Back to LotRO... for now.

Temporarly back to LotRO, but somehow most of the passion is gone.
I make screenshots, but I never seem to get around to make posts like I used to...

I am missing playing with my fiancee terribly, that's probably adding to the general unhapiness with what Turbine presents. Waiting for Diablo III to get me out from Middle-earth, and then for Guild Wars 2.
Mesmer has officially been revealed, not I really, REALLY can't wait.

Any good advices for how to leave a game that became a chore but you're still addicted to?
I'd gladly not waste anymore of my time in there but... well... I am weak.

State of the game

There is nothing about Turbine and Lotro lately that shows any polish. From bad moderation on their forums, horrible PR, deceptive marketing, screwing over people who buy TP, buggy unfinished delayed content and this could possible be worst of all if it turns out to be true. They even got their lotrostore wrong by mistakenly putting Draigoch on sale for 20% this past week LOL.

There is something wrong with the leadership and the culture there that lets this get out of hand in all facets of their business. When I think of Turbine I think one word: Unprofessional! It's too bad, there is a lot about the game that I really like, but I wonder how much of it is really left over from the beginning days of LOTRO? Once the content creation tools were made how many of those developers stayed with the product?

by Arkenstone@Lotro Community

Turbine practices, or lies

Frankly, I am too disheartened to write anything from myself about the subject at the moment, so I'll just quote.



I agree, the way everything is worded suggests that the 3 Relics will be Store only options.

I would really like to understand the offical reasoning that connects these two offical statements;


7. Will I still be able to play and enjoy the game without buying items from the LOTRO Store, or is that my only option for gaining weapons, armor, potions, and other goodies such as premium loot?
The purchase of items in the LOTRO Store is entirely optional. While items in the Store are designed to immediately enhance your in-game experience, premium loot and rare gear are the rewards of adventure and are only obtainable through gameplay. Source


and


Instantly acquire 3 new top tier relics, created by the LOTRO Community!

Originally Posted by Gedachtnis

I am very very sad and disappointed. I am not angry anymore I am just disheartened. I was so happy Turbine, new content as fast pace, I was okay with new content that had to be separately bought (update 3 new skirmishes & new instanes). Even relic removal scrolls was well bearable.

But what you just did is sad. There is no talking out of it, you broken your promise and imho crossed line between "hybrid model" and pure f2p pay-to-win model where important ingame stuff has to be bought in store.

Sorry but if this decision won't be revoked and those 3 store relics added into melding panel. I don't see a point in paying subscription AND paying for premium core in game items, that are as important for character build as armor , jewelery or weapon.
I also don't want to play a game where I cannot buy free access to all gear by subscription. I gladly buy TP to buy things like cosmetics, vault or share storage, xp and other timed buffs, even recipes or heck even I could "swallow" relic removal scroll.

This one is imho DIFFRENT.

You lied to me and made me very disappointed.

Bad move. Very bad. Especially when new strong MMORPG's titles are coming relatively soon.

Originally Posted by Munitis

Galadhrim War-steed

As mentioned not so long ago we decided to come back to Dol Guldur after a few months of denying the annoying place even exists.

I was quite insistent on going back as I never got to beat the Liutenant before we stopped visiting him for tea al together, which meant four deeds lingering in my otherwise perfect (Ettens doesn't count! Yes, I be a deed-whore) deed log:equipment comes and goes and level cap increases, but titles and mounts stay!

Galadhrim War-steed was not only "he one which got away", I also considered it a perfect choice to match my Annuminas outfit(s)... Finally, mine, along with assorted titles like Savious ofMirkwood and such ^^

Lady of the Golden Wood

I haven't done any of my "Design" posts in a while and this one I wanted to do even before I actually got to meet Galadriel in game.

Gorrem (Devon Candy-Lee) is probably my favourite LotRO designer to date (no longer working on the game from what I know, unfortunately) - and his vision of Galadriel is, as one might expect, pretty awesome and sleek. I love the details and the little gold leaf ornaments... I was really, really grabbed by the artwork when I first saw it, it made me hope for some improvements in in-game dress department too...

In-game model disappoints. No wonder really, LotRO has quite bad models for most humanoid NPCs... The dress is still epic and at least The Lady got some custom hair, but who else would deserve a better model than her? Narmeleth model would match pretty well I guess... But no, she got the default tree-stump one... Sad.

