So, made it out of Archet. Was having fun with my Warden. A really unique class. I was about ready to explore the world of LOTR.

I open the map...

EVERY zone is now automatically revealed. And I play MMOs for 1. Social aspect and 2. To EXPLORE a massive game world.

Back before it went free to play, I really enjoyed discovering new places...like I do in every MMO. Now, I don't even need to explore anymore...it automatically shows every place for you.

Yes, I'm ranting/whining...but that is such an epic fail for us explorer types...Turbine just completely took out the exploration of an MMO.

I know you can turn off  quest markers. Perhaps you can turn this off aswell ?

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I know you can turn off  quest markers. Perhaps you can turn this off aswell ?

I asked in chat, and the one response I got was that it was one of the devs ideas and he didn't think there was a way to turn it off. I couldn't see it in the options (looked through it twice), but I could have missed it. I'll check again.

Originally posted by Isasis

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I know you can turn off  quest markers. Perhaps you can turn this off aswell ?

I asked in chat, and the one response I got was that it was one of the devs ideas and he didn't think there was a way to turn it off. I couldn't see it in the options (looked through it twice), but I could have missed it. I'll check again.

The nerfing of LOTRO started a long time ago. There is no option to turn off the nerf to maps. :(

Originally posted by Zeppelin4

Originally posted by Isasis

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I know you can turn off  quest markers. Perhaps you can turn this off aswell ?

I asked in chat, and the one response I got was that it was one of the devs ideas and he didn't think there was a way to turn it off. I couldn't see it in the options (looked through it twice), but I could have missed it. I'll check again.

The nerfing of LOTRO started a long time ago. There is no option to turn off the nerf to maps. :(

That is too bad. A pretty big slap in the face to the people who like exploring in an MMO.

Oh well, it is free...luckily this didn't happen back when I was paying for it. Guess you get what you pay for.

It gets worse. I actually just dropped $50 on the new expansion a few days ago. Underwhelming doesn't even begin to describe it.

They're slowly but surely been making it more and more into a McMMO. This last expansion is very likely the last money I'll ever give Turbine unless they do a rather drastic change of course.

OP really phrased why LotRo was ONCE one of my favourite MMO's and is now on my some-what badlist.

At launch it was awesome, but since 2 years or so, it's becoming more and more a kiddy-game where everything is laid out before you. No mor epxloring. Crafting..? Well, you can do it, but quest rewards are already enough. Ans social play..? Why bother with that when you can do up to 65 every thing solo?

Sometimes I wonder if the devs still know the meaning of MMO, as well as I bother with a large group of players if they know what the RPG part means. Soon we'll all play on-line single-player games :(

I think they nerfed mobs as well. I remember when I played it the first time (at release) I had extreme problems with the guy with the crows in the hills where the barrows are. An npc you are suppose to kill that first let his crows attacks you. When I did it now when I was back again I could do it almost without using my abilities. And I was more use to playing back then than now. :)

The game has never been hard, but some quests were pretty challenging back in the days. Now they are like in all games that has been published since WOW arrived. Atleast early on. Haven't tried 20+ again yet. I love when you have to be careful when doing quests instead of just worrying about coming there first instead of having to wait for the questmob to spawn.

Originally posted by lindhsky

I think they nerfed mobs as well. I remember when I played it the first time (at release) I had extreme problems with the guy with the crows in the hills where the barrows are. An npc you are suppose to kill that first let his crows attacks you. When I did it now when I was back again I could do it almost without using my abilities. And I was more use to playing back then than now. :)

Yeah, those crows definately are easier now. Not to mention, at release you had to beat 4 or 5  'swarms' of them. These days it's only 2 of them.

And how about the spiders just south of the Forsaken Inn? I remember at release you had to take a small party (3 players) of around 20-22 and you still had trouble going through them. But these days, you can go solo there on every class :(

I sort of agree on the crafting. You don't "need" to craft any more, you can grind skirmish marks but the Skirm stuff isn't really any better than crafting, you just have the option to do either one.

