Tag: developer diary

The Sound of Silence

I have had great feedback on the article I written about the story behind the disappointment. You all have been a great support. Even disagreeing with some of you in a constructive manner was one of the better things to share with you and not just you reading or even not reading what has been written. Thank you for that.

But it has been pointed out to me that SSG and the older version of it – Turbine – and the developers that work there have given us many good things in the game, many great features and many great moments. And I do not disagree with you here. Not only were we given some great things, we have also been given some things that were previously said to be impossible. Cosmetic weapons and off-hands, new premium housing area, feature that lets us move the housing items outside of their usual hooks, various cosmetic items, some great stories and quests, some good Epic Book quests, good instances and raids… I am a person who was converted to actually liking housing when the premium ones came out, because suddenly I didn’t have to live in a shed. Some couples have even met thanks to the game and married. But the fact that SSG has had some good decisions, ideas and products in the past does not mean they didn’t also have bad ones and that because of the good ones it would now be fine to retroactively charge for all that. Especially because all that was paid with VIPs and LPs. Having done some good things in the past does not make anyone immune to the critique in the present or the future. The players won’t start paying for a dating service now too, will they? Those who prefer virtual relationships may visit websites offering AI Girlfriend services.

This article isn’t even the “aggressive” one, I am just very saddened that SSG has actually chosen to ignore the entire player base that has voiced their concerns in various channels. We have participated in threads on the official forums, there are comments on shares in the social media, some have participated in chats in-game, various written articles in unison that this expansion stands out, and most recently – the +Cord of the Rings stream.

The threads on the forum actually stopped for a while to see if there will be some official reaction to what has been happening for the past few days since this has been announced. Nothing. Not even a mention of the situation, an acknowledgment of some sort. While some of the participants have been asking questions about it and about some other in-game „stuff“ the team comprised of Cordovan and QuartermasterU was more interested in some casual talk about the lucky duck title, food, trash metal and „what shoulders are those“. Only thing Mordor related, as far as I remember, was the talk about the Aria of Valar, and QU, when asked about the new bridle LIs, I even feel bad pointing this out, suggested there will be new ones, confused or not knowing that there hasn’t been new LIs in a while and that we are now using a different system.

When SSG announced that they have parted ways with Turbine people were hopeful that something would change and in their hopes they forgot that the team working on the games has stayed the same. SSG, now an indie studio, a smaller company should have been using advantages that every smaller company has over a large one and a big advantage is – communication. The very thing we are lacking now.

At its size we should be able to have a conversation SSG to consumer, but we don’t. For the second time, at least, we are getting ignored and we are left to vent and hopefully calm down on our own. The silence is deafening. I attribute this to not knowing really much about running a business. No content you put out, especially a rushed one with bugs and a more expensive one than previous expansions even though it was said in countless streams it would be in line with those, can replace the value a company places in its customers. And a customer will always show his appreciation for this by paying more. Customers do pay more for a product based on how they are being treated. If you had exactly the same steak in a great, expensive restaurant and in a cheap restaurant, you would be fine paying more for it in the expensive one because of the treatment you got.

When speaking about the communication with the players, I have to mention the complete lack of developer diaries/letters. Even these could have been used as a great form of marketing and in a longer pre-purchase period they would be introducing the expansion to the players, building interest and intrigue. Recently we have gotten two short ones. These 2 interviews have left the players after reading them more confused than informed. So much so that a thread on the forum with my own „developer letter“ linked has been started under the name „Actual Crafting Dev Diary“.

Maybe the SSG is satisfied by the sales they had so far, I have no way of knowing. What I do know is that quite a decent number of players are spending the money not because of the quality, but because it is LOTR and because it is Mordor, because they want to experience what we have been building up to for over 10 years, in support of the game, etc. There are also those who will just play the epic and be done with everything. But I am convinced that had this been approached differently they would be making a lot more money with a lot less unhappy people.

After canceling my subscription after what happened with the Wastes – not the lag, the lack of communication then too – I was really hoping to buy if not the highest, then maybe the 2nd highest package and go VIP again, none of which is happening, again, not because there will be bugs in the early release, but because as a part of the group that has voiced the concerns and got no answers I do not feel I have been heard, appreciated and valued as a customer.

