Thread: I hope Rohan is going to be huge

I remember when the moria expansion came out and you want through the gate into moria and you went inside and it seemed like it went on forever. There were enemies everywhere for you to kill, the buildings and architecture was amazing. But most importantly moria was huge. Compared to the other expansions i think moria was massive and it seemed like there were more emenies to kill. I'm not trying to starting something here, and i know they have probally already made the map for it but i hope that the rohan map is massive. I hope it spans from just bellow lothlorian all the way past edoras and nearly reaching gondor. I hope they make the map big and good enough to explore a big, wide area like rohan was in the movies. Does anyone else feel this way?

Im also wishing and hoping for the same thing, but I dont have high hopes, Moria was done in the period of time when Lore was one of the most important needs of the game, but ever since WB took over lore is now second while profit is first, I really cant see WB letting the Devs spend as much time and effort on Rohan as they put into Moria. I dont blame Turbine or the Devs for the games down hill slide, Im not sure how many of the Devs is from the games early days, but those that is still left would still have the love and respect of the professors work, but with WB behind the wheel now, they are restricted on how much they can do. The day WB bought Turbine was the start of the games slow decline.

Yes, it's going to be huge, huger than Moria, huger than Isengard; they've said this multiple times

Originally Posted by Nakiami

Yes, it's going to be huge, huger than Moria, huger than Isengard; they've said this multiple times

True, but huge dont mean a thing except for lots of landscape, what made Moria so great was detail. You can feel the gloom of Moria, easy to get lost in, dangerous, easy to fall into a pit if your not watching where you was going, (use to be anyway), I dont know about anyone else but i was always amazed and surprised about how good it felt to be back out in the open air and color of the landscape, ( I wont even go into end game content in Moria)
I have my fingers crossed for Rohan, I sincerely hope its a huge success, I deeply respect Tolkien work and will still play the game regardless, but i wont be sinking cash into it as much as i have in the past if Rohan is a flop.

I also hope they will lower the selling price of the expansion

We have most figures of what to expect from Rohan:

• Around twice as large as the Moria landscape (So the biggest expansion yet in terms of landmass)
• An instance cluster (Unknown as to how many, but still good since end-game fishing would be lame otherwise)
• Hundreds of quests (Given in the description of Rohan, so there should be enough quests to get to the new cap)
• A new level cap (Presuming there will be a large area to keep players entertained in the long stretch to 85)

Before they added the instances and turbine points, it was looking to be a terrible expansion, but now it should be better than Isengard.

Rohan HAS to be enormous in landmass simply because of the War Steed speed. If the area is too small you get to the end of the usable mounted combat area too quickly.

I'm not impressed by the size really. Forochel is enormous but is the worse leveling area in the game, IMHO. Rohan is another area that is mostly useless. If the content isn't packed into the area its all for not.

Originally Posted by Dawnn

True, but huge dont mean a thing except for lots of landscape, what made Moria so great was detail.

I think you're going to like Rohan. While hooking up the Epic quests, I've been really impressed by how different each town in Rohan feels from each other. It's really pretty astounding. The political landscape is also really interesting, with each main area in the kingdom having its own political situation and loyalties and problems. There's a lot here.

MoL

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

I think you're going to like Rohan. While hooking up the Epic quests, I've been really impressed by how different each town in Rohan feels from each other. It's really pretty astounding. The political landscape is also really interesting, with each main area in the kingdom having its own political situation and loyalties and problems. There's a lot here.

MoL

Thanks MoL, I'm really looking forward to seeing everything. Sounds like fun!!

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

I think you're going to like Rohan. There's a lot here.
MoL

For $70....lets hope so

Skyrim can be bought for less...and its 14 square miles of landscape

Originally Posted by Gundamyr

For $70....lets hope so

Skyrim can be bought for less...and its 14 square miles of landscape

Rohan can be bought for 40$ or even with TP imo. So it's useless to compare with another game.
They are different realities and the games are different each oters.
As someone said you to another post, if you want to buy Skyrim buy Skyrim, if you want to buy RoR buy RoR. The choice is yours to take.

How many towns are there and which is the main town in Rohan? (In this expansion)

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

I think you're going to like Rohan. While hooking up the Epic quests, I've been really impressed by how different each town in Rohan feels from each other. It's really pretty astounding. The political landscape is also really interesting, with each main area in the kingdom having its own political situation and loyalties and problems. There's a lot here.

MoL

MoL we keep hearing about landscape size rather than content generally. Can you tell us in rough terms of content how it's looking? How filled the spaces are?

Is it on a similar order of magnitude to Moria, Mirkwood, or Isengard? Admittedly I'm still working through revamped Moria, but it pre-revamp it certainly seemed more massive and less linear than Isengard. Part of this is because of phasing.

Originally Posted by AaylaKheledlire

How many towns and which is the main town in Rohan? (In this expansion)

I don't want to steal any thunder from dev diaries and whatnot, so I'll just say that the Epic story takes you through or near ten or eleven different towns. I'm excited about the content, and can't wait for people to get their hands on it. It's Rohan! This is one of the places we on the dev team have been excited about doing for years and years.

