Siege of Mirkwood Changes
Ask the Dev Team
General
Q: Is riding a horse going to become a toggle skill in Siege of Mirkwood? If so, can we use the track resource toggle skills at the same time?
A: The ability to use resource tacking skills while mounted is just one of many changes coming for the mount system with Siege of Mirkwood. Weâll have an entire Developer Diary on all the changes to mounts!
Q: Are there any plans to open up the UI to customizations and plug-ins?
A: We do not have any plans to open up the UI to full customization and plugins at this time. However, we do have some changes that will allow for more personalization coming with Siege of Mirkwood that we think players will appreciate.
Q: Is there any chance of a shared bank slot for easier trading among characters on an account?
A: We recognize some players want to be able to move materials and items between characters on the same account without having to use the mail system or using housing chests, and itâs something we want to make available to players. Weâll have full details shortly.
Q: Will we be seeing any improvements to the mail system, like multiple attachments?
A: While we do not have plans to add multiple attachments at this time we are adding a new feature to the mail system!
Mail dropdown: When typing into the "To:" field while composing mail, you will now get an auto-complete box which contains a filtered list of people that match the letters you've typed into the box. These people are pulled from your friends list, your kinship list, and your alternate characters on the current account
Gameplay
Q: Why is the combat system set up the way it is? It sometimes feels laggy and unresponsive.
A: Weâve heard a lot of feedback on the combat system and weâve been looking at ways to improve the feel of the system for some time now. With Siege of Mirkwood, weâve had an opportunity to address this. Look for an upcoming dev diary to explain all of the changes and improvements to the system.
A: Weâre reworking how legendary books and pages are acquired for Siege of Mirkwood, and weâre looking at giving players multiple ways to finish these quests.
Raids/Instances
Q: Why was the decision made to go the route of radiance gating? Were there other options on the table other than gear? Couldnât it be placed on a trait?
A: The team wanted a means of gating content behind a progressively difficult barrier that could be overcome. At the time a popular method to gating raid content was to require players to go through long sequences of quests strung throughout instanced content. Instead LotRo chose to have players acquire tangible rewards in the form of radiance-statted gear.
We think that the look and the attributes of our âTier Setsâ are rather rewarding in and of themselves. That they further unlock the ability to acquire even more powerful gear is a big plus. Trait-based gating feels less rewarding as players progress through the various milestones of the process so weâve decided to stick with using radiance gear to gate access to our raids.
That said, there is a rather significant change to radiance coming with our next update that should give players a better means of gearing up to more easily defeat the encounters of our raid zones:
Players will no longer cower at anything greater than 8 dread levels. Starting at 8 dread players will cower at the same rate as they currently do at 5 dread on live. All current penalties to attributes and skill levels still apply as they do currently on live though so youâll still have to do some level of gearing prior to entering the new raid zone. Only the cowering behavior is being modified to allow for greater discrepancy between the radiance level on a playerâs gear and the gloom level of the raid zone.
Further, content is planning to somewhat relax the amount of gloom experienced throughout raid zones while incrementally increasing it for boss encounters and challenge modes. The amount of gloom experienced from cluster to cluster will gradually increase as it has in the past; but it should be easier to gain initial access to raid zones as well as overcome the gloom of a given raid zone in order to get back on the hope side of the scale via consumables.
Coupled with the upcoming changes to make dungeon-rewarded radiance gear more easily obtainable, we hope that this change to our dread system provides an easier ramp-up to those frustrated with the old means of radiance gating. At the same we expect to provide a suitable challenge for top-end kinships looking to push the envelope. Again, more success should equal more gear which in turn should equal an easier time overcoming our raid content
Traits and Deeds
Classes
Q: Why can a burglar be attacked and seen while in Hide In Plain Sight? Is this a bug or working as intended?
A: Please bug occurrences of this â include the monster names of what saw you, what level you are, what level the monster was. You can file a bug report by typing /bug while in the game, or use the Report a Bug link on the LOTRO forums.
Q: Is there a reason for the freeze animation during minstrel heals? Is there a chance that it will be changed so we can heal on the move?
A: Minstrel heals were not designed to be used on the move, and we have no plans at this time to change it.
Combat
Legendary items
Q: Is anything being done to reduce the randomness of the Legendary Item system, specifically in regards to legacies and relic crafting?
A: We have significant changes to the Legendary Item system in the works for Siege of Mirkwood. Weâre taking a look at everything from the experience required to level items to how legacies are added. Weâre also planning on revamping the selection pools themselves to remove some of the less desirable legacies entirely.
Q: Will Lore-masters ever get legendary swords?
A: Every class has two legendary items to slot â Lore-masters have staves and their books. If we allow this for Lore-masters, they would have a third legendary item to slot, breaking the balance of the system.
Q: Are there any plans for Guardians to be able to have legendary Shields?
A: As with the Lore-master, the Guardian already two legendary items: his weapon and his belt. We donât have any plans to provide a third item type to all classes at this time.
PvMP
Q: What are your plans for the effects of PVP changes in the PVE game world and vice versa? Can a PVP zone simply disable or alter character settings while in that zone?
A: When making changes to PvMP, weâre very careful to not impact the PvE game. While we have some effects in place that give benefits to the PvE world as a result of successfully meeting goals and objectives in the Ettenmoors, we choose things that are least likely to upset our PvE-only players.
Our current tech does allow us to disable various skills or settings while in PvP zones. For example, cosmetic gear is disabled in the Ettenmoors to prevent players from hiding their true class under another classâs armor type. There are also skills, such as the Hunterâs Desperate Flight, that are disabled within the Ettenmoors.
Q: Can we look forward to a new PvMP zone soon?
A: Currently, we have no plans for a new PvMP zone.
