Book 13 Dev Diary Feedback: Better Together

[fraxcat]

Whoops! My bad.

The images should be fixed now into something more user-friendly.

PNG's are plenty user-friendly, if people would stop using lame browsers. :|

[DangerDan]

I don't understand why it costs a ration to summon someone... makes no sense when you aren't the one travelling.

And then it only takes one ration to get there? Seems too convienient compared to hunter's campsite skill costing 3 and capt summon costing 5. I understand they are different skills with different uses, but I think some sense of equality would be better here. To me, it would be fairer if it just cost 3 rations for the summonee.

One reason why we wanted a cost on the summoner's side was to discourage summoning bots. However, we didn't want the summoner to have to pay the full cost, so we put part of it on the summoned player, too.

It does cost less than either the Hunter or Captain abilities, but it also has some significant limitations. It can only be used from Mustering Horns and only once every 30 minutes on a target--the Captain's ability is much more flexible in both location and frequency. It cannot be used until someone from the fellowship is there already, making it much less useful than the Hunter's ability which can be used to get everyone to the campsite before an instance run as well as getting everyone back to the campsite when you are done.

Its always possible that we'll see something in how its used that suggests it should cost different amounts, but for the time being we're giving this structure a try. Perhaps it should be 1 for the summoner and 2 for the summonee to equal the Hunter's cost? Or 2+3 to equal the 5 needed for the Captains ability? It is unlikely that we would remove the cost from one side or the other, but there could be changes to the cost down the road.

[Miri]

Ohh I'm really liking how things are looking for the Quest UI! Now I don't have to keep asking "How many more bore tusks!" *cheer!*

[DangerDan]

I'll try and address a few comments such as those from Druc, Airworthy, Kentelyoo, a99Barnsey, Forjo, and others.

We fully intend to add more to this feature in the future, including (but not limited to):
* Allowing you to flag more than one quest
* Allowing you to indicate things other than quests, e.g. Instances
* Upgrading the "Fellowing" tab of the Social Panel significantly

We had all these goodies for the quest log, fellowship invites, and with mustering horns that we wanted to get that out there and see the reactions. More is coming!

[Kentelyoo]

I'll try and address a few comments such as those from Druc, Airworthy, Kentelyoo, a99Barnsey, and others.

We fully intend to add more to this feature in the future, including (but not limited to):
* Allowing you to flag more than one quest
* Allowing you to indicate things other than quests, e.g. Instances
* Upgrading the "Fellowing" tab of the Social Panel significantly

We had all these goodies for the quest log, fellowship invites, and with mustering horns that we wanted to get that out there and see the reactions. More is coming!

Thanks a lot for the answer. I'm a happy Turbine customer (and Lifetime LOTRO member).

[Strongbow]

It does cost more than either the Hunter or Captain abilities, but it also has some significant limitations.

You mean it costs less. 1 ration to each person involved.

Hunter port costs the hunter 3 rations for each port (whether 1 or 6 people). Captain summons costs 5 to each transportee (25 rations expended for a full group).

Its always possible that we'll see something in how its used that suggests it should cost different amounts, but for the time being we're giving this structure a try. Perhaps it should be 1 for the summoner and 2 for the summonee to equal the Hunter's cost? Or 2+3 to equal the 5 needed for the Captains ability? It is unlikely that we would remove the cost from one side or the other, but there could be changes to the cost down the road.

Split the difference....2 rations on each side. It will still be nice alternative cost-wise.

[Deyjarl]

All I can say is Wow. You put a lot of thought and effort into this. It looks like a great improvement.

[Deyjarl]

I'll try and address a few comments such as those from Druc, Airworthy, Kentelyoo, a99Barnsey, and others.

We fully intend to add more to this feature in the future, including (but not limited to):
* Allowing you to flag more than one quest
* Allowing you to indicate things other than quests, e.g. Instances
* Upgrading the "Fellowing" tab of the Social Panel significantly

We had all these goodies for the quest log, fellowship invites, and with mustering horns that we wanted to get that out there and see the reactions. More is coming!

Don't suppose a Kinship variation of this could be made? This would help some of the larger kinships in organizing or helping each other out.

[auximenes]

Good work Devs. I am looking forward to not having to deal with all of the fellowship quest-status issues that always crop up. This looks like a winner.

[Lupini]

Being an up and coming captain I'm not sure I like the idea of the Mustering Horn. But...whatevah.

I don't see it as a problem. There have been plenty of times when we've wished someone could get *me* somewhere as easily as I can summon folks. Captains are still going to be valued to summon replacements, late arrivals, the defeated fellow that had to release, etc. Plus, there are several areas that this would help folks *under* the levels where captains have summoning skills, and the poor higher level groups that don't have a captain in their group.

[Saxzon]

You really got me cracking up on this line

What could be nobler than a feature that helps to bring people together... to kill things and take their stuff?

How noble...

Now I feel totally EVIL...

[syrvile]

There have been plenty of times when we've wished someone could get *me* somewhere as easily as I can summon folks.

yep, i routinely wish for a captain reverse summon.

