Traveling Solo

"You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown and accept whatever comes in the spirit in which the gods may offer it." -~Freya Stark, Baghdad Sketches

NOTE: Good news! The outfit panel bug appears to have finally vanished for me, so I can finally resume blogging. I have a lot of content to upload, and I hope to take advantage of this major blizzard raging through the northeastern US. Thank you for being patient. Without further delay, I present this next outfit...

Before I challenged myself to use masks on this Hunter, who has now reached the Walls of Moria, I made a single outfit. And, as you may surmise from the quote above and the blog entry title, I wanted some traveling attire. Fresh out of the gate, ready to explore, honest to goodness traveling attire. In a way, it was a symbol of a new beginning. First new character after the server consolidations. I knew nothing of the Peregrin community. I had yet to experience the Before the Shadows expansion. And the hunter class were had in 2025 was nothing like the hunter I'd retired back in 2019. For all of these reasons, this cosmetic appearance felt appropriate.

It might be a tad on the fancy side, but it feels like a realistic outfit. No winged capes. No spears with serpents coiled around the head and butt. No clothes emblazoned and accented with golden leaves. Just something humble and practical. It reminds me of my early days as a LOTRO blogger, before I became enamored with the decorative, bright, high fantasy style that became my brand of outfits. By no means will I stop making those, but I will do my best to create more practical appearances.

Hopefully, by now, I'll have taken my first steps into Gundabad. Possibly even Harad. I purchased Corsairs of Umbar and Legacy of Morgoth during the Black Friday sales. I have every intention of taking my time and collecting as many new cosmetics as possible. If the expansion bonus clothing is of any indication, the quest and instance rewards should look stunning. Here's to more first time adventures!

LOTRO's Outfit Panel Bug

I regret to inform everyone that, until the bug with the outfit panel is properly addressed and corrected, that I will be unable to share any content on Material Middle-earth. And this comes with the worst possible timing, having only published three new outfits after being away for several months.

If you're wondering what the issue is, it's that the buttons allowing a player to swap outfits through the character panel have been vanishing. To restore them, you have to log out and log back in, or, in some cases, fully restart the game. Even then, they'll vanish again after accessing the outfits tab for the first time. I however, have gone without seeing the buttons for outfits 1-8 on Peregrin, where 95% of my wardrobe is located, since just after Christmas. My two Meriadoc alts, so far, have been unaffected.

Based on what conversations I've had and what discussions have risen on the official forums, the bug itself isn't affecting everybody. If you've been unaffected, you've been fortunate and I hope you never encounter it. And for those of us who are, to varying degrees, I'm hoping there will be a speedy fix.

Fleet-feathered

 

Two weeks ago, I gave my readers a hint for this week's outfit at my previous entry's end. As much as I love Belegaer blue, which was used in those teaser screenshots, it too closely resembled what I used for Silvered Whispers. I felt that a splash of a darker color, one almost complimentary, would let the Jacket of the Wilds Hills and accompanying pieces shine. Crimson works well, lavender looks nice, but colors that fall into the spectrum between blue and green work best with the cooler silver found in the chest, gloves, and boots. This all goes to demonstrate how versatile any cosmetic piece can be when paired with the proper color.

Silver Whispers

It's a shame that cosmetics bartered with Figments of Splendor don't see much use, at least from what I've observed. I have a handful of them myself from over the years, generally bartering for them as the seasonal vendors change or from the elusive Curator, who only appears at specific times of the year. Honestly, I think the Curator should be available year-round that way good cosmetics don't go to waste. It would encourage players to convert excess motes and embers into figments for bartering, versus holding onto them and wasting them when currency caps are reached. However, that's my humble opinion. SSG has been petitioned in the past, but to no avail. I can remain hopeful that it may change someday, but I won't hold my breath.

Whimsical Autumn

I apologize for the unexpectedly lengthy absence. Unfortunately, there's only so much I can control between two jobs. I'm often exhausted when I get home. I seldom have the time or energy for gaming, let alone LOTRO. Despite that, my desire to continue making new outfits is still going strong. I'm on vacation in the upcoming weeks and I plan to upload as much as I can for scheduled content.

If you've been lucky and are on the LOTRO Official Discord server, you may have noticed I'm periodically dropping screenshots of new outfits either in progress or completed.