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Radiance loot changes

http://my.lotro.com/amlug/
 



Long time, no post. I know.
 
I wanted to drop you guys a line about what I have been working on. For the past week, I have been implementing a newly designed barter drop system for instances.
“What? Wait… a new one?” - you ask
Yes, we have listened to your concerns about the Book 8 changes and the previous instances not being changed. We have talked long and hard about what are the best ways to fix this system so it is works for as many people as possible and we also ultimately want it to feel…wait for it…rewarding!
So we have come up with a new plan. Meet Medallions - The new shiny barter token to use for bartering for your radiance pieces and some extra Legendary Item augmentations! Medallions will be replacing most of the tokens that you’ve seen since Moria. There will be unique Medallions for each cluster of instances that we release. Currently there will be two for the live content you guys are playing: the Medallion of Moria and the Medallion of Lothlorien. The Medallions will drop off of every boss monster in level 58+ instances. This means that killing boss one in Forges of Khazad-Dum will drop Medallions for everyone in the party. (Note: Make sure you all loot the chest!) I’m not going to get into how many, etc. here because we are still balancing the system. Players can use Medallions to trade for same things they were trading for — namely the Challenge sets, the other dungeon sets, and relics and Legendary Item XP.
Currently the Medallions of Moria will drop in: Grand Stairs, Forges, Sixteenth Hall, Fil Ghashan, Skumfil, and Dark Delvings. The Medallions of Lothlorien will drop in Waterworks, Halls of Crafting, and Hall of Mirrors. Future instances will drop a new Medallion.
The goal here is to not force you all to grind through instances in only the way we want. Also, players will still gain ground towards gaining their sets even if they aren’t achieving the Challenges. However, doing the Challenges will gain you more Medallions! In addition to this, we are going to be adding in some items to Challenges at a very low percentage drop. This means you’ll have a chance of getting something special. Finally, we are fixing it so there are new Challenge quests that work while you are inside the instances only and are on a daily retry timer. Orion has mentioned this tech and you can read his blog for more information. Oh and if that is not enough, we have some new Legendary Item goodies that you can trade for that we think you will like a lot. (But you’ll have to wait to find out what exactly!)
“But what about my old tokens? What do I do with them?”
No worries. There will be new npcs at the Twenty-first Hall and Caras Galadhon near the class trainers that will exchange those old crusty tokens for new shiny medallions! These Barter Exchange Traders will also hold all the Legendary Item goodies. They are your new favorite buddies.
I’m sure there is much more to talk about and we’ll be discussing the new instances we are working on shortly, but for now, I hope this comes as good news.
-Amlug
p.s. Radiance and Hope have been separated back out again. Radiance will no longer give bonuses to players on landscape, it will only be used to combat Gloom.


EDIT:

[quote]When are the changes to Radiance coming?

We are currently working on the changes and should have them ready for the Book 9 release. No clear promises yet, but that is the plan.

Will radiance overwrite the gloom incurred on defeat?

No, radiance will not overwrite gloom incurred on defeat.

When fighting SOA mobs/bosses that give dread, will the radiance set still counteract the dread as it does now?

(Edit) The answer is no. Dread will need Hope to counteract the effects. Radiance will only cancel Gloom.

Does this mean that you can get a full set of +10 radiance gear without ever setting foot in (Insert name of undesirable instance here)?

Yes.

Can we barter for the items from The Watcher too?

If I am not correct on this answer I will edit it later - my understanding of the changes leaves the acquisition of the items that you get from The Watcher as is. You will still need to get them from The Watcher.

What are these challenge quests you speak of, how do they work?

I will answer that at the end of this post. If you need to know right now jump down to the heading New Tech Revealed.

You took away our radiance bonus on landscape - are you revising the sets to make up for this?

No, the decision and implementation of the changes to the way that radiance worked outside of raids was made before we began the adjustments to the distribution. It was a necessary decision for the long-term health of the game.

Why did it take so long to get here?

As I stated in my previously blogs the hardest part of coming to solutions like this (mind you, this is an iteration on a previous plan that we had and still not the optimal solution that we all wanted and no, I cannot talk about that but I like making you wonder so I put it in my posts anyway) is identifying the problem first. We had multiple symptoms but it took a while to drill through the symptoms to identify the core problems and then find a solution that would do the least damage to the various aspects of the player base.

