Friday, June 14, 2013

U11: Hobbit Presents 30-day Review

Supergirl versus Karkas in Wildemore

Update 11 showed the introduction of daily Hobbit Presents to lotro. They were first released on May 13 so I have now waited my self-imposed 30 days to critique the system.

To recap, the Hobbit Presents come in two forms: Silver Present once per day and Gold Present once per week. You can also purchase more hobbit presents… 2 mithril coins for the Silver and 8 mithril coins for the Gold.

Its introductory reception was a mixed bag by players. Some of the major thoughts expounded in other forums included
  • Annoyance at the small square in the corner of the screen saying you have a present,
  • Concern that the instant access to potential good loot would be game-breaking,
  • Irate about the nature of its “slot machine” feel was akin to gambling and that it should be illegal for its exposure to children playing the game,
  • Indifference  because it was either cheesy, unclassy, or unnecessary to attract players,
  • Joy at getting “free stuff”.

Since it was released, I tracked my daily presents in a spreadsheet (yay spreadsheets!). Tomeoric and Arcadio contributed for a bit but got bored tracking scroll-this, potion-that, pile of coins.

Here are my consolidated 30 Hobbit Presents for 30-days:
17.1
Gold
50
Mithril Coins
6
Combat Run Speed Boosts
6
Scrolls of Max Morale and Power (90 minutes)
3
+5% Attack Damage (1 hour)
2
Scroll of Finesse
2
Rejuvenation Potion
1
Fused T5 Relic
3
Fused T3 Relic
6
+10% ooc Run Speed Boost (90 minutes)
1
Simple Rally Horn
1
Landscape Soldier Tolken
1
Exhanced XP Supply
5
Dale-men's Crams (food)
3
Universal Power potions
1
Mathom Shoes (Teal, lvl 80)
1
Mathom Hunter's Mitts (Teal, lvl 80)

Assessment of my loot: You can see that the gold started to add up a bit after 30 days of collecting copper scraps and silver scraps. Of course, my big win was the “50 mithril coins”.
Next most impressive was a few scrolls (combat run, morale boost, attack damage, finesse) that I will eventually use in the Moors.

Then, there were a few relics (of which I have an alt-tonne-load), some lower-level goodies like the Rally Horn, a Landscape Soldier Token (I’ve never used one but I might since I have it for free so I can take pictures of my Herbalist in various places), then more lower-level stuff.

The teal Shoes and the Mitts are both for level 80 which I don’t need, and of course, “Universal Power Potions” are zero value since it has been a very long time since I’ve even thought about needing even a normal power potion.

Tomeoric posed a good question about the effect adding that much gold to the AH market might have on inflation. It is a valid point but it feels like inflation has been on the rise for a while. With little to pull money out of a market, general wealth accumulates and inflation occurs. Such is life.

Supergirl flies over Forochel

Best loot I have seen? I reviewed Tomeoric and Arcadio’s data as well. I probably got the best of the lot with the 50 mithril coins; Tomeoric got a Universal Toolkit and a Relic Removal Scroll and Arcadio got a level 80 gold chest piece and a Tome of Vitality VIII (which might sell well if it weren’t bound to account). I asked around and the best hobbit presents I could find that anyone received, other than the ones mentioned here, include a Compendium of Might Tomes (all ten Tomes for might), a +100% Crit Craft Chance Scroll, and 200 mithril coins from a gold box.

Of all of this loot, in the past, I have bought a Universal Toolkit (Crafting-toward-mordor-with-universal-toolkit),Relic Removal Scrolls, and some stat tomes when they first released. I can also see why one would buy the crit chance scroll for something you really wanted to crit. Long ago, I also bought 2 rally horns (both used at very different times but both in the Misty Mountains).

Supergirl flies over Trollshaws

Erebrandir’s Horseshoe: I did not try to statistically assess in only one month whether the horseshoe has any bearing. The best loot I got was with no horseshoe, which is likely just a coincidence. The continued “running joke” about it might do something in certain occasions is annoying. The horseshoe has been around for years, so it would be great if Turbine just put it out there what exactly it does and move on.

My reality is that I have rarely gotten particularly good loot while wearing it and I still remain skeptical that it actually does anything, regardless of what Sapience says. Sorry Sapience, you are more than welcome to elaborate or prove it, all I have is my own empirical evidence. hehe :D forums.lotro.com: Erebrandir-s-Horseshoe-What-is-it-good-for

Silver versus Gold Presents: It is assumed that the Gold Presents are better than the Silver Presents. Gold is better, right? It costs more mithril coins to get… it only awards once per week versus the silver at once per day… so it must be seven times as good, yes? ...or at least four times as good since it costs quadruple the cost?

Care to guess which of the above loot in my table was from Gold boxes? During my 30-days, I got five Gold Presents. Those included 1.8g, T5 Relic, T3 Relic, Scroll of Finesse, Enhanced XP Supply. That is underwhelming and not at all obvious that it uses a different loot table than the silver presents.

Supergirl descends onto Wildemore

What is my take on the Hobbit Presents? They don’t bother me at all. In fact, I like them for the quick and amusing items that they are.

In all, nothing I got or saw was game-changing. Mostly, it just felt like some loot I would get for killing a couple of enemies. As expected the grab-bag feel of the hobbit presents is hit-or-miss… could be good or could be no value. I don’t see enough benefit to me to warrant spending mithril coins buying more presents but I am thankful for the daily ones.

