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Lord of the Rings Online: Dev Journal: Solo Play from 1 to 20
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Turbine has posted a new dev journal which examines opportunities for solo play in the first 20 levels of Lord of the Rings Online.
While MMOs are home to thousands of players, there are times when you want to take on the challenge of the Dark Lord Sauron all by yourself. While not every quest is soloable, you’ll find a huge number of quests suitable for a lone hero from the Shire and through the dark heart of the Misty Mountains. This article focuses on levels 1-20, with future articles covering solo play up through 60th level.
Get familiar with the user interface and quick keys, since they become increasingly important as your character advances in level. The more comfortable you become with the various commands and icons representing the skills available for your class, the faster you can play. Speed can help you stay alive when you don’t have a Fellowship backing you up.
When making the decision to adventure alone, it’s most efficient to choose quests from the same area. This allows you complete a large number of quests at once, return to the quest hub, and then move along to the next area as your hero advances in level. You’ll find that many quests hubs tend to lead you toward higher-level areas, and that’s true of both fellowship and solo quests.
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Read more here.
Comments
What I find sad is these are ONLINE RPG's and if you want to solo then go and play a Single Player RPG. Games like Oblivion and Mass Effect do solo play ALOT better than mmorpgs do and they have meaningful stories. The strengths of an mmorpg should be playing with others and whats sad is these days it's not and people want to solo everything.......
Sad times.
The best times I ever had with mmorpgs were in groups playing with other people. Alot of people say "but you can't always find people to play with so you need solo content"...... well really isn't that a design flaw in certain mmorpgs that you can't alwyas find people to play with.
You know EQ2 I can never find people to play with because all the servers are barren. Yet the game is designed so that it can clone the same zone over and over again. So why don't they combine all them servers into one so people can find other people to play? It makes no sense having 20 barren servers when they can just have one really populated one.
Developers just don't get it.
So what if I enjoy participating in a dynamic economy, buying materials, crafting and selling items, participating in OOC chat, or just running into someone in the middle of nowhere that needs help taking down an elite; but as far as questing and exploring, I prefer to do that alone... does that mean I'm not playing with others?
You say go play a solo RPG, but things like I listed above aren't available in a game like that. Not to mention there isn't a solo version of Middle Earth to explore comparable to what LotRO provides.
Edit: spelling.
I dont consider Oblivion nor Mass Effect to be RPG's. RPG died when Sir-tech went bancrupcy with their Wizardry series and SSI with Eye of Beholder... There's hardly anything that would even remotly resembles the enjoyment of playing Lotro no matter if I'm playing alone, or being in a group.
I'm sorry but I don't think you get it.
First off, this has been discussed so many times that it is officially funny.
Secondly, online games offer many things other than just "grouping". As the gentleman above me pointed out, dynamic economy and trading is one of them.
They offer some semblance of a world. And a world to explore in any way that a person wants. Part of playing an online game is also socializing. But there is no rule that says you need to do "x" in order to be socializing correctly.
Playing Oblvion (even though I love it) does not give me this. When I'm in Skingrad it's painfully obvious that I'm alone. Heck, I even downloaded a mod that bulks up the populace as some of these towns were just too barren.
Yet, I'm still alone.
But in an online game I'm playing along with others and I get to choose the level of my involvment each and every time as well as how that involvement manifests itself.
So go ahead and group up all you like. there seem to be others who love doing so as well. This way you can get the satisfaction of doing quests together and I (and others) get the satisfaction of seeing you doing this and making the world more alive.
Besides, I'm also not aware of any real world paradigm that says a person needs to go out and be in a group of friends ALL the time. I seem to notice many people going about their real world lives by themselves and no one points fingers and says that they really aren't part of society because they are not in a party of 6!
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Wheres the fun in playing alone together? Also what dynamic economies and trading? All these new mmorpgs take that side out and just focus on combat and games that have these features like EVE Online force grouping anyways. In WoW all people do is go and solo quests till end level and there is not economy or social side to the game for them. You try to talk to them and they just ignore you and run off.
I just don't get the mmorpg in that game.... might aswel be a poor offline RPG.
Star Wars Galaxies got it right up until people exploited buffs and comp armour so they could solo everything. Each profession needed other professions to play the game so you had to work together and act as a community which was really nice.
Great read, and for the rest of you, stop worrying how others choose to spend their entertainment time, everyone enjoys things differently. Your not hardcore, you’re not skilled, and solo play does not remove the "Social" aspects of MMO's. Get over yourself already.
There are still lots of games that offer no solo play at all, you will find them in the 50k subscriber or less category, created about 10-15 years ago (We all got older, and have lives now) , and I am sure they will welcome you with open arms.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Ok then... do you like this man's music?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAf1g_geJOA
If not then why? Many people are dissapointed in standard music with set key signatures and seek something more challenging. Is it possible for me to convince you to like it? Where is the fun in standard keys and modes that oftentimes move with same old/same old standard modulations to the same old dominant key signatures or to the mediant? Babbit represents the height of complete and ultimate musical organization. Yet It might be hard for me to convince you why it is good by giving you the laundry list of reasons why it is good.
Or this man's music?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0BwwF9cLwM&feature=related
Some eschew the complexity that music can sometimes adopt and prefer listening to music that is more about color and slight changes in texture. Music that is sometimes written by chance. Good? Bad? Is it possible to explain to you why it is considered "good"?
Do you like this painting?
yes? no? Many people got tired of standard classical methodology and sought art that was more abstract or in some cases representational. Where is the fun in Classical norms when I can indulge myself in something that is more interesting. Can I convince you to like this painting if you don't?
If you don't like something then it might not be possible for me to impart to you why others do. I can only prove to you that it is of value because they DO like it.
And as far as the economy is concerned, I seem to remember Lineage 2 having a very dynamic economy for those who took interest (and you sort of had to because of the nature of the game). But if others find someting of value in other types of crafting or trading in other games then it might be hard for them to prove the worth to you other than that they like it.
In the end "it is what it is".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
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I don't know if I agree about EQ2.. I play EQ2 and I run into people constantly no matter where I go. I've never had trouble finding a group. I mean heck I solo all the time and I always am asked to group. Another thing that helps is joining a guild. My guild has tons of people in it and someone is always looking for help with something. The socializing is there so I'm not sure why you call it barren
Some people just like to solo or RP as a lone wolf type player. I enjoy exploring on my own at my own pace. I like grouping too, but when I want to run around and explore something, others might not wish to explore the same things with me, so why should I bore them?
I do think you would like FInal Fantasy XI online. It is a very group intensive game if that's something you're looking for in an MMORPG. You might want to try it, it's another one of my favs
So what if I enjoy participating in a dynamic economy, buying materials, crafting and selling items, participating in OOC chat, or just running into someone in the middle of nowhere that needs help taking down an elite; but as far as questing and exploring, I prefer to do that alone... does that mean I'm not playing with others?
You say go play a solo RPG, but things like I listed above aren't available in a game like that. Not to mention there isn't a solo version of Middle Earth to explore comparable to what LotRO provides.
Edit: spelling.
Well said. I like the *option* to group, but not the neccessity. I also have enjoyed those spontaneous grouping moments that just happen by chance. And sometimes even just soloing, and seeing other players ride by, or watching a group of musicians play to a tiny crowd, or hearing the sound of distant fighting just out of view, or stumbling across a lone player fishing in a stream, makes the world feel 'alive'. Kudus to the designers for supporting a variety of play styles.