Hello everyone, hope you’re enjoying your adventures in Middle-earth! We have a special announcement that just couldn’t wait until tomorrow’s wrap-up.
As we mentioned in the patch notes, we’ve reverted scoring back to its old form. We had implemented some changes that introduced troublesome bugs preventing users from achieving a full score on Quests. We’re happy to share that the issue has now been resolved.
As a thank-you for your patience during this time, we’ve dropped 5 bonus Palantír Views in everyone’s account. If you’re not seeing the extra PVs, relaunch the game and they will appear in your account. Thanks again everyone, and happy questing.
FFI
Patch Notes 9/19
Hi all, patch notes below. This patch will go live during the server downtime this morning. EDIT: In order to settle the issues with scoring in a timely manner, we've pushed this patch back to tomorrow, September 20. We apologize for the confusion.
-Fixed a reconnecting bug that occurs while reconnecting. This should help some number of users attempting to reconnect to the game.
-Put in another fix to revert scoring rubric and correct issues preventing players from achieving full scores. The final update to the scoring rubric will go in tomorrow, September 20, which should fix remaining issues with scoring preventing players from receiving the maximum score.
-Fixed a connection bug in the live environment preventing some players from connecting to the game.
-Fixed multiple data tracking bugs for developer use.
-Voice lines during the introduction are going back in the game.
Weekly Wrap-Up: September 14, 2018
Welcome to this week’s wrap-up! We have newly previewed cards, feature changes, a 14-attack Gimli, and patches galore. Let’s dive in.
CARD PREVIEWS On stream this week, we previewed 4 incoming player cards. You can watch the VODs on Twitch to see the cards themselves, but their descriptions are below. Keep in mind these designs are subject to balance and change before they’re in the game.
Farmer Maggot
Ally
Tactics level 1
4
2/1/5
Arrival: 1 of Farmer Maggot’s Hounds enters play
Farmer Maggot’s Hounds can only be brought into play by Farmer Maggot. Here they are:
Fang
Ally
Tactics level 1
0
1/0/2
Arrival: Deal 2 damage to an enemy
East Road Rider
Ally
Lore level 1
2
1/1/4
Gain +2 Willpower when engaging a Hazard.
For Gondor!
Event
Leadership level 1
3
Every Character gains +1 Attack this round. Every Gondor also gains Block this round.
Hold your Ground
Event
Spirit level 1
2
Every Character gains Block this round.
These cards are going to be added to the pool of Valor cards within the next month. As a special thank you to everyone who’s joined us in Early Access, they will be unlocked for free. No need to spend your Valor here.
PATCHES
Achievement alerts
Earlier this week, we put achievement alerts in the game to allow players to track their progress. We went into this thinking we’d have to roll it back further, and we have; achievement alerts now appear at every interval of 10 instead of every time that a player makes progress. We’ll continue to tweak and tune this until we find a comfortable middle-ground. We’ll be fixing the issue with Steam-side progress updates, as well.
Scoring System
We had a particularly annoying bug regarding the in-game scoring system. It was failing to report players’ scores accurately, causing confusion and headaches for players attempting to track their accomplishments in the game. We have pushed a patch to help mitigate some of the issues, but unfortunately problems are still coming up for some users. We are continuing to investigate and we will update once we’ve diagnosed the problem and found a fix. This is going to be a top priority for us. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Connection Issues
We’ve tracked down most of the connection issues, but some users are still reporting problems. We will continue to work on this and consider it high priority. We’ll keep pushing solutions as we find them.
Card Draw
Card draw on Hard has been set to 1 per upkeep. This change is an experiment to balance higher difficulty levels. There have already been a lot of interesting and vocal opinions on this change, and we’re listening to player feedback. We’re also tracking player data to see how it effects gameplay.
Languages
We've received the first patch of translations. We plan to get them implemented next week. We'll have news for you as it develops.
CARD CHANGES Giant Slug can no longer receive attachments.
While Giant Slug was designed as a challenging encounter, cards like Despair and Veteran led to unfair gameplay experiences. We've updated the slug to be too slippery to receive Sauron attachments.
Beneficial Current
Beneficial Current's text has been updated to match its behavior (4 becomes 5).
Flanked
Block now absorbs damage from Flanked.
