So Bored of PVE Quests, nothing new or challenging

[tamlong]

As the title says. Am I the only one who thinks this way? If so, I will #### up. But...

For me, nothing ever changes quest wise. I would love to have solo quests where you have to work things out, puzzles etc, I am so tired of quests that are 'go kill 20 goblins, orcs, or whatever creature' or go find 'a kiddies toy' or 'go and collect so many of this' which is only the same quest type challenge copy and paste etc etc but on a different level. I have done all that for 95 levels on many alts, and I am so very, very bored that the quests are so unimaginative and simply so boring and the same type of quest copy and paste but in a different area as at level 1-10, 10-20,20-30,30 all the way up to 95 etc. This game has simply become so boring as the devs have no imagination or creativity. I am bored of it all. Am I the only one who thinks this way? (If you ask why I am still here, I will answer, as I am a Tolkien fan, but actually sick to the teeth at the moment of LOTRO and on the verge of quitting) So just wondered if I am the only one like this.

[Warmutkan]

I'm sorry to hear that, tamlong. Regardless of what people think about the game, it's a downer to not enjoy something you've spent so much time playing. I won't stand here and tell you "but there are puzzle quests sometimes!" - that doesn't solve your problem. The best I can suggest is to either find what unexplored parts of the game you do enjoy, or to take a break. If there's a part of the game that you haven't delved into, maybe that will change things up a bit. If not, there's nothing wrong with stepping away for a while. You can always come back again. That might freshen things up a bit, which I think is what you're looking for on the whole.

All the best whatever you decide!

[HaleElven]

I'm not sure what you were expecting... In every MMO I've played, 99% of the quests have been either a) Kill X stuff, b) Collect X stuff or c) Escort brain-dead NPC.

If you want some variety, I'd suggest playing some skirmishes, since the Lieutenants are picked randomly and you have to approach each batch differently depending on which ones you get. Or, to repeat Warmutkan's advice, take a break. See what else is out there.

[NaktiesKarys]

Tamlong,

I can understand your feelings as I levelled my army of alts and each time I had to escort lame NPC, each time kill 30/60 spiders, eqach time find that Tower in the Shire or defending same lame sheriff from 3 waves of attackers.
As for me, things changed when I switched class - form Champion to Minstrel. I started to make Minstrel alts and then nuking enemies. Even untill now, it pleases me to annihilate anything in a distance: 10 seconds - 1 enemy. Maybe it is a partial solution for you.
Back to the topic: it is the way mmorpgs' quests are done. Go and find/kill/escort/gather/craft. I played other games and they have same there - go, find, kill, escort, gather or craft. Just accept it as inevitable evil with some rare exclusions (like performing emotes etc).

[tamlong]

Thank you guys, I get what you are saying, but surely Dev's should offer more of a variety. I have taken long breaks, due to real life circumstances where sometimes I am off game for a few months or two and each time I come back with a sense of freshness that is soon gone. I have explored every area, done every Skirmish x10 or more, and completed every instance, and that is not due to playing every day and therefore exhausting the game time wise, I only play now and again at the moment and have never been able to play 24/7 like some can, so it is not like I have exhausted the game time wise like maybe some can complain, that is not my issue. My issue is that the quests I do now at lvl 95, are exactly the same as I did at every single level up ,to 95. They are exactly the same quests, same task, same ask, just in a different area and level the only difference being the landscape. Tolkien's world was so rich, even as a player I can think up thousand's of different quests lines and challenges that would agree with the lore yet make it fun and exciting and a world of adventure and exploration that an MMO should be. That is my issue, the Dev's have no creativity whatsoever, I could think of far more exciting quests to do in line with the lore and the main story, and I think of those only in my spare time in game. Dev's are paid to surely make this game exciting and surely each level a new and fresh adventure for us the players, yet they don't, they just literally copy and paste the same quest type the only difference being the level. The quests for each level are all the same type of quest, and it has gotten boring, that is my point.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Thank you guys, I get what you are saying, but surely Dev's should offer more of a variety.

Turbine has tried. The majority of the customers complained that they only wanted:
1) Kill them quests.

