World Map Revamp

[Psycha]

I'm about nearing 2 months into lotro here and I just feel the need to mention 1 of the few major suggestions I want to see changed very soon before it causes me to quit and that is the world map. I get a quest, I want to see where I need to go quite easily even if I read the flavor text and find out where I need to go. It's often within 4-5 sections from the main world map, sub region then more sub regions to SEE the name of the area or location I am looking for. Often times just defaulting to the wiki or using MITHRIL COIN...

Is there a confirmation of the map receiving some type of change or tweak to make it more user friendly? I've ran across tons of new players who are just stuck in Shire, Bree, Lone Lands, North Downs or Misty mountains due to the fact they get LOST alot when questing.

[Gandolf_TheOld]

Maybe this will help - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imvfF7yC0kI

[Garan]

There are three Lua plugins that can help significantly with the map.

First, for direction to a location, there is Waypoint by Lunarwater. This plugin puts an arrow on screen that points in the direction of travel toward your destination. Due to limitations in the Lua API, you must manually click the arrow to get an updated direction, but it can be quite helpful.
https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...-Waypoint.html

Another plugin that can help a lot with map related issues is MoorMap. This plugin provides a resizable/repositionable map with the default annotations as well as many items that are not shown on the built-in map. MoorMap also provides a ton of additional features such as overlays to show Deed locations, the ability to add your own custom annotations, breadcrumbs (for seeing where you have travelled, particularly useful in areas like Goblintown), annotation searches etc. Additionally, MoorMap is integrated with Waypoint - you can click on a location in Moormap and set that as the destination for Waypoint. MoorMap has many more features, see the download page for more info.
https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...2-MoorMap.html

The third plugin is TerrainMap which provides a Google style view of the game world using the radar compass tiles. TerrainMap provides zoom levels from x1 to x32, shows the default annotations as well as the custom annotations (the ones you added) from MoorMap AND is also integrated with MoorMap so that you can click on a location in either plugin and display that location in the other plugin. This can be particularly helpful for seeing the terrain around hard to access areas.
https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...errainMap.html

Last, there is also a web-based Google map of LotRO: http://lotromap.net/terrainmap/google.html
This is mostly just for fun to see the game world as one large contiguous terrain map but can also be helpful to figure out where you are relative to areas in other regions.

Would it be nice if all of these features were available in the built-in map? Sure. Is it likely to happen with the resources that SSG has available, probably not. Meanwhile, you can make the game far more playable with a few plugins.
These and many, many more plugins (as well as skins for changing the look of the interface) are available from www.lotrointerface.com
The easiest, safest and most reliable way to install/update Lua plugins for LotRO is with a Java application, by Lunarwater, called Plugin Compendium, also available from lotrointerface.com:
https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...nfo.php?id=663

[TesalionLortus]

To answer OP's question: we know they're certainly working on 4K support (which means UI changes and most likely complete overhaul of it) but whether that includes map overhaul to bring it to standard of modern games - which would be reasonable since they're messing with the UI code anyway right? - is hard to tell. I would love a blue name to give us a hint at least, whether that's something they are looking into. The staggering amount of map subzones and confusing connections between maps is pretty confusing indeed and the game world could use a more detailed world map that's somehow zoomable and consistent all across the board with key locations and landmarks on it. Maybe like a satellite map of some kind, that could work too. My other suggestion would be a stable menu available as a map rather than a list - so new players are able to connect the many locations with areas on the map of Middle-earth but that's probably a bit harder to implement (and update on frequent basis)

[Dervacus]

We've never had that feature since the start of the game back in 2007 and have all managed just fine. That being said, it would be a nice feature

[TesalionLortus]

We've never had that feature since the start of the game back in 2007 and have all managed just fine. That being said, it would be a nice feature

Convenience aside, back in 2007 the world was like... VERY tiny. Now a newbie, other than being accustomed to easy zoomable systems from other games, goes to a stablemaster in Bree and is faced with that long list of locations with subregions shown in confusing alphabetical order and has absolutely no clue what any of these names mean in relation to world map and different factions of LOTRO's Middle-earth... so a detailed high res world map that redirects to regional ones in less confusing manner and better stablemaster list (or stablemaster world map) would have been real improvements, also quest tracking across the world map

[Dervacus]

Convenience aside, back in 2007 the world was like... VERY tiny. Now a newbie, other than being accustomed to easy zoomable systems from other games, goes to a stablemaster in Bree and is faced with that long list of locations with subregions shown in confusing alphabetical order and has absolutely no clue what any of these names mean in relation to world map and different factions of LOTRO's Middle-earth... so a detailed high res world map that redirects to regional ones in less confusing manner and better stablemaster list (or stablemaster world map) would have been real improvements, also quest tracking across the world map

