It's a long-running in-joke in the Lord of the Rings Online community that no matter how often Turbine tries to call its group combo-maker "Fellowship Maneuvers," players can't stop referring to them as "Conjunctions" (the name for the system from beta). In a new dev diary covering the resurgence of the feature, Turbine acknowledges the nomenclature debate with the title "Conjunction Conjunction, What's your Function?"
In the past, Turbine had disabled Fellowship Maneuvers for tough boss fights, fearing that it would make the encounters too easy. However, the devs want to start giving the system more love again, and they have a two-step plan to do that. The first step is to allow players to create customizable Fellowship Maneuvers on a per-mob basis, allowing players to fine-tune their approach to each deadly encounter. The second step is to lift the ban on Fellowship Maneuvers during boss fights while making them much tougher to pull off successfully. This latter step is still in the planning stages, but the team wanted players to know that it was in the works.
There's more information in this developer diary about Conjunctions, especially in regard to the new 24-man Draigoch raid, so it's worth checking out if you're a serious dungeon crawler.
Reader Comments (16)
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 10:42AM Nerves said
It's about frakkin time. Removing the knockdown from FMs will go a long way to reintroducing them to boss fights, but I'm still on the fence about instance-specific FMs though.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 10:44AM ScottishViking said
Good. "Hard to pull off" is way better than "situational use."
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 10:48AM Carolina said
Whenever the maneuver UI pops up, Eddie Izzard's voice during his heimlich maneuver joke comes to mind. "I have invented a maneuver!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itordNWNRM8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itordNWNRM8
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 10:54AM (Unverified) said
Hmmm... I need to look the details of this up. At first glance, LoTROs Fellowship Maneuvers look like a blatant copy of Everquest's 2 Heroic Opportunities.
Oh well. It's not like you can get a patent on gameplay systems or else every MMO would be in trouble right now.
Oh well. It's not like you can get a patent on gameplay systems or else every MMO would be in trouble right now.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 12:44PM Yellowdancer said
@(Unverified)
It is a blatant copy of EQ2. Lotro copies a lot of what EQ2 does. LOTRO doesn't have many original ideas. But not many MMO's do so there.
Reply
It is a blatant copy of EQ2. Lotro copies a lot of what EQ2 does. LOTRO doesn't have many original ideas. But not many MMO's do so there.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 10:54AM blackcat7k said
Hmmm... I need to look the details of this up. At first glance, LoTROs Fellowship Maneuvers look like a blatant copy of Everquest's 2 Heroic Opportunities.
Oh well. It's not like you can get a patent on gameplay systems or else every MMO would be in trouble right now.
Oh well. It's not like you can get a patent on gameplay systems or else every MMO would be in trouble right now.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 11:49AM Nandini said
My understanding wasn't that player's "create" new Fellowship Maneuver combinations on a per-creature basis. The way I understood it is that Turbine is creating boss-specific Fellowship Maneuver combinations and players will have to discover these by experimentation.
In addition, bosses will remain immune to FMs except during specifically defined moments.
Basically, this allows Turbine to add new scripted gimmicks to boss fights that reuse the existing FM wheel UI. In the future, Turbine is also contemplating allowing players to use "normal" FMs on bosses, but without the knockdown/stun that normally accompanies one.
And yes, LOTRO's Fellowship Maneuvers are similar to EQ2's Heroic Opportunities and Vanguard's Sympathies, which are all similar to Final Fantasy XI's skill-chains. Each has a slightly different implementation.
In addition, bosses will remain immune to FMs except during specifically defined moments.
Basically, this allows Turbine to add new scripted gimmicks to boss fights that reuse the existing FM wheel UI. In the future, Turbine is also contemplating allowing players to use "normal" FMs on bosses, but without the knockdown/stun that normally accompanies one.
And yes, LOTRO's Fellowship Maneuvers are similar to EQ2's Heroic Opportunities and Vanguard's Sympathies, which are all similar to Final Fantasy XI's skill-chains. Each has a slightly different implementation.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 12:07PM aurickle said
@JorgenWulf
1) This has nothing to do with LotRO
2) You're posting it in every thread I've looked at. That's spam.
Go away.
1) This has nothing to do with LotRO
2) You're posting it in every thread I've looked at. That's spam.
Go away.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 12:28PM Ehra said
Great news for Burglars. :)
It was always a disappointment that on demand Conjunctions was such a touted class feature for them but it didn't apply to the most difficult content.
It was always a disappointment that on demand Conjunctions was such a touted class feature for them but it didn't apply to the most difficult content.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 2:42PM happyfish said
I'm pretty sure we'll try the new stuff, then go right back to the standard all red and a blue at the end.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 3:01PM real65rcncom said
I didn't know they took them out /boggle
At launch they were fun as heck to do, kinda stressful til you figured them out but I'm suprised to hear they didn't have them in.
At launch they were fun as heck to do, kinda stressful til you figured them out but I'm suprised to hear they didn't have them in.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 3:36PM Nandini said
@real65rcncom
Only bosses in the last few tiers of instanced dungeons and raids were made immune to Fellowship Maneuvers. It was discovered that many players were basically using them as a "pause button" to regroup during the fight, and not to actually use FM skills.
Reply
Only bosses in the last few tiers of instanced dungeons and raids were made immune to Fellowship Maneuvers. It was discovered that many players were basically using them as a "pause button" to regroup during the fight, and not to actually use FM skills.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 7:51PM Nandini said
@Ehra
Yes, if your burglar triggered a Fellowship Maneuver just before certain phase changes and the rest of the group DPSed the boss down past the trigger point, it was possible to completely avoid certain undesirable effects. Sometimes the encounter would break entirely and just stop.
This is true of most scripted encounters in the game, even instanced solo quests, so I'm always extra careful on my burglar.
Reply
Yes, if your burglar triggered a Fellowship Maneuver just before certain phase changes and the rest of the group DPSed the boss down past the trigger point, it was possible to completely avoid certain undesirable effects. Sometimes the encounter would break entirely and just stop.
This is true of most scripted encounters in the game, even instanced solo quests, so I'm always extra careful on my burglar.
Posted: Sep 26th 2011 9:54PM TortoiseCan said
When I first started playing this game, I thought this concept was kind of cool. Over time though I feel as though it's just out of place. Whenever I'm in a boss fight and one of these appear, it's like I'm in the middle of watching the conclusion of an action movie and someone just pauses it to go use the washroom.









