]

I like the idea of the riddle, but I thought the riddle itself was lacking. The hallmark of a good riddle -- and there are so, so few of these -- is that once you know the answer it seems inevitable how the answer is the only possible answer, how nothing else fits at all; and each part of the path there should be something you knew before you started. I just don't see that in this riddle; each part could refer to a bunch of other things precisely as well as they do the correct answer, and some refer to parts you wouldn't know about until you were already there. But I'm still glad it was something new and cerebral, and hope that we see more like this, just maybe with a riddle with more of that inevitability. (And no platform jumping. I was so glad to see we didn't have to do that. I would have just given up in Bingo right there.)

I agree with the underlined part. I also have to admit I was very disappointed with my own performance this week. After ~2 hours, I had to go to lotro-wiki for the exact location. Thought, "I can only take certain amount of pixel hunting / day". I knew what the riddles meant, except for the red squirrel and sentinel (which I thought meant a huge fir tree, a language issue in this case, I recon). I even knew about the waterfall because I like to explore areas and lore, but all the other clues distracted me elsewhere. The location is obvious when you stand at the right spot and look at the right direction, but when you're looking for it, it's something completely different.

When it comes to jump-climbing .. this week's episode didn't include any of that. I don't have anything against that kinda quests, however. Eaworth beacon is one of the Hytbold dailies I always do - and never fail. To each his/her own.

[CGDrakken]

This all has been very interesting so far, can't wait to see where this ends up. I'm still dreading when that letter from Donnamira Took shows up about that cookbook I checked out but never returned.

[robbie1435]

This all has been very interesting so far, can't wait to see where this ends up. I'm still dreading when that letter from Donnamira Took shows up about that cookbook I checked out but never returned.

I'm waiting for the 2nd petition that Rosalinde(I think that was the name? I have a bad memory) sent to the Mayor!

[Thoroval]

I hear you guys, but I've been told that it's a no-go on making these items Bind-to-Account; that would cause some major technical problems under-the-hood with the inventory system. Sorry!

MoL

Housing decorations are a bit odd in that they can't be Bind to Account on Acquire (BtAcct) the way the inventory system is currently implemented. There may be more consequences, but BtAcct would most likely break housing's "Return to Owner" Decoration Mode functionality since there wouldn't be an "owner" as such.

The best solution is to change/add the tech to allow BtAcct housing decorations. That said, changing the tech costs money and takes engineers away from other things. Absent that tech, housing decorations should almost never be Bind on Acquire (BoA) except in extremely rare cases, e.g. rare boss trophies or certain very special quest/deed rewards (e.g. Portrait of Narmeleth, 50-pound Salmon Trophy).

So why are the Bingo Rewards housing decorations bound at all? Is selling or giving away the items game breaking in some way? Isn't this whole quest chain just supposed to be a fun adventure? We're not talking about items that impact game play or are mad boss loot after all. Armour? Fine. Housing decorations? Please, no.

If for some reason you insist on keeping the housing decorations BoA, then at least change the Bingo Badges to Account Shared just like Marks, Eglain Tokens, etc. This can be done right now with no new tech. This would allow the player to choose which character will be collecting/holding the decorations.

Personally I put all of the housing decorations I can on a single character (mule) that was created for that purpose. This makes it much easier to decorate my house since I can use a single character instead of a half dozen+ characters. It also saves some of the always limited storage space on my leveling characters. After all, they must already sacrifice Vault space to store (forever) keepsakes such as Prized Pie, Ronald Dwale's Pipe and Sigileth's prized knives (on a couple of characters since there are 2 of them).

[Louvalinor]

This week's Bingo quest with the Treasure Hunter's riddle was the most fun I've had with the old gentlehobbit.

/cheer for Made of Lions

[Urwendil]

<snip>

Great post, I agree 100%.

[OldMadeOfLions]

So why are the Bingo Rewards housing decorations bound at all? Is selling or giving away the items game breaking in some way? Isn't this whole quest chain just supposed to be a fun adventure?

I do want them to be bound, because I do want them to be associated with the quest chain. If I can just go to the auction hall and buy as many of the hatstands as I want, for instance, I've then broken the progression nature of upgrading the hatstands that was built into the design. If it was just about adding cute housing items to the game, I could have saved a lot of effort and not made any quests at all -- but I wanted there to be that association.

