Lonely Mountain Band Riding Club Newsletter - Issue One!

[Kiralynn]

Greetings! I'm starting this thread as a newsletter for the LMB riding club.


UPCOMING EVENTS

* Our first event is on Saturday, October 29th at 9pm EST at the ranch.
(5 Long Street, Penstable, Bree-land Homesteads)
There will be a mounted costume contest and a short race through the neighborhood, both with prizes.


RACING TIPS

* I finally went through and named all 19 of my horses! (Yes, I only have nineteen so far...) If you need help coming up with good horse names, visit this Fantasy Horse Name Generator. It avoids modern day and non-LotR mythological names and allows you to choose a name based on your horse's coat. There are no garbage random names on the list.

* When in doubt, jump! If you're approaching a ground obstacle of any kind, jump over it if possible. A horse's hooves can get caught up on a tree root, bush, stone, edge of stairs, and so forth. If you jump, you won't lose precious seconds in a race.

* Pan overhead. When crossing narrow terrain, position your camera view more overhead than behind. This will give you a more accurate view of where your horse's hooves are landing.

* Don't go back! When participating in festival races, if you fall off of the boards into the sticky mire, do not go back and try again. Continue forward at the slower pace. If you have done well on the rest of the course, you can still win even if you bog down at both crossings.

* The shortest distance between two points is... yes, you guessed it... a straight line. Do not race down the middle of a road. Hug the inside of curves closely. Make sharp turns. Remember, you can even turn in mid-air, so that your horse is running in the right direction the moment his hooves hit the ground.

* Leap early. Your horse needs a full stride between jumps. If you are approaching two obstacles (such as fences) which are positioned close together, jump as early as possible over the first obstacle. This will give you a little extra time and distance to prepare for the next jump.

* Easy on the spurs! Be frugal with the space bar. Don't spam it or your horse may get confused and miss a jump entirely.

* Leap high. Whenever you are jumping an obstacle while racing uphill, you will have to jump as late as possible to compensate for the angle.

* Leap shallow. When you are jumping over an obstacle with a steep slope on the other side, jump as early as possible to reduce the risk of a sprained leg and several seconds of critical slow speed.

* Have faith in yourself. Don't pan the camera around to check on other racers. You may miss a turn or overlook an obstacle. Pay attention to your horse and the course. Pretend you are the only ones on the track.

* Familiarity breeds success. Whenever possible, visit the race track ahead of time and practice running the course. Make careful note of which angle to come out of turns to aim directly for the next checkpoint or obstacle (they won't always be within view or "drawing distance" for your video card). Find all legal shortcuts.

* An ugly race is a fast race. Turn down your graphics settings, stop any other network traffic (close Hulu, Facebook, MyLotro, etc) and do everything else you can to reduce lag. You can take pretty screenshots of yourself and your horse after you win. Turning off floating names can give you a clearer view of the track.

* Not all walls and fences are equal. Most of them have a low point which is easier to jump. This is especially important for stone walls on uneven terrain. Look for a dip right at or directly between two pillars.

* Know your depth. Discover how much water your horse can run through before dismounting you. If you're thrown from your horse, you've lost the race.

* Don't be shy. When the race is about to start, put your finger on the button (keyboard or mouse). When you hear/see the signal that starts the race, run! Don't wait for everyone else to dash out ahead of you. Have confidence that you really did see and/or hear it.



JOCKEY COLORS

Would everyone like to pick a color (or combination of two) as their official racing color? Personally, I am very fond of Rivendell Green, since that is the color of the outfit I wore for the Bree Cup on Turion. What color would you like for your silks?

Check out the Cotton Armour (lvl 22+, tailor-made) and Shining Padded Jacket (lvl 21+). These look a lot like a jockey's shirt and would be fun to practice in. Quilted Armor (lvl 14+, tailor-crafted) also makes a fairly good riding shirt. The Cotton Armour is light weight. Let me know if you'd like a shirt and I will craft one for you.



