Two comments:

Biggest issue I had with SWG launch day was creating my account. I went from IE to Firefox which solved that problem and then had no problem logging in on the Eclipse server. But yeah the game was buggy for months afterwards. The BioEng class was hopelessy broken so I ended up choosing Medic. The Jedi/hologram grind was a serious disapointment and a poor way to implement the jedi class.The data base was extrtremely unstable and when I lost a millon credits of crafted items and my house vendor then the CS told me to suck it up I quit and never looked back.

Only issue I had with WoW was server ques. The game and graphics did me in though, they give me a real life skull pop of a headache, no kidding. 20 days after launch I logged off and to this day have never went back.

My personal worst experiance was Ages of Conan. Game ran great for me the first week, then suddenly one morning the game started crashing at launch. Customer support was non existent. A bunch of us with the same issue had a 100+ page thread on the tech forums. The Funcom devs just ignored it. In desperation my last week of the 30 days I did a roll over format of my hard drive which worked, but when I logged in most of my guild had called it quits by then over bugs and performance issues. I think  played one more day then said to heck with it and went back to Lotro.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by Sovrath

I think that the issue is that there is very little that "forces" a player to group in order to progress.

One has to choose to group in many cases.

as it should be. Choice is always a good thing. If someone who wants a forced group game LoTRO is certainly not the game for  them.

I just wish there was more grouping options along longer quest lines for players who like to group. Even though I'm a soloer at heart, it always seems weird to come to a part that requires a group, you spend time finding that group, zip through the content (god how I hate pug's) and then disband as soon as it's done.

That isn't what grouping should be about.

So though I'm all for choice, there should be group content where groupers can group together for an evening and it makes sense that they remain grouped for that evening.

This is not to say that a person can't pick a variety of smaller raid encounters and run them over a week. For an example, in Aion, there were areas that just required a group. Plain and simple. And yet one could solo other parts of the game without issues.

That to me is real choice.

guess I am getting old, 10 years ago I loved the all nighters but now any dungeon that requires me to group for 3 hours or  even more than a hour most days just does not interest me much .~shrug~  Every shoe does not fit every foot and no one game can satisfy everyone.

On a unrelated note, I still have not tried Aion,  although I keep meaning to. Eve and Lotro keep me occupied and never can see any reason to quit either one. Of course I will be trying GWII like most everyone else here when it  releases LOL.

Well, I can't say that "I'm" very interested in 3 hour dungeons either. Not to say that I'm adverse but unless it's a planned event with kin, I'd rather not do 3 hours in a pug if I can help it. Still, I've had some longer dungeon experiences in lotro that were nice.

What I'm talking about are the times when I've had to group, I've grouped up, the members of the group rushed through the content and then as soon as it was over everyone disbanded.

that to me is not fun game play but something that has to be tolerated until I can solo again. on top of that, for the die hard groupers it doesn't really fit the bill.

A grouper should be able to get into a group and spend an evening if they want. Or not. Of course, as was mentioned, one can actually do groups if they are inclined. In my example we did one of the lower lvl instances with a kin group. That was fun. But some quests in a quest line go along being solo affairs (fine with me) and then break for one group and then back to solo. That just seems silly to me.

Some good points and I agree somewhat. The way i see it if they put too much group content in the soloers bitch. If they don't put enough in then the group oriented players bitch. I don't think they will ever make everyone happy.

I like Eve, but agree the poster above that said this catagory needed a none of the above as a choice. When Eve released it was pretty darn innovative, but nothing I have seen this year has fundamentaly changed the game. That is nothing aginst the quality of the game itself, just wondering what they did that could be considerd innovative?

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by Sovrath

I think that the issue is that there is very little that "forces" a player to group in order to progress.

One has to choose to group in many cases.

as it should be. Choice is always a good thing. If someone who wants a forced group game LoTRO is certainly not the game for  them.

I just wish there was more grouping options along longer quest lines for players who like to group. Even though I'm a soloer at heart, it always seems weird to come to a part that requires a group, you spend time finding that group, zip through the content (god how I hate pug's) and then disband as soon as it's done.

That isn't what grouping should be about.

So though I'm all for choice, there should be group content where groupers can group together for an evening and it makes sense that they remain grouped for that evening.

This is not to say that a person can't pick a variety of smaller raid encounters and run them over a week. For an example, in Aion, there were areas that just required a group. Plain and simple. And yet one could solo other parts of the game without issues.

That to me is real choice.

guess I am getting old, 10 years ago I loved the all nighters but now any dungeon that requires me to group for 3 hours or  even more than a hour most days just does not interest me much .~shrug~  Every shoe does not fit every foot and no one game can satisfy everyone.

