I don't know how else to express my disappointment with Turbine atm...
The Good....
Releasing in 2 phases can be taken as ... decent news, it gives the players something to do at least, 3 3-man instances = bleh though, and I'm sure Turbine knows that of all the instances they release, the 3 mans get the least attention from the player base as they allow the least flexibility in class choice (tank, heals, dps required [T2]).
The Bad...
These instances have NOTHING at all to do with RoR and take us in the completely opposite direction with no news of the land mass to accompany them. The area in question takes us from Goblin Town all the way to the Lonely Mountain, an absolutely enormous stretch of land with MANY locations players have been asking for for years. Now, we're getting a few of them, in an obviously rushed money grab in time for the first movie release.
Now, it was expected when the movies were announced that we wouldn't be going south until we had Dale so the Hobbit could be realized in LOTRO, but you went to Rohan instead.
So instead of both of these areas being given the attention they deserve, they are both being slapped in the face.
More Bad...
3 man instances rarely give rewards of any worth, and are generally harder to get groups for then 6 mans due to the way you are restricted... So yes, we may have a way to get some medallions/seals again, but with no gear to achieve, no chance at 2nd agers, you might as well not even have bothered...
More bad...
With the amount of DPS races we've had in the past, the 3 single boss raids don't look like a change for the better. Smaug has been dead for years, no idea how the fires are still burning, let me guess, we fight his offspring or some &&&& like that... Battle for Erebor, I have NO idea how this is going can be single boss...
More bad...
&&& is the Battle for Erebor, please tell me it's not the Battle of Dale... The Battle of Dale (aka Erebor) took place on March 17th, 3019... Our timeline currently has us around April 30th... Although that's barely more then 2 weeks, this is by far the most active time in LOTR! March 2nd is when Theoden is cured by Gandalf, the Battle of the Hornburg is on the 3rd as with the flooding of Isengard by the Ents, Aragorn enters Dunharrow on the 7th, the Dawnless day on the 10th with the Mustering of the Rohirrim, on the 13th the enemy crosses onto the Pelenor fields, and the 15th is the Battle of the Pelenor Fields. Are you telling me we're going to be in Dale for all this?!?!?!?
It's very insulting that Turbine decided not to comply with the spirit of the promise--i.e. releasing what is *technically* a "cluster" of instances, but nothing like what we have been given as an instance cluster in the past.
They "honored their commitment" about as well as Hooters did when they gave that waitress a new Toy Yoda.
This has left quite the bad taste in my mouth. Very shady. 2 months late on the information we were promised, and now I see why. Congrats, Turbine, for sinking to a new communication low.
When Rohan was delayed EVERYONE theorized that the Instances by the end of 2012 would not be achieved at ALL. But instead of totally breaking that commitment they worked hard to get us a hefty chunk of that content out as quickly as they could in the 2 month window they had once Rohan was launched. So no this isn't what we all wanted but its more than many of us expected to see based on the launch delay.
Well, i still hope you make those raids VERY difficult and as someone pointed out before, we can have some trash making our way to the bosses even harder. About 3-mans, im not fan of these, but still, it's better than farming skraids all the time between expansion and instance cluster release. Im dissapointed by having only one 6-man instance, that kinda suck. What about rumors saying Mirkwood instances are going to be scaled?
If they are going to, they going to have some scaled/good stuff or &&&& like in revamped Fornost? And last question, any micro chance to get multi-boss raid?
Not excited at all, but yeah, hopefully we will see some really cool places.
Last edited by Cellore; Nov 26 2012 at 03:25 PM.
Good players have tried very hard to rise above these shortcomings and some have succeeded through luck, dedication, skill and ego.
Wow, &&& is this?? Is Turbine trying to kill this game intentionally? I don't give two craps about splitting the cluster; I'm talking about the cop-out single-boss raids!!!!!! This is infuriating. Starting with The Rift, the devs have come up with a series of terrific raids, with Ost Dunhoth being the best of them imho. The cluster idea: great. Story line that flows through the cluster: great. So, why change it up now? We KNOW these guys can do it, they just are choosing not to. This is probably going to be a deal-breaker for an awful lot of folks. How are we going to keep busy with 3 turtles and no "real" raid? Why bother gearing up and getting the best stuff if there is nothing that requires it?