As you can see from the responses here: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=285446 this is not going to be universally hailed as the greatest thing since the Internet. We have to weigh solutions carefully and do our best to ensure that we make the right decisions when it comes to hot button issues like this. Whether this choice is ultimately the best one remains to be seen as there are still a lot of concerns with the balance of it all.

Why not make exclusive instance barter drops so that people have to run the specific instances to get the specific items?

I am going answer this one by first asking another question. Is there a concern that players will focus on one or two instances and only do those to access their radiance gear? Fear? No. Expectation, sure. Our challenge is to now create some other incentive for those harder instances. There has to be a reason for players to go into those spaces or they will become even less popular than they are now. Will it be easy? No. Will it have something to do with gear? Very likely. Will it have something to do with deeds? Possibly.

Why not make the drops instance dependent?
We identified one of the symptoms of the system being the instances themselves, not everyone enjoys every instance that we design and if our goal is to make a system more accessible to folks, then placing another restriction that would drive them into spaces that they dislike would be viewed as a negative. Thus, we remove the restrictions and let players choose their own adventure through the spaces to acquire the gear. Choices.

How will players be prepared for the Watcher and DN? How long before these spaces are made easier?

Some players may not be prepared for The Watcher and DN raids. Raids are going to remain the pinnacle of difficulty and we have no current intention to change this. Access to the raids so that players can attempt them and learn them at their own rate is our goal with these changes.

Can we buy 1st Age Weapons with these new tokens?

No.

Tell us about the expansion?

Not yet.

Okay, questions answered is now in the done column, let’s move on to the real reason for my blog this morning. (drum roll on a little toy drum)
[size=15pt]
New Tech Revealed
[/size]

*sound of one hand clapping and a single party favor blowing*

Making mountains out of molehills is fun! See, I am not certain that this tech is going to make all of you as happy as it makes me. I have been a gamer for a very long time and like most gamers, I like options. I like the option to do something unique in a space. I like challenges and variety in challenges. I like puzzles and exploring and learning more and more about a game until I break it down into the ones and zeroes that form the game and…well you get the point. Since I have been designing I have been very interested in making as many options as possible for folks. I also really like to make things clear for folks.

With this new tech we can do a host of wonderful things for players in instances. I have been trying to write this out for about ten minutes now and finding that there is no way to make this sound super cool. Thus, I will provide you with examples.

A fellowship of four enters the new Garth Agarwen - Arboretum instance for the first time today. As they enter, they all notice something strange pop into their quest tracker:

Amlug sees:

Optional Objective: Wights (Daily)

Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

Orion sees:

Optional Objective: Locations (Daily)

Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

Floon sees:

Optional Objective: Bog-lurkers (Daily)

Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

Scenario sees:

Optional Objective: Darkwater (Daily)

Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

As with all quests, there is some level of reward for doing these. For the Garth Agarwen cluster - Eglain faction is the featured reward. Faction will likely be a mainstay moving forward through the remainder of the instances as it makes the most sense. With the challenges we can distribute the barter tokens that will be used to obtain some manner of gear for the efforts put into these.

Challenges

A challenge is something difficult that once completed nets rewards. Those rewards will typically come in the form of some token in addition to whatever the other rewards in the space may be (faction, coin, etc…). They will communicate, clearly, the reasons behind the challenge and the manner in which the challenge is achieved. It is no wonder then that this will replace the clunky and, personally, hated terminology for hard-modes.

Optional Objectives

This is where I see the greatest enhancement with this tech. We can put a little incentive into the instances to complete optional objectives and increase the reasons to play them. We can tie new deeds into the game for completing all the objectives and target classes, races, heck even vocations inside of these spaces with a variety of quests!

It may not seem like much, but this is something that I have been looking forward to getting into the game for a very long time. Now, it is here and with it, we hope to continue providing players with an even wider variety of opportunities than they have ever had before!

Happy Friday![/quote]
 

----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

How are you?" -Me

Comments

  • ThillianThillian Member UncommonPosts: 3,156

    Ridiculous and won't help a thing. Radiance will still be used as a gating system. It doesn't matter if you have to do 6 times each instance to get each piece or you have 16.67% chance of getting it each raid. Until, there are bosses that cause 60 gloom and more the main moria problem remains.

