Bullroarer Update 21 (#6) - Preview and Release Notes

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Bullroarer Update 21 (#6) - Preview and Release Notes
Link: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread ... ost7752602

Welcome to our sixth open preview of Update 21: Mordor. These notes are for Bullroarer, released on Friday, July 28th. Both these notes and the update are a work in progress, so you should expect things will change over time.

• New Epic Volume 4 Book 9 will not be available during the U21 open beta.
• 'The Black Book of Mordor: Where the Shadows Lie' is not available during this preview weekend.
• Due to special test server conditions, the Black Gate will not appear destroyed regardless of your quest status. You WILL however be able to walk up to and through the Black Gate without taking damage or being defeated.
• Human female faces will not properly display selected eyes, eye color, eyebrows, mouth, or details in this build.
• German voiceovers for new content are missing in this build.
• Monster pathing in some older instances (Siege of Gondamon, Dome of Stars, We Cannot Get Out, etc.) is broken in this build.

New since last preview:

1. The elf avatar update polish has continued. We would love your feedback on the changes in elf faces and hair styles. To control the appearance of all avatars on your screen, use the Options panel - Advanced Graphics - "Avatar Update Visible". To examine the differences between the old and new models, you will note a toggle in the character generation UI and in the Barber UI that allows you to see the original or updated appearance for each option.
2. The High Elf race is again available and cosmetic polish has continued. Some additional hairstyles were added for the female high elf. We would love your continued feedback on the new racial starting area, animations, and the avatars overall.
3. The Allegiance system is now fully available for preview (although allegiance point granting items have not been added to the tavern). Once you reach level 110 speak to Eomer at the Udun foothold to pick up 'Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits'. Join an allegiance and begin your quests. We welcome your feedback.

• All Mordor armour now has appearances. This does not necessarily include gear you can acquire in the Eyes & Guard Tavern.
• Many more icons have been updated.
• Creeps can now train and slot a set of 'Finesse' corruptions to help counter Freep avoidances (Blocks, Parries, Evades, and Resistance).
• Gorgoroth monsters in solo instances were adjusted to a more uniform difficulty to make sure that these instances could be solo'ed.
• Many Gorgoroth music files have been updated with polished versions. Some music was also added.
• Some wandering horses have been returned to the Cape of Belfalas Homesteads.
• In character generation and at the Barber, the random button should no longer occasionally select values for a physical characteristic outside the listed range.
• The 'Yes' emote now appears in the Chat window's Emote menu.
• The following Racial Traits now grant an amount of will, might, or fate appropriate to the character's level rather than a fixed amount: Man of the Fourth Age, Fateful Dwarf, Friend Of Man, Hobbit-stature, Emissary, and Those Who Remain.
• The High Elf intro now levels you up to level 4 before you need to engage in combat.
• High Elves were lacking appropriate animation hookups to perform various emotes (heave, chickenchip, juggle, and the war-steed summoning horn). How unfair! High Elves can now perform all of the emotes.
• High Elf Standard of War/Honour/Valour will now animate properly.
• Legendary quality rings have been added to the Ash of Gorgoroth barter vendor.
• Gorgoroth Rune outgoing healing ratings have been corrected.
• Fixed beorning racial fate progression
• Virtue trait stat values for Ranks 11 and higher have been updated for Update 21.
• Beorning - Feral Presence Fate buff values have been fixed.
• Fixed High Elf scream sounds
• High elf male and females will now lower their arms into the standard idle pose if their shield is cosmetically turned off or unequipped.
• High Elves should be able to see the mount collections.
• Doomfold Tier foods should now correctly apply the buff listed in the item description.
• Anorien Bow Chants are no longer better than Doomfold Bow Chants.
• Players who had previously encountered problems with acquiring the final Class Trait slot unlock from the lotro store should now be able to see this offer in the store and get the final class trait slot set bonus.
• The Male High Elf forward run has been updated to feel more grounded.
• Volume IV, Book 8 is now an on-ramp for the Epic Story. If you would like to experience the conclusion of Volume IV and gain access to Mordor, but have not completed the earlier Books of Volume IV, you can now accept IV.8.1 from Aragorn in the Camp of the Host. This will also serve as a convenient means of accessing Mordor for any characters who have recently made use of the Aria of the Valar.
• Aria of the Valar now places players in the Host of the West camp where services can be accessed. The Heroes gear set has been updated. The Aria of the Valar now gives 5 gold 400 silver.
• Map additions for some areas within Gorgoroth and updates to the Wastes map.
• A vault-keeper has been added to the Camp of the Host.
• High Elves can now complete I.9.3, 'Golodir's Request' and the Elf quest in Tal Methedras for III.4.7.
• Gorgoroth shields now have a variety of unique appearances.
• High Elves will now appear on their War-steeds in the Mounted Combat Panel.
• When you speak to a Barber, the Barber shop has a spruced up appearance.
• The Doomfold Strength Signal now has Penetrate Avoidances and Agility.
• The Doomfold Standard of War now grants +2% damage instead of Physical Mastery.
• High Elf riding animations have been adjusted to appear less stiff.
• The quest "Fushaum Bal North: Collecting Tribute" can now be turned in upon completion.

Release Notes:
Explore Mordor

• Explore Gorgoroth, including:
• Udun, the entryway that holds great forges, quarries, and parade grounds of Mordor.
• Dor Amarth, the rocky plain holding the broken bones of Barad-dur
• Talath Urui, located south of Mount Doom, home to key fortresses, prisons, and military establishments.
• Lhingris, west of the Morgai ridge, home to Cirith Ungol.
• Agarnaith, a valley southeast of Barad-dur with a dense, pestilent, and bloody swampland.