MoL

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

I don't want to steal any thunder from dev diaries and whatnot, so I'll just say that the Epic story takes you through or near ten or eleven different towns. I'm excited about the content, and can't wait for people to get their hands on it. It's Rohan! This is one of the places we on the dev team have been excited about doing for years and years.

MoL

We understand your excitement , however it does not justify a $70 price tag

"Oh but we have been planning this for years and years. Its worth it"

Kate is indeed an aggressive marketer

Oh and dont forget to give up the emails of 5 people for your free pseudo-flying horse

Originally Posted by Gundamyr

We understand your excitement , however it does not justify a $70 price tag

"Oh but we have been planning this for years and years. Its worth it"

Kate is indeed an aggressive marketer

What is with you guys and leaping to the largest number? You're almost as bad as British tabloids.

@MoL: Interested to see just how varied these towns are. If they all end up Stangard-sized(which may be unreasonable considering it's a central hub) that would be incredible.

More than anything else, I'm just hoping there is a good amount of space between each hub. The balance between spacing things out and putting lots of content in the landscape is tricky I imagine.

Originally Posted by Gundamyr

We understand your excitement , however it does not justify a $70 price tag

"Oh but we have been planning this for years and years. Its worth it"

Kate is indeed an aggressive marketer

Oh and dont forget to give up the emails of 5 people for your free pseudo-flying horse

I really wish people would stop saying it is $70 - it is not. The expansion is $40 (still a bit pricey to be sure). $70 is for the "collectors edition". It is like saying Guild Wars 2 will cost $150 since that is what the collectors edition costs.

Originally Posted by blarg07

I really wish people would stop saying it is $70 - it is not. The expansion is $40 (still a bit pricey to be sure). $70 is for the "collectors edition". It is like saying Guild Wars 2 will cost $150 since that is what the collectors edition costs.

By gating quest content behind the collector's edition, people feel that they dont have the entire expansion unless they purchase the edition that gives them access. (Not just cosmetics and that skill, its the session plays that really get you.)

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

I don't want to steal any thunder from dev diaries and whatnot, so I'll just say that the Epic story takes you through or near ten or eleven different towns. I'm excited about the content, and can't wait for people to get their hands on it. It's Rohan! This is one of the places we on the dev team have been excited about doing for years and years.

MoL

One book or multiple?

Originally Posted by Nyrion

More than anything else, I'm just hoping there is a good amount of space between each hub. The balance between spacing things out and putting lots of content in the landscape is tricky I imagine.

Not really tricky

Just throw in miles of contentless blank fields of land

Skyrim should be the standard for all RPGs

They actually filled in the lanscape with mindblowing detail and breathtaking content

Originally Posted by gildhur

One book or multiple?

Multiple.

MoL

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

Multiple.

MoL

More than in Moria? (At Launch: Volume 2 Book 1-6)

Originally Posted by MadeOfLions

I don't want to steal any thunder from dev diaries and whatnot, so I'll just say that the Epic story takes you through or near ten or eleven different towns. I'm excited about the content, and can't wait for people to get their hands on it. It's Rohan! This is one of the places we on the dev team have been excited about doing for years and years.

MoL

Excited developers usually means very good content I'm really looking forward to this one

I was presuming multiple books, heck, Moria was most of a volume.

Originally Posted by blarg07

I really wish people would stop saying it is $70 - it is not. The expansion is $40 (still a bit pricey to be sure). $70 is for the "collectors edition". It is like saying Guild Wars 2 will cost $150 since that is what the collectors edition costs.

Heck, just $31.12 (to $57.20) depending on how you buy TP if you get it after release. (Of course previously the pre-order wasn't an expansion as much as a quest pack, now that instances are included, it's value is probably better than the Lotro Store version for TP, instead of being more costly.)



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

can anyone from the blue names explain what this
Exclusive Rohan Content means? What exactly is?

You know what it is. Horse session-play and maybe something when Rohan launches.

Originally Posted by blarg07

I really wish people would stop saying it is $70 - it is not. The expansion is $40 (still a bit pricey to be sure). $70 is for the "collectors edition". It is like saying Guild Wars 2 will cost $150 since that is what the collectors edition costs.

Unfortunately, this release has started the, in my opinion terrible, practice of including extra game content in the "collector's" edition. Not just cosmetics, but actual gameplay. So if you actually *like* the storyline and the quests, you're going to want to purchase the legendary. But for me, until I hear more about what that gameplay is, and whether or not it'll be possible to purchase it in the Store later, I'll not be ponying up (so to speak) for the seventy dollar version, or even the standard edition.

More deserves to be made of this, and I think it is something that got overshadowed by the other problem issues that has plagued the RoR announcement. In game quests as an exclusive? What about people who join up after the release? Will they simply never have access? I won't buy until I know exactly what it is we're missing in the standard pack, and frankly if the Legendary content is truly exclusive, I will not purchase it out of protest.

