Morder Pre-Purchase Packages Announced

[cossieuk 209]

With virtues so low you need to grind lots of slayer deeds, so how do you speed this up, buy the scrolls from the store.  Perhaps that is part of the plan.  

[Amenhir 126]

5 hours ago, cossieuk said:

With virtues so low you need to grind lots of slayer deeds, so how do you speed this up, buy the scrolls from the store.  Perhaps that is part of the plan.  

Nah, it's to make buying the HD expac really appealing.  "You want those trait points? pony up the cash."  Two from BBs, and five from regions. I suppose you could grind out the promotion points using the Gondor BBs, but you can't get those five points.

[Urwendil 21]

13 hours ago, Amenhir said:

Nah, it's to make buying the HD expac really appealing.  "You want those trait points? pony up the cash."  Two from BBs, and five from regions. I suppose you could grind out the promotion points using the Gondor BBs, but you can't get those five points.

If that was the case they screwed it up that way too. Actually people (including me) asked them to auto-grant the points based on purchase but they never listened.

According to latest news this new Valar flick includes the points from the Old Anórien meta-deeds and the BBs, and 12 virtue ranks. That seems enough to cheer up some but it doesn't make it less of a rip-off for a paid (with a high price) item in my eyes (as well as others I believe).

19 hours ago, cossieuk said:

With virtues so low you need to grind lots of slayer deeds, so how do you speed this up, buy the scrolls from the store.  Perhaps that is part of the plan.  

Deed accelerators are usually abundant and cheap on the AH. I picked quite a few while farming virtues for my main #2 and two capped alts.

On 22.07.2017 at 0:02 AM, Talisman said:

 

I used a Blessing to catch up with some friends that were leveling in Moria. It was a mistake for 2 reason. First, the friends stopped playing soon after. Second, even with the virtues & the gear in the package, I had to complete the Moria intro & unlock the LI system, and Moria itself was not really a pleasant experience. The guys I was running with intended to do the instances on-level, but the toon was completely not ready, and it took a lot of work to get him even remotely ready.

The "Gift" (boosts to 50 with 4 virtue ranks) puts you at the Moria intro gate IIRC. The "Blessing" versions (0 > 95 or 50 > 95) actually grants you the "Seeker of Deep Places" and a few LIs as well as IXP pills. Yours must be the Gift.

[Mallorn 107]

I think it is interesting to see so many people on the official forums complaining about the pricing and content of this EP, with lots saying they do not intend to purchase it yet. I find it odd that so many genuinely seem surprised that the quality of the EP is poor and the content minimal. What were they expecting? Mordor is classic free2play LOTRO. They've been churning this kind of quality out for years.  

I think the past 6 months or so have definitely shown that the developers are actually the ones to blame for the mess that LOTRO became and not WB. The developers don't know how to do anything different than what they have been doing for years. They are still making poor, rushed, ill-thought-out content. They are still charging extortionate prices. They are still refusing to listen to their customers.

How could anyone seriously have thought that a kite cosmetic was a good and tonally appropriate idea for a Mordor pre-order perk? They don't know what they are doing. If they have any sense they will add the High Elf to the standard edition of the pre-order, and LOTRO points to the other two.

How can they call this an expansion when we have had quest packs with a similar amount of content? An expansion is supposed to have more content of all kinds - quests, items, group content, new systems, and normally a new class or race to differentiate itself from a mere update. Yet, they are claiming that the High Elf race was never meant to be part of the expansion pack?

[Urwendil 21]

A "true" expansion would in all likelihood have us see them hiring a heap of extra personnel designing about 3x new content (of what's currently in the Mordor update) while fixing or -not that I desire it but- introducing systems, while marketing it up and down and releasing it after months of testing (and hype).

This is simply Far Anórien redux, an ordinary twice-a-year content extension with promised instance cluster and raid; offered for cash, packed with junk, to grab fanboy whale money (which they appear willing to pay, all the best to them).

[psalm8818 45]

On 7/19/2017 at 1:08 PM, Amenhir said:

I have to give Cordovan some credit.  The OF is full of negative threads about the Mordor pricing and launch.  He could very easily shut them all down and claim it's due to fighting or insults or whatever.  He hasn't done that save for a couple of them.  Allowing people to vent their frustrations is a lot different than how another CM handled things during the last expac roll out.

