thedarklegosauron

[thedarklegosauron]

Love that milestones teleport you to exactly where you were standing when you saved the stone.

[thedarklegosauron]

This is my stance on Rings of Power.

"this is an inaccurate adaptation" okay but is it good "this didn't happen in the book" does it make sense in the context of the new work though "they totally changed the plot" and is the new one good or bad "it's completely different" not what I asked "they changed all the stuff I like" then I get why you wouldn't be into it but I'm asking about its own artistic merits "this character is meant to be blonde" I couldn't give less of a fuck

[thedarklegosauron]

Alright, my OG lotro characters from 2014 are being transfered from Evernight (RIP soon) to Meriadoc. They might not be played anytime in the near future but they're worth preserving.

Hopefully the transfer wizard decides not to take multiple days this time lol

Edit: wow that was fast, like 10min

[thedarklegosauron]

We probably should have seen this coming...

Farewell Arkenstone

We Arkenstoners will carry the chaotic spirit of your realm on with us in the 64-bit worlds. Particularly Glamdring.

Transferring is now required by August 30 as the 32-bit worlds are closing.

I can't lie, I really liked how quiet Arkenstone was and I dread what I've heard about lag over there. I've had very little on Arkenstone lately.

[thedarklegosauron]

Thank you very much! Ill still weigh the risks a little more but if I can manage to get my dude to fly in the black land ill post some screenshots!

The flying glitch seems to be pretty common suddenly. I had it happen to me two separate times on Tuesday. I fear it will come to the devs' attention and they'll fix it.

But in the meantime, here's an overview of everything I know about it:

The Glitch

The way the glitch works is this: the game thinks there's a layer of water somewhere above you, and it thinks you should be swimming in it, so it moves you up to the level of this nonexistent layer of water. (At the same time, the game knows you're not supposed to be 30 meters in the air above Bree, so it's trying to get you to fall back down, thus the continuous falling animation.)

Understanding how the glitch works is important for knowing what you can do with it. You will rise to a specific height (seems to be random) and then remain at that height. You can't change your height. Because of this, you won't be able to fly everywhere; if you start flying in Bree and only go like 20 feet up then you're not going to be flying in Rivendell, which is significantly higher altitude and above your water layer.

I'm doing some more research with regards to height data in LotRO. I will update this post with more info if and when I get it, but my current theory is that the five major world maps (Eriador, Rhovanion, Gondor Pre-battle, Gondor After-battle, and Harad) all have different height data, thus why you will fly in some more than others. (Flying in Mordor is almost a guarantee, whereas flying in Eriador is pretty rare.)

The glitch seems to trigger upon loading into a new area, either via fast travel or going through a door. It can be hard to pin down exactly what triggers it, as it's possible for it to trigger and for you to never know. Recently it triggered for me when I exited Erebor, but I didn't realize it until I had gone quite a long ways downhill towards Dale. My fake water layer had appeared below me, but still high enough for me to fly. It seems likely that the glitch sometimes triggers below you and you simply never go downhill far enough to encounter it. Once the glitch triggers in a session, it will not end until you log out, even if it seems to. You're probably just above your water layer.

You will almost always fly in interior cells, but you will go up indefinitely instead of levelling off. If the ceiling doesn't have collision (most do, but not all) then you'll float off into the void. I believe this is because most interior cells (and most instances) are physically stored beneath the map, far below your fake water layer.

There's no reason to go floating off into the void. At first I was hoping to see unused assets or dev cubes or something. They may be there, but you can't see them; the culling in this game is very aggressive and it won't be too long before you get culled out.

I don't know if something bad happens if you float off into the void. I don't want to find out. I always fast travel away as soon as the culling starts. I recommend not pushing your luck in this department.

Avoiding Getting Stuck

In order to avoid getting stuck, I recommend flying around some safe areas first so as to get used to the camera movement. That way you'll be able to recognize when the game starts rubberbanding and flipping out, which is a sign you should turn back.

Most actually dangerous places are blocked off with invisible walls, but not all. For some reason the devs didn't have flying people in mind when they designed the barriers of the game environment. Cannot imagine why. But bear in mind, it's possible for you to get somewhere you can't get back out of, even with fast travel. I've never gotten badly stuck myself, but I know people who have. I tend to be a lot more cautious with this glitch on my non-hunter characters, because Desperate Flight has gotten me out of a few tight spots.

