sonneillonv

Some more pics! Specifically of Dezi's constantly-evolving I R CERNUNNOS outfit, and of the fireworks festival cloak and steed.
( Pics Under Cut )

So, I haven't posted anything LotRO related in a long time, mostly because I have not played LotRO in a long time. But when I did play, I caught the Treasure Hunt event, which actually turned out to be pretty boring and frustrating IMHO, but other people seem to like it. I was lucky - on my very first try, I landed one of the best mounts you could win. Actually, I wanted the Cave Claw horse because I thought it looked cool. I think the Treasure-Laden Goat is really ugly. But it is one of the fastest mounts in the game, and as I ride along, coins fall out of the bags and bags of gold piled onto the goat.

Thus leading me to informally title this picture, They see me rollin' / They hatin'



Those two little round things behind the goat are the coins falling.

So I did some work tonight taking more screenshots for the contest. Managed to complete a skirmish and get Wyn the headgear she'd been wanting to complete her outfit. So without further delay, I give you Wyndoleth Eladriss, the Girl On Fire:

( Pics Under Cut )

I also took some pictures of Wyn on her winter festival horse, since it was the closest I could get to anything 'matching' her Feathered Cloak of the Northmen outfit. These pics are also in consideration for submission to the fashion contest, so let me know what you think!

( Pics Under Cut )

I recently started skirmishing with Dezi. Skirmishing, in LotRO, is kind of like a game of capture-the-flag, except your side only has a small handful of people and the other side has approximately a billion. It's decently fun though, and gives you a good chunk of experience, so it's a great way to level up especially if you're having trouble with the quests you've gotten for your level *COUGH*GARTHAGARWEN*COUGH*. You can also get some deeds, cash, and you get things called skirmish marks which you can trade in for gear, cosmetics, and upgrades for the soldier who's assigned to follow you around and watch your back.

After my first skirmish, I spent a lot of time clicking through all the traders looking at their stuff. I found some SUPER cool-looking helmets (I bought them purely for appearance because Dezi can craft himself better armor than the skirmish traders have. Wheee, metalsmithing!) and some awesome cosmetics. I've put together a new cold-weather outfit for Dezi and Wyn to share, pictured below. Also, today Dezi got his quest reward for helping the poor during WinterFest! I now have all the different winterquest outfit quest rewards, so there's some fancy combinations that can be made.

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It's a beautiful day in the Trollshaws. This view was captured by Dezi from the elven stronghold of Thorenhad.

So I'm guessing this was a tactic to keep people from checking out of the winter festivities early. I had already abandoned the winter festival and gone back to leveling my characters (got Dezi from lvl 33 halfway to lvl 35 and did a couple achievements with Wyn) when I found out from the LotR Cosmetics blogs I follow that the development team had introduced some new winter festival cosmetics with the last patch. The new cosmetics include a dress, two cloaks, a tunic+pants combo, and a horse! So now I've gone back to grinding the winter festival quests. I've purchased both cloaks and the dress (I don't like how the tunic+pants combos look on my characters but I think they'd look much better on a dwarf or hobbit) and Wyn managed to purchase the new horse. So without further ado, here are some pics of Wyn on her new horse, in her new winter outfit.

These pics do not cover all the winter cosmetics, just the outfit Wyn has on at the moment.

( Cut for Consideration )

As a side note, the other day I was questing in Rivendell with Dezi and he completed a riddle contest with Bilbo Baggins. One of the rewards was basically a catboy hat, I shit you not. Straight out of an anime convention. Here's a picture of a hobbit wearing it. The other reward was a really good dagger, so he didn't choose the hat, but he was sorely tempted. I intend to get my hands on that hat, and when I do, I will post pics for you all to enjoy.

"What's this?"
"Ark of the Covenant."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure."

I've been doing a whole lot with screenshots lately. I don't have anything to do with the artistry inherent in the game - all credit for that goes to the developers and graphic designers. So when it comes to taking beautiful screenshots, as kittenmommy pointed out, composition is the big thing. Composition can be really a hit-or-miss sort of proposition, and oftentimes it's very trial and error. If you pay attention to the bottom right and left corners of the screen where I usually hide the chat box (I can't get rid of it or make it any smaller) you'll often see that this is the third or fourth screenshot I've taken, or that this is the third or fourth time I've had a character perform an emote so I could try to catch them at the absolute perfect moment.

That being said, I spent some time last night experimenting while Astrid was farming (actual farming is shoot-yourself-in-the-head boring, so I had to occupy myself somehow). Here is the evolution of the screenshots I took from start to finish so you can see where I started and where I ended up going. The premise is Astrid (Astridd in the game because 'Astrid' was taken, but 'Astrid' is her actual meta-name) standing in a field of lily-of-the-valley blossoms in the shire, seeding and harvesting with the stars spread out overhead. ( Screenshots Under Cut for Courtesy )

Welp, that's my study for today! Hope you found something pretty! Feel free to let me know in comments which were your favorites! Some will probably get sent in to Postcards From Middle-Earth.