hey all. question. im new.

Evil_MoDo

so i just finished playing AoC beta. not my kinda game at all. so i think i will play this till WAR.

now i already bought an account. just downloading the client now. is anyone nice enough to give me a constructive pros and cons of the game?

thanks alot.

Cartography

In your situation, you'll most likely enjoy it while waiting for WAR. As far as cons, if you bail on LoTRO when WAR arrives, you probably won't run into many cons :-)

Unknown

pro's and con's are very individual choices here, as many have to do with taste and playstyle.

here are my pro's:

- nice graphics.

- extremely easy to learn UI. (mostly)

- tolkien background.

- nice atmosphere in many places, i like how the screen turns darker when you are near a bad ass enemy.

- funny musik system.

- The offer of an LTA.

- very casual friendly.

- runs ok on normal computers in high settings.

- crafting results can compete with loot.

- friendly and most of the time nice community.

- fast and friendly customer support.

Here are my con's:

- extremely flat learning curve. Once you understood the easy UI you just sail to 50.

- rotten animations, as good as the world graphics are, the animations suck. Destroys alot of the nice atmosphere.

- easy mode MMO. Almost no true riddles.

- (almost) No Character diversity - everyone is a carbon copy of his/her neighbour with same class/level.

- not enough classes.

- no epic raids with 80+ players involved.

- no underwater world.

- no group crafting.

- (almost) no consequences for bad playstyle.

- "story-in-a-can" system, butchering the epic background story into chunks of story for everyone.

- almost no level cap content.

- extremely simplified crafting system.

- pv(m)p is a joke.

- inconsequent travel system. (no magic but wtf is fast travel?, a horse on lightspeed?)

- no innovative ideas compared to old school MMO's - nothing new here. (Which was the biggest disappointment for me, since the old MMO's where good but are old now!)

- 100% linear gameplay - you dont choose where you go in this game, the game chooses where it wants you. Playing an alt feels 100% identical.

- no dependant economy. By now almost everyone who has more than 1 houer per week to play has at least 3 grandmaster professions - many will have alot more spread over all their alts.

- no fear factor. You dont have to worry that anything you do gets you into trouble other than maybe a 5 minutes walk back to the frontline.

- EU players are second class players. (No Lore book access, no direct contact to the turbine devs. more expensive monthly fee)

 

Bottom Line

For me its a nice and fluffy game for a while. It's not enough of a game to become a hobby. Best played with a second or third MMO. So you can switch between serious and fluffy gaming.

In many aspects it was a pure disappointment since it simplified well balanced game mechanics from other games to a degree where it is not funny anymore.

To me LOTRO is a wannabe MMO that gets boring quick unless you find a good kinship. With fun people every game is fun. Even chess or marble games. This fun factor has nothing to do with the game tho.

Snorf

 

WSIMike

Originally posted by Snorf Here are my con's: 


- extremely flat learning curve. Once you understood the easy UI you just sail to 50.
So, a game having a shallow learning curve, thus allowing people to get right into playing is... a bad thing? Beyond that, it's a casual-friendly game... it's not supposed to be that deep or complex.
- rotten animations, as good as the world graphics are, the animations suck. Destroys alot of the nice atmosphere.
I see this criticism leveled alot... and I personally don't see it. The animations to me look perfectly suited to the graphics style. What game do you feel has good animations?
- easy mode MMO. Almost no true riddles.
Not sure how "no true riddles" makes it an easy mode MMO when riddles are one facet of a game, not the all-encompassing definition of them, but okay.
- (almost) No Character diversity - everyone is a carbon copy of his/her neighbour with same class/level.
You're confusing player choice with potential diversity. The potential diversity is quite broad when you consider all the possible combinations. That players choose to stick to a handful of setups doesn't change that. That's people for you. They immediately go for whatever they think is "the best build". 



It's funny, because I'd asked some kin-mates in Teamspeak once how long people thought it would take for players to reduce LoTRO to templates and cookie-cutter builds that would be considered "the right way to play". Some were like "oh it won't happen... there's too many possible builds". I said "Don't matter, over time people will find builds that are considered the best, and then everyone will immediately use those builds. Give them 100,000 possible builds, and with enough time, they'll have reduced it down to 20 that are considered "the best", and everyone will use those builds.  It happens in every MMO".



