Turbine has announced that on January 17th, armour will be available to purchase in the store. Not cosmetic niceties but actual you put it on and fight in it gear. Before we get into the “sky is falling” discussions, let me give you the facts of what is coming out.
Light Armour
Golden Robe of the Benefactor
Fine cloth robe
Tier I: +92 Armour, +3 Vitality and +3 Will
Tier II: +184 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier III: +277 Armour, +8 Will, +8 Fate and +8 Vitality
150-450 TP
Golden Trousers of the Benefactor
Fine cloth leggings
Tier I: +77 Armour, +3 Vitality and +3 Will
Tier II: +154 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier III: +231 Armour, +8 Will, +8 Fate and +8 Vitality
95-295 TP
Golden Shoes of the Benefactor
Fine cloth shoes which also have a +8% Out of Combat Run Speed buff
Tier I: +37 Armour, +3 Vitality and +3 Will
Tier II: +74 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier III: +111 Armour, +8 Will, +8 Fate and +8 Vitality
95-295 TP
Medium Armour
Golden Jacket of the Benefactor
Fine leather jacket
Tier I: +131 Armour, +3 Vitality and +3 Will
Tier II: +261 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier III: +392 Armour, +8 Agility, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
150-450 TP
Golden Jacket of the Patron
Fine leather jacket
Tier III: +392 Armour, +8 Might, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
450 TP
Golden Leggings of the Benefactor
Fine cloth leggings
Tier I: +109 Armour, +3 Vitality and +3 Will
Tier II: +219 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier III: +327 Armour, +10 Agility, +10 Vitality and +10 Will
95-295 TP
Golden Leggings of the Patron
Fine leather boots which also have a +8% Out of Combat Run Speed buff
Tier III: +327 Armour, +8 Might, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
295 TP
Golden Boots of the Benefactor
Fine leather boots which also have a +8% Out of Combat Run Speed buff
Tier I: +52 Armour, +3 Vitality and +3 Will
Tier II: +105 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier III: +157 Armour, +8 Agility, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
95-295 TP
Golden Boots of the Patron
Fine leather boots which also have a +8% Out of Combat Run Speed buff
Tier III: +157 Armour, +8 Might, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
295 TP
Heavy Armour
Golden Greaves of the Benefactor
Heavy plated boots which also have a +8% Out of Combat Run Speed buff
Tier I: +136 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier II: +203 Armour, +8 Might, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
195-295
Golden Leg-guards of the Benefactor
Heavy plated leggings
Tier I: +282 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier II: +424 Armour, +8 Might, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
195-295
Golden Breastplate of the Benefactor
Heavy breastplate
Tier I: +338 Armour, +6 Vitality and +6 Will
Tier II: +508 Armour, +8 Might, +8 Vitality and +8 Will
295-450
Opinions
From the stats on these items we can tell that they are intended for low level characters.
My level 15 lore-master is wearing junky dropped level 12 light armor that is has only 102 Armour Value and my minstrel on brandywine has a set of stout cloth armor for level 12+ that has 132. The highest value we see offered in the store (for a robe anyway) is 277.
The extra stat bonuses on the armor does seem to be nice but I’m not sure how it would compare to an same level crit crafted item in-game. Kind of hard to judge since the armor is listed by tiers rather than levels.
My best guess is this gear is probably meant to last a player from start until about level 20-ish. I’m not certain if there will be a level break in tiers, I suspect that it is the price difference rather than a level difference. Not that at 10 you buy tier II and 20 you buy tier III. That you can opt to pay more to get Tier III and enjoy that item until you wear it out and eventually replace it, probably somewhere in the Lone-lands or possibly just before you start your thirties. No real information on this to realize this is just a guess.
I can hear already the screams of “selling advantage not convenience!”
Gear is something that is definitely seen as a special item. A lot of end game typically revolves around the finding, creation or grinding to earn the gear. Buying it from the store is a short cut and had this been level 75 gear, I would have chimed in that no way should this be there.
But it’s not. It’s low level gear. It’s really no different than my alt being able to get crit crafted armor while a brand new person picks up yellows he finds to wear it. Certainly my alt is probably more efficient at slaying monsters over the new player, but it doesn’t really change that the new player is able to go along and play just fine. So on the same token if one player purchases better gear but another doesn’t, it really has little (or even no) impact on either of them. Gear at that level is dropped, crafted, cheap and in a variety of flavors. In this instance, I do think that this is just a convenience for someone to buy it. Not an advantage they would hold over other players.
