A Look at LOTRO's 2023

[The_traveller]

You are most welcome.

Thank you for your responses. I hope these changes will really be for the better.

And yet - what about individual prologues for each race? Do you think this is necessary to add?

[AGstinger]

I am super excited for this coming year and the future of the game in general, maybe one day LotRO can become a top tier MMO :P

[Strider5548]

Instead of scaling UP the instances (or make them scalable at all), why not come up with a system that allows the PLAYER to scale DOWN to an instance.

This would be fantastic if it were not for two things: Trait points and LIs.

Both of these things grow in a way that can not be scaled in either direction. To be honest though it's not a bad idea to just standardize tracery slots across all level caps and rescale content at lower levels to be more difficult accordingly. As for trait points, the ESO system of slowly earning more and more trait points (champion points in ESO) over time could make a lot of sense. Let players unlock the vast majority of trait points by level 50, then slowly give them 1 or 2 more for completing additional areas in the world that correspond to historical expansions. This would narrow the power gap between a downscaled 140 and a true level 50, but it would still exist.

[AConyl]

We consider biomes a collection of assets that represent a specific kind of environment. The trees, rocks, terrain textures, bushes, flowers, etc that are all used in combination to create the look and feel of a particular landscape. Sometimes new biomes are associated with new landscape areas - or the phrased can be used as part of an introduction of updated assets into an existing area. Regions usually include a number of biomes - which can range from subtle variations of a core look to wildly different sets of assets all together (the Lonelands, for example, has 3 or 4 different biomes associated with it - scrub lands, southern swamp, blood swamp, ruins, etc)

@Scenario, are there any plans for revisiting SoA regions and giving them a facelift? The old style is showing its age, and I imagine they would benefit greatly from modern assets and tech.

[TesalionLortus]

@Scenario, are there any plans for revisiting SoA regions and giving them a facelift? The old style is showing its age, and I imagine they would benefit greatly from modern assets and tech.

Unless you mean paper structures of the elves, which have universal problems all across the sets due to specific shapes on models, which assets exactly do you mean? Something like brand new Cardolan assets have a bit more polygons clearly, with extra details for "look! the roof collapses and there is moss everywhere" but technically they're still not much different and somehow further into the future than this game usually is - you can still notice some pixelization, low res textures coming through, not enough fidelity, and so on, when standing directly next to wall and inspecting it carefully (The experience is almost not much different than standing next to older Eriador wall or Fornost wall). So I don't get why people are outright obsessed with coming back to redo everything in SoA and maybe beyond... Just fix bad apple assets that are clearly worse than all others, maybe upscale some textures if possible (and these steps they're already doing), maybe add some extra grasses here and there (but they've already done THAT kind of revamp and it made everything look lovely)

[SSG_Orion]

And yet - what about individual prologues for each race? Do you think this is necessary to add?

I'm not sure that I understand the question as the prologues for each race do exist already. I will certainly defer to MadeOfLions, but I am not aware of any desire to further revisit the prologues for Hobbits and Dwarfs at this time.

[gardavil]

This is a good example of the different perspectives people can have on a single feature of the game, because I've seen people complaining about the Vocation combinations ever since they were first revealed, and every single year since 2007. If I had to point at a single unpopular feature, it might be requiring people to drop from group to do a solo instance... but if I had to point at two, it might be the Vocation combinations.

MoL

I can confirm MoL's comments concerning crafting here. In 2007 LotRO Beta I participated in the testing of the Woodworker Crafting Profession and posted a report which was posted on forums. I remember an often spoken sentiment at the time that some desired to NOT be shackled to roles in each profession arbitrarily but desired to pick and choose each role. I too felt at that time a little restricted in which roles were assigned to which profession. Though I have concerns how this new freedom will impact the player community in resource node harvesting and node availability during peak hours, yet I look forward to having more customization options for my character's crafting.

I would also say I "Second MoL's Motion" concerning his comment about having to drop out of Fellowship just to do a Instance. Few game play requirements in LotRO irritate me more than this, especially since I send over 90% of my time logged in game IN a Fellowship... my wife and I, and our friends in Kin log in together to play together and log out when done. Having to drop out of Fellowship negatively impacts our gameplay enjoyment as we desire to do these Instances Together, even the strictly story/literary ones. It sure would be awesome to see all Instances be for Fellowships of ANY number of Players up to six.

[Scenario]

@Scenario, are there any plans for revisiting SoA regions and giving them a facelift? The old style is showing its age, and I imagine they would benefit greatly from modern assets and tech.

