Update 15 tomorrow

[Altreg01 38]

I had no idea the beorings were close to being ready, apparently the clueless upper management at Turbine does.  Looking forward to all the bears in Bree tomorrow.

 

Care to wager on date/length of "hotfix"?

 

Friday 4 hours.

[Spidey 123]

Oh the humanity...........

[Spiteful 94]

As if Turbine could do a hotfix in 2 days. Avg. time for a hotfix after Update is more around 2 weeks. With the holidays coming it might not get fixed until early next year.

[Cadbury 30]

The longest downtime I've personally seen for a hotfix after an update was over 4 days (damn Nexon....).

 

I'm putting my money on two weeks later and an eight hour downtime. With a patch to fix the hotfix after the winter festival.

[Fredelas 111]

At first, I thought it was a bad idea to launch Update 15 tomorrow. But I think the fraction of the player base that still remains in the game isn't very picky about quality at this point.

 

Central Gondor seems to be in pretty good shape. During testing, I didn't run into any of the kind of quest-blocking bugs that showed up in Western Gondor after its release.

 

Beornings are good enough to be fun, at least at low levels, which I think is the most important selling point for now.

 

The Pelargir epic battle is still pretty messy in the solo/duo mode, and is completely missing its 6-player mode. I'd say this is the lowest quality feature of Update 15 at this point, but it's probably also a feature that will never be seen by many players anyway.

 

The music system has a few improvements, but also introduces a few brand new prominent issues. This is the one feature I think Turbine really should have tried to isolate and delay for a later patch. Music system enthusiasts tend to be very vocal in their criticism of flaws.

 

Overall, all of these things would probably be a lot better if they got released just before Christmas. But there will probably be a patch 15.1 by Thanksgiving and 15.2 by Christmas anyway, so Turbine might as well just take people's money now. The people who are still playing and paying for the game are the kind of players who will forgive Turbine's lack of quality.

[Trilwych 279]

So someone remind me---how much do Beornings cost? If it has a TP price, I'm not sure it's going to make Turbine much money since I expect the vast majority of remaining players to be the long-timers sitting on a pile of free points. Are people really expecting an influx of new players or something?

[Fredelas 111]

So someone remind me---how much do Beornings cost? If it has a TP price, I'm not sure it's going to make Turbine much money since I expect the vast majority of remaining players to be the long-timers sitting on a pile of free points. Are people really expecting an influx of new players or something?

 

I believe it's 995 TP to unlock the class, or 1295 TP for a bundle that adds an exclusive character slot (one that can't be purchased separately).

 

The Central Gondor quest pack is another 795 TP.

 

Many players will probably also purchase convenience items for their new characters.

 

I'm guessing that a lot of VIPs and lifetimers have plenty of Turbine Points to cover this, but it's still good for Turbine to get those out of our accounts.

[Castorix 19]

The Pelargir epic battle is still pretty messy in the solo/duo mode, and is completely missing its 6-player mode. I'd say this is the lowest quality feature of Update 15 at this point, but it's probably also a feature that will never be seen by many players anyway.

 

From people who tested it on BR, the actual version seems worse than the one in the former Beta.

And plenty of things are not finished or bugged on BR (Stars of Merit don't drop in several BBs, lvl 100 bridles are useless, new BB jewels with slots are all identical, no lvl 100 crafting recipes, etc...)

[Validoom 17]

I was going to log in and see how much TP I have.. I suspect it is around 20k but the launcher keeps stalling when trying to update and I can not be bothered trying to fix it lol

[warspeech 302]

I think I'll just skip buying the update for now, and just do the epic, which if I'm remembering right, is supposed to be free now (including the Epic Battle).  

 

There's no level increase to worry about so I should be able to get through it in an afternoon, and then go back to ignoring the game.

[LordVorontur 185]

Looks like the patch server is up.

[LordVorontur 185]

And now they tweet and say the Servers are up.

If that is the case, I fucked up with my prediction on the downtime by saying there'd be a 2 hour delay(we were guessing on Snowbourn this morning).

And a pleasant change of pace for getting it done early!

[Tinker 90]

In the patch notes, Frelorn said:

 

"We have added a new character chat restriction: All new free characters must wait 3 hours of in-game time before they will be able to use world chat and all user created chat channels (such as glff). All other channels will be available to them. Once players have reached this three hour time limit, they will need to relog in order to then join the chat channels. Please note: This change ONLY affects free players and all times and restrictions are subject to change."

 

Okay, I know I'm rather cynical, but they wouldn't be trying to keep new Beornings from complaining about the class (and lame starter area) when they first create it, would they?

[LordVorontur 185]

"Free" being the keyword here.