This game has a huge problem that has held it back since the beginning. The devs have no idea at all how to itemize the game. Take Orthanc, for example. Great dungeon, very difficult T2 challenges, but there were no significant tangible rewards for defeating those challenges. All the best armor and items in the game could be obtained outside of the T2 raid. This just doesn't make sense. The T2 raid, being the most difficult content in the game, should also contain the most significant rewards. In other words, the game has built in no incentive to participate in its highest-level content. AND THAT CONTENT WAS VERY GOOD!
This doesn't punish the casual gamer in any way. If the gamer truly is casual, then there is no need to have the uber-elite-top-level stuff. And LoTRO gives plenty of stuff away for doing nothing at all. But this, this just makes no sense at all.
Not to be mean, but this game has proven, time and time again, that it is catering to the Bozos that play and not to the serious gamer.
My main concern is with raids being released so late, they never take off as well because they are over-shadowed by expansions looming in the not so distant future. I personally hope we do not get an expansion in 2013 and we get some decent end-game content to really work at with more focussed updates instead.
It's a trap. Next expansion being delayed RoR-style... but this time we will be praying for that and cheering far louder
Seriously though, this is indeed a problem, let's not even think about issues similar to those ToO had and for how long they haunted it...
So either "scalability naow" or at least +5lv cap, something like Mirkwood 2.0 for West Rohan. Wasn't so bad for Moria after all.
OK, OK, at least better than RoI for... everything else >.<
While I must admit a little part of me was holding out hope that we would see these places in the landscape, i understand turbine probably doesn't have the time left. I am glad how ever that we will get to see them in some form and I suspect the hype around them will increase even more as the film releases. The need for this cluster is great as players patience is becoming even more strained and I really hope these three mans are more successful than the last.
Turbine, much of your current endgame woes can be overcome by adding meaningful loot and rare drops to some of the great scaled content already in the game. When superior fourth marks were given and could be used to barter for top end gear, all of your scaled content was run constantly and the grouping community was thriving despite a lack of new instances. I would love to get back into these places but we need more incentive than easily obtainable marks or purple vender trash items.
I'm sad. No raids, not even a single 6 man until FEBRUARY!
You know, that content you've been waiting for since Rohan release, it' coming in 3 months! So in the meanwhile you can go on doing BORING dailies and running 3 mans, who cares if you don't get to play what you like, the way you like (being a SUPPORT class) until february?
Or, to be precise, those who raid. I really hope Erebor and Dale are NOT going to be raid-only areas or there will be A LOT of angry people!
I'm thinking, yes they will be. This is going to be their way of bringing those areas into the game, and we'll never see a fully realized expansion or regions made of northern Mirkwood, Dale or Erebor.
But a more optimistic view would be that these sound like they will be "flashback" style encounters, like the meeting with Durin's Bane in OD. They will be events from the period of the Hobbit, but maybe in the future we'll still get those areas in an expansion and experience them as they are in the time of the War of the Ring. But my bet is on scenario 1, and those who want this area as an expansion with full regions can dream on. I think the days of sidetracking to areas not followed by the fellowship are over, and expansions will be on the straight and narrow from here, unfortunately. even though there is plenty going on in other parts of Middle Earth during the war of the ring, including Dale and Erebor, we probably won't participate.
Last edited by Celebrawn; Nov 26 2012 at 03:31 PM.
3x3mans noone cares about?
1x6 man?
No Multibossraid.
Do you guys work at office or just sleep?
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
Hunter - Champion - Guardian * [DE]Morthond * Krieger des Lichts
When Rohan was delayed EVERYONE theorized that the Instances by the end of 2012 would not be achieved at ALL. But instead of totally breaking that commitment they worked hard to get us a hefty chunk of that content out as quickly as they could in the 2 month window they had once Rohan was launched. So no this isn't what we all wanted but its more than many of us expected to see based on the launch delay.
Sad to see expectations so low.
