Another Attempt to Bump the Login Numbers...

[Talisman 27]

The Ill Omens Skirmish Event starts Feb 7, 2019. They are adding an additional objective to Skirmishes, and it appears that you'll have to log in daily for 30 days to complete the deeds/rewards.

From the release notes from today's update:

Quote

February 7th brings a new event: ‘Ill Omens’ to Skirmishes throughout the game! Evil stirs in Minas Morgul, and harbingers of the Dead City spread across Middle-earth! Each day, your characters will have the chance to participate in a Skirmish Assault, which will send them to specific sets of existing Skirmishes in search of dangerous new foes. Characters who complete a Skirmish Assault will earn a special currency that can be exchanged for new equipment and cosmetic rewards. As for the most dedicated Skirmishers of Middle-earth, there are several new Deeds and titles to be earned during ‘Ill Omens’. In addition, characters who complete twelve Skirmish Assaults while the event is active will earn a powerful cap-level statted reward.

 

[Doro 788]

And with no skirmishes on the Limited Servers, they've yet again put two fingers up to those poor saps that paid for the privilege.

[warspeech 291]

3 hours ago, Doro said:

And with no skirmishes on the Limited Servers, they've yet again put two fingers up to those poor saps that paid for the privilege.

I didn't realize the LSs don't have skirmishes, so you don't get the skirmish recruit mail when you hit level 20 anymore on there?  How odd.  Was there any reasoning given?  Oh..wait, skirmishes came in at the Mirkwood update, right? so technically the LSs aren't "there" yet. 

So everybody has to go back to their original servers to do this...so much for the fabulous communal leveling experience everyone was gloating over. 

[Talisman 27]

26 minutes ago, warspeech said:

I didn't realize the LSs don't have skirmishes, so you don't get the skirmish recruit mail when you hit level 20 anymore on there?  How odd.  Was there any reasoning given?  Oh..wait, skirmishes came in at the Mirkwood update, right? so technically the LSs aren't "there" yet. 

So everybody has to go back to their original servers to do this...so much for the fabulous communal leveling experience everyone was gloating over. 

Skirmishes were the Mirkwood gimmick. However, because they changed the 2.5.5 instances into skirms, they will become available when Moria opens up on the LS.

[LasraelLarson 112]

i do not know how much this will impact log-ins but since the winter festival ended logins are definitely down across all servers:

and exactly how many players have keep their skirmish soldiers up to date?  most stopped leveling them back when we were capped at level 75.  some even before that.  the cap is 120 now, just imagine the expenditures of players who do participate having to spend marks to bring their soldiers up to level...  the higher you go, the more expensive it gets. & the matter of unlocking additional upgrades as well....

with all the new calculations & enemy mobs hitting harder, etc.  an unleveled soldier is  going to die fast...  as will the NPC's in the actual skirmishes.

& here is the thing, if skirmishes themselves don't actually have decent rewards, not just the new barter items (let alone a mystery item after completing all 12 skirmishes...)

this little concept has several icy cold glasses of water, sufficient to turn almost the entirety of those potential early lookers completely off, right after day one.

but you can bet there will be a store option for the dedicated few that will eat this up, like they do everything else.

as for the festival carebears who bring the numbers up during fests...  watch the bitchmoaning, when they see the new combat calculations wrecking NPC's, their unleveled soldiers & very likely their characters as well.

i actually don't think this event will succeed to bring numbers up as much as it will, in milking existing players who spend via the store.

[Doro 788]

Hold the phone, is that now showing that the LS are now the least populated servers? I can't wait to see just how far it drops before Moria kicks in.

[LasraelLarson 112]

1 hour ago, Doro said:

Hold the phone, is that now showing that the LS are now the least populated servers? I can't wait to see just how far it drops before Moria kicks in.

Last place = Ithil

2nd to last = Sirannon

Gladden & Anor are pretty much neck in neck.  (Gladden slightly ahead)

once Moria launches, the whole leveling together feeling diminishes & that increases with each content addition.  Moria won't have nearly as many initial rubberneckers, (characters are made, very little new characters at that point) so no queue.  & the levelers will hit 60 pretty fast in the new Moria.  each successive content addition will see a smaller burst & a faster attrition rate.

when will folk demand the consolidation?  free transfers between the 2 are done as far as i know.

Moria is due on Anor & Ithil roughly around March 8.

---

what is really noteworthy though, is how the main 10 servers have dropped off since winterfest end & are mostly still beating the legacy servers.  even combined they can't match either Brandywine alone, or Evernight which have the best populations.

