Foreword
When we set fingers to keyboards several years ago and started working on The Lord of the Rings™ Online™, there was a single mandate: create a story that can stand alongside one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century. From that mandate Volume I: The Shadows of Angmar™ was born with a story that takes players on an incredible journey from their humble beginnings all the way to the apex of black iron castle of Carn Dûm, where they fight against a most unlikely character. This is the player’s story: the story of how a small group, or even one person, can make a difference in times that grow dimmer, darker, and bereft of Hope. Until now, the Epic storyline has been just outside the reach of some players, but that will change with the launch of Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers.

A Little Inspiration
It was some time after the revision to the Lone-lands that I realized our epic story required better accessibility for some of our players. I wrote a little blog about this on my my.lotro.com page that explained the problems I thought needed addressing. Looking back, that first effort was unrefined and would utilize tech that was functional but would require a fair deal of support to make it work. The recipe needed to be revised, and through the emergent dialogue of that first post a refinement of the idea was born and set for implementation.


The concept of inspiration comes from tales of people in extraordinary situations using superhuman qualities. The Lord of the Rings is rife with examples of this; Aragorn’s stand against the Nazgûl, Boromir’s stand against the Uruk-hai, Sam’s resolve both against Shelob and in Cirith Ungol. These examples provide the baseline for a new concept, Inspired Greatness, and what it will mean to players of The Lord of the Rings Online, at least through Volume 1 of the Epic story.

So…What is Inspired Greatness?
Inspired Greatness is a set of buffs that reduce all incoming damage, improve all outgoing damage, boost in-combat and out-of-combat morale and power regeneration and provide increases to morale and power. Through Inspired Greatness, players can experience being a truly elite Hero, which will enable them to complete group-based content within the Volume I Epic storyline even while playing solo.

A Tenuous Balance
The dialogue with LOTRO players from that first blog posting showed that changes meant to improve accessibility for the lower level populace created a tenuous balancing act. On one hand, many players seem to genuinely enjoy the fact that they can play through quests and not be blocked by fellowship requirements. On the other hand, the reduction of fellowship quests in the game is perceived as a reduction in the game’s challenge. Both stances have merit in my eyes, and as a designer I need to do what I can to support both avenues of game play and advancement.

Revising Volume 1 was an exercise in trying to satisfy as many play styles as possible. To that end, I first needed to revise Inspired Greatness. The concept of Inspired Greatness was introduced in Volume I, Book 2 at the end of Weathertop and the Passage to Agamaur quests. This implementation allowed players to choose between a solo version of each quest instance or the full fellowship version. This was not without some consequences; completing the solo version locks players from accessing the fellowship version of the instance at Reflecting Pools, and anyone who completed the fellowship version can never do the solo version, so that needed to be fixed. In addition, the feedback was clearly split on whether or not the entirety of the Epic Story should be solo. So the revision of Inspired Greatness was underway.

Getting Inspired on Landscape
Landscape quests pose an interesting set of problems. Considering the strength of the buff, the most critical component of Inspiration on landscape is making certain the buff cannot leave the area where the player needs the assistance. To enable this, we needed to make some changes to quests and add a new set of interactions to allow for the buff to apply to players only when engaged upon the appropriate quests.

In several quests heading into public areas of the world players will now receive an elf-stone. This stone can only be used at specific locations and provides players with an effect called Inspiration. This effect gates access to the Inspired Greatness enhancements found near epic questing areas that focus on group content. The interaction at these locations will check your current fellowship status (are you in a fellowship?) and the number of fellows currently at the location and adjust the buff accordingly.



Getting Inspired in Instances
Instances were a lot simpler to solve, primarily because they are controlled spaces that are much easier to maintain and balance. There was, of course, an awful lot of revision that needed to happen! The most egregious of these instances focused on escorting an NPC. The escorted had a tough time surviving as players moved through these instances, so many of them needed to be made a little tougher.

The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected

• Epic story content is now accessible to all players.
  
• We have kept the Epic story group-based content intact for those who want the group experiences.
  
• Not all landscape areas are 100% safe for solo travellers!
  
• The landscape version of Inspired Greatness is time-restricted.
  
• The balance of the buffs is still in flux.
  
• Rewards for the quests have not yet been updated.
  
• The Epic story follows a more consistent level spread.
  
• Through Inspired Greatness, we have found a solution that addresses the concerns of solo and group players.
  
• Reflecting Pool replays of Epic instances are affected by Inspired Greatness, making Marks of Triumph more accessible to solo players.

Conclusion
The Inspired Greatness system still needs a little adjustment; some aspects are a bit overpowered and some are a little underwhelming. Over the course of the coming months we will continue to adjust this and find the balance that provides the best possible experience in the future. We hope you’ll find that this is a great start!