I don't know guys......

[Nexus6]

I tried it for about an hour or so this afternoon, and after getting so excited at the end of the tutorial level, I feel like at the moment the game is just not doing it for me. I think there are two issues. First of all, thus far the quests have not even been remotely challenging. I mean, in GW2, once you finish the tutorial and enter the starter map, the nearby quests, though not over-the-top difficult, you still need to have your wits about you or you could get your butt kicked. More importantly though, I think this guy nailed my current unease with the game:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/19/the-road-to-mordor-five-ways-lotro-should-be-streamlined/

As he wrote, "The problem is that there is eventually too much a brand-new player has to absorb and master. If developers don't stay on top of the situation, then the game starts to lose overall cohesion and becomes a befuddling mess."

That's how I feel at the moment, like I'm confronted with a big befuddling mess. By comparison, with GW2, STO, and TSW, it seems like the games told me things in measured doses when I needed to know them, and whatever those games shortcomings, I never felt overwhelmed by them (with the possible exception of the terrible crafting system in TSW). With LOTRO, however, after the tutorial level, I'm dumped into this big huge world where activity options have suddenly increased exponentially.

Anyway, I don't want to throw in the towel with LOTRO just yet, but my motivation to continue at the moment is pretty low.

 

[Redwolf]

LOTRO is mostly e-say mode now. The best you can do is try to limit questing so that you always fight red mobs. That's not always possible with the epic storyline but it works OKish the majority of the time.

In addition to things being too easy leveling in the low levels is also really fast, so you never have a chance to do even one of the 4 parallel areas before things grey out.

The challenge then comes in as you get flooded with too many skills and other semi-magic game mechanics, but for me that's not the challenge I want.

If you can make it to after the trollshaws epic storyline level 38 or something things get better in the misty mountains, forochel and east angmar. Moria seems about right-difficulted now.

 

[Palantir]

Again as RW said the Dev's have tilted the game towards "easy" for some odd reason.

The best example is this: way back when ... Bree has just 1 Vault and 1 Auction Hall, just like the small town of Bree would have. And you had to walk or ride yourself across town to get from one to the other. Now however it seems that the Bree has at LEAST 3 Auction Halls & 4 Vault locations... why? One reason: to make it EASIER on the players.

Yes it was a pain at times in the old day to have to spend a WHOLE MINUTE traveling from one to the other but it made sense. Bree was a small town not a collection of one stop Shopping Marts, now it is.
And that is how LotRO is, everything is still there but more of it & easier.

The best things about the game as I've said are the Quests & getting to travel about Middle Earth. And as mention the players are friendly and helpful.

Oh and as RW also noted you can just focus in on certain things: my dwarf character is doing his own story line & not worrying about doing any particular quests or going to all locations. As long as he's leveling so I can get where I'm going I'm having fun.

 

[Nexus6]

Red, I have no idea what you mean by red mobs. Concerning the rest of what you said, I gather I should be patient because it gets better at higher levels?

Pal - So I gather then that I shouldn't stress too much over things and just go and do what I want, as long as I'm leveling? Makes sense I guess. BTW, you mentioned storyline, and I was thinking, that's what GW2, STO, and TSW had that LOTRO seems to lack. That is, sort of what you would call a mainline story quest that helps keep the player focused. I know it's a bit of hand-holding, but in those three games the main story quest definitely helped to keep me from getting overwhelmed by the the numerous details early in the games. It's interesting to note though that now that I understand how GW2 works and what it's all about, the story quests have almost become an afterthought. Still in all though, mainline story quests are nice as they help noobs to stay focused.

Thanks for the replies though. You've convinced me not to give up on it. I do sense that there is fun to be had here, but I guess I just need to be patient in getting over the post-tutorial hump.

 

[Palantir]

Red, I have no idea what you mean by red mobs. .

The level of a "mob's" color (and Quest color) represents it's relative level to you.

Grey = no threat & won't attack you unless you attack it
Green = much weaker than you
Cyan = weaker than you
Blue = Slightly weaker than you
White = your level/strength
Yellow = slightly stronger than you
Orange = stronger than you
Red = very strong, watch out but will give you the max Exp for killing it.
Purple = no chance & will almost certainly kill you in a fight.

BTW, you mentioned storyline, and I was thinking, that's what GW2, STO, and TSW had that LOTRO seems to lack.

LotRO's EPIC Story line which you are already involved in (it starts in the introduction) ROCKS!

Basically from the start & in every region you go you will be doing various quests & missions to help the "Fellowship" advance on it's way to Mordor. I LOVE this story line and it does wonderful following the book with it's directly linked & side quests. However, it is hard to keep up with as you will also be doing dozens of non-Epic quests right along side the Epic Quest. If you just run 1 character it's a much cleaner Quest line to follow: I have 9 characters total so the Epic Quest can get "fragmented" as I'm at many points along that quest line. That said I am on top of it as I have an 85th level who is doing the latest sections of the Epic Quest line. I also have a Alt that's only doing the Epic Quest line (and quests that are "directly" in it's path). Ex. if the Epic Quest says go south I only take other quests that go south & don't pick up any that take me away from where the Epic Quest goes. I'd keep playing the game just to follow it if nothing else I like how the Dev's have tied so many things into it relevant to the books.


The game is overloaded with stuff to do- too much stuff IMHO and I ignore most of it... I'm here to play in Middle Earth & "help" the Ring get to Mordor so grinding to get this Faction Reputation or to get those marks to get "that" set of armor doesn't really interest me. I want to have fun, quest and explore Middle Earth not spend 40 hours grinding the same dungeon or skirmish to get a suit of armor that's just fractionally better than the one I just made myself (and will be replaced in 5 levels anyway with the next level of armor I can make or buy or find).


Something that has changed in the game from how it once was: everything used to be based on being in a Fellowship, getting 3+ players together and questing- because they were difficult quests to complete solo. Now it's very heavily geared (easier) to solo play. That has it's good and bad points but the tight knit community isn't as tight as it used to be, still very friendly & helpful but not as much grouping as in the past. The game is better when you play in a group of that there is no doubt.

Please ask any questions you have, RW & I may be old-timers who preferred the "old ways" but we're still playing and Rohan has exceeded my expectations. Ok I'm not a big fan of the mounted combat deal but I do it and it's ok, it doesn't keep me from playing or having fun!

 

[Nexus6]

Cool Pal, I like what you said here and it was definitely encouraging. The question is, how do I know which quest is the main story quest? I see nothing in my quest log that seems to indicate any such thing. In fact I think all I have now is, as you said, a couple of reputation/favor quests. So how do I pickup (or reacquire) the main quest?

BTW, I hear you about the mmo grinding. I hate it. Doing the same old dungeons (in GW2 and TSW) and Borg battles (STO) over and over in the hopes of improving your reputation and getting legendary/exotic gear is not my idea of a good time. I would also add that I do like the titles system in LOTRO, and how you start acquiring titles early on. In GW2, titles are only awarded to people who've done a lot of grinding. In fact one title many people have in GW2 is "A God among mere mortals". I remember thinking the first time I saw that one how "that's rich".

One more thing, I came across this comment in a mmo forum and nearly fell out of my chair: "Why any adult would want to play an mmo and take abuse from some snot-nosed kid is beyond me." lololol omg, that is soooo true! I mean, I've met some cool and helpful people in the mmo's I've played, and some serious *******s as well, which makes me wonder why I'm putting up with this? But seriously, I was discussing mmo's with Scott not too long ago and one thing we agreed on was that the so-called 'elite' players in mmo's can be real jerks. I would also add that the number one reason people don't like mmo's is having to put up with other people. Funny how that works????

 

[Palantir]

My wife & I have been playing LotRO since '07 and can recall running into only 1 jerk in all that time. Now however, when we used to played WoW it seemed to happen weekly.

The crowd that plays LotRo seems to be more adult and civil and there to have a good time & not cause trouble.

BTW- Landroval is our server (the LotRO Role Playing Server) and was voted best & friendliest server. Not sure if you can get onto it any more as it was locked to new players for awhile.

 

[Nexus6]

Cool, I in fact had read that the LOTRO community was very good. But again, I how do I pick up or reacquire the main story quest?

Update: Never mind, I think I remember now which quest it is. I would add though that if memory serves, it's not differentiated in your quest list from the side quests, like highlighted or in bold print like most rpg's do.

 

[Palantir]

Never mind, I think I remember now which quest it is. ... , it's not differentiated in your quest list from the side quests, like highlighted or in bold print like most rpg's do.

It's noted: ... in your "Quest Log" on the left side it says "Epic..." before the quest names.

Also in the Quest Log under the "Show Quest" panel is a gold ring- click it and it will being up all the Epic Quests you have done- and a way to see if you have missed any of the Epic quests.
So if under that it shows: Epic Vol 1 Book 1 / Epic Vol 1 Book 2 / Epic Vol 1 Book 4 ... but not Vol 1 Book 3 you have skipped, missed or are doing Epic Vol 1 Book 3 at the moment.

You can skip various parts of the Epic Quests that are not directly linked but that sort of takes the fun out of it. I found out just recently by checking that panel that I missed an entire Book in Moria and went back to complete it. Problem- it was for 50th lvls I was already at 67th lvl so... the excitement wasn't there as I walked thru it & over the mobs.

 

[Redwolf]

This is a good reference. You don't have to read the question contents to spoil you but they say where to pick up the next quest in the epic line and what the minimum level is. If you are below minimum you can run around forever not finding the next quest

http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Epic_Quests

 

[Nexus6]

This is a good reference. You don't have to read the question contents to spoil you but they say where to pick up the next quest in the epic line and what the minimum level is. If you are below minimum you can run around forever not finding the next quest

http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Epic_Quests

Thank you so much, I think this will help a lot. What I will do then the next time I login is see if the epic quest is in my current quests list. If not, then I'll go to my history and find the last one completed, then go back to the wiki and find the next one in the epic story and where to go to pick it up.

 

[Redwolf]

Thank you so much, I think this will help a lot. What I will do then the next time I login is see if the epic quest is in my current quests list. If not, then I'll go to my history and find the last one completed, then go back to the wiki and find the next one in the epic story and where to go to pick it up.

Actually if you skipped some of them you should probably do them from the beginning. It won't take long if they are below level and the story is worth it, plus there's useful swag when you complete all of it.