Today Turbine released 40 questions having to do with almost every part of the Helm’s Deep expansion. While there was a lot of information that we already knew, there were a few important things.
Q1: DanteIL: How will loot/rewards be handled in the context of the Epic Battles? Will there be token drops with a barter system, or specific gear drops for the different-sized Battles?
A1: jwbarry: The overall system keeps track, separately for each quality of medal (bronze, silver, gold, platinum), how many medals you’ve earned, with bonuses being added for earning them in group spaces, earning them on the main objective, and earning them for the first time. Each of those is represented by a bar within the Battle for Helm’s Deep UI. When a bar fills, based on your selection, you will either get a class specific piece of set piece jewelry (of quality relating to the medal quality), or you will get some points towards filling the next quality bar (we refer to that option internally as turning pennies into dollars). The exception to this is Gold to Platinum, where upconverting is not allowed. Platinum rewards must be earned from completing objectives at platinum.
This seems like a logical way to run rewards. The better you do, the better stuff you can get.
Q4: Bedalin: Will future expansions and updates have more Big Battles or will we see more traditional Raids?
A4: jwbarry: Likely both. The type of story we’re telling and the location we’re telling it will greatly inform whether instances, raids, skirmishes, big battles, or some combination is the best gameplay mechanism to utilize.
Assuming the new system is a good one, seeing more of the Epic Battles is a good thing. It is also good to know what typical raid content, instances and skirmishes will still be used and it is the story that dictates content.
Q5: Thodorin: How many Big Battle instances will there be at Helm’s Deep launch? How many of each group size?
A5: jwbarry: 8 total instances. Helm’s Dike, The Deeping Wall, The Deeping-Coomb, The Glittering Caves, and the Hornburg all available on solo/duo (tuned for one player but allowing two in). The Glittering Caves will feature a three player size, Helm’s Dike a six player, and The Deeping Wall a twelve player.
While I am glad they are building each group size from the ground up, it does limit the number of Epic Battle instances they can have. I really wish we had more than one raid level battle. I hope that, if this system is well received, Turbine will decide to create several more group sizes for each of the battles.
Q6: Bulldozar: Can you explain exactly how the scaled up lower level players will interact in HD?
A6: jwbarry: They’ll be brought up to level 95 in stats. Their gear will also be brought up, with level differential maintained. From there, they are free to engage in combat or utilize any of the mechanics within. They will likely be better at support style roles, but nothing prevents them from stepping out onto the front line. The Promotions advancement system is level agnostic, so they’re free to rank up and get better at the various roles as they improve and level.
It is good to know that the gear will also be scaled with the player. That should make the lower levels much more viable in the battles. It is also good to know that they can rank up and go right to the front line.
Q9: Mirlaen: What was the primary motivation behind the move to the tree system for traits?
A9: HoarseDev: Oh boy! Primary? A lot of things fed into the decision. Reduction of skill bloat, issues with potency of skills, clarity of UI and choices, homogenous class roles… all these things played a role in the decision.
It is good to hear it from the hoarse’s mouth that there are a lot of reasons for the change and it is not just something they wanted to do without a plan.
Q12: LethalLethality: Will landscape mob behavior change to better suit the class changes or will they remain as they are?
A12: Hoarsedev: Nope. Landscape mobs remain the same as they’ve been.
I hope that classes are about the same as they were before in terms of difficulty at various levels. Right now there is a huge spike in difficulty at level 38-45 for many classes. Making major changes to all the classes could cause there to be other level ranges that also become harder than the devs intended. Lets hope that this doesn’t happen.
Q15: Mirnir: What was the rationale behind the changes to the threat system / in what ways will it improve the game?
A15: HoarseDev: Our threat system as it exists on live pre u12 is largely invisible to players and if you saw under the hood you would likely not be pleased. Rather than expose it, and seeing as we were making fundamental changes to how character builds function, we decided to simplify it. Choosing a tank specialization will give you a tangible amount of threat. We will still have forced taunts, but whether or not something multiplies your damage (which differs from character to character) times a strange number modified by another strange number will be irrelevant.
Some players have a hard time getting their head around the threat system in LOTRO so it could be good to make it simpler as long as it retains its depth.
Q22: Revannos: Is a big reshuffle of the monster classes expected?
A22: HoarseDev: We have added in a second row of corruption slots. Furthermore, some corruptions will have set bonuses when slotted with other related corruptions. Slot three for a small bonus. Slot six to really specialize your build.
I am really glad Turbine is looking at Creep side again. We needed a major boost after update 11 and so it is good to see changes come.
Q25: Minimur: Will there be any crafting resource instances in HD like there are in Hytbolt?
A25:Ayvan: Not for the expansion release, but we do have 3 resource instances planned for a following update.
While I don’t craft personally, I know for some players the instances are a big deal. It is good to know that these are on the way.
Q35: Witch0King: Will the epics in this expansion finally end Volume III?
A35: MadeOfLions: Not just yet. After the three Books of this expansion, I think Volume III will have one more Epic Book before Allies of the King concludes.
What is Turbine up to? After the events in Wildermore and what I saw at the Epic Story press conference, I am really hoping for a great ending to this story line. We have a great plot going so far and, in my opinion, if Turbine ends this volume right it could be better than Volume 1!
Please give us ent play. Please give us ent play! PLEASE GIVE US ENT PLAY!
I do have to ask though, will players get the last book of Volume 3 for free? If they do get it for free, will they want to do the last book after missing the previous three?
I think those are important questions and so I hope the last book is free but we will have to wait and see.
What do you think of the 40 questions?
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Q4: Bedalin: Will future expansions and updates have more Big Battles or will we see more traditional Raids?
A4: jwbarry: Likely both. The type of story we’re telling and the location we’re telling it will greatly inform whether instances, raids, skirmishes, big battles, or some combination is the best gameplay mechanism to utilize.
This answer seems to have changed, or I didn’t interpret the answer correctly the first time (entirely possible considering the vagueness of some of the recent information). I thought I’d heard someone say that Epic Battles would be the end-game content going forward, but perhaps that was just in the context of this expansion. Good to know that they’re not closing the door on traditional raids completely.
No they have never said they were wanting to have Epic Battles be the solution to the problem. It has always been a thing for this expansion. The fact is that there are not enough battles large enough in the lore to have a series of these each expansion. The story keeps them from doing that. I am really glad that is the case. I love skirmishes and raids and don’t want to see them go even if Epic Battles are better.
OK, I’m starting to get more excited. Hope my PC can handle all the epicness!