| Weekly Developer Update: All-time Weekly Developer Update |
| By: Magi, Posted at: Fri, Jan 26th 9:15 PM 2007, Last Edited: Tue, Oct 27th 1:22 PM 2009
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Navigation • Accomplishments • AI • Animations • Armor • Banking / Storage • Canon NPCs • Captain • Champion • Character Customization • Classes • Clothing • Combat • Conjunctions • Content • Corruption • Crafting • Creatures (MOBs) • Currency • Day / Night Cycle • Death • Dueling (PvP) • Economy • Environment • Faction • Farming (non-crafting) • Fluff • Game Engines • Gear • Grouping • Guardian • Housing • In-game Music • Level Restrictions • Lineage • Live Events • Load Times • Locations • Loot • Lore • Lore-master • Maps • Minstrel • Mounts • Movies (in-game) • Newbie Experience • Pets • Point of Interest • PvP • Quests • Racial Bonuses • Raids • Roleplaying • Spawn Rates • Surnames • System Requirements • Titles • Traits • Travel • UI • Various Topics • Voice Chat • Weapons • Window Mode • World  AccomplishmentsRe: Badges Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 7, 2006 Our Accomplishment system fills a similar role - by completing various open-ended quests, you recieve various awards; namely Traits, which you can essentially "equip" to customize your character's skills and abilities. Some accomplishments have other accomplishments as prerequisites, so the better goodies take some doing to get at. Re: Badges Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 7, 2006 Right now, you'll know all the Accomplishments you can currently advance - if you don't meet all the prerequisites, it won't be in your list, but once you do, you'll know (at least in general terms) what you'd need to do to finish it. AIRe: Friendly creatures? Posted by: Scenario on August 8, 2006 We have a few different behaviors for our creatures. Some are completely skittish and run away whenever an adventurer approaches. These are mostly our ambient life, such as foxes, squirrels, deer and the like. We have creatures that are indifferent and could care less if you are walking around (but they will defend themselves if you attack them). Some of the Boglurkers behave in this manner, as well as some breeds of toad and boar, for example. There are creatures who will threaten anyone who approaches them, eventually attacking those nearby if they don't get out of proximity. For instance, Aurochs Bulls are mighty defensive of their herds and will threaten anyone who wanders by. And then there are those that are just plain aggressive and will attack on site regardless of a person's intent. Most beasts stirred by the passing of the Dark Riders as well as Brigands, orcs, and other similar humanoid opponents, behave in this fashion. Re: Ambiguous or otherwise? Posted by: Scenario on August 2, 2006 Quote:
How about a mix of both wandering and patrolling? Typically, when we set up an area, we like to have landscape mobs that roam (and their wandering is a good deal more than a couple of meters) with patrollers through various areas as "spoilers". We have a number of AI behaviors for each monster type as well that can provide a varied experience for our players. You happen across a Wolf Pack-Leader in the woods. As you are fighting it, it sends out a cry to nearby wolves. Spiders dangle from trees or leap from their burrows beneath your feet. Some wargs have been known to slink along, being nigh unseen in their travels. Those are just a few examples. With the amount of low-lying plant life we have, a surprise can be lurking in the deep fern cover or ready to spring from a shrub at a moments notice. AnimationsRe: Can you sit in chairs; sit on beds, etc. in this game Posted by: Keth on August 18, 2006 Cripes, this thread is long! Simple answer is: as things stand right now, you will not be able to select a chair and sit in it. The same goes with other objects, such as beds, as well. ArmorRe: Armor = Armor Class? OR Damage REDUCTION! Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 27, 2006 Armor provides damage mitigation - the heavier your armor, the less damage you take. However, a few things to note: Classes also have avoidance chances; block, parry and evade. A character can have very little armor, but good avoidance and still manage not to take that much damage, although you can easily have a bad streak of luck that ends with you splatted. (Guardians, with heavy armor AND good avoidance are especially adept at tanking.) Armor also only protects you against physical harm. The will-sapping fear that a Wight can instill in the mortal races isn't blunted by metal armor, though other items, more mystical in origin, might give you some protection instead. Re: Great armor Posted by: floon beetle on October 4, 2006 Quote:
I tend to avoid these interminable threads, because this ground got covered a long time ago, but for those folks new to the debate, I will repeat much of what has been said before, back before the boards got wiped. So here are some of those points again: 1. There's a lot of game necessity to characters looking unique. Players like to look unique, and be visually recognizable to their friends. 1a. Uniqueness cannot be entirely achieved through texture, for memory reasons. Much of what is asked for from the most conservative would require more large unique textures per avatar (being essentially bodysuits, as opposed to shirts and pants), and would still result in far more identical avatars than is really desirable. Having armor made up of smaller components permits us to use several smaller textures instead of one larger one, smaller textures that are likely shared across many avatars: thus the same amount of texture memory results in far greater combinatorial complexity in avatar variation. 1b. Uniqueness in silhouette is very desirable, because it is easy to see at any distance, and does not require people to have high texture detail to discern. Silhouette-changing details also do not fit well with the most conservative ideas regarding medieval armor. 2. Tolkien was noticably vague about the armor in the books, and we have pored over them repeatedly. My feeling (which seems to be shared by pretty much everyone I end up talking to about this) is that Tolkien was deliberately pretty vague in explicit descriptions so as to not impeded the imagination of the reader. I think he left room for different views on how a lot of things looked. This idea is bolstered by the fact that he very clearly describes those things that he wants to have very particular descriptions, but armor goes relatively vaguely described. Being imaginative in this area is something that the bajillion artists who have done Tolkien-inspired work through the years have not failed to do. That said, we did not come anywhere near imagining chainmail bikinis and helmets as tall as the characters wearing them. Implications that we are doing that great a disservice to Tolkien are just ridiculous. 3. Skirts and robes are very hard to get to look good given the requirements of a game like this (skeletal animation, good-resolution textures and models, lots of characters on screen at once), and skirts and robes that get mapped with regular geometric textures like chain or scales look very bad when they animate. Hauberks can't be done to our satisfaction. Cloth robes can. Other games have done hauberks, but at this resolution, the graphical artifacts we found when we did hauberks were very displeasing. 3a. Robes (and hauberks, which are, for these purposes, the same thing), as I alluded to before, become memory expensive if you envision most characters wearing them, because it puts a great deal more emphasis on texure distinction for you to tell the difference between two characters. 3b. The higher resolution your models and textures are, the fewer graphical artifacts you're willing to live with, and the stretching problems of hauberks are one of those. When textures and models are low detail, the graphical artifacts are less bothersome. Hauberk animation bothered us. 4. The armor in the screenshot I think you guys are discussing most ( http://lorimages.turbine.com/admin_f.../09/64/836.jpg ) is seriously bugged: bad glossmaps, bad dyemaps. Half-implemented stuff. With hundreds of textures and thousands of appearance files that govern how those textures get rendered, there's a lot of polish and fixing that's going on. The elf armor you see is also super-fancy: the large majority of armor comes nothing close to that (the hobbits and the robed woman are closer to what you'll see a lot of (and there are bad glossmaps and dyemaps there, too)). I could explain why armor initially goes in that bugged, but only if I really have to. It's complicated. 5. You can't please everyone all the time. Everyone has a different vision of Middle-earth, everyone has amusingly different ideas of what feels "Tolkien", everyone has different priorities for what they want to see be exactly a certain way, versus what they don't really care about, and we thread through that maze as best we can. If armor is your most important priority, and you don't like any of the armor we have created, I hope you can find other things about our vision of Middle-earth that still entice you. There is a lot going on in the world, and a lot to like (if I can be so bold). 6. This is the last long post I'm going to make on the subject, and is probably one long post too many anyway. I just don't want any new folks to think that we don't think about this stuff, don't strategize what to do and how to go about what needs to be done, how to address the lore issues that need addressing, and don't at least listen to and understand what people are saying, both positive and negative. Re: Great armor Posted by: floon_beetle on October 3, 2006 Quote:
Logically, there is no armor we could choose to create where that would be the case, for no armor in Lord of the Rings is so robustly described that it would be immediately apparent that a screenshot of our choice could come from no source other than Lord of the Rings (unless it used some particular emblem from the books, like the White Tree, which has nothing to do with the actual armor). There is nothing uniquely Tolkien about your desires from the armor: you apparently want medieval hauberks and nothing else. Which is fine. We have a visual style for the armors that doesn't suit your particular vision of the books. Given the countless wildly differing visions of Middle-earth I've seen through the years from dozens of highly skilled illustrators, I know there is ample room to imagine the world as we have. Re: Great armor Posted by: October on October 2, 2006 Quote:
If you wish to view making our players happy as pandering (whether they be Munchkins or anyone else ), so be it. I think of it as my job as a game artist. I don't think our armor is too outrageous, but then again, I've seen all of it... the full range, so it's easy for me to say that we have a great balance and a full range of armors. I look at our armor and see the sort of thing I saw in my head when I read the books, so I feel like I've maintained the integrity of my view of Tolkien in working on this game. Since someone mentioned this earlier, I have one other thing that I meant to point out... Tolkien Enterprises has seen and approved all of our armor designs. Re: Great armor Posted by: October on October 2, 2006 I'm back again to wade into the armored waters to answer a few questions that have come up... Yes, the armors that Saffron referred to were special, at least in so much as they aren't available to low level characters. Those are high end player armors. She also mentioned a bug in her post... the reflectivity of those armors was broken at that time and they aren't nearly as shiny now that it has been fixed. Khafar is quite correct in pointing out that we would not spend our time making beautiful armor that was only available to Devs. Those are player armors. I agree with the point that as the game goes on those high end armors will become more prevalent even though they will be very rare early in the life of the game. I don't see any way to reduce that eventuality. One of the things you can't really see in these pictures is that they all, in fact, mail or leather armor. Our armor sets do have plate pieces here and there, including breast plates, but they are all basically either leather or mail armors. Game art is the art of fun... the most important thing that game art needs to do is support what is fun about the game. If one of the things that is fun about LOTRO is becoming a more and more impressive hero in Middle Earth, then that's the more pressing function of the avatar armor, more pressing even than its function as accurate medieval armor. As I've said before, I think we've stuck a very good balance, but I don't think we have an expectation that everyone will agree with us. To those of you who think the armor are great, thanks! To those of you who don't, I hope you won't find it a road block in your ability to enjoy the game. Re: Great armor Posted by: October on October 1, 2006 These are pretty dangerous waters to be dipping even a toe into, but dip I must... First off, I will say that I've had nothing to do with making the armor (besides pestering our concept guys for more drawings of them) so I can't take any of the credit for them. I for one am very happy and proud of the armor we have in the game. They have elements of both traditional, historical armors and fantasy elements that we all would expect in a LOTR game. It's all quite beautiful, each set being part of a family of armors full of rich detail, variety, character and color. Tolkien obviously filled his work with descriptions that we have all found inspirational, since we are all so interested in playing this game. The armors of the heroes are often described as "gleaming" or "shining", and we have tried to capture that feeling of grand armor, without taking outrageous liberties with it. I'd say we've struck a pretty nice balance, and they are pretty darn cool looking to boot. Our decisions about what our armor should look like have all been internal discussions made by the LOTRO dev team... no marketer has come to us and tell us what we should be doing with the look of our armor. Art, Design, Content and Management have all had influenced the look of our armor, and it's all in a very happy place right now. It's very exciting to see it all come together, and I can safely say that it's among the most beautiful stuff I've seen in a game. Re: A Custom Look Posted by: October on August 13, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Corlagon Floon and I were discussing this possibility just the other day.... Re: A Custom Look Posted by: October on August 13, 2006 Here's a few more details... Dyes: Armor will come in different colors, but the dyes used will be determined by the art team as to be visually pleasing. That said, players will be able to wear different combinations of armor pieces. We have no plans to police what sorts of combinations players come up with. Armors: Armors will change in appearance as they increase in level. There are extra bits or armor to change your appearance as well... shoulder pads, helmets, gauntlets, etc. There are no plans at this time to allow players to dye their own armors, but I wouldn't rule it out as something that would be added in an update/expansion. Lastly, I would like to add that we haven't released any images of the vast majority of armors from the game. There is a huge amount of variety and they look fantastic! Really, they do! Re: Humans wearing Hobbit Armor Posted by: floon beetle on July 19, 2006 Quote:
It's quite vague as to provenance, to be sure, but the relevant passages for Frodo's coat are: 'With that he put on Bilbo a small coat of mail, wrought for some young elf-prince long ago.' -Hobbit 'Look, my friends!' he called. 'Here's a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven-princeling in!' -FotR FotR says "the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel," which seems to imply that only dwarves could do this, but I don't really read that as definitive: elves could certainly work the metal, as Celebrimbor made Nenya, which was made of mithril. And elves made ithildin with mithril. In any case, the mithril coat was made for an elf, and given by a dwarf, but it's not clear who actually made it. At least one person who knew apparently nothing of its origin identified it as for an elf, so that says something. Re: Humans wearing Hobbit Armor Posted by: floon beetle on July 19, 2006 Quote:
I was exaggerating for humorous effect. Frodo wears unaltered elf armor, Merry and Pippin wear unaltered human armor (yes, I know they were originally human child armor), Frodo and Sam scavenge orc armor,... the point remains that wearing armor not of your race is just fine with the lore, as the lore has more than one example of it happening. Couple that with the gameplay convenience of not forcing players to trade to turn their loot into something useful, and it's not a hard decision to make. Armor resizes, all races can wear any race's armor. Re: Humans wearing Hobbit Armor Posted by: floon beetle on July 19, 2006 Quote:
When trading armor is an option, it's fun and adds to the game. When trading armor is nigh a requirement because you wear a 42 Long and found a 38 Regular, it's annoying. Re: Humans wearing Hobbit Armor Posted by: floon beetle on July 19, 2006 Quote:
If you looks at the dwarf and human side-by-side, the dwarf looks like he would require larger armor than the human (they're really pretty stocky). So either dwarves require large and small pieces (large torso, small legs, whatever; a big pain to administer, and a pain for dwarves), or everyone wears large armor except hobbits: that's what we need, isolating hobbits from the main armor economy. That's fair. A lot of ideas for "immersion" are very punitive on players: realistic armor sizes, or decreasing movement/effectiveness for low health/morale, or permadeath, whatever. These are very much "fun removing" ideas for the game. Many folks will regard these ideas fun in theory, because they don't envision the true reality of them, they only envision the bits they like. We know, from actual experience, that these aren't really workable for most folks. They remove the Fun molecules from the game, and replace them with Annoyance molecules. Re: Humans wearing Hobbit Armor Posted by: floon beetle on July 19, 2006 Quote:
Yes. It's mostly annoying when, on top of random chances to get *anything*, and a further random chance to have armor be that something, you have yet another 75% chance that the armor that drops is armor you can't use. Whee. Banking / StorageRe: Banking System Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 7, 2006 There will be a system that allows additional storage beyond what you carry on your back - the exact form it will take is still being worked on. As a couple people have mentioned, crafters (and packrats, and the obsessive-compulsive) do appreciate having the extra space. Canon NPCsRe: Tom Bombadil Posted by: Scenario on January 16, 2007 You'll have the opportunity to interact with both Tom and Goldberry while adventuring in Breeland (and the Old Forest in particular). Re: black riders?. Posted by: Keth on July 17, 2006 Black Riders do appear in our game, and are, of course, a major threat when you run into them. As would be expected though, where you have these encounters is restricted to locations that we know the Black Riders passed through. That means most Black Rider encounters are in Bree-land and the Shire and are explicitly tied to quests. Re: Tom Bombadil? Posted by: Keth on July 11, 2006 Yep, Tom appears in the game, along with Goldberry. (Who is totally hawt! Erm, sorry about that CaptainRe: Of Manfrodo and The Mansam Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 17, 2006 Quote:
The squire's going to be most useful as a solo helper, true. It's not a super-powered combat pet, but with all the captain buffs available, he can be quite formidable. Quote:
I frequently describe the Captain as a "tempo" class. Here's what I mean by that. The Captain can mix it up reasonably well, and has a lot of good buffs to hand out, but has two major categories of things that he needs to manage on behalf of the group as well. He has skills that trigger off of defeating an enemy, and these are powerful skills. So, you need to be ready to respond to that combat event within a given window of time to take advantage of those skills. Also, the Captain is really the best at calling targets, with a series of skills that give the party bonuses when targeting the enemy that the Captain has called out. (It's a great plan, I'm proud to be a part of it!) While you're monitoring and reacting to all that, micromanaging your Mansam and your own offensive skills on top it all may prove to be a lot to keep track of. Good captains will need to find their own tempo, and focus on the aspects that are most important to the group at the time. It's a tough but rewarding role to play. Quote:
I'm sure the lore-buffs will have better reasons than that by the time we're through! Re: Of Manfrodo and The Mansam Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 11, 2006 First of all, I anticipate the first thing Patience will do when she gets back is hit me with something pointy for ever saying "Mansam". Second, the thinking was basically like this - the Captain is all about group buffs. Which meant his solo experience often felt lacking. Your faithful squire, although chumpy on his own, is a great target for all those group buffs. If you take care of your Mansam, he will take good care of you! And yes, some traits enhance the squire, while others are more focused on the Captain's other abilities. Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
The how I sort of explained in the last question - as for what other classes use them, the Captain currently has a squire. We refer to them jokingly as Manfrodo and the Mansam. (Sadly, we really do.) ChampionRe: Champions useless in a group?? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 24, 2006 We just did a playthrough of one of our instances, and the champion was pretty key. He's not just about damage, he's specifically about AoE damage. When an Uruk sends a bunch of his pesky goblin buddies in at the party, it's the Champion who gets to go to town. When things have gone pear-shaped and there's baddies everywhere, the Champion can gather their attention in a hurry. And when the loremaster carefully distracts and confuses key enemies during a big fight, the Champion is there to break each and every mez - after all, what fun is fighting foes one at a time? At one point in the playtest, the guy playing the champion said something along the lines of "You know, this would be easier if we were mezzing." I swear, there was almost a brawl. Heh. Character CustomizationRe: Matt Elliott - Wild Lands (Developer Diary) Posted by: Ramen on October 19, 2006 Quote:
Yes, you can wear cloaks like that. Re: Update: Classes and Skills Posted by: Ramen on October 3, 2006 Quote:
Yes, you can. Re: Character customization??? Posted by: October on August 16, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Wisdomandlore You are correct. The number of colors isn't set yet, but I'm guessing that it's more than a "few". The trick will be to make the variety of colors tasteful AND wide. Re: Character customization??? Posted by: October on August 16, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Wisdomandlore I didn't say you could dye your own armor.... just that our armor sets will come in different colors. Sorry if that was confusing. Re: Character customization??? Posted by: October on August 16, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Raskolnikov Yes. Yes. Perhaps. Yes... face, skin color, hair style and color and eye color. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them right now. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Mav That's the size-scaling thing I alluded to earlier. We're experimenting with it now. Can't make a promise on it - it looks really cool in some cases, and really weird in others. More details when we really nail it down. (Fat elf ain't right.) Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by eiragwen Unique? Well, if you count all the possible color combinations and option configurations, I could quote you some impressively large but ultimately not terribly useful number about how many different visual character combinations you could create. Practically speaking, you get a pretty good amount. If you want to compare and contrast with DDO, we're experimenting with some size-scaling things that DDO didn't have, and we're doing a neat thing where we're tying color palettes (allowed hair colors, skin tones and such) to a character's Nationality. Men from Rohan tend toward the blonde and fair, while Breelanders tend toward darker hair. But back to the realistic assessments - most of the visual customization options in LOTRO are all in the face, the hair, eyes, facial features, that sort of thing. As you might expect, you lose some of that as soon as you put on a helmet, or even as soon as you zoom out the camera a bunch. Then it becomes a question of how unique and cool the armor sets are. My take on it is, your character customization is mainly for you, the player to see - the world is big, faces are small, helmets are shiny. (And yes, we're likely to have a "don't show my helmet" option so your Legolas-style prettyboy hair can be seen by all.) b> ClassesRe: Who is the highest dps? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 25, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by aZZmodan Eh, ok. First off, while I'm sure you could draw parallels between LOTRO's classes and classes past, there are still a lot of unique aspects - some the roles and archetypes might seem familiar, but the skills that comprise the class roles are in many cases very different than those you might be familiar with. It's worth noting that we've talked a lot about the roles, and less about specific skills. Hmm. Maybe we should do something about that. Second, we're walking a line between accessibility and innovation. A lot of people are going to come into the game with a favorite archetype in mind. They may not know which class will best fit that archetype, but they choose the closest one they can find. Here's a personal example: A friend of mine always plays human paladins with axes and shields. Without fail. Whichever class is most "paladinish", whichever race is most "humanish" and no matter if it's a good idea or not, finds an axe and shield. He has even quit games because they lacked a character close enough to his predetermined archetype! That's an extreme example, but it's an appropriate one. I'm sure there's plenty of people on this board who pretty much knew the character they wanted to play, even before the classes were announced. I've played and worked on games with more "unique" archetypes, (archetypes without strong gaming or literary history) and without fail, they're among the least-played. So that's our challenge. We've taken some recognizable archetypes (not coincidentally reminiscent of some major characters in the books) and given them some unique twists in their skills, roles, and presentations. The Burglar is not a traditional thief class. The Loremaster is not a traditional "wizard" class. The Captain has a unique mix of roles, and all of the seven classes have some very cool skills and mechanics that you probably haven't seen in other games. Sorry to have rambled a bit, it's just that we've recently completed a lot of great work on the classes, and I'm really happy about where things are at. Re: Who is the highest dps? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 25, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Zubin Single-target, the Hunter wins the Mr. Damage title. In situations where the Champion can optimally AOE, he takes the crown hands down. Captain, Guardian and Burglar are all in the middle-range, Loremaster and Minstrel are a bit lower. The burglar is not a traditional "dps-machine thief", and the loremaster is definitely not a nuking wizard. ClothingRe: Pointed Hats Posted by: October on January 14, 2007 Hats! There are loads of hats, and not just pointed ones! Re: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: October on August 29, 2006 Quote:
I think every bit of clothing offer at least a tiny bit of protection, but there are a few frivolous items... such as hats! CombatRe: Archery Posted by: Corsair on January 2, 2006 Yah, "normal" arrows are in unlimited supply so you don't have a huge mandatory money drain there. I think there are no special racial archery abilities, but for some reason I always play hobbit hunters on my private build, so I'm not absolutely sure. Re: Duel-wield or Traditional? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 11, 2006 Yikes. Ok, I'll come clean. I really, really thought it was mentioned in the books that Legolas had two knives. But, having done exhaustive searches of the source materials the last couple days, I can only conclude I was wrong. (Though I'm going to keep searching. I really could have sworn I remember a passage about him carrying two knives.) I misspoke in the dev chat. It happens. Sorry. The general theory still holds - we do try to pattern combat styles after book characters, and Legolas did have a fair amount of melee prowess in addition to his mastery of a bow. Adding a dual-wield option is a flashy way to improve a character's melee viability (without giving them the burst damage of a 2-hander, or the melee defense of a shield, neither of which make a lot of sense.) As a smaller side note, I'm not a fan of forcing people to have empty inventory slots. If hunters only get one-handed weapons, and can't use shields, there's that left-hand slot that just sits there on your character sheet, mocking you. "I could be equipped with something useful!" it says. So, put a knife in there and be happy. Or not. Re: NPC combat Posted by: Corsair on August 25, 2006 We have many quests where a NPC fights alongside you or your fellowship. Sometimes they are ordinary folk who are in need of a rescue, other times they are strong fighters who can make a difference in an encounter. It's also possible for unfriendly monsters to fight one another. We don't have generic hatred of monster types for one another (like bears always attacking wolves or something like that) because a) all that more or less irrelevant combat would really harm server performance, and b) most of it wouldn't be seen by players anyway, so such things will only occur in special situations. Re: concerning the combat system Posted by: Corsair on August 1, 2006 Combat requirements. We can think about these in different ways:
1. Quests give XP, so if you can find non-combat quests, you can level without combat. However (see 3) the majority of quests do require combat. Since you also get XP from regular monster kills, there is clearly an emphasis on combat in the game as regards leveling and achievement. And of course the reason to level is to improve your combat skills. 2. For the most part combat is not required for crafting, but of course you have to get your components and ingredients somehow. Your kinship and friends can give you stuff, and you can buy stuff from vendors and other players, but I would imagine the majority of crafters will also be adventurers. Aoart from crafting, there are other little fun things in the game that are not associated with combat, but these are strictly secondary activities. 3. My main focus is quests, so I can address this in more detail: The majority of quests involve combat. There are many quests that don't absolutely require it but simply make it likely. There are a subtantial number (but a clear minority) of quests that don't involve combat at all. Many of these (for obvious reasons) are in the Shire, but there are non-combat quests throughout the world at various levels. Some non-combat quests are steps in an arc (that otherwise does involve combat) which are very heavy on dialogue and lore, other non-combat quests are sufficient unto themselves and use a non-combat game mechanic such as stealth or speed or puzzle-solving. So to sum up, there are plenty of non-combat activities in the world, but the game really does emphasize combat. We are not making a special effort to support players who are averse to combat. When all is said and done we are not trying to realistically simulate an ordinary Middle-earth person's life, we are trying to make a game in which players act like heroes and adventurers in Middle-earth in a time of great crisis and widespread danger and war. Re: Armour or our characters skills? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 21, 2006 Quote:
This quote made me giggle, because back when I played FFXI, I was one of the guys kicking people out of groups because of their cruddy armor. Heh. (Sorry about that.) Thankfully for you all, I am myself a more hardcore player than I consider the target audience for this game to be. Most of your effectiveness in combat comes from intelligent skill use. Don't get me wrong, having a great weapon or armor for your level makes a difference. But our skills scale in effectiveness with character level, and the amount of presumed variance from the norm that is effected by skill use is considered to be much higher than that of equipment. Also, as a previous poster mentioned, we use a fairly harsh level equalization formula in combat - if you're fighting more than a couple levels above your own, you're probably getting beaten down no matter what your gear. With proper use of skills, you'll go far in the world. You'll feel the difference in equipment when you upgrade, but especially in group scenarios, it's the skills that make or break the deal. ConjunctionsRe: Fellowship (group) "Moves" Posted by: Scenario on July 23, 2006 Quote:
From what I've seen, our UI has designs on each conjunction option to give another way to differentiate outside of color. Re: Fellowship (group) "Moves" Posted by: Scenario on July 21, 2006
As an example of how the conjunction dynamic functions within a group, we'll use the Worldbuilding Team's playday on Wednesday. We are a group of 6 fighting our way through the swamps and marshes of the eastern Lone-lands completing a string of quests for our friendly neighborhood NPCs. We approach a corrupted boglurker, and prepare to engage. Before we start, I call out to my fellowship asking them what effect we should employ. "Damage!" was the popular vote in the room. Our Guardians engage the Boglurker, I set up our conjunction and all six of us select the "Strength" contribution. The lurker crumples to the ground and a number of us shout out in excitement at our triumph (mind you, we were higher level than the lurker and it wasn't a very tough opponent, but the conjunction was still satisfying). It took us a bit of coordination and trial (and being in the same room helped for both), but our rag-tag group of champions, guardians and a burglar picked up the knack for conjoining pretty easily. For our group, using conjunctions was exciting, and figuring out what worked best in what situations added to the fun.