Other kinds of quests like:
Go talk to NPC, Fetch, Find were too boring. Even quests that had some fighting like Singing to Trees in Lothlorien were hated by many. Others hate the deliver mail in The Shire series. The feedback for puzzles is that they are not doable - replace with kill mobs. A lot of people do not jumping quests - I am one of these because of permanent damage to my left side I am unable to do fine motor skill quests. Things like the Beacon of Eaworth, the climbing title in Eregion, the fence race at Brockenborings or the horse races are not completable for me. The only reason I finished the Hytbold deed on my Hunter was by using one of my stored Favor tokens to get a friend to climb the tower with his Captain and summon my Hunter to the top.

The desire of the Herd (majority of customers) for more killing. Less thought. Has lead to the simple Tank and Spank dynamics for instances. All the kill n mobs quests. With some story quests like Volume 3, Book 11 or the solo instances like Walk with Frodo in Rivendell. Due to Herd complaints Session plays have become optional. They are no longer part of the Epic Line. They no longer provide any rewards beyond cosmetics and perhaps a title via a deed because there is no Epic quest as a wrapper around the Session play.

[OldMadeOfLions]

That is my issue, the Dev's have no creativity whatsoever, I could think of far more exciting quests to do in line with the lore and the main story, and I think of those only in my spare time in game.

Creativity is the easy part, actually. Coming up with interesting characters and exciting storylines is something we do at the beginning of every milestone, and it's very, very fun to do. It's all about dreaming big, and putting those dreams down on paper. It sounds like you'd probably be good at this part too.

And then the hard part starts: we have to take those delicious dreams, so perfect in our heads, and make them real. And it's in this stage where we need to think about reality: how much time do we have to make them? How much unique art will it take, and do the artists have the bandwidth for it? Can our game engine reliably support this quest? How does the quest react when multiple players are around? The other designers on the team are thinking about the same issues, and asking the same questions for their content, and your work needs to not interfere/inhibit theirs, while drawing upon the same Art and Engineering resources. And by the way, all of the content you've ever made in the game is likely being played by someone every single day of the week, and if they run into trouble and file a bug report on it you'll need to stop your work on the current thing and figure out what's going on with the old one. Those are a lot of concerns to juggle.

The real challenge of game design is taking that perfect kernel of an idea and turning it into something real in-game. And it's harder than you think.

MoL

[Vulcwen]

Creativity is the easy part, actually. Coming up with interesting characters and exciting storylines is something we do at the beginning of every milestone, and it's very, very fun to do. It's all about dreaming big, and putting those dreams down on paper. It sounds like you'd probably be good at this part too.

And then the hard part starts: we have to take those delicious dreams, so perfect in our heads, and make them real. And it's in this stage where we need to think about reality: how much time do we have to make them? How much unique art will it take, and do the artists have the bandwidth for it? Can our game engine reliably support this quest? How does the quest react when multiple players are around? The other designers on the team are thinking about the same issues, and asking the same questions for their content, and your work needs to not interfere/inhibit theirs, while drawing upon the same Art and Engineering resources. And by the way, all of the content you've ever made in the game is likely being played by someone every single day of the week, and if they run into trouble and file a bug report on it you'll need to stop your work on the current thing and figure out what's going on with the old one. Those are a lot of concerns to juggle.

The real challenge of game design is taking that perfect kernel of an idea and turning it into something real in-game. And it's harder than you think.

MoL

Yeh, often you have something in your head, and eventually it turns out to be something COMPLETELY different, maybe you can find like 10% of the original idea back, but it blends in with ideas of others, things get scrapped because it's not possible within the timeframe, or others just don't like the idea. It brings frustrations with it because you can't get your "fantasitic" idea in the game, but in the end the process is fun, even if it doesn't turn out perfectly, and you keep learning things from it, which is also really nice.
I think the most important thing is that you shouldn't neglect someone elses opinion, and be ready to scrap your own ideas if they come up with good reasons why it's not a good idea.

I personally love logic puzzles and jumping puzzles, but the lore-puzzles are generally not of my taste, because, I think like most players, I'm not a lore-expert (even though I play a LM XD), if I were I'd like those as well :P.
The most important for these kind of things are that they should be optional, players that want to skip them, should be able to.

[Octaviane]

Creativity is the easy part, actually. Coming up with interesting characters and exciting storylines is something we do at the beginning of every milestone, and it's very, very fun to do. It's all about dreaming big, and putting those dreams down on paper. It sounds like you'd probably be good at this part too.

