Thread: Ettenmoors Community Blog: Wednesday, 7/14/10

I couple people commented on why solo BAs and Reavers stay near large creep groups. Yeah all that stuff is true - if you do it. Tab firedotting is also a way to earn infamy, if you want less than your share. Tab firedot is the stupidest misconception on playing a BA that ever came up. It's a guaranteed way to drop your infamy by 30-50%.

I've been in a total of zero raids since coming to Landy, haven't been in a group larger than 5 for months now and still maintain that there's plenty of fight to be had out and around the map. On occaision I do end up next to a CRaid fighting, but usually it doesn't last that long and for the most part I pick my target and take it down as fully as possible. So other than the relative saftey of being near others, there's no damage leeching going on...in fact I get pissed when the Craid jumps on a target i already started on. Now the one exception to this rule is a well placed firetrap on a freepball that the CRaid wipes....that is without a doubt a huge benefit and somewhat leechy by a solo BA. But you could also make the case that the freepball might not have wiped without the firetrap....

Pointing the finger at any solo person earning a lot of inf and saying that they are leeching is just plain inaccurate. One of you freeps that thinks along these lines log on a creep and give pure or sid or me a tell, and then run with us for the evening. You'll see that there are fights of various sizes all around and that success (in regards to points) isn't about tab firedotting or leeching next to a raid. Someon follow Mawz around and then come back and claim he leeches next to raids...untrue.

Originally Posted by Thieron

That's what is left when the chips fall and just about everyone that was interested in a challenge left the game. Take a look to the left and right and tell me how many are left. I bet you'll find yourself standing almost completely alone. There are some that stick it out, but it’s like a dying religion, and some of those that I thought use to care about the challenge really don’t care anymore.

The observation above is not entirely accurate. I don't think some of the old vets that quit LOTRO PvMP did so because the challenge was no longer there for them. Peeps leave this game for a lot of reasons; RL, another pvp game (Aion, Warhammer, AoC), no new content for 3 years. In fact, the items I just listed are more why people have left than any others in my experience of friends/peeps gone bye from the Moors.

"Challenge" and the "good fight" rarely ranks high on anybody's list in any of the PvMP eras (SoA, MoM, SoM) of why they fight in the Moors. I actually know of more peeps that have left LOTRO PvMP because their favorite class became more of a challenge to play, rather than the other way around (LMs and Hunters, come to mind).

A lot of the game vets I've known over the years that have stuck with PvMP set constant goals for themselves to help them stay focused. Getting that certain Rank, a special title (Battlemaster), rolling and ranking a different class, whatever it may be.

In the end, I think we all just want to have fun. Some of us find it fun to challenge ourselves (I'm one of these) and seek out the good fight. Some of us find it fun to just log on and hoot it up with friends, be it in a group or raid, and do whatever tickles their fancy. Peeps don't just leave this game when the challenge is gone. Peeps leave the game when it is no longer fun.

Originally Posted by romoen

There are people out there that prefer to solo, but they can't find other soloers so they give up and go to where the fight is. But if there were objectives that would be interesting to soloers that they knew they could acquire, other soloers would run into you there by going for the same objective.

Solo objectives like this certainly would help...or would they? One-Third to a Half of the Creep population is in stealth when solo 90% of the time. Even if I am out solo, my Elf RK can't find them even if he wanted to (and this goes for all other Freep classes as well, except for Hunters). I simply have to hope and pray that I get pounced when riding from GV to wherever in order to score a 1v1 with a Warg. I'm so thankful when it happens, and even if there were solo objectives, that basic reality would not change.

I was solo most of the day on Saturday (or was it Sunday? I've forgotten already). Anyway, I found fights of all types everywhere. But that day was different because the numbers on both sides were very strong. Tuesday night, on the other hand, was the typical heavy Creep pop, low Freep pop, and the solo effort was not as fun.

So in answering the question of how to increase opportunities for different playstyles and types of fights in the Moors, any resolution would factor in what can be done to increase the player population in the Moors, as well as how to keep the populations of the two sides balanced. Our best times as a server in the Moors seem to revolve around those two factors more than any other = massive population of players + balanced sides. At least that is the case in SoM.

Originally Posted by Overtone

The observation above is not entirely accurate. I don't think some of the old vets that quit LOTRO PvMP did so because the challenge was no longer there for them. Peeps leave this game for a lot of reasons; RL, another pvp game (Aion, Warhammer, AoC), no new content for 3 years. In fact, the items I just listed are more why people have left than any others in my experience of friends/peeps gone bye from the Moors.

*edit* Nevermind I don't care. Everyone else is always more right than the person above them. Look now I am, woot!

But alpha you can't find them because they aren't there. If they had a reason to be there they would.

Originally Posted by Thieron

*edit* Nevermind I don't care. Everyone else is always more right than the person above them. Look now I am, woot!

Not an issue of wrong or right brother man. Just a fire-side chat about something that may or may not be the case. No need to get defensive. After all, you are the Orange Ranger...

Originally Posted by Overtone

Not an issue of wrong or right brother man. Just a fire-side chat about something that may or may not be the case. No need to get defensive. After all, you are the Orange Ranger...

Yup there just wasnt anything left to say, but I will reply so you can see that I was not nerd raging, yet anyway. I just know nothing I type changes the fact.

I maybe knew 50 some total people closely in this game. Obvisouly I know more than 50 people in this game, but not more than knowing of them. Over 30 of them were friends from WoW and SWG in my original guild, and everyone else from Landroval when I transfered as soon as they opened up transfers, whatever book that was. When I say closely I mean know their real names and things like that. All but three left this game for more progressive pvp. A few of them stopped playing mmos completely. The few I know and still talk to love the potential LOTRO had, and the unique qualities of the game. They just werent challenged by it so it was only fun for so long. One of them in particular brought up a very valid point to me awhile ago.

How can pvp be challenging for very long when most of us came from games that when you died you lost everything you had on you or had some sort of consequence to the death. Here you just get beamed to your rez not even in a different zone and continue on your way. There isn't even repair bills anymore. There is no negative effect to losing in this game.

I think one of the strongest arguments that support my side are the "Best of Whatever Class" threads. Now before I get to my point let me put a disclaimer that yes there are some talented people listed. However, many of them absolutely failed at their class and gained nothing more than popularity for different reasons. Hell, our highest ranked freep on this server still doesnt remove poisons when he is about to bleed out. People brag about their deaths like it is some sort of mark of passage.

As I see it right or wrong. Your deaths are a measure of your failures to some degree. Granted some people die more because of what they play or who they are, but it shouldnt be some sort of badge gaining you respect. It doesnt mean you play hard. Well I guess it does mean you play hard it just means you play hard badly. With no penalty to death there is no reason not to die. That creates lazy pvp. There are those that strive to be better than their opponent, but I promise you it is the minority and nowhere near the majority. To even go further with this we have a side with no other point but to pvp and only gain by their pvp. They have absolutely nothing to lose. There isn't anything they need to save gold for other than to pvp. They do not need to progress through other means to stay competative. All they have to do is log in and pvp to a certain rank (each class is different), and then they can log out for a few months if they wish and still log right back on and destroy someone that has stayed the entire time progressing through pve to stay competative at pvp. It just doesnt make any sense to me at all.