LotRO follow up and trade skill talk

Alright. So the below post was a quickie review about Lord of the Rings Online. I had been playing for a few days but had not gotten to far. Now, I have myself a couple of characters and have become deeply interested in keeping my guys up-to-level-equipped with the trade skills. I have 3 characters, all capable of making the tier 2 weapons/armor for each class. I only bring this up because of a single reason.

I never really got into trade skills before. I ignored them in EQ, MxO and there was no trade skills in CoH. I did, for one character, get into the trade skills in WoW but got burnt out before I maxed leather working on my rogue.

LotRO has a very simple, clean and effective trade skill system. While in WoW you can pick two trade skills, mostly a gathering and production skill, LotRO has a very different set of skills. You pick a profession and with in that profession, there are three trade skills. Generally, you get one "production" skill, a gathering skill and something else. But you are always lacking at least ONE major component to the crafting aspect. Only tailoring and weapon smithing does not require you to have a secondary character to provide, or produce, the needed items to craft. Armor crafting and wood working all require crafted materials from another trade skill that you are not capable of making. While its fairly simple to throw together an alt, and the classes and starting areas are different enough to make having 3 or 4 before getting bored, the economy is so limited, its hard to buy the items you need.

I have noticed, though, that on the unoffical RP server, where I play, that people are generally nice. There are your d00ds that ruin shit for everyone but they are limited.

Example. There other night I could not sleep so I jumped on my champion to get him up to 20 so he could use heavy armor, a bow and become a bad motherfucker. While I was running around farming copper and tin, some random dude in Bree offered a free purple weapon, which I could use, and I took him up on it. After a few minutes after being given the weapon, instead of buying it for 30 silver, the guy sends me a tell and offers to craft me up two fine steel long swords. Now, the "fine" series of crafting is a one shot only item. You can't learn it and keep making them and they normally require some rare item from an elite/rare mob. This guy, who was 50, made me two of them. Now, the "fine" series of stuff always sells for 100+ silver in the AH. He gave me two, saved me 300 silver and a pair of weapon that would last me 6 levels easy. That shit don't happen in WoW.

So, again. Get the trial. Enjoy the game. Its a vastly different gaming world than WoW or EQ. Its a strange mix of each with its own flavor. One that is starting to grow on me.

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

I have been playing MMOs since EQ first came out, which is not that rare considering the huge market that has emerged over the past couple years or so. Anyway, since the original EverQuest came out all those years ago, I have only really gotten into one other MMO since. Word of WarCraft. Now, this is nothing amazing considering there are tens of millions playing the game, but if you look at all the MMOs that have come out since EQ broke the market wide open, I have only really enjoyed 4. I have tried others but they all fell short of what EQ offered, what MxO could have been, what City of Heroes/Villians tried for and what WoW perfected.

Which is why I am surprised that I have enjoyed the last few days I have spent playing LotRO. I went into the free trial not expecting much at all. Only reason I even bothered with it was because I watched the movies again. So I took a crack at the game, did not do much research and just went into it to enjoy it, maybe kill some time while my friends were all occupied this past weekend with babies, wedding planning and being out of town.

So I popped in, fired up a hunter and entered J.R.R Tolkiens world. Now, I just got a beast of a new video card so the game was running full tilt graphics wise. I did not find the graphics to be as clean or as enjoyable as WoW but they are decent for what the game is. The sound is impressive, with lots of noises from the surrounding area, monsters, your character and little details that some developers miss. Still, even though the game is not as sharp as WoW in every aspect, it passes muster and doesnt distract like the graphics in EQ2.

Where LotRO really starts to shine is the story. There is no real "story" in WoW, nor was there in EQ. There was some vague back drop of a main story line but it was lacking and really was not that important. You just went along, doing quests, getting loot and leveling up. Atleast in EQ, there was roleplay to be found all over the place, which is why I loved the game. WoW, it was the game play, the graphics and the ability to log on for an hour or two, knock out some quests and log off again. LotRO manages to recreate that feeling easily. You can jump on, do a few quests and log off. Even the big event quests don't take long and, so far, I have been able to do them alone.

The classes are interesting, as are the races different bonuses and negatives. The starting stories, atleast for humans and elves, is very different and gets you into the main story line quickly. Where in most games I will take up a rogue or thief type class, I have yet to really try the bandit class yet. So I can't really delve to deep into the real differences between the various classes, though the hunter class is pretty powerful. I have not really enjoyed the Captain class much and I HATE starting over again when the starting quests are the same, so I havent tried anything else.

Overall, I suggest any one who has started to stray away from MMOs for single player games or shooters to give the free trial a shot. LotRO takes a formula that has been perfected in WoW and gives it a enough twist to not be a clone. Its original as a MMO can be now-a-days and keeps you interested. If you can get past the vastness of the world once you get out of the newbie area, find a good kinship (guild) or even a few people to group with every once and while, I can see LotRO keeping things fun for a while.

Just so long as you don't treat it like a grind and burn yourself out.