Thread: Dev Diary Feedback: Tasks

Originally Posted by MurkyMajare

Makes me wonder if they activly chose not to add for the cap-levels on purpose.

It sounds like an oversight. Orion and his team worked on tasks, and they were not the same team that decided to remove the level cap. So it's easy to imagine they designed it all assuming a level 50 cap.

There is a lack of communication within Turbine a lot of times.

The other theory I have is that this is intended 100% for free players, it has come as a surprise that some maxed out VIP players are interested in these tasks. I've done some of these; they're incredibly boring if you actively work on them.

What would your max level characters do if they ever add a deed that you can only do in the level 1-6 starter zone? Or if they added a new title on top of Undying at level 30? Or with the new Yule festival where your character must choose between two new titles and can't have both?

Originally Posted by Gedrevn

And if the point is to allow players more opportunity to get through the mid levels...why not just encourage them to purchase an account or a quest pack like they do now?

Because we had a lot of complaints, much angrier and nastier than these in this thread, about how Turbine was lying that the game was free and that it was bait and switch, because it was so hard to level up without spending money.

Originally Posted by gildhur

Another major concern of mine. Orion is one of the best developers Turbine has. Goblin-town, Lone-lands revamp, GA revamp, redoing the entire Volume I storyline, this guy gets it. Yet they stuck him on this low level filler nonsense? It's a travesty and an insult to his intelligence.

Orion is no longer a content designer. He was transferred in January from content design to system design. He is the brains and engineer behind the development of the task system. The actual tasks would have been done (most likely) by content designers from his old group.

Good news is this means he is in the correct group to work on the revamp of legendary items and radiance. Not the itemization itself. The internal design of these systems.

orion, and anyone else: i hope you notice how much seething-hot anger offering content EXCLUSIVELY to one group to the detriment of all others creates. there's a reason you've avoided doing this in the past. it generates absolutely unnecessary loathing and fuming anger among your player base. intentionally shutting players out from content is a horrific idea.

once again, unless you plan on removing every deed, every cloak reward, and every single point of reputation reward that Tasks offer, you need to remove the level restriction. you have no one to blame but yourselves for the continuing furor this will generate if you knowingly go forward with this after all this overwhelmingly negative feedback.

Originally Posted by gildhur

F2P and the new Book-less release schedule were supposed to give us "more frequent content updates". We're still looking for those.

seriously.

the assumption that the extra revenue coming in from F2P is being pumped back into the game for more content is being proven more and more unrealistic every day. where is the content we were promised? and, short of that, why are you intentionally locking so many people out from new content you do build? utterly baffling.

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

There has been level range restricted content for a long time.

completely false. not even a little true. why is it you have no compunction about outright making things up? THERE HAVE NEVER BEEN LEVEL RANGE RESTRICTED QUESTS OF THIS SORT IN THIS GAME. you have not a single piece of evidence to support the contrary. you are factually, objectively wrong.

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

The actual tasks would have been done (most likely) by content designers from his old group.

and again. utterly false and totally making this BS up without absolutely any evidence. tasks are Orion's project, top to bottom.

Originally Posted by Lohi

It is for FREE players. It is also a quick implementation that is part of a PATCH release.

You keep calling this a "patch", which seems to minimize any responsibility for delivering complete and functional features, when others are calling this a "bookless update".

In the past, patches for LOTRO have simply contained hotfixes for critical issues discovered after an update has been released. Patches have never introduced new features or new content.

I think "bookless update" is a more accurate description.

From the producer's letter:

Originally Posted by Kate Paiz

On the topic of updates, I wanted to let you know that we have shifted the way we think about our releases. In the past our updates depended on new Books being added to the Epic story. Going forward, updates will not always feature a new installment in the epic story line. By decoupling the Books from Updates we’ll have the flexibility to offer different types of new content and new features in each release. This will also allow us to do more releases each year. Don’t worry, continuing the Epic Story and continuing along the path of the Ring is very important to us! We’ll have more information to share about that and our plans for 2011 in the coming months.

This update just happens to be one that contains mostly "new features" (barter wallet, task system, further vault refinements, new and upgraded reputation mounts, class revisions, crafting changes, level cap removal) and very little "new content" (a couple hours of repeatable festival activities for a month).