Now I hear the “slippery slope” chants.
I agree. For my tastes, there is too little information released about this new set of items in the store. No assurances or explanations of why adding gear now and what it will mean for the future. No real information about who it’s intended for really. Heck it’s not even posted in the Store Forums, yet.
We can look more into this on Tuesday when the store lists the items and we can see them for ourselves. Until now, feel free to speculate but lets keep it civil!
Oh and with the update on Tuesday there will be some new maps, too. Just in case you wanted to know!
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January 13, 2012 at 5:48 pm
/me bites tongue in half trying to stay civil. >.<
January 21, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Does it really “hurt” the long time players? I mean…I just started Lotro. I payed Turbine..my dollars for my game/sub go towards development of the game…helps everyone. I’m an ex-WoW player..I had every heirloom/crafter imaginable. I want a new game to like..but, scraping together two coins to buy my training will only be fun for so long..much less trying to get gear to learn/survive a new game. I want a boost..um..I’m willing to give them more dollars for it..so?
I want to like your game. I am happy to pay my real life dollars to make it “fun” for me. Is that really hurting..you? I understand the “I had to walk uphill both ways” old timer mentality..but honestly..its a game. I work in real life..I don’t want to “work” in a game too hard..I want to have fun.
January 13, 2012 at 5:48 pm
To me it seems that Turbine is applying Cash Shop Logic to their game: “if people are willing to put effort in attaining an item in our game, they must also be willing to pay money for the same item”.
They forget that some items are a /reward/ for putting in effort, you get awarded 10 silver for beating up a spider and you get a new robe for helping Radagast. But what I like about the game is beating up spiders and helping Radagast. The rewards make it pleasant and make me perform tasks I would otherwise not be interested in (ie: kill 120 spiders, do a repeatable quest 20 times). Placing items that used to be rewards in a cash shop cheapen the rewards you do get from putting in effort. Every time I killed a spider without a Slayer Deed Accelerator I felt like I was wasting my time killing only half a spider, every time I crafted a Tier 7 relic I thought “this item is not as good as the one I can buy for 3$” and every time I had to deconstruct an item without buying a Relic Removal Protection Scroll I felt like was wasting my time.
So – to me – the more stuff that used to be a reward from the game in a cash shop, the less inclined I am to put effort in your game.
January 13, 2012 at 5:54 pm
it has begun..
January 13, 2012 at 6:10 pm
all I can say is…nope, im like Bryant.. I need to bite my tongue on what I really want to say.
let me just list the cons:
guts more into crafters need to exist
starts an even more downward slide into bought gear with stats, sure .. its innocuous now.. just wait.
getting on my last nerve how low the store is getting
pros:
shortcut gear for those who dont know crafters, have the skill, cant be bothered or dont have game gold to buy gear in AH
not sure about looks, what I see in the shots is looks that can be found on many other items.
January 13, 2012 at 6:20 pm
You don’t understand. I’m so angry right now I could spit nails. And I’m biting my tongue because they’re just not enough space to post everything I really think about this move. I swear, I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it.
January 14, 2012 at 12:55 pm
And the thing is is that no one really needs it. I have 7 characters, most of which are maxed out with crafting – however I never make stuff for my lowbies until they hit 25. Why? Well, for starters the epic line (and some of the randome quests) give good enough armout to get you through until you hit 25. Secondly, when you hit 20 you can skirm for some fairly decent gear through the skirm vendors or the AH will have lowbie items fairly cheap.
Generally by the time you’re lvl 25 you are in a kin that will help you out or you are crafting items sellable to keep yourself geared nicely. These items in the store are useless money grabbers. *thumbs down*
January 13, 2012 at 6:21 pm
Low level gear is incredibly ephemeral, since you outlevel it so very quickly. If you are levelling quickly, you will need new gear ever hour or two if you want to keep at top efficiency. This removes that early grind. Early gear is utterly temporary and disposable.
Nowadays, when I start a new character I really don’t want to worry about gear. I use quest granted gear until around level 15, get a crit set of armor, and then forget about it until level 22ish. I use one of the cloaks from pre-order during this whole time. I can see the appeal of buying a nice set of gear and then forgetting about gear until level 25 or so. You wouldn’t have to worry about crafting that entire time, and you’d level pretty quickly without stopping for finding crafters.
