Hey friends, welcome to this week’s show. Sorry for the delay in getting it out, I’ve been swamped at work and the week got away from me. So, this time, Spaz, Julie, Thorston, Jacob, David and I have one of our regular check-ins, where we talk about what we’re playing (which you can see below)...

The post SGJ Podcast #468 – Check-In appeared first on Space Game Junkie.

We’re back for another round of special servers for Lord of the Rings Online.

The Legend Returns

The team at Standing Stone has been very casual about building up excitement for the return of the legendary server idea.  Up until earlier this week it wasn’t something that warranted a spot on their main web site or the launcher.  They have felt content to mention it in YouTube videos that I would bet most of the LOTRO player base doesn’t even know exist.  And not even in a video dedicated to that, but one of the chat and update shows where they talk about a lot of things… and those mentions were not exactly informative feasts.

This feels like something they should be getting players hyped about and they have not done a very thorough job on that front.

Anyway, enough of that.  It is happening.

The original Legendary servers, Anor and Ithil, launched back in late 2018 with an eye towards recreating a bit of the original LOTRO experience, albeit mostly by tinkering with experience gains to set pacing closer to how it was back in 2007 and by gating content into the expansions. The game was still the modern version with added zones and class changes and content updates.  It was explicitly not a “classic” experience save for the pace.

That went pretty well.  Lots of people jumped in, including myself, and played through at least the original content.  As these things go, the further along the unlocks went the fewer the people willing to stick it out.  I didn’t make it out of the far end of Moria.

The second round of Legendary servers, Shadowfax and Treebeard, landed in mid-2021, with the gimmick being one was a fast leveling server and the other a slower pace.

This time around with the Angmar and Mordor servers, they are back with a new plan that involves battling the Nazgul and lesser minions of Sauron, which includes finding twelve lesser rings of power, which gives the whole thing the tag line “The Veil of the Nine.”

A new legendary appears

And that is about it.

There are some special aspects to the servers, aside from the fact that you will need to be a VIP subscriber in order to access them.

They are the first pair of 64-bit servers out of the box.  It will be interesting to hear if this alleviates the ongoing lag issue that has plagued the game for the last couple of years.

The Angmar server is located in the US while the Mordor server is located in the EU, though you can play on either one so long as you are a subscriber.

When the servers end their run the plan is for Angmar players to be transferred off to other servers while Mordor will stay as the EU 64-bit server.

Otherwise no monster play, no level boost, nothing that one would have if one were starting out fresh.  But all the current options, including skirmishes and landscape difficulty.  They even take a paragraph at the end of the announcement to be clear that this is not a “vanilla” or “classic” server experience.

There isn’t even any mention of the experience curve that I saw.  Is it the same as live, cut back for better pacing through the content, or accelerated because everybody is impatient?

I am in favor of this sort of thing, even if it isn’t a “classic” server… in fact, in the case of LOTRO, it is probably better that is isn’t a “classic” server.  Things were pretty rough back in 2007.

And, as I mentioned above, I was all in on the 2018 run through.  There are sections of the 1-50 experience that I can play over and over again… with the Lone Lands being a particular favorite.

Now I am less enthused.  As I have said too many times, the game isn’t really viable for me on my 34″ widescreen monitor.  It is a fine game at 1920×1080, but the UI gets pretty bad beyond that.  And I am not exactly feeling the call of Middle-earth at the moment.

Still, I wish those who are off on a new adventure the best of luck and hope the new servers… and the 64-bit aspect especially… are a great success.  There remains no equal out there when it comes to a digital recreation of Tolkien’s work.

Related:

• LOTRO – Two New VIP Legendary Worlds Have Arrived

We’re back for another round of special servers for Lord of the Rings Online.

The Legend Returns

The team at Standing Stone has been very casual about building up excitement for the return of the legendary server idea.  Up until earlier this week it wasn’t something that warranted a spot on their main web site or the launcher.  They have felt content to mention it in YouTube videos that I would bet most of the LOTRO player base doesn’t even know exist.  And not even in a video dedicated to that, but one of the chat and update shows where they talk about a lot of things… and those mentions were not exactly informative feasts.

This feels like something they should be getting players hyped about and they have not done a very thorough job on that front.

Anyway, enough of that.  It is happening.

The original Legendary servers, Anor and Ithil, launched back in late 2018 with an eye towards recreating a bit of the original LOTRO experience, albeit mostly by tinkering with experience gains to set pacing closer to how it was back in 2007 and by gating content into the expansions. The game was still the modern version with added zones and class changes and content updates.  It was explicitly not a “classic” experience save for the pace.

That went pretty well.  Lots of people jumped in, including myself, and played through at least the original content.  As these things go, the further along the unlocks went the fewer the people willing to stick it out.  I didn’t make it out of the far end of Moria.

The second round of Legendary servers, Shadowfax and Treebeard, landed in mid-2021, with the gimmick being one was a fast leveling server and the other a slower pace.

This time around with the Angmar and Mordor servers, they are back with a new plan that involves battling the Nazgul and lesser minions of Sauron, which includes finding twelve lesser rings of power, which gives the whole thing the tag line “The Veil of the Nine.”

A new legendary appears

And that is about it.

There are some special aspects to the servers, aside from the fact that you will need to be a VIP subscriber in order to access them.

They are the first pair of 64-bit servers out of the box.  It will be interesting to hear if this alleviates the ongoing lag issue that has plagued the game for the last couple of years.

The Angmar server is located in the US while the Mordor server is located in the EU, though you can play on either one so long as you are a subscriber.

When the servers end their run the plan is for Angmar players to be transferred off to other servers while Mordor will stay as the EU 64-bit server.

Otherwise no monster play, no level boost, nothing that one would have if one were starting out fresh.  But all the current options, including skirmishes and landscape difficulty.  They even take a paragraph at the end of the announcement to be clear that this is not a “vanilla” or “classic” server experience.

There isn’t even any mention of the experience curve that I saw.  Is it the same as live, cut back for better pacing through the content, or accelerated because everybody is impatient?

I am in favor of this sort of thing, even if it isn’t a “classic” server… in fact, in the case of LOTRO, it is probably better that is isn’t a “classic” server.  Things were pretty rough back in 2007.

And, as I mentioned above, I was all in on the 2018 run through.  There are sections of the 1-50 experience that I can play over and over again… with the Lone Lands being a particular favorite.

Now I am less enthused.  As I have said too many times, the game isn’t really viable for me on my 34″ widescreen monitor.  It is a fine game at 1920×1080, but the UI gets pretty bad beyond that.  And I am not exactly feeling the call of Middle-earth at the moment.

Still, I wish those who are off on a new adventure the best of luck and hope the new servers… and the 64-bit aspect especially… are a great success.  There remains no equal out there when it comes to a digital recreation of Tolkien’s work.

Related:

• LOTRO – Two New VIP Legendary Worlds Have Arrived

As someone new to MMOs and MMORPGs after getting into Final Fantasy 14 a decade late, I’m constantly floored by how long the successful ones have been running. World of Warcraft is coming up on two decades of expansions and updates, even rolling back to its own Classic version due to demand, and Star Wars: The Old Republic has been around since 2011. Fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings Online is still kicking too, and it’s celebrating its 17th birthday with an annual event, even as a brand new LOTR MMO looms from Amazon.