Hidden Nuggets we see all the time...

[Beery]

I think the biggest lore-break I've found so far is the moon being full every single night...

That and the fact that the Great Bear, Orion and the Pleiades (in Middle-Earth: Valacirca, Menelvagor and Remmirath) are all in geo-stationary Middle-Earth orbit, which is physically impossible, not to mention contrary to LotR lore.

[Northwoods]

I've red elsewhere that the runes on the targeting circle actually read something along the lines of, "The one which is chosen"

[Parker]

You may HAVE 10 Hope when you're near him, but he doesn't himself GIVE 10 Hope. If he did, you would have 15 Hope overall, since the Vale of Imladris itself gives you 5 Hope.
And if you're right, and he does himself give 10 Hope, then can I borrow him for Barad Gularan, please?

His hope doesn't stack with the environmental.

I've red elsewhere that the runes on the targeting circle actually read something along the lines of, "The one which is chosen"

Yes, we uncovered that one in beta. I love it.

[Palenen]

I think the biggest lore-break I've found so far is the moon being full every single night. Berephon should've been all over that one.

Oh you didn't notice it was actually Earth's moon? If your a star gazer, you will see the stars are the same as our sky as well. Constellations and all. hehe
Not to get off the subject but the one thing our soldiers over in Iraq get to see is a full sky of stars. At night, It's completely dark. You can even make out the arms of the milky way. Pretty cool huh?

Not as much as a lore monkey as some but some things 'click' when I read them and I have to look it up. For instance, Gandalf actually guessed it was a riddle and said 'Mellon.' He just didn't happen upon it. The lines of the Moria gate were described as 'like slender veins of silver running in the stone." Then "twinkled fitfully where the Moon caught them." Descibed as Elvish characters then of course words. No Runes. Wouldn't want to mislead anyone.

Im a geography nut. I also play a Elf from Lindon. Lindon is west of the Ered Luin (Blue Mountains) and not north of our in game zone 'Ered Luin.' Im hoping that road takes us to Forochel. The name Lindon of our in game map shows it a bit too far east. 'For' meaning north in elvish for Forlindon and 'Har' meaning south for Harlindon. It's in the maps of the books. Stated before when this game was just forums, Himling will be in game. Used to be called Himring and was a watch tower in northern Himlad. One of the last remaining areas of the Northern Kingdoms called Bereliand. Now mainly atols out in Belegaer(sea).

I skimmed over every post on this thread and didn't see mention of Bilbo's Trolls frozen in stone when Gandalf, using their own voices, distracted them from taking shelter allowing the sun to come. Bilbo being chicken and hidden from view wearing The One Ring. Hmmm, perhaps this is where chicken play came from?

[Merciful_Death]

I think the biggest lore-break I've found so far is the moon being full every single night. Berephon should've been all over that one.

That one was covered in the forums pre-forum-wipe, if I recall correctly. It's a matter of allocation of dev time and program size.
Along the same theme as why the level 1-10 gear is not so flashy or well diversified; it makes less impact than the other things that get more attention.

And yes, the constant full moon bothers me every time I notice it. But not as much now as it used to.

[Resi]

I don't think anyone mentioned this: The map your character examines when you "Map Home" is same as the Middle-Earth map included in the LOTR books.

[Beery]

Oh you didn't notice it was actually Earth's moon? If your a star gazer, you will see the stars are the same as our sky as well. Constellations and all. hehe

As I understand it Middle-Earth is Earth, but tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago. So the constellations and moon should be the same as ours. They should also move and behave as the stars, planets and moons in our neighborhood do .

[Laire]

Oh you didn't notice it was actually Earth's moon? If your a star gazer, you will see the stars are the same as our sky as well. Constellations and all. hehe
Not to get off the subject but the one thing our soldiers over in Iraq get to see is a full sky of stars. At night, It's completely dark. You can even make out the arms of the milky way. Pretty cool huh?

Not as much as a lore monkey as some but some things 'click' when I read them and I have to look it up. For instance, Gandalf actually guessed it was a riddle and said 'Mellon.' He just didn't happen upon it. The lines of the Moria gate were described as 'like slender veins of silver running in the stone." Then "twinkled fitfully where the Moon caught them." Descibed as Elvish characters then of course words. No Runes. Wouldn't want to mislead anyone.

