Hands of Justice
What we have played => Lord of the Rings Online => Topic started by: Caradir on September 04, 2009, 05:35:24 PM
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Book 9 : The Siege of Mirkwood (http://www.lotro.com/news/pressreleases/459-the-lord-of-the-rings-online-siege-of-mirkwood)
sounds nice
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Kinda stupid - why not just make book 9 free, and increase cap etc with Rohan/Gondor (I'd suggest "the coming of the light" for the title of that book) expansion? Just smacks of "OMG we promised an expansion a year and havent got much for one this year...")
Hopefully Dale and Erebor are in there too. And the necromancer's stronghold, with a suitably mean raid boss or few, but no bloody turtles or gear gating (its wrong in a game thats an evolving story really...)
Although:
Answer the Call of War! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “World Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.
Single player much? (and I know this is coming from me, MR dont play much).
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it seems that the skirmishes will be solo (not sure if team will be allowed also) but training soldiers and they level up if you do well sounds awesome hehe :)
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That part does sound good - but the suggestion of it being a pointer to solo play doesnt make me happy in my pants. Im not going to judge the content until much more is known, but im still leaning towards WTF are they making us pay for this for...
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Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle
If this means they are finally making it so that when you push a button, something actually *immediately* happens(sound of spell, swinging of weapon, casting bar starting to countdown), then I am getting interested again. I have a lifetime sub but somehow I can't stand the game for longer then a few days. Combat in Lotro tends to annoy the hell out of me after a short while.
It is not the global coolddown, since it also happens when the abilities are available. It is when you push a hotkey there is a tiny delay before your character starts to swing or cast and this makes combat feel very disconnected to me. The odd part is that the combat animations are in fact very in sync with the sounds of battle, the "connect" gfx and the reactions of the mob. Its just that tiny delay after you push the button!
However I've seen a discussion on EJ and supposedly they're making it so when you press a key, the ability fires instantly instead of waiting for the end of your current autoattack animation, so it should be more responsive, even though I guess it's still gonna have the whole animation as GCD system.
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Skirmish info
Siege of Mirkwood will be introducing twelve new Skirmish instances in addition to a pair of tutorial instances designed to introduce players to the system. Each of these instances is scalable on a number of levels: They each accept one, three, six, or twelve players at a time, with the deficit made up for by player-created NPC soldiers. Many of the instances are scalable by level; for instance, one skirmish which features an assault upon and defense of Weathertop will accept players from level 30 to 65. Each instance has nine optional challenges, each of which awards skirmish points -- more on those in a moment. These challenges are randomized, as are the enemies inside the instance (within certain logical limits, of course), so you will not likely have the same experience twice
it does seem however that Siege of Mirkwood is going to be a paid expansion :S
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Skirmish info
Siege of Mirkwood will be introducing twelve new Skirmish instances in addition to a pair of tutorial instances designed to introduce players to the system. Each of these instances is scalable on a number of levels: They each accept one, three, six, or twelve players at a time, with the deficit made up for by player-created NPC soldiers. Many of the instances are scalable by level; for instance, one skirmish which features an assault upon and defense of Weathertop will accept players from level 30 to 65. Each instance has nine optional challenges, each of which awards skirmish points -- more on those in a moment. These challenges are randomized, as are the enemies inside the instance (within certain logical limits, of course), so you will not likely have the same experience twice
it does seem however that Siege of Mirkwood is going to be a paid expansion :S
$20 according to a scan of the US forums the past couple of days. So probably double that in real money as codies will fuck us euros over :)
I'll pay it, then not play any of the new stuff as I aint close yet :) But it feels shitty paying for a regular "book" with some fringe benefits...
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dont know if i will continue with lotro seems they want you to pay for things that were free content before.
i also thought the next pay for xpack would be rohan.?
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dont know if i will continue with lotro seems they want you to pay for things that were free content before.
i also thought the next pay for xpack would be rohan.?
Think all the playerbase thought that - now I am not sure :S
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it does seem like they thought "shit, shouldnt we have been working on an expansion instead of sorting the last one" so they thought lets charge for book 9 and add bits onto it.
Lifetime sub means ill continue playing, plus LOTRO does have the nicest, well thought out instances ive played in an MMO. still hate the whole radiance gating concept though that one was a big mistake.
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Radiance sucks, and this is coming from a guy that LIKES gear gating normally (look at how hard I worked on actual tank sets for early raiding in wow and was very precise on what he needed to be better for better stuff), I wish they had better ways of doing things on those lines. Or just obviate it.
As for still playing - its bloody Middle Earth, of course Im staying (in my limited capacity of course - which I kinda regret, but maybe after my trip I'll have more time and the combat system wont be as annoying after 3 days as it is)!
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yeah i will most probably play from time to time but i seem to get bored of all mmo's at the moment after about 4-6 weeks of play.
