Thread: Tell the Community Team - New and Revamped Systems - 4/8/10

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1. Banning System - While I think that the reasons provided by our EULA for banning are appropriate, I think implementation could use some fixing, particularly when banning players that are part of a fellowship. I would fix this by putting a small delay on bans, somewhere in the ballpark of five to fifteen minutes, in which offending players are prohibited from any chat save say, fellowship, raid, and kinship (unless of course this is where the misbehavior happened, then mute them to those channels too). This delay would be accompanied by a broadcast by the banning GM to the fellowship/raid the banned player is in informing other players that they are soon to be short a fellow.

2. Radiance Medallion Exchanges - Currently players can only trade up from Moria to Lothlorien and from Lothlorien to Mirkwood at a rate of ten to one. I would like to see a diminished trade going the other direction, like one Mirkwood medallion for two Lothlorien medallions or two for three, something of that nature. As it is, to level good weapons for top level characters, repeating the three and six man instances at BG is the best way to do it, but only Moria medallions allow you purchase relics to put on them.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

I would like to see a skirmish/instance join queue (similar to WoW's instance/battlegrounds system) where players can have a good chance at finding a group for instances and raids like Fornost, The Rift, and Helegrod, not to mention Moria radiance runs. I only mention this because it will afford more players more opportunities to learn how to play their classes in group settings before joining late game instances.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. Leveling in groups. With exception of leveling with real life friends from time to time, and even more sparse leveling with kin mates, I have had to solo 50 out of 65 of each of my character's levels. I think more instances for lower levels could help that.

2. Freeze tag. Saving Middle Earth is hard, but there need to be more places to play fun, non-consequential games like the Bree-Fields freeze tag arena.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. The Bartering System
First, there are two many tradable items that can only be exchanged at certain vendors. This is problematic because they take up space in inventory and I run out of uses for them. For example, after helping various friends run moria instances, I have an over abundance of Medallions of Moria. Sure, I could trade them in for Lothorian tokens but then what I am I going to do with all my Lothlorian tokens? What I would really like to see, is some way to trade then to alts. I like the idea that my new characters can profit from my hard work on my main. Now, I think it spoils the fun to allow just strait across trades of these endgame instance tokens so I propose this idea, allow characters to give "inheritances" to other characters on the account. These "inheritances" could have a cooldown (like guild recipes) or could be one time only gifts. The recieving character might have to achieve some goal before opening their inheritance liike, get to a certain level or have a certain number of tokens already in their possession. (On another related note, thank you so much for changing how the moria radiance is aquired. I am so glad I don't have to run every instance 20 times and still be not gaurenteed a set of pieces.)
2.The Banning System
This has been on my mind since I ran BG and our tank got banned in the middle of the second boss. This move might have been fair for him, but it was not fair to the rest of the group, none of whom where part of the issue for which he was banned. We should have gotten some kind of warning so we knew to get out of Dodge. You should change it so that if person who is about to be banned is in a group, the ban is delayed for a short period of time (30 secs or so) and the other members of the group are notified)

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

Mounted combat. Period. This simply must happen when Rohan is released as an area. I'm not talking about one or two instances where we have minor control over our characters while they are on horses. I want areas of regular map in which mounted combat is allowable/incouraged, new skills, upgradable horses, the works.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Housing, it is clunky and uninviting. I like the extra storage, and the discount at vendors but once I'm there, it takes forever to get back to what I was doing.
2. Mini-games like freeze-tag. This is fantastically amusing. There should be more of it.

Question 1
1. Housing needs help BAD! The hook system works with the exteriors because each house's yard is different, but indoors you need to cap the number of items allowed in each type of house and then add more hooks on a grid pattern so we can put furniture where we want instead of where everyone else put the exact same objects. Maybe clean up some of the windows and fireplace locations too; a few of them are misaligned or have support beams running through them and it looks tacky. And while you're at it, I'd love to be able to place weapons and shields in wall slots so I can have my old favorite equipment out on display.

