Lord of the Rings Online goes F2P

[Angthoron]

Thanks to shitty management by Turbine, soon the Codex will be able to mess around on the (rather pretty) green pastures of LotRO. To be honest I'm pissed off about this because that just means they've fucked it up beyond repair while it was a pretty good game in the Vanilla state.

 

[Mangoose]

Wtf? It was doing fine as a P2P game. One of the top MMOs on xfire (http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massivel ... er_online/). Shit, more people play it right now than DDO.

 

[Fens]

played the trial a few months ago... seemed rather well populated

playerbase was a bit odd though. there's a lot of chat spamming and running into certain death. my quest survival rate actually increased when i dropped the pug and went solo.

graphics are ok and visiting landmarks like weathertop is a nice gimmick (although the quest there is rather meh) in the main quest chain.

 

[Angthoron]

Some of the areas are actually really beautiful. Unfortunately to my tastes, not the elven starter zone. Too pink. In general, many single-player zone/gear designers should take note.

And I blame the course they took after the release of the first expansion. Instead of fixing balance, they just ruined the few classes that ended up working like they should have, borked more fundamental systems, screwed up farming of loot and reputation and instead of finally fixing the mess just threw out a half-baked expansion of top of the previous shaky-legged one. Player base appreciated it a lot.

And yeah, lowbie content in LotRO has a lot of folks that are used to other MMOs and the fact that you're not generally running into an entire village of elites at L14. Good game, really, too bad they screwed it up.

 

[made]

Sounds good to me.

I tried this years ago before any expansions. Nice gfx and atmosphere, plenty of low lvl content. PITA to find groups for some of the dungeons/grp quests though as everyone was max lvl.

Endgame sucked however. Only a handful of dungeons, and solo content amounted to grinding mobs for pointless feats. Killing 1000 wolves for a +1% damage mod = not my idea of fun.

Might give it a try if it's free just to revisit some areas, although the DDO f2p model is a bit meh.

 

[Data4]

LOTRO had the distinction of having one of the best communities in any MMO. While there was the fucktard element, it was very minor. Seems like most of the people playing were fairly hardcore Tolkien fans or the LARPing-on-the-computer RPer types, but overall very friendly and pleasant. I don't play anymore, so I don't really have a "dog in the fight" so to speak, but this sounds like the floodgates are going to open up to the idiocracy that WoW has spawned.

F2P generally means "Free to Piss everyone else off", it seems.

 

[Shannow]

Seems you can keep your trial goon in f2p. So I'v started the trial on elendilmir.

 

[Mangoose]

Get on Landroval, I have a ~30 there.

I guess it will be a good thing for me, I can play without needing to resubscribe.

 

[Angthoron]

I used to play on the Laurelin-EU server, got a T3-geared 60 toon and another toon of similar state, haven't played it in ages though. The community was pretty decent as things went, and it being an RP server and all, it was all fairly nice - and surprisingly high-population, most of EU PvP was going on there.

Unfortunately F2P means that the community will be screwed, it's pretty much like talking about community of Runescape.

 

[Shannow]

To quote a friend: "pvp sucks"

Hmm, just noticed that I'm not on a EU-server although I'm a euro-fag. Where can I see to which region a server is attached (or do I have to download a different client for different server-selction? I have the trial via lotro.com and not via lotro-europe.com/... :/
Will the EU-servers also move to f2p? Because they didn't in DDO, IIRC...

Anyway, I'll wait for some more shows of hands before deciding on the server.

 

[Mangoose]

PVP is pretty interesting in LOTRO though.

All in all I like how Turbine tries to keep the game faithful to its source/lore, with gameplay compromises instead of cop-outs.

 

[Angthoron]

To quote a friend: "pvp sucks"

Well, LotRO's PvP sucks and doesn't at the same time, depending on what you're into. Basically PvP is limited to one persistant battleground, the Ettenmoors, where you can either prance about as your own character (has to be 50+, and 65 if you don't want to be dying constantly) or a Creep that you can make after hitting L10 - a few orcs and uruks, a spider and a warg. It's actually pretty entertaining with evenly-matched groups, castles exchanging hands and huge battles going on. Can get graphically laggy as hell though. Still, this is probably the sort of PvP that WAR had in mind, and for anyone that doesn't throw up at the sound of WoW, this is basically a never-ending Alterac Valley in its original form (sans the special events, though you can temporarily become a troll - literally). In addition to PvP there are a bunch of quests that you can do depending on whether the subzone is under your faction's control or not.

Hmm, just noticed that I'm not on a EU-server although I'm a euro-fag. Where can I see to which region a server is attached (or do I have to download a different client for different server-selction? I have the trial via lotro.com and not via lotro-europe.com/... :/
Will the EU-servers also move to f2p? Because they didn't in DDO, IIRC...

Anyway, I'll wait for some more shows of hands before deciding on the server.

I think you'll have to get the client for the EU version separately, which is a bit unfortunate because getting the EU trial used to be a huge pain in the ass. I think they changed it for the better now, if memory serves, there's a program that does it hassle-free these days. Originally their own FTP didn't contain the trial and you had to get it from affiliate sites that had rates slow as hell. In fact, one of my issues with the LotRO-EU site is how pathetically bad it is for an MMO community. Still, it's worth getting the EU trial as your lag will be much lower, and while LotRO combat system isn't as time-critical as some others, you will still want to be able to use every skill cycle rather than every other cycle.

As for whether EU goes F2P or not, I believe it does. Interestingly, they currently have an offer of getting a lifetime sub with just 75€ and I'm debating whether to get it or not. On one hand, the compensation for the F2P times sounds decent enough, on the other hand, the community will decline.

