Incline The Lord of the Rings Online - Legacy of Morgoth expansion announced; Before the Shadow expansion is free for everyone

[Stokowski]

Played this ages ago, but the only thing I remember was a pub crawl on a pony around the Shire. In other words, a drunk-driving quest. Unique in an MMO, I think?

 

[gurugeorge]

Played this ages ago, but the only thing I remember was a pub crawl on a pony around the Shire. In other words, a drunk-driving quest. Unique in an MMO, I think?

The Shire quests are generally pretty unique for an MMO - they're quite cute and very hobbit-related.

 

[deama]

It would really help if they added voice acting to the quests. Maybe they could try doing something with machine learning to add in voice acting? That could be interesting, especially for publicity.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Yeah let's throw a couple of million dollars towards adding VO instead of, you know, updating the engine or adding content.

 

[curds]

I feel like people who'd want voice acting are the same people who would skip quest dialogue anyway, voice acted or not.

Anyone planning to play the private server btw?

I tried to get back into lotro when everything went free, but the feature bloat + piss-easy landscape content (alongside general burnout, probably) turned me off. A Shadows of Angmar server might be what I need.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I remember playing this a little after launch and up to the Moria expansion. I had a lot of fun with it but completely quit all MMORPGs around 10-12 years ago.

Now I'm back to reading a lot of Tolkien again and am downloading the client. I hope the monetization shit isn't too intrusive. I remember the quests being really cool - spent hours around the Lone Lands and Weathertop just chilling to the music.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

I remember playing this a little after launch and up to the Moria expansion. I had a lot of fun with it but completely quit all MMORPGs around 10-12 years ago.

Now I'm back to reading a lot of Tolkien again and am downloading the client. I hope the monetization shit isn't too intrusive. I remember the quests being really cool - spent hours around the Lone Lands and Weathertop just chilling to the music.

I've been out just as long, I popped in a few months ago and everything seemed more or less the same as I had left it in 2012. Didn't get any intrusive pop-ups or anything. Skillbar was completely fucked but that was to be expected. I know they retooled the skills at some point.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing on and off for a few days and it's just as I remember. F2P shit isn't too intrusive thankfully.

I can't stomach MMO gameplay anymore, though. It's just impossible.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For whatever reason, LotRO combat is far clunkier than DDO despite it being the same engine and sharing a lot of technical features. DDO combat is very smooth, LotRO feels unresponsive. Something like e.g., DDO alchemist would be impossible in LotRO.

 

[Rahdulan]

For whatever reason, LotRO combat is far clunkier than DDO despite it being the same engine and sharing a lot of technical features. DDO combat is very smooth, LotRO feels unresponsive. Something like e.g., DDO alchemist would be impossible in LotRO.

DDO probably benefits from being more instance-based, but LotRO feels way too rubber-bandy to just dismiss it with latency or like.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Back when I played actively (this was in 2009 or 2010, my main was a Warden) I remember the combat feeling especially clunky, as the class had some timing-based aspects (shouts that led to buffs that could only be cast after a specific combo/whatever. Can't really remember).

But clunkiness is expected with a global cooldown-based system. My problem isn't with combat specifically (although that, too). I just can't believe how many thousands of hours I spent on MMOs looking back. It's truly depressing.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Melee combat always felt stiff as I recall.

 

[deama]

I heard they're doing that remaster for a re-realase, hopefully they gonna improve combat.

 

[Cromwell]

Will try this together with my woman. Is there anything I should absolutely know as in what to do and what not to do (to not waste money and or time)?

 

[zapotec]

Did they add black skin color for elves and dwarwes?

 

[ADL]

Will try this together with my woman. Is there anything I should absolutely know as in what to do and what not to do (to not waste money and or time)?

There's one really annoying thing left for new players and I hate having to do a whole write-up before you've even played the game but it is what it is. Mount riding is 95 points per character so at minimum you'll be spending $5. Grinding points to get it for free is possible but I'm going to assume you value your time more than a little money. Alternatively there's an account-wide method for ten bucks that I highly recommend because it'll give you the fourth inventory bag slot and a mount too. This is my most recommended purchase in the game because no matter how many characters you make, you'll always have mount riding from the start and a little extra bag space.

Optimal "Premium" account setup so you're not paying $15/mo forever

• Get the "Samwise Gamgee's Starter Pack" ($10) for account wide mount, currency cap unlock, and 4th inventory bag. This is no longer offered by the store, but you can find it on Amazon.
• Create all the characters you think you'll play (using your now "premium" account)
• Buy one month VIP ($15) for all one-time unlocks (swift travel, etc.) and log into all the characters you made (if you like the game)

The VIP recommendation is for a handful of one time unlocks that are nice to have if you end up liking the game. This will take you hundreds if not thousands of hours if you take your time as a completionist. Assuming they don't give away Mordor, Minas Morgul and War of the Three Peaks for free again in the time it takes you to hit level 95 as they have in the very recent past, expect to spend $100 for the expansions you don't have.

General advice: If you're in the US, play on Landroval. Don't play apart from each other and try to stick to the same quests. There's no level scaling in place so if you outpace each other you're gonna be one-shotting mobs and that's no fun. If you do outlevel each other, there's something called the stone of the tortoise which actually gives you 0% XP gain on the store for a pittance. Take your time, it's not a rush to the endgame.

