Book 8 Preliminary Release Notes

[Mrbloodworth]

Book 8 Preliminary Release Notes

Ill add items of note in a moment.



Not in any order:

It's the Little Things That Count

The impending war between the Light and the Dark has caused many of the vendors in the world to fear for the stability of their livelihood. In an effort to retain business the vendors have now learned to sell stackable items in quantities other than "one" and "a full stack" in order to better serve you! While you have the vendor UI open you can now buy single items by default, or use…

    * SHIFT to purchase a full stack,
    * ALT to purchase a quantity that you specify in a pop-up dialog
    * TAB to fill all stacks of the selected item type in your backpack.

Were they watching you Yegolev? 

The Quest Guide quest list on the map will now save its position once you close the map or log out.

Yay!


Holy shit:

Crafting Revamp!

    * Full details will be given in an upcoming dev diary. Until then:
          o Adjusted the minimum level requirements for most crafted light, medium, and heavy armour pieces
          o Adjusted the minimum level requirements for most crafted shields
          o Adjusted the minimum level requirements for most crafted jewellery
          o Adjusted the minimum level requirements for most crafted weapons
          o Optional Ingredients Revamp! Optional ingredients for many recipes were previously dropped by specific monsters in specific areas, which often led to difficulty imbalances between obtaining the ingredients for the different crafting professions. Additionally, many of these items merely stated, "This item can be used in crafting." This vagueness did little to help players identify which optional ingredients were useful to which professions (and at what tiers). I am happy to say that those days are behind us!
          o New optional ingredients have been added for the Cooking, Jeweller, Metalsmith, Scholar, Tailor, Weaponsmith, and Woodworker professions. These new optional ingredients replace the old optional ingredients, which can no longer be found in treasure or used in recipes. A new Trophy Broker NPC, located in Michel Delving, will exchange any old optional ingredient you might have for the appropriate new optional ingredient.
          o The new optional ingredients can now be obtained from two different, widespread sources: Humanoid Treasure & Resource Nodes
          o The tier of optional ingredient dropped via treasure is determined by the humanoid creature's level:
                + Apprentice Ingredients: Levels 1-12
                + Journeyman Ingredients: Levels 13-23
                + Expert Ingredients: Levels 24-34
                + Artisan Ingredients: Levels 35-43
                + Master Ingredients: Levels 44-50
                + Supreme Ingredients: Levels 51-60
          o The tier/type of optional ingredient obtained from a resource node is determined by the tier/type of node:
                + Farming Fields: can produce Cooking optional ingredients
                + Forestry Branches: can produce Tailoring and Woodworking optional ingredients
                + Prospecting Deposits: can produce Jeweller, Metalsmith, and Weaponsmith optional ingredients
                + Scholar Artifacts: can produce Scholar optional ingredients
          o The new optional ingredients now clearly state in their tooltips which profession and crafting tier (Apprentice, Journeyman, etc.) the ingredient is used by. Each new optional ingredient is used by only one profession/tier combination.

There was more specifics per profession not listed here.

In an effort to reduce some of the inventory space concerns the following have had their stack sizes increased.

Fixed a hobbit who was farming without any tools.

 

Burrow Mobs Take 2! Once again, monsters which "burrow" (Cave-claws, Shades, Dark-waters, Neekers) will no longer do so when they are near death, because that's annoying. Our first attempt at fixing this was equivalent to a 9mm; it should've been enough to get the job done, but it wasn't. *This* time we’re pulling out the Desert Eagle .50, that outta stop these jerks.

[Soln]

The quest "The Old Dourhand City" is no longer a fellowship quest.

only one. 


Glad the UI preferences can now be saved.  Otherwise this is just moar for the catasses.  Sorry.

[Mrbloodworth]

The quest "The Old Dourhand City" is no longer a fellowship quest.

only one. 


Glad the UI preferences can now be saved.  Otherwise this is just moar for the catasses.  Sorry.

Because it included a raid all other additions, content, and changes don't mean anything? This was only a partial patch notes, as they stated, this also includes the revision of breeland (Like they did with Erid Luin).

They revamped the crafting system! no more 6 crit items per tier, and all items now say who, what, where.... This is great, my bags will love it.

