MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent Matt McLean files this report on the upcoming expansion for the game, the Mines of Moria and discusses whether or not the new addition will be worth the box price.

Ever since its release nearly 16 months ago, The Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has been one of the best MMORPGs on the market. It combines fluid gameplay with realistic graphics in one of the most recognizable fantasy atmospheres of all time. Their first “volume”, The Shadows of Angmar, allowed players to explore Eriador in all of its grandeur and frightening splendor. And now, coming this fall, Volume II of the story unfolds as the retail expansion, The Mines of Moria, will be released.

The developers at Turbine Studios, the group behind LotRO, know that without its players, there is no game. So periodically throughout the life of the game so far, the player-base has been given what the developers called “epic book” releases. These releases are fairly large in nature, and usually occur every few months. They have almost always added new areas of the map to explore, and allow the developers to introduce new characters, weapons, gear, and quests. It’s also a great way to make improvements within the game, like the ability to scale the UI, adding in and changing the existing graphic content and so on.

Read more here.

That was a really good article, it actually makes me want to try the game. Good job.

Great read. I was starting to get a little bit worried with Turbine, its been almost two years and we are just getting away from the " shire " and we are finally moving closer to Rohan, helmsdeep, Gondor. I hope that there will be enough content in this expansion to keep us hooked until we move into the deeper parts of the LotRO story.

Originally posted by Lork

Great read. I was starting to get a little bit worried with Turbine, its been almost two years and we are just getting away from the " shire " and we are finally moving closer to Rohan, helmsdeep, Gondor. I hope that there will be enough content in this expansion to keep us hooked until we move into the deeper parts of the LotRO story.

Two years?

Hä??

The game has started in April 2007!

And there will be one big retail expansion every year that will progress the story through to Mordor. Not including the 4 book updates per year.

What a cracking read,

LoTRo is a superb game, WoW might have millions of subscribers, but no game can touch LoTRo for content, lore and a good solid mature player-base.

I`m also look forward to playing this game for many years to come.

Plater

Originally posted by Lork

Great read. I was starting to get a little bit worried with Turbine, its been almost two years and we are just getting away from the " shire " and we are finally moving closer to Rohan, helmsdeep, Gondor. I hope that there will be enough content in this expansion to keep us hooked until we move into the deeper parts of the LotRO story.

It's been online like 13 months if I remember right.

It sounds great, but I think they will have a few hiccups along the way. New classes will probably mean class inbalance that will irk some players and cause them to further tweak skills. No biggie. Also, they are trying something new (or at least that's what one article I read previously) to make the whole area underground so that may cause some graphics/gameplay issues.

Other than that I can't wait to try it out, I just hope I get the new book14 traits done before it releases :)

I can understand it must be this way, but the development of content is a frustratingly slow process.

I, personally, have a level 50 Hunter (Grandmaster Woodworker), 50 Burglar (GM Armsman) and a 45 Champion (GM Tailor).  I can't get motivated to level my Champion to 50 and the other two character slots are "mules" since, due to the very limited storage in this game, two mules are needed for that purpose.

As noted I'm not interested in leveling my Champ, I've grown tired of raids, I can only take PvMP in small doses and I've stopped questing months ago, since there's no real purpose (zero XP and most of the quest rewards are useless).  Once MoM hits, I'll do Books 12-15 on my Hunter and Burglar and turn in about a dozen quests that are on each of my 2 girls' quest logs awaiting turn in for the XP.

For a long time, I've spent most of my time in game farming.  I have a ton of gold now -- but I've got everything money can buy in the game already though -- I figure the gold might come in handy when MoM hits -- in any case, farming and playing the AH continues to be profitable and enjoyable.  I've also spent more time playing other great games in closed beta - one game was a bit frustrating especially since it was release as a closed beta product and 3 months after release it is still not release quality, but the other MMO, still in closed beta with expected release in the fall, is exceptional. 