What I would have rather seen is an update saying "With the 6-week delay for RoR, we're going to delay the instances 6 weeks as well, until February. Thanks for your patience while we work on perfecting this content!"
And then if they had given us 3 3-man instances in December, it would have been a pleasant surprise instead of whatever feeling this is I have.
Instead, Turbine said "We still plan on releasing the instance cluster by the end of the year. We'll talk more about them in the Summer!" and followed that with complete silence until now, less than a month until Winter. In some back room in Warner Brothers, some jerk executive was like, "Well, we'll rush out 3 small instances by the end of the year. That's technically a "cluster", right?"
Work like no one is watching, dance like you don't need the money...
I'm thinking, yes they will be. This is going to be their way of bringing those areas into the game, and we'll never see a fully realized expansion or regions made of northern Mirkwood, Dale or Erebor.
Depends, let's not forget Hobbit is not a single movie. And the first part takes place mostly in already existing areas. Imagine Turbine releases all those new areas as well. What do they have left for another two parts & expected cash - in? Instances at least give some flexibility, teleporting system and all that.
First, I'm not sure why they bother calling it a Rohan Instance Cluster when none of the instances take place in Rohan. I commend the attempt to tie in some features with the Hobbit films, but is this going to draw in new customers? I doubt many of the movie fans will make the jump over to lotro when they have to level all the way up to 85 just to see these instances, unless of course these instances are scaled. In my opinion, it would have been better to tie these instances with a free content zone in the area and schedule it for release around the next film's release in 2013. Unfortunately, this is the least of my worries...
Which brings me to my second. 3-mans are nice when they're new, but these are also the instances that players grow tired of very quickly, usually because their rewards are sub-par to raid gear you get later on. Moreover, the people that run instances are generally people that do so in larger groups or kinships. Again, my advice would be to push extra hard and try to ship out that 6-man with Update 9, and save the 12-man raids for Part II. People are still running Roots of Fangorn and Foundry, not for the rewards, but it's something fun that 6 people can do together. Give us a new 6-man now and it will keep kinships busy for a couple of months. Otherwise, people are going to grow bored with the 3-mans pretty quickly.
~Landroval~ Raigar - 75 Captain | Raigorn - 75 Hunter Captains of the West - Leader
Founder | Lifetime Member | Raider | Roleplayer
Very disappointing. Combined with the unwillingness/inability to fix the lag issues, this guarantees that I will not prepurchase the next expansion and maybe not at all. I won't waste another dime on a product that doesn't state exactly what I am buying at the time of purchase. Once again, Turbine's evasiveness in providing simple answers to simple questions means that one should expect the worst. I won't make the same mistake in the future.
It is mindboggling that there is no bona fide 12-man raid. No need to elaborate on the obvious. Had I known this I would have moved on to greener pastures rather than buying RoR.
The 3-mans are getting out of control. 6-mans do a lot better job of taking advantage of the synergy of the various classes working together in a group. The class balance was origianlly designed around 6-man groups. The FM system reaches its pinnacle in 6-mans. 6-man groups allow for more interesting fight mechanics. Because 3-mans are inevitably easier, the loot is always a joke. If this had been a returm to Moria/Mirk days when there were seven 6-mans to run, I could have managed without a true raid, but this is ridiculous.
At the very least, given the lack of 6/12 man content, you'd think Turbine would at least take the easy way out and release more Skirms. But Turbine can't even be bothered to take the easy way out these days.
For once, Turbine has managed to be crystal clear on one point - - - It has made a conscious decision that it no longer desires the business of engame raiders.
(Also -- what "bug fixes"? Will these address the lag or will they address some minor animiation glitch that no one noticed anyway. Why do I ask? With Turbine, no news is bad news).
I don´t like the idea with three single boss raids...
... that also means: No "new" update in early 2013 with a new region like 2012 with "The Great River"...
... that also means: More Hytbold untill February with the next three characters...
... that also means: No new book...
Depends, let's not forget Hobbit is not a single movie. And the first part takes place mostly in already existing areas. Imagine Turbine releases all those new areas as well. What do they have left for another two parts & expected cash - in? Instances at least give some flexibility, teleporting system and all that.
