FYI-> Solo epic books (Volume 1 bk 1, 2 so far) : LOTRO - Discussions

from: http://my.lotro.com/orion/2009/11/04/problems-and-solutions-1/

author: Orion
The Lord of the Rings Online Team
Turbine, Inc.


quote

Problems and Solutions #1
Posted On: November 4th, 2009
Posted By: Orion
Posted in: Design Discussion

I am labelling this number one only because there may be more some day. I cannot think that I will write of any other problem tomorrow, as tomorrow I will begin working on solutions to the problem put forth in this little blog.

We have a problem. We have this glorious epic storyline that takes you throughout Eriador but requires you, at various points, to find others to assist you. This is all well and good when you are a newer game and the majority of the populace is roughly the same level and progressing at roughly the same rate. However, when you are 2+ years removed from launch and looking at the trends and notice that more and more players are abandoning that rich - focal - part of your narrative game, then there is a problem.

First and foremost we are a game driven by story. Your place in that story. How you deal with elements of that story and interact with the story. Our epic is clearly one of the most important facets of our game. Now, few people are continuing on with it post Volume 1, Book 1 and this means that we have a problem that needs a solution.

The Solution? Moments of inspiration. These are the moments when your character digs deep into their reserves and finds something more. Whether this is drawn from the people around them or from their own sense of purpose these are the moments inspiring greatness.

Starting with Volume 1, Book 2 - completely !@#$%^&* and restructured in the upcoming release on December 1st, the Epic Book series will be getting treatment to identify key moments in your character’s life. These types of moments will allow your character to don the mantle or heroism and fight against far greater odds.

Inspired Greatness does the following for a player:

Increases morale and power significantly, increases in-combat and out-of-combat morale and power regeneration, increases damage output from melee, ranged and tactical sources, increases healing output for all healing skills.

Through this we will be able address the problem highlighted above and apply the solution to all the Books comprising Volume 1 of the story of The Lord of the Rings Online.



end of quote


then his replies to comments from the announcement thread http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=4151925

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Right now, they are just part of the epic storyline. No need to purchase at all. Doing the Epic is well...Epic...

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It should be strong enough to allow you to solo the tasks at hand. You'll get to see it first -hand soon enough.

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Comment - To solo them? Holy hell. So just to be clear, you don't need to take friends/pickups to a 1.4.8 or a 1.7.8 (Gates of CD iirc) anymore because you can manage to babysit Legolas single-handedly or just briskly knock Trolls and Angmarim about as you escort a hapless NPC around?

If you bring friends, are you all on equal amounts of the kool-aid, or do you get scaled buffs depending how many juicers are present?

Reply - Fellowships will not get this bonus. Only solo players. But, the goal is to see that you can complete any of the group based content - solo.

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Q - BTW, I'm assuming you mean for the buff to be optional, so those who want to do the mission the old-fashioned, fellowship-required way can do that as well?

A - Correct. Fellow content remains untouched.

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Q - Will we be able to use the reflecting pool to go back and solo the instances if we've already completed them? I'm thinking of Book 14 in particular where I have deeds that need to be finished...

A - There is a little more to be worked out here. Currently, completing the solo will allow you to access the solo version only. Completing both accesses both. I am working on a way to make both available after completing one or the other.

Another thing, since there is confusion here:

The solo variant is an option and an option only. The Fellowship version will remain in the game. We are not removing one for the other, we are providing options.

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Comment - So for instance, people who quest in pairs won't be eligible because technically they are a fellowship? Therefore my husband and I will have to do all the Book quests separately unless we get a full group?

If so, huge huge failure.

Reply - Not failure, just not addressing this particular issue.

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Q - If I am reading this right, this will launch for all books of volume 1 with Mirkwood?

A - You are reading it incorrectly.

It begins with Volume 1 Book 2 with the release of Mirkwood. Other adaptions of the Epic story will follow.

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Comment - You know one simple and fun solution would be to have hirelings like in DDO. Then you can keep the books the same difficulty and we hire the hirelings but allow us to use enough to fill out a party like your Gold hirelings in DDO but without the stupid online store concept.

Reply - Not as simple as you think.

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Q - Are these epic instance changes going to always coincide with zone revamps?

I could see it taking quite a while to get up to book 15 if only one book every 3-4 months is !@#$%^&*.

A - That is a discussion that I am currently having - with myself. No answer yet. There is a lot of bickering going on.

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Comment - Holy ... did I just read this right, I don't need a group for any Epic books anymore?! Oh thank heaven.

Reply - So far only Volume I Book 1 and Book 2. I will be working on the other books in the future.

Can members say yay or nay to this so we may give tu bucks and/or premium. If you nay the submission remember to include as to why.

Just make him the mod/admin for the LOTRO forums so he doesn't have to post blogs to get points

Along that vein...He also seems to be doing a great job of reporting what should be moved/locked here too (some things are YEARS old AND nerfed)! Let him do the forum clean up


/nay because its a blog that can be accessed from the front page of my.lotro.com

/yay because he has CTRL+C/CTRL+V other blog/forum posts and received points for them


(NOTE: On beta server right now 1.1.x - 1.3.x can be done completely solo because of these changes. Expect even more books to be this way when Mirkwood launches and/or when 3.x.x launches next year)

note the FYI which is why it was posted in the free open section not in the submissions forum, I think admin was on auto pilot here c&ping the standard reply to submissions

as I've said before most people who use sites like these are too lazy or ? to read the main forums of their games so would not have seen this

so for a game that really has no exploits this is about the only kind of info that can be brought here

plus I did at least put together only the salient posts, saving time

I'm not sure why the admin asks if these kinda posts are worth points, I don't do it for that reason, I do it to inform the community...the admin should acknowledge it with a 25 or 50 point reward as it is about the game and wasn't here before and only a c and p, other stuff like finding a cool interactive site, or app or a post that took time, like my info site posats take an average of 45 minutes to do, should merit more points

If I wanted to spam for points I could greet every person who says hi like I see some do....or even respond to every post by gaming-news that alone would generate a 1000 points a week....

What really gets me though is when admin asks for confirmation on Dev posts, those are as close to written in stone as you can get in a game ....

yay