A Casual Stroll to Mordor

Skirmishes Part 6: Zombie Columbus gets Accessible

Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by Merric in LotRO News, Seige of Mirkwood, Turbine

Today we saw another feature Dev Diary from Zombie Columbus (the second to last one on Skirmishes!) talking about the accessibility of the Skirmish System in the upcoming expansion, Siege of Mirkwood.  He talks about their decision to make Skirmishes available through a new UI component called Skirmish-join which can be accessed once a (character?) has finished the Skirmish tutorial.  He gives in-depth description of the features of the UI which was discussed in the third Skirmish Diary. 

There will also be restrictions on when the interface can be used (it cannot be used in an instance, PvMP, or while in combat) and there will be a queue system during times of high server volume.  Players will join a Skirmsh by use of a “Travel Now” UI that will pop up after the leader presses the “Create” button in their own Skirmish-join UI.  There will also be an alert  icon for any member that joins the Fellowship after the initial creation of the Skirmish; which once pressed will bring up a UI with the name of the Skirmish and all relative information.  However, please note that there is a timer that will expire the invitation if the Skirmish is not joined within a certain amount of time (which appears to be 5 minutes).  Once a player has finished a Skirmish, they will be placed in the exact spot from where they joined the Skirmish.

If defeated in a Skirmish, players will not incur Dread nor retreat, but instead will receive a stacking de-buff that reduces the amount of Skirmish Marks they receive upon completing the Skirmish, when it will then be removed (meaning the more you die in a Skirmish, the less Skirmish Marks you’ll receive for that certain Skirmish).  If a player has Defeat removed from them (is “rezzed”) they will not receive a debuff , or another “stack” of the de-buff depending on the situation (hopefully there are no wells in any of the skirmishes for Goldenstar to fall into or she’ll never get any Skirmish Marks).  The Daily quest rewards are not subject to this de-buff, only the Skirmish Marks rewarded upon completion of the Skirmish.

There also are quite a few statistics that will be tracked with Skirmishes, including how many Skirmish Marks are received from the encounters/defenders/control points, how many monster kills, Lieutenant Kills, and many other fun facts which will be available both in-game and at my.lotro.com.  They are also going to be charts, graphs, and lines (line graphs?) available for those who like to analyze data (like myself, although I tend to get really competitive with this kind of information when it’s available).  Also, leaderboards will also be released, although it’s unclear on how they will be implemented.

Now for the part that’s going to make some people angry:

Free for all, but more if you upgrade!

Skirmishes will be available to all LOTRO subscribers, but those who do not purchase the Siege of Mirkwood™ upgrade will have only limited access. Specifically, non-Mirkwood players will have their trait ranks capped, will be limited in the number of Skirmishes they can play in a week, and will only be able to participate in a limited selection of Skirmishes.

If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, there is still time (Until November 18th).  So if you haven’t taken advantage of these offersI would strongly suggest just going ahead and doing so, although I suspect that most have.  I think it’s worth it, even if you’re not max-level.

My take on it all:

First, I’m sad that there is only going to be one more Skirmish Diary.  I’m sad to see this end and I kind of liked getting my “weekly” fix on Mirkwood.  I just hope that they keep releasing some kind of Diary up until release.  Of course if they want to keep releasing Diaries after that as well, I know we all love hearing from the Developers!

Secondly, this system mostly works how I thought it would.  I am surprised though by the amount of information that is available through the Skirmish-join UI.  I like that it gives you information about if there’s a daily quest available, if you’ve done the Skirmish before, the Skirmish Mark modifier, etc.  (Also, how cool is it that we know some more of the Skirmishes from the Screenshot!  For those who can’t see the site, they are “Strike Against Dannenglor”, “Ford of Bruinen”, “Thievery and Mischief”, “Survival – Barrow Downs”, and of course “Defence of The Prancing Pony”.)

Next, I’m not sure about the Leaderboards and stat evaluation that’s going to be available.  I think this is going to be good for people who want to make Skirmishes a heavy part of their LOTRO experience, but I definitely see some incoming “epeen” because of these features.  I’ll be interested to see how this is presented, what data they’re going to make available in and out of game, and if they’re going to allow this data to be exported by people to use through other applications (web, iPhone, etc.).  I’m really excited this possibility, because I’ve long thought that Turbine hides too much information through encrypted files and lack of data exporting.  I really think the more open you are (without exposing yourself to losing critical game development information) the more you inspire your player-base to delve into the game outside of actual playtime.  I think overall this information will be a good thing, just be prepared to tell people to take their egos elsewhere.

Lastly, I don’t know what to make of the restrictions for those without Mirkwood.  I don’t want to believe that this is intended to make current subscribers upgrade to the expansion, but I suspect that it is.  I do see it as definite incentive for new or returning people to upgrade, but I expect Turbine to get some nerd rage over this.  I can understand why they’re doing it, because they’ve obviously worked so long and hard on this system and it “technically” is a part of the Mirkwood expansion, but in some ways it feels a little off to me.  But, to be fair, they could have excluded non Mirkwood players completely, which is what most gaming companies would have done.  So kudos to Turbine for that.

I will say that I’m still super-excited for this feature and I look forward to it.  Each Diary leaves me more and more impressed with the system.  Awesome job, Turbine!

Tags: dev diary, Dev Team, LotRO News, Siege of Mirkwood, Skirmishes, Turbine