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.
For three weeks now I have been reporting on the news from Mordor Beta builds, mentioned some bugs and posted a few videos and screenshots. This fourth week I have started with an announcement of the pre-order and the possible (not likely) date that the expansion will be released – July 31st. And that article was very mild if you have followed any of my other ones. The reason for that? Shock, maybe. Hoplessness that this game will do anything right. I am in dire need of a real life +6 hope token.
So, several days ago this was announced and the forums lit up like a Christmas tree. And who could blame the people for reacting? SSG certainly can’t. What was the issue?
For some the issue was pricing. And yes, even in the first article, I wrote that the price of the various packages for the expansion was a little bit steep. Being very generous with the wording there. But when we look a little bit deeper, what can we read there? It is not that we were saying (yes, I was among those people on the forum) that we do not have the money to pay for this. Although, there were such comments also, I don’t feel like those were the majority. We mainly focused on several key things.
We did not see the value of those packages. What SSG fails to recognize is that the value is not the a la carte price of all the items put together, the value is determined by the players and if they consider something valuable or not.
The editions
The standard edition package is coming only with what the expansion will include – quests, deed, allegiance, group content – and a new item called Aria of the Valar that will bring one of your characters to level 105. Basically, since the instances are coming out much later, you are getting a glorified quest pack. The race of High Elf was announced quite some time ago and it was spoken about in the forums and Cordovans streams and it was always announced to come with Mordor. Now, we do not get this race with Mordor if we decide for the standard edition. Why? Well, that is because SSG thinks that High Elf is not a key part in experiencing Mordor. They may or may not be right, but when something was mentioned over and over again in the same sentence as Mordor then it would be only natural to have it in the standard edition. So, the issue doesn’t become if they are right or not, the issue is who in their right state of mind says for months that something is coming with Mordor and then changes their mind and unbundles this. No other MMO has ever done that. And I don’t know who wants to pay 40 USD more for a privilege of cosmetic changes to the elf.
So, if we are not getting the High Elf in the standard edition, why do we get the Aria of the Valar at all there? Well, that is so we do not need to level up and still are able to experience Mordor. Is it safer to assume that by now people are ready and waiting for Mordor or that there is some low-level who wants to go there immediately? I am not sure about everyone else, I understand that there are players with less play time on their hands or just aren’t as into it as others, but I have six characters on level 105 and ready for a t2c raid. I have one more who is level 41 and I do not intend to level him up, as it is a duplicate class, made for scouting servers on transfer and became my crafter. So, Aria of the Valar for me and people like me or just the people who like to level up while questing and experiencing the story has zero value.
Aria of the Valar, or any Valar package for that matter, has that much less value because it doesn’t really prepare you for anything. You gain levels, the trait points that go with those levels, usually 4 virtue levels, some gold, legendary items and some weak purple gear to get you by. If we were to compare this level-up service to other games you would have been much better prepared to go into the level cap content than you are in LOTRO. Valar packages do not give you trait points you usually get from certain quest lines that you are now way over the level for, it does not give you safe passage through Angmar if I recall correctly and it doesn’t even unlock the stables in Middle Earth for you. So, what other games seem to consider mandatory SSG considers priviledge.
I mentioned my six raiding characters. I’m not a real big fan of elves, but I do have an elf Rune-Keeper. I have a captain, also, so High-Elf doesn’t bring anything ground breaking for me that I would want to purchase it to level it up from the start. However, because of very bad racial traits of the “regular” elf, I would gladly pay for an “upgrade” to my “regular” elf, which, of course, isn’t offered and it is questionable if it will ever be. So, value of the High Elf to me and similar players – also 0.
The highest package that SSG is offering also has a one month VIP code included. And admittedly, players who have a life-time VIP are not in the majority, they do not have any need for a VIP code. So, this is another item with zero value to those players.
And I must admit I am surprised that after all the hype about Chance Thomas, the soundtrack is not included in any of the packages.
Interestingly, SSG thinks that the High Elf, which is planed to be priced 1000 LP at U22 launch (which is called U22 for now, may be a dot update), and several other things like cosmetic armor, cloak, kite, character slot, title and alliance mount are worth the jump from 40 to 80 USD. Well, first of all, who flies a kite in Mordor?! And second of all, this is probably the worst value for money you could decide on. This now begs the question is SSG really that divorced from reality and has no clue about business or PR or is this only a stunt to get people to buy a massively overpriced package and spend 130 USD. Sadly, I am convinced that SSG has allowed itself to ask for so much based partly because of what is in the package, but also based on the sentimental value of getting near the end of the story. We are not being sold a cheaper expansion because we are being sold our adventure, maybe our childhood, our dreams… Certainly not quests.
