auf >Entwicklertagebücher & offizielle Diskussion< wurde geschrieben:

Greetings,

I'm writing today to discuss changes we are making to end game loot, and how lootboxes relate to your gameplay. We have been paying close attention to high level gameplay and rewards, and are not entirely happy with the system in place. Now that we are increasing the level cap to 120 in Update 23: Where Dragons Dwell, it's a great opportunity to make some adjustments, and explain how things will work going forward.

We should reward you for playing the game. Progression should come from playing the game, first and foremost. Before I talk specifics, let's talk about our goals with the system, the rules under which we want to operate, and how lootboxes fit into that system:

1. There should be no gear in lootboxes that you don’t have a chance to acquire by playing the game. If gear is in a lootbox, it should also appear on a game vendor or as a reward for content within a short period of time.

2. On the day that new content is released, players should not be able to get the brand-new gear with end game currency or Store purchases. The initial rush of gear needs to come from playing the new content and getting rewards for completing it. As such, the vendors for gear and lootboxes will not appear until a few weeks after that content is released. The exact timing might also depend on how involved the content is.

3. Gear that comes from a new Raid at the highest difficulty, or the equivalent raid completion gated vendor, will always have more power than comparable gear that comes directly from lootboxes.

4. If gear comes from a raid, you need to complete the raid at least once before you can obtain the gear from a vendor using game currency. This remains unchanged.

The above should help you understand how we want loot to work in LOTRO, and set clear "meta rules" for the future. If we stray from this, let us hear it. Sometimes, especially in our preview environment, you'll see gear show up out of order, or see gear that doesn't have its power level set, but if you see something that isn't right, bring it to our attention so we can fix it.

Now, with all of this as the guideline, let's explain how our end game systems will work in Update 23!

Gear will be rewarded for running content while you level up to 120: from quests and deeds, reputation barter, instance chests, and from defeating bosses in the raid (which will be released later this year). In general, instance gear will be better than questing gear, raid gear will be better than instance gear, and content with higher tiers of difficulty will reward better gear than easier content. This is pretty much how things work now.

Our new currency for our end game in Where Dragons Dwell and beyond is Embers of Enchantment. Embers can be earned for doing weekly quests, and by deconstructing gear you don't want. This Disenchantment process may also be familiar to you, as it's what you've been doing with Ashes of Enchantment.

One big difference in U23 and beyond is we will reward Embers of Enchantment to you directly when you do endgame quests, rather than indirectly through lootbox keys. You'll accumulate enough Embers to buy the gear you want from a vendor. This helps fight random luck when trying to get the stuff you want. The Ember vendors won't have gear from the most recent end game group content until around two or so weeks after that content is released. So, the only way to get this gear when content is first released is to play the content. Finally, the vendor may have a requirement that you complete the content before you can pick any of the gear.

Older content will work on a similar system, with its own currency. Ashes of Enchantment are becoming Motes of Enchantment, and you'll earn new Motes of Enchantment by running older content. Older gear will also Disenchant to Motes of Enchantment, and Motes items will have their own vendors. Quests that used to bestow keys or key slivers will bestow Motes directly instead of Black Steel Keys.

How do lootboxes fit into all of this? Lootboxes will continue to appear in-game, and you can buy keys from the LOTRO Store to open them. They'll have cosmetics, gear – with identical gear available from the Ember vendors, and some Embers. The gear and cosmetics will be available on the Embers vendor at the same time it debuts in a lootbox. Both new lootbox items and new vendor items will arrive a few weeks or so after new content is released.

Lootboxes are not required to gear up, but can be used to help you catch up on gearing, and acquire cool new cosmetics. If you don't want to buy a key for a lootbox, you can instead run content to earn Embers for the items. We absolutely want to reward players who are awesome enough to support the long-term success of the game by opening lootboxes, and get joy in doing it, but we don't want players to feel like they are forced to open lootboxes in order to play or excel in the game.

We've been carefully reading your thoughts about lootboxes in recent months, and we've had a near-equal amount of discussion inside the office as well. We’re encouraged by your passion for the game, and want to make sure we support your decision to be here with us.

Sev~