Misdventures in LOTRO

Last week I was resource gathering in Lórien with follow kinsman Tommion. While chatting, we inadvertently aggravated a Mallorn Eyas. Without thinking we promptly killed it, only to find that it was a "protected" class and therefore we were promptly deducted 4 reputation points. At first the consequences of this did not occur to us. However, it soon became apparent that we had now lost our kindred reputation with the Galadhrim.

Now, this had an immediate impact on myself, as I have equipped "Wristlet of Laurelindórenan". As soon as my reputation was reduced, the item was unequipped, as shown in the above screen capture. It could not be used until I had increased my rep again to the maximum level. Subsequently we both had to quickly undertake a rather tiresome rep quest and collect some chalk and red berries.

Now, this incident did not cause any harm and was quite easily remedied. However, it could have been far more damaging. Consider the consequences if your entire armour and jewellery had been bought from the Lórien traders. The reduction of rep would have unequipped all those items, leaving you exposed and vulnerable. Food for thought.

Xusia.

The rumours have been rife for ages. Finally, after months of investigative journalism, the evidence is here. Urban myth becomes hard fact.

Does this mean we'll soon be seeing "hole in the deeping wall"?

Xusia.

The marketing guys and gals over at Turbine have released another trailer. To be honest it doesn't really show anything new, simply from a different perspective. It seems to me that the pitch is very much aimed at existing players, which is fair enough considering the business concept of churn. However, will this advertising campaign really attract new players? Surely this is what is really required?

Mind you, it will be very disconcerting for a new players who do join the community in early December. The majority of existing players will be on the otherside of Middle Earth. The game community has always been good at supporting fledgling players, but for a period of time certain areas will be as empty as Gollum's address book.

Xusia.

Last week, Turbine launched a dedicated LOTRO channel on You Tube to tie in with the release of the forthcoming digital expansion "Siege Of Mirkwood. One of the main points interest of this channel, is the inclusion of 6 videos that were originally included on the "Beyond the Shadows: Making of the Game" DVD, which came with the collector's edition of the original games release. I have included them below, as they are quite informative and shed an insight into the games developement.

1.) Monsters of Middle-earth (Beyond the Shadows):

2.) Weapons and Armor of Middle-earth (Beyond the Shadows):

3.) The Land of Middle earth (Beyond the Shadows):

4.) The People of Middle earth (Beyond the Shadows):

5.) Intro Cinematic (Beyond the Shadows):

6.) The Witch-king (Beyond the Shadows):

Enjoy.

Xusia.

I sure a lot of you may have seen this already. Below is a map of Mirkwood for the forth coming new game content. Very interesting it looks too. I'm sure this will be yet another source of speculation. Roll on the 3rd December (for EU players).

Xusia.

I fly in the face of popular consensus by only having one major character in LOTRO. Most other folk I know have multiple alts and with the additional character slots being introduced in SoM, the scope for confusion will get worse! I frequently find myself struggling to determine if someone is who I think they are. It was only recently that my attention was drawn to the "Note" option within the social panel. This provides a quick and easy way to find out who is who!

Simply launch the social panel, then look for the heading mark "Location". You will notice to the left of it, there is a grey triangular button. If you hover your mouse cursor over it, the caption "Change view" appears. If you click on this button you will then cycle through the following options. "Player Note" and the date you joined the kinship. While on the "Player Note" screen, highlight yourself on the list then clcik on the button at the bottom of the social panel marked "Note". write your biographical details here. Save and exit. In future, when online, simply launch the social panel and change the view option to determine who an unidentified player may be.

I would urge all players to do this for their own and other players benefits as it really is a useful tool.

Xusia.

Is it just me? I seem to continuously run into folk with "interesting" names. Here's one I found in The Shire. If anyone else has any similar screen captures, then please send them in.

Xusia.

Before I begin, for those who may not know, here is the definition of a "cutscene" according to Wikipedia:

A cut scene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has little or no control, often breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, present character development, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue and clues. Cut scenes can either be animated or use live action footage. Cut scenes are sometimes also referred to by other terms such as cinematics or in-game movies. Cut scenes that are streamed from a video file are sometimes also referred to as full motion video or FMV.

Now the LOTRO cutscenes are very enjoyable and you can view them in-game, using an option on the opening menu. However, you can only view the cutscenes for the Epic Books that you have completed. Oh fiddle dee dee I hear you say, as you may not have finished both Volumes. Fear not, there is a way to access these video files and watch them at your leisure. In fact you can convert them to other formats and edit them if you feel the need!

Like many PC/console games, LOTRO uses "Bink video" format for the in-game cut scenes. By visiting the Bink & Smacker website you can download a useful utility called RAD Tools. It is free and simple to install. You then simply navigate to the relevant directory where you have LOTRO installed.

By default the path should be C:\Program Files\Codemasters\The Lord of the Rings Online\raw\en.

There will be 4 sub folders: chargen, introcinematic, logo, vignette_videos. All of the these contain intuitively named file with .bik extensions. Simply double click on the desired file and it will launch via the Bink Video Player.

You can pause video playback by pressing the space bar on your keyboard. The Bink Video Player window automatically closes when the video has ended. More advance users may wish to directly open the RAD Video Tools software and explore the options that are available, such as converting existing .bik file to alternative formats such as .avi etc.

I do not expect the game developers to make radical changes to cutscene playback in the next expansion pack, so it is logical to assume that as soon as "Siege of Mirkwood" is available, the above process can still be used and will allow access to new material.

Xusia.

Occasionally when your travelling through Middle Earth, you'll see something on the periphery of your vision and think to yourself "what the f***?". I was in the Bree Auction Hall a few months ago, when in come a bunch of Dwarves, all dressed identically. At first I thought they were some sort of boy band, then I noticed that they all had names of different of Native Americans tribes. As for what it was all about, it's anyone's guess.

I often turn floatey names off in game, as it can make a huge difference to your frame rate. However I had it turned on recently, whilst in Esteldin. Lucky for me, as I clocked the character below and their name caused me to genuinely laugh out loud.

It's nice to see that some folk still have a sense of humour.

Xusia.

This Blog was never intended to be at the sharp end of news gathering and information relating to all things LOTRO. There are plenty of others sites out there that do that. But I felt compelled to post the promo video for "SoM" to ensure as many people see it as possible. I'm coming up to my 1 year anniversary of playing LOTRO. It coincides nicely with the release of the expansion pack. My primary character has been a level 60 for several months. My traits, armour, jewellery and weapons are in good order and I am really looking forward to being at the for front of exploring the new expansion pack, rather than following in everyone else's wake. Now if I can get my new PC sorted in time.....

Xusia.