Thread: Feedback: Producer's Letter March – 2011

Today Kate “Nereid” Paiz talks about LOTRO's 4th birthday, Update 3, and more! Click here for her latest Producer's Letter and post your comments here!

Err 2011 ?

While saddened to hear about the raid not being finished until ROI, and a little annoyed by the plugs for store items (wonder if you are required to mention the store a certain number of times), I'm quite glad to hear that there's another update scheduled just a couple months away.

Don't get me wrong. I love the new patch and all there is to do, but my kin lost a lot of people in the long dark time between mirkwood and update 2, and people are still leery about an announcement devoid of any new group content.

interesting:

After that, we’ll be introducing a new festival-like event where players will get a chance to spend a few days frantically searching for buried treasure. It’ll have some cool in-game rewards, and will likely be open for play periodically over the year.

we’ll be introducing a new Anniversary Festival, for players to enjoy as we celebrate our 4th birthday in April!

Sad to hear about the delay:

To answer one question about Isengard: some of you have been asking about the other raid we have in development – it’s going to be an amazing experience, as it has a monstrous dragon boss with custom voice-over and lip-syncing animation, but it’s also been challenging to get all those pieces intertwined so we’re going to keep working on it and it will now be a part of the Isengard release this fall.

Good to hear info on update 3 and a date:

We’re also working on Update 3, currently scheduled for late May, with 2 new mid-level instances and 2 new Skirmishes, all of which support scaling to level 65.

Originally Posted by JeanCarlo

Err 2011 ?

Hehehe thanks!

Hooray for 2 new mid-level instances and 2 new skirmishes in May. I was actually wondering if there was going to be another big update before Isengard, so I'm glad that the answer is yes.

I wonder, will the May update include a new book as a prelude to Isengard? Or is that something that will launch with Isengard itself?

The advertisement for the newly improved (and more expensive) LOTRO Store potions in the first paragraph kind of ruined the rest of it for me. At least players now know not to expect another raid until Isengard is released.

My overall feedback: LOTRO needs less "store" and more "story".

Though I question the slightly blatant store item plugs [sorry, just my opinion] I did like the information that was presented. I like that there will be a SM reset token coming to the LotRO store [this is something I can definitely live with being store only - it isn't a requirement, just something nice to have in case you make a mistake w/ your soldier].

The treasure hunt thing reminds me, going by her words only, of the latest DDO anniversary event... I hope it isn't like the DDO event [not only to keep the products unique, but because that particular event didn't sit well with me - opinion again]. Please let it not be Goblin Pirates and Miners...

I don't have much of an opinion on the raid delay, but it looks like they are working some new tech into the game via it and can understand why it may take longer than expected. New skirmishes and instances coming in may? That is the quick pace we have been hoping for since F2P was announced - Considering the time between the last pre-F2P content patch, then between F2P and Update 2 - Update 3 will be coming in quicker than we have gotten used to

In terms of end-game instances:

What we have now is all we're gettting till Isenguard..6-8 months of nothing new, wonderfull to hear.

If anyone wants to know what was in the letter and not read it...

The store is doing great!

The Raid is delayed 8 months for a fluff feature in it with moving lips on a voice over.

We are getting 2 instances (no disclosure on group size) and 2 skirmishes for mid to max level!

YAY!

Hrm - figured what I said may be taken out of context so I have removed it before a moderator has to. I will keep quiet now.

Originally Posted by Fredelas

My overall feedback: LOTRO needs less "store" and more "story".

Agreed.

The improved Morale potions and Battle potions of Restoration have also found permanent places on my hot bar, as have my new milestones.

This was a bit of a cheap shot IMO.

I sincerely hope, that when you design your end game raids, you don't have store pots hot keyed to make it playable, as a set variable of design.

That would be highly dishonorable, profitable yes, but highly dishonorable, and not a sustainable practice in the long run.

Profit now, pay for your sins later.

I have to stay I have been enjoying this new update and cant wait to see what comes out in may.. Only thing i want to complain about is I want custom weapon slots so i can hold a fish and still fight with my regular. As for the raid all good things come in time. I don't get why people complain if you compare the amount of content that this game puts out as apposed to WOW and others, LOTRO brings out more raids/ dungeons than any other game. Keep up the good work guys. Im so glad I became a lifer when I did =D!!

Another festival? I guess that's ok since I have no time to explore the one currently on.
Note to Turbine: Releasing a festival at the same time as 5 brand new instances, including a raid, is a really bad idea.

"The improved Morale potions and Battle potions of Restoration have also found permanent places on my hot bar, as have my new milestones."
Easy when you work for Turbine and have access to unlimited Turbine Points. Not so easy when you have to pay cash.

Originally Posted by carlosjuero

Wow... I figured it would take at least an hour before people started trashing on the producers letter. Once again the forum community has proved me wrong.

Well to be fair the letter was a little forum trollish. It plugged the store heavily, it brought up a cool raid that is being pushed back a release, it mentions more skirmishes, and its biggest news was low level and fluff stuff. That is practically a bingo.