Personally, I divide normally inaccessible areas into one of three categories based on how safe it is to go there. This is just general guidelines based on my experience, don't take it as gospel, but it might help.

Green areas. This includes things like tall structures or steep hills that are in bounds but unclimbable. A good example of these are the towers in Umbar or the hills surrounding Esteldin. These are, mostly, basically fine to fly above or land on. Being on these is functionally equivalent to jumping on top of a barrel, just bigger.

Yellow areas. These are areas that are distinctly out of bounds, but clearly connected to the playable game world. Examples of these include the far side of the Anduin south of Pelargir and the top of the Ram Duath. You can go here. But bad things might happen. If you see anything -- and I'll use a technical term here -- fucky, be prepared to get the hell out of dodge before things get worse.

Red areas. These are fully out of bounds, unmodeled areas. Anywhere you can see the void, or outside the skybox, or there's no ground, or weird stretched out textures, or anything like that. Don't go there. Abort mission. Remember that this is an MMO, not a single player game. You can't revert to a previous save. There's nothing out there worth losing a character over, I promise.

A few pointers on getting unstuck if you do get stuck:

Fast travel might not always work. More on that and how to fix it in the navigation section.

You can get a friend to summon you. (Sometimes doesn't work for the same reason as fast travel.)

Sometimes entering a world instance helps.

The /stuck command is your friend. (It also might not always work.)

If you're a hunter, Desperate Flight will get you out of most tight spots.

If you're low enough level for it to kill you, try getting some Barrow-brie when you notice the glitch has triggered, just in case. This is a preemptive measure, and it can't be traded between players, you have to get it yourself. If you're unable to access the barrows, it can also be got from a Chest of Chance bartered from Rúnar in the 21st Hall, though it's a random drop and you'll need Marks of Victory to barter with.

I haven't tried it myself, but it might be worthwhile to bring along some of the mug festival consumables you can get during the Farmer's Faire, which might be able to get you out of a tight spot by teleporting you to a random location.

Sometimes logging out and logging back in to end the glitch will fix the problem. Occasionally it won't.

Maybe none of these work and you'll have to contact Support. I've gotten stuck for unrelated reasons before and they were able to move my character somewhere else.

Navigation

Getting places with this glitch can be a pain. Obviously it's ideal to get it on a hunter with lots of travel skills, but so far there's really no way to control which character you get it on. Fast travel or getting summoned by a friend is going to be your main way to get around, because you're not going to be able to reach most stable-masters. Some handy things to have on hand include a house with teleport items, such as the Mysterious Door or the festival kegs. Keep in mind that if your house has high ceilings you might want to position these things accordingly. Also note that there's a very high chance of getting stuck in a housing neighborhood if you start flying in it, so have an exit plan before you go home. (I have never flown in Kingstead Meadows and generally consider it safe from this, but bear in mind the limited dataset we're working with here.)

The first time you try to fast travel, the game may throw back a, "You cannot do that while moving," or, "Interrupted," error. The way to fix this is to find something high enough for you to land on. Look for a tall hill, those are usually your best bet. Once you've landed, fast travel once. The game should now allow you to fast travel while flying. I don't know why this works. But it does. If you can't find a hill, try loading into a world instance that's inside, like Halls of Night or Inn of the Forsaken. For some reason it's a lot easier to fast travel from inside than it is from outside. You still have to fast travel to somewhere you can stand on solid ground and then fast travel again in order to get fast travel working outside.

(Housing neighborhoods have a high chance of getting you stuck because there's often nothing to land on, and you go too high too fast to get inside a house, and you can't enter instances from inside them. Hunters can Desperate Flight out of the housing neighborhood, but other classes might have more trouble.)

Moving manually is extremely slow, since the game thinks you're both falling and swimming. There's not much to be done about this. Any old speed boost will help, but beyond that... open up settings and assign an autorun hotkey. It's a long trip to anywhere, but a very scenic one.

When you're done flying, just log out to land. (You may have to force quit the game.) You will log back in directly below wherever you were flying when you logged out. This is a fun opportunity to take screenshots in a place you wouldn't normally be able to reach. Be prepared for the possibility that you might immediately die and get sent to the rez circle when you log back in, though. It does happen.

