Lord of The Rings Online.

[WetaWork]

I went to my local EBGames today to change my order to the collector's edition and iquire about the preorder "box" that contains the product key for the open beta. Initially the employees including the Manager said they have not received them. I informed them that open beta is only 2 weeks away. I then directed their attention to the stack of shrinkwrapped beta dvds behind the counter. I asked if I could see one and proceed to open it. Inside contained the beta dvd, and a quad folded sheet outlining the founder's program, keyboard controls layout, and you guessed it… the preorder product key for the open beta that entitles you to take advantage of the founder's program.

I understand they are pretty busy and it's hard to keep up with all the new games constantly coming out but sheeeshh, this is the number one selling game for how long now?

 

[Seth Gecko]

Does it have the system requirements on it? I am already set up for open beta just waiting for the 30th.

 

[WetaWork]

Does it have the system requirements on it? I am already set up for open beta just waiting for the 30th.

Yes, they list both minimum and recommended requirements. I believe they are the same as the ones on the official LOTRO website.

 

[Seth Gecko]

I thought those were the beta requirements? got a link?

 

[darthviper107]

Under the Beta requirements posted earlier it had the expected final game requirements, which were like half what the Beta had.

 

[WetaWork]

I'm firewalled at work but I believe this was the link to the requirements:

https://www.lotro.com/index.php?page_id=104

However, I do have the old requirements as of 1/31/07:

Anticipated Retail Recommended Requirements:
Processor: Intel Pentium® 4 1.8 GHz or equivalent
Video: 64 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 3 or ATI® Radeon® 8500
DirectX: DirectX® 9.0c
OS: Windows® XP
RAM: 512 MB
Disk Space: 7 GB available
Internet: 56kbps Modem
Optical Drive: 2x DVD-ROM

Beta minimum System Requirements
Processor: Intel Pentium® 4 2.4 GHz or equivalent
Video: 64 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 3 or ATI® Radeon® 8500
DirectX: DirectX® 9.0c
OS: Windows® XP
RAM: 1 GB
Disk Space: 7 GB available
Internet: Broadband DSL/Cable
Optical Drive: 2x DVD-ROM

Recommended System Requirements
Processor: Intel Pentium® 4 2.8 GHz or equivalent
Video: 128 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® FX 6800 or ATI® Radeon® X850
DirectX: DirectX® 9.0c
OS: Windows® XP / Vista
RAM: 1 GB
Disk Space: 10 GB available
Internet: Broadband DSL/Cable
Optical Drive: 2x DVD-ROM

I guess the requirements are more demanding now. Here's what is says on the retail preorder beta that I picked up today:

Minimum System Requirements

CPU: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or equivlent
Ram: 1GB
Video: 64MB Nvidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500
Space: 7 GB
Drive: 2x DVD ROM

Recommended System Requirements

CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or equivlent
Ram: 2GB
Video: 128MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 or ATI Radeon X1800
Space: 10GB
Drive: 2x DVD ROM

 

[Bodie The Cursed]

Looks like Ill need another RAM stick.

 

[Seth Gecko]

Jesus that went up!!

I got it covered though

2.53 gig
1.5 gb ram
Ati x1300 256mb.

(glad i bought a ps3 i hate updating computers)

 

[WetaWork]

Jesus that went up!!

I got it covered though

2.53 gig
1.5 gb ram
Ati x1300 256mb.

(glad i bought a ps3 i hate updating computers)

As does my Dell XPS Gen2 laptop.

This is why I don't PC game anymore as well but for LOTR, I make the exception.

 

[Seth Gecko]

lol yeah i barely made the processor cut and everything else i'm good on. yeah it's LOTR MMORPG otherwise i don't care. I hope they start moving mmorpg's to consoles in the future.

(but even with a 2.4 p4 min. i think a 2.0 gig for ppl that have that will be fine just make sure you have AT LEAST 1 gig of ram)

 

[WetaWork]

My XPS Gen 2 should be fine as I've had no issues during beta:

Processor
•_Designed for Intel 90nm Dothan Pentium-M with 2MB On-Die L2 Cache
•_Supports 533MHz FSB

Chipset
•_Intel 915PM/ICH6-M
•_Supports maximum memory capacity up to 2GB

Memory
2GB

Graphic
•_256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra PCI Express x16

ATA
• Intel ICH6-M South Bridge:
- 1 x ATA 100/66
- 2 x SATA 100/66
- 100GB Ultra ATA HDD (7200RPM)
- Optical device (CD-RW/DVD-ROM, DVD+-RW/CD-RW)

Communications
•_Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet
•_Intel Wireless 2200BG (802.11 b/g) or Broadcom 802.11/b/g WiFi card
•_Bluetooth (optional)
•_56K v.92 Fax/modem