He's probably too busy working on his CV and cover letters to bother.  Everyone working on LOTRO today MUST know they're on a sinking ship.  For if not, they'd be doing a better job at......anything.

I mean, I'd like to think that one of his managers finally told him "Stop penalizing and banning everyone with valid criticisms, and stop allowing your shilling trolls to post whatever they want without fear of recourse, or your ass is fired", but they know they'll never find anyone stupid or gullible enough to replace him.

And if anyone thinks I'm being too harsh on him, I literally couldn't give a toss.  Cordovan's unchecked hypocrisy, complete failure as CM, and abuse of his moderation privileges are the 3 main reasons I gave up on LOTRO and its community.

[warspeech 302]

I just saw this thread, saying that Mordor introduces BiS rings from new lootboxes (that don't take the old sturdy keys, there is a new kind of key for them).

They really are going full-speed into wallet-emptying mode now.

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?656153-New-Keys-New-Lootboxes-Best-in-Slot-Ring&p=7750068#post7750068

Update: That one got the EP into the thread pretty quickly!  He says 

"There will never be a design that has loot from lootboxes that is statistically better than what you can gain someplace or somehow in game. Finding that loot in game might be hard, but it will be possible. Our overall design philosophy is that loot boxes are not required to reach the best gearing. If players do find some piece of gear that is best in slot and can only be gained through loot boxes then 1.) it is a bug or 2.) it is an oversight and will be fixed or 3.) there was some release timing issue and the loot will be available someplace in game soon.

In this case the intent is that those rings can be purchased from the Ash vendor for an appropriately large amount of Ash.

Sev~"

 

 

 

[Duruleth 1]

I came back to LOTRO after a 2+ year break around update 16, and I have really enjoyed it.  I think that the dev team has done a much better job since the horror that was Helm's Deep and RoR.  I've enjoyed running Throne and think it is one of the better raids that Turbine / SSG has produced - it's at least as good as OD, and much better than Orthanc, DN, Hele and BG (not as good as Rift, but that's a high bar).  LOTRO in its current state is certainly not perfect, and there are loads of things that I would like to see improved, but in my opinion it's back to being a quality game that I enjoy playing.  

While I don't really understand the attraction of the two higher-priced packages, I think that the basic package is pretty fairly priced for what we are getting.  The only complaint I really have about it is that it should include the high elf - I'd rather they include it and leave out the auto-level item.  I don't really understand what all the uproar is about.  

[Duruleth 1]

I do have some experience playing other MMO's and I agree with much of what you say here - this is a skimpy offering for an "expansion".  That said, it is significantly better than the updates that we have been getting before, and I understand that a games company has to raise revenue in order to continue to put out content.  

LOTRO is an old title with a pretty static player base.  If you are expecting to get something as big and robust as Moria for an expansion then you are definitely going to be disappointed.  My expectations at this point are lower.   

[Duruleth 1]

30 minutes ago, Almagnus1 said:

Why is it acceptable that the final expansion for the LotR story be anything less than equivalent to Moria in scope?

Why settle for piss poor graphical design and mediocre storytelling?  (Budgeford just did it better =/ )

Why is it OK that the client is a technical mess that consumes RAM faster than a fat kid eating a bag of chips?

 

It's a fair question.  I guess that I would answer this by saying that my expectations are clearly different than yours.  I don't disagree with you, I just have a different perspective.  I do have to agree that the engine issues are a complete joke that I would love to see fixed - I have a very high-end gaming machine, and I have to run on the lowest setting if I want to avoid stuttering and / or crashes.  I just think that LOTRO is, even in its diminished state, still a good value in terms of content for money.

Is LOTRO a shadow of its former self in many ways?  Yes.  

Is LOTRO still a good and fun game that I enjoy playing?  Also yes.  

[Thrabath 25]

Depends on why you play the game. I think as a singleplayer RPG where you can experience the world of Tolkien it's probably worth it. You get a lot of playtime for $40

If you're looking for endgame groupcontent, it isn't, that's where the age of the engine and the design flaws are most striking, same as PvE. But especially PvE was a added as a sidethought and I think endgame raids are also not very important for them, even though I enjoyed them when i still raided regularly. But then the game wasn't so outdated yet.

