PROOF the Size of the World is SMALL (beta tester)

Kemenlith

Originally posted by Odysses



This only shows the community of MMORPG.com

Good point.

GungaDin

The OP is an idiot.  If he wants to run 20 miles in real time, then he's nuts.  I for one don't want to waste my time running from pt A to pt B.

Daymoose

Originally posted by GungaDin

The OP is an idiot.  If he wants to run 20 miles in real time, then he's nuts.  I for one don't want to waste my time running from pt A to pt B.

While I agree that'd be tedious, there's no need for ad hominem

GungaDin

Originally posted by Daymoose

Originally posted by GungaDin

The OP is an idiot.  If he wants to run 20 miles in real time, then he's nuts.  I for one don't want to waste my time running from pt A to pt B.

While I agree that'd be tedious, there's no need for ad hominem

I'll ad hominem you as well if you post this again .   I dont think there has to be a huge debate over this.  The less time it takes to get from pt A to pt B and the less time it takes to meet with friends,  the more enjoyable the game will be.  Enough said. 

Daymoose

Originally posted by GungaDin

Originally posted by Daymoose

Originally posted by GungaDin

The OP is an idiot.  If he wants to run 20 miles in real time, then he's nuts.  I for one don't want to waste my time running from pt A to pt B.

While I agree that'd be tedious, there's no need for ad hominem

I'll ad hominem you as well if you post this again .   I dont think there has to be a huge debate over this.  The less time it takes to get from pt A to pt B and the less time it takes to meet with friends,  the more enjoyable the game will be.  Enough said. 

Post what again? That it'd be tedious? That's the only thing I've posted in this thread.. which is on your side.

outfctrl

Opalek

The game is not huge. The OP is right with that. But it is not small either.



I also would have wished for the vast stretches of Middle Earth as depicted in the books. But it is not so.



But as a european beta tester I am extremely satisfied with the work of the devs. I will go lifetime.



There are two points I wish to add to this discussion:



1. Walking. The fellowship of the Ring never rushed from point A to point B. They were walking. (with exceptions like Aragorn,

Gimli and Legolas hunting the orcs f.e.)

I will do a lot of walking in Middle Earth and for me as old time Middle Earth fan it adds to the immersion.

A lifetime account may add an argument for not rushing the game.

As soon as the patch is up I will walk the distance the OP mentioned and will post the result here.



2. This is just the beginning. Continually this world will grow as you can see by just looking at a Middle Earth map.

When the whole of known Middle Earth has been implemented perhaps it will even be big enough for the OP.

And: the Devs may learn from the community - if soundly presented by it - that the people want a bigger world.



My Advice: Take your time in Middle Earth. If you want to run : run back to Azeroth

dbonzai

It's easily big enough, hurrah for the devs for not adding needles traveling time sinks.

The maps are nice and open at least around hobbiton and bree etc.

This is the first mmo that has good enough content where I'm not in a hurry to grind lvl up to higher level to see the "cool" stuff. The cool stuff starts at lvl 1. Tell me one other mmo that is like this? Didn't think so.

Then again, if you have ADHD or are hung up on corpse recovery/EQ1 style, then vanguard or WOW are a better place for ye.  In the mean time, myself and my family and friends will be smoking our pipes and enjoying wine and song by a fire after some of the greatest adventures.

iddmitri

Small? Are you fucking kidding, did you play the game at all or just ran supa dupa marathon and logged out? Stupid post. Only Eriador is like huge not counting Gandor, Vanion, Rhun and Mordor.



Map whoever thinks it is small (all the names on the map you can actually visit in-game): http://perso.orange.fr/hugo1900/img14.jpg

CaleSentari

Originally posted by Nikoz78

I decided to conduct a test to demonstrate how small this Middle Earth really is.



With my level 6 Guardian Man, I ran from the Buckleberry Ferry to the Brandywine Bridge.



In the books this is a distance of 20 MILES between the two. Heck, even an NPC told my at the ferry that the bridge was "20 miles to the North."



So how long did it take me to run from the Buckleberry Ferry to the Brandywine Bridge?



67 seconds.



All I can say is what a HUGE letdown.



I worship LOTR. Grew up with the books + the Hobbit, watched the three animated versions a hundred times as a kid and fell in love with Peter Jackson's live-action film interpretations.



I am both a MMORPG geek and huge LOTR nerd.



