Grab Bags, Wiki, F2P MMO's

[Etaew]

Do I spend any time on DOL? I hear you say. Well, not as much lately, I've updated the order of the forums, added some new ones, re-arranged other ones, and deleted pointless ones. I've also changed the search function to be more tolerant of popular words such as "database".

Grab Bags

You may have noticed a forum going up containing old Grab Bags, I have been taking the oldest articles off the old herald and working forward. Some really interesting stuff is to be found, such as Mythic comments after release, the popularity of the game, the frequency of content updates etc.

Wiki

I've been adding content to the official DAoC Wiki, I've created a lot of content for the Expansions pages, although I haven't played some of these expansions, I've only had to go on the official releases.

I've also added a lot of information on Lore, to some classes, to quite a few zones, and for some dedicated catacombs content. Some quite interesting stuff, but then if I compare to other games such as World of Warcraft lore and Star Wars lore, I find I care less about the Arthurian, Celtic and Norse than I do about the others. Is this a problem with the choice of lore for DAoC or just because of my personal preference, I dunno.

My time on Warhammer Online ended last week, and I've been looking at my next MMO to play.

So far I have spent a few days on Age of Conan and a few days on Lord of the Rings Online and my overall thoughts are these:

Age of Conan

• - Free to Play
  -Visually Impressive
  - Adult
  - Unique Combat Style
  - Unique Quests
  - Repetitive Quest Zones

I haven't experienced the PvP side of Age of Conan as my Priest of Mitra is only level 16.

Lord of the Rings Online

• - Free to Play
  - Visually Impressive
  - Immersive
  - Unique Quests (Chicken Play/Pub Crawl!)
  - Crafting (not rubbing hands together)
  - Annoying client to server to client movement mechanic, not just client to server.

I am currently a level 9 Hobbit Minstrel.

One of the most unique things I remember from my time on LOTRO is encountering a quest where you play as a chicken, that was pretty awesome.

I haven't experienced the PvM side of Lord of the Rings Online yet, I'm not sure what part of the game you encounter the play vs monster characters.

More as I play it...

[Sand]

You need to be a subcriber to participate in monster play.

What server you playing in LOTRO?

I been playing since October on Brandywine.

I had played in beta and bought game when it first came out but since wasn't done with DAoC on live, I didn't activate it.

So then ftp came along and decided to play.

I tested my login from beta and it worked but wouldn't let me activate the box so ended up with a second account with that activated with a free month of vip, which was good allowed me a month to unlock some stuff.

I still have 2 characters from beta (the third I deleted) plus now 5 on the main account (bought mines/mirkwood which gave me 2 extra slots).

Result is between those accounts I have 8 characters, all classes except bugler, the lowest being 25 now I think and highest 45. I also created a 3rd account as holder that ended up leveling a min to 16 on so she could buy a house.

[Etaew]

Regarding monster play I was meaning I don't know what level I would encounter the monsters as a normal people, if PvMP is featured that much on LOTRO.

I am playing on the Vilya server, it was flagged as recommended.

I like the sense of scale, and having to take horses everywhere, since you have to buy a mount from the store, I'm not going to pay money.

[Argo]

since the highes achievable level in lotro is 65 at the moment, i suppose that monsterplay is also at 65. I've never been a fan of monsterplay there, thus i can't say too much about it. But one thing about lotro i do like a lot and that is its beautiful graphic, the classes and the quests. I have a LTA for lotro but don't really play often due to lack of time.

[Etaew]

Just did an awesome quest in hobbitland, a pub crawl, was quite difficult to see during the end. Love how varied the quests that I have done are.

[Sand]

The way monster play works is that you can create a monster character at any time, or your regular player can go to zone at 40. You take a horse to ettenmoors from Rivendell.

Either way you need to be a subscriber.

You need a horse eventually but not hard to get one, just need 95turbine points (for riding skill, vips can do a quest at 20 for it as well) and 500s for your first.

You buy them from farm north of bree.

I tried that pub crawl once, on a previous festival but didn't make it through to end, think that one was when I first started.

They do festivals 4 times a year, currently into the summer festival. I haven't done much with the festivals except the yule one, I liked the cosmetic outfits and horses available. (many of my toons just have that horse, while one or two already had a horse so it was a second horst that I bought).