[Stormwaltz]

I believe Patience suggested that they're not including most of the new content in patch notes, so it can be a surprise.

[Yegolev]

Were they watching you Yegolev? 

Apparently!  Thing I Have Recently Complained About That Are Possibly Fixed:
- Specify number of items to purchase from vendor.
- Evendim pathing is CRAP.
- "What the hell are these purple claws for?!"
- Add a "Make All" button in Crafting panel.
- "When you slap someone with a fish, now you slap him/her/it with a fish, not just hold a fish while slapping him/her/it."
- "Traveling Rations now stack to 100." and most of the other stack-increases.
- Runestone resale values suck.
- "Reduced the odds of getting Honey & Oats recipes. Now the odds of getting them are high, rather than spectacularly awesome."

However:
- Housing lockout fees will now increase according to a schedule every week that the house is in lockout. The initial fee is the same as the existing lockout fee. Every week that the house remains in lockout, the lockout fee will increase until it reaches 90% of the house purchase price.
- I am pretty sure I can already craft inlays, enamels and chisels...?
- I did not see Evendim pathing in the list.

I'd like to see a more comprehensive report.

[Mrbloodworth]

That avatar fits you so well you know. lol. (Your tone and manner of speaking/typing)

[Yegolev]

At the risk of confirming my narcissism, that's why I acquired it and have kept it for so long.

EDIT to actually confirm.  My wife was asking me something about Blogspot last week and I didn't really have an answer but commented "I probably have one but I never use it.  I have logins all over the internet, I'm just awesome that way."  "You think you have one?"  "Type in yegolev.blogspot.com and see."  BAM!

[rattran]

Book 8 Preliminary Release Notes
Holy shit:

Crafting Revamp!
          o New optional ingredients have been added for the Cooking, Jeweller, Metalsmith, Scholar, Tailor, Weaponsmith, and Woodworker professions. These new optional ingredients replace the old optional ingredients, which can no longer be found in treasure or used in recipes. A new Trophy Broker NPC, located in Michel Delving, will exchange any old optional ingredient you might have for the appropriate new optional ingredient.
          o The new optional ingredients can now be obtained from two different, widespread sources: Humanoid Treasure & Resource Nodes
          o The tier of optional ingredient dropped via treasure is determined by the humanoid creature's level:
                + Apprentice Ingredients: Levels 1-12
                + Journeyman Ingredients: Levels 13-23
                + Expert Ingredients: Levels 24-34
                + Artisan Ingredients: Levels 35-43
                + Master Ingredients: Levels 44-50
                + Supreme Ingredients: Levels 51-60
          o The tier/type of optional ingredient obtained from a resource node is determined by the tier/type of node:
                + Farming Fields: can produce Cooking optional ingredients
                + Forestry Branches: can produce Tailoring and Woodworking optional ingredients
                + Prospecting Deposits: can produce Jeweller, Metalsmith, and Weaponsmith optional ingredients
                + Scholar Artifacts: can produce Scholar optional ingredients
          o The new optional ingredients now clearly state in their tooltips which profession and crafting tier (Apprentice, Journeyman, etc.) the ingredient is used by. Each new optional ingredient is used by only one profession/tier combination.

So, this is the second full revision of the same subsystem? A month ago when I started playing again I had to swap out lots of crafting stuff to the new, simpler system, and dump a pile of crap like "Asht's Tooth" that are only good for old recipes. This at least looks like it'll simplify things down the rest of the way.

The "    o Adjusted the minimum level requirements for most crafted X " worries me, if it gets adjusted up at all it's going to make crafting even less useful. Already it's pretty much just crit items that have any worth, and even that is marginal after level 40 or so.

[Yegolev]

I seem to remember last time it was only the main ingredients that were adjusted and properly color-coded.  In any case, looks like I'm going to end up with a few stacks of garbage.

[Ard]

They updated the rare components last time they did this also.  That's what the barter NPC in the bree crafting hall was for.  They just didn't go nearly far enough with it.  Pretty sure they said they were putting in another barter merchant to convert all the current rare crafting mats into the new ones again.

