MMORPG.com's Keith Cross spoke recently with Turbine's Jeffrey Steefel about the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion and the upcoming update!

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffery Steefel about a diverse array of topics, from The Mines of Moria, their upcoming paid expansion, to Book 13: Doom of the Last-king, their upcoming free content expansion and even a small peek over the horizon at Book 14. Turbine has been keeping up a good pace in terms of content expansion since the game’s launch a year ago, and they don’t have plans to slow down. Steefel says that on top of the free expansions, they also plan to launch one paid expansion per year, the first of which will let players explore the lost and deadly depths of Moria under the Misty Mountains.

Most of the announced features in the expansion have been spoken about already. Players will be treated to a level cap increase from level 50 to 60 and will also get two new classes to play, the Rune-Keeper and the Warden. All of this will come in handy when players face off against the Watcher in the Water, the Balrog, and the hoards of dark creatures who now call these tunnels home. More help will come to players in the form of Item Advancement. The new expansion will add a whole new advancement path for players in the form of improvable weapons. Steefel described these weapons as being sort of like a pet, which gain experience and advance along their own advancement path. The weapons also have slots for upgrading and also have specific weapon related quests. Players get these quests from their weapons, so the items act like a mobile quest hub which you carry around with you. Now that’s convenience. The advancable items will also be available at relatively low levels, and although Steefel didn’t give a specific level, he said advancement will be very accessible at first and will require a higher degree of effort and skill at higher levels, describing it as the fat path, narrow path approach.

Read it all here.

Sounds pretty awesome...the expansion can't come soon enough!

With all the people who seemed to be rabid about fishing, I'm surprised there hasn't really been much said on the subject.  I think adding fishing and a 'hobby system' is a really interesting addition to the game.  I'm curious to see what there take on fishing will be, and what other innovative or imaginative ideas they will come up with for hobbies as the game goes along.

On the subject of Moria, I think there is a real risk when you do a vast underground map with lots of tunnels that it becomes visually unappealing and from a gameplay standpoint a little frustrating if your getting lost all the time.  Ofcourse, having a good map would make things easier, but right now it seems like my dungeon maps continually reset so I have to relearn the maps quite often.  This is a major pain.

Also, if you are having to go through the tunnels all the time, that doesn't allow for much freedom.  A tunnel forces you to go down a preset path, which becomes boring after awhile.  If we are constantly fighting our way through the tunnels like in Goblin Town, I think it would become very tedious.  And with the forced pathing of the tunnels, it limits your options in terms of avoiding mobs.

Originally posted by Terranah

With all the people who seemed to be rabid about fishing, I'm surprised there hasn't really been much said on the subject.  I think adding fishing and a 'hobby system' is a really interesting addition to the game.  I'm curious to see what there take on fishing will be, and what other innovative or imaginative ideas they will come up with for hobbies as the game goes along.

 

On the subject of Moria, I think there is a real risk when you do a vast underground map with lots of tunnels that it becomes visually unappealing and from a gameplay standpoint a little frustrating if your getting lost all the time.  Ofcourse, having a good map would make things easier, but right now it seems like my dungeon maps continually reset so I have to relearn the maps quite often.  This is a major pain.

 

Also, if you are having to go through the tunnels all the time, that doesn't allow for much freedom.  A tunnel forces you to go down a preset path, which becomes boring after awhile.  If we are constantly fighting our way through the tunnels like in Goblin Town, I think it would become very tedious.  And with the forced pathing of the tunnels, it limits your options in terms of avoiding mobs.

 

 

Uh, it's a vast underground city/mine.

What would you like them to do?

"The Mines of Moria expansion will open up several regions for Middle Earth’s heroes to go adventuring in; not only Moria but Lothlorian, and Eregion as well. Their current focus is on Moria ,which is going to be a huge region both above and below the Misty Mountains. The region is designed to be immense, and Steefel said that when players finally reach the other side of the mountain they should come out feeling like they’ve never seen anything as vast. In Tolkein’s books Moria is described as being a mess of labyrinthine tunnels which take days to traverse if one knows the way. In the movies, we were treated to stunning visuals of claustrophobic corridors, and wide open chambers, where even with magical light one can’t see the ceiling or walls on the opposite end of the room. But in books and film the creators only need to describe in detail the areas where the characters are. In the medium of MMORPGs, the team needs to build everywhere that players may be inclined to explore, and Steefel says players can expect the Mines of Moria in LotRO to be much larger than in the movies."