2. Barber NPCs could offer more of the customization options that were available at character creation. I know it's less realistic, but shouldn't players being able to enjoy their characters take priority? It sucks having no option but to restart if you decide all you want is a slightly darker sun tan or for your eyes to be a brighter shade of blue.

Question 2
A campaign setup for PVMP that cycles the map being used based on which side controls the most keeps. Hold a keep for at least 20 minutes and your side scores a point; then after a week if the free peoples 'win' the map shifts from Ettenmoors to Angmar, or it shifts to North Downs if the creeps score more points. If the freeps win in the North Downs the map shifts to Forochel, and so on. Make one piece of a good teal armor set available on each map as an incentive for freeps to get out there and take the offensive.

Question 3
1. Hobbies (er, hobby?). I'd love to waste time on a fun time-waster instead of always needing to work on another level, or, worse yet, grind rep. Ugh.
2. Listening to player music. There's never a band around when you want one, and if there is, you're too busy running with your group to hang out. Maybe player music should be a new hobby that offers tangible benefits for listening (hint: think along the lines of cantinas in Star Wars Galaxies).

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1. The housing hooks are an issue; we need more. With all the tons of great stuff available, we need places to put them. Most of us at 65 have an entire bank section devoted to leftover items we'd love to display.

2. Kinship Housing:
a. Message-of-the-day could use more space for information to be posted
b. Permissions option on containers
c. More container space
d. Longer list available to view members

3. Barter traded items could be expanded. For past and unused items, perhaps a way to trade them in for more relevant items. Example: Several Moria-based bartered items traded for a Mirkwood item.


Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

--- At this stage, perhaps a 'mentor' system that's limited to instances. There are many times when a kin-mate wants to put together a group for an book related instance, but we as a group don't want to take away from their experience of difficulty by one lone member destroying all the greys with ease. Usually it's hard to organize this for a fair experience to the first-timer.


Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. The Epic storyline (not Skinner-box content, but actual quests related to Tolkien's works)

2. <blank> the above is more important to me

1. Housing! Large kins with hundreds of members have on three chest to share?! Maybe give a personal storage chest to each member. Kinda like a Kin Vault area. And how about a crafting facility for the back yard!
2. Mounts. We have some very impressive looking mounts now, but they are pretty much useless. How about something like saddle bags to let us carry extra supplies like ore and wood and such.

Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Adding additional Quickslots. As it is today I see that there are not enough for some characters it would be nice to be able to slot additional items into quickslots and also as part of this make some new combination keys (What I mean today you can push most any keyboard button alone or with the (CTRL, Shift, or Alt). WOuld be nice if I could use some other key to make additional quick keys (not sure which keys to use but could be useful, since I am not exactly sure if there are enough key combinations today to match upto all the quickslots plus othe stuff like the standard stuff you have provided by default.)
2. Revision to the Instances in Moria (especially the ones for the Level 58 Class quests). Dark Delving is too hard (been in there with 6 level 65s and could not even get past first boss.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Revision to the Crafting system of Explorer (Allow users to pick which craft they would lke to have with the prospecting / Forester instead of forcing them to be tailors). With the introduction of Crafting Guilds there is no reason to level up a 2nd craft on your Armourer, Armsman, Woodsman, etc. Also with the fact that there are only 7 crafts to make items for other characters and 9 character slots. Let the character choose a combination that works for them Like and Explorer that is Metalsmith/Prospector/Forestor.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Going into CD / Uru/ Moria Instances like Skumfil, Dark Delving (this one is a problem never been able to get past first boss even with 6 level 65s in the group well equipted), and the other instances in moria that are required for the level 58 class quest.

