Feedback after long break

[Sakuko]

I Stop playing Lotro 2014, after this Time many Things happend here and i enjoy the World of Lotro again.

i have some Points that impress me but also annoy me.



- Horse Speed and Running Speed: The Maps are huge and i mean Huge. The base speed of horses and characters is too slow. Yes you can buy in Shop some items to speed up them. But this speed is also to slow for so Huge Maps.

- Warhorse: Is on Lev 60 after all this Time ? I know it's not popular, but doing nothing at all on the system is not a solution. 3 Hits in Mordor an the Enemys shoot me from my Warhorse like a normal Horse ###. Level them up and give new items for the Warhorses.

- Mordor: I found Mordor annoying and empty. There is nothing, its a Big Empty Area, there is no LotR feeling Guys,especially the lack of travel opportunities to get from A to B. Epos ? Boring, Boring and Boring. Look back at the old Epos you have the feeling you do some for the Alliance, you have fights in Dungons and do some usfull Stuff but also some usless Stuff but i have the feeling iam in the middle of the Story. In Mordor iam only a spectator i have no feeling iam the Part of the Story and this sucks.

-Erebor, Gundabad and all the New Areas: Looks Amazing and i enjoy every Hour in this Areas, Good Map Desing and Quests

-Legendary Weapons: After all these years I've lost track on the Weapon System. The Players Ingame show me the New System, there was no Quests Which explains that and this is not good my dear Devs. But the new system is worlds better than the old one. Thanks for that.

-PvP: I take a look on PvP, yeah its Dead. thanks for That ?! Turbine loses many Players, Players that Pay an Abo to Play PvP. You apparently don't want to make any sales its ok

- Server Perfomance: The worst I've seen in the last years. The lags are huge and Lotro have not so many Players Online on the Servers. There also only US Servers. I have a Question ? How many EU Players, Play Lotro. I thinks many. Finally set up servers in the EU, than comes also EU Players back.

- Charakter creation: Same Boring Faces, Haircuts, Eyes etc since 2007. You can seel in the Shop new Haircuts for examble etc, but i forgott you need no Money.

- Fly and Dive: Why in Lotro never bring this ? The Maps are so Huge you can use easy Fly Mounts or Fly Travel. You also have the opportunity to introduce diving. That would open whole new doors for quests.


I still enjoy the game, but you should broaden your horizons, we have the Year 2022. All its possible!

You want players back permanently, Then you guys be more innovative and smart. Not every content costs a lot of money to develop.

greetings

[Schattenhand]

I Stop playing Lotro 2014, after this Time many Things happend here and i enjoy the World of Lotro again.

i have some Points that impress me but also annoy me.

Welcome back!

Some notes:

- Warhorse: Yeah it's silly. But for the problem you mentioned: trait "medium" and get the Horse-Skill "Sacrifice". When activated, the damage from nearby mobs goes directly to you, not to your horse. https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Sacrifice_(War-steed)

-PvP: An old dev has returned to the team and is looking into it. So again a bit of hope.

- Charakter creation: Not exactly 2007, there was some sort of graphical revamp some years ago. At the bottom of your character select screen, there is something like "Avatar update visible". Check the box. But aside from that, it's a bit stale, i agree.

- Fly: There are some eagle stable routes (without animations, but instant loading screen.) Everything else (diving also) wouldn't fit the lore and they've mentioned several times, that areas/the world - IF they wanted to bring something like that - would need to be build with such thing in mind. You can't simply bring in flying mounts without the need to place invisible barrier all over the place, so that players can't get out of bound in every corner. And everything outside of playable areas would need to be way more visually developed. Lotro sometimes has a huge 'distance visibility'. Seeing half baked or boring areas in every direction all the time, wouldn't fit the overall scenery.
And on what should a player fly? Everything that is able to fly and carrying you - is evil. And the great eagles only do it under certain circumstances, so almost never.

[PatasdoLeao]

- Horse Speed and Running Speed: If we go faster, It will raise the possibility of we fall in the rivers and lakes.

- Warhorse: Is on Lev 60 I believe warhorses was just part of culture, like the rohirrins. I don't see how they would balance the fight nowadays, since we got very stronger.

