Keeping up the rapid updating that we’ve seen since Dungeons went Free To Play, Update 8 has just hit the Lamannia test server. Lets take a looksee!
New Adventure Pack: Siege of Stormreach
The continuing saga of the siege on Lordsmarch Palace in Stormreach continues as the plot expands to include the powerful green Hag, a primary leader from Droaam, the kingdom of monsters. Four adventures launching from the Lordsmarch plaza will send players to over, under and around Stormreach eventually leading to an ancient giants ruin where monstrous deeds are underway.
Defend against waves of attackers to help protect a city ward!
Go on a covert mission to stop a Droaam navy blockade!
Beat back a surprise attack beneath the city!
Infiltrate abandoned Giant ruins to confront the powerful and deadly leader of the Droaam invasion
This level 13 adventure pack includes 4 hand crafted adventures! Available to VIPs for preview on Lamannia! Visit the Lords March Plaza to begin your adventures!
As an Adventure Pack this is going to be bought with Turbine Points, unlike the three level 12 ones released as free content last month that lead into them. I enjoyed those (and the loot was pretty great too!), so I’m looking forward to continuing the defense against the Droaam horde. I hope there’s not too many Medusa in it though. I’m still stiff after the last one! Green Hags are pretty unpleasant though. At least it’s just the one hag, as when combined in a covey with an Annis Hag and a Night Hag, their power can be truly off the scale. I imagine this one will give us a run for our money though!
This is about a week and a half too late, but still.
Dungeons and Dragons Online in Europe never went F2P. When the Codemasters-run servers finally went dark in August, a process began to transfer the players there to Turbine’s DDO server, Ghallanda. After two months trapped alongside General Zod in the Phantom Zone, last week European adventurers finally began to emerge blinkingly into a world at once familiar, but mysteriously altered. A Stormreach where the Silver Flame, once so welcoming, would slam the doors of the Catacombs in the faces of those who had repeatedly saved it from the antics of Archbishop Dryden.
Had everybody been replaced with Pod People? Sadly not, though that would make a pretty great adventure. It was F2P. This article will attempt to help new arrivals to make sense of the new laws of nature with which they must contend.
Armonica the Warforged and his Welcome Wagon
Everybody who has gone through the convoluted process of getting a transferral code from Codemasters, and using it with Turbine to set their characters on their journey will have received 5250 Turbine Points.
Folks who have received this will fall into one of three categories.
1. People who were current subscribers to Codemasters DDO.
2. People who were past subscribers to Codemasters DDO, but who stopped playing at some point. The move to the US F2P servers has reignited their interest for whatever reason.
3. People who were past subscribers to Codemasters DDO, but who have already moved to the US servers, perhaps when F2P first launched.
The third group, amongst whom I numbered, need little advice from the likes of me, and we can simply rejoice in our windfall of points. The first two groups, however, may be looking at the new system, and feeling a little lost or confused. I’m going to do my best to help!
First of all, lets take a look at the different sorts of DDO account. The rule of three applies once more!
1. VIPs, otherwise known as Subscribers. Similar to how things worked in Europe, with some exceptions. They have access to all adventure packs, and all classes and races apart from Drow and Favoured Souls, which you can either buy, or earn with favour.
2. Free to play. These are people who have never spent any money on DDO. In spite of having been given a bunch of points and subscribing in Europe, all new European arrivals start in this category.
3. Premium. Standing between the darkness and the light, these are people who have either let their subscription lapse, or ever bought points.
