Can someone elaborate on "Small World" Please

Deathstrike2 · February 2007

I just started beta myself, and am barely out of the starting areas. I keep reading about how small the gameworld is in LoTR. Can someone please put this in perspective for me? Is it small compared to WoW? Vanguard? How much smaller? Is this a game that will leave me without content after a month or two of casual play?

BTW, from the little bit I've seen and played so far, it blows my socks off.

JonMichael · February 2007

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

I just started beta myself, and am barely out of the starting areas. I keep reading about how small the gameworld is in LoTR. Can someone please put this in perspective for me? Is it small compared to WoW? Vanguard? How much smaller? Is this a game that will leave me without content after a month or two of casual play?
BTW, from the little bit I've seen and played so far, it blows my socks off.

I'm not sure what they mean by a small world, either. I haven't had that feeling at all in this game. There's so many areas, so much to do, the last thing I'm doing is trying to decide if the areas are large enough.

If indeed it is smaller compared to other games, that's fine with me. I'd rather have plenty to do in an area, than a timesink of traveling all over huge zones with nothing but pretty scenery.

LOTRO has been blowing my socks off to! GREAT GAME!

Eol- · February 2007

I dont think the world is small, it seems large to me, especially when you consider that it is just one small part of Middleearth, and the expansions will be almost as big as the original area is. But a few folks disagree, and think the game lacks an 'epic' feel, and are very vocal about it.

I personally think the world needs to be big enough, that you can level up a character, and then level up another one, and not get too bored with doing the same things in the same places. LotRO passes that test, maybe not as well as WoW did, but it passes for sure.

And there is a balance between game size and have a huge epic world, versus playability and getting around, and versus having the developer/programmer time/cost to fill that world and make it interesting. I would prefer that time and money be spent on the expansions, rather than trying to make this one part of middle-earth into a be-all, end-all. I mean, imagine how much fun it will be to go into Moria (which the developers have said is absolutely huge).

Also, lore-wise, Eriador (the part of middleearth that LotRO is initially set in), was pretty empty, and I am not sure how they could make it a lot bigger and keep it interesting. It would just spread things out more with a lot of empty, meaningless areas in between. IMO.

Signe · February 2007

Someone on another site described it this way:

"The gameworld itself is huge when you look at the map, but is very densely structured in reality. Running from the newbie area to the mid levels probably only takes 10 minutes tops, and less time if you ride a horse route"

which I found to be pretty accurate.

Eol- · February 2007

Originally posted by Signe

Someone on another site described it this way:

"The gameworld itself is huge when you look at the map, but is very densely structured in reality. Running from the newbie area to the mid levels probably only takes 10 minutes tops, and less time if you ride a horse route"

which I found to be pretty accurate.

I think thats true for men and hobbits, but not so true for elves and dwarves who start further west. It takes a pretty long time to run an elf or dwarf from their homelands to Bree and the mid-level areas. You have to run across the elf/dwarf lands, then across the whole Shire, and then to Bree. And of course you cant take a horse the first time you explore areas, until you 'discover' the horse stables along the way. But after the first time, yes you can take horses and speed it up a lot.

amunn1 · February 2007

There are very few indoor areas, my guess is 90% is outdoors. At first it seems pretty large, but once you have run around a bit you see its not so big. Its just a bunch of "pocket areas" that have stuff to do, some people love the Old Forest, some hate it, thats for you to decide.

The main map has 15 areas listed as main map pieces, tho some are really areas that you start off at and wont be used much past lvl 6 or 7. Each main map has "sub-area's of interest" to visit, some may have more, some less.

steffoz86 · February 2007

It may not be as big as I expected, but I think its probably about the right size when you consider how big the world will be with the expansions, its better for me as a more casual player anyway, so I dont have to waste half my time playing on watching a horse gallop. I prefer it to be more compact and detailed like it is then just to have more wide open spaces, with just fields, trees and mountains. Running from Ered Luin as a Dwarf or Elf all the way across the Shire and Bree certainly takes sometime, especially when you have no horse routes and you probably follow the roads.

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Can someone elaborate on "Small World" Please

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