Uhhh you guys DO realize that they could have made this content a while ago, and just saved it for now and say "look how hard we work, already new zones! buy our game!". Don't be suckered too quickly into things people, think first.
Of course this is the case; what you think this stuff is coded by three devs in their basements over a weekend?
The *ideal* situation would be that not only did they finish the first expansion well in advance but are done with and holding the one after it also and are now hard at work on the third. You make it sound like having the time to thoroughly test, refine, and properly release new content is somehow bad.
The single biggest problem with the MMO market is companies trying to do to much and end up rushing out buggy half finished products and expansions, look at the resent release of Vanguard if you need a reminder. If Turbine is able to get ahead of that curve and consistently release stable , polished content that alone would be an innovation in the current market.
I have seen a lot of new area added since November. Yesterday I was up in the eastern Bree fields/ Upper Chetwood and ran over and looked off the mountain and lo and behold there was Archet . I don't forsee me getting bored anytime soon, and am in a great guild with a lot of mature people. I can see me playing the game 5 years easy.
Uhhh you guys DO realize that they could have made this content a while ago, and just saved it for now and say "look how hard we work, already new zones! buy our game!". Don't be suckered too quickly into things people, think first.
Of course the update was being worked on long ago. But like others have said, Turbine is doing their best not to introduce new content without thorough testing so the game remains polished. Even with all these pre-cautions there will be bugs. The point is, Turbine's been working on lots of content we haven't seen. All MMOs are like that. There's tons of stuff the devs have that's not ready for the live servers. Some may never show up.
But Turbine has a gameplan. This company is good with updates. My guess is they already have an update schedule for the next couple of years at least. I'm not saying they'll meet the schedule but at least they have a organized plan to achieve it. This is totally contrary to Vanguard who are scrambling to fix bugs and performance that should have been taken care of a year ago.
Sigil right now is just patching in a haphazard way. They are dropping content without thorough testing because they know players are crying for high end content. Want a different example? City of Heroes. CoH didn't have level 41-50 content at launch but they didn't introduce a couple of quests here and there. They had one big update a few months later that covered 41-50. They weren't panicking and worked with their planned schedule allowing them to test their content before release.
Sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who has played ddo knows that even though they send out these frequent updates, they are usually followed by either a rollback, a hotfix with the server being down for 4 hours or more, or quests that they just added in get closed right away due to unforseen bugs. One of these scenarios happened with EVERY content update in ddo, and I don't feel like lotr will have a different fate.
Sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who has played ddo knows that even though they send out these frequent updates, they are usually followed by either a rollback, a hotfix with the server being down for 4 hours or more, or quests that they just added in get closed right away due to unforseen bugs. One of these scenarios happened with EVERY content update in ddo, and I don't feel like lotr will have a different fate.
All of which would be the product of to short a development cycle. So which is it they have been sitting on the content or they are pushing it out asap, because you cannot have it both ways.
Sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who has played ddo knows that even though they send out these frequent updates, they are usually followed by either a rollback, a hotfix with the server being down for 4 hours or more, or quests that they just added in get closed right away due to unforseen bugs. One of these scenarios happened with EVERY content update in ddo, and I don't feel like lotr will have a different fate.
DDO was released too early and has only been out roughly a year? Your experience is the result of attempts to fix a live game that wasn't ready to be released to start with IMO.
I base my conclusion on nearly 5 years of experience with Turbine in AC1, a game that has been going for over 7 years now.
In that nearly 5 years I played, I can only think of a handful of times there was need for a rollback, hotfix, or extended downtime. They happen and are part of the MMO landscape as nothing is perfect.
LotRo seems to be a stable game and Turbine seems to have a good handle on it. I expect good things to come.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
Sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who has played ddo knows that even though they send out these frequent updates, they are usually followed by either a rollback, a hotfix with the server being down for 4 hours or more, or quests that they just added in get closed right away due to unforseen bugs. One of these scenarios happened with EVERY content update in ddo, and I don't feel like lotr will have a different fate.