I'm sorry. What's the problem? They are adding a very specific and one of the most talked about and interesting areas in any fantasy world.

edit: the one caveat I'll give you is that I have to agree about the constantly fighting every 10 feet. But this seems an issue with Turbine and how they place mobs. Sometimes I'm ok with just crossing a field. It does get tiring to see a huge field and have to plan where you are going to ride so you can avoid the mobs dotting the landscape like a livng maze of sorts.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Jeffery Steefel about a diverse array of topics, from The Mines of Moria, their upcoming paid expansion, to Book 13: Doom of the Last-king, their upcoming free content expansion and even a small peek over the horizon at Book 14. Turbine has been keeping up a good pace in terms of content expansion since the game’s launch a year ago, and they don’t have plans to slow down. Steefel says that on top of the free expansions, they also plan to launch one paid expansion per year, the first of which will let players explore the lost and deadly depths of Moria under the Misty Mountains.

Most of the announced features in the expansion have been spoken about already. Players will be treated to a level cap increase from level 50 to 60 and will also get two new classes to play, the Rune-Keeper and the Warden. All of this will come in handy when players face off against the Watcher in the Water, the Balrog, and the hoards of dark creatures who now call these tunnels home. More help will come to players in the form of Item Advancement. The new expansion will add a whole new advancement path for players in the form of improvable weapons. Steefel described these weapons as being sort of like a pet, which gain experience and advance along their own advancement path. The weapons also have slots for upgrading and also have specific weapon related quests. Players get these quests from their weapons, so the items act like a mobile quest hub which you carry around with you. Now that’s convenience. The advancable items will also be available at relatively low levels, and although Steefel didn’t give a specific level, he said advancement will be very accessible at first and will require a higher degree of effort and skill at higher levels, describing it as the fat path, narrow path approach.

The Mines of Moria expansion will open up several regions for Middle Earth’s heroes to go adventuring in; not only Moria but Lothlorian, and Eregion as well. Their current focus is on Moria ,which is going to be a huge region both above and below the Misty Mountains. The region is designed to be immense, and Steefel said that when players finally reach the other side of the mountain they should come out feeling like they’ve never seen anything as vast. In Tolkein’s books Moria is described as being a mess of labyrinthine tunnels which take days to traverse if one knows the way. In the movies, we were treated to stunning visuals of claustrophobic corridors, and wide open chambers, where even with magical light one can’t see the ceiling or walls on the opposite end of the room. But in books and film the creators only need to describe in detail the areas where the characters are. In the medium of MMORPGs, the team needs to build everywhere that players may be inclined to explore, and Steefel says players can expect the Mines of Moria in LotRO to be much larger than in the movies.

Throughout our conversation Steefel used a number of synonyms for the word “big”, as he spoke about both Moria and Book 13 (there are only so many times you can say big in a conversation without feeling dirty). When we got on the topic of Doom of the Last-king, he described it as even larger than Evendim. The free content expansion will add the second major region to Lord of the Rings Online, a tundra filled land in northern Eriador. The region will be the first region in LotRO that will be directly on the ocean, and because of the northern theme, it will include a number of cold themed features. There will be little touches like the ability to see a character’s breath more and more as it gets colder; and there will be big additions like a new cold damage type and the ability to die from the cold, just by staying away from a heat source for too long. Players are advised to not stand around too long admiring the scenery for because of these unholy temperatures. Heading north will also introduce players to a new race of Men called the Lossoth, the native inhabitants of this region who players will need to gain reputation with if they hope to learn how to survive in these hash lands.

In addition to the new region and the adventures that come with it, Book 13 will also add several new game features that can be found throughout the game. Monsters in the Ettenmoors will have a new ally to fight against the Free Peoples of Middle Earth with a new monster play class: the Defiler. The Defiler is intended to be a healing class with monster style. Instead of gaining inspiration and encouragement from a Minstrel, Monsters will be slathered with slimy poultices and healed with vile concoctions. Yum.

