Skirmishes Dev Diary 3

Here's the part I was most interested in regarding skirmishes: randomization and scaling. These two features combined offers so much potential for content that will retain players beyond the typical instance or raid progression. I'll let the dev diary speak for itself, but I have to mention I'm not keen on the idea of the fellowship leader being required to set the group level (i.e. solo, 3-man, 6-man, and 12-man). I'd rather see it auto set. Why? Because it puts the UI and system in between the player and the world/content. Certainly setting the difficulty, if you will, is a small and painless step in the process. That isn't the point. Instead I think a philosophy of transparency is better. Completely subjective design opinion on my part so long as the UI interaction is as painless as I'm assuming. I'll leave the thought here, but I have a post in the works that delves more into this design philosophy. For now, know that I'm still excited about skirmishes. It's my biggest anticipated feature. Well, the horse change too but just because I want to collect all the horses. It should be a pretty awesome system.

PAX Siege of Mirkwood Preview

The folks over at ignvault were lucky enough to snag a preview of some of the Siege of Mirkwood content, specifically more info on the skirmishes. I'm absolutely thrilled by what I read. I think this could be an excellent activity for those at the cap who aren't big instance runners and raiders (such as me and some of my kinship). We as yet don't know what the rewards will be for gathering skirmish points, but I'd imagine they'd be inline with the barter items from loth rep quests or something similar.

And, as I've said before, scalable content is the wave of the future. Seriously, having content that caters to the group size rather than being forced to either 1) find more or choose between your friends who gets to go or 2) ignore some of the content because it doesn't fit your group size is an better direction. We're always looking for a more living breathing world in MMOs. Usually this means wanting more of the fluff that fills out a world, but I think it can also mean content that caters to you, rather than you to it. We're removing a barrier to entry, a wall that breaks the player from the world and puts him into the game-side of things, and a stumbling block to fun. We need to see more of this - and again, I'd love to see this implemented for all instances/raids.

Bone-Man is a Pansy

Heyo! What a blast Massive Hobbits had with Chapter 11. Then Monday night we went off into the southern barrows completing a host of quests, old and new. One of those was Bone Man, previously a fellowship quest, now definitely soloable, or if not that, in a duo. We had a full group blazing through wights, barghests, crawlers, rats, ect and Bone Man was no match. Indeed, this wight had mere seconds to see a horde of Hobbits before he experienced a second death.

What struck me at that moment was a bit of disappointment. I understand completely why some of this content has been made soloable. Indeed, a host of games from WoW to Everquest have done the same thing with old content - made it easier. Why? Because more players are at the cap and finding a group for harder lower level content is... well... harder. The very nature of the game makes the content fun at the beginning of the lifespan, and less fun later. And yet there are those rare occurrences such as with Massive Hobbits that a group does exist for low level group content - and there's little to none of it left. Even though I understand, and even agree with the way Turbine has changed the lower content, I still have to feel a bit of loss for an epic Bone-Man. Or Sambog in the GB.

None the less, we're not without hope. The Great Barrows proper is fast approaching, the quests only two or three levels above our own. And while the questing has been made more accessible (one run instead of two), the challenge has not necessarily been reduced.

I wonder if we'll see this trend continue, with only the notable instances retaining their group status and open world group quests going the way of the dodo.

Your Friends or The Game

Why do I play LOTRO? To answer that, I have to first go back to why I play games. That's easy though, I love getting sucked into the worlds the games create. Why is Mass Effect so awesome to me? It does a very good job at creating a world you feel connected to. Why do I love Lord of the Rings Online - because it does a great job at linking me to a world I love so much. I started playing LOTRO because of the IP connection. From there, I discovered it was a good game. But what about now - what keeps me playing?

Honestly, I have to point more towards my friends than the game itself. No game can sustain interest forever, and nearly three years with one game is a long time (August 2006, closed beta). But in the process of playing LOTRO I gained some friends. I was extremely fortunate in running into the kinship I'm a part of. When I haven't logged in for a while, I don't feel guilty for not playing. It's not my monetary investment. That paid for itself already. It's not the game that I'm missing, or I would have logged in. It's the people. I feel like I need to keep in touch, let them know I'm still alive, kicking, interested, etc.

