What is the Current State of the Game?

[Draegan]

Can someone give me a quick "state of the game"?  I played at release however there were a few things that bugged me so I stopped playing.

1.  Woefully incomplete at the top end.  (I had heard the fleshed out a lot of quests)
2.  Gear really doesn't make a huge difference on your character.  Loot was very shallow.

Hows the game playing compared to other MMOs out there?  Is it as satisfying and fun to play?  If you can comment on the satisfying MMO experience bit, what other MMOs did you find the same way so I have some point of reference.  I had a high 30ish Guardian a year ago.  I enjoyed my time to get there and it was very fun, however I'm looking for something to play around in and I'm curious to see where this game is at.

[Numtini]

Progress on fleshing things out is a little weak, but I think we're finally through all the class updates, which fills out the skills to 50. Gameplay is a bit more solid because of that. They've shifted a lot of stuff away from hardcore grouping--though I still pine for a global LFF channel. They've also added what amount to "solo" stances to the more group oriented characters that increase damage at a cost to group support skills. This has really changed things for minstrels and guardians. I think it's one of the better games out there right now. On the negative side of things, where we are now is really where we should have been at release and it should not have taken this long to get here.

I can't really tell you anything about equipment. They've added a lot and redone crafting significantly. I don't craft and I don't particularly have any "uber" equipment, so I couldn't tell you if it really is all that or not.

They have added a lot of RP stuff. Housing, dressing room system (stick stuff in appearance slots for looks only--which means everyone looks pretty snazzy), music, dancing and that kind of thing. There's a large amount of new gaming content as well, some new zones, including some raid encounters and a clone of DAOC's Darkness Falls.

Populations seem to have bounced back a lot. The community is a treat, particularly if you've been playing WOW.

The patch notes archive is at http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Category:LOTRO_Releases

[rk47]

if i'm bored of WoW, is there enough in LOTR to keep me interested or should I wait for ...a different non-medieval non-vehicular MMO setting that isn't SWG?

[Numtini]

There's a free trial for 14 days.

[Draegan]

I loaded it up last night again.  It's still a pretty game.  If you've never played it before you should at least play it for a week at least to try out the dungeons etc.  The only thing you will have to get used to is the combat.  It's different.

I still remember all the quests from a year ago.  Fun.

[rk47]

There's a free trial for 14 days.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll go check it out then

[Stormwaltz]

I still remember all the quests from a year ago.  Fun.

Spring pub crawl quest FTW.

[Draegan]

Yea but that pie quest in the shire was full of "DAMNIT I HAVE TO WALK ALL THIS WAY AGAIN!?"

[CmdrSlack]

Oddly enough, I didn't much mind the Shire delivery quests...it was a fun way to learn the fastest way around the terrain.

If doing them a second time, I'm not so sure I'd enjoy that. But I have yet to try.

[Mrbloodworth]

Oddly enough, I didn't much mind the Shire delivery quests...it was a fun way to learn the fastest way around the terrain.

Doing them a second time, I'm not so sure.

There are tons of other things to do instead. A lot of the the starter areas have very different "Quests" or game play associated with them, so you can still roll a hobbit, move to the dwarven area, and just quest there instead, if hobbit life is to sleepy for ya.

[KyanMehwulfe]

Yeah each area almost has enough content on their own to get you to the first shared area. I did a little bit of the northern Shire and a few quests at that eastern Marsh in the human land, but otherwise the dwarf area of Ered Luin was mostly enough to get me to the Lonely Lands or whatever that Lv15-25ish region in the south-east is called.

As a whole, the game is great at a casual pace. I don't think the endgame could sustain me as my main game, but I've been playing it off and on since beta and release, and I'm enjoying it more than ever. I'm active in two other MMOs right now but I still find myself tempted to log into LotRO every couple weeks. It's a really gorgeous world; Champion gameplay is one of my favorite melee classes; great animations and well modeled armor. Just a good casual questing game. Lots of fluff. I like that Turbine carved out that sort of niche rather than trying to compete with WoW/EQ on an endgame raid/dungeon level.

[Tebonas]

Yeah, I log in once a month or so, paying my rent, doing sightseeing, doing some quests, seeing whats new.

I don't think it could sustain me if I was playing it constantly, but as it stands now it is perfect to satisfy the MMOG cravings I get every few weeks for a few days.

[rk47]

if i love to play scrappers in CoH, which class is for me on LOTR, i picked Loremaster to see fireballs, but felt underwhelmed 6 levels later. Clearly this guy is party-based class with debuffs, not that 'visceral' sort of play type so perhaps Champion / Brigand is better?

[Draegan]

Guardian: Tank
Minstrel: Healer
Burgler: Mid-DPS, buffer, stealther etc.  Nice hybrid
Champ: Melee DPS
Hunter: Ranger DPS
Captain: Support, Buffer, Minor Healer
Loremaster: CC, Pets, some DPS, debuffs etc.

I think thats how it goes.

[Bandit]

Lore Master is a minor healer as well.

[Soukyan]

Hunters are rather fun to play, IMO. Mind, it's not the same as a WoW Hunter.

[Stormwaltz]

Lore Master is a minor healer as well.

Plus we get an orbital death laser! They call it "Rising of the Sun," but I know in my heart it's a satellite firing a particle beam down to smite my foes.

Yeah, Loremaster is a squishy jack-of-all-trades. A bit of debuffer/mezzer, a bit of pet class, a minor nuke, and a bit of healer.

[Bungee]

Hunters are rather fun to play, IMO. Mind, it's not the same as a WoW Hunter.

Hunters are all the same...

[rk47]

it's more like a pure dps class minus a pet i feel. i think i'm giving LOTRO a miss, it felt very bland. I'm not even on 3rd day of game. Just messing around for 2 hours.

