LOTRO Players News Episode 162: Pineleaf Skirmish Consulting

3 comments

1. 

   Tirian / August 9, 2016

   It was great to hear Cordovan on this (and I’m very glad Andang pushed for information as to when we’ll next hear from an Exec Producer), but the interview was made far more awkward than it needed to be for two reasons:

   1) Pineleaf’s refusal to talk about anything that’s not related to skirmishes

   2) The ego trip for Pineleaf that is ‘Questions in the Dark’. To his credit, Cordovan got involved with it, but considering the fact that you had the community manager at your disposal, it seems rather a waste for him to be put into the background by a guy who’s more concerned with showing off than hosting the show properly.

   It also felt rather like that no one had gone particularly prepared for this podcast – while Andang had a couple of decent questions, and Teriadwyn had a bit of a question about balance (Beornings are massively overpowered in the Moors, but significantly underpowered elsewhere), there are still some big questions, which the community have been asking for a while, and I felt it was a bit of a missed opportunity to put them to Cordovan while he was at your disposal.

   Some questions that it would have been good to have had answers to (or at least to know that Cordovan had written them down to ask the team):

   1) What’s happening with class balance, and are the developers aware of overpowered PvE classes (such as the fire RK), and underpowered PvE classes (hunters and burgs)?

   2) You nearly touched on it, but its not just skirms which don’t have improved gear – BBs also haven’t had their gear updated, nor have they been scaled (and as all other instances have been scaled, I wonder why this is)?

   3) Relating to multiple forum posts about the Summer Festival – why are the rewards for it so paltry in comparison to other festivals?

   4) Level 105 crafting – where is it?

   I’ve just picked these questions up from briefly browsing the ‘new posts’ section of the LOTRO forums – but there are so many more that could have been asked, yet weren’t. Cordovan may not have been able to answer many of them, but as representatives of the community, I’d hope you’d attempt to ask questions that are important to the community (in place of questions about a new hobby, or skirmishes).

   That said, it was refreshing to hear the community manager getting properly involved with the community, and I feel that LOTRO Players is a great way for him to do it – I just wish it had been conducted in a different manner.

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     Vincent Clark / August 11, 2016

     @Tirian, good post and I agree completely. Asking whether or not we are getting a new hobby–9 years into the game–seems silly. Yes, it would be nice…but come on. This game has bigger issues—and bigger questions that needed to be asked–than the lack of another hobby.

     The only issue I disagree with you on is the “Epic” Battles. I’m glad they were not scaled (and I believe it was done to signal they are moving on from that sort of content). I’ll die content knowing I will never have to do another one. Side note: If you are a level 105 player doing the level 100 epic battles, the gear that drops for you will be level 105–just FYI.

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       Tirian / August 12, 2016

       Yeah, I’m not the biggest fan of Epic Battles either – but I have two issues with them not being scaled. Most importantly, from my perspective, a character that I’m running is a completionist, and that means doing absolutely everything (including ticking off all BB side quests at Platinum), so my issue with EBs not being scaled is that people are less inclined to run them (and as such I need to beg kinnies for assistance with ticking off my list :P) On the other hand, not scaling stuff (like skirmish drops/scaling instances, for instance), makes Turbine look a little unprofessional and under-resourced, particularly when these systems were meant to be essentially self-maintaining.

       That said, it’s good to note that 105 gear drops if you run EBs at cap, and I’d be very happy to never see a new EB again!