I got my snark out of the way. Before I continue, let’s rewind a little bit to the Volume 3, Book 1 Prologue. The Oath of the Rangers starts off with a journey to Rivendell, where I eventually met with Lord Elrond to discuss a letter sent by Lady Galadriel regarding Aragorn’s need for the Rangers. I knew going into this epic quest line that it was going to be a lighter Book entailing traveling about all the old zones. To expand on the content, I was sure that I would be waylaid by tasks as I talked to each Ranger. My hopes were not very high for a meaningful story or new lore, at least, until I got to the new Skirmish set in the Rift.
In the Prologue, Turbine blew me away. They created a kind of montage where Elrond walked with me around his library discussing the whereabouts of the eight Rangers I was to rally. Every few steps Elrond would discuss the whereabouts, demeanor, or skills of the Ranger, and the Ranger would pop into view as if my character was visualising the man we were discussing. I could picture the essence of each zone as Elrond talked. Lothrandir would be just out of the cold wind watching the icy landscape below while northern lights gave color to the snow, and Calenglad would be looking out at the great lake Evendim on a starry night as far off chantings of the broken Angmarim floated from the ruins across the water. The team/person that thought up this scene should be congratulated for far surpassing what could have been a simple laundry list of Rangers to collect.
Continue reading ‘LOTRO 3.1 – Constructive Thoughts’
Chapter 1
(The protagonist, Me, runs in to the cave and meets with Radanir, the Ranger.)
Me: I am so glad I found you. Aragorn, your leader, has need of you in Rohan. You must go there at once.
Radanir: Of course, Aragorn’s will be done. However, there’s some orcs in this here cave. They are too close to the elf outpost. They must be vanquished.
Me: Okay, let’s kill them quickly so you can make haste to Aragorn’s side.
(Silence passes as Radanir appears unsure how to proceed.)
Radanir: How about this? I stand here. You go kill the orcs. Don’t worry though, I’ll still stand here until you leave the cave. Then you go tell the elf outpost of our victory.
(Me sighs, accepts his fate, and begins to run in to the cave. Radanir yells at Me as he goes out of sight.)
Radanir: Don’t worry! I’ll tell the others that come in to help you out!
Welcome to rand() week at Kill Ten Rats unknowingly sponsored by Leala Turkey of Spouse Aggro fame. For those sane enough not to have scratched much of the surface of spreadsheet programs or number intensive programming, rand() is a random number generator. And this week, I will be talking about randomness, choosing random topics, and generally throwing things to the whim of the all-conquering RNG. Sound boy, proceed to blast into the galaxy. Continue reading ‘rand(Two Step)’
One thing I love for developers to do in MMOs is utilize pre-existing content. Sure, I love new content with new lore and new mobs as much as the next guy, but I also have a soft spot for nostalgia. When big daddy Blizzard refurbishes pre-existing content and uses it as a selling point for their next expansion it must be the de rigueur. I couldn’t be happier.
There is a big difference between say Turbine’s revamping of a low level zone (which was great) and pulling the older content to the current level of play. Smoothing out some of the egregious bumps is a necessary thing in MMOs, which depend on new blood. Yet, it doesn’t really help the old players. It is nice to see a revised area when passing through with an alt, but it is more meaningful to me if the revision affects my main character.
Continue reading ‘Fresh Paint on Old Content’
Lord of the Rings Online legendary item system has always rubbed me the wrong way. In most other MMOs, with work and people, I can plan out my character to the pixel. Then it becomes a budgeting process where I evaluate the estimated time per milestone accomplishment whereupon I reorder said milestones to constantly feed me some measure of accomplishment. Afterall, I am hardcore.
Give me a break, I am not that hardcore. I play for fun and as a hobby. If I went cold turkey on MMOs, I would be sad that I was not having fun with my hobby, but I don’t play MMOs to fill some netherling void in my life. Still, I do like some constant drip of achievement that does not seem to cohesively exist in the legendary item system. Continue reading ‘Splitting LIs’
I have been going through stages of my feelings for Lord of the Rings Online’s skirmish system. First, I thought it could completely redefine my MMO game time. After playing them and playing them, I experienced a burnout that I thought would not come from the fun little bites of play. Finally, I think I have found a good middle ground. Zubon is right, in part. Onion Headline Syndrome can definitely be experienced by attributing skirmishes to what they are not. They are not the game. Continue reading ‘Skirmish Density’
Unscientifically, Lord of the Rings Online takes the longest to load on my system of any MMO. It seems I am not alone. One big problem is the fragmentation of the internal file system. Turbine just released a beta internal defragger for Lord of the Rings Online. Read all the warnings and problems to be safe, but apart from using SSD or a large USB drive to load the MMO, this should help speed things up.
–Ravious
I like The Onion, but I rarely find myself reading much of it because the full text rarely improves on the headlines. You might need to read the first paragraph to see where they are taking the joke, but stringing it out for 1000 words does not add much to the first 5 seconds. (I might take this as an object lesson, but look at me go, still typing.)
Syp finds the same problem with Star Trek Online, I said the same thing about LotRO skirmishes, and many of us have said the same about Borderlands and Torchlight: it is great at first, but there is not all that much improvement or variation over time. (I do credit the two single-player games for having interesting boss fights mixed into the repetition, where MMOs tend to rely on even more repetition, even in tank-and-spank bosses.) I appreciate being able to get 95% of the benefit in 5% of the time. Portal did that brilliantly and then ended.
: Zubon
Non-MMO inspiration banished to the first comment.
Perhaps the biggest change to come in Lord of the Rings Online Volume 3, Book 1 update will be that skirmishes can now be done with a 2-person party. It was the podcast by Casual Stroll to Mordor where the devs talk about the “need” for this and how they went about it. (I also learned a new meme, like how my mom just learned about the Google.)
The most interesting statistic was that 40% of players doing the 3-man skirmishes were using only 2/3 of their fellowship slots. This gave the devs the oompf they needed to get their turbines in gear. The way they made the extremely fine point between solo and 3-man was to use the 3-man mobs and apply a reverse Tier debuff to the 3-man mobs. So 2-man skirmishes are basically a 3-man minus a Tier of difficulty to the mobstats. Then the 2-man skirmish will use the solo mechanics instead of the 3-man mechanics such as how counterattacks or waves will work.
I want to posit that this will have good, unintended consequences because it further lowers the activation energy to group. Players can nearly always find one person. So there is a group for skirmishes right there. Add another person, and you have a three-man. This sequence of grouping is simply going to be smoother than the need to find two other people at the outset. If I had to bet, I would say that 3-man skirmish play will increase and solo skirmish will actually decrease due to the advent of the 2-man skirmish.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled rants on Legendary Items where it is apparent that Turbine never listens to us.
–Ravious
down by the schoolyard
I got through Volume 2, Book 9 pretty quickly in Lord of the Rings Online Siege of Mirkwood. Getting through the epic books is one of my favorite goals to set, and when a new Book drops, it is one of the first I usually attack. Book 9 used the new gameplay type Skirmishes instead of the usual static 3 or 6-man quests. This created a choice, where none really existed before. A person could get through the Skirmish portions quickly by going at it alone, or they could choose to group up. Except for one Skirmish Book quest, I went at it alone and regretted it. Continue reading ‘Risk vs. Story’
