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Is Lotro out of creativity
Larry2298
Member Posts: 865
I though Lotro could have some changes and fun after returning but I found the game design seems to be always the same type without any creative thought. I hope the game is not only difficulty but most importance is fun to challenge. May this because of limited by the storyline? I think that is just an excuse to be more creative.
Comments
I don't know if they are out of creativity but I do know that it takes creativity to keep a game fresh. I think what is happening here is that players haven't had any significant new content in a while because of the change to freemium and they are getting antsy.
There is supposed to be an update this quarter and an announcment (most likely next week) about 3 classes that are going to get some "love".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I didn't like the slow pace of development on either of Turbine's MMOs. With LOTRO, they don't really need to be creative. They just need to keep the story going. They can use the same formula for obtaining gear that WoW has for years, and still be successful with every update. They have a solid fan base that will stick with the game to the end.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
maybe they should put in cars with guns and BFG's. Maybe some purple elves or a class that has wings...oooh nevermind all of those have been done haven't they
I miss DAoC
This I'll agree with. Having come in with F2P, I'm still finding a TON to do...too much in fact. But for those who have been here for awhile, I can fully understand that 'meh' feeling.
I can assure you that not all the Hardcore Raiders are getting bored. My kin is not a HC one, but we are doing endgaming instances and of course most of our characters are level 65. The problem is that endgaming is lacking, and it is due time that some new instances should be implemented. After all, it has been more than one full year since the last endgaming content (Mirkwood, I'm not counting Enedwaith which is basically farming for Rep or the old classic instances which are fine, but they are merely rehash of olders instances)
Many "old" players are taking a break, which is fine, but Turbine should not idle too much on the F2P success, as otherwise people will start looking around for other options.
I would argue that LotRO never really had any creativity
One of the many "meh" thoughts I have about this game is the lack of creativity, as stated above.
I quite literally have done 5-10 quests EACH to kill bears, boars, and wolves (meaning, 15-30 quests to just kill these 3 types of mobs). Sure they "radically" change this by one quest saying "kill 10 boars", then I do 5 quests or so and go to turn them in, and bam, I get ANOTHER quest saying "go get 15 pieces of boar meat". Wow, that's just EPIC and SO different from the previous kill quest for the same exact mob. I have BACK-TO-BACK quests to kill the same mobs (in general), over and over again, sometimes, they are a higher level of boar, wolf or bear. Oooooh, creative!
I have a level 32 Runekeeper and level 23 Minstrel. There are boar, wolf, and bear kill quests, repeatedly, still into the 30's. I really hope there aren't level 60+ boars. Not only are the quests monotonous, but rebadging the same mobs with slighly diffent names, and just giving them a higher level is beyond lame. A 5 year old is more creative.
I'm only playing this game till Rift comes out, but I would have liked to stick with it, but there are so many annoyances like the simple example above, that the game does not pull me in AT ALL.
What really surprised me that for a game that's been out this long, I've found more bugs, more annoyances, *very easily*, and these are things everyone will come across, and they haven't been fixed/solved/etc, since launch. I'm not going to spend 3 hours reporting them, because I KNOW they won't care. If they did, they would all be fixed by now.
I'd list some examples, but, I just don't care enough. if the developer and designers don't care, then why should I?
If they wanted to pay me for doing SQA on their game, that would be another story entirely.
I'm not going to argue against your other points because I agree with them for the most part. However, if you think that you will escape the neverending kill quests in Rift, you have another thing comming to ya. Besides the rifts and invasions, almost all quests in it are "kill x" or "gather x" quests.
Uhm, I'm a beta tester with a level 30 character and a level 22 on the Guardian side. There's not even close to the repetition used in LOTRO quests compared to Rift. My main is a defiant. Not only does Rift have WAY LESS repetive quests, they also do not re-use the same mobs over and over again like LOTRO does. A little, but again, not even close to LOTRO.
I litterally finish a quest, or group of quests (I bang them out all at once if they are roughly in the same area), then I turn them in, and get ANOTHER boar/wolf/bear kill quest again. Literally back to back. How lame and unimaginative is that? If this were exactly the same for Rift, I would admit it. I'm not a fanboi, or ever will be.