All of which would be the product of to short a development cycle. So which is it they have been sitting on the content or they are pushing it out asap, because you cannot have it both ways.
/smack down
By the way, Gangster described just about every MMO I have ever played--see the list below! Patches come out, and what 1000 people failed to find on test servers are revealed when 200,000 playrers are turned loose. It is simply a matter of scale.
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who has played ddo knows that even though they send out these frequent updates, they are usually followed by either a rollback, a hotfix with the server being down for 4 hours or more, or quests that they just added in get closed right away due to unforseen bugs. One of these scenarios happened with EVERY content update in ddo, and I don't feel like lotr will have a different fate.
All of which would be the product of to short a development cycle. So which is it they have been sitting on the content or they are pushing it out asap, because you cannot have it both ways.
/smack down
By the way, Gangster described just about every MMO I have ever played--see the list below! Patches come out, and what 1000 people failed to find on test servers are revealed when 200,000 playrers are turned loose. It is simply a matter of scale.
Of course many mmos have bugs at patch or content releases, but you guys thinking that this content will be flawless is just being very naive. I know you want this game to succeed, but keeping away from these issues will destroy any fun for this game for you guys. And ddo being pushed early is true, but content modules 4 months later still buggy and quests dont work? Thats not because of short development cycle anymore.
Of course many mmos have bugs at patch or content releases, but you guys thinking that this content will be flawless is just being very naive. I know you want this game to succeed, but keeping away from these issues will destroy any fun for this game for you guys. And ddo being pushed early is true, but content modules 4 months later still buggy and quests dont work? Thats not because of short development cycle anymore.
I have never said, nor do I expect, LoTR or its expansions to be flawless. No MMO has ever been flawless and I suspect none ever will be. LoTR’s bug though are so far below my threshold of pain for me that I consider it to be as “bugless” as these games are ever likely to get. I have been testing/playing for months now and I have not crashed out of it once or encountered any but the most minor bugs, that to me is extremely impressive.
When Turbine released AC2 in a broken state I did not buy it. When they released DDO in a state that was just no fun I did not buy it. Now that they have made a great game I am buying it.
Sorry to break it to you guys, but anyone who has played ddo knows that even though they send out these frequent updates, they are usually followed by either a rollback, a hotfix with the server being down for 4 hours or more, or quests that they just added in get closed right away due to unforseen bugs. One of these scenarios happened with EVERY content update in ddo, and I don't feel like lotr will have a different fate.
All of which would be the product of to short a development cycle. So which is it they have been sitting on the content or they are pushing it out asap, because you cannot have it both ways.
/smack down
By the way, Gangster described just about every MMO I have ever played--see the list below! Patches come out, and what 1000 people failed to find on test servers are revealed when 200,000 playrers are turned loose. It is simply a matter of scale.
Of course many mmos have bugs at patch or content releases, but you guys thinking that this content will be flawless is just being very naive. I know you want this game to succeed, but keeping away from these issues will destroy any fun for this game for you guys. And ddo being pushed early is true, but content modules 4 months later still buggy and quests dont work? Thats not because of short development cycle anymore.
Where did I say the patches will be flawless? In fact, didn't I just say you described every MMO I've ever played? Every MMO I've ever played includes, well, every MMO I've played--that means LOTRO too. There will be missed bugs that only the scale of 200k-300k + players will bring out.
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
"Raid in the Battle for Helegrod " Any word on what this means ? Are they talking about some contrived indoor dungeon raid (same old standard raid fare), or something more fun like a massive outdoor npc battle the players can take part in?
Although I played beta but did not decide to buy the game mainly for the reason the game itself is not my style. I believe Turbine has a winner here regardless of Lotr shortcomings, and I am glad they're following Blizzard in terms of Polish and free content. Polish and free content is what gets the Subs, look at WOW they addded a ton of free content and kept releasing it for free for years before they decided to Release their first expansion.
