[CC] 99 instances – a general look into skirmishes

Not a draft perse, but an unpublished part of the 99 instances of lotro discussing skirmishes and some “future” possibilities from 2018.

Skirmishes

Are skirmishes instances? And how should you categorize them if i would decide they would be one of the 99 instances? Skirmishes have filled a hole in lotro that would have been there without them. What that hole would be is different for each kind of player. Some might not even know they exist these days. This article is mostly a look into that hole that it still fills and why it’s not in shape it used to be.

What is a skirmish?

When the skirmishes launched they really sticked to their Oxford or Vandale definition. In the large-scale of the War of the Ring the trouble in Tuckbourough or the defence of the prancing pony wasnt a tipping point. But for the ones involved it was still an important battle that would still influence the major factions in Middle-earth. If Bree would have fallen, there would be fewer defenders to guard the borders of Rivendell or less rangers of the Grey company to head south.

For the players themself it was a great alternative to level. Even when the game was around for a while there were still points where an extra level or a few extra marks and medallions were very welcome.

Scaling and replayability

The skirmishes were Turbines first venture into scalable instance and loot. For how important i think this has been i’ll refer you to some earlier articles. But it also added an alternative to questing to the game. If you want you can skip an entire expansion with the experience rewarded by them. This might seem irrelevant, but is imperative to any player on a tight budget. Up till level 50 it’s all fun and games, but after that it’s expansion, VIP or bust for a more than 0% percent of the players (especially Helms deep still being $40).

Skirmishes have always provided a great alternative to players looking for options. They can become repetitive, but when there is no other option or if you really like the methodical approach to the offensive skirmishes. They are your go to place.

The fourth age

Sauron hasn’t been defeated yet, but its still the fourth age. The age of the Fourth mark was a time where this was the one of the most important barter currency you could get. The best gear you could get would use these and. Since there were only so many instances and a lot more skirmishes. Everyone would run skirmishes to get these barter tokens.

A million marks and cosmetic pets with lasers

As long as there is a number going up players can be very forgiving in what they would do. Be it marks, ash or gold if you set a goal you can achieve you can do a lot more instances than you’d like. I still remember the days where me and a kinnie decided to go for 1 million marks. He made it, technically if i converted everything i would have as well. Still rocking those marks as my lower limit.

Current days

This brings us to the 2018 and skirmishes. It still a really important to anyone below level 65 and players on a quest to limit their expenses and/or interested in an easy quick xp fix. The loot has been limited to 105 since mordor (fix incoming in Update 22). And with recent influx of valared character there are a lot of players that might not even know what a skirmish is these days. The allegiances have filled some story plots that would have made really interesting skirmishes. Standing stone games seemed to have decided that it’s an old system that has been surpassed by time and development options.

Perhaps with there not being an expansion this year they could revisit some old systems and update/fix the incentives to make this older but still great content more interesting to newer players.

Future options

One option to make all and future skirmishes would be a aystem where the difficulty could scale beyond the current tier 3. Have the skirmishes present a never ending run in difficulty. Or use the system as a basis for a dungeon crawler. Conquer flags on each level of a dungeon and have you defend them like you do now. After you succesfully defend it you can advance to the next floor. This could use the personal loot and quest locks introduced in the Abyss of Modrath.  A bit lore breaking perhaps, but could provide a nice system with a lot of replayability at each level range. Server-wide contest, ladder seasons, twinked chars?

Who knows. But for now skirmish safely. And we’ll see you for future 99 instances and a