A little praise to a game other then WOW and openedge1 shows up. 

I had Xfire installed and didnt like it. So in uninstalled it. In our kin arround 40 dedicated players noone uses xfire. It's just waste of memory. And many even don't know about xfire.

Originally posted by Wagrof

People are coming back because they see that lotro keeps on delivering.

After over a year of gametime i bought my lifetime sub. this week, because turbine/codemaster have proven their competence with the last patches and especially the mom expansion, i think the future is bright for lotro, people realise that and come back to the game.

That do sounds good but there is always the question if they will stay, we won't really see that until after X-mas. But so far so good then.

Loke that goes for every MMORPG. With Moria we got enough stuff to do. And of course we must not forget periodic updates that Turbine manages so well.

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

I have to agree with Meridion here.

There is no reason too have siege engines and this is the second suggestion regarding ships (unless the first was also snorf's then I just saw 1 repeated twice). What's up with that?

why ships? I don't quite get that. I can't remember any discussion where people said, "yeah and all those amazing ships...." except maybe in the context of the ships bringing them to the west. but that seems to be a one way ride.

I can actually imagine more combat though as there will be more story related combat such as helms deep, coming down the pike.

My first thought was that it would be a Monster Play zone but then I thought it might be a session play zone. Depends upon whether they want elves and hobbits at Helms deep.

I have no problem with added combat and even fast furious combat as long as it makes sense in the context of the IP. I'm pretty sure there are a group of players out there who would love to bring out a few siege engines, lay waste to the shire and smoke some old Toby over a job well done.

But that would be just silly

My first thought was that it would be a Monster Play zone but then I thought it might be a session play zone. Depends upon whether they want elves and hobbits at Helms deep.

I have no problem with added combat and even fast furious combat as long as it makes sense in the context of the IP. I'm pretty sure there are a group of players out there who would love to bring out a few siege engines, lay waste to the shire and smoke some old Toby over a job well done.

-----------------

Well, they will have to include these fights if they choose to add the settings. But as everyone is expecting Edoras, Helms Deep and Minas Tirith to find their way into the game, they can't just leave them out.

But if they keep doing things like they did in the past, the actual fights there will be instanced, because the battles have to end the same way every time. They are bound to Lord of the Rings and Tolkiens concept of the "eucatastrophe", reverse disaster. Darkness seems to overwhelm everything but (as has been told in the music of the ainur at the beginning of the world) all evil will - in the end - perish.

M

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

To claim that LOTRO is supporting RP is just silly, the US servers dont even have a dedicated RP server. And nothing in the game mechanics supports Roleplaying. What you describe can be done in every MMO out there and furthermore in every online chat and furthermore even in this forum and guess what, i can run RP plots pen and paper without electricity too. And i have done so and it was great fun - i would not even want to limit myself to the narrow possibilities LOTRO offers for RP.

The same things you just said about siege weapons and someone else about ships was said about legendary weapons 16 months ago when i suggested them. I hope you are glad that Turbine didnt listen to those people and enjoy the new content.

I only stated the game is slowly growing to what i expected from it at start. 2-3 expansions more and maybe it matches to what should have been delivered in april 2007.

Turbine is doing well adressing the right things lack of armor custamisation was a huge flaw at start, they adressed it - no game depth, no inovation in gameplay was another and with MoM they adressed some of that too.

If any more people come into play on my server I'm going to scream !!!!! it is annoying to have to many people. I liked the cosy feeling of a niche community

Originally posted by Snorf

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

To claim that LOTRO is supporting RP is just silly, the US servers dont even have a dedicated RP server. And nothing in the game mechanics supports Roleplaying. What you describe can be done in every MMO out there and furthermore in every online chat and furthermore even in this forum and guess what, i can run RP plots pen and paper without electricity too. And i have done so and it was great fun - i would not even want to limit myself to the narrow possibilities LOTRO offers for RP.

The same things you just said about siege weapons and someone else about ships was said about legendary weapons 16 months ago when i suggested them. I hope you are glad that Turbine didnt listen to those people and enjoy the new content.