I mean seriously, 35++ levels of boars, bears, wolves? I'm sure they will continue to re-use them at higher levels too. You even kill frogs, bear-cubs (BABY bears for christs sake!), slugs (those are funny actually, especially the "slug-squasher" title you can get), and deer. Why are frogs a mob? They are the most docile creature on the planet
. Didn't we have enough rat, deer, and sheep killing in UO? Don't get my started on Flies. Yes, flies are a mob. They might as well have a pond-scum mob, "angry" leaves, evil tree-bark, etc. I want to kill monsters, not cute animals!!
There are not enough mob types in the IP for a decent variety. Problem is you take rich IP about a journey and inner heroism and make into into pure slaughterfest with nothing else to do, no game mechanics for diplomacy, very shallow stealth, no game mechanics for travel. It is not LOTR game, it is texas chainsaw massacre in hobbit costume.
To be fair, the quests in Rift are pretty much all kill X number of whatever or collect X number of whatever, with the occasional go talk to whoever to start a new hub but you are correct that Trion at least varies up the mobs instead of giving us a constant flood of the same bears, boars, and wolves to kill. Also, I'm assuming that in your post you aren't talking about the repeatable quests from the taskboard as that's something different entirely.
I don't think it's asking too much for Turbine to add more variety to our adventures in Middle Earth- there is a lot more in Tolkien's books than what we've gotten to experience.
I'm a beta tester for Rift as well and like I said, I agree with the person I quoted, the quests in LOTRO are very similar but they aren't that much better in Rift either. Just to give you an example, as a level 22 on the Guardian side, I had to do a quest to kill goblins from 3 unique groups. When I get done with that quest, I got sent to a different quest hub where there NPC has asked me to gather items that drop of the same goblins I just killed.
Rift has it's benefits but good and varied quests is not one of them.
as far as I know nearly all modern MMO's have kill quest and lots of them. It is just a reality. Lotro is my all tie fav. game but i have quit cause no new content in a year+. Then add in all free freeks and I have has enough. Have been playing Rift Beta and am loving it. Although there are tons of kill quest, but that doesn't bother me I expect it.
Cataclsym had some fun quests but that expansion got old real quick, i am not sure why really but i can even look at that game, just waiting on Rift.
I think if people were to read the LOTRO quests they might find them more interesting.
as far as the comment about the mobs used in lotro, well, it's not really a high fantasy game. Other than Orcs and Goblins there really isn't a huge amount to choose from. Of course, maybe that's the issue and there should just be orcs and goblins.
It's very forgivable because that is the world. If anything I think they've added too many "odd" mobs that really didn't need to be made.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Worse than that was the goblin are immuned to your skill because the AI makes the golbin run away even you crippled the golbin. So, it is definitely not fancy to kill such creature. With skirmish adds in the game, it became more and more like ohter F2P on the market, which is the game plays by itself by AI. And all you just need to do is browse the lotro store and shopping.
I stopped playing LOTRO due to lack of content. it's just moving too slow. the game will close down well before they ever reach mordor. They need a new expansion at a MINIMUM of every 6 months to keep things moving.
there is a long story to tell with lotr, there's no reason for it to be told at a snails pace. Besides now that they are a pay to play model, the fater they put out content, the more they can sell. The last expansion was a total joke contentwise. the skirmishes are ok, but there's not enough of them and they all feel the same.
Man, Larry is getting really good at trolling the LOTRO forum.
While I agree LotRO never had massive amounts of creativity (don't get me wrong, I love the game, and am a Lifer), that doesn't make it a "bad" thing. It's sure not for everyone. That's why I started playing Xsyon (really cool game).
I just wish Larry would stop trolling this forum if he hates the game so much!
Yes, because if you really knew the story behind why that person needs 12 pieces of boar, it would make all the difference in the world.
LOTRO definitely has some interesting quests, but alas, they are in the minority.
That's really the trouble with the game, it's just so half-assed. They put a little bit of effort into it, then the rest is just a paint by numbers deal.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I've never played RIFT, so I can't get into that argument.
As for LOTRO, I'll tell you what I tell everyone else - IT DOES NOT BREAK NEW GROUND, but what it does, IT DOES WELL.
To be more specific: Graphics are top-notch, the UI is beautifully maintained, best F2P I've ever played (does not cause late-game balancing issues), the quests are engaging (especially the Epics), the instance/raiding is fun, amazing costume system, and the community is great.
