LOTRO Players News Episode 69: To Mordor and Beyond

3 comments

1. 

   Tirian / October 20, 2014

   I asked MoL about how which members of the Grey Company were still alive, and he had this to say:

   ‘I don’t think we’ll be subbing in names for the survivors in this update, but in the future you might see some more names show up. Most of the big-name familiar guys you mention are still hale and hearty, though obviously they won’t all be for long.

   Halros is a special situation, but he’s okay at this point no matter which decision you made.

   MoL’.

   I’m hoping that this means we will find out by the end who survives, and who doesn’t make it, but the Grey Company, considering how much time has been spent with the Rangers from Ered Luin to Central Gondor, really need to be in any epilogue that the game has. The same could be said to a lesser extent of the Iron Garrison, though they already had quite a nice series of epilogues at the end of Vol. 2. In addition, we shouldn’t forget about Horn, Nona and Corudan (wherever they’ve got to).

   As for the Scouring of the Shire, I think Ethelros’ suggestion of coming up from the South makes the most sense, especially since the terrain is already in place (check https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?557094-LOTRO-BACK-TO-THE-BEGINNING-2003-to-2014-A-Screenshot-Compilation for screenshots of the land that the devs started to develop a long time ago; and before the invisible walls went up, I also used to explore around that area). I reckon we’ll scour the Southfarthing (as Frodo and co. didn’t have the help of lumbering dwarves, men and elves when going along the road to Bywater and Hobbiton), and then we’ll see the key events (confrontation with Saruman, Battle of Bywater) in instances or session plays. This would save Turbine from a full revamp of the Shire.

   However, it will be interesting to see how we get to the Southfarthing: depending on the way it worked, they may go into Anfalas (briefly, as although I want to see the place, I’m not sure there’s much to do there), and then north, into the southern part of Enedwaith (not ‘our’ Enedwaith, though the region is pretty massive), and then meet the Great Southern Road at Tharbad (alternatively, we could just head through the gate on the road in the Windfells, near the location where we found Wadu lying dead).

   Then the region from Tharbad to Southfarthing could be the ‘scouring’ zone, especially as this could be seen as a staging point from which Saruman mounted his invasion (using the word advisedly, its not quite the same as his invasion of Rohan…) of the Shire. Then we could get the left half of the Shire map revamped (possibly in a different position, like Nan Curunir), which would allow us to eventually go into the Far Downs (which Chris Pearson said in the livestream that he really wanted to fill in). However, by this point its getting really speculative, and just based upon what I’d like to see, rather than what I think may actually happen, especially considering that the license only has 2 more years to run after we’ve finished in Gondor.

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2. 

   Kaswyn of Gladden / October 20, 2014

   Alternately, we could approach the scourging of the shire from the west — I’d love to see the Gray Havens.

   I’m not aware of any mentions in the lore of any particular threats in that region, but… The elves are leaving to the West, and they pretty much don’t have any other harbor to leave from at this point (as we know there are corsairs trashing their place near Dol Amaroth in the current update). So… imagine that Sauron found another creature like the Watcher and Helchgam, and released that to mess with the elves and their escape route — that would make an interesting boss-monster to attack a harbor and ships, and it has now been long enough since Moria that we could revisit that without it feeling too derivative. Alternately, what happens to the corsairs we’re driving out of Gondor; do they all sail home in defeat, or do some of them maybe decide that they want to hit an alternate, weaker target, so they head north instead?

   Saruman, during his collection of ring-lore, may have also at some point discovered that Cirdan the shipwright had owned one of the three elven rings and set in motion plans to grab him, and maybe those plans are moving along even after the fall of Isengard (something like Nuzrum in Wildemore, for example, just goes on making trouble after the wizard starts him moving, even if the wizard loses control).

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3. 

   Kaleigh Starshine / October 21, 2014

   My best wishes and hopes to those who were let go. It is a shame to see punished those were not at fault for what has happened.

   Regarding Lotro’s loss of income and players, I think, sadly, one has to look back to Helm’s Deep again. There is no doubt that the different direction taken with Helm’s Deep cost Turbine some players and income. How much only they know.

   Yet I think there is another facet to it, beyond those who left purely due to the changes.

   As those of us in the Helm’s Deep beta (and beyond) tried to bring up issues and concerns, we were loudly and aggressively dismissed as simply being against ‘change’ and a loud ‘vocal minority’, even by some on the Turbine staff. I have to wonder, how many might still be playing, yet felt themselves forced into a corner to such a degree, that they felt they had no other alternative but to either curtail or completely end their financial support of the game, merely to be sure their opinion on things was not dismissed outright.

   As a Founder and Lifetime member, with usually around 20,000 Turbine Points to spend at any given time, I still bought every expansion with Bree-land currency and spent on other things as well. But, by the end of the Helm’s Deep beta, I came to the decision that I could not do this anymore, merely to make sure that my opinion was given weight and not outright dismissed regarding the direction taken.

   With some of the recent changes, it looked as if there might be hope for a turnaround in this regard and that we were being listened to once again. I just hope it is not too late.

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