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Lord of the Rings Online publicity (poll inside)
eycel
Member Posts: 1,334
All Lord of the Rings Fans gather around for some info! If you havent checked out the addy/url/web Turbine has set up for this title its a must see! Its over at http://lotro.turbine.com/. I sighned up a few days ago and there is so much great information on the forum thats its crucial for any Lord of the Ring fan to check out.
Some previews i came across over at IGN are http://media.pc.ign.com/media/012/012112/vids_1.html. The previews are some what drab but give any Lord of the Ring fan a taste of what the online experience will be. I posted a thread on the link above in teal that there should be a preview with some commentary of this title.
On to the poll! For those that need the definition of a instance to fully understand the poll ill post the meaning. Iv sourced the definition to only the best addy/url/web on the internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
In MMORPGs, an instance dungeon is a special area, typically a dungeon, that generates a new copy, or instance, of the dungeon map for each group that enters the area. This ensures that there will never be competition (kill stealing, spawn camping) over resources such as mobs within the instance and that player characters experience minimum lag. Instance dungeons may contain stronger than usual mobs and rare, sought-after equipment. They also may include level restrictions and/or restrict the number of players allowed in each instance to balance gameplay.
Games that have been known to use instancing include:
- Anarchy Online
- City of Heroes/City of Villains
- Dark Age of Camelot
- EverQuest (instances added in 2003)
- EverQuest 2
- Guild Wars
- Maple Story
- Ragnarok Online
- The Realm Online
- World of Warcraft
Guild Wars uses instancing for every area where monsters must be fought.
One game known for not using instance dungeons is EVE Online. Because of the vast amount of space available in the EVE universe, missions for players are created in real space, which any other player could in theory travel to. This allows multiple players to perform the same mission at the same time (in the same manner as an instanced dungeon) but also allows other players to view or participate in the mission, if they discover the location, or if invited to assist by the player who was initially given the mission.
Several games use instancing to scale the mobs to the players' levels, and/or the number of players present.
On to the Poll!
Comments
Here is some footage Iv dug up for any one that wants to take a look at what exatly goes on during an online castle seige. Here are some links. My favorite is the third one. ftp://ftp.lineage2.com/LineageII_Mpeg4_0325_wm42.zip
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-636281921017812594
http://www.lineage2.com/pds/pds_movie.html
This activity wouldnt have to be implemented right away. This would make for a good content patch for later on after the public has voiced there opinion's about the direction they wana take with it.
I actually have come to like instances. Wouldn't want the whole world to be instanced like DDO is (mostly) but for some individual and groups tests of will and might, they're great.
I'm not sure Middle Earth would support castle seiges. How many castles dotted the lands in the books? What sort of battlefield alternative makes sense with the world?
How much lag is there in open environment areas where large numbers of players fill and fight in an area?
How does it work to scale the mobs to the group attacking? Does the scaling look at and match group size and ability? Or do you just know Castle X has 500 orcs, and 150 of those mixed through the area are elites?
Well I figure adding the castle seige content after the game releases wouldnt be difficult to attempt. I mean turbine could start with some basic stuff and see how it takes off with guilds then move onto more enchancing seige material.
I miss DAoC