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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  Lord of the Rings Online  |  Topic: THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: SIEGE OF MIRKWOOD™ TO LAUNCH ON DECEMBER 1ST 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: SIEGE OF MIRKWOOD™ TO LAUNCH ON DECEMBER 1ST  (Read 35644 times)
Yegolev
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Reply #35 on: October 05, 2009, 07:07:08 AM

I don't know, mine looks that good, although I have a 9800-or-something GTX and Win7.  Do you have the "Ultra" settings available in the various pulldowns?  Checked "Use DX10" in there somewhere?  I'd assume the hi-res version came on the discs but I got the digital version and can't say for sure.

Edit: I'm also running at the native resolution of my monitor.  My wife isn't and hers looks a tad worse (to me) and she has a 4970 on Win7.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Riggswolfe
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Reply #36 on: October 05, 2009, 09:18:03 AM

I put it on Ultra High. (something that caused massive stuttering in Vista and not 1 hitch in Win 7. Same machine, different OS, gotta love it.) It looks a lot better now especially when I zoom in. Armor in particular seems to have more detail to it though the rock walls in Moria still look kind of bland.

"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
Yegolev
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Reply #37 on: October 05, 2009, 10:53:04 AM

Well, there are definitely some variances in texture quality, if you ask me.  Some of them really pop, like the gravel on the east bank of Bruinen ford, while others are kinda meh.  Seems like certain roads are like that, maybe the one north out of Aughaire but can't recall.  Mostly I just notice the awesome textures and don't notice the not-as-awesome ones.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #38 on: October 05, 2009, 11:22:10 AM

Well, there are definitely some variances in texture quality, if you ask me.  Some of them really pop, like the gravel on the east bank of Bruinen ford, while others are kinda meh.  Seems like certain roads are like that, maybe the one north out of Aughaire but can't recall.  Mostly I just notice the awesome textures and don't notice the not-as-awesome ones.

Textures are normally built to scale off the player, however if the asset is sized up, the texure of course becomes a bit off scale. Sometimes you will come across the asset at the cirrect size, sometimes they have been scaled up.

Quite sure this is what you are seeing in moria.

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Mrbloodworth
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Reply #39 on: October 15, 2009, 10:01:15 AM


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Yegolev
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Reply #40 on: October 15, 2009, 10:24:00 AM

There's a new expansion?

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #41 on: October 15, 2009, 10:44:37 AM

O.o

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Brogarn
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Reply #42 on: October 15, 2009, 12:32:52 PM

Stormwaltz
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Reply #43 on: October 28, 2009, 08:24:16 AM

Massively has a few details on Skirmishes and the raids in Dol Guldur.

Quote
Yet another instance we entered was the Dungeons of Dol Guldur, described to us as a game of cat and mouse. It's set up as a prison, where it was up to us to rescue several prisoners caught in jail rooms. The interesting thing here is that each room is randomized, so you could open the door to either a prisoner in need of rescue, or some enemies who aren't very pleased at being disturbed. Each time you enter the instance, these rooms are different, so there's no way a player can memorize patterns.

The guards in this instance are a whole different challenge. They have patrol patterns (also randomized) that keep you on your toes while searching for prisoners to rescue. If the guards catch you, they turn the tides by throwing you in jail, which requires a really long time to break out; just long enough to make you not want to get caught! Luckily, there are poppy seed barrels you can find scattered around the dungeon that act as traps to put the guards to sleep for a short time.

At the end of it all, you will face The Warden who is not exactly willing to show you the way out alive. One of your incentives to gather as many prisoners as you can (before the final alarm sounds) is that these prisoners will helps you in this final boss battle. The more you rescue, the more you'll have on your side.

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Arthur_Parker
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Reply #44 on: October 28, 2009, 08:30:53 AM

So I signed up for the US version, is there anyway of getting mirkwood free with timecards? I couldn't use my European credit card to active a subscription, had to buy a Cd key from http://www.allcdkey.com/ and guess will have to stay on time cards bought from the same place.
Nyght
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Reply #45 on: October 28, 2009, 11:39:52 AM


All these years I've played MMOs, I have always yearned to be a 'distraction'.  Ohhhhh, I see.


Edited: One additional comment. Reading this and the dev blog it seems to me that they are really trying to allow scaling difficulty and group size now in an attempt to keep all the differing playstyles happy. I have an uneasy feeling about this as it makes the game style just seem like a stew instead of a steak dinner. I think maybe I would prefer a little more 'vision' even if it left me out along the way.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2009, 11:55:49 AM by Nyght »

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Soln
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Reply #46 on: October 28, 2009, 12:29:31 PM

why don't they just improve the LFG system to start?  It's arguable the worst of a lot of MMO's.  Certainly worst than DDO.
tazelbain
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Reply #47 on: October 28, 2009, 12:50:53 PM

why don't they just improve the LFG system to start?  It's arguable the worst of a lot of MMO's.  Certainly worst than DDO.
Seems like a quest structure issue.  Since everything is repeatable its still useful for me to respond to lfm ad for a quest that I have already completed.  In LotRO, quests are once and there lots of chains, so odds of a lfm being beneficial are greatly reduced.  Which is why I think you see people shout with names of 3 or 4 quests in their lfg, it's the best odds of finding someone in the on the same quests as you.  If the lfg system allowed people multi-select quests needed, it would be more relevant.

