What Tolkien fans want from LOTRO

[Galenhir]

I'm going to be writing a new blog entry soon, "What Tolkien fans want from LOTRO." Post your suggestions and I may pick them for inclusion in the article.

[Harperella]

They want to find lore-laden nuggets in familiar and immersive environments.

[Andeon]

for my own part, the thing that LOTRO has provided best, so far, and what I'd like to see more of, is more faithful, ingenious and gorgeous representations of the environment of middle earth. One of the things that always struck me was Tolkien's rather thorough and detailed descriptions of environment - from the atmosphere and the air, plants, ruins, temperature, and over it all, the environment usually matched or mirrored in some way the attitudes and feelings of the characters. Dark, oppressive environments matched a prevailing sense of hopelessness, bright days with warm weather and birds singing matched high spirits and hopeful outlooks.

so yes, I'd love to see complex, detailed, and beautifully rendered regions of middle earth...*ESPECIALLY* the Lonely Mountain, Dale and upper Mirkwood, and places we've only heard about but wondered what they might look like when rendered into the world

[Rifflo]

What about occasional server wide "battle events".

Have attacks in all areas by the dark armies that force the players to work together to battle off. Players could get the feel of being overwhelmed by the enemy like the characters from JRR's works. Players could earn rewards for participating, like titles, etc. Perhaps in time, some form of rank.

[Aldekim]

Two words...Erebor...Dale.
nuff said

[Meneladan]

The game feels like a cross between a mini-golf version of Middle-earth and WOW.

If I were doing a major redesign, distances would fit the book. Survival factors like food, water, and keeping your mount in good condition would be factors to take into consideration. "That would be boring!" I hear. Well, swift travel can take care of much of that. But there still should be quests that require you do deal with the things that the Fellowship had to deal with.

It should be possible to become lost in Minhirriath, stuck in the swamps of swanfleet, run out of food and water, gain skills with snares, take meat from boar and deer.

Within what already exists, 'flock intelligence' code for the beasts could be implemented, so that herbivores aggregate while randomly roaming, with the result that you would have appropriate sized heards (not the Great Northern Herd of bison, but a dozenish) and predators being drawn to them, causing them to scatter and re-aggregate. This isn't particularly complex code and not of a different nature that what is already in play with awareness of players to attack.

The beasts themselves should fit lore and Paleocene Europe a whole lot more closely. The silly names for wolves can be replaced. Aurochs are wild white oxen (think of a really big white longhorn cow), not giant muskoxen, which are a different thing altogether. Though Tolkien seems not to have been up on this period of time, there should be wisent in the forests, and even a few wild horses.

Ruins should be in a state of decay that fits how long they've been lying in the dirt.

I'd love to see more musical instruments from the traditional European instruments, from the viol family (the most requested) to other related instruments such as the Finnish kintale, nykleharpa, and so on. Tin whistle would be nice.

I don't like the being channeled by ridge lines that aren't in the books, but maybe that is a server capacity issue being dealt with in that way.

Mounts are very popular. I would suggest for them to come up with a way for livery and tack to be separately acquired from mounts, and for livery to be dye-able. This allows additional possibilities for rep and festivals. Turbine doesn't seem to know what saddle-bags actually look like. Destriers (with feathers) for champions, wardens and guardians, with palfreys (like we already have) for the other, lighter classes.

Giant goats that look like bighorn sheep? Seriously? Maybe burros would be more believable? In Forochel, maybe reindeer could pull Lossoth sleighs? Let hobbits and dwarves ride moose when up there? Dunno.

On the game play level it would be nice if they could use the ability already in-game for coordinated activity for tactical maneuvers, and for there to be puzzles and so forth beyond the simple first-person-shooter environment which doesn't even require aim.

The fall and winter festivals were the best, even if the winter story line could use some work. with the money they are raking in from the store, maybe instead of buying out Codemasters, they could put some people to work on the other festivals.

[Meneladan]

orcs, goblins and trolls should only be out at night. Enemy men should only be out in the day and dusk and dawn, perhaps at those points overlapping with the orcs. This would add more thinking ahead into gameplay as well.

[Meneladan]

I wonder if they couldn't have the countryside change with the seasons. That is pretty much a matter of loading graphical 'skins'. We see spring in the Ered Luin, summer in the Shire, late summer in the LL, fall in the TS, and winter in Forochel and the Misties. Seems like the color of leaves, and the color of the grass could be changed with seasonal update loadings.

[Lennidhren]

Meneladan wrote:

I'd love to see more musical instruments from the traditional European instruments, from the viol family (the most requested) to other related instruments such as the Finnish kintale, nykleharpa, and so on. Tin whistle would be nice.

And trumpets! So hard to find a decent substitute for a trumpet when transcribing abcs.

[Locney Esgal]

More instruments, More of the "Famous" (unfortunately for the general populace Famous = As seen in the movies, though I'm sure we could easily think of more) areas, Instances/skirmishes from the main lore of Third Age, such as Helm's Deep, Some of that sweet regional armor (Gondorian Citadel Armor! *swoon*) More PvMP areas and races (Purple Burglar needs Goblin char BADLY!), and Better Housing! *pants* There.....That's me list.