This table breaks things down:
VIP
Premium
Free
Monthly Fee
Yes
No
No
Turbine Points
500/month Store Purchase Favor Reward
Store Purchase Favor Reward
Store Purchase Favor Reward
Classes & Races
Basic & Premium Free Favor Unlocked per Server Buyable for All Servers
Basic Free Favor Unlocked per Server Buyable for All Servers
Basic Free Favor Unlocked per Server Buyable for All Servers
Geography
All Included Free
Stormreach & Vicinity
Stormreach & Vicinity
Adventure Packs
All Included Free
Some Free Can Purchase Others
Some Free Can Purchase Others
Base Character Slots
10
4
2
Shared Bank Slot
Included Free
Can Purchase
Can Purchase
Login Queue
Priority
High
Standard
Chat
Unlimited
Unlimited
Limited
Auctions
Unlimited
Unlimited
Limited
Mail
Unlimited
Unlimited
Limited
Gold Storage
Unlimited
Unlimited
Limited Based on Level Until Level 12
Buyback History
40 Items
10 Items
10 Items
Auto Log Off Time
60 minutes
20 minutes
10 minutes
Leveling
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Customer Service
Full Self-Service Online
Full For 45 Days Self-Service Online
Self-Service Online
Compendium
Read Create/Edit
Read Create/Edit
Read
Official Forums
Read Post
Read Post
Read Limited Posting
Beta Priority
High
Normal
Normal
If you were happy to subscribe in Europe, you may want to consider continuing to do that again here. That will give you access to all adventure packs, and many other perks.
One major flaw in how we have been transferred is that you will have lost anything you unlocked via favour, so you will not currently have access to Drow, Favoured Souls, 32-point builds, or Veteran characters. You can unlock them going forward, of course, but it’ll have to be with a character reaching the particular favour level for the first time. Even subscribers won’t have access to these.
If you don’t want to subscribe then I would strongly suggest getting yourself up to Premium level. You can do this by buying the smallest point pack, $6.50 for 420 points, or you could consider just subscribing for a single month if you prefer. Either will get you to Premium, which will make the Auction House and mail properly usable, and bring you up to 4 character slots.
So, what should you spend your points on?
Unless you subscribe you’re very likely to not have anywhere near enough character slots right now, meaning you can’t get at all your existing characters. You can buy more with points. 595 points will get you an additional character slot on each server.
Even once you have enough character slots for your entire menagerie, you will only be able to play those who belong to races and classes that you have access to.
One other perk that I consider a must-have is the shared bank. Not only does it make transferring potions and the like between your characters much simpler, many items bind to account rather than to character, and the shared bank is the only way to transfer them between your characters. The mail system won’t work for them. The 20 slot shared bank costs 1495 points. Subscribers get it automatically.
On To The Adventure!
Right, you should now have access to all your characters. I hope you have some points left.
One of the most jarring things about becoming a Premium or F2P player is that an awful lot of the adventures that you will be used to having around will no longer be available to you. Don’t worry, there is actually a fairly generous selection of adventures which are totally free, and you can see a list of those here.
Even so, you are going to find launch-day staples such as Shan-To-Kor and the Catacombs are going to rudely refuse you access until you buy them. I consider the two I just mentioned to be must-haves, and they’re pretty cheap at 250 points each, but which adventure packs you want to prioritise will depend on your level and personal tastes.
The prices I’ve given above are the unmodified prices. However, there are almost always special deals going on with 20% discounts on a selection of adventures, and sometimes more on special occasions. In the shop you can access via the Turbine button in-game, you’ll see a “Today’s Deals” tab. I would suggest only buying the adventure packs that you absolutely need right now, and keep your eyes open on the deals for anything you think you’ll want in the future.
Biding your time has another benefit. As you play you will be acquiring additional Turbine points. Over time you’ll likely gain enough points for another adventure pack or two. I explained exactly how this works in my guide on how to play DDO for free. If you don’t want to, you need never spend another coin to play, and still have a great time.
Finally, I’d just like to welcome you all. I think F2P has, surprisingly, been very good for DDO. New content is coming out at least twice as fast as it used to. They even just added three new completely free adventures. I hope you have as much fun here as I do!
If you have any questions or aspects of the change you’d like me to add to this, please let me know in the comment section!
Take me on a trip, on your magic swirling ship, EA!
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning proudly introduces an all new service for our players; Account Entitlements! These services are available now for purchase from the EA store and include the following features offered at special introductory prices:
* Server Transfer – $19.99 USD, this will grant you a code that can be redeemed for one server transfer for a single character.
* Starter Mount Pack – $8.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive a deed to obtain a mount usable at level 2 giving players a 25% speed boost and have a 100% chance to dismount upon damage.
