Originally posted by admriker4 have any of you actually played LOTR to comment on it ? I did, I got to play it at E3 and let me comment... There is a reason for no mounts in LOTR, the world is too small and would make it even smaller with mounts. Those who say one giant continent make me laugh. The world is like half of one continent in WoW. For those that say the quests in LOTR are complex and innovative...WRONG. The ones I saw were patheticly boring. Go kill 5 wolves, go collect 6 piles of wood, wash rinse an repeat. No thought whatsoever was put into them. The very first quest is decent and makes you feel like your playing in Middle Earth but the rest are very boring. No clever storyline, just mayor so and so needs you to thin the woods out of wolves..councilman so and so needs you to remove some of the robbers from the woods, bleh. None of the quests made me think hey Im playing in Middle Earth after the initial one. Someone mentioned character creation for LOTR being good, sorry but wrong again. I'd say it was one of the worst Ive ever seen for an MMO. It had basically zero new things to it an you end up looking exactly like everyone else. It was basic, choose from 7 noses, choose from 7 mouths, choose from 7 different scars, choose 7 different hair styles, and be muscular or thin or fat. No choices in clothing or clothing colors. No choices really that made you unique looking whatsoever. For a new MMO, I expect a lot more than this. Combat in LOTR is boring. There are specials but I didnt need to use any. The mobs arent very difficult and did fine just as easily with auto-attack as using specials. And specials werent very well thought out. There wasnt any fears, stuns, lockdown moves, etc moves that might actually create strategy. The specials were simplistic varieties of basic attacks. And worst of all, the combat animations are just awful. I quickly got tired of seeing the same 2 basic moves my toon made when he attacked something. Lets face it, most of your game time will be spent in combat so why not make it pleasing to watch. Overall, combat is definitely the weakness of this game and thats very very bad when the combat has little else. Crafting is pointless is LOTR. It was obviously added at the last stages of alpha and isnt very good. Its also not needed as one can just buy anything from npc's or get stuff as rewards for killing 10 bears. Social aspects - this game desperately craves a place to hang out with hobbits and share a pint of ale with. Unfortunately, most of the buildings are closed off. The only buildings you can enter are for quests or to get quests and even then its zoned so you have to wait for loading screen everytime you walk in or out. Most towns have the same look to them...closed buildings just there for decoration...npc trainers for classes, npc vendors selling armor or weapons...and some quest givers. Players run in and out of town turning in boring quest after boring quest and move on. What I saw was just plain sad. LOTR is a flop waiting to happen. It made me want to play DDO, it was that bad. There arent any hobbits singing toons in a tavern. There wasnt any farming like I had read about. There wasnt any reason to group that I saw. The world is very small and you'll run out of places to go quite fast. This is a pathetic use of great license.
Fantastic post, and every word is true...couldn't have said it better.
Vanguard, on the other hand just entered Beta 4 and the word is that everyone is very impressed with the game play and some optimizations Sigil are beginning to implement. All theseprevious haters of Vanguard have been slamming a beta 3 of one of the biggest and most complex game ever created. Vanguard will dominate LOTRO. Really, that's too bad.
