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Hi there! Zombie Columbus here. In the past, I've tried to give insight into how the design and implementation process works, and I hope these diaries about Skirmishes are no exception. The Skirmish system represents a significant addition to LOTRO; it’s a big feature, so this dev diary will be broken into smaller components over the next few weeks. This first installment will focus on what our high level goals are, the initial design of the system and the process of re-design it went through to get there.

To cut right to the chase: Skirmishes are short, accessible, randomized, scalable, story instances with incremental rewards. Why Skirmishes became this can best be explained by discussing what the designer’s goals for the system are. Everything we added to Skirmishes was done with a high level “vision” in mind. By sharing this vision with you, I hope that you will see why we made the choices we did, and how we ended up where we are now. Our goals were to:

    * Create finely crafted instance content that can be played by different group sizes and levels.
    * Keep play-time short, allowing Skirmishes to fit into other activity cycles. Internally we've called them- "Pop-corn" experiences. If one is short and good, why not try another?
    * Add randomized elements into Skirmishes to keep replays interesting.
    * Encourage a rotational play of Skirmishes, to keep them fresh and prevent them from overshadowing existing playstyles. Skirmishes should complement the game, not alter it!
    * Set up an incremental reward structure, like the instance barter systems.
    * Allow players to feel that any amount of play time was a step closer to a desired reward.
    * Give players a feeling of participating in epic struggles, and of being leaders of small armies.

Lofty goals to say the least; we aren’t the first to try randomized, scaling gameplay. The benefit to players can be great, though, which is why it is attempted as often as it is. We've been working on Skirmishes for nearly a year now, doing significant amounts of iteration, re-design, testing, and feedback collection from both developers and our Isengard players. Each sub-system was designed to work toward the above high-level goals.

The initial design that eventually became Skirmishes began during a walk I went on with fellow designer Rhidden, not long after Moria's release. We mused about how we could put a fun sub-game inside LOTRO, using mostly existing tools, tech and art. I was playing a lot of Tower Defense inspired games at the time and Rhidden was interested in riffing on the popular Battle Instances. Mixing those and other inspirations together, we came up with the idea for LOTRO instances where the player would set up soldiers and siege weapons and use them against waves of incoming enemies. Some clunky ways to upgrade the soldiers and siege weapons were discussed, and we decided that putting the ideas together in a formal pitch might get them into the game. We put together a design document, circled it around the team a bit, got some feedback, and waited.

As I mentioned, Turbine had just launched Moria, so there was still some room in the next expansion for original ideas like ours. It was our hope that our pet project could get into the mix and become a small addition to the game. Other designers put forward ideas for the extra room in the expansion, extending existing systems, or creating other new ones. All of these ideas were about to enter a Battle Royale. What followed was a text-book example of the saying: "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." I think it's safe to add game design to that list...

Our lives for the next few weeks consisted of many meetings, discussions, proposals, counter-proposals, committees, sub-committees, e-mails and hallway discussions. Our little pet project expanded and changed in many ways, integrating ideas from all around the company, and eventually took shape as a marquee feature of the next expansion. Two of the bigger changes were Rhidden cycling off onto other projects, and jwbarry joining the team. He brought in some fresh perspective, a knack for making things work, and an emphasis on more story-oriented content. As the project gained momentum, we were allocated additional resources and people from inside the company, and soon the newly named Skirmish system was on track to be a significant addition to LOTRO’s next expansion.

So, with all that out of the way, we’re ready to discuss the real nitty-gritty guts of the Skirmish system. We can say we want to keep Skirmishes from overshadowing other gameplay styles, but how can we work to that goal? As we publish more installments to this diary, various aspects of the Skirmish system will be elaborated on. As with all MMO development, we expect to change the systems and content we have in place based on player feedback – systems that work perfectly on one scale can behave very differently once released onto the live servers, with many players bringing their unique playstyles to the mix. We may even decide some of our high level goals are no longer valid. To me, this is a large amount of the fun and challenge of working on MMO’s -- change is just part of the game. We hope that you enjoy the change that Skirmishes represent!

You Can Lead a Horse to Water…

…But you cannot make it drink. Until Volume II Book 9: Siege of Mirkwood, that old proverb applied very well to the mounts of Middle-earth. Every rider knew it was all fun and games until you wanted to interact with your environment; every door in Middle-earth was closed to you, every NPC uninterested in your business, and every skill you learned completely blocked while riding. It didn’t take long after buying your first mount to feel just how unforgiving and restrictive the system could be.

To understand why the system was so restrictive, you have to look at the technology behind it; the channeling system. It’s the same system originally developed to deliver pies across the Shire and pour buckets of water on fiery blazes, and it was later leveraged to saddle players onto mounts. The channeling system was an adequate solution during a time when developing a new system was out of the question, as development was coming to a close for the launch of Shadows of Angmar.

No More Horsing Around

Following the launch of Mines of Moria, we started discussing the prospect of giving mounts their own system and embarked on some basic investigation to understand the scope of what it might take. There was really no safe method of tacking on more features or special conditions to the channeling system to get everything we wanted from mounts. In fact, doing so would likely contradict the original intent of the channeling system and still not guarantee a satisfactory outcome. The decision we made was to give mounts a system of their own with two main goals to guide its development:

Restrictive, then Flexible

One of the first things we decided to do when developing the system was to maintain all of the restrictions of the original system. The day we flipped the switch there was literally no difference between the two. Little by little, we eased the restrictions to test usability, file bugs, and polish the experience. This worked out fairly well as we were able to separate the design into components and concentrate work on one feature at a time. If we ran out of time then we could simply keep some restrictions in place and polish the features we had completed in time to ship.