2. Cannot get enough time to do Volume II Book 2.4.7 or higher becuase there are not enough people arround wanting to do it at this time. Between my wife's and my account not one character has finished Volume II Book 6 yet. Most are stuck on 2.5.5 (maybe give some inspired greatness for Volume I books 1 thru 6. I do beleive there is no need to modify volume 2 Books 7,8 or 9.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

Housing: Instead of instancing the entire neighborhood, and having multiple different neighborhoods, instance each individual house, and make the common areas(center of town) shared by all the neighborhoods. The center of town would then become a social area, with much more activity always going on.
There are three other benefits from instancing the individual house.
1. This would allow for tailoring and expansion(adding more stories and rooms). Better yet, you pick the lot, and then build the house.
2. Everyone could pick the lot they wanted. There would be no reason not to have as many copies of the same lot, and fewer of the less desirable lots.
3. This would allow for freeform placement(even in yards)


Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

I would like to see Farming and Cooking become hobbies. Farming especially. I would rather have my own field, and have to plant crops that take X number of hours, days to harvest than the immediate method now.

Would like more 'events'. Weekly or monthly quests. I love the festivals, but you can only stomp so many shrews...


Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in.

Cannot get a group up to finish the books (mainly stuck at 2.4.7 and 2.5.5). I love what was done with book 1. It was great getting that finished up. I would love to see it implemented in all the books, as I am mainly a solo player.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. First and for most burglars Stealth in PvE. It is too easy to be broken out of stealth by area damage. Stealth has not been a workable combat strategy since SoA. The recent improvements to the combat system have helped to make Burgs more fun to play. Still the damage boosts for stealth damage (i.e. position is everything) have cooldowns that are too long, especially since stealth can only be used with hips, or out of combat. I think it is not too much to ask that if a burglar takes the time to stealth creep-up behind a mob blow a couple of cooldowns to get a good opener, that they should be able to do excellent damage and do it as frequently as heartseeker which can be fired off at long range without setting up a fight and possibly be reset during combat and used again during the fight. The game currently forces me to run in mischief mode 90% to help mitigate adds. I want to trait Quiet Knife and sneak up behind a mob and kill him fast enough that his friend can't kill me first. If PvMP is the reason that burgs are so crippled then get rid of stealth in the moors.

2.Houses let me buy crafting areas for my house. Give me more storage in my house, possibly a closet that holds all the decorations that are not displayed at the moment so that I don't have to waste valuable vault space on housing stuff, and maybe a dresser that can hold cosmetic gear.

3. I would like to see more fellowship multi-run instances like CD and URU that would be easier for small kins or pugs to do than these large group raids that seem to be the main focus and are only used by a small group of players


Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Non-Combat pets/ livestock for house and social events.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1.Not enough time for chasing radiance gear
2.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1.
2.

1. Crafting - Two Words that pretty much sums up the problem with Crafting as a Whole. Tier Seven. "As Brief as possible", you guys need to revise the entire crafting system and hire someone who can work on it full time, preferably someone who can devise a more... standardized (for a lack of a better term) system that will have fairly straight lines from point A to point B in all it's (current) convolutions. IMO, the current lack of Tier Seven is the penultimate proof that no one actually heads this section of the game and only those who find time to do "something" about it does so.

2. Housing - No words needed.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

Salvaging, ala Asheron's Call.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1.
2.

None really. If asked 2 years ago, I would say Raids. Tho I was able to participate, I did want to do so More but time constraints simply were too much. Now, Post MoM/Post Rift RADing mechanics just disgusts me to even want to participate.

IF skirmish had more... diverse rewards, it may be An answer to this question, but as it is now, it's not something I actually Enjoy per se nor is something I would like to spend more time doing.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1. Crafting, needs a viable reason other than relics to exist in game…. Like it had in SOA, and was thrown by the wayside in MOM, and left in that state through SOM.

