The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) can now be downloaded off of the popular store Steam. While the game itself can of course still be downloaded and installed for free, there is also an additional “Steam Starter Pack” that can be purchased as well. The Steam Pack includes:
- Exclusive Noble Grey Steed: Saddle up on this striking grey steed as early as level 5 and travel across Middle-earth 62% 68% faster than on foot.
- Three Bonus Quest Packs: Continue your adventures through the troubled Northdowns, tranquil Evendim, and frigid Misty Mountains
- 25% XP Boost Token: Earn 25% more experience from quests and monster while you have this token equipped, all the way to level 65
- 1,000 Turbine Points: Customize your experience in Middle-earth with 1,000 Turbine Points. Buy cosmetic gear, rare mounts, experience boosts, buffs, and more.
The pack sells for $29.99 USD, but for now it seems to be on sale for $14.99 USD. I personally think that this is a good move on Turbine’s behalf as Steam makes it much easier to download and install games due to its automated system. The only thing that I think is a bit of a downer is that they included the Misty Mountains as one of the bonus Quest Packs. I really think that since that zone has yet to be revamped it doesn’t best represent the games content. Other than that it seems like a pretty good deal to me, especially at its sale price.
Update: So there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the horse actually has a 68% speed increase and 250 health; plus it’s account wide. (And it constantly blows “steam” from it’s nose. Get it? Steam?) The down side is that the extra 25% token is actually Derudh’s Stone which means that it only gives 25% Experience Gain on Monster Kills. You can also add this pack to existing accounts by adding the game to your Library in the Steam client (I did this by having it start the download), right-clicking the title name, and choosing “View game CD key”. This will give you the key that you can add to your account through Turbine’s My Account page. You can then stop and delete the install from Steam if you wish to do so.
June 6, 2012 at 11:34 am
Well it’s about time!
Nice.
June 6, 2012 at 11:40 am
Good move.
June 6, 2012 at 11:55 am
That is a GORGEOUS horse.
http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/213174/ss_a9be52ea57514287997ee14f1562d84295b0e369.600×338.jpg?t=1338994325
June 6, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Thanks for the link! I added it to the post!
June 6, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Wow! Turbine is trying to break my bank!
June 6, 2012 at 11:57 am
I’m happy they included EV, ND and MM in the content pack, even if they are not the most loved areas.
People who already have the “path of the fellowship”, like me, will finally have a chance to benefit from an offer.
June 6, 2012 at 12:05 pm
I agree. Between this and the Path of the Fellowship bundle, it presents an opportunity for Free and Premium players to get most of the early zones for a relatively low cost.
June 6, 2012 at 2:11 pm
That’s a great point. Having areas outside the Path of the Fellowship is a great idea.
June 6, 2012 at 12:31 pm
I had an article I was working on that was going to talk about how LOTRO needs to be on steam but now I guess I don’t have to anymore. I can’t express how much LOTRO needed to be on Steam because it will allow not only free advirtising on the steam store pages but also if a player is on LOTRO their friends will see this and it might be an easy way to bring LOTRO to millions of new players increasing profits so that LOTRO can be made even better.
June 6, 2012 at 12:44 pm
That’s a really beautiful horse and it seems like a very good deal quest pack wise for new players, overall seems to be a really good offer
Well done Turbine, I hope this brings in new players too.
June 6, 2012 at 12:47 pm
So, I have to install Steam to purchase this starter pack? At $15, that’s a great way for me to get two quest packs I haven’t bothered to get yet (and if I have to do Lone Lands anymore on alts I’ll cry) and a really pretty horse! And tp for wardrobe! Or a barter wallet!
I can apply the pack to my existing account, I hope?
June 6, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Yeah, you’ll need to install Steam. (I think.)
And yes, you can apply the code to your existing account.
June 6, 2012 at 1:32 pm
You will have to install Steam, but don’t necessarily have to run the game thru it or even actually download/install the game on Steam. Once you install Steam, you can right on the Lord of the Rings Online on your library page before it even downloads and select “View CD game key” – copy the key, go to the myturbine account page and enter it like any other game code. It will apply all the stuff to your existing game.
I’m going to let it download and run it thru Steam a few times though, just to see if it helps at all with load times and lag. I doubt it, but hey, a girl can dream, right?
June 6, 2012 at 4:36 pm
That sounds like a good idea. I was thinking about doing a fresh install to help with load/zoning time anyway
June 12, 2012 at 7:56 pm
Thank you AmberSkye. This was very helpful.
June 6, 2012 at 12:51 pm
This is great news since Steam makes it so easy to install games, even the ones with giant download sizes.