- Mordor: I agree. Should have a way into the Mordor Volcano or a internal pits which follow the level cap.

-PvP: I don't see an balancement between professions to establish PVP.

- Server Perfomance: I agree, they have already heard our complaints and are working on the issue.

- Fly and Dive: Would be... weird.

[TesalionLortus]

This is just more of the same, meaning issues devs are aware of but can't really spare their resources OR a player expectance that lotro becomes just like all other MMOs *just because* (also ignoring how the world looks to begin with, on a technical level, with that eagle idea)

Except the mention about the story but then again... sounds like SoA romanticism to me, the Mordor story was actually pretty neat and focused and we do A LOT in there the only downside being how slowly it proceeds (read: we take a break from it, then some characters return, then break again, different story angles introduced etc). But in truth - SoA had a lot of such breaks and apparently irrelevant escapades too, being scattered across Eriador and all that. The main difference between two narratives is that Angmar/Carn Dum in SoA was that big finale, the dangerous crowning of all of Eriador arcs, whereas Mordor after Fall is merely the beginning and introduction of new bad guys/issues/plot threats not the crowning. The crowning of the actual Sauron's Mordor was the Pelennor and the Wastes/Battle of Black Gate... though we also got a Second Age Mordor as an after taste of that and it was amazing

[Tarante11a]

I returned to the game about a month ago and I agree with much of what you've said.

Server performance aside, and not that anyone asked me, I think the most pressing things are the Essence/Legendary systems, narrative streamlining, a graphics brush up and a currency cull.

Essences/LI - I've been back a few weeks now and I still can't get my head around how these work and what I'm supposed to do, simply because I can't really be bothered with all the different types of 'thing' you have to socket. Customising your own gear is great up to a point, but imvho, there are too many flavours of 'thing' and too many levels of each system. I'd prefer it if they were rolled into one system and simplified a bit with better instructions. Most other MMOs have a healthy satellite industry of content creators telling you how to go about this stuff. While I don't really like that AND I don't want to denigrate the fab Lotro creators or the Wiki, I think easy-to-digest info is thin on the ground. There needs to be a step by step explanation of how these systems work.

Narrative - I've been playing the Epic quests with a friend. We're level 30 and our Epic Journey road abruptly stopped, and we need to get to level 37 before we can carry on. Snore! The game is so huge now, padding out and busy work shouldn't be required. I'm sure this is a huge task but streamlining and smoothing the narrative would go a long way to modernising the game - keeping the option to play about in the gorgeous world of course! Edit: I meant to say, the silliest most annoying quest I've come across thus far, was the one where, having run up and down a road to speak to various Rohirrim captains, you have to clear small heaps of stones, so the ENTIRE Rohirrim cavalry can get past. This is while all 5000 of them (or whatever) are either sitting around campfires or asleep on their bedrolls. Really?!!! The game is having a giraffe.

Graphics polish - I'm not talking about a revamp, just a brush up of models and textures, keeping the current feel of the game but bringing it up to date.

Currencies - There are far far too many and they need to be consolidated in some way.

I only really disagree with one of your points, OP and that's flying. I really don't want it. By all means have faster mounts and better travel links, but I think flying mounts would spoil the game, diminishing the size of Middle-Earth and opening the door to a seam of mount monetisation which, imvho again, would devalue the ambience of the game. Really sorry.

Just my tuppence worth.

[Nebless]

-PvP: I take a look on PvP, yeah its Dead. thanks for That ?! Turbine loses many Players,

Alot of people have said that over the years, but in a 2015 interview that's recently making the rounds again it was stated that at it's PEAK, ONLY 7% of the population did PvMP. So not as many players as you might think.

[wispsong]

I Stop playing Lotro 2014, after this Time many Things happend here and i enjoy the World of Lotro again.

i have some Points that impress me but also annoy me.



- Horse Speed and Running Speed: The Maps are huge and i mean Huge. The base speed of horses and characters is too slow. Yes you can buy in Shop some items to speed up them. But this speed is also to slow for so Huge Maps.

