(EU version)

I've tried Lotro once before and I didn't like it but so much time has gone by and a new expansionw as released I thought I'd give it another go. Nothing from what I've seen has changed at all since I played played with the same tutorial and all of that so it was pretty boring going through that again because it is linear and once you've done them starting areas once you wont wanna do them again... or in my case at all.

I downloaded the game and created an account and then went to install the game and from what the website told me all the links it gave were from book 14 or whatever and upto date. I decided to get mine off Gamershell which said book 14 on the file so I expected no patching.  I have no clue what "book" the game is on but since it said Moria i thought everything would be well. I found out I needed to do patching but when I went to download from an outside source that didn't help and the game still needed patching....... so I went and used the Codemasters or Turbine patcher, whatever it's called.

I frigging then had to wait 6 hours to play as it downloaded every file one by one and there was 14,600 odd files and because it was doing them one at a time, it wouldn't get time to build up speed and it was going at like 250kb/s. I went off and did something else and when I came back I didn't really feel like playing anymore so I watched some TV instead. I then came back after watching some Top Gear on Dave lol and decided to give th egame a go only to find out that it was saying my account didn't exist. Even though I kept getting emails warning me about an attempt at someone trying to login to my account. I know I havn't got the password wrong because I wrote it down in a text file and I use that password for lots of other games. So I made another account and it said I havn't got a Lotro subscription even though I put in a trial key and I kept trying to login and nothing..... so I made a third account and it worked.

The problem is with the account process is you have to make a username within 8-12 characters long and a password within 8-12 characters long and it's like FFSSSSSSS! I can't use any username I normally use for these games so I had to make something up that I don't like and probably would end up forgetting. Why restrict me like this? Fucking dumb.

After all that and a headache later I played for an hour and it is all I can stand of the game.

The tutorial is pretty lackluster because if you're going to go to all that effort to make something immerse and tell a story then atleast put in voice overs. I don't want them crappy Warcraft style ones where you click on people and they say something irrelevant to whats going on. I mean you have time to put them in but you can't even put voice overs in for the characters on main linear story quests? I can understand if I'm in the world but if you're going to put me in a cinematic instance like this then make an effort.

I get out of the tutorial and sure enough the starting zone is dead and I want to go and explore the world abit to get a sense of it only to find out it wont let me out of the starting area until I've completed all the quests or something. So I go and do a few quests and sure enough they're "go and kill 4 of these and come back" and then the next one "go and kill 6 of these and come back" and then I get a "talk to this guy" and a "deliver this to this guy"....... I couldn't do it anymore! I've had enough of these quests in everyother mmorpg.

If you're going to give me quests then just make them epic and have me doing epic things. I don't want to kill 4 wolves and I don't want to deliver some letter to someone. I don't mind all that SWG stuff where you can do stuff that isn't epic but when it comes to quests THEY SHOULD ALWAYS BE EPIC! I don't want them to feel like a grind.

I eventually got into this other linear bit where the town was burning down and again it put me in a instance to tell a story without any voice overs....... I just feel this weird disconnect with everything, like I'm watching some foreign film and having to read the subtitles. That is fine for when I'm doing real world stuff but in a instance telling me a main part of the story I want it to be more immersive. I hate all these linear story bits too because I feel like this is a mmorpg and not a frigging single plater game. I could go and play single player RPG's with the quality of Mass Effect or Fallout 3 and Lotro when it does these parts feels like some subpar RPG on the PS2. They're not good and they're not fun.

So I got bored of doing quests and it wouldn't let me out still so frigging I decided to call it a night.

 

I have other gripes which really make the game unfun too...

- The character models look ugly and I've made a post about this already but they just feel all cartoony and kiddy like they came outta a comic book. They are shaped all wrong and lack detail in the face and just end up being very lifeless and horrible to look at. Don't play a GTA4 before you play this game because that games character models are spot on and animate really well and just feel real. Thats how I expect Lotro character models to be like because the rest of the world looks sooo relaistic and instead you get some rigid, stiff and poorly animated ones that look more like they came outta a bad WoW clone.

- The animations are very poor and I just hate it everytime my character runs and does combat and just stands there all lifeless. They're just soo poor and I dunno.... why couldn't they have spent time on making characters feel more lifelike and realistic looking along with the world. There was one upside though, when I was swimming my character did a backstroke and I havn't seen that when swimming in other mmorpgs before, normally if you hit backwards you just turn the other way.

