Lord of the rings online

A wonder what little upgrade can do. I used to know that even outdated equipment works and if you do not one-shoot monster, then it may take entuire 3 hits to kill it. No problem, nothing bad.
Yesterday I spent almost all of my Motes to get Traveller’s armour (since crafted is not an option). First, it was expensive one as opposed to simple: 1500 motes versus previous for 600 motes. Difference was really huge. I ran Missions to test, intentionally aggroed – and boy, it worked. I was efficient again!
Obviously, I ran more Missions, aggroing mobs and shing-shinging them to death. Things went pretty cool – and it’s just barter armour, not top one.

SSG announced its next expansion, Wolves of Mordor. We get new Wolves and two new systems: Survival insticts and Neighbours. Instincts are basically one region specific mechanic. One more talent tree, just for entire one region. Neighbours are something borrowed from SWTOR: you have neighbour, he has some hidden likes/dislikes and offers you quests, so if you do everything good, you will advance friendship; friendship can also be advanced by purchassable gifts. Advance enough and Neighbour will offer you quests. Interesting mechanic that has sense and could add some nice moments. I enjoyed it in SWTOR (of course we Sith are nice and I always went for most light action).
Everything of it is for sale. Initially – cash only (40$ lowest tier, 130 $ highest). At April hated free players could purchase for several thousand LP. Neighbours are for additional sale, some 1500 points for one neighbour (maximum is 4?).

For me idea “Enemy is dead, yet something remains” is such over-typical path that is not even funny. Empire lies in ruins, yet on distant planet we have new Sith and his own 5 trillion army. Sauron is dead, yet somewhere another lieutnant lives and infested entire region with countless hordes. New wolves may be good (or bad) – depends on what they really are. Survival instincts is very bad approach. We have enough talent trees and setups to care about. SSG is trying to tell that I need to waste time to max region-specific mechanic that could not be used in other region(s). No, thanks.

Neighbours are good, yet too expensive, almost as entire quest pack. Why they did not offer, say, one neighbour for free?

Anyway, not rushing with this content. Nowhere to run.

Bloxd

Back to slumber. Good news, my admin is back, created some script that allows automatical build of towns. As I was told -“you build one house, then script builds town”. Bloxd kids are really, really cool at scripting. Give them PC, they would script almost anything, from X-wing to working artillery (or hacks…). I gave that player Coder rights on older server: let him show what he can do with his God-like script.

But at least I have setup of basic VIP house that looks like VIP house. Now all that I need is to copy-paste several, decorate them in different way (no two houses could look same!).

—

And so I have things to do. Lucky me…

Lord of the rings online

Elderlsade is mostly finished. Most deeds done, many slayer deeds done, quests done. Of course, game redirected me to boring War of Three Peaks. I had little wish to quest here, so just switched to Missions.

Oh my, trouble awaited me. Out of nowhere I became really vulnerable. Where at lvl.140 I could proudly take some 6 worms, now I can hardly take 4. Re-checked Legendary items: they arer almost fully upgraded. Usefull traceries are almost fully upgraded (and got more since lvl.140). Yet I became squishy and no idea why. There is no use in asking /World, since it will surely ignore me (like they did in all past times). I asked one lvl.145 Champion, he ave me but one advice: crafted armour. Well, I do not have Metalsmith, so that advice cannot be followed. Primitive barter armour? Maybe.

So, now I just stand in housing area, turning in task items for Conquest of Gorgoroth. Boring, but should fit untill I find any solution.

Bloxd

First, I risked to give one player survival status. Gave her her own house and shop. Then, built VIP house, but it looked ugly. Non-VIP, maybe even worse than standard house. So, one run with Super-RPG and ugly house was no more. I build another, which looks more like VIP. More stone, usage of [presumably] more expensive Plum tree, adding Plums as food, making more windows and adding some fluffy furniture. Of course, more torches. And different setup of ground floor. Should be enough, I guess.