They are already covering the events of all three movies in these instances though. And if they do bring us those full areas in the future it won't be Hobbit related, it would cover things going on there during the time of LotR.
Last edited by Celebrawn; Nov 26 2012 at 03:37 PM.
Until I see them, I'm going to assume that the 3 raids will be entertaining. Vile Maw was a lot of fun, and Draigoch was fun, if not really challenging. Single-boss doesn't necessarily mean a lair raid. There may be trash and/or chests along the way. And, hopefully, they'll be connected in such a way that it's like 3 wings of a multi-boss raid.
All that really upsets me is the lying about when they were going to give this information, and the half-truths about this month's "instance cluster". If they were going to be so cavalier with the term, they should have just told us that the instance cluster released with RoR--the Hytbold dailies include "instances", right?
They probably had the choice to work on either the 6-man or the 3 3-mans...and while a single 6-man would have seen more traffic and probably pleased just as many people, they wouldn't have "made good" on their "cluster" promise.
(not enjoying my Toy Yoda)
Work like no one is watching, dance like you don't need the money...
Split: Initially disappointed the cluster is being split, but not entirely surprised, given RoR's delay. At least getting some of it now is better than waiting for all of it later. In fact, it might even make the 3-mans more playable, as they won't be competing with a 6-man (rarely ran the 3-mans from Isengard, it was always Foundry runs).
Story: The nature of the instances is very cool, however. A tie-in with The Hobbit makes a lot of sense, and fulfils a lot of player requests. I only hope there is a region addition to match (if not in February, then in an update soon after). All of them sound very fun.
Number: I would have preferred a second 6-man than three 3-mans (running a solitary 6-man regularly can get tedious - choice is good). However, I really like the sound of three (presumably) lair raids. I always enjoyed Watcher and Draigoch (Turtle to a much lesser extent). They are fun bite-sized raids, which help when time is short. That said, I expect a multi-lair raid in the future for those who prefer longer, more intense runs. Even just a three-boss one like BG, but personally I have very fond memories of running DN regularly. For those who like longer raids, there is always the possibility of running the three back to back (like many do with GB, Fornost, etc.).
Timing: I am glad that Update 9 is still on course for December. Hopefully it will have other things to keep people occupied in addition to the 3-mans. A February release for Update 10 is very welcome, as that means the gap between updates is shorter than before, and will help take the sting out of things for those who were expecting a raid in December.
Lets hope only one of the Raid fights is Draigoch/Turtle-esque and the other two are complicated, long, tough boss fights.
Unless they split the raid gear between these 3 raids so you need to do them all to get a full set people will run the quickest one to get the gear and then the others after till they have done then and then revert to the quickest one for getting rewards
What I would have rather seen is an update saying "With the 6-week delay for RoR, we're going to delay the instances 6 weeks as well, until February. Thanks for your patience while we work on perfecting this content!"
I wish they would've just delayed the whole xpac until February. This was the last preorder I'll ever do. Preorder in July for content I'm not getting till February? Child please.
As a raider I really wanted to carry on supporting the game, I don't really need to buy TP but I realise £20 every 3 months or so makes sense to support the game I love playing. I'm not sure if I can justify that 'investment' any more based on the news above. It feels like Turbine just doesn't care enough about raids/instances anymore for me to want to give something back.
Also three 1 boss raids isn't three raids. Its 3/6 of a full raid, please try to not pretend otherwise.
I wish they would've just delayed the whole xpac until February. This was the last preorder I'll ever do. Preorder in July for content I'm not getting till February? Child please.
I honestly don't get this mentality. You would have rather waited for not only the entire cluster, but the entire expansion, until February? So what would you have done until then? I, for one, would rather have part now, part later, than nothing now and all later. I really don't understand the "all or nothing" approach.
This. As a raider I still supported the game, I don't really need to buy TP but I realise £20 every 3 months or so makes sense to support the game I love playing. I'm not sure if I can justify that 'investment' any more based on the news above. It feels like Turbine just doesn't care enough about raids/instances anymore for me to want to give something back.
Also three 1 boss raids isn't three raids. Its 3/6 of a full raid, please try to not pretend otherwise.
