(Removed to protect the guilty. Tsk tsk, on whomever informed you of this falsity.) Will the Eglain the Travel [...] 
Finally!
I have been working on getting a blog together for a while now and as of today I am online and ready to roll. Forgive the typos and terrible grammar.
My intention with this blog is pretty straight forward, report what I am working on and give a little insight into the changes that I am making to the game. Well, in this era of open communicatiion and exposition, I want to give you some insight into what I am working on. I cannot say that I will be diligent enough or have energy enough to do this every day, nor every week. When the moment strikes me and I have a few moments to get in an update here or there, I pledge to do so and give you as much insight as I can.
As many of you may know, or perhaps do not, I have been busily working on changes to the new player experience. This included the overhaul to Ered Luin, input on the balance progression and other changes that are reflected in Volume 2 Book 7.
It would be great to say that I perfectly calculated all the changes and hit every single aspect of the changes out of the proverbial park but, as the skewed toward positive but still overwhelmingly mixed response to these changes shows, some of those hits were foul balls and some were just shag flies to shallow left. (Forgive the baseball references. I live near Boston and have been a fan of the Red Sox since birth. Sorry.)
Not one to rest on laurels or admit my own mistakes, I have been discussin with Constant Gardener some possible changes that we might want to get in for Book 8. (Before you ask - No, I do not know when Book 8 will happen; yes, there will be a Book 8 and it will be in the future at some point…not yet explained to me…or anyone else on the design team.) We’re not exactly certain how those changes will manifest at the moment, but I do agree with many players that we took monster health down too far. We are looking at getting monster health increased at lower levels to allow for players to get a little more time in to learn their skills. Classes like the Champion, Warden and Runekeeper will definitely benefit from changes that allow them to build up to their…well build up skills. Hard to do that when a bevy of foes lay at your feet.
Now, on to current and pressing business. We have restructured the game’s questing system from levels 1-15. We attempted to allow players to progress through the story by providing easier to comprehend quest hubs, a cleaner travel experience and quests that made sense for their location. In some cases, these have been very well received; in others, it is clear that we should have spent a little more time getting the focus just right. Still, I feel that the changes are for the better…but woefully incomplete.
We have revisited content from 1-15. A start. A good start, perhaps. A start that has given me a little more leverage to revisit other areas of the game. Okay, all of the areas of the original game world. Now this is not some Lucasonian endeavour where I aim to remake the world in the image of a pile of refried turd. It is not a reimagining of the game itself. It is meant to be a cleaner presentation of the quests through Middle-earth. Now, I know that there will be naysayers that will ultimately think that my efforts are in fact a ploy to bring about Lucasonian or Spielbergian change to a game that they love and know very well…but really, I want to make some of those rough edges and seams that are all too exposed a little less so. With that in mind, bear with me a moment and take a look at my overall plans from Book 7, Book 8 and the great beyond.
Regions Correspond to a Tier
Tiers are level relative, crafting level relative and make sense for players to be there. In a sense we have this already, but the fluidity of these regions and their correlation to the crafting system, class quest, and epic story quests can sometimes be terribly unclear. To make things easier from a design standpoint and to allow some player perspective I will present these tiers as follows:
Tier 1 = Levels 1-15 and Crafting Tier 1, Epic Story: Volume 1, Book 1
Tier 2 = Levels 15-22 and Crafting Tier 2, Epic Story: Volume 1, Book 2
Tier 3 = Levels 22-32 and Crafting Tier 3, Epic Story: Volume 1, Book 3
Tier 4 = Levels 32-42 and Crafting Tier 4, Epic Story: Volume 1, Book 4
Tier 5 = Levels 42-52 and Crafting Tier 5, Epic Story: Volume 1, Books 5+
As you can see this is an ambitious project and one that is going to be undertaken over a very lengthen stretch of time. It will not happen all at once and many Tiers may see little change for a good stretch of time. The priciples guiding these changes are those introduced with Volume 2, Book 7; primary among those principles: FUN!
You see a lot of information in there, you see crafting level spreads, epic story mentions and I am sure you are wondering what the heck I am thinking. Sometimes I wonder this too…but I also recognize that there were some shortfalls with the initial release of the game. I am certainly not saying that there was anything terribly wrong, but there were some areas that could have been smoother and a few places where the content path become overgrown and difficult for players to find…nevertheless travel. We started something with V2B7 and I cannot stop now.