City hall is started, looks not so impressive, but I will make it nice. Lore restrictions does not help, yet I must obey them.

My co-owner returned from sleep, found one cool place to build something like admin castle. Other player was asked to code custom currency. Which is good, I do need some life there.

The only problem are surroundings. Stone and maple only with one random Autumn forest. My civilization is just stuck, no Andesite or Granite nearby – heck, even Diorite is absent. No new trees.  And mountains that would be difficult to climb for an empire with some 100 citizens. Perhabs, if my admin returns, I will ask to scout surroundings for suitable places. I need nearby water, no mountains (preferable) and would be cool to reach some new resource (wood or stone).

Lore-wise I could write walls of texts. Medieval setting is perfect for lore.

—

So, I have some purpose, all I need is to organize myself a bit and resume questing/building.

Lord of the rings online

Questing in Minas Morgul, the dead city. Initially everythign went good: go, clean tower, visit spawned Ranger camp, receive quests, finish and get redirection to next level. At one level they resumed torture: go and kill orcs; oh well, since you killed Orcs, I forgot you needed other Orcs;my bad, you need to kill more and more…and so forwards-backwards.

Navigation at one circle was a pure pain. Map won’t work, so it was blind testing.

What was good? Several quests featuring Lady Lhaereth and lore of Mordor. These are the strongest points. I also witnessed Viznak, this wanna-be “king” of Agarnaith. And of course, Lady Eowyn in disguise of some Ithilien ranger.

Since I am level 141 and quests are some 121 – I could safely travel forwards and backwards, killing almost anyone. I was good at group fights: shing-shing worked perfectly. Of course, quest xp was not optimal. Entire questing gave me just one level…while I need 19 more.

Yet I do not rush. For quick xp there are Missions and Taskboard. One day I will return to this grind too. But so far, I just enjoy questing. The only thing that bothers me is Ancient script. I am low on it with no reliable source of income.

Bloxd

With difficulties, I finished New town district of Townsville. 7 houses of Quarry workers: 6 simple houses (5 people each: overcrowding…) and 1 house of Quarry Overseer (3 people). Quarry itself was built.
Now, the most problematic task: a factory that processes messy stone into all sorts of stone and also produces glass. Current factory is too small to house everything: materials, fuel, 2 big fireplaces, working places and also produce.
With no help, things go really slow. But at least I will finish two parts of town…with biggest part remaining. I will need City hall, church+belltower, house of priests, tailor, bakery – also, maybe a very little school and tiny hospital.Of course, prestige living houses too.
If only I had some aid – things could go really, really fast. Two people are more than enough: one scouts area marking everything needed; another decorates exterior of plain houses (so that all are a bit different). Or well – one does menial tasks, like paving streets or levelling terrain (instead of scouting).

—

Anyway, thanks to all gods, I have things to do.

Lord of the rings online

Naktieskarys finally grinded reputation with Grey Mountains expedition, so could purchase Return to Jarnfast and Return to Skarhald. At least some use from this reputation. Which is unlike The Great Alliance: you can get aall reputation, receive nothing in return.

I returned to grind some deeds in Mordor Besieged. This time quickly finished audio journal. These are really nice and impressive. As I always say – a pity, SSG discontinued them.

Then there were few Missions and that’s all. I am lost between so many things to do. Unfinished regions of Imlad Morgul, Elderslade, War of Three Peaks. Some things left in Mordor proper, Wells of Langflood. Also, Dale lands have unfinished business too. Not to mention evil Gundabad.

There are many tasks at one time and little time. As NPCs in Mordor besieged say: “I have a task for you, soldier!”.

Bloxd

After few days of trying – finally, workers’ houses are built. They reflect idea that my Empire needs stone and is ready to sacrifice quality of life for that. House of worker is smaller than simple town house; made from wood instead of stone; houses more people (5 instead of 3); visually is just blank.
All this reflects idea that town citizens are more important than simple workers. Lore reflects some Imperial propaganda, yet lore is the easiest part.
So, now I must build all worker houses + maybe a better house of quarry overseer. Then, workers’ district would be done. I already made a blueprint of simple city hall. Not so big – it’s start of civilization, after all – but would be good for basic city activities.