There's really no money in crafting so I've simply just crafted (or had crafted) the items I needed.  The "Hype" about "hundreds of recipes" in this article is literally true, but it's really a hyped spin on LotRO crafting since having 5-6 skins and a different name for a tailored armor item with identical stats cuts down the actual variety of useful crafted items considerably.   When you factor that in, along with the plethora of social clothing recipes like various arrow quivers, dozens of robes, etc., the actual useful variety of recipes in LotRO actually sucks.  Here's why.  Say you want to get (fill in the blank here - armor, weapon, jewelry) ,,, you have a very limited choice since there's very little (usually only one ) option.After crafting what I need for my characters, I've made a lot of gold selling certain recipes on the AH, mostly engraved beryl jewelery recipes and certain level 47 weapon recipes.  I'm very much looking forward to MoM to see how the "hype" about actually being able craft custom armor and weapons that grow with the character works out ,,, if it does, LoTRO will finally break out of the "cookie cutter" zero character customization with every level 50 character of same class looking virtually identical in build/optimization. 

MoM will add two new classes, yet I've seen nothing about MoM *ADDING CHARACTER SLOTS* in the character creation screen.  If they are doing this, great -- it's a must, actually to raise the available characters per account from five to EIGHT.

I also wanted to comment on this article's discussion on how a bored level 50 can work on deeds and reputation.

It's certainly true that the vast majority of players with level 50 characters are nowhere near caught up with their deeds ,, in fact, Book 14 places everyone even further behind on deeds since they've added some really good ones.  Most players have to get busy with that, since in LotRO, since the character equipment/customization is so severely limited, the real difference between the mediocre player and the great player are deeds.

But as far as reputation is concerned, I've maxed to Kindred @ many and hit the proper reputation tier as necessary, but putting the associated benefits of raising reputation in a certain area aside (i.e., by associated benefits I refer to things like reaching friend tier in Breeland to purchase the Virtue Trait Scroll for Man Race), I find that virtually all the reputation rewards you can purchase once you achieve the right tier from the reputation vendor are nowhere near as good as other items available in the game.  So I don't have any of that stuff, except certain crafting recipes and decoration items for the kinship house.  I did spend 5+ gold each, then traded my old horses and got the Evendim/Wardens Reputation Horse for my Hunter and the Angmar/Council of the North Reputation Horse for my Burglar -- more for the coolness of them, because actually, having owned both for quite some time now, I've noticed no improvements in preventing knockdowns versus that provided by the more plebian "normal" player purchased horses.

Looking forward to MoM!

Thank you for the great article Matt! I'm looking forward to MoM too! I love their plan of yearly expansions in the Fall. The amount of content we got for FREE during the last year is mind-boggling. They are great Devs and they must live on lattes and expressos at the Turbine headquarters.

Nice article .

  Hope the Mines bring some more people into the game. As a new player I have to say it is very hard finding groups in certain areas of the game.

Originally posted by Airspell

  Hope the Mines bring some more people into the game. As a new player I have to say it is very hard finding groups in certain areas of the game.

A lot of this problem can be eliminated, or greatly reduced depending on which server you choose (for example, Brandywine has the most players by far) and which kinship you join (the larger kinships have literaly hundreds and hundreds of players so it is very likely that you'll be able to find kin mates to form a fellowship with you to do something you all need done.

So Airspell, take what I've said here to heart and you'll reduce and likely eliminate singing the "I Can't Find a Group" Blues.

wow and xpack with a whole dungeon for 30 bucks, REVOLUTIONARY!!  Truly is next gen and groundbreaking, no mmo in history has had so little content updated for a whole expansion.  I like where they are taking this game, surely players will flood the gates!

LOTRO  has doee a fairly good job of taking the game in a direction that many of the players wish to go.

they have an excelent fusion of  the right graphics and story and for the most part content and I am looking foward to the expansion.

I do have some things on my improvement list though this I hope to see in the future.

DRUID class   the two new classes dont really excite me ill probably give one or both a try  but I was hoping warden was a plant and animal caster  im not familiar enough with tolken lore but I think there is justification for such a class somewhere.

VOICEOVERS  all the book quests should be full voice over  and other quests should have more voice over where ever important especially the naz gul !

improvements to housing  it was their first try and there is alot of room for improvements in the housing system like the  too strict item locations  and not much to do in the housing communities like public works projects or special crafting  but im confident this is comming, for now my house is another bank. (wish there was ways to upgrade your house)

all the latest quests ive done including book 14 had  gear that has been BELOW me  for like 3-4 levels now  so it ended up as vender loot  VERY dissapointed  at least offer something that we dont have ... special arrows  or possibly a pet   would have been better than that.

