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Gee... I thought unlocking areas has been out of fashion...
Elikal
Member UncommonPosts: 7,912
Gee... I thought unlocking areas has been out of fashion ever since EQ2 area access. Sorry for bringing this up kinda late, but it just came to us silly Europeans now.
Kinda made me pissed, so it's either you have to grind you way through Moria books or you grind even more for faction. I hated area unlocking back in EQ2 and I really had thought it had been a thing of the past. Most people hated it. Its something for people with no life and surprisingly casual-unfriendly for LOTRO.
I HATED the Mines of Moria, all dark, all a frigging maze and was so looking forward to escape it, but now its back to the dark mines again. *sigh* Got my fingers considerably closer to that cancel button, I tell ya.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
Exactly, turbine needs a reality check when it comes to stretching out areas by adding reputation grinding "content"
Well, to be fair they needed to do something along those lines with Lorien, it's after all a secluded and guarded place where they don't just let anybody in, remember the book/movie and the trouble Frodo and the fellowship had to get in there.
So then make a quest line that you need to complete in order for them to "trust" you, getting into moria involved finishing a few chapters in a book, ANYTHING just not grinding reputation items for literally 10 hours
actually i support it especially for that situation (i'd like to see you waltz into Elf lands and not get 1. an arrow through your eye or 2. stopped by a patrol and asked to leave)
What i dislike is when the grind is outrageous and the benefit slim (tunnel into Winterspring anyone?)
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-Changeable worlds
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Uhhh they did....finish the Moria Book 6 quest line{2.6.8} and you get Aquaintence rep with Lorien and are allowed to pass into the forest. Then you do another line of quests all throughout the forest and by the time you finish all those you have Friend rep and are allowed into Caras Galadhon!
...and again do the line of quests inside Caras Galadhon and you'll be sitting pretty at Ally rep. The only rep grind persay you have to do is the 30k through Ally to get Kindred if you want to purchase all the new rewards most of which require Kindred rep with Lorien, and even then all those repeatable rep quests also reward you with the Lorien Silver Branch you need as currency for those reward items.
Its all an win-win situation via a "quest line" with no rep grind till the very end!
The trouble with that is, 2.6.8 is a group quest. And finding a group for group quests is basically impossible in this game.
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but not at all. The past two weeks I have been doing very little soloing. Its been mostly PUG questing.
Amen to that, Amen! Its so annoying. I like a lot of things in this game, but its soloers all over. Not really cool.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
but not at all. The past two weeks I have been doing very little soloing. Its been mostly PUG questing.
Have to agree, with the friendly community I find it one of the easiest games other than CoX to get a grp for, I have never found it any trouble at all in being able to complete parts of the book with either my Guild "Guardians of the Gate" or answering one of the many calls for ppl you see in the chat window.
I can't understand why ppl say there are issues finding grps, aren't you guys in guilds for starters, the best place in the world to get a grp going, or do you ignore when ppl ask for help for a quest just becuase your not on it, try to lend a hand first with their quest and 9 times out of 10 they will help you with yours.
Just remember if your not going to ask no one is going to know you want help.
It takes all of about 10 quests to unlock the initial zone area and maybe 20 quests to get you inside the city in there. Hardly a grind and most people enjoy quests rather than straight up grinding mobs.
30 quests total and most are very easy fed-ex quests. I am completing these quests on a level 55 right now. If I can do it at 55 it must be a cake walk for level 60's.
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And that's my argument AGAINST being forced to group. What if you're just not very good at it, or have less than the best gear? I don't want to be responsible for someone's charactef getting killed if I've never done the instance before and make a mistake. If I wanted that kind of responsibility I'd play Left for Dead.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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Not, there is a very good "Cloak of Shadow and Flame" that everyone wants that drops from the end boss, so 2.6.8 is frequently run over and over in hope of getting it! ...but seriously...one little group quest is that hard to do for ya, and this one is alot of fun...long, but its fun!
Oh dear....thanks for bringing up the tunnel that god forgot. I hated that place. but it felt worth it when you came out on the other side though. Made you "appreciate" the new area even more in a way. I just hated the tunnel and the grind, not Winterspring.
Your arguing there about cutting end-game content out that needs cooperation to complete, when you see nothing but complaints from the majority of players stating that they left a game due to it having no end-game content.