Also, this appears to be fairly nice looking. Its about double the average price of cosmetics. Too me, this stuff is like the pre-order items but with better stats.
–Harper
January 13, 2012 at 6:24 pm
stats like this, if you buying this… might as well not play the game. Nothing to worry about. I thought it was like actual goodies, these are things that crafters sell in dozens to npc…
January 13, 2012 at 6:26 pm
For whatever reason, armour in the store doesn’t upset me that much. The general purpose of the store seems to be about providing options for people: can you get quest gear and armour still (yep), does this impact crafting much (not much, you can still craft), does the store provide another route to acquire low-level armour (yep).
The thing about armour is you outgrow it very quickly. I don’t think I’d recommend people actually BUY the stuff…its not worth it. Work on crafting, do quests, find a group of people that can help keep you geared up. Similar to a temporary mount — you’ll out grow it (even with its “tiered” structure) — its just not worth it.
I see armour in store as convenience…not advantage.
“store only” stat tomes? That’s a different beast altogether. Boo store exclusive stat tomes. Boo miniscule drop rates for stat tomes (and keys) in game. Boo a number of other things.
Armour? Meh.
January 14, 2012 at 4:12 am
I must say, I’m sort of agreeing with you here. The store is about providing options to players: it allows free-to-play and premium players to pick and choose what content they want to invest money into and gives VIPs (and others) the opportunity to spend on additional convenience and cosmetic items. Those items, in my opinion, do not need to be available in-game, because they serve no actual purpose beyond looking good or providing a not-needed boost. The same goes for character slots, shared storage, etc., many pay-to-play games don’t even offer those options, so paying extra for them doesn’t upset me.
So, basically, if an important item is available both in-game and in the store, whatever. The store one is basically another convenience item. However, like you said, items that are important to the gameplay should be available for those that have access to content where these items should occur (these people are generally VIPs and premiums). I can’t agree on VIPs needing to spend at the store at all: spending the 500TP/month should be purely optional.
As for these pieces? I don’t recommend anyone buy them. Not only does this send Turbine a message, but these strike me as a little pointless.
January 13, 2012 at 6:27 pm
Not diggin’ this…
January 13, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Don’t mind it being lower level, but Turbine does have a way of introducing something in the store and expanding it later on. I am against it because of what it can mean later on!
January 13, 2012 at 6:55 pm
I posted my thoughts on this earlier (http://docholidaymmo.com/2012/01/13/counter-point-to-the-lotro-store-armour-argument/) , and checked that the almost identical gear is currently sitting on the Skirmish vendors and the crit crafted gear blows this store stuff out of the water.
January 13, 2012 at 6:55 pm
If they’ve done this then I’m not aware, but I really wish they’d come out and say something along the lines of, ‘you know, times are changing and in an effort to (whatever) we have decided to put certain items in the store/change this or that in ways we didn’t previously see the need for’. Or something. Maybe I’m just being a bratty gamer but it would go further with me to see them say ‘yeah, we said we wouldn’t but we’ve had to change our minds’ on that. Otherwise it kind of feels like a slap in the face. A little.
That said, the dwarf looks really nice in that armour. If it’s just low level armour then I don’t see why anyone would buy it. I normally just use quest and drop gear until I’m out of the lonelands.
January 13, 2012 at 7:15 pm
If they’ve got the cheek to implement this right under our noses, who’s to say within a year or so they won’t start selling end game armour in the store? My bet? They will. I still love LOTRO and the store doesn’t affect me very much, but if and when end game armour does appear in the store, then I can see one outcome and that’s downhill.
January 13, 2012 at 11:05 pm
a year or so? c’mon.. it will be in a few mths we will see huge stat items only in store.. for a huge fee.. of course
January 13, 2012 at 7:17 pm
I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see this.
January 13, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Very disappointed.
Sapience stated: “It’s lower level gear. Many players have given us feedback that there is a sparsity of gear on the AH at these levels and they wanted an alternative. We’re trying to accomodate that.”
No. Just no. If Turbine wanted to increase the availability of good low-level gear on the AH, they could do so QUITE SIMPLY by raising the drop rate of crit components. Crafters are already dying to get their hands on these items to make and sell the best gear at every level.
I’m sorry, but I feel very lied to.
January 13, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Hear hear.
