The LotRO Store & Turbine Points

[Palantir]

I am finding now that many of the quests left available to my Level 56 hunter are obnoxiously difficult group quests with mobs of 15,000 HP monsters that can't be soloed.

Thats the idea, have a ton of solo content but make some quests require Fellowships- which was the original point of the game to have "fellowships."

I would have loved to have seen Rohan added in a system where you enter the area with level 60 character, and start over at 0, or perhaps have a "column shift" or something, and have 60 more levels of vertical movement to play around in.

Interesting idea I like it. That would sure save the game from becoming the WoW copy of having creatures with a million hit points to defeat and the staff having to come up with player skills so they can pump out 10K per hit on it. It will be quite stupid if they have rats and deer wandering around with 20-30K morale, more than the bosses in SoA & Moria have now. {Hey Bob I know we're only 30th level but lets go to Rohan and grab a few rats, we can train them to work for us and use them to invade Carn-Dum...}

I'm sure there would be howling from the hardcore number-crunching players but eveyone else would love it. Send that idea to Turbine then they could sell twice the number of stuff in the store without having to make anything new / higher level.

 

[Redwolf]

Picked up one warning and two infractions over this little gem but it's the truth:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?p=4880824#post4880824

 

[Palantir]

That post didn't seem very "out of line" what locked thread of yours is that guy refering to that gave you warnings?

(Have the link?)

 

[Palantir]

Concerning lowly deer soon having 20K morale points... I stumbled across this post and the boss is mentioned as having 5 Million morale points! SAid it took over 20 minutes to kill with 30 players.

Not doing the raids in the game I don't know how many Morale points the top bosses have now but if they have 5 Million pts now can you imagine how many the bosses will have in Mordor?

(Ok guys this last boss has only 500 million morale the 3 of us should be able to put him down in under 20 minutes- with our new Potions that give us 50K damage per hit...) :devious:

I like MD's idea of resetting the levels more and more with each passing post like this I read.

 

[Redwolf]

That post didn't seem very "out of line" what locked thread of yours is that guy refering to that gave you warnings?

(Have the link?)

I first had that post in a new thread after the potions flamewar was closed. That was considered reposting material from a closed thread -> 1. Warning. Then I mentioned this warning in another thread -> 1. infraction. Then I posted the math in the thread I link to here and that was again reposting material from a closed thread -> 2. infraction. Never mind the fact that none of the math was in the original flamewar. Or that it is simple facts. But if I were to mention that that would be another infraction because it would discuss moderation policies.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I don't understand the big deal about the potions at all, quite frankly. It heals morale up to 160, every 2 seconds, for 10 seconds. It doesn't take you back over your maximum, right? And it only lasts 10 seconds. What am I missing? It won't help you take on giant mobs. It may marginally help with some lower level mobs. I really don't see the significance. Spell it out for me.

 

[Redwolf]

I don't understand the big deal about the potions at all, quite frankly. It heals morale up to 160, every 2 seconds, for 10 seconds. It doesn't take you back over your maximum, right? And it only lasts 10 seconds. What am I missing? It won't help you take on giant mobs. It may marginally help with some lower level mobs. I really don't see the significance. Spell it out for me.

If you count morale boost per time, including coolowns, these are more than 5x as powerful as the best non-real-world-money potions. And that is after the latter have been boosted.

The cost is around $136/hour if you pop them back to back. You see they only last 10 seconds but the cooldown is 10 seconds so you can pop them back to back in and out of combat. The only limit is how much real world money you want to spend.

The whole issue wouldn't have been so emotional if Turbine hadn't lied quite as blatantly as they did about "convenience only". As a customer of an American business I have the right to ambiguity so that the business can later blame me for any misunderstandings.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

If you count morale boost per time, including coolowns, these are more than 5x as powerful as the best non-real-world-money potions. And that is after the latter have been boosted.

The cost is around $136/hour if you pop them back to back. You see they only last 10 seconds but the cooldown is 10 seconds so you can pop them back to back in and out of combat. The only limit is how much real world money you want to spend.

The whole issue wouldn't have been so emotional if Turbine hadn't lied quite as blatantly as they did about "convenience only". As a customer of an American business I have the right to ambiguity so that the business can later blame me for any misunderstandings.

You still haven't made clear to me what the issue is.

 

[Redwolf]

You still haven't made clear to me what the issue is.

These things boost a top-level character over what a similar top-level character can do.

There could be grouping decisions based on which candidates come with these pots.

