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.