There you are, wandering along, enjoying your day in your favorite MMO, when out of nowhere some monster decides that you look like a tasty snack. As you're close to a town or encampment, you perhaps think, "Aha, I'll just run over here and get some help." Well, sometimes, that help isn't coming, such as in today's Lord of the Rings Online One Shots sent in to us by Andrew (also known as Pojoh on the Firefoot server). He writes in to tell us his tale of indignation:
"My burglar was running through the early part of Mirkwood and heading back to an elven camp to cash in a quest, when he was set upon by a foul goblin. Well, I was close to the elven encampment so I thought, 'hey, I'll run right up to the legion of Elven Guards, no way will the goblin reach me there.' What I didn't realize was that apparently the elves were SO entrenched in a meeting, that they couldn't help out a hobbit. Needless to say, I dispatched the goblin fiend, but not without being a bit perturbed by the laziness of some elves."
One Shots needs screenshots! If you'd like to contribute to the cause, send in your screenshots to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. Please make sure your image is at least 1024 pixels wide, and has as few visible UI elements as possible. It may wind up as the next one posted here on Massively!
Reader Comments (6)
Posted: Jul 22nd 2010 4:50PM Tom in VA said
The apparent indifference of NPCs toward mobs in LotRO is definitely one of the negatives, imo. WoW does a much better job on this front.
Posted: Jul 22nd 2010 4:58PM (Unverified) said
I remember that bit. I hated that the NPC's didn't react to mobs. I know I've seen them do it before but seemed like they forgot that bit of AI here. Must be because these mobs here are all pre-scripted.
Posted: Jul 22nd 2010 7:17PM (Unverified) said
You'll find me as a newly minted Hobbit Guardian on Firefoot "Boon" hope to see you around. And I totally agree, the scripting (AI) needs a ton of work in almost every MMO to date.
Posted: Jul 22nd 2010 9:40PM (Unverified) said
This type of stuff happens all day long in WOW. All the time man. I got burned one time and now I just assume that the AI NPC's are useless except for giving me shit to do.
Posted: Jul 23rd 2010 12:18PM (Unverified) said
Not all LOTRO guard NPCs are created equal. There are a lot in Moria for example who are completely useless. They appear to be standing guard like the real defender NPCs but in fact do nothing. There are other examples like some hobbit Bounders, human Constables, etc.







