I watched some of “Take the hobbits to Isengard” event today. I asked Sapience “When are we going to get more information on what zones will be revamped” I was surprised when he answered my question..
“Update 13 will see a few zones revamped. A few of have been asked for by many people. You will get some more information in the 20 questions, but I’ll spill the beans since you going to read it next week. North Downs will be getting a once over”
This is wonderful news indeed! I for one hope the others are either Angmar Or Trollshaws
Which zones do you want to see revamped?
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I think revising the Trollshaws into a more straightforward 30-40 region would have been a better business decision. It contains some of the game’s most iconic locations, but is generally not a wise first purchase for new players, compared to Evendim.
However, if Turbine could split the North Downs into two regions, it could give away the first part for free, and turn the second half into a comprehensive level 30-40 region on its own. (Anyone who had previously purchased the North Downs quest pack could retain access to this second half.)
Unfortunately, I do not expect the revisions to be this extensive. I’m excited to see what’s coming, though!
I like the idea of splinting it into two regions and giving the first half free.
I doubt it will happen though.
I imagine what they’re going for is to narrow the ND level range into a 20-30 region alongside Lone-Lands, and then if/when they do Trollshaws it can be made the 30-40 alternative to Evendim.
Hoping that Sapience only mentioned ND specifically on a whim and not because it’s the one we’ll be getting soonest. I’ve wanted Trollshaws to not suck for years.
Either way I’m most curious to see what they do with the group-centric areas, either segregate them more ala the Great River or bring them down to solo/duo level like they did with Evendim.
I too would like to see Trollshaws updated and maybe the eastern half of Angmar with the completion of Vo1 1 Book 6. I usually just skip all of those quests and only go there to get the items for the lvl 45 quests.
TBH I am fairly shocked that North Downs is getting a revamp. To me it was always better laid out than many other of the ‘older’ areas. I will admit that I purchased it before lonelands became free and I have always really enjoyed it although the vast majority of the people tend to path through lonelands. There are a good bit of quests in ND and they hit a fairly wide level range as well as being a decent mix of solo and fellowship quests. I have many fond memories of us helping kinnies and other lower levels with the more difficult quests there (because it seems they are more challenging on the whole than the ones in lonelands). I would have to think that the primary reason why turbine is revamping the area is to generate more interest in it and possibly income because it is probably one of the more underutilized areas. Many players just simply pass it by.
I would definitely think Trollshaws is in the most dire need of a revamp. There isn’t even swift travel between Rivendell and it’s outposts there.
My wish list for zone revamps (aside from the confirmed ND) would be:
1) Trollshaws
2) Forochel
3) Misty Mountains
4) Angmar (mainly an instance-revamp, scale BG1/CD/Uru and rework the battle instances into skirmishes)
Please don’t put the questing on rails.
The North Downs need to be returned to what it was many years ago. Before they revamped the Lone Lands and Evendim you would take your character from the Lone Lands to the western half of the North Downs. With the current structure there is no reason to quest in the western half unless you are a completionist.
Would be nice to see some revamps on the zones. as it stands for going through them, ND, Evendim and Trollshaws (as well others) tend to be skipped by players in a breeze to get onward to Rohan. Would love to see more souls dwell in some of these zones.
I’m absolutely shocked that they’re not doing an early 40s zone (unless they’re going to turn part of North Downs into that level range). That’s the most asked about level range in game. Looks like the early 40s wall will be sticking around for the foreseeable future.
Well they are doing multiple area revamps, not just North Downs. Could one of those will address that bump in our leveling curve.
The Trollshaws so badly needs revamped and SWIFT Travel added. I’m tired of hearing about how lore is so important yet when has Lore ever been an integral part of this game besides the starting point. Aggravating your players with slow grindy regions is never smart business sense for an MMO. When players have smoother options to choose they will select the easier path. It’s natural. That only leaves completionists. Honestly and furthermore why isn’t swift travel added for every town in the game? Seriously? Whenever you slow travel it’s boring period. Yes cute the first time or two but what’s the point afterwards? It’s just needless aggravation. A whole nother problem is lack of vaults in earlier regions. In later regions they packed in lots of swift travel and vaults but earlier regions they just limited it too much. However I am happy they are revamping period.