[Yegolev]

Yes, and the new one is in Michel Delving.  Take that, cock! *stab stab stab*

[Stormwaltz]

- Housing lockout fees will now increase according to a schedule every week that the house is in lockout. The initial fee is the same as the existing lockout fee. Every week that the house remains in lockout, the lockout fee will increase until it reaches 90% of the house purchase price.

I don't get the point of this one. The main problem with houses getting locked out is that people leave for year (or forever), and their house never goes back on the market. Half my own neighborhood is locked up for non-payment by people who no longer play. If the cost increased to 90% and then the house went back on the market, I could get behind it. This seems like a solution for a problem we don't have.

[Mrbloodworth]

- Housing lockout fees will now increase according to a schedule every week that the house is in lockout. The initial fee is the same as the existing lockout fee. Every week that the house remains in lockout, the lockout fee will increase until it reaches 90% of the house purchase price.

I don't get the point of this one. The main problem with houses getting locked out is that people leave for year (or forever), and their house never goes back on the market. Half my own neighborhood is locked up for non-payment by people who no longer play. If the cost increased to 90% and then the house went back on the market, I could get behind it. This seems like a solution for a problem we don't have.

It was in response to people paying for a week, dumping a bunch of stuff inside, then not paying....and months later, paying the minimal fee, and doing it all over again. Somewhat like venders in SWG.

As far as housing not coming back onto the market, you can thank players for that. There was a HUGE up roar when housing was on test, because, if you stopped paying, a week or two after your rent was due, it would escrow your stuff (for two weeks there as well, then poof) and re-list the house.

People did not like that idea.

[Yegolev]

I agree, seems like they are trying to make it a better money sink, otherwise I don't understand.  I would predict it might cause a quick sell-off of homes but otherwise people will just let their houses langush for even longer since the finish line is being moved farther away.  If they wanted people to sell their homes, I think they would have better results from a large buyback price, or implement property deed sales/transfers.

It was in response to people paying for a week, dumping a bunch of stuff inside, then not paying....and months later, paying the minimal fee, and doing it all over again. Somewhat like venders in SWG.

This is dumb.  What else is a house for?  Ironically, I recently stopped paying house upkeep so that I could pay for my horse.  Now I get to loot more wolves instead of Play The Game until I can reopen my house before the update hits.   Cure is worse than the disease if you ask me.

[Mrbloodworth]

Title transfers or permanent escrow vouchers would be good. I don't like the idea of the 90%, but maybe they think people will simply abandon and buy a new one, instead of paying the fee?

I dunno.

[Stormwaltz]

It was in response to people paying for a week, dumping a bunch of stuff inside, then not paying....and months later, paying the minimal fee, and doing it all over again.

Here's an "exploit" I bugged months ago. Have a friend who's quitting the game buy a house and give you all permissions. After he cancels his sub, you can continue paying rent, using the storage, and decorating it -- in addition to owning your own house.

I discovered this by accident when a friend quit and months later I visited his house.

[Yegolev]

Obviously such things are simply put in the "Housing Redesign" bucket, if it's even a problem to do that.  This shit might go away if they just give us more/cheaper storage.

[Tarami]

Crit item adjustments. Much more consistent in that that the items don't change in type between tiers of the same profession.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rW1fVYVkPa5-tzpTnxgRfGA

[Mrbloodworth]

I swear they are stalking us.

[Yegolev]

I hope they are. LotRO is the best* MMO out there, but the Lum Diaspora can always find room for improvement.

[Soln]

I also agree it's the best (non-PvP) out there, but there's a helluva lot of angst these days on the official forums about gear and rep gating, and the whole problem of lack of groups in the old content.  These are surfacing as hardcore vs. casual, which I don't think it needs to be.

Turbine needed to take a page from Blizz who nerfed their old content when TBC came out.  Right now, I think LotRO is facing some turning points since everyone is being funneled into Moria and possibly into playstyles they don't like.  But the lore kind of needs to push people there physically at least.  So interesting changes ahead.

[Yegolev]

I agree about that turning-point thing.  As far as I can tell, raids were added with Moria.  I suppose this is fine as long as it's contained and not some sort of "gateway drug" whereby LotRO becomes a pretty WoW: grind-loot-raid bullshit.  PvP is constrained to one zone, so I'd say it makes sense for raids to also be contained in Moria.  More lore, less loot, if you ask me.