The best moments in LOTRO have been playing with my kinship. My first memory of grouping with a bunch of them was going through the Great Barrows. Such a blast, especially since previous PUG runs weren't successful. And every point thereafter where I would play with a kinmate, the game ceased to have any of it's faults. Well, that's not quite accurate. The faults were there, but they didn't matter, because what I was currently doing was fun. And it was fun because I was doing it with another player who I enjoyed playing with.

MMOs are more than just games, LOTRO no exception. They are venues to hang out at. I wouldn't continually go to the billiards hall and shoot pool by myself, even if the first few times were fun. I would go over and over again because I was hanging out with my friends. The same holds true for MMOs. There's the activity, then there's the society. It's the latter that holds our attention indefinitely. People are an endless resource of activity, and when you find people you like, your friends, it doesn't matter what you do, so long as your doing it together.

LOTRO is fun primarily because of the people I play with. It's secondary that it's a good game. Any MMO that can create the easiest system to play with friends will ultimately be the winner, so long as the activity within doesn't detract from the "hanging out". For example, let's say an MMO had City of Hero's/Villians sidekicking mechanic, arguably one of the best ways to bring friends together, but there was absolutely nothing to do except maybe kill things. Even playing with friends would get old rather quickly. So, there's a limit, a balance to this issue. No game will be endlessly fun, but a game must have a "reasonable amount" of fun in the first place in order to build the foundation for playing with friends.

So, is it the friends or the game that keep you playing? Maybe both? Which has more influence?

Fellowship Quests

Turbine has put up an official article talking about fellowship questing. My most favorite moments in this game have been when I was in a fellowship that has successfully completed some challenge, mostly comprised of my kinmates. There was one PUG group that tacked the Twisted Heart questline in Evendim. After some poor organization, I took it upon myself to "chew them out", basically saying if we couldn't handle what we were doing then, there would be no way we could handle the finishing instance. And we managed to complete this quest. It was an epic win if ever one could be called epic.

Even though I don't do fellowship content very often, mostly because of the timesink involved and the fact that I'm interrupted fairly often during my gameplay, it's probably my favorite content. And it's the content that best reflects the spirit of the IP. The Lord of the Rings is all about companionship, friendship, and coming together to face overwhelming odds. If this game truely wanted to capture that flavor, we'd all be playing in static fellowships. That's of course impossible to orchestrate in sustainable subscription numbers, so we get what we get. But don't ignore the fellowship content. Rarely have I come across a really bad PUG (mediocre, yes) and every fellowship experience with my kinship has been wonderful, even the failures (such as Friday's wipe on 2.5.5).

Fellowship Maneuvers Guide

There's a great official guide up on the main site about Fellowship Maneuvers, also called Conjunctions. I'll leave it to the article to tell you what these are and how they work if you don't know already. I will say that some of the best moments in group combat has been when our fellowship pulled off the harder full Fellowship Maneuvers, such as Wrath of the Oathbreakers. In that, each person has to hit a different color in the right order. Getting 6 people to do that in the middle of hectic combat is a challenge, but the pay off in both in-game effect and personal satisfaction is great. This mechanic is one of my favorite parts of the combat in this game. It's a wonderful group building exercise.

Blogging Lull

Wow, is it Thursday already? And I haven't posted since Monday? Something is terribly, terribly wrong. Or is it?

Honestly, this week has seen more LOTRO playing that the past few weeks, and I've enjoyed myself in game a lot more this week than I have in past weeks. And yet I've said nothing. I think that's because I'd rather post something thought provoking than "I did such and such today and it was fun." That's kinda boring. So is silence, but at least I'm not diluting my blogging quality any.

I will say I helped out with groups most of this week. I mentioned the Carn Dum run Monday but I also helped some folks in my kin and some pick-up players with Book 14. I had hoped to get Book 15 done finally yesterday, but the planned group never showed up. Oh well.

