Lord of the rings online...

[Ctuchik]

is going F2P...

Info : The Lord of the Rings Online™ (LOTRO) - Free to play : Codemasters

and that means not only US as DDO did, but EU aswell.

 

[Tallen]

Interresting

 

[rynnor]

Quite clever - should get them more subscribers.

 

[razeredge]

Is really piss of the people who bought lifetime subs

 

[Syri]

Interesting, but looks like they've got quite a few restrictions on there.
Wonder how it handles existing accounts that have more than one character already... do you have to pick one as your free one and pay to access the rest? does it require you make a new one? does it trigger an apocalypse when you try to log in?

 

[LordjOX]

Seeing as LOTRO is a very good game, I'd jump on this

 

[Fast]

Excellent, will be dusting off my account for a look.

 

[Tallen]

Is really piss of the people who bought lifetime subs

Well, yes and no.

They will still get the full content, f2p peeps will get no access to the prestige stuff, which is the cooler content tbh.

At £75 for a lifetime sub atm....as long as you plan on playing for a bit, it's still a bargain imo.

What im trying to figure out is what would happen to an old account stacked with uber loot if it was reactivated on the f2p system?

 

[Ctuchik]

What im trying to figure out is what would happen to an old account stacked with uber loot if it was reactivated on the f2p system?

iirc you can move stuff from locked bags but not store anything new there.

 

[Tallen]

iirc you can move stuff from locked bags but not store anything new there.

Cheers.

 

[chipper]

anyone still play lotro then? i enjoyed the gamed when it came out but lack of people i knew playing it kinda ruined it plus my pc couldnt really handle it at the time did they fix the subs things you can use a CC now?

 

[Ctuchik]

not currently no, been giving it a few go over the years but never really got in to it.

been trying to level up my LM but just cant get the hang of soloing in that game.

my supposed tank pet is getting wtfpwnt by mobs 6 levels lower then me so every time i get 2 or more mobs on me its either run or die because my bear pet cant survive long enough.

 

[rynnor]

been trying to level up my LM but just cant get the hang of soloing in that game.

my supposed tank pet is getting wtfpwnt by mobs 6 levels lower then me so every time i get 2 or more mobs on me its either run or die because my bear pet cant survive long enough.

Its been a while but I seem to remember using the raven pet (for its damage resistance debuff) - get to max range - hit with fireball and the snaring dd then just nuke em down - dont let pets tank...

 

[Ctuchik]

Its been a while but I seem to remember using the raven pet (for its damage resistance debuff) - get to max range - hit with fireball and the snaring dd then just nuke em down - dont let pets tank...

raven only seemed to work against archer mobs. and that only made then run in and melee my cloth arse, making me die even faster

 

[Syri]

anyone still play lotro then? i enjoyed the gamed when it came out but lack of people i knew playing it kinda ruined it plus my pc couldnt really handle it at the time did they fix the subs things you can use a CC now?

It's funny, I had exactly the same experience... Tried it, liked the game, but just didn't find a decent guild or bunch of friends to do anything with.
I'll give it a try once it's free to play, and if I enjoy it enough, might even put some cash down for it.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Would have to echo that last statement also. Resubbed about 2 weeks before the announcement and found a nice enough guild but there was something about the game itself that didn't appeal to me, trouble is I can't quite place my finger on it which is somewhat annoying since the PvE is really quite well done.

Maybe it's the classes, hrm. Playing a Minstrel but for some reason (despite not having played daoc for about 7-8 years now) I still want it to be more like a DAoC Mincer, no bloody idea why.

 

[`mongoose]

I really liked it when I played it. This was pretty amazing because I was expecting to hate it. I'm not a massive fan of lotr, but I thought the game was really enjoyable.

I stopped playing it because I was on my norm really in game. Most fellowships seemed to be full of max lvl chars (as happenswhen you join a game late) and getting any groups quests done as a group (without someone getting bored and getting their friend or main to run the group through it in like 20 seconds) was more or less impossible.

I'll definitely give it atry when it goes f2p tho and if i can find a decent fellowship who do stuff then it may well capture my attention because I thought the pve was excellent and the pvp was fun (if not as good as other mmos)

M

 

[Ctuchik]

lotro pvp can sometimes be incredibly fun if the two sides are somewhat equal in power, not saying numbers here for reasons listed below.

the sieges can last for quite some time and the NPC guards in there actually makes enough difference to actually be worth caring for.

the only thing that is slightly depressing is that monsters are by design alot weaker then the "hero" side, thus requiring quite a few more players to be on equal footing.

so trying to run any form of FG vs FG action as a monster player will result in a very bland experience of getting humiliated over and over by a faction that is balanced against PvE raids rather then pvp as opposed to monster play that have pretyty much no meaningful pve at all other then the dailies. so their healers will heal for insane amounts whereas monster healers will only heal for a fraction of that. iirc minstrels can heal for ~4 - 5k compared to monster healers ~1500 - 2000.....