LotRO Tumblr is pretty chill, so I probably don't need to say this, but this glitch is for screenshots ONLY!!!!!!!!!! If I find out any of you used any of this information to try and exploit the game, I will find you and I will poop in your shoes

[thedarklegosauron]

I am both very scared and extremely tempted to get screenshots of Orodrùin with this.

The flying glitch seems to be pretty common suddenly. I had it happen to me two separate times on Tuesday. I fear it will come to the devs' attention and they'll fix it.

But in the meantime, here's an overview of everything I know about it:

The Glitch

The way the glitch works is this: the game thinks there's a layer of water somewhere above you, and it thinks you should be swimming in it, so it moves you up to the level of this nonexistent layer of water. (At the same time, the game knows you're not supposed to be 30 meters in the air above Bree, so it's trying to get you to fall back down, thus the continuous falling animation.)

Understanding how the glitch works is important for knowing what you can do with it. You will rise to a specific height (seems to be random) and then remain at that height. You can't change your height. Because of this, you won't be able to fly everywhere; if you start flying in Bree and only go like 20 feet up then you're not going to be flying in Rivendell, which is significantly higher altitude and above your water layer.

I'm doing some more research with regards to height data in LotRO. I will update this post with more info if and when I get it, but my current theory is that the five major world maps (Eriador, Rhovanion, Gondor Pre-battle, Gondor After-battle, and Harad) all have different height data, thus why you will fly in some more than others. (Flying in Mordor is almost a guarantee, whereas flying in Eriador is pretty rare.)

The glitch seems to trigger upon loading into a new area, either via fast travel or going through a door. It can be hard to pin down exactly what triggers it, as it's possible for it to trigger and for you to never know. Recently it triggered for me when I exited Erebor, but I didn't realize it until I had gone quite a long ways downhill towards Dale. My fake water layer had appeared below me, but still high enough for me to fly. It seems likely that the glitch sometimes triggers below you and you simply never go downhill far enough to encounter it. Once the glitch triggers in a session, it will not end until you log out, even if it seems to. You're probably just above your water layer.

You will almost always fly in interior cells, but you will go up indefinitely instead of levelling off. If the ceiling doesn't have collision (most do, but not all) then you'll float off into the void. I believe this is because most interior cells (and most instances) are physically stored beneath the map, far below your fake water layer.

There's no reason to go floating off into the void. At first I was hoping to see unused assets or dev cubes or something. They may be there, but you can't see them; the culling in this game is very aggressive and it won't be too long before you get culled out.

I don't know if something bad happens if you float off into the void. I don't want to find out. I always fast travel away as soon as the culling starts. I recommend not pushing your luck in this department.

Avoiding Getting Stuck

In order to avoid getting stuck, I recommend flying around some safe areas first so as to get used to the camera movement. That way you'll be able to recognize when the game starts rubberbanding and flipping out, which is a sign you should turn back.

Most actually dangerous places are blocked off with invisible walls, but not all. For some reason the devs didn't have flying people in mind when they designed the barriers of the game environment. Cannot imagine why. But bear in mind, it's possible for you to get somewhere you can't get back out of, even with fast travel. I've never gotten badly stuck myself, but I know people who have. I tend to be a lot more cautious with this glitch on my non-hunter characters, because Desperate Flight has gotten me out of a few tight spots.

Personally, I divide normally inaccessible areas into one of three categories based on how safe it is to go there. This is just general guidelines based on my experience, don't take it as gospel, but it might help.

Green areas. This includes things like tall structures or steep hills that are in bounds but unclimbable. A good example of these are the towers in Umbar or the hills surrounding Esteldin. These are, mostly, basically fine to fly above or land on. Being on these is functionally equivalent to jumping on top of a barrel, just bigger.

Yellow areas. These are areas that are distinctly out of bounds, but clearly connected to the playable game world. Examples of these include the far side of the Anduin south of Pelargir and the top of the Ram Duath. You can go here. But bad things might happen. If you see anything -- and I'll use a technical term here -- fucky, be prepared to get the hell out of dodge before things get worse.

Red areas. These are fully out of bounds, unmodeled areas. Anywhere you can see the void, or outside the skybox, or there's no ground, or weird stretched out textures, or anything like that. Don't go there. Abort mission. Remember that this is an MMO, not a single player game. You can't revert to a previous save. There's nothing out there worth losing a character over, I promise.

A few pointers on getting unstuck if you do get stuck:

Fast travel might not always work. More on that and how to fix it in the navigation section.

You can get a friend to summon you. (Sometimes doesn't work for the same reason as fast travel.)

Sometimes entering a world instance helps.

The /stuck command is your friend. (It also might not always work.)

If you're a hunter, Desperate Flight will get you out of most tight spots.

If you're low enough level for it to kill you, try getting some Barrow-brie when you notice the glitch has triggered, just in case. This is a preemptive measure, and it can't be traded between players, you have to get it yourself. If you're unable to access the barrows, it can also be got from a Chest of Chance bartered from Rúnar in the 21st Hall, though it's a random drop and you'll need Marks of Victory to barter with.

I haven't tried it myself, but it might be worthwhile to bring along some of the mug festival consumables you can get during the Farmer's Faire, which might be able to get you out of a tight spot by teleporting you to a random location.

Sometimes logging out and logging back in to end the glitch will fix the problem. Occasionally it won't.

Maybe none of these work and you'll have to contact Support. I've gotten stuck for unrelated reasons before and they were able to move my character somewhere else.

Navigation

Getting places with this glitch can be a pain. Obviously it's ideal to get it on a hunter with lots of travel skills, but so far there's really no way to control which character you get it on. Fast travel or getting summoned by a friend is going to be your main way to get around, because you're not going to be able to reach most stable-masters. Some handy things to have on hand include a house with teleport items, such as the Mysterious Door or the festival kegs. Keep in mind that if your house has high ceilings you might want to position these things accordingly. Also note that there's a very high chance of getting stuck in a housing neighborhood if you start flying in it, so have an exit plan before you go home. (I have never flown in Kingstead Meadows and generally consider it safe from this, but bear in mind the limited dataset we're working with here.)

The first time you try to fast travel, the game may throw back a, "You cannot do that while moving," or, "Interrupted," error. The way to fix this is to find something high enough for you to land on. Look for a tall hill, those are usually your best bet. Once you've landed, fast travel once. The game should now allow you to fast travel while flying. I don't know why this works. But it does. If you can't find a hill, try loading into a world instance that's inside, like Halls of Night or Inn of the Forsaken. For some reason it's a lot easier to fast travel from inside than it is from outside. You still have to fast travel to somewhere you can stand on solid ground and then fast travel again in order to get fast travel working outside.

(Housing neighborhoods have a high chance of getting you stuck because there's often nothing to land on, and you go too high too fast to get inside a house, and you can't enter instances from inside them. Hunters can Desperate Flight out of the housing neighborhood, but other classes might have more trouble.)

Moving manually is extremely slow, since the game thinks you're both falling and swimming. There's not much to be done about this. Any old speed boost will help, but beyond that... open up settings and assign an autorun hotkey. It's a long trip to anywhere, but a very scenic one.

When you're done flying, just log out to land. (You may have to force quit the game.) You will log back in directly below wherever you were flying when you logged out. This is a fun opportunity to take screenshots in a place you wouldn't normally be able to reach. Be prepared for the possibility that you might immediately die and get sent to the rez circle when you log back in, though. It does happen.

LotRO Tumblr is pretty chill, so I probably don't need to say this, but this glitch is for screenshots ONLY!!!!!!!!!! If I find out any of you used any of this information to try and exploit the game, I will find you and I will poop in your shoes

[thedarklegosauron]

Thank you!

they're making a snowed man :) everything is fine in Tal-Methedras :)

Nothing bad is going to happen to them or the snowmen :) :) :)

[thedarklegosauron]

I've been through Tal-Methedras like 5 times there were SNOWMEN?!? I think this is just the motivation to continue my captain i wanna build snowmen with the Grey Company !!!

they're making a snowed man :) everything is fine in Tal-Methedras :)

Nothing bad is going to happen to them or the snowmen :) :) :)

[thedarklegosauron]

This status effect is so silly and I love it:

hey guys I'm making a thing, send me your favorite LOTRO status effects! Particularly the Mean ones >:) this is indeed plinko related

[thedarklegosauron]

Permission to oc-loredump a little then?

For questions 4, 10 and 17 I volunteer my cathar smuggler, Captain Valy Nhumor.

4- Smugglers get a wookiee companion, Bowdaar, however Valy refers to this giant lovable hairball as "Bowie"

10- Despite being an expert in using dual-blaster pistols during fights, she is right handed and prefers an offhand blaster with a laser sight attachment, both for *aesthetic* and just in case things get out of hand focus-wise.

17- Valy is most certainly NOT a willing participant in the narrative. If her ship wasn't stolen on Ord Mantell a few years ago her life would be completely different. Granted she has a crew of friends and an obscene amount of treasure from her adventures thus far, and the Republic still owes her about 70billion credits in "Hero Fees" at this point, but by now Valy is approaching the galaxy with a "this may as well happen" mentality. These guys on Rishi think you're a cannabalistic pirate? Sure. Why not. Just roll with it lol.

SWTOR Character Ask Meme

There are a few of these around, and they're wonderful, but they also seem to be specific to either game mechanics or non-setting-specific things, so I thought I'd throw in a bit of both-and-bonus!

What is [character]'s favourite event, & what do they like about it?

What companions from other class stories do they know or have connections to, pre-Zakuul/Alliance?

What Forbidden Romance — i.e., one not permitted by the game — would or do they embark on? (If they're a romance sort of person, of course.)

Do they have nicknames for other characters (NPC or OC), & if so, what are they?

Do they have nicknames from other characters, & if so, what are they?

Are there any biological quirks they have that aren't shown in-game (e.g. tails on Cathar, cybernetics in non-Human species), & if so, what are they?

What else about their appearance (e.g. hairstyle, body shape) isn't shown in-game?

Is their voice different to the voice of the character in-game, and if so, how?

What do they regard as their culture, & do they distinguish between their culture and heritage?

Are they left-handed, right-handed, or something else? What foot do they lead with when they take off at a run (if applicable)?

What's something they'd really like as a companion gift that isn't available as one in-game?

If they had something named after them, what would they like it to be, and what would it really be?

If there were a Commemorative Statue released of them, what pose would they be in?

What's their dream mount, & have they ever ridden it?

If they had a career that wasn't one of the class options, what would it be (e.g. vet or nerf-herder)?

Who are their Forbidden Companions — i.e., characters who aren't companions in-game — if they have any?

Are they a willing participant in their narrative?

If they could have saved anyone the game didn't give them a chance to, who would it have been?

If they could have killed anyone the game didn't give them a chance to, who would it have been?

What's happening in their Heroic Moments?

What ability or abilities in their spec do they struggle with?

What abilities do they use that aren't in their in-game spec?

What's their opinion on taxi droids, & how do they treat them?

If they could have a stronghold on any world, where would it be, how large would it be, & what would the architecture be like?

What title do they use, & why?

What about their ship is different to the ship they're given in-game (e.g. different paint job, mods, different ship altogether)?

They need to choose two of their companions to work together on a mission. Who, & with what reasoning?

What kind of ambient sound would appear around them?

What kind of music would appear around them?

As a boss, what special mechanics or attacks would they have, & would certain strategies be needed to defeat them?

[thedarklegosauron]

Happy Star Wars Day to those who celebrate :)

[thedarklegosauron]

Finally got the decorations set up in my Falathlorn home :)

The Elf alts are happy now.

Feel free to visit! Glamdring server, 4 Fairwood Lane, Ael Chaeron Falathlorn Homesteads. Home of High Elf Captain Valfindes. And all my other knife-eared alts :P

[Pictures of Rohan Kingstead home coming soon]

[thedarklegosauron]

They changed the character select screen music.

Not sure if I like this.

The world is changed.

[thedarklegosauron]

I'm sure they'll continue to babylon about this

a 7,000 year old vampire named Sue Maryanne

[thedarklegosauron]

... Are you saying that Tossdir and Ethedis translate to Bushguy and Girlgirl from sindarin? Thats impressive levels of linguistic silly right there :D

you've heard of Sharkboy and Lavagirl now get ready for Bushguy and Girlgirl

[thedarklegosauron]

So... found out today that the lotro escrow brokers automatically put my decorations in my house chests when i got them back... i've been thinking the NPCs were broken for like 3 weeks now lol

Re-decorated lotro house images coming soon

[thedarklegosauron]

Mosh Pit in the Bree broker's office as people wait to get housing in Kingstead Rohan.

I got my Rohan mansion back at least. Now in the brooksedge neighborhood instead of hapsburg but its a small price to pay.

Also the escrow brokers are broken from everyone trying to get their decos back.