Comments on: Moria zones

By: sean

sean — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:19:12 +0000

hmm, have you made it to orc-watch yet? or first hall? or anazarmekhan (or however it’s called?) or shadowed refuge? by foot, without the convenience of a summons?

i can clearly recall doing each of those on foot, solo, and the memory isn’t fun: an hour and a half to get to first hall, fighting the whole way thru hordes of mobs; similar length of time to get to orc-watch.

admittedly, i ran to dolven view the first time too, and yet noted the other day when i entered moria on an alt that i could slow-horse there from the get-go, but still: finding travel points inside moria is a *hassle*, with the exception of dolven-view. even the first run to 21st hall from the chamber of crossroads stressed me, because i didnt know it was mob-free until i finished it.

if yr finding it easy, either yr getting help from others to circumvent obstacles then complaining about lack of said obstacles, or yr *looking* to be disappointed by the content you find.

many ppl seem unhappy with MoM and/or Book 7 (and already pre-emptively disappointed with Book 8), and i think it has more to do with a desire to be unhappy than with the failing of the content. perhaps its cos i read blogs from ppl who play on Turbine servers – there’s no stability issues on the codemasters servers – and game-breaking hardware flaws always mae ppl think negatively about otherwise perfactly good content.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:03:26 +0000

One little thing that might help liven things up in Moria is occasional assaults on the ‘towns’, much like the ones on the northern end of Trestlebridge.

They wouldn’t have to be grand affairs, just 3-4 orcs or goblins running in and attacking the guards and any players who get in the way.

By: coppertopper

coppertopper — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:42:55 +0000

Suzina 2, integrity 0

By: Moondog548

Moondog548 — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:23:38 +0000

The fellowship walked for days in the dark without encountering anything at all. They only got in trouble when they were almost out because they had attracted the trouble.

How do you feel about your experiences soloing in Zelem-melek, the Flaming Deeps, and the Foundations of Stone, btw?

By: Thallian

Thallian — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:03:47 +0000

Lorewise I agree with Suzina that Moria is too tame and spread out. For Soloability its nice but I would like it to be more like Angmar was… some soloability, mostly small fellowship and lots of fellowship only areas too.

By: Jaxom92

Jaxom92 — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:08:43 +0000

I think that a Moria like Goblin Town would become tedious very quickly. I didn’t like to spend more than a couple hours in Goblin Town at the most because of the constant aggro and need to watch my surroundings. While it would make Moria more dangerous, as it was implied by the books (armies of goblins taking over after the Balrog’s absense) the game side of things wouldn’t work nearly as well.

By: Moondog548

Moondog548 — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:45:15 +0000

Yeah. Sorry Suz but you just plain weren’t paying attention. As has been pointed out, you’re assisting a whole society’s worth of Dwarves on a massive resettlement expedition. And there are multiple armies of orcs and goblins in the mines (and far fouler things in the deeps!).

By: Yeebo

Yeebo — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:30:03 +0000

Edit: and you nearly acknowledge this

By: Yeebo

Yeebo — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:16:03 +0000

Actually based on the lore Gandalf had killed the Balrog. Remember, the Balrog was the only reason the dwarves had to abandon the mine in the first place. It’s far from unbelievable that dwarves would have been able to re-establish control over some areas once he was was out of the picture.

In addition, a large part of the tribes of orcs that the fellowship encountered in the mines set out after party hell bent on revenge. Apparently the FS killed some of their leaders on the way through the mines. It’s actually a little odd, it’s one of the very few instances of orcs/ goblins seemingly having a will of their own in the books.

Finally, and you acknowledge this, a questing zone the size of the Mines structured like goblin town (no safe areas, no travel routes) would have been completely unplayable.

By: Tuebit

Tuebit — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:32:47 +0000

Don’t forget, you’re following AFTER the fellowship.

Gandalf destroyed the Balrog, perhaps breaking the back of Goblin leadership within Moria. Perhaps they wandered away. Perhaps they were drawn to Mordor. It’s plausible at that point that parties of dwarves could have moved in and established beach heads throughout the mines. Certainly there are those who have delved more deeply into the Lore of the Ring, but it’s a plausible explanation, imo.

And if you explore the right places, you’ll find the goblin armies and constant fight you’re looking for.