Lord of the Rings Online

Originally posted by Druz

Not exactly. As I mentioned, Bree and Rivendell did not require much grinding because most of the reputation came from quests. This is fine for me.. if I have a choice to do all the quests in Forochel and become kindred instead of doing all the quests and handing in more reputation items than I would normally get going through a zone I would be perfectly happy about it.

It's not as if I saw an item in a window and said I have to have it.

I got an item which seemed to be a homage to another game only to find out its restricted. This isn't a case of envy turned jealous rage that I couldn't have it when I wanted it. My character has gear, anything I can get from repuation I already have a better version of. It is NOTHING like that at all. Like you said, doing anything in forochel for us level 50's is just to do it.. there are a few nice items from quests but reputation wise there is nothing really pushing us along to do it.

In case no one see what I mean yet let me give you an example.  The expansion is out.. the level cap is raised from 50 to 60.. there is a new area bringing us from 50 to 60 along with that there is reputation to be had off every monster and every quest.  I will kill monsters and I will complete quests along the way.. I am moving through the content and on the side I am recieving reputation that will net me some extra goodies on the side.

That is what turbine is trying to do and that is fine.. but I am not level 45 in forochel which makes it nearly meaningless.

I don't care about Swift Travel, Forochel is purposly too huge and purposly has an ocean you have to run around to get somewhere this is for someone else to argue some other time.

I don't think you have a case - Forochel si level 44 to 50 area.

You are level 50, until Moria expansion there is no leveling up. Once expansion is out you will hit the ceiling and be at the exactly the same spot as you are now.

LOTRO is a quest based traditional MMO - end game means you have to find your own fun. For me that is raiding, crafting, exploring, RPing, wrapping up quests for fun.

Even if there is absolutely no rep in Forochel you would be equally bored.

What do envision would be a better idea for bored level 50 to play in the area a bit under its level of difficulty?

Originally posted by Druz

Not exactly. As I mentioned, Bree and Rivendell did not require much grinding because most of the reputation came from quests. This is fine for me.. if I have a choice to do all the quests in Forochel and become kindred instead of doing all the quests and handing in more reputation items than I would normally get going through a zone I would be perfectly happy about it.

It's not as if I saw an item in a window and said I have to have it.

I got an item which seemed to be a homage to another game only to find out its restricted. This isn't a case of envy turned jealous rage that I couldn't have it when I wanted it. My character has gear, anything I can get from repuation I already have a better version of. It is NOTHING like that at all. Like you said, doing anything in forochel for us level 50's is just to do it.. there are a few nice items from quests but reputation wise there is nothing really pushing us along to do it.

In case no one see what I mean yet let me give you an example.  The expansion is out.. the level cap is raised from 50 to 60.. there is a new area bringing us from 50 to 60 along with that there is reputation to be had off every monster and every quest.  I will kill monsters and I will complete quests along the way.. I am moving through the content and on the side I am recieving reputation that will net me some extra goodies on the side.

That is what turbine is trying to do and that is fine.. but I am not level 45 in forochel which makes it nearly meaningless.

I don't care about Swift Travel, Forochel is purposly too huge and purposly has an ocean you have to run around to get somewhere this is for someone else to argue some other time.

Please forgive my ignorance on the matter as I'm not at that point yet... I'm just reading through the posts here and trying to get a picture of what's going on from that. I have no personal hands-on experience to opine definitively either way. The reason I'm even reading this is because... well.. I'm basically "looking into my not-so-distant future" in the game, and so it does pique my interest/concern.

So basically... for up-and-coming level 50s, it likely won't be as much of an issue... But for people already at 50, it kinda sucks because the quests alone don't get you enough faction... so a-grinding you must go..

Is that more correct?

If that's the case then... eek.. yeah... kind of a rough call.

Slight variation, WSIMike, player level does not affect amount of rep gathered from a quest.

Quests are enough to climb up the ladder to get basic perks and a bit more but not to fillt he rep bar all the way tot he top. I think it is just as well or everyone who wrapped up the quests in the region would top up Lossoth faction.

I have only one active character and I barely have enough time to do allt he stuff in game I want to. This works for me just fine but that is a matter of my preference:)

I think here is the matter of differences in playing styles so I chose not to discuss the issue any further. To answer the OP's question - no, I don't think rep building is ruining the game.

Originally posted by Illyrian

Slight variation, WSIMike, player level does not affect amount of rep gathered from a quest.

Quests are enough to climb up the ladder to get basic perks and a bit more but not to fillt he rep bar all the way tot he top. I think it is just as well or everyone who wrapped up the quests in the region would top up Lossoth faction.

I have only one active character and I barely have enough time to do allt he stuff in game I want to. This works for me just fine but that is a matter of my preference:)

Well, yeah... I didn't really explain that well... but in saying "you're already level 50", I mean that it's not like you're gaining the reputation passively as you level anyway... because you're already at cap... So once the quests are done (which don't reward sufficient rep on their own to "unlock" certain things, again, as I understand it), you have only grinding reputation to look forward to.