Sure enough... heheh.
- not enough classes.
Enough to cover the major play styles and the major roles in a party, thus, no class is considered "useless". How is that bad? Besides, they're adding two more.



I've never quite understood this argument. If the game had 20 different classes, how many of them do you think you would you actually end-up playing as a main character? It's like people who are concerned whether a game has enough players to group with if there's "only" 1500 versus 2000 or something... Do they really think they're ever going to come close to grouping with even a fraction of all 1500, never mind 2000?
- no epic raids with 80+ players involved.
LoTRO isn't a raid-centric game. Turbine has said they aren't going to make it a raid-centric game. Also, such large scale raids have become considered superfluous and not very accessible (due to the difficulty of organizing that many people consistently over a period of time), they have largely fallen into disfavor in the genre overall it seems.
- no underwater world.
Ummm... Do you remember the fellowship ever swimming or adventuring through underwater worlds in Tolkien's Middle Earth? Neither do I. Ever seen any such thing on the map of Middle Earth? Nope, me either. Because they don't exist. Turbine are designing Middle Earth based on the world that Tolkien created. If I remember right from reading the Silmarillion, in the lore there was a continent or a city or something that sank into the ocean wayyyyy back in Middle Earth's history... but it's not part of The Lord of The Rings, nor does it exist on the map.
- no group crafting.
Huh? Not sure how that would work... "Here you hold this board in place while I hammer the nail through it"... something like that?
- (almost) no consequences for bad playstyle.
Meh... Death penalty is an oft-debated thing. Is it too harsh, too light, just right... I personally wouldn't mind it a bit more harsh... but that's me. It's okay as-is for the type of game it is.
- "story-in-a-can" system, butchering the epic background story into chunks of story for everyone.
Ummm.. okay, this makes no sense. First of all, you're creating a character who exists in Middle Earth during the time of the Ring's journey East. You assist members of the fellowship at times, during "stops" along their way to Mount Doom... but you're never part of the fellowship itself.



Outside your own character's goings-on, the Fellowship is progressing just as they do in the book. They're not "butchering" anything about it.
- almost no level cap content.
That depends on play-style. For some there's plenty. For others there's not enough. Besides, they're going to keep expanding on the game, so... there will always be more added.
- extremely simplified crafting system.
You harvest materials... you create needed components, you purchase or farm other ingredients and then you make the item. It's a typical MMO crafting system. It's not like EQ2's, or Vanguard's or even Horizons.. but those games place more emphasis on crafting as a main activity than LoTRO does.
- pv(m)p is a joke.
Opinion. Many find it quite fun.
- inconsequent travel system. (no magic but wtf is fast travel?, a horse on lightspeed?)
I think it's assumed that the time has passed in-between locations as a mechanic so the player doesn't have to wait. In the movie, Gandalf says it'll take 4 days to get through the Mines of Moria.. yet only a few scenes later, they're on the other end. Do you think they just warped there? No... for the sake of time, they simply didn't include all the "in-between" stuff.
- no innovative ideas compared to old school MMO's - nothing new here. (Which was the biggest disappointment for me, since the old MMO's where good but are old now!)



So I guess you don't like any modern MMO. There hasn't been anything truly innovative for a while now.
- 100% linear gameplay - you dont choose where you go in this game, the game chooses where it wants you. Playing an alt feels 100% identical.
Ummm... wrong.

It's linear if you progress through it strictly following the quest lines or the main story arc. I can tell you right now, I'm all over the place, both in my quests and in where I'm hunting and my activities in general.



And the same on alts? Well yeah, if you're following exactly the same route on all of them. But come on... you know how many people I've seen mention that they have to start new characters just to experience all the quests they didn't get to on their other characters? Some have said so right on these forums. Sounds to me like you're following the same bread-crumb trail over and over, and then blaming the game for it.
- no dependant economy. By now almost everyone who has more than 1 houer per week to play has at least 3 grandmaster professions - many will have alot more spread over all their alts.
Absurd exaggeration. If they do nothing but craft I suppose. But they still have to get the wood, get the materials, spend the time crafting... and I'm sure people aren't spending all their time merely crafting. Do you know how many things I've sold on the Auction House,either crafted, or used in crafting?