That's the way to go good job Turbine, continue on the right path; release more Middle earth zones and forget about Expansions for a long while; don't take tips from SOE they don't know shit. Expansions make the game less and less accessible to new players, but free content and additions to the game makes it easy for people to sub cause they don't have to worry about spending $50 on game plus another $200 on expansions.
"Raid in the Battle for Helegrod " Any word on what this means ? Are they talking about some contrived indoor dungeon raid (same old standard raid fare), or something more fun like a massive outdoor npc battle the players can take part in?
Does no one know ?
Those who really know aren't really allowed to talk about it.
However, in closed beta I found what I believe to be the entrance to Helegrod. From the looks of it it's outdoor, or at least a good bit of it, takes place outdoors. (also judging from some really old beta1 videos of the place when people could sneak into the raid instance) I don't know if the youtube video is still there but you used to be able to find it by searching for "lotro raiding".
I can shed some more light on probably the most difficult of 6 man instances. Carn Dum is a Hillman (angmariam) city, it's absolutely huge. We saw very little, but I will say it's very impressive. It's also the first time I've seen a 6 man instance with a raid lock timer. You have a couple days to complete the instance is so big. Early estimates say it dwarfs Karazhan.
They certainly are pushing the punch and pie early. 9.99$ Subscription available Free Early surprise Update Very few bugs Polished Free Russian Wives It has everything
Do I get the Russian wife with the Collector's Edition?
I guess this shoots the trolls argument that the world is too small right in the ass doesn't it LOL
Ok... so they haven't "finished" the world so they will finish is later?
Back to VG... sorry to about that No need to be sorry. I love the way Turbine is doing it. make a secton, ensure it is pretty much bug free and has enough content then move on to another section and rinse and repeat. Ensures that LoTRO players have a steady supply of fresh content as they level up and it beats the hell out of making a big empty buggy world like Sigil did. Maybe if McQuaid ever gets a chance to make another MMORPG after the Vanguard catastrophe he might want to use LoTRO as a model to follow.
Whats most amazing about this is...no one expected anything like this so early, I am actually impressed.
What's MOST amazing about this is that the Devs REPEATEDLY stated officially that there would be a MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE at the end of the first month of Retail Release ... YET somebody, somehow STILL claims that "no one expected anything like this so early."
Whats most amazing about this is...no one expected anything like this so early, I am actually impressed.
What's MOST amazing about this is that the Devs REPEATEDLY stated officially that there would be a MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE at the end of the first month of Retail Release ... YET somebody, somehow STILL claims that "no one expected anything like this so early."
??? !!!
Well, it is hard to believe considering how many other MMO companies oerate these days. I don't blame people for doubting.
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
The game(open beta) was ok, the only thing that bored me was no pvp and the combat system. I mean hell any game that is boring during free open beta play, is not worth me buying. But for people who like to role play and bake pies and shiat It might be worth paying for.
I guess this shoots the trolls argument that the world is too small right in the ass doesn't it LOL
Ok... so they haven't "finished" the world so they will finish is later?
Back to VG... sorry to about that
No need to be sorry. I love the way Turbine is doing it.make a secton, ensure it is pretty much bug free and has enough content then move on to another section and rinse and repeat. Ensures that LoTRO players have a steady supply of fresh content as they level up and it beats the hell out of making a big empty buggy world like Sigil did. Maybe if McQuaid ever gets a chance to make another MMORPG after the Vanguard catastrophe he might want to use LoTRO as a model to follow.
Thats exactly how every zone is played in the game, move to another section do the delivery or kill X quests, lvl then move on to the next section, rins and repeat. No wonder some sections are bug free, they are just a copy of a "previous" section with other textures and text.
Thats exactly how every zone is played in the game, move to another section do the delivery or kill X quests, lvl then move on to the next section, rins and repeat. No wonder some sections are bug free, they are just a copy of a "previous" section with other textures and text.
