Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Lord of the Rings Online: "Solofication"
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Turbine's Bob “Maurath” Hess has penned the latest Update 2 dev blog on the official Lord of the Rings Online site. This time, devs deal with the newly minted word "solofication", or in other words, giving the players the ability to solo most, if not all, of the epic storyline.
There were several overall design goals when undertaking the task:
To make the entire Volume 2 Epic completable by a solo player.
To allow solo players to experience several instance spaces and encounters that are truly unique and interesting.
To smooth some of the gameplay aspects of the Volume 2 Epic, with a particular eye to some particularly difficult content to complete, and travel times.These specific design goals were addressed using a variety of different methods, which will be further explained in their own sections:
Re-leveling Quests
Simplification of quest objectives with the addition of quest objectives that are more numerous and easier to locate.
Redesigning several instance spaces for solo and duo play while allowing players to experience aspects of the original instance design
Read more here.
Comments
Well, as a solo player I'm happy for the change. However, I am still of the mind that these instances should have robust group version that give completely diferent rewards so that players might seek them out in a group.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I think it is a good thing to let players see some of the best content in the game. The Storyline of LOTRO is something you want everyone to experience. With their F2P setup, it can increase the number of gamers willing to purchace the quests in these areas.
As long as it is done with an incentive to still group. As it seems to be with the removal of a reward chest for solo. Then I don't see it as a big deal for those who want to group. Raids will still be there for required grouping. I don't see those going solo. So it just helps to keep gamers playing their game.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
It will make LOTRO even more silent ...
I think another dev team should make a darker lotr MMO. Turbine have just made a freaking kids game that is soft.
Anyone remember this..
http://haven.theonering.net/current/meo/
I'll be honest, I'm with you there regarding "darker lord of the rings"
oh well.
At least I can see the second book now in the ease and comfort of my own time schedule.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I see nothing wrong with this. It's about time more dev's give options to solo players (since they obviously out there) to be able to see more content instead of being limited to just basic kill X/ fedex questing. Alienating a player base to appease another is simply not good. Besides, from what I gather there is still a group option version to these instances as well. Unless you have a dungeon finder type tool, a casual solo player will have a hard time finding a decent, well rounded group. Specially if the player has only odd hours that are available for their play time. Soloer's don't want the whole game handed to them, they just want the option to see and experience most of what the devs created in the first place, even if the reward is reduced.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
good thing , cuz i really don't have any friends who play lotro in rl
Yeah things like these are awesome. I personally hate to spam for a tank/healer for 45mins just to end up with a group that wipes on the first pull and then disbands. Everything is so much better when you can just do it solo or like in GW when you got henchmens and heroes. Wow would be an awesome game if it werent so group based
. As soon as you see a cool area there it tells you to go and spam for ppl just like like facebook games.
I'm in the minority that doesn't like to see everything in-game become soloable. I know, I understand the other sides p-o-v. However, I'd be more happy with it left as it is, with a solo option. I mean, it is an MMO - multiplayer... not MSORPG. If I wanted to be solo the whole time, I'd play that type of game.
Anyhow, that's just my soapbox. I'm not an alt-o-holic, and run things right away when they first come out, so I don't have the problem of getting to stuff 6 months later with no one to run it with.
LotRO: Meneldor: Riders of the Riddermark
Well, that's why I think it's ok to have group content that's jsut group or group content that gives very different an very enticing rewards.
The problem with some of these games is that a group consisits of people temporarily getting together to do one quest and then it disbands.
This really isn't a great draw for group oriented players. If the rewards are less then the tendency is not to be in a group (which is a shame but so be it).
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I don't play LotRO but I'm a big fan of the books so I have to ask, do you guys really feel like playing in Middle Earth when you encounter creatures wielding giant purple swords of their own bodylength such as seen in that picture?
No offense meant, but at first I thought they posted a wrong picture until I recognised the LotRO dwarven model.
We are the bunny.
Resistance is futile.
''/\/\'''''/\/\''''''/\/\
( o.o) ( o.o) ( o.o)
(")("),,(")("),(")(")
I don't know where that is as I've never seen it. It could be from the new content for all I know. Or perhaps I have a bad memory.