Not to speak of, and of course I will, that this is not a pre-purchase in any other way than that it is available before the launch of the game. But it will also stay available after the launch. So the people who are pre-purchasing aren’t actually getting anything from the packages as a reward or a perk for supporting the game, those are being sold and used to badly justify the price they are asking. Also, more on price… I would guess that SSG would like more real money from a pre-purchase than some real and some fake money from LOTRO points. So how come that you are punished for buying the expansion now? The expansion will be priced at 2495 LOTRO points and, as said before, the High Elf will be 1000 LP. That is much less than 40 USD. So, basically, people who are pre-purchasing and paying with money and supporting the game are punished and people waiting for the U22 are rewarded?
The business practice and the history of the game
And we do not have here only a case of overpricing the expansion packages, we also have a case of… Well, first of all no advertising, even if it has been told that there will be some. But also false advertising because players have been told for weeks that the price of the expansion would be similar to the older ones, but none of the old ones went above 100 USD, to my knowledge.
LOTRO has made much more money when it went F2P, so it didn’t need to learn on mistakes or successes anyone else did, they had their own. So, instead lowering the price and attracting more people to buy it, their excuse for the VIP in the package is that you can gift it away. Whatever money they make now I am positive that they would have made twice as much if we were able to make our own packages. I’d gladly raise the price with the mounts, I have gotten them with the other pre-purchases too, why not now, and with the XP item, etc. But what I do not want is to be cheated out of money with things that have 0 value for me.
All of this has only been made worse by the release date that SSG offered us. Some of us have been on all the iterations of Mordor Beta builds and we have seen the work that needs to be done. It would be generous to say that this release is rushed. We are falling through bridges, NPCs are in the ground not being able to finish quests, High Elf still needs work, avatar upgrades are not finished, skins of mobs are not all there, loot tables are not finished, various items are not showing their correct level, whole camps pulled by attacking one mob, etc. And we now need to work with another yet unfinished iteration of an update/expansion, allowing for possible exploiting or otherwise caused frustration by the rushing of the release date. I am not aware that LOTRO has any competition now.
Turbine or SSG, call them what you like, certainly has a history of not testing things through or just not caring about it. It has been said on various occasions that Bullroarer, which is considered a beta test server, is in fact alpha and SSG in its various forms has treated live servers like they were beta. Just flash back to when people could not raid because they were preparing for Mordor and buffed Throne of the Dread Terror raid.
To not go too far back, the update that brought us the Wastes comes to mind. As it came live we have experienced massive amounts of lag for days. Addressing the lag was actually addressing the motivation to players to cause lag by removing the reputation drop items with the excuse that they weren’t even supposed to drop, after the history of them dropping through the whole game. Nobody from SSG has given any official statements anywhere, apologized for the inconvenience or even tought that they could add a week at least on people’s VIP subscription. Maybe I am reaching here, but the lack of communication there, not the lag, is what made me drop my VIP subscription and buy the raid with the accumulated LP. Looking a little more back, we had the fiasco with the Bell-O-Dale flowers that some people farmed enough of sapphire extracts in a few hours and some were hurting for days.
Many people on the forum were talking about developers not being able to do something because of Warner Brothers or Turbine or whatever… But SSG is Turbine. We have the same developers in the same building and probably even offices, they are only a different entity now. Nothing will be better just because they are called SSG now because nothing and nobody has changed. Except for the name change. And if you want something to change, you must ask for it.
Why do we do this?
Now, Massively said this nicely and I agree… We are not hard on the studio or on the game because we have some kind of a grudge or a vendetta, but because we want this game to be great. It is because we love this game that we are writing what we feel needs to be addressed. I can understand that it is not a nice feeling to see the uproar of the people on the forums and come to work to a 20 page thread and several of those, full of angry people. But instead of letting this happen every time maybe SSG could stop one day and ask themselves “How can we deal with this?”.
But I can say that the fans of LOTRO paying just to support the game so it doesn’t shut down and paying no matter what are not really helpful here. I don’t want to offend the fans, I am one too, but it’s a very sad day when people who write passionately about this become the subject of hateful attacks and name calling when they wanted to point some things out and help build a great game. I would guess that this is also the reason we are loging in to Bullroarer and writing the bugs and in threads in the Bullroarer forum.