January 14, 2012 at 4:36 am
There are so many ways to improve availability of low level gear they thought of selling it for real life money hadn’t even occurred to me. Why didn’t they just up the time an item can be on AH from 48hrs to 3 weeks? I wouldn’t mind crafting some low lev gear and dumping it on AH for a reasonable price and just set it and forget it. There aren’t enough lowbies on my server to run the risk of having to list it time and time again hoping that one lowbie is finally going to bother checking AH.
And really, when there’s not enough stuff on AH to satisfy the players, isn’t it time to perform some server merges? This would never have been a problem when servers had more than 200 people online most of the day.
January 13, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Beginning………to……..look…..like………goodbye……..LOTRO…..for…….me!!
Just saying, But we will see.
January 13, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Just to offer an argument on the other side:
Let’s say you’re new to LOTRO. You start playing because you are either just getting in to MMOs or because some friends talked you into it.
As a new player, you don’t have a lot of fake money. You don’t have any crafting skills. You are pretty much stuck with what drops. You check the AH for level-appropriate gear and find that it’s dominated by players who are charging 300 silver for critted level 14 armour (and other people will pay it because when you’re selling a full slate of vendor trash for 1.2 gold in Dunland, money isn’t really a problem, and its often more convenient to just buy low level stuff at auction than alt around and craft up a full set of gear every four or six levels).
Going to the LOTRO store where you can get reasonably good stuff for a little bit of real money is an option.
I think it’s easy to forget just how hard it is for new players who don’t know the ins and outs of the LOTRO economy to get started. It’s also easy to forget how hard it is to make a lot of money when you’ve just started up your first toon and are basically selling everything as vendor trash.
Experienced players take for granted that if you have four toons, you can have complete crafting independence (7 toons and you can have one in each guild).
When I start an alt, it’s easy for me to pimp them out with critted weapons, armour, bling, a library of scrolls and enough potions to flood the halls of Hogwarts. Or to send each of my new toons 10 gold in the mail to take care of expenses. Or just go to my shared vault and get what I need to quickly level crafting.
Because none of the gear being old in the store is better than the critted crafted items of comparable levels, I don’t have any problem with this.
Yes, we will probably see higher level stuff coming out in the store. There will be a lot of outrage now, but it will subside. Are people still going to be complaining when the Great Barrow armour is released in the store? Or Rift? Or the Moria set? Or Helegrod? Or any other set that has been rendered obsolete by the most recent raid set?
Until they start selling a set that is comparable to the top tier raid armours, are players who are willing to pay real money for gear going to have any real advantage?
January 13, 2012 at 8:15 pm
I’m sorry, but unless the new player is very young or “simple” LotRO’s economy isn’t hard to master, there aren’t any “ins and outs” to know about. The tutorial hints and newbie quest after the intro do a good job at explaining that professions are interdependent, and there is a quest early on explaining everything about the AH. If the player is smart enough to go to the AH to buy gear (assuming he can’t survive mobs his level in quest gear, which is highly unlikely), surely he’s gonna be smart enough to wonder how much people are willing to buy his drops/crafts/gathered components, look them up and realize he’d get much more bang for his buck by buying 5 AH slots for 95 TP rather than this gear.
I also don’t agree that it’s ok to sell advantages such as gear for real money as long as it’s not max-level top gear. The game doesn’t start at level 75, and the majority of players won’t ever set a foot into a raid. Level 75 raiders shouldn’t be the only players who matter and taken as a point of reference to decide whether something is good/important or not comparing/according to them.
Personally I don’t play this game for the “gear competition” or rewards, if the player next to me would rather pay for his gear rather than play the game he is playing, then so be it. What bugs me is that the more ingame stuff can be bought with $$ rather than earned by playing, the more player interactions and world interactions become optional or even obsolete (such as crafting, commerce, trades or low-level instances in this case). I play MMOs to play with other people, if I wanted to play alone in a static world I’d play an offline game.
January 13, 2012 at 11:17 pm
I am currently bringing no less than seven alts up to 20 this past couple of weeks. I have not had a hard time just buying gear off the AH at reasonable prices (under 50s for most pcs). the only items not seen too much are cloaks and shoulder pcs. Heavy armor seems to be the most exp in AH, unless you get a glut of vendors undercutting each other. Yes, i have alts to make each pc but cant be arsed with it.
