THE main issue with lotro (and probably every MMORPG)

[Aegmar]

I returned to lotro after i think it has been 8 years or more to play on a legendary server.

Most of the instances are simply too easy, only available on tier1 and, plain and simple, a total joke.

I remember the early days of lotro when it was harder..., characters have not been doing so much damage, it took longer to take down mobs in landscape and in instances. Yes, that was annonying sometimes and time consuming, but it also gave an incentive to group up and play TOGETHER..., which is kinda the point of an MMORPG, or not ?

Basically you can just nuke your way through 98 % of the content without considering anything else..., why have classes with CC abilities when those only have use in like 2 and a half encounters ?

Please make lotro 2 on unreal engine 5 and make it so players really need to form groups even for at least a good portion of the landscape content and instances that require more than just aoe damage - not only on tier 2 (barely) and 3 in the absolute endgame raids.

10 years ago ppl had to learn their chars and adapt to situations, find strategies that work with the current group, now we can just rush through instances in 10-20 minutes.

Ok, i don't want 4 hours of Fornost, that was probably too much, but at least what is now tier 2 as the standard plus a little more maybe.

[Kormach]

The game changed several years ago when the devs decided it was too hard, and needed to be easier as a way to encourage more people to play. There have been so many changes simplifying the game from what it once was. Almost all of the content can be done solo now. Crafting has changed too where you don't need to make all the parts you used to have to make when crafting some items. I know some people were complaining in the past that they wanted to be able to complete some of the instances without have to group with anyone, which I think kind of defeats the purpose.

I don't know if all of this simplification has brought in more players or not. I do know it has made the game almost too easy.

[Berserkr]

They have landscape difficulty settings now you have to go set them up with an npc, one is outside the prancing pony, you can set it to lore difficult if you want, a lot of games don't even have this feature so it at least has that

[Aldroen]

Originally posted by Kormach:

The game changed several years ago when the devs decided it was too hard, and needed to be easier as a way to encourage more people to play. There have been so many changes simplifying the game from what it once was. Almost all of the content can be done solo now. Crafting has changed too where you don't need to make all the parts you used to have to make when crafting some items. I know some people were complaining in the past that they wanted to be able to complete some of the instances without have to group with anyone, which I think kind of defeats the purpose.

I don't know if all of this simplification has brought in more players or not. I do know it has made the game almost too easy.

I can speak as a new player that the fact you can solo most things was a huge draw for me into lotro. I grew up playing GW1 where everything can be done solo but the game provides you the option to group up if you want which in turn rewards you with potentially having easier time.

Of course Lotro is not that extreme since there are still instances that require a group to accomplished, but in my opinion this is a market that currently is not explorer by other MMOs with potential audience waiting for a good solo MMO like GW1.

[Harvain]

Originally posted by Kormach:

The game changed several years ago when the devs decided it was too hard, and needed to be easier as a way to encourage more people to play. There have been so many changes simplifying the game from what it once was. Almost all of the content can be done solo now. Crafting has changed too where you don't need to make all the parts you used to have to make when crafting some items. I know some people were complaining in the past that they wanted to be able to complete some of the instances without have to group with anyone, which I think kind of defeats the purpose.

I don't know if all of this simplification has brought in more players or not. I do know it has made the game almost too easy.

It was many more years ago than that. Far closer to 2010 than 2024.

A big thing in the aftermath of Free to Play in September 2010 and as the "large number of players" began to move forward into the game was that "Lower Level Content" was suffering from the lack of Players.

This had a growing group of players who were unable to proceed for their Quests, especially the Epic Main Quests, as they had to wait around for Randoms, Friends, and/or Kinmates (guild mates) just to get a single quest done.

We eventually started seeing the shift where things were made more "Solo Friendly" which did help LOTRO out and helped balance out things as well as counter the decrease in Players for various reasons especially in 2012 to 2014.

This change has definitely ensured that anyone can just "sit down & play LOTRO at their leisure" and can complete the majority of LOTRO's Content. It's ensured people do stick around although there will always be those who state the "Game is too easy".

[ttv/VirtuallyBob™]

Originally posted by Aegmar:

Please make lotro 2 on unreal engine 5 and make it so players really need to form groups even for at least a good portion of the landscape content and instances that require more than just aoe damage - not only on tier 2 (barely) and 3 in the absolute endgame raids.

I assume this is directed at Amazon...

[NavFamG]

Originally posted by Aegmar:

make it so players really need to form groups even for at least a good portion of the landscape content and instances

That would probably keep away about 75% of your player base. Too many just jump on to play an hour or two and they're not going to want to wait around trying to form a group just to quest.

Turbine saw that years ago when they changed those group required epic quests to have a solo option and anyone online right now can see it too via the repeated calls to form a group to do X content that aren't answered.

Also the group required concept flys in the face of how people level. What did they say?, within 24hrs there were those already at the level cap on the 2 new legendary servers. Hard to require groups when the player base isn't grouped close together.

[Harvain]

Originally posted by NavFamG:

Also the group required concept flys in the face of how people level. What did they say?, within 24hrs there were those already at the level cap on the 2 new legendary servers. Hard to require groups when the player base isn't grouped close together.

It was even sooner, Mordor & Angmar respectively had 1 Character each at Level 50 within 6 hours of each server launching.

[Aegmar]

Originally posted by NavFamG:

Originally posted by Aegmar:

make it so players really need to form groups even for at least a good portion of the landscape content and instances

That would probably keep away about 75% of your player base. Too many just jump on to play an hour or two and they're not going to want to wait around trying to form a group just to quest.

