Thread: Update 6: Developer Diary Feedback: The Great River

Region content is the backbone of The Lord of the Rings Online™. What would our game be without a landscape to explore, monsters to kill and quests to reward you for your tireless efforts? This content is the primary way to advance your character, and everything else in the game is arguably extra. Read more in the latest Developer Diary from Budgeford and post your comments here!

The Admin Mode : Immortal on the screenshots made me chuckle.

Looking great ! So far I'm loving the U6 .

Can't wait to explore. That was a really interesting look on how you guys make a region so kudos.

Thanks for reminding me what this game is all about, Budgeford. The landscapes truly are unequalled among MMORPGs. There might conceivably be some advantages in having one game to rule them all, but I for one am quite happy to confine my hardcore endgame raiding mindset to WoW while my numerous hobbits, elves, dwarves and humans are let loose in LotRO.

I love the sense of humor and the behind the scenes descriptions!
Each post, I'm getting more excited for this release.

Congrats on the diary and congrats on keeping your word and getting information out to the player base. Increased communication will lead to increased misunderstandings, increased understanding and increased sense of community.

You are beginning to move away from the -us and them- atmosphere that has festered here and moving toward an –we are in this together-. Brilliant change in approach, keep it up good will in business is priceless.

I'm probably going to have nightmares because of the TBD - Thinglad Scout.

Admin mode sounds cool, i can't wait to see it in U6! (obviously kidding hahaha)

I love what you made about an area for non-soloers, with different Rep and better rewards. If there's something that i love in this game is Angmar 50k monsters near rift entrance, because it makes me feel like an actual landscape challenge. We need more of that ones, but without sacrificing soloers. An small area just for hardcore seems the right answer. Good job!

Great blog, very informative and making me want more of that for future stuff to come.

Thanks and keep up the good work:-)

Love the diary because it describes a bit of the long an painful process of pulling it all together! It's so nice to see a bit of the blood, sweat and tears, because it gives us a much better understanding of bugs and glitches. It also makes players more tolerant.
Can we have a Bloopers diary next please? I thought that picture was hilarious!

It is very nice to see how well you reacted to some of the criticism of the last months and how openly you are approaching this update!

I think the reaction of the community shows that this game is far away from doom and gloom if you keep your work up like that and we keep up the will and enthusiasm to get drawn into this world.

Thanks a lot!

Thanks and congratz also, I did enjoy it

thanks need 10 characters

I really like the break from Dunland and an alternate leveling path that I'll definitely be using. The curve ball of Limlight Gorge is creative and interesting. I kind of hope it's 3 or 4 person and not six though. The kin I'm in probably won't field a full group now even at peak time in the evening. Thanks for the dev diary--the communication is also very appreciated!

I can´t wait for Update 6, nice diary.

So where does poor TBD go now that he's been replaced? Is there some sort of Island of Misfit Toys where the placeholder NPC models are sent to?

Thank you veryvery much for this Dev-Diary.
I'd love to see more of this kind, where the content of the diary is about Middle Earth and the regions, and less about numbers and calculations!

This is probably the best dev diary I've read, very interesting and neat to know the development process behind regions. Designing for turbine sounds like a killer job!

I'm looking forward to exploring this region quite a bit!

Thank you for this diary. Had fun reading it and learning more about how you build the areas and maps.

Ive been waiting for an area like Carn Dum or Angmar high-level areas since back in the 50's.. Enedwaith Thror' Coomb felt like it abit but cant wait to challenge myself with a new actyally *Hard* area to explore and play in.

Any chance theres ever going to be some love given to Isengard like this? I personally think being able to walk around jumping and running with a fat dwarf who wears robes inside the walls of Isengard is rather silly.. Would love to see some big mobs running around and punishing me for entering that terrible place!

I like this kind of Dev Diary. The others may be more satisfying and exciting, getting me ramped up for the next update, but since I've never worked in Game Development it's fun to see how you guys work.

I'm going to list here three things that I like about this new area, and three things which I am not very keen on. My feedback is based on the initial marketing material and my first impressions on Bullroarer.

Positives:

- The landscape is beautiful.
- The new quests give some nice rewards and there is scope for doing them as often as we like.
- The epic story continuation is looking very positive, and makes me look forward to the next expansion even more.

Not-so-positive:
- Apart from the far west side of the map, almost every mob is 'grey-ringed'.
(Ok, only one negative, but it annoys me so much it makes me wanna stop playing)

I had a major disappointment in RoI when I noticed that almost every mob in and around Isengard was grey-ringed, including what should have been some major nemeses in this game, the Uruk-Hai. There's currently no sense of danger in Isengard... one can casually stroll inside, do a bit of gardening, take a nap, visit the Ranger and his friendly (read: laughably weak) neighbours, and walk back out without even as much as a scratch.

This could be a 'simple' case of presentation. If those Uruks had been red-ringed, and slightly harder-hitting, the place would seem a lot more badass - what we would expect from Saruman's abomination breeding ground.

I am hoping that in time for official U6 release, more of this new area will feel more dangerous... As an example, there is a swamp area - swamps should feel threatening in a fantasy environment - the'yre not bath tubs where little kids can play around with their rubber duckies - especially when so much effort has obviously gone into the new 'Evil Men' models around the area (incidentally - they're stunning new models, i love them).

If this is off-topic, I apologize, but any news on a new level cap this time around? Just curious if all the new stuff I've gotten will become obsolete on Monday.

Thanks and cheers!

Originally Posted by Smoochee

If this is off-topic, I apologize, but any news on a new level cap this time around? Just curious if all the new stuff I've gotten will become obsolete on Monday.

Thanks and cheers!

Nope the level cap isn't rising with update 6. Though you might wish get some of the new stuff once you see them .

Quick couple questions:


1) How much is the update going to cost?

2) Virtue traits getting to lvl 14 cap, which means there's at least some new slayer/quest deeds in the u6? right?


Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by KrauserJoestar

Quick couple questions:


1) How much is the update going to cost?

2) Virtue traits getting to lvl 14 cap, which means there's at least some new slayer/quest deeds in the u6? right?


Thanks in advance

1) No solid figure for the zone as of now, most we know is less than 895TP.

2) Yep.

OT: Played through the whole zone on Bullroarer. Major props guys, it was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Enjoyed reading this one.

Looking forward to some new places to explore and esp that challenging area around Limelight Gorge. I miss going into the wild places and having some mini adventures.

Any chance of some rare signatures just to liven things up?

thanks again for the diary, adding some new landscape and giving us some challenge.

cheers.

Why did you guys make all the horsemaster location in the GR minimum level 75, im 73 more than capeable of handleing the zone... but i cannot use the stablemasters, unless i pay in the store!!

Originally Posted by zombie3000

but i cannot use the stablemasters, unless i pay in the store!!

There's your answer mate, thats why. kerrrching !