| | | Author | Message |
|---|
DLeverett
| | #1 posted April 4, 2007 at 5:59pm (EDT) |
Hey, I've seen folks talking about this game and the closed beta, but now that it's open beta (at least for those of us with pre-orders) is anyone playing? I'm enjoying it so far, I have a level 11 Minstrel on the Brandywine server. I'm considering re-rolling on another server, however because Brandywine is full very often and I wonder what the wait is going to be when all the open beta players join in a couple of days.
Oh, and Shags, what has happened with the Vanguard guide book you were working on?? It seems to have dropped off the list on Prima's website. | sgtshaggy
  
 
| | #2 posted April 4, 2007 at 8:15pm (EDT) |
My part of the guide is finished. The guide was preempted by an early release. I also worked on the LOTRO guide(s)  . I enjoyed the game, but I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it yet or not--I'm kinda on the fence. WoW is keeping me busy again, and I have Vanguard in the wings haunting me, so I'm not sure I'd play much LOTRO--the beta was fun, though. I loved playing a hobbit .
shags
"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - Charles de Gaulle | DLeverett
| | #3 posted April 6, 2007 at 6:40pm (EDT) |
I just started my hobbit. Very fun so far. I'm getting the game as I'm thoroughly burnt on WoW at the moment and while Vanguard looked very good, the system requirements are obscene and that will likely keep me from looking at it any further (atleast until my next computer upgrade, which could happen late this year). I haven't capped any one single toon yet, but getting close on my minstrel, but I really like the fact that the instances are short. Now I know that could and likely will change later in the game but one of the things that I hate about WoW is that I don't often have 3+ hours to sit down and run an instance. Now I will give Blizz come credit on reducing the length instances in BC, but you gotta get a toon to around 60 to get to Outland and a casual player like myself will be seriously undergeared until they get there. BC is great tho, with the shorter instances and the great items given out as quest rewards and drops. I just can't see myself leveling more toons up high enough to get there.
So the Vanguard guide was simply cancelled because the game was released early? That seems like a huge waste, but what do I know about game guide publishing! haha. I'll look for ya in the LOTRO guide credits!
Dale
| sgtshaggy
| | #4 posted April 6, 2007 at 8:50pm (EDT) |
Nah, the Vanguard guide wasn't cancelled, there just wasn't enough time to get it done before the game dropped, since Vanguard was pushed out the door early. My part on the guide is finished, so it shouldn't be long at all.
I've actually experienced a bit of a revival in WoW. The wife ane I have been gone for a while, but have recently gotten back to it with a new duo and the Outlands stuffs (which is amazingly fun and casual friendly). We're having more fun with WoW than we have in a loooong time. It's good to see old friends .
I did the minstrel guide for the LOTRO guide (go Chisk!). It's a great class. Fun game, and I've thought about the lifetime sub, I just don't know how much I'll play it. I'll have to decide soon, I do have it reserved...
shags
"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - Charles de Gaulle | Avro
  
| | #5 posted April 16, 2007 at 12:40pm (EDT) |
Gear has nothing to do with BC. You run some quests, and BAM. Upgrades come quick. My mage upgraded some of it's tier 1 at 62... the hunter has replaced tier 2 at lvl 64.... would be more if I decided to run more instnaces.
World of Warcraft! Check it out. | sgtshaggy
| | #6 posted April 16, 2007 at 1:23pm (EDT) |
Gear has everything to do with WoW; gear has everything to do with BC. But yah, you'll upgrade your pitiful pre-60 stuffs in no time. I only have two pieces left on Rift at 63. The quests are amazing fun. Rift is almost 64 and still in Hellfire (been helpin' peeps instead of running quests half the time), and K is only 61, but there are just so many fun quests, it doesn't seem like a grind at all. Wife and I are headed to Zangarmarsh soon, we're down to just a handful of Hellfire questies on Rift and Frazzle.
shags
"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - Charles de Gaulle | virtuadept
| | #7 posted April 20, 2007 at 9:13pm (EDT) |
I have been trying to get the beta but last time I tried i downloaded 4gb to find out the zip file was corrupted.
 | sgtshaggy
| | #8 posted April 21, 2007 at 12:24am (EDT) |
I have a helluva time with their downloads too  .
shags
"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - Charles de Gaulle | virtuadept
| | #9 posted April 22, 2007 at 10:27pm (EDT) |
I gave up on it. I'm having so much fun in WoW right now anyway there's no way I'd switch.