June 6, 2012 at 12:58 pm
The mount is +68%, 250 HP>
June 6, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Can you prove that? I highly doubt that the starter horse would be equal to the best horses in game. I think (I don’t know) it is a 62%, 200HP horse like so much of the others are. The 68%, 250HP horses are something special, I really, really don’t think this is like that.
June 6, 2012 at 2:02 pm
The Steam page says 62%, though i suppose that may be incorrect. Where did you see 68%?
June 6, 2012 at 2:03 pm
It’s a 62/200 mount, but at least it’s account wide.
June 6, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Screenshots on the official forums show it as 68/250. I’ll be able to confirm this evening when I get home.
June 6, 2012 at 3:33 pm
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?462635-LOTRO-on-Steam&p=6213857#post6213857 For people who’d like the shots handy
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?462635-LOTRO-on-Steam&p=6214408#post6214408
June 6, 2012 at 4:14 pm
I bought the pack because it was too good of a deal for $15. A $20 mount, plus 2 QPs (already had Evendim) and 1000 TP…yes please. Now I will keep my fingers crossed that Turbine doesn’t hit my horse with the nerf bat.
June 6, 2012 at 4:39 pm
a 68/250 mount then? Man, I hope that’s something Turbine doesn’t pull the “was never meant to be this way, so it’s a correction” card on like the Epic steed from years ago.
Even more reason for even a lifetimer to add this to their account, now.
June 6, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Huh. 25% Bonus on quest xp as well as monster kills. that is ridiculously amazing. too bad we couldn’t have gotten it offered sooner.
June 6, 2012 at 1:41 pm
I SERIOUSLY doubt that this bonus would apply to quest XP… The game has two of the same kind of items already and they ONLY apply to monsters kills (even though the item description doesn’t specify it).
June 6, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Are you sure the Steam page has the correct? If it is, then it is an interesting change from the other tokens.
Also, if this one does quest and kills, but the Rohan one is kills only, that further cements my feeling that Turbine only wants/expects veteran players with high level characters to buy the Rohan packs.
June 6, 2012 at 6:41 pm
The product page now shows that the token only grants bonus monster kill xp and not quest xp. Talk about a letdown.
June 6, 2012 at 7:21 pm
the stone you get is actually the same 25% exp pocket item from ROI
June 6, 2012 at 1:10 pm
What I’m hoping for is that sometime in the future they’ll sell expansions through Steam. My experience with Digital River hasn’t been the greatest, but I’ve had little trouble with purchases through Steam.
June 6, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Anyone know the details about installing it? I obviously already have it installed from the LOTRO website but do I have to install it again to get it on Steam? When I go to play through Steam it it tells me to download again and I don’t really want to have 2 massive LOTRO files on my computer. Has anyone linked their existing installation to Steam?
June 9, 2012 at 10:37 am
I tried out the Steam install on my other computer. First, I uninstalled LoTRO, then reinstalled it via Steam. After it downloaded, when I click “Play” in my Steam library, it just launches the familiar LoTRO launcher, the thing that prompts for username/account. Basically, it doesn’t appear to link your Steam account to LoTRO, and essentially just passes through to the LoTRO launcher. So you won’t need to have both LoTROs installed.
June 6, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Expect a small surge in server population if the other mmo’s that went f2p with steam promo’s are anything to go by. If you use steam regularly then it’ll help lag in so far as steam stops it’s downloading of updates if you’re playing any game via steam.
I’m surprised that it’s taken this long to pair the game up with steam.
Very good selling point to offer quest areas outwith the path pack alongside a very nice looking horse. Damn you steam for grabbing a colour scheme I prefer.
Other good selling point is there’s now a way to avoid the pando “booster” as a download option. I’m thinking I’ll probably get mine tied into steam as it tends to be running anyway.
At 50% off it’s £10.99 so pretty good deal for the 1000tp and mount, once it goes back to full price it’s not quite as attractive as the mithril edition though the horse does look better.
June 6, 2012 at 2:05 pm
…(rubs chin)
You’re right. 1000 tp and that account wide horse make it worth considering even as a lifetimer.
June 6, 2012 at 2:16 pm
At a guess you should be able to copy paste into steamapps/common then verify integrity to fool the download into skipping the majority of the actual download.
Got steam on 2nd harddrive so will try it this way and update for those who might want to as well.
June 6, 2012 at 3:07 pm
I’ve already tried this and it does not seem to work. The Steam installer seems to just install over the top of existing files. I’m letting Steam run a while longer just to verify this.
