Thread: Dev Diary Feedback: Tasks

Originally Posted by gildhur

1) Another product released as "Beta" so it doesn't actually have to work properly and they don't have to support it. Can we please stop releasing unfinished systems?

2) No one needs additional content to supplement their leveling between 1-25. There is already FAR TOO MUCH content in those levels, and they go by so fast that the inclusion of those levels in this system seems wholly unnecessary. If you want to start it at 25 as an alternative for purchasing quest packs, fine. But no one needs to "augment their leveling" until 20 at the very least.

3) The level restrictions are unacceptable. This is the first and only content (and it's a stretch to even call it that) added to the game that has a maximum level for participation. Having been around for four years, there is a reason this has never been done before - it is universally unpopular. Especially if these tasks have associated deeds (that award TP) and cosmetic rewards, there should be no maximum level at all.

I appreciate the effort at developing a new content type for low level players, but for the above reasons I see no reason why this system should be released at all as is.

Gildhur said it very well.

And I'll echo,
the maximum cap is unacceptable for those of us that are completionists.

Originally Posted by Orion

As to why there are level restrictions: Imagine a world where all the high level players wanted to go back an get these deeds, and now imagine that you are a player who is working through the game at your own pace. The potential devastation to the fauna and the lack of fun that would be present to all those who are just starting to enjoy the game world who were using these quests as a way to remain engaged with the world. As these are made, primarily, for free players and characters who are leveling we wanted to make certain that the experience was as constrained and forgiving, to those players, as possible. By opening up tasks (8-50) to all players we would likely be inviting an experience that would be less than ideal for the target audience.

While I can certainly understand the line of thinking the situation you describe is already in place. High levels are ALWAYS in low level areas grinding deeds and depleting the natural mob supply. Sure this might cause a temporary spike if high levels could participate but it wouldn't be anything new. I don't know when I've had a character in the swamp just east of Ost Guruth when a high level is clear cutting the place for bog lurkers. (I've been that person too)

Cutting existing characters out of deeds and cloaks though isn't going to be happy. Every deed added in the past has been made available to existing characters. And NO adding the cloaks to the store doesn't count as making them available.

It just seems to me that the excuse for the level restrictions is a non issue, as the situation you describe is already present in the game world. (It is on BW anyway)

Just my two cents. Sounds like a good system for the F2P crowd, it just feels like its cutting out the long time players from even tinkering with it on their main characters. Which makes us sad.

If you feel level restrictions MUST stay perhaps adding level cap tasks and making the deeds completable from any region would be a good compromise.

[QUOTE=AlphaMan;5074430]

Originally Posted by Thayel_Windsong

This I agree with, and was kind of what I was trying to say. I'm not very eloquent, tend to not get across my point well, etc.

It does seem like they intend to add those later though, same as the various items to barter wallet that wont be in on the update. Might be discouraging not to see them on implementation, but at least they've thought of it already, apparently?

Yes, just like they thought of hobbies (plural) more than 2 and a half years ago. I'm sure they'll get around to fleshing out these game systems eventually.

I actually can understand the reason for the level cap. Despite the layering, on several of my alts I've run into problems with there simply not being enough of a given critter in a starter area without spending a lot of time running around for them.

Ered Luin is probably the worst. Having to kill Hendroval around the lynx cave (to rescue the kitten). A lot of times sometime, I guess doing the deed, will stand on top of the gave and shoot all the hendrovels around.

Wolves is another problem. While they are all over Ered Luin, the ones you need for a Gondamon Quest are rather scarce (at least they seem that way to me).

And while it's better now, in the first month it was hard finding a sickle fly in the marshes without getting into a fight over it with another player

If a task were involved in either of these, it would likely make the quests impossible for new players to do. People doing deeds make them tricky enough.

Anyway, I like the idea, but I think the focus on them should have been from 20 to 65, not 1 to 50. There's plenty of 1-20 content, from then it thins out (until there being a lot around 50 again). The 30 to 46 part is especially hard.

Funny! I just started playing this game called "Runes of Magic" and they have these bulletin boards set up in all the towns with daily tasks on them. The bulletin boards look exactly the same as the one pictured in the diary...