[Thrabath 25]

ehm, yes; Of course I mean PvmP

[Laurinaohtar 133]

I'm essentially playing lotro only occasionally and as a single player rpg with a chat room at this point. So yeah these prices seem a little high to me 

[Amenhir 126]

45 minutes ago, Laurinaohtar said:

I'm essentially playing lotro only occasionally and as a single player rpg with a chat room at this point. So yeah these prices seem a little high to me 

I think that's how a lot of players view the game.  I would say the majority of things I've completed in the game have been done alone.  They haven't really created an incentive to group up if you don't care about instances or raids.  I like doing end game content but sometimes I would like to do things as a group that isn't running around killing stuff.  I don't rp and some of the music system people are even more elitist than the raiders are alleged to be.  

I know it shouldn't always be the developers job to give us something to do, but they have so many things in game they've abandoned.  How many people know they have a freeze tag or tag grounds?  Hobnanigans is a pile of crap. 

[warspeech 302]

1 hour ago, Laurinaohtar said:

I'm essentially playing lotro only occasionally and as a single player rpg with a chat room at this point. So yeah these prices seem a little high to me 

Same here.  I also don't want to spend money on a valar item that I'll never use.

Some people think you're getting it "free" and that the expansion itself costs $40, but I don't see it that way.

I don't think SSG does either, since they're pricing the expansion at 2495 LP when it'll be available to buy via points.  I've got the points, I don't want the boost, so why on earth would I want to spend $40?  

I don't need to be there on day 1.  

[Doro 818]

I was going to finish the stupidly long download just to see how much TP I had after years of not playing, but I gave up halfway. Even so, I noticed some new shit had been installed on my PC, even though I was downloading the client through Steam. Something called Akamai NetSessions that fucking (supposedly) uses my PC without my permission as a seeder for other people to download LotRO?! Get fucked, I'm not having that shit. It's now completely uninstalled again.

[Amenhir 126]

15 minutes ago, Doro said:

I was going to finish the stupidly long download just to see how much TP I had after years of not playing, but I gave up halfway. Even so, I noticed some new shit had been installed on my PC, even though I was downloading the client through Steam. Something called Akamai NetSessions that fucking (supposedly) uses my PC without my permission as a seeder for other people to download LotRO?! Get fucked, I'm not having that shit. It's now completely uninstalled again.

It's the new pando, which they were using several months after that company folded.

[Iance 9]

I am not dropping any money on this expansion. Haven't paid for the game in years and am not starting now, for the crap that I saw on BR! What's the over/under on the game closing down before Mordor and Highelves are available in the Lotro Store?

[Thrabath 25]

I just love MoL's reaction in one of the High Elf-lore-problems-discussion threads:

"Better not take any Elves through any of the early content in Volume I, then, when everyone from Nazgul to Amarthiel puts the whammy on our characters, up to and including the cowering effect of Dread"

Yeah, there are lore-problems with some of the content, so just skip that content...

[warspeech 302]

8 hours ago, Thrabath said:

I just love MoL's reaction in one of the High Elf-lore-problems-discussion threads:

"Better not take any Elves through any of the early content in Volume I, then, when everyone from Nazgul to Amarthiel puts the whammy on our characters, up to and including the cowering effect of Dread"

Yeah, there are lore-problems with some of the content, so just skip that content...

Or "If you think I'm going to go back and change everything that causes Dread in the game just so you can have lore-appropriate game play for High Elves, you're crazy."

(But thanks for the 80 bucks, suckers!)

[Amenhir 126]

Spoiler

 

Yeah nazgul were pretty terrified of elves, especially high elves.  However, if you want elves in the game they can't be super gods.

[Talisman 37]

4 days out from the supposed release date, and it looks like the dev & artist interviews is all they are going to release. This dev interview for the high elf was a huge waste of time.

https://lotro.com/en/u21-High-Elf-Dev-Interview

[Elrantiri 46]

Their FAQ is finally showing pictures of the cosmetic armor:

https://www.lotro.com/en/u21-FAQ

Looks alright IMO, but nothing I can see myself spending an additional 40/90$ on.

[cossieuk 209]

Other than a new intro for High Elves is there anything different about them compared to other Elves

[Elrantiri 46]

1 minute ago, cossieuk said:

Other than a new intro for High Elves is there anything different about them compared to other Elves

They look somewhat different and they have different racial traits, including a +5% light damage which might be handy for minstrels, wardens and captains