Radiance to go away in LOTRO

Andraxx

As reported by Jalessa during the Turbine dev chat earlier today, and then confirmed by Sapience here:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=4954520#post4954520

Radiance is to be removed from the game. What, if any, gating mechanism for raids will replace it has not yet been revealed.

No word on which future update will remove it yet. It's definitely still around for now.

As a casual player, I'm happy it will be going away.

 

Einherjar_LC

Originally posted by Andraxx

As reported by Jalessa during the Turbine dev chat earlier today, and then confirmed by Sapience here:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=4954520#post4954520

Radiance is to be removed from the game. What, if any, gating mechanism for raids will replace it has not yet been revealed.

No word on which future update will remove it yet. It's definitely still around for now.

As a casual player, I'm happy it will be going away.

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

It was a poorly thought out dynamic and polarized the community from which it still has not recovered IMO.

 

If they're smart, they take a look at what made SoA so successful equipment wise and try to get back to that method of design.  The way things were in SoA was as about as close to balance as you can get between quest rewards, raid rewards, crafting, and dropped loot.  All of it was usable and with the best being only marginally better than the others following the order of raid rewards being the best, followed by crafting, then questing, and finally drops.

 

When MoM arrived, radiance gear became the end all, be all and was so far and away the best option it totally threw things out of whack and the game was still playing catch up to compensate for the radiance gear screw up.

 

Glad to see they can admit a mistake and finally take steps to remedy it.  It should've been done immediately after MoM was released, but better late than never.

Jackdog

to quote Spinks

Gaming has moved on from when raiding was the high pinnacle of PvE to which to aspire. It’s still challenging and rewarding, but there’s no need to force people to grind their way into raid groups any more. The goal is to get more people into the raid game, not fewer. Right?

http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/lotro-the-future-of-radiance-gear/

 

Kudos to Turbine for listening to  what the  community was saying and acting on it

 

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=332189

Robsolf

Originally posted by Jackdog

to quote Spinks

Gaming has moved on from when raiding was the high pinnacle of PvE to which to aspire. It’s still challenging and rewarding, but there’s no need to force people to grind their way into raid groups any more. The goal is to get more people into the raid game, not fewer. Right?

http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/lotro-the-future-of-radiance-gear/

 

Kudos to Turbine for listening to  what the  community was saying and acting on it

 

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=332189

so long as some people insist that "tedious" and "difficult" are synonymous... you'll have them having a fit cuz their raid gear doesn't matter much anymore...  appeasing the casuals, they'll call it, in less pleasant language.

All I know is... I've never been the raiding type, but with radiance, I had no interest in changing that, whatsoever.  Provided they don't radiance with something more tedious, I may actually do some raids from time to time...

tmssteve

This may be a great idea. However, if it is, it should have been employed many months ago. What kind of Beta did Moria have if this is the result? This, f2p, and the absolute silliness of jamming a new vault system down our throats that no one likes is . . . well, one way to try and kill the game. It seems as though the message from Turbine is: "We hear you and we don't care."

Okay. I lived before LOTRO and I'll live after it is gone. I've invested a LOT of money (purchasing lifetime subs for the whole family after months of monthly subbing). My takeaway: don't play MMO's. Sooner or later, the company will either die or make changes I cannot abide. There are plenty of "limited" games that don't have these issues and I may well soon be heading there. In one sense, it's a shame. In another, I'll get my life back.

I understand they want more revenue. They won't get it from me if the trends continue.

Keep going! You'll make my wife happy.

Rocketeer

Originally posted by tmssteve

This may be a great idea. However, if it is, it should have been employed many months ago. What kind of Beta did Moria have if this is the result? This, f2p, and the absolute silliness of jamming a new vault system down our throats that no one likes is . . . well, one way to try and kill the game. It seems as though the message from Turbine is: "We hear you and we don't care."

Okay. I lived before LOTRO and I'll live after it is gone. I've invested a LOT of money (purchasing lifetime subs for the whole family after months of monthly subbing). My takeaway: don't play MMO's. Sooner or later, the company will either die or make changes I cannot abide. There are plenty of "limited" games that don't have these issues and I may well soon be heading there. In one sense, it's a shame. In another, I'll get my life back.

I understand they want more revenue. They won't get it from me if the trends continue.

Keep going! You'll make my wife happy.

This is as good a time as any to make sweeping changes, maybe better. Turbine probably just didnt have the resources free up to now to change things(it was implied in many dev mentions about now we can do this and that), and regarding the vault i love it, so there is atleast one that likes the new system. Its a much superior organizing system then staring at tiny symbols that look way to much alike anyway.

Its always so easy to bash devs, but personally i think they are doing pretty damn well. And lets get real, for everyone they loose over changes like this they are going to get 3 new players anyway.

areb

Couldn't agree more.

 

It was a poorly thought out dynamic and polarized the community from which it still has not recovered IMO.