I think the lull in blogging is a factor of a couple things. First, the weather is getting better so more of us are spending time away from the computer. As an example, I'm going on a hike today. Second, the Book 7 patch is done and Book 8 isn't close enough to say any more than we already have. Repeating oneself isn't particularly stimulating either.

So, it's not that I've run out of passion, or that I've stopped playing LOTRO completely. There's just only so much one can say before it becomes monotonous. Happy adventuring!

Carn Dûm Run

Did part of a Carn Dûm run today. It was a spur of the moment thing. I logged in, thought about what I wanted to do, looked on the global looking for fellowship channel (glff) and saw that one of my friends, and reader of this blog, had one more space for a CD run. Okay, sure, why not. I have some deeds out there, I still have quests to do in CD, let's go. I knew I wouldn't be able to do the whole run, but I could get some done.

Turns out nobody had done the run before, so it was going to be a bit of an adventure. That's pefectly alright since an adventure will always make things more interesting. First pull was a bad pull and most of us bit the dust. Luckily we retreated right next to the battle and could keep on fighting. After that we got the hang of it. A few of us died again from some lose aggro or stepping into the killer water. We had three under 50's and as such were squishy.

I was the tank, as the highest heavy armor wearer. I think I could have done better as a tank had I had more practice with my aggro skills. Unfortunately I was also watching healing on our lower level fellows in case our minstrel couldn't keep up. That didn't always work either and my attention was divided. I think if I was traited better for a tanking role and we had higher levels I could have managed it fine.

It was fun experiencing some new content. Well, new for me at any rate. Two quests done, a couple deeds finished, good times. And I even managed to get a nice screenshot as well.

Coming Off Too Strong

I think I came off too strongly on yesterday's Road Block post. I should state clearly I'm not adverse to grouping. Some of my fondest moments in game have taken place in a group. Where the post came from is that I've predominately soloed most of the game. You get used to that play style, without having to take the time to organize a group. You get used to deciding to do content and then doing it, not LFFing for a range of content and taking what comes. It's the same phenomenon that happens to single people getting married if they've lived by themselves for a while beforehand - you have to get used to working with another person, making decisions that affect not only you, but another, and most applicably, make co-decisions.

So, I'm at a point in my LOTRO gaming where I have to change up my playstyle. The reason I ended with a bit of a downer was that I believe firmly that a game's reason for existence is to entertain - if it no longer entertains, there's no reason to play. If I don't successfully transition my playstyle to grouping, whatever form that takes be it PUGs or with kin, then LOTRO no longer is entertaining and I have no reason to play. This is by no fault of the game, purely my own.

However, I doubt that will happen. Why? Well, I think I love this game too much. I might feel burned out from time to time but that doesn't mean I think any less of the game. Back to the relationship analogies - one might get in a fight with one's wife, but that doesn't (or shouldn't) mean one loves her any less - there's just a bit of a speed bump. So, here's a speed bump. I intend to make every effort to successfully navigate over it or around it or whatever and continue to play, continue to have fun.

I didn't mean to present such a dour outlook with my last post. Like any endeavor in life, MMO gaming has its ups and downs.

Road Block

I finally finished all the solo content in Moria the other day. My last zone was the Flaming Deeps. Now I have a handful of small fellowship content and then all the full fellowship instance runs. Notably in that list is my captain class quest for the Hands of Healing trait - probably the only one I really want but ironically the hardest one to get because it requires getting a full fellowship to run one of the least appealing (at least for my kinship) instances in Moria.

So, with the last quest turned in I made my way out to Lothlorien and the first camp, largely comprised of dwarfs, although it seems some elves have show up to keep watch over their off-and-on companions. These quests surprised me. I was expecting a predominantly solo affair however many of them are rated at small fellowship. Now, I did the first set of each of the quest chains without the need for a small fellowship, but I think that was half luck as there were a bunch of other players clearing out the mobs as well - keeping me more safe than I otherwise would be.

This brings me to the point where I have once again all fellowship content. This means that I will need to spend more time before questing finding groups to go questing with. It means a fundamental shift in my playstyle - for I am mostly a soloer who does group content from time to time. I'm at a point where I have to decided do I want to do fellowship content most of the time until I find more solo stuff? And even if there is (and I think there is) solo content further into Lothlorien, it still doesn't clear the fellowship quests I currently have in my log.

