My (now) 17 Minstrel hanging outside of Bree last night. It was one of the few ‘safe’ places to be that didn’t involve “rubberbanding” as they’re calling it on the forums and in game.
The issue is quite simple. I’m not sure if it’s present on all servers but it’s certainly on Nostalgia’s. Eventually as you’re walking along, at particular points you’ll meet up with an invisible wall that pushes you backwards each and every time you try to push forward. It slings you back, like a rubber band. There was one such wall on the outskirts of Bree, heading towards the Shire. It also happened to be exactly where Kasul and I needed to go to progress our epic line. No worries though, we worked around the area by using swifttravel, even though it took us a huge distance out of our way. When the quest sent us back to that area again we decided to move on to other things.
Needless to say neither of us gained very much experience.
We did still have fun though. No office supply is going to stop that! So we spent the majority of the evening wandering close to Bree, picking off bears and searching for mines. Once we’d filled our bags with goodies we headed back to the crafting area to gain a few skill ups. While crafting in LotRO takes a LOT of resources, I also enjoy it. Crafters rely on one another for components, much like VG does and EQ2 used to do. With an active Kinship (and Nostalgia is active for the members we have) this is hardly an issue as we’re constantly trading things between one another for use. Combines are done much the way they are in World of Warcraft, nothing too fancy about it. It’s not a mini game like EQ2 and you can’t (as far as I know) fail the combines like EQ, thus losing all of your material. I’m attempting to save up for a house (some day) but dang are they expensive. I can barely afford my skills each time I level, let alone a LOT of gold for a home. It’s a (far) future goal of mine though.
Lately I have had a HUGE ache for some role play. When I had these cravings before I used to satisfy them in EQ2 as a guide – but I don’t have the time to dedicate to the program any more. There are no D&D groups that I know of around here (here being Ottawa) so I’m trying to think of a little project I can do that would take care of my desire to be a story teller or my need to listen to other people’s stories. One idea I’m tossing around is creating an alt on Antonia Bayle (the most populated server in EQ2, also happens to be one of two RP servers) and write about an adventure of hers once a week leaving her for only role play. There are LOTS of guild events that happen on AB for RP purposes, and I could easily lose myself in one of those.
Aside from that, I’m not sure what other games out there offer a strong RP community. I’ll have to search a little bit. It’s like an itch that needs scratching, creative juices that are eager to flow (or some such thing. It’s late and I can’t come up with flowery words right now).
Hopefully LotRO is fixed back to normal by Thursday, which is the 2nd day of the week designated for some play time (during the day this time). I’m looking forward to inching towards level 20 – and appearance slots. Kasul got himself a really nice pirate hat and eye patch tonight, and I’ve been looking for ‘fluff’ armor for just such a reason.
Hope everyone else had an amazing night!
That is probably the server I should have gone too. Firefoot seems full of hardcore raiders and such
Once LOTRO is working reliably again, you could roll an alt on Landroval; lots of RPers there. Prancing Pony seems to have a good group there every evening.