As a raider you are wasting your money if you are supporting Turbine, it's been obvious since Isengard that the f2p crowd is where the cash comes from.
I really wish I had gone out to a nice dinner instead of flushing that 50$ down the toilet.
They are already covering the events of all three movies in these instances though.
I wonder about that - and about titles.
3-mans might be some mop-up operation with that retro-feeling of Goblin-Town & Bilbo's buttons, but could also be time-travel/OD option as well.
But later on...? Those sound *exactly* like past events. OD trick worked as a novelty, but it is hard to imagine they would be using it/its equivalent so many times. And without time travel, what's left?
As for covering the events in general - I guess covering whatever they are actually covering (? :S ?) like In Their Absence did wouldn't work so well if it was spread across three years. Great River-ish kind of piecemeal updates could contain separate themes without overarching plot. Something like very limited connection between Evendim and Forochel. If we want more, like... Hobbit-related areas with similar feel cluster storyline (can) have, it would probably require something like... an expansion.
Last edited by Ferthcott; Nov 26 2012 at 03:50 PM.
Waiting for a court decision if developing new content makes sense?
Please read the articles before you post them. They are not based on LOTRO, the issue here stems from the 2 Kabam games being released as they are 'downloadable' not physical (LoTRO was, and still is, available in a box).
I don´t like the idea with three single boss raids...
... that also means: No "new" update in early 2013 with a new region like 2012 with "The Great River"...
... that also means: More Hytbold untill February with the next three characters...
... that also means: No new book...
->->->->->->->-> Boring :/
What makes you assume that either of these updates won't feature additional content? Or new gear?
Since these instances feature in areas not in the game, there is definitely the possibility of a new region (though it is also possible that the region space will exist only inside the instances. That, to me, would seem like a waste of potential, however, especially consider GR was so well received).
Since these are new instances, I would expect new gear, which means you may not have to grind Hytbold endlessly.
I'm interested to see how much this new 3-person instance, The Seat of the Great Goblin, will overlap the old level 50 6-person instance, Goblin-town: Throne Room. Will it be the same instance scaled to 85? A bit more structured and a challenge mode added? Or will it be a completely different experience utilizing new textures, models, layout and gameplay? My gut tells me the Throne Room instance will remain untouched and the new instance will be completely separate with some overlap.
the question I want answered requires a simple yes/no:
Will a multi-boss raid be released before the next level cap increase?
SoA had Rift, Moria/Loth had DN, Mirkwood had BG and OD, RoI had Orthanc...
the only reason I go through the grind of a level cap increase + gear reset is because I enjoy (for the most part) the multi-boss raids and conquering them with my kinship.
I honestly don't get this mentality. You would have rather waited for not only the entire cluster, but the entire expansion, until February? So what would you have done until then? I, for one, would rather have part now, part later, than nothing now and all later. I really don't understand the "all or nothing" approach.
-Bel
First of all, because it is a rip off. What they are doing to us with these instance clusters as free content updates is effectively both reducing the amount of content released at the xpac and reducing the amount of free content updates they release in a year.
Second, it creates huge gaps when there's nothing interesting to do for some players like me who dont' care to grind out a bazillion alts and can't even pvp because of the broken servers the Ettenmoors sit on. After our Main character is leveled and geared the next step is to hit the instance cluster but that next step will now have been 4 months down the road from when I hit level cap.
Its a really shady business practice at best and if you think about it for a second it really highlights how little content Turbine is actually delivering anymore.
Grand Member Online status:
Reputation:
Senior Member Online status:
Originally Posted by Frisco
Senior Member Online status:
Poster of Note Online status:
Reputation:
Senior Member Online status:
I <3 LOTRO! Online status:
KANOMIR Captain
Poster of Note Online status:
Grand Member Online status:
Grand Member Online status:
Junior Member Online status:
Poster of Note Online status:
Poster of Note Online status:
Poster of Note Online status:
Poster of Note Online status:
Grand Member Online status:
Century Member Online status:
Senior Member Online status:
Senior Member Online status:
Member Online status:
Junior Member Online status:
Grand Member Online status:
Reply With Quote
Posting Permissions