June 6, 2012 at 4:15 pm
It apparently works if you close out Steam completely before copying the files and then restart Steam. I haven’t tried it myself, but it’s been reported on the forums.
June 6, 2012 at 6:24 pm
I actually did do that, shut down Steam, copied files in, restarted Steam. It continued to download where it had left off and it is definately overwriting the files that are already there.
Not a big deal really, I still have my original install so it’s not stopping me from playing. I’ll just DL the Steam version over the next few days when I’m not on my comp doing other stuff.
June 7, 2012 at 8:47 am
Didnt seem to work for me. Started the download, closed steam and copied files over, restarted steam and the download didnt appear to have moved any faster than normal downloads from steam. Verifying files overnight probably just had steam copy over what I’d given it.
First time I’ve done this with a nonsteam install so that may be it, usually works no bother for backups that I’ve copy pasted rather than backedup via steam.
June 6, 2012 at 4:56 pm
I just bought the starter pack on Steam & the mount appears to be 250 HP, 68% speed. Hopefully this is not a tooltip error or anything, having a bind on account “fast” mount would be great. The pocket item is the same one that came with the RoI pre-orders & does not apply to quest XP. Also the horse breaths out white steam. (yes for real):)
June 7, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Mind if I ask how you got your CD Key? I purchased the Pack too but the key they gave me was for the Steam Edition LOTRO, not the Steam Starter Pack… Did I do something wrong or did they just give me the wrong key?
June 7, 2012 at 4:30 pm
You have to allow LOTRO to start downloading (you can stop it), right click and collect the CD Key. Then go to myaccount.turbine.com to apply the code to your account.
June 7, 2012 at 4:41 pm
It doesn’t go into my Library. How do I start the download? I’m a Steam Noob lol
June 7, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Choose the free version, I think it’s “Play for Free” or something and that will start the download.
June 7, 2012 at 4:44 pm
I did, that’s how I got the Steam Edition key, but not the Steam Starter Pack key. I entered the Steam Edition key into my Turbine account and I didn’t get the Turbine Points or the mount. (Already have the quest packs)
June 7, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Well, it’s all of a sudden working now. I guess it just takes a while for the stuff to get to my account! Thanks for the help!
June 9, 2012 at 12:57 am
Thanks for asking this – I had the same problem. Didn’t occur to me that it wouldn’t appear in the library unless we added the basic LOTRO to the library!
June 6, 2012 at 5:08 pm
lol, I don’t have North Downs or Misty Mountains…has Turbine been reading my comments?!
putting them (the least desireable) in with Evendim (the most desireable)…may get some people already playing buying this
June 6, 2012 at 5:59 pm
I hope that when you talk about this on the podcast this week that you explain for the ignorant among us (i.e., like me) what Steam exactly is. I’ve never heard of it before and am surprised that people seem to have such strong opinions on whether or not this is a good thing.
June 6, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Steam is a combination of a store to buy games (pc/mac) and a social gaming tool. If you’re friends play steam based games then
The love/hate thing seems to stem from how much money the sales suck out your wallet or the way steam has to have all the games in a set place. My solution to the latter was to stick steam onto a 1tb drive and forget about it.
June 7, 2012 at 12:07 am
Actually, you can move specific apps using hard points; if you have Win7 and an NTFS disk you can use Steam Mover (http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover), which will move specific games; or just generate the commands so you can run them yourself and see what it’s doing.
Definitely useful if you want to put one or two games on an SSD but don’t want to put everything there.
June 7, 2012 at 8:49 am
Looked at the steam mover but as I was going to be installing a 2nd drive I went for the straight swap which can be done very quickly and despite the “advice” from pcworld assistant does work.
June 6, 2012 at 7:11 pm
So, If I buy this starter pack and apply the code now, while I have access to these quests after my sub ends? I am not going ot be able to re up for VIP.. so, I’m looking at the best way to get all the packs (I have the fellowship path pack all ready)
June 6, 2012 at 7:24 pm
yes buying it through this pack will make them owned and available if you drop to premium.
June 9, 2012 at 10:30 am
Will this change f2p accounts to premium?
June 6, 2012 at 7:31 pm
the Steam page has been updated to show that the mount is indeed 68% travel and that the token is for monster kills xp only. I got it even though i’m a Lifer/Founder. Want an account wide 68% mount! They better not change it the mount like they changed the preorder goat!
June 6, 2012 at 8:27 pm
I had that concern as well but now that they’re advertising it as +68 I’m not worried.
June 6, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Yup, well worth the money now. Think of all those times that we were offered a character-only 68% horse for 1995 TP. Here, we get the 68% horse account-wide AND they throw in 1000 TP for fun.
