Thread: Development of Current ingame systems (I.e Hobbies etc)

i will sign for that, revamp for kinship and housing, could be a really nice.

/signed

I got so tired of waiting for a housing revamp that would vastly improve the present lame system of displaying items in the house that I stopped paying the upkeep and let them take the house back. The housing as is was simply not worth the upkeep cost and I did not need the additional storage, especially not at the price of the upkeep. The houses need to have far more display area, particularly as they keep adding more and more housing items to the game but there is no additional space to display them. And placement needs to be free rather than fixed hooks that have size limits. In house storage chests should be far larger and have the option to buy additional pages/tabs of storage on each chest. And houses should include an additional wardrobe storage closet for cosmetic items you want to keep but do not need in your ready use wardrobe.

And at present the fishing hobby is pretty much useless, unlike in some other MMOs where fishing yields materials for some of the very best buff foods in the game and therefore makes the effort put into fishing worthwhile and adds to economy by allowing those who like fishing to sell those materials to those who do not like it or who do not have the time to fish up the volume of materials they need.

And folks are right, Turbine could make a lot of money off selling housing related stuff in the store if the houses offered room to display the items and by selling select improvements to the house there. But the basic house and some improvements would have to be for in game gold, much like the vault and wardrobe.

The devil is in the details. Turbine and WB may think that it is the obvious choice to add more content, but small things matter a great deal. Fix things, upgrade and expand on them. I would much rather have a slower pace with new regions and the story, if they fixed things that people have been asking for for a long time.

/signed

Originally Posted by Hallrandthir

The devil is in the details. Turbine and WB may think that it is the obvious choice to add more content, but small things matter a great deal. Fix things, upgrade and expand on them. I would much rather have a slower pace with new regions and the story, if they fixed things that people have been asking for for a long time.

/signed

Indeed, you're so right.

On that note: if they would just stick to what you said and stop adding/changing stuff that nobody wants, now that would be great. Star-lit crystals, yeah.. Way to improve things.

Originally Posted by Osgril

Indeed, you're so right.

On that note: if they would just stick to what you said and stop adding/changing stuff that nobody wants, now that would be great. Star-lit crystals, yeah.. Way to improve things.

Turbine manager thought process:
Hmm... crystals you can put on weapons ...

Does WoW have crystals? Check
Does SWTOR have crystals? Check

Turbine head of design:
Hey guys I have a great idea! Crystals to upgrade weapons.

Dev 1: But we already have legacies to do that
Dev 2: But - do we really want to copy from those MMOs? Look at how the instance finder turned out.

Head of design: Ok, get working on crystals right away. We need it for Update 7

Dev 2 mumbles: But what about the instance finder ...
Dev 3: but what about housing ...

I'm just happy to see that many ppl signing this Thread ! AWESOME !


I'd like to quote some I've read .. but its to fuzzy

@Khafar
You mentioned the men-power of 12x devs/artists for 6 months. I think thats realistic, even though it may take much more then that. However that needs to be compared to all other things such as raids and expansions to really give it a weight. When housing has come, I love to remember me, anyone ran into the Housing-zones with a lot of excitement, wasn’t it ? Some things are fundamental and housing in lotro is one of it (to me). Its not about to fully redesign and implement free-hook systems by tomorrow. But taking the chance to make it better peace by peace. Little &easy things first.

About the Hobbies btw., you're right Khafar, fishing has the best chance and sense. And how easily the devs could turn it into a serious &time-consuming hobby by just adding some serious calculated "cook receipts" in considerations to the "rare chances to get the right fish out of the pond" - system?


@Aerulen
you just wrote a GREAT POST HERE !
.. haha .. thats my word too ..
FANTASTIC


folks, eXcuse my english
Ferru

Turbine! There is /so/ much money you can make off of housing, if only you revamp it so there are no hooks! The possibilities are endless!

And I'd like a new hobby, too. Golfing... gardening... painting...

/signed as well

I loved the housing in EQ2; and kind of like it here. I so wish we could do more with it!

Personally, I hate to say it, they should look at the way WoW has their fishing hobby. It's way better, serves a better purpose and is more fun!

Different fish, area locations to find such fish, treasure's in the water, using fish for making food, and please..BETTER looking ponds. Add a few waterfalls, show depths, etc.

I skipped the fishing hobby on all my characters because it serves no purpose. Get so many fish & get a title? Really? A title?

hampered due to Technical and server limitations

that's the Turbine answer for anything that can't be fixed/improved/upgraded...good luck with all your requests

Originally Posted by Tailborn

I'm not quite sure of the time they were implemented but I know it was at least an entire year ago, when Hobbies first came out I know there was a lot of speculation as to how many hobbies there would be or what they'd be, and we get Fishing as our first.. Sorry, ONLY hobby to date. There hasn't even been any news from Turbine and everytime a question has been raised it has subsequently been denied (I.e they aren't working on it)

Secondly is Housing, while this system has seen a few updates (Albeit not large in scale) It has yet to recieve the care that many other parts of the game have. Furniture placement is governed by select hooks when really there should be a Free-placement tool. I don't really want to go through the MASSIVE lists of upgrades that people would enjoy with Housing but looking at them I'd say it would please a nice amount of players.

This is my own opinion worth what you paid for it - nothing.

These two systems were always planned to be dropped into the game as finished features. There never was any intention to expand and improve them. The reason is historical. Jeffrey Steffel wanted to implement some low cost enhancements. He had the Lotro development staff clone the Asheron's Call fishing and housing system. Dropped them into Lotro with a new artwork and UI functionality.

Turbine has no more hobbies available to copy. The next hobby would have to created from scratch. The cost is too high. Turbine could improve fishing. Housing since it is a much more complicated feature would require many more resources to improve.

Under the hybrid model where the Lotro store sales are paying for the operating costs and development of the game, Turbine does not see enhancements or new hobbies as a viable method to generate dollars. Most of the customers like doing quests and killing stuff. Activities that have provide zero improvement in the combat capability of characters only appeals to a small portion of the customer base. Turbine is spending there development budget providing content that the Herd (majority of customers want).

Housing, hobbies, PvP and Kinships are all on the low or no support.

Even features like a Weapon Cosmetic System that I feel would generate decent revenue given the number of friends like to buy dress up items or mounts don't seem to be on the horizon. I bet there are a lot of Hobbits that would love to buy a "Plate with Pie and a Fork" to carry around in a cosmetic weapon and shield slot.