I really, really wish Turbine would finally got around to revamping the poor models and animations, especially for NPCs. Elf/human NPCs seem to be place holders from early stage of development. Why do they look like members of totally different races than player elf/man characters? Why do they walk in such an unnatural manner?
It's been four years and noone even seems to notice, so so sad...

24 weeks for a deed?! or when it starts to get too much

Finally getting the Savious of Mirkwood on Silirien (after defeating Lt for the first time and with Challenge), my desire for deed completion burns hot anew.

And this is when I realise that Ost Dunhoth deed will take at least 24 weeks to complete!!!
Seriously, what the fcuk? Almost half a year?
And this too only if you raid every week and successfully and your raid leader decides to kill the adds in different order each time.

Adding to that insane amounts of tokens required for the loot... Even if I decided not to focus on itemisation too much (I want my life back), I do see what Turbine is doing and I don't like it a bit.

The Lost Temple is one of the new instances which I particularly like (at least, the above-ground part of it). Probably because of it's awesome Indiana Jones feeling. While the actual game part of it is long and tedious (especially the challenge, which also likes to bug out), world-design part is jaw-dropping, especially if you consider that basically everything in there (like in the whole world in general) has already been reused multiple times.

Working as the team intended... LotRO, Lord of the Rings Online

I was about to write a passionate post about how the 4th Anniversary is a complete grindfest, but I can hardly add anything new to 1005 posts made on official Turbine forums before it was closed by Sapience to "prevent disinformation", or other community reactions (The Grindaversary or Why is Goldenstar Skipping the Anniversary Events)

What kindof disinformation Sapience?
Or did you mean information of how you guys completly shut your ears to any negative feedback once again (like with many, many things on Isenguard server before Moria and after).

I am sorry, but if Dev's team official statement on this issue is the event is working as the team intended and designed it and there will be no changes to the content or cost of rewards, it's just... uh... enraging. You make the game for us, you need our appreciation to pay your bills. And for 2 years you keep on failing your player base with under-par expansions, in-game systems, now also events. And this event is a shining example of your attitude, and I can't wait to move to somewhere else.

Only Turbine bootcamp anniversary shows loving appreciation. Brew bash SLAVE! Now go Bash like you mean it! Nothing says customer love like strict discipline. By someone on US Forums. So sad, so true.

It's funny, I was actually contemplating moving to US servers recently, because players get all the little perks (like lotteries) in there. But yeah, no way now. I'll continue on leeching on Codemasters with my life-timer and I won't fail to mention to anyone asking about LotRO how tedious end-game and now even events are.

Ancient Annuminas Statue

I am a huge, huge Annuminas fan-girl. I love the feeling of Evendim (even the Ever-swim parts), I've always enjoyed the instances and I am a terrible sucker for Annuminas armor sets.

This small statue was once used as a reward for service to the Kingdom of Arnor. The Wardens of Annuminas now only offer them to those who have proven themselves to be truly heroic.

Hence, this statuette was a must-have for me, and I am displaying it proudly when not engaged in battle.
Here with the Mistress of Annoyance, Gwindeth (still plotting to steal her dress).

Snow Queen

Almost ^^

When I got dragged to Sari-Surma for the first time, it felt like walking into Snow Queen's palace and I mentioned to my fellows that it's really dissapointing that none of the bosses could qualify as one. A friend commented We don't need annother Snow Queen, we brough our own - oh yes, how I wished this was true (thanks for the compliment Mike ^^).

Glacier Queen is not quite Snow Queen, but it's good enough ;)

Łukasz Jop - or why not to trust friends

This is Łukasz Jop, currently living in Wodzisław Śląski, Poland.
Łukasz is not a trustworthy person - he has gained an unauthorised access to his friend's LotRO account by making use of said friend's personal information.

He was directly approached multiple times and questioned if he is in posession of the account's access data, but he denied (until he stopped anwsering any form of contact at all, that is).

When contacting Customer Support, he impersonated the rightful owner of the account.

Material damages would be around 250EUR (LotRO expansions, Liffetime subscription no longer available etc) but he also deleted several high level characters created by the original owner.