I do hope that this piece gets to someone in SSG somehow. Not so I could „give them a piece of my mind“, but just to say that there is no shame in saying you have made a mistake or that you were wrong or that you do not know something. You can not do everything perfectly, nor can you know everything. But what you can do is nurture a relationship with the people who have stayed with the game through thick and thin, communicate what is going on with the game a little bit better and a little bit more often, because a lot of what has happened and what has been said was not because of the price (or any other reason, for that matter), but because the company has made a choice to not inform the player base that they are turning 180° and that all the consistency up untill now has no meaning. Actually, at times we have been told the opposite would happen and it didn’t. And all that information has been thrown at us only a couple of weeks from the release date. There certainly were some players who expected something that was unrealistic, but they were not in the majority.

So, do I think that the players should let go of this because nobody has reacted to what is happening? No, I really hope the forum posts continue. I have no way of knowing if there are some legal issues that you can not discuss, but this situation could have certainly been mitigated if we weren’t surprised by it and then ignored. Just someone to come out and say „You know what, you have been heard“ would alleviate a lot, I believe.

I just hope that it is evident that everything that is being done and said is not out of spite or hate towards SSG and certainly not LOTRO, or any part of the team in particular or anything like that. Even if it sometimes comes with harsh words, it is so because we do love this game and want it to be good and even better, it comes with good intentions. Not everything that is good comes in a nice wax sealed letter with gold font, like you just got invited to Hogwarts.

Allegiance: Pimp my dev interview

This article is satirical in nature and does not represent the official developer interview allowed by the SSG… The original interview has been used and built upon to provide you with more information.
The facts about Allegiance are accurate.

 

Hello, everyone. This time we are bringing you an interview with our developers UnfriendlyCat (UC), DrHashtag (DrH) and Voltron concerning the new Allegiance system.

 

What is the Allegiance system?

 

UC: The Allegiance System is a way for players to earn endgame rewards, new cosmetics, and experience four distinct storylines in a post-Sauron Middle-earth. After joining an Allegiance, players earn “Allegiance Points” to advance within their faction. Players will not be limited to only one faction. You can, in fact, finish the introduction to all of them, but making one of the allegiances active you opt for working on that one allegiance. The first allegiance you opt for will be faster to finish and the later ones will be slower. The speed is determined by the amount of points you will need to advance through the levels of the later allegiances.

As they level up within the system, they unlock barter currency to buy endgame rewards, special items, and story moments. You are gaining a special kind of tokens through the Allegiance system for barter and another kind of tokens are „Chapter tokens“ (let’s call them that) that will unlock the next chapter in your respective Allegiance.

DrH: You will be able to embark on the Allegiance System once you make way into the Mordor Expansion, but it will really pick up after a first tour through Gorgoroth, where it ties into the endgame.

+Arred: When you reach level 110 two things will open for you. You will be able to go just behind the Black Gate and speak to Eomer to start your Allegiance quests. At the same time a new series of quests will appear, The Lost Lore of NameOfTheRegion. These quests will have an acorn for a reward, that will help you advance your allegiance. The Allegiance isn’t your classic reputation system. Even though you do need to advance your standing to gain Allegiance tokens and experience various Chapters from each one, this is more imersed in the story rather than only earning standing and being done with it.

Voltron: One of the things I’ve been dissatisfied with about Reputations in the past is how story-agnostic they could feel. Yes, you’re helping various factions with their problems and becoming more and more respected in their society, but there was no real progression in a story sense. They respected you more and more, and offered you more rewards, but there was no real sense of a continuing storyline for most of them. Allegiances do have you filling up a bar, and there are repeatable quests and rewards, but for me the significant addition is that each of them tells a continuing story. I think of my Allegiances like Bingo Boffin style quest arcs, but instead of funny hobbit shenanigans you get dwarf- or Gondor-themed problems and stories, and instead of them advancing weekly they advance as you gain AP.

 

How many factions are there?

 

UC: There are 4 Allegiances:
– “The Kingdom of Gondor”
– “Hobbits of the Company”
– “Durin’s Folk”
– “The Court of Lothlórien”

Voltron: It’s about choosing the Allegiance to which you want to lend your skills, not necessarily the race you play.

 

You mention chapters. How many are there?

 

Voltron: Seven chapters per Allegiance, and whether we expand it will depend on whether the players like it.

 

Where did the ideas come from?

 

DrH: We modelled the Allegiance System after the oaths of service Pippin and Merry made to Gondor and Rohan, respectively. We wanted a system that would feel like it was part of your character’s story, a way to tell and remember the adventures that took place during their time in Mordor. We were also very clear about the fact that we didn’t want to create a ‘gimmick’ way outside of the core game loop. The goal here was to provide good, satisfying reasons for adventuring further in Mordor, and worthy rewards to take home with you.

