LOTRO Patched Client in Cape Town

About the combat in Lotro.

Well you will get enough adrenaline rushes when you get to the Boss instances and some nasty epic battles later.
The starting areas are not that intense at all. I guarantee you will sweat later. Latency is good. You can play the game without problems,
just make sure your PC can handle the Highres graphics and have more than 1GB ram to cut out some loading times.
 
LOTRO is such a great game. It is a shame so few people play this in this country. WOW is not the only GREAT MMO out there.
 
I am on the EU server called "Snowbourne" [aparantly it is the most populated]. So far i've had zero latency issues, not sure whether it's because the game is slower or what, but it's pretty good.

Also i'm still drooling over the graphics and environment and how stable the client is. I cranked my graphics up all the way (and my PC is pretty old) AND turned on the Directx10 with all those shadows...man this game looks amazing. The environments is enough to draw you in, i can feel my explorer-addict turning on...standing on bridges and waterfalls taking screenshots every 2 steps :). Plus it's not instanced, it is those huge landscape and lots of running, i was quite shocked when i examined the map and saw "crap the quest is all the way there?!" and then saw i could zoom out...and zoom out...and zoom out...

I have played Age of Conan, and people will say AoC have the "best graphics" in the MMO industry right now, which might be true, but i never could really put the settings past "medium" and had to turn off shadows and distance. LOTRO have that almost familiar fantasy theme perfected. Example: In the movie , that elven city that sits way up on the side of mountain and cliffs, and in the movie you see the flyby and you'd go "wow" (Rivendell?), well i'm in a similar city and it is really "wow" :). AoC just don't have those kind of scenes and is restricted to "semi-forest,desert and grassland" where LOTRO got a whole lot more going.

I'd also recommend try a few classes at the start, the ones that seem "obviously popular" is not necessarily that great...well not initially. I rolled a hunter (ranged dps) and champion (dual wielding dps) and was not terribly excited with them, now on a Lore-Master (Kinda like a Mage with Pets, still not exactly sure what they're suppose to be, because i have a crow doing some melee dps and flinging fireballs, yet doing more damage with my melee-staff abilities) and enjoying that . A burglar seem to be a typical "stealth backstabbing rogue" , yet the Champion seem to be the "dual wielding melee dps" (usually a rogue do both those things, so not sure)

As for the actual population, i am seeing other players at least. Not alot, but everywhere that's remotely a quest spot i'd see at least 1 or 2 other players.
 
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< Bump > for kind person in Cape Town

btw whats the leveling rate like and the size of the world

*first person to sort be out with updated version gets a cookie*
 
Ituition said:
< Bump > for kind person in Cape Town

btw whats the leveling rate like and the size of the world

*first person to sort be out with updated version gets a cookie*
Click to expand...

Well leveling rate is ok, not the fastest i've seen, but there's more than enough quests so no need to "grind mobs" . Since my last post in this thread and this post, i've leveled 2 characters to 16 (including playing full weekend) . I'd say it's slightly slower than leveling in WoW, but ALOT more immersive. I've literally spent ages riding around "The Shire" just staring at how well they brought the whole place to life, it really feels like being in the movie :).

The world is huge, it is of course Middle Earth in full. Open up a map of Middle Earth and well that would be it. "The Shire" is a zone pretty much the size of WoW's Barrens+Durotar. And everywhere i've been so far the zones are vast and open and if you can see a castle in the distance, you can reach it. (Age of Conan had some "fake backdrops" making the zones look bigger than the really are, LOTRO it is for real..so far anyway).

I'm now basically at the first major city/town [Bree Town] , which is where the Hobbits meet Aragorn the first time (in the prancing pony inn) and admittedly the town is quite active, you see alot of players running around there. All mostly lowbies in the lvl 15-25 range. So it can only get better as i suppose most of the players are lvl 60+ in some other big city (not sure which that would be).

Oh the reason why i mention that, the game "flows" exactly like the movie. The real story is unfolding as you level, so when i reached Bree-Town, i would see a little clip of the hobbits jumping on that ferry with the 9-ringwraiths chasing them. Just awesome actually visiting the ferry and some hobbit telling you "sorry ferry is closed until we're done investigating the evil that tried to pass here, you will have to travel around" .

Either way, i must say i'm really enjoying this MMO and i do consider myself a "jaded-burnt-out MMO player" [played WoW,EQ2,SWG,AoC,Champs,EVE,AO,WAR] . I suggest you get your LOTR movies out and watch them for a refresher course on the details :)
 
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lol stop making me jealous hopefully ill be able to get the client from this weeks OC and thanks guys for all the information on the game cannott wait to try it out.