Level Cap Increase

• The level cap has been raised to 115.

Allegiance System

• This new end-game system allows players to pledge their allegiance to one faction at a time. Pledge yourself to the Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, or Men, and unlock rewards through activities in Mordor, including a unique story arc!

Light of Eärendil/Shadow

• Areas of Shadow can be found in varying intensity throughout Mordor. These areas weaken visitors, but the Light of Eärendil can counteract this darkness. Your character will see a Shadow and Light Rating, which will help you understand the threat posed by the Shadow. Items that grant Light of Eärendil can be found in Mordor.

Classes

• Above level 105, class trait points are awarded at levels 108, 111, and 114.
• Beorning:
• Beorning skills no longer work through walls.
• Sacrifice bonus wrath generation now lasts 20 seconds, up from 12 seconds.
• Nature's Mend no longer behaves like a wrath consuming skill.
• Grimbeorn's Spirit and Bond of Trust no longer override each other.
• Vicious Claws will only refresh one instance of Bash bleed, and no longer remove others.
• Claw Swipe and Slash bleeds no longer replace each other.
• Expose now affects all Beorning damage skills.
• Fate stat contributions have been improved.

Crafting

• Tier 11 crafting is now available for every profession. A full new crafting tier is now available for level 115 items. No new Craft Guild tier is required.
• Five new resource instances are now available to help crafters acquire the ingredients necessary for Tier 11 crafting.

Emotes

• The Smoking animation will no longer hitch when starting, and the character will immediately move when breaking out of the emote.

Items

• Landscape treasure containers can be found throughout Gorgoroth, and can be found in both common and uncommon versions.
• Item levels in Mordor now range up into the 300s.
• Ash of Gorgoroth system: This system allows players to break down unused or unwanted Mordor equipment into Ash of Gorgoroth, which can then be used to purchase new equipment from a vendor. Some items cannot be deconstructed. Each Crafting Profession also has a new recipe to create an item that can be deconstructed.
• Set bonuses will no longer appear on future pelenor gear drops (existing pieces will retain their bonuses).
• Weapon damage tables have been updated for Mordor. This includes imbued legendary items.

Legendary Items

• The Imbued Legendary Item level cap has been increased. There are now ten additional levels for Legacies, five of which can be unlocked, and five of which are granted for free.

Monsters

• Some monster AI behavior has been improved.

NPCs

• Fixed the pose for Heburga in East Rohan.

PvMP

• Monster players can now be level 115.
• MonsterPlay - Creep Ratings and skills have been bumped up to level 115 equivalent. - Fly my pretties! Fly!

Quests and Adventure Areas

• Several typos have been corrected in the Anniversary Scavenger Hunt.
• In the Quest: Scouting the Wild, the white stone marker being searched for is no longer obscured by a large bush.
• The waypoint teleportation horse in the Dead Marshes is no longer hiding in tall reeds.
• The name "Instance: One Hope Remains" is now consistent when replayed from the Reflecting Pool.
• Various floating stumps in the Pelennor Fields have been reintroduced to the ground.
• In the Wastes, a scrap deposit was lowered to within reach of prospectors, flickering water was removed, and some invisible physics were adjusted to match the surroundings.

UI

• A title and second 10 Year VIP Portrait Frame are now available to qualified players.
• Barbers now have expanded options - you can modify your character's head shape, eyes, mouth, eye colour, skin colour, and body type.
• Settings that are saved in the userpreferences.ini file, such as graphics preferences, are now saved to disk when the character options panel is closed. This should reduce the risk of settings being unexpectedly lost.
• The music track at character generation / selection has been updated.
• There are four new options in the advanced graphics options page:
• Frill Density: Specifies the percentage of frills that are loaded. Use a lower setting for better performance.
• Dynamic Particle Rendering: This is an experimental setting that allows you to select which particle effects to render on dynamic objects such as your player and NPCs. Note that some effects will still play even when disabled and you may lose important feedback.
• Static Environmental Objects: Enables particle effects on motionless environmental objects such as braziers and lanterns. Disabling this setting will improve rendering performance in areas with many environmental particle effects.
• Precipitation Effects: Enables weather effects such as rain and snow.
• Updated the Overall Graphics Quality defaults for the Frill Density and Frill Distance settings:
• Very Low = 0.0
• Low = 0.25 ( Frill Distance has been changed from none to low )
• Medium = 0.5 ( Frill Distance has been changed from low to medium )
• High = 0.75
• Very High = 1.0
• Ultra High = 1.0

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a floating chest in East Rohan.
• Featured Instances: Sammath Gul replaces Glinghant, Dungeons of Dol Guldur replaces Fornost: Wraith of Earth, Halls of Night replaces Seat of the Great Goblin, and StoneHeight replaces Sword-hall of Dol Guldur in the featured instance rotation.
• The game credits have been updated.
• Increased the number of saved logins on the game launcher from 10 to 100
• Folks using Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 no longer need to download a TurbineLauncher.exe.config file in order to use the "legacy" game client that is compatible with those systems. If you previously downloaded the replacement config file, you can leave it alone or replace it with your original. There is now an option to "Use Legacy Client" in the launcher options. If you take no action, the legacy client will be used on Windows Vista and prior systems. This option cannot be changed if you have an overriden TurbineLauncher.exe.config.
• A quest has been added to the E&G Tavern for auto-completing Volume IV Book 8, 'The Black Gate'