Who's playing? / Game comments

Palantir

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There are still a number of views per posts here but, are any of you playing?
Seems to be my own personal forum sadly, chime in guys...


Anyway, some current game comments.

I've been playing several of my lower alts (have 10 total) pretty steady lately and going thru the "re-vamped" quests in North Downs, Evendim, Forochel, Moria and have found them to be fun but "scaled back" for a better term.

They are almost all now geared to solo or duo in play difficulty. Where there were once 6 mobs to work thru as you went requiring a Fellowship of 6 to do there are now 4 or less mobs in the encounters.

Running with the wife & her lower alt's we've been gearing ourselves up for some pretty intense fights remembering how hard our adventures were in the beginning with "Shadows of Angmar." My most common comment has been, "well, that seemed easier than I recall..." The designers have really re-made the quests to be for small fellowships across the board (not counting raids / special instances). The days of dreading to go into someplace as in SoA days (in the course of normal questing) is gone.

I have still enjoyed them as you can't just walk in unprepared & win, you still have to be smart about it but the feeling of battling masses of enemies at a time 1:4/1:6 & the sense of dying in each battle has been replaced with 1:1 /1:2 type duels. Which for most players, now, I suspect is better as I see few Large Fellowships in game anymore.

However the questing is overall much BETTER now. The Developers have clustered the quests into logical areas of adventure & don't have you going from one end of the map to another then back again (usually). Also the quest-givers have gotten "smarter" and now commonly send you to do all the missions on one trip instead of sending you back to the same spot 4 times (scout it / pick up boxes / kill guards / kill boss). It was FRUSTATING to go on one mission/quest do all the above then be sent back to basically kill everyone again 3 more times. So the Dev's get a thumbs-up for making it a bit more "realistic."

The quests are still fun to do & the "re-vamps" a nice change of pace as they do make the questing fresh in each area they've re-done so far.
Of course, the fun of adventuring across Middle Earth as different classes & races, seeing the sites and defeating Sauron's minions keeps me playing the game. I have no "gear goal" at all I just enjoy kicking Orc butt in M.E.!!

Personalizing each "alt" makes the game even better: I've had a blast playing my Dwarf from the Nimrais Mts (Gondor/Rohan range) as his mission is to find historical records of his clan, the Ironfist Clan, the Zadar’pered, “Shapers of Stone,” and he could care less about the "problems" in the north. It's been fun to "tell" the quest givers "Not my problem" and move on to quests that actually move him along his personal path & goal. He has no rep with anyone & has massive gaps in quest lines but he doesn't care (he's leveling nicely & now in Moria) he's working his way closer to home. Quiet fittingly he is the ONLY character that I am enjoying being in Moria. His goal to find records has him exploring every nook & cranny for them. (Unlike 2 of my Alts I put on hold once they hit Moria)

Well, I hope you're enjoying the game as much as I am, the new higher level area have also been fun to explore & quest in.

Comments?
 

Redwolf

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I play very rarely now, in fact on average less than one between updates as I noticed when doing updates.

I think I should drive a new character that is most to my liking through Moria and experience the other high level content. But right now I am unsure how a casual player is supposed to ever see all the new stuff, if that is high level only.

I am not a casual player per se, but Turbine's permanent antics (today they closed the last allowed discussion thread on the lag, and look up the mannequin controversy) make me play less than a casual player.
 

Palantir

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The new stuff is fun, but so is the low level. The key now is playing the game your own way and at your own pace. As I said, running my dwarf with is own mission & "don't care" attitude has been fun.

We (my wife & I) haven't ran our high levels (75's) for months, we dropped back to our 2 pairs of lowest alts (now in their 30's & 50's) to do the re-done content.

A friend started a new alt for her son (wasn't allowed to transfer his character to our server for some reason) & in 3 weeks of apparently non-stop playing has it at 70th level already. That's a bit too much playing for me.

And you know I don't visit the oficial forum if i don't have to...
 

Scott Tortorice

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Seeing how LotRO is now on Steam, think I'll add it to my library and give it a go again. Haven't played it in a long while.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Seems to be my own personal forum sadly, chime in guys...
I find that anyone else posting either has little engagement in the conversation, or else the thread is hijacked by rants about how Turbine did this wrong or that wrong, so I rarely bother anymore. Not that I haven't been critical myself, but hopefully I've balanced those comments a bit with positive remarks.

In any event, FWIW, after purchasing it soon after release, I am only just now working my way through Mirkwood and enjoying it a great deal. It's amazing how much detail they packed into that little area. Still have Enedwaith, Great River, Dunland to look forward to before Rohan as well. I doubt that I have exhausted Moria, either, just get tired of being in its confines. Not a criticism, just saying I enjoy the variety.
 

Palantir

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It would be nice to hear why "players" are reading the forum but haven't been participating... it takes no effort.

I was in a forum that was all "My Little Pony" / feel good and no "discussion / disagreement" at all. Nice people & fun topics but, it lacked any depth concerning playing the game.
I was called down there & even had my more "interesting" posts censored & deleted. I quit before I was banned from posting.
The same comments made here at GS instead would have brought on more interesting discussion... assuming anyone posted!

Mirkwood like Moria & Angmar is "creepy." They did a good job on them and I like them for what they are but, I'd rather skip large parts of them!
But as I've mentioned my dwarf character is the first one that I'm eager to spent time in Moria with (those Orc's have nowhere to run down there!).

I'm enjoying the southern areas and have no reason to think Rohan & the rest will be any different.
 

Redwolf

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I can't make the step to just ignore Turbine's antics. While stopping to read the forum sounds like a good first step I think that would only make the shock of first encountering e.g. the for-sale clothes mannequins worse. And I would never learn about Moria being more streamlined now which might unwedge my LOTRO playing. I have a character past Moria that I don't really like playing that much but the younger characters I didn't bring up since I didn't like Moria and there's little alternative.
 
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