I think if we continue to get more frequent updates, we should expect these types. Developers can quickly and cheaply introduce partially implemented game systems, and make incremental changes to those features more frequently in response to player feedback. Content is more expensive and takes longer to produce (and can't as easily be adapted to player feedback), and so we should expect to see it more rarely.

Originally Posted by john_anthony

where is the content we were promised?

They've said it is coming early next year.

Since they've already said that, why complain in October that it's not here yet, and in November that it's not here yet...? Will there me more complaints in December that there's no new content?

I'd rather that the content stick on schedule than to be rushed out and be broken.

I love this. Turbine goes out of their way to add new content to help all the people complaining. And what happens? OTHER people complain about the NEW content! Turbine can't win!

This content was intended for the new players who are finding things hard to do because of the lack of content! If you SERIOUSLY need to do this because of your OCD problem (yes, it's YOUR problem, not Turbines!), then MAKE A NEW CHARACTER, and run through it! Throw the cloaks in your wardrobe and BAM! Everyone can use them.

Originally Posted by Greenasp

I love this. Turbine goes out of their way to add new content to help all the people complaining.

Lol. So you're saying there's not enough quests/content to level up? Are new people really complying that there's not enough stuff to level up? Please. How did everyone else leveled up? Was so much harder in 2007 and we're stll here! Nvm, I get it...

Wtb a level, 999 Turbine Points...

Originally Posted by Lohi

This is a PATCH release, there was never any expectation from anyone for end game content with it.

The announcement said that tasks would be for everyone. Now, we're being told that "everyone" really means "everyone but the long-term loyal customers".

If the original announcement said "tasks will be solely for free and low level players", then I would have absolutely no complaints. But to go back on their word by changing the definition of "everyone" doesn't sit well with me.

At least with "grow with you" and "convenience not advantage", the final product did match some interpretation of their associated terms, even if that interpretation wasn't shared by the general player base. Now, they're not even bothering with twisted interpretations, they're outright contradicting the very definition of the word they chose to use to describe the system.

Originally Posted by Lohi

None. If you find the game is not fun, then why are you playing it? This is not a request to go away, but a request to possibly find a second outlet for your entertainment time instead of constantly asking "are we there yet?" from the back seat. When I get burned out I go do something else.

If everyone were to do that, where would the game go? Would the loss of income from so many dropped subscriptions somehow make the game prosper?

Ms. Paiz's letter said that we would see more content updates under F2P, so I was expecting exactly that. Why was it so wrong of me to expect "content" to mean something other than "content that a large percentage of the player base will never be able to complete"? Even Steefel didn't make those kind of jumps.

Depending on how the next six months go, I may take your advice. But when even the fans of a company advise quitting the game, what does that tell you about the state of the company?

Originally Posted by Greenasp

I love this. Turbine goes out of their way to add new content to help all the people complaining. And what happens? OTHER people complain about the NEW content! Turbine can't win!

At least half of those complaining about the lack of content are level-capped players. So what does Turbine do? They toss out content that actively excludes half of those who were complaining in the first place.

Originally Posted by Greenasp

If you SERIOUSLY need to do this because of your OCD problem (yes, it's YOUR problem, not Turbines!), then MAKE A NEW CHARACTER, and run through it! Throw the cloaks in your wardrobe and BAM! Everyone can use them.

It's not an OCD issue, it's the fact that completed deeds, regardless of type or reward, do give a tangible benefit to level-capped players in the form of a higher active quest cap.

Originally Posted by Lohi

I'd rather that the content stick on schedule than to be rushed out and be broken.

LOL - given Turbine's performance of late, do you really expect them to release unbroken content? They have a long history now of releasing broken content. Look at F2P - they broke multiple instances and it still went live. What about when they released the Turtle raid, had to shut it down immediately because they stuffed up the raid locks. BG has never really worked correctly. Hmmmm.....what about RKs? They've been available since Moria was released, and we have Dev's now telling us that some of their trait bonuses have never worked. I cannot even count the number times they release a festival and then a day later there are posts coming out about things not working correctly.....please...

Lohi - you are obviously a very patient person, always wanting to believe in the best of Turbine, but seriously, even you must be getting tired of trying to defend their lacklustre performance - either that, or you are quite happy to accept a subpar product.