I'm not sure how many mmos you've played, but that's how most of them are.
Thats exactly how every zone is played in the game, move to another section do the delivery or kill X quests, lvl then move on to the next section, rins and repeat. No wonder some sections are bug free, they are just a copy of a "previous" section with other textures and text.
I'm not sure how many mmos you've played, but that's how most of them are.
Many.
By adding more depth and complexity, ie offering more things to do then to just rins and repeat missions,
I guess this shoots the trolls argument that the world is too small right in the ass doesn't it LOL
Ok... so they haven't "finished" the world so they will finish is later?
Back to VG... sorry to about that No need to be sorry. I love the way Turbine is doing it.make a secton, ensure it is pretty much bug free and has enough content then move on to another section and rinse and repeat. Ensures that LoTRO players have a steady supply of fresh content as they level up and it beats the hell out of making a big empty buggy world like Sigil did. Maybe if McQuaid ever gets a chance to make another MMORPG after the Vanguard catastrophe he might want to use LoTRO as a model to follow.Thats exactly how every zone is played in the game, move to another section do the delivery or kill X quests, lvl then move on to the next section, rins and repeat. No wonder some sections are bug free, they are just a copy of a "previous" section with other textures and text.
Nope Turbine did it right, make a section , polish it to where it is FUN to play, stuff it with content till it is bulging at he seams with things to do and goodies to grab then add another section. If you think that was a bad way of doing it then wait till the sales figures are released and see who had the right way of doing things. Let the gamers decide and vote with their credit cards. Last one to the cash register loses.
Comments
The *ideal* situation would be that not only did they finish the first expansion well in advance but are done with and holding the one after it also and are now hard at work on the third. You make it sound like having the time to thoroughly test, refine, and properly release new content is somehow bad.
The single biggest problem with the MMO market is companies trying to do to much and end up rushing out buggy half finished products and expansions, look at the resent release of Vanguard if you need a reminder. If Turbine is able to get ahead of that curve and consistently release stable , polished content that alone would be an innovation in the current market.
I miss DAoC
But Turbine has a gameplan. This company is good with updates. My guess is they already have an update schedule for the next couple of years at least. I'm not saying they'll meet the schedule but at least they have a organized plan to achieve it. This is totally contrary to Vanguard who are scrambling to fix bugs and performance that should have been taken care of a year ago.
Sigil right now is just patching in a haphazard way. They are dropping content without thorough testing because they know players are crying for high end content. Want a different example? City of Heroes. CoH didn't have level 41-50 content at launch but they didn't introduce a couple of quests here and there. They had one big update a few months later that covered 41-50. They weren't panicking and worked with their planned schedule allowing them to test their content before release.
DDO was released too early and has only been out roughly a year? Your experience is the result of attempts to fix a live game that wasn't ready to be released to start with IMO.
I base my conclusion on nearly 5 years of experience with Turbine in AC1, a game that has been going for over 7 years now.
In that nearly 5 years I played, I can only think of a handful of times there was need for a rollback, hotfix, or extended downtime. They happen and are part of the MMO landscape as nothing is perfect.
LotRo seems to be a stable game and Turbine seems to have a good handle on it. I expect good things to come.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
/smack down
By the way, Gangster described just about every MMO I have ever played--see the list below! Patches come out, and what 1000 people failed to find on test servers are revealed when 200,000 playrers are turned loose. It is simply a matter of scale.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
/smack down
By the way, Gangster described just about every MMO I have ever played--see the list below! Patches come out, and what 1000 people failed to find on test servers are revealed when 200,000 playrers are turned loose. It is simply a matter of scale.
Of course many mmos have bugs at patch or content releases, but you guys thinking that this content will be flawless is just being very naive. I know you want this game to succeed, but keeping away from these issues will destroy any fun for this game for you guys. And ddo being pushed early is true, but content modules 4 months later still buggy and quests dont work? Thats not because of short development cycle anymore.