    REALITY CHECK

  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615
    Originally posted by Thillian


    Ridiculous and won't help a thing. Radiance will still be used as a gating system. It doesn't matter if you have to do 6 times each instance to get each piece or you have 16.67% chance of getting it each raid. Until, there are bosses that cause 60 gloom and more the main moria problem remains.

     

    Your out of your mind. This directly address peoples complaints.

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806

    If this is a step in the right direction, only time and playtime will tell. But, its still "Lord of the Lewt". Its all about getting that medallion, LI stuff etc etc etc. In addition, this does not answer any solution for people who hate the radiance system, which is a significant amount of players - atleast in Lotro EU.

    Sadly, Lotro crashed and burned hard for me when MoM was released... For me to even consider coming back; the Radiance system need to be removed - I have never enountered a more useless and annoying feature, LI system need to be completely revamped or scratched aswell, and turbine must shift the motivation for doing quests away from a loot hunt to fun.  

  • SwaneaSwanea Member UncommonPosts: 2,401

    I play the game, but I did not know radiance was so prominent in MoM. My highest IS only 50.  So basically, every boss fight is like a "resist/gear" check fight? All the time?  That seems pretty silly, but seems to follow the gameplay of the game since the start.

  • towanitowani Member Posts: 114
    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

    Originally posted by Thillian


    Ridiculous and won't help a thing. Radiance will still be used as a gating system. It doesn't matter if you have to do 6 times each instance to get each piece or you have 16.67% chance of getting it each raid. Until, there are bosses that cause 60 gloom and more the main moria problem remains.

     

    Your out of your mind. This directly address peoples complaints.



     

    I agree with you Mrbloodworth and am glad to see they are listening and working towards a solution.

    As to Thillian, how won't this help?  People complained that you needed to do hard mode in instances to get better gear to go to the hardest place(s) in the game.  This makes it so you don' t have to do the hard modes. 

    Now I know... you are going to say to me, but I just said that ..."one would need the better gear to get to the hardest instances in the game."  Yep, and my response is that it is 2 instances you would need that uber craptastic radiance gear that isn't any better than other gear except it has radiance! (When I put on my radiance set, I lose some vitality, fate, and a lot of morale).  And it's only for 2 instances... 2 out of probably 100's in the game.  I'm sure it's less than .1 % of game contect!

    I think this is a good system and am glad to see it implemented.  Not that it will affect me in any way what-so-ever, I'm just glad for the casual players.

    LotRO: Meneldor: Riders of the Riddermark

  • CartographyCartography Member UncommonPosts: 331

    I think the main complaint was gear gating, at least thats what it sounds like on the official forums. Can you enter the raids in crafted gear? The answer is NO. Did Amlug mention how many coins you need to turn in from ezmode rad runs? NO. So it's very likely that you'll still need to grind grind grind.

     

    The majority of casual players wanted the raiding system to be like it was in SoA... and that's not happening.

  • YeeboYeebo Member UncommonPosts: 1,361

    This is definitely another move in the right direction.  The changes to allow 2nd age weapons to be "reforged" by crafters are also a good move.  However until you can get geared up enough to start raiding via crafting or PvP, we still won't have an endgame that rewards as many play styles as we did pre-MoM.

     

     

    I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.

  • arebareb Member Posts: 144
    Originally posted by Swanea


    I play the game, but I did not know radiance was so prominent in MoM. My highest IS only 50.  So basically, every boss fight is like a "resist/gear" check fight? All the time?  That seems pretty silly, but seems to follow the gameplay of the game since the start.



     

    No... The way it works is the 6-man and 3-man instances give radiance gear which is needed for the Watcher and DN raids.  The 6 and 3-mans don't have a specific radiance requirement, although some you will need decent gear to be successful.  It sounds like the changes are good since you won't need to get lucky and find a group good enough to take out Gurvand in DD.

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.

    "Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615
    Originally posted by BesCirga


    If this is a step in the right direction, only time and playtime will tell. But, its still "Lord of the Lewt". Its all about getting that medallion, LI stuff etc etc etc. In addition, this does not answer any solution for people who hate the radiance system, which is a significant amount of players - atleast in Lotro EU.
     



    Yes it does. But Radiance complaints are not the majority, only the loudest. The game has never been "Lord of the loot", players choose to make it that way with personal goals. Don't confuse the two, pre-conditioning by other games are the cause.