[Mrbloodworth]

I also agree it's the best (non-PvP) out there, but there's a helluva lot of angst these days on the official forums about gear and rep gating, and the whole problem of lack of groups in the old content.  These are surfacing as hardcore vs. casual, which I don't think it needs to be.

Turbine needed to take a page from Blizz who nerfed their old content when TBC came out.  Right now, I think LotRO is facing some turning points since everyone is being funneled into Moria and possibly into playstyles they don't like.  But the lore kind of needs to push people there physically at least.  So interesting changes ahead.

Yes, its getting stupid on the forums. All i see is turbine doing what it has always done. Add content for all types of its players. Frequently.

With one hand, they have added 6 more instances (GROUP AND 3 MAN) in Moria, with the other, they have rebalanced/organized bree-land.

People are fickle.

[Tarami]

As Bloodworth was saying, LotRO today is not focuswise significantly different to launch LotRO and much less LotRO a year ago. It's just stupid people who have got the idea something major has happened (OMG SKY FALLING) because they are no longer new to the game and know what to expect. They've unknowingly become insufferable catasses, full of a false sense of entitlement.

Raids weren't added with Moria; SoA had Helegrod (24-man) and Rift (12-man), not including the endless instances Urugarth and Carn Dûm, along with many open-world raids (like Bogbereth.) Moria came with one lair instance, the watcher, has gained another lair, the supersized turtle, and is getting a 12-man, 6-boss instance, Dar Narbugud, in book 8. That's one "proper" raid the past year and a half or so.

At the same time they've added many more endgame instances than SoA ever had, better itemization, legendaries and dozen of small and big things that SoA could have used but never had. So no, Turbine haven't really changed how they expand LotRO, it's the players that have changed their perspective on what "content" is.

[Soln]

there's a lot more new players (hello!) and they are bringing new expectations.  For one thing it's far harder to get a PUG for a lot of high end SoA content.  Easily solved, however, with better grouping tools and maybe an experience bonus.

One post I saw I think last week argued that it made sense to have radiance armor and the like because the entire arc of the lore is to become more dangerous and more challenging. We are moving along the Epic narrative into active areas of large scale conflict (like Rohan vs the Shire) so it makes sense to have more "harder" group required content.  Have to agree. 

But likewise they have to ungate the PUG problem from places like Angmar, Helgorod, CD, Uru, even GB -- people have to churn through the out of date stuff.  Particularly when like CD it's required for the Epic Vol 1.  Not getting people to help me through that is my biggest and is my legitimate beef with the game at the moment.

[Yegolev]

Ha, you know what, the fact that I forgot all about Angmar is a great confirmation of what you guys were saying.  Also: derp.

EDIT to again beat the horse of "fellowship instances kick my ass because PUGs suck and/or I can't find six people to rub together", because giving older instances a good whack with the nerf bat would help a lot.  IMO.

[Tarami]

I possibly came off as a douchebag toward you guys, which wasn't my intention. I'm all for softening up the old instances - my gripe is the class of "new raiders" that have appeared the past year that wants to push the game in the direction of WoW. Those are also the people being whining cunts regardless of what Turbine does.

Personally I'd like to see the entire < 51 game retuned as 3-mans. So not easier per se, just requiring less people. That's obviously hoping for a bit much at this point in the game, but CD and Uru (hell, instances in general) would be a good starting point since people need items from those places for their legendary traits.

[Yegolev]

I possibly came off as a douchebag toward you guys,

Have you read the rest of this forum?

Anyway, I agree with you on all points.  As long as Turbine doesn't start listening to the whiners.  I suppose these are people who are tired of WoW?  I see stink-line emanating from the WoW subform these days.

[Hawkbit]

I tend to agree.  My thought was all quests should be solo in the world, while volume quests should be grouped.  There are people in the old world to help, but sometimes it can be a real pain to get them together.

[Soln]

Here's my take:

Turbine did not have the resources to modify the old content with Moria launching, and thus lowered the levelling curve to help new players into Moria.  They have to have a way to push new players South along the lore, and thus up the leveling curve.  Basically, the entire mature playerbase is now in Moria and Lorien, and all the newbs have to be helped down there as well faster.