I think I need to give a majority fellowship playstyle a fighting chance. I need to see how much actual work it is to find fellowships (PUGs) versus the perception of the amount of work it is. Some people say you can find PUGs easily in this game, some people say otherwise. Can they both be right? All questions I don't have answers to but ones that I will should I choose to continue questing.

The other option is to grind deeds - but to what end? Every trait I use is tier 10 and many others that I might use are as well. The ones that aren't, well, I'll probably never use. Rep grinds fit in the same picture - no reason to get kindred with any of the factions I'm not kindred with because I have no need for any of the "rewards". That's a post for another day, however.

So, here I am, at a turning point in my gameplay. Do I go forward or do I stagnate? For the sake of this blog, at the very least, I ought to move forward - but ultimately a game is only a game if it's fun. If it ceases to be fun, for whatever reason, there's no reason to play.

Some Book 8 Details

Massively has gotten the scoop on some Book 8 details, and even future updates to the game. Dol Guldur guys - just like I said. I like the sound of the "skirmishes" idea. Having an instance type environment that doesn't require a set number of players or class composition will be a great boon to grouping content.

One of the biggest hurdles to group play is the organization before the actual play. I would love to see this approach done for all instanced group play content. That means that there would be no content that could not be completed. Of course, rewards would have to scale to the difficulty of completing an instance with a duo versus a full group, or a raid with 12 people versus 18 etc. But still, the content and story within that content would be accessible to everybody. It also wouldn't be a mutual exclusive situation between "casual" and "hardcore" players.

I honestly don't see this type of system making its way into all the group content in the near future. If the older group content isn't a ghost town now, wait until all new group content is much more accessible - you'll never see groups trying to take on content that is harder to organize. Path of least resistance ya know? But if Turbine decided to revamp all the previous group content in some future that implemented this dynamic instancing, then we might see something far reaching in its impact - not only for LOTRO but for MMO gaming in general.

The last item I'd like to mention is the level cap increase by year's end. They didn't mention an expansion with that comment, but considering the previously stated goal of one expansion per year, we're on tap to see an expansion and level cap increase by year's end. Not a surprising development, but interesting to see the absence of expansion talk considering its mention.

EDIT: A nice forum topic on the subject can be seen here with some dev responses. Looks like the preview went out to a few press outlets, in this case, 1up.com.

Skumfel Run

Yesterday some of the kin went to Skumfel, myself included (after some lengthy discussion of where we did want to go). The place has bugs, lots and lots of bugs. We had a full group for part of the run, but one of us had to leave so it was only five for the next part. We didn't get to the lower section because many of us didn't have the requirements met. Lower usually means worse, and I can't imagine what's worse than a pile of rotten flesh and bones lorded over by a gigantic spitting bug.

No wipes, so that was good, but we did lose our minstrel once. Only death though. He said it was his fault but I don't know precisely what happened. Otherwise a successful run. We did it on normal mode as far as I can tell because there was no drop for radiance gear. Either that or it's in the lower section that we didn't get to. This is my first time in the place so I wasn't completely cognizant of what was going on.

Which sort of leads me into a bit of a side topic. I'm an awesome solo player with my class. I know what I can do, can't do, what skills to use, when to use them, etc. Why do I excel at soloing? Because I've had practice. It's how I play most often. But when I get in a group, I'm much less competent. I felt like a sore thumb despite our general success. There was a moment where I had a poison DoT on me and I didn't even notice. Not until I was at 1/3 of my morale. I wasn't even watching the chat either, and two people had said I had a DoT that needed dealing with. I hit up a potion and our minstrel healed, but the fact that it turned out alright isn't the point - the fact that it happened is. Now, what's the best solution? How did I get good at soloing? I need more group play practice.