Your complaints are appearing more and more grasped out of thin air as you go here.
- no fear factor. You dont have to worry that anything you do gets you into trouble other than maybe a 5 minutes walk back to the frontline.



While, again, it's a death penalty appropriate to the type of MMO it is... I again agree... I wouldn't mind it a bit more harsh.
- EU players are second class players. (No Lore book access, no direct contact to the turbine devs. more expensive monthly fee)



I'll have to let the EU players support or contradict this, as I'm in the US. EU players can't access lorebook.lotro.com?

 

Sovrath

 

I have to say that I agree with WSIMike.

 

I'm sure his cons are legit for him but I don't really see them being an issue in a game that is very much "what it is".

 

I mean "underwater adventures"? In what context is he wanting this? What could possibly be underwater? And as far as class diversity, well, that may or may not be. I do know that my guardian is different from other guardians as I usually do more damage but can't quite take the same beating they can. This is on purpose as I solo a lot and like to be able to survive several attacks.

But people do look for "best" builds when at times they could be experimenting with other types of builds. And quite frankly the classes are fine (with 2 new ones on the way).

Quite frankly, if hte OP is looking for a replacement until warhammer, LOTRO is not it. Unless he doesn't mind a game "like" lotro. But if he is looking for extensive pvp and not a PvE game then he needs to look elsewhere.

DragonOak

Snorf is right when it comes to being about personal preference and play style, but take his input as a grain of salt.  Snorf tends to think that all gaming is required to be hardcore, like back in the day of the OLD EQ.  He also tends to view gaming as an elitist profession, that would include waking the sleeper to ruin game play for everyone else.  Anyway, enough rambling about old memories, my pro's and con's.....

Pro's:

1.  Awesome graphics, take some time and flip through some of the player posted pictures to see what I mean. 

2. UI that does not require a physics course to learn how to use.

3.  This game adheres to the Tolkien legend very very closely.  I recommend reading the book while you play, so you can see even the smallest of details from the book incorporated into the game.

4.  Innovative ability for the PC to play musical instruments.  Stairway to heaven for the win!!

5.  The game brings back entertainment into the MMO field.  Leveling is a byproduct of game involvement.  It is very casual friendly and moves way past camp X mob for 36 hours straight method of gaming.

6.  Game plays optimum on most computers so you are not required to invest $1K just to play a $15 per month game.

7.  Crafting, Raiding, Spawn drops, and quest drops are all in line with another.  One area does not pull way ahead of the rest based on some "old school" its harderz to play that ways concept.

8.  Very friendly community, been 5 years since I have seen a community like this.  It makes gaming fun again.  But be warned, if the "fad" crowd comes back in force from WoW because they are growing bored over there, they can quickly upset the apple cart in any game.

9.  Great customer support, so good I am sure it makes SOE cringe that a game can nearly be bug free and can provide customer support that is friendly and efficient.

10.  It you play the game with the storyline in mind it takes time to reach 50.  A game that is about enjoying your leisure time all the way from level one to level 50.  That enables a moderate learning curve (one has to think about combat and moves, not just mash buttons) yet does not require night school for a full semester to play a game.  It brings back leisure and enjoyment into MMO.

11.  Animations are more advanced than most games I have played.  When using a shield move on my guardian he actually has as least three different animation using that shield in a fight.  It is not that hack and slash some people would like you to believe based on that game they played over a year ago.

12.  Most quests are straight forward, some require you to figure out what they need.  But I for one have little time to spend on a game that gives me a quest that requires 7 rare drop items that require camping rare spawn mobs only to find when I turn in my rare items the quest is broken and the devs are "aware" of the situation to find out they have been aware for three years and refuse to disable the quest.  Sorry rant from my old EQ days.

13.  Lots of character diversity in the shape of equipment enhancing stats, earned deeds, and earned traits.  By moving deeds and traits around it allows for difference.  I can see with new content being released that this diversity will increase a lot more than it already is.

14.  7 authentic classes with the addition of two more coming in the next paid expansion.  Sadly there are no ice comet wizards, pyroblasting mages, or disease welding necros.  If you read the book as you play you will see the correlation of the classes with Tolkien's writing, and since the game has a literary license, not a movie license, you can expect greater adherence to the book.

