For my money, the change from a rigid to a much more flexible virtue system in Lord of the Rings Online is one of the more exciting prospects to hit the game in a while. But the details of how this revision will function were largely left unexplained by last week’s producer’s letter. Queries about the changes elicited a more detailed explanation this week from Producer Rob Ciccolini.
The producer was quick to emphasize that all of this was subject to change, but said:
The Virtue points that players can already earn in game will have a flat cost, say (as an example) 100 Virtue XP. Deeds that formally gave out a specific point will now give out (in this example) 100 Virtue points so the rate of gaining points in the same. In the new Virtue UI there will be an additional slot that you drag a Virtue to that will be used to determine which Virtue gets the XP. If the Virtue is at maximum value, or if there is no virtue slotted, then we have discussed several options -> the XP goes to the highest Virtue that is not at max – the XP goes to the lowest Virtue that is not at max – or even that the XP goes to your slotted Virtues in order from left to right and then rolls over in alphabetical order. These haven’t been finalized yet, and cost to implement might play a role.
Anyway, you complete a deed and the 100 XP goes into the slotted Virtue which coincidentally adds exactly one rank. It means if you are running a high level character we can add quests at end game or even a Festival quest that gives some Virtue XP so you are not forced to go back to older content to progress the system. Maybe a substantial quest or deed gives the full 100, while a lighter Festival quest gives 20. It gives us a lot of freedom for expanding the system. Points given out in the future may cost more than 100 XP depending on how we want to give out rewards. While the “grind” of future points might take longer, you would also be progressing by playing relevant content while earning loot and XP that is also relevant to your character.
Source: Official forums
