Mordor is their biggest expansion pack in years (since Moria according to the devs). $40 is in-line with a normal expansion price plus a level boost as a bonus. That the high elves are only available in the next higher tier is unfortunate, though.
For example in Rohan you got a mount and cosmetic, but there were 3 different color sets and the base included one which you had to choose. The premium included all three plus more goodies.
I remember in the previous premium packages...
-they were cheaper, first off. The tiers were like, 40-60-80 or something similar. -the top of the line often came with free quest packs. You might pay 30-40 bucks more for the highest edition, but it might come with 50-60 bucks worth of stuff from the store or TP's, plus some nice fluff. It was a good deal if you were a regular player of the game.
Compare that to the top tier of Mordor:
Some nice fluff, plus:
Three Relics for all characters (couple bucks)
Two Essence Reclamation Scrolls for all characters! (5-6 bucks)
Ten Extra Shared Storage Slots (10 bucks)
A code for a month of VIP Access (15 bucks) An XP accelerator and port to house (not in the store)
(on a -not too surprising- sidenote, just like with the previous attempts, I personally like the "old" models more sure, the new ones might be more pleasing to the eye, but for characters I play since start, it feels like plastic surgery... after the first login I barely recognised my good ole captain)
While I think they could have gone farther with the new models I prefer them to the older models which, to me, look like plastic dolls. The new models have more personality.
Again, they could have gone farther and they still can't do animations well.
When they fixed some animations a few years ago they were clearly better, not great, but a lot better. There was a huge uproar over it especially with a group of players from the RP server. The premise of the rant against change typically distills down to "my character isn't my character anymore".
I feel like they're afraid of making graphic changes and offending a core revenue demographic and by doing so they never really address some of those changes properly.
ugh, you could be right.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I've done more digging and I think they can keep their old avatars so I don't get the complaint at all. It's sounds like a bunch of attention mongering the more I read through that.
Its a toggle feature just like in EQ2. The whining from the 'loyal' players is just for the sake of it afaik.
/Cheers, Lahnmir
'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
id play this again, but everytime i try it feels like a solo mmo.
IMPORTANT: Please keep all replies to my posts about GAMING. Please no negative or backhanded comments directed at me personally. If you are going to post a reply that includes how you feel about me, please don't bother replying & just ignore my post instead. I'm on this forum to talk about GAMING. Thank you.
I've done more digging and I think they can keep their old avatars so I don't get the complaint at all. It's sounds like a bunch of attention mongering the more I read through that.
Its a toggle feature just like in EQ2. The whining from the 'loyal' players is just for the sake of it afaik.
In case you don't mind the forums or the in-game chat, or even just reading one page back on this very thread... I just copy it here, for the convenience:
"I believe they've changed some things on the core level too, because a
couple characters in my stable look different even with the new models
toggled off."
Im not a big enough Lord of the Rings nerd to know the difference between an Elf and a High Elf, unless a High Elf is just an Elf that is high.....
The difference is that a High Elf sailed over to Valinor(where all the Elves are going after LoTR). You know, the Gray Havens? One of the rare High Elves on Middle Earth is Lady Galadriel. I really don't want to see 100s of mer(excuse the TES jargon) of such power and stature-it ruins the immersion.
If they manage the character model update, expect it to work like in EQ2. Maybe an enhanced form of that dual appearance system of EQ2's, but such nonetheless. I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the main reasons why DBG was chosen.
Seeing as the game has had hundreds of adventurous hobbits since pretty much day 1, the immersion has long since been shattered for the addition of High Elves to matter much. Magic spells and spell-like effects being cast hither and yon didn't do much for it either.
Honestly, what needs to happen is they just need to keep it open long enough for a newer revised version, one with perhaps the UR4 engine, and make it more PvP based.
BUT......As long as LOTRO has a cash shop it has no chance of being popular again, it's just the nature of the beast.
Because there are no popular games with cash shops...
The ship has sailed on that crusade. The battle against has long since been fought and lost. The cash shop has become virtually ubiquitous in games regardless of popularity or quality. To suggest otherwise is simply a case of denial of MMO reality.
Whatever factors may be limiting LotR popularity the cash shop isn't a significant one of them. Their rather lacklustre f2p option may be, however, when compared to other alternatives.