The only problem, that I always work alone with absolutely no help. No matter if I ask in Discord or Bloxdhub – there is almost zero help. While all I need would be some 2 people working on building/advising.

—

Anyway, I do have things to do in Lotro and Bloxd, which is good. Now just to pick right time and right direction…

Lord of the rings online

I am so broke on Ancient script. Took almost everything from Legendary track, destroyed all unusable traceries for Script…and still not enough. One needs hundreds of thousands script to max single Legendary weapon. In my case: every weapon is half-baked.

Which resulted in my dps being actually lower. So, had to resume Missions.

Missions aside, I followed Black book of Mordor: some questing in Mordor besieged, then some questing in Minas Morgul region and now – return to lagging Minas Tirith. Looks like I would have to resume questing and finish as many quests as possible.

It leaves me to decide which region do I want to grind. I can choose between Mordor Besieged (preferable), Minas Morgul, then undesireable Elderslade or even finish what is left in Wells of Langflood. Only Mordor besieged sounds not bad – maybe because it is relatively quick.

The only positive outcome – some moments of epic quests, especially poor Gandalf storming Barad Dur (and dying there in his Elvem form). That was really really good moment. Everything else in epic – only “yes yes ok next finish”.

Bloxd

Still no help, but at least finished one house, made placeholders for another two and finished bank. Then, with super-rpg levelled terrain for workers’ district. Only some 8 houses in really limited plot. Plus – Quarry and some factory that makes all sort of stones and simple glass.

House planning still a problem, because workers’ houses must be simple and smaller, yet functional + housing more people.

And then…then my main headache: prestige part. City hall and naturally, church nearby. Baker, tailor shops. Some important NPC’s houses. All must be better than first houses. That’s for first, simple, town.

I need some aid there and cannot find one. Kids like titles, do not like work.

—

But hey, after all I have more than enough to do in Lotro and many things to finish in Bloxd. At least some activity.

Lord of the rings online

Wildwood boring quest arc is finally finished. I hardly read texts – they are so boring, of no importance. Nothing of any epic importance ever happened in Wildwood. It is just two camps with two “factions” and local Orc-controlled village. Quest arc ending is typical “let’s work together” boredom. But I endured it, took awards and that’s all. Now just grindy deeds remain.

Naktieskarys forced himself to do Missions and earn a bit xp. Some 7 million xp remain (which equals to ~20 Missions). But well, after level 141 I would just have to upgrade Legendary items and then could resume questing. Questing it out-levelled territories should be doable.

What makes me bit nervous: in Missions, fire damage has increased drastically. Any Sapper one-shots you. If you stand in fire longer than one or two seconds, you are dead. Really bad for my unlucky melee toon.

One person from past re-emerged. Threatened to steal things from my house. While this is impossible – I do not understand why he does it. When he is online, he always insults and mocks me. Every single moment. At any occasion. We were in one Kinship once and had no problems with each other. Now, he just dedicates his all activity to insulting me. Strange.

Bloxd

First house in town emerged. Too big, almost not medieval, yet functional. I will finish it and then look if it could be improved. City needs living houses (I presume some 20), then city-related structures: City hall, church, bank, bakery, tailor; city’s district of workers needs quarry, maybe stoneworker shop (and lower quality houses for workers).

—

I still have things to do online. A pity, little help…and a bit too much hate [towards me].

Lord of the rings online

Vacations meant I was travelling, being lazy, watching TV and so on. Blog was sleeping.

In Lotro I rushed to get levels and advance Legendary track. Result: track was finished, I got some hiena (?) pet for my main. Hurray.