* Trusty Mount Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive a deed to obtain your choice of a new mount usable at level 20 giving players mounts of up to 60% speed boost and have a 55% chance to dismount upon damage
* Trinkets of the World Pack – $4.99 USD, all characters on an account will receive two tokens to spend at the new Trophy Vendor in the capital cities. Each token can be used to purchase one of 14 different trophies.
* Specialized Training Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will recieve one War Tract that will allow them to immediately advance one full level when used
* Herald Pet Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will be granted adoption papers to the Snotling Herald vanity pet. This pet will follow you around and give you a boost!
We have, sadly, mostly become desensitised to paying for mounts, and Warhammer Online’s $9.99 for your entire account is actually a bargain compared with other games. However, the ability to just flat-out buy levels is a new one to me in a big-brand subscription MMO.
It perhaps matters more in WAR, because it is a game centered around competition with other players. When you create a perception that people can buy their way to power, you reduce how much people care about the result, and so you end up reducing the hunger for victory that keeps people playing games such as this.
Implicit in the decision to offer levels for sale is an admission: that the journey to max level is an odious chore to be avoided, not something you might do simply because it is fun. If that’s true, I can think of another way to avoid the odious chore, and it is MUCH cheaper. More seriously, if the developers really feel that being able to skip levelling is something that players need to be able to enjoy the game, then it should not be something they have to pay extra for, and should be a system that people can access through normal gameplay, similar to how Age of Conan allows you to skip levels.
For it to be acceptable to sell someone a subscription to a game with large unenjoyable portions, and then sell the ability to skip those parts for additional money, is not a business model that would lead to better games. Instead it would encourage the deliberate insertion of tedium in order to then charge to remove it.
Join me next time, as we travel further down the RMT slippery slope! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
Update:
Our next stop down the slippery slope has arrived sooner than I expected!
Update to the update. The seed of doubt as to exactly what the progression pack is has entered my mind, and I’m uncomfortable being too forceful when I don’t have all the facts, so I’ve taken the original update down. The progression pack may be some sort of mini-expansion, rather than an account entitlement. I’ll see if I can get a better idea of it’s exact nature. The description here certainly sounds like it boosts renown gain, and so far as I can tell from the patch notes, this is all the progression pack does.
RvRâ„¢ Packs
Timed to coincide with the release of 1.4.0 are two new booster packs that are available for digital download from the EA Store.
These packs are broken down into the Progression Pack and the Personality Pack.
The Progression Pack gives players an opportunity to advance through the Renown Ranks faster and advance their character up to Renown Rank 100! This includes access to all bonuses, items, and rewards that are gated by the expanded Renown Ranks.
The Personality Pack offers a variety of items to personalize a character. Included in this pack are several vanity pets (in a choice of 4 colors), new heavy mounts (in a choice of 3 colors), access to barber surgeon tokens to allow characters to change their look, and access to new and unique dyes on the dyemasters.
They certainly *sound* just like the other account entitlements. The cosmetic one doesn’t much bother me at this point down the slope, but the progression pack is messing with renown. The very substance which shows how much, and how well, you have fought for your Realm.
Update, 5th of November:
We now know, thanks to this release, that the progression pack is like the account entitlements. I had been unsure as to whether there was any content in it that might allow it to be considered an expansion, but it appears not, unless you count the equipment that the extra 20 renown ranks will allow you to access. It will cost $10, or $15 if bought with the “Personality Pack”.
Progression Pack
Characters with the progression pack will advance through the Renown Ranks at an accelerated rate, allowing them to get up to the new Renown Ranks quicker than ever! Note: This passive bonus applies to Renown Ranks 1-80.
Purchasing the RvR pack will allow all characters on your account to progress all the way to Renown Rank 100 and be able to enjoy all the rewards that come with those added levels.
Characters will have access to all new Renown gear and Item Sets as they progress through Renown Ranks 81-100. This includes two new Split sets of Armor with unique looks and bonuses available at Renown Rank 90 and 100.
Characters will have access to three new sets of Scenario Weapons as they progress through Renown Ranks 81-100. These weapons are available at Renown Ranks 81, 90, and 100.
Personality Pack
Want to change up your look? The new Barber Surgeon in game requires tokens that are available to owners of the Personality pack only. You will get four tokens to completely change your facial customization options.
