Once again I bring you the further adventures of Jonthon, Man-Captain on Landroval. Today I recorded him going through the Thievery & Mischief skirmish. This one is a bit more straightforward for me, and it is easier to locate the encounter mobs. The final fight is a bit tougher than the last skirmish I showed you due to it being against an Elite, but it is doable for me.

Without much further ado, here is the 2 part recording of the skirmish:

Thievery & Mischief Skirmish – Part 1/2

Thievery & Mischief Skirmish – Part 2/2

I hope you enjoy them.

~Branadoc

I bring you yet another 2 videos of my Captain adventuring on Landroval. This time I am showing him running through the Trouble in Tuckborough skirmish. As you can see from the video I have a system of how I take out the enemies and flip the control points.

Out of the 2 encounters I only did one, I don’t remember where the second one spawns [I think it was the bear] and didn’t want to spend a long time looking for it. My skirmish soldier is a Herbalist, which some may say is overkill for a Captain – but I look at it like this: If I don’t run out of health I can focus on defeating the bad guys better .

So here you go, a 2 part jaunt into the Shire:

Trouble In Tuckborough – Part 1/2

Trouble in Tuckborough – Part 2/2

I hope you enjoy them.

~Branadoc

Without further ado:

Retake Weathertop [Video] Part 1/2:

Retake Weathertop [Video] Part 2/2:

Enjoy!

~Branadoc

This is a short video I recorded while running through the Iorvinas public dungeon in The Lone Lands on Landroval. Nothing really special going on here.

Yes, that is a Man Captain – poor hobbits are left out of the Captain class entirely. Hope you enjoy.

~Branadoc

This year Turbine added a new zone for the holidays called “Winter Home”, this is a snow covered area (ostensibly located to the NW of Forochel) which holds quite a few festive (and some not so festive) quests for the season. You don’t get direct awards of Yule Fest Tokens, instead you get Frostbluff Coin items that can either be bartered for festival tokens, or used in quests.

One of the best parts of the entire zone is the Frostbluff Theater – where a creative hobbit by the name of Bill Shakeshobbit (not 100% on the name) has written an ode to Bilbo and the Great Party. The novel part of the whole thing is that players in the audience get chosen at random (yes, random – listen not to any myths/rumors/”my brothers fathers sisters uncles sons best friends roomates nieces grandfathers nephews roomate from college” says so facts), the play is nifty and it showcases a new system that I hope can be used in the future.

There are also some quests that border on being Dickensian dealing with: A rich, corrupt, mayor; a group of homeless destitute folks; and a moral decision on who to help.. I wasn’t much into this one as the “good” path required you to spend your Frostbluff Coins and the “bad” side just rewarded you.

I found the tokens coming in at a much much slower pace than the last festival and decided that the only thing I would focus on is getting 20 tokens for the festival steed.. yah, 20 tokens – they raised the token cost [on top of putting one of the winter fest steeds in the LotRO store] but lowered the purchase price to be on par with world prices (500s first horse, 200s any further horses).

So here is Branadoc on his new Sparkling Winter Pony:

That is about all I have done dealing with the festival, might give it another go but I think I will just return to questing instead.

That is all for now. Happy Yule Fest in game and Happy Holiday’s outside of game.

~Branadoc

Now don’t take my comments above as showing me to be some sort of person who only aims for “end game”. I just want to have at least one level capped character on my account after 3.5 years you know? Then I can focus on my huge bevy of alts and look into all the different quest zones I haven’t experienced (mainly due to them coming out after I had already out-leveled them on my main).

If you want to read my opinion on the latest State of the Game [Producer’s] letter by Lord of the Rings Online producer Kate Paiz then read on after the break.

So today Kate Paiz (the Producer for LotRO) put out her latest Producer’s Letter to the community. She talked about some of the most recent changes (mainly in the November update) and gave some snippets into what is coming next year (pre expansion). Other than an extraordinary number of exclamation marks, (I get the idea that Ms/Mrs. Paiz is a pretty outgoing person in person ), the letter contains some interesting snippets as well as some things that may not be to my liking.

