LOTRO: Thoughts on Fate of Gundabad

View fullsize

I’ve spent the last week catching up with recent content in The Lord of the Rings Online. I started the Update 30: Blood of Azog and struggled with the PVE quests, due to the stats nerf and LI change. I got to level 132 and then decided to replace my two Legendary Weapons on my Lore-master. I would like to thank Linawillow for their advice via social media. So much for the new system being easier to understand and implement. I now have new LIs that have boosted my stats sufficiently enough for me to deal with the mobs above 130. Hence I completed the story set in the Battle of Azanulbizar, which was very well conceived and implemented. It has a great deal of canonical detail and is engagingly presented. By the time I finished the Epic Story and side quests in the area, my character had reached level 136, so I decided to go straight to Gundabad.

As I usually participate in the Bullroarer test preview of new content for LOTRO, I was already aware of the vertical dimension that is an integral part of the Delvings of Gundabad. Mattugard and Deepscrave are very reminiscent of Moria and one needs to reconcile oneself to the reality of navigating around such an environment. Thankfully, being several levels higher than the content of the area helps. So I have taken my time to explore these areas and have just taken quests as and when they’ve been offered. At present, there are lots of other players in the area, so if you do run into any difficulty or get lost, you are not without support. Whether you actually like the labyrinthine design is a matter of personal taste. If you stick to the main routes through the area, you will miss a great deal of discovery deeds. I find the best approach is to explore specific areas between stables and to be systematic in your approach.

View fullsize

To make my exploration of the entire zone a little easier, I used my supply of Mithril Coins to unlock access to all the new stables. I visited them using slow travel, as this also unlocks discovery deeds as you pass through an area. It also allows you to reconnoitre and determine the level and variety of mobs, without taking any unnecessary risks. When I do get into combat, although my new LI can deal significant damage, my moral takes quite a hit. I checked into this and it would appear that my armour and jewellery is now lacking. I last re-geared my primary alt back in January 2020, using lockboxes. I think it may be time to do this again but it makes sense to do so when I hit the new 140 level cap. By then I should have sufficient barter currency to buy reputation gear or alternatively, spend some money on lockboxes.

I have never been especially knowledgeable about the statistical side of LOTRO. I know what type of stats are beneficial to my class but I am not au fait with the minutiae of the system. Hence I tend to rely on how combat “feels”. It’s difficult to quantify but I tend to know when a fight is hard or more importantly, getting away from me. The new LI system has certainly boosted my stats and I now feel in control again but when I look at my alt’s stats in the character panel, the power creep is getting silly. I have over a million Tactical Mastery at present. This will no doubt increase further when I get to level cap. I can’t help but feel that when numbers become this big, they begin to fail to convey anything tangible to the average player. I wonder if LOTRO would benefit from a level “squish” as we saw recently in World of Warcraft or some other recalibration of stats.

View fullsize

One of the things I often find frustrating with the MMORPG genre is the gear cycle. Superior gear is usually gated behind reputation status, barter tokens or is just awarded when the player reaches the current level cap. This comes from a historical design choice where you earned intermediate gear at level cap and then went on to do group content such as raids to get the better gear. But very few players follow that route now. Hence it seems redundant to be awarded with the best gear once you hit level cap and have nothing else to do. Sadly LOTRO is still locked in this model. You need robust gear as you’re levelling and not having access to any is an impediment. This is why I didn’t start playing through Gundabad content until I was level 136. It means I will reach the new cap of 140 and re-equip my main character and then play through the remaining half of the expansion with an optimal build. I regularly inspect other players in my journeys and sometimes marvel at how they’ve come so far while indifferently equipped.

I was surprised to see that the Allegiance system has had a further faction added with this expansion. You can now affiliate with the Zhélruka, whose main hub is in the Hall of Vérnozal in Gundabad, which is convenient. There is a fast travel skill with a 5 minute cooldown which is invaluable if you’re currently questing in this region. Unlike the Mordor-expansion allegiances, the Zhélruka allegiance is scalable, allowing players with a minimum level of 20 and above to participate. It uses the Missions system, rather than zone specific PVE content that the previous allegiances did. It came as a pleasant surprise that developers SSG had added another. However, I’m not so well disposed toward the increase in virtue traits. These now cap at 80 which is a significant increase. I finally got the five that I currently have slotted on my primary character to level 75 a few months ago. I am somewhat peeved that I have to get on that particular treadmill again.

View fullsize

Returning to the subject of the new LI system, one of the consequences of this major revamp is that there is now a great deal of redundant NPCs throughout Middle-earth and a lot of superfluous rewards. The User Interface also retains some outdated features which will be confusing for players just beginning to use the Legendary Item system. It will be interesting to see if SSG makes an effort to remove these obsolete aspects of the game at some future point. There are also a lot of old items that still need to be replaced. I have half a dozen relic removal scrolls which I assume I will be able to exchange at some point for traceries removal scrolls. I suspect that there will be some players who will require a great deal of compensation, especially for store bought items

As I mentioned in a previous post, Fate of Gundabad is very much a question of more of the same. This seems to be the business model that Standing Stone Games have chosen and I suspect they are not going to change. If you are a returning player, then Fate of Gundabad will offer you a familiar experience. One that is reassuring and enjoyable as you know what the game has to offer but you’ll have a new story to immerse yourself in. If you are a regular player then that familiarity, untempered with time away from the game, may feel a lot more like repetition. As ever the story is well written and thought provoking. Bill Champagne’s soundtrack is sublime and he uses many of his established leitmotifs very effectively. There is a palpable atmosphere in Glooming Tarn, especially when the sombre and portentous music cues start to play. But overall, when looked at objectively, Fate of Gundabad is essentially just treading familiar ground.

View fullsize

Regardless of my views on Fate of Gundabad, the expansion is certainly proving successful. The volume of players online on Laurelin server has meant that the dynamic layering system is active in most zones. In one respect this is indicative of an expansion that is engaging with players and finding an audience. Sadly the downside to this are server performance issues. Lag is a common place, especially when interacting with Mission NPCs. There are also delays with skill inductions and connecting to the chat server. It can be quite an impediment at times. No doubt SSG will address these issues in the weeks to come. Overall despite following a tried and tested formula, Fate of Gundabad is the strongest expansion LOTRO has seen for a while. It has a wide variety of maps, several ways to level and a robust narrative. The polish will come over the next few patches. But as the main story about the line of Durin comes to an end, it does raise the question where does the game go from here?

LOTRO: The Beginning of the End

View fullsize

The recent Fate of Gundabad expansion for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online, has increased the game's level cap from 130 to 140. Mobs of 130 or above have seen a significant statistical increase. Hence if you play through PVE content or undertake an on level skirmish, you may well struggle to defeat your enemies. To compensate for this, if you create a new Legendary Item and replace your old weapons, you will see a boost in DPS that allegedly allows you to deal with the stronger mobs. In principle, this seems like an equitable quid pro quo. However, this is a very significant change to the game. What I and many other players find “surprising” is that the developers, Standing Stone Games, have done precious little to publicise this change in game dynamics. At present there is a major lack of information both in-game and on the official forums.

Today I finally decided to try and replace my existing Legendary Items on my primary character. Replacing my maxed out, First Age Lore-master staff and book is not some trivial change. These two items have been with me for three to four years and have had a substantial amount of time and resources lavished upon them. The moment I unequip them I see a significant drop in my character’s stats. Hence it is very important to me that any new weapon is at the very least comparable to that which it is replacing. However, I found trying to understand the new LI system extremely difficult. I managed to purchase a new Lore-master staff and book and reforge them to my current level of 132. However, no information was offered regarding the realities of purchasing, equipping and managing traceries. Furthermore, no guidance is offered as to their respective interchangeability, set bonuses and restrictions.

Hence, there is scope for errors. Such errors cost in-game resources such as Ancient Scripts. These resources are scarce and can only be obtained by investing time and effort into the game. So players will have to either take a calculated risk and live with their choices, or simply leave their current LI alone until they can find the answers and reassurance they need. So far, the only people providing answers are the LOTRO community themselves. LOTRO Players have a guide on their website and it is useful insofar as how the new LI system works. However, if you want class specific advice then that is harder to come by. It may appear in the weeks to come when some of the more analytical LOTRO players write guides and post FAQ videos. However, for a player such as myself, until I feel confident enough to create new LIs, I won’t be touching this aspect of the game. As my character is effectively gimped if I keep using my old weapons, there is no point in playing as I cannot progress in a manner I find enjoyable.

View fullsize

So to summarise, one of the most important aspects of this MMO has been changed with virtually no support from the developers. The information vacuum potentially leaves players confused, unsure and frustrated as to what to do next. The resulting statistical imbalance makes progress to the new level cap extremely difficult. Now is it just me or is this a massive mistake on behalf of Standing Stone Games? To say that this course of action is an act of poor community relations is an understatement. Being impeded from playing a game by the game itself is ludicrous. It also tends not to make customers happy. If I can’t make any progress with my new LI build in the next few days, I’ll just go and play something else. That means the money I was going to spend on lockboxes when I hit the new level cap will be spent elsewhere. Standing Stone Games loss could well be Cryptics gain.

