LOTRO Finally

Oops ! I missed something ! Dumb ! Dumb ! Dumb ! Apologies to LOTRO devs.

My earlier post about LOTRO was way off the mark ... and the amazing part is that I found the problem and managed to fix it myself ! 

/cheshire cat grin

/pats back

/looks suitably amazed at my own amazicity ! 

Well, here was the peroblemo hombre... 

The .NET did not install. 

Yup. You got that right. .NET 1.1 does not install on Vista directly. Viva le Microsoft ! 

erm. But then one wonders why 1.1 is not available properly on Vista, and also one wonders why developers are not using .NET3.5 - the latest and .. errr.. greatest (?) .NET framework out there. 

Anyhows, the following was the error I was getting while installing .NET ... 

Duh. Amazingly precise and helpful ( /sarcasm) message from the devs on what is happening. 

Fortunately, Google is finally working ok today, so gave a search for the error ... and viola, got a great link for it. 

• Installing .NET 1.1 for Vista
  

Essentially the steps are as follows ... 

1. Download .NET 1.1
2. Download .NET 1.1 SP1 <-- this fixes the install problem, but unhelpfully not bundled as a stand alone installer. 
3. Put both of them in a common directory (e.g. c:/dotnet)
4. Start a command prompt as Administrator (rt click on the cmd prompt icon. no sudo here you dumbo!)
5. Mumble a few voodoo words and run the following commands... esentially the commands make a single installer from the 2 you downloaded above. 

c:\dotnet>dotnetfx.exe /c:"msiexec.exe /a netfx.msi TARGETDIR=C:\DotNet


c:\dotnet>dotnetfxsp1.exe /Xp:C:\DotNet\netfxsp.msp


c:\dotnet>msiexec.exe /a c:\DotNet\netfx.msi /p c:\DotNet\netfxsp.msp

Huzzah ! Ze magik Werks ! 

Run LOTRO

WTF ! Maintainence ! 

Finally is not Finally enough... 

Wait for more demented updates ... 

LOTRO

LOTRO  = Lord of The Rings Online. 

I guess you already know about Lord Of The Rings . Well, LOTRO is a MMORPG based on the setting of the universe created by JRR Tolkien in that book. Its one of the online games which came out last year which created a flutter, but WoW still held its own with its expansion release. 

Anyways, I have been off WoW for sometime - 1.5 weeks to be precise. Currently playing NWN2 - sequel to one of my favourite games NWN ( NWN = NeverWinter Nights). What being off MMO games does is, it frees up your time a bit. At the back of your head is not the nagging thought that if you do not play you are losing money (its a monthly subscription!). However, MMOs are addictive because of a simple thing - you are playing with and against other humans. The social aspect is something which hits you like nothing else. Its like a transition from the days of snail mail to social networking sites like facebook and orkut. 

Right now I don't want to go back to WoW - been playing that game on and off for 3 years now. My main is a level 80 (level capped) and the only progression is via end game instances - which with my current work life - I just cant give the time (raids start at 6:30pm IST, and I am in office usually till 7:30pm -8:00pm)

So, I started looking for alternate MMORPG experiences during breaks from NWN ( I am still in ACT I there). Eve Online - already done some playing. Warhammer Online - its basically a PvP game and I just don't like PvP. That lead me to LOTRO. Well, this game hasn't done so well, but there are lots of fans of it - including someone who created a google map for it ! 

Like most MMOs nowdays, this also provides a 10day trial period, where you can try out the game for free. Huzzah ! 

So, I started the download yesterday night. 

WoW was a 1.2GB download (followed by another GB or so for each expansion and expands upto 10GB on the disk). EVE was around 900MB download. This game is showing me 10GB ! And people wonder why this game did not do so well ?? LOTRO devs, do yourself a favour . Figure out how to slim down the initial install so that people do not have to wait a long time for the game to download !