Taking in the Scenery

One of my favorite things about playing LotRO has to be the environment. Sometimes I will get bogged down in a location and become too focused on the quest at hand to really stop and pay attention to my surroundings, but today I took my minstrel, Sioned, out to Northern Bree to finish up some quests she forgot to do before. She kind of ran through Bree in a hurry because I mainly played her during LotRO's kinship contest last year, and as I was trying to level her up as quickly as possible I didn't stay too long in any one area. Minstrels are always in short supply, especially good minstrels at a high enough level to actually be useful to a good percentage of the other players, so it probably wouldn't hurt to level her up a bit. Which I did today. Twice. She's now at the glorious height of 39. All that to say that the mobs in Bree are now no challenge at all. Which gives me the freedom to stop, take a look about, and enjoy the fields and hills.

I really do love this area - even if the quests are a bit spread out and it can take forever and a day just to get to where you need to go - the weather for one thing is always gorgeous - even when it's overcast and raining I love it.

 I also celebrated my quick stop in the Hengstacer farms (that's the horsefields for all you noobs) with a game sis and I invented: Pony Jumping. Now normally this epic sport has to be done on foot, but since I was feeling especially festive, I decided to attempt it, rather eval kineval style, on my horse, Aggregate. Don't ask about the horse's name. I don't know.

Anyways, that was fun. Jumping over the ponies always is, whether on foot or horseback. The ponies don't mind either. At least, I don't think they mind. They never make any noise or run away or anything. Sometimes they just swish their tails. Hrm....





Lately with my characters I've been dabbling in the role-playing aspect of the game, something completely optional of course, but it does give the game a little more variety as I get to add a personality to each of my characters. Kind of like acting. So I decided to make Sioned a bit unpredictable and crazy, because I usually have to be in a crazy mood to play her. I don't really like minstrel that much. Which is also why I do things like stopping and admiring the scenery, or jumping over horses, cause I have to do something. But I ramble, it's late, I'm feeling a bit tired... and I think it's starting to show.... so I'm off to bed and then who knows what will happen the next time I find myself in Middle-earth.

Let the nerdiness continue

Irony to the nth degree

Today I announced in Kin chat that I was heading out to the Moors. Did anyone want to come with me? No, but one member charged me with making sure that the relic stayed safe. I had never seen the relic. I didn't even know where it was kept, or who was guarding it. All I knew was that the freeps having it meant we got a nice experience gain boost. Losing the relic meant losing that buff. So, I nodded dumbly and rode off to the moors, not quite sure what I had just promised and hoping he was joking. He didn't really mean for me to watch over this mythical relic, did he? Surely he was joking.

Later, out on the moors, I somehow managed to scrape together a group of a captain, warden and a minstrel. A pretty awesome group. We managed to get a bit of renown off of a group of creeps, and then, after wiping the floor with them, they disappeared. We rode around like chickens for about fifteen minutes looking for them when something popped up in the announcements. Something I had never seen before. Something I didn't want to see. Something that one Kin member had jinxed into happening:

They were stealing the relic. 

If you can manage to read the orange line of text in the chat box, you will see that a certain fragment is being stolen by a warg named Heathcliffe. This warg and I, at least on my end, have a particularly uneasy history, but I digress. 

We jumped on our horses and ran in circles in a panic for a few minutes until we figured out the route they would probably take to deposit where we assumed they would have to take the relic. None of us had ever seen the relic. We all had seen Heathcliffe though, so we made a rough guess and charged off towards the Orc fortress of Dar-gazugasomething. I forget what it was called. With a daring charge and an insane amount of good luck, we made it into the very heart of the fortress. Right where Heathcliffe the warg would have to put the relic. Heathcliffe was not there. 

We stood about dancing for a second, certain that we had averted a crisis and all we had to do was wait for the pup to show up so we could stick him full of arrows and reclaim the relic for the Free Peoples of Middle Earth. Things were starting to feel both a bit triumphant and epic.

Then, in the midst of our celebrations, I noticed some movement at the entrance to the room. Before I could barely get the words "Hey, guys, um, warg" out, Heathcliffe had blazed past us, the relic held tightly in his teeth. The relic was lost. I had watched it happen. The one thing I had never seen, never even known where it came from or where it went - I saw it on the one day when a Kin member charged me not to lose it.

So class, the word of the day is irony.

Here's to you Heathcliffe and your daring-do. Here's to your group, with your warleaders and your spiders and your wargs, who wiped us out, still in the midst of our celebrations, while you blazed past us with that thing blazing like a beacon. Here's to the captain, warden, and minstrel, who fought so bravely and tried their best to keep a squishy hunter alive.