As a captain, my role in groups, aside from buffing, isn't always the same nor always clear-cut. Depends on the fight, depends on what other classes are there. Honestly, I'd rather just take orders and hit what they tell me to hit and watch what they tell me to watch. Funny that, because the definition of a captain is the one who gives the orders. And I was the only one using voice chat (they all could hear me though) so theoretically, if it weren't for my inexperience, I should have been the one calling the battle. But I have trouble seeing everything that's going on. My class roll requires that I do most of the time. I'm uncomfortable not knowing how to play my class the best in group settings. I feel like a noob sometimes. Here's hoping I get more practice in and can improve my game.

Urugarth Run Complete

For the first time I've gone all the way through Urugarth. The kinship had a semi-spontaneous run this evening (plus one member from another kin that many of us have played with before). I said I'd like to tag along because I had deeds and never did quests in Urugarth or Carn-Dum. Well, I got all the boss slayer deeds done, finished the orc and troll slayer deeds, but have a couple more Urugarth-specific ones. These deeds also gave me one more max quest in my log. I'm at 47 now with about 30 of them occupied.

The run was fun, but long. We started around 6, 6:30 and ended a little after 10... so about 3 and a half to four hours. Took a small break in the middle. Quite a bit of fun getting that stuff done. I'd hate to do it too many times. I'll go again if there's ever a group again and I'm available because I still have uruks, beasts, and marching orders off orcs for more deeds as well as more quests. My silly completionism. I'm not really pushing to get these quests done though. If they don't get done, I won't be upset. Now, I'd love to say I got all the moria quests done...

A Veritable Plethora

Today is the big day, as you all know. Book 7 is released. I'm currently about half-way through the patching process. I didn't use the pre-patch method and I usually don't mind waiting for the client to patch itself on release days. There seems to be a veritable plethora of posts today. You can find many of these posts using the combined blog feed linked on my sidebar, but Kill Ten Rats has also posted some about LOTRO. Three posts to be exact. Two of them are commentary on issues they see in the game, particularly with the instances and the changes to those instances. The third is an outline of the instance progression, containing spoilers.

As I haven't played through any but one of the instances, I'm not able to comment well on the issues within them, however I did hear they were fairly buggy and had some exploits. However, as Kill Ten Rats points out, one person's exploit is another person's creative thinking. I have to err on the side of the development team however, as it is their definition that ultimately counts. They are the ones defining the game, and while the player base is experiencing that definition, everything is ultimately in their hands. I think we as players get too caught up in an entitlement mentality at times. And here's where capitalism comes into play. If we as players don't like what we're experiencing, we go elsewhere. So the development team's job is to strike that balance - guiding the game where they think it needs to go but in a way that the players like. This doesn't change who is in control, however, who sets the agenda. The developers choose to listen to the players because it's good business, but that doesn't mean they're any less responsible for the direction the game goes.

Okay, now it's time to get personal. I have a goal of getting the radiance gear from these instance runs. I haven't done many so I'm not experientially familiar with the timesinks involved. I only know that by educated guessing and second hand conversations. Despite my goal, I'm conscious that it's unlikely that I'll experience this content in full. I just don't play often enough and don't have the patience for what's involved in getting groups together. I prefer to group with my kin because it's relatively painless and I don't have to work hard to do it. But getting a static group of six players together for six hours minimum for one of six instances is hard. It's not hard because the content is necessarily hard. It's hard because it takes time. Game time is part of free time and free time is a luxury. Most of us have to ration it, myself included, despite my current unemployment. I have to face reality hear and realize I'm not the type of person this content was designed for. I'd like to be the type of person, because I'm really am a completionist, but when it really comes down to doing the deed, I just don't have the will to make that time commitment. Quite frankly, there are more entertaining and fun things I could be doing with my time, some of which don't even involve LOTRO. So while I'm a big fan of the game, I think I'll use my time to push for completing the epic storyline. I love story so that's where I should focus. Gear, instances, what does it matter? I'm experiencing Middle-Earth am I not? Is a 36+ hour gear grind really Middle-Earth or just a game mechanic for those of us with more time and the personality to push through such things?

