Category: MMO

Meanwhile, back in Combe …

Finally got back to LotRO yesterday, after a few day of conflicting evening activities.  In the afternoon I did some solo play, learning about things on the short, stocky side with a dwarf named Frellin.

In the evening, Margie and I continued our Rohirrim Champ/Cap combo.  Not quite as easy in the 10-11 range.  First we decided to thrash out the crafting system to fulfill a couple of crafting missions we’d picked up (I was tempted to shout “Wood for Sheep” several times). 

After that, we had a big mission up dealing with brigands in the northern Chetwoods.  And … hit a wall.  Or, rather, the ground, being defeated something like four times.  Ugh.  We’re still dealing with “scaling” problems with LotRO vs CoX — a group of four opponents, even blue ones, can be a serious threat, my healing morale abilities are fairly limited, and it’s way too easy to draw a crowd, with less-than-salutary results.

*sigh*

I note that, unlike an instanced mission setting (like CoX), the mobs don’t scale except to the general level of the population in the area.  So a duo is under definite disadvantages vs. a larger fellowship.

Anyhow, decided to come back a level later, and instead pursued some mishes on the other end of town, including one that took us down toward Bree.  Bree!  Huzzah!  The Big City!  Garsh!

Found trainers.  Hey!  I have one of those goofy Heralds now!  Yay!

Wandered about there a bit and … yow, the Prancing Pony!  And … tucked in a back room, it’s Strider!  Zowee!  And he’s sending us on a mission (that we seem to have missed some prereqs to, but never mind).  Investigate the brigand’s castle and find the source of terror!  Protect the insane Ranger assigned to us as he lunges from mob to mob at full tilt and is immune to my morale powres!  Rerun the mission multiple times trying to get him alive through the fearful brigands!  Make some great progress, then during one of the Ranger’s few resting moments wander about to clean up the courtyard and get mobbed by a dozen brigands!  Discover yourself outside Bree again and with the mission restarted.

*sigh*

Seemed a good time to call it an evening.  Or, rather, I did while Margie did some quick research on the quests we’d been flubbing.

Frustrating, but good times.

I don’t know which was the most amusing online chatter we saw — the guy asking “Where are the trinkets in the Barrow Downs” (which just made me giggle — “Hey, let’s go to the Barrow Downs and pick up some trinkets, maybe a snow globe or a charm for my braclet, or even a ‘We broke into Barrow and lost half our party and all I got was this rotting t-shirt” t-shirt), or the folks who were consistently challenged spelling “Minstrel” and “Guardian.”

LotRO links

A few links I’ve already dug into a bit to answer some specific questions.

On the positive side (I think) I’m not feeling compelled to compulsively print out all these sites and delve into the forums and all, like I did back in the CoX days, even early on.  I plan on letting Margie do a lot of the research, since she’s very good at it.

Acronym

LOTRO?  LotRO?  LOTRo? LoTRO? LoTRo?

I’ve seen all of these used.  The official site uses the first.  I’m inclined to use the second, just because as a title (as seen on the official site), the title capitalization of the letters. 

“Oh, you spell it LOTRO,
And I spell it LotRO,
You wield a longsword,
And I wield a longbow,
LOTRO, LotRO, longsword, longbow,
Let’s load the whole thing up …”

Heroes with Swords (and Axes and … Clubs?)

Clubs?

Yeah, we took the plunge over the weekend — a “birthday treat,” Margie framed it — and downloaded Lord of the Rings Online.  Many thanks to Avo for the reference trial keys (10 days rather than the current 7 day offer), and a hat tip to him and Doyce both for offering some sage council.

We fired things up early in the afternoon on Sunday, and continued playing (with a couple of evening breaks) until about 10 p.m.  Initial thoughts.

I had to download the low-rez version, because of system restraints.  I also installed it on an external (USB2) drive.  This wasn’t ideal, by any means, but it actually worked pretty darned well.  Margie was capable of much higher rez on her machine, of course, but is having some performance problems.

We started off with two humans (duoing with the same race looks to be significantly easier early on), and, at Doyce’s suggestion, went with a Captain and a Champion (myself and Margie, respectively) as fairly versatile starter characters.  Managed over the course of the day to get them up to 10, and be hip-deep in Coomb quests.

Generally speaking, had fun.  Some basic thoughts:

Like:

  1. Plays a lot like CoX, with a few keybaord/mouse tweaks.  The game mechanics are similar enough that it’s not that big of a problems.
  2. I like the idea of “morale” as the “hit points” — it finesse around death-vs-defeat, and also provides some nice mechanics for “healing” classes.  Plus, it just feels epic.
  3. Though folks have noted the character generator is not as fancy as the one in CoX, it’s pretty good, and does some nice origin localizations with color tones and the like. 
  4. I love the storyline-driven play, with careful instancing for certain events (the attach on Archmet, for example) and their aftermath.  Feels very “real” and immersive.

Dislike:

  1. Running everywhere, though this isn’t — yet — a horrible burden.  The teleport map helps.  Disappointed my Captain’s “move faster” shout (which increases running speed, too) isn’t a toggle.
  2. Facing is sometimes annoying.   I should be able to say, “I have X targeted, keep me facing X,” especially since people and critters can clip through each other.
  3. Oh, dear Lord — crafting quests.  “Can you find me three redberries, a block of granite, and a rowan axe-haft?”  Yeah, bet you’d ask Boromir that, too.  Far as I’m concerned, the whole crafting system could vanish — I just don’t know to what extent I’ll seriously regret it if I ignore it.
  4. A lot of mechanic subsystems and icons that pop up and pull you into various windows where it’s not clear what’s going on or what you should (or shouldn’t) do about it.  I’m sure that will be mitigated with some experience, but it’s more than a bit confusing early on.
  5. Finding your way to things, quests, etc., can be — challenging.  Sometimes that’s okay — it’s part of the story.  Other times, it’s just annoying. 
  6. Slow repop of certain mission goals (“Bury Will Wheaterly”) — if both of the folks on a team (fellowship) have the mission (which makes sense, right?), why does it take a minute or three for Will’s body to reappear after someone on the team buries it.  That would be nightmarish with a larger group.  And when you have multiple teams running around in a non-instanced area (see Will, above), they can make it really difficult for you to ever get to slowly-repopping goals.
  7. Non-instanced sites mean you spend a lot of time watching other adventurers fighting bad guys without lending a hand.  There’s a bit of that in CoX, too, but it feels worse here.
  8. Yes, I see what you mean about people getting irked at their mismatched (and ever-changing) wardrobe.  “I found green shoes!  No, wait, the red leather boots are better armor!  Hold on, what about this stylish set of black, patent-leather pumps?”  It’s whacky.
  9. There are times when the action stop because you have to click on someone who’s standing there so that they can give you some story dialog.  That’s almost unavoidable in these circumstances, but it still sometimes feels a bit like railroading.

All that said, the “likes” are pretty darn keen, vs. a lack of deal-breakers for the “dislikes.”  I’m pretty sure we’ll continue to play for at least the 10 day trial period, and likely beyond.

That said, as enjoyable as it is, I don’t feel a burning urge to play hooky from work and Just Play.  I think (mercifully) I’m over that level of fanaticism for a game.  🙂  Heck, I have plenty of TV and DVDs I still want to watch, not to mention various other evening activities.  This will be a passtime, not the passtime.

And, for the time being, I’ll be recording my LotRO thoughts here in this blog.  Not that I plan on renaming it — and I still haven’t canceled or uninstalled CoX, either. 

But I certainly feel heroic …