Originally Posted by swattz101

When you create a new toon, there isn't much to change in your play style other then turning in vendor trash to the task master instead of selling it to a vendor. For the most part in my testing, I may have been one or two short after running around doing normal questing. I have heard about some items being more troublesome than others (like beaks being camped around Thrashi's lodge) but for the most part, they seem geared toward f2p who are running around the Lone Lands killing things and doing the epics to level because they didn't buy the LL quest pack. (insert quest pack for area in place of LL for other regions).

I understand that, since I mentioned that I level all the way to level 16 in the Shire before leaving... what I meant was that I will now be unable to do them in ered luin. When I get finished in Bree, and LL, the ones in ND will be unavailable. In order to attempt the deeds at each location, I would have to change my playstyle. I would have to travel to lands I wasn't ready for just to get the deeds from the billboards. This is the lesser of my concerns since it sounds like I will have time at the higher lands with the deeds being global. But still seems a little weird to implement this way.

Originally Posted by Lunatuna

The level and per day restrictions make this situationally useful at best (maybe rep grinding). Makes me wonder why they bothered.

It's purely for F2P players. Those players who want to play without spending a time or buying quest packs. This gives a little bit of of XP (not as much as full quest) to ease up on the grind. That's all.

They're extremely boring. The deeds I saw were ho hum (maybe if you do a ton there are nicer ones, but I'd rather kill slugs). Really there's not much reason for a high level player or VIP to want to do these.

Originally Posted by trancejeremy

I actually can understand the reason for the level cap. Despite the layering, on several of my alts I've run into problems with there simply not being enough of a given critter in a starter area without spending a lot of time running around for them.

Ered Luin is probably the worst. Having to kill Hendroval around the lynx cave (to rescue the kitten). A lot of times sometime, I guess doing the deed, will stand on top of the gave and shoot all the hendrovels around.

Wolves is another problem. While they are all over Ered Luin, the ones you need for a Gondamon Quest are rather scarce (at least they seem that way to me).

And while it's better now, in the first month it was hard finding a sickle fly in the marshes without getting into a fight over it with another player

If a task were involved in either of these, it would likely make the quests impossible for new players to do. People doing deeds make them tricky enough.

A big part of this issue is that many people will kill only the quest/deed mob they are after instead of anything around; which it's hard to blame them. Mobs share spawns so you need to kill that bear to get the wolf to spawn (as an example). If you are looking for slugs in Rushock Bog, kill those pesky flies and slippery toads. People also need to learn to team up if they are killing the same mobs. Too many times I've seen someone complain about another person killing 'their mob' yet when asked if they asked the person to fellow they say 'no'. I know fellowing cuts XP gain, but it's better to fellow and get it done than to not fellow and then complain; there's plenty of XP to be found in this game.

Originally Posted by NameAlreadyTaken

Get used to it, this is their revenue stream...not high level content.

This is a patch release. This doesn't even count as content for low level players. A typical task would be something like "collect 25 broken swords". That's not content.

Basically it's only going to keep F2P players playing. Which is a GOOD thing (or are we all still hating on them, I don't get all the memos). Almost no one is going to be spending points to increase the number of tasks per day. If the F2P players have points to spend, they'd spend them on quest packs instead.

The whole tasks system is a compromise - a way to give F2P players something to do other than grind from 25 to 50, but without making it useful or interesting enough that there was no longer incentive to buy a quest pack. Yes, it's part of a revenue stream, but it's not part of a nefarious revenue scheme.

The only drawback to it that I see is that the task billboards are an eyesore, and sort of out of place in middle earth. Town criers would have worked better.

Originally Posted by john_anthony

exactly right.

given the amount of landscape available, the new respawn rates, the ability to create dynamic layers, and the fact that deed farming by high level characters hasn't created much of a disruption even though we're talking about a far larger number of kills needed, you are far over-estimating the potential impact of removing the level restriction. (you're also limiting the amount of money turbine can make by selling Tasks extras in the store to as many people as possible, by making lots and lots of people ineligible.)

the fix needs to either add tasks all the way to the level cap or else just drop the level restriction. or both.

making content exclusive to one group is never a good idea. it will generate a lot of unnecessary hatred among your player base....