     

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806
    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth




    Yes it does. But Radiance complaints are not the majority, only the loudest. The game has never been "Lord of the loot", players choose to make it that way with personal goals. Don't confuse the two, pre-conditioning by other games are the cause.
     



     

    The day people started forming groups exclusively to grind gold leaves to buy lorien gear, cloaks, radiance armour pieces, medallions, jewelry, and God knows what more Turbine designed to motivate player to do quests in MoM, it became Lord of the Loot. You tell me what I can do, when I have no desire to improve my gear, as end-game goal in lotro?  

    I never said that the radiance complainers were the majority, which we both have no idea who is the largest group. I said "a significant amount of players". See the difference?

    Only diffence I see from the earlier version is: might be easier to obtain and radiance doesnt add bonues to dmg and health. 

    As I see it, one of two things happens in the Turbine office:

    1. Turbine has gotten a panic attack, afraid their customers wont grind for their precious radiance armour and will be locked out from future radiance content. Ergo, give the reluctant easier access to the rad gear, or face even more compaints on the forum.
    2. Turbine is ready to ship more content out and the need for players to grind on their radiance time-sink is now needless.
  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615
    Originally posted by BesCirga

    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth




    Yes it does. But Radiance complaints are not the majority, only the loudest. The game has never been "Lord of the loot", players choose to make it that way with personal goals. Don't confuse the two, pre-conditioning by other games are the cause.
     



     

    The day people started forming groups exclusively to grind gold leaves to buy lorien gear, cloaks, radiance armour pieces, medallions, jewelry, and God knows what more Turbine designed to motivate player to do quests in MoM, it became Lord of the Loot. You tell me what I can do, when I have no desire to improve my gear, as end-game goal in lotro?  

    I never said that the radiance complainers were the majority, which we both have no idea who is the largest group. I said "a significant amount of players". See the difference?

    Only diffence I see from the earlier version is: might be easier to obtain and radiance doesnt add bonues to dmg and health. 

    As I see it, one of two things happens in the Turbine office:

    1. Turbine has gotten a panic attack, afraid their customers wont grind for their precious radiance armour and will be locked out from future radiance content. Ergo, give the reluctant easier access to the rad gear, or face even more compaints on the forum.
    2. Turbine is ready to ship more content out and the need for players to grind on their radiance time-sink is now needless.

     

     

    lorien has a lore related reason, and is a completely optional advancement and quest area, just like the rest.

    Your lucky you are not shot on sight outside the forest of lorien. Grind is a player induced condition. You do not have to do any of what you are saying to enjoy the game. You just want to. Most likely, because this is what you were taught by other games.

    This change however was done so that everyone can obtain the loot in game without having to redo the same content over and over, now, you can do any of the content, and trade for the loot you personally want.

    It has nothing to do with "Easier to get" unless you believe that large time sinks is challenge. The challenge is the content, not how much personal time you have. As it should be.

    If you are playing this game for loot and stats, you are doing it wrong and there are better games for such treadmills. With the seperation of hope and radiance, Radiance gear is once again only usefull for one thing, rading, and that, is a compleatly optional path of gameplay.

    You are still confusing your personal goals, with the design of the game. The raid content is not for everyone, Nor is it required never has been.

     

     

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806
    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

    Originally posted by BesCirga

    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth




    Yes it does. But Radiance complaints are not the majority, only the loudest. The game has never been "Lord of the loot", players choose to make it that way with personal goals. Don't confuse the two, pre-conditioning by other games are the cause.
     



     

    The day people started forming groups exclusively to grind gold leaves to buy lorien gear, cloaks, radiance armour pieces, medallions, jewelry, and God knows what more Turbine designed to motivate player to do quests in MoM, it became Lord of the Loot. You tell me what I can do, when I have no desire to improve my gear, as end-game goal in lotro?  

    I never said that the radiance complainers were the majority, which we both have no idea who is the largest group. I said "a significant amount of players". See the difference?

    Only diffence I see from the earlier version is: might be easier to obtain and radiance doesnt add bonues to dmg and health. 

    As I see it, one of two things happens in the Turbine office:

    1. Turbine has gotten a panic attack, afraid their customers wont grind for their precious radiance armour and will be locked out from future radiance content. Ergo, give the reluctant easier access to the rad gear, or face even more compaints on the forum.
    2. Turbine is ready to ship more content out and the need for players to grind on their radiance time-sink is now needless.