And tonally, the Ballad of Bingo Boffin certainly is intended to be 'just a fun adventure,' but that doesn't mean that I attach no value to the rewards. It's a big time investment for anyone that keeps up with it (a whole year, if you play as it unfolds!), and even when it's all available, it's still not the sort of thing you'd be able to knock out in a single night. If you have the Hat Rack's Final Form, I think that means something; it wouldn't mean that if it was unbound and you could freely buy it or trade it. Furthermore, keeping Bingo Badges on a per-character basis means I can keep the cost of the rewards low. If you could buy every single reward on Bert the instant you see him (which you could do if the Badges were account-shared), you've managed to break the structure of my reward scheme.

So I sympathize that the tech prevents Bind-to-Account on housing items, because it would probably make both of us happy, and I understand the irritation. But it's important to the design that they not just be unbound.

MoL

[Ardineck]

Except there isn't anything that prevents bound to account on housing because until I place it in a housing slot "above Weathertop" painting is bound to account and can be held by any character. Using it on a furniture placement allows me to choose who it becomes bound to.

Maybe check the code on that item, because it is bound to account on acquire, but bound to character on use.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

I do want them to be bound, because I do want them to be associated with the quest chain. If I can just go to the auction hall and buy as many of the hatstands as I want, for instance, I've then broken the progression nature of upgrading the hatstands that was built into the design. If it was just about adding cute housing items to the game, I could have saved a lot of effort and not made any quests at all -- but I wanted there to be that association.

And tonally, the Ballad of Bingo Boffin certainly is intended to be 'just a fun adventure,' but that doesn't mean that I attach no value to the rewards. It's a big time investment for anyone that keeps up with it (a whole year, if you play as it unfolds!), and even when it's all available, it's still not the sort of thing you'd be able to knock out in a single night. If you have the Hat Rack's Final Form, I think that means something; it wouldn't mean that if it was unbound and you could freely buy it or trade it. Furthermore, keeping Bingo Badges on a per-character basis means I can keep the cost of the rewards low. If you could buy every single reward on Bert the instant you see him (which you could do if the Badges were account-shared), you've managed to break the structure of my reward scheme.

So I sympathize that the tech prevents Bind-to-Account on housing items, because it would probably make both of us happy, and I understand the irritation. But it's important to the design that they not just be unbound.

MoL

I don't mind if items bound or not, I Understand all this why they are bound , also I love bingo boffin quest so far i do it every week, I think you did a very Good job making these quest, They are a fun Adventure!

[maartena]

I do want them to be bound, because I do want them to be associated with the quest chain. If I can just go to the auction hall and buy as many of the hatstands as I want, for instance, I've then broken the progression nature of upgrading the hatstands that was built into the design. If it was just about adding cute housing items to the game, I could have saved a lot of effort and not made any quests at all -- but I wanted there to be that association.

And tonally, the Ballad of Bingo Boffin certainly is intended to be 'just a fun adventure,' but that doesn't mean that I attach no value to the rewards. It's a big time investment for anyone that keeps up with it (a whole year, if you play as it unfolds!), and even when it's all available, it's still not the sort of thing you'd be able to knock out in a single night. If you have the Hat Rack's Final Form, I think that means something; it wouldn't mean that if it was unbound and you could freely buy it or trade it. Furthermore, keeping Bingo Badges on a per-character basis means I can keep the cost of the rewards low. If you could buy every single reward on Bert the instant you see him (which you could do if the Badges were account-shared), you've managed to break the structure of my reward scheme.

So I sympathize that the tech prevents Bind-to-Account on housing items, because it would probably make both of us happy, and I understand the irritation. But it's important to the design that they not just be unbound.

MoL

I completely agree with this to be honest....I bought some things yesterday after completing the last round (that @@#$%#@ fallen over tree was hard to find!! - but things shouldn't be easy, I enjoyed it) and put them in my new kinhouse. I saw they were bound, and I have no problem with it. I totally agree that some rewards should be behind an amount of work you need to do for it. What would be the point if you could just buy them? Hey, I even think that cosmetic pets should be bound (or at least to account), but that is just me. Want the rewards? Put in the work.

[Thoroval]

Except there isn't anything that prevents bound to account on housing because until I place it in a housing slot "above Weathertop" painting is bound to account and can be held by any character. Using it on a furniture placement allows me to choose who it becomes bound to.

Maybe check the code on that item, because it is bound to account on acquire, but bound to character on use.