 

Do I get to experience something unique with each?

 

UC: DrH can speak more to this but each Allegiance has its own unique storyline.

DrH: The storylines are the big difference between each allegiance, but that’s pretty major. There is a unique story about Gondor, the four hobbits, Gimli & Durin’s Folk, and the Elves—that you will only get from playing that faction line.

UC: Your choice order of Allegiances will not affect the availability of endgame gear. Your choice really just affects the order in which you experience story and gain certain cosmetic appearances.

 

How will the players advance and get the Allegiance Points?

 

+Arred: The players will have a few options to advance through their respective Allegiance. We have made it so that they can earn acorns, something like a reputation item, that will allow them to advance their chosen Allegiance. These acorns can be acquired via certain quests, deeds and daily quests in the new crafting instances, which is why we have advised you in our crafting diary to get introduced to all four Allegiances right away.

 

Crafting Developer Diary – What it should have been

This article is satirical in nature and does not represent the official developer diary allowed by the SSG… Sadly. 

The facts about crafting are accurate.

 

Hello, everybody, I am UnfriendlyCat and I am the developer for the crafting in Mordor that is coming out with the update 21, our most recent expansion, and I would like to share with you a thing or two about it.

The new crafting tier in Mordor is Doomfold and it is new in the sense that „Everything old is new again“. You will have the classic drops from the resources. For example, an ore node has a chance of giving you ore, high quality ore, a black adamant and a black adamant shard. We are returning to a level of robustness we haven’t seen with the last two crafting tiers.

This crafting tier brings back a lot of items that were omitted from the previous two tiers. Players will be able to craft off-hands, weapons, armour, consumables, a bevy of class items (including Minstrel instruments). Very few recipes are auto-assigned, for many you will need to use The silver signet of Thandrim to barter for the recipes or items, these are the tokens you get from completing the quests. For instance, a single use recipe for an essence will cost you 15 of these signets. We are making a change to the crafting of the essences in a way that they do not require Universal solvents at this tier. Some craftable items will be best in slot for the expansion.

Crafting also introduces 2 daily recipes that you will be able to use. One is an Enchanted Gorgoroth adamant that you will be able to disenchant. The disenchantment ties into the new Ashes of Gorgoroth system. The recipe for the crafted item and the item which you will use to disenchant the crafted item (and the unwanted armour pieces you get) – Flame of Ancalmir – you will need to purchase from the High Enchanter – Elf Smith. We have provided an introduction quest for you in Udun, the starter area of Mordor. The crafted item will give you 10 Ash and the unwanted gear will give you 5/10/20 for green/purple/teal. This crafted item is on an 18 hour cooldown. Ash is used as a barter item for some of the armor and jewelry as you progress through the game.

The second piece of daily crafting we introduce with our new allegiance system. Here you will come across a recipe for a Guild-quality Gorgoroth metalworking components for a Metalsmith. No, you do not need to have highest guild level for this (Assuming, couldn’t test. Maybe this is the point where the dev diary should reveal that this is why it says that „There are no new guild levels, though it is still useful for players to be at the current capped guild tier: Westemnet. And not only because of the fact that there aren’t any crafted relics still.). This item you will be able to use to advance the allegiance to its higher tiers. This item also has an 18 hour cooldown timer.

We are also introducing two new ways of getting the resources. One is the Rare chest of Mordor in which you will be getting a crafting pack with random crafting resources inside and a random quality gear piece. The other alternative way of getting the crafting items are the two different chest Rusted chest and Coroded chest. These chests will only give you the crafting pack. These chests are larger in number, more common and they can be used more than once, as opposed to the rare chests which are similar to Treasure caches and can be used only once.

And for the end, we will also have crafting instances. Even here we are returning to the older versions of soloable crafting instances, as opposed to the recent fellowship versions in the Wastes. So these are going to be more similar to, say, Hytbold. Before you start doing these instances we suggest that you first complete the four introduction quests to the allegiances as these crafting instances will provide you also with a daily quest of collecting various items for turning into the chests at the respective halls for the allegiances. You will then receive an item that you will be able to use for any allegiance, no matter where you got the item from.

Thank you very much, see you in Mordor, this was your UnfriendlyCat.