I should love this game. And I almost DO. But once again Turbine has butchered an epic IP (see also: D&D Online).



The world is chock-full of zones and instances. And I mean SATURATED with them. Takes you right out of the game before you even get into it.



Because of the tiny (puny, even) world and a gazillion zones, there is almost ZERO sense of grand adventure. And what is LOTR without that?



The game is very well made. I'll give it that. Very polished. And the devs are trying to show some integrity and stay true to Tolkien's vision by allowing less-than-PC content (smoking!).



But their (obviously) hard work and attention to certain detail is wasted by the flawed world design. It does not matter how many neat little gimmicks are present in the game.



The scale of the world is:  20 miles  =  67 seconds of running. 



Yeah, 'epic.'

67 seconds of testing....

How thorough....

portallzaine

I have to say I admire your THOUGHT on testing this game this way but seriously... this is not a deal breaker in any way. there is soooo much goodness in this game and the world really is pretty decent in size. I have heard that it is nothing to the size of vangaurd. this is something I wish that turbine wouldve done. large worlds are the bees knees IMO for mmo's but strangely enough, the lotro world in its smallness is still absolutely amazing. just please consider the fact that this game runs soooo smoothly and its a great recreation of the lotr lore.

size doesnt always matter its the motion in the ocean that often does haha jkjk

daemon

I wont even touch the game before 2 expansions dont wanna feel let down

Neckrom

I find the detractors point of view amazing. Yes I also felt that the world seamed small till I started playing the game. I worked my character up doing the quests line by line and then before I knew it. I was almost a month into the Beta1 and I will still in the Breelands. The entire time I felt like everything I was seeing was new. I highly suggest that if you want to explore you make sure you sneak into every little crack in the game. I have received some interesting missions in places that I did not think would even have NPC's.

fgetce

Question than.  How many real life hours does it take to go from the Grey Havens to Rivendell?  How long does it take in real life time to cross the Shire?

 

With auto run on.

Greymantle4

I have been in beta since alpha 2. I decided to see how long it took to run from Buckland to Bree. Then I ran from Buckland to Rivendell. The first trip took about 4 minutes and the second trip took about 30 min. I do find the world to be on the small side. The biggest gripe I have with the scale is how the towns all seem to be on top of each other.



 The town of Combe, Archet, Straddle, and Bree are right next to each other. The Shire is the same way for the most part one town right next to another. Then you add in fast travel that lets you ride a horse from area to area after your first visit and were talking real small. In the last patch they now let you travel to all the different starting areas from the start without even taking the trip there which makes the world even smaller.

Rikimaru_X

From further reading all of the post, it seems that their are pros and cons to a "small world". Now I have'nt played it yet so I'm not necessarly valid, but can someone please answer my question. Can someone post up a map an calculate distance on there?

Khalathwyr

Originally posted by Rikimaru_X

From further reading all of the post, it seems that their are pros and cons to a "small world". Now I have'nt played it yet so I'm not necessarly valid, but can someone please answer my question. Can someone post up a map an calculate distance on there?

I may be wrong, but I don't think any of our industrous gamers out there in gamerland have created an interactive map that will display distance as of yet. I'm pretty sure someone will, though. That said, please don't let all this "small talk" deter you from trying the game and please, please keep the larger picture in mind that the overall map they have in game, to include areas that will come as expansions, is huge and comparable to any other game out there.

gurthgor

If it is so its really dissapointing. I dont expect to be 2 hours running but just 1 min for 20 miles is too much unrealistic. I agree they destroyed also D&D spirit, it seems same happens with this game.

Kemenlith

Originally posted by gurthgor


If it is so its really dissapointing. I dont expect to be 2 hours running but just 1 min for 20 miles is too much unrealistic. I agree they destroyed also D&D spirit, it seems same happens with this game.

Don't worry, its not that bad. Measurements get screwed up, and when applied to a virtual world get bent even more.

Irish003

And everyone remember they've got to show that giving them the IP was worth it, so that means the games got to show a profit. That means it's got to appeal to as many people as possible. The first LoTR game is going to be for casual gamers, the second will be for the more serious gamer. 

Perjure

Originally posted by gurthgor


If it is so its really dissapointing. I dont expect to be 2 hours running but just 1 min for 20 miles is too much unrealistic. I agree they destroyed also D&D spirit, it seems same happens with this game.