Lastly, to save development time, we wanted to re-use as many of the previous assets and scripts as possible without having to reinvent the wheel. We were able to re-use items, icons, animations, sounds, content, and underlying scripts, again allowing us to focus almost entirely on usability. In the end we were able to provide a system that allows you to live life fairly comfortably while saddled to your favorite mount.

Extendable

One never knows what the future will bring, so the system should support incremental changes without risking stability or the original design intent (as we undoubtedly risked if we augmented the channeling system further).

A Horse of a Different Colour

Getting down to the brass tacks, here is the list of new features and improvements thanks to the new mount system:

Mounts as Skills

Mounts are now toggle skills! They can be quick-slotted like other skills or executed directly from the new Mount panel (Character Journal -> Skills -> Mount). A new keyboard shortcut can be set to promptly access your mounts panel (using Key Mapping Options). Since mounts are now skills, you can feel free to collect all of the available varieties without having your packs fill up – no more having to choose between festival horses or exchanging them at a vendor!

One Less Item

Even though we still rely on a mount-item in your pack, it’s a temporary item used to grant the appropriate mount skill to you. Once used, the item will grant a skill to you and be deleted. If the item is quick-slotted, it will be replaced by the new skill. Regardless of what mount item you purchase you will receive the correct mount type for your race. Gone are the days of mistakenly purchasing the wrong mount for your race (“But I wanted a pony!).

Item Usage

Some items can be used while riding, such as food, potions, and other miscellaneous items. Even your Map Home item can be used while mounted and you will appear at your destination still riding your mount.

NPC Interaction

Almost every NPC can be interacted with while you are mounted. There are two exceptions to this:
Stable-masters will still require you to dismount before purchasing a ride. You can still talk to stable-masters while mounted to view the list of destinations. Bards will automatically dismount you when managing your traits.

Door Usage

Every door can be opened and passed through while mounted. If the door leads to a place that does not allow riding, you will appear inside dismounted from your horse. Some special types of ”doors” may not be usable while mounted, such as ladders.

Skill Usage

Depending on your class and level, you may have skills that can be used while riding. Hunters and other classes that enjoy swift travelling can use these skills while mounted. In fact, almost every class has at least one skill that can be used on a mount. No combat skills can be executed while mounted, as that would constitute mounted combat and that’s a horse of a different colour!

Crafters will be particularly happy to hear that tracking skills can be toggled on/off while riding (although gathering resources while riding is not allowed).

As a side-note, some skills may become unusable while mounted in the Ettenmoors to help preserve a level playing field. Currently, only the Hunter’s tracking skills have this restriction. Hunters can still enjoy tracking on horseback while riding outside of the Ettenmoors.

Player Emotes

Several popular emotes will now animate you while mounted, and even more, while not animated, are now allowed while mounted. The following emotes have animations for when you are mounted*: Bother, Bye, Calm, Cheer, Drink, Eat, Munch, Fidget, Followme, Hail, Look, Lookaround, Salute, Think, Wave, Cry, Roar, laugh (lol), SwordSalute, Shakefist *Some of the animations are reused with the hope that unique animations can be made over time.

A majority of the other emotes do not animate, but are allowed while mounted. In these cases the player does not animate but the emoted text is broadcast to those nearby.

Horse Emotes

While sitting idle you can make your horse/pony/goat randomly play one of three different animations. Simply hit the spacebar.

Mount Health

Your mount’s health will now regenerate over time. Just as in the old system, getting hit will reduce your mount’s health and critical hits will knock you off your mount. Unlike the old system, you can stay mounted as long as you don’t get knocked off, or fall into a deep body of water.

Mount Display Panel

A new mount display panel will now appear after summoning your mount. The panel displays the mount’s name and health.

Renaming Your Mount

Every mount arrives with a personal name that can be changed by right-clicking the Mount Display Panel and selecting the “Rename” option. Unlike pets, your mount’s name is not visible to those around you.

Mount Discount

Along with your first level 35 mount comes a new trait granting you a discount on all other common mounts. The trait is granted to you even if your first mount happens to be a reputation mount or pre-existing festival mount (new festival mounts will not grant this trait). The discount itself only applies to the common mounts sold by Eogar, Son of Hadorgar.

My Little Pony (or horse)

Players can now gain access to their first horse or pony at level 20. This is a slower version of a normal mount and has less health, but gets you saddled up sooner in the game. The cost of this mount is 220 silver and looks the same as the Founder’s Bree-horse. As a result of this change, Founders can start riding their mounts at level 15!

Grey Horse/Pony

If you deleted your Grey Horse/Pony to make space in your pack you can purchase a replacement from Eogar.

Mustering & Summoning While Mounted

Tired of telling your fellowship to dismount before mustering them? Never fear, they can now accept your request without dismounting.

If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride

This update focused on making mounts more enjoyable to use rather than adding all new functionality. Before you ask if you can lop off orc heads from atop your favorite ride, remember that was never a goal of this update. File this one under “Quality of Life” improvements.

Enjoy the new mount system!