I have two chests full of lvl14, 16, 18 and 20 med/lt/heavy armor and jewelry just bought off the AH. total price maybe 1 g.
to me this smacks of seeing what they can get out of new players who dont know about AH, or the fact that you will change out your gear daily or are an impulse buyer. like the keys to the loot boxes thing
ah,… heck with it. Each to their own eh?
frankly another nail on the coffin and a poke in the eye. getting too many of these of late and not enough of the wonder moments.
January 14, 2012 at 9:59 am
I tend to agree with you, Vraeden, with one caveat for the future.
If we see viable PVP gear turn up for sale, that’s the only gear that really WILL directly affect other players, specifically the ones playing monster play. The current gear certainly isn’t suitable for that, so the caveat doesn’t apply yet, but could in future. I’m hoping Tubine understands that’s where the pay to win line is and doesn’t cross it.
That’s not to say I don’t understand those who worry that in future people will be able to buy gear for which others have to grind. This gear doesn’t qualify for that though, so I’m not going to let it mess up my enjoyment of the game for now.
January 13, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Know when to walk away. Unfortunately, the time to walk away was about 2 years ago.
Subscription cancelled, account liquidated, characters deleted.
What a bloody waste of time, interest and investment.
January 13, 2012 at 11:11 pm
I myself walked away coming on 7 months ago. I simply could not stand paying for a game where the players were consistently lied to about what Tubine would or would not do. While I fondly remember the time that I spent in LotRO, I also remember the fact that players who spoke up against Turbine in their lies were silenced on the forums.
January 13, 2012 at 10:23 pm
This is not the news I was expecting from Turbine this year, bad move on their part.
January 14, 2012 at 12:16 am
I guess I’m in the minority here. I think this is great for low level players and it doesn’t hurt anyone. Who cares if you can by a crappy set of armor in the cash shop? If THIS is what drives you away from the game, then you were long gone anyway. Good riddance, I am so sick of whiny players feeling like they are the only ones playing the game. There are others. And we like how this game plays!
No one is forcing you to buy this and anyone who does buy it will have no advantage over you anyway.
January 14, 2012 at 12:43 am
You would do well to not say “good riddance, I am so sick of whiny players feeling like they are the only ones playing the game” in reference to the reader when writing; most people don’t like it.
The matter for most is not that the armor will “make teh n00bz OP!” but instead Turbine’s work ethic and the compilation of the lies and backstepping that they have committed.
January 14, 2012 at 7:01 am
It’s not the fact that it’s low level armour that is upsetting people, it’s the fear that this will be successful and lead to high end exclusive store armour.
January 14, 2012 at 1:01 pm
We could combat this and start posting a LOT of low level gear in the AH for reasonable prices. If there is available stuff low lvl characters can get in the AH – the chances of buying it with real money in the store will be lessened.
January 14, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Ah, but Turbine’s already got you there. They severely limit the drop rate of crit components for that reason alone – to limit the supply of good gear on the AH. Were crafters to try your suggestion, all Turbine has to do is lower drop rates even more.
January 16, 2012 at 11:58 am
Sorry but that is just hyperbole.
The crit components are very easily available in game. Myself and my wife keep a stack of 100 for each tier of each craft on all our characters, and these were acquired just through gathering and drops and end up vendoring the rest, as I literally can’t give them away, let along sell them on the AH. Even after that they are available for all tiers in the Skirmish camp and a good few for tiers 2 and 3 via the repeatable quests in the north bree fields, haragmar, barrow downs etc.
Yes they could lower drop rates, but they would also have to severly hike prices or remove them from skirmish camps.
January 14, 2012 at 12:22 am
I think the community needs to have some representatives to work with Turbine on letting them know what is and isn’t ok in the store.
It seems to me that as time goes by either people will forget what they promised or they will move on to other jobs and the new people won’t know what the community expected.
Now there will be vast swathes of people feeling very betrayed by the recent moves.
We need a council (of nine?;-) ) to work with Turbine on these matters.
January 14, 2012 at 11:24 pm
You’re right, there’s a strange disconnect between the playerbase and what’s going on with the devs. I really am having trouble wrapping my brain around this.
A player council would be cool, but it only works if the devs actually communicate with the council. A player council didn’t keep Eve Online from making some seriously self-destructive moves last year, for example.
January 21, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Your argument has a fundamental flaw.
Is this a pay to win game or is this a game where everyone should be on as equal a footing as everyone?