Originally posted by admriker4 have any of you actually played LOTR to comment on it ? I did, I got to play it at E3 and let me comment... There is a reason for no mounts in LOTR, the world is too small and would make it even smaller with mounts. Those who say one giant continent make me laugh. The world is like half of one continent in WoW. For those that say the quests in LOTR are complex and innovative...WRONG. The ones I saw were patheticly boring. Go kill 5 wolves, go collect 6 piles of wood, wash rinse an repeat. No thought whatsoever was put into them. The very first quest is decent and makes you feel like your playing in Middle Earth but the rest are very boring. No clever storyline, just mayor so and so needs you to thin the woods out of wolves..councilman so and so needs you to remove some of the robbers from the woods, bleh. None of the quests made me think hey Im playing in Middle Earth after the initial one. Someone mentioned character creation for LOTR being good, sorry but wrong again. I'd say it was one of the worst Ive ever seen for an MMO. It had basically zero new things to it an you end up looking exactly like everyone else. It was basic, choose from 7 noses, choose from 7 mouths, choose from 7 different scars, choose 7 different hair styles, and be muscular or thin or fat. No choices in clothing or clothing colors. No choices really that made you unique looking whatsoever. For a new MMO, I expect a lot more than this. Combat in LOTR is boring. There are specials but I didnt need to use any. The mobs arent very difficult and did fine just as easily with auto-attack as using specials. And specials werent very well thought out. There wasnt any fears, stuns, lockdown moves, etc moves that might actually create strategy. The specials were simplistic varieties of basic attacks. And worst of all, the combat animations are just awful. I quickly got tired of seeing the same 2 basic moves my toon made when he attacked something. Lets face it, most of your game time will be spent in combat so why not make it pleasing to watch. Overall, combat is definitely the weakness of this game and thats very very bad when the combat has little else. Crafting is pointless is LOTR. It was obviously added at the last stages of alpha and isnt very good. Its also not needed as one can just buy anything from npc's or get stuff as rewards for killing 10 bears. Social aspects - this game desperately craves a place to hang out with hobbits and share a pint of ale with. Unfortunately, most of the buildings are closed off. The only buildings you can enter are for quests or to get quests and even then its zoned so you have to wait for loading screen everytime you walk in or out. Most towns have the same look to them...closed buildings just there for decoration...npc trainers for classes, npc vendors selling armor or weapons...and some quest givers. Players run in and out of town turning in boring quest after boring quest and move on. What I saw was just plain sad. LOTR is a flop waiting to happen. It made me want to play DDO, it was that bad. There arent any hobbits singing toons in a tavern. There wasnt any farming like I had read about. There wasnt any reason to group that I saw. The world is very small and you'll run out of places to go quite fast. This is a pathetic use of great license.
Fantastic post, and every word is true...couldn't have said it better.
Vanguard, on the other hand just entered Beta 4 and the word is that everyone is very impressed with the game play and some optimizations Sigil are beginning to implement. All theseprevious haters of Vanguard have been slamming a beta 3 of one of the biggest and most complex game ever created. Vanguard will dominate LOTRO. Really, that's too bad.
this game is scaring the hell out of you vanguard fans isn't it LOL
Fantastic post, and every word is true...couldn't have said it better.
Vanguard, on the other hand just entered Beta 4 and the word is that everyone is very impressed with the game play and some optimizations Sigil are beginning to implement. All theseprevious haters of Vanguard have been slamming a beta 3 of one of the biggest and most complex game ever created. Vanguard will dominate LOTRO. Really, that's too bad.
Unfortunately, Vanguard beta is a mess and most testers are jaded and worried. I think it will be a huge flop. It is the single most boring game I have ever played. The 300 testers online at peak times (with thousands of testers allowed to play) says a lot about the state of the game. As for LOTRO, I don't know enough, but I am sure the name alone will sell quite a few boxes.
Originally posted by BesCirga I can't say this for certain because i haven't tried it yet, but i have tried every other turbine game released. what you (prolly) will experience in Lotro is very well thought through quests with a strong story with fun objectives. no kill X10 quests, or fedex delivery quest.
Try AC1 or DDO, the quests are amazing...
Umm...you haven't played beta have you. The game is a quest theme park and most of the quests are kill x10 and fed ex quests. Now the main story line is good, but that only accounts for a very small percentage of the game.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Originally posted by JK-Kanosi Originally posted by BesCirga I can't say this for certain because i haven't tried it yet, but i have tried every other turbine game released. what you (prolly) will experience in Lotro is very well thought through quests with a strong story with fun objectives. no kill X10 quests, or fedex delivery quest.
Try AC1 or DDO, the quests are amazing...
Umm...you haven't played beta have you. The game is a quest theme park and most of the quests are kill x10 and fed ex quests. Now the main story line is good, but that only accounts for a very small percentage of the game. No you've obviously never played the game. I've been playing it...I've completed 30+ quests and only 3 of them have been kill X, number of, and only 2 have been fedex delivery ones.... I can't say anything for Vanguard, but LOTRO will have one guaranteed subscriber here. The lore is great, the quests are fun, and while there are only 4 races and 7 classes customization can be achieved through equipment, skills, and virtues. It's a great game just don't write it off before you try it.
