Middle Earth: Shadow of War

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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Scoop20906 »

Impressions request. I'd love to hear comparisons between this game and this last. I'm also curious about end game and if there is too much padding. I'm going to get the game but price point is a concern.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by gbasden »

That is large. I just started the download and it's going to be over an hour. :/
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by coopasonic »

Scoop20906 wrote:Impressions request. I'd love to hear comparisons between this game and this last. I'm also curious about end game and if there is too much padding. I'm going to get the game but price point is a concern.
I've only played about an hour. Despite the early unlock I decided to go to bed at a reasonable hour last night. In the hour or so that I have played, it is pretty much exactly the same as Mordor. I expect that to change over time. I haven't opened up recruiting and sieges so right now I am just gathering intel and killing captains. I've unlocked a few skills and gotten a few minor equipment upgrades. I did manage to die also, you know, just to see what happened. It all seems very, very familiar.

I hope to get a bunch more time with it tonight.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

I'm about 3 hours in, but I haven't progressed the story beyond the opening linear segment that gets you to Minas Ithil. I've been having a good time just running around, terrorizing orcs, slaying captains and getting a feel for the mechanics. In a lot of ways, compared to Shadows of Mordor, the early game feels like more of the same, but better.

In general, combat works pretty much the same as SoM, but it feels more fluid. The biggest change I've seen so far is that you build up "might" in order to use special abilities like executions, rather than building an uninterrupted combo streak. The auto-targetting seems more helpful, letting me dash to more distant enemies and strike felled targets without needing to do ground executions, so there are fewer times that I find myself swinging at empty air before the fight is over.

The big change in character progression is that they've replaced runes with gear slots (sword, dagger, bow, armor, cloak). Captains now drop gear instead of runes, and there are treasure orcs that drop cash or gems (which can be used to add a buff to a gear slot). So far, the best quality gear I've seen is epic (one up from normal), which have attached quests/challenges in order to unlock special bonuses.

I also got a good taste of the Nemesis system right out of the gate. I was killed by a captain, who was promoted to epic status. This set up a revenge mission, which led me to an orc encampment outside the city, where I proceeded to fail to kill him about a dozen times because he got the advantage of the "last chance" quick-time mechanic. It has changed a little, so instead of moving the cursor into a circle and hitting the indicated key/button, you get a shrinking circle and need to hit the key/button once the circle is inside a shaded area. I thought that I needed to time it to hit the rim of the shaded area, so I repeatedly missed and let him escape until I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. But then, he refused to stay dead. He called on his blood brother for support, and they ambushed me in the city. And I killed him again. And they came back for a second round. And I killed him yet again. At the first ambush, he had gone from having two good legs to one peg-leg. At the second ambush, he had two peg-legs. And his buddy must have lost a leg in the previous ambush as well, because there were three peg-legs laying on the rooftop when the battle was done. I wonder if he'll keep coming back until he has no arms or legs at all?
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

Max Peck wrote:I wonder if he'll keep coming back until he has no arms or legs at all?
He rose from the grave yet again, this time with both legs grown back but only one arm.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Daehawk »

Watched my friend play it a bunch. The biggest stand out to me is the AI seemed pretty brain dead. They just didn't see him even when he walked out in the open near them. He could easily sneak attack when he wanted.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Scoop20906 »

Daehawk wrote:Watched my friend play it a bunch. The biggest stand out to me is the AI seemed pretty brain dead. They just didn't see him even when he walked out in the open near them. He could easily sneak attack when he wanted.
I watched some on twitch last night and noticed that very thing. Sneak missions must be Uber easy since you can walk with 5 feet of an Orc and they won’t notice you. I don’t remember that from the previous game.


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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by coopasonic »

They are orcs. They aren't that bright. When they see you the indicator turns yellow, you have a couple seconds to move on before they decide you are a threat and need to be dealt with. If it is one orc, you can stealth kill them before they act. If it is a couple, you are going to be in for a fight... well, two orcs isn't really much of a fight, but adda third that will go raise the alarm and then the captain that will be alerted to your presence and call in his goon squad and then the ambush captain that takes advantage of the situation and THEN you have a proper fight. Holy hell the messes I have gotten myself into...

