Check out that title eh? Star Wars: The Old Republic or Swtor vs. Lotro (enough acronyms for ya?).
With my computer's motherboard packing a sad I've been relegated to using my wife's laptop to sate my gaming desires.
Begin rant.
I wanted to play Lotro (of course), so attempt to download it. Pando SUCKS SWEATY GOBLIN BALLS. It cannot download files properly. If there is ever an interruption in your internet connection or computer turned on'ness, have fun come installation time.
So had to move over to steam, download steam, make an account, download Lotro...phew finally got it.
Install time and now can't install something that is already on the @#$@#$ing computer. Microsoft Redistributable C++ 2005. 2005.....2005! What bloody epoch are you living in. So...try to find a fix. The only offical statement regarding this issue from 2-3 YEARS ago, is 'report as bug' 'complain to microsoft' and that's it. AWESOME. Needless to say, 4days later, it's still not working!
Dear Reader: If you ever encounter a company in whose customer support comes from it's customers...get the fuck out of there.
Turbine, you can't fix this after 5 years in the business, you need a slap in the head. You think you don't have competition, you want more people playing your game....THEN MAKE IT A PIECE OF CAKE TO FRAGGIN WELL INSTALL.
So I heard Swtor had gone F2P. So I tried downloading it to give it a go. The .exe file was small and very quick download. Ran it which opened up the game launcher and then proceeded to patch (i.e. patch and install the entire game). A few hours later, I'M PLAYING. Amazing. Turbine, in this department you royally suck.
So, what class, world (not sure, Asia RP), been trying a few classes up to lvl 5/10 to see which ones I like/can get into. Jedi's NO. Wayyy to goodie goodie. Sith...Noooo, way to tryhard.
Imperial Agent I might like (haven't tried it yet), tried Smuggler and find it a bit of fun (kinda burglar gameplay style methinks). Loaded up a trooper today and really like throwing grenades at people...so that might be the one for me.
On another note, since lotro is such a pain in the arse to download/install, I figured I'll push the envelope and install Linux when I get my comp. back and try installing it on THAT.
Happy Saturnalia and New Year.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
The beginning of the end?
It's been a great 4 years of gaming in middle earth, I've had breaks once content became boring and I had no desire to reach max level with ANOTHER character, but would always return when the new expansion came out or I got bored with my whore game. With RoR though my feeling is a tad different.
Client crashing to desktop almost every gaming session (and my sessions are becoming rather short nowadays) and incessant lag, lack of...I don't know...excitment or something...lotro is really beinging to lose it's luster. I used to look forward to logging in, now I feel, well I'll log in do my dailies and log out. YIKES. Never before was I like that.
What actually has prompted me to write this was what happened last night. I put up my fps counter to see, does my computer actually suck now or what? (new OS). In instances I was hitting 200+ fps, whereas in open world RoR it was all over the place from 60fps to 20 (or lower). Sorry, but I just can't quite accept such an insanely drastic lack of gaming consistancy. Then I started thinking...do I have to put up with this shit not only for this expansion but west rohan too? God forbid into Gondor as well.
Quests: The RoI quest format...I liked. Good progression and loading up of the quest log. Could stay out in the "wilderness" without having to return to a town until it was time to unload the bags. RoR, not so much, it's new, creative with quests popping up when you kill a relevant mob, or enter the relevant area, but Ijust prefered/liked the RoI style.
Hytbold quests: Awesome, if it weren't for the insane lag when riding into the city. Love slowly rebuilding the place. Bad = some exploiting some of the quests, you assholes. PERIOD. So Turbine has taken them offline. Methinks the Norcoft ones (Cilving) which makes getting Kindred with them REALLY FUCKING HARD. Refer to my asshole comment before. Problem I have with Turbine is there is NO eta as to when they'll be back.
Next is the all important fluff from the Lotro store. OK, it's fluff, cosmetics. BUT, how many videos have you seen spouting the beautiful graphics of lotro. Aren't graphics fluff? If we didn't care about fluff, Benz, BMW, LV et.al. would be in a whole heap of trouble. So the cosmetics for our war steeds are INSANE. If it were account wide, I could be more readily accepting of it all, but per character, that's insane, especially ifyou start looking at this from a dollar point of view, and besides, if I pay I should get the use of it right? But no, I only get the use of it for one specific character. Before the lotro store, all cosmetic items could be found ingame and dyed due to player crafting. Sure we paid 10-15 dollars per month for this, but it was fun. Then the lotro store came along and we now basically had a choice of either kill that balrog for wigfield or buy it from the store. Then some items became store exclusive, BUT, if I bought it on this server, all my characters on that server could enjoy it. Now, only one character can enjoy it. Did my character buy it? Or did I buy it? Cosmetics is a big part of the game, it's beauty and it's a total fucking rip off now. BOOOOO.
