Strayed Captain

It’s LotRo launch day. The launch of F2P in Europe anyway. After nearly 2 months we’re finally getting it!

My plan was to start this blog prior to F2P launch which I did of course but due to the delays I haven’t had much to write about. I started a character on Landroval while taking a break from Laurelin, now that we’re back to business I’ll try to find a way to keep playing on both sides of the Pond.

Anyway today will be a busy day, while I don’t expect the patch servers to come up for a few more hours, which is good since I got some TV shows to catch up on, there will be much work to do. First thing I’m going to do is to shout a big thank you to Codemasters. After that there will be much respending of LI points and Skirmish Marks across several characters. Finally Wardrobe – my main vault chest (oh and the new vault comes as well) is full of cloaks, helmets and other stuff. After upgrading and filling up the wardrobe as much as possible I plan to head to Celondim, craft a few Copper Necklaces (necklaces seems to be neglected as a quest rewards) and hand them out to new players I happen to meet while spending the evening on advice channel. If that wasn’t enough the Haunted Burrow will be opened for business and I have to stop by as well. So those would be the short-term plans. The long-ish-term plans include getting some new armor from Helegrod, looking forward to raiding in there as I have only been there once about 3 months ago and that was only the drake hatchery and Thorog. Another thing I need to get preferably before the November update hits us is Kindred reputation with several factions so I can receive the shiny new horses, especially the horse of Elf-lords look really good. And one last thing – I need to get the Travellers Hood from the Store.

So that would be it, looking forward to a shinier Middle-earth.

I’ve recently stumbled upon an awesome site. It contains screenshots taken in 2003 from a game which was called Middle-earth Online (then in development). Here’s a little info about Middle-earth Online from Wikipedia (the LotRo article):

Sierra On-Line first announced the development of a licensed Middle-earth MMORPG in 1998. Sierra had financial troubles in 1999 and replaced the staff working on the game. Sierra continued to confirm development of the MMORPG but did not release any development details.

Vivendi Universal Games, the parent company of Sierra, secured eight-year rights to produce computer and video games based on The Lord of the Rings books in 2001. Vivendi announced an agreement with Turbine in 2003 to produce Middle-earth Online (at that time expected to be released in 2004). In March 2005, Turbine announced that it bought the rights to make an MMORPG based on Tolkien’s literature and that Turbine would publish The Lord of the Rings Online instead of Vivendi.

I find it interesting to see how much or how little have things changed before the game was released (of course it was near release back then). There are 185 screenshots in total, though some of them are not being linked to (and the later ones are nearly contemporary), I’m going to point out some of the interesting ones:

• Goldberry (warning: hi-res) part of that ruin – and I guess it is from this very picture – is an official avatar on US forums, I had no idea where it came from until now
• some other ruins that apparently got remodeled, might be those columns near Waymeet
• cloak with the hood cast back! and a most likely permanent torch (not to mention the cool looking armour)
• several shots of what was probably Carn Dûm (each word is a link)
• a shot of Bree-town – I believe we’re overlooking the area where the outside forges are now, near the West gate which is visible in the middle of the picture
• and another one featuring probably the Oldstone Ruins
• and not sure where this is but it might be the very first shot of The Stone (in the middle at the bottom)

So Faradwen has dinged 20, my.lotro still won’t acknowledge her existence but I can live without that. (And without an avatar and enabled BBCODE in my signature, and EU access to Lorebook, …)

Since she’s an Elf and I deliberately took a different route than my beta captain (Old Forest and Adso’s Camp) I am only Acquaintance with Bree. But with Andrath, Northern Bree-fields and Barrow-Downs quests still intact I expect it to change dramatically.

The Hunter quest on level 15 was quite interesting, though I don’t like the helm – don’t get me wrong I like wearing animal remains on my head (deer helmet in UO was just epic) but this one doesn’t look as horrifying as a bear should so I am sporting the Circlet of Men instead. Still the Warden quest is better but such is the way of the Warden. On a side note I was really looking forward to laughing evilly at the brigands who desperately want to run away from me but I kill them way too quickly, they turn around and fall dead, no running involved, no satisfaction.

So far the only F2P limitation I really feel is having only 3 bags, they fill quite fast especially with the stuff that comes out of the Gifts and of course I am reluctant to get rid of anything that may prove useful later.  I am now sitting at about 160 TP having completed almost every deed in Ered Luin. Half of the Bree-land and Shire still lay ahead of me; then I plan to buy North Downs but that’s a distant future. So far deed grinding isn’t as hard as I thought it would be (I’m only dreading Sickle-fly and Neeker-breeker slayer) however hunter class deeds require quite a high number of shots to perform (Penetrating Shot 1000 times anyone?). I know it can all be done in 10 days but I only concentrate on finishing class deeds when they are about 75% done.

Skirmishes – as I wrote before at this level they are really easy, so just for fun I got an Archer. Although he sometimes doesn’t feel like shooting – and like every graduate of the Skirmish University he cannot find his trail – in combination with Hunter we simply obliterate the enemies. I have even deliberately pulled the Tuckborough courtyard and we barely got scratched. Siege of Gondamon was equally easy, the only trouble I came across was the Daywalker Berserker who pummeled one of the guards before his shield went down and I couldn’t do anything with it. And for the first time I got no trouble with Blood-rooks. If the drake at the end wasn’t scripted to became hostile after landing I’m sure we wouldn’t allowed him to land at all. I spent almost all of my marks on weapons, armour and jewelry. In the end a difference of 20 Agility isn’t really that much but I feel better. /flex

Last but not least I’ve heard the Mariners have wrecked their ship again, I might check that out, after all you never know when an eye-patch may come handy.