Shared Storage is a new storage system designed to enable sharing between all characters on a given account!.Until now, your only options to share items between characters were to mail them individually, deposit them into a personal chest at your home, or have a friend hold them while you switched characters.

(http://lotroimages.akamai.lotro.com/media/article_images/Dev_Diary/shared_storage/image003.jpg)

Shared Storage can be accessed by visiting any Vault-keeper and opening the standard Vault interface you are already familiar with. A new button, “Open Shared Storage”, will be available on the Vault interface:

(http://lotroimages.akamai.lotro.com/media/article_images/Dev_Diary/shared_storage/image004.jpg)

Any items currently in your standard Vault can be easily transferred to Shared Storage and vice-versa, simplifying the process of sharing items with your other characters.

Shared Storage Interface


The Shared Storage interface has new features to help you manage your shared items. You can sort items alphabetically by name (A-Z, Z-A) and filter by item type. The list is populated dynamically from the items in your shared storage space.

Filtering items is as easy as selecting the Filter drop-down menu and picking the item-type to display:

(http://lotroimages.akamai.lotro.com/media/article_images/Dev_Diary/shared_storage/image005.jpg)

For your convenience, bound items can be stored in Shared Storage -- but only the character they belong to can retrieve them. The Filter Bound Items option will hide items that don’t belong to your current character. Unique items cannot be stored in the Shared Storage.

This new feature should make managing items across multiple characters much easier!

OK.  Another place to store bound items is probably worth $20.

I've been playing for a week and need shared storage. I'm not real damn happy that something I'm used to from EQ2 will cost me $20, because I'm continually too broke to mail all the crap to my alts for crafting, too broke to buy extra storage on my main, are there eventually bags in the game? The tiny amount of storage is kinda bumming me out, I have massive boxes of crafting crap in EQ2 and love sharing stuff with my alts.

That would be fine with me, too. I think work on an XP switch would still fall behind other things we'd love to get to, though. Cosmetic weapons tops my list for "things I really want to get in, but we can't see where the time comes from to do it".

And we've been bitten before with doing the lame hacky version of something, rather than spending the time to do the Real System. All it does is blow up into more work later. I'd rather get a mentoring system on the schedule than hack a poor substitute in just because it's faster.

Armor sitting in my backpack takes durability hits the same as armor I'm wearing in combat?

 :uhrr:

Blah! Not that I ever die!  :grin: Are you on now? I'm in the game for a little bit, got to get up early tomorrow to wait in line for Skynyrd tickets...

Brian “Zombie Columbus” continues his series of developer diaries about the new Skirmish system coming in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™ with Part 3: Randomization and Scaling. If you’ve missed previous installments you can catch up with Part 1: Overview and Part 2: Story Instances.

Randomization

I mentioned earlier that one of our design goals was: Add randomized elements into Skirmishes to keep replays interesting. We are well aware that any bit of content that you replay runs the risk of becoming boring and repetitive. By making Skirmishes both short and repeatable, we are potentially setting ourselves up for a problem. We’ve all played games where such repetition becomes frustrating. Games often tackle this problem by including enough randomized elements to keep it interesting (Rogue-like games come to mind). With Skirmishes we have put a number of systems in place to keep the variety high and each playthrough varied.

Monster Spawns

Each Skirmish has a set of monsters that are thematically linked to the story of that Skirmish. In Tuckborough Troubles, brigands, wolves and Orcs have invaded. These will be the monsters you see each time in that space. Where and when you see them will change with each playthrough, as well as what they are doing, what variety, and how difficult they are. For instance, during your first foray into Tuckborough you might find 3 swarm melee Orcs patrolling around a campfire while a normal archer Orc sits near the fire. The next time through, there may be a pair of elite wolves who lurk behind the tents! Spawns of monsters will usually be in the same general places to keep playthroughs moderately consistent, but each time through will have its own variety.

Encounters

An Encounter is a purely optional objective, a side quest you can participate in if you find it. Each time you begin a Skirmish, we secretly select two Encounters from a list designed for the Skirmish. These Encounters will appear during your playthrough if you do what is necessary to trigger it. I'm being intentionally vague here because finding out what all the Encounters in a Skirmish are, and how to complete them, is part of the fun! Basically, keep your eyes and ears open, and you will find that a clearing that was empty during your last playthrough has an NPC that needs help, or a campsite that was abandoned previously has a brigand leader ready to fight. We've set up Deeds to track how many of these Encounters you've discovered in each Skirmish. Finding them all will grant special rewards, and each time you complete the Encounter you will have a chance of finding various Skirmish-specific rewards. More on rewards in future installments!

Lieutenants

Last, and most exciting, are Lieutenants. As I explained, the monster spawns vary by what, where and when they spawn. Lieutenants take that variety and dial it up to "11". A Lieutenant is like a mini-boss that makes a normal fight more interesting (i.e. deadly!). Each has a unique look and a halo effect to indicate that they are special. Each one has a special skill or gimmick they will use while fighting you. We've designed Lieutenants to be beatable by "normal" combat tactics, but to be easier once their tricks are understood by experienced or observant players. In short, the more you play Skirmishes, the more Lieutenants you will learn how to recognize and how to alter your gameplay to counter them.