10 min are enough for SSG to win the last battle the biggest one, destroy The Ring, destroy Sauron, save Frodo and Sam. What a joke. Goodbye Lord of the Rings, welcome to the cash machine. Coming back to my good old BFME I and II
SSG did lots of mistakes with Mordor, all serious, almost all mentioned: last epic moments take few quests and ~10 minutes (!), expansion pack content is overpriced (i.e. value in LPs is too low for price paid if converted to LPs), expansion selling for Lotro points delayed intentionally, thus alienating half players, meanwhile in Mordor only bnasic NPCs are free to use, everything else hidden behind paywall, equipment loot is bound to account (ruined trade), crafted essences are bound to account (also behind paywall). Allegiance system also behind paywall. These few quests are the last epic quests we see: epic line ends with Mordor, so consider paying for any further incoming quests. Not sure about Lotro popularity. It has almost everything PvE player may want: crafting, fighting, lore. Enough solo, forced solo, group, forced group content. Enough stories to enjoy, levelling is fast (or you can stop xp flow). And their f2p model is, in my opinion, the best. You can freely gridn everything whiel paying nothing. I guess SSG could correct situation if they wished. Which they won't do, they are a bit stubborn and not willing to acknowledge mistakes. In their place I would make all content free for VIPs, expansion or not (compensate at least LPs spend), then would add, say, +50% LP worth stuff in content sold for cash (like - you pay 10,000 Lp, you get 15,000 LP worth account-bound stuff) and I would make game about choices. Wanna grind Farting Ore - feel free too. Wanna kill Fartin Goblin that may drop 2-3 ore - feel free to. Wanna kill Green Terrible Farting Megatroll that drops 20-30 ore - feel free to.
That's a bummer, throwing the one ring in mount Doom is the example I use for how epic quests should be ( from the book, long time since I played LOTRO) and you say it can be done it in 10 minutes?
How can they screw up one of the most epic quests ever?
They did just that. People sometimes are doing impossible. First you fight battle, have to kill 3 enemies. Then - wow, Nazguls are called back (cutscene). Eagles are coming (cutscene). Gandalf takes airtaxi, you look for Hobbitses on the slope of Anduin (and I guess - last cutscene). Then you run talking from one member of fellowship to another, finally - session play as Gollum with his precious precious, then talk to Gandalf, Aragorn - epic quest done. Period. I did not measure how long this "epic" took. Really short enough. ANd u really have to kill three enemies in battle (some of them lasting too short - Gondorian terminators are exterminating them).
That's a bummer, throwing the one ring in mount Doom is the example I use for how epic quests should be ( from the book, long time since I played LOTRO) and you say it can be done it in 10 minutes?
How can they screw up one of the most epic quests ever?
not 10 min for throwing the One ring 10 min for EVERYTHING as described by Lithuanian we can forget Lotro. Forget epic battles epic quests, lord of the rings and Tolkien's story, this game is dead. Only another standard medfan mmo with old design and gameplay plus big paywall because SSG needs cash. Over.
They did just that. People sometimes are doing impossible. First you fight battle, have to kill 3 enemies. Then - wow, Nazguls are called back (cutscene). Eagles are coming (cutscene). Gandalf takes airtaxi, you look for Hobbitses on the slope of Anduin (and I guess - last cutscene). Then you run talking from one member of fellowship to another, finally - session play as Gollum with his precious precious, then talk to Gandalf, Aragorn - epic quest done. Period. I did not measure how long this "epic" took. Really short enough. ANd u really have to kill three enemies in battle (some of them lasting too short - Gondorian terminators are exterminating them).
While I don't disagree, I'll say this... I never saw how this WOULDn't be anticlimactic. As 3 long movies this story risked being anticlimactic. As easily over a thousand hours of quest content* I wondered how it could possibly NOT be anticlimactic. As it is, this final bit toyed with canon ALOT to bring you into the fold of events. I'm surprised there isn't a bigger outcry about that than "10 minutes?"... (actually about a half hour to an hour, really)
That said...
For me: A major revisit is in order... of every major character and their arc, living or dead. I want that. I want it to be more than some text from another character that knew them. THAT is what our characters have that the books didn't, and that's what I feel was missing, here. Could just be me...
*I wonder what a run strictly through the main story would be like, and how long it would take. I don't think it would be 1000 hours, but I bet that's not far off the mark.
Who is keeping this game alive and why are your standards so low?
There's not much out there for Middle Earth fans so I can understand why some people keep playing it. they likely find the world very immersive and like the community.
This games, as well as other high profile AAA MMOs, failure pretty much guaranteed WB wasn't gonna foot the bill for another big Middle Earth MMO.