That being said, crafting is still a side-quest and not a full-blown game option, it's as "themepark" as "themepark" gets, the art style while highly detailed can be considered boring, the character creation is lacking, PvP is developing but still limited.
MAIN: LOTRO (Chedriin Azariah, Landroval), STO (Jay Andover)
SIDE: FFXIV, RoM, Wakfu
I'm not sure if that's true Jeremy.
Well, let's put it this way, I'm sure that not every quest is worthy of a pullitzer but I've found quite a few quests that not only create a bit of story but some that have some depth as well regarding the greater world.
I've used this example before but it's not alone in how interesting it is if one actually opens one eyes.
There is a quest to gather black feathers from the creabin (or however they are spelled) so that the feathers can be used for an Inn's pillows.
So of course the player goes and gathers the feathers, brings them back and the person at the Inn is shocked that they are not only so oily but that they have a foul smell. She responds with surprise and wonders what would cause such a thing. But "oh well" we might be able to find a use for them somewhere.
So on the surface there isn't much to that. But if one thinks about it, what makes it chilling is that here is an average person who is going about her average work when she is confronted by this oddity. She has no answer so she dismisses it. However, we know that there is a huge evil growning and definitely coming. We know what is going to happen. But this "person" is oblviious to the horror that the world will face. The start of which she holds in her hands but she has nothing to go on to inform her of anything out of the ordinary other than the curiosity of some foul smell.
This is a literary device that is often times used to draw the reader into the world by playing on our knowledge of greater events even though we are powerless to inform the characters of what fate lies ahead.
Of course this is just one example but one that has stuck with me for quite some time. I've come across many quests that either feed into some larger storyline or that flesh out the world and the people within it.
The killing of birds or boars is just a game mechanism. But when one allows oneself to do these things in context of a bit of story then they can have far more meaning than just running back and forth fulfilling kill quotas.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
If you play lotro long enough, you will noticed the quest has nearly the same patterns.
Quest 1:
In a hot spot area, you need to gather certain materials first. Then go back to NPC to complete this quest. In the meantime with your completion. You got another quest.
Quest 2:
In the same area of quest 1, your mission is to kill certain mobs. OK,now go back again to the hot spot area. When you completed this quest, the same NPC or depends on how difficulty is about the quest 2, if he didnt give you the third quest, he will ask you to talk to another NPC.
Quest 3:
Now, with bla bla bla done by you, XXXXXXX, we have to put down the XXXXX, but first thing, we need to destroy the XXXXX before we can kill him.
Off you go, the target you going to destroy is actually next to the Boss and/or around him. And actually, you have kill all mobs in this hot spot area for fourth times, same mob at same location.
Upon your completion, you finally reach the last quest to kill Boss, thats what you though.
Quest 4:
Killing Boss xxxx.
Mission completed, But another NPC stands next to him or nearby light up with new ring.
Yea yea, there are more quest to go back to the same area to kill XXXXX again and a few to continue.
WHen you have done all quests, there are epic quest still lead you into the same area.
This is Moria.
So in Lothlorien, they stop making such kind of quest, they just make timer on most of the quest as repeatable. At least, it is some kind of improvements.
This pattern is especially prevalent in Mirkwood and Enedwaith.
REALITY CHECK
name me any quest in any game does not require your character traveling to a X-Y point on a mpa, or killing either a mob or gathering a resource. You can't becasue that is all any MMO character in a game can do. End of thread.
So Larry what would you reccomend Turbine do.? Keep in mind the words of the late Sam Rayburn - "Any fool can tear down a house," Rayburn declared, "but it takes a carpenter to build one." Are you a carpenter or a fool?
I miss DAoC
The Spider solo instance in Moria, have forgotten the name but it's the one where you have to prevent the trapped dwarfes from getting eaten, now that was a good and actually creative type of solo quest, that one could wish they'd make more of.
I remember going in as mid-level (i.e 54-55 for Moria) or so minstrel, was a real challenge trying to first of all stay alive and at the same time rescuing the webbed dwarfes one by one while keeping an eye out on the rest of the room, making sure no dwarfes were being eaten at the other end of the room. Good challening fun, especially when there was a graphical bug preventing you from actually seeing the spiders, now that made it really challenging
Such a shame they (or any other mmo developer, it seems) can't be bothered to think up more stuff like that.