Things to look forward to in the Update!

[LordRingz]

With so much gloom 'n doom on the forum over some of the more controversial aspects of the Update (F2P, "convenience vs. advantage", etc), I thought it might be nice to have a thread where people talk about what they're looking forward to in the Update. Let's keep the complaints and conspiracy theories elsewhere, please, plenty of room for those in other threads.

Here's my list:

1. LUA Plugins. There is an excellent series of posts by Gedachtnis here with an overview of some of the currently available plugins and their usage. I've played around with some of these in Beta, and they are very useful, and voluntary, so you don't have to use them unless you want to. Hopefully, as the API expands, this will always be the case.

2. New Zone. What's not to like about new lands/monsters/quests/etc? I haven't seen it myself (been leveling a lowbie), but I'm looking forward to exploring it with my live characters.

3. New Horses. 'Nuff said.

4. DirectX 11. I don't have a capable video card myself, but it's good to see that Turbine is keeping up with developments in video technology. If you're not evolving, you're moving backwards.

5. Scalable Classic Instances. So full of Win.

6. (Removed)

7. Wardrobe. I am so looking forward to freeing up Vault space from having multiple color-dyed outfits on different characters.

8. Trash loot "compaction". Less varieties of trash loot, and bigger stacks.

9. Slayer Deed speedup Store Items. With 9 characters, Slayer Deeds are the bane of my existence. REALLY looking forward to these.

What are looking forward to?

[Schreik]

I'd say that your list sums up most of the things that I think will be good with the exception of #6. I absolutely do not like the idea of layered instances and breaking the world up.

I'll deal with a bit of lag to see more people around and feel more like the area is alive with activity. This is one of the biggest things I HATED about Age of Conan. I just hope they use it here in LOTRO much more sparingly and ONLY as a way to mitigate poor server performance for areas that are jam packed with players.

If I end up switching layers a lot, or can't see my friends when we're standing in the exact same place I'll probably rage quit for that session.

[Overtone]

I'm looking forward to the changes in the Moors. Based on the love that Captains, Guards, Champs and LMs got Freepside, we should see more melee out in the zone which means more gritty fights and less pew pew fests.

The removal of CJs is huge and very welcome. Less fights while grey-barred is good for all. I expect that the action in the Moors will be the best it's been since SoA Book 12.

[zavxav]

1. 2 new Hunter skills and an upgrade to blidnslide.

2. 2 broekn class lines in captain fix.

3. The second ages I miss on my toons.

4. A lot more people to enjoy the starter areas.

That, and some of the stuff you say

[Carmmond]

I'm looking forward to getting to know my kin again With all the time in beta I have not seen much of them.

[Yanics_girl]

Probably small potatoes, but I am really looking forward to starting a new character in the revamped tutorial and intro area. I rolled a Guard in the beta, and had a great time with it. The new wardrobe system is something I'm looking forward to playing with, I haven't had a chance to do that yet as I have a F2P account in the beta and no points left to spend.
And please don't pounce on me, but I am really looking forward to all the new goodies in the Lotro store!

[Jilla]

Pretty much most of the stuff listed is great stuff and I am looking forward to most of it... at least the stuff I know about and such.

But honestly, the thing I am most excited about is the idea that there will be new people in the game. I see F2P as the "free trial" on steroids that will draw in more subscribers after they get hooked like the rest of us . Hehe, it's probably the main reason I've been lurking on the new player threads lately .

[sir-rinthian]

6. Layered Instances. Bye-bye, 21st Hall lag-fest.

Not likely...


From what I've heard, it's only when there are more people than the social panel can display at once that it will start layering. That means you can still have 150-200 people in the 21st hall bogging it down...


Of course, they might create smaller layers for smaller-yet-just-as-crowded areas like the 21st, but the above is how it works in spots like Bree and Thorins hall.

[MysterX]

Aren't they making it so you can start critting on crafting recipes once you have the yellow bar (proficiency) rather than the yellow anvil (mastery)?

[Fionnuala]

Not likely...


From what I've heard, it's only when there are more people than the social panel can display at once that it will start layering. That means you can still have 150-200 people in the 21st hall bogging it down...


Of course, they might create smaller layers for smaller-yet-just-as-crowded areas like the 21st, but the above is how it works in spots like Bree and Thorins hall.

Wait... so does that mean epic events like Weatherstock can never happen again?

[sir-rinthian]

Wait... so does that mean epic events like Weatherstock can never happen again?

Nope, the devs have said they'll be able to turn off the layering for events like that.

Also, you can drag people from one layer to another via fellowships.


1 person in the layer you want everyone to be in starts the fellowship and invites people from the other layers, then they sort of teleport to the fellowship leader's layer.

Aren't they making it so you can start critting on crafting recipes once you have the yellow bar (proficiency) rather than the yellow anvil (mastery)?

That is correct.

[willwheels]

Wait... so does that mean epic events like Weatherstock can never happen again?

Nope, the devs have said they'll be able to turn off the layering for events like that.

Also, you can drag people from one layer to another via fellowships.

Dynamic layers are not in effect everywhere, either, only places like Bree, 21st, etc., will have dynamic layering. I have not heard that it's set to the social panel. According to the devs, it's scalable and was set to low levels (to force layers) for testing.

[sirwillow]

Good lists so far- covered most of what I would say. I would add:

More vault storage available, and not hidden behind level locks. My lvl 35 SM crafter can now have all their storage slots opened. Yay!