- When I jump it feels all laggy as I leave the ground, like I hit the jump and then the animation comes..... I want it to be instant.

- The combat aswel just feels very poor and I found myself frustrated with it and not having fun. I hit a button and I get this weird lag between be hitting the button and the animation and damage being dealt and it just end sup being unsatisfying. I remember WAR suffering from this too making that combat really unfun and I dunno having Played WoW you just want all combat systems to be like that one where you hit the button and straight away you get the result on the screen... there isn't this weird lag of lotro. Before any of you say it isn't my connection of computer, it's just the combat system feeling very off and it isn't fun. In the end I just gave up and mashed the same 3 buttons over and over until I died. The combat doesn't require much input because you just stand still and hit 123 and it gets boring.

- There seemed to be a real lack of sound effects which made the world seem dead, specially in those linear instanced cinematic bits like the tutorial. You'd see something happen and there wouldn't be a sound effect to it. Wheres the roaring of all th flames? Wheres the sounds of the gates opening or me walking through a puddle etc etc.

- The starting area atleast was one of the most depressing places from a sound point of view because I just felt very lonely and it all felt very drab and lifeless. I got some horrible looping ambient music in the background which made everything seem even sadder and more boring like being in a retirement home.

- Why do I have to go through a loading screen each time I enter a building? The interior of them isn't somthing that would require it because I've been into buildings in other mmorpgs with more going on and more detailed. I just find it annoying having to keep going through these loading screens. When I'm playing a mmoprg I want to be in a seamless environment and this just breaks my immersion.

- The classes were all pretty boring and nothing stood out to me as something I wanted to play.

- The races were all pretty boring and nothing I wanted to play too and this is partly due to the horrible character models but also because I wish'd I could play as a Orc or something like the other races and go through the game telling their story.

Theres only one thing I can say that was good about Lotro and that is the Environment looks beautiful. It's just a shame the rest of the game isn't upto the standards of that.

 Yea after playing WoW and then Playing LOTRO,. the combat just felt... weird. 

Well what can one say. It's more than apparent that you want to play a different game.

The tutorial bit is just that, tutorial. I can agree that it's a bit lackluster but in some cases I thought they were fun.

The game is what it is. No more or less. It's a quest based game. I'm not sure what you want to do? Is it sit in the same place all day long in a group and grind mobs? And that wouldn't be considered boring by others?

I've never had a download where you didn't have to wait a while so I see that as just being complaining for complaining's sake.

I can agree that the game is a bit too sublime at the start for many and that it might not catch them until later on.

My thougth is that if the game has not caught you by late teens early twenties where the classes actually start to really shine then it's not your game.

The problem is that there are epic quests and an epic quest line. You have to get there. The game doesn't hand you the big stuff automatically.

As far as the acount name, just double it. so if your account name was doggy then just make doggydoggy. Problem solved.

The animations I feel are fine so that is preference. there are a few that are a bit stiff. I agree with the avatars. I have no issues whatsoever with jumping, Nothign. I would bet all you own that if you came to my house I could jump all I wanted to and it would seem fluid and easy. This might be your connection or system.

As far as the sound effects, more come later but this is game is more sublime. If you were to play a game based the historical middle ages would you expect a light and sound show?

I'm afraid this game is far too sublime for your tastes. No big deal. You tried, didn't like it and can now move on.

here are some youtube videos that might give you a better idea of some of the later gameplay. Music is horrible as they always are in these things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTC--ADy_d0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5_-wIvw1EE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSMZfhv1jlg&feature=related

You played it, you didn't like it. Fair enough.

If character animations are important to you, this game cannot satisfy you. Don't play it then.

If you don't like the classical quest system, this game cannot deliever. It's - in its very essence - a quest-based PvE game...

If you expect shiny graphics. Don't play any of the modern MMORPGs, although LotROs environment engine can compete with any MMORPG on the market, easily stomping titles like WAR or WoW...

If you had asked here before you tried the game, anyone could have told you that there were no changes since release in the aspects of the game that seem important to you (voiceover, animation, quest-system). Don't expect these to change in the future btw, the course of this game is set, they won't mess with voiceovers or animation revamps hopefully... (as everything is nearly bugfree at the moment and I like it to stay this way)

M

Heres the Orcs story....they get their asses beat.

Now why would you play the side you know will lose no matter what in the x-pac withMinas Tirth and the Black Gate. They would have to destory lore otherwise. Now Conquest on the other hand doesn't care too much. After seeing this post I think you should just get out of mmos. I mean all quest can't be epic or there wouldn't be many. Its either kill these mobs for a long time or do it for a quest grinding is grinding.

     I have to agree the LoTRO quests wore me out also...I lasted about  a month and level 37 till I just couldnt stand the game anymore.......I had soem friends in game but I was trying to get them to come play other games and get away from LoTRO....... If it was your first MMO and you loved teh lore I could see staying but if youve played EQ2, WoW, EQ1, etc etc already then you know that LoTRO is nothing special and the quests are very boring........ Some of the fed ex quests I was getting after 35 were just excrutiating.... I can only run/ride my horse so much before going insane.......I left the game with over 4 months left on my sub and was glad I didnt give in to the lifetime sub.

Originally posted by Theocritus

     I have to agree the LoTRO quests wore me out also...I lasted about  a month and level 37 till I just couldnt stand the game anymore.......I had soem friends in game but I was trying to get them to come play other games and get away from LoTRO....... If it was your first MMO and you loved teh lore I could see staying but if youve played EQ2, WoW, EQ1, etc etc already then you know that LoTRO is nothing special and the quests are very boring........ Some of the fed ex quests I was getting after 35 were just excrutiating.... I can only run/ride my horse so much before going insane.......I left the game with over 4 months left on my sub and was glad I didnt give in to the lifetime sub.

That's just not true. I have played all the titles in your list before LotRO and found it a very rich and new experience with the epic quest lines (which actually ARE an ongoing plot through your journeys)...

Of course there are fedex and kill-quests, as in any MMORPG, but there are lots of instanced quests and quests with actual storylines, Elendils tomb, fools crown, the tale of the seven swords, or small ones like defending the herd or breaking the bond... EQ2 had heritage lines that were kind of close, but never - for me - reached the intensity of LotRO. And in WoW, the first time I saw something scripted was within the onyxia questline, which was at the level cap (back then)......

So sure, if you don't like questing, don't play this game, still, if you are burnt out of the classical MMORPG game concept of EQ/2, WoW, modern SWG, Vanguard, WAR,... don't play this game, it never promised anything revolutionary...

M

Originally posted by Meridion

You played it, you didn't like it. Fair enough.

If character animations are important to you, this game cannot satisfy you. Don't play it then.

If you don't like the classical quest system, this game cannot deliever. It's - in its very essence - a quest-based PvE game...

If you expect shiny graphics. Don't play any of the modern MMORPGs, although LotROs environment engine can compete with any MMORPG on the market, easily stomping titles like WAR or WoW...

If you had asked here before you tried the game, anyone could have told you that there were no changes since release in the aspects of the game that seem important to you (voiceover, animation, quest-system). Don't expect these to change in the future btw, the course of this game is set, they won't mess with voiceovers or animation revamps hopefully... (as everything is nearly bugfree at the moment and I like it to stay this way)

M

 

 

 

Ever heard of the weakest link?... Everyone knows that the weakest link in LOTRO is the poor animation quality...  It has nothing to do with shiny things... it has to do with bad animations.... 

If you dont like it... fair enough...  But thats still a crappy answer to ppl that are playing games like WOW or even 3-4 year old games that have better animations...  It is still a reason why alot of ppl dont like LOTRO and thats just a fact.... 

Some ppl can look past the poor animations... I wonder... would those same ppl have looked past a bad or crappy animation in LOTR movies ??  ... Again ... If you dont like it - fair enough...

Thats not how LOTR became famious... it was BECAUSE ppl liked it... 

Originally posted by Theocritus

   If it was your first MMO and you loved teh lore I could see staying but if youve played EQ2, WoW, EQ1, etc etc already then you know that LoTRO is nothing special and the quests are very boring........ Some of the fed ex quests I was getting after 35 were just excrutiating.... I can only run/ride my horse so much before going insane.......I left the game with over 4 months left on my sub and was glad I didnt give in to the lifetime sub.

hmmm, sorry I don't think so.

I played many other games before LOTRO and it "is" special. Just not in a way that many players appreciate. I was in beta for WoW and had also played WoW and my subscrption dollars go to LOTRO.

This is not to say that WoW doesn't have more or isn't a more polished game. It is.

But LOTRO is less clownlike, less trashy in my opinion. That's a bit strong but it's the only thing I can think of. It's less over the top.

I like the more realistic nature of lotro. I would prefer better gear and better avatars but they aren't going to change it so I live with it.

EQ 2 looks like clay to me. And I play on most of the highest settings. I hated the quests in EQ II. They were boring and a lot of running over very extreme distances. At least to the point that I got to.

WoW's quests are fun to me and the game does try to mitigate some of the nonsense. Better quest rewards too in my opinion as LOTRO will offer you one helmet, one breastplate one ring. But if you can't use that helmet or breastplate because they are the wrong armor type then they become vendor trash.

Sorry you didn't like the game OP, but I wasn't that crazy about it when I first played it either. Now, after more than a year, and plenty of time in other games, it's my MMO home, the one I can count on for an immersive, fun experience. But it's all personal taste in the end, so I hope you find a game you can enjoy. Personally, I can't wait to see where they take this game: Rohan, Gondor, Mordor! I'm definitely in it for the long haul.

Originally posted by Frobner

Originally posted by Meridion

You played it, you didn't like it. Fair enough.

If character animations are important to you, this game cannot satisfy you. Don't play it then.

If you don't like the classical quest system, this game cannot deliever. It's - in its very essence - a quest-based PvE game...

If you expect shiny graphics. Don't play any of the modern MMORPGs, although LotROs environment engine can compete with any MMORPG on the market, easily stomping titles like WAR or WoW...

If you had asked here before you tried the game, anyone could have told you that there were no changes since release in the aspects of the game that seem important to you (voiceover, animation, quest-system). Don't expect these to change in the future btw, the course of this game is set, they won't mess with voiceovers or animation revamps hopefully... (as everything is nearly bugfree at the moment and I like it to stay this way)

M 

Ever heard of the weakest link?... Everyone knows that the weakest link in LOTRO is the poor animation quality...  It has nothing to do with shiny things... it has to do with bad animations.... 

If you dont like it... fair enough...  But thats still a crappy answer to ppl that are playing games like WOW or even 3-4 year old games that have better animations...  It is still a reason why alot of ppl dont like LOTRO and thats just a fact.... 

Some ppl can look past the poor animations... I wonder... would those same ppl have looked past a bad or crappy animation in LOTR movies ??  ... Again ... If you dont like it - fair enough...

Thats not how LOTR became famious... it was BECAUSE ppl liked it... 

Let's keep in mind... The animations are not disastrous, they are simple. They work pretty accurately, they don't stutter, they aren't unfinished, they are not by themselves laggy... they are just not very "over the top". But they are well done technically; so this boils down to taste in the end.

And I never tried to justify the lack of shiny animations with the excellence at environment. I just wanted to say that, concerning GRAPHICS, if you like immersive environment more than character animations, LotRO will most likely be your title, more than say ... WoW, where environment is "par" at best while the animations are the best in the genre.

Concerning the movies, that's all subject to change, in the 50s a much less thought out combat choreography would have been massively successful. I don't think a good movie, or a good game, essentially needs things like animations or graphics. Nice to have, but I enjoyed the Silmarillion more than any other Tolkien work without ever having one animation or image of or in it.

Why do I write this? - I think if you complain about graphics or sound or animations you probably don't like the game itself, mechanics, content, design... It's a cheap shot, throwing bad animations into the ring just because you don't like the game type (classic PvE MMORPG)...

M

Edit: EvE is a nice example btw. It has no animations at all and GFX is "empty space" in 99% of the cases and it's still a great game, close to perfection mechanicswise.

I wish the OP could bash the game more straightly because I can't see any point about the opinion. No offense.

So much text for what you could explain in one sentence. Simple "I don't like the game." would be enough. 

Thanks for your opinion, OP. No one is going to try to change your mind, as you've clearly made it up that you don't like LotRO -- which is fine.

As a fan of the books/movies, I've never felt more immersed in the world and the struggles of good vs. evil than in this game. That, combined with exceptional class mechanics (every class is distinct and can function on their own), have made this my home for the last few months, and likely many months more down the road.

Best wishes finding "your game"; it's not an easy thing to do.

I don't usually reply to posts like these...but I'm bored at work waiting for Christmas vacation to start.

I've been playing for about a month, and have to disagree with most of what you said.

1) No the animations are lifelike but they are by no means disastrous.  Running/jumping/ both seem fine to me. They don't ever appear to be broken. Honestly show me where they are much better in WoW or any other game?

2) I enjoy LoTRO combat. It has a very solid feel to it. However as a captain I would prefer less yelling.

3) there is nothing wrong with the tutorial area. What do you expect for a game starting area? 

4) I'm one of those weird people who like to read the quests. I did it in WoW for over a year and I'm doing the same in LoTRO.  I personally think the quests are extremely organized, thought out, and  immersive.

World of Warcraft is a great game, but the lack of a story makes the entire effort pointless. At max level you either raid for gear,  or PvP with badly behaved 12 year olds.

To the OP I hope you find what your looking for in a game. In all honestly I don't hink you will. Like some others I'm wondering why you went around the world to say so little. Your post doesn't sound very geniun at all.

Yup, the best thing about lotro are the graphics. The terrain graphics, not even the player models... And guess what, they didn't even design that technology themselves, they bought it. :) Companies like Turbine, SOE, Funcom all use the same technology. Which would be fine, it saves them a lot of time. More time to make the other things. But the others things fail in lotro... So I guess we can speak of Turbine being lazy!

BTW, You have to load everytime you enter a house because moving colissions are pretty hard to make. Guess why DF lists them as one of their primary features. ;)

Originally posted by erandur

Yup, the best thing about lotro are the graphics. The terrain graphics, not even the player models... And guess what, they didn't even design that technology themselves, they bought it. :) Companies like Turbine, SOE, Funcom all use the same technology. Which would be fine, it saves them a lot of time. More time to make the other things. But the others things fail in lotro... So I guess we can speak of Turbine being lazy!

BTW, You have to load everytime you enter a house because moving colissions are pretty hard to make. Guess why DF lists them as one of their primary features. ;)

"Turbine Engine
Turbine has developed a state-of-the-art technology platform that enables the rapid creation and efficient operation of world-class online entertainment. The Turbine Engine is at the core of some of the most immersive and compelling online worlds available today. This technology provides an end-to-end solution that integrates the tools required to build rich and immersive online worlds with the infrastructure needed to support large scale operations.

Our scalable client and server architecture supports the rapid pace of change in the online market allowing our worlds to grow and transform over time. The Turbine Engine provides the flexibility to localize and deploy our products around the globe regardless of billing system, content updating method and varied community needs.

The Turbine Engine is an unmatched platform for innovation that provides a significant competitive advantage in the growing market for online entertainment. "

www.turbine.com/technology.html

The Ai Technology is third party Mayube some links to support some of the claims ? As far as i kno w , Epic's Unreal engine is the only true game engine that has been leased by Sigil, NcSoft, SOE.  Maybe some one knows of another prossional engine that Turbine has leased ? 

Also like to point out that is most cases, except for Lineage 2, the Epic engine has failed the mmo market.

lol at this post, thanks for trying the game !

Originally posted by solareus

Originally posted by erandur

Yup, the best thing about lotro are the graphics. The terrain graphics, not even the player models... And guess what, they didn't even design that technology themselves, they bought it. :) Companies like Turbine, SOE, Funcom all use the same technology. Which would be fine, it saves them a lot of time. More time to make the other things. But the others things fail in lotro... So I guess we can speak of Turbine being lazy!

BTW, You have to load everytime you enter a house because moving colissions are pretty hard to make. Guess why DF lists them as one of their primary features. ;)

 

"Turbine Engine
Turbine has developed a state-of-the-art technology platform that enables the rapid creation and efficient operation of world-class online entertainment. The Turbine Engine is at the core of some of the most immersive and compelling online worlds available today. This technology provides an end-to-end solution that integrates the tools required to build rich and immersive online worlds with the infrastructure needed to support large scale operations.

Our scalable client and server architecture supports the rapid pace of change in the online market allowing our worlds to grow and transform over time. The Turbine Engine provides the flexibility to localize and deploy our products around the globe regardless of billing system, content updating method and varied community needs.

The Turbine Engine is an unmatched platform for innovation that provides a significant competitive advantage in the growing market for online entertainment. "

 

www.turbine.com/technology.html

 

The Ai Technology is third party Mayube some links to support some of the claims ? As far as i kno w , Epic's Unreal engine is the only true game engine that has been leased by Sigil, NcSoft, SOE.  Maybe some one knows of another prossional engine that Turbine has leased ? 

Also like to point out that is most cases, except for Lineage 2, the Epic engine has failed the mmo market.

 

 

 

That's very true. Games produced by Turbine may not be so contentfully, but the combat engine is very impressive. One of the game company successfully produced their own technology in their games.

I like the combat. But sometimes, I wondered are game really able to calculate so much? There must be an index number to represent each category then calculation are based on these index.

And because Turbine is a private company , we have no idea who they leased thier technology to .