Regarding MacOS Client Deprecation

[Roland_Deschain]

So SSG throws another bomb onto us Mac users by officially ending any type of support for running LOTRO on Macs starting in August. Not that SSG does a good job of doing customer support in general anyways (I give it a D-).

Does this mean that SSG plans to change the windoze app so it will not run at all under Wine or Crossover in August? Or it just means that SSG will not support us Mac users if we have any type of issue running under Wine or Crossover? I guess officially they only support Wine at the moment. I've seen the forum posts about running Lotro on Monterey with Crossover and the 32-bit issue with the launcher has been solved in Crossover with a 32 to 64-bit conversion layer.

Is this Mac support forum going to be closed down in August as well?

I'm not going to buy a windoze license to play LOTRO. If it won't run under Wine/Crossover after August, I'm done with LOTRO.

[ReneKiller1]

As far as I understand, they are not longer developing and support the native Mac client, which doesn't run on newer Macs anyways. I don't think using Wine or Crossover was ever official supported but I also don't see why they should actively change LOTRO so it won't run with Wine/Crossover. But they also won't give any support, it it doesn't run.

I don't see a reason to close the Mac support forum, as this is a place where mostly players helping players.

From a business point of view I can totally understand, that they end the Mac support as most players are playing on Windows. Maybe it wasn't even SSGs fault, but someone higher up from Daybreak or EG7 decided, that the resources are better put into other things than Mac support.

[StinkyGreene]

SSG never supported macos, Turbine barely did when they had the Mac Client, even then they called it beta.

[Tralfazz]

Roland, I understand your concern. However, the only difference between right now and August 26th 2022 is that SSG is officially withdrawing all official support for running LOTRO in MacOS. That's all. And this isn't really a change because SSG hasn't offered any practical support for running LOTRO in MacOS for over 2 years – tickets get closed with a comment to the effect of, "Sorry, we don't support running LOTRO in MacOS" no matter what the ticket is about if the player indicates the OS is MacOS.

Also, there hasn't been a Mac-native client since April of 2019. The "Mac Download" on this web site's DOWNLOADS page is the Windows version of LOTRO packaged with a very old version of WINE which cannot run the current 64-bit client and throws nags, warnings, and error messages when launching to the 32-bit client.

The real issue you and other Mac-using LOTRO players need to be aware of is the deprecation of the 32-bit client which is coming after 31 December 2022. The "Mac Download" can't run the 64-bit client so after that date the "Mac Download" can no longer be used to play LOTRO.

Fortunately, there are two easy ways around this:
1- Keep running MacOS Mojave (or earlier, but I don't recommend earlier versions of MacOS if you're able to run Mojave) and follow the instructions I provide here to put the most recent version of WINE on your Mac. This will allow the game to launch into the 64-bit client and eliminate all those nags, warning, and error messages.
https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...pler-procedure
2- Try Crossover, it is not free but it does have a 2-week free trial so you can be sure it will work for you. It is basically the "pro" version of WINE, it is both more powerful and easier to use. It will not only enable LOTRO to use the 64-bit client but it will enable LOTRO to run in post-Mojave versions of MacOS. It will even allow you to use DirectX 11 instead of DirectX 9.
https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover#mac

See the addendum I added a few hours ago to the WINE upgrade instructions, which I also wrote as a stand-alone post in the same thread:
https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...t=#post8142136

[BentoIce]

... the only difference between right now and August 26th 2022 is that SSG is officially withdrawing all official support for running LOTRO in MacOS. That's all. And this isn't really a change because SSG hasn't offered any practical support for running LOTRO in MacOS for over 2 years – tickets get closed with a comment to the effect of, "Sorry, we don't support running LOTRO in MacOS" no matter what the ticket is about if the player indicates the OS is MacOS.

Agreed, SSG never 'supported' Mac install of Lotro. Nor did WB. Any tickets submitted under Mac OS were summarily dismissed with 'we don't support Mac'. What they *did* do was offer - in the early years - a Mac version of the game. As Tralfazz said, that was eliminated in 2019. Since then they've provided a Wine installer so we Mac users could play under the Mac OS. When problems arose with the installer, they'd eventually do something that got it installing again, but never fixed the long-standing issues. Now even that is being discontinued. Personally, I think they're making's a huge mistake, but the decision is not mine to make. It would be a trivial matter to have a current Wine client for Mac users, but something prevents them doing that. Wine licensing fee more than they're willing to pay, possibly?

In any case, I'm undecided about continuing with Lotro or not, given this decision. I'll never - and I mean never - dual boot into Windows. Not just because I won't pay for a Windows OS, but I play ALL my games in windowed mode so I can do other things while I play. Since Mac is my OS of choice, all my programs are Mac. Thus booting into Windows is never going to work for me. As to Crossover, I can't test it out with Lotro without purchasing the license, because some years ago I tried it for a couple games and used up the trial period. With Tralfazz's instructions I may bite the bullet and try to get Lotro running under Crossover, we'll have to see. Color me hugely disappointed in SSG.

[BentoIce]

I don't see a reason to close the Mac support forum, as this is a place where mostly players helping players.

Agreed. This forum has always been players helping players. Since the game will run under Crossover / Wine, it doesn't hurt them in any way to keep the forum to allow us to continue to do that.