Im a geography nut. I also play a Elf from Lindon. Lindon is west of the Ered Luin (Blue Mountains) and not north of our in game zone 'Ered Luin.' Im hoping that road takes us to Forochel. The name Lindon of our in game map shows it a bit too far east. 'For' meaning north in elvish for Forlindon and 'Har' meaning south for Harlindon. It's in the maps of the books. Stated before when this game was just forums, Himling will be in game. Used to be called Himring and was a watch tower in northern Himlad. One of the last remaining areas of the Northern Kingdoms called Bereliand. Now mainly atols out in Belegaer(sea).

I skimmed over every post on this thread and didn't see mention of Bilbo's Trolls frozen in stone when Gandalf, using their own voices, distracted them from taking shelter allowing the sun to come. Bilbo being chicken and hidden from view wearing The One Ring. Hmmm, perhaps this is where chicken play came from?

Yea, Middle-earth is supposed to be our own world thousands upon thousands of years ago. I believe one of the reasons Tolkien originally created LOTR was because England did not have a proper, old mythology of its own... Middle-earth and its history turned into that mythology. I don't have Letters of JRR Tolkien with me at the moment, but I'll look it up in there and see if I can pull up any quotes.

I know I want to see all of Middle-earth put up one day, even if there are desolated spots that are not very active with anything other than a few wild mobs. The remainder of Beleriand is certainly something to be seen. Who knows, maybe we will see some First Age stuff there?

Oh, Bilbo's stone trolls are a classic- one small correction though. He did not have the Ring at the time of this. He got the Ring from Gollum in the Misty Mountains, so it's still a bit early for that. The trolls were actually arguing over him and how to eat the "burrahobbit"

[Moonhawk]

Glorfindel is supposed to be 10. Can't say that he actually is, but he's supposed to be.

Hi Bere,

I was wondering why the Hope that these characters give us fades so quickly? I think a nice dynamic would be if being in their prescence gives us Hope for 10, 20, 30 minutes, or something like that, irregardles of where we then travel to. It could then fade over time.

[Fellon]

To be lore correct, burglars should be able to pick pocket trolls. As Bilbo did in The Hobbit.

"Then Bilbo plucked up courage and put his little hand in William's pocket. There was a purse in it, as big as a bag to Bilbo"

I've yet to find a troll that I could pick pocket....

[Berephon]

You may HAVE 10 Hope when you're near him, but he doesn't himself GIVE 10 Hope. If he did, you would have 15 Hope overall, since the Vale of Imladris itself gives you 5 Hope.
And if you're right, and he does himself give 10 Hope, then can I borrow him for Barad Gularan, please?

Not so, Hope caps at 10, and you actually get a message saying so if you enter a situation where stacking would cause it to go over. (In fact, a friend told me that he got such a message when he stood next to Glorfindel--something like +10 Hope, Hope maxed at +10 (not the exact wording, but the gist.)

[Berephon]

Can I pick it up at GenCon when I stop by?

Of course. It can be in whatever design you can imagine.

[Berephon]

Hi Bere,

I was wondering why the Hope that these characters give us fades so quickly? I think a nice dynamic would be if being in their prescence gives us Hope for 10, 20, 30 minutes, or something like that, irregardles of where we then travel to. It could then fade over time.

I actually agree here, and I'm not sure why we don't have it last at least 10 mins (that's Game Systems, so I can't speak to it. There may be a technical reason.) As it stands, unless an NPC shows up to help you in an instance, NPC-based Hope only serves as fluff (sometimes cool fluff, but fluff nonetheless.)

[Berephon]

To answer a few other lore-nugget issues:

Yes, the moon is always full and the constellations, while lore-accurate in their positioning according to Tolkien's descriptions, are in geo-synchronous orbit. Making them more "real" in terms of movement would take a lot of resources . . . it was decided that the sky pretty much standing still and looking pretty was a better compromise than losing some truly game-impacting active visuals/mechanics. That's a give-take decision that any game developer has to make.

