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Some things are choking this game
Lobotomist
Member EpicPosts: 5,981
Turbine really showed so far that they are taking a diferent approach , listening to their playerbase and trying many original things.
But slowly , slowly - something is choking LOTRO
I will not say , the usual trollish word. The game is boring... It is not , and if you are active player you will know there is another gaping issue with the game. A game initial strenght -> Quests ( and quest based xp -not grind based xp ) are choking this game...
How ?
Well simply
Most of high level quests need prerequisite quests. Each of this quests takes long time to finish , and is equaly dificult , and may not be acomplished at the first goal , potentially players will be killed and risk money penalty (and money is hard to come by in lotro).
Redoing quest you allready acomplished brings you nothing (again grinding brings almost no xp) , same goes for doing quests you dont have. And you can not share quest you didnt make prerequisite quests for.
All this results in people willing to group only for SPECIFIC quests in their quest book.
Which has made group forming almost impossible lately. It could take you hours to form a group for some quests.
Turbine should look hard at this problem.
Perhaps make quests you dont have in the book - count as done when you finaly get the prerequisites (like in COX)
Second thing is - itemitisation
Quests bring to good item rewards that are always BOUND.
On other hand random NAMED or ELITE (not boud to quests), almost never drop anything special - making hunting or killing them useless (they also do not bring any worthwhile xp)
This makes quests only valid occupation. Which brings us to the first point.
All this issues should be easly fixable, if Turbine recognises it as issue...
Hopefully thet will
Comments
Hear hear!
I agree with you.
Or helping others for quests already done could give you a trait when the deed is acomplished like a permanent tp or any reward..
I agree with your comments about xp and quests. I am currently trying to clear some gray prerequisite quests off my list, and I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it is to group for three-four hours to finish a quest and not earn a lick of xp from any kill. Nevertheless, I can also clearly see the objective that Turbine was trying to accomplish. Their plan for forced community and group efforts was well intentioned... the simple problem is that most people are self-centered when it comes to playing a MMORPG. They want to use their time most effectively for them. When you are paying a monthly fee and can only play a few hours a week, how can you be anything but self-centered when it comes to character development? As the community grows, kinships develop, and more areas are added, I believe that these problems will go away. For example, just look at Evendim. How many new upper-level solo quests are in that area... it offers a way out of some of the more group intensive quest lines.
However, I don't understand this comment: "gold is hard to come by in LOTRO". Huh? You are not the first to make this comment, but I just don't understand it. By level 30, I had 7g on hand, had given more than 2g to my guild members, and had spent well over 5g in the auction house. I didn't do anything special either... I just picked up everything that I could and sold it. Loot, veggies, etc. Anything crafting related that I picked up, I combined into a full stack and put on auction block. Am I just really lucky in this regard?
Happy Hunting!
There was a huge post on the LotRO forums about this, it was called Chain Quests are killing this game, or something like that.
I agree about the forced questing too, it's not fun when i'm on the last step of a chain quest (Dol Dinen especially) and helping others get caught up, only to have them log out or disconnect, or just leave. Then i'd have to spend another hour or longer just to get another group going. Rinse and Repeat just for a couple of chain quests? No, thanks. I don't like to be forced to quest just to level either.
The second thing that's choking this game to it's death? The direction of Turbine. The Evendim update showed a lot of people where they're taking this game, and it was very disappointing.
They quickly fixed some of these but the damage was already done. I guess they shouldn't have fixed what wasn't broken in the first place. The only exception was the Burglar exploit while mounted, which was broken, although punishing all classes was excessive.
Let's not forget the upcoming updates either. Reputation grinds are coming, more raids, more chicken play, more lame pvmp. The future just doesn't look good,
I agree on the questing thing, should really be set up more like CoX, easy questing groups = fun!
I also agree with the TC.
Most quests should not require heavy pre-requisites. Players should always have a quest or two.
Personnally, I stay far away from that game, Boromir told me to stay far from this raiding game! So I don't know much of this game, but having players motivated and interested in the game at each and every moment is important...thereby most quests should not have heavy pre-requisites.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I think the OP has a good point. Until then i was not able to really tell what was wrong with that game. I played other MMORPG for years, like AC, EQ2, AO, WOW but for LOTR after 2 weeks i was bored out of my mind. Well what the OP said might explain a bit my feeling toward this game. WHen i quit playing LOTR after 2 weeks i tought i'd be back later to see if there was an improvement but since then, i still have absolutly no urge to come back at all... I quit and came back often on all the previous mmorpg i played, but this one... i don't, it just doesnt feel right.
agree on the chained quests, not much of a problem if you are in a tight guild but still irritating. Disagree on the bound items, sucks for alts building but prevents a lot of mudflation.
Also disagree on elites not dropping much, it prevents them from being camped. I am glad they decided to move crafting crit componernts from named to a random drop for the same reason.
I miss DAoC
Good point about elites not have much in the way of drops - farming is a pain when they have something worth having. However, that can be fixed by one time drop (per character), or even simple "go kill named boss" quests.
One of the things Mythic did with DAoC Trial of Atlantis master levels (chained quests) was to make it such that the steps didn't have to be done in order, some could be done solo (or small groups) and credit could be give my raid leader to those that went link dead (and came back). Hopefully Turbine will take note of Mythic solution to the problem.
They also gave get XP (Champion XP to be precise) to players who "guided" other players through the quests. Again this is a good incentive for those that don't mind help out other with their quests.
Since when ?