     

     

    lorien has a lore related reason, and is a completely optional advancement and quest area, just like the rest.

    Your lucky you are not shot on sight outside the forest of lorien. Grind is a player induced condition. You do not have to do any of what you are saying to enjoy the game. You just want to. Most likely, because this is what you were taught by other games.

    This change however was done so that everyone can obtain the loot in game without having to redo the same content over and over, now, you can do any of the content, and trade for the loot you personally want.

    It has nothing to do with "Easier to get" unless you believe that large time sinks is challenge. The challenge is the content, not how much personal time you have. As it should be.

    If you are playing this game for loot and stats, you are doing it wrong and there are better games for such treadmills. With the seperation of hope and radiance, Radiance gear is once again only usefull for one thing, rading, and that, is a compleatly optional path of gameplay.

    You are still confusing your personal goals, with the design of the game. The raid content is not for everyone, Nor is it required never has been.

     

     



     

    You really need to re-read my post.  Your assumptions about my playstyle and gaming history is staggering, to say the least.

    I dont think Im the one confused here...

  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615

    Nope, i think i got it. Your making assumptions about other peoples play-styles as some sort of fact, I was attempting to explain that you dont know what your talking about.

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806

     

    I have stated facts? Where? My post cleary indicates that I am speaking from my point of view. I will go through your post even though it probably pointless.

    Originally posted by BesCirga

    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

    Originally posted by BesCirga


     The day people started forming groups exclusively to grind gold leaves to buy lorien gear, cloaks, radiance armour pieces, medallions, jewelry, and God knows what more Turbine designed to motivate player to do quests in MoM, it became Lord of the Loot. You tell me what I can do, when I have no desire to improve my gear, as end-game goal in lotro?  

    I never said that the radiance complainers were the majority, which we both have no idea who is the largest group. I said "a significant amount of players". See the difference?
    Only diffence I see from the earlier version is: might be easier to obtain and radiance doesnt add bonues to dmg and health. 
    As I see it, one of two things happens in the Turbine office:

    Turbine has gotten a panic attack, afraid their customers wont grind for their precious radiance armour and will be locked out from future radiance content. Ergo, give the reluctant easier access to the rad gear, or face even more compaints on the forum.
    Turbine is ready to ship more content out and the need for players to grind on their radiance time-sink is now needless.

     lorien has a lore related reason, and is a completely optional advancement and quest area, just like the rest.

    Your lucky you are not shot on sight outside the forest of lorien. Grind is a player induced condition. You do not have to do any of what you are saying to enjoy the game. You just want to. Most likely, because this is what you were taught by other games.

    I dont know why you are trying to lecture me in Lotro lore, or how this is related to my post... I imagine you were replying to me mention people grinding for gold leaves to buy Lorien equipment. Again, I dont understand how its related. 

    This change however was done so that everyone can obtain the loot in game without having to redo the same content over and over, now, you can do any of the content, and trade for the loot you personally want.

    It has nothing to do with "Easier to get" unless you believe that large time sinks is challenge. The challenge is the content, not how much personal time you have. As it should be.

    First; Doing something 1 time vs doing something 5 times, is easier. Less time needed to obtain something equals easier - Simple logics. In addition, being able to skip the hardest instances, also make it easier.

    Secondly; I think the current change is a good change. Make it easier for those who are willing to accuire radience gear. Again, to clearify, Good change. As for me, I wouldnt equip radiance gear if Turbine dipped it in honey and mail it to my character. Making something more accessable doesnt fix content gating, a general community motivation of getting that phat lewt, and development of poor and cheap time-sinks, which Turbine call content. 

    If you are playing this game for loot and stats, you are doing it wrong and there are better games for such treadmills. With the seperation of hope and radiance, Radiance gear is once again only usefull for one thing, rading, and that, is a compleatly optional path of gameplay.

    For your information, and I thought I made that perfectly clear, I have no interest in loot. This is one of the reasons I have no end-game options. In SoA I could craft, but now I have to grind repeatable reputation quests in Lorien to buy Recipes! If I wanted to do non-stop repeatable quests, I would... guess what...Do quest! Can you guess what a crafter wants to do?

     As a former casual raider, I can tell you that raiding has become obsolete for me. 

    You are still confusing your personal goals, with the design of the game. The raid content is not for everyone, Nor is it required never has been.