And then the hard part starts: we have to take those delicious dreams, so perfect in our heads, and make them real. And it's in this stage where we need to think about reality: how much time do we have to make them? How much unique art will it take, and do the artists have the bandwidth for it? Can our game engine reliably support this quest? How does the quest react when multiple players are around? The other designers on the team are thinking about the same issues, and asking the same questions for their content, and your work needs to not interfere/inhibit theirs, while drawing upon the same Art and Engineering resources. And by the way, all of the content you've ever made in the game is likely being played by someone every single day of the week, and if they run into trouble and file a bug report on it you'll need to stop your work on the current thing and figure out what's going on with the old one. Those are a lot of concerns to juggle.

The real challenge of game design is taking that perfect kernel of an idea and turning it into something real in-game. And it's harder than you think.

MoL

And I think that this is what most people forget and always think they can do better. Two things, two very small things by most people's standards that happened to me in game just recently made me heartily applaud the developers, the designers, the creative teams, everyone involved in LoTRO in fact.

1: The acquisition of Nimble Black Goat, so beautifully designed, so pleasing to look at (smelly and all) and for me stunning. He is beautiful. 2: I am the proud owner of a Fangorn Huorn in my yard! WOW! This item has personality plus! Worth so much more to me than 10 Fangorn leaves for quest completion.

Thank you.

[MessyR]

Creativity is the easy part, actually. Coming up with interesting characters and exciting storylines is something we do at the beginning of every milestone, and it's very, very fun to do. It's all about dreaming big, and putting those dreams down on paper. It sounds like you'd probably be good at this part too.

And then the hard part starts: we have to take those delicious dreams, so perfect in our heads, and make them real. And it's in this stage where we need to think about reality: how much time do we have to make them? How much unique art will it take, and do the artists have the bandwidth for it? Can our game engine reliably support this quest? How does the quest react when multiple players are around? The other designers on the team are thinking about the same issues, and asking the same questions for their content, and your work needs to not interfere/inhibit theirs, while drawing upon the same Art and Engineering resources. And by the way, all of the content you've ever made in the game is likely being played by someone every single day of the week, and if they run into trouble and file a bug report on it you'll need to stop your work on the current thing and figure out what's going on with the old one. Those are a lot of concerns to juggle.

The real challenge of game design is taking that perfect kernel of an idea and turning it into something real in-game. And it's harder than you think.

MoL

It must be hard working in such a small team I guess MoL, but I also feel for the OP. The quests are the same old boring repetitve quests, just moved from one area to the next, Helms Deep for me was half decent, it was a huge area and I actually enjoy the quests we got to do, but again like the game has been since probably ToO, I hit my rep kindreds and level cap, got my gear very easily and stopped playing. The quests being the same I can actually deal with, its the after 95 that is the horrible " I dont wanna login" feeling I get that moves me away from the game I actually love. Lets face it if you really wanted to you can grind SH T2C mode for the levelling, many many have, then the odd AH browse for jewels and gear, of course most easily capped crafting rep right at the start of the releases due to the making of the required item every week, no great shakes, the games generally extremely easy to level in and gear up, I do not think I have seen it this easy if the truth be told.

Its as I said the after level cap content thats the problem, I feel thats what makes people stop playing as much as they would if we had newer content to run.

[zagreb000]

yawn

Basically, it takes time and money to create content... Lotro is a 7 year old game with a minuscule player base.. There are other projects that Turbine is working on (that i sincerely hope fail miserably... Ever since Kate Paiz took over, the company, has gone to ####, in regards to content quality..) which are more important... So its understandable that they are investing as little as possible in Lotro...

Its so pathetic seeing so many players asking for meaningful changes to the game..Turbine couldnt even launch an expansion this year because it takes investment they cannot afford.. If it was pre-roi and they took 2 years to launch an expansion while there were 3 major raids, 3 challenging instance clusters.... non generic gear ( they dont even take the time to think of item names anymore.. pathetic).. i would say great... There would have been enough content to keep us busy and entertained for 2 years... What do we have now??? Nothing... The scaled instances are not worth anyone's time, and BB are just excruciatingly boring after 10-15 runs... Lotro is getting less and less investment as time goes by...