I have played LOTRO regularly since 2008. It is not a perfect MMO but it has its some unique points. The intellectual property is one and the community is the other. The game itself is big and sprawling, with numerous very well conceived storylines. Every now and then a reference, character or geographical feature will just strike a chord with the player and in those moments the game is at its best. However, LOTRO is also repetitive. Nothing really new has been added to the game in years. LOTRO survives by offering variations on a theme, more of the same and ultimately being the only multiplayer virtual Middle-earth game available at present. Depending upon your perspective, players are either part of an unique, exclusive, niche market experience or simply over a barrel. 

View fullsize

The relationship between any game developer and its players should be an equitable one. Sadly, this has not been the case with LOTRO for a long time. Put simply the community does far too much heavy lifting with regard to the games promotion and the sharing of knowledge. It is also far too forgiving of SSG failings which in recent years have been many. Community relations are poor as are communications. The games monetisation is becoming increasingly questionable and this latest debacle over LIs has been tediously predictable. I and many other players saw it coming a mile off. The question now that I and other LOTRO players have to consider is how much more are we prepared to tolerate? Because SSG seems hellbent on making the same mistakes again and again. And their intransigence further diminishes the ever decreasing fun that the game offers.

Even if I can find a prompt solution to my LI problem and resume playing, I am faced with an expansion that really doesn’t offer anything intrinsically new. I essentially get the conclusion to a story and the opportunity to replace all my gear once again. Or I can create a new alt and play through content that I’m very familiar with. There is no alternative levelling path, no new systems to explore and master, nor any fun mini-games. LOTRO is like a restaurant that has an interesting theme but sadly hasn’t radically altered its menu for 14 years. For some that may well be a selling point. For others, such as I, it’s beginning to become less and less appealing. In many respects the most saddening aspect of this change in relationship is the air of indifference from SSG. I shall give it a week or two but it may be time for me to part company with LOTRO. If that is the case, I shall be genuinely sad as the fault will not lie with me.

“Play-to-Earn” is Not a New Concept

View fullsize

Do you remember the days when you bought a game and then played it and that was the full extent of your financial dealings with the company that had produced it? I do. Sadly those days have pretty much gone. As video games have become a more mainstream leisure activity, the business model associated with them has similarly evolved. Microtransactions introduced charges for additional content, which then paved the way for the “live service”. Video games have ceased to be standalone products and become yet another online leisure amenity that requires continuous payment to access. I’m sure developers working at the coalface of video games still harbour sincere desires to make a “good game” but it is clear that is not the goal of the big triple A publishers that finance them. 

A cursory internet search quickly yields data regarding how the major video game publishers such as EA, Activision and Ubisoft are heavily invested in technology and patents that can be used to squeeze more money from their customer base. They have no earnest interest in producing good games but are more focused on how the product can make the player behave. They desire titles that yield a constant flow of revenue and their actions thus far show that they are not constrained by ethics and morality. They are happy to exploit those with addictive personalities, the neural divergent and the young. Hence it will come as no surprise that the industry titans are now turning their attention to blockchain technology and NFTs as a means to make their next generation of products even more financially lucrative.

View fullsize

Essentially the presence of these two latest buzzwords is a sign that the likes of EA, Activision and Ubisoft are preparing for “play-to-earn” gaming. Consider, if you will, the latest generation of “live service” games in which in-game currencies, items, services and even characters are subject to a predetermined scarcity. And that these virtual goods will have a real monetary value and are thus tradeable. The money earned by players will then unlock further content and thus the cycle perpetuates. Naturally the publishers will take a percentage of all transactions and therein lies the foundation of their new business model. What I find surprising about such proposals is not their very existence but the fact that the video games industry have only just got around to considering them?

For those gamers who may balk at the ethics of such a business model, it has existed to a varying degree for decades already. Since the turn of the century, the MMORPG genre has unofficially traded in-game resources for real money. Gold selling being the obvious example but there are other variations. Entire player accounts are traded online, as well as other non-account bound in-game items. However, all the money generated from such transactions at present goes to third parties. “Play-to-earn” ensures that the revenue stays with the publishers. And if you’re a “doubting Thomas” who feels that ethics and morality will trump capitalism, this idea has already been tried previously. Diablo III had a real money auction house in 2012 which ran for nearly two years. Consider that to be a beta test for Blizzard.

View fullsize

Therefore, I don’t think there is any doubt that “Play-to-earn” is coming. It already exists within Facebook gaming and some mobile games. However, I don’t think we’re going to wake up tomorrow and find that the triple A gaming landscape has changed overnight. Where loot boxes have trodden the fine line between gambling legislation and “surprise mechanics”, “play-to-earn”, with its trading in virtual commodities, will more than likely attract the attention of most countries' tax systems. Sorting out the legal aspects of such a game mechanic will be no small beer. But given the potential revenue that could be generated, I’m sure those video games publishers involved will lobby governments robustly to ensure that such games can exist legitimately. As for those gamers who are furiously clutching their pearls (or Mario plushies) in horror of the very notion of “play-to-earn”, there is an equal number who will see a means to make money, outside of traditional employment. Just like Twitch and YouTube afford similar opportunities.

It is this latter point that I would like to explore further. Let us embark on a thought experiment. First off, we must not just assume in our arrogance that European countries and North America are the sole target for “play-to-earn” games. In fact it is likely that they’ll initially launch in countries with less rigorous or “evolving” legislative procedures in place. Emerging economies with existing levels of poverty and cheap labour spring to mind. Naturally such an environment offers a potential means of income for those seeking employment. Thus when such games finally launch in Western countries they may well already have an established in-game economy up and running. Once again, rich consumers will initially seek to profit from the fruits of others labour. However, in a decade or so, the employment landscape in Europe and North America may not be the same as it is now. We may have a substantial level of unemployment due to technological advances and automation. “Play-to-earn” games may well be looked upon more favourably.

View fullsize

To summarise, “play-to-earn” as a concept is not new and may not be as unpalatable as some gamers would have you believe. All industries are subject to customer churn and therefore those gamers thinking that their departure from gaming sends some kind of message, may find themselves ignored by the major publishers, as and when they roll out games with real economies. However, the legality of managing such games is at present the biggest obstacle. Some political parties and institutions won’t like the concept of virtual work houses emerging as a means of providing employment. However, capitalism always seems to get its way eventually. Furthermore, by the time “play-to-earn” becomes any kind of reality, the current generation of gamers will probably be so conditioned to the iniquities of the industry, that they won’t offer any major ideological opposition.

LOTRO: The Benefits of Being a VIP For a Month

View fullsize

I recently created a new Brawler class character in the MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online. This is the first time I’ve rolled a new alt while not subscribing. Hence I suddenly became aware that a great deal of features and functionality that I usually take for granted were not available. I started unlocking these services in a piecemeal fashion but soon realized that this wasn’t very cost effective. So I started digging around online to see what the exact benefits are of subscribing to LOTRO and becoming a VIP player. There is a comparison chart available if you do a Google search but it is far from comprehensive. For example a free player has to pay to unlock skill point set bonuses, which surprised me. Overall, the entire monetisation of LOTRO is somewhat arcane. However, if you subscribe for one month to become a VIP, when you stop paying you drop down to Premium player status, rather than return to that of a Free player. This has benefits.

So after some research, here is what I discovered regarding the benefits that are maintained on a per-character basis, when downgrading from VIP to Premium. It should be noted that the following benefits are only maintained for characters that have been logged into the game while the VIP status is active. To clarify, if you create a new alt while a Free player, upgrade your account to VIP and then log into the game with the aforementioned new alt, the following benefits persist when you stop subscribing and drop down to Premium. If you have an alt that you created as a Free player and do not log them in while a VIP, you will not see any benefits afterwards. Also note, these per-character unlocks also work for content that the character hasn't reached, due to level restrictions and other qualify criteria.

View fullsize

After downgrading from VIP to Premium you keep the following:

• All trait slots unlocked for all your characters on all servers.

• Swift travel from all stable NPCs.

• Riding skill quest for all your characters at level 20.

• All 5 inventory bags remain unlocked.

• The currency cap of 2 gold for Free players and 5 gold for Premium players is lifted.

• You keep access to the last level you reached within the Crafting Guild.

• You can still access items placed in the shared wardrobe and dye them but you can no longer replace them.

You lose the following features after downgrading from VIP to Premium:

• Two character slots (VIP has 7 by default, Premium has 5 premium. You may have to disable two characters).

• Access to all quest packs and skirmishes.

• Access to the Legendary Servers.

• Shared wardrobe if not used by other alts (20 slots).

• Rested 100% XP.

• Monster play.

• Ability to spend destiny points.

• 30 auction house listings.

• Access to your Mailbox everywhere.

• Access to crafting guild advancement.