    I loved the original design of the game, but its gone at the moment. My only personal goal in an MMO is to have fun. Unfortunatlely, the fun in lotro is gone. Its all about the loot now...

     



     To show you how wrong your assumption of me was, I will tell you of my ideal Lotro, gear-wise. All gear is non-magical and can all be bought at a normal vendor. All characters have one magical item slot, which they can eqiup whatever type of item they want. Crafted gear is just like vendor stuff but has more durability.

     



     

  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615


    Originally posted by BesCirga

    If this is a step in the right direction, only time and playtime will tell. But, its still "Lord of the Lewt". Its all about getting that medallion, LI stuff etc etc etc. In addition, this does not answer any solution for people who hate the radiance system, which is a significant amount of players - atleast in Lotro EU



    Originally posted by BesCirga
    The day people started forming groups exclusively to grind gold leaves to buy lorien gear, cloaks, radiance armour pieces, medallions, jewelry, and God knows what more Turbine designed to motivate player to do quests in MoM, it became Lord of the Loot.

    You can stop talking now.
     

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

  • BesCirgaBesCirga Member Posts: 806
    Originally posted by Mrbloodworth


     

    Originally posted by BesCirga
     
    If this is a step in the right direction, only time and playtime will tell. But, its still "Lord of the Lewt". Its all about getting that medallion, LI stuff etc etc etc. In addition, this does not answer any solution for people who hate the radiance system, which is a significant amount of players - atleast in Lotro EU



     

     



    Originally posted by BesCirga

    The day people started forming groups exclusively to grind gold leaves to buy lorien gear, cloaks, radiance armour pieces, medallions, jewelry, and God knows what more Turbine designed to motivate player to do quests in MoM, it became Lord of the Loot.



     

    You can stop talking now.

     



     

    The first paragraph is my first post here explaining very shortly my feelings on the matter. The second paragraph is me answering your statement that lotro didnt emphesis exclusively on loot as an end-game option. They are completely taken out of context. And, I dont see the connection, or "error" in the two quotes...

    Have the fanboys of lotro really sunk this low?

    I consider myself a fanboy of lotro from lvl 1-50, but has been discusted with the general development it has taken. Been ingame since very early closed beta up untill MoM, and loved every second of it. Now, I dont. Have my playstyle changed that much? No. And that I can state as a fact! The game has changed, and if you dont see that, you dont mind the endless grind for gear and loot... 

  • GaryMGaryM Member Posts: 244
    Originally posted by Swanea


    I play the game, but I did not know radiance was so prominent in MoM. My highest IS only 50.  So basically, every boss fight is like a "resist/gear" check fight? All the time?  That seems pretty silly, but seems to follow the gameplay of the game since the start.

    For only 2 pieces of content in the entire game: a 12-man single boss raid (Watcher) and a 12-man multi-boss raid (DN). You can do *all* the other content in the game without a single piece of Radiance Gear, including the entire epic book quest chain.

  • MrbloodworthMrbloodworth Member Posts: 5,615

    [quote]When are the changes to Radiance coming?

    We are currently working on the changes and should have them ready for the Book 9 release. No clear promises yet, but that is the plan.

    Will radiance overwrite the gloom incurred on defeat?

    No, radiance will not overwrite gloom incurred on defeat.

    When fighting SOA mobs/bosses that give dread, will the radiance set still counteract the dread as it does now?

    (Edit) The answer is no. Dread will need Hope to counteract the effects. Radiance will only cancel Gloom.

    Does this mean that you can get a full set of +10 radiance gear without ever setting foot in (Insert name of undesirable instance here)?

    Yes.

    Can we barter for the items from The Watcher too?

    If I am not correct on this answer I will edit it later - my understanding of the changes leaves the acquisition of the items that you get from The Watcher as is. You will still need to get them from The Watcher.

    What are these challenge quests you speak of, how do they work?

    I will answer that at the end of this post. If you need to know right now jump down to the heading New Tech Revealed.

    You took away our radiance bonus on landscape - are you revising the sets to make up for this?

    No, the decision and implementation of the changes to the way that radiance worked outside of raids was made before we began the adjustments to the distribution. It was a necessary decision for the long-term health of the game.

    Why did it take so long to get here?

