A New Players View on the Server Thus Far

[DarkenShroud]

Ok my penmanship is quite lacking so bear with me :wink:


Thus far I have to say great job, I've tried out most if not all the LoTR servers out there for the past 6 years. This is by far the best and most balanced, you have really made Middle-Earth come to life. I have but one complaint thus far. If your gonna have low xp gain, and players reying on quests and dms to give rp xp for advancement. Cut down on the xp loss alittle, it really hurts newer players and drives them off. Slow xp gain is good, big losses at the sametime is bad and does not appeal to a growing server community. Especially when a new player enters a area that he or she isn't familair with and dies because of ignorance losing a ton of xp along the way. Or someone doesn't pay attention and has there weapons equipped too long, then the guards kill them while there speaking to another in rp or in tells. I mean seriously here, you shouldn't be losing 700 + xp for exploring the wrong area or not paying attention to your weapon being drawn. Especially when the xp here is quite low, which is a good thing again. But to have such losses is just to much, maybe half them? It would be a step in the right direction to promote server growth and make the server more player friendly. Please make guards give you more time before they kill you for having your weapon drawn lol. Some people don't notice till its to late, and or have incoming tells so they aren't paying attention. And losing 700 + xp is kinda brutal for a honest mistake. I think what I suggest would promote server growth and be all in all a good thing.


After exploring a good portion of the server this past week, I have to say great work. I haven't seen a area that wasn't impressive in one way or another. Very accurate, and your world is full of life. I have noticed though a few areas that maybe being worked on still, and figured I'd make up a rough list of things I have noticed that need to be expanded or finished.



1. Lond Daer ruins - Main complex not accessible/broken tower also not accessible

2. Lond Daer Sea Cave - empty

3. Minhiriath Area - lots of fake cave entrances

4. Gwathlo - Lots of fake cave entrances and a ruin not accessible

5. Blue Mountains - Only northern part is reachable that I am aware of, Belegost Ruins in the plans for the future?

6. North Downs/Arthedain - Northdowns not reachable, nor the old forest through barrowdowns

7. Shire - Multiple areas not accessible yet, but the map labels them as well as some shops.

Well thats about all off the top of my head for now, I hope this small list helps in some way or another. Theres more that I noticed and will update the list when I can find the time. This was just a quick write up of stuff I had on the brain. Not sure if this is all accurate, but from my explorations this is what I have noticed.

Thanks for creating a LoTR server worth its weight in mithril, you've done a fine job keep it up. Just make it alittle more player friendly please *having lost a grand total of 2500 xp for going to the wrong areas and gettin killed by guards because he forgot to put his weapon away, or was distrated from a tell. All in his first week* Its really discouraging ya know :D

[the-small-print]

Having just come off after dying quite spectacularly in an ill-fated solo-run, I can empathise with the above post, and I have to say the first time I got killed by a guard in Tharbad I was lvl 12 so lost thousands of XP.

I can understand that this block is in place to stop people recklessly farming and that in itself is a good enough reason to have it, if of course you are running a server that can rely on a healthy number of players (enough diversity to have the odd idiot is usually a symptom of this), but to be perfectly honest, our server is sadly short on those (players), so it might be helpful to cut the penalties a little bit. The type of person who is going to go charging about and power-leveling is going to be an idiot anyway, so will manage to annoy us all in a different way.

As for the unfinished areas, yes, there are a few, but honestly I don't find this troubling. The world we have is massive, and there are thousands of nooks and crannies to explore. The dead transitions for example in the shire are mostly to give an indication of where everything is on the map - there needn't be more little hobbit villages than there already are. Realistically, without a good deal more players on the server, you'd never find anyone if the world was much bigger than it is. Addressing some areas though, there is an update in the works which I understand will be released soon, which focuses mainly on Forochel, Angmar and Arthedain, and includes a few more playablilty treats and sweeties. Have a nose about the forums for more info on this.

