Middle-earth is a world filled with adventure and mystery. For some, drinking a pint at a Shire tavern or cultivating the finest pipe-weed passes their time. For others, it is pure exploration, or advancing through the main storyline that makes them happy.

For those who hear the call of dynamic, unpredictable battle, however, the Ettenmoors is the place to go. This is where battles against living, breathing opponents are fought. Players battle player-controlled Orcs, Wargs and other evil races. Although there is a great feeling of satisfaction gained by simply being involved in such conflict, there are many additional benefits to taking part in monster play in The Lord of the Rings Online^TM: Shadows of Angmar^TM (LOTRO). Have you ever seen a monster who looked like this?

If you are curious about what these stars and insignias mean, this journal is for you!

One of the many challenges we faced on the monster play project was to implement these Rank and Prestige systems. We wanted something for both casual and hardcore gamers. We understood that, although it can be fun to build up Rank, it is also fun to stand out from the crowd in a visible way with Prestige.

(click on image for larger version)

Our Rank system is set up much like the system used for regular leveling. PvMP kills reward Free Peoples players (or Heroes) with Renown, and monster players with Infamy. These points only increase; players don’t lose Infamy or Renown for being defeated. At certain levels of Renown, players increase Rank. With Rank, you get a new title and access to better stuff. Currently, Rank gates things like monster play advancement. You can only advance your monster player so far before you need to raise your Rank to continue. This gives players an incentive to increase their Rank. As time goes on, we intend to add further benefits to achieving increased Rank.

While battling in the Ettenmoors, Heroes can increase their Rank from Footman all the way up to Captain-General. Monster players progress from Tracker to Tyrant. There are 15 Ranks in each track.

The Prestige system is a parallel system geared more towards the hardcore players. Along with Rank, higher skilled players will be decorated with up to 5 stars of Prestige. While a player’s Rank always increases, Prestige can fluctuate. Using a system similar to chess ranking, a player will gain points each time he defeats another player and will lose points when he is defeated. The number of points a player has is called his rating. The higher a player’s rating is, the more Prestige he gets (shown by stars surrounding his portrait). The amount of rating points transferred between two players depends on a couple of factors. The first factor is the different ratings of the players involved. When a lower-rated player defeats a higher-rated player, more points are transferred to the lower-rated player than if the situation were reversed. Along with Renown calculations, the rating amount is divided up proportionally between the different players that contributed to the defeat. If two players of equal rating teamed up on a monster player, they will split the rating gain in half between the two of them. The player or group that does more damage will get a bigger slice of the pie.

Although Prestige is mainly a system set up to draw attention to our highly skilled PvMP players, it does have a few other impacts. First, any player with a better-than-average rating will get a bonus to all of the Renown or Infamy he receives. On the other hand, a higher-rated player also yields more Renown or Infamy to a player who defeats him. This means the really good players will become valuable targets for everyone else. It won’t be easy to maintain high Prestige!

The final challenge we faced with our PvMP systems was handling those who will inevitably try to exploit the system. This is, of course, an unfortunate problem that every game faces. To combat this problem, we have a system in place to reduce the benefits a player gains from defeating a specific other player the more often it happens. This means that if two players try and defeat one another over and over in order to gain rank, the gain from those defeats will get smaller and smaller. Eventually, the players will get nothing at all for defeating one another. After some time passes, the penalty will lift, allowing them to get full credit again. The intention is that players involved in normal combat will not receive any penalties.

In the end, we are very happy with how LOTRO’s monster play Rank and Prestige systems have turned out. Like any aspect of an MMO, it continues to evolve, and although we will be endlessly tweaking and upgrading these systems, we feel we have a solid base from which to work. We hope you enjoy it!