15.  Positive for me is NO epic raiding with 80+ players.  I mean how many nights do these teams actually raid, I bet they average one night a week.  The other 6 night a few will gather, wait for others to get online, no shows, and raid is called after 3 hours of waiting, that my friend is a total waste of time.

16.  No underwater world is a postive for me, since there was not one in the book.  And since Turbine has a literary license from Tolkien enterprises, it would totally betray the story to add one to appease a few hard core grandpa types.

17.  Group dependent crafting, meaning that is character can only have three professions.  At least one of those professions will require materials made from someone else, you can not make all you need for yourself.  For example I am a tinker on my lorekeeper with cooking, prospecting, and jeweler as my three professions.  My cook needs items from a farmer, to actually cook (OMGz it makes sense I know), so I need to have farmer friends to help me raise those skills.

18.  Those players with "bad playstyles" tend to leave the game early because they are unable to think about executing moves.  My minstrel has ballads in three tiers meaning I have to execute tier one to open up tier two to open tier three, this is all in one fight, and it can be very complicated on its own.

19.  Linear game system that HONORS the story and the epic background as conveyed by the literary license.  Granted linear games may not be everyones cup of tea, but for me it brings back leisure into gaming.  Non linear games only bring non stop very slow grinding of killing X mob 1 gadzillion times to level up once, this is a nice change for me.  I can follow a story, immerse myself into the game, and play as I am reading the book.

20.  Crafting system that works.  Starting out you can make items that are useful.  By level 20 I was able to craft items and sell on the auction hall and make enough money to buy a house.  It took work, but it was rewarding without the loooooong grind of hardcorz concept of crafting.

21. Player housing that allows you to buy a home, decorate, and display your trophies.  It allows players to develop an in game identity and visualization of their accomplishment.

22.  A balanced economy.  Since most of the gold farmers have been effectively routed there is an economy that I can actually participate in at level 5.  I can have my farmer grow food and list it on the auction house and actually have people buy it.  Meaning it is not an economy reserved only for hardcore elites.

23.  Travel system that is realistic as the book.  Horse travel but no wizard-mage-necro-warlock-demon portals in the game, personally I like that Turbine adheres to the book so closely.  And if I need to immerse myself into long travel to appease a need for consequent travel, I can take the scenic route and set at my computer and watch my horse run all the way as drool runs out of my mouth, although for those purist I might add there is a dismount option along the way so if my head bangs the keyboard and presses the right key I can dismount after falling asleep watch my horse run for my purist view of travel.

24.  Lots of innovative ideas that have moved way beyond old school gaming.  Music system, chick play, casual game wtihout required old school camping methods, actually utilizing realistic combat moves, collision detection, Player versus Monster Play, useful crafting at the earliest levels, earning deeds and traits to enhance characters, types of classes outside the norm for current fantasy genre that is more realistic and honors the lore of Tolkien.  And most of all the ability for a company to actually follow a story line without the adaptation of space ships, demons, and dinosuars into a fantasy genre.

Cons:

Way too many haters towards the game, so stay away from forums, that is where they all seem to congregate.  But I find that when there are that many haters towards a game, the game itself has value, and I am glad I looked beyond their whines and cries about LoTRO, because I actually enjoy the game.

 

Evil_MoDo

good replies.

so far im level 10 and i like it so far. very pretty game. i run it on ultra high with high frames. i dont mind that this game is a pve game. i knew that before this game was launched. i mean come on. its lotr. kinda has to be pve based.

this game i have to admit does feel like WoW. but thats not a bad thing to me. (btw i have 3 level 70 in wow) the quests i can tell will be more entertaining than wow. especially since i did enjoy the movies and read only one of the books (im sorry lol).

Shangala

"I'll have to let the EU players support or contradict this, as I'm in the US. EU players can't access lorebook.lotro.com?"

That's correct. So feel free to make a thread about it on the American boards (you know, the one that Devs visit...) if you want to help us Europeans.