Turbine is also changing the way players group up. They’ll be adding some new options to make it easier to look for a fellowship, like the ability to search for players who are on the same quests as you are. Also, there’s the new Mustering Horn. These horns will be placed strategically across the landscape, and will be large, immobile horns that summon a character’s entire fellowship via a teleport when blown.

The conversation concluded with a taste of Book 14. In Book 14 players will head to the ring forge in Eregion where the three rings of the Elves were made. Book 14 will wrap up the Shadows of Angmar Story arc and lead into the next arc which begins in Moria, where the fellowship has just passed and players get to follow in the wake of all of the trouble they’ve managed to stir up.

Surprised you missed this about also 2 other regions in the expansion which are NOT underground

Have they added the ability to swim underwater yet? That sure would be nice. That seemed to be a missing feature that most other MMO's have...

Also, I hope fishing will be more hobby like as it is in WoW, where a person can get some nice cool stuff...not like EQ2 which it just is a simple throw, fish and get craft items. And you have to do the mini game in WoW also which is fun...

Finally, the talk of a whole new UI......hooray...but....PLEASE FIX THE TEENY FONT for us old fogies and users of 24" or larger screens...

Later

 such a shame they dont release some real pvp in this expansion..

this whole pve thing is not for me        

I didn't miss the part about the other regions, but the article only describes Moria.   It would be nice to hear a little about the other regions though.

My main concern is that the later levels of the game are becoming a bit redundant. We have whole regions devoted to brown and white.   We have misty mountains which is lots of snow and bleakness, goblin town which is lots of brown textures, angmar which is kind of a burnt desert like brown region, farochel (however you spell it) coming up in book 13 that is more snow and bleakness, and now we get more tunnels and lots more shades of brown. 

Now I'm not saying it will suck, only that visually it seems the later levels are less visually diverse.  The last part of the game is brown or white, essentially.  And while Evendim is beautiful, I tend not to go there to quest anymore for endgame stuff unless I'm in a group because of the agro and all the swimming. 

But I believe they could make Moria visually appealing by adding interesting lighting and trying to add as much color as possible.  Also, massively huge caverns could be very atmospheric I think.  I'm curious to see what they come up with.

Originally posted by Terranah

I didn't miss the part about the other regions, but the article only describes Moria.   It would be nice to hear a little about the other regions though.

 

My main concern is that the later levels of the game are becoming a bit redundant. We have whole regions devoted to brown and white.   We have misty mountains which is lots of snow and bleakness, goblin town which is lots of brown textures, angmar which is kind of a burnt desert like brown region, farochel (however you spell it) coming up in book 13 that is more snow and bleakness, and now we get more tunnels and lots more shades of brown. 

 

Now I'm not saying it will suck, only that visually it seems the later levels are less visually diverse.  The last part of the game is brown or white, essentially.  And while Evendim is beautiful, I tend not to go there to quest anymore for endgame stuff unless I'm in a group because of the agro and all the swimming. 

 

But I believe they could make Moria visually appealing by adding interesting lighting and trying to add as much color as possible.  Also, massively huge caverns could be very atmospheric I think.  I'm curious to see what they come up with.

 

 

Geography of a world does that. We cant all have giant neon mushrooms.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Terranah

I didn't miss the part about the other regions, but the article only describes Moria.   It would be nice to hear a little about the other regions though.

 

My main concern is that the later levels of the game are becoming a bit redundant. We have whole regions devoted to brown and white.   We have misty mountains which is lots of snow and bleakness, goblin town which is lots of brown textures, angmar which is kind of a burnt desert like brown region, farochel (however you spell it) coming up in book 13 that is more snow and bleakness, and now we get more tunnels and lots more shades of brown. 

 

Now I'm not saying it will suck, only that visually it seems the later levels are less visually diverse.  The last part of the game is brown or white, essentially.  And while Evendim is beautiful, I tend not to go there to quest anymore for endgame stuff unless I'm in a group because of the agro and all the swimming. 