On a unrelated note, I still have not tried Aion,  although I keep meaning to. Eve and Lotro keep me occupied and never can see any reason to quit either one. Of course I will be trying GWII like most everyone else here when it  releases LOL.

Originally posted by Sovrath

I think that the issue is that there is very little that "forces" a player to group in order to progress.

One has to choose to group in many cases.

as it should be. Choice is always a good thing. If someone who wants a forced group game LoTRO is certainly not the game for  them.

for future reference there is a quest sharing feature. The exception is if it is a quest in the middle of a chain and you have not done the prerequesite quest (s). Otherwise for non chain quests group members can share quests on the fly in a manner of speaking.

Originally posted by Shari

Are you ina Kin?, if not I would advise you to get in one as me and my Kin are always in a group and never solo. We do end game skirmishes, Slayer deeds and dungeons everyday.

Grouping is very active in the game especially at level 65

well said.

No MMO is very fun unless you are in a good kinship with like minded people. Might as well be playing a single player game otherwise. The looking for fellowship channel is always active on Silverlode, mostly wanting players for instance runs. I generaly  prefer playing with people I know, but if no kinship groups are available I do the occasional PUG. Mostly good experiences with the PUGs too, although I have ended up in the occasional group from hell ...LOL.

This game like all the other MMO's. It is what you make of it, Turbine has a lot of tools and content  for players to use and enjoy, you just got to take advantadge of them. just my opinion.

a well deserved award . AoC has it's issues but the graphics are the best , no argument there.

I did not agree with most of those awards, this one and DAoC getting the one for best PvP were the only two awarsds that I thought were spot on. Also saw where Anarchy Online got a runner up for most innovative, in my opinion AO probably should have won there. Either AO or maybe the original SWG ~shrug~  Anyway grats on winning a award.

Originally posted by Thelow

at begining its regular questing but what at max lvl?

 

Is it raiding and instancing as in WoW, or PvP as you do in WAR?

 I cannot comment on the raids or MPvP since I got my fill of raising with EQII. Not much into PvP because in my opinion no one has managed to do it right since DAoC.

What do you do at max lvl here?

Been playing since launch and I do whatever I feel like doing on that day. I have several alts not yet at max so I might lvl 1 of those. I might hunt shard droppers or go looking for mithril flakes. One thing I never tire is playing trader at the Auction House, I like EvE also. I sell crafted gear for good coin and also farm everything from resources to rep items and just sell them on the AH for kicks. My goal is to have a crafter at max guild level in each of the guids one day. I also collect mounts so evertime a new one comes out I do whatever it takes to try and get one for my main at least. 

I guess liek I said in the first sentence I do pretty much I do whatever I feel like doing that that particular day, even if it just sitting near the one of the stables in Bree and doing people watching while shooting the breeze in kinship chat. For some one like me there is plenty of variety.

 

 

only thing I would change is going to free from decorating like SWG had.

never auto combine - wait till you have at lweast 5 of a relic then combine it and you have a much greater chance of getting a a "crit" combine which will give you anywhere from 2 to 5 relics from the combine

Not being a min/maxxer I don't grind anything but if you really want to grind relics for whatever reason do the quests from the two guys in Dolven view (across from stable master) that give fused relics as a reward. There are 6 quests available per day from them.

Still cannot figure why anyone would want to grind anything though. Just learn to play your character well and have fun. Playing skill trumps equipment in this game, I have proved that time and time again.

Been playing LoTRO since closed beta also, 3 characters at 65 and 2 others in 50's and never did a single raid or own any radience gear so I won't miss it. I am glad they are putting more empahsis on crafted since I  have a guilded tailor and guilded metalsmith.

Originally posted by Larry2298

 There are many quest turn out to be too easy for minstrel since you just need to heal the npc or npc crows, voila. But for a melee class, hunter/captain/guardian/champion/warden. Ruingalab is impossible to kill in Solo mode, there is ZERO chance.

The mob will do incapacite, and returning received damages more than 50% back to you, the fire aura has strong pulse to cause fire damage, 3 fire damages in a row within 1 second, plus dealing damage. There isn't challenge at all, nerf the minstrel.

 

and I am sure there are quests that your hunter can solo that would leave my minnie huddled in the corner crying like a little girl. Like I said the quest was a challenge, not a walk in the park. So far I have about a 33% success rate.

Originally posted by Sovrath

While all encounters have a chance to show up equally on all group sizes, not all encounters are designed to be as equally challenging for all group sizes. I expect ruingalad is one that is much friendlier on 3, 6, 12 than solo.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?306171-Ruingalad-the-unkillable-P

Just an interesting thread about Ruingalad since you mentioned it. It seems a minstrel was able to do it solo.

excuse the OT but since the OPs rant/question has already been answered a couple of times.