So now I'm at the point where I'm reinstalling Skyrim, et.al. To enjoying riding a horse in the countryside without lag. I would say I'm disappointed, but I'm not, I have simply lost my love and excitment for the game and I really don't care. So, I'm off (well truthfully I'll be on to do the Hytbold dailies, but I won't be getting other toons to 85) and I'll be back for the new expansion.
My only huge relief is that this is the first time I've ever used TP to pay for an expansion. Man, I would have been super pissed if I'd paid 40 to 70 USD for this and on top of that have to spend a ton of TP changing the color of my fucking horse. For every character! Bullet dodged. $8 for 600points or $200 for 23000pts. 595 x 5 steed colors 595 x 5 equipement colors 595 x 7 body 395 for an accessory (ass pack) 395 for tail decoration (which will get shit all over it.) OK, getting all the colors and body patterns for a toon is rather extreme. But if we got 2 colors (total of 8) for steed and equipment, and a body pattern thats 595 x 5 = 2975 per toon. If you have OCD like many of my kinmates (I personally only have 1 toon at 85, 4 at 75 and I'm loath at the prospect of lagging my way through Rohan another 3 times) and have 9 thats, 2975 x 9 = 26755 points. At the current best sale offer for TP US$200 buys 23000. So US$200 to get nice looking warsteeds for all your toons plus $70 heroic edition because you love the game and all the extra 'fluff' that comes with that pack. US$270+ FUCK ME SIDEWAYS WITH A DWARVEN WARHAMMER.
Client crashing to desktop almost every gaming session (and my sessions are becoming rather short nowadays) and incessant lag, lack of...I don't know...excitment or something...lotro is really beinging to lose it's luster. I used to look forward to logging in, now I feel, well I'll log in do my dailies and log out. YIKES. Never before was I like that.
What actually has prompted me to write this was what happened last night. I put up my fps counter to see, does my computer actually suck now or what? (new OS). In instances I was hitting 200+ fps, whereas in open world RoR it was all over the place from 60fps to 20 (or lower). Sorry, but I just can't quite accept such an insanely drastic lack of gaming consistancy. Then I started thinking...do I have to put up with this shit not only for this expansion but west rohan too? God forbid into Gondor as well.
Quests: The RoI quest format...I liked. Good progression and loading up of the quest log. Could stay out in the "wilderness" without having to return to a town until it was time to unload the bags. RoR, not so much, it's new, creative with quests popping up when you kill a relevant mob, or enter the relevant area, but Ijust prefered/liked the RoI style.
Hytbold quests: Awesome, if it weren't for the insane lag when riding into the city. Love slowly rebuilding the place. Bad = some exploiting some of the quests, you assholes. PERIOD. So Turbine has taken them offline. Methinks the Norcoft ones (Cilving) which makes getting Kindred with them REALLY FUCKING HARD. Refer to my asshole comment before. Problem I have with Turbine is there is NO eta as to when they'll be back.
Next is the all important fluff from the Lotro store. OK, it's fluff, cosmetics. BUT, how many videos have you seen spouting the beautiful graphics of lotro. Aren't graphics fluff? If we didn't care about fluff, Benz, BMW, LV et.al. would be in a whole heap of trouble. So the cosmetics for our war steeds are INSANE. If it were account wide, I could be more readily accepting of it all, but per character, that's insane, especially ifyou start looking at this from a dollar point of view, and besides, if I pay I should get the use of it right? But no, I only get the use of it for one specific character. Before the lotro store, all cosmetic items could be found ingame and dyed due to player crafting. Sure we paid 10-15 dollars per month for this, but it was fun. Then the lotro store came along and we now basically had a choice of either kill that balrog for wigfield or buy it from the store. Then some items became store exclusive, BUT, if I bought it on this server, all my characters on that server could enjoy it. Now, only one character can enjoy it. Did my character buy it? Or did I buy it? Cosmetics is a big part of the game, it's beauty and it's a total fucking rip off now. BOOOOO.