And to go back to the OP, they were commenting on getting 'stuck' in the original zones, Shire, Bree-land, North Downs etc. I've been playing this game on-and-off for many years and I still am learning things I didn't previously know. This is not meant to be condescending, but I think the OP should watch that video that was linked prior or just take the time to learn some basics of the game such as:

Press the M key for the most immediate map on your area
Press the L key for your Quest Log. Quests are generally grouped by zone with a few exceptions (Class quests, Festival, Missions, etc.)
Right-click a quest in Quest Tracker gives to option to set a that quest as the Quest Guide Focus
Use the Quest Guide Focus, this shows up on your radar and tells you which direction you should be heading
Learn how to use the radar and I would suggest to increase the size of it through options
Right-clicking the radar gives the option to add the 5 nearest quests to the Quest Tracker
Manually discover the next stable-master when you have a quest to go there and your character is of level (the quest will let you know the level)
Be thrifty, never spend MC on stable rides

This is an older MMORPG, but it's not OLD like say EverQuest where you essentially had to guess what to do and where to go

[TesalionLortus]

And to go back to the OP, they were commenting on getting 'stuck' in the original zones, Shire, Bree-land, North Downs etc

Due to exhaustion and not willing to engage with the world when the system is so confusing, is probably what they mean. They literally said "often within 4-5 sections from the main world map, sub region then more sub regions to SEE the name of the area or location I am looking for. Often times just defaulting to the wiki or using MITHRIL COIN" which means they're able to use the wiki to get around the confusion (and terrain map perhaps) but nevertheless the WORLD and its map (which got increasingly big and when you start the game you're bombarded with lots of quests too, Bingo Boffin and such that send you to many different zones) so yes, that IS confusing, with hub stablemasters these days having like 20-30 entries on top of it. He did raise very valid points. The game would do well to allow newbies to better grasp and move around the world map in-game, also to figure out transitions between some of the zones since those may be confusing as well and "to X" subtitle marker with a big plus sometimes placed seemingly in random place rather than in the place of actual transition point/border. Any improvement here would be a huge boost, not to mention if they manage to upgrade/tweak the entire map system and bring it up to modern standards, even just stitching all of the regional maps together without subtitles but with some interactive markers (once you've turned them all into new style ones) and then putting them on the big hi res world map of Middle-earth would have been top notch, even if there wasn't a scrollable zoom in function

[Dervacus]

The OP saying they would quit the game unless map improvements were around the corner is a bit...drastic. Don't get me wrong, I too would LOVE to see any map improvements in the near future! EverQuest has a quest and location GPS option that visually shows you the path to follow while on the landscape and I always thought that was an amazing feature. It even reroutes if you decide you want to make a detour. If LotRO could implement a GPS type feature that would awesome! The alphabetize grouping of quests in the Quest Log is okay, but it would make more sense to me to have an option to organize them by the levels of quest groups, with the lowest level on top and highest level on the bottom.

This post and the my previous posts were to suggest that the OP doesn't need to quit over something that many of us other players have been handling fine for years. The map system, quest focus system, etc. could definitely be better, however, they are playable and have been for a long time. I know they are working on a new, alternative 1-30 leveling experience and maybe this will help resolve the OP's wish to some degree. We'll have to wait and see!

Or, maybe the OP needs to learn the Quest Log and to maybe work on quests based on quest groups instead of whatever pops up in their Quest Tracker. I don't know, I would need more information on how they decide the order of their quests. The Epic quests, especially the earlier ones, are notorious for a lot of travelling, but that's most likely because they are the main storyline of the game. Linear play would be rather boring in my opinion, but maybe more suitable for younger players familiar with some newer games.

OP, if you're still following this thread feel free to chime in and/or ask questions!

[TesalionLortus]

You are not wrong, all in all. If the OP requires help or has questions, I would be happy to provide it too. Although, technically... OP posted this in suggestion thread so I agreed with them about the suggestion Because that's the purpose of the thread right? To discuss new proposed features and so on.

You're right we've been here for so long without such problems but then again we've been here for so long and are already accustomed. Theoretically, if I stumbled upon LOTRO for the first time today maybe I would get through a lot of outdated things simply because of my appreciation for Tolkien. But then again... I know myself and how I treat some other games when I prioritize whether something is worth my time, whether to put it on the waiting list or whether to dismiss it entirely. So I can understand the OP here. It doesn't surprise me if I hear about players who would be ready to quit and put the game on hold because of map system, no 2k-4k support, dated visuals and so on, bah, not even if they completely dismiss the game by taking one look at its recent trailer - maybe that's what I would have done too, LOTRO promo material must be the least impressive one I've seen and it can't be helped without some shader upgrades (or even something as simple as more sharpness in-game, for starters, so anything recorded starts to show off more detail and appears more attractive on modern monitor)