Re: What's the role of Conjunctions? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 7, 2006 Yeah, I've got more information about this. All good questions, and a couple that I can answer! Yes, there are healing conjunctions, and if you pull off one at a key moment, it can make a HUGE difference. I still remember one playtest that had a boss battle hinge on getting off a healing conjunction after we had exhausted our Minstrel. Very dramatic - it's moments like that that will stick with you - they make for some good stories and great gameplay. Consistently taking advantage of conjunction opportunities will be the aspect of skill that will seperate the average groups from the excellent ones. You can't always predict them, but you can make the most of them. ContentRe: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: Orion on August 29, 2006 Quote:
Okay...this one is a tough one. This is Lord of the Rings Online...so we have this marvelous story, with this incredibly rich world...and all these incredible characters. We'd be foolish to not include them somewhere. At the same time, their story is told and handled in such delicate and complete fashion that finding the places to weave the story of the players into that of the main characters is really hard! ...and yet, still possible. We're taking pains to ensure that the sanctity of the story of the Fellowship and their triumph over the darkness is unspoled, while at the same time, telling a story that runs in parallel. It's a dangerous blade...and one that we all tread on carefully. Re: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: Orion on August 29, 2006 Quote:
First off, soloing...yup! Lots of it. Secondly, content...we are certainly presssing for enough content to assist you in levelling. Whether we hit that or not will likely be subjective. For the moment, I feel comfy saying that we should have enough content across the board. CorruptionRe: Corruption Posted by: Corsair on July 25, 2006 "Corrupted" in this context to my mind means "dominated or suborned by the influence of supernal evil" . A fully corrupt character is necessarily evil, but not vice versa, though in Middle-earth most evil characters will also be corrupted. Since corruption in Middle-earth is magical, places and items can also exert a corrupting influence, including of course the One Ring as a prime example. In LOTR there are evidently degrees of corruption. For example we can distinguish the average Orc who is absolutely evil, cannot be redeemed, and has no virtues at all, from poor Boromir who though influenced to bad actions by the Ring, was arguably not fundamentally or permanently corrupted by it given his realization of what he had done*. However, "shades of grey" doesn't make for very good story-telling within a game that takes place in a world in which the struggle between good and evil is dominant (LOTR is not exactly noir), so for the most part we will not be presenting many characters who are "somewhat corrupt". It's not a trivial subject, and I don't pretend my interpretation is absolute. *He rose and passed his hand over his eyes, dashing away the tears. 'What have I said? ' he cried. `What have I done? Frodo, Frodo! ' he called. 'Come back! A madness took me, but it has passed. Come back! ' Re: Corruption Posted by: Corsair on July 25, 2006 Sure, the presence of vast overarching evil is a big theme in Middle-earth. You can't be Sauron. You can't even be in his presence, much less fight him. There's lots of ways to have themes in a game a player can't experience directly. See? Re: Corruption Posted by: Corsair on July 25, 2006 Corruption is still a big theme in the game, but it's not something that can happen to players. There isn't a meter for it and morality choices like in the recent Bioware single-player games, for example. CraftingRe: Gandalf vs. Voltron (Dev Diary) Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 16, 2006 The "alt question" is a legitimate one. No getting around that. But it's an issue no matter what; six Professions will always be better than three - if you have enough alts, you'll never have to go to the Marketplace! ...IF you're willing to put in the time to keep all your alts at the same level, invest all that time harvesting and manufacturing, sending goods to and fro. Practically speaking, most players never get more than a second character up into the mid-high levels. The ultimate currency is time, and if you're willing to invest it, you can be as antisocial as you want to be. But this system gives you a time-saving incentive: Be social! Trade! I'm sure I'll get a bunch of questions on this stuff in the dev chat tonight, which reminds me, I should really eat something before I do that, or you will all be treated to low-blood-sugar-sloppy-typist-***hole-Nik. Woo! Re: Gandalf vs. Voltron (Dev Diary) Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 16, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Clovis Ah, there's the real crux of it! It's a pretty funadmental assumption in the system, and I'll try to explain why. When I put the various professions in front of people and asked them after a cursory explanation of the system to pick three, all of them either chose a supported gathering/production pairing plus Scholar, or two production professions that were supported by a single gathering profession. (I would rate Scholar + 2 Gathering professions almost as highly, myself, but it was a reasonably small sample size.) And why wouldn't they? It's the most efficient solution to the problem. And it completely removes player interaction. So I had a problem to solve - it was unacceptable to me to have a profession system that didn't encourage cross-trading, but it was equally unacceptable to force people to trade just so they could advance fully in a single Profession. Thus the ultimate solution - a primary pairing that can be advanced to its fullest solo, and a secondary skill that can serve as a socially-enabled profession for those that choose to pursue it. The next logical question is, why not just let people pick any three so long as that rule is followed? Because that rule is confusing. Imagine having that explained to you in a game UI somewhere. Customer Service would hunt me down and stab me for all the help calls it would generate. For ease of presentation and reliability of results, we settled on a fixed list. That being said, there are one or two additional combinations that I might consider adding to the list. Hope this adds a little method to my madness. Sure beats "Because I said so" as an answer, and believe me, considering the day I'm having today, I thought about it. Re: The Shibbynotes on Crafting Vocations Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 15, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by kbdiggity Actually, that's not currently the plan. Each of the Professions within the Vocation advances independently. Re: Scholars are SO SCREWED!! Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 15, 2006 Scholar is not an adventuring profession. Craft skills are on top of whatever class you are, so you can be a Guardian/Historian, a Hunter/Yeoman, etc. The quoted poster completely misinterpreted the system. Re: *Farming* Skill for Hobbits Posted by: Keth on July 30, 2006 Farming is one of our crafting skills and is currently slated to be in the game at launch. The current design is to have certain fields in Middle-earth, especially in the Shire, be set up such that you can grow crops there. As for certain races being better at certain activities, such as farming, I believe that is being discussed, but I don't know where that stands. (I'm pretty sure I overheard them talking about Hobbits being better at eating....) Re: A discovery! Posted by: Keth on July 26, 2006 Yep, cooking is one of our crafting skills. I don't believe it has been completely fleshed out yet, so I kinda hope it's a system we can insert an easter egg or two into. It is typically very difficult to do that in Tolkien's world, usually they have to be puns based on locations or chapter titles in the books (I used to have a quest entitled "The Counsel of Elrond."), but we might be able to get away with a bit more in cooking. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by ep Yep, your name is attached to every item you create. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Rotor Everyone gets to be a crafter in addition to their character class. None of the character classes are purely crafters - everyone can train a crafting vocation. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellelohtar That's what it means. Which of those two options it means remains to be seen. I'd love to keep something as iconic as lembas accessible to players, but I want to tread carefully around that one. So I'm leaning toward "everyone can," but without a ton of conviction. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by ep Super short answer: no. Somewhat less short answer: All of our character classes are adventuring heroes. Combat's at the core of the game, and is required to get through the tutorial. There's this little war brewing, and we call pacifists "NPCs." That being said, would it be possible/practical for an adventuring smith to "retire" after a while and focus exclusively on trade, crafting, and commerce? Probably. Re: Scholars? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 11, 2006 Yes, the Scholar is its own profession, and much of what he crafts is of use to other professions. There's some amount of inter-reliance between the crafts apart from that, but it's a balancing act. For example, spears are crafted under the Woodworking tree. But, you need a metal bit at the end. (Otherwise, it's a staff!) Should the metal component required be a couple metal ingots? A prospector could prepare those for you. Or should it be a spearhead, or a generic blade of some kind? If so, then you're relying on a weaponsmith to craft that, and a prospector to come up with the materials for the weaponsmith. It's a subtle distinction, but it's going to be a lot easier to come by the ingots than a manufactured part from another profession. In general, (and look for my next dev diary to spell this out in greater detail) every crafting choice has a lot of self-reliance, and a path of things that will require trade with other players. Just how deep that reliance is, well, that's why we playtest. Re: Crafting failures Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 11, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by grumbold BEHOLD! Look upon Gloryberry, the legendary pie! Its crust so flaky that it might crumble under a baby hobbit's breath, its filling so succulent, so sweet that even the Enemy might shed a tear upon tasting it. Thought lost were the secrets of its baking, but lo, Nardo of the Westfarthings has, through toil and fortune discovered them anew! Praise to this cook and his noble work, this Pie of Kings, this exalted dessert. Um... A critical success often just means you make something that's really good. It doesn't mean you're banging out iron swords and all of a sudden, "Hey, I made Narsil Jr.!" That would be kind of silly. Re: Crafting failures Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 11, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by swisskdl Some of them, yes. Re: Crafting failures Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 11, 2006 Short answer: if you have the materials, and you have the skill, you will get either a success, or a critical success. Material acquisition is the key point to making items, not an arbitrary die roll at the end. Ok, actually you'll care a LOT about that arbitrary die roll at the end, but it's a matter of good vs. great, not fail vs. good. Creatures (MOBs)Re: Sickle-flies Feedback Thread (Creatures of Middle-earth) Posted by: Ramen on November 2, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Dermax We have midges that are swarmy like that. The sickle-flies will appear individually, though. Re: Orcs In the Daytime Posted by: Corsair on September 28, 2006 Re trolls: Some varieties of trolls, e.g. the stone trolls in the hobbit, are very very sensitive to sunlight, and must either hide during the day or else may come out only in shadow, or on heavily overcast days. Other breeds are more resistant, and though no creatures of the Enemy will ever really like the sun, their strength may be such that they can withstand it. Re: Orcs In the Daytime Posted by: Corsair on September 25, 2006 You will see plenty of orcs in the daytime. Their masters don't care how much the sun hurts their eyes, and their masters are cruel hard drivers indeed, so for the orcs, there are worse things to worry about than skin peeling and sun-dazzle. I wouldn't waste too much pity on them, though. Re: Question about critters. Posted by: Scenario on September 12, 2006 Currently, we have two types of "critters". Wild critters (which are things like foxes, squirrels, deer, etc) which roam the landscape outside of towns/farms and are killable. Wild critters will attempt to flee from an aggressive player. Domestic critters (non-wild animals like cow, sheep, cats and chicken) which can be found in and around the various towns and farms of Middle Earth cannot be killed. There are some exceptions to both rules where it is appropriate (you may come across a wild critter NPC as part of a quest, for example) but by and large the above is how we are handling critters across the world. Re: FFXI or LOTRO( Please devs also post some answers) Posted by: October on August 25, 2006 Quote:
We have lots of squatty things for you to kill in LOTRO... Goblins, for example. Re: Trolls Posted by: Corsair on August 22, 2006 I think there are at least 4 major types of Trolls in LOTRO, by that I mean tech-wise having distinctive models, animations, and behaviors, and lore-wise having different homes, natures and origins. Of course each of those types has any number of variants. Some breeds of Troll-kind must stay out of the sun at all costs, others merely dislike it, much like orcs. Some are exclusively nocturnal, others just pay close attention to Trollshaws weather reports:
As a general rule they are very tough foes indeed. The exceptions are worse than that.... Re: Stealthed Mobs? Posted by: Keth on August 2, 2006 Quote:
Well, when a mob is stealthed it plays different animations. So I believe stealthed wolves play a creeping / sneaky animation when stealthed. (Of course you only see that if you detect them while stealthed.) Re: Stealthed Mobs? Posted by: Scenario on August 2, 2006 Quote:
You can expect to see a small variety of mobs in a given area. Depending on what our generators feel like doing, you may or may not see the same type of creature appear at a given location (it could be a spider one time around, a wolf or a goblin, for example). Specific monster camps, however, don't typically vary. A brigand camp is a brigand camp is a brigand camp (there are occasions where camps do vary what is in them, but they are in the minority compared to other creature camps). Quote:
Different creature types behave differently. Some have larger aggro radii, while others have smaller aggro radii - compared to the average anyway. Some creatures will even call for help from its nearby friends. Quote: Originally Posted by Gror Wolfaxe Potentially. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Rotor We've got some giant bugs. I think animators really like giant bugs for some reason. Must be all the legs. Also, when you're mocapping a spider, it's hard to get all the little ping pong balls stuck on. (If you've never seen a "mocap", or motion-capture session, that joke probably didn't make much sense. It's funny, trust me.) Re: Giants??! Posted by: Keth on July 11, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by kbdiggity Giants are a creature that will be appearing in our game. As you would expect, they tower over the players and have abilities fitting for a giant, such as knocking you into next week and trying to stomp you flat. If you ever encounter one and make him cranky, you'll probably want to have a few friends about... CurrencyRe: Currency? Posted by: Scenario on December 11, 2006 Motes, SIKs and Shards... er... wait... Copper, Silver and Gold will be the coin currency of the game. Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