2. The over grind fest needs to be pared down… Character Level, LI Level, Rad Level, and Skirmish leveling. Turbine has gotten carried away with grind and forgotten story. Epic 1 had a vibrant dynamic story, Epic 2 started out fun and then took a nose dive into repetition hell, Epic 3 has proved a non story epic book (?) thus far. This has been a fun black hole in this game. The revamp would be therefore a return to the roots of lotro and the vibrant dynamic story that made SOA so fun to play.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new game play mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
If it meant a grind then NONE there are too many already. In my book grind is the antifun.
If it could be done without yet another mind numbing grind, then mounted combat is sorely lacking from the game right now. If it meant a grind though, forget it, this game has gotten so grind focused that I just could not take another one and still find this game fun to play at all.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. Raiding, but since I refuse to play the rad grind game, I am locked out. There are too many grinds in this game, and this one is just one too many. Challenging story driven content is great; the current raid system lacks this, not the raid itself per se, but the grind to gain access to the raid. It has devolved into nothing more than an e-peen system.

2. Crafting, since it lost its value in game, that entire grind to gm/sm back in the day is so much wasted time. I hate an excessive grind, but I really hate a grind that gets nerfed.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. First and foremost, the housing system needs an overhaul. Rather than giving my full description of what I would like to see happen, I will simply link the thread that has, for 2 years now, been a perfect solution to making housing great (minus a few things of course)
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=161639

2. More Quickslot bars. I am completely out of space on most of my toons. Also, I would like to see multiple "versions" of quickslot bars much like the Aion system where you can tab to different sets of quickslot bars and have different quickslot setups for different situations. (kinda tough to describe in words...)



Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

I would have to say mounted combat.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. I would like to enjoy being in housing neighborhoods more, but honestly they are just not enthralling enough...
2. I would like to PvP more, but all I ever hear is that it is never balanced and things are usually a joke... would be nice if that were not true.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Crafting durables at endgame. High end SM guild member armor is basically useless because of the superiority of the Moria/etc armor sets. While I think those sets should be somewhat better, they shouldn't dominate. Would be nice if all that work paid off better, and at least SOME piece that is crafted is better in some way. Yes you can make class LIs and crafted relics, but that shouldn't be all a SM armorer is good for...
2. Group finding. Would be nice if there were queues for at least the most popular instances that just made it work better for PUG formation. Would also be nice if there were an easier way to get together (ala skirmishes join anywhere mechanism), rather than making someone slog to the dungeon entrance and summon.


Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Mentoring system.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. crafting
2. finishing up deeds (wish they could be more integrated with other things, like slayer deeds that are done in skirmishes are great, those that aren't are not so good).
[/QUOTE]

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1.Skills: I like the number of skills that the average class is given, especially for the first 20-30 levels or so, but i find the lack of skills given at the later levels does test my interest in the game. why not give players a certain number of upgrade points per level, and they can use those to customise their earlier learnt skills. e.g. allow a hunter to increase bleed on BA, or have the wardens upgrade their dance of war to give more evade. just something a little extra to allow people to customise their characters.

2.Moria Runs: im just returning from a few month break, but it seems to me that the moria runs have been made harder (harder than the average level 60 can handle) but have been given better drops, to encourage the more experienced player to help the new players. however, what im seeing, is people forming all lvl 65 groups to blitz the run as fast as possible multiple times, and the people missing out are the new players. why not give a better drop rate for every player less than 61 or 62 in the group? (to encourage better players to take the lower, less experienced players) even if the end result is that there are 5 lvl 65's and one 58. thats still one lvl 58 who now knows how to do the run properly, and will probably end up running with other players his level and showing them how to run it... etc... its only a theory, but it seems logical to me.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

i honestly cant think of any realistic suggestions for this right now so i wont waste your time by just making some random suggestion up.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. Hobbies: i havent really done it much because of the lack of choice. if there were 10 or so to choose from, each giving unique titles, items, maybe new consumables as rewards that are actually useful? i would be much more tempted to take the time to do it. i know that would be a huge undertaking and would take time, but even 1 or 2 new hobbies with each release would help imo.