More shared storage available! Even better for keeping all my main crafting supplies.

I like the new vault- more so than the old one, and with a couple of tweaks more on it, I've very much looking forward to it. Once I got used to it in beta, I've found the old one so much of a pain in comparison.

Being able to buy the horse riding skill. Earning it was fun the first time, ok the second and third times, an absolute pain in the neck every time after that. Knowing I never have to do it again =

Really looking forward to the plugins and seeing how they are developed by the players. I see some very neat things coming from those.

The others that come to mind have already been mentioned.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Dynamic layers are not in effect everywhere, either, only places like Bree, 21st, etc., will have dynamic layering. I have not heard that it's set to the social panel. According to the devs, it's scalable and was set to low levels (to force layers) for testing.

When I was in the dev layer test there were close to 200 of us in my layer.

My understanding that the layer limit is adjustable. It can be turned on and off for special events. It will not be used everywhere. You can not use in the Ettenmoors because of the flippable keeps and the buff artifacts. I doubt they will layer the Forochel or Annuminas because of the control points. Forochel you could layer the portion that is not part of the four battle grounds

[Sapience]

Dynamic layers are not in effect everywhere, either, only places like Bree, 21st, etc., will have dynamic layering. I have not heard that it's set to the social panel. According to the devs, it's scalable and was set to low levels (to force layers) for testing.

Correct. This is set based on our server performance tuning and can be adjusted as needed. It is not tied to the social panel. It is not always in effect in all areas, even those we turn it on for. If the populations drop below those thresholds in that area, then there will only be one layer, if it goes above it then the number of layers will grow according to need and performance requirements. One might even say...dynamically.

[sir-rinthian]

I have not heard that it's set to the social panel. According to the devs, it's scalable and was set to low levels (to force layers) for testing.

I haven't either - its just that 150-200 is around the number of players they seem to let into a layer, and that also happens to be the number of players you can see in the social panel.


So if it says 200+, chances are you've got some layers going.

[Hesiod_LOTRO]

If you never played AoC and you think layers are a good idea, then you don't understand just how much they can ruin the immersion. This is the single worst thing they are doing in the update.

[LordRingz]

If you never played AoC and you think layers are a good idea, then you don't understand just how much they can ruin the immersion. This is the single worst thing they are doing in the update.

Hmmm. Well, I never did play AoC, and I don't see the big deal about them, other than cutting down on the lag when there are a lot of players concentrated in a small area. But I'm trying to keep this thread positive, so I'm removing that item from the list.

[Golledhel]

Dynamic layers are not in effect everywhere, either, only places like Bree, 21st, etc., will have dynamic layering. I have not heard that it's set to the social panel. According to the devs, it's scalable and was set to low levels (to force layers) for testing.

I've had the Dynamic Layer notification pop up on landscape in Enedwaith.

[sir-rinthian]

I've had the Dynamic Layer notification pop up on landscape in Enedwaith.

That would be logical though.

New area = mass stampede of people, especially if a bunch of old level capped players come back as premium accounts.

They'll probably have layering in there for the first couple weeks, so we don't end up with 50 people killing 20 half-orcs the way we did in Eregion.

Once the numbers thin out, they won't need it any more and should turn it off.

[Vysion34]

For goodness sake, Sapience just said that it will be dynamic and will layer the areas when the performance is affected. When the area isn't taking a performance hit from having too many people in a small area the layers will turn off. How does that affect 'immersion'?

People complain from all the lag when too many people are in an area, and then they complain when Turbine does something to alleviate the problem... They just can't win can they?

The majority of players probably will never notice the layering.

[MysterX]

They have layers in the DDO public areas, and it can sometimes cause confusion when you are making a group and folks don't understand the system. However, DDO makes it easy to change layers.

In Lotro you need to be in a group, and you can only seem to switch to the leader's layer.

This worries me for Chicken play in particular, since layers could affect the ability to "escort" chicken session play characters since you cannot group with them.

[Gillianrial]

Cosmetics and other fluff

That and re-experiencing the great old content of the past like Helegrod and Annuminas.

I did a little blog today on this very topic on mylotro

[BetterOffDead-2]

I've had the Dynamic Layer notification pop up on landscape in Enedwaith.

The first few days after the beta floodgates opened I was getting the layering notification, but more recently I almost never see it. It's also very likely that they had the limits artificially low for testing purposes. Overall I'm all for dynamic layering. Anything that helps server performance is good especially if there is a very large growth in population with FTP.

I'm looking forward to the new scalable Classic Instances the most. These will be a great way to break away from grinding BG or whatever the newest instance is at the time. They should also be a good way to train and prepare newer or first time Raiders for the latest Raid content.

My first alt is a Captain so I'm excited to try out the new traitline capstone!

I also plan to roll a new character for the launch to level up with and meet some new players offer help for first timers if needed.

[Darmokk]

Correct. This is set based on our server performance tuning and can be adjusted as needed. It is not tied to the social panel. It is not always in effect in all areas, even those we turn it on for. If the populations drop below those thresholds in that area, then there will only be one layer, if it goes above it then the number of layers will grow according to need and performance requirements. One might even say...dynamically.

That means if I log into the game in the morning and stand next to the Michel Delving vault man, then at some points as the server gets more populated towards the evening I will see half the people around me vanish?