Start of the new epic quests

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

At the start of the new epic, I was surprised how quickly we jumped into Gundabad.

We meet Durin, greet Stali the Hewer, move some spears for Ingor, then we're straight to the threshold and into Gundabad.

I guess that this is because there was a desire not to have too long a lead-in time to the Gundabad landscape quest chains, however, it feels like a few things were missed out. For example:

- At the end of the Blood of Azog, Thorin III sends out a call for all dwarves across Middle Earth to join the attack on Gundabad. However, while we greet Stali the Hewer (as an example of the non-combatants promised by Thorin), there's no real acknowledgement of the other dwarves that we later start to see in the Gundabad landscape, or in the breaking ice instance. For example, I saw a dwarf of the Temair hacking at the ice in that instance - but we just run past them.

- None of Durin's chief advisors (Gloin, Nain, Hermath, Horin and Ausma) are present when Durin leads the expedition through the gates of Gundabad. This seems odd - only Ingor is there. Wouldn't the others want to be there too, given how momentous this event is? To be honest, shouldn't most of the Gabil'akka be there, given that this is the sole focus of the army at this stage, as Gorgar has been forced to retreat?

I have a suggestions which might deal with both of these issues:

- In the instance when Durin and co. break through the ice outside of Gundabad, huge numbers of dwarves should be present (roughly where Durin and co stood during the Battle of the Threshold). Some of these could be named (like Durin's chief advisors), while others could simply be present in the background (including groups from the other clans). Then a line of text added into the instance to acknowledge them would be enough to highlight that this is a major event for the Gabil'akka and would ensure greater story continuity, when after the instance, all of the dwarves seem to have already got ahead of our characters and started to explore Gundabad.

[Morgahad]

At the start of the new epic, I was surprised how quickly we jumped into Gundabad.

We meet Durin, greet Stali the Hewer, move some spears for Ingor, then we're straight to the threshold and into Gundabad.

I guess that this is because there was a desire not to have too long a lead-in time to the Gundabad landscape quest chains, however, it feels like a few things were missed out. For example:

- At the end of the Blood of Azog, Thorin III sends out a call for all dwarves across Middle Earth to join the attack on Gundabad. However, while we greet Stali the Hewer (as an example of the non-combatants promised by Thorin), there's no real acknowledgement of the other dwarves that we later start to see in the Gundabad landscape, or in the breaking ice instance. For example, I saw a dwarf of the Temair hacking at the ice in that instance - but we just run past them.

- None of Durin's chief advisors (Gloin, Nain, Hermath, Horin and Ausma) are present when Durin leads the expedition through the gates of Gundabad. This seems odd - only Ingor is there. Wouldn't the others want to be there too, given how momentous this event is? To be honest, shouldn't most of the Gabil'akka be there, given that this is the sole focus of the army at this stage, as Gorgar has been forced to retreat?

I have a suggestions which might deal with both of these issues:

- In the instance when Durin and co. break through the ice outside of Gundabad, huge numbers of dwarves should be present (roughly where Durin and co stood during the Battle of the Threshold). Some of these could be named (like Durin's chief advisors), while others could simply be present in the background (including groups from the other clans). Then a line of text added into the instance to acknowledge them would be enough to highlight that this is a major event for the Gabil'akka and would ensure greater story continuity, when after the instance, all of the dwarves seem to have already got ahead of our characters and started to explore Gundabad.

You know this is probably quick version of the quest line to allow us visit gundabad?

you prefer doin 50 hour of questing before entering gunda, on gunda preview? xDDDDDDDDDDD

[OldMadeOfLions]

In the instance when Durin and co. break through the ice outside of Gundabad, huge numbers of dwarves should be present...

It's a performance consideration -- there's so much going on in this space that having a big crowd of dwarves here would really tank performance. There will be other big crowds elsewhere (as there are earlier in LoD itself), but in front of Gundabad itself we need to keep things leaner. There was also a desire (as you've noted) not to stretch out the beginning of Chapter 5. I suspect what's there will already feel too long for certain players: "you're making me carry luggage?" -- but it's intentionally pretty quick.

MoL

[LagunaD2]

There needs to be a dialog option to put the fat, stinky dorf who disrespects us in his place.

This could used - Halros style - to create an exciting alternative branch of the story in which dorf NPCs and players are attackable throughout Gundabad.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

It's a performance consideration -- there's so much going on in this space that having a big crowd of dwarves here would really tank performance. There will be other big crowds elsewhere (as there are earlier in LoD itself), but in front of Gundabad itself we need to keep things leaner. There was also a desire (as you've noted) not to stretch out the beginning of Chapter 5. I suspect what's there will already feel too long for certain players: "you're making me carry luggage?" -- but it's intentionally pretty quick.

MoL

That’s fair enough - and it was the crowd from the Anvil instance that I was thinking of in particular, which I felt really set the scene. I’d personally take the performance gif to build that atmosphere, but I know that others wouldn’t be as enthusiastic. I also get the point that people want to get inside Gundabad swiftly, although for me that has never really been the primary consideration (as epic as Gundabad looks!)

Given that we’ve only seen up to Chapter 2 so far, I’m sure that this will be addressed later on in the story in some capacity.

Thanks for the response!

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

You know this is probably quick version of the quest line to allow us visit gundabad?

you prefer doin 50 hour of questing before entering gunda, on gunda preview? xDDDDDDDDDDD

As MoL has said, this is the real version, rather than just a preview version. I hardly think adding in another quest or two would constitute 50 hours of questing - this was more of a story continuity point.