Lalia's Market has been something I've often avoided. I've never been an advocate for a cash shop that featured items that can be earned, with patience, through leveling, crafting, and accruing instance currencies. However, there have been certain pieces I have purchased because, without being a subscriber, I've never been able to access them. The ceremonial versions of the Ettenmoors gear, specifically. Anything else, I've earned over the years with some hard work. The LOTRO Store is the other exception I make. The majority of cosmetic pieces found there are exclusive to the store. (This is this blogger's humble opinion and it not intended to insult anybody with outfits featured on the mannequins over the past year.)
Anyway, I finally decided to dip into my pool of mithril coins for this outfit. Sometime early last year, many store items were made obsolete and were converted into these coins. I had accrued so many revival tomes and tomes of dread removal from lootboxes that when the conversion happened, I found myself with a little over 300 coins.
Initially, there was never a concept for this ensmeble. If anything, it was to use pieces I've never used on my blog. Oddly enough, everything you see here hasn't been used previously. You see, I've been on a kick (perhaps obsessed) with the Erebor raid armor for a few weeks, trying to find cosmetic uses for obsolete statted gear. I don't know what it is about undyeable pieces, but they've been challenges I've met head on. Sometimes I've failed miserably and other times I've been successful. The Jacket of the Erebor Leader, the central piece to this outfit, was one of them. The chainmail's color was absolutely impossible to recreate outside of the raid set. Instead, I decided to focus upon the bold red and gold, and scrounged the depths of my cosmetic library for anything matching the same intensity of the tones. This was the end result.
You may find clipping issues in the chest area regarding the shoulders if you pursue this outfit. I've found the clipping is less pronounced on females. I don't know why, but the Erebor armor in most cases is not gender/race friendly. The pieces either clip or distort your character's figure.
Hunting down the location for this photoshoot wasn't easy. Whenever I've found a suitable one, it's always been for one of two reasons; either my outfit is easily discernable from the background or there is some sort of indescribable connection between the outfit and locale. It's made a considerable difference, to me at least, in the quality and energy of the pictures. When I first started this blog, the places I used were chosen all willy-nilly without considering the concept or purpose of an outfit...and I always found something off-putting about that. It's a truth I've recently discovered while reviewing the past two years of outfits.
Fellow bloggers, viewers, and forums posters, have you noticed this as well when publicly displaying your cosmetic creations?
Head: Ceremonial Circlet of Restoration (Default, Lalia's Market)*
Shoulders: Ceremonial Spear-hurler's Shoulders (Default, Lalia's Market)*
Back: Linen Cloak (Red, T2 tailor recipe)
Chest: Jacket of the Erebor Leader (Default, heavy armor skirm camp vendor, Erebor Captain's armor)
Hands: Gauntlets of Malmezel (Crimson, Redhorn Lodes quest reward)**
Feet: Boots of Durin's Guard (Red, Moria Guardian class armor vendor)***
*These pieces are obtainable at Lalia's Market at the time of posting this entry.
**I finished Moria long before the zone revamp. These gloves may or may not be available in the game any longer. If I recall correctly, this was from a quest out of the Orc-watch.
***Similar skins can be obtained from Guardian class vendors in Echad Andestel and Caras Galadhon with Medallions of Lothlorien.
the gloves of Malmezel are still present after the revamp as a reward for that quest, "Anarchy Reigns" is called :) for landscape screenies I tend to go with the theme of the outfit as you said, or alternatively try and match ambient and outfit color... sometimes I get it right, many times not so much XD
ReplyDeleteand I love, love the burnished gold-red combo of the outfit! "now for wrath, now for ruin and a red dawn! Forth Eorlingas!" :D
Good to know! Those are the only gloves I've seen using that particular skin and I was afraid they might have been changed or removed from LOTRO with the Moria revamp. I'm glad you like this outfit's colors...and the not-so-subtle reference to a LoTR quote :)
DeleteGreat outfit and great title for the outfit -- love it!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that a well-chosen backdrop for an outfit can make all the difference, in terms of context, presentation, or just making the colours of the outfit pop. Just like you've done here. The Rohirrim dressed in red behind her really make her look like she belongs and is one of them. Well done! :)
I'm glad you enjoyed this :) Emotes are the other aspect of presentation, especially when trying to show off the particular feel of an outfit. I don't always succeed, but sometimes they make the outfit stand out more than before. I'm still experimenting with them, as not all of my characters have the same sets of emotes. Spamming that screenshot key with FRAPS has definnitely made a difference.
DeleteFirst of all, asdsdfdfgdg! This is a marvellously sumptuous outfit! Regarding your question about backdrops, I also find myself generally asking whether the character and outfit belong at a certain locale or not, as Starry has mentioned. That is, the outfit echos the overall feel of the place, or if there is contrast, one can still imagine what the character is doing there in that get-up. I guess the difference between an arbitrarily-chosen backdrop and one that isn't would be the absence or presence of immersion (that tricksy word), or suspension of disbelief.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Now that I think about it, "immersion" is the perfect word to describe my process of backdrop-outfit matching : )
DeleteThis is gorgeous. Ah, the perfect way the gold and red go together.. I'm completely impressed! I wish you could lead a class on "how to take good screenshots and use emotes", because I need to learn your skills haha :)
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, do you have any good kinship suggestions on Gladden? My main's kin has been inactive for almost three months, and I'm in need of some active players :P
Screenshotting and capturing emotes have both become second nature to me. Class skill are a great source of poses too! My secret to download FRAPS to your computer. It's a free program that saves your pictures in .bmp format to preserve quality. With this program running, spam your screen capture hotkey during a desired emote or action and then review whatever pictures you've taken. More often than not, you'll encounter some interesting poses. It's a fantastic way to repurpose old animations!
DeleteMakaia, I suggest that you check out this fabulous guide found at The Starry Mantle. You'll find all of your screenshot-related questions answered here: http://starrymantle.wordpress.com/outfitting-tips/tips-outfit-screenshots/
I'll send you an in-game mail regarding kinships if I can sit down and play sometime today. If not, expect one soon :)