Accounts that are Premium/VIP won't have restrictions.

[cossieuk 209]

In the patch notes, Frelorn said:

 

"We have added a new character chat restriction: All new free characters must wait 3 hours of in-game time before they will be able to use world chat and all user created chat channels (such as glff). All other channels will be available to them. Once players have reached this three hour time limit, they will need to relog in order to then join the chat channels. Please note: This change ONLY affects free players and all times and restrictions are subject to change."

 

Okay, I know I'm rather cynical, but they wouldn't be trying to keep new Beornings from complaining about the class (and lame starter area) when they first create it, would they?

Seems more like a gold selling restriction

[Thequinn 185]

In the patch notes, Frelorn said:

 

"We have added a new character chat restriction: All new free characters must wait 3 hours of in-game time before they will be able to use world chat and all user created chat channels (such as glff). All other channels will be available to them. Once players have reached this three hour time limit, they will need to relog in order to then join the chat channels. Please note: This change ONLY affects free players and all times and restrictions are subject to change."

 

Okay, I know I'm rather cynical, but they wouldn't be trying to keep new Beornings from complaining about the class (and lame starter area) when they first create it, would they?

It's to make their job easier when dealing with chat trolls who get banned and then return minutes later on a newly created account to continue the troll.   I'm all for the shoddy development conspiracies, but this really has nothing to do with that.  Besides do you think Turbine even cares what is said about their game at this point? 

 I think it's more about abusing other players in chat. 

 

It says they can't use the chat (physically type in)  it did not say they couldn't read it.

 

People could have tried the Beorn in the beta like I did for free, and quite honestly if they were considering spending real world money on it, they really should have tried it then to see if it was worth it for them.  Anyone blindly buying it has no clue what they are getting into with it and I think that's what Turbine banks on!

[Castorix 19]

 

Stars of Merit don't drop in several BBs

 

On my first test on live (Glittering Caves, first side-quest),  I saw this problem is still not fixed (after having reported it twice on BR)

 

And when I see  in notes

"In Helm's Deep: Glittering Caves, the women and children now have color text and both Gimli and Gamling have greetings when you first walk up to them."

 

I'm demoralized...

[Fredelas 111]

A few music system enthusiasts seem to already be gathering their tuning forks, preparing to storm the castle!

[Trilwych 279]

I agree that the chat restriction is mainly a hammer-on-thumbtack approach to stop chat spam and whatever. But it's over the top. I think Rift is a bit too unrestricted in terms of F2P low-level chat (first thing anyone should do is disable the level-based chat channels and the pre-starter zone channel) and allowing full mail access upon character creation (ehhh, no), but Turbine's approach here is the other end. There has to be a better way to do it while not being too punitive on legit players.

 

People could have tried the Beorn in the beta like I did for free, and quite honestly if they were considering spending real world money on it, they really should have tried it then to see if it was worth it for them.  Anyone blindly buying it has no clue what they are getting into with it and I think that's what Turbine banks on!

The wait-and-see/try approach has always been the most logical argument against those people who prepurchase* the most expensive CE for LotRO; at the beginning, the content quality was fine enough that the risk wasn't as huge. People got into the habit. But there was that one thread (on BR forum?) just before Helm's Deep that was warning everyone to NOT prepurchase and to take a wait-and-see-for-yourself approach (by waiting for others to try it out and leave reviews, or wait for kinnies for feedback), because HD essentially would change the game. That thread was shot down by the most loyal of the loyalists...see where their loyalty has led Turbine, eh? Yes, I do partially blame the remaining blind loyalists for voting for the quality freefall. But I think they're not so numbered that Turbine can actually survive off them in the long term.

*I've never prepurchased a black box final product. The very idea is the most anti-consumer concept ever. I've backed half a dozen Kickstarter ventures, two of which are software, because I expect a lot more backer-dev involvement in such developments (and this is proving true with Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity). Preorder with pre-charge cancellation, though---yes.

Meanwhile, looking at the prices listed above, I laugh at the whole concept of "F2P" as implemented in LotRO. You have to pay for the class and the content anyway, so what else is there? Replay value? Oh, so the epic line is free again? That's good. Still, I predict extremely little revenue from this just for the long-timers' stashes of accumulating TP.

A few music system enthusiasts seem to already be gathering their tuning forks, preparing to storm the castle!

I wonder just how many of those music-players there are. Probably a good overlap with the remaining RP community, those who never leave the Shire (fine, fine).

What other MMORPGs have a music system?

[Danchir 35]

A few music system enthusiasts seem to already be gathering their tuning forks, preparing to storm the castle!

 

Why is that? Couldn't they implement properly at least that feature of the update?

