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Vel
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Joined: 15 Nov 2001
Posts: 39

PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 8:28 am   

LotRO Book 13 Adds new area.
 
Just thought I'd give you a heads up (Really looking forward to a hi-res map... LotRO can't even USE more than half my ram.)

Details can be found here.
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Book_13_Official
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Zugg
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Joined: 25 Sep 2000
Posts: 23379
Location: Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:52 pm   
 
Well, that's bad timing unfortunately. I'm in the middle of the 2.2x beta cycle for CMUD right now, and will be gone a week in May for a graduation, so I'm not going to be able to update the LOTRO map as quickly as I'd like.

I also need to get LOTRO working on this new Vista computer since the one that I did the old map on died in February and I haven't reinstalled the game since then.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get time to do the new map at the end of May. Sorry I couldn't do something sooner.
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Vel
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Joined: 15 Nov 2001
Posts: 39

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:55 pm   
 
Zugg wrote:
Sorry I couldn't do something sooner.


Ehh, no problem. I understand being busy. I probably won't have the time to play LotRO much until around then anyways.

Thought I'd add that book 13 is now live (as of yesterday).
Additionally, in case you missed it, Turbine announced an expansion to LotRO (announced on March 14), which is due out in "Fall 2008" which will also be adding 3 new zones.

So it seems like Turbine is finally taking expansion of the LotRO world seriously.
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Zugg
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Joined: 25 Sep 2000
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 9:18 pm   
 
Good to hear. I really lost interest when they slipped their update schedule. Originally they were supposed to add a new area in October and when that didn't happen, I started to worry about them. I know LoTRO wasn't the huge success they were hoping for, and I worried that it was causing them to rethink their plans. Waiting and releasing new areas in paid expansions is unfortunate, but not unexpected. We'll just have to wait and see if they make their release schedule.

But given that the sales of zExplorer has been *very poor* (nobody want to pay for mapping software anymore when you can find free maps online), I'm going to have to rethink whether or not I'll be buying the expansions and updating the map or not. I was also hoping that LoTRO was going to be more popular than it turned out and that more people would be interested in zExplorer.
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Davidge
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Joined: 14 Apr 2004
Posts: 33
Location: Colorado

PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:41 am   
 
Zugg wrote:

But given that the sales of zExplorer has been *very poor* (nobody want to pay for mapping software anymore when you can find free maps online), I'm going to have to rethink whether or not I'll be buying the expansions and updating the map or not. I was also hoping that LoTRO was going to be more popular than it turned out and that more people would be interested in zExplorer.


I personally have the opinion that sales could be better if you included the previously mentioned real time location tracking in the product. That was the single most interesting feature that led me to purchase the original version for AC1 . . . since I play on a LAN with my family -- that feature let us "see" where we were at all times for various quests.

Of course, we can do that in LOTRO now for fellowships, but that requires us to switch the in game map back and forth. Not near as nice as having the map on a seperate screen next to us . . .

Okay, I feel better now. Back to the regular program and real life issues! {grin}
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Zugg
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:20 am   
 
Sorry, but there was no way to include the real time tracking in this product. That would require constant hacking of each new LotRO client, like I did with AC, and that is now a violation of the EULA from Turbine. The closest thing I could do is a "copy/paste tracker" where zExplorer monitors the clipboard for coordinates, which is still on the wish list for a future version if I do any other updates.
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Vel
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Joined: 15 Nov 2001
Posts: 39

PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:18 am   Update?
 
Any news on an update to the LotRO map?
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Zugg
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 4:22 pm   
 
Hopefully sometime this month, but it depends upon whether the latest CMUD public version needs any more quick updates.
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Zugg
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 6:04 pm   
 
Bad news I'm afraid. I have updated my LOTRO client and taken a peek into the data files. While I can see the terrain changes that were made for Forochel, I cannot find any of the radar images that the zExplorer map is based upon. It looks like Turbine has once again changed how they are doing things and have hidden the data in some new place that I haven't been able to find.