With the Task deeds requiring 100s of tasks to complete (with each task requiring 4-15 items), the amount of mobs needed to finish the tasks would outpace deeds by far. While the tasks can only be completed five times per day, the most efficient way to grind through the tasks to complete a deed would be to pick the easiest one and grab enough items to complete the number of tasks you want to complete (there is no cooldown between finishing a task and picking it up again).

So what would players do? Pick up the L8-12 task(s) in Hobbiton for items that drop from either wolves, harvest flies, and/or spiders and camp those areas in the Shire until they have enough items for all the deeds they will want to complete or they get bored. Even a couple of high-level players doing this in the Shire would have a detrimental effect on new players leveling in the area and leave a bad first impression, let alone large numbers of players finishing the tasks for the deeds.

The best solution is to have tasks in higher level areas, and I would be VERY surprised if this is not added at some point after this update.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Cerridwen

A big part of this issue is that many people will kill only the quest/deed mob they are after instead of anything around; which it's hard to blame them. Mobs share spawns so you need to kill that bear to get the wolf to spawn (as an example). If you are looking for slugs in Rushock Bog, kill those pesky flies and slippery toads. People also need to learn to team up if they are killing the same mobs. Too many times I've seen someone complain about another person killing 'their mob' yet when asked if they asked the person to fellow they say 'no'. I know fellowing cuts XP gain, but it's better to fellow and get it done than to not fellow and then complain; there's plenty of XP to be found in this game.

Unfortunately, as the items gained in tasks are not quest items, but the vendor trophies, grouping for tasks actually can slow the pace of task completion if a low mob population.

Are these different than the bounty quests in the Barrow Downs? In the same sense that those are "collect X number of Y" quests. Off topic but the Esteldin bounty quests were sweet for lvl 60 LI's. Would love to see lvl 65 bounty quests someday. Give me another way to level a 65 LI. Options are good.

This to me is a waste of time and resources. Instead of making another low level zone, or extra content somewhere, they add in a ton of useless quests in the early levels , which are already way too easy to zoom through the way it is ?

This would be a better addition for the dreaded 30-40 timeframe instead of the early levels.

Originally Posted by Lohi

It's purely for F2P players. Those players who want to play without spending a time or buying quest packs. This gives a little bit of of XP (not as much as full quest) to ease up on the grind. That's all.

They're extremely boring. The deeds I saw were ho hum (maybe if you do a ton there are nicer ones, but I'd rather kill slugs). Really there's not much reason for a high level player or VIP to want to do these.

Except for the fact that they offer rewards and deeds. That alone is enough reason.

Frankly, I love the idea - I'm perfectly happy with them starting at level 8 too. Even though I'm VIP and they're not really 'targetted' at me, they're perfect for the way I'm playing. I'm an alt-aholic. I currently have 8 characters between 18 and 27 - and as wonderful as LOTRO quests are, I'm SICK of them ! I can now quest on 3-5 of my 'mains' and do tasks with the rest.

Even though I am not 'capped' - I do agree that some sort of arrangement needs to be made for those characters who are currently over the level requirements (who knows....Turbine may have already thought of something and just not told us yet)!

Originally Posted by chetdawg30

This to me is a waste of time and resources. Instead of making another low level zone, or extra content somewhere, they add in a ton of useless quests in the early levels , which are already way too easy to zoom through the way it is ?

This would be a better addition for the dreaded 30-40 timeframe instead of the early levels.

I don't see how this could have taken much of their time at all, and it's not like content updates were planned for this upcoming update anyway, so it took a little bit of time ...off of nothing? I know, maybe it'd be nice to have wished for content sooner than whenever the next round of expansion/etc comes out but was that something anyone was expecting/relying on?

And there are tasks for 30-40. As has been repeatedly mentioned, they go to 50.

