Learning LOTRO: Lesson Five - Settings 101

In this new series, I talk about various aspects of The Lord of the Rings Online. This series is meant for newcomers, but may also help veteran players find more to love about the game.

The settings menu. The bane of gamers everywhere. Depending on the game, it can be easy to navigate with limited options, or a myriad of sliders and numbers we don't understand. In this entry, I'm going to show you how to access the settings in Lord of the Rings Online, and run through several of the options that will improve your time in the game.

System Menu

There are a couple of ways to access the System Menu when you're in the game:

1.) It is accessible from the Character Selection screen.

2.) It is accessible via the path highlighted in the picture.

3.) It is accessible simply by hitting the Esc key.

I tend to use the Esc key more than anything else, because it makes it easier to exit the game or toggle other settings for group endeavors.

Graphics

The only setting under Graphics that you should concern yourself with if you are new to the game is the highlighted one in the picture. There are a LOT of settings you can adjust for graphics, and changing the wrong thing can make your game client buggy or even unplayable. There are some great guides on the LOTRO forums for people who want to optimize their settings, and those are the guides I will happily direct you to! Some of the newer locations in the game, like Minas Tirith and beyond, can be hard on a computer's graphic's card and there are ways to mitigate those effects... if you know what to change. I'm not the person to tell you about any of that. I will say, from my own experience on three different computers, that this button provided in the game to detect optimal settings is usually very good. At the very least, it will give you a level to adjust from that won't overwhelm your GPU.

User Interface (UI)

There are a lot of things I like to tweak in the UI Settings, but you'll probably have your own preferences! First, I like to see my character's name (and title, and kin). I usually change this setting when my characters are still in the Intro. I also like to have various overhead icons display for ease of finding NPCs when I need them. 

For me, I'm a player who likes to take their time questing, and I am often over-leveled by the time I reach various content. So, for me, if I want to make sure I don't miss anything, it's essential for me to have Trivial Quest Icons In Radar. This means that any quests I won't get XP for will still show in my radar as a quest I need to do!

And I HIGHLY recommend that second checkbox I have highlighted here: Always Loot All. I mean, if you WANT to have a pop-up box from every enemy you defeat and choose what you want to loot, you can... but that becomes very time consuming, and it's more beneficial to loot everything. The junk items can be sold for money, task items can be turned in for reputation, and then the rest is craft materials or useful items. If you really get sick of looting some of the same things, there's a setting further on in this entry that will help you avoid that.

Once you've played at least one character, you probably don't want to see the Tutorial Hints for the rest of your game life, so there's an option to disable them right out of the starting gate. And, if you run on a slow internet connection like me -- or you are a nerdy IT type -- then you'll like having the visible Connexion Status. I move the little chain icon up near my mini map to keep it visible but out of the way. If your connection is faltering, the chain becomes highlighted in yellow and looks wonky -- you've lost your connection entirely when it goes red and the chain is broken. By hovering over the icon, you can see your Latency and Loss, and that can help you determine why you're having connection troubles. (This is also helpful if you have to reach out to Support and they want to know details of what you're experiencing in order to help you.)

Combat Options

There are a few things to note in the Combat Options, and again -- most of these will optional depending on your preferences. 

If you run group instances, skirmishes, or raids with a lot of other people, then chances are very good that they will be setting a Target Assist -- that is, someone whose target you need to follow. If you have the Assist Window enabled, that person's name will show alongside their target. You can then click on the target's name in that window in order to target them. The Combat Animations options are going to depend on your graphics card, mostly. Hovering over these options will give you an idea if the option will help or hurt your graphics performance.

But the one setting here that I INSIST will benefit you (once you're level 73+)  is to UNcheck the War-steed Auto Slowdown. If you have it checked, it means you have to hold your finger down to keep your war-steed moving, and when you lift your finger it will automatically slow down. As someone who loves mounted combat, I promise that you'll have a better experience if you have this option unchecked. It means you can adjust your speed on the fly, and only have to focus on your direction and your attacks. For more info about this, you can look forward to an entry about Mounted Combat in the future!

Social Options

All of these are going to be a matter of preference also, but I'll give some of my own logic based on personal experience if you're looking for an opinion.

I don't like being spammed with requests all the time. It's safe to leave Kinship Request checked because you can't receive one if you're already in one, and it's good to GET the request that you want when you join your first one. I also don't appreciate being spammed with the Involuntary Emotes. There are consumable items and earned emotes that players can use on other players and it will force your character to act or respond. This can interrupt something you're doing, or force you to freeze up when you would rather be enjoying the game. Now, some people don't mind this, and think it's all in good fun. Just know this box is here for the (un)checking if you need it!

Effect Display Options is another one you'll have to get a feel for over time. It basically determines what is being shown on your target's portrait as far as what effects are on it, what can be removed, and what you yourself have cast. This is immensely helpful for caster types who utilize buffs, debuffs, heals, and damage over time. It's also handy when trying to follow various raid mechanics in more complex fights... but that's also probably a lesson for another day. If you'll notice, I don't bother with these settings unless I need them.

Lastly, I mention this one mainly for the players who get choked with lag when there's a crowd -- either thanks to graphics rendering or a slow connection. To help with that, you can Disable Cosmetic Pets. Once upon a time, only lore-masters had cosmetic pets. In recent years, anyone can have one and there has been a boom in the number of them available. This means more things being rendered in the same space. If you have trouble in crowds, try toggling this to see if it helps you! (I personally just get sick of all the kites and giant shrews ruining my personal sense of immersion.)

Chat

I'm an adult and an officer in two different kinships, so I like to know what people are saying. For that reason, I get rid of the profanity filter to better moderate -- but you do you! Unchecking the next two options are handy if you're a social person. Restricting Tells means you won't get too many at once (but will sometimes prevent others from messaging you), and Stopping Repeated Keys can get very annoying if you use ellipses (...) as much as I do. Also, I like timestamps. It makes it easier to see the flow of conversation as well as the duration. Additionally, this section scrolls down a long way and you can customize all of the colors and sizes for all of the texts.

Quickslots

You probably won't need to mess with much of this section until you've leveled up a fair bit, but that first checkbox is an important one: Lock Quickslot Bars will prevent you from messing up where you've placed your skills and shortcuts to items. The rest of the options let you configure the layout of your skill bars, and you're welcome to do so at any time!

Filters

Remember before when I mentioned a setting to get rid of looting the same junk all the time? This is what I was talking about. A more recent feature of the game client, it is also a most welcome one. This will let you filter out items (Loot), Quests, and Sounds that you are sick of, and you can do so by character or by account. Be warned that it's easy to accidentally set something to be filtered by account, and to later realize that one of your characters needs it. Filter with care!

The Map

The two features to really utilize on the World Map is the Notes Filter and the Quest Guide toggle. The Notes Filter is on the top left and lets you choose what to display on the map, and the Quest Guide toggle is on the bottom left and lets you choose whether or not to display your active quests and highlight applicable areas on the map.

Display

The last three things I want to share with you will determine the overall display you see in the game client. The first will let you rearrange various items of the User Interface. The other two will let you optimize your view for screenshots.

There are plenty of other settings I didn't cover in this entry, but I wanted to cover a spectrum of the basics that some people don't necessarily realize are available. One tab in the Options window I neglected to emphasize is the Key Mapping. This lists what shortcut keys are mapped for various commands in the game. You can edit all of them, but be careful not to duplicate a used key and forget to replace it with something else!

Did you learn anything you didn't already know? Do you have any questions you'd like me to answer in a future entry? Please let me know in the comments, and come back next Monday for another Lesson!

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