- Warhorse: Is on Lev 60 after all this Time ? I know it's not popular, but doing nothing at all on the system is not a solution. 3 Hits in Mordor an the Enemys shoot me from my Warhorse like a normal Horse ###. Level them up and give new items for the Warhorses.

- Mordor: I found Mordor annoying and empty. There is nothing, its a Big Empty Area, there is no LotR feeling Guys,especially the lack of travel opportunities to get from A to B. Epos ? Boring, Boring and Boring. Look back at the old Epos you have the feeling you do some for the Alliance, you have fights in Dungons and do some usfull Stuff but also some usless Stuff but i have the feeling iam in the middle of the Story. In Mordor iam only a spectator i have no feeling iam the Part of the Story and this sucks.

-Erebor, Gundabad and all the New Areas: Looks Amazing and i enjoy every Hour in this Areas, Good Map Desing and Quests

-Legendary Weapons: After all these years I've lost track on the Weapon System. The Players Ingame show me the New System, there was no Quests Which explains that and this is not good my dear Devs. But the new system is worlds better than the old one. Thanks for that.

-PvP: I take a look on PvP, yeah its Dead. thanks for That ?! Turbine loses many Players, Players that Pay an Abo to Play PvP. You apparently don't want to make any sales its ok

- Server Perfomance: The worst I've seen in the last years. The lags are huge and Lotro have not so many Players Online on the Servers. There also only US Servers. I have a Question ? How many EU Players, Play Lotro. I thinks many. Finally set up servers in the EU, than comes also EU Players back.

- Charakter creation: Same Boring Faces, Haircuts, Eyes etc since 2007. You can seel in the Shop new Haircuts for examble etc, but i forgott you need no Money.

- Fly and Dive: Why in Lotro never bring this ? The Maps are so Huge you can use easy Fly Mounts or Fly Travel. You also have the opportunity to introduce diving. That would open whole new doors for quests.


I still enjoy the game, but you should broaden your horizons, we have the Year 2022. All its possible!

You want players back permanently, Then you guys be more innovative and smart. Not every content costs a lot of money to develop.

greetings

Horse speed is fine, warhorses are faster but I don't like them for various reasons. ME is big and that feeling should be there, not rush, rush, rush. For very long distances we have swift travel. I'm glad they were not updated for new regions.

I agree with you on Mordor and skip it for the most part. Epic starts out slow but is very good and the part I do there. For me it is second to vol 1 once I'd played through it. I also like most coming after Mordor.

The new LI system is easier then the old but the level restrictions one traceries is annoying. I really would like simple weapons as an option for every class back that are not completely behind LIs and useless. Despite of what we are told, traceries make a big difference in performance.

I like the avatars, movement could use some improvement.

NO to flying. It doesn't fit in the lore at all. I would love to see ME from the sky but that would break immersion. People in ME don't fly, just the bad guys.

[OldMadeOfLions]

I meant to say, the stupidest most annoying quest I've come across thus far, was the one where, having run up and down a road to speak to various Rohirrim captains, you have to clear small heaps of stones, so the ENTIRE Rohirrim cavalry can get past. This is while all 5000 of them (or whatever) are either sitting around campfires or asleep on their bedrolls. Really?!!!

Really!

Here's the section from RotK that inspired that quest:

"The start had been slower than was hoped, for it had taken time for the Riders, walking and leading their horses, to find paths over the thickly wooded ridges behind their camp and down into the hidden Stonewain Valley. It was late in the afternoon when the leaders came to wide grey thickets stretching beyond the eastward side of Amon Dîn, and masking a great gap in the line of hills that from Nardol to Dîn ran east and west. Through the gap the forgotten wain-road long ago had run down, back into the main horse-way from the City through Anórien; but now for many lives of men trees had had their way with it, and it had vanished, broken and buried under the leaves of uncounted years."

MoL

[Tarante11a]

Really!

Here's the section from RotK that inspired that quest:

"The start had been slower than was hoped, for it had taken time for the Riders, walking and leading their horses, to find paths over the thickly wooded ridges behind their camp and down into the hidden Stonewain Valley. It was late in the afternoon when the leaders came to wide grey thickets stretching beyond the eastward side of Amon Dîn, and masking a great gap in the line of hills that from Nardol to Dîn ran east and west. Through the gap the forgotten wain-road long ago had run down, back into the main horse-way from the City through Anórien; but now for many lives of men trees had had their way with it, and it had vanished, broken and buried under the leaves of uncounted years."