Tautology

 

Originally posted by Snorf


pro's and con's are very individual choices here, as many have to do with taste and playstyle.
here are my pro's:
- nice graphics.
- extremely easy to learn UI. (mostly)
- tolkien background.
- nice atmosphere in many places, i like how the screen turns darker when you are near a bad ass enemy.
- funny musik system.
- The offer of an LTA.
- very casual friendly.
- runs ok on normal computers in high settings.
- crafting results can compete with loot.
- friendly and most of the time nice community.
- fast and friendly customer support.
Here are my con's:
- extremely flat learning curve. Once you understood the easy UI you just sail to 50.
- rotten animations, as good as the world graphics are, the animations suck. Destroys alot of the nice atmosphere.
- easy mode MMO. Almost no true riddles.
- (almost) No Character diversity - everyone is a carbon copy of his/her neighbour with same class/level.
- not enough classes.
- no epic raids with 80+ players involved.
- no underwater world.
- no group crafting.
- (almost) no consequences for bad playstyle.
- "story-in-a-can" system, butchering the epic background story into chunks of story for everyone.
- almost no level cap content.
- extremely simplified crafting system.
- pv(m)p is a joke.
- inconsequent travel system. (no magic but wtf is fast travel?, a horse on lightspeed?)
- no innovative ideas compared to old school MMO's - nothing new here. (Which was the biggest disappointment for me, since the old MMO's where good but are old now!)
- 100% linear gameplay - you dont choose where you go in this game, the game chooses where it wants you. Playing an alt feels 100% identical.
- no dependant economy. By now almost everyone who has more than 1 houer per week to play has at least 3 grandmaster professions - many will have alot more spread over all their alts.
- no fear factor. You dont have to worry that anything you do gets you into trouble other than maybe a 5 minutes walk back to the frontline.
- EU players are second class players. (No Lore book access, no direct contact to the turbine devs. more expensive monthly fee)
 
Bottom Line
For me its a nice and fluffy game for a while. It's not enough of a game to become a hobby. Best played with a second or third MMO. So you can switch between serious and fluffy gaming.
In many aspects it was a pure disappointment since it simplified well balanced game mechanics from other games to a degree where it is not funny anymore.
To me LOTRO is a wannabe MMO that gets boring quick unless you find a good kinship. With fun people every game is fun. Even chess or marble games. This fun factor has nothing to do with the game tho.
Snorf
 

Nicely written and I agree on most points.

 

Interesting that the hard core fans only concentrate on your cons and do not consider your pros. 

Evil_MoDo

Originally posted by Tautology


 
Originally posted by Snorf


pro's and con's are very individual choices here, as many have to do with taste and playstyle.
here are my pro's:
- nice graphics.
- extremely easy to learn UI. (mostly)
- tolkien background.
- nice atmosphere in many places, i like how the screen turns darker when you are near a bad ass enemy.
- funny musik system.
- The offer of an LTA.
- very casual friendly.
- runs ok on normal computers in high settings.
- crafting results can compete with loot.
- friendly and most of the time nice community.
- fast and friendly customer support.
Here are my con's:
- extremely flat learning curve. Once you understood the easy UI you just sail to 50.
- rotten animations, as good as the world graphics are, the animations suck. Destroys alot of the nice atmosphere.
- easy mode MMO. Almost no true riddles.
- (almost) No Character diversity - everyone is a carbon copy of his/her neighbour with same class/level.
- not enough classes.
- no epic raids with 80+ players involved.
- no underwater world.
- no group crafting.
- (almost) no consequences for bad playstyle.
- "story-in-a-can" system, butchering the epic background story into chunks of story for everyone.
- almost no level cap content.
- extremely simplified crafting system.
- pv(m)p is a joke.
- inconsequent travel system. (no magic but wtf is fast travel?, a horse on lightspeed?)
- no innovative ideas compared to old school MMO's - nothing new here. (Which was the biggest disappointment for me, since the old MMO's where good but are old now!)
- 100% linear gameplay - you dont choose where you go in this game, the game chooses where it wants you. Playing an alt feels 100% identical.
- no dependant economy. By now almost everyone who has more than 1 houer per week to play has at least 3 grandmaster professions - many will have alot more spread over all their alts.
- no fear factor. You dont have to worry that anything you do gets you into trouble other than maybe a 5 minutes walk back to the frontline.
- EU players are second class players. (No Lore book access, no direct contact to the turbine devs. more expensive monthly fee)
 
Bottom Line
For me its a nice and fluffy game for a while. It's not enough of a game to become a hobby. Best played with a second or third MMO. So you can switch between serious and fluffy gaming.
In many aspects it was a pure disappointment since it simplified well balanced game mechanics from other games to a degree where it is not funny anymore.
To me LOTRO is a wannabe MMO that gets boring quick unless you find a good kinship. With fun people every game is fun. Even chess or marble games. This fun factor has nothing to do with the game tho.
Snorf
 

Nicely written and I agree on most points.