But without changing old content they are pissing off new players who can't largely find the groups they need to consistently do the semi-mandatory and optional 6-man Fello quests.  So there's some lag for new players to get into the sexeh instances with their new kins.

The solution is not more solo quests -- that makes no sense IMO for a (social) virtual world (i.e. MASSIVE multiplayer online world). The problem is not challenge level, it's speed -- people want 1) access to the old content, and 2) be able to level quickly.

To solve these problems a lot of people have proposed that Turbine:
1) enhance all the LFF tools and maybe apply some incentive to grouping if required,
2) the idea of nerfing all old Fello 6-man's quests into 3-man's, and
3) implement a sidekicking feature, like in CoX. 

No idea which is easier to implement.  But the solution is not making the game "easier".  It's about allowing new players to feel they can access the whole game, and don't have to spend the same amount of time as older players finishing the older content.  This helps everyone -- you need the population to be all largely in the same zones and roughly at the same levels for a community to work.

The drama over raids and radiance gear doesn't bother me. Although, I hope they put in less WoW-like gear dependance and R-tard raids.

[Mrbloodworth]

Volume II: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dûm

Beneath the enchanted golden leaves of Lothlórien, you have made your name and won your glory, but the darkness of Moria is calling you back. In Volume II: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dûm, you must return to the ancient, harrowed darkness of Moria and uproot deadly evil growing there from pestilential roots. Your aid is desperately needed to bring light and air to the reclaimed kingdom of the Dwarves as darkness once again rises from the deep.

• Aid Celeborn and Haldir in fighting back the rising plague
• Recover artifacts of ancient evil from Moria’s depths
• Gather your wits and your courage to bring the elements of life to Khazad-dûm
• Retake the Dwarves’ Halls of Crafting in Moria and deny the foul Orcs their weapons of war

New Raid: Dâr Narbugud
The Mistress of Pestilence seeks to bring her plague to the world of light, and the fall of Durin’s Bane has made her bold. With the nameless things of Moria’s deeps, she is rising, and fear once more stalks the shadows. Twelve heroes must gather hope and courage and return to dark places to challenge 6 unique encounters for new high-end raid rewards.    
 New Raid: Dâr Narbugud
 

New Instances: Nalâ-dûm and Lumul-nar
The Dwarves of the Iron Garrison are striving to bring life back to their ancient kingdom, but something is thwarting their plans. Wits, courage, and steel are your weapons as you brave the depths to unlock the mystery and return the stuff of life—water and light—to the dark caves.

New Instance: Halls of Crafting
Mazog’s Orcs and Black Uruks from Dol Guldur have taken the ancient Halls of Crafting. Once the finest Dwarf-craftsmen made wonders here, but now the halls churn forth the Orcs’ vile weapons of war. Six heroes must retake the halls that the sound of Dwarf-hammers may once again ring out in Moria.     New Instance: Halls of Crafting
 


Enhanced New Player Experience    
As the epic begins in Bree-land, new, improved quests make your path to glory—and to danger—faster than ever before.

• Get to the action faster!
• Streamlined mid-level quests
• Enhanced rewards
• Improved instances

Crafting Revisited
Crafting has been revamped in book 8 with new optional ingredients, improvements to make crafted equipment more desirable, and new recipes across all vocations!
 
Celebrate Summer!
The Summer Festival returns for Book 8 with summer-themed games, quests, dances, the Inn League, and more fun and shenanigans!

And Much More!

• New Boat-keepers offer Swift Travel routes across Lake Evendim!
• Free up inventory space with item stacking to 50 or 100!
• New barter system for First Age legendary weapons!
• New UI to fill out a stack of goods or enter the amount you need!
• Vile Maw and Strange Happenings raids now available twice per week!
• Save your UI layout with the /UI command!

[Chorulle]

I possibly came off as a douchebag toward you guys,

Have you read the rest of this forum?

Anyway, I agree with you on all points.  As long as Turbine doesn't start listening to the whiners.  I suppose these are people who are tired of WoW?  I see stink-line emanating from the WoW subform these days.