 

If they're smart, they take a look at what made SoA so successful equipment wise and try to get back to that method of design.  The way things were in SoA was as about as close to balance as you can get between quest rewards, raid rewards, crafting, and dropped loot.  All of it was usable and with the best being only marginally better than the others following the order of raid rewards being the best, followed by crafting, then questing, and finally drops.

 

When MoM arrived, radiance gear became the end all, be all and was so far and away the best option it totally threw things out of whack and the game was still playing catch up to compensate for the radiance gear screw up.

 

Glad to see they can admit a mistake and finally take steps to remedy it.  It should've been done immediately after MoM was released, but better late than never.

Regarding SoA gear, you are right on.  I enjoyed gearing up a lot more in SoA than MoM/Mirkwood.  I feel like gearing up these days is a game of how much morale can I get.  Oh, and the LI grind...

Not to mention crafting was actually fun back then, and it was somewhat difficult to get beryl shards.

Radiance I wasn't really bothered by.  But I support getting rid of it because it simplifies things.  They have made things so complicated with healing ratings, offence/defence ratings, partial avoidances, dev crits, radiance etc.  But I liked it better when it was simple.

Despite this I play because I think the combat and content is the best of any MMO.

tmssteve

Originally posted by Rocketeer

Originally posted by tmssteve

This may be a great idea. However, if it is, it should have been employed many months ago. What kind of Beta did Moria have if this is the result? This, f2p, and the absolute silliness of jamming a new vault system down our throats that no one likes is . . . well, one way to try and kill the game. It seems as though the message from Turbine is: "We hear you and we don't care."

Okay. I lived before LOTRO and I'll live after it is gone. I've invested a LOT of money (purchasing lifetime subs for the whole family after months of monthly subbing). My takeaway: don't play MMO's. Sooner or later, the company will either die or make changes I cannot abide. There are plenty of "limited" games that don't have these issues and I may well soon be heading there. In one sense, it's a shame. In another, I'll get my life back.

I understand they want more revenue. They won't get it from me if the trends continue.

Keep going! You'll make my wife happy.

This is as good a time as any to make sweeping changes, maybe better. Turbine probably just didnt have the resources free up to now to change things(it was implied in many dev mentions about now we can do this and that), and regarding the vault i love it, so there is atleast one that likes the new system. Its a much superior organizing system then staring at tiny symbols that look way to much alike anyway.

Its always so easy to bash devs, but personally i think they are doing pretty damn well. And lets get real, for everyone they loose over changes like this they are going to get 3 new players anyway.

One point at a time. Yes, it is a good time to make sweeping changes--if the changes are positive and/or needed. The Rad gear situation is not new. It was entirely predictable. Now, after how long of having the system in place, and how many hours of running GS, etc, we're just supposed to shrug it off and hope something better comes along. Here's a crazy idea: how about telling us what the "better system" is going to be after explaining why it took a couple of years to realize the old one needed to be sacked?

Next, you are one of the few persons to post anything positive about the new vault system. Could the old one have been improved? Yes. For example, since the vaults are nothing more than a visual array (in the programming sense of the word), why not the ability to auto-sort them? That would have made finding duplicates quite simple. However, any vault system that does not allow everything to be seen at once is going to leave players frustrated. How many times do players now forget to take something or put something in the vault? That is likely to increase with the new system.

Finally, I am not interested in "bashing" the devs. I don't know them. They might be great folks, singularly devoted to making a better product. Here's what I do know: there was a lot of input from the Beta that was ignored. There have been all kinds of in-game issues since the game has come out. The responses by the company have often been less than stellar. To think that losing players like me is good or that I will be replaced by three new ones is not the way Turbine should approach it. As I said, I've spent thousands on the game. I like it. Where will they come up with 3 players hooked via the promise of free play who have thousands of disposable cash? So, maybe the solution is to make common sense tweaks to the game, explain themselves better (they must have a communications expert on the payroll somewhere), and use a happy player base to build on.

Nah. That would never work. Much better not to give established players their Turbine points for many weeks, so that maybe we'll be tempted to pay for things.

I've recruited players. Think I'm doing that now? Until today, I've taken a "wait and see" approach. From what I've seen so far, my days are numbered. Maybe I'll be blown away by how great the changes are. Maybe not. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks the new vault system is weak. Maybe not. Maybe I'm the only one who wonders why instances and quest-givers can remain broken for months. Maybe not.

Maybe F2P will put an end to the distance between the company and its most reliable customers.

Maybe not.

Rocketeer

Originally posted by tmssteve

Originally posted by Rocketeer

Originally posted by tmssteve

This may be a great idea. However, if it is, it should have been employed many months ago. What kind of Beta did Moria have if this is the result? This, f2p, and the absolute silliness of jamming a new vault system down our throats that no one likes is . . . well, one way to try and kill the game. It seems as though the message from Turbine is: "We hear you and we don't care."