The fest horses typically require tokens gained through the event, plus one you get from the race, and then either 200 or 500s.

[Sand]

If you haven't picked up a craft yet, would recommend picking up explorer profession and doing so soon.

It allows you to gather both ore and wood and also gives ability to make light and medium armor so can outfit yourself though many of quests will offer better armour.

Best to pick it up a gather skill early as the first tier mats can be quite a pain to get later. If you don't end up crafting for sell the mats, particularly first tier, sell quite well on ah.

Once I went to AH looking for tin and accidentally bought Khazad tin which is the 6 tier mat, as it was cheaper.

This happens because people choose crafts later and don't go back to pick up their prior mats and/or just whip through those zones before having sufficient mats.

[Argo]

if you chose explorer as profession then i recomend the warden as your choice of class. This class is very versatile and unbelievable hard to beat in PvE, so you can go and grab mats where other classes in your level will just fail. But the other side of the coin is that for a warden you'll have to subscribe.

[Etaew]

Level 12 minstrel right now , have no problems fighting stuff.

[Sand]

Class doesn't really make a difference in ability to get to different areas, it matters more who is higher so that is why recommend picking explorer for your main toon.

Oddly my min is the one toon that has the undefeated title, as in the only class to make it to 20 without dying. It helped that she was the last toon that I made so was well versed in the quests but she also did a couple of the tougher quests at or below the level where other classes had difficulities so she is no slouch in survivability department.

Though at root a min is a healing /support class so can't take quite the hits of a guard or warden but she does have heals and other things that make up for that quite well and if not a min would have least difficulty (other than maybe guard) in finding groups thus make up for any limitations on getting to spots.

So only rule I would follow on craft choose with regards to class just be sure to pick a craft that makes items for your character. So explorer works for either warden or mins, and fine choose for anything except for guard, captain, champ since they wear heavy armor. So if that were your main then would of probably recommended tinker (good for any class) or armoror. Yeoman and the profession with Scholar would work for any class and latter is definitely very desirable craft but both of these lack a gather ability so wouldn't recommend for a main. If you were a hunter, it be a somewhat tough choose, as explorer still would work but nice to be able to make your own bows so the profession with forestry and woodworking is another good choose.

[Sand]

Warden doesn't require a sub.

At least that wasn't what got me the Warden class.

My account that was created with the product key from a box, thus had free month of vip and warden and rk were locked until buying mines of moria.

I also know I could of unlocked the class by purchasing it specifically from the store as if you select class from character screen there was the unlock button that took you to the store.

Mind you, things might have changed. I was talking to someone in game the other day who had created a new account and was already able to make a warden, yet had not purchased mines on that account.

[Argo]

I have a few lvl 60/65 on morthond and i know during my time of playing lotro (quite long ago) you were forced to subscribe or have a vip accont (like i have one) to unlock the warden class plus ofcourse you neded to have mines of moria. Things may have changed nowadays since lotro has become a FTP Game which made me stop playing any longer due to "greedy punks" as Tola would say. Time is another thing that keeps me away playing lotro at the moment. But what i think would be awesome would be a lotro shard cause the world of lotro is quite a huge one, graphics are stunning and adventures endless. Just imagine a lotro shard run by the dol team exclusively Awesome !!!!

[Etaew]

Yeah today I'll pick up a profession before I get too high. I'm pretty much an altoholic, I want to play every class, but with 2 slots per server it's kind of harsh, I could be tempted to pay for new slots, although it seems I get turbine points as I get deeds/achievements which is pretty cool.

Another interesting feature, there isn't really any trash loot, all loot has a use. The task boards in most towns will point you to people who are collecting certain items, from broken daggers to that hide you just took off a bear.

Edit: I'm not that fond of the client to server, server to client movement. You say you want to go forward, you send that to the server, the server responds back to you and moves you in the world, does make it a bit laggy sometimes. And if you get any wireless interference or disconnects you are rooted in place.

Edit 2: Crafting seems pretty good, instead of WoWs rub your hands together until something appears for every action, this you actually pull out a leather thing and start rubbing it down, pull out a tailoring table and start sewing. That's great.

[baradien]

i got there a 18 hunter i think but i had used the points for removing the gold limit
those points were from the beta

maybe we should get a guild and play togeter?

[Etaew]

95 points to access 5 slots on the auction house