Originally Posted by gildhur

So your virtue deeds are most often (anecdotally) by 50-65s going back to low level areas and emptying camps. They have to do that up to 50 times (10 ranks of 5 virtues) PER CHARACTER. But these Tasks would only have to be done once per player. So why does the farming concern warrant level restrictions here, but not for virtue deeds?

I'm going to guess it's a landrush issue. New Shire deeds equals tons of level-capped players filling up the Shire after the content goes live. Slayer Deeds aren't subject to that because they're not new. Repeatability is also an issue, bringing level-capped players back over and over.

I still maintain that we need level 65 tasks. Seems like the devs could implement that faster than they could read all the posts complaining that there are no level 65 tasks.

Originally Posted by Kaarnyj

Except for the fact that they offer rewards and deeds. That alone is enough reason.

But they're not necessarily interesting rewards or deeds...

Maybe the best solution is to remove all deeds from them. Leave them solely as something for F2P players, and everyone will be happy.

Deleted - stupid forum double posts

There is a sub population in any game that wants to do it *all*. They would feel unfullfilled knowing there is a batch of quests they can't do because of a level restriction. One solution..if it can be coded such..is to allow any player to do each task in game once....they then get the satisfaction of having done it but then can go back to level apporpriate tasks (when the program gets expanded to +50, which I bet it will. SInce the deeds are global, they can get their cloaks at their own tier.

Another bland addition to the game, and surprise surprise, another tie in to the store. To be honest, all the 1-50 level areas offer more than enough content to keep players busy, and more than enough XP to level easily. Additionally most of these areas have had a few pass overs adding more and more polish, so I don't really see the need to spend more time and more resources on adding more to these areas. Though I suspect the reason for this addition, as some other posters have hinted at is....the faster F2P people level, the faster they are going to sink money into the store for additional quest packs. It would be nice to see Turbine release something in this game that is not a blatant attempt to get more money.

Originally Posted by robnkarla

Unfortunately, as the items gained in tasks are not quest items, but the vendor trophies, grouping for tasks actually can slow the pace of task completion if a low mob population.

I was replying in general to slayer deeds/quests because that's something people were bringing up, not specifically to the the tasks. But with the way they combined mob drops, I wouldn't think this would be too much of an issue for the tasks either. Say a task wants you to collect 10 broken swords, several mobs drops those. Come to think of it, I wonder if the main reason for the change to trash drops was in preparation for this tasks system.

Tasks provide limited experience rewards and will sometimes grant reputation rewards, but do not offer standard quest rewards like coin or items.

It's too bad this doesn't extend from 50-65 currently. This would have been a nice addition for gaining Men of Enedwaith reputation and could have been tied to areas the daily repeatables don't take us to like the Mournshaws and Lich Bluffs. The OCD completionist types would also have had something to occupy themselves with for a while.

Originally Posted by spiritintelligencia

Funny! I just started playing this game called "Runes of Magic" and they have these bulletin boards set up in all the towns with daily tasks on them. The bulletin boards look exactly the same as the one pictured in the diary...

Yeah, direct steal. Funny that.

but RoM does way better in the F2P arena IMHO. It almost seems that LoTRo wants to be RoM but can't until it gets rid of the pesky subscription customers.

Oh, and Orion, are these new unique cloaks that none of the higher levels can get going to be for sale in the Store? The answer to that question will be VERY telling.

Originally Posted by Orion

Tasks, in this implementation go to 50. There is nothing saying that they will not go higher some day.

Nothing saying they WILL go higher some day either.

I'm curious, what percentage of future content will I be locked out of? If I can't do EVERYTHING, then a part of my mind is saying to me, 'why do ANYTHING?'. In other words, since I won't be able to do EVERYTHING, I'm less likely to log in and play. If I'm less likely to log in and play, then I'm MUCH less likely to spend money on Turbine Points. If I'm less likely to spend money on Turbine Points, then Turbine is less likely to continue to have a successful MMO on their hands. (No, I don't mean to imply that little ol' me not spending money on TP is going to drive LOTRO under.)

