The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game - Definitive Edition News

[h2]Product Update Path[/h2]
As we make our way into 2021, the goal of this year is to further stabilize the game.

How do I report a bug or issue?
Please head over to our Discord Community and post in the #bugs channel.

General Resolved Issues
- Fixes Ent Moot Localization
- Ensures 2 cards granted for specific quest rewards
- Lorien Guide lockup bug resolved
- Some players receive save issues when Remaining Uses was null as reported from Datastore
- Unique symbols for Fangorn, Thranduil and Glamdring
- Fangorn and Thranduil ready from Unexpected Courage
- Lorien Guide data mismatch
- BoomingEnt fix for attack gains
- Gandalf ability defeating Balrog grants reward
- Prevent negative fate
- Fixes bug allowing double purchase of Hero Cards
- Network event handlers cleanup to resolve potential issues with double network events
- Various other minor fixes

Welcome back! We are happy to announce a major update will be releasing for the LotR:ACG tomorrow that will bring new content, a new User Interface, and full offline functionality to the game. As announced in our July road map, we are committed to improving the play experience for our players, and with our first major release since taking over development, we begin that journey tomorrow.

Here is a breakdown of what will be included in tomorrow's release:

[h2]1. Offline Playability[/h2]

The most requested feature from the community has been to convert the game to be playable offline. After much effort, we are happy to announce the new build will include a fully-functioning, offline single player client that will allow players to play completely offline. Your previous progress will automatically sync locally after updating, after which you can then continue your game sessions offline, without worrying about a network connection.

Of course, co-op multiplayer games will still utilize the online client, and as this release will transition most of the player base off the servers, more bandwidth will be available for your online co-op match plays.

[h2]2. New Adventure Game Mode and Content (UPDATE: CONTENT IS LIVE!) [/h2]
This update will also include, free of charge, a new game mode (Adventures) and our first content pack: "The Fords of Isen", a single-player, story-driven experience that puts players inside an unexplored narrative from the Lord of the Rings books. Draft a deck and play as the mighty Rohirrim, fighting to hold a river crossing from the forces of Saruman. With 70 new cards, 15 locations, new music and unlockables, it brings an all new experience to the game for players to enjoy.

[h2]3. Progress Respawns[/h2]
We have updated the save system in the game to allow for immediate restoration of your previous location upon death. Previously upon failing in your quests, the game restarted you back at the beginning of your current quest. We have updated this to now restart you at the exact location where you failed, thus allowing for greater exploration and risk taking.

[h2]4. UI Refresh[/h2]
A new main UI will greet you upon entering the game, improving the visual experience and aiding you with content discoverability. Simple vertical and horizontal flows showcase the game’s art and set the initial building blocks for the progress visibility updates which will come in early in 2021.

[h2]5. Bug Fixes[/h2]
Many fixes for bugs and community-reported issues are included in this release as well.

[h3]Release Note 1: Console Parity[/h3]
The new update will be live on Steam tomorrow but will not be submitted to consoles for approval until 10/23. Therefore, until the console versions are approved by their individual platforms and released, cross-play between Steam players and console players will be unavailable until parity is restored (TBD early November).

[h3]Release Note 2: Active Saves Reset[/h3]
All player game progress will remain intact, however, any active unfinished saves will be reset. Not a big deal, just a heads up.

We will post another announce when the update is live. See you tomorrow!

Thanks,

Antihero Studios

Hello and greetings from Antihero Studios. This is our first post as the new stewards of the game and we hope this news finds you well and in good spirits.

Our development team has been busy digging into the game code and current feature set for the last month and now, we would like to walk you through our future development plans for the game, as well as answer any follow up questions you might have. So, without further ado, here is our development road map for late 2020 through early 2021.




This was the behind-the-scenes working with Asmodee Digital to transfer the project from FFI over to Antihero Studios and work out all the specifics. This is now complete and we have been given the green light to get rolling.



Community Recovery
The once active community channels have fallen dark in the months since the FFI studio closure, and now we are working to relight those beacons. We want to see players sharing and engaging within a vibrant community again, so starting next week, our community manager, Sarah, will be taking the reins of the rebuilding efforts, starting with live streams twice a week. She will be working to rebuild, demoing the game for new players, answering questions, doing developer interviews, and providing the latest updates on new feature and content developments.

Development Begins
Development of new content, refactors, and bug fixes started Monday (7/21) at full speed.

Revising Store Pages
We have plans to refresh the product store pages with updated images, cleaner branding, and a clear message that LotR:ACG is a tactical strategy game.