Turbine saw that years ago when they changed those group required epic quests to have a solo option and anyone online right now can see it too via the repeated calls to form a group to do X content that aren't answered.

Also the group required concept flys in the face of how people level. What did they say?, within 24hrs there were those already at the level cap on the 2 new legendary servers. Hard to require groups when the player base isn't grouped close together.

You could still make it so that it is possible to achieve max level and entry-level equipment for instances while playing solo.

There could be enough quests with high enough xp and item rewards that you can progress from area to area alone (should be slow going, so there is always a strong incentive to group up with strangers who might become friends or kin), but there should also be at least one quest chain (could be clearly marked) in each "quest hub" that requires grouping up.

For the epic book questlines there is already a mechanism that allows to solo everything (that big buff like in weathertop), which is fine. I don't want the game to be completely unplayable solo, but it want it to be an MMORPG where collaborating isn't just something that is highly optional only for the top-end content.

It should NOT be possible to play an MMO's content solo to like 98 %, why make it an MMO at all then ? Could as well be a single player rpg with an optional multiplayer/coop mode.

[Harvain]

Originally posted by Aegmar:

You could still make it so that it is possible to achieve max level and entry-level equipment for instances while playing solo.

There could be enough quests with high enough xp and item rewards that you can progress from area to area alone (should be slow going, so there is always a strong incentive to group up with strangers who might become friends or kin), but there should also be at least one quest chain (could be clearly marked) in each "quest hub" that requires grouping up.

For the epic book questlines there is already a mechanism that allows to solo everything (that big buff like in weathertop), which is fine. I don't want the game to be completely unplayable solo, but it want it to be an MMORPG where collaborating isn't just something that is highly optional only for the top-end content.

It should NOT be possible to play an MMO's content solo to like 98 %, why make it an MMO at all then ? Could as well be a single player rpg with an optional multiplayer/coop mode.

LOTRO also have far in excess of 10,000 Quests, more than 50 Regions where Content takes place, 150 Levels to go through, and the amount of Content for Quests + Regions will be increasing.

The game has long since become too large and there aren't enough Players to keep "Landscape Group Content" to be a high amount throughout the entire game.

LOTRO is "top heavy" for Players. This means most Players have at least one or more Characters at max level. Then a lot at the lowest levels. Everything between is much more sparse.

[Aegmar]

Originally posted by Harvain:

Originally posted by Aegmar:

You could still make it so that it is possible to achieve max level and entry-level equipment for instances while playing solo.

There could be enough quests with high enough xp and item rewards that you can progress from area to area alone (should be slow going, so there is always a strong incentive to group up with strangers who might become friends or kin), but there should also be at least one quest chain (could be clearly marked) in each "quest hub" that requires grouping up.

For the epic book questlines there is already a mechanism that allows to solo everything (that big buff like in weathertop), which is fine. I don't want the game to be completely unplayable solo, but it want it to be an MMORPG where collaborating isn't just something that is highly optional only for the top-end content.

It should NOT be possible to play an MMO's content solo to like 98 %, why make it an MMO at all then ? Could as well be a single player rpg with an optional multiplayer/coop mode.

LOTRO also have far in excess of 10,000 Quests, more than 50 Regions where Content takes place, 150 Levels to go through, and the amount of Content for Quests + Regions will be increasing.

The game has long since become too large and there aren't enough Players to keep "Landscape Group Content" to be a high amount throughout the entire game.

LOTRO is "top heavy" for Players. This means most Players have at least one or more Characters at max level. Then a lot at the lowest levels. Everything between is much more sparse.

Yeah...., lotro has far too many quests that are uninteresting and require too much back and forth. Especially the older areas could be "thinned out" a lot. All the "story" and background that is told via those quests could be condensed in fewer and more fleshed out questchains instead of "kill 8 bears" and "find that document from mob" and such, followed by two dozten mini quests with even more back and forth. Its really dated design.

Fewer but better quests that still take the player along everyhting of interest in a region, would be better, now it just feels bloated, not to mention the myriad of currencies....

[Harvain]

Originally posted by Aegmar:

Yeah...., lotro has far too many quests that are uninteresting and require too much back and forth. Especially the older areas could be "thinned out" a lot. All the "story" and background that is told via those quests could be condensed in fewer and more fleshed out questchains instead of "kill 8 bears" and "find that document from mob" and such, followed by two dozten mini quests with even more back and forth. Its really dated design.

Fewer but better quests that still take the player along everyhting of interest in a region, would be better, now it just feels bloated, not to mention the myriad of currencies....

That would be opinion based for "uninteresting quests". While you might not find them interesting there are many who do enjoy such.

Too much back and forth for Quests, again, is mostly just an "Early LOTRO" aspect. That doesn't occur as much and is gone starting with the Mines of Moria Expansion and beyond.

[Ethan Tokes]

Yeah, also, I looove the early game sooo yea. So does my fiance who is new.

[Dregora]

Originally posted by NavFamG:

Originally posted by Aegmar:

make it so players really need to form groups even for at least a good portion of the landscape content and instances

That would probably keep away about 75% of your player base. Too many just jump on to play an hour or two and they're not going to want to wait around trying to form a group just to quest.

Turbine saw that years ago when they changed those group required epic quests to have a solo option and anyone online right now can see it too via the repeated calls to form a group to do X content that aren't answered.

Also the group required concept flys in the face of how people level. What did they say?, within 24hrs there were those already at the level cap on the 2 new legendary servers. Hard to require groups when the player base isn't grouped close together.

That change wasn't because of what you're saying. That change happened because the game was dying and nobody could find groups for it.

That's the reason it changed.