Oh ye and btw the reward has doubled :P

"first person to find a way to help me with client gets not 1 but 2! cookies" :)
 
I was eyeing this at Canal Walk this week-end, saw it for R65, but I'm afraid it goes the same way as WoW, which is just lying there, unpatched, unused.
 
If i can give anynone wanting to buy this game just a tip, if possible buy the TRIPLE COMPLETE PACK with the 2 expansions [online or wherever, you can also buy directly from Turbine] . I've now literally had to buy Lotro-Vanilla twice (you can upgrade your account to latest expac directly with Turbine, but you basically pay for the full pack). In the end it was cheaper to pay $40 for the "full monty" [vanilla+2 expacs+optional extras] than buying each expac seperately , even though i already had lotro-vanilla. I do however now have 2.5 months free gametime...

I am also pretty sure if you get the 2 expansions on disc you will not need to patch 7GB, because that is what the patching really is..the expansions.

EDIT: If you wamt to buy online: http://store.digitalriver.com/DRHM/...ale=en_US&ThemeID=1244200&productID=169163300
The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™ Complete DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
$29.99

Also contains Full Version of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar and Lord of the Rings Online: Mines Of Moria
Click to expand...

So if you're going to need to copy or download the full client anyway....


--

Since i see Take2 is planning to sell "Some Lotro Edition" for R320 . [March 12th? Huh? The expansion came out last year...but ok..guess the ship is a little slow.

http://www.take2.co.za/games-lord-of-the-rings-online-siege-of-mirkwood-pc-dvd-rom-5830895.html

I'm not sure if that is the "full pack" or "just the expansion", the price is similar to the Turbine price [which is everything] i posted i above....so i'd say if you have no download options, and Take2's version IS the full pack...get that instead. (and if it's R320 for just the expansion, then it's a rip-off , especially knowing you can upgrade you account with one click online...)







The 2 expansions is imho really great to have -from the start- (especially since your client is gonna patch to latest anyway] . Unlike WoW where all the things happens at the level caps, Lotro adds quite a bit for the low levels.

Mines of Moria added 2 new classes [Warden + Runekeeper] and they really are awesome, both of them. You can see they took some ideas of the newer MMOs like Warhammer and AoC [i.e. Warden plays alot like the AoC-combo melee classes and Runekeeper reminds me alot of the Warhammer Archmage with the Healer+DPS "balance" effect] .

Siege of Mirkwood added the Skirmish system, this becomes available to you at lvl 30 already [can prolly reach this in a week or two]. I'll just quote a bit to explain what it is:

http://www.massively.com/2009/12/04/getting-started-with-the-lotro-skirmish-system/
Ok, I got my new friend traited and I want to do a real Skirmish. Uh, how do I do that?

You can join a Skirmish from anywhere in the game (except in PVmP, instances or in combat.) You don't have to be in a Skirmish camp. Just open the Skirmish panel (ctrl + j) wherever you are, select the level of monsters, the level of difficulty, the size of the group and one of the Skirmishes listed. A second window will open confirming your choices and from there you can click TRAVEL and you will be zoned into your Skirmish. When you are done with your Skirmish, you will be transported back to where you were when you joined it. There are Skirmishes designed around going on the offensive, defending an area or simply surviving.

Why do I keep dying in my Skirmish?

First, check your Skirmish settings. Did you accidentally set it to Small Fellowship when you are really soloing it? Also check the level and difficulty settings. After that, think about changing your Soldier to another Role that may work better with your main character. It doesn't cost much to experiment. If you think you are using the best Soldier Role, consider buying higher ranks of that Role from the Skirmish Trainer along with higher ranks of their Skills and Training.

If you're still finding it too difficult, you can always lower the level of the Skirmish so you're a level or two higher than the mobs inside (though you will earn fewer Skirmish Marks).
Click to expand...

So yea, you gain xp and can thus -level- doing these Skirmishes, almost like Warhammer scenarios, except this is PvE/Coop focused.

Anyway , yes you can play a limited form of skirmish without buying the expansion, but if you know you're going to play Lotro for awhile, you'll save alot of money getting the expansions. as part of a package deal.
 
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Well i'm on Snowbourn and aparantly that is the most populated EU server atm. But there's no confirmed stats afaik, alot of saffers seem to on Evernight, not sure what the server size there is though.
 
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