[bigo2mags]

I have a question: Now let's say I'm at a summoning horn and I want to summon my entire fellowship. Is that going to cost me 1 traveling ration total, or 1 ration per person? Additionally, do the level requirements fall in a specified range, or is this simply a level minimum that you must meet?


Overall, I'm very excited by this news and I think I'm more anxious to see the new quest/fellowship features implemented than I am to see the new area! Bah, who am I fooling I can't wait to explore!

[Merciful_Death]

OMG!!!!
This is so... so happy!
The one feature that TRULY excited me was the ability to share an earlier step in a chain of quests. No longer do we have to wrack our brains to try to remember where or from whom we got the first quest of the chain, if we can remember what it was!

This set of features makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

[Merciful_Death]

I have a question: Now let's say I'm at a summoning horn and I want to summon my entire fellowship. Is that going to cost me 1 traveling ration total, or 1 ration per person? Additionally, do the level requirements fall in a specified range, or is this simply a level minimum that you must meet?


Overall, I'm very excited by this news and I think I'm more anxious to see the new quest/fellowship features implemented than I am to see the new area! Bah, who am I fooling I can't wait to explore!

I think it will be one ration per person, per summon. but either way, it is a good idea to just keep a stack or travel rations on you at all times.

[DangerDan]

You mean it costs less. 1 ration to each person involved.

Ah, yes. Clearly, I was following the maxim that "Less is More"... er, yeah. I've corrected my post.

[dynamiteming]

All of these additions look great! It will hopefully take the pain out of having to spam the LFF channel every 2 minutes trying to complete a fellowship quest.

One question: Will repeatable quests finally be sharable? It's such a bummer when you raid a keep and then find out you forgot to grab the quest beforehand.

[DangerDan]

I have a question: Now let's say I'm at a summoning horn and I want to summon my entire fellowship. Is that going to cost me 1 traveling ration total, or 1 ration per person? Additionally, do the level requirements fall in a specified range, or is this simply a level minimum that you must meet?

To summon an entire fellowship will cost 5 rations on the part of one or more summoners and 5 rations distributed across all summoned. There's nothing that prevents the person who was just summoned from summoning the next fellowship member, which can distribute the ration cost. Or, you can just give the fellowship's single summoner some coin or rations after the fact.

[bigo2mags]

To summon an entire fellowship will cost 5 rations on the part of one or more summoners and 5 rations distributed across all summoned. There's nothing that prevents the person who was just summoned from summoning the next fellowship member, which can distribute the ration cost. Or, you can just give the fellowship's single summoner some coin or rations after the fact.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Any idea about the level requirements? Sorry to be a bother!

[DarthKeryx]

Wow.

I think the Devs deserve credit for recognizing that the funnest part (arguably) of LOTRO - fellowing - can also be one of the hardest. I have been shocked at how hard it is to find people for most group quests. And at level 50? Forget it. And yet that is precisely when you have almost nothing except difficult group quests. (How much can/does one solo at level 50?)

(And the whole "well you could join us but you're 1-2 quests behind on the chain" or "well I would join you but I'm 1-2 quests behind on the chain" problem will not go away but become much easier to work with.)

Last night we just stood around a campfire playing music spamming LFF and hoping to get enough people for Tomb of Elendil and/or Hewing the Wood. After about 20 minutes we had to give up and log.

Kudos to the Devs for addressing this in concrete ways. I look forward to trying it out. Thank you!

[Nefarioux]

Kinships...


Please tell me you guys have introduced a NEW RANK .. a new 1st Officer rank or Manager rank... please tell me this.. there was talk of this in your pre book13 Questions and Answers..

I so need this for my guilds to work on 5 servers


PLEASE

[Tyveil]

This is all really fantastic stuff, awesome job devs!!
My only concern is that this lessens the need to have and work with kin-mates (since this update works for PUG's as well).. not really a bad thing.. I just hope more support for kins and alliances are coming soon. Something like the option to use this feature (LFF) just for kin to see rather than globally.

[Zero_Out]

Last night we just stood around a campfire playing music spamming LFF and hoping to get enough people for Tomb of Elendil and/or Hewing the Wood. After about 20 minutes we had to give up and log.

Not to derail the thread, but I have to make this comment. The problems you were having with Elendil had nothing to do with a difficulty finding people. It's the quest that's the problem. Tomb of Elendil, as well as all of GA, have a reputation for being nasty quests with little or no reward. They're just not worth the trouble. I see your point though. Finding fellowships for quests is generally difficult, regardless of the cause.

[ararax2]

I think DarthKeryx hit it on the head, at lv 50, you need heavy fellow quests.
GT,BG,CD,URU,RIFT,HEL, 3 annuminas,

[Talesin7]

I love the changes and I look forward to trying it out.

Now to the 2nd part of making groups at lvl 50 easier to get together... we need a BIGGER friends list! I constantly having to be removing and adding new people to it so I know when my friends are online (and hopefully) available for this or that instance.