As you can see there are tangible rewards to be had from subscribing, if for only one month and then dropping to Premium status. It is definitely superior to being a Free player. Ultimately your decision to do so is dependent upon your personal gaming budget and your own views on video game monetisation. However, it is useful to be aware of the differences in customer status in LOTRO. In the meantime do not forget the current offer available from Standing Stone Games in which they are giving away all quest packs within the game, permanently. The code LOTROQUESTS2021 can be redeemed up until the 31st of November. This combined with subscribing for one month and thus becoming a Premium player unlocks a significant amount of content and will save players a lot of money.

LOTRO: Tying Up Loose Ends

View fullsize

I discovered an excellent thread on the official Lord of the Rings Online forums today, created by Tesalion Lortus, which tackles the complicated subject of outstanding and unresolved storylines within the game. It is a very well researched and comprehensive post. I try my best to keep abreast of the various ongoing stories within the MMORPG but this list of plotlines that have yet to be completed, is a timely reminder of the sprawling narrative that Turbine/Standing Stone Games have woven over the last 14 years. The story is a major reason for this game’s longevity and many players enjoy the way it references and compliments so much of Tolkien’s overall lore. But it would appear that there are numerous story arcs that have not reached fruition, going back as far as the Helm’s Deep expansion that was released in 2013. Naturally, now that this matter has been highlighted so well, I am curious to see what SSG intends to do to resolve the situation.

I won’t repeat all of the plot points provided in the original forum post. Here is sufficient to give you an indication of the scope of research that Tesalion Lortus has carried out.

• The Bugdatish storyline.

• Borangos the Horror and his plan.

• The fate of Karazgar.

• Thostír the Rank, a great fire-drake of the East.

• Brathar Crack-helm and his Dourhands.

• Jajax and his brother.

• Where is Corudan?

View fullsize

Thankfully, one of the things that SSG does well is write complex and long term story arcs well in advance of their release. It is not unusual to find characters from the dim and distant past resurface years later in the LOTROverse. For example Atli Spider-bane, who we initially encounter at Archet in Bree-land at the start of the game, later returns at Lhingris in Mordor, on the far side of Cirith Ungol in the Morgul Vale. Then there is the enigmatic Trév Duvárdain warrior Aviar, who was exiled from her tribe and had her clan name removed. We first encountered her in Forochel. Living as a brigand, she was shown mercy by the Ranger Lothrandir. However, his compassion irked her and so she followed him and so she was ensnared by Saruman. This ultimately led to Lothrandir capture and imprisonment in Orthanc. Saruman called her Gun Ain (without name). During the ruin of Isengard she was again subject to the Rangers justice. On this occasion Halbarad renamed her “mercy” and set her loose. Perplexed, she wandered into Rohan and was shown kindness by Bingo Boffin when he met her at Grimslade. It is a rather unusual and redemptive story arc.

View fullsize

Tesalion Lortus thread on the forum regarding these multiple loose ends garnered a response from LOTRO developer, Made of Lions. They said “To be honest, we have so many of the items on this list earmarked for future quest stories already!” which is reassuring. Because if the history of gaming has proven anything it is that players remember everything and the internet is a pedants paradise. Plus I find continuity in storytelling integral to my enjoyment of LOTRO. Hence it is important that such standards are maintained for the sake of both the game. However, let us not forget that for every LOTRO player that revels in the dense narrative, there is always another who dismisses all quest texts and chooses to remain oblivious to the subtleties of the plot. It takes allsorts I guess. Although the latter group are free to play as they see fit, I feel that they are missing out on a key component of the game. Yet for some, the MMO genre is about “doing” and any framing story is purely an optional extra.

LOTRO: Fate of Gundabad Bullroarer Preview

View fullsize

Yesterday afternoon (UK time) Standing Stone Games made the forthcoming expansion for the MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online, available on the Bullroarer test server. This new release, Fate of Gundabad, is due to launch on the 10th of November which is under two weeks away. However, I suspect that this expansion has been under development for a while as it appears fairly complete without very little or no placeholder material. Players have already been providing feedback on the official forums and it would seem that the nuts and bolts of the area are in place and functional. There appears to be a substantial amount of new zones in this expansion with areas both above and below ground. It is worth mentioning straight away that if you are a LOTRO player who didn’t especially enjoy navigating your way through Moria, you will probably find the new areas underneath Mount Gundabad as equally frustrating. There are dense groups of Orcs and other enemy mobs to get past and I suspect these areas will be quite taxing.

The Fate of Gundabad expansion adds a new area that directly abuts next to the existing Elderslade map. The northern road that bypasses the Angmarim tower of Caivád Sâr leads to Câr Bronach, which was previously blocked by a locked gate. The player can now enter this area and the region very much in the idiom of Angmar to which it connects. There is a road that traverses Câr Bronach from east to west and leads to Nan Gurth. Midway along this road there is a very impressive Dwarven structure, Mur Shatraug, the Witch-gate. This is the northerly entrance to Gundabad. Enemies hold this entrance so entry is not easy. A second road strikes south west and circles round the western side of Mount Gundabad to an area called Welkin Loft. Due to the altitude this is a snowy zone and filled with ravines as the road travels up the mountainside. There are several Angmarim camps and the contested area of Uzdarulzahar, where Dwarves fight both Orcs and Frost Dragons.

Upon entering Mur Shatraug entrance, there is an underground zone called The Delvings of Gundabad. It is split into five subzones, all of which form a broadly circular route running clockwise. The first Pits of Stonejaws is akin to The Glittering Caves in Helm’s Deep and the Foundations of Stone in Moria. It is a maze and rife with mobs. This area leads to Mattugard which is very much like Zelem Melek in Moria. There is an immense abyss in the centre of the map and a triangular road around it. Vast windows in the mountainside roof let in a pale light. On the eastern side of Mattugard is an exit which leads to the main entrance to Mount Gundabad in the Elderslade map, which is a contested zone. Mattugard is populated by Orcs, Grodbog Spitters and Goblins on Bats (yes you read that right). The next connecting area is Deepscrave which is similar to Mattugard but with more bridges and walkways. There are also infestations of bioluminescence growths encrusting the walls. This in turn leads to Glooming Tarn, which features an underground lake. It is filled with crystal spiders and looks similar to the Giants Causeways with its interlocking basalt columns. Finally, the road leads to Clovengap, the former garden city of the Gundabad Dwarves. There are lights, windows and lush green terraces as well as Wargs. Clovengap exists out onto the surface and Welkin Loft.

View fullsize

The new zones in Fate of Gundabad are large and totally in accord with the ongoing Epic story. If you enjoy Dwarven culture and its respective aesthetic in LOTRO then this expansion should prove enjoyable. However, there are very few entirely new assets on display apart from several reskinned mobs and a handful of relatively unique Dwarven structures. Pretty much everything else is a variation on established themes using assets that players are already familiar with. I suspect that a lot of players will find travelling throughout the Delvings of Gundabad to be an uphill struggle due to the mob density and the complex routes that SSG seem to delight in creating. As always, I’m sure the developers will attempt to compensate by providing a very engaging story as they so often do but I can’t help but feel that Fate of Gundabad is lacking the aesthetic inspiration found in prior updates such as Wells of Langflood and Vales of Anduin.

LOTRO: Problems With the Revised Legendary Item Systems

View fullsize

NB. If you have a strong feeling of deja vu while reading this post, it’s not just you. Most of the points raised here were mentioned previously a few weeks ago when I wrote about my experiences during the beta testing of Update 30.3 on Bullroarer server. I’m sure long time LOTRO players will not be at all surprised by what is discussed in this post.

Developer’s Standing Stone released Update 30.3 for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online today. This includes the new Brawler class and the revised Legendary Item system. The latter has proven to be problematic. Firstly, there has been no support information from SSG as to how the new system works. There is no in-game tutorial or quest that orientates the player. In fact unless a player opens up the LI window and discovers that there is a new “appraise item” button added to the UI, they could easily continue playing totally oblivious to the revised system. Secondly, all the bugs and glitches that were highlighted by players on the test server have not been addressed and have been ported over to the live servers. Unless you are the type of player who is heavily invested in the game and has kept abreast of the various threads about the revised LI system on the official forums, you will have to muddle through the best you can. Furthermore, you will be at risk of making mistakes, wasting valuable in-game resources and potentially gimping your new LI.

What makes this situation even more frustrating is that it was utterly predictable. SSG has a track record of ignoring player feedback, committing to deadlines and launching broken updates. This course of action always ends in a community management disaster which is further exacerbated by the developer's tone deaf, highhanded approach to dealing with PR problems and their total inability to learn from past mistakes. I and many other long time LOTRO enthusiasts find the latter to be the most egregious offense. The way the company seems to deliberately set itself at odds with its players (who are also customers) and then blithely walks inexorably into a problem of their own making is staggering. Ultimately, such behaviour sends a very clear message. There is clearly a conflict of interests somewhere in the chain of command and it is proving detrimental to the games evolution and customer relations.