Originally posted by BesCirga I can't say this for certain because i haven't tried it yet, but i have tried every other turbine game released. what you (prolly) will experience in Lotro is very well thought through quests with a strong story with fun objectives. no kill X10 quests, or fedex delivery quest.
Try AC1 or DDO, the quests are amazing...
Umm...you haven't played beta have you. The game is a quest theme park and most of the quests are kill x10 and fed ex quests. Now the main story line is good, but that only accounts for a very small percentage of the game. No you've obviously never played the game. I've been playing it...I've completed 30+ quests and only 3 of them have been kill X, number of, and only 2 have been fedex delivery ones.... I can't say anything for Vanguard, but LOTRO will have one guaranteed subscriber here. The lore is great, the quests are fun, and while there are only 4 races and 7 classes customization can be achieved through equipment, skills, and virtues. It's a great game just don't write it off before you try it.
I played much more than 30 quests. I did every single one of them, because I liked LOTRO at first and I didn't want to miss one bit. But as I played and as most people soloed and as I realized that the quests were no different from WoW, I grew sad. I no longer plan to buy this game. Now lets talk about LoTR and the classes for LoTRO. There weren't classes in the books. They had of course a wizard and a ranger, but both of those are rare. So here we have made up classes by Turbine, when some of them have no place in the game. Such as the Loremaster. The loremaster has no place in the game, and if you were arguing objectively, you would at least admit that. The other classes shouldn't be there as well. Because a person in the middle earth would shoot a bow if he wanted or would draw a sword or two swords if he wanted. They wouldn't of been restricted by class boundaries, because they don't exist in the middle earth. No, people like me are leaving this game, because it is too much like WoW. It is quest and solo oriented, and only a few classes. They do have a nice community going for them and I'm sure there will be plenty of roleplaying, which I like. But I prefer grinding over questing. I prefer having a wide variety of classes to choose from. And I want the chance to become a hero. In LoTR, there is the Fellowship. They are the hero's of the story, not you. I didn't feel like a hero one bit playing that game. I felt like an accomplice. That is not what I look for in a game. Glad you like it, but to strut around telling people who want an honest opinion that the quests don't include many kill and collect quests, than you are lying.
P.S.- Don't get me wrong, Vanguard will have kill quests too. That's why I am not entirely sure I want to play vanguard either. At least in Vanguard, I imagine people will group. Grouping in LoTRO was like grouping in WoW. People only grouped when they needed to. I'm an old MMORPG gamer and I am used to people grouping because they want to, not only because they need to. People now-days only want to solo and only group if the quest is too hard to solo.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
From what I have heard VG is pretty much like FFXI where you have to solo to make any significant progress. However that game did not go over all that well here in the west and I imagine VG will suffer a similar plight. LoTRO on the other hand has a pretty good mixture of solo/group encounters from what I have been hearing.
From what I have read including from those who broke NDA either to praise or blast, most quests are standard run of the mill style.
As to the storyline quests, I ask this, does your actions effect the story? I guessing you are like a mouse in a maze. Do XYZ and watch a little story movie. How is that kind of quest better?
Classes are all the same. At least from 1 to end game. People have said the talents or whatever they are called are so small that they hardly matter. Now maybe at 50 there is some huge difference, but I've heard nothing about that.
I guess we will just have to wait until open beta to get a real idea about this game.
Im not sure what that other poster is smoking but 99% of the quests in LOTR are basic kill 10 dogs garbage. There is one single quest at the beginning that I saw that was pretty decent and made one feel like okay this is a middle earth game. Otherwise, really terrible quests.
And no, there arent choices in quests either. Unless of course you simply dont want to do them, which honestly isnt a choice as grinding is very slow.
The ORIGINAL LOTR, also called Middle Earth Online then developed by Sierra did indeed have choices. One's actions could lead them to the evil side or good side and later effected how npc's would react to you. Thats what I call a real rpg adventure.
This garbage turbine has developed should be dumped in the toilet and flushed. And I can guarantee you there wont be any open beta. Everyone in beta now (besides the 1% fanbois) knows the game sucks. Turbine will want to keep this game under wraps to avoid pre-prder sales losses.
