Questions from an MMORPG n00b

XLater · February 2007

Hi,

Firstly, I have never played any MMORPG except for UO at launch (that's like a decade ago) briefly and later WW2 Online (more of MMOFPS) from 2001 till now. I do play single player RPG's like NWN, ES3 and 4, Gothic etc. I would like some opinion on:

1) Would LOTRO be a good 'entry level' MMORPG? I'm tempted to try because I'm somewhat familiar with the lore (as many others would be)

2) How big is the game world? Can anyone give an approximation in miles or km between the shire and Bree for example?

3) My personal pet peeve: Are controls customizable? I have never been able to get use to WASD movement, (I use the mouse exclusively for movement, M1= forward, m2= backpeddle) either that or a point n click interface. I know it may sound silly, but its killed my interest in other games.

Thanks!

iduums · February 2007

it really depends on your play style. If you like pve then yea i would say this game will be fine for you. If you like pvp i really suggest warhammer online. You can find information for that game at www.warhammeronline.com

virtuella · February 2007

Originally posted by XLater

Hi,
Firstly, I have never played any MMORPG except for UO at launch (that's like a decade ago) briefly and later WW2 Online (more of MMOFPS) from 2001 till now. I do play single player RPG's like NWN, ES3 and 4, Gothic etc. I would like some opinion on:
1) Would LOTRO be a good 'entry level' MMORPG? I'm tempted to try because I'm somewhat familiar with the lore (as many others would be)
2) How big is the game world? Can anyone give an approximation in miles or km between the shire and Bree for example?
3) My personal pet peeve: Are controls customizable? I have never been able to get use to WASD movement, (I use the mouse exclusively for movement, M1= forward, m2= backpeddle) either that or a point n click interface. I know it may sound silly, but its killed my interest in other games.

Thanks!

1,yes it's newbie friendly and easy to learn and you can solo a large part od the time of you prefer that.

2. It's about 7x7 KM so about 50 Km2.

There is 9 zones and each zone takes approx 10 minutes to run north/south.

3. yeah you can change a lot of the ingame settings/keys, etc.

No point and click on ground movement though ( i always hated that thought)

XLater · February 2007

Appreciate the replies.

Looks like I will probably pre-order it. Anyways, for some reason I can't seem to access the official site now. Are there any other sites where I can learn more about this game? screenies, maps, discussion on features etc?

virtuella · February 2007

THe US forum.

http://lotro.turbine.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

The EU forum.

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=417

Both have a lot of threads that contains reviews,screenshots,Pros/cons etc.

Lukain · February 2007

Originally posted by XLater

Hi,
Firstly, I have never played any MMORPG except for UO at launch (that's like a decade ago) briefly and later WW2 Online (more of MMOFPS) from 2001 till now. I do play single player RPG's like NWN, ES3 and 4, Gothic etc. I would like some opinion on:
1) Would LOTRO be a good 'entry level' MMORPG? I'm tempted to try because I'm somewhat familiar with the lore (as many others would be)
Answer : Yes I think it would be a good entry level game
2) How big is the game world? Can anyone give an approximation in miles or km between the shire and Bree for example?
Answer : 50 Million Sq Kilometres at launch
3) My personal pet peeve: Are controls customizable? I have never been able to get use to WASD movement, (I use the mouse exclusively for movement, M1= forward, m2= backpeddle) either that or a point n click interface. I know it may sound silly, but its killed my interest in other games.
Answer : although I haven't played it yeah I would asume it will have a fully customizable interface along the lines of EQ2 or WOW " Some of the best interfaces are made by Players & not the actual company that developed the game ..

Hope this helps

Thanks!

virtuella · February 2007

Originally posted by Lukain

2) How big is the game world? Can anyone give an approximation in miles or km between the shire and Bree for example?
Answer : 50 Million Sq Kilometres at launch

WHOA are you sure you want to stick to that answer?

Just some fun numbers to give you a clue how big 50 million sq Km really is.

Denmark is 43,094 sq km

United kingdom is 244,820 sq km

United states is 9,826,630 sq km

Russia is 17,075,200 sq km

So accourding to you we can take all thouse contries and place inside LOTRO,still have room for Australia,China and still have leftover space.

I better Call Turbine and tell them they have a lot of work to do if they want to make sure there is enough content at release.