The basic unit of currency is the silver coin. Copper and gold are used as well, but silver is the baseline. Day / Night CycleRe: Day and Night Posted by: Keth on July 12, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Are'el Well, I hate to give you guys specific numbers, because those numbers can and will change. If we get enough feedback that the days feel too short, we can just jack up the length. As for why they are shorter, if you expect a player to play, on average, a couple hours a day, and if the world didn't change in that time, it would make the world feel more flat. ...and, finally, I should say that it's hardly a "poof" when the day changes. The days gradually change from light to day, clouds move, the sun and moon both rise and set. Re: Day and Night Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 12, 2006 We have a definite day / night cycle, and our in-game days are significantly shorter than real-time days. This means that in a game session you will see one entire game day pass. Now, that doesn't mean that we are progressing the story's timeline based on our game days. It also doesn't mean that you will only find certain mobs at night. We are doing some switching of spawns between day and night cycles, but there will also be some static spawns of night-time only mobs. We have these static spawns because it would be pretty annoying if you were trying to complete a quest, only to arrive in the location a few minutes late and it is now dawn. However, that doesn't mean you'll see trolls sunning themselves, those static spawns are either in regions heavily shaded or have special regional "weather" that makes them always overcast and gloomy. Edit: BTW, I believe the region in that most recently released screenshot of the Orc has been updated to be a bit more gloomy. DeathRe: Permanent Death in LOTRO Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 11, 2006 Since death in LOTRO is less 'death' and more 'defeat,' I meant that there's no Retreat in the sense of 'I was thoroughly defeated, and now my character returns to continue the fight!' Getting in over your head and then hightailing it for the hills is absolutely part of a PermaDeath style of play... but if it happens too often I'd be worried that I'm not playing cautiously enough, and my days might be numbered. As an aside, while running away from enemies I have a tendency to spin the camera to see how close my pursuers are. I've fallen down more than my share of cliffs as a result. So, if you're thinking of playing PermaDeath style... don't do that! MoL Re: Permanent Death in LOTRO Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 11, 2006 I think PermaDeath is a really interesting style of play, although I'm sure I don't have the patience for it. It's neat in that it forces you to be really, really cautious with the decisions you make: the quests you tackle, the areas you explore, even the friends that you make. If you can't trust your Guardian-friend to defend you, or your Champion-friend to wade into the fray with both blades singing, you could very easily fall to your foes... and that's it. No retreat if you're trying to play PermaDeath. I think it's fascinating, and I have a lot of respect for people who try it, but that requires a lot of dedication. I love old-school console games, so I'd be more likely to do a Three Lives setup, or something similar. Maybe I'd use a custom rule that every mushroom I steal from Farmer Maggot gives me another Life, too. MoL Dueling (PvP)Re: Dueling is now in!! Posted by: Patience on December 12, 2006 As it is currently implemented, duel requests from ignored players are... ignored! The dev team is also working on implementing an "auto-decline" toggle for those who aren't interested in dueling, and restricting the areas in which players can duel each other. There are no plans to do any class balancing based on dueling. LOTRO is about story, adventure, and exploration, and the team's focus remains on this. Dueling is just something else to do in the game and there are no penalties for defeat nor rewards for victory. Hope that helps clear up some of the questions and misconceptions. Re: Dueling is now in!! Posted by: Patience on December 11, 2006 Anyone on your ignore list will not be able to send you a request to duel. The dev team is also implementing a toggle so you can ignore all requests if you so desire and, as Jeffrey said, will be looking at restricting the areas where you can duel. LOTRO continues to be about story and adventure and most of the team's work is focused on those goals. EconomyRe: Great armor Posted by: floon beetle on October 9, 2006 Your post is another way of saying, "I agree with you, and we're just haggling over the price." No matter what the scale difference is between best and worst pieces of equipment, perceived value of items will shake out to having a power law distribution. Re: Great armor Posted by: floon beetle on October 9, 2006 There's a reason most games have an emphasis on gear, and that is that gear can be turned into an economy, because it can be created, traded, found, and sold. Economies foster social interaction, and player engagement with their fellow players. Inherent avatar skill system do not. You can have games based around inherent avatar skill, but dollars to doughnuts, the social atmosphere of the game will probably suffer: the only situations that will involve players needing to talk to other players will be those situations revolving around skill use, like combat. Economics is fun. Business within gameworlds is fun. It's what drives a huge portion of the folks that love to play games of this sort. EnvironmentRe: Matt Elliott - Wild Lands (Developer Diary) Posted by: Scenario on October 19, 2006 Quote:
Yes, they are. When that screenshot was originally taken they had just been implemented. We've since had the opportunity to return to that biome and give just the trees, but the area on a whole more polish. Re: Running, Jumping and Exploring Posted by: Corsair on August 31, 2006 You can certainly run, jump, fall, and explore, and occasionally find some path past a wall or over a ridge to the back of a camp or a fort or something like that. If you fall too far you can take damage or injure yourself, so watch out in the mountains or on high palisades as you can't sue the road-maker or the castle-builder for negligence in middle-earth if you fall down from a precipice. However, we haven't implemented any jumping puzzles in the game or anything vaguely like one. I had a few of those in AC2 that were either notoriously horrid or loads of fun depending who you talk to, but they really don't have much place in LOTRO. Honestly, they aren't so hot in online games if there is any kind of lag at all, but at least the ones I put in AC2 would teleport you back to the start if you missed a jump, instead of actually killing you.... Well, most of the time wouldn't kill you, anyway. Re: Ambiguous or otherwise? Posted by: Scenario on August 2, 2006 Quote: Originally Posted by Khalathwyr There are some things that you cannot "turn off". Frills can be turned on and off, but bushes and trees can only have their degrade distances changed (and doing that modifies the degrade distances of creatures as well). So if you are fighting out in the middle of a field with frills off, sure, you'll probably see that wolve coming a mile away (frills alone don't obscure monsters completely anyway, you'll notice movement). But if you are fighting within the Chetwood, you'll still risk getting jumped by that spider hiding behind the tree, or wolves napping in the bushes. This discussion (at least the portions I'm writing on now) is purely about mobs that wander around and by happenstance of their wandering use foliage for cover. Stealthed mobs are a topic all their own. Re: Outposts in the Wilderness? Posted by: Scenario on July 26, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Widsomandlore For every area we have at least one location that functions as a quest/vendor hub. Some areas have more, and some have a rediculous number (I'm looking at you, Shire!). Some of these hubs may be fully fleshed out and functioning towns (such as Bree) or little pockets of refugees hidden away from the eyes of the enemy (such as Esteldin). Quote:
Originally Posted by Wisdomandlore Our process of theming starts at the very beginning of our planning phases. Usually, content and world teams sit down and brainstorm what we want to do with an area. What the major quest arcs are going to be, what kinds of environments we'd like to see in the area and what art we need to tie it all together. After that initial planning happens, the principal worldbuilder for the area will take a first pass, laying out the height maps, rough scenery, building towns, bodies of water, monster camps, etc. Once that pass is complete, we do iteration on it based off of feedback and then pass the area off to the content team and our environmental artists. The content team takes the themes we planned for the area and brings them into the stories they are telling with their quests and into the color chatter many of our NPCs have. Our environmental artists (a combination of production artists and worldbuilders) select photo reference that best fits what we discussed for theming and pushes the art design in that direction. This means everything from the trees to the terrain textures to what the water looks like. For example - The design of the Old Forest is a thick forest with heavy canopy, using lots of deep green colors, moss and ferns. The Chetwood, while equally thick in some places, is a much brighter forest, with bright colors (yellows, bright greens, some orange) and a healthy mix of bushes and small brush covering the ground. Re: Birds and bees Posted by: Scenario on July 6, 2006 We happen to like the notion of random wild life as well and have a system in place for them. Most of these animals aren't threatening in the slightest but they do provide a sense of life in our world and make running around the wilderness that much more immersive and interesting. While we do not have birds or bees at this time, we have been adding ambient life to most areas of the world. Though are are some places where having deer, rabbits, foxes and the beloved squirrels choose not to habit, and for good reason. Note to self: Remember to hook up those Shire squirrels with red fur. FactionRe: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfwine Whoops, missed this one. Faction isn't nearly as big a deal as it was back in the mists of time. There will be faction-related accomplishments (do enough quests for the people of Breeland, and they'll start to appreciate it) but it's not the system of old. Farming (non-crafting)Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote: Originally Posted by TucksMa One of the funnier but more helpful quotes that came up in a meeting was this: "All incomparable items are comparable!" Incomps are a quality tier, and there are many sources of them. Crafting, raiding, exceedingly lucky drops, and a couple other ways I can't talk about just yet. As to the issue of "things that attract gold farmers," I can't say with any surety that anyone really knows what those factors are. I think there are a lot of theories, but to be honest, the only thing that is 100% sure to attract gold farmers is success. When a game does well and there's a big player market, well, in come the gold farmers. Any violations of our terms of service will be dealt with accordingly, but I honestly don't believe that it's game mechanics that lead to gold farming, with a few detailed exceptions that I could ramble on about for a very long time. File this answer under "my personal opinions", please! FluffRe: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
We have a lot of fun with "color" NPCs, which are characters that pretty much have no gameplay purpose but add a lot of atmosphere, running around, emoting and commenting on the world around them. We do have a rich set of environmental sounds, and weather effects. The weather effects are purely cosmetic at this time, however. Game EnginesRe: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 15, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Seton We're following AC2/DDO. If you happen upon an cliff, you will find yourself falling off it if you aren't mindful. Re: Giants??! Posted by: Keth on July 11, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffm Fortunately, we've improved our physics system since then, so it won't be as likely to throw you great distances if you are standing on angled surfaces. In AC2, an angled surface acted like a ramp and would make you go farther if you were impulsed. GearRe: Duel-wield or Traditional? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 11, 2006 Quote:
Ok, now I think I get the confusion. You have three "weapon" inventory slots. Main hand, Off hand, and Ranged. Depending on the weapon proficiencies you have, which are granted by your class, you can equip various things in each of those slots. Hunters can use any ranged weapon. They do have restrictions on what melee weapons they can use, and they have no shield proficiencies, but they can use a small weapon in their off hand. You don't need to unequip melee weapons to have your bow at the ready. Re: Duel-wield or Traditional? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 11, 2006 Quote:
There are more types of one-handed weapons than just daggers and shortswords. But hunters do not have the option to use shields or two-handed weapons. Re: Great armor Posted by: floon beetle on October 9, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by erethizon Not that I'm saying that this doesn't happen, but I have never played in a situation where the gameplay experience has hinged on the quality of any ten pieces of equipment my character had. "Oh, you only have a +14 Sword of Head Snipping. I have a +17 Head Juilienner. Go back to n00bville, n00b! We have grownup things to do!" Yeah, that sort of hasn't happened in my experience. Most of the time, folks volunteer to help me do the missions that you have to do to get whatever 1337 gear they think I'll like to have. I can understand how we don't want that to happen in Lotro... Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
It's hard to really explain without having the game in front of you. (Sorry about that.) Top of the line gear makes a big difference, make no mistake. It's hard to quantify that, though. We want to make sure that when you make a major equipment upgrade, you feel it without parsing some combat log to find out that you decreased your incoming dps by 3 or something. GroupingRe: Creating a fellowship..... Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 25, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by knight-of-earth Nope, fellowships are more transient groups - they're adventuring parties. Quote:
What bond is formed when you create a fellowship? While in a fellowship, you'll share XP, share quest advancement, and be able to affect one another with various beneficial abilities. Quote:
Will there be a penalty if you break off a fellowship? Nope. Quote:
If a fellowship member dies, will you be able to revive him? A couple classes do have the ability to revive a defeated comrade. Re: What classes will be manditory Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 7, 2006 This is a great question, and it's something we've talked about quite a bit. Allow me to recount a story. (OMG STORY TIME WITH UNCLE NIK!) Not too long ago, we had a company-wide stress test of the alpha hardware. Things were very stable, so we got a lot of good playtesting feedback from people within the company that are currently working in other departments, or on other projects. After the playtest ended, I made sure to talk to a lot of people that aren't on the team, but whose gameplay sense I know and trust - while the LOTRO team is hands-on with this game every day, a lot of other people in the company see it pretty infrequently. One of the people I made sure to sit down and talk with is an engineer on another project. We'll call him "Bill." Bill has, as far as I can tell, the prototypical MMO-playing personality. If I want to know how people at large will react to something, I ask Bill what he thinks. He's rarely wrong. He's also a bit nuts. So in addition to gameplay feedback, I get to hear some entertainingly incoherent rambling on all sorts of topics. I'd say I filter out the nuggets of good info from the crazy ranting, but let's be honest, I'm a sucker for crazy ranting. It's all good stuff! Win/Win! After the playtest, Bill started ranting about clerics. (There are no Clerics in LOTRO, as you well know.) He hates clerics. He hates the whole idea of clerics. He hates waiting for a cleric, he hates the attitude that comes with being the "needed" class, and he hates games with clerics in them because they could have chosen to be games without clerics. (As an aside, he plays these games anyway, and loves them, but also hates them, which is one of the reasons I say he's a prototypical MMO-playing personality.) I asked Bill, "Do you think LOTRO has that problem?" Bill thought about it for a while, and said "No." So there you have it. Some crazy engineer on another project thinks we've successfully solved this problem! Doesn't that make you feel better? Truth is, I agree with him. The biggest problem that you're referring to here is the "primary healer" role. While the Minstrel is definitely the best single-target healer, a Captain can fill the role. While the guardian is the best tank, a Champion can fill the role. All of the classes bring a lot of utility and flexibility to the table, which means that most combinations can "win", they just might have to play to the strengths of the classes that make up the group can do so. GuardianRe: Solo Ability Concerns Posted by: MadeOfLiions on August 18, 2006 Worry not - my favorite class, the Guardian, is able to solo effectively. We're very conscious of designing quests geared for both solo and group play, as well - you'll have plenty to do even if you aren't interested in grouping. HousingRe: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: October on July 15, 2006 Quote: >p>Originally Posted by Bart There is no housing for the release of this game. It is possible that we will add it in an update or expansion. What I wanted to talk about was the considerations for housing that needs to take place... Housing is like adding another player race to the game, one that needs a bunch of systems that are unique to it and it alone. Like players, it is desirable to have it customizable, only it needs to be customizable in the outside AND on the inside. Any of the things you would want to put on the facade of the house and the interior needs to be made. Even if you use existing objects for decorations, those objects aren't generally made to be placed in the world by players, so even existing objects would need some attention. Also, the houses should have race based appearances... a hobbit hole should look different from an elf home. This causes other issues... can an Elf build an Elf house in the Shire? Can an Elf own ANY property in the Shire, Elf styled or Hobbit styled? I'm not saying what the right or wrong answers are for these considerations are, I'm just saying that housing is a huge task and it's importantly that we do it right, or else why do it at all? In-game MusicRe: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: Orion on August 29, 2006 Quote:
I love our sound guys. You cannot understand how much I love our sound guys. The music is sounding better and better and covers...nearly all the world. It seems to me that it is much closer to AC2. Re: Wait.... Where's the Music?!! Posted by: Scenario on July 30, 2006 Just popping in to say a few words in this thread. Our SVT department has done a wonderful job setting up the audio portions of our game. Ambient wild life (insects buzzing, birds chirping, water falling etc) is coming along very nicely. Regarding music, its in and sounds great too! To the best of my knowledge, our guys are making the music. Any contracts they have with composers or other musicians is beyond my scope of knowledge (something that is best for one of them to confirm). Hope that clears things up a bit. Level RestrictionsRe: Level Restrictions(for areas, zones, or instances) Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 8, 2006 One thing I've always liked, and we're trying to do in LOTRO, is to have higher-level content available that you can see early - if you're not careful and don't pay attention to the signs, you might stray into an area that's much too dangerous for you to handle. The thrill of coming back later, when you're stronger and better-prepared, and, ahem, "pwning" the formerly much too dangerous challenges... I think that's a lot of fun. LineageRe: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
Items aren't enhanced through the course of gameplay... yet. I tried to make an analogy in one of my dev diaries that was taken unfortunately literally - I spoke of the concept of "lineage" making an item special. Really, I just was trying to explain that some items are special without being "magical", and how exceptionally crafted items can fill that role. Live EventsRe: Y'know what would be a cool idea? Posted by: October on September 23, 2006 Quote:
Whoo boy! You don't want me to participate in a live event... I type too slow and my spelling is awful! Besides, Elrond has way more hair than I do... I could have played him 15 years ago, but I'm much too old for the role now. Now Allan as Aragorn I can see... Seriously now, Allan is a very talented guy... did you know he can do ANY voice? He's amazing! No doubt we will have live events from time to time, but those will be special cases, not the rule. Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
We are definitely going to have a live development team to bring additional updates - whether that will encompass live events is beyond me at this time. I know we've discussed it, but I don't believe any decisions have been made. Re: Live Events in Game? Posted by: Keth on July 6, 2006 And so do we! There are a few AC1 and AC2 live team veterans on the team and we really liked the event system we had in those products. (Our event system was simply the ability to set flags on the world that would turn on certain spawns or other objects.) The plans for our live service have *not* been nailed down yet, so whether this sort of system shows up in LotRO has yet to be determined. If it does though, we live team veterans will probably end up using it! Oh, I should mention that we already have the ability to have certain monsters only appear in the day or, more importantly, in the night. So in a few cases you will see spawns change based on time of day. Load TimesRe: In game maps - The Shire Posted by: Saffron on August 30, 2006 It is a seamless transition from one area to another. For the most part there is no loading between zones. The only exception I can think of is when entering houses and other buildings. There is a quick splash screen during the transition. LocationsRe: Question on Initial Territories and Expansions Posted by: Rhidden on January 2, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by King_Bob The Old Forest and Barrow-downs are part of Breeland, not the Shire. Re: When all the places have been added... Posted by: October on September 8, 2006 Holy cats! Can we get the initial game out first? It will take us a while to fill out Tolkien's map completely, so I don't think anyone here is thinking that far down the road. There's a vast world to fill out as it is without even considering what's to the East of Rhun... Re: Combe and Tharbad Posted by: Scenario on August 25, 2006 Quote:
Combe will be a valid town/village. It's the second town of man players get introduced to after Archet. Re: Trolls Posted by: Corsair on August 24, 2006 It's the "Vale of Imladris", so yes, it is in a valley. It's a big valley though, so at the bottom there is plenty of open space. But you have to travel a winding path down some hills to get in. Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
We are not currently racially restricting areas in the game. What the hobbits do in Rivendell is as their consciences dictate. LootRe: Matt Elliott - Wild Lands (Developer Diary) Posted by: Scenario on October 20, 2006 Quote:
At this time there are no special loot-locking behaviors for camp treasure chests. Re: Treasure Rewards Posted by: Scenario on July 27, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahrahir I have yet to see a wolf in LOTRO drop anything but claws, paws, and fur. Our game systems team is making sure non-humanoids drop loot appropriate for the creature. LoreRe: what "classes" were all the main LoTR characters? Posted by: Rhidden on January 2, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Corsair Oh, is he ever a sneaky sneaky Burglar: "At last he got leave of the Steward and gathered a small fleet, and he came to Umbar unlooked-for by night, and there burned a great part of the ships of the Corsairs." Sneaking in the middle of the night and burning down a fleet of ships ftw! Re: what "classes" were all the main LoTR characters? Posted by: Corsair on January 2, 2006 I always liked this topic... Before I started this project, I wasn't entirely aware of the vast breadth and scope of Aragorn's career prior to the events in LOTR. He actually qualifies for pretty much all of our classes except possibly burglar. But who knows, somehow I wouldn't be shocked if he'd spent a few years in Lankhmar given everything else he's known to have done. Captain? Yah, best leader of men in Middle-earth. Check. And oh yeah, he was in fact a ship-captain and admiral who led a Gondorian force against Umbar. Loremaster? Yah, he was known as the best mortal lore-master of his time. Check. Champion? Guardian? Yah, he did an awful lot of fighting over what amounts to the full lifetime of an ordinary man, both as a solitary warrior and as a soldier, so I think he'd qualify on both counts. Check, check. Hunter? Well, you know, he's a Ranger and he spends most of this time these days in the wilderness. Not his primary role, I think, but still, check. Minstrel? Yah, penchant for verse and song, vast knowledge of both. I don't recall him playing any instruments, so let's just give him a half-check here unless someone can recall something I've forgotten. Re: In the words of Davidson... Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 15, 2006 Quote:
There's plenty there that I feel is opinion, which you're certainly entitled to, but I did want to respond to this last bit. There's no contradiction in saying that player characters are not on a comparable power scale with the Fellowship, and yet patterning skills and abilities after fellowship members. One is a question of magnitude, the other is a question of archetype. I'd consider Boromir, Lando Calrissian and Kain Highwind (from Final Fantasy IV) to all be essentially the same literary archetype. Archetypes are essential in communicating role in games. Let's face it, most characters in any movie, book or game could be summed up as "Well, he's sort of like [character], except for [personality or physical trait.]" When I say we patterened the Guardian after Boromir, for example, it means that people can expect to share certain traits with that character, if not magnitude. I've already apologised about the Legolas/dual-wield mixup - a simple failure of memory on my part. (I could have sworn that in Two Towers, Legolas mentioned "knives" rather than "knife-work." Whoops.) But honestly, I think that dual wield fit's the hunter's gameplay role just fine - exceptional single-target damage. I'd make the same choice either way, and stand by the decision, if not my earlier explanation. Re: Fresh batch of Lore Cookies, get 'em while they're hot! Posted by: October on September 23, 2006 Quote:
How are kinship halls lore breaking? Or instanced housing for that matter? Re: Giant frog in LOTRO? Posted by: Scenario on September 14, 2006 Quote:
Personally, I don't know every step and beat of the lore behind the world of Middle Earth. So Frogs of Inordinate Size (FIS for short) may have a place within the thick and weighty tomes of lore. Re: Giant frog in LOTRO? Posted by: Scenario on September 14, 2006 If we didn't "go against the lore" and add in things that were never written about... well... we wouldn't have much room to make an interesting and engaging game. NPCs, creatures and locations have to be created from scratch in some locations in order to both fill in the gaps as well as make the game fun. Frogs of Inordinate Size are amongst those creations. Re: Gun Powder in ME Posted by: Rhidden on September 8, 2006 Goblins used machines "It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help" -The Hobbit And, Bilbo had a clock "Bilbo took out the envelope, but just as he was about to set it by the clock, his hand jerked back, and the packet fell on the floor." -FOTR Re: Sackville-Baggins Quest? Posted by: MadeOfLiions on August 16, 2006 You will indeed interact with a Sackville-Baggins or two, but more than that I can't say. Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
Good question. This is one where my gamer instincts and my lore sensibilities came into conflict. Originally, I wanted to have players working with mithril at the top end of crafting, but I ended up changing it so that top end weapons are exceedingly fine steel instead. Mithril is going to be very, very rare. One might say we're going to be almost miserly with it. Re: What if Turbine Gets Setting Wrong Posted by: Rhidden on August 1, 2006 Turbine has a number of staff members who are very familiar with the books in many different departments around the building (myself included). You can rest assured that there are a number of us lore geeks looking at the game from a number of different angles; content, world building, and game testing (to name a few) that want to see not only a fun game but one that adheres closely to the world Tolkien created. And that picture of Tom Bombadil is just bad lighting, his jacket is very much blue. Re: Where will Devs pull reference from... Posted by: Keth on July 21, 2006 We have all the MERP books here, and are allowed to pull references from them, but so far as I know, we haven't yet. We may use them when looking for some inspiration, but usually any ideas from them get pretty heavily modified by the time they get into the game. The only MERP book we do use fairly regularly is the Black Speech dictionary in the Angmar reference, but it can be a pain to use because many of the words there are multi-syllabic. That leads to word pairs that are too long and look weird when you try to put them together. In addition, some of the word pairs don't work so well together. For instance, we had an Orc tribe we were calling the "Blood Crag" orcs. Not bad, right? Well, according to the Black Speech guide that would be "Blogthop." We even tried it in game for a while, but everyone pretty much agreed that it was just silly. (Except Orion, he loved that name, I think mostly because it was silly.) Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Sywyn Anything mentioned exclusively in the Silmarilion is verboten for us. Re: A Plea for Low-Loot, Low-Magic, Low-PvP, High-Lore LOTRO Posted by: Amlug on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaston I think it's important for us to point out that LOTRO is not just about the loot, nor is it just about the raids, nor is it just about any one thing. We realize that lore is a very important part of this game. We fight hard to see it preserved as best we can. Most of us on the dev team grew up reading these books. I know, for me, the dream of playing in Middle-earth is very exciting and I want to see it realized to it's fullest potential. It is important to realize, however, that what one person finds enjoyable, the next does not. We want lots and lots of people to enjoy our game. We want the world to be living and breathing and teeming with players having fun. What is important to understand is that we all have different definitions and expectations. That is ok. We are trying to find that balance. All that being said, we are very conscious of lore. Tolkien would not want it any other way. We want a game that feels like Middle-earth. We want the world that you all love so dearly. We are also, on the flip side, delving into areas where there is not so much lore. Spaces in the books that do not have as much description. In those places, we are able to create our own lore and that is wonderful as well. We try our best to keep within the constraints of the world laid out by J.R.R. himself and also build upon that world. Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaston We want this world to be everything you are saying and more. We want this game to be fun and engaging and something you all want to play. Just because we are adding raids to our endgame plan does not mean that we are throwing lore out the window. In fact, it does not change our lore-based approach at all. Middle-earth is a war-torn place of struggle and a fight for survival. While we want to personalize your experience in Middle-earth so that you play the hero, we also want you to feel as if you are part of the overall struggle. Lore-masterRe: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
Pretty darn important solo, less so in a group. In a group, the Lore-master's crowd-control, buff and debuff skills really shine. Out alone in the wilderness, it's very helpful to have your AI Friend Who's Fun To Be With(tm)* * - Apologies to D.N.A. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalben I hate to contradict El Jefe, but the loremaster doesn't currently throw burning oil at people. He's not a nuker class. He has a "Burning Embers" skill that involves throwing burning pinecones at people - that's the closest analogue I can think of. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by karakedi Same set of skills. However, the racial accomplishments that different race loremasters can complete will give them different traits and specializations. Loremasters of different races will be different from one another, but those differences will tend to manifest later in your adventuring career. Re: Fireball Tossing? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 I do want to weigh in on this briefly. The Loremaster is not a "nuker" class. He's got skills that definitely draw from magical sources, but his role is really that of crowd control/buff/debuff, with a heavy reliance on his natural lore to befriend beasties. (Read: OMG BEAR PET) It's a more subtle use of power, which is not to say that toward the higher end he doesn't get some pretty cool looking abilities. He does. MapsRe: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: October on August 30, 2006 Quote:
I'm not sure if I completely understand your question, but I'll have a go at it... We have a large map that covers the entire game world so far, and then we have smaller regional maps that have more specific game-world info on them. Why just the other day I was admiring the map of Bree... it's quite lovely. Re: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: Orion on August 29, 2006 Quote:
Right now, and mind you all of this is subject to change, the map is clear. Though there are other "pieces" that are unveiled. Re: New LotRO-Trailer Posted by: October on August 29, 2006 Quote:
Nope, we have unique maps that are being made just for the game. MinstrelRe: Minstrel Class: Cleric..Bard, or somewhere in between? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 17, 2006 Quote:
I just spent a couple hours soloing as a Minstrel, testing out a bunch of the skill changes that we've made this milestone. Solid stuff. While the minstrel is definitely the best healer/buffer, he's got a good mix of offensive abilities that keeps him very active to play in combat. Some of the group-enhancing abilities are subtle - for example, an attack that has a secondary effect of a short term (just a few seconds) group buff. It's definitely a very different class than anything you've played before, but if you want to simply sit back and heal, you can do that too. MountsRe: how to obtain the mounts Posted by: Rhidden on January 15, 2007 Will there be a quest(s) associated with learning how to ride a mount? -Yes Will there be a cost associated with purchasing a mount? -Yes Will we be able to get a white mount? *at launch -Not so much. There will be a variety of colors available at launch, pure white mounts will not be one of them... *at this time. MoviesRe: Cinematics Posted by: Keth on July 18, 2006 Quote: Originally Posted by noVus After a few key moments in your character's life, we are planning on having some sort cinematics using in-game assets but through a few effects. The number we are planning is fairly low at the moment, mostly because we aren't sure how difficult they are going to be for us and the time they are going to consume. If they prove to not be too difficult, we may do more. Personally, I would love to do a ton, but we'll see how it works out! Intro FMV? Posted by: Keth on July 7, 2006 Well it isn't a matter of should, we are! A CGI intro is being prepared for our game. I've seen some of the preliminary work done for it and it looks amazing! As for who is in the movie, I can't tell you that, but if you saw the Gandalf picture we had at E3, you've already seen at least one of the characters appearing in the CGI... Newbie ExperienceRe: Question about starter areas. Posted by: Keth on July 26, 2006 Well since I've just gotten done revising the Man experience (which is still strange to type, but the word "Human" has no place in Tolkien) I can tell you that our newbie experience has a "fat" path and a "skinny" path. If you just do what is required to finish it, I'm guessing it to take you an hour to an hour and a half. If you try to do all of it, even the parts that aren't required, I'm guessing it would take twice that, so 2 to 3 hours. Edit: Oh, and I should also mention that I implemented a "Skip Introduction" feature that allows you to skip the newbie experience if you've completed it once before with a character of that race. Already done the experience as a hobbit? Great, you don't have to do it again, if you don't want to. Re: Question about starter areas. Posted by: Keth on July 26, 2006 We haven't worked out yet the shortcuts we might provide that will allow players of various races to join up with friends after completing the "newbie" experience, but whatever the case, all roads eventually lead to Bree, and from there players are free to go whatever direction they like. Edit: Holy cow, that was a run-on sentence. PetsRe: Lore-appropriate Pet Class Posted by: Corsair on July 24, 2006 Yes, you can get fun (non-combat) pets that are not linked to race or class. I just added one in Ered Luin, and I know that since the artists and game systems people have made up a bunch of different cute little critters that others will certainly appear one way or another in other places in the world. No, we are not implementing the tree-herd as a playable class.... Re: Lore-appropriate Pet Class Posted by: Keth on July 24, 2006 While not my department, I can say from playing that Lore-masters do indeed have pets, and the raven is one of them. Other classes might get a pet as well, as they are polishing up the classes and seeing where it might be appropriate and beneficial for it to have a pet. ...and of course, the pet will be appropriate to the class. Point of InterestRe: Bamfurlong (Point of Interest) Posted by: Corsair on July 6, 2006 I think that's Wolf about to pay his respects to a local tree, but I could be wrong. Fang and Grip have different coat patterns, I believe. Odovacar Bolger says he has the best hound in the Shire, however, regardless of Maggot's claims to the contrary. Oh, by the way, just for you EarthandBeyond: 1l32n c4d2s 1r2 c44l, b5t y45'd th3nk th2y w45ld b2 h1rd2r t4 f3g5r2 45t. PvPRe: Why? Posted by: Ramen on November 6, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by nanfoodle I'm still suspicious you may own a pocket protector. The idea back then (and now) is that having the free peoples going around ganking each other was very much against Tolkien's lore. Free people going around smacking down orcs and such, now he was all for that Re: Possible Good Monster Play Characters Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 18, 2006 Quote:
We've talked about it, and I'm personally a fan of the idea. Not going to make it for ship, though. Re: Buying/Selling Accounts etc now OK?? Posted by: Nigellian on October 9, 2006 ::Climbs over the wall of glass the OCR team maintains around the EP to keep him in check:: I've been watching this thread and I thought it might be time for me to jump in As with all articles, the Computer Games article contains a lot of what was said, some of what wasn't and some that sounds different on paper than it did when we were in the room with the reporter. First of all, Cindy Yans did a great job in understanding the major pieces of monster play as we described it, even though it was new to her and not completely finished. I can go into a bit more clarification of MP in the article another time, but first I wanted to clear up a bit of "confusion" brewing in this thread. ARE DESTINY POINTS SELLABLE, TRADABLE OR TRANSFERABLE? Nope. Nope. Nope. The only tradable currency in the game is gold, items, and words of wisdom. DO WE (OR ME FOR THAT MATTER) CONDONE SECONDARY MARKETS? Turbine has always been clear on this issue. When/If we feel it makes sense to allow the free flow of game currency and real currency back and forth, or allow players to barter and sell everything including their mortal souls in-game, rest assured, we'll find the right way to make that happen for our games. For now, we’ll provide the best balance of structured economy we can in Middle-earth, learn from how you use it, and make it more and more useful over time. As for external options for trade – there’s just no reason for me to pretend it doesn’t exist. Then you guys would probably be talking about how naïve I am! BALROG-PLAY! We all know there is one bad-*** balrog in Moria and there certainly can’t be groups of marauding Balrog (s?) in Middle-earth. I was waxing poetical (which EPs often do, despite the cries of anguished OCRs) and the press "enhanced" the idea (as press are wont to do, over the cries of anguished EPs). I was fantasizing about the possibility in the future of High-Level monster players, queued up to take turns "playing" THE Balrog. But this was presented as a wacky idea, and one to be taken with a bushel of salt. I know I am often the silent suit in the shadows, but you guys gotta know that I live and breathe LOTRO and am behind the team 1000% and all the great work they are doing to bring you the world you’ve been waiting so patiently for. So go sit under the shade of some ancient tree, kick off your shoes and dream of roaming the green hills, ancient ruins and majestic peaks of Middle-earth. We can’t wait to make that a reality for all of you. J. Re: Mr. Steefel... why the Balrog talk? Posted by: Mithril_Miser on October 9, 2006 Aw, give Jeffrey a break. Let's face it, one of the first questions people almost invariably ask when they learn about Monster Play, and having different tiers of progression is "Can I play a Balrog?" As an example, the Balrog is great for illustrating the progression - from lowly goblin to mighty Balrog! But yeah, no actual Balrog. I can offer lowly goblin, though. Anyone want lowly goblin? :P Re: Disambiguation (Dev Diary) Posted by: Ramen on September 13, 2006 Quote:
Not if, for example, you could have made the same progress given the equivalent time spent on your character vs. playing as a monster. We'll provide a more detailed developer diary in the future, but I would ask that until you all know details of the system, please try to stop jumping to the worst-case scenarios. This is Hobbigeddon all over again... Re: Disambiguation (Dev Diary) Posted by: Ramen on September 13, 2006 monster play is optional. Re: Interesting... Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 31, 2006 PvP will have rewards. I understand that not everyone wants to pvp, and that means that those people will not get those rewards. I would say the exact same thing if you were to substitute any of the following words for "pvp" in the above paragraph:
I'm very happy that we're diversifying our endgame mechanics as much as we have. Sure beats the "funnel" that a lot of games do. BUT... With five major eldergame mechanics, yes, that means if you want to get all five sets of rewards, you'll have to do all five activities! But here's the thing; the rewards from one aren't flat-out better than the others. If you managed to craft the Huge Crafted Awesome Axe, you don't need the Huge Raid Loot Awesome Axe. You already have an Awesome Axe. Our PvP solution is unique, in that it involves playing as non-persistent monster characters. But, non-persistent rewards isn't terribly compelling. (And no, PvP isn't its own reward. People PvP for rewards just like any other achiever. As a total aside, the Bartle types are pretty much outdated in this day and age, but that's a bit of a tangent...) The only concern I'm hearing here that I take all that seriously is the one that MP "buffs" might be of a nature such that they would feel "required" for other PvE activities. That's a very legitimate concern, and we're going to take pains to ensure that that's not the case. We're still working out a lot of the details on the reward structure, and I'll keep an extra eye out for you guys. Re: Interesting... Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 30, 2006 Quote:
Sorry to pick on a very specific line, but do people really feel this way? That PvP should have absolutely no rewards? Ultimately, there is only one currency - time. You spend time playing, you get rewards! If someone spends time PvPing, it's currently my philosophy that they should largely be rewarded on a similar way to, say, the rewards received soloing, or grouping, or raiding, etc. Is the objection that PvP is receiving a reward at all? Or that it might be receiving a unique reward? I'm honestly curious what's motivating such an extreme statement. Re: Remember, PVP does NOT = Ganking Posted by: Patience on July 21, 2006 Quote:
Hi Chinacat, At this time the bones of our PvP system are well in place and now it's just fleshing out the details. We'll be releasing more information in the next several weeks. I have actually seen it implemented in the game, spoken to the game systems team, and reviewed the dev diary in which we'll be giving an overview. NONE of these plans include a FFA PvP server. All servers will have the same rules. -Patience Re: Free For All Server Posted by: Patience on July 14, 2006 For the record, there are no plans for FFA PvP or a FFA PvP server and I don't think it's something the team wants to see in the game. It is inconsistent with the lore and we have an obligation to adhere to the spirit of Tolkien's works as much as possible. QuestsRe: Questing system, misinformation or not? Posted by: Orion on November 13, 2006 Quote:
If a player has completed a quest and the quest is not repeatable they cannot complete the quest again. They can, however, assist others in completing their quests. There are no restrictions preventing players from aiding one another through quests. In other words...that post, is not only in violation of NDA...it has some misonformation. Re: Questing system, misinformation or not? Posted by: Orion on November 13, 2006 You will be able to join a group doing a quest that you have previously completed. You will not earn credit for completing the quest a second time. This only pertains to quests that require you to enter instanced spaces. (One Caveat: Instance style quests in the newbie area can only be completed once, as of this post.) Re: Too many people in one place doing one quest? Posted by: Scenario on August 30, 2006 Quote:
We are not instancing most of our quests. The vast majority of our content resides on open, public landscape. We do have some quests that take place in instances, but that number is small compared to what is available on public land. Re: Too many people in one place doing one quest? Posted by: Scenario on August 30, 2006 We have a few ways to combat this issue. Having multiple quest targets spread out over a given area (excluding things like specific bosses - doesn't make sense to have dupes of the same named guy spread around a brigand camp), dynamic generator repopulation (meaning - if there is a lot of clamor for a quest target, it will respawn faster), and instance-based quests (so we can script out a specific encounter for a group and to make it so other groups can't interrupt the encounter) are some of the ways we are going about thinning down the crowds that can potentially arise around quest. We also have an abundance of available quests, so if you are attempting to complete one and find that too many others are attempting to do the same, you can pick another quest to complete while waiting for busier areas to quiet down. Many quests are also fellowship propagated. This means that if you have a specific boss target to defeat (or a quest to thin a pack of wolves), you can group with others and work together to advance your quests. Re: What Small/Seperate Quests Can We Expect?? Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 19, 2006 One of my favourite quests is very small in scope - you're helping a shy farmer romance his widowed neighbor. We have a lot of quests, and they're not all large-scale epics. Some of them are, of course. 'Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.' MoL Re: What Small/Seperate Quests Can We Expect?? Posted by: Keth on July 19, 2006 We have a lot of quests in our game, currently several hundred, and we aren't even done with implementation yet. Now, that number might seem really huge, and it is, but not every quest is a complicated saga. Some are simple "Go talk to X who will have more for you to do." Of that number, a portion are our main story arc and are what we consider our "grade A" material. We spend a lot of time on them and they typically get the most complicated mechanics. Re: Hobbits...or Hippies? Posted by: Keth on July 18, 2006 OK, not related to the hippy conversation here, but it does remind me of a theme we were trying to keep in a number of Shire quests, that theme being "Hobbit Shenanigans." We have a number of "serious" quests in the Shire, as serious as you can make threats in the Shire, but we also have a lot of quests that just involve Hobbits being goofy. My personal favorite quest series involves running around making deliveries for Hobbits. How can that be interesting, you wonder? Every online game has those. Well to spice it up, we added a timer. Now there's pressure to get your delivery done on time. ...not enough for you? Well Hobbits, being nosey sorts, can stop you and interrupt you in making your delivery. The quest becomes trying to get to the delivery place as quickly as possibly, while avoiding the disruptive Hobbits. ...still not enough for you? Would you be interested to know that through out the entire quest you are holding a pie? Racial BonusesRe: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote: Originally Posted by Schwint Right now, we have a set of racial characteristics that make some minor effect on early gameplay. Later on down the road, each race has specific Racial Accomplishments that lead to Racial Traits. You'll see much more deviation at this point, though the scale of this differentiation has yet to be really nailed down. Short answer: it'll start off a very small difference in gameplay, and grow over time. Edit: Also, Gollum has no wings, but a troll can throw him hella far. RaidsRe: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: Orion on August 29, 2006 Quote:
I guess I am one of the raid go tos...go to's...go...yeah sure. Raids are currently for twenty-four. There are legs to the raids, and they have goals that can be fulfilled. Personal goals...perhaps. I think that there will be some that prefer to tackle raids on the whole and others who wish to only spend a smaller chunk of time to finish one piece and then return later...that is something for a later and larger discussion however. Our raid UI is fully integrated and we are working to ensure that the tools function as needed for leaders and players alike. The less reliance on 3rd party, the better. Re: CHOOSE to raid is changed to MUST raid for high end crafters? Posted by: Scenario on August 3, 2006 Quote:
Quoting this portion for emphasis. I don't know how many times I've gone on a quest or instance in an MMO and been rewarded with something that I either cannot use or don't want to use. Nothing is more disappointing than having to sell your reward to a vendor at the end because you have no use for it. I believe the goal is to allow particpants to get what they want out of the raid (via a craft component drop), as opposed to having rely on the random number generator to drop what they want (that doesn't mean that "shield of uber armor" or "sword of cutting things good" won't also have their place in the raids). And, as has been said, comparable items to those found through the raid can be found outside of the raid as well. Of course, Nik can wisk in and correct me if my thinking is wrong. Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
I'm certainly angling for some top-end crafting materials to be raid drops, though that's mainly for the "toolbox" reward mechanic that we can get that way. Let's say that Boss X sometimes drops an axe. Well, not everyone can use an axe, so sometimes people are just disappointed by that. If instead he drops a gem, which can be used in a craft recipe to create one of eight weapons, then everyone gets something if they get the gem. However, most top-end craft will not require raid loot. That would be kind of deceptive on our part, huh? Re: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
Adding a bit of vocabulary to the debate, (which can really only work against me!) the top quality tier of items in the game is "Incomparable." These items will enter the world in a number of different ways. The most reliable ways to get a hold of these will be raiding and crafting, but they are not the only ones! For a lot of people, raids are fun. (I'd argue that almost all raids are fun the first time you play them. They just get successively less fun when repeated, and the barrier to entry placed on pure organizational elements puts a constant drain on the fun factor as well. The feeling of group-accomplishment, especially when a raid is interesting enough to give all participants an interesting role - it's really cool. Since our raids are all targeted to be "small" in the grand scheme of things (24 people) I would encourage those who are raidophobes to try ours if you get a chance.) Raid achievements will be rewarded. It's ridiculous to think that we wouldn't put rewards at the end of raids. However, we want to make sure that there are other ways for rewards of that quality level to make it into the hands of players, and that there are still a lot of single-player and single-group things to do at our level cap. Re: Welcome to World of Ringcraft! Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 1, 2006 Quote:
Seriously. I was a hard-core raider in multiple games, and it painfully sucked the very soul out of my body. I sincerely wish I could have that time back. :P Our goals with raids are two-fold. 1) More fun, less soul-sucking. 2) If people don't want to engage in even potentially soul-sucking behavior, there will be plenty of other options. This isn't a reaction to external pressures, this is a natural evolution of development. We've made a lot of fun, scripted single-group encounters, and it wasn't a big shift to make a few fun, scripted multi-group encounters. That's all we're talking about here. I can't necessarily convince you that the sky isn't falling, but please note the lack of craters. Re: Oh, a-Raiding We Will Go (Dev Diary) Posted by: Amlug on August 1, 2006 Quote:
No, raids are a part of the end game. There are many ways to get high level XP. Quote:
Basically, yes. Re: Oh, a-Raiding We Will Go (Dev Diary) Posted by: Amlug on August 1, 2006 Let me try to address a very well thought-out and good post. Quote:
Our purpose of the diary is to have a centrally located information depot so people can find out the basics of raids easily. The nitty-gritty comes here! Quote:
We are most definitely considering other rewards for doing raids. Personally, I want all players to feel like they did something great when going through a raid. Quote:
Unique refers to the only place you can get said sword, armor, etc. We use comparable to say that while you may not be able to get the exact +400 uber sword of death that you can get in a Raid, you might get a +410 uber sword of smiting. And yes, crafters should be able to make some darn cool stuff... Quote:
Some raids will require 24 people, yes. Some will not. We want everyone to find a place in Middle-earth. Quote:
This is a pretty cool idea, imho. Quote:
This is something we are working on, yes. Re: Oh, a-Raiding We Will Go (Dev Diary) Posted by: Amlug on August 1, 2006 Quote:
While I don't want to spoil the fun and surprises of the Raid bosses, we are most definitely attempting lore appropriate bosses. We are not oversizing orcs. No giant evil hobbits either! Quote:
One of our goals with our major instances and raids is to make them somewhat manageable in terms of time. With lower level instances, we try to carve up the experiences into smaller chunks of time (read: 1-2 hours) that can be tackled with multiple forays into the instance. That being said, the raids are clearly a little bit longer but we are still trying to keep it to smaller chunks of time rather than the eight hour long crawls. Players can of course do the whole thing in one shot, and yes, that would take some time. Re: My thoughts on LotrO Posted by: Keth on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Trin Storm Two points:
Re: Why Raiding Now? A Paranoid Theory. Posted by: Orion on July 12, 2006 Quashing this now! Raids are part of the various activities that we hope to offer in the end-game. They are not "cheap and easy" content. (I assure you, from a design perspective, they are neither cheap nor easy.) No reason for the paranoia, move along. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 12, 2006 A lot of concern cropped up overnight about this affecting world lore. I really want to hammer this one home. The lore of the world is incredibly important to all of us! We are focused on ensuring that the lore is not compromised. The addition of raids will not trump our attention to maintaining the lore of Middle-earth. It must exist within the context of the world and the story. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 Ep & Aquilla, Raids, like standard group instances, would be repeatable. Though the methods are unresolved the thought is that you could do part of the raid, take an extended break and then return to it within a time frame. In essence, part a, then part b and finally part c for multi-step raids. Hope that clears it up. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 Unthor, We are looking for ways to allow players to re-enter a raid after completing sections; in essence allowing you to work your way through a raid at a pace which suits your play-time. Again, more on this as the information becomes available. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 Aquilla, The world is still about 10-20% instanced, even with raids. No explorable territory was harmed in the creation of raids. At this time. Re: Are you afraid of the RAID? Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 11, 2006 It seems to me like a matter of perspective in some respects. Why are you helping your neighbor the Bolger mend his fence? Because you want to help him out or because he promised you some coins if you would? Receiving a reward on a raid is similar - are you joining with your fellows to make Middle-earth safer, or are you coveting the riches you stand to receive? A true hero of Middle-earth is doing it for his neighbor, the Bolger. MoL Re: Are you afraid of the RAID? Posted by: MadeOfLions on July 11, 2006 I really enjoy the GURPS system, but there's something worth remembering about it - the sum of the Advantages, Disadvantages, and Skills that your character has add up to a figure sometimes referred to as your power level. My power level might be 150, meaning that that sum adds up to 150 points. So you don't strictly have a 'character level' in GURPS, but there is still a fairly objective way of measuring your power relative to other characters. I'm sure that a dedicated role-playing guild could have an absolute blast with the raid concept, by the way. These are epic challenges (very high power level, to continue the GURPS metaphor), and what could be more lore-appropriate than the Free Peoples banding together to combat great evil? MoL Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 A recurring question has been, 'Why raids?' It's a fairly simple answer. Some people enjoy them. Certainly not everyone is going to be interested in a raid, certainly not everyone is going to be interested in Role-playing. It's a choice. Our goal is to make it choice, an option to pursue or not pursue at 'Elder' levels. Raids can be fun. Raids can be interesting and inspiring and hard! Raids can also be a pain in the patootey! Our goal is to make this one aspect of Elder Play that is available to players when they feel they have conquered all that there is to be offered. Raids may be simple in nature by way of a siege, or invading a stronghold against a superior foe or driving off a great evil. What they will share is a multiple group dynamic. This is a preliminary sketch of things to come. We will be posting more as time progresses. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Khafar Going to stop answering this one with this third mentioning, twenty-four is the maximum Raid size at the current time. Time investment is important to us all. We are currently discussing the possibilities available to us and ultimately to players for Raid instances. If all goes well, they will follow a model that will allow players to attempt the Raids at their own pace. (More on this later, Amlug is writing his heart out!) Loot is important. Everyone who makes these games understands this point. Keeping up with the Joneses is a primary goal of most people. Raids should address loot. Will you need to do them over and over, nope. (Of course, you never really need to do something over and over anyway.) Loot will drop and some will be rarer than others, you may need to run the Raid multiple times to get the item that you want. Our goal is to make the acquisition of that loot inconsequential to the experience of going through the content. If the Raid becomes all about the loot...we failed somewhere. Again, there will be comparable loot available through the game. Raids, however, may offer some unique pieces. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 Quote:
At this time, raid will require multiple fellowships. We are not currently considering raids requiring more than twenty-four, though it may change in the future depending on demand. On the second point, one of the things that we want to address is the necessity of classes. We are gamers, we play these games and we know that every class should have some form of relevance in a raid. Being on the outside looking in while the fun is going...is no fun! I like monkies! Actually, I prefer Apes, but it is true. I have a gorilla at my desk - Bobo - and I like monkies; but like you, I wouldn't raid with him. Re: As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 Quote:
At this time, we are focusing on making a smaller number of creatures available at any time. The reasons for this are multi-fold, primary reasons below. 1) Performance: There is nothing worse to me than entering a location and watching the game shift to still-life photos. With a max number of avatars on screen and a multitude of creatures, not including decoration, you can quickly stress systems and make the experience unplayable. We want people that will enjoy these experiences to be able to enjoy them. 2) Management: Our first attempt (by Amlug; who will soon have a Dev Diary on this subject) includes a great number of creatures. In our play through we discovered that managing all players and targets was unruly. As a result we opted to tweak the numbers downward, slightly. While nothing is set in stone it appears as though we will be moving to smaller numbers of creatures on screen at any given time. However, the scope of the Raid instances will still be vast! As Mentioned Last Evening: Raids Posted by: Orion on July 11, 2006 ‘Oh boy!’ It’s a catch phrase from one of my favorite TV shows of all time; Quantum Leap. Sam Beckett, the main character, would say this when he realized that he had leapt into a difficult situation. See, Sam was a time-traveler who fixed wrongs by helping people who needed the help. I kept hoping that Sam was going to leap into me and fix my little conundrum; alas. A few months ago I penned my first Dev Diary stating that we were solo friendly (we still are), I also stated that there would be group instances (still there!) and I also said of raids, ‘At this time, the answer is no.’ (Oh boy!). Development is mercurial; what is true one day may not necessarily be true the next. Over the past few months we have mentioned other major changes and now, I must tell you that we will have raids in Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar. What a difference four months can make. Great! Now the game is for hardcore raiders only, right? No way! The only change is that there will be raids. We’re not changing the focus of the game, nor are we making this the only avenue of an end-game or unique treasure. Treasure will still drop outside of raids that are comparable. Okay, but that means that you’ll have to raid. Again, no way! Raids will be tangential to the main storylines, offer alternative game-play and be available to players who enjoy them. We are well aware that not everyone enjoys raiding and we are still dedicated to keeping the main storylines out of raids. We will not force players to raid. I bet you need 40 to raid. Nope. Currently, raids are slated for twenty-four people maximums. While this number is mutable downward, there are no plans to increase that number at the top end. (With that stated, things can change; but we are all well aware of how difficult it is to organize large groups of people. There is an adage about ‘herding cats’.) So this is your answer to Endgame. Raids are part of the answer to endgame as they are an option. They are not the only answer. More information will be available as it is ready for dissemination. When will we learn more about Raids? There will be a more in-depth look at raids, including some video from our first play-through in the coming days. No guarantees, but likely within the next few weeks. RoleplayingRe: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
It's a tricky truth - developers can't make people roleplay. We can give players some tools, (emotes, crafting, farming, "toy" items like non-combat pets, etc.) but we can't make players do it! So will there be lots of tools? I think there's a good amount. Will there be a lot of roleplaying? Ask your fellow players. Spawn RatesRe: Respawn Rates Posted by: Scenario on July 7, 2006 Landscape refresh times are something we've revised a few times now trying to find a duration of time that feels good. Part of the balance there is providing landscape encounters that refresh fast enough so that you all (aka - the players) will be able to find beasts and brigands alike to hunt, while not having them return so quickly that there is no breathing room in between fights. We also have to keep in mind player density within an area while deciding on the refresh timers as well as encounter density. There are some exceptions. You may find some landscape quest targets refresh a bit faster than normal (because waiting in line for a specific kill target or for a satchel on the ground isn't always fun) and some that have refresh times that are significantly longer than normal as well (more on those guys at a later time). That said, what we've got going for landscape encounters is feeling pretty good right now as far as refresh times go, but well see how well that holds up when we get a good number of people adventuring in the world. SurnamesRe: Good News about Surnames Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmicAir No special characters, even though it would be technically more accurate. Would make a lot of gameplay functions (tells, group invites, /who) a lot more difficult for the average player. And yes, names are unique per server. Re: Last Names Posted by: Keth on August 4, 2006 Undetermined at this time. We've talked about it, and talked about it being a perk of reaching a certain level, but it's been nothing more than talk at the moment. System RequirementsRe: The Inaugural Orion Q&A Posted by: Orion on August 29, 2006 Quote:
Ooo, good question... So...at home I am running a really low-end system. I have an AMD 64 2000+ with 1 gig of ram and an ATI 1600 AGP! Yes...agp...I'll be upgrading eventually...from what I have seen, the game runs smooth as butter! Not sure what I would compare it too...I can run most MMOs without difficulty and I play or have played them all. Does that help? I hope so. TitlesRe: Titles Posted by: Scenario on September 24, 2006 Titles can be achieved through the Accomplishment and Crafting systems. From what I've seen so far, we've got a nice mix of titles available. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Orion on July 17, 2006 Sywyn, No information on surnames as of yet, but there will be titles. TraitsRe: Mithril_Miser Question Night II - Gondorian Boogaloo Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 2, 2006 Quote:
Man, I sure hope so. If not, me and my guys have screwed up, because that's the goal of the system. TravelRe: Realistic travel - no gating Posted by: Keth on July 5, 2006 Good gravy this thread got long! Anyway, you probably already know that "fast track" routes across the world will be unlocked after you travel there first on foot. We are still determining how long the fast route will take you, but our goal is for even the fast track to take time and not just be an instaneous transport. Obviously, teleports cast by players or other recall abilities don't work in Tolkien's world, so I wouldn't expect them to show up. Not unless we find a good, lore based reason for this "teleport" to happen. As a side point, I should mention that entering our quest instances is in many cases like teleporting, since you are speaking to an NPC who you accompany into the instance. In those cases though, we excuse the teleport by saying you travelled with the NPC to the new location. The Weathertop experience from E3 is an example of this, although we aren't planning on teleporting you to the other side of the world. Re: Realistic travel - no gating Posted by: Keth onn July 5, 2006 Well, as I mentioned, you aren't being teleported from, say, the Prancing Pony to Weathertop, as was shown in the E3 demo. In general, we handle entering an instance in one of two ways: In the case of the NPC travel, it is usually to a very close location, almost always in the same division of that region. (A region would be Bree-land, a division would be the Chetwood.) Also, it is entirely possible that you visited that part of the division already, but you've visited the non-instanced version of the landscape. In these cases, we are doing an "overlay" on the world. In that overlay we take that section of the world, define boundaries for where the instance exists, and do instanced content there. Re: Realistic travel - no gating Posted by: Keth on July 5, 2006 Yes, I mentioned that in a later post. Instances almost always take place in areas you can access in the public space. The instance is simply an overlay on the public space. UIRe: You can sit on chairs! Posted by: Patience on December 12, 2006 Okay, we will do speech bubbles. And we will make them toggleable. (I'm not kidding. Chat bubbles were recently introduced into the game, and you can toggle them. ) Re: Post here if you want a seperate chat channel for recruiting tanks, minstrels, et Posted by: Scenario on August 14, 2006 There is an LFG chat channel available. We also have a LFG panel so players can flag themselves as "Looking For Group" and leave comments as to what they are looking for. Re: Hmmm... no radar? Posted by: Scenario on August 4, 2006 Yes, there is a radar disk. It can be toggled on and off (I have it bound to F2 and only have it on when I am trying to turn in quests to NPCs). The amount of information it displays can be customized to a degree. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to - but not everyone wants to operate without it (I've had guildmates in other games get quite lost without their radar). It was not enabled in the E3 builds because it wasn't in a state we were comfortable showing. Since then it has gone through great improvements, both in functionality and design. Quote:
We have some points where similar text appears, but those are largely quest or accomplishment driven color texts. Various TopicsRe: Weather, Apperance & Music. Posted by: October on August 22, 2006 Yes, there will be snow, rain, etc. As far as seasons go, we try to represent each region as Tolkien describes it, so you won't find changing seasons, but different areas will have different seasonal representations. And yes, higher elevations will have snow. As I said before, we have long hair, but nothing longer than shoulder length. The issue with how long hair would interact with the cloaks is the primary reason for that. Re: Weather, Apperance & Music. Posted by: October on August 21, 2006 Quote:
1. I'm not a fan of day/night cycles that are too long because if you only have a couple of hours to play, you could spend the entire time at night... also, do you really want to spend 2 or 3 hours waiting for sunset for Wights to come out? Yes, there is weather. 2. Yes, hair comes in a variety of lengths and styles... nothing past the shoulders, though. 3. Yes, we have GREAT music! Re: Gandalf vs. Voltron (Dev Diary) Posted by: Mithril_Miser on August 16, 2006 Quote:
Buffs, basically. Long-term buffs that in some cases approximate old-UO-style "power hour" gameplay. I know I learn better on a full stomach, don't you? Quote:
No arrows, though there will likely be consumables for "special shots." Items will need repair, though that's done by vendors, not crafters. Jewellry can enhance all sorts of things. Quote:
This sort of speaks to a lot of questions - why these combinations? Why not others? Why not just let people pick freely? Valid questions, and I'll explain my reasoning (though likely not to everyone's satisfaction.) There's an extra Farmer in the list mainly because Farming is fun, and it produces pipeweed. There's an extra Tailor in the list because at earlier levels, before classes gain their ultimate armor proficiencies, Tailor provides a lot of the armor that people are going to be looking for. And some of the choices? They're chosen with the goal of creating tighter trading circles amongst the professions. I'm on the fence about creating one more Scholar-focused Vocation with different secondaries. The others I'm pretty confident will play out well. Quote:
No. Advancing each Profession is indepenent, and each Vocation has one production profession that they can basically advance to the end without any help. But, you get an extra profession that you can advance or not, depending on how much you want to pursue it. Re: Ambiguous or otherwise? Posted by: Scenario on August 4, 2006 Quote:
We are using both proximity aggro and line-of-site aggro. If you are within a mobs LOS and within its aggro range, it will react to you. However, things like trees, rocks, walls, etc can provide you cover while navigating the world. If you are wary of wandering and patrols, you may find that you can sneak around certain areas undetected (though the likeliness of this depends on how the area is set up). Quote:
Technically, such an ambush would be possible regardless of whether or not there are rocks (or other cover around) since the focus of those Orcs would be the puller and not the rest of the party. Granted, laying an ambush allows your party some tactical advantages, allowing traps to be set and those capable of take advantage of position to better prepare for a fight. Quote:
Being sneaky is part of what the Burglar is about. They have their own methods of approaching an area and obscuring their presence (it is at this point that the hot potato is passed on to Game Systems - I just play they class, I don't make it ) Re: 1.000's of questions to ask about LOTRO Posted by: Orion on July 25, 2006 Quote:
Instancing allows us to create highly scripted and balanced quests for players. Typically, they are meant for fellowships though it will likely be possible for solo players to wander into these spaces. (Though it may be possible, it will likely never be advised.) Quests, on the other hand, will be designed for solo and group play. There are currently no fellowship/solo restrictions on quests. We will advise players where groups may prove beneficial. Quote:
The statement that 20% of the game would be instanced was in regard to landmass. Again, instances are not the only form of quests, not all instances are quests. Quote:
Originally Posted by Lykke I'll do my best trying to answer this one. We are trying to make quests available throughout the game. We are also making an attempt to provide enough guidance to make the quests enjoyable, without becoming too simplistic. As far as the experience for each user... that is entirely up to them. Quote:
Level 50 is the current slated level cap. Yes there are other avenues of advancement. Quote:
Question 1: Not my area of expertise, I am afraid. Question 2: In time, we'll explain more about PvP; keep an eye on the PvP boards for information. Question 3: Quest will not be the only way to acquire "loot". Quote:
These are great questions! I think I smell the beginning of another dev diary. I'll make certain that Mithril_Miser sees this. Thanks for the post Lykke, There are bundle of great questions in here. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Scenario on July 16, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Camber Largely, these are being represented by objects that are unique looking. Not neccessarily cartoony or exaggerated, but distinct and noticable. Rowan Branches, for example, look different from the rest of the foliage in the area to make them visually stand out, while still falling within our art direction. Also, you will notice mouse over changes in your cursor and if you have name labels toggled on, you will be able to see the name of the item hovering above it. Quote:
Originally Posted by Bart Our environmental artists and worldbuilders layout a series of references images and concept art and build areas based off those. Terrain textures, trees and frills are designed around the reference and concept pieces. For towns, we typically decide on a theme for the town and build the town around that theme. For example - Scary is a quarry town, so much of the decoration is themed around that. The buildings look more run down than a normal "plaster and a hill" hobbit hole and stacks of quarried rock lay around the entire town. Quote:
Originally Posted by Link5935 There is a period of time in which you lay incapcitated on the ground (you can chose to skip the timer and go to a Rally Point). During that time, you may be revived. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellelohtar Some cloaks are hoods up, some are hoods down. Can't toggle it, though. I'm going to defer on the starting location question due to not being a content/world building guy. Not positive, but I'm pretty sure all elves start in Ered Luin. Don't quote me, though. Re: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: Mithril_Miser on July 14, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellelohtar The racial crafting traits are things we've talked a bunch about, but it's not in right now. I'm going to give that one an "unlikely for ship" answer. Hairstyles are all race-specific, and range from bald to a bit past shoulder-length. No elven buzz cuts. Re: A Plea for Low-Loot, Low-Magic, Low-PvP, High-Lore LOTRO Posted by: Amlug on July 14, 2006 Quote:
I totally agree with this. And this can be said for any feature in any game. We are doing our best not to badly design anything. We want the raids to be there for those who wish to play them and not to be a problem for those who don't. Take crafting as an example. Crafting is a system (if designed well) that exists and does not harm the experience for the players who don't want to craft. In fact, it helps the non-crafters a great deal since they can easily get better stuff. To me, we want raids to be very similar in style: Here's something great to do at the end of the game and experience if you like it and, if not, then here's some other great things to do. Re: My thoughts on LotrO Posted by: Keth on July 14, 2006 I'll admit it, I want everyone to be happy, to have everyone like Turbine and, more importantly, me. However, my experiences as both a player and a developer have shown me that is a difficult thing to do. I will though try to assuage some fears.
To throw in my two cents, I'm personally really happy that we are giving some attention to the Elder Game at this point in the development of the game. Why is that? Because it means we feel pretty comfortable with our core game. Sure, there's a lot of work left to do, but the design feels solid and now we can focus on where the game is going to go as your character levels. Voice ChatRe: Intigrated voice? Posted by: Keth on July 17, 2006 Integrated voice chat is already in the game for fellowships, and it is planned to be expanded to raid groups, such that the one managing the raid and whoever he determines can speak on it as well. WeaponsRe: To All Those Blue Names Popping Up.. Posted by: October on July 15, 2006 Quote:
Originally Posted by Kak Yes, we have hammers and they are, generally speaking, much more on the realistic side than the Looney-Tunes-style-mallet side. Re: Guns! Posted by: Keth on July 7, 2006 We will have Crossbows in-game, although they will be extremely rare and hard for players to find. As for guns, obviously we won't have them. But if you look at the Battle for Helm's Deep, it does appear Saruman used some sort of explosive against the Deeping Wall, (Aragorn called it the "fire of Orthanc") so something like that would not be entirely out of place in the game. It would be rare though, and likely tied to Saruman in some fashion. Re: Guns! Posted by: Keth on July 7, 2006 That's a good point, and something we are constantly trying to be conscious of throughout the game. We always try to show a sharp divide between the actions the players are allowed and the bad guys. Window ModeRe: Question for the makers... Posted by: Scenario on July 16, 2006 Currently, the game client does support windowed mode. WorldRe: World size question Posted by: Orion on January 10, 2007 No real details on the world-size, just that 30,000 square miles is a mis-quote. Sorry for the confusion. Re: Portal Storms Posted by: Corsair on November 11, 2006 Oh, you mean the Dark Clouds From Mount Doom (tm) that collect wherever heroes gather? No, seriously, no portal storms, nor anything with similar effects. They made me sad too. Regular old non-quest-specific interiors are not instanced, by the way, there's not much point to saying "Meet me at the Prancing Pony" and discovering you're in a completely different inn from the rest of your friends. Re: How are they going to handle the Edge of the World? Posted by: Corsair on August 3, 2006 Haha, I just found a place not in the game-world proper but in a sort of sandbox area where someone was making some high mountains. Really high mountains. Then their test mountain area just stopped, so there was a clifftop with an immense (mile-high?) drop straight down to the default lawn beneath. Kind of what you might imagine the edge of the world to look like. Took quite a while to fall when I jumped off. Watch that first step.... But yes, of course most of the edges of the world will be blocked by conventional impassable terrain, not by magic glowing f/x walls or infinite drops. Sometimes there will be an artificial barrier, as there is a mountain pass with a gate that has been (temporarily) barred by friendly NPCs or which has rock walls that have been collapsed by evil hill-men, or whatever, other times there will just be some hills on that blank area of the map that you can't cross, and if you try to go around them you come to a rushing river on that side and canyon on that other side, or however the worldbuilders choose to deal with any given border situation. Re: What kind of world is LOTRO? Posted by: Scenario on July 11, 2006 The vast majority of our world is seamless. You can run from the Shire all the way to Angmar without having to see a single loading screen if you desire. Our building and dungeon interiors still require a door, largely out of asset loading concerns (in a tavern, for example, this would include loading all the NPCs, Vendors, decorative assets, the interior itself, and other players). Instances do exist, however the space they take up is much less compared to the rest of the non-instanced landscape.
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