I only stated the game is slowly growing to what i expected from it at start. 2-3 expansions more and maybe it matches to what should have been delivered in april 2007.

Turbine is doing well adressing the right things lack of armor custamisation was a huge flaw at start, they adressed it - no game depth, no inovation in gameplay was another and with MoM they adressed some of that too.

 

RP encouraging elements:

-Housing

-Cosmetic clothing

-stages

-smoking

-drinking

-huge amount of emotes

-music system

-settlements

-barbershops

-cosmetic equipment

-TOLKIEN LORE, deeper and broader than any other system that was based on Tolkien.

At least 50% of this stuff is not or far not as thoroughly included in other games.

M

Originally posted by Meridion

 

RP encouraging elements:

-Housing

-Cosmetic clothing

-stages

-smoking

-drinking

-huge amount of emotes

-music system

-settlements

-barbershops

-cosmetic equipment

-TOLKIEN LORE, deeper and broader than any other system that was based on Tolkien.

At least 50% of this stuff is not or far not as thoroughly included in other games.

M

I actually agree with this statement. LOTRO has a huge selection of attributes that is conducive to RP. The issue is the amount of players using such PvE based elements to do RP is quite small.

Off topic, but I wanted to point out how Snorf does have a point. But, this is pretty much ALL MMO's right now..the need to quest, level, get gear, and a majority of times not even group up or talk to anyone (except to throw some hate around for stealing their XP or mob or resource)

Too sad

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

 

I have to agree with Meridion here.

There is no reason too have siege engines and this is the second suggestion regarding ships (unless the first was also snorf's then I just saw 1 repeated twice). What's up with that?

why ships? I don't quite get that. I can't remember any discussion where people said, "yeah and all those amazing ships...." except maybe in the context of the ships bringing them to the west. but that seems to be a one way ride.

I can actually imagine more combat though as there will be more story related combat such as helms deep, coming down the pike.

My first thought was that it would be a Monster Play zone but then I thought it might be a session play zone. Depends upon whether they want elves and hobbits at Helms deep.

I have no problem with added combat and even fast furious combat as long as it makes sense in the context of the IP. I'm pretty sure there are a group of players out there who would love to bring out a few siege engines, lay waste to the shire and smoke some old Toby over a job well done.

But that would be just silly

Do you guys , for one second, REALLY thingk they will not session play helms deep?

Come on now. I bet they allready have a prototype, and it will be a free adidtion to the game. This is turbine we are talking about, they will, and can, find a way.

Originally posted by Falconoffury

I have noticed that the zones for the level 30s and early 40s were pretty barren the first week after expansion. I guess everyone was either in Moria or rolling the new classes. This was on Meneldor. I had a hard time finding anyone to get book 4 done in the Trollshaws. I saw a poor guy spamming all day to finish all the book 5 chapters.

 Funnily enough that was the reason I originally quit. Shame, it was a nice game.

Originally posted by Gorilla

Originally posted by Falconoffury

I have noticed that the zones for the level 30s and early 40s were pretty barren the first week after expansion. I guess everyone was either in Moria or rolling the new classes. This was on Meneldor. I had a hard time finding anyone to get book 4 done in the Trollshaws. I saw a poor guy spamming all day to finish all the book 5 chapters.

 Funnily enough that was the reason I originally quit. Shame, it was a nice game.

Are you guys sure you were connected to the server?

 :) I hit those levels a bit behind the real hard core hard core but well ahead of the casuals. My server (which I can't even remember) was frustratingly empty a lot of the time particularly day times (I guess you might expect that). I

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

To claim that LOTRO is supporting RP is just silly, the US servers dont even have a dedicated RP server. And nothing in the game mechanics supports Roleplaying. What you describe can be done in every MMO out there and furthermore in every online chat and furthermore even in this forum and guess what, i can run RP plots pen and paper without electricity too. And i have done so and it was great fun - i would not even want to limit myself to the narrow possibilities LOTRO offers for RP.

The same things you just said about siege weapons and someone else about ships was said about legendary weapons 16 months ago when i suggested them. I hope you are glad that Turbine didnt listen to those people and enjoy the new content.

