Gaming Lord of the Rings Online

[Guest Bleedingthru]

Anyone into this new game? Lord of the rings online was at best a wonder to me.

I saw some videos on youtube of people playing stuff like the mario bro's theme on their instruments. I also heard about 'monster play'. I have only gotten a champion to lvl 10 due to my commitment to work, wow, cs, and ...well wow. and anime but I am dying to know of how this game is in the later stages, how endgame is and whatnot.

Anyone know more than me on this game?

[Semjaza]

Not sure if I should bump this or make a new thread or what.

I decided to pick this up last week since Best Buy had it on sale for $35 and I had a $5 Rewards Zone coupon. Basically, $20 off the normal price for a couple of month old game that's been selling very well. Can't do much better than that, particularly since it comes with a free month.

TLotRO is a MMORPG in the traditional sense. It's not like Guild Wars with hub areas and then an instanced overworld. Every one can go where ever they want together or separately, just as in something like World of Warcraft.

As expected, it shares a lot of similarities with other MMORPGs, particularly in terms of the user interface. This is true of even WoW or GW (which I will mention most, since those are the most played online RPGs around these parts). I mean, they all have their quirks (WoW's being arguably the most deep), but if you've figured one out you can figure out the others.

In any case, I've had it for about a week now and I've really enjoyed it so far. I found it to be more involving from the start than WoW is, particularly in terms of narrative. TLotRO creates what's basically an instanced tutorial area that's heavily story based and I think it sucks you in to a far larger degree because of it. Of course, it helps that I (and a lot of people) have at least a passing familiarity with the general universe. The license has been capitalized upon very well... Hell, you can even smoke. There's all sorts of pipe and pipe-weed and smoke tricks.

Graphically (to get this out of the way) it goes for a more realistic style. More comparable to GW than WoW. It's also a hell of a lot more intensive because of it. I could barely run it on my old computer at the lowest resolution (P4 1.8 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, Radeon 9600). It does run maxed out on my new build though (Core Duo 2.4 GHz, 2GB of RAM, Geforce 7600). Just be aware that just because you can run GW or WoW well doesn't mean you can run this well. With all of the advanced graphics options enabled, however, it does look pretty damn good.

Gameplay wise, most of the things are as expected. Combat is similar to something like GW or WoW, although there are moves that have pre-requisites. As a Minstrel, I sometimes have to play a Tier 1 song before I can play a Tier 2 song. I'm sure the same is true of the other classes. Battles are still challenging however, particularly if you stumble upon an "epic" monster (super strong for its level, drops the best items).

Many of the quests are actually interesting if you bother to read the stuff that goes along with it. Sure, it has its share of stupid quests, but I appreciated that it was fairly well mixed up. Fetch quests, kill quests, timed quests, group quests. I think it's all well handled as far as MMORPGs go.

There's also the fact that when you're doing a quest that requires item drops from monsters, you actually get them regularly. WoW has gotten a lot of complains for quest item drops being annoyingly rare, especially in cases that don't make sense. Not getting wolf blood when killing a wolf, for example. This hasn't happened to me in this game at all and it's a nice thing.

There are also other aspects of it that are somewhat unique and help pull you in a little more. For example, there's the "Deed" system. Basically, deeds will be assigned to you based upon your actions and you'll get certain bonuses out of finishing them. These deeds can give stat increases or just allow you to have access to a new title (titles are attached to your name -- so, for example, for killing 30 goblins in Erid Luin I am able to use the title Defender of Erid Luin). It's more addicting than it sounds and has a "just one more quality", similiar to achievements on the Xbox 360. It's fed even more by the fact that there's some that you can only get in a very limited window and can never get again if you screw it up (such as reaching certain levels without dying).

Then there's the monster side of the game. Not only can you play as your character, but you can also using a Fell Summoning Pool and play as a monster you can actually raise stats for and have battle against other players in certain areas of the game. I've not done this yet, but the book has an awful lot of info on it. Seems pretty cool.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have its problems. While the crafting system is interesting, it is just not explained well enough. My scholar profession requires all sorts of ingredients that I had no idea how to obtain. You can't buy them (although they might be in the Auction House if someone puts them up) and you're not really told where to get them. It turns out that you have to equip the Scholar's Glass (every profession comes with tools you must equip to find or use things related to the profession) and look for pots and such that contain these items in dungeons and ruins throughout the game. Without the scholar's glass you wouldn't be able to see them.