2.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. The Expansion System - please see this thread.
2. Please see above.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
The ability to wear more jewelry at the cost of ICPR. I have more than one finger on each hand. Let me wear 10 rings.....at a cost......

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Music
2. Having fun at the kin house....

Question 1
1. Housing please!! Reading this thread, it seems to be the most requested thing and for good reason! Remove the hooks, add more hooks, add more chests, something!!
2. Hobbies perhaps- we need new ones. That or make fishing more rewarding and more useful.

Question 2 If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Upgradable/trainable horses, horse armor, etc. Also different horse models. I loved the submission during the Design a Horse contest for the Shire Horse (the big clydesdale type). All those skinny legged things are too small. Give us some horses with weight, horses that actually LOOK like warhorses!!

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Old instances (Carn Dum, Helegrod, etc)
2. Festivals

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.[/QUOTE]

1. Slayer deeds! why do I need to kill 100 bears to prove my loyalty? and why do I have get the 'killer of bears' title before I can start working on the actual virtue? Surely there are better, more story-driven ways to get virtue ranks? Make them quest rewards or faction rewards. Just getting rid of the titles would be ok; I have a bajillion titles already and all the ones I really like came from quests or exploration deeds.
2. While its not quite directly in line with what you were looking for, you might try tightening up Volume 1 a little bit. Its great that is all soloable now but there are 13 books, some of which contain close to 15 chapters. That's just a bit too much for a solo player to work through; I know that asking for 'less' content sounds weird but I'm soloing a lot of Vol 1 content on alts now and it can get a bit, well, boring sometimes. I really want to take part in the Epic storyline but if it could go a bit faster that would be great.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

Hmm, at the moment I've got nuthin here. More may come later.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

This is a bit subjective but I don't spend a whole lot of time raiding mainly cuz I'm just too busy. Its great content and the token system works well, I just don't get to do it that often

Well, that's my 2cp

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Scalable instances: (like the skirmish concept) so non-uber regular folk like me can still earn the best gear, but also not have to grind for it so long that LOTRO becomes a chore or a second job. I am a casual player that likes to play many alts, but they always seem sub-par due to time requirements to earn the good gear.
2. Housing: beautify the Bree neighborhoods with colors other than drab brown. Expanding the hook idea so many people are writing about is good too.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Add a threat/aggro meter so I know who has the most threat and I can quickly be able to tell how much threat a skill adds.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Festivals
2. Monster play

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Housing. Many have mentioned the hooks and lack off... I would go further. If houses could be expanded - i.e. you buy a small and add on as your cash flow improves. Also, while I understand why you made housing never come back onto the market, it is a pain in the posterior. I live in a ghost town - I have not seen another sole in my hood in months. 2/3 to 3/4 of all houses are locked at any given time. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
2. Kinships. Nothing has been done to enhance the benifits for kins since they started. I joined a kin just after beta, I am now kin 2nd. Since before housing started we have been at max - and no additional benifits since then. How about message boards in the kin house, kin banks, maybe an enhancement to passing gear and goods between members.


Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be? I am afraid I just don't know what to say to this question.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Inn league
2. festivals - I just never have the time and even more, I don't have the space to keep the rewards if I did spend my time earning them.

It seems housing is a hot issue, so I won't bring that up other than to say it is a huge money (gold) sink that I should never have wasted my hard earned coins on. This system should be a pay once system, no maintenance.

Question 1:

1 and 2 Crafting and Economy: These go hand in hand and they should be re-done from the ground up. The only reason crafting exists in a video game is to make the game more interesting, if it does anything else than it is broken. The economy only exists to facilitate the exchange of goods and services between crafters and other players making the crafting system worthwhile. Therefore anything that is an impediment to the economy is an impediment to the crafting system.

Firstly, the crafting Professions should be as interesting and unique as the Class system is. If someone wanted to create a character who's only purpose was to be an armorer or weapon-smith the game should still be engaging. See SWG's crafting system prior to the so called "Combat Enhancements". I knew many players who only played for the crafting system, and they drove the economy. Unlike the WOW model where the only people playing to make gold, and thus driving the economy, are gold-farmers.