The End of Their Folly

"Upon the battlement nothing could be seen. All was silent but watchful. They were come to the last end of their folly, and stood forlorn and chill in the grey light of early day before towers and walls which their army could not assault with hope, not even if it had brought thither engines of great power, and the Enemy had no more force than would suffice for the manning of the gate and walls alone."
~ from The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Agriculturally Speaking

Out of all my nine characters in LotRO, only two of them are farmers. There is good reason for that, as farming is probably the most tedious and time-consuming of crafts. It's not difficult or even very expensive, it just takes a very, very, very long time. I have already reached Supreme Master Farmer with Indrabar, and so if I need something grown, I try to let Thyrra do it, since she's still pretty low.

The only problem is, the last time I went farming, something scary was watching me:

Just kidding. The rabbit belongs to me. I had him out because when I took this picture was taken he was the only fluffy, non-combat pet I had. Plus it seemed appopriate to have a rabbit in the fields, even if he is terribly scurry looking. His name is NastyPointyTeeth, because I don't really like rabbits. Because they are scary... and that is all I am going to say about that.

Last night they updated some of the different crafts (thank you Turbine!) and my sis learned how to farm. I don't think she likes it very much....

She's not actually doing in this pic other than standing there looking cool. I think I was explaining farming to her. Notice I have a new pet too - no more rabbits yay! This is my turtle Nanu. He's kind of ugly ^.^

One of the aspects they changed about farming yesterday was that certain ingredients which before could only be bought from suppliers and vendors (at a very expensive price!) can now be only grown by farmers (for much cheaper!). One of those things which can be grown is the Shire Apple:

See? This is the first apple tree I ever grew. I am very proud of it. Sis was too, she cheered for me and my tree.

I don't know what I'm bragging about, actually. It's not any more difficult to grow an apple tree than it is to grow anything else, the apple is just unique in that it actually looks like a tree. Everything else, and I mean everything, looks like some strange grain. Whether you are growing cabbages, carrots, or tobacco, it will look like the same strange plant. Apple trees actually look like trees, for which I am thankful. Maybe one day Turbine will change the appearance of all the vegetables so that what you are growing actually corresponds to what it looks like you are growing.

I found these white horses...

So I finally finished Volume 1 today, only because Turbine was gracious enough to let us poor people who can never get fellowships for quests do the quests on our own. For a few glorious minutes I felt like one of the heroes of ancient elvendom, staring at my morale bar of over 18,000 hitpoints. I was doing 2k damage an arrow, easily. I felt like.... something divine and all-powerful. Granted, the quest was still hard, and I did almost die. But I finished it. I fought the witch-king himself, too:

Why I decided to show up in that dress instead of any armor I don't know, it probably had something to do with me almost dying, lol. But I did fight him, although I didn't kill him. That glory was reserved for Narmeleth there, in the red dress. Poor girl.

After I returned to Rivendell to inform the elves of our triumph, they handed me a bunch of nifty items, namely a cloak, a picture for my house, some armor I can't use, and a fairly decent ring.

Oh, and this:

A white horse. Anyone who knows anything about me and about how I play lotro knows that I am obsessed with two things: clothes and horses. Everytime I get a new horse I am ecstatic and take lots of pictures of it to show it off. This horse I named Bainrhi, which is elvish for "beautiful crown," because I consider this horse to be the symbol of the crown of my achievements in the game thus far. You can also see my new dress, but I didn't get that from the quest, I got that from the lovely beer-filled dwarves of Thorin's Hall. I handed them enough goblin heads and they were happy to give me a dress to say thanks.

Welp, I'm off, back into the game, to see what other wonders I can discover!

I now know how he feels....

For anyone who's ever seen Leroy Jenkins, they will understand completely what this post is about. For those who have not seen it, I will provide the video, so that you may watch it and erase all confusion.  This is a clip someone captured from the game World of Warcraft, which in all actuality is at the bare-bones level very similar to LotRo, which I play. I do NOT play WoW.

*bad language alert*


Okay, so now that we have that out of the way, I want to say that today, I felt like the leader of the group in this video. We had a good group, we had a plan, we had a very difficult instance to run, and then somehow, someone (thankfully I don't know who or I would be a bit upset) managed to ruin everything. We all died. About five times each. We were locked out. Mobs were spawning incessantly. There was no shouting, no cursing, no declarations of chicken, but we did all kind of stand there and get hit by mobs we couldn't see while we died, suddenly and unexpectedly. LotRO tends to be a bit more mature and laid-back than WoW, thank goodness, but the instance tonight represented, to quote my favorite sea-captain: "a level of ineptitude that borders on the imbecilic."  To put it in the plainest of terms:

NO ONE was following the plan. 

So after we had all wiped for the umpteenth time, we stood around the rez circle, wondering what the heck happened and how we could do better next time, when everyone took a look at their repair bills and suddenly disappeared. Apparently having to spend lots of money makes people hesitant to try again. And again. And again.