Somehow there is this train of tought that if you are a fan, then you will praise, defend and never criticize the game and the studio and will be OK spending money no matter what. But after some of the mistakes that have happened the feelings are a little dulled and now I think more like a consumer. What do I get for my money? And I can tell you one thing. A customer will spend more money on a product if he is satisfied with the customer service and the value a company places on a customer. I’m not overly impressed with SSG on this note.
What to do about it?
There is hardly any way out of this now. The packages have been bought, so there is no way SSG will want to lower the price and then play with refunds, there won’t be any more packages for the similar reason, so the only way to give more value is to add LOTRO points and maybe a few mithril to all packages – maybe 500, 1000 and 2000 LP and 25, 50, 100 mithril. No reason for SSG to be stingy with pixels. We could ask for the High Elf in the standard edition, but then anyone who did buy the collector edition may feel cheated out of 40 USD.
I am sad to say and come to terms with a discovery that this game has survived for this long only because of its name. Only because of LOTR and Tolkien do we tolerate the treatment we have been given for so long. Had this been Land of the Righteous nobody would be here anymore when we consider the lag, the support, filing a ticket and waiting for hours, then to log on a different character only to then receive the notice that it is closed because you were not online, all the bugs that go live and much more.
There is no curse in elvish, entish or the tongues of men for this treachery.
Hail Friends! Guess who is back! Did you guys miss me?
Life has been busy, with work and my Kinship and 3 million other hobbies, it was very hard to keep up with the weekly Tolkien inspired poetry. So many times I wanted to publish what little poetry I wrote but I just didnt want to publish something which wouldn’t have done justice to the Tolkienverse.
Casual Raiders recently celeberated their 3rd anniversary(You can check out the Video here). The kinship is standing tall and has become one of Brandywine’s largest kinship with active players from all around the globe.
This poem is a continuation of “Estel” series of poems. Last time we met Aragorn, he was fighting the enemy along with Legolas and Gimli and Boromie died trying to save the hobbits. If you haven’t read the previous 8 parts, I highly encourage you to read them before this poem, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8.
Estel (part 9)
Merry and pippin were taken, Frodo and Sam were gone, The fellowship broken, was there any point in going on?
Legolas, me and Gimli, we decided to carry on, To rescue the hobbits from Isengard, from Saruman,
The fate of Frodo and Sam out of sight, We followed the uruks day and night,
For days we ran in constant pursuit, This tireless enemy. fearless and brute,
We came across the riders of Rohan, fair and tall in height, Eomer of the mark, and his companions, who slew the uruks in night,
We asked them about the hobbits, the halflings, They claimed to have seen none, we discussed some other things,
The hope once again tried to escape me, failure of Aragorn, But my instinct told me to carry on the search, into fangorn.
Hope you guys and girls enjoyed this weeks LOTRO Poem. Feel free to let me know in comments. If you want to feature your poem on LOTRO Poems my email is legendraiderx@gmail.com.
It’s scary that I’m even having to talk about “Holiday Sales” The fine folks over at Fantasy Flight Games, have started there annual holiday sale on wide selection of tabletop board games.
They did not leave out the Lord Of The Rings Fan!
Work together to confront the ultimate evil! Your task is to stop the Dark Lord Sauron from winning back the One Ring and destroy it in the volcanic fires of Mount Doom. Join Frodo and the Fellowship on the perilous adventure across Middle Earth, and use your skill and fortune to guide you!, Lord of the Rings: The Board Game is fully illustrated by celebrated Tolkien artist John Howe. Help guide the Fellowship past Sauron’s wickedness and save Middle Earth from darkness! Players take on the role of five Hobbits—Merry, Pippen, Fatty, Sam, and Frodo—on their quest to destroy the One Ring. They must work their way through four boards, cooperating to overcome challenges and prevent the Ringbearer from being corrupted.
The Lord of the Rings board game is a unique and original cooperative game in which players must work together to defeat the game itself, a daunting task that will challenge even the most experienced players. The cooperative play style immerses players into the game, cheering their success and cursing the foul turns of fate that hinder their quest.
