LOTRO: Going Free-To-Play
The gaming community has been all a-buzz about the news that Lord of the Rings Online is going to a free-to-play model sometime this fall. This means that anyone will be able to download and play the game absolutely free. I am both worried and intrigued about what this means for the game. After thinking about it for awhile, I believe that it will be a long-term boon for the game.
I bought the Lifetime subscription when the game first launched, so the game going free-to-play does not affect me or my characters very much. I still get access to all parts of the game and no restrictions to gear or quests. Those who are paying a monthly fee also get similar access to the game.
The people playing the game for free have quite a few restrictions to deal with, such as less bag space, lower gold cap, no rest experience, and only one character slot per server. The free player can get these features if they purchase them via the Turbine Store.
I believe this change will help bring more players to the game. Free is free, after all. I really hope that this change to the game will bring in many new players so that the world becomes more alive. As I play the game now, I certainly notice that the newbie area populations are very low. To be fair, most MMO’s of LOTRO’s age have fewer low-level players, but the areas sure are quiet right now.
Big changes ahead, to be sure. Is this a desperate grab for a game that is barely hanging on? Or is it a shrewd move to bring in more revenue (Lifetime members like me earn them no money at all)?
If nothing else, I want to see more people playing the game. It would be fantastic to see all the zones filled with as many players as there were during the initial launch. That would be a great thing indeed.
The official press release is here. The informative FAQ and a great deal more information can be found here.
–Wolfen
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LOTRO: Combe Quest Hub
The one thing you can say about the town of Combe is that it gives you plenty of things to do. I picked up a good number of quests upon my arrival, so I checked my gear and headed out to claim my fame and fortune.
The first quest I embarked upon was called Message to Taylor Green. Taylor can be found in the lumberyard located to the east of Combe. Several more quests are available at the lumberyard and I grabbed them all.
Taylor gives me the Den of Wolves quests, which required me to go into the nearby forest and kill 8 wolves. The wolves were nearby and I quickly dispatched the required number of beasts. Also at the lumberyard is a guy named Posco Burro. He wanted me to go find his uncle who had gone to have a word or two with the evil Blackwolds located in the Chetwood forest. I found his uncle along a forest road and he then sent me on a quest to find his missing handkerchief. Other quests that sent me into the Chetwood were Morning the Dead, which had me looking for a stolen fishing pole, Reconnecting Ties to find a missing boy, Beneath the Hanging tree to find some buried treasure, and a few others to boot.
I completed these quests fairly quickly. I would imagine that was because I had done them before, even though it had been a long time since I had last played. Almost all of the quests required me to go into various Blackwood encampments throughout the forest, kill everyone I found, and loot the required item. The fishing pole was at one camp and the Blackwold lock-box (for the quest Unpaid Debts) at another.
The Beneath the Hanging Tree quest sent me over to the river to dig for treasure buried there. Turns out all the trees had been cut down and only the stumps remained, which made it impossible to know which tree the Hanging Tree was. So I was sent to someone who has a ledger that would lead me the exact spot, but the guy has lost it and I must retrieve it.
I found the ledger inside a Blackwold Lock-box that was located in a heavily guarded camp. The camp with the lock-box had about 5 Blackwolds in it and there was also a level 8 elite named Captain Dogwood. He roams around the general area and walks right through the camp every now and then. I suggest picking him off before you tackle the camp so that things go smoothly. He didn’t give me any trouble. The ledger gave me the location of the Hanging tree’s stump and I quickly dug up the treasure and returned it to its owner.
Reconnecting Ties had me looking for the missing boy named Covell Woodwright. It seems as though he ran off to join with the Blackwoods and has no intention of returning to his mother. He attacked me when I spoke to him and then ran off into the Blackwold camp before I could kill him (the quest is scripted that way). His mother didn’t like the news.
With the above quests and several more besides, I was able to get quite a bit accomplished and had some fun. Several of the quest rewards resulted in nice armor upgrades and I also reached level 12 by the time I stopped for the night. I was disappointed, once again, to find that all the battles posed no challenge. I never came close to dying. I hope the trend does not continue.
–Wolfen
Read MoreLOTRO: Impressions Of The First 10 Levels
It has been a long time since I have played Lord of the Rings Online. I started playing on launch day and made it into the late 30′s until my friends and I moved on to other things. With my return, I was curious to see how things have changed from the way I remember them. I recently completed the first ten levels, and from what I can tell, the changes have been subtle.
LOTRO: Archet After The Fall
Anyone who has played a human in Lord of the Rings Online will be intimately familiar with what I recount here. Be that as it may, I must start somewhere, so I now begin to tell the tale of my human hunter named Wolfbow.
Once you complete the starter instance, which takes place in a small town named Archet, you are placed in the “real” game world. Archet is not the same town you started in. It was terribly burned during the invasion, and as you would expect, the world has greatly changed around you.
 Archet after the burn |
The first few quests I picked up were: Burying the Dead, A Threat from Spiders, Disease Among the Boars, and a quest started after I had previously killed the Marsh-Fly Queen. The quests are pretty straight forward. I had to find the bodies of three men and bury them, kill 10 diseased boars, and kill some spiders over at Quigley’s farm.
The spider quest led me to finding the famous dwarf Bali just before he died. It ended with me killing a big spider named Iornaith in the spider infested tunnels beneath Quigley’s farm. These quests netted me around 90 copper per quest, better shoulderpads, and a better helm to wear.
 Burying the Dead |
Finishing these quests earned me level 10 and some nice new skills to go along with it:
 Spider Caves |
 Bali the Dwarf is dead |
The next couple of quests sent me to the town of Combe, one of which was to find a ranger named Toradan, who wants me to help find the missing ranger Amdir. With these quests, my stay at the little town of Archet it at an end.
Read MoreArchet After The Burn
The newbie introductory instance in Lord of the Rings Online ended with me defending the town of Archet while it was under attack. The bad guys were driven off, but not before the town went up in flames. This is a good example of instancing done right. When you exit the instance and enter the game proper, Archet is a burned out town from that point on.
The first few quests are of your standard newbie type. I was sent out to kill diseased boars and a few spiders outside the Archet gates. I was whacking spiders around the Sprigley farm when I discovered their cellar. This is where my memory fails me because I can’t remember if this was in the game during the initial launch. I can only assume that it was.
When I entered the cellar I discovered underground caves full of spiders. I roamed around a bit and eventually came across an elite spider named Iornaith. The room this big spider called home was full of baby spiders but they did not attack me. I engaged Iornaith in battle and was easily victorious.
As it turns out, all of that was wasted time. I made it back to town only to be given a quest that would take me back to the caverns. I was tasked with finding a missing dwarf named Bali, and I found him near a cave entrance that turned out to be the rear entrance to the Sprigley cellar. Bali barely escaped the spiders with his life. His companions were not so lucky. He sent me into the cavern to find his dead companions and retrieve some journal entries from them. The bodies were wrapped in cocoons and were found in various sections of the cave. Once that was done, another quest sent me to kill Iornath, so I went back and slayed the big spider again.
Things have been easy so far. My character has not come close to dying, which is either good or bad, depending on how you look at it. The Guardian class has been fun so far.