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Soln
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Reply #48 on: October 28, 2009, 02:40:51 PM

why don't they just improve the LFG system to start?  It's arguable the worst of a lot of MMO's.  Certainly worst than DDO.
Seems like a quest structure issue.  Since everything is repeatable its still useful for me to respond to lfm ad for a quest that I have already completed.  In LotRO, quests are once and there lots of chains, so odds of a lfm being beneficial are greatly reduced.  Which is why I think you see people shout with names of 3 or 4 quests in their lfg, it's the best odds of finding someone in the on the same quests as you.  If the lfg system allowed people multi-select quests needed, it would be more relevant.

a good LFG tool could highlight who is looking for what better than any of the Barrens chat in GLFF we have now.  It's PITA since LotRO as you say has so many chains, but also the Epic Books which give important endcap skills you need.  A new tool would also be cross zone, which we don't have right now  Mob
Yegolev
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Reply #49 on: October 28, 2009, 03:20:26 PM

I would agree that some easy improvements would be to have a chain flagged, also allow multiple LFF-tagged quests.  Even grouping with my wife, we have a hard time figuring out which quest one of us needs to pick up or advance to catch up, so even the chains themselves could be made easier to handle in the UI.  I'd also like it to be easier to get into an instance since running to a pool is assy garbage.

It's sad when adding a GLFF channel is considered an improvement.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
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Numtini
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Reply #50 on: November 02, 2009, 12:14:21 PM

A quest centric game like LOTRO with instances as well crafted as theirs are really needs an elaborate lfg system. It was the draw of the game and I found it just impossible to get groups.

Adding some kind of reward for repeating an instance (like the XP from elite mobs in WoW, EQ2, and every other game) wouldn't hurt either.

If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #51 on: November 02, 2009, 12:19:35 PM

Have you guys looked at the LFG tool? It has more features than most. You can even advertise your group..... Its not the tool that's the problem, its people coming from other games simply spamming the chat, instead of using the tool.

You can even look for groups cross zones with it.

In the 'Fellowing' tab on the social panel, check out the 'Open Fellowships' tab at the bottom.

Here you can start an open fellowship or open your existing fellowship to more players. You can specify what levels and classes you are looking for. You can choose a quest, or if you want to do an instance or raid, you can indicate that in the Note section.

You can type over the zone name with any other zone name and see the people in that zone. You can also type in a person's name or kin name and see results of that too.

I would agree that some easy improvements would be to have a chain flagged, also allow multiple LFF-tagged quests.  Even grouping with my wife, we have a hard time figuring out which quest one of us needs to pick up or advance to catch up, so even the chains themselves could be made easier to handle in the UI.


Sharing a quest that's in a chain will offer the first quest of the chain. (with exceptions)

It's sad when adding a GLFF channel is considered an improvement.

Its not, its simply a player created chant that emulates the behavior they have learned from other MMO's that have shitty LFG tools. Its a "safe place" instead of using the provided tools.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2009, 12:24:22 PM by Mrbloodworth »

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Soln
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Reply #52 on: November 02, 2009, 12:56:08 PM

MWB the tool is not global it's only regional.  It also doesn't show stages on a quest (IIRC).  And like you say nobody uses it.  So it just needs more publicity, some user education, and some design changes. 
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #53 on: November 02, 2009, 12:59:31 PM

MWB the tool is not global it's only regional.  It also doesn't show stages on a quest (IIRC).  And like you say nobody uses it.  So it just needs more publicity, some user education, and some design changes. 

Its global, type in any zone name. The main issue is no one uses it.

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HaemishM
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Reply #54 on: November 02, 2009, 01:23:03 PM

Its global, type in any zone name. The main issue is no one uses it.

I think we see the problem.

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Reply #55 on: November 02, 2009, 01:24:33 PM

Its global, type in any zone name.
Searching by zones manually != global.

And the whole nobody using it thing.
Yegolev
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Reply #56 on: November 03, 2009, 06:59:30 AM

Maybe they need to yank /lff then, force these wowtards to use it.  No, that won't work, but it won't hurt to "relaunch" the tool even if they only make cosmetic changes since it is already awesome(?).  But!  Also make the tool easier to use.  And global (for realz yo).  And show quest chains... somewhere.

Offering to share a quest with my wife is great but if she is already somewhere in the chain then such a thing is useless.  It would be GREAT if I could look at a particular quest and have it show me the chain (as in a list of subquests), or even just filter the quest list by chain name and let me puzzle it out, just anything so we could figure out which quest(s) she or I need to do so that we can both be at the same point in the chain.  I'm all on board with Numtini here, this system can use lots of improvements and it is sad that the fellowshiping system is not on par with the quests themselves.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #57 on: November 03, 2009, 07:30:13 AM

Maybe they need to yank /lff then, force these wowtards to use it.  No, that won't work, but it won't hurt to "relaunch" the tool even if they only make cosmetic changes since it is already awesome(?).  But!  Also make the tool easier to use.  And global (for realz yo).  And show quest chains... somewhere.

