LOTRO: Producer Q&A 2021
Executive Producer Rob Ciccolini (AKA Severlin) made a surprise appearance on the latest The Lord of the Rings Online livestream this week and conducted an impromptu Q&A with those viewing. As ever it did not contain any major revelation regarding the long term plans for the game but it did include some interesting nuggets of information. The fact that he engaged with players is a talking point in itself. Communication has been a major complaint from LOTRO players for several years now. Perhaps the negative PR from last year regarding the server outages and the so called “mini expansion” have finally appeared on senior staff’s radar. The fact that LOTRO has a new owner may also have contributed to this “revised” approach to community relations. Here is a breakdown of what Rob Ciccolini had to say, courtesy of Massively Overpowered:
There are plans for LOTRO continuing for a decade and more: “We want it to go on forever.”
A spotted leak of a “landscape difficulty NPC” is part of a project to let players increase the challenge level while questing, but that’s still in the works for all servers.
The Wildwood content update is cool because it fills out content in the mid-levels but has missions for endgame players.
“The more we round out the map in development, the more it feels real.”
Again, Gundabad expansion is confirmed for later this year with a continuation of the main storyline.
The Guardian class update and tank class balance changes are “ongoing.” But a lot of the attention from the class team is focused on the Brawler right now.
No teasing on the Brawler just yet. It’ll probably be part of the pre-order for Gundabad. “Doing a new class is a big deal!”
The studio would love to do more racial housing, but nothing immediate. Definitely not before the expansion.
There will be Update 30 in the summer before Gundabad. It will be an endgame patch that includes a smaller raid. It’ll be handled as a normal quest pack.
There is no release date for Wildwood yet. It’ll be a regular quest pack that’ll be free for VIPs.
He feels communication is “improved,” which is why he’s doing these Q&As.
There will be more talk about “modest changes” for PvMP coming in the producer’s letter.
Producer’s letter is almost ready and will be here within the month.
LOTRO market gifting is coming in the near future, but there is no ETA for it yet.
Scrolls of Empowerment controversy: The team wants players to stay at their level of content rather than going back to farm easier spots.
Apologized for the delay on legendary item revamp, as it’s gotten delayed twice now for different reasons. They are excited to do it, want to do it, but it’s slow in coming because of how much engineering resources it’ll take.
Look for the legendary item revamp “later this year” that will include UI changes. The time frame for this depends on what engineering says when they get in there. They just want one system from level 50 onward that’ll make for leveling alts better.
Transferring from closed game worlds will be happening in “the near future.”
River-hobbits are confirmed to be an upcoming race, but don’t expect to see it until 2022.
They are aware of attack speed and animation issues, but they have to deal with this carefully and delicately since it affects so much.
There are possible plans to create a level 130 Valar boost, but this is not confirmed yet.
No further plans to expand LUA support.
The anniversary event is indeed coming.
The team wants to put more resources into crafting, possibly after Gundabad.
There is more work being done to reduce server lag, especially during raids. New chat server hardware is being worked on.
Kinship revamps are on the list, not at the highest priority but it’s there.
SSG has no plans for Europe-based servers as it doesn’t have the resources to support both.
The studio “learned a lot of lessons” from the War of the Three Peaks “mini-expansion” debacle such as giving VIP players more value from these (“We’re not trying to squeeze them,” he said of charging VIP players) and making the more expensive bundles better.
The team wants to give players more ways to get good gear, including essences.
No new instruments are being announced, but it’s definitely something the team loves to do.
The team has discussed a stat squish, but it’s a “big deal” that requires an entire game rebalance. It would also invalidate every single class guide if this happens. Not saying yes, not saying no.
SSG’s goal is to have something fun for players to do “every 13 weeks,” something cool and interesting as 13 weeks seems to be the point when players start to fall away without further stimulation. It’s why the team wants to get out the as-of-yet-unseen Unfinished Tales quests.
There’s a lot of discussion about investing into the engine and graphics of the game. This comes from EG7’s excitement about improving that.
There are more character customization options in the works, perhaps prior to the expansion.
SSG knows that 4K support is heavily requested, but it requires specialists to do it right. They’re looking into the viability of doing that.
SSG has a number of positions open as it is expanding the team.
Scaling UI is something the team wants to do.
The team looks at the player engagement data from patches to help figure out what should be developed in the future.
The legendary servers should be going to level 105 in the next few months.
GMs are getting more tools to help players better and more quickly.
SSG wants to revamp its website, it knows that it is old.
There are plans for more of these AMAs!
There are a few points that I would like to pick up on. Firstly Mr. Ciccolini’s claim that communication has improved strikes me as a little premature. I think we should give this a year to decide if things have gotten better. But at least he has shown up and engaged with the community so it’s a start. Secondly, I am cautiously optimistic about the proposed Legendary Item changes. If the developers can rationalize the mechanics and make the overall system less arcane, then they’ll impress the hell out of me. I still like the idea of a weapon that levels and grows with you as you progress through the game but I don’t want the process to be an insufferable grind. I also don’t want it to be a means to strong arm me into paying unnecessarily. It is unethical and frankly insulting to artificially create a grind and then monetise the very means to escape it. Thirdly, I am definitely interested in a level 130 Valar boost. I have several alts I want to progress but don’t wish to drag through Mordor.
However some of the other issues discussed are a little more nebulous and I suspect will be difficult to address without a lot of financial investment and the employment of specialist staff. Tinkering with graphics and upgrading the game engine are major undertakings. However, if LOTRO is to remain competitive with other MMOs, a more contemporary visual style along with support for 4K, as well as a scaling UI, would be beneficial. However, let us not forget that some people do not like change. Alterations to the Hobbit run animation along with the last character model upgrade resulted in a small but vocal group of players brandishing flaming torches and marching on the Winter Palace. If changes are made, will SSG be able to offer an option for a “classic” game aesthetic?
I am hoping that Standing Stone Games will be more transparent with regard to their actions in the months to come. I don’t expect to see the details of the corporate balance sheet but I would like to know what’s being planned and how things are going. If problems occur I’d like to be treated as an adult and told that there is an issue. It’s only a small percentage of players that tend to lose their shit when there are delays and frankly they’re best ignored. The rest of us tend to have a positive view of the game and want to get behind and support its ongoing development. Hence I hope we see more of Mr Ciccolini in 2021 and we get a clear road map for the next 12 month soon. Hopefully SSG will be a little more sensitive to player sensibilities and feedback. The whole Scrolls of Empowerment debacle is still present in many player’s minds. I still balk not only at the level locking of scrolls but the fact they put a cap on how many you can stockpile at once. SSG needs to get a lot of things right this year if they want to genuinely repair community relations. Let us hope that process has now officially started.
