LOTRO Goings On

If you don't want to leave the game in frustration, get the horse as soon as possible. Buy the Turbine points and just do it. Makes the early game much more enjoyable.

RichyRambo wrote:

If you don't want to leave the game in frustration, get the horse as soon as possible. Buy the Turbine points and just do it. Makes the early game much more enjoyable.

I've earned precisely 95 Turbine points getting to Lvl 16. Looks like I know where to put them.

The AH slots will have to wait.

The game is big; you can ride for a looong time without transitioning. So yeah, horses help. But the game size is good. In most places, you can see a line of hills in the far distance and go there and stand on them. That's another Turbine specialty.

Robear wrote:
Nicholaas wrote:

I think you need to purchase the riding skill from the online store (100 Turbine Points, maybe?) then go to some farm North of Bree. When you hit a certain level (it's pretty early on), you should get a quest item giving you directions to said farm.

Hengstacer Farm. I think you can get a starter horse at, I dunno, level 5 from the store? Not sure though.

Bear in mind, the game is balanced so that every class is viable in solo play. You will need to equip and build differently than you would for a group, and use your skills differently, but there's no class that's unsuited to solo play. Even Minnies can tear the place up solo. So don't lose sleep over that aspect of the game. What you *will* find is that different classes *do* play very differently, and that's a step up on a lot of games.

I know you get a rental steed for 24 hours in one of the early gift packages. I haven't checked the store, though.

Yeah, most of what I've been reading pretty much confirms just that: any class can be soloed with the right set-up. I think my problem is two-fold: 1.), I'm still in a guardian mindset much of the time, and 2.) I need to make use of the hotkeys, rather than manually pointing and clicking on skills in my task bar; I have time to do that with my guardian, but not so much with my hunter.

So, anyone partaking in the Yule Festival? I popped in for a bit before work, just to see what it's about. I've never done one of these before, but so far it seems pretty neat. I earned a bunch of tokens, and redeemed some for a few cosmetic outfit pieces - which I just learned you can apparently wear "over" your gear and still keep the bonuses/ratings of your armor. Is that accurate?

Yeah, you can wear stuff cosmetically which doesn't change the stats that your equipment generates. Look in the character sheet, there is a tab for cosmetic costumes and you can just put stuff on there and then opt to wear that costume rather than your equipment one. I think you have 2 or 3 different outfit slots, and then from memory you can buy other ones, should you feel the need.

They've made some pretty neat changes for the Winter Festival. Previously, you had to wait for your invitation to arrive, go to a mailbox, open it up, activate the quest, go to a festival travel location and then transit to the festival area. Now you just get a little pop-up on the side of the screen for the quest, another to instantly travel to the festival area, and a third for your daily quest there (which I'd recommend everyone do at a minimum since it takes about 2 minutes through the "Empty Keg Emergency" quest and has the potential for some pretty decent rewards). If you do a total of 20 festival quests during the event you can purchase the new mount, which looks pretty neat. You can also unlock warhorse components in the same style, but that requires 120 quests.

davet010 wrote:

Yeah, you can wear stuff cosmetically which doesn't change the stats that your equipment generates. Look in the character sheet, there is a tab for cosmetic costumes and you can just put stuff on there and then opt to wear that costume rather than your equipment one. I think you have 2 or 3 different outfit slots, and then from memory you can buy other ones, should you feel the need.

It's a pretty neat system, if you're into that kind of thing. It lets you combine pieces from different sets that you'd never actually equip, like armored pauldrons with a robe. Or a cake hat with a gift costume.

Winter festival is my favorite each year, the theater is delightful and the cosmetic benefits for taking the less immediately beneficial path through things, albeit you have to wait until after the festival shuts down, are a nice touch.

Nicholaas wrote:

I'm still in a guardian mindset much of the time, and 2.) I need to make use of the hotkeys, rather than manually pointing and clicking on skills in my task bar; I have time to do that with my guardian, but not so much with my hunter.

So, you realize you have like five toolbars? That way you can put the "always use" stuff on 1-10, then drag and drop the others nearby (or wherever suits you) so that the time delay to click on them does not matter. And you can queue up actions, too.

The "\" key turns the interface layout on and off, letting you move around visible elements on the screen. And the Options has a section for the toolbars; make them visible and undock them and you can put them wherever you like.

Loving the Winter Festival - I've just kitted my Captain out in the appropriate outfit

IMAGE(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8288213090_8258e0d8dd_c.jpg)

Well I got the riding skill but the base mount is 200s. Luckily, the Yule Festival mount was only 20 tokens

GioClark wrote:

Well I got the riding skill but the base mount is 200s. Luckily, the Yule Festival mount was only 20 tokens :)

You'll be surprised how quickly you accumulate 200s.

7 missions in the Yule festival will get you over 200s.

I just resubbed - we are still on Landroval corect?

