Shamus Plays: LOTRO, Part 20
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
[HEADING=1]THIS IS THE LOUD POST![/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]POST IT LOUD AND POST IT STRONG![/HEADING]
Great, as always, Shamus. I didn't think you'd keep this up for this long. Glad you keep going, though.
[HEADING=2]POST IT LOUD AND POST IT STRONG![/HEADING]
Great, as always, Shamus. I didn't think you'd keep this up for this long. Glad you keep going, though.
Seriously, LotRo needs to pay you by the mile. Especially when they then cap certain quests with a minimum as well as a maximum point. You've just got this little xp bar to allow the quest in while running through a gauntlet of Spiders, Spiders and maybe a wolf or two, while wanting to kill them, you can only kill a few.
And the horse? Jeez...I can run backwards faster. Hunter Food Teleport all the way. You can even set up taxicabs between Bree & Esteldin, as it's 30 Silver by the long game way and only 2 by the Instantaneous Hunter Cabs.
And the horse? Jeez...I can run backwards faster. Hunter Food Teleport all the way. You can even set up taxicabs between Bree & Esteldin, as it's 30 Silver by the long game way and only 2 by the Instantaneous Hunter Cabs.
Loved the Loud Song.
"Of course, the reason working for humans is more profitable is because humans are always asking you to kill other humans."
What is up with humans being the only race that regularly makes war on their own kind? Elves did it once, and it's a legendary no-no.
"Of course, the reason working for humans is more profitable is because humans are always asking you to kill other humans."
What is up with humans being the only race that regularly makes war on their own kind? Elves did it once, and it's a legendary no-no.
Another excellent issue. 
And yes, the quests in that area have far too long a distance to travel back and forth.. and back and forth.. and..
And yes, the quests in that area have far too long a distance to travel back and forth.. and back and forth.. and..
I'm amazed the money rewards are based on level! I guessed that at first, sure, but when we had like ten updates with the same ninety copper payout, I assumed it was location-based since an MMO couldn't keep you at a low level for so long, right? That would be insane!
If it's not too much to ask, could someone explain the general level range of the game? Like what's the maximum level, how many levels you gain in that first part with the town under siege, how long most people stay at "Level 90 copper," and so on.
If it's not too much to ask, could someone explain the general level range of the game? Like what's the maximum level, how many levels you gain in that first part with the town under siege, how long most people stay at "Level 90 copper," and so on.
Level cap is 65.LordVyreth said:
Below level 15, quests pay out 90c. Then they go up to 1s 5c. (Which is really only 15c more.)
At about 20-ish I think it goes to about 2s.
Late 20's is about 4s.
But the real reward comes in the form of drops. If you kill 10 level 15 things, they'll probably drop about 5s worth of stuff. Kill 10 level 25 things, and you'll probably get 50s. So drops are your real source of income, particularly later in the game.
Also: Lulzy is over-leveled from doing both human and Hobbit starting areas. If I was playing like a normal player, we would have bit this quest way back in part 11 or so.
Excellent chapter, Shamus, very amusing.
Turbine should be paying you to keep this going... silly as it is, it still makes a great advertisment all the same.
Don't worry Lulzy, by the time "The Wise", being the confederacy of nitwits setting the Free People's Mercenary Rabble on their quests, has you off to Moria, you'll have more currency than you know what to do with... you'll be drowning in the stuff.
Turbine should be paying you to keep this going... silly as it is, it still makes a great advertisment all the same.
Don't worry Lulzy, by the time "The Wise", being the confederacy of nitwits setting the Free People's Mercenary Rabble on their quests, has you off to Moria, you'll have more currency than you know what to do with... you'll be drowning in the stuff.
Is it just you who plays LoTR on the escapist team? I only ask because 3 of my friends recently stopped playing when they changed the dungeon system to force you into playing with 5 people. In the later game can you avoid dungeons without feeling like youre missing out on too much content? And will you be documenting dungeon experiences?
As Shamus said, the cap is 65. There are 4 basic starting areas, The Shire (Hobbits), Ered Luin South (Elves), Ered Luin North (Dwarves) and Archet/Combe (Humans). These areas (the Dwarf and Elf areas bleed into eachother at about level 10) last until you're in your upper teens in level, and you really only have to do one, which doesn't even have to be the one tied to your race once you get beyond the tutorial area.LordVyreth said:
You then head to Breeland until about level 25, and then to either the Lonelands or the North Downs. Basically, other than Breeland (which you can minimize your time in to about 3 or 4 levels) every level range in the game has at least two possible questing zones until you reach Moria at somewhere around level 50. You then progress through Moria (which has it's own multiple questing zones) then Lorien and into Mirkwood. The current Endgame is mainly centered in Mirkwood but the numerous Moria instances still receive a lot of traffic.
