Update 19 Speculation Thread

[Brethwyn_EU]

So, with the Battle of the Pelennor Fields done with, where are we going next? The storyline is now more open, but my guess would be following the book's story towards the Black Gate (and if I remember correctly, that was also stated previously by a blue name or in the Producer's letter). But could the Black Gate be an entire region by itself? Would it maybe be an extension of the Dead Marshes and connect Gondor to Mordor? What about level cap raise, essences, instances and gear? I know we know very little still, but this thread could be used to speculate and give suggestions as to how we'd want it to be. Oh, and. What about that cosmetic pet panel they were talking about earlier?

[BangoTwinkletoes]

Morgul Vale, Minas Morgul & North Ithilien.

[Uhmiel]

"Our story continues in 2016 with Riding with the Rohirrim to the Battle of Pelennor Fields and then taking the battle to the enemy as we push towards the Black Gates! It is going to be an exciting year to be sure."

I don't think we see Mordor, at least this year. But we are on the way! No more level cap raise please, too much grind is enough...

[DKenny]

"Our story continues in 2016 with Riding with the Rohirrim to the Battle of Pelennor Fields and then taking the battle to the enemy as we push towards the Black Gates! It is going to be an exciting year to be sure."

I don't think we see Mordor, at least this year. But we are on the way! No more level cap raise please, too much grind is enough...

I wonder if / how they might increase imbued LI.

[Strmi]

I wonder if / how they might increase imbued LI.

with u18.2

[Laire]

I just want to see Aragorn at the Houses of Healing and earn the title 'the Healer'.

That's all.

:P

[Phantion]

I really doubt that the update will be limited to North Ithilien, Minas Morgul, and the Morgul Vale. Here's why:

From Western Gondor onwards, Turbine has set a pattern of adding 3 full zones per update, the only exception being U17, in which 'Minas Tirith' counted as its own zone due to all the concentration of data in one, albeit smaller, location. Now, the Morgul Vale really does not constitute a full zone in terms of the zones we are used to. Its smaller than Nan Curunir. You can see its clear borders right from the gate with the troll-guards. In effect, Minas Morgul and the Morgul Vale should both only count as '1 zone'- as the Vale is likely only half the size of the Pelennor, if that, and I doubt that Minas Ithil / Morgul is as extensive as Minas Tirith. It'll likely be a Carn Dum 2.0 fused with an Isengard-ish type area, likely using the same ruined building designs that were used in the Paths of the Dead. These are just my guesses. We'll be lucky if Minas Morgul is the equivalent size of Dol Guldor, which certainly did not constitute a zone on its own accord.

I also partially doubt the inclusion of Minas Morgul in a full zone update, because it would be totally weird to have a 'Northern Gondor' zone or 'The Wastes' zone that's completely cut-off from the other components of the map. Eastern Gondor may have a strange shape, but at least its consistent: Upper Lebennin is connected to Lossarnach, which is connected to South Ithilien via the Anduin, which connects to Osgiliath in the center. Every Gondor zone to date is unified (Dead Marshes doesn't count- and its unified as its own zone anyways despite the strange means of traveling there), as is every single zone-release in the game. Minas Morgul should probably enter the game in a smaller update as its own update, in my opinion.

North Ithilien is large enough to constitute its own zone. But there are two main directions that they can go through from here. A- go west up the Wetwang, filling-in the missing part of the Anduin that should've been included in Far Anorien (roughly half the Mouths of the Entwash are inaccessible due to the 'reed-walls'). The Wetwang could then connect to both Amon Lhaw, and to the Dead Marshes, unifying that part of the map. B- Proceed directly to Noman's Land / The Slag-Mounds, and the Morannon / Black Gate itself. They could even be far bolder and include both directions in the same update- saving Minas Morgul for its own thing after the Ring is destroyed, or doing Minas Morgul in an in-between update- since its a smaller level of content-building.

U19 will definitely be a northern-Gondor-focused-update. Its possible that they could delay things and go south into Harondor and such, but I'm not so sure about that. It sounds like they are going to outright write-out the ten days between the Battle of Pelennor Fields and the Battle of the Morannon and really speed things up.

[Goodgoing]

I kinda doubt we will get Minas Morgul and the Morgul Vale in U19. But knowing Turbine, we could. I think of U19 more of the lines with North Ithilien connecting to the Wetwang and Dead Marshes with Far Anorien. We may even get Emyl Muil as a small area much like the Grey Wood. Just to connect that part with the East Wall. Also as the above post said. Nomands's land is a possiblity as well.

I think they are saving Minas Morgu, Crith Ungul, and Shelob's Lair for update 20 for spring next year. And make Lotro go off with a bang in the fall with update 21 in Mordor.