CALLING ALL RIDERS

Have riding tips and tricks you'd like to share? Seen an outfit that looks perfect for riding? Found a course you'd like us all to race? Need help with reputation items to buy a special mount? Reply to this post and let us know!

[`Tinki`]

If I dont forget, I will be racing in green! Its proven that green is the winner color! If not green then yellow! I still will probably win...

My tip is to eat only 5 meals the day before the race and race hungry! Do not carry pies nor rations with you on your horse as they will add weight.

One other thing,... scrunch down in the saddle! This will help you to keep your hat on your head!

[Aldekim]

Great post!

[Kiralynn]

Recent Events

The Windy Acres Haunted Horse Race and Mounted Costume Contest was a success! The evening started off inside the creepy kinhouse, where musicians performed traditional music while guests arrived. After much drinking of ale and smoking of pipe weed, party-goers moved outside to begin the costume contest.

Ten participants showed off their best outfits and steeds. Golvaethor won third place with his pumpkin head costume, well-matched in green and orange. Byrdie won second place with a very popular ale delivery outfit, with more than enough spirits for everyone. Beorbrand won the prize by a narrow margin, dressed in a cunning blue God of the Sea outfit, complete with trident! Beorbrand was awarded a full set of Lord of the Rings release pins.

Once the winners were announced, 13 riders mounted up at the start line and registered for the horse race. Eijah, Beorbrand and Byrdie kindly volunteered to act as checkpoint judges. The jockeys tack and mounts were check to ensure a fair race. With a resounding "Charge!" the horses were off. The course was long and perilous, with numerous obstacles. Andeon and his noble steed returned to the Master's Brazier first with a half-length lead, followed by Madaelin on her beautiful mount. Several lengths behind, Anarwald led a cluster of riders to the finish line, coming in third. After checking with the judges, the winners were announced and fireworks lit up the sky. Andeon was awarded a model of the Crown of the King of the Dead.

Photos of the event are available online:
http://roll3d6.com/banders/race-oct29-11/race-winner.jpg
http://roll3d6.com/banders/race-oct29-11/race-show.jpg
http://roll3d6.com/banders/race-oct29-11/race-photo1.jpg
http://roll3d6.com/banders/race-oct29-11/race-photo2.jpg
http://roll3d6.com/banders/race-oct29-11/race-photo3.jpg

Many thanks to everyone who attended! I hope to see you at the next riding club event.









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[Andeon]

thank you one and all - after having participated in several race plannings, I finally actually got to race, and had a blast!

I'd like to hats-off to Maedelin - by my own reckoning, she was never farther behind than my horse's tail, and at a couple of early junctures, ahead of me...she was, without a doubt, the person that kept the pressure (and the adrenaline) on, and that made the race more fun than you might think :)

I'd also offer my sincerest sympathies to Tinki - not sure exactly what happened, but it sounds like Tinki missed the opening flag due to some kind of server communication error - I'd have loved to see your contribution, Tinki, but I'm sure I'll get a chance to race against you sometime in the future, so I'm looking forward to that

It may sound a tad arrogant, and for that I'm sorry, but I'd like to offer a few pieces of advice for dedicated racers...

1 - Race Routes - this is probably obvious, but if your race has a route, and you can check it out beforehand, do it! I can *guarantee* that scouting the route beforehand gave me an important and vital edge - this is especially true of race routes where you can *choose* your own route, but even with a stronger fixed checkpoint race, just knowing which random objects you can get hung up on, whether you *need* to hop fences or can afford to just go through the gaps, makes a big difference

2 - I haven't systematically confirmed this, but I'm pretty sure - JUMPING SLOWS YOU DOWN! - it may be marginal, but it adds up - if you're jumping obstacles to get an edge, realize that you are also losing an edge by losing some distance - it's brief, but if you do it too often, you'll find yourself falling behind - measure out which obstacles you *need* to jump vs those obstacles that you can go around - I found, while scouting the route, a bunch of fences in my way, that I *could* have jumped...but as there were gaps in the fence just a little ways away, I could go through the gap instead, and not lose my pace

