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Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)

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Purple Gargoyle
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Posted: Wed 26 Sep , 2007 7:22 pm
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The only screenshot I saved from my time in Middle Earth - this is a shocker folks - Gandalf is gay. Straight from the hobbit's mouth.

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Alatar
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Posted: Wed 03 Oct , 2007 12:44 pm
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More free content for LotRO on the way...
Quote:
Book 11 brings lots of changes - here are some, but by no means all of them!

* The Month of the Lore-master
* The Month of the Minstrel
* Player Housing - Individual and Kinship
* Goblin Town
* New areas - Trollshaws: Tâl Bruinen, and Misty Mountains: Northern Pass, Southern Pass, and Goblin Town
* DirectX10 Support! (click here for more info!)
* Monster player "Warband Maneuvers"
* Monster play - new skills!
* New raid: The Rift!
* First appearance of a Balrog
* First appearance of Gollum (new instance)
* More work on the crafting system (400 new recipes!)
* Harvest Festival
* Yule Festival
* 60+ New Quests, including the continuation of the epic quest arc
* 9 new Deeds

Story
You have wrested the palantír from Amarthiel, but not before she learned what she sought to learn: a clue to the location of Narchuil, the ring she lost at the Battle of Fornost. She turns her gaze eastward seeking to recover Narchuil, and the Dúnedain find themselves with few means of stopping her advance, save one: Calenglad believes that Mordrambor, the Black Númenórean held prisoner by the Dúnedain, may be the key to ending Amarthiel’s ambitions.
Apparently the next big expansion will be a paid expansion, a la Burning Crusade. One can guess that Moria, and Hollin will be included, but what else? Mirkwood and Dol Guldor? Erebor and Dale? Perhaps it will even extend as par south as Isengard. Time will tell :)

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Posted: Wed 12 Dec , 2007 5:42 pm
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You know whats funny. I visit 3 supposedly Tolkien-based websites every day and another about once a week.


And the only place I talk Tolkien is on my LotRO Kinship site, which originally was a LAN Gaming site.


Anyway, in case anyone's interested but being really really quiet about it:

This has been out there for a while now, but if you haven't already seen it then it's definitely worth a look. Visions of the Ring has a player-made map that speculates a time line for Lord of the Rings Online expansions. It is flash-based, and you can scroll by months or years and see when the map creator Hayoo expects different content will be added, and what the overall game map will look like at any particular time.



http://www.visionsofthering.com/expac_timeline.shtml

Speculated Expansion Map - Reasoning
http://www.visionsofthering.com/forum/v ... c.php?t=27

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Wed 12 Nov , 2008 8:51 am
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This thread has gone really quiet....

So is there anyone out here on B77 besides Alatar who IS playing LoTR online?

I'd like to give it a try, but as Ida won't give me more than up to two hours time (I will need some sleep sometimes, too ;) ) I'd like to know in advance if I can go through most quests alone.

I assume that it will be similar to WoW, where the instances and some quests are only playable in groups of 5? As I have limited online time and weird online times (say 4 a.m. to 6 a.m....... ) I've rather big difficulties finding helpers or a group in WoW.

I bought the printed companion to LoTR online and have read quite half of it, thinking about which character to choose, and I guess for a player mostly wandering around alone a rogue might be a good choice. I also guess a minstrel is out of question, it seems to be rather like the priest in WoW very hard to level up.

Any opinions or advice?

Alatar, I'll try that link you posted for Jude to get the english 14 days test version.

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Wed 12 Nov , 2008 10:00 am
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Areanor, there's 2 things here. Yes, there are quests that require fellowships, and many of these are the better quests, the Story based ones. However, if you choose character and server wisely, you can maximise your chances.

Minstrels are always in heavy demand for Pick Up Groups because every fellowship needs a healing class. If you play a minstrel you are still a decent solo character, but have much better chance of getting fellowships together. The same is true of Guardians. Both are in demand for fellowships and good for soloing.