Originally Posted by Greenasp

If you SERIOUSLY need to do this because of your OCD problem (yes, it's YOUR problem, not Turbines!), then MAKE A NEW CHARACTER, and run through it!

You would seriously equate a valid playstyle with a debilitating mental illness? Just as some people make alts, some people prefer to complete all the content on one character.

If there was only exp/coin/etc, things that could be gained elsewhere, this would not be an issue. Even reputation could feasibly be gained elsewhere. But once you start offering unique rewards, such as cosmetics and deeds, which are relevant to level-capped players but you don't permit them to acquire them, that is the source of the outcry.

It is baffling that in a pained effort to cater to new up-and-coming players, measures are taken to ensure that a few high level players do not spend a few minutes in a low-level zone (15 tasks maximum) for the rush of the first few days, that they will continue to alienate the established PAYING (VIP) group that would be looking to go back and complete these tasks once.

Did they not previously take out rest XP for F2P as an incentive to pay for VIP?

Did they not add dynamic layers if one of these low-level areas actually got a little crowded (further should even have the means to temporarily lower the threshholds to create more layers if they actually were making this decision on fear of higher level characters going back)?

Originally Posted by RicardoFurriel

Lol. So you're saying there's not enough quests/content to level up? Are new people really complying that there's not enough stuff to level up?

If you are trying to play for free, then no, there aren't enough quests/content to level up, other than mindless grinding enemies. Sure, many people would prefer they just go and subscribe, or at least buy a quest pack. But the whole point of this is to give free players more options because of all the grief Turbine got by calling it "free to play".

Originally Posted by jayssen

LOL - given Turbine's performance of late, do you really expect them to release unbroken content? They have a long history now of releasing broken content. Look at F2P - they broke multiple instances and it stil

I'll rephrase it then. Do you want them to ship content quickly that is even more broken than usual?

They have said new content is coming next year. And yet people still act like they're on the edge of their seats expecting new content any minute.

Originally Posted by StavroMuellerBeta

Ms. Paiz's letter said that we would see more content updates under F2P, so I was expecting exactly that. Why was it so wrong of me to expect "content" to mean something other than "content that a large percentage of the player base will never be able to complete"? Even Steefel didn't make those kind of jumps.

exactly right. and that letter continued to say that acting on player feedback was was one of the core pillars on which the game would run moving forward. well, this thread is ample feedback: something like 95% visceral, angry, up-in-arms dissatisfaction, and the remaining 5% of posts from the same four people repeating the same broken record stuff over and over, and not even responding to the complaints as they have been repeatedly stated. a poll on this subject would clearly show a hugely disproportionate negative response -- if the individual posts in this thread are not enough, just post an official poll and see.

if they allow something that causes this level of massive dissatisfaction to go forward, it makes the commitment to listen to/act upon feedback laughable.

intentionally locking people out of content -- at the same time you're NOT offering them other content aimed at them -- is about the worst development strategy i can imagine. to repeat: unless they remove all the non-xp rewards from tasks (all deeds, all cloaks, all reputation), they need to drop the level restriction.

Originally Posted by Lohi

I'll rephrase it then. Do you want them to ship content quickly that is even more broken than usual?

They have said new content is coming next year. And yet people still act like they're on the edge of their seats expecting new content any minute.

The point is, it doesn't matter when they ship the content, it will be broken, they have proven that time and time again. Content is shown to be broken in beta tests, they still release it.

Just because they have said a new instance cluster is coming next year does not mean that they couldn't throw level capped players a bone by introducing some new content now. Many felt that the Task system might give them something new to do, but this has proven not to be the case....for some strange reason. Its really lovely that you are happy to sit around and wait for content, but other people, who actually do pay to play this game and have done for a few years now, are getting a little tired of the endless run around from Turbine. Additionally, just because they said it was coming early next year means nothing. I remember when SoM was released, we were told multiple raids were on the drawing board.....lol.....and look, a year later, and nothing. So really, you coming onto these forums and repeating verbatim what Turbine has said, means nothing to a lot of players now.

Originally Posted by Lohi

They have said new content is coming next year. And yet people still act like they're on the edge of their seats expecting new content any minute.

They said that Lorien would come with Moria. They said a new PvMP zone would come with Moria. They said that LIs would remain with our character throughout our journey. They said that the next raid cluster would be here in late 2010. They said that rare instance loot would not be in the store.

