Bingo Boffins and Episodic content

[TharbadThief]

I was kind of expecting a bit more .. impressive or ceremonial event happening in Maur Tulhau, than just few people gathering at a small table (of which only 1 was local). The hype was getting bigger and bigger, as that feast was advertised as a very rare event that would last for days, or even for a full week. They're hobbits - they should know better how to organize a party!

[maartena]

This is correct! 10 AM EST. There have been weeks when I've wished it was earlier so I could run through and double-check that everything was working, but I had to wait like everybody else.

MoL

Don't you have an internal test server for that kind of stuff? Most development environment have a Development server (I request you call it the Bingo Box henceforth), A Staging server (Palantir?), a Pre-Prod server (Bullroarer?) and then finally Production servers. You may have multiple staging servers to test different arcs of code to decide which one goes to Pre-Prod for public consumption.

Or am I off the mark here.... Of course I am used to application developers all around me, not game developers.

[OldMadeOfLions]

Don't you have an internal test server for that kind of stuff?

You might not know how much of a pessimist I am. I've played through all of Bingo probably dozens of times by now, and each individual quest probably an order of magnitude more than that, and Arbor's gone through the whole thing multiple times with her QA microscope... and I still don't trust that everything is going to work as it should until I've played through that week's quest on the Live server on Wednesday morning.

I'm this way about all of my content, but I usually get to stop worrying whenever an update comes out. With Bingo I get to worry anew every single week!

MoL

[KM3161]

I was kind of expecting a bit more .. impressive or ceremonial event happening in Maur Tulhau, than just few people gathering at a small table (of which only 1 was local). The hype was getting bigger and bigger, as that feast was advertised as a very rare event that would last for days, or even for a full week. They're hobbits - they should know better how to organize a party!

I felt the same way, kinda expected more of a ceremony or something to mark the occasion, rather than what is basically a few hobbits at a picnic table eating until they are sick

[KM3161]

I'm this way about all of my content, but I usually get to stop worrying whenever an update comes out. With Bingo I get to worry anew every single week!

MoL

Well there is only about 4 more weeks/quests to worry about with Bingo but the optimist in me is hoping there is another episodic questline starting up.
giving you 52 more weeks of worrying

[OldMadeOfLions]

I felt the same way, kinda expected more of a ceremony or something to mark the occasion, rather than what is basically a few hobbits at a picnic table eating until they are sick

That's kinda the joke, but I understand wanting more of a party for the Welcoming Feast.

MoL

[LeRaginAsian]

That's kinda the joke, but I understand wanting more of a party for the Welcoming Feast.

MoL

It was a nice callback to the Prancing Pony shenanigans, I thought. New Bingo's the same as the Old Bingo.

[middlediscworld]

Given the welcoming feast lasted a week (although I was a smidge behind so have only just done the latest 2 quests) I was treating it as everyone in the village came to welcome Bingo one at a time, and all with some food, hence him being a bit ill from overconsumption as he ate some of everything whereas Haley and Theodore didn't.

[Brethwyn_EU]

Haha... love the distant cousin! Saddens me to see Bingo return home so quickly, though! I really hope we'll be able to barter pets and other cosmetics and decorations on a weekly basis further on as well, as I fear this is the end of Bingo's questline.. There are so many more pets I'd like to see. And not at a horrible drop rate, like that elusive turtle from the dead marshes Please keep it up! Start another questline or something Maybe another race this time?

[Olgomil]

Haha... love the distant cousin! Saddens me to see Bingo return home so quickly, though! I really hope we'll be able to barter pets and other cosmetics and decorations on a weekly basis further on as well, as I fear this is the end of Bingo's questline.. There are so many more pets I'd like to see. And not at a horrible drop rate, like that elusive turtle from the dead marshes Please keep it up! Start another questline or something Maybe another race this time?

Announced plan for Bingo quest chain was 52 weeks (1 year) and we are now in quest number 49, very near the end.

Sergio :-)

[genseerian]

I had so hoped that Bingo would make it into Gondor and maybe hang out with Pippin in Minas Tirith for a while, but I guess not. Maybe he'll get the urge to wander again after being home for a little while...

[OldMadeOfLions]

I had so hoped that Bingo would make it into Gondor...

The earliest Bingo quests were being implemented simultaneously with Western Gondor, and I considered letting him visit, but ultimately I didn't really have a good plan for getting Bingo through the Paths of the Dead and decided Gondor would remain Bingo-free.

MoL

[Warmutkan]

The earliest Bingo quests were being implemented simultaneously with Western Gondor, and I considered letting him visit, but ultimately I didn't really have a good plan for getting Bingo through the Paths of the Dead and decided Gondor would remain Bingo-free.

MoL

As an upside, if he's in the Shire for the scouring, you've got yet another NPC to tug at people's heartstrings with.