From what I have heard VG is pretty much like FFXI where you have to solo to make any significant progress. However that game did not go over all that well here in the west and I imagine VG will suffer a similar plight. LoTRO on the other hand has a pretty good mixture of solo/group encounters from what I have been hearing.
Complete opposite. VG focus on group play at lvl 10+
So you will need to group A LOT in VG. Exacly like a MMO should be. after all, it's a multiplayer game.
Well I was going to post this exact question and it seems to have been covered to a degree.
My take on this (having beta'd neither) is that Vanguard has more depth and potential longevity, however I fear for its game engine, everything I've seen of their engine looks clunky and slapped together and making a game that it designed for machines not yet available is always a worry (its what EQII did and only now are machines capable of running it well!).
So what do you go for, something that will eventually be great or something that will be fun in the short term.
I guess that's the reason I've been playing DDO - its fun now, but I know its got a very short lifespan
Currently Playing:GW2 Currently Following:Elder Scrolls Online Games in my wake:Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Asherons Call, Asherons Call 2, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot (SI to Catacombs), DDO, EVE Online, EverQuest II (beta), Guild Wars, Horizons, Lineage II,LORTO, Rift, RF Online (beta), RYL, Saga of Ryzon, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, WAR, WoW
Gotta laugh at all these pro-grouping Vanguard fans. Know what? I'm in Vanguard beta, it SUCKS. The character models look like crap, the game runs like crap (30-40FPS, huge stuttering. Have 2GB of Mushkin). Did you know that half the world is missing mobs? The game is coming out soon, yet its in a pre-alpha stage at best. Hell, when you first start a warrior type character, your worn longsword doesen't even appear! The combat is dull, and then you have god awful forced grouping, where theres absolutely no tools to help you find another player on the same quest your on.
I have to agree that the Vanguard Beta is laggy. No doubt there. However, it is to be expected, as the game is still in beta. As far as the world not being completed. Again, it's in beta. I am sure you noticed the 16GB install on the game. So, I don't think it's a matter of it not being completed, so much as it not being active at the moment. With the people who are leading this project, I highly doubt they will put out an unfinished product. I don't think it's good to make a determination of wheather the game sucks or not at this point. As again.. It's in a beta testing phase.
I've been in VG since beta one, have played or beta tested over 30 MMOG since 2001, still class myself proudly as a 'noob' and I have never posted comments like this about a game in beta before.... but VG Open Beta is awlful, it's nowhere near open beta stage by far, but SoE must be sticking their fingers in the pie (even though its claimed they are not) and rushing this forward regardles, exactly the same as they did EQ2. Why don't they ever learn
A friend got an invite for Euro LotRO beta today, can't wait for his first impressions.
One page two there where 2 really well thought out comparaisons of the game.
I just wanted to update a couple points.
1. Mounts will be in game at launch
2. There are a ton of kill 10x or fed ex quests. but it really depends on where you start your toon. If your a hobbit, you got a ton of fed ex quests to get going. If you start a Race of Man, there are alot of kill 10x quests. Elf or Dwarf there isn't as much of the 10x quests as the men, but more of the 'repair' 'collect' 'recover' type quests.
All that being said, after the initial kill 10x of fed-ex quest, you open up really great quests. The early ones are there basically as a really long (too long) tutorial. If you are a veteran of the MMO world, these will be too long, if you are newer into the MMO genre then these will fly by quickly.
3. Instanced areas. these are done for two huge reasons.
a) to try to slow the farming of elite drops. now this may be a lost cause, but if there is a really high loot table in certain instances IE Carn Dum raid/instance or the Misty Mountains Raid, and they are locked after you enter for a few hrs, or even a few days this would stop 'some' from continuously farming the same areas for loot.
b) If there is a area that is instanced they are done for two additional reasons,
1a. in Vanguard if there is a mob you need for a quest, or for a item, it is a spawn. you may be waiting a while to get it. if there is a lineup, or diplomacy could affect this of course. In LOTRO those mobs or quests will always be available to you.