No specific plans for that. We've done a pass on pretty much all of the game, updating textures and frill files over the years. Some regions (such as Bree-land) got more attention and polish than others. Because of the volume of content placed in the game, its actually somewhat risky to do much more than frill and terrain texture changes without the potential for halo efforts like buried quests (or giant rocks showing up in the middle of roads).

[Pharone]

No specific plans for that. We've done a pass on pretty much all of the game, updating textures and frill files over the years. Some regions (such as Bree-land) got more attention and polish than others. Because of the volume of content placed in the game, its actually somewhat risky to do much more than frill and terrain texture changes without the potential for halo efforts like buried quests (or giant rocks showing up in the middle of roads).

Never forget the rock formerly known as Dewayne.

One day the rock will come back, and lead us all to victory against the evils of Middle Earth.

Long live the cult of the rock!

[Gnagerwine]

No specific plans for that. We've done a pass on pretty much all of the game, updating textures and frill files over the years. Some regions (such as Bree-land) got more attention and polish than others. Because of the volume of content placed in the game, its actually somewhat risky to do much more than frill and terrain texture changes without the potential for halo efforts like buried quests (or giant rocks showing up in the middle of roads).

Ok, I understand it's no simple matter. But imagine if all the early regions were as gorgeous as Swanfleet and Cardolan. Someday please! I hope...

[MadeofLions]

...we desire to do these Instances Together, even the strictly story/literary ones. It sure would be awesome to see all Instances be for Fellowships of ANY number of Players up to six.

I know it! These days we don't do as many of the Solo Only instances as we have in the past. Generally, I only do it if there's an under-the-hood reason I have to: it's not just 'is there a lot of story going on in here?' - it's more if I need to react to a particular choice you made in the past, and having more than one person in the space means you might get both results of the choice, or the one you didn't choose; it stops making sense, which is bad, but it also can just break the instance, which is worse.

MoL

[Phantion]

No specific plans for that. We've done a pass on pretty much all of the game, updating textures and frill files over the years. Some regions (such as Bree-land) got more attention and polish than others. Because of the volume of content placed in the game, its actually somewhat risky to do much more than frill and terrain texture changes without the potential for halo efforts like buried quests (or giant rocks showing up in the middle of roads).

Hey Scenario, I've got an idea:

Could you please consider making "Dwayne" - yes, with that label - a completely to-scale replica of the giant boulder that landed in the Greenway in Bree-land- and make it "wall, furniture, floor, and yard + universal hook" accessible? I.E. Complete freedom of where to put it and yes- that large, just like the scale of the Gundabad throne replica.

That's the least I can hope for since we've lost Middle-earth's favorite boulder, LOL!

Cheers!

[The_traveller]

I'm not sure that I understand the question as the prologues for each race do exist already. I will certainly defer to MadeOfLions, but I am not aware of any desire to further revisit the prologues for Hobbits and Dwarfs at this time.

I mean that hobbits and elves do not have their own introduction areas. The elves pass it in the location of the dwarves. And hobbits - in the locations of men.
I have repeatedly heard from newcomers a reaction to how strange the first impression of the race (after the introduction instance has been completed) in the location inappropriate to it.

[YamydeAragon]

Hey Scenario, I've got an idea:

Could you please consider making "Dwayne" - yes, with that label - a completely to-scale replica of the giant boulder that landed in the Greenway in Bree-land- and make it "wall, furniture, floor, and yard + universal hook" accessible? I.E. Complete freedom of where to put it and yes- that large, just like the scale of the Gundabad throne replica.

That's the least I can hope for since we've lost Middle-earth's favorite boulder, LOL!

Cheers!

We already have that at LOTRO!:

Decorative Boulder “Some might simply call it a big rock.”

https://en.dcodumilieu.fr/decorative-boulder/

[Gimril1]

Sorry to belabor the point if this has been answered.

Back in 2022 it was announced that there was going to be a long awaited graphics update for the game. Having an UW monitor, this would be a huge boon, but I didnt see anything mentioned about it in this years update. Has that idea been scrapped? Is it being rolled into one of the expansions?

[TesalionLortus]

Back in 2022 it was announced that there was going to be a long awaited graphics update for the game. Having an UW monitor, this would be a huge boon, but I didnt see anything mentioned about it in this years update. Has that idea been scrapped? Is it being rolled into one of the expansions?

I think Sev said something about it in the stream. That it takes long? But then again, his answer immediately turned into character creation update and that maybe we can see some new features for men this year. But that's clearly not the "remaster" he was talking about in earlier stream, so who knows what's up with that.

