SFChakan wrote:
I don't mean for it to sound like LotRO is a WoW clone, but the game is very similar in several instances. UI is nearly identical, you kill boars in the beginning and get the same kind of drops, etc, etc. These are just my initial impressions. I've only got a level 5 Burglar and have only been able to play with the abilities available so far.
The aesthetics are definitely different and, depending on your taste, possibly better. My fiancee, a fellow FFXI player, preferred LotRO greatly to WoW in that department
Just started myself over the weekend, just wanted to know what you expected?
The fact that leveling is mostly quests and not grinding away is a big plus, but this brings into focus the problem with making many unique and also fun quests is that you need fluff (gather/kill quests) since the unique / fun quests take a lot of design and testing time and are typically missions/storyline in most games.
When you do get involved in the Epic line of quests you'll love those for sure if you prize storyline involvement and progression.
Since I just started I find the game refreshing and new as is expected, the UI is easily modified and the quest descriptions are frequently good enough to get you pointed in the right direction but requiring "exploring" almost all the time.
So if a prospective player is the type to like to look up everything on wowhead this might not be your cup of tea The leveling pace so far is pretty fast imo but I can't speak for later levels. I can't speak for Gold issues since I don't currently use it but seem to be managing just fine thanks to some generous Kinship folks donating some bows (rolled a hunter for a change of pace from my normally critical tank/healer roles in the ffxi and wow to R&R here).
What does speak volumes about the game is that I spent nearly the entire weekend playing (fiancee was working =P ) it when I'm at a point in my life where I rarely spend more than 4-5 hours a day on weekends on FFXI or WoW.
The world is absolutely gorgeous if you can crank the settings to High and beyond.
The difference between LoTRO and the other games is that it is a real invitation to spend some money on a good system rewarding you tangibly for upgrading instead of just being slightly different or smoother. FFXI looks basically the same and WoW isn't much different in my experience if you play at 1280x1024 on a ATI 9800pro or 1920x1200 on a 8800 Ultra short of using 3rd party tools to increase draw distance in FFXI's case which is at best a minor improvement since you are still saddled with textures so low resolution it's sad considering the excellent artistic/design value it has.
WoW I won't comment on too much because I have trouble "getting into" the graphics.
EQ2 is a exercise in frustration with regards to stable(ish) framerates, one minute you'll be zipping along the next you'll be a slideshow. The textures are of great quality but the environment can potentially be very monotonous/repetitive. A major step up from FFXI in the texture department but hamstringed by a generally poor environment design.
So now for downsides from my n00b perspective:
The HUD/Map is nearly useless in a Wooded area and only moderately useful otherwise but on the otherhand in dungeon's it's a draw as you explore type deal which is very much welcome vs. quest/buy to obtain.
The in game map other than for cities is useless
On Vista64 I get fairly frequent crashes (about once per hour), I know lolvista but this game actually does some nice graphical enhancements that are DX10 based.
Finding groups for non-soloable quests can be hard (personally if I have trouble I just carry on leveling until I'm capable of soloing them anyway).
Anyway that's enough from me since I'm already at risk for getting TL;DR's