MoL

LOL!! Thank you so so much for the lovely reply! And I feel somewhat chastened by the quote, but in my defence, it's not the veracity of the narrative which bothers me, it's that 5000 burly Rohirrim blokes are sitting on their lardy backsides while *I* have to clear the road for them! That's where the 'Really?!!' comes from. Well, that and the fact I felt galloping up and down a road to talk to all the captains felt a *little* like busy-work.

But again, thank you so much.

[OldMadeOfLions]

...it's not the veracity of the narrative which bothers me, it's that 5000 burly Rohirrim blokes are sitting on their lardy backsides while *I* have to clear the road for them!

Oh, they're right behind you helping, it's just that the camera barely misses them when you spin it around. Trust me!

MoL

[TesalionLortus]

MoL straight to the point once again

This sounds fun in this example, another fun one would be how in-character the rangers of the Angle are - as soon as we show up they don't even make any decent excuses to use us for mundane stuff while they go out to do nicer, less mundane stuff. They straight up admit their true intentions! Yep, that's how I remember them, those pesky rangers... was fun. Although I do get the annoyance of regular quest tasks in general. I much prefer story/intrigue driven quests with a bit of mystery or character arc over these mundane 'gotta clear this place out' stuff which feels like a filler that somehow delays the thing I was actually really interested in... like REALLY delays, sometimes the mundane takes the entire play time only to find out there is more of mundane to do, sometimes, and that I'll find out about that cooler stuff another day maybe (or not)

Graphics polish - I'm not talking about a revamp, just a brush up of models and textures, keeping the current feel of the game but bringing it up to date.

I agree with the graphic polish sentiment - I don't agree about what you said though... Brush up of models and textures sounds a lot like a total HDR overhaul of all assets (thousands upon thousands of them in game) which is a revamp, not a 'brush up.' So, once again, I stand by my point the attention should be put on the scene shaders, color, lightning etc. Like, make it look internally like it does on some basic sweetfx at least... a bit more polished and colors brought out for starters, THEN think of other shader improvements that could change a lot, because lots can be done without touching assets

[DoRonRon]

Your punishment for leaving is not being around to adapt to every patch and it's wider consequences.

Take issue with unmaintained content risks a revamp that will cost us in the end. I prefer we adapt to what we have. Few left seem able.

I loath that someone is plotting a bridle comeback that'll screw up what we have now even with it's failings. Still looking for an angle to exploit, I reckon, rather than plonk in something quick and easy like a gear piece with a set of essence slots and steed essence to tweak, not this ruinous never ending enhancement mechanic.

[Tarante11a]

I agree with the graphic polish sentiment - I don't agree about what you said though... Brush up of models and textures sounds a lot like a total HDR overhaul of all assets (thousands upon thousands of them in game) which is a revamp, not a 'brush up.' So, once again, I stand by my point the attention should be put on the scene shaders, color, lightning etc. Like, make it look internally like it does on some basic sweetfx at least... a bit more polished and colors brought out for starters, THEN think of other shader improvements that could change a lot, because lots can be done without touching assets

I guess I'm taking the dreaded WoW as my template here, and I know precisely nothing about how graphics engines work, so very prepared to accept my wish isn't possible. But basically, WoW have gradually updated various models over time, to bring them more in line with the quality of later expansions. So creature models, clothing textures, etc etc, but I suppose they upgraded the game somewhere along the line, otherwise you wouldn't have Retail and Classic living alongside each other as we do now.

Perhaps it's not possible to do this with Lotro's engine thingie? <= see I told you I didn't know anything about graphics engines.

[Tarante11a]

Oh, they're right behind you helping, it's just that the camera barely misses them when you spin it around. Trust me!

