Elf/Dwarf Pre-Skórgrim’s Tomb

We found many of the quests in this area told players to run back and forth or up and down over vast expanses of land. This took much of the fun out of the area and soaked it up like a sponge: a fun sponge. This made us sad and gave us a great starting point to make changes to the area.

On the Dwarf side we made the following changes:

• Dwarf characters now start in Frerin’s Court, no longer in the Breghold.
  • The location of quest bestowers and trainers in the Breghold resulted in maddening travel times as players ran back and forth throughout their early careers. We decided that moving all NPCs to the centrally located Frerin’s Court provided a central location where players could more easily access all surrounding content.
• Quests now spiral out from Frerin’s Court.
  • Early quests – those beyond the initial training bits – drive players outside of Frerin’s Court toward the Silver Deep.
• Quest targets are clearly defined and located in central areas.
  • Too many of the targets new players searched for were sharing spawn locations. This could lead to frustration and difficulty in finishing quests.
• We eliminated much of the zoning.
  • We removed much of the previously needed dungeon zoning as waiting through load screens is not fun. No fun sponges!
• Added new quests to support the experience.

On the Elf side we made the following changes:

• Starting location altered.
  • The ruins are now infested with evil and require cleansing. Players will find they arrive at Edhelion in nearly the same location they departed the tutorial instance.
• Quests are focused on Edhelion.
  • Quests focus on cleansing the ruins of the evil that has crept into the location after the Elf exodus.
• Elf players have a unique experience from Dwarf players.
  • Quests now give Elf players a feeling that they are separated from the Dwarf players, where before the experience was wholly shared. Elf and Dwarf players do eventually share the experience but the merge is more gradual.
• Removed all zoning.
  • Quest structure allows Elf players the freedom to explore the area surrounding Thorin’s Hall without the need to go underground.
• Many new quests added to support the elf experience.

It may not sound like a lot, but the result is a significantly changed new player experience.

For both Dwarf and Elf players we made the following changes:

• Quest target locations centralized.
  • Quests that ran players up the hill toward Edhelion or up the hill beyond the mustering cave caused too much running through heavy monster camps. In an effort to lighten travel times we updated the locations of certain dungeons to create more centralized questing.
• Enhanced rewards.
  • Rewards are now catered more toward race/class than before. We also added some dye to alleviate the monochromatic feel of new player armors.