A critique from beta 1

jamustrip

   Been playing the game for awhile.

Graphics are gourgeous! Loved all the graphics barring the actual playable toons. They are ok but dont even come close to most other mmo's. Which seems to be the case with this game in general. Turbine has done everything possible to, "Play it safe." Nearly 100% of content is a carbon copy of 100 other games on the market but they only took those ideas halfway. For example, the faces of playable toons are all based on one model which is then stretched and tweaked into a selection of 7  or 8 faces. Not alot in the way of custimization of your toons appearance in this game. This carries over into mechanics as well. As per the standerd you have 7 "Iconic"character classes to choose from each with specific skills that everyone has as well as yourself. The clothing and armor as well falls short of any custimization. In essence everyone in the game is everyone else at that lvl. There is much potential with the trait system but as we know from other games they generally get worse not better. The chat system as well is pretty non functional and the only one that gets much or any attention is the ooc channel. Furthermore, call me old school but I like chat bubbles above my head.

  A few positive notes...mounts are fun. Monster play is entertaining. I enjoy the crafting although I do wish they would have made crafting specific classes as opposed to the current system. Some of the emotes are hip too. I like that I can smoke a pipe...inside even! Uhmmm... yay thats about it.

 

I bought it cause I have money to burn. I will play it until the next one comes along but am quickly losing hope that the mmo industry is capable of producing a good mmo anymore.

Kryogenic

Originally posted by jamustrip


   Been playing the game for awhile.
Graphics are gourgeous! Loved all the graphics barring the actual playable toons. They are ok but dont even come close to most other mmo's. Which seems to be the case with this game in general. Turbine has done everything possible to, "Play it safe." Nearly 100% of content is a carbon copy of 100 other games on the market but they only took those ideas halfway. For example, the faces of playable toons are all based on one model which is then stretched and tweaked into a selection of 7  or 8 faces. Not alot in the way of custimization of your toons appearance in this game. This carries over into mechanics as well. As per the standerd you have 7 "Iconic"character classes to choose from each with specific skills that everyone has as well as yourself. The clothing and armor as well falls short of any custimization. In essence everyone in the game is everyone else at that lvl. There is much potential with the trait system but as we know from other games they generally get worse not better. The chat system as well is pretty non functional and the only one that gets much or any attention is the ooc channel. Furthermore, call me old school but I like chat bubbles above my head.
  A few positive notes...mounts are fun. Monster play is entertaining. I enjoy the crafting although I do wish they would have made crafting specific classes as opposed to the current system. Some of the emotes are hip too. I like that I can smoke a pipe...inside even! Uhmmm... yay thats about it.
 
I bought it cause I have money to burn. I will play it until the next one comes along but am quickly losing hope that the mmo industry is capable of producing a good mmo anymore.

I agree about the graphics. I really appreciate the detail in the terrain. You can see each individual flower blowing in the breeze. I like that.

You can enable chat bubbles in the options menu. It makes the text you type in /say appear over your head, but it's not enclosed in a bubble.

I see what you are saying about armor, because sometimes you buy a set of armor as an upgrade and it looks exactly like the lower lvl armor you just had on. Hopefully it's just one of those things that will be fixed before they go live. It wouldn't be too terrible hard to get some different armor skins. Then again I have no clue what kinds of things they are focusing on to polish up.

 

JonMichael

Originally posted by jamustrip


   Been playing the game for awhile.
Really?  Some of the things you've stated are quite different than what I've experienced, and I've only been in Beta since the beginning of February.
Graphics are gourgeous! Loved all the graphics barring the actual playable toons. They are ok but dont even come close to most other mmo's. Which seems to be the case with this game in general. Turbine has done everything possible to, "Play it safe." Nearly 100% of content is a carbon copy of 100 other games on the market but they only took those ideas halfway. For example, the faces of playable toons are all based on one model which is then stretched and tweaked into a selection of 7  or 8 faces. Not alot in the way of custimization of your toons appearance in this game.
While there can never be too much customization in a game, I think Turbine's is sufficient, but could use more options.  At least there's more hairstyles than VG.
This carries over into mechanics as well. As per the standerd you have 7 "Iconic"character classes to choose from each with specific skills that everyone has as well as yourself.
The great thing about the different professions in LOTRO is that they are all different and all have their specific roles in fellowships and their own strengths and weaknesses.  I've played almost all of the different classes to some degree or another and not one feels or plays like the rest.
The clothing and armor as well falls short of any custimization. In essence everyone in the game is everyone else at that lvl. There is much potential with the trait system but as we know from other games they generally get worse not better. The chat system as well is pretty non functional and the only one that gets much or any attention is the ooc channel. Furthermore, call me old school but I like chat bubbles above my head.
Not sure what you mean about customization of armor.  This game has dyes in it which a lot of other MMO's do not.  Right there, it's more customizable than most.
The trait system works very well for making your toon unique from others in the same class, based on which one's you equip.  How does it get worse?
For being in beta for so long, you didn't know there's a setting to turn on chat bubbles?  Check under options.
  A few positive notes...mounts are fun. Monster play is entertaining. I enjoy the crafting although I do wish they would have made crafting specific classes as opposed to the current system. Some of the emotes are hip too. I like that I can smoke a pipe...inside even! Uhmmm... yay thats about it.
 