But let them take their time with this one, definitely. So when it's added it actually makes a difference - real one, and not the "take the magnifying glass" type, where it's sure cool to have for some extra detail but doesn't really change the overall impression and there is still such a masssive chasm between vanilla look and decent reshade/GPU sharpness applied but it shouldn't be like it (and then LOTRO's lightning and illumination are so bad that even reshade can't exactly make it truly better, the over-bloomed tech behind old lightning wasn't ideal and not too modern but places like Thorin's Hall look utterly shallow and unalive with the current one, the image feels just so uniform, like it has no depth)

[maartena]

I think we have to realize that the "graphics update" info came from a corporate powerpoint presentation at EG7, and that there has never really been an official announcement. Every time it was asked in +Cord of the rings, it was more or less shoved aside with "nothing to say" about that, so what is happening behind closed doors we won't know until it is ready or IF it is ever going to happen.

SSG has confirmed they are working on landscape updates (biomes), character updates, and 4k resolution...... but they never confirmed a "remaster" or something like that. I think that is something the players went with after scouring the internet for clues, but there has never been any official acknowledgment that SUCH a graphical update is actually in the works.

I'm hoping for it, but I can also see it is a massive amount of work.

There are some indications that newer engines (such as Unreal or Unity) can take old textures like for like and display them, and then they could slowly update the textures. One such example is a few enthusiasts that have done this with Everquest and there are some youtube videos with the results. So it could be that something like this IS in the works, and we aren't privy to it yet.... but I am not sure if that is in the 2023 timeframe. It could be that the only updates we'll get are limited to the engine.

Severlin did mention in the stream that it becomes difficult to update older zones graphically because they have to take into account the location of NPC's, stable rides etc..... if a new rock is even slightly bigger, an NPC could disappear or we get a new "dwayne effect" breaking stable rides and such. Not that this is not fixable, but all of that takes time and resources.

And if there is something that SSG never has enough of, it is time and resources.....

[TesalionLortus]

I think we have to realize that the "graphics update" info came from a corporate powerpoint presentation at EG7, and that there has never really been an official announcement. Every time it was asked in +Cord of the rings, it was more or less shoved aside with "nothing to say" about that

Except for the Cardolan one, when Sev specifically mentioned they're working on "LOTRO remaster" - and while it wasn't extra clear what they mean by it - he did mention "how textures display" (which something completely different than updating textures themselves, maybe he meant shaders? I mean, who knows, it was super vague, but sounded promising) or that they're specifically working on lighning upgrades. Which again, might mean something that will make a real difference, or something super super unnoticeable, like any of the upgrades that we had before. But since he called it a "remaster" it would be a bit of a stretch to assume what he meant was the usual usual. Sounds more like they really want to offer some real improvement that's noticeable.

SSG has confirmed they are working on landscape updates (biomes)

How did they worded this one? (I don't remember) Because recently, Scenario just mentioned here on the forum that they don't plan any updates for older zones at this time and that they've already done it, as far as frill and plants are concerned (which largely constitutes a "biome", I guess).

character updates, and 4k resolution...... but they never confirmed a "remaster" or something like that.

Which they did, look above. It's just kinda similar to how the boats reveal was done - mentioned in passing on the stream that they're looking into it (defo because of Umbar) but nowhere on their road map or letter :P So then you have a lot of players who just keep saying "they never said it, it'll be just small long-term updates as they go" but they clearly said it

if a new rock is even slightly bigger, an NPC could disappear or we get a new "dwayne effect" breaking stable rides and such. Not that this is not fixable, but all of that takes time and resources.

Well, that's exactly what Scenario said as well, and why they don't have plans for it. They should really just focus on upgrading textures - including retexture, not just upscale - where it really needs that. And that talk about "how their textures display" with this remaster, it might really help here if textures are good enough, just like it helps when you play with reshade shaders and extra sharper details, it makes a huge difference. IMO there are plenty of people running around in the game either without reshade (no one is blaming them though) or just very gentle tweaks, then they all talk about it that the game should update every old zone up to every wall and every rock because it's so terribly inferior, but in fact they don't have a clue what many of these older assets can still do when the details are exposed better. As in, some of the newer stuff is specifically drawn and modelled in a modern way that provides much detail from the get-go through shapes even if your game is a washed-out non-sharp picture, but the older ones can be still pretty detailed and immersive enough, if only the details were more exposed through shaders.