Log on, click a button, get some loot trinket, say “Thank you for the present” (even though it might be as useful as getting wool mittens in a Texas summer), and move on about my merry way!

Supergirl rides Warsteed of Rhun to explore an Ice formation in Wildemore

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another very interesting post. I thought of keeping track of my presents, but I don't get the weekly gold ones, and figured that the silvers probably don't compare to the "nicer" gifts received from the golds. I don't know if you are going to continue keeping track of your gifts, but it would be interesting to know how the 30 days of silver presents you've received compares, eventually, to 30 weeks of gold presents. The difference in gift quality might be more apparent then.
Btw, I've been wondering if one of your other planned update 11 posts will look at the new Wildermore relics and examine whether it makes sense to pick those over the eastement ones. I know the stats are better, but maybe the cost is really disproportionate to the benefit (like with some of the warsteed relics).

-Joe

Just A Little Crazy said...

Heya D.

I was lucky enough to pick up the 100% crit scroll. Used it to make Mac his necklace. All in all, pretty underwhelmed.

Zyngor said...

Not overwhelmed with the system, but free is free, and that's cool with me. I think the most useful item I picked up so far was a legacy tier upgrade scroll from the silver box (not VIP, so no free golds for me).

Perhaps if I get any MCs from the silver, I'll go for a couple of gold boxes. All in all, if I'm not paying real $$$ for it, I don't mind it.

Unknown said...

Joe-nonymous!

Challenge Accepted. :) I will make an effort to record my first 30 gold hobbit presents and do a comparison. The gold ones have been completely uninspiring thusfar, but to be fair, the sample size is very small.

OMG... Yes, I am putting on the list to review the Wildemore relics asap. I did not even know they existed!!! I asked around and no one admitted to even having noticed that they came out. Thanks so much for pointing out that they were there!

For your benefit, please note that I wrote about the Eastemnet relics when they arrived @
http://www.danania.net/2013/04/update-10-t9-and-eastemnet-relics.html

Unknown said...

To Just a little MW!...

That is a nice pick-up to get a +100% crit scroll. I do know that there are people around who have bought one from the store. I've never gotten a recipe that was good enough to warrant having a +100% crit scroll though. :D

Unknown said...

To Zyngor... well said. :) Free is free.

Thusfar, with the quality of gold boxes versus silver boxes I have seen, if I did spend mithril coins on any of them, I would sooner get 4 silver boxes versus 1 gold box.

I am still waiting to prove to myself that a gold box gives clear indication that it is pulling from a different loot list and worth 4x the cost. :)

Tori said...

I'm with you - they're not out of this world or anything, but fun. I've gotten a stat tome and a Starlit Crystal, those were nice. So overall I'm grateful. Especially for the extra gold. As a (very) casual gamer, it's nice to have a little bit of extra cash flowing in. But I won't be spending any mithril coins for extra presents.

Anonymous said...

I did some extensive testing of Hobbit Presents on Bullroarer and came up with some interesting results. I posted them on the official forums. Here's a link for anyone who's interested:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?511346-Hobbit-Presents-Know-the-odds.

-- Fredelas

Anonymous said...

I have a level 10 parked and waiting for eventual leveling up on another server. Logging him in on a daily basis is making him rich(for a level 10).

For free.

Unknown said...

To Tori... nice haul for free stuff. :)

To Fredelas... Yay! Thanks for the link and WOW that was a lot of dedication clicking buttons and compiling data during bullroarer test! Go you! Yall go check out the pretty tables. (I will still compile data for fun per Joe-nonymous's Challenge above.)

To Anonymous... Hehe, now that is a plan, since you think you might want to go to that server, start out richer and go from there. ;)

Anonymous said...

Hey Danania,
This is a wonderful insight! I've been recording the free gifts as well, but at some point decided to only recod the "new" gifts (not seen before) or the gold items.
It certainly helps to get these piles of scraps. I think these might help me get enough funds to buy (or rent rather) a kinship house for my crafting alts.
As said before by others, it's free so I'm happy with it anyway. But I'm not going to use MC's/real money to unlock more presents. It just isn't worth it imho :)

iPilgrim said...

I enjoy getting little surprises. I agree they are not that great, but then they are free, sort of. I do wish the lottery was working again cause the prizes were better.

Unknown said...

Lotroadventures and iPilgrim ... great to know that your opinion aligned with mine. As you say, no need to not enjoy free stuff. :)

As for the lotteries, no doubt they were better, but they require actual participation to link out to a fickle website and the win rate could be low on useful things. Of course, like you, I would enter as often as I could remember to do so. :D

Nusnogard said...

I like free stuff, so I like Hobbit presents. I do wish one of those presents were more storage space. I am a terrible packrat and have trouble finding room in my inventory for all this free stuff.

Unknown said...

Lol Nusnogard, Funny you mention that. Storage often seems to be at a premium. My "things I will use when I visit the Moors" is starting to overrun my vault. I guess that is incentive to actually go. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey, Danania, so did you continue to keep track of your hobbit presents or did it fall off your radar? I wonder what the final results were. I finally subscribed to LOTRO for the first time today and so I can start keep track of my own loot!

-Joe

Unknown said...

Ha Joe!! You are calling me out! I did take notes on all my goodies for the entire year, but I haven't compiled them for review. Poster Fredelas did assemble a very good review of percent chance for the presents he received in Beta testing (link above). It looked like I was on about the same track. Still, the best thing I have ever gotten has been the periodic gift of Mithril Coins. I do use them occasionally. ;)

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