And there is not one Developer that will come out honestly and say that... So i suggest, Jump ship, leave the game, wait for more content.. I play Lotro for 2 months every year.. 1 month to get all the gear, do all the quests.. and another month of repetition until i get so bored i want to smash my face into the desk...

Im still hanging around the forums to see when they will announce Gondor... I just want to walk through the White city... After that to hell with Turbine and their average games...

[Drawbar]

Give a choise and nothing will be boring for no one.. Tie it into a mandatory string and even the least boring quests, get boring

[Octaviane]

Can anyone point to an MMO that isn't like LoTRO in terms of grind?

I have said it before and I will repeat...if you don't like playing the game, don't play. Go and play something else that is different but still has repetitive content.

[zagreb000]

Can anyone point to an MMO that isn't like LoTRO in terms of grind?

I have said it before and I will repeat...if you don't like playing the game, don't play. Go and play something else that is different but still has repetitive content.

Guild wars 2, Swotor and yes, even WOW... when i told my friend who played wow for over 6 years that in order to get one gear piece of the new gear that is only slightly better then the old one, it takes a month of doing same daylies over and over again... he laughed in my face...

Then he stood in amazement when he realized that pve repeatable quests give the best gear in the game.. he concluded that there must be some really hard content for which you use that gear.. a raid boss you can only take down if you have the best gear... a challenging solo quest line....

when i set him straight and told him that the most challenging thing in this game is walking up an down a bridge with your eyes closed, counting how many times you can do it without falling, he asked me why i even bother with a game like that....

And i said i was waiting... waiting to jump from the Minas Tirith citadel screaming: abandon your posts...flee, flee for your lives! That is the only thing i still want to do here... so please Turbine announce the damn expansion so i can stop coming here and commenting on those that are in clear denial... generating conflict

[Tiempko]

I believe that there would be more of a sense of challenge in PvE quests if they were not all so boringly easy. That is to say, nearly all of them can be completed by walking into an area, blasting everything in site, picking up the prize, and walking back. There's no need to spend time figuring out a strategy, or wondering about the best use of one's skills, or any such thing. Even at level + 5 (I purchased an XP disabler to make quests more challenging) I can stomp on red and orange creatures the way I used to stomp on green and blue.

Today, I created a new character. I immediately bought and equipped an XP disabler. I went through the entire introduction - including the instance at the end - at first level and emerged in the world with 0 XP. And it was not due to luck or skill. The game is just that easy.

[Widoch]

The only advice I can offer you is what I'm doing right now. Take a break, go do something else for a bit and then try coming back. I did this once before with LOTRO and it seemed to work for me. Any MMO is going to go stale after a while.

[rosey21]

I believe that there would be more of a sense of challenge in PvE quests if they were not all so boringly easy. That is to say, nearly all of them can be completed by walking into an area, blasting everything in site, picking up the prize, and walking back. There's no need to spend time figuring out a strategy, or wondering about the best use of one's skills, or any such thing. Even at level + 5 (I purchased an XP disabler to make quests more challenging) I can stomp on red and orange creatures the way I used to stomp on green and blue.

Today, I created a new character. I immediately bought and equipped an XP disabler. I went through the entire introduction - including the instance at the end - at first level and emerged in the world with 0 XP. And it was not due to luck or skill. The game is just that easy.

Not everyone who plays wants to think out strategy, etc.... just saying

[Octaviane]

I play GW2 and while you can follow several different paths, the end is still the same and you still have to do the same repetitive content in each area. That is the key word, repetitive. I am certain the same is true for SWTOR and WoW although I have not played either.

The advice given here is the best, take a break or don't play at all and also stop griefing yourself (and others) by coming to the forums and complaining about what none of us have any control over and that applies across all game forums.

[Dernudan]

Are you kidding me? WoW does not have repetitive quest structure?
That is not true. Every quest in WoW is the exact same type as in LOTRO, the only difference is that LOTRO has good quest text.

[Tiempko]

Not everyone who plays wants to think out strategy, etc.... just saying

No, but not everybody would try the Archet instance with a first level character either. However, it does not follow that we should not expect that a player who completes the Archet instance at first level should need to use some strategy.

Relating thus to the opening pits, making it the case that players can at least engineer an option that requires some thought may be useful in preventing all instances from being alike. Having to actually worry about positions, patrols, crowd control, and terrain may provide a way of combatting the sense that all encounters are alike.