Hoping you've still got that sadistic streak

[Gwinthilnel]

Could someone post a screenshot of the distant cousin? Curious to see what they look like before buying.

[SvetPandaren]

So Bingo episodic is coming to a close?

That's sad. Even though I had a love/hate relationship with Bingo (the hate part were hard and annoying puzzle quests), it was better having him around.

Bingo gave me a reason to log on each Wednesday. Without him I'll have less reasons to join during content gaps.

[TharbadThief]

Could someone post a screenshot of the distant cousin? Curious to see what they look like before buying.

[LeRaginAsian]

If there are plans for another Episodic Quest line (and I really hope there is), I'd like to throw out the suggestion of following a troop of dwarf merchants from Thorin's Gate to Dale and cover the areas Bingo missed.

Rough sketch: Ered Luin -> North Shire -> Tinnudir -> Forochel (failed attempt at a shortcut) -> North Downs -> Angmar -> Ettenmoors/Misty Mountains -> Lothlorien -> South Mirkwood -> North Mirkwood -> Esgaroth -> Erebor (this might just be an excuse to add a landscape version of those last four).

At any rate, this has been a really fun quest chain all around and I truly hope more are planned. They don't need to play out over an entire year to be worthwhile!

[Hendambar]

Just adding my 2 cents. I really enjoyed the Bingo quests, even the hard puzzle quests. I loved the creativity of the whole idea of his following Bilbo's desire to go on an adventure. I really hope there are more episodic content adventures coming for us to share!! Thank you so much, Made of Lions. This was a year long treat!

[Sheaezra]

Oh good grief. Looks like a character from Deliverance lol.

[TharbadThief]

Oh good grief. Looks like a character from Deliverance lol.

Do you mean that the title could be "Distant Cousin and Uncle"?

[Chodelet]

The earliest Bingo quests were being implemented simultaneously with Western Gondor, and I considered letting him visit, but ultimately I didn't really have a good plan for getting Bingo through the Paths of the Dead and decided Gondor would remain Bingo-free.

MoL

Although I'm personally not really interested in the Bingo Boffin content, I've regularly seen this thread in the past few months and I would like to point out that I think you're a real credit to Turbine.

Week after week I've noticed you engaging with the players, both fans who love what you're doing and critics complaining about what you're doing. You're professional in how you respond to fans and critics alike, and yet you're friendly at the same time. I've never gotten the sense that you're doing what you do as a PR move, you just give people insight into how you do some of the work that you do and you genuinely listen to the players who are posting in this thread. I see that this thread is over 40 pages now, and it seems clear it's because your positive and sincere engagement with the community is exactly the kind of thing that LOTRO needs more of. A big thanks for all your great work, keep it up!

[Feirlain]

Someone suggested a way to use Bert as a means of traveling between Enedwaith and Bree-land using the Royal Road after this weeks episode. https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...2-Greenway-Gap

Here's what I wrote:

"I rather like the OPs suggestion. It would be a means to use the Royal Road between Bree-land and Enedwaith which is closed to us now (but Bingo has proven we can use).

The only thing you would have to do is put an identical (rewards) Bert at either end (one in Breeland (as he is now), and one near the roadblock in Enedwaith) with the fast travel port ability to his other self.

That would be really cool. "

[Rhino-Man]

Are there new items to barter this week? I don't think there is a new Bert location anywhere.

[Catburg]

Are there new items to barter this week? I don't think there is a new Bert location anywhere.

There was a new Bert last week at Andrath so no surprise there isn't one this week. With only about 2 more weeks to go I wouldn't expect any new Berts or new items until the end now.

This isn't a spoiler, just speculation, but I imagine next week we'll be all over middle earth and the one following (final?) will be some sort of get together in the Shire maybe an engagement party?

I came to this quest line very late so I had the fun of being able to do most of it at one or two sittings but latterly I've been able to appreciate it at its intended pace. I really hope there is a means to get more tokens for bartering, even if only slowly, although it wouldn't surprise me if it went to store or MCs.

[Merkury86]

The earliest Bingo quests were being implemented simultaneously with Western Gondor, and I considered letting him visit, but ultimately I didn't really have a good plan for getting Bingo through the Paths of the Dead and decided Gondor would remain Bingo-free.

MoL

makes sense, but it would be nice to maybe see gondor with bingo, perhaps as an epilogue of sorts. compared to the dragon's lair and the reunion, the blockade seemed somewhat anticlamactic and i'd really hate for this to be the last we see of bingo (just when i started to see him as a companion as opposed to a liability). I'm sure there was plenty of treasure left after paying the library fee. Maybe it gets stolen before he gets around to donating it (exchanging hands along the way of course) and it leads us into gondor. No matter what though, I really enjoyed bingo's little excursion and would love to see some more episodic content in the future.