 

[ADL]

Orion did a very promising Q&A session the other day. The future is bright for LOTRO to say the least.
https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/12/...orion-maki-back-to-the-team-after-nine-years/

• What's going on with the lag?
  • The game is very old and the process of moving character data around between landblocks and onto servers is unwieldly.
  • They're constantly investigating ways to reduce lag and have been able to track down some things on the backend that can be fixed. The timeline for the release of these fixes isn't certain, but Orion expects they might be able to release some of the early changes before Before the Shadow.
  • Orion stresses they absolutely won't be able to eliminate the lag in one fell swoop, but that they're hoping to reduce the lag gradually over time.
  • They're also adding more tools to track sources of instability within the game to allow them to more accurately diagnose issues.
• Minstrel and Other Class Changes
  • Minstrel changes mostly set in stone for now.
  • Also be looking into Loremaster fixes with regards to their pets.
  • They're open to remaking more trait lines for other classes into passive lines if it makes sense for that class.
  • They're balancing around Hunter (Ranged) and Champion (Melee) being the top damage dealers.
• Traversable Boats
  • No plans for the moment, but never say never.
• Mounted Combat
  • They're going to look at this more closely in 2023.
  • The way MC was implemented made it very taxing on the servers, so changing and updating it is an involved process.
• Monster Play
  • Changes going into the next release are mostly set. Meant to start providing more utility to MP classes and reduce one ability being spammed.
  • Some more "significant" and "sweeping" changes coming with Before the Shadow.
  • Reducing the number of NPCs, which will also have the benefit of reducing lag in PvMP.
  • Moving EC and OC back to where they were.
  • The Delving will be getting blocked off and become inaccessible temporarily until a future update.
  • These would constitute "Stage 3 of 5", regarding the stages of improvement PvMP will experience.
• Before the Shadow
  • Delving System: Will allow you to enter any of the Missions they're creating for BtS and adjust the difficulty of that mission yourself. The system will be opt-in. You will earn currency that will allow you to purchase best-in-slot gear (raid gear will still be best, but will be close), LI enhancements, and new crafting.
  • Delving System: Ten difficulty levels within Delvings. As soon as you hit accept to enter Delving, mobs will change and player characters will be changed in some way.
  • Delving System: They'll be retrofitting Delvings back into old content and instances, such as The Library and The School.
• Leveling
  • When Orion rejoined the team, he took notice of how it took a disproportionate amount of time to get through levels 1-20, so changes might be coming to smooth out that part of the experience.

 

[Cromwell]

• Leveling
  • When Orion rejoined the team, he took notice of how it took a disproportionate amount of time to get through levels 1-20, so changes might be coming to smooth out that part of the experience.

I hope they dont mean its to slow, because I am already 13 and still in the shire, if thats slow already levelling is an absolute breeze.

 

[ADL]

The Shire is probably the fastest introductory zone because the objectives are a lot closer. Level 1-20 for man, elf and dwarf are much slower because the objectives are further apart. Can take a good while especially without a horse which you either earn at level 20 with a VIP subscription or you buy the trait and acquire the mount through purchase or in game silver.

I wish they'd just give everyone the mount riding trait or make it a one-time purchase for everyone. It's a stupid way to get people to spend their money in an otherwise generous free2play experience.

 

[Cromwell]

The Shire is probably the fastest introductory zone because the objectives are a lot closer.

and everytime you go somewhere theres a dozen hobbits which need something from you. fucking hobbits are needy

 

[Cromwell]

How is the quest density compared to the levelling speed after twenty (which I presume counts as introduction)? Richt now, with crafting on the side, I outlevel content rather quickly but that could be because the hobbits throw quests at me left and right.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

How is the quest density compared to the levelling speed after twenty (which I presume counts as introduction)? Richt now, with crafting on the side, I outlevel content rather quickly but that could be because the hobbits throw quests at me left and right.

After so many of the pre-expansion zones have been revamped it all goes by very fast until maybe around Isengard or east/west Rohan. Back when I still played on the reduced xp gated servers it was still very fast to level even with a large xp penalty sadly.

 

[Cromwell]

yeah I hink I need the xp stopper, I still have a ton of lvl 9 and 10 quests in the shire while already being 15. If the content is as dense in the other areas the game is huge.

 

[ADL]

yeah I hink I need the xp stopper, I still have a ton of lvl 9 and 10 quests in the shire while already being 15. If the content is as dense in the other areas the game is huge.

I highly recommend the tortoise stone to slow things down as needed. In many cases you'll have the option of doing five or more different quest packs in addition to the base game/expansions themselves overlapping the same level ranges. It's a ridiculously large game.

December 4, 2020 - Curious players petitioned developer Jeff Libby to help them figure out roughly how many quests that LOTRO has as of right now. Initially, Libby said that there were 15,000 quest files, but of those, some represented branching paths, deeds, and other behind-the-scenes trickery.

So what’s the actual total? As best as Libby can figure, the number of LOTRO quests to date sits at around 11,000. He said of those, he’s written easily a thousand of them.

The landscape difficulty feature currently exists in a perpetual beta on the legendary progression servers but I'm hoping in the next year or so, they'll bring it to the main servers which combined with the tortoise stone would make the game a lot more interesting.
https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Landscape_Difficulty

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Is the beorning viable in man form only?