If someone has any links to any sites that have information on the LOTRO file formats and any changes made by the latest expansion, please post them. Otherwise I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to support LOTRO expansions anymore. In fact, given the history of Turbine with 3rd party apps like zExplorer, I'm seriously considering cancelling my LOTRO subscription and never touching any other Turbine products in the future.

Everything was fine back when Microsoft was in charge of Asheron's Call. Ever since Microsoft sold it back to Turbine and Turbine has been in charge, they just don't seem to understand how important it is to work nicely with 3rd parties to build a good community for their game. Gee, maybe that's why there games have not been the huge hits that they could have been. Take a look at the difference in how Blizzard treats their 3rd party community and you'll see the obvious difference.

Anyway, sorry for my rant, but I'm pretty disgusted with them right now. I apologize to all of the zExplorer customers who are affected by this.

Edited: And honestly, with all of the web-based maps and the Turbine LoreBook and other sites that access the LOTRO maps via the Google Maps API, there isn't much need for something like zExplorer for LOTRO anymore anyway. But if someone has a way for me to extract the official maps from their Google map API, let me know.
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Rorso
Wizard


Joined: 14 Oct 2000
Posts: 1368

PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:50 pm   
 
Zugg wrote:
Take a look at the difference in how Blizzard treats their 3rd party community and you'll see the obvious difference.

I would say Blizzard is pretty bad when it comes to 3rd party software. For example there is a certain bot-tool that apparently they are legally fighting against. Similarly you can't fully use the functions of the G15 keyboard as that too apparently could be seen as botting. Meanwhile it is apparently fully allowed to do "multi boxing" where one player control multiple accounts at same time using multiple PCs.

The Forge has a pretty interesting blog article by Matt of Iron Realms comparing the WoW bot tool to zMUD. In my opinion 3rd party software is extremely important. It is thanks to that we have software from other developers than Microsoft for Windows. If you look at a closed system like xbox they only allow developers there on a case by case basis under strict NDAs and possibly other scary things Mad.
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Zugg
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:16 pm   
 
What I meant by this was that at least Blizzard supports an API for their game. Nobody else in the MMORPG market comes close to the 3rd party MOD support that Blizzard allows. Yes, it's always a struggle against those people who want to cheat in various ways. I saw a lot of this with Asheron's Call. So it's a fine line to walk. But at least Blizzard tries to walk it and supports MODs for WoW. No other MMO game has such an extensive scripting API.

MUDs are different. MUDs tend to allow a *lot* more scripting and botting than any MMO. So I wasn't comparing with zMUD or Muds. I was comparing WoW with it's other competitors, such as LOTRO, AoC, EQ2, Vanguard, SWG, GuildWars, etc, etc. I couldn't play WoW without MODs and I know that it is tough for them to maintain their API through their updates. It's hard enough making sure that your own code works with a new update, but I know for a fact that Blizzard actually worries about API issues for each update too.
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Vel
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Joined: 15 Nov 2001
Posts: 39

PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:11 am   
 
Zugg wrote:

If someone has any links to any sites that have information on the LOTRO file formats and any changes made by the latest expansion, please post them. Otherwise I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to support LOTRO expansions anymore. In fact, given the history of Turbine with 3rd party apps like zExplorer, I'm seriously considering cancelling my LOTRO subscription and never touching any other Turbine products in the future.


I have to say I'd be rather disappointed by dropped support of LotRO, since it is the sole reason I purchased zExplorer. I find zExplorer far more useful than any of the map sites out there due to its ability to search for an NPC by name, and map out a route to them, all while playing.

I'll keep my eyes out for any info on LotRO file formats, and post here if I find any.
Have you considered requesting the map files from Turbine? It never hurts to ask.

Hope this get resolved.
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magneticlocks01
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Joined: 05 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:14 am   
 
Hello friends how are you hope everything is fine here. I am new here and i want to connect everyone because this is the best resource to share thinking.
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