Book 14 Developer Diary: Instance Updates
[09-Jul-2008]
Book 14 Instance Updates
There's nothing quite
like getting together with a group of friends and challenging yourself to work
your way through an instance. Feeling like you're working together with your friends
and defeating a difficult foe, and being rewarded well for your efforts, are
some of the best experiences you can have in an MMO. Well, this is something we've
been looking to enhance in LOTRO and in Book 14 you'll be seeing some
significant updates to a number of our high end instances. I'll break down a
few of them to give you an idea of what is coming your way.
Angmar
Angmar
has 3 main instances: Urugarth, Carn Dûm and Barad Gúlaran. While they are set
in some awesome spaces, they have suffered from some problems, both in balance
and rewards. We've tried to address some of these issues in Book 14.
A New Armour Set
The most
significant change to these instances in Book 14 is the addition of a new
Angmar armour set. This set comes in the standard flavors of light, medium and
heavy, and can be acquired through defeating bosses in these instances. The
acquisition of these armour pieces follows a pattern similar to Annúminas,
although the number of smaller barter items needed to purchase a piece is much
smaller. For all you number crunchers, here are some screenshots of the new
sets for you to enjoy:
Gameplay Tweaks
We've also made a few tweaks to flow and balance in the
Angmar instances. We won't give all the details here, so consider these only a
taste of what's to come!
Urugarth
The overall flow of
Urugarth has not changed, but we have revised some of the fights there, such as
the Gruglok arena fight and Lhugrien's battle. We have also tried to better
convey what is going on with burning the various totems in the instance, so how
that affects the final fight is better explained.
Carn
Dûm
Of the Angmar instances, Carn
Dûm has seen the most significant. One of these is the addition of a new bridge
that leads into the "city" section of the space. If you have the
proper keys, you will no longer have to go down into the pits to enter the city
and castle of the Witch-king. In addition, we have reworked the Helchgam fight
to be more fun. Helchgam will no longer heal while you try to bring a pillar
down - but he will pull down pillars a lot more frequently.
Barad
Gúlaran
We felt the Barad Gúlaran space was
pretty good, especially after we removed the puzzle section of the Castellan
fight. The final fight with the Rogmul still represents the hardest fight in
Angmar, so why change perfection?
Annúminas
Over the past few
updates, Annúminas has received a number of changes, and more are coming in
Book 14. Some of them are pretty substantial.
Armour Tweaks
We feel the
instances represent the hardest 6-man content in LOTRO, but didn't feel the
armour matched that difficulty. To address this, we've bumped the armour up to
make it much more desirable, and again for you number crunchers, the updated
armour stats can be found below. Note that the Light and Medium Armour sets
have a new helm piece that you can purchase. This gives you more flexibility in
what armour pieces you use to get your set bonuses.
Gameplay Tweaks
We also felt the
difficulty of the instances didn't match our intended progression. We had
always intended that Glinghant, the Gardens, be the easiest, Valandil's Tomb
next in difficulty, and Ost Elendil, the Palace, the most challenging. Instead,
it felt like the Tomb was very hard, the Palace was uneven, and the Gardens
were harder than they should be. We've tried to address these issues in Book
14.
Glinghant
The flow through the space
remains the same, but we've added some additional feedback for when you have
successfully used the levers to open the doors and when you have not.
Valandil's Tomb
The first leg of this
instance has seen some significant rework. Overall we have reduced the number
of monsters in the lower portion of the tomb, as we felt this took far too long
to get through and wasn't very rewarding. We have also introduced new
"gimmicks" into the 6 smaller sub-tombs and have worked on providing
better feedback about which sub-tombs you have completed and those you still
need to conquer. Finally, we have changed the Limrafn so they no longer
respawn, as this seemed unnecessarily annoying.
Ost Elendil
We have done some
significant reworking of the first portion of this instance, all with an eye
toward better conveying the light dynamic used in this instance. The light-sensitive
monsters will now play FX when they are being affected by the light, so you'll
have a better idea of who is weakened and who is not. In addition, we have
reworked the Guloth fight to be more of a challenge. In comparison to
Shingrinder, Guloth was a pushover. Hopefully that is no longer the case!
Helegrod
We haven't made any
significant gameplay changes to Helegrod, but we have updated how you acquire
the Helegrod armour.
Armour Tweaks
Instead of the various
armour pieces dropping from inside the instance, the raid will now use barter
items, similar to those found in the Rift. This barter item can be used to
exchange for the Class armour piece of your choice from armour traders in
Rivendell. Since the Helegrod armour has always been "Bind on Equip,"
we have not flagged these barter items to be bound to the player in anyway.
This means you could possibly sell your barter item on the auction house, if
you so desire, or give it to a friend or kinmate. Due to these changes, we have
pulled the Helegrod armour pieces from any other treasure sources. The only
source for Helegrod armour will be Helegrod.
In addition to these
changes, we've updated some of the other trophies that are found in the raid.
These trophies, which were previously only used for the quests, can now be
traded for consumables with a trader in Rivendell.
Epic Instances
While certainly not as
challenging as some of our other content, the various Epic instances have
suffered for some time from not having any incentive to play them again. How
many times have you seen someone looking for a Book 4 group? Well to provide
some incentive to replay these instances, we are introducing a series of
repeatable quests that direct you into those instances. Players who have never
done a particular instance before will be able to group up with those who have
and both will be rewarded.
These quests will reward
you with a barter item, and with stacks of these items, you can purchase
rewards, like consumables, crafting resources, on up to beryl shards and armour
pieces from Angmar, Annúminas or Helegrod. These quests, though, are on a
weekly timer, so you will only be able to get a limited number of these a week.
In addition you will only be able to get one of the armour pieces once a month,
so our instance content won't be completely negated by these quests.
Only a limited number of
Epic instances will have these repeatable quests. When Book 14 launches, the
following instances will be supported:
To receive these quests,
you will need to speak to a "Sage of Eriador," who will be found next
to the reflecting pool where these instances are found.
New Deeds
Finally, we've done a
pass to give most of the instances a few deeds specific to them, like
Exploration and Slayer deeds. There are also a few hidden deeds... but we'll
leave those up to you to discover!
We hope you like the
changes, and we'll see you in Book 14!
[Comments? Post them on our forums!]