Khazad Ai-Menu
Fixed several issues including Surge stacking effects and the behavior of the buff during travel has been fixed to remove the benefit when traveling.
Borne Aloft
Borne Aloft will no longer return Quest-specific Allies to the player’s hand (cards like Wilelk and Gloin).
DECKLIST OF THE WEEK This budget-conscious list from user perfect-wall brought us to an easy victory in the fifth Quest on stream. If you like clever Spirit strategies with a low starting Threat, try it out:
Legolas / Arwen / Tom
Allies
2x Wandering Took
2x Gandalf
2x Imladris Caregiver
2x Ithilien Lookout
2x Rhovanion Outrider
2x Veteran Axehand
1x Westfold Outrider
2x Galadhon Archer
-Disabled enter voice of heroes at the beginning of quests in order to speed up initial setup. We did this in order to minimize the time spent waiting for the game to begin. Depending on player feedback, we might roll this feature back in again.
-Lowered frequency of achievement progress notification. Will only popup when the progress is a multiple of 10. We might roll this back further, but notifications in the game were too frequent at every interval.
-Replaced music in deck builder
No major change; the team just noticed a looping problem with the deckbuilder track. We've updated to correct it.
-Fixed a bug causing users' scores to be calculated incorrectly.
Scoring in the game broke after the last patch. This patch will correct the issue. Some users may still see errors in score reporting; we'll be working on a fix for this ongoing.
-Narrative card readded after defeating Ungoliant's Spawn at location 3 of Quest 2.
We had a missing narrative card, and we've now fixed it.
-If users only rescue 1 hero in quest 2 location 2 and defeat Ungoliant's Spawn at location 3, the hero rescued at location 2 will now appear.
Card Changes
Giant Slug can no longer receive attachments.
While Giant Slug was designed as a challenging encounter, cards like Despair and Veteran led to unfair gameplay experiences. We've updated the slug to be too slippery to receive Sauron attachments.
Beneficial Current
Beneficial Current's text has been updated to match its behavior (4 becomes 5).
Flanked
Block now absorbs damage from Flank.
Patch Notes 9/12
Hi all, patch notes incoming. Previously, you could find patch notes on a pinned sticky thread in the forums. This week, we're trying them as a news post.
As always, you can expect patches to push during the server reset at 1 AM Central US time. Patch notes will follow the morning after, at 10 AM Central US time.
Several Cards granted for temporary play during the Campaign have been tagged to not allow Borne Aloft to trigger from their defeat.
Wilelk
Gloin
Haldir
Galadhrim Soldier
Guardian of the Forest
Khazad Ai-Menu: fixed several issues including Surge stacking effects and the behavior of the buff during travel has been fixed to remove the benefit when traveling.
Flanked: Block will now interact with this damage properly.
Card Draw: Card draw on Hard has been set to 1 per upkeep. This change is an experiment to balance higher difficulty levels.
Steam Achievements: Achievement alerts are back in the game. We'll continue to adjust these based on player feedback.
Weekly Wrap-Up: September 7, 2018
Hello everyone,
We’re at the end of week two of our Early Access period, and we want to do a weekly recap of what we’ve been doing and what we will be doing in the near future with The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game. Since changes have been coming rapidly, and we see this trend continuing, we want to keep you updated on all of the major revisions we make to the game.
Remember: You can always keep up with our updates by following our developer streams at twitch.tv/ffigames, which are at 1pm US Central Time / 6pm UTC.
Week 2 of Early Access was a busy one. We unlocked all of the Quests in Campaign 1 for all players, squashed some problematic bugs, announced all-new content coming down the pipeline during Early Access, and issued our first series of card revisions. You can see more detailed notes below.
-After last week's announcement, we unlocked all the Quests in the first Campaign for all players. Players who unlocked the Quests previously using Valor or real-world money were reimbursed 4000 VPs for each Quest unlocked. If you didn't receive your Valor, please file a HelpShift request using the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the Settings menu.
-We patched issues involving ultrawide monitors, though this issue will continue to be addressed until we have all bugs squashed.
-Players can now save up to 64 custom decks.
-We announced an incoming all-new challenge mode, which will be free for all players. This challenge mode will be a single difficult Quest intended for high-level players to attempt after mastering the first Campaign. We'll have more to say on this soon!