View fullsize

I spent most of the evening talking to kinfolk as well as fellow LOTRO players on Discord and Twitter trying to ascertain whether I had missed some key information regarding Update 30.3 and important LI revision. Sadly, I concluded after several hours that this wasn’t the case. There is no easily accessible in-game resource that either provides directly, or points towards a guide for the new LI system. Eventually I found a useful document, created by Helcawen as a means to help orientate their kinship members. It is an informative guide but is still subject to change as it reflects the “broken” system as it currently is. Apparently SSG have made one post on the new LI system but unless you are especially adept at using the official forums it’s hardly easy to find. However, there is no shortage of player feedback cataloguing the issues that they are discovering about the new LI system. 

Many of the resources that are used in the new LI system, such as XP runes, have to be used in a specific order or else the player doesn’t get the maximum benefit from them. Then there is the cap on resources such as Ancient Scripts which means you are forced to spend them before you can acquire any more. And then there is the increase in options to spend Mithril Coins to unlock and upgrade resources. Not only has this become more prevalent but the system is currently broken with Tracery levels exceeding the level of the LI that they’re used in. It would also appear that the most powerful Traceries are exclusive to lootboxes. But for me, the biggest problem is with replacing a Legendary Item that has been maxed out. Simply put, you do not get sufficient resources to create a commensurate replacement. Considering the time, effort and money that I’ve put into my existing LI this is an unacceptable situation and a deal breaker.

View fullsize

Assuming that SSG are going to “fix” the new LI system, I don’t think I shall touch my level cap Lore-master staff and book l currently have on my primary character. I shall wait until the Fate of Gundabad expansion launches in November and ensure I’ve reached the new level cap of 140 before I make any important changes. I shall also be watching very carefully how SSG handles this situation because my patience is finally exhausted with them and their cavalier attitude. If I cannot replace my LI with something comparable then I see no reason to keep playing. As a paying customer, I don’t like downgrades of service or having something taken from me. For years players have debated the future of LOTRO and pondered its fate. I believe that SSG have reached a point where their actions are directly harming the game and alienating players. They’ve been warned time and time again about the consequences of their actions. If things go ill for them, then they are the architect of their own demise and deserve no sympathy.

MMO Tropes: “Kill Ten Rats” and Fetch Quests

View fullsize

“The MMO genre is rife with its own set of tropes; recurring themes and motifs that have become established and ubiquitous. All of which are ideal material for a hastily produced, lazily conceived, recurring blog post”.

The MMORPG genre is a curious subset of video games. Not only is it predicated on violence against the individual, institutions and “others”, as so many video games are but also species-specific genocide and general mass extinction of fauna and flora. It is easy to understand how this gaming specific trope came about. Early MMOs often had very little or no narrative driven quests and players simply levelled their characters by gaining XP from any sort of combat. Be that against other players, mobs or general in-game wildlife. What is far more perplexing is why such an arbitrary mechanic still persists in the modern MMO. Is it simply due to “laziness” and the fact that it’s easy to implement and rely upon? Or is there more to it than that?

Two decades or so ago, early MMOs and indeed the RPG genre needed to establish certain concepts to new players. Mechanics that now are so well known that they are even understood outside of gaming in wider popular culture. Specifically the idea of progression and levelling your character (not to be confused with “levelling up” and other nebulous political soundbites). Giving a new player a simple task to demonstrate levelling and XP gain, while they are still within the game tutorial is a logical learning tool. It clearly equates completing a task with the gaining of XP and thus increasing in level. Tutorials in MMOs tend to be within very controlled environments, so the player can tentatively undertake the task free from risk. Often these safe areas at the start of games take place in dungeons or a castle, thus the liquidation of rodents as an object lesson does not seem out of place.

View fullsize

And because the MMO genre is utterly self plagiarizing, this simple instructional mechanism quickly became commonplace, then ubiquitous, then a standing joke and eventually a tedious played out meme. Many MMOs have transplanted the “kill quests” from its functional place in the tutorial and made it a mainstay of PVE questing. Sometimes a great deal of effort will be put into contriving a narrative to justify such tasks but all too often it is just bandied about as filler content. Some games have even tried to make “kill ten rats” into something ironic and self-deprecating but these attempts to satirise the genre seldom work. A dull and uninteresting task can remain a dull and uninteresting task, especially if no effort has been put into the “packaging”.

“Kill ten rats” has morphed over time and has become subsumed into another MMO hardy perennial; the fetch quest. This is a mission that sends a player to a remote area(s) of the game world to collect a selection of items that are required for “reasons”. Often the desired object(s) are in a contested area that is densely populated by mobs, thus making acquiring them difficult, tedious or both. Frequently upon returning to the quest bestower, a follow up mission is provided in which you have to return once again to the contested area to collect further materials. Again, this was cutting edge MMO content two decades ago but nowadays, it is simply seen as an unnecessary and uninspired grind. Players are very familiar with the various tricks of the trade that game developers use and so such content doesn’t in any way enthuse those having to carry it out.

View fullsize

What both of these game mechanics highlight are the inherent limitations of what you can do within the confines of an MMO. Although the term MMO is appended with RPG, often these games do not have the technical sophistication of their single player cousins. Hence MMOs weighted towards progression systems, resource management, varying your build and so forth. As far as interaction goes within the game world, it is often based on “click” on a NPC for narrative, or a resource for collection, or on a mob to initiate combat. Stories, voice acting, narrative choices and cutscenes are the veneer applied to these things to make them engaging. A good game essentially asks you to “kill ten rats” but in such a way that it doesn’t feel like “killing ten rats”. Sometimes the developers get away with it. Other times they don’t. The latter is never a good thing.

A Month in Gaming

View fullsize

September has been and gone and the nights are now drawing in. Usually this time of year is ideal for gaming but sadly I’ve had a lot on over the last 30 days and as a result there’s been precious little time for gaming or indeed writing. Such is life. When I did have some leisure time, MMOs were the easiest way to get a quick gaming fix, as per usual. Standing Stone Games announced that the next expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online would be released in November and that a revision of the Legendary Item system would be coming prior to that. Hence I took a look at the beta builds on the Bullroarer test server and then started prepping my various alts on the live servers, to get ready for this major change. I also managed to complete the latest event in Star Trek Online. However, beyond these straightforward tasks I didn’t really get to do much more.

I toyed with the idea of playing New World. I had taken part in an earlier beta test and found elements of the game to be quite appealing. I especially enjoyed the combat which I felt was both fluid and had a sense of physicality. Yet the minimal plot, voice acting and general “old school” approach made the overall game feel somewhat archaic to me. And so I decide not to purchase it and get swept up in the excitement of a new MMO launch. However, it can be very interesting to observe such a phenomenon. Many of my blogging colleagues have been documenting their experiences and it can be very interesting reading multiple perspectives upon different aspects of the game. Plus the perennial question of what is a “good MMO launch” has been raised once again. Personally I am too old and impatient to have to deal with logon queues and for daily, rolling patches to fix content.

View fullsize

I did manage to log into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Rather than play Warzone, I opted for Team Deathmatch with AI bots. I cranked up the difficulty and it proved quite taxing but on the plus side, it was nice to be able to play a game without any angry commentary in chat and more importantly people cheating with aimbots, or rage quitting the game and closing it for everyone as they were hosting. I am a big advocate of multiplayer games having AI bots as an alternative to live play. Playing against bots means you can practice and work upon your skills as well as just enjoy gameplay at a level that you can cope with. For many players it is potentially the only time that they’ll be able to access certain weapons, kill streaks and such like. Although playing with others is an integral part of such games as CoD:MW, it is always good to have options that don’t make your enjoyment totally dependent on others

Sadly, I am not using my Nintendo Switch much as I expected. I assumed that the handheld device would easily lend itself to short bursts of intermittent gameplay, which reflects my current schedule. But this doesn’t seem to be the case, although I do think this comes down to the sort of games one has. I may need to buy some new titles that lend themselves to casual gameplay, or 30 minute sessions over a long period of time. Perhaps the RPG Disco Elysium will fit that bill. I think the most I did in September with my Switch was update the software. At least now it supports bluetooth earbuds.

View fullsize

As for October, I’m not sure If it is wise to make any major gaming plans. I am toying with the idea of using an old hard drive to upgrade to Windows 11, to see how it performs. If there are any major issues I can easily return the original drive without any inconvenience. I guess that LOTRO and STO will fill the gaming gap, as per usual. As and when I get more time, I may look around for something new to play. It may be time to step outside of my comfort zone and try something different. The last few times I’ve done this the results have been positive.