All in all I like how Turbine tries to keep the game faithful to its source/lore, with gameplay compromises instead of cop-outs.

Likewise, I like how they've carefully modelled some of the zones and how they follow players' requests to fix a location if a mismatch is found (Bag's End being a good example, they used some wrong texture for the tiles and remade it after someone pointed it out).

However, such loyal following has a problem in it as well. The book, after all, lasts but a few weeks even at a slow pace, but the MMO for the "loyal" players is meant to be lasting months and maybe years. The amount of design solutions at present, with two expansions out, is growing a little thin. I do understand that the Angmarim wear red robes and build similar-looking forts but there should be some variation or it gets pretty tiring.

 

[Shannow]

So two days of playing burned me out again... I just can't deal with the tedious game"play", the static world and respawning enemies. The usual mmo tedium. But what bothered me additionaly in LotRO is that there is no character building. You get access to all skills of your class. I played to lvl 15 with two characters and I bet any non-twink of the same class would be nearly the same at that lvl. Same equipment, same skills. Maybe different players would use different skills in combat but there wouldn't be more than 3-4 builds for each class. Maybe this opens up with more progression but I had a look at future skills and none of them looked interesting. Compare that to a lvl 5 fighter in D&D (as shitty as it is). There'd already be 50+ distinctly different viable builds.
Meh, I think I'm back to waiting for GW2. At least there there is a chance that the gameplay will be fun and it'll definately have interesting character-building.

 

[Mangoose]

Well yeah as a game system it's really MMO-bland. The point of LOTRO is to experience the well-written quests (not all of them, but some), the setting and the atmosphere. Basically, you play the game because you like Tolkien.

 

[Shannow]

Well yeah as a game system it's really MMO-bland. The point of LOTRO is to experience the well-written quests (not all of them, but some), the setting and the atmosphere. Basically, you play the game because you like Tolkien.

But I'd rather spend my time reading Erikson

 

[made]

So two days of playing burned me out again... I just can't deal with the tedious game"play", the static world and respawning enemies. The usual mmo tedium. But what bothered me additionaly in LotRO is that there is no character building. You get access to all skills of your class. I played to lvl 15 with two characters and I bet any non-twink of the same class would be nearly the same at that lvl. Same equipment, same skills. Maybe different players would use different skills in combat but there wouldn't be more than 3-4 builds for each class. Maybe this opens up with more progression but I had a look at future skills and none of them looked interesting. Compare that to a lvl 5 fighter in D&D (as shitty as it is). There'd already be 50+ distinctly different viable builds.

That's where the feats come into play. You improve abilities by using them, and if you've used them enough it opens up new skills of which you can slot only 3 at a time or so. Same with the feats you earn through killing stuff/exploring etc. Dunno what the expansions changed, maybe theres more diversity now at the higher lvls.

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah but those feats take a LOT of time to unlock, at least for a leveling character. At level cap I imagine there are some different builds, but it didn't happen when I was ~30.

 

[Fens]

Yeah but those feats take a LOT of time to unlock, at least for a leveling character.

this... especially those "use this skill 300 times" or "kill 300 of X" unlocks

The point of LOTRO is to experience the well-written quests (not all of them, but some)

any good quest chain for a lvl15ish character you remember ? the most fun one i went through was the re-establishment of the hobbit postal service, as it didn't require me to kill hordes of respawning enemies and actually required avoidance of fights

 

[Angthoron]

Go for Epic Books. They're basically quests that revolve around the Fellowship one way or another. Some are pretty well-crafted. There's also the Bree Ghost quest and some bandit-hunt quests that are fairly neat.

The Shire borders are also having some stuff you could do if you haven't, but generally, Book 1 and onwards. B1 is doable at 15, only a couple of group quests. Starts at Prancing Pony if memory serves. And the Prologue in the Shire.

Big Problems is also neat. In general, I'd recommend moving Bree-wards and from there, Lonely Lands and eventually North Downs. Each zone has its share of nice quests (and fedex/grindfests, too)

 

[Mangoose]

any good quest chain for a lvl15ish character you remember ? the most fun one i went through was the re-establishment of the hobbit postal service, as it didn't require me to kill hordes of respawning enemies and actually required avoidance of fights

I actually don't remember pre-18, because I had played a trial character a few years back til 18, then got bored. And then started replaying him earlier this year.

The epic quest chains are always decent. If you don't have any for your level, you can always run to another race's area and find some quests there.

 

[Fens]

thanks for the suggestions... i'm doing the book quests already and will look for the ghost quest

might spend some more days with the trial

 

[made]

Yeah but those feats take a LOT of time to unlock, at least for a leveling character.

this... especially those "use this skill 300 times"

It's a decent concept in theory. You improve the skills as you go along and ultimately unlock the bonus feats. There are also class quests later on that award new abilities, but mostly it's just a grind and as I mentioned earlier was the main reason I quit the game. The lvling process and the storylines are fun though if you don't go out of your way to complete deeds.

 

[Angthoron]

The other problem with skill-grind is that it has a per-day cap so you can't just farm stuff up in one day. Kill deeds though, no problem.

Killing for titles is sort of nice, but the traits and abilities bit is silly. Especially in its original form. What you see now is half of original.

150 Limrafns for that title... Nngh.

 

[made]

Hmm, just saw on Amazon that the Moria expansion is just 5 bucks. Any idea if that comes with some free playtme?

Also, according to a comment there, they've redesigned old group quests and made them soloable. A major downside of mmos is being behind the lvling curve as it's near impossible to find groups.

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah, you get buffed if you try to solo all of the main book quests that used to require groups.