LOTRO: Free-to-Play

Huh? I still think the game can be stunning in some areas.

It looks exceptionally dated graphic wise especially when you spend time in some of the eastern MMOs and that becomes your new normal.

The upcoming graphics overhaul and push to console will be a welcome update and should be good for them since the Amazon attempt at the game went tits up. When the new show comes out they'll be able to capitalize on the uptick of awareness.

ranalin wrote:

It looks exceptionally dated graphic wise especially when you spend time in some of the eastern MMOs and that becomes your new normal.

I've always preferred LOTRO's graphics to those in eastern MMOs.

Don't get me wrong i love the art 'style'. They captured the lands of Middle Earth about as spot on as you can get. That is impressive. Technically the graphics are very old and dated. When you get close to anything in LOTRO it's ugly, and not much detail and what's there is a skin that's been obviously stretched over a model. That's just the way it was done back then.

In BDO for example, you can look over a field and see bushes and grass move with the breeze and see individual rain drops fall on the leaves and ground and the reflections of the surroundings in the puddles that form. It feels alive. These guys were doing the equivalent to raytracing long before raytracing was introduced.

Sure everyone has their druthers, on what they like to look at but wanted to be clear i was talking about the technical side and not the artistic side.

The big question is how far are they going to go with the graphics update because if they go all the way with Unreal 5... that's some impressive looking tech.

I'm a huge fan of the landscapes in LOTRO. I think they've captured the vibe of each area extremely well.
More importantly, I think, is that M-E is best seen from a big picture point of view, because that's what you can glean from the source material.

The specifics, however, are hard to drill down on, since there's much less detail in the source material. It would be as easy to get the details wrong as it would be to nail them; and it would feel different to every fan of the books: some would feel it was perfect, others completely wrong. So I don't really want that kind of detail in LOTRO. Broad strokes are fine.

And the characters? Well, they don't disturb my suspension of disbelief, so I'll put up with them. And the horses are pretty spot on.

An example of this is Radagast's home. It feels just perfect. But while you can walk around, you can't get anymore detail than an outside view of the house and environs. So the spell is never broken.

In contrast I find that its often easier and more jarring to break the illusion in hyper-realistic models like in games like BDO. They often look SO good that when some elbow bends unnaturally, or fingers look like sticks, that you're wrenched out of immersion.

It probably comes down to my willingness to forgive LOTRO its shortcomings, simply because the world means something to me, whereas I couldn't care less about BDO's world (does it even have a name?), Azeroth, or even Tamriel. Personal preference, obviously.

I always thought LOTROs landscapes and whatnot were the only thing folks enjoyed. The rest was standard mediocre MMO look for the time.

I would imagine for fans that being in the world is the most important aspect of the game followed by lore. I know I'm more than happy to forgive a lot of visual shortcomings just to be in the world.

UI shortcomings, however, are a bit harder for me.

The LOTRO 15th Anniversary celebration is underway.

In addition to the free content they announced in March (also listed in the link) there are these limited time rewards for logging in before May 11:

Make sure to log in between 10:00 AM Eastern on April 20th and 3:00 AM Eastern on May 11th to pick up your “Happy 15th Anniversary” gifts! When you log in you will receive the following if you are at least level two when the Anniversary Event is active:

Account-Wide Gifts:

Chestnut Corgi Pet
Steed of Starlight (This skill also auto-grants the Starlight Caparison, Head-piece, accessory, leg-guards, and saddle.
Collector’s Edition – Mordor Expansion
Collector’s Edition – Minas Morgul Expansion
Collector’s Edition – War of Three Peaks
Account-Wide Gifts – VIP ONLY:

Starlight Cloak
Hooded Starlight Cloak
Light Weapon Aura
Once per Account 15-year Celebration Login Gifts:

Mithril Coin x10
Gift of the Valar
Anniversary Small Carry-all Selection Box
15-year Celebration Gift Box containing:
Trait: Riding Characteristic
Virtue Acceleration Tome: 2000 Bonus Virtue XP
Reputation Acceleration Tome
Slayer and Skill Deed Boost (90 minutes)
Tracery Reclamation Scroll
Tracery Token, Incomparable
Legendary Item Box
Once per Account – VIP ONLY 15-year Celebration VIP Login Gifts:

Mithril Coin x40
Anniversary Medium Carry-all Selection Box
15-year Celebration VIP Giftbox containing
Trait: Riding Characteristic
Virtue Acceleration Tome: 2000 Bonus Virtue XP
Reputation Acceleration Tome
Slayer and Skill Deed Boost (90 minutes)
Tracery Reclamation Scroll
Tracery Token, Legendary
Legendary Item Box
Massive Pile of Silver Scraps worth 2 Gold

One of the rewards allows you to level one of your characters to 105 and provide them with level-appropriate gear and access to all areas and quests appropriate for their level.