Ruingalad is killable with a minnie, I have been successful a couple of times on level 1, might be able to do him on level 2 with some luck.  I just heal tanked him and let my archer kill him and while he is a challenge he is not impossible. I used every trick I could think of and it took me 4 or 5 tries before I found the right combo.  I enjoy a good challenge and hope they do not nerf him down becuase of the complaints from players who think they should be in god mode all the time.

Originally posted by Papadam

I do the skirmishes for the XP while leveling and having a better soldier makes them alot faster/easier so spend marks on that.

yep ,  the amount of XP those things provide just doing the solo dailys is fantastic. On my latest alt I used them to skip most of Angmar and a good part of the trollshaws. Now I just do a couple a week since I am questing in Lothlorien and Mirkwood and finishing up my slayer deeds.

Originally posted by kinky10

Actually I don't think I have the high res :(

 

I can go ultra high on some settings but not textures, just high on that setting.

Trying to find where I can download just the high res texture pack from, I understand it's 3GB and my install size is around 9GB.

I do have the discs somewhere but they are the EU client and I'm on the F2P US version.

 

I'm guessing if I can find them, I just need to install the game to another directory then copy over the high res client to my US dir?

Will it work?

honestly I don't know, you might ask on those tech forums links I gave in post 2. Probably get a answer there faster and more accuratly than you will here.

Originally posted by kinky10

thanks i could go utra high so hopelly thts it and it looks sweet

if you could go ultra high then it works. Hope you enjoy the game.

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Originally posted by Jackdog

Quest hubs in LoTRO are the same game mechanic as mission hubs in Eve, neither are mandatory they simply provide a alternate path for advancement. 10 kills in LoTRO is roughly equivelent to a same level mission. You can always just grind mobs. In fact that is the fastest way to make gold. The other day I did the wolf deed in trollshaws and between selling the vendor trash putting the unprocessed hides on the  AH I made 1.5 gold in 2 hours of killing wolves. Pretty much the same with other mobs scaled to level.

If LoTRO did not have quests the trolls would say it has no content, if it has quests then the trrolls scream it has too much conten. I have to admit this is a first though seeing the same people argue both troll attacks on the same thread.

But then I suppose I am the only one that will see the irony of a post complaing about LoTRO having too many quests in a thread complaing that LoTRO has no end game content. And for the trolls who will say oohhhh but we waz talkin bout endz gamez contentz added in the last sixer weeksies, I have only 1 word  Enedwaithe.

What? How am I supposed to level in Lotro without quest hubs? Have you ever tried grinding it out in lotro its damn near impossible.

yes I have and no it is not, example - I hate Angmar, did the books up to the point where I had to just to enable cross the line. The rest iof that level was doing Angmarians for the deed and coin $$$$$$ and some skirmishes. Skipped a lot of Moria on two toons the same way. ActuallyI find it is much quicker leveling doing daily skirmishes and more coin grinding mobs for deeds than you can make running the quests but I still do the quesatin the areaas I like because they are more fun than mobs for deeds or instanced solo skirishes.

Eve's mission system is completely avoidable. they even have a exploration probe mechanic that lets you scan and kill top of the line NPCs without visiting a single agent. That's freedom dude.

yeah sure, I can only imagine a newbie going and and playing EvE w/o using the quest hubs to dorect him through the beginner and midgame. I have played EvE, never for very long becasue jumping from system to system is like watching paint dry but long enough to get up to cruiser level

Im no troll, i was only pointing out the archaic questing system in lotro and due to that my inability to even stomach it to endgame.  if thats trolling you need to man up and grow a thicker skin, seriously.

so you could not stomache it, that's your perogative.  I could not stomach the endless jump screens in Eve and that idiotic time sink of a leveling system but I don't go over to their forums and post how boring I found it.

I impressed, we have now had wow fans , SOE fans and now Eve fans specificly come to these forums to post how much they dislike LoTRO. F2P has generatred more hate and jealousy for this game than I ever thought it would....  why do you guys feel so threatened?

Look in the game folder for a file named client_highres.dat. If it's there, you have the high res client installed. Look under options and on the advanced graphics page see if you can go to high or ultra high textures

if you cannot I suggest posting on the tech forums or free to play forums

paid subscriber tech support forums

  http://forums.lotro.com/forumdisplay.php?16-Technical-Support

F2P tech support forums

http://forums.lotro.com/forumdisplay.php?162-Free-Player-Assistance

in answer to the second question  the short answer is yes, if your machine is capable of running at  ultra high the difference is amazing