I've been playing for about a week now, I was bored and figured I'd get a heard-start before it goes free. Problem is, I've somehow ended up on the American servers, and as I live in the UK that means it's dead most of the time. No grouping for me.

They don't have that much room for the lore. Because they only have rights to certain things, not everything. What enemies you run into relate to what is going on in the story line at the time (doesn't necessarily follow that of the books). They can't variate too much and they all have to be an enemy that was in the book or related to in the book for the most part so they can't go too far with things. Sure giant bugs are not something everyone ran into but that's one of the things they can spread out a bit with, and they did with some things but they tried to make everything fit into the lore as much as possible.

Orcs are all over in Middle Earth so what did you expect with that haha, and a lot of the bandits are southerners, which are also in the book a lot. Like I said, enemy placement has a lot to do with the lore. When I look at it that way, it takes away the samey and puts a logical reason to it. Combat isn't that interesting though, they could have gone any way with that and they went the WoW way, some of the classes have skills which make it a bit more fun but yeah..not the best part of the game.

You won't be able to play PVMP if you're a free account, just an fyi.



Depending on which server you're on, I might be able to group up with you for some of the easier group missions (unless you want a max level character helping you).

What is PvMP?

Player versus monsters player. Basically you can choose to be your character or you can create a monster character (races are orc, warg or Uruk hai). There are 5 classes now I think, I don't remember. Then it's basically going out to the PvP zone and either doing quests (both sides have quests they can do) that give you various items, there is a medium sized dungeon that you can create a raid for which lets you get special items (both sides can do this) and then there's the main selling points, keeps. 5 keeps either side can take, all have quests that benefit either side and when a side has more than 3 that side gets access to the dungeon..and I think when a side has all 5 keeps you get a special bonus. For free players (or freeps, which is what your normal character is called) they get an xp bonus in the PVE land and a reknown bonus while in the PvP zone (that's how you rank up)..creeps (monster players) get a infamy bonus (that's how they rank up).

On the most populated servers, there are sometimes 2 full raids of both sides going at each other, makes your PC a lag fest haha. For the less populated servers, there's still action going on between sides battling of course. Taking a keep requires 5+ people usually. The raid dungeon bosses require 10-24 people, the regular enemies can be soloed..usually both entrances and a little ways in are soloable. The monsters there drop money items and collectibles used to get items for both sides. Same with most of the quests in the zone (there's quite a lot of them).

I probably won't play because I don't really like LOTR, it looks good though.

I'm confused, I know that Monster Play is not available to free members but I thought that was just creating a Monster character and that free accounts could still play Players vs Monster. :huh:

Oh yeah that's what it is. Woops. I thought I read somewhere that they wouldn't be able to access the zone though..hmm I'll go look into it.

I'm on Meneldor (sp?). My character is only level 20 at the moment, so I'm not that far along, but far enough along that I don't want to start again.

Do you reckon there's any chance I'd be able to transfer to the Euro servers? I'm guessing not from what I've seen but I might look into it.

Justifying it with "middle earth is just boring like that" isn't really much of a justification. I know that bandits and orcs are everywhere, and I don't mind that as much as I mind the way they wove the storyline up to that point. I accept the fact that I'll have to spend a solid chunk of time fighting the same enemies, but that doesn't mean the storyline can't be interesting at the same time. I played human (Mardil, Man Hunter), so the very first thing I did in the game is fight bandits. Then, as I leveled, I got to fight goblins and orcs. However, once I leveled enough, it was just another round of bandits - now a few levels stronger but otherwise the same. Then it was some buffed up orcs again. Rinse, repeat. The undead proved a nice intercession, but they were just that. It really could have been handled better I think, even within the confines of LotR.

I really enjoyed beta, and even the early days of the release. Just got tired and bored of it after a while, as it wasn't progressing enough to really keep my attention.


I have a founder's sub, so I can do whatever

Monster Play isn't available to free players? Wow, they are really limiting what you can do as a free player. Looks sorta like the way Runescape does it.

Hey Boon, is the gameplay a lot like DDO?

Well what would you have done then, knowing your limitations?