I'm still trying to push ahead on the story missions so I can start building my own army. I want to see the new stuff!
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

Scoop20906 wrote:
Daehawk wrote:Watched my friend play it a bunch. The biggest stand out to me is the AI seemed pretty brain dead. They just didn't see him even when he walked out in the open near them. He could easily sneak attack when he wanted.
I watched some on twitch last night and noticed that very thing. Sneak missions must be Uber easy since you can walk with 5 feet of an Orc and they won’t notice you. I don’t remember that from the previous game.
In both games, it takes orcs a few seconds to notice you when you come into sight unless you're making a lot of noise. You'll see their HUD indicators gradually change from yellow to red as they lock on to you. I haven't noticed that they're particularly slower on the uptake in SoW vs SoM, but that may be more apparent from watching someone play than playing myself.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by KDH »

...

... Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - How To Reduce Steam Install Size On PC

you can reduce the PC install size From 97.7GB .. to just 65GB!

1.) .. Start installing the game
2.) .. Open up the game's Properties!
3.) .. De-select the Files!
(('4K Cinematic Pack' and 'High Resolution Texture Pack'))


so, uh, yeah .. you don't need to point out that you've already installed the game ..
.
Ain't nobody got time for that
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by IceBear »

Yeah...this game isn't really about sneaking. I tend to just run right through the orc camps. If I get cornered killing 30 or 40 orcs isn't a big deal
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by coopasonic »

IceBear wrote:If I get cornered killing 30 or 40 orcs isn't a big deal
It isn't a big deal, but it's 5 minutes that could be put to better use... though Elven Rage sure is fun.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

KDH wrote:...

... Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - How To Reduce Steam Install Size On PC

you can reduce the PC install size From 97.7GB .. to just 65GB!

1.) .. Start installing the game
2.) .. Open up the game's Properties!
3.) .. De-select the Files!
(('4K Cinematic Pack' and 'High Resolution Texture Pack'))


so, uh, yeah .. you don't need to point out that you've already installed the game ..
I've already installed the game through Steam, and at no time was it ever 97.7GB. Neither of those DLC packs was enabled by default, although I can select them as free DLC. Perhaps it only includes them if you select the DLC prior to downloading the game.

I just enabled the high resolution textures pack, and that alone adds 10.5GB.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by IceBear »

coopasonic wrote:
IceBear wrote:If I get cornered killing 30 or 40 orcs isn't a big deal
It isn't a big deal, but it's 5 minutes that could be put to better use... though Elven Rage sure is fun.
Oh most of the time I don't fight them. I just run around completing quests and levelling and if I decide...eh, I'm bored I just stop and blow off some steam killing orcs.

Thinking that you need to stealth or you have to fight is not really the point of the game. It's an orc killing simulator and you kind of do whatever you want to accomplish that. The AI or lack thereof isn't really needed for this
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by coopasonic »

I did see something pretty cool last night that was AI related.

I was fighting a tank type captain and I was continuously vaulting over him, stunning, then attacking his back. After he defied death and I resumed the process he said, "I can see what you are doing" and grabbed me out of the air as I vaulted again. A big "Adaptation" or something like that popped up on the screen and I was no longer able to vault. That was very cool to see. Luckily he was still susceptible to ranged attacks.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by KDH »

Max Peck wrote: ... Neither of those DLC packs was enabled by default, although I can select them as free DLC. Perhaps it only includes them if you select the DLC prior to downloading the game.

I just enabled the high resolution textures pack, and that alone adds 10.5GB.

I interpret the article to mean .. you could've saved the DL time by disabling the DLC during the Steam download \ install .. but I could be wrong. Steam install is synonymous with download (or Vice Versa)


The shadow of mordor game had a high-rez texture dlc which didn't DL by default.. I was happy with the graphics, so I skipped it rather than bork my frame-rate
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

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Max Peck wrote:I also got a good taste of the Nemesis system right out of the gate. I was killed by a captain, who was promoted to epic status. This set up a revenge mission, which led me to an orc encampment outside the city, where I proceeded to fail to kill him about a dozen times because he got the advantage of the "last chance" quick-time mechanic. It has changed a little, so instead of moving the cursor into a circle and hitting the indicated key/button, you get a shrinking circle and need to hit the key/button once the circle is inside a shaded area. I thought that I needed to time it to hit the rim of the shaded area, so I repeatedly missed and let him escape until I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. But then, he refused to stay dead. He called on his blood brother for support, and they ambushed me in the city. And I killed him again. And they came back for a second round. And I killed him yet again. At the first ambush, he had gone from having two good legs to one peg-leg. At the second ambush, he had two peg-legs. And his buddy must have lost a leg in the previous ambush as well, because there were three peg-legs laying on the rooftop when the battle was done. I wonder if he'll keep coming back until he has no arms or legs at all?
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by IceBear »

coopasonic wrote:I did see something pretty cool last night that was AI related.