Thankfully, after we all went our separate ways, I managed to get that horrible repair bill repaid and realized that sometimes, being an officer, being the one in charge, isn't all that great.

"Stick to the plan!" doesn't work when no one is listening. 

A Night with the Loremasters

So tonight sis and I finally went questing (yay for questings!) and this is a brief summary of what happened:

We started off in the Misty Mountains, where I gave sis the scroll that would let her summon her very own fox! It is a rare item, and I was glad I found it on the AH, so I grabbed it for her, cause I'm nice like that.
Isn't he adorable? Then we did ONE quest to get just that much farther in the epic line, but then we were stuck at a full fellowship quest, and when we asked for help, we were met with the news that Turbine is nerfing ALL of Volume I, to my great dismay (and tiny joy. Now I might be able to finally get my white horse). In other words, if we wait till Monday, when they make the changes, we might not need the help and should be able to do it on our own.

Here we are in the Misty Mountains while I tried to get my mic working again. Thankfully my headphones didn't die on me this time. Just in-game problems. Sis, of course, is looking radiant as always, all shiny in the moonlight, while I look like a dork and don't even have my eyes open. Typical.

Then we went down to Rivendell, where we contemplated fishing in a lovely little water hole we found, until we noticed this strange bubbly bit of water. It intrigued us greatly.

Then we were bored, and started swimming about in the water. It was a lovely swimming hole, after all, and a welcome break from the cold mountains we had just left.

 Then we were joined by a couple Kinmates, and ran up to Forochel, where we killed many mooses (meeses?) and wolverines and wargs. Sis also discovered that she cannot play the Lute well. So she smashed it and I threw the bits in the nearby campfire.


All in all it was a lovely night, and except for us wandering too far ahead of our level and getting ourselves killed (repeatedly) by mobs much stronger than we were, it was loads of fun. I love running with my sis ^.^

Today In Urugarth

We fought a bunch of dragons. 

Oh, and a hint to all those using voice chat. Please, please, please don't ever use the "hands-free" option.

Not only will everyone else be able to hear your dog bark, your doors open and close, your radio, your phone ring, your conversation with your pharmacist discussing all your meds (cut back on the Ambien, by the way), we can also do nothing but listen in pain while you cough up a lung for ten minutes. 

Then there is that uncomfortable silence from everyone else in the group.

Dude, are you okay? It sounded like you should be bleeding.

65

Well, I hit the level cap tonight.

Now what do I do? I suppose I could go back and clear out old deeds like I've been trying to do since I had old deeds, or I could keep pushing forward. I feel kind of reluctant to keep going forward though because if I am not gaining any level experience, I feel almost as though all that work will be wasted. I know it's not, because I am still gaining experience for my LI's, but still....

I miss my blue xp bar.....

I suppose if I didn't want to push forward at all I could go to my EIGHT alts and level them a bit. Some of them have been around almost as long as Indrabar, and are still below forty. How sad.

My First Rep Horse

Finally. I have a reputation horse. And it's one you don't see very often, too. Mostly because to get it you have to be considered kindred with the Lossoth - and most people hate Forochel, so they don't even bother getting the horse. But I got her, and I still have deeds to finish - so hey, all those extra items I loot will give me a headstart on the rep with my other characters. Yayyyyy!

Because she is the "Tundra Pony" (you can't really tell, but her fur is kind of long and shaggy) and because she came from the snowy realms of Forochel, I named her Losslir, which means Snow-flower in elvish. I took this screenshot from the backyard of my house in the Shire, because I consider that better scenery than the icebergs and whatnot that adorn Forochel.

And technially, now that I think about it, she isn't my first Rep horse. I have the ability to purchase the horse from the people of Bree, but I forgot and haven't bought him yet. I couldn't buy the other horse now anyways because I spent all but 41 silver of my money to buy Losslir. (Why I have to buy the horse after I spent all that time doing quests and whatnot for these people anyways is beyond me - after all the work I put in they should just give her to me, lol)

.... but I do hope I don't die anytime soon, otherwise I won't be able to afford the repairs. At least now when I go out on the moors I won't get laughed at for not having a better horse.

Dear Turbine

*note* I was going to post this on the Lotro forums, but somewhere in the process of writing it I lost my nerve in the face of angry apathetic devs and the ever-present trolls. Maybe if I ever find my courage I'll put it there...

I've been here almost a year, and for a while, something has been growing in the back of my mind, bothering me.

When I first started playing lotro, I was amazed at the depth of the lore, the attention to detail, the high level of immersion in another world that this game gave me - compared to other games. I quickly fell in love with the game and over the past ten months have devoted countless hours to wandering the fields and hills of Middle-earth.

However, the farther east I wandered, the less impressed I was with what I was seeing. Yes, the views are still fantastic. Yes, there is still a certain something (something I don't know quite how to describe) that will hold my attention. But something has also been lost.