Please excuse me for not blindly following everyone who comes along promising that things will be different this time around. For all we know, book 3 might be yet another non-content update. We might not even get to see a new zone or group instance until November 2011. Do I know this for certain? No. But my guess has just as much of a factual basis as your guess that we WILL see new content with book 3.

Hm I'm not too happy with the sound that tasks will have a level max restriction... but so far the idea of having tasks and a tab for it and a bulletin board sounds ok. Any chance we can have a title after completing X amount of tasks? Like, Taskmaster. Or better yet, Errand Boy. ;P

Originally Posted by Ceraby

Hm I'm not too happy with the sound that tasks will have a level max restriction... but so far the idea of having tasks and a tab for it and a bulletin board sounds ok. Any chance we can have a title after completing X amount of tasks? Like, Taskmaster. Or better yet, Errand Boy. ;P

The deeds that are associated with the tasks grant rewards and titles. For example, the first deed gives a gift box and the title "Up-and-Comer".

Turbine Devs,

Bree has enough quests and content to get you too 25. Lonelands is fairly cheap and will get you to 35 if you complete all the quests. We don't need Tasks to level up. After Lonelands obviously it will be a grind for a free2play gamer but Turbine needs to make money selling quest packs not these "filler" tasks that add nothing to the game in the long term.

Turbine if you want to make money by selling content, why not improve our current Zones or add to them so players will buy Quest packs? Maybe make it so when you buy a quest pack you get swift travel within that area and other zone related bonuses.

You could also add more quests and instances to excisting zones that scale by your level and offer unique rewards dependent on the zone. This would encourage free2players to buy quest packs and old players to revisit these zones for the new instances/quests.

While reading thry this all level gating, i keep wondering, why not implement a nice solution to these problems.

Allow any task being pickable for any character - on FIRST time. Only repeats will be locked out, if the level of player is over the limit for the task. This could allow both new players enjoy all tasks as many times as they can while in level range, and oldtimers too being able to see all the new tasks at least once as well.

Do this, instead of current 'ok, we created a lot of new stuff for everyone, but sorry, you no more are eligible for this new content, thank you very much', and allow anyone see this new addition, at least once.

Originally Posted by john_anthony

exactly right. and that letter continued to say that acting on player feedback was was one of the core pillars on which the game would run moving forward. well, this thread is ample feedback: something like 95% visceral, angry, up-in-arms dissatisfaction, and the remaining 5% of posts from the same four people repeating the same broken record stuff over and over, and not even responding to the complaints as they have been repeatedly stated. a poll on this subject would clearly show a hugely disproportionate negative response -- if the individual posts in this thread are not enough, just post an official poll and see.

if they allow something that causes this level of massive dissatisfaction to go forward, it makes the commitment to listen to/act upon feedback laughable.

intentionally locking people out of content -- at the same time you're NOT offering them other content aimed at them -- is about the worst development strategy i can imagine. to repeat: unless they remove all the non-xp rewards from tasks (all deeds, all cloaks, all reputation), they need to drop the level restriction.

What "level of massive dissatisfaction"? It's a fact that less than 5% of a games population even READS the boards, much less posts. Even fewer of those that are happy post anything. The vast majority of posting is done by that subset of the 5% who are not satisfied with something.

I have to wonder at the sheer audacity of some posters, making demands like their opinion is the only thing that matters. Didn't your parents ever teach you manners? That you 'catch more flies with honey'? These forums are rapidly catching up to a certain other games forums. That's definately not something to be proud of!

Originally Posted by Lohi

I'll rephrase it then. Do you want them to ship content quickly that is even more broken than usual?

They have said new content is coming next year. And yet people still act like they're on the edge of their seats expecting new content any minute.

Tbh, Im wondering and curious as to how Turbine can release content that is more broken than usual. Last update they managed to break 2 raids just by fixing another bug that lasted for 10 months (and had a severe impact on some gameplay)(the eye bug as a result of the firelore bug). Turbine has managed to set a pretty high barrier for the 'broken as usual' already. Seriously, more 'broken then usual' will actually take a lot of effort to get there.


And yeah, the argument that because they said new content is coming, we need to shut our mouth is ridiculous. Turbine has made lots of statements about upcoming content. I know there were quite some for 2010 that were not fulfilled, but only the multiple raids spring to mind atm. Look at other posts if you want more examples.