June 6, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Does any one know how to register an already-owned game to your Steam account?
June 7, 2012 at 3:26 am
You don’t, but you can add it to your library list. In the Library window, at the bottom left corner you’ll see a button that says +Add a game. Click on that, then click on the option to add a Non-Steam game. If LOTRO doesn’t pop up in your list of choices, browse to your Program Files and choose Turbine Launcher. After that, you can rename it to LOTRO or The Lord of the Rings Online if you wish. This will allow you to launch LOTRO through Steam, letting you use the Steam overlay. It will not keep track of how many hours you’ve played the game, though.
June 9, 2012 at 2:38 am
Uninstall LOTRO from your machine.
Install LOTRO via Steam. It should load the entire game that you’ve purchased.
Go to myaccount.turbine.com and register the CD Key for the Steam Starter Pack.
That should do it.
(And instead of a little icon, you’ll actually get the LOTRO splash button for playing the game.)
After re-installing, I’ve gotten everything up to the Steam stuff. Got the TPs but the mount and item haven’t appeared yet (been about 30 minutes or so.)
June 7, 2012 at 9:34 am
Went for it as well.
Store account wide mount is 2995tp which is around the £20 mark
Steam mount is account wide at half the £’s plus £7-8 worth of tp’s
Interestingly the box that comes into your bags to open for this is labled as a mithril edition thing. Interesting as the steed of the horse lords from the mithril ed is still showing as 100hp and 62%
June 7, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I must say this is a pretty good deal! Had to get it. The horse is gorgeous!
June 8, 2012 at 9:40 pm
dear turbine, please do this with ddo next, as soon as there’s a steam client in linux and lotro (and ddo! please turbine!!!!) available I’ll be a happy dwarf
September 23, 2012 at 10:04 am
i’ll 2nd the linux version of lotro, i will definately be trying this.
June 9, 2012 at 2:52 am
This really is a steal for $15, even if you own all the quest packs already. You get $10 worth of TP plus the horse. Basically you can think of it as getting an account-wide high speed/high health horse for $5.
June 9, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Ummmm… not to be a noob or anything but what is “Stream” and why should I be excited?
June 10, 2012 at 2:55 am
Steam is a way for games to prevent piracy, its a central hub for many game titles. You have to set up an account and from there you log into your various games that you buy from the site. It ties in your computer with licenses and offers other services like chat, sales, stores, etc.
June 10, 2012 at 12:02 am
How does the riding as early as level five work? Is that for all toons or just if you purchase the riding skill early? Can someone fully explain that part of this deal to me? If it unlocks the riding skill for everyone, I think that’s worth it (~100 TP per character for early riding).
June 10, 2012 at 12:05 am
It is per character unlock that can be done as early as level 5. For free/premium players it is the only method to unlock the riding skill. VIP players have a quest option to unlock the riding skill but it is not offered until level 20.
June 11, 2012 at 12:25 am
Does that mean only one of my characters receives that level 5 unlock or any created at the time of the purchase or all future characters will have access to riding at level 5? I know my VIP status allows my characters to have access at 20, but I have several alts that are much lower that run festivals for me (to earn some of the non-bound festival items) and act as storage. If they could be able to ride a 68% steed, that would save me time.
June 11, 2012 at 6:21 am
Yes only 1 character is unlocked with 1 purchase. You’d have to buy it for each character.
June 10, 2012 at 2:51 am
I went ahead and got it too, since going F2P I was lacking the lower quest hubs, plus the horse is really nice and account wide. Im not a steam fan, hate the way it constantly runs in the background and tracks your usage (even offline mode) and is a resource hog.
There is a bit of a do to get the starter pack to load and then get your code, I found I had to wait for the server to refresh, log out a few times then start the download to finally get it, then uninstalled the game from my steam acct.
the horse is nice and not a loser like the one that came with the mithril edition.. pretty but too slow to bother with using.
June 11, 2012 at 8:10 am
Unfortunately, Steam isnt awailable worldwide. So it would be interesting to see, what countries it covers actually. Since for me in Latvia, all i get is :
“An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region”
Ex-codemasters player.
June 17, 2012 at 12:23 am
Price is back up to $29.99 for Steam Starter Pack. No longer worth it just for the account-wide +68 horse and 1K turbine points.
June 18, 2012 at 7:39 am
I can confirm this, saw this article and got excited and then found out it is back up to $30. A day late and a dollar short, story of my life…
July 12, 2012 at 7:14 pm
the 50% sale is back! this is on until the 22nd of July