[Almagnus1 81]

Yeah, I can't see the Legendary Server experiment going to completion... I'm gonna guess it's gonna fail out by about Helm's Deep, as that's when the leveling content really takes a dive.

[Talisman 27]

I suspect the LS will experience a lot of ups and downs. People will jump on long enough to complete the landscape and non-raid content, then go back to their regular servers. They will then log back in only when the raid locks reset. So, there will be a lot of activity for maybe 2 weeks after a expac goes live on the LS, and for the remaining 3.5 months, the servers will be dead zones.

[Wrath of Winter 127]

Skirmish event to boost logins sounds kinda sensible, a) makes use of pre-existing assets (skirms) with minimal effort yet able to claim it as 'new' event, and b) pushes players to the Store to actually buy those skirms to participate (or drop $15 on a month of VIP to unlock them).

What I find egregious about it all are some things seeming to coincide with this event:  a growing rash of "miscommunication" where Cordovan admits misrepresenting some details about said event, admits class-balance stuff not making it into update patch due to "oversight", Vastin admitting class-balance info not making it into patch notes due to someone else's miscues etc, the carousel spins. Not to mention zero details, zero hype, zero official communication about this 'skirm event' apart from some blue random dropping a few lines on the forum. Add to that the still unfilled "events calendar" for 2019, not a single festival date has even been set. Add on top of it all the still-MIA producer's letter. Which, laughably, was promised to have been delivered by now, and once again statement redacted by Cord due to "miscue." 

SSG operating at amateur level is nothing new, but this is frankly a new achievement in embarrassment. One might almost mistake them for paid professionals who work for a living, but then... oh wait. 

Apart from nobody having the slightest clue regarding their responsibilities and zero familiarity with actual content they're being paid to deliver, this really does sound like the December loss of their top engineer put their projects and jobs on hot seat. If this carousel makes it sound like they're running around their office space with their pants on fire, maybe that is because they are. (It's all so absurd I wouldn't be surprised at a sudden announcement of Lotro closure coming out of nowhere - not being dramatic, just mixed feelings as I've been recently warming up to SoA-era early game content once more.)

[Tarantula 57]

I am so glad I gave up on that game!

My daughter is running around in the Shire with a new hobbit. That's the area she loves most.

She went to Hengstacer's to get a starter horse... these cost 50MC now... so that was a no deal. Yuk!

 

[Thrabath 19]

I'm curious to know how much staff they have left for developing new stuff and what they had during SoA for example. I won't be surprised if it's below 10% of what they had during SoA/MoM

[Wrath of Winter 127]

2 hours ago, Thrabath said:

I'm curious to know how much staff they have left for developing new stuff and what they had during SoA for example. I won't be surprised if it's below 10% of what they had during SoA/MoM

Made of Lions seems the only one left from SoA, that's about it. Other content-designer still remaining joined ca. 2011 (thePinion). Silorien the software engineer still there since late 2008, might be the last remaining one now that they lost DrOctothorpe to layoffs (and bet they lost more than him). Among QA personnel, DarthCeltics is still there since 2008. That's about it, as far as any semblance of a "core" team.

Add to that a rotating carousel of lesser interns (less familiar blue names popping up with join dates ca. 2016-18), mostly QA personnel and thus more disposable and predictably less knowledgeable about game product they're tasked with.

Vastin seems the only class developer left (thankfully tbh, he's got a head on his shoulders and communicates well, unlike previous dweebs), but he's a recent addition with a forum join date 2017 (might have been around longer in other capacities?)

Not counting Cordovan and the joke of a producer, who are not only terrible at communicating and formulating articulate replies to interview queries but are legitimately clueless and lost when it comes to most rudimentary familiarity with product they're paid to oversee. Both are holdovers from D&D Online so perhaps no surprise they know a piss drizzle's worth about Lotro; being around since lat 2000s seems to have done zilch to their capacity to absorb new information and develop their skill sets. Which leads me to conjecture both are still employed due to knowing people who know people, and both are digging in their heels circling their collapsing SSG wagons knowing full well they're not worth much on the job market. Any self respecting PR hiring committee would see they're nothing but yesterday's nerds with good hook-ups, good for nothing but deadbeating around the office on company pay and kissing ass of higher ups to stay employed.

