ettenmoors – LOTRO Players

Norbog news #4 Evil makes a comeback

Sauron has been gone for awhile now and lives is starting to return to normal for the free people of Middle-earth. Yet not everyone has it as easy as them. Orcs, Easterlings, spiders and all other sorts of previous enemies are now trying to pick up their lives as well. Norbog news is taking a look into the struggles and how they find a non-galadriel light at the end of the tunnel.

Evil retiring
Bob used to be an siege-engineer, but after their defeat at Minas Tirith his department was moved back to the sea of Nurn. Working from a cubicle with a Nurn sea-side view wasn’t what he wanted to do. When trodding back he met Merylin the morroval at the wastes. After a few months together they decided to open up a retirement home for both in the eastern Dead marshes.

Hobbit and chickens all over Udun
Shortly after the fall of the black gate friends from Udun started complaining about an influx of chickens and henns at unearthly hours. Not much later hobbits and dwarfs started opening and closing hatches locking goblins out of their home when taking a stroll around the forgeworks. Plenty of people wanted to move, but they didn’t know where to go.

Expanding their little empire
Bob and Merylins little enclave started to grow and not much later they decided to end their retirement. Opening up franchises all over middle-earth close to major evil hubs to not bother the elders with having to leave their old spawning grounds.

No eating visitors or attacking hobbit villages are some of rules they had to implement after some HACCP issues and complaints from neighbors. The Ancient Evil home in Angmar, Warg pens in Mirkwood or the Old Orc Camp in the Ettenmoors welcomes all evil retirees into their habitats.

Legendary home for orc-assisted living *advertisement
A new service will be provided in a few weeks for evil that for personal or medical reasons aren’t able to forego their old lifestyles. The Ettenmoor raid assisted living facilities will provide a classic feel environment for the retiree that wants to live it’s live in service of the Witch king of Angmar. A closed-door facility cited in the brown waste lands of the Ettenmoors without any “good” influence on a newly developed serverpark. Classic evil with all the new quality of life assistance for you or you elderly family. For inquiries contact 0900-6666 or browse our brochure available at lotro.com

Not ready to retire
Not all evil is at the age that think about retiring, but the vocation of soldier or Isengard woodcutter dont need the workforce it used to be. Some are thinking out of the box and are picking up the non-war-gauntlet with an iron grip.

The Norbog news has recently hired Jim the Mordor lexicographer as their in-house puzzle maker. Jim has a travel column as well where he travels across Middle-earth going from one place to the next in a continuous swift-travel to see where it all goes. Follow Jim, the weaver on his world wide web article series called EttenMorDorThangDuilLinHirGonDAmonHennethAnnunLossarnach

The Spirit of the Opera
Jezabel the black arrow has a flair for the theatrics. Before he was responsible for the subterfuge of Mazog in Moria. And he’s still proud of his lightning and pyrotechnics show in Ziraz Zigil until he was upstaged by a real balrog of morgoth.

These days he’s running the night program of the Frostbluff theatre with his reenactment of the Freeps Olvier twist “Can i have some (etten)moors porridge” and war drama meets Disney called “101 creeps spotted”.

His summer production of Stolen Sweets should hit the theaters this week. And his all spider production of Up (down, left, right and all clockwise) is planned for the Fall festival.

Not a welcome sight for any warg customer

Not all is sunshine
Old hatreds do run deep. And not all creeps are welcomed with open arms or paws. Kanjuk stopped his dairy service in the Ettenmoors after he kept getting harassed during his Milk Runs. And the Bree taxidermy guild has not extended their welcome to Grams foots and paws to open shop in the Midgewater marsh fortress.

The biggest cultrips however seem to be Beornings. As some of the oldest denizens they occupy several key government and adminstrative positions. Dajib, spokesuruk of Reforged Creeps, said that the bureaucracy is a new battleground for nearly every new citizen especially creeps. Every time an orc has submitted the required paperwork, the beornings change the forms.

