Lord of the Rings Online: Dev Journal: Monster Play Improvements

Turbine has published a dev journal which gives insight into upcoming changes to the mechanics behind PvP and Monster Play.

Population Balance

The Ettenmoors and PvMP is a tremendously enjoyable experience when battles are evenly matched. However, evenly matched battles may be infrequent. Though there’s merit to the underdog overcoming the odds and a feeling of superiority when your side crushes the meager opposition, frustration and boredom continue to grow if there is no shift in population balance.

In order to address this, we have introduced a population balance mechanic in the Ettenmoors that will help even the odds between the two sides and provide a more interesting PvMP experience.

This mechanic continually tracks population in PvMP. When one side’s force becomes dramatically smaller than the other’s, a defensive bonus is added to the characters on the underpopulated side. The bonus increases if the difference in population between the two sides grows bigger and decreases if the difference in population between the two sides grows smaller.

Read more here.