I only stated the game is slowly growing to what i expected from it at start. 2-3 expansions more and maybe it matches to what should have been delivered in april 2007.

Turbine is doing well adressing the right things lack of armor custamisation was a huge flaw at start, they adressed it - no game depth, no inovation in gameplay was another and with MoM they adressed some of that too.

 

 

RP encouraging elements:

-Housing

-Cosmetic clothing

-stages

-smoking

-drinking

-huge amount of emotes

-music system

-settlements

-barbershops

-cosmetic equipment

-TOLKIEN LORE, deeper and broader than any other system that was based on Tolkien.

At least 50% of this stuff is not or far not as thoroughly included in other games.

M

Wow you are really believing what you type? Except the Music system that was abused to ABC download modern melodies into the game killing the atmosphere and breaking the lore everywhere i only see 1 or maybe 2 things that are not standard in almost every MMO out there.

RP Discouraging things:

- Fully automated auction house (killing 95% of the player interaction for trading)

- Whispering across miles even to players you have never met.

- Standard OOC chat channels set to ON. Can be switched off but an RP encouraging server would not have them.

- automatically drawn maps, killing 95% of player interaction for finding locations or trading self drawn maps.

-  completely linear quests with no player decissions at all.

- epic story (laugh) sliced and canned for everybody to consume, no real background story, no real world feeling.

- brutally stupid looking animations.

- Quest locations auto marked on map again killing every player interaction regarding wayfinding.

- mini radar

- auto compass

- dicing for loot

- preslotted housing

- no chance to drown.

- no real interdependency for crafting.

- shared bankslots

- fast travel

and so on and so on and so on...

Now dont get me wrong all these features are nice for MMOG's if u want to raise numbers quick. But for an RP encouraging server they are killing the atmosphere, each a little bit and in LOTRO the end result was that 85% of all conversations that i witnessed where either like: "Who needs book X chapter Y?" or "Where is questgiver Z" or "Need more for Instance Q"

On the euro RP server i tried for 3 days to hail and RP with people at the bridge near bree (greenway?) and nobody every replied with much more than "sorry in a hurry to find questmob" or the like.

If i want good RP i go for pen and paper or an old MMO like DAoC but certainly not for LOTRO.

I'm so getting this game when I get bored of WotlK.

Originally posted by Snorf

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

To claim that LOTRO is supporting RP is just silly, the US servers dont even have a dedicated RP server. And nothing in the game mechanics supports Roleplaying. What you describe can be done in every MMO out there and furthermore in every online chat and furthermore even in this forum and guess what, i can run RP plots pen and paper without electricity too. And i have done so and it was great fun - i would not even want to limit myself to the narrow possibilities LOTRO offers for RP.

The same things you just said about siege weapons and someone else about ships was said about legendary weapons 16 months ago when i suggested them. I hope you are glad that Turbine didnt listen to those people and enjoy the new content.

I only stated the game is slowly growing to what i expected from it at start. 2-3 expansions more and maybe it matches to what should have been delivered in april 2007.

Turbine is doing well adressing the right things lack of armor custamisation was a huge flaw at start, they adressed it - no game depth, no inovation in gameplay was another and with MoM they adressed some of that too.

 

 

RP encouraging elements:

-Housing

-Cosmetic clothing

-stages

-smoking

-drinking

-huge amount of emotes

-music system

-settlements

-barbershops

-cosmetic equipment

-TOLKIEN LORE, deeper and broader than any other system that was based on Tolkien.

At least 50% of this stuff is not or far not as thoroughly included in other games.

M

 

Wow you are really believing what you type? Except the Music system that was abused to ABC download modern melodies into the game killing the atmosphere and breaking the lore everywhere i only see 1 or maybe 2 things that are not standard in almost every MMO out there.

RP Discouraging things:

- Fully automated auction house (killing 95% of the player interaction for trading)

- Whispering across miles even to players you have never met.

- Standard OOC chat channels set to ON. Can be switched off but an RP encouraging server would not have them.