It really does break game mechanics in a pretty deep way. Imagine doing the same in a FPS where you can buy the sniper rifle that automatically aims for you and kills your enemy without you having to do anything. You may as well not play imho.
We are complaining because there were promises made and the people who made those promises have moved on and now the new ones aren’t aware that they are breaking those promises.
Just because someone doesn’t like the experience of levelling their characters doesn’t mean you should be able to pay their way to get ahead of those who can’t afford it. That was the idea behind the promises that we wouldn’t see a huge enequality in the community. It is bad enough making people feel bad because we expect them to have all the content packs so we can quest together… now armour too. :/
January 14, 2012 at 1:13 am
This is not going to affect my gameplay in any way whatsoever. It’s fine by me.
January 16, 2012 at 12:00 pm
I have to agree to be honest. It has some potentially frustrating consequences down the road, and I see it as indicative of the direction some parts of the game is being driven, but on the whole, I’m really not to bothered.
January 14, 2012 at 1:19 am
How close to a Pay to Win system are we?
January 14, 2012 at 1:34 am
Wasn’t this EXACTLY the kind of thing they SWORE would never happen? I have just about had it with Warner Bros. They are going to do whatever they darn well please if it makes a buck. Slippery slope is exactly what it is. They will soon say “well, we already had it for lower level characters so we thought we would expand it” until our time means nothing. This is the world – I’m truly sick of this kind of manipulation, leveraging, and outright deceitful behavior. It’s smoke and mirrors for something…and we’ll just have to throw away the time and money we’ve already spent or wait to see what comes next. Can someone find something under the EULA to back door them and sue? That would be so sweet. “Yeah, I know we signed off on you guys stealing our lives and all, but I found this loophole. Don’t worry, though…we promise it will only be this once and we’ll never sue you again…unless we find out we can get more money in the future.” I know this seem extreme, but honestly – how many little steps can they take toward that goal before we, the gamers, say they’ve gone too far?
January 14, 2012 at 6:05 am
Civil version of what I’m trying to say:
Wow, Turbine, I’ve been on your side since this whole free to play thing started, and God guys, youre making it pretty damn hard. We better be seeing some good content soon or goodbye.
Not so:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh
What I really mean is:
£%$$@!~#*$£&^*~!@#£%”*&$£”*&!*&$*^£*#^*$&^£$^&!£$&#^*!$^*@”$£*”#^%!^%£&*%*!&*#@£”&£$^!
January 14, 2012 at 6:08 am
Where’s the ‘Like’ comment button?
January 14, 2012 at 8:21 am
Its just the next step in the wrong direction.
2012 – the end is near.
January 14, 2012 at 10:25 am
Less inclination to play this game. (and I have a lifetime ‘free’ account!). I already feel complete apathy towards the last expansion – and have yet to hit level cap.
I don’t care that players buy such gear – I care that Turbine is intent on throwing the cash shop at every aspect of the game. It’s like their answer to everything now.
Mounts ? Cash shop exclusive count (like 7 now?) With the exception of holiday mounts…when did they last release an in game mount? It used to be tied to reputation. Now it’s just money and festival.
Crafting items? Cash shop bundles.
Cosmetics? I have to hand it to them, last expac they really released some nice looking gear. Still – they heavily favor store exclusives to get the best looking stuff.
Stat tomes, weapon tomes…. the list goes on. It seems like they’ve given up on trying to make a more immersive and better game, and just throw the cash shop out to people who don’t like things as they are. Rather than fix the game aspects people find bad (I hate the legendary system), they just heave the cash shop at it.
I really feel like I’m playing a Facebook game at this point.
*goes back to single player RPGs*
January 14, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Someday we will be able to by a house in the shop and we all know how its gonna end…
January 14, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Really the need to buff the loot drops I cant remember ever wearing any loot a monster dropped what I can see is later store loot with optimum stats and nice little bonuses exp leveling ones temporary stat increases etc
January 14, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Devil’s Advocate:
Maybe this is their attempt to help address a problem: namely that there’s rarely anything on the Auction House anymore on most (if not all) of the servers for low level characters, and when there is, it’s often along the lines of one or two crit-crafted level 13 pieces for 400 silver each.
Seriously, when was the last time us jaded old farts bothered to restock the AH with items for new players at prices they can afford? We don’t do that. We help ourselves, friends when we know they could use it, and the odd well-behaved stranger when they ask us politely. But, by and large, we don’t stock the Auction House for lowbies anymore.