-=- VirtuAdept -=-
Join in on the backup Xbox 360 Discussion forum! | Avro
| | #10 posted May 1, 2007 at 4:22pm (EDT) |
I supose I should have reworded a frew things. 
But As far as gear goes, on the hunter anyway, I have not seen alot of upgrades. I find that alot of lvl 70's are using there tier 2 and 3 alot on BC, and keeping it until they get there tier 4. The one thing that will be upgraded more then anything really is your weapon's, Rings, Neck, and Trinks more than anyother piece of armor.... My Mage's +dmg gear at 62 is not that far off lvl 70 mages... hell if I replaced my Mage Blade I would really not be all that far off.
World of Warcraft! Check it out. | sgtshaggy
| | #11 posted May 1, 2007 at 6:32pm (EDT) |
I can't wait to get my hunter into the Outlands. Parked her at 49 last night for some PvP, but I'm only sticking around for the 30 Warsong and 30 AB tokens for my mount, then I'm moving on .
shags
"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - Charles de Gaulle | thatonedude
(offensive)
| | #12 posted May 26, 2007 at 12:41pm (EDT) |
I've picked this game up a few days after launch, wasn't savvy enough to remember to try for beta. I'm having a good time with it so far, made myself a Hobbit Burglar and named him Burglecut in honor of Burglecut from the movie 'Willow'. I get a ton of tells about peeps liking my name, heh. So far I'm lvl 22 and at the 'Weathertop' section in the Lonelands. I've completed all of the Shire and Bree-land (save a couple lvl 24 quests) and the lands aren't really looking much different. A little dissapointing, anyone played beyond this know if the later lands are much different. I can't bring myself to go look at screenshots. I was a bit dissapointed with 'The Old Forest' in Bree-Land and the game isn't feeling as fluid as WoW, it was a Guild Wars type feel to the mechanics.
The realism in the graphics is a nice change, though my computer can't handle anything above the medium setting. Stuck with a P4 2.53ghz with a gig of ram and a 8x AGP ATI Radeon 9800pro 128MB card that can only run at 4X on my motherboard. I seriously need to upgrade, but I can't bring myself to spend the $$$ just to play games at higher quality. I'm gonna have to wait it out another year at least. WoW ican run at mostly highest settings and I actually dig the cartoony look of WoW it is very fitting for that game. I see ALOT of people smashing WoW in LotRO chat and I'm just sitting there thinking, I kinda prefer WoW over this... but this is new and I'll see where it goes for a bit.
Anyways, anyone else here playing this? What server? I'm on Arkenstone. | sgtshaggy
| | #13 posted May 26, 2007 at 12:44pm (EDT) |
There's a TON of WoW bashing in every MMO, it seems. I've seen it in VG, LOTRO (beta) and EQ2 to no end. Some peeps have valid complaints with WoW, but most are just blindly bashing it because it's too kiddy, etc. Nevetheless, I suppose it's hard to avoid since WoW is the big dawg nowadays.
I haven't picked up LOTRO yet, but I hear the launch went well. How are the servers, populations, etc.?
shags
“If it weren't for these damned neural implants you'd be a smoking crater by now! - Terran Marine | thatonedude
(offensive)
| | #14 posted May 26, 2007 at 12:56pm (EDT) |
I don't know if it is my computer or server lag, but the town of Bree is real bad for me. I'm talking 20 sec delays between animations, I switch to lower settings just for Bree. It's probably my aging computer. Arkenstone wasn't a beta server and it's already got wait times (usually less than 3 min), not to bad. | sgtshaggy
| | #15 posted May 26, 2007 at 1:04pm (EDT) |
Eek, wait times already? I hate queues .
Bree was tough on the hardware during beta too, as I recall.
shags
“If it weren't for these damned neural implants you'd be a smoking crater by now! - Terran Marine | DLeverett
| #16 posted May 28, 2007 at 10:06am (EDT)
edited May 28, 2007 at 7:31pm (EDT) |
I did purchase the game and am currently playing 4 toons on the Vilya server, but my highest level so far is 20, so I cannot help on what the higher level areas look like.