[Altreg01 37]

I've noticed a massive drop in logins at Anor. My previous kin which was a nice large group from my original kin has completely left the game probably due to the no PVMP declaration. Thats 20+ subs gone, and multiply that by countless others that came back only to be disappointed and its a healthy chunk of change. My current kin is quite large, has everything from festival folks to serious raiders and Im noticing a pretty big drop off in population there too. Remains to be seen what Moria brings back, probably a big but temporary buff to the population which will slowly fade as time goes.

[psalm8818 38]

1 hour ago, Wrath of Winter said:

Made of Lions seems the only one left from SoA, that's about it. Other content-designer still remaining joined ca. 2011 (thePinion). Silorien the software engineer still there since late 2008, might be the last remaining one now that they lost DrOctothorpe to layoffs (and bet they lost more than him). Among QA personnel, DarthCeltics is still there since 2008. That's about it, as far as any semblance of a "core" team.

Add to that a rotating carousel of lesser interns (less familiar blue names popping up with join dates ca. 2016-18), mostly QA personnel and thus more disposable and predictably less knowledgeable about game product they're tasked with.

Vastin seems the only class developer left (thankfully tbh, he's got a head on his shoulders and communicates well, unlike previous dweebs), but he's a recent addition with a forum join date 2017 (might have been around longer in other capacities?)

Not counting Cordovan and the joke of a producer, who are not only terrible at communicating and formulating articulate replies to interview queries but are legitimately clueless and lost when it comes to most rudimentary familiarity with product they're paid to oversee. Both are holdovers from D&D Online so perhaps no surprise they know a piss drizzle's worth about Lotro; being around since lat 2000s seems to have done zilch to their capacity to absorb new information and develop their skill sets. Which leads me to conjecture both are still employed due to knowing people who know people, and both are digging in their heels circling their collapsing SSG wagons knowing full well they're not worth much on the job market. Any self respecting PR hiring committee would see they're nothing but yesterday's nerds with good hook-ups, good for nothing but deadbeating around the office on company pay and kissing ass of higher ups to stay employed.

Quality post right here.

[warspeech 291]

2 hours ago, psalm8818 said:

Quality post right here.

Agreed.

[LasraelLarson 112]

7 hours ago, Thrabath said:

I'm curious to know how much staff they have left for developing new stuff and what they had during SoA for example. I won't be surprised if it's below 10% of what they had during SoA/MoM

definitely below 10%!