Regarding times, don't choose a german language server. If you play on an English speaking server you will have better chance of meeting people with the time zone shift.

Also, now is a very good time to be starting, as the Mines of Moria expansion has 2 new classes so there will be a lot of people leveling up those classes from scratch.

If you decide to play on Laurelin, its an English RP server and there's a fairly active kin called Servants of the Secret Fire of which I'm a founder. You'd be more than welcome to join us!

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Thu 13 Nov , 2008 2:58 pm
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Thanks for your 2 things :)

First I'll have a look on the website, then I'll try to get the game going. Is it like the WoW test thing, so I can keep the test character when I choose to play on?

I'll tell you as soon as I made it. (as WoW does work quite smoothly on the laptop- well, besides flying into Shattrath... - I think that LotR online should work, too.)

See you soon.

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Thu 13 Nov , 2008 3:42 pm
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Oops. Bad assumption. WoW is much less graphically intensive than LotRO. You definitely need a more powerful system for it unless you want to have everything turned down to minimum.

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Thu 13 Nov , 2008 9:33 pm
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hmm, my lap is rather new - if the test version works, the game should work, too. Another thought - will I need to get a version of the game from amazon.uk or can I use the german version to get onto english servers as I can in WoW?). Are you able to play on a german server?

Anyway - I'm about to give it up...
Quote:
This download WILL NOT WORK if you are downloading with Internet Explorer because it is too big (files of greater than approximately 2.1 gigabytes will not download properly ).
:bang:

now what?

Edited some hours later....

okay, first I downloaded Firefox. Then I went back to your link, now with Firefox I get a black page....
(when I go back there with the Internet Explorer, it rejects me, because I have already generated a code....)
then I googled gamershell ( the only site I could remember) to get back to the place where I could download the LotR test version. now it says the download will take 3 days and 16 hours .... :help: :bang: :rage:

:bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl: :bawl:

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 15 Nov , 2008 11:39 am
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Answering to myself and updating info:

I just went out yesterday, spent 25 Euros and bought the game. Well, it comes with 45 days playtime and I don't have to wait for that download. Then I spent 5 Euros more and bought a preorder code for MoM, which will allow me to get a lifetimer subscription for 149 EUR instead of paying 199 EUR. Plus some minor things to get.

I installed the game and am playing on the trial code, as I didn't want to use the 45-day-code in case the game wouldn't work.

As both areanor and isilraen were taken (isilanor, too :( ) I had to think several minutes about names.... :suspicious:

so there's a lvl 4 elf minstrel called Isildis and a lvl 5 human champion called Areandriel running around on Laurelin. I'll activate the new code next time I'm playing, for I understood that on the trial version you can't get or send mail and you can't chat.....

So far I like it. It does need some getting used to after three years on WOW - especially as I'm not sure how to detect the things needed for crafting - in WOW there are the grey ones nobody needs compared to the white ones that might be useful - well, I just have to move on, maybe I'll find it out.

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Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 15 Nov , 2008 1:53 pm
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I'll add those to me Friends list and that way if I see you online I can invite to the Kinship. You can meet the rest of us over on http://www.shannonlan.com" target="_blank"

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Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Wed 14 Jan , 2009 10:34 am
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I finally got into Moria over the Holidays and its seriously impressive. Its the one area I've seen so far where the Game Devs have managed to completely outstrip PJ and Wetas version from the Movies.

Moria in the Movies was impressive in a vague sort of way, but Moria in the Lord of the Rings Online feels like a genuinely ancient underground city. The sense of scale is there, but also a sense of function. Remember that scene in the Movies where Gandalf lights up his staff and says "Behold: the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf." and pretty much all you can see is a giant cavern with loads of pillars. Then they run off to one side and you have Balin's tomb and the Chamber of Mazarbul. Not really much sense of a City there.

