Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
having a blast on LOTRO
SaunZ
Member UncommonPosts: 472
i have discoverd LOTRO. not sure what took me so long but, better late then never; right?
i am only level 11 (captain) and it feels overwhelming and like i have only scratched the surface but, here are my 1st impressions:
1) graphics are stunning/awesome/fantastic on the hi res version of the game. i am running all the settings at ultra and WOW!
2) lol... it has the best running, rock climbing, jumping in the pond, water, swimming graphics of any mmo i have ever seen?
3) crafting looks way cool... probably alot like other mmo's but, the animations for crafting are bomb! i have jewelry, prospecting and cooking (eww).
4) found an awesome kinship (guild) on Riddermark and they are answering all of my dumb questions and they haven't kicked me out yet!
5) the questing is fun. seems almost open world, where i can just go anywhere i want. the reviews i read said there were WAY too many quests for each level and region, so i just wonder off and quest anywhere i want. i don't follow any set pattern yet. except for levels 1 and 2 - which are tutorials.
having fun! hope it lasts! did i mention that it is F2P
sz
Comments
3. jewellers and their neat little tables... nice animation indeed
and cooking is not eww, the easiest one to master (you only need gold to that. a lot...) and the food you cook can be pretty useful.
5. way too many quests, that's true. Some of them is the boring "go there, kill stuff" type, but the others mostly have decent storylines, or connection to the lore. And there's so many of them, you can easily skip a few and still outlevel an area.
"hope it lasts! did i mention that it is F2P" khm... then it will last... to the end of LoneLands
then you'll have to make a decision (between grinding some TP or spending some money)
The good part is that by the time you finish Lone Lands, you should have enough tp to purchase Evendim, which can probably take you to 40.
That's what I ment under 'grinding some TP', since by default gameplay you won't gather enough TP for Evendim. To get it, one need to clear all three starting areas, and the Lone Lands, which means at least a few, boring slayer deeds...
But I agree, when she finish the Lone Lands, and has the TP, Evendim is the best choice for further adventuring.
to the OP i'm glad you like it.
i love the graphix as well especially the environmental graphics... the character models are kind of eh but the landscapes are out of this world
the people are far and away the nicest in any f2p style game. if you think your serrver is full of nice folks you should check out landroval.
crafting is time consuming but fun and pretty rewarding.
the classes (well, 5 of them) are pretty uniqque. warden, RK for instance.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
The game has the best landscapes in any MMO imho. Only game that ever made me stop in my tracks and think "wow thats really nice here ...". And im really not the type that likes art or looking at freaking nature(its gross. Full of bugs, bad smells and unidentifiable smelly gooey things that you can find under the most innocuous rocks and logs).
But some of the places, shire for example, yeah i could see myself actually living there. And again, im really not the type that usually wants to live in some fantasy world. They definitely did something with the landscapes ... i can't even put my finger on it, but they feel more real, more alive. Like actual places that have their own feeling, instead of just parts of landscape dotted with NPCs and mobs.
I just wish there where more places like Hobbiton or Bree, and a bit less like Esteldin, Ost Guruth or Tinnudir where people live in freaking ruins. I mean thats camping no matter how you look at it, they can't possibly survive winter there ... If there is one thing though im looking forward too its Minas Tirith, if they manage to do it justice thats going to be epic.
Glad ya like it, OP.
As a huge Tolkein fan, I went from trialing it 3 times in the first year or so and "yell at the monitor" hating it, to it being the longest I've been subscribed to a game.
Read that again: I went from not being able to stand playing it for free in the trial, to being a devoted subscriber even when there's a free to play option.
There are alot of reasons for that, but the biggest I can say in the time that I have is I can answer the question: "After I figured it all out I feel that yes, I could live here."
Same with me Robsolf, when I first met with LotRO, I ditched the trial after a few days - it felt like Wow with a Middle-earth skin (and I don't like Wow). But a lifetimer buddy of mine kept bugging me, that for a Tolkien-fan like myself, LotRO is the perfect mmo... so on the last day of the trial I started a hobbit, in the Shire. Next day, when the trial was over, I bought the game (the Moria box as well, just for sure) and I play since then.
Shire, love at first sight....
One of the best starting areas among mmo's (only Tortage is better, but only with a slight inch). I still questing through Shire with all of my alts, Big Folks too (luckily we're in time with the War of the Ring, so Elessar's prohibition is not active yet 
)
Hate to burst your bubble but this isn't true, and its the main reason I've left the game so many times. The zones are all very boxed in and linear, and there are strict paths you're supposed to follow. The only way to advance is by questing so if you go in an area you don't have the right quest chain for, you're screwed.
There are tons of instances, most of which require a quest to enter. You run against a wall and it says "You do not have the right quest to enter here".
You will keep doing essentially the same quest in every hub. There are so many reskinned wolves that NPCs want you to get paws or tails or hides from. Over and over. Boars too.
And if you try to just explore sometimes the game will just insta kill you because you're not supposed to be there. I tried going to Angmar once, I avoided all the agro and as soon as I zoned in... the game just killed me. Because I didn't complete the level 50 quest you need to do before you're supposed to go in.
