Originally posted by truthhurts

Originally posted by TobiasGrey

Uh, yes it was an insta kill. I went from full heath to dead, instantly, without warning. That's an insta kill. And its not backed up by the books at all. Its a dumb mechanic that is NOT in most other MMOs.

One does not simply walk into Angmar...

Good one :) Especially not when Mordirith is still there.

Mechanic in other mmo's: maybe I quoted wrong, I ment the strict questlines and that those questlines gating other quests.

Insta kill: I didn't said the opposite, when the line is active, it kills you right away. I put 'insta' in brackets, because you DO get a warning to stop (fear buffs, and skeletons on the ground, which makes it pretty clear that lots of people died there in a line). Ofc it's easy to miss, I got killed there once as well (I was kiting, and was careless :) )

I just started listening to the Tolkien series (The Hobbit and LOTR) for the first time, and it has gotten me thinking about returning to the game. I have some problems and questions though.

1. No idea what my username, password, or email I used for the game as it was several years ago. 

2. I own all the expansion to this date, except for the Rohan expansion, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to play them on the F2P version.

Originally posted by nate1980

I just started listening to the Tolkien series (The Hobbit and LOTR) for the first time, and it has gotten me thinking about returning to the game. I have some problems and questions though.

1. No idea what my username, password, or email I used for the game as it was several years ago. 

2. I own all the expansion to this date, except for the Rohan expansion, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to play them on the F2P version.

1. If you payed with CC support can help you recover your account.

2. Not sure how you can have all expansions if you didn't play for several years, but yes once you recover your account you can play the expansion content on your existing characters without limitation.

You will NOT have shared storage(actually depending on the package deal of SoM you bought you might have it), the 6th bag that just got introduced with RoR(and at this time only people that bought the legendary edition have it) and any new characters you make(provided you have any free charslots left) will be subject to some limitations.

You will be considered a ex VIP premium player unless you owned a LTA. What that means is that your old chars will have no basic limitations(like riding skill, goldcap or traits/virtues), new chars however will.

The amount of charslots available to you is a bit of a moving target, at the very least you have 5 per server, however you may have up to seven depending on wether or not you own the adventurers pack that got out at the same time as SoM(there was a deal of buy one get the other free, so many have it).

Also there is a level bracket between about 33 and 48 where you chars won't have access to the landscape quests in the landscape. Namely Northdowns, Forochel, Trollshaws, Angmar and Misty Mountains. You will also be unable to quest in any regions that got added later and are not part of a expansion you own. So Enedwaith and the Great River.

You won't have any problems getting to maxlevel though, if it bothers you though there is a steam starter pack thats on sale now and then that offers good value and ofcourse the Mithril edition which you get for about 20$ and is a real steal at that price(it contains 20$ worth of TPs among all the other stuff).

Edit: I forgot that the middle package of the RoR preorder also contains Evendim, Moria and Lothlorien QPs though only evendim would be of use to you. It is of more questionable value ... a sale of the mithril edition would really be your best bet.

Originally posted by nate1980

1. No idea what my username, password, or email I used for the game as it was several years ago. 

Wow, so I'm not the only one who plays every game on a different address :)

Rocketeer's right, if you don't know the username or the mail, your only hope is the payment history. So if you played via gamecards, then it's most likely a dead end...

Originally posted by Jackdog
I betaed the game and did the lifetime sub. great game , I have not played in a while now but LoTRO provided me with a lot of great gaming memories..

The great thing about your situation is that should you decide to come back you will have a sick amount of TP sitting in your accout, enough to buy all the expansions etc and a whole bunch of the "benefits". My main for example has 6 homebinds, which is pretty slick for a game like lotro where it can take some time to get around ... also the 120 shared storage is ... nice, not just if you have several crafters :D.

Only thing i pay for with real money is expansions, and imho thats how it should be. They produce content, i look at it and then decide wether its worth my money or not. If they dally around, well im quite content sitting on my bag of monies. Looking back, paying a monthly sum(lets call it allowance cause thats what it was) for MMOs seemed like quite a scam to me more often than not. For every awesome developer putting that money into developement like Trion does you got 10 that used it for commercials and paying dividends to their shareholders or god knows what.