[Mrbloodworth]

Lore Master is a minor healer as well.

Plus we get an orbital death laser! They call it "Rising of the Sun," but I know in my heart it's a satellite firing a particle beam down to smite my foes.

Yeah, Loremaster is a squishy jack-of-all-trades. A bit of debuffer/mezzer, a bit of pet class, a minor nuke, and a bit of healer.

Yep, and don't think that staff is weak as well. Also toss in quite a bit of Crowed control.

[rk47]

lol looks like we're in the gaming graveyard now.
I think I'll just go play Loremaster for now, the melee classes lacks the pace. I rather just see as much as I can before finishing this trial.

[Tebonas]

So is Everquest 2. Seems almost every MMOG is here now.

I'd ask for a reason, but I can't be bothered to care about MMOGs that much these days.

[Tannhauser]

I hit 50 with my first toon last night, my Minstrel.  LOTRO is a game that really grew on me.  The dungeons are great, the loot not so much.  Plus new and fun content fairly often.  Unlike WoW with it's latest 25 man raid that 1% of the pop plays.

It's getting a new zone; Forochel with the next patch and they do fun stuff besides.

[amiable]

My wife saw me playing EvE and got jealous, so she re-started her LOTRO account (we played the first 2 months or so and then quit) and demanded I return with my Captain to help her level. 

I was actually very pleasantly suprised...

1.  They actually have a functioning PvP system that, while limited, seems stable and has room for epic fights as well as smaller skirmishes (so far I have only MP'd because my main is so low in level).

2.  Lots o' fluff. I mean a ton.  You can spend countless hours crafting, learning to play music, etc...  My main was a Yeoman, so last night I farmed up a punch of pipe-weed, brewed some beer, and just wandered into random folks houses that they have left open to the public and just started drinking beer, smoking up and playing "Stairway to Heaven" on my lute.  It was actually pretty hilarious when one of them came home.  I suppose I have finally found my RP-niche:  drunken, drug-addicted squatter. 

3.  PvE combat is about an order of magnitude more interesting than wow.  While I have less abilities, I tend to use almost all of them in difficult group combat.  Do I use my morale enhancing pet or my power increasing pet?  Do I ditch the pet all together for a standard?  Should I thorw a minor heal or try to burn the monster down so I can use my large group heal?

Much, much more fun than spamming 3 abilities over and over again.

4.  Chill community:  I have yet to meet a total retard in game.  People  who group with you tend to be friendly.  The boards are not a cessppol of idiocy.

[WindupAtheist]

Fluff?  Houses?  Much as I lol at their "fighter, warrior, um... sword guy" class roster, I am intrigued.

[Tale]

There's a free trial for 14 days.

The LotRO trial is for 7 days. The EQ2 trial is for 14 days.

(I recently did both, tried really hard to like them, and came away never wanting to play either again, also thinking LotRO was the weaker game. Hope you like it better.)

[Tebonas]

I never understood that particular problem of yours anyway.

Abilities that use power are akin to spells. So every class has the equivalent of magic abilities. The Captain is very close to the EQ Shaman, he shouldn't even count as a sword guy class. The Guardian is a type of Def Warrior and the Champion is the Melee DD (Ranger,Blademaster, Off Warrior, etc).

The play VASTLY different, the only one playing like a classic tank is the Guardian.

[Stormwaltz]

The fluff is excellent, yes. I had a new moment of "you'll never believe what just happened" yesterday.

I bought a keg to decorate my house. Once its hooked up, you can drink from it. I knocked one back and noticed the "drunkenness" state icon was already flashing, meaning it will expire soon. Hm. The tooltip says the effect will only last 10s (drunkenness usually lasts 5m), and the description notes, "You feel the urge to party... somewhere." I tap the keg twice more, the drunknness visual effects increasing.

Then the screen whites out.

Loading screen...

Suddenly I'm in a room at the Forsaken Inn.

My new house decoration is a random tavern teleportation device.

[Mrbloodworth]

The fluff is excellent, yes. I had a new moment of "you'll never believe what just happened" yesterday.

I bought a keg to decorate my house. Once its hooked up, you can drink from it. I knocked one back and noticed the "drunkenness" state icon was already flashing, meaning it will expire soon. Hm. The tooltip says the effect will only last 10s (drunkenness usually lasts 5m), and the description notes, "You feel the urge to party... somewhere." I tap the keg twice more, the drunknness visual effects increasing.

Then the screen whites out.

Loading screen...

Suddenly I'm in a room at the Forsaken Inn.

My new house decoration is a random tavern teleportation device.

Really? Thats really cool. So you started drinking at your house....and somehow ended up at the bar. lol.

[Tale]

Suddenly I'm in a room at the Forsaken Inn.

Did you have your pants?

[Signe]

I like where this is going!

[WindupAtheist]

I never understood that particular problem of yours anyway.

Flavor.  If your class roster reads "paladin, holy knight, crusader" or "warlock, bad magician, witch with a penis" I'm going to be annoyed, even if they do play differently.

[Tale]

I like where this is going!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Fraser#Memphis_trousers_affair

[rk47]

Meh, I never really looked back past the 3rd day of the trial. I gave the melee class a try only to feel like it's lacking the 'punch' when I landed blows, I felt like I was swinging at empty air half the time. Especially the animation on dual wields, quite floaty and impact-less.

[Mrbloodworth]

Meh, I never really looked back past the 3rd day of the trial. I gave the melee class a try only to feel like it's lacking the 'punch' when I landed blows, I felt like I was swinging at empty air half the time. Especially the animation on dual wields, quite floaty and impact-less.

That could have been your animation settings.