If the potions don't sell well enough because you can do top-level content without them they will adjust top-level content. And this is what happened to other MMOs, according to forum posts by those who observed similar transitions. And if that happens you will have an incredibly difficult time if you don't spend real-world money.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

These things boost a top-level character over what a similar top-level character can do.

There could be grouping decisions based on which candidates come with these pots.

If the potions don't sell well enough because you can do top-level content without them they will adjust top-level content. And this is what happened to other MMOs, according to forum posts by those who observed similar transitions. And if that happens you will have an incredibly difficult time if you don't spend real-world money.

Ah, ok. Still seems speculative. Not a concern to me since I mostly solo and stay away from the end-game stuff but I suppose I am thinking eventually I would like to get into some of the raids, large quests, etc. since I am at Level 56 and we did create a Fellowship.

Which does make me concerned about the "Skirmish" system as well, given that those are - correct me if I am wrong - solo instances?

The "requirement" to spend real world money is obviously wrong, if it is that - a requirement.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Redwolf]

One man's "speculative" is another man's math

The reason why some people dig in their heels today is that once these potions have been sold for real-world money there is no way to take them back. It would be breech of contract.

Then, the whole circus with sales starts. Every now and then offer twice as many of these for the same price (not the same amount at half price) and every time you get somebody who just bit the dust in same too tough content. Over time you'll get a whole range of people who can now beat content they shouldn't be able to beat.

This certainly going to have an impact on non-users, either via grouping or via content difficulty.

This isn't a normal code change that you can take back in the next update.

 

[Palantir]

The bottom line is being able to buy better stuff from the store than you can craft or find from drops in-game. It’s the start of buy-to-win in the game instead of the honest play-to-win concept.

I don’t really care what Turbine sells in the store until they start to screw over players who don’t use it by making the game harder for those who don’t.

The potions deal is the first step, in itself it’s not a game-play breaker but Turbine is certainly standing on the edge of that slippery-slope.

The biggest irony is that Turbine used to have a rule that players couldn't use real money to help them in the game = buying from internet gold-sellers. That is until they decided to start doing it themselves.

 

[Redwolf]

I still think the major question is whether real-world money:

• makes it quicker and easier to boost your capabilities
• boost your capabilities for a given level to what other levels can do
• boost your endgame capabilities to some place where nobody can be without paying real world money can be (aka more than max level)

 

[Redwolf]

More infractions for me. I think they really want this thing through and handle forum protests the hard way.

I wonder how many points I need to earn my purple heart (aka temp ban)?

 

[Palantir]

More infractions for me. I think they really want this thing through and handle forum protests the hard way.

You really need to add some links so we can find your posts to :thumup:, or :laugh: at you!
:halo:

 

[Redwolf]

I wish I did something heroic but alas:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?p=4885791#post4885791

 

[Palantir]

If you got an infraction for that your name must be on a watch list.

I think Turbine clearly sees the writing on the wall by closing all the posts concerning "buying advantages." They are trying to stiffle the conversation instead of correcting the problem.

The Super-potions are just the tip of the iceberg, as Turbine will have to keep adding "special store only" items to keep money rolling in. Then the content will be changed to account for the players buying the super-duper stuff further messing with the players who can't or won't spend more money to play the game.

We'll have to wait and see if they put out more but dumbed down content for the masses & pocket the money or, spend the money and redouble the quality of content.

 

[Redwolf]

On the bright side, they also seems to have cleaned up the vendor trash. Another change I really wanted.

BTW, I had to resubscribe for now. If I miss a single day between now and f2p I won't get my accumulated points, so if it turns out I stay I stand there without points to buy my vault space. Nice trick, that.

 

[Redwolf]

And another infraction. I am slowing down, though, that was more than 24 hours in between. Still wondering what the heck you have to do other there to get at least a 3-day ban. Oh well.

 

[Palantir]

Turbines "A Quick Guide to using the Turbine Store"
Why? Because I know you guys will soon be earning "frequent buyer" miles with your love for the store being put in the game!

Some quotes:

"Uh oh, you want to get your item but you just realized you don’t have enough Turbine Points to make the purchase! Getting more Turbine Points is easy, and there are multiple ways to do it! ... The LOTRO Store accepts credit cards, debit cards that can be used as a credit card, and even PayPal!"

The "Store icon" is conviently placed NEXT to your #1 Bag...


"It is possible to get a special code worth Turbine Points. Maybe you received a code from a special promotion or a contest?"

Contest? They couldn't possibily tie the Store points to In-game Festival Contests could they-would they? :crosseye:

For your shopping pleasure. :nuts:
http://www.lotro.com/component/content/article/804-featured-article-lotro-store-starter-guide