Originally posted by SaunZ

 

5) the questing is fun.  seems almost open world, where i can just go anywhere i want.  the reviews i read said there were WAY too many quests for each level and region, so i just wonder off and quest anywhere i want.  i don't follow any set pattern yet.  except for levels 1 and 2 - which are tutorials.

 

That's pretty much how I played LOTRO.

I would just wander off and discover what I could discover. Eventually you will find places you can't access because you don't have the correct quest or your partner doesn't have the correct quest but for the most part the game can be played in a more open way.

I played the game quite a bit, was in closed beta, open beta and played for years afterwards. I don't play anymore but that's probably because I don't like some of the changes they made over the years.

Glad you are enjoying yourself!

Originally posted by TobiasGrey

Originally posted by SaunZ

i have discoverd LOTRO.  not sure what took me so long but, better late then never; right?

 

5) the questing is fun.  seems almost open world, where i can just go anywhere i want.  the reviews i read said there were WAY too many quests for each level and region, so i just wonder off and quest anywhere i want.  i don't follow any set pattern yet.  except for levels 1 and 2 - which are tutorials.

 

having fun!  hope it lasts!  did i mention that it is F2P

sz

Hate to burst your bubble but this isn't true, and its the main reason I've left the game so many times. The zones are all very boxed in and linear, and there are strict paths you're supposed to follow. The only way to advance is by questing so if you go in an area you don't have the right quest chain for, you're screwed.

There are tons of instances, most of which require a quest to enter. You run against a wall and it says "You do not have the right quest to enter here".

You will keep doing essentially the same quest in every hub. There are so many reskinned wolves that NPCs want you to get paws or tails or hides from. Over and over. Boars too.

And if you try to just explore sometimes the game will just insta kill you because you're not supposed to be there. I tried going to Angmar once, I avoided all the agro and as soon as I zoned in... the game just killed me. Because I didn't complete  the level 50 quest you need to do before you're supposed to go in.

I don't know what Turbine was thinking when they decided to make a WoW clone when they had such a good sandbox game in alpha.

This is just plain wrong i'm afraid. It might have been fairly linear five years ago when it launched but not now, there are at least two regions for every ten levels and if you are within five levels of the region you can pick up any quests in the region and follow the thread. I regularly hop around picking up quests where I want and doing the Rep quests I want, only restricted by level.

It's a bit bizarre that you describe it as a sandbox in Alpha, it never was a sandbox game, but it certainly is closer to that ideal now than it ever was. I've played it since launch and it's better now than it ever was, including the fact that many crafted items are now better than drops and even quest rewards. How many games give you that? 

SaunZ had it right, I guess you haven't played for a long time.

Originally posted by Po_gg

Originally posted by TobiasGrey

And if you try to just explore sometimes the game will just insta kill you because you're not supposed to be there. I tried going to Angmar once, I avoided all the agro and as soon as I zoned in... the game just killed me. Because I didn't complete  the level 50 quest you need to do before you're supposed to go in.

There are some truth in it, some questlines are strict, and gating the start of other quests, but it always supported by the story. I guess it's a common thing in mmo's anyway. I just want to comment the insta kill thing since I too love to explore in Middle-earth:

 

in Eriador, there's only 2 places, where you get insta killed, and both are backed up firmly by the story and lore.

One is the dread line in Angmar (which killed you). There's a book quest line to explore the watching stones, and find a way to 'deactivate' them, so you can cross to East Angmar. The line has it's purpose, and btw it's not 'insta' kill, there are fear debuffs (and a lot of skeletons on the ground) as a warning for turn back and leave...

(Second one is the bay in Forochel, but  it also not 'insta' kill, actually at lvl75 and with some help you can swim around... but at lvl50 the cold kills you in a few sec. And it's also fit in the lore)

There used to be a third insta-kill the archers in Lorien, if you didn't have the rep they shot you dead if you crossed the Nimrodel. I always thought that was pretty cool and it was a shame they changed it.