Personally, I am very happy to hear about the new skirmish soldier reset and I hope the new instances are the Fornost revamp. I was hoping to hear there would be a new book, but no word.

Another Update in MAY?!?!?

No mention of continuing class updates? I'm sure Guardians and Wardens are all anxious for their class updates...

I really like the new look of the character panel, as well as the new content. My highest level toon is 45 Hunter, at which point I had to go back to Evendim to re-coup the benefits of Rep. At any rate I have a question: Will there in the next up date a way for Kinships to have a Kinship bank? Not to make this game like WOW. But it would prove to be helpful for Kinsmen to share profession items amongst the Kin.
I really think this game is great alot better than WOW, as I have played that for 6 years, and most of the people that I have come acrossed are very helpful, and polite, as I do pay attention to in game chat as well.

Thanks again for your hard work.

I hope that the Wardens, Guardians and Champion's class revisions are also in Update 3. Did Kate forgot to mention that or are they gonna be delayed?

Originally Posted by Darej

this game is fast becoming lord of the store online

adding ability to reset soldiers points is a great thing...but it shouldnt be a store only item.

subs and lifers should not have to BUY every little frakking new feature that gets introduced in a FREE content update

the way they are pushing the store in your face ( like the removal of beautiful art loading screens in exchange for highway billboard signs for the store) makes me think they are putting the store first and foremost...and the fans a distant second

other then that i am happy that so far Paiz has been far more truthful with us then her predecessor

As a member of the EU I can say that the new Update is great for most players so a great job there and a round of applause to the dev team for your hard work.

However I agree that the store is becoming an in your face thing, i paid less than a year ago for my life-time subscription despite being with the game since Beta, and am not seeing that many "rewards" anymore for being as such. I don't have a lot of money so i cant buy points, yet all the good things are going there? Plus saving points inst the best option because when you have enough points as a life-time subscriber new things you want are out. Perhaps some consideration to those who didn't start at F2P? Such as separating ways to get things to VIP's and then a different way for F2P?

Originally Posted by Morcanden

No mention of continuing class updates? I'm sure Guardians and Wardens are all anxious for their class updates...

+1, baby! Our time is due! And please don't nerf us? Please?

I have to agree with other posters that bludgeoning me over the head with the Store items in the first paragraph of the Producer's letter gives a clear indication of where the priorities are for the game - and they are not in the game itself. /sadpanda

That said, it's nice to be given a reason for the raid delay (whether or not people find it convincing is beside the point). Bonus points for new scalable instances and skirmishes unlooked-for before the aptly-acronymed ROI expansion. I, too, had grown resigned to seeing no appreciable increase in updates after F2P despite the hype to the contrary. Still not up to what was anticipated, but better than none.

And I am looking forward to seeing what this treasure hunt thing is like - hopefully it's something anyone at any level can participate in, and not something that higher level players can make undoable for others - seen enough of that in other games to last me a lifetime. If so, it will be something new and different than we've really seen - and as such will be a very welcome celebration.

"The improved Morale potions and Battle potions of Restoration have also found permanent places on my hot bar, as have my new milestones."

My hot bar contains skills/items that I NEED like food, tokens, scrolls or the everyday skills that are part of the skill rotation. Often, useless things like Ardour on my champ, the dance emote on my minie or the bow emote on my captain are out of my hot bars because I don't need them.

The day I need your super pot from the store it will be a sad day. That will probably mean the end of an era. And that part of the letter feels exactly that: pots are like food or tokens or pip gen skills...

The rest of it is just compliant with the direction the game is taking. Store as the money maker. I agree with one thing though: no promises of LIs leveling with you and other BS. It is what it is.

I was under the impression that RoI would also have a raid, with the delay of the Anniversary raid does that mean that the plan is to launch RoI with 2 raids or that the RoI raid will be delayed? Or was my initial assumption incorrect?

I always thought that a second raid so soon after OD was going to short change one of them, unless it was a single dungeon raid a la Watcher or Turtle.

Personally, I could care less about group content or festivals. So basically nothing currently on the radar that would even moderately interest me. Glad I'm going Premium next week.

I suspect many players won't even notice the lip-syncing on the dragon, honestly. But one can always hope, I guess.

And yeah, the blatant store plug was a bit tacky. It gives me absolutely no confidence that Turbine will see the error of its current ways, or even acknowledges just how many veterans are unhappy. But hey, maybe it will all work out for Turbine in the long run. They'll just have to do it without any more of my money, is all.

If the new raid is as well done as OD then I will gladly wait. Would love to hear more about how many bosses & if this means that Isengard will launch with multiple raids.

"...and the Gorthoron Raid (thank goodness the wings stay unlocked once finished – I just can’t quite hack those all night raids anymore)."
What is she talking about here? That's what a raid lock has always done. Maybe she was thinking about the excessive trash pulls in BG or the gauntlet re-spawning, which has nothing to do with locks. If so, I can agree that it would be a much better raid if it got a once over and 3/4 of the trash was pulled out.

