LOTRO: A good MMO?

[Lbelle]

What's happens when you die in this game? Is there EXP loss or is like WoW where you just go get your body for no exp loss?

[Po]

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.

This is a good question.

I do remember reading that you can pay one flat fee, maybe something like $120 and you won't have to pay a monthly fee again. If you really like the free first month I think that would be a no brainer.

Also, when you sign up for your account do you just get 1 character and can switch job classes like in FFXI or do you get a certain amount of characters that you can create like WoW?

and lol @ saying the healer was fat, I think he was just a Dwarf

[Po]

What's happens when you die in this game? Is there EXP loss or is like WoW where you just go get your body for no exp loss?

Found this on the LOTRO official forums:

DYING:
1. Before level 10, your will not have item wear when you die.
2. Dying damages all your equipable items in your inventory, as well as the items you have equipped!
3. You can die from falling, if the fall is from a great height.
4. If you die from falling, your gear does not take any damage

[kamalii]

I have mixed thoughts on LOTRO right now. Keep in mind, I have never played WOW, and still really like FFXI.

-That being said, LOTRO really is beautiful.

-The transportaton system is OK. My friend has noticed that once you get your own mount, any aggro can knock you off your horse.

-I really don't like the crafting system for armor. From what I have seen (level 28 only), most of the better armor is quested, and unless that changes, I don't know what they will do with crafting. I really liked the farming aspect - you know, actually planting seeds and farming (I farmed weed for a long time), but they nerfed the hell out of that, so you can't make money from it anymore really.

-It seems initially that you get a lot of XP for questing, but some of the quests are quite annoying. The directions for them are poorly written if they are trying to describe where something is.

-1MILLION XP is what my friend hit last night, and thats only level 37... if you thought 43k from 74-75 was bad, I need over 35k to get to 29. That may not seem much when you are getting about 1500/quest, but when you kill mobs (I'm a minstral, so the kills are like a RDM smacking away an EM with a sword and enspells) you average about 90xp per same level kill. Why is this a potential problem? I don't see people grouping for xp, so questing the way will literally take forever.

-Food seems to be kind of mixed up. Its expensive to make and buy, and it lasts for a very short time - often 10minutes or less.

-I know that a number of people are used to moving characters with the keyboard, but I hate it. HATE IT.

-The instances seem to be well done, but you really have to be careful with a few. A good example is the very popular Barrow Downs instance. There are I think up to 6 quests you can complete in that one instance. If you aren't on the ball about it, you will have to go in the instance multiple times for those.

Its a nice change of pace from FF, but I don't see it replacing it for me anytime soon. It will just cut into my playtime until I get too annoyed that my friends are 10+ levels higher than me.

[Fhqwghads]

The crafting system is in its infancy right now. You certainly won't make any money off crafting if you're a low level crafter without any rare recipes. When you start getting higher in levels, those nice purple scrolls open up a lot of potential for gear that is almost even with stuff that's quested. I can see people using crafted gear as a segue into gear that's quested. I'm also sure that crafted items from rare scroll drops, especially from high level instances, will be worth some cash. I've seen a few "single use" scrolls that only allow a crafter to pop out 1 item and then the recipe is lost. That's a nifty way to prevent the market from being flooded with items.

I agree with the directions. Sometimes they're vague. Not all the time, but sometimes. A good example is the Champion quest from an NPC in Bree. He tells you that there's a guy in the Bree-Fields you need to kill. That's all fine and dandy, but one problem: there's Northern Bree-Fields, Southern Bree-Field, and Eastern Bree-Fields. Which one is it?? (Turns out it was Southern, but I had to wander around the whole map to find this out.)

Questing earns tons of XP, and on top of it you're killing mobs almost 99% of the time. I don't see that as being an issue at all. There's a ton of quests so you never run out. If you're hell bent on trying to solo to the cap then yeah, it's going to take a while. If you team up with other people and knock out harder quests you earn way more XP.

As far as food goes, I'm sure it's just like any other craft. You have to level cooking or buy the good stuff off the AH. I'm a Tinkerer, so I make all my own food. Haven't gotten past Expert yet, so not sure how the high level cooking results are, but the stuff I can make so far helps to keep me hopping from mob to mob with next to 0 down time.

Again, it's really early to say how well the game will do. I can only see it improving and so far I'm having a blast. Looking forward to June's free expansion and all the tweaks along the way. Oh ya, and there's been 0 server maintenance since release. (Of course now that I said that I'll get home tonight and find out maintenance is coming. ^^)

[Raineer]

Everything in this thread pretty much screams WoW, which to me isn't a bad thing. WoW is 10x better than FFXI, it's just that it looks to cartoony at first glance so elitests don't give it an honest try.

With WoW's interface / xp / questing / AH, and nicer graphics with LOTR storyline (I would think that appeals to more people than Warcraft's), I think they could have quite a winner.

And last time I saw the prices, it wasn't $120 for a lifetime subscription, it was $399.

[Po]

This sounds so great, I bought it today at lunch, so I can't wait to play it once I get home.

Fhqwghads - What level are you, what race/job, and what server are you on?

I'd like to play with someone from BG to show me the reigns

[Fhqwghads]

This sounds so great, I bought it today at lunch, so I can't wait to play it once I get home.