Are you talking about a decoration that has been "Purchased from store"? I've only purchased a couple decorations from the Store. I believe they were BoA and immediately bound to the character that purchased them, but it was quite some time ago.

It would be completely acceptable if decorations could be BtAcct and only bind to a character when used/placed in a housing hook. I could place the decorations in my Shared or Housing Storage, pick them up on my housing decorator character and bind the items to that character. That works for me. It should also assuage MoL's concerns.

I'll have to see if that's possible when Bullroarer is available. My TP is limited on Live (and I can craft my own Above Weathertop paintings which are not bound).

Btw MoL, I was kinda disappointed I couldn't take a leisurely stroll back across the bridge after taking my swim. I was fatigued after all...

[OldMadeOfLions]

Btw MoL, I was kinda disappointed I couldn't take a leisurely stroll back across the bridge after taking my swim. I was fatigued after all...

Did she yell at you? She was supposed to yell at you, and I wasn't sure if anyone was going to see that. ^_^

MoL

[Thoroval]

Did she yell at you? She was supposed to yell at you, and I wasn't sure if anyone was going to see that. ^_^

MoL

I don't recall any yelling. Just an inviso-wall that stopped me so I had to swim back. I was trying to go through the story as in character as possible and I wouldn't want to swim back (on that character at least). Perhaps I didn't trigger something.

I'm talking about the Brandywine Bridge btw, in case you're talking about another bridge (like the Last Bridge) that I haven't gotten to yet. I'm not rushing things per usual.

[OldMadeOfLions]

I don't recall any yelling. Just an inviso-wall that stopped me so I had to swim back.

Ah, I see. Yeah, you hit the opposite side of the inviso-wall that prevents you from running across the bridge instead of swimming. There's a hobbit guard that scolds you if you try to do that.

MoL

[Thoroval]

Ah, I see. Yeah, you hit the opposite side of the inviso-wall that prevents you from running across the bridge instead of swimming. There's a hobbit guard that scolds you if you try to do that.

MoL

I distinctly remember seeing the guard, but I don't recall seeing any text pop up. I was watching for comments too. I saw all the Hobbits comments (verbal /facepalms) on the other side of the river. Perhaps I wasn't close enough to the guard?

Now I'll have to take another character through to see if it triggers.

[middlediscworld]

I got close to finding the treasure without looking at the wiki - tried the obvious waterfall in NW corner of LL, followed the river back into Bree-land, had a look near the last bridge, then had a wander around weathertop and found the right one, just managed to miss seeing the log. Also while I was up there thought I'd "say hi" to Floid & Dewitt, but they were nowhere to be seen - do they disappear once you've finished the deed, or has something changed?

Found a vendor in Thorin's Hall last week that sells a backpack, so I did this weeks episode with a backpack instead of a cloak.

[Saniko]

I distinctly remember seeing the guard, but I don't recall seeing any text pop up. I was watching for comments too. I saw all the Hobbits comments (verbal /facepalms) on the other side of the river. Perhaps I wasn't close enough to the guard?

Now I'll have to take another character through to see if it triggers.

I think I was right up against the invisible wall when it triggered.

Bystander says, "You're not supposed to take the bridge! You're supposed to swim!"

Of course, what choice did I have left?

[Banaticus]

Housing decorations are a bit odd in that they can't be Bind to Account on Acquire (BtAcct) the way the inventory system is currently implemented. There may be more consequences, but BtAcct would most likely break housing's "Return to Owner" Decoration Mode functionality since there wouldn't be an "owner" as such.

I don't see why that would break it. On my former main, I acquired a couple housing items, which I put in an old kinhouse. I've since switched mains (and never will again, the virtue, etc., grind is just too much) and switched kins. Apparently the old kin disbanded or moved servers or otherwise took the items out, as I just noticed on my current main that I have a couple items in my housing escrow. I don't see why Bind to Account would break housing items -- just make the account the owner, which sort of seems to be the case already.

It also saves some of the always limited storage space on my leveling characters. After all, they must already sacrifice Vault space to store (forever) keepsakes such as Prized Pie, Ronald Dwale's Pipe and Sigileth's prized knives (on a couple of characters since there are 2 of them).

Yeah, I think using up your inventory so that you feel an impetus to buy more slots was sort of the goal with things like that.

[Banaticus]

At Bert Bartleby

To buy things, do I need to visit each version of Bert or will each version of Bert have everything?