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It feels like deja-vu all over again...

IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
in Lord of the Rings Online

I've been away for a long, long time...since just after Moria. And no, I'm not a "lifer" so I'm back as a "Premium" just re-acquainting myself with the game. Rolled a new human Loremaster since that is the class I know best... 

 

The good:

The community on this game has always been a cut above the rest... it still is. Helpful people with a minimum amount of chat trolling.

It feels like putting on a favorite old pair of beat-up jeans.

 

The different:

it feels much easier than it used to be... at least judging by that "elite" spider in the basement of the old farm... I remember dying to it with several different classes. Soloing it at level 6 used to be touch and go. Last night me and my bear (did we always get the bear so early? I've forgotten but I thought he came a bit later) made short work of him without breaking a sweat... did the whole game difficulty get adjusted down when it went F2P?

 

The bad: 

EDIT: never mind.... the crash issues I was having were resolved by updating to the newest AMD beta Catalyst driver.

 

 

"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

― Umberto Eco

“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” 
― CD PROJEKT RED

Comments

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,812
    Originally posted by Iselin

    Oh well, have fun if it works for you.

    I don't really have those problems. No crashes at all.

    Still, I would agree that one doesn't die enough in this game. I've started soloing 6 man instances but on a lower level than my character, just to make it a bit challenging.

    Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb." 

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  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    I probably shouldn't say this because I just know I'm going to jinx myself... I've now been playing for 2 hours straight without crashes :)
    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

    ― Umberto Eco

    “Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” 
    ― CD PROJEKT RED

  • WarlyxWarlyx Member EpicPosts: 3,367

    the gamed used to play badly for me on max settings (DX11) , but i gave it a go , this days (checking new traits) , and the game runs smooth now , dunno if Turbine polished the game more , 0 CTD , only some fps drops here and there (nothing major i may say)

     

  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    Originally posted by Torvaldr

     

    Right! The raven. How could I forget the noisy little bugger :)

     

    And yeah, I have it on an SSD as well. Performance is not an issue except for those weird crashes.

     

    The only unusual thing in my system is my MMO 7 mouse. It works well with everything else but maybe LOTRO has issues with it... at least my no-crash game play today was using the mouse in plain mode (i.e. no button key mapping.) I hope that's not it or if it is, I can find a fix. Playing without my usual 1-0 keymap on the mouse feels weird.

    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

    ― Umberto Eco

    “Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” 
    ― CD PROJEKT RED

  • RebelScum99RebelScum99 Member Posts: 1,090
    Originally posted by Iselin

     

     The different:

    it feels much easier than it used to be... at least judging by that "elite" spider in the basement of the old farm... I remember dying to it with several different classes. Soloing it at level 6 used to be touch and go. Last night me and my bear (did we always get the bear so early? I've forgotten but I thought he came a bit later) made short work of him without breaking a sweat... did the whole game difficulty get adjusted down when it went F2P?

     

    Yeah, it's definitely much, much easier now.  This isn't a phenomenon unique to LOTRO, either.  Most games tend to get dumbed down through the years as the player base thins out or becomes top-heavy with endgame characters.  If you remember playing before Moria, it was impossible to actually complete the epic quest line without grouping up for heroic quests.  Most of the chapters in every zone had at least one quest that you absolutely NEEDED to do in a group to have any chance of completing.  As a result, those books never got complete without teaming up with others.  

    Nowadays, I don't think there is a single quest in the game that requires a group to complete.  At least not in the epic storyline. Those quests previously designated as group quests now have the option of being done solo, and you are given a buff that boosts up all your stats to god-mode.  Unfortunately, now completing the books is so ho-hum that it doesn't feel like you did anything important.  There used to be a feeling of accomplishment while completing those.  

    Happens in nearly all themepark games at some point.  I remember a time in Vanilla WoW that there used to be quests that required a RAID to complete!  Not a group---a freakin' raid.  

    Sigh.  I miss those days.

  • Lord.BachusLord.Bachus Member RarePosts: 9,686

    I play on 4 different pcs and no hardware issues at all. ( even on mac)

     

    sounds like a driver issue to me...

    Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)

  • ThenextbigthingThenextbigthing Member Posts: 104
    Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

    I play on 4 different pcs and no hardware issues at all. ( even on mac)

     

    sounds like a driver issue to me...

     

     

    I agree, no problems for me either. In fact I was surprised how smooth it was in Edoras last night with loads of people running around outside the Golden Hall. No lag. Considering most people are probably in West Rohan at the moment it's coping pretty well. Did a few warbands in West Rohan with several people and no probs.

  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

    I play on 4 different pcs and no hardware issues at all. ( even on mac)

     

    sounds like a driver issue to me...

    Yeah must have been. Switched to the latest beta Catalyst driver (13.11) and all the crashes disappeared... I'm a happy camper now.

     

    I'll edit my OP.

    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

    ― Umberto Eco

    “Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” 
    ― CD PROJEKT RED

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by RebelScum99
    Originally posted by Iselin

     did the whole game difficulty get adjusted down when it went F2P?

    Yeah, it's definitely much, much easier now.  This isn't a phenomenon unique to LOTRO, either.  Most games tend to get dumbed down through the years as the player base thins out or becomes top-heavy with endgame characters.  

    ....