- automatically drawn maps, killing 95% of player interaction for finding locations or trading self drawn maps.

-  completely linear quests with no player decissions at all.

- epic story (laugh) sliced and canned for everybody to consume, no real background story, no real world feeling.

- brutally stupid looking animations.

- Quest locations auto marked on map again killing every player interaction regarding wayfinding.

- mini radar

- auto compass

- dicing for loot

- preslotted housing

- no chance to drown.

- no real interdependency for crafting.

- shared bankslots

- fast travel

and so on and so on and so on...

Now dont get me wrong all these features are nice for MMOG's if u want to raise numbers quick. But for an RP encouraging server they are killing the atmosphere, each a little bit and in LOTRO the end result was that 85% of all conversations that i witnessed where either like: "Who needs book X chapter Y?" or "Where is questgiver Z" or "Need more for Instance Q"

On the euro RP server i tried for 3 days to hail and RP with people at the bridge near bree (greenway?) and nobody every replied with much more than "sorry in a hurry to find questmob" or the like.

If i want good RP i go for pen and paper or an old MMO like DAoC but certainly not for LOTRO.

 

You are clearly to hardcore for This game. Also, read my sig.

LOTRO is ripe with RP flavor.

Originally posted by Snorf

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Originally posted by Meridion

Originally posted by Snorf

Although i still find LOTRO boring to the bones i must say Turbine is catching up on my expectations.

From what i read about MoM the legendary weapon system is more or less an idea i suggested 16 months ago - they even improved and developed the original suggestion some with their random interpretation.

WELL DONE.

If they manage to develope kinship crafting for ships and siege weapons and get some DYNAMICS in the world i might be back one day myself.

In all the critism i have for this product and the damage it has done to the genre with its stupid simplification of EVERYTHING i must say that Turbine is smart enough to at least LISTEN and try to improve.

Still far from appealing me again tho.

Snorf

 

What exactly do you want to lay siege to? Barad Dûr? Carn Dûm?

The game is within the limits of Tolkien lore during the War of the Ring, they can not include sieges, like they can't include full fletched mages, or playable necromancers, or flying mounts, or elves with dark skin and white hair that live in caves. It's one of the most ironic things in this game that its critics grew up with popularizes overbright disney iconizations of the deep lore J.R.R. Tolkien invented and now demand exactly this level of "over the top"-fantasy from a game that stays true to "fantasy how it was meant to be".

They already stretch this IP so hard it makes every Tolkien enthuisasts eyebrow lift, just a little more and Tolkien enterprises has every right to kill the contract. They don't need LotRO desperately, Middle-Earth makes millions out of dozens of franchise projects. Without fire mages, summoned flying gryphons, engineering gnomes and vicious dark elves.

And, to bring this rant to an end. This is a socializing, RP game. If you don't want to not-fight in the long run, you will - not - last in this game. I did whole RP plots with different story arcs over months in LotRO without ever drawing a blade. There's the potential of this game, storytelling, roleplaying, customization, immersion... not in "lol I wanna attack barad dur kkthx"

There are bazillions of games  that offer combat content ad emesis. Start EVE, it's a brilliant game if you're interested in actual warfare, or WAR if you like permanent PvP action... just don't bash LotRO for delivering the one best roleplaying platform in the MMORPG sector, ridiculous thing, hating a game for staying true to their initial concept.

M

 

 

To claim that LOTRO is supporting RP is just silly, the US servers dont even have a dedicated RP server. And nothing in the game mechanics supports Roleplaying. What you describe can be done in every MMO out there and furthermore in every online chat and furthermore even in this forum and guess what, i can run RP plots pen and paper without electricity too. And i have done so and it was great fun - i would not even want to limit myself to the narrow possibilities LOTRO offers for RP.

The same things you just said about siege weapons and someone else about ships was said about legendary weapons 16 months ago when i suggested them. I hope you are glad that Turbine didnt listen to those people and enjoy the new content.

I only stated the game is slowly growing to what i expected from it at start. 2-3 expansions more and maybe it matches to what should have been delivered in april 2007.