With the purchase of the personality pack, all characters on the account will receive four new vanity pets in their choice of four different colors. Order characters on the account will receive the Two-Headed Hound, the Drake, the Ugly Hound, and the Hawk. Destruction characters on the account will receive the Two-Headed Hound, the Drake, the Iron Hawk, and the Jester.
With the purchase of the personality pack, all characters on the account will receive a high end heavy mount in their choice of three colors. These mounts are useable at Renown Rank 60 and provide a 70% speed bonus with a 45% chance of dismount.
Want to dye your armor to be different? The personality pack also provides all characters on the account access to use new dyes on the dye-masters that are new and unique. Stand out from the crowd!
Someone who wants to be competitive in RvR is pretty much going to need to buy the Progression pack, or see his friends and foes outpace him.
It has been rather a wait, as I noted in a previous post, but for the last week, anyone who ever had a Codemasters DDO account has been able to log into that account system to get a Transition Key. The full FAQ for the transfer process is here.
A little while ago, around 8 pm GMT, the transfer utility went live at http://transfer.ddo.com/. We can now enter our Transition Key and apply for our characters to be transferred to Ghallanda, a US DDO server. Unfortunately, for many users, including myself, it is coming up with a Soap Exception when we try to use it, and changing browser is not helping. It may just be a result of a great rush of people overwhelming the site. I’ll update this post when we know more!
Update, 10:07 pm GMT: This is just in from Tolero on the forum:
We’re still investigating what is causing the “Soap Error ()” message. Will bring more info as soon as it is available, the tech team is on the case!
Update: 10:34 pm GMT:
It appears that we have broken Turbine.
Update, Midnight GMT: The server has come back up, but is still giving the SOAP error. It’s a shame that the transition tool was launched so late in the European day. I suspect most folks have given up for the day and gone to bed. Having waited for two months to get access to their characters again, this is really the last thing anybody wanted.
Update, 5 pm GMT, 2nd of November: The transfer tool is still down, and frustration is growing. I don’t really understand how this can happen. Europeans have had their characters trapped in the Phantom zone since August 19th. There has been ample time to make sure that the tool worked properly.
Update, 6:47 pm GMT: Success! The transfer tool has finally let me through. It’ll take a while for the characters to start turning up, but you get the 5250 Turbine points immediately. Spend them wisely.
The Dwarven tutorial is much changed, and for the better I think, with more of Thorin’s expedition members making an appearance. We see Thorin officially transfer stewardship of the hold to his friend, Gormr Doursmith. I won’t spoil the story for you, but its many changes add quite a bit of background to the tale. It was a little jarring for the roles within the story to be given to different people now, but if I hadn’t played the previous version, I would definitely say that this new telling is superior.
Elvish Treachery!!! Where's my city gone?? Oh, there it is.
What Elvish treachery be this??? Upon finishing the tutorial, and quickly travelling 75 years into the future, I was shocked to not find myself standing outside Thorin’s Hold, but over near the Refuge of Edhelion where Elf characters would usually start.
In that picture you can also see the new quest window. I was happy enough with the old one, but the new one seems fine too.
The early Dwarf and Elf Introduction quests, which used to be separate up to a point before converging, are now more or less unified, though with different quest-text in some places. The map too is changed. I shall venture forth, along this shiny new quest-path.
Oho! What’s this? On the body of a Cave Burrower in the Silver Deep mine I find a Tin Token. The wiki tells me that that’s for the yearly Anniversary events. I guess that they’ve been enabled to make it easier for people to test the new Barter Wallet, which greedily intercepted the token before it could reach my inventory.
Back outside I follow the quests onwards, nervously passing a pack of barghest. You didn’t used to meet barghest until the Barrow Downs, so it’s a little weird to see these level 2 ones glaring at me. The barghest are FAR from all that’s changed around here though.
The Berghold. I don't like what they've done with the place.
The Dourhand have been busy, and transformed the old Berghold storage depot into a rather sinister tomb. I do a couple of little jobs for Gormr, then head off to Dwalin to report my findings.
