Thread: Official Discussion: Riders of Rohan news from Kate Paiz

Riders of Rohan news from Kate Paiz, Executive Producer

We’ve had a very successful Beta program with some of the largest and most active beta player populations we’ve seen since Moria. The amount and quality of feedback on our largest expansion ever has been fantastic.

Thanks to some great efforts from beta players, we’ve identified issues that we think need to be addressed before we can launch. In order to address those issues and meet our expectations for quality we’re going to need more time. As a result, we’ve elected to delay our launch to October 15th.

We understand that many players have been looking forward to joining us in Rohan as soon as possible and will be disappointed by this news. As a token of our appreciation for your patience we are granting a gift to all pre-purchasers of Riders of Rohan.

We thank you for your feedback and patience and hope to see you all in Rohan in October.


As a result of the delay, players who have pre-purchased The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan will receive 500 Turbine Points and a goodie bag of consumables. Points will be awarded automatically and a code will be sent to players that have pre-purchased Riders of Rohan, The code will be redeemable from around September 5th to any account that has pre-purchased by that date.

The goodie bag will contain the following items –

• 100% XP Boost (1hr)
• Slayer Deed Accelerators x1 (60 min)
• +20% Renown (3 hours)
• +20% Mount Speed (1 hour)
• Tome of Defence
• Scroll of Finesse

For a list of in-game celebrations planned, including Frodo and Bilbo’s birthdays, please visit the calendar page using the tab above.

In a way disappointing but if a delay ensures a better end product, so be it.

All right, but can you start revealing more of the expansion itself before September 5th? We still don't know much, not enough for decision to pre-order or not. Especially that town-rebuilding thing interests me...

And when will be NDA lifted?

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We knew this would happen.

Every year its the same. The moment you give an actual date for release, is the same moment you shoot yourself in the foot

But if they are having issues with something, I would rather they fix it before letting it get released broken, like Draigoch

As for release dates why not just issue "Coming this Fall" or "Coming this Spring" that gives us a 3-month window.

This is good news in my book. Far better to delay things a few weeks and ship a product that works. Turbine made the right choice.

Good move turbine!!! We would rather have a finished product!!! and now we have some time to play Gw2 untill RoR comes out

Devs are working really hard to give us a good smoothed out bug free product i cant wait!!

Good luck Turbine! Great River was awesome! I am looking for more of the same in this expansion.

Will the NDA be lifted before September 5th, or is that also delayed?

Please make the goodie bag items Bound to Account and not to character.

As long as these "Major bugs" are fixed by release this is a good thing.

There must be some epic bugs to delay the release by over 5 weeks

Extra 500 turbine points and a release with less bugs sounds good (at least I hope that most major bugs will be fixed)

Lets hope its bug free then >.<

Its not lotros birthday, but this seemed apt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeP1Klmk0ng

It won't help those of us anxious to see Rohan, but better a release without (many?) bugs, than one that falls flat on its face. Or something. Things can't be that bad, can they?

In other words: Good call, methinks. Better have these news now than September 4th...

Originally Posted by Issachar44

This is good news in my book. Far better to delay things a few weeks and ship a product that works. Turbine made the right choice.

I agree. I am very much looking forward to exploring Rohan, and this delay does not change that for me.

I am extremely glad they postponed it. I'd be glad even if they didn't even mention a reason at all.
Less bugs shipped with new content = win win situation no matter what.
Finally a move from Turbine I appreciate from all my heart.

This was a good call, thank you turbine and the bonuses are awesome and unexpeceted. hope it goes well with the expansion

Originally Posted by Sapience

Riders of Rohan news from Kate Paiz, Executive Producer

...

For a list of in-game celebrations planned, including Frodo and Bilbo’s birthdays, please visit the calendar page using the tab above.

...

The same calendar that, as recently as yesterday evening, showed the summer festival as having started a week ago, right?

When those who manage a calendar can't be bothered to keep it up to date and accurate, others will stop using it as a valid resource. It becomes untrustworthy.

