Lord of the Rings Online : Shadows of Angmar

[Tetsuo_Shima]

So, blokey and myself have expressed an interest in this recently released MMORPG. Seems to be the same as every other MMO except that it's set in the ... Star Wars universe. Only kidding, it's obviously set in the Tolkien universe, and reputedly all the better for it. Anyway, I guess I'll be buying this tomorrow, just wondering if anyone else is interested.
Obviously all the WoW players are thinking 'Yaaa! Boo Hiss! Pretender!' and are probably too busy with WoW to be messing around with this, but I'm going to take this opporchancity to get started on an MMO at it's release date instead of joining WoW when everyone else is already level seventy.

If you need further persuasion, it's got a (single, and suspiciously praiseworthy) review over at computerandvideogames :

Review

Heres the IGN site:

IGN Site

So, will you all be joining our 'fellowship' and going out to lay the smackdown on those NPC Orcs?

NOTE: Incidentally, even though it doesn't say so in the review, the subscription fees are said to be $15 per month, but i'm not sure how that will equate to pounds and such.

EDIT: Been reading some player reviews, it's hard to get an overall picture of how good this game is. You get some folk giving it 9.0-9.5, probably still stoned on the virtual longbottom leaf; and then you get the 4-5 'BORING!' folks, probably WoW sympathetics. I guess an accurate score would be somehwere around 8 or so, which is good enough for me.

There seems to be two camps of WoW players - those who love WoW and loathe all pretenders, and those who have become sick of it and want something new. Generally (as expected) the loathers give it crap reviews, but ex-WoWzers seem to rate it pretty highly, even compared to WoW.

 

[Birdy]

I may be tempted!

 

[Ronin Storm]

Thanks for this, Tetsuo. For me, MMOs are broken for the moment so I'll be avoiding this one; nothing to do with LotRO specifically, just MMORPGs in general.

 

[Nanor]

Mmm.. I'll see what I hear..

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

No, Ronin! You have to! If we don't take the Ring to Mt. Doom and defeat Sauron, everyone we know will die!

 

[waterproofbob]

No, Ronin! You have to! If we don't take the Ring to Mt. Doom and defeat Sauron, everyone we know will die!

No worries tets just call the eagles fly in there and ditch the ring.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Do you want a shovel? Then stop digging holes in my plot! Come on bob, I can't lure you over to the good side? Not even with one of those uber shakes where you can put in anything you want?

 

[Sephiroth]

im pritty sure i spied something to do with this in the shops while i was hunting out battle of the gods!... and that IGN link has FF3 on it xD

 

[Iron_fist]

if i wasn't so obsessive then i'd think about it, however i'm worse than the WOW crowd with these types of games hence why i rarely play them (plus it's almost certain i'll be stuck on a PIII laptop for most of the summer which is a no go for gaming)

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Ok, bought it today. I'm gonna give it a bit of a run and i'll let you go how it goes -if i can take myself away from it 27 quid or so out of HMV, comes with free 30day trial. Also, HMV have an offer on where you get a free item (Cloak of Despair) if you buy out of HMV. However, you have to ask a member of staff, and id rather preserve my image than inquire a about a free virtual item :/

 

[Ronin Storm]

Let us know how you find it, please, Tetsuo.

 

[waterproofbob]

My biggest issue with this as all lotr games, its just not as good as the books. They are just soooooo damn good. Theres so many little continuity errors that makes me want to start ritually shaving sheep scrotum's with a scythe. But hey thats just me.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

OK, I've been playing this for a few hours now and got a bit of an initial impression.

First, it was fairly easy to install, set up and all that palaver. The only annoyance I had was having to download a gigantic update (yes, the one that went to 2000% complete. Don't ask) but apart from that it was straightforward to get straight in and get in game.

The character setup process is nice and simple, yet you can tweak in a good deal of personalisation at the same time. Aesthetically, you can do all the usual messing around with the look of the face and the hair colour and styles (finally, a game with a decent range of hairstyles - I've always wanted spiked fringe ) and all that malarkey. You can also set up a bit of a backstory for your character, just to get you right into the whole spirit of the Tolkien adventure type thing, like you get to choose your origin (for example are you an elf from Rivindell, Mirkwood, Lorien ...) and also you get to choose your own parents (in an ideal world ...!). So, yeah, a nice little bit of immersion there.