 

But I believe they could make Moria visually appealing by adding interesting lighting and trying to add as much color as possible.  Also, massively huge caverns could be very atmospheric I think.  I'm curious to see what they come up with.

 

 

Geography of a world does that. We cant all have giant neon mushrooms.

Geography of a world is diverse.  That's my point; thanks for helping me make it

Originally posted by Terranah

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Terranah

I didn't miss the part about the other regions, but the article only describes Moria.   It would be nice to hear a little about the other regions though.

 

My main concern is that the later levels of the game are becoming a bit redundant. We have whole regions devoted to brown and white.   We have misty mountains which is lots of snow and bleakness, goblin town which is lots of brown textures, angmar which is kind of a burnt desert like brown region, farochel (however you spell it) coming up in book 13 that is more snow and bleakness, and now we get more tunnels and lots more shades of brown. 

 

Now I'm not saying it will suck, only that visually it seems the later levels are less visually diverse.  The last part of the game is brown or white, essentially.  And while Evendim is beautiful, I tend not to go there to quest anymore for endgame stuff unless I'm in a group because of the agro and all the swimming. 

 

But I believe they could make Moria visually appealing by adding interesting lighting and trying to add as much color as possible.  Also, massively huge caverns could be very atmospheric I think.  I'm curious to see what they come up with.

 

 

Geography of a world does that. We cant all have giant neon mushrooms.

Geography of a world is diverse.  That's my point; thanks for helping me make it

The worlds not done yet.

not to sound off topicish....but is it me or is the breastplate of the girl on the cover of mmorpg.com home page to advertise this article really off....seems like her body is all proportionally wrong

Originally posted by Terranah

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by Terranah

I didn't miss the part about the other regions, but the article only describes Moria.   It would be nice to hear a little about the other regions though.

 

My main concern is that the later levels of the game are becoming a bit redundant. We have whole regions devoted to brown and white.   We have misty mountains which is lots of snow and bleakness, goblin town which is lots of brown textures, angmar which is kind of a burnt desert like brown region, farochel (however you spell it) coming up in book 13 that is more snow and bleakness, and now we get more tunnels and lots more shades of brown. 

 

Now I'm not saying it will suck, only that visually it seems the later levels are less visually diverse.  The last part of the game is brown or white, essentially.  And while Evendim is beautiful, I tend not to go there to quest anymore for endgame stuff unless I'm in a group because of the agro and all the swimming. 

 

But I believe they could make Moria visually appealing by adding interesting lighting and trying to add as much color as possible.  Also, massively huge caverns could be very atmospheric I think.  I'm curious to see what they come up with.

 

 

Geography of a world does that. We cant all have giant neon mushrooms.

Geography of a world is diverse.  That's my point; thanks for helping me make it

I'm pretty sure there will be dynamic and very interesting lighting throughout Moria - the interplay of light and shadow is a powerful tool in environment design. And atmosphere... I'm sure they'll have that covered quite well.

As for the color schemes... well... it is what it is. Middle Earth isn't really that fantastical in its geography... Grass will be green, or brown... soil will be brown or reddish... snow and ice are blinding white or somewhat translucent blue (for ice anyway).. Those are the colors of nature and as Middle Earth isn't a high-fantasy world like, say, Norrath or Azeroth, they can't introduce vibrant colors just for the sake of doing so. I'm sure they'll do quite well enough within the constraints they have.

I love how they separate PvE and PvP-monster play.

Seems to me LOTRO is moving away from its original concept of Casual play / Lore , to Grinding / Raid ..  With  "Deeds - Traits - Reputation  & now Item advancement  Grinds ,  its slowly turning into Lord of the Warcraft  .

Originally posted by Lukain

Seems to me LOTRO is moving away from its original concept of Casual play / Lore , to Grinding / Raid ..  With  "Deeds - Traits - Reputation  & now Item advancement  Grinds ,  its slowly turning into Lord of the Warcraft  .

I don't think there's anything to worry about there.

The only way that would happen is if they steered most of theirs and the players' attention on end-game, relegating the lower-end content as "necessary crap to hurry through to get to the end-game". By many accounts - including those still playing since beta - that's what WoW's turned into.