I had forgotten just how much fun this game is. I love the Runemaster class. Subbed for three months, this usually means I get deployed.

Robear wrote:
Nicholaas wrote:

I'm still in a guardian mindset much of the time, and 2.) I need to make use of the hotkeys, rather than manually pointing and clicking on skills in my task bar; I have time to do that with my guardian, but not so much with my hunter.

So, you realize you have like five toolbars? That way you can put the "always use" stuff on 1-10, then drag and drop the others nearby (or wherever suits you) so that the time delay to click on them does not matter. And you can queue up actions, too.

The "" key turns the interface layout on and off, letting you move around visible elements on the screen. And the Options has a section for the toolbars; make them visible and undock them and you can put them wherever you like.

I do now. =P I have my attack/combat skills on the main toolbar, and accessories (like my brand new Yule Steed) on the top. I'm also playing around with the HUD layout, as you mentioned. It's definitely helped, and I feel like overall my game is improving. Thanks.

And yeah, regarding the Yule Festival, I think I have most of the routine tasks down to a science, and as Lobster said, you can accumulate tokens quite rapidly.

Dave: Nice outfit! That cloak is next on my list; I just got the hobo/beggar outfit, and looks far cooler on my dwarf than I thought it would.

If we still have the Fellowship, could someone contact Spythalion to invite me. My 12th level Runemaster is looking for friends.

FYI, all the expansions are 50% off on Steam for the duration of the Holiday sale.

I know Mixolyde and I are playing. Need to find someone to invite us into Fellowship.

Send Tkkyl an invite as well.

Tkyl wrote:

FYI, all the expansions are 50% off on Steam for the duration of the Holiday sale.

Oh maaaaan, so tempting. So very tempting...

The late-game stuff (levels 50+) looks insanely cool, even if it'll be a while before I ever get there. I'm level 20/21 with my Captain and Guardian, respectively, and am seeing there's soooo much more than I first realized. I feel like I'm really starting to hit my stride, too. I had my Guardian craft some iron armor for my Captain, and my Captain crafted some iron daggers for my brother's lower-level Hunter. I sent his hobbit Thief a hat and some fingerless gloves I won at the Yule Festival (from doing the "special" misson). I love this stuff.

EDIT: Ok, wow, my brother grabbed the expansion and gifted me a copy, too!

Are you guys starting new characters?

karmajay wrote:

Are you guys starting new characters?

I'm not, at least not yet. Even with the two extra slots I now have, I think playing two games simultaneously is enough for me, and I'm too invested in both at this point to want to start over. Plus, I don't want to worry about grinding away for more TP to buy yet another riding skill just yet. =P

Yeah, I have a lvl 50 or 60 (whatever was max after moria came out) Champion so I could also play that if people were playing. Kinda fried on GW2 and sometimes the non-MMOs can't hold my attention

One thing I seem to be seeing a lot is people riding on invisible horses, which looks quite off-putting. Anyone else getting this ?

karmajay wrote:

Are you guys starting new characters?

I have been starting new ones. I have a 17 rune keeper , a 10 Captain, an 8 Guardian, and getting ready to start a Champion. I like having a variety and given how atmospheric the game is I am in no hurry.

I'm online sometimes still loving to play this on F2P.

Send me friend requests I have several folks doing the Bree area quests now and wouldn't mind playing in groups.

Jadomore 43 Warden
Andane 25 Captain
Andofast 14 Minstrel
Anorin 17 Hunter.

I just started playing again too. I have some >10 alts that I created when I had a sub as place holders, so I wouldn't mind grouping up whenever. My main is below, friend away!

Theordryt 43 Minstrel

davet010 wrote:

One thing I seem to be seeing a lot is people riding on invisible horses, which looks quite off-putting. Anyone else getting this ?

I think a lot of people are having that issue; I've seen it quite a bit, myself. Just gotta wait until they fix it.

davet010 wrote:

7 missions in the Yule festival will get you over 200s.

Well, that depends on your level. New to this festival, the festival missions scale with you. If my level 17 got as much XP per mission as my level 55, he'd be in his 30's by now.

Also new to this festival, when you complete the requirements for your daily quest you get the message, "You have participated in the Yule Festvial!" I tried to report the typo but surprise surprise, that form wasn't working.

They've made a lot of great changes to LOTRO recently but they seem to be piling system on top of system and it's becoming apparent just how kludgy it all is. I can't even log out without the game crashing 75% of the time (which makes it really frustrating to do dailies with my 10 characters).

SpyNavy wrote:

I know Mixolyde and I are playing. Need to find someone to invite us into Fellowship.

Yep, I'm dipping my toes in the F2P water, currently a Champion Elf named Mixolas (no relation). Might try out Captain and Lore-Master, too. I like support classes and playing in groups, but I don't really have the time commitment for that play style right now.