Currently, he is working at BioStat as Project Manager (though he has a different possition listed on Polish equivalent of LinkedIn, hmm) - a nice position for a scammer...

~~~~

Pan Łukasz Jop aktualnie zamieszkaly w Wodzisławiu Śląskim wykorzystal bliska znajomosc w ktorej byl uwazany za przyjaciela by przejac cudze konto w grze Lord of the Rings Online. By to osiagnac, zrobil uzytek ze swojej znajomosci chronionych danych osobowych innej osoby w sposob nieautoryzowany.

Wielokrotnie pytany o to, czy posiada dostep do konta, zaprzeczal.

Narazil prawowitego wlasciciela konta na straty materialne rzedu 1000PLN (zwiazane z zakupionymi dodatkami do gry oraz tzw. Lifetime Subscription).

W kontaktach z Customer Service podszywal sie pod prawowitego wlasciciela konta.

Obecnie zatrudniony w firmie BioStat jako Dyrektor Handlowy

Niezbyt budzace zachowanie jak na dyrektora handlowego jakiejkolwiek firmy, prawda?

You have acquired the Eagle-friend (Ember-eagle) skill.

I've waited 3 years for this. Now he is mine.
Nostalgia of the old real good Shadows of Angmar days hits me.

v3b2: Who's creeping there in the shadows?

I felt an urge to explore the other day while doing the amazing v3b2, and... I saw IT.
IT lasted only a few seconds before my eyes, I watched in amazement as HE crossed the tunnel and evaporated in a cloud of smoke on the other side, too puzzled to press PrntScrn in time... Gandalf? Here?!

I leave it up to you to find out where, and to guess why! Because he's not really supposed to be there. Or is he..?

I realised He was there all the time, Elladan mentions he he felt an presence watching over them as they went down the ramps and that it was ancient and intelligent.

You can supposedly catch a glimpse of him for the second time after you pull the leaver too.
Even though he was not named, I believe it's Gandalf - we don't really have too many characters "assuming" other character's appearance (and Amarthiel had to kill for that) and Turbine was always careful to make modles of main characters distinctive.
Gandalf himself could be out of Lothlorien by now, I am no LotR lore expert, but hobbits met him near Isengard and the time of the Battle of Hemls Deep wasn't far away. He could have very well had watched over the Dunadain as they crossed.

On the other hand, we know Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas mistook Saruman for Gandalf - not at the time of sighting, but when they realised Gandalf was actually around. The difference was a dented wizard hat... Gandalf's hat was always pointy in LotRO model, this person however has a dented hat...
Mystery deapens!

Credit for this screenshot goes to Grimmy.
Thank you Grim, it wouldn't be possible without you!
Guest Appearance post made by Grimdoin on Codemasters forum

Have the Valar heard my pleas?

I was swearing I'll never go back to LotRO, especially not with F2P, but here I am again, enjoying Endewaith and pyromancing through stuff... but this part I'll elaborate somewhere else and later because...

OMG!!!11!11one!11!!11eleven!!!!!!!!!!
!BIND ON ACCOUNT!

Yes I know it's no big news for you out there keeping up with LotRO, but noone ever tells me anything. I only hope that devs will introduce BoA on more items, like... Skeleton Horse maybe?

Blog merge

I've decided to merge both my game blogs (Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings) into this one as it became too tedious to keep both updated and polished.

Wicked Wave!

After spending few weeks playing Bayonetta (such an awesome game, I am totally in love!) I took a bit of a break from torturing angels and brought my Lore-master to Mirkwood where she encountered Shards of Twilight.

My continuing thoughts were - and still are:

Wicked wave!

Please excuse the poor screen-shot of the Shard of Twilight, if I get anything better, I'll update it!

It was nice playing LotRO. Bye.

Codemasters will make LotrO Free to Play with Premium Shop starting this Autumn.

For me, it's been nice playing LotRO but now it's time to go buy that xBox and wait for Guild Wars 2.

http://www.lotro-europe.com/freetoplay/info/

Protector Of Thangulhad

I enjoyed the collection of dark poetry I came across here.
Very well written. A bit too harsh but good poetry is good poetry. That sorcerer is not getting it back..!

Forded Bruinen

"If you want him, come and claim him!"
Actually, I profoundly dislike Arwen, especially in the movies (she stole my Glorfie's horse and sacked him out!), she is a flat, empty shell with no character, no characteristic apart from an extreme Luthien-wannabe... but meh.

Silirien will not let Glorfindel get hurt. Only please don't tell Rhyaewald she still cares.

Stood at Amon Sul

Weathertop is on the other hand one of my favourite skirmishes.
Maybe its because the escort is - for once! - actually quite useful and skill-wise impressive? Maybe because of the general feel and pace of the fight?