That could be bad or not-so-bad... like anything else... depending on the person playing.

I wasn't inferring that you get more or less rep based on your level.

My bad :)

There are quests I can do for fun, I get it that is great and I will be doing them

This does not change the fact that while I WAS making my own fun and found something off of a creature that obviously I wanted to see the results of.  Only to have my hand slapped and have the game tell me I can't complete this item I found because of reputation

It takes me out of the experience, instead of palying the game at my own pace I saw the mountain I need to cross in order to get this hide fashioned because being a grandmaster tailor simply isnt enough according to you and turbine. It's like showing me 70% of a movie only to shut it off until I finished this this this this and this

Originally posted by WSIMike

 

Originally posted by Druz

Not exactly. As I mentioned, Bree and Rivendell did not require much grinding because most of the reputation came from quests. This is fine for me.. if I have a choice to do all the quests in Forochel and become kindred instead of doing all the quests and handing in more reputation items than I would normally get going through a zone I would be perfectly happy about it.

It's not as if I saw an item in a window and said I have to have it.

I got an item which seemed to be a homage to another game only to find out its restricted. This isn't a case of envy turned jealous rage that I couldn't have it when I wanted it. My character has gear, anything I can get from repuation I already have a better version of. It is NOTHING like that at all. Like you said, doing anything in forochel for us level 50's is just to do it.. there are a few nice items from quests but reputation wise there is nothing really pushing us along to do it.

In case no one see what I mean yet let me give you an example.  The expansion is out.. the level cap is raised from 50 to 60.. there is a new area bringing us from 50 to 60 along with that there is reputation to be had off every monster and every quest.  I will kill monsters and I will complete quests along the way.. I am moving through the content and on the side I am recieving reputation that will net me some extra goodies on the side.

That is what turbine is trying to do and that is fine.. but I am not level 45 in forochel which makes it nearly meaningless.

I don't care about Swift Travel, Forochel is purposly too huge and purposly has an ocean you have to run around to get somewhere this is for someone else to argue some other time.

Please forgive my ignorance on the matter as I'm not at that point yet... I'm just reading through the posts here and trying to get a picture of what's going on from that. I have no personal hands-on experience to opine definitively either way. The reason I'm even reading this is because... well.. I'm basically "looking into my not-so-distant future" in the game, and so it does pique my interest/concern.

So basically... for up-and-coming level 50s, it likely won't be as much of an issue... But for people already at 50, it kinda sucks because the quests alone don't get you enough faction... so a-grinding you must go..

Is that more correct?

If that's the case then... eek.. yeah... kind of a rough call.

 

 

 

Thats exactly what I mean Mike, for a 50 it's a pain in the ass but for an up and coming player you know in the back of your mind that killing an extra few monsters here and there will lead you smoothly through reputation while if a level 50 is interested in the same thing we have to backtrack and solely do nothing but grind all at once.

Color me crazy, but I think part of the point of the zone is to give bored 50s something they can make progress on solo if they are done with their virtues and crafting grinds.  It seems to me that Turbine is trying to figure out a fun way to incentivize questing for characters that are capped out. 

One of the strengths of LoTRO is the quality of the quest writing.  By adding rep to all the high level quests, they give you a reason to keep plugging away at quests without having to inflate the quest rewards too much.  However, for rep to be an incentive to quest, some items have to be locked behind a rep grind.  Otherwise what is the point?

I usually hate rep grinds in MMOs.  However because I can grind it out by questing in LoTRO, it doesn't irk me as much.  I actually like having a good reason to keep questing at 50.  Of course that's a personal thing, and your mileage will certainly vary.

I think the reason I hated rep grinds in WoW was that very little progress could be made in most factions without grinding the hell out of some set of mobs, or at least doing the same 4 daily quests every single day until tasting the cold hard muzzle of a loaded .45 starts to sound enticing.  Rep grinding in EQ was even worse.  Not only did you have to grind the hell out of some specific mobs, usually the only reward you got was that you were no longer KoS in some cities.  Bleah . . .

Another thing I HATE about the rep system is all the rep items.  These damn things clutter up my inventory space sooo bad.  Does every single damn reputation need THREE different rep items?  Sheesh. 

Also I don't like how the 4 racial reps work.  I'm a dwarf, and if I went the list of things that I have done for other dwarves in this game (all the quests and such, saving the land, etc) it would be pretty long.  Yet they want me to go spend hours collecting little trinkets for them.   WTF. 

Another thing that turned me off from the rep system at the start was the crafting rep items.  At first when I heard you could craft items and turn them in for rep, i though, "hey, that's kind of intersting."  Then when I looked at what it took to make those insignias and found out how much rep you got, it was ridiculous!  It took an insane amount of ore to make an item that gave an incredibly small amount of rep.  It was such a slap in the face.