Perhaps the game does explain this somewhere, but it wasn't very obvious to me. Most other professions actually have nodes appear (icons on the map that show you where related things are), but not Scholars for some reason.

This can easily be fixed by making a couple of quests related to making your first craft items. Something I really hope they do. It's easy to get lost here because, unlike WoW, a lot of the necessary ingredients to make anything aren't available right then and there.

In addition, I feel at times quests can be overly vague. While I do not expect to be told EXACTLY where to go (as GW does for you), I do expect some hand-holding in the earlier quests.

This is especially true of, again, anything related to crafting or having to actually talk to other people playing the game to gain something. Say for example a NPC is looking for a mushroom pie, but you cannot buy one and your profession doesn't involve cooking. Maybe it's at the auction house, but otherwise you have to find someone that knows cooking and ask them to toss one together for you. It's not like this is a big deal, but I don't think many players are going to automatically assume that's what they should do.

Anyway, those are fixable things. This month they're adding a sizable free content update to the game, which is nice. Obviously you have to pay for the game, but your $15 a month nets you unlimited characters on any server you please.

Personally, I play as Ainadel on Gladden. If anyone bothers to pick this up, let me know. I'd also be happy to answer any questions about it.

[Zidargh]

Well as usual Semjaza, you've managed to perk my interest in this MMORPG up a bit, simply by the fact I'd know someone who plays it. (In WoW, I was really lucky to meet a person who started a really successful Guild. But after I stopped for about a month due to work requirements, it had completely fallen apart. Was quite saddening really.)

In general, would you recommend that I purchase it? Like what really sets it aside from all the other RPGs out there? Is the combat system slick in the sense that you only get hit if the blade touches you, etc?

If so, I'd definitely like to team up with you sometime, if that's cool. (Although, doesn't WoW have it's own European servers? Is this the same for LotR?)

Cheers.

[Semjaza]

I'm not really familiar with the European situation, but I was always under the impression that servers were shared in WoW and didn't matter where you lived? I have no real way to check that thought and I have honestly NO idea in this case.

Combat wise it's kind of typical. I think it's like most of these games in that certain variables are calculated and if they're good they're counted as a hit and if not, they're not. I think it would be pretty difficult to do any other way, although I've heard the combat in Dungeons and Dragons Online is that complex. Might be interesting to try that out.

Enemies don't seem to chase you down as long as they did in FFXI and WoW when you run away, though (and certainly nowhere near as bad as in GW), which I kind of appreciated.

It's hard to say which of these is worth getting sometimes. You and I played FFXI together and both eventually seemed to find it supremely boring. It seems like we have semi-similar tastes, so I think it's worth go if you have the money laying around. I don't know that I'd necessarily tell anyone to RUSH OUT AND BUY THIS TODAY about any MMORPG though, because they require a lot of time and tastes are so different. It's definitely one of the better ones I've played, however.

[Meggido]

World of warcraft had separate European and Asian servers. Only Pacific (Australia, New Zealand and a few other places) and the US were grouped together. From what I've been reading this is the same for Lord of the Rings Online.

[Semjaza]

I checked out the server lists and, unfortunately, they're completely different for the US compared to the rest of the world. Lame. That was the one nice thing about FFXI.

[Guest Hellblaze123]

[COLOR=Red]I should try LOTR Online.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=Red]Is it good?[/COLOR]

[BlueYoshi]

[QUOTE=Hellblaze123][COLOR=Red]I should try LOTR Online.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=Red]Is it good?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[color=darkred]Hellblaze123, yo and welcome to OtakuBoards. We have a little emphasis on post quality here, which includes making posts meaningful and more content based, as this creates a strong chance of spawning debates and discussions, which is what these forums are all about really, whatever the subject. In your post you could have mentioned why you'd like to try LOTR Online, or what draws you towards it. That way, members will know exactly what you want to know, and are more probable to reply to your question.

If you have any questions, fell free to PM me or any of the other mods lurking around and about.[/color]

[Semjaza]

So I wanted to bump this in hopes that more people would be interested in playing this game. I don't run a guild or anything and I'm not trying to "recruit"... It's more that I think this is a really solid title and I'd like to play with more people I at least somewhat know. Plus it gives a good place to talk about it.

LotRO can easily be found now for $10 to $20 new. This includes a free month of play. Typically a month of play is $15 for five characters per server (and you can use several servers if you wish to). Right now they're offering a deal that allows you to pay for 3 months at once for $10 a month. Basically it's kind of buy 2 get 1 free at the normal price. If you absolutely love it you can also buy a lifetime subscription for $200, which will probably last a long time... the game is doing well, they're constantly making significant upgrades and I'm sure expansion packs are inevitable.