The fact that no one corrected the dates of the Summer Festival before it began was regrettable. The fact that no one had corrected those dates a full week into the supposed event is glaring. I no longer trust this calendar.

Originally Posted by Malindruel

As for release dates why not just issue "Coming this Fall" or "Coming this Spring" that gives us a 3-month window.

This has never been the best bet in MMO history. All you get is people crying that they will leave. A lot of people have families, work and vacation, they want to spend their time playing with bug free gameplay instead of being frustrated. The best bet is to admit that they need more time to release a better product. I rather have a polished product than a bad start out the gate.

I appreciate the lotro team making this dissension.

to be honest, that is excellent news, since that delay will increase the overall quality, and shows how much turbine actually is listening to the feedback the beta testers give, even to the extent that a delay somewhat might be considered bad news and bad for business (yet showing the foresight that too many bugs due to an too early release will hurt business even more midterm).

kudos to the ones responsible for pushing this delay through, and thanks to the superiors giving the devs more time to make things right.

Originally Posted by ararax2

Please make the goodie bag items Bound to Account and not to character.

As long as these "Major bugs" are fixed by release this is a good thing.

They can be bound to character as long as every character gets a set of them

Originally Posted by Lothran

The same calendar which shows the summer festival as having started a week ago, right?

When those who manage a calendar can't be bothered to keep it up to date and accurate, others will stop using it as a valid resource. It becomes untrustworthy.

The fact that no one corrected the dates of the Summer Festival before it began was regrettable. The fact that no one has corrected those dates a full week into the supposed event is glaring. I no longer trust this calendar.

Considering the calendar entry for the Summer Festival was changed several days ago, might I suggest you check again? The Summer festival was updated to reflect its correct start date which is tomorrow (August 23). Additional events will be added in the next few days.

Despite all the things I COULD say here, I'll take the high road and commend Turbine for withholding the release of an extremely buggy expansion.

However, realistically, we ALL knew this was coming. Hitting target dates isn't exactly something they've shown to excel at.

Now, as far as I see it the NDA expires on Sept 5th anyway. Because not everyone reads this forum, nor is going to see that announcement. So whether you like it or not, that's the day folks are going to start talking about things by default.

Though the 500 TP bonus and goodie bag seems a bit much for pre-purchasers considering it's pre-purchasers only. Everyone else has to wait just as long, and gets nothing. Pre-purchasers have already been rewarded with being able to use their 6th bag whilst everyone else now had to wait until Sept 5th, (Now Oct!)

So instead of rewarding those who've already been rewarded, how about a little something for the entire rest of the population who's got their gaming experience and level cap extended by a month?

A very, very wise move. Well played, Turbine.

Good choice and thank you ever so much for the gifts. Not needed in my book, but greatly appreciated!

Does this mean the instances that are coming later are also delayed or will there be less time between the launch of RoR and the update that has the instances

Originally Posted by Lothran

The same calendar that, as recently as yesterday evening, showed the summer festival as having started a week ago, right?

When those who manage a calendar can't be bothered to keep it up to date and accurate, others will stop using it as a valid resource. It becomes untrustworthy.

The fact that no one corrected the dates of the Summer Festival before it began was regrettable. The fact that no one had corrected those dates a full week into the supposed event is glaring. I no longer trust this calendar.

Uh those dates were tentative so it was not set it stone that it be going during those dates.

Well, I guess this makes my purchase of Guild Wars 2 a little easier now.

I'm happy about this, means a less buggy release.

Good one Turbine

I think this is a wise move on Turbine's part. If the company released an expansion in a state that was more frustrating than fun, customers would be demanding refunds right and left. This is also the first evidence we've had in a long time (since the game went F2P) that Turbine's developer and QA teams can stand up to the marketing department when it comes to release dates.

This emphasis on quality and a fun experience for its customers will make Turbine look better in the long run.

