Instances, and transfers, and new maps, oh my!
Today, along with introducing the new Executive Producer for Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine released the 2015 Executive Producer’s letter. In the letter, new EP Athena Peters introduces herself to the community and speaks of two major updates for the year: Osgiliath and Minas Tirith.
The letter also outlines 6 major initiatives for the first half of 2015:
- Legendary items – Imbue at level 100, so no more deconstruction is needed in order to continue leveling. This appears to be the change that was supposed to be implemented in 2014 but was pushed back
- New fellowship challenges – the letter specifically mentions roving threats and group content on landscape, as well as new instances to be released with Osgiliath.
- Quality of life improvements – no specifics here, other than these seem to be focused on fixing “persistent bugs” and not new convenience systems such as the mail update
- Episodic content – not sure how this will play out, so I’ll just quote exactly as it appears in the letter: “We are currently in development on a new type of quest content that will roll out like an episodic TV show, a little at a time, as you follow a new friend across Middle-earth seeing familiar places in a new light.”
- Server populations – Athena mentions three things of note, here. 1) Improved server transfer tools, 2) Upgrades to environments to improve playability and 3) Moving the EU servers back to Europe. It’s unclear what “upgrades to environments” refers to. Improved layering technology? Cross-server events? Server consolidations?
- PvMP – Lastly, Turbine once again teases the possibility of a new PvMP map in Osgiliath. While Athena is quick to point out that this possibility is still under investigation, being that this is the second time they’ve specifically mentioned Osgiliath as the location and that it has not yet been shelved might give the PvMP population some enthusiasm.
As always, the producer’s letter seems to bring about as many questions as answers. That’s why we at LOTRO Players love it, though! Let the speculation begin!
Don’t take my word for it, you can read the full 2015 LOTRO EP letter for yourself.
Update:
In a follow-up post on the official forums, Athena has posted the following, hoping to clarify some of the points of the letter:
Group Instances in Osgiliath: We are specifically referring to a cluster of instance content for 3 & 6 man fellowships that is neither a Big Battle or a Raid. We evaluate the type of content we build with each region for what is appropriate and feasible. So we might do a raid again some day, but Osgiliath is not the time to do it.
Osgiliath PvMP map: This will be a different “layer” to the map. This way players will be able to explore Osgiliath in PvE mode in Update 16 and the goal is to then also provide a PvMP version shortly thereafter (not on the same release date).
Music: We currently have our sound engineers looking into the issues with the newer version of the music system that we pulled out late last year. Our hopes is that we can have it fixed with or next update, but I am still awaiting implementation and testing of the fixes to see if they are affective. Once we have it in we will of course be placing it on Bullroarer so we can get feedback before it is released. More info once I have it.
EU Servers: This will simply be a move of the physical servers to Amsterdam. The service will still remain in the hands of Turbine, so we will all still have the same downtime, updates, etc in sync with one another. Better location and newer hardware should result in better performance all around.
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I’m gonna give them the benefit of the doubt that “instances” really means “traditional instance cluster” this time around, not BB or anything else.
And I’m very curious about those server population measures… will transfers be available for F2P players as well?
Looks like this is going to be an interesting year and hope they play their cards right to get the game on track again.
There are enough glimmers of hope in this letter that that might just happen.
I am disappointed that imbued LI’s are limited to level 100.
I would love to see mega servers, but I have my doubts.
However, I am intrigued by the Episodic content and hope they are interesting and maybe something a kin can do together.
It’s official: no new raid for Osgiliath (though not ruled out in the future), but a traditional cluster of 3/6-man instances. No BBs! 😀
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?562265-Official-2015-Producer-s-Letter&p=7296194#post7296194
New friend in Middle Earth: Theomin 🙂
I feel like Charlie Brown, Turbine is Lucy and the football is PvmP. At this point Turbine shouldn’t say anything about it unless they are going to absolutely do it. The part about the server transfers is interesting. I transferred my Creep to Landy and it was very quick and easy, but terribly expensive. So I don’t see how they could improve on the actual transfer mechanics, since they do work well. Maybe they make transfers free, or at least very cheap. I hope it isn’t something silly, like for 1000 mith coins you can transfer to a different server for 2 hours and attend that cool concert/event.
My preferred outcome is 1 year worth of free server transfers for the very low pop servers, followed by forced server consolitdation in 2016.