I was fighting a tank type captain and I was continuously vaulting over him, stunning, then attacking his back. After he defied death and I resumed the process he said, "I can see what you are doing" and grabbed me out of the air as I vaulted again. A big "Adaptation" or something like that popped up on the screen and I was no longer able to vault. That was very cool to see. Luckily he was still susceptible to ranged attacks.
Yeah...I've had that happen a couple of times. I want to say I had one adapt two or three times so I couldn't jump over him, became arrow proof and fire proof
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by El Guapo »

IceBear wrote:
coopasonic wrote:I did see something pretty cool last night that was AI related.

I was fighting a tank type captain and I was continuously vaulting over him, stunning, then attacking his back. After he defied death and I resumed the process he said, "I can see what you are doing" and grabbed me out of the air as I vaulted again. A big "Adaptation" or something like that popped up on the screen and I was no longer able to vault. That was very cool to see. Luckily he was still susceptible to ranged attacks.
Yeah...I've had that happen a couple of times. I want to say I had one adapt two or three times so I couldn't jump over him, became arrow proof and fire proof
Becoming fire proof in the middle of a battle sounds like quite a trick.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

KDH wrote:
Max Peck wrote: ... Neither of those DLC packs was enabled by default, although I can select them as free DLC. Perhaps it only includes them if you select the DLC prior to downloading the game.

I just enabled the high resolution textures pack, and that alone adds 10.5GB.

I interpret the article to mean .. you could've saved the DL time by disabling the DLC during the Steam download \ install .. but I could be wrong. Steam install is synonymous with download (or Vice Versa)


The shadow of mordor game had a high-rez texture dlc which didn't DL by default.. I was happy with the graphics, so I skipped it rather than bork my frame-rate
No, that's my point. I didn't need to disable it because the default was for it to be not enabled. That is kind of the whole point for making it seperate DLC -- you need to opt in to get it rather than opt out to avoid the extra download.

But it's a moot point. Even without the high resolution/4k assets, the game is still more than double Smoove's pain-in-the-butt threshold. :)
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

coopasonic wrote:I did see something pretty cool last night that was AI related.

I was fighting a tank type captain and I was continuously vaulting over him, stunning, then attacking his back. After he defied death and I resumed the process he said, "I can see what you are doing" and grabbed me out of the air as I vaulted again. A big "Adaptation" or something like that popped up on the screen and I was no longer able to vault. That was very cool to see. Luckily he was still susceptible to ranged attacks.
Yup, if I spam a particular special attack on a captain too many times in a single battle, then they adapt and can counter it. I haven't noticed if they get a persistent immunity or if it just lasts for the duration of the encounter.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Daehawk »

I wish I had this game while it is new and shiney.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Scoop20906 »

So far I’m liking the impressions. Anyone made it far enough to sieges? Also what is it like managing your Orc army? And does your army or territories ever get threatened by other armies?


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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Tao »

A co-worker was telling me about the adaptive combat countering, he wasn't sure if it was the AI or if he was just failing to vault correctly. I will have to let him know it is part of the AI.

Reading through the list of skills, have to say, on paper, the skills from the original seem more interesting. Haven't actually played yet so, grain of salt...yada yada.

How is the camera during combat? While I enjoyed the first game that was probably my biggest gripe, the camera was so tight to the character it often was a hindrance in
combat or outright made me nauseous at times during long fights.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Sectoid »

Here's my impressions so far of the hour or so I played it for last night:
There are too many damn captains in the first city. I would try to hunt down 1 captain, fight him for a bit, then another captain would appear out of no where, give his little speech, then another, then another that I killed before. Before I could run away, I had 4 captains gunning for me, 1 literally, with his crossbow. I managed to kill the one I was after, but had to high-tail it towards some Gondor guards to get them off my scent.
I agree that stealth is way borked in this game compared to SoM or even the Arkham series. I ran past several orcs without them even noticing me. I am too used to SoM where the first 75% of the game, you are expected to stealth around the whole time.
What does the Glaive thing do, exactly? I went through the tutorial for it and used it a few times, but it didn't seem as effective as the sword.
The fighting system is reminiscent of the Arkham series, with the jumping from enemy to enemy. I think the hit detection is a little off, though. My streak got interrupted several times even if I countered. Maybe I hit the counter button twice, though.
Am I off on this, or does fast-traveling now advance time? I fast traveled to one of the towers and it went through the whole resolving thing where some captains gain power, some die, etc. Did I hit the wrong button or did this happen to anyone else?

