Category: Lord of the Rings Online

Because Book Seven reminded me and so I have this in one place for future reference: the epic quest line for The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume One: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ is weak because the players are observers, not protagonists.

You start by following the Fellowship, and that works well. You fight alongside them. Once you accept that you will not get to be Legolas, this is the next best thing, and this is what you paid for.

Then you enter the main storyline, and you are helping the real protagonists complete their story in Angmar. While you are sent to fetch a horse, gather scrap metal, and buy honey (all real quests in the epic line), they get the killing blows on the bosses. Almost every Book ends with the PCs paralyzed, watching NPCs act out the conclusion. This starts in Book One, where Tom Bombadill is a kill-stealing jerk, and continues through to Book Fifteen, where you do not even have camera control at the end.

They are also weak on gameplay, because someone decided that it is not an Epic quest chain unless there is more than an hour of travel. But that is symptomatic of what you are doing: running errands for the real heroes.

The Books in the game at retail release were lighter on background but they had better gameplay. The ones added later were killing time until the expansion, it seems, and they killed a lot of time. It is a neat story, but it is just that: a story, not a game.

: Zubon

Since returning to The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢, I have noticed a lack of something: gold spam. I have not seen a single instance of it. Even spending time in Bree-town, formerly ground zero, now just zero. No broadcast spam, no tells, no mails, nothing. Refreshing!

: Zubon

Arrive home last night, hang with family. Family goes to sleep, dad sneaks online. 20 minute queue.

Queue does its thing, log in. My character is missing a Second Age book he had looted before I logged off on Sunday night (I travel during the week on business) in a group and that I was deliriously happy to win. Petition launched.

Wander in Lothlorien, very pretty, and very simple quests. Impressed. Atmosphere seems perfect for what type of zone it should be.

GM contacts me out of the blue with the comment “I’m sorry, we cannot replace Legendary items”. When I ask why, or for any details, tells me it is policy, then sends me their cut-and-paste closure message (“Have a great day in Middle Earth!”).

No longer impressed. Migraine. Log out.

A big prize is that you can now barter for Second Age legendary items. You do not get to pick what kind, but with a little more than a week’s worth of farming (or a few days plus all the early quests), you can get a random Second Age for your class. Or a low value IXP relic. Or a single rune. You’ll see a Turbine response on one of those threads: he’ll look into it, no promises.

: Zubon

I have some other negative things about Book Seven, like the weakness of the epic book itself, but I’m sleepy and I can grouse another time.

With the Book 7 level bump, my Minstrel hit level 45. 45 is a turning point in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢, because it marks the beginning of the late game. You can start all the level 50 content, and there is a lot of it because the game lived at that level cap for a year of updates.

At 45, you can productively visit Angmar, Annuminas, Eregion, Forochel, Goblin Town, Haudh Iarchath, Sarnur, Tal Bruinen, and other random spots that I am not recalling, to say nothing of working on your epic books. That list should probably start “Angmar, Angmar, Angmar, Angmar,” because there is a lot to do there as you approach and pass the old level cap: Barad Gularan, Carn Dum, the Rift, Urugarth, and all those quest chains in Himbar, Imlad Balchorth, Maenad, and Malenhad.

You also have the second half of Volume One and the opening of Volume Two. The only things keeping you from being level 55 before entering Moria are your impatience and the difficulty of finding groups for some older content.

: Zubon

The Shire is one of my three favorite zones in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume One: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢. It has the best Middle-earth atmosphere, and it captures a place in a way I have never seen in an MMO. Hobbits level by delivering mail, carrying pies, keeping vermin away from the crops, and rescuing chickens. The edges of the zone show its connection to the rest of Middle-earth: dwarf raiders, human brigands, and some goblin dens. The core of the zone, however, is light and fluffy, with bright colors, peaceful villages, and few aggressive monsters.

The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ Volume Two: Mines of Moriaâ„¢ Book Seven: Leaves of Lorien (no â„¢ yet) brings us Lothlorien, the Shire with a different accent and palette. And killer elf archers, but gain some reputation to walk by them. In Lothlorien, you will find quests to pick berries, check on saplings, and clean the river. The colors are bright, but not WoW bright. Instead of taverns and farms, you can spend time on flets, tree houses that have a great view of the woods below. And yes, you can carry a package of arrows across the zone as if it were a pie or mailbag.