January 14, 2012 at 5:39 pm
If the lowbie players are massively drawn to buying gear on the AH rather than doing with what they get from quests and drops, it means they are compelled to it by the game. It may be because gear from drops and quests rewards is too scarce to follow with their level increase, or the stats aren’t good enough, or there isn’t enough choice when choosing a quest reward.
If both newbies and veterans crafters don’t produce and sell low-level gear on the AH, it means they aren’t compelled to do it by the game. Maybe gathering the ressources to craft good LL gear takes too much time, maybe the gap in “buying power” between the low and high level players isn’t regulated enough, maybe crafting and the AH aren’t explained well enough or accessible enough to new players.
When game mechanics are in conflict with each other, it’s a flaw in game design. Turbine chose to exploit this flaw to make money with the cash-shop rather than fix it. I don’t understand how any player could condone such a decision from the company in charge of their game.
January 14, 2012 at 10:19 pm
While I am less than thrilled with the idea of them selling armor in the shop, I don’t think it necessarily portends any doom to the game. DDO had low level armor and weapons in the cash shop from the first I haven’t played in a while but I am fairly sure they never put any decent armor in the shop.
but now I am curios and will have to log on and check it out
January 14, 2012 at 11:18 pm
I guess this is just confusing to me, from a business/PR point of view. Even if there were legitimate reasons to sell low-level armor in the store (there aren’t, imo), this announcement was tactless and makes me feel as though the devs really have no idea how the average player would react. Do they really want to alienate their players and potential players? Did they not anticipate the waves of negative publicity from this announcement?
I haven’t really experienced a lack of low-level gear in the AH (mid-level maybe) but if they wanted to deal with a lack of low-level gear in the AH, they could improve the AH interface. I know that I just vendor all of my low-level crafted gear because I can’t be bothered trying to much around with such a badly-designed system.
January 15, 2012 at 2:28 am
if this is for new players, most of which are drawn by the whole “you shall not pay” bit and hold fiercly to it, why is it so bloody expensive?
January 15, 2012 at 6:48 am
Well, one good thing is that the heavy chestplate would make a nice cosmetic
January 15, 2012 at 12:59 pm
As people have stated above, low level gear doesn’t last long. You use it for a few levels and outgrow it. That’s where the money is to be made. At 75, they would have to create armour for each class, each traitline and have it be different from what is earned in game. The player won’t outgrow it, so they wouldn’t replace it. That right there would mean that the time developing 75 armour sets wouldn’t be a financially smart move. One time purchases aren’t worth it, it’s the consumable type items that the Store (and crafters!) know will sell. Low level armour is more of a consumable than it is a long term item.
I think it’s a *wretched* move that they put armour into the Store, but since selling a one-time purchase armour set at 75 isn’t worth time time/money spent creating it, I doubt that will happen.
January 16, 2012 at 5:26 am
We all know, next will come all the raid armours available only for 2500 tp a bit.
While this is aimed at the lower level players at the moment, if it brings in even to bit of cash we’ll end up with raid level kit, then eventually better than raid kit (note the horses). Heck at that point we have the wonderful marketing drive towards specific raids needing specific tiered bought armour *shudder*.
Sorry, but I seen no good whatsoever in all of this. Not good for the game, the community or in the long run the Turbine other than to make a quick buck before ticking everyone off enough they finally do give in and go to swtor.
Turbine! you are meant to be giving us all reasons to keep loving the game and to stay, not dream up new ways to tick off the remaining playerbase!
January 16, 2012 at 9:11 am
All those saying it wont affect me in the least so I dont care.. you will care when you try to sign up for pugs or raids and dont get in cuz you arent wearing the bought statted armor which will be the new minimum standard. Yes right now all they are offering is low level gear. Its a foregone conclusion they will take this as high as the player base buys. Tell me players will not buy raid gear rather than grind a year for it?
game has lost its way when they sold it to Time Warner and lost control over these options.
January 16, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Low levels you dont really need fancy gear while levelling beyond stuff that comes as rewards, from barter or drops. This potentially makes crafting even more of a joke as there will be those that cant be bothered gathering materials for a crit crafted item of equivalent type.
The pvmp store skills were obviously a toe in the water for pay to win that proved to turbine they could get away with cashgrabs such as this.
