Turbine talks LOTRO character deletion, Radiance Gear

LOTRO developer Allan Maki has posted a new diary over on the game's official site talking about the removal of Radiance Gear with the upcoming Echoes of the Dead update.

Radiance - a good idea, poor implementation

According to Maki, the inclusion of it was made with all the best intentions, it's just the execution of it went awry.

"Our intentions were good [with Radiance Gear]," said Maki. "We wanted to do something new for the game and not create a new grind mechanic that ultimately resulted in running the same content over and over to acquire a 'key'. Somehow, this is exactly what we ended up making. None of us were pleased.

"Sometimes it’s difficult to shine the interrogation lamp on yourself and find out what exactly went wrong. Thankfully, our failures are simple to explain -- poor communication was the main culprit. Our original proposal for Radiance could have been written better than it was."

Maki goes on to day that there will those both for and against the removal of Radiance Gear, as with "any change there is going to be some measure of dissatisfaction and anger."

"We know that the removal of Radiance, while likely to be cheered by the majority, is also likely to cause some measure of discontent," he admitted. "However, this is a point where we need to admit that we made a mistake. And with that mistake in mind we shall forge ahead, mindful of the error that we made and fueled by a desire to never repeat it again."

Undelete your character for a fee

In other news, Turbine has announced it has started a paid service for so players can undelete a character.

According to a post over on LotroLife, user will be able to "undelete" a character for $19.95 each. Upon being reinstated, you'll be able to play once again on the server you were playing on upon deletion and can then request a World Character Transfer afterward if you like.

After being reinstated, your character will still have all of the inventory and equipped items at the time of deletion, it will also restore your character with all of its "experience, rank and quest progression intact."

The best part? All of your vault items will be returned as well.

LOTRO's next expansion is slated for the fall.