-We issued our first round of player card revisions:
Ghan-Buri-Ghan: Cost Reduced to 2 (was 3)
Mablung: Cost Reduced to 3 (was 4)
Bow of the Galadhrim: Cost Reduced to 1 (was 2)
Khazad Ai-Menu: Added Surge Effect
Sudden Riposte: Cost Reduced to 1 (was 2)
-We also revised some Sauron and Quest cards:
Deteriorating Gate: Name Changed, Timer Reduced to 2 (was 4), Added Cannot Engage.
Giant Slug: Deals 1 Damage when attacked now will trigger from Ranged attacks.
Rapids: Cost Increased to 6 (was 5)
Rocks: Cost Increased to 6 (was 5)
Swirling Eddy: Cost Increased to 6 (was 5)
Beneficial Current: Random Target effect increased to 5 points (was 4)
-We’ve improved server responsiveness and fixed some disconnect issues. The big issue we continue to work on is a server issue that prevents some players from connecting to the game. In order to work out these problems, we've had scheduled server resets at 6 AM UTC that will continue until further notice. These updates will last up to a half hour.
-Finally, a quick announcement: Next week, we're going to preview some all-new player cards on stream at twitch.tv/ffigames. You won't want to miss them!
Happy Questing, and have a great weekend, everybody!
Fantasy Flight Interactive
Unlocking The First Campaign For All Players
Hello everyone,
Earlier today, we announced that we’re turning off the Quest lock out that was preventing players from receiving the full reward for replayed Quests. As mentioned, this was part of our initial evaluation. But there’s more.
During tonight’s server update, we’re going to unlock the entire first Campaign for all players.
This is a big undertaking, and we want to make sure everyone feels good about it. Some of you have already purchased the Quests or used your Valor points to unlock those Quests. If you’re in that group, we’re dedicated to making sure that you’re taken care of.
Anyone who has already unlocked those Quests or purchased them with real-world money will receive 4000 Valor Points per Quest. This won’t be an instant process, but we hope to have it completed early next week. We’ll have a more concrete time frame for when you’ll receive these Valor points tomorrow, Friday afternoon.
In addition, we’ll have other freebies coming for Early Access members in the coming weeks. We’ll have more to say on that soon.
We are, of course, still looking at the monetization and economy in the game.
We’re doing our best to take full advantage of the Early Access period—by being quick, responsive, and receptive to your feedback in order to make this the best game possible.
Finally, we’re working to fix the technical issues that some players are experiencing, leading to server issues and disconnects. Our team is hard at work squashing the current bugs, and we’ll have updates as they come.
Thank you,
Fantasy Flight Interactive
A Special Note From Fantasy Flight Interactive
Hello, Everyone!
First of all, we wanted to thank everyone who has played, purchased, or reached out to us about The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game. From the bottom of our hearts, we couldn’t do this without you, and your passion and engagement has meant the world to us. Truly, thank you.
Secondly, we wanted to take a moment to let you know that we are reading your comments, listening to your feedback, and watching your streams with eager interest. Early Access, to us, lives and dies on the feedback of the players. The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is Fantasy Flight Interactive’s first official title, and as we’ve said from the beginning, this is an experiment. We adopted Early Access as it gives us a chance to interact with you, the players, in order to make a better game.
Our hope has always been to use Early Access to tweak, tune and improve the title before its full release. We knew that we couldn’t do it alone, and that we’d need help from passionate players to make sure that we’re doing things the right way. We want to build a game that grows and expands well beyond its initial conception.
We want you to know that launch was just the beginning of the process for us, and your voices are being heard and we remain dedicated to making this game great.
We’re listening to both the positive and the negative feedback, and we’re taking it to heart. Early Access is our time to make things right, and so your comments and reviews are essential.
It’s only been a day, but already we’ve received critical feedback regarding the game, its presentation, and, of course, its monetization.
The entire team at FFI is taking in this feedback and we’re doing our best to respond in a timely and appropriate manner. We’ve always planned to make changes to reflect the player feedback we receive here, during Early Access, and just over the course of 24 hours the response has already been impassioned, vocal and valuable.
We want to remain approachable, responsive and communicate to you our plans. We’re taking in all the feedback in order to look critically at the game, its economy, and other factors in order to refine it before its full release.
Expect to see some changes coming in Early Access—in fact, expect them to come sooner rather than later. We are committed to taking care of you players who have joined us in these early days. As we adjust our trajectory heading forward, we want to do our best to do right by everyone.
