Thread: ROR: Changing how we play

Lately I've thinking a lot about mounted combat and RoR in general and have repeatedly coming back to this one concern that seems to be getting worse as I read all the press sites early reviews and playthroughs of RoR: Will this expansion radically change what I have been playing for years?

The latest press preview of RoR said that over half of the quests in RoR are mounted combat. During mounted combat we will get a new set of skills to use and new mechanics to use. I feel as though I won't actually be bringing my characters into RoR but instead I will have to learn how to play these new characters with all new skills for the majority of the time I play RoR instead of using the skills and play-style I have used for years now. I guess when I initially heard about mounted combat coming I thought it was going to be implemented like other game systems. Take skirmishes for instance. Skirmishes are a part of the game where as with RoR mounted combat seems to "BE" the game.

I'm not saying this won't be fun. From what I've seen so far on massively or mmorpg livestreaming , it looks really fun, innovative and engaging. But no matter what I read or see I always find myself coming back to the sense that Turbine is leaving behind the years of gameplay and converting my character into a new something I am not really comfortable with.

I guess I want some feedback in this post. How do you feel about this change in the game play? Are you excited? Concerned?
Share what you think.

I don't usually buy expansions or play that side of the game but I can understand how you feel as my weaver in pvmp has changed many times over the last 5 years. It does change how you play and how you feel about a character. But since I'm not doing ror I can't criticize you or really support you other than what I said. But since no one had answered I wanted to chime in.

They never said you will be obligated to play mounted.
They only said that somestimes mounted combat will give an advantage.

Well, Yes, Turbine is changing how we play - and I too hold some trepidation.

Right now I'm a member of a raiding kin - we help each other out casually most days, but come our scheduled raid times - we form up into an organized raid and tackle the hardest challenges in the game as group. It's fairly social, and very rewarding when we complete a difficult challenge.

But the old system of leveling up - then grouping up for instance and raid content post expansion release won't be adhered to this time. Instead we'll be leveling up our horse skills and then challenging open world content like new "warbands" in a far more sandbox manner. We'll still be grouping up - but in a more casual way, without strict pre-defined instances to tackle.

It's a change from the previous 75 levels of dungeon crawling. I can always fall back on scaled instances like raid skirmishes and Helegrod for familiar stand up, set piece fights. I'm sure many players will have to adapt to the new style of mounted combat to get the most out of RoR. Predictably there'll be lovers and haters of the new content and I'd be surprised if Turbine nail the balance and mechanics perfectly on release without a few follow up adjustments.

Weather this is a good or bad thing really does depend on how well turbine implement RoR and mounted combat. It also comes down to my attitude towards the new content post release. I could find myself having a blast storming across open plains on my war steed with my kin mates in tow looking for the next challenge. Conversely I could be grumbling that my class dosn't work well from horseback and that the new content quickly becomes grindy and stale.

I guess we'll find out come September.

Oscar Wilde said that there are only two tragedies. Not getting what you want, and getting it.

Everyone wanted mounted combat. Now we are getting it and we'll have to learn how to use it. It will also change the game.

Originally Posted by tolkien121

I guess I want some feedback in this post. How do you feel about this change in the game play? Are you excited? Concerned?

I am concerned, but this is not the end of lotro as we know it. There will be instances, there will be raids, and we will be quickly back to our routine. Besides, even if rohan is later extended to the west, there are many regions to come where mounted combat would not fit lore-wise. So it may be nice or terrible, but it won't change deeply the game.

Originally Posted by MuzMuz

Well, Yes, Turbine is changing how we play - and I too hold some trepidation.

Right now I'm a member of a raiding kin - we help each other out casually most days, but come our scheduled raid times - we form up into an organized raid and tackle the hardest challenges in the game as group. It's fairly social, and very rewarding when we complete a difficult challenge.

But the old system of leveling up - then grouping up for instance and raid content post expansion release won't be adhered to this time. Instead we'll be leveling up our horse skills and then challenging open world content like new "warbands" in a far more sandbox manner. We'll still be grouping up - but in a more casual way, without strict pre-defined instances to tackle.

