The Lord of the Rings Online is gearing up for its next expansion, Legacy of Morgoth, and the latest stream shows the devs delving into the instances coming to Middle-earth with the update.
While players earlier this week were able to dive into some of the regions coming with Legacy of Morgoth for themselves on the Bullroarer test server, senior world designer Matt "Scenario" Elliot took viewers through the instances coming to the expansion on the weekly "Casual Stroll" stream series.
Talking with systems designer OnnMacMahal throughout the stream, the duo broke down a bit about the process of building instances, such as the goals the designers have when creating instances, skill rewards and more.
The instances coming with Legacy of Morgoth include a 3-player instance in Ambarul, a 6-player instance in both Khud Zagin and Imhular, and finally the raid coming post-launch to the region of Urash Dar. Kicking things off, the pair showcased the first instance in Ambarul, which Scenario called the "Salt Mine," but the game apparently refers to it as Ashunug, The Fane of the Accursed. While casually strolling through this instance area, Scenario and OnnMacMahal touched on something that the team was excited to bring back to LotRO with these instance spaces: having instances "dovetail into the storylines."
"One of the things we're trying to do with each of these is tie them to a little bit more, like instances of the past have, to the storylines in the areas," OnnMacMahal states. He continued, "I've been really happy to get to work with both multiple world designers and multiple content designers on these spaces. The designers who are working on these instances are also working on the quests in these regions. I know players have been into this instance and into Ambarul on beta, but hopefully as you're playing through this organically on live also it feels very much a part of the storyline of this zone."
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Scenario added that the design here is much like what we experienced in instances in the past, such as the Great Barrow and the Red Swamp in the Lone Lands, acting as "capstones" to a zone's quest.
"With the launch of the game, we had places like the Great Barrow or the Red Swamp that kind of acted like the capstone experience for a region before you're ready to move on, and I know that was something that Orion in particular was very excited to bring back to this expansion pack."
You can check out the full devstream in the embed below. The next expansion for the seventeen-year-old MMO is slated to release by November 6th, though Standing Stone Games does caution that date can shift based on the development needs of the studio as they get the content ready.