Originally Posted by hucklebarry

What's interesting is outside of a single troll post, I'm not really seeing the F2P crowd argue the need to keep tasks as they are right now. Where is the rebuttal to 10 pages of people asking for non-exclusive content? I would think if this content is for them alone, they would be here singing its praise. Or do they not want to be locked out of it either once they hit mid 50s?

I don't think, (could be wrong) that the f2p'ers can post to this forum. It's not a f2p forum. Again, I could be wrong.

I do agree there does seem to be a very quiet player base on this topic, and yes, it happens to be the player base this is intended for.

Like one person said earlier, most of the f2p'ers that came in when it first started, are probably all past this content now anyway. It's been over a month now since it launched, that's plenty of time for a lot of them to have hit moria or be darn close.

Originally Posted by Kaarnyj

What "level of massive dissatisfaction"? It's a fact that less than 5% of a games population even READS the boards, much less posts. Even fewer of those that are happy post anything. The vast majority of posting is done by that subset of the 5% who are not satisfied with something.

Wow. Strawman FTW.

If you're going to call BS on (and basically scold) someone for making (what you are calling) assumptions, don't combat them with your own vaporous data set. You are not speaking from some deep well of common knowledge here. You are assuming yourself. Lots.

No, I'd be more likely to believe that the 5% (your assumption) of LOTRO players that post here are probably a good sampling of those who are also invested in the game - from all levels of (dis)contentment, achievement and hopes for the future of the game.

If you don't agree, I'd urge you to provide us with real-world data showing the average in-game satisfaction of:

Forum Posters
Facebook Fans
Twitter Tweeter Readers
Only-play-the-gamers

Then we can all provide you with our percentage of use for these forms of extraneous game participation, you can normalize us and tell us how we should really feel. After all, your finger is obviously right on the pulse...

Then - and only then - we may get somewhere without all this awful negative forum bias skewing game reality.

Did you read the thread?

Also, you know that those who don't offer feedback don't really count at this stage, right? Is everyone given a shot at Beta testing? No. Do they ever make large-scale changes based on the extreme minority feedback given by Beta players? You bet they do. It may take time, but they most certainly do.

Perhaps now you'd like to try to formulate a more informed conclusion?

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

Orion is no longer a content designer. He was transferred in January from content design to system design. He is the brains and engineer behind the development of the task system. The actual tasks would have been done (most likely) by content designers from his old group.

I know what team Orion is working for, thank you. Regardless, he's one of their best developers, and is good at making content. JWB is a systems guy too, but he makes skirmish and instance content and has now started commenting on the Book 3 raid. I don't care what team he's on, he should be making the quality stuff he's known for. This just seems like a terrible downgrade for him.

Originally Posted by Fredelas

You keep calling this a "patch", which seems to minimize any responsibility for delivering complete and functional features, when others are calling this a "bookless update".

In the past, patches for LOTRO have simply contained hotfixes for critical issues discovered after an update has been released. Patches have never introduced new features or new content.

I think "bookless update" is a more accurate description.

From the producer's letter:


This update just happens to be one that contains mostly "new features" (barter wallet, task system, further vault refinements, new and upgraded reputation mounts, class revisions, crafting changes, level cap removal) and very little "new content" (a couple hours of repeatable festival activities for a month).

I think if we continue to get more frequent updates, we should expect these types. Developers can quickly and cheaply introduce partially implemented game systems, and make incremental changes to those features more frequently in response to player feedback. Content is more expensive and takes longer to produce (and can't as easily be adapted to player feedback), and so we should expect to see it more rarely.

Originally Posted by Lohi

They've said it is coming early next year.

Since they've already said that, why complain in October that it's not here yet, and in November that it's not here yet...? Will there me more complaints in December that there's no new content?

I'd rather that the content stick on schedule than to be rushed out and be broken.

Originally Posted by Lohi

I'll rephrase it then. Do you want them to ship content quickly that is even more broken than usual?

They have said new content is coming next year. And yet people still act like they're on the edge of their seats expecting new content any minute.

