LOTRO Book 11

[lupi]

Anyone playing on the test server to try the new player housing?

 

[KeithTalent]

Here is a cool thread that shows some of the differences of DX10 vs. DX9 (which was just added in Book 11 for those who don't know): http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=93572

That second comparison blew me away. Fantastic! :Q

There is some awesome looking stuff, including housing, for Book 11. Can hardly wait for it to go live!

KT

 

[Tarrant64]

Yeah I play it, haven't been on in a couple of months though. Sweet to hear DX10 is doing some cool stuff with it though.

For the people who haven't played though, the graphics in the game are already superb without DX10. I could just...run around in that game for hours. It reminded me of playing Guild Wars for the first time. It was refreshing.

 

[gizbug]

Too bad I gave up on this game. Got bored with it at lvl 46

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Here is a cool thread that shows some of the differences of DX10 vs. DX9 (which was just added in Book 11 for those who don't know): http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=93572

That second comparison blew me away. Fantastic! :Q

There is some awesome looking stuff, including housing, for Book 11. Can hardly wait for it to go live!

KT

"Your forum account has been temporarily deactivated because your game subscription is no longer active. To correct this, please visit the Turbine billing site and ensure that your game account is active. Once you have reactivated your game account, you will need to log out of the forums and log back in to re-activate the forum account. "

Any other way to view the comparison?

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: coloumb

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Here is a cool thread that shows some of the differences of DX10 vs. DX9 (which was just added in Book 11 for those who don't know): http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=93572

That second comparison blew me away. Fantastic! :Q

There is some awesome looking stuff, including housing, for Book 11. Can hardly wait for it to go live!

KT

"Your forum account has been temporarily deactivated because your game subscription is no longer active. To correct this, please visit the Turbine billing site and ensure that your game account is active. Once you have reactivated your game account, you will need to log out of the forums and log back in to re-activate the forum account. "

Any other way to view the comparison?

Book11Dynamic1.jpg

Book11dynamic.jpg

Book11SoftWater.jpg

Cheers,
KT

 

[lupi]

Please Note: This post is still in progress, but I wanted to get it up before the servers come up. Known issues are forthcoming too! Please see this thread for Known Issues, of which there are many in Housing.
Welcome to Book 11! This post will give an overview of the changes, with full release notes coming when Book 11 is pushed to the live servers.
Book 11 brings lots of changes - here are some, but by no means all of them!? The Month of the Lore-master? The Month of the Minstrel? Player Housing - Individual and Kinship? Goblin Town? New areas - Trollshaws: Tâl Bruinen, and Misty Mountains: Northern Pass, Southern Pass, and Goblin Town? DirectX10 Support! (click here for more info!)? Monster player "Warband Maneuvers"? Monster play - new skills!? New raid: The Rift!? First appearance of a Balrog? First appearance of Gollum (new instance)? More work on the crafting system (400 new recipes!)? Harvest Festival? Yule Festival? 60+ New Quests, including the continuation of the epic quest arc? 9 new Deeds
Story
You have wrested the palantír from Amarthiel, but not before she learned what she sought to learn: a clue to the location of Narchuil, the ring she lost at the Battle of Fornost. She turns her gaze eastward seeking to recover Narchuil, and the Dúnedain find themselves with few means of stopping her advance, save one: Calenglad believes that Mordrambor, the Black Númenórean held prisoner by the Dúnedain, may be the key to ending Amarthiel?s ambitions.
Expanded Functionality
Lore-master Revamp (?Month of the Lore-master?)? Overview:
? Fill out level 40-50 skills? Better skills for fighting Undead, Drakes and Creatures of Nature? A new Pet - the Lynx!
? Examine Enemy Weakness ability? Cute ?critter? pets - 8 non-combat pets!

