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YEAH BABY!!
TEDMOLLY0
Member Posts: 33
I got into the closed beta recently after playing the stress test. I was busting at the seams until the NDA was lifted. I gotta tell the whole world about this game!! IT ROCKS!! Everything positive that everyone has been saying is true. If you loved the books and loved the movies then you will love this game. It is EXTREMELY immersive. You will feel like you are in middle-earth. If you've played WOW you'll have no problem using the interface. There is so much to tell about that I don't know where to start. Other than to tell you that I bought 3 prerelease packages and will buy lifetime subscriptions for them. If you have any questions, I'll answer 'em.
Dr. B
Comments
1) Whats the highest number of people in a group?
2) Is this game gear dependant?
3) Any dungeons like in WoW?
4) What kind of end game will this game have?
Thats all. TYVM.
I played this in Beta and was under-impressed.
The graphics are beautiful but thats where it stops. The quests were the same ol stuff only with a Lord of the Rings tone to it. The classes were ok at best. And the races were ok. Character creation was limited. Class specialization was also limited.
The game was fun for a bit. At first I was really impressed, however, it just got old. Fans of game like WoW (hold yer hand, walk through quests) will like this game. It is fairly stable, though I did find its share of bugs. Not nearly as "bug-free" as what I've been reading on these forums. I love walking up stairs and falling through them half way up and getting stuck
It really just wasnt my thing.
Graphically beautiful, Good back stroy (Tolkien was an amazing visual author so they had an easy job of transfering his desciption to vision) but really just more of the same go here, kill x, come back to me till I tell you to go to a different zone.
Personally I think it was a bad idea to not include the evil races in the game as playable, but it was their vision. Who am I to say they were wrong.
My 2 cents.
Thalos Vipav
Star Wars Galaxies: R.I.P.
Thalos Vipav
Star Wars Galaxies: R.I.P.
Um, er, thanks to anyone helping with these questions. I've only watched my son play WOW. My only MMORPG experience is with EVE (still play), Anarchy (got bored), Runescape (Doh!! I don't play but still think the game is cute).
Some of the quests are instanced. You get to follow/protect your leader (NPC) and watch cut scenes that you participate in (don't know how else to explain it).
I think the devs are still working on the endgame, but I dont know.
Some areas you can't get to. In the beginning, you can't even get out of your starting area until you complete some quests. I liked that...added to the suspense. Other larger areas you can't get through or out of because there are high mobs everywhere and its instadeath. You are somewhat guided through the game this way. Its the kinda thing I don't really want to know about because its disappointing when you find out. On the other hand, it is reasonable I guess and I can't think of any other way to guide the "big picture" which is important in this game. Also, its the type of thing done in most other MMORPGS. We can't expect the devs to solve every MMORPG issue in this game.
I really think the devs could have catered better to people that don't care about the storyline by letting them create monsters with generic level grinding...since some people want that. You can't create a monster or bad guy (aka, Horde) from the start, which I think should be an option. I can tell you that some of the monster play has the wild colors and bizarre imaginitive look of WOW which I find very entertaining as long as its not seen throughout the entire game...which its not in LOTRO. The trolls in full armor are WICKED-BAAAAAD looking! When I was an orc I was praying to Sauron that the trolls were on my side! (which they were...whew)
As others have said, this game is very polished and ready for release. I would be suprised if someone DIDN"T fall through stairs and get stuck in Beta. Heck, I still get stuck in EVE and thats a very mature game development wise. Guys, this is beta for G-d sake! Give the devs a break. As it is, I've never gotten stuck or fallen through stairs...and its still closed beta. Don't forget, a good game will have expansions, and every time there is an expansion, there will be bugs. The only solution is to perfect the core game and not expand it.....ugh, no thanks.
Dr. B
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I was invited to close beta in Nov and simply put LOTR has an enormous amount of content. Everywhere you go from Thorin's Gate in the Ered Luin Region to Rivendell and up the Misty Mountains you will have content to accomplish. Though I never have gotten pass the Misty Mountains cause the dang Snow Beast kept slinging boulders at me stopping me in my tracks.
As for the crafting. Well I just recently Mastered as an Apprentice Prospector and very close to Master cook and Master Jeweler. The steps in figuring out how to craft is very easy to understand. Once you open up your crafting box it will give you options to craft. Each item you wish to craft gives you a picture icon and amount of materials needed to craft that item. The items you will need are found scattered all over the place in the wild.
Depending on what Apprenticeship you have chosen will decide what items in the wild you can collect. You will need to go to a provisioner to purchase the tools needed to collect those items, such as a saw, pick, etc. Once you come across the item you will have to make sure the tool is equipped and you double click on the material and your char will do the rest.
Once you collect enough resources you will have to go to any village and locate the crafting area of your profession such as, a farm for growing food, a forge for processing metals, a study area to make jewelery, etc. Once there you will have to equip the proper tool and double click on the crafting area. It will bring up your crafting box. In the middle of the box it will have two lines of words that will be colored red or green. If Red the first line of words means you don't have the proper tool equipped. The second line means you are not in the right crafting location. Once green you will see the quantity of resources needed and how much you have. If enough you simply go the bottom and select make. If you wish to make more than one item next to make you can select the quantity of times you want the item made.
A big note: When you are trying to buy bulk items of the same thing from a grocer or provisioner if you select the purchase button too many times and too fast a message will pop up saying,"SLOW DOWN YOU ARE HITTING TO FAST". At first I thought the DEVS were talking to me directly cause that was exactly what I was doing.
The game is wonderfully put together!!!!
Former disgruntled SWG Ahazi VET
The game isn't gear dependant, but if you're the type that absolutely has to have an extra 5% edge, then I think there's gear for you. The game is very forgiving in that regard.
There are some dungeons (The Great Barrows is a must see!), but most of the encounters are out in the open similar to what you'd find in the movies and books. Likewise most of the world is seamless, I'd say 75% is wide open, with 25% instanced (both outdoor instanced and indoor instanced).
As for the end game....Monster Play is there to partially fill it. But I think Turbine's plan is to release enough content on a regular basis for end game to be moot. I could be wrong on that.
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Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/