LOTRO: Bullroarer Update 30.3 and Legendary Item Conversion

View fullsize

Bullroarer Update 30.3 - Beta 3 is currently live on The Lord of the Rings Online test server. This latest build focuses on Brawler Class and New Legendary Item System. As a player whose primary character (a level cap Lore-master) has two Legendary Items that are currently “maxed out”, I have been very interested in the revisions that developer’s Standing Stone Games have been working on. However, having logged into the test server last night and tried the new system, I now have reservations regarding the current build and concerns regarding several issues associated with converting an existing LI to a new one. I will try to keep my thoughts on the matter as clear and as simple as possible because despite changes, the new LI system is still very arcane. The average LOTRO player who struggles with the intricacies of the current game mechanics may possibly find the revised process just as complex.

Therefore, before I commence my summary of what I see as being the key problems, I would strongly urge those players who are already au fait with the existing LI system to read the thread on this current test build, over on the official LOTRO forums. Many of the posts there are made by long time, experienced players who share similar concerns to mine. They have supplied lots of data and technical analysis to substantiate the perceived problems.

Upon logging into Bullroarer (after having copied my level cap Lore-master), I opened the Legendary Item window to find that my Lore-master staff (which was maxed out and imbued) was missing. This is a known bug in the build. Some crafted weapons do not register. So I then converted my First Age Lore-master book (again imbued and fully maxed out), using the handy button at the bottom right hand corner of the LI window. I received 66 Enhanced Runes (Lvl 121), 4800 Ancient Script, 240 Enhanced Runes (Lvl 121), 8 Fragmented Morgul Traceries. Now to cut a long story short, the new constituent parts provided, when applied to a new LI were not sufficient to create a replacement weapon of commensurate quality. I tried this and when I equipped the new weapon and compared my characters stats on a before and after basis, they were not the same. The drop was between 15% to 20% which is quite significant.

View fullsize

The main point of contention appears to be with the current conversion compensation. There have been examples of non-imbued level cap LIs yielding the same rewards as imbued maxed out FA LIs. This obviously needs to be addressed. Then there is the wider issue of compensation for existing items associated with the old LI system. Shards, empowerment scrolls, crystals, relic boxes, runes, legacy replacement scrolls, scrolls of combination, legacy replacement scrolls and the like. All of which will be rendered obsolete when this update launches. Players will expect something back in return for these, especially for items bought from the LOTRO store. And another point of contention is when is the optimal time to convert your existing LIs? When Update 30.3 officially launches on October 13th or will it be wiser to wait until after Fate of Gundabad expansion launches on November 10th when players have reached the new level cap?

There are two weeks left until the proposed launch of the New Legendary Item System. Naturally anything currently being beta tested can potentially be changed. However, SSG has a track record of not always fixing systems and mechanics in beta and often releases updates that are still flawed. I would also argue that this revised system for LIs is still convoluted and doesn’t lend itself to being easily understood. I worry that players are going to log into LOTRO to find that the new LI system does not provide them with a commensurate weapon compared to what they already have and that there may not be adequate compensation for obsolete items. Let us remember that LIs require a significant investment of time, resources and for some player money. The last thing SSG needs are players that feel that something has been taken away from them.

Therefore, let us hope that these issues are remedied in the next fortnight and that SSG takes onboard the feedback that players are currently giving them. If more time is required, then the launch of Update 30.3 needs to be pushed back. Risking a debacle that may even eclipse the one that happened in 2013 when the skills tree was introduced, is a foolish and unnecessary risk. Yet I cannot help but feel that SSG are blithely walking into yet another problem of their own making. In the meantime I am going to level some additional LIs in the remaining two weeks to create additional resources for a suitable new weapon. If I ultimately find myself in a situation where I am demonstrably “hobbled”, statistically speaking, by the coming changes and have to repeat the work that I’ve already done, then it may be time for LOTRO and I to part company. I’m sure I’m not the only person considering this.

LOTRO: Following an Established Formula or Demonstrating a Lack of Vision?

View fullsize

Standing Stone Games have announced that Fate of Gundabad, the next expansion for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online, will launch on November 10th. Pre-orders are now available and like the last three expansions, the latest will be available in three different versions. A Standard Edition which retails for £30. A Collector’s Edition with some additional items priced at £60. And then there’s the so-called Ultimate Fan Bundle which is loaded with trinkets and baubles. This costs £100. Whether the more costly versions offer anything tangible and of “value” is obviously subjective and is already up for debate. However, there are no real surprises here. This pricing model has been established since August 2017 and the release of Mordor. And the game content is similarly formulaic. 

Fate of Gundabad will contain new PVE quests, raids and instances. There will be new reputation factions and because of the increase of level cap from 130 to 140, new gear to obtain. A new class, the Brawler, will be included (where in the past we’ve had new races), as well as new crafting levels to earn and recipes to gain. Effectively, players of LOTRO will be getting more of what they have already. Variations on existing themes. In the past I’ve used the analogy of a fast food franchise, where you know what you’re getting and it is always consistent. This comparison is not meant in a derogatory manner and simply highlights what developers SSG are offering. However, LOTRO is 14 years old and the game is showing its age. Nothing radically different has been added to the game for a long time. Are SSG following an established formula or simply showing a lack of vision?

View fullsize

Not so long ago when EG7 acquired Daybreak Game Company, there was a brief period of optimism, mainly due to the promising statements made by then CEO Robin Flodin. However, he’s now left the company and the acting CEO is Ji Ham, who has been CEO of Daybreak for the last six years. The success of Ji Ham’s tenure at Daybreak is debatable. The perspective of a gamer who has seen beloved titles closed or left in maintenance mode will naturally differ from an investor who is focused purely on the bottom line. I am curious to see whether titles such as LOTRO will get any of the upgrades that were referenced in last year’s investor presentation from EG7. Or whether energies will be diverted elsewhere, now that Flodin has left the scene. Remember that EG7 are currently developing a triple A MMO based upon a licensed property.

I have a great fondness for LOTRO but my relationship with the MMO has certainly changed over time. I now find myself in a position where I am not very enthusiastic for this forthcoming expansion. It isn’t offering anything new, other than a new class. In the past resources, staffing and a host of other reasons have been cited as to why SSG haven’t done anything radical with LOTRO under their tenure as developers. I now think that they no longer have the in-house skills and expertise that they did a decade ago. Therefore they produce “more of the same” because that’s all they have the capacity to do. All things considered, it may be time to replace the fast food analogy I’ve previously applied to LOTRO. It’s now like meeting up with an old school friend who hasn’t moved on in life and is still doing the same things they did back in the day. Mind you, couldn’t the same observation be applied to most ardent players of LOTRO?

Star Trek Online: Playing the Story Arcs in Order

View fullsize

Over the course of its eleven year lifespan, Star Trek Online has evolved from a rushed, incomplete MMO to a far more coherent product. Cryptic have done much over the years to revise the game and make it a more linear experience. However, these changes have not been without consequence. One of which is that the central storylines are now somewhat confused. This is because several missions have been removed from the game and several story arcs have been consolidated. Cryptic have stated that some of these missing missions will be remastered and returned at some point, although as time passes, this becomes less likely. Others which served as wrappers to story arcs have been replaced by alternative content produced in later revisions. The net result is that new players may find the various stories somewhat difficult to follow due to gaps in the plot or content being offered in the wrong order. That is not a good thing for a game founded on an intellectual property driven by complex, interconnected stories and themes.

There are six playable factions available in STO. Klingon Defence Force, Discovery era Starfleet, Dominion, TOS era Starfleet, Romulan Republic and Starfleet. All have an initial story arc that is unique to that particular faction. Once this is complete the following missions are then universal to all. Because the greatest proportion of players in the game are 25th century Starfleet aligned, I will focus upon the changes and current state of the missions that are available to this faction. Upon creating a Starfleet character, a new player must complete the initial game tutorial which is a story arc containing a chain of five missions. Upon completion, further missions are available via the mission journal, under the “episodes” tab. Missions scale to the player's current level. Missions do not have to be played in order, however for the sake of this blog post the assumption is that the new player wishes to follow the story.

View fullsize

As a 25th century Starfleet aligned player, after the tutorial the first major mission chain is the Klingon War. This has been redeveloped several times over the years and some content has been removed, pending a remaster. I shall write specifically about these missing episodes in a future blog post. In its present state the Klingon War is now shorter and more succinct but lacks a suitable climax for it’s main protagonist Admiral B’vat. Furthermore, a smaller mission chain within the Klingon War has been moved from the main episode menu and placed under the “available” tab. Cryptic decided at the beginning of season 15 (October 2018) to downgrade several mission chains to “side content”. A poor choice as these stories are far from trivial. Hence for story continuity I would advise the new player to proceed with the Spectres storyline immediately after completing the Klingon War. The game prompts players to do this by highlighting the side content missions under the banner of The Galaxy at Large.