Minstrel Revamp (?Month of the Minstrel?)? Overview
? Fill out level 40-50 skills? Enhance music features:
? Minstrels will be able to train other players to use instruments both directly and via created items? 3 new Instruments: Bagpipes, Cowbell and Moor Cowbell.
? More effective solo play:
? War-Speech toggle stance opens up new skills:
? Call to the Elder King (Damage+debuff)? Call to the Second Age (Damage+buff)? Chat of the Oathbreaker (damage+debuff)
? New damage-type instruments
? Equipping new instruments will change the damage type of your skills
? Better Buffing and Support:
? New trait to increase length of ballad buffs.? 2 new ?Tale? auras:
? Tale of Battle (+VIT and +wound resistance)? Tale of Warding (+AC and +Hope)
? Call to Fellowship (Increases fellowship effectiveness)
? Better Healing:
? Chord of Salvation (Insta-heal)? Gift of the Hammerhead (Power-shield)
? Fun Stuff:
? Irresistible Melody (nearby players break into dance)

Monster Play (PvMP)? Diminishing returns on Crowd Control skills
General Skills? Tier Based Cures

 

[lupi]

I also heard there is a level 50 giver back up.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: lupi
I also heard there is a level 50 giver back up.

Cool, it's housing day on Roheryn, so I may try and hop on later to check things out.

KT

 

[JasonCoder]

Originally posted by: gizbug
Too bad I gave up on this game. Got bored with it at lvl 46

Same. Game just didn't do it for me after 40. Tell you the truth after the novelty of the world wears off most MMOs boil down to the same shit. Go kill x number of boars, go harvest x number of plants. Fricking scintillating experience.

 

[bennylong]

I have two accounts and I haven't played in 3 weeks and haven't missed it. I have no idea why I paid for 2 lifetime subscriptions.

 

[gizbug]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: gizbug
Too bad I gave up on this game. Got bored with it at lvl 46

Same. Game just didn't do it for me after 40. Tell you the truth after the novelty of the world wears off most MMOs boil down to the same shit. Go kill x number of boars, go harvest x number of plants. Fricking scintillating experience.

For the longest time, I thought I was playing a single player game. Nice graphics, yes. Replay value, no. If you aren't in a kinship, you basically can't do much past 40. Any with no good end game or pvp (fighting as a monster just doesn't cut it for me)....i eventually canceled the account and ebayed the game.
Was fun the month I had it.

 

[lupi]

And WoW was so different in its opening year.

 

[panipoori]

The new 12-man raid should be good, and the bartered equipment you can get from doing it seems to be worthwile too, unlike the items from the previous book. Hopefully i'll get into more once it comes out.

Still waiting for warhammer online though, should be awesome.

 

[JasonCoder]

Originally posted by: gizbug

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: gizbug
Too bad I gave up on this game. Got bored with it at lvl 46

Same. Game just didn't do it for me after 40. Tell you the truth after the novelty of the world wears off most MMOs boil down to the same shit. Go kill x number of boars, go harvest x number of plants. Fricking scintillating experience.

For the longest time, I thought I was playing a single player game. Nice graphics, yes. Replay value, no. If you aren't in a kinship, you basically can't do much past 40. Any with no good end game or pvp (fighting as a monster just doesn't cut it for me)....i eventually canceled the account and ebayed the game.
Was fun the month I had it.

You've just nailed the reason almost every MMO goes dull for the average player. Just about all endgame content is kinship oriented and you can do so much more with a good kinship. EQ was that way, as was EQ2. Sans kinship and you're like, wtf.

I was in three separate kinships but they were mostly useless. To get into the good ones it's like a nightclub. You have to be on the list in some game of kiss ass politics or nepotism. My personal favs are the ones where they demand you raid four nights a week to keep up.

Anyways, yeah, get in a good guild and the endgame is a much better experience.

 

[lupi]

Noticed over the weekend that there has been an update on the release date. For us US types, the patch goes live on the 24th. An interesting note is that they have added a prepatch torrent method ala WoW. What's even better than that though is that it's a voluntary use; if you're happy with the previous D/L on connection method you can still use that. With all the trouble the WoW background d/l gave me, this makes me a happy camper to still have access for the direct download, even if it means waiting till the servers come back up.
 
For those interested in housing, was reading some comments that the upkeep maintenance will be paid in 6 week increments (apparently no pay ahead though).

 

[gizbug]

How big is the community these days in LOTRO?

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: gizbug
How big is the community these days in LOTRO?

Well nobody here really plays it, but in general the community seems to be a relatively decent size, judging by what I see in game. Also I know my Kinship stopped accepting applicants for a while as we were getting too big, but we are pretty small overall, so I'm not sure how good of an indicator that is.