Book 8, as it is shaping up from my end, is focusing on Tier 2 questing. (I will explain a bit about crafting in a later blog.) I am focusing on getting the area brought up to the proper level, the Epic Story set to the right level band. I have, thus far, altered the level of the Epic Story to go from 14-22 culminating in the same manner as it always has. I am also in the process of creating two decidedly different tracks of questing content within Breeland.
Our Epic story for Book 1 provides us a roadmap for the quest flow here. It starts in the Prancing Pony in the town of Bree. Bree, as a quest hub is cumbersome and is much better at serving as a social hub where players can gather and partake in Middle-earth. Leaving the city to accomplish small tasks only to return immediately no longer fits our design goals and the majority of “fedexing” will be removed. Bree, in essence, will become a hub directing players to quest content rather than the place the content begins and resolves.
The Structure of the Book 1 remains unchanged: you complete instances in the Eastern Bree-land area, you are then sent outside of Buckland, then to Bombadil, then to the Barrows, then into the Barrows again. This provides us a road map.
Players following the Epic Story will find themselves in Buckland at ~15-16. They will find that Buckland has a host of questing available for 15-16 and note that the next quest in the Epic is 18. Buckland will drive players through Old Forest West and the area immediately around Buckland before sending them off to Adso’s Camp. Adso’s Camp will move to 17-18 and focus on the South Bree-fields, Old Forest East and Brandy Hills, moving the quest targets a little further from the central hub and toward the next Epic chapter.
This progression is mimicked immediately outside of Bree focusing on the Bree-fields and Vale of Andrath - this is a secondary 15-16 leveling band for players to travel if the choose to not follow the Epic path. All roads here eventually lead to Adso and the Epic.
We are making an effort to provide multiple tracks and the Tier 2 implementation of our content re-vamp will allow Bree-land to be experienced by players where previously - the questing was quickly outleveled and easily overlooked. Bree-land will cover levels 15-22 and slowly move players toward our Tier 3 content paths - we will get into that more when we get there.
Thus far, my implementation covers the Epic Story, Buckland, Bree-fields, Andrath and Adso’s Camp. Testing has started and bugs will begin flowing in as I try to stay ahead of the curve.
Will I hit everything out of the park - nope. I will sure as heck try. So will Constant Gardener as he follows behind me scrubbing up the quest rewards to bring them into 2009.
Okay, enough time on this first blog. Time to hear what you all have to say and get back to making the story of poor Adso a little more interesting!
Orion
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March 25th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Great post, thanks Orion!
March 25th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I think you’ve got your work cut out for you, Orion. But I do recall you mentioning that you would love to be able to revisit the older content and do some touching up. Looks like you have finally gotten the opportunity. I’m happy for you, and I hope you can accomplish the things you want to accomplish.
I for one enjoy change in a game as long as the change is positive. Here are some of my concerns, with this project. Maybe they will be useful to you and maybe not.
1) The epic storyline has always been highly unfriendly to solo players. Considering that the epic story is THE CONTENT we are specifically paying for and it is the whole basis of the game, it seems to me that it should be accessible to all players and not just those who like to group. I’d love to see the epic storyline worked out in a way that is playable for soloists so that those of us who love to solo can finally put closed to some of the books!
2) The original content provided a great deal of questing from level 1 to 15. It made it possible for me to solo from 1 to 15 without having to fill in gaps with group content or grinding. But it appears that you are stretching the content. Instead of 1 - 15 it looks like the same content is now going to be 1 - 18. This is going to thin out the content and stretch it, so that soloists will have a more difficult time and possibly have to resort to grinding to fill in the gaps.
3) I don’t mind being the horse led to the water, but as they say: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You can lead me to the epic storyline content, but unless it is becoming soloable, I still won’t ever accept those quests. I’m concerned that you will lead us all there and then dump us off. So the groupies can continue to level through the epic storyline and soloists will be standing there twiddling their thumbs.