3 - Don't be shy - I've found a couple of times now, don't be shy at that opening flag - I know some people want to be polite, and certain of a non-false start, and that's important, to be sure - but when that flag goes down (however your race captain is arranging it - be it a charge emote, a flash of smoke or whatnot) start running and don't look back - i'm sure if theres a true false start, the race captain will call people back, and of course, you *do* run the risk of getting disqualified, but most race captains are fairly thorough about the "signal" to begin racing, and once *you* see that signal, start your engines!

4 - Race Organizers - Can't really stress this enough - if you have the personnell/volunteers, you *really* want more than one person at the finish line - i'd recommend 2 at least, 3 ideally - remember, due to various server communication issues, when one person *appears* to be ahead of another, the server *may* be behind on communicating visuals to that person - having 2 or 3 people at the finish line at least means that if one judge has a laggish image update during the crossing of the finish line, another judge might be able to call it - obviously, disputes may happen based on visual input, but at least this way you'll realize there *was* a point of dispute, and you can try to work it out...

5 - Also for Race Organizers - this isn't advice, just something to point out - Open race routes are fun, but extremely variable - theres going to be a lot of last minute entries, and they *may* get upset when people that have put in more time and effort scouting the route turn out to have far better results...of course, *technically*, its up to the racers to pre-scout their racetracks if possible, but remember, in the world of MMO's, theres soooo many last minute arrivals, and last minute arrivals/entries will probably be at a disadvantage

If you *want* to better accommodate the last minute arrivals (and you don't have to, of course - it's just one of those things to think about) stronger, more *fixed* race routes will tend to accommodate them better

thats everything that came to mind while I was racing, and afterwards - thank you all again! I had a great time!

[Kiralynn]

Andeon, thank you so much for your suggestions!

Andeon wrote:

4 - Race Organizers - Can't really stress this enough - if you have the personnel/volunteers, you *really* want more than one person at the finish line [snip] if one judge has a laggish image update during the crossing of the finish line, another judge might be able to call it

I knew that it would be difficult to come up with enough judges. Also, I didn't want the race to come down to lag... either mine or a rider's. That is why the course was long, variable, and full of obstacles. It effectively made skill and planning more important than network speed. Nobody came across the line nose-to-nose with another rider. The smallest gap was at least half a length, typically more.

In the future, I am hoping for a more obvious finish line and two judges. When that isn't possible, I'll just have to make due.

Sure, sometimes lag will still change the outcome. In those cases, I will fall back on the advice of my softball coach, who used to explain bad umpire calls. "If you are skilled enough, bad calls won't make a difference." Even then, to some degree, it comes down to luck. In the end, nobody is paying or losing anything to participate. If they win, fantastic! If they don't, there is always next time.

Andeon wrote:

If you *want* to better accommodate the last minute arrivals (and you don't have to, of course - it's just one of those things to think about) stronger, more *fixed* race routes will tend to accommodate them better

Making two runs of the course ahead of time hopefully helped even out any difference in familiarity. The race was held in a housing neighborhood, which most people have been through many times. I posted a map and photos of the route here, on My.Lotro.Com and on MyMiddle-Earth.net. I also offered to meet anyone who asked ahead of time and show them the route.

Unfortunately, there is no way to make things completely "fair". There is also no way to make everyone happy. For example, there were two people who were upset that they didn't get to participate in the costume contest. I went back through my chat logs this morning to confirm - they didn't tell/whisper to sign up, even after I recited the sign-up list 3 times and asked if anyone needed to be added. I also waited an extra 15 minutes for late-comers before I started any events. There is simply no way to compensate for people who can't show up on time or don't follow directions. They will always be frustrated. I am willing to do quite a bit to help them participate, but I don't think it is fair to hold up an event for the 99.9% of people who are having a good time without any issues.