Fhqwghads - What level are you, what race/job, and what server are you on?

I'd like to play with someone from BG to show me the reigns

I'm an 18 (close to 19 - I'd be higher level if I wasn't so fixated on crafting) Champion Man on Meneldor server. Char name is Aldel. You don't really need anyone to help you out for a while, but it's probably nice to have someone who's played a little bit to ask questions of.

[Po]

Thanks man

So you can choose any server you want then?

Also, I assume Hobbits start in The Shire, Elvans in Rivendell, where do Men and Dwarves start?

[Fhqwghads]

Ya you can choose which server you want. I also think your race + class determines your starting area. I know Elves don't start in Rivendell though, since it's surrounded by very high-level areas (Trollshaws and the Misty Mountains.) As a Champion Man I started in Archet.

[Kaylia]

Ya you can choose which server you want. I also think your race + class determines your starting area. I know Elves don't start in Rivendell though, since it's surrounded by very high-level areas (Trollshaws and the Misty Mountains.) As a Champion Man I started in Archet.

I thought it was the same thing for everyone

1) Instance in home country
2) Teleported to archet for the starting quest/newbie town
3) Instance to end "Archet" arc
4) Brought back to your homecountry where you can start the game for real

[TsingTao]

Info for assorted posts:

- Elves and Dwarves start in the Ered Luin region: Thorin's Gate for Dwarves, Celdolim for Elves. They both get separate introductions to the Epic quest that converge at the same point. Hobbits and Men start in the The Shire and Breeland respectively and get the same sort of converging thing. Eventually every race finishes their Epic quest introduction, meets in Bree, and starts on Book One of the Epic quest. You can play other race's intro quests as well if you want to see the story.

- Pricing is $15 a month if you didn't preorder. There's options to pay in 3, 6, and 12 month blocks in order to get a discount. There's also the lifetime membership.

- You can choose to play on any server you want. In fact you can choose to play on every server. There is a limit of 5 characters (and 5 monster play characters) per server, but you can roll more to play with friends on other servers without restriction. Same monthly rate no matter how many characters you have.

- Travel: Definately talk to the stable masters. It enables the Quick Travel feature. Between the major starting towns it's 1 silver, the ride takes about 10s (gallop 10 feet, fade out, fade in at destination, gallop to stop). Rides that aren't quick travel mean you get on your horse and haul ass. Everyone gets a map that lets you warp to your home point (1HR timer) and a racial trait that you can slot to warp to a specific location (Example: Dwarves warp to Thorin's Gate). Overall travel isn't bad time wise and there's benefits to walking & exploring on the way too.

- All the areas most definitely do not look the same. You won't say "Oh, well this is just like Crawler's Nest" or "Hay, it's Valkrum Dunes with dinosaurs". The character weapon and armor models are starting to get better too as I level, and you can dye things to suit your tastes.

I'm on Silverlode. Look for Findros, Bjorn, Knobb.

[Lbelle]

sounds great, my friend is gonna try to get me a trial pass so I can play this weekend. Really excited about it actually...

[Po]

Belle, I have the 10 day trial pass that I won't be using you can have if you want. PM me if you would like it.

So I started the game last night, and for the time I was actually able to play it was really fun. One of the aspects I really like is actually the character models. One thing that always kept me away from WoW is I could never find a good character I liked. They all looked like mental patients, especially the humans.
So anywho, I created a Hobbit, and I really like how he turned out. It looks really realistic and actually like a real character.
Problem is, I dc'ed during a cutscene/zoning and now the game freezes whenever I try to log back in. So it looks like I am going to need to delete him and start over. That's ok though because I just was starting the quest to Archet. The opening quest is actually really cool as far as how much I played of it. You run into a Dark Rider and if he sees you it hurts you like the Eye of Sauron, so that was neat.
Also I made a Hunter (RNG), and it seems like the ammo is unlimited? I looked in my gear and all I had was the dagger and Bow, and no ammo, which seemed cool to me. May be bad to others, but w/e.

All in all, once I really get going I think it will be a great time.

[Khamsin]

So what exactly is up with Monster Play?

[TsingTao]

So what exactly is up with Monster Play?

Here's the overview on Mosnter Play from Turbine.

I'm holding off any serious play there until the server population at 40+ is more than a handful people. It looks fun as hell though, and I like the 'separateness' of it. No mucking about tuning characters designed & balanced for the PvE "main" side of the game to balance for PvP. They can set up the Bad Guys for balance vs. the player classes without screwing up how things work outside Monster Play.

Also, can't argue with the fun to be had as a steathy Warg sneaking behind enemy lines and biting someone in the throat.

[Lbelle]

man everytime I try to DL the client the file like instantly downloads and is broken...idk why. It happens on every site I try to dl it from too.

[Kaylia]

man everytime I try to DL the client the file like instantly downloads and is broken...idk why. It happens on every site I try to dl it from too.

Clear your internet cache. Your first download was incomplete, so every time you redownload it, it just get the uncomplete version from your cache...probably.

If it doesnt work, I dunno.

[Lbelle]

didnt work

[Po]

I would really like to enjoy this game further, but it lags like holy hell, and takes forever to load when zoning. My comp played WoW and FFXI fine, so it must be the game.