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My day by day take on the game...
Cymdai
Member UncommonPosts: 1,043
Greets people. I've decided I'll do an unofficial journal of my 10-day gameplay experience. It will be rather thorough, as I'll be putting in around 8 hours per day, for the next 5 days. This is courtesy of the flu, so I won't be at work or anything. Hurray... sorta!
Check back later today, I'll write my opinion of my first and second days.
Oh, and I'm Cymdai, on Arkenstone. Human Captain!
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Comments
Thanks, ill take a look here in a bit
Day 1
My first day in the game was yesterday. I did some basic research on the Lotro wiki site, and after reading up on some basic gameplay options, I opted to make myself a Male Captain, hailing from Rohan (I love the riders, what can I say?)
Character Creation
While I wasn't exactly blown away here, there was nothing to scoff at either. It seems fairly standard in comparison to most other MMO's today. Take basic feature/color alterations from WoW's creation system, mixed in with Vanguard's body slider creation, and you've pretty much got it. A few basic hairstyle options, some accessory choices (notably scars upon the characters face), facial hair choices, eye color, and some aging factors. Perhaps I'm a bit spoiled, after things such as SWG's creation system back in the day, or CoH/CoV. After around 5 minutes, I had my avatar ready to go out and begin his quest to stop the evil Witch King!
Opening Tutorial
Once I entered the game, I had my graphics and resolution tweaked out for eye-candy goodness. The graphics are rather nice, and I didn't notice any blocky textures or out-of-place objects. I played around in my jail cell for a second, and quickly realized the control schemes were very similar and familiar to most MMO's these days. Once I felt I had a good grasp of the basic control set up, I talked with the Hunter, and we began the tutorial process. It took around 10 minutes, as I explored the area, and slayed a few brigands, and then I was off to the world. One of the first things I noticed that I enjoyed was the cinematic-style advancement of the game. A strong, narrative voice came on at the end of the tutorial, and read off what was going to happen next in the game. While it's nothing huge, it was a little perk that helped to immerse me into the game.
Initial Observations
One of the first things I felt necessary to comment on was the questing system. After running 6-8 quests, I realized the similarity of the system to WoW, but with a bonus twist. I enjoyed the way the game separates story-based questing from loot-based questing. This allows me to decide whether I want to enroll myself into the advancement of the storyline, or just whack some mobs for some nice exp/item rewards. Having played FFXI, it was nice to not see my gameplay limited by opting not to carry out story-line based quests. (Granted... I'm only level 7 by the end of my first day!) Quests are also fairly easy to complete, and are not overly difficult to locate. Also, quest-givers are highlighted, so it's simple to go find quests if you're in the mood to complete them. Rewards were also suitable, though somewhat standardized (all of them seem to give 90 copper so far... all of them), and questing seems to be the way to go for fast exp. As of right now, I haven't got any particular gripes with the questing system.
The community seems rather friendly, though I haven't encountered bundles of players just yet. This was especially important to me, having come from Vanguard, where I was constantly mocked, flamed, and told to "Go back to WoW" whenever I asked a question in general chat. When I had a question, people were usually quite willing to assist me if they were able, or explain things to me. I had little problems finding group members to help me complete quests early on, and party mechanics were easy to pick up on. There also appears to be a healthy variety in players (I kind of expected there to be 1-2 hobbits, tops, with 1000 "Legolaaahs" running around). Generally, the community seemed very friendly though, even at peak hours.
Crafting was also a very simple thing to get involved with as well. For me, this was both pleasing and disappointing. I appreciate the beginner-friendliness of the crafting system; I picked up Woodworking, and went to work within a few minutes. About an hour later, I had become a Master Apprentice farmer, and already began popping out a "crit" here and there. However, I am a fan of complexity in my crafting, as I've experienced SWG and EQ2 crafting. The lack of complexity leaves me yearning for a little more, but I'm hopeful that I'm just missing out on some things right now.