There have been times I have missed events due to not hearing about them, being late, or having network trouble. Those are on MY head, not the event organizer's head.


So, long story short, it probably wasn't the best organized event in the world, but I did give it some thought and do my best. Hopefully more people had fun than not.

Now, on a happier note... here is the mount bow emote. I don't have it yet, but I'm still looking forward to it!

[Aldekim]

It was a fine event!! For a one person effort it was splendid. Kudos to you!

[`Tinki`]

Yea. The Spring Horse Carnival was heavily advertised with complete rules and entry requirements for weeks prior. And on race day people griped at the heavy entrance costs to run the race. Some griped so much they began accusing the organizers of being exclusionary on what they thought should be an open and free event.

Speaking of, are we gonna run a winter horse race event server wide?

[Kiralynn]

I remember there were a lot of complaints about the Spring Racing Festival. Too much spam on the Regional and OOC channels, too many people in Bree, too much lag on the server, not fair to disallow 168% speed horses, too high of entry fees, not fair that you had to pre-qualify for the final race, not enough practice runs, too long of a course, too short of a course... I really felt bad for the organizers. Fortunately, 99.9% of people were very supportive and had a great time.

I would love to assist with a winter race. If I don't have to judge anything, I can probably video record the final length of the race (among other things) and post it on the web. I can also add 1,600 Turbine Points to the prize pool.

I have also been playing around with the idea of a talent show. People would have 3 minutes to impress the crowd and earn their vote. They could do a skit, play a song, tell jokes, show off special FX, anything PG-13.

How do you think the event ought to be run? When should it be scheduled - day and time? I would love to hear everyone's ideas!

[`Tinki`]

I must say that I enjoyed the Rivendell to Duillond race the most. It required careful preplanning of the riders and was long enough for reporters to actually give play by play. A short main event race to me is kind of self defeating. Any pre qualifying can be short, but the main event should be epic I say.

I could visualize level 50 and under doing that race and level 51 and up doing a race from ,say, the Moria portal to Celondim.

Do reporting in two regions, Shire and Breeland?

[Kiralynn]

I like the idea of a long and epic race. I also like the idea of having a big crowd watching, cheering and playing music. Perhaps a medium-length course with multiple laps would allow the race to last longer, with more spectators to follow the action? Perhaps we could even find someplace with a high central ground so that people could watch the majority of the race from the elevation, or someplace with stadium-like seating where they can cheer as the riders go by each lap? I'm also a huge fan of mob-free races so that participation is not limited by level.



Here is a little bonus for people who are reading the riding club newsletter!

I have been able to buy several horses and other in-game items without spending any money. Here's how... sign up at e-rewards.com, let them email you the occasional survey opportunity, complete several surveys, redeem your points as a GameStop gift card, turn that in for a Turbine Points card, buy cool in-game items!

[Aldekim]

[quote="

Here is a little bonus for people who are reading the riding club newsletter!

I have been able to buy several horses and other in-game items without spending any money. Here's how... sign up at e-rewards.com, let them email you the occasional survey opportunity, complete several surveys, redeem your points as a GameStop gift card, turn that in for a Turbine Points card, buy cool in-game items![/quote]

I went there. Unfortunately it is a membership by invitation only organization, so you can not just join.

[Andeon]

hehe...just had visions of an open route checkpoint based moria race...that'd be CRAAAAAAAZZZYYYY

[Kiralynn]

Aldekim wrote:

I went there. Unfortunately it is a membership by invitation only organization, so you can not just join.

I looked into it. Apparently if you join www.upromise.com, they'll issue you an invite. Upromise is by Sallie Mae, a rewards program that can help you pay for college. I donate all my purchase points there from various other programs toward my god-son's education. Sorry, I didn't realize it was so convoluted to get started. At least once you're in, you can get about a TP card a month.

[`Tinki`]

Oh Boy Andeon! An exclusive inside Moria race that hits every region! Now thats epic! (and near impossible)