I don't understand why a game that advertises itself as a Multiplayer game should not have group orientated content, surely when you buy the game you know it's going to have content in it that you won't be able to do by yourself.
If your overly concerned about messing up then look to your friends in-game and group with them, friends are alot more forgiving than joining a PUG and yes I agree some players take the game far too seriously and will be quite judgemental over how a person plays their character, luckily those ppl are few and far between.
As I said earlier in the thread just find yourself a friendly guild to join, I rejoined LoTRO recently and joined a very friendly laid back guild who regularly grp up and do the epic quests together, it takes some effort on your part to get out there and find that guild, they won't come knocking on your door if your the average player, so be pro-active.
I'd hate to buy any MMO that had nothing but solo content in it, I've got plenty of other games for that like Witcher for example, group content is a way of life for any MMO, take away that part of the game and you don't have an MMO anymore.
You do not have to "grind" faction with the elves, there are other ways to gain favor.
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It does make one wonder what the game will be like when they finish rolling out all the expansions that make up the map of Middle Earth. It makes sense to restrict Lothlorien in a way cause of the lore behind it, but what about Gondor? It would be a shame in the long run if only higher levels get to experience most of the game. At least in the context that a robust community requires the interaction of high and low level players. Certain parts of the map shouldn't feel like expansion packs, if you see what I mean.
Here's hoping they do it right.
The problem is that the game is set up so that you are shadowing the fellowship. So it is more or less like a book. Therefore everyone needs to play while going in the right direction. I was about to write that they should make Gondor an optional starting area. But the thing is, they can't because otherwise when you travel west, not only will you get to lower level content you will also be traveling back in time.
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The problem is that the game is set up so that you are shadowing the fellowship. So it is more or less like a book. Therefore everyone needs to play while going in the right direction. I was about to write that they should make Gondor an optional starting area. But the thing is, they can't because otherwise when you travel west, not only will you get to lower level content you will also be traveling back in time.
Yes I was thinking about Gondor as a starting area or being the new focal point for players, like Bree is now. Are they painting themselves into a corner? Maybe when they've got all the expansions out they can launch a new MMO, with the entire map avail and instead of calling LoTRO they could just call it Middle Earth Online. Make it post-events in the books and open it up a bit.
The problem is that the game is set up so that you are shadowing the fellowship. So it is more or less like a book. Therefore everyone needs to play while going in the right direction. I was about to write that they should make Gondor an optional starting area. But the thing is, they can't because otherwise when you travel west, not only will you get to lower level content you will also be traveling back in time.
Yes I was thinking about Gondor as a starting area or being the new focal point for players, like Bree is now. Are they painting themselves into a corner? Maybe when they've got all the expansions out they can launch a new MMO, with the entire map avail and instead of calling LoTRO they could just call it Middle Earth Online. Make it post-events in the books and open it up a bit.
There's no doubt that they've painted themselves into something of a corner. Look at crafting. Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, Master and now Supreme. All before the Fellowship has even been broken. Where can they take it from there?
I'm sure that the development team does have a plan to handle these sorts of questions, but so far I've got nothin'.
It'll be interesting to see.
Regarding the "going back in time" thing -- well that already exists to an extent. If you're new to level 50 it's very easy to end up watching the Fellowship leave Rivendell, only to end up coming across quite a few more quests after you've done that which send you to talk to Gandalf or some other member of the Fellowship. Frankly, I think they should have written alternate versions of all those quests that kick in if you've done the one to watch the Fellowship leave. From that point forward, you can still complete the "earlier" stuff, but it might send you to talk to Elrond instead of Gandalf, Bilbo instead of Frodo, a diary that Frodo had left behind, or whatever makes sense within the context.
But that's beside the point. Clearly, the devs don't worry overly much about those time warps and so it may well be that they plan to introduce new starting areas along the way. Of course if they do that there will still be the need to produce a lot of new high end content as well. Which then brings us right back to questions like, "What comes after Supreme?"
I have to say, I fail to see how this is "new" to LotRO?
You had to do Book 6 in the first volume to gain access to most of Angmar.
The restricted crafting zones have been for every race for a long time now.