So now I'm at the point where I'm reinstalling Skyrim, et.al. To enjoying riding a horse in the countryside without lag. I would say I'm disappointed, but I'm not, I have simply lost my love and excitment for the game and I really don't care. So, I'm off (well truthfully I'll be on to do the Hytbold dailies, but I won't be getting other toons to 85) and I'll be back for the new expansion.
My only huge relief is that this is the first time I've ever used TP to pay for an expansion. Man, I would have been super pissed if I'd paid 40 to 70 USD for this and on top of that have to spend a ton of TP changing the color of my fucking horse. For every character! Bullet dodged. $8 for 600points or $200 for 23000pts. 595 x 5 steed colors 595 x 5 equipement colors 595 x 7 body 395 for an accessory (ass pack) 395 for tail decoration (which will get shit all over it.) OK, getting all the colors and body patterns for a toon is rather extreme. But if we got 2 colors (total of 8) for steed and equipment, and a body pattern thats 595 x 5 = 2975 per toon. If you have OCD like many of my kinmates (I personally only have 1 toon at 85, 4 at 75 and I'm loath at the prospect of lagging my way through Rohan another 3 times) and have 9 thats, 2975 x 9 = 26755 points. At the current best sale offer for TP US$200 buys 23000. So US$200 to get nice looking warsteeds for all your toons plus $70 heroic edition because you love the game and all the extra 'fluff' that comes with that pack. US$270+ FUCK ME SIDEWAYS WITH A DWARVEN WARHAMMER.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Hitting the cap....again
Well, with this expansion I've gone with a burg as my main. After the captain, the intricacies of burg play was more appealing than the keyboard facerolling of the other 'dps' classes, i.e. huntards and chumpions.
So what do I think of this expansion...well, I must be turning into a grumpy old man or it's approaching Christmas (which accounts for my foul mood), as I think this expansion is boring. There. Said it. I found Mirkwood more intriguing.
Mounted combat is like dogfighting in Iron Eagle (and I've got Queen's 'one vision' blaring in the background) which is cool for about....10min. Skills are few and it's a whole new learning curve. It looks neat when theres a ton of people about and the lag is great too.
Open world tapping. Neat. One problem, nobody groups anymore. I haven't been in a fellowship for 10 levels! (ok, that's a lie, did raid OT >.>)
Horse cosmetics (the only really fun thing I see doing so far in this expansion) all cost TP, and they're character, not account wide purchases. FUCK THAT. Tourettes. Yeah it's fluff, but when you see a nice warsteed trot past...
I'm also impressed at how quickly we got from Fangorn to Edoras. We arrived after Aragorn. Yet beat them to Edoras since Grima was there (why the hell did we not kill him? I know I had my weapons still on me, and I've got pics to prove it).
Anyway, waiting on the instance pack to come out but so far, not overly impressed to be honest, the 'normal' quest line starting point vs. Epic quest line starts and leads off in 2 directions. Blah, this is turning to a boring wall of text. Till next time...bottoms up. *hic*
So what do I think of this expansion...well, I must be turning into a grumpy old man or it's approaching Christmas (which accounts for my foul mood), as I think this expansion is boring. There. Said it. I found Mirkwood more intriguing.
Mounted combat is like dogfighting in Iron Eagle (and I've got Queen's 'one vision' blaring in the background) which is cool for about....10min. Skills are few and it's a whole new learning curve. It looks neat when theres a ton of people about and the lag is great too.
Open world tapping. Neat. One problem, nobody groups anymore. I haven't been in a fellowship for 10 levels! (ok, that's a lie, did raid OT >.>)
Horse cosmetics (the only really fun thing I see doing so far in this expansion) all cost TP, and they're character, not account wide purchases. FUCK THAT. Tourettes. Yeah it's fluff, but when you see a nice warsteed trot past...
I'm also impressed at how quickly we got from Fangorn to Edoras. We arrived after Aragorn. Yet beat them to Edoras since Grima was there (why the hell did we not kill him? I know I had my weapons still on me, and I've got pics to prove it).
Anyway, waiting on the instance pack to come out but so far, not overly impressed to be honest, the 'normal' quest line starting point vs. Epic quest line starts and leads off in 2 directions. Blah, this is turning to a boring wall of text. Till next time...bottoms up. *hic*
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