My favorite example is of the Zealot of Pain. He acts like a standard melee monster, perhaps just hitting a little bit harder. However, as you damage him he will put potent damage buffs on the other monsters you are fighting! The first few times you fight him you may not notice this is happening, only that fights with him in it quickly become deadly. Eventually, you will realize that when you kill him last the fight is much easier. Congratulations, you solved him! We've tried to design all Lieutenants with this idea in mind. They are beatable, but once the trick is figured out they are much easier to deal with.

Lieutenants have a chance to show up with any group of monsters in any Skirmish. It is important to fully understand how this will affect your playthrough of Skirmishes. An easy fight one time through might suddenly have more monsters than last time, including a Lieutenant. Additionally, all Skirmishes share the same pool of Lieutenants (with a few lore-inspired exceptions). This means that once you learn how to beat the Zealot of Pain in one Skirmish, you will know how to deal with him in any Skirmish.

Not all Lieutenants are made equal. There are some whose combat tricks can only realistically be dealt with by a group. We've made it so these guys only show up in the appropriate group-size scaled Skirmishes. Additionally, some Lieutenants will gain new twists to their skills in larger group sizes, though the basic tricks you learned for them should still apply. I guess I kinda hinted at scaling there, so without more beating around the bush....

Scaling

My favorite part of the entire system! No joke. Skirmishes can be scaled to the group size and level of the group playing them, as well as having a difficulty toggle which will increase the rewards from the Skirmish. If this sounds great, it's because it is! However, allow me to fill in some of the details.

First, each scaling axis (level, size, difficulty) is set only when the Skirmish is created. They will not change during playthrough. For groups, the leader of the fellowship will decide what values to select.

Second, in the interests of balance we have only implemented solo, small fellowship, fellowship, and 12 man raid  sizes for Skirmishes. This means when you select size, you can only select 1, 3, 6 or 12. At launch, all skirmishes can be played as 1, 3 and 6 man versions. Roughly half of them can also be run as 12-man raids. We will be unlocking the remaining 12-man versions in the future.

Third, a combination of the two above limitations means that if you set up a small fellowship (3 player) Skirmish and try to invite a 4th member, they will be unable to join. Simply exit the Skirmish, and re-create a fellowship (6 player) Skirmish. Playing with less than the maximum number of players is possible, though a bit more difficult.

So there are some restrictions, but we allow a significant amount of customization to create the kind of experience you want. My favorite part of all this is the difficulty scale. If a particular Skirmish seems too easy, simply step up the difficulty and you will find yourself challenged again, and receive more rewards!

Summary

I think that covers scaling and randomization. It's our hope that we have created story instances with a number of randomized factors to keep replays fun and interesting. On top of that, we allow you to play those instances with as many, or as few, other players as you'd like and at whatever level you'd like. To top it off we even let you adjust the difficulty of the instances up if you are in the mood for a challenge.

Next time, we will talk about Soldiers. As a refresher, they are recruits from the free peoples you will be able to personally train and customize to assist you in Skirmishes. See you then!

Faction/Reputation, whichever moniker you choose the result is the same: a standing with a group of people with which you have or have no previous interactions. We have several of these in the game right now and all indications point to their inclusion in the future. We added this system a little later than usual and as a result it suffered from a little less love than it possibly could have received.

As many of you know, I have been working on revisions to the game for the better part of a year now. The latest effort, the Lone-lands (full pass including the Epic Story and Garth Agarwen brings the area to level 22-32 and I threw in a dash of level 55+ for good measure), showed me that there was something missing in the game and through the assistance of beta testers I was able to cobble together the early stages of another undertaking - growing the Reputation system.

I have been spending some cycles working out ways that we can make our Reputation/Faction system a little more robust and also finding ways to make the goal of kindred more appealing. To that end there are some minor additions coming to the Lone-lands’ new faction The Eglain, when the Siege of Mirkwood drop happens. Rather than holding this back, I figured I would get this out there now and get some feedback, figure out if this direction scratches an itch and explain how I arrived at this destination. Like all issues that come up for designers this one was laden with some red herrings and murky waters.

The Issue…

There is no incentive to grind through reputation. - paraphrased statement from LotRO players.

Okay, we get that, the perception clearly is that the reputation system is light. The reality is…the reputation system is light. It started out rather fluffy and kind and grew into a system that is now used heavily in new areas and as a result, the inconsistencies and shortcomings are more apparent. We are aware of that fact. We dislike that fact and it is now a personal crusade to alleviate that issue and address concerns by providing something more with the reputation system.

Now, to accomplish this goal I needed to establish a benchmark. Something that would serve as the new template upon which all future reputation will be built or revised. That began with The Eglain in the Lone-lands.

The average player moving through the Lone-lands and following the quests there will find that they achieve acquaintance level with the Eglain quickly - the same is also true of any player who previously completed all quests in the Lone-lands. This design was important as the Eglain rep, story-wise, is now a gate for Book 2. (Don’t freak out! Really, it is easy to get to Acquaintance.) At each stage thereafter, I wanted to properly incentivize folks to stick with the reputation and continue growing. At acquaintance, players can see that there are rewards just out of reach, rewards that are relevant to their level and will have an impact moving forward. I also wanted to provide players with a different way of handling the advancement other than specialized recipes only used by the rep faction and so I developed a quest for every production crafting skill. These quests are available at acquaintance level and though they are not the simplest way to get to Kindred, they should help alleviate the issues of that grind and have an avenue that does not involve hunting, instances, etc…

Average players completing the remainder of the quests tied to the Eglain will reach friend - or thereabouts, those who previously completed the Lone-lands will be very close to friend when they log in on the update day. This puts folks at the first reward tier. An initial piece of a jewelry set. This is a specialized set to one of three stances - tactical, defensive and offensive melee. They are somewhat costly - but likely worth the expenditure.