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yeah i will most probably play from time to time but i seem to get bored of all mmo's at the moment after about 4-6 weeks of play.
i know that feeling well
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yeah i will most probably play from time to time but i seem to get bored of all mmo's at the moment after about 4-6 weeks of play.
i know that feeling well
Too much to play :)
And boy do I have too much to play!
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but to a degree it is weird that you have a lifetime sub, but still have to pay to be able to keep playing...
or can you keep playing without the expansion?
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but to a degree it is weird that you have a lifetime sub, but still have to pay to be able to keep playing...
or can you keep playing without the expansion?
I think the expansions arent necessary, unless you are at the levels that require them - but its not a question I have thought about yet... probably should :)
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but to a degree it is weird that you have a lifetime sub, but still have to pay to be able to keep playing...
or can you keep playing without the expansion?
you can keep playing just not in the new areas, with the new abilities etc
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yeah you can play without the xpack just dont get access to the new stuff and remain capped at lvl60.
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more info
* Mounts will become a skill rather than an item
** You can have several mounts
** You can zone, emote & talk to npc's while on mounts
** New Wild Goat mount
* Shared account storage (no more mailing between your own toons)
** 50 slots
* Made Of Lions "Epic Book 9 has the most chapters of any Book so far, and the Epilogue serves to wrap up the stories for many of the characters you've met over the course of Volume II. There's quite a bit to these."
* Skirmishes - these are scalable, both in terms of numbers and levels. 30-40 mins, and accessible from anywhere.
And further future:
* Vol 3 starts early next year, apparently as a regular free update.
Radiance gating will be continued and probably needed for SoM content
"Currently there will be two for the live content you guys are playing: the Medallion of Moria and the Medallion of Lothlorien. The Medallions will drop off of every boss monster in level 58+ instances. This means that killing boss one in Forges of Khazad-Dum will drop Medallions for everyone in the party. (Note: Make sure you all loot the chest!) I’m not going to get into how many, etc. here because we are still balancing the system. Players can use Medallions to trade for same things they were trading for —namely the Challenge sets, the other dungeon sets, and relics and Legendary Item XP.
Currently the Medallions of Moria will drop in: Grand Stairs,Forges, Sixteenth Hall, Fil Ghashan, Skumfil, and Dark Delvings. The Medallions of Lothlorien will drop in Waterworks, Halls of Crafting,and Hall of Mirrors. Future instances will drop a new Medallion.
The goal here is to not force you all to grind through instances in only the way we want. Also, players will still gain ground towards gaining their sets even if they aren’t achieving the Challenges. However, doing the Challenges will gain you more Medallions! In addition to this, we are going to be adding in some items to Challenges at a very low percentage drop. This means you’ll have a chance of getting something special. Finally, we are fixing it so there are new Challenge quests that work while you are inside the instances only and are on a daily retry timer. Orion has mentioned this tech and you can read his blog for more information. Oh and if that is not enough, we have some new Legendary Item goodies that you can trade for that we think you will like a lot. (But you’ll have to wait to find out what exactly!)
“But what about my old tokens? What do I do with them?”
No worries. There will be new npcs at the Twenty-first Hall and Caras Galadhon near the class trainers that will exchange those old crusty tokens for new shiny medallions! These Barter Exchange Traders will also hold all the Legendary Item goodies. "
also radiance/hope and gloom/dread will be separated again, so hope will combat dread (fear from nasties themselves or defeat) and radiance will combat gloom (evil places inspire fear)
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Finally I can talk to npcs from my horse!
Thank god!
I like the change to them being a skill too.
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Finally I can talk to npcs from my horse!
Thank god!
I like the change to them being a skill too.
i think they were being pressured into it before going near Rohan in any way ;)
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Finally I can talk to npcs from my horse!
Thank god!
I like the change to them being a skill too.
i think they were being pressured into it before going near Rohan in any way ;)
Wouldnt surprise me.
Volume III is Rohan isnt it (thinking of where the Fellowship is in the books about this stage), so gives them time to tweak the system.
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I am still unsure about these Skirmish things to be honest - the idea is sound and I can see the value in it to an extent, but they seem to divert from the MMO side of the genre, and while Im the last person able to criticise them given how I dont play too often, it feels like they are moving closer to such a vibrant world becoming you, your npcs and the story, with extra added chat (and its kinda the worse case scenario on how I view KOTOR heading too). (It also doesnt help my case that when I have grouped in games in the past, I eventually tend to group with a limited number of people most of the time!), just to pander to the terribads that are flooding MMO worlds now..
Also - Medallions/Challenges: Heroic badges and all that stuff from WOW? What a retarded thing to adopt - even partially...
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skirmishes are scalable so 1/3/6 man iirc with empty slots filled with NPC heroes. plus your trainable troops.
i think it has the possibility to be awesomeness gone wild if done correctly.