f13.net

In case you all didn't see this on the official forums:

The following is a list of known issues with the Alpha 2 Build. Please be sure to read this list carefully to avoid submitting already known bugs.

• Client Crash: Accepting the “Searching for Fresh Springs” Quest will crash the client. Do not accept this quest.
• Looting current uses a placeholder sound effect.
• Elven and Human Female's may appear distorted when wearing a cloak.
• Elf and Hobbit Females have closed eyes.
• Clicking Accomplishment UI popups causes zoom to break.
• If chat has focus when accepting quests...focus always returns to chat after all quest dialogue.
• Reputation accomplishments not bestowing.
• Epic book 1: Unravelling the thread does not complete. Talking to Torthann does not advance the quest.
• Instance: Assault on Archet: Quest icon blinks over Andlum.
• Wolf Pelts Quest: There are not enough wolves in the general area. Group with other players when doing this quest to maximize kills.
• Celendine is not throwing her torch in the Human/Dwarf 'jailbreak' encounter.
• Graphical issue with various locations where water type changes.
• Weather is not currently synched.
• Some of the art is still placeholder, including the Hobbit race movie.
• If you have trouble creating a character, close the client and then log back in and try again.
• Chat "dings" - you can go into options, under "audio" and turn the UI volume setting down to zero if you want to turn off the chat "dings"

Something I'm having major issues with is the "A Thread From Spiders" quest.  THe Strongbox and Seed bag are on like 2-3 minute timers.  There's now a line of people waiting for the Strongbox.

Our group had a bug doing the instance where you protect Archet from the brigands.  For some reason we couldn't get the fire to go out.  We solved this by having only one person initiate the dialog and collect water from the well. 

There's really just not enough spawns of anything. It improves some when moving to the post bandit instance world.. but that's just because there's less people.  Everything seems to be on a timed spawn rate and the timers are just too long.

Yea. Keep in mind this is the first time we've had anywhere near this many people on the server at the same time. Usually we can expect a certain percentage of people invited to log in the first day - this day far exceeded what I've seen in any other Alpha I've worked on. So it's good that the servers handled it very well, but yea, the spawn (which should get fixed by the updated spawner) and the timers need to be looked at.

As far as the fire in that quest, I've seen that reported and will make sure it's bugged if it isn't already. Thanks!

For an unexpected load, I find response times are pretty good.  Am I supposed to point out good things, too?

Game video brightness/gamma/contrast options changing my desktop settings is non-optimal if you plan to allow windowed mode.  I made the game brighter so it looked less like Ryzom, and my desktop is bleached.

Ohh the performance of this game out-classes any Turbine beta product I've seen. Both AC and AC2 had very bad lag related issues.  I got bad slow downs in town, but otherwise it's played very smoothly and with no crashes.

Expect to hear me cry if rubber band lag ever shows its face.

Interesting. I wonder if that is a function of the well known IP, or a lucky draw of testers, or the fact that there aren't any really new MMOGs on the market atm to sop up everyone's time?

Based on my dips into the official forums, it's because there are FAR MORE people with LOTR shrines in their domiciles than previously thought.  My money is on IP.

Well, if you will allow me the liberty of patting my team on the back - it mostly had to do with how we selected the players (based on a bunch of criteria that we figured would increase initial participation). It just happened that even our "higher than normal" estimates were exceeded.

This one might be a bug or might not.

-Cartwell the Leech: For the life of me I cannot find the blackwort roots.  I've looked all over near those wolf dens.  Other ground spawns were easy to find.  BTW, the respawn rate on those berries is perfect.

Bug:
-Reconnecting Ties quest: Broken when you talk to Covell Woodwright.

The quest description for the one right before Cartwell, where you rescue the pup, isn't very good.  Took me a long time to figure out where to go.  But, you can take into account I have a very hard time navigating in any game.

Edit: Found the roots. Small, grey and near rocks and large foliage that tends to disguise them. Might want to make them a tad bigger and more prominent.

Since this is likely to become the buglist thread:

Sometimes the ring stays above someone's head after I accept the quest.  Peg and the guard outside the hunter's lodge are two I noticed.  I believe it disappears on the radar.

Using the Add button in the Kinship GUI returns a nasty string instead of what I expected to be the target name.  I tried this on Yoru when I found him dorking around at the noobler spawn point.  Rasix got him in via slash command with no trouble, I think.

Keybind window is garbled.

I forgot to bug the above, might do so later.  If you want me to list off the items I bugged, let me know.

I think what's going on with some of the garbled text is that there's text overlapping some other text.  I noticed this on some windows where it looks like other options were written over OK or Cancel.  I'll try to track down a specific example next time I'm in.

Ohh, and just a preference thing, but having right click automatically buy seems like a bad idea.  The expected action would be inspection based on other games in the genre.  This bought me a few superfluous short swords and a helmet (which I wear).

I'd like to see a visual HUD clue as to where the hell your target is.  I keep having to spin around and zoom my view in and out looking for my target.  This is especially fristrating where there is a lot of ground cluttern and it's hard to see the target circle.

I am fine with the hover-to-inspect mechanic, but it would really help me if the window floated near the item instead of at the top of the screen.

More clear indication of what items you have equipped would be nice also.

In the vein of vendors, I have become somewhat spoiled to the immediate-sellback-at-equal-value mechanic in another recent game.  This would have been nice when I wanted to see if I could buy the skills of another class.  I can, and they sell back for less money.

It seems that the sellback mechanic works a bit differently, putting things into an intermediate container of some sort when you doubleclick, then everything is sold at once when you click Sell.  I like this and I think buying should work the same way rather than dumping it straight into your inventory.  That should provide the same-session-sellback-for-no-loss feature that I would like to see.  Make sense?

If the popup-inspect-window is cumbersome, at least make a space in the vendor GUI for item descriptions.

Don't buy stuff from trainers.  They're either buggy or not enabled.

Try and remember what channel you're in or use the slash commands or you'll say the most inappropriate things on OOC.  (this probably only pertains to me, but I thought I'd just warn everyone.  And whatnot.)

My UI won't stick.

My font won't change.

I can't hear my own combat sounds, although I seem to be able to hear other peoples.

Allow me to also pat your team on the back. I just spent an hour on the beta forums, and was overjoyed to see that the vast majority of posters seem to have a grasp of written English, punctuation, grammar/spelling/capitalization, and how to use paragraphs. It was kind of spooky, actually.

Someone please tell me there are vendors, or will be, who sell boiled leather and other components and that I don't have to find a player to sell me some... which isn't always easy to do.  And if that's the case, is there any crafting that is self sufficient and doesn't depend on another player's profession?