MoL

At risk of abusing your kind attention (I will leave it after this) I think my concern with the narrative is the amount of travelling and the number of incidental side-quests somewhat bog down the main story. I recommended the game to another friend a couple of weeks ago, and while he can appreciate the world and much of the Epic quest line, he's now cheesed off with the seemingly endless busy-work and chains of npcs telling him to talk to OTHER npcs. As a very new player and someone who is new to MMOs, he doesn't know the rhythms of main quest/quest hubs, and is now suffering from a 'Get Out of The Hinterlands' problem. As a consequence (and despite being a massive LotR fan) he's moved on, which is a real shame!

I feel the game would benefit from better promoting the Epic story as the main narrative (with better bread-crumbing for that) and for levelling to match that quest chain snugly, and if you want to slow people down a little at quest hubs, make those places obvious and reduce the amount of back and forth.

Again, it's just my very humble opinion. Many thanks!

[WeirdJedi]

I feel the game would benefit from better promoting the Epic story as the main narrative (with better bread-crumbing for that) and for levelling to match that quest chain snugly, and if you want to slow people down a little at quest hubs, make those places obvious and reduce the amount of back and forth.

I'm the type of person who actually likes all those quests. There are many here that will say that the Shire is the best zone of the game. The idea of meeting average people, seeing how they converse with each other, and hearing about their opinions on matters are all great in my eyes. Perhaps I got tired of being "the chosen one" when it came to defeating all the major villains. Or maybe I'm more interested in seeing all the explicit details that were listed in the source material.

But I do see your viewpoint. Many have come into the game with a preconception of what they've seen in other games without realizing that much of the game is tailored to the lore (legally in some respects) and just isn't going to change from what it was from 15 years ago. They've at least allowed people the chance to complete the Epic by themselves, something other games are slowly adapting as well. The producer once made a suggestion that it would be nice to have the Epic quest always shown as a 6th quest objective on your screen. They've also tried supplementing the Epic quest with the Bingo Boffin questline - 52 quests that reward you all kinds of interesting cosmetics as you venture up to level 95.

If people don't feel that is enough, then there is no harm moving to something else. Plenty of free content if they choose to stay.

[DoRonRon]

MoL wants us playing his accessible by all offerings. It' doesn't have us earning rep and currencies and LP and virtues or any much skill in playing our class. Could argue zero exp for epics would be better for players long term over having them steeped in lore and failing everywhere else. Instead two content releases to add to the over levelling we have already that has peeps hit the near cap wall and have to choose the "I prefer levelling alts, thank you very much" cop out.

Just look at those who follow this line, no clue where they are in comparison and deluding themselves into thinking they measure up.

[Tarante11a]

I'm the type of person who actually likes all those quests. There are many here that will say that the Shire is the best zone of the game. The idea of meeting average people, seeing how they converse with each other, and hearing about their opinions on matters are all great in my eyes.

I'm absolutely not suggesting they get rid of those incidental side quests because like you, I enjoy them! They flesh out the world and they're often very jolly and entertaining. But the world is ENORMOUS, and for a new MMO player like my friend, the prospect of gathering animal parts, delivering mail and talking to endless chains of NPCS, all the way to Mordor and beyond, with little attachment to the main storyline - it's rather tiresome and off-putting. I'm not talking about ONLY having Epic quest, but if the game uses it to more usefully move people through the world, I think newer players would find their initial experience a satisfying one, and they might then stick around to explore more.

And to reiterate, my friend is a huge Tolkien fan. He's not put off by dense amounts of lore but rather craves it, but he also wants meaningful engaging game play!

It' doesn't have us earning rep and currencies and LP and virtues or any much skill in playing our class.

But you can do both? I understand how reputation grinds can be irritating (been there!!), but afaik all MMOs have them. But you can detach that grind from the main storyline, I think?

[Edits for my 'orrible writing]

[Firthelthir]

-Erebor, Gundabad and all the New Areas: Looks Amazing and i enjoy every Hour in this Areas, Good Map Desing and Quests

AGREE!!!

[TesalionLortus]

But the world is ENORMOUS, and for a new MMO player like my friend, the prospect of gathering animal parts, delivering mail and talking to endless chains of NPCS, all the way to Mordor and beyond, with little attachment to the main storyline - it's rather tiresome and off-putting.