 

[Kami]

Latest patch gives monsters a bit of a boost and from my experience recently after returning (lifetime sub) to Laurelin the players themselves try to keep the freeps and creeps fairly equal for pvp, whenever one side is dominating there will be a call out on the global chat channels for "more creeps" or "more freeps".

Must admit after being away from Lotro for 3 years and coming back in July they've really improved the game a lot, leveling is far, far faster now and the community on Laurelin is easily the best I've seen in an MMO for a very long time. Reminded me a lot of the early days on the DAOC Excalibur server when people were actually chatting and not just shouting abuse at each other

~Lifetime subs holders get free "turbine points" each month once the game goes free to play each month and access to any and all "paid for" content for the life of the game such as paid for areas and level caps. It's an odd paid for model but it does look like it'll work. You can pay if you want but if you don't want to then you can still have a ton of fun.

 

[Talyn]

So, LotR is free to play from today. Where can I d/load the client? I can find no-where on the main homepage to get the game.

Dreamor, I'm looking at you...

Edit: bah, looks like I'm looking at the non-euro site. Euro's don't get free LotR until later in year. Typical.

 

[Ctuchik]

yep, codemasters milking it as much as they can.

everything is ready for F2P, they just make up excuses now.

 

[Lollie]

So, LotR is free to play from today. Where can I d/load the client? I can find no-where on the main homepage to get the game.

Dreamor, I'm looking at you...

Edit: bah, looks like I'm looking at the non-euro site. Euro's don't get free LotR until later in year. Typical.

you can dl the trial if you want to arse about in middle earth for a bit

 

[Talivar]

CM did this delay, mess about with DDO aswell and in the end closed the servers completly

 

[Raven]

Found an old sealed copy of the game (no idea why I ended up with two copies) and started again this morning, enjoying it so far, just playing around with classes. Which server is the best (non RP) ? I am currently on Evernight and there doesn't seem to be that many people about, though I am only level 10 on my highest character.

I played for about a week on release, can't remember why I didn't stick around, think I just played WoW more at the time so didn't bother renewing after the 30 day trial.

It's quite nice to start a game without any hype and without any expectations. The tutorial eases you in gently and is far better than any starting area in any other MMO I have played.

 

[Raven]

Settled on a hunter for now, while I understand they aren't that great later on I am having a lot of fun with it. Really enjoying the sedate pace of the game, there is a lot to do but you don't feel in any rush to do it.

 

[Ctuchik]

i never had many fun experiences versus hunters when i played MvP. fucking thing has more CC then a DaoC healer....

 

[Raven]

Switched to guardian and enjoying it a lot more. One thing that annoys me slightly is the crafting and having to rely on another craft to make some things. I am a metalsmith so to get my tailoring up I need to level something else with forester as a skill to get the leather. I need the leather to make parts for the decent purple armour.

No big problem at the moment as I can just buy the armour I need with the money I have made from silver/gold/platinum so far. Later on when things start to get expensive I think it could be a problem, I am not sure I can be bothered to level anything else up.

 

[Ctuchik]

Switched to guardian and enjoying it a lot more. One thing that annoys me slightly is the crafting and having to rely on another craft to make some things. I am a metalsmith so to get my tailoring up I need to level something else with forester as a skill to get the leather. I need the leather to make parts for the decent purple armour.

No big problem at the moment as I can just buy the armour I need with the money I have made from silver/gold/platinum so far. Later on when things start to get expensive I think it could be a problem, I am not sure I can be bothered to level anything else up.

don't bother with crafting. just sell the materials on the AH and you will have more then enough to buy everything you need as most ppl are more then willing to pay quite insane amounts of money for it so they can power level a new crafter. i had my captain kitted out in all available purples at around lvl 20 and none of it had i crafted myself.

when i played a stack of iron ore would sell for around 500 - 800 silver. and gathering isnt nearly as anal as in WoW as the nodes respawn quite frequently.

 

[Raven]

Well, I have around 8 gold at level 35, a full set of level 41 purple gear, along with my current full set of 36 stuff and working my way up to tier 5 armour crafting. Its very quiet so its a massive materials farming session. Getting a couple of hundred units of metal per evenings play at the moment so getting far more than I need.

I like crafting in MMOs as I like to produce my own gear where I can. A nice little earner as a metalsmith is the crafting tools.

 

[Dreamor]

So, LotR is free to play from today. Where can I d/load the client? I can find no-where on the main homepage to get the game.

Dreamor, I'm looking at you...

Edit: bah, looks like I'm looking at the non-euro site. Euro's don't get free LotR until later in year. Typical.

Not the fault of CM... which is a shame

Hopefully news will come out in the coming week(s)

F2P is available in the US, but the EU are running several Welcome Back Week style events.. so download the client and hop in game