As far as queues, during the open beta I started a minstrel character on Brandywine, but only advanced into the low teens levels before the launch (which did go VERY smoothly, and is a nice accomplishment for Turbine). When there started to be queues on Brandywine, I decided to abandon my poor minstrel there and start on a new lower population server and have not had that problem since, so no regrets on the move. I'm assuming that since they let people carry over their characters from beta, that the beta servers are going to be more populated and hence the queues...but they really should work that out as there's nothing worse than having a few free moments to log-on and play and being stuck in a queue.
I'm enjoying the game very much at the moment, and having played WoW for the last two + years it's nice for a complete change. In fact, I haven't touched my WoW characters in about a month. I have always liked the War 3/WoW graphical style and they run well on my computer. I find the LOTRO graphics to be very nice, but performance is an issue (although not nearly as bad as Vanguard), especially in Bree.
As far as game mechanics, it's really very similar to WoW in my opinion but I can see where it's not quite as 'fluid' and polished. I tried Guild Wars and it didn't do anything for me so I can't make any comparisons there (and wouldn't want to as I did not enjoy it). Bree-Land/Old Forest/Barrows has gotten old for me as I have a couple of toons there now, and visions of the Barrens and Stranglethorn are starting to float in my head when I think of it! LOL! But thankfully, my level 20 can move on to Lonelands or elsewhere. Leveling seems quite a bit tougher than in WoW, which isn't a bad thing since the cap is currently set at 50. But that fact made me realize that I really needed to play two or more characters to ensure that I get rested experience, so it's going to be a while before I'm capped but that's completely OK by me!
Overall, I'm hooked on it and barring something unforseen, it will be replacing WoW for me. I'm sure I'll revisit WoW at some point and maybe get a second character up to level 70, but I'm really enjoying the change of scenery.
| sgtshaggy
| | #17 posted May 28, 2007 at 7:18pm (EDT) |
Great overview of LOTRO! Yours is pretty much my opinion of LOTR, minus having played it once it went live. I don't like it enough to cal it my main squeeze, but I'm sure I'll pick it up one day soon to play again. It's a good game.
shags
“If it weren't for these damned neural implants you'd be a smoking crater by now! - Terran Marine | DLeverett
| | #18 posted May 28, 2007 at 7:32pm (EDT) |
Look me up when you do! | sgtshaggy
| | #19 posted May 29, 2007 at 7:04am (EDT) |
Will do .
shags
“If it weren't for these damned neural implants you'd be a smoking crater by now! - Terran Marine | sgtshaggy
| | #20 posted September 6, 2007 at 12:38pm (EDT) |
Are you still playing, Dale? I picked up the SE today for 30 bucks, and I'm in the market for a server .
shags
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. - Douglas Adams | DLeverett
| | #21 posted September 7, 2007 at 12:18am (EDT) |
Indeed I am....or I will be when I get my computer fixed anyway! I'm on my laptop now and it just wasn't designed with gaming in mind at all. Vilya server, Sarno and Stanric are my two mains. I took inspiration from your contribution to the game guide and am playing a Minstrel. Having played a priest in WoW up to level 70, I guess I have a thing for healers! I can offer 'founders pricing' to up to 10 people (meaning that you get game sub for 10 bucks a month or a lifetime sub for $200), so let me know if that's an option you want to look into. Sorry for the slow reply, but with the desktop down for the count, my computer time is severely limited. | sgtshaggy
| | #22 posted September 7, 2007 at 8:51am (EDT) |
I installed it and logged on to my DDO account to add my LOTRO account last night and discovered that I have a VIP account, and it reads "Free of Charge". I'm guessing it's from working on the guide, no clue really, no one told me, but I was happy--and somewhat embarassed, after buying the full game--to discover I could have been playing it for free all along. I'm not sure how long it'll last, but hopefully forever . Nevertheless, the wife quickly laid claim to my retail key, and she's going to install tonight. Do you mind if I give her the Founder's pricing? (I wish all MMOs did the $200 thang, nice idea.)
Anyway, I made four toons last night, but I only managed to play one of them to level 4.
Drezl - 4 Dorf Guardian
Chisk - Hobbit Minstrel
Venomia - Elven Lore-master
Arete - Captain
Not sure which toon I'll roll with as a main. I'll probably fire up a Hunter at some point too. Since you seem to dig healing, I may just roll with the Guardian .
