Bullroarer Update 21 (#5) - Preview and Release Notes

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Bullroarer Update 21 (#5) - Preview and Release Notes

Welcome to our fifth open preview of Update 21: Mordor. These notes are for Bullroarer, released on Friday, July 21st. 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.

New since last preview:

1. The elf avatar update is now visible, although not in its final state. Please note that continued changes and polish to the elf avatars are not reflected in this build. 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. Many pieces of Mordor armour now have appearances. Hopefully Gorgoroth will no longer feel like a town full of emperors running around in their skivvies.
3. Human avatar update polish has continued. We would love your feedback on the changes in the human faces and hair styles.
4. The High Elf race is again available and cosmetic polish has continued since last weekend. We would love your continued feedback on the new racial starting area, animations, and the avatars overall.
5. 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 just inside the Black Gate to pick up 'Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits'. Join an allegiance and begin your quests. Note that, at the moment, you will need to leave the area and return to get the appropriate allegiance npc to appear. We welcome your feedback.

• Many icons have been updated. Many more icons are still to come.
• Hunter camp sites have been placed in Gorgoroth.
• Many voice over audio tracks have been added to Gorgoroth quests. The German audio tracks are not yet hooked up.
• Many quests and monsters have been added to Lhingris.
• You should no longer hear waterfall sounds throughout Agarnaith.
• The music track at character generation / selection has been updated. Other music tracks have been added and updated throughout Gorgoroth.
• PvMP: Free peoples criticals will no longer be abnormally penalized in the Ettenmoors.
• Structures in older areas of the game (Rivendell gazebos, Seige of Gondamon stairs and floors, Dome of Stars docks, Ruined City city, etc.) are not longer invisible or mysteriously absent.
• Gorgoroth mobs should no longer drop Rusted Dwarf Tools.
• Corrupted Anglach Soldiers and Ors have updated appearances.
• Weapons and shields for various mobs in Udun have updated appearances.
• Mordor gear now provides an increased vitality contribution.
• Gorgoroth monsters now do slightly less damage at level 106, but even more damage at higher levels up to 115.
• Allegiance UI: the Allegiance description field was made slightly larger based on Bullroarer feedback.
• Loadscreens have been added for Agarnaith, Dor Amarth, Talith Urui, Orodruin, Nargaroth, and the Allegiance Halls.
• Updated Ash of Gorgoroth values for many pieces of armour including Allegiance gear and level 115 Featured Instance gear.
• Fixed low item_level and stats on gear dropped from Osgiliath instance packages such as Trampled Box, Waterlogged Box, and Grave-dusted Box.
• Fixed several unreachable treasure caches and quest items.
• Reduced the volume of the smoke stacks in Udun.
• The Allegiance Track UI has been made somewhat smaller. A numerical Allegiance level indicator has also been added.
• Crit versions of the crafted Gilded Cap of the Doomfold / Alliance Renewed and Reinforced Coif of the Doomfold / Alliance Renewed now correctly have a higher item level than their normal counterparts.
• Gear from the Gorgoroth Steel-bound Lootbox now scales to your level (down to item level 300 at character level 106). These sets have been renamed as the 'Ancient' and 'Fallen Kings' sets.

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! Currently you can access the system, but the items required to advance progress in an allegiance are not yet available in game.

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.
• 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'