Dwalin sends me westward, and if I had thought the changes to the land I had already seen were significant, nothing could have prepared me for this:
Strip Mining! It's Undwarven!!!
The landscape has been strip-mined bare, and weird machinery spews smoke and fumes into the mountain air. Technology of this sort is always associated with corruption in Middle-Earth, and these vile machines could almost have been designed by Saruman himself. I find out where all the aurochs have gotten to; they are now being used as ill-treated beasts of burden by the Dourhand mining operation.
Fighting my way up through Dourhand guards I head into the Mirkstone tunnels, only to find that they have been overun by wights and corrupted spirits! Good gracious! All those silly humans and hobbits have to worry about in their introduction version of Archet is a few bandits! The corrupted spirits are even causing dread! This might be a little over the top, as undead really aren’t supposed to be all over the place in LOTR, and fighting them at level 6 feels a bit odd. This isn’t Toril!
Having finished up there I head back to Dwalin for what I suspect will be the big finale. Before I do that though, I’d better make a quick video of the changes to the land, as I don’t know for sure that the main Ered Luin zone has been changed. I’d hope that once the Longbeards have driven the Dourhands out that we can at least clean up some of this mess and corruption.
The Elven and Dwarven introduction quest-lines are completely redone, with nothing remaining of the old quests. That would normally make me a little unhappy, but the new quest-line does a much better job of storytelling, in my opinion, and I think it will quickly become popular amongst players. On entering the “real” Ered Luin, things return somewhat to normal, so far as quests are concerned, though I don’t have time to play all the way through the zone so there may be changes.
I’ve still not gotten around to sampling the Halloween fare of all the other MMO’s I currently have access to. I’ve been having too much fun just fiddling around in LOTRO. It has been so many years since I last played it that it has had a chance to redevelop that delicious new game smell.
I’ve been meaning to test whether my computer can capture high resolution videos for games like LOTRO for a while. Today was the perfect time to find out, when a friend asked me for help with one of the Haunted Burrow quests. It’s a timed one called Race Through the Haunted Burrow, and if you’ve not got your route sorted out in your head in advance, it can be a bit tricky.
I recorded it using Fraps at full screen resolution, and my machine seems to have coped, which is a relief. I record the Minecraft ones at half resolution, because you’re unlikely to really notice. Anyhows, hopefully YouTube will treat it kindly, and it’ll be decent enough to let folks be able to have a good look at the radar map if they need.
Now I know this can be done, I shall have to consider how to make use of it. With great power comes great irresponsibility.
As we hoped, the switch to F2P has breathed new life into Lord of the Rings Online. Like DDO, it seems that content is coming much faster than before, and November’s update is a fairly hefty one. The full notes are below the fold, but here’s a few of the highlights.
Experience more of Middle-earth – FOR FREE!
Free and Premium players will now be able to access Moria, Lothlórien, Mirkwood, and Enedwaith for FREE! We have adjusted the access of Free and Premium players. You may now follow the Epic Story line through Moria, Mirkwood and, Enedwaith. This includes free access to the following:
The Legendary item system.
Attain level 65.
Access Moria, Mirkwood, Lothlórien, and Enedwaith regions.
Note: You will still need to purchase the appropriate quest packs or expansion packs to access other content (quests, deeds, instances, classes, etc) in these areas.
Fantastic news. The Epic Storyline is my favourite part of the game. It’s interesting that Turbine have decided to provide more content for free. Perhaps they’ve seen more profit in selling accessories and cosmetics than they have in quest-packs. This would be the reverse of how things have been working in DDO, but they are very different games. It does reduce the usefulness of the official expansions, especially with the removal of the level cap that you would normally have needed them for, so I would hope that they see a reduction in cost.
Swift Travel Changes
Swift Travel Routes that previously required that the player be a subscriber are now usable by past subscribers as well (although only by characters created or used during the subscriber period).
New Barter Wallet
We have new Barter Wallet! The Barter Wallet will hold all Skirmish Marks used to purchase items from the Skirmish Barter Vendors as well as all Anniversary Tokens. The Barter Wallet may be opened by clicking on the Caret symbol at the lower left of your screen and selecting Barter Wallet from the list of panels.