The legendary tale of Bilbo Baggins introduced the world to Middle-earth – the beloved fantasy setting created by visionary author J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit is a novel that tells the tale of a diminutive hero that, with the help of a group of stalwart dwarves, sets off to infiltrate Smaug’s lair in an effort to plunder the dragon’s vast hoard of treasure, Now it’s your turn to take on the roles of the dwarves, aiding Bilbo in his monumental quest to defy the odds and become a legend…
The Hobbit, is a board game of adventure and treasure for 2-5 players. On his quest to the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo Baggins will need assistance and guidance from his stoic dwarf companions. As one of these dwarves, it is your responsibility to aide Bilbo on his journey and ensure that you recover the treasure that is destined for you. Explore the fun and excitement of Plinko at https://plinko.com.in/ for a chance to win exciting prizes and experience thrilling gameplay.
The Hobbit is an engrossing game that’s great fun for the entire family. Join Bilbo on his journey to the Lonely Mountain and help him become a legend!
Relive the epic struggle of good versus evil in Middle-earth with The Hobbit Card Game, Martin Wallace’s fast-paced, standalone, trick-taking card game for 2-5 players.
Win hands and use the cards you’ve won to deal damage to opponents, or heal allies and help them with extra cards. Cards can be imbued with the powers of evil or good, and your character’s alignment determines how each power effects them. Each character assigns cards differently, so use your skills wisely! Fight the forces of evil as Gandalf, Thorin, or Bilbo, or smash the hopes of the heroes as Smaug the dragon or Bolg, the goblin leader.
Back in action this week and when we left off last time we had just seen the return of the nine in the Third Age. This week we pick up with the Nazgûl in search for the One Ring.
The Hunt for the One Ring
Near the beginning of the War of the Ring in 3018, Gollum, who once had the Ring in his posession, was captured and tortured in Mordor. This lead Gandalf to think the Enemy had now heard and learned of hobbits, the Shire, and even the name Baggins. He was absolutely correct and knew the Ring Wraiths would soon be on the doorsteps of The Shire looking for the Ring. Gandalf knew the only thing to do was advise Frodo to leave the Shire and make for Rivendell, taking the Ring with him.
When the Nine entered the Shire, they learned the Ring was in the possession of Bilbo Baggins’ nephew, Frodo Baggins. While searching for Frodo, one of the Nine, Khamûl the Easterling, had his first encounter with him. As Frodo and his friends, Sam, Merry and Pippin, took Bucklebury ferry to reach Crickhollow, The Wraith Khamûl, who had missed them at the ferry, was forced to go around to the Brandywine Bridge. Shortly after this, the Nine arrived at Frodo’s new home in Crickhollow.
Though Frodo had already left for Bree by the time the Nine arrived, they were soon given information regarding Frodo’s whereabouts by Bill Ferny, a spy of Saruman. This being the cause of the Nazgûl attacking Bree, where Frodo was awaiting Gandalf. However, during the time it took the Nazgûl to reach Bree, Frodo and his friends were hidden away by Aragorn for protection against the Nazgul.
The Journey and Battle at Weathertop
Unable to find the Hobbits, the Nine left Bree, and several days later they encountered Gandalf at Weathertop who was searching the area while on his way to Rivendell to meet up with Frodo. This lead to a massive battle between Gandalf and The Nine which Gandalf escaped but four of the Wraiths pursued him. The other five Wraiths remained near Weathertop. Several days later, Frodo and his group made camp at the base of the ruins of Amon Sul.
Discovering them, the five Nazgûl attacked and as they confronted the four Hobbits, Frodo put on the Ring and attempted to resist the Nazgûl. The Nazgûl leader The Witch King of Angmar stabbed Frodo with a Morgul-blade. Aragorn arrived and was able to drive off the Nazgûl with fire. Aragorn realizing Frodo didn’t have long to live he knew they needed help and that the Nazgul would be back.
Crossing The Ford of Bruinen
The Nazgûl, now regrouped continued the pursuit of Frodo and his company. They caught up with Frodo who was riding the horse of Glorfindel and making his way to Rivendell. The Nine chasing Frodo to the Ford of Bruinen demanded Frodo hand over the Ring. Frodo refused and defied them, the Nazgûl began crossing the river to take the Ring. However, the water, enchanted by Elrond and Gandalf, formed a great wave and swept the Nine away, killing their horses.
Lacking the means to successfully attack Rivendell, where Frodo and his companions took refuge, the Nazgûl were forced to retreat to Mordor on foot and stop their hunt for the Ring.
We are getting close to wrapping this series up as next week we will take a final look into the demise and fall of the Nazgul.