Now, onto class selection. You can choose between 4 races - Human (Man), Dwarf, Elf and Hobbit. There are a selection of classes available, some pertaining to one race, some to the next. Burgler, Captain, Champion, Lore-master, Defender, Minstrel and Hunter. I'll explain - Man can go any one of the classes; Elf can only go Burgler, Minstrel Hunter and Lore-master; Dwarves can only go Champion, Defender, Hunter etc. etc. So, if you had a specific class in mind when you started the game, you might end up going a race you didn't want to, but it all fits in with the overall story thingy thingbob of the whole thingymajig (sorry, my brain's half asleep).

After you've made your character, you are inevitably introduced to ... noob island (or the tutorial area, basically.). Anyway, not to spoil too much, you do some running around, get some skills, whack some single digit-levelled monsters etc. etc. and all that. I'm still in noob-isle at the moment, but am soon to leave! Reputedly, the noob-isle is a comparatively boring part of the game i.e. the outside world is great fun. Oh goody.

Mechanically, the gameplay functions in the same sort of way as Guild Wars and WoW (I'm assuming this one, since I've never WoW'ed before) where youve got your skill slots, exp points, items, crafting and all that bollocks. I havent explored too deeply yet so i'll fill you in later on.

Graphics-wise, this is both the game's biggest plus point and lowest negative. On the plus, it looks really nice, better than Guild Wars even (and I think that looked silky). However, it has come to my attention that there are a number of detrimental graphical glitches that kind of detract from the whole experience a bit (not too much, mind). There's a bit of stutter sometimes when you walk around the outside world - think Oblivion, where the game paused for a millisecond whilst it loaded up some more trees - and (ok, seemingly on my PC only. HDD problem probably) when I put the textures on ultra-High, it really lags like a lagomatic lagmaster. Putting them on Very High yields no problems at all, which inidcates to me some sort of installation or HDD error. Anyway, Turbine are trying to alleviate the stutter problem, and I'm trying to alleviate the system lag problem.

On the subject of lag, there isn't really very much of it, kind of like Guild Wars. Out side roaming about killing things, it really isn't very noticeable. However, inside towns and the like, it gets a bit bogged down. I can live with that, really, but running a little smoother for my money would be nice, especially when GW asked you no monthly fee for the same quality.

Some other miscellaneous points I'd like to add are that the other game players really seem to be a lot nicer than most MMOs, there's none of the scamming or spamming rubbish you get on GW or Anarchy or whatever, just stress free discussions and such.
Also, I think bob was right when he said the games will never emulate the gawping adventurism that the book invites - it's just Guild Wars in a new set of clothes, really. Now, I'm not moaning about that, thats a good thing, but I'd like to feel a bit more involved. Where's Gandalf talking rhetoric? Where's Frodo crapping things up? I want to hear Gollum's hisssss! Maybe there'll be some of that in the 'Outside World' I'll have to wait and see.

One last thing - subscription fees are pretty decent. Around £7.60 + VAT or something, equates to a little under a tenner a month, which really isn't too bad.

So, I'd like to see at least a couple of folks willing to give this a shot.

P.S.- Sorry this is a bit of a shambles, I'm pretty tired at the moment.

EDIT: Of course! one last thing:

My username is Tetsuo_Shima. I'm on the Evernight [EN] world.

Character name: Crumb
Race: Man, Male
Class: Captain
Origin: Bree

Might put a pic up of him tomorrow or so. Until then, ciao!

EDIT 2: Nope, nope. I'm back again. I forgot to run through the classes - some are self explanatory ('hunter'), but some are a little unconventional.

Burgler: Sneaky thief who can hide in shadows and use sneak attacks to weaken foes and make it easier for the tanks to finish them off.

Captain: Paladin-type class. A good dollop of Warrior blended with a little bit of enchantment. Does some fighting, and can also buff party members stats etc. etc. Can also bring pets to the field later on.

Champion: Proper fighting machine, quite adept at a variety of things, but mostly things that KILL!

Defender: Tank. Takes all the damage so his weaker buddies can get a few good hits in. Still dishes out some proper physical education, though

Hunter: Ranger, basically. Can use bows etc. for ranged damage, or a bit of dual-wield knifing action. Some healing and resourceful skills thrown in as well.

Lore-Master: As the name implies, puts the elements of nature to good (violent) use. Oddly, this isn't really much of a healer class - then again, you've got your Captains and Minstrels to handle that.

Minstrel: Chocolate and tasty. Well, no, but they can heal and enchant your party with but a strum of their mandolin!

 

[Ronin Storm]

Thanks for that intro, Tets. Really keen to see how you find the game after the first couple of hours (which I played in open beta) and up to the first 10-15 hours.

 

[pHatBambi]

Sorry Tets I'm just staying away from MMO's completely. Too much of a time sink for very little output.