At Kindred, players can purchase a tailored pocket item. I say tailored because it is built specifically for your class and usable only by your class. All items are rare and usable at 28, 30 and 32 (subject to change). The set bonus is a pretty nice and focuses on morale and class functionality over more stats. Those are reserved for the items.

Placing this up on the test realm for the Beta received some interesting feedback; immediately a level 60 stated that they could only reach ally through questing and I responded with the following:

“At level 60, is there really a reason to grind for this faction? There is no way to rocket players into the ally tier without also increasing the faction for players going through this area fresh. At the moment, I like the progression. I just need to make the items in there go from friend to kindred.” - Orion <- That’s me.

Now, I admit, the timbre of that statement makes me sound like I was being dimwitted or narrow-minded; but, my intention was not to provide a level 60 with a reputation that they could use. My intent was to create the template for future reputation implementation. A few more posts transpired and player’s dug in and then I dug in getting so adamant and uncommunicative as to say:

“Lastly, an area meant for levels 22-32 is not going to have a reward schema implemented to support level 60-65 players.” - Orion

Wow, really? Did I say that? You bet I did, I had my underlying goal of building that template and was hyper-focused on that and that alone; then something cool happened. A follow-up post came in:

“I wasn’t expecting to see rep items available that would be of any use to level-capped players. I guess what I meant was something - a title, a cosmetic, something “fluff” like that - that would stay with the player past level 32. I know it’s not realistic to expect something like this for book 9, just a thought for down the road as to how the lower level faction grinds can provide something that stays with the character.” - Beta player who knows who they are but needs to remain nameless for the moment because of NDA.

Suddenly, there was an epiphany - not really a huge one mind you, but an epiphany nonetheless. From that, I cobbled together a new document highlighting all the changes that I wanted to make to the reputation system in an effort to make it fully realized and complimentary to the game. By the end of that day I had the new doc hammered out with a list of things that I could do in the short-term. When I came home that night I wrote up a bundle of ideas for the long-term.

This is a snapshot of the process. We started this a long time ago and there have been some clear posts on what people wanted to see the reputation system be - but, honestly, many posts are filled with requests that, in the interest of balance, are just not feasible. We overlook some of the gems sometimes, we sometimes sweep the complaints into a pile and say that we will look at them later. Sometimes later never happens. In this case, it did.

The Solution…

From this conversation, where we cut out telephone, we were able to discern a legitimate gripe that was easily handled, something that should go a long way in realizing the potential of the reputation system. Like all things in LotRO development, this will happen in tiers and begins in only one area with only one Rep Faction - The Eglain. Though it will only happen here for Book 9, the hope is to carry this through as the new template of the future:

   1. At Acquaintance players will earn a title indicative of their standing with the group and gain access to items to improve standing or relevant level rewards.
   2. At Friend players will earn a title indicative of their standing with the group, gain access to further rewards and receive a 10% discount on all stable-masters associated with the rep faction (Ost-guruth has one stable-master), this bonus will stack with the travel reward given out earlier this year to “elder” players.
   3. At Ally players will earn a title indicative of their standing with the group, gain access to further rewards and receive a 5% discount on all vendors associated with the group. This bonus should extend to repair costs as well.
   4. At Kindred players will earn the last title for the group, gain access to further rewards and receive a travel skill - sharing a cool down with all racial-based travel in the game that will take the player to the group’s chosen home. This travel skill will require the use of a travel ration. We are aware that this will likely cause crossover into player skills, but the time investiture into these reputations is significant and we feel that this is a legitimate reward to offer.

Again all these are implemented for The Eglain faction and The Eglain reputation faction only. As time allows and as I move forward with revisions, other reputations will see inclusion and the same enhancements. These were the low-hanging fruit bits.

Now for something that we rarely do - a glimpse of the future. The earliest that any of this will be seen is in 2010, likely later spring or early summer and could get pushed out further than that timetable. My primary reason for offering these up is for feedback and to inform you of where my head is at this time.

    * Deeds for completing multiple reputations - with titles and possibly specialized rewards.
    * Kindred cosmetic rewards to display individual factions as cloaks.
    * Kindred mount rewards (yes, we have some of these already - this would be revisiting those that do not)
    * Ally and Kindred recipes for production crafting skills that are unique and have broader appeal: These might include; cosmetic items, food recipes serving multiple people at once, bind on acquire gear, class specific gear (rep clothes for your banner-bearers, unique looks for your summoned pets, special instruments, etc…), housing items (functional and non-functional) - all recipes would be and produce level appropriate on all accounts where the item would have gameplay impact.
    * Swift travel routes to areas of importance to the group or relevant relation.

There are other ideas percolating, but they require more explanation than I can give at the moment, so I must cut myself short here.

Ultimately, reputation is another crusade being undertaken and one that I believe will be improved significantly.

Closing this blog out, I want to invite people to ask questions here. If I can answer them, I will. After all, we are in this together.