Okay. I lived before LOTRO and I'll live after it is gone. I've invested a LOT of money (purchasing lifetime subs for the whole family after months of monthly subbing). My takeaway: don't play MMO's. Sooner or later, the company will either die or make changes I cannot abide. There are plenty of "limited" games that don't have these issues and I may well soon be heading there. In one sense, it's a shame. In another, I'll get my life back.

I understand they want more revenue. They won't get it from me if the trends continue.

Keep going! You'll make my wife happy.

This is as good a time as any to make sweeping changes, maybe better. Turbine probably just didnt have the resources free up to now to change things(it was implied in many dev mentions about now we can do this and that), and regarding the vault i love it, so there is atleast one that likes the new system. Its a much superior organizing system then staring at tiny symbols that look way to much alike anyway.

Its always so easy to bash devs, but personally i think they are doing pretty damn well. And lets get real, for everyone they loose over changes like this they are going to get 3 new players anyway.

One point at a time. Yes, it is a good time to make sweeping changes--if the changes are positive and/or needed. The Rad gear situation is not new. It was entirely predictable. Now, after how long of having the system in place, and how many hours of running GS, etc, we're just supposed to shrug it off and hope something better comes along. Here's a crazy idea: how about telling us what the "better system" is going to be after explaining why it took a couple of years to realize the old one needed to be sacked?

Obviously telling us about the end of radiance like this was a teaser, companies do it all them. Besides why would you need to know whats replaceing it months in advance? And you cant expect the devs to explain every decision being made in their company, especially the unpopular ones. Besides better late then never, im just happy they do it instead of angry they are doing it so late.

Next, you are one of the few persons to post anything positive about the new vault system. Could the old one have been improved? Yes. For example, since the vaults are nothing more than a visual array (in the programming sense of the word), why not the ability to auto-sort them? That would have made finding duplicates quite simple. However, any vault system that does not allow everything to be seen at once is going to leave players frustrated. How many times do players now forget to take something or put something in the vault? That is likely to increase with the new system.

Why would someone go to forums to say something positive? I for example never did before it came up in this thread, i just looked at it, thought "hey thats neat" and moved on. Truth be told its not that exciting that you need to run to the forums to tell it to the whole internet. Though if you have a problem with it ... 

Besides the devs said the vault is getting another round of patches before christmas, they just didnt get everything into the deadline for F2P and decided they rather introduce it now so people can get used to it. Im having faith they are going to address your issues, its not exactly earthshattering, its just a bank vault.

Finally, I am not interested in "bashing" the devs. I don't know them. They might be great folks, singularly devoted to making a better product. Here's what I do know: there was a lot of input from the Beta that was ignored. There have been all kinds of in-game issues since the game has come out. The responses by the company have often been less than stellar. To think that losing players like me is good or that I will be replaced by three new ones is not the way Turbine should approach it. As I said, I've spent thousands on the game. I like it. Where will they come up with 3 players hooked via the promise of free play who have thousands of disposable cash? So, maybe the solution is to make common sense tweaks to the game, explain themselves better (they must have a communications expert on the payroll somewhere), and use a happy player base to build on.

Hmm i didnt say its good or even desireable that they loose you, but you got so many issues with rather minor changes i simply dont think it would be feasible to try to make you stay. You simply have to keep in mind that the purpose of LotRO is not to make a game that tmssteve likes, but that the devs have their own vision of what they want, and for which they are likely constantly fighting with their finance department to be able to realize them. If they cant do every they want to do, why be surprised if they cant do everything you want them to do? They are trying, atleast thats my take on it, and they likely have to compromise alot.

Nah. That would never work. Much better not to give established players their Turbine points for many weeks, so that maybe we'll be tempted to pay for things.

Its not that hard to not click that storebutton if you dont have any currency in it. But yeah i would have preferred a timely delivery of these points aswell.

I've recruited players. Think I'm doing that now? Until today, I've taken a "wait and see" approach. From what I've seen so far, my days are numbered. Maybe I'll be blown away by how great the changes are. Maybe not. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks the new vault system is weak. Maybe not. Maybe I'm the only one who wonders why instances and quest-givers can remain broken for months. Maybe not.

Maybe F2P will put an end to the distance between the company and its most reliable customers.

Maybe not.

I heard good things about the devs in regard to taking community wishes to heart. Like the removal of reputation mounts from the store, adding chests to the Vault, nerfing the store potions or the last thing finally removing radiance. Things like the wardrobe and shared storage are also undoubtly things the community wanted to see and make many people happy, personally i think both turbine and the community will prosper. Not so much because of the F2P move itself, but because of an increased income allowing them to tackle things that previously have been out of the question.

sadeyx

Sorry, I never actually got to do any raiding in Lotro, I got stuck about mid- 30's when I became addicted to Monster play.

 

What exactly is "Radience" ?