[ElanorFb]

I kinda doubt we will get Minas Morgul and the Morgul Vale in U19. But knowing Turbine, we could. I think of U19 more of the lines with North Ithilien connecting to the Wetwang and Dead Marshes with Far Anorien. We may even get Emyl Muil as a small area much like the Grey Wood. Just to connect that part with the East Wall. Also as the above post said. Nomands's land is a possiblity as well.

I think they are saving Minas Morgu, Crith Ungul, and Shelob's Lair for update 20 for spring next year. And make Lotro go off with a bang in the fall with update 21 in Mordor.

I think it has to go even faster because they wouldn't want to leave people with only 2 months left to play - unless it's just the epic battle story at the black gate and some session play as Frodo or Sam in Mordor.

[Nymphonic]

I just want to see Aragorn at the Houses of Healing and earn the title 'the Healer'.

That's all.

:P

I would not mind having that title.

[siipperi]

On U 19 they remove upcoming raid and convert it to Big Battle to make it more approachable.

[ElanorFb]

On U 19 they remove upcoming raid and convert it to Big Battle to make it more approachable.

Sounds like a great idea!

[cdq1958]

On U 19 they remove upcoming raid and convert it to Big Battle to make it more approachable.

Very funny, siipperi, very funny. I don't expect them to remove the raid (when have they ever done that?) nor expect them to add another EB, as much as I would like that.

[Oelle]

as long as they finally put rewards (bb-set-jewelry, essences) for levelcap in big battles, i don't care, if they ever add more.
they are a nice groupcontent for levelmixed groups like leveling kinships etc which we have nothing else.
Still, as long as lvl105 players don't get anything out of them, they slowly stop having fun with lowbies there, which leads to a bigger gap between leveling players and highlevelers. we still do them twice weekly as kinship-evening-content, but theres less interest every week since u18


i much more hope for more skirmishes (or changes to the existing ones, useful loot maybe). its cool to just look for people and just start with the number you find instead of having to find the perfect number
and it would be nice, if the scaling formula got changed to something which fits more to the numbers players get when leveling instead of rising slower and such getting easier with every higher levelcap.

[Wanderv]

If you wish to see devs tip about what will come next visit Dead MArshes location . Some changes happened ther

[fiorello]

because they will not have a proper connection and propper data-center any more

[Brethwyn_EU]

I guess it's time to revive this thread

[Phantion]

And I suppose its not a necro in this case, hehe, because U19 hasn't really happened yet. Alright, well... "After the Battle" Minas Tirith is apparently in "Mountains of Shadow."

Here's what I would desire the devs to hopefully consider-

1. Please don't make the Mountains of Shadow in the same world as "After the Battle" Minas Tirith. Please don't. Don't instance Mordor, North Ithilien, Minas Morgul, binding it to completion of the epic-line. One of the key glories of LOTRO is that of a nearly unified game-world. Sure, there are exceptions- portals between the Shire and Ered Luin, portals to get in and out of Moria, portals in between Rohan, Gondor, and Eriador, etc. etc. etc. But these portals are also few and far between- and they still preserve an illusion of unity. Having to take a travel horse to post-Battle Minas Tirith just wouldn't do it. The thing to do would be to just include post-Battle Minas Tirith in the Old Anorien chat-channels and "zone" proper for now- and save the "Mountains of Shadow" for U19.

2. As incongruous as it may seem to be able to ride into pre-Battle South Ithilien and then into post-Battle Minas Morgul or post-Battle North Ithilien, we already have that effect between West Rohan and Nan Curunir, and it really didn't hurt anything to have that effect. All that needs to be done is to either remove the trolls or keep them like pre-battle-Nan-Curunir's-trolls, open-up the Vale as it exists in the current game-world, and yes, keep the Dawnless Day over it. It's Minas Morgul for crying out loud. Minas Tirith may be sunny now, but Minas Morgul probably isn't. Come to think of it, I'm not sure the lore even says what type of sky it was when Aragorn and the others entered the Morgul Vale. Whatever the lore says, go with that. But with Dawnless Day, it would give Minas Morgul that dark and more ghostly effect. You'd want it to compete with Carn Dum in terms of levels of scary-ness after all.

3. All further zones outside of Mordor should be exempt from the Dawnless Day skies given the current position in the time-line. Yes, that means, when I ride for the first time up the Harad Road beyond the Crossroads, northward bond, and pass the ruins, the skies clear and turn bright blue with the sun shining, and I can see the brighter version of Minas Tirith from afar. Here's the opportunity to do interlude session-plays as Frodo and Sam with Faramir, the Haradrim Foray, etc. North Ithilien and/or the Slags should be linked to the Dead Marshes and the Wetwang. The Wetwang should allow players to enter the missing parts of the Anduin around the Mouths of the Entwash. Maybe expand the Mouths a bit more in its eastern parts since its all still in Gondor. The western parts are understandably bordered due to the change from Gondor to Rhovanion.