Here is the link to the full producers letter

She opens up with the standard “we are glad how things are, thanks for being great” paragraph, then goes on to address (sort of) 2 of the things that people have been wondering about. Namely the opening up of the level cap & quest zones [not packs mind you] for the entire game to Free/Premium level players.

Free Epic Quests in Moria & Mirkwood – We’ve had a lot of feedback from former players who came back with the free-to-play launch that they were really hoping to have a chance to play through Moria and Mirkwood without having to commit to the upfront cost of the expansion. We thought this was a great point, and as we’ve said several times, we’ve been exploring what it means to have an “expansion pack” in a game with a free option. We’re very pleased to now allow all players to experience the Epic Story in Moria and Mirkwood and to level freely to max level, currently level 65! We will incorporate the response of the players into our consideration for how to handle future expansions, like Rise of Isengard for next year.

I can see where they are coming from with this and am all for it. I am guessing that the last sentence means the level cap raise to 70 with Isengard will also be granted to free players. I could be wrong of course, but that is how I read it.

One of the things that a small vocal group of folks were clamoring about on the forums the past few weeks was the release of the Lone Lands quest pack free to F2P players. Some folks immediately assumed that the Lone Lands would be inundated with “wow rejects”/”kiddies”/etc [I do not make these things up]. Barring the fact that those people already had the ability to go into the Lone Lands and hunt mobs I can only see it as a good thing – more folks doing quests in the area means more grouping for those so inclined, and it is also a method to draw free players deeper into the game (the first 30 levels before Lone Lands just flies by really).

Kate Paiz addressed it as follows:

New Content Type: Tasks & Lone-lands – A lot of players get through the free regions and realize they need more reputation to continue with the Epic Quests in the Lone-lands. We on the dev team really like the Lone-lands (after all, who doesn’t love Weathertop?) and felt it was just a shame that some players were not playing that content because they didn’t have the rep or because they weren’t ready to make a purchase. So we are trying two solutions, and are eager to see how you like them! The first solution has been to make Lone-lands a free region for all players, and we’re certainly curious to know what you think of that choice. The second, Tasks, is a new type of quest that allows you to change your trophies into reputation, and was launched as a Beta feature in the November update. Elder players won’t be able to participate in the system as it is geared towards low level players, but we are happy to extend it once we see how popular it is or what other features it needs.

Makes sense to me, though they added rep to the kill reward on many mobs in the zone (Goblins come to mind right off) to help with this. I guess those rep points were just not adding up fast enough. I haven’t played with the Task System much at all, but it seems that every single trash mob drop (like Ragged Fur, Jagged Claw, etc) have the ability to be turned in somewhere for tasks – the niggle is figuring out which goes where and determining if the loss of coin is worth it (you get no coin rewards for tasks, only Rep & XP – thus one of the major coin earning methods now has a catch-22).

Radiance and Legendary Items are also getting some attention early next year with the removal of the former and updating of the latter.

# Radiance & its removal in Q1 –We’ve received a lot of feedback on Radiance gating since its introduction and are pleased to announce that Radiance gear will no longer be a requirement for any of our instances or raids. In fact, with the release of our Q1 update next year, we will be removing Radiance from the game entirely. It will not be present in the new Instance Cluster or Epic Book and will be removed from all current instances. You should get your first look at a Radiance-free LOTRO on Bullroarer in early February of next year.
# Next Steps with Legendary Items – We’re planning on doing two upgrades to Legendary Items next year – one in the Q1 release, and one later in the year. The goal is to respond to a bunch of your feedback and to incorporate some more versatility, flexibility and less randomness into the system. We’ll certainly be releasing a dev diary on the Q1 changes as we get into next year.

Not much to say on those 2 – I have no Radiance gear and I need to see what they plan for LI’s before formulating an opinion.

She also touches briefly on some more changes coming both in Q1 ‘11 and w/ Isengard like Cosmetic Pets, Cosmetic Clothing System Upgrade, New Dungeons & Instances, Expanded Monster Play, and First Age LI’s.