1 hour to kill 3 (not 4, 3) orcs + see 2 cinematics + 1 clic on ONE emote on session play (dance Gollum dance) needs 1HOUR ? Change your computer. No, lotro is done, ssg failed, this great story ends miserably . only last ultimate fanboys can play lotro now. I'm a fan of Tolkien since 30 years, turbine made enormous mistakes, but this one has been the worst + last one for me + a lot of tolkien's fans. FAIL
Well, I could imagine Mordor as climatic. You fight alongisde of Aragorn the fight that is (you see) lost. Then, you travel with Gollum the secret entrance to Mordor. Session play: First date with Ms. Shelob, Frodo stunned (by her beauty, no doubt). Session play: fight with Ms. Shelob. Session play: going to the great lava pool. Once again, session play where you assume role of Frodo, Frodo wants Ring to himself. Session play - Sam. Then back to Aragorn, he sees something strange happens, urgent need to ask field commanders and Gandalf "guys, what a hell is this?". Session play - Frodo+Gollum. Then - maybe - session play as Mordor orc/goblin/troll/whatever like one near Helms Deep where you-Orc run away only to be killed/eaten by some Ent...and so there, you rush to battle only to see the end is close. That's the start I could think of. Longer than those 10 minutes. And then - rescuing Hobbitses, Saurons eye finally going to sleep, everything rushes crushes. I would extend epic quests into post-battle Mordor just to guide player through this huge region to hunt for remaining Orcs or persuade humans to abandon evil. Concerning Lotro: with all fails in development, bad actions towards VIPs (paying customer needs to purchase expansion because it is expansion. really?) - I like this game. It has lore, I can try to immerse here, see folks roleplaying, discussing Quenya-Sindarin words or proper name of that brave lance-knight from Rohan one wants to rp. <offtopic>No, I am not huge Tolkien fan. Not a fanboy/hater (criticial about last content, that's right). I am one who can call Lotro my virtual home: my friends, my Kinship, my adventures are there</offtopic>
Rob Ciccolini: Yes. For [LOTRO's] Mordor
expansion, we are looking at the High Elf as a new playable race, and we
are adding a system that allows players to pledge their sword to Men,
Elves, Dwarves, or Hobbits in their battle against Mordor.
Uhm, acording to the lore and during the story of the books, ALL the High Elfs, except for those FEW who stayed behind in Rivendell left the known Middle-Earth over the seas to the West. So how on Middle-Earth can there be a sudden influx of High Elfs into the game who are traveling the world..?
Rob Ciccolini: Yes. For [LOTRO's] Mordor
expansion, we are looking at the High Elf as a new playable race, and we
are adding a system that allows players to pledge their sword to Men,
Elves, Dwarves, or Hobbits in their battle against Mordor.
Uhm, acording to the lore and during the story of the books, ALL the High Elfs, except for those FEW who stayed behind in Rivendell left the known Middle-Earth over the seas to the West. So how on Middle-Earth can there be a sudden influx of High Elfs into the game who are traveling the world..?
How can there be hobbits in Lothlorien or Elves hanging around Bree or men hanging around the shire?
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Well I was enjoying my entry time (I'd say around 15 ish) when I started to learn about more of the mechanics like bonus traits/virtues etc and noticed that to have access to everything in this game seems pretty steep unless I'm missing something, like 150$ ish? Or did I miss something? Dealing directly with them in regards to buying stuff seems like a headache at first glace since it feels like you can buy almost everything separately via the cash shop and you dont know if you're getting screwed over or not, like with amazon selling the quad pack and the starter pack yet dealing directly with them, they only sell everything separate.
Torval was faster For the question, yes and no. You are correct in that even after the simplification into trait trees the game has a few nice customization options. Also correct that the larger part of those deeds which give you virtues (just larger part, definitely not all) are tied to the areas. and you only can earn those if you own said areas.
Now to the not correct side: You don't really need those, unless you are towards the endgame, and wants to min-max yourself. The traits and virtues you can access for free are more than enough for all through the game - especially if you overlevel the content.
But of course that's not a good answer if you want to experiment the game as a whole... Luckily LotRO's f2p model is pretty good and flexible. You can earn Points in the game, and buy the areas you want. There's no limit on it, so you can farm out enough to unlock everything they have in the Store IF you have the time. Or, as Toral said, you can simply subscribe for a while. Or purchase Points. Or mix and match those three any way you like.
Quad pack is a great way to get the expansions, sometimes it is on sale for pretty big discount. They sell it too, not only amazon.
Comments
-they were cheaper, first off. The tiers were like, 40-60-80 or something similar.
-the top of the line often came with free quest packs. You might pay 30-40 bucks more for the highest edition, but it might come with 50-60 bucks worth of stuff from the store or TP's, plus some nice fluff. It was a good deal if you were a regular player of the game.