 

Interesting that the hard core fans only concentrate on your cons and do not consider your pros. 

most pros are usualy true. so why should they concentrate on it? some of his cons are probably true too, but i can tell some of it is just useless bashing. like underwater worlds?? doesnt everyone hate water levels in all types of games? i hate swimming in mmos.

Analyser

Originally posted by Evil_MoDo


 
Originally posted by Tautology


 
Originally posted by Snorf


pro's and con's are very individual choices here, as many have to do with taste and playstyle.
here are my pro's:
- nice graphics.
- extremely easy to learn UI. (mostly)
- tolkien background.
- nice atmosphere in many places, i like how the screen turns darker when you are near a bad ass enemy.
- funny musik system.
- The offer of an LTA.
- very casual friendly.
- runs ok on normal computers in high settings.
- crafting results can compete with loot.
- friendly and most of the time nice community.
- fast and friendly customer support.
Here are my con's:
- extremely flat learning curve. Once you understood the easy UI you just sail to 50.
- rotten animations, as good as the world graphics are, the animations suck. Destroys alot of the nice atmosphere.
- easy mode MMO. Almost no true riddles.
- (almost) No Character diversity - everyone is a carbon copy of his/her neighbour with same class/level.
- not enough classes.
- no epic raids with 80+ players involved.
- no underwater world.
- no group crafting.
- (almost) no consequences for bad playstyle.
- "story-in-a-can" system, butchering the epic background story into chunks of story for everyone.
- almost no level cap content.
- extremely simplified crafting system.
- pv(m)p is a joke.
- inconsequent travel system. (no magic but wtf is fast travel?, a horse on lightspeed?)
- no innovative ideas compared to old school MMO's - nothing new here. (Which was the biggest disappointment for me, since the old MMO's where good but are old now!)
- 100% linear gameplay - you dont choose where you go in this game, the game chooses where it wants you. Playing an alt feels 100% identical.
- no dependant economy. By now almost everyone who has more than 1 houer per week to play has at least 3 grandmaster professions - many will have alot more spread over all their alts.
- no fear factor. You dont have to worry that anything you do gets you into trouble other than maybe a 5 minutes walk back to the frontline.
- EU players are second class players. (No Lore book access, no direct contact to the turbine devs. more expensive monthly fee)
 
Bottom Line
For me its a nice and fluffy game for a while. It's not enough of a game to become a hobby. Best played with a second or third MMO. So you can switch between serious and fluffy gaming.
In many aspects it was a pure disappointment since it simplified well balanced game mechanics from other games to a degree where it is not funny anymore.
To me LOTRO is a wannabe MMO that gets boring quick unless you find a good kinship. With fun people every game is fun. Even chess or marble games. This fun factor has nothing to do with the game tho.
Snorf
 

Nicely written and I agree on most points.

 

Interesting that the hard core fans only concentrate on your cons and do not consider your pros. 

 

most pros are usualy true. so why should they concentrate on it? some of his cons are probably true too, but i can tell some of it is just useless bashing. like underwater worlds?? doesnt everyone hate water levels in all types of games? i hate swimming in mmos.

I sure disagree, at least the possibility to dive some is standard in MMO's and fun.

The Middle Earth we enter has a history too and some of that history will be drowned under water, and it would make perfect sense to me if the heroes and explorers would risk their lives to capture the treasures und knowledge from there.

Snorf hit the nail on the head, some of his cons are not mine, i dont need to be part of 80+ raids but wouldnt mind to have some in the game. Just like i dont mind to have idiotical chicken play in the game which i dont need.

And yes its true: EU players are treated second class in almost every aspect.

Analyser

Kasias81

What is an EU?

I'm a LOTRO vet, I took a break for a while, now I am back really enjoying it.  I suggest you give it a try!

[Deleted User]

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