Looks interesting, it's a shame that the raid is being delayed (sounds cool though, everyone likes a dragon).

Originally Posted by dotfive

Looks interesting, it's a shame that the raid is being delayed (sounds cool though, everyone likes a dragon).

I think the dwarves would have something to say about this.

So a May update probably means mostly a "class update" patch. Wardens, Guards, Chumps?

Anniversary rewards this year for VIP or Lifetime subscriptions this year are not mentioned. I think we all enjoy those.

The masses want festibals!



Show me the money, Turbine...

Originally Posted by Beimez

Anniversary rewards this year for VIP or Lifetime subscriptions this year are not mentioned. I think we all enjoy those.

Rewards?? For Lifers? You have my attention =P

Big thanks to the money machine at WB/T for providing yet another game improvement only available for cash via the Store.

Many of us have wanted an option to "Trade In" our Soldier, in whom we have often invested a lot of SMs, to try a different model, but just can't stomach the idea of paying out vast amounts of SMs to level another model just to find it doesn't work.

Instead of making the Scroll to return the SMs from a Soldier only available by paying yet more money to WB/T this item should be available for SMs. This would be entirely logical and consistent with the basic premise of a Skirmish Soldier; but it obviously runs counter to the micro-transaction approach to the game where extra cash is milked from every opportunity.

I guess the next thing will be Skirmish Soldier improvements, or to use WB/T-speak "convenient enhancements", that are likewise only available for cash through the Store?

We’ll also be introducing a new item to the LOTRO store that allows characters to reset the Skirmish Marks spent on Skirmish Traits.

Brilliant! Now, fix the wallet so it can hold all the danged tokens, branches, leaves, twigs, medallions, badges, and assorted other "currencies" so we can have some of our Vault space back. (snarky comment about liking our vaults full of this stuff to sell more Vault space in Store with held).

I'll add my 2 cents here.

The blatant store advertising is disheartening. Do, the developers actually think people LIKE how in your face the store is? It makes me wonder.

I would offer more of my opinion, but it appears I need to buy an item from the store to continue.

I agree with the rest of the thread that the store plugins in the first paragraph were tacky and unnecessary.

Nice to know that there is an update planned for May, not surprised about the delay of the raid, though this "dragon" bit made me wondering. Will it be an undead Ancalagon? XD Maybe she meant drake... ah, who knows.

Also, folks, I imagine that more class updates are on the way. I doubt that every upcoming update for May was announced in this letter, especially since, while 2 instances and 2 skirmishes are cool, that's still nothing compared to this last update. I would imagine more class improvements, and maybe some more UI changes and core element revamps (like some kinship improvements).

And dang it all, I want housing revamped

I really love the new content so I'm really happy with the last update. I think all the instances are great, and i'm glad to hear that bugs are being worked on. Glad to hear some news about the raid, even though it's being delayed. Also glad to see some fluff festival stuff, regardless of what some people say I think the festival stuff is a lot of fun. However the letter just leaves more questions than answers, I would like to have some more details so for now I think the letter was a little meh..

Now that The Raid is delayed are we getting 2 raids with Isengard? or is the Raid that was suppose to come with Isengard getting pushed back also..

Also are there any incoming updates to the Legendary item system? I thought it was suppose to be a 2 or more phase update. however maybe I'm mistaken.

Now I'm not one usually to complain, but unfortunately the only time things get fixed are when enough people complain so..

Raid pushed back for a fluff mechanic? really?

Skirmish points reset, cool? Store only? What is the reason again for being VIP?

Just to reiterate what others have said.

I got to say my stomach turned when I read the blatant plug for the Store and the pots. I mean really, come on... Stuff like that just gets under my skin. You have already broken the promise about not adding anything into the store that couldn't be acquired in game also. Then you talk about the new raid and store pots right after? I don't like to try and read in between the lines that often but when it's so blatant its kind of hard not to... Now I'm starting to wonder if I should just get out before things turn sour and these store items will be required to beat content on a consistent basis.

- Smoki

Originally Posted by Smokey050

Raid pushed back for a fluff mechanic? really?

I'm really glad you asked this because it gives us an opportunity to explain a common point of player confusion. There is a very natural tendency to assume serial events have causal relationships. That A leads to B as it were. In development, especially game development this is almost never the case. Most work is done in parallel, not serially. So something impacting A almost never leads to B and B doesn't always follow from A. They're unique, stand alone, events.

The raid being pushed to the expansion is not due to prioritizing a festival ahead of it, it's due to the scope of the raid being such that its simply not possible to complete it in the time allotted. So the option was, scale it back dramatically and make is less interesting, or keep the original design and allow the team more time. Rather than make a raid that neither the team nor you guys would be happy with, we took the second option.

As for the comment that no one will notice the lip-syncing. Oh, I don't know about that.