    As I stated in my previously blogs the hardest part of coming to solutions like this (mind you, this is an iteration on a previous plan that we had and still not the optimal solution that we all wanted and no, I cannot talk about that but I like making you wonder so I put it in my posts anyway) is identifying the problem first. We had multiple symptoms but it took a while to drill through the symptoms to identify the core problems and then find a solution that would do the least damage to the various aspects of the player base.

    As you can see from the responses here: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=285446 this is not going to be universally hailed as the greatest thing since the Internet. We have to weigh solutions carefully and do our best to ensure that we make the right decisions when it comes to hot button issues like this. Whether this choice is ultimately the best one remains to be seen as there are still a lot of concerns with the balance of it all.

    Why not make exclusive instance barter drops so that people have to run the specific instances to get the specific items?

    I am going answer this one by first asking another question. Is there a concern that players will focus on one or two instances and only do those to access their radiance gear? Fear? No. Expectation, sure. Our challenge is to now create some other incentive for those harder instances. There has to be a reason for players to go into those spaces or they will become even less popular than they are now. Will it be easy? No. Will it have something to do with gear? Very likely. Will it have something to do with deeds? Possibly.

    Why not make the drops instance dependent?
    We identified one of the symptoms of the system being the instances themselves, not everyone enjoys every instance that we design and if our goal is to make a system more accessible to folks, then placing another restriction that would drive them into spaces that they dislike would be viewed as a negative. Thus, we remove the restrictions and let players choose their own adventure through the spaces to acquire the gear. Choices.

    How will players be prepared for the Watcher and DN? How long before these spaces are made easier?

    Some players may not be prepared for The Watcher and DN raids. Raids are going to remain the pinnacle of difficulty and we have no current intention to change this. Access to the raids so that players can attempt them and learn them at their own rate is our goal with these changes.

    Can we buy 1st Age Weapons with these new tokens?

    No.

    Tell us about the expansion?

    Not yet.

    Okay, questions answered is now in the done column, let’s move on to the real reason for my blog this morning. (drum roll on a little toy drum)
    [size=15pt]
    New Tech Revealed
    [/size]

    *sound of one hand clapping and a single party favor blowing*

    Making mountains out of molehills is fun! See, I am not certain that this tech is going to make all of you as happy as it makes me. I have been a gamer for a very long time and like most gamers, I like options. I like the option to do something unique in a space. I like challenges and variety in challenges. I like puzzles and exploring and learning more and more about a game until I break it down into the ones and zeroes that form the game and…well you get the point. Since I have been designing I have been very interested in making as many options as possible for folks. I also really like to make things clear for folks.

    With this new tech we can do a host of wonderful things for players in instances. I have been trying to write this out for about ten minutes now and finding that there is no way to make this sound super cool. Thus, I will provide you with examples.

    A fellowship of four enters the new Garth Agarwen - Arboretum instance for the first time today. As they enter, they all notice something strange pop into their quest tracker:

    Amlug sees:

    Optional Objective: Wights (Daily)

    Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

    Orion sees:

    Optional Objective: Locations (Daily)

    Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

    Floon sees:

    Optional Objective: Bog-lurkers (Daily)

    Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

    Scenario sees:

    Optional Objective: Darkwater (Daily)

    Challenge: Grimbark (Daily)

    As with all quests, there is some level of reward for doing these. For the Garth Agarwen cluster - Eglain faction is the featured reward. Faction will likely be a mainstay moving forward through the remainder of the instances as it makes the most sense. With the challenges we can distribute the barter tokens that will be used to obtain some manner of gear for the efforts put into these.

    Challenges

    A challenge is something difficult that once completed nets rewards. Those rewards will typically come in the form of some token in addition to whatever the other rewards in the space may be (faction, coin, etc…). They will communicate, clearly, the reasons behind the challenge and the manner in which the challenge is achieved. It is no wonder then that this will replace the clunky and, personally, hated terminology for hard-modes.

    Optional Objectives

    This is where I see the greatest enhancement with this tech. We can put a little incentive into the instances to complete optional objectives and increase the reasons to play them. We can tie new deeds into the game for completing all the objectives and target classes, races, heck even vocations inside of these spaces with a variety of quests!

    It may not seem like much, but this is something that I have been looking forward to getting into the game for a very long time. Now, it is here and with it, we hope to continue providing players with an even wider variety of opportunities than they have ever had before!

    Happy Friday![/quote]

    ----------
    "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me

    "No, your wrong.." - Random user #123

    "Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.

    How are you?" -Me

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