    Those quests previously designated as group quests now have the option of being done solo, and you are given a buff that boosts up all your stats to god-mode.

    On a (slight) defence of Turbine, those quest haven't changed and still designated (and encouraged) to play as a group, IG is only an option. And it's definitely not god-mode, some of those quests are still extremely tough to solo with some classes. Or at least was tough, before HD.

     

    I fully agree with the rest, especially now, after HD. Spent the last few days dabbling with it, asking others, etc. and while it's usually a joyful thing to say "told you so", I'm not happy that we were right with the dumbing down issue. Strangely there's a concensus now, even the former fanbois are agreeing with it, from the other way around. (I mean there are a group with the opinion of "it was dumbed down" and there's the other group of "I love my boosted skills, I'm so OP now", which are basically the two sides ot the very same coin)

    As someone posted on the lotro forum, it's so dumbed down now it seems like a game for 12 years old kids. I tried my guard first, wow. Just wow :) his keen blade was like a champion on steroids... and when I switched to defender, while the kill speed slowed down a bit, in return he became a god. Remember that sad guardian video from HD beta? It's almost as bad, if there's no signature in the pack the mobs can barely scratch me.

    There's almost no point of "combat" since it became so easy. True, I never cared about it, I love the story more, but never had the problem of having some combat during the stories. However, with these changes, I don't really understand why the hassle of the occasional button-pushing in the first place? Simply tune it down a bit more, so the mobs get an instant heart-attack when we get close to them :)

    (just kidding ofc. But actually it wouldn't be a big change from the present -lame- state anyway...) 

  • Lord.BachusLord.Bachus Member RarePosts: 9,686
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by RebelScum99
    Originally posted by Iselin

     did the whole game difficulty get adjusted down when it went F2P?

    Yeah, it's definitely much, much easier now.  This isn't a phenomenon unique to LOTRO, either.  Most games tend to get dumbed down through the years as the player base thins out or becomes top-heavy with endgame characters.  

    ....

    Those quests previously designated as group quests now have the option of being done solo, and you are given a buff that boosts up all your stats to god-mode.

    On a (slight) defence of Turbine, those quest haven't changed and still designated (and encouraged) to play as a group, IG is only an option. And it's definitely not god-mode, some of those quests are still extremely tough to solo with some classes. Or at least was tough, before HD.

     

    I fully agree with the rest, especially now, after HD. Spent the last few days dabbling with it, asking others, etc. and while it's usually a joyful thing to say "told you so", I'm not happy that we were right with the dumbing down issue. Strangely there's a concensus now, even the former fanbois are agreeing with it, from the other way around. (I mean there are a group with the opinion of "it was dumbed down" and there's the other group of "I love my boosted skills, I'm so OP now", which are basically the two sides ot the very same coin)

    As someone posted on the lotro forum, it's so dumbed down now it seems like a game for 12 years old kids. I tried my guard first, wow. Just wow :) his keen blade was like a champion on steroids... and when I switched to defender, while the kill speed slowed down a bit, in return he became a god. Remember that sad guardian video from HD beta? It's almost as bad, if there's no signature in the pack the mobs can barely scratch me.

    There's almost no point of "combat" since it became so easy. True, I never cared about it, I love the story more, but never had the problem of having some combat during the stories. However, with these changes, I don't really understand why the hassle of the occasional button-pushing in the first place? Simply tune it down a bit more, so the mobs get an instant heart-attack when we get close to them :)

    (just kidding ofc. But actually it wouldn't be a big change from the present -lame- state anyway...) 

    its very class dependent how this patch plays out.... where Guardian is the OP class, Wardens have lost lots of its appeal. There needs a lot of ballancing to be done for sure, and if they ballance the weaker classes to become stronger, difficulty drops even further..

    if they nurf the stronger classes, they will be whining..

    And where they took the flexibillity away from Wardens, no more switching btween dps and defensive stances, they did not take away the stances from Minstrells, a healing minstrell can still switch to warsong and with a few points invested in it still be very strong in it.

     

     

    Best thing is to ballance all the classes and then make Mobs stronger too... and if they are ballancing that, they should add level scaling to all content, making all those old quests zones and dungeons challenging and attractive again..

     

    Just add new loot tables, and a good ballancing algorythm and you have the perfect game again.

     

     

    Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)

  • SetzerSetzer Member UncommonPosts: 261
    Originally posted by Iselin

    The different:

    it feels much easier than it used to be... at least judging by that "elite" spider in the basement of the old farm... I remember dying to it with several different classes. Soloing it at level 6 used to be touch and go. Last night me and my bear (did we always get the bear so early? I've forgotten but I thought he came a bit later) made short work of him without breaking a sweat... did the whole game difficulty get adjusted down when it went F2P?

     

     

    Yes, the game is easy mode now.  Really sad the direction they took with the game since it went F2P.  I remember that elite spider you were talking about and I remember dying when trying to take him solo...actually needed help of another to take him down.  Also remember going out to the Barrow-Downs for the first time and having trouble finishing that one escort quest for that little girl.  Had to group up with a few others to complete it.  Same for that wandering elite skeleton that you would sometimes encounter while questing there. It was these kind of encounters that made the game memorable for me and sadly Turbine is trying to make their game like every other MMO out there and cater to a more casual friendly audience.

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