And with this realization, I also have recognized that I'm not doing the activity that I've gotten most enjoyment from - grouping with my kinmates just because we want to do content. Many of my recent play sessions have involved solo experiences, and those are not the most memorable moments by and large. Where I find most joy is playing with my friends. So, I'll drop the goal of getting the radiance gear and put in it's place play with my kinship. If they're doing instance runs for gear - sure, that's what I'll do, but if they're doing the epic story, that's what I'll do. It's a game for goodness sake. Play it, don't work it. Right?

Sunday Progress Report

Looks like I've abandoned Thursdays. Oh well. I said I would. Probably would. And I did. Yesterday's playtime ended up being not what I was anticipating. First off, when I logged in, it was a slow night for the kinship for whatever reason. Only three or four of us on. Not even enough to do an instance run. And I didn't feel like PUGing one because there would be no guarantee that the same six would stick together and get all of us the barter coin for the armor. I ran three or four runs last time with a PUG (the only time I did an instance run) and there were at least that many ins and outs of the group, one of whom did get the drop. Actually, I think they did one more run after that but then left. And then I had to go due to some real life obligations. I don't blame anybody for that, and I don't know their situation, but it seems like it happens more often in PUGs because there's less communication before the run about where everybody stands time commitment-wise. It's just the way it is.

So no instance runs. However, I did do some solo quests, one of which is part of the level 58 Captain quest for the Hands of the Healing legendary trait. All solo so far and I don't know what the future holds for that quest, so it's all new to me. Did a bit in the Flaming Deeps and then talked to three NPCs scattered in other parts of Moria. I also worked on part of the epic quest: 2.3.x. I got to chapter 9 which is a session play: We Cannot Get Out. I forgot that was the session that was borked and you cannot complete it. Figures, so I had to quit the session and at that point I took a break for dinner. Unfortunately, I got side tracked watching TV and didn't log in the rest of the eveing. For all I know more of the kin could have been on and I might have gotten some instance runs in. There's always another day.

And in between all that I did some exploring, particularly in Nud-Melek and the Flaming Deeps to find some of the exploration deed locations. I love exploring, particularly if I have an objective in mind (like a quest location). For example, I know A is here and I am at B, here, so how do I get there? Moria is awesome for that because of all the multiple levels. You might be underneath what you want to find but have to figure out first, if there is an underneath, and how to get there. One quest I did out of the Redhorn Lodes was like that. Good fun.

I'm still purchasing my Sublime Jewelry set. I have two more pieces to get (one if I win the auction I bid on yesterday). I really should take a break and save up for another chest in my vault so I have more space for my food stuffs but I guess I'm being vain. Besides looking pretty (yes, I know you can't see the jewelry on your character) they give me nice stats. Speaking of food stuffs, I've been using my guild recipes to cook stacks of critted restoration food (morale and power) and selling them on the AH. I'm making a profit so that's really a first for me with food and the AH. Thank goodness for guild recipes. And with the lowering of the cooldowns with Book 7 (yay Tuesday!) I'll be able to put them up more often and get coin even quicker.

So here are my goals:

• Purchase 1 more vault space
• Complete Sublime jewelry set
• Run instances for Radiance armor set
• Clear out (complete) lower level quests and deeds in old zones

I have quite a load with just those four. We'll see how things work out.

Thursday Progress Report

I'm making headway post-60 in Moria. I don't spend too much time logged in. I usually take one trip out, one trip back for questing. Lately this has been in the Redhorn Lodes. I have a couple small fellowship quests I'll see about recruiting a kinmate to help me with. I've pretty much ignored all the fellowship quests thus far. After I've cleared out the solo quests in Moria I'll put more effort into getting into fellowships for the group quests.

I have 3 of 7 pieces of Sublime Dawn-Rose jewelry. I got two rings and a necklace that my kinleader crafted for me as a level 58 gift. She did that for all the kinship. Very nice of her. Great to have her as a kinleader. The two rings I bought on the AH. They go from 2.5 to 4 gold. I try spend around 3 to 3.5 gold. I got the rings first because they gave me both will and vitality which were my lowest stats. Earrings are next, followed by bracelets. That should give me a good balance, though my agility will be pretty high. But that's okay. I like agility and might the best. Agility helps increase my crit ratings and a higher might will increase my overall damage. Both together give me high damage super crits. I average about 1100-1200 on a Devastating blow crit at the moment, on even to level 58 mobs. I'm not sure how that stands compared to other captains, but I'm happy with it.