And to reiterate, my friend is a huge Tolkien fan. He's not put off by dense amounts of lore but rather craves it, but he also wants meaningful engaging game play!

Eriador is hard in general because it had a different area philosophy back then - kind of more open with free-roaming yet kind of more gated than now (there was no landscape auto bestowed quests). It was cool, you were expected to proceed with the epics and do some exploring/quest chains you stumbled upon in the meanwhile, that sometimes took you into different directions, and there was no 'quest hubs' really, with everything spread out. And the prospect was LESS - even with Dunland on the horizon there was no "wow so much so big!" scare because without Rhovanion, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor... it all felt like Eriador is the main stage so you had more motivation to thoroughly explore and do ALL the little fetch quests and everything Eriador-related. Sure, Moria was there, even Dunland, rumors of more to come but Angmar threat was still that main Evil Pie that had your utmost attention. So yeah, this is kind of a problem but it can't be helped

Tbh, the problem of your friend can't really be eliminated either because LOTRO is the kind of game where you're either a geek and it doesn't bother you because you WANT to know about everything and discover everything. OR you don't care and just do whatever quests are there, see whatever story you just happen to do but what you care about is leveling a char. There is really no "middle ground" unless they delete all of their amazing, mostly carefully crafted quests and make the entire story of SoA happen quicker.

ABOUT THE QUEST FORMAT THOUGH/WRITING......

As frustrating as the prospect of so many things on the horizon is... the issue with fetch quests doesn't really strike me as an issue if you start the game - it really helps to paint you as the beginner and lower level adventurer. This is the issue that only bothers me with later chapters, and especially now after the Fall when our character is becoming sort of independent figure - but I still have to do things like running across the Hall of Vernozal and solve their silly problem because Ingor just stands there and does nothing of value but in reality I should be treated as one of the lords and treated with honors with feast maybe advise in strategic matters or share tales of past experiences... not as fetch boy... In a war effort when everyone works hard to establish a foothold, a camp, gather food, whatever, it's acceptable, and I like attention to detail there, but not in casual encounters with other 'lords' and big heroes. If it's someone like Aragorn or Gandalf or Frodo or Durin even in certain matters like I trust you enough so deliver message to my father... OK, it's fine. But all of the mundane side quests and everyone just taking advantage of a well-known figure/hero they come across to solve their love affairs, commotion amongst THEIR OWN subordinates or goat disagreement... that's bad taste after all these years. The fun quests that make it work are the ones where NPC doesn't even know much about us because we just appeared in a random village or something, like across Gondor, so they really don't have the right to know. But it really doesn't work in those big army hosts where fame of famous warriors spreads across the ranks and I would expect we're wearing our most mighty armor more often than not which in turn identifies us as someone more dignified, worthy of utmost respect, it sounds stupid to just approach them and say "hey, you look like you can give me a hand, see those little pebbles? bring them to me. oh, why? I can't tell you yet, I' busy here, just bring them they're important! besides I'm not much of a fighter myself" Ugh. What we should be doing (besides the obvious, acceptable war stuff and combating/investigating enemies) are the peculiar ones, like helping someone out with their peculiar project because they're polite enough/interesting enough/had a good enough excuse to stay behind or doing something because we're heading that way anyway so perhaps we can help (those are great!) but we should also see more of the quests where our character takes the initiative (kind of), is invited for meetings not just treated as a common soldier, gives some commands maybe, has ideas, does the fecth-quests but it's more of the 'you told X they should take better look at quarreling soldiers and report back to you" not us doing it all the time, that sort of stuff. I've started to see some more of our character POV in the text quest too, lines like "You think he is exaggerating but you doesn't say anything, helping him out would be beneficial anyway" YES more of this please but take it even further. Less of being told what to do at level 140+ and more of personal motivation - or just curiosity that motivates our actions - behind doing something. The one-on-one like meeting with Karazgar / Give the Book to Karazgar was also pretty neat in that department of 'independence' and being treated as we matter that we have tasted quite recently though I would love if it wasn't limited to main story events only




FIXING ERIADOR CONFUSION:


