Lord of the Rings online - Screenshots

[Gandelf]

Just wondering if LotRO is going to be released on time if beta testing is still going on. Especially as the Founder early access is due to start on 14 April. How can they possibly print off all those copies of the finished product in time?

[OohhoO]

Beta finishes on 8.4.07
Prerelease starts on 14.4.07
Release is 24.4.07

The current beta version is probably the release version and probably getting pressed by the thousand this very minute

[Xest]

Just wondering if LotRO is going to be released on time if beta testing is still going on. Especially as the Founder early access is due to start on 14 April. How can they possibly print off all those copies of the finished product in time?

They don't need the final version on the CD, just a version close enough to release that the rest can be patched to release when people first connect.

You'd probably be suprised at how fast they can produce games nowadays also, I wouldn't be suprised if they can churn out around 50,000 to 100,000 copies in a day. We can do about 5,000 copies + prints on media in a day at work and only have relatively cheap (£3,000) copying equipment so I doubt industrial style equipment would struggle to churn out a couple of hundred thousand in only a few days.

[OohhoO]

I doubt industrial style equipment would struggle to churn out a couple of hundred thousand in only a few days.

I think there are about that many beta-testers alone

[Erce]

Well I managed to get a beta account now>:D

So will have a play around and see if we like it!

[OohhoO]

There's some funny stuff tho...
If you join a Kinship (guild), & aren't an officer, you can have the title <name> Member
Could lead to some some interesting names...
Stiff
Enormous
Erupting
Limp

[Xest]

I think there are about that many beta-testers alone

But how many will buy on day 1? They may sell like 500,000 in the first day but if they can get 100,000 - 200,000 shipped a day then it should be no problem to keep up with demand. It's genereally a relatively small percentage of people that actually buy games on day 1 despite the hype.

[Gandelf]

Limp

You reminded me of a joke...

What goes in dry and stiff, comes out wet and limp and satisfies two people?
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A Teabag!

[<ankh>]

Just wondering if LotRO is going to be released on time if beta testing is still going on. Especially as the Founder early access is due to start on 14 April. How can they possibly print off all those copies of the finished product in time?

They don't have to put the 100% finished copy on the cd/dvd..its enough to release a patch the first day or so.

/Ankh

[OohhoO]

All in all I'm very dissapointed in the recent patch.

Yes, a lot of good things were done, but on the whole there was a lot of bad stuff IMO.

Crafting.
Crafting got a nerf. You can't really make anything that's actually useful to your crafter. Any time you want to progress to a new level of crafting you end up needing to kill a red/purple con elite mob just to end up being able to make items 10 levels below your own level.

PvE.
Lots of character skills & abilities got nerfed, as did the number of traits which you can equip.
There was a general cut in hit points - about 20-30% less it seems.
Most mobs got changed from Hostile to Agressive, & it seems agro ranges got extended.

Economy.
Mob drops got castrated in value.
Repair & travel costs have become astronomical.

Basically if you hunt/quest now, what you earn in drops & rewards is normally no longer enough to even cover your repair costs, let alone have cash left over for learning new abilities or craft, & crafting has become a more or less pointless & unaffordable hobby.

Before the last patch LotRo was really an MMORPG-light, which was the charm of the game & what made it different from all the other MMORPGs on the market. The "I-have-to-hit-50-before-anyone-else" crowd whined that it was an MMORPG for dummies & now Turbine have changed it so that it is basically now an X-cut-&-paste MMORPG whose only effective difference is that it is based on Tolkeins world.

I'm very dissapointed.
I really thought Turbine were going to take MMORPGs in an evolutionary step in a new & more casual-friendly direction, but ATM it seems it's going to be yet another more-work-than-fun grind-till-you're-blind game with a screwed economy.
I hope they reconsider.