You can download a free seven day trial from [URL="http://www.lotro.com"][COLOR="RoyalBlue"][U]www.lotro.com[/U][/COLOR][/URL]. This doesn't require a credit card or anything else to be entered.

Anyway, I play on [B]Gladden [/B]if anyone wants to try it out. They also have a nice referral system, so if anyone feels like they'll sign up you can give me your e-mail you registered with. Helps me out and technically I AM referring you lol.

I'd also be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has about it, how it compares to other MMORPGs (assuming I've played them) and so forth. I don't want to write tons of stuff up if no one is interested. I typically barely play MMORPGs at all and grow tired of them quickly (WoW included), but this one has really caught my attention and I think even those who typically dislike the genre will like it.

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"][quote name='Semjaza']
Anyway, I play on [B]Gladden [/B]if anyone wants to try it out. They also have a nice referral system, so if anyone feels like they'll sign up you can give me your e-mail you registered with. Helps me out and technically I AM referring you lol.

I'd also be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has about it, how it compares to other MMORPGs (assuming I've played them) and so forth. I don't want to write tons of stuff up if no one is interested. I typically barely play MMORPGs at all and grow tired of them quickly (WoW included), but this one has really caught my attention and I think even those who typically dislike the genre will like it.[/QUOTE]
I hear that, somehow I always get bored of any MMO eventually (although WoW did last a lot longer then all the others I've played). When this game was first being released, I got a chance to play in the beta. There were quite a few glitches and bugs (especially with the way the quests worked) but I guess now that it has been out for a while they've fixed all that.

So, you've got me interested to say the least. I'm downloading the trial right now so tomorrow after school I'll probably be able to play it and test the waters. Hopefully it will be better this time around.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Semjaza]

Great, just post your name in here whenever you're started. I play as a few characters and would have to log in to even check the spelling on a few, so that might be easier lol.

Glitch wise it's a lot better. I was in the beta too... for me the main issue was simply that it took a lot of power to run it well. It's greatly improved in that regard. I remember there were NPCs that had hair floating two feet off their heads. All that sort of weirdness is ironed out, although sometimes you happen upon a floating item. I can't say I've seen anything that just seemed lazy or detrimental though.

Hopefully downloading the latest one won't require a lengthy patch either.

Edit - Actually, I forgot: If you add one character from a friend you can see all of their characters when they're online. I almost exclusively play as Branson on Gladden, so if you add him and let me know who you are we'll be set. Otherwise feel free to IM me or PM me if you need to.

[Ellerby]

[quote name='Semjaza']Edit - Actually, I forgot: If you add one character from a friend you can see all of their characters when they're online. I almost exclusively play as Branson on Gladden, so if you add him and let me know who you are we'll be set. Otherwise feel free to IM me or PM me if you need to.[/QUOTE]
[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]Well, I got it downloaded and made a character and all that (his name is Brenoa). But for some reason at a random point in time I suddenly started getting disconnected from the server [i]a lot[/i]. I can't even play the game for 5 minutes now without it suddenly d/cing. I've got a top notch computer and an average connection so I'm kind of frustrated. I really enjoyed what I had the chance to play.

I'm trying to reinstall it now, hopefully that'll work. It's a lot like how I remember it in beta but for some reason it's a lot more fun this time around (maybe Minstrel suits me better then the other classes I tried).

I don't think I'll be buying it anytime soon just because I just bought Rock Band today and I already owe money so I'm kind of strapped for cash. However if I'm ever looking for an MMO in the future this will definitely be my first choice. I really hope I can get the trial to work properly again. :/[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Semjaza]

That's really weird. I looked on the forums and no one else seems to be experiencing the issue... Could it be firewall related?

[Ellerby]

[quote name='Semjaza']That's really weird. I looked on the forums and no one else seems to be experiencing the issue... Could it be firewall related?[/QUOTE]
[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]I turned off my firewall and it didn't make a difference. I think that while I was installing the game a file may have got corrupted or something. I'm going to have to delete the entire game. Here goes nothing.[/COLOR][/FONT]

Edit: Well that worked. The game works now and I can play continuously without getting disconnected. Yaay~!

[Semjaza]

Your trial is probably up by now, I imagine? Unfortunately we never seemed to be on at the same time. Oh well, enjoy Rock Band (I do!).