O

They system opens at level 30, with the tutorials and a few skirmishes being available. New skirmishes open up every 5 or so levels.

Currently all skirmishes scale to cap.

Holy crap.  That alone is worth it for some of the factions.

Brian “Zombie Columbus” continues his series of developer diaries about the new Skirmish system coming in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™ with Part 4: Soldiers in Middle Earth. If you’ve missed previous installments you can catch up with Part 1: Overview, Part 2: Story Instances, and Part 3: Randomization and Scaling.

Soldiers in Middle-earth

Why Soldiers?

Skirmishes represent the Free Peoples’ response to the increasing hostility across Middle-earth. All across Eriador, Skirmish Camps have sprung up to serve as mustering places for those willing to fight. Most of these people are not formally trained combatants; they are simple folk who have taken up arms to defend their homes and lands against the growing threat of the Enemy. Most of the formally trained warriors have been called away by their respective lords and masters to assist in the larger scale battles that are brewing. This leaves an opening for you, the LOTRO players, to help lead the way to victory!

You’re a hero, act like it!

LOTRO players represent someone a cut above average; a hero, whether by accident (like some Hobbits we all know) or intention. With this power comes responsibility -- not only to assist in these skirmishes, but to take some commoners under your wing and train them. In return, you will be able to bring these new Soldiers into battle with you. Unfortunately, they are not as well trained as the Captain’s Herald or Lore-master’s companions. In battle, they will act without your orders, engaging the enemy as they see fit. You can give them occasional orders, but they are not well-disciplined enough to be managed as much as seasoned soldiers.

Train your personalized troops!

There are many aspects of your Soldiers that you can specialize as you see fit. Since there are many eager recruits to choose from, you are in a position to decide what you would like your Soldiers to look like. You may select what race your Soldier is, as well as their clothing, hair styles and even hair colour! In addition to these cosmetic changes, you also choose specialized training in various arts of war. These "Roles" allow you to train a Soldier that complements your abilities. As an example, if you are fragile in direct combat, train your Soldier in the Protector Role. Soldiers who become Protectors will attempt to draw enemy attacks to themselves, keeping the attacks from you.

Soldiers and Design

Art imitates life

One of the most interesting things about working on LOTRO is balancing between the rich lore of the world and gameplay mechanics. I experienced this firsthand during Moria while working on the Rune-keeper. I find that lore informs gameplay as much as gameplay informs the lore. The design we settled on for Soldiers is as much a series of gameplay decisions as it is lore decisions. Some of the lore described above led to how the game functions, and some of the gameplay below led to how we presented the lore. I find the dichotomy to be interesting, like the old saying: Life imitates art. Art imitates life.

Soldier interaction and availability

After completing the Skirmish tutorials, you will gain the Summon Soldier skill that calls your Soldier. It's important to point out that your Soldier may only be used while inside a Skirmish. We have designed the Skirmish instances with Soldiers in mind, but the rest of the game would be made trivial if you could bring your troops around with you! In light of the Soldier’s minimal formal training and that we already had two "pet" classes, we decided to have the Soldier mostly controlled by AI. He will fight to the best of his ability, but you will have only minimal ability to direct his targets and no ability to choose when he uses his skills. This minimal control comes through the Direct Soldier skill which will force your Soldier to attack the indicated target. This skill has a longer cooldown time, representing the Soldier’s inability to follow constant orders. This all serves a minor design goal that I didn't mention in the overview; keep the UI impact of Skirmish low. That is to say, we didn't want to add dozens of new skills and barter items to already full shortcut bars and backpacks!

Customization details

The specialized training and customization available for your Soldier will be done through special Skirmish Traits. I'll go into a lot more details about them in the upcoming developer diary about Skirmish rewards. For now, you just need to know they act much like existing traits, though in a separate pool. They are managed separately from existing traits, so they won't interfere with your Virtue/Race/Class/Legendary traits, and they’ll allow you to choose from a wide variety of cosmetic changes to your Soldier. The race and gender of the Soldier can be designated through a trait, as well as what hairstyle and color you wish them to have. Next, you will be able to pick a "Role" trait. This is the most important trait for your Soldier, as it will essentially define what class the Soldier is. For instance, the Protector Role is focused on keeping threat on himself, and outfits your Soldier in heavy armour and a shield. Each Role will then allow you to pick what Skill traits you want. These Skills each add new abilities to your Soldier’s repertoire. The Protector can purchase skills to increase threat, trigger an AOE attack, or heal himself. Finally, there are Training traits which grant generic bonuses like critical rating or morale. There are more traits for each of these options than there are slots to equip them, allowing each player to customize their Soldier in ways that complement their playstyle.

Your fellowship of two

I'd like to talk about that last sentence a bit more. The number one reason we added Soldiers into Skirmishes was so each player could customize that Soldier to complement their own characters. In fact, the purpose of Soldiers is mainly aimed at letting solo players participate in more challenging Skirmishes. As a healer, you can add a tank or a DPS Soldier to your group. As a DPS class, perhaps you would like your Soldier to be a healer or a buffer. The choices are up to you, and they add a nice layer to the game. In addition to the combat effectiveness bump, they allow us to make Skirmishes more "epic." Instances tend to have more monsters and more allied NPCs, to give them a feeling of scope.

Overview:

So, Soldiers allow for an extra axis of customization, represent the commoners of Middle-earth fighting at your side, and allow us to throw more monsters at you! Next time we will be talking about everyone’s favorite thing in the universe, Rewards, so check back soon!