New Game Mode (Adventures)
We will be bringing a new game mode to the game called Adventure mode. Adventure mode is a new single player, story-based experience that aims to fill a hole in the game’s current play mode line up...the ability to play through key story events from the books. This mode will feature all new gameplay elements such as unique story-based hero cards and abilities, Adventure-only card decks, in-game drafting, and persistence mechanics that extend attachments and stat damage/buffs between quests. Each will be a stand-alone experience and will play out over three quests (10-15 locations).

Adventures will be offered as purchasable downloadable content similar to the previous DLC content releases, and we will be announcing more details on game features and pricing as we approach release.

DLC#1 and DLC#2 Announce
We are happy to announce our first two content releases for the game will be the following Adventures:







Bug Fix Release
Any past bug reports/Helpshift reports that were submitted have been transferred into our bug tracker and we will try to get as many as possible corrected in the Q4 release. You can submit suggestions or bugs via the Asmodee Digital Helpshift system here.

DLC#1 and #2 Release
Our first two Adventures go live. (see “Adventure Mode” above for more details).

Mirror of Galadriel : Draft Mode (TBD)
We are working on improving the Mirror of Galadriel (MoG) gameplay. MoG is our quick-play/random-generation mode, and this week we added card drafting. It is early, but we will keep you updated on how it’s going and if it turns out to be good enough to ship with the refactor release.

UI Refresh
A clean redesign of the menu will be coming as well, with the goal of improving access to all of the content within the game and provide some extra polish. Below are several screen caps of the new in-progress menu redesign:



Offline Single Player Client
Originally the game was designed to be F2P (free-to-play), and thus, currently has an always-on network requirement. We will be releasing a fully offline version of the single-player client which will no longer require a constant connection. You will be able to maintain your current unlocks while also retaining the ability to play online cooperatively.

DLC #3 Announce
We will be announcing our plans for our third content release. Currently this is slated to be Campaign 4, with a release target of Jan/Feb.



DLC #3 Release
Our third content release will go live.

Reward Progress Tracking
Unlocking extra content in the game is an important secondary challenge the game offers, and we want to provide more visibility into your progress towards those unlocks. The elements providing this feedback will have already been included in the Q4 UI redesign, but they likely won’t be ready to go live until 1Q/2Q.

Debulking of Card frames and Cameos
We are planning on redesigning the card frames and cameos to further separate LotR:ACG from other digital card games currently on the market. As with many of our other changes, these changes will move the visuals in a more lore-focused direction. Below are some early explorations that, though just early wireframe sketches, get the debulking idea across.



But what about….
Many of you that have been reaching out to us with ideas, tweaks (difficulty curves, achievements, deck sizes), and new feature requests (mobile platforms, deck codes, etc) might be disheartened that your requested item is not on the list above. Give us time. We are listening. Please keep posting and discussing on the forums/discussion boards/discord and we will do our best to listen/consider/scope/fix those which are both realistically achievable and improve the game experience.

Risks
This is an ambitious road map, and we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that we are developing this game during a global pandemic. Our biggest concerns revolve around having everything ready to roll across all six platforms in time for the holiday console submission deadline. Normally, you want to time your console submissions to be into cert by the end of September/early October to avoid the holiday game rush that floods console cert teams each year in November. Now with Covid-19, understandably, they may not be operating at their usual tempo and there may be delays. However, we will do our best to hit our timelines, wrap up early, and keep you updated the whole way.


That’s it! Our 2020 feature road map. Please post any questions/comments/thoughts in the comment section below and we will try to answer them as best we can.

Talk again soon,

Greg
Antihero Studios/LotR:ACG Development Lead

As Bilbo once said «Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story. »

Asmodee Digital is pleased to announce that Antihero Studios is taking over content development and community relations for the Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game. Time to go on new adventures!

Stay tuned for more information. 🧙

Hail and well met!

Our newest update was recently deployed and with it has come a mass of new content and fixes to known issues. If you want to learn more about the new Hero Packs, Fellowship cards and Sauron's newest cards in the Mirror of Galadriel, then check out the PATCH NOTES HERE, or read on below for the major news of the update!

Added new Cards (Hero Packs/Fellowship)

• Hero Packs: Each pack containing 5 cards
  • Lord of Rivendell: Elrond
    
  • Resolute Protector: Dis
    
  • Esquire of Rohan: Merry
    
  • Knight of Gondor: Pippin
• Fellowship Cards:
  • 16 new Fellowship cards have been added to the game!
• Sauron Cards for Mirror of Galadriel:
  • 13 new Sauron cards have been added to the Mirror of Galadriel!
  
  

Bug Fixes

• Multiple bugs and issues resolved, please see detailed patch notes for more information

Known Issues

• If you have encountered any issues while playing, please see the "Known Issues" in the full patch notes found HERE.

We wish you the best of luck in your adventures. Until next we meet!