Shadows of Angmar Credits:
Lead Development:
1.) Jeffery Steefal - Executive Producer
2.) Cardell Kerr - Design Director
3.) Marc Hildenbrand - Game Systems Engineering Director
4.) Yaming Di - Art Director
5.) Jeff Scott - Audio, Video & Visual FX
Production:
6.) Keven Boyle - Senior Producer
7.) Aaron Campbell - Associate Producer
8.) Justin Corcoran - Project Manager
9.) Michael Jablonn - Associate Producer
10.) Matt Kelly - Associate Producer
11.) Stuart Zissu - Live Production
Art & Team:
12.) Rick Schmitz - Art Manager
13.) John Lindemuth - Animation Lead
14.) Harry Teasley - Avatar Lead
15.) Jay Brewer - UI Lead
16.) Ken Brown - Environment Lead
17.) Peter Anderson
18.) Brandon Bateman
19.) Jeanette Chamberlain
20.) Jenny Chau
21.) Michelle Sullivan Clay
22.) Christopher Demers
23.) Todd DeMelle
24.) Richard Fourmier
25.) Kristen Griffin
26.) Dan Haard
27.) Sean Huxter
28.) Kerry James
29.) Mark Lizotte
30.) Jeffery Dean Murchie
31.) Michael Richard
32.) Todd Rueping
33.) Nina Straccialini
34.) Chonny Uth
Design & Team:
35.) Ryan Bednar - World Lead
36.) Christipher Clay - Combat Lead
37.) Nokolaus Davidson - Lead System Designer
38.) Allan Maki (Orion) - Content Lead
39.) Brent Schmidt - Content Lead
40.) Brian Alonsio
41.) Laurence Brothers
42.) Matt Elliot
43.) Elliot Gilman
44.) Ross Glover
45.) Jared Hall-Douglass
46.)Jesse King
47.) Christopher Knowles
48.) Jesse Kurlancheek
49.) Jeffery Libby (Made of Lions)
50.) Les Nelken
51.) Daniel Parke
52.) Chris Pierson
53.) Jonathan Rudder
54.) Paul Simon
55.) Heather Sinclair
56.) Jared Sorensen
57.) Darren Sugg
Game Systems Engineering & Team:
58.) David Trudeau - Technical Lead
59.) Douglass Applewhite
60.) Nicholas Dorrough
61.) Todd Eckert
62.) Andrew Gillis
63.) Sean Lindskog
64.) Matheww Monas
65.) Mike Raiter
66.) Jeff Rubin
Audio Video FX Team:
67.) Stephen DiGregario - Audio Lead
68.) Egan Budd
69.) Michael Critz
70.) Jack Dalrymple
71.) Mathew Hoesterey
72.) Sasha Hushvahtov
Technical Platform:
73.) Chris Dyl - Chief Tech Officer
74.) Fernando J Paiz - Director of Game Tech
75.) Adam Schrader - Tech Production Manager
Engineering:
76.) Paul Frost - Tools Lead
77.) Alex Lian - Game Engine Manager
78.) Dan O’Brian - Game Engine Lead
Game Tech Team:
79.) Mike Fricker
80.) Rob Getter
81.) Jeff Isselee
82.) Jeff Johnson
83.) Michael Kurjawa
84.) Jeremy Martin
85.) Gregg Pettyjohn
86.) Andrew Reiff
87.) Rich Skorski
Service Tech Engeneering & Team:
88.) Eric Bressler - Internal Tech Manager
89.) Ray Yu - App Dev Manager
90.) Christopher Bianchi
91.) Rob Johnson (Severlin?)
92.) Mark Joyal
93.) James Kim
94.) Steve McGarry
95.) Brian Mesick
96.) Dana Ried Vanas
97.) Don Ross
98.) John Spadafora
99.) John Toomey
Operations:
100.) Mike Hogan - VP
101.) Kurt Nipp - Executive Director of CS
102.) Bryant Durrel - Sr Director Tech Ops
103.) Jay Piette - Director QA
Player Support & Team:
104.) Shane Kelly - Supervisor
105.) Matt Regnier - Supervisor
106.) James Barret
107.) John Ashley Bloodworth
108.) James Bradford
109.) Peter Daigle
110.) Mathew Gillis
111.) Christopher Hensen
112.) Anthony Mauricia
113.) Diane Migliaccio
114.) Jamison Nicosia
115.) Scott Parker
116.) Troy Pruyt
117.) Tom Shibley
118.) Alisa Zuniga
QA & Team:
119.) Terry White - Game Production QA Manager
120.) Peter O/Leary - QA Lead
121.) Mike Seal - Associate QA Lead
122.) Sean Pelkey - Associate QA Lead
123.) Chad Ancil - Service QA Manager
124.) Bob Ferreira - Back Office Systems Lead
125.) Michelle Mangio - Front End QA Lead
126.) David Woodruff - Game Engine QA Lead
127.) Austin Gill - International QA Lead
128.) William Lazzaro - Associate QA Lead / International
129.) Thomas Allen
130.) Troy Annichiarico
131.) Erik Bailey
132.) Carlo Bertolino
133.) Justin Brien
134.) Michael Callahan
135.) Christopher Caron
136.) Shawn Connor
127.) Brian Cottle
128.) Jared Edwards
129.) Dante Falcone
130.) Scott Files
131.) Guiliana Funkhouser
132.) Jeremy Gallagher
133.) Robert Hess
134.) Matt Hocker
135.) Ayesha Khan
136.) Dave Kiser
137.) Erin Kiser
138.) Tim Lang
139.) David Lee
140.) Chris Martin
141.) Catherine Nicoloff
142.) Daniel Ouellete
143.) Roberto Paiz
144.) Rachel Partridge
145.) Mark Porzelt
146.) Mike Romatelli
147.) Carl Savage
148.) Jeff Siadek
149.) Jesse Smith
150.) Janice Walsh
151.) Timothy Wilkinson
Network Ops & Team:
152.) Jay Benesh - Sr. Manager Set Ops
153.) Craig Ingemi - IT Manager / Info Tech
154.) Cheri White - Net Ops Manager
155.) Patrick Bays
156.) George Bieber
157.) Jeremy Burke
158.) Jon Charette
159.) Kevin Conde
160.) Jamal Ingram
161.) Darius Kazemi
162.) Dylan Mason
163.) Neal Moody
164.) John Potter
165.) Kimberly Regan
166.) Paul Sherman
167.) John St.Laurent
168.)Vance Walsh
169.) Lindsey Welch
Publishing:
170.) Michael Enright - VP Pub.
171.) Judith Hoffman - Executive Director International
172.) Grant Wei - Director Program Management
173.) Monica Li - Sr Project manager International
174.) Jennifer Preston - Partner Sevices Manager EU
Marketing & Buss. Dev.:
175.) Mark Cullinane - Sr. VP Sales & Marketing
176.) Jerome Lalin - VP Production Marketing
177.) Jim Drewry - Director
178.) Adam Mersky - Director of Comms
179.) John Golden - Sr. Product
180.) Meghan Rodberg (Jenks) (Patience) - Customer Relations
181.) Robert Ferrari - Sr. Dir.
182.) Bill Wang -Bis. Dev.
183.) Nathan Staples - Project Man.
184.) Evan Goncalo
185.) Lorien Green
186.) Joshua Hodge
187.) Kristin Kwasek
188.) Steven Moy
189.) Vanessa Price
190.) Rick Woolford
Admin. & Team:
191.) Helen Ra - General Council
192.) Patricia Lyle Asst. GC
193.) Peter Faubert - CFA
194.) Val McCue - Dir. HR
195.) Angela Ahn - Dir. Licensing
196.) Tim Truong - Sr. Manager FP&A
197.) Phillip Hoffstien - Controller
198.) laurie Herbert
199.) Chris Keizer
200.) Shawn McHatton
201.) Lori Newnam
202.) David Redmond
203.) Paula Schwenn
204.) Brenda Yorkell
Manual:
205.) Raini Madden - Design/Layout
206.) Chris McCubbin - editor
207.) David Ladyman - editor