With the inventory problems that haunt me from MMO to MMO, I’m looking forward to the barter wallet. Functionally it sounds pretty much identical to the token wallet that EQ2 got last month, but space is at far more of a premium in LOTRO. It’ll be particularly useful to F2Pers who haven’t yet unlocked all their backpacks or much bank space.
Tasks
Tasks are free repeatable quest that players can use to augment their leveling within the game world. We’ll have a full developer diary about this new system in the coming weeks, but here’s some of what you can expect
Over 250 new quests.
100% FREE to All players.
Use existing trophy drops.
NEW Deeds and Rewards.
Available at all levels, starting at Level 8.
Infinitely repeatable.
I’m a bit vague on exactly what makes these “tasks” so different from ordinary repeatable quests that they need their own name. Still, it’s EVEN MORE free content.
Reputation Mounts
We have reviewed much of the feedback players have offered regarding reputation mounts and what they represent in terms of accomplishment and time invested. You’ve made it very clear that these mounts should be special and reflect the effort required to earn them. We agree. Reputation mounts have received an upgrade in their stats. These mounts will now have 250 health, receive reduced critical damage and allow characters to block, parry and evade while mounted.
We have also added many new reputation mounts to the game. You may want to revisit some old stomping grounds to see if there is something new for you at an old beloved faction. You might find them on vendors or from barterers.
In the future some mounts purchased through the LOTRO Store may share appearances with the reputation mounts, but will be weaker than their earned counterparts.
I’m not at the stage where I’m going to be getting these just yet, but more mounts is always fun! It is significant that they’re making the point that the version of the steed you buy ingame will be superior to the Turbine Point storebought one.
Ered Luin Revamp
The Elf and Dwarf starting areas in Ered Luin have been completely revamped! Full details will be included in an upcoming Developer’s Diary. Create a new character and try it out for yourself!
I’m always nervous about changes like this, as there is potential for glorious old content to be swept away or spoiled. I’ll have to wait and see what that Dev Diary has to say!
Update: I’ve checked the Ered Luin changes out on Bullroarer, and found them to be good.
Storage Revisions
You have given us a tremendous amount of feedback since our major overhaul of the Vault and Shared Storage systems. We’ve heard you! These systems have received a major rework. Read the Developer’s Diary for the full details. (LINK)
Rune-keepers and Lore-masters
Lore-masters and Rune-keepers can look forward to new skills, upgrades, and other changes. Developer Diaries detailing and explaining all changes will be available prior to the final release of the November Update.
Lore-master & Minstrel Fellowship Manoeuvre changes
Lore-masters and Minstrels will now use the tactical versions of the “Ent’s Strength” and “Spider’s Guile” fellowship skills instead of the melee versions, just like Rune-keepers. This means that any time a Fellowship Manoeuvre is triggered, Minstrels and Lore-masters will no longer need to be in melee range to contribute.
NEW Ingredient Packs
Certain crafting recipes now have the option of using “Ingredient Packs” instead of the usual ingredients required. Recipes with this option will have a checkbox in the crafting panel to specify if you would like to use the packs or not. Using the packs to create these items will force the items to be bound to the maker upon creation.
A lot depends on where these Ingredient Packs come from. They sound like they might be the sort of thing sold in the store, though perhaps they might also be found ingame.
Farming Revamp
The number and types of seeds required to complete farming recipies have been significantly reduced. Field recipes now require just one seed to execute. The types of seeds available have also been adjusted to all for more generic seeds types, increasing inventory space for farmers. All farming related tooltips have been adjusted and now offer more detailed descriptions.
It’s the little things that count
There is now a “report as harassment” option when right clicking your chat window.
You can now mouse over any Legendary Item being tracked and see the tooltip for that item.
Players may now be summoned out of Housing instances and Private Encounters.
Captain Summoning Horn and Mustering Horns may now summon players into and out of Dynamic Layers.
The Dwarf Brigands have gone and seen the cosmetic outfitter in their local town. Because of this, players will be seeing a lot more variety in the dwarf brigand bodies they step over on their way to glory.
Check with your Class trainer or favorite craftsman to learn about new consumables for each class!
The full November LotRO November test patch notes are after the leap.