The one thing I always have a problem with in sequels to games like this is how they explain why you are de-powered from game to game. In the last Infamous, they couldn't get around it, so they just made you a different person altogether. The device they used in this one makes a little sense. The wraith used his power to make the new ring. So, your abilities from him evaporated. I don't get how Talion forgot how to do some of his stuff, though.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

Sectoid wrote:What does the Glaive thing do, exactly? I went through the tutorial for it and used it a few times, but it didn't seem as effective as the sword.
I believe that it's a power attack that let's you smash through a tanky orc's defenses, but I haven't used it much because I find the timing for the hold-then-strike mechanism to be difficult. I need to play around with it to get a better feel for how to use it effectively.
Sectoid wrote:Am I off on this, or does fast-traveling now advance time? I fast traveled to one of the towers and it went through the whole resolving thing where some captains gain power, some die, etc. Did I hit the wrong button or did this happen to anyone else?
You have it right. Fast travel does advance time. I believe the UI explicitly warns about that, either when you mouse over the waypoint on the map or as a confirmation message before triggering the fast travel (I can't remember specifically which it was). I was going to fast travel across the city last night, but aborted when I saw the warning and realized that it would make one of the missions expire.

Nope, I was wrong. You can use the fast travel waypoints to either fast travel OR advance time, but fast travel itself doesn't advance time.
Sectoid wrote:The one thing I always have a problem with in sequels to games like this is how they explain why you are de-powered from game to game. In the last Infamous, they couldn't get around it, so they just made you a different person altogether. The device they used in this one makes a little sense. The wraith used his power to make the new ring. So, your abilities from him evaporated. I don't get how Talion forgot how to do some of his stuff, though.
I thought they did a reasonably good job of handling it. They provide an explanation of why Talion isn't as powerful as he was at the end of the first game, but they still made him start out feeling relatively more powerful than he was at the beginning of Shadow of Mordor.
Last edited by Max Peck on Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by El Guapo »

Is this story still supposed to fit within the existing LotR canon?
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

El Guapo wrote:Is this story still supposed to fit within the existing LotR canon?
Maybe? I haven't seen anything that violates canon per se, but I'm not really a Tolkien geek scholar. I've read and enjoyed LotR and The Hobbit, and liked the movies, but that's about it.

I do know that a lot of people are saying that Shelob isn't canon, but her make-over doesn't bother me.
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
She's obviously had some work done...
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Sectoid »

Max Peck wrote:
El Guapo wrote:Is this story still supposed to fit within the existing LotR canon?
Maybe? I haven't seen anything that violates canon per se, but I'm not really a Tolkien geek scholar. I've read and enjoyed LotR and The Hobbit, and liked the movies, but that's about it.

I do know that a lot of people are saying that Shelob isn't canon, but her make-over doesn't bother me.
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
She's obviously had some work done...
Several reviews I've seen who were very Tolkien geeky were emphatic that it is not cannon. I had a question though for those that have played SoW. My question is a bit spoiler-y, so...
Spoiler:
Was the mountain they showed at the beginning of the game Mt. Doom (pre-'splody volcano) or was it The Lonely Mountain?
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Max Peck »

Sectoid wrote:
Max Peck wrote:
El Guapo wrote:Is this story still supposed to fit within the existing LotR canon?
Maybe? I haven't seen anything that violates canon per se, but I'm not really a Tolkien geek scholar. I've read and enjoyed LotR and The Hobbit, and liked the movies, but that's about it.

I do know that a lot of people are saying that Shelob isn't canon, but her make-over doesn't bother me.
Spoiler:
Enlarge Image
She's obviously had some work done...
Several reviews I've seen who were very Tolkien geeky were emphatic that it is not cannon. I had a question though for those that have played SoW. My question is a bit spoiler-y, so...
Spoiler:
Was the mountain they showed at the beginning of the game Mt. Doom (pre-'splody volcano) or was it The Lonely Mountain?
Spoiler:
It would have to be Mt. Doom. The Lonely Mountain is way off to the north, near the northeastern end of Mirkwood, nowhere near Mordor.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by MonkeyFinger »

I'm not in any rush to get this, perhaps on a deep sale as I got plenty of Orc Murder out of the first one. Found this review which the reviewer thinks "it's fine" and a whole lot of MOTS, something I was wondering about.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by IceBear »

I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I found the first one very relaxing and satisfying but I haven't touched it since I finished it shortly after it was released. It is MOTS (though you can ride dragons in this one) so I can understand waiting to play it if burnt out
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by AWS260 »

I'm enjoying this well enough -- just captured my first fortress, and absolutely loved that overlord encounter.

