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Lord of the Rings Online - Exploring Book 14
MMORPG.com News Manager Keith Cross was recently on the recieving end of a tour of the upcoming Book 14: The Ring-Forges of Eregion, the newest free update coming from the makers of Lord of the Rings Online. Today, he gives an overview of his experience with some of the new content.
News Manager Keith Cross hasn’t had a vacation in over a year, and doesn’t plan on taking one any time soon. How does he stay sane? By touring the virtual vacation spots of MMORPGs. This week he was guided through scenic Eregion in Eriador, Middle Earth. While there he had the chance to experience upcoming game-play from Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion, the upcoming free content expansion for Lord of the Rings Online.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down with the folks at Turbine and play through a sampling of new content which will be released with Book 14: The Ring-Forges of Eregion. My guides for this expedition into the wilds of Middle Earth were Aaron Campbell, Live Producer for Lord of the Rings Online, and Brent Schmidt, lead content designer for Book 14. Our journey began in fair Eregion, home to one of the region’s most popular tourist attractions: the Ring Forges. Book 14 will only provide a small taste of this land, but the flavor of Eregion is robust, so a small taste is all you need for now.
The first character we met on tour was the local Town Crier, who had all the latest news and gossip from across the land. Although Town Criers have been in the game for a long time, I hadn’t yet met one that was this knowledgeable. That’s because the world is changing. The folks at Turbine have been talking enthusiastically for some time about their live event system, which will see the world changing more dynamically in this book and beyond. The live event system has been in the game since launch, festivals and other events are examples of its use, but it’s only now that the system will be involved in true world events. The Town Criers are one window on these events and they have been upgraded in their usefulness and functionality. Talking to one provides a menu of headlines that players can use to gain important information about current affairs in Middle Earth.
After a short jaunt down the street, we spoke to a chap whose information on world affairs was a little less current, but the old Sage’s knowledge of history was so vivid that it was like you were playing through the events yourself. Sages now offer a host of quest options, from repeatable quests, to new session play options, where you can play through portions of recent story arcs from the perspective of NPC allies and villains. I was told that the dev team has been working on upgrading several instances and encounters in Angmar and Annúminas just for this purpose. The Sage was also a source of items and equipment, and not just the regular stuff, but some of the good stuff too. What the Sage does is offer repeatable quests, which the players can complete to earn tokens to buy high end gear. The high end gear is equipment that has already been made available in the game, but players may have missed out on getting one piece of an armor set or another, and the sage offers another path to gaining that equipment. The items are on a monthly cooldown, because it’s difficult for a Sage to keep so many cool items in stock, and to keep the system balanced.
As mentioned earlier, the sage also offers a number of new session play options. Session play is where players shed the trappings of their character, and jump into the skin of another. Previous incarnations include the ability to take on the role of a Ranger of the Dúnedain, and the role of a hen in chicken play. After a few words to the Sage, I was in the body of a Bloodletter and given a brief quest to practice my new powers on some slugs before jumping into the action in an area that a player would have recently been to as their regular character. I was told that the quests in this session play instance were full of in-jokes, explaining why certain things in the area were the way they were when the players first came through. I haven’t played far enough in Lord of the Rings Online to really know the story this deep in, so unfortunately I didn’t get any of the in-jokes and explanations. Luckily that means that I’m also not capable of ruining any surprises for you.
After some villainous play, we moved on to some good guy session play. This time I was in the body of Laerdan, to find out the reasons behind some of the Elf’s actions. Laerdan has some pretty powerful abilities, and the instance I played was designed so that the player had ample opportunity to test out these new abilities and kick wave after wave of Angmarian ass. All in all a satisfying experience.
After some fun with session play we moved on to Rivendell, because book 14 marks the departure of the Fellowship of the Ring from that place. As the unsung heroes who have been aiding them on this quest, we stood and watched as the Fellowship discussed their quest and said their goodbyes. Strangely, if you go back to certain locations where you had met the heroes before, you’ll find them still there. The reason is because Turbine wants to make sure players can go back and experience previous content rather than blocking of portions of the world for continuities sake. Some might argue that this breaks immersion, but they explained that they were trying to make the game more like a book, giving you the equivalent of the ability to flip back to certain pages and reread them.
That’s one of the reasons that Book 14 is a bit of a departure from some of the previous book updates. Their focus this time was on story rather than adding new features and options like player housing or new customization choices of earlier updates. From the beginning, Turbine has put a focus on successfully implementing story in an MMO and when talking about live events and Book 14 they describe it as, “getting back to our DNA.” In terms of story their goal is to create a feeling for the player of not really knowing what is going to happen next, saying “We’re really trying to look at ways to push the envelope in terms of story.”
I hope that you enjoyed this small overview of the sights and features of this new update. MMORPG.com will continue to follow this book as it moves toward launch.
Can't wait!
I am so excited...gamespy also has new interviews for MoM and Book 14
Book 14 and then...the new volume awaits in the shape of The Mines of Moria.
Surely this game has to be the greatest MMO out there?
Such a great game. Shame that more people haven't noticed.
I am SO glad I bought the lifetime! They've got to be starting Moria beta soon, right?
I played for a bit, I LOVED the game.. despised the classes. Won't be back until its revamped or something..
I played for a bit, I LOVED the game.. despised the classes. Won't be back until its revamped or something..