Bilbo did *not* pick the troll's pocket . . . he *tried* to pick the troll's pocket. The bag gave him away. (I guess trolls have talking wallets--now that would actually be a humorous twist: try to pickpocket a troll and have some color text appear giving the player away, with instant aggro from the troll. No, I don't think it'll get in there, but it would be funny.)

And yes, Middle-earth is supposed to be our own Earth. I believe it is in C. Tolkien's commentary in the Histories that he mentions that the Silmarillion was supposed to be the history of the Elves as told to an Anglo-Saxon by one of the last remaining Elves.

[Beery]

I actually agree here, and I'm not sure why we don't have it last at least 10 mins (that's Game Systems, so I can't speak to it. There may be a technical reason.) As it stands, unless an NPC shows up to help you in an instance, NPC-based Hope only serves as fluff (sometimes cool fluff, but fluff nonetheless.)

Since we're on the subject of duration of effects, I think wound effects should last much longer. There's absolutely no point in using any of the potions for wounds because the wound effects wear off so quickly. A wound should last a very long time unless treated and every wound I've ever had in LotRO has completely disappeared in the time it's taken to find my next victim. As the game currently stands wounds aren't even a minor inconvenience - the situation is so bad that I've had to sell every wound potion to an NPC because wound potions are so useless to players.

A wound should last ten minutes at the very least - perhaps even 20 or 30 minutes. Then we'd have an incentive to carry wound potions into battle.

[strohminator]

Since we're on the subject of duration of effects, I think wound effects should last much longer. There's absolutely no point in using any of the potions for wounds because the wound effects wear off so quickly. A wound should last a very long time unless treated and every wound I've ever had in LotRO has completely disappeared in the time it's taken to find my next victim. As the game currently stands wounds aren't even a minor inconvenience - the situation is so bad that I've had to sell every wound potion to an NPC because wound potions are so useless to players.

A wound should last ten minutes at the very least - perhaps even 20 or 30 minutes. Then we'd have an incentive to carry wound potions into battle.

Try being a burglar soloing elite trolls. I was doing fine on a named troll until he wounded me and left me unable to evade. The 3 minute duration was plenty for him to pound me into dust (had I not run away).

Given that dread from defeat lasts 10 minutes, it's highly unlikely that a sprain will last more than 2-3 minutes.

[Beery]

Yes, the moon is always full and the constellations, while lore-accurate in their positioning according to Tolkien's descriptions, are in geo-synchronous orbit. Making them more "real" in terms of movement would take a lot of resources...

That is a puzzling response indeed, given what we can see in the game. You may be unaware of this but the background stars DO move - they are NOT in geo-synchronous orbit. Surely making the Big Dipper, Pleiades and Orion stay still in the sky took MORE resources than it would have taken to just use a real sky image for the background stars. I mean the background image is just that -a simple image. The program simply rotates this image around the game world on an axis. Many games have this process in place - Ryzom and SWG are two other MMOGs that have it. Simulation games like Silent Hunter III and Silent Hunter III use a real star field image, so it seems intuitive to me that such a thing could very easily be done for LotRO - you just remove the Big Dipper, Orion and the Pleiades and you change out the fictional star field background and replace it with a real star field image.

Of course now it would take some resources to make this happen, but what I'm saying is that originally it took a lot more resources to do it wrong than it would have taken to do it right.

[Beery]

Try being a burglar soloing elite trolls. I was doing fine on a named troll until he wounded me and left me unable to evade. The 3 minute duration was plenty for him to pound me into dust (had I not run away)...

And if you had a potion you'd have been fine. This does not negate my argument. In fact, wounds SHOULD do exactly what you're suggesting would be unacceptable - they should be a potential danger when we're fighting elite creatures above our level. If we have no reason to use potions, why have them in the game at all?

Dread from defeat should last a shorter time than a wound. Dread actually works in the game because it lasts long enough to be a burden. Wounds do not.