KT

 

[gizbug]

Just got back into this game, actually enjoying it. No reason to go back to WOW.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: gizbug
Just got back into this game, actually enjoying it. No reason to go back to WOW.

My playing time is quite limited these days due to real life stuff, but I play with a regular group on Thursday nights and it is still a fantastic game in my opinion.

It is a different style and pace from some of the other MMOs, but it suits me quite well.

KT

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: gizbug
How big is the community these days in LOTRO?

I saw one figure saying subs were @500k, which is low imo given the recent popularity of the movies and the overall popularity of the books. Also think its much lower than what Turbine was expecting as they've hack and slashed retail and monthly pricing, going as far as offering lifetime and founder rates continuously.

I'm taking a break from it though...just not enough end-game content for me and too many residual and recurring bugs/balance/design issues. I started out with high hopes for the game since it had so much going for it and a dev team that was actively involved with the community....but I've pretty much lost all faith in the devs and the luster of the eye-candy wore off without strong/varied gameplay to back it up.

I'm keeping my sub up (switched to $9.99/mo after they tried to whack me for another 6 months in advance) and giving it one last chance with Book 12. Otherwise I'll probably give it up completely til Mordor, if they even get to Mordor. At this point I think its a coin-flip.

 

[Drift3r]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: gizbug
How big is the community these days in LOTRO?

I saw one figure saying subs were @500k, which is low imo given the recent popularity of the movies and the overall popularity of the books. Also think its much lower than what Turbine was expecting as they've hack and slashed retail and monthly pricing, going as far as offering lifetime and founder rates continuously.

I'm taking a break from it though...just not enough end-game content for me and too many residual and recurring bugs/balance/design issues. I started out with high hopes for the game since it had so much going for it and a dev team that was actively involved with the community....but I've pretty much lost all faith in the devs and the luster of the eye-candy wore off without strong/varied gameplay to back it up.

I'm keeping my sub up (switched to $9.99/mo after they tried to whack me for another 6 months in advance) and giving it one last chance with Book 12. Otherwise I'll probably give it up completely til Mordor, if they even get to Mordor. At this point I think its a coin-flip.

@500k might be low compared to what they wanted but at that number they are making a tidy profit. I don't think EQ1 ever went above 500k subs either.

 

[imported_Shivetya]

Originally posted by: gizbug
How big is the community these days in LOTRO?

I can't imagine its any bigger than release.

Lets see...

1. No new servers since release
2. Offered founder pricing again
3. Has a special rate during the hoildays
4. New player areas are not crowded, in fact finding someone else can be difficult
5. Turbine never brags.



Sorry,but Turbine screwed the pooch again. Two super big names and they failed to capitalize on either. Neither game was a breakout success. The real evidence is the lack of fan activity outside of their own boards. Even on popular game sites the LOTRO sections are slow.

I never got past the zombie NPCs and buildings you had to zone to enter.

 

[crockman]

I've played Lotro since about July. I've also been playing WoW for over a year now & Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) for over 2 years.

I will say that Lotro by far has the Best Visual Graphics of the 3, WoW has the Best 'Hands-on' Game Play of the 3, but SWG's Space Content is uniquely special.

Lotro could really be a Top-Notch Game if they were to add some Game-Play Content, like more Instances (IE like WoW), and add more Game-Play Areas thus offering a larger variety of Questing Choice (IE Like WoW).

I got my Burglar to level 50 about 3 months ago, did then get a bit Bored, although after I got my Warlock to level 70 on WoW i got Bored there as well. (IE I started playing Lotro when I got Bored with WoW).

I now also have a level 49 Minstrel on Lotro that will be 50 in about 2 hours game time.

I Rather do Enjoy playing Lotro and have a Life-Time Subscription on Lotro-Europe (Laurelin-RolePlay Server).

If Turbine will add a decent amount of actual 'Hands-on' Game Play, Lotro would be Top-Notch IMO, But i don't mean the Forced-Content like WoW has a Bad tendency to do.

By "Forced" content, I mean WoW has a Terrible tendency to require many hours of PvP and Reputation Grinding to be able to acquire the Games Best Gear. (Thus at End-Game WoW becomes more like Work than a Fun Game<--Reason I left)

 

[lupi]

Lotro has the largest US player base outside of WoW; so if ya think it's underpopulated then your choices are very slim.