LOTRO: A good MMO?

[TsingTao]

For those of you whom don't want to read anything above:


Its WoW with hobbits.

end.

Thanks, now for more real impressions. The game sounds really fun, I like the idea of exploring the game world and being rewarded for it. How flexible is grouping and parties? And how's the community for the game so far? I'm hoping for an age range a bit older than WoW and FFXI. If it had something closer to an Ultima Online or Dark Age of Camelot style community, I'd be a big fan.

I'm in a "Old Folks" Kinship. The youngest are in the mid 20s with some people 50+. The server I'm on seems to be the unofficial Old Folks server, but it seems to be a more mature population across the board.

The community so far seems rather nice in general too. Not a lot of general asshatery so far. It's early in the game's life though and there's not a fully fleshed out end game with Uber Lootz so we'll see if that holds on. For now most people seem to enjoy exploring things & being noobs together to get things done. It's a pleasant change.

Parties & grouping so far is very flexible. Each job brings something to the table, but none of them are truly a must have. A Minstrel (best healer) is a good idea, but other than that you can handle most anything that isn't obviously over-levelled with a group of friends playing whatever.

Higher level content or especially nasty quests vs. truly hard hitting mobs will require specific setups with true tanks (Guardian) and dedicated healers (Minstrel) but at lower levels there's at least one other job that can fill roles well for any task.

If you want to try it out you can still find a torrent of the Beta out there. It will patch itself to the full version. Get someone here to send you the buddy pass and you can try it out for 2 weeks for free.

[Lbelle]

From fwjgksds post the game does actually sound a LOT like WoW but with really great graphics and an interesting storyline. I'm a huuuuge Lord of the Rings fan, and summer is coming up officially for me in 2 days so I might try this out. The aggro thing sounds like a complete bitch, but everything else in the 'cons' section didn't seem that bad, and more FFXI related to me (no skillchain bursting etc).

But yeah post some screencaps you guys! Also what is the level cap?

[Fhqwghads]

The game sounds really fun, I like the idea of exploring the game world and being rewarded for it. How flexible is grouping and parties? And how's the community for the game so far? I'm hoping for an age range a bit older than WoW and FFXI. If it had something closer to an Ultima Online or Dark Age of Camelot style community, I'd be a big fan.

As of now, you need the basics. Damage dealers, a healer, a tank. Supposedly with traits you can be a lot more flexible with party setup. Traits are something you earn, you don't just get them out of the box. This means that you have to complete certain quests in order to unlock them, which takes time and not everybody will do. You also only get a certain number of trait slots per level.

There are trait slots for virtue, race, class, and legendary. They're sort of like merits, except you don't need to hit the level cap to earn them. You can only apply traits for as many slots as you have, but you can collect as many as you want. Example: I have 4 trait slots available under virtues, and 1 each for race and class. I actually have probably 12+ traits so far, but can only apply 6 of them at a time. I equipped traits that enhance my damage and allow me to regen Power (the stat that fuels skill ability.) I could swap in traits that allow me to be a more effective tank if we had a party but no tank. Traits can't make sweeping class changes (like turning a damage dealer into a healer) but they do add enough flexibility so that a class that is at least in the ballpark to another class can do its job, albeit not as well but good enough to get by. You don't lose traits either, like in FFXI if you wanted to merit up something but used up all your points for a category. Once you earn a trait, it's yours forever. All you do is find a Bard NPC in a town, and that's where you can adjust your traits. It does cost silver to commit the adjustments once you've decided on what you want, but it's better than losing merit points.

The community seems mature enough. I don't see a lot of stupidity going on in chat channels, like "OMG UR STOOPID!" "NO U!"

[Fhqwghads]

From fwjgksds post the game does actually sound a LOT like WoW but with really great graphics and an interesting storyline. I'm a huuuuge Lord of the Rings fan, and summer is coming up officially for me in 2 days so I might try this out. The aggro thing sounds like a complete bitch, but everything else in the 'cons' section didn't seem that bad, and more FFXI related to me (no skillchain bursting etc).

