LOTRO - Part 3 - Trains , Plains, and Automobiles?
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Loading ...Transportation is crucial in an MMO. How do I get X place from here? What about cross-continent travel? Today, I’ll take a look at the transportation setup in LOTRO
To start, it’s important to understand that I have quite a bit of history in the ‘gaming’ department, especially in MMO’s. Back in the day, I played the predecessor to the MMO, the MUD (multi-user-dimension), which was a text based version of the MMO. No sound (unless you added it), and it was generally a mess. Exploration was key, and when you explored, you got trashed, literally.
Unfortunately for LOTRO, they’ve taken this attitude. Exploration is key, and they’re not even going to tell you HOW to get there, or provide methods for you to find this out yourself. Thusly, it’s quite possible to get lost, confused, and frustrated as all hell with this situation, and just want to throw in the towel. If I hadn’t just purchased the game, I probably would have done that yesterday, given the countless deaths that I’ve encountered when trying to ‘explore’ something.
That’s not saying LOTRO DOESN’T provide transportation, because, well, they do. If you’ve been to a town before, you can visit the ’stable’ of the town you’re in and go there. Unfortunately, this typically costs 1-5s and that’s not something that’s a cheap price, as it takes time to build up a ‘bank’. Till then, well, you’re just walking wherever you want to go. Uggh.
Speaking of how do I get there, how DO I get there? I mean, LOTRO has absolutely zero interface for me to input coordinates and draw some kind of a path (like both WoW AND eq2 do). LOTRO also doesn’t let me view co-ordinates at all, in a reasonable fashion. Again, the major competition? Easily done, just change the map interface and boom, it’s there. LOTRO doesn’t even grant it’s individuals a compass, SERIOUSLY! Take a look at these shots, and tell me where you see a compasss? Anyone? Anyone?
* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 7836 ** WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 7840 *
So, we’re just supposed to assume that up is north, down is south, right is east, left is west? Well, again, assuming things in an MMO means almost certain death.
While I like LOTRO (kind of) so far, this area needs some pretty vast improvements, quite seriously. It’s a shame that such an innovative game has such a poor map and travel interface to it. Hell, I spent a good 2 hours walking to Bree-Town from some town the other day, and the reward? merely 1k exp. Not bad, but come on now, that’s just ridiculous! Players should NEVER have to spend that much time travelling from place to place.