The next major mission chain that features under the “episodes” tab in the mission journal is Romulan Mystery. This arc focuses on the collapse of the Romulan Star Empire after the Hobus disaster and the fledgling breakaway Romulan Republic. There is an interesting prequel storyline called Wasteland (sadly designated as “side content”) that again can be found under the “available” tab within the mission journal. This takes the player to Nimbus III, the so-called planet of galactic peace. This six mission chain introduces several important characters such as the Reman leader Obisek and head of the Tal Shiar, Colonel Hakeev. It also provides a useful mission reward; Nimbus Pirate Distress Call. This is a unique reusable Ship Device, which summons three support vessels: a Tuffli-class freighter, a Breen Chel Grett-class Cruiser and an Orion Corsair-class Flight Deck Carrier for a short period of time. NB. If you play STO as a Romulan, the Wasteland story is incorporated into the main Romulan Mystery arc, thus validating the point that this is not trivial content and shouldn’t be designated “side content”.

View fullsize

After the Romulan Mystery, the next mission chain focuses on the True Way; a group of Cardassian extremists that don’t agree with the peace treaty that the Cardassian Union signed with the Federation after the Dominion war. The Cardassian Struggle explores several interesting ideas, such as residual Jem’Hadar forces in the Alpha Quadrant and a splinter link of Changelings. Immediately after the Cardassian Struggle story arc, again the player who is interested in continuity should return to the so-called “side content” missions and play through the Lost Dominion. The story addresses the issue of a Dominion fleet that was temporarily diverted in time by the Prophets, when they used the Bajoran Wormhole during the Dominion war. The returning Jem’Hadar fleet is unaware that the war is over and still determined to carry out their mission and capture Deep Space Nine.

The next story in chronological order after Lost Dominion, is Cold War which again has been relegated to “side content” status. This features the Breen and their ongoing harassment of a minor warp capable race called the Deferi who seek help from the Federation. It soon becomes apparent that Preserver relics located on the Deferi homeworld are of interest to the Breen forces. This is an enjoyable story arc with a different adversary and a plot device that calls back to the Star Trek TOS era. The mission rewards offers a space set of Breen themed equipment that all do cold damage. At one point players could gain a Breen Tactical Bridge Officer by completing the episode “Cold Storage”. Sadly that option has now been removed from the game and the Breen Tactical Bridge Officer is now only available as a store item as part of a rather expensive bundle.

View fullsize

After completing the Cold War arc, players can continue to work through all the remaining content in the order it is presented in the “episodes” tab of the Mission Journal. A new player that plays through all content listed above with a 25th century Federation character will experience the most coherent narrative that is available at present. However, to truly learn all nuances of the overarching Iconian plot which was the mainstay of all STO content up to late 2015, you need to play through the unique story content that is available for each faction. There are elements of this story that can only be found in the Romulan and Klingon arcs. An important quality of life tip I’d recommend to anyone playing from scratch is to go into the game’s settings and disabled “auto hail” so you do not get continuously bombarded with mission bestowal prompts. Like many MMOs, STO has changed throughout its lifespan and the storylines do have continuity and chronological errors. If you bear this in mind it will ease some of the anomalies as and when they are encountered.

Star Trek Online: Bugs

View fullsize

“Captain's log, Stardate 5630.8. Today I fell out of my ship.”

All video games have bugs of some sort. It is impossible to release such complicated products without some technical issues getting past “quality assurance”. With regard to contemporary triple A releases, pre-sales and unmovable release dates means that games often launch in a quasi-finished state and are therefore marred by major problems. Hence we frequently see substantial “day one patches”. But such is the nature of the video games industry. Bugs, glitches and flaws are part of the landscape and we as gamers live in hope that they’ll get fixed over a titles lifecycle. Except they are often not. Take The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for example. It has been released on multiple platforms since its release in 2011 and yet the same bugs still persist in every iteration. And it’s no different in the MMORPG genre. If you want further evidence of this, look no further than Star Trek Online.

Star Trek Online is a game that uses the licensed intellectual property that it is founded upon very well. At present, the game is re-running the Temporal Agent Recruitment event, in which if you create a new character from the 23rd century, you receive allsorts of account wide benefits. Being a child of the seventies, I was raised on repeats of Star Trek TOS. So this event is a major incentive for me. The story missions set in this era are extremely enjoyable and touch upon the lore from many classic episodes such as Galileo Seven, Arena and Journey to Babel. Yet the game is blighted with bugs. Bugs the developer’s Cryptic still haven’t gotten around to fixing. Dialogue doesn’t always match the in-game subtitles. Mobs will spawn or glitch into walls or other parts of the environment. And missions simply fail to advance. Sometimes a problem can be cleared by changing phases but more often than not, the player has to abandon the instance and start the mission from scratch.

View fullsize

Oddly it is the minor glitches, rather than the major issues, that prove to be deal breakers. For example, the latest episode Firewall has some technical issues. It crashed the entire game when I first tried to play it last night and many other players in my Fleet (Guild) had performance issues. Mobs were not spawning and checkpoints would fail to trigger. Now Cryptic will patch these problems ASAP. Broadly, the playerbase is understanding of these sorts of problems, mainly because they’re so common. Yet many old glitches remain overlooked. If I visit the interior of my ship, many of the crew who are seated, clip through their chairs and are embedded in the floor. Part of the wall in the shuttle hangar is missing and your character can fall through this. After a few moments of free falling they then respawn on the floor of the Bridge. Plus for some reason the game currently gets my alt’s name wrong with NPCs referring to someone else. To me, these long term environmental glitches are far worse than flaws in new content.

View fullsize

One of the reasons that Star Trek Online has never truly hit “the big time”, despite having a killer IP, is because it’s always been rough around the edges. Cryptic seems to have a reputation for creating products that lack polish. STO could certainly benefit from a long list of bugs being fixed, such as traits resetting, exchange filters not working and animation glitches. But such a task would mean not producing any new content for about a year. Sadly, development within the MMO genre has to be targeted and that often leads to either compromises or a hobson’s choice. It’s a damn shame that Cryptic can’t get the game’s house in order. Star Trek Online 2.0 could then be marketed a lot more proactively. But I don’t think the status quo is going to change and beyond immediate fire fighting, long term bugs are going to remain. Thus my 23rd century crew will remain embedded in the floor and I’ll just have to do my best not to fall out of my ship.

LOTRO: Brawler Class Preview

View fullsize

Standing Stone Games are currently previewing the new Brawler class and major revisions to the Legendary Items system on the Bullroarer test server. So I decided to take a look today. As ever, they have made it very clear that both of these are very early builds and therefore subject to change. In fact some elements of this “first look” have not even been fully integrated into the game. For example, the quest arc prior to entry to Moria is still linked to the existing Legendary Item system and as of yet has no suitable rewards for the Brawler class. Players using the test server need to visit the Eyes and Guard tavern in Archet to obtain a suitable LI. It is also the same for Brawler related gear. Most quest lines do not at present provide suitable gear for this new class. Also many icons and tooltips associated with both Brawlers and LIs are temporary placeholders or recycle existing content.

The Brawler is a melee class. It is supposed to be “inspired” by Helm Hammerhand. Brawlers do not rely upon standard weapons but instead use Battle Gauntlets and heavy armour. The main focus for Brawlers is damage per second, off-tanking and providing support. Any race in Middle-earth can be a Brawler with the exception of Beornings, which are their own hybrid race and class combination. They have two primary lines of specialisation. The blue line (The Fulcrum) is for tanking and support. The red line (The Maelstrom) is a damage specific line. The yellow skill tree (The Fundament) is to augment and bolster the other two. As with the Champion class, which generates and uses Fervour, the Brawler gains and expends Mettle. There is a meter on the skillsbar. Brawler skills include light and heavy attacks, buffs and debuffs, self heals and special AoE attacks.

View fullsize

Rather than create a Brawler and auto level straight to 130, I decided to play through the tutorial and progress through Bree-land for a while. That way I could assess and come to grips with the basic skills as they were earned. Despite this being a very early build the Brawler plays quite well at present. The basic skills of heavy and light attacks are done as different kinds of punches. The animations are okay and it all feels quite tangible. Your blows do damage and the mobs react to them in a timely fashion. However, beyond the actual mechanics, it is very much a matter of taste as to whether you find this sort of fisticuffs “appropriate” in a MMORPG such as The Lord of the Rings Online. I personally find it somewhat incongruous that the Brawler class has been extended to Elves and Hobbits. Punching your way through early content seems plausible but is it credible to “beat” one’s way into Mordor?

As for Legendary Items 2.0, I only took a cursory look at this new system. The streamlining of weapons with four types of socketed items (“traceries”) that accommodate growth without having to replace the weapon is a step in the right direction. But because I’ve never fully come to grips with the existing LI system I cannot assess whether the new systems offer commensurate results to what I have already. Ultimately I need to be able to compare the stats that I have on my primary character on Laurelin, to those on Bullroarer. I am assuming that at some point when the LI changes are approved, players on the live server will get a replacement weapon or a refund of points. If we have to start from scratch without any recompense there will be “community problems”. Essentially, I expect my stats to remain the same when the new LI system is released. If I lose anything or feel that something is not a like for like replacement, I will consider SSG to have failed.