I came back to this game just to escape WoW myself.  After the Warhammer Online experiment last year I ended up back in WoW after picking up WotLK.  Leveled my priest to the cap, joined a guild, did the raid thing in Wrath and got sick to death of the shit (goddamn Naxxaramas and clownshoe guildies).  Cancelled, threw away the game disks and haven't looked back since.  The last thing I want to see is my safe haven here to turn into WoW

[Mrbloodworth]

Along with the game's two-year anniversary celebration, the residents of Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online have a few other things to celebrate - namely, the Summer Festival and the upcoming Volume 2, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dum. Aaron Campbell, LotRO's Live Producer, was kind enough to show me around some of the upcoming content - the new instance spaces, the Summer Festival celebration, and the brand new 12-man raid dungeon of Dâr Narbugud.

In Book 8, adventurers will be returning to Moria, and - after past content largely directed at solo players - will be returning to group content (albeit content for all different sizes of groups). There are two 3-man instances coming in Book 8, and for both of them the Turbine team has grabbed inspiration from the Zelda series. In the Mirror-halls of Lumul-nar, adventurers will go to the mountaintops above Moria to route sunlight into the depths with a series of mirrors, and figuring out how to position the mirrors will be a puzzle that the group will have to put together.

Like the Mirror-halls, the other 3-man instance space - the Water Wheels: Nalâ-dûm - relies on puzzle-solving. Instead of bouncing light off mirrors, though, they'll be routing water through wheels and canals by pulling levers with the proper timing. Campbell also showed me a boss fight with what seemed like a giant aquatic Balrog amidst a forest of gigantic pounding pistons - you could lure the boss under them and it would take damage and be stunned. If nothing else, the ancient Dwarves of Moria certainly had an eye for dramatic setting.

The Mirror-halls and Water Wheels will continue the Epic story of Mines of Moria, so players will need to grab two friends in order to proceed in the storyline as nameless evils spring up from the bottommost depths of Moria to fill the gap left by the death of the Balrog, Durin's Bane. The Nameless aren't the only enemies that need a good killing, though - Campbell took me through the Halls of Crafting, where marauding Orcs have claimed the great bellows and forges that the Dwarves once used for their own craftsmanship. Naturally, we need to kill them. It's a pretty cool-looking instance space, and when fighting the final boss, remember that you shouldn't stand in the plumes of fire.

Beyond the Halls of Crafting, though, I got a sneak peek at Dâr Narbugud, the first full-size 12-man raid since Mines of Moria launched, that Campbell called LotRO's "most difficult content to date." When all is said and done, the Turbine team thinks that the dungeon will take raid groups about three hours to clear - though they'll be working on clearing it for a while.

While Campbell wanted to keep the Mistress of Pestilence (the raid's final boss) a surprise, I did get a peek at some of the other bosses in the zone. The first bosses are a pair of trolls, one of whom announced to his brother that "You take the weak one, I'll take the ugly one!" I'm almost offended. There was also an Orc who drew powers from pedestals that had to be activated to render him vulnerable, with the catch that only certain classes could activate certain pedestals. The final boss that I got to check out was The Blind One - despite being blind, he had no problems munching on my (admin-invulnerable) face or summoning dark holes that sucked my character down into them.

Moving back into Lorien, I had the opportunity to "tell the tale" of how my character had dealt with an Orc chieftain named Mazog - read: I'd play through the encounter myself. It's a solo space, and you have some NPCs that you can direct accordingly to attack, defend, or restore your Morale or Power. While there wasn't any direct choice - I had to choose to trade his life for that of a Dwarf captive - Campbell said that in future installments the LotRO team wanted to provide choices with direct consequences.

On the less dire end of things, I checked out the Summer Festival celebrations. The highly prized Horse Token, Campbell told me, was still a part of the festivities but was no longer tied to just the horse races - you could earn one through a variety of competitions. One of which was a combination race and eating contest - which really just seems like a recipe for disaster. Players can bet on one of four hobbits who will run around from table to table eating their fill, and if their chosen hobbit wins the race (held every 10 or so minutes) they'll get some rewards. Unfortunately, the hobbits that Campbell and I placed our bets on came in 4th and 3rd place, respectively.

Link

[Jamiko]

From Turbine's twitter: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dûm to launch on 6/23 in North America!

[Brogarn]

From Turbine's twitter: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dûm to launch on 6/23 in North America!