On content, if its "normal" it is easy and I say good. Signatures are even soloable though not worth it because they drop very little normal doest, just more of the same really. Rare signature and Rare elite you will actually find harder to kill now. Boss elite that I could solo before I can't now. It kind of sucked the first time I got my ass handed to me but that's the way it should be really. Normal for grinding, signature and rare signature for epic solo and elite, rare elite for bring more people. Seems stable and playable that way.

Originally posted by lindhsky

I think they nerfed mobs as well.

The game has never been hard, but some quests were pretty challenging back in the days. Now they are like in all games that has been published since WOW arrived.

This is what bugs me as a lifetimer who's been playing since launch (on and off). It's like the devs heard a player dying in some area or while doing some quest, decided that there can be none of that, and in the next update proceeded to remove half the mobs and turning elites into plain ol' npcs who will die when you /slap them.

A bloody glorified farmwille is what it's become and that's how I'll appraoch lotro while waiting for one of the upcoming games to bring at least temporary relief.

And don't get me even started about the quality of people around in lotro nowadays. It's like all the (mentally) 10 year olds have decided to flock the global chat of lotro at least on Snowbourne.

(resumes farming Shire Apples...)

Have to say i,m an ardent lotro fan but i was disappointed in isengard...the book was ok but the rest of it was just damn annoying.i went thru the whole content solo..not once did i ahve to be in a fellowship,which i find bizzare considering its an mmo.but i do know more dungeons,skirmishes etc are on the way.has for the nerfing of mostly everything..you have 1 choice really..suck it up or leave it.i'll stick with it for now but if it does not improve in the next few months then i'll have  some complaining to do at turbine.

The thing all you complainers are missing or choosing to ignore is that these changes have been made because that's what the majority of players want. There were originally masses of quests requiring a group and people were simply bypassing them in favour of the soloable ones. So over the past couple of years, the devs have been systematically reworking the areas to make them more solo friendly. The quest with the crows is part of the Book 1 epic story line, the whole of which is now soloable if you wish but the instances have the option of a harder version for groups. It's your choice.

At the end of the day, Turbine have responded to customer feedback with these changes and must be doing something right, as it has more players now than at any time. It been going since early 2007 and yet has never had to close any servers, There's not many other mmo's can boast that.

Originally posted by Stupority

Originally posted by lindhsky

I think they nerfed mobs as well.

The game has never been hard, but some quests were pretty challenging back in the days. Now they are like in all games that has been published since WOW arrived.

This is what bugs me as a lifetimer who's been playing since launch (on and off). It's like the devs heard a player dying in some area or while doing some quest, decided that there can be none of that, and in the next update proceeded to remove half the mobs and turning elites into plain ol' npcs who will die when you /slap them.

And don't get me even started about the quality of people around in lotro nowadays. It's like all the (mentally) 10 year olds have decided to flock the global chat of lotro at least on Snowbourne. 

I agree, and noticed this trend back when they reworked the Angmar zone before any expansions.  I thought the raids were fun and mildly challenging back then.  After I raiding in AoC, coming back to a LotRO raid felt like a joke it was so easy in comparison.

Also, on your second point about the decline of maturity in the community, I agree as well.  Terrible community was what caused me to leave WoW, and the players in LotRO while it was subscription-based and in its prime were so amazing!  The nicest and most enjoyable crowd I have encountered in any game still to this day.  After it went F2P, the quality deteriorated.

    I've noticed a lot of F2P games open the maps up and it used to bother me as well because I like to explore also.  Then the MMO that I have been playing for over six years went F2P and one of the first things I noticed was the map issue.  I was figuring great, another ruined game!  Funny think is, if the world is large enough and the map is basic enough (as they should be really), then it really doesn't matter since there is still plenty to find.  Granted, this is all opinion, but I presonally feel the map issue is a non-issue.

