Newly rehired Lord of the Rings Online dev Allan “Orion” Maki popped up on the forums this week to discuss the game’s PvP scene (aka “monster play”). He admitted that the much-less-played part of the MMO is “at a crossroads” and in need of some development love.
“Monster play is showing its age and the rather arbitrary changes that came around the time of Riders of Rohan actively harmed the space,” Maki said. “Performance issues having plagued the zone since its inception persist, though this is not isolated to the Ettenmoors, its impact is greater. The power creep of players, while addressed by Vastin, continuously returns as player’s edge higher and the imbalance inherent to the feature again rears its ugly head.”
Maki proposed some changes for the system, such as moving various landscape features around and reducing incoming healing, although he welcomed player input on the matter.
In other LOTRO news, as part of the already-amazing 15th anniversary celebrations, Standing Stone Games released a “triple album soundtrack” of game music that includes highlights from the last several years of score additions. The music can be downloaded for free and burned onto three CDs, if kids these days know what a CD is.