Up to now, I haven't seen anything to give me a warm and fuzzy that these are going to be continued in higher level zones. I think if we can just get a 'Wow, we've thought about it and we WILL be revisiting this....' I'd feel MUCH better about it.

Thanks for trying though!

This is exactly what happened in DDO. Ever since F2P came about, it's been all about the lower level content. You know what we go for our level capped characters? EPIC content. Meaning old content raised to a harder setting with inflated hp and immunities. That's it. Nothing new, just rehashing old stuff. Oh, we did get Re-incarnations. Where you can re-incarnate your level capped character to start new at level one with some bonuses. Which actually turned out ok, but those that have already ran 10+ toons through the game, are kinda fond of our higher levels. :P

And, just my opinion, it may not be the developers(or even Turbine) pulling the strings about what get's developed. Someone has stated this in another thread already(don't remember where). Turbine doesn't answer to it's customers anymore. They have to answer to their shareholders.

Just my 2 cps.

Originally Posted by elwe344

Burp!

Any chance we can have an option to at least disable that new shinny button in the quest journal (and everything related to tasks) for everyone who won't be eligible to do a single task anyway?

/signed

An option to hide the lotro Store buttons in menus (craft menu, quest log, travels, vault...) should be available, for VIP's at least.
The free service should have ads, but an already paid service must be ad free...

Regards

A couple statements;

1. Considering the work that Orion did rebuilding the early zones last year, and the end quality of that product, why are they wasting his (talented) time on this drivel? Shouldn't he be heading up work on new zones instead of finding a way to divert silver from low level accounts?

2. Why would you release content that excludes a large proportion of the player base? Not just from the cloak rewards, but it was said in the Diary that the tasks/day would be increasable by deeds. So level capped toons have to miss out on these increases until the PTB EVENTUALLY get around to adding this for the F2P/premium accounts that have reached 50+ and the long-time VIP subscribers accidentally get access to them?

3. I've been a reasonably vocal supporter of the F2P model as Turbine has developed it, but i'm going to be thoroughly dissapointed when this release is accompanied by a store sale on Character Slots and Wardrobe spaces. It's a fairly obvious marketing strategy (creating demand) and i'm assuming that it will happen that way. Just, just, very

4. I didn't read past page 7ish, i didnt figure much was going to be said or unsaid after that, but as this is meant to be a BETA system consider this thread your initial source of feedback (that's assuming that the thread in the BR forums hasn't been perused even casually - it seems to mirror this one quite fascinatingly). The majority of your players DO NOT see a need for this, a lot of them WILL NOT like being excluded from content because they have been playing for so long they don't have any Character Slots left and pretty much the only recourse will be to add the 50+ tasks soon™ (i'm actually quite sick of seeing that little word) before you start pissing off more players.

I, for one, think this is pretty spiffy, but I'm looking forward to tasks in other level ranges than what has been mentioned so far.

My only problem is that, in order to get the cloaks, I will either have to TP-buy them or level up yet another character.

Admittedly, I do have like 20 character slots, so leveling another won't necessarily be a problem...

Originally Posted by swattz101

I don't mind some of the tasks not being available, the same ones upset over this are probably the same ones that were upset over the poaching quest in Lothlorian, and the one in Enedwaith where you have to choose.

I don't mind situations where there is choice involved. I DO mind situations where there is NO choice involved and I am arbitrarily excluded from certain rewards.

Way back when, Angmar went through a revamp and they added new rewards, including set rewards, to certain quests. Some people had already completed some quests and were thereby locked out of getting the sets and new and improved rewards. People made a stink and what did Turbine do? They added the rewards to vendors and made it so that you had to complete the quest to be able to use the item.

I don't think people would complain if there were some other way of getting the rewards that the tasks provide, if the tasks provided no other rewards than XP and a deed that offered no titles or item rewards, or if they had some choice in the matter. Comparing Tasks to the poaching in Lothlorien quests or the Enedwaith reputation quests is comparing apples to oranges.

So along with a new business model, this is another example of where the content development budget from our subscriptions has been going for the last year...

Poorly conceived system, waste of effort where not needed, a slap in the face to long-time subscribers, and (sadly) a clear indicator of the direction this game is going.