Thrangs reenactment theater a great success
Freeps, just as much as orcs, want to relive their glory days. Thrang theater allowed them to relive their Shadow of Angmar nostalgia. And they are working on a new production. Originally scheduled for Summer yule it got delayed due to Rivendell overbooking. Each time they made an appointment to do research in the Library or Elrond they got cancelled. Elrond commented to the Norbog news, “The library was overbooked with raidgroups running more Thorog then expected. We had previous engagements to serve as the questhub for boss kills that we had to honor”.

Rescheduled for christmas we’re going to get a rescaled Tower of Orthanc. Allowing everyone to relive the Rings of power, with shadow rings this time. Saruman will be played by Gandalf impersonators with a slight yule theme.

Saruman in santa hat with snow effects. The rings of power will be replaced with led christmas lights. Instead of saruman clones we’ll spawn High-elfs in worker outfits. To facilicate some complaints about the burden of the Thrang lava floor draw from Thrang on fire-stability for other occupants of the Rift

Norbog news continues to bring you the news from both underground and above sources. Names of Creeps and freeps have been altered to hide their identities if the interviewee desired as much.

[CC] Delving into a new Ettenmoors

When you hear about pvmp its usually about the balance or lack there off. This isn’t one of those times. As Galadriel so wisely mentioned “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth.” What if that change would be the literal playing field of pvmp?

The (only used) map for pvmp is The Ettenmoors. For most of its existence the layout and terrain has been the same its entire life. Players know every nook and cranny of it. Pvmp has moved into a game of probability and chance. 4 beats 2 and 1 won’t do much against 3. This has in turn dictated where any battles will take place.

a place for the losing team to retreat to (if under their control)
a resurrection point nearby and a safe road to get back
tactical options to outmaneuver the enemy

11 years of slowly honing these points has turned the Ettenmoors into desolate wasteland with few active places. Both medium keeps Luguzag and Tirith rhaw provide all 3 points and are the linchpin of an evening of pvmp. Graveyards and choke points near rivers are ok, but are static and don’t allow for many opportunities to turn the battles.

Yellow and orange are outliers for larger battles, but blue are points of interest where small skirmishes do occur. Red and black are areas where nearly nothing is found beside the occasional mob or quester.

What if you’d squeeze the map?
Remove most of the black areas and move point of interest like questhubs inland. We’d shorten the distance between basecamps, medium capture points (TR/Lug) and the centre. Then squeeze the northeast and southwest passages inwards and add capture points with two different surroundings (isengard tunnel and grimwood forest) providing line of sight and chances for flanking.

Dynamic objectives
The raid bosses in Fror and the gifts of Carrock (flags) provide an unreliable center of battle due to the size of the current Ettenmoors.

The Delving of Fror (lotros underground pvmp) and Tol ascarnen could instead provide an extra layer for objective based pvp. Instead of a passive bonus if either side controls these places. Use these bastions for raid groups as a place for Capture the flag or king of the hill game play. Tol ascarnen is often ignored due to its size and has no impact on the battlefields themselves. With a leaner and focused battlefield these could provide a shifting tide and objective.

Shifting battlegrounds and an end
Opposite of moving players with objectives why not move the battlegrounds. Create an NPC army that would support the players at the beginning and overtime have these npcs become stronger and numerous. Use the objective and control points as buffs to either side. This would allow for smaller groups to support the NPC or raid by capturing and/or defending side-objectives. While the raid and organised groups assault the forces head on.

This would however lead to a point in time where either side would have won the battle. Losing one of the core identities of the Ettenmoors. The ongoing battlefields that have never stopped. However that might be a false lull. The “battle gets killed” at some point when a graveyard gets flipped and both side spend time searching for the other side in the vast empty spaces between TR and Lug.

The Ettenmoors would reset or restart with each player receiving a reward or their side and contribution to effort (insert complicated formulae for renown and commendations here).