View fullsize

The other two things of note associated with this preview is that SSG have announced the name of the next expansion for LOTRO. It will be Fate of Gundabad. I hope it is more substantive than War of Three Peaks. It is also interesting to see that Bullroarer opened a day early exclusively for “content creators”. It’s something that lots of other game developers do, so it’s not in any way anomalous but I personally wasn’t aware of any major, heavy hitting LOTRO streamers. I always got the impression it is a somewhat niche market and no one had audiences in the 100K range. As for the wider issue of this preview itself, I think it’s too early to really make a definitive assessment as to the success or failure of either the Brawler Class and the revised LI system. I will certainly check again when the second preview goes live and there is more information available and better in-game integration.

A Month in Gaming

View fullsize

Again this is more a case of two months in gaming. Furthermore although I was quite active in July, I was less so in August as the Blaugust 2021 Festival of Blogging event consumed the lion share of my leisure time. The majority of my gaming time is usually mid to late evening. Although Mrs P and I do many activities together, there are times when she will want to watch something I don’t, be engrossed in a book or out with friends. These occasions present sizable windows of time to focus upon a video game, which is especially useful for the MMORPG and RPG genres. However, I often have to choose whether to use this time exclusively for gaming or some other recreational activities such as writing. Another foible of my video game time management is trying to arrange things so I can undertake recurring, daily quests in a game early in the morning. I will often tackle such content in Star Trek Online, as soon as I get up.

Role-playing Games. I regret to say that my flirtation with GreedFall ran out of steam in July. This is no reflection upon the game itself which is interesting and enjoyable. It simply got usurped by Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. I was so frustrated trying to play this game on the Nintendo Switch that I purchased it again on the PC and was able to play through the content far more easily with a keyboard and mouse. I completed the main story in the game and passed on the subsequent busy work side content. Enthused by the joys of playing a quality RPG, I moved straight on to the PC version of Days Gone. I really like this game as its setting in post-apocalyptic Oregon is quite unusual and it has a very similar zombie vibe to that of Left For Dead 2. This is another example of a game that I play with keyboard and mouse for PVE content and then a game controller when using a vehicle. Unfortunately, I haven’t had time of late to focus on this game due to the blogging event.

View fullsize

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games. I returned to The Lord of the Rings Online and started working through the last two content updates, Wildwood and Blood of Azog. As the former was level 45 content it was an absolute breeze to clear and it did wonders for my Virtue Traits. The story was inventive and this new area certainly compliments Bree-land as a region. Although I have a liking for any Dwarven driven stories in LOTRO, questing in Azanulbizar is a slog and too much of the content is of a grinding nature. Hence Star Trek Online has received more of my attention these last two months. Developer’s Cryptic continue to ensure that there are regular new events to undertake and goals to work towards. I’ve also raised another two alts to level cap, although I did use a boost for one with interesting results. I even felt bold enough to experiment with a “cannon build” on one of my KDF vessels, although it requires competent flying to use effectively.

View fullsize

Odds and Sods. Having bought a new game controller I have started playing Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout once again. It is fun in short doses but I still worry about the fact I’ve not yet in over a year, won a Crown. I also find it curious that I find it more entertaining collecting the various outfits and emotes than playing the game itself. I also returned briefly to Call of Duty: Warzone to see what the state of the game is. The patch for the latest season was once again ridiculously large and took hours to download. Upon playing a solo Battle Royale game, I found things were pretty much exactly as I left them. I still don’t like the changes made to the map and some weapons continue to be overpowered and therefore ubiquitous. However, having been away from the game for so long, I found myself playing against new players and it proved to be a far more equitable experience. As for the next few months I have nothing major planned. The next announcement I’m awaiting is the release date and cost of the next LOTRO expansion. Hopefully I can return to Days Gone in September.

LOTRO: We’ll Always Have the Books

I was cautiously optimistic when EG7 acquired Daybreak Game Company in December 2020. I found the various communications by CEO Robin Flodin to be quite encouraging. I got the impression that EG7 were facilitators and planned to provide the resources that developers such as Standing Stone Games required to move their portfolio of games forward. For the first time in ages, I felt that there was a positive future for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. The arrival of a new Producer, Oleg Brodskiy (AKA Raninia), certainly appeared to address the community communications vacuum that has existed for several years. However, it would appear that Robin Flodin has been removed as CEO. Apparently he had a poor interview recently with Dagen Industri in which he had “difficulty answering questions about the difference between total revenues and net sales during the quarter”. This followed an interim business report that was not well received with the market and led to a drop in share prices by 25%. Hence he was removed by the EG7 board.

In the meantime, Ji Ham has been appointed acting CEO, while EG7 searches for a permanent replacement. Ji Ham being the CEO of Daybreak Game Company. It all appears rather arcane to the layman. According to Robin Flodin, EG7 had increasing sales during the second quarter of 2021. The company, which has made numerous acquisitions in recent years, still reported higher profits. Yet shares prices have fallen and perhaps there are widers concerns about expanding too quickly and overreaching. Certainly there is consternation within the company and hence the change in CEO. It now remains to be seen as to whether this has any impact upon the various studios that EG7 own. Will the acting or new CEO make any radical policy changes and halt any ongoing projects? Simply put, from the fans point of view will this ultimately affect LOTRO?

View fullsize

As I’ve written in the past, the average LOTRO player is pretty much oblivious to what goes on at the corporate level. They just log into the game and take their pleasure where they can find it. Often they’re only aware of changes in the game, as and when they happen. For those of us who are more interested in how SSG are doing, it can be quite frustrating trying to get a handle on what is going on. Business strategy is seldom a topic for the public domain. Most of the information we have access to is limited to new reports and official press releases. Neither give us sufficient to go on. It therefore could be a case that the departure of Robin Flodin will have no impact upon LOTRO. But then again it could. Are we effectively back to square one again? It’s hard to tell. Perhaps that’s why I’m returning to and finding comfort in Tolkien’s source text. At least we’ll always have the books.

Star Trek Online: The Agony of Choice

View fullsize

Today I finally earned the requisite amount of campaign progress to be eligible for a free ship in the MMORPG Star Trek Online. It’s taken eight months or so to achieve this and I’ve played doggedly through the Voth Advance, Tholian Trouble and the Defense of Pahvo, multiple times to gain the maximum 3,500 campaign progress. Despite having plenty of time to decide which of the multiple reward options I would take, when actually confronted with a choice, I found it quite difficult to do so. Because there are a LOT of ships available in this game. So many in fact that making a choice becomes problematic. You find yourself not wanting to make a mistake so you end up down the rabbit hole of “researching ships”. Naturally, there are no definitive best ships in the game, although there are many that favour specific play styles and have certain benefits. Opinions vary and so you quickly find yourself just confused, cautious and even a little annoyed at being “ put in such a position”.

There are three choices on offer. You can claim a ship from the Zen store, or a ship from the Infinity Lockbox which includes all the cross faction ships and vessels that are usually only available for a short period of time or found on the exchange at extortionate prices. Alternatively you can claim a fistful of Lobi Crystal, which is an in-game currency that lets you buy not only unique ships but consoles, ship weapons, ground gear and personnel.  Lobi Crystals have the advantage of being bound to your account and so can be transferred between alts. If you claim a ship from either of the other two options associated with this promotional event, then they are bound to character. Essentially, these choices are better for players with fewers alts and may be one primary character. Luckily that is me in a nutshell. Although I have nine alts, one remains the focal point of my gaming and gets the best resources.

View fullsize

So after much deliberation, I found myself back where I started and decided upon the choice I had made several months ago while working through the campaign. I chose the Tier 6 Atlas Prototype Dreadnought Cruiser from the TOS era. Although this is a really stylish looking ship with a nice 23rd century aesthetic, I really just wanted it for the Universal Console. The Dynamic Power Redistributor Module offers +11.2 Energy Damage Resistance Rating and +17.8% Directed Energy Damage as a passive boost. It then has a "clickable" skill that gives +40% Bonus Damage (Reapplied every 1 second for 20 seconds as long as health is above 80%), +100 Bonus Damage Resistance Rating for 20 seconds and +500% hull regen per minute for 20 seconds. All with a 2 minute recharge. This is all well and good but once the console was equipped on my current ship and the Dreadnought Cruiser sent to Dry Dock, it did seem to deflate the sense of victory for completing this event and mitigate all the hard work. Perhaps I should have chosen something shiny that I was actually going to fly. C’est la vie or STO in this case.

Star Trek Online: Max Level Boost

View fullsize

In January this year, Star Trek Online ran the Klingon Recruitment Event to celebrate the streamlining and revision of all KDF content in the MMO. I created a Klingon Engineer and over the following weeks progressed to level cap. Let it suffice to say that the Klingon story arc is now greatly improved and has the sense of grandeur and melodrama that one expects. I then decided to buy the Legendary Klingon Defense Force Captain Bundle, mainly because I wanted a Tier 6 D7 Battlecruiser. I had tried to get by with an upgraded Tier 5 fleet version of this iconic ship but it was somewhat underpowered. So I purchased the bundle, unlocked the ship and went about the business of equipping it with the best gear I had at my disposal. The bundle also came with a Max Level Boost but as my existing Klingon character was already at level cap, I left this item unclaimed.