I'm also looking at clearing out deeds I have sitting around in Eriador. First on the list are deeds that improve currently slotted traits. Right now that's Discipline and Wisdom. The other three are at rank 10 already. Next are traits that I might use, depending on the situation. Ones I could swap out. After that just comes the rest of them, purely for a completionist, check the box, tic of the accomplishment. Some of these I might require a group still, such as going into Carn Dum and Urugarth. Those will probably never get done... although I don't know how many people are still running CD and Uru. Certainly some for class quest items. People still need slime, and that's found in CD. With fewer people doing it, it's not on the AH nearly as much, meaning the price is higher and more people will have to run CD to get the item rather than purchase it.

I'd like to finally finish Garth Agarwen, notably the Red Maid and Ivar, and get those quests out. I'd also like to run the Fornost instance since I haven't been in there yet and done any of those quests. Yes, I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to questing. I love to see all the stories and content that's available. If I wasn't so slow leveling and casual I would have gone to the Rift and Helegrod, even if it turns out I don't like raiding. (Honestly, I probably would. I do enjoy group content, just not the finding the group part of it).

I think the only part of this game I won't experience will be the PvMP side. Not my thing. So, I'll be a completionist to a point. Ettenmoors deeds, well those are out. But the rest of the game is fair game, as long as I can find people to do the content with me if I require more than one. All in all, things are looking good. I'm going much slower now, but that's okay. I don't want to burn out of content. I don't think that'll be a problem though.

A Little FG

By FG I mean Fil Gashan, one of the six-man instances (this one in the Flaming Deeps) where a coin drops for one of the radiance gear pieces. I went three times through but didn't roll a win for the drop. Oh well, I have a long time yet to do all these instances and I just got the captain gear I have on now, which isn't bad at all. However, traited right and with all the radiance gear, one of the hunters in our group (who was also leading us through looking for a rare pocket drop) had 6,300 Morale. I, as a Captain who is supposed to have the option of off-tanking, had 5,096 Morale. That's a little odd, but like I said, he was traited out for a high morale build. If I were going for a high Morale build I could probably get close to 10k with all my radiance gear. Just a bit of a difference.

It was fun, doing one of these for the first time. We were doing it on Hard Mode which meant we had to avoid killing a certain type of mob. This necessitated suiciding twice and having our Minstrel rez us after running through in an orc disguise so we didn't kill something we weren't supposed to. I'm very glad there's no death penalty repairs if you're rezed by a Minstrel (or Captain).

I got sucked into the group by chance. One of my kinmates was involved in trying to get the group together. And I'm glad I did. Captains are usually always appreciated by the other players for their mere presence. Our buffs ya know. (The morale numbers I mentioned above were buffed stats, by the way). All in all, a good time. I wish I could have stayed longer to get the coin for the radiance piece myself, but alas I had to run. Real life was calling.

The Ideal Fellowship?

I'm not talking about player skill necessarily, but rather class composition of fellowships. Certainly there might be a perfect set up for most content, but there's always the time where content requires something special, like two minstrels, or an extra tank, or for sure a burgler and a lore-master. Whatever.

Then there are the times where you just don't get the perfect classes, regardless of the content you're doing. Maybe you have four hunters a minstrel and a bugler. That's a lot of squishy DPS for the minstrel to keep track of and nobody is wearing heavy armor. You might be able to kill single targets really fast, but if you have waves of adds as the fight progresses, you're probably in trouble. Then again, maybe not. If you're coordinated enough maybe all the hunters move from target to target. The burg can CC and hopefully keep the minstrel from getting hammered on.

The point is that not often is there a fellowship situation where it's undoable because of what classes you have in the group. Higher level content like the level 60 six-man instances or the raids, sure, but that's different. Everyday group content throughout the world is very well designed for the random fellowship. And that's a tough act to balance with nine classes that vary so greatly in abilities and armor types.