A lean and mean fighting machine
Each player entering Ettenmoors would have an objective and choice . Contribute to the main fight for a short while or will you go for the long haul. Organize your kin group; retake and flank the enemy by shear coordination and skill. Join the fray solo or duo with the protection of some NPC’s in the main battle and push them back.

In either of the two modes players on both side would face more opposition more often, with players having a reason and focal point on the map. Less time looking for a battle or running back across the map.

Addendums

A – Revamped map won’t do much without support by SSG or the players themselves. A fair and balanced creep and freep team is the basis on which pvmp can grow again. Update 23 might provide a creep baseline while the normal class balance providing a varied mix of freeps already.

B – While the Sunder of Osgiliath was a valiant effort to create a leaner pvmp experience it player number was too narrow. In a small group you could only capture a few flags and with too large a group the battle would blend into a homogenous mess on a bridge. The number of activities and keeps felt lackluster compared to the Ettenmoors.

C – Most of the “revamp” is my attempt to update the original experience with current game design. When Lotro launched MMO’s and it’s pvmp was different then what a new Lotro and pvp would most likely be. A new Ettenmoors would provide a quicker combat within the confines of what is possible within lotro. No new combat system, but more obstacles like rocks, trees and ruins that provide cover from ranged and inductions for melee classes.

D – Using either objectives or NPC reinforcements would provide the means for a wider groupsize, quicker call to action in a map style reminisced of Conquest (Battlefield 2), Alterac Valley (wow) or a Dota map. Using elements from these games could work within pvmp and lotro, but provide a fresh chance for pvmp on both sides.

A Hoarwell Horror Story – Episode 1

On a rocky beach somewhere along the Hoarwell River an unexpected story began to unfurl.
A seemingly harmless Hobbit began to fish, attracting the local wildlife.
Many a fierce-some monster did appear and often interrupt his exploits until an epiphany struck violently in this little lad’s mind…
He thought to dine with the darkness.

Late on into the evening, a mighty Warg appeared from out from the shadowy waters.
Speaking in a strangely familiar Westron tongue, he announced his own name in greeting,

“Heya, I’m Miltfang! What are you doing just standing there?”

Startled and yet curious the half-ling replied back with surprisingly successful results,

“I..erm.. am..uh.. Skoch! Ye wantsez ta eats sometin?”

Barking wildly with excitement, both Skoch and Miltfang began to share in delightful conversation over a late-night meal!

It wasn’t until meeting up with his long-time friend, the nefarious Elf, Illydros, did his sinister plans come into full view.
Approaching to ask about the latest news from the front-lines of the Ettenmoors,
Illydros received something of an interesting reply when Skoch blurted out;

“I wanna be a Warg-rider! Gotta catch meees one of deez! Dey gotsez good food-stuffs too!”

The ever calculating Elf offered his help and thier discussion went something like this:

Illydros: “Can you lure in the Wargs with that fishing pole?”

Skoch: “Yesh, but I cannae do much to keep dem from runnin’ away.”

Illydros: “Perhaps my Javelin can hamper them down long enough for you to jump them.”

Skoch: “Muahahahahaha! Den we eatsez!”

Illydros: “I’m not sure where this is going, nor do I think that is related to you becoming a warg-rider…”

Skoch: “Shuuuuh! ‘Ere comesez one now! Hideded!”

In just that moment a powerful and feared Warg swam rapidly toward them, prepared to enjoy a new chew toy!
Skoch quickly tossed his Norbog Gizzard-bait into the Hoarwell as Illydros cloaked himself in Elven shadows.
It worked!
The infamous Warg known as “Looma the Hunter-slayer” wrapped her fangs around the fishing line and began to pull…

What will become of their plan?
Will Skoch fulfill his dream of becoming a Warg-rider,
or will the Wargs simply adopt a new pet of their own?
All this and more in upcoming episodes of A Hoarwell Horror Story!