[WeirdJedi]

Except for the Cardolan one, when Sev specifically mentioned they're working on "LOTRO remaster" - and while it wasn't extra clear what they mean by it - he did mention "how textures display" (which something completely different than updating textures themselves, maybe he meant shaders? I mean, who knows, it was super vague, but sounded promising) or that they're specifically working on lighning upgrades. Which again, might mean something that will make a real difference, or something super super unnoticeable, like any of the upgrades that we had before. But since he called it a "remaster" it would be a bit of a stretch to assume what he meant was the usual usual. Sounds more like they really want to offer some real improvement that's noticeable.

I'm always having to correct people on this subject. Not you. Those who simply glance at news articles about the game. Because I remember listening to the Q&A when it came out. I barely remember him saying "remaster" maybe once or twice. He might have mentioned the word overhauls and how he was looking at UI, but - like how some explain it here - never really went into any sort of detail on what, when, or how much. A few months later, I started seeing people ask when all sorts of things were going to happen. They wanted to see the so-called promises that they heard through the grapevine. Only later did I realize that certain videos like from Louey or articles from Massively-Overpowered put up these buzzwords front and center in their titles. While what the journalists summarized might have been technically correct, people started to inflate the news beyond the initial announcement. A remaster can range from making some small adjustments so that they work with modern systems to a complete change - sometimes even looking worse - to the graphics. I'm still in the boat of waiting it out because graphics is not why I signed up for this game.

[TesalionLortus]

I barely remember him saying "remaster" maybe once or twice.

He might have said that once and used it merely as a buzzword, sure, I doubt it would be called something like that internally, but that phrase was specifically followed by "how our textures generate," word of a lightning upgrade and "you'll be able to see some improvements to the game" - and that sure as hell isn't "we're just updating some textures!" (so business as usual) or visual features of just player characters that the "correctors" usually bring into the discussion about this "remaster" saying that's surely all that it entails (in fact, he did mention those but separately from that talk about "remaster"). I remember that one clear as day, because it actually surprised me and sounded more positive/with possibly bigger effects than their usual work. There is of course a possibility he was blowing things out of proportions and when it comes out you can barely notice any change (whereas he said "able to notice improvements to the game" or something along those lines). But that possibility doesn't change the fact he said those things clear as day and that they were clearly different things than the "correctors" try to frame them as

I agree though regarding the articles and how out of proportion they were written, these were there way before that stream, based solely on the investor presentation

[DoRonRon]

I think we have to realize that the "graphics update" info came from a corporate powerpoint presentation at EG7, and that there has never really been an official announcement.

He did rather well out of it, if only financially.

Thanks to LinkedIn:
"Making games since I was 11 years of age I founded my first gaming startup at university. After I run EG7 a company I also co-founded with more then 850 employees globally and reaching a 1b dollar market cap I stepped down as CEO and exited. Now I spend my time investing and working on new startups."

Them listed as RoRo AB and Creative Foundation Games. Power of Two Games HB a former/ongoing project lacking upkeep of it's Domain name.

90% off the share price of co-investors' stakes and only lately rallying to a quarter of that high covered by "stepped down and exited"...

No accelerators in a store to repair that reputation.

Who is to bare the brunt in the end?

[PsychoSTINO]

Looking forward to all this !

[oldsneakers]

Where do you think he got his definition from?

Hotel Jardín Tecina web page
We all know hotels are legit sources of all things Tolkien...

https://www.jardin-tecina.com/en/blo...anary-islands/

"The privateer or corsair was a pirate but a nation authorized to carry out their robberies. In most cases, it was a particular sailor who offered his services and his boat to a monarch had to be-not necessarily of their own country and often in wartime."

[ryanlotro12]

A Look at LOTRO’s 2023


We will also be focusing on more targeted changes for classes in the first release of the New Year, with Captain and Warden getting their first updates.

.

Please include Blue Loremaster on your list. Do not delete the trait line like yellow minstrel/warden. Loremaster is the only "pet" class, and it needs a specialization that lets players focus on that aspect. Dont remove that identity from the class. The fundamentals are great, I like the coordination and interactions between the LM and pet, taking damage, dealing criticals, and buffing the team. All it needs is a health and damage buff on the pets as you scale into the upper levels. 1-50 its incredibly fun and feels strong. past that people rightfully dont use it because it just falls off and your pet is an afterthought.

[Pharone]

Crafting changes are supposed to start in the 1st quarter.

Can we please get some information on what is being changed, and when to expect it? I love crafting in MMOs, and would love to know what to expect.

Thanks,
Pharone The Gnome.