This isn't to say it won't be more or less difficult with certain class types, but Turbine has done an excellent job of making it doable. I know I appreciate that greatly - it makes PUGs more viable and more sucessful. And that promotes more group play, regardless of other considerations.

Am I Too Nice?

I didn't ask this as a question in kinchat yesterday, but rather just said I'm too nice. But today I thought I'd talk about it. See, I grouped with this other player in a PUG when I was doing the Library and School quests in Tham Mirain, in Eregion. Nothing special happened necessarily except that he/she was a nice player. Well, they weren't mean, but like I said it wasn't like I just met my new best friend.

Anyhow, he sends me a tell a few days later asking for a summon. Cool, I'm in position to do that, certainly. Then yesterday he asks for summon, this time for a friend of his he's power leveling. Probably to play together. That's cool. But I'm in Moria and this person can't be summoned to Moria because they're too low level (required level of 35). So I need to go out of Moria and to a zone that's lower - in this case I ended up in Rivendell. But that required I take considerably more time out of my own adventuring to assist this person I haven't even met yet at the request of somebody I've quested with once.

But I did go ahead and help them out because I wasn't in the middle of anything at the time of the request. I told myself well, if I was I would have probably said no. But I hate saying "no" to helping people out. And that's where today's question comes in... there's got to be a moment where one can be too nice and never get anything done. Certainly I'm probably not going to become the summon service of Middle-Earth any time soon (sorry hunters, that's you) but there's a point where you're going too far out of your way. So, I asked myself, with the realization that I cannot always fulfill requests like this, am I being too nice?

Well, in jest one of my kinmates said "yes" to my statement of I'm too nice, but he might have just as well been serious.

Soloing and Grouping

Turbine has put up a feature article talking about soloing from level 1 to 20. A majority of the article talks about basic strategy that's good to heed in both solo and fellowship situations, as well as brief overviews of game mechanics. The experienced player will undoubtedly know everything in this article already but for the first time player, it's definitely a boon to keep these things in mind. I'd refer a new player to this guide myself.

I'd like to take a moment and talk a bit about the soloing game in general. I primarily solo. However, I've done most of the group quests up to my level as well. That's just the nature of someone who plays for completing all the quests (aside from raids, at this point). LOTRO definitely has a wealth of solo content which is really the best play style for me. There's been many a time where I found myself unmotivated to try and find a group for a certain quest. The only time I found a lack of solo content was when I was at the previous level cap of 50 and had completed all the solo quests in the game. But playing at the level cap is a post for another day.

This of course opens the Pandora's Box of solo versus group play. I think that dead horse has been beaten enough in game forums over the years. For LOTRO, I think the ratio of group to solo quests is satisfactory. I'm not going to say perfect because I don't know if I'd like more group quests or not. But I am happy with the state of soloing in this game. Angmar, my least favorite region is probably the king of group quests. I'd say half of that region's quests are group quests. Do I dislike Angmar because of the group quests? Well, it's not so much group quests as the type and time commitment of those group quests. Many of them, particularly the quests to go out into Carn Dum and Urugarth, take a considerable amount of time to complete.

I think the final quest in the Book 15 quest line - the culmination of the Shadows of Angmar story - epitomizes group quests I don't like. In this case, it's a difficulty that doesn't only challenge your skill as a player. That I have no problem with. I like a challenge, especially overcoming a challenge with other people. But throwing in random luck and a mechanic that is so touchy you can do everything right and still fail really grates at me. I don't think there is much group content like this. The quest for killing Heart-Rot, the wood troll in Evendim, approaches this. Overcoming that, however, gave me a great deal of satisfaction in my accomplishment. Maybe I just need to stick with it when it comes to group content like this. I might just be a little pansyish about the whole thing.

In anycase, LOTRO is built with the idea that you can solo the game and still get as much reward out of it as any other playstyle or activity. I think they've achieved this on the solo and group content. There's still PvMP, raiding, crafting, and the social part of the game that I have yet to evaluate. Mostly because I haven't delved into that content nearly as much. Perhaps in the future, once I complete the Mines of Moria content.