Next, everything that a player receives should be worth something to a crafting profession, no vendor trash. Grey items should be broken down for raw materials or "upgradeable" to yellow or purple by the appropriate profession. Items crafted should have many (by many I mean 5 or more) customization slots that allow for the crafter to increase the base stats to make each piece unique. For example: gold (or copper, or silver, etc) inlay on armor or weapon to boost Will, the setting of precious stones to increase Radiance, or the alloying of iron in Jewelry to increase durability, etc. All resources should have many generic uses in all professions.

Items should not be bound, or have infinite durability (except maybe LI's). Items should be repairable by a crafter but never to 100% (durability decreases as a function of the number of times it is repaired), once it becomes useless break it down for some raw materials (salvage). Services, such as repairs, should only be performed by crafter or an NPC hired by the crafter. Crafters should be able to hire an NPC in an area appropriate for their level to provide unattended player services.

Crafters should be able to hire NPC workers to mass produce items, particularly consumables (i.e. food, tokens, etc.). The Auction House should be the network of vendors that already exists and it should automatically "distribute" player crafted items to level appropriate vendors according to the type of item the vendor sells. For example the heavy armor vendor in Bree sells all the heavy armor of level 10-20 posted on the AH by players. Vendors that sell vendor trash are a waist of pixels, code and client/server resources. Vendor trash itself is a waist of my inventory.

So much for brief (sorry).

Question 2.

Mounted combat is a given in Rohan, so I don't consider that "new". Just know that a Rohan sans mounted combat is an unforgivable departure from the canon.

Okay, this is an idea I have had banging around in my head for many years for an MMO game mechanic. I think it would be difficult to implement (or at least complicated to implement), but most things worth doing are difficult. I also think it will be perfect for Rohan in the north considering their conflict with Isengard, and for the conflict between Gondor and Mordor (yes I am a total Tolkien nerd ).

The vision for this mechanic starts with areas of the map where there is an ongoing battle for control of that area by two (or more) factions. The area of the map would go through different stages and basically loop through the stages with different factions gaining control of that area for a period of time. For LOTRO the factions would be good vs evil, or freeps vs creeps in PVMP terms. The different stages would be a large scale combat stage, a healing/rebuilding stage, a preparation/ intelligence gathering/patrolling/small combat stage. After which the loop starts over with the large scale combat stage.

The large scale combat stage could essentially be PVMP, with a mix of quests surrounding the epic battle theme. This is time for players to be in the thick of it on both sides. Minstrils healing, RK's nuking, Champ's hacking and slashing, etc on the battle field. Lots of NPC's from both sides involved in the fight to give it the epic battle feel. Players can go out solo and find a pack of NPC's to help, or put together a fellowship or raid and hit some bigger targets on the battle field. This should have a kind of "instant action" feel when a player enters the area and quickly lead into a near chaos feel in the middle of the battle. Players can move in and out at will.

Eventually the battle will subside with one or the other side "winning". Who wins should depend on the quantity of player involvement on each side. The winner will gain control of the area and begin to rebuild the defenses against the inevitable counter attack. While the loser goes of to lick their wounds (healing quests) and plan the counter attack. This is the time for resupply (crafting) quests, tending to the wounded quests, and training (new NPC recruits) quests. This stage should have a "respite" feel, ie. rest while you can as there will be a lot of work to do soon.

The next stage is the preparation stage. The armies have amassed and are planning their attack/defense. Patrols (solo/fellowship/raid quests) from both sides are out getting intelligence and getting into small engagements. Spies from both sides are skulking (solo/small fellowship quests) about (yay Burgs!) gathering key intelligence. The air is tense with anticipation as last minute resupply, training and rallying (buffing) the troops quests are being completed. The end of this stage culminates with the newly rebuilt (loosing) army marching out to the battlefield to reclaim what was lost.