0/10

Originally Posted by Orion

Tasks, in this implementation go to 50. There is nothing saying that they will not go higher some day.

Without having read this thread beyond your posts... I don't feel like we need them from 50 onward, but it might not be a horrible idea to put in a level 65 task or two which give Algraig rep, for example. That way, even capped character can get the deed done without overrunning noob zones, and the rep makes it potentially worth the effort for those who choose to do it.

Originally Posted by Lohi

Maybe the best solution is to remove all deeds from them. Leave them solely as something for F2P players, and everyone will be happy.

I don't mind Tasks having the following rewards:

• XP
• Coin
• Minimal Reputation (e.g. a few hundred a day)
• Deeds with any of the above rewards

All of the above are achievable through other means and Tasks would merely represent an alternative way to obtain them.


I DO mind Tasks being level restricted and having the following rewards:

• Unique items
• Unique Titles
• Excessive Reputation (e.g. a few thousand a day)
• Deeds with either of the above rewards

Providing unique items and titles that are only obtainable via in game efforts but simultaneously excluding me from obtaining such items is very disappointing.

It also doesn't make any sense for the ability to gain reputation with a certain faction to be heavily skewed toward a certain level band. The net effect is that lower level free players will have an easier time getting rep with a faction than a VIP who has passed that level band.

We have enough quests in bree/shire/erud to hit level 20, 10 times over. Whats the point in adding tasks? The starter areas have been redone and made easy to level through very quickly.

We already have more then enough Quests/Skirmishes/Instances/Deeds to help us level up the rest of the way up to 50-65.

Why spend more development time on adding FILLER content for lower levels when we have more then enough REAL content? Thats all these tasks are "FILLER". Tasks = Quests without a storyline, kill x mobs a loot vender trash b return to c.

I know it requires much less resources to make these "tasks" while making it look like you devs are doing something when in reality its just another gimmick that adds nothing important to Lotro in the long term. The carrot for old players is the unique cloaks but because the tasks are level locked they can't access them right? Let me guess you will put the cloaks in the store and tell players that yes you can get them cloaks in game too *cough* unless you have outleveled the tasks.

If you want to add content that matters to the Lotro community why not focus on Adding new PVE and PVMP zones or instances? You know PVMP that VIP's pay for but that gets no real attention????? What about a Housing Revamp? or fixing Moria instances????

Originally Posted by Lohi

But they're not necessarily interesting rewards or deeds...

Maybe the best solution is to remove all deeds from them. Leave them solely as something for F2P players, and everyone will be happy.

so you're the self-appointed decider of what's interesting for the entire game's population? gotcha.

plenty of people love cloaks. plenty of people love titles. plenty of people are completionists and want to do every aspect of the game even if it comes with no tangible reward.

also, something that hasn't been mentioned enough is the reputation aspect of these tasks. someone with a maxed out tasks count can earn ~15k rep per day. (300 per quest x 10 task limit x 5 resets per day.) that is a HUGE amount of rep earning capability that is denied to other people. it offers the possibility of people getting to kindred in 5 or 6 days from doing tasks alone.

that has nothing to do with offering a leveling bonus to F2Pers -- this offers a huge step up in terms of rep ability. some people spend weeks and months leveling, grinding, buying AH items to hit kindred with a faction. meanwhile, someone else can finish in a couple days and the others are locked out from that route simply because their level is too high. patently unfair -- and it's why just adding high level tasks probably ain't enough. unless rep is also removed as a tasks reward, everyone should have access to them.....

No matter what they add, the grumps complain.

Originally Posted by Sneezer

In contradiction to a new 35-42 zone, I'm starting to think some of the vets are hurting for content right now...and I am surprised there isn't more complaining about a lack of new content and updates for those at 60+ when there seems to be such a large amount of content in development for levels 25 and lower.

Because from the perspective of this long-time player with a level-capped main, giving feedback, complaining or not, has proven mostly useless. At this point it would be a huge shock if it something remotely seemed like Turbine actually did give a plugged nickel for their older subscribers and/or level capped players.