Offering to share a quest with my wife is great but if she is already somewhere in the chain then such a thing is useless.  It would be GREAT if I could look at a particular quest and have it show me the chain (as in a list of subquests), or even just filter the quest list by chain name and let me puzzle it out, just anything so we could figure out which quest(s) she or I need to do so that we can both be at the same point in the chain.  I'm all on board with Numtini here, this system can use lots of improvements and it is sad that the fellowshiping system is not on par with the quests themselves.

Isn't the name of the chain on hover listed in the quest window? I thought it was... I could be wrong though. I will look. The system could certainly use an update ala the quest window.

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Yegolev
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Reply #58 on: November 03, 2009, 07:57:56 AM

Yes, there is a name at the top of each individual quest which indicates what chain it is part of.  What we have to do is click on each quest (in the exclusive "complete" and "not complete" lists) and check the title to see if it matches.  Then we have to figure out the starter NPC/item.  If you knew my wife you would know that this is untenable. Ohhhhh, I see.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #59 on: November 05, 2009, 12:28:49 PM

So, apparently warmachines have been added to some skirmishes.




also:



Keep in mind, skirmishes start at 30 - 65.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2009, 12:50:46 PM by Mrbloodworth »

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Modern Angel
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Reply #60 on: November 06, 2009, 08:39:06 AM

See, that's a great example of why I drifted away from LOTRO slowly. They aren't good at the item grind. They keep adding them. Big grinds. Which doesn't mean that I won't get Mirkwood but it does mean that I'm not keen on doing Mirkwood endgame. Another Radiance grind is not my idea of a good time.
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #61 on: November 06, 2009, 08:43:52 AM

See, that's a great example of why I drifted away from LOTRO slowly. They aren't good at the item grind. They keep adding them. Big grinds. Which doesn't mean that I won't get Mirkwood but it does mean that I'm not keen on doing Mirkwood endgame. Another Radiance grind is not my idea of a good time.

Are you saying skirmishes are radiance grinds?

More images:









« Last Edit: November 06, 2009, 08:48:26 AM by Mrbloodworth »

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Nyght
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Reply #62 on: November 06, 2009, 08:46:14 AM

Is it just me or don't all aging games seem to drift toward grinds. Probably due to development costs and efficiencies but whatever, they seem to head that direction.

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Mrbloodworth
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Reply #63 on: November 06, 2009, 08:47:30 AM

Is it just me or don't all aging games seem to drift toward grinds. Probably due to development costs and efficiencies but whatever, they seem to head that direction.

Grind seems to have become synonymous with "Playing the game" in players eyes.

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Modern Angel
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Reply #64 on: November 06, 2009, 09:54:50 AM

No, not saying they're Radiance grinds literally. I'm comparing the potential obnoxiousness of it with the Radiance grind. Although there is going to be another Radiance set with super gear gating again, isn't there?
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #65 on: November 06, 2009, 10:07:59 AM

No, not saying they're Radiance grinds literally. I'm comparing the potential obnoxiousness of it with the Radiance grind. Although there is going to be another Radiance set with super gear gating again, isn't there?

I dont know, but looking at the rewards for skirmishes, it removes quite a number of perceived cockblocks (look at the loot, crafting stuff, armor from other sets (non-rad), class items, fluff items). I'm sure there will be a new set, as its what raiders want. Radiance is only good for raiding.

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Soln
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Reply #66 on: November 06, 2009, 10:14:15 AM

I think LotRO has made some bad decisions lately.  MoM was exciting for most for the first 3-6 months, but then they forgot about the rest of the world and subsequently people now hate Moria since it's a funnel for everyone.  Either you are only running radiance instances or you are stuck outside MoM LFG'ing.  LotRO is unique because of its stories, franchise and many different zones.  The Shire is still for me an incredible bit of design.  But dumping everyone into a pseudo end-game that never quite fits with the canon and ignoring the rest of the world has jaded some people I think.  Mirkwood to me looks just like an other bunch of rad grinds.  Back in May I think there was a community poll by Sapience asking for feedback on the next area to work on -- there was a very large number of people asking for South Downs, an extension for 25-35 for the Shire.  No one really understands the Mirkwood expansion I think.
Mrbloodworth
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Reply #67 on: November 06, 2009, 10:51:42 AM

There is one raid in mirkwood. We also dont know if they are going to open the redhorn pass anytime soon. Not sure how all the revamps, and now, solo option for the books, and skirmishes being back in the over-world and in all cases variations of the zones we love. Is forgetting the outside world.

I feel you though, I'm ready to get out of moria myself, i have no interest in raiding... so i have never chased that carrot. Its why I look forward to SoM.

« Last Edit: November 06, 2009, 11:00:45 AM by Mrbloodworth »

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Mrbloodworth
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Reply #68 on: November 12, 2009, 06:23:33 AM

More images.
























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Mrbloodworth
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Reply #69 on: November 17, 2009, 07:34:12 AM


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