After Moria, it can be nice to be somewhere with a sky. Where there are trees instead of corrupting fungus. Where you can walk without having enemies attack you every ten meters. Lothlorien is where the Fellowship rested.

The Shire remains a better zone. It is more complete and has more content, instead of relying on repeatable quests and grinds for barter items and reputation. But there is something perfect about the peaceful woods filled with elves who do not want you there, as there is in the rolling hills filled with hobbits that want to join them for dinner.

: Zubon

Which is to say that I agree with Ravious.

Book 7 is now out for Lord of the Rings Online, and word is that the content is… well, not what we are used to. Lothlorien is a haven. Some of the most powerful elves reside there, and even with orcs spilling out of Moria, it would have been hard for Turbine to justify orcs roaming through much of the golden woods. And, I am okay with that.

The quests in Lothlorien are therefore puff-pieces. The quests are about the lore of the woods, and the history of the elves. For that reason, the gameplay is going to be largely fed-ex. People that burn through quests, find the glowy object, find the package delivery, etc. are going to enjoy the update a lot less.

Lothlorien’s region, for better or worse, is a “relaxing” place. The region was not made for the hardcore that blow through all of Book 7 by this weekend. Still, the update does lack proper balance. It was originally planned that Book 7 was going to have a more 3-mans, a 6-man dungeon, and a 12-man 6 boss dungeon raid ala Rift, but they were pushed back until Book 8. So now the relaxing content of Lothlorien is only offset by the new 12-man lair raid and the Battle of Lorien instances… both of which, I believe, are currently locked pending player quests.

I am excited about exploring the new content, and I still have plenty to do in Moria. Yet, I can’t help but believe that between now and Book 8 active players are going to drop off a bit. We might get luck and Book 8 might be sooner than we think.

–Ravious
legend became myth

One of the things that lured me to WoW from EQ, besides the exodus of friends of course, was the light-hearted attitude the developers had about the game. The many tongue-in-cheek quests, self-effacing NPCs, and endless pop-culture references were a nice switch.

LoTRO, on the whole, does not do this. I’m totally ok with that, as they remain very faithful to their source material. There’s a few fun things, like the Moor Cowbell, for example, that add some real-world humor in. Where they do tend to slip in humor frequently, I’ve noticed, is in patch notes. Today’s has a few, but I found one that amused me in the middle of the recently changed armor list:

Helm of the Brazen Call
Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Ida
Ida who?
Ida know!
Shield-bearer’s Gauntlets

Such a massive list, 112 items at the very end of the notes, so most people probably never looked at it. I did, made me laugh. Enjoy.

Unfortunately, the virtues of the Sixteenth Hall contribute to its problems. It is long, relatively unrewarding, and had the largest penalty for minor mistakes, but it is just as necessary to hit 6/6 radiance as the other Moria end-game instances.

A very good group can finish the Sixteenth Hall in 45 minutes, using “unintended gameplay” that is being removed today. A normal group takes 60 to 90 minutes. So each of the three wings takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on your group. Except for the last stretch, each features one hell room, one other hard pull, and a series of standard encounters with high hit point enemies. That last stretch is a few big bugs that can be avoided, then a half-dozen queen bugs (with workers) that must all be cleared. The boss fights are not difficult, just lengthy (high hit points) with a lot of disease being tossed around.

The rewards are the worst of the six instances. Continue reading 16th Frustration

This is a phrase I hear a few times a day from the leader of the project I’m on. I miss gaming a lot, but what I truly miss most is what I haven’t done in maybe 5 years – testing and tuning of games. Long ago, on a planet with two moons, I used to help in the creation of material in a wildly successful MMORPG. I did a fair amount, but nowhere near the level of some folks I knew, of which I was highly jealous. It was completely unpaid, but it was wildly fun. But it was not always creation of material that I got to work on, sometimes it was fixing bugs and locking out what we called ‘exploits’. To be fair, many of these exploits were simply patching out creative ways to do things that players had through up that the game company didn’t like. As a veteran DM of many a pen and paper RPG, I expected this – players will often find the fastest way from point A to point B lies through undefined area Q.

This somewhat meandering back-story brings me to tomorrow’s patch for LoTRO, Book 8.

Continue reading I’ll Take Your Silence To Mean Acceptance