About Eriador issue, what can be done though is making things less confusing, like removal of OLD OLD, USELESS vendors from starting areas maybe, move them somewhere else maybe and hide them so they're still accessible since they're there for a reason because related content must stay but just... yeah, hide them. Then do something about Bingo and this letter he sends once you're starting out... which is ok in theory but creates all sorts of problems when a new player starts this journey and then they get gated and completely loose track of epics - not to mention the confusing "next chapter in a week" if it's still there. Maybe communicate it in a very good way that Bingo is an extra lighthearted adventure across Middle-earth that's optional (or even alternate story) and will require you to move between regions often/level up and is considered a good option for alts or as secondary focus - but main, more important 'canon' story is in the Epics and should be prioritized if you care about the story. And yeah, also some better overview of the epic story - even BACK THEN it was easy to miss some of the chapters because sometimes NPCs already have next volumes/books whereas you're a couple behind. In the amount of everything it may be easy to miss... which creates confusion... not to mention whatever they've done with those mission recruiters and why they thought it was a good idea to put them everywhere near starting areas without any sort of indication what the heck is THAT about... not to mention how anti-canon and confusing it is even if someone takes that horse and buys an expansion to just do the missions. It's sure a good way to level up alts but otherwise... you'll only confuse new players. The Mid-summer, even though it was an AMAZING idea, is also pretty confusing for new players though... there is just no way it isn't... especially that they, apparently, never bother to do any sort of explaining or statement, like, "beware, you might try to explore that area but it would go against your immersion and actually that's content that happens after the ENTIRE Angmar epic and then some, but if you want to visit Minas Tirith now, just take a look, you don't really need to do any questing" that sort of stuff. There should be decent BIG sign posts explaining stuff

But basically, WoW have gradually updated various models over time, to bring them more in line with the quality of later expansions. So creature models, clothing textures, etc etc, but I suppose they upgraded the game somewhere along the line, otherwise you wouldn't have Retail and Classic living alongside each other as we do now.

Perhaps it's not possible to do this with Lotro's engine thingie? <= see I told you I didn't know anything about graphics engines.

I'm not an expert either and not sure what WoW did exactly but from what I've seen and what you said it sounds like they did, in fact, undertake a quite big 'revamp of almost everything' and gave lots of resources for it. But this also comes down to necessity, from what I've seen WoW models looked 'very clanky' and kind of unpolished, not only because it was a bit older but because of this different style of characters - less detail, more raw and over-the-top in a fantasy animation kind of way. Not getting a revamp meant it would all look waaay to ugly/jarring today. LOTRO's models/textures, on the other hand, from the start seemed to me smoother, yet with lots of detail, and, just like the rest of the game, perfectly evoking that magical Tolkien fantasy setting but more like a painting really. Also, I'm a huge Total War classics lover, and LOTRO's models feel kind of like that too - paint the texture with lots more detail (which is what TW mods used to do to improve the looks but LOTRO's textures actually have THAT kind of detail on vanilla, even many of the old ones) and put some graphical enhancements on top of it (so like reshade and stuff) and they'll look 100 times better even without upscaling. Upscaling who knows maybe is possible but it would still require some work to do that for thousands of files or maybe it's not possible without engineering because the game wasn't made with today's high res textures in mind. But the models themselves are pretty good I think. Only the avatars could benefit from more variety but the landscape stuff is pretty good. Not to mention that any sort of landscape model change could be bad for world's integrity - LOTRO's devs really put a lot of thought into how they place their things, what color their use for the guy's hair and what shape an object has... in many cases... Some games just don't have this problem because they don't go as deep and they can literally model and texture swap things for completely different ones sometimes what matters is that they look better not being 100% faithful to what came before

[DavidmeetHal]

Mordor empty? In Udun, I run into a mob every 3 feet. And wasn’t it supposed to be empty anyway after Sauron sent everyone after Aragorn at the Black Gate?

Agreed with the server performance. Ugh, that needs work.

Flying and diving? Trying reading the books. That’s my lore answer. My gameplay answer is that flying took away the fun for me in WoW. It was just “ Wham! Bam! Next destination!” Was totally not fun, made WoW seem like doing errands.