From the starter newb areas yes they have towns closer so the low levels can get to them easily, but when you are playing the game and exploring and questing, the world is not small. If I had to run an hour just to get to the next village I would hate that.  If you want a game that you spend all day long running to get to next city, maybe DnL would be a good choice for you - JK

 

Phoenixs

LOTRO is a good game. It's polished, the graphics are quite nice, it runs nice on all sorts of hardware, and it got some neat features.



But the world is a giant let down. Instances, more instances, a terrible boxy look, a rather small size and a very "closed" feel. Where is the freedom to explore middle earth? Where are the vast rolling plains ending in the horizon, the forest covering the hillsides leading up to massive mountain ranges?



It's all just a skybox, a wall of something around the whole place and some landscape in the middle. 2 or 3 exits in the ends. Tolkien would turn himself in his grave in agony, if he would see what Turbine has done to his world.



I don't have anything against casual friendly games. I don't need 2 hours of travel time. But come on they could have done the world alot better, and the current one completely ruins this game for me

Kemenlith

Originally posted by Phoenixs

LOTRO is a good game. It's polished, the graphics are quite nice, it runs nice on all sorts of hardware, and it got some neat features.



But the world is a giant let down. Instances, more instances, a terrible boxy look, a rather small size and a very "closed" feel. Where is the freedom to explore middle earth? Where are the vast rolling plains ending in the horizon, the forest covering the hillsides leading up to massive mountain ranges?



It's all just a skybox, a wall of something around the whole place and some landscape in the middle. 2 or 3 exits in the ends. Tolkien would turn himself in his grave in agony, if he would see what Turbine has done to his world.



I don't have anything against casual friendly games. I don't need 2 hours of travel time. But come on they could have done the world alot better, and the current one completely ruins this game for me

Oh my god you did not just say that! How can you say it has a closed feel? Its extremely open! Not just that, but there are very few instances in game. A few buildings here and there and some instanced quests, but thats about it. As for the massive mountain ranges, there really aren't any overly huge mountains other than the mistys, and I haven't made it there yet.



It is a very good depiction of the world.

Cerion

Originally posted by Phoenixs



But the world is a giant let down. Instances, more instances, a terrible boxy look, a rather small size and a very "closed" feel. Where is the freedom to explore middle earth? Where are the vast rolling plains ending in the horizon, the forest covering the hillsides leading up to massive mountain ranges?

First of all, the world is about 20% instanced...if that even.

Second, people talk about size in the extremes.  Either it has to be huge or it's way too small.  What happened to the middle ground? What happened to something being just about right?

Lastly, the game has to have boundaries, right?  It cannot go on for infinity, right?  So the game area has a boundary. What should that boundary be?  Well in something like Vanguard, you can create the artificial boundary by having it be an Ocean.  Middle Earth has no such freedom.  Now I agree that I would have prefered a mixture of hill boundaries, impenetrible forest boundries, perhaps a river border that couldn't be crossed.  The other option would be to have simply an invisible wall which may or may not have worked as well.

Turbine went with hills.  They've done a pretty good job of removing some of the more confining hills around Bree. But in places like Ered Luin, Rivendell, Angmar, Weather Hills, Trollshaws these mountain boundaries make sense because, well, in the book they were mountains (or hills).

I expect when the Rohan expansion comes out, you will see more open rolling plains.  That's about the only area Tolkien created to be such.

 

 

Opalek

I still owe you guys the comparison rushing vs walking.



My Hobbit took a wonderful walk along the Brandywine starting at the Brandywine Bridge and following the road south. I stayed on the road, made no stop, had no distraction and didnt use shortcuts. I reached the Ferry in exactly 10 minutes.



Before that I had to walk to the bridge of course. Under the same conditions, the walk from the Bywater Bridge, Hobbiton, to the Brandywine Bridge, always along the road, took me 32 Minutes. If you add the distance from Hobbiton to the Needle in an estimate 15-20 minutes it takes a character to walk across the shire east/west roughly 60 minutes.

And thats the Shire only and on the road, i.e. the fastest way.



Now, how you use this game is up to you, OP. Rushing wont help Your immersion. Thats a fact.



As I said. The world isn´t ultra-vast but it isn´t small either. And it´s filled with quest givers, exciting landscapes and a priceless Middle-Earth feeling.



This feeling however can easily be destroyed if You confuse the Bywater Road with Your RL Highway.