Lotro-Developer Diary: The Great Angmar Revamp
Author: From:www.buyfastgold.com
The yellow sun slipped beneath the rim of the encircling hills, and the land was shrouded in shadow. In the dim half-light, two figures could be seen, walking north along a dusty road. They made no attempt at stealth. The pair could be seen for miles in every direction, but if this troubled either of them, they made no sign.
Amlug: If this is another boar quest¡.
MadeOfLions: It won't be. Angmar was the realm of the Witch-king, and that means Evil.
Amlug: You're right. I'm probably worrying for nothing.
MadeOfLions: Probably!
As our intrepid heroes arrived at the crest of the hill, a warm and fetid wind blew out of the east, from the great swamp of Malenhad. Amlug scowled, but not at the swamp-odor.
Amlug (pointing at a charging boar) : Doesn¡¯t he know where he is? If there's one place that we shouldn't be fighting boars, it's the Land of Angmar!
After a flurry of blows, MadeOfLions squinted down at the corpse of the porcine beast, and absentmindedly kicked the dust from one of his boots.
MadeOfLions: Well at least it was an evil boar...
Amlug: That's just not good enough! And it's not just the boars, either. Angmar is entirely too much "wild kingdom" for its own good. I think that there should be much less in the way of livestock and much more in the way of evildoers. Do you remember what we're supposed to be doing?
MadeOfLions: The chieftain of that town we passed said he wanted us to defeat some orcs, and that they should be wandering around somewhere out here. You know, like orcs do.
Amlug: All right, then. Do you see any orcs?
The movement of the crimson moon betrayed the passage of long hours as our heroes sliced and diced their way through Angmar.
MadeOfLions: I see a lot of aurochs. And that's aurochs plural, not aurochs singular.
Amlug: Me too. You don't think that those aurochs might be 'taking the spot' of our orcs, do you? Should we try and take one out?
MadeOfLions: I doubt it. After all, it would take a whole fellowship of heroes to bring down even a single aurochs, and that chieftain assured us that we'd be able to take on the orcs by ourselves.
Amlug: He did say that. Of course, he also told us to get twenty-four silver nuggets from that cave...
MadeOfLions: I still don't know what that whole garrison of orcs was doing in there. It was a little cramped to be filled with enough orcs to overrun the North Downs thrice over. Barely any breathing room at all!
Amlug: ... and to then go into another cave to get gold dust...
MadeOfLions: Do you think maybe that chieftain was just trying to waste our time?
The two considered this notion for a few uncomfortable minutes, and then started down the slope, in search of fame, glory, and experience points.
We spent a lot of time polishing the regions in our game; no matter how careful you are when you go about implementing quests, or how detailed a plan you write up before you begin, it always, always, always takes more than one pass at a region before it's really up to snuff. Still, there will always be things that can be found only by thoroughly hammering on the content in unexpected ways -- ways which only bona fide players can do. For all the pressure under which Angmar was created, there is a lot of content there for players to experience.
Six months after LOTRO¡¯s launch, what are some of the things we¡¯d like to change about Angmar that have come up from player feedback and our own internal reviews? Here are some of the issues we¡¯ve identified:
- Quest flow is sometimes inconsistent and doesn¡¯t send players to the correct level bands
- Quest difficulty is mislabeled in many cases, both for Suggested Levels and Suggested Group Size
- The spawns in Angmar feel out of place (boars again? Really?), and Elite mobs should not share spawn-points with Normal-statted mobs
- Spawn density in certain locations is too great, resulting in very frustrating gameplay
- The ratio of Full Fellowship quests to Solo quests is not correct; more Solo quests are required
return list: Lord of the Rings Online EU
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