Perhaps it is the lore - the quests began to seem less unique, I suppose. Perhaps it was the players - the higher in level I moved, the farther it seems I was from other enraptured, wandering souls and suddenly I found myself in the company of power-hungry players only interested in the quality of their gear or their personal stats.

When I gained Kindred Reputation with the people of Bree - I really felt as though that meant something. I had worked tirelessly, serving the people in so many ways - and finally, I was rewarded. The Council of the North, however, or the Galadhrim, or even the Lossoth - while I may know these people, know what they supposedly stand for - I do not have the same connection for them. I have not yet reached Kindred with any of those, but when I do, instead of a grand sense of achievement, I instead fear a feeling of "so what? I finally finished a long grind and can now ignore this facet of the game. Yayyyyy." Turbine, this is not how I should be feeling after leaving an area.

I will still play, Turbine. And chances are I will still love LotRO, but please, remember what you have left behind. Remember the Shire and the hills of the Lone Lands. Not all players are interested in leveling at lightning speed and running high-risk instances. I don't consider myself a RPer, perhaps I am just full of whimsy and wanderlust. There are many facets of the game you as devs have not touched for reasons totally unknown to us players since the launch of the game. Why is there still only one hobby? Why is the housing system made up of code over fourteen years old when the game is only on its third year? Why is the crafting system horribly unbalanced?

I started playing LotRO because it was different from all the other MMO's I had seen out there. Why did you feel you had to change, Turbine? Why must you become like all the others with your new content that pushes forward - raises the cap, raises the bar, the intensity, for what? Three days or less while the die-hards run everything and suddenly, they are all at level cap again and bored. Do you work just to please them while the rest of us run at our own pace? Just because we are not first does not mean we should be ignored.

The Farming Loop

To help out a fellow kinmate last night, I offered to make him some Bundles of Tea Leaves, which he would then give to someone else to make Cups of Red Tea for him to use - they offer a nice Vitality boost which can be very helpful before a rough battle.

It also didn't hurt that I hadn't gained any experience in Supreme Farmer yet and that growing this tea for him would give me a good amount of points.

So I bought 100 Tea seeds, some fertilizer and some water, and headed out to the field in the Shire. It was raining, but that was okay - I tried to think that instead of getting soaked it was helping the little tea plants grow.

I use 5 seeds for every plant, and each plant has the possibility to give me all sorts of items in return. The two main items I get though are the Poor Tea and Fair Tea Crops. After harvesting all my tea plants, I take these poor and fair crops to the nearest workbench to transform them into the Tea Bundles, and amazingly enough, more seeds.

So, 100 seed, 5 seeds per plant, that's 20 plants. Only, each plant can sometimes spit out up to five of each of the two types of crops. Which means, when I take those plants back to the workbench and separate them, I suddenly, instead of having no seeds in my bag, have 38 seeds. Hooray. That means I can go out and plant some more!

So I go back out (after buying two more seeds to make it an even eight possible plants) and plant my second batch of tea. This time I come out with 27 new tea seeds. So I buy three more and go again. This time I come out with 13 seeds. So I buy two more and go again. This time I come out with 7 seeds.

At this point I realized that I was caught in the vicious French Fry/Ketchup loop. You know, the one where you order some fries, and in the process of eating those fries, you run out of ketchup, so you get more ketchup to try and even it out, but then you finish your fries and you still have ketchup, and you hate wasting ketchup, so you go get more fries, but then you run out of ketchup.... you get the idea.

So yeah. I looked at those seven seeds, looked at that muddy field I'd been standing in for two hours, and then walked up to the little farmer hobbit standing near the field. Instead of buying more seeds to even it out (so I could plant *gasp* more tea plants) I sold those seven little seeds back to him and called it a night.

I escaped the cycle, but I think I might have wasted some ketchup.

The Absent-minded Adventurer

Yesterday I quite ferociously declared that my account had been hacked, due to my logging in and apparently missing a rather large amount of in-game money.

Today I logged in and realized that I had spent the money myself.

It is a relief to know that my account is still, for the moment, secure, but it is also somewhat disheartening to know that I could be that forgetful.

HACKS! I CALL HACKS!

So I logged out last night of lotro with a bank account of something approaching nine gold on my main character, Indrabar. For me, this was a major achievement. I was trying to decide how to spend my hard earned wealth and had decided to buy my first Reputation horse from the lovely people of Bree since I had reached Kindred status with them.

Today, however, I log in only to find that Indrabar is only holding 4 gold and 440s. Where did all my money go? I filed a report, but chances are I was hacked. I have changed my password and am now running spybot, just in case. In my defense, I have changed my password and will simply muster my strength to get back out there and earn it all again.

At least I still have all my items. At least I hope I have all my items. I haven't checked my other characters yet. Oh help....

*runs off to check inventory*