Then, of course, the loop starts over. Player participation at each stage is key to the outcome of the large scale battle in the form of buffs, numbers of NPC's on each side, etc. The stages should last about a week each and the loop should go on even if the players do not participate, however the outcome of the large scale battle is greatly effected by the participation of players at each stage.

The main points here are to generate the feel of a large battle and provide class and crafting profession specific quests that effect the outcome of the battle. Everything that the players character has experienced, all the grinding and training and traveling, will have specific roles or benefits in this event loop.

uh.. wow that is long. Oh well.

Question 3:

See rwsteve1044's post.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Animations. In particular, combat and walking animations are clunky and unnatural. They could use a complete overhaul
2.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Random events would be fun. Random visits by GM-run NPC's, I'd like to see more of
Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. If I enjoy an activity I'll do it. If not, I avoid it.
2.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1. Housing - eliminate maintenance and add crafting and additional storage to neighborhoods.
2. Storage - We need a closet to keep our costume clothing, we need an attic to store our decorations. The best way to fix this is to *stop making fluff items BOA!* so that I can get one item and share it with my alts! If you're going to make me get the same item on all of my characters at least give me somewhere to store it all!

Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

Fluff games! I'm imagining something like Tiddlywinks. It would work kinda like a skirmish where you could open up a game and other players could join. At first I was thinking players would "ante up" before the game started and the winner would collect the pot ... but I have reconsidered that idea as it would promote gambling. Perhaps a variety of titles could be available instead. There are some unusual terms in Tiddlywinks that would make for great titles. I can see it now... "Ify, Squidger Extraordinaire" or "Ify the Squopped" or even "Ify, Master Winker".

Originally Posted by Sapience

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. Chicken play! I actually love the concept but seldom have the time to engage in it. I actually took my first character through all the chicken quests last weekend after reading this thread. It was a hoot and I really like my new Cloak. I'll be doing more Chicken play in the future ... I just don't know when I'll find the time.
2. Class quests - There should be a way to do these solo. I know this isn't the answer you're looking for here but if there were a way for me to solo the upper-level class quests I would participate.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Housing (revised) - Free form decoration placement. Choice of internal floor plan. Ability to expand that floorplan after purchase including things like crafting facilities for kin houses (minimum). Develop Hobbit housing floor plans that actually LOOK like Hobbit housing. See Housing Provisioner's and Bag End for Hobbity floor plans. Ability to change external appearance to one of the already existing appearances, i.e. if I want my Hobbit hole to look like one from Woodhall, then I should be able to change the appearance. The graphics already exist in game. So many more awesome suggestions on these forums.
2. Hobbies (expanded) - Plenty of suggestions around. I'm less concerned with what and more concerned with more. One small revision: Add the ability to sit while fishing. My Hobbit feet need a rest.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
I like Hayoo's Tavern Revelries, although you may want to look at all all his Tavern ideas and roll them up into one nice big release.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Instances - We're a very small kin and don't have the people or mad skills to do instances designed for the elite players. I really wish instances had a "quest mode" that wasn't very hard, was scalable (small fellowship minimum, full fellowship, or raid), didn't drop any awesome loot (so the leet players won't complain), but still allowed you to finish quests and deeds. Until something like that happens, I'm stuck waiting until I significantly outlevel instances before I can experience them.
2. Exploring - Because I just don't have the copious amounts of gaming time to wander around like I used to.

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.

1. HOUSING
2. HOUSING, HOUSING, HOUSING! holy ronald macdonald, if Turbine employers would receive $1 each time its community members mention HOUSING, you guys would all be flying your damn own jets by now!

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?

Becides wiping out the old HOUSING (and another $1!) and adding an entirely new playable houses, well, the Tavern thing mentioned above sounds pretty fun.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)

1. Chicken play, Tags - those nice little minigames, would like to see more of them after you'd fixed ... oh wait for it... HOUSING! another $1 here!
2. Fishing - it's nice to have a break from grinding another hundred of wargs for a deed, but can we have more new fish or rods or whatever, it's just gets boring too soon.