To the dedicated fans who have loved The Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game since the first hour of its release, to the players who were disappointed, to the people in between, we want to build a better experience for all of you. That’s going to take time and effort on our part, but we’re devoted to doing so. We hope you’ll join us and stay part of this process.
To the people who have decided the game isn’t for them: We hope you’ll revisit us at some point, or at least keep up with the changes we make along the way. We can never make everyone happy, but we want to be clear that Early Access is a process, and what we have now will continue to evolve, and change, as we move forward.
This is a beginning, and we hope it’s one that is solid enough to bring you back.
To the people who are playing and enjoying the game: Thank you! We’re so honored that you like the game as much as we like making it. We’re going to hold tight to that core gameplay experience you love while building on it, making it bigger, better, and ultimately, the best game it can possibly be. Thanks for joining us on this ride.
Thanks for an amazing launch, everyone. Stay tuned for more updates during Early Access and beyond!
Fantasy Flight Interactive
The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game Release Date Announcement
It’s official: The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game will be available in Early Access on August 28, 2018!
Since we first announced The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, it has had some dramatic changes; visual overhauls, tweaked and refined mechanics, new cards, a revised economy, and more. Many of you have joined us on this journey since the beginning, and we’ve enjoyed having you with us, watching the game grow and flourish. Still, there’s been one question on everyone’s mind: When can I play it?
The answer is this August. The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game will enter into Early Access. During that time, we’ll release the first campaign, Adventures in Mirkwood; the core set starter cards, featuring 42 player cards and 4 Heroes, one of each Sphere; a set of 21 unlockable Valor cards; tons of cosmetics, and more. Throughout Early Access, we’ll add even more content, too, so keep an eye here for future announcements.
Early Access is a chance for us to focus on balancing and refining stats and mechanics, adding new features, and putting community-first tools in the hands of the players. For more details on what to expect during Early Access, head on over to our roadmap, and if there’s anything you feel is missing on there, let us know.
Early Access will last about 3 to 5 months, and the game will be released as a free-to-play title after that, with a robust schedule of updates to follow.
We’re pushing our release past Quarter 2 in order to make sure we do this right. This is FFI’s first-ever title. Early Access is many things to many developers and players. To us, it is a time to balance the game and elevate it from good to great. We strongly feel we have reached that moment now, and we’re ready to release the game to you. But we’ll need your help.
Player feedback has been incredibly important to us during the development stages. Community engagement has always been core to Fantasy Flight Interactive’s values, and we intend to carry that tradition through during Early Access, as well. The EA period is our chance to open up the conversation around The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, and we’re excited for you to join us.
You can expect our community streams to continue on the same schedule: 1 PM Central US time on twitch.tv/ffigames. We’ll continue to bring you gameplay, developer updates, news, and more. If you haven’t joined us there yet, come check it out! We love having new voices in chat.
We also have some other very exciting news to share. The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is getting a special edition tie-in with its tabletop cousin, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!
This limited edition bundle is both a celebration of the history of the tabletop game and a herald of great things to come for the digital title. In it, you’ll get:
• Early Access Code for The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game
• The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game Starter Set
• The Shire Founder’s Pack
• The Steward of Gondor Founder’s Pack
• The Istari Founder’s Pack
• The Special Edition 2-Player Starter for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
• A brass replica of “The One Ring”
• An exclusive physical playmat
• 4 4x6 character art prints depicting the Core Set Heroes in The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game
• 2 exclusive in-game avatars
• 2 exclusive in-game player tags
• An exclusive in-game card back
Lastly, we wanted to take the opportunity here to thank you all for joining us on this ride to release. From the community streams to the Steam forums to social media and beyond, players have time and time again expressed their passion and excitement. We can’t wait to share what we have in store.
Fantasy Flight Interactive
The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game Developer Roadmap
Hello everyone!
In case you missed it, we've shared our developer roadmap over on the Fantasy Flight Interactive website. Go check it out, and if you have any questions or feedback, head over to the Steam Community forums and let us know what you think.
There have been many in-development changes to the game recently, including a more robust action phase, a change to combat, revisions to card draw, and more. If you haven't gotten a chance to see the game's current format, head over to our Twitch page to watch it in action.