Originally Posted by GalateaOrea

Next, as stated in the Dev Diary, the purpose is to help Free players level more easily. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I see plenty wrong when looking at the larger picture and seeing that the development and concern for players is tilted towards one segment of the player base. Yet again.

Originally Posted by Southpa

How about offering things at the end game where the largest chunk of your player base is sitting spinning their wheels? Content, not revisions. Enough revisions already. If all the resources put into revisions and revamps were actually put into new content, you'd make LOTS of paying people a lot more satisfied with their tenure in Middle Earth.

Catering to the freebs so soon after a major update that was largely catered to them? Enedwaith was a 2-week distraction. Now it's a ghost town. Hey, we need more level 11 quests!

Well said.

Originally Posted by hucklebarry

Not trying to beat a dead horse, but if decision makers are frequenting the forums, they need to know that all the level 60+ players are getting an update that doesn't fix MULTIPLE broken instances and, at the same time, adds hundreds of quests that they can't ever do. It sends a bitter message whether intended or not.

And sadly, it's not a new message.

Originally Posted by Orion

Potentially. Though, not every system or content piece is meant for our top end players. This is a prime example of something implemented for our Free Players. The tasks are available to anyone and everyone, but the primary target are those who are playing the game at a leisurely pace and don't just want to grind out landscape monsters.

Orion, you've done wonderful things for the game and I still greatly appreciate the time you took with the Lone Lands revamp diary. I also understand you don't necessarily pick what you work on, but I still have to say that this strikes me as a complete waste and directed to benefit the one segment of the population least in need of aid right now.

Originally Posted by Orion

Tasks are meant to augment leveling for free players, primarily.

As to why there are level restrictions: Imagine a world where all the high level players wanted to go back an get these deeds, and now imagine that you are a player who is working through the game at your own pace. The potential devastation to the fauna and the lack of fun that would be present to all those who are just starting to enjoy the game world who were using these quests as a way to remain engaged with the world. As these are made, primarily, for free players and characters who are leveling we wanted to make certain that the experience was as constrained and forgiving, to those players, as possible. By opening up tasks (8-50) to all players we would likely be inviting an experience that would be less than ideal for the target audience.

I'm just tickled pink to know that there's official interest in keeping the game engaging and providing an ideal experience for the newbies and free players. Just one question... what about the rest of us?

Originally Posted by Orion

Tasks, in this implementation go to 50. There is nothing saying that they will not go higher some day.

Some day ... right after the housing update is released.

Originally Posted by DunasConnor

Oh, and Orion, are these new unique cloaks that none of the higher levels can get going to be for sale in the Store? The answer to that question will be VERY telling.

I'm waiting for the skeleton horse sale, myself.

Originally Posted by ddodeadman

This is exactly what happened in DDO. Ever since F2P came about, it's been all about the lower level content. You know what we go for our level capped characters? EPIC content. Meaning old content raised to a harder setting with inflated hp and immunities. That's it. Nothing new, just rehashing old stuff.

Well, they could always buff up the mobs to rehash old instances like the Barrows and Barad Gularan and call it "new". Oh, wait ...

Originally Posted by RusselDog

1. Considering the work that Orion did rebuilding the early zones last year, and the end quality of that product, why are they wasting his (talented) time on this drivel? Shouldn't he be heading up work on new zones instead of finding a way to divert silver from low level accounts?

Forsooth!

Originally Posted by LagunaD

Poorly conceived system, waste of effort where not needed, a slap in the face to long-time subscribers, and (sadly) a clear indicator of the direction this game is going.

A very succinct and sadly correct summation. I keep trying to be optimistic, but I'm starting to forget why I'm trying.

Overall, tasks elicit this response:

Originally Posted by Orion

As to why there are level restrictions: Imagine a world where all the high level players wanted to go back an get these deeds, and now imagine that you are a player who is working through the game at your own pace. The potential devastation to the fauna and the lack of fun that would be present to all those who are just starting to enjoy the game world who were using these quests as a way to remain engaged with the world. As these are made, primarily, for free players and characters who are leveling we wanted to make certain that the experience was as constrained and forgiving, to those players, as possible. By opening up tasks (8-50) to all players we would likely be inviting an experience that would be less than ideal for the target audience.

