By: Joe “jwbarry” Barry

Hey everybody! This is Joe “jwbarry” and in this, the third of a series of Dev Diaries about our new Scaling Instance systems, I’ll be talking about the Annúminas and Eregion instances and details of the changes and upgrades that were implemented.

Annúminas Cluster

The Annúminas cluster, with its three Fellowship instances, was the first set of spaces we upgraded. These were well-received instances when they were shipped and were still considered to be in solid shape, so we didn’t anticipate much work being needed to polish them up. They also weren’t overly complicated or complex mechanics-wise so we thought it would be a good baseline to test how the scaling would hold up. It was also important to us to get them scaling and on Instance Join because they are solid, good spaces that deserve better than the amount of play they were getting. At this point, we weren’t quite sure how things were going to work out and feel. We knew level scaling worked for Skirmishes, but we also knew that Skirmishes and Instances are different enough beasts that there was question and doubt as to how everything would hold up.

After we got the scaling implemented and began working within the spaces, our Qualitative Testing group gave them a test drive. Very good news early on was that the spaces were as challenging at 65 as they were at 50 with roughly equivalent equipment. It was initial validation that things would work as we expected. It looked like the level scaling was going to hold up, and we could continue with this little experiment.

Haudh Valandil

The first space, Haudh Valandil, was in fairly solid shape. The feedback primarily focused around the overall pacing, frustration at the length of the front end of the space while clearing the bottom versus time spent at the top, and the messaging involved with lighting the torches. We wound up deciding to give you 2 of the 6 lower rooms for free, having the entrances blocked off and the torches inside already lit. We then added “billboards” (large text notifications on the screen) as you lit the torches to better guide you through the experience. We also removed the cave-claws’ ability to burrow and disappear during combat for five seconds, as it’s just annoying.

Ost Elendil

The second space, Ost Elendil, was in very solid shape and needed no gameplay changes. It was a great feeling to have one space very solidly in the ”Done” pile so early, and a proven example that not only could this work, but that it was a definite upgrade to the instance.