› ›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Quick Links

Advancement System Woes

FalconoffuryFalconoffury Member Posts: 555
in Lord of the Rings Online

Let me start off with the positive. I have been playing LOTRO since open beta, and I'm generally very happy with almost every aspect of the game. My favorite things are the presentation of the world, the storytelling, and the amazing instances. The game has great depth and ambiance that totally sucks me in.

The thing that bothers me the most is the advancement system. The three basic ways I have found to advance my character are by gaining levels, completing deeds, and getting better equipment. My problem is the fact that gaining levels seems to be the only way to noticeably improve my character. I have completed many deeds, and improved my equipped items many times, but rarely did I notice any improvements. The times I noticed an improvement was mostly when I picked up a higher damaging weapons. I noticed that I did a little more damage per swing, but nothing big. Some of the class and race deeds do offer some nice toys to play with. For example, my burglar has the deed, Perplexing Riddle, which turns my riddle skill into a 5 second stun, then 25 second daze, instead of just a 30 second daze. Aside from a few deeds, the vast majority, especially the virtues, have such a small impact, I don't notice the difference.

I know that the leveling template all started with Everquest, and most mmorpgs have followed this formula. I am a long time Asheron's Call player, so this advancement system is new for me. In Asheron's Call, you have skills and levels, but the levels are just a general guide to a character's power. How you built your skills and the gear you have make all the difference in what your character can do. This game is the opposite. The levels determine what I can do, while the gear and stats are a barely noticeable system.

I don't like this advancement system because I feel too guided and limited. It sort of limits the whole exploring feel to the world. In Asheron's Call, I had no idea what to expect from just running the countryside. Whenever I found a new dungeon, I had no idea what I would face inside. In this game, you are gently nudged into the right areas, and you basically figured out the level spreads and the stuff you were supposed to be fighting at your level.

The main problem is simply that we have a system where we are presented with all these wonderful equippable items whether they be from quests, crafting, or random loot yet they seem to do almost nothing for us. We have such cool virtues such as fortitude and determination that affect your strength very little. I'm not impressed by the blue text items or the supposedly high stat numbers. I need to see those numbers in action when I upgrade these things. Right now, the only numbers that really matter are the levels 1-50.

Anyone else out there dislike this advancement system? There have to be some old AC or UO players out there who feel the same.

Comments

  • dragonacedragonace Member UncommonPosts: 1,185

    Originally posted by Falconoffury


    Let me start off with the positive. I have been playing LOTRO since open beta, and I'm generally very happy with almost every aspect of the game. My favorite things are the presentation of the world, the storytelling, and the amazing instances. The game has great depth and ambiance that totally sucks me in.
    The thing that bothers me the most is the advancement system. The three basic ways I have found to advance my character are by gaining levels, completing deeds, and getting better equipment. My problem is the fact that gaining levels seems to be the only way to noticeably improve my character. I have completed many deeds, and improved my equipped items many times, but rarely did I notice any improvements. The times I noticed an improvement was mostly when I picked up a higher damaging weapons. I noticed that I did a little more damage per swing, but nothing big. Some of the class and race deeds do offer some nice toys to play with. For example, my burglar has the deed, Perplexing Riddle, which turns my riddle skill into a 5 second stun, then 25 second daze, instead of just a 30 second daze. Aside from a few deeds, the vast majority, especially the virtues, have such a small impact, I don't notice the difference.
    I know that the leveling template all started with Everquest, and most mmorpgs have followed this formula. I am a long time Asheron's Call player, so this advancement system is new for me. In Asheron's Call, you have skills and levels, but the levels are just a general guide to a character's power. How you built your skills and the gear you have make all the difference in what your character can do. This game is the opposite. The levels determine what I can do, while the gear and stats are a barely noticeable system.
    I don't like this advancement system because I feel too guided and limited. It sort of limits the whole exploring feel to the world. In Asheron's Call, I had no idea what to expect from just running the countryside. Whenever I found a new dungeon, I had no idea what I would face inside. In this game, you are gently nudged into the right areas, and you basically figured out the level spreads and the stuff you were supposed to be fighting at your level.
    The main problem is simply that we have a system where we are presented with all these wonderful equippable items whether they be from quests, crafting, or random loot yet they seem to do almost nothing for us. We have such cool virtues such as fortitude and determination that affect your strength very little. I'm not impressed by the blue text items or the supposedly high stat numbers. I need to see those numbers in action when I upgrade these things. Right now, the only numbers that really matter are the levels 1-50.
    Anyone else out there dislike this advancement system? There have to be some old AC or UO players out there who feel the same.
    At lower levels some of the traits do seem a bit "under-whelming".   You do have to remember though that they all have 10 levels of advancement.  Those same traits that now seem to do little or nothing will in time become a lot more impressive.

    I'm hoping that they continue to expand upon the deed/virtues/traits system.  Since the game is still in it's infancy they have time to wait and see how the growing median levels of the player-base meets their expectations of where a players over-all character traits should be.

    They need to make it so that there are so many possible choices to put in each available slot that the chances of someone having the exact same set of choices is almost nil.  Will they ever do that?  I have no idea.  Could they if they chose to?  I don't see why not.

    Another thing to remember, since we don't have to worry about upgrading skills from one level to another (since they automatically scale with your level) that is going to naturally seem like leveling is giving you a bigger power boost than any other factor.  

Sign In or Register to comment.