Question 1

1. A way to move housing hooks around more.
2. A way to get shorter cooldowns on Reputation maps.

Question 2

A new hobby, Tentmaking, depending on your level of Tentmaking, you could make small tents, larger tents, ext, or even small houses in certain places that would stay like a toggle skill until another was made. It could even use items from other places, metal, and wood for example. It would be a great thing to have around if you were throwing a party or playing music somewhere. And, so they didn't cause trouble, blocking paths and things, they could have health, so if you wanted to, you could destroy one.

Question 3

1. Tag/Freeze tag. Would be more fun if expanded and there was more obstacles, and your Fellowhip dot was not visible on the map.
2. Chicken quests, They are really fun, but, there should be a reward that lets you turn into a chicken at will, Either for a short time, or a toggle skill, or like mounting a horse.

[This Brittking now: my son is one of the younger players in the game and I thought you might like to hear that point of view since there are many. I notice that younger players enjoy ownership, customization (especially around housing), mini games, and interaction ( like D.R.A.G.O.N. or he keeps wanting to be able to put objects in the game that others can destroy). Also, cliff jumping and jumping onto places that are unique. Thanks for reaching out, keep up the good work]

Question 1
Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Housing. Hooks either need to be drastically increased OR eliminated in favor of a free flow style.
2. Mounts. I expect you'll be tricking them out more as tech becomes available for Rohan but this could use some love and it could be a totally unique system for this game.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be? Tough question. Hobbies ala Mapmaking, Animal Training and so forth that can have a peripheral effect on game play.

Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Chicken Play
2. Music. You guys have something totally unique here and should really make use of it more.

I would like a better way to sort the buffs/debuffs in the UI. Or maybe just make the rows they are in longer so they don't overlap the person belows health. I know there are some things you can do Such as show only things I cast. But I hate doing that because then you can't see wounds poisons etc. Putting on only dispellable effects lets you see the wounds and cuts down on clutter, but then I can't see what I have cast on different people. Maybe something class specific, I.E. a way to turn of seeing mini ballads or captain buffs.

I think I might be happy if it were possible to combine the Dispellable effects only, and my effects only. But currently checking one box automaticly unchecks the other.

Maybe just make the Buff/debuff icons scale so we can make them smaller so we can fit more? Or heck, maybe just separate peoples vitals so more can fit? I'm not picky just something plz.

Excluding, PvMP, Legendary Items and Radiance gear, what systems do you feel could be expanded or revised? Please list two and give a brief description of how you would revise/expand them.
1. Revise the whole idea of providing rare loot on a random number, particularly for quest drops. The RNG that lotro uses has high serial correlation ... which means if your lucky, you will be done quickly, if not, it could take a couple of nights. For the quest drops ... just skip it ... make it number of mobs defeated or at least provide a high probability drop. Some nights the black badges are done in the first 5 mobs, some nights nothing drops for the first 25 mobs and then 5 badges drop on the next 6 mobs. Probably not really random .... The Symbol of Celebrimbor fits this bill too. I don't know what sequence it's in, but there are some very very long cold streaks for some and some very hot for others. If it were a more advanced RNG, maybe these things would work out. (Note to readers: for those who think that reproducing the mean probability is an adequate measure of an RNG, go do some reading before you comment).

2. Give us some preset configurations of gear and traits we can switch between when switching from soloing to raiding to instances to pvp ... you can keep the trait switching costs, just don't make us have to do the book keeping to remember which traits and gear to use.

Question 2
If you could add an entirely new gameplay mechanic to LOTRO what would it be?
Mounted combat


Question 3
Name two activities in game that you never seem to have enough time to enjoy or would like to spend more time participating in. (Note: Things currently in game, not new activities or events.)
1. Music
2. Housing activities