Id like to see some more origional spells  and effects  ive yet to see a force bubble like gandalf for instance .

more diverse alternate advancement  they need more directions to occupy charactors other than pure quests   like collections,,public works projects,,  see once I finished the quests in icy bay it effectivly became empty and boring very quickly, it is also very noticable there is no sea life in the bay. right now they have that faction thing but its nothing more than massive mob kill grinding and ive yet to see anything that the factions offer that intrests me 

BOATS!  let me say this again B O A T S!!!  turbine is very afraid of the water and there is a distinct lack of boat travel in game  and this defiles the immersion they are trying to cultivate.

fishing despritly needs improvement  its one of the few features I feel that they failed at  its currently is a  click,,,wait,,,click   type of fishing that some players are very dissapointed with.

terrain interaction   while the terrain looks awesome  (especially when you see the mountains miles off) but in game the terrain is umm... not very dynamic    there is no climbing  and very little jumping   and very little if any items to interact with  making the world have a bit of a scenery feel    I would like the ability to climb ladders and trees and vines ,,  and have a better ability to jump on and over obsticles,,, and have some things in game to interact with that are not part of a specific quest like the well buckets.

my personal wish is more and better forrage items that you pick in the wilderness  things you cannot get any other way for food or potions  right now all the forrage items can be farmed   i would like to see herbs and roots and other goods that modify or improve  normal recipies   oh and add coffee and teas  for cooks! forraging should be where you get special eggs  for instance  how about a dragon egg omlet!

I loved your addition of  clothing costumes it drasticly made the world much more diverse you got alot of bang for your buck on that addition,   I would like to see some more diversity in charactor appearence and animation  for instance why cant charactors crawl?  or flip or tumble   its kind of old school doing everything standing upright,, Id also like to see more mob interaction  the knockback is nice but id like to see more interaction  effects  such as the grab and throw, the frontal sweep, the step on (that actually drops a player to the ground) gass attacks , thorn blasts and of cours fire and ice that singes or frosts.

actually the closest you would get to a druid in Middle Earth is a wood elf.  and even then they arent specialized at just using an animal (in other words they are all hunters, guardians, loremasters with the ability to control (limited amount) of creatures).

as for MoM.  i am glad i did not level to the cap yet (32 and going strong).  i look forward (as i did with the BC) to reaching the cap just before the release.

Very nice article and I must say that brenths post was really good aswell! Pointing out alot of things that the game need to improve (and some of the are getting imrproved in MoM)!

Recreating Moria is an ambitous project but Im sure that Turbine will do a great job! When I started playing the game back when it launched my greatest motivation for playing was "When they release Moria I must have a lvl 50 character ready to go and explore it"

Now 1.5 years later I have 2 lvl 50s and cant wait to get them both inside the mines :)

Rohan next? :p

I really don't see anything that exciting

10 More levels? standard fare for any MMO

Legendary weapons that level with you ? Sounds good but will these be for raiders only

2 new classes ? with only 6 classes at release it was allways low on choices  so adding 2 more isnt that surprising , but lets wait & see how much they get nerfed after a few week of release

Different traits? or more of the same

I would like to hear more info on things like

More Character slots ?

More Bank space " MUCH MUCH MORE"

More Bag space " Tailor made bags ?"

Shared Bank slots

Better Mail system

Better Auction House system

Revamp Housing ' currently I cant buy a house in the same instance as my friends because there are none for sale & I bet many are abandoned  by players that no longer play

Better Mounts, how about something apart from a horse.. or Sadles that add stats  like +5% horse speed increase or  better yet just copy EQ2 mounts they have the best ones ..

Better UI  , how about that ability to make your own notes on the map ? almost every aspect of the UI can be improved

So far this expansion is just "Ho Hum  same o same o"  I want to be excited  I really do 

Ow & for the love of all that is Middle Earth  FIX pet pathing

and why does it say 6 classes? Ive read that alot.. there is 7 classes in LotrO.. (6 monster play classes thou :p)

and Lukain... we dont know all of the changes coming in MoM yet.. thoose things are just the really big ones... its not like they are going to make an announcemt saying " Big news: In our paid expansion the players will get more bank space!!!!".. Very little is known about the expansion, Im sure Turbine will start hyping it now when book 14 is out the door!

And I think you should read the gamespy article of what Legendary items are about and how they will work... think youve got the wrong picture of it...

You know what...you're right.  There are seven character classes.  :)  I must've been thinking of something else when I typed that!  I also forget about the Burglar class a lot because I don't see a ton of them running around where I play.

Other than that mistype, thanks for the positive feedback guys!

-Matt McLean
aka Galias