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
If turbine listened, there would be an RP server.
If turbine listened, there would be an RP server.
And does everyone or for that matter does anyone on the RP server RP? Antonia Bayle was a "official " RP server for EQII, never noticed a hell of a lot of RP in the 3 years I was there though
I miss DAoC
I guess I'm too easy going...I have no real problems with this game. I am a very casual player (1-2 hours every couple of days). I did like the point brought up by the OP. I have noticed that, but did not really think much of it. I'm more of a solo player, and always have been in all the mmos I have played.
I guess the one real problem I have is the crafting quests! I like crafting, but I don't want to have to lvl up all my alts to make better stuff.
I don't mind the grind, but I would like to see it a viable alternative to questing.
All in all it is a good game, and it is still pretty new.
I shoot for the curve... anything above that is gravy.
If turbine listened, there would be an RP server.
And does everyone or for that matter does anyone on the RP server RP? Antonia Bayle was a "official " RP server for EQII, never noticed a hell of a lot of RP in the 3 years I was there though
I played on Antonia Bayle too, and I found a lot of RP. It was hard NOT to find it. Honestly, you must not really have been looking or just stuck with your friends if you couldn't find RP there.Sure, there's a lot of people who join RP servers without a clue of what RP is, or just no intention of ever RPing but it gave those who did want to a place to gather and call home and to meet new people who shared the same interests. Even Vanguard has (er... had at launch, at least) an RP server. EQ2 has more than one if I recall correctly. LotRO EU has an RP server... yet the US side does not. I personally find it a little insulting that they would make the effort for Europe but not for the States.
On the Euro servers there are 3 RP ( 1 RP-English, 1 RP-German and 1 RP-French) out of the total 11 Euro servers.
It's strange they didn't put at least 1 RP server in the US.
I like this game. I agree with the OP that it is sometimes difficult to find a group for a specific quest you need. But on the other hand that game is very casual friendly, you have lots of solo quests and not much room left for farmers and grinders who are imho a pain in my ass.
The game is not perfect but I played Eve, DAOC and tested a couple of others. I don't have this feeling that Lotro is worse than what is currently on the market. I played a year and a half on DAOC European servers, whole regions were empty, all the veterans were PvPing, the rest of the playerbase was chaining Catacomb's instances and ML rushes in order to reach the max level as quick as possible and go PvP.
If turbine listened, there would be an RP server.
And does everyone or for that matter does anyone on the RP server RP? Antonia Bayle was a "official " RP server for EQII, never noticed a hell of a lot of RP in the 3 years I was there though
I played on Antonia Bayle too, and I found a lot of RP. It was hard NOT to find it. Honestly, you must not really have been looking or just stuck with your friends if you couldn't find RP there.heh heh heh heh that is funny. I can honestly say that in three years of playing on AB in PUG's and with my guild I could count the number of heavy RP' ers I ran across on one hand. It was a let down after DAoC for sure. EQII was a step up from WoW and it was a nice game it is stale now. Newbies have a hell of a time finding groups, entire zones are dead etc etc. You can't BS me about EQII I played it way too long
I miss DAoC
I also played on AB in EQ2 since it's launch. I am not a role player either, so while not looking for it, I occasionally came across it. Grouping, raiding, and the like on EQ2, it just got really old to me. Finally left late winter '06. Got friends who still play it and I don't know why really.
LOTRO has been a nice change for me. I think the quests flow just fine. I actually lvl so fast due to the sheer amount of quests, many turn grey before I can complete them. So far so good to me. Crafting is fine, but yes it would be nice to have a low level toon that could just be there for crafting if I wanted. But I do understand their approach. It sure helps eliminate farmers from monopolizing and ruining the market.
I was actually surprised when they brought back the toon yells. I guess I was so used to SOE's ways. So, I'm impressed that Turbine is listening to the community. It is a nice change of pace. I hope they keep it up.
I'm just glad there is a decent MMO out right now. Tried Vanguard in beta and on release....omg. Until Conan comes out, I'll be playing LOTRO, maybe even after.
Barfman - The superhero people are reluctant to call upon.
Anyway, gotten a bit off topic. Turbine doesn't listen. They make some changes to appease the community, but it's what is absent that the community has asked for which is the problem.
I think Turbine made a really solid well polished game, and I would like to see it do well. Heck, I would love to see if become a huge success even though I'm not part of it anymore. I think that any company who takes the time to make sure that their game is ready before sending it to the public deserves to be successful right now because they are throwing off the trend of releasing things too early and fixing it later.
That said, they've got a lot work ahead of them. They know how to work the community, but sooner or later people will tire of some of the core issues with the game and they'll have to make some big changes. I have a lot of confidence in them that they can pull it off. They took it this far. There's no reason to assume they can't take it farther.
I am not saying there is no RP in EQII gal, just that making a dedicated RP server does not make people playing on it RP. I really could care less about RP myself so I really never went looking for it as you say. I am sure that there are entire guilds that are heavy RP in EQII and in LoTRO. I saw something in LoTRO the other day I did not know existed which is a /RP tag on their name. I suppose they may be more common on Landroval the "unofficial " RP server.
I just have a bad feeling toward "official " RP servers since in my opinion they do not force people to RP, are mostly just extra headaches for the game masters, and are just a pain in the ass when you run up on a RP fanatic. I was once reported because of a
that came out as general chat instead of a tell to a guildmate by a RP fanatic and that pretty much soured me on "official" RP servers.
I miss DAoC