North Downs would be first on my list to revamo, so good decision Turbine. I love landscape and music, but not questing there… So usually only collect craft mats and craft there, just to be there, and once a few months I make ride to some nice places there (south-east part specially), where probably almost none player appears. I wonder how many people now that there is forest full of trolls and probably hugest cave in whole game (dont count Moria and Thorins Hall as caves ;)).
Trollshows – second on my list. Painfull for questing. I made there some quests only to make deeds, usually while being much too strong for region. Also Rivendell could get much better crafting area. Currently it is useless for crafting. Vault is very far from forges and workbenches, ovens are in place where probably no one will look for them, and so on.
Misty Mountains – third on list but most awaited personally cause I would like to play in such mountainous region (ND and Trollshows are not so important for me). But Misty M. is just small, tiny. I totally do not understand its price in TP, cause it has almost nothing to offer and is more expensive that some others. Most important change would be adding at least 50 more quests cause now there is just too few quests. I was even thinking about making from Trollshows and Misty M. one huge region, so I could buy it for one price cause now those regions are not worth TP.
NORTH DOWNS Good nr.1 Lots of great quest lines terminated in grouping in quite an infrequently travelled area… Has Esteldin (crafting HUB) and fun area east of it, great for harvesting… Fornost instances need update … make into an early attraction maybe? What I hated the most were the Orc/Goblin camps with the grey elite orcs which could still paste you on level! Where is the reward for valiantly taking them out…
Bree Lets introduce some modern questing…keep them newbs playing Trollshaws I like the area and most of the quests at the mo reward with interesting interaction with LOTR and it is kinda quest hub with other areas BUT travelling it sucks, getting there for the 1st time should be an experience… but it should not be an experience that needs repeating every time! Oh and please Rivendell needs to be more user friendly…
Turbine, please don’t ruin questing in the lower-level zones by streamlining the quests into a single linear quest chain. Would ruin the game for me.
ThereAndBack I totally hear you but you know that it’s coming. People loved the Evendim revamp and ever since then everything Turbine has done has been in that linear style.
I expect the same in ND with the usual helping of auto-bestowed quests.
I just played to 50 with a new char to remind myself what the old zones were like. Eriador really is a wonder of the digital world. I’ll really miss it when it gets streamlined too, I think.
Ah yes, the ‘wonders’ of fellowship quests tagged onto the ends of solo questlines, of being ordered to go to each enemy camp two or three times when you only needed to do it once, of not having enough quests to get from one end of the level range to the other, and of course those delightful escort quests. Lalia, Pengail, Sheep, Sarah-friggin’ Oakheart.
Eriador. It looked great, in my mind it certainly didn’t play that way.
Ethelros…totally agree 🙂 Oh and Turbine not everything need flow in a straight line…see I agree with others too!
But it is needed: Quest clean up please…
I’m glad this work is being done. If the developers read this chat, I’ll repeat a few major fixes that need doing:
Angmar: all areas east of the Rammas Deleon – quests, gear, monsters – need to drop by 2-3 levels, to reduce the “level gap” mid region to nearly nothing. Otherwise, I love it. Well, not the navigation in the NE parts, but that’s just an interesting terrain feature guarded by rare elite masters…
Forochel: Reduce levels to 36/38 – 44/46 (from 44-50) to cover the level gap between 36 and 42, currently covered ONLY by Trollshaws, which has awful gameplay. Also make it easier to earn rep items, this is by far the most difficult region to get kindred in! Even worse than Enedwaith!
North Downs: Love it. Could have a few more quests, but the clean east-west split is a good benchmark. Also, signature-only trolls are great (not elites!)
Evendim: Revise downwards the slayer counts. This issue will have to wait a while though.
Trollshaws, Misty Mountains: Glue these two regions together. Add more wilderness quests. Add fast travel and consolidated quest givers. And for God’s sake, reduce the number of elites! Pack of signatures are bad enough. If nothing else, compromise: Randomly make signatures spawn in groups of normals, and elites in groups of signatures, and rare elites in groups of elites. It would shake up gameplay without requiring a lot of named mobs.
Skirmishes: Glue these to the instance and increase instance cost by 100-150. That way they would be done far more often!
I agree with everything you just said.
I think they need to revamp the quests in esteldin, and one of my major complaints with the game is leveling through the late 30s levels. Your option are so slim and the quests are so boring. ie. north west evindim.