100% agreed. Sadly, I think LOTRO is doomed by the restraints of the (great) IP. There can be only so many classes, and as you said, I despised them as well. They just weren't that fun. Everything else about the game is fun (save the PvP, MP needs an overhaul, it's close, but not there yet), but the classes just aren't fun.
Oy.
100% agreed. Sadly, I think LOTRO is doomed by the restraints of the (great) IP. There can be only so many classes, and as you said, I despised them as well. They just weren't that fun. Everything else about the game is fun (save the PvP, MP needs an overhaul, it's close, but not there yet), but the classes just aren't fun.
Oy.
Just a FYI... they are adding 2 new classes with Mines of Moria. A druid type shapeshifting class I think, and I am not sure about the other one.
also, the Burglar class freakin rocks :p It's one of the best Rogue classes I've played in any MMO
The 2 new classes are Rune-keeper and Warden
read about them: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-lord-of-the-rings-online-mines-of-moria/887242p1.html
I actually think that the classes is one of the best things about LotrO and the IP have forced the devs to be a little more creative with class-design instead of the generic fantasy-classes that most other games use.. Feels like LotrO classes have alot more depth to them since thay all fit with the story and world of the trilogy...
Burglar>Rogue
Minstrel>Priest
Loremaster>Mage
Captain>Paladin
Champion>Barbarian
Guardian>Warrior
Hunter... well... its a hunter :p
I like the classes, they tend to be very clear and defined in their roles, and each has something to contribute. Unfortunately, the rate at which they deal out cool stuff for classes is lameo. You get many cool things kind of bunched up together, then go many levels in between with nothing. I would prefer one new cool thing every level or every two levels. I think some classes are worse at the beginning as well, not really coming into their own until later.
Give people some better hooks from the get-go... ya know?
But for the most part, mid to upper game, the classes seem extremely well balanced, and grouping is interesting and fun from all the variety.
Burgs on the other hand, are just plain evil :)
This update sounds fun, but once again it doesn't affect me because I am moving through this game so slowly :(
The game needs some sort of pvp. Don't get me wrong I loved the game but PVMP gets so damn repeative after a while and there's not much left to do in the game when you've done lots of rift runs, most of the big instances, done all deeds you want/need, house if you're into that (I wasen't) etc... I reached R7 before I gave up on Lotro recently.
They need to put up the info that has been released about Moria in the last 2 days. The expansion is going to rock.
With every update it becomes harder and harder to argue that this is not the best MMO ever!
I hear what you're saying about PVP, but you gotta understand that its hard to do it in a world where the story is told primarily from one side, and the other side is meant to be defeated. The best PVP comes from games where the character you've been leveling and suiting up can fight someone's elses suited up character. But in LOTRO thats impossible, since no hobbit is going to kill another hobbit, nor will players be able to become orcs (from lvl 1-50 ).
So the PvMP is the best they can come up with, but I'm sure they will expand that once the fellowship passes over the mountains. As of right now, Eriador is pretty much filled up, so there isn't much space for warzones, unless they go further south.
Nice update, really looking forward to this one.
Can anyone link me or write up a brief summary of things that have been added lately? And things that are going to be added?
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release/All
book 14 in a week here
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Book_14_Official
Someone else wrote this
"book 9: Added 24-man raid and a 6-man instnace + a huge new zone with hundreds of quests..
book 10: Added the city of annunimas with 3x 6-man instances. Also reputation-system with 2 huge public dungeons. And session play with Troll, Ranger and chicken
book 11 (the biggest): Expanded 2 zones with the High pass in misty mountain and Tal bruinen in Trollshaws. New 12-raid (with the best rewards in the game)... New public dungeon Goblin Town (huge)... Housing (personal and kin) with 4 different homesteads...
book 12: Added a PvMP dungeon the Delving of fror and new PvP gear.. also gave us the outfit system and barber shops.. Angmar had a revamp which made the zone much better..
book 13: A huge new zone, Forochel was added with alot of new stuff... New monster play class: The defiler to give Creeps more healing... and fishing was introduced with titles, trophies and so on.."
Here you go :)
Nothing is for everyone. I personally like most of the class designs a lot. I also like the PvP better than anything I've played since DAoC. It really plays like a light "jump in whenever" version of RvR to me. And far from "ruining" the game, the lore forces the designers to create a cohesive world that makes some sort of sense. Most other MMO fantasy words feel cobbled together and random once you get used to it.
In any case great article. I think this is the first I've read to reveal the session play in book 14 in any detail, it sounds awesome. Looking forward to it.
I think one of the things that'd make me return to LOTRO is the removal of the built-in gimping of the Monster Players. Again, the IP (mobs being inherently weaker than the good guys) is restricting the game's fun.
If the MPs were on equal footing as the FPs, then you might have more exciting PvP.
"Hunter... well... its a hunter :p"
Actually, the hunter is more like the mage.. because in LOTRO, the hunter is the nuker class.
And for those saying you dispise the classes... why? This game has the most balanced classes I've ever seen in an MMO. I'd like to hear why they're so bad from one of you that said that. Every character is actually useful for something. The characters are so great, I have no idea what to make my second character, because there's so many choices that sound fun.
Of all the things to nitpick about in this game, I couldn't have imagined the classes would be one of them.
I would have liked to have heard something - anything - about the new minstrel enhancements. Why is it that, in the dev chats and news articles, the developers always forget about the cool stuff that gives the game more depth?
heres the patch notes
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Book_14_OfficialIm just happy about minstrel changes, and dye previews!
Think this calls for a ............