So in summary: yes, I agree that there should be shorter rewards for dying, but I don't think a much expanded world would work, though updates are always welcome. Finally, I'd like to mention the need for more DMs with server and vault access. So far as I know, there is only one active DM who can reset the server, and she seems to be pretty busy irl, and there is currently no one who can help with things like portrait changes and adding descriptions. (I have had some character change requests pending for several weeks now - not stupid little things, but portraits I have specifically painted for my existing characters and would really love to see implemented)

Finally, welcome to the server, and Happy Birthday!

[Hyper Fox]

Having just come off after dying quite spectacularly in an ill-fated solo-run, I can empathise with the above post, and I have to say the first time I got killed by a guard in Tharbad I was lvl 12 so lost thousands of XP.
I have also felt hard done by when entering a new area and having an assassin kill me with one hit, resulting in losing hours of hard earned xp, soon followed by me logging off

The type of person who is going to go charging about and power-leveling is going to be an idiot anyway, so will manage to annoy us all in a different way.
*Hides* although not power leveling i still like to make a strong char because as you can guess i don't want to die and lose the hard earned xp
seems like you get praised for having a weak char and scolded it there strong (slightly off topic but was on my mind)
but i still practice a little RP even on my own, sometimes with the help of a animal companion



So in summary: yes, I agree that there should be shorter rewards for dying, but I don't think a much expanded world would work, though updates are always welcome. Finally, I'd like to mention the need for more DMs with server and vault access. So far as I know, there is only one active DM who can reset the server, and she seems to be pretty busy irl, and there is currently no one who can help with things like portrait changes and adding descriptions. (I have had some character change requests pending for several weeks now - not stupid little things, but portraits I have specifically painted for my existing characters and would really love to see implemented)

Finally, welcome to the server, and Happy Birthday!
i agree,

and

:birfday: Happy Birthday DarkenShroud :birfday:

[DarkenShroud]

Thanks for the feedback and birthday wishes. No need to expand the server much, just fill in the areas that are already done. Like Lond Daer, there could be some seriously good quests made around that area, and its already in the mod. It has multiple empty towers and even its main structure isn't enterable yet. And adding a alittle more of the blue mts. and belegost wouldn't be expanding to much, and would give another area to have quests take place. Players no matter there numbers will run into each other quite often having the same quests to complete. I have't had a problem running into people on the road, and always confront them with alittle rp. Honestly there is no such thing as power leveling on this server (which I like) cuz of the low xp gain you get besides for quests. So in closing alittle expansion on the areas already in the mod would not be a bad thing. Theres still alot of things a LoTR fan like myself wouldn't mind seeing. Especially some more of Cardalon and its ruins and caves, I mean you have Lond Daer in. Why not make use of it, it looks frickin amazing. Could be made into another Tharbad quest for all to do, easily. Plus the sheer amount of unused caves in the area could expanded for a few more quests for the lower levels and middles. This wouldn't be to much expansion to me, you already have most of middle earth portrayed as of now. I was just looking forward to exploring Lond knowing the history of the lands in question, and it wasn't accessible.:annoyed: Nor the Old Forest, you have to have the Old Forest lol!!!!! I was so looking forward to speaking with Tom Bombadil, and maybe doing a quest for him (HINT HINT) *smiles* Maybe have him give you a quest in Lond Daer Ruins, or have them give you a quest at the inn in the town?


I'm gonna be moving rather soonish, and will be offline for maybe a few days to a week. But hereafter or during me being offline, I could perhaps make up a few small caves for the area. I have made areas for the Dragonlance Servers I play on already, and would enjoy doing so for here. Really I'm willing to help anyway I can to expand the servers already major appeal to myself. I've been ranting and raving about it on my Dragonlance servers. I fully understand as well the low magic theme and to what capacity the monsters should be for the given area. I've only written up a few quests for my areas on Rise of Honor and Krynn's Time of Dragons, so I would leave that upto the pro's here. You all do such great things with your quests here, I am awful impressed.

[the-small-print]

If you're willing to contribute you should send DM_Kev a PM. I can't speak for the DM team (being only a player myself), but I'd have thought that any help you could offer would be gratefully recieved - though I understand the scripters are already working full tilt so new quests might be immediate.

Anyway, drop him a PM and see where it goes - anything to keep the server ahead!