The idea of factions that you have to "grind" rep for to get access to various spells, abiltiies, pets, gear and such has been in for a very very long time.
Reputation and quest completion is used as a bar to travel skills and "insta" horse routes all over.
I have no real problem with this sort of system and actually I am pretty glad that everyone and their brother can't just go everywhere with no effort.
As for the time travelling part - how about a world wide rewrite at some point? I could see it happening. Game "follows" the fellowship up til say they reach Gondor and then the entire thing is reset to that point across the game. At which point you could have "new" starting areas set up ~ loosely speaking Arthedain, Dale and Gondor would work...each of the three with its own "newbie" and lower level areas.
That wouldn't work. It would result in all the current areas becoming a ghost town. Who would want to start new characters in the old setting when they could have the new setting instead? Especially when there aren't any epic quests in the old setting anymore. The relatively few people who might want to start in the original areas would quickly regret it as they get into fellowship content and can't find groups because even their guildmates are half a world away.
Obviously it would be a lot of work, but I have to disagreee...they could leave the old fellowship quests in as instances/flashbakcs although they might have to be redesigned so as to be doable solo or with smaller groups - but that is an issue ANY game faces as it ages. Really, it's already an issue now as it is rather hard to finish many of the earlier Angmar/Forochel parts with all the higher end players in Moria and beyond.
For that matter, they could even take a more revolutionary approach and "close" the old starting areas if/as they add new ones in Gondor or wherever.
The problem is that the game is set up so that you are shadowing the fellowship. So it is more or less like a book. Therefore everyone needs to play while going in the right direction. I was about to write that they should make Gondor an optional starting area. But the thing is, they can't because otherwise when you travel west, not only will you get to lower level content you will also be traveling back in time.
Yes I was thinking about Gondor as a starting area or being the new focal point for players, like Bree is now. Are they painting themselves into a corner? Maybe when they've got all the expansions out they can launch a new MMO, with the entire map avail and instead of calling LoTRO they could just call it Middle Earth Online. Make it post-events in the books and open it up a bit.
There's no doubt that they've painted themselves into something of a corner. Look at crafting. Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan, Master and now Supreme. All before the Fellowship has even been broken. Where can they take it from there?
I'm sure that the development team does have a plan to handle these sorts of questions, but so far I've got nothin'.
It'll be interesting to see.
Regarding the "going back in time" thing -- well that already exists to an extent. If you're new to level 50 it's very easy to end up watching the Fellowship leave Rivendell, only to end up coming across quite a few more quests after you've done that which send you to talk to Gandalf or some other member of the Fellowship. Frankly, I think they should have written alternate versions of all those quests that kick in if you've done the one to watch the Fellowship leave. From that point forward, you can still complete the "earlier" stuff, but it might send you to talk to Elrond instead of Gandalf, Bilbo instead of Frodo, a diary that Frodo had left behind, or whatever makes sense within the context.
But that's beside the point. Clearly, the devs don't worry overly much about those time warps and so it may well be that they plan to introduce new starting areas along the way. Of course if they do that there will still be the need to produce a lot of new high end content as well. Which then brings us right back to questions like, "What comes after Supreme?"
Thats a very interesting question. What comes after Supreme?
Somehow I have this odd feeling they really cornered themselves, a thought I had not realized so clearly before. For once, after those uber bosses we fought in Moria, what more can now come? A level 60 char is already so strong, he is prolly quite at par with any of the Fellowship companions, maybe more. We killed all the diversity of rural life, boars, bears, wolves and practically all sorts of supernatural beings the world of Tolkien is made of. Trolls, Spiders, Orcs and some bosses. What is left for the vast world ? Its really hard to imagine how they are going to top that?
One way EQ2 took was make new starter areas with new races, like Fae and Sarnakh, which made a really cool new experience, but with the resctricted Tolkien Lore - and the loremongers - I see no place for such an approach. Not to speak of the endgame gear. With gear looking so elaborate already... what more can come in the long way yet ahead?
And there is an even greater problem. With more and more areas, most players following always the newest place, and old places are terribly devoid, some more than others. Especially Misty Mountains and Angmar are way less played now. How are ppl supposed to play all those hard Book quests which demand full groups and long time? I think they really have to re design those quests or players end up "streched like butter over too much bread" in the growing game.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert