Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered

After the huge disappointment in Vanguard and with World of Warcraft once again claiming all of my attention, I really hadn’t found an MMO I was really excited about. In fact when Lord of the Rings Online, an MMO I first heard about in Vanguard’s early days first came to launch day, I really wasn’t all that fussed. It just didn’t seem my thing.

Eventually I tried it and was really quite impressed. Instancing was finally done in a unique and involving way rather than shutting you out of the rest of the world, the graphics were ‘realistic’ and the lore was there. Over time the world grew for me as I discovered new places and got to grips with the map…what I originally thought were disconnected zones were in fact sub-areas of a very small region of Middle Earth, with the other regions scheduled for later expansions. Other regions aren’t needed for me currently, Eriador (Home of the Shire, Bree, Buckland, et al) is a vast place as it is and absolutely jam packed with life and more importantly soul.

So why haven’t I mentioned it that much? Simply because I quit it for quite a while. Two reasons for this, a problem which manifests in many graphically intensive games where my computer simply freezes up entirely. City of Heroes, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Eve Online, you name it and my machine will die after just half an hour. The second issue was a minor one of Ered Luin (the Dwarf homeland) lacking much in the way of player population.

Recently one of my regular reads, The Ancient Gaming Noob went back to try the newly released fishing hobby and found his own crashing problem to be solved. Granted, this may have had something to do with a new graphics card he installed but let’s not let that stop me from experimenting. So back I went, installation, patching and into the game. My first task was to get Rayda onto a rented horse and down to Bree where I wanted him to seek out the fishing trainer. There was apparently one in Thorin’s Hall however Bree is a very picturesque area with plenty of pools to while away some time fishing.

So one trip later and I met up with the hobby trainer, who quickly sent me to Staddle just outside the East gate of Bree. There another lady furnished me with a full selection of literature and a pole to fish with and away I went, surrounded by a few other players also learning the ropes, so to speak. This had currently taken me about fifteen minutes in game. With a few fish in hand I took some screenshots, then went to cast my line again.

My machine froze.

Determined this time, I only had World of Warcraft on my MMO list and I was eager for Lord of the Rings Online to pan out. I went in search of answers on their official forums. After much searching I found a very obscure post relating only passingly to my crashing problem which suggested that any problem involving pure freezing (no blue screen of death) of any kind, short or long, could be fixed by using a hidden LOTRO option known as ‘game engine speed’. Under the troubleshooting tab in options, this allows you to lower the speed with which the engine processes in case you encounter problems.

I did so, the guide suggested a one notch drop in speed but I chose to err on the side of caution and try two notches. At the time I also popped the side of my computer case off to allow a large amount of air to get in to help cool the hardware down in case this was an issue as well. I didn’t really see any change in the game at all however, except that my frame rate became a rather exceptional mid-twenty figure and stayed there, eliminating any stutter I’d been experiencing. I played away for half an hour with success and decided to give it a proper run through soon.

Tonight was that run through, I logged on around Seven o’clock while I put some dinner together, left it running as I prepared dinner, then quested some while it cooked. I left the game running when I went to eat, having now been in for a good forty-five minutes. I returned and still it was running so I went back to questing, notched up the graphics a little (I improved shadows and added ‘distant imposters’ to make the world seem busier…trees in the distance for example) and worked my way to level eleven during the night.

Two and a half hours after logging in, I logged out happy in the knowledge Middle Earth is now a stable place to game in. As for my original worry that player base was low as well, my time this session was spent around Bree and when I returned to train up I was shocked at the population of the town. I had some idea from local chat which was busy but arriving in Bree I encountered dozens of people gathered in each area. The Inn itself was an absolute hive of roleplaying with one Dwarf sat strumming a lute for a large group of onlookers. The game’s population is in a good shape after all and combined with the dense NPC population I really enjoyed the atmosphere.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Lord of the Rings Online, Rayda Skaldensen, Dwarf Paladin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.