Display
•_17.0" WUXGA UltraSharp TFT LCD (native 1920 x 1200) with TrueLife

Audio
•_Compatible with AC'97 2.3
•_Built in dual speakers
Dimension and Weight
•_~ 15.5" x 11.3" x 1.67" (our sample)
•_Starts at 8.6 lbs.
External I/O Connectors
•_1 x Power port
•_1 x Lock jack
•_1 x PCMCIA slot (Type I or Type II)
•_1 x Modem jack
•_1 x Ethernet jack
•_1 x microphone jack
•_1 x headphone jack
•_1 x VGA-out port
•_1 x DVI-out port
•_1 x S-video port
•_1 x 4-pin mini1394 Firewire port
•_1 x SD Card Reader
•_6 x USB 2.0/1.1

 

[Seth Gecko]

Yeah you'll be fine i played during the stress test and i chugged and lagged somewhat with 1gb ram i got 1.5 now so i'm sure it's a bit better.(but that was the stress test after all)

 

[tomandshell]

My PC is getting old. Only 1 GB but it still gets the job done. It's been OK throughout the stress testing.

 

[darthviper107]

Since we're doing computer stats:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.4ghz Dual Core)
2GB Dual Channel RAM
GeForce 7600GT 256MB

And it ran very good, I think I had the stats at full.


But I'm thinking of upgrading my motherboard, processor, RAM and Graphics card. For less than $2,000 I could change the stats to this:

Either 2 AMD FX-72 2.8Ghz Dual-Core (that would make for 4 cores) or an Intel Core 2 Extreme 2.66 Quad Core processor.
4GB Dual Channel RAM (that's two sticks of 2Gb each)
GeForce 8800GTS 640MB Graphics card

And that would be a really awesome computer. But I don't know if I could get that much. I'm only a PC gamer, I don't really like consoles although I hope to get an Xbox 360 sometime in the future. But I do a lot of 3D Animation work and I'm reaching my limit with my current stats.

 

[WetaWork]

FYI - A partial server list was announced today:

I say if we wish to play as a kinship or just fellow, we pick from the middle of the list (Landroval). Does that sound good to everyone?

Greetings everyone!

As Turbine's Open Beta draws ever closer, we’ve heard you say you want to start getting organized for the big day! Now you can pick which servers you’ll meet your friends and kinship members on. Although this is not a complete list, here are the first seven servers which will be available to our players when Open Beta begins for players in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The first seven LOTRO servers are, in alphabetical order (drumroll please!):

Brandywine
Elendilmir
Gladden
Landroval
Meneldor
Silverlode
Windfola

We hope this helps everyone get ready to start playing - remember, Open Beta begins March 30 for Pre-order customers and April 6 for everyone else! Have fun!

 

[WetaWork]

And for those who still have questions pertaining to open beta carryover:

Information about the Open Beta character carryover! (Updated March 1)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone,

There have been lots of questions about Open Beta and how characters will transfer from Open Beta to Live, so we wanted to try to answer them in one place.

Q: When does Open Beta start?
A: Open Beta begins on March 30 for Pre-order customers and April 6th for the general public.

Q: How many characters can I carry from Open Beta?
A: Players may have up to 5 characters per server, and all characters from all servers will be carried over.

Q: What's the level cap?
A: The level cap is set to 15. Once you hit level 15, your character will no longer receive experience until the game goes live on April 24th.

Q: Does everyone get to carry their characters into Live?
A: Only Founders can carry their characters over.

Q: When should I register my Pre-order key?
A: We suggest you register your Pre-order key before Open Beta (so you get the extra week between March 30 and April 6), and definitely by the time the game goes live. Regardless of when you enter your Pre-order key, you MUST activate it before entering the Retail key that is included with your game, or you will not have access to your Open Beta characters.

Q: Will Kinships carry over?
A: Yes, Kinships will be carried over from Open Beta into Live.

Q: Is crafting capped too?
A: There are no restrictions on crafting, but it will be difficult to craft much beyond your level due to resource gathering requirements.

Q: Is Monster Play capped?
A: There's no cap on your monster player, so have fun earning those Destiny points!

Q: What about Accomplishments and Traits?
A: You can still receive and complete Accomplishments after reaching the level cap, but you won't receive any experience points that you might otherwise have acquired while completing them.

Hope that answers some of your questions!

-Meghan
__________________
Meghan "Patience" Rodberg
Online Community Manager
The Lord of the Rings Online
"Settle down, Beavis."

 

[Seth Gecko]

Landroval sounds good to me

 

[tomandshell]

So Landroval it is, then.

See you there!

 

[Seth Gecko]

So it begins

 

[The Dwimmerlaik]

Do you know if there will be a free server?? right now im playing a game called Lineage 2 and im in a freee server i dont like to pay for playing a game