Edit: Now that the NDA has officially been lifted for beta testers, I'd like to add that as a tester myself, I've been impressed with how far Rohan has come just in the past few months. Turbine has been extremely responsive to our needs while testing, and testers have been great at helping each other.

Although I believe most players would generally have a good experience if the expansion was released in two weeks, I'm even more convinced that players will have a great experience when it's released in two months.

Now I'd better get back to testing. I believe we have a PvMP testing event coming up later today.

While I agree that the release of any game update should be mostly bug-free, announcing a nearly month and a half delay less than 2 weeks prior to launch is a bit disheartening, especially since I scheduled some time off work to coincide with release just last week. I did this very close to the launch date just for possible delay reasons. In the business world, giving your 2-week notice before leaving a job is considered bare-minimum. I would expect more than a 2 week notice on major changes from a company in regards to its paying customers.

I do appreciate the gesture of 500 TP and a goodie bag. But I sincerely hope that this sudden decision was due to major bugs found very recently, and not a culmination of realizations that "We're not going to make it in time."

I support Turbine 100% for this decision, whcih restores some of my confidence in Turbine as a company that cares about quality in their product. The return of Chance Thomas as the game's composer is another. I want to love this expansion, and I would like my fellow players to love it too. I am content to wait until it is truly ready for release.

If this is enough to not launch a rohan as bugged as RoI i'm happy with it (We all remember the bugged it was the pits near nan curunnir, right?)

Great decision. I am pleasantly surprised.

I do have "another purchase" to keep me busy as well in the meantime

Disappointed? sure, But its a good call Devs, I would much rather sit here champing at the bits for the release, then to see a very severely bugged expansion released, and thanks for the bonus items.

Originally Posted by cossieuk

Does this mean the instances that are coming later are also delayed or will there be less time between the launch of RoR and the update that has the instances

^

This. Answer please

I have a solution to your forthcoming customer service issue.

Let the pre-purchasers keep the TP and the goodie bag.

Then, just also send the goodie bag to everyone else as well.

Problem solved, everyone mostly happy. Actual cost: zero. (And don't even try to tell me there's a cost for digital nonsense like that. You know better.)

Originally Posted by cossieuk

Does this mean the instances that are coming later are also delayed or will there be less time between the launch of RoR and the update that has the instances

^ My thoughts exactly. I thank you Turbine for listening to feed back and pushing back the release to give us a more bug free product. I hope the release of the instances is not affected by the ROR release push back.

Originally Posted by Kaskae

I do appreciate the gesture of 500 TP and a goodie bag. But I sincerely hope that this sudden decision was due to major bugs found very recently, and not a culmination of realizations that "We're not going to make it in time."

When the game is still having CLOSED Beta 2 weeks before release, ye can pretty much assume that yea, it's not gonna make it on time.

As I said. This was absolutely expected by most.

Originally Posted by cossieuk

Does this mean the instances that are coming later are also delayed or will there be less time between the launch of RoR and the update that has the instances

The instances are still scheduled to ship before the end of the year.

Originally Posted by Kaskae

While I agree that the release of any game update should be mostly bug-free, announcing a nearly month and a half delay less than 2 weeks prior to launch is a bit disheartening, especially since I scheduled some time off work to coincide with release just last week. I did this very close to the launch date just for possible delay reasons. In the business world, giving your 2-week notice before leaving a job is considered bare-minimum. I would expect more than a 2 week notice on major changes from a company in regards to its paying customers.

I do appreciate the gesture of 500 TP and a goodie bag. But I sincerely hope that this sudden decision was due to major bugs found very recently, and not a culmination of realizations that "We're not going to make it in time."

We certainly appreciate your dissapointment and concerns. Let me just say this wasn't a knee jerk reaction. It was something we considered very carefully based on player feedback and comments by beta testers on some very important points. Rohan is a major expansion and one of, if not the largest we've ever released. We think it deserves the extra time to be as good as players expect it to be. After all, this is Rohan and it's a region and experience players have been looking forward to almost since the day we launched five years ago.