Naktieskarys did almost every Mission he could. Exluding Glimmerdeep, which is maze almost impossible to navigate. It became a daily routine: War room-then Erebor-check Clegur-Convoy-Herne. Do all easy Missions and enjoy xp. Also, I use taskboard to get reputation with Gundabad.

This routine went for long time, untill I rediscovered Wildwood. Went here and realised I lack any reputation with two local factions. Missions auto-scale (which I forgot). So, I used all tokens to get to Kindred with locals and barter “return to…” skills. Then, finished all Missions for a deed. To my satisfaction, I could do local quests as a kind of relax. Thus Wildwood with its boring stories is a form of rest for me. I don’t care about local stories which are boring “we are enemies-wait-we work together for common good” style.

Naktieskarys worked hard on Missions to get to level 140 and equip new traceries. Which was not true, traceries start at lvl.141. That means another days of pure grinding and grinding.

At the other side, I gained reputation with Gabilaka – another unpronouncable uzhas or izhas or hruzbhthuzghrlakmrdr.

So now I do Missions, slowly increase reputation with Gabilaka and Gundabad. Waiting for level 141. And then it would be really easy: remove old traceries; open all new traceries boxes to see if I have anything usable; purchase new traceries; use all stored runes to level up traceries.
And then, for 20 levels, forget about changing traceries.

With new traceries I could finally resume questing – finish Black book of Mordor, advance adventures of Dwarves. Maybe even get new gear from Delvings.

Bloxd

New builds are going very, very slowly. My co-owners are of little help. I build alone with no support/advice. So far only 2 villages done and first town (as always, Townsville) started. Lobby is private, so I get no visitors and do not want them: open only when you have something to show.

Map is really bad. Only simple stone across half of map. Unless I cheat, I can’t get normal materials.Mountains are an obstacle too.

I really need some 2 working admins who would want to earn that position. WHo would help me with planning and building (or at least, coding). I got none. My admins are happy to be admins with no obligations. This is not what I expected. Looks like I would have to build and plan alone, as always.

—

My days goes relatively good. In Lotro I have things to do. Goals to achieve. To be busy with something – which is really nice.

Lord of the rings online

Naktieskarys is the only active. Grinding all easy Missions which is of little fun. Taskboard items drop rate is very low, so I am really not efficient at getting xp.

Lucky for me, Farmers’ Fair is there, so I can take some easy quests. So far I take “find crashed kites”, “fly kites”, “find missing stuff”, “make fountain” quests. Killing heat waves requires ranged dps, my champion is very bad at this. I get xp, I get event tokens (with no idea if there is anythign that I want to barter) and I get LI xp. Missions can wait.

Which saves me from idle waiting in Bree regional chat. Almost always empty (why socialize, any gamer would ask), but if there are people, they tend to be really nice and kind.

Bloxd

Finally, I have persuaded entire one person to take a look at my server and provide feedback. I was very sceptical about self-proclaimed “Top 10 builder”. Kids. What one can expect from kid?

And I was wrong. Feedback arrived. Short, yet detailed, with quality arguments. I recevived praises for server settings and – what really excites me – for lore. Which was deemed to be deep. This is really true.
Negative side: uniformity of houses (absolutely true) and lack of things to roleplay (which I had never thought about).

So this random “top builder” told me almost all I needed to know. That I am good in lore and game settings and that uniformity is not roleplay-wise good. Roleplay was something I never thought about. Later it became obvious: players want houses and one of first questions always was – “Can i have a house”?

I have valuable feedback. Now, all I have to do is to mobilize all will and quietly build a quality server (another one). A bit less boards with lore. More houses. Most of them should be visually different. And think about player role-play, should they want to engage into it.

SR

This un-playable simulator of “stand in space station and be killed by random monster” enters Early Access. Gives away some stuff for players. I almost do not care. I forgot which email I used to login into their portal. And to stand in lame space station observing non-interactable objects does not require anything, tool or weapon or even cosmetics.