In around 7 hours of play time, I experienced zero lag, even with my settings pumped up. I didn't notice any hitching, or exploits/bugs in the games either. There were no crashes to desktop, and my framerate didn't see any decrease in performance. Having played Vanguard, it was refreshing to see a functional, working product, especially since this game has been out a fraction of the time Vanguard has been on the shelves.
Lastly, I like the size of the world. I don't feel like I'm wasting hours on end just walking around aimlessly. Quests are usually located fairly close to the givers. Everything of relevance and importance to me is connected fairly closely, so I haven't ended up wandering off and suddenly being surrounded by level 40 enemies. I think Turbine did a good job of connecting their content in a meaningful manner, so as to avoid penalizing players for exploring local outskirts.
Conclusion after Day 1
I'm enjoying the game right now. I'm able to accomplish quite a bit on my own. I haven't really got any complaints thus far, except that I'd like some more advanced crafting mechanics. It's a functional game, with some similarities to WoW, but it also stand up enough on it's own for now. Today, I hope to test out some raiding content, with some dungeon crawling, as well as more fellowship encounters. Overall, the game appears to be nicely done so far!
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
The suckig begins at around level35.
Get around that level and report back. It's a grindfest without people to grind it out with. Instances are a pain to get teams for, but eh that might have changed. I quit like 2 months ago.
Great write-up so far, it's kind of how i felt when i started. It'll be interesting to see when you get higher levels.
more like 45-50 since they added evendim.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
Biggest thing I have noticed about LoTRO and our guild at least is people come in and for the first 15 levels think the game is easy, sometimes too easy. From 20 to around 35 or so it get more difficult. Around 35 the quests get harder and by 45 ionly around half or less can be soloed and you start seeing the grind factor set in.
They made it a lot better for late 20 to the higher 30's with the Evendim area and hopefully book 10 will make life for a 40+ easier also. I have done entire levels at 45+ just grinding mobs for fun and profit. After DAOC though it is a piece of cake. I forsee Turbine working a lot on these levels as time goes by. As a minstrel I abhor the sight of a Moroval ( bat women) because of a book I needed to complete for a very desirable skill. I bet I killed 1000 of those ugly bitches to get my 4 pages and they are signature which means they have about twice the normal hit points. Still if you are in a good guild the game is a lot of fun and the grind is not bad compared to other games except WoW which if I understand correctly is easily soloed to max level.
The higher level instances are moderatly difficult . Hard enough so that you need a balanced group of non asshats, yet not impossible either. Turbine still needs to work on 40 to 50 content for sure.
edit- According to a friend on the test server Book 1`0 which is due to go live in a couple of weeks addresses the 40 to 50 solo content with around 50 new quests in that range. Whether or not they will be adequate and truly be soloed is still to be seen.
I miss DAoC
Day 2
After playing around a little bit more today, I managed to just about hit level 12, though I didn't dedicate the solid amount of time I had hoped to (only about 3 hours yesterday). The Bourne Ultimatum arose.
I ventured around, mostly through the Chetwood Forest areas, Bree, and the Midgewater Marshes. The forest was nice, as I had a solid 10-15 quests to complete in that direction, as well as variety of named mobs to slaughter. While I'll admit, I'm a bit tired of only fighting Blackwold Brigands, Wolves, Spiders, and Boars, I also realize I'm still extremely early in the game. After hitting level 10, I got to try out my Herald of War. It's nifty to have a pet that helps you hit harder, and is also capable of drawing agro off of you when you're in places like the Blackwold Headquarters.
A particular gripe I'm beginning to have is the repetition of combat. The lack of skills presently available to me leads to me pressing no more than 4 buttons, and of those 4, mostly 1... over and over and over. This is discouraging, as I should not be experiencing burnout of the combat system this early on in my opinion. However, I continue my journey.