As the Paiz letter also said, disconnecting the Books from the update schedule was going to mean we could get "more releases each year". Early September to middle of November to early February isn't more, especially when the November update has no actual content. I understand the release schedule of this game, and what we've gotten historically in Books vs patches vs hotfixes. I get it.

Let's take a couple more quotes from the Paiz letter:

"By decoupling the Books from Updates we’ll have the flexibility to offer different types of new content and new features in each release."

Why is the separation necessary for that? We used to get new types of content and new features in Book releases in the past. Fishing was added in Book 13. An entirely new Creep class was added in Book 13 as well. Book 10 added (Book 13 expanded, and MoM was supposed to further develop but was scrapped) the Annuminas control point dynamic which was previously exclusive to PvMP. There have been tons of system additions and feature updates in Book releases in the past. It's strange that in order to add them now they have to be done apart from Book releases.

"This will also allow us to do more releases each year."

This is the big one. We all assumed that more releases each year meant more CONTENT each year. We didn't realize that we'd only get content in Book releases and that everything in between would just be features, upgrades, tweaks, and bug fixes (read: nothing new to actually do). I know it's a bit premature to pass judgment on the entire release schedule, but what we've seen so far out of this November update and the "early next year" estimate for Book 3 isn't exactly inspiring confidence. Two months from a big content release (Book 2) to a patch with no content, then another 2-3 months until the next release (Book 3). That's not "more releases" each year so far, that's even worse than the SoA schedule up to mid-2008!

Now perhaps "more releases" was supposed to be relative to the total of...two updates we've had in the last 11 months. But again. That's not exactly inspiring. It's like the Dallas Cowboys saying they're going to win more games this year. Uh yeah, since it would be almost physically impossible for them to lose any more and still realistically call themselves a football team!

Anyway. Time will tell. But for now, it's not looking great.

Originally Posted by Frishia

I don't think, (could be wrong) that the f2p'ers can post to this forum. It's not a f2p forum. Again, I could be wrong.

Yes we can. Well, actually I am VIP in EU, been founder and lifetimer since game release (or, since pre-access in fact), but when F2P was coming I got invited to Bullroarer, and back then I could post only to Beta forums here in US forums but after F2P release, it seems like I can post everywhere, altough I still have only my Bullroarer character in US.

Really, they should combine US and EU forums, would be easier for all. But that's another subject.

Oh, good grief. Are we really up in arms that we aren't being given a grind that won't do anything for us anyway because we are leveled capped?

Or is it really about the cloak? If someone has actually seen this fabled cloak, over which so many palms are sweating at its exclusiveness to low-level players, please, please post it! Does this cloak turn into the Symbol of Celebrimbor at level 65 or what? Is that what the uproar's about? You combine it with the lucky horseshoe and--voila--the perfect legendary?

Ah, for those halcyon days when every other thread foresaw the death of LOTRO in the paucity of players. So much more seemly than this huff over vendor trash tasks for struggling new players.

Don't begrudge the lowbies their repetitive tasks. You're 65, you've got a dozen mounts, the walls of your house covered in glorious trophies, and gold in your teal-colored breeches. You're at the top of the game where all these players wish they were. Deal with it.

I believe that for most people that complains about this, it is not about having more to do, but it is about being barred access to the new deeds and unique rewards.

What I fail to understand is why, oh, why, they don't just add 5 more tasks for level 55,60 and 65?

I mean, the actual code is more or less copy-and-paste to add. So why have they stopped at lv 50?

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 tend to agree with this. At least one person thus far has pointed out that grinding virtue points already forces high level players to go back and compete with lower level characters for kill quests. Even so, I can certainly understand Turbine wishing to avoid adding to that problem. The issue I have with the level restrictions is the reward system.

If these tasks are being added simply to help F2P players level more easily then all they need for rewards is experience points. And if that was the case then I wouldn't have a problem with the level restrictions. Unfortunately, from what I've read, it sounds like Turbine is also including rewards that higher level players may want for their characters but at the same time denying them the ability to obtain it. This is, at least in my opinion, a very bad idea.

Unless everyone at Turbine has been newly hired, they have to know how coveted things like titles and unique cosmetics are to a great many players. That being the case, why in the world would they add such items to quests that have such a small window of accessibility? That's like carrying a lit torch into a warehouse full of spilt kegs of gunpowder. And to do so intentionally seems to be the height of folly.