[Berephon]

That is a puzzling response indeed, given what we can see in the game. You may be unaware of this but the background stars DO move - they are NOT in geo-synchronous orbit. Surely making the Big Dipper, Pleiades and Orion stay still in the sky took MORE resources than it would have taken to just use a real sky image for the background stars. I mean the background image is just that -a simple image. The program simply rotates this image around the game world on an axis. Many games have this process in place - Ryzom and SWG are two other MMOGs that have it. Simulation games like Silent Hunter III and Silent Hunter III use a real star field image, so it seems intuitive to me that such a thing could very easily be done for LotRO - you just remove the Big Dipper, Orion and the Pleiades and you change out the fictional star field background and replace it with a real star field image.

Of course now it would take some resources to make this happen, but what I'm saying is that originally it took a lot more resources to do it wrong than it would have taken to do it right.

As much as I would like to clarify, I'm only going on answers I'd seen pre-release. I'm not a techie . . . sorry!

[Berephon]

And if you had a potion you'd have been fine. This does not negate my argument. In fact, wounds SHOULD do exactly what you're suggesting would be unacceptable - they should be a potential danger when we're fighting elite creatures above our level. If we have no reason to use potions, why have them in the game at all?

Dread from defeat should last a shorter time than a wound. Dread actually works in the game because it lasts long enough to be a burden. Wounds do not.

IMO, I agree and disagree. Wound-healing salves right now are utterly useless, since they can't be used during combat, and as you say, wounds are usually gone by then (though I've had occasions where they weren't, but those were extremely rare.) However, flasks are definitely useful . . . I've had wounds last long enough in combat with some non-elites that I would have been defeated well before battle end had I not had wound-healing flasks.

That in no way negates your overall point, but just thought that the difference in current value between flasks and salves was valid.

Anyway, we digress again . . . hidden nuggets and brief discussions of those only please!

[Eothain]

(I guess trolls have talking wallets--now that would actually be a humorous twist: try to pickpocket a troll and have some color text appear giving the player away, with instant aggro from the troll. No, I don't think it'll get in there, but it would be funny.)

Now that you have put the image into my mind, I MUST HAVE THIS.

[gildhur]

Bilbo did *not* pick the troll's pocket . . . he *tried* to pick the troll's pocket. The bag gave him away. (I guess trolls have talking wallets--now that would actually be a humorous twist: try to pickpocket a troll and have some color text appear giving the player away, with instant aggro from the troll. No, I don't think it'll get in there, but it would be funny.)

Actually, I think when the Burgle skill was first introduced in Beta, a failed Burgle would indeed aggro the unsuspecting target. Fortunately now it just gives you a message of failure, and you can move forward with your combat (or combat avoidance) strategy.

[Judiah]

Nine for mortal men, doomed to die
Ding! You win an imaginary pipe!

Interesting... Wonder if we could get a bit more info on this. Which screen? Cause when I look at the Witch King's helm I see these runes:




Which I translate as Sindarin for "Supreme King of the Dead"...

BTW I've made it a bit of a hobby of mine of translating the stuff I find in game, Here's a thread at my kinships forums where I go through and do a bit. This reminds me I need to update it...

[Silverlocket]

Sometimes it's just fun to stand around and listen to what NPCs talk about. The serving girl at the Forsaken Inn, the men sitting at the table near the Wood Gate in Bree, the woman yelling at the brigands in Bree, various hobbits all over the Shire, the elf and the dwarf squabbling over prices in Gondamon... NPCs carrying on conversations is just a lovely touch. And just wonderful to just stand around and listen.

Personally, I would like a quest or something that would allow me to put a hurtin' on the loan sharks trying to shake down the farmer in the Prancing Pony, or at least to turn them over to the guard or something. I hate those guys.


Back on the topic, I was showing my brother and nephew around parts of Eriador last night. They loved it.

[Beery]

One of the hidden nuggets we see all the time that isn't fun is the hobbit minstrel on the stage in the Prancing Pony. As far as I can tell we only get snippets of a story and none of what she says makes any sense. I wish she told a real story. Actually it would be great if she had about ten different stories on a randomizer, so we had a good chance of hearing a different tale every time we visited the Pony.

Then there's the minstrel trainer in the Pony - he plays the same snippet of music over and over again. A few songs played through, again on a randomizer, would make it a bit more real and a bit less annoying for those of us who must visit him every now and then.