Lookin' forward to seein' you in-game!
shags
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo | DLeverett
| #23 posted September 7, 2007 at 10:09am (EDT)
edited September 7, 2007 at 10:21am (EDT) |
Awesome! Nothing beats some free MMO-age, lol! But yeah, feel free to pass along the founder's pricing to the wife. The more the merrier! As far as your main toon goes, if a minstrel is what you enjoy you should do it. Trust me, healers in this game seem harder to come by than in WoW (I can't tell you how many times I've been playing my captain and have to log onto my minstrel so that the group I'm in can keep going). I've also got a hunter and loremaster but haven't played them much. I'll let ya know when I get back online and will certainly add your toons to my friends list.
Any other GameTZ users out there that want to try the game, they're offering a free trial at http://www.lotro.com Check it out!
| sgtshaggy
| | #24 posted September 7, 2007 at 12:45pm (EDT) |
Sweet! She'll be stoked to pay a good bit less for LOTRO. She never tried it during beta, although she's always wanted to; I have a feeling she's gonna love it, once she gets started.
I doubt I'll make a minstrel my main. I'm actually quite curious to check out the Captain (never played one much during beta); they sound really neat. I had a blast with my Guardian last night too. I'll just play em all, lol.
Definitely drop me a line when you're back online .
shags
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo | Hobbes
| | #25 posted September 10, 2007 at 9:09pm (EDT) |
I'm installing it now, is there a specific server to be on like wow? | DLeverett
| | #26 posted September 11, 2007 at 9:11am (EDT) |
Yes there are several servers. Vilya is where we are at. Cya in game when I get my desktop back up and running! | Hobbes
| | #27 posted September 11, 2007 at 12:54pm (EDT) |
Vilya it is! | sgtshaggy
| | #28 posted September 11, 2007 at 8:45pm (EDT) |
Got me dorf up to 9, takin' it slow (my 69 WoW huntress has rediscovered PvP after 20 long levels without doing any, lol). Drezl by name, he's the one I'm gonna stick with methinks. A friend from my WoW guild is playing on that server too, 13 burglar named Vederic, give him a shout out .
shags
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo | DLeverett
| | #29 posted September 12, 2007 at 8:01am (EDT) |
Nice! I'll add him to my friends list. I should be getting my new computer components from Newegg.com today (atleast I'm crossing my fingers that I do!) so hopefully I'll be back up and running soon. | virtuadept
| | #30 posted November 5, 2007 at 5:38pm (EDT) |
i like this game quite a bit. delayed reaction.
| sgtshaggy
| | #31 posted November 5, 2007 at 6:50pm (EDT) |
It's an excellent MMO  . I fired it up for the first time in a whiles last night, made an elven huntress .
shags
 | virtuadept
| | #32 posted November 5, 2007 at 9:30pm (EDT) |
wat serva? i'm on brandywine
| sgtshaggy
| | #33 posted November 6, 2007 at 6:54pm (EDT) |
I'm on Xilya, or something like that. I have a minstrel on Brandywine from the beta (Chisk) I believe--I haven't checked, but I'm assuming he's still there.
shags
| virtuadept
| | #34 posted November 7, 2007 at 12:12am (EDT) |
i gots 2 toons on brandywine, they are both level 8, and i wouldn't mind switching servers except for the fact that i got a friend who is playing with me on that server also.
| sgtshaggy
| | #35 posted November 7, 2007 at 3:34pm (EDT) |
What are the name of your toons? I'll add them to my friend's list, maybe start a toon on Brandywine other than my old beta toon.
shags
| virtuadept
| | #36 posted November 7, 2007 at 4:03pm (EDT) |
Krystin - hobbit burglar
Cynimon - human hunter (kind of abandoned for now)
if you want to play together sometime send me a email or sometimng , i unfortunat,ey will be gone this weekend tho
Visit virtuadept's RPG forum! or virtuadept's blog! | sgtshaggy
| | #37 posted November 7, 2007 at 4:14pm (EDT) |
Hmm, I'm on now (fired up a humie named Venomia), but I can't add Krystin for some reason. Cynimon I've added, though .
shags
| virtuadept
| | #38 posted November 7, 2007 at 4:20pm (EDT) |
it might be Kyrstin. i am not at my home pc to check. if you make it to level 7-8 ish we can group later today if you want
| sgtshaggy
| | #39 posted November 8, 2007 at 4:10pm (EDT) |
Happy Birthday .
shags
| virtuadept
| | #40 posted November 9, 2007 at 10:15am (EDT) |
thanks going to be gone a few days
Visit virtuadept's RPG forum! or virtuadept's blog! | | |
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