Hopefully I have misunderstood these rewards. If titles are not being given out via tasks and any item rewards are common graphics with helpful buffs then I feel the new task system will be a boon for F2P players and of no consequence to the rest of the player base. I guess we'll just have to wait to see if the guano hits the fan when the update comes out.

Originally Posted by GalateaOrea

Oh, good grief. Are we really up in arms that we aren't being given a grind that won't do anything for us anyway because we are leveled capped?

Yes

I'm really annoyed by this. I pay my subs; why can't I complete tasks, deeds, earn cloaks, whatever, that new players can on their main character(s), but old timers can't on theirs?

Originally Posted by Calabar

If these tasks are being added simply to help F2P players level more easily then all they need for rewards is experience points. And if that was the case then I wouldn't have a problem with the level restrictions. Unfortunately, from what I've read, it sounds like Turbine is also including rewards that higher level players may want for their characters but at the same time denying them the ability to obtain it. This is, at least in my opinion, a very bad idea.

precisely right and very well stated.

Daoc used the exact same idea 8-9 years ago. However they did not have a "daily" limit. My only problem with these tasks is the daily thing. At first it seemed like a really nice thing but as long there is a daily limit, its not really something you will be chasing down to complete.

Also how much experience do these give, is it percent of your level or is it like the skirmishes, a chunk of xp that looses its value after a bunch of levels?

Well when i read about this at first i was exciting. I am not excited any longer, mostly due to the daily limit. That ruined it.

Originally Posted by Calabar

If these tasks are being added simply to help F2P players level more easily then all they need for rewards is experience points. And if that was the case then I wouldn't have a problem with the level restrictions. Unfortunately, from what I've read, it sounds like Turbine is also including rewards that higher level players may want for their characters but at the same time denying them the ability to obtain it. This is, at least in my opinion, a very bad idea.

^ this

+rep

Personnaly, i dont understand, why turbine took time to give new ways for f2p, to grind up their level ( i can sens angry comments coming), i went up to level 25 very easly, before i even had to buy Loneland pack, (i'm a premium player). If they want to make money with this game, they should not give everything free and thus, should concentrate more on fixing bugs, and maybe making new zones, still lot of blank space on the map, from what i've seen.

Maybe they should just lower the cost of quest packs, so people would be more likely to spend money on those. They should not downgrade the game or make it easyer, its allready very easy to level.

p.s. sorry if my english is bad, its not my native language

I'm curious as to why this is a feedback thread. It seems to be only a 'vent here' thread since there's only us in here and nothing from Turbine, I'm pretty sure everything will stay exactly as they have it right now and no amount of 'feedback' will make a difference.

They should really rename these threads to something that doesn't imply that they actually care about feedback or that it will make a difference at all.

Originally Posted by GalateaOrea

Oh, good grief. Are we really up in arms that we aren't being given a grind that won't do anything for us anyway because we are leveled capped?

The deeds DO give a tangible benefit to all players, in the form of a higher active quest cap.

But regardless of any real or perceived benefits, why am I supposed to remain quiet when the product I pay for turns out to be different than the product I receive?

Tasks- ok, fine, add some variety. (but I will still mainly use daily free skirmishes for the xp and skirmish marks to always keep on a good set of armor) But lvl 8 for dwarves, hobbits and elves. You can just about be level 8 when you leave the Introduction. And then you have every quest in the world ahead of you. This would be better to start in the mid-20s as an alternative to skimishing (or even mid-30s when leveling gets a little slower, before then you hardly have time to upgrade your armor before you outlevel it, you level so quickly.) And why the hating on men (only get tasks at level 14) - you want to "break lore" by forcing low-level men to leave Bree for the Shire or Ered Luin, instead of leveling in their own area?

As if leveling wasn't already too easy at the lower levels to where out leveling quests in a region is ridiculously easy! Gah!!! The ONLY saving grace is for people with multiple alts wanting some variety as they create new characters. But still, all this time developers spend on making it easier to level, how about spending some time on making ways for those of us looking to enjoy game content on level and NOT looking to gain a level every time we sneeze?!?!

You guys keep dumbing down the game, making everything easier, and eroding the challenge that made this game so fun!

This is a terrible idea. Tasks are level capped?

This, right on top of the new 10-30 second pay-to-play consumables? Sheesh, Turbine.