[Nymphonic]

As the title says. Am I the only one who thinks this way? If so, I will #### up. But...

For me, nothing ever changes quest wise. I would love to have solo quests where you have to work things out, puzzles etc, I am so tired of quests that are 'go kill 20 goblins, orcs, or whatever creature' or go find 'a kiddies toy' or 'go and collect so many of this' which is only the same quest type challenge copy and paste etc etc but on a different level. I have done all that for 95 levels on many alts, and I am so very, very bored that the quests are so unimaginative and simply so boring and the same type of quest copy and paste but in a different area as at level 1-10, 10-20,20-30,30 all the way up to 95 etc. This game has simply become so boring as the devs have no imagination or creativity. I am bored of it all. Am I the only one who thinks this way? (If you ask why I am still here, I will answer, as I am a Tolkien fan, but actually sick to the teeth at the moment of LOTRO and on the verge of quitting) So just wondered if I am the only one like this.

When I'm like that I start playing single player games until I am in the LOTRO mood again. There is nothing wrong or bad about being tired of a game.

[Jillymala]

As the title says. Am I the only one who thinks this way? If so, I will #### up. But...

For me, nothing ever changes quest wise. I would love to have solo quests where you have to work things out, puzzles etc, I am so tired of quests that are 'go kill 20 goblins, orcs, or whatever creature' or go find 'a kiddies toy' or 'go and collect so many of this' which is only the same quest type challenge copy and paste etc etc but on a different level. I have done all that for 95 levels on many alts, and I am so very, very bored that the quests are so unimaginative and simply so boring and the same type of quest copy and paste but in a different area as at level 1-10, 10-20,20-30,30 all the way up to 95 etc. This game has simply become so boring as the devs have no imagination or creativity. I am bored of it all. Am I the only one who thinks this way? (If you ask why I am still here, I will answer, as I am a Tolkien fan, but actually sick to the teeth at the moment of LOTRO and on the verge of quitting) So just wondered if I am the only one like this.

Come to Creepside... Quests aren't mandatory yet are there if you wish

[Whitestones]

As the title says. Am I the only one who thinks this way? If so, I will #### up. But...

For me, nothing ever changes quest wise. I would love to have solo quests where you have to work things out, puzzles etc, I am so tired of quests that are 'go kill 20 goblins, orcs, or whatever creature' or go find 'a kiddies toy' or 'go and collect so many of this' which is only the same quest type challenge copy and paste etc etc but on a different level. I have done all that for 95 levels on many alts, and I am so very, very bored that the quests are so unimaginative and simply so boring and the same type of quest copy and paste but in a different area as at level 1-10, 10-20,20-30,30 all the way up to 95 etc. This game has simply become so boring as the devs have no imagination or creativity. I am bored of it all. Am I the only one who thinks this way? (If you ask why I am still here, I will answer, as I am a Tolkien fan, but actually sick to the teeth at the moment of LOTRO and on the verge of quitting) So just wondered if I am the only one like this.

Oh no, you aren't the only one. Every year this game has been out, after every expansion, there have been the chorus of 'I hate [insert here] and if it doesn't change I quit!' posts on the forums. For the longest time it was 'I hate quests that force you to group! If that doesn't change I quit!' so I had to chuckle, upon my return from a long hiatus, to see posts saying 'I hate that the quests are solo-friendly! If that doesn't change I quit!'

I seriously doubt that the dev team have the resources to introduce anything earthshakingly original at this point - and even if they did, considering how the forums erupted like Mount Doom on a bad day over everything from Rune-Keepers, the Trait system being too complicated (and then too easy), Legendary Items, etc. etc. etc. etc. ad nausea, I don't know if the devs even want to try anything original anymore.

You have the option of continuing to play, of taking a hiatus, or leaving altogether. Those are your three choices.

[Nymphonic]

Can anyone point to an MMO that isn't like LoTRO in terms of grind?

I have said it before and I will repeat...if you don't like playing the game, don't play. Go and play something else that is different but still has repetitive content.

Star Wars The Old Republic and World of Warcraft bored me to tears. Ugh. Was exactly the same as LOTRO.

[Whart]

Star Wars The Old Republic and World of Warcraft bored me to tears. Ugh. Was exactly the same as LOTRO.

Wait, you're saying LOTRO bored you to tears?