plus an additional 100+ names from peripheral companies & additional employees.  so yeah well below 10%  ;)

4 hours ago, Wrath of Winter said:

Made of Lions seems the only one left from SoA, that's about it. Other content-designer still remaining joined ca. 2011 (thePinion). Silorien the software engineer still there since late 2008, might be the last remaining one now that they lost DrOctothorpe to layoffs (and bet they lost more than him). Among QA personnel, DarthCeltics is still there since 2008. That's about it, as far as any semblance of a "core" team.

Add to that a rotating carousel of lesser interns (less familiar blue names popping up with join dates ca. 2016-18), mostly QA personnel and thus more disposable and predictably less knowledgeable about game product they're tasked with.

Vastin seems the only class developer left (thankfully tbh, he's got a head on his shoulders and communicates well, unlike previous dweebs), but he's a recent addition with a forum join date 2017 (might have been around longer in other capacities?)

Not counting Cordovan and the joke of a producer, who are not only terrible at communicating and formulating articulate replies to interview queries but are legitimately clueless and lost when it comes to most rudimentary familiarity with product they're paid to oversee. Both are holdovers from D&D Online so perhaps no surprise they know a piss drizzle's worth about Lotro; being around since lat 2000s seems to have done zilch to their capacity to absorb new information and develop their skill sets. Which leads me to conjecture both are still employed due to knowing people who know people, and both are digging in their heels circling their collapsing SSG wagons knowing full well they're not worth much on the job market. Any self respecting PR hiring committee would see they're nothing but yesterday's nerds with good hook-ups, good for nothing but deadbeating around the office on company pay and kissing ass of higher ups to stay employed.

i may be mistaken about this but Severlin AKA: Rob Cicollini is in the original Shadows of Angmar Credits (Rob Johnson?) as well as Made of Lions AKA: Jeff Libby.

don't know who Silorien would be? nor Vastin, never had an actual name associated with, so no clue who he is in the original credits.

i think Darth Celtics may also be newer as i can't see Bill listed in the credits anywhere.

& Cordovan AKA Jerry Snook was not involved with Lotro until Turbine canned Frelorn AKA Andy Cataldo.

 it has been almost going on 12 years now, so much shifts.  hard to remember the whos and whens of everyone.

---

if current as of today SSG has 20 employees, i would be surprised, as it seems less than that & i haven't seen any recent staff photos to show more.  anywhere for 8 -12 employees is what i would guess, as of today.

---

RE: the producers letter (or whatever the new title is now) would come from Severlin... assuming he is still with SSG...   ???  might be why we haven't seen it yet, or worse Daybreak has given no new green lights & we are in the last stretches...

one wonders if it all hangs on the success of Daybreaks new Planetside BattleRoyale? or will shit hit the Daybreak fan sooner than that?  ;)

[LasraelLarson 112]

18 minutes ago, LasraelLarson said:

RE: the producers letter (or whatever the new title is now) would come from Severlin... assuming he is still with SSG...   ??? 

& unless there has been a recent siting...  is there an actual reason to assume this?

i think we are going on Fall of last year for the last showing.  unless someone has something more recent?