I don't know what Turbine was thinking when they decided to make a WoW clone when they had such a good sandbox game in alpha.
There are some truth in it, some questlines are strict, and gating the start of other quests, but it always supported by the story. I guess it's a common thing in mmo's anyway. I just want to comment the insta kill thing since I too love to explore in Middle-earth:
in Eriador, there's only 2 places, where you get insta killed, and both are backed up firmly by the story and lore.
One is the dread line in Angmar (which killed you). There's a book quest line to explore the watching stones, and find a way to 'deactivate' them, so you can cross to East Angmar. The line has it's purpose, and btw it's not 'insta' kill, there are fear debuffs (and a lot of skeletons on the ground) as a warning for turn back and leave...
(Second one is the bay in Forochel, but it also not 'insta' kill, actually at lvl75 and with some help you can swim around... but at lvl50 the cold kills you in a few sec. And it's also fit in the lore)
Uh, yes it was an insta kill. I went from full heath to dead, instantly, without warning. That's an insta kill. And its not backed up by the books at all. Its a dumb mechanic that is NOT in most other MMOs.
One does not simply walk into Angmar...
Glad you like it.
It's a very fun game to play with a good group of people. I don't find it all to enjoyable solo but thats just me. Anyways, here's a picture of Kevin Bacon with some bacon.
It is a f2p grinder. If your playing for free you grind out TP so that you can access more of the game. Sounds like the definition of f2p grinder to me.
Good one
Especially not when Mordirith is still there.
Mechanic in other mmo's: maybe I quoted wrong, I ment the strict questlines and that those questlines gating other quests.
Insta kill: I didn't said the opposite, when the line is active, it kills you right away. I put 'insta' in brackets, because you DO get a warning to stop (fear buffs, and skeletons on the ground, which makes it pretty clear that lots of people died there in a line). Ofc it's easy to miss, I got killed there once as well (I was kiting, and was careless
)
I just started listening to the Tolkien series (The Hobbit and LOTR) for the first time, and it has gotten me thinking about returning to the game. I have some problems and questions though.
1. No idea what my username, password, or email I used for the game as it was several years ago.
2. I own all the expansion to this date, except for the Rohan expansion, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to play them on the F2P version.
1. If you payed with CC support can help you recover your account.
2. Not sure how you can have all expansions if you didn't play for several years, but yes once you recover your account you can play the expansion content on your existing characters without limitation.
You will NOT have shared storage(actually depending on the package deal of SoM you bought you might have it), the 6th bag that just got introduced with RoR(and at this time only people that bought the legendary edition have it) and any new characters you make(provided you have any free charslots left) will be subject to some limitations.
You will be considered a ex VIP premium player unless you owned a LTA. What that means is that your old chars will have no basic limitations(like riding skill, goldcap or traits/virtues), new chars however will.
The amount of charslots available to you is a bit of a moving target, at the very least you have 5 per server, however you may have up to seven depending on wether or not you own the adventurers pack that got out at the same time as SoM(there was a deal of buy one get the other free, so many have it).
Also there is a level bracket between about 33 and 48 where you chars won't have access to the landscape quests in the landscape. Namely Northdowns, Forochel, Trollshaws, Angmar and Misty Mountains. You will also be unable to quest in any regions that got added later and are not part of a expansion you own. So Enedwaith and the Great River.
You won't have any problems getting to maxlevel though, if it bothers you though there is a steam starter pack thats on sale now and then that offers good value and ofcourse the Mithril edition which you get for about 20$ and is a real steal at that price(it contains 20$ worth of TPs among all the other stuff).
Edit: I forgot that the middle package of the RoR preorder also contains Evendim, Moria and Lothlorien QPs though only evendim would be of use to you. It is of more questionable value ... a sale of the mithril edition would really be your best bet.
Wow, so I'm not the only one who plays every game on a different address
Rocketeer's right, if you don't know the username or the mail, your only hope is the payment history. So if you played via gamecards, then it's most likely a dead end...
I miss DAoC
The great thing about your situation is that should you decide to come back you will have a sick amount of TP sitting in your accout, enough to buy all the expansions etc and a whole bunch of the "benefits". My main for example has 6 homebinds, which is pretty slick for a game like lotro where it can take some time to get around ... also the 120 shared storage is ... nice, not just if you have several crafters
.
Only thing i pay for with real money is expansions, and imho thats how it should be. They produce content, i look at it and then decide wether its worth my money or not. If they dally around, well im quite content sitting on my bag of monies. Looking back, paying a monthly sum(lets call it allowance cause thats what it was) for MMOs seemed like quite a scam to me more often than not. For every awesome developer putting that money into developement like Trion does you got 10 that used it for commercials and paying dividends to their shareholders or god knows what.
That's pretty much how I played LOTRO.
I would just wander off and discover what I could discover. Eventually you will find places you can't access because you don't have the correct quest or your partner doesn't have the correct quest but for the most part the game can be played in a more open way.
I played the game quite a bit, was in closed beta, open beta and played for years afterwards. I don't play anymore but that's probably because I don't like some of the changes they made over the years.
Glad you are enjoying yourself!
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo