Leveling is definitely faster than the last time you logged on. The XP curve was adjusted a few months back and it's realistic to reach level 20 in a couple of days, and level 35 in about 10-14 days.

Also Turbine have been systematically revamping lower level areas to bring the game into line with later content. The result has been a more focussed leveling experience in those areas so far updated (Shire/Erid Luin and Breeland).

I have to say that once you leave those areas (around 20-25), leveling really seems to slow down a lot. (more than simply the fact that you have a larger XP goal each level). The good news is that Turbine should be continuing these reworkings in future updates, so a revamped Lone Lands and North Downs can't be far away.

My personal opinion is that the starter areas seem to be over very quickly. This is okay for a veteran who wants to level a number of characters (I have 7!), but i do wonder if new starters are being hustled along at a pace that may leave little time to savour the atmosphere and storyline that makes this MMO really stand above the rest.

There is lots of great music out there. I love the Ashenvale music in WoW, and although i don't play WoW anymore, it's the music that makes me sad that i left!

My favourite song though has to be 'Still Alive' at the end of Portal. It was a unexpected treat for completing such a wonderful game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

I think that the vendors in LotRO need a major upgrade. Travel to any settlement and they are all over the place, but what are they actually good for?

1. Selling your junk to.

2. Repairing character items.

3. Buying healing potions / crafting ingredients/recipes from.

That's it (at least for me)

I believe strongly that every item in Middle Earth should be valuable to someone. (even junk trophies are a valuable source of income). why do vendors sell stuff that no one would want to buy? Why sell grey armour or weapons anywhere, except maybe in the starter areas?

Faction-based barter vendors are a step in the right direction, but even then, they sell some stuff that has no apparent purpose/value. Am i missing the point of the Mathom Society selling a butter knife? If i've spent my time and effort to gain repuation, the potential rewards need to be worth it.

When i say purpose, i don't necessarily mean serious stuff. Stuff like fireworks or a cold fish you can slap someone with are great, beacause they actually DO something and add a bit of fun to proceedings. Outfit items are good for adding a touch of personalisation.

One thing I'd like to see is random 'rarer' items available from vendors the same way WoW does. At least it would give people a reason to actually check out a vendors wares - just in case theres a hidden gem there.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

I'd like to echo the sentiments expressed above.

Lotro really does have a mature community. I've been playing for over 15 months and my ignore list consists of just 2 people!

What i also tend to find is that maturity doesn't necessarily equate to age. My kin has a range of ages in it, and you couldn't guess which were teenagers by their conduct. It really is refreshing.

That was probably the major reason i left WoW - too many immature griefers.

Originally posted by ethion

I played the game at launch and started playing the free week trial.  I noticed some differences.

I started a new character and noticed the starting area for the elves has a lot of quests removed.  Did they only do this in the starting areas?

It seems like some the fight anganst  the signiture mob was easier they I remember.  Have they made signiture mobs a little easier?

How has the rest of the lower level game changed?  One of the biggest concerns I have returning to the game is doing the story line quests.  They used to be all group oriented.  Is this still the case?  Do some people just skip the storyline quests?  Can you go back and do them solo after you have outleveled them?

Yes, Erid Luin (Elf & Dwarf starting area) received a face lift in the Book 7 update (plus a smaller tweak of The Shire).

Breeland has been overhalled in Book 8 and has now become more structured with new quest hubs in the Barrow Downs & North Breefields with less running backwards and forwards needed. (Plus new repeatable quests (up to 3 times) thrown in, to earn some nice crafting crit items)

Another thing that's happened is that the early game content has become more solo friendly with a lot of early difficulty 'spikes' smoothed out (such as the infamous Book1-Chapter11 'Othrongroth' instance with Tom Bombadil which is now a solo quest).

Overall, the early game flows more freely and with more purpose, and until about level 22, is almost completely soloable (really until you get to the Great Barrows in the Barrow Downs,which is the first big instanced group area). This has made the game easier in my eyes, but that's isn't a critism as people who like to group can rattle through the quests quite quickly and move onto the un-updated (read 'harder') areas of the game.

I for one, hope that these updates and overhalls continue on to the Lone Lands/North Downs/Trollshaws and beyond, as i think they are helping to keep the game fresh.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

To be completely blunt, at least for me, the newbie zones were by far the most interesting and fun parts of the game. (And why I stupidly splurged for a lifetime account)

Once you leave them, you only have a small amount of content. And what content is, is generally heavily chained, often with a group quest. So you can't really solo effectively, without a lot of grinding. And where I am now in the game (level 44, took me almost a year to get there), there doesn't seem to be any quests at all.

Go to the Lorebook and see for yourself.

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Special:Advancedsearch?type=quest

From 1-20,. there are about 600 quests

From 20-30, there are 200

From 30-40, there are 300 (but this is misleading, as it includes crafting quests at 30, and horse quests at 35, which aren't available to all, and many of the horse quests are simply trading your horse in for another color)

Picks up after that, but so many are chained, and not available to me.

Groups are impossible to find, and I've never been able to find a guild (kinship) that would take me. Unless you are an uber geek with no life, apparently you are not wanted.

 

If that's been your experience of LotRo then i can see why you'd feel quite negative about it.

My experience however couldn't have been farther from that. When i started i wanted to strictly solo. I managed to get my Champion to Level 60 without grouping once. True there are (were since the book 8 update of breeland) some important low level group quests, but i simple ignored them until i was a much higher level, then soloed them.

Not once on my journey did i have a quest log that was less than half full. That's a lot of quests, as the log can hold 40-50 quests (starting at 40, you gain an extra quest slot for every 40 deeds you complete up to a maximum of 50). In fact, more often than i liked, i was having to sacrifice low level (green & light blue) quests to make more room whenever i found a new quest hub.

What may have caused you quest drought is the fact that after you leave Breeland (anywhere up to lvl 20-25), the main path splits into two:

One path goes east through the Lone Lands to Trollshaw, Rivendell then splits north to the Misty Mountains and south to Eregion (following the path of the fellowship).

The other starts north to Trestlebridge and the North downs, then splits west to Lake Everdim and Forochel (both areas are gorgeous and were added during free book updates) or north-east to Angmar.

This second route seems to have far more quests than following the fellowship. In fact, it's well documented that you could just stay in the North Downs and level from 25 right up to 40!! A lot of players i've since spoken to rate the North Downs as their favourite area of the game (so far).

On the subject of kinships, once i reached lvl 60 with my Champ i looked back on all the areas i missed out on by avoiding groups: The Great Barrow, Fornost, The Rift in Angmar (to name a few), so i took the plunge and joined a Kinship. I had no problem finding one (in fact, i have moved my 6 characters into a second more active kin now).

Most kins on my server (EU server Evernight) are crying out for members and the regional chat has a regular stream of kinship adverts, especially at the weekends.

Both kins i've been in have been nothing but courteous and polite the whole time and a real pleasure to be with (further increasing my annoyance that i waited so long to join one!), and i have never been required to group or give more time to the game than i was prepared to do.

I will conceed one point however, that although grouping in random fellowships (not kin based ones) at low levels is easy, i have found some difficulties finding groups in between levels 30-45.

There is usually few problems finding groups to do the epic story arcs or big instanced areas (Fornost etc), but finding groups for the other random fellowship / small fellowship quests can be quite hard. Often i find myself either bypassing them altogether  or coersing my kinnies to come and help me.

I think that LoTRo, like a lot of other MMOs, is like a dumbell, with higher concentrations of players at each end of the leveling spectrum and players spread out over a wide area inbetween.

Unfortunately, i can't see a solution for that, and as the game expands it may get even worse.

I just hope that Turbine doesn't follow the route that Blizzard did with WoW and speed up leveling to a point where it's obvious that you're being led at break-neck speed towards the goal of "endgame content".

The thing about LotRO, is it's all about the journey not the destination.

Originally posted by Tangogulf

One more thing, my system is pretty good, 9800 GX2, 4 gigs ram etc...Any good graphic configuration links out there?
 

Try this link to a pretty in-depth performance guide:

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163401

I did a lot of in-game experimenting and found that probably the biggest framerate killer was the anti-aliasing. i now set it at 2x instead of 8x for a 10-15fps speed boost on average. (i have everything else maxed out and DX 10 active with an ATI 4870 & 8Gb ram and get 55-60fps average speed)

It sure is a pretty game!

Originally posted by Tangogulf

I'm reading on the official forums that Minstrels are in demand. I like healing and tanking. Any other classes that are currently in demand?

I've been playing LotRO for a solid 15 months now and i've just rolled my first Minstrel. I feel bad that i overlooked this class for so long, as it's sooo much fun.

Other popular newbie classes are Champions (Light tank with great DPS and Area Effects) and Hunters (Nuker). Our Kinship (guild/clan) has a tonne of 'em. Both are easy to play, very soloable and always welcome in groups. (personally, i have a maxed out (lvl 60) champ and a hunter at lvl 37).

The only class i wouldn't recommend (from personal experience) is Lore Master. I didn't enjoy the pet aspect of it. But i'm sure there are a lot of LotRO fans who love them.

I'd also like to echo the replies above and say that the starting area is very guided and structured, but there really is a lot to do. Leveling is quick, but not rushed (like WoW has become). Once you get out in the wide world it can feel like you've got too much to do (loads of quests / epic story arcs to follow / deeds to increase stats / crafting / fishing / festivals (the summer one is running atm)/ or just exploring off the beaten track).

My main bit of advice is to find a good kinship, get swept up in the story and enjoy!

Originally posted by Durand

No nerfing?!

You may have missed the champion nerf that resulted in over 800 posts in a couple of days before it was closed by the moderators.  I really wish they would just tweak things like you say.  The champs main stance was hit with a -30% healing penalty and the book 15 horse reward was nerfed.  That is on top of the dps neft, b/p/e nerf, rend nerf, CB, and CBR nerf to the class since moria released.  I really liked my character, but I want to continue progressing, not losing things I have worked to obtain.

 

Nerfing, i see no nerfing. What's wrong with a few tweaks?

I have a level 60 Champ among my 6 characters and i can tell you that i am more than happy to see him balanced and brought into line with other classes.

The challenge is to learn new strategies when these changes occur. after all,  MMO's are living, dynamic entities.

I get it, you're afraid of change,but I bet no one whines and complains when their favourite class gets a boost.

C'est la vie

Originally posted by solareus

Game is patched, and book 8 is amazing.

Ditto. It was well worth the wait. All the changes Turbine have made have really helped streamline the lower levels.

The quest updates to the Breeland area are simply brilliant. New quests and hubs, a completely revamped Barrow Downs and better use of what was barren areas of north Bree. I've just leveled a Man Minstrel to level 23 and i have to say, this is some of the best fun i've had in a while. I always felt a sense of purpose and direction.

Apart from the slight release delay, this has been a textbook example of how to update a game - no nerfing.  Just tweak the good to make it great - Well done Turbine, now on to book 9.....

Originally posted by Thradar

When has level of consumption ever strongly correlated with level of quality?  If anything there's an inverse correlation.

This thread is full of morans.

Really?? I thought the Morans were Masai Warriors from Kenya, but then i'm not a moron!!!

JUST KIDDING!! PLEASE DON'T FLAME ME IT WAS JUST A LITTLE POKE!

Joking aside, you do have a very valid point Thradar.

11.5 Million subscribers for WoW doesn't make it a better game. Yes, it is a good game, but there are many examples of 'better quality' games with relatively small subscription bases (Eve online, anyone?).

Personally, i prefer that. At least you know the company making/updating the game has to try harder to please it's precious fanbase, with the exception of Aventurine's Darkfall, which seems to have imploded (with a little nudge from Ed Zitron, if what i read is to be believed).

But hey,  i'm a carebare, so what do i know?      <--- Dear Trolls, i've added a line you can quote me on, so get pasting

Originally posted by Yeebo

Literally all I did last night was log onto each of my toons, reorganize their banks, and trade in their crit items for the new ones.  Freed up a ton of bank space, and the organization of my crit items is a lot more logical now.   But man, that was ceratinly not my idea of excitement. 

I wish i could have that much excitement.

Us poor schlobs in the EU, haven't even got the patch yet.

It's been delayed until codemasters  "can go live with the fixes to these issues"

But more worrying this statement  "Please note that further issues discovered on the US service may preclude us from releasing Book 8 until further hotfixes are received".
 

Still, i love this game so much that i'll forgive Turbine this time. Just get it fixed ASAP guys....PLEASE

Originally posted by Zorndorf

That's why LOTRO has around 200K subscriptions at the moment and Wow has 11.500.000. 

How did you come by this subscription figure? Turbine NEVER release subscription figures.

Be honest now... did you just make it up??

As for Lotro itself, what's wrong with taking the best bits of previous games and adding your own twist. It's called evolution (you know, that thing that DOES exist - i'm looking at you, you crazy Creationists. Ok i digress!!).

As a 'mature' gamer i have played 1000's of games over the last 27 years and i have never ever found a game that held my attention like this game has. I've been playing on a daily basis for over a year now and i'm still not bored by it's grand majesty.

To anyone who may be swayed by the negative posts here... Just try the game.

You may fall in love just like i did

For me, it would have to be The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchet.

It'd be great to play a light-hearted MMO with a great sense of (British) humour.

Ahh, to walk around Ankh Morpork, or visit Deaths cottage.

Great article, but i think you missed one off.

There was this one game announced in September 2001 -  World of Witchcraft or something, (my memories not what it used to be).

As i recall, it took place in a land called Astroth (named after that guy from Soul calibur, i think).

You could be on one of two sides: Whores or A Giant (sounds weird i know).

Ah memories. I wonder what ever became of it?

Oh well, guess i'd better get back to playing Hello Kitty: Island Adventure.

A lot of games developers  are "dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants", and that's no bad thing. They look at what's worked and what hasn't in previous titles and adapt it.

Personally i think the whole "Wow clone" argument is a bit pointless. You don't seem to get it in other games genres. You don't see people waxing lyrical about how "Race Driver: Grid is a clone of Night Driver" (ok, that's a bit extreme!). It's just evolutiuon - lot's of small adaptations with the occasional big leap.

I'm a fan of LotRO and i can see how it takes a lot of itself from WoW and the other great MMOs that went before. But it also adds it's own uniqueness into the mix. No doubt future MMOs with include that too - It's the circle of life (sorry to go all "Lion King" at the end!)

I'm really enjoying the maze. Check it out, especially if you've got a hankering for slapping people in the face with a cold fish!