[Darmokk 163]

What's wrong with music?

[Trilwych 279]

Why is that? Couldn't they implement properly at least that feature of the update?

The original devs for that system are probably long departed from Turbine. Anything afterwards is duct tape and spackle.

[Thunderloin 153]

I agree that the chat restriction is mainly a hammer-on-thumbtack approach to stop chat spam and whatever. But it's over the top. I think Rift is a bit too unrestricted in terms of F2P low-level chat (first thing anyone should do is disable the level-based chat channels and the pre-starter zone channel) and allowing full mail access upon character creation (ehhh, no), but Turbine's approach here is the other end. There has to be a better way to do it while not being too punitive on legit players.

 

 

Yeah, to me the chat restriction also seems to be what Quinn guesses it is - and it's long overdue/kind of too late.  It's the sort of thing that might've been useful when there was a larger population (and thus, presumably a larger population of trolls ducking in-game bans via free accounts).

 

As for legit players... I don't see a three hour chat restriction as all that bad.  It sounds like they still have access to local and regional chat channels anyway, so it's not like they're completely prohibited from seeking help from other players, although personally I'd prefer people spend their early time in the game learning things on their own rather than asking for help.

[Wrath of Winter 139]

But there was that one thread (on BR forum?) just before Helm's Deep that was warning everyone to NOT prepurchase and to take a wait-and-see-for-yourself approach (by waiting for others to try it out and leave reviews, or wait for kinnies for feedback), because HD essentially would change the game. That thread was shot down by the most loyal of the loyalists...see where their loyalty has led Turbine, eh? Yes, I do partially blame the remaining blind loyalists for voting for the quality freefall. But I think they're not so numbered that Turbine can actually survive off them in the long term.

 

 

Funny thing about those "loyalists", most of them are no longer posting. Of the usual suspects from HD era, only mar-eva and djh are still visibly present. Looks like it wasn't "lotro-fanboism" after all, but what was mistaken for fervent zeal could have simply been a symptom of some character flaw prompting such individuals to spend hours on an online forum making arguments and starting crusades just for the sake of being contrary and stirring up drama. The whole "Sapience-approved" popularity fits right in. When that ended, so did their "loyalty".

 

All the worse for Turbine though, if this wave of zealous swarm was taken for genuine loyalty towards the title. It looks like they have far fewer actual loyalists than they anticipated when the critics were being banned/shutdown/fired. iirc, didn't these HD-loving "loyalists" buy the expansion with TP rather than real cash? 

[Trilwych 279]

As for legit players... I don't see a three hour chat restriction as all that bad. It sounds like they still have access to local and regional chat channels anyway, so it's not like they're completely prohibited from seeking help from other players, although personally I'd prefer people spend their early time in the game learning things on their own rather than asking for help.

Oh, that's right, it's just the /world and user chats (/glff) that are blocked; I only had the zone and /advice channels ever enabled on my account anyway. To the point of players having to learn on their own, so many want the instant gratification or give up super early without trying to click around a bit---it's a little demoralizing in MMOs on a whole---but that also depends on the tutorial quality of the game and how engaging the content is for a given person. I don't know if LotRO's tutorials have changed overmuch, but when I played back then, I thought the solo instance and starter zone were very good. How many levels can you gain in three hours of casual play, anyway? Maybe that's a better gate, or just have most chat disabled until someone leaves the starter instanced zone. Three hours is entirely arbitrary for no great reason at this point.

Still, I find it hard to believe anyone would expend the effort to troll/spam LotRO these days, and there really is no point in trying to sell gold/accounts.

Funny thing about those "loyalists", most of them are no longer posting. Of the usual suspects from HD era, only mar-eva and djh are still visibly present. Looks like it wasn't "lotro-fanboism" after all, but what was mistaken for fervent zeal could have simply been a symptom of some character flaw prompting such individuals to spend hours on an online forum making arguments and starting crusades just for the sake of being contrary and stirring up drama. The whole "Sapience-approved" popularity fits right in. When that ended, so did their "loyalty".

 

All the worse for Turbine though, if this wave of zealous swarm was taken for genuine loyalty towards the title. It looks like they have far fewer actual loyalists than they anticipated when the critics were being banned/shutdown/fired. iirc, didn't these HD-loving "loyalists" buy the expansion with TP rather than real cash?

"That just means they're in the game, enjoying themselves!"

Yes, that's right, even the Heydts admitted to using TP to buy Helm's Deep, which is hypocritical IMO if you actually love the content. They should have prepurchased like the others. O irony.

So where are the big real positive changes that certain people had been saying are definitely coming down the pike? Next year? Sorry, but U15 ain't it, looks like.