When I got to Midgewater Marshes, I was really pleased. Being in an area just like it was out of the movie was pretty cool. I think a nifty touch would have been to have the bodies in the water looking at you, but that's just my 2 cents. There were several new quests here, as long as some new mob types to fight. Goblin/Orc types are pretty difficult, especially when they link. They hit hard, but it was a welcome change to have to think a little bit before jumping into combat.
I also finally ran into my first "mistake" today. As I was exploring the marshes, I suddenly encountered a giant level jump in mobs; from level 10 to level 17. While I tried to haul ass out of the area, my efforts were failed, and I was killed in 4 hits. Damn.
I still believe this to be one of the friendlier communities I've ever encountered. Perhaps it's just Arkenstone, perhaps not. Aside from one, single incidence, in which a particularly begrudged player came in yelling about how he felt cheated for buying the game, and then proceeded to yell racist terms throughout the various chat channels. He was quickly taken care of though, and no other problems have persisted.
Day 2 Conclusion
The gameplay is still solid, and I ended the day at level 12, and a Journeyman farmer. I've had a lot more experience with coordinated Fellowship quests, and I'm enjoying the fact that grouping isn't mandatory (I can't stress this enough after playing FFXI) yet.
My main concern for this game is that nothing seems to set it aside from the pack just yet. It's very similar to WoW, and I know everyone hates when that's said, but it is. I haven't yet played around with the PvP-mode (where you play as a Dark character) so I have some hopes for that. Combat doesn't particularly stand out, and the class systems are somewhat diverse from your typical MMO. However, I think there needs to be a defining element to the game, and I hope to discover it before my stay comes to an end. It's my opinion thus far that this game's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness; Tolkien's Lore.
More tomorrow!
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Never played a Captain myself, but as a support class I don't think you will get many attack skills. In fact I just looked at the Captain skill list and I think pretty much what you have right now for attacks is about all you get. A Captains main thing is support in the form of buffs, debuffs, and as a secondary healer. They are also in great demand in the higher level instances.
As a Minstrel I have about 3 main attacks and four secondaries. The secondaries are also short duration buffs. However I have 3 tiers loaded with various heals, buffs, and other abilities and I can solo orange mobs 4 levels above me safely and with minimal downtime as long as I am careful about adds. At level 49 I am still tweaking my solo attack strategies for maximum efficiency.
One of the Lotros bigest pros or cons depending on how you look at it is the classes are not exactly typical MMORPG classes. Most all have secondary and tertiary skill sets. Guardians, Champions, and Hunters are probably the most straight forward of the classes. Captains, Burgalrs and Lore master are probably the least straight forward and I am prejudiced but I think Minstrel is the most adaptable and best solo class but I am sure every one here will say the same for their favorite class.
I miss DAoC
Its an ok game if your into nothing but quest grinding and little to no pvp. I had enough of it by lvl 40.
searching for the next DAoC....
Kay-exile
First time poster here
I play a captain on Windfola and I have a lot of fun doing it. Right now i just got to 25, and I have to say that the captains strengths so far are in buffing. However, I did do a little preview testing on the Roheryn server and saw that captains will be getting at least one new attack ability around 30ish and at least one or two more buffs.
Captains seem kind of like an all-around type class with a little of various different abilities. One-on-one solo is pretty easy for me right now, I can even take on oranges or yellow signature mobs. But with a group of enemies it's pretty hard even if they're all a level or two lower than me.
Overall a fun class, and it will be getting a bit of a tweaking in the next patch.
Just my two cents
too bad you are not on Silverlode. A couple of our members who have hit 50 with teir mains are now leveling Captains since no one wanted to play them at release. Now at the end game they are realizing how valuable they are in high end instanced dungeons.
I miss DAoC
This gets a little better in the 30s, but welcome to the Captain class.
Later on in the game though, they really start to shine depending how you "spec" them with traits.
Here's a great guide: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=39046
so how is it going?
I miss DAoC