It's a change from the previous 75 levels of dungeon crawling. I can always fall back on scaled instances like raid skirmishes and Helegrod for familiar stand up, set piece fights. I'm sure many players will have to adapt to the new style of mounted combat to get the most out of RoR. Predictably there'll be lovers and haters of the new content and I'd be surprised if Turbine nail the balance and mechanics perfectly on release without a few follow up adjustments.

Weather this is a good or bad thing really does depend on how well turbine implement RoR and mounted combat. It also comes down to my attitude towards the new content post release. I could find myself having a blast storming across open plains on my war steed with my kin mates in tow looking for the next challenge. Conversely I could be grumbling that my class dosn't work well from horseback and that the new content quickly becomes grindy and stale.

I guess we'll find out come September.

It's not like instances won't be added to the game ever. There is an instance cluster coming sometime after RoR. Use MC to bide the time until it is released.

Originally Posted by tolkien121

I guess I want some feedback in this post. How do you feel about this change in the game play? Are you excited? Concerned?

My only concern was controlling the horse and using skills at the same time but, from the livestream and what Sapience said, that doesn't seem like a problem anymore. So, yes, I'm very excited. Whether I pewpew from a horse or pewpew standing on the ground, I'm still pewpewing.

I'm actually almost excited enough to put the money for the expansion

It'll be a nice change of pace in a world that I love to play. If I don't like it, I can try to do things on foot or find other footies to run with.

After 5 years and 75 levels being dismounted every time a silly orc decided to shoot me an arrow, I'm actually quite happy that I'll be able to crush their skulls without getting dirt on my brand new boots.

Originally Posted by tolkien121

...
I'm not saying this won't be fun. From what I've seen so far on massively or mmorpg livestreaming , it looks really fun, innovative and engaging. But no matter what I read or see I always find myself coming back to the sense that Turbine is leaving behind the years of gameplay and converting my character into a new something I am not really comfortable with.
...

Why "sense"? At the moment it is pretty obvious to me that Turbine WILL do that, at least in this expansion. Besides the actual combat while sitting on comfy saddles, many of the new and exclusive gameplay elements that have been longed for by players for years - real new skills; new traits; entirely new skill tree taiting; saveable trait sets: autoloot; fully customizable "character" - seem to be mounted combat exclusives, the baseline characters are cut out of that, according to available info.

I´m getting the feeling that Turbine could just have released an exclusive mounted combat expansion without actually raising the level cap.

Now, the real question is: How will this work AFTER Rohan? Will we always have the hybrid mounted/traditional combat? Will expansions take turns in focus? Or will one of the two styles lose the battle for predominance?

When an expansion is more of the same, people complain that it's boring and there's nothing new. Now when there's finally an expansion that does bring something new, people complain that it's different.

While I'm not exactly sure fast paced gameplay is well suited to the aging LOTRO engine, I'm really happy they're doing new gameplay systems instead of piling on new skills/instances/whatever.

Originally Posted by Vandervahn

I´m getting the feeling that Turbine could just have released an exclusive mounted combat expansion without acatually raising the level cap.

Yeah, gate mount skills behind story progression or currency and no need for anything else.

I guess we will know more after seeing how many times times "improved" is used in class dev diaries.

Well honestly, we needed something new. Not many people wanted 10 more levels of "Kill x amount of things, talk to this person, and collect y amount of things" Quests. The Rise of Isengard quest experience was almost kind of boring in my opinion. Because I pretty much did all of those quests in 65 previous levels. Mounted Combat will hopefully shake things up a bit.

I was disappointed we did not get mounted combat with RoI expansion. My only thought is why can't we take our war steeds to nub areas for quick deeding?