I bought it cause I have money to burn. I will play it until the next one comes along but am quickly losing hope that the mmo industry is capable of producing a good mmo anymore.

Sovrath

Though I agree that more customization is needed (and that the avatars are "ok" I have to remind you that this is still closed beta. And if you are commenting on Beta 1, what about beta 2?

What about the new details option that was added to elves?

It seems to me that more will be added by launch as different things are being added bit by bit. Though I highly doubt that LOTRO will have the customizaton of other games it does appear that more is on the way.

closed beta is closed beta and from everythign I've seen, this is a real closed beta. Heck, they are remaking the Old Forest again. It's game development like that that I find exciting, because you can actually see the evolution of the game over short periods of time.

jamustrip

Closed beta ends in less than two weeks and I dont really see what theu can do to bring about making your toon your own in that time.

 

So thx for the tip on the chat bubbles, I still find the chat system a bit unweildy.

As far as customization, it is possible, easily possible. Simply ditch this canned approach to specific classes and go back to a skill system. Uo did it well and so did the original swg. A few others as well. The professions are well balanced as far as that goes but really this game just comes across as another knock off.

Sovrath

Originally posted by jamustrip


Closed beta ends in less than two weeks and I dont really see what theu can do to bring about making your toon your own in that time.
 
So thx for the tip on the chat bubbles, I still find the chat system a bit unweildy.
As far as customization, it is possible, easily possible. Simply ditch this canned approach to specific classes and go back to a skill system. Uo did it well and so did the original swg. A few others as well. The professions are well balanced as far as that goes but really this game just comes across as another knock off.

Well, as I said, they have been implementing changes in updates. Just 2 weeks ago a new option appeared for the elves. I imagine there will be a few more. It's not that they don't have it, they just haven't implemented it in the game yet. But we'll see.... Open Beta will most likely have what we will get for launch.

As far as a skill system, that is not an option as they have created the entire game already based upon the class/trait system. It's just not in the cards.

kramster

Been in beta from september last year and after the initial excitement had worn off I was left disappointed. I felt that I had played it before and after the first wipe I had to really convince myself to roll my toons again, I did though because I made a commitment to test the game. During beta I saw many great improvements suggested by testers and reported many bugs most of the bugs remain (even those present in september) and as for any suggestions made...pretty much ignored.

I agree with much of what the OP has said, it's not a bad game just the same games i already own but dumbed down or rather put in ultra safe mode. Absolutely no risk taking here, just generic safe license farming.

Slightly off topic, but I just read the latest so called 'beta journal' think it should be renamed the Turbine self advertising journal. It is little more than creative gloss describing what is again an uninteresting, dull advancement system.

This is ofc my personal opinion and I am sure this title will sell big but ultimately I expect the old server decline experienced by DDO within six months if they fail to get real expansions out prior to that....Hope I am wrong for the sake of those investing lots of money in pre orders (I will not be one of them)

Sovrath

Originally posted by kramster


Been in beta from september last year and after the initial excitement had worn off I was left disappointed. I felt that I had played it before and after the first wipe I had to really convince myself to roll my toons again, I did though because I made a commitment to test the game. During beta I saw many great improvements suggested by testers and reported many bugs most of the bugs remain (even those present in september) and as for any suggestions made...pretty much ignored.
I agree with much of what the OP has said, it's not a bad game just the same games i already own but dumbed down or rather put in ultra safe mode. Absolutely no risk taking here, just generic safe license farming.
Slightly off topic, but I just read the latest so called 'beta journal' think it should be renamed the Turbine self advertising journal. It is little more than creative gloss describing what is again an uninteresting, dull advancement system.
This is ofc my personal opinion and I am sure this title will sell big but ultimately I expect the old server decline experienced by DDO within six months if they fail to get real expansions out prior to that....Hope I am wrong for the sake of those investing lots of money in pre orders (I will not be one of them)

I have to agree with you. I don't like the Beta Journals. it's not that I think they should be pointing out every flaw to the game, but more to the point, they need to feel a bit more "down to earth".



They do feel like PR. This is not to say that the players who are writing these journals are being anything but truthful to what they are experiencing. But there must be some journals that express more concerns.



I have to say that I have noticed may bugs that I've reported being completely taken care of, so I know they are doing bugs fixes. Why others are not being taken care of I can't say.



Also, the game could do with a little more risk. But since it feels like the game is being made for very casual players, it makes sense to me.