But yeah post some screencaps you guys! Also what is the level cap?

Level cap right now is 50. If you're a LotR fan holy crap I highly recommend the game! As far as screenshots go, I'm at work right now but as soon as I get home I'll take a few screenshots in key areas and of key NPCs. I'll take requests too if anyone has a specific area they'd like to see.

[TsingTao]

From fwjgksds post the game does actually sound a LOT like WoW but with really great graphics and an interesting storyline. I'm a huuuuge Lord of the Rings fan, and summer is coming up officially for me in 2 days so I might try this out. The aggro thing sounds like a complete bitch, but everything else in the 'cons' section didn't seem that bad, and more FFXI related to me (no skillchain bursting etc).

But yeah post some screencaps you guys! Also what is the level cap?

The level cap is 50 at release.

The aggro thing doesn't bother me much. Yeah, it's annoying but considering you can actually outrun things fairly easily it's not so bad. You may regen HP/MP slower but you can usually get away (barring a couple ranged attackers or an inopportune snare). Things de-aggro and scoot back home fairly fast too.

If you're a Tolkien fan it's definitely worth wandering around and taking a look. Even if it's just for free for two weeks. You can draw your own "It's WoW with Hobbits" conclusions.

I'll try and take some screenies of various places 'from the books' tonight.

[Insanecyclone]

SS's:
http://tinyurl.com/3afz5p

Has vangaurd/LOTR further in the thread

[Kaylia]

I do agree but IIRC the whole minimap as well as the hotbars were almost 90.99% the same with 5-6 variations! I played beta for 10 mins got to level 4 and vowed I would not play again! As well as some of the other interface... The starting quest was confusing (or i was half asleep) and it just didn't apeal to me because of the fact that it seemed like a reskin of wow!

I dunno how many mmorpg you played, but there isnt 200 way to position the menu. WoW wasnt the first one with similar positioning. And even if they did copy the menu, I don't see what's the problem with it, it's efficient and work well.


The starting quest is an instance that show you the basic and introduce you to the story, the following quest is basically fetchinh/gathering quest with marker on your map (the ring symbol), was nothing complex. After a few hours, you get out of the newbie area and leave for the real world

[dietvanillapepsi]

Has anyone tried playing as a monster yet? Do they have their own unique abilities? When I read about it, I thought it sounded fun to switch back and forth from your monster to your Fellowship PC whenever you needed that change of pace.

[Fhqwghads]

Has anyone tried playing as a monster yet? Do they have their own unique abilities? When I read about it, I thought it sounded fun to switch back and forth from your monster to your Fellowship PC whenever you needed that change of pace.

Not yet. This is something I really need to try. I keep telling myself to stop mining and go level or try monster play, but I keep getting sucked back into crafting.

Edit:

And here's some LOTRO screenshots, taken by someone else:

http://www.ascensionguild.com/lotro/

[Po]

Probably a good move to do the crafting now, you see what happened with those in ffxi who picked up crafting right away as opposed to those who tried to do it down the road

Speaking of which, what is economics like at this point in the game? Is it just get random tusks and skin from animals, and selling them to npcs at this point?

[Allundaria]

Wow aside from the capes, those equipment models really do look terrible. Beautiful landscapes though

[Lbelle]

http://www.ascensionguild.com/lotro/images/17.jpg

hooooooooly shit....man...I'm supposed to be doing this whole gym leader thing for pokemon but this looks so cool...

I have a kind of important question though: how long does it take to travel across the world? In FFXI it's honestly ridiculous after having played Wow. I don't really want to spend 45 minutes getting from one town to the next...and with LOTR I don't see how there could be airships or anything like that to take you places. I know you get a mount (not sure what level) but I think this is kind of a key aspect.