Compare that to the top tier of Mordor:
Some nice fluff, plus:
- Three Relics for all characters (couple bucks)
- Two Essence Reclamation Scrolls for all characters! (5-6 bucks)
- Ten Extra Shared Storage Slots (10 bucks)
- A code for a month of VIP Access (15 bucks)
...all for the bargain price of 130 bucks.An XP accelerator and port to house (not in the store)
The math just doesn't add up.
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
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
"I believe they've changed some things on the core level too, because a couple characters in my stable look different even with the new models toggled off."
The ship has sailed on that crusade. The battle against has long since been fought and lost. The cash shop has become virtually ubiquitous in games regardless of popularity or quality. To suggest otherwise is simply a case of denial of MMO reality.
Whatever factors may be limiting LotR popularity the cash shop isn't a significant one of them. Their rather lacklustre f2p option may be, however, when compared to other alternatives.
Not sure about Lotro popularity. It has almost everything PvE player may want: crafting, fighting, lore. Enough solo, forced solo, group, forced group content. Enough stories to enjoy, levelling is fast (or you can stop xp flow). And their f2p model is, in my opinion, the best. You can freely gridn everything whiel paying nothing.
I guess SSG could correct situation if they wished. Which they won't do, they are a bit stubborn and not willing to acknowledge mistakes.
In their place I would make all content free for VIPs, expansion or not (compensate at least LPs spend), then would add, say, +50% LP worth stuff in content sold for cash (like - you pay 10,000 Lp, you get 15,000 LP worth account-bound stuff) and I would make game about choices. Wanna grind Farting Ore - feel free too. Wanna kill Fartin Goblin that may drop 2-3 ore - feel free to. Wanna kill Green Terrible Farting Megatroll that drops 20-30 ore - feel free to.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
How can they screw up one of the most epic quests ever?
First you fight battle, have to kill 3 enemies. Then - wow, Nazguls are called back (cutscene). Eagles are coming (cutscene). Gandalf takes airtaxi, you look for Hobbitses on the slope of Anduin (and I guess - last cutscene). Then you run talking from one member of fellowship to another, finally - session play as Gollum with his precious precious, then talk to Gandalf, Aragorn - epic quest done. Period.
I did not measure how long this "epic" took. Really short enough. ANd u really have to kill three enemies in battle (some of them lasting too short - Gondorian terminators are exterminating them).
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
10 min for EVERYTHING as described by Lithuanian
we can forget Lotro. Forget epic battles epic quests, lord of the rings and Tolkien's story, this game is dead. Only another standard medfan mmo with old design and gameplay plus big paywall because SSG needs cash. Over.
While I don't disagree, I'll say this... I never saw how this WOULDn't be anticlimactic. As 3 long movies this story risked being anticlimactic. As easily over a thousand hours of quest content* I wondered how it could possibly NOT be anticlimactic. As it is, this final bit toyed with canon ALOT to bring you into the fold of events. I'm surprised there isn't a bigger outcry about that than "10 minutes?"... (actually about a half hour to an hour, really)
That said...
For me: A major revisit is in order... of every major character and their arc, living or dead. I want that. I want it to be more than some text from another character that knew them. THAT is what our characters have that the books didn't, and that's what I feel was missing, here. Could just be me...
*I wonder what a run strictly through the main story would be like, and how long it would take. I don't think it would be 1000 hours, but I bet that's not far off the mark.
This games, as well as other high profile AAA MMOs, failure pretty much guaranteed WB wasn't gonna foot the bill for another big Middle Earth MMO.
Concerning Lotro: with all fails in development, bad actions towards VIPs (paying customer needs to purchase expansion because it is expansion. really?) - I like this game. It has lore, I can try to immerse here, see folks roleplaying, discussing Quenya-Sindarin words or proper name of that brave lance-knight from Rohan one wants to rp.
<offtopic>No, I am not huge Tolkien fan. Not a fanboy/hater (criticial about last content, that's right). I am one who can call Lotro my virtual home: my friends, my Kinship, my adventures are there</offtopic>
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
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
For the question, yes and no. You are correct in that even after the simplification into trait trees the game has a few nice customization options. Also correct that the larger part of those deeds which give you virtues (just larger part, definitely not all) are tied to the areas. and you only can earn those if you own said areas.
Now to the not correct side:
You don't really need those, unless you are towards the endgame, and wants to min-max yourself. The traits and virtues you can access for free are more than enough for all through the game - especially if you overlevel the content.
But of course that's not a good answer if you want to experiment the game as a whole...
Or, as Toral said, you can simply subscribe for a while. Or purchase Points. Or mix and match those three any way you like.
Quad pack is a great way to get the expansions, sometimes it is on sale for pretty big discount. They sell it too, not only amazon.