Originally posted by reaperuk

The thing all you complainers are missing or choosing to ignore is that these changes have been made because that's what the majority of players want. There were originally masses of quests requiring a group and people were simply bypassing them in favour of the soloable ones. So over the past couple of years, the devs have been systematically reworking the areas to make them more solo friendly.

I for one think that making quests soloable makes perfect sense and support that fully. Also glad that lotro is doing so well as I love the game concept and setting in general and will not forget the early days up to some legendary rift runs at lvl50 which were some of the best times I've had in any game. What I personally don't like is that the solo content has become too easy for my taste.

If we were talking about a game I cared less about, I'd respond to the "this is what majority wants" argument with the infamous saying that 100B flies can't be wrong: shit is good;)

Originally posted by Stupority

Originally posted by reaperuk

The thing all you complainers are missing or choosing to ignore is that these changes have been made because that's what the majority of players want. There were originally masses of quests requiring a group and people were simply bypassing them in favour of the soloable ones. So over the past couple of years, the devs have been systematically reworking the areas to make them more solo friendly.

I for one think that making quests soloable makes perfect sense and support that fully. Also glad that lotro is doing so well as I love the game concept and setting in general and will not forget the early days up to some legendary rift runs at lvl50 which were some of the best times I've had in any game. What I personally don't like is that the solo content has become too easy for my taste.

If we were talking about a game I cared less about, I'd respond to the "this is what majority wants" argument with the infamous saying that 100B flies can't be wrong: shit is good;)

 

i dont mind them makin the quests solo..i can understand that..but basically no end game atm apart from scaled stuff gets quite repetative..what i,m getting at is there is nothing new in the way of fellowship stuff apart from raid.has i say i'll stick with it..i have done since i left WOW .i know there is more content on the way..just looking forward to it.

Originally posted by reaperuk

The thing all you complainers are missing or choosing to ignore is that these changes have been made because that's what the majority of players want. There were originally masses of quests requiring a group and people were simply bypassing them in favour of the soloable ones. So over the past couple of years, the devs have been systematically reworking the areas to make them more solo friendly. The quest with the crows is part of the Book 1 epic story line, the whole of which is now soloable if you wish but the instances have the option of a harder version for groups. It's your choice.

At the end of the day, Turbine have responded to customer feedback with these changes and must be doing something right, as it has more players now than at any time. It been going since early 2007 and yet has never had to close any servers, There's not many other mmo's can boast that.

If the devs decide that they want to change things in a game its often not because the majority playing right now wants it. It often happens because they want new and more players to start playing. If things are changed there will always be some players that dont like it and complain. And some of them leave the game. But there will be some that like it and there will be new players that starts to play that find the game interesting after the devs changed it. So I think devs changed things based on the idea that more players will want to play the game. But most of these potential new players are perhaps playing other games. And are not really a majority among the players that play right now. But the company think there is great potential and want and expect a lot of new players.

Because the majority and what they want and like depends on how the game works and is designed now. People that dont like are not playing it. And when they change the game in fundamental ways that majority and what they want will also change eventually. Because complainers will leave and new players that like it will join. If they change it and decide to be more like WoW:s latest expansion they certainly expect som WoW players to start playing. And they think that it makes no difference if some hardcore veterans that hate WoW and its design leave. Because they believe in what they are doing and the goal is more players long term. Even if most of them will be new and most veterans will be gone.

Of course a idealistic company with a Vision and great integrity would never do that. Because a company like that would want to make the game they think is good. And people that agree with them should play. But I doubt this is the way Turbine is today.

Before Mines of Moria, just... Shadows of Angmar, the game was nearly a perfect 10 IMO but now it's about a 6 or 7 just too many little things to collect, all this and all that skirmishes get old and it's just too much now.

They have made these changes and the f2p because they wanted to increase their revenue which from all reports they have. Integrity and vision will not pay the bills and feed the familes of the people that work for Turbine.