4) Young players that are level 6 - 12 have a pretty rough time getting from Bree to the Shire or vice-versa when they are on foot. And without a stabler at Adso’s Camp, “on foot” happens because some quest make you get off at the camp and then you are left with no way but your own feet for getting back. If the areas along the great east road between Bree and the Shire are made even higher level, rough won’t begin to describe it unless you are moving the animals away from the roadway.
5) There are quest chains that start tough (so that you have to wait until you are three or four levels above the quest to solo it) and then when you complete it, the next quest is a LOWER level quest. This occurrs, for example, at Adso’s camp with the search for Fresh Springs. The mobs in the area are level 16 but the quest is given at level 10 or 11 and you must do that quest before you get the next quest, which is a level 10 quest to collect mushrooms in the bog north of buckland. Easy quest, but not worth a plug nickel by the time you can actually do it. All because of the much harder quest that precedes it. Can you please make sure that easier quests come first, and harder quests come later in those chains?
That’s probably the kind of feedback we should have offered clear back in closed beta. Maybe we did. But now that there is a chance to fix a few things, this is the perfect opportunity for it. Thanks for you hard work Orion. I will eventually make a new alt and it will be nice to have all these nice changes in place when I do so.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
The revamp sounds great, looks like it will be time to roll a new alt in Book 8 to see all of the changes! I love the changes you made to Ered Luin and am happy to see that you will be adjusting monster health so things don’t drop with one hit. Always interesting to see what the devs are working on, thanks for sharing!
March 25th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Good read man. Cant wait to see more.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Hammerfast’s point #5 is something that particularly infuriates me. Case in point is the Moria quest to “Find Balin’s Camp”. It’s labeled as a level 55 solo quest, but immediately has you traversing through a narrow area chock filled with level 57-59 enemies in groups of 2 or more, lasting 2/3 the length of Nud-Melek, and then right at the end you wind up at the camp filled with level 55 enemies which are presumably what was used to determine the quest level.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Personally I like that the books have some quests that focus on groups. I don’t think it’s much of a problem. At times it can be hard to find people to join you, but I always have. One or two quests per book that require a group don’t hurt me.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Thanks Orion!
I’m glad to see this is finally being done. Bree has always been a hurdle (along with the upper 30s).
Keep up the good work, and bring us more blogs. Was excellent!
Brushfire
March 27th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I think this is a fine direction, and it is excellent to see Turbine committing to the total game, not simply expanding it.
Also, I think it is wise to spread further out, as I would describe these changes as doing. Not only do Gold Spammers have to cover several times more space, they’ll have a harder time reaching there.
But above all else, it puts Bree into position to evolve too. There does need to be “another” Bree. Combe already is that on a lower level. Edoras might fit that bill in the future. But lord (OTR) knows that is a ways off. Dale is another, but again, that is another project for antoher time.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I often have to spend evenings listening to my husband gripe about the game from across the room. He is a compulsive alt-starter so he gets to exercise his inner “curmudgeon” way too frequently. What a nice surprise the other night when he exclaimed that “Evendim is set up so much better now!” and he spent a couple of hours grinning and humming. Thank you Orion!
April 6th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Great post, thank you! I do have to agree with making books soloable…as it stands now, I only get books done when I can solo them or with a very small group, usually grey. Even if they are small fellowships that would be better than full groups. I only say this because it is such a focus to the storyline, if it were just a quest string, groups are ok for ending with.
thanks for revisiting morale on mobs in the early levels, testing that on bullroarer was such a dissappointment.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:27 am
I’ve only just found this so my comments are a bit delayed, but I think it’s wonderful that you’re blogging and that it is an interesting topic. I like the sound of what you’re planning (even if the geek in me wonders why Tier 2 doesn’t start at 12).
To balance the solo-Epic requests, I’d like to request that the group quests remain. It seems much more epic when I group up to overcome an ever bigger obstacle than normal. I can understand that solo players do not want to reach a dead end, so they need some way around group quests. However, that shouldn’t prevent the groupers getting their buzz.
Grouping can be a little intimidating to less confident players so I think it is important to introduce it early, with a little pressure (e.g. Epic storyline) if necessary. I believe that grouping is a huge part of the addiction of the game for many players. I have personally seen my wife and two nephews (separately) ‘hooked’ after grouping with strangers and having a ball. They appreciate having things to do on their own too, but the camaraderie is special.