Also, while I realize alot of people don't like to feel like they're grinding... all MMOs are grinds. Each in their own way, whether it's grinding faction, or quests, or xp, or crafting... etc. There's no escaping it because, really, there's no other practical way of allowing progression. At least none that I've ever seen suggested.

For all the complaints I've seen about the grind across all the MMOs I've played, for several years now, not one of the people complaining has ever offered a solution that would eliminate, or even substantially reduce it. Complaining is easy; people can complain about anything (and we often do). Finding a better solution that would be fun and still provide enough content to keep players entertained over time without running out of things to do is a whole other thing. And if it pleases one person, guaranteed it's gonna tick another one off.

That said, I do think that the way Turbine have implemented the grind into LoTRO is at least a bit more "passive" as you can often be accomplishing 2, maybe 3 or 4 goals at one time, while working on a single deed, for example.

For example, I was working on my deed for Determination 5 trait which involves killing Salamanders in Evendim. 240 of them for the Advanced version. That's a substantial number. There's an island in Evendim that is teeming with the things, *and* there are quests that involve killing them - *and* they drop items that can rack up some money pretty quickly when NPC'd -  *and* they reward xp just for killing them, on top of the xp given for completing the quest(s), *and* at least one of the quests also rewards reputation... oh yeah, and there's the very nice stat boosts that comes with completing the deed itself. The +15 Agility alone for Determination 5 is nothing to sneeze at... 'specially for a Hunter :)

So there you have it - killing several birds with one stone. You're completing a deed, completing quests, getting xp, getting money, getting reputation, and possibly even harvesting materials if you're of the right skill level for what's out there which can be used for crafting or to sell on the AH. So in just that one activity - killing salamanders - look at everything you can be accomplishing. Of course, that requires planning that some players may not think out in advance ... but the ability is there regardless.

Of the many other MMOs I've played, very few allowed for that many things to be accomplished in a single activity.

Of course, it also has to be noted that some people *prefer* grinding on mobs and/or quests non-stop. My own sister is one of them. It's relaxing to her. That goes back to what I said earlier... someone's gonna love it, but someone else is gonna hate it. You can't please everyone.

Originally posted by Lukain

Seems to me LOTRO is moving away from its original concept of Casual play / Lore , to Grinding / Raid ..  With  "Deeds - Traits - Reputation  & now Item advancement  Grinds ,  its slowly turning into Lord of the Warcraft  .

It only becomes a grind for those players who are competist who have to complete every deed, every trait, have to have max rep, etc.

I play a grind game (Lineage 2) and in no way does LOTRO represent a grind game in any capacity. For me, when I have items for rep, I turn them in. Otherwise I don't. If I want to get one particular trait I do what is needed. If that is killing mobs, then I do it quickly (it takes so little it's amazing) and then I move on.

The weapon system is a briliiant idea and I highly applaud it.

There is a post around here about a guy who originally appoached LOTRO as a "rush to end game, do eveerything now" type game. He hated it and left.

Then when he came back and started to actually read the quests, understand the world and it's characters, the game became far better.

Players need to relax. Because they are essentially adopting a gameplay style that can't support itself. They are making the decision that rushing to top lvl will make them happy and THAT will be when the game actually starts.

Developers don't develop all this content just so players can rush through it.

i'm still resentful of their claims for being solo friendly and never delivering in any way other than perhaps being able to find a 'safe' corner and grinding.

i was so set to buy the lifetime membership and to love this game forever, but it only took a week of beta to cancel my preorder.

now that i gave up that option of a lifetime membership i cannot in good faith ever return to the game :)  oh well, i'll have to keep on looking.

Originally posted by Sovrath

 

Originally posted by Lukain

Seems to me LOTRO is moving away from its original concept of Casual play / Lore , to Grinding / Raid ..  With  "Deeds - Traits - Reputation  & now Item advancement  Grinds ,  its slowly turning into Lord of the Warcraft  .

 

It only becomes a grind for those players who are competist who have to complete every deed, every trait, have to have max rep, etc.

I play a grind game (Lineage 2) and in no way does LOTRO represent a grind game in any capacity. For me, when I have items for rep, I turn them in. Otherwise I don't. If I want to get one particular trait I do what is needed. If that is killing mobs, then I do it quickly (it takes so little it's amazing) and then I move on.