Turbine is doing well adressing the right things lack of armor custamisation was a huge flaw at start, they adressed it - no game depth, no inovation in gameplay was another and with MoM they adressed some of that too.

 

 

RP encouraging elements:

-Housing

-Cosmetic clothing

-stages

-smoking

-drinking

-huge amount of emotes

-music system

-settlements

-barbershops

-cosmetic equipment

-TOLKIEN LORE, deeper and broader than any other system that was based on Tolkien.

At least 50% of this stuff is not or far not as thoroughly included in other games.

M

 

Wow you are really believing what you type? Except the Music system that was abused to ABC download modern melodies into the game killing the atmosphere and breaking the lore everywhere i only see 1 or maybe 2 things that are not standard in almost every MMO out there.

RP Discouraging things:

- Fully automated auction house (killing 95% of the player interaction for trading)

- Whispering across miles even to players you have never met.

- Standard OOC chat channels set to ON. Can be switched off but an RP encouraging server would not have them.

- automatically drawn maps, killing 95% of player interaction for finding locations or trading self drawn maps.

-  completely linear quests with no player decissions at all.

- epic story (laugh) sliced and canned for everybody to consume, no real background story, no real world feeling.

- brutally stupid looking animations.

- Quest locations auto marked on map again killing every player interaction regarding wayfinding.

- mini radar

- auto compass

- dicing for loot

- preslotted housing

- no chance to drown.

- no real interdependency for crafting.

- shared bankslots

- fast travel

and so on and so on and so on...

Now dont get me wrong all these features are nice for MMOG's if u want to raise numbers quick. But for an RP encouraging server they are killing the atmosphere, each a little bit and in LOTRO the end result was that 85% of all conversations that i witnessed where either like: "Who needs book X chapter Y?" or "Where is questgiver Z" or "Need more for Instance Q"

On the euro RP server i tried for 3 days to hail and RP with people at the bridge near bree (greenway?) and nobody every replied with much more than "sorry in a hurry to find questmob" or the like.

If i want good RP i go for pen and paper or an old MMO like DAoC but certainly not for LOTRO.

 

Ok, first of all some things you listed are not even true. Questtargets are NOT marked on the minimap for example. Or no interdependency in crafting, every profession has stuff that is needed by other people...

There are some more, like fast travel, which is only a fraction of the actual travel routes, but the essence is: Do I need a sandbox game-mechanic to RP decently? - The answer is "no".

What are the essentials for good roleplaying? Creativity and interaction. I can _play_ drowning as much as I can _play_ hard negotiations, like I can play a fight or any other action that is not included in a game. The one crucial thing in theater is "make a story believable with nothing on the stage but you and a partner".

So what you're demanding is game mechanics that fir your playstyle, you want RP to wind around sandboxdesign, because you think that's what you need or what encourages RP. Wrong. You can have the perfect sandbox and still nobody will RP in it, because RP is dependend on atmosphere and provided locations.

I DID quests in LotRO in RP, but although we all knew the mob was behind this next hill, we played that we wouldn't and that we would get lost and be helpless and desperate, because that's what it is. Roleplaying, it's improvised  theater, with the few people that are not ashamed to make it happen.

And btw, if the quest WAS hard as hell and the landscape was vast, the mobs deadly and the quest target hard to find, the space for RP would be tiny because you would have to invest all your focus and creativity into the actual "videogame" and be forced to take out effort from the "improvised theater" part...

M

@Meriadon (sp)

your reply was so far away from adressing anything i said that i cant even get the rope to answer it.

Nothing in my list demands a sandbox game or a "harder" game in terms of game mechanics. All the things i listed are atmosphere breaking.

And no RP is not improvised theatre and doing as if i didnt know the bear to kill is behind the next hill. RP is diving into a character and exactly acting as if i was in the situation of the character, and not pretending to not know stuff clearly given by the game.

Also: When i last checked Quest Locations where marked with rings on the minimap. Not all of them but certainly enough to feel stupidly hand held.

I guess your definition of RP is quiet different from mine and has nothing to do with the atmosphere i demand for that. And /gu "who needs book 13.12" is not RP helpful.