—

Right now I know I can do some things in Lotro…and start big planning in Bloxd. Plan, experiment, then make final builds and prepare users for a finished region. I know I must be better at details, especially realism.

Things are becoming more interesting in online life, after all.

Lord of the rings online

Naktieskarys was busy. I grinded all easy missions. AoE atacks were perfect feast: invite some monsters, then all quality attacks ending with shing-shing. For melee and little groups of enemies my Champion is perfect.

With xp bonus and some taskboard items – I was able to reach level 120 and reforge Legendary items. I felt satisfied. In limited situations my toon is really good and feels in his own shoes. Little group of on-level melee monsters means my shing-shing Champion is in his place. Of course, ranged enemies would just nuke my toon.

The only problem are taskboard items. Their drop rate is so low that I cannot hope to use taskboards efficiently. I hardly get 100 items for different factions. Black book of Mordor just stopped, I somehow miss something and need to locate NPCs. Lotro-wiki for the win…

Bree regional is, as always, empty and whole server is silent. Newbie who comes in Lotro would see lots of noise…which evolves into dead silence.But this is the reality of Lotro.

So, I need level 121 and somehow, by some miracle – level 130 to be able to use Delving armour and some factions’ armour. Without other players it is complicated.

Bloxd

Planning, planning and more planning. Right now, I once again am at Excel, painting and deleting blueprints. I understand my mistakes and would not repeat them. Basic rule is simple: always keep visitor busy with visual guidance! No empty spaces. If you leave village, soon you must see something that tells “come there, something is there”. Then, at least half of houses should be left to players.

Problem is, I cannot get anyone to visit my [still public] server. Entire 2 people voluntered. Nobody came. Yesterday I wrote to one “very famous,one from 10 best builders”. He told he would visit…and I got no answer. So I politely thanked him for his attention in reading my message. I also added that I assume he did not and will not visit my server.

Goal is very, very clear: new server. Visually different houses. More visual guidance. Lore-important, but trashy for visitors agriculture fields – hidden behind houses. And somehow mark houses that cabn be claimed by players.City planning would change to the better.
And main thing: I will create server, lock it and create entire starter region. Only then would I unlock server. While unlocked, I will plan future settlements and build them.

—

And so my days goes, slowly, yet with purpose (and no socialization). But at least I have some goals.

Lord of the rings online

My Naktieskarys still run Cardolan. A region too big, with some auto-death places – yet still it is something to work on. Slayer deed will soon be done. Exploration would be harder – those cursed Treasure chests! These were probably placed by Sauron, the well-known Lord of Gifts…

Reputation with local Dunedain is still low. Kindred is hard to achieve, even with help of taskboards. I also ran one Mission.

Stormsong tried Bree regional chat few times, absolutely no results. Chats are empty and dead.

Bloxd

I must take some break. Right now – little ideas and much understanding of my own mistakes. Well, I cannot change what happened. But I can change things that could happen. All I need is some work in Excel, some planning of at least few types of houses. Then – place them, try to decorate in a different manner. Place more stories for people to read.
And pray that after this unlucky summer my server gains some visitors.

SR

They are (not jokingly) preparing for Early Access. A world that is unplayable is ready for Early Access. Everything is user un-friendly, every single system is designed to torture and mock you – so let’s call it Early Access.
I wish I could challenge Raph. Ask him for one thing: log in, then just follow me and listen to me. I would show him how his un-playable world looks for newbie. I would present logic arguments. And then tell him: that’s why and how your mmo is unplayable. You want Early Access, so make your own mmo actually playable.

Unless it is mmo for masochists, of course.

—

And so, I have still something to do. Boring Cardolan, then equally boring Missions to get to lvl.130, get new equipment, then same boring Missions…

Unless I start investing into quality of my oiwn Bloxd server. I still think that in SR (if it was somehow user friendly and playable) I could  have done more impressive things for adult playerbase to enjoy and roleplay. Well, it would never happen…

So I have to find something to do in Lotro.