Introduction

Welcome, fellow Freeps and Creeps, to a brand new day in the Ettenmoors! This dev diary will give you a brief glimpse into the mechanical changes we have made for PvMP in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Mines of Moria™ expansion. So grab a bag of popcorn, find your desk chair, and come along with me for a wild reading adventure!

-Jalessa

Population Balance

The Ettenmoors and PvMP is a tremendously enjoyable experience when battles are evenly matched. However, evenly matched battles may be infrequent. Though there’s merit to the underdog overcoming the odds and a feeling of superiority when your side crushes the meager opposition, frustration and boredom continue to grow if there is no shift in population balance.

In order to address this, we have introduced a population balance mechanic in the Ettenmoors that will help even the odds between the two sides and provide a more interesting PvMP experience.

This mechanic continually tracks population in PvMP. When one side’s force becomes dramatically smaller than the other’s, a defensive bonus is added to the characters on the underpopulated side. The bonus increases if the difference in population between the two sides grows bigger and decreases if the difference in population between the two sides grows smaller.

The defensive bonus boosts melee, ranged, and tactical defenses. When your side has this bonus applied, it will be shown as an icon in your vitals window.

• For Creeps, this bonus is known as “Akúlhun's Challenge”
• For Freeps, this bonus is known as “Lainedhal's Call to Arms”

Session Play

Troll and Ranger session play is now tied into the Population Balance mechanic. You will now only be able to start up a session if your side is overwhelmed. Like the defensive bonus above, if the difference between the two sides continues to increase, more session slots will be unlocked for the underpopulated side to use.