But how did coconuts make it into the Shire?

Giant Eagles.

African   Far Harad or European   Beleriand Giant Eagles?

Fify

Yeah, it was mostly three pages of bitching. I don't know if I really learned anything about the expansion.

In Skirmishes, we have special rules for treasure. Monsters won’t be dropping any items except for Skirmish Marks (more below), nor will they drop coin - with the notable exception of the Boss, who will drop a rather large amount of coin. We wanted to streamline gameplay as much as possible, removing some of the need to loot corpses as you go. Only Lieutenants, Bosses, and optional encounter monsters will have loot, which will be exclusively Marks. Experience and Item Advancement Experience will be gained as normal for monster kills. In addition, the daily quests will give a chunk of XP like most quests do.

“Normal” Horses (for finishing the level 35 Riding quest)
  Fast, 100 health
 
  Starter Horses (Level 20, no quest required)
  Very Slow, 80 Health
   
  Founder’s Horse
  Bree Horse:  Very Slow, 100 Health
   
  Reputation Horses
  (Kindred standing required)
 Fast, 150 health
   
  Goats In Moria (Reputation)
  Tame Redhorn Goat(Friend standing) – Very Slow, 100 health
  Nible Redhorn Goat(Kindred standing) – Fast, 150 health
   
  Mirkwood Pre-Order Goat
  Dusky Nimblefoot Goat: Fast, 60 health
 
That clear things up a little bit?

And now to address soloing the epics....

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

This seems like a great solution, although sparse on details. I hope it works well.

Well met, friends! Tsieng Liu here from the LOTRO Dungeons Team with some info on our latest cluster of instanced content: Dol Guldur! We have some exciting new mechanics, some great new artwork, and a good variety of gameplay experiences to share with you in our latest expansion, Siege of Mirkwood™. So without further ado...

What is Dol Guldur?

Dol Guldur is the fortress where Sauron dwelt when he was known as “The Necromancer.” It’s an old fortress that is now full of the foul servants of the Enemy on the edge of Mirkwood forest. It is in this region that the elves of Lothlórien are mounting an offensive in order to keep the Enemy from penetrating their forests.

Dul Guldur Exterior

How Many Dungeons are there?

    * Three 3-person dungeons:
          o The Dungeons of Dol Guldur
          o The Sword-hall of Dol Guldur
          o The Warg-pens of Dol Guldur
    * One 6-person dungeon:
          o Sammath Gul
    * One 12-person raid:
          o Barad Guldur

A Quick Rundown:

We approached the 3-person dungeons of the cluster with looser expectations on group make-up due to the smaller group size. As such you should expect to see much more varied gameplay in these spaces.

Prime example: The Dungeons of Dol Guldur

The Dungeons of Dul Guldur

Here in the Dungeons of Dol Guldur you’ll be asked to free nine prisoners. As you scour the dungeons for these captives you’ll have to do your best to avoid the jail guards rather than fight them directly. Getting caught by the guards gets you put in jail and counts as one of your attempts to free prisoners from that guard’s wing. There are three wings in all, each with its own prisoners to free. Do your best to free as many prisoners as you can and you’ll succeed at the challenge mode for the dungeon. Fail too often and you’ll miss out on the extra rewards!



The Sword-hall of Dul Guldur

The Sword-hall of Dol Guldur pits you against various champions of the Enemy and features our most drastic challenge mode of the cluster. In the normal version of the dungeon you’ll face waves of enemies and bosses in turn; in the challenge mode you face all three bosses at once! Rest assured that each boss’ mechanics work in a way that requires awareness of what each one is doing at any given time. Expect many a repair bill as you learn this one. ;)



The Warg-pens of Dul Guldur

The Warg-pens feature a more orthodox design for a three-person instance (but will be no less challenging). Here, the goblins have managed to raise many different breeds of warg each with its own unique ability. Figuring out how to deal with the different breeds will prove to be the difference between an efficient clear and a warg’s next meal! What’s more, the wargs you encounter each time you enter the instance will be chosen randomly so each clear will be different than the last. Learning to deal with proper kill order, crowd control priority, etc. will provide a constant challenge for dungeon explorers.



Sammath Gul

Sammath Gul is our six-person dungeon and will feature a behind the scenes look at the former chambers of the Enemy itself. Players will fight three unique bosses with substantial coordination mechanics as they attempt to discover the mysteries behind the Necromancer’s former abode. Successfully complete the challenge mode and you’ll face off against a fourth boss!



Barad Guldur

No war effort can be sustained indefinitely, and the elves’ efforts here are no exception. The elves are looking for a brave fellowship of adventurers to storm the tower of Dol Guldur and drive out the leadership behind its forces. Are you up to the challenge?

New Mechanics

The Dol Guldur cluster features two new mechanics: Splash Damage and Terror.

Splash damage is a new area of effect damage type that splits its damage evenly amongst the targets within its area of effect. Expect to see fights that require groups to either spread out or group up based on skills that use both our old area-based damage and this new splash damage type!

Terror has two effects on players: cowering and fleeing. All victims of Terror will first cower as they are overcome with inner terror and then flee as they have lost control of their mental faculties. Fights using this mechanic will wreak havoc on positioning. Have fun!