Also, once you reach level 30 you can run Skirmishes anywhere/anytime as an alternate levelling path. Skirmishes are scalable (solo, duo, trio, 6man, 12man) bite size instances that last from about 10 to 30 minutes. Each Skirmish has set layouts but random enemy populations and are meant to be repeatable.
Also, as Shamus said questing isn't what you do for money in LOTRO. Basically. questing is for XP. Money is made in two ways. First looting and selling. Second is harvesting crafting materials from the landscape (or enemies, particularly of the animal/beast type for their hides) and then selling these on the Auction House to other players. Even relatively low levels can make a lot of money by doing this as one stack (100 pieces) of a desired crafting mat can easily net you a Gold or two (1 Gold = 1000 Silver, and 1 Silver = 100 Copper).
I'm not sure what you are asking, but I'm an avid LOTRO player so maybe I can answer your questions.lewiswhitling said:
Most of the game is now soloable if you choose to do so. There are still later game dungeons that require grouping but most are totally optional. There are a few in the main Epic quest line that require 3 or 6 men though and these likely won't be changed any time soon.
Shamus, I am really loving this series. As soon as I read one weekly installment, I immediately start looking forward to the next!
Is there any chance you would consider doing this sort of treatment for World Of Warcraft? I think it would be priceless... since there is so, so, sooooo much to make fun of in Blizzard's epic masterpiece.
Please keep up the good work!
Is there any chance you would consider doing this sort of treatment for World Of Warcraft? I think it would be priceless... since there is so, so, sooooo much to make fun of in Blizzard's epic masterpiece.
Please keep up the good work!
Which is a pity as soloing through the epic questline was really quite fun. My champ's up to 57 now and working on Volume 2 in Moria (ugh...really don't like getting into Moria - no goat to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, the maps are barely useful for navigating the broken bridges/randomly placed structures, a few lesser reasons) and it'd be nice to know I could just keep working through the main storyline without needing to figure out a group instance or three along the way, but eh, it's not like that's surprising in an MMO.StriderShinryu said:
I can't decide if it's a shame there's no WoWhead equivalent for LotRO or if that helps the game maintain a slim sense of mystique. ...usually I lean toward the "gosh it's annoying" side of things, though, particularly when an ambiguous quest leaves me wondering where I'm supposed to go to find a thing, or when I go to complete a quest and discover I can't/it will be very difficult because I don't have gear I didn't know I'd need (I'm looking at you Westernesse-vulnerable ghoul in Haudh-connected tomb; that certainly ended up a chore to kill, though it was also a nice challenge after the many too-easy Inspiration quests). I think if they made all group quests soloable with the inspiration mechanic but toned it down somewhat it'd be pretty neat. As it is now the inspiration buff is severe overkill for most missions (I use it to farm rep/exp/cash on a few missions where I'm basically invincible because of it and can round up 10+ mobs to AE down) making them zero challenge loot-walks. The exceptions are the missions with the big boss battles where that much of a buff is needed to survive, but those only come up, what...four, maybe five times in something like 170+ quests?
I'm rambling. I don't feel like I'm missing out on content by not grouping up for dungeons, but I've never really been all that into grouping up for dungeons so maybe that's just me.
I agree. It was this story that got me playing the game. I started the game only after reading this. I'm a level 23 human hunter named Roenath, and to be honest I chose to be a human hunter just because of this story. I thought it would funny to be the closest thing to a ranger as I could get since Lulzy hates them so.Harla said:
I haven't found the game very soicalable though, it isn't WoW in terms of population, but I still see plenty of people. There isn't any chatter in the cities really, this could be that most of the player base isn't the "foaming-at-the-mouth" early teens that WoW tends to have, but I mean no one really says anything. I bet I have passed about 200 differnt people in my short adventure and I only had a soical exchange with one guy, and this was due to me needing a metalsmith to make something for me. I /wave at people, I even say "hi" to them sometimes, but most just ignore me. lol. I'm still having fun but it would be nice to join a kinship or quest with someone once in awhile.
Perhaps I have been on the anti-soical server and wasn't aware. I have been on silverlode because I liked the name. Is there a better one?