Of those talking points one thing caught my attention and worried me:

Cosmetic Pets – We’ve received a lot of requests from non-Lore-masters for the other classes to have fun pets, too! We’re looking into how we can make it so that all classes can customize their character by adding cute and fun creatures that may add small buffs to combat, but won’t be combat-oriented in their use. No release timeline is certain yet, but we are actively exploring what would be fun and cool.

“may add small buffs to combat” – No. Just… No. Considering that cosmetic pets will A) likely be focused on being store items and B) be cosmetic – I do NOT want to see any sort of combat perk associated with them. Don’t do it Turbine. Please.

Anyway, I suggest y’all read the full letter (linked above) and formulate your own opinions. Sorry for the extra long post but I wanted to share my thoughts.

Happy Hunting!

~Branadoc

Ok, so the past few days I have returned Branadoc to Forochel because Eregion was starting to wear on me a little bit (I have a few quests marked as solo that I just can’t seem to finish). Forochel is bloody cold of course, but its main annoyance to me is that every single mob seems to give me wounds constantly. I am running through wound pots too darned fast – maybe it is due to how many Beast mob classes there are.

Read on after the break…

Anyway, while doing a quest to gain the trust of the natives I managed to get lucky with my shots. I managed to get all of my arrows only into the body of a Frost Antler and he dropped this:

This is my second housing item drop ever so I am darned happy for it (my housing decorations are 80% drops 20% purchased. Here is the fearsome Frost Antler adorning the wall of my hobbit hole:

I am going to have to do a tour of my hobbity hole sometime soon, I will capture it on video and post it up on YouTube (and embed it here of course).

I was thinking about writing about the November update, the resulting furor, and a bunch of other stuff going on.. but I will save that for another day/post.

Happy Hunting Middle Earth!

~Branadoc

Today Turbine announced that the next expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online will be coming to us in Fall of 2011. The Expansion is named Rise of Isengard to portray our arrival in that fabled area. Here is a short list of some of the features coming with the new expansion pack:

• Experience the Rise of Isengard – The Epic Story continues as the Grey Company makes its way south into Dunland, but troubles arise as their road takes them into lands where Dunlending forces, marshaled by the Wizard Saruman, prepare for war. The Rangers must seek new allies and face dangerous new foes, chief among them the traitor Saruman, whose web of intrigue threatens to endanger your quest, your friends, and your life.
• Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 70, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.  
• Expanded Monster Play – LOTRO’s monster play system will get a major revamp including opening up the feature to all players, changes to monster player skills and advancement and a brand new region for players to battle for or against the forces of evil.

Source: Release Announcement on LotRO.com

That last bullet point should be nice for folks who care about PvMP in the game – though it likely won’t be enough for some of the more, shall we say, strident of voices.

The announcement also states that it will be “coming to the Turbine Store”, which makes me think that it will be 100% purchasable with Turbine Points – if so it will be the first “big” test of their new system in my eyes.. if the entire expansion can be purchased (non piece-meal) for a decent TP cost from the store then us Lifetime members have it made .

Anyways, that is the big news in LotRO’s world today. As for me, I will try to post more frequently on the blog here, but Real Life keeps kicking me in the bum.

Happy Hunting Middle Earth!

~Branadoc

Go on over there to check out the informative post: http://www.casualstrolltomordor.com/2010/06/lotro-free-to-play-and-you/

~Branadoc

Today is an important day for LOTRO: we’ve announced that this fall, LOTRO will begin offering a Free-to-Play option! Players will be able to download the game and adventure in Middle-earth for free. With Free-to-Play comes the addition of the LOTRO Store, where players will have immediate in-game access to a wide variety of special items, account services, and convenience items.

Read the Full Announcement here

Yes, this means Turbine is taking LotRO down the same route they took DDO [Dungeons & Dragons Online]. It is no surprise really, DDO increased revenue in a dramatic way after going F2P – it was only a matter of time, I guess, before LotRO was added to that list.

I have major reservations about this, I am a Lifetime Subscriber so am automatically a ‘VIP’ member but the DDO Store has many… er… “helper” items in it that make game play extremely easy – if the same happens with LotRO then what?

I will reserve full judgement until I either get into the Beta for it, or I see it Live.  The Sky is not falling Chicken Little.. but times, they are a changing.

~Branadoc