1b. The high traffic areas in LOTRO are instanced off to provide better performance for those in the surrounding areas. Not including most of the Towns or Cities. Anyone that has a high-low system in Vanguard knows exactly what im talking about here. the lag is terrible. now in LOTRO there is ONE area that is really bad for lag. and everyone knows it. it is a very high traffic area with hundreds or thousands of players in the same area at one time. but the vast majority of the playable area is really smooth for those with mid-low end machines. I started the game with a P4 3.00 MHz 1 Gb ram and a terrible AGP x8 6600 card that still was lag free at med. graphics, except for that 'one' spot. and with that set up it should be able to run on med.
For those that are going to say that the vanguard is in early beta, or beta it will get better. It may, but the bottom line is that LOTRO has gone to great lengths to provide a stable build for a long time for just about every type of rig out there. Vanguard is farther along then LOTRO and it is so far behind in the performance.
Gotta laugh at all these pro-grouping Vanguard fans. Know what? I'm in Vanguard beta, it SUCKS. The character models look like crap, the game runs like crap (30-40FPS, huge stuttering. Have 2GB of Mushkin). Did you know that half the world is missing mobs? The game is coming out soon, yet its in a pre-alpha stage at best. Hell, when you first start a warrior type character, your worn longsword doesen't even appear! The combat is dull, and then you have god awful forced grouping, where theres absolutely no tools to help you find another player on the same quest your on.
Well you obiously havent logged into the game in over week or you are just outright telling lies about the game.
1. 30 - 40 FPS is actually quite good.
2. Mob populations are one of the last things to be sorted out and they are doing so on a regular basis.
3. The newbie sword not appearing in your hand was a bug that last about a week and has been fixed a week ago.
4. You definately didnt play past lvl 10 since the combat is anything but dull....I think most people are scared of having to group with others and how well you play your class is put on display.
5. You can solo through the entire game if you liked but grouping is encournaged and alot more fun...I can see wanting to solo some of the time but isnt the whole attraction of an MMO to interact with other people.
6. There is a new LFG tool and also a LFM tool for groups to use that are looking for more players. Works very well when people use it.
good question... i have been in beta for both since november, and my preference is LOTRO. LOTRO is still under NDA at the moment. I enjoy in game voice.. it is a nice feature to put in games.
shuky
My name is Shuky, I live on the second floor; I live upstairs from you, YEAH I think you've seen me before!
I dont believe you. If you've really betad 30 mmo's then you would know that most mmos are released way to early. also soe has nothing to do with releasing the game early. Sigil have no money left so they have to release. Vg is the 2nd most expensive mmo to date. The did talk about bringingthe game out in summer 2006, then before xmas.
I can't say this for certain because i haven't tried it yet, but i have tried every other turbine game released. what you (prolly) will experience in Lotro is very well thought through quests with a strong story with fun objectives. no kill X10 quests, or fedex delivery quest.
lotr got a crappy account manager (COG from codemaster) who crashes, is laggy, and dont have any support... and vanguard dont , today i must say i m happy i preordered Vanguard instead of LOTRO
Comments
Vanguard, on the other hand just entered Beta 4 and the word is that everyone is very impressed with the game play and some optimizations Sigil are beginning to implement. All theseprevious haters of Vanguard have been slamming a beta 3 of one of the biggest and most complex game ever created. Vanguard will dominate LOTRO. Really, that's too bad.
Vanguard, on the other hand just entered Beta 4 and the word is that everyone is very impressed with the game play and some optimizations Sigil are beginning to implement. All theseprevious haters of Vanguard have been slamming a beta 3 of one of the biggest and most complex game ever created. Vanguard will dominate LOTRO. Really, that's too bad.
this game is scaring the hell out of you vanguard fans isn't it LOL
I miss DAoC
Vanguard, on the other hand just entered Beta 4 and the word is that everyone is very impressed with the game play and some optimizations Sigil are beginning to implement. All theseprevious haters of Vanguard have been slamming a beta 3 of one of the biggest and most complex game ever created. Vanguard will dominate LOTRO. Really, that's too bad.
Unfortunately, Vanguard beta is a mess and most testers are jaded and worried. I think it will be a huge flop. It is the single most boring game I have ever played. The 300 testers online at peak times (with thousands of testers allowed to play) says a lot about the state of the game. As for LOTRO, I don't know enough, but I am sure the name alone will sell quite a few boxes.