When Turbine released AC2 in a broken state I did not buy it. When they released DDO in a state that was just no fun I did not buy it. Now that they have made a great game I am buying it.
/smack down
By the way, Gangster described just about every MMO I have ever played--see the list below! Patches come out, and what 1000 people failed to find on test servers are revealed when 200,000 playrers are turned loose. It is simply a matter of scale.
Of course many mmos have bugs at patch or content releases, but you guys thinking that this content will be flawless is just being very naive. I know you want this game to succeed, but keeping away from these issues will destroy any fun for this game for you guys. And ddo being pushed early is true, but content modules 4 months later still buggy and quests dont work? Thats not because of short development cycle anymore.
Where did I say the patches will be flawless? In fact, didn't I just say you described every MMO I've ever played? Every MMO I've ever played includes, well, every MMO I've played--that means LOTRO too. There will be missed bugs that only the scale of 200k-300k + players will bring out.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
Well ?
Does no one know ?
Although I played beta but did not decide to buy the game mainly for the reason the game itself is not my style. I believe Turbine has a winner here regardless of Lotr shortcomings, and I am glad they're following Blizzard in terms of Polish and free content. Polish and free content is what gets the Subs, look at WOW they addded a ton of free content and kept releasing it for free for years before they decided to Release their first expansion.
That's the way to go good job Turbine, continue on the right path; release more Middle earth zones and forget about Expansions for a long while; don't take tips from SOE they don't know shit. Expansions make the game less and less accessible to new players, but free content and additions to the game makes it easy for people to sub cause they don't have to worry about spending $50 on game plus another $200 on expansions.
Keep it up.
Does no one know ?
Those who really know aren't really allowed to talk about it.
However, in closed beta I found what I believe to be the entrance to Helegrod. From the looks of it it's outdoor, or at least a good bit of it, takes place outdoors. (also judging from some really old beta1 videos of the place when people could sneak into the raid instance) I don't know if the youtube video is still there but you used to be able to find it by searching for "lotro raiding".
I can shed some more light on probably the most difficult of 6 man instances. Carn Dum is a Hillman (angmariam) city, it's absolutely huge. We saw very little, but I will say it's very impressive. It's also the first time I've seen a 6 man instance with a raid lock timer. You have a couple days to complete the instance is so big. Early estimates say it dwarfs Karazhan.
eqnext.wikia.com
Back to VG... sorry to about that
eqnext.wikia.com
Back to VG... sorry to about that
I miss DAoC
What's MOST amazing about this is that the Devs REPEATEDLY stated officially that there would be a MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE at the end of the first month of Retail Release ... YET somebody, somehow STILL claims that "no one expected anything like this so early."
~ Ancient Membership ~
What's MOST amazing about this is that the Devs REPEATEDLY stated officially that there would be a MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE at the end of the first month of Retail Release ... YET somebody, somehow STILL claims that "no one expected anything like this so early."
Well, it is hard to believe considering how many other MMO companies oerate these days. I don't blame people for doubting.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
I'm not sure how many mmos you've played, but that's how most of them are.
I'm not sure how many mmos you've played, but that's how most of them are.
Many.
By adding more depth and complexity, ie offering more things to do then to just rins and repeat missions,
Back to VG... sorry to about that
Nope Turbine did it right, make a section , polish it to where it is FUN to play, stuff it with content till it is bulging at he seams with things to do and goodies to grab then add another section. If you think that was a bad way of doing it then wait till the sales figures are released and see who had the right way of doing things. Let the gamers decide and vote with their credit cards. Last one to the cash register loses.
I miss DAoC
Back to VG... sorry to about that
AH! HahAHhWEHQHHAHAAAAHHEWHEeeeAAAHHH.. stop stop make it stop
VG! WAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHEHAHEAEHAE
I didn't even realize there were any of you left out there... look kids... its a real live wooly mammoth...