Challenge Modes

We’ve really pushed to make sure our challenge modes provide a different challenge than the normal mode provides. Our goal is not to have players simply approach the dungeons the same way, only more efficiently. Each of our challenges will require that players purposefully make strategic decisions that make the fight more difficult. Completing challenge modes will reward you with more barter tokens and a chance at rare loot.

Radiance

The radiance requirements for the new raid zone can be met by acquiring enough barter tokens from the cluster. These tokens can be acquired regardless of completing challenge modes; but succeeding at the cluster’s challenges will reward you with bonus tokens which will get you outfitted in radiance gear that much faster.

The “Tier” Set

As with any cluster, Dol Guldur features a new tier set of gear for each class. The pieces of this set can be acquired within the raid zone exclusively. Further, those players wishing to acquire the entire set will need to complete each of the raid’s three challenges!

Deeds

Moving forward, each of our dungeons and clusters will feature an entire suite of deeds revolving around successful completion of each dungeon and its challenge modes. Successfully complete all of the deeds for a given cluster and you’ll find yourself with an extra special reward!

--Also, I really hope they haven't designed out Mirkwood such that we don't recognize the journey from the Hobbit.  They hopefully have left themselves room to bring in that lore later for other expansions.

great stuff, luv the customization


what is "world join"?

I believe the events of The Hobbit all occurred to the north of the part they're adding.

This is correct, we're getting the south end of Mirkwood only here.

   *  All weapon speeds have been normalized around the following categories of weapon, i.e. all weapons in each of these categories use the same speed rating:
          o One-handed weapons (sword, axe, mace, hammer, dagger, club, spear and implements)
          o Two-handed weapons (sword, axe, hammer, staff, club, halberd, rune-stone, and implements)
          o Bows and Crossbows
          o Javelins
    * The “weapon speed” rating has been removed from item examination.
    * Damage variance, or the range of damage per weapon, has also been standardized so that the high end of the damage range is consistent for a given category of weapon at a given weapon level. This reduced the high end of the damage range for some weapons and increased it for others. Almost all weapons will show a damage range change with this update.

---

    *   We have updated skill queue processing to ensure that the execution of auto-attack skills is much more consistent. Previously, it was possible to starve out the auto-attacks or have auto-attacks delay the execution of your chosen skills, depending on your play style. Further prioritization and more aggressive management of combat animations makes it a lot more difficult to do either of these things so, overall, players should be a lot closer in terms of effectiveness.
    * We introduced a new skill timing which we’re calling “immediate.” These skills execute almost instantly when chosen, causing any prior skill to complete and make way for the “immediate” skill to proceed. These skills ignore the remaining “action duration” of the previously executed skill. We have added the “Immediate” key word to skill tooltips to make it easier for you to identify which skills use this new timing.
    * We also updated the existing “fast” skill timing which we have used since the game launched. The “fast” skills will not accelerate the execution of any prior skill, but they will execute “as soon as possible” whenever a previous skill animation completes. These skills also ignore the remaining “action duration” of the previously executed skill. We have added the “Fast” keyword to these skills’ tooltips.
    * The update to skill queuing and combat animation management has fundamentally changed how animations overlap and blend on the client. We have added two new combat options (see “Combat Options” on the Options panel) which allow you to tailor some aspects of our new animation management scheme so you can choose the appearance you prefer. NOTE: These options do not have any impact on your combat effectiveness; they are cosmetic and only affect your visual play experience during combat.
          o “Play Optional Combat Animations” – This option is off by default. With the new animation management scheme we sometimes bypass auto-attack skill animations in order to get to your chosen skills more quickly. By enabling this option your client will still play these optional animations. You will see more animations and appear to be attacking more frequently; however, you will also see more animation blending or interruptions as your chosen skills execute over your auto-attack skills.
          o “Allow combat animation blending” – This option is off by default. When disabled, you will only see one combat animation executing at a time on any attacker; we do not attempt to blend animations, rather we interrupt any running animation prior to starting a new one. When enabled we will allow all prior animations to continue and will attempt to blend your next skill animation in.

Is it always Common, or do you happen to wield a Common damage staff?

I missed Weathertop with three characters so far.  No idea where it starts.

It's still not WoW. Some skills are marked "Immediate" and they are as instant as instants in WoW (even more so, since they interrupt any currently queued or performing skills), but most skills aren't. It's really just a design and balance decision at this point, skills need "cast time" since there's no global cooldown in LotRO.

I'm guessing what you're really asking is "do instants apply all their effects up front" (like WoW does), and the answer is no. You will still get an animation and get the effect applied somewhere in the middle of it (depending on where it makes sense in relation to the animation.) They haven't fundamentally changed how animations and skills interact, just how they suppress eachother. The major point of the update was to let skills truncate auto-attacks, so that you get the damage from the auto-attack but don't have to wait for the animation to finish if you want to use a skill. It'll be most noticable for melee fighters, such as Warden. I've noticed a significant DPS increase since I can now have auto-attacks turned on without it messing with my timing.

Overall it just feels a little snappier, really. It still plays the same.

Executing an "Immediate" skill will 'truncate' any executing skill; 'interrupt' probably isn't the correct word. The current skill animation will be stopped, all remaining payout delivered (yes, you get the full damage/effects of the current skill) and then the "Immediate" skill will execute. You will definitely find some interesting new skill chains with this capability...