 

[Nanor]

Sorry Tets I'm just staying away from MMO's completely. Too much of a time sink for very little output.

I play games for fun, that's the only output I get from any game, and it's not as if I have to play for 300 hours to have fun. The second I started playing World of Warcraft I was having fun (though that magic has gone). I mean, what output do you get from playing Company of Heroes? Well, I play that and I know you'll say when you flank the enemy, V1 their faces and so forth, how about in MMOs when you take out a boss or take down another player in PvP using just your skill.

The cons of MMOs are you're time gets sucked away and if you fight a player with better gear you're fooked. I remember someone saying "20% skill 80% gear".

 

[pHatBambi]

...how about in MMOs when you take out a boss or take down another player in PvP using just your skill.

The cons of MMOs are you're time gets sucked away and if you fight a player with better gear you're fooked. I remember someone saying "20% skill 80% gear".

The fact is I can't go against another player in PVP without playing the MMO for 300+ hours first becuase I won't be on a level playing field as him.

If you were to say that I could beat a guy with the baddest armour and the most awesome guns by headshotting him with my pistol whilst wearing a t-shirt, because I took my time, got 15 mates together, trapped him in a corner, pinned him down, lost a lot of men in the process but then capped his ass and took his house. If I could do this on first day because I'm a clever and enterprising bastard with some like minded mates, I would be more interested. The fact remains that I cant do that at the moment because I don't have the skill levels or the time input to get to the level where I might even be able to challenge someone.

This is why I tried EVE. There is more of a gang together to take down the tough guys mentality but unfortunately the way that is set up you still can't do that in the end. Plus you have to mine and mine and mine.

I don't like GRIND.

I dunno quite where I'm going with this but hopefully you can now see my issue and a glimpse of a possible route that could be a good solution.

 

[thatbloke]

I don't like GRIND.

I think that's where you're going with it, and is also part of Ronin's thread too.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

The fact is I can't go against another player in PVP without playing the MMO for 300+ hours first becuase I won't be on a level playing field as him.

That's where Guild Wars PvP system shone. You could only PvP with players within 4-5 or so levels of yourself, and in a group of five. That really helped to balance the whole thing out a bit and really made it fun for me. Also, the fact that you can't go ahead and equip the 'baddest armour' at lower levels ensured that you were all around the same sort of level in terms of equipment, if a little differentiated. When those kind of things balance out, it really pays to actually have a deeper intuition into how things work and how you can sort your strategy to give yourself the best chance.

I've not gotten into any PvP in LotRO yet (still Noob Isle as of yet, and PvP isn't a big draw point for me. I'm more of a questy-fellowship sort of guy who loves getting things done and doing them right, especially in good parties with other folks), but I will probably be giving it a go at some point.

I wanted to ask, since there doesn't seem to be that many interested parties within THN herself, would anyone object much if I tried to start a Kinship (read: Guild) in THN's name? I'm not very good at that sort of thing really, but, given the inter-THN circumstances, I'm really going to have to give it a go to find people to participate with me. I'm not really fond of the idea of joining someone elses Fellowship, unless things get really desperate, because I'm convinced that if I prove there's definitely something to be gotten out of this game, and perhaps (maybe a bit optimistic here) encourage some folk off of LotRO to sign up here and get a bit of community going, I'll be able to sway more of you into joining me in this game.
Well, I won't read into it too much because, given my organizational skills, the likelihood is that it won't amount to anything significant, but I'd really like to give it a go and prove I have a bit of competence in these things.
Primarily, my objective in starting a kinship is to try and bring some LotRO interest, and players, to THN; I'd really like to make a lasting mark in the [THN] community which, thus far, (through a combination of short temper and lack of gaming aptitude) I have been unable to do.

Revolution!

 

[Ronin Storm]

I wanted to ask, since there doesn't seem to be that many interested parties within THN herself, would anyone object much if I tried to start a Kinship (read: Guild) in THN's name?

Sure thing. Unofficially, we've tended to let the first "major" players in the game set up the appropriate clan/guild/whatever and take it from there. I think you can probably count yourself as THN's main vanguard into LotRO.

We've not really discussed it in any depth at the Mod or Admin level but my take on it is that if you're making a guild in THN's name then it should follow THN's examples (good sportsmanship, respect, etc) and, if not competitive, should also be open to anyone who can play well within those basic rules. Arseholes need not apply. Everyone else welcome.

As I say, that's my take -- other Admins may wish to pitch an oar in here too. That's the rough base on which I started the WoW Guild, not that I did a lot with it from there...

So, again, sure thing; go for it.