OMG Corgis y'all!

IMAGE(https://forum.quartertothree.com/uploads/default/optimized/3X/8/3/8379ee647e4709e47984fcd0041913cb65f385c8_2_888x500.jpeg)

IMAGE(https://forum.quartertothree.com/uploads/default/optimized/3X/8/3/834224fecba0bc93148be4218ca7a68b2695410f_2_888x500.jpeg)

Anyone else play this regularly? I made a character or two on Treebeard, but the kinship I am in on that server is all but dead. What I really want is to get into a kin with some folk that I know will actually be on now and then, since I've done very few instances and want to have some regulars to group with.

Any suggestions?

Done!

I don't play this regularly but when I do it's for a 2-3 day bender followed by ignoring for months. The joys of a lifetime membership up front I guess...

Yeah I have a lifetime membership from the days of being a bachelor with nothing else to do... Tried to get back into it a few years ago and straight up could not get it to work on my computer... Maybe I should try again some time...

manta173 wrote:

Yeah I have a lifetime membership from the days of being a bachelor with nothing else to do... Tried to get back into it a few years ago and straight up could not get it to work on my computer... Maybe I should try again some time...

What problem are you running into?

Veloxi wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Yeah I have a lifetime membership from the days of being a bachelor with nothing else to do... Tried to get back into it a few years ago and straight up could not get it to work on my computer... Maybe I should try again some time...

What problem are you running into?

Don't remember... just that I thought re-installing windows might be required to troubleshoot/ fix it...

Weird, I'm on Win 11, but have also run it on 7 and 10 without issue.

Huh. I know I played this but don't remember if it was beta or for real years ago. Wonder if I can retrieve an account to get all that stuff before May 11... hm

Redownloaded it. But can't login on the website. Not even going to try with the launcher. Submitted a trouble ticket.

Weird, I just logged in via the forums just fine.

After weeks of back and forth with the help folks, I can log in... today... so no benefits... also my characters are gone.

If I whip up something... what server should I hit?

Characters trapped on the closed Vilya server... Can't get them at the moment.

I'm sure all my old gear is next to useless at this point, so it's not really an issue I guess.

So I’m back after a small break, and my god Moria is confusing. It doesn’t help that the map is VERY 2D while Moria itself is VERY 3D.

But my god, you guys, on the Wiki, they were kind enough to type up DIRECTIONS:

https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Mor...

Thank GAWD. I can’t wait to dive back in using these. It’ll make things hopefully much smoother.

Veloxi wrote:

So I’m back after a small break, and my god Moria is confusing. It doesn’t help that the map is VERY 2D while Moria itself is VERY 3D.

But my god, you guys, on the Wiki, they were kind enough to type up DIRECTIONS:

https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Mor...

Thank GAWD. I can’t wait to dive back in using these. It’ll make things hopefully much smoother.

I'm still pretty sad that I never made it to the original Moria. From the reactions of others it generated the emotions I associated with it after reading the books (huge, unforgiving, easy to get lost, etc). It's easy to understand how that that would be a turn off for people, but I wish I had taken the opportunity to experience it anyway.

Wait, original Moria?

Yes. Believe it or not, Moria used to be much more difficult to navigate, with fewer stable-masters.

JLS wrote:

Yes. Believe it or not, Moria used to be much more difficult to navigate, with fewer stable-masters.

IMAGE(https://c.tenor.com/tB8hZiKflQ0AAAAC/frasier-deargod.gif)

absurddoctor wrote:

I'm still pretty sad that I never made it to the original Moria. From the reactions of others it generated the emotions I associated with it after reading the books (huge, unforgiving, easy to get lost, etc). It's easy to understand how that that would be a turn off for people, but I wish I had taken the opportunity to experience it anyway.

I'm guessing you've since been to Moria? Otherwise, of course, you could travel there and not use the QOL improvements like the full map and frequent stablemasters.

Ironically, Moria is still my go-to for vendors/storage/crafting resources because they're all close together and easily navigated.