I find it mildly disconcerting how much time the female characters appear to spend on their makeup. The elf assassin looks like she's ready for prom, the spider-lady looks like she's ready for goth prom, and even the
Spoiler:
made-of-wood nature spirit
is wearing amazing lip gloss.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by KDH »

Max Peck wrote: No, that's my point. I didn't need to disable it because the default was for it to be not enabled. That is kind of the whole point for making it seperate DLC -- you need to opt in to get it rather than opt out to avoid the extra download.

But it's a moot point. Even without the high resolution/4k assets, the game is still more than double Smoove's pain-in-the-butt threshold. :)
What if ..

When you install a game, steam takes into consideration existing files .. what if somebody were to copy their Shadow-of-War folder to a flash drive (or three) and with a lot of subterfuge and spycraft get it to Smoove ... then, considering he's on record (or will be, in this scenario) as having purchased from steam .. Steam then just fixes his install to make it right with the world. ... If it doesn't work he refunds, as he is under the 2 hour window .. all he, and the others involved, risk is their steam accts and 20 years in the slammer ... easy-peasy

capiche?

I'd like to help but I decided to skip the game 8-)
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Ain't nobody got time for that
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Sectoid
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Sectoid »

I still haven't taken over my first fortress, due to my open-world-game-ADD, but I wanted to say, it isn't just MOTS. The combat has been upgraded and the story line, so far, is much better. I will say the camera is really screwy, though. There has been more than 1 occasion where there was a orc speech and instead of the camera focusing on the orc, it was pointing at the ground. Also, trying to do the Arkham-style fighting with an uncooperative camera is hard, to say the least.
At one point, I was riding a graug and climbed one those orc-y towers and got stuck in Cirith Ungol. There was a scaffold above me so I couldn't climb up and for some reason, I couldn't jump off the graug, kill it, or make it go down. I just sat there while archers were shooting at the graug, which would not die. I also could not fast travel because of nearby enemies. So, I had to quit the game and hope for the best. When I restarted, it put me at one of the towers I had not cleansed yet, so that was helpful.
A patch was just released, so I hope it helps and no one else gets stuck. Here is a link to a video of the incident along with a bunch of other stuff. I forgot to crop it.
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Tao
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by Tao »

I do not have the game, and there may already be a link in this thread however there are a couple of FOV mods available to help with the camera. The first one required Cheat Engine and made folks nervous so another fan created a slightly better FOV mod. If you check the Steam forums user name Gollum IIRC.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by coopasonic »

AWS260 wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:25 pm I'm enjoying this well enough -- just captured my first fortress, and absolutely loved that overlord encounter.
Yeah, that.

After 5 days off for a family trip, I was very happy to come back to Mordor and continue the killing and domination. I took down both warchiefs ahead of assaulting the fortress. For the second warchief I had two captains infiltrated so I got an ambush and I never had to lift a finger. There was a bonus objective to get three ground kills. I didn't get any because it was over too fast.

I hope future fortresses are harder.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by gbasden »

I'm definitely enjoying it so far. The story is pretty excellent from my point of view, canon or no. The combat does seem more fluid, and it's easy to feel like a badass until you get complacent and have 30 orcs and a few war trolls and caragor eating your face. I'm back to really enjoying the nemesis system. I had a tank orc that was really a pain in the ass, but I finally killed him with charged hammer throws to the face. Now he's back with a steel face mask and his previous head weakness is gone.
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by coopasonic »

coopasonic wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2017 9:42 am I hope future fortresses are harder.
I shouldn't have said that.

My second fortress I went all out. I took out all four war chiefs, replaced them all with spies so going in, I had 4 spies on the inside and 4 captains leading the assault. The actual fortress assault was trivial. As soon as it started my spies blew out the gate and walls on the sides. I basically just ran from victory point to victory point hitting the capture button. With all four points captured in about 90 seconds it was time to face the overlord.

So, remember, I had 8 captains helping me out with the fortress assault. Not a one of them joins you in the overlord fight. I had my bodyguard (who was not well chosen) but that was it. The overlord was a level 35 legendary arrow proof poisoner that did massive damage. He also had about 30 friends with him. I didn't stand a chance. He was vulnerable to stealth, but I didn't see much opportunity to use that. There were rows of vents on the floor that spewed poison a LOT. I need to see if I can find a place to use stealth next time. Also I need to try to turn more enemies early. It was just surprising and frustrating how quickly I went down after the trivial assault.
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AWS260
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Re: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Post by AWS260 »

I had a similar experience on my second fortress, but managed to take out the overlord on my second try. And I didn't have to re-fight the fortress assault -- the game just took me straight to the overlord's chamber.
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