I've a question:

Can't the trophy items being used for task turn-ins be farmed by any character (specifically, a higher level character), and handed over to another character (who has those tasks) to use those trophies for the task turn-ins?

If so, then using these regular drop trophies as turn-in items will not prevent folks higher level than the intended level range from plowing through an area to obtain these trophies to give to lower level alts to complete their tasks (or, for instance, farming them solely to sell for exorbitant prices to other players).

If this is the case, then this seems counter to the intent of the Task System being created for 'on-level' characters.

Perhaps, instead of using common, unbound, regular-loot trophy drops, create bound quest-item-type-drops which only the player who has the task will be able to obtain (and it won't clog up their inventory, either). I know this is not what was intended with the "You’ll now need to decide whether to save these for use in Tasks or continue to sell them to vendors for coin." design, however, there seem to be an awful lot of potential unpleasantries looming if common drop trophy drops are used. Perhaps revisit this part of the design, please?

Originally Posted by hex2323

No matter what they add, the grumps complain.

right, and no matter how many substantive arguments against something are laid out, a subset of fanbois blithely dismiss them without even engaging the substance of the complaints.

"everything is perfect...turbine absolutely never makes any mistakes and anyone offering any dissenting feedback is at fault" -- that's a great, open-minded approach there. jeez, at least read the thread and engage one -- just one -- of points being made being laid out before trolling without offering any substance....

Originally Posted by Nepenthea

I've a question:

Can't the trophy items being used for task turn-ins be farmed by any character (specifically, a higher level character), and handed over to another character (who has those tasks) to use those trophies for the task turn-ins?

If so, then using these regular drop trophies as turn-in items will not prevent folks higher level than the intended level range from plowing through an area to obtain these trophies to give to lower level alts to complete their tasks (or, for instance, farming them solely to sell for exorbitant prices to other players).

If this is the case, then this seems counter to the intent of the Task System being created for 'on-level' characters.

Perhaps, instead of using common, unbound, regular-loot trophy drops, create bound quest-item-type-drops which only the player who has the task will be able to obtain (and it won't clog up their inventory, either). I know this is not what was intended with the "You’ll now need to decide whether to save these for use in Tasks or continue to sell them to vendors for coin." design, however, there seem to be an awful lot of potential unpleasantries looming if common drop trophy drops are used. Perhaps revisit this part of the design, please?

Wow, want to poke a bigger hole in the theory behind level gating? You could sail a cruise ship through that!

The problem with creating a new item for it would be that it doesn't sufficiently impede the accrual of coin on free to play accounts. A better solution would mabe be to have a single NPC replacing the Board+NPC combo that you can simply buy a small volume of XP from 5 times a day?

ps. My above theory comes from a couple of things;
- There is no coin reward for Tasks
- Tasks require the sacrifice of approx. 30% of the coin you would get from a mob.
If it still seems too tinfoil hat-esque, then so be it.

Originally Posted by Orion

As to why there are level restrictions: Imagine a world where all the high level players wanted to go back an get these deeds, and now imagine that you are a player who is working through the game at your own pace. The potential devastation to the fauna and the lack of fun that would be present to all those who are just starting to enjoy the game world who were using these quests as a way to remain engaged with the world. As these are made, primarily, for free players and characters who are leveling we wanted to make certain that the experience was as constrained and forgiving, to those players, as possible. By opening up tasks (8-50) to all players we would likely be inviting an experience that would be less than ideal for the target audience.

Sorry Orion, but this is ridiculous. Quests aren't restricted. Deeds aren't restricted. Why restrict something tasks?

The real reason is that if you open it up to all levels, then a level 65 can complete the task deed with level 8 tasks. Max Level restrictions are a frustrating and demeaning solution to a difficult problem.

A better solution would be to only allow one 'grey' task per day to count toward the task deeds...

There are probably other solutions as well, like adding high level tasks, but something that doesn't spurn the capped players would be a good idea.

JS