News has been kind of slow this week. I’ve finally had some time to play again recently and it’s good to get into the thick of it again. While this wasn’t on purpose, I do sometimes find that taking a break from MMORPGs makes me appreciate some of their finer points upon my return.
I’ve been riding around the various areas while not really completing much of real consequence. It’s funny how much the new swift travel routes and adjusted fees have helped. Bree finally has some really obvious routes that I wished were available so many times. The new swift travel options from South Bree were certainly welcome.
I think, more importantly, the starting areas now charge amounts for swift travel that make sense. I don’t know that it’s super difficult to make money in LotRO overall, but it’s certainly difficult when you’re just beginning. The opening zones have since been adjusted to make their quest placement more friendly, but I remember my last foray through Ered Luin: constant trips between Duillond and Celondim that cost 5 silver a piece. It always seemed overly expensive when you were lucky to get 50 copper from a quest. Sure, you can run the whole way, but it does become a bit tiring.
I’m glad that Turbine has made an effort to ease things such as this that can cause burn out early on. Hopefully we’ll see similar results as they revamp other areas in the future.

Hear hear, the swift travel prices were frankly ridiculous in the starting areas before this revamp. And asides from quest texts clashing with waypoint markers now, the revamp of Ered Luin has been for the better…
…Even if it does make it tempting to restart my dwarfy now that it’s super easy to get the undying titles.