To answer your question "don't get me started on the art design for the gear in this game" *shakes fist at the heavens - runs out of room and cries"*
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I think people forget how it felt to look for a team. To have fun and frustration meeting other people and even peeps that became irl friends, ... good old times... ^^
Being as none of my rl friends play any sort of mmo's, I mostly solo in my games. I do belong to guilds, but don't often want to 'bother' anyone that is already in game when I log on. But, if they send a tell asking for company, I heartily accept. I am just a little on the timid side, I guess.
And next, Turbine will concentrate on a singleplayer offline mode so that hermits can enjoy the game even more.
Not really. For the first time thinking to give it a try again. Of course end game is about grouping, ... but as for gameplay ... i prefer solo all the way up or with some group quests from time to time.
I totally agree with you. I like playing solo most of the time myself, but sometimes it's nice to join a team. Being on a team shouldn't just mean there are more baddies to kill.
So Turbine add another nail to the coffin of traditional MMOs. Good for their f2p business model but bad for MMOs in general. We seem to have lost touch with the reason we play online games - and that is to play with other people. I don't mean RL friends who play the game too, but people you meet in game. The posts in this thread just show how much people want to solo as much as possible and not be "troubled" by having to look for a group. It makes me sad.
These days I swap games so readily when I become bored and I look back and wonder how it was that I played EQ for almost 5 years and SWG for almost 3. The answer is because I had a deep investment in those games, and not because of gear or levels or time played, but solely because of people. Friends I had made when I died at the bottom of Blackburrow and they had come to help me recover my corpse and with whom I still grouped 2 years later, or a couple of guys I met dying over and over in Kedge Keep who I helped get out or someone I had escorted through East Karana when they had got lost.
Making friends in a game and playing together to overcome challenging content is the soul of MMOs. Without the need to collaborate with each other we may as well just unplug our internet connections and play an RPG.
*steps off soapbox*
A step in the wrong direction. In lotro it does not matter which class you play or which button you press. It is all the same.
groups are only created for the big instances. Outside it is not needed or wanted.
It is a sologame with instances for groups.
Group content been mostly for loot /marks and end game instances anyway... the rest of the game has been solo business. Even the "group" 45-50 class quests in CD/Uru can be done with solo skirmishes.
Providing an option to carry on with the epic story by my own is a welcome change since i can't be online 16h a day, in order to get a pug going to try to complete a story quest. It can take quite bit of time to spam LFF for healers particularly and because of this i still have a toon waiting to do an epic quest for a couple weeks...
I sure understand the effort of grouping up to have a task done and promoting group play but unless ppl also need the quest, not many will join since there's nothing for them. God forbid helping others out of good will...
is this even a mmo by now? everthing is solo it seems. just make it work offline and sell it as a singleplayer game.
Scaling difficulty for groupsize seems to be the only good solution that caters to both solo and group players. But that takes maybe too much redesigning at this point.
woah, wait a minute.
I do play with other people. I just don't have to be grouped to them. I know this is an extremely hard concept for some people to grasp but playing in a world with other people doing their own thing but essentially making the world "alive" is a major draw for some.
we don't have to be grouped to get the social part.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I don't disagree with you, in terms of having other players in a game make the world feel alive, that's important too. But, if you will, I do make a distinction between playing "alongside" other people, and playing "with" other people. My comments are not directed at individuals who like to do their own thing, there will always be these kinds of players, and we all have different gaming schedules and the ability to log in for a few hours after work and achieve something is an important factor in today's games versus games of the past. However I do express dismay at the general trend of "soloification" that exists in today's games and the huge numbers of current MMO players who expect to be able to solo everything and complain bitterly at being forced to group to achieve something. In my view collaboration is what makes an MMO social because it requires teamwork, trust, understanding, mutual respect etc. Seeing 3-4 guys standing next to you at the bank is not social, it's just co-existence.
I find this all slightly ironic given one of the key themes of the Lord of the Rings is comradeship and the need to work together.
Gandalf: "We will form a great fellowship and..."
Frodo: "Yeah I like talking to you and all Gandalf but I don't really need to work with you to go and fight the forces of Mordor."
Gandalf: "But you need my special powers and guidance!"
Frodo: "Nah sorry bro, the Enemy will see i'm alone and not try as hard. Just keep in touch in vent as i'm off to solo the Balrog lulz."
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."