Plus you forgot about all the other creatures! Wolves, Boars, Boars, wolves, boars, neekerbeekers, giant bugs, spiders, spiders, boars, lynx, watcher birds, boars, bog prowlers, boars, spirits, boars, bears, turtles, angmarians....well yeah there's a lot of different creatures. At least compared to how you make it sound . But yeah that really is the justification, Middle Earth is just boring like that creature wise. There wasn't a whole lot they could do for each area than what they did. I think the variation is just fine in each area, but they can't add that many new things per area because it wouldn't fit there. Then guess what happens if they do, lore nazis come in and complain and if Tolkien ENT doesn't like it then goodbye license.

If we talk about the storyline that limitation increases ten fold, although that's more self induced than anything. Because to follow the story and still blend in the with lore, the enemies they put in the game had to be there. I assume we're talking about the Epic's here because that's the only storyline present in ME.



No it's a bit different. It's more like WoW combat wise, you press skills and have them all setup in a hotkey bar (or 5). There's instances but mostly for dungeons and certain parts of the storyline. The way stats are setup, weapon, armor and character wise is more WoW like..although it has it's own touch because of the LOTR world (like health is Morale instead). They are pretty far apart, DDO and LOTRO. I think the only thing that might be similar is the graphics, although LOTRO actually looks better. Especially with DX 10, and DX 11. It's like a WoW clone, but at the same time not because of the world it's in. You'd have to see for yourself really, the way they have the free to play setup is like DDO, but you buy quest packages instead and you get points by completing deeds and stuff, rather than beating dungeons on a certain mode to gain favor.

I really loved the Tolkien trilogy, and while I was disappointed with all the other LOTR games I have heard nothing but good things about the MMO.

I'm interested in playing in the world so as soon as it goes free to play I'll definitely take a look.

Heh, that's like DDO. I got a wizard up to cap and I have 6 hotbars, and I am thinking of adding another one. =P

Any idea what the best server to join would be? On DDO I eventually wound up on Khyber, which has the advantage of being a lot more active than Argonessen, but it also has a much larger proportion of elitist jerks. I don't think I would have been able to stay if I hadn't found the guild that I did.

Ah so that's where you ran off too. (not that i really play DDO anymore anyways).

Best Server idk. I think there will be free to play servers and regular servers, not sure if you can join the current servers or not. If you can, Brandywine and Landroval are the two most active, with the latter being a little bit more mature than the former, probably has something to do with it being the 'unoffical' RP server. Elendilmir is the oceanic server, so it has more players during the over night hours. The other servers have people too, but they are a tiny bit smaller. Though there will probably be more people there now. I currently have characters on Brandywine, Landroval and Windfola.

For the new servers coming, if they are F2P servers..I'm guessing Riddermark and Imaldris will be the most popular ones. If F2P gets only those servers, I might start up a new character to play with people. I'm sure there will be more than enough people on all 4 of the new servers anyway though.

So best server really depends on your tastes, if you like a lot of people and don't mind immaturity..Brandywine. If you want to RP and like having a populated server (lot of non RPers too) Landroval is the one for you. If you only play overnight and want people to group with, Elendilmir is probably the server for you. If you don't like being around a lot of people and don't care about group quests, Windfola or the other servers are right for you.

Oh and just to let everyone know, it's possible to get close to 50 if not 50, without doing any group quests..once you have all the quest packages. If you have the Moria expansion as well, it's even easier. So this could be a solo game with online chatting if you want it to be, although I'd recommend the grouping as it can be fun.

Thanks, I'll keep that advice in mind when I try the game out. I probably won't stick with it, I'm still enjoying myself playing DDO, but you never know.

I've been in the F2P beta for months, and never bothered to log in once. Meh.

I'll check it out when it comes, but I'm not a big fan of MMOs.

I say we choose a server for us to play on. (For those that want to start a new character that is)

Only two more days.

I play on Brandywine, Landroval and Windfola..in order of most played. But the first 2 are gonna be really packed. I don't know if I'll join on a new server since I have so much stuff I wanna do on my 10 other characters.

It's gotta be Meneldor, that's where all the cool people play!

...

Ok, that's where I play, and I'm lonely...

Today's the day! If any of you are gonna join with us..you can try one of my servers or Meneldor, as that seems to be what everyone else who visits this forum is on.

ugh, they delayed the release of Volume 3 Book 2, which also means that the Free-to-Play system has been delayed. <_<

I payed for the $100 collector's edition when it was released, they should make me a damn VIP!

What do you mean? I'm downloading it now :unsure:.