[TheKickman 13]

5 hours ago, psalm8818 said:

Quality post right here.

I was gonna say it was the post of the year lol

[Splay 54]

All the names are in the load screen credits. It takes about 40 minutes to go through them all. It wouldn't be all that difficult to attach real names to forum usernames, though overtime some have changed forum names. Somewhere, I read not long ago Vastin has been with LotRO over a decade but my memory could be wrong in what I read.

There is a good chance DDO has same list of credits for their game's life duration.

 

Also somewhere I read a DBG employee is now in Boston. Damn if I can remember where I read this. It is my opinion this person now calls the shots for the publishing company who manages LotRO. This person too is likely to be found in the credits of the last 2 or 3 releases. Another thing to think about is the user agreement. Has anyone noticed it was changed a year or so ago and also no prompt to confronted with a new one like all previous releases? Idk maybe it is expansions only. Anyway the user agreement is the standard DBG agreement just with minor differences due to being a different game.

[Talisman 27]

Aaaaaaaaaaaand...in typical Turbine/SSG fashion, the Ill Omens event is bugged. You are supposed to be able to do it at 5 levels under your current level, but no one is getting credit unless they do it on level.

In a nutshell, there is a new NPC that gives a daily quest requiring you to complete 3 out of 4 skirms per day. You don't really have to complete the whole skirm, but kill the special "harbinger of the dead" encounter that spawns in the skirm. And for doing so, you earn new barter tokens, which can be turned in to the same quest NPC to get some new cosmetics and cosmetic pets. There's a deed for killing 60 of these guys and for completing each skirm on T3.

[LasraelLarson 112]

3 hours ago, Talisman said:

Aaaaaaaaaaaand...in typical Turbine/SSG fashion, the Ill Omens event is bugged. You are supposed to be able to do it at 5 levels under your current level, but no one is getting credit unless they do it on level.

don't think it much matters, there is no visible uptick in numbers on day one.  well there is a core of people who like skirmishes; most hate them.  i don't think this event will draw much in the way of interest.  so a dozen people are upset on the O. F.  it isn't like they'll stop over this, or anything else thrown at them.

just more keeping up appearances, while low-balling the effort.  it makes some think everything is plodding along just fine.  no one wonders just how well the last funding drive did and just how much revenue was generated selling all those bundles late last fall...  or if that funding is being directed back into the product.

personally, with no actual accountability, i think this is just deserts. 

[warspeech 291]

9 hours ago, Talisman said:

Aaaaaaaaaaaand...in typical Turbine/SSG fashion, the Ill Omens event is bugged. You are supposed to be able to do it at 5 levels under your current level, but no one is getting credit unless they do it on level.

In a nutshell, there is a new NPC that gives a daily quest requiring you to complete 3 out of 4 skirms per day. You don't really have to complete the whole skirm, but kill the special "harbinger of the dead" encounter that spawns in the skirm. And for doing so, you earn new barter tokens, which can be turned in to the same quest NPC to get some new cosmetics and cosmetic pets. There's a deed for killing 60 of these guys and for completing each skirm on T3.

I was just going to mention this.  No one seems to know how this "event" is supposed to work, the NPC has apparently reset but the skirms being offered are the same as yesterday...confusion all around. 

[TheKickman 13]

13 hours ago, Talisman said:

Aaaaaaaaaaaand...in typical Turbine/SSG fashion, the Ill Omens event is bugged. You are supposed to be able to do it at 5 levels under your current level, but no one is getting credit unless they do it on level.

In a nutshell, there is a new NPC that gives a daily quest requiring you to complete 3 out of 4 skirms per day. You don't really have to complete the whole skirm, but kill the special "harbinger of the dead" encounter that spawns in the skirm. And for doing so, you earn new barter tokens, which can be turned in to the same quest NPC to get some new cosmetics and cosmetic pets. There's a deed for killing 60 of these guys and for completing each skirm on T3.

and the joke keeps going, now the events are even bugged.  This game has really turned into a steaming pile of shit

[Papi 87]

The drama around the skirmish "event" just keeps getting better.  Apparently the Harbinger you have to kill is so bugged if you start to kite him you won't get credit for the kill and even though you can pick up the quest at level 20, if you don't have access to the specific skirmish that is required (because of your level), you're essentially fucked.  Which begs the question, why have the quest available at such a low level in the first place?

What should be a simple, timed event to get people to play older content turns into a cluster fuck because the right hand doesn't now what the left hand is doing.  This is basic shit that a 12 year old game should be able to get right.