[Fhqwghads]

You can make enough money from selling drops to NPCs to do almost anything you want in the game atm. I know that resources for crafters are selling at a good pace on the auction house. Auction house is a true auction, btw. You place items on it, the longer you want the auction to last, the more you pay to put it up. You can tack on a "buy it now" price so people can purchase the item immediately instead of waiting for the auction to end. Otherwise people place bids on it, highest bidder wins. There is no price history, so it's difficult at times to gauge an item's worth for the "buy it now" option, or hell even for a starting bid.

Travel isn't an issue. The areas where most of the populace of Middle Earth dwell have towns/cities really close together so you're not spending tons of time just walking around. This is one tip I wish I would have known right off the bat: make *sure* you find a stable master in each town or city (if it has one) and talk to him. That's how you're able to unlock travel to that location. I think it's like WoW in that regards, where you have to have been somewhere in order to use a speedy mode of transportation.

There are personal mounts you can get (a horse for now) or you can do a fly-by-rail type of travel using a rental horse that takes a predetermined route. The latter requires that you have visited your destination. You can also hop off the rental at any point during the journey. You cannot control the ride beyond that. I use those rental horses very frequently, especially since Bree -> Forsaken Inn takes about 20 minutes or so to walk to. It's a relatively short ride by horse though.

[Lbelle]

rofl, if I didn't know you were talking about lotro I'd say you were talking about wow. The auction house is the exact same, and you're right about the horse method too. As long as you find the stable master in a city then you can quickly fly to each place.

My friend is going to try to find me a 10 day trial so I can play this weekend. Looks pretty good, but infact it is very similar to wow (which by no means is a bad thing at all!).

[Po]

Exactly. Obviously WoW got the equation right, so why not borrow what works, throw in some Hobbits to get the name recognition, throw in Bree and Rivendell, and maybe you have a best seller

[Sadler]

I think the fellowship system and deeds make it pretty unique myself.

[Lockecole]

Wow aside from the capes, those equipment models really do look terrible. Beautiful landscapes though

As bad as the models look while not in motion, check out this video. (The Lute playing one)

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=754

IMO not only does the guy himself look well proportioned and not too "CGey" (most of you know what I mean) the animations on the various PCs running around are pretty impressive and dont look nearly as awkward as those pictures imply.

On another note, the gear cannot be judged so early on in the levels. Im sorry but gear looks fucking AWEFUL in WoW till you actually start acquiring later gear that somewhat resembles anything but a homeless clown. (Im looking at you undead) I dunno I havent played it at all, mainly due to me knowing I wont have time for it, but all of the gripes about it are the same things people complain about early on in many MMOs anyway. For this little complaints on the launch of an MMO, I'd say they're doing pretty well.

[Insanecyclone]

Is this 15$ a month? Because I'm seriously bored of wow and I cant find an endgame guild to get in and im bored as fuck.

[cassiraa]

http://www.ascensionguild.com/lotro/images/40.jpg

That's a Windurstian Flag. Isn't it.

lol @ the fat healer. Everybody look. Everybody look and point at the fatty healer!


The backgrounds look pretty, but I can see how they can get dull if every place looks the same.

Someone poke Bethseda until they make an MMO.

[Maguspk]

Wow I played this Beta and I bet my account is still active, actually got the key from someone here on BG.

Anyway I remember discussing on the boards adding Monster play and they actually added it? Wow, that's pretty neat. Back when I was playing Beta it was really terrible graphics/gameplay wise obviously because it was the Beta, but seeing how it looks now and that you can play as a monster maybe I should dig up my username and log in? I think my character was pretty high around 40ish? It was fun, alot like WoW though ya. But the graphic style totally makes it different than WoW, and like someone mentioned before there are aspects in it that are unique to LoTR. I also remember them discussing Mithril Armor and the Rings for each race and stuff. I wonder if they ended up adding these, that'd be really kewl too.

Edit: Watched the lute playing video haha, that guy is freakin good, I don't remember that though, maybe because I never played that class. Anyway, the game looks much different now, those graphics are HOT. Damn.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php? ... ov&pl=game