Of course, if said content is just a special emote, fine. But a whole chain of quests? Not so fine. And the horse session play? That's really a big draw for me, but the idea that it will be forever denied to future players irritates the heck out of me in a way that a unique cosmetic doesn't.

If I knew that buying the Legendary Pack was simply giving me early access to content that was going to be generally available for anyone to buy then I'd snatch it up this weekend. But since I don't, no quick cash from me.

Originally Posted by Gundamyr

We understand your excitement , however it does not justify a $70 price tag

Stop being disingenuous. The Expansion is $40.

if MoL is reading... will we get Dev diaries before rohan lands like 1 month before or 1 week before or after it lands....?

i mean, is any Sneak peek scheduled or all we can do now is just wait until 5 sept?

I would have to say that part of my disappointment with Isengard was not so much the content or even the size of it, but the fixedness of the quest line. The Epic required you go here, do this, then do this, then do this. Even side quests had to be done in a particular order which took ALL the fun and adventure out of Dunland once you got past the initial entry points. The narrowness of Isengard is its biggest drawback. Combine this with the restricted craft line (requiring reputation and a rare drop) the tediousness of such a small place with so little adventure made it less than stellar. There was literally no sense of discovery. All the quests had to be done in every area. Even before I had gotten my first class through, I was bored. If you wanted to progress and get reputation, you couldn't go off and do something unscripted. It suffers from the same fixed, narrow view that Enedwaith does. At least with Enedwaith's level lowered it makes some sense to go there now.

I will say this for Isengard, it has Galtrev, one of the best designed city hubs in LOTRO. I put it on a par with the 21st Hall for its elegant design, convenience, ease of access to essentials, gathering place, and travel options. (Stangard, on the other hand, while beautiful and fitting is annoying in having all essentials in an instance further complicated by its lack of signage. I still map back to Galtrev to do all my town business. I just don't have time for Stangard. The only city hubs worse in convenience and ease of access and lack of a natural gathering place are Bree and Rivendell.)

My hopes for Rohan is that the adventure be as big and open as its area. That we not be confined to a rigid quest/Epic structure, that crafting be kinder to those that don't raid for a living, and that adventure be just around every corner.

Ok, I was 100% with the nay-sayers when Turbine wasn't commenting on the instance cluster being included or not. They've answered that question and added TP to the mix, which really satisfies the issue I had with how this was handled. I was genuinely surprised that the issue was addressed quickly, and regardless of the reasons, they made an attempt to appease the community based on a flood of feedback.

Is it just a rule that people now have to move to the next thing to complain about? Will you not be happy until it's 100% free? Try to be reasonable. There was a very legitimate, specific complaint regarding the inclusion of instance clusters in the pre-order, now that that's resolved, we seem to be judging content we haven't seen, arbitrarily determining what the value of said content is, and complaining accordingly.

I still think they really need to tell us what we're getting for our $40-$70 specifically, but we've got a few months, if you're not happy with the price tag, wait until they release more info before pre-ordering maybe? Skyrim is a great game, but if you want to create a 1:1 ratio between content in Skyrim/Lotro to money spent, I think you'll find that you've paid a few hundred less dollars for Lotro than you're trying to insinuate that content is worth.

Originally Posted by Nakiami

Yes, it's going to be huge, huger than Moria, huger than Isengard; they've said this multiple times

It is actually going to be huger than the hugest of huge landmasses ever made huge in this huge game.

It sounds like it will cover a sizable land mass, as necessary due to mounted combat. It doesn't contain the two most important parts of Rohan though and hopefully the next expansion will do them justice. One small expansion a year with what appears to be a small development team just isn't going to do Rohan, Gondor or Mordor justice though. I have no doubt that the devs are doing the best they can, it's just WB and the Turbine suits holding them back.

Originally Posted by Gundamyr

For $70....lets hope so

Skyrim can be bought for less...and its 14 square miles of landscape

To be fair, the most expensive version of skyrim was something like $120. THAT was so not worth it.

As far as I know, Moria's size was impressive because it was vertical. It wasn't a huge region when traveled straight across. Just guessing here but I'd say the North Downs is prolly the largest playable single region in the game. How does east Rohan compare in size to the North Downs?

Galtrev was an excellent addition, and I hope Edoras proves as good. Someday.

One reason I think many of us are as attached to this game, is the quality and difference between the "hubs." Folks still like to dwell in this game.

Originally Posted by Comstrike

Galtrev was an excellent addition, and I hope Edoras proves as good. Someday.

One reason I think many of us are as attached to this game, is the quality and difference between the "hubs." Folks still like to dwell in this game.

Stangard was much much better, if Edoras is like a larger, more majestic stangard I will be very pleased.

Originally Posted by CaptainSweden

It is actually going to be huger than the hugest of huge landmasses ever made huge in this huge game.

I'm sorry, I couldn't quite understand, is it going to be huge?

Originally Posted by Varenthor

Stangard was much much better, if Edoras is like a larger, more majestic stangard I will be very pleased.

I prefer the look of stangard but I like how the AH and craft hall is right next to each other in Galtrev. Galtrev is good for the lazy people like me.