Of course, everything is rather contingent on whether or not they end up doing well with mounted combat. Honestly I would rather enjoy it if content in the future (and especially expanded into past world areas as well) are open to the possibility of both playstyles. Obviously in some cases one or the other combat styles will have advantages, but I think that you should be able to do either if you so desire throughout all the content (with the possible exception of instanced material)

I know that I am probably in the minority here, but mounted combat isn't going to change the way I play at all. The more I see about RoR, the less interest it generates for me and the more I am convinced that I am not going to bother with it anyway. I know that loads of people have been screaming for it, but they are welcome to it. I will happily carry on playing the way I enjoy until Turbine does something else to screw up my game playing enjoyment as they did when they completely revamped my favourite class, Minstrel. That was when a lot of my love for this game died. When they screw up even more in the name of 'improvement', then I will sigh, bow to the inevitable and take my money elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Faulc

...Obviously in some cases one or the other combat styles will have advantages, but I think that you should be able to do either if you so desire throughout all the content (with the possible exception of instanced material)

That is basically the conceptual problem. To provide both, they´d essentially have to churn out up to double the content, if no other shortcuts are taken, from now on. Not realistic. I dont think people will be able to avoid regular stints of mounted combat.

Originally Posted by Vandervahn

That is basically the conceptual problem. To provide both, they´d essentially have to churn out up to double the content, if no other shortcuts are taken, from now on. Not realistic. I dont think people will be able to avoid regular stints of mounted combat.

Not really, in a rather simplistic manner, place mobs in rather close proximity to eachother in one area. That would work well with normal combat as you can engage them one on one or in small groups. On the other hand if you tackle it mounted, you are much more likely to over-pull and have trouble with it. It is certainly capable with both styles, just one would work better than the other. On the other hand, place mobs spaced wider out on an even field and you've got the perfect mounted combat killing ground, however its manageable to do it unmounted, just not as easy. As long as you don't make it manditory for either the player to be mounted or unmounted. You could always complete that content either way.

I never wanted mounted combat to be this difficult to deal with, all I wanted was to be able to summon my mount in combat and use all of my skills in combat.

charge attacks, new skills, stances while mounted, new interface, mounts having power and having their own attacks, it's all unnecessary to me, but I'm sure I'm still gonna have loads of fun with it. looking forward 6 1/2 weeks left.

Originally Posted by Faulc

Not really, in a rather simplistic manner, place mobs in rather close proximity to eachother in one area. [...] As long as you don't make it manditory for either the player to be mounted or unmounted. You could always complete that content either way.

The thing is, you CANT have the same mobs for both styles. mounted enemies are too strong for on-foot characters, while on-foot mobs are too easy for mounted players and negate the new movement-in-combat thing.

So you will need two different sets of quests with two different sets of enemies IF you want to enable players to bypass mounted combat.

Originally Posted by Vandervahn

The thing is, you CANT have the same mobs for both styles. mounted enemies are too strong for on-foot characters, while on-foot mobs are too easy for mounted players and negate the new movement-in-combat thing.

So you will need two different sets of quests with two different sets of enemies IF you want to enable players to bypass mounted combat.

Since when did it say that Mounted Combat MUST be stronger to the point that on foot characters would be too easy? Yes the mounted combat people would have a health advantage (given the "extra" character being the horse). However, nothing says that it can't be balanced to make both possible. right now you are just assuming.

Originally Posted by Faulc

Since when did it say that Mounted Combat MUST be stronger to the point that on foot characters would be too easy? Yes the mounted combat people would have a health advantage (given the "extra" character being the horse). However, nothing says that it can't be balanced to make both possible. right now you are just assuming.

No, I am following the line of argumentation that has been given by various Turbine spokespersons over the past months, that specifically stated the difficulty differency between fighting on foot and mounted. And thats all the info we have right now.

I always welcome new gameplay systems and new changes to the game .
After 5 years I admit I have grown bored of the same gameplay. It doesn't mean it's bad game. But even if you love chocolate, you would grow tired of it after 5 years eating it every day.

I found the last Minstrel revamp wonderful. Being my main for all this time, it didn't substract anything from the class, and instead added a lot.
I think Mounted Combat can bring new fresh gameplay to the game that is growing stale.
The day the game stops changing will be the day the game dies.

Im happy to since creeps are finnally getting some changes Exploding arrows haha