Regal
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
No you've obviously never played the game. I've been playing it...I've completed 30+ quests and only 3 of them have been kill X, number of, and only 2 have been fedex delivery ones....
I can't say anything for Vanguard, but LOTRO will have one guaranteed subscriber here. The lore is great, the quests are fun, and while there are only 4 races and 7 classes customization can be achieved through equipment, skills, and virtues. It's a great game just don't write it off before you try it.
No you've obviously never played the game. I've been playing it...I've completed 30+ quests and only 3 of them have been kill X, number of, and only 2 have been fedex delivery ones....
I can't say anything for Vanguard, but LOTRO will have one guaranteed subscriber here. The lore is great, the quests are fun, and while there are only 4 races and 7 classes customization can be achieved through equipment, skills, and virtues. It's a great game just don't write it off before you try it.
I played much more than 30 quests. I did every single one of them, because I liked LOTRO at first and I didn't want to miss one bit. But as I played and as most people soloed and as I realized that the quests were no different from WoW, I grew sad. I no longer plan to buy this game. Now lets talk about LoTR and the classes for LoTRO. There weren't classes in the books. They had of course a wizard and a ranger, but both of those are rare. So here we have made up classes by Turbine, when some of them have no place in the game. Such as the Loremaster. The loremaster has no place in the game, and if you were arguing objectively, you would at least admit that. The other classes shouldn't be there as well. Because a person in the middle earth would shoot a bow if he wanted or would draw a sword or two swords if he wanted. They wouldn't of been restricted by class boundaries, because they don't exist in the middle earth. No, people like me are leaving this game, because it is too much like WoW. It is quest and solo oriented, and only a few classes. They do have a nice community going for them and I'm sure there will be plenty of roleplaying, which I like. But I prefer grinding over questing. I prefer having a wide variety of classes to choose from. And I want the chance to become a hero. In LoTR, there is the Fellowship. They are the hero's of the story, not you. I didn't feel like a hero one bit playing that game. I felt like an accomplice. That is not what I look for in a game. Glad you like it, but to strut around telling people who want an honest opinion that the quests don't include many kill and collect quests, than you are lying.
P.S.- Don't get me wrong, Vanguard will have kill quests too. That's why I am not entirely sure I want to play vanguard either. At least in Vanguard, I imagine people will group. Grouping in LoTRO was like grouping in WoW. People only grouped when they needed to. I'm an old MMORPG gamer and I am used to people grouping because they want to, not only because they need to. People now-days only want to solo and only group if the quest is too hard to solo.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I miss DAoC
praise or blast, most quests are standard run of the mill style.
As to the storyline quests, I ask this, does your actions effect the
story? I guessing you are like a mouse in a maze. Do XYZ and watch a
little story movie. How is that kind of quest better?
Classes are all the same. At least from 1 to end game. People have said
the talents or whatever they are called are so small that they hardly
matter. Now maybe at 50 there is some huge difference, but I've heard
nothing about that.
I guess we will just have to wait until open beta to get a real idea about this game.
Im not sure what that other poster is smoking but 99% of the quests in LOTR are basic kill 10 dogs garbage. There is one single quest at the beginning that I saw that was pretty decent and made one feel like okay this is a middle earth game. Otherwise, really terrible quests.
And no, there arent choices in quests either. Unless of course you simply dont want to do them, which honestly isnt a choice as grinding is very slow.
The ORIGINAL LOTR, also called Middle Earth Online then developed by Sierra did indeed have choices. One's actions could lead them to the evil side or good side and later effected how npc's would react to you. Thats what I call a real rpg adventure.
This garbage turbine has developed should be dumped in the toilet and flushed. And I can guarantee you there wont be any open beta. Everyone in beta now (besides the 1% fanbois) knows the game sucks. Turbine will want to keep this game under wraps to avoid pre-prder sales losses.
So you will need to group A LOT in VG. Exacly like a MMO should be. after all, it's a multiplayer game.
eqnext.wikia.com
My take on this (having beta'd neither) is that Vanguard has more depth and potential longevity, however I fear for its game engine, everything I've seen of their engine looks clunky and slapped together and making a game that it designed for machines not yet available is always a worry (its what EQII did and only now are machines capable of running it well!).