Also, making a new character copy option so you can leave your main on your preferred server, but jump over to an event server for festivals, or to PvMP server people like.
LotRO Exec Producer Vyvyanne: “The Server moves will be started with a listing of preferred servers, their new locations and an opening of free transfers to the servers”
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?562274-Move-of-EU-Servers-to-the-EU&p=7296326#post7296326
In my opinion, the new Producer’s letter runs the gamut from the sublime, to the somewhat bizarre 🙂 Caveats for all, as there were no ‘promises’ given…
Instances: To Turbine’s credit, they took stock of their decision to not pursue this type of content, a decision that was staunchly defended in the recent past, made a re-evaluation of that decision in light of its repercussions and the persistent voice of those who felt it was a mistake, and reversed themselves. That is no small thing, and I think that act may represent a new era of partnership between Turbine and its players, a rededication toward a more inclusive approach..
It may also represent our best hope for seeing a renewal in these lands. May it be so 🙂
Legendary Items: With Imbuing only available for Level 100 Legendary items, coupled with the announcement that the level cap will remain at 100 for, at least, the rest of this year…and you see the point 🙂
Imbuing, given what we know, seems to be a poor avenue for allocating limited resources, at best. Rowan had mentioned something a while back regarding imbuing, and that Turbine was looking into other avenues of advancement for legendary items as a part of the imbuing process. There was no mention of this in the new producer’s letter, though, so one has to question what the point of Imbuing really is.
PvMP: It would be nice to see attention given this area, particularly since it has ties to Turbine’s profitability, something that would affect all players positively, whether they directly engage in this or not.
Music: The sooner the new music system in put in place, the more easily rifts between its players can more easily occur, and the greater the chance that those who left over the change will return 🙂
Server Populations While concrete evidence of the game’s decline this past year, this also could serve as motivation for a renewal. Battle, battle, battle to make our days here worthwhile!
Trends can work in both ways. Some leave when other leave, but some also stay because others stay, and that influence can be felt across the community, including by new players making their decision about whether to stay or leave. And the more inclusive approach evidenced by this letter will help all the more 🙂
If this does change from voluntary transfers to ones that become forced, all we can hope is that they are done in the least damaging way and will accommodate as much of the player base as possible.
May the new year be a wonderful one for all 🙂
There is a huge population of players on Firefoot that like it less populated. Some people lag in bigger populations. If certain servers are closed, such as Firefoot, Lotro will likely lose some members.
EU servers shouldn’t be segregated as many of these people have long-time friends from US they play with. That would tear apart people unfairly.
Changes I would love to see..
When armor is equipped, it is only displayed on your character panel. When you equip weapons, this should be the same way, instead of weapons remaining in our bags and taking up precious space.
VIPs should be allowed to view and purchase areas they do not own. As a kin leader I’ve felt forced to remain VIP to enable content access. I do encourage others to financially support the game, but after so long a time of not being able to get the sale prices of areas, I feel punished. We are the ones supporting the game, we should be able to get the sale prices that F2P get. I also feel that after being VIP for so long, like over a year, our acct should be upgraded to lifetime. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars to support the game, and when I try to drop VIP per chance to take advantage of an area sale, I’m rewarded by getting some characters taken away. As a kin leader, I’ve brought a lot of people to Firefoot and also to Middle Earth. I wish some kin leader perks were in place for anyone as devoted as me. After proven worthiness of course.
A lot of people enjoy their homes. Some attention to the housing area is due. Maybe house trophies to show off accomplishments one has done. For instance, if someone completes mastering a craft, they get a special housing trophy and maybe a shirt that shows their achievement. Then you can change crafts if you decide to, and try for another trophy. A lot of people are driven by goals. Maybe add a “trophy room” on to each house to display these things.
It also would be very wise if Turbine made gift-giving easy. It would make then a lot of income, as people want to give gifts in game to their friends. Gifts of Turbine Points. I really hope they add this. For instance, if one could go into the Lotro Store, and purchase a special “TP Gift Bag”, and it would not be bound. Then a player could give it freely to anyone they choose. How simple would that be? 😀 It would no doubt make a big financial difference to the game.
Whatever changes come, I hope that Middle Earth continues to march on for a very long time!
Thanks for reading!
Cookiedoh, Kin Leader
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Firefoot