For looks the light set is fairly standard ingame look to it but medium and heavy actually look nice compared to the crafted/dropped options.
It’ll be useful for someone at a set point in time of their levelling but after that it’ll just be another bit or old gear. Far better to spend TP’s on something useful like guild access for the critted gear, at least you might be able to AH some of your crafts that way.
January 16, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Let’s look at the target audience for this pack. It isn’t new LOTRO players, its super-hardcore players who have more money than time. Lets say you are power-levelling your 8th toon from 0 to 75 in as short a fashion as possible. You’ve already been through all the low level content at least 7 times. You already have all the crafters you need. You fire up the store, buy a set of store-bought armor, and forget about it until level 25. This will probably take about 5-6 hours to reach for an experienced player. During that time, you save an hour or so with alt switching, material hunting, and crafting on other toons. This is the embodiment of the phrase “time is money.” Turbine sells time on the stores. Maybe you enjoy that time, maybe you find it another grind.
Now I am close* to the target audience but not quite there. I have about 20 characters strung out across 4 different accounts. Generally, I try to keep characters available from level 20-75, well spaced so I can group at any level. On my guardian alt, I was off fighting in the Barrow Downs rep dungeons when I found myself running out of power pretty quickly between fights. Not only that, but I had neglected to craft or purchase any food whatsoever. I bought a stack of food right then and there so I could continue questing without having to go back to Bree and possibly alt-jump a few times. Lets say I was in the same situation, only I found I was taking too much damage on my RK alt. She was at level 17, and I really didn’t want to go through the trouble of crafting up armor until level 22. I might be tempted to purchase some store bought gear on the spot so I could continue zapping for another 5 levels before gearing up properly.
Now my personal opinion is that level 1-20 is so easy that its not worth buying or crafting gear of any sort. I’ll buy some non-crit stuff off the auction hall if I happen to stop by. But I don’t make an effort until level 22 for most armor and weapons. On a low pop server, this sort of item in the store might be just the ticket. And we’ve seen the same in other cash shops in other games. You can get middle-of-the-road stuff from the store, or auction house, or craft some really nice gear yourself. The choice is yours.
–Harper
*Not a power-leveller myself. I have 1 character at level 75, but I know what its like to have more money than time.
January 16, 2012 at 4:39 pm
As long as they don’t put good armor for over level 40 characters to the shop I don’t really care. I outlevel that gear within a day so that is just waste of money. It maybe good for new players who aren’t familiar with the game and don’t have any money or don’t know any crafters yet to get decent armor. That would make those first levels for them much easier and enjoyable until they learn to play.
But I’ll join rest of you if Turbine get’s greedy and puts better armor on the shop.
January 16, 2012 at 5:33 pm
nice to see a well thought out response in favor of the armor, it gives me an different look at it. Yes, I can see the benefits as I do have 16alts and they make me tired. lol
Frankly, I think I have to just ‘get over it’ and try to do only the stuff in game that gives me pleasure, elsewise I would be on my way out of game if I dwell on the way things are going. cheers!
January 16, 2012 at 7:13 pm
I had a number of motivations for playing LOTRO. Grinding for Turbine Points wasn’t one of them.
January 16, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Harperella makes a good point, but the same could be said for higher end instances/raids. How easy it is to just pop into the store and buy it whether pots/armour. So, how far will it go?
January 17, 2012 at 1:49 pm
…P2W
January 19, 2012 at 8:02 am
As long as one can craft or earn better gear in-game for a comparable level I don’t care.
As long as you can craft or earn better gear by doing instances and/or skirmishes in-game then for me there is still a motivation to do so.
January 19, 2012 at 10:00 pm
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?440377-What-is-new-in-the-store-armors
The official store feedback thread about the store armour.
Currently at 69 pages, 1026 replies, and 53,122 views.
This count doesn’t take into consideration the number of post that have been silently deleted by the moderation team.
The latest casualty was this bit of information:
“Here’s some links to where you can have your say without sending Private Messages to Turbine employees.
Scott Sheppard, Senior Manager Customer Services
Phone Number:
(781) 407-4223
Fax Number:
(781) 329-5463
Email Address:
ssheppard@turbine.com
turbinesupportexperience@turbine.com – Customer Service”
Formerly post 1022, now gone but not forgotten…(screenshots ftw!)
I encourage everyone concerned with the direction Turbine is taking to contact Scott Sheppard at the number and email provided above.