Stories of development through this game

[Armorin]

Stories of development through this game. It is in the title.
The world of Lotro is so big. I did every quest where I could. I would level up and go back to those quests I could not do. I hated group play, because I would level up to fast to enjoy the world of Lotro. I wanted to explore the massive world of lotro.
My main was a guard. Back in those days, when the game was mature, I got legendary skills that meant nothing to me. Loved the one I got on the champ. But what is threat generation when you can slash people to death. If you are solo, you get all the threat anyway.
I stopped playing for a while when I hit the L40-L50 bracket. Too much running around middle earth to progress. I then returned, and once past that hurdle, the game was very linear. I pushed on to get to level cap, and the only alt that followed was the one that could gather resources that the main could not.
I am now level cap with 3 alts who have got there. The grind is so big that it puts me off leveling up alts. I might level up a healer, and then a support. But my time is spent grinding out on L100 characters. If the level cap was still L50, I would probably have a set of 10 that I would not have the experience to use.
I love this game. I wanted to explore every nut and cranny. I did so. But I don't want to have to do it again with every alt.
Once I hit level cap, I was flamed. I had no idea how to play my class in a group setting. I persevered. I am not the best at my class now, but I have learned to get better. I can provide a role in a group setting, even if I am not the best.
I wonder what other peoples experience through this world has brought about.

[Gretstest]

I wonder what other peoples experience through this world has brought about.

Good one. Lets see

I remember they added legendary items, made it a huge grind and nearly 99% of all dropable non legendary weapons useless.

What else... Oh yes, they also stopped making new raids, instead of giving us a big raid like Rift we get a single map with some waves of adds and one or MAYBE two bosses! amazing. Filikul master race.

Oh oh and all exploits! and broken pvmp.

I would say - Anger, Hate, Lots of hate.

I wish the game dies soon

[YamydeAragon]

Apart to talk about that things that you lived on your alt at random, what is the theme of the thread? You let it so open that i could ramble about anything i did in game & that will certainly be my experience.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Stories of development through this game. It is in the title.

I have a lot. What would you like to know?

MoL

[Gandolf_TheOld]

I have a lot. What would you like to know?

MoL

All of them.

[Arbor]

All of them.

C'mon, give us something more specific. We all have stories to tell.

Granted, I work in QA so my stories will be different from the developers.

[robbie1435]

I have a lot. What would you like to know?

MoL

My list of Stories?

The creation of Carn Dum
The Original Quest Line for The Four Riders(Rohan) which was chopped.
Developed ideas that never made it
Developed ideas that made it to beta, but received negative feedback.

Share your knowledge! Open your Palantir to us, MOL!

[Hurin]

Anything from The Silmarillion or the Elder Days that you would have liked to have included or referenced that you had to leave out due to licensing issues (if it's okay to mention them here out-of-game)?

[robbie1435]

Anything from The Silmarillion or the Elder Days that you would have liked to have included or referenced that you had to leave out due to licensing issues (if it's okay to mention them here out-of-game)?

OOH! How about stuff from the Silmarillion that was subtly hinted at that we may have missed. An odd structure that we can see in the distance, anything? :P

[Jewl_of_the_lake]

What happened to our Elven friend Corudan? Last we saw of him he was scouting before the battle of Helms Deep, now we are outside of Minas Trinth and I am quite concerned about him? Did he die or did he just high tail it back to Lothlorien? And please no information is needed about the love birds we left behind.

[Snowlock]

What happened to the Tower Hills? It was in MEO but not LOTRO.

[OldMadeOfLions]

The creation of Carn Dum...

That there was a city called Carn Dûm from which evil men came is one of the few things we know about Angmar, so it was a very easy place to make the centerpiece dungeon in Shadows of Angmar. Our goal at the time was to make it the most challenging dungeon in the game, and in 2007-speak that included making it very, very long. Carn Dûm runs could upwards of four or five hours. We would run internal playtests of it (and its sister-dungeon, Urugarth) in the afternoons, and even then it could take a lot more time than it really should have. I usually played Guardian or Champion during these runs, and they're still my two favorite classes.

Since Carn Dûm and Urugarth were the main endgame dungeons, their bosses would drop the class-specific items you'd need for your primary class quests: Putrid Slime of Helchgam, etc. ... with a 5% drop rate. Eventually it was decided that that was too low a percentage, and the whole system underwent some pretty significant changes. There's something to be said for incredibly long dungeon runs, but the industry as a whole seems to have moved away from it. Still, I'm glad that Carn Dûm came into the world that way.

MoL

[Aelir]

I have a lot. What would you like to know?

MoL

I have been hearing, very vaguely, about "other" moon-doors scattered throughout Moria... This was cut before the launch of MoM and never saw the light of day (or.. darkness of Khazad-Dum), perhaps making it an off-limits subject for discussion, but if this isn't classified information, I'd love to hear more about the original backstory (from lore perspective) that was intended for this. It's a fascinating concept, these obscure portals into -- elsewhere.

[robbie1435]

Carn Dûm runs could upwards of four or five hours.L

They still can if you're like me... I get lost all the time in there!