The weapon system is a briliiant idea and I highly applaud it.

There is a post around here about a guy who originally appoached LOTRO as a "rush to end game, do eveerything now" type game. He hated it and left.

Then when he came back and started to actually read the quests, understand the world and it's characters, the game became far better.

Players need to relax. Because they are essentially adopting a gameplay style that can't support itself. They are making the decision that rushing to top lvl will make them happy and THAT will be when the game actually starts.

Developers don't develop all this content just so players can rush through it.

Well said, per usual, Sovrath :)

And it's so true about L2 - You haven't experienced grind 'til you've played that game into the upper levels. After that, *anything* would seem quick by comparison. Isn't it like, .01% xp for each mob or something once you get to around 73-ish? I haven't grinded on my BD in a long time, so I forget, but I know it's something close to that. And the level cap is 80.

I didn't know you were still playing L2, by the way. Still on Hinde?

As for your last comment about the content, I think so many gamers would find an entirely different experience in these games - in fact I'm confident of it  - if they got over that "the end game is all that matters" mindset, slowed the hell down and, like the poster you mention (whose post I also read), took more of the game in, rather than racing on to complete the next quest or whatever.

And it *can* be done. I, for one, am living proof of that. LoTRO (and other MMOs) provides more than well enough for it.

I played L2 also and I agree what people call a "grind" in LoTRO is a walk in the park compared to L2, I'm not a grind-aholic so it took me over a year to hit lvl52, I ended up hightailing it and letting my friend take over the account.  I traveled throughout the mmorpg wilderness until lotro came out and I've never been happier (except that I chose the $9/mo plan instead of lifer, but oh well).  Anyways, I took longer than alot of people to hit 50 in lotro as well, but the depth of the quests and characters made my trip well worth, with more than a few scenic routes at that ;). 

Sit back, relax, and DO THE QUESTS...you'll be glad you did ;)

Originally posted by Draccan

 such a shame they dont release some real pvp in this expansion..

this whole pve thing is not for me        

Cheers

S

Developers don't develop all this content just so players can rush through it.

you're right, but sadly i think they develop the content for little reason more than to "slow you down" and keep you paying the monthly fee longer.

if this wasn't the case then they wouldn't force you to group grind so much.

I would love to explore all this content that they put the time/effort to build in the game, but sadly I don't have the gaming time available to waste looking for groups in order to progress and enjoy any of the content.

they should have delivered on their 'solo friendly' bullet point, as they were one of the few that actually claimed it.

Originally posted by Enigma

not to sound off topicish....but is it me or is the breastplate of the girl on the cover of mmorpg.com home page to advertise this article really off....seems like her body is all proportionally wrong

Ya it does . she's got a face only a mother could love to boot lol

Originally posted by araczynski

 

Developers don't develop all this content just so players can rush through it.

 

you're right, but sadly i think they develop the content for little reason more than to "slow you down" and keep you paying the monthly fee longer.

if this wasn't the case then they wouldn't force you to group grind so much.

I would love to explore all this content that they put the time/effort to build in the game, but sadly I don't have the gaming time available to waste looking for groups in order to progress and enjoy any of the content.

they should have delivered on their 'solo friendly' bullet point, as they were one of the few that actually claimed it.

What they can't do is make everything in the game solo content.  What is the point of making it a MMO game if everything in the game is solo content?  The vast majority  of the game's content is small group content, which makes the game very casual friendly.  

I even see a ton of posts about people soloing Elite and Signature Mobs for Beryl Shards to make the best crafted gear.  (Which is pretty much on par with the best Raid gear)

What your post should state is that you don't have the time to play MMO Games.  Because if you believe that you should be able to experience all of the content in a game by yourself then the MMO genre just isn't for you.  There will always be content that you will need more people grouped with you in order to complete it.   

        I tend to agree with Cabe. I've played this game as a soloist and a grouper and one things for sure. There's ample content for both styles. That to me is a sign of a pretty good design. In anycase I'm really looking forward to the Moria content because I love the underground content. Although I'm really looking forward to finally going to dale since my charecter rp's being from there.