The Free to Play Experience (Part 1)

[Part 1: Basic rules

Introduction

Free to Play (F2P) is maybe one of the greatest moves that Turbine has done for the LotRO game. It has not only brought greater revenue to the company, but also has brought interesting content and a ton of new players into the game.

   It does thus not surprise me that many will take advantage of the system to play this game casually and with no need to pay. But with all that is offered in-game and seemingly so few Turbine Points (TP) at disposition a new player might ask himself what to get to enjoy the experience even though he might be unable (or unwilling) to pay.

   I have played LotRO as a F2P for months (that is how I got introduced into the game in the first place) and after a few experiments and exploration, I decided to share what I learned about being F2P and to give some tips on how to enjoy LotRO with the limitations given in the unpaid accounts.

   Let me remind you that this, in no way, is a set in stone guide. You might experience the game differently. This guide portrays how I think the game is better played for an F2P account, but then again, we are all not the same.

Rules

For this first segment, I want to address some rules on the F2P experience. By this I mean that the rules given here will be good to remember, although not necessary. Consider them as guidelines, since most will seem obvious to you.

a)      Prepare for the grind: as an F2P you get TP the hard way only. This means you will have to gain the store currency by completing deeds. This takes… a long while. At the beginning the deeds seem to be quick and easy: kill 30, use 20 times and so on. But once you get on the higher levels, the kill ratio augments to 300, which even at level 65 will take you a while to complete. The upside: you’ll have your traits higher than most players that didn’t do the grinds but also didn’t buy them at the store (like me). In a later installment I’ll talk about a way to grind the points in the “quickest” way in my experience.

b)      Do not spend unless absolutely necessary: the TP you get is not much and it takes a while to get ahold of. In other words there is no need to spend on a slayer accelerator unless you plan to pay for the TP. Also, you’ll have to plan out what you will exactly buy. Check the store and try to assert how much TPs you will need for each thing and how much you’ll need to grind. There, a plan on what to buy first and last will help you a lot, but also be prepared to be flexible, since the next rule will be important too. In a later installment I’ll cover my recommended list of stuff to buy.

c)      Always have an eye on the Online-Store: That one is crucial. Every week there is a sale. The best times for sales are during festivals (there are five a year, one for each season and the anniversary). Try to get the stuff you need on sale. It’s maybe only 20-30%, but the more you can save on big things like a small expansion, the more you’ll have to spend later on on other stuff. The best idea would be to buy everything in sale, but that depends on patience. Also, always have a blog or something in the eye to see the new sales. Casual Stroll to Mordor (CSTM) and Liquid LotRO usually talk about the sales on their podcasts.

d)     Be patient: You will have to wait long to get anything. As said before, you don’t have to wait for a sale always, but maybe it will be good for you to wait one or two weeks on purchasing the next item on your list to see if a sale doesn’t come up. Or just grind up the TP until a festival arrives. There is no set-in-stone way to save up TP, since the sales are quite random, but still it won’t do you wrong to see if you can get the things cheaper or not. I usually bought when the item was absolutely necessary. When my character reached 50, I bought the expansion after a huge grind. In the while I saved my TP and got neat deals on two questpacks that carried me over from level 32 to 50. It was worth the wait at the end of things.

Ok, so much for this first part. These are just general rules, next week I’ll get into more specifics. Until then…

All Hail!]