Yesterday the release date for Update 15 was announced to be November 5th. Considering all the features coming with Update 15, it is surprising that there have only been three builds so close to release. Since auto-leveling has been disabled beyond level 50 for the new Beorning class, that means the class will have very limited testing in the last half of its progression. Also the current state of the epic battle and other features are far from being ready for release in just a week, based on the current build.
With all this in mind, myself and Cithryth decided to have a discussion on the proximity of the release date.
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I honestly hope they sort out the music system changes(or the bugs introduced with them) till the 5th, or if they can’t at least roll back to what it is now.
Sadly I’m not that optimistic there.
I agree fully with the sentiments you expressed – its clearly not ready for launch (no Beorning mounted combat, a broken music system, and a lack of a 6 man big battle), and although the quests and landscape are all fine, and the solo big battle is actually in an ok place (1 side quest still needs to be fixed, but the rest of it works as well as the HD battles currently do), the rest really needs attention paid to it.
I’m pretty certain that WB are pushing this release because of WoW, and also because player logins are dropping (though this is common to see between updates), but u15 REALLY would benefit from at least two more builds of beta, in which the mounted combat can be fixed, and a 6 man BB can be implemented.
I think they should hold off until that have a project that is completed with polish. I am afraid that we are going to be presented with an update which is incomplete and broken.
I think the notion that they should delay the update until 2015 is absurd.
I’d agree that it shouldn’t be left as late as 2015, but I think early December would be the most suitable time for release, given that a timescale like that would allow for a couple more rounds of beta, and then a week or so to make the update ready for release.
Looks like another “rush it out, we’ll fix it in the next update” to me. If I had to venture a guess I would say they figure that beornings starting at lvl 1 will buy them some time to iron out the kinks. Unfortunately, some people, especially vips, have power lvling down to a science. When I was lvling a cappy from 1 to 100 I was getting 10 lvls a day easily. I slowed down a bit to do some questing with other people but conservatively could have hit cap in 3 weeks.
I agree with Brandin…waiting until 2015 will not help the game at all. I can only speak for my server, but it’s been very quiet, with little or nothing left to do. Even the altoholics are getting bored (and that is saying something). Maybe waiting another week? Whatever happens, if Update 15 comes out without a 6-man epic battle, loot system/itemization revamp and level 100 crafting recipes for all professions it will be an epic fail right out the gate (imo).
Trust me, the features you listed don’t make it into U15, so don’t be too optimistic.
I honestly don’t mind the release of the landscape and associated quests, as they only need minor tweaking in their current states, but it’s still too early for Beornings to appear on the live servers. I’m fairly certain that players who purchase the GotV for the new class are going to find difficulties post-50. I’ve neither seen nor heard anything about mounted combat for the class or how they handle themselves in groups at the level cap. That sounds like a significant risk to me. I would rather see the class released later and in a polished, tested state versus rushing to release it, presumably, before Warlords of Draenor goes live on the 13th.
I can’t fault Turbine here, but I can WB/Time Warner. Turbine has to work on their production schedules with a now smaller staff, which is seriously going to affect the quality of future updates.
Yet again TURBINE has a great ideas but WB pushing them into a botch job which makes no-one happy at all. Mounted combat, Epic Battle and Beornings could all be HUGE selling points for LOTRO…but shining a light on something that is not working properly can only lead to an adverse reaction… I hope TURBINE can fix everything quickly so the DAMAGE done is not too severe…
A band aid is needed to fix LOTRO at the moment in my opinion, sending in a rabid bear to apply it may not be the smartest idea.
My fingers are crossed that it all works on the day…
Does anyone know if there is good reason to hold off on questing in Central Gondor until things have been ‘fixed’ better? There was that quest in Western Gondor that rewarded a Scroll of Delving, but it only worked for items of level 95 and below. I have read something about quest rewards or faction rewards being in the same sort of state now in Central Gondor, but it was not exactly clear.
Regarding the update and its release…
This is especially disconcerting when you consider that, originally, there was to be a level cap increase with this update, which was then changed to the LI Imbuing system, which was subsequently delayed as well.
Given the state of things, one has to wonder if there were a significant amount of people who left the development team (either voluntarily or involuntarily) between the Producer’s letter giving what would be in this update and the most recent layoffs, in order to create such a disparity between what was planned for, and what will actually be ready to publish.
It also has to make one wonder how they will be able to do the level increase and Imbuing in time for the next update around April, along with the other things planned.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, how resources were evaluated to be so superfluous that a system-wide class revamp was done has changed into the situation we are in now, in just one year’s time, needs to be correctly evaluated by those with the power to change direction and course. There has to have been a catastrophic misinterpretation of data mining.
It’s not a misinterpretation of data mining, it’s more of a this is what we want then what the actual data suggested. I remember reading in the forums people asking to be able to change traits on the fly, adding better skills, tweaking old ones to make them more potent, etc. I don’t recall any post asking for a total class revamp and trait tree implementation.
The last year or so has been an exercise in the “cart before the horse”, the “carrot on a stick”, I’m not saying that they don’t want to make good on “promises” or changes they believe will benefit players, but I am saying that they don’t have the infrastructure needed to make these things happen in any timely fashion. They bit off more than they can chew on this one, and whatever future changes or additions to the game are going to trickle in as they are able to get them completed. However, they may just decide that it is too much and scrap ideas entirely. They have done this before.
I think another big issue is that Minas Tirith is coming out next year and they have a lot of people making sure that isn’t screwed up, assuming they have a plan over there.
There are high expectations for Minas Tirith. No small part thanks to Mr. Jackson. Though Tolkien’s dimensions for such things were not exactly awe insprining. Minas Tirith is supposed to be quite large. Most people are looking forward to a city carved into the side of a mountain a 1,000 ft high. Hopefully they will put it together and give us something truly epic.
I am shocked there releasing beorning class without or operation end game testing. If they new thus was release date why did they not make beta test 3 allow beorning to use the tavern boost to max lvl to test or add a 4th build to bullroarer this weekend? No wonder lotro population keeps declining and only picking up for updates everything is being rushed and not tested properly