4. If we do go up into the Mountains of Shadow, a la Shelob's Lair and Cirith Ungol, if there's any sky imagery in the Frodo and Sam in Mordor chapters, please go with whatever it says. But it would feel pretty awkward to have bright-blue Gondor skies over Mordor, it would fit more to have the Dawnless Day there. For the Straight Stair- think clickable portal like the ladders in Lothlorien. But players -should- be able to maneuver up the Winding Stair part of it.

Just some food for thought, *smiles*

[djheydt]

I would not mind having that title.

Me neither. I have a sticker on the front of my computer, reads

HEALER
+
Nobody
DIES
On My Wartch

But as for Aragorn showing his skills in that regard, that'll be in a couple
of weeks. You will have noticed that the third entry in the current deed
is titled "The Hands of a Healer."

Now, if I were writing it (and I fully realize that MoL has already written
it and it's just waiting for its time), I would have a session play as Faramir,
wandering through the shadows (as we saw Merry doing in part 1) until
the King calls him. Possibly the same for Merry and Eowyn as well.
Think what their dreams would be like.

But I have only one character at present who's done Pelennor, so I
just have to wait.

[Phantion]

Yeah... I definitely would've -loved- to get inside Faramir's mind for this sequence. It's a little confusing that this isn't part of the epic-line, but whatever- its implemented pretty well overall, and it can be done solo, which, for this sort of thing, is, in my humble view, a good thing.

Really, they made a -huge- mistake, in my view, turning the demise of Denethor into a side-show at the end of a 6-man. Every single player who did the Epic through Volume IV Book 4 deserved to see that scene with Gandalf and Pippin challenging Denethor. I just don't get it. Why gate it, when many groupers might not even care to hang-around and watch it, because the loot's already been gained? It's so absurd.

I really, kindly, wish MoL and others would consider having some optional session-play or something with the player playing Beregond or something, just to get that experience to where it belongs: a solo one. Why should it be solo? Because the Palantir instances in Book 4 were solo. Sure, the fight against the Gloom of Nurn belongs in the instance. But the Denethor part of it..... should have been solo in the first place. This was a huge moment that was also set-up throughout the Upper Lebennin and Lossarnach quest-lines. Same with Forlong's death. And both Forlong's death and Denethor's fate were omitted from the solo side of things. Forlong's death happened off-screen in between epic chapters. It's all a big head-scratcher to me. Sure, its an MMO, but there are certain story elements that every player should get to experience. All I ask for is consistency.

And this would serve as an excellent tie-in to the new U19 content. Please, Turbine. Give us a session-play in the next epic, let us see what happened to Denethor in a -solo- experience, since most of the epic is solo now anyways, and then narratively use that glimpse into the Palantir of the player seeing Frodo in Cirith Ungol be the bridge into the new content. It just makes perfect sense. *Smiles*

[Gwinthilnel]

Really, they made a -huge- mistake, in my view, turning the demise of Denethor into a side-show at the end of a 6-man. Every single player who did the Epic through Volume IV Book 4 deserved to see that scene with Gandalf and Pippin challenging Denethor. I just don't get it. Why gate it, when many groupers might not even care to hang-around and watch it, because the loot's already been gained? It's so absurd.

Yeah I thought this was very odd. Imagine a player who decides not to do Silent Street. They go to the "After the Battle" Minas Tirith, wander up to the throne room on the 7th level and stumble upon a dead Denethor all laid out in formal splendor. Of course the player probably knows he was going to die but they didn't see the event unfold. They should consider remedying this.

[SinordLoresearcher]

I wonder if the beta version of update 19 will be released on bullroarer after the final session play in after battle Minas tirith is added in about a week and a half? Sinord Loresarcher of arkenstone

[Olgomil]

I just want to see Aragorn at the Houses of Healing and earn the title 'the Healer'.

That's all.

:P

SPOILER



















You played second interlude in Minas Tirith after the battle region?

Sergio :-)

[Oelle]

Yeah I thought this was very odd. Imagine a player who decides not to do Silent Street. They go to the "After the Battle" Minas Tirith, wander up to the throne room on the 7th level and stumble upon a dead Denethor all laid out in formal splendor. Of course the player probably knows he was going to die but they didn't see the event unfold. They should consider remedying this.

uhm... no, thats theoden.
denethor burned himself. theres nothing left.

[Marcho_Brandybuck]

I guess that update 19 will be more solo focused. These include: the new lv 105 crafting recepies, more quests for MT reputation. New regions without another lv cap. it will probably be Cair Andros, North Ithilien, Black Gate or even maybe Morgul Vale, all under the blue sky, connected with the new MT after battle and possible with west Rohan without portal.
I still hope to something like Great River update. Some solo landscape content, with the addition of group daily landscape and one three/six man instance. New skirmish maybe... Black gate could be good place for the skirmish instance. Also Shelob's lair and can be a good site for the new non-clustered 6-man instance.