Roll on April and Cryptic decided to re-run The Delta Recruitment Event. This time round you could create Federation, Romulan Republic and Klingon Defense Force characters and receive perks and benefits while levelling. So I rolled new alts from each faction and really enjoyed playing through the entirety of both the Federation and Romulan storylines. I managed to get both of these alts to level cap but ran out of “enthusiasm” when it came to the Klingon character, as I had already done something similar with this faction only three months previously. So poor old Lieutenant Rigah was left in the Vlugta Asteroid Field to mine Dilithium and function solely as a resource management alt. Until yesterday when I remembered that I had an unused Max Level Boost. So I relocated this Gorn character to Genalda Space Station, unequipped all items and utilised the boost.

View fullsize

The Good: The boost promptly takes you to the current level cap with minimal onscreen hassle. You don’t have to sit around waiting an eternity as confirmation messages fly across the screen (I’m looking at you LOTRO). Once the boost has completed its task you get a nice splash screen that summarises everything that you’ve been granted. This includes 36 x Inventory Slots, 12 x Bank Slots, 6 x Bridge Officer Slots and 2 x Starship Slots as well as 46 Skills Points and 15 Specialisation Points.

The Bad: The Ground Kit and Modules, along with the Space Weapons, Consoles and Ship Equipment are all decidedly lacklustre (as is the ground gear). They are all “very rare” quality, Mark XIV level and are of the kind you usually buy from a vendor. Frankly it would have been preferable if Cryptic had given you a larger quantity of Energy Credits (you get 1,000,000) and let you see what you could buy on The Exchange.

The Adequate: I was surprised to see that you get six bridge officers all pre-promoted to the rank of Commander, pre-equipped with Mk XIV Very Rare equipment and Very Rare-quality traits. This is actually quite useful, although you may wish to tinker with their individual builds before you’re content. The Projected Stasis Beam Universal Console is an acceptable “slot filler” until you find something more bespoke for your ship build. It’s a nice Star Trek TAS reference.

View fullsize

Overall, this Max Level Boost has proven okay and a convenient means to an end. It came with a bundle and was not something I specifically sought out. I’m not sure if I’d buy this if it was sold separately. Knowing how Cryptic tends to price things, it may not offer sufficient value for money. But in this specific situation it has served its purpose. At level 65 I can now access Task Force Operations, Red Alerts and Patrols, providing me with an alternative to just progressing through the story mission arcs once again. The equipment supplied is sufficient to keep me going until I can acquire superior reputation crafted gear. The account unlocks from previous events is also a good source of additional weapons, consoles and devices. And once this character has been played for 20 hours (they’re at 13 at present) I can claim the Tier 6 Bird of Prey that was made available for all alts during the Klingon Recruitment Event.

The LOTROCommunity Forums to Close

View fullsize

The LOTROCommunity Forums

One 1st June 2011, Turbine officially took back control of the European service of the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. Prior to this it was operated by Codemasters Online Gaming. There were several unique distinctions between the two services. Codemasters were far more proactive in running community events and they also maintained a totally separate set of forums, catering to their European customers. When LOTRO was consolidated in the US under the auspices of Turbine, the European forums faced closure and the loss of all the valuable game related data that they held. However, a private, fan maintained forum was quickly established by MueR and the old Codemaster data was archived. Over the next ten years the LOTROCommunity, as it was known, grew in membership and overtime found itself to be an independent alternative to the official LOTRO forums run by Turbine and later Standing Stone Games. 

There was a point when there was a great deal of rivalry between the two communities. The official LOTRO forums were frequently moderated with a heavy hand and frankly any criticism, regardless of its validity, was quashed. The forums subsequently became dominated by a small cadre of bombastic LOTRO fanboys who hailed from the “if you’re not playing it the same as me, then you’re playing it wrong” school of thought. Hence the unofficial LOTROCommunity forums saw an influx of new members and became increasingly vocal in the way the MMO was run and how the official forums were moderated. Matters reached a head in mid 2013 when the Helm’s Deep expansion was being beta tested and it became clear that Mounted Combat, Epic Battles and the changes to the class "trait tree" system were far from good. Turbine circled the wagons and effectively stifled any relevant debate on these subjects and so the LOTROCommunity forums became a beacon of dissent and anger towards Turbine.

View fullsize

The Official LOTRO Forums

Gamers are a passionate bunch. MMO players may be more so, due to the long term investment required. Hence there were times when members of the LOTROCommunity were inflammatory and went out of its way to pick fights not only with Turbine but with specific players on the official forums that they saw as “shills” and “lick spittles”. There were occasions when members of one forum would surreptitiously create an account on the rival platform and indulge in some untrammeled trolling. Yet despite the sniping and the unpleasantries perpetuated by a handful of members, the LOTROCommunity was often a source of invaluable news, analysis and game related data. There was also some important information leaked by beta testers breaking NDAs. Turbine has always had a propensity for being unduly tight-lipped yet the LOTROCommunity was always there to fill in the blanks. Plus for a lot of the time, I enjoyed actively posting and participating there. I took a break when it got too partisan but there was  always more good there than bad.

In recent years the LOTROCommunity has fallen into decline. Mainly because a lot of the core members simply stopped playing LOTRO and moved on to other games. There was a brief resurgence when Standing Stone Games extracted themselves from Turbine in December 2016. A further spike occurred during mid 2020 when the pandemic kept a lot of people at home and SSG made a lot of LOTRO content free. Overall it would appear that the LOTROCommunity has followed the lifecycle of LOTRO itself and has waxed and waned accordingly. There is now a core of dedicated players who keep the MMO ticking over but the general buzz around the game has declined. The official forums are now a lot quieter and the willingness for a flame war has long since diminished. Hence MueR has decided that its time to call it a day for the LOTROCommunity forums and it will close on 1st October 2021.

View fullsize

The Archived Codemasters LOTRO Forums

I don’t know what will happen to the archived data from Codemasters that is still preserved there, nor do I know how long the forums themselves will stay online. But it does smack of the end of an era, although this may seem trivial to those who have not been active LOTRO players or immersed at any point in the games wider community. I can recollect a time when I would sit up late burning the midnight oil, trawling through threads on the LOTROCommunity forums, investing possibly a little too much time into heated debates. LOTRO was my first MMO and it has played a major part in my personal gaming experience. I’ve blogged frequently about the game and got into podcasting because of it as well. The LOTROCommunity forums have also contributed greatly to this overall experience. So thank you MueR for running the site for so long. Good luck with your future endeavours. It feels odd for an MMO to outlive its fan related forum but that’s the way it is. Nothing lasts forever.

Guild Wars 2: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

View fullsize

When Guild Wars 2 launched in the summer of 2012, I was very enthusiastic about the game on the Contains Moderate Peril podcast. I had participated in the beta and was impressed by many of the game's mechanics and its overall accessibility. Although I did not expect the game to be the focal point of my gaming activities, I (and many others I suspect) felt that this casual MMO had a lot to offer and would become a firm favourite. And that was pretty much the case up until 2015 when the first expansion, Heat of Thorns, was released. I have written in the past about how this new content changed the nature of Guild Wars 2 and contradicted its existing laissez-faire approach to solo game play. I didn’t want content gated behind skills I didn’t enjoy earning, Nor did I want my access to zones subject to player unlocks and thus making my gaming activities dependent on others. Hence I parted company with the MMO and have not returned. 

Since then, there has been a second expansion, Path of Fire, which added mounts to the game as well as new content. I believe that this expansion was more equitable than the previous and friends and colleagues have assured me that I can return to the game and bypass the material I didn’t previously like. However, this still did not prove sufficient to tempt me back to the game in 2017 as I felt that Guild Wars 2 was simply one of those games that just wasn’t applicable to me any longer. All too often when I return to an MMO that I have previously left, I enjoy a few hours of excitement mainly due to all the things that have been added to the game in my absence. Then after a while, I find that all the things I didn’t like are still there, or that there is a massive progression gap to be overcome before I can join my friends at the endgame. I believe we as gamers, have an inherent blind spot where we substitute the reality of a situation with what we would “like” a game to be.

View fullsize

There is now a third expansion for Guild Wars 2 on the horizon. Provocatively called End of Dragons. Despite my past experience and the fact that the MMO genre has evolved greatly since the launch of this game, I have a worrying urge to re-install the game and see what is “going on”. The rational part of my mind predicts that I’ll spend an evening downloading the game client, log in to my primary character in Divinity’s Reach and then spend some time riding around on my flying carpet. I’ll quickly establish that the game is not really that different than before and then promptly log out. I did exactly the same with The Secret World: Legends, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Neverwinter. But the irrational part of my mind is adamant that I’m missing out on “the best MMO around” and that “it’s way better than last time” and I really do need to check things out. I’m curious to see which point of view wins, although common sense urges that it should be the former.