In Lord of the Rings Online, we have lighting from giant phosphorescent crystals, Statues, stairways, bridges, and yes giant caverns with arches. But it somehow "feels" more like a city that was lived in. It reminds me of this passage from LotR in a way the Movies never did:
Quote:
`There must have been a mighty crowd of dwarves here at one time ' said Sam; `and every one of them busier than badgers for five hundred years to make all this, and most in hard rock too!
Here's a clip showing just one section of Moria, the Flaming Deeps:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/39702.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Wed 21 Jan , 2009 7:06 am
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sounds great, Alatar. Can you go into Moria alone or only in groups?

I liked LotRo a lot, I guess, I'll subscribe to the LTA next month - the free trial time ran out and at the moment I have too many insurances to pay to have the 150 EUR ... I hate january ;)

and as Ida does seem to have a more regular sleeping pattern now (knock on wood) I might even be able to catch you online.

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Wed 21 Jan , 2009 9:32 am
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W00t! And yeah, Moria is just another huge area, so you have quest hubs in there and instances, solo and fellowship quests. The logic behind it is that the Dwarves, having heard of the fall of the Balrog are attempting to retake Moria, so they have fortified areas within.

Of course, first you have to get in there ;)

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 28 Mar , 2009 9:35 am
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Alatar wrote:

Of course, first you have to get in there ;)
:P looong way to go. Got the LTA last month and guess what? I spend less time online than ever. Though I came on last week just to find you had left ten minutes ago :(.

We need a rendez-vous. :D

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Eruname
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Thu 13 Aug , 2009 10:00 am
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I finally signed up for the free trial...been waiting until I had a good amount of time to sit down with the game.

I started it downloading last night and let it go over night. I came back to the computer to find it had restarted due to Windows updates. Only 2GB of 9GB had downloaded. I assumed this was due to the windows restart. So I try again this morning. I come back and hour and a half later to see how it's going and again, it only downloaded 2GB so I guess there was some fault with the download.

So I'm trying another one. :neutral: The previous downloads were saying 5 and half to 6 and a half hours for downloading. This one is around 8 hours (ooh it just jumped to 10!). :bang: Not to mention I don't have unlimited downloading allowances with Sky. Not happy with all of this.

edit: the fastest download speed I'm getting is around 450kbps. Though it keeps dipping down to as low as 200kbps. That's not good at all is it? Shouldn't broadband be faster than that?

I just looked at Sky's website and I know we're set up with their middle product which is supposed to give me up to 10mbps. Though what's worrying is that it only allows for 10GB per month. I don't remember signing up for something that low.

edit #2: oh phew...went to TOB to look up what I was discussing over there last year and it seems the limit for the middle range was 40GB. That's what we signed up for. But damn, Sky really reduced the allowances for the package now. Glad I got it when it was still decent.

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Eruname
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Thu 13 Aug , 2009 12:13 pm
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Well, no free trial for me then. 3rd try downloading, different sources and each time I'm only getting 2GB. I don't understand what's going on and I've already wasted 6GB of my download limit.

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 15 Aug , 2009 3:19 pm
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Eru, the first thing I'd do is get a download manager. Something like Getright or even the Firefox addon "DownThemAll" they'll allow you to restart a stalled download.

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Eruname
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 15 Aug , 2009 3:39 pm
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But why would they all stall at 2GB? That's from two different sources.

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 15 Aug , 2009 4:36 pm
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Is it possible that you're downloading to a drive with Fat16 filesystem? The filesize limit on Fat16 is 2GB.

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Eruname
Post subject: Re: Lord of the Rings Online (Was Middle Earth Online)
Posted: Sat 15 Aug , 2009 5:48 pm
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No idea. :shrug:

I got the Firefox addon you suggested and once again, the download timed out at around 2GB, but I was able to resume it and have gone past 2GB now. *keeping my fingers crossed* If this works, I'm going to wish I knew about this sooner as I'll have wasted 3 days of my trial!

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Abandon this fleeting world
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