So what do you go for, something that will eventually be great or something that will be fun in the short term.
I guess that's the reason I've been playing DDO - its fun now, but I know its got a very short lifespan
Currently Playing: GW2
Currently Following: Elder Scrolls Online
Games in my wake: Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Asherons Call, Asherons Call 2, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot (SI to Catacombs), DDO, EVE Online, EverQuest II (beta), Guild Wars, Horizons, Lineage II,LORTO, Rift, RF Online (beta), RYL, Saga of Ryzon, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, WAR, WoW
A friend got an invite for Euro LotRO beta today, can't wait for his first impressions.
I just wanted to update a couple points.
1. Mounts will be in game at launch
2. There are a ton of kill 10x or fed ex quests. but it really depends on where you start your toon. If your a hobbit, you got a ton of fed ex quests to get going. If you start a Race of Man, there are alot of kill 10x quests. Elf or Dwarf there isn't as much of the 10x quests as the men, but more of the 'repair' 'collect' 'recover' type quests.
All that being said, after the initial kill 10x of fed-ex quest, you open up really great quests. The early ones are there basically as a really long (too long) tutorial. If you are a veteran of the MMO world, these will be too long, if you are newer into the MMO genre then these will fly by quickly.
3. Instanced areas. these are done for two huge reasons.
a) to try to slow the farming of elite drops. now this may be a lost cause, but if there is a really high loot table in certain instances IE Carn Dum raid/instance or the Misty Mountains Raid, and they are locked after you enter for a few hrs, or even a few days this would stop 'some' from continuously farming the same areas for loot.
b) If there is a area that is instanced they are done for two additional reasons,
1a. in Vanguard if there is a mob you need for a quest, or for a item, it is a spawn. you may be waiting a while to get it. if there is a lineup, or diplomacy could affect this of course. In LOTRO those mobs or quests will always be available to you.
1b. The high traffic areas in LOTRO are instanced off to provide better performance for those in the surrounding areas. Not including most of the Towns or Cities. Anyone that has a high-low system in Vanguard knows exactly what im talking about here. the lag is terrible. now in LOTRO there is ONE area that is really bad for lag. and everyone knows it. it is a very high traffic area with hundreds or thousands of players in the same area at one time. but the vast majority of the playable area is really smooth for those with mid-low end machines. I started the game with a P4 3.00 MHz 1 Gb ram and a terrible AGP x8 6600 card that still was lag free at med. graphics, except for that 'one' spot. and with that set up it should be able to run on med.
For those that are going to say that the vanguard is in early beta, or beta it will get better. It may, but the bottom line is that LOTRO has gone to great lengths to provide a stable build for a long time for just about every type of rig out there. Vanguard is farther along then LOTRO and it is so far behind in the performance.
Well you obiously havent logged into the game in over week or you are just outright telling lies about the game.
1. 30 - 40 FPS is actually quite good.
2. Mob populations are one of the last things to be sorted out and they are doing so on a regular basis.
3. The newbie sword not appearing in your hand was a bug that last about a week and has been fixed a week ago.
4. You definately didnt play past lvl 10 since the combat is anything but dull....I think most people are scared of having to group with others and how well you play your class is put on display.
5. You can solo through the entire game if you liked but grouping is encournaged and alot more fun...I can see wanting to solo some of the time but isnt the whole attraction of an MMO to interact with other people.
6. There is a new LFG tool and also a LFM tool for groups to use that are looking for more players. Works very well when people use it.
Get Your facts straight before you post.
Oops did I stumble into a Vanguard discussion board?
I thought I was gona find Info about Lord of the Rings here.
My misstake.
Yamoto Ronin of AC1 / HG
Thrag Skinnknutte/Brum Skogstokig of DAoC / Percival / HF
Crouching Lemur of FFXI
good question... i have been in beta for both since november, and my preference is LOTRO. LOTRO is still under NDA at the moment. I enjoy in game voice.. it is a nice feature to put in games.
shuky
My name is Shuky,
I live on the second floor;
I live upstairs from you,
YEAH I think you've seen me before!
Next question?
How do you kill that which has no life?