I'd also like to know about the Tower Hills

[Rinyari]

What happened to the Tower Hills? It was in MEO but not LOTRO.

Seconded, this would be very interesting to hear about.

Also, are there any future plans concering this region?

[OldMadeOfLions]

What happened to the Tower Hills? It was in MEO but not LOTRO.

I arrived on the scene after MEO was already gone, so I only know bits and pieces about it. NobOrBob told me about the script he ran that systematically went through the world and erased everything from the earliest days, which gave rise to the very interesting phenomenon of every now and again stumbling upon old ruins or relics that the script had overlooked. Of course, most of that stuff was then moved around or removed, but it always delighted me how Middle-earthy that was.

On my first day, I was given a CD that let me connect to the server and play the original version of Archet (out of probably seven or eight main versions, as it turns out!).

MoL

[Riordan_HG]

@MoL

Were there ever discussions about switching the Graphic Engine? Any office Brawls?

[Arbor]

My list of Stories?

The Original Quest Line for The Four Riders(Rohan) which was chopped.

As far as I can recall, The Riders Four was a marketing questline that Berephon developed. I tested both arcs (the fully developed East Rohan section and the half developed West Rohan section) and it was intended to have a complete ending but unfortunately Berephon left the company before that happened and there wasn't enough time to finish it off. There was supposed to be a couple of instances in the latter half, including the death of Leofdag, but it wasn't to be. Luckily, you can see them at the end phase of Helm's Deep and Pinion added a little color text so there's a little bit of closure.

[robbie1435]

As far as I can recall, The Riders Four was a marketing questline that Berephon developed. I tested both arcs (the fully developed East Rohan section and the half developed West Rohan section) and it was intended to have a complete ending but unfortunately Berephon left the company before that happened and there wasn't enough time to finish it off. There was supposed to be a couple of instances in the latter half, including the death of Leofdag, but it wasn't to be. Luckily, you can see them at the end phase of Helm's Deep and Pinion added a little color text so there's a little bit of closure.

Can you elaborate a little more on the parts of the story that we missed?

[Trobon]

For the map hooks in the old world content (South Farthing, Grey Havens), were those put there with the original intention to add those places to the game or were they always there for decoration of the map? They always felt out of place compared to all the other maps and I'm curious what the intention was.

[one_ring12]

I love the Grey Company Storyline in Enedwaith and Dunland + Isengard!
And the Mirkwood Epic!
And the Amarthiel story!

Any tales to tell?

p.s. how did chicken play come into being?

[one_ring12]

For the map hooks in the old world content (South Farthing, Grey Havens), were those put there with the original intention to add those places to the game or were they always there for decoration of the map? They always felt out of place compared to all the other maps and I'm curious what the intention was.

Definetly seconded!

[OldMadeOfLions]

I have been hearing, very vaguely, about "other" moon-doors scattered throughout Moria... This was cut before the launch of MoM and never saw the light of day...

I'm still a little disappointed that the dwarf-doors didn't make it into the game. The original pie-in-the-sky concept for these was that they would spawn like rare monsters do, and only be available for a limited time. Each one would need a special requirement in order to open: like an emote, or a quest object, or my favorite, which would have been expensive on a tech level: typing in a password. Behind each door would be a randomly stitched-together dungeon.

This ended up being too ambitious, and it never really got off the page. There was a second attempt at dwarf-doors, which became the doors that you needed the special lamps to open, but that was more of a quest arc and less of a gameplay system.

MoL

[Arbor]

Can you elaborate a little more on the parts of the story that we missed?

I wish I could tell you but the instances were never implemented. I just knew Leofdag was supposed to die and what you see in Helm's Deep is the intended end result but unless another developer knows more, I can't say what specifically happens in each instance. I thought there was a document floating around that details the arc but there isn't.

[kickman77]

I have some questions for this thread and hopefully they get answered... and Frelorn can we get this made into an official QA thread maybe (eventually stickied or something because so far its interesting)

1. Are there / were there any plans to do Northern Mirkwood and or Erebor (full Erebor quest zone.. I want to visit Lake Town)
2. If / When we do visit the Morgul Vale... Will we get to go into Minas Morgul
3. What was the influence for Thorog and the Helegrod raids?
4. The Draigoch Raid, to me personally, has one of the best voiced monologs in the game. Are there any plans to go back and redo some voiceovers or do more along those lines (especially after who the baddie was revealed to be at the end of the last chapter)?
5. Who decided to make Sara Oakheart SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW? Can we flog them for it?
6. Why was the area between the Shire and Ered Luin left out of the game? Will it ever make it in?
7. MadeofLions do you ever get writers block and how do you overcome it (because honestly, I would buy the 3 volumes you have written if ever published)
8. Is there anything anyone has put into the game to represent themselves... Like a signiture on a wall or something of that nature?
9. MadeofLions what are / were your favorite parts to write, and see people comment on with the epic story? Have we reached it yet?
10. Any Easter Eggs you can drop hints on that have not been discovered

Thanks for your time. Hope some of these get answered.