For me LoTRo is just OK. I like it well enough most of the time but I definitely don't love it. The game has some good features and tons of room to grow but to me it seems like the tofu or vanilla ice cream of MMO's. Most of what it does is just fine but nothing (except the graphics perhaps) really excells. Many of the features are copied from other games and many are also copied poorly.
Raid/Instance id's and Lockouts spring to mind being my most recent headache. In a private instance there are two markers for progress. One is what stage you have completed and the other is what the instance id or flag is. Everyone who starts an instance together gets the same initial id and stage info. As they progress through the instance they complete stages, usually by killing a boss, that saves the progress of the instance so that you could come back later and resume where you left off. However, every time you complete a stage you also get a new Flag.
For example:
Players A,B, and C start the raid instance helegrod.
- Their initial setup is Flag 1: Stage 0
Being particularly uber they kill the first boss.
- Their raid info is now Flag 2: Stage 1
They continue to the next boss but player C disconnects during the fight
- A,B's info is now Flag 3: Stage 1,2
- C's info is still Flag 2: Stage 1
The next day they get together to finish the instance BUT THEY CAN'T
Because player C disconnected his raid ID (Flag 2) does not match what Player A or B have (Flag 3) and they cannot enter the same instance. Player A,B can recruit people w/ no id's or locks at all and those new people will inherit A/B's raid info but there is no way for Player C to rejoin A,B. Even if player C were to get a couple new people and complete stage 2 their new info would be Flag 4: Stage 1,2 which still does not match what A,B have so they Still cannot join them.
Why turbine decided to implement this sort of moronic raid id system baffles me. How could anyone be so stupid?