The sliding scale continuous sliding towards a grindy and lootbox encouraged game environment. For the full announcement view https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8118189#post8118189.
Take in mind that this statement has passed several stages of scrutiny from departments such as marketing, producer(s) and developer. This is a press release and not an off the cuff remark during an interview or forum post.
What Embers, motes and figments are
These currencies were introduced in Mordor with the advent of the loot box and keys. These currencies were introduced to provide an ingame alternative to get missing and/or a less randomized choice to get a specific item.
Over time SSG slowly narrowed the ability to get these resources ingame. This isn’t new and is rather standard among MMO’s. Every new content the previous gear is thrown out, new quest tokens are added and any currency is downgraded (seal to marks).
To provide continuous access and allow people to stockpile beforehand is usually a bad idea. That’s when they introduced currency caps. While not a pretty solution it worked.
Maintaining a balance
From the viewpoint of the developer these currencies allow them to offer new carrots to chase without wasting your previous playtime. While at the same time offer an alternative to pulling your wallet. Trying to maintain a balance with the real world and perceived balance of these two opposite ends is an arduous job.
The gamer (you) and the finance and marketing department will always have different opinions on where this balance should be. You want to get or either play to get it for free and they want to sell you it.
What is a good balance?
A low cap with a glacial acquire rate will backlash hard (the usual mobile game) and no cap with a torrential rain of embers means they can’t sell you an option. The answer is somewhere in between (the option to sell won’t go away).
At the start of Minas Morgul (and currently Gundabad) the currencies were hard to come by. You had no weeklies unlocked, only 1 character with quest tokens to trade in. While at the end you could get 500 embers/motes/figments for 10 min of hardly any effort (Stairs runs). The start was fine since the lootbox barter wasn’t that great or needed, but towards the end we had so much the financement department was probably a bit unhappy.
The upcoming changes
Which is where we arrive now. Gone will be the days of easy 10 min efforts. The choice of spending your own currency as you’d wish (gear or cosmetic). Trying to accrue some figments for the next curator or other seasonal limited available barterer.
No downgrading of Ember or motes into figments. Reducing gameplay earned cosmetics. Below you’ll find the (only) comment about this part
You will continue to get Embers from weeklies. We can also take a look at sources of Figments as needed.
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8118248#post8118248
Downgrading of previously earned Endgame earned at a much faster rate than before. Before all embers earned remained yours. Now these will downgrade into alt-inventory at every major update. The ember cap will be increased to a boggling 100.000 up from 10.000. For what purpose? No idea. They haven’t commented about any new sources.
When we increase the level cap, or during other large item level update intervals, all of your existing Embers of Enchantment will automatically become Motes
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8118189#post8118189
No future ways for efficient farming currencies in future instances. Older questgear won’t be used to turn into ember as currently. Without any changes the speed of aquiring the currencies will be timegated beyond current beliefs and harder to get in large quantities.
The sources of Embers of Enchantment will continue to change as our newest content changes. The only gear that disenchants into Embers will come from Adventurer’s Lootboxes
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8118189#post8118189
The road paved will nothing but intend
But they have plans, would like to do this and this or we intend to. It has become a mantra that continues to lead to disappointment. The brawler was intended to be a finished class. The legendary reward track was intended to be released not 6 months after. The instances were intended to be playable as intended. The legendary items were intended to be mostly done by now. We intend to have a conversation internally about lotro’s monetization (raninia in several interviews and streams). Intent is really slow to turn into actual changes these days.
1 – Isn’t it time to prioritize current problems and released content? Instead of intending to (hopefully) adresse these in the near future.
2 – Quotes as these are typed with every keystroke carefully controlled by someone schooled in marketing and finance. These (hardly) ever are for the betterment of the game.
We want to clarify the value of each currency, better control their distribution, and improve the overall player experience when it comes to acquiring and spending these currencies.
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8118189#post8118189
Remind you of anything?
The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/?st=JH2MUORV&sh=5997c5a5