Eriador is 50 sq Km.

Rather small which also is one of my concerns.

Keogh · February 2007

I'm a WWIIOL vet as well. Played it for 3 years.

I'm in LOTRO BETA , and yes it would be a good entry level game.

As far as size. Its not 50 million k, its small, really small and in zones that need to load.

You'll run everywhere or rent horses until level 35. Sorry, no Opel runs in here.

XLater · February 2007

Originally posted by Keogh

I'm a WWIIOL vet as well. Played it for 3 years.
I'm in LOTRO BETA , and yes it would be a good entry level game.
As far as size. Its not 50 million k, its small, really small and in zones that need to load.
You'll run everywhere or rent horses until level 35. Sorry, no Opel runs in here.

Size-wise, I wouldn't rate it against WWIIOL for sure (still not 50 million k by far), and I'd take 'really small' from a WWIIOL vet with a pinch of salt

Since we're at it, 7km is like what.. 2 or 3 towns apart in WWIIOL scale? And for sure I'll miss running around antwerp-sized cities but I trust there will be content enough to mitigate that.

MadArkael · February 2007

back to that age old question... Does size matter?

Lukain · February 2007

Originally posted by virtuella

Originally posted by Lukain

2) How big is the game world? Can anyone give an approximation in miles or km between the shire and Bree for example?
Answer : 50 Million Sq Kilometres at launch

WHOA are you sure you want to stick to that answer?

Just some fun numbers to give you a clue how big 50 million sq Km really is.

Denmark is 43,094 sq km

United kingdom is 244,820 sq km

United states is 9,826,630 sq km

Russia is 17,075,200 sq km

So accourding to you we can take all thouse contries and place inside LOTRO,still have room for Australia,China and still have leftover space.

I better Call Turbine and tell them they have a lot of work to do if they want to make sure there is enough content at release.

Eriador is 50 sq Km.

Rather small which also is one of my concerns.

Yeah I will stick with it execpt for 1 small detail Metres not Kilometres , Ok I am putting down the beer trust me ...:) Straight from the official FAQ

How large is the game world planned for launch?

The approximate size of Eriador at launch is 50 million square meters.

http://lotro.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=20&pagebuilder[module]=faq&pagebuilder[display_item]=19#adventuringinmiddleearth68

XLater · February 2007

Size has to be appropriately large (or small)... because of how Middle Earth is depicted in the books (and indeed even the movies), it would be very distracting if I found myself walking into rivendell 10 mins after leaving hobbiton. In that kind of situation, how could I reconcile, even partly, what I have read in the books and seen in the movies? I cant associate the emotions to the limited landscape, and therefore is it even Middle Earth anymore?

I'm not saying it has to be 1:1 scale, or even 1:10 (that wouldn't be practical too), but something reasonable so that the landscape may evoke the story and lore.

virtuella · February 2007

Originally posted by XLater

Size has to be appropriately large (or small)... because of how Middle Earth is depicted in the books (and indeed even the movies), it would be very distracting if I found myself walking into rivendell 10 mins after leaving hobbiton. In that kind of situation, how could I reconcile, even partly, what I have read in the books and seen in the movies? I cant associate the emotions to the limited landscape, and therefore is it even Middle Earth anymore?
I'm not saying it has to be 1:1 scale, or even 1:10 (that wouldn't be practical too), but something reasonable so that the landscape may evoke the story and lore.

Rivendell can be reached on foot from the Spire in about 35 minutes.

Eriador seems to have big scaled down big time.

The game has 9 zones incl the battleground,but you have to remember that once you have completed a zone with all it's quests there is really no reason to get back to it so you run out of zones fast.

The game is quite linear so most 0-15 quests are in Bree-land and then you move on to North downs or Lonelands, and after that it's on to Angmar,trollshaws or misty mountains.

So let's say you take the quest route from Breeland and go questing in Lone lands and continue east towards trollshaws.

Then you level up and discover that if you want to go to north downs and do the quests they are all now grey or green quests giving you practically no xp and the gear from quests is not worth using.

It's really booring completing grey quests in an area where mobs are grey to you too.

This can become a problem not long after release if they release with this worldsize.

I'm afraid we explore the world way to fast.

Howdy, Stranger!

Questions from an MMORPG n00b

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Questions from an MMORPG n00b

Comments