Oi!  Marmite is spreadable dead yeast, not beef :)

I know because I love it (and, thankfully, can get it in the US - along with HP, Coleman's, Irn Bru....must go, it's tea time).

It's a bit of harmless fun.  This sounds like just the kind of thing Hobbits would like to do.  It's not like it's explicitly contrary to the lore.

"My only criticism is that perhaps the developers could have added a new playable race"

Yeah, like Blood Elves or something.  They're mentioned in the Appendix, I swear :-)

People that complain that it's not truly F2P, as you have to shell out cash at some point, crack me up.  The developers have to make money somehow, so of course they want you to buy stuff.

In terms of the game not being complete and there not being any end-game content, that's incorrect.  The game is complete up to the point we're at in the story at the moment and there's end-game content appropriate to the current level cap.  All MMOs develop over time and expand their lore and level caps (if they survive).  The comments about LOTRO are like saying WoW isn't complete and there's no end-game content because we haven't exhausted the lore yet.  To have launched a game with the whole of LOTR's story would have delayed the game by years - and probably bankrupted Turbine.  A big part of LOTR is the journey of the various members.  That's kinda how the game also works; we're moving along with the story.  Now, having said that, I'd love it if they get back to their old schedule of releasing more content every couple of months instead of the currently infrequent updates.  Maybe that'll change with F2P (DDO seems to be releasing new content fairly frequently).  And, yeah, Rohan soon please.

• When biting into a Peppermint Pattie, you will now gain the effect "Minty Fresh Breath." (Still with us?)

lol

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/772-developer-diary-instances-20-part-4-

I've never been stuck like that either.

Mirkwood has been good and I enjoyed the skirmishes at the end of book 2.  I'm curious to see where they go next.

Speaking of PvP, I'd be interested to see if Turbine did something with the skirmish mechanic for PvP.  The skirmishes are essentially instanced arenas.  They already have troll play in the Moors (LOTRO's PvP area).  Imagine being the troll boss at the end of a 6-player skirmish?  The problem with that is that the troll-player would take out the healers first and ignore the tank (which would break the typical group mechanics).

Originally posted by Drakynn

Originally posted by teuchy

That's an amazingly good deal.  The only thing that seems to be missing is the Adventurer's Pack (which gives you extra storage and some other stuff that I forget).

I was playing through some of the book quests in Mirkwood last night in a 6-person group (the ones set up as skirmishes) and they were a lot of fun.

The Adventurer's pack only get's you 2 extra character slots per server and an extra "chest" on your bank vault that is accessable by all your characters on that server.Handy stuff but in no way vital to enjoying LotRO and entirely skippable.

 Don't get me wrong - I wasn't saying it was necessary.  People that are just starting LOTRO won't really need this as you said.

Also, Turbine tends to do deals on extended memberships now and then, so folks that jump on this deal may be able to lock themselves into a $9.99 monthly subscription or even a lifetime membership deal at some point in the next year.

That's an amazingly good deal.  The only thing that seems to be missing is the Adventurer's Pack (which gives you extra storage and some other stuff that I forget).

I was playing through some of the book quests in Mirkwood last night in a 6-person group (the ones set up as skirmishes) and they were a lot of fun.

To the extent that people have this data showing on Facebook for their friends to see, this could be a smart piece of marketing.

Some more information on III.1 (specifically the skirmishes):

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/617-developer-diary-volume-iii-book-1-skirmishes

It sounds like this update is going to be quite substantial.  Overall, I'm pleased that Turbine's putting this much effort into it.  Hopefully, we'll see more of this level of "love" from Turbine over the coming year.

On a separate note, I see that Conan is getting mounted combat.  Hint, hint Turbine :-)

Hmm - This is the 2nd LOTRO announcement in a row that has been several days late.

I've been playing some of the skirmishes more frequently over the last couple of days.  If you select the ones you enjoy and/or vary the ones you play, they manage to stay fun instead of being repetitive.  Also, once you've spent some marks on leveling up your soldier and their skills, they start being much more effective (which is what I wanted to achieve before I tackle the skirmish sections of the book - even if strictly not necessary).  It should also help when doing skirmishes in a group and for any future skirmish based content that Turbine introduces.

Separately, it seems to me that gear, traits, etc., have a bigger impact on your chances of success more than level or skill with your toon's class.

Originally posted by qombi

What the reviewer fails to mention the "20$" price tag is a scam. If you want the whole game you must pay another chunk of money to get the rest of the features. They split the cost in half, the other half is called a "Adventure Pack". The price tag is still there for a lot less content, that is why they split it so people that are not wise enough to notice.

I declined to purchase because of this scam. It reeks of scam and also the adventure pack reeks of RMT.

1. The reviewer only reviewed the features in the expansion pack - not the adventure pack.

2. If you got the pre-order deal, you got both for $20.  Sucks a bit if you didn't get that though - although I'm sure they'll have an offer again in the future.

Some of that is in the Adventure Pack (or whatever they called it).  If you got both in the pre-order deal for $20 (like I did), that's great.  Not so great if you're buying Mirkwood standalone when they aren't offering a combo deal (which is probably why the review excluded those features).

Originally posted by zeowyrm

Skirmishes are fun, until you realize that the gear you're grinding for (even the 12 man stuff) is absolute crap in the scheme of things.

Very true.  They really need to stick in some decent rewards (especially given the repair costs involved in skirmishing) - even if they do take a bit of grinding to get.

Ultimately, I think they'll use skirmishes as a mechanism for future instanced content - maybe if I say Helm's Deep enough, they will build it sooner :-)  Imagine if they used it for all of the instances in the game?  No more trekking to wherever the instance starts - or having to station a captain/bind a hunter campfire at the start point.

If nothing else, it's a good way to release small, fun instances on a regular basis (sort of like map packs for FPS/RTS games).  Let's just hope they don't see it as a way of introducing microtransactions (like DDO's dungeon packs) - only $1.99 for the latest skirmish map!

Anyway, with the hope that they do use skirmishes more in the future (and don't abuse it with microtransactions), I'm focusing on "leveling up" my soldier for now and ignoring the (paltry) rewards on offer.

Good comments by Angerbeaver and Haggis.

Personally, I pretty much agree with the review.  I'd have liked to have received a couple of good new skills though - rather than the 1 skill we got - most of which are largely underwhelming.  Is Turbine running out of ideas for new skills?  Also, I'd have like to have seen the max on virtues increased to 11 or another trait slot or so.  However, they're minor quibbles and I'm enjoying the new content, the skirmishes and the increased ease of earning radiance gear (which I only need now and again anyway as I'm a "casual raider").

I'm interested to see where skirmishes will go in the future.  Regular updates of new skirmishes?  Helms Deep further down the line?  In the meantime, they need to increase the skirmish specific vendor-trash drops - as the repair costs are pretty high.

I do hope that Turbines moves back to more frequent free updates as they've been a bit sparse in the last year.

I'd hoped for a bit more in the interview.  I didn't see anything in there that I didn't already know.

I think I preferred the voice of the in-game narrator they've used previously.

Still, I'm excited about the expansion - I like the autumnal look.

The upgrade scrolls sound interesting. Personally, I think there should be scholar recipes to craft some of those - so scholars finally have something a bit more interesting to craft.

While T9 relics will be nice for some, I think it's going to be ages yet before I even get one T8 relic.

Bounty runs will remain popular I'm sure.