So I rolled an Elven Huntress – Faradwen (which basically means ‘huntress’, simplicity FTW). She’s level 10, I am once again enjoying quests in Ered Luin and I’ve earned my first 5 Turbine points, yay!

But the whole hunter thingy will probably take some getting used to. When I play a melee class (say champion) the usual fight looks like this: *thrust*, *slash*, *swing*, *hack*, *slash*,  … you get the picture. And the situation with hunter? No matter the skills it’s *pew*, *pew*, *pew*, *pew* and occasional *slash*. Granted it’s more like *aaaaaaim* *pew*, *aaaim* *pew*, *aaaim* *pew*,*PEW* (cookie if you can name the skills). I understand that when it comes to animation there really is little to no possible variety with firing arrows and I play with sound turned off and thus have no idea what sound (if any) do Hunters make. Not to mention that I am currently in the possession of about 6 ranged skills so maybe it gets better later.

Back in UO I actually played an Archer and it was fine, UO doesn’t have skills so I was happy auto-pew-pewing from a distance, running a bit away once the slow-moving Ettin, Troll or Earth Elemental reached me, picking arrows from the ground along the way and then start shooting again, slowly taking him down, it was fun. Not that Hunter in LotRO is hard to play it’s just the combat feels rather monotonous. Granted I haven’t really tried moving around more-so when I’m being encouraged to stay in place to remain focused. When in melee the skills have quite a cooldown and, well, I keep forgetting to use my bow in melee range (it’s just unnatural!). I guess I’d need to group a bit, I actually had quite a fun in Skrogrím’s Tomb, peeling Dwarves and goblins off Dwalin. I am also really looking forward to fight brigands in Bree – no more chasing after them if they decide to run away because I’m not worth the trouble.

In the meantime – US forums, lorebook and everything has been compressed into one huge and (currently) really buggy yet somewhat visually appealing site and the European release of Enedwaith and F2P has been postponed – we can only hope for soon™.

As you probably are aware, the US servers are up for the head-start and people are awaiting the arrival of F2P players, read ravaging hordes thereof

Yesterday, after the dev chat (radiance will be leaving!) the patch servers went up and I experienced one of the quickest patches, it barely took an hour. Unfortunately the servers did get up much later – at about 2 a.m. when I was already in bed. But they’re up now and I need to roll a Free character on Landroval anyway. I’m thinking about an Elven Hunter, the other choices are Guardian (and I’m not sure I want to roll one) and Burglar (which I really don’t want to roll). I usually spend hours inventing a name for my characters but fortunately I got one spare – Fandiriel – and I hope it’s not taken. By the time I’m writing this Landroval is probably mostly sleeping so I am going to listen to the Hunter roundtable and see if I’d like a hunter

Meanwhile: EU servers continue to go on as if nothing was happening and Codies haven’t really told us anything. I can only hope I will be patched on Friday. I expect Enedwaith to be pretty crowded the first week so I’m probably not heading there right from the start, though from what I have seen the area is just beautiful. What I am gonna do is enjoy my new wardrobe, my vault contains about 50 pieces of clothing a good quarter of which are cloaks and with all the chests bought I don’t have much space in there.  After that some tedious respending of LI points and Skirmish Marks and then I’d like to visit some renewed instanced.

So see you in Middle-earth, from now on at both sides of the Pond (Laurelin and Landroval).

or something.

If you haven’t guessed yet, this will be about LotRO (aka Lord of the Rings Online). This particular post is a Mission Manifest/About that WordPress made me do and I’m having a hard time trying not rewriting it over and over. And the woes of making a proper theme still await me.

Why?

Well, from time to time I’m having urges to post various stuff but neither the official forums nor my little messageboard (nor Lorebook) seem to be suited for that. So I thought I’d give blogging a chance.

Who am I?

In the world of LotRO I am known (at least to some) by the name of Aeled (or Æled if you prefer)  – my main’s name. I planned to name this blog after him, but then I realized you are going to have a hard time with the ‘makhiel’ part. Makhiel is my other name (yes, I use several, you don’t?) – it’s sorta my everyday-use nickname.

I play on Laurelin, which is an European server. I also have a character on Bullroarer and a soon-to-be-available-again character on Landroval.  I am an EU lifer, made the deal at the start of this summer, after two years of playing. My main is a level 65 Captain – Aeled Reniannen (that name is half Rohiric, half Elvish in case you wonder). He hails from the plains of Rohan, hence the ‘strayed’, being quite far away from home. He also happens to be an officer in the Leaves of the Malinorni kinship. His “second in command” is another level 65 – Nendhíniel – an Elven Wardenette. I also happen to have a mid-level Champion and Rune-Keeper, a Lore-master and a barely touched Minstrel. And then a Warg and a Spider.

In real life I am and for the next few years I plan to be an IT student. I live in Czech Republic, a small country in the middle of Europe. And thus my tweets, facebook updates are sometimes in Czech and sometimes in English,  not to mention other languages; don’t worry though, this site will be in English, mostly. What else? I am weird but then, who isn’t? I love Tolkien’s work, though I am one of those who’ve seen the movies first (well, just the first one but still). I know stuff, lots of in most cases useless stuff – such as a good deal of Sindarin which comes handy in LotRO though. I also read a lot.

I’ve never blogged before so I’m curious what comes out of this.

What am I going to be posting about?

I guess most of my posts will be covering my various adventures in Middle-earth, quite possibly a few guides may occur and then some things about Lorebook I happen to be editing every now and then. And of course miscellany, mustn’t forget miscellany.

I will attempt to post some kind of round-up every week and irregular stuff in-between. I assume right from the start the frequency of updates will be high thus setting an unreachable bar for later.

And that should be enough for the first post.